I Became an Evolving Space Monster

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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Chapter 485

There was an uninvited guest aboard the ship.

Once Gotō and the chiefs confirmed this, they immediately returned to the bridge to prepare their response.

“Captain, the alert has been issued. With the communications network down, orders were broadcast over speakers near the crew quarters.”

“Good. And the rally point?”

“The officers’ mess hall, nearest to the bridge.”

“Once they’ve assembled, divide the troops immediately and deploy them to guard critical facilities.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Security Chief—link every camera aboard so the bridge can monitor them directly. Communications Chief find a way to restore the network.”

“Understood.”

Outside, the muffled wail of the alarm echoed faintly, while the chiefs set to work quickly. As Walter’s veterans, their efficiency was impressive.

“Gotō Yujin.”

The bridge’s sole guest also had his role to play.

“Earlier, you said this was the doing of the Three-Headed Demon. Tell us how it could have infiltrated this ship.”

“Yes. The demon can disguise itself as a human.”

“As a human?”

Campbell himself had witnessed it fighting House Saint K’s fleet, towering dozens of meters high. The idea that such a monster could appear as a man beggared belief.

“First, it releases a special pheromone that scrambles human senses. Anyone exposed perceives it as a human form.”

“Hmm… A pheromone that deceives perception—I know some species with such tricks. But what of its size? That it cannot mask.”

“That creature can compress its body. To about two meters.”

“Two meters?!”

Campbell’s eyes widened. A hundred-meter monstrosity, reduced to man-size? Had it not been Gotō speaking, he would have laughed it off.

“That’s really possible?”

“Once reduced to nearly human proportions, the pheromone completes the deception.”

“…Unbelievable, but no that’s not the point right now. In short, through two abilities, it disguised itself and boarded this ship.”

“Precisely.”

“And so what do you suggest we do?”

Gotō glanced at the holographic screens where the ship’s cameras now streamed.

“The creature’s power only corrupts human perception. It cannot alter its body itself. With androids and cameras watching, its movements can be tracked without illusion.”

“True… Still, I wonder if we have the force to subdue such a demon.”

“That need not concern you. It is greatly weakened.”

“Weakened?”

“Yes.”

Clearly, the moment the demon had shifted into human form was when the Giga Cracker’s beam struck it. It had slipped into the mobile base through its ruined hull, then stowed away aboard this ship.

‘Why would a being able to wield black holes and warp across systems reduce itself to hiding in one fragile vessel?’

Gotō reasoned: the Giga Cracker had grievously wounded it. Wounded so deeply it could not warp under its own power. Thus the desperate ruse.

“It must intend to seize control of this vessel and flee to safety.”

“Then this is our best chance to kill it.”

“Even if we fail, the advantage remains ours. As soon as we reach a safe star system…”

“…We summon reinforcements. And then victory will be certain.”

Campbell stroked his beard, nodding heavily.

“Very well. Then we’ll follow your counsel.”

“My thanks.”

The demon had escaped by sheer luck, but here it would end. In this place, there was no sanctuary for it to hide. Victory might take time, but it would come to their hands.

Amid the rising clamor of the bridge, Gotō believed it.

***

“What the hell, what’s going on?!”

The barracks, silent until now, roared with blaring alarms. Soldiers groaned and cursed as they rose from their bunks.

“Wasn’t the mission already done? Why the hell are we on alert again?”

“Who cares, gear up fast!”

Complaints aside, they donned their combat suits quickly and filed out of the quarters.

The corridor outside was awash in pulsing red from the emergency lights.

“Orders from above?”

“Static.”

Their commander pointed up at the wall-mounted speakers.

｢All crew, ckshhhk… assemble at—kshhk… hall… kshhhk… officers’ dining area… kshhzzzzk｣

“They mean the officers’ mess?”

“Has to be. It’s the only one near the bridge.”

“Better confirm it for sure.”

A comm tech fiddled with the receiver in his helmet, but shook his head.

“No response at all. Comms are totally dead.”

“And ship broadcast’s cutting out like that? Did something blow up?”

“Damn it. Let’s just head to the officers’ mess. We’ll know what’s up once we get there.”

“Middle of the night, and they pull this shit…”

The squad of armored soldiers marched down the crimson-lit corridor.

The siren’s wail mingled with the heavy clang of their boots, echoing up and down the alloy walls. None spoke now; an oppressive tension pressed on them all.

It wasn’t just the emergency. Unspoken, every man felt it an ominous dread. As if the corridor they walked wasn’t a passage, but the gullet of some vast beast closing around them.

“Shit… this is creepy as hell.”

“No kidding. And where the hell are the officers? Not a damn one in sight.”

They had just reached the corridor near the FTL engine room when it happened.

“Hey. What’s this?”

“Why stop walking?”

“Wait a second…”

There, between their steps, a strange sound. Splashes—like water.

The point man crouched, pressed a gauntlet to the floor. When he lifted it, syrupy liquid clung and stretched in sticky strands.

“What is this? Water?”

Another brushed the wall. Same result—thick fluid smeared across his hand. The stuff oozed everywhere, walls and floor alike.

“It’s dripping from the ceiling?”

“What’s leaking in here?”

It made no sense. These corridors were forged from high-grade alloys, seamless. No place for a leak. Yet the fluid was real. Searching for cracks, the lead soldier pressed close to the wall—

“Huh?”

His fingers sank in.

Right through the metal plating. From the spot oozed ropes of slime.

“You guys saw that? The wall just—”

“Hey. Look.”

A soldier in back spoke, voice low.

“Someone’s there. From D-quarters, I think.”

“What?”

At the corridor’s end, before the engine room doors, stood a figure in combat suit, stock-still.

“D-quarters are by the armory. Why’s one of them here?”

The squad leader wiped his hand on his thigh and strode toward the lone soldier.

“Hey, you! You’re supposed to be headed to the mess hall. What are you doing here?”

The man’s head moved slowly.

“Guard here.”

“What?”

“Engine room… guard. Guard… me guard.”

The voice was clear, but the cadence was all wrong—mechanical, broken, like a malfunctioning android’s speech.

“What unit are you with? Who ordered you here?”

“Guard. Necessary.”

“…Take off your helmet.”

“Helmet. Take off?”

“Take it off, you bastard!”

The squad leader rammed the muzzle of his rifle into the man’s abdomen. But this time he recoiled—the rifle sank deep, swallowed by the body like it was piercing a sack of flesh.

“What the hell’s your body—?”

He tried to wrench the rifle back, but it wouldn’t budge. Instead, the “abdomen” churned wildly, rippling like boiling water.

And then—the helmet visor unlatched, hissing open.

“You… interfere?”

Inside was no human face. The interior swarmed with thick, writhing pink tentacles, tangled and knotted together, filling the helmet to the brim.

“Interfere… and die.”

In the next instant, a torrent of tentacles erupted, overwhelming the soldier.

***

“Crisis Response Chief! Report the damage!”

“W-we’re still investigating, Captain, but with comms down, details are scarce—”

“Damn it! Tell me whatever you know so far!”

“Y-yes, sir! Firefights are breaking out in D-quarters, the armory, and the engine room!”

“Three sectors at the same time?! What in hell is happening here?!”

Captain Campbell’s eyes blazed as he glared at the hovering holomap at the center of the bridge.

The feeds from internal cameras played in frantic succession.

“Those aren’t even demons, the crew are fighting each other!”

Campbell slammed his chair with fury.

In the hologram, the soldiers weren’t firing at monsters. They were gunning down men dressed just like themselves, same armor, same rifles.

Crew who just hours ago had shared quarters and meals were now trying to kill one another. It wasn’t a hunt anymore, it was mutiny.

“We...we’re broadcasting commands on the emergency channel, but it’s no use! They ignore every order to cease fire!”

“Gotō Yujin! You said the demon was at work here—so what is happening?! Tell me!”

“……”

Campbell’s roar filled the bridge. But Gotō said nothing. He was just as rattled.

‘Parasites? Is it using parasitic creatures? But when—how—and in such numbers?’

Gotō knew, from Akira’s files, that the Three-Headed Demon could parasitize humans through living spawn. Yes. But only a handful at most.

And yet here were dozens under its thrall.

Worse—how long had it even been aboard this ship? A few hours at most. In that time, it had spread its brood into scores of people.

‘Has it… evolved again?’

If so, then all the data Akira had provided was obsolete.

The only thing Gotō could cling to was this: the demon was weakened. Now, before it regained its strength, they had to escape to a safe star system. Warp out. Immediately—

“—!”

He froze. His tongue wouldn’t move. Pain exploded in his skull, blinding and raw.

‘Thi—this pain?!’

Gotō had endured countless trials across his life...physical tortures, genetic modifications, nerve enhancements. He had long since made peace with agony.

But this...this was different. This was inside him. Like his own neurons were being wrenched, his brain crushed by invisible jaws.

‘The brain?’

The realization dawned like doom.

The parasites. The demon’s spawn. They weren’t just in the others. One of them was him.

‘But when…? Wait…!’

He remembered, at last.

After the synchronization in the stasis capsule, when he awoke—where was the researcher who’d overseen him? He had assumed the man had gone home. But no.

The demon had struck then. During calibration. That was when he’d been infected.

Later, when the corpse was discovered, all eyes turned to it—never once did he think about the missing researcher again.

And so he had never suspected that while he slept, he himself was compromised.

By the time he understood, it was too late.

“Gotō Yujin! Quickly, give us a plan—”

He no longer heard Campbell. He no longer heard any of the frantic voices around him.

In the perfect silence of his skull, only one voice spoke.

The whisper of his true master.

Kill them. Every last one on this bridge.

Gotō Yujin—who had lived his whole life as another man’s servant—chose the path he had always known.

To obey.

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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