I Became an Evolving Space Monster

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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Chapter 486

The blaring alarm finally went silent.

At the same time, reports streamed in from the underlings I had scattered across the ship. Every threat that might pose a problem for me had already been taken care of.

‘That wrapped up more smoothly than I expected.’

It had been about three hours since I infiltrated the ship and began the hijack attempt. In the real world, this was the fastest takeover I had ever pulled off.

For a warship guarded by soldiers, specifically the pursuit squad Akira himself had organized, the outcome felt almost anticlimactic. In truth, sneaking aboard had been harder than wresting control of the vessel.

‘When I finished disarming the bombs, I nearly jumped out of my skin seeing six Gigacrackers lined up.’

Being hit with the firepower of six supermassive ion cannons is instant death for anyone, no matter how fortified your country or ship may be. Even with a Complexity Prism, deflecting that much would be a near impossibility.

Fortunately, they were convinced I would deploy the prism, so they acted cautiously. That gave me the chance to fake my own death. As a bonus, in the process I wiped out two Gigacrackers using the Black Devourer Cannon.

Having tricked the enemy, I used a pre-prepared corpse to assume the identity of the Unknown hijacker and infiltrated Megacorp’s orbital base. Inside, I swapped skins into that of a technician and wandered the facility.

Because restrictions were placed on superluminal jumps, I needed a new ship as a ride. That was when I found the Invader, a vessel prepared to send Akira’s underlings to Earth.

It was the perfect chance to secure both a source of information and a means of transport. So, following Akira’s subordinate, I boarded the Invader… and the hijack began.

‘I moved carefully, given they knew me well.’

To confuse them, I deliberately introduced a few variants into my usual methods. As it turned out, the job ended so quickly that those variations weren’t even needed.

‘Well, no complaints. It worked out.’

Plenty of survivors still remained aboard, but most were just ordinary soldiers. Not the least bit dangerous. They’d simply be snacks saved for later in the journey.

‘In that case… time to shed this skin.’

I hooked my fingers into the corners of my mouth and pulled. Thin false flesh tore apart, revealing the real head beneath: the degenerated cranial shell and stubby snout of an Amorph.

Once divested of the disguise, I stretched out the folded arms I had tucked against my torso.

A secondary organ beneath my jaw caught a familiar scent: the toxic gas emitted by an Amorph’s nest. One wall of the superluminal engine room, where I currently stood, was already slick with black mucus.

While under the guise of the Unknown hijacker, certain Amorph abilities had been suppressed. Likely a function of that infiltration-specific body. I had been unable to excrete mucus or form a nest.

‘If I can’t make one myself, I’ll just plant it directly.’

The nests scattered throughout the vessel hadn’t been my own doing but spawned by Contamination devices. Though I couldn’t personally secrete mucus in that form, nothing stopped my created organs from doing so.

The organs themselves fell under the corporeal category, not nest-species. No restrictions applied. Of course, that also meant none of the nest-enhancing attributes carried over, but that wasn’t a problem right now.

An Amorph’s nest is inherently hostile to humans. As a deterrent, it was perfectly adequate.

I seeded contamination devices throughout the ship’s vital points near the FTL engines, the reactors, and other key facilities. Anyone who got too close or tried tampering with systems would instantly alert me.

With that, all threats had been purged. My act as the Unknown hijacker is complete. Now it was time to consume the ship itself.

My body ballooned, expanding within seconds to tens of meters. Tangled tentacles and a coiled tail struck against the ceiling, sending faint tremors through the chamber.

Right then, a soldier in a powered suit heard the noise and entered the engine room.

“…What the—?”

The soldier froze upon seeing me. Surprisingly, there was no fear in his voice.

And I wasn’t surprised either. I knew exactly who it was.

The one standing before me was Number 26, who had infiltrated the ship alongside me.

Normally, I kept it shrunk down and carried it directly. But this time was different.

Now it sported a full-body exosuit designed to resemble a human. Inside, its tentacles and fins were jammed into the arms and legs to simulate human movement.

Number 26 staggered closer, its steps awkward and uneven. Without a skeleton, its limbs swung unnaturally with each gait.

‘Better at walking than I expected.’

Number 26 had never tried bipedal walking before, yet it was surprisingly skillful. When it stayed still without moving, it looked indistinguishable from an ordinary soldier.

While I installed the Contamination devices around the ship, it wandered alongside me, helping where it could. None of the soldiers who passed by suspected its true form.

“Not going to play human anymore?”

[ZZZ ZZZ ZZZZ (I’m done with it now.)]

“Then I’ll stop too.”

The armored suit that had been standing like a person instantly deflated and collapsed to the floor. From the cracked visor, Number 26 seeped out, spilling its tentacles into the open.

｢Playing at being human is uncomfortable. Fun, but exhausting.｣

[ZZZZ ZZZ ZZZ (You’re just not used to it yet.)]

Its fins, which had served as makeshift legs, twitched as if sore.

Watching it, I felt a strange kinship. After all, I too was still adapting to my combat arms having taken on tentacle form.

｢Big One, are you used to it because you studied a lot?｣

[Zzzzuu (That’s right.)]

｢Amazing!｣

I nodded at its admiration, but then another thought came to me.

‘Wait. If I think about it, haven’t I spent more time not walking on two legs?’

Aside from my early fluid stage and larval youth, I had almost never walked upright. Most of the time, I either turned combat arms into legs or slithered across the ground like a serpent.

The human memories… yes, I had to discard them. Those weren’t mine. They had been implanted by Beomho. My true memories began the day I awoke inside a spaceship’s cargo hold.

｢I’ll study more so I can play human with you, Big One!｣

Number 26 hurled itself against my chest.

‘Big One, huh.’

It was right. If I counted only the years as an Amorph, I was only a few years old. Through its eyes, I was practically an infant.

‘…No point in worrying about it.’

So what if I was an Amorph carrying the memories of a human? I was still me. To some, I was the Big One. To others, I was the Grown One. Even if most of my memories were fabricated, that truth didn’t change.

[ZZZ ZZ ZZ (Let’s play together a lot from now on.)]

｢Yes! Let’s play a lot!｣

I stroked Number 26 with the small arms extending from my chest. It shimmered, then produced a small pink tentacle. I recognized that tentacle it was the one it used when establishing communion. Thinking it wished to connect again, I lowered my head.

But instead of reaching for my main head, it touched one of my auxiliary organs.

‘…Hm?’

The first sensation was like pressing into pudding soft and elastic. But almost immediately, that gave way to a peculiar euphoria.

How to describe it? Like sinking into a cloud-like bed while every fiber of one’s body is massaged at once. In all my time as a human or Amorph, I had never known such a feeling.

｢Grrr…｣

｢Grrr…｣

The complex, delicate bliss wasn’t mine alone. The heads along my sides growled and groaned on my behalf.

The pink glow running through 26 grew brighter and brighter as it pressed against my organ.

[ZZZ (Enough)]

If I let this go on, that endless pleasure would consume us both. Quickly, I tore the pink tentacle away. 26, which had been glowing like a beacon, soon dimmed back to its usual color.

｢Big One doesn’t like it?｣

Its hue darkened, as if disappointed. It mistook my rejection as dislike.

Like it? It was the opposite. I liked it too much. I shook my head emphatically.

[ZZZ ZZ ZZ (No. I like it, very much.)]

｢Then why stop?｣

[ZZZZ ZZZ ZZZ (Because there’s work to do. We’ll do it again later.)]

｢Later?｣

[ZZZ (I promise.)]

｢Okay! It’s a promise!｣

I wanted to continue communing, desperately so, but not now. I set Number 26 down onto the floor.

‘Then… let’s begin.’

Smothering the lingering ache of the broken communion, I moved my Invasive Tendrils. It was time to resume the task I had delayed.

Oozing black mucus seeped from the tendrils and swallowed the engines. Metal and flesh churned together in a roiling vortex, until something new was born.

A black heart pulsed slowly in the darkness, declaring its will. The Megacorp warship Invader… was now mine.

***

The grinding sound of clattering teeth echoed inside the cramped cabinet—

“Ck–kk, ck–kk…”

Terrified, the navigation officer clamped his trembling hands over his own mouth.

Beyond the cabinet walls, alarms wailed, tangled with faint gunfire and screams.

‘Why? Why is this happening?!’

The Invader was under attack by unknown beings.

They looked like humans… but were not humans. Monsters wearing human skins.

He had seen it with his own eyes, a technician suddenly rending his own face apart.

From within that shredded mask emerged a pale creature, white as bone, which nonchalantly tore into a watch officer. Within less than a minute, the creature departed wearing the officer’s face as its own.

He had only survived because he stumbled across this horror on the surveillance cameras. And seeing it drove him into the pit of terror.

Monsters disguised as crew. How many more were hidden aboard? No one could be trusted.

His very first act was to alter the ship’s course.

They could not… must not… bring something like that to Earth. If they did, the Solar System’s quarantine forces would immediately destroy them, killing every last crew member.

Better instead to stall for time to give the crew a fighting chance while he stayed hidden until it was all over.

It was not a rational choice. But in panic, he failed to realize that. So he crawled into the toolroom’s cabinet, curled up, shaking, praying only for this nightmare to pass.

Time bled away. And then, abruptly, the alarms fell silent.

“D–did… did it end?”

After a moment’s hesitation, the navigation officer slipped out.

The toolroom corridor lay cloaked in oppressive silence. No monsters. No people. Nothing.

“…”

Silence after an alarm was never a good sign. It could only mean the bridge had been seized… or something worse.

‘The escape pods! I’ll use the pods!’

He had no weapons. No battle armor. Sitting idle was suicide. His only chance was escape.

Gripping his flashlight, he staggered toward the hangar. His legs rattled beneath him, while every nerve bristled toward the possibility of a creature springing from the dark.

But it was not a monster that finally stopped him.

“Kh…ugh! What is—?”

A stench struck him, vile beyond description, so acrid it felt impossible to breathe.

And with every step, his boots squelched against the floor.

“Khk! Khek! This… this is near the engine room…?”

His eyes fixed on the door ahead—the engine room, glowing with a dazzling light spilling through the gaps.

As if bewitched by it, he stumbled forward, pressing to see inside.

That was his second mistake.

What he saw was not an engine… but a colossal nest of serpents.

Pale-white snakes, far larger than human beings, knotted together, filling the vast chamber.

They had no eyes, no noses—only mouths yawning across obscene, fleshy coils. They writhed and twined, a wriggling festival of ivory flesh.

At the heart of this obscene revelry stood the crowned one—the Serpent King. Unlike the others, it bore a pair of beastly horned heads at its sides that bowed in reverence toward it. The crowned serpent gleamed with eyes and great whiskered tendrils, worshiped as a sovereign amidst its thrashing kin.

And clasped within its coils was a radiant pink sun.

No—not clasped. They were joined.

The King and its Sun reveled in each other. The serpent entangled it with whispering whiskers beneath its jaw, while the Sun’s radiant rays twisted as tentacles to grope and tease in return. The two entwined intimately, like lovers making sacred union.

‘Ah… eh… ah, ah, ah…’

The officer’s breath collapsed into broken syllables. His mind began to shatter before the sight.

No. It couldn’t be real.

The brain refused to accept what the body’s senses delivered.

Everything within the engine room—every shape, every presence—was wrong.

“Ah…?”

Something warm trickled from his nose and ears.

When he touched it, he realized it wasn’t blood. It was something far more vital.

Understanding what was dissolving, the navigation officer staggered back, tearing himself away from the door. But after only a few steps, he collapsed against the corridor floor.

“……”

He tried to scream, to shriek for help—but no sound came.

Had his mouth ceased to function? Or were his ears destroyed, stealing sound away at its source?

In truth, the answer no longer mattered. His brain was melting.

Crumbled in the corridor, the navigation officer twitched once, twice, then moved no more.

From under his body seeped a tide of black mucus, swallowing him whole.

And when it was done—there was nothing left.

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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