Chapter 116

Chapter 116 Chapter 116 Situation Room on the Aircraft Carrier. The pirate leader, upon hearing my voice, fell silent. Judging by the faint sound of breath being held, she seemed quite startled. “...The 5th ranked Amorph.” She spoke in a trembling voice. Unexpectedly, the first words from the leader, or rather the player, were about my identity. She seemed to know exactly who I was. ‘Well, considering the chaos I caused it’s not surprising.’ It wasn’t an inflated sense of self-awareness. There weren’t many Amorph players who engaged in psychological warfare with the enemy by exposing their stripped bodies. If they were players experienced in the game on the other side, they might have heard about me at least once. “You’re quite audacious. Do you know who I am?”a...ni...ty...ran...king...20th...I suppose.” ‘I know well.’ After occupying the Situation Room, I was engaged in other activities until the communication came through. Specifically, I was examining the information on the pirate leader stored in the computer. The pirate leader, the woman conversing with me beyond the communication device, was named Muriel. In the game, she had been the 20th-ranked Spacedog, a space survival expert. ‘I haven’t met her in person.’ I had quit the game shortly after she became a ranker due to academic warnings, so I hadn’t fought against Muriel directly. However, I had collected information about other rankers, including her race, faction, and clan. ‘She wasn’t a cultist originally.’ As far as I knew, the 20th-ranked Muriel was a cyborg of the Spacedog race. Therefore, until I confirmed her name on the computer, I didn’t think the pirate leader would be a ranker. ‘Of course, there were Spacedogs from the cult too...’ He was a man, not a woman. I remembered him as the 11th-ranked American ranker, whom I had fought against a few times in the past. Anyway, looking at the picture of Muriel displayed on the computer monitor, she clearly belonged to the female cult, specifically a cult with deer antlers, a symbol of the cult’s royal family. ‘I don’t know why the deer antler cult is engaged in piracy.’ If she is a ranker, she would know how much the deer antler cult could achieve within the cult society. The ship she brought was probably not just an ordinary aircraft carrier but an Imperial MotherShip.. ‘Gotta investigate that step by step.’ Currently, I know very little about the player. There were many other things that I didn’t know too, such as whether there were other players in this world besides her and me. Therefore, I needed to extract enough information through our conversation. “You being higher-ranked than me is just a game talk. Do you still think you can beat me now that this is the real world?” Her confident attitude indicated that she was no longer feeling tense. Despite losing the aircraft carrier, she seemed to have confidence in herself. I know there have been negative rumors about her being a queen bee or something. However, she is also a ranker in Space Survival. If the person on the other side isn’t impersonating the 20th ranker, they must be hiding an ace up their sleeve. ‘Let’s delve into it a bit more.’ “They’ve gone as far as taking over the aircraft carrier, claiming it’s all in the name of the Ascension Battle.” “Hmph. Such ships are nothing compared to the power we possess.” “Us?” What could the ‘us’ she mentioned mean? It might refer to the Humanity Cartel, but it doesn’t seem right. Thanks to Amorph’s unique intuition, I could somewhat grasp the emotions conveyed in her voice. ‘It feels more like referring to a comrade than a subordinate.’ In other words, there is another player with her and what she implies is that there is a shared intention between her and the player, or an entity equivalent to a player. While I was quickly processing this in my mind, she continued speaking. “Praising you for coming to this planet on the Ascension Battle topic is fine, but that’s the extent of it. If you had just stayed quiet, I might have overlooked it.” “Don’t misunderstand. You’re the one who provoked my ship from a distance. What could you possibly have to say in this situation?” “How foolish. I can’t just leave an unidentified intruder alone. Besides, right now, you’re nothing more than a weakling. You have no right to complain in the face of weakness.” When I was a few hundred meters away from the surface, the link connected to the tooth fairies was severed. Soon after, I felt a powerful vibration from above. It was the lightning bolt unleashed by Noshin, striking the ground. Even though it was far from the aircraft carrier, Noshin’s lightning was powerful enough to be visible. The night sky cleared as clouds were swept away by the lightning coming from the planetary orbit. In the area where the lightning struck, a massive nuclear mushroom cloud rose as the aircraft carrier’s reactor exploded. Even a jungle filled with redwoods, boasting sizes of several hundred meters, couldn’t withstand this unprecedented catastrophe. A colossal demon of fire engulfed the jungle and its inhabitants, swallowing countless lives. Watching the extinguishing lives, Muriel clapped her hands, seemingly delighted. “As expected of Noshin, its performance is exemplary.” “...” Seeing Noshin in action for the second time, the mother of the sky grinned. This wasn’t the first time Noshin had been activated on this planet; Muriel had used it when capturing the father of the Earth and mother of the sky. Although the Father of the Earth, a Wolf Named with remarkably high defense, couldn’t withstand Noshin’s lightning, he sacrificed himself to shield the mother of the sky. Thanks to that sacrifice, he fell into a fatal state with a single blow and was subsequently beheaded during the battle with Muriel. “Hehe, even if you’re the 5th-ranked ranker, there’s no chance of surviving that lightning, right? Not to mention the father of Earth? He also went out in one shot.” “...” “Still, safety first. I should see the corpse with my own eyes.” Muriel called a few of her subordinates. “Brothers, go there with the mother of the sky and check.” “Don’t make me laugh. Do you think I’ll listen to you?” “Huh? Isn’t it obvious?” In response to her answer, Muriel released the spear she had been carrying on her back. Then, with an indifferent expression, she casually stabbed a young Wolf boy with the spear. 「You...you!」 “Are you going to throw away your ‘family’?” 「I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you apart no matter what!」 “Oh, how terrifying. But before you kill me, it seems like these cute little ones here will die first.” 「Ugh!」 “If you want to save your family, it’s better to listen to me. Rank 15, please.” 「Damn it...」 Faced with Muriel’s threat, the mother of the sky could do nothing but lower her head once again. ‘I thought I was going to die.’ Although I managed to avoid the range of Noshin, that didn’t mean I was completely safe. The combination of the reactor explosion and the bomb created a tremendous blaze that penetrated the underground tunnel I had dug. Fortunately, having evolved into a pseudo-entity, my exoskeleton had become strong enough to endure within the destructive energy flow. Moreover, the perceptible shaking caused by Noshin’s lightning prevented the overwhelming heat from chasing me relentlessly as my tunnel collapsed. ! I waited underground until the aftermath of the explosion subsided before surfacing. The area that was once filled with redwoods and grass had turned into a desolate wasteland. Where the aircraft carrier had been, only sand remained, and in the distance, the jungle was still burning fiercely in the flames. ‘This is the result.’ Up until now, I had consumed countless lives, including humans. However, somewhere in my heart, there was a lingering thought – perhaps it was acceptable because they weren’t people living in my world. That might be why I approached her with an ambiguous attitude, different from how I treated actual humans. Even though I knew that Muriel posed a significant threat not only to me but also to No. 26 and Adhai, I approached her with a certain ambiguity. It was clear. Now, that thought has completely disappeared. ‘Would killing someone who goes around striking lightning into other people’s heads be considered self-defense?’ Emerging from the ground, I swiftly crawled towards the burning forest in the distance. The heat I felt emanating from my body could be due to the aftermath of the nuclear explosion or simply my anger – it was impossible to discern. Regardless, it didn’t matter. ‘The cooldown for Noshin is 14 days.’ Whether this is her trump card or if she has more hidden, I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter now. I won’t kill her right away. There are pieces of information I need from her. Instead, I must convey to her something more frightening than death. I will use all the strategies and means at my disposal. Soon, Aymoph will learn just how terrifying an enraged entity can be.