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Chapter 149

Had they landed on the continent, they wouldn’t have lasted a day.

“Will the rescue team really come?”

“When the magnetic storm subsides, we can communicate with satellites. Just hold on until then.”

Various cult members with diverse horns gathered around a campfire, tearing apart and devouring grilled fish. Some had broken horns due to the impact of the crash, while others had bandages tightly wrapped around their bodies. Despite the perilous situation, the determination to endure filled the eyes of the 25 cult members.

“If we look at the sky, the magnetic storm seems to have weakened compared to yesterday.”

“The communication equipment is roughly restored, but we’re a bit short on parts.”

“Let’s try again tomorrow morning. The technicians will see if there’s a way to get parts from the damaged spacecraft.”

Cult members, under the guidance of a warrior with goat horns, nodded in agreement.

“It’s going to be tough for everyone, but we have to endure somehow. Many have left guided by destiny, but it’s not our time yet.”

Despite being a race blessed with psychic power, it wasn’t much help in this situation. Most Psychic Power techniques consumed a lot of energy. Using Psychic Power to catch fish or gather fruits would quickly deplete their energy, leading to a collapse.

Aware of this fact, the warrior focused on ensuring that the cult members moved within a limit where a crowd wouldn’t form. The sailors also followed the warrior’s intentions, understanding the situation, even if it was frustrating.

After finishing their meal, they moved to handle their respective tasks. The leader, a warrior, tirelessly went around assisting his comrades.

Time passed, and the sixth night arrived on the island. The warrior confirmed that there were no dangerous creatures on the island. However, unexpected events could still occur at midnight, so they decided to take turns keeping watch, excluding the three night guards.

All except the three night guards fell into a deep sleep.

“The fire is getting weaker.”

“I’m going to check on something, pick it up if I’m not back.”

One cult member entered the forest with a rifle.

“Oh, close call, almost ran out of rice.”

He solved his business slightly away from the campfire. Adjusting his pants, he picked up twigs and branches around him, thinking it would be enough. Just as he was about to return, he heard a rustling sound in his ears.

The sound of leaves and branches being stepped on. Quickly dropping the gathered branches, he raised his rifle.

“Who’s there?”

He shouted, but there was no reply. Another night guard heard his shout and hurriedly ran over.

“Why did you suddenly shout?”

“I heard footsteps from the forest just now.”

“What?”

The two night guards aimed their rifles in the direction of the sound, but there were no more footsteps.

“Must have misheard.”

“Maybe.”

The two turned back towards the campfire. Then, once again, an unidentified sound stimulated their ears. This time, it wasn’t just footsteps.

“Did you hear that just now?”

“…”.

The two held their breath and listened. The faint sound of waves from beyond the forest, the rustling of leaves swaying in the wind. And then, a voice broke the silence.

“Is anyone there?”

Though small, the distinctly audible voice was undoubtedly that of a female cult member. It was clear that one of the cult survivors had made it to this island.

“Uh, what should we do? Should we help?”

“Wait a moment. Something’s off.”

It hadn’t been more than a day or two since they arrived on this island. It wasn’t large enough to be called a continent, and they could easily circle the island in half a day. It seemed implausible that there could be cult members they hadn’t encountered.

“We’ve been here for a few days. There are no other ships here.”

“Maybe they came from somewhere else? Perhaps they had better conditions and could fly in with a spacecraft.”

“That’s…”

The statement wasn’t entirely false, but there was a crucial oversight. Despite it being midnight, they hadn’t heard the sound of spacecraft flying.

“In times like this, we need to stick together! Hey, over here!”

“Wait!”

Before their comrade could point out the fact, the cult member had already rushed towards the direction of the voice, loudly shouting.

“What are they both doing?”

“A while ago, I heard a woman’s voice from over there.”

“What?”

Although the two night guards hesitated for a moment, they decided to wake up the warrior instead of following their rushing comrade. The voice seemed suspicious, no matter how they thought about it.

As they moved toward the campfire, the voice of their comrade who had rushed earlier came from behind the bushes.

“Hey! Help us a bit!”

“Huh?”

“They are friends from the escort ship JSB-02! Don’t worry!”

“That’s right! We ran into trouble while flying in with the spacecraft.”

“Please come and help us.”

The voice from beyond the bushes wasn’t just one person’s. Multiple voices echoed simultaneously, suggesting that a group had arrived.

There was no hint of threat in the rushed comrade’s voice. Instead, there was only a sense of relief at meeting fellow cult members after a long time.

“This is strange. Why didn’t we hear the sound of the spacecraft?”

“We might have missed it. Let’s go and check.”

So, the remaining two night guards relaxed. They pushed through the bushes, following the voices.

The trees on the island weren’t particularly large, but it was an ambitious night. Even with flashlights attached to their rifles, it was not easy for them, non-combatants, to navigate through the darkness of the forest.

As if understanding such a situation, the voices of the cult members popped up timely.

“Over here!”

“Here! This way!”

“Just a bit more!”

As if putting in effort to prevent them from getting lost, the voices were guiding them.

At the end of their journey following the voices, they arrived not in the forest but on the beach. Standing alone in a spot where the sand was deep and well-trodden due to the waves was a female cult member wearing reinforced clothing.

“What’s going on? Where are the others?”

Even to the night guard’s question, the female cult member remained silent. She just stared at them with an expressionless face.

A moment ago, the voices that had echoed simultaneously were nowhere to be seen. Neither were the spacecraft they claimed to have arrived in.

At that moment, as they gazed towards the swaying waves.

“Hmm?”

The waves should have crashed onto the beach, but something unseen seemed to be blocking them in mid-air. The moment the cultist recognized the unnaturalness, they sensed a strange smell lingering in the air. There was a peculiar scent subtly woven into the air, fundamentally different from the salty sea smell—an unpleasant odor.

Not alone in feeling the strangeness, the cultist’s companion took a step back. His gaze was fixed on the shadow of a woman standing alone on the sand with an eerie face.

Following his gaze, the cultist looking at the shadow felt a sensation of goosebumps all over their body. Initially, they thought the wet sand looked black, but that wasn’t the case. All the black sands in front of them were shadows.

“Are you leaving?”

The figure of the female cultist wavered like an illusion. Simultaneously, the shadows twisted and moved.

And a voice echoed.

“Leaving us alone to go where?”

“Don’t leave us.”

“Join us.”

Together with the voices of their kin, the shadows overwhelmed them.

The warrior of the Advanced-class high-speed escort ship opened his eyes in an unknown foreboding. Typically, goat-horned cultists were known for their proficiency in psychic Power techniques related to physical enhancement. He joined the warrior group by utilizing his innate abilities, but he had one special aspect.

An outstanding crisis detection ability.

Thanks to his faster perception of danger than his comrades, he had escaped death on the dangerous battlefield more than once. So, once this mission was over, he planned to retire from the warrior group and prepare for the Prophet’s Test. While his ability was far inferior to true prophets, with talent, he believed he could overcome it with practice.

However, the ability to detect imminent danger like foresight suddenly activated.

Swiftly, the warrior grabbed the weapon he had placed beside him. He enhanced his senses with psychic Power.

His heightened ears caught faint sounds from outside the makeshift tent.

“So, if we detach this, it’ll work?”

“Yes. When you combine it with these parts, it can be activated immediately after attachment.”

“I see. Is there anything else needed?”

“If you’re taking it with you, take this as well.”

The voices were of a male and a female cultist.

‘Night guards?’

Seeing fellow cult members casually conversing indicated that the situation was not critical. However, his brain, triggered by the crisis detection ability, still sounded alarms.

\\Get out of here immediately.\\

Moreover, there was an essential fact.

Among this group of survivors, there was no female cultist.

‘….’

The warrior, who had been contemplating, finally decided to personally investigate the situation. With a pounding heart and trembling hands, he gently lifted the entrance of the tent.

And then, he regretted his actions.

***

“Alright. This should be fine.”

Not far from the tent, there was a partially destroyed ship. Something enormous, almost too large to capture in one glance, was there. A horrifying, unprecedented monster was disassembling the elongated arms of the ship.

“W…will you spare me?”

“I…I worked hard too! Spare me, please!”

“Darn it! Me too!”

More horrifying was the ‘something’ on its back. Five cult faces, pallid and nauseating, were embedded like lesions, continuously crying for mercy. Among those faces, there was one that the warrior recognized.

“I’ve told you everything I know! Please…!”

“Quiet.”

As the smooth voice of a woman flowed out of the monster’s mouth, the faces that were screaming fell silent. The monster’s white eyeballs moved, and it turned its gaze toward the warrior’s tent.

“Saw that, huh?”

The warrior, meeting eyes with the creature, wished it was all just a dream.

\\I’ve got everything I need.\\

Until the cooldown of the nightmare horizon ends, there is plenty of time. So, I traveled around the crash sites checked by the Mother of the Sky, collecting parts to enhance the weaponry of the advanced escort ship.

\\There’s nothing wrong with having a high level of armament.\\

The stronger the ship becomes, the more weapons can be utilized through corrosion.

\\Today is the 6th day. I can depart tomorrow.\\

I am on my way back to the continent of Utopia-02, carrying the newly acquired components and ship weapons.

This is the last target. The other ships crashed on entirely different continents, making them too far away.

\\By the way, it’s been a while since I used the metamorphosis and the face-changing combo.\\

Both are abilities that I used as my main in the game. In reality, these two abilities have an unofficial but crucial synergy.

\\With the face-changing ability, I can choose the victim to apply the metamorphosis organ.\\

Originally, when using the metamorphosis organ, it would discard the stored genes and replace them with the new ones upon consuming a new gene. Therefore, the target for implementation changed every time I consumed a gene, controlled by pheromones.

\\That’s the weakness of the metamorphosis organ.\\

The inability to change the target for implementation through will.

Due to the limitation of pretending to be a certain target and the feeling of disparity that comes with increasing size, the metamorphosis organ was challenging to use continuously until late in the game.

\\Originally, that would be true, but…\\

When the face-changing ability intervenes, everything changes completely.

The face-changing ability operates by copying the genes of the enemy and storing them in the body. It also allows me to retrieve some of their memory information when absorbing them, enabling me to question them and extract information.

The crucial point here is that the stored genetic information can be extracted and used by the metamorphosis organ.

It allows me to create pheromones that disguise me as one of the chosen targets from the stored genetic information.

\\Almost no one knows about this fact.\\

As far as I know, I’m the only one who has used both abilities simultaneously. Since very few people naturally acquire the metamorphosis organ, those who attempt to use both are exceptionally rare.

\\I’ve fooled quite a few people with this.\\

As I continued to trick many people using the metamorphosis organ, some of them started to figure out strategies. They would ask for a password known only to them or throw a bait by catching a new prey and making it impossible to disguise as the previously mimicked target, and so on.

However, they were unaware that I had a means of disguising myself in multiple forms through the metamorphosis organ.

\\Of course, there are drawbacks to this as well.\\

The face-changing ability can store genes from a maximum of five individuals. Therefore, I can disguise myself as the appearance of up to five different people at once.

\\If only there was a way to increase this limit.\\

In the game, there was no way to increase the limit, no matter how much I searched.

\\It might be different in this world.\\

In a place where elements not present in the game are emerging one after another, there might be a way to increase the limit of the face-changing ability.

With such thoughts in mind, while swimming, I felt a familiar ripple.