Chapter 1: Do You Admit Your Guilt? I Admit You’re a Fool!
139 – The Tip of the Iceberg (7)
“…”
This place was a deliberately dark data room, a kind of server room where important information of the spaceship was gathered, and someone was attempting to directly access the data room system.
The identity of the person, who was manipulating the system with a contorted face, was researcher Pyles.
Compared to his truly horrible frown, his hands moved busily without any hesitation.
‘Is this all that’s here?’
“Huiii…”
Just when it seemed quiet, the voice echoed again in his mind. Startled, he scratched his head, overwhelmed by the sensation tickling in his skull.
“At least, all information about the Letique is here.”
‘There’s no helping it. For now, just see that.’
Muttering to himself in a trembling voice, Pyles replied to the voice. Fortunately, the voice ended there.
He had already given up resisting the voice. Resisting a monster that could control every nerve of his body brought only unspeakable pain.
‘What on earth is this being?!’
The only freedom he had left was to think in his mind.
The entity currently possessing his body was surely an unpredictable monster, but it wasn’t reading his thoughts just yet. The problem was that the moment he tried to hint at those thoughts, his body would attack itself.
“This is the warp device blueprint for the Letique that we created.”
‘I memorized everything.’
“Hwaaa…”
‘Show me more detailed data.’
“That, I can’t access with my authority.”
While showing the spaceship blueprint, Pyles shook his head. Though he was a promising talent with good lines, his authority as a mere junior researcher was limited.
‘Then, who can see it?’
“That would be…”
His eyes trembled at the indifferent sound of the voice.
He could already guess. The alien monster that had devoured him would try to eat the moment he mentioned someone else.
“If it’s the head researcher, Richard.”
‘Go find him.’
Of course, he had no right to refuse. As soon as the new order was given, he tightly closed his eyes.
“Director, may I urgently meet you?”
To avoid suspicion, after spending a night, Pyles sent a message to Director Richard from early morning.
In fact, Pyles had never liked his superior, Richard, all that much. Richard, who had followed a similar elite path and achieved success, was not much older than him and was overwhelmingly more talented.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
But now none of that mattered. He only hoped that even Richard, whom he had envied, would notice his anomaly and come to save him.
“Just so happens, I had something to tell you.”
However, when Pyles went to visit Richard, he was disheartened by the state that was little different from usual.
Now, Director Richard was about to be devoured by the monster that had consumed his body once again.
“That is…”
“Oh, I was gathering some data recently. By the way, aren’t those the locals you interacted with?”
Slowly approaching him, Pyles flinched when he saw the hologram screen Richard was looking at.
On the screen was a pair of men and women. A duo that had greatly raised their stock by fighting against the enemies of the demonic realm.
But the moment Pyles saw them, he could do nothing but be horrified.
‘Don’t show it.’
In that instant, Eve forcibly moved his body to erase any sign of surprise.
“They would definitely help us secure supremacy within the Alliance.”
‘No. Absolutely not. Please, snap out of it. Please.’
Pyles desperately shouted that the man and woman he was looking at were not humans but creatures, but Richard had no ability to read people’s inner thoughts.
“Then why have you come? Just so happens, I also said I had something to discuss with you?”
“Ah, yes. But what is it about…”
“Right now, during a delicate time of colonizing new planets, how can you act so suspiciously? Snooping around here and there.”
‘Oh no.’
As Richard quietly began speaking, Eve sensed something and moved Pyles’s body.
A projectile from a taser gun fired right next to him, grazing where Pyles had been standing.
“Subdue him!”
At Richard’s command, two armed guards wearing blue nano suits and cancelling their cloaking rushed towards Pyles.
The enhanced suits amplify human strength beyond limits. There was no way to match them with bare hands.
“What the…”
However, he was horrified by what was transpiring before his eyes.
Pyles, who had been contorting his body, erupted with black blood from his mouth, and the black something that burst from his side tore through the armed guard’s stomach, impaling it against the wall.
The same thing happened on the other side. Those that erupted from his back pierced through the guard’s face, stomach, and chest, killing them.
It was akin to spider legs.
“What, what is this?”
“Please save me, Director…”
Immediately, Pyles transformed his arms into tentacles, murmuring dazedly, wrapping the tentacles around Richard’s neck and pulling him forward.
“Ugh… cough… s-stop…”
Some of the cells of the Legion that were controlling Pyles through the tentacles began to move into Richard’s tormented body.
What remained was Richard, writhing grotesquely on the floor. His body was already covered in black veins starting from his neck.
‘Hello, head researcher Richard.’
At the same time, a strange voice started forcibly intruding into Richard’s consciousness.
In the meantime, Pyles restored his body to its original state and securely locked the office door to prevent anyone from entering.
*
“Indeed, it’s inefficient.”
“Is that so?”
“I once thought about infecting all Earthlings to control them, but such plans were all discarded. Collective consciousness and infection don’t really go well together.”
Eve, who was fiddling with her legs so they bumped against mine, nonchalantly uttered terrifying words.
I could also see Pyles, who was part of the Legion, on the screen. This time, even the newly infected head researcher, Richard. Despite being a relatively significant figure even within the Guardian Alliance, he still ended up falling into our hands.
“Then can we completely acquire the warp technology?”
“I need to observe a little more. In fact, with the technology obtained so far, it’s possible to directly replicate their ships. But the evolution I’m pursuing isn’t merely that.”
“…You’re trying to make that?”
After glancing around for no reason, I looked at the drawing Eve was scribbling on the paper on the desk.
She, being like a primordial creature, was given merely a pencil, yet her hand moved swiftly, creating something as if it was being printed like a photo.
What she was drawing was a new type of soldier, or rather, a facility, that the Legion would create.
It was a kind of invasion fortress and the first inorganic weapon created by the Legion, resembling a floating island in the sky.
“This will be created by lifting an entire continent. A fortress designed to enable every action from production, analysis, to decomposition.”
“…”
Listening to her, it felt as if an elementary student was mumbling about what to make out of clay. But the difference was that she was serious. The other people in the café were just whispering while looking at us but seemed unconcerned about what was being said.
“Then the place we will attack using that invasion fortress is…”
“Initially, we planned to target Riman, a planet we decimated, by dispatching the majority of our stationed forces. But if our goal is a preemptive war, we should target more solid and important places rather than such rural outskirt regions.”
Eve, grinning, began drawing new images in the remaining space on the paper.
According to the information, that place was remyun, one of the main planets of the rebel alliance.
While being one of the hubs of an advanced space force, they would likely struggle to cope with a surprise attack for the first time in their lives.
“Of course, this invasion is only meant to buy time. The real beginning will be when we have completely taken over not only REDRIUM but also the places we’ve regained.”
Eve set down her pencil with a chuckle.
Watching her, I silently sipped my coffee. Eve was probably unaware of it.
Right now, Eve was in a growth phase. She was an existence that could not be explained without mentioning growth and evolution.
However, as the Legion devoured two planets, not only was her size expanding, but her very self was continuously growing as well.
“I’ll tidy up here, so could you throw this away?”
“Sure.”
Eve took the cup I handed her and crossed the café towards the trash can.
Though she completely ignored the people waiting in line, which was why there were anti-controversies arising, Eve no longer felt disgusted or harbored any ill intentions towards human gazes.
The reason was that she had now firmly decided to thoroughly use humans. To me, she now seemed like… an elementary schooler.
[Do you feel a sense of accomplishment? She seems to have adapted as intended, but Eve’s actions are merely a performance with a clear purpose.]
The words flickering before my eyes seemed to mirror my helpless feelings.
