The girl places the nail down and covers her eyes with her hand.
Thud
In the end, relying on a crowbar as a weapon is quite orthodox.
Crack
Then she crouches down, grabs the nail again, and walks towards me.
Shuffle
Ah, that’s something I won’t forget. The fact that the fighter’s memories inside me have no gaps at least at the girl’s level—it’s truly terrifying.
“Is the 25-foot monster throwing a tantrum about not wanting to go home?”
Gleam
As if a supernova has exploded in the faded memories, it shines. Say that again! What did you ramble about? Such a violent glow. Why are you fixated on something so trivial? This memory.
“Down there, I can’t move at all. It’s endlessly cold. The only thing I can do is stare at the light in the night sky. I barely got out, and I don’t want to go back.”
Ignoring the sparkling memories, I speak the harsh truth. There’s a definite advantage to stating facts: no one has ever been careless enough to ignore what I’ve said until now.
Moreover, it’s convenient.
If you lack intelligence, it’s better not to lie.
Of course, you can negotiate by not sharing every detail!
“What? Were you trapped in some box or something?”
“It was spacious.”
Whoosh
An endless, completely flat expanse stretched infinitely.
With a very dubious expression, she comes closer to me. The fighter’s memories are warning me. If she feels like it, she will drive the nail in and smash it with the crowbar.
Thud
How aggressive.
Are you really a special forces member?
At least, according to the Sahaquin’s memories, they’ve been abducting citizens and tourists alike from nearby villages.
“Want to kill me like you just did with the corpse? Or are you scared of seeing this?”
Clank
Somehow, she lifts the nail to examine it closely. Strange patterns are engraved on the head of the large nail. According to the Sahaquin’s memories, it’s something akin to a divine artifact of this world.
If stabbed, the magic power in the body doesn’t function at all, and you drown and die on land. True. Originally aquatic creatures are circular, and using reversible and explosive effects of magic for environmental adaptation isn’t uncommon.
In any case, let’s answer the questions.
“That’s because it was a dead person. You can obtain the warmth of the dead. As long as I’m not attacked, I don’t want to harm the living.”
And I do have doubts about whether I’d die if pierced by the nail. After all, no matter what vessel I enter, I can’t use magic.
The girl is deep in thought.
Then she lifts her head, looks at my face, and asks,
“Do you eat people?”
“No. Until recently, I was a person too.”
All that I’ve gained is warmth. Memories aren’t taken; they’re copied.
I’ve never eaten anything by inserting material into my body and breaking it down.
If it were essential to gain warmth, I would do it without hesitation, but otherwise, why would I?
The girl blinks her eyes.
Well, it’s not strange to find a giant who was once human.
“So, are you saying that your original body is not this?”
“Yes. This is the first time I’ve entered such a vessel.”
Gulp
At that moment, her gaze sharpens, and she looks straight at me. Did I misspeak?
“A vessel, huh. You must have been in a human body last time.”
I slipped up.
Are you a detective?
Moreover, she subtly moves her arm to immediately prepare to drive the nail in?
That nail and crowbar are originally Sahaquin’s items, so she must have only used them for the first time since last night.
Or is it odd to think that a girl was captured and, within one night, annihilated an aquatic secret religious group?
For now, since I asked, she responds.
“Yes. I was called twice. The first time was for a cult. The second time was for another cult hiding within that cult.”
“Only cults, huh.”
Such groups are more likely to reach out to me. A monster like me isn’t the type people would casually summon, expecting everything to go well.
I squatted down, watching her as I glanced around.
A massive dome-shaped building. Yet, it’s smaller than what Daegon had relics of. The advance team hadn’t landed correctly and lacked the means to build the structure according to the blueprint.
Thus, they resorted to a trick of simply reducing the size.
The problem is that the body summoned is based on the design, and the exit is too small to leave.
If Daegon had shown up, all the designed Fishmen would probably be dead.
“I think I’m trapped here, what should I do?”
Hearing my words, the girl looks around.
After surveying all the exits, she watches me with a dubious expression.
“The door is small.”
“There’s no barrier-free access.”
Snicker
The girl giggles at what I said.
“Hey, when will a social assistance program for the marginalized come out here?”
Even so…
“Most immigrants are socially vulnerable, aren’t they?”
Guffaw
What’s so funny about what I said? This time she laughs heartily.
Crouching down to watch quietly, she laughs for a long time before standing up.
“What’s your name?”
Name, huh…
“I don’t have one.”
The body I’m currently in was originally cultivated for Daegon.
The essence of Daegon biotechnology.
Around me are items that served as incubation fluid and incubators. While they look like spawning grounds, those in the know will understand.
However, this is not a perfect body. It’s a temporary vessel until my true body is created in this world after a long time.
To prepare for that, I was planning to enter Choseol’s body and possess Choseol’s child. But everything went wrong.
“You don’t have a name?”
“Right. I used the name of the person whose body it was in the last world, but this one is a manufactured item.”
“Ah, come to think of it, I overheard the monsters talking about their god hatching.”
Ding
Knowledge level check.
I thought it was the early 19th century, but it seems like the technology is surprisingly advanced. Not just technology, but culturally it’s quite developed as well.
If they care about the disabled, the culture must be quite advanced.
“But isn’t it a bit surreal that a big monster like you speaks formally while I’m speaking informally?”
Chuckle
The expression “surreal” suggests that the arts are also pretty advanced. It’s not a world where wild hunters roam everywhere.
It means it’s a world with some leisure.
Subtly raising the level of the world, I pointed at the crowbar with my hand.
“You should speak politely to someone holding a universe-destroying weapon.”
“Huh? This is just a simple crowbar! Shouldn’t you point at the nail?”
“I don’t know what a nail is, but that’s dangerous.”
She’s even trying to smash Sahaquin’s skull overnight and wipe them out.
The final step.
That’s where she failed.
If Daegon had been alive, he would have appeared and faced a severe fate.
Given this girl’s determination, there’s also a possibility she would have somehow sent him back.
But then, not everyone is such a superhuman.
If that were the case, the Sahaquin wouldn’t have chosen humans as the easiest target to hunt to utilize souls and bodies as resources.
“I don’t think a 25-foot beast should be hearing that.”
“People are afraid of scorpions, right?”
“That basically means I’m a scorpion…”
Clang
She approaches me while holding the nail.
But her expression doesn’t seem to show she intends to kill me, so I quietly observe as she speaks.
“Move aside. I need to break something.”
As I step aside, she looks at me with a clearly puzzled expression, then drives the nail into the ground. Right smack in the middle of this dome.
Click click
The sound of machinery moving echoes, and Daegon’s memories spark.
It’s a self-destruct device made for emergencies.
The nail is a device for executing heretics but also to massacre when their lair fills with heretics.
Just for reference, heretics are defined as those who seek freedom.
If you refuse to be bound, and decide to live as a single persona, you get killed.
If a unit surrenders during wartime, it’s somewhat similar.
Religious groups respond to apostates with a paranoid level of scrutiny.
Because if left unchecked, information leaks will follow, and they have to capture them or else.
The problem is that this doesn’t consider the user at all.
“Why did you do that? The whole place is collapsing.”
Indeed, the doors nearby began to collapse. The stone pillars burst from the inside, blocking the path, as the current drew inward, sealing escape routes.
“Ah, I knew it.”
She puts the crowbar down with a thud and sits on the floor.
“Wait, I don’t want to turn into something like those in the prison!”
Sigh
She then lifts her blood-stained shirt, revealing the inside. Where there should be white skin, blue scales are emerging. And near her ribs, gills are flailing.
Ah, right.
Human resources are resources too. As she approaches full transformation, using hormones and pleasure chemicals for brainwashing, her affinity for her own kind is heightened.
“You seem like a victim too, so die with me.”
Oh, that’s how it is.
“What’s your name?”
“My name? It’s Victoria, why?”
Such a name.
“Then, Victoria, let’s talk in this desperate situation. Don’t you want to return to your original body? I can promise you this. If you truly wish to escape this dead end and return to your original body to reunite with your family, we can make a contract.”
And I say this.
“I’ll offer myself to you. But later, once you finish everything, I’ll take everything you have. How about it?”
Victoria, looking up at me with a dumbfounded expression, stiffens, and a moment later,
Nodding as the water rises to her ankles.
Eek
First harvesting period.
Completed.
