Chapter 63
“Damn it! Peter! Charlie!”
Vicus, the vice commander of the Lion Knights, continued to attempt communication. However, the sounds emanating from the communication device were nothing but ominous static.
The last message he received was from Peter, informing him that his colleagues Milburn and Fifeild had perished. Since then, there has been no word from Peter or Charlie. This could only mean one thing –they might all have been wiped out
“This won’t do. I need to dispatch the knights quickly and report about this to the Lord,” Vicus quickly summoned the waiting knights. With the troops guarding Denver and those investigating security dispatched elsewhere, he had a force of only 20 knights at immediate disposal.
The armed knights filed into the spacious guest room allotted to the Vice commander, each removing their helmets. The knights were of different races and gender—among them there were, a fair-skinned woman with reddish-blonde hair, a caucasian man with black hair, and a black-skinned man with a shaved head.
Despite their differences they all shared one common trait: their exceptional facial features and their towering height.
While the public praised Denver for prioritizing his image, Vicus knew the truth.
They were the results of genetic enhancements under Denver’s directives, known as the Hulk Mutant Project
“Vice commander, did you call for me?” The black-skinned man respectfully bowed before Vicus, drawing him back to the present. Vicus briefed them on the situation
“The situation is dire. We’ve lost contact with the team assigned to protect the police officer under Lord’s orders.”“What?”
“We sent Charlie, Peter, Milburn, and Fifield to the hospital. Since Peter’s last communication five minutes ago, no one else has responded.”
Silence fell among the Lion Knights. Everyone present in that room knew the extent of the force of the Lion Knights. Therefore, the news that four of their own had fallen was not something they could easily overlook.
“So, I will report to the Lord immediately. Jacob, I entrust the command of these men to you in my absence.”
“I will do my best, sir.”
“…for such an incident to occur right before the council meeting.”
After sending the knights to the hospital, Vicus hurriedly headed towards the banquet hall.
“The Lord wishes for Samdan Chemblin to become the CEO, and now this happens.”
As Denver’s closest confidant, Vicus was well aware of what he was aiming for. Before coming to this city, Denver had met Samdan in advance to discuss how the council meeting would proceed. During the discussions, Samdan expressed high expectations for his daughter Laila, and Denver understood Samdan’s intentions.
Although Vicus wasn’t sure how Laila felt about it, he had no ill feelings towards her. Therefore, before coming here, he made many preparations to assist her.
With all the preparations done, now only the smooth progress of the council meeting remained. Yet, such a major incident occurred.
“Finding out who killed the knights in the hospital is important, but the more important thing here was…”
The fact that an agent of Prime Capital died on the territory of Noble Capital.
Competitors of Samdam are not likely to let go of such a good opportunity. If they just let this slide, it will undoubtedly be talked about.
Before the CEO election between T&C and Eden, the CEOs traditionally engage in a verbal battle. While conspiracy and plots are expected during the CEO voting process, any irregularities on the surface were unheard of.
Officially, MegaCorp is an organization that elects its CEO through democratic procedures, and any irregularities are not tolerated.
‘T&C and Eden were in alliance with each other’, if this gets leaked ahead of the CEO election. it could undermine the legitimacy of the CEO appointment and even jeopardize the T&C family’s status in Noble Capital and would also cause Samdam to be excluded as a CEO candidate.
“But Denver’s hard stance might pose problems too.” Deliberate criticism of T&C could backfire, especially among Eden’s elders who were unaware about this alliance. They might opt for a different candidate, rendering T&C’s financial support for Denver’s hulk mutant project futile
“How can I handle this…?”
His thoughts racing, Vicus could see the door to the banquet hall in the distance. A woman was being inspected by security guards before entering the door.
She was Laila’s secretary, someone Vicus knew well. Up close, he could see that her complexion had turned pale.
She must have come here for the same reason he did.
“Even Lady?”
“Vice Commander too?”
They exchanged glances, saying nothing but understanding each other’s thoughts. It seemed like tonight’s banquet would be a long one.
***
‘The existence that annoyed me is now dead. Despite judging it as competent and deciding to spare it, the outcome turned out to be a mixed bag of gains and losses.’
A reflection on an individual’s assessment. I have to keep in mind that this is Reality, my life is at constant risk here. I have to be extremely cautious, especially when dealing with humans, at least until I acquire the infection enhancement type.’
‘Time to dismantle the central AI and exit.’
Carrying the now-deceased William, I descended to the basement, as I was going down I took a bite of his upper body first.
‘I should have eaten a bit earlier.’
Maybe because he suffered due to me, his taste was bland, the quality of the meat was good but it felt like the meat got rotten due to improper storage in the refrigerator.
While eating, a parasite came out of the corpse’s nostrils as if asking not to be eaten. It went back to his house on my arm.
When only one leg remained, I arrived in front of the server room where the main computer was located. I put down the leg I was eating and smashed the door with the horn on my head.
The 10cm thick alloy door, powerless against Amorph’s formidable strength, broke with a loud bang. The central AI, detecting my intrusion, loudly warned..
[Warning! Warning! Unidentified life form detected!]
I destroyed the speakers hanging on the ceiling corners with a swing of my tail, and put an end to the irritating noise, leaving only the regular noise of the air conditioning in the server room.
‘Let’s break the cooling system computer first.’
Although there were numerous computers in the server room, I had raided many hospitals when I played the game. Once you get here, it’s not much difficult afterwards.
I systematically knocked down the computers lined up at the right end. Sparks flew, and the red light in each computer diminished.
A moment later, all the internal fans stopped, and the temperature inside began to rise rapidly. The sensitive electronic devices inside screamed at the rise in temperature that even surpassed a sauna.
‘This is not the end.’
Using all my arms, I successively destroyed all the data server devices one-by-one.
All the computers were either shred to pieces by my combat arms or were turned into unrecoverable waste.
Thanks to my enlarged body, destroying all electronic devices in the spacious server room was easy and didn’t take that long.
Now that I’ve destroyed the important devices, I decided to finish the rest with another method. I bit my arm and created a wound and sprayed acid all over.
Thanks to the effects of ‘Perfect organism’, the effect of the acid inside me had increased significantly, the electronic devices touched by the droplets melted without a trace. Then, a short circuit occurred in the broken computer’s wires, and flames suddenly erupted all over the room.
‘It’s enough for here.’
I walked smoothly through the fire and entered the inside of the server room. The fire was unable to do anything to me thanks to my Reinforced Exoskeleton.
Inside, there was a cylindrical computer wrapped in reinforced glass. That was the main computer containing the central AI and controlled the whole hospital. Green numbers constantly appeared and disappeared on its matte surface in a non-reflective black color.
That cylindrical computer had a design unique to MegaCorp, and looked like the AI computer inside the spaceship.
[“Warning! Warning! Central AI under threat of damage!”]
The AI, issued its final warning in electronic sounds as if not wanting to die, but it was meaningless.I launched bone spikes towards the reinforced glass, the glass wall shattered.
It not only broke the glass but also pierced through the main computer. However, I was not satisfied. I had to completely destroy it so that the enemies won’t be able to retrieve the data.
‘I remember making a similar mistake back then.’
I once infiltrated a hospital in a space city in the game to kill someone. At that time, I was a Quasi-saint with six types in my possession. Therefore, assassinating enemies without getting caught was very easy.
Perhaps because it was too easy. I became careless, and because of that, my abilities were exposed to the central AI.
The organization members of the hostile clan that I killed were easily able to obtain my information through the central AI. They sought revenge by spreading the strategies I used in the hospital on the community forum.
‘It became challenging to create new strategies as the old ones became useless.’
Of course, I later paid them back twice as much, but I don’t want to recreate those memories. I sprayed my acid blood to completely dissolve the main computer.
“It all went well.”
After leaving the blazing server room, I finished eating William’s remaining leg.
Once again, a text box related to the predation effect appeared, and as I was about to skip it I saw something.
‘Wait? What’s this?’
I quickly checked the text box.
[Predation effect activated! Successfully obtained ‘Insight’ genetic essence.]
[Extracted the ‘Insight’ among the biological characteristics of ‘William’.]
[Do you want to apply ‘Insight’?]
‘Huh?’
Insight.
I’m familiar with this ability too. When activated, it allows me to see the unique features, traits, skills, etc., of a living being or object with my naked eyes.
I can’t know everything, and the information I can obtain is randomly determined, limited to five times a day.
For example, if you use ‘Insight’ on someone wearing reinforced armor, you might get information about the armor instead of the wearer. Or sometimes if you want to know about the information of the armor you will get information on the wearer.
Also if you tried to use ‘Insight’ more than five times a day, it would become unusable and you won’t be able to use it in the future.
‘I was curious about what would come out of William, but for this to come out.’
William always had sharper intuition than others, so it made sense that he had such an extraordinary ability in him.It was probably because of that he found out about my weaknesses, and forced me to corner myself.
Come to think of it, William was the first one who cornered me in this city. Although he was not as powerful in combat as Si-hyun Yujin or the Hulk Mutants, he targeted my weaknesses with just his intuition.
Though I had infected him with a parasite, he didn’t give up and continued to be a headache for me until the end.
‘The one who used to be an enemy is giving me a gift at the end.’
Although he was an enemy in the past, it was forgivable at this point as he gave me such an amazing gift.
As shown in the system panel, ‘Insight’ is advantageous in player-vs-player fights, or PK. It’s not an ability I immediately need since I don’t fight players one on one
‘Yet, I’m happy.’
Because Insight is a psychic trait.
Including ‘Insight,’ I now have a total of 6 psychic traits. This means that I have successfully fulfilled all the conditions for the Psychic Reinforcement type.
The acquired traits from eden knights and the patients are still pending until they are canceled, but the newly obtained Insight is different.
‘It’s an opportunity to acquire a type; I can’t miss this.’
I immediately accepted the acquisition of Insight.
As the trait applied, I felt a change in the structure of my eyes. It was as if the inside of the eyeball became stiff, similar to the feeling when tired, and there was a twitch in the brow.
Despite the tingling sensation, I remained still as the natural changes due to the trait application occurred.
Perhaps because the applied area was not large in size, the transformation quickly ended. I activated Insight and looked around.
‘Huh?’
Despite acquiring it, there was no change. There should be random information about objects, but I couldn’t see anything.
‘Right, I won’t be able to see anything now’.
Insight is a trait that must be confirmed with the naked eye for its effects to take place.
Currently, my vision is obscured due to the effect of the ‘Symbol of Hunt’. Naturally, I can’t see anything.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter because there are more important things to do right now.’
I decided to check the effect of Insight later and brought up the text box I had been waiting for.
[There exists one ‘Type’ that can be specialized.]
[Do you want to unlock the ‘psychic Reinforcement Type’?]
After acquiring the first Type, the second Type was waiting for me.
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