53: Space Monster Lookalike, Seaweed Man

Today's update is the fourth chapter.

This is the third chapter.

"Gonn..."

"Fast, huh?"

The seaweed man moved quickly.

Even if a normal human could see it, their body wouldn't be able to react in time.

"But that's all."

"Buuuuu!?"

But that's all.

The seaweed humanoid attempted to swing its armored plate claws down at me, but before it could, my main body's tentacle emerged and struck it in the chest, sending it crashing into the wall with full force.

"That's right."

The impact from slamming into the wall caused the shield—only of civilian-grade, low quality—to peel off completely, allowing Virijanila to fire her blaster at what appeared to be its head, delivering a follow-up attack.

The heat generated shattered the seaweed humanoid's head.

"But I think we should stay cautious."

"I know that."

Normally, this would be an instant kill.

But the opponent was a space monster imitation—caution was warranted until we were certain it was truly dead.

So, I retracted the tentacle that had just slammed the seaweed humanoid into the wall, then analyzed the opponent's composition mod from the seaweed humanoid's slime clinging to it.

"Gogogog…!"

"Hmph!"

"I'll prioritize stopping its movement."

As expected, the seaweed humanoid—though headless—revived its shield and began regenerating its head while preparing to move again.

So I slashed the staff once, shattering the shield, then shoved the non-lethal blaster into the seaweed humanoid, paralyzing it.

"Satya, how's the analysis going?"

"It's definitely not an ordinary organism. It's running a slightly different OS than 'Vanilla OS,' with various added features like amplified aggression, regeneration, and dormancy in space. For now, we can't let it out of this facility. If released, most of it would go into dormancy, then a portion would swell and explode, and if it finds even a little moisture at its destination, it could rapidly multiply. And this would happen even without the Sw in the Grogrobeta system."

"Isn't this riskier than the demonic改造 rocket cone...?"

With my explanation, Vilijanila fires her blaster.

The target is a fragment of the seaweed humanoid's head, the one previously exploded earlier. Since the fragment was small, it vanishes completely upon being shot.

"Right, as Vee realized, to completely destroy this thing, we must obliterate every single cell—no remnants allowed. Poison, physical force, heat... well, there are many methods, but we can't afford to let even a single fragment escape."

"This is troublesome. Can we handle it all by ourselves?"

Viljaniara fired her blaster several more times, each shot burning away the seaweed humanoid's fragments as they tried to regenerate in secret.

I sprayed out ink in a smoky mist.

The seaweed humanoid's fragments slightly increased in number, but shortly after growing, some of their installed mods were disabled, causing them to wither and die.

"Gogogog……"

"What should we do about the main body? Can we suppress it the same way we did with the fragments, using Satā's ink?"

"Things are tough. Not only is the opponent massive in size, but ink is ultimately just water—its growth rate might outpace how much we can cut away. We're currently developing a specialized toxin, a mod designed solely to kill this thing, but it'll take about a minute."

In the meantime, as they were dealing with it, the main body of the seaweed humanoid recovered from paralysis and regenerated its lost head, rising to its feet once more.

And seemingly in response to this situation, what looks like a fighter jet's thruster has been grafted onto its back.

This thing's going to keep growing the longer we wait—soon it'll be impossible to handle.

Besides, trying to suppress it with ink is clearly futile.

Ink only works on the contacted area, but the other side is spreading across every part of the body. With surface area and volume on its side, unless the opponent deliberately increases their surface area, we'd only have a slight edge over growth—no real chance of winning.

As for dragging it into the Ether Space? That's not possible either.

We can't predict what'll happen.

"Then let's just focus on holding it back."

"Gonbuuu! Ugh!?"

The seaweed humanoid comes at me far faster than before.

But Vilijaniela can see it—and apparently, she can handle it.

Multiple explosions erupt before my eyes, and the seaweed humanoid is slammed back into the wall once more.

"Ugh!?"

Seizing the moment, I press the attack.

Careful not to scatter fragments around, I beat the seaweed humanoid relentlessly with the stick, striking all over its body.

Then, Vilijaniira's blaster, switched again to non-lethal mode, fired once more, paralyzing its body.

Still, the fact that it can only be sustained for around ten seconds or so—this, even if it's just a mimic, is proof enough that it's a space monster.

Not something ordinary creatures could withstand.

"Still, what's scary is..."

"Sata. I'm aware, so it's fine."

"Guess you're right."

My eyes briefly glance toward the fuel tank inside the room.

Though it's called fuel, it's likely a mass of energy in liquid form.

There's no need to speculate what would happen if the seaweed humanoid obtained it.

So, both I and Vilijanira keep a cautious eye on it.

"Gonbububububu"

"More importantly, we need to figure out how to get through the next phase right away."

"That's true. Is it turning even the air into energy?"

Meanwhile, as we watch, the seaweed humanoid expands its entire body, doubling in height and growing four arms instead of two.

It also feels like its shield mod has been enhanced.

The only way to stop this... well, there's really just one option.

"Gonbuuu!"

"Whoa!"

"Huh... Sata!?"

The seaweed humanoid lunges at Vilijianira.

I read the situation and stepped between the seaweed humanoid and Vilijianira, grabbing the creature's body and forcefully pinning it down with sheer strength.

"Gh...!"

"Gonbuuuu!?"

"I'll finish this now!"

The seaweed humanoid roots itself into my body, sucking up moisture.

The sensation of it piercing my skin and crawling through my blood vessels is utterly unpleasant—and incredibly painful.

Worse still, the sensation intensifies over time, and even though it's just a puppet, the feeling of my body being torn apart in an instant becomes indescribable.

But due to fundamental differences in our core systems, it lacks the speed to draw in moisture and the power to absorb energy adequately.

However, right now, with my full power unleashed, I can forcibly suppress it—just for a short time.

In addition, Viridianiya continuously fired blasts, gradually hindering the movements of the seaweed humanoid.

"Come on, devour this. Since we're at it, why not go straight into your body?"

"!?!"

And then, one minute after analysis.

The specially crafted mod, created by the core, was mixed into my body—into my bloodstream.

Since it was now mixed with blood, the seaweed humanoid, driven by its need for moisture, inevitably absorbed the special mod.

"Gobuuaaaah!?"

The effect was tremendous.

The seaweed humanoid's body crumbled from within, quickly turning into a sandy substance across its entire form.

Its powerful regenerative abilities and energy production and replenishment systems had been completely halted, leaving it unable to sustain the high energy consumption typical of a space monster.

"Vee! Burn this sand!"

"Understood!"

Yet it was not quite dead—by far.

There were parts that could potentially come back to life if given moisture.

Understanding this instinctively, I exuded oil from the doll's body, and Vilegianira ignited it with her blaster.

The flame, shimmering in a rainbow-hued silver, quickly spread across my entire body and the seaweed-like sand that had been my form...

"Phew, managed to pull through."

"Yeah... it seems so."

In front of the puppet I had just created and the eyes of Viridiana, the seaweed-like sand that had been me was utterly consumed by a flame that had turned purple without me noticing.