Chapter 453.2: Out of Control

The blade barely moved an inch before the monster’s other arm blocked it. The glowing blade and axe hovered millimeters above the helmet, unable to move forward.

Flesh pulsed under the broken armor.

Residual nuclear energy had been transformed by the Slime Mold into raw, brutal power.

Through the cracks, Old White saw a flash of crimson light.

Those were predatory eyes. Behind the violence and instinct to kill, there was something even scarier, hunger. It was starving.

Pinned down, Old White grimaced. Straining with all his strength, he pushed down harder.

This thing is tougher than the Rotten Knight!

Fuck!

Blood boiling, Old White activated his ability.

His arms bulged, doubling his strength as the knife pushed slightly deeper and the axe was raised another inch.

Both exoframes groaned from the strain and unbelievably, the creature was forced to take a half-step back.

From the armor’s vents came a piercing, agitated screech.

Old White saw his chance. He kicked out with all his might, his boot smashing into its knee.

With the enhanced force, the outward-bending knee bent backwards.

Once it lost balance, the creature stumbled back.

Old White immediately followed up, driving the combat knife toward its skull and giving it a hard twist.

But to his surprise, nothing happened.

Even with a blade through its head, the thing didn’t react.

And then it hit him.

Its nervous system isn’t in the head!

It might not even have one!

“Spread out!” Night Ten’s voice came through the communication channel.

Old White’s heart leapt with hope when he realized what weapon his teammates wielded.

Before the monster could regain balance, he kicked it in the chest, sending it staggering backward.

Its alloy arms clawed at the wall, metal fingers screeching as they gouged deep scratches.

Just then, at the far end of the hallway, Night Ten raised his Viper Gauss Rifle and took a shot.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Bang!

A flash of lightning surged from the barrel as the payload accelerated to Mach 4.5, tearing through the air with a sonic boom.

The shot hit from behind, right at the armor’s weakest point.

The creature had no chance to react.

Its neglected, brittle rear plating was instantly punctured clean through.

As the creature staggered from the impact, Old White swung his axe in a wide arc.

A searing red glow flashed. Like molten lava, the superheated edge sliced into the armor’s left shoulder.

As the heat surged inside, everything soft was incinerated in an instant.

The crimson light in its eyes finally dimmed as it collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.

Slowly, Night Ten approached while lowering his rifle.

Staring at the fallen beast, he muttered, “Damn... These things can pilot exoframes now?”

The creature was different from the Rotten Knight.

This suit’s nuclear battery was still functioning.

Though most of its electronics were fried, the Slime Mold still managed to wear it like a second skin.

Old White clapped him on the shoulder, grinning, “Well, I don’t know, but well done! Is your side already done?”

Night Ten chuckled, “Yeah... There was no Mother Body in the lab. The place was empty. We followed the administrator’s orders, grabbed the logs, then got sent to support you. What about you guys?”

Old White shook his head. “No sign of the Mother Body. We’ve already swept most of the sector.”

Night Ten frowned, “Don’t tell me... It’s with Gale?”

Just then, a new notification flashed across all the players’ VMs.

Night Ten’s face changed. “...Goddamn it, I jinxed it!”

Old White didn’t waste time. He scooped up his rifle and hammer and yelled, “Move! Let’s help him!”

...

On level B6, in the Biological Lab Data Center.

Rows of server racks had been completely taken over by dark red Slime Mold.

The entire room, spanning hundreds of square meters, was like a sea of pulsing fungus.

There wasn’t even a clear spot to step on near the main stairwell.

Floating atop that ocean of biomass were dozens of translucent, reddish membranes, like silk cocoons. They swelled and twitched with restless energy.

‘It’ had just awakened.

And it was thrilled, thrilled by the changes around, thrilled by the arrival of long-absent prey.

Gale and the rest of his team stared at the room in stunned silence. Swallowing hard, Quit Smoking glanced at the smartest guy in the squad. “... So, uh... how do we recover this?”

Gale shook his head grimly. “No idea...”

The servers were completely submerged. Each one was glued in place by dense layers of Slime Mold.

Not only could they not see which rack held the target drives, they couldn’t even figure out how to get close.

Just stepping onto the biomass felt like a bad idea.

After a moment’s thought, Gale offered his assessment. “Either way, we need to clear the Slime Mold first... This probably isn’t just a normal Hive. It might be a miniature ecosystem...”

Those behind him started whispering to themselves.

“If I’m reading the mission right, we’re supposed to retrieve this thing...”

“Retrieve it? Dude, this place looks like a swimming pool full of meat jelly. Never mind how many inhibitors it will take to knock it out, how the hell are we even supposed to carry it out?”

“I’m tired. Let’s just blow it up.”

“We can’t blow it up. The experimental data is still in one of those drives!”

The players were stuck. And watching through their feeds in the viewing room, so was Chu Guang.

Wiping out the Mother Body would be easy, he could authorize players to bring in heavy ordinance, drop a 155mm shell in there and call it a day.

If one shell wasn’t enough, use two.

In a sealed environment, even just the shockwave would be enough to turn any organic matter into mush.

But the real problem was the data.

Because the transmission lines were down, the data couldn’t be uploaded remotely. They’d have to extract the drives manually.

Which meant no high explosives, no acid dumping, no Molotov cocktails...

Just then, Yin Fang’s eyes lit up. “... What if we fight fire with fire?”

Chu Guang blinked. “What fire?! No fire!”

Yin Fang excitedly started gesturing, outlining his just-formed plan. “Like, what if we brought in another Mother Body? We can use the incompatibility between different strains and let them fight each other!”

Chu Guang’s eyes gleamed.

Damn. Let the wolves devour each other? That’s... unexpectedly clever.

Just as he was about to approve it, Hyrja crossed her arms and sighed, “...And where exactly are you going to get a Mother Body? The closest one is in the middle of Clearspring City.”

Yin Fang blinked. “Huh? What about those Cruncher producing Hives? Won’t those also have a Mother Body?”

“That’s a nursery...” Hyrja shot back. “They don’t contain the full genetic library of the species. At most, they’re just biological assembly lines and signal relays.”

“Outside the range of a real Mother Body’s spores, they’ll wither in days. Bring one of those in here, and it’ll just end up feeding the thing.”

She paused, still thinking about Oasis No.7, and added, “... That said, the idea’s not completely useless. I did hear there’s a strain of relatively benign mutant Slime Mold in Lost Valley. If we can get our hands on one of them, we might not only clean out level B6, but end up with a supply of tame strains to work with!”

It was a solid idea.

If only that Titan wasn’t there...

A monster even nukes couldn’t kill?

Chu Guang wasn’t gonna touch that with a 1,000-foot pole.

He cleared his throat and looked toward Yin Fang. “Hyrja’s right... The method still needs some discussion.”

Hyrja raised her hand. “Uh, what I meant was...”

Chu Guang cut her off. “Anyway, before we decide on how to deal with the Slime Mold, we need to examine the experiment logs first. Let’s make sure the data is even worth the risk.”

Turning to Little Seven who was perched on his desk as he gave the command. “Little Seven, tell the B6 team to extract the logs.”

Little Seven saluted with a giggle, its fist pressed to its chest. “Aye aye, Captain!”

Mission Half Complete.

And so, Chu Guang only issued half the reward.

He slotted the data card into the slot in the shelter as a pale blue hologram projected into the center of the room.

The first file was a video recording.

A man stood before the camera, speaking to someone offscreen. He wore a Shelter uniform, the tag on his chest reading, ‘G-13’.

From the camera angle, it was clear neither he nor the person he was talking to knew they were being filmed.

“This planet is polluted. In other words... It’s already doomed.”

“This is extinction more cruel than a neutron wipe. These Slime Mold, designed to wipe us out, are more suited to our home than we are.”

“They won’t kill us directly. They’ll grow in our cities, follow our footsteps, and squeeze us out. Our children will be forced to abandon civilization, forced to migrate to the outskirts, or become fertilizer.”

“The little we leave behind will one day run out. As productivity falls, there’ll be no ground left for advanced societies. Our civilization will devolve, back to feudalism, then slavery, then tribalism...”

“It will keep happening until we become beasts. Then, it will be replaced by something even more brutal.”

“Sure, our black boxes are still functioning... But what about in 1,000 years? 10,000 years? Once the decline begins, it’s nearly impossible to stop.”

“If we can’t solve this now, our descendants won’t even have microscopes, let alone labs to study this crap!”

“I’m not exaggerating. Civilization’s collapse started before nuclear winter even ended.”

“Just look at that community we’re monitoring... What is it now, the ‘Bloodhand’? Even if they survive this winter, they won’t be any smarter than monkeys.”

“Savagery is already in their brains. They’ll be the seeds of chaos, raiding and pillaging like ancient nomads. None of the suburban survivors will escape their grasp.”

“I don’t get why the professor let that guard send them help, he risked exposing our shelter just to give those morons a radio.”

“Whatever his reason, the guard killed himself. The plan failed. And I won’t bet everything on a failure.”

At last, the man offscreen spoke. “He is the administrator. You got a better idea?”

Seeing the hint of hesitation, G-13’s expression brightened. “Of course I do!”

“Slime Mold adapt fast, but we’ll out-adapt them. They won’t consume us, we’ll consume them!”

“How, exactly?”

“Synthesize a Mother Body.”

His voice was firm and unwavering. Somehow, eerily, echoed the same idea Yin Fang had just proposed.

“If we can reverse adult somatic cells into embryonic stem cells, then we can reverse a mutant back into a Mother Body!”

“We’ll recompile their genetics, make them take our shape, not the other way around.”

His pupils gleamed with manic ambition.

Word by word, G-13 spoke his final vow.

“They will replace the wild Slime Mold, and we, will control evolution.”