I Became an Evolving Space Monster
Chapter 430

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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Chapter 430

In a building within a small city near the harbor, a half-destroyed Walker lay collapsed before me.

As I expected, it hadn’t gotten far. Trying to cool its overheated engine in hiding, it walked right into my grasp.

‘Running won’t save you. Not from me.’

I extended the small arms from my chest toward the cockpit to pull the 25th Ranker out.

That’s when it happened.

The Ranker burst out like a bullet, slicing off one of my fingers with a sharp weapon and landing on the floor.

“I’m not dying here, you freak!”

He growled with a deep, grating voice—and his body had long ceased to resemble an ordinary human.

His muscles were grotesquely swollen, and instead of a right hand, a bone blade, shaped like a katana, jutted out from his forearm.

‘Genetic modification surgery?’

Still, he hadn’t turned into something inhuman like Akira Yujin had. Judging by appearance alone, this was standard gene-mod—not the gift of a world-crosser.

‘A final stand instead of running? Brave… but pointless.’

Not enough power to win.

I raised both of my wing-arms and brought them down hard.

The floor shattered, shards of concrete flying everywhere. Through the dust, I could see him moving—darting between debris, using the fragments as footholds to close the distance.

Predictable.

I calculated his trajectory with my auxiliary organs and thrust a wing-arm in his path.

But he vaulted onto the wing instead, dashing over the semi-folded membrane with deft agility.

The left head lunged at him with snapping jaws—but the Ranker twisted mid-run, narrowly evading the bite.

And then he leapt—straight toward the central head.

‘He’s going for the auxiliary organs?’

Beneath the jaw were thin tentacless—my only truly vulnerable spot.

To protect them, I quickly retracted them into the inner shell of my jaw before he could reach them.

But the blade wasn’t aimed there.

The moment he landed on my snout, he stabbed directly into my eye.

I don’t rely on sight. My perception is a fusion of vision, hearing, and scent. Even during certain hunts, my visual organs vanish completely.

But regardless of biology, my mind is still human. And having a sharp blade rammed into my eye is, at the very least, infuriating.

[ZZ (Stop it.)]

“Gah?!”

Annoyed, I swatted him hard with a wing-arm. The impact shattered the bone blade still lodged in my eye, and the Ranker went flying, crashing into the floor.

‘What a pest.’

I reached with my chest-arm and plucked the broken blade fragment from the eye’s surface.

“…Huh?”

There was a strange smell on the blade—not just my blood. Something mixed in.

‘This smell… it’s familiar somehow…?’

“Heh… hehehe… khak!”

Suddenly, I heard laughter. The 25th Ranker, bloody and battered, was grinning at me.

“That’s it! You’re done for now!”

“What are you babbling about?”

“That blade was coated with microbes harvested from the Gorgon Swarm! You know what that means, don’t you?!”

The Gorgon Swarm.

Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.

“Right. Microbes that mutate genes and turn living tissue into silicon crystal.”

“Exactly! And now that those microbes are in your brain-adjacent area, you're as good as dead!”

…He wasn’t wrong.

The reason the silicon-based Gorgon Swarm is ranked so high among Apex organisms is precisely because of that ability. It mutates lifeforms from the genetic level up, and ordinary regenerative traits can’t reverse it.

Having something like that near my brain would indeed be dangerous.

No wonder he was so confident.

“Your eye’s already starting to crystallize, aren't they?! That’s the end for—”

His triumphant roar trailed off.

Confusion replaced the pride on his filthy, blood-covered face.

Because, sadly for him, there was one thing he didn’t know.

Gorgon Swarm microbes don’t work on me.

‘I consumed it ages ago and turned it into a trait.’

That’s how I obtained the Medusa Organ. The Gorgon Swarm’s microbes had long since been integrated into me. My wounded eye quickly regenerated.

“Damn it!”

Seeing that, the Ranker bolted out of the building in a panic.

“You think you’re going somewhere?”

I lashed out corrosive tentacles, like a coiled serpent snatching prey.

“Agh!”

He screamed, collapsing as the tentacles slammed into his leg. I strolled over and casually ripped off both his broken legs.

“GYAAAAH!”

Gene mods had made his body tougher. Losing a few limbs wasn’t enough to kill him.

And if he looked close to dying, I could just seed him with a symbiotic spore and keep him alive.

“I’ll… I’ll kill you! I’ll rip you to f—GACK!”

His howling was getting obnoxious. I stuffed one of his severed legs into my mouth, then tore off his left arm for good measure.

That shut him up.

‘Let’s start with the parasite.’

From a small port on my combat arm, a parasite poked its head out at my command.

It resembled a black eel, slithering down my hand toward its new host.

‘Once he's infected, I’ll gather the others…’

I planned to return to the ship in orbit.

That was when everything suddenly lit up.

Not just where I stood—the entire area blazed with light.

“…Wait. No. Don’t tell me—”

I looked up in alarm.

Just moments ago, thick black clouds had covered the sky.

Now, they were completely gone—replaced by a smooth blue canopy, like silk stretched across the heavens.

And above it, a single tiny star hovered.

I knew exactly what that was.

A creature rivaling the Red Gallagon and Vortex One. A top-tier Apex being.

A celestial whale drifting through the galaxy—

Arcane Orca.

“…Arcane Orca?!”

“It’s here! It came!”

The 25th Ranker, lying like a toppled doll, shouted with ecstasy—

as if he’d been waiting for this moment all along.

“You summoned it?”

“Heh… yeah. I did. You Amorph freak bastard.”

So the 25th Ranker had brought the Arcane Orca here.

“Using his world-crossing perk… Damn it!”

Then, the star flickered—once.

The moment I saw it, I threw the Ranker into my mouth.

A few seconds later, a sphere of light plummeted toward me.

｢Pain Suppression Activated!｣

“GRAAAAAAGH!! IT BURNS!!”

A flood of energy scorched my flesh. Dozens of small tentacless shriveled up, and the shell and scales beneath them turned searing red.

Inside my mouth, the Ranker screamed in agony.

The heat didn’t just burn me.

Nearby buildings melted like ice cream on hot pavement.

Even the nest on the ground warped and sagged under the thermal onslaught.

The flames—enough to consume everything—soon dissipated.

I rose from the smoke-choked rubble.

My body had been charred all over, but there were no fatal injuries.

The blistered carapace and melted tentacles were already regenerating at a visible rate.

Once I confirmed my condition, I spat the Ranker out.

“Damn it…”

Thanks to my protection, it had survived as well. The regenerative boost from its genetic modifications was keeping it barely alive.

‘Something’s not right.’

By all accounts, the 25th Ranker was the one who lured the Arcane Orca here.

But judging by how things were unfolding, it didn’t look like it had any control over the creature.

Had I not intervened, it would’ve been reduced to ashes.

‘And why would Arcane Orca strike first?’

Skywhale-type lifeforms were not usually aggressive—

at least not unless they were hunting, or defending their territory.

Initiating an attack without provocation? That was extremely rare.

‘Time to get some answers.’

Without hesitation, I injected the parasite.

The immobilized Ranker couldn’t resist. The writhing organism burrowed in without incident.

“Explain your perk. Now.”

“M-My perk… is to, uh… disguise myself as… a nemesis… to certain lifeforms. Ghh… that enrages them… ugh… and that thing came here… thinking… its enemy was present…”

“Rage-induced? So you can’t control it?”

“Th-That’s… right…”

“You summoned Arcane Orca here knowing you can’t beat it?”

“The original plan… was to transfer the decoy substance inside me… to y-you… to Amorph… so it would chase you instead of me…”

It added up. His perk essentially made him a walking lure, baiting specific lifeforms into attacking by simulating the presence of their natural enemy.

He’d inject himself with a substance they couldn’t tolerate, and when the enraged creature arrived, it would immediately go on the offensive.

‘So that’s why it attacked me.’

I’d eaten part of the Ranker earlier—his leg—so now I carried the decoy signature as well.

That was likely what triggered Arcane Orca’s initial preemptive strike.

‘…Well, since it’s come to this, may as well finish it here.’

As long as the 25th Ranker’s perk was active, it would keep targeting me.

Which meant it would follow me, wherever I went.

That made it much easier to lead it to a battleground of my choosing—no retreat, no delays.

‘Perfect.’

I tossed the Ranker into the left head’s mouth.

He was still useful. If I left him behind, he’d be vaporized by Arcane Orca anyway.

Best to keep him where I could protect—and use—him.

Then I dug my legs in and leapt.

My wings unfurled mid-air, catching the currents, and I soared skyward.

That’s when another light sphere slammed into me. The flesh I’d just regenerated went up in flames again.

In the game, Arcane Orca’s attacks couldn’t be dodged. They behaved like ultra-fast homing missiles—always hitting their target.

It was the same now. Even with Amorph’s hypersenses, I could feel it—no way to evade.

‘Then I’ll just have to tank it.’

I possessed plenty of traits to shield and regenerate my body.

An attack like this wasn’t enough to kill or stop me.

“AAAAAARGH!!”

‘Noisy.’

“G-GHHH—MMFF!”

I silenced the unruly passenger.

Burning, blistering, still accelerating—I soared.

By the time the blue had drained from the sky, I could see it:

The creature awaited me at the border between blue and black—

Bathed in a radiance like that of the sun itself.

Arcane Orca.

It was waiting for me.

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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