I Became an Evolving Space Monster
Chapter 440

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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Chapter 440

“Mr. Jacob, this is Blair. We’ve secured a total of 17 survivors.”

The captain’s quarters were stark bare of any decorations, grim and austere.

Special Rescue Team Commander Blair was reporting to his superior through the comm.

“Seven Third Capitals, ten Middle Capitals. They’re currently undergoing screening. Yes. Yes, we’ll begin interrogations as soon as it’s done. Understood. Glory to the House!”

He ended the call with a crisp salute and immediately contacted the ship’s quarantine team.

“How’s the screening going?”

｢Two completed so far. One currently in progress.｣

“What?”

｢The Third Capitals are resisting heavily. It’s slowing everything down.｣

“Tch. Use force if you have to. I don’t care if they’re injured.”

｢Sir? That could ｣

“I’ll take full responsibility. I want everyone screened by the end of the day.”

｢Y-Yes, sir!｣

After issuing a few more orders, Blair closed the comm line.

Though the captain’s room was silent, his thoughts were racing.

The current acting head of the Edgerton family had been dismantling several legacy projects under the guise of ‘corporate streamlining’, shutting down associated organizations left and right.

The Edgerton old guard those purged by this new regime had banded together in defiance. The group Blair belonged to, the Silver Lion Knights, formed the backbone of this resistance.

In the past, they had been deeply involved in Denver Edgerton’s secret Hulk Mutant Enhancement Project. The Knights had also been entrusted with managing the shadow funds Denver had funneled for the operation.

Without that hidden wealth and influence, the old guard would never have grown as powerful as it had.

But things were changing and not in their favor.

With Denver dead, time was on the side of the acting head. While the Knights still held enough sway to be a threat, it wouldn’t last. Once the shadow funds dried up, so would their power.

They needed a breakthrough. Fast.

Then came the Outspacer crisis.

The invasion had dealt serious blows to the Edgerton family, but for the Silver Lion Knights, it was an opportunity to flip the board.

Encounters with Outspacers were rare in Megacorp territory. Even Edgerton had little intel on them. That made developing effective countermeasures extremely difficult.

So the Knights’ leadership had hatched a plan: acquire information on the Outspacers faster than anyone else and use that advantage to seize control of the warship development projects.

Rescuing survivors was just one piece of that plan. No one knows the enemy better than the ones who’ve been beaten by them.

‘If this all goes well…’

Commander Jacob, head of the Knights, had promised a massive reward to whoever brought in the most valuable intel. A life-changing sum far beyond what Blair ever imagined earning.

‘That reward is mine. I’m not letting anyone else touch it.’

To grab that fortune, he needed to move even faster.

With a thin smile on his lips, Blair resumed his work.

***

“Yo, you done there?”

“Done? Hell no. Fuckin’ Third Capitals, man.”

“Third Capitals?”

The quarantine officer resting outside the med bay let out a deep sigh at his colleague’s question.

“Yeah. Worthless bastards, but their pride’s through the damn roof. Even with a gun in their face, they won’t cooperate.”

“Tough day, huh? Here, drink this.”

The other officer handed him an energy drink, which he gulped down in one go.

“Thinking of grabbing a drink later with the boys. You in?”

“Only if this job ends.”

“How much is left?”

“Third Capitals are done. Ten Middle Capitals to go.”

“Tch. Hit me up when you’re done.”

The officer nodded and stepped back into the examination room.

The medical bay looked more like a high-end surgical theater spotless, precise, and stocked with cutting-edge diagnostic equipment. The quarantine officer’s job was to use all of it to check the survivors' bodies for abnormalities.

The queen behind this Outspacer assault wasn’t just a brute force commander; she employed infiltrators. She’d implant parasites in humans and cultists to extract enemy intel.

The Silver Lion Knights had learned about this from a spy embedded in the Cult Empire. Acting swiftly, they converted the med bay aboard the rescue vessel into a dedicated examination ward specifically to scan for parasites. If anything was found, the goal was to extract and study it.

Of course, this rationale belonged to the Knights’ upper brass. To the survivors, it just looked like a sudden and suspiciously invasive new protocol.

｢Damn it! How long are you gonna keep us locked up?!｣

｢Let us out already!｣

｢Why the hell are we being treated like this?!｣

The survivors, stripped bare except for thin white gowns, were packed into isolation chambers inside the examination zone. After hours of confinement in cramped glass cells, they were visibly fraying at the edges.

“Next, Number 8. Step out.”

The quarantine officer's tone was dry, uninterested like someone ticking off names on a chore list.

｢Are you joking?! Do you even know who I am?!｣

｢What’s your capital rank, huh? I’ve got connections on Mars, you know that?!｣

“…Tch.”

The officer didn’t respond. Instead, he tapped his console.

A sudden burst of cold sterilization gas erupted from the floors of the isolation chambers.

The people inside screamed, hacked, or dropped to the floor, shivering as the gas enveloped them.

｢Aagh!｣

｢S-Stop! Please!｣

“If you want this to end quickly, shut your mouths and cooperate. Got it?”

｢Y-Yes! Okay, just stop, please…!｣

Having silenced the group by force, the officer continued the screenings.

Time dragged on. Soon, more of the crew were asleep than awake. Those already examined had been moved to temporary quarters. Now, only two remained.

“Next… Number 16, right?”

Finally nearing the end of this exhausting process, the officer was already thinking about drinks with his team.

｢Wait a moment!｣

Number 16 called out just as he was being summoned.

“Yeah, it’s your turn. Come on out.”

｢No, I mean I need to say something.｣

The officer assumed it was another stubborn outburst. He was about to bark back when he caught a good look at the man’s face and froze.

His skin wasn’t just pale, it was deathly white. His eyes were vacant, pupils unfocused. Sweat poured down his brow at a rate no human should produce.

“What’s wrong with your face…?”

｢It’s not me. It’s her. The woman who’s in there with me. She’s not right.｣

“What woman?”

The man nodded toward one of the other glass chambers. A woman Number 17 was crouched down, face obscured.

“She’s acting strange?”

｢Yeah. Ever since the gas hit earlier, she’s just stayed like that totally still.｣

Now that he mentioned it, the officer realized she had been frozen in that posture for a long time.

No ordinary civilian could sit like that, unmoving, for hours in a space that small.

“Anything else weird about her?”

｢I I saw something. Something like a worm… wriggling in her ear.｣

“A worm? Are you sure?”

｢Yes. The moment she noticed me looking, it slipped back inside. I swear I saw it.｣

Maybe Number 16 had imagined it. But there was no denying something was off about Number 17.

Cautiously, the officer stepped in front of her isolation chamber.

“Hey. Number 17. Get up.”

｢…….｣

There was no response.

The quarantine officer tapped at their console. A cold blast of sterilizing gas engulfed Survivor No. 17. The woman, who had been crouched on the floor, suddenly sprang to her feet.

The moment it saw her face, its doubts became certainty.

Despite being exposed to freezing gas, her expression remained utterly blank. It was the face of someone acting not by will but under strict orders: mechanical, automatic.

“Damn it! Don’t move!”

The isolation officer hastily drew their Gauss rifle. Aiming through the transparent wall, they attempted to contact their team.

｢Kyaaaaak!｣

But before they could, the woman shrieked and slammed her head against the wall. Blood and bits of flesh splattered across the barrier, yet she didn’t stop.

“This is quarantine tea gghrk?!”

The ship’s isolation chamber had been built for extreme containment. Unless opened from the outside, there was no way a human body could escape.

“Kyah!”

And yet, the door suddenly slid open. The woman, face drenched in blood, lunged and tackled the isolation officer.

“Grrk?!”

Overwhelmed by unnatural strength, the officer fell backward. The woman bared her blood stained teeth, aiming to sink them into his face.

“Gak?!”

Had the quarantine officer not smashed her in the head with the Gauss rifle, they’d have been dead in seconds.

While she staggered from the blow, the officer rolled away and scrambled to their feet.

Then, without hesitation, they fired.

“Choke on this!”

｢Kyaaaak!｣

Muzzle flash lit the room as a hail of tungsten rounds shredded her abdomen.

Charred meat and crumbling bone flew through the air. With half her torso blasted away, the woman collapsed in a twitching heap.

Panting, the officer slowly got back up.

“Is… is it dead?”

No sooner had they spoken than her head began to twitch. Her mouth stretched open far too wide and something black, shaped like a bloated corpse-catfish, wriggled out.

“…Disgusting.”

Its revolting form confirmed it was an Outspacer parasite.

Just as the officer was reaching for the containment frame, footsteps thundered in. The gunfire had drawn others into the lab.

“What the hell was that noise...what the ?!”

“Holy shit, what is that?!”

“Took you long enough.”

The officer quickly summarized what had happened.

“So that thing’s an Outspacer parasite?”

“It was controlling her head… they’re every bit as vile as they look.”

“Well then, stop standing there and help me.”

Together, the quarantine team secured the parasitic creature and disposed of the woman’s body.

Unlike when it had been inside a host, the monster barely moved. Even after being sealed in a containment tube, it remained still.

“Take this tube and the woman’s blood sample to the research team, would you?”

“What about you?”

The officer pointed toward the isolation chamber instead of answering. Inside, pressed flat against the wall and shaking uncontrollably, was Survivor No. 16.

“Need backup?”

“There’s only one left. I’ll manage.”

“All right, we’re heading out then.”

The team left, and soon only two remained in the lab.

｢I-Is it over?｣

“Yes. Only your screening remains now.”

｢Phew… I’m relieved it all went smoothly.｣

The man still looked pale, sweat dripping from his face. He was clearly deeply shaken.

“You’ll be transferred to temporary housing soon. Just hang in there a bit longer.”

｢Thank you.｣

Had it not been for this man, the situation might’ve turned out much worse. The quarantine officer softened their tone in gratitude.

“Please step inside and remain still.”

“What is this machine?”

“It scans the internal organs. Completely painless, no need to worry.”

Obeying the instructions, the man stepped into the machine roughly the size of a small room. The officer began operating it from outside.

“…Huh? Why isn’t it working?”

They followed standard procedure, but the device wouldn’t respond. Tapping the console yielded only short, high-pitched beeps.

‘Now that I think about it… the isolation chamber door also opened on its own earlier.’

“Excuse me? Is something wrong?”

Just as suspicion began to form from the consecutive malfunctions, a voice rang out from inside the machine.

“Ahem. No, everything’s fine. Please wait just a moment.”

“Uh, sparks are flying in here, is that normal?”

“What?”

Of course not. The machine had no such function. The officer stepped inside to check.

“Where exactly did you see the spark?”

“Over there.”

They examined the indicated spot. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

“There’s nothing wrong here. Are you sure?”

“I definitely saw it… odd.”

“Well, step out for now. We’ll run another test ”

The officer turned their head then froze.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your… eyes…”

“My what?”

Their gaze locked onto the man’s face.

Because his eyes weren’t where they should’ve been.

What should’ve been resting between brow and nose had slid grotesquely down to his jawline.

“Ah. Not again.”

The voice that echoed inside the chamber was calm. Almost indifferent.

But it hadn’t come from the man’s mouth.

“Guess it’s time to switch hosts anyway.”

And then

The man’s face split open.

Moments later,

The quarantine officer stepped out of the chamber alone.

Their skin was pale. Their eyes are dull.

And without a word, they exited the lab.

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[Translator – Seraph]

[Proofreader – Draxx]

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