Chapter 34

Chapter 4: Eyelid (7)

***

Thud, thud, thud.

‘A large one. It’s heavy enough to make the thick stone floor vibrate.’

Tap, tap! Tap!

‘A medium one. A light sound, moving as if it’s about to fly. An insect type. Just like the grasshopper earlier, it seems there are many insect-type entities in this attack.’

In fact, at this stage, it should mostly be 8th-grade entities that are just infected or 7th-grade entities that have taken on the form of insects or rodents. Since these are the easiest genes to obtain, the queen must have fully digested them a long time ago. But if they dug through the ground...

‘Paleface. 6th-grade. A special type. It seems the Mute in this world operates with a small, elite force.’

It’s a huge worm-like creature with a white mask-like face. The white mask is actually a well-developed upper jaw, and it uses its large mandibles to burrow through the ground. It occasionally appears by digging into the ground, but it’s not a significant threat.

Most of the time, it just digs through the ground and ends up buried alive when the tunnel collapses.

Despite being so useless, it consumes a lot of resources, so it rarely shows up until a high-intelligence command entity emerges among the Mutes.

‘If there were enough resources, i.e., prey for the queen, they would have just swarmed in. But due to the failed hunt by Edelorna, the queen is starving, and the production of troops has been disrupted. In this situation, even the resources to expand the artificial wombs in the nest are lacking, yet they are increasing the number of these special worm-like entities.’

This confirmed it. The queen is now using her troops very sparingly. Even if the tunnels could collapse at any moment, a small number of troops wouldn’t easily cause a collapse when they pass through. They must have used this method to infiltrate the city and retreat if necessary.

‘This isn’t the kind of thinking a queen in the middle of growth would have... Could the sense of crisis have accelerated the development of intelligence?’

It was still unknown.

Thud! Thud! Thud!!

The footsteps of the large one were getting closer.

Squeak—Bang!

‘The sound of the steel door falling. It’s my room.’

Inside the bathtub, the professor fervently wished. Please go away... Please just go away...

“Sniff, sniff, growl, growl, woof.”

The creature, which had been sniffing at the fallen door, entered the room.

Thud! Thud!

“Growl.”

Creak!

The lid of the bathtub opened. The professor lay still in the bathtub, not even blinking, like a corpse.

“Sniff, sniff, sniff—growl? Grrr. Woof.”

Rustle.

Thud! Thud. Thud....

The creature, which had been sniffing the bathtub for a moment, tilted its head and started to move away.

‘Of course. It had a similar effect on living things too!’

The bathtub filled with Mute blood. When immersed in Mute blood, the infection factors in my body would calm down.

‘Since Mutes are a mix of all kinds of creatures, their scents and everything else are varied. The only way for them to distinguish allies must be through the common infection factors they all carry!’

That’s why he jumped into the bathtub without hesitation. If he tried to sneak away, he would be caught by a creature specialized in exploration.

‘I’ll stay here until I can’t hear anything.’

It was a bit uncomfortable in the opaque liquid, but thanks to his affinity with water mana, he had no trouble holding his breath. He would wait and see what happens, and when it gets quiet—

[You’ve always liked hiding since you were a child.]

‘!!!’

A sweet fragrance, as if being injected directly into the brain. A young boy’s voice, mocking and taunting. It’s him.

[You were a problematic child. You didn’t get along well with other kids, and of course, like any boy your age, you were crazy about secret bases, but you took it to the extreme.]

The voice became clearer. Now, he didn’t stutter or say incomprehensible things. It felt like talking to someone else in his head.

The professor had thought a lot about this situation after his first encounter with the creature. A special situation where his body, except for his head, had been infected for a long time, and the infection factor from Edelorna that allowed individual action. At first, it appeared as a nightmare, then as an unconscious presence, constantly digging up his traumas.

‘This conversation itself is part of the mental pollution process.’

He couldn’t understand how this was happening or why it was included in the game, but one thing was certain. The trap in GG that led many players to death in reality was of the same kind. He had to fight back. The creature was weakening his consciousness and looking for a way to penetrate. He just needed to stay firm.

‘Be composed. Act like it’s nothing. Verbal sparring is my specialty.’

[Oh, how scary. But there’s something you’re misunderstanding. I’m not really your enemy, you know?]

‘If that was a joke, it’s a three-digit score. Of course, out of 100. It seems the part of my brain related to jokes is still intact?’

Chuckle, chuckle.

It’s an unpleasant laugh, no matter how many times he hears it. He couldn’t see, but he naturally knew the creature was enjoying itself.

[No, I’m serious. I’m currently enjoying the freedom of being an independent entity for the first time. While I was under the control of Mother, it felt like being under the influence of a truth serum, spilling out my dark past. Mother was really... Ah, sorry. I wasn’t being sensitive. You don’t have a mother, do you?]

...This kid?

‘...Is it because you’re so new that you have no sense of manners? I can’t find any in you, even if I wash my eyes clean.’

[Hmm... Manners are constraints created to maintain relationships with others, right? But you and I aren’t others, are we? Professor. Relax. Like you’re at home in your underwear.]

Damn. A foe who knows everything about him. No matter how he spoke, he could feel himself being drawn into the creature’s atmosphere.

‘Alright, let’s say you’re not my enemy. Then what about the attacks over the past few days? The infection factors below my head are under your control. If you wanted, you could have calmed them down and prevented me from being sliced up like a butcher’s treasure. When I was put to sleep by Isaac’s sleep spell, those strange nightmares were you, right? What’s the point of all this? You’re not my enemy? Do you expect me to believe that?’

[Ah, that?]

Hee hee hee... Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle—

Behind his closed eyelids, he could see the narrow, red eyes forming a thin curve. The white teeth. It’s the creature. The creature, unable to contain itself, laughed and said,

[Of course, there are reasons to explain it. Look, see?]

Twitch!

‘This is...’

Against his will, his fingers moved. It was as if they were caught on something, moving slowly and with difficulty. His index and middle fingers bent.

[Infection factors are basically like single-celled organisms. Even though I’m a consciousness born from Mother, transferred by Edelorna, and grown in the professor’s head, I can’t directly control the infection factors that have Mother’s commands firmly embedded in them. All I can do is nudge them in the direction they were already moving and, for example, move these two fingers in your head?]

Rustle, rustle~

The professor, watching his right fingers twitching as if greeting someone in the opaque liquid, felt a wave of nausea. When he tried to exert force, the fingers moved according to his will as if nothing had happened.

[Hmm, ah, I can’t hold it in. I wanted to prolong it, but secrets are so interesting.]

‘What is?’

Chuckle, chuckle.

The red-eyed illusion, the creature’s breath, was so close he could almost feel it. Somewhere along the way, black smoke had grown into arms and legs.

[Actually, it’s all just an excuse. I did it because it was fun.]

‘...What?’

[The solid, or rather, self-perceived solid consciousness, crumbling like a sandcastle swept away by a wave with just a word or a memory. The feeling of dominating someone, knowing everything about them, and being able to shake them in my hands! It was so much fun! Your curled-up consciousness like a baby! The effort to gather the broken emotions and rebuild them as strong as before! How pitiful, how pitiful!]

Ecstasy. Pure ecstasy filled his mind. He could feel what the creature was feeling, the pure joy of his own collapse.

Evil. The creature was truly a purely evil being.

Snap—

Suddenly, the raging emotions were cut off as if by a knife.

[That’s why. That’s why I’m here today.]

Bubbling—

Suddenly, his body became unbearably itchy. It felt like the pain when the infection factors first began to infiltrate his body.

[I’ve been encouraging the ones below as much as I can. You’ll be fine while you’re in