Chapter 286
Episode 286 – Fable (3)
–
Megacorp, a human group that thrives around the solar system, is ruled by seven families.
Five Noble Capital families based on Earth.
Two Prime Capital families based on the Mars colony.
Once a huge corporate association, they still exist today as a family.
And now the interests of the seven families are focused on star systems other than the solar system.
A-11 star system.
It is one of the star systems that Megacorp controls after the solar system, and there is a very important facility there.
That is the headquarters of the Megacorp Dispute Resolution Team.
The Dispute Resolution Team, located on a terraformed planet, is a direct agency of the CEO and exists to mediate disputes that arise between families within the megacorp.
The role of ‘law’ in Megacorp is to efficiently protect the interests of the seven families. Therefore, the laws of Megacorp are all decided through secret meetings between the heads and leaders of the seven major families.
Of course, no matter how much time is spent on creating a ‘law’, it is not guaranteed to be perfect. There are times when contradictions arise in the law itself, and interpretations may differ depending on each person’s position. The dispute resolution team exists to prepare for such times.
A large auditorium that can accommodate thousands of people.
The head of the dispute arbitration team was standing in the center of the place.
“This concludes the 17th meeting on the preparation of the ‘T&C/Temporary Ceasefire Mediation Plan for the Edgerton Armed Conflict.’”
His voice echoed throughout the auditorium through the microphone.
It was usually an empty auditorium, but not like today. Lawyers dispatched from the seven major families and reporters from major media companies were sitting in the seats.
The reason they gathered was just as the head of the dispute arbitration team said.
They gathered to resolve the armed conflict that arose between Noble Capital TNC and Prime Capital Edgerton following the fall of the T&C Special Trade Center.
Once an application for mediation has been submitted to the dispute mediation team, the families involved must reach an agreement unconditionally. This is because families that reject the agreement will be deprived of their status as top capitals.
Of course, losing the position of capital is much more damaging than losing a dispute, so no family has ever refused to agree to such a thing.
However, the disadvantages resulting from the agreement are also significant. So much so that the family’s power was greatly shaken.
Therefore, the lawyers of the families participating in the mediation meeting must win at all costs. He is a nobleman who bribes enemy lawyers to gain the slightest benefit to his family, and is willing to threaten, kidnap, and torture others if necessary. That can be called megacorp-style arbitration.
“We will receive your appeal again in 24 hours.”
As soon as the head of the dispute arbitration team finished speaking, the people sitting in the auditorium began to flow out.
Akira Yujin, who was watching this from a secret room located at the back of the auditorium, turned off the monitor. An old butler was waiting behind him.
The long-running civil war has finally come to an end.
At the beginning of the conflict, the T&C family lost an entire space city and even lost one of the family’s successors in the process. Because the losses were truly astronomical, many people predicted that the civil war would end with Edgerton’s dominance.
In addition, the Edgerton family has recently succeeded in mass producing a new type of warship. Naturally, the initial situation went in Edgerton’s favor.
If Egerton had not lost the head of the family, the civil war would have ended long ago with T&C’s defeat.
“This situation turned out to be a blessing in disguise for T&C.”
“I think the loss of the matriarch on the Edgerton side was fatal.”
“It is true. Edgerton is still in a less stable situation.”
Denver Edgerton, nicknamed the Black Lion of Mars. He disappeared when the T&C Special Trade Center collapsed. Egerton’s vassal elders were so preoccupied with their own interests that they could not pay attention to the war with T&C.
As the civil war prolonged, the scales shifted towards T&C.
A problem occurred in the production process of the command center. These two factors led Egerton to defeat.
Although the adjustment plan has not yet been completed, the trend cannot be reversed. Based on that adjustment plan, TNC will extort all kinds of rights from Egerton.
“Thanks to this, the Eugene family’s influence has extended to Egerton as well, but it won’t bring much benefit.”
“….”
The butler knew well that Akira had supported Egerton during the civil war. He sensed his owner’s discomfort and quickly lowered his head.
His owners supported Edgerton not because they liked him. This was to keep T&C’s power in check as it grew to the point where it threatened Eugene.
Akira secretly sent a shadow to TNC’s side to sabotage it, while secretly supporting Edgerton’s Hulk Mutant. Thanks to his help, it ended at this level; otherwise, Egerton would have suffered much greater losses.
Thanks to this, the number of supporters for Akira within Egerton increased significantly, but Akira was not satisfied.
The butler thought that the owner’s anger was due to the failure to achieve the goal of weakening T&C, but this was only half correct.
That was one of the reasons, but there was another factor that made Akira uncomfortable.
That was the starting point of the civil war.
After investigating the cause of the collapse of T&C’s space city, Akira Eugene was able to determine who initiated this civil war.
‘Aimorph!’
That damn morphbag polluted the city the way he did in the game. He had lost a space fortress because of that guy, so he knew better than anyone else.
And what makes him even more angry is that he and the guy were in the same city together for a short time. When he visited the space city, he was operating in secret somewhere in the city.
At the time, I thought it was the betrayal shadow Sihyeon Eugene’s doing, but I was very mistaken.
If he had noticed even a little earlier, a civil war would not have occurred.
I felt like I was going crazy when I thought about this guy wandering around the universe laughing at me.
In fact, when he stole my pet Gallagon’s ring and mocked it with a tombstone, I felt my blood rushing to my stomach.
‘Aimov Panho! How dare these bastards…!’
Sihyeon Eugene, Beomho’s puppet. Mop Park has already been fucked twice. Those who tormented him in real life are also tormenting him in other worlds.
Moreover, recently, there have been disturbing movements even among those who share the same views as him.
Zubaka hasn’t contacted her in over half a year, and Chloe has been holed up in her research base on Mercury and hasn’t come out.
It all happened after Jason’s death.
‘The civil war is over anyway. Is it time to sort things out?’
As Akira was thinking about what to do next, someone knocked on the door outside.
When the butler opened the door, a woman dressed in black entered and bowed her head politely to Akira.
“Akira. Walter, the head of the St. Kay family, has arrived.”
“Ah, it’s been a long time since I received good news.”
Akira smiled upon hearing the news that the person he had been waiting for had arrived.
–
‘It’s been a while since I felt this way.’
This is the second time that an adult has been made here outside of a game.
Previously, I had taken psionium to block the imperial carrier’s cosmic bolts. At that time, I was able to truly feel the majesty of the Eucharist, even if it was only for a short time. Even if ‘King of Monsters’ was also used, it destroyed the imperial carrier and carrier battle group.
My condition now is very different from then.
To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this in a game before. This is because the unique characteristics created by the transcendental system are affecting my body.
‘Transcendence’ is a system that does not exist in the game. Of course, the unique characteristics created through this did not exist.
As it has grown with new characteristics, its appearance has changed significantly from its basic adult appearance.
If I had to choose the biggest change, there would be three. It would be body size, shape and head.
First, looking at the body length, the length from the head to the tip of the tail has increased to about 60m. It can be said that it has more than doubled compared to before entering the cocoon.
Is that all there is to it? The body shape also changed. If the form when it just entered the sub-adult form is similar to that of a snake just before becoming an adult, it has now returned to a body form suitable for bipedal walking like it did in the past when it was a sub-adult.
The fighting arms, located at the waist before the tail, lowered and transformed into legs. In line with the change in role, the joints also took the form of slow-moving legs.
The two single-winged arms and the two fighting arms were still large and long, so it was closer to bipedal walking with its front feet on the ground like gorillas and other apes.
The height of my body standing on two legs is approximately 40m. The height alone when erect exceeds the body length of the White Gallagon. Of course, this may be due to the length of the neck, but even if you exclude that, it is by no means small.
‘It wasn’t this big in the game.’
Approximately 20 m must be subtracted from this to reach the original size of the adult. Not only did the size increase, but the strength and defense also seemed to increase accordingly.
“Big baby!”
Number 26, who had been waiting next to me until I woke up from the cocoon, called everyone as soon as the cocoon broke. The kids who had gathered at the crater after being on the pirate ship were amazed at my transformed body.
“Wow, look at the size.”
Sky’s mother reacted with fascination at the sight of me being much bigger than in the game. She probably knows what the Eucharist looks like in the game, so she probably feels the same way I do.
「Horn!」「A lot」「Big」「Perfect!」
Aadhai seemed to really like my change. It spun around above my head with its wings spread and continued to pour out exclamations.
As the animal reacted violently, the most impressive part that changed as it became an adult was its head.
When an amorph becomes an adult, the number of heads increases to three. Two newly grown heads can be seen at the ends of the long neck extending on either side of the head in the center.
It’s the ‘three heads’ effect, a characteristic I received as a Eucharistic bonus.
The heads that sensed my consciousness turned towards me.
The overall shape of the two heads on either side was similar to the central head. Two elongated tusks, a long snout like a snake, auxiliary organs under the chin, horns on the head, etc.
Instead, both heads had no eyes. Horns were taking up the place where the eyes should have been. Originally, he wasn’t supposed to have horns, but maybe it’s because of the unique trait he acquired just before he grew up. Each of the two heads had four horns.
“Grrr”
“Grrr”
Just because two heads were added, there was no way my intelligence would increase or that I could hear two voices inside my head.
Looking at the senses connected to the two heads, it seemed that although they both had brains, they were treated as parts similar to my arms or legs. If I had to compare it, would I say it is a biological robot that has self-consciousness but obeys the commands of the main body?
‘There were several times when I was frustrated with this head in the game.’
There were several instances where surprise attacks failed because the AI moved as it pleased if the command was not given properly. Of course, this does not mean that the three heads are a land mine characteristic.
It has three heads and does not die even if its main body, i.e. the central head, is destroyed. This is because one of the two remaining heads takes over consciousness and controls the body.
‘I don’t know if that’s the case here too.’
And although the two heads do not have eyes, they do have auxiliary organs. Having three heads with auxiliary organs under my chin has heightened my senses like never before.
‘…I think this will take some getting used to.’
It was more annoying than I thought because it felt like I could sense what was happening several kilometers away right under my nose. I didn’t expect this to happen because the game ended with the observable mini-map expanding.
I did my best to block the information coming from both heads.
「Grr?」
「Grrr」
「Itchy!」
As my consciousness slipped away, the two heads began to move independently. The heads bent their necks, got closer to No. 26, and licked him with their tongues. The guy seemed to be in a good mood, emitting a twinkling light in the middle of the desolate planet.
「Me too」「Me too」
「Grrr」
「Feeling」「Strange」「Interesting」
“I’m also very curious about what that feeling feels like. Please ask me too.”
「Grrr?」
“Thank you. It was very helpful.”
「Oh, I don’t have to do it.」
「Grr.」
‘It looks like a retriever.’
I don’t know if it was just instinct left or if my emotions were distorted, but the two heads showed an attitude that was familiar to kids. It was an absolutely unbelievable sight for anyone who knew Eimov.
‘A normal person would faint if they saw me in the first place.’
Except for Heavenly Mother, the rest of the children seemed quite happy playing with the two heads.
‘Originally, I wanted to talk about the vision I saw in the cocoon, but…’
If you think about it, even Mother of Heaven could not reach this stage. Because none of the visions she saw competed with her own.
I was going to check with Jason, who was a human being, but after seeing them having fun, I had to put that aside.
Instead, I checked the rest of the changes.
The six horned wings attached to the central head grew larger as the body grew, and the outer skin of the body became thick like the outer wall of a space fortress. The muscles of the fighting arms and legs that support the body have become thick enough to be considered biological armor.
‘Ah, should I consider this a change as well?’
The biocannon on my back moved to my tail due to its newly acquired unique characteristic.
Thanks to that, I now have two tails. The two tails that split from the pelvic area, which appeared as the body changed, were each tens of meters long.
The shape of the tail was also different. One tail had claws and the other tail had a biocannon. Among these, the part with the biological cannon was a change that occurred because it reflected one of the two unique characteristics I acquired just before evolution.
‘The body check ends here.’
It’s time to check the two unique characteristics obtained before evolution and the space monster type level 2 perk.
‘First, the perks.’
What was given in the second stage? With such anticipation in mind, I opened the semi-transparent text box.
‘This?’
I was surprised when I checked the contents of the text box that popped up.
「Tier 2 Reward
Monolith of the Double Helix: You can transfer any of your traits (except your unique trait) to a friendly creature. The implanted traits are permanent, and each creature can only have two implantable traits. The implantable traits are affected by the level increase of the Space Monster type.
*PS: Whether you want to be a guide or a destroyer is up to you.”