Chapter 1865 – 1865. Eternal Eden
The moment the door opened, what was revealed was a gruesome, blood-soaked scene. I frowned at the stench of blood. The smell itself was familiar. But just because it was familiar didn’t mean it was a pleasant smell.
There was a headless animal carcass. I knew it was the corpse of a gibbon. Even without its head, it had the long arms, the defining feature of its kind, on its furry body.
‘The monster… is over there.’
At the far end of the room, the monster lay. I chuckled at the sight of it. I wondered what was so dangerous about it that it had to be locked away in this underground place, but it looked exactly like a caterpillar. Of course, it was a bit large. It was 3 meters tall and probably weighed at least a ton. Its body was pure white, and a human face was attached to its head.
‘Well, it sure looks like shit.’
Caterpillars are disgusting enough, but this one was thousands, tens of thousands of times bigger. And the human head was that of a pale, gaunt middle-aged man. Naturally, it wasn’t a pleasant sight.
‘It’s too big.’
It was too massive. You might think it doesn’t matter since the room is big, but the important thing is that the monster can’t be taken out of the door. Its size was bigger than the door.
‘It’s impossible to take it outside.’
I tightened my grip on the hilt of my sword.
I could just leave this place. But seeing it had put me in a bad mood. My plans had gone awry. I was going to vent my frustration.
‘A caterpillar. A huge lump of flesh. A single slash should be enough for this.’
Still, I didn’t want to get too close. If the caterpillar’s blood splattered on me, it would make me feel even more disgusted.
Crackling!
Electricity flowed along the blade. I raised my sword, glared at the monster, and swung. With a surge of energy, a lightning-infused sword strike flew towards the monster.
Thunder Heaven Style (雷天流) Thunder Flash (雷閃).
The sword strike sliced through the caterpillar’s head, penetrated its body, and then vanished.
‘…Vanished?’
Even though my current state was a far cry from my real abilities, a sword strike was still a sword strike. It should have been more than enough to cut through a lump of flesh.
‘Is it really a monster? Still, I cut more than a third of its body, including its head. It’s a fatal wound that should kill it.’
The moment I relaxed my grip on the hilt, the blood gushing from the monster’s body suddenly stopped. The split areas, including the head, rapidly merged and returned to their original form.
-Haha! You think you can kill Brain Devourer with just that?!
A mocking voice came from the speaker. But I didn’t have time to pay attention to it. I stared at the monster, tense.
“Mmm, ughhh.”
The monster caterpillar, having fully recovered, wriggled. From the monster’s smooth flesh, tentacles sprouted profusely. There seemed to be at least hundreds of them, each about 3cm thick and 15cm long. They looked disgusting, but not threatening. At least, not on the surface.
“He, headddd…”
The monster’s head opened its mouth and uttered a voice. That was fake. It wasn’t the real head. When the sword strike split the head in half, there was no brain in the head area.
“Hungryyyyy!”
The monster moved. Those tentacles all over its body were legs to move its massive frame. The tentacles moved like fins, and it approached me at a rapid speed. It was a little faster than an adult running.
I gripped my sword and turned back, exiting through the door.
‘There’s no need to fight like an idiot.’
Its strength and weakness lay in its size.
Bang!
The mad bull-like charge was blocked by the iron door.
This place was for researching and experimenting on the monster. To do that, they needed a cage to keep it in. The fat monster couldn’t escape this cage.
“Headddddd!”
The monster’s head, blocked by the door, opened its mouth. It was clear that it had low intelligence.
‘What’s so scary about this monster? Na Chaeyoung was exaggerating too much.’
The monster roared. It seemed to be trying to break through the iron door, but the lump of flesh couldn’t get past it. The iron door didn’t even budge. The monster stretched its tentacles towards me. They were only 15cm long. Too short to reach me.
And I was holding a sword that was over 1 meter long. I had an overwhelming advantage in distance.
“Heh heh heh.”
I was the only one who could attack unilaterally. I liked this very much.
I swung my sword.
Each swing splattered the monster’s blood. I cut off tentacles, sliced through flesh, and severed blood vessels.
The monster didn’t die. It regenerated. I didn’t care and kept cutting.
“Heh heh!”
“Ah, ahhhhh…!”
The monster groaned in pain.
-Stop! Stop! You shouldn’t stimulate it like that!!
The voice from the speaker sounded like a desperate cry. It couldn’t hide the impatience and anxiety in its tone. It hated this. And if it hated it, then I was doing a very good job.
-You moron! I told you not to excite Brain Devourer!! Damn it!
I ignored it and swung my sword.
I hacked away. The monster was covered in blood. Of course, it was regenerating annoyingly, but the speed was slowing down. It wasn’t regenerating infinitely. The monster wasn’t a complete immortal.
-Stop it!!!
Ignoring the research director’s desperate cry, I plunged my sword deep into the monster’s body. I slashed down, cutting it open.
“……”
I stepped back.
The feel of the cut had changed. It wasn’t as easy to cut as before.
I checked the blade. It was a little damaged, but it was still fine. I swung my sword at the monster again.
It was harder than before. It was getting harder even now.
The monster backed away slightly and then rammed into the iron door again.
“Headddddd!!”
Bang!
The iron door, which had been fine until now, shook.
Bang! Bang! Baaang!
The impact was getting stronger. I frowned and created some distance. I was ready to run up the stairs if necessary.
‘Damn it. I thought it was a pushover, but it wasn’t.’
I touched my pocket. I could feel the combat AI core, the data chip, and dozens of small pills. Bister I. I had brought everything from my place. Just in case.
‘There’s no need to finish it off.’
Kwaaaang!
The iron door collapsed.
“Headddddd!!”
The monster charged at me. I ran up the stairs. I went past the 4th basement level and up to the 3rd. The monster chased after me. It seemed faster than before.
‘If I were a normal human, I would have been caught.’
As I was about to go past the 3rd floor and up to the 2nd, I had to stop. The space to go up was blocked. A wall had appeared, blocking it completely.
Screeeech.
The wall opened, and a round tube popped out. The hole was too big to be called a gun barrel.
-Start releasing the anesthetic gas!!
White gas billowed out of the tube. I immediately stopped breathing and covered my mouth with one hand.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The monster was coming after me from behind. The stairs were blocked. I had no choice but to go into the 3rd floor.
‘There isn’t just one entrance.’
They wouldn’t have moved the supercomputer or machines through the stairs. There was another entrance. An entrance that Na Chaeyoung and I didn’t know about. I had to find that path.
‘If all else fails, I’ll have to destroy the wall by the stairs.’
As I entered the 3rd floor, the stench of beasts stung my nose. I quickly scanned the surroundings and saw gibbons. They were locked in cages, but they were all passed out.
Holes popped out from the walls. They weren’t gas pipes, but gun barrels. The gun barrels were aimed at me and fired bullets. My senses were already heightened, so as soon as I saw the gun barrels, I moved to dodge. Bullets traveled in a straight line, so I dodged by watching the gun barrels.
-Damn it! The anesthetic gas isn’t working! What’s going on?!
-It worked! Brain Devourer’s movements have slowed down! It seems it didn’t fully work because it was in an excited state!
-And its movements are getting faster. It’s developing a tolerance!
-Interesting.
-Is this the time to be interested?! What about the backup? What happened to the backup?
-Backup is on its way! It will arrive in about 100 seconds! Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaaah! Th, that’s mine! Ah, aaaaaah! Headddddd!
-Damn it! It’s Brain Devourer’s mental wave! Activate the mental wave neutralizer! I never thought the mental wave would reach this far…
-Output increased!
-Wait! Why isn’t that intruder affected by the mental wave?
-How am I supposed to know?!
Through the speaker, I could clearly feel the chaotic atmosphere of the control room. They were also panicking.
As I was running down the 3rd-floor hallway, I felt the monster’s presence stop, and I stopped running. I turned around and saw the monster opening its mouth wide and chewing on a monkey’s head.
“Head! Head! Headddd!”
It was rejoicing as it ate the monkey’s head.
-It’s eating the monkeys’ brains!
-We have to stop it! What is the security system doing?!
-Bullets aren’t working at all!
“Oook…?”
The gibbons, who had passed out from the anesthetic gas, opened their eyes. The monkeys’ eyes were vacant. It was as if they were looking at something else.
-Why are the monkeys waking up? They should be passed out for at least half a day, right?
-It’s Brain Devourer’s mental wave! It’s certain that the mental wave stimulated the monkeys’ brains and woke them up!
-Stimulating the brain doesn’t make the anesthetic disappear!
-The brain is an unknown territory that we don’t understand! We can’t know what kind of effect the monkeys’ brains had from the mental wave right now! We need to research it!
-Research can wait… The monkeys are breaking out of their cages! Release the anesthetic gas!
-We’re already releasing it, and it probably won’t work. The monkeys’ physical abilities have increased. We should see it as an evolution caused by brain stimulation.
“Oook!”
“Oookkikik!”
The monkeys broke out of their cages. They reached out their hands towards me. Their hands instantly grew to about 5 meters.
‘So, they’re not ordinary gibbons.’
Of course, I wasn’t going to be defeated by something like this. I sliced off the outstretched hands of the monkeys with my sword. The arms of the monkeys, their wrists severed, drooped down.
“Oook! Oookkikik!”
Just as the monkeys were about to go berserk and charge at me all at once,
Kwaaaaaang!
The caterpillar monster flew like a rocket and crushed the monkeys. The monster swallowed only the brain parts from the crushed monkey corpses.
“Oookiiiiiik!”
The monkeys scattered in all directions. The monster looked at the monkeys, then at me. The human face on its body grinned.
“Head.”
