S-099 was in its "High Tide" state.
This certainly wasn't some natural lunar phase change, nor was it the physical pull of tidal forces on a fluid.
For this gargantuan entity imprisoned in the bottom of the land ship, "High Tide" was its active expansion and self-proliferation.
The black fluid climbed and covered the special alloy bulkheads frantically, instantly filling the once-dead lower chambers with a viscous, heavy darkness.
The steel groaned as hydraulic pumps, under the pressure of the overload, sprayed out scalding oil, which was then swiftly swallowed by the rising black tide.
Ren Yi watched all of this coldly from the void, information Dr. Cyril had once mentioned flashing through his mind.
According to past records, the cycles of S-099's activity were usually fixed with extreme regularity at the beginning of each month.
That was also the time when it was "fed."
Speaking of which, calculating the time, the beginning of the month was fast approaching.
"But, since I arrived, has S-099 ever been normal?"
Ren Yi didn't know.
But he did know that a certain balance had been completely shattered.
The most direct evidence of this lay on the floor beneath him.
The two corpses that had once belonged to the elite of the Sky Eye Organization—B-406 and B-050—had now completely abandoned their "human" forms.
They were reshaping, kneading, and evolving.
The originally scattered limb fragments were like iron filings drawn to a magnet; stirred by the viscous blood, they eventually formed a complete, grindstone-sized ball of flesh.
This biological mass was a nauseating deep red, its surface covered in irregular wrinkles and protruding fleshy filaments.
At the very top of this "meat millstone" sat a single eyeball, though it was impossible to tell who it had belonged to.
Deprived of the protection of an eyelid, it was exposed to the air, lonely and dry, staring fixedly in the direction where Ren Yi hovered.
"Squelch... squelch..."
The intense friction between the flesh produced a sound similar to wet wood being squeezed.
It seemed to want to make a sound, as if in longing, or perhaps in an attempt to make him stay.
Ren Yi looked down, his gaze lingering on the eyeball for less than half a second before his form swirled in the air and he vanished through the door.
Before leaving, he didn't forget that crucial "trophy"—the Withered Claw, B-129, on the floor.
He manipulated a surge of gray-white mist to envelop and swallow the desiccated severed hand.
As for that biological mass on the floor?
Sorry, his time was a bit tight right now.
Besides, the thing on the floor posed absolutely no threat to him.
No matter how strong its immortality was, it had a somewhat laughable and fatal weakness.
It was too "short."
Against a normal human, it might be able to crawl up their ankles and strangle them.
But unfortunately for it, Ren Yi's "feet never touched the ground."
"Thanks for the invite, but I'm pretty busy right now. You take your time crawling."
Thus, behind Ren Yi's receding back, that mass of flesh, whose height had "shrunk" significantly compared to a human, could only struggle to squirm across the floor covered in glass shards.
A deformed arm poked out from the mass of meat, trembling as it reached out a desperate reaching hand toward the direction where Ren Yi had vanished.
...
Ren Yi moved swiftly through the ventilation ducts built of steel, following the blind spots of the surveillance cameras.
Leaving this monster—a vehicle named a land ship but in reality a breeding ground for flesh—was now an inevitability.
But before leaving, there was one top priority he had to complete.
Reclaiming the Beacon!
That was his only means of communication with the "Alliance" and his only guide for returning home in this world.
Without the Beacon, he would be like a kite with a snapped string.
The only thing that gave Ren Yi some comfort was that the Beacon was "indestructible" in this world, so at least he didn't have to worry about it being destroyed.
Fortunately, there was a certain connection between his assessment system and the Beacon; he could vaguely perceive its specific location.
"...Wait."
Ren Yi came to a sudden halt mid-motion, the cloud of mist trailing slightly behind him.
"The Beacon is moving?"
The Beacon's own movement speed was very slow; the current situation meant someone had to be carrying it.
Ren Yi released his perception, trying to find the Beacon's trail.
With the successive deaths of his two "observation points," B-406 and B-050, Ren Yi's "intelligence network" on this ship had shrunk by more than half.
His perspective was now limited to himself, S-099, and Dr. Cyril, who remained at the center of the storm.
However, the reduction in information sources actually decreased the mental burden of his "multi-threaded operations."
Ren Yi diverted a sliver of his mind and quickly swept toward the control room.
Through Dr. Cyril's vision, Ren Yi saw an utterly absurd scene.
"It seems... I don't need to play stealth games anymore."
Because the Sky Eye Organization had no time to worry about him at all!
Inside the control room, crimson alarm lights flashed frantically.
Most of the surveillance screens were dark, and those that remained were filled with static and distorted interference.
S-099's abnormal movement had naturally caught the attention of the Sky Eye Organization.
Although it hadn't yet burst out of the lower chambers, the problem went far beyond that.
The interior of the ship had already begun to "bloom" everywhere.
...Other "flesh monsters" had appeared elsewhere as well.
From the two "cases" of B-406 and B-050, Ren Yi deduced that the creation of these flesh monsters required two conditions.
First, the host must have had direct contact within close proximity to S-099 or the growth that existed in a symbiotic relationship with S-099—Evans.
As for the specific transmission route, Ren Yi couldn't be sure.
Was it some form of face-to-face contamination, or more logically, aerosol transmission?
He didn't know.
Second, the host must die and become a corpse.
At least within Ren Yi's perception range, he had yet to see a living person undergo mutation directly.
In a way, S-099 was quite humane.
As long as you were still alive, as long as you still had that breath in you, your biological will and immune system as a human could forcibly suppress that "evolution."
But once your consciousness dissipated and the body lost its master, the Black Tide Will lurking deep within the cells would instantly take over everything.
So, within this land ship...
Besides the two unlucky bastards Ren Yi had just dealt with, were there any others who could satisfy both conditions simultaneously?
As he moved rapidly, Ren Yi's perception swept through those dark corners, and a sudden chill of horror rose in his heart.
...There were. And there were many.
Rate on N.U.
