Chapter 22

I wonder how much time has passed. The system clock doesn’t work anymore, and my sense of time is crap. Right now, as usual, I’m chasing down another prey. I stopped using sand trap tactics, as I deemed them boring, and tried to develop my own sense of direction by keeping up with my enemies. So far, I had zero success in that regard, but I did get plenty of kills.

My body shuddered as I again bumped into my target. Kevin spared no time in sending more toxic vesicles at the enemy, and I could already feel victory close at hand as the target stopped moving. All that’s left, is to finish it off for good.

This was the new strategy we came up with – we target the outer layer until the vesicles find any outward growing structure, and then they dissolve it. Apply snare, deploy a nuke, profit!

We’ve been doing great so far, but there is still more biomass to collect until I get my ‘Extracellular offence system’. I don’t even want to talk about the other options I have for spending biomass. It just makes me angry every time I look at them.

I close in and my membrane envelopes the creature.

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/Absorbed:

-Multicellular organism -1x

/Evolution options added:

-Upgraded energy storage

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Oh cool, I love new stuff. Is this like a health bar upgrade? Right now, energy has been fulfilling an almost identical role. However, there are some key differences that make it worse. Should I still focus on the attack before this one? Ugh, hard decisions are not my forte. It even costs the same as the offence system.

Meh, I’ll decide when I get enough to afford it. Time to hunt some more.

I turned my body in what I thought was the middle of the pond and swam on. Not for the first time, I imagined myself in a real space ship with plenty of REAL CREW I could command. I love the stars, just thinking about seeing the infinite universe, in all its glory, right outside my spaceship’s window, makes me shiver from excitement. None of that light polluted sky you get in big cities, but the pure and untainted starlight, stretching as far as the eye can see.

*Bump*

Another encounter, another packet of biomass to my collection. Before the target could escape, I rammed it once more, and this time, released a swarm of my little attackers onto it. I kept ramming its side, trying to stick close enough to catch any attempt to escape, but it made none. Frankly, this should have been the first red flag, but I was still half lost in my star fantasy.

Soon, Kevin informed me that he couldn’t quite surround the target fully as the vesicles were being destroyed before that. Seems like our strategy still has its flaws, I will need to figure something out in the future. A second red flag flew past me, and I still didn’t notice the glaring problem.

I bumped it once more, and, this time, I didn’t get enough time for another red flag, as IT bumped us back.

The result was something close to when I used my inventory in full power. Back when I was still an unevolved single cell. Thankfully, while the damage I could feel was extensive, I have grown a lot since then. Finally, I was pulled out of my daydream, and immediately tried to flee, hopefully, downwards. I didn’t get far as I bumped into a soft substance, so I tried to change our directions. Nope, no exit. I can only presume that the fucker ate me.

What now?

I was starting to lose feeling in multiple parts of my cellular body, and despite my immediate biomass supply, I couldn’t fix all the damage in time. In my struggle, I managed to find an unobstructed direction. Fingers crossed it leads out of the mouth, and not the other way around.

Nope, wrong door, this is clearly the wrong way. I tried to turn back, but as soon as I stopped to turn, the walls started closing in and were crushing me. They kept pulling me deeper inside and blocked any way of retreat.

A wise man once said – “To move forward, you have to learn to let go of the past,” - So let us march onto the future, Kevin! If we die, we can always beat up that old bastard in the afterlife! Yes, it’s not you who ate me, it’s me who chose to be in your stomach! I swam deeper, the walls closing in behind us until we reached a place with a lot more room to manoeuvre about.

“Finally, Safety!” – Yeah, not really. Stomachs tend to contain all kinds of things to dissolve the food better. One of those things is acid. And, oh boy, and it’s not the fun kind of acid.

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/Absorbed:

-Degraded biomaterial

-Crystalline mineral structure molecules - x3

/Evolution options added:

-Advanced defence system

-Advanced offence system

-Advanced movement system

-Intermediate sensory system

-Primitive conversion system

/New skin shop options:

-luminescence

$Piss yellow

-Body patters

$Blood stripes

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Ha, take that! I’m like a tapeworm now – devouring food inside your own body.

Wait, did that say something about upgrading my sensory system? OMG YES, YES, YES! Wait, I can’t die now! Not when I’m so close to my dream! Alright brain, don’t fail me now. I can think of stupid stuff AFTER I get out of here. That being said, what do I do now?

"Guys, I need good ideas right about now!"