Part 1: Creating a distraction.

The plan was almost ready to be put into action.

It was simple.

After scurrying from my hiding spot, I would make small holes in every container along my path. Following that, I would secure a way out in the form of a walking machine. I could also cover myself with pieces of those bubbles. Anyway, an organized list of steps was added as a sidequest:

1. Create a distraction.

2. Make it bigger.

3. Make all of those snakes distracted by it.

4. Cut the clues towards the selected hiding spot.

5. Get a disguise or something that works as a hiding spot.

6. Have a safe pass through the checkpoint during the distraction.

I wasn't sure if there was anything else that would work, but this plan was reasonable.

Observing my surroundings made me recognize my current situation. I didn't have much time, the snakes were starting to reduce the number of machines I could use to hide, indicating that it was now or never!

A18, I’m ready to set out.

My puddle the last marks have been added to the interface. The following colors represent the tiles, snakes, cargos…

Very good!

Now, the only thing that remains is for you to alert me if the snakes lock on myself or get too near.

Yes!

Anyhow, this experience felt like a challenge to me. It was actually fun, it made my blood - puddle boil. Yet it frightened me because it felt as if I was playing with my life. This sort of ambivalent emotions, or maybe this whole new world presented before myself, was making me thrive for survival.

If not for the limited time I had before the snakes started to sense me, I would’ve made designed a game-like quest and that gave a ‘wanted’ reward title as a memory. Alas, time was never on my side, and I knew that my life was at stake.

Sequentially, this compelling resolve thrust me towards the farthest machine with a cargo. It wasn’t the last one in line, there were more, but they were being checked. So I selected a small snake I could hijack. One near the ‘snake-puppet’ checkpoint at the rear.

There was no need to think it twice, I needed to damage as many of them as I could. If a bomb was triggered in a city, most of the defenses will go there. This sort of distraction required a lot of explosions—triggering alarms by tampering machine decoys—to escape the snake entanglement and pass through the opposite checkpoint.

So I drilled a hole on the current machine’s cargo that I was using for cover, probably the ninth one that I've used for hiding. Then with a swift momentum, I changed my direction to the next sacrificial machine. An action that I repeated hastily, hijacking all I encountered in my path.

My puddle, the swarm at our rear is starting to detect the changes in the bubbles.

Kay, keep me informed.

About 5 additional machines have been hijacked by me before a response occurred. The snakes’ reactions weren’t perfect, which was what allowed me to take advantage of them. I just needed to continue ruining the cargos in a faster manner than they could resolve. And finally, with a big enough distraction, get outside of their snaring checkpoint.

My puddle the whole swarm at our rear is moving.

That's just what I wanted!

Do they have enough ability to track a patched scene? That's probably a no. More than 90% were heading towards the place of my starting crime. Each new crime would deplete the snakes in specific areas, reducing their numbers and allowing me to gain additional degrees of freedom.

After a bigger response, the tactic changed and I didn’t touch the next 2 machines in the planned criminal-line. The third and the ones ahead were the unlucky group though, they wouldn't escape my tampering. A simple way to cut their tracking, in addition to a change in direction.

After doing this 2 more times, I arrived at the shipment-free group.

My plan here was to hide. I needed the snakes at the checkpoint in front to come down and help the others. Then, with the reduced security ahead, I would fish in the troubled waters. Well, more like escape the hell out of this sandwich.

AI-waiter! I want my sandwich without G00 inside, please!

My puddle, the snakes in the frontal group are moving. There is also a stronger signal being emitted on the tube's surface as the swarm in front advances.

I didn’t need the AI to inform me. In my vision, the whole disc-shaped checkpoint advanced while I gazed from my hiding position. The snakes were hovering around the tube, and the reason for that was an incomplete ring-shaped structure that slid along the tube.

This was the first time I saw the disk connection with the cable. All of the machines without cargo were concentrating in my current area. The disk made it so that a limited number could exit, the requirements were unknown, until this moment I got the visuals.

The thing that attracted the serpents was actually a real ring with variable openings that slid along the tube. It even made those serpents to detach from the machines that arrived at those gaps. Then, with a reduction in its spinning, the disk evaded a set number of machines to pass by.

This ring was formed by a solid structure. It was producing that 'field' that created the ‘checkpoint’ and made the snakes above gather, probably some sort of magnetic device. However, simple things were usually complex, and I needed to check on it better. There was uncertainty if that could actually repel me selectively.

And let’s be honest, there was no way I could hijack that. I had to pass it and then decide on my next activities. So I just crossed my flagellum… okay, twisted it and waited for an opportunity.

The reaction at my back seemed strong enough for the new snakes that kept descending to even care about me. I remained still while waiting for the AI’s alarm or the whole event to subside.

How much time I had was an unknown variable. I started to scan the gaps in the disk. Classifying the machines that were allowed to pass and those that weren't.

Was there some sort of preference? Something that allowed me to evade this long crowd of machines awaiting to exit?

As time passed, I changed my hiding spot and took shelter in a walking machine selected after the analysis. This walking machine was of a different type and it appeared to evade the waiting period inside the checkpoint.

By securing one of these VIP machines, I would probably approach the disk's opening without troubles. My distraction continued to work, and the snakes were wrapping more and more 'innocents', sending them to the colossal snakes above the sky.

A sacrifice of innocents. Primitive, yet it occurs even inside this monster.

At that time, I sensed a huge thump made by the machine I was in. It was like when you hit your head after a bump in the road. I gazed and saw that the machine almost lost balance but regained it quickly after a while. The tube didn't have a hole or an irregular surface for it to do that, a signal that made me think that something wasn't right.

What is happening? An earthquake? A18, is there some locking device towards us coming from it?

My puddle is in 'complete silence' mode, we aren't emitting any signal towards the outside. There are no new signals coming our way. The camouflage is a perfect reflection of the current walking machine.

Yes, our cloaking was perfect in a virtual way, not physically though, so if something touched me they would probably recognize me as an alien. Anyway, the machine didn't stumble again and the next part of the trip remained stable.

…

Part 2: Escape?

Time passed, my mind being relieved as not even one snake stopped to check the machine I hid at. My eye watched the front where the ring-like structure that slid alongside it appeared. It passed above and created a weird attractive pressure which made me uncomfortable. It didn't last for long, and after a tensing lapse, the walking machine that carried me advanced through the gap it had without trouble.

I was safe... I felt accomplished.

A18, you alright?

Systems are fine, there was interference with sensing capabilities, but no damages were caused by it.

Hearing that everything was fine, I pulled my ‘head’ out of the hiding spot. Finally taking a glimpse at that checkpoint that was left behind and at the big snakes that concentrated on the tampered constructs. The decoys served their purpose and I was out of the unexpected trap-sandwich.

Except, it was too soon to call it a victory.

Seems that my plan went a bit on the excessive side. A big vibration occurred, enough for me to sense as a change in pressure with my primitive touch sensor combined with equilibrioceptive data. I looked back and saw one of the 'disks' starting to fall. The one at the rear end was collapsing. Not long after, a bigger tremor occurred with a water shockwave that almost made me drift in the waters. I saw it, the other disk followed the first one's demise.

Everything made sense when my eye locked on the disaster. One of those giant snakes was attacking the tube!

No way! What the heck are these fricking snakes doing?!

The tube’s end started to fall apart extremely quickly. My position was becoming higher and higher and the tube was unraveling outwards! (From its center to the outside).

I decided to leave the machine's premises and advance. I couldn't wait for it to work as a cover. The whole bridge was falling down and the domain it produced would surely sink me with it!

Fleeing...

Yes, to rush away from this place as fast as possible!

I didn't have anything else in my mind, I had to do an action-jump and avoid the places where the tube collapsed and thinned. It looked different from cement. It either disintegrated into blocks or stretched like bubble gum. A lot of light came where it cracked, and dusty fireflies danced from the separated junctions.

I just advanced, but I also bumped into enemies while evading the disaster.

My puddle there are still snake-puppets in the surroundings, be careful!

As the AI said, some snakes still remained in the area, I bumped into some without realizing. They seemed confused. When I came near them they tried to entangle me, but they were… weak? Yeah, extremely lacking in hardness or strength. Relatively easy to destroy by slashing them with my flagellum. Even when some managed to grab me, I detached from them effortlessly by moving at a faster speed.

In the end, I was just bumping them at full speed. The G00rilla glass seemed sturdy enough to tolerate some giant mosquitoes splashing onto it.

Also, talking 'parsel' with them wasn’t part of the plan. This entanglement was time-consuming and there wasn’t enough of it to pay attention to tiny or medium-sized snakes. Because… Well, nothing good comes when a big ‘thing’ is being destroyed on purpose. I didn’t look behind or below during this and concentrated only on escaping, even if slashing or bumping these snakes might trigger another unwelcomed reception.

At this point, I sensed how my position was being lifted and the tube's unraveling end appeared below me.

Shit!

I felt how the domain's attractive force shifted and 'up' became down! I was traveling against gravity all the time, and now, without the tube's glowing interior and its shelled blocks producing the attraction effects, I felt like being on the moon. A quick reaction allowed me to shift to the opposite surface. During the spinning motion, I found that the tube's unraveling was carrying me like a surfer over a wave. It felt like an infinite slide, or at least, a very long one.

Ahhhhh!

My puddle, the current speed is increasing!

Indeed, this was going too fast, with the addition that I also kept accelerating. My instincts told me that if I didn't, I would never reach safety.

Moreover, the deblocking of the tube wasn't perfect, and sometimes, pieces of glowing rubble came my way. It looked like a reverse game of guitar hero, where you were advancing over a tube and avoiding the 'glowing cracks' in the ground.

Belatedly, and with a free attraction included, the tube’s inclination returned to normality as the additional speed made by its unraveling gradually ceased.

I paused, finally catching some 'calm' and looking behind at the collapsing highway. Everything was sinking towards an unknown mist below. Fortunately, this portion held high, I was safe.

...

A18, how are things?

The current area has no treating signals and remains stable.

Oof, confirmed safety at last.

Is the direction we are traveling right?

Yes, the tube structure continues to send similar signals to the ones before the checkpoint.

Great.

My path continued and I found more walking machines in the stable section of the tube. There were many other defensive mechanisms I encountered: something resembling mines in the ocean, a mucous substance that I didn’t touch, and some net traps that were triggered by proximity.

They didn’t work against me though, they were easy to avoid—and if I was somehow targeted—their sparsity would allow me to slash them and continue to keep it low without triggering witnesses. I just needed to prevent anything that made an alarm, since apparently, the only locking devices were those snakes.

After some trifling fights, a careful continuation of the road, and a better familiarizing of what to do and what to beware; I gained the experience to avoid the majority of the 'blobby' traps with grace. Besides, when I found more machines heading in a similar direction, my path became as easy as following the car in front. It felt familiar. Swimming outside the tube might actually be more dangerous, but I was overconfident or at least feeling better outside of its weird attractive domain.

And surely, at the end of the wire, awaited my destination.

Part 3: A shell?

The end of the tube was anchored to what appeared to be factory complex. Many ‘hands’ grabbed pieces and joined them together to form more tubes. In the center of the tube, a glass-like fiber glowed with irregular light patterns. This transparent fiber inside the tube vanished behind the huge factory structure. It seemed to separate into smaller wires and continue behind the weird wall of the place.

There was a limit to my far-sighting ability. So when I arrived at the ‘tube factory’ it just looked like a big wall, but in reality, it was like an enormous crystal-sun with glowing spots all over its surface. Well, you can also call it a vitrified egg.

My puddle, the signals are more intense in this area. There is a pulse event that sends encrypted information whenever ‘the fibers’ at the front lights up.

Encrypted information?

By leaving the tube and getting closer to the shell’s wall, I found an intrinsic construction. It was a tunnel-like structure. Around 6 pulsing fibers came from inside the tube I have been ‘walking’ over. They connected to special places around the shell. Specifically, each of the pulsing fibers that came from a tube, plugged to one of the six points around each tunnel entrance.

Inside the tubes, they were coiled around each other. After that, they seemed to have a certain alignment as they plugged themselves to the egg's tunnels. Maybe it’s better to call them ‘pores’ since they appear to be more like small openings in a solid membrane surface.

Basically, the fabric was a shell for something inside that made all that light and spark. It served as the assembler for the armor that covered the squishy inside of the cables. In addition, the robotic assembly of the 'walkers' was organized around the 'pore' areas. Many machines constructed the ‘walkers’ and checked on their quality.

It's incredible. To believe that so many secrets were hidden inside a blob was something unexpected. It made me think of that time I slashed the sausage extruding blob in the cave. Did I actually kill it? Was I slashing pieces of it without realizing it?

Well, it was likely that such blob was a small subtype, the tunnels varied in sizes but the bigger ones allowed the world-size blobs to move. What sort of trouble have I been sent to... I didn't know at this moment. But my drifting mind terminated its drifting and concentrated on the present.

I was examining the additional machine that covered the cable with 'blocky tiles’ made of an unknown component. It was like two twisting arms moving at helicopter speed. It was precise and after little, a tube's armor, which became the floor for the walking machines, was finished.

This place... It was a complete assembly line, yet I knew this wasn’t what I came to look at. The next place I had to go was where the fleshy interior of those tubes originated. There was something to that pore. It was a rabbit-hole. The place where my Alice-18 wanted to go… because the nearer I went towards it, the more she felt an increase in resources.

My puddle, the concentration of needed elements is increasing the nearer we are to that place.

I already know that we need to enter that.

It's just, that the question here is ‘how’? There are many things inside the pore, and I get the feeling that if we enter 'it', we will be sliced or trapped forever.

The six fibers connected at its perimeter and around their plugging area making a small bulge. This bulge’s purpose was unknown. The hole to enter the pore had a lot of weird noodles dancing in between. In addition, its surrounding perimeter had 8 projections which gave me the creeps. They squirmed as if alive, but their purpose was also not discernible.

Apart from the noodle-blocked hole, these 8 tendrils were the ones giving me a bad omen. Yeah, I seem to hate tentacles if they are not a part of me. Was I envious?

A18, how do we enter your treasure vault?

My puddle, the only way to get past a door is to open it.

Y-You actually answered with the… c-cheeky phrase my father loved to tell e-every… frocking day!

Yes.

...

User's current emotions confirm that the phrase was the best thing to say.

Ugh…

Anyways, just look at that place. It’s full of serpents or wires vibrating and not letting anything get past it. A18, do you really think I can get through it?

Analyzing… The possibility of getting trapped is above 90%.

Yeah! Passing through it might require some scan for an ID card or something which I don’t even hav—

Wow! Did I just answer myself?

Yes, my puddle just needs the key to open the door.

…

If only my father told me that…

A18, you have a way with words.

It was taken from the user database.

And there goes the hard-earned praise.

Never mind, let’s forget this happened.

…

Part 4: Getting the keys.

Fundamentally, I needed something to enter. But It took me a while to realize where the fabric had the keys to the treasure chest. The blob's eggshell factory also served as a collection point. It received and organized the 'walkers' cargo. In fact, the things being transported needed to be delivered and some of them should be sent towards the pore's inside.

My expenditure on the tube decreased my energy levels, it also damaged part of the locomotive systems. A18's check determined a need for repairs apart from the constant nourishing from the blob's nutritious environment. Auspiciously, the current area was calm. There were no snakes at this place and no locking device seemed to be triggered. If I didn't rest at these places I should be called an idiot.

Stealth and hiding were particularly useful for a weak puddle. When the project entered this mode, expenditure decreased overwhelmingly and repairs were done faster. Moreover, my puddle shape was better at cloaking if in contact with a non-reactive surface. Something that would be illogical, yet worked that way.

The more surface you exposed the more the snakes could track you, the reason why a sphere was probably the best since less surface exposed and more volume contained. But in practice, this didn't work, and the best shape as calculated by experience was making ourselves as thin as possible to contact as many 'non-reactive' surfaces as achievable.

Thus, the puddle shape, which would actually expose the most surface, was the one that better camouflaged ourselves. This didn't mean It was a complete puddle, more like a soup with two balls, a hexagonal shaped sensor with a noodle, a space helmet that was the visor sensor, and a system that churned liquid constantly could be seen at a small bulge of the surface.

And with the many things that didn't react inside a 'walker' factory, it didn't take much for a puddle to cloak itself in-between a crowd of inactive 'walkers' and their pieces.

Okay A18, we can start repairs now.

My puddle, the project will enter low consumption mode. The motion mechanisms will be turned off. The vision sensor will continue to work with a varying blackout of the pixels that are being repaired. It will affect vision by 10~20% during the scans or create artifacts in the vision...

Don't worry, just carry it A18. Oh yeah, be sure to keep a fast emergency restart mechanism if we need to escape from something.

Yes.

Turning off energy towards movement systems...

Adjusting surface to current contours...

Mantaining visual sensor position before movement suspension...

Form and movement locked...

Starting coverage of signals by the project...

Analyzing energy consumption and repairs needed...

Calculating time until complete recovery...

...

With the movement compromised and most of the sensors inactive, all I could do was watch. From the selected position, my target, a surface of the egg-shell with pores, was visible.

I waited patiently until something arrived near one of the pores, another new machine. It appeared near a pore at my front and carried a smaller sized bubble with little effort and huge precision. This machine that was like a drone, took the things inside the vesicles of those walkers, positioning itself in the middle of the pore's tendrils.

When it was at a certain distance from them, the tendril projections moved. They were like fishing roads tossing a hook to capture the cargo and the uniquely shaped hover-machine. Then like a hand throwing candy to the mouth, the cargo was sent inside.

A18, We have found our key!

Hurray?

That's not the sort of response I expected.

Repairshs...

Hm, that's better. Sounds cuter.

...

After a while of boring wait, the adjustments were completed. The new trip was going to take me inside the undiscovered.

It demanded mental preparation. But I knew that I just needed to follow the cargo when a drone moved.

At an area near the drones, vesicles with various glowing differences were aligned. Looking like some Christmas decorations, however, the bubble surface was made of a different material. It didn't have the same greyish tinge and looked transparent in comparison.

At first, I wasn't going to enter this bubble. I tried to enter at the same time the drone delivered but without being 'hooked' the pore's entrance didn't open. The timing to enter was tight, the pore didn't open if an additional thing was near and unhooked. And I wasn't gonna let those fishing rods get me.

Eventually, after some failed attempts at entering. I learned that the hooking tendrils were the things that decided entrance. There was a code in the drone. I could probably slice that part and try but it would require more time. So once again, I tried to enter a bubble.

For my wellbeing, this bubble didn't create any reaction. It allowed me to hide inside until the ‘drone’ realized that there was cargo to move. Then the hook read the entry code on it and sent the bubble with a G00 inside the pore…

I quickly exited the bubble, which self repaired instantly. My eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing, but I knew what this place should be...

Previously, the decision of opting for the surface and getting out of the blob was something I would've surely made.

Now, instead of the surface, destiny took me somewhere I wouldn’t have thought at that time, because what I discovered inside the shell, was another little world inside the blob, its nucleus.