The Oracle Paths

Now, even the unconcerned Players were displaying dark faces. Those filthy aliens were just nightmare material. Even Jake was frowning worriedly. All of his Aether Skills based on heat and radiation would become completely obsolete against these monsters. This made the task much more challenging.

"It's a miracle you're still alive..." The handsome man spoke for the first time in a meaningful tone. "What tells us that you are not under the influence of these monsters?"

"I can't guarantee it. "Emiwan honestly admitted. "What I can promise you is that I have never been contaminated by this substance. I have no memory lapses and my behavior has never changed. Moreover, no matter how strong these creatures are, they know how to recognize a dangerous enemy. After a few exchanges, they left me in peace. It is the pirates under their control that have become infernal to deal with... "

"The pirate shuttle that my group neutralized contained no creatures except for a few Fluid Ghosts, I can guarantee it. "Jake interrupted again, bringing up the unsettling topic. "With the exception of one pirate whose lung and kidney had been filled with this substance and who had effectively lost his mind, the other pirates just seemed to be experiencing severe stress. So I can say with confidence, that the shuttle handled by my group is clean...

"What about the other shuttles?"

It was a trivial question, but for the two Egaeans and a few officers present it was an embarrassing moment. Avy Shanmin and the other Players didn't miss anything of their behavior, and a very bad premonition overtook them.

Already foreseeing the worst, the pirate captain facepalmed with weariness, and then simply declared,

"Don't bother. It's too late already. They're here. Apart from those who came with me, I trusted no one else..."

BANG!

Just then, the secure door isolating the meeting room was forced open and the massive silhouette of the tattooed Player nicknamed "Boss" entered with a gloomy grimace. With a faint rictus, he threw a shapeless piece of meat on the table without giving a damn about their feelings.

"Someone tell me, what the hell is this shit?" He scolded, contracting his biceps in an intimidating manner.

Looking more closely at the piece of meat, Jake finally noticed various appendages that could be reminiscent of paws. The creature wasn't that big. It was the size of a calf, but with a morphology reminiscent of the Gollum version of a chimpanzee crossed with a fangtooth fish and a scorpion.

Although hunched, the creature was essentially humanoid, with two legs and two arms, but the head was nightmarish with a disproportionately wide mouth opening filled with long teeth like that of this abyssal fish. A long tail with the appearance of a large worm ended in a long, dark stinger, and most of the body was protected by a thin layer of chitin as black as oil.

As terrifying as this monster may seem, it had been reduced to pulp by a formidable foe, and the chitin was completely shattered, revealing a suspicious whitish liquid that was unexpectedly odorless.

Recognizing the creature, the pirate captain's eyes filled with amazement.

"You killed one?! How did you do that ? " He eagerly asked. Although he kept his cool, everyone could see how deeply shaken he was.

"Ugh ? Are you talking to me?" The tattooed Player grunted in a bad mood. "That shit came back to life after taking out two of my brothers. I had to smash it again. I worked my ass off this time, but I've never seen such stubborn crap. Even those fucking *** are not that annoying!"

On the last sentence, an unintelligible word had escaped from his mouth, but all the Players present knew what it meant. The Oracle System had simply censored the word "Digestor" for the natives.

"With, with what weapon? "Emiwan stammered in disbelief.

"What weapon? My fist of course!" The huge Player sneered as if it was pretty obvious. "Who is this guy? It seems that besides missing an eye, you also lost a piece of your brain in the process."

"Your fist... Your fist..." Far from being offended, the pirate captain repeated these words as if he was trying to grasp the full extent of what this entailed.

Only he knew what kind of brute force was required to smash these creatures to death.

"This is the Captain of the pirate ship that just surrendered. "The handsome man explained with a polite smile.

" Really? No wonder he destroyed his own ship then. He was already senile. "The tattooed Player nodded convincingly as if persuaded by his own deduction.

Emiwan may have been flustered, but he certainly wasn't a nice guy. After operating as a pirate all these years, he was extremely vicious with his enemies and had long since relegated morality to an optional decision-making tool.

After being repeatedly insulted in this way, his facial muscles were twitching and a heavy killing intent exuded forth from his being.

"Oh ? You disagree ? "The object of this murderous aura snickered camly. "Not bad."

Smelling that the situation was rapidly degenerating and that the young general had no plans to do anything about it, the bearded officer invited the tattooed Player to sit down as he forced one of the officers to give up his seat. Without wasting any time, he then gave a series of orders to some of the soldiers present and they immediately vacated the room.

The orders given were essentially to reinvestigate the shuttles, as well as to quarantine all pirates captured along with the soldiers and passengers who had been in contact with them. Until they had been examined and guaranteed clean, they were to remain under close watch.

Because their communications and surveillance systems had been sabotaged from the inside, they did not have the same freedom of action as Emiwan. The pirate captain had lasted so long by keeping a precise grasp of these monsters' movements. Even though there were not cameras everywhere, he had been able to keep track of them.

Whether the sabotage was a coincidence or not, it would make it difficult to monitor the Titan Pearl, which was a godsend for these alien creatures.

Once the orders were given, the bearded officer clasped his hands together, elbows on the table, and quickly asked any questions that still plagued him. Emiwan promptly gave him all the answers he needed.

With the old soldier asking the questions, the conversation progressed quickly and they finally got a clear picture of the situation. And, well, the situation was not good. Not good at all.

The Red Eels' Mothership had been wandering around in this storm for years and had not been able to escape. It was easy to return to Yotai Shien 3, but very difficult to escape from it. The pirate ship had initially fled here to escape from a Consortium armada.

It was a great success and when they arrived at Yotai Shien 3 they discovered a graveyard of spaceships floating around. Most of these ships were still in perfect condition and many of them had their call for help beacons activated. Because of the storm, these signals had never reached the outside world.

Jake and the other Players in the room were overjoyed to finally hear about these beacons. They finally had a direction for their Main Mission.

When Emiwan had stumbled upon the Battle Pearl by chance, he had immediately guided his ship towards them with the goal of escaping. He had voluntarily let these few pirates escape first so that he could then give them an ultimatum as a pretext to visit them.

He was forced to use such subterfuge because if those monsters or the pirates under their control had figured out that he was abandoning the ship for good, they would have prevented him from doing so. It was the only way not to arouse their suspicions.

The reason why Emiwan had so decisively chosen to abandon the ship was because recently a new type of monster had appeared: the Breeders.

So far, the number of aliens had not changed and corresponded exactly to the number of infected people on the space station. This amounted to a few dozen creatures.

During all this time, they had never managed to kill one and the serenity of their ship had been turned upside down, turning it into a chaotic breeding ground where no one could be trusted.

If the number of aliens began to increase, he did not give himself much of a chance. As soon as he detected the Battle Pearl he seized the opportunity. Unfortunately, it was already too late. The Battle Pearl was probably already infested, but as long as the Breeder wasn't in one of the shuttles it would be safe for a while.

It was just out of sheer survival instinct that he had sacrificed his ship. Towards the end, even the Hunters were beginning to pose a threat to him. And the reason why he wanted them to leave as quickly as possible was because he wasn't absolutely certain that those monsters had been killed by the explosion. It should not be forgotten that they were feeding on heat and energy.

Although these creatures preferred fresh flesh, they could also digest any metal in the ship after softening it with their acid. They were ludicrously tenacious and multitalented creatures.

And indeed... His concerns were not groundless. Millions of kilometers from the Battle Pearl, among the debris of the Red Eels' Mothership, a creature that no one had ever seen suddenly opened its eyes.