SOS CH 27 (Patreon)

Once he allowed the parasite within him to devour everything in the surroundings, Noah sat quietly on the ground while watching the floating Morgiana.

His eyes were slightly lost and glazed as his body was processing the new biomass as well as the metallic component of the armor he had devoured.

This always happened when he ate a large amount of food suddenly. His mind would slowly shut down to focus on digestion which is why he would sometimes find himself in the stomach of some beasts who might have found him on the way.

Obviously, after getting out he would be the one eating that beast.

Eat or be eaten.

This was the law he had been living by for so long the life he had on earth seemed to be nothing but a short blip.

“How long do you think I have been on the planet now?”

—I do not know. My perception of time is tied to yours.

“Hum…”

Noah hummed quietly, his bones cracking, his hair growing and his body changing.

“Okay. Now I am sure, simple food is not enough. I need what those people call Dark matter.”

It wasn’t like this was a new discovery, but it was nice to finally have some confirmation at least.

The more Dark matter he devoured, the stronger he became.

“Parasites are truly cheated.”

—No. If this was this easy, we would have been the overlord of the universe. When we devour someone we don’t become stronger instantly. We obtain memories and skills. Then the next generation born becomes even more perfect by using the memories and skills as well as some of the energy obtained.

Parasites were dangerous because they did not simply attack by rushing. A queen could continuously give birth to more and more perfect children the more she devoured. Those children would have a higher and higher degree of skills, and understanding, up to the point where one could say the inhabitants attacked weren’t just fighting parasites but a superior version of themselves.

—But you are different. Your own power allows you to ‘adapt’ and forcibly evolve yourself.

‘Heh, so you are implying we are the perfect team?’

One brought his own evolution through Adaptation.

The second brought the evolution of others through Predation.

When alone, each skill took a very long amount of time, but together, Predation could increase the speed of Adaptation in a tremendous way and bring unexpected changes.

Noah laughed, “How many times did we have this discussion?”

— Exactly 777 times.

“Oh. A lucky number.”

When you had one voice in your head and all you could do was eat and live alone, even being eaten became boring and stopped being novel.

Repeating the same discussion again and again was nothing particularly weird. This always happened between episodes of blackout or when his mind weakened.

“I am tired. I want to eat hot food. I want to sleep on a true bed.”

He hated moments like this as all the armor around his mind seemed to come undone to show his pitiful self.

— But, you had fun, right?

Noah smiled, “Yeah. Fighting was fun. It has been such a long time since my heart pumped with so much excitement.”

He sighed when he felt his energy slowly return. His sight became clearer and the world seemed far more open. He had finished processing the newly obtained energy.

“Now how do I use this so-called Dark Matter?”

—I do not know.

“How much before we can open it?”

—-Not much more. We are very close. Furthermore, I have a surprise for you. I finished studying the structure of the armor I devoured as well as the information contained in the memories of this scientist.

‘Oh?’

Noah tilted his head in confusion before he felt the dark substance that composed his internal companion start to flow out from all the pores of his body.

Noah looked at this with curiosity but no particular fear. This was something new. In the past, it could only manifest on his right side, and even there it could only do so on a finger or such. It mostly spread internally and helped him sometimes avoid being cleanly cut off in two when he first landed on this planet.

Even the spear he had used to pierce the head of the Cyclops was something he had hardly been able to do in the past.

“Not gonna lie. This looks both dope and disgusting as fuck.”

He commented quietly as his entire body was entirely covered by the substance but soon, the texture started to change.

Rather than simply being organic in nature, he could feel a texture that was closer to metallic encasing his body.

Click~!

Something seemed to click in his mind as the amount of information he could receive increased tremendously. Be it the temperature, the structure of the room and so much more.

Everything felt new. Everything felt different.

He felt stronger. Faster and overall better.

“What the…”

Looking at himself, Noah quietly marveled. His arms were now covered in black and gold like arm guards and the same went for the rest of his body. He could even feel a small cloak above his head and he pushed it down.

Finally, he caressed his face and could feel the rough bump of a mask.

“Holy…”

Standing up, Noah continued to admire himself before looking all around until his eyes landed on a giant black screen.

The surface was not particularly smooth but it was more than enough for him to look at himself and marvel at his new appearance.

What he was wearing now seemed to be very close in design to the power armor he had seen everyone wearing.

Noah did a small twirl as he inspected his butt and chuckled. At least this one was not as suspicious as the clothes he was offered not long ago.

—What do you think?

“I must say. While it’s a shame I cannot grace people with my appearance in this suit. But…Damn, do I look badass?”

He had to fight the urge to squeal like a fanboy. If he had to be honest, while he did not mind freezing his ass in the snow, he had been quite envious of the armor he had seen everyone wearing.

“I did not know you could do something like that.”

—To be honest, I did not know myself. I guess you are not the only one who has been changed by our trips to that place.

Noah shuddered slightly. Even someone as battle-hardened as him could not help but cringe slightly because of the phantom pain when he remembered exactly where he first was after entering the wormhole back then.

This place was the reason for their fusion.

It was also most likely the reason for the change in Adam’s ability to Adapt.

Clearly, the queen had not been spared from the change either.

He shook his head and stopped looking at himself through the mirror. All excitement had vanished and he remembered that he did not exactly have all the time.

Looking down at the controller, all the letters appeared in his vision but close to them was a translation now.

“Neat. So you are using her memories?”

—Yes. but it will take a few more days to go through all her memories so I focused on the languages first.

He nodded and looked at Morgiana's pod before starting to write a screen close to him.

In the end, he planned to go explore the ruin and he could not afford to have a liability close to him.

He didn’t know how strong Morgiana could be even if she used her combat mode but he did not care.

Once the memories of that scientist were processed, he wouldn’t need her either.

It was better to let her sleep here while he went and took care of Omid.

The message he was leaving was just in case rescue came for her. It would be quite sad if they tried to free her only for the poison to be spread, right?

“Very well. Let’s go now. I need to eat the core of those mecha.”

Soon, one of the very first goals he gave himself since coming to this planet would be completed and for that — He would have to go on a second hunt.

This one would definitely be more thrilling.