I had been a little careless with my vigilance, but it wasn’t a major problem.
The only pine caterpillar in the vicinity was that one, and even it was incredibly slow.
‘…I guess that’s a relief, at least.’
Letting out a sigh, I observed the pine caterpillar approaching me.
“Uuuuuuuuuugh.”
Whether it had a separate vocal organ or not, the pine caterpillar let out a groan as if it were in pain.
Was something hurting it? Either way, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant sound, so I found myself wanting to cover my ears.
But even that groan was nothing compared to the way the thing looked.
Pine caterpillars were creatures that were inherently disgusting.
I’d never particularly liked bugs or spiders to begin with, but even among them, this thing was grotesque enough to rank near the top.
Seeing it from close enough that I could practically touch it, its appearance came into even sharper detail.
How should I put it… Right now, the only thought that came to mind was the one-dimensional impression that it was gross and repulsive, but yes.
The creature was, to some extent, adhering quite faithfully to the details of a pine caterpillar.
“Uuuuuuuuuugh.”
The pine caterpillar’s eyes turned toward me.
There were twelve of them in total, more than a spider’s eight. Considering that real pine caterpillars also had twelve eyes, that, too, could be called faithful to the original.
Of course, I didn’t care about details like that.
Wriggle, wriggle.
The pine caterpillar slowly crawled down the wall of the building.
The sight of dozens of legs twisting and tangling with one another was painful just to look at, but with the Blackout Zone average being what it was, there was no point making a fuss now.
“Huuuu……”
I let out a long sigh.
That was enough observation.
It didn’t look all that fast, but it was drooling as it approached me.
Shaking it off wouldn’t be a bad idea, but there didn’t seem to be any need to go out of my way to avoid dealing with it.
I didn’t see any other monsters nearby, so killing it probably wouldn’t cause too much trouble.
“Angel Death Beam.”
Since no one was around, I spoke aloud the name of a technique I personally thought was kind of funny.
After all, it would be embarrassing to call it out in front of others……
Whoooooosh—!
A belated sound like the air being torn apart reached my ears.
A straight beam of light shot from my finger.
The ray of light, capable of piercing straight through most things, drilled right through the pine caterpillar’s body.
‘…I wonder how effective that’ll actually be.’
It had certainly pierced the pine caterpillar’s body without much difficulty, but I had no idea how well it would work.
To be honest, compared to that enormous pine caterpillar’s bulk, the hole I had punched through it was truly the size of a millet grain.
Pshuk—!
Something resembling liquid flowed out from the gaping hole.
‘…Bodily fluid?’
It was a reaction I was seeing for the first time from monsters.
They always carried the stench of blood around with them, but I’d rarely actually seen them gush blood.
This much was probably worth noting.
I immediately stepped back a few paces to avoid the dark red fluid dripping down.
The thick liquid trickled down onto the half-dead, yellowed weeds.
But bodily fluid wasn’t the only thing falling.
“Shit, you’ve got to be—!”
Whish!
The pine caterpillar’s massive body lurched. As if the strength holding it to the wall had given out, it slid down and began falling toward me.
…I can’t dodge this. Its range is too wide.
But well. It didn’t really matter.
“Curtain of Grace.”
A sacred curtain spread out above my head.
It was a barrier that had even blocked the attacks of the head grapes without taking any damage.
Thud!
The impact was heavy thanks to the pine caterpillar’s huge bulk, but befitting an efficient holy art, it withstood it with ease.
I didn’t know about if several came at once, but against a small number of enemies, it seemed capable of holding out to a certain extent.
Only after putting some distance between myself and the pine caterpillar did I release the curtain.
With a thud, the pine caterpillar was finally able to share an intimate kiss with the ground.
“…Hmm.”
…Is it dead?
The pine caterpillar was continuously spewing bodily fluid from the hole between its eyes.
But that was all. It lay collapsed, not moving a muscle.
Then, pshuk. Something curly popped out through the tiny hole.
Though it was only a fragment, I could easily tell what it was.
‘…These things have brains?’
And it seemed those brains played an important role, just like in an ordinary living creature.
I could roughly guess why it had gone down in one hit.
“Mmm……”
Not bad information.
It meant these things had a clear weak point, like the head grapes.
Compared to the mimic trees that struggled on somehow unless you thoroughly pounded every part of their bodies, this was much better.
In that case, dealing with them might not be that much of a problem.
There was just one thing bothering me……
‘Rather than a monster, it feels somehow closer to a living creature.’
That started with its appearance, which looked about as far from ordinary as possible.
Of course, that appearance was so horrible it was hard to even look at, but even so, it wasn’t as chaotic as other monsters. There was clearly a form it had used as a motif.
It was even fairly faithful to the original, in its own way.
On top of that, it died immediately if its brain was attacked.
I hadn’t encountered that many monsters so far, but it was rare for them to have such an obvious weak point.
And even then, they had been things difficult to view as ordinary organs, like a core or a transparent pinecone—in other words, a pineal body.
In many ways, I couldn’t shake the impression that this was far removed from the monsters I’d encountered in the Blackout Zone before.
Which led to one more question.
‘…Will this thing revive after it dies too?’
Most monsters inside the Blackout Zone possessed immortality.
That was true even for things like the colonies with cores or the head grapes.
I heard later that the head grapes’ pineal bodies also grew back.
‘…But to say this guy will revive too……’
It wasn’t showing even the slightest sign of regeneration.
Instead, it was merely spewing bodily fluid and fragments endlessly from the small hole.
But to say it truly died… I hadn’t seen any of their corpses.
No matter where I looked, there were only living, moving pine caterpillars. Their corpses were nowhere to be—
Buuuuuuuuung—!
Cutting off my train of thought, a sudden, enormous vibrating sound reached my ears.
The direction was the mountain not too far away. Was its name Maebongsan?
At a glance—or rather, at a listen—it seemed somewhat similar to a drone.
‘Don’t tell me the survivors launched a drone?’
It was fairly reasonable.
In a place swarming with dangerous monsters like this, borrowing the power of a drone would be better than moving around directly.
I looked around the sky, trying to find the source of the drone sound, and……
“……Fuck.”
I found it.
It was just that it was rather far removed from the drone I had imagined.
What had been making the drone sound was a giant moth. Its appearance left me with no choice but to think that.
It was approaching too fast for me to observe it in more detail.
At this rate, I’d run right into it.
For a moment, I considered trying to engage it, but the risk was too great.
Right now, I couldn’t conveniently get in the first strike like I had with the Predator, and there were no other team members nearby.
Fighting now would be the worst move. For now, it was right to take cover.
I immediately ran and stepped inside the building.
The moth arrived almost exactly as I hid myself on the second floor of the building.
Even though it had flown in from that far away, it arrived at an incredible speed.
I observed the moth through the white-grimed window.
Perhaps because it had been neglected for so long, it wasn’t exactly an ideal environment for observation. But that was actually better. It meant the other side wouldn’t be able to spot me either.
I could barely make out its outline, but that was enough.
Buuuuung……
The sound of wingbeats settled down. Along with a heavy landing sound, it dropped in front of the dead pine caterpillar.
The size of the creature that was revealed was—
‘…I think I was right not to fight.’
Big. Simply calling it big didn’t fully capture its enormity; it was excessively huge.
Even I, standing at the height of an apartment’s second floor, had to look up at it.
‘…Is that what a pine caterpillar becomes after metamorphosis?’
It had already been big, and after metamorphosing, it got even bigger.
The moth did not leave the pine caterpillar for a long while.
Judging by the way it had its head buried down, though, it seemed to be eating.
Was that why I hadn’t been able to find any pine caterpillar corpses?
‘But it doesn’t carry off the corpse—it just outright eats it?’
Seeing how it rushed over as soon as the pine caterpillar died, it seemed to have some means of sensing death.
But after going that far, all it did was gorge itself on corpses?
I was puzzled, but the creature’s meal only ended after quite some time.
Only after completely devouring the pine caterpillar did the moth fly away again, making the same drone-like noise.
“Huu… fuuuck.”
Only after it flew off and got far enough away that I could no longer hear the drone sound did I let out a sigh of relief.
The pressure from its enormous size was no joke, more than I’d expected.
Even though I hadn’t properly seen its full form.
“…This is troublesome.”
The pine caterpillars weren’t particularly strong enemies. Their durability was poor, and they were slow. Aside from being huge, there wasn’t much remarkable about them.
Even on my own, I felt like I could take down ten or more.
The problem was that if I touched one, that enormous moth would pop out.
Those pine caterpillars were no different from landmines.
‘…I need to regroup with either survivors or my teammates, and fast.’
I had to gather as much information from inside this place as possible.
I probably shouldn’t assume that landmines similar to this one ended with just that.
First, I needed to prioritize linking up with the survivors……
Then, from far away—
Bang—!
There came the unmistakable sound of a gunshot.