Did the creature that had a stake in my body sense the danger as well?
It pulled tentacles out of my back and began threatening the Iron Insect.
‘Tsk, but will the Tentacle Cocoon’s tentacles be able to hold out?’
Theirs were tentacles of compressed metal.
Mine were regenerating tentacles.
If we compared their toughness, theirs might be stronger.
But I had the edge in regenerative power and the number of tentacles.
I’d have to settle it with that.
The Iron Insect gave me no more time.
It immediately swung its thick steel tentacle at me.
“If you can’t block this, we’re getting sliced up, you know?”
The prickling gaze I felt was probably just my imagination.
The Iron Insect’s tentacle stopped right in front of my eyes.
Countless tentacles had stretched out from my back and were writhing.
When its means of attack was bound, the Iron Insect showed signs of panic.
“What, are you flustered?”
As if giving it a chance, I released the tentacle I had bound.
It had regained its chance to attack, but the Iron Insect’s body trembled.
Its pride must have been wounded.
If the target of that attack had been a human, they wouldn’t have come out unscathed.
Once more, the steel tentacle came flying.
“I gave you a chance, and you blew it.”
The same situation repeated itself.
The bastard was straining, desperately trying to pull its bound tentacle free.
Another steel tentacle came rushing in, but I had no intention of taking that attack.
The scythe-shaped claw on my right arm emitted a bluish light.
The moment it touched the incoming tentacle, the tentacle was cut off helplessly.
It began twitching, as if it felt pain.
It was strange that it could feel pain when its whole body was a lump of metal, but still.
“I’ll be taking this.”
When I put strength into the tentacle I had grabbed, it snapped just like that.
Huh. Had I underestimated the strength of this new body too much?
With this much power, I might even be able to crush the Iron Insect’s body.
Having lost its greatest means of attack, the Iron Insect began to stagger.
‘I guess it’s better to finish it off.’
To put an end to it, I slowly approached the bastard.
I didn’t know exactly what it was thinking.
What was certain was that it was trembling in fear.
The Cocoon’s tentacles slowly began to coil around the Iron Insect’s neck.
It struggled desperately to escape and started pouring out the tentacles it had left.
‘I got scared for nothing. Maybe I should’ve just overpowered it from the start.’
When I gripped the Iron Insect’s neck, it broke before long.
Normally, I felt like it would have been like tearing through a lump of meat.
But since it felt like compressing solid iron, there was no revulsion either.
“It’s really dead, right?”
I couldn’t tell whether the Iron Insect had been too weak, or my body was too strong.
Judging by what it had done, if anything, it should have been strong, not on the weaker side.
Come to think of it, I had essentially won without even using my hands.
The Scrap Doll might have been a far more dangerous entity than I’d expected.
‘Of course that kind of damage happened when a thing like this went berserk.’
Just then, the sound of footsteps broke the silence.
Heavily armed agents poured in one after another to prevent an escape.
Seeing the situation that had unfolded, they appeared more than a little flustered.
They must have imagined both entities going berserk.
Who could have expected that one of those entities would be dead, and I’d be standing there blankly like this?
Wait, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t thought about what came next at all.
‘What do I do about this?’
They would probably understand that I killed the Iron Insect because I was threatened.
But after this, what kind of behavior was I supposed to show?
Should I go back into the isolation room?
No, what kind of bastard walks into an isolation room on his own two feet?
That was definitely suspicious enough.
Should I just growl as if I were about to fight?
After killing the entity that attacked me, I attack the agents trying to suppress my freedom.
That seemed the most plausible.
When I opened my mouth wide at the agents, the reaction came immediately.
+++
“Casualties?”
“About three or four dead, and around a dozen injured.”
“This is driving me insane. Why did a perfectly good device break down?”
“We’ll have to check. Whether it was really an accident.”
“Don’t tell me this accident was intentional?”
“Isn’t it strange? A control device that had been working fine suddenly malfunctioning.”
“That alone isn’t enough.”
“I think we need to investigate.”
I don’t know.
If someone really did intend for this accident to happen.
I feel like grabbing them right now and beating them to death.
Obviously, it wasn’t simply because we had fewer hands now.
They were our people.
If it had been an unavoidable accident, I would have let it go at that.
As the director, I’d have to take responsibility.
I couldn’t bring the dead agents back to life, so at the very least, I had to make sure they felt a little less wronged.
“Still, thanks to the Scrap Doll, we reduced the damage.”
“You think I knew that? I figured the two of them would each just wreak havoc on their own.”
“But, Director. Didn’t you notice something strange?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m asking whether the Scrap Doll really just recognized the Iron Insect as an enemy.”
“Why, are you trying to say it’s a good guy because it helped us a little?”
The adjutant violently shook his head in denial.
“Why the hell would I take that bastard’s side? I’m just saying it felt that way.”
“Don’t tell me you’re building up to using your piled-up vacation days because I didn’t let you go on leave last time?”
“No, what the— What kind of bullshit is that, Director?”
“Aren’t you pretending to have a headache so you can go to the hospital and ask for leave?”
“Ha. Is this really the time to be cracking jokes?”
“Leave is a matter of great importance.”
At the sight of him nodding quietly, the adjutant looked like he was holding back a curse.
“Then why did you cancel my leave last time?”
“See, look at this. You’re still sulking over that, aren’t you?”
“No, that’s not what we’re talking about right now.”
“Wow, our adjutant is such a delicate little maiden. Must be nice. What a good age.”
“It’s only because the situation’s more or less been sorted out. Does this seem like a joke to you?”
“Phew. You think I want to be like this?”
Seeing his suddenly serious expression, the adjutant stopped talking as well.
“Tell them to strengthen patrols around the island. There’s a possibility this wasn’t done from inside.”
“You trust the agents that much?”
“Then should I go beg the idiots locked up in those isolation rooms? Ask them to help?”
“What I mean is, if you trust too much, you’ll pay twice as much when you get hit.”
“There’s no one here except me, you, and our people. Right?”
“Well, yes.”
“Then who exactly are you going to trust with your back? Are you planning to fight alone?”
“That’s not it.”
“Unless it’s something extraordinary, don’t suspect them. They’re the ones who’ve been watching your back.”
He blew out a thick cloud of smoke and rose from his seat.
“I’m going to check on the kids. Take over for a bit.”
“Understood.”
Watching his back as he left the director’s office, the adjutant quietly sighed.
“Haa, for a man who can be that serious, why is he so full of mischief?”
The adjutant began dealing with the pile of documents first.
And quietly, he stole a glance at him.
“If I didn’t do at least this much, I thought I’d go insane. That’s how it ended up.”
As if speaking for his heart, thick smoke flowed out from his mouth.
‘I’m counting on you, Adjutant. You’re the only successor I have.’
+++
Maybe I should have at least pretended to back down.
They must have expected me to charge, because the gunfire seemed more intense than usual.
No, I probably would have done the same.
It was to the point where I felt fortunate I couldn’t feel pain.
“Mm, you seem fine too.”
The Cocoon’s condition looked fine as well. Then again, it was the kind of thing that made shields out of tentacles.
The original isolation room had collapsed, but I was placed in a new isolation room of similar size.
They must have judged that, no matter what, isolating me in an isolation room was safer.
In any case, it was only a matter of time before a new isolation room arrived.
“Hmm, what should I do to pass the time from now on?”
Normally, I would have had to be pulling out the bullets embedded in my body.
But as soon as I entered the new isolation room, the Cocoon pulled out its tentacles and began extracting the bullets.
Thanks to that, I avoided a troublesome task.
“I don’t know if you like me or not, but you’re taking care of me, huh? I’m touched, hey.”
Well, the party in question wasn’t showing much of a reaction.
By the way, was this body healing because of the Cocoon?
Or did it have self-healing abilities that I just hadn’t noticed?
It wasn’t exactly a situation where I could test it, so it remained only a question.
Ah, would the question have been answered if I’d taken a hit from the Iron Insect?
No, that wasn’t it. There was no way the Cocoon would have agreed in the first place.
The battle with the Iron Insect had practically been carried by the Cocoon, after all.
If I had to force something in, it would be this scythe-shaped claw.
“Tsk, it feels kind of foreign. Like it wasn’t originally mine.”
Could it be the entity the Scrap Doll picked up when it first escaped the storage room?
I tapped it a few times, but other than emitting a bluish light, there was no particular reaction.
In the first place, Area 09 was mostly full of entities related to items like this.
Perhaps it was an entity that could change form.
If not, then it didn’t make sense that it was an entity I didn’t know about.
“Well, what could happen? Right?”
Since no answer came back, I felt a little disappointed.
Could it even understand words in the first place?
Seeing how it glared when I gave it a look, it seemed like it might understand after all.
I decided to set other thoughts aside for now.
I had a feeling I’d be able to sleep soundly tonight.
+++
“What the hell? Isn’t the damage way lower than expected?”
“No, you said all I had to do was follow your orders!”
“How was I supposed to know they’d fight each other?”
“Enough, enough. Let’s pull back already. If we get caught, we’re fucked.”
A group could be seen quietly waiting with bated breath.
When the situation didn’t unfold as they wanted, they soon hid themselves in the fog.
Like hunters waiting for an opportunity.
Promising themselves that next time would be different.