Super Mothership
Faced with Nie Yun's arrogant declaration, everyone else's brains seemed to freeze. Before they had fully processed what had just happened, an enraged roar suddenly echoed in everyone's ears.
"ROAR!"
Sound naturally could not travel through space, but this beast-like roar carried a trace of psychic power, functioning like a weakened form of a mental shockwave.
Nie Yun's expression stiffened as he turned to look toward the Karon fleet.
He could vaguely sense an extremely faint life force coming from that direction.
It should be remembered that the two sides were currently separated by millions of kilometers. Even at such an immense distance, Nie Yun could still detect a faint presence, which spoke volumes about just how overwhelming that being's vitality was.
At that moment, the Karon fleet slowly parted, finally revealing the colossal creature at its center!
It was an enormous space creature over two hundred kilometers long.
Its appearance resembled a whale from Earth, except its entire body was covered with metallic bone spikes and fin-like protrusions of various sizes. Its gigantic mouth alone occupied nearly half of its body.
Its body was also fitted with numerous external armor plates and weapon systems, making the traces of artificial modification unmistakable.
Most bizarre of all, embedded in the center of its forehead was a humanoid creature barely three meters tall. It looked as though it had grown directly out of the monster's body, with its lower half completely fused into the terrifying beast.
The humanoid was completely hairless, resembling a giant-sized furless Woolfian.
The back of his head and spine were connected to countless blood-red tendrils resembling capillaries, giving him an utterly horrifying appearance.
"Karon... the Leviathan!" Flint and several pirate captains stared grimly at the gigantic creature, unmistakable wariness flashing across their eyes.
Karon possessed no Legendary Mecha, yet among the Seven Pirate Captains, he was universally acknowledged as the strongest individual combatant—without exception.
The reason was simple: he had undergone inhuman bioengineering, merging with an extraordinarily powerful space creature known as a Leviathan.
He was no ordinary pirate captain. He was unique, utterly unlike anyone else.
He was the Karon Beast. He spoke for himself.
Rather than calling him a pirate captain, it would be more accurate to call him a superweapon.
Rumor had it that Karon had once suffered devastating injuries, with nearly half of his body blasted into dust. Everyone believed he had died. Yet when he reappeared, he had already been transformed into the Karon Beast.
From that moment on, the Karon Pirates underwent a dramatic transformation under the Karon Beast's iron-fisted rule.
Nearly every pirate within the crew underwent similar body modifications. It was said that those unwilling to comply had all become waste expelled by the Karon Beast.
Because of this, there were practically no normal humans left within the Karon Pirates. They had become the terror of every pirate in the region.
Merchant convoys captured by other pirate crews might still survive, but encountering the Karon Pirates left only two choices: willingly undergo modification and join Karon—or become food for the Karon Beast.
"A Leviathan... a genuine space lifeform?" Nie Yun carefully observed the terrifying monster.
The Leviathan was a mysterious species of space creature native to the Leviathan Star System.
Legend claimed that every Leviathan's birth was accompanied by the destruction of an entire star system.
A newly born Leviathan colony would devour its home planet like someone eating an apple, reducing it to a battered shell. As the planet's gravity weakened, they gradually gained the ability to leave its surface.
They fed on metals and minerals. Once they entered space, they could even consume asteroids directly. More terrifying still, as they aged, their bodies could continue growing almost without limit simply by eating.
The colonies that spread outward from their homeworld would consume every nearby asteroid before seeking out the next planet, repeating the cycle endlessly.
Their genes granted them extraordinary evolutionary abilities, allowing them to adapt to countless extreme environments and rapidly evolve entirely new organs suited to the conditions of different worlds.
To sustain their enormous bodies, their entire existence revolved around one thing—they were either eating or searching for their next meal.
Eventually, nothing remained within the star system except a lonely star. Every other celestial body would have been completely devoured.
At that point, with food running out, the Leviathans entered an era of cannibalism.
Just like big fish eating small fish and small fish eating shrimp, the entire species plunged into endless civil war.
According to legend, the final survivor would become the King of the Leviathans, a creature whose size rivaled an entire planet.
Driven by insatiable hunger, that final king would eventually fly toward the system's star, ending its life in a magnificent tragedy—forever pursuing the ultimate dream of the greatest glutton imaginable.
"Devour a star? Compared to the Leviathans, anyone who calls themselves a foodie should seriously reflect on themselves. Now that is the true pinnacle of gluttony... I wonder if stars are spicy?" Nie Yun couldn't help smacking his lips.
Mechanical Bugs: "... " (￣へ￣)
"Insolence! Do you think this is one of the Three Great Mechanical Duchies? Destroying a mere Ghost Pirates is something I can accomplish alone! I hear you're also a renowned arena fighter. If you've got the guts, then let's settle this with a fair duel!
If you're scared, you can even bring your entire fleet with you!"
Karon's deep, booming voice rang through everyone's communicators, overflowing with confidence and blatant provocation.
Flint's eyes lit up.
This attempt at diverting disaster had worked even better than he had imagined.
He knew Karon's strength well. Although the Leviathan he had merged with was only a newly matured one, it was still powerful enough to single-handedly wipe out a small fleet.
If the two of them could wound each other severely—or better yet, if one died while the other was crippled...
"Sorry! I refuse!" Nie Yun rejected the challenge so quickly that Flint's fantasy hadn't even traveled from his cerebral cortex to his adrenal glands.
"Hahaha! Scared already? Where did all that arrogance from earlier go?" Karon laughed mockingly.
"Scared? Sorry, but the word 'fear' doesn't even exist in my database.
It's just that you probably don't know this, but besides being a pacifist, I'm also an honorary member of the Galactic Wildlife Protection Association."
Karon: "???"
The Galactic... Wildlife Protection Association?
What kind of ridiculous title was that?
What did it have to do with their duel?
"According to official statistics, Leviathans are on the brink of extinction due to excessive hunting. Within the Wolf Empire, they're classified as a Class-One Protected Endangered Species.
There aren't many Leviathans left to begin with, and one that's merged with a human like you is even rarer.
Protecting endangered wildlife is everyone's responsibility!
If I fight you and accidentally kill you, my conscience... would hurt!"
Karon: "..."
Everyone stared at Nie Yun in stunned silence.
It was the first time they had ever heard someone describe the terrifying Karon as an "endangered protected wild animal."
Strictly speaking, Nie Yun wasn't wrong.
After all, no matter how ferocious a Siberian tiger might be, it was still technically a member of the cat family.
But placing those two ideas together somehow felt incredibly bizarre.
More importantly, here was a pirate discussing wildlife conservation laws with everyone—and the creature he wanted to protect was an infamous supervillain!
He was openly treating a ferocious tiger like Hello Kitty!
This was provocation!
Naked counter-provocation!
This time, Flint's fantasy signal finally made it from his cerebral cortex to his adrenal glands, leaving him thoroughly exhilarated.
Everyone instinctively turned to look at the so-called "endangered protected wild animal"... no, wait—the Karon Beast.
Sure enough, the Karon Beast's eyes had turned blood-red, and every bone spike on its body had stood upright in fury...
TL Note- Animal Rights....
Next
Comments
Post a Comment