036

Ep. 36

'Woman?'

A woman with an ordinary appearance was coming down the alley, looking around.

Contrary to expectations, Lars' colleague was a woman. When I saw the name Lloyd, I thought it was a man, but it wasn't.

'Well, there's no law that says women can't go to businesses.'

If you just look at it, you might not be able to pick a single flower, but you wouldn't know it when you go to the store. I might go around ripping out people's spines.

I got up and waved at her.

"Here."

"Why on earth do you want to meet me in a place like this?"

"It's not something to say out loud."

"Well, that's true. But…"

Lloyd approached me. She, who had looked happy just now, tilted her head.

"You said you retired, are you still doing that?"

"huh?"

"Aren't these work clothes?"

She says that while pointing at my body.

I don't know what I look like because the mimicry organ's pheromones don't work for me.

'If you use a mimicry organ in the game, the target appears as it was before it died…'

When I caught Ras, he had not changed his clothes. Because I was drunk and passed out while wearing my work clothes.

Listening to Lloyd's words, it seems like in reality, like in a game, the subject is imitating what it was like before it died.

'Because the mimicry organ also imitates clothes.'

It is true that the mimicry organ acquires genetic information and creates hallucinogenic pheromones based on that, but it does not rely entirely on genetic information. Information from other senses, such as auxiliary organs and vision, is also collected to create much more precise hallucinations.

Visual information such as wrinkles in clothes, shoes, buttons, etc. is collected and sent to the mimicry organ, which then overlays it on the body constructed based on genetic information and reflects it in the hallucination. Therefore, it is impossible to reflect other clothes into hallucinations, and only the clothes worn by the ingested subject can be applied to hallucinations.

'It's an unexpected problem. If your clothes don't match the situation, they might look suspicious.'

In games, there is no concept of clothes that are inappropriate for the situation. Because there aren't many players who change their combat gear just after entering the city.

So, although there were people who noticed the hallucinatory effect realized by the mimicry organ because of the uncanny valley, no one noticed because the equipment they were wearing was suspicious.

'This is reality, so this is different. I'll have to be more careful in the future.'

If Lloyd hadn't pointed it out, I would have been in trouble.

I gave her a quick look around.

"No, I don't have any clothes to wear."

"Tsk, dress properly. "The guy who even retired…huh?"

She clicked her tongue and was about to continue speaking, but then closed her mouth. And he frowned.

"There's been a strange smell since a while ago…"

"Stop talking nonsense. "You know a lot about brokers, right?"

"Let's talk here?"

"There are a lot of people listening to the bar."

"Isn't this something worth talking about?"

She shook her head and took out the USB from her pocket.

"Information about brokers and transactions is contained here. "Please note that files will no longer be accessible after a day."

"That's tricky."

"I guess it's something like that. "I will take a picture of the broker's contact information with my communicator and send it to you."

She took out the communicator. The narrow, dark alley was illuminated by the light of a small mechanical device.

She entered her contact information and pressed send, and the communicator in my hand trembled.

'S?'

There was a message on Lars' communicator with the broker's initials and phone number. It seemed like they deliberately referred to each other by their initials in case one of them was arrested.

"This is the end. Now let's go get a drink."

"okay."

While I was looking at the communicator screen, she playfully tapped my arm.

"Why are you drinking… huh?"

She is startled by the sensation, which is completely different from that of a human body.

The organ of mimicry can deceive the visual sense, but it cannot deceive the sense of touch. When someone touches me, I can feel my original body. I probably noticed it when she hit me because it felt foreign to the touch.

That the person waiting for her in the alley was not Lars.

"What are you?!"

Lloyd stutters and steps back.

Now that I have received the broker's information and contact information, she is now useless.

I wrapped my long tail around her as she tried to run away.

"Help… whoop!"

Before she could scream, she covered her mouth with her fighting arms.

She seemed confused that something invisible had grabbed her.

Even though she knows that the person she sees is not Lass, the pheromone effect is still effective. The sense of touch will recognize that what is holding one's body as multiple arms and a tail, but the sense of sight will continue to recognize me as a lass. Probably only two arms are visible and the rest are invisible, so they feel like something transparent is holding them.

"Woo wow…."

Lloyd gives me a look in his eyes begging me to save him. Her once ordinary face was suddenly stained with tears and snot.

It may seem pitiful, but my decision remains the same.

When she applied force to the tail, her back was crushed. The life in her eyes disappeared and her head was lowered.

'Dispose of the body here.'

I ate Lloyd's body on the spot.

Lloyd's taste was ordinary itself. It's at an ambiguous level where you can either say it's tasteless or it's good. Honestly, it tasted a little better than the sandwich next door to Lass.

'Now you can turn into Lloyd. Next…'

I guess I'll have to contact the broker. I'll have to go home, check the USB, and decide whether to meet or not.

I licked up every drop of blood that fell on the floor and then returned to the secret passage.

｢The smell of food.｣

[Zuzuzu zuzu (I came back from eating)]

｢What's mine?｣

'Ah.'

From next time, I'll have to leave some food for No. 26.

–

Sander, who works in the port district's material storage team, had a side job.

The job is to provide amazing creatures to suit the noble tastes of the high-ranking people of Megacorp.

To put it simply, smuggling was a crime, but Sander didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

'It's no different from a sin to have the ability but not use it.'

Under the mindset of an extremely Megacorp graduate, he chose a job where he could put his position to good use.

Since there was frequent interaction with the smuggled animal management team during work, Sander suggested a way to coexist with the team leader, and the team readily accepted.

The smuggled animal control team would hand over information on the seized creatures to Sander, who would manipulate the documents in the material storage facility and transport them to another planet.

The collusion between the two corrupt public institutions continued like that for over a year. Before we knew it, Sander had become a broker so influential that he even had connections with the police.

If it weren't for the board of directors, he would have earned enough credits to move to another planet by now.

'shit. There are no opportunities because of that damn board.'

As of yesterday, there are 30 days left until the board meeting. Thanks to this, the security level throughout the city has risen significantly, making it extremely difficult to secretly transport living creatures.

'You bastards. 'No matter how much money I spent, you can't break through?'

Since it was a strict order issued directly by the head of the port district, civil servants had nothing to do, but there was no way Sander knew about it.

"Hey Sander. "Aren't you coming home from work?"

"I'll be there later."

"okay? effort."

After confirming that other employees had left work, Sander took out his personal laptop from his bag. When he entered his laptop password, a list of creatures to be smuggled out was displayed on the screen.

'It's all about money.'

Everything on the list was checked as 'planned'. Originally, he had planned to finish loading the ship that was leaving for another planet this morning, but the surveillance was so strict that he had no time to intervene.

As surveillance on the port area is strengthened, even goods that are out of the blue are put under surveillance, and brokers like him are also affected.

Thanks to this, creatures that should have been transported long ago were sleeping soundly in containers in the port area. Sander clicked his tongue because the damage was enormous even though only one day had passed.

At that moment, Sander's communicator rang. There was the letter L on the communicator screen.

"Tsk. "I said I was in a bad mood these days."

The message L sent was not long. It was a request for an outspacer transaction.

'Is there anyone buying this?'

Sander tilted his head at the unexpected request. As far as he knew, Outspacers were very dangerous creatures, so there were very few people who bought them.

Of course, smuggling was not completely non-existent. The Outspacer, which was initially stored frozen in the port district, was also a creature seized by the smuggled animal control team.

However, since the seizure, no one has asked Sander to trade outspacers.

While he was lost in doubt, another message arrived.

"hmm. "The cult in the administrative district is purchasing it."

Usually, Sander mediates the transaction, but this time, it looks like he saved the customer on the other side.

'There was probably some help from the head of the smuggled animal control team.'

I thought he was quite a capable person, but I never thought he would have connections with cultists in the administrative district. Sander gave a small exclamation.

If it was a cult, I could understand why they were looking for an out-spacer. Cults love collecting rare animals and strange artifacts.

'It's a good thing it's an administrative district. There is no need to transport it outside.'

I was going to refuse if it were to be sent to another planet, but as long as it is moved within Earth, there is no big problem.

Sander wrote down the meeting place, time, and required credit amount and sent it to L.

The location, as always, was next to the cranes at the container loading dock in the port district. The time was also set at 10pm, the same as before.

It's not something I've done once or twice, and I was about to stop paying attention, believing that they would take care of the rest, but I got a reply again.

"…let's move the time to dawn?"

Sander's brow furrowed. The time was always set here and there was never a time when it was changed over there. If he was missing, smuggling itself could not be established, so it was always one side and the other side.

'But why?'

At a time when surveillance is getting tighter, they request a transaction and then suddenly change the time? Just by looking at it, it looked suspicious.

Sander thought for a moment and then pressed the call button.

The phone rang, and then the other person's voice was heard along with a clicking sound.

"Hello."

"Hey, what are you thinking?"

"Yes?"

"There's never been anything like this before, changing time."

"ah. That's it. "I have to work overtime…."

"Working overtime?"

Sander was suddenly about to ask why he was working overtime, but stopped for a moment.

This is because I remembered a colleague telling me that some idiot was caught trying to smuggle a baby mountain crawler some time ago, causing an uproar.

"Maybe because of the mountain crawler?"

"yes. "Everyone is going crazy because of that."

"Tsk, you're trying so hard. "Then should we move it to another day?"

"They said they wanted to receive it as quickly as possible."

"Really? Anyway, I understand. Did you say 1 am? "I'll see you then."

Now that he fully understands the situation, Sander ends the call.

If he was going to secretly steal the outspacer, he would have to manipulate the storage and transfer documents as well, so he turned on his work PC.

While working on the operation, he suddenly felt something strange.

'No matter how much of a cult it is, they still do business at dawn?'

Once there was doubt about a person's heart, there was bound to be continued doubt. Although their request wasn't particularly strange, Sander couldn't shake the feeling that it was ominous.

'I need insurance.'

Conflicted, he put the communicator in his hand again and dialed a number.

"Oh, it's me. I need you to come with me. uh. uh. Do you know the place? "Come out by 1 a.m."

The person he contacted was the leader of the bodyguards he personally hired.

Because Sander's work had many illegal elements, he often encountered dangerous opponents. Every time that happened, he went to meet the other person accompanied by his bodyguards.

'I don't know what your plan is, but if you do something foolish, you will be punished.'

The members of Sander's bodyguard group were former military police officers, so they all boasted excellent fighting skills. In addition, thanks to the generous investment of credits in equipment, all bodyguards are wearing low-level reinforced suits and are armed with laser equipment. Until now, there were quite a few customers who threatened Sander, but whenever he showed them the human weapons he had hired, they would turn away.

What if you are someone who cleans up smuggled animal poop every day? You'll be lucky if you don't urinate when you see the security guard.

Everything was under his control. Sander was relieved and went back to work.