152

Faced with a scene that looked ready to trigger some biotech hazard, I silently interrogated my homeland: What the hell am I supposed to do here?

Beyond the door, the wriggling pink mass of flesh was enthusiastically expanding.

Worse, it was absorbing the other test subjects in the room, narrowing my options by the second.

‘The Nemesis Code only matters if the target is alive. If so, does that act have some other purpose… or is this just how it feeds?’

With what I’d confirmed so far, I couldn’t decide.

If it tried to absorb any organic matter, then it would definitely come for me.

And if you asked, “Can you beat it?”… I could only answer: I don’t know.

“What even is that thing? What do you do to end up like that?”

Even if someone explained it, I probably wouldn’t understand, but right now I just wanted to complain.

At least I’d confirmed fire worked.

It had reacted with obvious aversion, but unfortunately, with my mana, firing another big shot was honestly difficult.

Maybe I could reuse it in about an hour, but right now, lighting flames on all five fingertips was about my limit.

Since it was a fallback option, the safest approach would be to avoid going in until my mana recovered—but waiting could also make the situation worse.

As I watched through the crack in the door, the meat mass suddenly stopped moving.

No—it only looked like it stopped.

The flesh had expanded all the way to the ceiling.

If the increase in volume had truly halted, that would be great.

But if it was still growing, then where was its leading edge now?

It was a tiny sound.

A faint sticky noise that reached these ears—ears that could even pick up machinery running.

Not from the ceiling.

It wasn’t clinging there.

It was further ahead—

The moment I realized that, I was already springing away.

At the same time, the ceiling collapsed and the pink mass revealed itself.

“Stop adding horror-game mechanics for no reason!”

I shouted, grabbed a chunk of ceiling debris that rolled near my feet, and hurled it.

I assumed it wouldn’t do anything—the material didn’t look that hard—but the spot it hit tore off and splattered away.

So it didn’t have much defense.

But just as I thought I’d gained a useful piece of info, the blasted-away section regenerated immediately.

‘This is that type. No defense, huge HP, and auto-regeneration.’

It matched the kind of monster you’d see in an RPG.

And the worst kind too—the one that regenerated by a percentage of max HP.

I checked behind me first.

Despite its appearance, it could move quietly, so relying on hearing alone was scary.

Switching from “fight focus” to “search focus,” I moved to secure my retreat route.

The way I came was blocked by writhing flesh, but the path behind me was still clear.

If contact carried a high risk, then I needed to pull back and set the field.

Specifically, I needed something flammable.

With the ignition magic tool pulled from my pack, I was fully prepared to commit arson—I was going to turn that meat mass into burnable trash.

Praying the fire alarm system was dead, I pressed the tool’s tip into the cushion of a bench in the corridor.

Because I’d warmed it up, smoke started almost immediately, and the padding inside caught too.

After confirming the flames wavering and crackling, I hoisted the burning bench and ran toward the flesh blocking the corridor.

I shoved the flaming bench forward into it, and when the mass tried to avoid the fire, I threw it in.

But I wasn’t done.

I lit fire on the fingertips of my right hand and thrust them toward the flesh spread across the ceiling.

“Burning Finger!”

It was one of my “recreation moves.” The real version had a hand blazing red, and the victim you grabbed exploded.

Mine was a sad imitation, but against a flesh mass that fled from fire, it worked beautifully.

That was how I successfully broke through the corridor it had sealed, meaning I could now escape the facility at any time.

I’d just thought, This avoids the worst-case scenario, when a pink wave suddenly glorped out from a side passage.

I hadn’t heard any sound of a wall breaking, so apparently there’d been a detour route.

Still, I’d broken through without wasting time, so I’d call it good.

‘But its expansion speed is faster than I expected.’

I might need to commit to evacuation sooner rather than later.

But I should do what I could first.

I set up a second “festival bonfire bench” in the side passage and retreated further.

No matter how fast it was expanding, it was still just a lump of meat.

It moved slower than I could walk.

I still had time—so I went looking for a third “bench,” when a sound came from the ceiling.

Focusing for a moment, I immediately understood what it was.

“A duct!”

If it had invaded the ventilation system and was extending from there, then I didn’t have time to be leisurely. I broke into a run.

A moment later, the ceiling collapsed behind me and a pink flesh-waterfall poured down.

So yes—it really was targeting me.

While running, I grabbed another bench from the corridor—ignition, and release.

A sliding bonfire pried open the flesh and carved out a tunnel.

Watching that, I noticed something clearly off.

‘The corridor isn’t completely filled with flesh?’

That’s right. Beyond the tunnel I could see… was a corridor with no flesh at all.

Meaning either it hadn’t increased in volume as much as I’d assumed, or the amount chasing me was only what I saw in front of me.

Once the information piled up, this brain of mine couldn’t keep up.

For now, the plan was still fire-based interception.

With magic shots exhausted, the ignition rod in my hand was my lifeline.

I kept my distance and started grabbing anything that looked like fuel from nearby rooms into the narrow corridor.

I smashed ceiling panels, kept the magic tool in both hands, and tried to gather even more fuel—

But the wriggling pink wall of meat was already close.

I shoved the rod—pinched between two fingers—into the fuel pile.

Along with smoke, the stink of scorching spread through the area, and the meat mass’s movement visibly slowed.

I threw a metal chunk wrapped in burning cloth.

It was brute force made possible only because I could withstand heat, and the flesh mass couldn’t dodge—so the fireball struck the pink wall dead-on.

The result was beyond what I expected.

The wet slurp-slurp slime—probably its membrane—was basically oily, and the flesh was instantly engulfed in flames.

The mass flailed, slamming itself against walls and floor to try to put the fire out, but it achieved almost nothing, producing only pathetic splat-splat sounds.

“Hah. I can’t believe the first weakness I found works this well.”

I murmured in relief as the burning mass stopped moving, and as the flames shrank, its volume dwindled away with them.

But I still couldn’t relax.

This was only a portion of it.

Certain now that I was closing in on my goal—defeat the main body and consume it—I searched for more flammable material.

I prepared for the second half.

The only problem was… this thing was basically coated in fat.

Being told to bite into a lump of pure grease made me a little scared for after the meal.

I wrapped a plastic rod with cloth soaked in alcohol.

In my other hand I kept the ignition magic tool so I could light it at any time, and I strapped several spares onto my pack.

It might’ve been an enemy I could’ve beaten by simply punching it down, but if I’d found an effective method, then a civilized man prioritized that.

Alright. Time to finish this.