Chapter 64: Beastie
For a long moment, Derek found himself convinced that the creature he was seeing on the screen was a glitch, a fabrication of a sensor network stressed too far by all the shit they’d put it through, their nigh-endless series of microjumps having fried something, deep, deep down.
Not that sensors had been that bad since the days when sticking your head out the window and looking with your eyes was a better way of finding things than technology, but it should have been a distinct possibility …
Yet it should have been obvious from the very start that it couldn’t possibly have been any further from “sensor glitch.”
Because Derek’s very own version of [Inspect], [Eye of the Predator], worked through sensors, and what do you know, the creature actually triggered the [Skill]. Only two things could do that: sapients empowered by the [System], and monsters. Three guesses what kind this thing was, and the first two don’t count.
Unfortunately, beyond confirming that the thing existed outside the computer’s imagination, the effect turned out to be almost entirely useless. And considering just how powerful his ability was, anything that could block his sight on what seemed to be Level disparity alone, it had to be powerful. Level 100 at least. And it was an eldritch creature to boot … for all that neither magic nor the [System] played even remotely straight with the laws of physics, their fuckery tended to be consistent.
The only thing about the eldritch that was consistent was how inconsistent it was, and that if there was a specific weirdness you really didn’t want to see, that was typically what you ran into.
By the time Derek’s mind finally caught up with what he was seeing, Atticus had already thrown the ship to the side, thrusters spinning the bow to aim away from the creature before the engines kicked in at flank acceleration, slamming Derek back in his seat, now regretting the fact that he’d partially risen in shock as his spine smashed into the back of his seat.
“You can use [Inspect] through the sensors, what the hell is it?” Ye-in snapped, already dialing it in with their weapons.
“Eldritch monster, high Level! Not a boss!” Derek shot back, and the hum of lasers and particle beams firing began to permeate the ship as the Dragonfly’s secondaries opened up.