SalivaSpittingWorm

Hey, guys. I'm on my vacation right now and I'm not getting much rest! Advice for those who, like me, prefer to rest lying down. Don't go on vacation with a family of extroverts.

Dai opened her eyes and sat up. Somehow she found herself on the ground, but that wasn't the first thing Dai cared about.

"No way." She said out loud. What kind of dream was this? Or was it more like a vision? A lost memory?

Dai's face twisted in disbelief. What the hell was that?! Is she some kind of regimental mother? Where did she get so many brats? In a facility like this? What was she doing there? Why was she there? Too many questions and no answers. It wasn't enjoyable to find out she didn't know herself suddenly.

System: Main task completed

Description: Search the test base.

Reward: 1 free teleportation from anywhere back to the shop per day.

Dai stared at the system window for a moment. Dai felt a little relieved to be able to return, but she had other things to worry about now.

She's the mother of a hell of a lot of little buggers! Dai began to roll up her clothes to examine her stomach. She watched it momentarily, its muscles slightly visible, with no stretch marks or anything.

"Nah, no way. I certainly haven't had any children. It's stupid. Why am I even doing this? Those were definitely artificially grown children." She adjusted her clothes again and sighed. They called her mother. How strange that sounded. Dai had never even considered children, yet she'd apparently adopted an entire regiment of children. Dai had her memory altered and erased for some reason, but had her personality also changed?

The System spoke."Boss, you're incredible. It's rare to see someone so eager for offspring."

Dai got angry. "Shut up. You have no right to comment."

"I'm permanently coded into you. I am a part of you. And given our separate consciousness, what does that make me? Father?" The System was thinking.

When the System said that, Dai almost spat out blood.

"Ugh, be quiet. This is getting on to give me nightmares. I can barely handle the idea of myself as someone's mother."

"... uncle then?"

Dai rubbed her temples. She had to think about what she had just learned and not let the System bother her.

Could she be someone who worked in a similar facility? Had Dai begun to care too much for the children she created, and they began to see her as their mother? That was the most likely scenario. She helped them escape. But Dai still doesn't know what Project Keeper is or what it has to do with anything. Keeper4 was her real name. Dai didn't want to think about it, but could she also be someone artificially bred for some purpose unknown to her? Maybe she was supposed to be teaching these kids? Well... Things didn't exactly go according to plan, did they? If things were even close to what she thought, Project Keeper must have failed. Didn't it?

*****

On the border of the Heart Continent.

A rough camp was built, and around it were several meters of signs of destruction. Trees were shattered, uprooted, stones crushed, and the ground uprooted in many places.

The sky had long been dark, littered with many stars, and the moon was high in the mute, but the camp was still full of noise and life. The bodies of beasts, mostly already devoured and gnawed to the bone, were roasting on great fires. Warriors, women, and men dressed in skins or body-concealing robes occasionally came to cut a piece of meat and return to the fun. They sang, they talked loudly, they wrestled, and some shut themselves up in tents and performed another kind of wrestling. All celebrated the reunion after a long separation.

Four figures were sitting by one of the fires. Two were dressed in furs, and the other two were wrapped in robes—one in blue and the other in yellow.

They paid no attention to the celebration and discussed among themselves in low voices.

"You've grown a lot, Brother Ito. You're still the strongest." Said Moon.

"Hmph. Of course, in the end, we shouldn't throw away what we're best at. Even if it's something from Them." The big man shrugged.

Moon looked around the illuminated camp. How she could see through the cloth that covered most of her face was a mystery. "Your group has grown quite large. Where did you find them all?" She wondered. Her voice was neutral, so it was uncertain whether she approved or not.

Ito looked at her and wrinkled his thick eyebrows.

"All over the place. Not everyone is like us. Some are just abandoned children. Orphans. That sort of thing."

"So you're taking in intruders."

Ito straightened his back and fixed Moon with a stare. "They're my people. Brothers and sisters. You can be as narrow-minded as you want but don't try to criticize me." He warned her.

Moon was silent, her pink lips pressed into a thin line.

"I don't understand your attitude either, and I'm not saying anything to you about it. Mom... Dai had nothing to do with us either. Yet she accepted us. Instead of making an example of it, you're disparaging everyone who isn't like us." He took a piece of meat and bit into it so hard the juices squirted out.

Moon raised her hand, which flashed with blue light. The flesh in Ito's hands began to glow the same color faintly and stuffed itself down Ito's throat until he began to choke.

"Careful not to choke. You've always been a big eater, brother."

Ito choked for only a moment before his throat grew unnaturally large, like a toad's bloated throat, and the whole piece of meat slid smoothly down into his stomach.

Ito wiped the grease from his beard.

"And you, even when you're playing saint, you're still the same bitch, little sister." He replied as if nothing had happened.

Innocent, soft, pink lips curled into a smile.

"Hoho, what are you talking about, Ito? I am the epitome of purity."

Ito chuckled amusedly and sarcastically.

The woman with the shaved half of her head sitting next to Ito cleared her throat to break up their catfight. "Should we start discussing our mission?"

The young boy in a yellow robe beside Moon nodded in agreement. "We've already measured our strength. Brother Ito won. Sister Moon, please obey the rules and let him lead." He urged his proud older sister.

Moon let out a low snort and turned her head away.

Ito looked at the young man in yellow.

"Cole, you've really grown up over the years. No wonder you're her right hand."

Cole's bright red eyes shone with joy through the thin yellow fabric. He clasped both hands together on his chest. "Thank you, brother. I hope the Great Mother finds me noble enough to welcome me into her loving arms." His voice sounded pious. Ito shivered a little with discomfort. They all held their mother in high esteem, and she held a special place in their hearts. But the Moon group was going a little too far.

Each of the groups had a different approach to the Mother. Ito wanted to keep Mother safe and give her a peaceful and happy life among her children. Sister Moon's group, however, revered Mother as supreme and was more of a cult. Ito cared about all his siblings, but that didn't mean he agreed with them. And it was Sister Moon's group that he liked the least. They were too... Fanatical, and he didn't think Mother would approve. One of the reasons she left was so they could go their own way and not be so dependent on her.

There was silence for a moment before the wild woman spoke again.

"Sister Stell reported that Dai has disappeared and her hideout has been destroyed. She reappeared in the city for a while on an unknown beast and left Shelter 22." She reported.

"Renil, do you think she could have recovered her memory?" Cole asked hopefully.

The wild woman named Renil shook her head dismissively. "The likelihood is slim. We've been cautious about overwriting her memories and personality. Some things still leak out, but it was only the personality and not the memories."

Moon clasped her hands in front of her as if in prayer.

"Mother is strong. Maybe she really has managed to restore something. Why else would she leave the Shelter she chose as her resting place?"

The group was silent for a moment, individually considering the options.

"The destruction of her hideout must have triggered something," Ito said.

"Who attacked our Mother?" Moon asked, suppressed anger in her voice.

"Some mutant," Renil answered her and shrugged. "Her power wasn't bad. We could take care of her."

"Some filthy mutant dared to touch our Holy Mother..." Cole began to grit his teeth, squeezing a piece of the fabric of his robe in his hands as if he imagined holding the mutant under her throat.

Moon patted him on the back in a reassuring gesture, even though she had to suppress her own resentments. "She will be punished. Now let's focus on Mother."

Cole nodded and took a deep breath, a cloud of steam drifting from his mouth.

Ito ran his fingers through his beard. "It'll be harder to find her if she's left the Shelter. Perhaps we should summon Brother Kirk and his Hounds. They'll find anything."

Moon made a disdainful sound, and Ito fixed her with his gaze again.

"What now? Now you're going to despise even those who belong to us?"

Moon shook her head. "No, it's just that Kirk isn't very loyal to Mother."

Ito sighed. "Just because he doesn't obsess over her like you do doesn't mean she means nothing to him. Let it go. You have about as much empathy as a piece of wood anyway."

Renil spoke before they got into each other's hair again.

"One way or another, Kirk will track her down, but what do we do next? Dai still might not remember us. How are you going to make her trust us at all? She'd rather run away. She's just a simple woman with simple desires now."

Cole cleared his throat significantly. "I might have a solution for that."

Dai scrambled back to the surface. Somehow she managed to survive the night underground, and it was already dawn outside. Stigma waited nervously outside the building, greeting her with a hoof digging into the ground and a bowed head.

Dai went to pet her and was glad she had managed to escape that Feathered Creeper.

Touching Stigma's warm body was comforting. Dai's thoughts revolved around what she had learned, and she felt demotivated.

She turned her head and opened the System's interface to look at the new task the System had bestowed upon her as she climbed back to the surface.

New Main Task!

Description: Reach Shelter 1

Reward: System Upgrade. 500 Star Coins.

Special Reward: 1x Grade S ability.

Description: Reach Shelter 1 within one week.

Failure: Amount owed to the System 1000 SC. Permanently lock the Special folder.

Note: Things are getting serious, Boss. Let's stop playing games.

She frowned at the wording of the note.

"Who's playing games here? I'm serious all the time." She complained, but the System didn't respond this time.

Dai didn't mind. The System was getting more talkative lately anyway. It seemed the longer it was with Dai, the more it gained some personality. An annoying personality.

Dai didn't want to stay in this place any longer. Still, she opened her map and made a Mark on this place, just in case.

Then she packed up camp, and within half an hour, she was sitting on the back of Stigma and moving on.

Dai considered going back and ditching the whole thing. Things were complicated now. But another part of her told her to keep going. If she was going to go out once, she'd better finish the job!

And her instincts rarely let her down.

They took off and followed the map to Shelter 1. Dai hoped this whole thing would be worth it.

She got some stuff and learned more about herself, but... Somehow, she'd rather it hadn't happened. She had her life, she had her simple dream, and Dai didn't want things to be complicated. Now she's discovering that everything she knows is a lie, and so is her life. Dai wondered if there was any way to avoid her own life. Maybe when she connects Shelter 1 to her shop, she should stay there forever and not go anywhere else. Never.

Dai became alert when she noticed a shadow flickering through the trees.

She turned her head, and her eyes widened in shock.

"Fuck!" She screamed at the exact moment she quickly pressed herself against Stigma's back.

A sharp beak pierced the air where her head had been moments before. Stigma made a sound of an angry whimpering and swished her tail at her attacker.

*Ghaaaaaiiiiih!!!* There was a shriek and a thudding of footsteps behind them.

Dai looked back with a pounding heart.

"That bastard is smarter than I thought. It's set up an ambush for us." She whispered shakily. A vicious creature with thundering footsteps pursued them. It may have been slower, but its persistence was incredible.

New Urgent Task

Description: Kill the Giant Ironbeaked Seagull

Reward: Immortal Flight Technique

Failure: Death

Dai frowned and looked back at the creature called Giant Ironbeak Seagull again.

Kill it? Hell yeah! Not just for the reward, but that stalker was pissing her off already!

It's good to take anger out on something else.