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Chapter – 48
Just as Kudo had said, the fourth room was the Hatchery.
Its actual name was [Antiross’s Hatchery].
Antiross, who had built a laboratory on the blood-soaked land of Kuverin to devote himself to chimera research, had eventually grown disillusioned after years of failure.
He realized that fusing different lifeforms could never create a true “creature born of creation,” but only hideous, grotesque monstrosities.
Antiross’s ultimate goal was to create an entirely new species — to trespass into the exclusive domain of the Creator himself.
So instead, he began to focus on hatching new lifeforms from eggs.
He would first create the egg, inject it with various reproductive cells, and then use magical and alchemical knowledge to manipulate genetic information — thus producing entirely new species.
That was the lore behind [Antiross’s Laboratory].
“What… what the hell are these eggs?”
Russell, pale with fear, stared nervously at the eggs as if they were ticking bombs.
“Monster eggs?”
“They’re certainly not ordinary eggs,” Begman and Kudo each gave their opinions.
“If anything tries to pop out, I’ll shoot right away,”
Marder said, already nocking an arrow into his newly acquired bow [Silent Death], itching to use it.
“No,”
Carlile said, gently pressing down the arrow to keep Marder from firing.
“There’s no danger here. You don’t need to worry.”
“No danger?”
“Yes.”
Carlile nodded.
“It doesn’t feel like any malicious lifeforms are inside. Relax.”
The senior soldiers agreed reluctantly but couldn’t quite lower their guard.
‘Well, they did just fight a bunch of chimeras. Of course they’re on edge.’
Carlile smirked inwardly and examined the eggs.
There were about a hundred of them.
Each egg varied in size and shape, suggesting that the lifeforms within were also all different.
‘Some of them are ruined.’
Carlile frowned at a few of the eggs.
Some had lost all color, and others even gave off a rotten stench.
It seemed that after Antiross’s death, the magic maintaining the hatchery’s temperature had weakened, and the preservation spells had begun to fail.
“What’s inside those things?”
“Hmm.”
Carlile replied to Begman’s question,
“I don’t know. We’ll only find out if we crack them open.”
“Crack them open?”
“Yeah. That’s the only way to see what’s inside.”
The Hatchery was one of the core contents of [Antiross’s Laboratory] — a system where players could crack eggs open to obtain pets.
What came out of the eggs was completely random, so even Carlile wouldn’t know until he opened them.
“Nothing at all you can tell in advance?”
“Just… that they’re special creatures, I guess.”
“Special?”
“Yeah, like…”
Carlile recalled the pets he had gotten before.
“Things like a perverted cuckoo that thinks about mating all day…”
“Huh?”
“A talking frog, a bird made of stone, a tap-dancing octopus, a winged snake… stuff like that.”
“You expect me to believe that crap?”
Begman’s face scrunched up in disbelief.
“…I’m serious.”
Carlile shut his eyes tightly, remembering his awful luck.
‘They’re all ones I actually got…’
He felt wronged.
Other players would hatch cool, majestic, or adorable pets — like the three-eyed gray cat [Triclops Cat] or [Chimaira], a winged lion with a serpent’s tail.
But Carlile’s luck was abysmal. Every time, he ended up with weird, useless creatures that only caused trouble.
They never helped him — they only brought chaos.
It got so bad that he often skipped the Antiross’s Laboratory entirely in later playthroughs.
‘I’m not expecting anything anyway.’
Carlile looked around at the senior soldiers.
“Let’s start cracking them open.”
“You’re not taking them with you?”
“How could we carry all these? And besides, the large-capacity subspace inventory doesn’t allow living creatures inside.”
“I… I see.”
“Want to go first?”
Carlile handed a small hammer he’d found nearby to Begman.
“You sure it’s okay?”
“Of course. We’ll take turns.”
“If you say so.”
Begman, uncharacteristically cautious, accepted the hammer.
“Just strike it down hard. I think that should work.”
“You think?”
“It’s my first time too.”
“Ah, right.”
Begman did as instructed — crack!
The shell shattered — and from within…
“Ugh!”
Begman recoiled.
Gush!
What poured out wasn’t a living creature, but a thick, black sludge.
The stench was so foul it made their heads spin.
“Ugh.”
“What… what is that?”
Kudo and Marder grimaced.
“Blegh!”
Russell, who was already faint-hearted, gagged and dry-heaved violently.
Carlile covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief.
“It’s a dud.”
“A dud?”
“It rotted. Didn’t hatch in time.”
“I… I see. Ugh.”
Begman shook his boots, trying to flick off the black slime.
“Next?”
No one volunteered.
Kudo, Marder, and Russell were too put off after seeing Begman’s result.
“I’ll do the next one then.”
Carlile raised the hammer and smashed another egg.
Crack! Gush!
Black liquid spilled out again.
‘Of course. Not like I was expecting anything.’
Carlile, unfazed, was about to hand the hammer to Russell when a long-forgotten system notification popped up.
[Notification: Dud!!!]
[Notification: Oh no! Better luck next time!]
[Notification: Try again soon!]
“Son of a—”
Carlile cursed under his breath.
The exploration team’s luck was abysmal.
They’d cracked nearly two-thirds of the eggs, yet not a single pet had appeared.
The hatchery now reeked of rot from all the failed eggs.
‘Maybe it’s not just bad luck,’
Carlile thought.
‘If the preservation magic weakened, of course the eggs would rot.’
Still, he went through the motions, cracking eggs one after another.
[Notification: Dud!!!]
[Notification: Oh no! Better luck next time!]
[Notification: Try again soon!]
The messages were annoying, but he wasn’t as emotionally invested as back when he played Overlord obsessively.
He had already gained valuable defensive items like [Iron Fortress] and [Guerrilla Spirit], so this trip wasn’t for nothing.
‘Let’s just finish and head back…’
Then—
Flash!
An intense light burst from the egg Marder had cracked.
“…!”
Everyone turned toward it.
“Preee! Preee!”
A hawk with shimmering blue feathers, the color of the sky, emerged.
“No way,”
Carlile muttered, in disbelief.
A blue-feathered hawk could only mean one thing.
‘That’s Huginn.’
[Huginn] — a three-eyed hawk, a highly valuable pet.
Unlike normal pets, it grew and evolved, and its lifespan was practically eternal — a lifelong companion for any player lucky enough to obtain it.
Marder had just drawn one of the rarest, top-tier pets possible.
“Preee! Preee!”
The hawk chirped, its third eye glowing as it gazed at Marder.
“What’s it saying?”
Marder asked, dazed.
“It’s imprinting,” Carlile said.
“Imprinting?”
“It recognizes the one who cracked the egg as its master.”
“So I have to raise it?”
Carlile forced a crooked smile.
“‘Raise’ might not be the right word… more like serve it.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Just— take good care of it.”
Carlile smiled bitterly.
Watching someone blissfully unaware of their own insane luck was painful.
“Anyway, congrats. Let’s keep going.”
At the time, Carlile thought Marder’s luck was just unusually good.
But thirty minutes later, when nearly all the eggs were gone, he realized he’d been wrong.
“…Is this some kind of prank show?”
“Prank show? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Begman tilted his head, stroking the neck of his wolf-like pet.
His [Silver Wolf] normally appeared as a wolf but could transform into a beastman when enraged.
Though aged and weakened from the decaying preservation spells, it was intelligent, strong, and highly sought after by players.
“Never mind,” Carlile muttered.
“This one’s pretty cute,” Begman said.
“Woof!”
Kudo, on the other hand, had drawn a nine-tailed red fox.
[Fire Gumiho] — a pet so rare that even Huginn was easier to find. It could eventually take human form after enough growth.
“Whoa, it’s strong!”
“Hisss! Hisss!”
Russell had hatched a white weasel-like creature, the [Forest Maniac] — deceptively small but incredibly powerful, able to grant its owner buffs.
In short: Marder, Begman, Kudo, and even Russell had all drawn top-tier, high-value pets.
Carlile, however, stood alone — petless.
Yes.
He was the only unlucky one.
‘Is this some kind of joke?’
Carlile struggled to suppress the irritation rising within him.
He’d known his luck was bad, but this was absurd.
Seeing it compared side-by-side made it clear just how cursed he was.
“Don’t be too down. You’ve still got three left.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get a cute one too,”
the others said kindly.
“I’m fine. Worry about your own pets.”
Carlile snapped, turning toward the last remaining eggs.
Normally, such a tone toward senior soldiers would be insubordination, but given the situation, no one said a word.
‘Whatever. Who cares about a stupid pet? They’re just a hassle anyway.’
He raised the hammer and smashed one of the last three eggs.
Crack! Gush!
Rotten liquid spilled out.
[Notification: Dud!!!]
[Notification: Oh no! Better luck next time!]
[Notification: Try again soon!]
The next egg was the same.
[Notification: Dud!!!]
[Notification: Oh no! Better luck next time!]
[Notification: Try again soon!]
Only one egg remained.
It was the size of an ostrich egg and gleamed with a black sheen, like polished obsidian.
Crack!
Carlile’s hammer struck it.
BZZZZZAAAAM!
A burst of black light exploded from the shattered egg, swallowing the entire hatchery whole
