Chapter Four: The Egg of the Cosmic Monster (Part One)

With the experience of opening the first container, the second one took significantly less time. In just twelve days, the Phantom Thief managed to unlock the door and step out.

When the Phantom Thief emerged, Gluttonous Beast glanced at his disappointed expression and knew it couldn’t be anything good. Still, he asked, “Old Ghost, what was inside the second container?”

The Phantom Thief replied irritably, “Damn it, just a chunk of useless metal. The box is a fake, meant to throw people off.”

Gluttonous Beast laughed and tried to comfort him. “Alright, there’s still one more. Maybe the third container will have something valuable.”

The Phantom Thief nodded eagerly, regaining his spirit. After a while, he finally said, “Let’s wait a few days. I need to sleep for a couple of days first; I’m exhausted. Whoever came up with the idea of putting a piece of junk in a container to trick me is a real bastard. I went sleepless and anxious for over ten days because of this. If I ever find out who it was, I’ll go after his stuff next time.”

Grumbling, the Phantom Thief made his way back to his room.

He slept for three full days before finally emerging. After eating something, he hauled the last container into his workshop.

Half a month later, the Phantom Thief exited his workshop, his face full of disappointment. Seeing Gluttonous Beast waiting at the door, he forced a bitter smile and said, “This container is different from the previous two. It must be something more advanced, but I haven’t opened it yet. I’ll go sleep first.”

The Phantom Thief spent three whole months trying to unlock it, coming out five times in total—each time for a nap before returning to his task. Meanwhile, Gluttonous Beast resigned himself to training in the special practice room within the base, under a gravity equivalent to over forty times that of Berserker Star.

Today, Gluttonous Beast emerged from the practice room and, out of habit, walked to the workshop door where the Phantom Thief worked on the containers. To his surprise, the workshop was open.

He entered curiously, only to find the Phantom Thief standing motionless before the opened container. Gluttonous Beast approached and looked inside, spotting a strangely large, ovoid egg, about half the size of a person. He asked, “Old Ghost, what’s wrong? What is this thing?”

The Phantom Thief turned, as if only just noticing Gluttonous Beast, and replied, “I don’t know. It seems like a monster egg, but I can’t tell what kind of monster it belongs to. I’ve checked tons of monster records, but found nothing useful.”

Gluttonous Beast tapped the egg shell lightly and was surprised to find it soft, like a ball of cotton—it offered no resistance at all.

Suddenly, a bizarre flower with a face sprouted from Gluttonous Beast’s neck, nearly startling him. The lower part of the flower was still connected to his body, and it stretched out, its face examining the strange egg before saying, “Such power, such peculiar energy.”

The flower abruptly retracted behind Gluttonous Beast’s head and spoke haltingly, “Master, if my deepest mental imprint is correct, this should be an egg of a cosmic beast.”

“Cosmic beast?” Both Gluttonous Beast and the Phantom Thief exclaimed.

Humans nowadays were well aware of cosmic beasts—living creatures that inhabited the vastness of space. Though their numbers were small compared to the immense universe, these beings possessed strange abilities, some so powerful that even battleships had to avoid them.

The Phantom Thief snapped out of it and suddenly shouted, “My goodness, a cosmic beast egg! If I could have a cosmic beast as a pet, just imagine how impressive that would be!”

Gluttonous Beast recovered as well and retorted, “Yeah, and by the time you’re dust, maybe your cosmic beast pet still hasn’t woken up.”

This was the truth. From what humans knew about monsters able to roam freely in space, these creatures had lifespans far beyond human comprehension.

Hearing this, the Phantom Thief sighed deeply and cursed, “Whoever found this cosmic beast egg is a bastard! It’s torture for me!”

Gluttonous Beast felt a bit uneasy—it seemed he was the one who brought this thing back. He hurriedly said, “Old Ghost, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I was wrong to bring back something so precious?”

The Phantom Thief realized his slip and quickly explained, “Kid, I didn’t mean you. I meant the one who found it first.”

Neither of them knew that ever since Gluttonous Beast had sneakily dragged these three containers back, the entire Sea of Death had plunged into chaos. Many people now wished they could tear apart whoever possessed the egg.

After a while, their commotion died down, and the Phantom Thief finally said, “Kid, what should we do now? How about we sell the egg?”

Gluttonous Beast grew worried. “Old Ghost, what if the original owner finds out when we sell it?”

The Phantom Thief nodded repeatedly. “Right, right, we should hide it somewhere. Let’s get it out of the container.”

Carefully, the two lifted the giant egg out of the container. Just as they were about to load it onto a work robot, Gluttonous Beast suddenly felt a strange energy in his left hand surge uncontrollably into the egg. The Phantom Thief was inexplicably thrown several meters away by some unknown force, and the giant egg landed lightly on the ground, sticking firmly to Gluttonous Beast’s left hand. The energy in his left arm continued to flow weirdly into the egg.

As time passed, the surface of the giant egg seemed to grow brighter. The Phantom Thief finally recovered, walked over, and asked, “Kid, what’s happening to you?”

Gluttonous Beast, now a bit panicked, replied, “I don’t know, but it seems the egg is absorbing the energy from my arm and has stuck my hand to it.”