BOOM.
Tyler's mutated, heavy-set body slammed onto the deck of the poachers' vessel, the reinforced steel groaning under his weight.
"What the hell is that noise?" one of the guards bared, turning toward the sound.
"Monster! It's a damn monster covered in eyes!" another shrieked, dropping his rifle in sheer terror.
"We've seen bio-creatures before, but nothing this... repulsive," a third added, his voice trembling.
"Idiots! Use your heads!" Jonah Melville's voice cut through the panic. He stood by the cabin, his friendly facade completely gone, replaced by a sneer of calculation. "It's obvious. This abomination must be with the water monsters. Kill it!"
The poachers circled Tyler, their initial shock fading into seasoned aggression. The timid ones still hovered near the back, but the veterans aimed their submachine guns with cold precision. This wasn't their first exotic hunt.
"I don't know who you are," Melville said, offering a tight, dangerous smile. "Or how we offended you. But if you walk away now, we might let you live."
"Less talk," Tyler rasped, his voice echoing from multiple throats. He flexed, allowing every single eye on his body to uniformly lock onto a different target. "You have two choices: hand over the stolen Kraken eggs, or I break every bone in your bodies and take them anyway."
"Choice three," Melville said, lazily hooking his finger in a 'go' signal.
Behind Tyler, a poacher on the upper deck raised a high-powered tranquilizer rifle. He aimed directly at the pulsating, blood-red eyeball embedded in Tyler's back. Cold sweat slicked his palms.
This eye... it can't see me from back here, can it? he thought, his finger tightening on the trigger.
Suddenly, the red eye bloomed with an intense light.
BOOM!!
A focused crimson laser erupted from Tyler's back, vaporizing the sniper rifle and blasting the poacher clean over the railing and into the lake.
"He has 360-degree vision!" Melville shouted in astonishment. "Every eye is active! Open fire!! Aim for the ocular slits!"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
A hail of bullets lanced toward Tyler. But before the first round could even reach him, his entire body ignited with a bloody luminescence.
In a terrifying display of multi-directional firepower, every eyeball on his torso, limbs, and shoulders simultaneously unleashed a devastating laser volley. It was a localized storm of pure destructive energy.
"His eyes aren't just for seeing! They're the weapons!"
"Fall back! We can't stop this volume of fire!"
The poachers frantically pulled their triggers, trying to use raw firepower to suppress the laser storm. But it was useless. Their bullets were pulverized mid-air, and the lasers sliced through their rifles as if they were made of cardboard. One by one, the mercenaries were blasted off their feet, tumbling into the dark water.
This was the glitched reality of the Eye Guy DNA. Not just a scout, but a living, breathing arsenal.
"This guy... he's a walking weapons platform!" Melville gritted his teeth, watching his entire crew get dismantled in seconds. How can one organism generate this much raw energy?
Minutes later, the deck was silent, save for the crackle of ozone and the groans of the wounded. Tyler stood in the center of the carnage, his form dimming as the internal energy reserves stabilized. He looked around through his multiple eyes.
Dealt with the whole crew, Tyler thought with a trace of regret. And not a single percentage point of progress. Figures.
He began to walk the deck, his twitching eyes scanning for the prize. He stopped at a heavy wooden crate on the foredeck. This must be it. In the original timeline, Melville's crew had stolen these eggs from Plumber couriers, driving the Kraken into a frenzy.
"YOU BASTARD!!"
An enraged roar erupted from the ship's cargo hold. The metal doors exploded outward, and a three-meter-tall submersible walker—outfitted with massive, dual-barrel laser cannons—stomped onto the deck. Jonah Melville sat inside the reinforced cockpit, his face twisted in a murderous rage.
"Get away from those eggs!"
"Finally, a challenge..." Tyler's back eyes locked onto the mech. He calmly set the wooden box down and turned to face the threat.
BOOM!!
The submersible walker fired first, unleashing twin bolts of deep blue energy.
Tyler didn't dodge. A massive eye on his chest opened, firing a blood-red laser that met the blue beams head-on. The two energies stalemated in the center of the deck, creating a violent, sparking core of plasma.
"Haha! What are you now, monster? You dare try to steal my fortune?" Melville shouted, cranking the power.
"If one eye can't handle you," Tyler rasped, his multiple voices in perfect sync, "let's try six."
He braced his feet, leaning his entire body backward in a grotesque, unnatural arch. This posture aligned half a dozen of his major ocular cannons directly at the mech's cockpit.
"Oh no..." Melville's gloating turned to terror. He frantically threw the mech into maximum output.
The submersible walker crossed its massive arms, releasing a deep-blue energy shockwave meant to disrupt the incoming blast.
BOOM!!
Six eyes fired simultaneously. The combined blood-red beam formed a devastating energy vortex that instantly vaporized the blue shockwave and submerged the entire mech. The robot, built for deep-sea pressure, shredded like paper under the intense heat. Melville himself was blasted clear of the cockpit, tumbling across the deck with the wreckage.
"A bunch of clowns," Tyler sighed, his form glowing dully. "They don't even grant progress. Not even as useful as Animo's mutations."
He walked back to the crate and ripped the lid open, revealing a self-contained cultivation chamber. Inside the glass, two golden Kraken eggs were pulsing with light.
Not far away in the deep water, the Kraken was using its massive physical advantage to brutalize Ben in close-quarters combat.
Ben didn't even try to retaliate; he looked toward Shaw's distant fishing boat. "Damn it, if I wasn't waiting for Max to sail that old man away, I would have walked you like a dog a long time ago! You stinky reptile!"
"AWOO!!"
The Kraken suddenly halted, its deep blue eyes shifting from Ben to the large ship.
On the deck, Tyler lifted the cultivation chamber and effortlessly hurled it into the lake. "Kraken! Here are your eggs! I'm returning them to you!"
"Awoo~"
The Kraken let out a long, grieving howl. Its twenty-meter body cut through the water, gliding past Shaw's tiny boat—making it look like a toy—as it swam toward the floating chamber. The beast gently nudged the container open and retrieved its offspring.
"I dealt with the people who stole them," Tyler shouted down from the deck, offering what he thought was a benevolent smile. "I hope you won't make things difficult for my friend."
"..."
The Kraken looked up, locked eyes with the dozens of twitching, bloody sockets covering Tyler's body, and actually flinched. The prehistoric alpha predator whimpered, tucked its tail, and swam away as fast as its flippers could carry it.
"Thanks! Eye of Fear!"
Ben shouted his thanks from the water, his fishtail flapping as he began to surface.
It sounds like thanks, Tyler thought, but he just gave me another name.
[Ding! Host has neutralized the Melville poacher gang, destroyed the submersible walker, and facilitated the return of the Kraken eggs. Plot Deviation secured. Progress: +1%]
[Template Mastery: 8/100. Unlocking Skills: Plumber Agent (Apprentice Class).]
Plumber Agent skills?
In an instant, thousands of technical, martial, and linguistic memories flooded into Tyler's mind. He stumbled, his ocular forms twitching as his brain adapted.
Fluency in dozens of major languages...
Mastery of high-performance vehicles, submersibles, and aircraft...
Expert combat techniques, introductory demolitions, and stealth protocols...
All the qualities of an elite intergalactic secret agent were etched into his DNA. He wasn't just a monster anymore. He was a weapon that knew how to think.