The Age of Adaptation
Tutorial: Hide-and-Seek.
Type: Survival
Difficulty: F-
Description: Blade-wielding fiends roaming the forest. Survive them. (You may return after surviving one day.)
Reward: Points will be awarded according to survival time.
That was the tutorial.
Yoo Sung-hwan adjusted his backpack.
He recalled his brother’s lessons and thought of the level 1 Infector types.
Blade-wielding fiends, huh...
-Listen carefully. There are only two kinds of Infector with sharply mutated hands. Coward Stalker and Bleeder.
It had to be one of them.
Maybe both.
Yoo Sung-hwan looked around.
It was a forest. Darkness pressed in from every side. It felt like night, and even if the sun rose, it probably wouldn’t be much brighter than this.
These trees are all dense as hell.
A perfect environment for hiding.
Both of those things had excellent noses, but their hearing and sight weren’t that great.
He studied the ground and found a puddle of standing water.
When he touched it with his hand, he felt slick mud.
That was when it happened.
“Kyaaah! You said we’d start somewhere safe. What the hell are these things!”
Clack, clack.
The distinctive sound of teeth grinding together layered over the scream.
Before long, the wet tearing noises punctuated by shrieks made Yoo Sung-hwan clamp his hands over his ears.
His body, which had been fine until then, began to shake violently. His heart hammered.
So this was how his brother had survived here?
Because it wasn’t a game, the tension was magnified all the more.
Wind carried a jumble of sounds.
Screams and roars, the shuffling movement unique to Infector, running footsteps.
He took his hands away from his ears.
His eyes were already staring blankly at the muddy water on the ground.
Maybe it was because his nerves had been pushed past their limit.
His rigid body, in turn, began to loosen.
Splish. Splish.
He smeared mud all over himself.
He spread it carefully and without gaps, masking his scent.
Now the mud-colored Yoo Sung-hwan rose to his feet.
He needed somewhere to hide.
If he survived one day, he could return.
But the backpack he’d been issued contained three days’ worth of food.
Was this tutorial really just sending him out here and telling him to endure for one day?
No.
His brother had stressed the importance of the tutorial over and over again.
-Starting the tutorial doesn’t mean you’ve already reached the starting line. It just means you’re in the process of getting there. If you want to secure a starting point ahead of everyone else, you need to earn a lot of points here.
He’d said you could do it by completing achievements. Killing Infector was allowed too.
Though he hadn’t particularly recommended the latter.
Achievements...
Yoo Sung-jun. His brother had explained achievements in detail.
A way to earn points early on that went beyond simply hunting Infector.
I’ll need to go for achievements too.
He sprinted without hesitation.
Under the roots of a large tree, in the crack of a rock—anywhere would do.
He kept scanning his surroundings, refusing to stop until he found a hideout.
Then, while running, he tripped over something and fell.
For a split second, it had felt soft. Thinking it might be an Infector, he thrust his knife forward. But it wasn’t.
“Kuh!”
The obstacle was a corpse.
A corpse with its eyes still wide open in death.
Its intestines had spilled out through the split in its side.
The damage was severe.
Yoo Sung-hwan frowned and stood up.
If he didn’t want to end up like that, he had to move fast.
He had no idea how many Infector were in this forest, but first priority was avoiding detection while securing a hiding place. That should have been the priority, but—
“…Huh?”
He was running again when he stopped dead at the sight before him.
There was a cliff. In front of it sat a half-destroyed truck, as if it had fallen from above.
It looked like a transport truck. The brand written on the side in English was Gun Shop.
Drawn as if by a spell, he walked toward it.
Was this truck heading to a gun store?
There was nothing inside the cab.
Only dried blood stained the driver’s seat.
In case there was anything useful, he went around to the back.
The rear door had been knocked sideways and crushed in.
Fortunately, the side with the handle hadn’t been smashed flat.
Thinking he could open it, he lifted the handle upward.
Thunk.
With a heavy sound, a gap opened.
He pulled hard, and with a grinding screech, it swung open.
Yoo Sung-hwan peered inside and smiled.
What luck...
The interior was a mess, but it was full of guns.
Mixed in with the ammunition, too.
He hurried inside and picked them up one by one.
Every one he touched was broken.
But there had to be at least one weapon that was still intact.
That prediction was exactly right.
It’s a shotgun.
It looked like it used 12-gauge cartridges...
Clack, clack.
The moment he heard that sound, Yoo Sung-hwan felt the blood in his veins freeze.
It was close. When had it gotten here? He hadn’t even made much noise.
No way.
Had it come sniffing for the faint smell of blood from the driver’s seat?
The footsteps were growing louder.
Yoo Sung-hwan rummaged beneath the spot where the shotgun had been.
Among the shattered, broken firearms, one box caught his eye.
He almost laughed out loud as he reached for it.
Then, all at once—
Clack.
At the sound from the entrance, he jerked his head around on reflex.
All of its features looked melted away except for the red eyes. Where its hands should have been, a pair of enormous scythe-like blades sat in their place. It must have just come from killing users, because it was slick with blood.
The thing—the Coward Stalker—was staring at Yoo Sung-hwan.
It roared at this new prey.
Krararararack!
Yoo Sung-hwan didn’t panic.
Strangely enough, the trembling had stopped the moment he gripped the gun.
He stared at the thing trying to get inside and opened the box.
He couldn’t see well, so he felt around for the cartridges with his hand. The moment he identified their shape, his hand moved to the shotgun.
Click.
He loaded the shell into the port. Pump action.
The second he heard the chambering sound, he pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
A deafening blast exploded from the muzzle.
In a sealed space like this, his ears rang painfully.
Still, that was fine.
Better than being torn apart by an Infector.
“Ha, ha ha…”
As expected, a level 1 Infector couldn’t withstand a shotgun’s firepower.
Its torso burst apart as it was flung backward.
You have gained 40 points.
Instant death. After confirming it from the doorway, he collected the ammunition first.
Three boxes in all. He’d have to check how many shells were in them later.
Clack, clack! Crunch!
It seemed the other Infector scattered around the area had heard that blast.
Still, that didn’t matter.
There’s no need to keep looking for a hiding place.
Yoo Sung-hwan smiled.
He was good with guns. That was something he’d learned through relentless practice.
And now he had one.
It felt like the mission type had changed.
From survival to extermination.
Click!
The sound of reloading echoed through the forest.
***
I wonder if he’s doing well.
By now, he should be in the tutorial.
Worrying about his younger brother, Yoo Sung-jun pulled the trigger.
Thwunk!
The nail fired from the muzzle pierced the level 2 Infector, Gorotolan.
Its skin, hard as rock, peeled away in chunks.
Grrraah!
“Shut up.”
It howled in pain.
The owner of the department-store rooftop seemed startled by the intruder’s unexpected strength.
Yoo Sung-jun charged at it.
It was like a Roland Gorilla. The instant he closed the distance, it thrust out its arms as if it had been waiting for this.
Just as expected.
It was exactly like the game. The moment it got within range, it just swung its fists first.
Yoo Sung-jun breathed.
His body, strengthened to level 1, drew in oxygen greedily.
It felt as though a surge of power had suddenly shot through him.
The faint tension vanished, and within his sharpened field of vision, a low laugh slipped from him.
Whoosh!
The Jet Sword cleaved through the air and reached the center of its brow.
Thud! It shattered the skin and buried itself halfway in.
As expected of a monster tougher than a Doug Spider.
Still, half its brain had been split open.
Grrrk.
With a final rattle of phlegmy breath, Gorotolan collapsed.
After the heavy fall, Loki’s settlement voice rang out.
You have gained 400 points.
As expected of an Infector at the very end of level 2.
With the mission difficulty adjustment on top of it, the payout was insane.
“That should do it for cleaning out the department store.”
Yoo Sung-jun tucked away the new gun he’d bought after selling the MP9 Sharp Shooter: the NG-88.
This gun accelerated nail rounds and fired them at high speed, boasting tremendous firepower despite its low noise.
Worth every one of those seven thousand points.
Thanks to it, he’d taken down Gorotolan without ever being in danger.
He moved toward the pile of purification agents the creature had hoarded behind it, where it had built its nest.
That had pushed him a little harder than he liked.
Yoo Sung-jun gathered a mound of purification agents.
Twelve in total. The settlement was going to be worth looking forward to.
He’d planned to call it a day and head back. That had been the plan.
He didn’t hear the sound of breaking glass until—
“What is it?”
Were the Infector fighting each other?
That was possible.
They protected and expanded their territory, and when they ran into another species, they fought more often than not.
Bang, bang, bang!
But no.
An Infector wouldn’t make gunfire.
Well, there were some that had regained intelligence and could handle firearms, but...
There aren’t any like that among the level 2 Infector.
So the one making a commotion on the first floor of the department store had to be a user.
Loki. You’re still there, right? Someone besides me.
That is correct. The current mission participation count has been recorded as 2.
Good enough.
Yoo Sung-jun left the commercial building.
He headed to the open void at the center and looked below.
A figure wearing a black coat and a hood pulled low over its head was fighting an Infector.
A Regator, huh.
That was the name of the creature driving a user into a corner.
If a giant alligator could walk on two legs, it would probably look like this.
Those weren’t short limbs. It was swinging long ones around to keep pressure on its prey.
If its long, massive jaws ever got hold of someone, they’d be torn in half for sure.
Why is it fighting like that?
The more he watched, the more he tilted his head at the user’s response.
For one thing, the firearm in the user’s hand was weak.
It was nowhere near enough to kill a level 2 Infector.
And yet the user wasn’t wielding a melee weapon either.
It was a string of evasions. But for some reason, the user was strangely good at that.
Something clicked in Yoo Sung-jun’s mind.
Is that it?
After all, the purpose of this mission was securing purification agents, not hunting Infector in the first place.
Once he understood what the user was doing, Yoo Sung-jun ran for the stairs.
He raced like the wind, stepped down from a midway ledge, and took off again without slowing.
He intended to ambush the Infector, kill it in one stroke, and pocket the points.
Opportunities to earn points this easily didn’t come around often. It would be a waste to simply leave it alone.
This should be about right.
He descended to the third floor and returned toward the center.
Below the open space, he saw the hooded figure still absorbed in dodging and shooting, and the Regator moving to kill it.
He drew the Jet Sword and timed his move.
Fortunately, he caught the moment he’d been aiming for.
“Aaaah!”
The user was finally cornered against the central pillar. The Regator opened its huge maw and lunged.
Yoo Sung-jun threw himself down above the Infector’s head.
Clutching the Jet Sword held vertically, he fell.
His strength had been enhanced through Breathing. He focused on sensation, waiting for the exact instant.
Then the tip of the blade touched the top of the creature’s head.
The moment that sensation came through, he pressed down with all his might.
Fwoosh!
The sword pierced the hard skull and sank in.
The Regator collapsed with its mouth still open. The Jet Sword jutting out beneath its jaw told the whole story. Instant death.
You have gained 320 points.
He ignored Loki’s words.
Instead, he looked at the user who had aimed a gun at him.
“Pointing a gun at the person who just saved you? That’s a little hurtful.”
The only other user challenging the same E+ difficulty.
The figure silently stared at Yoo Sung-jun for a moment, then lowered the gun.
She let out a soft sigh and pushed the hood back.
Then, with a swish, long blonde hair spilled down like a waterfall.
“I’m sorry. I thought you were another Infector.”
Yoo Sung-jun looked at her—no, at her.
He’d been wondering if she might be some bizarre user.
But it looked like he’d hit the first step cleanly after all.
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