The Age of Adaptation
The first floor was a space where other Infector could barge in at any time.
So Yoo Sung-jun had moved up to the ninth floor with the woman he’d just met.
"Um... did you kill all of those?"
"You mean the ones you saw on the way here?"
"Huh? Yes. I stopped counting halfway through, but there had to be at least a few hundred."
"Probably. It took me the whole day to clear them out."
The corpses would be dealt with by scavengers drawn here by the smell.
That was why he hadn’t bothered cleaning up.
Is the stink that bad?
She had been pinching the bridge of her nose ever since a few moments ago, wearing the strained expression of someone enduring the foul odor with all her might.
Thanks to his oxygen purification mask, Yoo Sung-jun was spared the worst of it.
So he hadn’t paid much attention.
Well, that’s not really my problem.
And it wasn’t as if he could lend her the mask he’d spent valuable points on, either.
He shrugged and pointed to an empty chair.
"Pick a clean one and sit down."
There were more chairs scattered around with bloodstains, chunks of flesh, and torn organs smeared over them from the aftermath of battle, but at least one or two remained intact.
She chose one of those and sat.
Now was the time to ask. They were both busy people.
Yoo Sung-jun got straight to the point.
"The reason I saved you is simple. A mission with good rewards. The danger that comes with it. A partner to reduce that danger. But you seemed to have trouble handling even a Ligator."
"Are you asking me to party up?"
He shook his head.
"Not yet. There’s nothing confirmed."
"So you dragged me all the way here for that. What were you planning to do if I said no?"
"I brought you because I knew you wouldn’t refuse."
She had entered an E+ mission swarming with Level 2 Infector.
Even though she’d nearly lost to a single Ligator.
Just from the fragmentary information he’d gathered, he could infer three things.
First: she was desperate for points.
Second: she had a means of surviving.
Third: she possessed an exceptional talent for scouting or sensing danger.
Otherwise, she’d have to be insane to come here.
Yoo Sung-jun pulled over another chair and sat down.
"You ran this mission yesterday too, didn’t you?"
"Then you did too?"
"Yes. My supporter told me."
"Same here. But how did you know I wouldn’t refuse?"
"People who are desperate can recognize other desperate people. Don’t you think?"
He spread his hands in an exaggerated gesture, and she tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Fair enough. Then I suppose this is a meeting where we size each other up."
"Let’s keep it short. You, for one, don’t seem useless."
"Even after I was just about to get killed by a Ligator?"
"In Another Earth, combat isn’t the only measure of strength."
Finding a safe route, or spotting danger before the rest of the team and preventing it altogether.
That was what a helper did.
"You’re a Helper, aren’t you?"
She flinched.
Had he hit the mark?
Yoo Sung-jun smiled faintly.
"I know it might sound arrogant, but I’m strong. Still, I’m not specialized in danger prevention, target detection, or pathfinding."
"But you saw it yourself just now. Me running from the Ligator. I might not be the kind of helper you’re thinking of."
"It doesn’t have to be about sensing danger after it’s already on top of you. So, tell me. What talent did you awaken?"
He wasn’t even considering body enhancement.
That cost eighty thousand more points than awakening a natural talent.
Still, if she’d come all the way to attempt this mission, it was safe to assume she’d awakened at least one talent.
She rubbed her hands together before answering. He’d expected her to refuse at some point, but she was surprisingly forthcoming.
"Appraisal Eye. Have you heard of it?"
He knew it. It was a rare talent.
The eye that distinguished good from bad.
Yoo Sung-jun smiled.
"I know it. So that’s why you were willing to go along with my request without saying much."
"I could see the colors."
"The whole building must’ve been green, then?"
"You know a lot about it."
"I played Another Earth for quite a long time."
The closer the color was to green, the better. Red meant bad.
The downside was that it couldn’t handle sudden changes very well.
That was probably why she’d been chased by a Ligator.
And then she’d stepped into this place, the only green thing in a world that was otherwise entirely red.
"I’m curious. What color am I right now?"
She hesitated, then awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"Green...ish."
After all her experience, she had grown confident in her own talent.
So she must have firmly believed in her current reading.
He needed to tell her one more weakness.
Yoo Sung-jun intentionally stirred up his killing intent.
He imagined killing the woman in front of him. Killing her and taking every piece of equipment she had. He let that greed flicker plainly across his face.
"W-what is this?"
She jerked back in alarm and brought the gun she’d been carrying up in front of her.
She looked so flustered her eyes had gone wide.
At this rate, she looked ready to shoot without an explanation.
"That’s one of Appraisal Eye’s weaknesses. It isn’t just bad at handling sudden situations—it also has trouble responding to emotional shifts in other intelligent beings like this."
You’re liable to let someone in with good intentions and end up stabbed in the back. That was the gist of it.
He raised both hands in surrender and withdrew the killing intent.
Having found her color again, she let out a breath.
"Haa... It’s green again. Just now it was a deep red."
It probably had been. He had genuinely meant to kill her.
He waited for her to steady herself, then she asked,
"So you’re saying that with my ability and yours, we should take on a harder mission with better rewards than this one?"
"If we look around, there’ll be missions that pay far more than hunting here. My combat power and your danger-sensing talent—put the two together, and it should be safer too."
"Then tell me. Your ability, and your name. We haven’t even introduced ourselves properly."
It was about time, really.
They’d sat down here to gain something from each other.
She must have known that too when she readily disclosed her own talent.
This was also a place to build trust.
So Yoo Sung-jun answered honestly.
"I’ve finished Level 1 body enhancement, and my natural talent is Breathing."
"Y-you’ve already finished body enhancement?"
At this point in time, users who had completed body enhancement were extremely rare.
Yoo Sung-jun knew that well enough.
The gap in growth was enough to make his shoulders rise on their own, but he didn’t get cocky.
This was the moment to stay humble.
"So? What do you think—my talent as a Helper, and my all-rounder specs? Worth investing in me?"
He held out his hand.
After staring at his right hand for a moment, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly.
Instead of taking it, she offered her left hand.
"My name’s Jeyca. And it’s not an investment—it’s joining as an equal. Okay?"
He laughed softly at Jeyca, who had corrected him, and withdrew the hand he’d extended before taking hers with his left.
"I’m Yoo Sung-jun. Let’s make this a big haul."
He had always preferred solo play.
But this time, he’d do things differently.
Jeyca’s talent looked like it would pay enough points to erase the usual disadvantages of party play.
***
Still not here.
He ate the soybean sprout side dish his younger brother had made for him.
Then he quickly fried some ham to add another dish to the table.
He took a big spoonful of freshly cooked rice.
He had no appetite because he was worried.
Still, he forced the food down and asked Loki,
"Loki. Can you tell me anything about the tutorial my brother entered?"
[Impossible. However, I can access user information.]
"Like some community system, huh."
[Something like that. Shall I display the user information?]
"Please do."
Loki immediately displayed information about his younger brother.
Yoo Sung-hwan
User Rank: Reserve
Body Enhancement: None
Omega Suit: None
Survival Status: Alive
So that’s how it works.
Nodding, he heard Loki say,
[If you want, I can change Yoo Sung-jun-nim’s information to inaccessible.]
"No, let’s leave mine as it is."
It was information only those who needed to know would see anyway.
Since it showed his specs, it would probably serve as a basic measure of trustworthiness.
He’s alive.
Two days had passed.
If he was still alive now, it meant he had adapted to the situation and was hanging in there well enough.
He just needed to make it back alive.
Any missing limbs or body parts could be treated in the Enter Room.
The points it would cost were a problem, sure, but that worry might be blown away today.
"Did Jeyca send any messages?"
[One has arrived. Shall I display it?]
"Yeah, please."
After they’d met at the large supermarket, he and Jeyca had formed a party.
The process was simple: mutual consent through their supporters.
And in the end, if they wanted to, they could invite each other into their Enter Rooms.
In other words, they’d become able to share each other’s facilities.
I can lend her my body enhancement capsule, and Jeyca can lend me her equipment modification bench.
The first time he stepped into her Enter Room, he had been stunned.
The equipment modification bench alone cost eighty thousand points.
That was enough to buy Level 1 body enhancement if he saved a little.
The reason she bought it was probably the stability granted by an awakened talent that had matured early.
Jeyca had set her sights on modifying a high-performance dagger.
It did pair well with Appraisal Eye. The only problem was that a dagger’s traits made it expensive.
But this mission will take care of everything.
Yoo Sung-jun checked the message.
Jeyca: I’m ready on this end. I’ll wait for the invitation.
Exactly as expected.
He sent a reply and got to his feet.
"Please transport me."
[Understood.]
He arrived in the Enter Room and suited up with his gear.
Yoo Sung-jun’s equipment was quite different from before.
He’d spent forty thousand points to buy a low-grade Force Suit and an Absolute Armor, helmet included as a full set.
With this, I should be able to withstand attacks up to Level 3, at least when it comes to blunt force.
Absolute Armor was a defensive upgrade over reinforced plastic armor, gear that absorbed and dispersed impact much like a Force Suit.
His remaining points had fallen to around fifty thousand, but that was an investment in the future.
He called Jeyca, who had been added as a party member.
When she was transported over, she looked him up and down and said,
"Your gear already looks completely different from before."
Even though she was speaking English, he heard it translated directly. That was one of the supporter’s functions.
"I’m the one who has to handle most of the Infector."
"Will there be that many situations like that?"
"If you do your job well as a Helper, then probably not."
He adjusted his jet sword and brought up the mission list.
It wasn’t hard to find the mission he’d already bookmarked.
Co-op: Seize the Incomplete Antibody
📍 Location: Underground research facility
🎁 Reward: 10,000 points per antibody
As the name suggested, a cooperative mission was one that was nearly impossible to clear alone.
Still, there was nothing to worry about.
If he used Jeyca’s talent well, he could force the fight into one-on-one engagements instead of being overwhelmed by many enemies at once.
"Wow, the reward is great."
"The goal is to earn more points than a solo run, no matter what."
The points would be split fifty-fifty.
Only the bonus points earned through achievements would be taken as they were.
Jeyca seemed quite satisfied with that condition.
Which meant she would carry out her role faithfully.
"Let’s begin."
[I’ll send you there immediately.]
The world in front of him shifted.
Vegetation and brush. No similar plant life surrounded the area.
They had arrived in a wide clearing.
But then—
"Hm? Who are you two?"
"Alexei didn’t say he was calling in extra people."
There were already visitors. Six men.
Damn it.
Yoo Sung-jun sensed it at once.
This situation had just become a serious pain in the ass.
It was different from when he’d first met Jeyca.
It could turn dangerous, or maybe it would resolve easily—but either way, it wasn’t looking good.
"What’s this? An E+ mission, and your party only has two people?"
The moment he heard the lazy tone of voice from one burly man, he knew this wasn’t going to be easy.