The Era of Adaptation
He had to be close to two meters tall.
Yoo Sung-jun himself wasn’t exactly short.
He was taller than the average Korean man, at least.
And yet he still couldn’t beat superior Western genetics. From the very structure of his bones and muscles alone, the difference was obvious. Never mind the sheer bulk on top of that.
“You challenged a cooperative mission with just the two of you? And an E+ one, at that?”
The guy who had come closer tilted his gaze downward.
It was the kind of tone that looked down on you from above.
The others had called him Alexei.
Loki. Alexei’s user information.
There is no user by that name.
So he had to call out the full name before it would show up?
This wasn’t bad enough yet to count as a crisis.
Maybe his tone and manner were rough, but his heart might still be kind.
“We’re planning to snatch the antibody and keep things as safe as possible.”
“What, are you an all-rounder and a support combo or something? Or a guard? An attacker?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“If you’re Another Earth users, you should know, right? Infectors are a problem, sure. But users are a pain in the ass too.”
As if Sung-jun wouldn’t know.
Even if you spent all your points on gear through missions and Infector hunts, one PK could strip you bare.
That was why you had to be careful around other users in Another Earth.
There was a reason nobody said to trust anyone unless they were a thoroughly verified party member or a clanmate whose identity had been confirmed.
“So what changes if I do know? Are you planning to crack down on us or something?”
“Why would I crack down on you? I just want to know for sure. Might even help each other out if the need arises.”
He spoke while scratching at the vicious scar running across his face.
Sung-jun stared blankly for a moment.
A ferocious-looking face, but an unexpected personality.
“Since we’ve met like this, let’s talk.”
Was he serious?
Behind him, Sung-jun looked at the five men standing there.
Every one of them was smiling broadly.
“Alexei Cruiser of Russia. And you?”
He held out his hand. It was scarred too, just like his face.
What kind of life did you have to live to build a body like that?
Sung-jun gave an awkward smile and shook his hand, while his eyes stayed on Jeyca.
Can your Appraisal Eye see anything?
It was a question sent through his eyes, but she must have understood it, because she let out a relieved breath and shrugged.
A gesture that said it was fine.
In the end, Sung-jun took his hand.
“Yoo Sung-jun of South Korea.”
***
After they’d collected a fair number of points and grown used to Another Earth 2.0, the thing Sung-jun worried about wasn’t a high-level Infector crashing in.
It was users.
The reason was simple.
Infectors didn’t hide their instincts.
Jeyca’s equipment and combat ability are both below mine, so I approached them without worrying too much. But if these guys turn, they could still be dangerous.
Sung-jun studied their equipment.
It was a tier below the gear he was wearing.
If they’d made it this far in a party with only that equipment, then—
Just as I thought.
<Alexei Cruiser>
User Grade: 10
Body Strengthening: None
Omega Suit: None
Survival Status: Alive
They were the same kind as Jeyca.
The type that awakened only their natural gifts first, then used them to challenge missions of a higher difficulty.
The difference was whether they went solo or as a party.
“Whoa, just how many points did you scrape together to get your gear and body strengthening to level 1?”
Alexei, sitting on the ground, sounded impressed.
He, too, seemed to have opened Sung-jun’s user information, just like Sung-jun had.
“You just formed a party with Miss Pellet Jeyca not long ago, huh?”
“This is our first cooperative mission.”
“Oh? So you got this far solo. I like that.”
“Are you thinking of recruiting us or something?”
“Recruiting? Khaha!”
He laughed heartily and waved a hand.
Even that hand looked like a pot lid.
Why did it feel like Sung-jun would lose to him in a pure strength contest, even if he had Body Strengthening at level 1?
“I know myself well. That’s why I felt a kind of kinship with you.”
“You’re saying you and I are the same?”
“I’m talking about the vibe. Trust others only after thorough verification, and if a fight didn’t start first, best to avoid it. That’s how you are too, aren’t you?”
Kinship, huh. So that was why he hadn’t made a recruitment offer.
Two lions couldn’t belong to the same pride.
He must have sensed that instinctively.
Without realizing it, Sung-jun nodded.
“Reality makes every point more precious. That’s why people kill each other. Good gear can’t be found even if you offer a fortune after Dark Cover.”
The smile on Alexei’s mouth vanished all of a sudden.
“At the very least, I intend to keep the line a human should keep. My teammates feel the same, which is why we’re working together. You said this was your first time here, right?”
“You don’t seem to be, though.”
“This is our third run. The research facility is damn huge, and there still seems to be plenty of antibody left. Even if our two parties split it, we can easily walk away with hundreds of thousands.”
“That sounds like you’re offering me help. Am I wrong?”
“Heh, I’m glad we’re speaking the same language. I didn’t feel like we were similar for nothing. I’ll give you a map of the facility. Though it won’t be free, right?”
Alexei beckoned with his hand.
A teammate standing behind him handed over a sheet of paper.
He took it and held it out.
On the wrinkled edge, the words floor plan were scribbled.
“This is the floor plan for Basement Level 1. Better not go below that. It’s sealed off, but it’s dangerous down there.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Fear. There’s at least a level 5 Infector down there. It showed itself for a moment beyond a sealed door. I was unconscious for a full five hours after that. Completely defenseless, too.”
At his grave tone, Sung-jun stiffened.
Fear was an intangible force that high-level Infectors could emit or project by will. Without an Omega Suit or Body Strengthening, the moment you faced it, your body would at least lock up, if not pass out altogether.
Sung-jun accepted the floor plan and said, “Noted. So what’s the cost?”
“If things get dangerous, I’ll contact you. Could you help us once for this mission? We haven’t finished exploring the first floor yet.”
He also handed over a radio, the kind shaped like a smartwatch.
Sung-jun took it and unfolded the map while Alexei added, as if remembering something.
“The red areas are unexplored. We’ve roughly checked the rest. Still, be careful, friend. It looks like Infectors are coming in through the vents and the sewer-processing system beneath the floors.”
Half of it was painted red.
It seemed they intended to use this place as a stable source of points, or maybe as a sanctuary.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. I’ll take that as acceptance of the offer. Then survive, all right? I’d like to see what a body-strengthened transcendent can do.”
After patting Sung-jun on the shoulder, Alexei stood up.
He and his teammates went into the forest without the slightest hesitation.
Good guys.
Only after they were gone did Sung-jun finally get to his feet, a little late. Jeyca approached him.
Before she even asked, he explained what he’d gained and what their deal had been.
It had all been done on his own, without consulting her.
And yet Jeyca only smiled brightly.
“I thought they were good people, and I was right. A floor plan in exchange for one request for help? That’s a good deal, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Then shall we head out too?”
By the looks of it, Alexei had entered through the facility’s south gate.
If their routes overlapped too much, they might end up conflicting over the same antibody target.
“Let’s go in through here.”
“The north gate, then. The nearest search points are the hydroponics facility and the reagent mixing facility. Is that right?”
“Yes. Just follow my hand signals through the Appraisal Eye.”
“Will do.”
She came to stand beside him with a faint smile.
Sung-jun tucked the map into his front pocket, strapped the radio to his wrist, slung the NG-88 he’d been carrying behind him to his side, and drew the Jet Sword.
The vents and sewer-processing system, huh...
Thinking of the Infectors freely moving through narrow, damp spaces, Sung-jun and Jeyca headed for the research facility.
***
“Left vent is yellow. The area below it is pale orange. The central drain is deep red!”
“Got it.”
He answered casually and rolled across the floor.
Plant vines lashed at the ground he’d just crossed with savage force.
Their power was absolutely not something to underestimate.
CRACK!
The tiles shattered from the impact, fragments spraying in every direction.
In that instant, he pulled the trigger. Thunk! The nail gun spat a nail that buried itself in the torso of the thing writhing among the vines.
“Kieeek!”
What the hell kind of experiment are they running here? Those crazy bastard scientists trapped in this place.
Tsk.
He clicked his tongue and kept moving.
Before any more Infectors appeared, he had to clear out the thing in front of him first—the possessed body.
Ghost.
Somewhere between liquid and gas.
The level 2 Infectors called Ghosts hijacked the bodies of plants and animals alike, then warped them to suit their tastes.
The area around the sunflower’s head split open with a sickening tear.
It was packed full of teeth made from twisted stems.
To Sung-jun, it looked like nothing more than a desperate last gasp.
The thing’s torso had been pierced through by the nail, and sap was already gushing out in streams.
As the sap drained away, it weakened rapidly.
Whoosh!
“Not so fast.”
He cut down the stem that lunged at him with the Jet Sword and closed the distance.
Without hesitation, he took one breath and swung with power that surged explosively in that instant.
Slash.
At the end of the horizontal strike, sap sprayed everywhere.
He jerked his head aside and dodged it.
Then he poured oil over the body that had been revealed from the severed head and tossed in a lighter.
Fwoosh! Hooorrr...
The gaunt human head inside the thing gave a pained groan.
And then it vanished completely.
You have gained 100 points.
Normally, it would’ve been 200 points. But because of the party with Jeyca, it had been cut in half.
Still, that didn’t matter. Thanks to that, he was gathering points far more safely than before.
Huuu... Huuuu...
More Ghosts burst out from the area Jeyca had pointed to.
But by now, every possible host had already been smashed and cut apart.
In this hydroponics facility, the only viable hosts left for possession were Yoo Sung-jun and Jeyca.
Hooorrr!
At their reckless charge, Sung-jun laughed.
He gauged the oil left in the can, poured the rest onto the Jet Sword, and lit it.
“You want my body that badly?”
Maybe he’d taken in too much oxygen through the Breathing effect.
He kept wanting to laugh. With a wicked grin, Sung-jun’s blade split the creatures apart.
Things that couldn’t even possess anything were nothing more than a baseball floating toward him in slow motion.
And so he burned the Ghosts to death with ease.
Jeyca looked around and came over.
“It’s over! Everything around here is green.”
“Save your natural ability. Let’s rest first.”
At her excited words, he sat down.
The final stretch had been easy, but the middle had been brutal.
They had to secure oil cans and lighters, while the Ghosts possessing plants kept launching bizarre attacks.
If I didn’t have Body Strengthening, I would’ve been exhausted and dropped already.
While he caught his breath, Jeyca didn’t rest at all.
She was still carefully preserving the stamina used by her natural ability, focused entirely on rear support.
Apparently not as exhausted, she searched the area and came back with a handful of something.
“I think this is the antibody. That’s what the supporter told me.”
“Let me see.”
It was the first unfinished antibody they had obtained.
It wasn’t exactly a vaccine for the D-Virus, but it was proof that humanity had fought desperately back then.
A capsule filled with blue liquid.
There were four antibodies secured from the hydroponics facility in total.
That meant they had netted 40,000 points in one go.
The efficiency was insane. They’d need more oil if they wanted to keep fighting Ghosts, but—
This is still an absurdly profitable haul.
They split the capsules fifty-fifty.
It looked like they’d have to head to the Enter Room to stock up on oil.
They hadn’t been ordered to, but they’d been told they could return once they secured even one antibody.
“Should we go back and get some weapons and oil cans for Ghost hunting, then come again?”
“I was thinking the same thing, so that works out. Then do you want to use the equipment modification bench in my Enter Room?”
“Sounds good.”
That was the most efficient way to save points and improve the gear’s performance.
He nodded, and her invitation message appeared in front of him.
Without hesitation, he pressed accept.
He’d already amassed about 30,000 more points from the Infector hunt and the achievement bonus.
What should I make...
Something that could keep seeing use later would be best.
Sung-jun’s eyes turned to the Jet Sword and the NG-88.
Honestly, it seemed like the best option was to upgrade what he already had into something better.
Something that burned well.
---