The Age of Adaptation
Alexei Cruiser.
He was a veteran user of Another Earth.
Rather than join a clan, he had decided to become the head of the pack.
So instead of the body of a clan, he became the head of a party.
As a leader, he’d managed the game well enough.
He hunted down users who made a habit of PKing and helped the few who were caught in danger by infectors.
Before long, people were calling him Russia’s good bear.
If he was going to profit from villainy anyway, it was better to be called a decent man than to be spat at.
Maybe it was because of that rugged face of his, or the scars he had picked up over the years as a soldier; beneath it all, some pent-up desire had apparently been building for a long time.
That didn’t mean he’d gone dull as a soldier, though.
When he met Yoo Sung-jun and Jeyca, he judged that if the two came at him, he could still take them down, and that was why he approached them in the first place.
Still, they turned out to be good people in the end.
Thanks to them, a connection had formed through goodwill. He’d gained people he could ask for help.
That made the search of the research facility far easier.
Until an unwelcome guest showed up.
"...Damn it."
Alexei spat the curse out through his teeth.
It wasn’t enough to swear. Not nearly enough to express how he felt right now.
Instead, he aimed his AO-607. The dagger fixed to the muzzle of his assault rifle caught the light with a cold gleam.
"What did you do with my comrades?"
At the end of the dagger’s point, the man in the black mask shrugged his shoulders.
The smile painted across his face in red pigment was grotesque beyond words.
"Take a guess. You weren’t one of those players who treated Another Earth like some half-assed pastime, were you?"
His gait was relaxed.
From what Alexei had seen, he hadn’t strengthened his body.
He was like himself, a user with innate awakening... Alexei rested his finger on the trigger.
"Brainwave Transfer. I know what garbage that is."
"Garbage? There’s nothing else at this level that’s as good as an innate talent."
"At this level, maybe. But do you really think it’ll keep working once users gradually become Transcendents?"
At Alexei’s sneer, the masked man fell silent.
Because, honestly, it was hard to argue with that.
Brainwave Transfer was an innate talent that imposed electrical waves generated in the brain onto a target.
Delta waves, theta waves, alpha waves, beta waves, gamma waves.
Among those waves, which grew stronger the farther back they went, only delta and theta could really be used offensively.
Normal people would fall into a deep or light sleep the moment they were exposed.
"That’s why you need to make hay while the fish are still minnows. Right? You didn’t come here for some other reason, did you? We’re the same, you know. You came here for missions, and I came here for users."
Without a doubt, there was probably a grin hidden behind that mask.
Alexei wanted to shoot him on the spot, but he had to hold back.
With his comrades’ lives still uncertain, he had no choice but to hear the bastard out.
Alexei twitched his thumb.
The sensor linking his finger to the radio sent out a signal. S.O.S.
He just had to pray Yoo Sung-jun would notice, then he spoke.
"You’re right. Points are going to become the single biggest survival factor after Dark Cover. But there’s still a line you’re supposed to keep, isn’t there?"
"That’s why I’m doing this. Get some sleep, tell me where you stashed the antibodies, and then wake up and start over with a fresh purpose."
Start over from the bottom with nothing but his own body?
Alexei could only laugh.
He had an innate talent, sure, but even with that, it would take far too long to rebuild gear like this.
"Crazy bastard."
"I hear that a lot. Ah, I’ve got a bit of a patience problem, so in ten seconds, tell me where you hid the antibodies. If you don’t, I’ll put you to sleep by force and toss you to the infectors."
It was time to make a decision.
Hoo. Alexei steadied his breathing.
With no middle ground to be found with this bastard, there was only one answer.
I’ll hold out until Yoo Sung-jun gets here.
From the looks of it, the bastard couldn’t kill him right away because he needed the antibody location.
His weapons were a pistol and two daggers.
That was just what he could see.
He might have hidden blades too, but Alexei was confident he could handle that.
"Hmph!"
"Oh, hey!"
He suddenly turned and ran.
Alexei fired his pistol a beat later, but the bullets only struck his back and bounced off.
The masked man clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"Muscle hardening, huh. So much for subduing you."
An innate talent that sent powerful signals through the body and instantly hardened the muscle tissue.
Once that happened, physical restraint was impossible.
In terms of build and athletic ability, there was no comparison.
Still, subduing him was only a matter of time.
After all, Alexei was effectively holding his comrades hostage.
And his innate talent had the edge in compatibility too.
Looks like he’s got something he’s counting on. Should I humor him for a little while?
One of the pleasures of the hunt was turning the joy of being alive into despair.
The masked man grinned as he pulled a cloak around himself.
His body vanished at once, and Alexei gave chase to the second basement level of the research facility.
Hide-and-seek, huh? That’s not bad either.
He reached the lower level in one breath and scanned the area.
An infector might rush him at any moment.
Fortunately, this floor was cleaner than the one above.
There were a few research labs sealed shut with iron doors, but the place worth checking was the one left open.
He already knew that no matter how hard you tried, that door wouldn’t open.
Did he go that way?
A trail of muddy footprints he hadn’t managed to wipe away caught his eye.
Right. When you’re in a hurry, you make mistakes like that.
The masked man slowly tightened the net.
He turned a corner and stepped into the open room.
But then—two sets of footsteps?
Did he leave a comrade behind?
That was the only conclusion he could reach.
Fine. He’d subdue this one first.
The masked man looked around the room packed with steel cabinets.
Alexei was at the far end.
Good thing I never showed them the Invisibility Cape to the end.
Leaving the tense bastard ignorant of his exact position, he activated his innate talent.
There was no need to ask about the antibody location yet. It would be enough to kill the two who were coming this way, wake him up, and then ask.
"Ghh...!"
His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor.
He hadn’t even strengthened his body.
With a target like that, subduing him was child’s play.
Now then, shall he get ready for the next guest?
The masked man moved without a sound and set up a gear jammer.
It was a tool that temporarily disabled equipment functions.
His own gear would be affected too, but that didn’t matter.
He planned to end this in an instant with blades and innate abilities.
The bastards coming this time will obviously be just like this one.
A party that had challenged a cooperative mission without body strengthening.
Their level was obvious at a glance.
So the masked man waited in silence, and the moment the man and woman entered, he activated the jammer. Then he used his innate talent at once.
That should’ve worked, right?
Just as expected, the goggles were dead too. He focused on sound.
He heard something tapping, but it was cut off abruptly.
Then came a dull thud. Let’s wait a little longer.
There.
The masked man used his advantage to the fullest.
The advantage of being able to switch the jammer on and off whenever he wanted.
The enemy might react after hearing the sound too, but he would be faster.
He activated the goggles the instant he turned the jammer on.
The woman had collapsed, but the man was standing there motionless.
Did my innate talent not work well on him?
Maybe he had an innate ability that strengthened resistance.
Even so, the initiative was still his.
He threw a blade at the motionless figure.
It was poison that could instantly paralyze even an elephant the moment it hit.
The bastard wouldn’t have a chance to endure it.
That is, if it hit.
Clang!
Metal rang out. A sword flashed, and it knocked away the blade that had been aimed at his back.
No ordinary person could possibly react to a blinded field of vision, no matter how much they trained.
At the revealed truth, the masked man was horrified.
A body-strengthening user?
"There you are."
One breath. At the rough exhale, the masked man kicked off the ground. No, he tried to kick off the ground.
Shrrk!
"...Ah."
When had he come so close? When had he closed the distance and swung that burning sword? That burning sword...
Thud!
The two figures crossed paths.
The masked man fell to the right, while Yoo Sung-jun sheathed the jet sword that had activated its heat line, one hand pressing against his throbbing head.
The mask split diagonally and dropped away.
The scorched head rolled across the floor.
"You should’ve done a better job analyzing your opponent before you rushed in."
Brainwave Transfer, was it? The one he’d just fired was probably delta waves.
His head felt hazy.
There was no question he would have died if he hadn’t strengthened his body.
That blade... it’s coated in poison.
This bastard. The PK user who had barged into a solo mission had put too much faith in his own innate talent.
That had been the biggest cause of his death.
He could hear everything, thanks to the enhanced hearing.
"You figured there wouldn’t be any body-strengthening users around at this point, did you?"
He kicked the bastard’s head rolling on the floor aside and retrieved the gear.
It was all points now. Since this had been self-defense, ownership belonged to Yoo Sung-jun.
Still...
That was my first kill.
He had killed a person.
There had been no choice—if he didn’t kill, he would be the one to die—but that didn’t change the fact.
And yet, strangely, he felt calm.
He had expected some kind of emotional shift, but nothing came.
That’s even stranger.
Characteristics of body strengthening.
"What?"
Right on cue, Loki spoke up to explain the cause.
It’s not just an increase in the five senses and physical ability. It may have been hard to feel in the game, but it also reduces emotional fluctuation in situations involving ethics and extreme actions. In simpler terms, it raises your ability to control your emotions as well.
So that was it.
Yoo Sung-jun placed a hand over his steadily beating heart and nodded.
So in the end, depending on how you use it, it could even make you a psychopath.
That can be interpreted that way as well.
Well, it’s not like there’s a better advantage for survival than that.
It was an unexpected benefit of body strengthening.
Thanks to it, he’d gotten through this crisis drenched in red.
The bastard had let his guard down, and he had stayed calm to the end.
If that bastard hadn’t let his guard down...
Then the red would’ve kept spreading.
But in the end, this was the result.
Yoo Sung-jun gathered up all the bastard’s equipment and stood.
First, he needed to move Jeyca and Alexei to the upper floor.
They could rest once the infectors had been cleared out.
***
"Alexei!"
"Greg! You’re safe!"
Alexei and his comrades shared a long-awaited reunion.
Yoo Sung-jun looked away from their fierce hug and saw that Jeyca was still bowing her head, too embarrassed to lift it.
"It’s all right. Lift your head, Jeyca. Some innate talents are just hard to deal with if you haven’t strengthened your body yet."
"Still... I promised I’d cover your back, but I got taken down so helplessly... I’m sorry."
"When we get back from this mission, go straight for body strengthening."
"Yes, I will."
She nodded, then bit her lower lip hard.
As if she’d made up her mind, Jeyca clenched her fists tight.
Yoo Sung-jun tore his gaze from her and looked at the approaching Alexei.
The man’s expression was terribly complicated.
Gratitude, guilt, and remorse all tangled together on his face.
"I wasn’t planning to ask for help over something like this... You weren’t hurt, were you?"
"I cut him down in one stroke."
The answer and the gesture that came with it were easy, almost casual.
Alexei exhaled in visible relief and held the box out in front of him.
"You saved us. All my comrades are safe too. I don’t know if this will make up for it, but... take it."
He pulled out a box.
It was easy enough to guess what was inside.
"Incomplete antibodies?"
"Thirty in total. I think that’s enough to cover the price of our lives. Or is it not?"
Was that too cheap? Hearing the man mutter that in a low voice, Yoo Sung-jun let out a snort.
It was a fair trade. He had helped him once.
And yet he was returning the favor with even more on top of that.
Rugged-looking though he was, Alexei was a man with a warm heart.
"It’s enough. I won’t refuse."
"I was going to force them on you even if you did refuse, so that’s a relief."
Thirty thousand points fell into his hands.
He’d intended to split them with Jeyca, but she refused. Aggressively refused.
"I-I don’t deserve to take any of it. I didn’t help at all with saving Alexei. You should keep it all, Sung-jun. I already have quite a few points saved up anyway."
Come to think of it, they had secured quite a number of antibodies while searching for Alexei’s comrades.
Just splitting those alone would still mean about 80,000 points per person.
Yoo Sung-jun nodded and put the antibodies away.
Some PK user had crashed the party in the middle, but it had still ended without any major incident.
On top of that, they’d made a killing in points.
He looked at Jeyca and jerked his chin toward the exit.
"Then should we head back?"
"Wait. Just a second."
Alexei was the one who answered.
He quickly rummaged through his coat, pulled out a notebook, and wrote something down before handing it over. It was contact information.
"I think I can trust you completely now. Let’s exchange contact info. Is that possible?"
At the question, Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
There was no reason not to.
After this incident, he could trust Alexei completely too.
To be honest, help had been desperately needed, and a proposal from a rough-looking man who cared so much about his comrades was something he could welcome with both hands.
So he’s not a comrade anymore, but a reliable ally.
With a faint smile, he wrote his number in the notebook.
Come to think of it, he only knew the man’s name and number; he didn’t know his age.
"By the way, how old are you, Alexei?"
It was one of the hard parts about foreigners—there was no easy way to tell their age by appearance.
Once they passed a certain point, they all just started looking mature.
So he asked, and Alexei, after putting the notebook away, laughed.
"I’m twenty-two, by international age. What about you, Yoo Sung-jun? Looking at you, I’d guess we’re the same age or maybe you’re younger than me. Am I right?"
...
Unbelievable.
He looked like the leader of some Russian bear gang, and yet he was younger than him.
Yoo Sung-jun suppressed his surprise and stated his age.
Twenty-four by international age. Twenty-six this year. The moment he heard that, Alexei’s expression changed.
Looking mildly shocked, he muttered,
"...Then I guess you’re my hyung?"
Yoo Sung-jun still wasn’t prepared to accept the giant, fur-covered man like a bear as his younger brother.
Even the emotional control he’d gained from body strengthening couldn’t do anything about that.
So, with a hand pressed to his forehead, Yoo Sung-jun asked to return.
And that was how he arrived in the Enter Room with Jeyca beside him, quietly snickering all the way as she watched everything from the sidelines.
A place where he could rest at ease.
While waiting for the settlement, Yoo Sung-jun lay flat on his back.
Congratulations! User grade has increased from 10 to 9!
User Yoo Sung-jun. Would you like to accept the Higher Being’s invitation?
The user grade and the rewards that came with rising it were things he’d been curious about.
For the chance to find out to arrive this quickly...
Maybe monopolizing the thirty antibodies had really paid off.
With only his head poking up slightly, Yoo Sung-jun answered,
"Yeah. Send me there."
There was no harm in learning about this kind of thing right away.
Maybe it was even a chance to stand in a higher position than the other users.
So when he accepted, he felt the sensation of his body being transmitted once more.
---