The Age of Adaptation
Yoo Sung-jun knew better than anyone how hard it was to raise a user rank.
No matter how low the rank, a mission was still a mission.
You had to get out of the dangerous zones, kill infectors, or rummage through filth and ruins to secure whatever objective you’d been assigned.
Only after suffering through that kind of thing all day, sometimes for days on end, did you earn an achievement and stockpile points.
That was how you met the conditions for promotion.
So this was the chance they made you sweat blood for.
He had to use it well.
It was one of the few chances he had to learn even a single thing.
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
"Hm?"
When had he come?
At the sound of the Higher Being’s voice behind him, Yoo Sung-jun turned his head.
The moment he saw the creature he’d met again, his eyes widened.
"What is that look supposed to be?"
The cosmic space he’d been brought back to had changed a little.
Behind him, where the Higher Being stood, there was a flower garden.
A flower garden floating in empty air, in the middle of nowhere.
It was unbelievable. Was that really possible?
There was soil, and all kinds of flowers blooming in every color.
At the center of it all stood the creature.
Not as a sphere, but actually standing.
"Ah, so you can see this now?"
"Yes, well... it’s a little strange."
"Hahaha, it might look that way. It seems your brain has begun to accept a portion of the higher dimension, Yoo Sung-jun."
"So this isn’t space, but a higher-dimensional space?"
"That’s right. Innate Awakening, Innate Mastery, brain growth through physical enhancement. You can now see a part of it."
So physical enhancement and the growth of his innate nature helped him perceive higher dimensions.
Then why hadn’t he been able to perceive them in the game?
The Higher Being came tottering over.
For now, the creature had taken the form of a small child made of light.
"The world Yoo Sung-jun lives in is three-dimensional. Anything above that dimension is a place that doesn’t even exist."
So even with innate nature and physical strength raised to level ten, he still couldn’t see it.
He shrugged and settled into a more comfortable position.
He lay there, his body still drifting in the air, and propped his head up with one arm while staring at the creature.
"Doesn’t that bother you?"
"This is the most comfortable way for me."
"I see... Since I don’t have a body made of blood and flesh, that’s useful information for me too."
It sounded like the thing was laughing.
The light across its face trembled slightly.
"Then if I train and strengthen my innate nature and body to the extreme, I’ll be able to see your true form completely."
"That would mean you’re ready to perceive the higher dimension."
He’d learned one thing.
His banter with this creature was unexpectedly full of anticipation and gain.
With a quiet snort, Yoo Sung-jun reached out.
His hand passed lightly through the body made of light.
"That would be troublesome. It tickles a little."
"So it feels like ants crawling over your body?"
"A little stronger than that. So, is that what you wanted to ask me again this time?"
That.
Honestly, he was dying to ask about it.
The new application of breathing.
Even just focusing on a single point had let him use it brilliantly against infectors stronger than the usual level.
If he could understand more, his true self would become even stronger.
If this were a game, I wouldn’t even hesitate to ask.
But there were things he had to protect.
He had comrades now, and he was the one who had to lead them.
If the existence known as Yoo Sung-jun collapsed here, those two would collapse with him. It was obvious.
"I didn’t come to ask about the new applications of breathing."
"Oh? Is that so? Now that’s interesting. A great calamity is drawing near. A hundred out of a hundred people would ask about growth for themselves, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone like you, Yoo Sung-jun."
"Do I get some kind of benefit for being the first?"
"Hahaha, I treat everyone equally."
Of course.
He nodded and scratched his cheek.
"By the way, what did you mean by ‘soon’? Does Dark Cover come soon?"
"Was that your question?"
"No."
"Well, the Dark Cover phenomenon is something even I can’t answer, so there’s no point in asking. I only used the word ‘soon’ to make you tense, Yoo Sung-jun."
"If you say so. Can I ask directly?"
"Of course. Time is gold, as they say."
For someone saying that, it looked like the thing wanted to keep talking.
It kept rubbing itself here and there with its tiny body, honestly.
Still, compared to a sphere doing it, this was a lot more pleasant to look at. Kind of cute, even.
He let out a faint laugh and asked.
About something more important than the new applications of breathing, something far more immediate: the raid that was coming up.
"I want to know the one way my party can clear the resonant entity mission in the underground bunker with everyone alive."
The most important thing in preparing for Dark Cover was still a sanctuary.
Securing it came first, yes, but even more important than that was the safety of his comrades.
So Yoo Sung-jun was using this opportunity to the fullest, and he waited for an answer.
"........."
The Higher Being stopped fidgeting.
A few steps away, its face trembled.
"Pfft. Bwahahahaha! Yoo Sung-jun. You really never disappoint me. I knew it when you hunted down the strongest infector, Kalaqua, one of the 5 Calamities that no clan could ever take down, but this is far beyond what I expected."
"Did I say something I shouldn’t have?"
"No, of course not. I’m just overwhelmed by your unexpectedness, and it fills me with delight, amusement, and curiosity. Ahem, so that’s what you wanted to know? The raid you’ll be facing soon?"
"Safety comes before a sanctuary."
"Any living creature longs for longevity. I think that’s only natural. Very well. I’ll tell you. The one and only perfect way for you, Yoo Sung-jun, your blood relation, and one comrade to survive."
The creature came closer.
It was the same process as before.
The hot, boiling sensation that came from pressing foreheads together.
If there was a difference, it was time.
It was longer. More complicated. But clearly organized, so Yoo Sung-jun remembered it.
As his consciousness began to drift away, the creature’s voice receded into the distance.
"I enjoyed our conversation. As a reward for the unexpected delight you’ve given me, I’ll grant you a benefit. You’ve met the conditions well enough for that."
With the creature’s final words,
"A crucial moment will come. At that time, interpret what Igrato—Choi Hyun-seok—says in reverse."
Yoo Sung-jun vanished from the higher-dimensional space.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"...and that concludes my regular report on Blood Rain point acquisition."
At the top of a high-rise building, in a floor that had been converted entirely into a conference room, hundreds of people stared at the screen.
The young man who had finished his presentation bowed politely and stepped back.
Even after the presentation ended, the lights did not come on.
They stood or sat there motionless, wholly absorbed in the screen.
Then a man spoke.
"This month’s acquisition rate has reached a stable orbit. Thank you all for your hard work."
As if a taut string had finally been released, sighs of relief spilled out from here and there.
At last the lights came on, brightening the conference room.
At the center of that room, Igrato—Choi Hyun-seok—rapped his hand against a massive island table.
The rhythmic clacking of his fingers was almost musical.
He quietly scanned the screen and the people around him.
Contacted high-ranking officers and top-tier special forces soldiers: 528. Politicians: 177. Total: 705.
He had distributed invitations to all of them.
A total of 7.05 million points.
At the beginning, that would have been a significant burden, but Blood Rain was not an individual. It was an organization.
They hadn’t just lucked into the label of world rank five for free.
Users belonging to the clan were gathering in Korea one after another.
After clearing the tutorial and mastering Another Earth, they had come together.
It had all been possible because he had opened a site called Sunshine Cover and made contact with them one by one.
Altogether, about 1,500 people had assembled.
Even now, they were still coming in from all over.
As expected, when a large group gathered, even things that were difficult alone fell into place with ease.
This was called funneling achievements.
Take mostly high-grade achievements, repeat F-rank missions, and safely acquire 10,000 points.
Even if growth slowed for a while, there was nothing better for building a solid foundation.
After that, he could farm points in bulk through E-rank missions.
Thanks to that, Choi Hyun-seok himself didn’t have to spend points on anything.
The clan members worked hard for this.
In exchange for a certain amount of points, they wanted to belong to a group.
They weren’t asking for something grand.
They simply wanted a stable life inside that group.
So he had only provided the fence.
And they gladly paid the points needed to remain inside it.
For most of them, that was probably the only thing they still worried about.
A user capable of controlling an enhanced body, innate nature, and even the Omega Suit while hunting high-level infectors.
That was a field granted only to the few.
The real problem is recruiting those few talents.
The standard Choi Hyun-seok used when he said “the few” was whether someone could defeat an infector on the very edge of level four alone.
Most people probably couldn’t.
That was the capability, and the limit, of ordinary humans.
If someone could do that, it proved they had the makings of a high ranker.
So Choi Hyun-seok’s top priority was recruiting Meteor.
Meteor Yoo Sung-jun. He was the true high ranker.
Most rankers struggled to control a body enhanced to level eight, let alone the suit.
But he was different.
Level ten. He’d reached the summit and hunted down all 5 Calamities single-handedly.
Martial artists spent years, even decades, repeating movements over and over in training just to fully control their own bodies.
But this physical enhancement, this Omega Suit that granted monstrous power, bestowed terrifying strength and sensation in an instant.
If that could be controlled perfectly, what else could it be but the realm of talent?
He wanted him badly.
He was clearly the key to his great work.
Fifty-two surviving senior officials and promising military personnel to raise in the future. Pathetically few, but is that only natural?
Other nations and other giant clans were surely doing the same.
They would be working from every possible angle to expand their clan’s power and secure safety.
Maybe they were even preparing to rebuild their country, just as he was.
Still, if only a few survived the tutorial, there was no helping it.
If they were weak, if they lacked composure, if their judgment was poor, then death was inevitable.
And even if they survive, there are cases where they come back badly injured because there aren’t enough points for treatment.
Those people had been called into the Enter Room through party invitations, where they received treatment and finished healing.
Even now, they were probably out there running missions and gathering points.
Supplies, bunker maintenance materials, safety equipment, surveillance systems. Everything requires points.
Someone might think he was working hard right now only for a comfortable, convenient life.
But that was different.
Igrato cared more than anyone about the greater good.
He did not want to see the nation fall, and he sincerely wanted his fellow citizens to rise again in a world filled only with darkness.
So he kept moving even today.
Because the scattered power of individuals would eventually only be forced to bow before overwhelming strength.
And so Igrato, ranked thirty-second among the hundred high rankers, rose to his feet.
"I’ll take the elite team and head out for the next mission now. Everyone else, do your best too. For the clan."
"For the clan!"
Watching them answer in unison, Igrato moved to the Enter Room.