The Age of Adaptation
The objective was simple: escape.
But Loki had given him three days’ worth of food.
That could mean one of two things: the mission area was large, or there were a lot of infectors.
From the brief look he’d gotten where he stood, the abandoned factory wasn’t all that big.
And yet he could hear infector cries coming from all around it.
Is that why she gave me food for three days?
Yoo Sung-jun steadied his breathing as those shrill, metal-scraping cries kept drifting in.
They didn’t know where he was.
Which meant they weren’t infectors with a good sense of smell.
The same seemed true of their hearing. If it had been sharp, they would have come running the moment he opened the door.
It’s an F-rank mission. The infectors here have to be rank 1, too.
From 1 to 10, there were ten levels in all.
Yoo Sung-jun judged the creatures occupying this factory as rank 1.
Anything else wouldn’t make sense of the difficulty rating.
For now, move.
Escape came first. That meant finding terrain he could use to hide his body.
Preferably right beneath his feet.
The sewer.
If he could stomach the smell, it would be easy to hide in there, and no one would be able to surround him.
Of course, he’d have to be careful even after going down.
If infectors came from both front and back, he’d be finished.
I’ve got nothing here.
All he had on him was a dagger.
And this was reality.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Yoo Sung-jun didn’t think this was some virtual reality built with Another Earth’s best technology.
It was too absurd to be that.
Was it really possible to log in with nothing but a tap on a smartphone?
From that point on, it had been far beyond the bounds of what he would call reality.
So he chose to believe Loki.
That day would come someday—the day this place was overlaid onto the real world.
This was the first step toward preparing for it.
Creak.
He opened the sewer lid in the floor.
A putrid stench surged up at once.
He switched on his flashlight and looked down.
The water looked shallow, and the channel seemed wide enough for one person to move through comfortably.
He didn’t think he’d be able to swing his dagger freely in there.
He climbed down the iron ladder welded into place.
Cold, filthy water lapped up to his ankles.
It felt disgusting.
Kuhooo…
The space was even more confined than aboveground, so the sound carried harder.
Because of that, he could hear the low growls more clearly.
Which also meant his own movements would carry farther.
Still, I can’t cut back on gear.
If this was the same system as Another Earth, that was something he absolutely couldn’t do.
In a world where everything traded for points, even small equipment—and food, for that matter—cost something.
Then why not just stockpile enough points and live forever in the Enter Room?
Impossible.
There was a limit to how long one could stay in the Enter Room.
He hadn’t asked, but 2.0 would probably be the same.
That is correct.
Yoo Sung-jun shrugged and switched off the flashlight.
I’m safe. There’s nothing threatening me yet.
Stay calm. Adapt. Steel yourself.
The process went on slowly, stretching out for a long while.
One minute, five minutes, ten, thirty.
Got it.
Dark adaptation.
The phenomenon where the threshold of the rod cells dropped, increasing sensitivity.
Now he could make out vague shapes. This was far better than standing still and advertising his position with light.
Yoo Sung-jun moved.
He needed to understand the sewer’s layout exactly.
And while he was at it, he might as well confirm what kinds of infectors were down here.
"W-what the hell? My gear! Where’s my Volcano Buster? Where the hell is my Omega Suit?"
What was that shouting?
Not far away. Above him.
Yoo Sung-jun realized the growling he’d been hearing had cut off. He sensed sluggish movement.
Gruk. Gruuruk.
The infector moved toward the source of the noise.
It went up to kill whatever was panicking.
There’s another user besides me?
⊳ Total 2.0 users deployed: 8
Would that number still hold now?
No. Yoo Sung-jun listened to the voice that followed.
"Groble? Clunt? You pieces of trash are trying to kill me? Fine. You’re all dead!"
The voice was full of indignation.
From the way he talked, he was probably fairly well adapted to Another Earth.
But that had been 1.0.
This is 2.0, you fucking idiot.
He was a penniless man with nothing to his name.
Superior experience? That could only be brought to bear after he recovered at least some of the power he’d once had.
Right now, this was the part where he crawled along the bottom.
He had to rely solely on what he knew, and cut open the enemy’s weak points in a single strike.
"Aaaagh! No, no! Please, please save me!"
Gone was the confidence from a moment ago; now he was begging for his life.
Crack! Crunch! Flesh burst and bones snapped.
A few seconds later, the noise stopped, and silence fell.
What remained was the sound of chewing and swallowing.
Seven left now. Six, excluding himself.
The others must have been alert after that commotion.
Groble and Clunt, huh…
The one who’d gone up from the sewer was probably a Groble.
A creature of slime, carrying acid in its body.
Its weakness was the brown core inside it.
It was the infector he was most likely to meet if he kept moving along the floor.
I should sweep for the exit from the rear first.
He’d heard the creature’s cries from the front.
Yoo Sung-jun turned around.
He dragged his feet to keep even the slightest splashing to a minimum.
Foreign matter piled on the tops of his feet and soaked in.
Good thing he at least had shoes automatically equipped.
If I’d been barefoot, I’d already be hurt.
Not at all.
That wasn’t a compliment to you.
Still, they were shoes provided without a word, so he moved on with a silent nod, shaking his head all the while.
He passed through a straight corridor and turned a corner.
"...."
He held his breath.
A Groble was right in front of him.
A skull swimming in slime.
Two red eggs attached to it served as eyes.
If those eggs flashed, it meant the creature was awake, but they were still.
It was asleep.
Even after all that racket?
What a carefree bastard.
It didn’t even know that was the reason it was going to die.
Swish. He drew his dagger.
Inside the creature’s slimy body, he searched for the brown core.
It sat beside the pouch that stored its acid.
If he stabbed the wrong spot, his arm would melt.
But that wasn’t going to happen.
Everything was crystal clear to his sharpened senses.
Whoosh!
He thrust into the sluggish creature.
He felt no guilt.
An infected creature that had once been human.
A monster that had abandoned the human frame entirely.
At the end of the slimy texture, the surprisingly solid core pierced clean through.
Grrrk…
At its death throes, the Groble’s eye lights flared once.
He watched them go out and flicked the filth from his hand.
What a filthy touch it was.
Damn it.
And he’d have to feel this in vivid reality from now on.
It wasn’t going to be easy to get used to, but he had no choice.
If he couldn’t adapt, he’d end up like the guy who’d screamed a little while ago.
20 points have been acquired.
That brought the number of kills down by one—forty-one left—and he’d earned twenty points.
If the value of points was the same as in 1.0, this was precious.
Then should he absolutely aim for a quick escape?
No. Think carefully.
This was the time for selection and concentration.
Soon, Yoo Sung-jun had a clear plan.
Secure the escape route. Set a trap. And then…
Hunt them.
***
Kyak? Kack?
Kiii, kiiik, kiiik.
Two Clunts communicated through their cries.
Beneath them lay a corpse already broken apart.
They seemed to be discussing how much to divide between them.
It looked like they’d reached an agreement that the stronger one would take it.
Ka-aaak!
Then the two infectors lunged at each other, claws flashing.
They had the bodies of children, with hunched backs.
In contrast, their arms were long and their claws sharp.
Watching them throw themselves at each other with all that reach was almost comical.
They stretched their bodies back and kept swinging their arms.
It was a fine time to kill them.
Yoo Sung-jun, who had been watching silently from the ceiling, dropped down.
Chwarararak!
A steel chain wound around a pulley guided him downward at the right speed.
The moment he landed, he swung his dagger.
His target, naturally, was the one currently winning against its own kind.
Seok! He slit the creature’s throat.
Blood sprayed across his face.
Rather than wiping it away, he ducked low.
These bastards usually attacked the face first.
Kiyaak!
As he dodged, he shot out a foot.
The frail leg of the creature couldn’t withstand the strength of an adult man, and it snapped.
As it rolled on the ground, he turned and drove the dagger into the one wounded by its own kin.
Puk!
One stab, then two.
He thought he might have missed the heart, so he stabbed again, but it was effective enough.
The creature trembled and went limp.
20 points have been acquired.
Loki spoke again and again in rapid succession.
A total of forty points.
That leaves three survivors besides me.
He wiped off the blood and caught his breath.
There are 12 living organisms within the analyzed terrain.
Fine, thanks for the bonus information.
He searched the corpses and recovered the same items and backpacks they’d been carrying.
He finished quickly and left without a trace of hesitation.
The smell of blood was thick here.
Soon enough, it would draw the others in.
He headed for the refuge he’d already chosen in advance.
This is getting a little tough.
All the Grobles below had been dealt with.
They were dull creatures to begin with, so as long as he suppressed his presence, they were easy.
The problem was the Clunts…
I let them gather into too large a pack.
Every creature he’d fought so far had been a small group.
At most four, at least two.
He’d distracted their attention and ruthlessly crushed their weak points.
They were creatures with relatively weak legs.
That had been possible only because there were so few of them, but it wouldn’t be so easy now.
So it was time to get out.
Loki. How far is the exit from here?
He asked while chewing on the remaining food at the refuge.
An exit point previously located in the southwest direction, 127 meters away, exists.
Time to go.
He’d already earned 600 points, and there was no need to push farther.
If this were a game, he might have thrown his body into the fight and pressed his luck, but this was reality.
Chiik!
He sprayed foam treatment onto the cuts he’d taken in combat.
It was a spray containing a rapid-healing agent.
The instant it hit his skin, the bleeding stopped and scabs formed.
Even so, the smell of blood was still strong.
If he could smell it through his dulled nose, then it was definitely there.
Chiiik. Tap.
He wrapped the wound area tightly with duct tape.
That should block any stray scent and bleeding, just in case.
He brushed his hands off and stood, leaving the refuge behind.
Thanks to having reduced the number of creatures, the area was fairly safe.
There were no Clunts visible or audible nearby.
It would have been easy to relax, but this was exactly when he needed to be even more vigilant.
No matter how much it looked like a game, it was still reality.
Something could still happen, right?
Correct. It is not possible to rule out the chance that a higher infector will detect the accumulated blood scent and invade the factory.
In that case, the difficulty would go up too.
That is an obvious conclusion.
Difficulty, then, was really just the result of the initial conditions at the moment the mission began.
If a rank 10 infector invaded this place right now, it would become an SSS-rank difficulty.
That’s unlikely, though.
The Five Calamities did not stray far from their own territories.
He didn’t know whether that was due to some tacit agreement among them or not.
Thanks to that, the subjugation of Kalaqua had been carried out without interference from any other entity.
But still.
That was only true for the Five Calamities.
Variable detected! Variable detected!
Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps.
The ground itself seemed to shake beneath them.
He was almost at the exit.
And yet, there it was.
The creature revealed itself.
That bastard is…
He hid himself at once.
He slipped into a half-open container and held his breath, fixing the creature in his sight.
Orgh.
Red, tough skin. A body nearly three meters tall.
Brown mane-like hair grew long from its head and down its back.
Its snub nose kept twitching.
It wetted its protruding lower fangs with a long tongue.
Muscles that matched its size pulsed beneath the skin, flaunting their brutal power.
A rank 4 infector, one he had no chance of defeating at the moment, roared.
Uwaaaaaaaa!
As if announcing that it was the new master of the abandoned factory.