The Age of Adaptation
There was a gigantic castle in Brazil.
Even the Burj Khalifa, long considered the tallest structure in the world, had to bow before it; that 828-meter skyscraper would have looked small beside this fortress.
Its foundations were held up by the bones of every kind of infector, harder than any building material man had ever made.
And what of the walls, hardened from infector vomit? Smoothly raised and seamless, they were far superior to concrete.
So rose the brown citadel.
At its highest floor lay a naked woman, half-reclining on a sofa made from the soft fur of some unknown infector.
She stared out at the sweeping view beyond the castle, where enormous flying insects wheeled through the air, and twisted her blazing red hair around her fingers.
She was looking ahead, yet not looking ahead at all.
Rupal, one of the 5 Calamities and the Illusion Demon, was gazing at a human being through the eyes of the toy she had chosen to play with.
If she thought back to the distant past, humans had been pitiful and feeble compared to infectors, a species long since outpaced by the upheaval of the world.
She had thought them gone.
One of the extinct animals, erased by the flow of history.
...But that had not been the case.
She did not know whether they had fallen from the sky or risen from the ground.
The inferior species she had believed extinct had suddenly reappeared one day and made even her toys begin to tremble.
They came brandishing powerful equipment of unknown origin and started slaughtering infectors by the dozen.
That much had been fine.
But now, one of the humans she had never even considered worthy of the name toy had broken one of her toys.
"How amusing."
She did not know where the toy was located.
She had connected to it through a single thread of brainwaves and then, carelessly, forgotten about it.
There were far more toys providing her with entertainment besides that one.
So she had let it slip her mind—until she saw the connection flickering, about to break.
This was not the first time something like this had happened.
Whenever it did, Rupal would keep the toy’s final moments in her eyes and wander the world in search of a new one.
That was the amusement of her life now, a life close to immortality.
Watching that scene through her toy, she felt excitement and delight surging up from the deepest part of her body.
-Rupal...
"The only ones who know my name are either toys or candidates to become toys."
Or dead people.
Heheh. With a thin smile, Rupal went on.
Even if it sounded like she was talking to herself, her ability, Sphere, transmitted her words directly to the target through the connected toy’s brainwaves.
"That’s what makes it fun. You’re not a toy, not a candidate for one, and not dead either. And yet you know me. How could that possibly be boring?"
-......
He looked old on the surface.
But the fierce vitality beneath that exterior was unmistakable, and that only made Rupal smile wider at the strangeness of him.
"Are you afraid of me? You’re awfully quiet. Heheh."
-Why would I be afraid? Are you angry because your toy broke?
"Not especially? I’m just pleased to have a better toy right in front of me. I’d love to meet you soon."
-Why don’t you come yourself? Or is that impossible?
"If I came, do you really think you could handle it?"
-What’s there not to handle? I’ve killed men almost as crazy as a bitch like you. Why couldn’t I handle you?
"How cute. The other toys react just like that when they see me too. That’s why breaking them is so satisfying."
He leveled his gun at her.
At the black muzzle hanging in Muaaz’s field of view, Rupal grinned.
"I don’t know where you crawled out from, but it seems humans have been building the strength to oppose us. This should become a delightful slaughter. My toys. You humans. Now that the owner of the earth has changed hands, if we fight again... who will win, I wonder? Heheh."
-You crazy bitch.
"Mm?"
Click. The bolt slid back and snapped forward.
-You really do talk too much, even here.
Bang!
His vision went black.
At the same time, the brainwave sustained by Sphere was severed.
The complete death of the toy, Muaaz.
Rupal let out a breathy, heated exhale.
To face another’s death so directly.
"Haah... I think I’m getting addicted..."
The appearance of a new toy candidate who stirred her interest more than any other had.
She would find him, no matter what.
Find him and keep him by her side as the first human toy.
At the end of a hundred years of boredom, there was this new goal, and this death-fueled ecstasy more intoxicating than any drug.
With that intense feeling, Rupal’s hand drifted to her groin.
At the same time, through Sphere, she transmitted the appearance of the old-looking man to all her toys.
-Listen carefully. If you see a man who looks like this, tell me where he is at once.
The mental image was sent.
The toys’ frenzied replies erupted one after another.
-Yes, Queen!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Haaah! Ssshhh. Hooof!
At the tail end of the adrenaline rush, Yoo Sung-jun kept sucking in breath, the pressure and pain in his chest feeling as if they were wringing his lungs dry.
The conversation he had abruptly held with Rupal had revealed several things.
It had been a talk worth having.
He had even gotten in a good jab at her with that curse at the end.
Loki. Can Muaaz’s brain be moved into the Enter Room?
[It is not possible, as it could cause contamination.]
Then it would have to stay here.
Later, he’d extract just the brain, preserve it, and run all sorts of experiments on it.
Could exchange it for points too, while I’m at it.
He looked around.
With Muaaz dead and the mind control lifted, the remaining leader-class infectors either fought to the end or fled.
It was an imperfect bunker cleanup, but a mission cleared all the same.
Everyone returned either jubilant or utterly spent.
"Hyung, are you okay?"
"Sung-jun oppa... you’re not dying or anything, right?"
Had he been lying there in pain too long?
His younger brother, carrying his gun, the NU-101, came over and kept patting his cheeks.
Suddenly, he remembered something similar.
Back when his brother had been injured because of the Japanese party’s betrayal, he had slapped him like this too.
Now I’m the one getting it.
He let out a small laugh and answered in a voice tight with exhaustion.
"I’m just tired. That’s all. So relax those faces."
"Haaah... I was wondering if you’d somehow gotten a pneumothorax, and thinking maybe I should just stab you in the side to be safe."
"......"
That kid could say something that savage without batting an eye.
Still, the two of them were calming down now.
Yoo Sung-jun turned at the sound of footsteps.
Choi Hyun-seok, drenched in blood, was approaching while supporting Cruiser.
"You’re a mess."
"Says you. You’re not exactly in great shape either. Is Cruiser alive?"
"Stronger than he looks. Got caught in that tentacle explosion and didn’t even break a bone."
"Good, that’s a relief... First get your bodies back together... then we’ll meet in the real world."
"Haha... this isn’t the real world? That sounds weird."
"It’s a shitty reality, all right."
He turned his head slightly.
His brother’s face and Jeyca’s appeared at the edge of his vision.
I did it...
He had done it after thorough raid preparation, after formulating the operation, after turning over the Higher Being’s advice in his mind until it was second nature.
The whole party had survived.
Feeling a swelling sense of accomplishment, he said inwardly, Loki. Let’s go back.
[...Understood. Mission cleared. Transferring to the Enter Room.]
The transfer began.
At the same time, the effect of the adrenaline wore off.
The pain rushed in, and his vision went black.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
How long had he been unconscious?
When he opened his eyes, the Enter Room timer was displayed before him.
About thirty minutes left.
Still lying spread-eagled, he went straight into treatment.
[Full-body muscle rupture, nerve damage, and a large quantity of reactive oxygen detected. Treatment cost: 27,320 points.]
"You’re taking a disgusting amount."
[The injuries were severe enough to warrant it, Yoo Sung-jun.]
"Fine, take it."
He checked his remaining points.
These were the points tallied while he was unconscious.
There was a record beneath the remaining total.
[Remaining points: 638,510]
Even after nearly 27,000 points were deducted, that was still the amount left.
Yoo Sung-jun blinked repeatedly.
The pain of child-rearing, a one-time D-rank mission, had been worth 320,000 points.
So this really was a C+ raid-class mission after all...
He could feel the power of that 8-to-2 point split firsthand.
Because they had practically monopolized the reward, the total had piled up like this.
As he browsed the achievements, one entry he had never seen before caught his eye.
[First Contact: 50,000 points]
That was nothing to brag about compared with the higher-tier achievements.
He focused on the keyword first.
"What does First Contact mean?"
[Exactly what it says. Yoo Sung-jun, you achieved a unique-tier accomplishment no one else has ever pulled off. You talked to Rupal, the Illusion Demon of the 5 Calamities, didn’t you?]
"Since it’s ‘first,’ I guess only one person can ever achieve it, and only once."
[Yes. That’s why it has such a huge impact on user-grade advancement.]
Then he could likely aim for a rank increase from User Grade 8 to 7 soon enough.
An achievement titled first must have had a major influence.
The reward’s good.
Had this raid only given him points?
He had secured the brain of a Level 6 infector.
If he used it well, it would bring massive benefits to both his companions’ growth and their point income.
And that conversation with Rupal gave me certainty too.
There were two things he had confirmed.
First, every infector connected to Rupal would know of the existence of users.
Muaaz had said he knew about the nano particles because of the Queen.
That meant Rupal had likely come into contact with users through her toys.
After that, she must have figured out the function of the nano particles as well.
And finally, Rupal said she wanted to meet me.
Judging by that, she clearly didn’t know Muaaz’s location.
In other words, she didn’t know where the bunker they had secured in this raid was.
Normally, she would have threatened to come right over, or declared she would pay a visit.
But she hadn’t.
She had only voiced her wish to meet him quickly.
So he had gained two things from that short conversation: confirmation that the current bunker was safe, and information from the infectors connected to Rupal.
He had caught two birds with one stone.
So then.
I need to get stronger.
Choi Hyun-seok had treated conflict between humans, born from the instinct to survive against one another, as the worst-case scenario.
After talking with him, Yoo Sung-jun found himself agreeing with that to some extent.
His goal would ultimately boil down to the safety of his brother and his companion Jeyca.
But what I consider the worst is still the 5 Calamities.
After Dark Cover, and into the farther future beyond that, Yoo Sung-jun regarded the 5 Calamities who would one day breathe the same air on the same planet as the worst possible threat.
They were not the kind of beings a mass of users could do anything about.
Only the strength of an individual who had reached the summit could restrain or eliminate them.
Choi Hyun-seok. Worry about foreign nations and clans and prepare accordingly. That’ll be the shelter our party can rest in.
The treatment ended.
After loosening his body, Yoo Sung-jun headed for the body-modification capsule.
He selected Body Strengthening Level 3 and stepped inside.
Half a million points vanished in an instant.
"Then I’d better prepare for the 5 Calamities."
Rupal was undoubtedly going to search for him using his face as the starting point.
Yoo Sung-jun stared at his reflection in the capsule’s glass.
The wrinkled, aged face was gone without a trace.
Now that the reactive oxygen had been cleared out, he had black hair and taut skin.
"Go ahead and search forever, remembering my old face."
At the cost of pushing his nature to the limit, he had inadvertently shaken off the 5 Calamities’ pursuit as well.
This raid had given him far too much.
Thinking of what he still had to do, Yoo Sung-jun slipped into the sleep gas and drifted off.
Crack. Crunch. Grind.
His body began to strengthen, inching closer to the state of a transcendent human.