The Age of Adaptation
He woke up at four in the afternoon.
I slept for more than twelve hours.
Some of that had been the tension draining out of him.
He yawned until his jaw ached, then sat down in front of the computer, which was still running.
He had worried his brother might show up, but thankfully, that didn’t seem to have happened.
Well, it’s not exactly a short trip.
His brother was busy enough preparing for the college entrance exams as it was. This was the countryside, where rent was cheap; his brother was in Seoul. It wasn’t a trip you made casually, and money was part of the problem too.
And it’s not even time for me to send him allowance yet.
Still, he could at least contact him.
His smartphone had hundreds of messages waiting. So his brother had seen the incident too.
Yoo Sung-jun checked the news first.
Surprisingly, there were no articles about it yet.
It looked like they were already moving to contain the chaos.
The news was spreading quietly through community boards rather than public channels.
“The coming catastrophe. What you need to prepare…” Seriously?
Had the guy who wrote this not even bothered to ask his supporter properly?
What people needed to prepare wasn’t a bunker or food supplies.
It was the kind of preparation they’d make on Another Earth 2.0 by spending points.
All I need to do here is train.
It had definitely been called an overwrite. One moment the real-world 63 Building would be there, and the next it would be a half-ruined shell.
Any bunker, any warehouse, any stockpile of guns he prepared here would vanish along with it.
And it’s not like I can store it in the Enter Room either.
It was a space that inherited the system from 1.0 intact. Yoo Sung-jun knew the Enter Room’s rules very well. Only things purchased with points could be stored there. That meant no food, no plants or animals, and certainly no real-world guns, swords, or nuclear missiles.
The reason was simple.
User safety is our top priority. Therefore, we cannot allow anything into the Enter Room that has not been verified by us.
"So you were reading my mind from in there too?"
That is, of course, part of my duty as your supporter.
Yoo Sung-jun gave a dry laugh at the Another Earth 2.0 notification that floated up on his smartphone.
A supporter who could assist even in reality.
He set the phone aside and checked the Another Earth community instead.
It was already flooded with posts looking for parties. Since this was the real world, solo play seemed to be discouraged. That was true even though points were the fastest route to becoming stronger.
So they chose the slower way to get stronger.
Yoo Sung-jun had no intention whatsoever of taking a path meant for the weak.
Knowing what he’d learned from the point settlement only made him more certain.
The achievement called the Last Survivor. There have to be others that stir up human desire just as much.
And in the process, we gather even richer data.
To Yoo Sung-jun, they were still just helpers.
But that would be different for everyone else.
Psychopaths. Devils. Aliens who treat humans like lab rats.
Of course, the choice belongs to humans. We established this plan out of goodwill. It saddens us that you would describe us like that. ( ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )
"That’s how other people will describe you, not me."
Leaning back in his chair, he kept scrolling.
At last, a post caught his interest.
There was no way he didn’t know about Quantum Clan.
It was the clan ranked number one in Another Earth.
Was the clan leader’s name Jack Kalt?
When he clicked it, he found a translated version of Jack’s social media post.
Just as he’d expected.
So the global overwrite really was commonly being called Dark Cover.
It was clear why the words of a clan leader ranked number one carried such weight.
Everyone was already calling it Dark Cover and arguing about it heatedly.
Ten thousand points is enough for one good piece of equipment, or to improve the Enter Room.
Why waste them on bloated politicians?
No matter how hard he thought about it, there was no answer there.
Could they protect citizens from Infector attacks? No.
Could they help reclaim the country? No, that too was impossible.
Most people would probably put purchasing Invitations at the top of their list.
Family first, then those with strong bodies.
The problem was that the government would never just sit still and let that happen.
His phone rang. It was Loki.
Would you like to restrict personal information access?
"You can do that?"
We do not want users being manipulated by those in power.
As expected from a being above Earth.
So they’d foreseen this situation and prepared countermeasures.
Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
Taking that as an answer, Loki immediately began the restriction process.
There was no sensation, but still.
Restriction complete. From this moment on, no one will be able to obtain access to Yoo Sung-jun’s information.
That would keep troublesome situations from cropping up.
It meant he could focus entirely on Dark Cover—and on himself and his brother.
So you’re telling the rest of them to raise hell and prepare while you can.
Yoo Sung-jun stood up.
Now it was time to get ready to meet his brother and head over to his place.
***
Yoo Sung-hwan had grown up early, following in the wake of his older brother, Yoo Sung-jun.
After losing their parents, he’d seen enough of the world’s ugliness and bitterness to last a lifetime.
Whether calling that “good luck” was even appropriate was another matter.
He calmly thought about his brother.
His brother had always been like that.
If it was support for him, he never held back.
Sung-hwan had wanted them to work part-time together so they could at least afford some breathing room, but his brother had flatly refused.
At first, out of stubborn rebellion, he’d secretly taken a part-time job.
There were very few things a minor could actually do, but back then he’d been happy simply to earn money.
He’d felt proud that he could help his brother, who had sacrificed everything and even dropped out for his sake.
Then his brother caught him.
He was beaten so badly there wasn’t a spot on him without a bruise.
Sung-hwan cried while he was being hit, and Yoo Sung-jun cried while he was hitting him.
He still remembered those words perfectly.
"I’m not doing this to make things easy for you! So study like your life depends on it. Study, and get me out of this damn reality. After that, whatever it is you wanted to do? I’ll try it once too."
Those words didn’t weigh on him as a burden.
Instead, they became the moment he set a clear goal for himself.
Let’s free my brother from that cage.
With that thought, he picked up a pencil.
Thankfully, Yoo Sung-hwan had talent for studying.
His memory, comprehension, and concentration were all exceptional.
Thanks to that, he was right on the doorstep of medical school.
He had been—until now.
What the hell is this fucked-up situation?
He let out a long sigh and finally voiced the question he’d been holding back, staring at the brother sitting across from him, Yoo Sung-jun.
"So something happened, right? Mass disappearances. It seems related to Another Earth 2.0."
"You catch on fast."
"Then you went through the tutorial in reality?"
"Yeah. Nearly died."
"Haaah…"
Why would he do something so dangerous?
He knew. He’d read about the reasons online until he could have recited them in his sleep.
Even so, he still couldn’t understand it.
Wasn’t this too rash?
"If I lose Mom and Dad, and then you too, I’m alone. Utterly alone. You know what I mean, right?"
"I know that expression well enough. That’s why I’m doing this."
"It’s because of the Invitation, isn’t it?"
"Exactly. So you need to prepare too."
Prepare. Right. His life had been as far from exercise as possible. He’d always thought it better to spend those minutes studying a little more.
But not anymore. For now the world was still calm, but soon it would be drowning in chaos.
The era where a single action would matter more than all the knowledge in the world—and more than hundreds of words—was coming.
"...Still, medical knowledge would be good to have, right?"
"You looked into everything already?"
"It’s not the kind of news you can miss even if you try."
"Still, the government’s going to clamp down on it. Not right away, but soon."
At Yoo Sung-jun’s words, Yoo Sung-hwan nodded.
The state didn’t want its citizens panicking.
So they would start by controlling information.
Only the upper class and 1.0 users would know at first, and then the news would spread bit by bit.
By then it would reach the ears of the middle-aged and elderly, those who were practically strangers to the internet.
They would finally start to feel the world shifting beneath their feet.
That would be when things truly spiraled into chaos.
Or maybe Dark Cover would happen even before then.
Yoo Sung-jun went on.
"You know the communities are already shutting down and causing a mess, right?"
"A quiet mess. The kind only we know about."
"Exactly. So we need to use that advantage. Let’s divide up the roles. Medical studies? Do it. Even in Another Earth, emergency treatment skills were useful."
"Because advanced healing like rapid recovery is only possible in the Enter Room, right?"
"How much did you want to do that stuff that you even know something like that?"
"I was planning to do it as soon as I got into medical school."
"Hah, seriously."
He let out a dry laugh.
Yoo Sung-hwan could guess why his brother had come.
"What should I learn?"
"Kendo. Mixed martial arts. Shooting. Learn those three in parallel. And use a gym PT to pick up your exercise routine."
"And the money?"
"You saw the YouTube views, didn’t you?"
Of course he had.
The estimated earnings alone were already in the tens of millions of won.
As he smiled, Yoo Sung-jun’s expression turned serious at once.
"We don’t know when Dark Cover will hit. You saw the community boards, so you know that already. Let’s leave this place and go home. From now on, we’ll live together. If Dark Cover happens while we’re far apart, it’ll be a problem. And what, you don’t have any friends to keep in touch with?"
"Even if I did, they’d only be friends on the surface. Everyone’s constantly trying to one-up each other on grades. It’s brutal."
"I thought you’d just been studying comfortably. So it wasn’t like that?"
"That’s just what group life is like. So, are we leaving right away?"
"Yeah. Pack the books and clothes you need. Today we’re making the rounds—gym, kendo hall, MMA gym, indoor shooting range."
"Hoo, busy already."
Yoo Sung-hwan visibly shivered.
At that, Yoo Sung-jun pursed his lips.
Not because he was pretending to be steady, but because he genuinely looked steady.
"Aren’t you scared?"
"Of what?"
"Even if I give you an Invitation, I can’t go with you into the tutorial. You’ll have to clear the mission on your own, and no matter how much you train, an Infector’s weapons will cut through a fragile human body, melt it, rip it apart."
"Are you trying to scare me with that?"
"It’s better to stay moderately tense and do some mental training."
"But it doesn’t really hit home. Am I just built for Another Earth or something?"
Seeing him shrug, Yoo Sung-jun snorted a laugh.
"Maybe you are. Hurry up and pack. I’ll help."
"Okay!"
He sprang to his feet and gathered his things.
Since he’d only ever studied, there wasn’t much to pack.
That made Yoo Sung-jun feel a little guilty.
He must’ve had plenty of things he could’ve done with kids his own age.
And yet his brother had turned his back on every temptation and poured himself only into studying.
His luggage amounted to a suitcase and one or two backpacks.
After loading everything into the car and waiting for his brother to get in, he set off.
They passed through an ordinary daily life.
Through a world that carried a bomb inside it, a bomb that might go off at any moment.
They left Seoul and headed for the outskirts.
Finding a city that even had an indoor shooting range was a pain.
Still, he’d chosen a place where all the infrastructure was in place.
"You got a new place?"
"Saving money’s meaningless anyway."
"So from now on, we each do our own thing?"
At his brother’s question while unpacking, Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
"Don’t slack off, whether it’s training or studying. If you die in the tutorial, you won’t even be able to find the body."
"That one definitely hits home. I’ll do it like my life depends on it. You have to survive, no matter what."
"Exactly. Go and then come back so we can eat. It’s been a while since I had your doenjang-jjigae."
"You really haven’t forgotten the taste, huh? Got it. I’ll be back."
He saw his brother off with a small smile as the younger man headed out to the indoor shooting range.
It was only the first day, but starting immediately was admirable.
Dark Cover could happen at any time. Getting ready right away is the right choice. Good call.
He seems like a very intelligent younger brother, Yoo Sung-jun.
"That’s because he’s the younger brother of someone who had such great insight."
....
How rude.
Yoo Sung-jun tapped the app.
He planned to clear a short mission before his brother came back.
While he was resting like this, there were surely others out there focusing hard on their own missions.
His body was transmitted into the Enter Room.
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