The Age of Adaptation
Protect. That had been his only mission.
Perched on a jutting rock in a barren wasteland, it had never once thought of itself as an individual.
It simply killed whatever came near its nest, and if something ran, it chased it down and killed it anyway.
In that life, Soji met a being unlike any other.
The one who changed its life from the ground up.
"You are one of my kind. As expected, you are weaker than the others."
It understood that language. But it could not speak it.
It was only the master’s Soji, after all; it had no vocal organs to begin with.
All it could do was press its head to the dirt and stare.
The first being to give it the hideous gift of helplessness.
Those octagonal red pupils looked down at Soji.
"But unlike the rest of my kind, you have a distinct will. You know how to think, to judge for yourself. Have you ever questioned the life you live?"
It gave no reaction.
Because intruders deserved to die.
So when it kept glaring, the being reached out.
A pale, snow-white finger pressed against its forehead.
The finger burrowed into the skull as if splitting bone, touching the brain.
In an instant, a sharp sensation ran through its entire body.
Then, overwhelmed by a fierce release it had never felt before, Soji shuddered.
"I have broken the chains that bound your body. One of my kind. As I had my doubts, so should you. Let that doubt become the engine of your life."
The being stood.
It hid the two pairs of arms at its sides, then used the remaining pair to sweep back its hair.
"Mercy and kindness are probably impossible words for you, given that you’ve spent your life in slaughter. So understand this act as whim, if you must. I am leaving now, to find one of my kind who can break my own chains... So, go on. Question that life I’ve set free."
With only those words behind, the being departed.
The being who had first given it helplessness, then given it freedom on a whim, and in that same whim spared its life.
Soji sank into thought.
What was freedom?
For the first time, it left the nest.
It changed its body, as other living creatures did.
For the first time, it ate something. Drank something.
It reveled in the strange sensation of power welling up inside it.
Living like that, Soji eventually arrived at a conclusion.
The answer to the question of what freedom was had never been far away.
It was a question that would solve itself if one simply followed one thing.
The form that being had shown.
Become stronger.
That became Soji’s will, its purpose.
Even to its own ignorant eyes, the being had seemed free.
If it became that free, wouldn’t the question be answered?
So Soji kept eating.
Because that was the way to find the answer.
It did not stop growing, venturing farther and farther from the nest.
Then, the moment it felt it had reached its limit, Soji knew the time had come to break this wall.
Remembering the being that had seemed freer than anything else, it changed itself.
Remembering the being that had seemed the most free of all, it changed its body...
And when that wall finally broke and it stood at a new starting point—
"......"
Soji faced two living beings shaped like the being.
The scattered fragments of its blurred memory supplied the name of the species.
"Human."
Soji opened its mouth.
***
The moment the creature spoke, the fear wrapped around his body vanished.
The taut pressure in the air eased all at once.
That wasn’t because of Soji’s ability.
It was the atmosphere.
The creature did not seem interested in fighting.
"Ah, ah... uh."
It was busy examining its own pale skin and limbs.
It touched its mouth and face with fascination, as if the movement of its larynx and the sounds coming out of it were utterly miraculous.
Yoo Sung-jun knew exactly what lay beneath those near-idiotic gestures.
...Level 7.
So he crushed the impulse to fire and swing immediately.
No matter how much they’d enhanced their gear and modified their equipment, a Level 7 kill in this state, in this environment, would be a nightmare.
Stay calm.
He had to use this situation to the fullest.
At the edge of death, he had to find a way through.
Yoo Sung-jun nudged Yoon Choi’s frozen shoulder with his elbow.
"Get anything useful from the gear?"
"Huh? Oh, um... yes. I did."
Pale skin, gleaming silver pupils that shone like the equipment itself.
He held her gaze and waited for her answer.
While stuffing the gear into her backpack, she tugged at her suit.
Her hurried voice slapped against his ears.
"Three things. First, the creature’s tissue structure is identical to the mutant bastards we’ve fought. Second, it’s in a much stronger state than they are. And third, all of its brainwaves are uniform."
Yoo Sung-jun focused on the last part.
All the brainwaves were uniform.
That meant one simple thing.
So the link with Kalaqua’s been cut?
Normally, the monitor that displayed brainwaves should have shown another flow.
Since it didn’t, that was probably why Yoon Choi said what she did.
In other words, the creature was now a completely independent entity.
And it didn’t even seem to recognize humans as food or enemies.
Maybe...
Yoo Sung-jun glimpsed a path through the mess.
He stopped what he was doing and asked the creature, which still stood there blankly, "Have you never seen a human before?"
"Wh-what are you doing!"
"Shut up. Just do what I tell you."
Yoon Choi thought she had done everything she was supposed to as a guide.
So she figured there was no need to care what Meteor did after that.
They could just go back to the Enter Room, collect the 1.5 share, and call it a day.
But if I do that, will Jack sit still?
She had a duty to report every matter involving Meteor.
And if she lied, the detector would expose it immediately, so false reporting was off the table.
That left her with no way out.
She should have refused his request to investigate the cocoon and talked him into simply retreating.
We’re screwed! Everything’s screwed!
But she couldn’t just stand here and watch him die with that monster.
Because right now, Meteor was the only user who knew how to stop the Middle.
"F-fine... I’ll do it. But you have to survive, okay?"
"I will. I don’t play games where I die. Besides, if this ends well, you might get more points out of it. So do your best."
When Yoo Sung-jun finished speaking, he walked toward Soji.
So he didn’t see the golden gleam that flashed in Yoon Choi’s eyes.
"Am I the same kind of human as you?"
Maybe it had recovered the instincts of the human it once was.
The creature was now speaking with surprisingly clear pronunciation.
"Yeah, we’re the same kind of human. Why did you turn into that form?"
If it could communicate, then he would communicate.
That would buy time until Yoon Choi finished preparing.
He moved with exaggerated gestures, making sure the creature’s attention stayed fixed on him.
Soji stared only at Yoo Sung-jun and answered the question not with words, but with action.
Crunch. Craaack.
Its body changed.
A form Yoo Sung-jun knew well.
Asura.
The human-shaped infector with three pairs of arms was the only one like it.
"You know this being?"
"I do. A being who ruled at the summit. Why? Do you have bad blood with him or something?"
"No. I don't. He freed me from my chains."
Chains, huh.
Was it talking about the brainwave link to Kalaqua?
The guess fit the pieces reasonably well.
As Yoo Sung-jun nodded, Soji asked, "What is your name?"
"Asura."
"Asura... do you know where he is?"
"No. If I did, I wouldn’t be standing here."
He had no idea what whim had struck him, but in the game, Asura was literally the incarnation of destruction.
He never let anything alive remain alive.
He killed whatever he saw and wandered the world in search of something that could stand against him.
And that Asura cut Soji’s link and let it live.
This was information far removed from the Asura Yoo Sung-jun knew from the game.
It might be significant. If he ever met Soji unprepared, there might actually be a chance to survive.
Yoo Sung-jun shrugged as he watched the creature, now back to its original form, sinking into thought.
"What are you thinking about so hard? Figuring out how to kill me?"
"No. Now that I’m like this, I can see it. If I kill and consume you, I won’t become stronger. I won’t kill you."
"Well, that’s a touching thing to hear."
The creature was definitely Level 7.
Once a being evolved to that point, it became difficult to aim for the next evolution through ordinary predation.
A Level 6 infector, or a user who’s finished strengthening their body to Level 5.
It had likely realized Yoo Sung-jun wasn’t one of those.
How it knew that was a mystery, but the creature was smiling.
"So this is freedom."
Suddenly, it spread all four arms.
Its expression was satisfied.
The meaning of the freedom it spoke of—
Yoo Sung-jun could infer it.
Freedom born from strength. It’s saying it like this because with that strength, it can decide life and death for living things however it wants.
Yoo Sung-jun made his judgment.
Then he pointed back the way they’d come.
"You said you wouldn’t kill me. So why don’t we get out of here first? We can talk as we go. Human to human."
"Good. You are a good human. A weak but good human who answered my questions."
At the strangely insulting praise, his eyebrow twitched.
Still, he couldn’t just empty a magazine into it.
Yoo Sung-jun took the lead and walked back.
Is the creature a threat?
He’d faced it and exchanged a few words.
Yet that thought had stayed with him the whole time, and it still did.
Soji was an infector.
A being that regarded humans as nothing more than prey.
Ryong-i was different.
That one was... yes, practically a mutant.
He didn’t know what Ryong-i was like now, but the dragon he’d seen while carrying out the mission had not been hostile toward humans.
On the contrary, he had faithfully followed them and craved affection. He even listened well to his younger brother and Jeyca.
Then couldn’t this Soji be changed too?
Impossible.
It was only because it was Level 7, and because it had intelligence and could talk, that this had even been possible.
If it had been Level 6 and had no reason at all, combat would have broken out the moment they met.
So this situation was nothing but a stall for time.
The infector intoxicated by the incomplete freedom of its own strength had shown Yoo Sung-jun mercy.
That mercy existed because it had judged him to be a human not worth eating.
If he had already strengthened his body to Level 5. If he had stood before it in that state.
Would it have reacted the same way then?
No. Absolutely not.
There was no way to reform a creature that had gained freedom by Asura’s whim.
Time would pass, and eventually users who had strengthened themselves to Level 5 would appear.
That might be him. Or Sung-hwan. Or Jeyca.
This creature would never be able to restrain itself before such appetizing prey.
He could say that with certainty.
Never. Not a chance.
The instinct to endlessly seek the next evolution.
After wandering the wide world, it would only realize that it had seized an incomplete freedom at its current level.
At last, Yoo Sung-jun arrived at his conclusion.
The creature was a threat.
So, in a short time, he had prepared—and Yoon Choi had finished preparing rather satisfyingly.
Nice placement.
The line marked in paint stood out clearly.
He could see the adhesive bombs installed on the ceiling.
The floor was already ankle-deep in sticky slime.
— Preparation complete!
Just then, her shout came through the radio.
They were ready too.
Yoo Sung-jun turned.
The distance to the Soji following behind them was a little over ten meters.
This was its grave.
"Detonate it."
The moment he spoke quietly into the radio—
-[damage] HP
The adhesive bombs exploded.
Tens of thousands of tons. Maybe even hundreds of thousands.
That merciless hammer of nature came crashing down, intent on crushing the two of them beneath it.
Caught off guard, Soji reacted and tried to kick off the ground.
But for a split second, its own sticky slime snagged its ankles.
Turning its body into something closer to a human had worked against it.
With a faint sneer at the sight, Yoo Sung-jun wrapped the greatsword around his body with Ironclad, the additional Omega Suit ability he had installed.
BOOOOOOM!
At his current level, this was the only way to bring down a Level 7.
Huge and small boulders, along with massive clumps of earth, swallowed the pair whole.
...The battlefield where the weak could kill the strong had finally been created.