The Age of Adaptation
Yoo Sung-jun didn’t believe that Soji had died from this alone.
The creature’s body was sometimes hard, sometimes soft.
Right now, it would have gone rigid.
Even if it hadn’t managed to wrench itself free, it would at least have gone through the motions of preparing to endure, if only for an instant.
This was nothing more than the making of an environment.
An environment fit for slaughtering a foolish Infector at Level 7.
That ignorant creature had merely dug this place out in hopes of creating a comfortable nest in which to evolve.
In its pursuit of freedom, it had, paradoxically, chained itself to the very place it had made.
A stupid thing to do.
It’s dug its own grave. So this is what they call getting hoist by your own petard, isn’t it?
With a thin smile, he looked around.
Mounds of earth and chunks of stone had crashed down with merciless force.
Yoo Sung-jun couldn’t have withstood that weight.
No matter how enhanced the body, it was obvious he would have been crushed flat.
That was why he’d used Ironclad Form.
A new ability added to the Omega Suit after accumulating the data of an all-rounder.
The true power of that ability revealed itself when handling nanotech equipment.
It drew even the particles of gear that had already finished synchronizing.
It could become a sturdy armor that wrapped his entire body.
He could even reshape it to protect the people around him, not just himself.
But Yoo Sung-jun had chosen the latter.
There was no one to protect.
Yoon Choi had long since pulled herself out and moved on to her second-stage preparations, just in case.
He had only created the bare minimum of space to shield himself and bring that bastard down.
It’s formed properly.
Yoo Sung-jun stared at the black mass of condensed nanites around him, shaped like a triangular roof.
An ideal structure, built through Ironclad Form.
Because of that, the rocks couldn’t crush him and only slid off to the sides.
The same went for the dirt piled on top.
Only Soji had been pressed down.
Now to finish this.
Yoo Sung-jun had never made a gamble of his own life to begin with.
He’d only done this because he was certain he could catch the creature in a place like this.
He drew NU-101 and switched modes.
Through the line plugged into the suit, the weapon hungrily devoured Yoo Sung-jun’s Omega Suit information.
The gun, reinforced on an equipment-modification bench and driven to its final form, looked every bit as vicious as it appeared.
Whiiiin.
The transformed NU-101 had become a grotesque, streamlined shape, like some kind of fish.
There were dozens of slits like gills.
A suppressed, strained sound leaked from inside them.
It glowed a heated red and radiated searing temperature.
Good.
Buster Mode.
Yoo Sung-jun had modified the greatsword to deal with large numbers.
So what was he supposed to do when a small number of overwhelmingly powerful enemies appeared, enemies he still couldn’t beat at his current level?
After all that deliberation, the answer was now in his hands.
He invested every nanite into both hands to operate NU-101.
Output: 100 percent. Available power: 99 percent.
The remaining 1 percent was converted into the delicate sense required to handle it.
He was staring at the multicolored light shimmering at his fingertips when a sharp noise pierced his ear.
"Graaah—!"
So it was still alive.
If it had died, Loki would have awarded the points already.
No. It didn’t take any damage, so maybe it wouldn’t be included in the settlement?
Judging that this had been arranged by Yoo Sung-jun and Yoon Choi through a trap installation, it will be included in the settlement.
Hearing Loki’s explanation, he adjusted his grip on the gun.
He let his will flow into the ironclad form linked only by a glove still left on his hand.
The nanites scattered, opening a single hole.
He shoved the gun’s newly transformed barrel, now like a muzzle, into that opening.
Where did you get buried…
He concentrated every ounce of his attention on the sound and hunted for the creature.
The scraping of earth. The sound of dirt and rubble bursting apart.
And then—last of all—the sound of something coming straight toward him.
In the sealed chamber, filled with nothing but darkness, only Yoo Sung-jun’s eyes and the weapon gleamed.
He didn’t hesitate for long.
Without the slightest pause, he pulled the trigger.
Kwaaaaanng!
The particle shell superheated inside the weapon and shot forward.
A beam of annihilation that burned and melted everything in its path.
The red pillar erased everything before his eyes.
One strike so overwhelming it felt as though it had ended everything.
But Yoo Sung-jun didn’t think it was over yet.
A long tunnel of darkness had been carved through the collapse.
At the end of the path, still glowing red from the lingering heat, silver eyes flashed.
***
Soji’s condition was atrocious.
Half its body had been blown away, and it was barely holding itself together with what remained of its right leg and arm.
It had recognized the attack and transformed, but the wave of force from that thick, monstrous power was too much for this body, which still hadn’t adapted.
So it had sacrificed part of itself.
That displeased Soji.
It wanted to tear apart and kill the human who had restrained its freedom, right here and now.
Human. Too weak to even be worth eating, but still one who can communicate.
Just as Asura had once saved Soji through the freedom born of strength, Soji had spared this creature too.
And this was how it repaid that?
Its eyes, swollen with rage, turned crimson.
"Human! I will kill you. I will take your freedom with death!"
Kugugung! It had bored a long tunnel through the aftermath.
Earth and stone had melted together and seemed to hold, but the passage was unstable enough to collapse at any moment.
Soji noticed that and used its ability.
Penetration. From its gaping mouth, a white line shot out—far denser and more intense than before, though not on the same level as the last blast.
A line of light so bright it seemed as though it had always existed there, only to vanish just as quickly.
Soji had no doubt the creature had been pierced.
It had locked on accurately and fired.
The sharpened senses born from its evolution gave it absolute confidence.
They did.
"This damn freedom, holy—"
Spitting an obscenity, the human charged in.
Come to think of it, the surroundings had gone quiet.
It had clearly been on the verge of collapse just a moment ago.
Huh?
Soji’s eyes flew wide open.
The blackened tunnel had grown even darker before it knew it.
Because the black powder that had been protecting the creature had filled the walls.
That had become a support, holding the collapse back.
The human burst through that tunnel and reached out.
Its left ear and cheek were gone, so the Penetration must have worked.
The human came right up to it and shouted with an open mouth full of flashing teeth.
It swung the bladed weapon it held in reverse grip like an arming sword.
"Find it after you’re dead!"
Soji reflexively tried to swing its right arm.
But it was gone, blown away by the blast just now.
It tried to restore it at once, but couldn’t remember how.
How did one build a human arm that could move properly?
The ligaments linking bone to bone. The arrangement of the muscles.
It didn’t know. If it blocked with the left hand, the balance would be broken. If the balance broke, it wouldn’t be able to stop the next attack.
And so, as it tried to shape the arm it had once possessed… its thoughts dragged on. Its judgment lagged.
Because of that, a chill slicing sound rang at its throat.
Schk!
The sword pierced its Adam’s apple and was withdrawn from the back of its neck.
As it looked at the human, the world spun.
Soji realized that its head had been severed.
At the same time, with the human’s blade driving down toward its forehead for the final strike—
Thud!
It saw.
***
"Ghk…!"
Yoo Sung-jun reached for the vanished flesh of his cheek as searing pain surged through him.
Touching it felt strangely odd.
Not a soft cheek, but teeth.
Disgusting.
Good thing he’d dodged, knowing Penetration would fire.
That had been close. He’d nearly lost his head.
Blood was streaming down by his ear, and the noise in it had been cut in half, but Loki’s report still came through clearly.
442,000 points have been obtained.
This one had been worth 520,000 points.
As expected of a rare Level 7 with a ridiculous difficulty to subjugate.
It had only been a fight because it had just evolved and still couldn’t control its own body. It worked beautifully.
If it hadn’t, the one dying here would’ve been him.
The in-ear device on his right side was chattering noisily.
It was Yoon Choi, who had been waiting nearby, cheering at the flood of points coming in.
Since the total had been split 8.5 to 1.5, she was probably celebrating the 78,000 points she’d received.
"Can you get out? No, wait. Are you going to come straight back?"
She asked with a bright voice, but if he went back, he’d have to show her this face.
That was out of the question.
He didn’t want to reveal his identity yet, and he certainly wasn’t close enough with her to show up looking like a zombie.
"Go on ahead first. I still have something to do."
"Huh? Wai—"
The in-ear device crackled badly, almost on the verge of breaking.
He tore it off roughly and threw it to the floor.
Then he severed Soji’s head and retrieved the brain.
If it were up to him, he’d have liked to take the whole thing, but that wasn’t possible, since it might contaminate the Enter Room.
Besides, it was still uncertain whether eating this would open up a new application of his innate talent.
When I ate Muaz’s brain again, nothing happened.
Still, he had hope.
This was the brain of a Level 7, not a Level 6.
Maybe something would change if he tried it.
He couldn’t weigh it to the exact hundred grams.
He roughly estimated the amount, chewed it down hard, and requested a return.
He also made sure to retrieve the nanites of the NWA greatsword that had served as his support.
KWA-KWAAANG!
At last, where Yoo Sung-jun had stood, the space was buried beneath a mound of earth.
***
Pak! Pzzzt!
The ceiling had been torn and pierced without mercy.
Frayed electrical wires flickered sadly, scattering sparks.
Each falling spark touched the pool of red blood on the floor and died out.
They were the only light in the darkness, where not a thing could be seen an inch ahead.
As each spark fell and vanished, two silhouettes slowly came into view.
A massive body lay sprawled on the ground.
He frowned at the woman of small build standing before him.
"You think you can get away after provoking us…?"
"Seriously, every time some idiot messes with a clan, you guys always come out with the exact same line. Why the hell is that?"
The woman grinned as she spat out a string of gritty curses.
"Did you think I’d hear that and go shaking in fear, begging to be spared?"
A knife-hand struck down at impossible speed and slammed into the man’s crown.
Crack! His skull split cleanly down the middle.
That killed him instantly.
But he wasn’t the only corpse here.
There were bodies strewn everywhere.
She ignored them and hummed under her breath as she crossed the field of the dead.
The sign hanging by the way, reading Verdun Underground Bunker, glowed red.
Having seized the French refuge, she dropped into the plush chair in the command and control room.
It was a big chair for her body.
Her feet didn’t touch the ground, so she swung both legs back and forth.
Then she heard movement all around her.
One by one, figures emerged from the doors positioned around the room.
They gathered before the woman.
Gathered to deliver their reports.
"The food storage. All users have been eliminated."
"The users in the rest area have been wiped out too."
"Oh, nice work. What about the others?"
"They’re cleaning up and coming in. They’re recovering equipment."
At the scarred man’s words, the woman smiled brightly.
"Stealing points off users really is the easy way. Humans don’t look weird and nasty like Infectors; they’re neat and tidy, you know? Just look at them. So simple. If they can’t breathe, they die. If blood doesn’t reach the brain, they die. Even a tiny hole punched in the heart and they’ll slowly bleed out to death. What if their throat gets pierced? Then they can’t even scream for help—just snip, and they’re gone. Teehee."
Laughing merrily, she pointed at the corpses around them.
In the direction she pointed lay bodies that had died in all kinds of ways.
"That’s why raiding refuges is way more profitable than missions, don’t you think? It’s easier too. Right, mister killer?"
"Aren’t you the killer, Rose?"
"Exactly. A killer who gets to live in a world where murdering a hundred people, a thousand people, doesn’t matter at all~"
Yoo-hoo! She made the sound and spun in her seat.
Then, behind her, rose a low, gloomy voice.
"Rose. Have you decided on the next refuge we’ll target?"
When had he arrived?
He was staring at the world map covering the wall of the control room.
Having apparently just come back from killing people, faint steam rose from the blood staining his Omega Suit.
Rose wrinkled her nose, sniffing at it as though it were the scent of a delicious meal, and scratched her temple.
"I already decided ages ago. The problem is I still haven’t done the recon, so is there anyone among our handsome killer boys who wants to go with me?"
"I’ll go."
"Oh, Victor. I like that. Dependable."
At the scarred man Victor’s answer, Rose rose from her chair.
"Then let’s get fixed up and leave right away."
"Where are we going?"
"Hmm… It was a small country. Even so, it was treated like a major power, I think. South Korea. You know it?"
"The Republic of Korea."
"Oh, right. Something there—bulgogi? Stone-pot bibimbap?—I heard that stuff’s insanely good. Want to eat on the way?"
"If it overlaps with the destination, I don’t care."
"It does. It’s where Gimpo Airport is."
Rose’s gaze turned toward the man still looking at the map.
Without turning around, he said, "Go and come back."
"Okay!"
Rose answered brightly and looked around.
The room was dimly flickering with sparks.
The darkness still made it hard to tell what was what, but the red diamond tattoos shared by the dozens of people gathered there were unmistakable.
The red diamond inked beside their necks.
It caught the faint light and gleamed in crimson.
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