The Age of Chaos
The most important purpose of the advance reconnaissance was to analyze enemy strength.
Rose and Victor split the work between them.
Rose would assess the core combat power, while Victor would handle everything else.
Their innate talents were perfectly suited to the task.
First came their cover identities for infiltration.
Using her natural talent, Face Over, Rose carefully overlaid the face of a Blood Rain Clan member she had killed cleanly onto her own.
That talent could be applied to up to two people, so Victor’s face changed as well.
There was no need to worry about their body types giving them away, either. The clan member they had hunted had been chosen with physique in mind from the start.
"I even calculated the three sizes. Didn’t think about that part, huh? Pfft."
Rose pointed at Victor’s conspicuous bulge.
He muttered as he pulled on the dead man’s clothes.
"...I win."
"Yeah, sure, you win. Now memorize this. It’s the clan member’s speech and habits while you’re disguised."
This hadn’t just been a sightseeing trip. Rose had trailed the clan member they planned to imitate, studying their behavior in painstaking detail until she had finished her analysis.
And all she had gotten out of the process was some delicious Korean food.
Only after that did Victor realize what she had been up to, and he nodded.
"Thanks, Rose."
"Ugh, shut up and memorize it already."
Victor drilled the paper Rose handed him until he knew it by heart.
When he was done, he burned it with a lighter to erase the evidence completely.
After that, the two of them began their performance as perfect Blood Rain clan members.
It took them only one week to blend into the clan and enter the bunker.
They had even concealed the distinctive tattoos with Face Over, so their disguise and infiltration were flawless.
With their respective roles handled, they set about their investigation.
While Rose made contact with the team leaders first, Victor operated differently.
He simply closed his eyes and loitered around the bunker.
That was his talent, called Link. It allowed him to temporarily synchronize his senses with low-intelligence lifeforms.
Through flies and other insects, Victor investigated the clan members from dozens of different vantage points.
The bugs were visible, but no one cared about them much; they were just nuisances to be swatted away with a hand, and they ended up serving as drones.
With them, he monitored every move the clan members made.
Their levels, weapons, positions, talents, and more.
Then, in the middle of that investigation, Igrato made an unexpected announcement to everyone.
"Tomorrow, for the sake of power maintenance and management, I’m planning to invite two special guests. It’s Meteor and his party member, Sniper! Feel free to watch, and if you like, you can even have them evaluate your skills. We’ll be holding it in the training grounds, so come by whenever you’re comfortable."
They already knew.
Blood Rain included the world-ranked number one player, Meteor, and his party.
But instead of ever stopping by the bunker, they hadn’t even shown their faces, apparently only seeking them out when necessary.
"And now we get a chance to analyze them. Victor, you take Sniper. I’ll handle Meteor."
"Don’t let your guard down. He’s number one. He might see through us."
"Come on. Face Over only comes off if I die, remember? It’s done through brain manipulation. There’s no way to forcibly break it."
"Exactly."
Victor spoke with a grave expression.
"That means you could die."
Rose gave a snort at the warning that sounded almost like concern.
"You think I’m the one who’ll die?"
"If we aren’t exposed, you won’t die. Do your part well. Then I’ll move to my position."
After Victor left, Rose puffed out her cheeks.
"Just because he’s number one in a game doesn’t mean he’s number one in real life."
Could he really be stronger than Boss?
Rose brushed away the thought as soon as it came.
The strength she had seen in Boss was on an entirely different level.
There was no comparison between that and some guy who had made a name for himself in a game room.
I’m the one who’s seen Boss up close more than anyone else, who’s watched his strength with my own eyes.
LA, a city riding the cutting edge of the age.
Beneath that surface lay the brutal world of killers, and Rose had been cast aside and left to drift there until she met Boss.
He had taken her in, and she had realized her talent early.
I’m the one who blossomed under a boss like that.
A talent for murder.
She had no aversion to killing, and at a glance she could tell exactly where to strike or smash in order to kill cleanly and perfectly.
And what about the release that came the moment she learned how to handle uncontrollable rage?
Back then, no one could stop Rose.
She killed everything she swung at, guided by that liberated, free-flowing sensation.
She knew this was a rage-control disorder.
But now that she was a killer, she didn’t think of it as a disorder.
Through that so-called mental illness, she had won Boss’s recognition and secured a solid place within the organization.
Kek, so some shut-in nerd who ranked first by playing in his room. He may have looked impressive using the info he had, but that kind of crap doesn’t mean a thing in a fight against a person, not an Infector.
By contrast, Rose was a killer through and through, seasoned in personal combat.
A killer once rumored to be Boss’s heir, the man who led Blood Diamond.
In other words, some world-ranked number one wasn’t worth much.
Today, Rose planned to check his strength and put him in his place.
She wouldn’t kill him.
That would only complicate things.
She just wanted everyone to see that Meteor’s reputation was a load of hype.
And if, as a bonus, she could report to Boss that she had beaten Meteor and earn praise for it, that would be perfect.
"Mister Meteor. Before we start, there’s something I should tell you. I’m suffering from a bit of an illness."
"What is it?"
"I don’t handle anger very well. If I get too pissed off, I go completely nuts. So I’ll end it before that happens."
"Whoa!"
"Has Seo Eun-sil always been this bold?"
"She’s always been kind of reckless, hasn’t she? She’s probably just doing it to entertain us."
At Rose’s blatant provocation, the users burst into cheers.
The space prepared for the spar crackled with excitement.
Since this was exactly the reaction she had expected, Rose smirked.
Then Meteor’s voice cut into her ears.
"What happens when you go nuts?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked what happens when you can’t control your anger."
"Well... I just break stuff until it passes?"
Cutting off someone’s arms and legs, or stabbing through their gut, still counted as breaking things.
She tilted her head as she answered, and Meteor adjusted his stance.
"Then let’s find out today. Whether you can control your anger in some way other than breaking things."
The referee supervising the match signaled the start.
Weapons were allowed, and the practice weapons they had been given had dulled edges.
Rose drew a dagger.
Meteor, by contrast, had a greatsword.
The effective range of their weapons, their reach, was overwhelmingly different.
But Rose didn’t care.
Even a spear, a weapon longer than this, had failed to do anything against her.
Tap!
Rose struck first.
It was the only choice available.
She had to close the distance.
If she wasted time, she would be forced to dance at the mercy of the greatsword’s superior range.
So she closed in, and Meteor...
Huh?
Let go of the greatsword.
She was only startled for a moment.
It could still be a feint.
He might kick it up with his foot, catch it again, and swing.
So for a split second she focused on the greatsword—and missed what was coming.
The blind spot created by her vision being skewed to one side.
"What are you looking at?"
Meteor’s fist came flying in.
Rose calmly blocked it with the flat of her dagger.
There was no blade, so she couldn’t cut him.
That meant she had to focus on deflecting and striking instead.
The bastard.
He had thrown away his advantage and chosen to fight in the closest possible range.
Rose’s dagger slid away from the fist and stabbed in.
As an added bonus, her back foot slammed into his thigh.
Training did not make bones larger or nerves thicker.
That was the spot Rose had targeted.
Thud!
The moment it landed, the leg should have gone numb for a while.
He would be limping on his right leg for some time after this.
She was smiling at the solid feel of her hit when she heard a sound.
"Ssssss..."
The rough inhale of breath.
At the same time, a kick came surging toward her.
The right leg that should have been going numb snapped forward instead.
Her reaction was late because she hadn’t expected the counterattack, and Rose was smashed in the stomach and sent rolling backward.
Her breath caught in her throat.
The impact was monstrous, and breathing became difficult.
But Meteor was still drawing air in.
What the hell was that lung of his made of?
It was like he planned to suck in all the air around him.
Cough! I, I need to recover my posture first...
Even with her body reinforced to Level 2 of physical enhancement, she couldn’t endure it.
Meteor’s physical abilities, the frightening resilience of that body, were beyond anything she had imagined.
Rose judged that fighting him head-on was impossible.
So she surrendered her body to her rage.
She drove herself into a corner and awakened the instincts of a killer.
Of course, she kept a shred of reason.
She left herself room to restrain herself just before she killed Meteor.
"Grrr. I’m gonna kill that bastard. I’ll tear his throat out, damn it. I’ll break every finger and toe he has!"
"Ah, so this is the angry state you were talking about?"
She hadn’t even fully steadied herself yet.
Meteor closed the distance in an instant and pinned her body down.
She couldn’t hear his breathing.
He was holding it. Why?
Her thoughts couldn’t continue.
Before she knew it, Meteor had taken a mounted position and raised his fist.
Bright sunlight vanished behind his knuckles, and shadow fell across her face.
But Rose was still confident.
If she attacked the nerves, if she slipped out by targeting the joints between the bones...
Thwip!
W-what.
The gap between her fingers as they stabbed in.
Those were the nerves and joints of a human body, places that should not be able to be hardened.
Yet the spot she had struck was blocked by something solid.
It was the tightly swollen muscles that had risen all at once.
The moment she realized that they were connected to that eerily long inhale he had just taken...
"The only reason you can keep acting like such a crazy bitch is because no one’s been there to beat you until you either die or are about to."
Meteor’s words stabbed into her ear.
His fist smashed into her face.
She couldn’t breathe properly. She couldn’t see straight. Hot liquid ran down from beneath her nose.
She had tried to stab and strike the vital points indicated by her rage.
But Meteor did not budge.
"You dodged because you knew if you let it hit, it’d explode. I was just matching your mood because it was obvious you’d throw a fit if I didn’t."
No, that wasn’t it.
Her teammates had understood her, too.
They had accepted this not as a disorder, but as another kind of power.
The number of people she had killed with this rage had already long since passed into the hundreds, so what was this nonsense?
She had only been pinned down by overwhelming violence for a moment.
So as long as she broke free of this mount—if she broke free—
"Don’t mistake it for a rage-control disorder. You’re just a hopeless selfish bastard who—"
Crack!
"—can’t live your life unless you’re needling other people because your personality’s rotten to the core."
Crunch!
"And if no one’s paying attention to you, worshipping you, or soothing you, you turn into a rabid piece of shit."
Smash!
Her facial muscles were crushed, shattered into fine pieces, and caved inward.
The hand that had just tried to punch through her carotid artery spasmed in tiny jerks.
As her ability to resist vanished, Rose finally understood.
That the disorder she had always considered her greatest strength had, in fact, been controllable all along.
And that no one had ever been around to control it.
The moment she understood, Rose lost consciousness.
Finally quiet. What a rude bastard.
With that, the woman who had been so loud and insolently provocative didn’t even twitch.
Yoo Sung-jun released Breathing and straightened up.
The muscles that had swollen and strengthened under a Level 3 innate talent returned to their original form.
She’d been pinching and stabbing at him from all over, trying to wriggle free.
For all that bold provocation, her skill was pathetic.
He gave the referee a nod and checked the time.
It was about time to stop the spar and discuss Choi Hyun-seok’s support, the helper deployment, and the countermeasures they needed to prepare for the killer group.