The Age of Chaos
Choi Hyun-seok had volunteered to serve as a helper.
That part made sense.
He had already proven what he could do when Yoo Sung-jun brought him along to recruit Muaz; as a helper, he had done exactly what he was supposed to do.
If Jeyca was a defensive helper, Choi Hyun-seok was an offensive one.
It was in his nature to smash through trouble the moment he saw it.
That temperament would definitely come in handy for exposing Death Spoil’s blind spots.
Time to focus on what matters.
Stopping the Zongbai had to remain a top priority.
But he couldn’t ignore the new threat either.
The Higher Being had warned him that in two weeks, a killer group would come after the bunker.
If he didn’t go to the bunker, there’d be no threat to deal with.
But the Higher Being had been adamant: he had to go. He had to prepare thoroughly.
As he fought the clan members, he had turned that warning over in his mind.
Now, he thought he understood why it had been said.
He’s taken this bunker as home. And Blood Rain too. He’s recognized Choi Hyun-seok as a decent ally.
His feelings had bent toward the environment and the people in it.
He had realized they were needed for the life ahead.
So he still couldn’t understand why Choi Hyun-seok was volunteering as a helper.
“It’s good to create openings and all, but shouldn’t you be taking the lead in defending the bunker? You’re the only one in this clan who’s above the standard.”
“Aren’t you overestimating me a little?”
“I’m saying this because I saw you figure out Muaz’s weakness with wave detection.”
For an ordinary user, even that would have been impossible.
They would have died without ever dodging Muaz’s ambush.
“I’m not asking for you specifically—just any helper who can at least sense danger. I’m telling you to be the one who turns the bunker into an iron fortress.”
“Haha. You really do only know how to handle things like a solo player, don’t you? You don’t know much about dealing with groups.”
“Why, am I wrong?”
“No, it’s a fair point. But it’s not enough to completely wipe out a group.”
That was true enough. If they could establish a perfect search-and-destroy system and a flawless defense network, they could stop it.
But that was all it would do—stop it.
“There are plenty of ways for a small, strong force to hunt down the many. They can strike at groups that come out of the bunker to scout, or break through weak points. There are all kinds of methods. And since the Higher Being called them a killer group, that range of possibilities gets even narrower.”
“For example?”
Choi Hyun-seok pulled out a board marker and started sketching on the table.
The surface was smooth enough to serve as a whiteboard, so he drew with ease: a round circle, arrows spreading outward from it.
“First, as you know, the bunker has eight entrances. Right now, the number of clan members who’ve been reinforced to us is 1,081. Let’s set a minimum standard from there.”
Body Enhancement, Level 1. Body Enhancement, Level 2. And on top of that, whether or not they possessed an Omega Suit.
The farther down they went, the smaller the numbers became.
When he added the strength of the Quantum Clan, who had come in as allies, the total finally reached a level where they had to use both hands to count.
“I’m setting the killer group’s level high enough that they can threaten your party. In that case, the minimum would be Body Enhancement Level 2, maybe somewhere between Omega Suit Level 1 and 2.”
That left only sixteen opponents with comparable strength.
The age when melee combat was about quantity rather than quality was over.
In the present, where quality mattered, the bunker’s combat power was grim indeed.
“So in the end, they’d put the core force at the top of the elimination list first. Which means from here on out, what I’m preparing isn’t just a defensive operation. It’s an operation to annihilate them completely.”
“Go on. If I see any room for improvement, I’ll say it without holding back.”
“I figured you’d say that.”
He erased the drawing with the sleeve of his shirt and continued explaining the operation.
With every word, Yoo Sung-jun’s expression shifted in subtle ways.
Before long, he nodded, as though he understood everything fully.
“Not bad. Still, I think we should change one thing.”
“Why?”
“I think I might be able to bring Jack Kalt into this operation. That’s the key, right? We put the sixteen of us—the force comparable to them—out front, and use the rest of the clan members as bait to draw them in.”
“Right. If that’s the case, then we just need to set one more trap here.”
“In the central hall? Then we’d be taking the role of the ambushers, like Muaz did that time.”
“That’s how it would go.”
“Then what do we call this operation?”
With his arms crossed, Yoo Sung-jun asked, and Choi Hyun-seok grinned.
“Venus flytrap. Let’s catch every last bug dumb enough to go charging toward a tasty smell.”
“This one doesn’t sound cheap, and it’s not too long either.”
It was a satisfying name for an operation.
That settled the discussion, and Choi Hyun-seok had been accepted as a helper, so for now, he needed to focus on harvesting the Death Spoil hormone sac.
As he was leaving after the conversation, Choi Hyun-seok stopped him.
“Hold on. Do you know Jack Kalt’s natural talent?”
“No? Ah—well, you might. You did run around with him.”
“Yeah. I saw him when we were clearing out the Chinese clan. It was Analysis. The same talent you used in the game.”
At those words, it felt as if his eyes had snapped open.
Jack Kalt’s natural talent was Analysis?
Well, someone out there might have gotten it.
That it was Jack Kalt was surprising.
He said he was a fan—what, did he try to imitate even the talent? No, that can’t be it.
Still, that gave him one more avenue for getting Jack Kalt to join them.
“I’ll keep that in mind when I persuade him.”
Even if he was a fan, it was unlikely he’d figured out every last method of growth for Analysis.
Yoo Sung-jun and Yoo Sung-hwan’s lives changed a little after the announcement of Dark Cover.
Rather than going out, they spent their time preparing for the mission while eating through the food they had stockpiled in advance.
Oddly enough, the apartment they lived in stayed quiet, and the reason for that could be seen on the news.
The radical faction was running wild like a colt that had been let off the reins as the apocalypse drew near.
If there was any consolation, it was that their violence wasn’t indiscriminate.
It’s a consolation for them, at least.
If they touched his home, he had no intention of letting it slide.
He had even been prepared to break their limbs as an example—or kill them if they went too far.
Quiet is good. So, when do you think Dark Cover will arrive?
[Was that directed at me?]
Who else here would be reading my mind besides you?
[I thought Yoo Sung-jun-nim had become so mentally exhausted that he was talking to himself, so I was looking into related treatments.]
The leap in logic was staggering. Was she trying to tease him? What an arrogant little supporter.
It’s not that, so answer the question. When do you think it’ll come?
[If I were to dare to estimate... I think it will happen within a month.]
Why do you think that?
[It’s a kind of guess. Why, humans work hard picking lottery numbers in hopes of winning first prize, don’t they? So when do you think it’ll happen, Yoo Sung-jun-nim?]
“Hmm...”
Thinking about it wouldn’t magically produce a precise answer, so Yoo Sung-jun muttered, “Tomorrow?”
[Looking at the world situation right now, that might not be impossible. The transformed environment keeps applying subtle stress, so people could go mad. I’d say you’ve reached the point where you’d understand if Dark Cover happened tomorrow.]
“I was just saying it off the cuff. If something like that could drive me mad, there’d be no reason to bother with body enhancement in the first place.”
Besides, his emotions were under control just fine right now.
Leaving the table behind, Yoo Sung-jun knocked on his younger brother’s door.
For the past two days, except when he was eating, his brother had been devoting himself to studying and watching videos.
“Kraaagh!”
“Fall back! If you keep staying there, you’ll die for nothing!”
Through the crack in the door, the sound of the video drifted out.
Amid the frantic shouts were mixed-in roars of monsters, followed by bursts of gunfire.
“What are you watching?”
Yoo Sung-jun asked as he knocked, and the answer came back at once.
“Mission videos uploaded by other users.”
As he stepped inside, Yoo Sung-jun spoke in a flat tone. “Why bother watching something that isn’t even useful as reference material?”
“Just in case. I might spot traces or something else.”
“Spot what?”
“Maybe Ryong-i shows up on one of them. He’s such a people-loving idiot, after all. What if he runs over happily to say hi and gets shot?”
“That’s not going to happen. Think about the corpses there. Do you really think a guy who ate all of them could be taken down by firearms worth barely 1,000 points?”
He pointed at the gun seen in the bodycam footage as he spoke.
“If you’re going to search, post on Sunshine Cover too and compare the gear shown in the videos while you’re at it. That’ll save a lot more time and be much more efficient.”
“Ah... right. That makes sense. I was thinking about what I saw back then and watching things I didn’t need to watch.”
“It’s understandable if you’re worried. Just pack your gear and keep it ready. We’re leaving tomorrow.”
“Got it. I prepared hard with Hyun-seok-nim, so we shouldn’t be out of sync.”
“Have you improved your first aid too? Last time you almost passed out from excessive bleeding after trying to take down an infector alone.”
“That’s improved like crazy too.”
His brother sounded proudly confident, and strangely enough, it was reassuring.
With a faint smile, he returned to his room.
Yoo Sung-jun’s eyes drifted to the desk.
There, in a sterilized vacuum tube, lay the mineral matter and the writhing purple core he had prepared.
Only one thing remained.
The material needed to make a degraded version of the cell degenerator.
Prince’s Residence.
Recalling the mission name, Yoo Sung-jun also moved on to his final preparations.
He strapped the newly bought anti-materiel sniper rifle to his back.
He packed medical tools for procedures, along with a variety of antidotes in case of chemical or poison attacks.
Once the preparations were complete, Yoo Sung-hwan walked up to his older brother, who was standing at the center.
He’s still talking.
His brother wasn’t alone.
He was discussing the operation with Choi Hyun-seok standing beside him.
The operation that had once assumed Jeyca would be there had long since been discarded.
That was probably because the helper, Choi Hyun-seok, possessed a temperament almost the exact opposite of the Appraisal Eye.
Yoo Sung-hwan quietly joined them from the side and listened in on the conversation as it wrapped up.
“...In the end, this is going to be a speed operation. There’s no need to fully complete the mission objective. The instant we obtain Death Spoil’s hormone sac, we leave the residence.”
“And then we return to a mission in another nearby mission site?”
“Exactly. Once they sense the pheromone and the queen brings the main force over, we abandon the mission. Still, if we can clear it all the way through, that’d be better.”
The difficulty was comparable to a raid.
Even so, the reason they were taking on the mission with only three people was that they had judged a swift strike through infiltration and ambush would be more advantageous than dragging in a crowd.
“We need to avoid combat as much as possible. I’ll open the path. Let’s only fire when we actually face Death Spoil. Just shoot where Choi Hyun-seok points.”
Their eyes turned to him.
Meeting his brother’s gaze, Yoo Sung-hwan nodded with a determined expression.
“...Got it.”
He already knew the operation from what had been discussed earlier.
Still, repeating it again meant it was important.
So that’s why he told me to buy this.
Yoo Sung-hwan tightened his grip on the aluminum rod strapped to his thigh.
At that very moment, the mission details appeared before his eyes.
The only mission where a fully grown Death Spoil appeared.
That didn’t mean they could just sit around waiting for a Death Spoil somewhere else to grow up.
“Then we go in.”
He accepted the mission they had no choice but to take.
The three of them arrived at the C-rank mission site, where a massive earthen tower rose into the sky.
Tell me how many users are in this mission site.
Yoo Sung-jun asked for the first thing he needed to know the moment they arrived.
[A total of 613 users are present.]
...Wait.
Why are there so many?
Something was going very wrong.