The Age of Chaos
Queen Depoil built her nest by digging a massive pit in the earth, one large enough to suit a body her size.
She had the worker-class Depoils carve out tunnels and expand the chambers for various uses.
The reason Queen Depoil preferred pits was simple.
They took less time to furnish into a proper nest.
She was already short on time as it was, what with needing to bear a prince; she had no room left to waste on decorating the nest.
So instead of fussing over the nest, Queen Depoil devoted herself to hunting.
By contrast, Death Spoil, king and prince in one, had no need to focus on hunting.
Anything related to preserving the race was handled when Queen Depoil came to him and made her advances.
The ordinary Depoils in those other, obedient nests bowed their heads and offered up food.
In that rich, comfortable life, they tended to put their energy into something else.
Namely, nest decoration.
Yoo Sung-jun lifted his head and looked up at the towering mound of earth before him.
It was huge, for one thing. The brown monolith had no windows, and it called to mind a solid steel pillar.
Through the opening at its base, Depoils moved in and out in groups.
Every one of them had a reddish-brown sphere clamped in its mouth.
Meat balls. So they even have a butcher in charge of this place.
A butcher was the kind of creature that processed prey into a form the Depoils could eat.
That usually meant nothing more than cutting it up and binding it together with its own saliva.
Still, it was a step above a general-rank Infector.
A lot of people had died because they underestimated the cooking staff.
Right now, though, they’re aware of how dangerous it is.
This was still the reconnaissance stage.
As Yoo Sung-jun watched the creatures’ visible movements, he noticed one thing.
The butcher isn’t in the king’s chamber. It’s processing food outside and having the Depoils transport it.
Which meant that once they entered the earthen tower, the butcher itself was not the first thing they needed to worry about.
A general-rank Depoil. I need to take it out before it notices anything.
Yoo Sung-jun turned his head.
Just behind him, Yoo Sung-hwan was using binoculars.
Sung-hwan’s sniping skills have definitely improved since before.
It almost seemed like there was nowhere left for them to improve.
And yet he had still improved further.
Yoo Sung-jun had seen that himself when his brother pulled off a successful two-kilometer shot.
My little brother’s talent just keeps growing.
He had felt it during the assault on Jangsanbeom too; this wasn’t merely a matter of being good with a rifle.
He simply had a talent for hitting what he aimed at—something ordinary people couldn’t hope to imitate.
So, this was the final confirmation.
"Sung-hwan. How long do you think it’ll take you to line up a shot on a general-rank Depoil’s head and land it cleanly?"
"If I’m being simple and straightforward, about 0.2 seconds?"
"Can you cut that in half?"
"If I use my inherent talent, I can manage it."
"Then make sure you can do it on my signal."
A general-rank Depoil’s object recognition time averaged 0.05 seconds.
That had already been confirmed through repeated tests.
He had also made active use of analysis in the game.
Fortunately, recognition and reaction were two different things.
Just because something was recognized didn’t mean the body reacted immediately.
Yoo Sung-jun usually gave himself a buffer of twice that interval.
In other words, if they could incapacitate it within 0.1 seconds, then they could kill it before it had a chance to spread its pheromones.
That would let us stop the uninvited guests from swarming in.
There was no doubt Yoo Sung-hwan would be able to pull it off.
The new application added to his Trajectory Eye—flicker prediction—would make that possible.
So they wouldn’t have to worry about getting tied down by reinforcements for no reason.
All he had to do was his part well.
"Choi Hyun-seok. You’ve memorized everything you need to do, right?"
"It’s enough if I read the waves outside your range of perception, isn’t it? And keep an eye on your brother in case something unexpected happens."
"Those two things are enough. Now, the last thing is the current number of users in the mission area..."
613. Excluding the three of them, 610.
That was practically the size of a mid-tier clan.
At that scale, it was no different from attempting a raid.
But the earthen tower was quiet.
Just as in the game, all they could see were Depoil groups gathering food and heading out to hunt.
Had that many people simply sunk into the ground?
"Maybe they moved en masse to a different mission area."
"Why would they do that?"
"Maybe there was a place nearby they could use as a hideout, or they found a spot to farm points and went there."
"You said it yourself. We have to assume the worst."
"Then what do you think?"
Yoo Sung-jun rubbed the tip of his nose and glared up at the top of the earthen tower.
"Death Spoil’s control."
Some inherent talents could brainwash Infectors.
But that talent had never seen much success.
The conditions were simply too strict.
"You have to weaken the Infector, and your mental power has to surpass its own. And if the brainwashing fails even once, the backlash turns your brain dead and kills you."
"A trash talent."
"And you think they brought over more than 600 people to use that? No, before that—can they even subdue Death Spoil?"
Subduing someone was infinitely harder than killing them.
Could they really pull it off just by throwing numbers at the problem?
Still, Yoo Sung-jun intended to believe it for now.
"That’s what the mission says. Death Spoil doesn’t leave its chamber."
They were supposed to investigate the reason why.
But if users had intervened, that information would already have been passed on to the Higher Being.
Then this hypothesis wouldn’t hold up in the first place.
At that moment, Choi Hyun-seok raised his head.
"What if there’s a way to evade the Higher Being’s eyes?"
"And that’s information the Higher Being gave us?"
"It’s the kind of existence that gives you an answer no matter what information you ask for."
"But it doesn’t tell us an Infector’s weakness if it hasn’t been conquered yet."
"If there’s no information, isn’t that all we can do?"
Choi Hyun-seok smiled faintly and patted Yoo Sung-jun on the shoulder.
"Then let’s hurry. Like you said, if the users have taken control of the top of the tower and plan to brainwash Death Spoil, then we might at least be able to meet and negotiate."
If the other side could talk, then a bloodbath might still be avoided.
He chose to think positively at first, but no matter how you looked at it, this was a destroyed world.
A world where one bullet was cheaper than compromise or negotiation.
"If things start going sideways, let’s be ready for a fight with them too."
"...Right."
With that, the three of them headed for the earthen tower.
There was no sign of the Depoils; they had scattered to hunt, gather food, or repair the outer walls.
The paths inside the earthen tower were like the tunnel network of Queen Depoil’s nest.
There was no helping it; the one who had built the nest had been brought here and forced to help with construction.
Some passages branched off in several directions, while other steep, straight paths appeared here and there.
Among them, Yoo Sung-jun pinpointed the route leading to the top, where Death Spoil waited.
"The path to the right, here."
Yoo Sung-hwan still didn’t understand how his brother could find the way.
"What on earth...?"
That was true of Choi Hyun-seok too, who had stuck close by his side.
He’d been staring hard, trying to catch some hidden trick, but it didn’t seem like he was getting anywhere.
"A big wave approaching in the corridor ahead. Distance: 32 meters."
Still, Sung-hwan did his part faithfully, drawing the aluminum rod strapped to his thigh.
He moved ahead of his brother, closed the scope, and passed the bulging spot along the left wall with the naked eye.
His dilated pupils contracted.
The sliver of time where everything seemed to flow in slow motion.
The large wave he had caught exactly was a general-rank Depoil, coming straight at them.
He met its black, oil-slick eyes. It had taken only 0.05 seconds to get that far.
He pressed the switch at the bottom of the rod.
A silent burst sprang from it. A red line moving at the speed of light pierced the general-rank’s head with perfect accuracy.
There was enough residual power left to melt the ceiling as well. By the time 0.1 seconds had passed, it was over.
"Haa... I’ve only got four cartridges left now."
Pssh. When he opened the cap at the back, it vented steam and a scorched, blackened cartridge dropped out.
That was the price of using the laser pointer at maximum output.
Sung-hwan replaced the cartridge and reported to the other two as they approached.
Four. Yoo Sung-jun quietly repeated the number and stepped forward.
"We’re almost there anyway. If more than two show up, I’ll handle them together, so keep that in mind."
Their stealth was perfect.
When a Depoil group approached, they would slip into the ceiling or another tunnel and wait for it to pass.
Then, if they saw one or two creatures separated from the group, they would assassinate them immediately.
They sprayed the bodies with the strong acid they had brought, leaving no trace behind.
The tower seemed to be made of soil mixed with calcium carbonate and limestone-like material, and though smoke and foam rose from it, thankfully it didn’t collapse.
That was how they had come this far.
Now they were one step away from Death Spoil’s chamber.
"Still no sign of the users."
"Looks like my prediction was right, then."
"I guess so..."
Choi Hyun-seok looked smug.
It was irritating to watch him like that, but what could he do?
Given the traces and circumstances so far, Choi Hyun-seok was right.
The users had chosen this mission and moved on to another region.
...That was what he thought, when—
Thud...
A heavy vibration erupted from below, and the floor shook.
By the feel of it, the tremor seemed to have started at the lowest level.
It’s getting stronger.
Thud! Thuuuum...
"Choi Hyun-seok."
"Wait. This is outside the range of prediction. At this level, the tremor started deeper underground than the tower entrance—but to have stayed silent until now while showing off this much presence? It’s like it went into a deathlike state and then came back to life. Don’t tell me...!"
Choi Hyun-seok stammered his way to the end of his sentence.
"Could it have been suppressed by something, and then released?"
Boom!
Behind his stunned expression, the floor burst apart.
It was a variable none of them had anticipated.
Kyaaaagh!
The creature shot upward at tremendous speed, revealing its full bulk.
Its pure-white body gleamed with a greasy sheen.
If a grasshopper were to walk on two legs, perhaps it would look like that.
A six-meter specimen, not unreasonably called an albino grasshopper.
"Butcher...!"
A mid-level level 5 creature, Butcher.
The puzzle pieces clicked into place.
It hadn’t been outside the earthen tower at all.
It had been buried underground in a deathlike state so deep that even Choi Hyun-seok couldn’t detect it.
The Depoils had simply been carrying around the meat balls it had prepared, that was all.
As a result, the creature had awakened at exactly the wrong moment and appeared here—only to fall again.
It had destroyed the floor that was supposed to support its own weight.
"Huh...?"
That was the problem both Yoo Sung-hwan and Choi Hyun-seok were suddenly facing.
Before they could do anything about the chaos caused by the Butcher, they were falling.
Yoo Sung-jun had been at the front, so he had managed to escape the worst of the impact. He thrust out a hand in a hurry.
But he only brushed the tips of his brother’s fingers, barely, at the very edge.
"Aaaagh...!"
The two screams layered over one another and receded into the distance.
Then came a heavy crash, and the radio crackled in his ear.
-We’re fine, so go! Hurry!
It was Choi Hyun-seok’s shout.
He could hear a groan that sounded like someone forcing down pain.
Even as he heard that cry, Yoo Sung-jun was thinking furiously.
Whether he should go save them or not.
And if he did, what he would have to give up.
If I go, I can reach them. But if I do, I’ll never be able to cross the path to the chamber.
Just the gap in the broken passage alone was comparable to a 50-meter track.
The earthen tower was that large, and the damage caused in a brief instant by the Butcher was equally massive.
If I give up on Death Spoil, I don’t know when I’ll get another chance. Time will keep passing, and then I’ll end up facing Jiji without having made a Cell Degenerator. That’s suicide.
There would be no choice but to wake Kalakwa.
A colossal disaster would sweep through the bunker and the surrounding area.
Do I save the two of them for sure, or trust them and secure the hormone sac?
-Hyung! Meet us at the original mission-area arrival point. We’ll make it there alive. You—! Tszzzt!
The static in the radio crackled violently, and then it went dead.
"Damn it...!"
It was no use pounding the earpiece hard.
Spitting out a curse, he tried to guess the rest of the words his brother had been about to say.
The reasoned part of his mind, chilled in an instant, arrived at a single sentence.
"He wants us to get the hormone sac and come back."
Yoo Sung-jun knew better than anyone that his brother was an exceptional sniper.
Choi Hyun-seok’s support as a helper was excellent too.
If it hadn’t been for that absurd surprise attack just now, they would have recognized it and reacted in time.
So then.
I trust them.
What had happened had already happened.
Whatever came afterward was something both of them had already prepared themselves for.
They’ll be fighting a bloody battle with the Depoils.
Even so, they would get out.
He had to believe that.
He had to trust them and do what they had wanted, on his own.
I’ll take down Death Spoil.
At the end of that unwavering resolve—
Crack! He tightened his grip on the greatsword and kicked off the ground.
The creature’s chamber was close now.
Yoo Sung-jun cut down the Depoils blocking his path with the force of a storm and surged forward.
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