Age of Chaos
‘So it was a cult after all.’
What had it been called again—Evolve? A name that stood for evolution.
Now that he thought about it, the robe the bastard wore, and the emblem stitched into it, looked like they belonged to Evolve.
A bird with four toes stamped inside a red circle, as if someone had pressed it in like a seal.
Whatever it was, the bastard wanted Yoo Sung-jun to kneel before him.
If he refused, the man looked ready to kill him.
He probably wanted to keep this from getting out.
‘Why?’
The question was answered almost at once.
<Those Who Abandoned Their Humanity>
Type: Extermination
Difficulty: C+
Description: The faction called Evolve had accepted the D-Virus and was attempting to evolve their species while remaining within the framework of humanity. Eliminate them.
Reward: 600,000 points
The sheer scale of the reward caught his eye.
But only for a moment.
Feeling the pressure bearing down on him, Yoo Sung-jun kicked off the ground.
A pale blur whipped along beside the direction his body had just shot.
He didn’t fire. He clenched his hand into a fist instead.
Through Breathing, his shrinking iris caught the shape of the incoming object.
One-point focus. The thing lunging straight for him was a finger.
Its tip was sharp, shaped like a straw.
Bang!
He slammed the back of his hand into it, sending it flying up into the air.
Then, as if a taut rubber band were snapping back into place, the bastard’s finger contracted again.
“I see you’ve got some skill to make it this far.”
“You attack before I’ve even answered?”
“Looking at your actions, I’d say that was a refusal.”
“Not wrong.”
His thoughts were suddenly clear.
Kill the bastard. Take the Death Spoil’s hormone sac. Then head underground.
That would let him eliminate the other humans who had become Infectors—the reason the mission called them those people.
And save his allies while he was at it.
“What exactly are you thinking about?”
So D-Virus acceptance came with the ability to stretch the body while still retaining a human shape.
This time, there were ten of them.
Fingers shot in from every direction at terrifying speed.
They still looked like straws. If they landed, it felt like they’d suck the fluid right out of his body.
Thwack-thunk!
He blew apart two of them with NU-101.
Focusing on the remaining eight, he drew in a breath.
Hrrrk. Hrrk. His swelling muscles surged with brute strength.
At level 3, Innate Nature had pushed his physical capabilities even further.
Alongside it, a new application—hyperventilation—slowly heated his body from within.
‘He definitely knows how to use an innate talent too.’
If he had lived as a user and then changed, chances were high he had one as well.
There were two things he needed to consider.
The unique power he had gained after becoming an Infector, and the innate talent he’d had as a user.
The remaining fingers were getting close.
He grabbed his greatsword. Nanoparticles expanded to their limit and scattered outward.
It was the feature he’d added at the modification bench: Ironstorm.
He swung it, its destructive power dictated entirely by sheer strength.
Toward the direction that would crush all eight fingers at once. Precisely.
Kwoooaah—!
A black wave swallowed the bastard and his fingers whole.
Yoo Sung-jun pulled the sword hilt back, and the scattered nanoparticles rushed together.
Clutching the greatsword restored to its full shape, he dashed forward.
‘I’ll end this without giving him a chance.’
Breath control was important in combat.
When you held your breath, strength gathered in the body as it stiffened for an instant. When you exhaled, you had to rework the flow of the battle for a moment.
That was the standard way ordinary users fought: controlling their breathing to make their own rhythm.
But that didn’t apply to Yoo Sung-jun.
He didn’t need to control his breathing.
“Ssss—haaa...”
Even now, he could hear it clearly.
The bastard was catching his breath.
His last attack had been blocked, and now he was desperately trying to recover his own rhythm.
Yoo Sung-jun interrupted that effort.
He drove his greatsword through the drifting dust.
Thud!
The sensation traveling through the blade and into his hand was crisp and clear.
But that was all. He had no choice but to withdraw the sword in a hurry.
A tremendous recoil was shoving the blade back.
Bang!
Fortunately, he didn’t lose his weapon.
He had already pulled back in time, retreating with the rebounding greatsword.
It was enough to reveal the bastard’s talent.
“High elasticity.”
“Oh, you must have played a lot of Another Earth. You recognized my innate talent right away.”
“The way your disgusting body looks, I’d say it suits that talent just fine.”
When the dust cleared, the bastard’s body was grotesque beyond words.
His body, made of blue slime, had one laughing face floating on top of it.
The straw-like weapons shot upward again.
Ten of them. Was that the maximum he could control?
Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
He’d figured out the innate talent, and he’d also realized the mutant’s weak point was that head.
The ability the bastard gained after becoming an Infector was still a mystery, but one thing was now certain.
‘At that level, there’s no way he could take down a Death Spoil.’
That meant a third party had intervened.
There had to be a powerful figure within Evolve, perhaps even the Infector leading them, who had occupied this place and built an environment where the bastard could conduct his research with ease.
There was absolutely no way it had been a user.
If it had been, the mission would have changed already, and more importantly, they’d be stuck grinding against the point wall for sure.
‘Building this kind of environment with nothing but user power in a few months? Not even Quantum could do that.’
In other words, Evolve was obviously a cult led by a high-level Infector with considerable intelligence.
An Infector who had been living in this parallel world for hundreds of years.
Which meant the bastard couldn’t beat Yoo Sung-jun.
Not when he couldn’t even beat a Death Spoil.
“You’re not seriously thinking you can deflect all of them, are you?”
“Of course not. I’m going to turn you into my nourishment first.”
Yoo Sung-jun stopped breathing. He shifted fifty percent of his output into strength and the remaining fifty into speed.
Hyperventilation pushed to the limit. As if the wick of a candle were burning down, his skin aged, and even his hair seemed to wither.
At the same time, thick sinews rippled beneath the Omega Suit like coiled snakes.
“If you can, then try.”
With a growl that sounded almost beastlike, Yoo Sung-jun’s body appeared before him in an instant.
The countless sword strikes born from his halted breath began to hammer down on the bastard.
Kwak-kwak-kwak-boom!
‘Heh heh... Even an attack this strong will end after a few blows. The moment you falter, even a little, you’ll become my nourishment.’
The man—the assistant bishop Carancul—was certain of himself as he deflected the sword strikes with his innate talent.
But that moment never came.
Because the attacks kept coming.
Not only did they not hesitate, they only grew stronger, grinding down and bursting the high-elastic slime apart.
‘W-what is this?’
Even when he used the ability he’d gained after becoming an Infector, it was the same.
Under the pressure of the raging storm that refused to stop, the assistant bishop’s face slowly filled with despair.
Kwooooom!
The end of the relentless, tidal wave of blows.
A monstrous fang tore the man who had abandoned his humanity to pieces.
***
Yoo Sung-hwan held his breath.
So did Choi Hyun-seok.
Before them, they saw the changed mission details Yoo Sung-jun had been shown.
Eliminate them.
The last sentence, referring to everyone in the glass tubes, sent chills crawling over their skin.
Rows upon rows of glass tubes stretched out before them.
The people sealed inside were staring at the two of them.
Eyes wide open, every single one of them was looking this way without the slightest deviation.
Choi Hyun-seok was the first to react.
“Back up.”
“Huh? If we just run, couldn’t we make it to the door on the other side?”
“There’s no guarantee that’s the exit. And even if we get through safely, we’re still in trouble. If those Defoils charge us, we’ll just get surrounded and die.”
“Then...”
Crack! Crack-crack! The ones who’d been motionless finally began to move.
They slammed their fists into the glass tubes, and spiderweb cracks spread across the surface.
The skin that had lost all color turned into a riot of hues, and their pupils reddened as well.
The two of them realized those people had been infected by the D-Virus.
Choi Hyun-seok slapped Yoo Sung-hwan on the shoulder, then hurriedly said, “I’ve got a plan. The entrance is too narrow for them to come rushing in here all at once. Can you hold them off here by yourself for now?”
“What are you going to do in the meantime, sir?”
There was no time. Crash! Glass tubes were breaking apart one after another, and the people inside were crawling out, trying to steady themselves.
At the sight, Choi Hyun-seok went on, “Sung-jun told me something. The organ inside Bucher’s body is similar to a general-class Defoil’s. An eye for an eye. You know what I mean?”
Yoo Sung-hwan understood immediately and widened his mouth slightly.
He understood Choi Hyun-seok’s plan perfectly.
And he knew that his own role was crucial if they were going to pull it off.
“Don’t let a single one of them past this door. I’ll brief you on their weak points.”
Choi Hyun-seok tapped his in-ear comm.
The connection to the upper floor had been cut, but their radios were still linked.
Yoo Sung-hwan nodded and loaded a fresh magazine.
Choi Hyun-seok moved toward the dead Bucher, then shouted at the people rushing for the door—no, the Infectors.
He could feel their vibrations through his skin, and among them, he pinpointed the exact pulse of each heart.
Since they’d transformed into Infectors, their positions were all different.
But that didn’t matter.
His innate talent had already found their weak points with perfect precision.
-I’m going to keep calling them out by closest target, so listen carefully. Right chest. Left thigh. Center of the vocal cords in the neck...
At Choi Hyun-seok’s voice crackling through the earpiece, Yoo Sung-hwan placed his finger on the trigger.
He dropped into a crouched firing stance and braced his legs.
His legs became the tripod that would absorb the rifle’s recoil.
His arms became the support that guided the muzzle straight to the target’s vital point.
‘If I hold them here, we both live.’
Reaffirming his objective, Yoo Sung-hwan’s eyes flashed open.
Trajectory Eye marked the Infectors’ movements, and Multi-Search painted a split-second prediction like a bull’s-eye, showing exactly where he needed to shoot to land the hit.
From the first target to the ones behind it.
The moment he finished lining up his aim exactly as Choi Hyun-seok called it out, the muzzle spat fire.
Powder burst. The first bastard’s chest was pierced, and he collapsed.
He didn’t watch the body finish falling.
Yoo Sung-hwan immediately shifted targets and kept firing in succession.
Taaang! Tang!
One lost a leg and rolled as it ran.
Another’s head separated from its body and flew through the air like a kite with its string cut.
Their corpses would not become obstacles.
Compared to the hundreds charging in, they were only a handful of bodies.
At first, they kept pressing forward.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Then, the moment the monstrous sniper rifle began vomiting particle rounds in full automatic fire—
“Kraaaah!”
“Krrrgh!”
The number of creatures blocked by corpses began to outnumber the ones still rushing down the corridor.
The blockade had been established.
At the same time—
“Good work.”
Choi Hyun-seok strode past Yoo Sung-hwan and swung his arm with all his strength.
The pheromone organ torn from Bucher’s body flew straight ahead.
A moment later, it hit the mass of bodies below and burst.
Colorless. Odorless. Just as Yoo Sung-jun had said it would be.
The substance vaporized on contact with objects and transmitted every piece of information to the queen.
It had announced the presence of humans transformed into Infectors.
Choi Hyun-seok let out a meaningful smile and muttered, “Now then, which are there more of—those people, or the Defoils under the Queen Defoils who mated with the Death Spoil?”
As soon as he finished speaking, even underground, the two of them could hear it clearly.
-Kirrururuk!
The discordant chorus of the Queen Defoils scattered all around them rang out.
***
Yoo Sung-jun could hear it too.
The roar of the Queen Defoils.
He grasped its meaning immediately.
The pheromone organ attached to Bucher’s body.
For some reason, the thing had been buried underground, and now that it had burst, the Defoils had learned of the intruders below.
‘Looks like one of the two down there blew it on purpose.’
There was no way two people could take on more than six hundred enemies by themselves.
So they’d called the Defoils in.
‘I wonder if they’ve secured a way out.’
It seemed like a useless worry.
He was sure the two of them had handled it well enough.
Which meant the plan had changed.
If he went underground to rescue them, he’d end up surrounded by Defoils for sure.
Worst-case scenario, he might even have to face the queen.
So he intended to finish this situation and leave.
Yoo Sung-jun set reaching the mission’s destination as his top priority.
“The cult leader who’s in charge of you. He’s an Infector that originally belonged to this world, right?”
He looked down as he asked.
The bastard had only his head left, and even that was gasping for air.
His expression was twisted with disbelief.
Not only had the greatsword shattered his innate talent, high elasticity, but the ability he’d gained after becoming an Infector—rapid cooling—had also failed him.
That reaction was understandable.
Those were talents and abilities that could only be pierced by maintaining nanoparticles in a state of ultra-vibration at all times.
‘I didn’t get my synchronization rate up to 99.8 percent in the game without doing a single thing.’
It was a difference in talent.
The bastard had been defeated before that overwhelming talent.
His mouth slowly curled upward.
His crescent-white eyes stared at Yoo Sung-jun, filled with nothing but madness.
“Heh heh... He has waited hundreds of years for this day. He gave us physical freedom, immortality! Above all, he led us to a safe paradise where we could cast off the burden of being human and pursue only instinctive pleasure!”
“Jesus Christ, every time I ask what some bastard actually is, you people always have to act all lofty and mysterious and call him ‘that person.’ Especially the likes of you. It’s like a disease.”
“...Pardon?”
Yoo Sung-jun shrugged.
He’d waited hundreds of years for this day, all right.
That made it obvious there was an Infector behind them preserving the technology needed to build this kind of setup.
Which meant he had no further business with this bastard.
He didn’t look like he intended to answer anything, and in any case, time was short.
“What are you asking back for? It’s time for you to die.”
Yoo Sung-jun’s foot came down on him.
Crack! The head of the bastard whose name he’d never bothered to learn shattered into pieces.
◈ Converted from an Infector kill.
◈ Sufficient for a level 5 benchmark...
So being an Infector meant his body was converted into points.
‘At this rate, he’d be around level 5...’
Yoo Sung-jun turned his head.
His eyes landed on the Death Spoil, still hovering on the brink of death.
‘I wonder how many points that bastard will give me.’
Now it was time to secure the hormone sac and get out.
As always, the last hit was the right one.
---