The Age of Adaptation
Rest was important.
Even after earning the Undying achievement in a mission, fatigue still existed.
Yoo Sung-jun slept soundly for eight hours straight.
When he woke, it was two in the afternoon.
The awkward hour just after lunch.
He pressed a hand to his hair, which had sprung up while he slept, and opened the door.
He filled a glass with water from the purifier in the kitchen and drank deeply. It felt like coming back to life.
Even his sluggish mind began to clear.
Yoo Sung-jun slowly sorted through what he needed to do next.
Get a haircut, buy supplies for equipment maintenance. And then…
In an age with such a well-developed delivery system, there was no reason to waste time shopping in person.
His eyes drifted naturally to the room where his younger brother was.
The door was open.
When he peered inside, he saw him seated at his desk.
He was focused on studying medicine.
Even with disaster looming somewhere in the future, he was still doing what he was supposed to do.
Amused by the sight of him, Yoo Sung-jun knocked on the door.
Only then did his brother notice him.
"Huh? When did you wake up?"
"Just now. Have you eaten?"
"I was going to once you got up. How about jjajang and jjambbong? I’m craving something spicy."
"Sounds good. Want to order in?"
"You know a good place?"
"This is my first time in this neighborhood too. I figure we should just pick something with a lot of reviews and good ratings."
"Heh, same as me. That’s the safe way to do it."
With a faint smile, he pointed at the book the boy had been reading.
It was a silent gesture telling him to come out once the food arrived.
Apparently understanding, his brother nodded.
One bowl of jjambbong and one of jjajangmyeon. Naturally, both were extra-large. Even after ordering that much, it still wasn’t enough, so he added a small order of sweet-and-sour pork as well.
The delivery time was sixty minutes. That was a while. Did he order from a famous place?
Guess I should just get my hair cut and come back.
After estimating the time he had left, Yoo Sung-jun left the house.
He went into the hair salon he knew from the apartment complex entrance.
Fortunately, there were no customers.
Thanks to that, he was able to get a tidy sports cut without any trouble.
Perfect timing.
His phone rang during the final stage of the cut.
It was a message saying the food had been delivered. Just looking at it made his stomach rumble at the thought of jjajangmyeon.
Soon after the haircut was finished, he stood up from his seat.
"Please come again."
He left the shop after the owner saw him off.
Though whether he’d actually be able to come back was another matter. He didn’t know.
If the Dark Cover still hadn’t come to the world after three months, then he’d get it cut again.
When he returned home, his eyes met his brother’s just as the boy was about to pour sauce over the sweet-and-sour pork.
"You’re back fast. I ordered the food and went off to— huh? You got a haircut?"
"Yeah. First, stop doing that."
"Why? Sweet-and-sour pork is supposed to be sauced."
"I’m a dipper."
"Tch."
Still, nobody in the world could beat an older brother.
Even after grumbling, the disaster was averted.
Thanks to that, they could eat the crispy sweet-and-sour pork with the jjajangmyeon.
While they were eating, Yoo Sung-jun asked, "Want to come somewhere with me?"
"Where?"
"The hardware store. I need to buy some supplies for maintaining equipment."
He couldn’t bring the items into the Enter Room, but equipment purchased with points could be brought back into the real world.
That part worried him a little.
Things were already being kept under wraps.
If, in a situation like that, an Another Earth user armed himself and caused trouble…
There could be a massacre in Korea, where even carrying firearms was strictly forbidden.
And in that situation, he and his brother might get caught up in it too.
I should give him something for self-defense.
Even if a full-size weapon was out of the question for now, he could at least hand over a simple pistol.
"Hyung. If equipment can be brought into the real world… that means the situation I’m thinking of won’t happen, right?"
"If you mean terrorism or gun-related incidents, then they will. Humans suppress their desires, and that’s exactly why some of them explode."
The especially exceptional bastards were the ones who acted out, and usually in the worst possible way.
Seeing the hard look on Yoo Sung-hwan’s face, he let out a snort of laughter.
"Don’t worry. You won’t be the one who gets caught in it. I’ll come right away."
"You can’t come in the middle of a mission."
"Can’t you hide your body?"
"How did things end up like this… Honestly, I can’t trust those aliens’ words. What if they just tried to make biological weapons, failed, and now want us to clean up their mess?"
"People do say that kind of thing on the community boards. But what can we do? There’s no way to prove that’s what it is."
[Yoo Sung-hwan. We are sincerely trying to support humanity. Please do not misunderstand us. ( Ĭ ^ Ĭ )]
"That’s what it says."
He showed his brother Loki’s message.
Yoo Sung-hwan gulped down some jjambbong broth, then exhaled a long, satisfied breath. "Even if they say it with emoticons and everything, I still don’t trust them."
"That attitude’s good."
You had to keep suspicion alive at all times.
That was the kind of mindset that kept you from getting stabbed in the back as often in Another Earth.
"Keep it up in the tutorial too. Don’t trust anyone completely."
"Got it. We’re eating and then heading out, right?"
"Yeah. And while we’re at it, I want to see you exercise too."
"There’s not much to see…"
His shoulders slumped so obviously that Yoo Sung-jun had to wonder if he was truly hopeless when it came to physical activity.
Setting down his chopsticks, he tapped his brother on the shoulder.
"I’ll give you some rough advice on the things you’re lacking. There’s no harm in learning how to deal with an Infector ahead of time either."
"Really?"
At that, his face brightened. He really was simple.
"If you’re done eating, get ready. Let’s go."
Yoo Sung-jun grabbed his car keys. Just in case, he also stuffed the MP9 Sharp Shooter into his backpack.
He couldn’t know what might happen in the real world now.
Contrary to his worries, everything was still peaceful.
Of course, that was only true in the neighborhood where they lived.
"Hyung, look at this article."
"A gun terror attack in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Eight injured, thirteen dead? So it’s already started."
So it hadn’t surfaced properly yet.
The comments under the article proved it.
Of course it didn’t. It was something you could only buy through Another Earth 2.0.
The design of the recovered gun was familiar.
RB-98. A pistol. For its relatively cheap price, its performance was only so-so.
In a situation where the end of the world was already foretold, it looked like he’d indulged his desires while satisfying a suicidal urge at the same time.
If it was a 1.0 user, he should’ve been looking for a way to survive instead…
Well, everyone’s threshold for mental strain was different.
Some people accepted it and adapted quickly, but others never adapted at all. They only sank into pessimism and despair until, in the end, they caused incidents like that.
"There are other articles too."
"Let’s go."
"Huh?"
"I’ve bought everything. And you don’t need to show me stuff like that anymore."
"Oh. Right."
It was an obvious article. Instead of wasting time on that sort of thing, they should be moving. The more they prepared, the better.
The events he had foreseen were unfolding one by one, right on schedule.
Honestly, I should just buy a pistol today and give it to him.
After he finished buying the equipment maintenance supplies, the next place they went was the gym his brother had signed up for.
He planned to teach him exercise methods and maybe a simple way to kill Infectors there.
But then…
"Grrrrr!"
To be honest.
"Huff! Huff! Gaaah!"
He hadn’t expected this level.
"...Hey, Sung-hwan."
"Haa, haa… huh?"
He called out to his brother, who was gasping for air.
He tried to look refreshed, but the reality was disappointing.
"How do you get exhausted after twenty reps of a 15-kilogram lat pulldown?"
It was a back exercise machine where you sat down, grabbed the bar above you, and pulled it down.
Normally, five sets should have been easy.
"I told you before. There wasn’t anything to see."
"There really isn’t. Your muscles, I mean."
"You should at least have tried working out before saying that. How good are you anyway, hyung?"
"Watch and learn."
He kindly explained the proper form and routine in detail.
Exercise itself was something he could get used to little by little. Yoo Sung-jun moved on to the next thing.
Mixed martial arts.
"Agh!"
His brother toppled over, unable to withstand the force of his kick.
Kendo.
"Head!"
The strike missed its mark.
If you hit diagonally, it was basically no different from striking with the flat of the blade instead of the edge.
Yoo Sung-jun let out a heavy sigh at his brother’s appallingly poor physical ability.
He needed a sense of urgency.
"At this rate, you’ll die in the tutorial."
"...That bad?"
"Yeah, it’s serious. You won’t even be able to swing the dagger they give you, and your throat will get ripped out."
"Ugh…"
Now he was starting to get scared.
Which made sense, because it really was that serious.
Still, it wasn’t a complete disaster.
Maximum efficiency with minimum force.
That was how you killed an Infector.
"There’s an Infector called a Cluns."
Yoo Sung-hwan’s expression instantly turned serious.
What impressive concentration. Or maybe it was just focus.
He listened to Yoo Sung-jun in one breath.
That made teaching him feel surprisingly rewarding.
"Because those things are small, when they go up against humans they always aim for the face from below. So the counter is simple. Kick straight toward the opponent’s foot. Your bigger frame gives you the advantage. Here, let’s apply it right away."
Yoo Sung-jun lowered his stance and extended his arm.
His brother had just started laughing at the ridiculous posture when—
Whoosh!
He suddenly thrust his hand out. His brother’s expression stiffened. Then he kicked out to meet it. Right before they touched, he withdrew his hand.
"Hm, not bad."
This time, that wasn’t lip service. He meant it.
He lacked understanding and application, but his execution was outstanding.
He taught him several more things, and his brother picked them up right away.
Then the problem is strength, huh.
The issue had been identified.
Yoo Sung-jun told him exactly what he’d concluded.
"Eat more than you’re eating now. Take supplements and vitamins too. What you need is muscle and stamina."
"Really? Nothing else?"
"Yeah. If that’s fixed, I think you’ll be fine."
To reach the level of an ordinary Another Earth user, that was.
The road ahead was long. He didn’t think there was any need to say that out loud, so he swallowed it back.
Now it was time to check the last thing left: shooting.
"I might be bad at other things, but I’m good at shooting. The owner there kept telling me to go pro, you know?"
"Come on, don’t lie."
"Wow, I’m serious. If you’re surprised after seeing it, you’ve gotta buy me beef."
"If I’m surprised, I’ll buy you some. If I’m surprised."
He had planned to buy it even if he wasn’t surprised.
After all, the pleasure of eating was something they wouldn’t be able to enjoy for much longer. They should eat and drink as much as they could while they still could.
The shooting range was divided into lanes by bulletproof glass.
It was a screen shooting range, one of those setups introduced to add some realism.
They were handed blank cartridges with modified guns that were nearly identical to real firearms.
When the gun fired, an invisible laser reacted where the round’s path ended, and the sensor registered the point where it hit the target.
"What distance do you want? 250? 500?"
He was thinking of trying it too.
Before putting in the earplugs, Yoo Sung-jun asked.
His brother answered with complete confidence, "Maximum distance!"
Maximum distance meant a full kilometer.
There were scoped guns too, but that was still quite a distance.
"Can you do it?"
"I said I can. You know how embarrassing it’ll be if you lose to me here, right? I’m a rotten old-timer from Another Earth 1.0, after all."
That was really starting to provoke his competitive spirit.
Yoo Sung-jun curled the corners of his mouth upward.
"Fine. Let’s do 1 kilometer."
The scope was only a 2x.
Even when he shouldered it, the target was still a tiny grain, only now it looked like a grain of rice instead of a dot.
Tang! Ta-tang!
Yoo Sung-hwan’s shooting was relentless.
As soon as he held his breath for a moment, he fired.
At first, Yoo Sung-jun thought he was just blasting away blindly, but seeing the serious look on his brother’s face, he focused on shooting too.
I’m not hitting much.
This had nothing to do with how long he’d played the game.
It was just eyesight, just instinct.
So Yoo Sung-jun’s result was only eight hits out of twenty shots.
The magnification was one thing, but the environment wasn’t great either.
If I’d been sniping from above to below, it might’ve been fine.
He clicked his tongue and checked his brother’s result.
"...Huh?"
At first, he thought he’d misread it.
He hadn’t. Rubbing his eyes didn’t change the numbers.
"What do you think? I told you I was good, didn’t I?"
With a smug grin, he pointed at the results.
20/20/200 points. A perfect score on all twenty shots.
No, well, it was probably just beginner’s luck.
Still, he really could shoot.
More verification was needed. If that talent was real…
Yoo Sung-jun pressed the reset button and said, "Try again. Increase the incline."
"I’ve never tried with an incline before."
"You’ll have to shoot in all sorts of environments from now on. You need to adapt."
"Hmm, okay. I’ll give it a shot."
His brother returned to position without complaint and changed the environment settings.
The incline was fifteen degrees. He even added wind. A crosswind from the northwest, three meters per second.
Since it was virtual, there was no way to feel it directly.
Tang!
As expected, the first shot scored the lowest possible point: one.
Then, after hearing his brother mutter to himself—
"I’ve got it."
Ta-tang! Tang!
Yoo Sung-jun’s mouth gradually fell open in shock.
It was unbelievable. And yet he had to believe it. That was what was happening.
Nineteen hits.
With a single moment of understanding, his brother had gone on to perform a string of feats no ordinary person should have been able to pull off.
Which meant Yoo Sung-hwan…
My brother…
Was a genius at shooting.