The Age of Chaos
The core of Project Armageddon they had intended to destroy—the cultured infector core.
There was a fatal flaw in it.
But he hadn’t told that to Meteor or Choi Hyun-seok.
He had only laid out the side effects and the points of failure it carried.
That was why he had falsely reported that Jack Kalt had killed the Stalker.
The dead don’t talk.
If he’d brought up even more fatal side effects for no reason, someone would have immediately demanded that it be scrapped.
That was the last thing Jack Kalt wanted.
Jack knew his own limits very well.
The footage of Meteor taking down Kalaqua.
The moment he had watched that video, there was no way he could not understand.
I can’t become someone like Meteor.
For a man who had seized everything, Another Earth was a new challenge.
From Jack Kalt’s point of view, this was just another challenge he expected to conquer with ease, as he always had from the summit.
But it was not.
He had crossed one threshold, only to fail at crossing another.
Namely, the possibility of hunting down the 5 Calamities.
It was the moment he truly realized he lacked the talent to seize true power.
So he had tried to make up for that weakness through his clan, but it wasn’t enough.
Weaklings gathered together only remained weaklings.
In front of an overwhelming strongman, they were nothing but insects.
In a game, that had been the best they could do.
But here, in reality, it was different.
The day Another Earth descended upon reality, Jack Kalt had retraced the path he once walked in the game.
And along the way, he had found it.
The one thing that could shatter the limits of his own talent and make him something close to the Meteor of the game.
Jack Kalt had resolved to complete this project by any means necessary.
The game had been a challenge, but reality was a matter of survival.
If I can seize the power to defeat the 5 Calamities, then I can live safely.
Then he would stand above the masses and live happily.
He intended to crown it all with a fairy-tale ending.
This was merely the process of reaching that happy ending.
And if it was Meteor, then perhaps he might find a way to complete this project after all.
So Jack had shown everything and explained everything.
Conveniently, there was already a pretty decent test subject, so he had even made a proposal.
Feed Ryong-i an infector core.
He wasn’t even human, but an infector, so morally and ethically, it didn’t weigh on him much at all.
If it worked, great. If it didn’t, then at least new data would be added to the pile.
Jack Kalt thought it was a fairly worthwhile experiment.
But Meteor apparently did not.
His firm voice slammed into Jack’s ears.
"I don't want to."
"...Pardon?"
For a moment, he couldn’t process it, and his response came late.
An idiot sound slipped out before he could stop it.
Meteor, arms crossed, continued.
"Ryong-i is an infector, yes, but its intelligence is on human level. It’s even friendly. It’s between Level 4 and Level 5 in combat, and it’s a flying type. I don’t want to shove some uncertain living power source down the throat of an infector and companion that’s this useful."
Meteor pointed at the infector core.
"So let’s pretend your proposal never happened. How many of those are hidden around the world?"
"...Nine remain."
"Including the ones you’ve already found."
"Twelve."
"More than I expected. Are the research results from each experiment all different?"
At his words, Jack Kalt stepped over to the desk beside the glass tube.
He opened the locked drawer, and just as expected, a research log was inside.
"Yes. And this is the result of the experiment conducted in the Gimpo Airport Shelter."
They had carried out their experiments with different goals in mind.
That was why Jack Kalt had been chasing facilities all over the place.
He hadn’t found one yet, but perhaps he would come across a stabilized infector core someday.
"Hm..."
Jack Kalt began reading the log together with the two who had approached.
After all, the catastrophic side effects were not written in here.
He had deliberately destroyed the parts that remained on the barely functioning lab’s shared server.
It was surprising that the Stalker had already seen that.
In that case, maybe some other user knew about the side effects too.
I should look into that.
With that thought, he decided to make use of one of the clan members he had gained a question from.
The three of them read on and on through the log, and in the end reduced the result to a single line.
"They intentionally cultivated only the mild factors, but the moment it was consumed, it turned into violence."
The conclusion was failure.
Jack Kalt swallowed his disappointment and put the log away.
"I’ll have to compare this against the logs I collected and read it again."
"There are two more logs you secured?"
"Yes. If Meteor-sama wants them, I’ll send you copies. Of course, I’m willing to give Choi Hyun-seok-sama copies as well."
Choi Hyun-seok smiled back at his easy grin.
"Let’s get the Stalker hunt wrapped up first. We’ll support you as much as we can, too."
"Wait."
Unlike the two of them, who were smiling, Meteor’s expression suddenly turned grave.
Jack Kalt followed the direction of his gaze.
The lower-right corner of the last page of the research log.
Meteor was staring at the stamp printed there.
He looked at it for a long while before finally raising his head.
His face solemn, he opened his mouth.
"I haven’t used the question I earned through our deal over analysis growth yet."
"That’s right. Are you thinking of using it now?"
"Yeah. Jack Kalt, do you know this symbol?"
A mark that looked like a bird had stamped its foot there.
Jack Kalt tilted his head.
"Isn’t that a symbol for a laboratory?"
"Yes. If this were before the fall of humanity, it might have been."
Meteor—Yoo Sung-jun—crumpled the edge of the log in his fist.
"Right now, there’s a group using this mark to turn users into infectors. So my question is simple."
Yoo Sung-jun glared at Jack Kalt as he finished.
"Tell me the exact location of the group led by Evolve."
Only a faint light illuminated the surrounding area.
Inside that laboratory, there were cloth banners everywhere, each stamped with the symbol of Evolve.
At the center sat a glass tube containing an infector core.
Froth bubbled up as the infector core suddenly stirred.
The one sleeping nearby opened his eyes at the sound.
"...Mm."
He rose, his crimson eyes gleaming.
The being who brushed a hand over the glass tube raised a brow at the core writhing inside.
"So the time has come."
Even if it looked like a round sphere, it was still a living thing.
It had no self, but it did have characteristics.
When this cultured core resonated with another core of the same kind, it reacted like this upon sensing the other’s presence.
Tracking that reaction had already allowed them to acquire two additional cores.
"That makes four now."
The man in the blood-red robe shouted.
"Enter!"
At his command, the door opened.
A group marched in and knelt on one knee before him.
"We greet our god, Lord Evolve."
The man in the red robe—an infector, no, Evolve himself—smiled with satisfaction at the way his power, Hypnosis, held firm.
"A revelation has descended upon us."
"Ooooooh!"
They bowed their heads and let out fervent cries.
Evolve approached them and rested a hand on each of their crowns in turn.
"Several months ago, after the second holy war to obtain the grail, we prepared for the next one. In the process, the factory meant to take in believers by the thousands was destroyed."
He called the infector core in the glass tube a grail.
The struggle to obtain it he called a holy war, and Evolve raised his voice higher.
At once, everyone shouted as though they were about to burst into tears.
"So be it!"
"But we did not bend beneath it! It was a time when we could bind ourselves even more tightly together and contemplate the meaning of evolution more deeply."
"So be it!"
"And now, at the end of that hardship, the revelation has come. At last! The time has come for us to prepare a new holy war."
"We will devote our lives to the holy war."
"Are you ready to reclaim the new grail?"
Evolve asked while looking at the core floating in the tube.
Wordlessly, they raised both hands.
"I will choose three assistant bishops to take part in this glorious holy war. Do not be disappointed if you are not chosen. Guarding my chamber is a duty no less important than the war itself."
"So be it!"
Evolve looked down at his faithful dogs and thought it over.
Who should he send to retrieve this infector core?
Each of them had their own natural talents. The fact that they had partially transformed into infectors and gained abilities on top of that was just a bonus.
An assistant bishop strong enough to combine both and excel in battle.
After thinking it through, Evolve placed a hand on the heads of three of them again.
"Karon. Amia. Yukal. Assistant bishops, raise your heads."
"Aah!"
They wept with joy at being chosen.
Evolve tapped the shoulders of the three who had lifted their heads with the edge of his hand.
"My will shall dwell within my hand, and I shall bestow blessings upon all who go forth to the holy war. I will grant the protection of eternity and immortality to the bodies of the three who represent this post."
"So be it! So be it!"
The three cried out with ecstasy, delirious with their own madness.
That was the effect of reinforcing his power further, just in case his hypnosis should somehow be broken.
"I shall grant you a sacred relic for those of you who will take part in the holy war."
Evolve drew a small sphere from within his robe.
It gleamed with a red light and twitched now and then.
He handed it over, told them where the grail—the infector core—was located, and then went on in a tone that sounded almost like advice.
"Prioritize retrieving the grail above all else. If you must face the slave dogs of Satan’s horde in a battle to the death, have them consume it then. It is far stronger than the sacred relic I once gave to Assistant Bishop Carancul."
"We will obey your will."
As though they had received the greatest treasure in existence, the three rose and cradled the sphere carefully against their chests with both hands.
It was time to go and lead the believers to the place where the holy war would begin.
"Go and prepare thoroughly. The recovery of the grail will magnify my achievements and expand your paradise. Keep the will of God always in your hearts and act accordingly!"
"So be it!"
They pressed their thumbs and little fingers together and held up the remaining three fingers.
It was the hand sign symbolizing Evolve.
A bird’s footprint, meaning that one evolution gave birth to three miracles: eternal life, liberation, and peace.
"Then all of you may leave. I must concentrate once more for revelation."
In truth, he was just lazing around.
Still wearing faces full of reverence, they left the laboratory.
Once alone again, Evolve smiled faintly and sank into the soft sofa.
"If I gather just two more, I’ll be able to merge them into one."
Blurp-blurrrr.
As if responding to Evolve’s words, the infector core in the glass tube stirred.
At the sight of that, he stroked the glass.
"You seem to be looking forward to it too. Wait just a little longer."
He turned his eyes upward to the ceiling and muttered,
"Once they become one, I’ll chew you up and swallow you exactly the way you want..."
There were a few large rooms in the bunker.
They were private rooms, built not for common use but purely for personal living.
They looked as though they had been made for high-ranking officials, but by now they had long since become the rooms of Yoo Sung-jun and Yoo Sung-hwan.
I wonder if he’s still inside.
Even now he moved back and forth between reality and this world, but after investing a fair amount of points, Yoo Sung-jun had made this place quite livable.
That was why Yoo Sung-hwan was satisfied, too.
Yoo Sung-jun opened the door, wondering if his younger brother was inside.
Beyond the iron door lay a spacious room, and at the desk at the far end sat his brother.
"Studying dissection?"
At the sound of his presence, his brother turned and pushed up the glasses he was wearing.
"Huh? Oh, I was practicing microtissue treatment."
"Those glasses are magnifying lenses?"
"My eyes aren’t good enough yet to work at high magnification."
With a grin, he walked over to stand beside his brother.
Come to think of it, there was something on the desk he’d never seen before.
It was a neatly seated Ryong-i plushie.
"What’s this? You’ve gone and made a Ryong-i doll now? I guess Ryong-i back then really was cuter than he is now."
He picked it up and turned it over in his hands.
He tugged at the chubby little belly and the soft snout.
So this really is alien tech. To be able to make the scales feel like this, and still keep it soft...
He kept fiddling with it for a while, until his brother burst out laughing.
"Pffft! That’s not a doll."
"What? Then what, some new kind of 3D printing?"
"That’s not it either."
"Kkyu-ang!"
The instant he said no, Ryong-i opened its snout.
Yoo Sung-jun stared blankly at Ryong-i after it bit down on his forearm.
"It... can even change size now?"
At his question, his brother nodded with a bright smile.
Meanwhile, Ryong-i did not stop its furious nibbling at the uncle who had handled it so carelessly.
"Cut it out, you little dragon punk."
Thunk!
But that too had to stop when a fist came down on its head.
"Kkyu-iiing..."
Ryong-i wanted to rub its head, but it couldn’t.
Its body had gotten smaller, and its arms and legs had shrunk along with it.
Ryong-i swallowed its rising injustice and tears.
It had shrunk down like this for no reason at all.
If only it had made its arms longer. Regret surged through Ryong-i.