The Age of Chaos
Two gazes crossed.
Unlike the one that stared him down without blinking, the other was only just managing to hold its ground.
Kyuuu…
Those round, pitch-black pupils soon declared defeat.
No matter how hard it tried to remember how much stronger it had become, it was no use. Deep down, it had already realized that the uncle glaring at it from right in front of his face was stronger.
Kkyung!
Ryong-i wiped the cold sweat beading under his chin and turned away.
Seeing that, Yoo Sung-jun furrowed his brow.
What was wrong with this thing all of a sudden?
Did it think I was starting a stare-down or something?
But the reason Yoo Sung-jun had been watching Ryong-i was something else entirely.
How had a creature once as big as a house returned to the same form it had worn in childhood?
From what his younger brother and Jeyca had said, it had gone like this:
-It suddenly dropped its head like it was dead. I thought the chunk of meat Ryong-i brought back might’ve been bad or something. But it wasn’t.
-That’s right. Ryong-i’s chest just went crack! and the old Ryong-i popped out from inside it. I was so shocked I almost fainted, honestly.
After hearing that, Yoo Sung-jun had gone to check what had happened to the body left behind after Ryong-i emerged.
There were no signs of decay…
The shed skin that had become Ryong-i’s empty husk was nothing more than a corpse, or a neatly preserved slab of meat in human terms. And yet it hadn’t begun to rot.
That was true even though the original body was still here.
Since it was showing faint signs of life, they had stored it in the cargo warehouse through the largest entrance.
There were infectors that could change size, too.
The most representative example was Kalaqua.
That creature could freely alter its size while still retaining its full strength.
The reason it could do that was its core.
It was the heart-like source of power, the most important thing possessed by special infectors.
So the core Ryong-i has might have a similar ability.
If that was the case, it made sense.
But it still seemed like an incomplete ability.
After all, Kalaqua hadn’t reduced its size by abandoning its body.
It had absorbed the energy of its flesh into the core.
That was why it could still unleash its original power even in a smaller state.
But Ryong-i?
It threw everything away.
It had given up its greatest strength.
He could only assume it had made that choice to stay by his brother’s and Jeyca’s side.
It was time to check a few things.
Ryong-i might not know it, but Yoo Sung-jun had already accepted it as part of the team.
Now that Ryong-i had grown into an adult dragon, its combat ability was formidable. Its flight and powerful breath attack were more than enough to make it a valuable asset for his brother’s and Jeyca’s safety.
That was why he had effectively accepted it as a companion and flatly rejected Jack Kalt’s offer as well. And now it had become useless again.
“Sung-hwan, you said it understands human speech, right?”
“Yeah. It just can’t speak. It’s no different from a kid otherwise. But why are you asking?”
“I’ve got something to ask it.”
Yoo Sung-jun lowered his head.
He met Ryong-i’s eye level, though the little thing was still refusing to look at him.
“Hey, Ryongari.”
Kkyu!
“I know you understand everything, so answer properly. Don’t just act hurt and strike a pose.”
It still looked the same. Yoo Sung-jun’s brow arched.
He reached out and seized the dragon by the chin.
Ryong-i offered a little resistance, but with just a bit of force, its head was made to face him.
“Hyung!”
“You keep quiet. I’m doing what you and Jeyca can’t.”
The two of them were endlessly soft only when it came to their own people, or beings they were attached to.
Yoo Sung-jun was different.
The only people he showed affection to were his brother and anyone useful to him.
Ryong-i was in a precarious position right now.
It didn’t even listen properly to his orders.
That would only become a headache later.
It was obvious he’d end up having to borrow Sung-hwan’s or Jeyca’s words to get anything done.
I need to establish the relationship now, before it becomes a problem.
He had never seen it as anything more than a tool when dealing with the suffering of raising it, but now it was going to be part of the family.
“I don’t care at all how you see me, Ryongari. That won’t change, now or ever. This is how I show you respect, and in return, you’re going to respect me properly in a way that makes sense.”
Respect? Properly? In a way that makes sense?
Ryong-i blinked in confusion, its eyes trembling.
Those were difficult words at its level.
Seeing that reaction, Yoo Sung-jun let out a small laugh.
It looked like he’d need to make it easier to understand.
“If you don’t want to be separated from your parents, then show me your original strength again.”
Ryong-i understood now.
Uncle wants to see my real form!
Kkyuhihing.
“Don’t laugh.”
Kkyung-kkyung!
Ryong-i hopped up onto the desk.
Then, flapping its short arms and wings, it started to explain something in a flurry of movement.
Yoo Sung-jun tilted his head, but Yoo Sung-hwan was different.
“Mm-hm, so that’s what you mean.”
His younger brother rested a finger on his chin and kept nodding, and Yoo Sung-jun stared at him in disbelief.
“You can actually understand what it’s doing?”
“More or less. It seems like it’s asking where the husk it shed went?”
“Really?”
Kkyuing, kkyukkyung!
“It says to lead it there.”
“Fine.”
Yoo Sung-jun answered dryly to his brother’s translation.
Ryong-i was already bouncing around beside Sung-hwan, clearly trying to grab his hand.
“Haha, all right, Ryong. Here.”
His brother half-bent at the waist and took Ryong-i’s hand.
It must have been awkward to walk like that, but even so, he didn’t let go once as they headed down the hallway together.
A sigh slipped out before he knew it, as if he’d somehow ended up with a spoiled son he hadn’t even married into the family to get.
Still… if I think about how useful he’s going to be in the plans ahead, maybe he’s not spoiled after all.
As he made his way toward the cargo warehouse with that thought in mind, a familiar face appeared.
“Sung-jun oppa?”
Kkyuuung!
“Eek! Ryong-i’s with you too?”
Jeyca rushed over from the opposite side and scooped up Ryong-i in her arms.
Rubbing her cheek against its face, she asked Yoo Sung-jun where he was going.
He shrugged and pointed in the direction Jeyca had come from.
“The cargo warehouse. I heard the thing that used to be Ryong-i’s body is over there.”
“Ah, Ryong-i asked you to take him there?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because that’s what he just told me.”
Kkyuhit!
Watching Ryong-i beam, Yoo Sung-jun’s face twisted as he looked back and forth between his brother and Jeyca.
How the hell are they understanding that alien language?
He even wondered if the two of them had somehow learned infector speech without him noticing.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
With less than a week left until the day they had to bring Middle Finger to heel, the Meteor party was enjoying what little free time it had compared with everyone else.
They maintained their equipment and focused on improving their skills.
But unlike their relatively peaceful routine, the situation outside was spiraling toward the worst possible outcome.
“Hyung. Did you hear? The riots shut down factory operations entirely. They say the death toll isn’t even being counted anymore.”
“The medical system’s broken down too. It wouldn’t be surprising if they couldn’t count the dead.”
“Shouldn’t we go to Gimpo Airport?”
“Why?”
“Jeyca noona and Cruiser hyung are there.”
“Isn’t that exactly why we don’t need to go?”
“I guess…?”
Sung-hwan turned off the television, which was only reporting emergency news, and stood from the sofa.
Yoo Sung-jun, who had been checking his greatsword, let out a quiet laugh at the sight of his brother hurriedly packing his gear.
“Heading to the bunker?”
“Ryong-i’s alone there. I should go keep him company. And I can practice flying while I’m at it.”
“Don’t push yourself and fall out of the sky.”
“I’ll wear a parachute, so it’s fine. If anything happens, I can always turn the Omega Suit into a wingsuit and glide down, so it should be safe.”
The smile on Yoo Sung-hwan’s face vanished in an instant.
He had been transferred to the Enter Room.
Since it was practice for the operation, Yoo Sung-jun didn’t stop him.
For a moment, he thought back to Ryong-i’s bizarre behavior and set down his greatsword.
What is it, some kind of riding robot?
Ryong-i hadn’t thrown away that massive body after all.
It had compressed itself tightly inside its core, then ordered the flesh to maintain only the faintest signs of life.
That’s why it was left behind as an unrotting husk.
In the cargo warehouse, Ryong-i had climbed back inside its shed skin.
It had melted the concentrated power it had peeled off into the husk, allowing the core and the rest of the body to fuse together again.
Once it had grown huge again, Ryong-i had charged at Yoo Sung-jun with great swagger.
It was probably trying to protest being bullied just because it had become small, but from the other side, it had looked like a serious threat.
So I hit it again.
More precisely, he had struck its head with the flat of his blade.
That had knocked Ryong-i out for a while.
And through that experiment, Yoo Sung-jun had reached a sufficient conclusion: Ryong-i would be useful.
Even in a smaller state, the core keeps accumulating nourishment. If we ever secure the corpse of a high-level infector, I should feed it to him.
Then he could tell Ryong-i to climb back into the husk.
He didn’t know what kind of changes would happen, but there shouldn’t be any side effects if he tried.
It’s not something deliberately altered and refined like Project Armageddon.
As for what was at Gimpo Airport, Choi Hyun-seok had decided to handle it.
Setting aside the fact that it could produce a considerable amount of power, he had judged it far too dangerous to let Jack Kalt monopolize a core loaded with unknown risks.
No matter how many experiment logs I read, getting rid of a core’s side effects doesn’t seem like an easy thing.
He might be able to use a question privilege to complete the core with the Higher Being’s help, but there was a major problem with that approach.
Uncertainty.
There was no telling how many question privileges and how much time it would take to fix and revise the problems, and Jack Kalt certainly wouldn’t choose a method like that.
He’d probably keep chasing other labs, looking for a way to stabilize it.
Yoo Sung-jun would have done the same.
If the side effects could be removed, the power of a completed Armageddon would be tremendous.
Injecting the core of an infector that’s been stabilized while retaining a human form and humanity into the body…
If that was how one grew stronger, wasn’t it basically no different from body enhancement?
Loki. You’ve seen it through my eyes too, haven’t you? That Project Armageddon thing. Isn’t it basically just body enhancement?
“So you’re thinking we’re injecting infector power into users’ bodies through physical enhancement?”
No?
“No, it isn’t. That power is unstable. There are a few similarities, but from what I can see, it’s nothing more than a completely failed project.”
Then what are they injecting into our bodies?
“An extract made from a special plant harvested on our home planet.”
The words home planet somehow sounded especially forlorn.
In any case, that meant it was even less stable—and even more of a failure—than body enhancement.
I’ll have to keep looking into it, with Jack Kalt if I have to.
If it could be completed, if the side effects could be removed, it would become a trump card.
It was too valuable to dismiss as merely a power generator.
“Loki. I should start my final preparations too.”
“Should I send you to the Enter Room?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t need many users for this Middle Finger raid.
All he needed was someone strong enough to firmly peel the infectors guarding Middle Finger away from it. That was enough.
All I need is to be able to face Middle Finger one-on-one.
Choi Hyun-seok and Jack Kalt were probably handling that part well.
So Yoo Sung-jun could focus on strengthening his own body.
Remaining Points: 1,677,500
He had spent every last point on the Dimension Tech weapon and level 4 body enhancement.
These points had come from selling Choi Hyun-seok the killers’ equipment and the Death Spoil brain he had obtained earlier.
Yoo Sung-jun had already decided what he was going to buy with them.
If he was changing his greatsword, then it only made sense to change his firearm as well.
“Loki. Sort through nano-tech firearms. Top-tier only.”
“Understood.”
A row of firearms appeared before Yoo Sung-jun’s eyes, all of them capable of obliterating even level 4 in an instant.
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