The Age of Adaptation
He already knew his little brother was smart.
That much he had learned from calls with Sung-hwan’s homeroom teacher, made in place of their parents.
"He’s done incredibly well on the mock exams without attending a single cram school like everyone else. He studied on his own and still scored in the top tier."
"He’s excellent in class, too. Whenever he has a question, he raises his hand right away. The other teachers say the same thing—that it makes teaching him a pleasure."
"And his relationships with the other students are so solid. The kids really look up to Sung-hwan, you know?"
He could do without that last part.
The boy had said he didn’t have any friends.
Still, as the teacher said, his little brother was smart.
Yoo Sung-jun had thought that was all there was to it.
No, it wasn’t.
There was something beyond that.
Memory, focus, comprehension.
He remembered an environment from a single experience.
He concentrated on the optimal outcome.
He understood, in one shot, how to reach success by the shortest path.
And with all three gathered together, he pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Hit. And then the streak of perfect shots kept going after that.
Yoo Sung-jun stared, dumbfounded, at the sight.
That wasn’t a level you reached through blood, sweat, and endless practice.
It could only be called one thing: talent.
Of course, there was no guarantee he’d do the same in actual combat.
Real battle was a bundle of variables.
In marksmanship, the stirrings of emotion were a major obstacle.
Could his brother overcome that?
Who knows. Maybe he’d show the same face when shooting Infector, too.
While Yoo Sung-jun kept silently marveling, Yoo Sung-hwan lowered the gun and let out the breath he’d been holding.
"See? I told you. I’m decent at shooting."
The indoor range wasn’t empty except for the two of them.
All around, eyes had turned toward them. Everyone was voicing the same kind of stunned admiration.
People itching to shower Yoo Sung-hwan with questions.
"Let’s get out of here for now. Looks like this’ll be a pain."
When Sung-jun pointed out the crowd, his brother drew in a sharp breath through his nose.
So brothers really did take after each other.
He hated this kind of attention just as much.
If I just handed him a pistol, he might be able to slip out of a terrorist situation with ease.
He’d worried at first, but not anymore.
In the twenty-first century, there was nothing stronger than being a better shot than everyone else.
Yoo Sung-jun hurried out of the range.
Their next stop was a butcher specializing in premium Hanwoo beef.
***
Day-to-day life changed a little.
He only accepted F to F+ missions, the kind he could clear in a day or two.
The average points he earned from clearing them came to around 1,500.
He left 30 percent of that untouched.
That was the pool he was building for an Invitation.
The rest went into gear upgrades and repairs.
No matter how much he polished and maintained it, damaged parts from Infector attacks weren’t going to heal themselves.
He kept accumulating points safely, little by little—until the incident finally happened.
Crack! Kraaaak!
Bone-spike protrusions rose all over its body.
Yellow eyes burned against red skin, and the muscular frame pulsed as it moved on all fours.
It was a level 3 Infector. A Sharakal. A creature the size of a human had barged into an F-rank mission.
Fwew-fwew-fwew!
Ting! Ting!
It charged forward headlong, ignoring the rain of bullets.
The MP9 Sharp Shooter didn’t have enough firepower to punch through that exoskeleton.
If there was a weak point, it was the eyes.
But I’m not going to hit something moving that fast dead on.
If it had been Sung-hwan, he might have landed it. But not him.
Which meant he just had to use a method that fit his own body.
He reached out a hand. Brought his body back.
The creature’s gaze snapped to his hand. Hrrng—snorting hotly, it lowered its spiked shell and leaned into the attack.
At point-blank range, he caught the opening in that split second and launched his body forward again.
He thrust out the longsword he’d been hiding. Focused all his attention on the feel of the blade in his hand.
Thud.
The instant he felt the sword sink in, he let it go. Threw himself sideways. Splaaat!
Kraaaaaagh!
The creature’s scream came to him dully, as if muffled.
It felt like waterlogged mud had gotten into his ears.
"Tch."
He spat out the bitter water he’d unknowingly swallowed, then took aim.
The creature staggered, one side of its face skewered through. And the distance between them was close now, too.
There was no easier target for a vital strike than this.
Fwew-fwew-fwew!
The round tore through the eye, split the fascia, and shredded the nerve bundles beyond recognition.
The bullet’s spin carried the Sharakal straight into death.
At the same moment, Yoo Sung-jun was transferred to the Enter Room.
He had killed the creature that had intruded on a mission he’d already cleared, so it was naturally counted as a clear.
"Haa... fuck."
He lay spread-eagled in the pure white space, catching his breath.
After the settlement, his points totaled 1,700. Since it had only been a simple exploration mission, the reward was stingy.
Was the Sharakal worth 200 points?
More expensive than I thought.
From level 3 Infector onward, they generally count toward a lower-tier achievement in F-rank difficulty.
Even the achievement system had ranks.
The immortal he’d obtained before had been an achievement treated as upper tier.
The lower-tier ones were probably the brutal kind you got for wiping out every Infector in the mission area, including those not actually tied to the objective.
I need to change my plan...
He’d been too focused on safety. The kind of thing people casually called a slow-grind strategy.
Maximize safety, nudge points upward a little at a time.
That wasn’t good enough.
As much as he couldn’t leave his little brother alone, if things stayed like this, his growth would slow compared to everyone else’s.
This is the point where I have to be bolder.
The last situation had made that clear.
Earn points bit by bit and gradually upgrade his gear to better and better equipment?
That kind of plan was only useful if safety was guaranteed in the first place.
How many times would he get away with clearing missions through luck in an environment where high-level Infector could barge in?
Is it time to move up to E-rank?
F-rank missions never went beyond level 1 Infector.
E-rank would likely throw level 2 at him.
Honestly, fighting multiple level 2 creatures in his current state was insane.
From that point on, the species called humans started to feel their limits in earnest, because that was where truly monstrous individuals began to appear.
But the rewards doubled.
3,000 points. Add an achievement on top of that and it’s at least 4,000.
Just three or four runs would be enough to improve not only the Invitation fund, but his equipment as well.
Though, first, he’d have to overhaul the gear he already had.
Yoo Sung-jun stood up.
He needed information.
Not the kind he already knew from the game.
Information from someone who had experienced E-rank difficulty in 2.0. In other words, he needed firsthand accounts from someone who had already lived through the missions.
***
2.0 had arrived after 1.0 shut down.
As the disaster moved closer to reality, people began to act.
Without question, the videos of Meteor’s extermination runs became a massive issue.
Even though information control was still enforced whenever something surfaced above the waterline, underneath it all people were busily studying through videos and sharing intelligence.
Sunshine Cover was the site that best represented all of this.
You couldn’t even sign up without the creator’s invitation verification code, and the site remained hidden in the dark, made up entirely of 1.0 users.
"Looks like I got one, too."
Yoo Sung-jun clicked the link sent by the site’s creator and followed the sign-up process.
He entered the code, then typed in an ID and password.
He didn’t use Meteor as his nickname.
He hated attention. No doubt people would beg him to carry them through missions if he did.
So he chose the nickname Lotem.
It was what you got when you read Meteor backward.
"Let’s see..."
The number of registered users was nearing twenty million.
Those were 1.0 users who had leaked their information online. The site had only been sent to the ones already vetted among them, and it still had numbers like that.
Every time he refreshed the page, hundreds of new posts appeared.
Most were tips on point management, mission strategies, and party recruitment posts.
"Loki. Can this be moved onto my smartphone?"
Of course, Yoo Sung-jun-nim.
He’d only asked because she had also handled blocking his personal information with ease.
More versatile than he’d expected, Loki was.
Thanks to her, he could lie in bed while browsing the site.
Yoo Sung-jun found the information he wanted without much trouble.
Title: E-rank Mission, 8 Strategies and Review.
Content: Caution. This information is based on data and strategies obtained through a 4- to 5-person party. If you’re planning to solo, please don’t use this as reference.
Among the eight missions, one location kept showing up again and again.
🏛 Type: Mine
⚔ Difficulty: E
📍 Floor: 1 / 1
💀 Boss: Doug Spider Queen
...
"...The place called Closed Copper Mine. It’s big, and the terrain is tangled up like a maze. The main Infector are Doug Spiders."
They were Infector that stored mineral lumps in their rear ends and fired them like shotguns at enemies.
They probably had a limit of one volley per day.
"The objective is exploration. Once the percentage reaches 100, it’s clear, right?"
The main goal was to map the mine’s terrain.
Yoo Sung-jun knew what hidden danger lay within this mission.
The Doug Spiders served a queen. At minimum, level 5.
It was a far stronger entity than the level 4 Org he’d encountered before.
For now, he decided to take this mission.
Exploration was easier than most other missions.
All he had to do was run around an uncharted area until the mission cleared.
As long as I don’t disturb the Doug Spider Queen, I should be fine.
He just had to avoid touching the nest where she lived.
If he did that, it wouldn’t be strange for the difficulty to jump all the way to C-rank.
Yoo Sung-jun kept reading the strategy posts about the mine.
"...You only need to deal with the Doug Spiders, and because the mine entrance is blocked, the odds of other Infector invading are practically zero. The passageways in the mine are about four meters wide and four meters high. The interior is extremely dark. (Detection goggles are mandatory!)"
After that, it was the usual sentimental drivel about how everyone should pull together to overcome Dark Cover and build a sanctuary in advance.
A sanctuary does matter.
He had no intention of securing one in 2.0 Earth right now.
At the moment, what mattered was his own growth, not preparation.
"All right. I’ll just take a quick look around and come back."
Yoo Sung-jun rose from his seat and headed for the Enter Room.
By then, he had amassed 15,860 points.
It was time to improve his equipment.
He decided to minimize point expenditure as much as possible.
"This one, and this one. Give me that one too."
A reinforced plastic helmet, an oxygen purification mask, and the detection goggles the author had emphasized.
The helmet would protect his head from any falling rocks.
The mask would clean up the dust-choked air inside the abandoned mine.
The goggles would turn darkness gray and catch living things in thermal vision.
In total, 2,500 points disappeared.
He felt no regret at all.
One cleared mission would cover that again in no time.
And I need a weapon that can split a Doug Spider clean in half.
The longsword and submachine gun had worked on creatures with soft skin, but Doug Spiders were different.
They were hard. That alone meant he needed something with more destructive power.
"This."
After careful thought, he was able to choose.
[Jet Sword: 3,000 points]
Bigger than a longsword, but too awkward to call a greatsword.
A bastard sword. Its charm was simple: it could be wielded one-handed or two-handed.
Fwoosh!
The moment he pressed the button with his thumb, high-pressure air was expelled. The blade was pushed forward, producing explosive acceleration in an instant.
A sword was a cold weapon whose speed became destructive force.
It was a weapon Yoo Sung-jun knew better than anything.
"Throw in a set of high-pressure air cartridges, too."
[Right here.]
They were necessary for the sword.
Once the compressed oxygen ran out, he’d have to swap it out.
With that, preparations were done.
He sold the longsword, which had served its purpose, and opened the mission.
The rewards had jumped sharply, and that made him smile.
"Send me in."
[Transferring now.]
Yoo Sung-jun activated the mask and goggles as the surroundings changed all at once.
Krrrrrreeeak.
The moment he arrived, a shriek was already drawing close.
He scowled and snapped at Loki, almost like he was spitting the words.
"Wasn’t the initial transfer supposed to put me in a safe area nearby?"
[I am quickly approaching after detecting Yoo Sung-jun-nim’s presence.]
"Your senses are pretty sharp."
Well, this too had been expected.
He could see two heat sources. Two of them.
And his cover was just one mine cart.
He opened fire with the Sharp Shooter on full auto.
Even if it didn’t pierce, it would sting.
Sure enough, as if preparing to retaliate, they shoved their rear ends forward.
He ducked behind the cart he’d checked earlier.
Kwaaaang!
The cart jolted under the roar of two shots.
That was the end of their ranged attack.
They’d emptied all the mineral lumps they’d collected over the day, so he didn’t have to worry about being shot from a distance anymore.
Which meant it was Yoo Sung-jun’s turn.
"Hmph!"
Bang! Screeeeech!
With his shout came the hiss of high-pressure release. At the end of it, along with the cutting scream, one of them was split in two.
The last one, staggered by that, swung its legs too late.
Too late.
At the same moment the air burst out, the Jet Sword carved a horizontal line through the air.
The creature caught on that line, too, and collapsed, severed apart.
Just as he’d expected, the hard shell couldn’t withstand the sword’s acceleration.
"...It really does perform."
160 points acquired.
The value of an Infector was a lot better than that of an F-rank one.
With a smile, Yoo Sung-jun moved deeper into the dark passage.