The Age of Chaos
The broken ones collapsed in a rattling heap, like puppets with their strings cut.
It seemed that once the main body died, the connected consciousness had been severed as well.
Still, they were breathing.
Before fatigue from the earlier battle could crush his body, Choi Hyun-seok forced himself to move, making sure there wouldn’t be any surprises.
Crack! Thunk!
Without hesitation, he drove an awl straight into the head of the fallen clone.
He shattered the skulls of each duplicate that way, one after another, and watched until their breathing stopped for good.
Fortunately, as the main body went, so did they. One by one, they fell silent.
The battle was over, perfectly and completely.
"Hoo..."
Letting out a long breath, Choi Hyun-seok slid down the wall and sat with his back against it.
The world in front of him swam. Had he taken too many hits? He hadn’t bothered to dodge attacks that didn’t seem immediately lethal, and as a result, the shock of every blow had seeped deep into his bones.
"Sung-jun told me to come take care of it, but..."
He gave a bitter smile and searched his clothes.
Before long, he pulled out three capsules and popped them into his mouth.
"I don’t know if eating these will even help."
Still, better than nothing.
After offering a brief prayer for the dead members of his team, Choi Hyun-seok chewed the capsules down.
A bitter liquid slid down the back of his throat.
The effect was immediate.
Fatigue lifted, and vitality surged back into his body.
Even so, it was only like pouring a bucket of water under a blazing sun, but it was still better than having none at all.
"Hoo, what a ridiculous time attack."
Choi Hyun-seok worked the stiffness out of his body and got to his feet.
He had personally taken down a fairly powerful believer with some degree of authority.
The sacrifice it had cost him was painful, but even so—
I’ve grown.
He had learned one more thing.
He could still become stronger, and because of that, he had survived.
But it still wasn’t enough.
If Sung-jun had been in this situation, he would have produced far better results under far worse conditions.
I’ve still got a long way to go.
Choi Hyun-seok leapt over the passage he had cut off himself and sprinted onward.
Then it happened.
Variable detected! Variable detected!
The supporter’s shout made his head spin, and his vision swam in front of him.
He immediately looked over the changed mission.
A mission with contents so shocking it left him speechless appeared before him.
"What the hell... is this..."
The description gave him enough to guess what kind of “entity” was sleeping inside.
It felt like a cool breeze had passed through his head.
At last, he could identify the being that had created this laboratory’s massive entrance.
And yet that only made the situation more absurd.
A giant... So if that bastard wakes up, we have to clear an A-rank mission first?
The time attack he had mentioned in jest had become real.
Frowning at the mess of it, Choi Hyun-seok hurried his steps even more than before.
***
The altered mission had appeared before Yoo Sung-jun as well.
"Oppa. This is..."
At Jeyca’s halting words, Yoo Sung-jun gave a small shake of his hand.
Calming the shaken team came first.
"Stay sharp. The A-rank mission hasn’t even started yet. We’re stopping Evolve first. Rescuing Yoon Choi gets pushed to second priority."
It might sound cruel, but it was the right call.
They still hadn’t strengthened their gear or bodies enough to handle an A-rank mission.
So rather than trying to save one person and stumbling into an irreversible disaster, this was the correct choice.
Yoon Choi brought this on herself. I know everything was for her father, but... this is my choice to keep my little brother and my comrades alive.
Biting down on his lip, Yoo Sung-jun stared straight ahead.
Presence. He could feel an overwhelming amount of it from the bright light beyond the tunnel.
Once they crossed that glow, Evolve’s people would be waiting.
"Everybody, gather up."
He called his team together, drew up a quick plan, and gave his orders.
The important part here was Jeyca’s role.
She was startled by his sudden instruction, but she quickly composed herself and nodded.
"I’ll do it. I just need to draw their attention and hold out, right?"
"Yeah. I’m not asking you to hold them forever."
Yoo Sung-jun swept his gaze over the team, his expression grave.
"I’ll make sure their attention is on me. We’ve already stirred up the hive, so the bees are bound to be furious. That’s our opening. We move in when Jeyca’s Appraisal Eye shows anything at yellow or above. The minimum amount of time you all need to hold out is..."
Five fingers filled their vision.
"Five seconds. In that time, I’ll put everything I have into dealing with the entity."
"Then what about Yoon Choi..."
She had been a fellow user, after all.
Maybe that was why Jeyca asked so carefully, but Yoo Sung-jun shook his head firmly.
"We prioritize taking out the entity. Rescue comes after. And I’m sorry to Jack Kalt, but this is the result of him trusting himself too much. The responsibility..."
Watching the wavering light ahead, Yoo Sung-jun growled the words.
"...we’ll blame Jack for it after this whole mess is over."
Then they began.
Yoo Sung-jun rose at once and dashed into the side passage.
Compared to the half-collapsed routes, this one was still mostly intact.
Jeyca watched his back as he disappeared into the ventilation duct in the ceiling, then snapped back to attention at the looks from her teammates.
I have to lead them.
He had said they only needed to buy five seconds.
And all the signals would come from Oppa.
Jeyca steeled herself.
At last, she had a chance to repay even a little of her debt.
If she carried out the task he had given her brilliantly here, she might earn Sung-jun’s favor before Mac Cludy could even stick his nose in.
Besides, everyone’s life depends on what I do.
An A-rank mission. A mission that only appeared when facing at least a level 8 Infector, a step below S-rank.
Jeyca couldn’t imagine any way to survive this disaster.
So she had to do everything perfectly right now.
Even one tiny mistake could lead to catastrophic consequences.
I’ll definitely pull this off...
Her parents. Oppa Sung-jun. Sung-hwan, who now felt almost like her own younger brother. And even Ryong-i, cute enough to feel like her child.
Jeyca drew on all of them, all of it, and hardened her resolve.
Before she knew it, her eyes were flashing with cold, sharp light.
"Let’s move."
***
Finding the ventilation route connected to the main lab wasn’t difficult.
Red wire.
He had seen something similar at Gimpo Airport, where the Infector core had been hidden.
Yoo Sung-jun immediately recognized the wires woven through the floor of the ventilation shaft and followed them.
At the end, he found it.
Beyond the vent, more than ten meters above the floor. Yoo Sung-jun pressed his face close and his expression twisted.
What the hell are those lunatics doing...
Setting aside the massive entity whose face he still couldn’t make out, all of Yoo Sung-jun’s attention was drawn to the scene unfolding before it.
"From this moment on, we shall create vessels through a sacred ritual."
"So it shall be done!"
So that was why there was only one man there instead of a guard post.
At the center of the circle stood Yoon Choi, a bloodied ruin.
But she was alive, it seemed. Her chest rose and fell irregularly, so she was still breathing.
The people surrounding Yoon Choi were waiting on the words of the man standing beside her.
He must have been Evolve’s chief, the one who had brought the believers this far.
"First, we must purify this vessel, which has been seduced by the devil Satan. That should be possible if we soak it thoroughly in clean holy blood."
Holy blood? The question barely had time to form.
Before Yoo Sung-jun could even tilt his head, one of the believers made his move.
"So be it! Lord Caron! Please insult me, who am so impious as to seek devotion to Lord Evolve before all else!"
"I shall bestow a blessing."
As if the follower were tracing a cross with his hand, the bastard called Caron drew a star-shaped mark of faith over his own chest.
A symbol representing Evolve.
The believer who read the sign drew a dagger from his coat and stabbed himself in the throat without hesitation.
Fwoosh!
A violent fountain of blood burst upward.
As if that were some kind of signal flare, the other believers began stabbing their own throats in turn.
The vast amount of blood that painted the air did not fall to the ground.
Telekinesis?
Was it some innate talent, or an Infector ability?
Yoo Sung-jun stared with wide eyes at the sphere of blood moving according to Caron’s gestures.
Human blood, but altered—stuffed full of the improved D-Virus.
It was heading straight for Yoon Choi.
They said “vessel,” didn’t they.
They could have simply taken the Infector core and left long ago.
And yet they were carrying out this insane ritual, because this was surely the only way to obtain the core.
His analysis was complete.
Yoo Sung-jun gripped his greatsword, ready to swing at any moment, and kicked the vent open.
BOOM!
With a deafening crash, the vent exploded apart.
At the same time, Caron’s red gaze snapped toward him.
It didn’t matter.
Yoo Sung-jun’s target had never been Caron, nor Yoon Choi, nor even that mass of blood being pressed toward her.
"Khh..."
He breathed, and his body shuddered with the rush of it; the pleasure of oxygen stripped away every negative feeling.
Riding that swelling confidence, Yoo Sung-jun’s body landed on the entity’s foot like a wild beast.
Crk!
The twisted sound from under his toes seemed to say the full force of a great power was about to burst forth.
That, in itself, was his signal to buy his comrades five seconds.
"Everyone, shoot that bastard!"
Apparently she had used her Appraisal Eye, because Jeyca’s shout came rushing across the passage at once.
In that instant, Yoo Sung-jun leapt.
Bang! The massive entity’s foot was crushed beneath Yoo Sung-jun’s strength.
Pushing off that foot as a springboard, Yoo Sung-jun shot upward, and a loud burst of gunfire rang in his ear.
He couldn’t look back just because he was curious about the result.
One second had passed, and Yoo Sung-jun reached the entity’s knee.
The ten toes he had used for his run-up pressed down on the giant’s knee.
The giant stood perfectly upright, so the surface he could use as a foothold was terribly narrow.
But it didn’t matter. The power in his toes was enough.
Loki. Shift twenty percent of the power into strength.
Thud. Thud. The pulsing amplified power of the Omega Suit, under Yoo Sung-jun’s perfect control, poured toward his toes.
The entity’s knee burst apart, and Yoo Sung-jun launched himself upward without pause.
Two seconds.
The gunfire stopped. Swallowing the unease rising in his chest, he hooked a hand around his waist.
He tightened his grip on the fingers he’d laced like a hook.
Now three seconds.
The right rebound minimized the loss of power and strength.
Yoo Sung-jun’s motion flowed on smoothly until he reached the giant’s chest.
Four seconds.
Vvoooom. Vooom.
There, Yoo Sung-jun saw it.
The giant’s left chest, flashing nonstop with red light.
The enormous Infector core lodged there.
Five seconds.
Damn thing’s huge in every way.
Now all that was left was to cut it open and smash it.
He wrapped Ironclad around the tightly gripped Alpha Strike.
Extra nanomaterial swelled the blade and stained the edge black.
The nanomaterial roiling in response to his will sharpened the sword’s cutting power.
He didn’t use Severing Bone and Flesh, just in case.
Yoo Sung-jun decided this was more than enough to destroy the core.
So he swung—
Claaaaang!
—and it was blocked.
Right before his eyes, wings made of a red membrane spread open like a stretch.
When had it arrived?
The face revealed beyond them was unmistakably Caron.
But it was different. Even allowing for the fact that he had become an Infector, the bastard had changed beyond imagination.
It was the kind of shape you might imagine if a demon had descended into the human world.
"To make me use a sacred relic as well. I must admit, I’m surprised, fool."
He spoke to Yoo Sung-jun as he dropped, having lost his momentum.
As the word relic settled in his mind, the bastard stretched out a hand.
Yoo Sung-jun, recognizing that the man’s ability was telekinesis, thrust out a hand and pointed back.
A point in midair. Toward it, the Untouch Shooter spat fire.
Even though there was nothing there, a violent shockwave exploded outward.
Yoo Sung-jun, caught in the aftermath, swallowed a bitter taste that felt like dry spit.
For now, it’s a failure.
Still, the giant hadn’t awakened yet.
If the “vessel” Caron had mentioned wasn’t complete, then apparently it would stand there stupidly for as long as they needed.
Then the plan changed.
Spinning in the air, Yoo Sung-jun landed lightly on the ground and looked behind him.
He saw two teammates with their necks broken, dead, and Jeyca supporting Yoon Choi.
Good. They had secured Yoon Choi.
Yoo Sung-jun gathered the breath scraped from the very bottom of his lungs and shouted hard.
"Get Yoon Choi out of here right now!"
The command was packed with such overwhelming pressure that not a single person thought to object.
Fortunately, they abandoned the dead comrade, hoisted Yoon Choi onto their backs, and ran down the passage.
Yoo Sung-jun blocked the path in front of them and smirked.
"What’s the matter? Someone stole your vessel."
"It doesn’t matter. I’ll kill you and then chase them down to take her back."
Before he knew it, Caron had dropped into the space before him, baring his red skin.
Crk-crk. Pale sparks snapped from the dark red horns rising from his forehead.
Level 6. Maybe even higher. Yoo Sung-jun thought he might be Level 7 and sneered at him.
"Doesn’t matter to me either. I’ll kill you, then kill that big bastard too. After that, I’ll kill Evolve as well. You can rot in hell and watch. I’ll even send you there first."
"You bastard!"
Had the taunt landed?
Blinding lightning burst from the bastard’s sparking forehead.
Yoo Sung-jun answered by driving his greatsword into the floor.
KRRRAAAANG!
At the heavy boom, the laboratory trembled and shuddered violently.