The Age of Adaptation
If you couldn’t spare anything, you died. If you couldn’t put efficiency above everything else, you didn’t survive.
That was a truth that applied just as well in reality as it did in Another Earth.
Kieeruk!
The creature crouched on the ceiling dropped straight down onto Yoo Sung-jun’s head.
He kicked off the ground and brought Sharf Shooter up in front of him at the same time. The bullet struck its carapace and was stopped cold. Another sank into the eye pressed against its face.
Kirarak!
Shocked by the unfamiliar pain, the thing flipped over.
He forced down the recoil from his kick, then shot forward and swung his sword. With a hissing burst, compressed air accelerated in an instant behind the strike.
The massive force of the blow slammed into Doug Spider’s torso.
Fwoosh!
That took care of the whole group.
Yoo Sung-jun looked over the corridor. There was nothing left moving.
Only corpses, already growing cold.
800 points acquired.
“Yeah, that sounds a lot better when you put it like that. You should’ve done that sooner.”
We apologize for failing to consider Yoo Sung-jun’s inconvenience.
Well, whatever. He shrugged and checked the mission status.
Exploration: 98%
Almost done again.
Nearly half a month had already passed.
During that time, Yoo Sung-jun had practically raked in points compared to his days grinding through F-rank missions.
It was the advantage of charging into E-rank difficulty before too many lunatics caught on.
He’d made a good move, jumping in before the market turned into a red ocean.
This is the biggest advantage of solo play.
Thanks to that, he was racking up achievements like Slayer and Lonely Pioneer as if they were daily meals.
Lonely Pioneer was a mid-tier achievement.
At F-rank it would have been worth 500 to 800 points, but this was E-rank.
With the payout scaled up into the 1,000 to 1,600 range, this one was worth 1,200 points.
With the difficulty stepping up a notch, the points nearly double too. If I can reach D-rank, point income probably won’t be a problem for a while.
The problem was that D-rank was still called a wall of despair.
I’m still struggling in F+ as it is.
The user’s growth speed is judged to be slower than expected.
“I told you already. Party play has the downside of splitting every point. I’ll probably need to keep watching for another month. After that, he should move into E-rank.”
He walked several dozen steps farther.
With that, the exploration rate hit 100 percent, and without any other variables cropping up, Yoo Sung-jun was able to return to the Enter Room.
The Enter Room had changed a lot in the past two weeks.
A rectangular case for equipment repairs.
Next to it sat a modification capsule.
The repair case cost 50,000 points even though it was only low-grade.
The modification capsule was 30,000.
Combined, that made 80,000.
And yet he could afford them, because he had that much breathing room.
Loki had just finished settling the points.
Settlement complete
Infector extermination: 4,480 points
Slayer: 1,000 points
Lonely Pioneer: 1,200 points
Immortal: 2,000 points
Total: 8,680 points
Ah. So that was why he hadn’t felt a thing.
He’d even earned the Immortal achievement.
That pushed his reward close to 10,000 points.
Compared to the days he’d been scraping by in F-rank, his point income was now four times higher. No—closer to five or six times, depending on the day.
Translated into raw numbers, that was somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000.
That meant Yoo Sung-jun had grown thoroughly accustomed to Another Earth 2.0.
Like Meteor once had, he could now control his body with complete familiarity.
Remaining points: 130,680
“Finally.”
The points displayed at the edge of the purchase list.
Yoo Sung-jun clenched his fist.
He had reached his first target.
At first, he’d planned to buy the Talent Awakening Pill right away.
But after seeing how manageable E-rank missions were and how good the point income was, he changed his plan.
He’d buy the talent awakening after finishing body modification.
If I take the pill after raising body modification to level 1, I should get more options.
Talent awakening increased the perception of a talent with high growth potential among the abilities one already possessed.
Body modification boosted not just the five senses but overall physical performance, so something that might not have been considered part of the awakening range before would probably become viable.
“I should give my brother the invitation today too.”
Body modification could wait until after that.
For now, he should rest. He was tired from cutting down more than fifty Doug Spiders.
When he got home, the living room was dark.
His brother hadn’t returned yet.
Yoo Sung-jun turned on the light and logged into Sunshine Cover.
There was a message he hadn’t seen before.
“What’s this?”
He’d never even communicated with anyone in the group, so there was only one person it could be.
And sure enough, the sender was easy to guess.
Hello, Mr. Rotem. This is Igrato, administrator of Sunshine Cover.
A name he knew well. The clan leader of Blood Rain, one of the many clans in Another Earth 1.0, and the one ranked fifth overall.
So he was the one behind it. Still, he took his time reaching out.
Yoo Sung-jun had expected a message on the very day he joined.
After all, the current value of Meteor was beyond anything you could calculate in money.
The first user in 1.0 to take down a level 10 infector by personal strength alone, without a clan’s help.
A figure who had kept stacking achievements even a clan could not easily accomplish.
That was Meteor. A man so valuable that heads of state across the world wanted him close, if only for their own safety.
Of course, I’m not arrogant about it.
Yoo Sung-jun knew exactly where he stood.
That was 1.0.
With everything reset, what good was the glory of that time now?
Others might think differently, but that was how Yoo Sung-jun saw it.
That was why he’d controlled his personal information through Loki in the first place.
And yet Igrato had sent a message.
Curious what it said, he opened it—and as expected.
Using the invitation verification code, we confirmed that Rotem is Meteor. We are currently preparing a raid. We’re in a situation where Meteor’s help is absolutely essential.
Igrato was Korean. Yoo Sung-jun knew that from an interview he’d done once during a game broadcast.
And now he was preparing a raid?
Why?
He understood why they wanted his help.
The message wasn’t phrased like an order.
There was no threat to block his Sunshine Cover access if he refused, either.
I can at least hear them out.
The reason they were risking so much to seek his help.
Could you tell me why you’re preparing a raid? And why you need me?
Maybe a minute had passed since he sent the message.
A reply came back.
Ah, thank you for replying, Rotem. To answer your question first: it’s because we need to use the bunker hidden beneath Gimpo Airport as a base for humanity’s reconstruction. And as for the infector we’re raiding—you're the only one who knows anything about it, Rotem.
The only one, huh...
Then that meant it had been one of the things he’d personally exterminated back when he was Meteor.
So this is about securing a base before Dark Cover begins.
If that was the case, he was willing to participate.
Provided they gave him a decent amount of space where he and his brother could live.
I’m the one holding the biggest weapon here.
That weapon was information.
He knew things they didn’t.
There was no need to reply immediately.
He could sift through the clues in what Igrato had said and answer later. There was no rush.
“Region’s Gimpo Airport. Pull every mission there and show them to me.”
Please wait a moment.
Before long, a condensed list of missions appeared on his smartphone.
Among them, he found the mission connected to the bunker.
A resonant creature...
It didn’t look like they were planning to take it down just yet.
They’d gather power, recruit a leader who could serve as the center of humanity’s reconstruction, and only begin after their preparations were complete.
Yoo Sung-jun focused on the more detailed description and the word resonant creature.
Normal infectors always prioritized their own species.
They tried to reject other species.
And yet, despite all of them having mutated from the same humans and spawned offspring, the one that unified them under a single will was something else entirely.
“The 38th beast, Muaz.”
Beyond the Five Calamities, there existed infectors called the 38th beasts.
Strong, yes, but also burdened with annoying abilities.
Muaz was one of them.
Under the power of domination, it gathered infectors beneath itself and built a nest of its own.
The one who cut down that one-of-a-kind monster was me.
Now he understood why Igrato was so desperate to recruit him.
Muaz’s weaknesses, traits, and countermeasures.
He knew them all, but the only thing he’d uploaded to YouTube was the scene of him finishing the creature off.
Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
Muaz was level 6.
Taking it on now would be suicide, so he’d leave it for later.
I’ll think about it. I may not be able to join right away. I’ve been getting inquiries from all over with good offers and all...
Still. There was no need to make it sound like this was the only place that mattered, was there?
He had no reason to refuse better conditions and extra rewards for the sake of himself and his brother.
Then please think favorably about it. I don’t have anything I can offer you right this moment, but if the raid succeeds, I’m prepared to assign you a share of the total points—and to attach even better conditions as well.
Look at that. With no substitute in sight, they were clinging to him desperately.
He smirked and put the smartphone away.
His brother looked like he’d returned.
“Huh? You’re home, hyung? You’re not hurt, right?”
“I came back after earning the Immortal achievement.”
“Krrr, of course.”
It had been a little over a month now.
His brother’s body had changed a lot.
Was it because Yoo Sung-jun had told him to make gaining size and muscle mass his top priority?
His brother was the kind of guy using steroids now, because this wasn’t the time to worry about health risks.
His frame was about 1.25 times larger than before.
“You’re working on flexibility too, right?”
“Yeah. I can do a full split now. I got a few bruises pushing myself, but still. At least it’s better than never needing to use this thing.”
He pulled a pistol from his backpack.
It was the RD-77 Yoo Sung-jun had bought for him the moment he got home.
A handgun that pursued absolute silence.
Not using it was a good sign.
Before leaving the Enter Room, Yoo Sung-jun took out the invitation he had bought.
It was a translucent card. If the holder snapped it in half, they would gain qualification for the tutorial.
“That’s...”
“An invitation. Once you’re ready, just break it in half with your hand.”
“Ah...”
Yoo Sung-hwan looked back and forth between the invitation and his brother.
Then he gave an awkward laugh and rested a hand on the pistol lying on the table.
His fingers were trembling slightly.
“Now that it’s actually here, I’m so nervous I could die. Should I just down a ton of herbal sedatives?”
“Take a reasonable amount. A little tension helps. Sorry I can’t go with you. You’ve got the method for handling level 1 infectors memorized, right?”
“Of course I do. I’m just worried I won’t be able to use it properly in a real fight.”
“You’ll do fine. You’ve always been quick to improve.”
He didn’t know what mission would be assigned, but he encouraged his brother and handed him the invitation.
From here on out, it was his brother’s fight alone.
He wouldn’t force him. Of course, the sooner he entered, the better.
But if he rushed in just because of that, he might end up unable to do what he should have been able to do.
Still, there was one thing he had to say.
“Let’s both stay alive.”
“What, are you talking like you’re going somewhere?”
“I’m planning to take body modification level 1 next.”
“Already? Damn. You’re way ahead of me. Should I break this now?”
“Break it when you’re ready, idiot. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
“Heh. That’s the plan. Then hyung, you’ll come back as a transcendent?”
Body modification. The first step toward becoming a transcendent.
A modification that would double every physical capability he had now.
His brother wasn’t wrong, so Yoo Sung-jun nodded.
“Something like that. I’m off, then.”
“Might not be here when you get back.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
With a shrug.
Yoo Sung-jun headed for the Enter Room.
For body modification and Talent Awakening both.