Bang.
As the Devereaux’s head was punctured, its flesh scattered. Cha Jun Sung, who was fighting hard, was disgusted and quickly jumped away.
Chiik.
The blood splattered to the ground. Level 2 Devereaux’s blood had toxicity. There were many of them in sizes as large as bulls – and the blood splatter was proportionate to their size.
‘That asshole…..’
Cha Jun Sung’s gaze became sinister. This was intentional. He had said that he would fight alone, but the other guy had jumped in without any warning.
“Hell yea! That toad gave me 180 points just now!”
“Wow! That’s a lot.”
“Nice! You should have like 3000 points now! Are you going to buy some equipment then?”
Three men were making a fuss out of nothing in the damp swampy area. Cha Jun Sung repressed the urge to throw a grenade at the idiots.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
A young man approached him. It was the party leader in charge of the idiots. Cha Jun Sung shrugged indifferently. These assholes were useless.
Any party that he thought would be good already had full membership. Since people who matched well had joined together a long time ago, Cha Jun Sung had had nowhere to join as a stranger.
He had finally found a party that had exceeded 1000 points in the past 15 days…and this was it.
“What do you think about coming on permanently? Hunting has become much more comfortable since Mr. Odin joined!”
Lifers did not ask names before they revealed them themselves. It was awkward to choose aliases, so they went with the names of their helpers.
“Sorry. I’ll be going now since the mission has been completed. Good luck.”
Cha Jun Sung swallowed the swears on the tip of his tongue and returned home.
He heard the word ‘wait’ as he unilaterally ended the conversation and headed back home, but he ignored it. He felt he would develop a cancer if he stayed any longer.
“Trash. The whole lot of them.”
Eudeuk.
He had fought the Devereaux alone on behalf of the injured people. He left the other three people as escorts to take care of the injured person, but one of them went and took his Devereaux kill in the end.
He did not want to use the word steal because it was a party, but the guy had done nothing until he stepped in at the end to take the bounty. And then what? They want me to join their team after that shit?
After the Kill-All team, he had already gone through fifteen. One party per day.
His first impression of each party wasn’t the best, but he figured he should try a mission with them first before making a decision. Nope. He was right. They were all trash.
They only looked at points and made it a priority over their friends and teammates. He knew he would have a lot of regrets if he fostered relationships with these kinds of people.
‘How is there not one normal person? In reality or in the virtual version.’
The game had the interesting power of making a perfectly normal person into a psychopath. Cha Jun Sung met all types of people while playing the virtual version.
There were people who were probably completely normal in reality, but turned into someone who should be placed into a mental hospital right away once they entered the game.
Life Mission’s reality version was very similar to the virtual version excluding the fact that they only had one life. And it seemed the crazy transferred right on over.
This game, both in virtual reality and in reality, seemed to attract the kind of people whose gut reactions to situations were immediately to do something less than wholesome.
-[Are you feeling okay?]
“All I want to do at this point is just save like crazy for a month and go through body modification to move on to Class D. But I’m going to go crazy because I can’t do it, okay?”
There was something he found out while talking to Odin not too long ago. The number of times he died in the virtual version. It was 3225 – a higher number compared to others.
Cha Jun Sung had only done solo plays. He learned as he confronted enemies beyond his capabilities. This was possible because it was the virtual version.
‘If I want to take on something like Caicus in Class C, even 10 lives are too few. If I don’t make friends, my strength will lack starting at Class E.’
They had to meet before they had deepened their ties. If it’s a Lifer who has advanced to Level D, won’t they have all of their bases covered already?
Then they become people looking for business partners that they need.
And if those partners become useless?
They endure it and leave.
It had to be now. This moment was the best time to find a team.
‘Let’s do one more today before folding.’
He did not experience fatigue because he was going into missions below his level. Even so, he did not want to remain annoyed, so he would only do one more for the day.
“Party, party.”
Cha Jun Sung murmured the word party as he searched through Life World.
There were a lot of ads, but many of the parties were preoccupied with aspects like bribes, how many mutants each person took care of, and points. Beginning like this would only end in disaster.
“Oh?”
-[Writer: Anonymous]
-[Title: Permanent Party]
-[Content: If you’re going to say some nonsense about point bribes or mutant distribution, press escape. Solo missions are possible for me up to 500 points. I am only looking for comrades I can trust until the end. If you lie to get in and get caught, you’re dead.]
These words instantly captured Cha Jun Sung’s attention. The content matched his thoughts exactly. Is it someone else who finds importance in loyalty? Anyway, it was refreshing to read.
“Odin, search Underpass and send a party application.”
-[Searching mission ‘Underpass’. Search complete. I have sent a party application.]
It said that he was bringing people in on a first-come, first-serve basis. He was not sure if it would be good, but the ad was definitely different from what he had seen until now. He had high expectations.
-[The individual has accepted the party application.]
-[On standby….. If you agree, you will be sent to Class E mission ‘Underpass’.]
Of course he agreed. He wanted to see the party leader’s face as soon as possible.
He was sick of dead ends.
‘If there is a God, have pity and bring me a winner.’
“Hello, I am party leader, Zephyrus. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Oh, I’m Odin.”
Cha Jun Sung lowered his head in surprise. It was in greeting but also because of the person’s short height.
18? 19? He did not look like a middle schooler. Probably a high school student.
Whatever he was, he was not an adult. He was a pretty looking boy. Maybe because of that, the manly aura he had felt from the post disappeared.
“Are you disappointed because I’m young?”
“I can’t say I’m disappointed because age has nothing to do with skill… but I’m surprised that a young person came into a place like this.”
The primary selection criteria had been Life Mission account holders. It was an adult game, but some high school students entered by adjusting their birth dates.
“I’m going to catch all of the mutants in this mission, but I figure you won’t care?”
“Excuse me?”
“This is my 10th time completing Underpass, so I know this place well.”
Cha Jun Sung thought he had heard wrong. 10th time? Did that mean this was a repeat mission? He assumed missions could only be completed once. He learned something new today.
If Zephyrus was not lying, he would know Underpass like the back of his hand.
“It seems you didn’t know. Well, I guess no one would just tell you great information like this.”
Zephyrus scanned Cha Jun Sung. He observed carefully as though examining an object. It was not uncomfortable. Rather, he was curious on what words would follow.
“Your equipment is outstanding. I’ve seen hundreds of Lifers, but no one else even comes close.”
“Thank you.”
“Even if you get lost, it looks like you wouldn’t die.”
“Die?”
“This place is Class E, but it’s dangerous. I gained a lot of information while basically living here. I’m sure you have information that others don’t as well? That type of equipment is impossible to get with normal methods.”
Cha Jun Sung’s eyes rounded. Not only was Zephyrus not surprised at his equipment, he even showed some intelligent thinking.
“Even when I think about it, I was lucky.”
“I see.”
He admitted it. Caicus’ appearance to make a special mission was all luck. Though it could have been unlucky if something had gone slightly wrong.
“Can I ask an uncomfortable question?”
“Sure.”
“It seems like you do missions solo too, but how far have you gone?”
“To 1500 points, but I wouldn’t suggest it because it’s inefficient.”
“Wow!”
Zephyrus who had remained calm at Cha Jun Sung’s equipment showed surprise. He was thinking that someone great had come in.
“Let’s do the mission first.”
“Oh right!”