Cutting everything else out and getting to the point, Twister knows nothing about Public Underground. But that does not mean they got nothing out of it.
They found out the location of the new level 7 living on Czechoslovakia’s border. It is impossible to fish like before, so it caught with its hands.
Oriax took over the last and a month passed quickly like that. Then at a random moment, they got the information they wanted.
The sixth level 7 they caught knew about the Oriax’s mother. That means their habitats overlap. There is no better good news for Cha Jun Sung. They are close. They just have to go over one area.
[It’s the area my mother ruled until the Blood Suckers were born.’
Oriax’s words are tense. It is familiar scenery to Cha Jun Sung. He does not know how long it has been since he has been back. It is a new feeling.
“Where’s the hole?”
[In the center. This is the outside, so you have to go further in.]
Oriax shows him the way. Cha Jun Sung moved in the direction it instructed him to. It is a large city as it is where level 7s lived. He had been slow because he had gone on foot, but he was not impatient.
‘Lost time…..’
Just the time he met Medusa and Beholder and came back to his senses was half a year. Everything before that is blank. A few days or a few years could have passed.
But there is such a thing as a feeling, and he feels like he drifted in the mission for at least 1 year. How are his party members doing? Are they safe?
If the notebook is right, level B should have been opened and they should be contacting recruitment candidates, but everything has become tangled up. Was it a mistake to choose Public Underground as their level C advancement mission? He cannot decide whether becoming this strong was luck or misfortune.
[We’ve arrived.]
“I see.”
He can see a big hole. Cha Jun Sung stopped. He had taken the hit while looking down into this. It is alright now, but it had been terrible at the time.
‘The despair of being something that is not me and the depravity of having everything taken from me. It is not that easy to feel all types of bad feelings at the same time.’
[My instincts told me when I first saw you to eat you up. That I could become a complete adult. I guess I recognized your potential power.]
“Forget it. It’s in the past. I’m going down.”
Cha Jun Sung jumped down. It is hundreds of meters high, but he did not pay mind.
Boom!
The ground cracked under the impact and his footprint forms. He adjusted his senses and looked around. There is nothing. It is completely empty.
The bones of the Blood Suckers and Devils lay around randomly, discolored yellow. The thousands of cocoons that had been stuck to the walls are crumbled and only their dust flies around. They could have left because there has been enough time for them to be born.
[Look there. That track. That wasn’t there before. Seems Blood Lord was here. He must have come back to get his children.]
One wall of Public Underground has fallen down. Cha Jun Sung’s memory is foggy, but he was sane while going through Public Underground.
From the size of the track, there is nothing he can think of but Blood Lord. Blood Lord will know the way, so he would have been ten-fold faster than Cha Jun Sung.
“PDA, space compression bag.”
Cha Jun Sung started digging through Public Underground. He cannot detect them with his senses as they are not alive. He only has his eyes to search with.
“It’s here.”
Items he packed to come here are in the space compression bag. He could be active immediately if he wanted to if he just had the battlesuit.
“Card…..”
The biggest reason why he needed to find the space compression bag. The opening card he looted from the bidding war. It would not matter if he lost everything else, but he needs this.
It becomes more valuable over time, and time has stopped for him. By now, it will be unimaginable in value.
“Just as I thought, it’s off.”
He put the bag on his back and picked up the PDA. The power is off now and the second he turns it on, he will be connected to Odin. There is something he needs to do before then.
“What should we do?”
[Will you be able to handle it? They might try to kill you. No, us.]
“Kill? That’s impossible. No matter how strong Lifers have gotten, they’ll be wandering as level C or B in level 6 or 7. They can’t touch level 8.”
He has already transcended his limits. He has the ability to slaughter thousands of Lifers in battlesuits. He would turn Mechanic City over whole.
“Or well, run away to reality.”
This is all if it is discovered that the Oriax is hiding somewhere inside Cha Jun Sung. There is no problem if he does not get caught.
[Fine. Let’s go.]
“I’m turning it on?”
[Just in case, I’ll stop being active and sleep. Wake me up when you need me.]
It is a dangerous gamble to move a mutant to Mechanic City and reality. No one will have tried this before, will they? It is a waste to give up this power.
Zing!
Cha Jun Sung turns the PDA on. The light turns on and the system is rebooted. Nothing has changed and it works well. It is just that the helper is not active.
“Hey, Odin.”
He waited. If he has become connected with the helpers in any way, something – whether it is a radio wave – would have gone through and they will realize that it has been reactivated.
If for some reason it does not activate, there is only one method left. He must search through this entire world to find an active Lifer.
Beep beep!
[System booting…. Booting complete.]
After about 5 minutes, the PDA reacted. Cha Jun Sung smiles. These guys had only turned the power off and were latent.
[Please identify yourself.]
“Don’t act so stiff, you sly bastard. It’s me.”
[…..?]
Odin did not understand for a moment and paused before speaking,
[Lifer Cha Jun Sung?]
“Yeah.”
[Lifer Cha Jun Sung? Lifer Cha Jun Sung?]
“Stop calling me. You sound like an echo. It’s enough to call my name once.”
[This doesn’t make sense. It’s impossible! Did the Oriax let you go?]
Odin is stammering. Cha Jun Sung’s survival is impossible. There is the slightest possibility that the Oriax would let him go, but how could he survive here without a battlesuit?
“Explain.”
[In Public Underground…..]
This is the situation. When Cha Jun Sung ran away, the helpers were going to choose him as the subject of a mission. It would be level A since he is level 8. They need to know his precise location in order to create a mission, but it had happened so suddenly that they had trouble identifying his location and they lost his trace.
‘So it really is artificial intelligence? They must not know about my changing since they lost track of me.’
“How much time has passed?”
[1 year, 4 months, 23 days.]
“Damn.”
He had been expecting it, but almost 1 year and 5 months have passed. Since he went around in his right state of mind for about 6 months, he has gone around crazed for 10 months.
[Lifer Cha Jun Sung, you must tell us what happened while you were drifting as well.]
“Why should I?”
He came out strong, but it was half-truth. All Odin has to do is recognize him as a Lifer and bring him back to reality. What is it that the helpers want to hear?
[You are someone who has become a mutant, even if it was only as a host. If you are somehow not a human, we cannot bring you back.]
“I’m a mutant?”
It did touch his conscience a little, but he controlled his heartbeat and did not show it.
Basic medical functions are built into the PDA. He needs to be careful because they measure the heart, pulse, and concentration of virus A.
‘Shall I create a scenario?’
There is something he thought of in advance because he knew this would happen. Cha Jun Sung distorted part of the truth to tell them enough that would not cause trouble for himself.
[Can we examine you in the briefing room medical facilities to confirm this is true? We will see if an infection is present through in-depth examinations.]
“Sure.”
He pretended to go along with them since he needs to get out of here. He will decide if he will properly accept the tests once he returns. If he really does not want to, he can throw a tantrum or something.
***
“How many months has it been since I’ve stepped on shore?”
A battlesuit configured in the highest level, absorbs the flashing sunshine. Solar heat is energy as well. This is how it normally goes because it must be saved as much as possible.
While Cha Jun Sung, now mutant, was talking to Odin in order to return to reality, another Cha Jun Sung had crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived in North America.
The reason for coming here? As he said to Black Demon, it is to kill Evil Queen, whom he had failed to kill even while losing all of his friends.
He knows the approximate location but he does not know if she is still there because time has gotten tangled. He is going to try looking for her because he is just back at square one if he fails.
“If this much time has passed, they’ll be sweating through level B now.”
What mission when he has become a mutant? He has the ability to take on a level A mission, but there is no way for the future Cha Jun Sung to know that.
“At least… I need to kill the 4 sisters at the least.”
The 4 level 8s that Evil Queen gave birth to with the seed of South America’s Skull. If he kills them, the current Cha Jun Sung’s mission becomes easier.
“Shall I go?”
Cha Jun Sung put the Affiliate Ultimate Hades Blade on his shoulder. He can see a desolate city afar, and it seemed like the city’s atmosphere was expressing his feelings.