“Why do I do missions?”
Park Jin Hyuk asks himself after returning from Roaring Wolf King. It is hard to explain clearly. He just does it. It used to be fun when he did it with Cha Jun Sung. Then, he did not ask why he completed missions. There was no need to because he did it for fun.
Park Jin Hyuk sighs and pressed the calendar function. The next level B mission is in 1 month. A full raid will be put together to advance.
Ever since he and the party members entered level B, they refrained from missions. Violet was the only one who went in with her family. He purchased a full level B set over 1 year and 5 months, and had points leftover. He did not use much on expendables, so it is okay. With time, there is no need to risk everything on a mission like before.
Beep beep!
“They’ll be in Mechanic City. Are they connecting to me in reality?”
A light flashed, indicating contact from a friend. Koharu, Kyoko, Violet, and their newly recruited member are all in Mechanic City. They cannot show up because they are in different dimensions. Park Jin Hyuk’s friend list only has his 5 party members. He gets in touch with other people through their helpers.
Park Jin Hyuk was checking who had contacted him in reality, when his body started trembling. It is Cha Jun Sung, who has not contacted him in 1 year and 5 months.
“This can’t be.”
He believed that Cha Jun Sung was alive at first, but gave up as time went by. But he is in reality? This is something that he cannot understand.
“Ah.....”
Park Jin Hyuk had all kinds of thoughts and realized that he had accepted Cha Jun Sung’s death as the truth. His feelings had been dulled.
“In – invitation to talk.”
He needs to press the button, but his hand does not move. His body has completely hardened although he has the incredible physical ability of 6th stage of body modifications.
[Come to the place we first met when Mechanic City opened.]
One line of text comes up on the PDA. The first place they met is near the mega tower in zone A area 3. Is this really Cha Jun Sung?
“I’m going.”
Park Jin Hyuk went to Mechanic City and called the party as soon as he entered. They had already seen this mysterious ordeal through their PDAs. Everyone including the new party member gathered to the mega tower. Everyone looked flushed. It is a mix of complicated feelings, expectation and worry.
“Is it Jun Sung?”
“I don’t know either. If this is a joke, I don’t care who it is, I’m killing them on the spot.”
These are not empty words. He really will kill whoever it is. Mechanic City is a lawless zone and it has been long since he has become used to killing.
[Everyone gathered.]
Text comes up again. Park Jin Hyuk’s group, excluding the new member, could not take their eyes off of their PDAs. Their hearts are beating so fast they might explode.
[Look behind you.]
The party turns quickly. Mechanic City is now like a capital, with 10 million people active in it. It is crowded with people.
“Jun – Jun Sung?”
Someone comes to them out of the crowd. He is wearing a battlesuit, but his face shows because he deactivated the helmet.
“It’s been a while. 1 year 5 months... Is it about half a year for me?”
It is about half a year if he excludes the foggy time he spent in a craze. But it will be 1 year 5 months to the party.
Tears fall from Park Jin Hyuk’s face. He cannot speak.
“Jun Sung!”
Park Jin Hyuk runs with his arms wide open. Cha Jun Sung opened up his arms as well. He wanted to cry in his arms.
But Cha Jun Sung avoided Park Jin Hyuk and opened his arms to a different side. Park Jin Hyuk looks next to him in puzzlement.”
“Jun Sung!”
Kyoko is crying in Cha Jun Sung’s arms instead.
***
Cha Jun Sung told the party about what he went through in the mission. Not everything. But he did not mix in lies like he did with Odin and the others. He only told them as much as the helpers would not get suspicious.
“My body advanced rapidly. I can catch level 5 and 6 with my bare hands.”
He does not need to be awakened or change. As long as he is careful with level 7, he can kill level 5 and 6 with simple fighting. What stage of body modifications would his current state fall under?
8, 9? He could have surpassed 10 itself.
Park Jin Hyuk catches an attitude while listening to Cha Jun Sung. He is upset that he was rejected to hug Kyoko.
“Jun Sung, you’re still in level C, right?”
“Yeah. You don’t need to help me. I can handle level C by myself.”
Kyoko is stuck to Cha Jun Sung’s side. To her, Cha Jun Sung is the pillar of the group and a big brother.
“But Invisible, you stayed in our party?”
“I like it.”
Invisible. He is Greek and his name is Basil Torrence. Black Leopard and Puppet went their separate ways after the level C advancement mission, but Invisible stayed behind.
Basil does not go around in groups because he has a quiet personality. But keeping the increasing difficulty in mind, he cannot continue with solo missions. So he decided to entrust himself to Cha Jun Sung’s party, where the members protect one another.
‘Basil isn’t a candidate for recruitment, but I guess everything has been twisted since Public Underground.’
Whatever the cause, they have gained great strength as a result. He just moved past it because the notebook’s contents are not aimed at him.
They are people who are to become others’ colleagues. It does bother his conscience to take away fated party members, so everything will flow along like water. Cha Jun Sung cannot think of the notebook as something left for him by the future Cha Jun Sung, so it looked like someone else’s luck.
“Now tell me about you guys. Did anything happen while I was gone?”
“Happen? There’s so much that happened that I don’t know where to start.”
Kyoko starts rattling on. After failing Public Underground, Strategist chose another mission and a full force of 100 people entered, with 63 dying. Only 25 of 33 advanced, but all of the party members succeeded.
“There’s a thing called contribution points now. Advancing has become harder because of that.”
“Contribution?”
Cha Jun Sung knows but pretended not to. The story continued. A tremendous amount of Lifers died in level C advance missions and it is still the same.
“We completed level B missions 3 times with the World Federation, and the damage wasn’t bad. But advancing is impossible until we have a full raid.”
“We fought a couple times with Bloody Kingdom while you were gone, too. Likeminds go together, so they have 11 rankers. Isn’t that impressive? World Federation and Bloody Kingdom are the only 2 powers that can attempt level B on their own.”
11 people? Then that is the exact number of rankers who had evil tendencies of the 36 rankers. They are all in Bloody Kingdom. She told him other things as well, but not a lot caught his interest. They are news, but they are not very special to people who do not care.
“Were there any problems you experienced while going through 5th and 6th stages of body modifications?”
“There are.”
“There are?”
“Yes. It’s information that level B Lifers share amongst themselves. Life spans increase until the 4th stage, but it can contrarily decrease from the 5th and 6th stages.”
There is more madness and the thirst for blood becomes more severe. Side effects intensify, making it easy to get distracted while focusing. One Lifer was killed by his colleagues while going crazy, and there are few people who know that it was covered up that he was killed by mutants.
“Why though?”
“I found out something when I was absorbed by the Oriax, but what the helpers have been putting in our bodies for modification is... virus A.”
“What!”
The party members are appalled and frisk their bodies. The virus was injected into them? They were suspecting it, but it is different from hearing it for themselves.
“You know what those guys said to me? They asked for blood and tissue.”
There are no secrets between them. The helpers would prefer he does not tell them this, but this is ridiculing Lifers. They have a right to know.
Cha Jun Sung’s group kept talking for half a day. It has been a while but rather than conversations of private matters such as how they have been, they are talking more about Life Mission. They cannot help but do so because the helpers and higher ups are being secretive. If they could, they wanted to open up their heads to see what is going on inside.
“Will level B missions be possible between us with your physical ability?”
Park Jin Hyuk’s eyes sparkle. He trusts Cha Jun Sung absolutely. He has not seen the abilities for himself, but it is true if Cha Jun Sung says so.
“Easily.”
If Life Mission is not on watch, he could probably even take on level A. If he awakens, he becomes a top level 8 mutant.
Cha Jun Sung set a schedule. He will complete a level C advancement within a few days and then enter level B. He does not need to worry about gear because he has plenty of points.
If it is Overbooster, the only one among Lifers with 10 combinations, he can take on 1 or 2 level 7s in human form.
“But Jin Hyuk, why do you keep glaring at Kyoko and me?”
“Those 2 are together.”
“Aha.”
Koharu tattled right away, and Park Jin Hyuk and Kyoko blushed. There were signs of this before, and they go well together.
“I’ll call you in a few days. Rest until then.”
“Can’t we do it together?”
“It’s okay.”
He rejected Koharu’s request. She seems to be upset, but it is level C advancement. He can complete it quickly even without help from the party.