Life Mission

Editor: Hungry Panda

A sharp roar that digs into the ear wakes a silent forest.

Nighttime is another time for mutants to be active. This is not referring to being nocturnal. In broad daylight, there is a lot of reliance on sight. But at night, all of the other senses become activated. Mutants living in the jungle were out before the roar, but after, they were silent.

“It’s Heinkel.”

It is a strong roar that induces passing out, but Cha Jun Sung’s group has become stronger. They no longer become disabled by screaming.

“It must have figured it out. They must be looking for us, right? The funny thing is that mutants don’t watch out for each other, so is there a reason to go that far?”

“Hm. The situation is different, the situation. We’re unwelcome guests.”

Cha Jun Sung speaks as he checks his gear. They are tied together by a food chain, but the mutants living in the jungle are a community.

Heinkel dominates the jungle but everyone is given equal residence. Cha Jun Sung’s group, which has appeared in opposition to him, is an unwelcome guest.

Furthermore, they are unwelcome guests who can kill dozens of Eclipse Trees. From Heinkel’s perspective, it could be a challenge. It is inevitable that it makes the decision after seeing for itself. Enemies have come to this isolated village.

“And whatever the reason, we attacked a Blade Weasel. As you know, the ones that live in packs think of something that happened to one of them as something that happened to all of them.”

They thought they would be able to catch it, and they would have left it alone if they knew they would lose it. Then the Blade Weasels may not have gone around looking for their group.

Kya kya!

Their conversation has an exact rhythm. It is organized. They are not just digging around everywhere, but decreasing the range by avoiding areas that have already been checked. The jungle is large. It is as big as a combination of moderate-sized cities. It is so big that if they do not know where the group is, it could be impossible to find them.

More than 1 week has passed since they lost the Blade Weasel. They had heard the weasels dimly yesterday, but the sound has gotten fairly close today.

‘What should we do.....’

There must be hundreds of them. There could even be thousands. They are hiding now because they can, but their activity area will decrease as long as they do not give up the search.

Cha Jun Sung looks up at the sky. Blade Weasels cannot fly, but they can. They can run away in even the worst situations.

“Let’s look for more advantageous terrain. We’ll go by flying since the ground is dangerous.”

The level B energy core’s volume and output of power is 3 times that of level C. Booster flight consumes a lot of energy, but it is not to the point where they cannot use it because they need to save it. They are fully capable of flying around for a couple hours.

Bang!

Cha Jun Sung leaves the jungle. The party members also change to flight mode. 6 rays of light set up pillars in the dark and vast forest.

“Jin Hyuk, look around to see if there’s a good place.”

“Alright.”

They are overhead where their field of vision is open without trees or grass in the way. These are optimal conditions for the Clairvoyance to perform in. Of course there is a limit to what the Clairvoyance can do. Even if the conditions are good, it cannot properly recognize objects that are over 10km away. It can only detect an approximate shape.

“There isn’t anything special here. Let’s move a bit.”

“Everyone, be careful of flying mutants. You lead us.”

“Going.”

Bang bang!

Park Jin Hyuk controlled the booster however he wanted to. It is his goal to find terrain that is advantageous to them. He has no choice but to look in each place.

They are not very fast. Flying consumes energy, but speed takes up more. 30 to 40km/h is adequate when considering effect.

“Mutants.”

One-eyed mutants that look like pterodactyls, fly toward them. The mutant is level 3, but they flock in groups of hundreds. Look over there. Their view is full of one-eyed birds.

“They’re One-eyed Birds. We’ll take care of them.”

Tutututu!

Koharu pulls the trigger on the reinforced rifle. A machine gun as large as a person bursts in fireworks of bullets that are 14.5mm in size.

Violet, Basil, and Kyoko did not stay, but took care of the mutants from a distance. Lifers need to have secondary weapons in addition to their main weapons. This is not referring to things like bombs. It is foolish to go around with just a main weapon in an attempt to save on points.

They do not know what kind of mission they will need to complete in what type of situation, so they need to calculate all cases and carry weapons of all types. That is why there is switching in the game. Even if they have boosters and are facing weak mutants, they cannot go into war in the air with vibrating weapons.

Kyak!

Under the level B reinforced rifle periodic machine gun, the One-eyed Birds fall heavily to the ground. Flesh, bones, and blood rains down.

Kyarung!

“Looks like we’ve been found.”

“That’s expected if we’ve made all of this noise.”

The enemy’s aura emanates from the dark jungle below them. The sound of the reinforced rifle, the One-eyed Birds screaming in pain, and the smell of blood called the Blade Weasels to them.

They are not visible past the lush leaves, but the heat sensors pick up more than hundreds of creatures.

“Hmph! What are you guys going to do from there? I should spit on them!”

Park Jin Hyuk snorts and keeps searching the terrain. They are at least 100 meters off the ground. Blade Weasels do not have a method of fighting from a distance. They cannot even throw something because they do not have arms like humans.

All they can do is whine and stretch their necks to look up. But what is a mutant? They are creatures that stray from the common rules. On top of that, if they are level 7, it is not odd if they do something.

Boom!

It happened in the blink of an eye. Something large on the ground penetrated the forest and plunged into the center of Cha Jun Sung’s group.

“Heinkel!”

Kyarung!

Covered in white fur with the enlarged tail of a weasel, Heinkel looks over Cha Jun Sung’s group with red eyes. It was just a matter of 0.1 seconds. It calculated the distance to jump, and drew out the positioning and range in its head for the last attack. It is an incredible ability that approaches that of humans.

[You invaded my territory and injured one of my underlings? I’ll rip you apart.]

It only sounds like barking to the party members, but Heinkel’s roar is in a language that Cha Jun Sung can understand.

They were right. Heinkel had come because they invaded its territory and hurt one of its subordinates. The milk has already spilled and there is nothing they can reverse. They will face off to figure it out.

Heinkel puts its head down, lowered its center of gravity, and wielded its tail. 15 meter long blades covering the tail go up and down as it turns. It has kept Cha Jun Sung’s group’s height in mind.

Huk!

Ack!

Basil is startled and turns his body. The blade tail grazes his Adam’s apple. He had not strengthened his armor. If he had been any later, the tail could have cut his throat.

Violet barely got out of range as well, but her boosters tangled up while she was getting away and she could not stabilize like a crashing plane.

Kyak!

When the blade tail was brandished in the center, Kyoko, who is relatively short in fighting skills, took the blow. A part of her battlesuit is cut and blood seeps out. Koharu is beside her and catches her as she falls.

“Kyoko!”

“Jin Hyuk!”

Park Jin Hyuk saw Kyoko get hit and got distracted. He could not react to the tail coming at him.

Cha Jun Sung hastily pulled out the sword on his hip. There is a glare. He can feel incredible resistance from the sword that has come to a hit with the tail. They are similar in power. Cha Jun Sung was pushed as though flying and Heinkel plummeted to the ground. Neither were injured.

“What are you doing! You could have died if I didn’t block that just now!”

“S – sorry.”

Cha Jun Sung yelled at Park Jin Hyuk. Kyoko getting hurt? That worries him too, but they cannot ignore attacks coming at them.

“How is Kyoko?”

“Her life isn’t on the line, but the cut isn’t shallow. The bleeding is severe.”

Koharu presses firmly on Kyoko’s hip to stop the bleeding.

The attacks that Lifers watch out most for are the ones that can kill them instantaneously. It is all over if they die with one hit. There are a couple things after that, and bleeding out is one of them. Unless they receive treatment, there is continuous damage that wastes away at the body.

“Let’s go higher.”

Bang bang!

They only stopped once they reached 300 meters. It leapt 100 meters – they had underestimated Heinkel’s abilities. They cannot take a hit with the same attack.

“Jun Sung, there’s a cliff at the end there!”

“Cliff?”

Park Jin Hyuk’s Clairvoyance discovered a cliff. It is a little lower than eye level. The back is steep and the front is narrow. It is great for defense.

Kyarung!

“This won’t do. You guys go first.”

“What about you?”

“Look down. They look like they’re about to follow us. We need time to treat Kyoko and set up booby traps. I’ll buy time.”