Life Mission

Editor: Hungry Panda

It is dark.

That was Cha Jun Sung’s first thought when he was locked up in the dark tent. He cannot see anything. This is the first question. As he went through body modification and became a mutant, he gained the ability to see at night as though it is daytime.

But he cannot see in front of him as though he has gone blind. His other senses are fine. There is only an effect on his sight.

“Manual operation of battlesuit, command. Secure visibility.”

Wiing!

Cha Jun Sung put on the helmet he had taken off. Functions including night vision goggles, heat detection, and infrared detection are activated manually and they scan the stuffy space.

The battlesuit connects to the PDA. When he logged out of the PDA, the helpers were moved so artificial intelligence was automatically logged out as well.

He cannot receive Odin’s help. It is a bother, but he needs to figure it out for himself.

“Huh?”

What he can see with his night vision is the shape of the tent that is covering everything.

Did he say that it is a dark tent?

He borrowed the power of machines and was able to figure out the rough configuration of the structure.

But infrared detection is useless.

The dark tent is a living barrier that Black Demon’s wings created. The entire thing is marked in red. The infrared ray did not detect anything in particular either.

“Light activation.”

His light turns on. Cha Jun Sung’s battlesuit shines a light. The tent’s shape becomes clear.

Beep beep!

[The amount of oxygen is decreasing. Preliminary oxygen ejection, time limit 30 minutes.]

Did he block off all ventilation as well?

This tent will breathe since it is also alive. What if it takes the enemy’s oxygen so they suffocate, and gets the rest from outside?

It is completely Black Demon’s area. Since he is locked in, he will suffocate to death regardless of everything else unless he rips through the tent or digs through the ground.

“Come out.”

Cha Jun Sung was offended.

Why is Black Demon locking him in like this when he said that they should talk?

Does he want to test him?

Ping ping!

Cha Jun Sung is standing in the center of the tent, and something comes flying at him.

He does not know what it is. It is extremely fast. His instincts moved him more quickly than his senses did.

He threw his body to the side at the sign of danger. Then, a sharp thorn fell from the ceiling and dug into the ground. The tent is attacking him.

Ping ping ping ping!

This time, it happened several times, not just once. The speed is the same as before.

But as the attacks overlapped, the entire area including the ceiling had thorns sticking out of it. Cha Jun Sung was rushed trying to avoid them.

He is getting angrier and angrier.

It does not seem like Black Demon would do this without reason, but his patience is running thin. And then he reached his limit.

Kung!

Cha Jun Sung blew up the power buried intrinsically within him. He could not reduce his battlesuit, which had gone through the process to become the Overbooster, into scrap metal.

So while he exploded, he pressed the release button. As the battlesuit separated, his human skin peeled. A demon woke up within the darkness. He turned the PDA off and because he is hidden under the tent, Black Demon is the only one that can see him. He had refrained from awakening solely to fool the helpers. He does not want to hide it away in a situation like this.

A sickle shaped blade forms from Cha Jun Sung’s body. He found inspiration for this skill in a mutant, Tornado, he encountered in the past. If Black Demon does not appear immediately, he intends to chop up the tent.

“You bastard!”

“So... I was right.”

Large pieces of flesh gathered on the ceiling and dropped Black Demon down. He maintained his form and looked over Cha Jun Sung.

“Are you the one who fought Medusa and Beholder in the city of Rome in Italy?”

“How did you know that?”

“When they got back, I was enjoying a date with White Queen.”

Cha Jun Sung did not accept the word ‘date’ literally.

White Queen fought Cruel King, and he had appeared when she was being overwhelmed by Lifers as though he had been waiting. It is right to interpret this as meaning that they held a meeting.

“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m asking how you knew it was me.”

“How could I not?”

Black Demon had looked half human and half mutant, but his appearance began to twist. He had held characteristics of both species, but his body crumpled like clay and then he became one species.

That is a human. A complete human form as Cha Jun Sung himself.

“What are you playing at?”

Cha Jun Sung was not surprised. Imitating his image is nothing for a level 9 that can go through whole body mutation at will.

“Does this look like a joke?”

“Then what else could it be?”

“Cha Moo Hyun, Lim Hye Yang.”

“What?”

“Father Cha Moo Hyun, only son, born August 21, 1966. Mother Lim Hye Yang, 4 siblings, born December 18, 1967, and her family is worse than her neighbors?”

Cha Jun Sung released from his awakened state. He had intended on going wild, but he was covered in goosebumps as soon as he heard what Black Demon was saying. It felt like he had been splashed with cold water.

“You – you, how...”

“I’m sure you know that this is Earth, too? There’s no difference between where you live and this place. The same people lived in the same environment.”

Lived. Past tense. Now, it is dominated by mutants.

“Unless you’re stupid, I’m sure you understood what I’m saying.”

He knows what Black Demon wants to hear.

It is a hint, and a very explicit one at that. A mutant knows his parents’ names and their family relations. How could he have known their birthdates? The same people and environment? He would be dumb if he did not know.

“You’re me?”

“You in that world and me in this world are the same. We’re different but the same and the same but different. Proof? Your body is proof. Cha Jun Sung.”

Cha Jun Sung looks down at his hand.

Awakening of level 8 whole body mutation. Come to think of it, Oriax had said that it was scared he would swallow it up.

Oriax had felt a level 9 potential buried somewhere deep inside of him.

“Are you saying that I’m a level 9 mutant?”

“No. I don’t know the cause, but you weren’t able to awaken properly. There are things along the way that we can’t know. I’m sure it’s coexisting in that body?”

He is not complete. He stopped while evolving. He is strong now but if the strength he was supposed to have was similar to that of Black Demon’s, he has failed.

“Oriax, come out.”

[I don’t want to. I’m scared. He’s a monster that’s out of balance. My existence itself is crushed just by looking at him. Don’t look for me. Figure it out yourself.]

Oriax began talking less after witnessing White Queen and Cruel King.

Its is mixed with Cha Jun Sung, but they are different beings. It was frightened by a top level predator. This is the same situation.

“As long as you’re me and you don’t give up the life of a mutant, you will fully awaken one day. The idea of 2 Black Demons isn’t bad.”

Cha Jun Sung is speechless. He wants to say that he is a human, but he is currently a mutant no matter which way he tries to look at it. That is why this lacks persuasiveness.

“At the similar time, two changes occurred in two worlds, whereby two results came out. Like this. Isn’t it funny? Lifers develop in your world through a game Life Mission, while mutants develop in my world with the spread of a virus.”

Regardless of their will and instead by the wishes of Life Mission officials, the hunters and game had been decided. That result brought them this kind of meeting.

“You wouldn’t have noticed that they’re the same worlds... There is bound to be overlap when that large of a population is acting.”

He is right.

There are various cases where Lifers enter missions and find traces of memorials or go to find the houses they used to live in.

“This world is a bit more in the future than the world you live in. Not dozens of years, but more or less 10? I’m sure they controlled it in Life Mission.”

“How did you find out? A mutant to know all this stuff that Lifers don’t even know.”

“I heard it.”