Volume 7 / Chapter 190
TL: LightNovelCafe
Editor: Hungry Panda
Life Mission"s virtual version is a game, and the reality version is like the name reality. The framework is similar, but the game and reality are clearly different.
There is no choice but the ecosystem of mutants and Lifer levels to become differentiated. However, it is not impossible to fit them together if forced to.
The reality version is marked by the alphabet, but the virtual version uses 5 advancement evaluations to judge Lifer ability. Levels 1 through 5 are separated into Beginner, Experienced, Expert, Pioneer, and Perfection.
Experts can basically be seen as somewhere between levels B and C. Pioneers are A and B, and Perfections are S and A. It is distinguished in between levels because there are huge differences following body modification, battlesuit configuration, and equipment.
Perfection in the virtual version is a level S Lifer in the reality version. Each has different terms from start to end, but it is certain that Perfections and level S Lifers can reach the peak of force.
When the virtual version was creating buzz, only 36 Lifers advanced to Perfection. They are the 36 rankers.
They can advance to Expert level with just time investment and effort, but the difficulty rises significantly once they go over from Expert to Pioneer.
So how hard would it have been to go from Pioneer to Perfection? It cannot be explained just by saying that it was difficult.
There are 3 conditions for advancing to Perfection. There is no higher place to reach once all of those conditions are met. All they have to do is look down arrogantly.
First, pa.s.sive skills and occupational skills must be mastered. This is possible through labor over several days, months, years.
Second is going through the 9th stage of body modifications and owning a 9 combination battlesuit.
This is where h.e.l.l comes in. There were countless Lifers with the 8th stage of body modifications and 8 combination battlesuits. Life Mission was commercialized for 10 years. There is a gap in the beginning, but the only difference is in who gets there first because there is a decided limit.
Stages 1 through 4 of body modifications are guaranteed successes in the virtual version, but the probability of the character dying becomes higher with stages 5 through 8.
Only 2 or 3 out of 10,000 people succeed in their attempts at stages 7 and 8, and the rest fail. It can be seen as absolutely diabolical. A tremendous amount with experience and proficiency were dropped. There was a backflow of blood.
But stages 5 through 8 are fine because the character does not get deleted. The character becomes deleted starting with level 9, and tens of thousands of Pioneers collapsed here. There are often cases where one person makes 2 or 3 attempts.
Imagine a character they spent day and night creating over several years being deleted. It is horrible.
There was even a lot of news of people who committed suicide or became invalids. That is the risk of body modification.
Battlesuit configuration is not as big of a deal as body modification because battlesuits only break in failure and recovery is possible with points. The 10th stage of body modifications and 10 combination battlesuits are only possible after Perfections and the probabilities only become more atrocious, while the process remains the same.
Only Cha Jun Sung got to this stage and had power that differentiated him from other rankers. When he reached the 10th stage of body modifications, he prayed to a G.o.d he does not even believe in to help him. Once these 2 conditions are satisfied, only the last encounter is left. If time and luck are necessary for the 1st and 2nd, the 3rd needs everything: time, luck, and ability. It is a hunt for level 8 mutants.
Since the population is small, it is work to find their habitats and work to kill them. It is a contradiction itself to hope for a one-on-one battle.
They go in hordes if they are at a disadvantage, so they have to expect large numbers. They could only become Perfections once they got through this h.e.l.lish process.
The reality version is not much different when they look at it. They need to complete level advancement missions to become level S Lifers.
Actually, it must be harder.
The virtual version fights against level 8 with stage 9 of body modifications, but stage 8 needs to fight in the reality version. The gap between 1 level is quite large too. Could it be fortunate that they are not advancing alone but in groups?
If Cha Jun Sung wants to get to level S normally, he needs to complete a level A advancement mission. But he has the opening card. If he uses this, a store that is one level higher opens up. He only needs to complete a level B advance mission.
His body configuration already surpa.s.sed human limits when he became a mutant, and his battlesuit is already made of 10 combinations. If he matches the specifications he lacks like with other parts, he will be done with the basic settings. He will become a Perfection.
"It"s small. Small."
Cha Jun Sung reads through the mission list carefully. Thinking of the missions as books, he is perusing them. That is how meticulous he is being.
One month pa.s.sed since Park Jin Hyuk"s group entered a level B mission on the request of World Federation and Strategist. They are not coming back. It seems they will be late. He does not have negative thoughts. They are not weak people.
"I can see what mutant needs to be caught just by reading the mission description. I can automatically draw out the special features of each mutant."
He completed a level B advancement mission a day earlier. Was it easy? No, it wasn"t.
Cha Jun Sung went in alone, so he had to take on a huge volume. He fought with his mind and body while locked in the mission for over 3 weeks.
Even though he packed a lot of equipment to go in, he was a bit uneasy towards the end.
It took a long time because he had not awakened, had to go through the mission with constraints, and was exhausted. He also got hurt a lot.
"What should I do?"
As he became a level A Lifer, level A missions and store opened up.
He did not use his card however. There is only one chance to use it, so he cannot waste it. He needs to use it after careful deliberation.
The key is in points. He spent more than half of the 100 million points that Life Mission gave him while purchasing B cla.s.s equipment. He filled it up again through several level B missions, but he does not have a chance in the level S store when he sees the price of equipment in A. He is not sure, but he thinks he might need 10 billion points.
"I don"t think I need to go through body modifications….."
Cha Jun Sung tested how much strength he could exert without depending on his battlesuit while staying in this world where he has more freedom in his actions.
He has superhuman strength just by strengthening his body even in his human state without awakening. He could beat a super hero.
He does not know how much influence the 10th stage of body modifications has in reality, but it looks like he won"t need to do it from his current state. Lifers go through body modification in order to withstand the pressure from battlesuits. If he cannot endure it with this body, he can figure it out then.
To put it simply, this means that body modification is not the first purchase order. The first is full configuration of his battlesuit, the second is purchasing weapons.
He will not purchase weapons in level S. Firearms and heavy weapons become heavier and increase in power as they go higher in level.
However, the proximity range of swords cannot help but have limits on size. He can lift them with body modification and battlesuit strength though they are big and heavy, but they are not easy to brandish because of the body structure.
Is it the difference between shooting and brandishing?
Even in the virtual version, sword weapons are flocked in the elite level rather than legend. Cha Jun Sung"s weapon, the Ultimate Hades Blade, is elite level as well. This means that there are swords at legend level too.
The basic specifications of weapons go higher as the level increases because it is a game. The reason why he got an elite anyway is because it is +18 but also because the Overbooster and Ultimate Hades Blade have a good synergy.
[Ultimate Hades Blade]
- Ultimate Hades Blade: 1 billion points, 200 million achievement points
- Description: The ultimate sword that gets its name the G.o.d of death, Hades. It is created with the best metal in Life Mission adamantium and falls behind other weapons in the sword line on various fronts, but it is specialized for drawing which is something a Blader cannot live without. If it is linked to the battlesuit"s system while holding the hilt, the booster explodes and brings the drawing speed up to its limit. It is the best weapon for blows and slashes.
The Ultimate Hades Blade"s guard can raise the drawing speed on its own, and 4 small boosters are built into it.
On top of that, Cha Jun Sung"s Overbooster raises the speed and though only momentaneous, it surpa.s.ses the speed of sound and supersonic speed. Even in the case of a level 9, unless it is prepared, it will miss the moment he draws it.
He used it against Evil Queen several times, but he had not used the booster.
He had made her aware with frivolous attacks. He saved his attack to stab her but used it in the end of the battle, and succeeded in cutting her in half.
A sword that is specialized in one thing rather than various but minor functions. That is the Ultimate Hades Blade and the essential weapon that Cha Jun Sung needs.
Ring!
[You have purchased the Ultimate Hades Blade. 1 billion points and 200 million achievement points will be deducted.]
There is no room to consider it.
Cha Jun Sung did not hesitate. He thought that it was a lot and as soon as he paid the price of the weapon, the number of points he has plummeted.
He only has a couple hundred million left. He cannot use the level S store even if he opens it. He does not even have enough points to buy from the level A store.
"So it"s a matter of whether I should do a level C every few days, or whether I should just get a ton of points from level B."
Both have their pros and cons. The amount of points he will earn is similar, but level C is annoying because he needs to repeat it while level B is dangerous because the difficulty level is higher.
It did not take a long time for him to make a decision. Level B is more fitting for him, but he becomes disconnected from Park Jin Hyuk as the amount of time he spends inside a mission becomes longer. He does not know when they will return, but it is more comfortable to go in and out of missions if he is to keep checking. They need to discuss the direction that they will be going in from now on.
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Volume 7 / Chapter 191
TL: LightNovelCafe
Editor: Hungry Panda
Park Jin Hyuk"s group returned after Cha Jun Sung had started working on a level C mission for more than 2 weeks. As expected, nothing in particular happened.
It was hard enough fighting mutants but they ran away whenever they got the chance to, so he needed to spend weeks chasing them rather than killing.
"A project to make 10 billion? You want to gather not even 1 billion, but 10 billion?"
"I can"t find a reason to open it up unless I have that. You see this? Isn"t it cool?"
Cha Jun Sung took out his Ultimate Hades Blade and put it in front of Park Jin Hyuk. It is painted simply in black without any embellishments.
The 4 small boosters on the hilt are quite impressive.
"Ultimate Hades Blade?"
"Of course Koharu recognizes it."
"How many points is it?"
"1 billion."
Park Jin Hyuk holds his chest in surprise. That"s worth 1 billion points?
Kyoko scolded him not to overreact, but he really is surprised. This is the same for the other party members.
1 billion is enough to be armed with the best of level B with points leftover.
But to think that it is so little that it could all be gone with buying just one level A weapon.
"Everything in the level A store is like this. What do you think level S will be like? It"s really hard even to make a battlesuit in level A. I thought of 10 billion as a minimum, too."
Level A missions where they need to fight against level 8s. They do not need to experience it to know that the difficulty is going to be tremendous. He will not try it until he reaches Perfection level.
He cannot enter at random either. He can guess what kind of mutant will appear. He needed to come up with a plan to prepare for any number of cases.
"And I"ll tell you while we"re all gathered together. I"m not going to help you guys with advancing. I hope you"ll understand my decision."
Park Jin Hyuk"s group has the ability to complete normal level B missions if they work with the World Federation. It means that they play their a.s.signed roles well. After Cha Jun Sung tried out level B advancement, he realized that letting Park Jin Hyuk"s group ride his bus to advance is not doing good for them but harming them.
The power that Cha Jun Sung gained as he became a mutant is not something that he got through normal measures.
He knocked over the boundaries that he would have had to get past in sequence. Originally, he was going to take responsibility for Park Jin Hyuk"s group until level B advancement. But his thoughts changed after he met the level 8 and 9s in Africa.
They need to get stronger on their own. They need to go on their own rather than having someone lead them from the front. They cannot advance if he keeps helping them. He would not have worried so much if this were a game because they can learn as they die. But they each only have one life because this is reality.
There is no guarantee even for rankers to easily get through the level B boundary. He will leave them alone if their limit is level B. He will not force them higher.
"Everyone is able to see the list of level A missions since the restriction has been lifted, right?"
Tremendous amounts of reward points. The level of difficulty is dizzying just from reading the description.
They cannot even get a sense of the range of the area they will have to explore and the number of mutants they will meet.
A long time ago, the special mission that came up because of Red Eye and Parasite King is nothing, just the tip of the iceberg. They were both injured and in Red Eye"s case, it occurred somewhere other than his homeground so the number of reward points did not reach over 50 million.
However, the level A missions that come up in the PDA are of a different dimension.
They went over 1 billion at a minimum and some even reached over 2 billion. Stepping foot in this kind of h.e.l.l is just an act that shortens their life spans. They need to stay in place if they do not have sufficient ability.
"We"re okay."
"Yeah."
Koharu spoke in place of the party as if it were nothing.
Park Jin Hyuk agrees with her. They understand how Cha Jun Sung is feeling.
"It may take time, but the number of level B Lifers is increasing and we can fill in for the lacking level Cs. The World Federation is thinking of advancing in 1 year. We"re going to try it then."
"That sounds appropriate."
"This is something I felt while completing level B, but we can handle it if a few levels 5 and 6 show up. It"s just that level 7 is really… Should I say it"s one-sided? I say I"m careful, but there are always casualties."
Park Jin Hyuk spoke bitterly. Level 7s are different by tendency, but aggressive ones jump out at Lifers in the middle and create chaos.
Even while reinforced rifles rip their skin and break their bones, they try to kill even one more Lifer. They need to get dozens in additional support even when 9 combination battlesuit rankers all get involved.
Cha Jun Sung kills those kinds of level 7s alone.
Park Jin Hyuk cannot imagine what he could have experienced while staying in a mission like that.
"2 come out in an advancement mission. If you"re unlucky, 3 could come out."
1 is too much but to think that two or three could appear, this is an impa.s.se that level B Lifers like Park Jin Hyuk do not want to face. a.s.suming the worst, all 1000 raid members will have to be level B Lifers.
"Are level A missions on hold until you make 10 billion points?"
"They"re not of a difficulty that I can complete with level A specifications. Killing a level 8 is a result, but I need to match everything with level S in order to endure the process."
10 billion is a goal that he made simply, too. Considering the details, it is 10 billion with just level S after completing all level A specifications.
"Level 8, ugh… that"s like a level in my dreams."
The gap between levels 6 and 7 is tremendous, but the gap between 7 and 8 is even greater. Cha Jun Sung can kill dozens if he is in his awakened state and fights with his life on the line. And there is no end if he hits and runs.
"There are less than 50 level A missions. Jun Sung, is there one that you"ve picked out?"
"Yeah."
"North America?"
"I should, shouldn"t I? I"m familiar with it and though it was virtual, I"ve caught her before."
Cha Jun Sung"s starting point is North America. He"s been to other continents, but he only stayed for a short time because they were like quests.
He caught level 8 mutants in North America, too.
Becoming a mutant as a Perfection is like Princess Odelia walking the path of fresh blood.
Fresh Blood Princess Odelia.
She is Evil Queen"s youngest daughter. Fitting to her t.i.tle Fresh Blood, her growth was cruel and oppressive.
Killing Odelia was the point when Cha Jun Sung decided to commit himself to raid Evil Queen. It is something he felt after killing Evil Queen, but her daughter resembles the mother more than the father so their battling styles are more similar. He killed the youngest daughter to advance, and he also killed the oldest and third daughter while looking for her. As a result, he killed 3 total.
The oldest should have been the strongest and the youngest the weakest, but this was only half right. The youngest is weak, but the oldest is 2nd of the four daughters in combat ability. The strongest is the 2nd daughter. Their genealogy is twisted.
He wanted to kill all of them while he was at it, but he could not find the 2nd daughter wherever she was hiding. That is why he killed Evil Queen right away.
"Jun Sung, how many level 8s did you kill in total in North America?"
"3."
They are only Evil Queen"s daughters.
Was it 5 if he widened the range to include all level 8s? Or was it 6?
It is 5. He has caught Blood Lord and Cerberus, too.
Koharu caught White Fog and Violet caught Broad Lord. What was it that Basil caught? He suddenly cannot remember.
"I caught Seven Color Worm King."
"Ah ah!"
Like a mutant evolved from a bug, it is a monster of stamina that just will not die easily.
It is colored in the 7 colors of the rainbow, so it is one of the hardest Disasters to find because it has the ability to a.s.similate into the environment.
"We roamed around for days because we couldn"t find each other even though we were right in front of each other."
"Ha ha."
Park Jin Hyuk has a blank expression.
Cha Jun Sung laughed slightly. That is possible with Seven Color Worm King"s 7 colors and Basil"s 9 combination Stealth.
Basil was called Invisible, and he had the lowest combat ability of the 36 rankers.
Seven Color Worm King is also the lowest of the Disasters. Rankers look for level 8s that are fitting to them. They cannot catch ones that they cannot beat even if they find them.
Odelia who Cha Jun Sung killed is weak like Seven Color Worm King. They do not fit when considering combat ability, but what could they do when they happened to come across each other?
Contrary to this, Koharu"s White Fog and Violet"s Broad Lord are on the mid and strong side.
"It"s not now, but my first level 8 hunt was Princess of Fresh Blood."
Odelia"s combat style is stored in his mind.
The details are fuzzy, but all he needs to do is watch the videos he put up on his blog. What Cha Jun Sung is worried about is finding where she lives. A level 8"s area is more than the territory of one country. On top of that, Odelia is White Queen"s youngest daughter. Her a.s.signed area must be bigger.
"So the key is to find Fresh Blood"s path."
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