Life Mission

She is smart. She realized the usefulness of this place when she was listening to the explanation from her helper, Gaia.

“What is this man doing that he isn’t picking up? He doesn’t seem to be ignoring me from his reaction, but should I have taken note of everyone else’s helper names as well?”

While Violet was roaming the city, Cha Jun Sung was wrestling the Caicus in the training room.

Whenever Violet has Gaia request contact with Odin, they only get the message ‘He is not in a state to pick up at the moment. Please try again later.’

Violet only knows Cha Jun Sung’s helper name. If she had asked for Park Jin Hyuk’s as well, she would not be so frustrated.

-[Miss, where are you? The family elites are scattered.]

-[I’m in zone D area 29, but I’m crossing into area 28 if I walk a little more.]

-[Hm..... That’s 76km away from where I am. We all exchanged locations. If you let us know where you are as well, we will go find you.]

The man who contacted her is one of the cadres from her family. He watched her grow up, so there is a lot of trust.

She looked around, found a fairly prominent building, and relayed its name with her coordinates. He said that with a generous amount of time, he would arrive in 1 or 2 hours.

Violet plopped down on the stairs at the entrance to the building. It is full of an artificial smell. There is not even a single ant.

This is in reference to real ants. There are a lot of things like trees, but no life. This is excessive cleanliness. There is bound to be aversiveness if something is too perfect.

“What little rat is watching me? Ugh, all things with dicks are the same.”

Violet curses. She is not so crude that she would curse upon a first meeting, but she cannot help it if someone is watching her in hiding.

Though she tries to think about it positively, she cannot find good intent.

“The pretty chick has a pretty mouth too.”

“Ke ke.”

“Ugh.... I’m too fed up with this to even get angry. I’m sure you won’t listen to me anyway, but I’ll give you a chance. Just get lost. Then, I’ll let you live.”

2 Lifers creep out from the corner of the building Violet is sitting in front of. They are murderers. She scratched the floor with the spear in her hand.

She only scratched the surface slightly, but the stone is chipped and powder flies. It is a demonstration of force. The murderers realized that she is as powerful as she speaks.

To enter Mechanic City, one has to go through buses or be really skilled. They must have met the latter, though they do not know that she is the Empress of Light.

‘Is she for real?’

‘She doesn’t show surprise. And she’s relaxed. Her skill must be real. But there are 2 of us. If we have equivalent specifications, numbers can’t be underestimated.’

He is not wrong. If their specifications are the same, numbers will be the determining factor. They could not even guess that Violet has a battlesuit.

It is a given. There are not even 40 people all over the world with battlesuits.

Though not exact, there is a lot of credible information if they go looking for it in Lifer World. When combined, they can paint a picture.

From what they know, there are only 4 women who have battlesuits. The rest are all men, and they are all eminent rankers.

There could be more, but they did not think that it would be right in front of their eyes.

Visually, metal armors do not look very different from battlesuits unless examined carefully. Of course, it is noticeable if someone has a really good eye.

“You seem to be pretty skilled, but you think you can handle 2 of us?”

When fighting with a female Lifer, they need to see her as a Lifer and not a woman. If she is proficient in using weapons and has gone through body modifications, she cannot be seen as a woman.

“Fuck! You’ll die? I could take 200 guys like you – no – is 200 too much? I could take 20, you dimwits.”

Violet quickly corrected herself after she said 200. If there are 200 people who have gone through 4th stage of body modifications, she cannot win even with a battlesuit.

“Crazy bitch! Will you be able to say that even after I have you flattened out under me?”

“What? Crazy bitch?”

Violet bolted up, using her spear as a cane. She likes the name Empress of Light, but does not like it when people call her Crazy Bitch.

She would fight even a similar level ranker said it, but this nobody is saying it.

“I won’t kill you guys. Instead, I’ll cut your balls off.”

The spear creates wind pressure. It is a bother, but she had been bored and she now has a toy to play with. She will play with them until the family elites arrive.

“He he! Don’t worry. We don’t intend to kill you right away either.”

“What a load of bullshit!”

Woong!

Violet wore her battlesuit. She was already wearing it, but she had deactivated the outer shell for comfort and had decreased the volume as much as possible.

It had been more difficult to determine because she had put her helmet away.

“What!”

“Battlesuit!”

“Shut up. You’re being noisy.”

Violet put her spear forward and attacked. It is time to cut their balls off.

***

“Who are these guys?”

“I was alone when they said that they would flatten me under them, so I cut their balls off.”

Bolton of the Florence clan, who aids Violet, covers their lower bodies from view with his hand. The 98 Lifers behind him did the same.

The murderers’ metal armors are deactivated, crying with the whites of their eyes showing. They realize their situations even though they have gone out of their minds.

“This tattoo?”

“I saw it too. They’re members of a PK guild from North America. I tried to get information from them, but they’re such underlings that they don’t know anything.”

There is a red devil tattooed on the back of the murderers’ hands, indicating that they are members of the Blood Kingdom guild in North America.

They are mostly active in North America, but they will go anywhere where there are Lifers. There are traces of them in England as well.

They are evil people who do not discriminate with their PKs in mission and reality. They have gotten to the point where the Queen put Weapon Master Brayburke into action.

There is frequent friction with the Florence clan as well. They can guess who the leader of Blood Kingdom is. There is suspicion, but no evidence.

Brayburke told them that Dark Side and Hell Sword contacted each other. Bad habits die hard and like minds go around together in reality as well.

Bolton gave a nod. It is a command to get rid of the murderers who take part in disgusting actions. A few Lifers stepped forward and dragged them away.

They did not come forward randomly. The Lifers who were worthy of gaining points came out. If they kill the murderers, they will earn at least 100,000 points.

“It’s quiet. It looks like a modern city of the future, but there is no humanity.”

“Right?”

It is what all of the Lifers are thinking. The members need to embrace this novelty before they can get used to it.

“Gaia. Is there still no word from him?”

-[There is a dialog signal. If you would like to connect, you may do it now.]

“Wow! Finally!”

Violet smiled brightly and was so happy she could jump up and down. Bolton knows the basics of what is going on because he heard from her. She is going to meet the person who saved her life.

“Hurry up and connect us!”

-[Sending Odin a request to connect..... Request complete. You are being connected with Cha Jun Sung.]

***

Cha Jun Sung lost in a virtual battle against a top level 5 Caicus. It is a dreamlike virtual battle, but there is one thing that he realized for certain.

He decided that the level C store would not be able to handle level 6, much less the top of level 5. For the sake of safety, 2 people need to combine their strength to take on a mid-level 5 as well.

Even if he purchases weapons and sets supporting gear, he could risk his life to get through the advance mission but the problem is what comes after that.

He does not dwell on his defeat. If he is lacking somewhere, he can gather it. If he loses confidence because he lost in the virtual version, it will be hard for him to concentrate in Life Mission.

Cha Jun Sung came out of the training room and decided on a residence in zone A area 25 after much thought. It was a trade for 10,000 points.

The building is clean but it is not to his liking. It is geographically uncomfortable.

He wants to get a place near the training room and mega tower, but that costs too much. There is a slow influx of Lifers, so it is overflowing in commercial spaces.

It will be good to watch the situation and gather points before moving.

His party members left finding the residence to him and were completely encompassed by the training room. Park Jin Hyuk in particular said that it was like doing a raid in the game.

“But Odin, can we sell this house again later? This is technically an item that I bought in Mechanic City.”

-[..... You can sell it.]

Odin’s voice is strangely slow. It is like when people are hesitating to say something and have no choice but to say it in the end.

“Oh! For how much? Items in the store are blocked well so there can’t be any profiteering.”

-[..... There isn’t.]

“What are you talking about? Say it properly. Why are you acting weird?”

[There is no limit.]

“Huh?”

[Store products are infinite because they can be created in factories as long as we have the materials, but there is a limited number of buildings in Mechanic City.]

Cha Jun Sung thought hard. He never learned real estate, but higher education is emphasized in Korea and he is a college graduate.

“They’re limited? The price is decided on when first buying from a cyborg, but that disappears when going over to Lifers?”

-[Yes.]

Scarcity. Imagine millions of Lifers enter Mechanic City. They will surely try to find a residence, won’t they?

There is a lot of demand, but if there is a supply cap? There will be auctions and price wars.

Even in reality, there are people with useless pieces of land who suddenly become rich. There is no reason why this cannot happen in Mechanic City.

“That’s a scam. If it’s going to be like this, you should have blocked real estate like you did with the items.”

It is an advantageous system for Lifers who have entered groups.

If large scale personnel hoard them and then sell to other Lifers at an expensive price, the profiteering system the helpers blocked becomes pointless.

“I don’t think you guys would have done this without thought. Why is it like this?”

-[It is to increase efficiency.]

“Efficiency?”

[What are you going to do if there is something you want to buy but don’t have enough points for?]

What would he do? He would have to go through missions and gather points.

Cha Jun Sung understood right away. It means that if he wants something that is scarce and finite, he needs to catch a lot of mutants.

If he just advances and gathers the points, he can purchase an item in the store at any time. Odin is emphasizing the difference in value.

There are a lot of people in the game who invest millions of dollars to acquire a look set that changes appearance with all types of options.

Helpers used the human psychology that they want to look better than they actually are.

That is why there is no restriction on real estate as there is on items. They are to choose the one of the two that is more satisfying to them.

“Large guilds will take over.”

-[Whether it is with items or real estate, there is no way to prevent the flow of it. If you feel iffy about it, you can make a group too.]

Make a group? He is averse to it. He cannot manage it. People have a temperament for that as well. He needs to have the talent for it and Cha Jun Sung is hopeless on that end.

There is a point to what Odin is saying as well. Everything gets stronger as they gather and as there are more. Even on Earth where money reigns over points, groups are at an advantage.

Even if Mechanic City did not function with relation to the current system, groups have more influence than individuals do in this place.

Anyone with a complaint forms groups. If not, they stay silent like Cha Jun Sung does. There is a gap between the powerful and those who are not in any world.

“I’ll just ask one thing. Are there any restrictions? Can you dominate Mechanic City as long as you have the points and achievement points? That can’t be it, can it?”

-[There is a limit to how much real estate a Lifer can own by class.] [The zone does not matter, but it is different based on the area and the scale of the constructed building.]

Cha Jun Sung massaged his forehead. He understands what Odin is saying. It is just that trying to accept it makes his head hurt.

Beep beep!

The PDA blinks. It is something that happens when the request for a call comes in. There is no reason for it to be the party members. It must be Gaia.

-[Shall we pick up this time?]

“Yeah.”

When Cha Jun Sung ended the training and came out, Odin told him that Gaia had requested contact. He did not call back however.

He is testing her out. The person who wants it more will call. Cha Jun Sung is actually in a rush, but it looks like Violet is clinging more because he saved her life.

-[Look here! How is it impossible to get in contact with you for half a day? Are you ignoring me on purpose?]

As soon as the PDA was connected, Violet attacked Cha Jun Sung. She has a hot temper. It is a relief that she did not curse at him.

-[I’m sorry. I was in the training room until now and must not have seen it.]

It is not a lie. It is 90% truth. Excluding the one time he ignored her call when he came outside, he really had not been in a situation to pick up.

-[Mechanic City has that? The training room in Life Mission?]

-[Fascinating, isn’t it?]

This place is as if the large city of Life Mission has been moved here. Cha Jun Sung thought that it is fascinating. It is because they thought the same.

-[That’s good. I was uneasy about facing some, but you asked me to join your party, right? I’ll join on some conditions.]

-[What are they?]

-[If you win me, the Empress of Light, I’ll lend the party my spear.]

Cha Jun Sung was silent. Empress of Light, 3rd place ranking. In Life Mission, 1st through 10th places of the 36 rankers are the truly skilled people and the rest are just fillers.

Even within the top 10, the classification is split again into 1st through 5th and 6th through 10th.

In the virtual, he pushed Weapon Master and Blood King back with upgrades like bizarre items, skills, and the 10th stage of body modifications.

All he has now is a basic battlesuit and a bag of vibrating weapons. He cannot guarantee that he can beat her or other weak rankers.

He was not sure what Violet was saying, but he is averse because she is saying that she wants to fight. Weapons are for destruction.

-[Very well. If you tell me your location, I will go look for you with our party members.]

-[I’m in zone D area 29. First, come to zone D. There isn’t a training room in this area. I think I’ll need to move to a top area.]

Cha Jun Sung entered zone D in his PDA. The distance is automatically calculated. It is pretty far. He will be able to get there quickly because the road is empty.