Volume 8 / Chapter 218

TL: LightCafe

Editor: Hungry Panda

The Albatrus’ performance is being revealed during the production process. There is a big difference between looking at it through drawings and while it is being created. The physical appearance itself is overwhelming. The boat is as large as the city seen in Dead Ark. It is smaller than a ship but top of the line in combat power.

There is no need for the average Lifer to kill mutants himself. As long as they board, the Albatrus brings in 1/n of mutant points. Cha Jun Sung is aiming for the advancement mission, but this is creating the optimal environment for Lifers who are completing missions with points as their target.

For Park Jin Hyuk’s group who has just become level A, Rankers, and below level B Lifers, matching the specifications for their respective levels was more urgent than advancement. They are doing this because they need the points, but repeatedly hunting is boring and is a source of considerable stress.

To think that points accumulate once they board the Albatrus even though that means that all they do is eat, sleep, and play?

That itself is paradise.

“It doesn’t matter much to me since the World Federation will take care of it, but the maintenance cost must be considerable and repairs will cost a lot if it takes a big hit.”

Albatrus is an item similar to the Universe Eye. There is a maintenance fee in points for Lifers that board it.

The payment system is by paying a fee.

If several Lifers fill the points for Albatrus, they get used from there. If it isn’t filled, it is a definite that they can’t activate it. 1000 in just 1 second – maintaining it for one day sucks up 86.4 million points.

It is at a level A standard. If they upgrade to level S, they don’t know how it’ll change.

It is worth doing, but the numerical value is horrifying. What would happen if the supply of points is cut off in the middle of the sea? They would be buried. In the worst case scenario, they all have to squeeze out points.

“The sea...”

“I’ve wanted to go deep into the sea ever since I was very young. I’m sure everyone’s had that thought before. It’s the world of the unknown.”

The only body of nature that hasn’t been touched by humans. Mutants may be wild in the world of missions, but Cha Jun Sung’s world is where seeing a big whale is more fascinating than a lion or tiger.

There is a lot more that hasn’t been revealed compared to what’s on land.

Cha Jun Sung’s party alone has 4 Rankers. But they don’t know anything about sea mutants.

“Do you think there are 100m whales and octopus too? Or a tuna as large as a boat?”

Park Jin Hyuk has an expression full of expectation. He has a childlike innocence. He is in his early 20s, but curiosity has no correlation with age.

“There are stingrays that big too.”

Cha Jun Sung has never seen it either, but he has heard that there are mutants that large. There are stingrays as large as buildings.

“Was its name Bergon?”

“Bergon is right.”

Violet remembered the name. It is a sea mutant that is the second fastest in the ocean.

Aka Sleeping Scissors.

It is called that because it is known to be calm, but cuts everything up when it gets angry. It is also Red Eye’s pet mutant, but Cha Jun Sung has no way of knowing that.

“But what are Deep-Sea Teeth?”

“I don’t know either. I didn’t ask for details. I tried looking on Lifer World, but there’s no information. Though I wasn’t expecting to find anything since it’s a level 8 ocean mutant.”

“I can’t wait! A fight with a battleship and monsters! I feel like it’ll be better than a sci-fi movie!”

“Don’t depend on Albatrus too much. There’s going to be a lot of struggle because there are two level 8s. We might have to battle under water.”

Ejection.

They can’t rule out the possibility of having to use a battlesuit that can be active underwater in order to fight.

Hundreds of small diving vessels will protect the Albatrus, but in the event of an emergency, Lifers on board will need to make up for what’s lacking.

It’s fine to believe in the Albatrus’ performance, but blind dependence isn’t.

While mutants were being massacred by the automatic cannons, two giant lizards appeared with a tremendous roar.

Level 7 Basilisks. Bullets bounce off of their thick skins.

Cha Jun Sung stands up.

Park Jin Hyuk’s group stays seated. They are level A Lifers, but they cannot fight against level 7 mutants because they have only gone through stage 7 of body modifications.

Rankers didn’t get past the stage 7 wall either. There are side effects in stages 5 and 6, too. They are slowing down because they can tell what is beyond that without seeing it.

Cha Jun Sung had searched for a solution to the side effects, and had found a basic answer thanks to Odin. The solution had been closer than they thought.

It is him.

“For now, it’s me.”

Papat!

It is a bother to think of how many level 7s he will need to kill from now on, but he’ll just do it because he already has a foot in. It’s just for two months.

***

This is the production site of Albatrus.

Different from ordinary shipbuilding methods, building the ark is full of the unfamiliar from the foundation work to materials.

A buzzing scenery of workers’ chatter and the sour smell of sweat is missing.

Of course it is. The workers aren’t human.

Boom boom!

Advanced cyborgs move black metals.

It is black iron alloy from the level B store. 200,000 points for a large stick. Most of the Albatrus’ keel and hull is made out of this. The World Federation used 8 trillion points in purchasing 40 million of these black iron alloy sticks.

The 10 trillion budget that they had initially estimated increased to 12 trillion, but there wasn’t that much more of a burden on Lifers. It just increased slightly. They decreased the types of items they can change as if they were batteries like energy cores and weapons, and considered what they can’t.

With materials from the level A store and a downgraded version, they can kill two birds with one stone. They’re on the fringe about getting even one. Strategist chose Albatrus’ durability. If it can collapse like a sand castle under the enemy’s attack, it is deadwood no matter how great the equipment is.

The external shape has already been completed. It has been half a month since they started production on the inside.

When even this is done, they have to bring in and install the thousands of energy cores to the designated locations in order to attack. For the past few months, 15000 cyborgs created the Albatrus without stopping for even a second except when they charged the energy cores.

The drawings themselves were input into artificial intelligence, so they were carried out without a single error. The production speed was fast.

***

The inside of Albatrus.

Cha Jun Sung’s group and Strategist’s group are gathered at the place that will become the headquarters.

Since nearly 20 Rankers are gathered together, it looks completely full even though that isn’t a large number.

There are Lifers like Nine Tail and Light Shooter who aren’t bound to groups and take on personal activities instead, but they went against their personalities and decided to work together because of the difficulty of the advancement mission.

If Cha Jun Sung’s combat ability hadn’t been above average, it is so difficult that they wouldn’t be able to complete it without overdoing themselves.

They will be massacred if they enter a level A mission without Cha Jun Sung now.

So they need to work together even if they don’t want to, and they can’t take on a level A mission if they don’t advance. Now, their greatest concern is body modification.

When they get together, they only talk about topics regarding body modifications.

Rankers think that Cha Jun Sung is in stage 10 of body modifications. Even if he used the card, there’s no other way to explain completing a level A mission. Cha Jun Sung talked about his body like this:

‘Ever since I got infected by the Oriax in Public Underground, it seems I’ve gained immunity. That’s why I’m free from the side effects of body modifications as well.’

He just said what came to mind because he can’t tell them that he’s become a mutant, and they bought it just as he had expected. The side effect of stages 5 and 6 is delirium.

They were even more envious of Cha Jun Sung because death is a possibility in stages 7 and 8.

Not long ago, Cha Jun Sung heard something fun and interesting from Odin.

[Gauging your awakened state, you’re above level 8.] [This means that there’s the possibility an immune system is in your blood. If you drink this, it could get rid of or reduce the side effects of body modification.]

There is no guarantee of what will happen if an ordinary Lifer drinks Cha Jun Sung’s blood, but Lifers already have a diluted strain of A virus inside them.

They all have some kind of immunity to the blood.

These are all just hypotheses. It’s just that Cha Jun Sung thinks it’s worth a try.

He only told Strategist about this. It would be fortunate if he didn’t take it as his being crazy, but he thought about it positively like a human.

“We leave two days after it’s complete. I want to test it, but the maintenance points are too much. It looks like we’ll just have to do it during the real thing.”

They don’t really need it.

The cyborgs created it without a single error.

It doesn’t make sense for level S combat weapons worth 10 trillion points to malfunction.

It’s the helpers’ job to move the Albatrus into their mission area.

The minimum number of passengers to board is 1000. They need to match that number no matter what.

The normal gate opens separately for each person. The helpers will combine their power to open a giant gate, to move the Albatrus whole. When that happens, the Lifers inside will be able to follow automatically. As the level goes up, a lot of strange things happen. They all learn that much more.

Strategist looks at Cha Jun Sung.

He knows what that means. They can’t advance if they can’t get past stages 7 and 8, regardless of survival.

‘I’ll set up the meeting. They’ll make their choices.’

He might have to give a lot of blood.

The Rankers might worry too, but if they could raise the possibility by even 0.1%, they won’t turn down the proposal.

Cha Jun Sung looks over the construction site from headquarters. They borrowed Mechanic City’s largest stadium. Nearby, thousands of World Federation Lifers are walking around standing guard.

It’s because Bloody Kingdom could create a ruckus.

But Rankers were also standing guard, so they would have to go back even if they tried to challenge them.

‘Getting closer.’

It seemed as though it was only yesterday that they were level E Lifers, and now they are suddenly level As. If they become complete level S, only one mission is the goal.

‘Evil Queen.’

It is delusional to try to try all level S missions solo.

What will there be past level S?

Will they be able to completely understand Life Mission?

Let’s go. All the way.

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