Life Mission

“I completed the advance before I entered the Dead Ark.”

Lim Si Hyun and Han Chang Jin goggled. An advance mission between the two of them? The force members start chatting. Cha Jun Sung silenced them.

“I’ll ask the people who saw Park Jin Hyuk and me fighting. Is that movement possible with the 2nd stage of body modifications?”

“He’s right. He took on a level 4 one-on-one.”

“It’s the same for him too. Does it make sense that he took on 5 level 3s by himself?”

As the force members’ question was resolved, the puzzle pieces came together.

“I was able to fight a level 4 by myself because I have gone through the 4th stage. I’ll give you a brief explanation to help explain.”

He told them what happened in Slayer’s Prison. He excluded the information that if special missions overlap, helpers intervene.

He will tell them later if it is necessary. He does not have to list everything out for them for no reason. The force members listened to everything and nodded in understanding.

Sometimes, luck is a competence. In that sense, Cha Jun Sung is bound for success.

“As you all said, completion is impossible with this personnel and our gear. Our work is to earn achievement points.”

“Question. So you and that young man would be able to return to reality, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s scary to even go out, but to gather achievement points? What if quitting gets blocked?”

He is right. The force members were scared to go out. A level 4 or 5 could appear. Low level and high level hunting are distinctly different.

This is level C. It is not a place that even Cha Jun Sung’s party would be able to take on easily. It would not be such a desperate situation if he had the battle shoot.

“If we can’t do it with the force’s strength, can’t we borrow power from the ark?”

“I’ll tell you about that after discussing with the future colonel. Of the surviving senior figures, there aren’t many who are completely sane.”

Lim Si Hyun answered the question. There is the 7th Lieutenant, but he is in a complete blank state. He stares blankly all day. Thinking back, being crazy was better.

Cha Jun Sung continued speaking and the force members asked what they were wondering about.

He told them what he knew to the best of his ability. From now on, they are not strangers. They are colleagues with the common goal of surviving.

***

There were only 7 in positions as field officers who were in commanding levels of the ark. 2 of them are lieutenants.

The lieutenant colonel who escorted Lim Si Hyun was of the highest rank.

He must be pretty well recognized as well because the soldiers and survivors followed his lead well. He would gain the captain title if something happens to the lieutenants.

“There’s a nucleus to the ark?”

“There is but in the circumstances, it is difficult to use when it is under us. While the nucleus stopped producing, 3 100MT level ones were brought on.”

Only Han Chang Jin’s jaw dropped at this information. Cha Jun Sung and Lim Si Hyuk do not know what it means but if they set off a 100MT in Tonga, an entire neighborhood will be swept away.

The ark, anchored on the waterfront, would also be destroyed.

“Do you have fire bombs as well?”

“Of course. There is enough power on the ark to arm a legion class troop. Far below, there are even tanks, jets, and armored cars.”

“What if we fly the jet or launch fire bombs from the ark?”

People laid out several ideas. However, extreme behavior like this brings in war. How many mutants will appear in a level C mission?

It is 1.8 million. 100,000 is the minimum and it could be far beyond that.

People who know how to use weapons need to use them. This is not an exception for soldiers. There are a lot of things to kill, but there is a limited number of people who know how to handle the weapons.

In addition, if they drag something out that makes a lot of noise, they will be letting the parasites know that they are there.

“Whew! It would be a good means to turn the ark around and head away from Tonga.”

“Would you be able to do it with your authority as a colonel?”

“If it is locked by the captain and lieutenant, not even I can do anything about it.”

3rd Lieutenant Andre Gordon. Even when he was sane, he was a selfish egoist. He only bowed his head under the blame, and he was not recognized at all.

When they brought the survivors to sleeping rooms 1 through 8 after being occupied by parasites, he had unashamedly taken sleeping room 1 because it was the safest.

He is someone who would do worse than running away, but he must have failed to do so because he had remained on the ark.

He wanted to become captain even though he had gone crazy because the ambition and authoritarian ideology embedded in him had not disappeared.

He must become the captain if he wants to make sure that others cannot rebel. Though lacking, it is possible to change the ark’s route with a lieutenant’s authority.

If that is the case, is it necessary to go through all of the trouble in this situation?

“It’s because the 7th Lieutenant is still alive. He might be a blank slate because of the big shock he’s experienced, but he was gentle, unlike a soldier.”

If the Lieutenant changes the route, the 7th Lieutenant can cancel it. He had used his head even if he had gone crazy. He had even calculated what could happen later.

“Is it a strife over the position?”

Han Chang Jin is a soldier, so he could understand most of what the colonel was saying. Not just superficially, but intrinsically. In the current circumstances, changing the route is impossible.

The mission goal is annihilation. If they use the weapons on the ark, they need to be prepared to go all the way. The parasites would stupidly fall for it a few times.

Then, they would see blood and go digging around to understand their enemy’s path of attack. They will be unable to do anything if the ark is discovered.

“How constricted.”

Park Jin Hyuk had been leaning against a wall listening when he started hitting the back of his head on the wall.

It was holding them back that the ark would be anchored on the waterfront. If they were floating on the ocean, they could fly bombs at Tonga and send it off completely.

“If the 2 lieutenants die, is that power handed down to you, Colonel?”

“It’s not as simple as it sounds.”

The lieutenant is just one of dozens of field grade officers who receive captain agency whenever a captain is absent.

Authority is limited. On top of that, there is a lot that they do not know regarding the ark’s functions so the process of succession is extremely complicated.

“It’d be possible to pass over the 3rd Lieutenant, but that’s not the case with the 7th Lieutenant.”

The other option is to fight but reduce the use of weapons on the ark, focusing on gathering achievement points. They do not want to even think about what could come next, but it is an all out war.

“Tell the force members what we discussed here and let’s go meet with the Lieutenant. And what do you know? He might have calmed down a bit.”

It did not seem he would have, but they could not help but have expectations.