novel
| ← Ch.089 | Ch.091 → |
He is a proud captain of the American Navy. At the end of the day, he had not lost that pride. That was until he boarded the ark.
"What- what year is it right now?"
".... . Does anyone know?"
Cha Jun Sung looked at the force members. How could they know? They could know the year during the mission, but no one paid attention because it did not matter to them.
"You slept for 4 years. We don't know the time here."
How should he explain it? Should he say that he became a Lifer because of a game called Life Mission, and came to this universe to save it from mutants?
Cha Jun Sung felt that it was crazy even while he was thinking it. He would just try to pass it off.
"4 years.... . Since I was frozen in 2031, it's the year 2035. So 4 years passed."
It is a self-mocking voice. The lieutenant spaced out for a bit and spoke,
"What country are you from?"
"We're from Korea."
"Korea?"
The lieutenant is taken aback. How could it be! Korea is one of the first 6 nations that perished without even an ant left behind. The country had been dried out completely.
"How did a Korean get here? You would have perished by the awakened Black Evil."
"Black Evil!"
Black Evil Aduroque.
It is a level 9 mutant taking one of the 6 spots as disasters along with the Evil Queen. In the virtual version, it dominated Asia. Its origin was Korea!
Even Cha Jun Sung who fought with the Evil Queen is ignorant regarding the 5 disasters. Strictly speaking, he had not seen the end of Life Mission either.
If the virtual version had been commercialized for a few more years, he might have been able to kill all of the disasters. The 36 rankers could have formed a union to kill them too.
"Is it important where we're from at this point? When the world is in ruins?"
"He he!"
He laughs at himself to Cha Jun Sung's straightforward words. He is right. What is it important where they are from? The world has been in pandemonium for a long time.
He had boarded the ark to get away from that hell, but this place had also turned out to be hell.
"You said that 4 years has gone by? What on earth happened?"
He asked outright. He has no choice if he wants to know the situation with the ark and infected city. The lieutenant froze.
He holds his head and trembles in fear. The events of 4 years back come back like a nightmare. It had left a trauma for a soldier who had experienced all types of hardships.
"Those- those guys!"
They were indeed mutants, but they were more disgusting and cruel. The parasites occupied New Zealand and the islands, and designated them as their own areas.
This ark is one of the hundreds of vessels created by America with the help of its allies. South America had fallen to the Evil Queen.
The few survivors ran away from there as though being chased. They turned the boat's direction toward Oceania where there are a lot of islands, since they cannot live on sea forever.
That was the mistake. Just as they had lost to the Evil Queen, one of the islands was losing a war against the parasites.
They quickly got everyone on board and left, but it became irreversible.
"Is the ark safe?"
"We need your help, lieutenant. We discovered the parasites, but they are too few in numbers. It's as if they aren't here.
"That should be right."
"It should be? Then does that mean you know why there are so few?"
"I don't know, but there are 7 sleeping rooms in addition to this one."
They had hacked into the system, but he pretended not to know. Hercules did it, but it would just be a bother to explain its artificial intelligence. It is better to hide the fact.
"Huh? Were there 9? Ugh! The parasites! Where did I get to?"
His consciousness came and went, speaking gibberish and then acting like he could not remember anything. His brain is not able to function, whether it is because of the freezing or fear.
He sees the force members armed with bizarre gear, and does not react. He is half out of his mind. It is unsure whether he has gone crazy or has become stupid.
"The para- parasites are inside the bodies of the frozen survivors."
The lieutenant's words are shocking. Survivors reaching over 20, 000 are hosts? Then even the 1200 people in room 1?
"Is it everyone?"
"That's not it. About.... . 0. 1% will be uninfected. Keuk keuk!"
The lieutenant is genuinely happy. Is he also a host? Should they kill him?
"I have not been infected."
"Phew!"
It was like the lieutenant read his mind, and revealed that he is not a host. The force members let out a sigh of relief, but this is not enough.
Cha Jun Sung left Lim Si Hyun to speak with the lieutenant, but went among the force members. The lieutenant said that he is not a host, but those are just words.
"Scan him without his noticing. If he's infected, set him on fire."
Zing!
Hercules is linked to the PDA, and its eyes scan the lieutenant. His muscles, bones, and organs come up clearly on the hologram.
A few force members saw what they were doing and thought that it was an obvious step. A host is a ticking time bomb. They need to know for sure.
Hercules did not speak, and sent the information as text. The lieutenant's information comes up on the PDA, including his estimated age, height, weight, and health condition.
-[Not infected. ]
To get to the point, he really is not an infected host. There was just one problem in the information. His body is fine, but his mental state is off.
-[He shows erratic behavior and symptoms of insanity as though he is looking at a ghost. After analyzing his behavior, there is a 99. 9% that he is suffering from PTSD. Potential instability. ]
Post traumatic stress disorder. When Cha Jun Sung had first gone into the reality version, he also thought he had gone insane with this dream-like reality.
The number of Lifers with PTSD is increasing all over the world. Even if they are mutants, they are living beings. Destruction leads to a lack of emotion.
When they also witness their colleagues being ripped apart, people of weak mentalities cannot help but collapse.
The lieutenant experienced America's destruction, the infected city, and the ark's hell consecutively. He has been eaten up by the terror that was imprinted on his mind then.
'But he hasn't been infected. '
He does not have weapons, and is significantly inferior to the Lifers in physical ability. It does not seem like it will be a big deal to have 1 crazy person make a fuss.
-[According to the scan, he really hasn't been infected but it has been confirmed that he is suffering from PTSD. Looks like we should ask him as much as we can. ]
Cha Jun Sung relayed the lieutenant's condition over the general radio. They did not ignore it completely, but the force members thought that it was not a big deal.
"The captain and 7 lieutenants including me took charge of each of the rooms 1 through 8, and froze the people. We were the last."
"How many people were originally on board the ark? What happened?"
"200, 000? Or was it 250, 000? Over half died in the infected city and more died on the ark.... . Anyone we couldn't freeze died too! Hee hee!"
Tonga. It is the name of the island they can see about 20km away outside. It is slightly larger than Korea with an area of 747 square km. This is the infected city that the lieutenant is referring to.
"An- another ark anchored at a nearby island, but we lost contact. They're all dead! Are we going to die too? No! Korea dispatched its troops!"
His words twist, but he does give them the information that they want. This is really useful. The more they knew about the ark and infected city, the better.
"Are hosts mixed in sleeping room? Can you tell them apart?"
"There are a lot of them mixed in. He he! Under circumstances, it was difficult to distinguish the host, so I can't distinguish between them."
The lieutenant chirped like a bird. He says that when the parasites were introduced to the ark, tens of thousands of people got on the lifeboats to get away.
The remaining people chose to be frozen indefinitely. This was because they had come to find out that parasites do not like the cold.
Freezing an infected host also slowed down the infection rate. They could not tell who was infected and who was not, so they could not kill everyone either.
This was all possible because the soldiers protected the sleeping rooms with their lives so that their families could go through the process. If not, they would have been annihilated.
The sleeping room was created to extend the lives of anyone who came down with a disease or serious wound. They would hang on to their lives until the practices necessary for treatment were discovered.
There were not enough spots because they had not created it while expecting the parasites.
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