-[Captain approval. Passage reset. Destination: Tonga. Operating the engine.]

Han Chang Jin did not understand what the main system was saying at first.

It was not because he did not know the meaning. He had unintentionally skipped that the engine had been activated to reset the passage at this point and to anchor in Tonga.

These things happen. When something random occurs, people go completely blank. This was that kind of situation.

They had tried to convince the Lieutenant multiple times over time, but nothing had worked. The Lieutenant only talked about the war.

“You crazy asshole! You changed the passage! What? Tonga? That’s the infected city!”

A Navy officer is appalled and grabs the Lieutenant’s collar. The ark is going to anchor on an island that could be level C or even B?

“I’ll say it again. Support the battle in the 3 regions.”

The party members including the Navy Lifer followed Han Chang Jin’s order, watching the CCTV over Cha Jun Sung’s, Lim Si Hyun’s, and Hercules’ fights.

The battle between humans and parasites was even, while Hercules had the upper hand. It would be over soon.

“Stop the ark.”

“To think that this is the extent of the Korean Special Forces! If we combine your power with that of the ark, we can kill all of the parasites!”

Before this, he had been hanging on to his sanity but now he had gone completely crazy. The Lieutenant completely ignored Han Chang Jin.

-[Engine start up 100% complete. It will take 30 minutes to arrive at destination, Tonga.]

The speed is on the slow side. It was stationary for 4 years, so it is going slowly to prevent any defects. The important thing is that they are moving.

“Hercules has removed the source. The battles in the other 2 areas look like they’re going to end soon. General! We need to go back before a special mission is activated!”

If a special mission is activated, they will need to quit instead of just going back. It takes 1000 points to quit a level D. With a level C, it would probably take more than 10,000.

They can run away even if they anchor at the city, but they will prevent it if they can. They need to convince the Lieutenant in any way that they can and stop the ark.

“Our mission is to restore the ark. A conquest of the city is still too much.”

“I’m the captain of this ark! Follow my orders and occupy Tonga!”

The Lieutenant would not listen. Han Chang Jin felt murderous for a second but made a great effort to push it back. After all, he is also a victim of the parasites.

He cannot pressure a patient as a soldier.

“General! The fighting has ended. There are a lot of deaths and injuries!”

-[You have earned 20,000 points.]

-[Congratulations. You have cleared level D advance mission Dead Ark. Level C missions, store, and achievement system have been opened.]

The mission was completed when the source died, but the force’s fighting ended after more time because the infected hosts were still alive.

-[Whew! You all worked hard.]

-[That was tiring.]

The force members talked over the radio. From their standpoints, there was no rush. They can bring everything to a clean end and then go back.

Han Chang Jin was in a rush though. So were the party members at headquarters.

-[This is Han Chang Jin. Listen to me and return to reality right away!]

-[Return?]

-[What do you mean return?]

-[The Lieutenant manipulated the main system to reset the passage. The destination is Tonga! If we stay still, the ark is going to anchor at the infected city!]

-[What!]

-[What are we going to do about the survivors?]

-[If that’s true, we shouldn’t be worrying about the survivors. We’ll have to quit the mission if we anchor there, and that’ll cost a ton of points.]

One of the force members spoke with common sense, but that is not the point.

What if there is a variation and they cannot return? They would need to complete the mission or find a solution, but both are impossible for level C.

-[Hurry!]

-[Seven Stars, return. I’ll see everyone back in reality.]

Lim Si Hyun represented Seven Stars. They will not be able to reverse it if they hesitate.

-[The ark is anchoring at the infected city. There is a new mission because Dead Ark has been completed! The reward points has gone up to 1.8 million.]

What? 1.8 million? This means that the mutants residing in the infected city are level 6. They can never win. There is not even a 1 in 1 million chance that they can.

-[Huh? I can’t quit!]

-[Me neither!]

-[What are achievement points? They’re saying we can’t quit because we don’t have enough of these.]

Cha Jun Sung’s party realized over the radio that they need something other than the normal points in order to return. The worst scenario has happened.

***

The atmosphere in the headquarters is heavy. Soldiers who had completed the mission were sitting on chairs everywhere with their heads on the desks.

The people related to Seven Stars and the government did not discuss their situation, but rather spent some time to themselves.

They need to draw their luck, but they could not figure out what to do.

The automatic doors opened and Cha Jun Sung entered with 2 parties of Lifers. Anyone can come and go as they please because it has been left open.

“We moved survivors to the rooms. We also took care of the dead.”

As the situation was taken care of, the ark had found its peace again. They reassigned rooms for the survivors because the fighting had been done near the bunker.

The headquarters is where ark officials normally stayed, but it was meaningless to maintain those rules when everyone was dead.

“What about the Lieutenant?”

“We quarantined him through the Colonel who escorted us.”

They locked him in a small room temporarily. Soldiers are guarding him from outside.

They also resented what the Lieutenant had done. They thought that had been released from the hell, but they would be going back in because of this crazy superior.

“So that’s the infected city.”

“Yes.”

Cha Jun Sung is watching the CCTV. It has an external view of the ark.

A beautiful beach and wide sandy stretches. Beyond that, the faint image of a giant city. It seems to be extremely far away.

It is better the farther away it is. It means that is how far they are from the parasites.

The ark’s sensors are on, so there will be a warning signal if a parasite is detected within 500m. Therefore, they are safe for now.

Cha Jun Sung looks around. There are 68 Lifers in the headquarters.

32 is the mission’s final death toll. The injured were treated by medics, so they are okay for movement even if fighting is too much.

“I think everyone is here. Whew! Let’s check the mission description.”

When Lim Si Hyun spoke, the force members turned their PDAs on. They already checked, but it felt new every time they saw the large amount of information. And it is to a bad side.

-[Mission C: Terrain of Infection Trees] [Goal: Annihilation]

-[Description: 4 years ago, the seed that leaked into Tonga is a mixed-blood of the 16th nightmare, albeit light. Fate has been decided since they settled on this slope surrounded by the sea. Though it is the optimal environment to create an infected city, there are disadvantages. The parasites had not had much competition before, but it had become saturated through rapid propagation. The mixed blood know that they cannot cross the sea, and became trees on their own to infect the nature. Lifers, bring down the infection tree rooted in the middle of Tonga, annihilate the parasites, and purify the terrain.] [Reward: 1.8 million points. Lucky box.]

Cha Jun Sung and Koharu, Lim Si Hyun and Han Chang Jin exchanged looks.

More interesting material than the Terrain of Infection Trees is being discussed. It is ‘a mixed-blood of the 16th nightmare, albeit light’.

It means that the boss of this place is a descendant, no matter how distant.

“Is it level 6?”

“Surely it won’t have the exact characteristics?”

“They’ll be similar to an extent. Even though it’s a hybrid, if it really is the parent!”

If it is one of the 16th nightmares, it is a generator or parent of parasites. Parasite. King New Black. They are level 8 like Medusa and the Vampire Lord.

If the mutants they had met until now were those that had failed in evolving, the infection tree is a mixed blood born from a powerful matrix.

It must have been born from copulation with a weak mutant. If it had copulated with something of the same level, it would have been level 7 like in the virtual version.

They must not look at it lightly. This type of mutant is stronger than a level 6. That must be why the reward points have been set to 1.8 million.

It could be that starting from level C, they could be getting rid of seeds that can become great dangers instead of killing the small fish.

“As you can see, there is little chance for completion. Quitting is the only answer.”

“Master, what are achievement points? The current mission isn’t blocked. As long as we have these achievement points, we can quit right away.”

The force acted freely because there is no attack from parasites. No matter how much they repeatedly pressed the quit button, they just kept getting the response that they do not have enough achievement points to do so.

‘Normal 10,000, achievement 5000.’

Beep.

Cha Jun Sung tried pulling up the quit list. It shows the points necessary. It is a large number, but he and Park Jin Hyuk would be able to handle it.

Excluding them, no one in the force has even a single achievement point.

He would have left the mission if they were Lifers that he did not know, but these are not Lifers that he can throw away easily. Even if he does abandon them, what about Koharu and Kyoko?

He will reconsider quitting for now. The key is achievement points. Since everyone has opened level C, they can gain a certain amount by killing mutants.

Killing mutants? Will they have to go to the city to kill the mutants? They will be killed before they can kill.

‘I’ll have to tell them.’

If he reveals his secret now, there would be no surprise. Blindly hiding it does not help either. He needs to tell them what they need to do in order to survive.