Chapter 11 ….
“The contents of the orders will be obvious anyway.”
Jang Sunam scowled as he stepped out of the poison-manufacturing tent and made his way toward the nearby document storage tent.
Inside, he checked the most recent orders, and the contents left him dumbfounded.
– Notice –
The straight stretch of about 5 km from the Government Complex Daejeon to the Seongshindan Tower is a glacial zone.
Some of the red ice in this zone has been confirmed to contain the zombie virus.
Since the formation of the glacial zone coincided with the boss’s appearance, it is assumed the ice will melt if the boss is defeated.
– Orders –
Once the vaccine is secured, conduct a raid on the boss within the restricted zone to induce the melting of the red ice.
Spread the zombie virus and regulate the supply of vaccines in order to secure coins.
The above operation shall be referred to as the Gudon Plan, and any leakage of its contents outside is strictly prohibited.
Gudon (狗豚).
Literally meaning dogs and pigs.
Reading the document rekindled the fury Jang Sunam had felt back in the first round.
“Damn bastards.”
Now that he had obtained undeniable proof that Baekui Power was the true enemy, Sunam stepped outside the tent.
But just then—
Thud!
He bumped into one of the organization’s men coming from the side.
“…!!”
“What the—?”
[The skill Extreme Misfortune has been triggered.]
The impact canceled the effect of his transparent bracelet, exposing his figure.
“An intru—urk!”
Before the man could cry out, Sunam swiftly struck his throat.
As the man clutched his neck in agony, unable to make a sound—
Thwack!
Sunam swept his ankle out from under him, breaking his balance.
Boom!
He then grabbed the man’s face and slammed it into the ground with all his strength.
“…”
After knocking the man out cold, Sunam quickly checked his surroundings. Luckily, no one had witnessed it.
“That scared the hell out of me…”
He pulled a bottle of soju from his inventory, opened it, and forced it down the unconscious man’s throat before propping him up on a chair in the tent.
“This way, it’ll just look like he was slacking off on duty.”
With alcohol on his breath, any claims about spotting an intruder would sound unreliable.
“…Damn it, the bracelet’s recharging again.”
Looking at the transparent bracelet, he saw that, just as its description said, its battery had been drained by the shock.
“I’ll have to stay hidden in the tent for a while.”
At that moment—
“You useless bastards! Don’t you know time is money? Move faster!”
A harsh voice berated people outside.
“That voice…”
Peeking out, Sunam spotted a familiar man. The white coat embroidered with Baekui Power confirmed he was a high-ranking figure.
“So he was stationed at the base camp at this point in time.”
A chubby man in his 30s with a genial face. A former chief researcher at a pharmaceutical company, and laughably, second-in-command of Baekui Power. His name was Lee Inja.
“I’d better hurry too.”
Lee Inja was the impatient type who wanted everything done quickly. Which meant the raid on Seongshindan Tower was probably already underway.
“The hints are too obvious to ignore, after all.”
This world now operated on game-like logic.
If the glacial zone and the zombie virus were at the starting point near the Government Complex, then at the far end—the Seongshindan Tower—there had to be something useful for fighting the boss, or perhaps even a vaccine.
Baekui Power must have bet on that possibility and dispatched a raid team there.
“And there really is a vaccine…”
“Mr. Lee Inja, a report for you.”
Just as Sunam was about to head for the Seongshindan Tower, someone approached to make a report.
“One of the high-priority persons of interest—the one known as ‘Crow’—has been sighted.”
“Crow? Who was that again?”
“The man who supposedly soloed the mid-boss, the Giant Slime, in Cultural District 2—the first area in the world to clear the tutorial.”
“Ah, that guy? I thought he was dead since we hadn’t heard anything after he appeared on the list. Where was he spotted?”
“The last information came a few hours ago: he robbed merchants of coins in Seodaejeon Park and then disappeared.”
“That’s me they’re talking about.”
Apparently, the people who left early had sold information while he was still waiting for his tutorial rewards.
It wasn’t strange he’d been flagged for surveillance—he had stood out too much.
“Robbing merchants? Interesting guy! He’s clearly capable. If the opportunity arises, bring him in. He seems like he’d fit right in with us.”
Hearing this, Sunam’s face twisted as though he’d bitten into dung.
“Didn’t think I’d be lumped in with scum like that.”
The mask he’d worn to hide his identity had only made him more noticeable.
But he wasn’t bothered—after all, it was “Crow” that had become famous, not Jang Sunam himself.
If anything, having the easily-imitated Crow mask gain fame could benefit him in the long run.
He could live freely as himself, while Crow became the mask others copied.
With that decision made, Sunam prepared to leave the base camp.
Just before he did, however, he noticed Lee Inja holding a strange document.
“What’s that?”
It could very well be a new set of orders.
“Hey, what are you doing there! No breaks until today’s quota is finished—get moving!”
Chastising his subordinates as usual, Lee Inja headed deeper into the base camp.
“I’ve got about five minutes of charge…”
Activating the bracelet again, Sunam trailed him unseen, eventually reaching an unfamiliar location.
“…What is this place?”
The layout was different from previous rounds. There should’ve only been an incinerator here, but now there was also a massive device that looked like an air purifier.
“Where the hell is the incinerator manager? We need it running now!”
“…So the guy I knocked out earlier must’ve been in charge here.”
Lee Inja walked up to the incinerator, fiddled briefly with the controls, tossed the document inside, and hurried off as though something were chasing him.
“Perfect timing.”
Sunam quickly retrieved the document before it was consumed by fire. Though the edges were scorched, the text remained legible.
“…Huh?”
On the cover was an emblem he recognized.
“That’s the emblem of the Seeds of the Evil God?”
It was a religious group he’d only just learned of in this 7th round.
“What the hell is this about…?”
Reading carefully, he found it described internal recruitment through member recommendations only.
But then—
“…What?”
Baekui Power’s guild master, Pi Gwangseok, who had recommended Lee Inja, was listed as nothing more than a regular member of the Seeds of the Evil God.
“If Pi Gwangseok is just a regular member at the 100-day mark, that means this organization is enormous.”
Yet in six previous rounds, Sunam had never once heard of it.
“Did it appear only because of the changes this time? …No, I saw their emblem even back in the tutorial zone.”
Which meant it had existed before—but then why hadn’t he encountered it even once in six whole regressions?
Its purpose was unknown, and its very name carried ominous weight. Clearly not a normal group.
As Sunam read further, his expression grew darker.
“…So these bastards were the root cause all along.”
The document listed only one simple duty for members:
[Use the provided devices to collect ‘Energy of Chaos.’]
That was it.
Nothing about what it was for, where the organization was based, or who its members were. Just a wall of secrecy.
But for Sunam, that single line was enough to make his hand tremble with fury.
Because he knew what the Energy of Chaos was.
“So the reason I kept ending up at bad endings… was all because of them.”
His grip on the paper shook violently.
The Energy of Chaos—
a special energy generated by negative emotions like anger, sorrow, pain, fear, irritation, anxiety, murderous intent, depression, and tension.
And the most efficient way to produce such emotions… was to make people suffer.
Just as Baekui Power had spread goblin poison to cause colds and released zombie viruses.
By tormenting people without restraint, they could harvest Chaos Energy in bulk.
“So that’s why there were so many villain organizations…”
Even in a changed world, he had encountered an absurdly excessive number of villains across six regressions.
If it was all part of the Seeds of the Evil God’s scheme to collect Chaos Energy, it explained everything.
The more villains, the more chaos.
“You sons of bitches…”
Sunam turned his gaze to the massive air-purifier-like machine.
“So now I know what that’s for.”
On its surface was the same cog-shaped seed emblem.
The machine was designed to harvest Chaos Energy.
“A place crawling with sick patients would’ve been the perfect spot to install it.”
His path was clear now: he, who sought the world’s happy ending, and they, who thrived on sowing misery, could never coexist. They were destined to be mortal enemies.
“I need more information.”
If even a small fry like Pi Gwangseok ran a sub-organization like Baekui Power, then the Seeds of the Evil God had to be massive, a sprawling network.
“Taking them all out at once will be impossible.”
That was why terror groups used network structures—destroying a few cells barely scratched the whole.
“But there must be core executives.”
If he could identify and eliminate them, his path to a happy ending would be far smoother.
“Pi Gwangseok… I now have every reason to capture and interrogate you.”
Apart from knowing they collected Chaos Energy, he had no other leads. He would wring the rest out of Pi Gwangseok by any means necessary.
“But first things first.”
His top priority remained the zombie crisis.
And the solution lay within the Seongshindan Tower.
“I can’t let rage blind me to my priorities.”
Having set a new objective, Jang Sunam turned and left the base camp behind.
