The next morning, at 5:30 AM, I stood on the roof of my dorm. The sky was just beginning to lighten in the east. The air was cold and biting.
It was Tuesday.
The mission was in thirty minutes.
But my mind was elsewhere.
Today was also the day of my mother's funeral.
A small, simple ceremony that the hospital's social services had organized. I should have been there. I should have been with her, to say one last goodbye.
Instead, I was here. About to go on a mission with the person responsible for her death.
A wave of pure, icy hatred washed over me, so intense that I had to lean against the edge of the roof to keep from falling.
I had almost forgotten. In the routine of training, in our little game of provocation, I had almost forgotten the reason I was doing all this.
I stood up straight.
My face was blank. The boy who fought for honor or to prove his worth was gone.
All that was left was the son who would avenge his mother.
The mission was no longer a test. It was no longer a punishment.
It was an opportunity.
Far from the academy walls, in the forest, there would be no director. No professors. No witnesses.
I watched the sun rise. A new day. A day of mourning.
And maybe, a day of judgment.
I went down from the roof and headed for the heliport, my dagger feeling heavier and hungrier than ever.
The heliport was a large concrete platform on the roof of the main building. A black, high-tech helicopter with the academy's colors was waiting, its blades spinning slowly.
Yoo-Na was already there. She wore a tactical combat suit, white and gray, that looked both light and durable. She didn't look at me when I arrived. She was staring at the horizon.
The pilot, a man in uniform, motioned for us to get in.
We sat across from each other in the small cabin. The silence was total, broken only by the growing sound of the helicopter blades.
The aircraft took off, rising above the academy. I looked out the window. The campus grew smaller and smaller, a set of gray blocks and perfect green lawns. Our prison.
The pilot handed us a tablet.
"Mission briefing," he said in a professional voice. "The breach is level 2. That means we expect D and C-rank creatures. Possibly a B-rank pack leader. Your objective is to find the source of the breach, seal it with the provided device, and eliminate all resistance. Understood?"
Yoo-Na nodded. "Understood."
I said nothing.
The helicopter flew for about twenty minutes, leaving the city of Seoul behind and heading over the Bukhansan mountains. The forest was a dense, green sea that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"We're approaching the zone," the pilot announced. "I'll drop you about a kilometer away. The rest is on foot. The breach's energy interferes with the instruments."
He gave us a small metal box. The sealing device.
"Good luck," he said, without much conviction.
The helicopter descended and hovered over a small clearing. A rope was thrown down.
Yoo-Na was the first to go down, with impressive agility and grace.
Then it was my turn.
I slid down the rope. My feet touched the forest floor. The helicopter went back up and disappeared above the trees.
Silence fell. A deep silence, broken only by the chirping of birds and the sound of the wind in the leaves.
We were alone.
Yoo-Na took out a portable terminal that displayed a map of the area, with a flashing red dot. "The breach is this way. To the northeast."
She started walking, without waiting to see if I was following. I just stayed a few steps behind her.
We walked in silence for fifteen minutes. The forest was dense, the trees huge. The sunlight barely filtered through the canopy.
Suddenly, I stopped.
Right next to the path, growing on an old fallen tree, was a mushroom. But it wasn't a normal mushroom. It was an electric blue, and it pulsed with a faint light, like a slowly beating heart.
I had never seen anything like it.
Yoo-Na noticed I had stopped. She turned around, impatient. "What are you doing? We don't have time to fool around."
Then she saw the mushroom. a strange glint appeared in her eyes.
"It's an 'Aura Mushroom'," she said, her voice falsely cheerful. "They're rare. They grow in areas where the Aura is pure. If you eat it, it can permanently increase your energy reserve. Go on. Eat it. It's a great chance for an F-rank like you."
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Well, well. You're talking to me now? I thought we weren't on speaking terms."
Yoo-Na's face flushed with anger. "Don't be stupid. I'm no happier to be here than you are. But we have to finish this mission as quickly as possible. If you're a little stronger, it will make things easier for us. So stop acting like a child and eat it."
I didn't listen to her. I took out my terminal and scanned the mushroom with the academy's flora and fauna analysis app.
After a few seconds, the result appeared.
[Name: Spectral False-Blue]
[Description: Highly toxic mushroom. Mimics the appearance of the 'Aura Mushroom'.]
[Effect: Ingestion causes nerve paralysis and a painful death in less than ten minutes.]
I looked up from my terminal and stared at Yoo-Na with a cold smile.
"You really want me to eat a poisonous mushroom." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
"You're really rotten to the core, aren't you?"
Yoo-Na's face fell, but she quickly regained her composure, putting on an air of icy indifference. "I didn't see it was a False-Blue. My mistake."
"Sure. A mistake," I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice.
We started walking again. The silence between us was even heavier than before. My distrust of her was now total. Every gesture, every word was a potential trap.
After another half hour of walking, we arrived in a clearing. And what we saw stopped us in our tracks.
There was a small village. Primitive huts, made of wood and mud, with thatched roofs. A fire crackled in the center.
And there were people. A tribe. They wore clothes made of animal skins and their faces were painted with strange patterns. They didn't look like normal Awoken.
As soon as they saw us, they grabbed bows and spears. In seconds, about twenty arrows were pointed in our direction.
An older man, probably the chief, stepped forward. He wore a headdress of feathers and held a spear decorated with shining stones.
He spoke. His language was guttural, full of clicks and sounds I had never heard. "[K'tharr vish'nak!]"
I didn't understand a thing. I looked at Yoo-Na, expecting her to be as lost as I was.
But she replied, in the same strange language. "[Ves'na Apex. Nok k'tharr.]"
I stared at her, stunned. How could she understand and speak this language?
She must have seen my confusion. She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"You really are an idiot," she whispered in Korean. "Your chip. The MRC. It doesn't just measure your Aura. It has a built-in universal translator. It analyzes the language structure and gives you the translation directly in your mind. And it lets you reply."
A notification flashed on my interface.
[Unknown language detected. Translation module activated.]
The chief's voice then echoed in my head, crystal clear.
"[Who are you, strangers? What do you want in our sacred lands?]"
Yoo-Na spoke, her voice becoming soft and full of fake respect.
"[Great chief, we are guardians from the Apex academy. We have come to investigate an energy disturbance that threatens your forest.]"
The chief nodded, seeming to relax a little. But then, Yoo-Na pointed an accusing finger at me.
I didn't understand her words, but I could see the game she was playing. She spoke, and with every sentence, the chief's face grew darker. The warriors around him became more and more tense, their hands gripping their bows.
She was throwing me to the wolves. Again.
Thanks to the chip, I finally understood the end of her speech, translated directly into my mind.
"[...but my companion has been corrupted by this evil energy. He came here to destroy your sacred lands, your last remnants. He is the real danger.]"
The chief looked at me, his eyes filled with pure hatred. He raised his spear and let out a savage war cry.
"[KILL THE EVIL ONE!]"
Instantly, all the arrows were released. Hundreds of them. A deadly rain flying straight at me.
Yoo-Na, a few feet away, stepped back, a triumphant smile on her face.
I didn't have time to think. I summoned my dagger and started to move.
I didn't try to block them all. I slashed, parried, dodged. My dagger was a black whirlwind, erasing the arrows that came too close. Several still grazed me, but none hit me seriously.
Yoo-Na was laughing. She was laughing at the sight of me struggling.
I realized I couldn't win this fight. It was one against a hundred.
I shot one last hateful glare at Yoo-Na and did the only logical thing. I fled.
I ran towards the forest, arrows whistling past my ears.
As I ran away, I heard Yoo-Na's voice, clear in my mind thanks to the chip. She was no longer talking to the tribe. She was talking to me, mocking me.
"[Run, you rat! You know, a mission's rank depends on individual performance. The more you excel, the higher your rank gets. Seeing how you're doing, you're not likely to shine today!]"