Level 0 Master

Chapter 7

Seven days later.

In the central city.

It was hard to understand what had happened to Sungjin's plan.

The city was peaceful and quiet. Citizens were working hard just like any other day, and the guard around the city and the robots monitoring inside the city were in perfect order.

In the middle of the perfect harmony was Sungin with the chip in his head. He was holding cleaning tools, walking on the right side, following the rule.

"Ugh." Sungjin frowned from the pain that came from his distracted thought, but he soon wised up and concentrated on what he had to do. His job he had gotten from the dear leader was to clean this area with broom and mop.

He started to think about what would be the most effective way to clean up the area, and he swept the floor without any dust.

And there was the reward. The pleasure substance soma came out from the chip and spread through his central nerve.

"Ahh…" He smiled in ecstasy and happiness.

Other model citizens around him had similar facial expressions. They didn't have to think about anything else. All they had to do was follow the order and happy days and food and safety waited for them.

That's right. His reckless idea that he could do it by himself was gone.

He was just like a lion in a circus with the chip in his head. He was acting like a model citizen. What he used to be didn't matter. He followed the pain and pleasure stimulus and acted as he was ordered to.

And his chip was special. It was two-times bigger than other chips, and it wasn't black but gold. Even stronger chain of pain and pleasure was chaining him up.

Sungjin moved around the area to clean up, and each time he finished his task, the reward became bigger.

"I don't think I can anymore…" Zakiya was using all her remaining power and sweating.

They tried their best to give Sungjin the ten days that he needed and had pulled all their power into Sungjin, but they were reaching their limit. They didn't have any time left while Sungjin was captured by the chip again.

"No… not yet."

The girls stood up to gather their force to give Sungjin the time.

"Ugh…"

But there was not much time left.

The last chance was fading away while Sungjin floated between pain and pleasure.

[Sungjin has three hours left.]

Not knowing the desperate prayer of the girls, Sungjin kept cleaning areas. He moved around to clean up and arrived at area C-14.

He kneeled to pick up trash. In front of the statue of the dear leader Varka, Sungjin kneeled without any hesitation. His reckless idea that he could do it by himself was gone. He was just like a lion in a circus with the chip in his head, acting like a model citizen. What he used to be didn't matter. He was followed the pain and pleasure and acted as he was ordered to—was what everyone thought.

Suddenly, robots ran to Sungjin, who was working hard to clean up the area. "Hmph. This is it?" Sungjin's smile was not a smile that a model citizen could show. He raised his hand.

Crack.

From the chip on the back of his neck, an extreme pain went through his nervous system, but he didn't even change his face, and took out the chip from his neck. Okay. Now I need to count on my body.

Sungjin started to run. Robots tried to stop him, but he didn't stop.

Zing.

He avoided the stun gun and jumped up on the bridge handrail to step on the robot heads. I don't have time to deal with all of them.

His sharp eyesight had already analyzed the area around him, and his brilliant brain had calculated the robots' movements. He knew which way he had to go to and where he had to arrive and how to avoid the enemy's movements.

He ran and ran to arrive at the central control system. It was not very far from where he had started.

[Access denied.]

[Force eviction.]

Pff, you are loud, but this is the most important place for you. so you can't use heavy firearms.

They were trying to stop him with stun guns, but that was not enough to stop him.

While…

But I can use whatever I want to.

Sungjin took out little marbles from his jacket.

He made these marbles with the remaining power when the dragon ball was gone. It was a tiny amount of energy, but it was enough to do what he wanted to do.

He threw it to the center of the tower, the gigantic computer that controlled everything. It was a mixture of a machine and a magic square that looked completely different from the computer Sungjin used to have on earth, but that didn't change anything.

Kaboom!

It was destroyed by a massive explosion, and everything in the city was paralyzed.

"You made it." Sooryun was relieved looking at the scene from far away. It was a reckless plan that no one but Sungjin was able to try, but he made it. She was impressed again thinking of the plan that Sungjin had told her the other night.

With our limited force, there's no way we can go through the enemy army by force alone. You are right.

Yes, and we don't even have any objects or buildings we could use.

Sungjin could make a plan to defeat the enemy that had more force than him, but to get past the whole army to destroy the central control system was impossible.

Right. So there's only one way to do this. I will sneak in by myself.

What? That is impossible.

Why?

There are layers and layers of encircling net by the enemy. There's no way to get in discretely.

I'm not going to get in discreetly but openly, so it's okay.

Huh?

I will pretend that I'm on their side with a chip in my head to get in.

Is… is that?

Of course it wouldn't be easy because even with the chip they wouldn't just let me get into the center.

Correct.

So I will start from the outskirts. I will try to find out the accessible areas with the chip and then find out what kind of work could lead me to the center to change the chip with the person who is doing that work.

Would it be… possible?

I've already checked quite a bit. I wasn't wasting my time.

When he had removed the chip, he had checked if it would reactivate when he put it back in, and then he had checked if his chip would work on other people. He hadn't destroyed the chip that was the symbol of his humiliation because he wanted to collect maximum information in order to fight back. Even in his defeat, he thoroughly observed his enemy to find its weakness. That was Sungjin.

Even though… if you put the chip back in…

I know. In general, I would be controlled by the chip, and if I try to resist, I will fall down in pain, but now I know how to trick it. I've been studying it.

Study… you mean… you tried with your body…

Yeah. So I found out that even if I remember the real cause, the chip can't sense it if I don't try to remind it. I will change my identity as someone who can get in to the center and get in.

He would pretend that he obeyed the chip's pain and pleasure to counterstrike it at the critical moment.

Easier said than done.

Sungjin was the first one who had ripped his chip out of himself. Even for Sungjin, it wouldn't be an easy task to let others control his thoughts, but he was ready to take all those hardships by himself.

But… still, the center wouldn't let any chips get in.

That is a possibility, so from that point…

Sungjin smiled.

I will use my physical power and improvise.

His smile was too confident for one person who was about to fight against an army of three hundred thousand soldiers.

"That's what you promised before you left." Sooryun looked up. "Now I will follow you. Everyone, go through now!"

"Yes!"

When the chip was paralyzed, the army of three hundred thousand soldiers that were controlled by the chip became panicked. All they had known was to obey the order, but now the central system was destroyed, and they didn't know what to do—no, there was a reaction to being free from the control, and they started to destroy each other with explosive emotions.

It was literally hell.

One person paralyzed a whole army.

To go through the paralyzed army wasn't even something that could be called a frontal breakthrough. They were just running through the road that Sungjin created.

Sooryun was leading the resistance. I should get to him faster. She had to reach Sungjin, who opened the path by himself. That was her duty.

She was wearing classic attire while holding a lute in her hand. Her steps were graceful. She looked like she was simply walking, but it was her skill called "Cloud Walking." It was a mystical skill that didn't create shock waves even while breaking the speed of sound.

She was getting closer and closer every step faster than anyone else.

Sooryun was the first one to arrive to where Sungjin was. "Sungjin."

"There you go."

"Sorry to make you wait so long."

"So you arrived at the perfect timing. Where are the rest?"

"They couldn't move as fast I could."

"Right." Sungjin looked at the resistance army running as fast as they could. He originally planned to get into the final closed space that had the World Stone in it with five of the resistance, including himself and Sooryun, but… it seemed the system had a self-recovery function. He saw the paralyzed tower begin to recover and the paralyzed robots start to move a little. Maybe there was a separate operating system after an emergency, or a backup system by region. The only clear thing was that it was not over yet.

Huh, are we running out of time? Then he didn't have time to waste. Sungjin made his decision. "Sooryun."

"Yes."

"We are going in."

"Just the two of us?"

"Trust me."

Sungjin held her hand and jumped into the final defense line.

Sooryun felt her body freeze for a second, but she looked at Sungjin and jumped in with her eyes closed.

[Challenger entered.]

Sungjin heard the familiar voice of Valkyrie.

[The fight starts in a minute. Every participant needs to enter in one minute. If not, the fight will start with the current participants.]

"Do you really think… just the two of us can defeat five guardian robots?"

Sooryun was trembling. It was a fight for five people, not two. That was what they had planned and how they had trained for the battle.

Of course, it was Sungjin and Sooryun who were the main fighting force, but the other three were supposed to lure, recon, and support them with items. Although they were not the main fighting force, it was important to have support that could lure and recon. It was common sense even for the AoS gamers from Earth. When there was a five-on-five fight, it was better to have some low-level members than not have them at all.

When it all fell apart, Sungjin's plan fell apart as well. She was scared.

"Hmm. I understand your concerns." Sungjin pulled her and made her lean on his chest.

"Oh…" Sooryun was able to hear his strong heartbeat, and Sungjin's strong chest strongly supported her.

"Relax. Fear can be the biggest reason for your defeat."

"You are right."

"Don't worry. Trust me." Sungjin smiled and cheered her up.

"But… it is just two of us… Your original plan had three others to help us…"

"Yeah, you are right. We can't use that plan anymore, but I'm prepared for this."

It was an invasion operation to the center of the enemy force—he didn't expect everything to go as planned.

"Do you have anything else?"

"I will show you soon. I don't have time to explain, so just trust me."

What did you prepare? Sooryun's heart started to pound again with expectation and curiosity. I wanted to get to know him better… Make it or not, they would be parted with the sharp memory of their first kiss. This is a strange feeling.

Destruction of the World Stone and everyone's freedom—this was the moment they had been waiting for.

It was natural to have fear over the last challenge that she had to face, but she had to be happy about this chance, but she felt sad because she had to say goodbye to Sungjin.

If only I could be with him… But they couldn't be together. They belonged to different worlds.

So this was the last moment that she would have with him: fighting for their world.

But she couldn't stop. She wanted to go as far as she could to not have any regrets when she later looked back at this moment.

I will follow you.