When he stepped outside, the surroundings were chaotic.
The area was filled with monster corpses piled everywhere and soldiers.
“What happened?”
Shin Hyeok spoke as he looked at the mess around him.
“After you went in, all the Gates in the surrounding area broke at once.”
“What?”
Simultaneous Breaks were not something that happened easily under normal circumstances.
It was a difficult thing to happen because they carefully monitored the signs of a Break—portal expansion and the duration the Gates had been left unattended.
“Truly strange. Not just one, but several at the same time.”
Yi Gang-yeol stared at the Association and civilian Guilds that had dispatched to the scene in addition to the soldiers.
“And on top of that, Guilds from the capital region that don’t usually come to the provinces have shown up bold as brass.”
The Association President, who was among them, sheathed his sword with a benevolent smile and approached Yi Gang-yeol.
“You’ve worked hard. Fortunately, the damage is minimal.”
The Association President greeted Yi Gang-yeol warmly.
Yi Gang-yeol responded with an amiable smile.
“I should be the one saying you’ve worked hard. I wish to express my gratitude for the effort of coming to support us, though it wasn’t strictly necessary.”
“Hahaha. Isn’t this why the Association exists? Since the Awakened Army can’t be everywhere, we must step in.”
The two concluded their conversation, exchanging glances filled with unknowable meaning.
The Association President looked at Shin Hyeok standing behind Yi Gang-yeol.
“Is that young man ‘the hero’ from the Gunsan Gate incident?”
Yi Gang-yeol looked at him with a displeased gaze.
“That information is classified.”
“Ah~~ I’m sorry. I heard it as a rumor and wondered if it might be true.”
“You certainly hear all sorts of things through rumors.”
He captured Shin Hyeok in his eyes with a subtle gaze.
“I feel like I’ll be seeing you often.”
“There’s no need for that. Please be on your way. It seems civilian support is no longer needed.”
Under the strong pressure, the Association President took a step back.
“Yes, yes, then we’ll be on our way.”
When the Association President signaled the deployed Guilds around them, everyone prepared to withdraw at once.
“Phew. Damn human.”
Shin Hyeok felt a chilling sensation as he watched the man exchange such blatant pleasantries.
“Battalion Commander, is there something off about that man?”
“There certainly is. I’ll tell you later. For now, return to the training center immediately.”
Yi Gang-yeol waved his hand as he sent Shin Hyeok off.
“See you at the graduation ceremony.”
“What? You’re coming?”
“I have to go.”
“Goodness. What is a busy man like you thinking.”
He watched Shin Hyeok until the end as he boarded the vehicle and left.
“He’ll be leaving my nest soon.”
* * *
Upon returning to the training center, the senior instructor and battalion commander came rushing out.
“Are you unharmed?!”
“Hey, hey?!”
They asked hurriedly as they saw the three unharmed.
Arin answered spiritedly.
“Salute! Yes, we’re unharmed!”
“Haah.”
First Lieutenant Kim Chan-yeol, who had been startled, let out a sigh of relief.
“You’ve worked hard. Go back and rest now.”
Arin looked at him in relief and discreetly asked about the evaluation.
“We closed the Gate, so do we get a perfect score?”
“Ah, I did receive the report.”
Arin and Yi Chan stared intently at First Lieutenant Kim Chan-yeol’s mouth.
“According to the report, the three including Baek Arin have a perfect score.”
At the words “perfect score,” Yi Chan and Arin’s expressions brightened drastically.
The senior instructor let out a hollow laugh at their appearance.
“Is it that good?”
“Yes, sir!”
“It’s great!”
The two saluted with excited expressions and returned to the barracks.
“Salute! We’ll be going now!”
“Yeah, yeah. Go rest.”
The two expressed their excitement by stomping their feet.
“We’re first place!”
“It’s a perfect score!”
They high-fived each other.
“Pfft.”
The senior instructor and battalion commander burst into smiles at the sight.
After watching them, they discreetly asked Shin Hyeok, who remained in the back.
“Trainee, is there a unit you have in mind?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, it must be ambiguous. Since your re-enlistment service period was six months.”
Shin Hyeok held his tongue at the battalion commander’s question.
“Please choose carefully.”
Before he left after giving advice, Shin Hyeok relayed the news about Yi Gang-yeol’s visit that he had heard earlier.
“Right. Brigadier General Yi Gang-yeol said he’ll visit on graduation day.”
“What?!”
“What?!”
At the visit of a star more powerful and fearsome than any other, the two’s complexions turned pale.
“Why, why?”
The surprised battalion commander asked urgently.
“He just said he’s coming to see me graduate…….”
“Gulp. R-return for now.”
Shin Hyeok hurriedly fled as he watched him turning pale in real time.
“I-I’m going. Salute!”
The battalion commander looked at the senior instructor and spoke hurriedly.
“Start with cleaning.”
“And we need to re-check the ceremony. If we make even one mistake.”
* * *
The morning of the next day after returning.
The instructor who received the trainees’ return so early made a sullen expression.
“Didn’t you come back too early?”
“Heheh.”
At the smiles of Yi Chan and Arin giggling away, the instructor stretched alone.
“Even if it’s just three of you, you have to do what needs to be done.”
At his words, the expressions of the three including Shin Hyeok turned tearful.
“Now, run from the front row, those who are ready.”
He deliberately cut off his words. Secretly checking the trainees’ expressions, he slyly asked.
“Pretend you ran and go eat.”
“Yes, sir!”
At the duty officer’s gruff show of consideration, the three immediately dashed to the mess hall.
“Today’s schedule is personal maintenance! Just rest!”
At the instructor’s shout, the three turned around, saluted, and answered energetically.
“Yes, sir! Salute!”
“Alright. Enjoy your meal.”
Shin Hyeok looked at the two melting with happiness as they headed to the mess hall.
“Are you still happy? That smile isn’t leaving your face.”
Arin held her tray with a truly relaxed and happy smile.
“We’re first place, after all. If they announce the top graduate at the graduation ceremony, it’ll probably be plastered all over the news~”
“Well, I suppose that’s true.”
It was indeed a position that received that much attention. Enough to put most elites among the Awakened to shame.
“But where are you two planning to enlist?”
Arin answered without a moment of worry.
“I’m going to Hongik.”
“Huuh, hmm.”
Yi Chan, who hadn’t been worrying much, pondered as he scooped rice and took side dishes.
“I don’t know. Hyung, where are you going?”
Shin Hyeok made an ambiguous expression at the question of where he would apply.
“I wonder. But I feel like it’s actually already decided for me.”
No matter where he applied, he felt like the result would somehow end up as Hongik.
“Ah, right. Hyung, you have connections at Hongik, don’t you?”
“Hey, hey, connections at Hongik?”
“That’s what it is. If you’re going to Hongik, I’m going too.”
Shin Hyeok was speechless at the novel declaration of “where you go, I go.”
“Are you going there to play or something?”
“Come on~ it’s good to go together. Let’s go as three again and cheer each other on!”
Arin, drunk on the high of being first place, talked about a hopeful future as she smiled and ate.
Shin Hyeok shook his head at her words.
“Ugh, annoying. The three of us again?”
“Haha, it’s the three of us again, mister!”
She said with a laugh.
Shin Hyeok let her words go in one ear and out the other.
“Don’t forget to send me that 300 million.”
“Ah, I had forgotten.”
Shin Hyeok bluntly demanded his success fee.
“Hyung. Half of it is mine.”
She said with a snicker.
“I’ll send it to you right away today.”
“Yesss.”
Shin Hyeok smiled, having gained 150 million won for free.
“Me too, me too!”
Yi Chan urgently appealed to her.
She answered reluctantly with a sullen expression.
“Fine. A promise is a promise.”
“Yesss!”
Shin Hyeok left the rejoicing Yi Chan behind and looked outside.
It was very empty since no one had returned yet.
“When is everyone coming back? I’m bored.”
Arin shook her head at the mention of boredom.
“You’re going to tease the kids again, aren’t you?”
“Wasn’t it more fun because of me?”
“Wow, mister, you really are a stubborn old man.”
“Goodness me.”
Shin Hyeok stretched widely and counted the remaining days.
“Grrr, then how much longer do I have to endure!”
She spread out four fingers.
“Four days including today. They say people usually return on the last day. Everyone said they planned to do so. And the graduation ceremony is held on Saturday.”
Shin Hyeok was just bored by the very, very relaxed schedule.
“Plenty of time.”
“I know.”
With quite a bit of time remaining, Shin Hyeok simply spaced out.
‘I don’t know how I went through so many things in just one month of training.’
It was a short time, but he had experienced too many things. And what remained was only boiling rage.
“Mister, what will you do now?”
Shin Hyeok looked at Arin, who asked a strange question.
“What will I do? I’ll quietly go to Hongik and kill time.”
“Is that really the end of it?”
Arin stared at Shin Hyeok with eyes filled with something.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure yet. I’ll get up first.”
Shin Hyeok got up. He placed his tray at the collection area and came out.
He walked through the quiet base, moving to find someone.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The instructor who spoke in that familiar, antiquated formality opened the door.
Lucien smiled and gestured to Shin Hyeok upon seeing him.
“I’ve heard the news. I hear you spectacularly smashed a Gate.”
“Haha, well, I handled it reasonably well. Smashed a Gate and moderately settled a messy past.”
“Hm?”
At the words that he had settled a messy past, Lucien made a strange expression.
“A messy past? There is no one without a story, but hearing you say that makes me all the more curious.”
He turned on the electric kettle and took out two teacups.
‘He’s quite used to it now.’
The sight of him now skillfully using modern conveniences brought a slight smile to Shin Hyeok’s face.
“I encountered a demon’s underling who drove me into a pit of ruin.”
His hand, which had been taking out a teabag, stopped briefly.
“My, that must have been difficult.”
He placed the teabag back in the cup, filled it with hot water, and offered it to Shin Hyeok.
“Thank you.”
Lucien recalled his own past with eyes steeped in regret.
“Encountering those who made you lose someone precious is truly a difficult thing.”
As someone who had also lost his family and a precious one to demons, he greatly empathized with Shin Hyeok’s heart.
Shin Hyeok asked him, who appeared to have gone through the same experience, about what was currently troubling him.
“So did you take revenge?”
“I did. I chased those contemptible black mages to the end and killed them one by one. It took several decades.”
Shin Hyeok looked at him, his eyes filled with bitter rage.
“Revenge—after you do it, does it bring relief? Can you unburden the knot in your heart?”
Lucien snickered and leaned back in his chair.
He silently raised his teacup and took a sip.
After a moment, he set the cup down.
“As if. What remains instead is deeper regret and the guilt of being the sole survivor. Only endless despair remains that I might as well have died too.”
He looked at Shin Hyeok, who would be pondering the same thing.
“How about you?”
Shin Hyeok made a bitter expression.
Shrouded in deep guilt, he confessed.
“Every moment I want to kill myself. Trash who survived alone, a worthless cripple who couldn’t do anything.”
He blamed himself viciously and tried so hard to remember the family he couldn’t save.
“But those contemptible things keep giving me hope. Saying they have my family. Saying they’re still alive.”
Shin Hyeok’s hands trembled.
Lucien stared intently at his trembling hands.
“Exactly. That is their method. Hostages, enticement, persuasion, threats. A thread-like hope.”
Lucien gently pressed Shin Hyeok’s endlessly trembling hand with his finger.
“I know what you are worrying about now.”
A faint flow of mana emanated from his finger, softly pressed upon the back of Shin Hyeok’s hand.
“Whether to chase them. Or dismiss them as contemptible lies and leave them be—you must be pondering this.”
Shin Hyeok nodded.
Lucien removed his finger and told him.
“Chase them. Even if your body becomes blood and mush and is torn to shreds, find their tail end and tear them apart.”
Lucien spoke of desperate revenge.
“That is the way of the heart. In the end, you will regret and regret again. So throw your body into chasing their contemptible hope. Until you see the end.”
Shin Hyeok etched the advice he heard from Lucien into his heart.
“Is there a way to find them?”
“That is likely the biggest problem. The Gates they left open may be found quickly, but.”
Lucien hesitated and held his tongue.
“A closed world. Their main base that the demons have hidden thoroughly cannot be rashly found or entered. Unless one is a Transcendent being, that is.”
“A transcendent being… you mean?”
“Indeed. Transcendence—after all, only a transcendent can cross from one world to another with nothing but their own body.”
At his matter-of-fact confirmation, a slight frustration settled over Sinhyeok.
“Haa. Then even if I want to find them, it’s not as if I can do so before they appear?”
“That is how you should see it.”
A terrible sigh escaped him on its own.
“Haa.”
Lucien offered advice to Sinhyeok, who seemed a little dejected.
“But we are different.”
“Pardon?”
“That is the advantage of alchemists. When others seek to transcend themselves, we gather materials and create transcendent objects. In other words, the answer you desire also lies in alchemy.”
Sinhyeok organized what he had heard.
“The method to cross worlds and find those pathetic demons also lies in alchemy?”
“Well, I suppose you could see it that way. We call the realm that deals with transcendent-grade alchemy the Alchemist.”
He gave a faint laugh, then let out a deep sigh.
“It is a dreamlike tale. For the past several hundred—no, several thousand years, no one has seen them. Alchemists, those legendary beings said to have tuned mana with their fingertips and shaped worlds, shaped the universe itself.”
Lucien spoke as he recalled those dreamlike oral traditions.
“There is even such a story. That dragons, those beings called great, are also creations of an Alchemist.”
“Eh? To that extent?”
“Hahaha! If transcendent-grade alchemy is possible, would that not be possible as well? It means one can even artificially create life.”
At the somewhat absurd claim, a hollow laugh escaped Sinhyeok.
“It truly sounds like a dream.”
“Indeed. Those beings you call demons are there. Standing on that boundary people call dreamlike, mocking and laughing at humans.”
Lucien’s blunt advice gave Sinhyeok much to think about.
“You’re saying I have to reach that level in order to smash them to pieces, aren’t you?”
Lucien nodded. Sinhyeok sorted out his thoughts and rose to his feet.
Seeing him stand, Lucien asked in passing.
“Have you sorted out the thoughts that were frustrating you?”
“A little. I can see, to some extent, the place I need to reach.”
“That is fortunate.”
He spoke as he watched him leave the instructor’s office.
“Do you intend to challenge it as well? That dreamlike realm.”
“Yes. And by doing so, I intend to tear every last one of those pathetic demon bastards apart.”
Before leaving, Sinhyeok asked him for a small piece of advice.
“Do you have any tips, as a senior who walked this path before me?”
“Haha, tips, you say. I can only tell you to make many things, and make them differently. I have yet to reach it myself.”
Sinhyeok took those words to heart. Lucien gave a brief blessing to him as he left the instructor’s office.
“I shall pray for blessings upon you as you set out on that lonely road.”
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I’ve sorted out my thoughts.”
After leaving the instructor’s office, Sinhyeok muttered.
“I’ll find them. And to do that, I’ll climb higher.”
He would struggle to find the family they had put forward as bait. And in order to bring them out, he would become strong enough to crush even them beneath him.
‘With my overwhelming talent.’
With the constitution he had once considered the worst, he would climb higher.
“What I have to do has become clear.”
His mind became clear.
The emotions he had built up over the complex, turbid span of the past eight years were cleansed.
“This feels good. I think I could chew them all up.”
He felt as if he could kill, trample, and chew up anyone.
* * *
“Hyung! Let’s go to the PX! The instructor said we can!”
Ichan, who had come out after eating, was running off with an excited expression.
“Hey! Let’s go together!”
Sinhyeok caught Ichan, who was running like a puppy, and went with him.
“Oh, right, hyung. They say the other squads are coming back by today too.”
He was saying this while sitting down and eating ice cream. Sinhyeok tilted his head.
“Why?”
“They said a star is coming to the completion ceremony, so everyone has to come back so they can prepare like hell. Apparently, the scores are pretty much all out anyway.”
“……”
Sinhyeok quietly licked at his ice cream.
“I screwed everyone over.”
Unintentionally, he had ended up trolling everyone.
“Hyung, who do you think will come?”
“I don’t know. Someone will.”
“You never know. Maybe it’ll be an incredible star like Battalion Commander Hongik.”
At those words spoken casually, Sinhyeok felt needlessly stabbed.
“N-no way… surely not.”