“Damn it!”
The pile of junk collapsed and toppled over.
He hurriedly fled from the area.
“Wow, this is seriously…”
Words failed him.
This hopelessness.
A height and breadth with no end in sight.
“This is a test? Wow.”
Sinhyeok had chosen it himself, but seeing the sheer size made him want to take that choice back, at least a little.
He was somewhat dazed by the absurd scale.
“There’s way too much, isn’t there? Is this even possible?”
‘Ah, because it’s impossible, that man must have been so happy. Tsk.’
For starters, the space visible to the eye was extremely wide.
If he had to describe it, it was the size of an elementary school field.
Of course, the ceiling was about five stories high.
In other words, it was insanely spacious.
On top of that, the kinds of items piled up were incredibly varied.
“Haa.”
Sinhyeok first spread out his duffel bag, sat on it, and looked around for a moment.
“I have to do it. If I say I can’t at this point…”
‘Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol really will bury me here. For life, too, with tedious administration.’
He had to prevent that no matter what.
“Okay! Let’s do this! Let’s go!”
He steeled himself.
First, he picked up what was right in front of him.
A single rusted bayonet.
It was the familiar army combat knife, but the sheen of the blade was a little different.
‘What were they trying to make?’
Holding the rusted dagger, he peered around.
“Hah, seriously, I’m speechless. How am I supposed to sort this?”
To organize it, he needed to secure space, but there was no space.
“Should I just shove it all aside?”
Annoyed, he was about to take his anger out on the junk for no reason when he froze.
A heap of trash piled in front of one entrance had been pushed over and collapsed.
Clang, clank.
“Urgh, damn it! That blockhead should clean this up! Why won’t he clean it!”
Creeeak.
The one who opened the door with difficulty and came out was a dwarf.
‘An otherworlder from the workshop. I have to catch him!’
The small nonhuman, reeking of sweat and iron, looked at Sinhyeok and asked,
“What are you? You seem familiar somehow. But a newbie? No way that blockhead of a human actually found manpower.”
For now, Sinhyeok snapped off a salute.
“Loyalty?”
When he gave a slight salute in a strange tone, the dwarf chuckled and walked past him.
“Do I look like a soldier to you? Move. I need to throw out some trash.”
Beside Sinhyeok, he casually tossed several unfinished items and pieces of equipment that looked perfectly fine.
“Uh, uh! Are you just throwing those away?”
The dwarf, who had been about to go back in, turned around with an indifferent expression and answered.
“Then what, you expect me to keep the things I failed to make? What a strange thing to say.”
“Ah.”
When the dwarf tried to go back in, Sinhyeok hurriedly stopped him.
“First, please don’t just go in. Let me ask you just one thing.”
“Hm? Stop grabbing me. I’m busy.”
“How do I sort those? The logistics section chief ordered me to organize them.”
At the words that he had been ordered to sort them, the dwarf scratched his belly with an annoyed expression.
“Good grief, why bother organizing it again? They’re all failures. What do you think you’ll accomplish? Just do it half-heartedly and leave.”
The dwarf glanced around.
He carefully checked the corners.
“There should be a pouch somewhere that someone crammed a subspace into. That gloomy bastard made it a long time ago. Give it your best shot. And don’t grab me.”
He tossed out several things that looked like burlap sacks, then trudged back toward the door.
“Wow.”
Sinhyeok asked the dwarf, who was about to just go straight back in, one more time.
“Do I just put them in!?”
“No! By mineral type! We’ll have to melt them down again, won’t we!”
Right before the door closed, Sinhyeok ran over and stuck his foot in.
Through the narrow gap, he could see the dwarf’s flustered expression.
“Move your foot!”
“One last thing. How do I look at the minerals and sort them?”
“Argh! Seriously, just figure it out yourself! Do I have to teach you that too?”
Sinhyeok instinctively realized that the solution to this ridiculous test depended on him, and clung to him desperately.
“I told you to let go! What kind of leech are you!”
“Please tell me just a little more! Pleeease!”
If he didn’t hear something, he really would be stuck here forever.
And in endless, day-in and day-out administration at that.
“Ugh! Something just like that blockhead of a human showed up!”
The dwarf gave up and opened the door wide.
With a tired, fed-up expression, he picked up a piece of ore nearby.
“I’m only explaining this once, so listen carefully.”
He picked up a bluish stone and showed it to him.
“All substances react to mana to different degrees, and these minerals in particular show different waves when they come into contact with mana.”
When he poured mana over it, it passed through very smoothly and spread rapidly into the surroundings.
‘Waves?’
“Now, there.”
The dwarf flung the stone away and deftly shut the door.
Thud.
After closing the door, the dwarf let out a yawn and flopped down on the field bed in the corner.
He picked up a beer can from the floor and opened it.
“Ah, I’m stiff all over. I should rest for a few days.”
He sat up on the bed and looked toward the other side of the door.
Without saying anything, he thought of the human beyond it and took a sip of beer.
‘It’s been a while since someone like that blockhead came along.’
“It’ll be hard, though. It’s not something you can do by just charging in like that.”
The dwarf yawned widely with a bored expression.
Flopping back down onto the field bed in the corner, he muttered,
“If he’s got what it takes, I’ll see him again. Urgh, my whole body aches.”
* * *
“So it’s waves?”
After hearing the useful tip the dwarf had given him, Sinhyeok looked at the bluish stone in his hand and thought.
‘The waves minerals show when they react to mana are different?’
It was truly troublesome advice. But he had seen a ray of hope.
‘So this was the test.’
This was the truth behind the infamous cutoff at the logistics section entrance that had only existed as rumors until now.
“It won’t be easy, but let’s try.”
He picked them up one by one and sorted them by their visually apparent uses.
‘Longswords, daggers, shields.’
“There sure are a lot.”
Because there were so many different kinds of Awakened, the equipment they used was also diverse.
“I’ve sorted them by visible use. Next is minerals?”
He was about to inject mana into the mineral in his hand when he suddenly realized something.
‘Ah.’
The mana that flowed out of his hand immediately hardened due to the effects of his chronic constitution.
“Damn it.”
He always thought about it and marveled at it, but today he marveled all over again.
“I’m always the one tripping myself up.”
Still, he tried to focus.
A very small amount of mana flowed out.
As soon as it touched the mineral, it slipped aside weakly.
“Wow, what the hell?!”
It had been a while since he got this angry.
Even though he focused so hard it felt like he was about to crap himself, it was useless.
“Wow. Let’s see whether you win or I win.”
In the end, he lost track of time as he focused, and the time ran out.
“Ah.”
He lay on the dust-filled floor and stared blankly.
Having used too much mana, he was utterly exhausted.
“Damn it. I’m screwed.”
He had used up all the time.
And he had accomplished nothing.
‘Waves, my ass. I have to be able to do something with this mana first.’
Clank.
He heard the doorknob turning.
The logistics section chief appeared with a bored expression.
“Any progress?”
Sinhyeok awkwardly got up.
The logistics section chief calmly swept his gaze over the room.
“I didn’t expect much, but still. It isn’t finished.”
In a rush, Sinhyeok clung to the logistics section chief.
“I figured out the method. If you could just give me a little more time! I even heard about using waves! You know my constitution, don’t you? This isn’t something I can just pull off in two days.”
When the logistics section chief heard about “waves,” his eyes changed.
“That dwarf told you about ‘waves’?”
“Yes, sir.”
He looked at Sinhyeok with a strange gaze.
“Well, you’ve at least gotten started. But an extension is impossible. The battalion commander told me absolutely not to go easy on you.”
At those words, Sinhyeok’s expression crumpled.
“That damned old man.”
The chief chuckled and said,
“Let’s call it a day. Your room is Building 1, Room 506. You can find it, right?”
Sinhyeok nodded at the familiar room number.
“Then get back safely. Come here tomorrow morning.”
As the logistics section chief opened the door and guided Sinhyeok outside, he added,
“And since there are probably orders from the battalion commander, too, you won’t have night duty or emergency dispatch.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sinhyeok left the logistics section workshop.
The logistics section chief also came out of the workshop and stretched.
“Auuugh, I’m stiff.”
Captain Ryu Jihyeon, the logistics section chief, yawned with a tired face and waved at Sinhyeok.
“Huaaam, Sinhyeok, then I’ll see you tomorrow. You worked hard today.”
Sinhyeok saluted and greeted him.
“Loyalty. Thank you for your hard work, sir.”
“Yeah. You sleep well too.”
Sinhyeok picked up his duffel bag and headed to Building 1, Room 506.
“It should be a two-person room. I wonder who I’ll be sharing it with.”
He went on with a faint curiosity.
As he headed toward the officers’ quarters, he spotted a familiar face.
“Hey, shorty.”
Lee Chan, who had been walking alone, whipped around.
“Ah, seriously! I told you not to call me shorty.”
When Lee Chan saw Sinhyeok, he was happy, yet annoyed.
“Keke. What room are you in?”
“Me? Building 1, Room 506.”
At the familiar room number, Sinhyeok’s expression brightened.
“Niiice~”
Lee Chan smiled bashfully and asked,
“You too, hyung?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice!”
The two high-fived.
As they headed to the room, Sinhyeok asked,
“Are you in the same platoon as Arin or a different one?”
“The same platoon. First Platoon, and my squad hasn’t been assigned yet. They said they’ll decide later while we stay on standby inside the base for a month.”
“Mhm. Is that so?”
Lee Chan smiled bashfully and said,
“Everyone’s really nice. I thought they’d come down super hard on us at first and set the mood, but it was just quiet. They treated us well, told us to stay put, and said we just had to watch.”
At the reaction so different from his own past, Sinhyeok made a strange expression.
“They treated you that well?”
“Yeah! It was really great.”
‘They shouldn’t be doing that. Hongik usually puts you in your place hard at first.’
Because it was Hongik, they were even harsher in establishing authority.
Usually, they tried to break your spirit from the start.
The reason was simple: because it was Hongik.
It wasn’t a place people came to with ordinary talent, so the intent was to break their pride and make them humble.
‘I was the same.’
So he had suffered quite a bit in the beginning.
“Well, if they treated you well, that’s a relief.”
When they arrived at the preassigned quarters, there was a digital door lock.
“The password is probably 0506.”
When he pressed it, the door opened.
Lee Chan set down his bag and fiddled with the door lock.
“Hyung, I’ll change the password. 1234 is okay, right?”
“Hey, does that or 0506 make any difference?”
“This is surprisingly hard to crack.”
“Pfft.”
Sinhyeok let out a hollow laugh and looked inside.
“Oh~ At least there are two rooms.”
It was a two-room layout.
A living room, a kitchen, and rooms on either side.
“I’ll take the left room.”
“Then I’ll take the right!”
He went into the room, set down his luggage, and sat on the bed for a moment.
‘Waves, huh.’
His head was full of nothing but “waves.”
“I have to do it. I only have one day left now.”
The beast called Lee Gangyeol was aiming to bite into Sinhyeok, tear him apart, and rip off his limbs.
“That man really keeps the words he says.”
Having known him for a long time, Sinhyeok knew that quite accurately.
‘He’s not an old guy who talks nonsense.’
When Lee Gangyeol said he would bring Sinhyeok, who hadn’t even Awakened, to Hongik, he had dismissed it as a joke, but the man had actually done it.
‘I really thought that was bullshit.’
“More importantly, how am I supposed to control mana outside my body? That’s what I’m asking.”
He tried even now, but the mana that came out hardened immediately.
“Aaah, I’m going crazy! They should give me a pass for this much! It’s my constitution! The battalion commander knows full well!”
‘Haa. He knows full well, so that’s why he threw this at me.’
He flopped down onto the bed.
He only checked the time as it quietly passed.
“No. If I’m going to be like this, I might as well go out and train.”
Feeling frustrated, he changed into workout clothes and came out to the parade ground.
“Whooo.”
He settled in a corner, avoiding people’s gazes as much as possible.
“Hey, Sinhyeok~ You taking a dump in the corner?”
“Snakes come out over there~”
“Eat before you do that, you punk!”
Sinhyeok shook his head and fled even farther into the corner.
“I’ll handle it myself!”
“Kahahahaha, look at him talking back now that he’s old!”
“When you were a newborn, you used to go, ‘Yes, sir! Understood, sir!’ all sharp and proper!”
At the old stories that kept crawling out, Sinhyeok fled even faster.
“Ah, seriously, I shouldn’t have come. My whole past is getting exposed.”
He arrived at a very secluded spot.
This shady place behind the main building was somewhere he had often come in the past as well.
“I used to hang out here a lot in the beginning.”
Back when he was a soldier.
Back when he had blindly believed Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol’s words and come to Hongik with nothing but his constitution.
At that time, he had wasted his first year for nothing.
“I really hated it back then.”
He had crawled into Hongik through the battalion commander’s parachute, but the only thing he could do was drop a crystal with a little tap.
‘There were a lot of people who disliked me. And a lot of people who gave me half-baked comfort, too.’
Back then, whenever he felt frustrated and as if the path ahead was blocked, just like now, he always ran away here.
Sinhyeok plopped down on the ground and looked at the familiar tree beyond the wall.
Seeing the persimmon tree whose branches had not been pruned, he sank into memories.
“Why is that thing still here?”
In the past, too, he had killed time muttering like this.
Because if he went back to the barracks, he would have to face them again.
After work, he had been busy running away.
“That’s because Lee Gangyeol left it alone since it was a tree you liked. And here you are again?”
At the sudden voice, Sinhyeok turned to the side.
Through a window that had suddenly opened, he saw Command Sergeant Major Kim Hyeonsuk.
Hic.
Startled, Bu Sinhyeok wore an awkward expression.
“Wh-what brings you here, ma’am? I, I was just trying to rest.”
Kim Hyeonsuk took a candy from her pocket and put it in her mouth.
“It must’ve slipped your mind since it’s been eight years. This is the command sergeant major’s office.”