“Ah, I’m stiff.”
Sinhyeok rolled his shoulders and neck, stretching out his hardened muscles.
“First off, Master, aren’t you having lunch?”
Before he knew it, lunchtime had come, and he stepped out of the storeroom.
“Not hungry. You go eat.”
“Yes, sir.”
Aurumstone was sitting at the workbench, fiddling with something.
“By the way, what are you making?”
Sinhyeok sidled up to the workbench and made out the rough shape.
“A robot?”
What he was handling looked like part of a robot’s arm.
“You don’t need to know. Just practice your Synthesis diligently. I can only tell you once you can at least synthesize three to four types.”
“I’ll get there in no time.”
“……”
Aurumstone wanted to deny it, but having seen what he had seen, he quietly held his tongue.
“Then I’ll go have lunch and come back.”
“Yeah.”
Once Sinhyeok left, the dwarf grumbled quietly.
“I’ve got to teach him this as late as possible. He’ll try to fleece me again.”
* * *
“Haaam. The unit’s way too quiet.”
As he came out of the dwarf’s workshop, he found two kids staring at him with sparkling eyes.
“What?”
Arin and I Chan grabbed one of his arms each, their eyes shining in a way that made him uneasy.
“What are you doing?”
“Mister.”
“Hyung.”
He sensed danger. Sinhyeok shook off their arms and put some distance between them.
“No.”
“What do you mean no? Hear us out first, then decide.”
“Ssseup, this already feels ominous.”
I Chan stepped forward and whispered.
“When we’re on patrol tonight, let’s just catch a few monsters at the Gate. We need to level up.”
Sinhyeok flinched at the little brat’s whisper.
“That’s the whisper of a devil.”
Baek Arin whispered right after him.
“Mister. Can you really sleep at that level?”
“……”
The comment stabbed him right in the heart.
“D-Damn it.”
The two of them grinned wickedly and grabbed both his arms.
“So.”
“Tonight, we’re just catching a few together.”
Sinhyeok reluctantly nodded.
“Okay. A few should be fine.”
“Yes!”
“Hehe!”
The three headed to the cafeteria with excited expressions.
“Wow, it’s completely empty.”
When they reached the cafeteria, it really was empty.
The three greeted the few unit members who were there and sat down.
“They must be seriously busy.”
“Of course. It’s probably like this not just here, but at most units right now.”
As they chatted about the current situation over their meal, the Command Sergeant Major entered.
“Ah, it’s the Command Sergeant Major.”
Feeling guilty for no reason, Sinhyeok subtly turned his gaze away.
“Hyung, why are you looking away?”
“Mister, why?”
“There’s a reason.”
Kim Hyeonsuk spotted Sinhyeok with his head lowered.
As she picked up a tray and served herself rice, she said,
“You think I won’t see you in this huge cafeteria just because you do that?”
“H-Ha, ha, ha. Loyalty. I hope you enjoy your meal, Command Sergeant Major.”
“Sure.”
She filled her tray and came over, and Sinhyeok smiled awkwardly.
“You really didn’t have to sit here. There are plenty of other seats.”
“It’s only natural for the Command Sergeant Major to take special care of the youngest in the unit.”
Grin.
Her gentle smile was terribly burdensome and sharp.
“Oh, right. You three know you’re fixed on evening patrol for the time being, don’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am. We heard.”
The Command Sergeant Major lifted her chopsticks and picked up a side dish as she warned them.
“You’re not thinking of going into a Gate by any chance, are you?”
She put the side dish in her mouth and stared steadily at the three of them.
All three flinched at the same time.
“Hooh, look at this. You’re all thinking some very insolent thoughts. I’m sure you were told the precautions.”
Sinhyeok denied it while keeping his words brief.
“I know nothing about that.”
“I-I don’t really know either.”
“I d-don’t know!”
She ended up laughing at the sight of the three malfunctioning.
“You three really were spectacular back at the training center too. The notes in your personal records were written brilliantly.”
“Pardon?”
“Excellent and outstanding in learning ability, operational execution, and leadership, but frequent incidents and accidents. Always at the center of trouble.”
As their records were laid bare so bluntly, the three smiled awkwardly.
“But I like it. Military life only has flavor when you’ve got all sorts of people around.”
At that, I Chan chuckled and tried probing.
“Then.”
“Then?”
At her follow-up, I Chan clamped his mouth shut.
The probing attempt had failed.
The Command Sergeant Major quietly finished her meal and set down her spoon.
Only then did everyone start reading the room and think about getting up.
“That was good. Let’s go. I’ll buy you coffee or something.”
“N-No, ma’am! Th-There’s no need……”
“Drink it.”
She rejected their refusal.
She led the three around the unit once and headed toward the PX.
“By the way, Sinhyeok, are you managing the armory now?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve taken over issuing equipment, receiving supply requests, and management.”
“Good. Then did you also learn how to take ammunition and equipment out of the armory off the books?”
“Pardon? Ah, I do know how.”
The Command Sergeant Major looked meaningfully at the armory and then at Sinhyeok.
“As long as you know.”
She strolled leisurely through the unit and casually said to the three,
“In the old days, when we sent kids out on patrol, they’d take down a few Gates here and there.”
“H-Ha, ha.”
Sinhyeok laughed especially awkwardly.
“That guy ate up the most of them. I don’t know how many times I got called upstairs because of him.”
“Haha. Still, I had my reasons and a cause. There had been several accidents involving the nearby villagers because of those Gates.”
“If not for that, you’d have been dead long ago.”
The Command Sergeant Major gazed at the village beyond the wall.
When she stopped for a moment and looked out, the three stopped as well.
“It’s such a warm, good village. They’ve lived alongside us for over twenty years, and they always welcome us and treat us well.”
Sinhyeok followed her gaze.
“That’s true. Whenever we went out, they’d give us rides just because they saw us, and they’d give us food too.”
“Right. At the very least, we have to protect them.”
She glanced at Sinhyeok and smiled brightly.
“You feel the same, don’t you?”
“Pardon? Yes, yes.”
At the cryptic conversation, Sinhyeok tilted his head.
“But there are quite a few things that have been getting on my nerves.”
“Ah……”
Sinhyeok understood the point of this mysterious walk and conversation.
“There are a lot. For such a small village, there are all kinds of things around.”
“Exactly. When you go out on patrol tonight, pay some attention to the wild animals. I hear there are a lot of boars at night lately. Take your equipment and clean up some beasts, and if you need them, take a few spare bullets. There should be some set aside outside the paperwork.”
After the conversation full of hidden meanings ended, she handed over her card and left.
“Go buy yourselves some snacks too, and return it tonight.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you!”
Arin and I Chan tilted their heads at the strange conversation.
“Hyung, are we catching animals too?”
“Aren’t you not supposed to catch stuff like that carelessly?”
“You’re not. That’s why you do it secretly.”
‘As expected of the Command Sergeant Major! The boar she means isn’t that kind of boar…… Heh heh.’
Instead of saying it out loud, he mouthed the words.
The two roughly followed along, then looked even more puzzled.
Sinhyeok examined the card he had received.
‘Where was the village chief’s phone number……’
There was a memo attached.
- I’ve spoken to him in advance. Get the priorities from the village chief.
After seeing the memo, I Chan and Arin only grew more confused.
“Hyung, hyung, what is it?”
“Let’s go to the PX first. We’ll buy drinks and talk at the workshop.”
The three stopped by the PX, bought drinks, and returned to the workshop.
“Hyung, so what is it?”
I Chan, whose curiosity had reached its peak, asked immediately.
“She’s telling us to secretly clear out all the Gates near civilian homes around the unit.”
“Huh?”
“That’s possible?”
Only then did the two understand the point of that strange conversation.
Checking the phone number, Sinhyeok said,
“We used to do this from time to time. Gates in rural areas like this tend to get left alone for a long time. They’re not managed well either. Then kids who don’t know any better, or elderly people, end up wandering in by mistake, and that causes problems.”
“Ah, right. I think I’ve heard news like that……”
I Chan looked at him sympathetically.
“So we secretly clear them out and report it differently. Say a civilian got accidentally caught up in it, so we’ll carry out an emergency raid. Or since I can find the core, we can say a Break occurred and shut it down completely.”
Sinhyeok took out his phone and entered the number.
“I think we can spend our evenings clearing these out for a while.”
At that, I Chan and Arin’s faces brightened.
“Then we can go into Gates?”
“Oh! We’ll be able to level up!”
Both of them looked satisfied.
“Go organize the nearby Gate information in advance. I’ll be sorting things out in the workshop.”
“Okay!”
Watching the two run off, he shouted,
“Did you learn how to look up Gate information on the intranet?!”
“Yeah!”
“Of course!”
Seeing the excited pair, Sinhyeok went back into the dwarf’s workshop.
Snorrrk. Grrrhhng.
At the blatantly loud snoring, Sinhyeok looked toward the field bed in the corner.
“He really lives life in an entertaining way.”
Sinhyeok opened the storeroom full of odds and ends and headed inside.
“Urgh! Let’s try again. Come at me, you brute alloys!”
Once again, he fought fiercely back and forth.
[Attempting Synthesis.]
[Attempting Synthesis.]
[Synthesis has failed.]
[Synthesis has succeeded. Please name it.]
[Synthesis has failed.]
[Synthesis has succeeded.]
[You have acquired a small amount of skill experience through repeated Synthesis attempts.]
“Ah, my eyes are so strained.”
As Sinhyeok came out of the workshop, he opened his status window for the first time in a while.
[Status Window]
Name: Bu Sinhyeok (LV.3)
Class: Alchemist
Strength: 45
Agility: 40
Stamina: 45
Mana: 60
Traits: Mana Condensate, Supreme Dragon’s Blessing
“It really does feel empty.”
His stats and level were meager.
“Phew, whatever. Open the skill window.”
[Owned Skills]
=========================
[Main Skills]
Potion Crafting (LV.11) [0/100%]
Enhancement (LV.3)
Synthesis (LV.1) [21/100%]
[Sub Skills]
Mana Mapping (LV.10) [56/100%]
Mana Heart (LV.2)
1st Circle Magic (LV.1) [15.25/100%]
Sensory Acuity (LV.2) [14/100%]
=========================
“Ahh, how abundant.”
Seeing his plentiful skills made him feel truly relaxed and happy.
“But the levels are too lopsided.”
The levels were heavily skewed toward Mapping and Crafting, which he had often used back at the training center.
‘I’ll have to pay attention to the rest evenly too.’
As Sinhyeok closed the storeroom door, he spoke to the dwarf, who had already woken up and was standing at the workbench.
“Master. I’m heading out?”
“Already?”
“What do you mean already? While you were sleeping earlier, I was working the whole time.”
“Fine. You worked hard. Go.”
“Yes, sir!”
Sinhyeok bounced away with an endlessly light heart.
“Then shall we go happily beat up some Gates~”
When he opened the workshop door and stepped outside, I Chan and Arin were already standing there, fully prepared.
“Holy—”
Sinhyeok flinched in surprise.
“Hyung, let’s go.”
“Mister, let’s go.”
At their solemn, spirited appearances, Sinhyeok was at a loss for words.
“Without even eating dinner?”
“Hyung! How can you think about food right now?!”
“That’s right, Mister! Thousands—no, tens of thousands—of residents outside this unit are trembling in fear right now. We have to help them immediately!”
Sinhyeok’s gaze went cold at the absurd nonsense.
“That’s not your real motive.”
“Heheheh.”
“Haha……”
The two smiled strangely and held their tongues.
“Then let’s go right away. I’ll just put on my gear and come out.”
After putting on his equipment, the three secretly headed to the armory.
“Not there. This way.”
He acted according to what the logistics officer had told him in secret.
‘Go into the most secluded bunker, and like at the workshop, turn the doorknob to the left. The things kept off the paperwork should be there.’
“Go in and get what you need. We need to take extra ammunition and radios separately.”
“Okay.”
Everyone gathered a reasonable amount and came out, then headed to the command and control room.
“Loyalty. Sergeant Bu Sinhyeok and two others, reporting for night duty……”
“Yeah. Yeah~”
Seeing her sitting on duty again today, Sinhyeok spoke.
“You’re on duty again today?”
“Yeah. Everyone’s busy, so I, the most idle one who doesn’t sleep much, have to take it. The battalion commander is suffering outside, after all.”
“Mm? Is he that busy?”
Sinhyeok asked while entering the details in the duty log.
“He is. These days the Association is raising hell, demanding we hand over the authority to close Gates. Because of that, he’s being called all over the place.”
“Ah, he must be busy.”
Through several Break incidents, the media was busy tearing into the Awakened Forces, including Hongik.
Gate closures were handled exclusively by the military.
Tasks like raiding—that is, regulating the number of monsters inside a gate—were partly entrusted to civilians as well, but complete eradication and closure were another matter.
The reason this was important was simple.
When the core was destroyed, the system granted an enormous amount of experience.
“It’s a real damned nuisance of a problem, isn’t it? We can’t just hand it over, either.”
“Right. For us, having less work would be nice. But how are we supposed to trust those bastards?”
There were too many issues with simply passing the work along.
First, there were the demonic humans, the contractors of demons.
In this strange phenomenon where all dimensions of the universe were being integrated, they were the ones who represented not Earth, but demons.
In other words, traitors to humanity.
They mostly hid among civilians.
Another problem was their lack of reliability.
Their methods, focused more on hunting than on rescuing and protecting citizens, always caused great damage.
“I can’t trust those bastards... I know there are Awakened who join in with good intentions, but still.”
Sinhyeok agreed with the command sergeant major.
“They’re only a minority, aren’t they? How many people would sacrifice themselves with such purely noble intentions?”
At Sinhyeok’s words, which carried quite a lot of meaning, the command sergeant major looked at him for a moment.
“True. You’d know that better than anyone.”
“Then we’ll head out on patrol.”
“Yeah, be careful. You’re taking the radio with you, right?”
Sinhyeok set down the radio he had prepared separately.
“Here it is. I’ve tuned it to a separate channel.”
“Yeah. If it gets dangerous, call right away.”
Sinhyeok started to leave, then stopped and looked back at the command sergeant major.
“By the way, what do we do with the boar carcass after we kill it? Do we just give it to the villagers?”
The command sergeant major shook his head at that.
“Keep it properly stored. If we give it out for no reason and something goes wrong, that’ll be a problem.”
“Yes, understood. Loyalty!”
“Yeah, yeah~”
I can just take care of it myself and secretly store it in the logistics office.
Thinking that, Sinhyeok left the command and control room.
“Let’s make a round of the base first.”
The three of them circled the base as usual, then called the village head.
Triiiing.
“Ah, hello?”
“This is Sergeant Bu Sinhyeok from Hongik.”
He greeted him warmly.
“Ah, good to hear from you. I’m near the guard post right now. I’ll come right over. Wait there, and we’ll go together.”
“Yes, I’ll wait.”
They waited in front of the guard post with the military vehicle, and a truck approached.
“Hm? Well, look who it is! Isn’t that Yu Sinhyeok!”
When he saw Sinhyeok, his face lit up.
“Haha. Have you been well, village head?”
“Goodness! Of course I’ve been well! But you, you punk!”
His delight lasted only a moment before the village head smacked Sinhyeok’s arm and spoke.
“If you were going to cause trouble, damn it, what kind of trouble was that!? Do you know how shocked I was!?”
“Ah! That hurts.”
“I’m doing it so it hurts! So it hurts!”
Sinhyeok simply smiled as he looked at the village head.
“Anyway, I’m glad you’re doing well. Then you’ll be helping out for the time being?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good for me. If you’re the one making the rounds, the gates get closed for sure.”
The village head gave him the address of the gate he had checked in advance.
“Clear this one first. There’s an elderly resident living right below it. They say they’re too anxious to live there.”
After confirming the location, Sinhyeok immediately nodded.
“Yes, confirmed. Then will you be leaving first, village head?”
“Yeah. I should go first. The two of you go, one person enters, and then you report it, right?”
“That’s right. Please be careful. Do you have your shield with you?”
“Come on~ As if I’d forget?”
The village head smiled and proudly held out his bracelet.
“Got it right here. It’s a treasure the battalion commander gave me.”
“Then please go on ahead.”
“Yeah~”
Sinhyeok checked the time as he watched the village head leave first.
“Let’s leave in ten minutes. And you turned on your body cams, right?”
“Ah! Right.”
Sinhyeok took off his body cam and let it drop with a tap.
“Hey, Hong Ichan, I told you not to mess around. My body cam fell off.”
Pretending to pick up the body cam, Sinhyeok stomped on it hard with his foot.
He ground it down completely while giving the other two a look.
“Ah? Ow! Did you have to hit me for that!? Seriously!”
“Don’t shove me!”
Putting on a lively(?) performance, Ichan also let his body cam fall and stepped on it.
Arin simply dropped hers and stepped on it.
And just like that, the body cams were completely broken.
“Do we really have to go this far?”
“We do. I got caught once because of these.”
“Good grief.”