A dark night.
I looked up at the sky.
A night sky full of stars that could never be seen from Earth.
In the middle of the sky floated a half-shattered satellite.
Every time I saw that satellite, I was reminded that this place was not Earth.
“To think we came to a star this far away just to stab beasts with spears. I’ve been doing it for over a month, but it’s still absurd.”
One of my companions, who had come out for the night hunt, grumbled as he rubbed grass over a wound on his arm.
It was a wound the prey had clawed into him as it died.
Treating an injury with weeds rolling around by the roadside—on Earth, it would have been unthinkable.
“No one else got hurt, right?”
At another companion’s question, everyone nodded, and the man treating his wound muttered a quiet curse.
“Damn it, so it’s just me?”
No one paid him any more attention.
“In any case, we caught one, so let’s clean it up and head back.”
“The meat we caught during the day was barely edible. I wonder if this one will be a little better.”
As we dressed the prey, the six members of the hunting party began preparing to return.
The others took out knives made of bone and began butchering the monster we had hunted.
After they skinned it and packed the meat, I finally stepped in front of the corpse with a bone spear in hand.
My official duty was nothing more than box carrier, but among our group, I was the only one who could pierce through a prey’s skull.
The prey we caught resembled animals from Earth, but they were beasts unique to this star, different in some indefinable way.
Everyone called them monsters or creatures.
A monster’s hide and bones were incredibly tough and hard, not only while it was alive but even after death.
I raised the bone spear and aimed at the prey’s head.
I pushed into the spear the strange sensation I had begun to feel after crossing over to this star.
The sort of sensation called mana in fantasy novels, or qi in martial arts novels.
Here, they called it dark energy.
I filled the spear with that power and thrust with all my might.
Thunk.
The spear pierced through the prey’s skull.
I reached into the shattered skull.
A moment later, there was a small stone in the hand I pulled out.
This stone was a small jewel called a Dark Stone, or black stone.
“Just looking at it, it’s nothing but a pretty rock… To think we were dragged all the way out here for stones like this. I still can’t believe it.”
The injured companion grumbled again as he looked at the black stone I had taken out.
It was the same tired complaint we had heard every time. No one showed any interest.
I tucked the black stone deep into my pocket.
It was inconvenient, but I could not show them the box.
After I secured the most important thing, the black stone, the others tied up the meat and hide tightly and each slung a load onto their backs.
“Urgh, it’s heavy after all. It’s good that we got a lot of meat, but thinking about carrying all this back already makes my bones ache.”
At the older companion’s words, a younger companion glanced at me.
“If we could use the Dark Box, we could carry it back easily.”
I said nothing, and someone else answered in my place.
“There’s only one. No way the higher-ups would let us have it.”
Complaints followed his words.
“Damn it. We flew forty light-years from Earth, and in the end, what we’re doing is carrying alien beast meat on our backs. If I’d known it’d be like this, I wouldn’t have just stood by back then.”
“And what would you have done if you hadn’t just stood by? Are you saying you volunteered for this job?”
There were no volunteers. Every Korean dispatched to this star had been conscripted.
“We should’ve at least squeezed more money out of them. Honestly, I was happy when they said the annual salary would be in the hundreds of millions.”
Everyone nodded. They were all thinking the same thing. I had thought that way back then too.
With our loads on our backs, we walked across the desolate plain.
After some time, a base with torches flickering in the distance came into view.
A stone mountain standing alone on the plain, and several caves bored open beneath it.
Those caves were the first outpost Earthlings had established on this star.
That place was our home, and also an ancient cave ruin.
As I looked at the cave entrances lit by torchlight, I recalled the past.
A month had already passed since then.
The moment I received the order that would bring me here.
Back then, I had been clearing out a North Korean military tunnel.
**
One month ago.
The Central Front, near the Gaema Plateau.
My unit members and I were walking slowly through a cave, as usual.
This cave was a tunnel belonging to stragglers, the kind we had been dealing with continuously of late.
They were not regular soldiers, so their firepower was weak, but they were enemies who had become even more vicious.
They had used every means at their disposal to stand in our way.
Naturally, casualties among our unit had grown, and we had become more brutal as well.
“Good thing these bastards are always so predictable.”
“This is predictable to you?”
“That’s right. Sergeant, you’re just way too seasoned.”
The unit members grumbled at the comment I made while looking around the cave.
They were not wrong.
The countless booby traps and hidden enemies we had seen after entering the cave had startled us more than once.
Even so, this was still more manageable than suicide bombers.
In this cave, the dangers were easier to detect than usual.
I stopped the unit members.
“Stop! Trap ahead.”
“I don’t see anything, though?”
Though puzzled, the unit members halted.
Corporal Yang, the combat engineer, immediately stepped forward.
After checking the ground for a long time, he finally found the trap.
“Found it. It’s a homemade trap. No tripwire, and they didn’t use explosives, so it was hard to find.”
He began disarming the trap.
Seeing the trap gradually reveal itself, the unit members clicked their tongues.
“Wow. I still can’t really see it. How did you find that?”
As always, I ignored their admiration.
Because I had no idea how I found it either.
“No matter how I look at it, Sergeant, you’re no ordinary soldier. Don’t you have some kind of superpower?”
“Superpower, my ass. My senses are just a little better than other people’s.”
I snorted at the unit member’s words.
It was an ability I had discovered after joining the army, but it was not something I would call a superpower.
It did seem like my stamina had improved since joining the army, and I had become rather good at shooting and combat too.
But I was not exceptionally superior to the special forces soldiers I had operated with.
“That alone is something. How many times have we survived thanks to you?”
“The problem is, thanks to that, I’ve been sent on dispatch several times.”
At the words I muttered with a grimace, the unit members turned their heads.
“That’s true. As expected, in the army, it’s best to stay in the middle.”
Some of them said the obvious.
“I heard the hazard pay is pretty good, though.”
And some even seemed envious.
“If it weren’t, I would’ve deserted the moment they sent me out.”
Besides, if I had not needed money immediately, I would not have gone no matter how much they offered.
As we continued chatting like that, I sensed something different.
A sensation that began at my back and tickled the nape of my neck.
At first, I had not known what it was.
Now, a year after I first felt this new sense, I knew very well what it meant.
Enemies with killing intent were approaching.
“Enemy trap confirmed. Enemy approaching from the front!”
After relaying the situation to everyone, I turned around.
My eyes met those of the platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Park, who was at the very rear.
Second Lieutenant Park looked terrified.
As expected, he was an unreliable little second lieutenant who had only transferred in a week ago.
I did not like it, but even if only as a formality, I had to receive an order.
“Everyone, f-form combat formation.”
At the platoon leader’s words, the unit members turned off their flashlights and assumed firing positions.
I also glared into the depths of the cave, sensing the enemies drawing near.
With all the flashlights off, the cave had gone dark.
The only two night-vision goggles in the platoon were in the hands of the platoon leader and my fellow squad leader.
Neither I nor the other unit members could see a thing ahead.
“Damn it, we need to see something.”
The unit members grumbled quietly.
Fortunately, I could fight without seeing.
It was thanks to the senses I had gained during the war.
I could not see them, but I could feel the enemies coming around the corner and approaching us.
I aimed my rifle at the place where I sensed them and pulled the trigger.
Bang, bang, bang!
I fired three single shots.
I felt two sources of killing intent disappear.
In pitch-black darkness, I killed two with three bullets. Not a bad result.
Perhaps my gunshots were the signal, because I felt several killing intents rush toward us.
“Targets approaching! Prepare volley fire. On my command, fire!”
I gave the order to everyone.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!
The unit members began firing.
In place of the frozen platoon leader, I continued giving orders to the unit members.
“We don’t need survivors. Sweep them all away!”
There was no way to leave survivors in this darkness.
Nor did I have any intention of doing so.
With a volley of gunfire, we shredded the enemies charging at us.
The battle inside the cave ended there.
There were no enemies left.
There was more unpleasant cleanup afterward, but we killed our emotions and finished clearing the cave.
How much time had passed?
When we came out of the cave, the sun was high in the sky.
After clearing the tunnel and coming outside like that, a message arrived from division headquarters.
It was an “external support request” addressed to me.
“It’s a dispatch.”
The document was one I had seen many times before; just as the unit members said, it was a dispatch request.
I glared at the first lieutenant who handed me the document.
The unit members also stared at the document with dumbfounded expressions.
“The war’s almost over. Who’s calling for him now?”
“Don’t tell me you’re going beyond the Yalu River?”
“Don’t even say something that horrible. If China joins the war from here, it’ll be World War III.”
“Well, neither the U.S. military nor the Korean army has taken even one step beyond the Yalu and Tumen Rivers.”
It was only natural that the platoon members found it absurd.
The Second Korean War, which had begun a year ago, was now in its final stages.
The North Korean leadership had established a government-in-exile in China, and guerrillas were still active in places like this cave, but most of North Korean territory had already been occupied.
On top of that, the broadcasts kept saying that Korea, the United States, and China were negotiating an end to the war.
And yet, a dispatch now?
Until then, I had gone along quietly because of the life-risk allowance, but this time, I could not help asking.
“Is this really an order from corps?”
If it was not from corps headquarters, but an order slipped in from behind the scenes, I had no intention of complying.
The first lieutenant pointed upward with his finger.
“It’s not an order from corps. It came from higher up. From the very top.”
My brows furrowed on their own. What on earth was going on?
I had stood out during the war and had been sent on dispatch several times, but never had an order come from far above corps.
My questions only grew, but I could not refuse the order.
The war was not over yet, and I was a soldier.
I reported my dispatch to the platoon leader.
“I’ll be back.”
Leaving the uncomfortable-looking platoon leader behind, I departed from the unit.
As the vehicle started moving, the unit members shouted their words of encouragement at me.
“We’ll get discharged first.”
“Come back alive. We won’t be here, though.”
I stuck my middle finger out the car window.
A dispatch like any other.
I had not the slightest idea that the place of dispatch would not be Earth.