Master Sergeant An answered the female student’s question before I could.
“Sergeant Hyeon. Sergeant Hyeon Myeonghan.”
For some reason, the female student repeated that name several times.
She was not the only one memorizing my name.
The butcher shop owner, the college student, even the Latin man rolled my name around on their tongues.
Kim Huiwon was also very pleased.
“To think two people in one group have already sensed dark energy. This is much faster than I expected.”
‘It’s a misunderstanding, though.’
My ability had grown stronger after coming to Ibyeol, but I had been aware of this power even before that.
I didn’t think there was any need to correct her misunderstanding.
She did not ask any further about that, either.
“What a shame. I should have watched Myeonghan hunt for himself, too.”
“You don’t need to see that. I have no talent when it comes to martial arts.”
“Really? That’s all right. That eye of yours, sharp enough to notice a hidden mole, is more than enough.”
“Is that so…”
“Oh, right. Myeonghan, you were tentatively assigned as the box carrier, weren’t you? Then it’ll be hard for you to be put on a hunting team.”
Kim Huiwon looked genuinely disappointed.
The “box carrier” I had now heard yet again.
I couldn’t help asking her.
“What is a box carrier?”
“That is something you’d be better off seeing for yourself. You’ll understand as soon as we return. It was only put off because the hunt was urgent.”
Once again, I couldn’t get an answer.
It didn’t seem to be some great secret, but it appeared to be the kind of matter that was awkward to speak of carelessly.
On the way back to the base.
The excitement of the hunt did not last long.
All that remained was an exhausting schedule of walking for over an hour while carrying our loads.
Everyone divided the baggage equally, but those who had not gained abilities quickly became exhausted.
Gravity here was lower than on Earth, and they had received a week of training, but before that, they had all been ordinary civilians.
In the end, I had no choice but to carry more of the load.
“Isn’t it hard?”
At Master Sergeant An’s question, I shook my head.
“I’m fine.”
The load on my back was twice that of a full combat pack.
Under normal gravity, it felt like it would have been around eighty kilograms.
It was lighter than that because of the gravity, but if this were Earth, it would have been a weight difficult to carry with ease.
‘Have my stamina and strength grown that much stronger too?’
The load felt light.
I had felt it when throwing the spear, but my body was different from when I had been on Earth.
It was hard to say I had transcended humanity yet, but if I grew stronger from here, it would become difficult to view me as an ordinary human.
‘Now isn’t the time to worry about getting stronger.’
The hunt itself had not been difficult, but I had been far more tense than when running operations.
To think I had to hold a spear instead of a gun and fight monsters I had never seen before.
If I had been able to choose, I would never have come here, no matter how much money they offered.
“You must be thinking about something pleasant.”
While I was thinking that, Master Sergeant An, who was walking beside me, pointed at my mouth.
When I touched it with my hand, the corners of my lips were turned up.
“No, sir.”
I grabbed the raised corners of my mouth and pulled them down.
We were able to return to the base while the sun was still high in the sky.
No hunting team had returned before us.
The people who had remained at the base gathered in front of the cave when they saw us arrive.
They showed more interest in the monster hides we set down than in us, who had gone hunting.
“That looks like a rabbit.”
“There were rabbits that big?”
“It looks pretty scary for a rabbit.”
“Isn’t that just because it’s a hide?”
The people who had been chattering over the rabbit monster hide had their mouths fall open when they saw the hidden mole hide.
“What the hell is that? It’s several times bigger than the rabbit.”
“It looks like a stingray.”
“What kind of stingray has fur on its hide?”
“I heard there’s no sea nearby.”
“Didn’t they say there aren’t any rivers either? We’re still using the groundwater under the cave as drinking water.”
An argument broke out among the later-arriving members, who were seeing monsters for the first time.
After seeing the hidden mole, the expressions of the advance team members also changed.
“Hidden mole?”
“How did you catch this thing?”
“You caught it without anyone getting hurt?”
“How did you find it?”
The advance team members who had remained at the base asked with astonished faces.
The Latin man and Kim Huiwon explained it to them.
The two pointed at me as they explained.
The other advance team members looked at me in surprise.
The loads we had brought were carried into the cave.
While the others moved the baggage, we each had free time.
The later-arriving members of our group were caught by the other later-arriving members and had to tell them about the hunt, and the advance team members went into the cave the advance team used.
With no one I was close to except Master Sergeant An, I sat in front of the cave and blankly stared out at the wasteland.
Many thoughts passed through my mind.
The events of the day, and the many questions that continued to pile up hour by hour.
Even now, my head was full of questions.
But now was not the time to solve them.
Every time I went into an operation, I set a goal.
Sometimes I made completing the operation my goal, and sometimes I made returning alive my goal.
Now was the time to make returning alive my goal.
‘This place is far more dangerous than I thought.’
For survival, I first had to increase my military strength, my power.
Using good weapons was impossible, but there was another way to become stronger.
The power with the ridiculous name of dark energy.
With this power, I could become stronger.
‘First, I need to get information about dark energy.’
Fortunately, there were people here who had obtained this power before me.
Several hours later, the other hunting teams began returning as well.
Hunting teams came back carrying loads on their backs, just like us.
Once again, people gathered in front of the cave to watch the returning hunting teams.
“They all look like rabbits.”
“There’s one that looks like a rat too.”
“But that one looks smaller than a rabbit.”
The other hunting teams had brought back rabbit monsters and large rat monsters.
No group had caught a monster as large as the hidden mole.
Two groups returned one after another like that, and the final group arrived when the sun was sinking beyond the horizon.
Unlike the other groups, they were carrying no loads.
Their pale faces and trembling hands.
Just from their clothes covered in dirt, it was obvious that something had gone wrong.
“One person’s missing.”
As someone said, the numbers did not match.
When the advance team members approached, the advance team member of that group explained the reason with a curse.
“Fuck, a mole got him. He stepped right onto the ground where the bastard was camouflaged, and it swallowed him just like that.”
The person who poured out the situation as if venting his grievances was the Korean officer-in-charge, Park Osu.
He was the man who had been talking arrogantly yesterday.
‘So they were attacked by a hidden mole and ran away.’
If they had fallen victim to that monster, I could understand.
No one in our group had noticed it either until I found it.
It was clearly something that could not have been helped, but the expressions of the people were different.
“Damn it, we were just too unlucky. To think there was a hidden mole there. And that stupid bastard was far too careless.”
Each time he spoke, people glanced over at our side.
Perhaps sensing the strange atmosphere as well, he closed his mouth midway.
The square in front of the cave grew quiet.
The American officer, who had been watching in silence, opened his mouth.
“Check for casualties, disperse everyone.”
“Check the wounded and everyone disperse.”
The people, who had been watching for cues, heard Kim Huiwon’s translation and all went into the cave.
Contrary to expectations, the person who died had been from the military.
He was a soldier who had enlisted after the war and had only just put on the rank insignia of a private first class.
“Another one died a dog’s death.”
As Master Sergeant An said, it was a death no one could appeal to.
It was a sad thing, but the later-arriving members from the military neither grew angry nor fell into shock.
Because the number of comrades they had seen die during the war was not just one or two.
In truth, it was closer to resignation, but thanks to that, we were able to eat normally.
The civilians were different.
Even with meat in front of them, they could not eat.
Since the meat hunted today was served, the meal was abundant, unlike breakfast.
Rabbit monster meat, rat monster meat, and even hidden mole meat.
Contrary to its appearance, the meat was tasty even with light seasoning.
After the gloomy mealtime ended, I was summoned to the cave where the advance team was.
The one who called me was the Black American officer.
His name was David Moore.
As expected, he was the leader of the advance team and the commander of this forward base.
A box lay in front of him.
It was a cube with each side about thirty centimeters long, made of an ore I had never seen before.
Translucent patterns were drawn across the surface of the box.
Unfamiliar, yet somehow like something I had seen before.
‘They’re similar to the patterns I saw in the ruins…’
I was thinking that as I looked at the box.
The officer gestured to Huiwon, who was standing beside him.
Huiwon opened her mouth.
“First, we need to check whether you can use the box.”
As she spoke, she glanced once toward the cave entrance.
Even without turning my eyes, I knew who was there.
Park Osu, the so-called Korean officer-in-charge, was sitting there.
This explanation would originally have been his job.
In any case, since an accident had occurred in the group he had been with, he had surely received something like disciplinary action.
‘This feels awkward… I hope I haven’t made an unnecessary enemy.’
Even so, there was nothing I could do about it.
It wasn’t something I needed to apologize for.
No, now was not the time to worry about that.
“First, place your hand on the box.”
Instead of immediately placing my hand on the box, I looked at the officer and Huiwon.
“There won’t be any problem, right?”
I couldn’t simply do as I was told when I didn’t even know what kind of box this was.
Huiwon relayed my words to David, and he chuckled, placing his hand on the box.
Wooooong.
As his hand rose onto the box, the patterns began to light up one after another.
The light spread to all the patterns covering the box.
Once the entire top surface was glowing, the four sides began to shine as well.
However, before all the patterns on the four sides could light up, the light in the patterns vanished.
David frowned and took his hand away, veins standing out on it.
‘Is it really safe?’
Judging by his expression and his hand, it didn’t seem one hundred percent safe.
But after he had demonstrated it first like that, it was hard to say I wouldn’t do it.
I was also curious what this box was.
I placed my hand on top of the box.
Wooooong.
I felt like I understood why that man had frowned.
My brow furrowed on its own.
‘My energy is being drained.’
I could feel the dark energy leaving through my hand.
The more energy drained away, the brighter the box shone.
The patterns on the top surface shone brightly, the sides shone in the same way, and finally, I felt the bottom light up as well.
The moment all the patterns lit up like that, the light went out.
“Failure?”
At David’s question, I shook my head.
“No. It connected.”
As the person involved, I could tell.
The connection had been completed, and the box would no longer take my energy.
From now on, there was no need to infuse energy into the box.
From this moment, this “space-expansion box” was an item bound to me.