“Khuhuhuk! Finally…! Finally…!”
A potbellied man in his late thirties was crying in front of a shabby ranch.
“I finally did it..! Khuhuk! Khuk! Kha! Khahahahaha!!”
The man, who had been sobbing like a madman only to suddenly burst into laughter, was named Park Dawi.
Dawi had a dream he had cherished for a long time.
And that was to become a ranch owner.
As a child, watching westerns had filled him with admiration for cowboys.
But it had only been a vague dream, no different from a child admiring superheroes.
Then, after becoming an adult, he happened to watch a variety program,
“Music Trip While Living,” and saw the romantic lives of Texas cowboys.
Romance.
That word struck the heart of Park Dawi, a true man among men.
In Dawi’s life, it was a value more important than money.
A life that began each day with the cries of animals—chickens, cows, horses—
and ended at sunset with a glass of beer, playing country songs on a guitar.
A stylish cowboy hat, jeans, and a leather jacket.
And… a graceful double-barrel shotgun with a long barrel.
The way of life, of course, and even that outward appearance.
The life of a cowboy shook the heart of a man.
And at last, now—
“Khahahahaha!!”
The man had grasped that dream, that romance, in his hands.
At last, a small, shabby ranch he had obtained in Texas.
Of course, Texas was said to have many ranches larger than Yeouido… but in any case, this little ranch was the realization of Dawi’s dream.
Dawi wore the outfit he had dreamed of.
A cowboy hat, a leather jacket, jeans—
Clack.
And picked up a shotgun.
Not an automatic shotgun, not a semi-automatic, and not even a pump-action or lever-action, but the most fundamental shotgun of all fundamentals! (This was only Dawi’s opinion.)
A double-barrel shotgun. Among them, a side-by-side break-action shotgun.
Though it could only fire two shots, for those two shots it was even more reliable than a pump-action shotgun. A double-barrel shotgun was the most dependable firearm.
Two certain shots without any jams. To Dawi, it was the most ideal gun.
A high-class wooden stock, long and stylishly stretched barrels.
Two muzzles neatly aligned.
Dawi looked over its form once, then opened the cartridge pouch attached to his belt.
Inside the cartridge pouch were 12-gauge shotgun shells.
There were three types in all.
Birdshot, used to hunt small animals like birds.
Buckshot, for taking down things like wild boars.
And… the famous slug round said to be able to take down even bears.
In particular, this slug round, whose projectile itself was rifled for shotguns without rifled barrels, was illegal in Korea.
Click—
Dawi released the hinge of the shotgun.
Clack—
The barrels broke open, revealing two holes.
Dawi placed two birdshot shells into them and closed the broken-open barrels.
Clack!
Then he aimed toward the sky.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots rang out.
Dawi glanced at his own reflection in the ranch’s window, then lowered the muzzle.
Clack!
When he broke open the gun, two spent shells popped out.
There was no way he would encounter one on a Texas ranch, but Dawi imagined himself facing a bear with the shotgun in hand.
‘I load two slug rounds…’
In his imagination, he pulled the shotgun’s two triggers at the same time. (His double-barrel shotgun had two separate triggers connected to each barrel. In other words, a double-trigger system.)
“Dabang—!”
Dawi made the sound with his mouth, in a way that did not suit his age.
In his imagination, the bear’s head burst apart and it died from the two powerful slug rounds.
In reality, however, if he pulled both triggers at the same time, the recoil would be so strong that he might injure his shoulder.
Dawi only imagined doing it; he had no intention of actually pulling both triggers at once.
“Keeeuh~! This is great!”
Dawi was intoxicated by the image of himself in his imagination.
“Malmal! Let’s go!”
He took hold of the reins of a brown stallion that had been staring at him with contempt for quite some time.
Prrr—
the horse snorted.
As for this horse… it was not a fine-blooded stud one could proudly show off anywhere. It was just a horse Dawi had bought within the limits of what he could afford.
He had spent his entire fortune on the shabby ranch in Texas, the cowboy outfit, the shotgun, and the horse.
Fortunately, there was a house attached to the shabby ranch… but to run a ranch, one needed farming equipment and various livestock.
However, our dear Mister Park Dawi, whose intelligence had dropped from being drunk on romance… had not bought so much as a car, let alone farming equipment. Instead, he had used that money to buy a horse.
“Hmhmhm~ hmhmhm~”
But Dawi, drunk on romance, was happier than anyone right now.
Even though he was in a situation where he had no money and had to go into town to find a part-time job.
And not by car, but on horseback.
“Hrrrngh!”
After struggling up into the saddle, he lightly tapped the horse’s sides.
Tap. Tap.
“Giddyap! Let’s gooo!!”
Unlike Dawi’s noisy shout, the horse moved slowly, clop-clop, clop-clop.
That was because Dawi did not yet have the skill to gallop on horseback.
The incident happened then.
Whoooooooo—
“What… what is that?”
A small whirlwind could be seen in the distance.
“No way…?”
It rapidly grew in size and came toward Dawi’s ranch.
Whoooooooo—!!
“No way…! No way…!”
It was a tornado.
“No! Noooo! Don’t come here!!”
“Neiiigh!”
The smart horse fled from the tornado with its master on its back.
Clatter! Clatter!
“No!! Noooo!”
Dawi turned his head back and looked at his ranch.
Whoooooooo—!!
Crack! Craaaack!
The roof was torn away, the railings flew off… and the ranch collapsed.
But Dawi’s misfortune did not end there.
Whoooooooo—!!
The tornado did not stop, but moved toward Dawi.
“Uh..! Uh-oh! Why is that thing coming this way! Malmal! Run! Run faster!!”
“Neiiigh!!”
For the first time, Dawi galloped at full speed on horseback.
However—
Whoooooooo—!!
The tornado that had destroyed Dawi’s dream, as if intent on destroying Dawi’s life as well, came straight down upon him.
“Uwaaaah! Daaamn iiit!!”
Whoooooooooooo—!!!
Dawi was swept up by the wind and lifted into the sky.
The tornado carried Dawi all the way into the rain clouds.
Amid his chaotic vision, Dawi heard the fierce rainstorm and the sound of thunder.
Swaaaaaa—!!
Boom! Rumble!
“Uwaaaaaah!!”
Tuduk—ttuk.
In the violent wind, his belt came undone, and the shotgun shells began spilling out wildly.
“Uwaaaaaah!!”
Dawi flailed about in the rain clouds and grabbed them.
It was not that he grabbed them on purpose; as he thrashed in midair, they happened to end up in his hand.
With the shotgun in his right hand, and three shells he had just caught in his left—
one each of birdshot, buckshot, and slug—
he lost consciousness in the rain clouds.
Whooooo—
.
.
.
“Uuuugh…”
Dawi opened his eyes, clutching his throbbing head.
“Damn it. Guess I’m alive…”
The place where he opened his eyes was some forest.
At the changed scenery, Dawi sprang to his feet.
“Where the hell is this…?”
Had there been a forest like this in Texas?
Well, Texas was so vast that perhaps there could be a forest like this, he thought,
and Dawi looked around.
On closer inspection, it was a coniferous forest.
“Are there coniferous forests in Texas too…?”
No matter how much Dawi thought about it, this place did not seem to be Texas.
After all, conifers were mostly found in the colder northern regions.
(But this was only what Dawi thought; there are coniferous forests in eastern Texas.)
‘Don’t tell me I got swept up by a tornado and carried all the way from the southern United States to the north?’
It was nonsense.
Of course, being swept up by a tornado, dropped somewhere in Texas, and still being alive was nonsense to begin with.
“Ugh…!”
Dawi first raised his aching body.
Whooooo—
For some reason, the sound of the wind felt eerie.
Awooooo—!
He seemed to hear the cry of some beast from somewhere as well.
Gulp—
Dawi swallowed once and looked for his gun.
“My gun…”
At that moment—
Shoop!
A shotgun appeared in Dawi’s right hand.
“Ahh! What the hell!”
Dawi stared blankly at the double-barrel shotgun in his hand.
It was definitely his shotgun.
“Did some kind of magic get cast on it…”
Dawi muttered, then broke open the shotgun.
Clack—
Then he brought his hand to his waist, but there was nothing to grab.
“Huh…?”
When Dawi checked his waist, his belt was gone.
Along with the cartridge pouch.
“Damn it, it must’ve come loose because of the tornado.”
Without ammunition, a shotgun was nothing more than a club…
Just as Dawi thought that while recalling his shotgun shells—
Shoop!
This time, three shells appeared in his left hand.
One each of birdshot, buckshot, and slug lay on his left palm.
“What… what the hell is this….”
Dawi realized that he had gained a magical ability, the kind he had only seen in novels.
“…Does it only produce one of each?”
The moment he thought that, three more shells appeared in his hand.
“Oh…!”
After thinking for a moment, Dawi loaded two buckshot shells.
Clack!
The remaining shells, after some time passed, turned to dust and disappeared.
Just in case, Dawi opened the shotgun again and checked the shells inside.
Fortunately, the loaded shells were fine.
“…How strange.”
Clack—
Dawi closed the barrels again and began to move,
crumple—
when he felt something underfoot and looked down.
“Oh…!”
Under Dawi’s foot was the cowboy hat that had flown away when he was swept up by the tornado.
Dawi picked up the hat, tapped the dirt from it, and put it on his head.
When he put on the cowboy hat, he remembered his collapsed dream.
It had been the cowboy dream he had leapt into, even giving up on marriage.
It had been a ranch that contained his life.
“Ha… damn it…”
Dawi swallowed the bitter feeling and moved on.
As Dawi walked through the forest,
rustle—
he heard something moving beyond the bushes.
“Ma… Malmal?”
Could his horse have been swept up by the tornado together with him?
Or could it be some terrifying carnivorous animal?
Holding both thoughts in mind, Dawi aimed his shotgun beyond the bushes.
Gulp—
The moment he swallowed once,
“Mweooooooo!!”
“Uwaaaaaah!! Fuck!”
What burst out was a gigantic cow.
Dawi screamed in shock at its size and appearance.
“Mweoooooo!!”
The creature roared even louder as it faced Dawi, its bulk the size of a rhinoceros.
Its appearance was unmistakably that of a cow, but there was only one horn on its head.
Seeing the monster cow, Dawi was certain.
This was not Texas. It was not even Earth.
This place was another world.
The monster cow charged at Dawi, its single horn thrust forward.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Dawi backed away and fired the shotgun.
Bang! Bang!
The two buckshot shells fired dug deeply into the monster cow’s flesh, but they could not stop it.
“Damn it!!”
Whirl!
Dawi rolled to the side and barely avoided the creature’s charge.
Crash—! Crack!
The beast slammed its horn into a tree, then turned back toward Dawi as the tree fell.
“Mweooooooo!!”
“Damn it!”
Dawi hurriedly pulled the shotgun’s triggers.
Click. Click.
But no bullets came out of the double-barrel shotgun, which had already fired both shells.
“You son of a…!”
Dawi turned and ran, summoning shells into his left hand.
“S-slug rounds!”
Two slug rounds appeared in his hand.
Clack!
He broke open the barrels and tried to load the shells inside,
rattle-rattle—click! Click!
but his hands were shaking like mad from tension. On top of that, since he was running at full speed, the shells would not easily go into the narrow chambers.
“Agh…!”
At that moment, Dawi regretted it.
‘I should’ve bought an automatic or semi-automatic… or at least a pump-action shotgun…!’
What did he mean, two certain shots? More like certain death after two shots.
At the very moment he resented his past self,
Click!
At last, one slug round went in properly.
Dawi threw away the other slug round and closed the barrels to load it.
Clack!
The barrels straightened into a line.
He turned around and aimed those long, stylish barrels at the monster cow.
“Dieeee!!”
Baaang—!!