When Korea's first Gate encounter wrapped up favorably—if one could call it that—with only four casualties.
Countless nations that heard this news had no choice but to raise their alert levels for the residents beyond the gate.
"...The first guys were warmongers suffering a labor shortage, and the second one is a battle maniac?"
"What is the world coming to..."
Well, the first ones had invaded America trying to revive the class system that had been 'officially' abolished since Lincoln.
The second was none other than a battle junkie who abandoned subsequent combat because 'it wasn't a good fight.'
Since the Dimensional Gate gacha spat out hostile entities at a 100% rate, they might as well assume all other-dimensional sapients were warmongers.
"They're not even rookies without combat experience; they're a frontline unit that's fought plenty of monsters."
"Seeing how they treat those Agents like greenhorns, we might need to fire missiles just to subdue one."
Even if they had been dragged in via conscription, cursing out the drill instructor's question of 'Who forced you to come here?!' from day one—
the fact remained that an Awakener unit seasoned in luring, scouting, small-scale encounters, and suppressing monsters had been routed.
There were even reports that, given enough time and the right conditions, some operators could put up a good fight against a tank.
If those humanoid combatants could inflict PTSD, this level of special treatment was only natural.
"This is insane. Is it a blessing that our land is small, giving us fewer Gates?"
Faced with the sheer number of dice of destruction that larger nations were forced to roll.
"In the past, I would've snapped back asking if being small was something to be proud of... but seeing the homeland like this, I've got nothing to say."
The Commander of US Forces Korea, who had come to share more detailed combat data, was also left speechless.
A fire had broken out in our house, while this house was a hellish planet ravaged by typhoons.
Earth continued to spin today through this hellish chaos.
"Stay away... don't... don't come near me!!"
"Hey! I'm a Captain! Listen here, you little bastard! Why aren't you coming?!"
And in that hellish chaos at the frontlines, there were humans rolling pathetically on the floor to refuse treatment.
Having mustered the courage to carry out a rescue operation prepared to die, only to be beaten into silence by his comrades.
Hauled in alongside the injured, he was scheduled to suffer an immense amount of pain in exchange for 'healing.'
Human being Gim Chomok's spectacular thrashing and screaming show was unfolding splendidly inside the infirmary.
"Hey, am I a guinea pig or some white mouse?! Why do those guys get short, sharp pain while I have to suffer long and hard?!"
The funny thing was, while the critically injured patients had endured their cells burning in agony for a mere three minutes.
"Hey, Chomok. You gonna slack off in the infirmary or not?!"
"I won't, I absolutely won't...!! Aaaack---!!"
"Hey, you little punk! Do you know how much I suffered not being able to watch the channel I wanted because of you?!"
The only difference was that one guy, having brought this upon himself, had to become a 'volunteer' for the medic's ability development.
Originally, a field doctor's treatments, so long as there were no aftershocks, tended to be somewhat mitigated regardless of how serious they were.
"Aack, it hurts--!! Doctor Hippocrates, are you still keeping your eyes closed...!!"
"Tsk, does this bastard not know my temper? No, would I do you wrong?! I'm healing you properly!"
Until now, he had trimmed various aspects of basic healing abilities to raise the healing speed like crazy.
"Then try reducing the pain first, you mad scientist wannabe--!!"
This time, he was experimenting with a new direction by tweaking other parts.
"Come on, you mature through pain! If your sacrifice saves many people, that's the public good."
Specifically, he dropped the healing effect to the floor and sent pain relief into the negatives.
While cranking up effects like patient prognosis or wound infection prevention to the max—a torture... no, a healing ability that merely prevented complications.
"Isn't this for flawless skin without a single scar? It's consideration for someone who's getting out into society soon."
--As if a guy like that, even if he was from the special forces, would be useless just because he had scars!
If he wanted to live well in society, a body riddled with scars would be unsightly, so the medic wanted to do his best to restore him smoothly.
"I hate Gim Chomok for not understanding this heart! How dare he trample my 'pure heart'!"
Beads of sweat trickled down the medic's forehead as he performed his medical art with all his might, guided by that pure heart alone.
"Kuaaack, I refuse treatment--!! I refuse treatment! I'll believe in some heresy starting today, so stop it--!!"
"Huh, didn't you learn how important maintaining combat readiness is in the army?! Shut up and take it!"
For a duration proportional to that, bloody tears streamed from Gim Chomok's eyes.
He had picked a fight, and the interest he paid back was too steep.
That's just how loan sharks work, so what can you do—he shouldn't have taken out an aggro loan from the start.
The pig-slaughtering sounds in the infirmary ended one hour after the ability activated.
***
Of course, not everyone met such a happy defense ending.
As the Gate monsters began to decrease somewhat, the dates and times of each encounter differed, but—
"Huh...? What, uh... ugh?!"
"Uwaack, damn it! It's the appearance of big-eared ones similar to those American imperialist countries--!!"
Dimensional Gates that had cleared out a certain number of monsters inevitably spawned sapient beings capable of speech and expression.
"Ooh, what the... These guys are smaller than the ones we caught first... but there are more?"
Among them were also the big-eared alien marines they had seen before.
"Tch, the Eastern Theater guys suffered huge losses trying to approach them peacefully?! Next time, we tear into them first."
Perhaps spurred by the lesson learned from the big-eared alien marines, who had successfully carried out reverse-slavery and even the coolie trade.
"Per the Lieutenant General¹'s orders, the moment contact with a sapient being is confirmed, you may open fire immediately!"
"...Sapient confirmed! Per first-strike protocol...!! All units, open fire--!!"
The subsequent 'diplomacy' with the encountered sapients began with an exchange of iron rather than verbal violence, but—
- Beep, first strike confirmed... limited combat authorization until the opponent's extinction is confirmed...
0, in other words, die.
1, or survive.
For a civilization that expressed everything through two signals, the price of a first strike was quite steep.
Armed drones more numerous than hornets and suicide drones more plentiful than bees blanketed the sky.
"...Ha... damn it. You turtle-headed bastards..."
The price of a tit-for-tat strategy exchanging blow for blow was death notices for countless youths.
People watching the real-time collapse of one hegemon and another challenger to that hegemony—
before being struck down by the harsh climate-change slap of that abusive mama known colloquially as Mother Nature, scientific name Earth.
"...All is vanity and vanity..."
"Ah, I should have lived and died as a Fire Tribesman instead of studying--!! Mom was wrong--!!"
At the thought that they would be the first to disappear, they began spewing extreme nihilism...
Vroom...!!
"...Yeah, this is how I die. But let's do our best and die."
"Whether it's God, Odin, Buddha, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster... please watch over us."
Preparing for the final battle against other sapients heading their way.
They began adopting the mindset of 'let's at least die with style.'
"...What? Looking at their movements, am I supposed to stick this in my ear? ...Well, I put it in. What's different?"
"Ah, can you hear me? Short-eared species? I'm glad the translation function is working."
"...No, shit. Hold on. Huh?"
And not long after adopting that mindset.
At Korea's frontlines, the first human-friendly sapients approached.
"...We're not dying?"
It was a moment that proved the famous saying—those who wish to live will die, and those who wish to die will live—true across all eras.
***
The beginning of this event came after an encounter with violent sapients.
No sooner had his wounds healed thanks to the power of a medic who might have been a torture technician or a doctor.
"Wait, they're rotating even special forces? Do these bastards have brains or not?"
"You're a battalion for now. Soldiers are supposed to rotate around regions every few months."
"...Are these really special forces?"
After a moving operation to swap living areas with another battalion was carried out according to the same old manual that showed no signs of changing.
"Agh, I don't have much time left until discharge, they should just let me out there."
"...Discharge... Hmm. I don't know about that, but a soldier does his best while he's here anyway."
The sight of them desperately running people ragged even with so little time left in service.
"Ugh, the moment I'm discharged I'll smear shit all over this battalion..."
Gim Chomok, who today again sucked the forest dry inside the Gate and traded punches with monsters.
"Damn... it's over. Does this mean I have to hand my body over to that damn sadist again."
It happened while he was grumbling and dragging his body, torn by overclock aftereffects, as he retreated.
A chill...!!
From afar, though fewer and less threatening than the ominous energy pillar from before.
Even at full condition, he would have to grapple with one to buy time, yet several were approaching at high speed.
"Tch, this means I'm done for..."
Just as he thought his turn had finally come and sat on the ground in resignation.
"!%#?"
"...Shit, what are they saying. I can barely handle one language, so say something I can understand..."
Completely incompatible with the English he had learned countless times for employment throughout elementary, middle, high school, and even college—
at the splendid tongue gymnastics of an alien civilization, saying that even King Sejong would have to regard these damned barbarians with respect.
Leaving behind a rather cheap parting remark, he put the object handed over from them into his ear.
"...So, this is your species' technology that auto-translates for me? That's fucking awesome!"
"Ah, yes. Though it has the side effect of reading your mind, and it's obvious when you lie."
"...Oh, shit. It's the thing that'll end my life. I'm screwed."
Gim Chomok let out a groan at a device that was clearly for interrogation.
"Sigh, fine. Our base is beyond that gate over there... make sure to tear the medic limb from limb and kill him. That's all I need..."
He quickly played his part as a prisoner, telling them to take him captive.
"...Huh? No, this area is a monster habitat, so we came to tell you to give up if you were thinking of migrating."
"...What."
A completely different, pure goodwill—unlike what he had imagined—crashed down upon the poor Korean.
"Wait, hold on! What. You're not fighting?! Those big-eared guys that appeared in America were slave traders?!"
To a soldier who had been prepared to become a POW and endure a 'Labor shall set you free'² situation.
The sapients, having completely blindsided him with good intentions, began to panic.
"...From our perspective, we just think of you as short-eared sapients..."
"Ah, everything is relative."
In any case, these bipedal lifeforms with large ears and humanoid shapes communicated well even if they needed attachments.
Most of them looked like humans with a few extra attachment parts added.
- Breaking news! The first friendly sapient in history is visiting the Korean government right now!
"Please look over here! We'll take a photo!"
"I have a question! Do you have plans for trade or cultural exchange!"
"You're so pretty---!!"
In an instant, these long-eared sapients succeeded in breathing the first hope into the entire Earth.
"Agh, this makes me sick... why do things always work out for them!!"
Well, from the perspective of nations shedding bloody tears at various Gates, it was bound to make them green with envy.
“Hey, still, this means we’ve got hope too. Not every dimensional gate comes with some goddamn racial-extinction keyword.”
“…Is that so? Do we have a chance too?”
“So go enlist already, you damn draft-dodging youths.”
For a large country that had already been issued plenty of dimensional gates, A.K.A. “tickets to national ruin,” it was nothing short of hope.
Compared to an ongoing, species-ending crisis, a bit of smug gacha-bragging on the level of, “Didn’t you just pull the wrong one?” was practically cute.
Fortunately, not long after, the next friendly species popped out in the country right next door.
“Woof!”
“…Hold on. Why is a bipedal Shiba³ dog coming out of there? This is Akita秋田, isn’t it?”
It was the type of bipedal creature that looked like it would appeal to “people with suspicious tastes.”
Still, it didn’t attack first, and the way it looked over and sniffed at them was unbearably cute.
“…It’s clearly a dog no matter how you look at it, but is it okay to feed this thing chocolate?”
Not long after, they bought goodwill with luxury snacks.
“…So, you live an agriculture-centered life… and you live together with many friends, obtaining byproducts from them.”
“Pant, pant…”
As anyone could tell just from the way they drew pictures on the ground to explain that most of them farmed or built barns and worked in primary industries.
They understood speech, and they were highly intelligent. At a glance, they were clearly a species capable of higher thought.
‘…Major三佐⁴, sir, what do you think the bastards who sent us to scout these as potential hostiles were thinking?’
‘Fuck, it’s not like the assholes upstairs have only been doing stupid shit for a day or two. How the hell would I know?’
They had built their own civilization, and they were the rulers of the nations on the planet they came from.
Even if their technological development had branched off in entirely different directions—or lagged far behind.
“All right, then show us how you use that digging tool…”
Kwaaaang!!
“…will you?”
It seemed the logic that if your body was strong enough, your head didn’t have to suffer applied in other worlds too.
The sheer strength to smash to pieces the head of a giant worm that had burrowed in beneath the ground without anyone noticing.
“…Nice shot. Wow, look at its head blown apart.”
“Isn’t that one of the individuals bullets don’t work on? …If we’d picked a fight first, our heads would’ve been caved in like that too.”
No matter where you went, people naturally had a low affinity for bastards they couldn’t communicate with.
The bipedal people who offered them combat rations they’d brought out as supplies were, of course, good people.
And the worm bastards that looked at you like combat rations were already goddamn pests that wrecked their fields, so all the more so.
“Thanks! Take care! Next time we come, we’ll bring something you can eat too—!!!”
Woof!
Watching the max-strength bipedal Shiba dog, who had casually caused a sonic boom with a single hoe in its hand,
trudge back beyond the dimensional gate with a face that seemed to say, “I wonder what’s for dinner today,”
“…Just let them try bitching that we met a new species and couldn’t drag even one of them back.”
—If they did, death would be guaranteed, so superior officer or whatever, he’d have to shoot them in the knee.
A young Japanese man who had joined the military after failing to get into art school, and who had a tendency toward animal-loving deep down, muttered without thinking.
Thanks to these two cases of encounters with friendly intelligent lifeforms, humanity regained a little room to breathe.
If Korea’s case had presented the principle of “do not touch unless harmed first,”
Japan’s case established the common sense that “monsters are monsters in any world.”
“…So, if there are monsters nearby, they’ll beat up the familiar bastards first before talking to us, since we aren’t attacking them?”
“Well, of course, right? As for us, if permission to engage doesn’t come down, we just don’t attack first…”
With that single piece of common sense, humanity and the countless civilizations that opened gates and came to scout
had gained comrades on the anti-monster front, with whom temporary alliances were possible as long as they weren’t warmongers or slave traders.
“Wow. Fuck… thank god. Our house of cards is still open for business!!”
The rulers of Earth, Homo sapiens, realized that the doomsday clock had not yet passed midnight.
As an added bonus, they confirmed that the world they had lived in, knowing only themselves, had expanded to an unimaginable scale.
“…Wow, I need to go to JAPAN right now. There’s a reason for me to keep living over there.”
At the same time, though it would be a few more years before it happened…
“…What the hell did you stick it in for a newborn to come out covered in fur, you crazy human—!!”
“But it was born, wasn’t it?”
The scope of Homo sapiens becoming somewhat broader was also… an unavoidable side effect.