The battalion commander's quarters had their lights on even in the dead of dawn.
Sounds drifted out, and the sight of human silhouettes occasionally flashing between the curtains made it clear—they were doing their best to figure out where he was right now, but...
"Since I vanished midway, unless they wake up the ability users to catch me, they don't have many options."
If they had slapped a tracker on him from the start, maybe, but had they focused all their efforts on sending armed troops solely to capture him?
"Did they operate under the premise that soldiers naturally obey orders? Do they have brains or not?"
The assumption that he would meekly roll over and take whatever they dished out completely ruined his mood.
How delightful it must have been for them to fantasize that he would come quietly when called, without even a twitch of resistance.
If he had actually been dragged back in handcuffs, what kind of snowball of threats would they have rolled out?
The thought naturally twisted his guts with rage. It was incredibly irritating.
"Armed desertion is the worst kind of desertion... and if they pile on a few incidents in the military..."
They would have sent him to a court-martial, then coaxed him with a plea deal. If he didn't want a red line through his life, he would have to bend it back on itself like a seagull's wings.
"Ugh, they would have milked me until I died or got seriously injured, then tossed me back into society with a token pension."
A group that calls you 'our soldier' when you can still run around, then tells you 'it's your life' once you've outlived your usefulness. If they understood that other people's lives mattered, they wouldn't have pulled this shit in the first place, so no leniency.
"Then, since you rolled a snowball of humiliation at me, it's only proper I roll something back in return, isn't it?"
No matter how much the army had an image of guards standing perimeter duty roughly and slacking off when bored, as a species, humans ought to have the wisdom to use machines to maintain minimum efficiency.
At the very least, there was a dimensional gate right in front of them where monsters could burst out at any moment. The ammunition depot, basic roads, and of course the barracks area, the battalion commander's office—corridors like the command and control room. They might not have cameras near the guard posts, to prevent demoralized soldiers from deserting, but they surely had CCTV elsewhere.
So, of course, taking revenge during duty hours would be the worst of the worst strategies, marking him one hundred percent at fault even under military discipline.
"I realized it when I glanced around while waiting with my rifle every day for firing drills... the vicinity of the quarters isn't safe either."
Few in number though they were, cameras were installed on the main approach routes to the officer quarters and the commander's residence. Infiltrating along that path was also a bad move that could cause problems later.
But if humans prepared for the fact that where there's a will there's a way, then one simply needed to cross above it.
"The rocky mountain right beside the quarters is at an angle no person could climb, with no path to speak of, so they won't have installed cameras there."
Kim Chomok, who had lightly bounded up this cliff-like incline, rolled his shoulders.
If he were Jeong Il-hwan, he would have said, "I didn't know such a beautiful custom existed in Korea," but for someone like him who had only grown stronger, wasn't there a custom better suited to his nature?
"Namely, a traditional game handed down since the Joseon Dynasty!"
Called *Seokjeon*—the Stone War—it was an ancient method of interest distribution among the common people, used to resolve all manner of conflicts. An event boasting the greatest tradition of the Korean Peninsula, which their ancestors had maintained until the early 1900s, was unfolding right here.
*Kwaaang...*
After driving a fist, hardened beyond iron through body strengthening, into a large granite boulder near the summit—
"Oh my, Battalion Commander! A stone is rolling, it's going..."
Placed on a smooth slope worn by wind and rain, it would naturally accelerate. By the law of energy conversion, the mass lost to friction during the descent was regrettable, but wasn't this the perfect strategy, minimizing the need for his own hands while maximizing others' misfortune?
Of course, leaving everything to the heavenly judgment of natural laws was an act of not trying one's best and simply wishing for luck. Before the heavenly punishment rolling down the slope could strike the quarters, it was time for a man-made disaster.
After lifting a boulder the size of a millstone overhead—
"A rockfall is still rock. Shall we see how lucky our Battalion Commander is in the face of this natural disaster?"
*—Huratcha—!!*
This time, borrowing the power of gravity, he launched it high into the sky to make it plunge down from above. Anyone could see it was the stars themselves attacking the man, not him.
*Hwiing! Hwiing! Hwi-i-ing—!!*
Cutting through the air, the rocks that soared into the sky would reach their apex and descend to their impact point on their own. He probably couldn't plant them with the precision of an American baseball player striking the zone, but if the DNA of *Seokjeon*—represented by Korean baseball—still remained, then even if he couldn't hit the strike zone, the ability to hit the opponent's body would still be there.
"Traditional games need a crude taste to be authentic, don't they?"
Having done all a human could do, he had no choice but to leave the rest to the heavens. It wasn't like he was a punk who threw rocks for a living; even if the commander came out unscathed, it should have been warning enough.
*Kwaaaaaang—!!*
Kim Chomok watched as the rock he rolled struck precisely near the door of the battalion commander's quarters. He faithfully followed the fire-and-forget meta of modern artillery.
"Ugh, look at the whole thing shake."
He descended as quickly as possible along the ridgeline, avoiding the road with its many surveillance cameras. Since the unit was in a mountainous area, his cold-sensitive body was pleading to get back inside quickly, but... well, having pulled out the biggest rock and rolled it, then thrown the various large rocks that were supporting the soil into the air, the fact that the rock mountain was collapsing somewhat faster than expected also contributed to his decision.
"Fundamentally, Rock-type basics are dropping rocks and Stone Showers, but..."
*Rumble rumble rumble...!!*
"No matter how much I'm a Grass-type, getting hit by that and having to look at that quack's face until my discharge..."
Even if type matchups meant the damage was only standard, pain was still pain.
Having thoroughly watched the soil and rocks of the collapsing mountain sweep over the battalion commander's quarters in magnificent fashion, Kim Chomok declared:
"Now, shall we go inside and enjoy the victor's feast?"
He circled around naturally and entered the building, shivering pathetically from the cold like a soldier who had just finished a thorough watch.
"Ugh... I've returned. It's damn cold out there... I should eat some ramen."
"Oh, Chomok, you're back? Sorry for making you suffer unnecessarily on your discharge day. Eat up and get back to bed."
Naturally slurping down a bowl of ramen, he bid farewell to the final episode of his grueling military life.
***
With his house buried in a landslide, it was only natural that the battalion commander couldn't report for duty normally the next day. Of course, his life—the most important thing—had been barely spared, as if it weren't his time to go yet. Perhaps thanks to his personality, or because he was a single old bachelor, he didn't need to worry about the safety of a wife and children who existed only in his imagination.
—The quarters' exterior, totaled! The belongings inside, wrecked! One, two, three, four! Bankrupt!
The economic pain of replacing the various household goods he had scrimped his meager soldier's salary to buy, and—
"Kuaaack, kuaaaaack...!!"
—the physical pain of restoring his limbs, which had been shattered by rocks, using his ability, just as the saying about barely surviving implied. Suffering under this dual agony, he had to roll around the clinic floor all day. Rolling in a manure pit is better than dying, but he must have wondered if it was truly better than actually dying.
"Goodness, Battalion Commander. Please bear it! You're screaming like a jujube-bearded elder hit by a poisoned arrow."
"Uaack, you crazy bastard...!! How the hell do those ability user bastards endure this...!!"
When a psycho medic who prioritizes efficiency harvests a lifetime's worth of pain in a lump sum, there is no contest.
'...Well, it's true that I'm deliberately healing him slowly.'
No matter how good the medical officer's treatment was, there must have been attempts to exploit clearly elite, high-level personnel. A psycho who had been harboring petty grievances about paperwork being passed around wouldn't miss the opportunity.
Since he had been humiliated, the interest in his rage bank should be pain on the level of acute gout and kidney stones.
"No, please try to endure it... or rather, if you want speed, I could roughly patch your body together and finish quickly..."
"You can?!"
Though rotten to the core, he was still a doctor, showing a kind side by informing the patient that a faster solution existed.
"That would mean roughly stitching your flesh together into a rag, then leaving the rest to natural healing..."
"Uaack, not that—!!"
...what could one do but blame oneself for incurring the wrath of a psycho completely devoid of kindness?
With the man at the top in such a state, the report for today's dischargee naturally fell to the next in line.
"Ahem, acting in the Battalion Commander's absence. This operations officer will see off today's dischargee."
"Unity! You've worked hard all this time!"
Kim Chomok's discharge ultimately had to be passed to the major serving as battalion staff, the operations officer.
And naturally, the army is an organization where the younger an officer is, the less likely they are to be a nuisance to others. The officer in charge of the CIC, who always thoroughly looked after his subordinates, sent off with a smile the ace who had produced the best results for their reckless operations.
"It was long."
Dragged in as a private, suffering all through private first class, and becoming the target of obsession as a sergeant—the end of a turbulent military life that no one could have imagined.
"Ah, shit... that bastard's leaving while I still have a year left. Damned father's draft number."
While his friend, watching him disappear with envious eyes, diligently stood guard at the unit entrance—
"I'm leaving—!! You stay—!!"
"...Squad leader, there's a straggler in front of me who seems to have taken something he shouldn't have. Can I just shoot him, over?"
*...Leave him be. Haven't you heard that dischargees are basically bipolar for a day, over?*
Kim Chomok, who had put on an unhinged spectacle for over ten minutes in front of the barricade just to spite his friend, grinned broadly at that scrunched face and boarded the subway that would take him to his studio apartment.
"Ugh, I'm not wearing this damn uniform that reeks of military life for even a minute longer. Achoo!"
Having changed into the shorts and T-shirt he wore when going out, desperate to escape the uniform even a little, catching an early summer cold that supposedly not even dogs get the day after discharge was a bonus.
***
"Yes. Rejoice that you succeeded in getting discharged. I'll make you realize that it was a dream."
Of course, society had no intention of forever releasing a useful slave just because he had slipped away once. If they couldn't keep him inside the military, next the noose of the 'law' had to bind them.
"Ability users are the shield of society! Are we not in a state of emergency!"
"Ah... no, but dragging discharged personnel back like this doesn't make sense..."
"How dare you!!! Failing to protect the nation means you are a traitor!!"
A method of manpower utilization proposed so naturally by the bigwigs who had never even served. The so-called "Ability User Force Maintenance" Act entered review with the tacit consent of the masses.
—Recently discharged ability users, re-utilized to meet the era of monster outbreaks... 'an unavoidable measure for national defense'...
—An unavoidable law to prevent national collapse... 'Once the situation eases, they will be demobilized again'...
"...What? Those bastards?!"
While suffering from a summer cold, a cold pack pressed to his head, to a certain young man who had been full of hope and determined to enjoy himself to the fullest before returning to school, it was a disaster.
—Ability user. Military service guidelines changed... 'After enlisted service, proceeding through the officer track, volunteers can even become commissioned officers...?'
- Discharge is only permitted in special circumstances... "A national pension for victims who can no longer fight!"
"...What the fuck is this? So you're telling me to live as a soldier until I die?"
Having let his guard down thinking he had one year left on his sentence, he belatedly realized it was actually life imprisonment.
To a certain fiery young man standing before the Gate, it was an obstacle shattering every plan he had for his future.
- Healing-type ability users will be a tremendous boon to promoting the medical industry... We promise the best treatment under national insurance and for military personnel!
- The reduction of mandatory officer service for healing-type ability users, scrapped... "We are also reviewing plans to increase it from the current term... for the sake of fairness"
"Well, well, look at these bastards? They can't read the room."
To a certain psycho doctor who, watching the news in real time, had pulverized the walnut in his hand—
—they were nothing but sons of bitches incapable of reading the room, indiscriminately spewing populist policies.
Naturally, their reactions were all over the place, but rather—
Thanks to that, those attempting to propose this law began taking fire from all sides.
"How does it make sense that occupational coercion, which is banned even by the constitution, is being perpetrated in the twenty-first century?!"
"...U-urk. B-but the country..."
"The constitution is that country's fundamental law; if you ignore it and suddenly change course, the foundation disappears! The foundation!"
If all politicians were fools who only chased short-term gains, Korea would already be ruined.
An idiot incapable of shooting down a single populist policy trying to split the non-ability user vote and leech it dry didn't deserve to pin a badge.
With the legislators split cleanly in half, the parents of the next generation turned their backs.
"Um, what happens if our child becomes an ability user? Then they'd have to stay in the army forever..."
"...Ah. Now that I think about it, you're right? I don't want our child to suffer!"
The moment of ability manifestation is hardly some social stigma stamped on you since infancy.
Even at this very moment, teenagers and youths suddenly manifesting abilities are a dime a dozen—so how could parents not worry?
"An evil law that fixes our children's future, OUT!!"
They would rather openly throw their weight behind the opposition and be on the side that shattered expectations for the next election.
"...Are these survey results correct?"
"Assemblyman. I don't think this is going to work. We need to narrow the scope or something..."
Maintaining a dignified silence, the neutral voters sharpening their knives until election day could create variables at any moment.
In the worst-case scenario, the story went that a flood of 'go to hell' protest votes could come out of districts they were confident of winning, getting them kicked out.
"Ugh... Th-then it's fine to pull people who have already been discharged from ability user units and use them, right?!"
"We rigged it to the extreme just to get past the immediate crisis; we didn't even expect that much!"
Well, they weren't idiots either, so they immediately shifted tactics. Persuading everyone to look at the bigger picture.
"...Well, if our kids' future is okay, then that's not bad."
"If you promise not to cast opposing votes against the policy we're pushing, that much is negotiable, no?"
Announcing a somewhat softened alleviation policy, they succeeded in leaving the impression, 'Yeah... it is a crisis right now.'
"If you touch the medical officer part, it won't be pretty..."
"Y-yes, we'll reduce that back to the original scope, so rest assured and concentrate on saving lives!"
"I'll be watching. If you don't want to become a cadaver on a hospital bed in an instant, you'd best behave."
Smoothing away even the last obstacle that had suddenly barged in, the 'Temporary Troop Re-mobilization' Bill passed just like that.
At the very moment they were about to pop the champagne of self-congratulation, claiming that society was revolving beautifully thanks to the sacrifice of a few young men.
"Ah, is that so? But we don't like that. You bastards."
"W-who are you?"
"Delinquents from ability user units who just got discharged, and soldiers who were only looking forward to their discharge."
From the very beginning, those closest to violence thought very differently.
No, we've already suffered so much, and you're telling us to go suffer again? Are we even human?
"""Where on this planet does my happiness exist, you damned bastards!"""
Having turned active-duty ability user soldiers—now split largely into two camps—into enemies was an iron law that demanded a price be paid.
"What the, why are monsters all the way out here... Uwaaack--!! Fire! Open fire!"
"Nothing showed up on the threat reconnaissance?! No, who the hell is the recon officer in charge inside the dimensional Gate today?!"
In units mixed with silent and passively complicit members, the injury rate of non-ability user soldiers began to soar in real time.
The ability users who, until now, had carried out threat reconnaissance or done their utmost to complete first-interception or luring missions.
"Wow, do you think our military life is rubber clay? Then our attitudes should slacken like rubber clay too."
"Go ahead and set up more surveillance cameras... I can't even get discharged, so why the hell would I serve hard?"
Like the miracle of the seven-man entrance blockade, they began to ruthlessly abandon combat engagement if the situation posed even the slightest physical danger.
"Grit...!! Then operate mixed reconnaissance units of ability users and non-ability users."
Had they thought, 'If there are monitoring troops beside them, they'll mind their manners and do their best'?
"...Excuse me. Then the ordinary troops can't keep up with the ability users."
"...What?"
"Even the weakest ability user basically has energy cloaking their body; how could they possibly keep up?"
Even if not an ability user like Gim Chomok, who uses almost all his energy on physical enhancement.
Most ability users naturally learn to cloak their own bodies in energy.
"It's like one guy is going by motorcycle while the other is running; how could that work?"
Given the difference in mobility and stamina, by the time reconnaissance ended and they returned, the non-ability user would just be arriving at the scene.
Unless the entire army is mechanized, that's a pipe dream.
"...Then attach something like a CCTV to their bodies! Perfect for holding them accountable later!"
A solution did come up to attach body cams, claiming they would firmly establish who was responsible, but—
"O. H. M. Y. A mistake!"
*Crunch!*
Physical enhancement-type ability users, who had to dodge or block monsters' attacks by a paper-thin margin, used them as shields.
"...What is this?"
"No, why are you throwing a fit at me when you gave plastic to an ability user who raises his body temperature? Don't you have a brain?"
Psychic-type ability users, represented by Jeong Ilhwan, naturally wrecked the cams during their ability manifestation process.
"Here, wear this..."
*Tap!*
"Red Sun. From now on, you forget this entire process."
"...Hehehe. What did I come here to do again..."
Mental-type ability users simply subdued the non-ability user monitors with ease.
Thus, even with such trivial hindrances, the many who had been coasting comfortably began to suffer.
"These crazy bastards! Selfish bastards who don't care about the nation's security!!"
"Hey! Watch your mouth! I say, you all need to go easy..."
The people who started this began struggling desperately to fix these youths' 'short-timer' mindset by any means necessary, but—
"...Is it okay for you to speak like that? For us, we're coming out incredibly gentlemanly."
"...What?"
Surprisingly, these people were at the level of 'silent supporters,' or the faction that 'agrees with control but opposes forced mobilization.'
This was nothing more than a tasting sample offered briefly before the full purchase of this trolling.
"Man, since when was my surname Park? I thought this was that damn commander's life, someone else's life, but it was mine all along."
"...So, are you saying you'll refuse the nation's call?"
As for the true hardliners, the ones who had not even started their engines yet, it was far too early to be making death rattles.
A 1=1 youth who believes that if someone forces anything on another, they must reap an equivalent price.
"Yes. It means we'll refuse. You damned bastard! Drop dead!"
*VROOOOOM--!!*
Gim Chomok's rage button turned red, emitting an intense start-up sound.