Chapter 2

『You have awakened.』

『World Event – Faction War is in progress.』

Strength in numbers!

Create a faction, or join one.

Those who build their faction the fastest may receive special privileges!

『Current Affiliated Faction – None』

『World Event – Occupation War is in progress.』

I’m the crazy bastard of this area!

Occupy territory and expand.

The larger your faction grows, the more special privileges you may receive!

『Affiliated Region – ROK. 17』

『Occupation Status in Region』

1. ???(??%)

2. ???(??%)

3. ???(??%)

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“What the hell is all this…?”

Mysterious messages that appeared the moment I killed the monster.

People had died. Even I, who survived, was trembling all over, my strength drained from my body. And yet, the messages appearing before my eyes were so flippant it felt like they were mocking me.

‘You have awakened? Awakened to what?’

When I clicked the hologram floating in front of me, it reacted like a game system window.

The awakened job was Chef. Some kind of cooking-related traits…

‘And what is this now? An occupation war?’

While I was flustered by the contents, a loud noise came from far away.

Rat-a-tat tatang!

Tatang-bang!

A sound any soldier would immediately recognize…Gunfire. Gunshots ringing out inside a perfectly intact base, on a weekend with no training.

The reason wasn’t hard to guess.

“They showed up in other places too, huh?”

Even one of those monsters was horrifying. Which meant that the same kind of monster had appeared elsewhere in the base as well.

I turned my gaze to the corpse of the monster collapsed at my feet.

“I almost died to just one of these.”

No, it wasn’t just “almost.”

My junior, his neck torn open, dead in front of the cafeteria’s back door.

The youngest, his stomach ripped open by the monster, dead inside the grease-soaked kitchen.

Two juniors were actually dead…A total of four people. Excluding the one on leave, two out of three from the kitchen crew were dead. That was practically a majority of casualties.

If we were nearly wiped out by just one. If multiple monsters like this were roaming around.

Honestly, I didn’t have any confidence I’d survive.

“I barely made it out alive just now.”

It wouldn’t have been strange if I had died instead of my juniors…Death.

With only three days left until my final leave, dying here?

“That’s not happening.”

I will survive.

I’ll survive, go back to civilian life, properly learn how to cook, and open my own restaurant.

I’ll care about the interior design and marketing too, and even get listed as a Michelin star restaurant.

‘To do that, I can’t die here.’

“To survive…”

A famous saying came to mind.

“Strength in numbers.”

My hands were still trembling after pouring everything into killing the monster.

I grabbed my knee with those shaking hands and forced myself to stand up.

If I wanted to survive, I had to join up with the other soldiers. Holding Junhyuk’s sashimi knife in my left hand instead of my still-trembling right.

I moved toward the direction where the gunfire was coming from.

* * *

The cafeteria building was somewhat isolated from the other buildings in the base. The base itself wasn’t large, so the distances between buildings weren’t that far.

Still, I turned my head toward the direction the gunfire had come from.

“It’s probably the armory.”

It was an obvious guess. Due to the nature of the military, soldiers don’t usually carry bullets during normal times.

Except during training, most ammunition is stored in the armory.

The direction of the gunfire lined up with that. The place where the soldiers were was almost certainly the armory.

The problem was…

“Of all places, it had to be the exact opposite side.”

If the cafeteria was on the western edge of the base, the armory was near the eastern edge.

To get from the cafeteria to the armory, I’d have to cross the entire base. Normally, it was a distance you could stroll across without much thought. But now…With monsters possibly roaming around, it felt endlessly dangerous and far.

‘I should move through the buildings as much as possible.’

The roads inside the base were too exposed.

If I walked openly, a monster might spot me from afar and start chasing me. If I ran into a monster on the way to the armory, that would be the end of me. It would be better to move through the insides of nearby buildings without being noticed.

First, I sprinted into the supply unit building right next to the cafeteria and hid myself.

Then, after crossing through the supply building, I exited through the opposite entrance and quickly dashed into the maintenance unit building next to it.

Building to building. Keeping an eye out for any monsters, I cautiously made my way toward the armory.

I passed quite a few buildings, but there wasn’t a single sign of human presence.

It was the weekend. Not only officers, but even soldiers from most units weren’t on duty.

Rat-a-tat!

Even in that silence, intermittent gunfire could still be heard in the distance. Relying on that sound as a guide, I moved between the buildings, that was when I arrived in front of one particular building.

‘The barracks.’

Other buildings might be quiet because it was the weekend. But the barracks, where soldiers lived, should normally be noisy with chatter, TV sounds, and all kinds of noise.

Yet right now, it was just as quiet as the other buildings.

‘If those monsters attacked people.’

With a bad premonition in my chest, I opened the door to the barracks.

Inside was…Exactly what I had feared.

“Ugh…”

Yunsu, the youngest from the communications unit.

Corporal Park from the facilities unit, who used to be a soccer player outside. And someone whose face had been torn to shreds, unrecognizable.

People lay dead in the barracks corridor. There were corpses visible inside the rooms as well. Some windows were shattered, lockers toppled over. There was no doubt that a violent commotion had taken place.

While we were fighting the monster and dying in the cafeteria. The soldiers resting in the barracks on their weekend had also been caught up in the chaos.

“At least we had boiling oil in the cafeteria.”

The monster’s scales were incredibly tough. It probably wouldn’t have been easy to scratch them with ordinary blows.

I had barely survived by practically deep-frying the bastard with boiling oil…But the soldiers in the barracks had nothing like that. They would have had no way to fight the monster.

It must have been a massacre.

However, I noticed that several rifles were missing from each of the weapon racks assigned to the barracks.

The situation started to form in my head.

“The monsters attacked the barracks, and the ones who realized they couldn’t fight back grabbed guns and ran for the armory.”

Then, after replenishing ammunition at the armory, they began fighting the monsters.

That must be the source of the gunfire I was hearing.

After passing through the barracks, I continued toward the armory. From the moment I left the barracks, corpses began appearing here and there along the path.

Of course, the monsters wouldn’t just let soldiers run freely toward the armory with guns. Those bodies were probably soldiers who had been caught by the monsters while fleeing.

As I passed by the corpses and headed toward the armory.

Wriggle!

Something I had thought was just another corpse…Moved.

I couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

“Grrrk.”

A low, beastly growl.

‘Damn it…’

It was hard to see because it had been discarded into the roadside drain like trash.

It was a corpse, yes. But behind it, a monster was feasting on it, and I hadn’t noticed. The creature, identical to the monster I’d seen in the cafeteria, rose to its feet. Its reptilian eyes glinted grotesquely as it stared at me.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!’

I was so careful not to be noticed!

The armory was just a little farther!

‘And now I don’t even have boiling oil.’

The corpses in the barracks flashed through my mind. The soldiers who had been slaughtered without being able to do anything.

There hadn’t been any monster corpses among them. So many soldiers died without putting up any real fight.

So what made me any different?

“I’m supposed to die here with three days left until my final leave?”

‘If I had known this would happen, I should’ve applied for my final leave three days earlier. If Taejun hadn’t insisted that we go on leave together.’

‘What kind of loyalty to comrades, damn it, thanks to that, I’m about to be buried here with them.’

While such pointless thoughts ran through my head. The lizard-like monster slowly began walking toward me.

“Fuck it. Fine. Let’s do this.”

I wasn’t about to become this monster’s next meal.

I gripped the sashimi knife Junhyuk had carefully maintained and took my stance.

‘No matter how much of a monster it is, if I stab it enough, something’s bound to give.’

I had no real plan.

But with the thought that I couldn’t just die so easily, I focused on the monster’s movements.

『Skill – Chef’s Eye has been activated.』

『Analyzing ingredient…』

Before my eyes…Those mysterious messages appeared once again.

“What, what the hell is this now!”

The same strange text as before. The difference this time was that the text blocked my view, and I couldn’t see the monster.

I had just steeled myself to fight and die if necessary.

Was I really going to die this stupidly, because of some nonsense like this?

That thought crossed my mind.

『Ingredient analysis complete.』

『You have acquired ‘Lowest-Grade Cooking Secret – Insight into Lizard Butchering.’』

In my head, tthe method for “preparing” this monster surfaced naturally.

『Although lizards appear difficult to process due to their thick scales and large size, they are in fact one of the ingredients that anyone can prepare without much difficulty if they know the proper technique. First, it is important to cut off their breathing and drain the blood from their body…』

I’d only ever prepared vegetables in my life. I’d never processed a living creature before.

『The outer hide of a lizard is difficult to handle because of its scales, but the joints lack scales in order to allow flexible movement and are soft. Among these, the area under the left armpit is close to the heart. Lightly stabbing this spot will sever a blood vessel near the heart, allowing the blood to be drained easily.』

Like a fisherman who has lived his entire life on a trawler looking at fresh catch. Like a butcher with thirty years of experience looking at pigs, cows, and chickens…Like a chef looking at ingredients.

“Graaaah!”

The monster lunged at me, slashing its sharp claws. It was such a big movement, as if it expected me to dodge backward.

‘Then…’

I didn’t retreat, instead, I dove into the monster’s embrace.

The posture it took while swinging its claws was full of openings. Because it had swung its arm so wide, the armpit area was completely exposed.

‘The inside of the left armpit.’

From my perspective, that would be the right.

I thrust the knife toward that spot.

‘Huh?’

What startled me wasn’t the result

‘Did I miss?’

The blade went in far too easily.

For a moment, I wondered if I had stabbed empty air.

『Trait – Lowest-Grade Dagger Mastery』

『When using dagger-type equipment, proficiency increases.』

A warm sensation spread through my hand.

“Blood?”

From the armpit where I had stabbed.

The monster’s blood was gushing out at an incredible rate.

“Gr, rk…”

All the ferocity it had moments ago was gone. The monster, bleeding from its armpit, gradually lost its strength.

Then, with a heavy thud, it collapsed onto me…It was dead.

‘It’s not playing dead. It’s really dead.’

At the same time as the monster’s death.

I felt something within me being filled. A blissful sensation I’d never felt before in my life, impossible to properly describe.

『You have gained experience.』

* * *

『Chef’s Eye』

『A great chef cannot handle an ingredient they cannot deal with.』

『Even if it is an ingredient they have never handled before!』

『For targets judged as ‘ingredients,’ you can learn the proper methods of preparation and cooking through observation.』

That was the skill description.

“…Ingredient.”

A video I had once seen on YouTube came to mind. A fish thrashing wildly on a cutting board, only to go still the moment a knife was thrust between its fins, blood pouring out from there, a fish-preparation video.

Sure enough, a monster dying as blood poured out when stabbed. It was kind of similar to that video. But still…

“This monster is food?”

Learning how to butcher it was one thing.

But cooking it too?

『Insight into Lizard Cooking – Lizard meat is characterized by a clean and savory flavor, but tends to become tough if overcooked. If the gamey odor is not properly removed, the stench can become severe, so great care must be taken during preparation. The recommended cooking methods are…』

‘That’s Insane.’

I deliberately dismissed the cooking instructions appearing before my eyes.

That thing was a monster that had eaten people. The idea of people eating it in return was horrifying.

“Still. I guess I should be grateful I’m alive.”

Sudden messages appearing before my eyes. Butchering methods being forcibly injected into my mind.

I still had no idea what the hell was going on, but at least I was alive. That alone was something to be thankful for.

After pushing the monster’s corpse off my body, I headed toward the armory where the gunfire was coming from. Fortunately, aside from the monster I had just “processed,” I didn’t encounter any others. And so, I managed to reach the armory safely.

“Sergeant Shin Young-jun?”

“Hurry and get inside, sir!”

Near the armory, soldiers in casual wear with nothing but rifles in their hands were gathered.

“I-I survived.”

As the tension drained from my body, my legs gave out.

I slumped down on the ground and looked over the faces of the gathered soldiers.

At that moment…

『You have acquired ‘Lowest-Grade Cooking Secret – Insight into Primate Butchering.’』

“…”

‘My job, rookie chef…I guess I’m not a normal chef after all.’