Chapter 5

Increasing the Number of Awakeners (2)

Even Taejun managed to succeed in Awakening.

Though because the guy got injured, I didn’t get to hear what kind of ability he awakened with.

“All of you, focus!”

Crackle!

As the soldiers’ gazes converged, blue currents of electricity ran over Minjae hyung’s body. He even gathered and held the manifested lightning in one hand.

“M, magic…”

“So Awakening was real.”

The soldiers who saw the scene couldn’t close their mouths at the unbelievable sight.

My own awakened job as a Cook was plenty amazing too, sure. But aside from showing off a trick like slicing a table with a knife, it was hard to show any obvious changes on the surface.

In contrast, Minjae hyung’s magic was, at a glance, incredibly flashy. Just seeing it once was more than enough to make you believe in the phenomenon called Awakening.

‘A wizard appearing in reality, after all.’

If you kill a monster up close, you can Awaken. Now that this fact had been confirmed, there was no reason to delay any longer.

If we steadily awakened the soldiers in the planned order.

Someday, we would complete a force capable of fighting monsters even without guns.

“So, the next one who’s supposed to Awaken is… Facilities Team’s Gwang-il. Right?”

That was why I looked for the next soldier slated to Awaken.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il.

He’d also participated in the last meeting, and had somehow ended up as the senior-most member of the Facilities Team. But the look in his eyes was kind of strange.

“I-I can’t do it…”

“What?”

‘…This bastard?’

* * *

“I, no, I, I can’t do it. I absolutely can’t.”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il spoke with eyes trembling in fear.

“Hey, you think Taejun and I weren’t scared? The only thing I’d ever killed in my life before was mosquitoes.”

When Jeon Gwang-il insisted he couldn’t do it, the one who stepped up to persuade him was Sergeant Lee Minjae.

“But you know too, don’t you? That this situation isn’t normal right now. If we’re all going to survive, we need to set an example.”

“I, I understand that. But I still can’t do it.”

“Hey, you…”

Crackle!

Blue electricity crackled around Sergeant Lee Minjae’s face as he got angry.

Electricity flowing when he gets mad.

I was a bit taken aback by the sight, which reminded me of Pi-ka-chu, but I set that aside.

“No matter what you say, I can’t do it! I’m scared, what do you want me to do about that!”

With the previous senior-most member of the Facilities Team now dead, he was the current senior-most, and naturally had participated in the meeting.

When we talked about increasing the number of Awakened, he hadn’t raised any objections at all, so his sudden behavior was baffling.

If there was a reason…

‘Is it because Taejun got attacked by the monster?’

The incident where Taejun got his foot bitten by the monster we thought we’d drained of strength to the brink of death.

‘It’s not like that couldn’t happen to someone else.’

No, maybe Taejun was the lucky one for getting away with just being injured.

If something like this happened again, it might not end with just an injury, it’s understandable to be afraid. But even taking that into account.

“This is too pathetic…”

Jeon Gwang-il, who had been yelling that he couldn’t do it, had now gone as far as lying flat on the floor. The sight of a grown adult throwing himself on the ground and whining was uglier than I’d imagined.

‘Was he really this much of a deadweight?’

If anything, it was the opposite.

Jeon Gwang-il was over 190 cm tall, with a big, muscular build. Despite his size, he had a gentle personality, and I’d heard that he took on the Facilities Team’s tough jobs without complaint. He was so favored by the Facilities Team leader that he kept being urged to apply for extended service as soon as he got promoted to Corporal.

He was closer to an ace than anything else, so why?

“Corporal Jeon Gwang-il, I heard you’re timid for your size, but…”

I heard the voices of soldiers talking behind me.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently he’s fine with hard work, but he can’t handle climbing up high places, can’t watch horror movies… stuff like that.”

“Huh. He looks like he could just beat monsters to death.”

It was ridiculous. A man in the mid-190s, who could casually hit a 500 total in the big three lifts, rolling around on the floor saying he couldn’t do it.

‘Is he really just that scared, because he’s timid?’

Sergeant Lee Minjae also seemed fed up with Jeon Gwang-il’s behavior.

In the end, he let out a sigh and said, “Ha… fine. If you say you can’t do it, then I can’t force you. Do whatever you want.”

“Th, thank you—”

“But…!”

“Y-yes?”

“You. Don’t expect to be treated like a senior in this unit from now on.”

The military is a strict hierarchy. But ironically, ranks like Corporal and Sergeant aren’t everything.

The army is a place full of men who are sensitive about pecking order. Because of that, many can’t stand having someone above them who’s worse than they are.

If it’s just a personal issue between soldiers, they might just not get along. But when, in everyone’s eyes, a soldier clearly doesn’t deserve the treatment that comes with his rank, there are cases where the unit as a whole doesn’t treat him according to his rank.

Informal ostracism.

‘I mean, I’d only ever heard about cases like that. There wasn’t anyone in our unit who was that bad.’

Unless someone was truly problematic and couldn’t handle military life,

Jeon Gwang-il was an ace favored by the Facilities Team leader, and his rank made him practically one of the unit’s power holders.

To be told now that he wouldn’t be treated according to his rank was basically denying everything he’d worked for in his military life.

Sergeant Lee Minjae was telling him that if he was going to avoid Awakening, he should accept that level of humiliation.

“…Understood.”

The surprising part was, that Jeon Gwang-il nodded at that.

Was the fear really that overwhelming?

Maybe he knew himself that he’d shown a pathetic side.

He silently accepted the humiliation. But…

“Minjae hyung, and Gwang-il, hold on a second.”

From where I stood, this couldn’t end like this.

I stepped in between the two who were in the middle of their exchange.

“Young-jun?”

“Sergeant Shin Young-jun? No matter what you say, Sergeant, I can’t do it…”

“Ah, okay, I get it, just calm down for now. Can you go wait in the cafeteria for a bit? I need to talk to Minjae hyung.”

“…Understood.”

After sending Gwang-il off to wait in the cooks’ break room in the cafeteria, I pulled Sergeant Lee Minjae aside.

“Ha… what do you even want to talk about.”

Still not cooled down, Sergeant Lee Minjae lit a cigarette before we even started talking.

I waited until he took a drag and exhaled before opening my mouth.

“Minjae hyung, I get why you’re angry. I do. But even so, this can’t end like this.”

“…Hey, Young-jun. I know you’re kind, but that bastard Gwang-il pulled a real dumbass move. If he does that, then there should be consequences. If we just let everything slide…”

“Ah, that’s not what I mean.”

I’m not that kind, to begin with. I like cooking for people, sure, but I nag at juniors a lot too, and I curse plenty.

In the military, things don’t work if you’re just nice all the time. But this situation was different.

“If it were something else, I’d probably just go, yeah, whatever, and let it slide. I’m not even that close with Gwang-il, and he’s definitely in the wrong. But right now, the situation is different.”

“…Go on.”

“This is just my guess, but there are probably a lot of guys thinking about deserting right now.”

“What?”

Sergeant Lee Minjae looked startled, like what the hell was I talking about all of a sudden.

“Think about it. Monsters are popping up in the unit, officers and soldiers are dying. We can’t even contact the outside.”

Aside from the fact that what appeared in the unit were monsters instead of enemy troops, the atmosphere was basically like a war.

“You’ve probably thought at least once, ‘If a real war breaks out, I should desert,’ right? Right now it’s only been a short time since the incident, so everyone’s still lying low. But there are definitely guys whose mental state is wrecked and are thinking about deserting.”

“Hey, our unit’s in the mountains, it takes over an hour by car to get out. How are they supposed to desert? And it’s not like monsters would only attack our unit. If there are monsters outside too, this place where soldiers are gathered might actually be safer.”

“That’s why no one’s deserted yet. But if a little more time passes, there’ll be guys saying the outside might be safer. They’ll worry about their families out there too.”

This wasn’t just talk about others.

I was worried about my own family outside right now too. But what mattered most right now was surviving.

“Hyung. If we want to survive, we need to make the unit stronger.”

“…That’s true.”

“If soldiers desert, the unit gets weaker. On the other hand, if the unit gets stronger, more soldiers will think this place is safe, and we won’t have to worry about desertion as much.”

It was obvious.

People talk about deserting in war because being a soldier is dangerous.

If the army were actually safer, who would desert?

“Yeah, that’s why we were trying to make people Awaken, and then Gwang-il caused this whole mess.”

“Hyung. What I said we shouldn’t have done isn’t about saying we won’t treat Gwang-il according to his rank.”

“What?”

“The problem is that you said it’s fine if he doesn’t Awaken.”

If the Awakening process had gone smoothly, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but in the middle of it, Taejun ended up badly injured.

And a lot of soldiers saw that, fear would be spreading.

“It’s not just Gwang-il. There are probably a lot of guys who, if possible, want to be exempt too. Not being treated according to your rank? That’s still better than dying, right?”

“…”

“If even one case like this slips through, there’ll be a flood of guys insisting they can’t do it either. There could be friction between the soldiers who Awakened and those who didn’t.”

“Ha…”

“Right now, there aren’t even any officers left who can properly control us. If conflicts like that start now, it’ll lead to division in the end…”

“The unit will get weaker.”

“Exactly.”

If my job had been something else, maybe I could’ve just ditched the unit and tried to survive alone.

You know, like if I were a swordsman or an assassin.

Those kinds of classes often solo in games, don’t they?

In a similar vein, I might’ve tried to go solo, but my job was a level 1 newbie Cook.

Just hearing the name, it’s obviously a support role.

Not suited for solo play…To make good use of my job, I’d need to feed my food to someone, after all. And as a cook, the people who’d eat my food were the soldiers in this unit.

If the unit collapses, the people who’d eat my cooking disappear too. Keeping this unit strong so it doesn’t fall apart is the way for me to survive.

“Total Awakening of all personnel. No exceptions.”

Sergeant Lee Minjae rubbed his head as if a headache was coming on, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and continued,

“Fine, let’s say you’re right. But then we still have to persuade Gwang-il. How are you planning to do that?”

In the end, this was the problem. It wasn’t like Sergeant Lee Minjae wanted to let Gwang-il off the hook.

“If he was willing to accept that humiliation just to avoid Awakening, ordinary persuasion won’t work on him.”

“I’ve got an idea. Just trust me once.”

“If you say so… but it won’t be easy.”

With a doubtful look on his face, Sergeant Lee Minjae returned to the barracks.

It was definitely going to be difficult But I had something to rely on.

After sending Sergeant Lee Minjae back, I headed to the cafeteria.

“Sergeant Shin Young-jun…”

When I opened the door to the cooks’ break room,

I saw Jeon Gwang-il sitting there with his head hung low, a dark expression on his face.

“Hey, hey. I didn’t call you to chew you out, okay? Just stay seated.”

“Huh? Ah, y-yes…”

He awkwardly sat back down in the same posture he’d been trying to stand up from. A guy who’d been a Corporal for quite a while, looking so flustered.

He must feel pretty guilty.

“The reason I called you here isn’t anything special.”

“…”

I looked him in the eyes and asked seriously,

“Got any food you like?”

“…What?”

“Anything you want to eat. No, never mind, you probably feel awkward saying it. Let’s just go with fried rice, something simple.”

My job is Cook.

So the thing I can rely on is, obviously…

‘Cooking.’

I’ll turn you into a real soldier.