Chapter 14

Lieutenant Kim (1)

“Looks like the soldiers have returned, hyung.”

In one of the rooms on the third floor of the barracks. A man who had slightly lifted the window blinds to look outside spoke.

“Hah, a group night stroll in the middle of the night. Must be living it up.”

The man called hyung replied.

“…Do you think this could become a problem?”

“Heh heh, at best they’re just a bunch of kids barely in their twenties. That guy who’s supposedly the only officer looks like a softie who’s just full of military spirit. What can they even accomplish scheming among themselves?”

Five men were sitting on their respective beds in the room.

“More importantly. The thing I told you to check. You did check it properly, right?”

“Yes. I asked a few soldiers as naturally as possible, but so far, there haven’t been any answers that sounded like Awakeners.”

“I took a look myself too. It seems they use guns when dealing with monsters.”

“When I asked as well, none of them seemed to find it strange. They all answered without much suspicion.”

“Then the chances that there are any Awakeners are probably low. If we proceed as planned, there won’t be any problems.”

“Yes. Then when should we make our move?”

“Just in case, let’s observe the situation for a few more days. If it seems like there won’t be any issues, we’ll do it right away. Being cautious never hurts.”

“Yes, hyung.”

* * *

The morning after the soldiers gathered and finished their meeting.

After finishing preparing breakfast, I sat in the cafeteria lounge, fidgeting with the dog tag hanging around my neck.

The reason I was holding onto the dog tag, which I normally didn’t even wear that often, wasn’t because I suddenly felt nostalgic about the feel of this piece of metal or anything like that.

『Clan Emblem — Leader』

『An emblem that proves one’s membership in a clan.』

『Stat bonuses are granted according to the size of the affiliated group.』

This was it.

In this world that had turned into a game, this was the first ‘equipment item’ I had obtained.

‘A clan, huh.’

Last night.

Through the meeting, our unit had grown from a ‘party’-scale group to a ‘clan’-scale group.

‘Thirty Awakeners and one leader.’

The thirty Awakeners had just barely met the required threshold. The lizards we captured alive after the fight with the chieftain were all used as materials for Awakening, and the lizards that attacked afterward were also all used for Awakening as well.

Originally, safely subduing lizards wasn’t easy. Even if ten of them attacked, at most only two could be used for Awakening.

But as time passed, the unit members became more accustomed to dealing with lizards, the number of Awakeners increased, and…

‘Most of all, we have healers now.’

Even if the lizards put up some resistance, the healers step in and treat the injuries.

There’s no longer a need to push them into a state where they can’t resist at all. All the remaining attacking lizards became Awakening materials for the unit members. Thanks to that, the pace of Awakening picked up, and we managed to Awaken as many as thirty people.

And with a leader being designated, our unit’s status was elevated to that of a clan.

Judging by the message that appeared in the achievements, the clan-scale group in ROK…

Which means, we’re the second in South Korea.

‘Come to think of it, when five Awakeners gathered and achieved the party-scale achievement, I think we received the third-place reward.’

‘Did we overtake one team?’

It feels strange that we’re moving ahead this quickly, but…

‘It’s not a bad thing. The achievement rewards are great too.’

This dog tag I’m holding right now is precisely the reward for being the second to form a clan.

『Group Skill (Emblem)』

『You may choose an object suitable to serve as the symbol of your group and designate it as an emblem. The emblem can only be worn by those who belong to the group, and it provides stat bonuses according to the group’s size. The bonus values vary depending on one’s position within the group.』

“Nice.”

Unlike ‘Vimana,’ which had no explanation and whose appearance I didn’t even know, this was a simple yet powerful effect that provided stat bonuses to everyone in the group.

Needless to say, that applied to me as the leader. Even the other Awakened soldiers felt the increase noticeably.

About the same as the stat boost you’d get from eating food I made while putting in a moderate amount of effort?

‘It’s a shame that the only thing everyone in the unit has, and that’s suitable as an emblem, is a dog tag.’

When I used the emblem skill on the dog tag, all the dog tags carried by the Awakeners turned into items. The text engraved on them changed slightly as well.

Where the military ID number used to be, the clan name and rank were now inscribed, and a small emblem-like pattern appeared in the background.

Dog tags, they’re in the form of a necklace, so they can be carried around at all times, and they’re good for proving affiliation. Since this was decided after consulting with the other unit members, I honestly think it was the best possible choice.

“Still, of all things, a dog collar…”

No, it’s just that, emotionally speaking, dog tags are a bit unfortunate.

But, that wasn’t the only unfortunate thing.

“Why did it have to be me?”

The one leader required to meet the clan conditions.

The fact that it had to be me.

‘Why am I the leader? What kind of sense does it make for a cook to represent a unit?’

After last night’s meeting ended, I went to Minjae Hyung and asked him.

— “You were the first to Awaken, and you were the one who set the unit’s policy of increasing the number of Awakeners.”

— “No. That was just luck…”

— “You figured out the monsters’ weaknesses, and you played the biggest role in the large-scale raid.”

— “…”

— “And you were the one who communicated the most with everyone, even doing one-on-one interviews to survey their tastes, saying we need to enhance the buff effects of your cooking.”

— “That’s…”

— “At this point, wouldn’t it be stranger if it weren’t you?”

— “That may be true, but…”

When he laid it out like that, point by point, there was no room for rebuttal. And that wasn’t even all.

— “The other Awakeners killed the lizards after weakening them with guns, but you killed monsters with just a kitchen knife. Two of them, at that.”

— “It wasn’t as easy as you make it sound.”

— “On the first Day of the Catastrophe, a lot of unit members saw you walking around holding a kitchen knife stained with monster blood.”

— “?”

— “‘A rumor spread throughout the unit that you were so strong you could kill monsters that even guns had trouble with, using nothing but a knife.”

No, when did that kind of rumor even start spreading?

— “This is a highly unstable situation. Our unit needs a strong leader.’

— “And that’s supposed to be me?”

— “Gwang-il, the berserker, has a similar image, but he’s too gentle by nature. As for me… well, it’s a bit awkward to say this about myself, but I’m not exactly well-liked.”

There were even jokes going around about how, if a war broke out, people would shoot Lee Minjae in the back first.

‘I had heard that kind of talk.’

— “In the end, you’re the only one left.”

Minjae Hyung said he’d been thinking that way for days already.

After asking around and confirming that no one objected, that was when he put me forward as the leader. All I’d done was struggle to strengthen the unit as a means to survive, to live and someday open my own restaurant.

But to the unit members, it must have looked different.

‘With him going that far, I couldn’t exactly refuse.’

In the end, I accepted the leader position.

After discussing a few more agenda items, the meeting was adjourned.

Now, the unit members move with me in mind as their commander, not Kim, the lieutenant.

Sure enough…As I sat waiting in the cafeteria,

“Salute.”

“Yeah, did you take care of the things I asked you to?”

“Yes.”

A soldier came to find me.

“We conveyed that, if anyone in the unit asks about our jobs, they should never mention the job shown on the status window. We also told them not to act suspicious. It’s all been delivered.”

“Good work.”

“We also instructed everyone to keep quiet as much as possible about anything related to Awakening, so they should all handle it well.”

This was one of the agenda items I had proposed in yesterday’s meeting.

I recalled what Taejun had said while looking at the stars.

‘It’s better to hide your fangs.’

Although Taejun himself said he didn’t know the exact reason, it was clear what he meant.

Hide your claws. In other words, hide your abilities.

‘That man who asked me about my job.’

It sends a chill down my spine.

When he suddenly asked me about my job, what would have happened if I had absentmindedly answered ‘rookie cook’?

‘In my case, being a cook is relatively harmless, but for the others…’

Asking about someone’s job might not seem like such a strange thing, but if the person asking that question was another Awakener, the intent of the question could be interpreted differently.

‘Are you an Awakener too?’

If we were ignorant of everything, that would be one thing, but after hearing the warning from Taejun, who had Awakened as a stargazer who peers into the secrets of heaven through the movement of the stars, there’s no harm in being cautious.

“Hide the existence of Awakeners as much as possible, but don’t slow down the process of increasing their numbers.”

“Yes. Since we’ve been handling monster suppression mainly with marksman-type Awakeners anyway, there shouldn’t be any issues.”

“Marksman Awakeners don’t look much different from ordinary soldiers with guns, after all.”

The only difference is that their firepower is several times greater than that of normal soldiers, depending on level and stats, it can be dozens of times greater.

“When it’s a soldier’s turn to Awaken, we’ll have them pretend to be transporting a lizard’s corpse and then finish it off to Awaken. You don’t need to worry about the concealment aspect. However…”

“Is there another problem?”

“The survivors keep requesting to speak with us. They say there are things they absolutely need to discuss.”

Right, now that I think about it, that’s true.

“You mean the woman, right?”

The woman who had first requested a conversation with us when we guided the survivors into the barracks.

“Yes. Contrary to her appearance, she seems to be acting as the leader of the survivor group.”

“A conversation, huh…”

They still think Kim, the lieutenant, is our representative. Under normal circumstances, Kim would be the one to step into such talks, but we can’t let that happen right now.

“It can’t be helped. Leave Kim, the lieutenant, to me.”

“Are you sure that’s okay? Wouldn’t it be better to exclude Kim and go by ourselves instead…?”

“In a situation like this, it’s better for the top commander to step forward personally.”

That doesn’t mean I intend to let Kim, the lieutenant, freely command us.

I’ll need to play a little trick.

“Tell the survivors to choose their own representative and come to the meeting room on the second floor of the barracks three days from now, after dinner.”

“Yes.”

“And tell the soldiers from our side who will be participating in the meeting to be careful not to disclose any part of our unit’s situation, no matter what.”

“Understood.”

With that, the soldier will relay the message to the survivors. As for me…

“I should do what I need to do.”

It was time to settle the chain of command.

* * *

I placed several dishes onto a small tray and left the cafeteria. These were dishes I had put special care into making this time.

‘Especially since I had more freedom with ingredients than usual.’

Thanks to that, I was able to really show my skills. Even just looking at the bowls and plates on the tray, they were all high-end by military cafeteria standards. They were items I had taken out from the head cook’s lounge.

The kind of tableware used only when officers from other units or high-ranking generals came to inspect the place. Carrying those lavishly presented dishes, I headed to, the dark basement of the cafeteria.

Brrrmm!

The sound of massive machinery running. The vibrations from various boilers, water systems, and generators filled the small underground space.

‘They call it a basement, but it’s basically a boiler room.’

The basement existed to supply heating, hot water, and electricity to the cafeteria building.

However, perhaps it had been built larger than necessary during the design phase, because aside from the various machines, there were several storage rooms used to keep supplies.

Small storage rooms categorized by purpose, mostly used by the maintenance soldiers to store equipment.

There were a total of seven of them.

‘A suitable number to use as jail cells.’

In a normal military unit, there’s a concept called the military jail to serve as a detention facility.

But our unit is small, a subordinate battalion under a higher command. There’s no way we’d have a separately operated detention facility.

‘Usually, if a soldier had to be sent to the brig, they’d be taken to the higher unit’s facility, right?’

So the place chosen to substitute for a jail was right here. The seven storage rooms in the cafeteria basement were converted and designated as temporary holding cells.

I opened the door to one of those converted storage rooms and went inside.

Inside was the first user of this jail.

“Yo, Young-jun?”

“Yes, sir.”

The only officer in our unit, and the worst deadweight officer of them all.

“lieutenant Kim.