Chapter 20

Interrogation (1)

When I returned after subduing the Awakened bastard who had been hiding his identity in the cafeteria. The commotion that had broken out in the unit had already been mostly brought under control.

“W-Whoa, Sergeant Shin Young-jun? What on earth is that…”

“Ah, sorry. It’s kind of hard to look at, right?”

I rushed over thinking there might be trouble on the barracks side as well. But I couldn’t exactly just leave the subdued Awakened guy lying around in the cafeteria, so I brought him along for now.

The other soldiers who saw that sight recoiled in shock.

“…That thing, is it even still alive?”

“Yeah. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, but. He’s unconscious right now, so, well.”

Basically, my class, Chef, isn’t a combat class. It’s closer to a rear-line support role that assists allies through cooking.

In reality, my abilities show more impact on that side, but I fought alongside the unit members on the front line during the last raid as well.

There were two reasons why that was possible. One was the ‘Low-Grade Dagger Mastery’ trait. And the other was thanks to the ‘Chef’s Eye’ skill.

‘Chef’s Eye is a good skill, but…’

It didn’t come without drawbacks. At its core, what Chef’s Eye shows is how to ‘process’ target ingredients. But when it comes to processing meat, most methods start with cutting off the breathing passage and draining the blood. Being able to easily identify an enemy’s weak points is great, but…

‘The problem is that the lethality is too high.’

When you need to keep the opponent alive instead of killing them, it’s awkward to use. But if I don’t use this ability, my combat power itself drops sharply.

Of course, I could choose to focus purely on rear-line support, but now that monsters have started appearing, just like when I faced the monsters that first attacked the cafeteria, it’s better to also pay attention to my own combat ability.

Still, while it’s fine to aim to kill monsters on the spot, when dealing with humans like this time, there will be times when it’s necessary to keep them alive.

As I was thinking about whether there was some way around it, what came to mind was.

‘Live sashimi.’

More specifically, not the kind of sashimi served at sushi restaurants, but the kind veteran fishing boat captains who’ve spent decades at sea whip up on the spot after pulling out the catch.

When you eat fish right after catching it at sea. Instead of killing it and going through an aging process, sometimes you slice it up immediately while it’s still alive.

‘That, too, is one perfectly valid way of processing.’

With that thought in mind, I used the skill, and a ‘processing method’ in the direction I’d hoped for appeared.

…The problem was that it ended up looking pretty unpleasant.

“S-So that’s why he ended up like that?”

“Yeah. He’s unconscious right now, but we don’t know when he’ll wake up and start thrashing around again. Bind him properly, and send him to the priest for treatment.”

After handing over the guy whose one arm had been ‘sliced into sashimi while alive’ to the soldiers, I headed to where the other soldiers were gathered.

There, four men were already kneeling on the ground, subdued. From the moment they saw me dragging in the unconscious Awakened guy, they were clearly flustered.

“T-That’s Chanjung!”

“Chanjung, who was the strongest among us, lost to just a cook…?”

“And even that badly… What even is this unit?”

One guy was lying there unconscious, so that was that. But the others started whispering among themselves in shock as they looked at me.

‘The strongest, huh?’

Since they’d been sending him to dig up information on the unit from me, I’d assumed he was the youngest or something. But if they’re saying he was the strongest, he might have been in a higher position than I thought. But if you ask whether he was strong, honestly…

“Only this much?”

Sure, that ability to throw around huge fireballs might work on others even if it didn’t work on me, but that’s all it was.

Once we actually started fighting properly, to me, a mere cook.

In terms of strength, skill, technique…In every respect, he was no match at all.

“To think that was the strongest among them. How weak are they, really?”

“That’s not it. I think we’ve just gotten too strong.”

Gwang-il, who was also on the scene, said.

“These guys’ average level seems to be around 3. In our unit, anyone who awakened even a little earlier is at least level 5 or 6. And Sergeant Shin Young-jun, aren’t you already past level 10?”

“Well, yeah, that’s true.”

“And on top of that, we have the Emblem.”

The Emblem, a group skill we received as a reward for forming the second clan in Korea. The dog tag–shaped emblem that only our clan can equip has the effect of increasing stats by a fixed amount.

If a level 1 unit member equips it, they can reach a level of stats comparable to an Awakened level 5 who isn’t wearing it.

It was an absurdly overpowered spec.

‘Since it raises fixed values, the efficiency will drop as individual growth progresses, but still.’

Generally speaking, buffs are largely divided into two types.

One is fixed stat increases, and the other is percentage increases. In the former case, fixed stat increases have a big impact when your base stats are low.

If your stat is 1 and it increases by 1, that’s double, but if it’s 100 and it increases by 1, that 1/100th increase doesn’t mean much. On the other hand, with the latter, the higher your base stats are, the greater the effect.

If your stat is 1, even a 100% increase only gives you +1, but if it’s 100, it gives you +100.

The Emblem falls into the former category.

‘I don’t know how it’ll be later on.’

‘But for now, it’s a cheat item that turns level 1 into something like level 5.’

Their so-called leader was taken down in an instant once Han-il and Daewon, the two strongest in the warrior squad after Gwang-il, teamed up on him. And the rest, being weaker than our unit’s Awakened individually, were quickly dealt with once several people ganged up on them.

“And on top of that, except during scouting shifts, the unit members are always sparring with each other. Those guys. They don’t even seem to know how to properly fight with Awakened physical abilities.”

They must have rushed in confidently, thinking that five Awakened would be enough, but from the start, it was never a fair fight. Our unit had really become that strong…

“Honestly, I was worried something big would happen while I was gone.”

When I heard the plan of the guy I subdued in the cafeteria.

I panicked, thinking the others might attack the unit while I was away. But when I actually came back, it was all cleaned up neatly even without me.

“…At this point, it feels like there wouldn’t be any problem even if I weren’t around. We didn’t even have the cooking buffs.”

“Haha, that’s not true.”

Gwang-il chuckled and continued.

“We’ve gotten stronger, sure, but do you think we grew all on our own?”

“Mm…”

“Didn’t Sergeant Shin feed us and raise us to get us to this point?”

‘Come to think of it…’

A thought I’d had back when I reunited with the others after monsters started appearing suddenly came back to me.

‘I guess I thought something like, I have to feed this unit and keep them alive?’

In a literal sense, I really am keeping them alive by feeding them food. But in a broader sense too, it seems like my goal of somehow keeping the unit alive is being fulfilled pretty well.

“E-Excuse me, soldiers…? What on earth is all this…”

Just then, the representative of the survivors, Ms. Lee Sang-ah, approached with a flustered expression. Maybe because she’d been fighting two people until the unit members intervened, she looked slightly singed.

Looking closer, it seemed like she had burn marks on her arm as well.

“It looks like your injuries are serious. We have a healer in our unit, so you’ll be treated quickly. Eui-jun!”

“Yes! Private First Class Sa Eui-jun.”

“Let’s treat her first.”

“Yes, sir.”

A glow of light bloomed from the medic’s hand, and just by holding it over the wound, the burn marks vanished.

After a few seconds, only fresh skin remained, without even a trace of injury.

“So you all were Awakened… and not just that, but almost all of you.”

“Not all of us. We only just passed half not too long ago.”

“That’s still over fifty people, isn’t it…? My goodness…”

Thinking about it, this means we did end up lying to her.

She thought there were no Awakened in our unit and even shared her thoughts on how to awaken people. We didn’t lie out of malice, but I think it’s something that needs to be explained.

“Sang-ah, you said your Awakened class was Tailor, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m a Chef. And there are various other Awakened classes as well. Healers, priests, berserkers, mages…”

“P-Priests and mages?”

“Yes. Among them, there’s even one called an Astrologer who can, in a limited way, see the future.”

I explained why we had hidden the Awakened.

From the day monsters first appeared in the unit up until now.

In fact, we had known the survivors would arrive the day before, and among that information, there had been a strange warning, that we accepted that warning and hid our awakenings until we found the source of the threat.

“I think I get the general idea… So not only are most of you Awakened, but you’re also steadily increasing the number of Awakened as well?”

“That’s about right.”

At that, Sang-ah fell silent, as if lost in thought.

“…Anyway, I hope you don’t misunderstand. We didn’t do it with bad intentions.”

“…Ah, yes! I didn’t misunderstand at all, so don’t worry.”

When she fell back into thought again after that, I figured there was no need to press her further for now and stepped back.

When I approached the guys who had been tied up again, a few soldiers spoke up.

“We’ve subdued them for now, but what should we do with them?”

“Let’s see.”

“In my personal opinion, keeping them alive doesn’t seem like it would be of any help…”

Keeping them alive wouldn’t be of any help. What that statement implied was, in other words.

“No. Killing them is on hold for now.”

“…Why is that?”

“It’s bad for the soldiers’ mental state, and for the survivors too.”

The soldiers had killed monsters before, but not people. No matter how used to all sorts of things they’d become through the fighting so far, not enough time had passed for them to accept killing as something casual.

The same goes for the survivors. Even if those guys are clearly criminals, they were still part of the survivor group.

If we were to execute them, the other survivors would inevitably be terrified as well.

‘But if we just keep them alive without killing them, they’ll only waste food, and if they manage to escape, it’ll turn into a bigger problem.’

We can’t exactly release people who attack others with a, ‘Go attack someone else instead~’ kind of attitude.

“Lock those guys up in the cafeteria basement for now.”

“The cafeteria basement… you mean the boiler room?”

“Yeah. There should be, what, seven storage rooms there? If we lock them from the outside, they’ll serve as makeshift cells.”

Seven rooms in total…We should be able to confine about five people without any issue.

“They’re dangerous guys, so assign one warrior-class Awakened each to watch them. I’ll take care of things from here on out.”

After locking them up in the improvised prison…I decided to visit the prison the very next day.

And then…

“H-Hiiik!!”

…No matter what, isn’t that a bit too much for a first greeting?