Chapter 16

Preparation

There are two major ways stats increase in the game. A fixed-value increase, and a percentage increase.

‘With the token, it was a fixed-value increase.’

A fixed-value increase has a higher effect the lower the target’s base stats are. On the other hand, a percentage increase has a bigger effect the higher the target’s base stats are. And the ability that Lieutenant Kim just awakened is…

‘A percentage increase!’

If the token can instantly raise the still-weak soldiers’ stats to a usable level, then Lieutenant Kim’s ‘Low-Grade Command’ will become more efficient the higher the soldiers’ own base stats get. And on top of that…

‘The two buffs usually have synergy.’

A percentage-based buff is calculated including the fixed-value buff. Since our unit already secured a fixed-value increase buff through the token, Lieutenant Kim’s ability is practically giving us wings and that wasn’t all.

『Achievement: An Inescapable Taste.』

『You have succeeded in completely bringing one person under your control through cooking.』

『This is one of the greatest achievements a chef can attain.』

『As an achievement reward, 『Top-Grade Ingredient: Lesser Dragon’s Heart』 will be granted.』

『You gain a massive amount of experience.』

『You have reached Apprentice Chef lv. 10.』

『Promotion occurs.』

『Apprentice Chef lv. 10 → Low-Grade Chef lv. 1』

Achievement cleared and Apprentice Chef lv. 10.

“So that’s why it wouldn’t go up no matter what at 9.”

I’d been wondering why the level hadn’t risen for a while. But seeing the job promote the moment I hit 10, it made sense.

‘The last stretch before a promotion is always brutal.’

Since I’d leveled up, I checked whether anything had changed in my stats now that I’d become a Low-Grade Chef.

First, the basic stat increase, that happened every time I leveled up, but it changed a bit.

‘The stats that used to go up by 1 per level now went up by 2.’

Maybe because the promotion happened. It seemed the stat increase per level had gone up as well and that wasn’t all.

『Low-Grade Cooking Proficiency → Cooking Proficiency』

『Low-Grade Fire Resistance → Fire Resistance』

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‘All my low-grade traits changed into grade traits.’

The various traits I had. Low-Grade Knife Proficiency, Low-Grade Cooking Proficiency, and so on. Every trait changed from low-grade to grade. Even at low-grade, those traits let me display skill on the level of a master in that field. If they’d grown one more step from there, I couldn’t even guess how far they’d go.

And lastly…

『Skill — Combat Rations (new)』

『As you live, unfortunately, situations arise where you can’t have a proper meal.』

『Soldiers who take part in battle are a prime example! For soldiers’ morale, research into improving the taste of field-portable combat rations has been a major task for the leaders of every military force.』

『If they find you, they’ll be desperate to hire you no matter what!』

『You can now manufacture combat-use preserved food.』

『Combat rations have slightly lower stat gains than regular meals, but they have a long shelf life, can provide high calories even in small portions, and are easy to carry. And of course, the taste is guaranteed!』

Combat rations, the same name as the thing Lieutenant Kim ate and suffered over, saying it tasted awful.

“Well, if the fighting intensifies, I won’t be able to make every meal for every soldier.”

The combat rations made by this skill are on a different level from standard military rations. Even if they’re somewhat weaker than regular meals, they still provide stat increases and the taste is guaranteed depending on the chef’s skill.

“Not bad.”

This skill seems like it could be used quite well. What matters is that I achieved meaningful growth in my own way. And that I succeeded in making Lieutenant Kim submit.

Then next…

“Sergeant Shin Young-jun. It’s about time…”

“Yeah. This side just finished preparing too.”

The survivors who came to our base and we were ready to talk to them.

* * *

“Lieutenant Kim. You understood what I told you, right?”

“Leave all the talking to the soldiers, and I just sit behind and nod… I understand, no. I understand.”

Having completely submitted after eating my cooking, Lieutenant Kim was now in a state of perfect obedience to my orders. The soldiers were so shocked by how suddenly mild he’d become that they asked what the hell I did.

“Watch the honorifics.”

“Ugh, o-okay…”

Even though I’m the one recognized as the leader by the soldiers, officially, the highest commander of our unit is Lieutenant Kim.

So we decided that for external matters, Lieutenant Kim would step forward as the representative of our unit.

To outsiders, it’ll look more convincing for a lieutenant with a fairly respectable rank to take the lead, rather than a cook-Sergeant like me.

In reality, he’s incompetent and negligent, but,

Lieutenant Kim looks the part of a proper soldier, talks well, and even though he can’t work, he’s pretty good at political maneuvering. And since he’s become the kind of body that can’t be satisfied without my cooking, there’s no need to worry about him doing something weird on his own.

‘That habit of trying to use honorifics toward a mere Sergeant. If only I could fix that, it’d be great.’

Anyway, after completing that forced reform, Lieutenant Kim’s first external task was, a meeting with the survivors.

‘Calling it a meeting makes it sound heartwarming, but.’

We soldiers decided to treat this talk as a battle carried out with words.

‘There might be someone among them who could harm us.’

Survivors who ran from monsters. They’re clearly victims and the weak, but, that doesn’t mean they’re good, or people we can trust.

‘We have to hide our claws.’

According to the message Taejun left behind, for some reason we’re in a situation where we have to hide our abilities from them.If that’s the case, the strategy we should take in this conversation is simple.

‘As little information about our side as possible, as much information about their side as possible.’

With that in mind and a grim sort of resolve, I entered the prepared room.

“Hello. I’m Sergeant Lee Minjae, and I’ll be handling this meeting.”

“Not Lieutenant Kim?”

“Lieutenant Kim will participate in the meeting as well. However, he said it would be better for those of us handling the on-site work to discuss things with the survivors, rather than the lieutenant who is responsible for overall command.”

“Ah, yes.”

As we planned, Minjae was the one stepping forward as our representative.

He’s the most educated in our unit, smart, and speaks well. Minjae tried to put me, the leader, out front, but when I ordered him with leader authority, he accepted it and took the representative role.

‘He accepted the leader position, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take on every annoying task too. Also…’

We told them to choose representatives who were suitable to participate in this talk.

If we talked with all twenty-plus survivors, the more mouths there were, the more complicated things could get. So on our side, we had Lieutenant Kim and Minjae, plus one most-senior soldier from each department. And on their side, five men and women participated.

‘One from each barracks room?’

We gave them the entire third floor of the barracks and assigned five people per room. And since we let friends share rooms together as much as possible, it seemed they chose one representative per room.

Just in case, I looked around to see if the man who asked me what “which battalion” our unit was might be among them, but unfortunately he didn’t seem to be attending this meeting.

“Hmph. Not sure if we’ll even be able to communicate with regular soldiers.”

“The soldiers gathered here are the most senior personnel in each department who handle the unit’s practical work, so if you have questions or requests, you should be able to tell us anything.”

“Tch, questions… Then I’ll ask just one.”

Just as we expected, someone did point out that Lieutenant Kim wasn’t acting as the representative.

A middle-aged man with a fairly large build and a vicious-looking face. Even setting his face aside, the way he sat was oddly slouchy and cocky, he didn’t look like someone of good character.

“So why did it take you three days to open this meeting?”

“…Since you must be exhausted from the long escape, we wanted to give you time to rest and time to decide what to talk about in the meeting and choose representatives, and we were also busy with unit duties…”

“So because of other duties, we were pushed to the back?”

“It’s not like that.”

“If it’s not like that, then what!”

“Mr. Park Gwonchang!”

The man called Park Gwonchang was about to pounce as if he wouldn’t miss a chance to nitpick. But another survivor’s voice cut him off. It was the young woman who first requested a conversation with us.

“They’re people who made time for us even though they’re busy. I understand the complaints, but I think it’d be better if you stayed quiet for now.”

“…Hmph. Fine.”

Park Gwonchang looked like someone with a strong personality if you’re being kind, and if you’re not, like someone who’s a pain in the ass.

Yet even though someone interrupted him mid-sentence, he showed some displeasure but still accepted it. From that, we could tell who the real representative of the survivors was.

‘Just from her looks, I honestly never would’ve guessed.’

That woman, who looked to be maybe in her mid-twenties at most, is the leader of the survivor group.

“I’m sorry. Gwonchang has a bit of a fiery temper.”

“It’s fine. It’s true there are issues on our side too. But as I said, there was no bad intent…”

“I understand. This is the situation we’re in. It can’t be helped, right? I’m Lee Sang-ah. Before this happened, I worked at a small suit shop.”

Unlike Park Gwonchang, the representative-looking Ms. Lee Sang-ah had a fairly gentle attitude.

“Then, you said you have something you want to tell us, but… before that, could you explain how you ended up reaching our base?”

“How we ended up here?”

“Yes. I hate to say it, but our unit is in quite a remote place. I think we need to know the circumstances that led you to flee all the way here.”

“Ah, yes.”

That isn’t exactly a lie…Our base is deep in the mountains. A level-one remote unit where it takes at least an hour by car to get down to the city. It’s so isolated from society that soldiers even receive extra leave as consolation, and access is poor.

We do need to know how they ended up coming all the way here.

“First… as you all know, about two weeks ago, monsters suddenly appeared. At the same time, all communication methods like the internet, TV, and phones were cut off.”

“Right.”

It seems their situation when the monsters appeared was similar to ours.

“We were attacked by various monsters, and on top of that, people who were attacked by monsters would get up later as zombies… so it was total chaos.”

‘Mm, it was chaos for us too.’

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‘Huh?’

‘That sounded similar, but I heard a different word, didn’t I?’

Zombies…Didn’t she just say zombies?

“Zombies?”

Maybe I wasn’t the only one who thought so, one of the senior soldiers sitting next to me blurted it out without thinking.

‘Hey, you idiot!’

‘I get that you’re startled, but you can’t show it like that…!’

“Yes. Is there a problem with zombies?”

Minjae hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.

“Ah, no. Our unit just doesn’t use the word ‘zombies.’”

“Hmm… But they really do look like zombies… So what do you call them here?”

“…We call them walkers.”

Well, there are dramas that call zombies that.

“Ah-ha. Sounds like there are a lot of people who like dramas. I liked that drama too. Then should we call them walkers as well?”

“No. Now that I think about it, ‘zombies’ is probably more accurate. We’ll adjust.”

“Okay, anyway, so—”

It was a somewhat awkward excuse, but thankfully they let it pass without suspicion. The senior soldier who’d spoken out looked apologetic, bowed his head, and clamped his mouth shut.

‘Our unit and their circumstances seemed similar, but they’re a little, no, a lot, different.’

Ms. Lee Sang-ah continued.

In short, they fled hard from monsters and zombies, met other survivors and merged groups until they reached their current size, and while searching for a safe place, one survivor said, “Come to think of it, there’s a military base in the mountain near here.”

“That was me.”

The person who said that was familiar.

I’m pretty sure someone else called him…

‘Grandpa Park?’

When we guided the survivors into the barracks, the strict-looking old man who complained that young soldiers get the lower floors while survivors get shoved onto the third floor.

“I’ve got a friend who works construction, you see. He told me he went to do work at a military base, and that base was in the neighborhood where I live. All I heard was that there was a base deep in this mountain, though.”

“Since it wouldn’t hurt to try, we decided to look for the base Grandpa Park mentioned, and that’s why we came here.”

Nothing too strange in that. But from our unit’s perspective, a few points stuck in our minds.

‘First, the zombies.’

Our unit’s normal authorized strength is about 300. Out of that, excluding officers and soldiers on leave, about 200 soldiers were stationed on base. On the day the monsters attacked, half of them died to the monsters, but, not a single soldier turned into a zombie.

‘The soldiers did call this situation an apocalypse, but nobody ever called it a zombie apocalypse.’

Of course, because we didn’t have zombies. On the ground, people die and get up as zombies, but in our base, that didn’t happen at all.

‘Various monsters.’

What attacked our base was only a pack of lizards. But according to Ms. Lee Sang-ah, all kinds of monsters appeared and rampaged in the city below the mountain.

Zombies were a numbers problem, and if you were a sturdy adult man you could manage somehow, but for most monsters, you had no way to fight them unless you had guns, that part was still somewhat explainable.

‘Until we claimed the area, this mountain range was the lizards’ territory.’

Lizards are monsters that can easily tear apart humans if you don’t have guns. Maybe the lizard pack occupied the mountain range and drove out other monsters.

Without knowing their weak point, you have no way to pierce those hard scales, so they’re powerful monsters.

And lastly…

“Excuse me, but last time I looked, it didn’t seem like you had weapons, no guns, not even knives. At best, you had steel pipes.”

“Yes.”

“So how did you get through the monsters and zombies to reach this place?”

“I figured you’d ask that.”

Sang-ah said that, took a deep breath, and then continued with a face full of tension.

“It might be hard to believe… but I awakened a superpower.”

It looked like she’d steeled herself to speak, but for us, it was something we expected to hear.

Of course, there had to be an awakened one.

“I’m the only awakened one among our twenty-five people, though.”

“What?”

They were so blunt about revealing their strength that it almost made us feel like we were the bad guys for hiding ours.

“With that superpower, I was able to break through the zombies and get here.”

“…”

“I guess it’s not easy to believe.”

When we looked a bit thrown off by how easily she was giving up their strength, she seemed to think we didn’t believe superpowers, and she reached into her clothes and pulled something out. What she brought out in both hands was a pair of scissors. Big enough to hold in one hand, but much larger than ordinary scissors, two of them.

‘Maybe around forty centimeters long?’

“They’re tailoring scissors. We use them when repairing curtains and things, so they’re quite a bit bigger than normal scissors.”

“Ah, I see.”

“And, um. Excuse me for a moment.”

She brought the scissors to the wooden desk we were sitting at. And then…

Snip!

She cleanly cut through the solid-wood desk. It was an extremely surreal sight, but,

‘…This situation feels oddly familiar.’

When I proved awakening existed by slicing through a wooden desk with a kitchen knife.

In many ways, it was similar to that.

“I was working at the suit shop like always, when people who didn’t look alive at all attacked the store… I stabbed a zombie’s head with these scissors, and a message popped up saying I awakened as a tailor and gained several abilities. Thanks to that, with one snip I can cut off a zombie’s neck.”

“Impressive… Are you the only one with that kind of ability, Ms. Lee?”

Even though the survivors were being honest about having an awakened one, Minjae seemed determined to keep our side’s awakenings hidden.

“Yes. I awakened right after killing a zombie, but other people didn’t. I met another awakened person from a different survivor group, and they said they awakened after killing zombies too, but I don’t know the exact condition.”

‘Are zombies different from lizards?’

With lizards, if you fulfilled the condition of killing them up close, you could awaken with a 100% success rate. But for some reason, with zombies, it seems some people awaken after killing them and some don’t. That’s why, even with a survivor group of twenty-five, the only awakened one is Ms. Lee Sang-ah, and the rest traveled under her protection.

That’s why she became the leader.

‘But…’

Sang-ah revealed without hesitation that she was the group’s only awakened one.

She extended help to others with that ability. She doesn’t seem like a bad person. But what Taejun said clearly implied that someone in here can harm us. It doesn’t seem likely that non-awakened people could be a major threat, and, above all, the man who asked me about my job.

After that, he asked several soldiers similar questions too, so I’m sure. That question was very much asked with awakening status in mind.

‘Then… is the answer only one?’

‘They’re hiding it.’

There are awakened ones hiding their identity