Chapter 17

Threat (1)

“You’re saying there’s something you absolutely had to tell us… so it must be about that superpower awakening, correct?”

“Yes. We don’t know the exact criteria, but… based on what we’ve guessed among ourselves, it seems like if you keep killing zombies, you can randomly awaken. We thought we should tell you that information.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

Sang-ah also added that she could fight monsters too, so if anything happened, we could call for her anytime. As you’d expect from someone who protected the survivors and guided them here safely.

‘She doesn’t look like the type to be plotting something bad.’

If so, then the ones threatening our unit must be somewhere else.

While Sang-ah was fighting alone to protect the survivors from the monsters, those who hid behind her and concealed their identities.

“Then aside from that… is there anything you’d like to request from us? For now, we’ve provided the minimum conveniences, but…”

“Then… could we get some spare clothing?”

“If it’s that, there are training uniforms… no, tracksuits left from soldiers who aren’t in the unit right now. We’ll make sure you can take as many as you need. Anything else?”

“Not right now. On the other hand, is there anything we can help you with?”

“In that case, if you could help a bit with cleaning the barracks, or assisting with dishwashing support in the mess hall…”

“Then we’ll send a few people from our side at a time…”

Minjae hyung also asked whether there was anything else inconvenient, whether there were any people with special circumstances, and so on.

He even steered the conversation toward requesting cooperation in areas civilians could handle, rather than us only giving and giving. It was more than enough to make me think we’d chosen the right person to represent us for this talk.

After confirming the conversation was proceeding properly, I turned my head and looked at the survivors’ representatives. People who asked Minjae hyung questions now and then, and who discussed things like the cleaning schedule for the barracks.

‘There’s a hidden awakened among them. This is almost certain.’

Honestly, figuring out who it is won’t even be that hard. Because one of them has already slipped up in front of me.

‘The guy who asked me about my job.’

After that, he even asked a few soldiers about their jobs too, so unless he’s just insanely curious about other people’s jobs, it’s obvious he’s considering awakening. If that’s the case…

“I should ask him properly.”

* * *

After the meeting with the survivors, one change appeared starting the next day.

“We’re here to support dishwashing!”

“…Hello.”

“Ah, welcome.”

After the cook squad juniors died and I ended up handling the mess hall alone, every task in the cafeteria, cooking, dishwashing, cleaning, had to be done by me.

‘Even dishwashing used to be helped by other soldiers, but with monsters showing up, we reassigned them to reconnaissance instead of having them do that.’

Thankfully, the “Basic Cooking Proficiency” I got after awakening showed performance so absurd that it didn’t match the word “basic” at all. Thanks to that, any work related to cooking could be done at incredible speed, without much effort. And with the unit’s headcount dropping to less than half of what it used to be, the mess hall could somehow keep running even with just me. But if all I had to do was prepare meals for the soldiers, that would be one thing.

Making buff food for awakened. Grasping every situation in the unit, and even attending meetings to prepare countermeasures. Normally, cooks wake up early to start cooking, and in exchange they get rest time during the duty day, but lately I’ve had to work during rest time too.

‘If I said I wasn’t tired, that’d be a lie.’

Then the conversation with the survivors happened, and as a result, the survivors decided to help with parts of unit work that civilians could handle.

In the mess hall’s case, that became dishwashing and cleaning support.

‘Thanks to that, I can focus entirely on cooking.’

In other words, if I had to sum up the current situation in one phrase…It got completely easy.

‘This is so damn sweet…’

“We’re done with the dishes!”

“Yes, great work.”

The first ones to come for dishwashing support were two female students who still looked young.

While working, I asked out of curiosity, and it turned out they were sisters attending a nearby high school. What felt a bit strange was that the younger sister was quite composed and friendly, while the older sister looked oddly drained and timid.

‘She must have her reasons.’

With the world in this state, it’s obvious they’ve gone through all kinds of terrible things. And beyond her, among the survivors there were many people who looked uniquely low on spirit like that.

‘Hmm… in that case.’

Since things got easier thanks to them, I should repay them.

I called the sisters who were about to head back after finishing the dishes, and handed them ice cream.

“This is a snack I made. Take one each and eat before you go.”

“Huh? We’re allowed to eat this?”

“You helped with dishwashing and cleaning, right? This is in return.”

“Waaah…!”

For me, it’s not even a new thing. Even when the unit was fine, I’d often give a snack like ice cream to soldiers who came to support mess hall work, telling them they’d worked hard.

Of course, with supply routes cut off now, I can’t give the same kind of manufactured products as back then, but…

‘The unit’s water has always been groundwater, so it still comes out fine. And as long as the generator is still running, we have plenty of ice too. There’s no store-bought ice cream, but…’

‘No ice cream? Then you make it, don’t you?’

There were a few simple snacks you could make using only the ingredients still left in the unit.

『Misugaru Ice Cream of Happy Emotions』

Ice cream made using sugar, starch syrup, and misugaru, ingredients we still had plenty of in the unit, plus supplies the juniors had brought.

“Misugaru ice cream”? Some people might think, what even is that?

But surprisingly…

“It’s good!”

“Yeah… it is.”

It’s tasty and I also mixed in a small amount of the Head Chef’s Special Sauce.

“Huh? Unni, did you just smile?”

“…Me?”

“Unni… you haven’t smiled even once since Mom and Dad died…”

The effect of the Special Sauce appeared immediately.

After saying that, the younger sister started crying as if her tough attitude had never existed.

So they lost their parents recently. She’s acting bright, but the younger sister must be having a hard time in many ways too.

“Thanks for the food!”

“You worked hard.”

After a conversation with the sisters that was long if you call it long and short if you call it short, the younger sister wiped her face that was smeared with tears, said that, then held her older sister’s hand and disappeared into the barracks with a bright smile.

Before leaving the mess hall, she smiled brightly and bowed her head in greeting…It warmed my heart a little.

“…The abilities I got after awakening are buffs and knife work and all sorts of things.”

Powerful skills and traits that are extremely useful in battle.

In this world that’s turned into a “game,” the “Chef” job probably belongs to the buff-type classes useful for combat.

“Among them, the greatest ability is still…”

The power to bring stability to people’s hearts.

『Head Chef’s Special Sauce』

After the world changed, people didn’t only suffer wounds to the body.

The place that took a bigger wound than the body was the heart. Even in our unit, we lost seniors, juniors, and buddies we had been living with until just yesterday.

If that’s how it is for the soldiers, then what about the survivors who might have lost beloved family right in front of their eyes?

The emotional change given by 『Head Chef’s Special Sauce』 is, at best, temporary.

When I fed Gwang-il “Courage” food, the guy lost his reason from excessive courage and rampaged like a berserker, but the next day he was back to his gentle personality as if nothing had happened.

Even so, that temporary emotional change isn’t meaningless.

After that incident, Gwang-il never surrendered to fear again.

‘That one experience of fighting monsters with courage broke down the wall in his mind.’

The mental change caused directly by the skill is temporary, but the events caused by that mental change still affect people even after the effect ends.

Those sisters too may have a wound in their hearts from the shock of losing their parents, but the memory of happiness from eating sweet ice cream will ease that shock, even if only a little.

* * *

After that, the unit’s work continued without any major change.

We still dealt with the monsters that wandered in one or two at a time using the rifles of the awakened marksmen and the guns of the unawakened soldiers. And the soldiers whose turn it was to awaken would proceed with awakening while pretending to approach the dead monster corpses to clean them up, so the survivors wouldn’t notice.

“I don’t have anything to jump into.”

Thanks to that, I kept focusing only on mess hall work.

I rationed and stretched what little food remained to distribute meals somehow, and devised buff dishes that awakened soldiers could eat.

A routine daily life with nothing special happening.

Then, while that was going on, something unusual happened.

“Hey, you. Cook.”

“Yes?”

“What’s your name?”

The one who asked was none other than Grandpa Park. That old man who had kept being strict with us came for dishwashing support, and instead of doing any dishes, he started talking to me.

“I’m Sergeant Shin Yeong-jun.”

Telling him my name wasn’t difficult, so I answered without much thought, but…

“Hmph… figures.”

“Figures? What do you mean?”

“That knife you’re using, it’s not yours, is it?”

“…!”

The next words sent chills through my entire body.

This long sashimi knife.

I grabbed it for the first time to hunt the monsters that attacked the mess hall, and since then I’ve even been using it for cooking because it oddly fits my hand…

‘It’s not my knife.’

It’s the keepsake of my junior, who’s dead now.

Sergeant Lee Jun-hyeok, who did his work well and had an easygoing personality, people called him “Hwangjun Mountain’s mom.”

“How did you know?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know? It’s engraved in Chinese characters. ‘Hyeok,’ as in ‘shine’? It’s a good meaning, but not a name you’d just slap onto a knife. That’s probably the original owner’s name, right?”

When I looked at the blade near the handle, there really was an engraved set of characters.

Jun-hyeok had said this was a very expensive knife, one his mentor gifted him after he studied Japanese cuisine. That mentor must have engraved the name with affection on the knife he gave his student.

If you hear the reason, there is a basis to notice it, but even considering that, it was an incredible level of observation.

“…You’re impressive. Yes, that’s right.”

“Tch. A guy using a good knife like this, and he’s taking care of it like that. Anyone would find it suspicious and look closely. Whose is it?”

He said I was taking care of it “like that.”

I thought I was doing my best, sharpening it and cherishing it…

“It was my junior’s knife.”

“Past tense, huh?”

“Yes. The day the unit got attacked by monsters…”

“Hmph. Yeah, I figured as much.”

After saying that, the old man stared right through my face.

‘What is it?’

Just as I was about to turn away because the gaze was uncomfortable, the old man opened his mouth again.

“Hand it over.”

“Pardon?”

“That knife. Give it to me.”

A sudden declaration of seizure.

‘This old man…!’

‘No matter how good the knife is, trying to lay hands on something left behind by someone’s junior…!’

‘I should’ve known from how strict he was, was the enemy threatening our unit this old man?’

“Hah. Look at this brat’s eyes. I’m not stealing it, so quit worrying and hand it over, you punk.”

Then he snatched the knife by force.

I glared at him, wary that he might run off with it, but the old man didn’t care and headed to a corner of the kitchen with the knife.

Then he pulled something out.

“Whetstones…”

Three rectangular stones. They were the knife-sharpening whetstones the mess hall used.

“You tried to take care of it somehow, I guess, but if a guy who doesn’t even know how does it, it’s worse than not doing it at all.”

As he said that, he soaked the whetstones and the knife in water.

Then, checking whether the whetstones were level, what condition the knife was in, and various other things, he began.

Scrape, scrape!

He held the blade at a slant against the whetstone and started sharpening. Once he’d taken out the whetstones, I could understand his intention too.

‘…If you were going to sharpen it, you could’ve just said so.’

Feeling awkward for no reason, I scratched my cheek and spoke.

“Um, I’m a cook too, so… I thought I knew how to sharpen knives.”

“Don’t talk while an adult is working.”

“…”

“And you don’t know how to sharpen a knife. That’s true.”

“…”

The sharpening, which I thought would end quickly, took longer than expected.

“This is a good knife.”

Only after more than an hour did he hand it back to me.

“It’s solid, and the balance is good. So it takes time to work on, and it’s a bit tough. But if you manage a knife like this properly even once, it keeps its sharpness for a long time.”

A knife sharpened so keenly it seemed to shine.

When I lifted it slightly, cold, cutting intent flowed from the edge, and when I tilted it sideways, my face reflected on the flat like a mirror.

‘…It was already a good knife, but I never thought it could change this much.’

I had nothing to say.

After seeing this result, I had to admit my sharpening was on the level of “I suck.”

“…Thank you.”

“Hmph. I heard you made ice cream for Hyeon-ji and Hye-ji.”

“What?”

Hyeon-ji, Hye-ji? Who are those?

“Don’t you play dumb. Hye-ji said she thought she’d never see her sister smile again. She also said she didn’t know how long it had been since she’d eaten something sweet. I don’t know what was so tasty about it, but take this as the price.”

Only then did I realize.

Hyeon-ji and Hye-ji. Those were the names of the sisters who came to support dishwashing a few days ago.

‘Come to think of it, this grandpa was one of the survivors’ room representatives.’

The survivors had assigned a representative for each room. Those sisters must have been in the room he represented.

“…If you call this the price for giving ice cream to a knife-sharpening guy, he’d probably get furious. I don’t know if this is really the price.”

“Heh heh. Then call the ice cream the down payment. Pay the rest slowly.”

“I still have more ice cream, why don’t you have one too, Grandpa?”

“My teeth get cold, so I can’t. Instead…”

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, perhaps from the effort, Grandpa Park said,

“Keep cooking for people. We’ll call the remaining balance settled with that.”

And with that, he went back to the barracks.

‘He didn’t do any dishes before leaving, but…’

I turned the sashimi knife over and over. Seeing the blade that not only looked sharp but actually glittered, that didn’t bother me at all.

‘Cook for people.’

『Head Chef’s Special Sauce』 is the power to touch people’s emotions.

That power can be used like this, to heal someone’s heart. He’s probably telling me not to abuse my power, but to use it for good. If that’s the case…

‘Sorry, but..I think I’ll have to delay paying Grandpa Park the “remaining balance” a bit.’

‘The dish I’m about to make now won’t be a very good one.’

That evening.

After the dishwashing support team was formed. The man I’d been waiting for finally visited the mess hall.

“…It’s been a while.”

“Haha, it has. Where do I wash the dishes?”

To the man who worked hard on the dishes without any suspicion, I handed over the snack I’d made with all my heart.

『Misugaru Ice Cream of a Beginner Chef’s Heartfelt Honest Feelings』

“I made a snack, have it before you go.”

Probably the sweetest truth serum in human history.