Chapter 6

. Increasing the Number of Awakeners (3)

I don’t know whether the other soldiers know about it or not. But among the cooks, there’s one thing that’s so openly done that there’s practically no one who doesn’t know about it.

A single soldier, for the sake of filling his own selfish desires. Illegally siphoning off the army’s assets, assets paid for with the people’s tax money, a grave criminal act.

“Um, Sergeant Shin? Is it really okay to use the chicken like this?”

“Huh? Oh, this? It’s fine. We’re just eating it among ourselves, so let’s take out the legs and wings.”

“Ah, I prefer the breast meat.”

“What? Oh, is that because you like working out?”

Stealing ingredients and cooking tasty food just for themselves.

“I heard rumors that cooks make good food just for themselves…”

“It’s not just for us. We make it for the officers pretty often too.”

“What? The officers know about it too?”

“Yeah. The supply Sergeant sometimes brings soju when he eats with us, and Lieutenant Kim straight-up places orders. That guy really loves noodle dishes.”

As I talked, I took out the ingredients I needed from the fridge one by one.

‘Chicken breast, onion, carrot, green onion, eggs…’

I turned on the gas stove, lit it with a kitchen lighter, and set a pot of water on top.

‘I want to get rid of the gamey smell too, would the cooking wine Junhyuk bought work?’

The cooks do cook and eat among themselves fairly often, but with only the ingredients in the unit, it’s hard to make truly tasty food.

When it comes to seasonings, all we really have are salt, pepper, chili powder, soy sauce, soybean paste…Aside from that, the only things we can use are natural seasonings like shiitake mushroom powder, because this is the army. So every time we went on leave, we’d buy ingredients or seasonings suited to the dishes we wanted to make and store them.

The youngest and I hadn’t cooked back in civilian life, so we weren’t very proactive about that kind of thing. But Junhyuk, who’s now dead, and the third guy who’s currently on leave had worked in kitchens before, so they were pretty stubborn about it.

In the lockers of the cooks’ break room, there were all sorts of ingredients that didn’t belong in a military cafeteria.

“Most of it was bought by the other cooks anyway… it should be fine.”

As I put cooking wine into the boiling water and cooked the chicken breast.

Gwang-il, who had been fidgeting behind me, spoke up.

“Um, Sergeant Shin.”

“Yeah.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

I took out the cooked chicken breast, separated it from the bone, and shredded it thinly.

Snort!

“You know you’re sorry?”

“I-I’m really sorry.”

“I’m kidding, you idiot. Taejun ended up like that too, of course you could be scared. You were a bit much, but still.”

After roughly tearing the meat apart, I turned on the heat under the wok, heated it up, and poured in oil.

“I’ve been a coward since I was young… people often told me to live up to my size.”

Just as I was about to make scallion oil with the prepped green onions. Maybe because it felt awkward to just stand there watching someone higher-ranking cook, he started talking about himself.

“They say working out builds confidence, so I worked out and even started martial arts… but my personality never changed.”

So that’s how that hulking pile of muscles came to be.

Listening while I cracked eggs into the scallion oil, it sounded like he’d suffered a lot because of that personality. Like today, situations where, rationally, he knew what he had to do, but still couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I was worried I wouldn’t adapt when I enlisted… but I didn’t want to be a burden on others, so I tried to do everything I could.”

I added rice on top, mixed it with the eggs, then tossed in the prepped vegetables and meat, stir-frying until the grains loosened.

“I really tried hard to take on all the dirty work without complaining. So people ended up liking me, and I thought that was a good thing… but I never thought it would turn out like this…”

For seasoning, salt and pepper. And then premium oyster sauce that one of the juniors had bought.

“I heard that you fought monsters even after seeing your juniors die, Sergeant Shin… but a guy like me…”

“Hey.”

“Y-Yes?”

I felt a bit bad for cutting him off when he was being serious, but the food was done.

“Special meal.”

I brought out a stainless-steel bowl from the drying rack, plated the food, and slid it over to him.

“There’s not much I can do for you. Just eat this.”

“Sergeant Shin…”

Seeing a guy built like a bear tear up wasn’t exactly a pretty sight.

『‘Beginner Cook’s Chicken Breast Fried Rice Filled with Courage’ has been completed.’』

『Main Ingredient, The quality of the meat is poor. The dish’s stats are slightly decreased.』

『Supporting Ingredients, The quality of the seasonings is excellent. The dish’s stats are slightly increased.』

『This is a dish made with the chef’s heartfelt care! The dish’s stats are greatly increased.』

『This dish was made for a specific target. If the corresponding target consumes it, the dish’s effects increase.』

『Upon consumption, for a certain period of time, Strength +3, Agility +3. If the specific target consumes it, all effects of the dish increase by 30%.』

『The Head Chef’s Special Sauce has been added.』

Corporal Jeon started putting the food into his mouth with teary eyes.

“Is it good?”

“Y-Yes, it’s good. Sergeant Shin, did you cook outside before? What kind of flavor is this…”

“You little punk, you’re good with flattery.”

“I-I mean it…”

Whether it was genuinely edible or not, he emptied the bowl quickly.

‘…I can tell how hard this guy tried, at least.’

Being a coward is, in the end, an inborn trait.

Trying to fix something like that can’t have been easy. To begin with, criticizing someone or trying to change them because of their personality is wrong in itself. But…

‘That doesn’t mean we can allow this guy to be exempt.’

This is the army. Unlike in the outside world, we can’t just unconditionally respect individual dispositions.

Everyone in the unit now knows that the Awakening process can be dangerous.

If we allow him to be excluded from Awakening, others will start asking to be excluded too.

No one wants to volunteer for dangerous things. Once exemptions start appearing, the Awakeners and the non-exempted soldiers will inevitably be divided.

Where there is division, there is fracture. And fracture leads to weakness. Allowing this guy could end up leading to the collapse of the unit, but…

“Hey.”

This much, at least, is okay to say.

“You did well.”

“…”

How much time passed?

After finishing the bowl, he looked at me and said,

“Sergeant Shin… I’m really sorry.”

“Hey now, if you ate the food well, you’re supposed to say ‘thank you for the meal,’ not ‘I’m sorry.’”

“Th-Thank you for the meal.”

“Good.”

He still seemed to have more to say, fidgeted a bit, then continued.

“Sergeant, thank you so much.”

“Sure. Hey, stuff like special meals, I can’t give them to you often, got it? Our unit is in a food crisis right now.”

“I know. The food was delicious, but aside from that… I don’t know how to put it. After telling you what I’d been holding inside all this time, I feel kind of relieved. I even feel like I’ve gained some confidence.”

“That’s good.”

He had confidence, he probably thought it was because he’d vented to me, but…

‘That’s probably because of the food.’

I had a hunch.

Anyway, that’s how it goes.

“Sergeant Shin. Next time we finish off a monster, I’ll try doing it.”

“You sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yes. I think I can do it now.”

‘Yes!’

Inside, I clenched my fist and cheered.

Internally, I was screaming, ‘Yes!’, But on the outside, I answered as calmly as possible.

“Good thinking.”

“I will never forget this kindness, Sergeant.”

“Kindness, my ass. Go back now. It’d be awkward to keep you here too long.”

After sending Gwang-il off. Left alone in the cafeteria, I let out a long sigh of relief.

“It worked…”

As a soldier, Corporal Jeon is an ace among aces.

Athletic ability from his height and muscle mass, and combat performance built from martial arts experience. He’s gentle by nature, gets along well with both seniors and juniors, and follows orders well.

His one and only flaw is that he’s a coward.

“Then you fix it.”

In a normal army, you’d have to do some hardcore training to reshape the mind.

But luckily, there was a substitute method.

『The Head Chef’s Special Sauce』

『Delicious food moves people’s hearts!』

『A great head chef can even adjust the direction of those hearts.』

『Through the special sauce, you can change the emotions of those who consume the food.』

One of the strange abilities I gained upon Awakening.

I’d already done some rough testing.

‘It had a noticeable effect when I used it to calm the soldiers too.’

The restless mood among the soldiers had settled down somewhat after the meal.

I don’t know exactly how strong the effect is.But I’ve confirmed that it’s useful.

So why wouldn’t I use it?

If Corporal Jeon’s flaw is that he’s a coward. Then what he needs to fix it is…

‘The power to overcome fear, courage.’

『Beginner Cook’s Chicken Breast Fried Rice Filled with Courage』

The reason I dragged him in and made him eat was, of course, to use this ability.

I even put in some extra effort into the cooking so the effect would hit harder.

“Seems like it went smoothly enough.”

Now that Gwang-il’s gained courage.

When the next monster appears, he should Awaken without much trouble.

Of course, we can’t let an accident like what happened to Taejun happen again. If we make sure to wear down the monster with gunfire before the Awakening, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

* * *

One hour later.

I learned that things don’t always go smoothly.

“Corporal Jeon! You can’t go yet!”

“Are you insane, hey, hey! Stop Gwang-il, everyone!”

The soldiers were shouting as they grabbed onto both of Gwang-il’s arms.

‘As for Gwang-il himself, though…’

“Do not stop me! The chance to test my courage has come!”

A monster appeared in the unit in the middle of the night. We were planning to wear down its stamina with gunfire first, then have Gwang-il finish it off. But after seeing the monster take only a few bullets, Gwang-il started shouting nonsense and charged in.

“Kraha! Die, monster! Become my sacrifice!”

“Grrrk…”

It had taken more than ten bullets, so it was weakened to some extent. But thanks to its tenacious vitality, the monster still had strength left.

In the end, after shaking off all the soldiers who tried to stop him, Corporal Jeon charged at the monster barehanded, without any weapon.

“Kaah!”

Of course, the monster didn’t just stand there and take it.

The two arms tipped with sharp claws swung down at Gwang-il.

“Ghk!”

Gwang-il thrust out his own hands in response. Grabbing the monster’s attacking arms, he entered into a contest of strength. Holding the monster with both hands, Corporal Jeon raised his knee and slammed it into the monster’s abdomen.

Thud! Thud!

The sound was like something smashing into a wall.

The scales covering the monster’s body were extremely hard. Scales that could barely be pierced by bullets couldn’t be broken by a knee strike. Instead, Gwang-il’s uniform tore at the knee, and the skin underneath split open, blood flowing.

“Kraha, you damn lizard! You’re pretty tough!”

Shouting, he twisted the knee he’d been using to strike and hooked it around the monster’s leg.

At the same time, he changed the direction of the force he was applying with his hands.

The monster’s body lurched and crashed to the ground.

Gwang-il’s massive frame slammed down on top of it.

After pinning the monster to the ground, he stomped down on the monster’s right arm with one foot.

With one hand, he pressed down on the monster’s head, and with the other, he lifted up the monster’s left arm.

That exposed, the armpit between them. A spot without scales, close to the heart.

‘…The weakness I told him about!’

He looked like he’d gone crazy, but in the middle of all that, he still remembered the monster’s weakness?

But just because there were no scales in the armpit didn’t mean there was no skin. It was softer since it was a joint, but without even a combat knife, Corporal Jeon had no way to tear through that skin and strike the heart or so I thought.

Crunch!

Thinking there was no way to attack it was my mistake.

He opened his mouth wide and bit down on the monster’s armpit. A chunk of the monster’s flesh dangled from Gwang-il’s mouth.

“Ptui, tastes disgusting.”

After tearing away the skin of the monster’s armpit, he brought over the arm that had been pinning the monster’s head.

Forming his hand into a knife-edge, he stabbed it into that armpit.

Squish, squish!

“Kraaah… hhk!”

The monster, whose face had been freed, tried to bite Gwang-il. But as he tore around inside the body near the heart, where blood vessels converged.

The monster writhed in pain.

Moments later.

As he roughly tore through the monster’s insides, blood vessels must have burst.

Blood poured out.

As the blood rapidly drained from its body. The monster, writhing in pain, lost even the strength to thrash about, gradually going limp.

Thud!

It didn’t take long for the monster to lose its life. Confirming the monster’s death, Corporal Jeon got to his feet. He stared at something in front of him for a moment, then his eyes met mine.

“Sergeant Shin! I Awakened too!”

His whole body drenched in the monster’s blood.

One hand holding the monster’s heart. Chunks of the monster’s flesh still stuck around his mouth as he smiled brightly.

“Krahaaa!!! It’s all thanks to you, Sergeant Shin!”

“…”

I could feel everyone’s eyes turning toward me.

If I had to guess, they were probably thinking, ‘What the hell did he do to him…’

Faces unable to hide their shock.

“…Did the effect hit a little too hard?”