Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: 10. Private First Class Kim Chun-sik (3)
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Right now, in this situation.
There was no time to make a clear judgment.
The ogres were right in front of him, their gaping maws splitting wide open with savage barks, razor-sharp teeth seizing his attention.
One thing was certain.
'This is weird.'
His senses expanded.
A chill raced across his skin as every sensation in his body came alive, and the ogres' speed—which had been too fast to track with his eyes just moments ago—now appeared crystal clear. He had no idea what awakening truly entailed. But as the system had explained, it seemed clear that some trigger had dramatically enhanced his 'physical abilities.'
Bang-!
A gunshot rang out.
Right now, understanding the situation took a backseat to surviving the demons in front of him.
Kyaak.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-bang!
He fired the rifle like a madman.
The fully automatic setting spewed flames, and Park Corporal, who was hiding his body in the distance, also nailed the approaching ogres with precise shots. But rifles alone couldn't fully hold them off. He managed to drop two or three, yet the two that closed in swung their massive claws without mercy.
Whoosh.
He dodged.
The moment he realized his body felt much lighter.
Crunch.
Keng.
He smashed the butt of his rifle into the ogre's jaw.
The beast reeled back from the powerful impact, and Kim Chun-sik swiftly thrust his bayonet into its heart. Squish squish, dark crimson blood splattered across his face. With no time to wipe it off, he rolled across the ground to evade another ogre's attack.
"Ngh."
Whoosh.
Fwoosh-
The attack grazed past.
Kim Chun-sik sprang up like a coiled spring and blocked the ogre charging right at him with both hands.
Grip.
"Grraaah."
His eyes bulged wide.
It was strange.
His strength had clearly been inferior to the ogre's before, but now, though his breathing was ragged, it didn't feel that overwhelming. That surplus power turned the tables. Kim Chun-sik lured in the ogre that was blindly charging forward, then drew the pistol from his waist holster. He immediately pressed the barrel to its temple.
Bang-!
Thud.
Both of them.
He dispatched them in an instant.
Kim Chun-sik steadied his breath and looked ahead.
Woof woof woof.
There were still plenty of enemies left.
A rough count put them at dozens, so he picked up the rifle he'd dropped and swapped out the magazine.
"Alright, let's do this."
Hope flickered to life.
He didn't know why his physical abilities had suddenly improved, but what mattered now was that he had the power to endure the enemies' assaults. From that point on, a brutal close-quarters brawl erupted. He'd fire the rifle like crazy, only to get tangled up with the ogres. Overwhelmed by their numbers, his limbs were sliced and torn. It was familiar. As an arrow sponge, he'd been injured countless times, so every time an enemy ripped into him, Kim Chun-sik jammed his dagger into their throat in retaliation.
Stab.
Grrrgle.
"You bastards."
He looked up.
His face was drenched in blood.
Instinct told him.
That he would inevitably collapse in the end.
The sudden boost in ability wasn't enough to grant him the miracle of taking down dozens of ogres.
But until the very end.
He had no intention of giving up.
As he stubbornly drove his dagger into yet another ogre's heart.
"Cover them!"
"Wipe 'em all out!"
Bang-
Rat-tat-tat-tat-bang!
Soldiers in uniform arrived on the scene.
Kim Chun-sik hung his head low.
Wrapped in bandages here and there after receiving treatment, he couldn't bring himself to look up at the man before him.
"Do you even know what you did wrong?"
Right beside him.
Park Corporal was there too.
The man in front of them was the 2nd Company Commander. After sorting out the situation, he unleashed his fury over the mess the soldiers had caused.
"I gave you a clear order. Advance toward Wangsimni, not the north, and take out any monsters you spot. But you ditched without permission and nearly got yourselves killed outside the operational zone. If you'd died, whose fault would that have been? Would we just brush it off as stupid suicides, or would I, your commanding officer, take the fall for it all? You fucking idiots. Explain yourselves. What the hell were you thinking, pulling off something that insane?"
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Sorry? That's it?"
"......We'll accept punishment for our mistakes."
"You little shit."
The 2nd Company Commander's face flushed red at Kim Chun-sik's response.
He wanted to hear some excuse, but Kim Chun-sik's tight-lipped attitude only fueled his rage to the boiling point.
The situation had turned grave.
Park Corporal, who had been listening silently, could no longer stay quiet.
"This is all my fault."
"What're you talking about?"
He locked eyes with Kim Chun-sik.
It was a look that said no excuses were needed, but Park Corporal shook his head, signaling him to stay back.
"My family was in danger. I dragged Private First Class Kim Chun-sik along and went AWOL. He had no choice but to follow his senior's orders. If you're going to hold someone accountable, it should all fall on me."
"......So it's some heartwarming scenario like that. What a pair of clowns."
Family?
It wasn't an excuse.
As the responsible officer and a soldier himself, the 2nd Company Commander couldn't calm his anger.
"No one here doesn't have a story. Someone else's family was probably in danger too—hell, people have actually gotten hurt or died. I get it. Your family in peril would make anyone's head spin. But when you go AWOL, who fills your spot? Your absence could get someone killed. And if we bend the rules for every personal issue, the military as an organization falls apart. You put everyone else at risk out of selfishness. Got it!?"
"......I'm sorry, sir."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. I'm going to make an example of you two—one punishment to warn a hundred. I'll show the rest of the troops exactly what happens to those who undermine military discipline."
This situation.
He didn't think it was unfair.
Kim Chun-sik and Park Corporal fully understood the 2nd Company Commander's judgment. The moment they'd decided to break formation, they knew discipline was inevitable. They'd simply prioritized. With family potentially dying right then, they were just ordinary people who couldn't rationally stick to protocol.
"Follow me."
The 2nd Company Commander turned to walk away.
As they moved to follow, a familiar face caught Kim Chun-sik's eye in the distance.
It was Kim Min-young.
But.
The man walking with her was also strikingly familiar.
'The Battalion Commander?'
No doubt about it.
Capital Defense Force 3rd Battalion Commander.
Major Choi Sung-jae was walking alongside Kim Min-young.
A little earlier.
Kim Min-young had arrived at the scene for reporting.
She quickly grasped the situation at a glance.
'A blind spot in the shelter system. The exact issue vulnerable groups have been complaining about.'
Shelters.
The defense network built to withstand monster attacks hadn't been scaled up due to budget and manpower shortages. That didn't mean one every hour, of course. Even in densely populated Wangsimni, the nearest was 15 minutes away—but the problem was the imbalance.
The elite.
They usually lived around Gangnam.
Divided by the Han River into south and north, the shelter distribution was starkly uneven along that line.
Shelters were so dense in Gangnam—practically every five minutes—that the government prioritized their safety to an excessive degree. They claimed it was proportional to population. Yet areas like Yangcheon-gu, with no small population of their own, had shelters 30 minutes apart, exposing glaring vulnerabilities.
It was a social hot-button issue.
Even amid a global catastrophe, voices rose questioning if the lives of the privileged truly mattered more.
'If they'd cut back on Gangnam shelters and balanced things out, incidents like getting stranded en route would've dropped sharply. Plus, the rich in Gangnam often build private ones. If I spin this right, I can turn it into a major social issue. Knew I smelled a scoop when I came here.'
She smirked.
Kim Min-young got to work.
She planned to gather as many testimonies as possible and run a sensational story.
But while listening intently to various accounts, she caught wind of something intriguing.
"If it weren't for him, we'd be dead."
"Him?"
"That soldier! We were hiding under building rubble to escape the monsters, and when it looked like they'd spot us, he suddenly jumped out and attacked them. Fighting all those alone...... He was incredible. Shouldn't someone like that get a commendation?"
The interviewees.
They all mentioned one soldier in common.
If the civilians' position had been discovered, it could've been a massacre. But one brave soldier had bought time until reinforcements arrived. In this chaotic world, it happened often enough. It could've been flavor text for an article, but the soldier's identity hooked her completely.
"His name? I heard it was Private First Class Kim Chun-sik."
Kim Chun-sik.
The name popped up out of nowhere, and Kim Min-young's eyes went wide.
Kim Min-young went straight to the Battalion Commander.
Her reporter credentials secured an easy meeting, and she cut right to the chase upon seeing Major Choi Sung-jae.
"What do you plan to do about the soldier who broke formation this time?"
"What else? Handle it by the book—military law."
Major Choi Sung-jae scowled.
To him, it felt like the reporter was prying into internal military matters.
"Going AWOL is absolutely unforgivable for a soldier. And more than anything, I don't care for that 'dumb hero complex.' Helping someone because you have the ability is one thing—a personal choice. But if reinforcements hadn't arrived on time, those soldiers would've died horribly right there. Meaningless sacrifice. I don't want my men dying like that. We need to punish them firmly to drive the lesson home and prevent repeats."
"I understand. But isn't there room to interpret this situation differently?"
"What do you......"
The man before her.
Kim Min-young had done her homework on Major Choi Sung-jae.
For someone who claimed to despise the hero complex, he'd endured countless sacrifices as a soldier to rise this far. He'd earned merits to become Battalion Commander, but coming from regular officer training rather than the academy, promotions had been tough. Duty-bound, well-intentioned, yet ambitious—he defied simple categorization.
Therefore.
"Dig into this incident, and it's not just some simple desertion. Park Corporal's family was in peril, rooted in the shelter imbalance—the very frustration the public voices. Private First Class Kim Chun-sik risked his life to save civilians. Isn't that the kind of story the masses go crazy for? What if it wasn't AWOL, but orders from someone? How do you think the public would react to a commander fulfilling his duty as a soldier to save people?"
"......They'd go wild."
"Exactly. They'd go wild. Everyone would applaud. You could claim that credit, Major. If we package this right, it stops being a desertion case and becomes one soldier's heroic tale."
The reason Kim Min-young became a star reporter.
It wasn't from malicious hit pieces chasing clicks.
Star reporter.
Or, hero maker.
She believed this world needed heroes.
In a chaotic era where people died daily, acts of goodwill deserved recognition.
That's why she pursued the Wangsimni incident.
And now.
Kim Chun-sik's courage warranted praise.
No matter the reason, staking his life in that situation was beyond what ordinary people could do. He was remarkable. Interviewing the victims, she felt viscerally how tough his decision had been.
"Ahem."
Major Choi Sung-jae swallowed hard.
Torn between military principles and personal ambition, he finally spoke in a subdued tone.
"So, what do I do from here?"