In the End, War Broke Out
Here, the war I'm talking about was World War. Every goddamn superpower on the planet threw itself into the meat grinder, pureeing humans like fruit in a blender. I was a healthy twenty-something guy from South Korea with nothing but a fit body to my name, so naturally, I got drafted and shipped straight to the front lines.
Luckily, I made it through three years without losing a single limb. Sure, it was nonstop combat on the front lines where death could come at any second, but compared to places where nukes wiped out tens of thousands in a flash, you could say I had some seriously twisted luck.
Because the war kicked off and I got thrown into the front lines right away, I kept pushing north. As a lowly grunt, I just followed orders from the brass. Still, when we crossed the Yalu River, even I was thrown for a loop. Were we finally taking back Manchuria?
Around the time we were charging across the plains, weird rumors started circulating on the front lines. Some bullshit about the enemy having super soldiers rampaging around. Freaks who could sprint a hundred meters in three seconds and flip Leopard tanks barehanded. And get this—they weren't wearing bear hides or anything; regular pistol rounds couldn't even slow them down.
But the real shock came when that rumor showed up right in front of me. The crazy bastard infiltrated our barracks at midnight, tore my squadmates apart with his bare hands, and came for me next. A berserker high on his own strength, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
Thanks to the other unit hearing the commotion and rushing in, I survived. That psycho who slaughtered my squad took thirty-eight rifle rounds to the body. Even then, if Captain Kim Sang-cheol hadn't pulverized his skull with an anti-materiel sniper rifle, the fucker would've walked out of our camp on his own two feet.
Anyway, after that shocking incident confirmed the existence of super soldiers, command halted our advance across the plains and concentrated all forces in one spot. A region confirmed to house the super soldier research lab. Farther north. Even farther north.
The super soldiers were powerful, but there weren't many of them. They could deal massive damage, but a beehive full of bullets still killed you the same way, so they couldn't stop our advance.
But midway through the charge, intel came in: the enemy wouldn't let us take the lab without a fight. They planned to wipe it off the map entirely. Better to burn their super soldier research than hand it over.
Command didn't stop. They selected an elite squad from the front lines to infiltrate the lab and steal the data. And I got picked.
A bit bewildered among all these special forces hotshots with their shiny resumes, but the thought of avenging my squadmates kept me from refusing.
So I jumped from the aircraft. Cue a frenzy of action, gunfire, chaos, total shitshow—until we reached the lab's deepest level. That's where I faced the mad scientist who created the super soldiers, alongside Captain Kim Sang-cheol.
The doctor said, “Don't you want to become a superhuman? I can make you one! I can turn you all into Supermen!”
I answered by pulling the trigger on my pistol.
But the doctor didn't die. Captain Kim Sang-cheol had shoved my gun barrel off-target. The bullet just grazed his arm.
“What the hell are you doing! We need that doctor alive! That's our mission!”
“Didn't you see it on the way down here? What these bastards did just to make one super soldier?”
The lab was hell. Human experimentation was standard fare, no regard for age or gender. Here, humans were just lab rats—no, mold growing on a petri dish. Killed off casually, bred like animals, doused in every chemical imaginable.
“...I saw it. But our mission is to capture that doctor, not judge him.”
At Kim Sang-cheol's words, I let out a smirk. A sneer.
“And what happens when we drag that bastard back? You know, I have a feeling our own army will do the exact same shit.”
“Bullshit! What do you take the ROK Army and the Allies for?!”
But Captain Kim Sang-cheol's face, as he snapped back so fiercely, already showed he didn't believe his own words. He'd seen it too. The power of those enemy super soldiers tearing up the front lines. And he knew no army—ours or anyone else's—would pass up a weapon like that.
“Keh, kehehe... Y-you can't kill me anyway...!”
Clutching his grazed arm and staggering, the doctor opened his mouth. As our eyes turned to him, he continued.
“This lab has bombs set to bury the whole facility underground. And the detonator's wired to my heart. If my heart stops, the lab goes down too! You're going to have to let me live—”
Bang. With the gunshot, the doctor collapsed without even a scream. His thigh was staining red.
“What the fuck...!”
Kim Sang-cheol aimed his gun at me. But I just stared him down calmly and said,
“Thigh wound. Few minutes before blood loss finishes him.”
“You...!”
“Time to run, Captain.”
Kim Sang-cheol glanced dizzily between me and the doctor, let out a defeated sigh, shook his head.
“...You crazy son of a bitch. If we get out alive, you're dead.”
“I'm planning to live a long, long time.”
“Smartass little shit...”
I ignored him, turned, and bolted. Soon I heard his combat boots following, then saw him surge ahead. Fuck, why's this guy so damn fast?
And the doctor's screams echoed behind us.
“N-no! Spare me! I'll make you a superhuman, an invincible warrior! No side effects! Come back! Come baaack! You bastards, do you know how much my research is worth...!”
I didn't catch the rest. Had to run like hell.
We sprinted toward the surface for a bit. Then sirens wailed through the entire facility—weeeeooooweeeooo.
Our faces went pale naturally.
“...He croaked already?”
“You think, you mad bastard? How long's an old fuck gonna last with a bullet in him? We should've gotten out before killing him!”
I grumbled bitterly, and Kim Sang-cheol bitched back. I ignored him and just fucking ran. He realized wasting breath on yelling was worse than saving it for another breath and caught up.
But we hadn't even made half the way up when a massive rumble and vibration shook the whole facility. Then, with a crumble-crash, the path behind us started collapsing.
In that situation, all we could do was run like absolute hell forward.
And I fell short by two goddamn steps, tumbling down with the crumbling platform.
Payback for slacking on sprint drills.
But my body didn't plummet right away. Somehow sensing it, Kim Sang-cheol had spun back, grabbed my right hand, and braced at the railing's edge. I saw his gritted-teeth face. Above him, the lab's collapsing scenery crashed down.
The floor here had stopped crumbling for the moment, but it was clear we couldn't hang around.
I smirked at Kim Sang-cheol's face.
“What're you holding on for? Let go and get outta here already.”
“You crazy... fuck...! How can you... say that...!”
“When my squad got wiped, I died half already. Surviving three years on this shithole front line? That's long enough. Everyone goes out like this, right?”
“You mad dog fuck...! The war... we're... damn near won it...!”
I brought my left hand to my right.
“Yeah. So go spin your wheels in the postwar world, Captain. I'm clocking out.”
“You... you! Said you'd live forever...!”
“Tired, man. Just go, Captain Kim.”
My left hand pried his loose. Naturally, my body plunged down. I saw Kim Sang-cheol's defeated expression shrinking smaller.
He'd figure out how to live. Or whatever. I was the dead one now.
Still hated dying painfully, so I curled up tight. Though right after, I wondered what the fuck it mattered. At least better than flopping down like a ragdoll with cut strings.
I noticed something off after a couple breaths. Looked up, scanned around—still falling. What the fuck?
I was plummeting amid collapsing debris and lab equipment. About to die, but I craned my neck, taking it all in. Finally pieced it together.
Apparently, the lab basement had a massive cavern and underground lake. Destroying the lab collapsed the cavern ceiling, sending me and the facility plummeting toward the lake below. That's why the fall dragged on.
But eventually, that brief reverie ended—my body hit full speed. The dark surface, black as metal, rushed up. Instinctively, I shifted to feet-first.
Don't know if it was faint hope or ingrained survival instinct.
Feet met water. Pressure like my whole body would shatter—then my consciousness cut out.
The lab facility rained down onto the underground lake. Among it, the chemicals the mad doctor had brewed. Drugs to push human flesh beyond species limits, born from hundreds, thousands of lives.
Dissolved in the clear lake water, those drugs began absorbing into the sole surviving lifeform at the lake's center.
But then, cryogenic storage units for corpses and test subjects crashed down too. And started freezing the lake water.
Some time later, a secondary explosion rocked the upper lab. Self-destruct mechanism or enemy airstrike to erase human experimentation traces—who knew.
All that was clear: the cavern collapsed completely, erasing even the slimmest chance of excavating the lab.
Thus, one 21st-century soldier was buried deep underground.
Of course, he didn't die.
The bizarre drugs preserved his body, which should've been destroyed in the rapid coolant. Then, countless organic and inorganic compounds from the underworld absorbed into him, slowly transforming his flesh.
Into a super soldier who could sprint a hundred meters in three seconds and flip military vehicles barehanded. No—something beyond that.
Afterward, time passed that was far too long for one human, yet a mere instant for this underworld. Roughly ten thousand years.
Water flows change. Same for groundwater. A trickle swelled uncontrollably at some point. A long-stagnant deep-underground pool got swept up.
And whoever slumbered within it too.
The current twisted endlessly, sometimes deeper, sometimes near the surface. Finally merging with a great river.
The sleeping one rode the flow into the river too.
His long-frozen body thawed in the river water. Stilled organs kicked back to life. The pounding was robust, vibrant—unbelievable for a lifeform dormant ten millennia.
Moments later, his eyes snapped open underwater.
“Cough, hack, urgh, fuck...”
He barely dragged himself onto the riverbank. Head pounding like an ice block inside, body heavy as lead—he couldn't stand. Soaked to the bone, water streaming off him, he flopped onto the shore.
Pebbles and mud greeted him, but he couldn't care less. Just sprawled there, gasping.
After a while of heaving, he slowly pushed himself up. Stared blankly at the scene before him and muttered,
“...Where the fuck am I?”
Before his eyes stretched a dense primordial forest.
Author's Note: A new story begins.