Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Entering the Training Camp
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Always, in my daily routine, unchanging,
Change had finally come to my monotonous life, which I'd thought would never alter.
"Um...! I think there's some kind of misunderstanding here?"
"In this place, every sentence ends with dana. Trainee."
"No, no no...! I'm not a trainee. I don't even know where this is in the first place."
How should this story even begin?
At what point did my life go completely off the rails...?
From my perspective, I don't understand a single thing properly,
but even so, here I am, dressed in a military uniform, pleading with the instructors.
"I'm not from this world! Have you ever heard of Earth? Or Korea? What about Korea?"
"Trainee No. 158, you're being permitted to return to the barracks and go to sleep. That's as far as we're entertaining your complaints."
"This is insane! I'm telling you, I'm not from here! Someone, anyone, please call them...! No, I opened my eyes and suddenly I was at the training camp entrance! I'm just a civilian with no connection to this place!"
Where do I even start the story?
Right now, I'm caught up in an unprecedented event called [Isekai Transfer].
Usually, when someone gets isekai'd, they get cheat powers or get tangled up with ridiculously beautiful heroines...
But I didn't receive any such perks.
No, not only that,
I don't even know why I was dragged here.
"No. 158, so what exactly are you trying to say?"
"I've explained it over and over! I didn't come here to enlist! Why won't you listen to me?!"
"Trainee No. 158, you're already on the enlistment list. It looks like you're faking illness to get discharged, but I know your type all too well."
"Fuck this! I'm not faking it!"
"No, you are. It happens sometimes on the first night—guys throwing tantrums like this. Especially the men."
Even as everyone else sleeps, I can't close my eyes. I'm too wronged to sleep like this.
"I already fucking discharged! You crazy bastards!"
"Swearing now? Drop and give me push-ups."
"Fuck off. I already got discharged. I served a full year and a half and got honorably released!"
This is absurd. I feel like I'm going insane for real.
No one believes a word I say.
And there isn't a single normal human like me here.
"I said drop and give me push-ups."
"No, no... seriously... haa... fuck... Instructor, I'm really wronged... Why do I have to start over as a trainee? Huh? This isn't even the world I lived in!"
What kind of isekai transfer starts at basic training? Why did this ridiculous shit happen to me of all people?
The other instructors, excluding Instructor Kate, all stare at me like I'm weird. Some even look at me with pity.
"No. 158, enough already."
"Calm down first. We get that it's tough for you. But now that you're enlisted, you should focus on training hard and graduating, right?"
A few instructors who seem concerned approach to soothe me.
"Kate, don't be too harsh. He's just a guy. How hard must it be for him to act out like this."
"No. Once enlisted, he's our trainee. Man or not, we train them to the end and send them out as proper soldiers. That's our duty."
Instructor Kate stands tall before me, looking down with a triumphant expression.
She's probably inwardly praising herself for being such a flawless, exemplary instructor. In reality, she's solving nothing and failing to help even one trainee.
"No. 158."
Black straight hair and deep eyes,
a sharply upturned nose,
a stunning appearance that anyone would call beautiful.
But right now, none of that registers with me.
I'm so wronged I could explode, my vision going black. I pity myself for being stuck in this unheard-of situation, and I resent these idiots who won't believe me.
9:39 PM,
after evening roll call, my back-and-forth with Instructor Kate eventually...
"I shouldn't be training here...! I need to find a way home...!"
"Everything you're saying is garbage. In this recruit training center, only the number on your dog tag and military training matter. If you want to go home, graduate properly first."
...ends in her victory.
"Cut the pointless acting and drop right now. Unless you want to experience two months of hell."
I can't prove my otherworlder status, but Kate is unmistakably a recruit training instructor.
No matter what I say, it just sounds like the ravings of a delusional patient, but she can assert her full authority with just the hat on her head.
"Drop. Execute."
"No, Instructor...! This isn't acting, it's real..."
"No excuses. Drop."
I know it too. Defying an instructor as a trainee is incredibly stupid and irrational.
As a trainee, I can't beat them. Inside the training center, the instructor's word is law.
"Drop and give me push-ups!"
How shitty I feel doesn't matter. No one here will believe me.
No one's even heard of [Earth] or [Korea]. To these isekai folks, my hometown is just some fantasy from a delusion.
"I really got discharged... for real..."
I squeeze my eyes shut and drop to the floor. Fighting like this won't get anyone on my side—I've realized that.
I have to swallow the injustice and rage rising to my chin. No amount of bitching will change anything.
"Fuck..."
In the summer night filled with cricket chirps,
I spend my first night at this otherworld recruit training center.
"If you're a man, you need to train your body even more. It has to be strong enough to protect itself."
A long,
sweaty,
agonizing night...
Instructor Kate finally lets me go after another two hours.
Sweat pours not just from my limbs but my entire body like rain. It feels like I've done a full-course personal training session.
But since everyone's asleep, there's no time for a proper shower.
"Just wash up simply in the bathroom and hit the bunk. Make sure all your actions are quick so you don't disrupt tomorrow's training schedule."
This sucks.
In my mind, I've already cursed a hundred times. My cheeks have been slapped a dozen more.
"Response."
"...Understood."
But this is the recruit training center.
I'm just one lowly trainee.
"Good."
Instructor Kate sends me off with a satisfied smile. Her gaze lingers on my sweat-drenched nape and collarbone, but I can't retort or resist.
I swallow my rage and turn to walk away. I hurry down the dimly lit corridor to the bathroom midway down.
Shaaaa-
Only after splashing cold water on my face from the faucet does my anger start to subside bit by bit.
Finally, I can assess my situation objectively.
I've been dragged to this otherworld with no ties or connections. [Earth] and [Korea] don't exist here, and their standards for humans—or men—are completely warped.
I can still see the cat-ear-like things sprouting from Instructor Kate's head. And a tail from her hips.
This fantasy world has races straight out of novels. Or maybe they make up the majority.
Even the ones assigned to my barracks have body structures too unique to call just human.
From pointy-eared elves to tiny dwarves barely reaching my waist.
Girls with horns or animal ears poking from their hair feel almost normal by comparison.
And among all these girls,
I'm the only one standing out with no features at all.
"..."
The mirror right in front shows only the face of a pathetic man.
Describing his expression is painful. But I force myself to look straight into the mirror without flinching.
Despair and frustration,
fear of the unknown,
confusion from everything I knew being upended.
Amid it all,
only my black eyes tremble and shine.
"Fucking bastards."
I don't want to look at those miserable eyes anymore, so I mutter curses while washing my face. Each splash of cold water revives it.
Despair and frustration cool into cold anger, fear and confusion swallowed down with saliva into my gut.
I don't know what's going on, but right now, surviving the day is priority. Drawing attention from these otherworlders seems like a bad idea.
I splash water on my face, neck, armpits, and back to wipe away the sweat. A lone stranger in unfamiliar lands must even fret over rinsing cold sweat.
Outside, I feel the sticky gazes of a few trainees on night watch. Normally, I'd brush it off, but women giving me those looks is so bizarre I can't believe it.
Too much interest and staring my way. I need to wipe the sweat fast. Can't let them keep eyeing me like that.
Shaaaa-
I cup water from the faucet in my palms. Even without looking, I can see my reflection in it.
A man discharged just three months ago, dragged back to the army.
Not just any army,
some weird otherworld army...
I don't want to see this pitiful face anymore, so I look away from the water, but the mirror right there shows me. Can't escape my own reflection.
A worthless guy trembling his lips in an inexplicable situation. Nothing special, just the haggard face of an average Joe who's lived unremarkably.
But somehow, my eyes are drawn not to my face, but to the tattoo on my right wrist. A tattoo faintly glowing...
Right,
there's a tattoo on my right wrist. Probably appeared when I was sent here.
I have no idea why I was pulled to this otherworld, but the alien feel from this tattoo seems like the only [clue] to getting home.
"..."
I stare at the tattoo for a long time. It feels like it's speaking to me.
It draws my attention with a brief glow,
preparing a small change.
[730 Days Remaining]
It's currently 11:59 PM,
and the moment the hour and minute hands fully overlap—
[729 Days Remaining]
The countdown on my wrist tattoo decreases by one.