At 8:30 in the morning, Junho and Junhyeok followed Scott Hayden to Redrock Academy’s outdoor shooting range, built at the foot of the red mountain that matched its name.
Redrock’s outdoor range for trainees like Junho, who paid serious money, was large in scale, with no fewer than ten thoroughly partitioned individual lanes laid out side by side.
On top of that, the targets were digital targets equipped with chronograph monitors and various sensors.
There was a reason the two-week short course cost as much as fifty thousand dollars.
“Well then.”
Scott Hayden, wearing sunglasses and dressed like the brothers in the ballistic helmet, headset, and tactical vest fitted with ballistic panels they had been issued, stood in front of them.
“I’ve been told you already received basic instruction on the AR-15 and Glock at a Korean academy. Is that correct?”
Just as Junho had specified in advance, the prepared firearms were an AR-15 and KP-9 fitted with Picatinny rails, red-dot sights, and suppressors, along with a Glock 17.
The firearms used at the tactical academy in Korea had been training models, but their structure was almost identical to the real thing.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then we’ll briefly review the basic structure as a confirmation, and after that we’ll go straight into live-fire instruction.”
Scott Hayden enthusiastically taught the brothers, opening up the firearms with fast, practiced movements and demonstrating chamber checks and the like.
Since they had already handled them countless times at the tactical academy, Junho and Junhyeok adapted to the real AR-15 without much difficulty.
“You’re both Korean military veterans, and you said you used red-dot sights during active service. So I’ll go straight into practical shooting techniques.”
A combat professional among combat professionals, veteran instructor Scott Hayden taught them controlled pairs, lead shooting, pivot shooting, and more.
It was all a level more practical and more detailed than what the brothers had learned at the tactical academy in Korea.
As expected of a veteran instructor at a private academy that charged fifty thousand dollars.
And after an hour of AR-15 shooting, brief instruction and live-fire training on the Glock 17 and KP-9 followed immediately.
Junho found the KP-9 training especially interesting and useful.
“Now, a submachine gun like this is optimized for rapid response. The barrel is short and the effective range is shorter too, but thanks to the suppressor, accuracy is maintained.”
With that, Scott Hayden fired at the targets in lightning-fast motion while moving, without even looking through the red-dot sight.
Tak-tak-tak!
The three semiautomatic shots hit the head of a target some thirty meters away with perfect accuracy.
The shots that followed were the same.
The 9mm subsonic rounds he fired with clean, stripped-down movement shooting all buried themselves in the targets’ heads or chests.
“Damn...”
As Junhyeok let out his admiration, Scott Hayden finished his safety check out of habit, removing the empty magazine, checking the chamber, and so on before speaking.
“Do either of you understand the key feature of the shooting technique you just saw?”
“Maybe because the weapon is light, but it looks like you’re using your whole body more for recoil control.”
“Correct. Just what I’d expect from a Ranger veteran. All right, then. Let’s have you try it yourselves.”
Under the one-on-one supervision of the skilled instructor Scott Hayden, Junho and Junhyeok took turns conducting live-fire training with each firearm.
Since both were reserve veterans, and they had already drilled the fundamentals thoroughly at the Korean tactical academy, the first day of real firearms training went as smoothly as running water.
“Junhyuk, solid grip! Push with your support hand more! Yes! That’s it!”
“Good job, Juno! Two rounds, one target! Tight grouping! Good! Very good!”
Receiving encouragement, criticism, and open admiration from Scott Hayden—a veteran among veterans and a seasoned combat instructor—the brothers fired a total of a thousand rounds over the course of the morning and afternoon.
That was how the first day of training ended.
And for the entire week, the brothers went through precision shooting and reaction shooting drills, movement and transition shooting proficiency for real combat situations,
and on top of that, daytime and nighttime tactical shooting training as well.
Because they had already trained their physical conditioning brutally hard on a regular basis, neither brother tired at all, and they approached the training with complete diligence.
Deeply satisfied by that, Scott Hayden threw himself into their instruction even more enthusiastically.
***
A week passed at Redrock.
Junho and Junhyeok had gone through right-to-left shoulder transition drills, multi-target transition shooting, three-round-burst response routines, and reaction shooting within two seconds.
They had also drilled rapid transitions to the Glock 17 during AR-15 and KP-9 firing, corner approach and wall-hug shooting, alternating two-man entry, tactical reloads and emergency reloads, and malfunction clearing.
They learned how to use the lights and laser seekers on each firearm, performed static shooting after identifying targets at night, and practiced precision shooting by distance while moving, from ten meters out to a hundred.
Then they repeated every one of those drills all over again with the red-dot sights removed and using iron sights only.
And so, on the final seventh day, the brothers were given a comprehensive practical shooting evaluation that was combined with a tactical course run.
In that evaluation, they had to complete a roughly five-hundred-meter live-fire course in under seven minutes while fully geared up, going through five weapon transitions and ten shooting positions.
Junho finished in 4 minutes 12 seconds, and Junhyeok in 5 minutes 27 seconds, passing proudly with grades of A+ and A.
In particular, Junho’s time was not merely far shorter than Redrock’s average completion time among its many trainees—5 minutes 30 seconds to 6 minutes—it was a top-three record, enough to shock not only Scott Hayden but even the other instructors helping conduct the evaluation.
And then, after a full day of rest,
the brothers finally began the simulated training for the “special situations” Junho had specifically requested.
“The request isn’t exactly typical, but here at Redrock, we do have simulation programs for things like raiding cartel safehouses and responding to urban riots. We modified one of those a bit and recreated a situation as close as possible to what Juno asked for.”
Like a business in a capitalist thug state, Redrock Academy had followed Junho’s request as faithfully as it reasonably could for a fifty-thousand-dollar client.
And the brothers’ concentration and intensity throughout training had also played some part in that.
Within Redrock Academy, they had also judged that a special training program like this could help bring in a new kind of clientele.
Anyway, the brothers ended up receiving high-difficulty tactical response training set in cramped buildings designed around the Korean environment, under the assumption of using live ammunition against hostile targets armed not with guns, but with knives, metal pipes, baseball bats, and the like.
The first day was training with rubber rounds against fixed targets, and on the second day the training continued in scenarios where Redrock staff themselves attacked while wearing protective gear and full-face helmets.
Motion sensors were mounted on the staff’s helmets and armor, and Junho and Junhyeok were also wearing vibration-alarm vests so they could receive impact feedback.
Unlike the first day against fixed targets, on the second day Junho was judged to have been hit twice, and Junhyeok six times.
But the brothers were not disappointed.
That was because the Redrock staff were all veterans from special operations units in the United States and other countries, with abundant real combat experience to boot.
If anything, it was Redrock that was stunned when Junho, after being hit only twice, still landed shots in the head or chest on all ten-plus staff members.
And so, on day eleven,
the brothers repeatedly underwent training both indoors and outdoors against multiple hostile threats who had taken drugs and become extremely violent and aggressive, using suppressive shooting and two-man covering fire either to neutralize them or to fall back and secure a safe zone.
Then on the final fourteenth day, they were given a comprehensive practical evaluation on a mixed indoor-outdoor scenario course stretching about one kilometer and including two buildings.
And that full-scale evaluation—with eight weapon transitions and more than twenty shooting points—was being watched in real time by Redrock instructors and several executives through CCTV and drones.
***
“This is damn interesting. Brings 1993 Mogadishu to mind.”
An executive nearing sixty watched the brothers on the monitor, firing at exactly the right moments and moving without pause, and spoke in admiration.
“The locals and the rebels were all drugged up and rushing in like lunatics. Felt like zombies, honestly. Anyway, if Delta had had a training program like this back then, things would’ve gone very differently.”
“Times have changed a lot, haven’t they? Just having drones would’ve changed things.”
“Well, that’s true enough. Anyway, that client—Juno? He’s a Korean Army Ranger veteran?”
“Yes. Scott got him in through a personal recommendation from a Korean tactical school instructor he knows. Last week he cleared the comprehensive shooting course in the four-minute range.”
“Whew! I’m telling you, Koreans really are tough. So what, is he trying to join some PMC?”
“Well... apparently it’s just a hobby. From what Scott heard, he’s pretty rich in Korea. A millionaire.”
“What?”
The executive’s eyes widened at once, and he shook his head over and over, muttering “fucking crazy” several times.
While that was going on, the entire evaluation with its twelve-minute time limit came to an end, and the two men’s behavioral assessments and results appeared on the monitor.
Overall Accuracy: 98%
Misfire Incidents: 0
Target Discrimination: Outstanding
Composure under Pressure: Outstanding
Breach & Clear Efficiency: Above Standard
Overall Accuracy: 92%
Misfire Incidents: 1 – Non critical, Corrected within Protocol
Target Discrimination: Very Good
Composure under Pressure: Good
Breach & Clear Efficiency: Standard to Above Standard
Team Performance (Two Man Fireteam Drill)
Total Time to Complete Objective Route: 9 minutes 44 seconds
Team Coordination: Excellent
Communication: Clear, Concise, Effective under Fire
Tactical Movement: Synchronized and Very Efficient
Overall Rating: Advanced & Tactical Certification Recommended
Junho’s evaluation was the kind only an active-duty special operator or a top-tier PMC contractor would be likely to receive, and Junhyeok too was judged skilled enough that he could join a PMC immediately and pull a base salary of over eighty thousand dollars.
The brothers’ teamwork, too, was top-tier.
“So... if we paid them, there’s no way we could use this for company promotion, right?”
At the executive’s question, the staff member beside him checking the monitor gave a wry smile.
“No chance. He’s a citizen of an allied country, and he’s rich. He won’t allow it.”
“Shame. Real shame. Still, you never know, so let’s at least ask.”
“Yes, sir. Might as well.”
There was no way that would work—the words rose all the way to the staff member’s throat—but he nodded anyway.
Then he radioed instructor Scott Hayden, who was praising the brothers after they finished all their training, and soon Scott spoke with a slightly displeased expression.
“Juno, sorry to ask something like this. I’m a salaried man, so I’ve gotta bring it up.”
“What is it, Scott?”
Since they had grown much closer over the past two weeks, Junho asked back without any stiffness.
“The higher-ups want to use footage of you and Hyukie for company promotion. On the condition that all personally identifying information—name, country of origin, race, anything that could identify you—is kept confidential, ten thousand dollars each, twenty thousand total. What do you think?”
“Our training evaluation footage?”
“Yes. One of the people upstairs seems pretty impressed. They also want to make proper use of the special training program you requested.”
When Scott Hayden pointed upward with his thumb, Junho naturally lifted his head.
A drone was hovering leisurely in the cloudless sky overhead.
“You’ve got a helmet, ballistic sunglasses, and a mask on anyway, so your face won’t show. Of course, personally, I think it’d be better to refuse—”
Junho, who had been quietly listening to him, answered before Scott even ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ finished speaking.
“No. Tell them they can use it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. But tell them I have a different condition instead of money. If they agree to that, then as long as our faces and personal information are kept thoroughly private, they can use the footage however they want.”
In a lawsuit-happy country like the United States, if they carelessly leaked the personal information of a wealthy client, they would have to brace themselves for tens or even hundreds of thousands—no, millions—of dollars in consequences.
So as long as no one could identify who he and Junhyeok were, Junho did not particularly care if the footage of the “special situation” training the two of them had received was shown to others.
Of course, that was not because of some half-baked humanitarian impulse that hoped even one more person might survive after seeing it.
The reason was simple.
“The higher-up wants to know what you want.”
After finishing the radio call, Scott Hayden asked the question, and Junho calmly pulled off the face covering damp with sweat and replied,
“Get me some Dragon Skin body armor. I searched like hell online, but I couldn’t get it in Korea.”
He had already confirmed that one of Redrock Academy’s executives had retired from the U.S. Army a few years earlier as a field-grade officer.
If it was someone like that, then they might be able to get their hands on specialized Level IV body armor that weighed around twenty kilograms total for the upper and lower set and could even stop armor-piercing rounds.
Junho could not let an opportunity like this, arriving out of pure luck, slip away.
