"We want to... share the information our unit has."
"What?"
When I first heard the favor Minjae brought up,
I couldn’t help but be taken aback.
"Winter has come, Youngjun."
"I know that much. Our unit’s pretty well prepared for winter, right?"
"Yeah. Our unit... and the people near our unit won’t have a problem."
Under the protection of [Vimana], our unit has little to worry about.
Same for those within our sphere of influence.
With the plant’s electricity, they’ll manage to get through winter somehow.
"Especially since Chuncheon has a very high ratio of awakened."
Awakened already have survival abilities on a different track from ordinary people.
If you add our help on top of that—
Most will make it through winter safely.
The problem is—
"Then what about the people outside our sphere?"
"..."
We sometimes get visitors from the outside.
Through them,
we’ve had plenty of chances to hear how things are going in other regions.
Unlike here, where the ratio of awakened is very high,
in most regions the number of awakened is only now starting to increase in earnest.
About half of the survivors still haven’t even awakened.
"They’re going to have an enormous number of problems."
Unless they secure electricity like we did—
those who haven’t even awakened—
it’s hard for them to survive a winter cold said to be the harshest in decades.
Which is why—
Minjae asked me for this.
"If we share what we know, the situation will change at least a little."
"..."
"If the world learns how to deal with monsters, even those who haven’t awakened yet might somehow manage to awaken. That alone will greatly raise their chances of surviving this winter."
That’s true, but—
There’s one problem.
"If we choose this... our unit will take a big loss, Youngjun."
"Good. At least you know that."
We’re in an age where information is more precious than anything.
And in particular, what Minjae wants to share is information only our unit has.
The moment we put that out into the world, our unit is essentially taking a loss.
On top of that—
this information includes how to hunt monsters.
"People who get this will grow at a ridiculous pace."
If they just grow, that’s one thing.
But—
among those who grow like that... someday—
how can we be certain none of them will become hostile to our Legion?
"You know this is a pretty outrageous ask, right?"
"Of course I do. But..."
Even so,
Minjae brought me that outrageous ask.
The reason was simple.
"You act like it doesn’t bother you, but... Youngjun. I’m a pretty weak guy."
"Huh?"
"It’s not flattering to say so myself, but my mental fortitude isn’t exactly strong."
Sergeant Lee Minjae stroked Salmo-neus with a small sigh.
"Family and friends, seniors and juniors. People who are probably living painful lives somewhere even now..."
"..."
"I can’t stop thinking about them."
That—
goes for me too.
No—
not just me; it goes for every member of the unit.
That’s why we used [Chef’s Special Sauce]—
to try to strip people of worries like that.
But...
"Minjae knows what [Chef’s Special Sauce] can do."
That merchant we met recently—
Lee Sanghyeop had a trait that made it easy to trick the other party in a deal, and yet—
it didn’t work on me for a simple reason.
Because I’d noticed the existence of that trait.
It’s the same with [Chef’s Special Sauce].
Since Minjae knows what it does, it’ll inevitably be less effective on him.
Besides—
making someone forget their worries like that is only a stopgap.
It doesn’t help solve the problem.
Which is why—
Minjae asked this favor.
"I want those people to survive, even a little more. No—please, Legion leader."
"Hey."
"Only then... do I think my mind can hold out a little longer."
Spread what we know to the world.
Use that information
to help even a few more people survive.
"..."
After I heard Minjae’s request,
I couldn’t help but brood on it for a while.
The benefit is certain.
More people will be able to survive.
But it’s equally certain that could turn into a loss at the same time.
Information we could sell for enormous profit if we demanded payment.
And we can’t ignore the possibility that other surviving humans might turn hostile to us.
"Huh? Wait a second."
No matter how I looked at it, the losses seemed bigger.
I thought the right move was to refuse.
But—
when I thought it over carefully—
"This... might not be bad."
One of the problems I’d been mulling over recently came to mind.
If we do it right,
we might be able to solve it through this.
A moment later,
Minjae, watching my face, shook his head and said:
"...Sorry. It really was too ridiculous an ask."
"Ah, hell—let’s do it."
"So let’s just drop it... huh?"
Minjae tried to withdraw his request.
My answer to that—
was to accept it lightly.
"A-are you serious?"
"Sure. I’m serious."
"I’m telling you to just release the weak points of the monsters you know to the public. And you accept that so easily?"
"...This is the favor you asked for, right?"
Even though he was the one who asked,
Minjae asked back with an attitude like he couldn’t make sense of it.
You could wonder what he was trying to say, but—
"I can pretty much guess why he’s like this."
I understand Minjae’s temperament to a degree.
And why he’s reacting like that.
Sergeant Lee Minjae—
the man in a position close to acting Legion leader of our unit—
"wants to make rational decisions but is, in truth, quite an emotional person."
Minjae’s pretty smart.
Maybe it’s the influence of a mage’s stats.
Even though our headcount has grown a lot, he’s always among the wisest in the unit.
What’s the more correct decision—
with Sergeant Lee Minjae’s head, he’ll grasp it faster than anyone.
But—
"he’s soft-hearted."
For someone that clever,
he’s oddly attached and sentimental.
If it’s a trivial matter,
Sergeant Lee Minjae will act by ordinary rational judgment.
But—
"once it reaches the point where people’s lives are at stake..."
even if he knows the rationally correct decision,
he won’t be able to decide himself; he’ll hesitate.
Heh.
"I think I get why you pushed me as leader, lately."
"..."
Minjae could have taken the leader’s seat himself in my place.
But he didn’t.
It was Minjae who instead actively pushed me to be the Legion’s leader.
"When a moment of choice like this came, he didn’t want to be the one in the position to choose."
A situation where you have to pick one of the realms of reason or emotion.
A situation where any person has to make a painful decision.
At times like that—
Sergeant Lee Minjae didn’t have confidence he could make that decision himself.
So—
he found another trustworthy person...
That is—
"he ceded the role of decider to me."
And—
as a result of the judgment of the reliable decider he chose—
we’re now preparing to transmit by radio.
"For the record, I’m not doing this just because you asked. You know our unit doesn’t play favorites just because we’re close, right?"
"Then why? No matter how I look at it, it’s all loss for us. I know you want to save as many people as possible... but that only has meaning if they’re within our sphere."
Just as Minjae says—
the reason I want to save as many humans as possible
is to increase the forces that will fight alongside us against monsters
when the headcount of humans is low.
"If they’re outside our sphere, the story changes a bit."
They’re different from people we can control to some extent.
After they build strength using what we tell them,
there could be those who turn that strength back on us.
It’s adding uncontrollable risk.
Given this world could turn into a [Competitive War]—
ordinarily, it’s something we should avoid.
"We’re soldiers, aren’t we?"
"...You mean that?"
What’s a soldier’s duty?
To protect the citizens and put their survival first.
After we succeeded in retaking the Ammunition Battalion,
I remembered the battalion commander’s diary I read there.
The soldiers of the Ammunition Battalion—
even on the day before they died—
"lived as soldiers and died as soldiers."
There are people like that.
And we’re in a far more comfortable situation than they were.
As soldiers, for the people—
spreading what we know—
that much... shouldn’t be hard.
"...That’s the surface reason, anyway."
It’s true we’re accepting a measure of loss.
But—
"it’s not all loss, either."
"What?"
If it were only loss,
maybe I wouldn’t bother doing this.
"I’m not that nice a guy."
The truth is—
there’s something I urgently wanted to take care of.
Something I thought would be really tough with just our guild.
"If we do it right, we might be able to leverage it for something else."
"What...?"
"There’s a thing. Besides—"
I said with a light smile:
"If they’re going to build strength—fine. Let them."
"...?"
"If a group can grow just from our information, odds are they’re weaker than us right now."
If they were already on par with us,
they’d probably have figured out the kind of information we’d hand over on their own.
"And no matter how much those guys build up and come at us, it’s not that scary."
"...I see. You mean you’ll just smash them in return."
"What are you talking about, man?"
"Hm?"
Smashing them in return is just the baseline.
"It’d be a shame to end it there."
Thoroughly break them,
spare only their lives,
"and serve them a very generous course of my cooking."
Until they’re so full—
that the strength they built ends up handed over to us.
****
"We are the Legion."
The transmission that would spread to the world—
its first line began like this.
"This radio broadcast is being transmitted from the military unit currently operating out of Chuncheon City, Gangwon Province. The 423rd Battalion... provisionally the Iron Legion."
Whether this radio will actually spread—
and even if it does, how far it will spread—
I don’t know.
What I can do
is put in everything I can, and convey all the information it can hold.
"I think many of you believe the military has been wiped out. At least in the Gangwon region, it’s true most units have been shattered."
Gangwon is where the majority of the Republic of Korea Army’s strength is concentrated.
The collapse of that strength is a critical blow, but—
"Not all of the military has been annihilated. We’re still alive and working to stabilize the region."
The fact that not all units are gone—
for those who survived, it will serve as a faint hope.
"Our unit aims to stabilize the entirety of the Republic of Korea, but since most of our strength has been lost, helping survivors in other regions will be very difficult."
No matter how much our unit has grown—
with our strength alone, it’s hard to save everyone in distant areas.
It’ll take a very long time.
And as the harsh season like winter passes, many will die.
So—
"We intend to help you in another way."
Here’s the main point.
"From here on, please listen as closely as possible. If you’re in a situation where you can take notes, we recommend you do."
Worried that someone might let this information wash past them, I decided to warn them in advance.
Hard-won, precious information we decided to release—
if people just listen halfheartedly,
that would be a waste.
"Winter has come. As far as our Legion has determined, this year’s cold will be at a level that an ordinary human will find hard to endure. If you’ve already prepared a way to survive, you’ll be fine, but if not—"
What I’m going to say now—
"we recommend that you go through Awakening."
Statements that could be poison for us.
"The method for Awakening is simple. Kill a monster at close range."
Information on Awakening.
"However, monsters are extremely powerful and not easy to kill. So we intend to share information on monsters that our Legion has secured."
—A bipedal creature resembling a lizard with black scales covering its whole body. Its name is the Steel Lizard.
—Its formidable defense is the problem, but its weak point is the left armpit from its perspective; blood vessels connected to the heart cluster there and there are no scales, making it fragile. A single stab can cause massive hemorrhage and death.
The reason we’ve been able to survive to now,
and one of the biggest reasons we surged far ahead of other awakened—
—A monster resembling an elephant. Its name is—
—A monster with blue fur and six legs. Features—
Back at the start of Awakening,
when our soldiers were only level 1,
the force that let them bring down Steel Lizards, which were quite strong monsters—
Monsters’ weak points.
"Data I drew out through my [Chef’s Eyes]."
I decided to release that
to the people of the world.
"Next is Gowan Honmar. A monster whose right hand is grotesquely hypertrophied—"
Of course—
if I just dump information like this, that’s too much of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) a loss.
"I don’t like taking losses."
This is precious information.
I’m not going to hand it out for free.
In return for getting what I’m spreading—
there’s one thing listeners have to do.
"Even if you know the weak points I mentioned, with an ordinary human body it will be hard to handle a monster."
After the long explanation of monsters’ weak points ended,
the engineers were about to cut the broadcast—
"...Sergeant Shin?"
"You have more to say?"
When I didn’t stop,
the engineers looked puzzled but didn’t cut the feed.
Confirming that, I continued in an even tone.
"Awakening is achieved by hunting monsters."
However, since the difficulty of hunting monsters is far too high—
unless you’re with a sufficiently strong awakened group,
there’s a high chance you’ll struggle to awaken.
In reality,
even just in Gangwon, there are many who know you can awaken by hunting monsters.
And yet the proportion of awakened is small,
because hunting monsters barehanded is that hard.
"So, I’ll give you an alternative."
Information even our unit’s soldiers don’t know,
and information on an enemy
that’s hard to deal with using only our soldiers.
And...
something I wanted to solve no matter what,
but for which I just couldn’t see an angle.
"Walking corpses... zombies."
Information on a material for Awakening
that’s easier to hunt than any monster.
