KWA-BOOOOM...!
With ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) a sudden blast, a wave of searing heat ripped the ground apart.
Then—
“Fire support complete!”
“Entrance is open! Everyone, move up!”
Straight into the zone where that intense heat still lingered,
soldiers in uniform charged forward without a hint of fear.
“Urgh... there are too many monsters!”
“Just push through! Any lack of firepower gets covered from the rear!”
Somewhere in Gangwon Province.
There, a battle was raging—
the kind of extremely fierce engagement they hadn’t seen in quite some time.
“Gah...!”
“Corporal Seong!”
“I’m fine, just keep going...!”
Through countless fights up to now, they had built up immense power.
The undisputed strongest Guild in Gangwon Province.
The Iron Legion.
And—
their opponent was so formidable that,
even with what was practically the Legion’s full might thrown into the fight,
they were barely scraping by.
“The Legion’s...”
But in the end—
the ones who claimed victory were...
“For the Legion’s victory!!!”
...the Iron Legion.
Right in the middle of the enemy position,
soldiers rammed a flag into the ground—
a flag bearing a lizard with iron scales.
“...‘For the Legion’s victory,’ huh.”
As everyone shouted at the top of their lungs in triumph,
a few soldiers scratched their heads, suddenly self-conscious.
“Saying that line here feels a little off, doesn’t it.”
“Haha. Yeah, kinda.”
Their gazes drifted.
They turned toward the large stone standing near the facility where they’d planted the flag.
[18th Corps]
[Corps Headquarters]
This place—
Gangwon Province, the Republic of Korea’s very frontline.
This was the headquarters of the 18th Corps,
which had guarded the farthest northern edge, the closest thing to the front line of the front line,
and which, accordingly, had boasted one of the highest-grade combat forces
among all the Corps in the old Republic of Korea.
****
A large fire was burning.
Laid out neatly in front of it were countless sets of dog tags.
“Lieutenant General Jang Hyeong-cheol... Colonel Seo In-joon...”
There at the front,
Awakeners who had once been religious folk before all this came forward,
reading the names etched into the dog tags
and conducting a funeral for them.
Something they always did whenever they reclaimed a military unit.
As they watched the soldiers’ funeral,
a few soldiers muttered quietly to themselves.
“Corps headquarters, huh...”
“Who would’ve thought we’d actually be able to take a place like this...”
In truth—
as a single base, Corps HQ wasn’t all that large in physical size.
But maybe because of its symbolic weight,
and the role its location played in linking up organically with other military units,
the monsters that had occupied this place
had been so strong that even with the Legion’s strength,
they hadn’t been easy to deal with.
They’d judged it too dangerous.
Even the purge operations up to now had been put off.
“And yet, we actually pulled it off.”
“...Yeah. This is all thanks to...”
Their eyes turned,
all at once,
toward a single spot.
“Those people over there.”
The ones standing there were—
within the Legion that only accepted strong Awakeners,
the ones considered the cream of the crop among even that elite.
“The Corps Commander... and the squad leaders.”
The reason they’d been able to lead this battle to victory
was entirely thanks to the operation laid out by the Corps Commander,
Shin Youngjun—
a genius of strategy and tactics whose meticulousness
didn’t suit how young he looked.
“And the squad leaders.”
And the ones who had actually carried that plan out
were his four direct squad leaders,
everyone under his direct command except for Staff Sergeant Lee Minjae,
who had remained behind to defend the main base.
And now—
they were standing at the very front of the funeral,
watching the ceremony.
“Phew...!”
CRACK.
One of them—
Corporal Jeon Gwangil—popped a joint back into place, twisted out of shape by the battle, and spoke.
“Suhyeok.”
“What.”
“I hit Level 30.”
The huge warrior dropped a bombshell like it was nothing.
What was even more surprising was—
“...I figured you probably did. I did too.”
“What?”
The man holding the sniper rifle beside him
had also reached Level 30.
[Boundless Berserker]
[Cold-Blooded Marksman]
[Lv.30]
Corporal Jeon Gwangil muttered, sounding almost offended.
“I should’ve had more experience than you, though...?”
“That just means this fight was that rough. The reward had to be massive if it gave us this much experience.”
The wall at Level 30 was high.
It had been quite a long time
since both of them had reached Level 29,
but Level 30 had felt hopelessly far away.
The only reason Staff Sergeant Lee Minjae had been on higher ground than the others
was because his area-of-effect style made leveling easier in large-scale battles.
That was the only reason he’d been able to reach Level 30 a bit quicker.
...And the other one who’d hit Level 30 long ago
was in a category of his own from the very start, so they didn’t even bother comparing.
“So that makes... four Awakeners in the Legion at Level 30 or higher now?”
“With nothing to compare against, I don’t even know how impressive that really is.”
The other squad leader, Lee Sanga,
had also reached Level 29 while clearing the [Underground Mine],
and had amassed a substantial amount of experience since.
Staff Sergeant Park Taejun, too,
had begun fully participating in unit operations through [Astrology]
and started leveling explosively.
It might not be long before all the squad leaders hit Level 30.
For them, the thought was deeply moving.
“So what Trait or Skill did you get? In my case...”
“Ah, sorry.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil wanted to commemorate the occasion
by talking a bit more.
But—
“Looks like the funeral’s about to wrap up, so I need to go ahead first.”
“What?”
“Sorry, but I’ll leave things here in your hands.”
One of the two people in question—
Corporal Seo Suhyeok—rose to his feet as he said it.
“Where are you going? Even if I handle cleanup here,
you’re exhausted too. Wouldn’t it be better to rest a bit?”
“I already forced my schedule to make time to come at all.”
In the past,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok would have thought something like this funeral
was completely meaningless.
This time, though, he had stayed—
for the funeral.
The legionnaires’ identity was unified under one word: soldier.
The reason they’d pushed themselves a bit
to attempt recapturing Corps HQ this time
was exactly because of that identity.
As soldiers,
they would lawfully reclaim military units
illegally occupied by monsters,
and gather the remains of other soldiers—
their comrades-in-arms—who had died miserably.
“I was originally going to head out the moment the fight was over,
but I stayed because I at least wanted to see the funeral.”
Unlike before—
Corporal Seo Suhyeok now understood the meaning behind this.
If it were any other matter, maybe he wouldn’t care.
But when it came to comrades—
every single one of these acts
was something that engraved into the legionnaires
that the Legion never took its comrades lightly.
He understood that clearly now.
“Did you forget? I’ve got a fixed assignment now.”
“...Ah.”
Ordinarily, he would have stayed here to the very end,
but Corporal Seo Suhyeok had a reason why he couldn’t.
“In that case, it can’t be helped. Take care, then.”
“Mm. Clean things up properly.”
As he returned to that assignment,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok thought to himself:
‘So this is Level 30...’
The moment you reached Level 30,
the job that had been unified up to that point
began to branch according to that Awakener’s individual traits.
The abilities you gained in that process
were even more drastic than what you got at Level 20.
‘...Back at the start of Doomsday,
I tried to desert whenever I saw the chance.’
If he had actually deserted back then, what would have happened?
Now that he had grown strong under the Legion,
he found himself wondering that.
“Corporal Seo, you’re back!”
“Yeah. Nothing happened, right?”
The place he returned to
was an observation post created for a very special purpose.
They called it an observation post,
but the only person serving there in an actual “observation” role
was Corporal Seo Suhyeok alone.
All the other soldiers were just there
to handle maintenance for the post itself—
a very lopsided, abnormal kind of post.
Before climbing up onto the post,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok turned around
and looked off into the distance.
‘When is that thing finally going to disappear.’
Far away,
he could see a ridiculously huge black Wall.
And then,
he turned his head back,
walked in the direction away from the Wall,
and hauled himself up onto the post.
The moment he did—
WHOOSH.
The gigantic Wall that had been blocking his view just moments ago,
that black Wall of Fire—
vanished.
‘No matter how many times I see it, it’s bizarre.
Feels like some kind of bug in a game...’
The place where this observation post had been built
was exactly the spot where that black Wall
dropped out of sight.
After climbing up onto the post,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok, as always,
looked past the Wall,
observing the situation in Gyeonggi Province.
‘There probably won’t be anything today either, but still.’
He observed every single day,
but up to now, aside from the Corps Commander’s vampires
struggling to secure footholds near that area,
nothing particularly special had shown up.
Still, with his level rising, his abilities had improved.
He should be able to observe even farther than before.
With that expectation, he looked past the Wall—
“...Huh?”
A man whose emotions barely shifted at all
except when it involved comrades.
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s eyes flew wide open.
“...You down there!”
“Y-yes!? What is it, sir!”
“Get the main base... in contact with Vimana! Bring me the radio!”
With an urgency that was completely unlike him,
he grabbed the radio set that Staff Sergeant Lee Minjae
had restored the comms function on.
“As fast as you can!”
Because on the far side of the Wall,
the vampires who had set up their positions there
were writing letters on the ground.
****
‘The Legion’s radio broadcasts get updated every Wednesday.’
Normally, each Branch would listen to the broadcast separately.
This time, though, the Southern Branch had arrived late,
and with the increased volume of trade,
the exchange itself had been delayed by a full day.
So here,
at Central Branch, with personnel from each Branch gathered,
the new broadcast was about to play.
They wouldn’t be able to listen to the radio on the road back.
So the idea was—
they would listen to the new information here,
and if any new intel came up,
they would share opinions on it together.
[We are... the Legion...]
As the broadcast began,
Jo Beomseok slipped into his thoughts.
‘When I first heard that radio... I was so moved.’
The reason people called him “General” was simple.
He actually had been a general.
Brigadier General Jo Beomseok, Republic of Korea Army.
He’d completed his service as a brigadier general, retired,
and then Doomsday had hit.
But his identity was still that of a soldier.
And so—
‘To think there were still military units left...
when I thought they’d all been wiped out.’
He had despaired over what he believed
was the annihilation of every military unit.
And felt immense joy at the existence of a surviving unit.
He’d been so happy that,
back when that radio broadcast first started playing,
he’d listened to it all week long.
“...Come to think of it.”
Jo Beomseok asked the group member behind him:
“That radio. Didn’t the voice change at some point?”
“Ah... now that you mention it, maybe it did.”
“I’m pretty sure it did, sir.
Only the first week had the same voice,
and after that it was a different one.”
The voice from the very first broadcast.
And the voice doing the broadcasts afterward
had been a bit different.
“Normally with a broadcast like that,
don’t they just toss it to some random soldier?
The broadcast operator probably changed, that’s all.”
“Mm...”
“General?”
When he tried to recall the voice from that first broadcast,
something was on the tip of Jo Beomseok’s mind—
and then slipped away.
“...Well. Like you said, it probably doesn’t mean much.”
It wasn’t something that needed his attention right this second.
So he decided to let it go for now.
The content coming from the radio at first was ordinary.
Repeats and summaries of material
they’d already broadcast before.
“The last one was shocking.
That Legion being able to observe
the situation in Gyeonggi...”
New content usually came only after
the existing material finished.
So while the old content was playing,
people started making small talk.
“Even for a military unit,
being able to look past that [Wall] is insane.”
“With that level of capability...
they must have at least a brigade’s worth of soldiers
from a full Corps still alive over there.”
Jo Beomseok nodded at that.
To show off that kind of ability,
a substantial-sized military unit had to have survived intact.
‘Who could it be.’
What Jo Beomseok was most curious about
was who commanded that Legion.
‘If we’re talking about someone
who could still be in Gangwon right now...
the 18th Corps Commander should have been...
Lieutenant General Jang Hyeong-cheol, right?’
‘No, that’s not necessarily it.
There’s no guarantee the Corps Commander survived...
and while Jang Hyeong-cheol did his job decently enough,
he wasn’t the kind of man with that level of command ability.’
‘If it’s someone with that kind of capability...
it could be the Corps Chief of Staff, Colonel Sim Hanseok,
or maybe Lieutenant Colonel Jeon Youngsik of the 73rd Ammunition Battalion.’
In his mind,
the names of military commanders
who had operated in Gangwon—
the ones who could very well have had the ability
to weather even this apocalypse—floated up.
But without seeing the Legion’s reality for himself,
it was nothing more than speculation.
“General. Do you think there’ll be new information this time as well?”
“...Well. I’m not expecting there to be new intel every single week.
If there’s nothing, this meeting ends here, that’s all.”
While he wondered about the Legion’s commander,
the time came for new content to start.
[Next, we’d like to share information
we’ve successfully observed.]
‘So there is something.’
The mere fact that there was new information
was already a good sign.
Jo Beomseok nodded, pleased.
But then—
[Our Legion has continuously attempted
to observe the regions bordering Gangwon Province.]
[Among those, we would like to share
what we’ve identified about Gyeonggi Province
and offer our advice.]
“...What?”
[Our Legion has been persistently observing
the abnormal climate in Gyeonggi Province.]
[And as a result, we have concluded
that it is a kind of ‘dungeonification phenomenon.’]
“...Dungeonification?”
The content—
was quite a shock.
