‘What the hell is this?’
From far away.
The pure-white wall shattered, and the darkness beyond it began to show.
{My power is lacking, so I don’t think I can talk for long.}
This world.......
Was collapsing.
{Since we don’t have much time, I’ll give only the advice you most need. Listen carefully.}
Sitting in the middle of the crumbling world,
they looked at me and spoke.
{You’ve lost far too much vital energy.}
“......!”
{It looks like you think it’ll get better as time passes. Not a chance. Your internal injury is so severe it won’t recover by ordinary means. The best method would be to refine martial discipline and reach a realm where the boundary between vital energy and external energy disappears...... but that’s a distant thing for you right now. Find a good elixir or a physician.}
KWAANG.......
As the world began to collapse,
they tried to rush through what they had to say.
But.
“A physician, my ass......!”
{......?}
They probably had a lot to say too,
but I had a lot I wanted to ask.
Who they were.
Why they were helping me.
The many secrets of this world, and even the enemies that would come for us next.
But.
With even the footing I could stand on about to vanish,
I stared at them and shouted.
“You said this world isn’t protected!”
I had a lot I wanted to ask.
But among them, the one thing I had to ask first.
There is no god on Earth.
I’d thought about that bullshit—gods and all that—countless times.
The reason this world had become a place where surviving was so hard
was because of that absence.
“But if you’re friendly to us!”
It felt unfair enough to kill me,
but it wasn’t like there was anything I could do about it.
So I just repeated the fight to survive, day after day.
“Can’t you take that role!?”
Unlike those Outside beings I couldn’t even tell whether I should trust,
the being in front of my eyes had been quite favorable to me.
{I’m grateful that you trust me that much, but.......}
Maybe, finally.
Maybe someone who could take that role had appeared.
{Don’t trust others so easily.}
SIZZLE...... and
even the white floor I was standing on collapsed.
{Even I...... might not be the kind of being you want.}
As the space to place my feet disappeared,
my body began to fall into the darkness.
“Then what are we supposed to do!”
As I fell into the darkness,
I shouted up at them sitting above.
Even if we manage to survive today,
in the end that’s just scraping by one more day.
“Are we just supposed to keep getting played by other worlds and whatever else!?”
If we were going to survive, we needed something more fundamental.......
A method that could overcome this destruction itself.
{......A method.}
And looking down at me like that,
Mirinae spoke with a subtle, bitter smile.
{It’s not like...... there isn’t one.}
With that face as the last thing I saw,
my vision went black.
*****
The pure-white world collapsed,
and my body fell endlessly into deep darkness.
And while I was falling like that.
{If you can’t depend on someone else’s help.}
Deep inside that darkness, sleeping there,
something enormous...... something like slick, glinting scales.
KOOONG.......
{Then the only choice is to achieve it yourself.}
A long-slit pupil
met my eyes.
[Trait - Ingredient Identification (Enhanced) activates.]
[Observing.......]
[Identification failed!]
[Due to too short an observation, Ingredient Identification is canceled.]
And then.
When I came to.......
“......Huh?”
It was a familiar space.
My private room inside Bimanar.
When I lifted my gaze a little,
I saw the same view I’d been looking at before I got dragged into that white space.
[00:00:00]
[Beginner Protection Zone is removed.]
SHHHHK.......
Outside the window,
I could see the Wall of Fire that had blocked the space between Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon disappearing.
‘Not even one second passed?’
I’d thought a pretty long time had passed.
But in reality, not even one second had gone by.
For a moment I wondered if I’d just had some ridiculous dream, but.
Slip.......
“......So it wasn’t a dream.”
I lifted my clothes slightly and looked underneath.
A red, heated scar was there.
‘A scar that won’t heal even with vampire blood.’
Even if my regeneration had dropped a bit lately,
there had never been a time it didn’t heal at all.
It must mean it’s a special wound.
“Mm. It doesn’t really show.”
I didn’t know if I should call that a relief.
As long as I wore my uniform properly,
there probably wouldn’t be any reason to show that scar to others.
‘Beginner Protection got removed, huh.......’
I had a lot to think about.
Those messages I saw when I hit level 40.
The one who invited me to that white space.
And even the ominous, powerful being they feared...... the one they said I had a connection with.
I had a lot of questions.
But even if I worried about it right now,
it wasn’t something I could answer alone.
‘......They said they’d contact me again once their strength recovered.’
Soon enough, I’d probably be invited back to that space.
Then we could talk a little longer.
As I was thinking that.
GUUUUUUUNG.......
I could see the view outside the window changing.
The moment the Wall of Fire disappeared, the fortress returned to Gangwon.
The distance between Chuncheon—our Legion’s current base—and Gyeonggi Province wasn’t actually that far.
So the moment the wall opened,
it didn’t take long for the fortress to return to Chuncheon.......
[Maintenance magic power for the mobility device has been depleted.]
[Attempting landing at the ground base.]
KUUUUUUUUUUNG.......
The fortress’s shape changed little by little,
then after transforming into the round form I remembered,
it landed on a gigantic lake.
Only after several months had passed since leaving for the business trip to Gyeonggi Province.
I finally succeeded in returning to Gangwon.
*****
KUUUNG.......
“Return complete......!”
Bimanar slowly landed on the lake and settled into place.
Even back when it was Lv.2, it was a fortress whose size had ballooned drastically.
Now that it had reached Lv.3, it had grown so huge it felt like it might touch the nearby land.
“Alright, then.”
“......Let’s work!”
The moment Bimanar landed on the ground,
the engineers didn’t get a second to rest and went straight into work.
The reason was simple.
To build a bridge to connect to land again.
“......This bridge. Don’t tell me you have to rebuild it every time you take off and land?”
“No. Last time, we made it so it attaches to the fortress—connected to land while on the ground, and otherwise stuck to the fortress wall. In theory, we didn’t need to do this work again, but.......”
“Then why now?”
“It all got destroyed in that last battle. You know—when that giant bastard was clinging to the fortress.”
“Ah.”
Anyway.
The engineers’ levels had skyrocketed compared to before.
So when they all piled on together, a bridge leading to the ground was built in less than a few hours.
So, what now?
When the bridge was finished,
Sergeant Lee Minjae came and asked.
We’d had a hard time, so maybe we could rest for a bit.......
No.
Resting was something I’d already done for a long time, using recovery as an excuse until that wall opened.
I’d returned to Gangwon, but from here on out, there was going to be a lot to do too.
And.
The first thing I had to do among them was.
“First, I need to look around Gangwon a bit.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
I’d heard reports to some extent,
but during the time I was gone, Gangwon must have changed a lot too.
And even if I looked like this, I was still the Legion Commander.
As the boss, I needed to get a handle on those changes.
“Then leave security and guidance to me, Sergeant.”
“Gwangil, you?”
The hulking soldier stood up with me.
I looked up at Gwangil and answered.
“Aren’t you busy too? I can ask another soldier to guide me.”
No matter what,
this guy was one of the highest-ranking people in our unit.
With a position like that, he’d be busy with one thing after another.
“Heh. I’m using ‘guiding the sergeant’ as an excuse to rest a bit too, you know.”
“......You little shit.”
Despite what he said.
Corporal Jeon Gwangil wasn’t the kind of guy who’d really put work off with an excuse like that.
The day we first escaped the unit and left the mountain range.
Even when everyone else was exhausted and resting, he’d quietly gone out alone to work.
I still remembered that clearly.
He had to actually be busy, and yet he still volunteered to guide me like this.
“......Fine, then. I’m counting on you.”
“Yes, Sergeant!”
Refusing that sincerity would be its own kind of rude.
So.
With Corporal Jeon Gwangil guiding me, I decided to look around the changed Gangwon.
*****
“.......”
And.
“......What is this.”
“Haha. It changed a lot, right?”
After leaving Bimanar,
what spread out before my eyes was.......
A landscape completely different from what I remembered.
“Tower......?”
All over the city, huge spire-like structures had been erected.
“And what’s that magic circle.”
On facilities everywhere,
unknown magic circles had been drawn.
“Haha, well. You know. The talents who joined the unit were pretty diverse.”
“Yeah.”
“When that knowledge came together...... synergy happened.”
[Demon Hunter]s carrying knowledge born from demons.
Borjin using the shamanism of the Green Mane tribe.
And on top of that, various books we’d obtained from that underground mine.
“While you were away, Sergeant Shin, we weren’t just sitting around.”
“.......”
As a result of that technology being concentrated,
Chuncheon had changed into a city with a mystical atmosphere, strange patterns carved everywhere.
And that wasn’t all.
“Looking for people to go hunting! Taking one last healer!”
“Recruiting members for a raid mission in the Bba-ji region! It’s a mission that gives Legion-issued C-rank gear as the reward!”
“Ah, you’re a combat class. Your job is...... huh? A thief is kind of.......”
A huge plaza set up in front of Bimanar.
An enormous number of people gathered there, all talking over each other.
It had always been a city with comparatively many surviving humans.
But ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) now, the liveliness was on another level.
“......What’s that gathering? A raid?”
“Ah. Monsters are still everywhere, and we’re short on manpower. These days, besides food, we’re also assigning subjugation missions to civilians in exchange for equipment and things like that.”
“Missions......?”
“It’s like subcontracting. They grow through combat while carrying out our missions. We loan them equipment too, so their survival rate goes up...... and the rewards are pretty generous. It’s popular.”
It seemed like a lot had changed compared to when I was in Gangwon.
I stared blankly at the scene.
So many people gathered in the plaza around the fortress, talking loudly.
And.
‘......Their expressions aren’t that bad.’
Among them.......
There were a lot of people with smiles on their faces.
*****
It wasn’t only Chuncheon that had changed.
-Was the journey comfortable, my friend.
“Don’t even talk to me. I thought I was going to die.”
We visited the ammunition battalion in Inje,
the place our unit first set foot in.
‘......This place had already changed a lot even back then.’
But now, after a long time had passed,
giant trees had grown around the ammunition battalion like a fortress.
-While my friend was absent, I tended this place well.
“......Well, yeah. It’s impressive.”
-What is?
The mountain where Alraune had taken root.
Standing at its highest point, I looked down at the surroundings.
A forest now spreading beyond the ammunition battalion’s territory, beginning to cover all of Inje County.
This landscape...... brought back one memory.
{If there were an immortal of vegetation. Then the world would end up covered in enormous vegetation.}
A scene similar to what I’d been shown in that white space.
I felt a faint trace of fear from that view.
-See.
“......?”
Alraune extended their hand
and pointed to a certain place.
What was there was.......
-The village my friend once settled here. Those are its residents.
“......Ah.”
The village that had once settled near the ammunition battalion.
As if they’d become wilderness people.
They were building houses among the trees and living there.
-Your kind adapts quickly.
Before, it was just tree roots creeping up normal houses.
Now they’d built their living spaces up in the trees themselves.
-When my children continued to spread widely, they seemed very flustered. But at some point...... they asked for my permission, and built a society inside.
“You allowed it?”
I remembered them being pretty prickly toward humans other than me.
I thought they protected the ammunition battalion only because I’d asked.
-I allowed it. Instead, I made them take charge of managing the forest.
“......?”
-When I did that, it felt strangely comfortable. Perhaps, originally, I was a kind that lived while keeping such ‘forest managers’.......
After parting with Alraune,
I headed with Corporal Jeon Gwangil toward that village they’d shown me.
“Oh! Aren’t you that cook guy?”
“And the big warrior squad leader is here too.”
“Heh. Long time.”
When we arrived at the village,
the people who had settled there welcomed me.
People forced into a wilderness-person kind of life.
But their faces.
Just like Chuncheon...... didn’t look that bad.
‘.......’
Seeing that,
I felt strange.
A strange feeling I couldn’t explain.
“How is it, Sergeant Shin.”
Land that had been so devastated.
Now, after time passed,
it had changed, developed, each with its own character.
Humans walking freely around the village.
Even if their clothes were armor or uniforms, and each had a weapon hanging at their waist.
Even if the city’s scenery had weird magic circles installed, or forests of giant trees lined up.
“What we’ve done so far.......”
Even so.
The sight of people living freely in itself.......
“Is bearing fruit.”
It reminded me of human society
before the destruction.
*****
Of course.
It wasn’t only good things.
Chuncheon and Inje County.
After visiting the two cities where our unit had originally exerted influence,
the next places we visited were lands the Legion had only recently reached.
“......This place got devastated.”
“Yes.”
Wonju, Gangneung.
They’d been major cities in Gangwon, as prosperous as Chuncheon.
But now.
It was hard to find that prosperity.
Only ruined cities remained.
Was it because they’d become monster nests?
Some buildings were covered in grotesque slime-like stuff.
And maybe because the Legion had recently fought here, the traces of battle remained, making them look even more desolate.
In those ruined cities,
a few monsters,
people who looked like they’d been surviving here,
and Legion soldiers were moving around.
“That person is.”
“That’s that warrior from then. The Legion’s greatest warrior.......”
I heard some people notice Gwangil and mutter with shocked eyes.
Looking at them, I asked.
“Why are those people—and our soldiers—staying in a place with nothing?”
I’d assumed they’d all moved to Chuncheon or Inje.
But there were more people left in this devastated city than I expected.
“To reclaim it.”
“What?”
“Even if it’s like this now, there’s a reason it used to be a major city of Gangwon. The geographic advantages are real too. So the engineers are staying here, trying to restore the facilities little by little.”
“Our soldiers, sure. But what about those people?”
“They’re the ones who said they want to help with the restoration.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil looked at them and said.
“No matter what, it was their hometown.”
“.......”
“They stayed here because they wanted to help reclaim it, even a little.”
“I see.”
A city where nothing remained now.
And yet many people still had attachments to this land.
Even though it was work that might take who knows how long.
People who gave up even returning to comfortable, safe land, choosing instead to remain in this dangerous city to resolve that attachment.
“For now it’s devastated, but.”
Gwangil, looking at that scene with me,
muttered in a small voice.
“This place too will someday get its light back.”
“......Yeah.”
I watched them too,
and muttered in a small voice.
“We’ll make it happen.”
Civilization had been smashed to pieces.
But as long as people survived,
they could rebuild it somehow, like Chuncheon and Inje.
*****
And so.
After looking around Gangwon here and there,
the last place we stopped before returning to Chuncheon was.
[423rd Battalion]
The place our unit began.
The 423rd Radar Battalion.
And.
The first thing I faced as I approached that place was.
......HACK.
Sweating cold all over, coughing up blood.
Sergeant Park Taejun.
