“This is Seoul.”
“Man, how long’s it been since I set foot on Seoul soil.”
TAP—
The body that had lightly jumped up into the air touched down on the ground.
We’d entered Seoul from Gangwon without any trouble.
But—
‘This doesn’t feel like it’s just in my head.’
That sudden, strange sense of wrongness.
My condition hadn’t been great lately, sure.
But this felt a little different from before.
I cared about what that wrongness was, but...
Nothing came to mind.
“...This is weird.”
“Huh?”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok looked around, then frowned as he spoke.
“Weird how?”
“Sergeant Shin, don’t you think it’s weird? This place...”
He jerked his chin toward the scenery around us.
A road that should’ve been filled with monster corpses and every kind of trace of battle.
That road, right now—
“Is way too intact.”
“Hm.”
Yeah. Just like Corporal Seo Suhyeok said.
Seoul’s roads were being kept strangely clean.
“True.”
Where we’d come from—
Gangwon’s roads were a total mess.
Compared to that, a road this clean did feel wrong.
“...?”
But.
“Sergeant Shin?”
“Huh?”
“You were talking and then you just walk off—where are you going?”
“...Huh?”
For some reason...
That sense of wrongness Corporal Seo Suhyeok was talking about didn’t feel that important to me.
“Uh, you know.”
No.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care—more like...
“I’ve got something I need to do.”
“Yes?”
I moved my feet in a daze.
That bizarre wrongness I could feel here.
The state of that road.
All of it did bother me, that was true, but—
-...der.......
Right now, that kind of thing wasn’t important.
-...check.......
Pulled along by one single thought that had taken over my head,
I headed toward the target of that thought.
“First Lieutenant Kim.”
“Huh?”
Our unit’s commander.
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok.
We’d even talked on the way here to Seoul, so
It wasn’t like he was someone I urgently needed to deal with right away, but—
[Command Order]
[Confirm commander level]
I had this thought that I had to confirm his level.
“W-what is it. Why are you staring holes through me all of a sudden?”
“......”
“Youngjun?”
[Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)]
And.
After I confirmed his level, I frowned and opened my mouth.
“First Lieutenant Kim. Let me ask you just one thing.”
“Y-yeah. Sure.”
“When the hell did you....”
Because.
The level that appeared for him under [Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)]—
“When did you become level 30...?”
“Huh? What are you talking about. My level is 29—”
[Lv.30]
[Commander of Swagger]
“Huh? What the hell is this.”
He’d reached 30.
*****
Before we came here,
I’d definitely talked with First Lieutenant Kim.
The level I’d checked on the way to Seoul was 29.
‘That’s a pretty high level.’
In the Legion, there were a few people who were stuck at the wall called level 29.
The most representative example was another team leader, Team Leader Lee Sanga.
‘After Jeon Gwangil and Seo Suhyeok, the person I expected to hit level 30 next was Lee Sanga.’
Even before she joined our unit, she’d been a pretty high-level awakened person.
After she joined, she took command of all the non-awakened and production workers and established herself as one of the core people.
Even compared to First Lieutenant Kim—compared to any awakened person currently stuck at the wall called level 29—she was the one who’d reached level 29 the fastest.
Team Leader Lee Sanga would probably break through the wall of level 30 within a few days.
But then—
“Answer me. When did you become level 30?”
“No, it’s... huh? When the hell did I—”
An absolutely random person like First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok
Had reached level 30 before Team Leader Lee Sanga.
“What the hell... is this...?”
With no sign, no warning.
All of a sudden—
“I-I don’t know either.”
“When was the last time you checked your status window?”
“Definitely yesterday... I always, every night before bed, out of habit, I open it and check. It was level 29 then.”
“Do you know about how much progress you had left?”
“Uh, well.”
Our situation was pretty similar to a game,
But unfortunately, it wasn’t a complete game, so there was no experience bar or anything like that.
The most you could do was gauge how much experience came in by the size of that satisfaction filling your body, then estimate how much was left until the next level.
“I could tell intuitively I didn’t have much left, but... breaking through the wall of level 30, even if it was fast, I thought it’d take two or three weeks.”
“So that was true up through yesterday.”
“Y-yeah. And since I’m going to have a lot to do in Seoul, I factored that in and estimated it a bit shorter.”
Because it was all based on intuition, some degree of error was unavoidable.
But even so—
Even so, a gap that I thought would take two or three weeks being filled after just sleeping for a few hours...
I’d never heard of that happening even once.
‘What is this?’
Now that I thought about it,
It was strange that I’d suddenly wanted to confirm First Lieutenant Kim’s level at all.
And then I confirm it, and his level is flipped around like this.
“First Lieutenant Kim, what kinds of things give you experience?”
“Hm? Well, I’m a commander, so... when I do things that fit a commander.”
All awakened people could gain experience through hunting,
But beyond that, experience sources varied.
Production workers through production...
In other words, in my case, through cooking—or by the people who ate that food doing well.
For First Lieutenant Kim, it would be command.
“Successfully commanding in battle, negotiating with other groups, showing a commander’s presence... that sort of thing.”
“......”
“I’m not totally sure, but it feels like the more I lead a big group and the more my reputation as a commander spreads outside, the more experience I gain. Like you know, I’m not exactly some outstanding commander... but because I’m in the position of being the Legion’s head, my level rose faster than my ability deserved.”
First Lieutenant Kim’s personal ability after awakening wasn’t bad.
But it wasn’t on the level of Lee Sanga, who’d been exceptional from the start.
Even so, the reason he could be around her level was because he was the commander of a large force called the Legion...
And because people feared the commander of that force.
“But nothing like that happened just yesterday.”
“Didn’t. For this much experience to fill... I don’t know. How many times would I have to run into and negotiate with major factions?”
After saying that, First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok stared into empty air, then—
“...Youngjun.”
“Yes?”
“My points... they’re lower.”
He said it in a slightly trembling voice.
“And that’s not all. Compared to leveling up, my stats are up more than they should be.”
“What do you mean—”
“Just looking at these numbers... it’s like after I leveled up, I bought stat potions with points and drank them....”
In his eyes,
There was fear.
“The problem is I didn’t do that.”
“......”
“Sure, I was thinking that when I saved up points, I’d invest in potions... but the stats that went up are exactly the ones I was planning to raise... and—my god. It’s up by three. If it’d gone up by three from potions, I would’ve been screaming with joy.”
The stat increase you got from stat potions was a gamble from 1 to 3.
Being up by three was, like he said, something worth celebrating, but—
“What is this, Youngjun...?”
“First Lieutenant Kim.”
“What the hell is happening to me?”
He couldn’t celebrate at all.
He was speaking in a voice on the verge of tears.
‘...Even I’m shocked enough just hearing it.’
From First Lieutenant Kim’s perspective, going through a change that sudden—
It was only natural he’d feel fear at an unknown phenomenon.
“If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have noticed anything until tonight, until I checked my stats before bed!”
“First Lieutenant Kim. Calm down for now.”
“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down! This, this is like—”
He looked at me with trembling eyes and said,
“Like several weeks of my memories just vanished....”
“......”
I rubbed my face and thought.
Yeah. To explain what happened to First Lieutenant Kim—
‘The few hours between last night and this morning.’
In that interval,
First Lieutenant Kim would’ve had to experience several weeks’ worth of events.
“...For now, eat this and calm down.”
“I’m telling you! This isn’t something you can just calm down about—!”
“Ah~”
[Calm Emotion-]
“Hoooo... alright. Getting worked up won’t fix anything.”
I calmed First Lieutenant Kim down first, then continued.
“For now, the fact that your level went up is a good thing.”
“It is. That’s true.”
“You probably got a new trait or something when you leveled up, and you probably gained a specialized field too. Forget the bad parts, and for now focus only on figuring out those new abilities.”
“...Yeah.”
Even if he’d calmed down, complicated feelings didn’t sort themselves out all at once.
I decided to give him time to get his head straight.
“We did make it to Seoul... so we should keep going.”
“Yes. First Lieutenant Kim’s role is important.”
“Hoo...! I’ll do my best.”
With First Lieutenant Kim letting out a sigh,
Me and the unit started moving into Seoul again.
*****
As I walked toward central Seoul, I thought,
‘My experience, too... went up... right?’
Since it was all based on intuition,
I wasn’t even sure whether my experience had increased or not.
‘From level 40 on, the experience requirement is absurd. Even if it went up, it probably wouldn’t show.’
Like pouring one cup of water into a huge bathtub—you can’t really tell if it increased or not.
Comparing myself to First Lieutenant Kim based on my state didn’t seem reasonable.
And thinking about what happened to First Lieutenant Kim wouldn’t change anything right now.
Then—
While I was walking with those thoughts—
“Stop! Stop!”
From far ahead, people approached us.
‘...Capital Defense Command.’
We linked up with the soldiers of the Capital Defense Command.
“Welcome! We welcome the return of heroes!”
After linking up with the Capital Defense Command °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° side,
We were guided by them.
And as we entered deeper into Seoul under that guidance—
We couldn’t hide our shock.
‘A city this intact.’
Something we couldn’t see in Gangwon.
A city where the old world’s appearance was preserved far too perfectly.
What happened to First Lieutenant Kim was shocking, but
The appearance of this city in front of us was shocking to a similar degree.
“Seoul now has survivors gathered into different groups, each active in their own way. The Capital Defense Command, led by me, is one of them.”
The one guiding us was a middle-aged man named Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan.
He was broad-minded by nature,
And he didn’t even try to hide the goodwill he felt toward us.
‘Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan is a good person.’
The city’s scenery that looked almost perfectly preserved.
The many reservist-origin soldiers moving under Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan’s command.
Even the massive number of armored vehicles protecting Seoul’s perimeter in the distance.
At least from what I could see right now,
It looked like Seoul had held back this ruin pretty damn well.
‘...The problem is.’
Lick.
When I slightly stuck out my tongue and licked the air—
That unpleasant taste.
I couldn’t figure out what caused it, and that was what kept bothering me.
*****
And so,
After we spent a night,
We headed to Yeouido under guidance from the Capital Defense Command.
“That place is where our main base is located.”
From far away, Yeouido was surrounded on all sides by something like a tall, massive wall.
It was hard to see the inside in detail, but even from a distance, the high buildings visible there looked fairly intact, just like the Seoul scenery we’d been seeing.
“Loyalty. You’ve arrived.”
“Hm. Loyalty. We’ve returned from the mission.”
We were able to reach the wall in front of Yeouido without any incident.
Then, the people guarding the wall looked at me and our group and murmured with surprised expressions.
“Then... the people behind you are...”
“That’s right.”
“...We’ll open the gate right away!”
After the soldier said that and disappeared for a moment,
The wall’s gate slowly opened.
“Come, go inside.”
“Yes.”
“Your lodgings have already been prepared. The other factions will come here as soon as they arrive as well. We’ll wait a day or two, then hold a meeting with the representatives of the other factions...”
The scenery of Yeouido visible inside that opened wall—
Like the rest of Seoul—
‘Too... clean.’
To the point you’d wonder if they’d even gone through the same ruin as us.
Perfectly preserved.
And.
As I looked at it, I murmured inside.
‘Something.’
We’d accepted their invitation and came as guests, so
The fact they opened the gate smoothly wasn’t strange in itself.
But—
‘This is... weird.’
A gate that opened with no issue.
And the inside scenery that was far too intact.
I couldn’t help feeling a strong sense of wrongness from it.
‘Since coming here, the things that feel wrong aren’t just one or two.’
If it was only one or two,
Maybe I’d have tried to ignore it and move on.
My condition hadn’t been great lately, so I might’ve brushed it off as my own mistake.
But—
‘Not now.’
That command that suddenly took over my head to confirm First Lieutenant Kim’s level.
The result—First Lieutenant Kim’s level raised for no reason.
That strange sense of déjà vu and wrongness I’d felt since the moment we arrived here.
And then—
“Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan.”
“Hm? You’re... Sergeant Shin Youngjun, right. What is it.”
“There’s something I want to ask.”
It had been bothering me like crazy for a while,
But I hadn’t been able to ask because it might expose my ability,
Or because among awakened people it was an incredibly rude thing to do.
An odd point.
“There seem to be far too few awakened people here.”
“......”
Far too few awakened people.
Something you might’ve let slide if it was only one or two oddities, but
Once it was this many, it was different.
“Can you tell me why?”
If not for what happened to First Lieutenant Kim, I might’ve let it pass.
But now, a strange certainty had settled inside me.
‘This place is different.’
That something—
I had to confirm it.
