Grrrrk.......
“Sergeant Shin......!”
“Is it really okay to just leave him like this.......”
The only thought dominating my head.
‘...I have to follow the order.’
My brain, buried in that thought,
had given up even the other roles it was supposed to do.
My body was stiffening like a corpse.
And even while I felt like my body wasn’t my body—
my brain kept spinning ferociously.
‘What happened in Seoul?’
If nothing happened, then that was that.
There’d be nothing I had to not forget, so the order would end there.
But.
‘Something happened. That much is certain.’
My body definitely—
had the things that happened in Seoul carved into it.
“Ghk...... hhk......!”
The problem was that no matter what I did, I couldn’t recall those events.
I had only just arrived on this land, so naturally nothing had happened here, either.
That was all the information currently plastered over my head.
‘Plastered over.......’
Once my thoughts reached that point—
watching my body harden into rigidity, I thought.
‘Then.......’
I focused my mind inward.
Inside, writhing.......
There was one power I still couldn’t properly handle.
[The divine power of ‘20’ begins to writhe.]
A power that made the impossible possible.
Probably the kind of power that was never meant to be permitted to an ordinary human in the first place.
Back when I was in Gyeonggi, it had only been 15, but at some point it had swollen up to 20.
Writhe...... writhe.......
It was a power even I couldn’t properly wield, but.
Right now.
‘I have to... clear what’s covering it.’
That near-mad obsession dominating my head—
that I had to carry out the order—
[The divine power of ‘20’ recognizes the power of an external existence.]
[The divine power of ‘20’ approaches the power of an external existence.]
[The divine power of ‘20’ struggles to push away the power of an external existence.......]
.......
.......
.......
It was forcing me to awaken to a method of using that power—
that I’d never properly realized until now.
[The divine power of ‘20’ completely excludes the interference of the external existence!]
And then.
In the end.
“Ah.”
“Sergeant Shin!?”
“Are you alright!”
The memories that had been covering my head—
no, the memories that had been covered over again and again—
slowly began to come undone.
“......So that’s how it is.”
Only then.
When I finally recalled everything again......
“......Guys.”
“Yes! Sergeant Shin!”
“If you need anything, just say the word. You bastards! First, water—”
“Everyone, get ready for combat.”
“Get... yes?”
Rubbing at my stiffened body,
I pushed myself up and said,
“Sorry for cussing at you earlier.”
“......?”
“But shut up and grab your weapons first.”
And then.
Right as the soldiers, not understanding a word of it, picked up their weapons at my order—
at that very moment.
Krrrk.......
Black noise set itself into the perfectly normal sky.
And from that warped space—
“It’s an ambush.”
Monsters poured out.
*****
KRRRWEAAAAAAAK!!!
“What the hell is this all of a sudden—!”
“All forces, engage!”
Monsters spilling down from the warped space.
There were all kinds of them.
Slash—
As I cut down a monster that had dropped right in front of me, I thought.
‘Now I remember.’
Just a few minutes ago, I’d thought this was my first time setting foot on Seoul’s ground since the apocalypse.
But thinking back, it wasn’t.
‘How many times is this......? Seven......? No. That’s not it. Eight.’
Up to now—
I’d stepped onto this land a total of eight times.
Slash—
My oldest memory.
The first time I stepped onto Seoul’s ground wasn’t anything special.
‘The moment we arrived in Seoul... some man I’d never seen before... a guy named Jang Youngwoong came out to greet us, acting like he was the government representative.’
Now that I remembered it again, I recalled being incredibly pissed off.
Seoul pressured us, citing themselves as the legitimate successor of the government.
They tried to suppress me and my unit members, even bringing their armed force to bear.
They must’ve been pretty confident in the power they had.
-How...... is that even possible......?
-With power like this, you tried to suppress us?
-......This power I finally seized after dying thousands of times...... and to you, it’s nothing but this?
Me and my unit members broke through that suppression and escaped—
we tried to return to Gangwon, but.
-So this is the power of awakened people in a group....... I’m awakened too, but I’ve never gathered like this. I didn’t know. This is the first time.
-What?
-I’m convinced. To spread my power...... you people, I need to obtain the Legion.
Right after hearing that.
I was once again stepping onto Seoul’s ground—for the “first time.”
Slash—
‘The second time...... the mood was a bit gentler.’
The second time, that guy Jang Youngwoong still came looking for us.
But unlike before, the atmosphere was somewhat gentler.
He spoke like he wanted cooperation through dialogue.
But with the strange sense of discomfort in the air of this land—
in the end, I refused to cooperate with them.
-What’s the problem, then!
-Can you really say you’re the government’s representative?
-What?
-Others, maybe. But you...... weren’t you just an ordinary citizen before the apocalypse? And someone like that represents the government? Don’t be ridiculous.
At that time.
First Lieutenant Kim had refused cooperation with an excuse like that.
They tried to block us, even mobilizing a prepared army of their own.
-Ha, haha....... Even with all this prepared, you can’t stop just a hundred people from escaping?
We broke through that army and escaped successfully—
and just as we were about to return to Gangwon...... I was once again stepping onto Seoul’s ground—for the “first time.”
Slash—
‘From the third time on, a different person came.’
Some minister of some department.
A genuinely high-ranking figure, and legally speaking, a perfect Acting President with no blemishes.
First Lieutenant Kim hesitated a lot, saying maybe we should cooperate with a proper government force like that.
-I’m the President! You bastards have to follow my orders!
Unfortunately.
That minister didn’t come with a decent personality, too.
As far as my [Taste Bud Enhancement] could catch, they were the kind of person who could do anything for their own power.
They even ended up clashing with First Lieutenant Kim, who’d been relatively friendly toward them.
And when we refused cooperation and tried to return to Gangwon, the world rewound again.
Slash—
-......Can a Vice Minister even be considered an Acting President?
-I know it’s ridiculous! But what can we do?
The fourth time, they seemed like someone who truly cared about Seoul.
There was the question of whether a Vice Minister could be an Acting President, sure.
But even so, I did feel confident these were proper people.
That time, we stayed in Seoul for quite a while.
Along with other forces that claimed they wanted cooperation, we shared opinions with the government and talked for days about what kind of cooperative organization we should form.
Maybe those talks helped a lot.
‘Youngjun...... I think my level went up.’
‘Oh.’
‘Since my level went up, I bought potions and drank them too. Don’t be surprised. My stats went up by three!’
‘Oooooh!’
Back then.
First Lieutenant Kim’s level even crossed 30.
Still, in the end.
-......Sorry, but you’re different from us.
-Different? What do you mean by that. Government and soldiers...... is that the difference you want to talk about?
-Not that. ......Whatever. There’s no point explaining. It wouldn’t mean anything anyway.
In the middle of those discussions,
I felt the gap between them and us and refused cooperation.
Then, after that—
-I’m Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan!
A soldier who survived the apocalypse
was coming out to greet us.
‘......This is chilling.’
It’s not that we hadn’t repeated time—
we just hadn’t realized it.
We were being taken apart, step by step,
across repeated cycles of time.
‘No matter how much the world’s become like a game...... you can retry?’
Now that I’d recovered all my memories,
even the strange things that had happened up to now made sense.
‘There was a time First Lieutenant Kim refused cooperation with them without even my order.’
Probably at that time.
First Lieutenant Kim used their ability for the first time.
That let them realize something was off.
‘But even with that ability, without a clue there was nothing they could figure out...... so at best, they could only delay that cooperation somehow.’
If that hadn’t happened,
we would’ve been taken apart, step by step, until all our information was stolen by them,
and in the end, we might’ve been forced into a structure where we cooperated with their side.
The fact that we could notice even now was a real stroke of luck.
But if there was one problem—
-Next time, I should start by removing that guy first.
The next step of their plan
was to remove me.
“Damn it, what the hell are these monsters!?”
“As if we know! Just deal with them!”
Monsters even the scouts hadn’t detected.
But the soldiers, who’d already been through several skirmishes on the way from Gangwon to Seoul, were engaging without major confusion.
And then.
Step.......
From among the monsters.
I saw one grotesque-looking monster approaching me.
Of course.
“Where do you think you’re going!!!”
The soldiers guarding my side attacked—
and that monster’s approach was cut off before it even started.
“Die......!”
As the soldiers tried to finish off the monster they’d sent flying,
I stopped them and approached the one lying there.
‘Its footsteps sounded different from the other monsters.’
It had hidden among the monsters and lunged at me.
But the presence I’d sensed for a moment...... was clearly different from the others.
“You.”
I walked up in front of the monster,
tore at its skin with my kitchen knife, and said.
Rip.......
“You’re human.”
“Guhhk.......”
The monster-skin disguise tore open, and the person inside appeared.
“......!?”
“What the—”
Whether the soldiers were shocked or not,
I grabbed the bastard by the face and said,
“You thought we wouldn’t notice if you hid among the monsters?”
“.......”
“Besides you, there are more like you. Tell me where they are.”
At that.
The bastard lying there sneered and said,
“You think I’d sell out...... my comrades?”
“You seem to be mistaken about something.”
If my restored memories were right,
that Jang Youngwoong guy had chosen removing me as the next step in his plan against us.
I didn’t know how they’d called those monsters, but I could at least predict they’d send assassins like this.
And.
“The way you save your comrades isn’t keeping your mouth shut. It’s telling me the locations.”
“What?”
“If you don’t, you’ll die mixed in among the monsters....... Actually, forget it. You won’t believe me no matter what I say.”
With all the soldiers watching, I couldn’t use [Special Sauce].
“Take him down and secure him.”
“Yes!”
Leaving the assassin to the soldiers,
I opened my mouth, stuck my tongue out, and thought.
‘I don’t know how they summoned these monsters.’
At first I hadn’t noticed.
The noise that appeared in midair, the black hole.
This was the same phenomenon as when monsters appeared in Yeouido last time.
I didn’t know what the intent was then, either, but anyway.
‘The taste of the emotions these monsters are spewing...... it’s similar.’
The difference was that the types of monsters coming out of the hole were different.
Back then, most of them had been strange hybrid monsters under the domination of that eyeball monster.
But what hit us now was all sorts of different monsters—ones we’d faced again and again even in Gangwon.
And they were—
‘Panic. Anger.’
They were thrown at us and were panicking badly.
This ambush wasn’t what the monsters wanted.
Instead.
‘There’s a place where I can taste something different.’
I stared at that spot carefully, then flatly opened my mouth.
“Gwangil. See that monster over there?”
“Yes! Sergeant.”
“Bring it back alive.”
“LOYALTY LOYALTY!!!”
The assassins hiding among the monsters were pretty high-level awakened people.
In Seoul, where awakened people were rare, they would’ve been especially valued manpower.
But.
“Guhhk.......”
“S-spare me.......”
“H-how did you find me!?”
They weren’t at a level that could be compared to the Legion’s elite soldiers.
“We’ve secured them all alive. And.......”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok, who’d brought in the last assassin, looked up at the sky and said,
“It looks like the monster ambush is almost cleaned up too.”
The noise that had appeared in the sky was already shrinking.
The monsters that had appeared on the ground were also being reduced by the soldiers.
‘They were never monsters we’d lose to in the first place.’
Unlike the monsters that had appeared in Yeouido,
these monsters were numerous, but not strong.
The ambush had been startling, but it wasn’t a major threat.
But.
‘These assassins were dangerous.’
High-level awakened people, in their own right.
And my body condition right now was close to the worst.
Maybe in a straight 1-on-1 fight, sure.
But in a chaotic brawl like this, if they came for my life, I would’ve thought they were just like the other weak monsters and responded lightly.
‘If I hadn’t known they were going to come for me this time.’
I had ways to protect myself, so I wouldn’t have died, but......
there was a high chance I would’ve been badly injured by them.
Thinking about it, it was like—
Yeah.
“I’m kinda pissed.”
*****
“First Lieutenant Kim.”
Once the battle with the monsters was mostly wrapped up,
I went straight to First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok.
“We don’t have time. Open your status window.”
“My status window? Why would I— It won’t be much different than yesterday...... huh? What’s wrong with my level.”
“Alright. Here comes the situation briefing.”
We’d identified their ability.
“......They can rewind time?”
The ruler of Seoul.
A guy named Jang Youngwoong had the power to rewind time.
Yeah.
Figuring it out was good.
It was good that we figured it out, but.
“How the hell do we beat that?”
“Tell me about it.”
The problem was—
even if you knew, it wasn’t a power you could actually respond to.
“Can’t we just slice that boss bastard up?”
“It won’t work. If I remember right, he can rewind time whenever he wants, and even if he dies he comes back to this point. Killing him would be meaningless.”
“What kind of bullshit cheat ability is that.”
The soldiers listening made faces like they couldn’t believe it.
“You said he was a level thirty-something awakened person.”
“From what it sounds like, it’s a power that should take level 100 or something.”
At that.
After a brief pause, I opened my mouth.
“That man’s power...... probably isn’t his.”
“Huh?”
“There was nothing like that on his status window.”
I’m not an idiot.
I’d already checked his status window again and again with [Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)].
But on his status window, not a single line described an absurd ability like that.
Meaning.
‘It’s not an awakened power.’
It was another kind of power altogether.
I looked up at the sky and thought.
‘External.......’
Up there in the sky—
that gaze that had been looking down at us.
Well, regardless.
What mattered was that we had to come up with a countermeasure to that power, somehow.
“Alright. That’s the information. So.”
And the way to do that was......
“Answer me, First Lieutenant Kim.”
Not me.
Something we had to figure out through First Lieutenant Kim.
“......If what you’re saying is true.”
At my words,
First Lieutenant Kim’s eyes went ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ wide.
Maybe he was using his skill—his eyes looked full of dizziness.
The mana consumption was the problem, but.
In the short moment that he used [Meeting Expectations], First Lieutenant Kim became a genius commander with incredible insight.
If it was him, he should be able to find a solution to this situation......
“That ability isn’t mine.”
Or so I thought.
But.
“You can solve it, Youngjun.”
“......Huh?”
Looks like.
Our genius commander had a slightly different idea.
