Chapter 61
1.
You could often hear it.
"Hey, if there's anyone who had a shittier military life than me, tell them to step forward."
The story that their military life was incomparably harder than anyone else's.
In the Space Age, it became even worse.
Of course, military life could never be easy, and while there were individual differences, it was true that everyone had a hard time, so for the most part, it wasn't wrong.
However, the one person who could prove those words wrong was Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun.
Anyone who saw or heard of his military career wouldn't dare say that their military life was hard, or utter the words, "Back in my day."
But the soldier who made even Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun shut his mouth was Kim Seojun.
Kim Seojun accomplished the missions that made people shake their heads just from Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun commanding them from the rear, in the field, and on the very front lines.
Thus, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was certain of one thing.
‘Sergeant Kim is a genius.’
That Kim Seojun was a heaven-sent soldier.
‘If he were a Psycher, the history of Humanity would have changed.’
If someone like him gained a Special Ability, not only the Republic of Korea but the history of Humanity would change.
Of course, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun didn't think, "It's such a shame that Kim Seojun isn't a Psycher!"
It was the opposite.
‘It's a relief that Sergeant Kim isn't a Psycher.’
If he had been a Psycher, Kim Seojun's life would obviously have become much more exhausting in many ways.
Especially when one had seen him up close, Kim Seojun wasn't someone who lived with grand or magnificent goals.
Rather, his dream was very small. Just eating well and living well with his family, that was all.
That was why a smile had hung on Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's lips when he saw Kim Seojun being discharged after saving up all the money he needed.
He had spoken with all his heart.
Since they have seen a lot of dirty things together, let's never meet on the battlefield again.
But now, that promise was broken.
They had met in a place they didn't want to meet, and the situation was far more gruesome than expected.
No, they had met on a stage so gruesome the incident could be recorded as the worst disaster since the Space Era.
That was why.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun thought that if he really were to meet Kim Seojun again, Kim Seojun must have become a Psycher.
And that expectation turned into certainty upon their reunion in Space.
Although he was surprised, he didn't question that he was displaying that mysterious ability.
"I have people to introduce to you."
Like that, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's mind quickly adapted to this ridiculous situation.
Say what you will, wasn't Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun the one who carried out operations with the existence known as Kim Seojun closest to him, and not just in any relationship, but as his soldier?
It was no exaggeration to say that his adaptability regarding Kim Seojun was the best in the entire universe.
"An introduction? Sounds good."
So he said.
"Are you perhaps going to introduce the person you're going to marry?"
He made a joke in his own way to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
While doing so, he thought.
‘There's an Escape Spaceship nearby.’
The spaceship Kim Seojun had ridden in was waiting elsewhere, and the people who came with him would be there.
They were the ones Kim Seojun was talking about.
"Haha, I'm joking, joking. So where are they? Bring them over quickly. There's nothing good about staying here for long."
Anyway, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun spoke with a smile full of composure, and Kim Seojun nodded at those words.
"Please wait a moment."
Swish!
At that moment, Kim Seojun's figure suddenly disappeared.
"Huh?"
When Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun saw that, the composure that had barely bloomed on his face vanished.
"Huh?"
Shortly after, people appeared before his eyes.
"Whoa!"
Including Kim Seojun, a total of four people appeared.
"I will introduce them in order: Private First Class Park Boseop, Major Lee Hyena, Noah Winston, and Ms. Jo I-Hyeon."
And the moment he heard the introductions, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's thought process halted.
2.
"Uh, uh."
It was after a minute had passed that Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun came to his senses.
Of course, he had only come to his senses; he hadn't immediately understood the entire situation.
"L-Let's move first. It's dangerous here."
In that situation, the first thing Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun did was to grab the cockpit of the rescue spaceship and move.
It was an instinctive action.
This was an action born from knowing that in space, which was swarming with Mogs, one must never stop moving under any circumstances.
"Oh."
Noah Winston, who knew the meaning of that, reacted immediately.
"Your adaptability is extraordinary."
From Noah Winston's perspective, it was no exaggeration to say that the adaptability Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun just showed was almost in the realm of the gods.
Of course, there were no doubts.
Kim Seojun had already briefly explained it beforehand.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun had been his Company Commander during his Active Duty Days.
It meant he was someone who had experienced the days Kim Seojun's comrades were currently experiencing many times over.
After a little more time passed, the conversation finally began.
When that conversation began, everyone was surprised again.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was appalled upon hearing about the events that had occurred on Planet Amotia.
"What the hell are those Chinese bastards doing?"
He knew through wiretapping that China was doing something massive, but what happened on Planet Amotia wasn't just on the level of playing war games!
Kim Seojun's group was equally surprised.
"What appeared in space?"
They had thought something exploded in space, but the scale of the explosion was far beyond common sense.
Naturally, everyone fell into silence again.
Everyone's thought process halted at that they had come out into space, but instead of the discovery of answers, there was an even greater despair.
The one who spoke up in that atmosphere was Kim Seojun.
‘I didn't think things could get this twisted.’
His mind was also complicated.
In particular, Kim Seojun felt a chill down his spine at the fact that they had discovered a Mog that hadn't even been named yet.
It was natural.
‘It wouldn't be strange if that monster appeared right before our eyes at any moment.’
That disaster could happen at any time.
And naturally, no matter how great an ability Kim Seojun possessed right now, he could do nothing about that disaster.
Here, Kim Seojun could tell that his life was still like a candle in the wind.
"The situation is complicated. But what we need to do is clear.
Thanks to that, Kim Seojun immediately knew.
"We have to fix the Gate."
What was the most certain way to survive here?
At those words, the expressions of the others who had been feeling bewildered also changed.
That was the right answer.
There was only one way to live for everyone here and, furthermore, everyone around this area.
"What is the condition of the Gate?"
Therefore, what was important here was to accurately grasp the current situation of Gate 7.
"It's not good. First of all, the number of survivors is extremely small. The number of people left at the Gate is about 11 right now, including me. Originally, there were quite a few at first, but as I said, the moment we tried to carry out rescue operations outside, the Chinese guys showed up and killed everyone. After that, I gathered the remaining Survivors and we've been hacking the Chinese side's communications. If we want to screw them over later, we need to know everything we can."
The situation was not good.
"Is the information hacking going well?"
"It wasn't difficult. They're the only ones communicating in space right now. The problem is they don't really communicate much. Even when they do, it's just at the level of exchanging situation reports. How is it progressing? It's going well, stuff like that."
The moment they heard that explanation, the expressions of everyone, including Kim Seojun, stiffened.
Because they knew.
"It seems the Chinese side is doing something on other planets besides Planet Amotia."
Mogs were Mogs, but the Chinese side's military power was still massive.
No, it wasn't just massive.
First of all, the scale of the operation China was conducting on Planet Amotia was on an enormous level.
If it hadn't been for Kim Seojun, all Humanity on Planet Amotia would have died, and Planet Amotia would have fallen under China's administration.
Furthermore, when they thought things weren't going well, the Chinese side immediately deployed a military force known as Mad Demon Lin Zhihan.
That meant China currently has the ability to roam this space as it pleased, along with possessing several more Psycher Agents on the level of Mad Demon Lin Zhihan.
"They must be doing something. And there must be an Administrator managing it."
Crucially, in space, there existed an Administrator who oversaw all of that, and there was a very high probability that this Administrator existed in space.
"Aboard a Star-class Battleship."
And the Star-class Battleship that such an Administrator typically rode in wasn't just a simple space battleship, but closer to a small moving nation.
Its powerful firepower was one thing, but an enormous number of things could be accomplished within it.
Anyway, facing such a force head-on was a crazy act, and so Kim Seojun thought even more that restoring the Gate was the only answer.
"Fixing the Gate would be the best. It'd just be game over."
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's thoughts were the same.
"But will that work? The engineers who were on standby for Gate Maintenance are all either dead or missing."
Beyond just being the same, the very first thing Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun did after surviving was to secure personnel to operate the Gate.
The reason he set out on rescue operations was not so much to save someone, but to find someone who could help with the Gate's repair.
However, there were no results at all.
"Because the Gate isn't something just anyone can touch."
Quite some time had passed since Gates appeared, but the technology that made up Gates remained a difficult problem for everyone.
Let alone the core technology, even those with the skills for basic maintenance were treated as incredibly precious personnel.
Of course, the biggest issue was this.
"Because if you mess with it for no reason and cause a problem, it'll be a disaster."
It was impossible to do such a crazy act as messing with the Gate just because you wanted to research Gate Technology.
At Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's words, Kim Seojun looked at Jo I-Hyeon instead of answering, and under that gaze, Jo I-Hyeon spoke.
"The important thing in a Gate is the Core Cube. As long as that Core Cube is intact, then it can be repaired somehow. Conversely, if there's a problem with the Core Cube, then there's nothing I can do about it either."
At that explanation, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's eyes sparkled.
To him, who was making an expression that seemed to ask, Who is this person?, Kim Seojun answered first.
"Right now, in this place, within the Gate 7 Zone, she is the mechanic who knows the Gate best."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
Following the explanation, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun smiled and looked at Jo I-Hyeon as he spoke.
"Did you say you were Ms. Jo I-Hyeon? I look forward to working with you. It might not be much, but from now on, I will escort you with all my might."
Those weren't empty words.
The lives of everyone currently within the Gate 7 Zone depended on whether Gate 7 was restored or not.
In such a situation, it was safe to say that the life of Jo I-Hyeon, who could fix it, was more valuable than anyone else's.
And Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun felt that protecting such an existence was exactly his role.
"Th-Thank you."
At the sight of Jo I-Hyeon nodding at that explanation, at her tense appearance, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun smiled and said.
"I have more faith in you because your surname is Jo. Isn't it the same surname as Doctor Space?"
He made a joke to ease Jo I-Hyeon's tension, and at his words, Jo I-Hyeon spoke in surprise.
"I-It is the same surname, though?"
"Yes, it's the same surname."
"Uh, well."
At that point, Kim Seojun spoke.
"She is Doctor Space's granddaughter."
"Huh? What?"
At those words, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun tilted his head.
"Uh, what did you say?"
Then he quickly changed his expression and said.
"Staff Sergeant Kim, you're bullshitting, right?"
"I may have played a few word games with you, Brigadier General, but not to the extent of doing it over something like this."
"R-Really?"
"Yes."
"......Why are you only saying this now?"
"Right now, you are the only one who can properly pilot the spaceship, Brigadier General. You can't go fainting on us."
"......Right, let's just leave the conversation here for now."
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun said with absolute sincerity, and Kim Seojun didn't say anything more either.
Piloting a spaceship was just that difficult of a task.
Especially since the space they were in right now wasn't just any space.
It was filled with the wreckage of battleships and space stations everywhere, and besides that, it was full of all sorts of space debris.
Of course, the biggest problem was this.
They didn't know when Mogs swimming through space, including Squads, would come.
It went without saying, but facing Mogs in space was much harder than facing them on the ground.
Above all, they aren't even properly equipped with firepower right now.
In many ways, a safe and careful space flight was necessary.
"Everyone, don't worry. Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun is faster than anyone else in space."
And among the astronauts Kim Seojun knew, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was the most trustworthy.
It was impossible not to trust him.
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was the one who had reached an Operation Zone that everyone thought was impossible to enter without a single failure.
At the same time, no matter the situation, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun had always appeared at the promised location, and thanks to that trust, Kim Seojun and Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's subordinate soldiers were able to carry out their operations.
Everyone could immediately understand those words of Kim Seojun's.
Vwoooom!
The Rescue Spaceship began to pick up speed in earnest, and from then on, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun perfectly dodged all sorts of things rushing at him.
He reached the location of Gate 7 faster than anyone else.
Thanks to that, everyone could soon see it.
"Ah."
It was an incredibly massive, circular artificial mechanical device whose size couldn't even be guessed.
RUMBLE!
And the countless number of Squads clinging to that mechanical device was beginning to tear the Gate apart.
"Oh my god."
The moment they saw that, a sense of despair washed over everyone's faces.
"How on earth?"
It was at that moment.
Beep beep beep beep
A needle on one part of the Rescue Spaceship's dashboard began to fluctuate like crazy.
There was no one who didn't know what that meant.
A Special Individual had appeared among that massive number of Squads.
"Huh?"
But then, suddenly, the needle of the Special Individual Detector stopped.
It didn't move anymore.
Upon that fact, everyone's expressions stiffened.
They had no choice but to.
The detector's needle had stopped because it had reached the end and there was nowhere else for it to go.
And there was only one case where normal detectors showed this kind of reaction.
"......It's at least welterweight-class."
adventurers who adventured through space classified that case as a disaster.
It was the worst-case scenario.
"Brigadier General."
In such a worst-case scenario, the one who came up with an answer was, as always, only one person.
"Do you have a bird in your possession?"
At Kim Seojun's question, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun was startled.
A bird was referred to as a space fighter manufactured to face Mogs in space.
"You're going to catch that?"
Mentioning that here meant he intended to face that massive number of Squads, and furthermore, an entity that was at least Welterweight-class!
It was something worth being startled over.
Kim Seojun knew it too.
"We have nowhere to run anyway."
But right now, they couldn't choose from options.
"Rather than dying without trying, it's right to try and then die."
At those words from Kim Seojun, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun's expression changed.
It had to.
"Wasn't that what you always used to say, Company Commander?"
"......Damn it, I thought I'd live comfortably once I got my star, but what kind of hellish suffering is this?"
Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun, having said that, immediately moved the Rescue Spaceship.
While doing so, he said.
"I did prepare one. I was going to spray shit on a Chinese space battleship if I saw one later."
"What is its class?"
At that question, Brigadier General Lee Yeong-Jun smiled and answered.
"It's Crow-class."
At the same time, Kim Seojun could hear it.
[An Event Mission has occurred.]
[A reward will be given upon eliminating the special Space Mog Squad.]
[The Mission Reward is a Random Blessing Ticket (Diamond).]