‘We want to go there and extract resources, but how do we do it?’
Although the space age began after Doctor Space discovered Gate technology, that didn’t mean everything had progressed smoothly from the beginning.
Rather, after traveling enormous distances through the Gates and discovering new planets, numerous problems arose.
Everyone racked their brains over how to solve them.
It was then that an element called Stium appeared.
Batteries made with Stium possessed several times the storage capacity and safety of solid-state batteries, which until then had been considered the best available.
Furthermore, the person who developed the technology for turning Stium into batteries was Doctor Space, and thanks to that discovery, he received his eleventh Nobel Prize—the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
From that moment on, humanity was able to rapidly accelerate its development of space using Stium batteries.
For that reason, most forms of transportation currently used in space, especially vehicles that traveled over land, relied on Stium batteries.
Military trucks were naturally no exception.
Furthermore, the wheels of military trucks were powered by individual motors, allowing them to freely switch between front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive.
In short, drifting posed no problem.
“Drifting, sir?”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes? Ah, yes. Of course I can, sir.”
“It’s no problem at all, sir.”
Of course, drifting required far more driving skill than most people imagined.
However, for Private First Class Park Boseop, who was no mere amateur and could already be considered a professional driver, it was a piece of cake.
Even so, Park Boseop had a question.
“But I don’t understand why we need to drift, sir.”
It was only natural.
On a planet in space, the skill a driver needed wasn’t drifting, but avoiding obstacles while maintaining the highest possible speed.
Even at the training center, that was all they had practiced.
If someone tried to drift, an instructor would immediately appear and start shouting.
“Recruit, do you think you’re playing a video game? Can’t you take this seriously?”
In response to Park Boseop’s question, Kim Seojun explained.
“From now on, we have to eliminate the Mogdogs occupying the destroyed headquarters. Under normal circumstances, all we’d have to do is keep driving. They’d chase after us like dogs.”
“But right now, we have a Cyclops up there.”
“Yes?”
Kim Seojun pointed toward the sky with one finger.
Park Boseop looked up in surprise.
Kim Seojun continued.
“As long as the Cyclops is giving orders, the Mogdogs won’t necessarily chase us. If we want to take out the Mogdogs under those conditions, we’ll eventually have to keep circling around inside the headquarters base. That’s why I asked if you could drift.”
Park Boseop immediately understood the explanation.
And the moment he did, he screamed inwardly.
‘This is fucking insane.’
Even after grabbing the steering wheel, the same thought continued to fill his head.
‘How is this any different from tap-dancing in front of a rabid dog?’
And that was understandable.
Mogdogs weren’t simply rabid dogs.
They were terrifying monsters capable of treating a Space Marine in a battle suit as little more than an unusually tough chew toy.
‘This is so insane that not even a lunatic high on Stimpak would do it.’
‘This is fucking insane.’
Kim Seojun, who was preparing himself in the cargo bed of the truck, was thinking exactly the same thing.
Driving around headquarters while drifting and dragging monsters like that along behind them wasn’t something a sane person would do.
That was why he let out a sigh.
“Phew……”
Even Kim Seojun, who had witnessed all kinds of hell, could count on one hand the number of times he had done something this crazy.
Not once had he expected things to turn out this way.
‘I came here to make money, and on my first day as an NCO, what the fuck am I doing?’
‘No matter what happens, I have to make it back alive. And with my bank account full.’
Put another way, that was precisely why he was doing this.
Kim Seojun needed money to cure his brother, but at the same time, he also had to return with his body intact.
And to accomplish that, he now had to rescue that important person.
Naturally, even if hundreds or thousands of Space Marines died, the higher-ups wouldn’t make a move.
If they wanted a rescue team to be dispatched, then in the end, they needed to save the life of a superior officer.
‘Even if it’s just his corpse.’
If the officer was already dead, they at least had to recover the corpse so that a rescue team could track its location and come there.
In any case, what he had to do was clear, and Kim Seojun wasn’t the type to waste time worrying unnecessarily in a situation like this.
“Status window.”
He checked his status window.
[Kim Seojun]
— Strength: 12
— Endurance: 18
— Mana: 1
— Skills: X-Ray Vision (F)
— Talents: Dynamic Vision (C)
— Points: 257 pt
— Tickets: None
Naturally, Kim Seojun had immediately used the points he obtained from eliminating the Thorn Snakes to buy a Bronze Ticket.
And from that Bronze Ticket, he had obtained 1 point of Endurance.
Of course, that wasn’t why he was looking at the status window now.
In a situation where he never knew when a crisis might arise, he wasn’t going to think,
‘I’m going to diligently save up my points so I can buy something good!’
This was simply a way of mentally preparing himself.
A kind of autosuggestion.
‘I have a status window.’
After reaffirming his confidence, Kim Seojun shouted.
“Move out!”
Vroooooom!
The moment he gave the order, Park Boseop stepped on the accelerator and sped forward.
It didn’t take them long to reach the area where the ruined headquarters was located, and the moment they entered, the situation proved even more desolate than it had looked from afar.
All kinds of buildings had been destroyed, with debris scattered everywhere.
Driving through a place like that was difficult enough in itself.
However, for Park Boseop, who was now gripping the steering wheel, something like that could hardly even be considered a problem.
Because the real problem had just appeared.
Kieeeeeeeeeek!
It couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.
“Mogdogs!”
Park Boseop shouted the moment he saw them.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Instead of answering, Kim Seojun immediately pulled the trigger.
The six Mogdogs that had appeared were wiped out in an instant by Kim Seojun’s gunfire.
[You have eliminated a Mogdog! You have obtained 1 point!]
It was impressive.
However, they couldn’t let their guard down.
This had only just begun.
Kieeeeeek!
The Mogdogs that heard the gunfire began pouring in from every direction.
Then Kim Seojun said,
“If at any point you think this isn’t going to work, run away immediately.”
Park Boseop didn’t respond.
Kim Seojun wasn’t bothered or offended by that.
On the contrary, he was grateful.
‘I was lucky to find a driver like this.’
It was truly difficult to find a driver capable of devoting every last bit of concentration to driving.
Of course, Park Boseop was even better than that.
He wasn’t merely capable of concentrating on driving.
He was exceptionally good at it.
And right now, he was proving it.
While dodging the debris, he skillfully avoided the Mogdogs lunging at them from every direction.
It was then.
While they were dragging around thirty Mogdogs behind them, thirteen Mogdogs suddenly appeared directly ahead.
Both the front and rear were blocked.
Kieeeeeek!
In that situation, Park Boseop’s hands and feet began moving rapidly.
With exquisite control of the accelerator, he initiated a drift.
He turned the steering wheel, deliberately causing the vehicle to skid.
Using the drift, he instantly changed direction and stepped on the accelerator again.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
At the same time, Kim Seojun regained his balance and immediately pulled the trigger.
His eyes widened.
‘No wonder he’s willing to risk his life for racing.’
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the driving skills Park Boseop was displaying at that moment were the best Kim Seojun had ever seen in his entire life.
‘We can do this.’
Furthermore, from Kim Seojun’s perspective, this was the best possible situation.
He no longer had to worry about the Mogdogs catching them from behind.
That meant there was now only one thing Kim Seojun had to focus on.
Rat-tat-tat!
Kim Seojun’s weapon spat fire.
Along with the gunfire came the shrieks of the Mogdogs.
Kieeeeeek!
Amid those sounds, the wheels of the military truck scraped violently against the ground.
Screeeeech!
Finally, all the chaos came to an end.
When the cries of the Mogdogs could no longer be heard, Kim Seojun told Private First Class Park Boseop,
“Head toward the location the rescue signal is coming from!”
When the space age began, humanity had been convinced of one thing.
In the face of humanity’s overwhelming scientific civilization, no extraterrestrial life-form would pose a serious threat.
However, the Mog shattered that conviction.
And it wasn’t simply because the Mog were strong.
The weapons humanity took such pride in proved surprisingly ineffective against them.
The reason the Mog were terrifying was that they weren’t simple monsters, but beings capable of employing strategies and tactics.
And at the center of all that were the Cyclops.
At first glance, they simply looked like balloons floating through the sky.
The enormous eye beneath their bodies was grotesque, but they didn’t give off a particularly threatening impression.
However, the Cyclops were one of the reasons the Mog had become humanity’s natural enemies.
Cyclops could communicate with other Cyclops and, through the peculiar sound they emitted, summon other Mog as well.
That was why Space Marines often said,
The moment a Cyclops screams, hell begins.
And right now, that Cyclops had screamed.
Wooooooooong!
To be exact, it wasn’t actually a scream.
Cyclops didn’t have mouths.
Rather than a sound, it was closer to a vibration generated by the Cyclops’s body.
That vibration spread in every direction at an astonishing speed.
That was how powerful it was.
Naturally, humanity had developed devices capable of detecting those powerful vibrations, and those devices were built into Space Marines’ battle suits.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!
Kim Seojun’s and Private First Class Park Boseop’s battle suits began blaring warnings.
[Emergency alert! Cyclops alert!]
Normally, the correct response would have been to flee.
Furthermore, that warning meant they had to get out of the area within ten minutes.
However, Kim Seojun and Private First Class Park Boseop didn’t flee.
Vroooooom!
Park Boseop slammed down on the accelerator and drove at full speed toward the source of the rescue signal.
“It’s here, sir!”
The moment they reached the location the rescue signal was coming from, Kim Seojun, who had been sitting in the passenger seat, immediately opened the door and jumped out.
Thud!
The heavy battle suit slammed into the ground.
And the moment his feet touched down, Kim Seojun broke into a full sprint.
Thud, thud, thud!
Straight toward the source of the rescue signal.
In reality, it was an extremely reckless move.
After all, ordinary Space Marines’ battle suits didn’t even have a function for requesting rescue.
It was practically certain that whoever had sent the signal was someone of high rank.
The problem was how difficult the rescue itself would be.
At that moment, the headquarters of the Korean division on planet Amotia had been completely devastated.
The remains of buildings were scattered everywhere.
What if the rescue signal was coming from beneath all that debris?
Without heavy machinery, rescuing the person in the shortest possible time would be impossible.
And under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t even be able to determine where the person was buried.
It was absolutely impossible to tell at a glance where the person who had requested rescue was located.
That was precisely the reason Kim Seojun had agreed to carry out the rescue.
Because he had something that allowed him to do exactly that.
“X-Ray Vision.”
When Kim Seojun activated X-Ray Vision, he began to see through the remains of the collapsed buildings.
A skill that allowed him to check the condition of the person requesting rescue.
He couldn’t see through everything with perfect clarity.
Everything appeared vague.
But that was enough.
It was more than sufficient to determine whether there was someone among all that debris who needed to be rescued.
And fortunately, the person who had requested rescue wasn’t beneath the rubble or underground.
Instead, they were inside something that looked like a container box lying among the wreckage.
‘It’s a shelter.’
Fortunately, the emergency evacuation shelter hadn’t been buried beneath the debris.
It was then.
“Ugh!”
An intense headache suddenly struck him, and the semi-transparent world he had been seeing returned to normal.
He wasn’t surprised.
He had been using X-Ray Vision continuously during the battle, so in a sense, it was only natural that he could no longer maintain it.
Furthermore, that was enough.
Now that he had found the shelter containing the person who had requested rescue, he no longer needed X-Ray Vision.
Enduring the brief headache, Kim Seojun approached the shelter and said,
“I’m Sergeant Kim Seojun. I came after receiving your rescue signal. Please open the door.”
However, he received no response.
Kim Seojun didn’t waste time worrying about it.
Before X-Ray Vision stopped working, he had managed to vaguely make out a white, chrysalis-shaped suit inside the shelter.
‘There was a medical suit inside.’
Considering that headquarters had suffered an attack brutal enough to leave it completely devastated, there was nothing strange about someone having been injured.
Then there was only one thing to do.
Kim Seojun quickly pulled down the emergency control beside the shelter door—or, more precisely, the lever—and transmitted a message.
“The person who requested rescue is unresponsive. Requesting that the door be opened.”
Psssssssh!
With the sound of escaping air, the shelter door began to open.
Inside the small space, barely ten square meters in size, was a medical suit.
Kim Seojun immediately released the locking mechanism on the wheels at the bottom of the medical suit and dragged it outside.
He took it over to Park Boseop’s military truck, which was standing ready to flee at any moment.
The moment he saw Kim Seojun emerge, Park Boseop immediately opened the driver’s door and got out.
“Sergeant Kim, sir!”
“We’ll load it into the cargo bed.”
“Yes, sir!”
At those words, Park Boseop quickly activated the military truck’s rails, forming a ramp leading up to the cargo bed.
Kim Seojun used the ramp to move the medical suit into the cargo bed.
Immediately afterward, both of them climbed into the vehicle, Park Boseop into the driver’s seat and Kim Seojun into the passenger seat.
Vroooooom!
Park Boseop didn’t want to stay there for another minute—not even another second—so he stepped on the accelerator the moment he got in.
Then he asked,
“Uh, Sergeant Kim Seojun, sir, who is it?”
Deep down, Park Boseop was clinging to one hope as he asked that question.
He desperately hoped it was someone of high rank.
It was a rather materialistic way of thinking, but he couldn’t help it.
After all, Park Boseop had also come to that hell because he wanted to make money.
Kim Seojun answered the expectant Park Boseop.
“I’m still not completely sure, but I think it’s a Major.”
“A Major?”
Park Boseop was startled by the answer.
At that moment, the only Major in the Korean division on planet Amotia was Major Lee Sunhyeok, the division commander.
“Don’t tell me it’s Major Lee Sunhyeok, sir?”
That meant they had just rescued the highest-ranking person in the entire place!
But while Park Boseop rejoiced at the possibility, Kim Seojun corrected him.
“No, it isn’t Major Lee Sunhyeok.”
“Yes? What do you mean, sir? Isn’t there only one Major in this place?”
Those words only left Park Boseop even more confused.
“The basic information displayed on the medical suit listed the rank as Major. But the person inside is a woman. And she’s younger than me.”
“Is that possible, sir?”
Kim Seojun, on the other hand, wasn’t confused.
Because he knew the answer.
“Of course it’s possible.”
“Psyker Agents receive treatment equivalent to that of a Major by default.”