TA-TA, TA-TA-TA, TA-TARA-TA-TA…
Dohyeon’s eyes snapped open at the sound of reveille.
Crackle. Bzzzt-
Static flowed from the speakers, and—
“Monsters have invaded! It’s a massive army!”
Bae Man-deuk woke the squad members by shouting an outrageous lie.
Kang Uk fell victim to that lie.
Startled awake, Kang Uk kicked a locker as he sat up, causing a ballistic helmet to fall onto Yun Du-sik’s head.
“Ah, shit! What the hell was that?!”
Yun Du-sik rubbed his head and glared at Kang Uk.
“Why are you glaring at me? Man-deuk’s the bastard who started it.”
At Kang Uk’s words, Yun Du-sik’s gaze shifted toward Bae Man-deuk.
“Didn’t I tell you I’d kill you myself if you pulled that shit again?”
“Come on. Aren’t you all a little too on edge because we’re crossing the Gate today? Relax. Just relax.”
Bae Man-deuk chuckled sheepishly as he backed away.
Watching him, Dohyeon thought to himself.
‘Is this...... déjà vu?’
He had definitely died at the hands of the dark elf chieftain.
Yet he could not understand why he was back in the barracks.
He could not tell whether he was dreaming now or whether being killed by the dark elf chieftain had been the dream.
When he checked the time, it was already five past six.
If they delayed any longer, the platoon leader would give them an earful.
“Enough screwing around and get outside. Anyone who’s late will have his ass share a passionate kiss with the top of my boot...!”
Dohyeon felt that same sense of déjà vu again as he shouted.
For the moment, however, he ignored it.
He herded his squad members out toward the parade ground like a flock of sheep.
Yun Du-sik stared at Dohyeon with a baffled expression.
“Hold on, Squad Leader. Did you gulp down a bowl of some miracle tonic yesterday? Why aren’t you limping?”
“......What?”
Dohyeon, who had been running down the corridor, flinched and came to a stop.
Yun Du-sik was right.
Dohyeon stamped his foot several times, but he felt no discomfort whatsoever.
He had always been able to run, but his body should have wobbled, and pain like needles stabbing into his knee should have followed.
Yet now, he did not feel even a trace of that pain.
‘Could it be......?’
Dohyeon raised his right hand.
Then he clenched it tightly into a fist.
CREAK
Strength flowed into it.
The muscles in his right wrist had been torn strand by strand, leaving his grip strength pathetically weak, but now it was completely fine.
If anything, it felt even sturdier than before.
As though he had traded his body for a new one, there was no longer anything wrong with either his leg or his hand.
‘I haven’t been bewitched by a ghost, so what the hell is going on?’
Dohyeon felt his heart pound at this dreamlike situation.
Yesterday, he had sacrificed his life as the price for Equivalent Exchange and killed the dark elf chieftain. He had unquestionably died as well, yet today had begun all over again.
As if that were not enough, both his leg and his hand had returned to normal.
A completely new life.
Dopamine began bursting through Dohyeon’s entire body.
‘I can finally set my life right again!’
Clenching his fists, Dohyeon ran toward the parade ground.
“Huh? Squad Leader! You didn’t take some kind of stimulant, did you? You must never touch anything like that! Do you understand me?”
Thinking that Dohyeon had taken some suspicious drug, Yun Du-sik shouted after him with a worried expression and followed close on his heels.
After their run and calisthenics came mealtime.
As always, the meal consisted of watery shit soup, kimchi, braised tofu, two boiled eggs, and spicy stir-fried pork.
Even so, Dohyeon piled his white rice as high as a mountain, ate his fill, and returned to the barracks.
He steeled his resolve, knowing that he absolutely had to survive today’s battle.
‘Whatever happened, all that matters is that I didn’t die.’
Dohyeon was not dreaming right now.
This was unquestionably reality.
The battle he had experienced yesterday and his beheading by the chieftain’s sword had both truly happened.
As time passed, Dohyeon became certain that this day was unfolding exactly like the day he had already lived once before.
Everything was precisely as he remembered it.
BANG!
The gunshot rang out while they were maintaining their weapons in the barracks.
Dohyeon reflexively leaped down from his bunk, crouched low, and cautiously poked his head toward the corridor.
‘The announcement should come over the speakers now.’
The instant Dohyeon had that thought,
HISSS!
[Attention, all MSU personnel. The gunshot just heard was caused by an accidental discharge at the guard post. Disregard it and continue preparing for deployment in your barracks.]
The announcement echoed throughout the MSU, without a single syllable differing from before.
‘I’m living the exact same day all over again.’
Dohyeon realized with absolute certainty that this was not a new day. He was reliving a day he had already experienced.
Morning passed, and lunch ended as well.
Every member of the MSU donned full combat gear and began marching toward the Gate.
‘What will happen to me if I cross the Gate like this?’
Dohyeon’s eyes brimmed with conflicting emotions as he surveyed his utterly relaxed squad members inside the armored vehicle.
Once they crossed the Gate and entered the canyon where the dark elves had formed their battle line, many MSU soldiers would lose their lives.
Dohyeon would die as well.
‘Should I run away?’
Even now, if he collapsed foaming at the mouth and thrashed around like a madman, he could be excluded from the battle.
But even if that saved his life, could he really live with his head held high afterward?
‘I can’t do that.’
Dohyeon wanted to stand before his sister as someone who had done his best, not prolong a cowardly, groveling existence.
‘Should I stop them from advancing into the canyon? Or should I tell the battalion commander there’s a trap inside?’
Both were easy to consider but difficult to put into practice.
Dohyeon was only a squad leader. How could he possibly stop the advance, and how could he prove there was a trap inside the canyon?
While Dohyeon wrestled with those questions, the armored vehicle crossed through the Gate.
Before long, the MSU soldiers had arrived on the beautiful Croat Continent. They crossed its magnificent field and advanced toward the forest.
The armored vehicle stopped at the forest’s edge.
“Everyone, dismount!”
At Dohyeon’s shout, the rear door of the armored vehicle opened, and his squad members jumped out.
Dohyeon was the first outside. He crouched low and pressed himself against the side of the armored vehicle.
Then he gazed at the dense forest surrounding them in every direction.
The trees making up the forest were twice as tall and thick as those on Earth.
On the Croat Continent, an unknown wilderness untouched by human hands stretched across the entire planet.
From Earth’s perspective, the Croat Continent was nothing less than a vast natural treasure trove holding tremendous resources.
It was the monsters of Croat that had opened the Gates and invaded Earth first.
But Earth’s people had discovered a way to fight those monsters in only a few months.
When conventional firearms proved ineffective, humans created Magic Bullets.
They had even given rise to Awakened capable of inscribing those Magic Bullets.
Awakened had not existed before the Gates appeared.
When the Gates opened, Earth’s atmosphere mingled with Croat’s. As a result, mutants known as the Awakened began to emerge.
Dohyeon was one such mutant.
If his Talent Grade had been only two levels higher, he could have joined a Guild or the Awakened Special Forces like other Awakened, traveled across Croat, explored dungeons, and lived a life anyone might envy.
But Dohyeon’s awakened talent was Grade F.
His best option had been to enlist in the MSU, wage war against monsters from another world, and earn money by serving as a meat shield.
The MSU advanced into the forest.
The 17th Squad, led by Dohyeon, occupied the center of the fan-shaped battle formation.
It was neither completely exposed nor particularly safe.
The forest was silent.
The MSU soldiers advanced while scanning their surroundings, rifles shouldered and ready to fire at any moment.
But Dohyeon knew.
No fighting would break out at this location.
‘We need to go about twenty minutes farther in before the arrows start flying.’
What came next was the problem.
The dark elves would deliberately expose an opening and flee into the canyon. The battalion commander would then order an advance, claiming he intended to annihilate them.
‘Once we’re trapped in the canyon, it’s over.’
He knew that, yet he could not avoid it.
Disobeying orders meant immediate execution, so refusing to advance was impossible.
There was only one way to escape death in this situation.
‘I’ll bring down Kirantal!’
The dark elf chieftain’s name was clearly engraved in Dohyeon’s mind.
When he killed the chieftain, someone had struck his neck from behind while shouting Kirantal’s name.
The words had been spoken in such perfect Korean that he could never forget them.
‘Come to think of it, how could a dark elf speak Korean?’
The question abruptly occurred to him.
If the speaker was Kirantal’s subordinate, there had been no reason to shout in Korean there.
That meant the speaker was a human extremely familiar with Korean.
‘Could a dark elf have altered its body and be hiding among the MSU in human form?’
Monster shapeshifting.
It had remained an ongoing problem throughout the seventeen years since the first Gate appeared.
On extremely rare occasions, monsters could wield magic that altered their bodies.
Because that magic was difficult to use and took a long time, an enormous army could not simply imitate human form.
Even with a tremendous investment of effort, only one or two could barely be transformed into humans.
Nevertheless, a considerable number of shapeshifting monsters had infiltrated human society and were serving as spies.
The problem was that there was almost no way to identify them.
Unless a shapeshifting monster was killed, it would never revert to its monstrous form. That made them a tremendous problem for human society.
‘Maybe the bastard who killed me was a shapeshifting monster too.’
Dohyeon remembered that the voice of the person who had struck his neck had been extremely thin and high-pitched.
‘There aren’t many women in the MSU.’
Even after counting the three all-female squads, several platoon leaders, and the skilled Awakened and noncommissioned officers serving as squad leaders, there were fewer than one hundred women in total.
‘Damn it. We’re already this far in. How am I supposed to find the shapeshifting monster now?’
He might have had a chance if he had acted sooner, but it was already far too late.
Soon afterward, arrows loosed by the dark elves blanketed the MSU.
As expected, most of the arrows struck trees, while the rest were all deflected by the tankers’ shields.
The MSU immediately returned fire.
RAT-TAT-TAT! RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Gunfire loud enough to tear their eardrums apart thundered through the forest, and dozens of dark elves crumpled helplessly to the ground.
“Kumedrak!”
At someone’s shout, the dark elves withdrew from the forest in an instant, receding like the tide.
‘The lure has begun.’
They were drawing ever closer to the place where they would die.
Although Dohyeon knew he would die if he entered the canyon, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and advance.
“Squad Leader, you’re acting strange today. Why are you trembling so badly? Are you scared?”
Yun Du-sik sidled closer and spoke to him with concern.
“Did you see me trembling? I’ve just got a bit of a cold.”
Yun Du-sik was eight years older, but Dohyeon spoke casually to him rather than using polite speech.
Yun Du-sik did not mind in the slightest.
“So you took cold medicine, huh? What kind of cold medicine makes your leg and hand work perfectly again? Was it some special cold remedy made by an Awakened with a magic skill?”
“I’m not selling you any, Brother Yun, so stop asking.”
Dohyeon addressed thirty-one-year-old Yun Du-sik as “Brother Yun.”
Kang Uk was Brother Kang, while Dohyeon simply called Song Ha-jun and Bae Man-deuk by their names.
Those forms of address had remained unchanged for years.
It could not be helped, since Awakened in the MSU were not assigned any particular military rank.
“I wasn’t planning to buy any. Even if it isn’t a suspicious drug, an overdose can cause side effects, so take it in moderation.”
Yun Du-sik patted Dohyeon’s shoulder a few times, then casually moved away.
Dohyeon was always grateful to him for that.
Yun Du-sik might have had a prickly personality and flown into a fiery rage at the slightest provocation, but he was also the person who looked after Dohyeon best.
‘I’ll save him.’
Dohyeon wanted to save not only himself but Yun Du-sik as well.
He wanted to save Kang Uk, who was advancing ahead of them with his massive body held forward like a dependable armored vehicle; Song Ha-jun, who was strangely better with a bow than a gun; and even Bae Man-deuk, who caused trouble every chance he got.
‘If there’s no other way, I’ll kill Kirantal even if I have to give up my life!’
Dohyeon steeled his resolve.
Some time later, the MSU entered the canyon where the dark elves had arrayed themselves for a last stand.
As expected, the battalion commander ordered them to advance.
“Does that fucking idiot of a battalion commander never consider that this might be a trap?”
Yun Du-sik smirked at Dohyeon’s grumbling.
“To a bastard blinded by the prospect of success, it probably looks less like a trap and more like a delicious buffet.”
“If we’re wiped out because of that, can the battalion commander really take responsibility?”
Dohyeon indirectly warned them of just how dangerous the situation was.
Only then did the squad members’ expressions turn grave.
Their squad leader had excellent instincts.
The 17th Squad had the highest survival rate in the entire MSU, all thanks to Squad Leader Dohyeon.
“How serious is it? Is the Danger Level around six or seven?”
Yun Du-sik asked with a solemn expression.
“Nine. Maybe even ten.”
The Danger Level was a scale used exclusively by the 17th Squad. The higher the number, the greater their chances of dying.
Two years ago, when half the members of the 17th Squad had lost their lives, Dohyeon had placed the Danger Level at eight.
Now he was calling it a nine or even a ten, leaving them at a loss for words.
“Damn it. Today’s fortune said I’d make it back alive.......”
Kang Uk angrily tightened the shield attached to his left arm.
“If I end up fighting a dark elf, get as far away from me as possible. That’s the only way you’ll survive.”
“Huh? Why would you end up fighting a dark elf, Squad Leader?”
“There’s a bounty on my head. I think it was worth about a hundred gold. If you need money, you can cut my head off now.”
Dohyeon spoke as though he were joking, but no one laughed.
His squad members knew.
The fact that Dohyeon would make a joke like that showed just how desperate the situation was.
“Fuck. Don’t die, Squad Leader.”
“If you die before us, we’ll never let you speak casually to us again.”
Kang Uk struck his rifle twice against his shield—CLANG! CLANG!—as though trying to steel his resolve.
Song Ha-jun and Bae Man-deuk exchanged grave looks, then could only let out deep sighs.
At that exact moment,
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Massive harpoons flew toward the soldiers who had already advanced deep into the canyon.
In a single volley, the harpoons impaled more than a hundred soldiers like meat on skewers and killed them.
From that moment on, gunfire and screams raged everywhere.
Dohyeon did not even consider fleeing and threw himself straight into the battle.
He moved swiftly on his restored leg and continuously fired Magic Bullets with his right hand, which could exert its full strength once more.
Then, at one point,
BWOOOOOOOO!
A herd of Raiphants appeared behind the MSU.
Dohyeon immediately searched for Kirantal.
If he could not eliminate that bastard, the battle would end in the MSU’s annihilation.
Dohyeon’s eyes gleamed with killing intent like those of a predator hunting for prey.
Then—
‘There he is!’
Dohyeon caught sight of Kirantal, the dark elf chieftain clad in black armor.
‘I need to lure him toward me.’
At this distance, he could not kill Kirantal even if he used Equivalent Exchange.
Dangerous though it was, his only choice was to attract the chieftain’s attention.
BOOM!
Flame burst from the muzzle as a Magic Bullet was fired.
The Magic Bullet crossed the distance in an instant and struck Kirantal’s helmet with perfect accuracy.
But then—
THUNK!
Kirantal’s head only jerked slightly. Otherwise, he was completely unharmed.
‘Does he have some kind of barrier around him?’
The chieftain turned his head and located Dohyeon.
Kirantal kicked off the Raiphant’s back and flew through the air.
THUMP!
He landed directly in front of Dohyeon.
‘Now!’
Dohyeon immediately activated Equivalent Exchange.
In his mind, he pictured himself ending Kirantal’s life.
An instant later,
▶Choose the price to be paid through Equivalent Exchange.
①Success Rate: 41% / Price: Life
②Success Rate: 13% / Price: Severed Right Arm
③Success Rate: 6% / Price: Immobilization for 5 Seconds
Choices vastly different from those he had seen before appeared in front of him.
‘Goddamn it!’
All he could do was curse.
Previously, sacrificing his life had given him a ninety-nine-percent chance of killing his enemy.
Now, it was only forty-one percent.
Even if he threw his life away, his chances of killing Kirantal were not even fifty-fifty.
As Dohyeon hesitated over his choice, Kirantal charged like a bolt of lightning and swung his sword.
At that very instant,
“Move, Squad Leader!”
Just as before, Kang Uk threw himself in and shoved Dohyeon aside.
Then—
CRACK!
With a sickening sound, the blade sliced through Kang Uk’s shield and his neck as well.
“FUUUUUCK!”
From behind Kang Uk’s corpse as it toppled forward, Dohyeon unleashed a wild burst of Magic Bullets on full auto.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
But once again, Kirantal’s exquisite swordsmanship blocked them all with ease.
He deflected every Magic Bullet fired at point-blank range with his sword, then sliced the rifle in Dohyeon’s hands cleanly in two.
Kirantal looked down at Dohyeon with haughty eyes.
Then he lightly swung his sword, intending to sever Dohyeon’s neck.
At that moment, Dohyeon threw himself forward without even realizing it.
Without selecting any of the choices hovering before his eyes, he lowered his upper body and lunged forward.
Before he knew it, he had drawn his sword and was gripping it in his hand.
He angled his own blade and deflected Kirantal’s sword as it flew toward his neck.
SKRRAAAAPE—!
The blade slid aside, twisting off course.
After redirecting Kirantal’s sword to the side, Dohyeon planted his right foot against the ground and kicked off, twisting his body at an impossible angle.
Dohyeon’s target was Kirantal’s neck.
He thrust his sword with all his strength, trying to punch a hole through it.
But then—
SNAP!
The violent movement tore apart the ligaments in his restored knee once again.
Dohyeon’s body abruptly tilted to the left.
His sword failed to reach Kirantal’s neck.
Instead, he managed to drive the blade into a gap in the chieftain’s pauldron.
SQUELCH
Kirantal’s eyes widened, and he looked flustered by the blade stabbing into him.
“Kamtokpuranmang twi!”
It was the first time Dohyeon had heard Kirantal’s voice.
The words were completely incomprehensible.
Kneeling on one knee, Dohyeon looked up at Kirantal, who glared down at him with murderous eyes.
His heart hurt as though it might burst.
At this rate, he could not move so much as a finger.
That was when it happened.
“How dare this fucking bastard lay a hand on Lord Kirantal!”
The woman’s voice Dohyeon had already heard once before pierced his ears.
SWISH!
A stinging pain shot through his neck.
The world spun around and around.
THUD!
Dohyeon’s world went black once again.