Translator: Dreamscribe
While Kang Jae-ha and the man in the suit stood facing each other, the woman's voice was heard again. By both of them, of course.
【Should a comrade (subordinate) commit betrayal, treason, or similar acts against the Commander, it will be deemed a violation of the applied 'Absolute Obedience', resulting in death.】
【Furthermore, any act that inflicts harm upon the Commander will also be deemed a violation of 'Absolute Obedience', resulting in death. Please take heed.】
【This concludes the guidance. Now then, fighting!】
Fighting, again. Had that damned woman developed a taste for mockery? Kang Jae-ha narrowed his brow and waited a moment. The man in the suit did the same. But the woman's voice didn't come again.
It seemed the guidance was over, just as she'd said.
-Swish.
Jae-ha looked at the man in the suit standing before him. The man who, in another world, had been a subordinate in his Mercenary Corps.
'Absolute Obedience? That caught me off guard, but... interesting.'
Kang Jae-ha had been having nightmares about the Other World lately. The man in the suit before him had appeared in those nightmares too. With his neck half severed. That was, in fact, how he'd actually died. In any case, it was all deeply out of the blue, both the appearance of a former subordinate not in the Other World but here in reality, and the woman's voice going on about 'Absolute Obedience' and privileges exclusive to Kang Jae-ha.
With no warning signs whatsoever, Jae-ha's mind grew slightly cluttered. The man in the suit seemed to feel the same, scratching his head.
"Shit, what the hell's going on. So basically, if I don't obey you, Commander, I die?"
"You're not gonna die."
"It said 'Absolute Obedience' has been applied. If I step out of line in front of you, Commander, I'm dead. That part's true, isn't it?"
He'd been one of the sharper ones even among the brutes who swarmed the Mercenary Corps. Maybe that was why he caught on fast.
"Betrayal, treason, attacking the Commander, any of it means I'm dead."
"That part's true. If what that woman spouted is accurate."
"Hmm..."
The man in the suit recalled one particular line from the woman's voice. He stroked his chin and spoke again.
"Seems like I'm only standing here because of you, Commander-nim."
"Anyway, you're not dying. I just tell you to live well, you live well. That's all there is to it."
"Is that so?"
"More importantly."
Jae-ha scanned the surroundings. He soon spotted a small park. Kang Jae-ha led the man in the suit toward it.
"Follow me. Let's talk."
"Guess I have to. I'll die if I don't."
Jae-ha replied flatly.
"Want to?"
The man in the suit seemed to catch himself and shook his head.
"...I'm joking, joking. Same temper as always."
A few minutes later.
Kang Jae-ha and the man in the suit sat down on a wooden bench. Jae-ha rummaged through the plastic bag in his hand and handed the man an energy drink he'd bought at the convenience store.
"'Preciate it..."
"This is strange."
"Sure is. Strange."
Looking at his former subordinate, Jae-ha felt the illusion of being back in that other world.
'Feels shitty, but also... nostalgic.'
In the middle of that peculiar swirl of emotions, Kang Jae-ha turned cold.
'First, let's get a grasp on the situation.'
Cracking open his energy drink, Jae-ha questioned the man in the suit.
"The scar on your cheek?"
"That wasn't there before. Got it in the Other World. But Commander, you've... shrunk? Lost all your muscle too."
"Same as you. I bulked up over there."
Jae-ha had been about to call the man in the suit by his name from the other world, but he changed his mind.
"What's your name? The one you go by here."
"Lee Chan-hoo. It's my actual name, but damn does it feel weird."
"Age?"
"35."
"I figured you'd be older than me."
"It's not like we ever cared about age over there."
"Fair enough."
His eyes were narrow, nearly slits, and his hair was cropped short. The man in the suit, no, Lee Chan-hoo, was rough in his speech and had a raw edge to him, but he was strangely deferential toward Jae-ha. Partly because of 'Absolute Obedience', sure, but he'd always been that way. Jae-ha threw another question at him.
"Walk me through it. How you woke back up here."
Chan-hoo crushed his empty drink can and stroked his chin.
"Let's see... I died during the war, right?"
"You did."
"I thought that was it for me too. After I actually died, I don't really have any memories. Then a few days ago, my eyes just snapped open. When I opened them, I was back here, the place I'd originally lived."
"How did you get Summoned in the first place?"
"I was just on my way to work when the world split apart. Next thing I knew, I was in the Other World."
The method of crossing into the other world was nearly identical to Kang Jae-ha's.
"How many were Summoned along with you?"
"Huh? Just me. Weren't you alone, Commander?"
He wasn't. Kang Jae-ha had been Summoned alongside roughly twenty others. All of them died except him. At this point, Chan-hoo narrowed his already thin eyes even further and looked at Jae-ha.
"If I'd known you were from this side, Commander... nah, never mind."
He trailed off, then let out a short laugh.
"You probably thought, 'Why bother?' right? Nothing good would've come from it being known. Would've been the same as me. The languages were different but somehow we could understand each other, and if you were planning to live there for good, hiding it made sense."
"......"
Right. Around his fifth year in the Other World, Kang Jae-ha had also given up on the idea of ever returning to where he'd originally lived. After briefly reflecting on the past, Jae-ha changed the subject.
"How many years did you live in the Other World?"
"Roughly a dozen-odd years."
For Jae-ha, the first four years in the Other World had been practically hell. Sheer goddamn survival. Then he'd joined the Mercenary Corps. Chan-hoo had first entered the Mercenary Corps around Jae-ha's seventh year in the Other World.
He must have gone through all manner of hardship before making it to the Corps as well.
Later, around Jae-ha's fifteenth year, when he'd become Commander, Lee Chan-hoo died on the battlefield. It was a massive war. An entire city had been wiped off the map in a single day.
"You said your eyes suddenly opened a few days ago."
"Yeah. Just like that, snap."
Having gathered this much information, Kang Jae-ha crossed his arms. Assembling the pieces into a rough picture.
'Let's say the day of Summoning is random. Not particularly important.'
Kang Jae-ha had been Summoned alongside about twenty others, and they'd all died. However, Chan-hoo said he'd been alone. It seemed the number of people Summoned varied.
'There were a lot of people in the Mercenary Corps.'
And a sickening number of them had died. Given Chan-hoo's case, there was a good chance that among them were others who'd been Summoned from this world.
'Chan-hoo died before me, and his soul or consciousness or whatever drifted until I Returned, at which point he woke up in this world along with me.'
Whether they'd died early or late, if there were others from this world who'd been Summoned, they would have woken up the same way Chan-hoo did.
'What about the woman's voice? Any differences?'
The woman's voice had dropped several clues on Jae-ha. Goal achievement, Return, Pension program, reality adjustment project, longest survivor, privileges, Absolute Obedience, and so on. All of it signifying that Kang Jae-ha was the last one standing and had achieved a unique accomplishment.
"When you woke up here, what did that woman's voice say to you?"
"Something about confirming my Return, and to take good care of the bonus life I'd been given? Then, fighting."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Sparse. Kang Jae-ha's had been much longer. Which meant Chan-hoo had no Pension program or privileges. Could be a lie, but for now, it was likely the truth. The burden of dying from 'Absolute Obedience' was severe, and this was a time when Chan-hoo needed information too.
In any case.
'The one who survived until the very, very end was me. There were quite a few people Summoned to the Other World, but only those connected to the Mercenary Corps would have woken up alongside me. Based on the information and the pattern.'
The biggest piece of evidence was the line from the woman's voice:
【The comrade (subordinate) has awakened thanks to Kang Jae-ha-nim's achievement of the Other World objective.】
It was this line. On top of that, she'd gone on about comrade encounters and even given him a privilege, so it was practically a hundred percent certainty. Blind conviction was dangerous, but for the moment, that was the conclusion. This was as far as the information he'd gathered could take him. Having reached his answer, Kang Jae-ha crossed his legs and spoke to Chan-hoo.
"Besides you, there are probably more."
"Figures. If it's a bonus life earned because of you, Commander, then they'd be guys from the Mercenary Corps."
Quick on the uptake, as expected. Jae-ha smirked and asked back.
"Anyone you can think of?"
"Was the Mercenary Corps some mom-and-pop shop? If it were ten or fifteen people, maybe, but there were hundreds. How would I narrow it down?"
"Fair enough."
"Either way, every one of those hundreds is a possibility."
Who else could there be? As Kang Jae-ha remembered it, including Chan-hoo, there had been quite a few capable, useful people. They'd all died, though, losing heads and limbs along the way.
'Could be fun to gather them up and build an organization tailored to reality.'
It was a thought that flashed through his mind, but Jae-ha quickly shook his head. There was no pressing need to track them down right away.
If, like Chan-hoo, they were people from this world, they'd each have their own lives. Wasn't Kang Jae-ha living his own life too? Meeting Jae-ha would only saddle them with 'Absolute Obedience'. Soon, Kang Jae-ha gave a faint smile.
"No need to hunt them down by force. Not unless we happen to run into each other like this."
"Why not?"
"Why not, you bastard. They've all got their own lives to live."
"I don't think they'll be living those lives all that comfortably, if you ask me."
"Go on."
Chan-hoo threw his crushed can at the ground with a thwack and shrugged.
"Take me, for example. I quit my job today. Burned the whole place down on my way out."
Kang Jae-ha, pointing at the can lying on the ground.
"Pick it up."
"...Yes sir."
"Were you a salaryman?"
"As you can see."
"What kind of company?"
"Some pathetic little production company."
A production company? Somehow in a similar industry to Kang Jae-ha's. Not that it was strange. The country was overflowing with production companies of every kind.
"A production company... So why'd you quit?"
"I'd been there over six years. I was already washed-up to begin with. Higher-ups riding my ass, getting pushed around by the new hires. But then I got Summoned to the Other World and forgot all about it. When I woke up again, I went to work for the time being, but it was just... shitty."
Washed-up. At the familiar word, Kang Jae-ha's brow furrowed slightly.
"Couldn't readjust?"
"How could I? I lasted exactly one day, then had a massive blowout with that bastard of a boss just now and walked out."
Jae-ha could more or less imagine it. His own Return hadn't been easy either. He'd even roughed up Ra Yoon. At least Kang Jae-ha had been managing to adapt, in his own way, but Chan-hoo hadn't been able to.
Then Chan-hoo let out a long sigh.
"Killing, slicing, beating people down. After doing that for over a decade, I open my eyes back here. You think that's fun? How about you, Commander? Managing alright?"
"More or less."
"That just means you're the weird one. Then again, you were always an oddball. Anyway, whoever else came back besides me, they won't be exactly thrilled either. Meeting you here, Commander? I genuinely count myself lucky."
When Chan-hoo had been under Kang Jae-ha, he'd been part of the Assassination Squad. The kind who sent people to the other side without a trace. The idea of someone like that happily going back to some shitty office job was absurd on its face.
"So what about you, Commander? What do you do here?"
"Pathetic four-year Manager."
The moment he heard the answer, Chan-hoo burst out laughing.
"Oh man, that doesn't suit you at all. A manager, like an entertainment manager? The Commander who used to stroll out for a morning walk and come back after slitting the throats of four or five Demonic Beasts?"
"Want to die?"
"...No. I want to live. But doesn't the Commander have anything to share? From what I heard earlier, you were talking about privileges and all that. It's obvious you brought back something way bigger than what I got."
"You don't need to know."
"Stingy."
"If it bothers you, you should've been Commander yourself."
"Can't do that. It's not something just anyone can handle."
Kang Jae-ha checked the time and rose from the bench. Chan-hoo looked startled.
"W-wait, you're leaving?"
"Gotta go. I stepped out in the middle of work."
"Man, that's a trip. Never thought I'd hear the word 'work' come out of the Commander's mouth."
"Number."
"Huh?"
"Give me your number."
Chan-hoo took Jae-ha's phone and quickly punched in his number. Kang Jae-ha shoved the phone into his back pocket and muttered briefly.
"Let's split up here for now."
"Sure thing."
"Want me to tell you to live well?"
It was because of 'Absolute Obedience'. If Jae-ha gave the order, Chan-hoo just had to live well, and even if he never saw Kang Jae-ha again in his life, there'd be no risk of death. But Chan-hoo didn't seem inclined to take that offer.
"Forget it. I'm unemployed anyway, so just hit me up. We can chew over old memories of slitting throats over drinks."
"Suit yourself, but no drinks. Hang tight for a bit. I might have something for you. You ever thought about running a company?"
"I have. Back before the Other World Summoning, anyway."
"Alright."
Kang Jae-ha turned to leave, then stopped short and threw out one last question.
"Lee Chan-hoo. Your ability? In the Other World or here."
It was a question about whether he had something like 'Deja Vu'. Chan-hoo didn't answer right away. After roughly ten seconds of silence, he smiled and spoke.
"I'm good at finding people. As long as I have solid information to go on."
After that.
Having parted ways with Chan-hoo, Kang Jae-ha returned to Yoon Da-yeon's set. Seeing Jae-ha, the heavyset General Manager Kim Dae-yong immediately latched on.
"Jae-ha-ssi? Why'd it take you so long?"
"Ran into someone I knew."
When Jae-ha handed off his purchases to Road Manager Ryu Jin-woo, Yoon Da-yeon, who must have just come from shooting given her change of costume, glared at Kang Jae-ha.
"What the hell? What kind of manager disappears when you need them?"
"You were looking for me? Why?"
Da-yeon flinched and quickly pivoted.
"N-no! I wasn't looking for you! I was looking for my drink!"
"Sounds like the same thing to me."
"What are you even saying. Off goofing around and now you're mouthing off. Just give me my drink!"
Da-yeon held out her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world. General Manager Kim Dae-yong chuckled and started to move. But Kang Jae-ha stopped him and pointed Da-yeon toward the back.
"They're over there. If you want one, go pick it out yourself."
Normally, the kind of batshit nutjob Yoon Da-yeon was, a tirade would have been perfectly in character. But.
"......"
After firing off an intense glare, she snorted and snatched up a drink before storming off. To the bathroom. It seemed she'd gritted her teeth and held back, feeling indebted to Kang Jae-ha. General Manager Kim Dae-yong's eyes went wide, slightly taken aback.
"Wh-why did you do that to Da-yeon?"
Kang Jae-ha shrugged and answered indifferently.
"This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be addressed, if Yoon Da-yeon-ssi is going to change."
"Change? Da-yeon?"
"Yes. People only change when they're uncomfortable."
General Manager Kim Dae-yong looked at Kang Jae-ha with.
'What is he trying to pull this time??'
A face that couldn't quite figure out what he was up to.
Just then.
-Buzz, buuuzz.
Kang Jae-ha's phone let out a long vibration. Without thinking much of it, Jae-ha checked the screen. An unknown number.
"Yes, this is Kang Jae-ha."
The moment he picked up, a slightly trembling woman's voice came through the phone.
"...Manager-nim. It's An Ji-hee."
It was An Ji-hee, the washed-up Trainee, the one Kang Jae-ha had recommended try acting.
"If I want to become an actress, what do I do first?"