Chapter 1: Corporal Kim Hyun-joon

2004.

A massive hole tore open in the sky, and monsters poured out.

Monsters descended without any warning at all.

They tried to kill anything alive that moved.

The nations of the world mobilized their armies to stop them.

Against the smaller monsters, the firepower of the military was effective, but it didn’t work properly on the others.

Even when tanks fired shells and fighter jets launched missiles, those monsters didn’t go down.

It seemed like Earth was facing annihilation—but that wasn’t the case.

Awakeners.

It was thanks to the sudden appearance of those with powers beyond common sense.

The monsters, unfazed by firearms, fell by the blades and blunt weapons wielded by Awakeners.

With the crisis resolved, the world designated the day those monsters appeared—a day when beings from fiction invaded reality—as Gate Impact.

And the heroes who saved humanity from those monsters were called Hunters.

Thus, the Era of Hunters began, and the world started to change rapidly.

Among the fastest changes was the creation of a new military organization: the Hunter Corps.

The mandatory service period for soldiers increased to three years.

Lastly, women were also strongly encouraged to serve in the Hunter Corps.

---

Inside the duty room.

Having just finished his dawn patrol, Kim Hyun-joon collapsed into a chair.

“Ah. I really hate Saturday duty shifts the most.”

He’d been doing duty shifts since he was a regular soldier.

He was used to it by now, but after becoming a corporal, he hated it even more.

As a soldier, he just had to follow the orders of his superiors, but as a corporal, it was his responsibility to manage the soldiers.

On top of that, he had to conduct various inspections around the unit and keep up with reports—there was always something to worry about.

Not to mention, their unit was stationed on the front lines, so monsters popped up pretty often.

The 115th Division where Kim Hyun-joon served—the Flying Dragon Unit—was a place known as Hellmugi.

“That’s right. Honestly, they should give us at least two days off for Saturday duty.”

Private Lee Seo-yoon answered in agreement with Kim Hyun-joon’s grumbling.

She leaned back into her chair, yawning long and hard.

“Seoyoon. Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt, military life’s gotten easier, huh? Why not just lie down while you’re at it?”

At Kim Hyun-joon’s teasing, Private Lee Seo-yoon pouted.

“I had to be the youngest for six months because of a messed-up enlistment date.”

“I did ten months as the youngest.”

“Ugh. Must feel great to have outdone me.”

“Oh, sure. More importantly, if you’re sleepy, go have a cup of coffee.”

“I can still hold out.”

“If you get caught dozing off, it’s twenty laps around the drill field.”

“I’ll go get coffee.”

As Private Lee Seo-yoon got up to make coffee, her eyes landed on Kim Hyun-joon’s smartphone.

On the screen, a character was slaughtering enemies with a flashy spear.

Just another run-of-the-mill, pay-to-win mobile game.

“Sergeant Kim Hyun-joon, are you still playing that game?”

“When do I have time to spend money? After my shift, I’m too busy heading back to my quarters to sleep. If I just leave it running, it does everything on its own.”

Lee Seo-yoon wanted to ask what the point was, but she didn’t press further.

Other officers did the same sometimes.

That just showed how tough working at the Flying Dragon Unit was.

“More than that, Sergeant Kim Hyun-joon, do you find military life easy?”

He wondered why she’d ask that all of a sudden, but then Private Lee Seo-yoon let out a heavy sigh.

“I’m thinking about joining a guild after discharge, but it’s a lot harder than I expected.”

“You’ve got over a year left before you’re discharged.”

“If I want to make a living, I need to prepare in advance.”

“Guild competition is fierce these days. Unless you’re aiming for a second-rate one, you probably won’t get in.”

“…That’s harsh.”

Seeing her look ready to sulk at his bluntness, he suggested, half-jokingly, that she consider a long-term military career.

“Sergeant Kim Hyun-joon, how can you say something so horrible?”

Lee Seo-yoon immediately frowned.

“Seoyoon, I’m telling you, the Hunter Corps isn’t that bad. I started as a regular soldier too, right?”

It might sound like he was trying to lure a soldier into re-enlisting, but the Hunter Corps was actually a pretty decent option.

“Do you know how ruthless the guilds are? Hunters who soared in their youth get cut without mercy as soon as they slow down with age.”

In the Hunter Corps, skill and performance came first, but it was okay to fall a bit short.

Time in service counted.

Even if your skills were lacking, as long as you worked hard, your seniority would get you some respect.

As long as you didn’t cause any trouble, you wouldn’t get cut.

‘If you stick it out, your salary just keeps going up.’

The unit’s admin officer here took home nearly ten million won a month—even though he wasn’t even in a combat role.

Kim Hyun-joon had only realized after serving for two years that military life suited him, which was why he became a career soldier.

“Seoyoon, think about it. Even a Hunter with an ordinary trait like me can make bank once they make Sergeant First Class.”

His own trait also played a part in his decision to become a career soldier.

An extremely ordinary trait.

Low-Grade Spearmanship that only gave a small boost in handling spears.

The effect was minimal.

With Low-Grade Spearmanship, the best you could hope for was getting into a small or mid-sized guild—and even then, only the less reputable ones.

You could just barely make a living as a Hunter. That was about it.

But if you became a soldier in the Hunter Corps?

Even as a Sergeant First Class, your base salary was ten million won, plus all sorts of sweet tax benefits.

That was why Kim Hyun-joon chose to become a career soldier.

“You know how great the Hunter Corps pension is, right? I heard the government’s looking to raise the military pension even more.”

As he kept up the gentle persuasion, Private Lee Seo-yoon started to seriously consider it.

‘Nice. She’s taking the bait. Just a little more and I’ll have her.’

Kim Hyun-joon grinned inwardly.

If Lee Seo-yoon became a corporal, it would also count towards his own performance record.

“Actually, my friends keep whining these days about how hard it is to get into a guild… huh?”

Suddenly, Lee Seo-yoon’s eyes widened.

She sprang up from her seat, narrowing her eyes.

She seemed to have spotted something.

“Sergeant Kim Hyun-joon. Outside the window… Isn’t that a Bomb Goblin?”

“What?”

At the mention of a Bomb Goblin, Kim Hyun-joon quickly opened the window and stuck his head out.

He saw a goblin, its entire body glowing red, making its way into the base.

It was definitely a Bomb Goblin.

Just one entering the base was enough to declare an emergency, but two had gotten in.

“Damn it! Where did those come from? I just finished a patrol!”

Bomb Goblins were irregular monsters that only showed up on rare occasions.

Why did they have to appear on a duty night, and at dawn of all times?

“I told them so many times we needed to fix the radar!”

The radar for detecting monsters had been broken and left unattended for over a month.

He’d reported it again and again, but all he got was instructions to do a few more patrols—no real action.

Now, it felt like what had to go wrong, finally did.

Kim Hyun-joon quickly grabbed a military spear and ran outside.

Normally, he would have put on protective gear against explosives, but there was no time for that.

“Sergeant Kim Hyun-joon! You can’t go out there!”

Even as Private Lee Seo-yoon called out to stop him, he couldn’t hesitate.

The blast range of a Bomb Goblin was several times greater than a grenade.

If one of those went off near the soldiers’ quarters, it would be a disaster.

He had to stop them no matter what.

Krrrk!

Krrrkk!

The two Bomb Goblins spotted Kim Hyun-joon and growled with fierce hostility.

‘Please, don’t explode.’

Spear leveled, Kim Hyun-joon slowly herded them out of the base.

As much as possible, away from where the soldiers were.

Those things were like living bombs.

If you didn’t take their heads off cleanly and in one stroke, they’d explode.

Kim Hyun-joon didn’t have that kind of skill.

He could easily handle regular goblins, but Bomb Goblins were a different story.

Given the situation, the best he could do was buy time until backup arrived.

Kreeeeek!

As he was waiting for support, one of the Bomb Goblins suddenly let out a shriek and lunged at him.

Shlkk!

He reflexively thrust his spear, but it wasn’t enough to sever the Bomb Goblin’s neck cleanly.

Kuwaaang!

In the end, both Bomb Goblins exploded.

A monster’s sudden, unpredictable move.

It was the kind of situation where an ordinary Hunter would have little chance of survival.

Kim Hyun-joon was an ordinary Hunter.

‘Damn it.’

He was caught right in the blast.

‘Ah. If only I could be as strong as my game character.’

He’d imagined it so many times while playing mobile games.

Watching the protagonist cut down enemies with spectacular spear techniques.

But reality was different. He was a weakling corporal who couldn’t even handle a single Bomb Goblin.

‘Please, don’t let them put up a statue in my name.’

A corporal who died failing to stop a Bomb Goblin.

How humiliating.

That was the last thought in his mind before dying.

---

Bba-bba, bba-ba-bam!

Kim Hyun-joon’s eyes snapped open at the familiar and infuriating sound of the morning bugle blaring in his ears.

‘…What the?’

He was bewildered.

He should have died in the explosion from the Bomb Goblins, but here he was, waking up on a bunk in the soldiers’ quarters.

It was all clear in his memory.

He remembered trying to drive out the two Bomb Goblins that had invaded the base.

So what was this situation now?

“Hey. Since when does a Private wake up with his senior? Didn’t I tell you to get up thirty minutes earlier?”

As Kim Hyun-joon struggled to collect himself, he heard a voice he could never forget, no matter how hard he tried.

One of the seniors who’d made his life hell as a rookie.

Private First Class Kang Cheol-soo.

‘Is this hell?’

It had to be.

If he was back in the worst time of his life, what else could it be but hell?

Private First Class Kang Cheol-soo was nagging at him from the crack of dawn, but Kim Hyun-joon’s mind was elsewhere.

Because—

[Raise Your Spearman]

[Updating status window…1%]

[You cannot use the status window until installation is complete.]

A hologram appeared before his eyes.

A loading screen, just like the one from the game he’d played right up to his death.