#Chapter 3: Warrior Kang Cheol-du
Cheol-du had no choice but to get back in the car, and Jin-tae, totally hyped, started babbling.
“Wow, shit. He was a real gangster!”
After making a fuss for a while, Jin-tae suddenly became curious and asked.
“But what did those guys in the Equus say?”
“They told me to 'be a gentleman'?”
“Wow, shit. He's seen some stuff, huh? Heh.”
While Jin-tae, still not calmed down from his excitement, was chattering, the car exited the Ochang IC.
“What’s the plan now?”
“Drive as close as possible.”
Jin-tae frowned at Cheol-du’s rough plan.
Classic P move.
“Let's hit up a mart first, just in case.”
“And then?”
“Look here.”
Jin-tae zoomed in on the map on his smartphone and showed it.
The incident area, centered around Ogeunjang-dong, is in the northern region of Chungju.
“First, we’ll stock up at the mart here, and then circle around upwards. If we can get close enough, let's roll up and check it out.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
He likes the plan.
Cheol-du, noticing Jin-tae was acting all gung-ho, gave him a shoulder rub.
“Thanks, Jin-tae.”
“Ew! Gross. Let go.”
Cheol-du and Jin-tae stopped by a large mart and bought water and food.
“Let’s split it later.”
“Nah, don't worry about it. We're good from before.”
“Okay.”
Jin-tae, as expected of someone from a well-off family, was not stingy when it came to spending.
They loaded up on way more supplies than two guys could eat, and then grabbed some burgers to kill their munchies.
“One bulgogi burger and one shrimp burger, please.”
“No, I’ll eat something else.”
“What are you talking about? Order yours now.”
“...Make that a bulgogi burger combo.”
Jin-tae handed his card to the cashier, who was holding back a laugh.
They scarfed down their burgers while driving.
“Wow, more soldiers again.”
It wasn't just the main roads, even the two-lane country roads were blocked. They tried every back road and farm road, but soldiers were there every time, setting up barricades.
A soldier with a glow stick came up, and Jin-tae, used to this by now, rolled down the window and gave his usual line.
“Wow, is this road also blocked? My home is in Goesan.”
“Yes, all nearby national roads are under control. You’ll have to take a detour quite far.”
“Ah, gotcha. Alright.”
As he turned the car around, he was like, 'Whoa, that's a lot of soldiers.'
There were a bunch of soldiers just chilling in a military truck next to them.
“Uh, something's not right here...”
“What?”
Advertisements
“Something feels sketchy.”
Cheol-du chuckled.
“Fancy way of saying you’re scared.”
“No!”
Jin-tae, making some weird noise, tried to explain why he was freaked out.
“The way they've got the troops set up for the roadblocks is weird.”
There are way more soldiers camped out in the rice paddies than there are blocking the roads.
All riflemen.
Way too many to just be replacements.
“And they don't have nearly enough firepower to stop an alien invasion.”
The army hasn't even brought out any cannons, it's just guys with rifles.
And they're being super lax about keeping civilians out.
It didn't even feel like they were getting ready for a battle.
“You're actually making sense today, Jin-tae.”
“Ugh.”
“Let’s go. I’ll follow you.”
“I've been driving.”
Jin-tae was the one who took the wheel from the start.
He moved forward slowly with a worried face.
The saying 'follow your friend to Gangnam' is no joke.
He'd tagged along this far, and now Jin-tae was hooked. This was the kind of stuff conspiracy theories were made of, right?
Were all those crazy internet rumors actually true?
He remembered all those posts he'd scrolled past because they were so out there.
‘Leveling up by catching monsters is bullshit, but quests, those seem real.’
After driving around the area a bunch and trying to get in a few times.
“Huh?”
Jin-tae saw dozens of parked cars and entered a farm road. They were using the frozen rice paddies as parking lots, with cars lined up on both sides of the farm road.
“Crazy. There’s really something here.”
“Suspicious.”
Why would civilians gather so much near a disaster area?
“They all look like they’re up to something.”
Jin-tae nodded in agreement with Cheol-du’s words.
There were a bunch of guys who looked like straight-up gangsters, and others in suits. It made no sense for so many people to be gathered here, considering what was supposed to be going on.
Mostly big, tough-looking dudes, but some women and older guys were mixed in.
Everyone eyed them suspiciously as they drove past, but nobody tried to stop them.
Screech.
They parked the car at the very end and got out for now.
“Hoo, this really smells fishy.”
“Smells like ramen.”
Jin-tae frowned deeply.
“Aish, whatever.”
Looking around, some people were eating like they were on a camping trip, others were huddled around fires in trash cans to keep warm. A bunch of cars were idling, probably with people waiting inside.
“Let’s eat something too.”
“Well, let’s do that for now.”
Jin-tae unpacked the boxes in the trunk one by one.
Advertisements
His first big camping trip, and it's next to a disaster zone that might be ground zero for an alien invasion.
“Is grilling meat overkill?”
“A true man doesn't give a damn what others think.”
“Ha, fine. Let’s grill. It’ll go bad anyway if we leave it until tomorrow.”
Jin-tae set up a table and put a burner and pan on it.
“You man the grill. I'll go see what I can find out.”
“Good call. I'm counting on you.”
Cheol-du, who'd been practically drooling, sat down and slapped the meat on the grill.
Sizzle!
Kim Jin-tae took out binoculars from the car and looked towards the disaster area.
‘Soldiers and civilians are mixed together.’
Some guys in suits were chatting and laughing with what looked like military officers.
There was zero vibe of prepping for an alien invasion.
Some middle-aged dude in hiking gear and a puffy coat was grinning at them and started walking over.
Szzzzz.
“Ooh, it’s cooked.”
“Yeah, yeah, just keep stuffing your face and don't say a word.”
“Got it.”
Cheol-du continued to grill the meat at Jin-tae’s words, and when he thought it was cooked, he immediately picked it up with tongs and put it in his mouth.
There’s no need to cut it.
Just roll it up and eat it.
“Whoa, going all out for just one day, huh?”
Jin-tae, playing it cool, grinned back at the nosy guy.
“Gotta eat, right?”
“Haha, that’s true.”
“We got tons of meat, want some?”
“Oh, hell yeah!”
The guy plopped down, checking out Cheol-du and Jin-tae. Jin-tae was secretly stoked.
‘He’s obviously here to sound us out.’
But it doesn’t matter.
We don't know jack. We're gonna get way more info out of him. We've got nothing to lose.
‘What does “one day” mean?’
That word 'quest' kept bugging him.
“Haha, your buddy's built like a tank, huh?”
“Chomp, chomp.”
Cheol-du just kept eating, giving the guy a death stare. The guy got all awkward and cleared his throat, so Jin-tae jumped in.
“Haha, he's a man of few words. Kinda shy.”
“Heh, yeah. For this kinda job, you need muscle more than a silver tongue.”
Jin-tae wasn't gonna be a chump and ask what kind of work.
“So, it's just you two? You got more guys coming?”
He checked out the other groups; some had like 200 guys all in the same uniform, others were smaller groups of maybe ten.
“Yes, just two of us.”
“Oh! You guys are freelancers?”
Advertisements
“That’s right.”
“Heh heh.”
The guy snagged a piece of meat and started chewing, all while sizing up Cheol-du. He was definitely interested in him.
Just looking at Cheol-du, you could tell he was strong. The guy made up his mind and pulled out a business card.
"Let me give you my card."
- Kim Young-do, Shinseong Development Manager
“Hmm?”
Jin-tae was puzzled when he received the business card.
“What's this for?”
“Don't play dumb.”
“Haha.”
I really don’t know.
“I'm offering you a job.”
“……?”
"Shinseong Group might be a little behind the other cities right now, but we're catching up fast. We're about to hit the Iron Age."
“……?”
Jin-tae didn't even bother asking about the 'Iron Age' crap. He just looked unimpressed.
“What's the pay?”
“Compensation?”
“Yes.”
“Hehehe.”
Manager Kim Young-do glanced at Cheol-du and said.
"If you've got the skills, we pay well. Bring back three goblin coins from this test, and you'll skip the intern crap and go straight to full-time."
“……?”
What are goblin coins again?
Jin-tae's head was spinning, but he kept his cool and kept the conversation going.
“Crunch, crunch.”
Cheol-du savored the taste of the meat while chewing on the cartilage.
Mmm, as expected, domestic pork.
*
After talking for a while, Manager Kim got up and brushed himself off.
When he returned to where his group was, one of his employees asked.
“How was it?”
“Total newbies. Probably heard about it online and came running.”
“Yeah, you can tell just by looking at them.”
“We're getting a lot of wannabes showing up because of the internet.”
“We can't keep this contained much longer.”
“Yeah, the government's gonna lose control soon too.”
“I heard things are gonna blow up in China before they do here.”
“Tsk, get some rest. You're gonna be busy all day tomorrow.”
“Will do. You too, Team Leader.”
Manager Kim glanced back at Cheol-du. He saw other guys going over to them, probably making their own pitches.
“Should I have offered a bit more?”
Life in those frontier towns is brutal, and manpower is everything. A guy built like Cheol-du is gold.
*
Advertisements
“Hoohoo, I’m full.”
“Wow, you ate hamburgers like that and then ate 4 kilograms of pork belly.”
“We shared it.”
“Those people barely ate a few pieces.”
"So, a lot of people were talking to you."
“You heard it too, right?”
“I was too busy eating to pay attention.”
Jin-tae looked at Cheol-du with a dumbfounded face, but soon nodded. His friend was originally this kind of guy.
“That ProZzining guy was right. The quests are real.”
“Quests? Like some game.”
“Yeah, it's just a figure of speech. Anyway, shit's going down tomorrow morning. Guaranteed.”
Jin-tae looked at Cheol-du.
Everyone was all over Cheol-du.
“And it's gonna be dangerous. Fighting, probably. Whatever it is, being strong is gonna be a huge advantage.”
“Hehehe.”
Cheol-du's blood was pumping at the thought of a fight.
“This is really happening...”
Jin-tae was shaking. He felt like the main character in some movie, uncovering a huge secret or conspiracy theory, and it gave him chills.
“Nova is the key.”
“Nova?”
“Remember that Iron Age stuff? The government and big corporations are already building frontier towns on Nova.”
“So what is Nova?”
“An alien planet.”
Cheol-du's heart skipped a beat at the words 'alien planet'.
Could it be referring to his hometown?
“They say it's got two moons and monsters and all that. Anyway, they need manpower to settle it, and a guy like you is top-tier.”
Not his hometown then. His home planet has only one moon like Earth.
But wait, what?
“They just wanted me for manual labor?”
“Yeah, well, those alien planets don't have any of our stuff. It's like starting civilization from scratch, back in the Stone Age.”
Cheol-du scowled. Screw civilization, they'd insulted a warrior.
