Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 121

5 — Making a Pledge (3)

Jo Won-gu, who had come to the smoking area from the early morning, put a cigarette in his mouth and looked at the distant sky.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

Choi Se-han, Jo Won-gu’s peer, came and sat next to Jo Won-gu.

“Why do you look like that? Is something wrong?”

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah. You don’t look good.” Jo Won-gu sighed lowly.

“What’s wrong? There’s only good things, only good things.”

“Good things?”

“It’s a good thing that an S-class came, not even an A-class.”

“Kang Jin-ho?”

“How did you know?”

“The whole unit is buzzing with rumors. They say he’s not even human?”

Jo Won-gu nodded silently.

“How bad is it?”

“I want to run away.”

“Huh?”

“I need to get discharged quickly. That’s the only way.”

Choi Se-han could only gape at Jo Won-gu’s reaction. Jo Won-gu was nicknamed ‘Viper’ for his cunning way of tormenting the recruits. For such a Jo Won-gu to say he wanted to run away from a new recruit.

It was more realistic to hear that a whale lived on land.

“What’s so bad?”

“…Hey, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, I can admit that he has athletic ability. If a guy with national-level athletic ability comes to the military, everything the other guys do will look the same. I can understand that, but…”

“What are you talking about?”

“I gave him the manual to memorize the artillery specifications, and he memorized the whole book. What am I supposed to do with a junior like that?”

“…Really?”

“Ugh, damn it.”

Jo Won-gu took a long drag of his cigarette and blew it out into the distance.

“It’s not like he’s bad at living in the barracks either, and every time I go up to the bunk, I feel like I’m stepping on cement that hasn’t dried yet with muddy feet.”

“Aren’t you overreacting?”

“Do you want to take him to your squad?”

“No.”

Choi Se-han had heard enough rumors about Kang Jin-ho.

“A person has to have some humanity! He should at least look tired. It seems like he does five times the work of others, but he doesn’t sleep well, and I’ve never seen him lying down.”

“That’s scary.”

“Right?”

Choi Se-han spoke with a smile.

“Well, we’ll be discharged soon anyway.”

“Yeah. It’s the new recruits who will suffer.”

In fact, thanks to Kang Jin-ho, the squad members’ lives had become easier. The problem was the mental stress.

Jo Won-gu had never imagined that just having a straight-laced guy in the squad could make a person so miserable. Having a new recruit who handles everything by the book next to him made him feel self-conscious when he tried to slack off, and he felt compelled to do things by the book as well.

“For now, you can just coax him along. You’re the squad leader.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Jo Won-gu decided to regain his composure.

How cute and adorable Kang Jin-ho was when he first came.

“Yeah, I need to get back to my roots!”

He was the squad leader! And a sergeant!

It didn’t make sense to be like this because of a private first class.

“Play with him a little. He’ll get better if he feels comfortable in the squad.”

“Okay.”

Jo Won-gu jumped up from his seat and went inside.

Jo Won-gu, who had burst into the barracks, found Kang Jin-ho doing his personal maintenance in the corner and shouted.

“Rookie!”

“Private First Class Kang Jin-ho!”

“Let’s go play a game, bro!”

“A game, sir?”

“Yeah, a game! What should we play? Do you play Galaxy?”

“…Galaxy Craft, sir?”

“Yeah. I was a bit of a hotshot at games when I was in the civilian world. Do you play Galaxy? Should I teach you a thing or two?”

“Galaxy is…”

A subtle smile appeared on Kang Jin-ho’s lips, a rare sight.

“I’m pretty good at it.”

“Shall we play another round?”

“…No.”

Stop it, you bastard.

Jo Won-gu, who had experienced every humiliation possible in the game, desperately clung to his fading mental state.

“Wow, did you see his control just now?”

“He’s not human, he’s not human. I was just looking at the screen, but why am I getting motion sickness?”

“Someone went to throw up earlier.”

“Was that Galaxy I saw? It doesn’t look like the same game?”

“Sergeant Jo Won-gu is good at games. He got completely crushed.”

“The class is different, the class is different.”

…Stop it, you bastards.

Behind the two computers placed side by side, a crowd of onlookers had gathered.

People who had just passed by and stopped to look at Kang Jin-ho’s screen had started to gather one by one, and soon, dozens of people were watching their game.

Jo Won-gu, who had experienced an unspeakable humiliation game in front of so many people, got up from his seat with slumped shoulders.

Kang Jin-ho also jumped up from his seat to follow him, but Jo Won-gu shook his head.

“You deal with them.”

“Is that alright, sir?”

“…It’s alright.”

When he came to the entrance and looked back, there was someone sitting next to Kang Jin-ho without fear.

Jo Won-gu felt comforted by the fact that another person was about to get utterly destroyed and went to find Choi Se-han.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Attention.”

“Attention!”

“You know that we have field training starting next week, right?”

“Yes, sir!”

“This field training will select an outstanding squad and send them on vacation. It’s the division commander’s order. It’s a 9-night, 10-day vacation per person. The entire squad will receive vacation passes!”

“Whoaaaaaa!”

“Don’t get too excited, you guys!”

The company commander’s eyes gleamed.

“We’re not competing among ourselves. I don’t even think that Alpha or Bravo or the headquarters guys will take the outstanding squad award. But you know that we’re doing field training with the infantry guys this time, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you lose to the infantry, you’re all dead. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

“And we’re also going to pick the best trainee, so try to get both if possible. If you win both the best squad and the best trainee, you get a 19-night, 20-day vacation. That’s the same as catching a spy. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!”

After the roll call, Choi Hyun-seok made a fuss.

“Squad leader! Vacation! Vacation!”

“Ugh… I’m so annoyed that I have to go to field training at the end of my service, what are you talking about?”

“That’s not it, sir. If we’re selected as the best squad, we get a 20-day vacation at the end of our service, sir.”

“Oh?”

Jo Won-gu looked surprised, as if he had realized something he hadn’t thought of.

“That’s right? Come to think of it, it is?”

“It’s worth aiming for, sir.”

“But is that going to be easy? It’s not like our squad is the only one, and if you consider the guys from the regiment, there will be almost 80 squads.”

“It’s possible, sir.”

“How?”

“Well, I don’t know about the other events, but we’ll definitely win the trench fighting event, and we’ll win all the strength-based events, won’t we?”

“So how?”

“Well…”

Choi Hyun-seok’s head turned to the side.

At the place where Choi Hyun-seok’s gaze stopped, Kang Jin-ho was standing by with a notebook.

“…As long as they don’t say that his existence itself is a foul, it’s not that difficult, sir.”

Jo Won-gu, looking back and forth between Choi Hyun-seok and Kang Jin-ho, nodded his head greatly.

“Let’s get it! The best squad!”

“Legs together!”

“Don’t spread your legs! Don’t show your teeth!”

“Owl number 88! Dismissed!”

“Dismisseddddd!”

Jo Won-gu gritted his teeth even as he panted.

‘The best squad, my ass.’

It was already infuriating to be doing field training with only a month left until discharge, but this field training seemed several times harder than the last one.

“PT number eight, twenty reps! How many reps?”

“Twenty reps!”

“Eighteen reps… Start!”

“One! Two! Three! Four!”

That instructor must be a devil.

He had been thoroughly tormenting the trainees with only squat jumps and full-body twists since earlier.

At this rate, one would wonder why other PT exercises were even necessary.

And as it became more difficult, guys started to lose their minds.

“Eighhhhhhteeeeeeen!”

Jo Won-gu laughed in vain at the last resounding repetition.

He already knew that not adding a repetition wouldn’t end the training before the scheduled time. The red-hatted devils who lived here were not so benevolent as to shorten the rest time just because the trainees’ training posture was excellent.

Wasn’t their goal to keep pushing them until they couldn’t do it anymore?

In the midst of all that, he even felt a sense of relief at the distinctive repetition of eighteen.

‘I should have done that too.’

“You’re not focusing! You guys! PT number 11, get ready for squat jumps!”

“Readyyyyyy!”

Jo Won-gu opened his mouth as he changed his posture. It felt like saliva had been dripping from his mouth since earlier, but he didn’t even have the mind to wipe it away.

‘No, what’s wrong with these guys today?’

He thought that his body had become slower because he had become a sergeant. He had gained some weight, and his stamina must have decreased. So he thought it was harder because of that, but at this point, he was sure that the intensity had increased compared to the last field training.

Field training wasn’t a joke, and they wouldn’t just raise or lower the difficulty as they pleased, would they?

“Ready!”

Jo Won-gu slowly turned his head back.

He felt like he knew what the cause was.

“PT number 11, fifteen reps! How many reps?”

“Fifteen reps!”

“Sixteen reps… Start!”

The instructors’ gazes were all directed at one place. He had felt like they had been looking at him since earlier, but he thought it was just his imagination, but it wasn’t.

“Hey, Kang Jin-ho, you bastard!”

Jo Won-gu shouted with resentment.

Behind him, Kang Jin-ho was training by the book, just as he had said.

That perfect angle and perfect movement.

It was as if his movements were saying that the training they were ordering couldn’t even give him a single point of fatigue, and that was what was stimulating the instructors.

“Ah, do it moderately, you bastard!”

“I didn’t hear you correctly, sir?”

“Ah, do it moderately! Pretend to be struggling a little!”

Jo Won-gu, who had found the cause, shouted desperately, but the others seemed unable to just ignore Jo Won-gu’s desperate feelings.

“Owl number 88!”

“Owl number 88! Jo Won-gu!”

“Dismissed!”

“…Dismissed.”

Jo Won-gu, who had gone to the dismissed area, rolled around on the muddy ground.

“Aren’t you focusing?”

“I will focus, sir!”

“Can’t you see what’s in front of you?”

“No, sirrrrr!”

What kind of suffering was this at the end of his service?

Jo Won-gu, crawling around on the ground, raised his head and looked at Kang Jin-ho.

Seeing Kang Jin-ho doing full-body twists with perfect angles gave him goosebumps.

That leg wasn’t supposed to stretch out like that!

“It’s not supposed to be like that…”

After filling the training time to the fullest, the first day of field training ended.

“Jin-ho.”

“Private First Class Kang Jin-ho.”

“I told you to do it moderately.”

“Didn’t you say we had to win the best squad award, sir?”

“…We do.”

“Should I do it moderately?”

Jo Won-gu looked at the distant sky.

The stars were unusually numerous today, and the moon was unusually bright.

The guy in front of him was too upright and didn’t know how to look back to explain the very obvious truth that you should work hard when you need to work hard, and you should be moderate when you need to be moderate.

To put it nicely, he was pure, and to put it badly, he was a seed who had eaten flexibility for breakfast.

“…Just work hard.”

“Yes, sir.”

And the very next day, Jo Won-gu had to deeply realize that he had made a mistake.