Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 87

“Just a little further.”

Kang Jin-ho felt the heavy weight of his pack on his shoulders as he walked forward.

Shouts echoed from all directions.

The instructors’ shouts to encourage the lagging recruits were deafening.

In other platoons, the instructors would have been busy cursing at the recruits, but strangely, they were pushing the recruits’ backs with pitiful expressions.

“Huff!”

Joo Young-gi, who was walking in front, staggered.

Kang Jin-ho reached out and grabbed Joo Young-gi’s pack.

The pack that had been pressing down on his back suddenly felt lighter, and Joo Young-gi straightened up, staggering.

“Keep going.”

“Okay…”

Joo Young-gi took a heavy step, sweating profusely.

For Joo Young-gi, who was naturally large-boned and strong, this kind of long-distance march was like poison.

If only his pack was a little lighter.

“Trainee number 99!”

“Trainee number 99, Joo Young-gi!”

“Are you okay?”

“…I can do it!”

“You can give up if it’s too hard! Don’t push yourself too much!”

“No! I can do it!”

The instructor clicked his tongue, watching Joo Young-gi sweating all over. It was against the rules for Kang Jin-ho to support Joo Young-gi’s pack from behind, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell him to stop.

‘Are they trying to kill them all?’

The instructor sighed, looking at the heavy pack.

New recruit training marches are usually divided into a 10km full pack course or a 40km course, and the 40km march is usually the last training course of the new recruit training and is called the flower of new recruit training.

A hellish training that involves walking with a full pack for more than twelve hours.

It’s something that every man in South Korea experiences at least once, but there’s a secret hidden here.

It is almost impossible for a recruit to complete a 40km full pack march with their physical strength. The instructors who have to conduct impossible training are bound to fall into a dilemma, and eventually, they have to choose one of two options.

They either subtly shorten the course itself, or they secretly pack the packs with fake items.

Veterans who have completed new recruit training boast that they went 40km with a full pack, but in reality, the concept of a full pack was impossible in new recruit training.

This is because they do not provide recruits with heavy and expensive items that should be included in a real full pack, such as infiltration protection gear and decontamination kits.

However, even a fake full pack, which is a concept of stuffing all the items provided after removing everything that should be removed from a real full pack, is too much for the recruits to handle.

So, the key to the new recruit training march was to reduce the weight again and again to create a state where they could somehow complete 40km.

According to custom, this batch of recruits should have done the same, but a problem arose before the march.

There were so many accidents in this batch that the higher-ups ordered all training to be done by the book. The battalion commander strongly protested, but the higher-ups’ instructions did not change, and as a result, the recruits who are now marching had items stuffed into their packs that even active-duty soldiers would have difficulty handling.

“Medic!”

The sight of the medic running around, sweating profusely, clearly showed how terrible this march was.

The number of people who had already been transported by ambulance exceeded twenty.

‘That story was true.’

It was clear that the legendary story of a new battalion commander of a certain active-duty unit making his soldiers march with all their gear and ammunition, resulting in one-third of the unit dropping out, was not a lie.

Even for active-duty soldiers, a 40km full pack march is a difficult mission to achieve.

Moreover, considering that they are not active-duty soldiers but just recruits who have only been training for a month, even if it is not a perfect full pack, the difficulty of the mission will be almost the same.

‘Then, is it really going to be one-third dropping out?’

They’ve only gone halfway, and already 20 people have been transported, so it might be possible.

“10-minute break!”

As the formation stopped, the recruits collapsed to the ground as if they were falling.

“Stay on the side of the road! Who told you to sit down!”

The instructors and assistant instructors yelled. Then the recruits crawled to the side of the road.

“Don’t lie down too much! You won’t be able to get up! Sit down! I said sit down!”

Usually, assistant instructors and instructors in training camps are like grim reapers, but it seemed that their words were not heard at all by the recruits.

“Ah, shit.”

Joo Young-gi thought it was a good thing the sky was dark. If it were daytime, the sky would have looked yellow.

He took out his canteen and put it to his mouth, but his canteen was already empty.

“…Ah, water.”

His throat was parched, but there was no water.

“Drink this.”

Kang Jin-ho handed him a canteen from behind.

“…Thanks.”

When he took the canteen, he felt its heavy weight. When he opened the lid, he saw that it was full of water. Joo Young-gi clicked his tongue, seeing that not a single sip had been taken from the canteen.

“Didn’t you drink any?”

“Yeah.”

“Aren’t you thirsty?”

“Yeah.”

Joo Young-gi laughed in vain.

This guy doesn’t belong here. He should be sent to the HID [Human Intelligence Division, a South Korean special forces unit] or the Seorak unit [another special forces unit known for mountain warfare] right away to be a North Korean infiltrator.

If he trained for a month or two, he would be able to take Kim Jong-un’s head. That kind of guy was here.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“So-so.”

“…Hey, how many times have you been to new recruit training?”

“This is my first time.”

“You crazy bastard.”

Joo Young-gi handed the canteen back to Kang Jin-ho and lay down on his back.

“This place is crazy.”

How can a person carry this kind of weight and walk 40km? Even carrying a bag of rice from the supermarket to home feels like it’s going to break your back.

And a bag of rice only weighs 29kg.

“Trainee number 99! Get up!”

“…Yes.”

Joo Young-gi grumbled as he straightened his back.

“This is really fucked up.”

Joo Young-gi sighed as the instructor disappeared ahead.

The military was a place where you had to watch young guys who you wouldn’t even make eye contact with in society bark orders, and it was also a place where you had to obediently follow those orders.

He could understand why people cut their cruciate ligaments and hit their shoulders with bricks to avoid going to the military.

“I can’t go on. I’m just going to get evacuated.”

“Suit yourself.”

Joo Young-gi shouted at Kang Jin-ho’s indifferent reaction.

“Hey, man! When someone says something like that, aren’t you supposed to say, ‘You can do it,’ or ‘Let’s go together,’ or something like that?”

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head.

“Why?”

“Are you sure you’ve lived in society?”

Unless he had lived on a remote island, how could he not know how to treat people like this?

“There’s no point in forcing yourself to do something like this.”

“Not doing it if you don’t want to is also an option.”

“Huh…”

At that moment, a loud voice was heard.

“Break’s over! Get up!”

“We’re getting up! Be careful not to fall.”

Joo Young-gi got up with a grimace.

“I’m going to die, really.”

“You said you were going to give up?”

“A man’s got his pride!”

Kang Jin-ho laughed. He didn’t like him at all at first, but he was getting more and more interesting. It was the same with Park Yoo-min. It seemed that he became closer to people the worse his first impression of them was.

“Start!”

As the front row began to move forward, Joo Young-gi gritted his teeth.

Slightly.

And he felt the pack that had been pressing down on his back lift slightly.

‘Is this bastard…?’

He wanted to yell at him to stop right away, but Joo Young-gi himself was aware that he wouldn’t be able to finish the march like this.

“Ugh, it’s embarrassing.”

He would rather do a hundred bench presses, but walking and running like this was not for him.

Kang Jin-ho, who didn’t look like it, was secretly taking care of him.

Joo Young-gi thought about why he didn’t like Kang Jin-ho so much at first. When he thought about it, Kang Jin-ho hadn’t done anything to harm him, but for some reason, he was a person who bothered him.

“Trainee number 99! Move out!”

“Yes!”

Joo Young-gi started walking, following the recruits ahead. Every time he took a step, he felt a sharp pain in his feet, which were covered in blisters, but Joo Young-gi gritted his teeth and slammed his feet down hard.

“A man’s got his pride!”

Kang Jin-ho smiled slightly as he watched Joo Young-gi walking with heavy steps.

Once this march is over, all the new recruit training will be over. Then they will go to their assigned units.

It was just the end of the tutorial, but he felt an inexplicable sense of fulfillment.

Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked at the sky.

Kang Jin-ho frowned as he looked at the countless stars that seemed to be about to pour down.

‘I hate it.’

That was what he hated most about being in the military. Those stars reminded him of the Central Plains [a historical region in China, often associated with martial arts and ancient dynasties].

It would be a beautiful sight that anyone would admire, but for Kang Jin-ho, it was just an unpleasant sight that reminded him of things he didn’t want to think about.

Kang Jin-ho lowered his head and looked at Joo Young-gi’s pack. Looking ahead made him feel more at ease.

Only the instructor’s light stick and the headlights of the lead vehicle in the distance illuminated the dark world.

‘What is this for?’

If it was to improve physical strength, steady running or exercise would be more helpful than this foolish method. If it was in preparation for a real battle situation, this lukewarm march would not be helpful at all.

It was a pre-modern training method.

‘Like the Demonic Cult [a fictional, often villainous, martial arts sect in Chinese fantasy novels].’

Kang Jin-ho, who had commanded tens of thousands of people, knew. The best way to train troops is to invest in advanced technology and more capital.

Organizations that cannot do that become obsessed with talent and grit. They believe and brainwash themselves that even though they have a lower level of martial arts than others, they can surpass them by working hard and training excessively.

But the result is disastrous.

He felt like the unfortunate customs he had seen in the Demonic Cult were continuing here as well.

‘Even in this world that has developed so much.’

Is it true that humans never change?

Kang Jin-ho had to feel an undeniable displeasure at the heaviness he felt at his fingertips.

“Just a little further!”

“We’re almost there!”

How long had they walked?

After that, dozens more people collapsed and got into ambulances.

Some of the recruits were truly exhausted, and some were faking it, but it was clear that this training itself was something that could not be endured with normal physical strength.

If there were no one walking with them, none of them would have been able to complete the march.

‘Walking together.’

It was a strange thing.

It’s not like someone is walking for you, or someone is carrying your load with you.

But just walking together makes you walk a distance that you could never walk alone.

Isn’t that what life is like?

Humans may be able to live because there are people who just walk beside them, even if they don’t help each other.

The new recruit training camp began to appear in the distance.

“Shit, we’re here.”

Joo Young-gi’s voice was tearful.

Kang Jin-ho smiled quietly and raised his head.

The stars that filled the night sky didn’t look so bad now.