Chapter 3: Super human disease, ha jin -woo (2)

‘Ha Jin-woo.’

It was a long time ago.

A time when I didn’t fight alone, when I wasn’t the only super-soldier in South Korea.

The Captain called my name, looking out at the battlefield.

‘What are you thinking so deeply about?’

Back then, I was still young. Seventeen years old, not long after being deployed to the front lines.

I had received all the training, but I was still lacking in experience.

‘You gloomy kid. Why don’t you think of something brighter? Is there anything you like?’

He was older than me, a peculiar man who had voluntarily enlisted in the military three times.

Once serving in the regular army.

Twice as a special forces soldier.

And a third time as a modified super-soldier after World War III broke out.

Despite having enlisted three times, he was a friendly person, unlike what one might expect.

Was this what it felt like to have a brother I’d never had?

He often looked at me with pity, seeing me, a young boy, crying out for revenge in the army.

He was quite dedicated to looking after me.

If there was something delicious, he’d give it to me first, and we’d engage in trivial chatter.

Then, one day, the Captain handed me something.

‘I was originally going to give it to you as a surprise gift, but… that’s how it turned out.’

Even as he handed it over brusquely, he observed my reaction. He seemed to be hoping I’d be happy.

I don’t remember my reaction clearly back then. But it seemed it wasn’t the reaction he had expected.

‘Back in my day, people really liked this. I don’t know about you, but seeing you just sitting there sullenly day after day with no hobbies is a bit unsettling.’

Recalling him explaining the reason and scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

I should have been happier. But I was shy back then.

Even if that weren’t the case, feeling awkward wasn’t unusual.

Because a war orphan who had scrounged through trash cans for food before becoming a super-soldier wouldn’t know such things.

It was a smartphone.

Later, like the Ship of Theseus, I used it for 120 years, replacing all its parts.

My treasure.

‘Ha Jin-woo, happy birthday. Live long.’

That smartphone was not with me now.

The container where I’d stored it showed neither the shotgun nor the smartphone.

I suppressed the sudden surge of unease. Now was not the time for that.

As my mind settled into its conscious routine, I heard voices.

“First, if we deal with the outside—”

“Uh, uh-oh… he woke up. He’s looking over here?!”

The humans before me were whispering about me.

And only then did I realize one thing.

The cryo-sleep chamber had clearly outputted audio in Russian.

For some reason, I understood it immediately without needing to interpret it.

The same went for the language these humans were using.

It felt different from any language I had ever heard or spoken.

Yet, for some reason, I could understand its meaning.

As I watched them silently, they seemed more wary of something outside than of me.

It was clear they either didn’t know who I was, or they considered what was outside to be more threatening.

If they showed aggression, how long would it take to subdue them?

If they had no other weapons or other biological modifications, it would be instantaneous. It wouldn’t even take a second per person.

Their armament level was that poor.

Then, outside the door?

I saw nothing.

The accumulated barricades blocked the door well, but beyond that, the strength of my bunker door itself was excellent.

It rattled, but didn’t open.

Considering it was a door that couldn’t be pulled open, breaking it was the only way.

I didn’t know why they hadn’t broken it yet.

Looking at the technological level of those in this room… could it be that they couldn’t break it?

Or was there a reason they couldn’t break it?

Either way, thinking there might be room for negotiation, my thoughts naturally drifted.

How on earth did I end up in this situation?

And how much time had passed?

Overdue cryo-sleep duration.

The situation where unfamiliar languages and Russian were instantly understood for some reason.

The medieval attire of the people before my eyes.

Amidst the disconnected facts, only absurd thoughts came to mind.

Stories I had once watched to pass the time.

Like another world, or something like that.

It was so absurd that I laughed. Perhaps it was a hallucination.

Perhaps it was a fantasy I was seeing because the cryo-sleep device malfunctioned.

If so, that would actually be a relief.

Rather than painfully awakening and dying, dying in such an absurd fantasy—

CRASH!

The door shook violently.

Then, a smell tickled my nose. A smell like something burnt.

At that, the people who had been discussing the door flinched and froze.

Seeing them tense their bodies and grip their weapons, they weren’t unwilling to fight, but the emotion in their eyes was familiar.

They lacked the confidence to fight and win against whatever was outside that door, and while they had the will to fight, their expressions seemed to anticipate what was about to happen.

Despair.

That was the look in the eyes of soldiers facing Russian bioweapons surging in, filling the horizon.

Ordinary people who willingly shared their chocolate rations with super-soldiers who were barely high schoolers.

They gathered in the trenches, making trivial small talk, saying they were the same age as their own children.

Yet, when they died, it was in an instant, those pitiable people.

At the memories that arose unbidden, a certain emotion sprouted within me without my knowing.

A bad habit, yet something I hadn’t fixed.

It had always been like this.

Knowing that everyone would die before me, that they would easily die and disappear.

Despite knowing that it would scar my heart, it was my nature to approach and socialize with people.

One could even call it an incurable disease.

Well, what could I do? That’s how I was made.

I opened my mouth.

“There’s a hidden exit, are you interested?”

****

After Ha Jin-woo opened the secret passage and left, a long time passed.

A sigh was heard from beyond the door.

Was it because, despite their reluctance, they knew there was no other way?

“Forgive us.”

Along with the words mixed into the sigh, the tightly shut door began to glow red.

From crimson to orange, and from orange to a vivid yellow.

BOOM!

With an explosive roar, the detached door slid into the room where the cryo-sleep chamber was located.

The piled-up barricades naturally melted and burst into flames.

As the scattered debris burned, holding embers, small feet strode into the room.

The bare feet moved calmly despite the bunker being engulfed in flames, stopping before the open cryo-sleep chamber.

The open cryo-sleep chamber, and likewise, the open secret passage.

As the ash-gray hooded cloak swayed in the wind blowing from outside, another sigh was heard.

****

When I mistakenly thought I had passed through the passage and emerged into familiar snowfields.

I had to widen my eyes at the scenery that filled my vision, unfamiliar yet not unfamiliar.

The sunlight pouring down was warm.

The autumn wind was cool yet pleasant.

The oxygen was an excellent stimulus to my body, which had awakened after a long period of cryo-sleep.

A familiar smell tickled my nose. I hadn’t thought I would grow accustomed to this.

The narrow, yet… indescribably Korean-style alleyway in sight.

It was clearly Seoul.

Roughly Jongno-gu.

The exact location was hazy, and I couldn’t remember it well.

Since I came of age, I had usually been on battlefields in China or other countries rather than Seoul.

I knew it was Jongno-gu thanks to the subway entrance I saw on the way, with