The Cook of a Perished World - Chapter 5

Episode 5 Increasing the number of awakened people (2)

Even Taejun succeeded in awakening.

Although I haven’t heard what abilities he awakened because he was injured.

“Everyone focus!”

Pajijik –

While the soldiers’ eyes are focused, a blue electric current flows through Minjae’s body.

He even holds tangible electricity in one hand.

“Demon magic….”

“I can’t believe the awakening was real.”

The soldiers who saw it could not close their mouths at the unbelievable sight.

Although the profession that I have awakened to as a chef is interesting enough.

Aside from the stunt of using a knife to cut a table, it was difficult to show any significant changes on the outside.

On the other hand, Minjae’s magic was incredibly flashy even at first glance.

Just one look is enough to make you believe in the phenomenon of awakening.

‘Because he is a wizard who appeared in reality.’

You can awaken by killing a monster up close.

Now that this fact has been confirmed, there is no need to postpone it any longer.

As we gradually awaken the soldiers in the planned order.

One day, we will be able to fight monsters without guns.

“The next thing that needs to be awakened is… Gwangil of the facility class. Right?”

So, I looked for the next soldier who decided to awaken.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il.

A guy who participated in the last meeting and happened to be the most senior member of the facility class.

But there was something strange about the guy’s eyes.

“I can’t do it….”

“What?”

…This bastard?

* * *

“No, I can’t do it. “I can never do it.”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il speaks with eyes trembling with fear.

“Hey, do you think me and Taejun weren’t scared? “I’m the only person who’s ever killed a mosquito in my life.”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il said he couldn’t do it.

It was Sergeant Lee Min-jae who came forward to persuade.

“But you know that the current situation is not normal. If we are all going to live together, we must set an example.”

“I understand that. “But I can’t do it.”

“Hey this….”

Pajijik.

Blue electricity crackled around the angry face of Sergeant Lee Min-jae.

When you get angry, electricity flows.

I was a little taken aback by the appearance that reminded me of Pichu, but I could overlook that.

“No matter what you say, I can’t do it! “How can I do something scary?”

Now the soldier who was originally the most senior member of the facility unit is dead.

This guy is the best person in the current facilities department, so of course he participated in the meeting.

This guy didn’t even raise any objections when we talked about increasing the number of awakened people.

It’s just embarrassing to suddenly do that.

As for the reason.

‘Is it because Taejun was attacked by a monster?’

Taejun’s foot was bitten by a monster that he thought had lost his strength right before he died.

‘There’s no way something like that won’t happen to someone else.’

no.

Maybe Taejun was lucky because he ended up getting hurt.

If something like this happens again, it might not end up causing you to get hurt.

It is understandable to be afraid.

But even taking that into account.

“It’s so ugly…”

I can’t do it, I can’t do it. Corporal Jeon Gwang-il, who had been screaming, was now lying down on the floor.

The sight of a grown man lying down and whining was uglier than I could imagine.

‘That guy wasn’t that bad of a loser, was he?’

In fact, it was the opposite.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il is tall, over 190 cm tall, and has massive muscles.

I heard that he has a docile personality compared to his size, so even if there is difficult work in the facilities team, he doesn’t show it and takes on the task.

He was so favored by the head of the facilities unit that as soon as he became a corporal, he was constantly receiving recommendations to become a specialist sergeant.

Why on earth is this guy closer to being an ace?

“I heard that Corporal Jeon Gwang-il was very timid compared to his size…”

At that time.

I could hear the voices of soldiers talking behind me.

“okay?”

“yes. “I just don’t mind doing hard things, but I can’t do things that require me to climb high, and I can’t watch horror movies… well, I heard that’s the case.”

“Huh, it looks like a monster can just be beaten to death.”

It was absurd.

A man who is mid-190cm tall and can hit 3-500 with ease is seen lying on the floor and rolling around, saying he can’t do it.

‘Are they really just doing that because they’re scared and cowardly?’

Sergeant Lee Min-jae also seems to be tired of seeing Corporal Jeon Gwang-il like that.

In the end, he sighed and said.

“Ha…yeah. If you can’t do it, there’s nothing you can do. “Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you-”

“Instead!”

“yes?”

“you. “Don’t think about being treated as senior in the unit in the future.”

The military is a strictly hierarchical society.

But ironically, ranks such as corporal and sergeant are not everything.

The military is a place where only men who are sensitive to hierarchy gather.

Due to their nature, they often cannot tolerate having someone inferior to them above them.

If it were a matter between individual soldiers, they would end up on bad terms with each other.

When there is a problem to the extent that the soldier does not fit the rank in the eyes of others.

There are cases where the unit does not provide treatment commensurate with rank.

Ki Soo-yeol et al.

‘No, I just heard that there are cases like that. There was no one in our unit that was that bad.’

What if it was a soldier who really had a problem and couldn’t serve in the military?

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il is an ace who was favored by the head of the facilities unit, and his rank is a corporal who is no different from the most powerful person in the unit.

Not receiving rank treatment now would be the same as being denied all of the military experience I had worked so hard for.

Sergeant Lee Min-jae was saying that if you want to avoid awakening, you should accept that level of humiliation.

“…All right.”

The surprising thing is.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il nodded to that story.

Does that mean there is that much fear?

Does he even know that he has shown himself ugly?

A guy who tries to quietly accept the humiliation.

But….

“Minjae and Gwangil, wait a minute.”

When I saw it.

This shouldn’t end like this.

I decided to interrupt the two people who were in the middle of a conversation.

“Youngjun?”

“Sergeant Shin Youngjun? No matter what the sergeant says, I can’t do it….”

“Oh, I understand, so just calm down. Do you want to go to the restaurant and wait for a while? “Please talk to Minjae.”

“…All right.”

After sending Gwang-il to the cafeteria’s lounge, I called Sergeant Lee Min-jae separately.

“Ha…what are you trying to talk about?”

Sergeant Lee Min-jae lights a cigarette before he even starts talking, as if he is not completely angry.

I waited until he took a drag on his cigarette and then exhaled it, then opened my mouth.

“I understand Minjae is upset. “I understand, but it shouldn’t end like this.”

“…Hey Youngjun. I know you’re good, but that bastard, Gwang-il, did such a terrible thing. Then there must be a price. If you just look at everything and move on…”

“Oh, it’s not like that.”

I’m not that nice to begin with.

It’s good to cook for others, but I often nag and curse at my subordinates.

Because in the military, just being nice doesn’t work.

But this incident was different.

“If it had been anything else, I would have thought nothing of it and moved on. It’s true that Gwang-il wasn’t that close to that guy, and that he did something wrong. But the current situation is different.”

“…Keep talking.”

“It’s just my prediction, but I’m sure there are a lot of kids thinking about deserting right now.”

“what?”

Sergeant Lee Min-jae is suddenly surprised and asks what he is talking about.

“lets think. A monster appeared in the unit and officers and soldiers died. “There is no contact with the outside world.”

Except that what appeared in the unit was not a North Korean soldier, but a monster.

In fact, a war-like atmosphere.

“If there is a real war, I’m sure you’ve thought about deserting. Right now, not much time has passed since the incident occurred, so there are probably a lot of kids who are being calm and mentally broken and thinking about deserting.”

“Hey, our unit is located in the mountains, an hour’s drive away. How can you desert? “There’s no way monsters will only attack our unit, and if there are monsters outside, it might be safer here with all the soldiers gathered together.”

“That’s why no deserters came out right away. Still, as time passes, some people will come out and say that it might be safer outside. “I’m also worried about my family outside.”

Actually, this isn’t even someone else’s story.

Right now, I’m worried about my family outside.

But what’s important right now is survival.

“brother. “If we are to survive, we must make our troops strong.”

“…yes.”

“When soldiers desert, the unit becomes weak. On the other hand, as the unit gets stronger, more soldiers will think this is safe, so there will be no need to worry about desertion.”

That’s natural.

People say they will desert if war breaks out because soldiers are in danger if war breaks out.

If the military was safer, who would desert?

“Okay, that’s why I tried to wake him up, but Gwangil made a fuss, and that’s why he got into trouble, right?”

“brother. “When I said I couldn’t do that, I didn’t mean that I wouldn’t treat Gwangil the same way he was treated.”

“what?”

“The problem is, if you don’t want to be awakened, don’t do it.”

If the awakening process had gone smoothly, there would have been no problem.

But in the meantime, Taejun got seriously injured.

And many soldiers saw it.

Fear will be spreading.

“It’s not just Gwang-il, there are probably a lot of kids who think they’d like to be left out as well if possible. Are you not treated well by class? “It’s better than dying, right?”

“….”

“If there is a case where even one person falls for something like this, there will be a ton of people who insist that they can’t do it themselves. There may be friction between awakened soldiers and those who are not.”

“Ha…”

“Right now, there are no executives who can control us. In this case, if such discord arises, it will eventually lead to division…”

“The unit will become weaker.”

“that’s right.”

I wish I had a different job.

He could have thrown away his military unit and gone out to live alone.

Why are you a prosecutor or an assassin?

Aren’t such professions often played solo in games?

I could have tried to stand on my own with a similar feeling.

But my job is as a level 1 new chef.

Just by looking at the name, he is a supporter.

It is a job that is not suitable for solo play.

In order to make good use of my job, ultimately it is important to be able to cook for someone.

And for me, a cook, my customers are the soldiers of this unit.

If this unit fails, there will be no one to eat my cooking.

The way for me to survive is to keep this unit strong so that it doesn’t fail.

“All members awaken. “We cannot tolerate deviance.”

Sergeant Lee Min-jae touched his head as if he had a headache, then took a deep drag of his cigarette and continued speaking.

“Okay, let’s say you’re right. But then Gwang-il has to convince that guy, so what are you going to do?”

Ultimately, the problem is this.

Just because it was Sergeant Lee Min-jae, it wasn’t because he wanted to exclude Gwang-il.

“It’s humiliating just to not be treated well, but he’s the guy who said he couldn’t do it despite all the hardships. “No amount of persuasion will work.”

“I have an idea. “Trust me just this once.”

“If you say so, I will… “It won’t be easy.”

Sergeant Lee Min-jae returned to the dormitory with an expression of doubt as to whether it was really possible.

It’s true that it’s difficult.

But I also have a part of me that believes.

After sending Sergeant Lee Min-jae to the dormitory, I headed to the cafeteria.

“Sergeant Shin Young-jun….”

I opened the door to the cook’s lounge.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il was seen with his head bowed with a dark expression.

“Hey hey. I didn’t call you to scold you, right? “Just sit down.”

“yes? “Oh, I understand…”

He hesitantly sits back down in the same position he was about to get up.

A guy who has been in the corporal division for quite some time is acting like a jerk.

I feel quite sorry, I guess.

“The reason I called you is nothing special.”

“….”

I looked him in the eye and asked seriously.

“Do you have a favorite food?”

“…yes?”

“Is there anything you want to eat?” “No, it’s going to be hard to say because you’ll be seen. Let’s just have simple fried rice.”

My job is a chef.

It’s only natural that I believe in it…

‘Cooking.’

I will make you a real soldier.