Extra, Chapter 420: The Beginning (2)

The sun rose from beyond the horizon, signaling the break of dawn.

Kang Chan washed his face with a small bottle of water. He then sat at a table with his comrades and ate a biscuit.

There was bread, butter, sausages, chocolate, and water.

I could use a piece of pickled radish right now.

Just like in the aircraft, their base had three different kinds of soldiers.

To hide their emotions, they didn't talk much while eating.

Despite the African heat, Kang Chan could still feel an ominous chill trying to overpower him from one side of his heart. He felt as if he was sitting on the front seat of a rollercoaster that was ascending toward a very steep drop.

Damn it! I have to ride a roller coaster first to know exactly how that feels.

Now that he thought about it, he still had a lot of things left to experience.

Smirking, he racked his brain to remember the positives in his life. Rather than thinking of the pork cutlets that he miserably failed to eat at a snack shop before leaving South Korea, it would be much better to think of the things that he had done that other guys hadn’t.

What were they again? If my memory serves me right, then I first fought to my heart’s content against students who had dropped out of school. After that, I tried soju and cigarettes, and...

Kang Chan glanced at the sun, which had now fully risen.

Wasn’t it fascinating that the sun that rose in South Korea was the same fucking sun in Africa?

It consumed the darkness here, then slacked off to digest it. Eventually, it would leave to consume the darkness in South Korea.

Must be nice to never have to ride planes!

Clank. Clank.

“Gather ‘round!” Enzo exclaimed, interrupting Kang Chan’s thoughts. He then spread out an old map on the table. “I’m designating this place as Point Alpha and this place as Point Bravo!”

Things like this were easy to understand.

Enzo pointed at Point Alpha with his index finger. “We will be providing this place with support.”

The dirt trapped under his fingernails caught Kang Chan’s eye more than the map.

“Once battle breaks out, if you’re ever overwhelmed, make your way to Bravo.”

Did I hear that correctly? He wants us new recruits to move individually?

When Kang Chan looked up at him, Enzo smirked. "I say that, but you won't even get the chance to get there."

"How many enemies are there, and what are they armed with, sir?" the American soldier who had vomited in the aircraft asked.

Enzo cocked his head. “AK-47s and RPG-7s. Depending on the situation, those rebels can be anywhere from twenty to a hundred fifty.”

Kang Chan wondered if he misheard him.

"We’ll be fighting one hundred fifty rebels?" the American soldier clarified.

Fuck. I guess I heard him correctly.

"Didn’t you hear what I said while you were all getting out of the aircraft? Even if the entire 13th Regiment came here, we would still have trouble.”

Enzo, who had been leaning on the table, stood up straight. He then turned his head to the side, gesturing behind him. “Alright. Get in the truck!”

Clank. Clank.

Seventeen soldiers simultaneously stood up.

“Channy!” Enzo called Kang Chan. “Do you know how to drive?”

“No, sir!”

“Then get in the back!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s go!”

Clunk! Clunk!

The soldiers strapped pistols and bayonets around their waists, then filled their tactical vests with magazines and grenades. Afterward, with their rifles in hand, they rushed deep into the African morning.

They had to travel to the battlefield with one truck.

Swoosh!

As Kang Chan got on the truck bed, a disgusting odor rushed into his nose, making him want to vomit.

Despite the rancid odor coming up from the entire truck bed, the other soldiers sat on the benches on both sides and tried their best to look comfortable.

You idiots! It clearly fucking stinks! There’s no way you all have runny noses!

It was strange. Men would put their pride on the line over something as trivial as ignoring disgusting smells.

Go ahead, then. Inhale the odor as much as you fuckers want.

Kang Chan stood at the front of the truck bed and held onto the roof of the driver’s seat.

Vroom!

When the vehicle started, vibrations and the smell of burning diesel rushed toward them.

Kang Chan didn’t know why they had to protect the area called ‘Alpha’ or why they had to go there and fight the rebels.

‘We’re going to teach you how to kill people, but you can never question why you have to kill them,’

one of Kang Chan’s instructors had told him.

‘It is your duty to eliminate those who have been labeled an enemy by the Foreign Legion on command. Always remember: Legio Patria Nostra. The Legion is our country!’

The truck drove straight across the ground as if it were aiming for the sun. The cloud of dust that it left in its tracks made the severity of the situation finally feel real.

There won’t be a Korean among the rebels, right?

Kang Chan slowly looked around.

To him, shooting someone in the head wasn’t any different from smashing someone’s head with a piece of wood. Using chains to strike the shoulders of anyone rushing toward him wasn’t that different from stabbing people in the chest with a bayonet either. At the end of it all, his targets would all wind up dead.

However, Kang Chan only fought expelled students in the past. Those bastards only clung to him because they wanted him to be their subordinate. That way, they could steal money from the kids who were still in school.

Idiots. Who’s ordering who?

He remembered something hilarious that one of them had said with a bloodied face.

'You can be our leader! We'll take the money from the other kids. All you have to do is protect us.'

If I had done what that fucker had said, I would have gotten to eat a lot of pork cutlets.

Now, he was about to fight rebels.

They had been on the road for twenty minutes when they came across a rugged hill. At that moment, for the first time in his life, Kang Chan saw a lifeless body.

Initially, he thought it was just an animal carcass. They were in Africa, after all.

However, he soon realized that a military jacket was covering the corpse. What was sprawled out on the ground—covered in wounds—was clearly a human.

Vroom! Clatter! Clatter!

The closer they got to the hill, the more the truck shook. The more bodies they found, too.

Kang Chan also got to see an eagle up close, which was another first for him.

Kang Chan cracked his neck, then exhaled. "

Haaaa

!"

The odor that originally only came from the truck bed now wafted toward them from all directions.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

At that moment, his heart suddenly started pounding.

Is my heart telling me that I’m afraid? I don’t know fear.

Haah. Haah.

Kang Chan tried his best to slow his breathing.

My fear can only live inside me. If I say it does not exist, then it does not exist.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

As if it was broken, Kang Chan’s heart pounded harder the closer they got to the hill. He sharply glared at the hill before them, which was about three hundred fifty meters away.

If he could—if he was in a position to give the orders—Kang Chan would have demanded the truck stop so he could walk.

I have to calm down. If I look frightened here, these motherfuckers will make fun of me for the rest of my life.

Haah. Haah.

He focused on listening to his breathing.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

His heart pounded so loudly that he could confidently say that he had never experienced something like this before.

What’s going on? There's nothing surprising about this! I have to calm down. I’m probably only feeling this way because this is my first battle. It's no different from when the expelled students surrounded me—

PEW!

White smoke rose from the hill and flew straight toward the truck.

Screech!

In response, their vehicle roughly swerved and slowed down.

The soldiers that had been sitting on the benches held onto the sides with panicked expressions.

“Run! I said run!” Enzo yelled.

Kang Chan threw himself out of the truck bed.

Swish!

While in mid-air, he heard a heavy crash. An explosion then hit him like an iron rod smashing his head, blasting him further away and slamming him into the ground.

Pow pow pow pow! Pow pow pow pow pow!

Kang Chan forcibly twisted his body to look back at the truck. Although his vision was as cloudy as looking around in deep water, he could still tell that it had been reduced to flames and wreckage. He also saw gunshots making parts of his fellow soldiers explode.

Kang Chan groaned. "

Urgh

!"

I don’t think I’m dead yet, but I gotta make my body listen to me if I want to keep it that way!

Despite the pain, he forced himself to roll to the side and crawl toward the truck.

Pow pow pow pow! Pow pow pow pow! Pow pow pow pow! Pow pow pow pow!

Upon reaching the wreckage, the burning heat and disgusting odor quickly struck him. He wasn’t sure if it helped him focus better, but he could finally hear a little.

Dirt spattered along with the flesh of the other soldiers. Blood, mutilated bodies, and burnt heads littered the ground.

Whenever a bullet hit the smoking truck, it either showered sparks or caused noises akin to someone hitting a tin can.

Is everyone dead? Did those great special forces soldiers really just get killed?

Clank!

Hiding behind the truck, Kang Chan swung his rifle from his back to his front. He would’ve dropped it long ago if it had been under his arm.

Clank!

Kang Chan checked his magazine and then aimed at the hill. Before he could open fire, a groan caught his attention.

What? Did someone survive?

Kang Chan leaned toward the direction of the groan, finding Enzo stuck between the driver's seat and the truck bed. Instead of helping him, Kang Chan first examined the area in front of the hill.

Fortunately, their enemies weren’t coming down toward them yet. He didn’t know whether their enemies thought they were all dead or if they thought their previous attacks were enough.

Kang Chan leaned into the truck and hooked his hands under Enzo's armpit.

“

Urgh

! Who is it?” Enzo asked.

“It’s Kang Chan, sir!”

Damn it!

Enzo must've been buried under something because when Kang Chan pulled his hand, only Enzo’s arms moved; his body didn’t.

"Go quickly! They'll come down the hill to make sure we’re dead!" Enzo yelled.

"

Urgh

!"

Kang Chan clenched his teeth and pulled Enzo. Breaking a couple of legs would be better than being shot by their enemies, who would soon check if they were dead.

Hisss! Hisss!

“

Urgh

!

Ugh

!"

Enzo shook his head like a madman and endured the pain as his body moved little by little.

Hisss!

Finally, Kang Chan managed to free Enzo from the truck.

Enzo’s clothes and flesh were split from his thighs to the area below his knees as if they had been cut. Blood was gushing out from his open wounds.

"Go!" Enzo yelled again.

Kang Chan crawled to the side and picked up bandages and morphine before crawling back.

"If you disappear from here, you’ll be registered as dead, so go and get out of this damn hell!"

Kang Chan already had a hard time understanding Enzo when the man was shouting. There was no way he’d understand him understand him when he was mumbling.

Kang Chan injected Enzo with morphine. As he tied Enzo's thigh, they heard the faint roar of an engine from the hill.

Vroom!

Swish!

Kang Chan looked up, finding a truck approaching.

Their enemies could hide a truck like that?

"Go away, you chick! Get as far away from here as you can and hide before the truck comes!"

Click!

Kang Chan picked up his rifle.

"Slit my neck before you go," Enzo ordered, pointing to his Adam's apple with his right index finger.

Kang Chan smirked. Who did this guy think he was?

Ignoring Enzo’s command, Kang Chan collected the rifles that had fallen to the ground and magazines from the bodies.

Clank!

Afterward, he firmly planted his rifle between the driver's seat and the trunk, then assumed a shooting position.

"You crazy chick!"

Enzo’s head fell to the side as he breathed heavily. His blood mixed with the dust on his face, making him look scary.

Emitting black smoke, the truck continued closing the gap between them.

Damn it!

Kang Chan knew that he was far away from South Korea. Still, he never expected to find himself in a world where machine guns and RPGs could fly toward them at any given moment. Now, he was surrounded by sixteen dead soldiers, all of whom had been killed in an instant.

Even the truck in the distance looked unreal to him now.

Nevertheless, the moment he put his finger on the trigger, he felt as if he had entered a completely different world.

"

Urgh

! This is your last chance. Go and hide," Enzo said.

Why is he making me feel bad for him?

Kang Chan clenched his teeth and leaned closer to the rifle. The moment he opened fire, he would essentially be announcing to their enemies that he was alive.

Someone would die, but their enemies would also rush towards him to kill him

How does it feel to get shot? Will it hurt a lot?

If he was going to die anyway, it would be much less painful to die in one shot.

Kang Chan looked straight at the truck’s driver's seat. It seemed to be about one hundred fifty meters away.

He could feel the tension of the trigger pushing against his index finger.

Since there was nothing around them, he had a clear line of sight of the driver’s seat.

If Kang Chan pulled the trigger, he was sure that he could kill the little shit driving the truck. However, he would likely also become an eagle’s new, rancid meal soon after.

Kang Chan gulped dryly. He felt as if he was standing in front of the door to hell, his hand already on the handle.

The moment he opened fire, hell would be let loose.

"

Urgh

,” groaned Enzo.

What will happen to Enzo if I leave him behind?

The truck was now about a hundred meters away.

Kang Chan put pressure on the trigger.

Pew!

As the recoil pushed against his shoulder, the smell of gunpowder rushed toward Kang Chan.