< Chapter 10. Enhancing the Armed Force (1). >
1.
Kim Taehoon held a sip of coffee inside his mouth and did not open it.
The coffee was pretty hot, hot enough that most would either immediately spit it out or swallow it right away. But Kim Taehoon endured the hot temperature.
He was holding the heat inside until it would warm up his frozen mind. It was pretty effective.
The coffee aroma loosened his stiff mind and Kim Taehoon could start thinking again.
‘Premonition.’
Kim Taehoon set one thing straight for now.
‘The dream I had was a premonition of my death.’
What he saw was not a delusion or illusion but a future crisis to come for Kim Taehoon.
After setting that straight, Kim Taehoon started to analyze everything he saw in that dream.
‘It’s not too far in the future based on Jang Sunghoon’s face.’
One of the important things was the timeframe.
The only thing that made him assume the time was Jang Sunghoon’s age through his face in the dream.
Jang Sunghoon in the dream looked like he was in his mid-20s. Since Jang Sunghoon is in his early 20s now, it wasn’t too far away. But it also wasn’t a near future.
‘Three to five years.’
It would at the earliest be three years, latest five years from now.
‘Commander in Chief Lim Hyunjoon.’
The next important clue was the name Lim Hyunjoon.
‘Must be meaning Colonel Lim Hyunjoon.’
Colonel Lim Hyunjoon.
The guy Kim Taehoon knew was a tactician and a man of ambition.
He was also known as taking the elite course inside the Ministry of National Defense. Not only showing great results as an officer but he also had a great sense of politics. The guy was the big shot of the next generation.
But literally, he was the big shot for the next generation. Becoming Commander-in-chief, which was the top position of a military career, was impossible even after 10 years if it was the normal situation.
‘Him being the Commander-in-chief…’
The world was out of norms though and he had knowledge of what the result would be.
Therefore what he needed to do now was to figure out the process for how that result came to be based on the information he got.
‘It seems like the military would be working okay in the future.’
First, the fact that there was a Commander-in-chief meant the military restored its command system. The society would not be in total anarchy.
‘Lim Hyungjoon becoming the Commander-in-chief of that restored system means… he survived and achieved something.’
Second, Colonel Lim Hyunjoon being the Commander-in-chief meant he was the crucial one who restored the military system.
It couldn’t be something simple. It should be a big achievement, such as practically building a new military system.
‘Yes. He’s now in division 8.’
Currently, Colonel Lim Hyunjoon belonged to the 8th Mechanization Infantry division.
That division possessed very strong armories such as tanks which suited its name of Mechanization Infantry division, unlike other divisions.
‘He would definitely use the monsters as a chance, not as a crisis.’
Colonel Lim Hyunjoon also had the ability to utilize the military force and the manpower under his command and make great achievements.
‘Well, Division 8 has a geographical advantage at this point.’
Plus, Division 8 was located in Gyeonggi-do, Pocheon. It was on the front line but they did not face North Korea directly. That’s why it was a great location.
The front line troops wouldn’t be able to pull back south even though the monsters appeared right away. They had to continually be on alert for North Korean military movements. At the same time, it was harder for them to receive supplies.
‘We should go to Pocheon as well.’
Pocheon might not be very safe, but there was a possibility that the military would do its job properly. There could be a minimum amount of order.
Kim Taehoon must contact with Colonel Lim Hyunjoon in Pocheon. He couldn’t ignore him after foreseeing the Colonel becoming such an important figure in the future.
The thought for the Colonel was up until now.
He had other important information.
‘The weapons.’
In the dream, Kim Taehoon had a few kinds of weapons to fight against the dragon.
They wouldn’t be regular weapons. It would be items created with monster materials and high-rank relics.
He had to recall the appearances of the weapons. That was a crucial thing to remember in figuring out what the weapons are.
‘I was able to handle the weapons with telekinesis very freely.’
The feeling of telekinesis he was performing was also very important. Kim Taehoon’s telekinetic handling ability right now was not very advanced.
That was one of the reasons why Kim Taehoon wasn’t able to do much with his A ranked telekinesis.
Telekinesis was like that. Some things were very easy, but other things were very hard to control.
What he imagined in his mind did not come to reality all the time. It required a lot of effort and natural talent to turn the imagination into reality.
Kim Taehoon in the dream was able to skillfully use his telekinesis. He made the weapons which were definitely not alive fly around him as if they were satellites.
‘I could have had a clear goal to reach if I had looked at my abilities closer.’
Regardless, Kim Taehoon had to reach the level of telekinesis and get the weapons that he saw in his dream. Because it was the minimum condition to survive until then. But despite the requirements, Kim Taehoon did not survive.
‘God damn f*ckers…’
That’s what Jang Sunghoon said in the dream. That there was no reason for Kim Taehoon to die. It was because of those ‘god damn f*ckers’ that Kim Taehoon had to face death.
‘There is a group of people, and they want me to be eliminated.’
It meant he had people that wanted him to die even though he didn’t know their name, identity, or their group size.
‘The reason for eliminating me would be because I would be a disturbance to their benefit.’
The benefit was very clear. The only thing Kim Taehoon wanted was to survive and he would be remaining as a hunter to survive.
If they don’t want him to survive as a hunter that meant they wanted the monsters to remain in this world or they wouldn’t want Kim Taehoon to hunt them down.
Kim Taehoon didn’t have much doubt towards the idea.
There were always people who sought for their own benefit even in an apocalyptic situation.
They could be everywhere and anywhere.
No, that kind of people who wanted to build a new order in this broken world using the monsters. The number of people who seek advantage in the new order would be overflowing. And the new world order they would like to establish would benefit themselves the most.
‘It would be rather absurd to not have that kind of people around.’
So he decided to keep that in mind.
The more important thing was, his death has been forewarned.
The other thing that surprised Kim Taehoon was…
‘I risked my life like that. To save Jang Sunghoon… Also, he was the only one who was with me until then.’
That Kim Taehoon himself, who did not have any other purpose than surviving, risked his life for someone else.
Gulp!
When his thought reached there, Kim Taehoon swallowed the sip of coffee he was holding in his mouth.
Everyone who was looking at Kim Taehoon was alert to the sound. They were waiting for him to open his mouth and Kim Taehoon met their expectations.
“I don’t know who made this coffee, but it’s the worst coffee ever.”
2.
Kim Taehoon told them about the dream he had. Everything he remembered.
He also told them what he thought. That they need to find a way to contact Pocheon since it seems like the place was considered safe.
He even told them about how he was going to be killed by the dragon in a few years.
When Kim Taehoon finished telling them the whole thing, everyone’s face was even stiffer than when Kim Taehoon fell asleep.
“Will I be dead in the future then?”
Bhang Hyunwook asked a question very carefully with a rigid face.
It was a funny question, but he was serious. Asking about his own desultory fate to the guy who gained knowledge about the future can only be more serious than anything else.
“You can’t say you could be dead because you were not in my dream. You could have been somewhere else, or we split for a good reason, or you could have betrayed me.”
“Betray! I would never….”
Bhang Hyunwook was denying his possible betrayal but at the same time, he was thinking about the words Ahn Sunmi said.
What would Kim Taehoon think about the plans he had while Kim Taehoon was dreaming?
Would Kim Taehoon consider it as a childish thought? Or would he accept it as the young man’s heroic sense, or would he think it as a rebellious act?
‘Hyungnim would not let it slip even if it were me.’
Whatever the reason would be, Kim Taehoon would never change his mind.
Kim Taehoon does not need survivors who only want to get helped like Ahn Sunmi said.
Kim Taehoon would never change.
If anybody changed, it should be someone else, not Kim Taehoon.
“You stopped. Were you planning to betray me for real?”
“No, I mean… It’s not really betraying but I thought about something similar. If you weren’t going to wake up forever I would have to be the one in charge, then the survivors…”
Bhang Hyunwook took a deep breath. To put more strength into the words he was about to say.
“Hyungnim, can we take volunteers?”
Kim Taehoon started to stare at Bhang Hyunwook with a fresh sip of coffee in his mouth.
Bhang Hyunwook couldn’t do much other than feeling his dry mouth.
“You want to get applications from the survivors, is that what you want to say?”
Kim Taehoon opened his mouth.
“Yes.”
“Any reason why Maek Clan should get more people?”
“Wouldn’t we be able to hunt more monsters? With more stability? We could use people other than just the combat personnel. We need someone to cook, to move things….”
“Can you give me a certain reason for us to get new applicants?”
“That…”
Bhang Hyunwook shut his mouth.
It was a compromised suggestion for Bhang Hyunwook but Kim Taehoon didn’t seem to cooperate with it. But unlike what Bhang Hyunwook was thinking, Kim Taehoon was actually considering his suggestion very seriously.
If it wasn’t worth considering, Kim Taehoon would not have asked Bhang Hyunwook any question at all. Kim Taehoon would have only given him an ultimatum to choose between shutting up and leaving or being silent.
‘He couldn’t have come up with the idea alone, someone must have given him a hint about what I want.’
Bhang Hyunwook’s idea was something that Kim Taehoon already had in mind.
Making the Maek Clan bigger was not a choice, it was a must.
Manpower was the most precious resource you could get in the world that no longer had an infrastructure.
And combat could only achieve a little.
Even looking at what Maek Clan had to do, for now, starting from hunting the monster, slaughtering the monsters and making the items from the monster, there were tons of work to do.
Even combat was in that same category. Constant battles with the monsters would create casualties. It was only going to be a weak spot if you keep the space empty.
Also, Kim Taehoon now had the chance to peek at the future thanks to the golden glass of Napoleon.
‘If we don’t do anything, it would only result in my death.’
The precious chance to realize that you need to change in order to survive.
“We need riflemen.”
Lieutenant Kim Suji opened her mouth.
“Most of the adult men in the group would have experience in the military. If any of them were a gunner or a tank driver, it would be a great help. We also need drivers.”
She supported Bahng Hyunwook’s opinion.
‘We cannot turn away from the survivors like this.’
She was also agreeing with Bhang Hyunwook’s thoughts.
‘We cannot function only with this number as well.’
At the same time, she was clearly seeing the limitation of the troop with the current number of soldiers as an officer in command.
Kim Taehoon stood up from where he was sitting.
“Jang Sunghoon, find me three cars. Ones with keys.”
“What type of cars, sir?”
“SUVs and trucks.”
Jang Sunghoon nodded and immediately started to get the cars.
“Lieutenant Kim Suji, bring me ten of the untouched saber-toothed wolf bodies and a butchering knife.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lieutenant Kim Suji also answered and took off to command the soldiers.
Kim Taehoon’s eyes were pointing at Bhang Hyunwook now.
“Bhang Hyunwook.”
“Yes, Hyungnim.”
“Get your answers straight in your mind beforehand with your priorities.”
And he gave some advice.
“We will not be having time to have a conversation in times of emergency.”
Bhang Hyunwook was nodding his head in silence.
“Then Bhang Hyunwook, go tell your crush. We will be conducting tests for the volunteers who want to join Maek Clan.”
< Chapter 10. Enhancing the Armed Forces (1). > The end.