Enlistment
The "civilian" grabbed a Hound nearly three meters long with both hands and folded it in half like paper.
Crack—crack—crunch—
"Kreee! Krek…!"
Foaming blood, the Hound let out a last screech and died on the spot.
"What a damn joke. Just because I burned through my mana, it thinks I'm easy prey. Even if I'm weaker now, I'm not about to get smacked around by trash mobs."
Kim Min-jun casually tossed the folded Hound onto the ground.
He couldn't use dark magic with his mana depleted, but the physical conditioning he'd forged in Isgard was still there.
"Uh… huh?"
Corporal Choi In-ho looked from the bisected Hound to Kim Min-jun, back and forth.
Then, wearing an expression of disbelief, he dropped the mana gun he was holding.
"Soldier, sir. I've got a few questions…"
"H-h-hey! D-don't come any closer!"
As Min-jun stepped toward him, the soldier backpedaled in a panic.
For someone with such a tough face, he sure spooked easily.
Why's he having such a hard time with a mutt that goes down in one hit?
There were Hound-like monsters in Isgard too.
Though those were nastier than this thing.
"C-Corporal Choi In-ho! Did you just fold a Hound in half?!"
Right then the rest of the squad, having wrapped up their part, ran over.
Behind them lay multiple Hounds, already down.
"Whoa, that's insane. I figured it was BS when they said Corporal Choi could fold a Hound in half. Sorry for doubting you!"
"Wait, you seriously did that? Are you even human?"
They showered Choi with praise, glancing between him and the Hound.
A few even whipped out their phones to snap photos.
"N-no. That wasn't me…"
Choi tried to set the record straight, pointing at Kim Min-jun.
Hard to believe, sure—but what could he do?
He'd seen that student fold a Hound with his own two eyes.
"I did it."
"…What?"
At those words, all eyes shifted to Min-jun.
"You just grab it with both hands and rip. Hard about that?"
"Kid, now's not the time to joke around. We're in deep here."
"No, hold up. I saw it. That student grabbed the Hound with both hands and—"
Choi hurried to back Min-jun up, but his senior cut him off.
"In-ho, we don't have time for this. We need to report back to base, now."
"Corporal Choi In-ho! Understood."
All but one of the Hunter Army soldiers withdrew from the scene at speed.
The remaining one escorted Min-jun to a shelter.
"Kid, I don't know why you went that far in, but that's jail time normally. We're letting it slide because the division commander said not to make a big deal of it."
"Ah, yes. Sorry."
Playing along, Min-jun peppered the soldier with questions to gather intel.
"…You seriously don't know? Most high schools teach this stuff now."
"Yeah. I lived overseas for a while."
Strictly speaking—another world.
"Alright. I'll tell you what I know. I got A-plus in Monster Studies and Dungeon Studies back in college, you know."
"Colleges teach that now?"
"Rarer to find one that doesn't."
Min-jun thought education policy sure had changed and listened closely.
"The basics you can find online. How old are you?"
"Me? Twenty-one."
At that, the soldier gave him a sympathetic look.
"Yeah? Then you're not far from enlistment. There goes half your twenties."
The army, huh.
If you served as a regular soldier it was three years; Hunter Army was five, right?
And regular forces were conscription, Hunter Army was volunteer.
There'd been tons of debate when the law changed while he was in high school.
"As you can see, not just Korea—the whole world's different now. Monsters pop up whenever they feel like it. And the manpower to stop them is limited."
The soldier held up a hand, fingers spread.
"And things have gotten worse lately, so they unified service to five years, regular or Hunter Army. Half your twenties, gone."
"…Five years?"
"Yeah. You're twenty-one, so your draft notice must've come. Soldier pay's gone up a lot, though. When you're discharged, you'll be able to do something."
He patted Min-jun's shoulder, telling him to hang in there.
…This is bad, isn't it?
Fresh back home and this?
No, more than that—five years? Why so long?
For someone who'd live thousands of years from now on, five wasn't much.
But for ordinary guys, that was a long time.
"In the North, they enlist at fifteen and discharge at forty. They basically lose their entire lives to the army. I heard they only get like three thousand won a month."
"Yeah, that'd make you want to defect."
—The call of the nation!
As they chatted, Min-jun's phone chimed like he'd gotten a text.
Weird sound effect.
[Notice of Enlistment Date]
What the heck.
Do spam texts look like this now?
He was about to delete it when—
"What, you ship out tomorrow?"
Hearing the effect from Min-jun's phone, the soldier jolted and asked which unit he'd been assigned to.
Seriously? I just got back from Isgard and it's the army already? That makes no sense.
Telling the soldier not to worry about it, Min-jun started off on his own.
"I heard the unit name—it's in Gangwon-do! And that's not spam, it's real!"
The soldier kept urging him to hit a nearby PC bang and check if he didn't believe it.
"What is this, the moment I return?"
Frowning, Min-jun headed to an internet café near the shelter.
This wasn't the Korea he knew.
He didn't have enough information like this.
"I was summoned to Isgard in 2018, so I should comb through everything from around then."
Min-jun scoured the internet, pulling up and reading every article he could find.
[Anomalies detected in dungeons.]
[Monster appearances growing more frequent.]
In short:
Over two years,
dungeons and monsters had grown massively in scale.
As a result, ordinary citizens were now under threat, and there wasn't enough manpower to handle it.
So, as a stopgap, the government extended mandatory service terms and began actively cultivating the Hunter Army to specialize in dungeons.
"Worse than I thought."
Not just Korea.
The whole world was struggling with dungeons and monsters.
If he'd brought his full strength back from Isgard, he could have handled it.
"I came back to chill, and look how things turned out."
Don't you usually get a physical before enlistment?
Grades 1 to 3 are active duty.
Grade 4 is public service.
Was Grade 5 the Second National Reserve?
"But they're just tossing everyone into boot camp first."
That meant things here were that bad.
Kim Min-jun logged into the Military Manpower Administration site to check his enlistment date.
Just like the text on his phone said, it was tomorrow.
"Normally I'd just refuse and let them try me."
He propped his chin on one hand, sinking into thought.
Even if he'd lost most of his mana, couldn't he get through it somehow just by using brute strength?
No.
He shook his head.
That would only make things blow up.
He didn't even know how strong Earth's Hunters were.
"Draft evasion is life imprisonment. Intense."
He considered tracking down the Minister of National Defense and telling him to cancel the enlistment—but quickly gave up on that.
"I didn't come back to Korea to throw a tantrum."
And the more he looked into the Hunter Army, the better the treatment looked.
"For starters, dungeons. Hunter Army personnel get first priority entry."
The base pay was high, and above all, it was performance-based.
Which meant, as long as you proved your skill, you could climb without limit.
"Here are your ramen, samgyeopsal setup, gimbap combo, and udon…."
While Min-jun was mulling things over,
the PC bang clerk arrived with an armful of food.
"Let's eat and think."
**
"This is it! That's how I'll do it!"
"…Excuse me?"
The clerk, clearing empty plates, jumped at the shout of joy.
He's nuts.
A guy who can smile at his enlistment date on-screen? She decided to steer clear.
"I'll pin stars on my shoulders within five years and smash every dungeon in sight."
After long, serious deliberation, Kim Min-jun decided to join the Hunter Army.
[DFO 10th Anniversary Special Event! To all soldiers—stay strong!]
Not because of the event, of course.
Though the tenth-anniversary giveaway of a +12 endgame weapon for soldiers and a +13 for the Hunter Army certainly made enlistment tempting.
"I can get it back."
If he kept breaking dungeons, monsters imbued with mana would show up for sure.
If he absorbed that mana and reclaimed his lost power, maybe he'd gain the means to erase the dungeon phenomenon itself.
"Then the DFO company can develop content in peace. Perfect."
Reading the notice on the DFO homepage about delays due to dungeon breaks and monster damage, he made up his mind.
He'd enlist tomorrow.
**
Enlistment day.
Kim Min-jun cleanly burned through the 2 million won he'd received as emergency disaster relief, down to the last won.
It was probably because his home had become a restricted zone, but he didn't care.
He wouldn't be short on money going forward anyway.
"Pizza—check. Jokbal—check. Chicken—check."
Ticking down the list, he nodded in satisfaction.
Originally, he'd planned to deal with monsters here and there and enjoy a laid-back life.
"In a life that might last thousands more years, I should at least try having a job."
Someday, if his grandson asked, "Grandpa, what did you do?" he should at least be able to say he'd worn stars as a soldier.
He couldn't exactly say, "I hit max level in DFO more times than I can count."
[Your country wants you!]
The closer he got to the replacement depot, the more buzz cuts came into view.
Lovers and family encouraged them, some in tears, telling them to come back safe.
Naturally, Min-jun was alone.
He'd lost touch with his parents when he entered high school.
"First thing after I get out—I'm claiming that +13 weapon."
He himself wasn't thinking much of anything.
With a bright face, he walked toward the parade ground.
A sharp contrast to the other men's gloomy expressions and heavy sighs.
It's the army—how could it be worse than Isgard?
Thinking of how he'd been treated there…
He wondered if the army might actually be heaven by comparison.
Of course, he couldn't judge before experiencing it.
Time passed, and the induction ceremony began with the military band.
After a brief program came the salute to parents.
"Salute your parents!"
"Loyalty!"
At the instructor's command, the recruits gave stiff salutes.
Yikes. Almost blew it.
Min-jun had nearly given the Isgard-style salute, but quickly corrected his hand.
That's the scary thing about habit.
The next five years.
Families sobbed, begging their sons to come back safe.
Some even approached the instructors, asking them to keep their boys from getting hurt.
The army isn't what it used to be.
If you were unlucky, you could die in a monster attack, and bases were usually located where dungeons appeared often.
When the ceremony ended, the men awkwardly formed ranks and headed to the training center.
The moment they entered the auditorium, the instructor's mouth exploded in curses.