ACS 03

Episode 3

Thump—!

Even with the suppressor attached, the gunshot wasn’t completely silent.
The remaining goblin scouts flinched and looked in the direction of the sound.

‘One down.’

Piercing its weak point, the head, took it out in one shot.
‘I won’t waste much ammo this way.’

Swish—.

Under the influence of the [Breathing], [Rifle Marksmanship], and [Aiming] skills, I could swiftly fire at the next target.

Thump—!
“Quack―!!!”
‘Two down.’

[You have hunted monsters in real combat.]
[The proficiency of ‘Rifle Marksmanship’ and ‘Aiming’ has greatly increased.]

‘Proficiency increases more in real combat.’
Good to know.
But this might mean I’ll have to submit my resignation to the Civilian Response Office soon?
‘I’ll need to think about that a bit more.’
Taking on requests and gaining real combat experience might be better.

“Let’s think about that later.”

Thump—!

Three goblin scouts died instantly from three bullets.
‘Good.’
Twelve goblin scouts remained. And they started running towards me, having seemingly figured out my direction.
‘They’re fast, but…’
The distance was still far. And my firing speed was…?

Thump—! Thump—! Thump—!

“So this is the power of skills.”
Now I finally understood how convenient it must be for Awakened to fight.
The difference having even one skill makes is this huge.

‘It’s on a different level from when I fired the K2 rifle in the military.’
Back then, hitting 18 or 19 out of 20 shots wasn’t uncommon, but with skills, it’s a hundred out of a hundred.

““Quack―!!!”
“Keeruk―!!!”

The three shots I just fired took out three more. Six were already dead.
If it were an emergency, I’d switch to burst fire, but judging by how things were going, single shots seemed sufficient to handle them all.

Thump—!

“Fifteen low-grade magic stones… fifteen goblin poison daggers… fifteen sets of goblin leather armor…”

[You have acquired the skill ‘Collection’!]
[Collection Lv.1: The probability of item collection increases.]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Butchering’!]
[Butchering Lv.1: You can butcher corpses and obtain byproducts intact.]

While looting the fifteen defeated goblins, I gained two more skills. And some previously acquired skills had leveled up.

[Rifle Inspection Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Rifle Marksmanship Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Novice Dagger Proficiency Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Aiming Lv.1 → Lv.2]

‘I leveled up [Novice Dagger Proficiency] while butchering the goblin corpses with my dagger for magic stones, huh.’
This is what happens when every single action becomes a skill.

“Now I just need to take pictures of the fifteen goblin corpses, clean up the area, and submit the request completion report.”
It felt strange to be doing things I had only heard about until now.

“Mission complete. Now for the money transfer.”
The payout for completing this request was five million won.
That’s quite cheap. Monster extermination requests usually start at over ten million.
‘Well, they were just weak goblins and not many of them…’
Still, I couldn’t start with expensive requests from the get-go. This industry is new to me. Requests beginners like me with no track record can take are limited to this type. For now, at least.

“Now… I just need to leave the cut-off goblin ears at the designated location.”
The client’s final condition was that since photos alone weren’t definitive proof, I should cut off the ears of the slain goblins and leave them at a specified spot.

Thud—.

“That’s it. Let’s go.”
I doused the corpses with oil, set them on fire, and burned them to ashes.

“What did you do on your vacation? You look so refreshed.”
“Ah, I just met up with family. Hyung, anything special happen today?”
“Nothing special… wait, Team Leader Han’s mood isn’t great.”
“Huh? Something happen?”

I returned to work after my vacation, and Team Leader Han Gye-seon had a deeply stressed expression.

“You know that land we sold last time. That…”
“Ah, you mean the one the executives were told to sell if they owned any land there?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. A persistent gate opened there yesterday. Sigh… if we had sold it just a little later, imagine the money…”

Hyung Kijun lowered his voice to talk to me.
“A… persistent gate?”
“Yeah, I heard the Golden Arrow Guild bought it for 2 billion won. A first-prize lottery win just flew away.”
“Wow…”
‘No wonder he’s stressed.’

Gates are divided into temporary and persistent types.
Temporary ones open and close once.
Persistent ones stay open continuously. From the perspective of guilds or the Civilian Response Office, they are must-buys.
So persistent gates fetch prices comparable to apartments in the greater Seoul area. It’s the very definition of a life-changing opportunity…
‘And he missed it.’

“That must be so disappointing.”
“That’s why… sigh…”

The Civilian Response Office operates a Gate Research Center.
So, they can roughly predict where gates might appear, if not pinpoint them exactly.
‘That’s also why the audits on Civilian Response Office employees are so strict.’
It’s because they could potentially use internal information for personal gain.
‘That’s why the team leader sold his land too…’
But then a lottery ticket went off on that very land.

“We could have escaped the salary man life. So disappointing.”
“Sigh, I wish a persistent gate would open at my house too.”
“Isn’t that everyone’s wish? Hehe…”

To get stronger, I need money.
‘One request completed, five million won.’
Of course, considering the costs I prepared for the request out of that five million, the net profit is less. Still, it’s an incredibly lucrative business. Being able to earn that much by investing just a few hours a day.

‘If I keep taking requests from Untied, money won’t be a problem for a while.’
You might think this means I could leave the Civilian Response Office, but…
‘I should suck out all the sweet honey I can before I go.’

I decided to stay in the Civilian Response Office for as long as possible. The Office is the place in Korea that can detect and analyze anomalous phenomena faster than any other organization or individual. Plus, I can use their state-of-the-art training facilities for free, built with immense funding.

“Huh..”

[The proficiency of the ‘Breathing’ skill increases.]

Without even noticing, [Breathing] had already reached level 3. No wonder my fatigue has almost disappeared lately, and any hesitation in every action is gone.
‘Combining the effects of [Agility] and [Breathing] creates incredible efficiency.’

“What are you thinking about so hard?”
“Ah, hyung. Just… thinking about the next time I go into combat.”
“Combat?”
“Just… wanting to perform well and get a decent bonus?”
“Hey… don’t overdo it. You saw what happened to Team 1 last time.”
“Haha… right.”

Hyung Kijun is my closest friend in the Civilian Response Office. He’s also someone I can trust.
‘I’ll have to tell Hyung Kijun first. Not now, but… later.’

“Anyway, I heard a temporary gate opened near Cheorwon yesterday, and an unregistered Awakened took care of it.”
“Really?”

It’s hot―.—. (A sinking feeling)

“Yeah, the monitoring team confirmed on Untied that an unregistered Awakened completed the request.”
The monitoring team’s main job is to monitor all Awakened-related issues. So, naturally, keeping an eye on Untied, the deep web community for unregistered Awakened, is part of their duties.
“They have it easy. They just browse the internet and then clock out.”
“Hey, everyone has their own difficulties.”
“Why are you acting so righteous? Did something good really happen on your vacation? Did you get a girlfriend?”
“No, nothing like that.”

Nothing special happened during my vacation. Things just went on as usual, they said.

“Oh, and did you hear the rumor? They say the current administration is planning a reclamation operation for the Gaema Highlands?”
“Huh? Reclaim the Gaema Highlands? Are they insane?”
“Exactly… but the budget allocated for this is supposedly enormous. Rumors are all three major guilds have agreed to participate.”

The Gaema Highlands.
On the day of the Great Upheaval when the first gates opened, North Korea perished.
South Korea, overflowing with artillery shells and armored units, somehow managed to quell the nationwide chaos with massive bombardments and armored waves.

Of course, for monsters stronger than elite orc warriors, the power of the Awakened was necessary.

But North Korea?
‘They had nothing but nukes.’
No oil to run their armored units, no bullets for soldiers to shoot, no food for them to eat.
Furthermore, the so-called ‘Baekdu Bloodline,’ who tried to solidify their ruling foundation through the existence of Awakened, were assassinated by the betrayal of one close-protection Awakened, and North Korea collapsed from within.

After dealing with the Gate incident, South Korea advanced into the anarchic North and succeeded in achieving the long-dreamed-of reunification.

Why didn’t China intervene?
‘Well, they have a vast territory, so it took them a long time to resolve their own Gate incident.’
The downside of having a large territory and population is the immense damage from the Day of the Great Upheaval. The US, thanks to its sheer scale, managed to endure and still maintains its superpower status, but…
‘China and Russia really had a hard time.’
Still, China eventually resolved it and managed to maintain its position as the world’s second power.

Russia, on the other hand, lost control of Siberia. The Far Eastern region centered on Vladivostok and the Western region bordering Europe completely split, cleaving the country in two.
West of Moscow, the Russian Federation remained. East, centered on Siberia, the Siberian Republic was born.

Anyway, despite reuniting relatively easily, the Gaema Highlands remained an unrecovered territory for the Republic of Korea.

“I think going into the Gaema Highlands is suicidal…”
“They seem to be planning to mobilize not just Awakened but the military to sweep it clean. There’s even been discussion about using nuclear weapons.”
“They’ve truly gone mad.”

With its small territory and massive army, Korea wrapped up the Gate incident faster than expected and swiftly moved north to achieve reunification.
While superpowers like the US, China, and Russia were too preoccupied to notice, Korea seized the nuclear weapons North Korea possessed. The US, which took about a year and a half to resolve its own Gate incident, simply turned a blind eye. Thus, Korea was unofficially recognized as a nuclear state.

And now they’re talking about using nukes? This administration is truly insane.

“There are even rumors they’ve contacted Untied. It seems they want to hire all the unregistered Awakened as mercenaries and take them there.”
“???”
Is that for real?
‘Then what about me?’
I joined Untied too.
“So when is the Gaema Highlands reclamation operation supposed to happen?”
“How would I know? My guess is… maybe they’ll announce it in a New Year’s address to the nation in January next year.”
‘Then roughly six months left…’
“Thanks for the info.”
“Well… but what can we do with this information anyway? We’re just going to be dragged along either way.”
“Haha, right?”

I hadn’t even told my family about my Re-Awakening, and I was glad I hadn’t.
‘Being on the forefront in the Gaema Highlands reclamation operation… is too much pressure.’
If it’s revealed I’m a strong Re-Awakened with a good unique ability, I’d be sent to the front without a doubt.
I’ll need to think it over carefully and decide when to reveal my Re-Awakening status.

Bang—!

“You’re good with the pistol too.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“It’s a well-deserved compliment. Looking at your records, Mr. Lee Si-woo, it seems like it’s your first time shooting a pistol, but your breathing is so stable and you’re really good at it.”

It’s no wonder I’m good with a pistol.

[Pistol Marksmanship Lv.1: The accuracy of pistol fire is improved. The damage of pistol fire is slightly increased.]
[Pistol Inspection Lv.1: You can quickly check a pistol for abnormalities through inspection.]

A skill was created the moment I held and fired a pistol.

But this really surprised me.

[You have acquired 5 skills related to firearms: ‘Rifle Marksmanship’, ‘Rifle Inspection’, ‘Rifle Maintenance’, ‘Pistol Marksmanship’, ‘Pistol Inspection’.]
[If you acquire 1 more firearm-related skill, all firearm-related skills will evolve into a ‘Higher Skill’.]
[Firearm-related Higher Skill ‘???’: Acquisition conditions ⅚]

‘What?’
A Higher Skill.
A completely new concept had appeared.