Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Republic of Korea Special Forces

Special Warfare Command – Special Warfare Command

After returning to Seoul, Yi-hyeon accessed the Special Warfare Command website and submitted his application. 20X class?

They recruit 4 to 6 classes a year. The timing was awkward, so the third round seemed difficult.

First a written evaluation and then a physical evaluation? There was still some leeway in the dates. Come to think of it, he also needed to go to school and submit a leave of absence application.

Yi-hyeon had suffered the loss of his parents right after finishing the first semester and from then had rushed around to New York and Seong-an Hermitage in Gyeongju. In the midst of that he had met that mysterious OOPART.

Yes.

It could only be expressed as a meeting. The OOPART was not just an everyday object but an ‘existence’ itself.

Department of Economics, Korea University.

Even though it was vacation period, the campus in the late summer rain had many students. They were probably students who had come to the library to study, but reflecting the current economy, their expressions were not bright.

Entering the department room, a familiar senior teaching assistant approached warmly.

“Hey, Song Yi-hyeon. It’s been a while. About your parents···.”

It was words about the accident of Dr. Song Su-yong and his wife, but Yi-hyeon patted the senior’s shoulder and smiled.

“It’s all right now, hyung. I saw them off well.”

“Yeah···.”

Dr. Song Su-yong had been a full professor in the Department of Archaeology and Art History at Korea University and a giant of the academic world recognized not only in Korean archaeology-related academia but also, in the field of archaeology, at Columbia University, which ranks among the world’s top class along with Oxford University in England. So for a while Korea had been noisy about his death.

After submitting the leave of absence according to procedure, the important matters were almost finished.

But strangely there was a feeling that someone was following him. His instinct said so.

Recently this instinct had become particularly sensitive. Was this also because he had accepted that OOPART?

Come to think of it, now there was no worry about losing or having the OOPART stolen. Who could take out something that had gone deep into his body?

He did not meet any more familiar faces at school, and Yi-hyeon went to the lawyer’s office in Seocho-dong where he had arranged a meeting the day before.

Kim Gyu-jeong Lawyer’s Office.

“Welcome. You must have had a hard time handling the matters?”

Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong, wearing glasses with a balding head, greeted Yi-hyeon with a smile. This person was his father’s junior, had retired after serving as the chief of the Seoul High Court, rested for a few years, and then opened a lawyer’s office. There had been persistent recruitment offers from large law firms, but he refused them all, rested for a few years fishing and playing golf, and then opened a private office.

Around him there had been various words about him resting without making money while the preferential treatment for former officials was still strongly alive, but he paid no mind.

“Lawyer. Thank you for handling my parents’ matters well last time. I heard you don’t like strong alcohol, so I brought a bottle of wine.”

When Yi-hyeon held out the long shopping bag he had brought, Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong received it with a bright smile.

“This guy has grown up. Knowing even such greetings. And, what’s with ‘Lawyer’? Just call me uncle. Your father and I spent over 30 years addressing each other as brothers.”

“···Yes, uncle.”

Yi-hyeon’s eyes looking at him also warmed.

This gentleman, who was somewhat skilled in legal circles, had cleanly handled the inheritance and estate settlement after his parents passed away.

“So, do you have other plans now?”

“···Yes. I am planning to go to the army soon. Rather than being blank after my parents passed away, I want to go to the army and remake myself.”

There were other reasons, but he only said this much.

Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong nodded.

“Yes. That’s admirable. You have to overcome it that way. Oh, if you’re going to the army, there will need to be someone to manage your real estate, right?”

“Yes, that’s what I wanted to ask.”

Someone has to manage the real estate. Even ordinary forest land needs to be checked regularly or a manager kept to look after it. If not managed, someone might secretly bury a grave on one’s mountain, or illegal buildings might be erected crossing cadastral boundaries, or arbitrary cultivation might be done. In such cases, if one meets the wrong person, it often goes to court later.

This is for forest land, and for buildings it becomes more complicated.

Maintenance work according to the building’s aging must continue, and someone must manage tenants. Taxes and public charges must also be handled without delay. So for large commercial buildings there are management companies that manage such buildings.

Among the buildings Yi-hyeon inherited there was a large building in Nonhyeon-dong, so he entrusted it along with other small buildings to a management company. But still someone had to check the contract status and operational status.

Yi-hyeon needed someone to entrust that work to.

Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong readily agreed. Since he had done the work of settling Dr. Song Su-yong and his wife’s property and inheriting it to Yi-hyeon, he grasped the current situation better than anyone.

“Now it’s settled.”

Only the matter of going to the army remained.

* * *

“Strange?”

After checking the email notification, Yi-hyeon tilted his head.

Sender: Army Special Warfare Command Personnel Officer

Recipient: Song Yi-hyeon

Subject: We notify you of the schedule and place of your written evaluation according to the application as below, so please attend on time.

Date and time: XXXX XX XX

Place: XXX XXX XXX XXX

A sharp sentence and content. It was an email sent from the Special Warfare Command to Yi-hyeon.

“Does the schedule get set so immediately like this?”

The problem was that the schedule set that way was too fast. The day after tomorrow.

Two days later Yi-hyeon went to the evaluation site with an uneasy mind. The place was also strange.

Special Warfare Command Training Unit in Maesan-ri, Opo-eup, Gwangju-gun, Gyeonggi-do.

Taking the written evaluation here?

Without even time for Yi-hyeon to turn his head, he took the written evaluation together with many people, and as he was about to leave someone came in and called him,

“Song Yi-hyeon.”

“···Yes?”

Yi-hyeon of course answered in civilian speech, but the soldier who called him seemed in a bad mood. He was still a civilian, so how else should he answer?

“This bastard is out of it··· Follow me!”

Damn! Cursing as soon as he sees me.

Following the soldier whose face was burned black and who seemed to be frowning even when smiling, Yi-hyeon passed the barracks and went to a somewhat wide open space. There a soldier with a black beret and captain’s rank insignia was waiting for Yi-hyeon and immediately shouted.

“Hey, what were you doing that you’re only coming now? Quickly to position!”

This guy is also just yelling unconditionally! Anyway, where am I supposed to go?

The person of sergeant rank who had brought him pushed the back of the hesitating and dawdling Yi-hyeon.

“You’re going over there to do the physical evaluation. Take off your top.”

He had just taken the written evaluation and right after that the physical evaluation? This is really strange. But Yi-hyeon silently followed what they ordered. Because even if he protested here it didn’t seem like they would listen.

Physical evaluation? To Yi-hyeon it was simply ridiculous.

Running 1.5 kilometers within 5 minutes is grade 1. And sit-ups 90 times or something···.

Yi-hyeon finished several events in the hot summer without shedding a single drop of sweat. After finishing everything and standing again in front of the captain, he showed white teeth and smiled.

“Bastard, a pale guy like a girl has stamina. Pass!”

He heard the pass, but Yi-hyeon was not in the mood to smile. Rather, his curiosity only increased.

At this rate, am I also going to take the interview evaluation? Normally it was known that evaluations when applying to the special forces were held over several weeks or days.

“You, follow that Sergeant Lee. Go and take the interview evaluation. Got it?”

Sure enough, at the captain’s words Yi-hyeon turned his body without even answering.

Having finished the three-stage evaluation in one day and returned, Yi-hyeon received an email from the Special Warfare Command the very next day.

This time it was content to officially enter training three days later. The place was again the Special Warfare Command Training Unit. He didn’t know exactly what entering training meant, but it must mean to enlist.

“Damn, I can’t even have a farewell party with the guys.”

Yi-hyeon grumbled, but he decided to just see Seong-man and enlist. Probably this was the effect of Senior Brother Bodeok using ‘connections.’

* * *

Dawn of enlistment day.

Yi-hyeon looked at the large photo hanging on the house wall and shed tears for a moment. To commemorate Yi-hyeon passing the Department of Economics at Korea University, the three family members had gone to a studio, dressed up as much as possible, and taken a photo.

“I’ll go and come back well, Father, Mom.”

Yi-hyeon looked around the inside of the old apartment. Yesterday he had stopped by the management office and temporarily cut off even the gas citing long-term absence, so there was nothing to do in this house. Even the various registration documents and valuables in the safe had been entrusted to Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong, so it was safe.

The Special Warfare Command Training Unit he arrived at that way.

Yi-hyeon held the entrance ceremony together with several new recruits. But to Yi-hyeon’s eyes there also seemed to be active-duty soldiers. Among the active-duty there were also soldiers who had volunteered and come as long-term non-commissioned officers. He had heard there were also from the Busan Police Academy, but he didn’t know well. Anyway, from now on for six months one had to chant that one was dead.

And,

First one rolls. The active-duty ones were not visible, where they had gone, but Yi-hyeon and his peers began rolling as ordered.

First one week of entrance education. And immediately following five weeks of soldierization education. This is also a little different for those who applied from among active-duty.

So it is probably the intent of making ordinary civilians into soldiers. The ordinary soldier education received for five weeks at Nonsan Training Center. Of course at Nonsan too if one applies for specialty soldiers one receives the latter half education.

But the education here is intense from the start. That is because at Nonsan the targets are young men who enlisted to fulfill military duty while attending school, and of course their attitude toward the army is different from the volunteers here.

After five hectic weeks passed like that and one was gradually getting used to army food, airborne education begins.

Airborne education is three weeks. At this time qualification jump training is done. Usually four times.

The intensity of this training cannot be compared to before. One rides a propeller plane (C-130) that makes the sound of a cheap motorcycle with the muffler removed or a Chinook helicopter, goes up into the sky, and jumps down. The helicopter seems fifty years old. Yi-hyeon could not ride the C-130 and only rode the Chinook helicopter.

If it was only the so-called jump there would be nothing painful. Before the jump, the thing of turning people around is extremely deadly. Since it is dangerous training involving life, if a screw is loose an accident happens. Also if the body is too stiff it is the same. If the body is stiff it is easy to get injured when landing.

After finishing countless repeated trainings and going up into the sky, swoosh~ it ends in one go. After the qualification jump training ends, from the next jump it sometimes becomes a little easier, but that also depends on the instructor.

“You all will now enter specialization education. In this training each of you will choose a main specialty, learn it, and master it.”

This specialization education is a full nine weeks!

It is the period of transforming into a complete special forces soldier. Nine weeks may look like nothing, but it is absolutely not. From the beginning, healthy young men who have the will to enlist in the special forces do nothing else and only receive this training. In this training there is no day or night. The instructors grill the trainees 24 hours.

Compared to the number of soldiers receiving training, the instructors also seem excessively many. In some cases almost one-on-one attached and crushing. There is a reason for everything. Because of the extreme difficulty of the training, accidents happen easily. So in the airborne unit’s training many instructors stick close and look with eyes blazing.

This is why training one special forces member costs so much.

Even in the midst of this there is enjoyment.

“You!”

“Yes.”

“Come out and spar.”

The so-called special forces martial arts!

This he is confident in. Such physical stuff always has confidence overflowing.

Yi-hyeon, who had already reached a realm, played with the martial arts instructor. Perhaps because of that the instructor changes frequently. This is actually because of Yi-hyeon; an instructor who was beaten flat by Yi-hyeon cannot continue teaching special forces martial arts.

Today as well a new instructor came.

This instructor with a slender build and protruding cheekbones took off the Ray-Ban sunglasses he was wearing and glared at Yi-hyeon as he said. But strangely there is no rank insignia or name tag?

“Are you Song Yi-hyeon?”

“Yes.”

“Today let’s properly loosen the body once, ahem.”

Yi-hyeon felt a strangely familiar energy from this instructor. At first he wondered what this feeling was, but soon he realized. This energy is the energy that emanated from the martial monks of Guleopsa.

Yi-hyeon showed his teeth and smiled. Because he became joyful.

Thinking of properly loosening the body as this instructor said. This must surely be Senior Brother Bodeok having a hand in it.

“Huu.”

The instructor calmly exhales.

Exactly the same!

The martial monks of Guleopsa lighten their bodies and gather energy in this way before starting sparring.

The soldiers and other instructors in the training ground all held their breath and watched the two’s sparring.

But there are two people who have come out in front of a barracks a little distance away and are watching those two people.

The man also wearing sunglasses and with arms crossed is wearing colonel rank.

“Hmm··· Is that guy that good?”

The colonel asking the other person standing behind.

“Yes. Not only special forces martial arts but all are excellent. Intelligence, shooting, infiltration, demolition··· Among them the most outstanding is that special forces martial arts.”

Intelligence means the intelligence/operations specialty. The colonel lightly nodded and said.

“That would be natural. There is no need to test further. After training ends bring him.”

“Yes.”

The major standing behind answered low but forcefully.

At that moment Yi-hyeon was finishing the sparring.

The instructor with a viper-like expression came stabbing at Yi-hyeon’s eyes with two fingers spread. A killing move used only in real combat! He must have been angry that even after five minutes had passed he could not land an effective hit on Yi-hyeon. So the move became rough.

“That,”

“Too much!”

Other instructors watching from the side opened their mouths in surprise, but at that moment the match was decided.

Yi-hyeon who softly deflected the instructor’s hand stuck to the instructor’s body, and at the same time the left hand dug into the instructor’s armpit. Short and fast.

Yi-hyeon turned his body and the instructor’s body collapsed as it was. He fainted without even being able to scream.

Another instructor hurriedly stepped forward and ended the training.

“Well, today ends here. Dismiss.”

Looking at the trainees dispersing while murmuring, the colonel muttered and turned his body.

“If it had been a little deeper it would have been instant death.”

Though it was a considerable distance, the colonel saw Yi-hyeon’s move accurately with eyes even wearing sunglasses.

* * *

When the 17 weeks of training ended like that, now it became time to be commissioned. Becoming a sergeant. But one receives training again. Junior course education 11 weeks. And one receives unit assignment.

“Kwon Hyeok-pil.”

“Yes. Sergeant Kwon Hyeok-pil.”

“1st Airborne.”

“Yes, 1st Airborne.”

“Wow.”

“Lee Se-hyeong.”

“Yes. Sergeant Lee Se-hyeong.”

“You are 3rd Airborne.”

“Yes, 3rd Airborne.”

“Wow.”

Nothing particularly different, but everyone cheers and congratulates the colleagues’ assignments.

But Yi-hyeon is not called until all the other colleagues receive assignments. Yi-hyeon stood alone after the colleagues left.

This is a bit···

While Yi-hyeon was feeling a bad premonition, the instructor in front looked at Yi-hyeon.

“Hm? Why are you here? Oh, there was this. Wait a moment···.”

Rummaging through the document folder, he took out one yellowish thin paper envelope and handed it over.

“Read it, here.”

Yi-hyeon with a blank expression tore the envelope and took out the contents.

“What is this? 80XX···.”

When Yi-hyeon who had taken his eyes off the document looked at the instructor, he grinned.

“Bastard, I knew it would be like that. You are 707!.”

“Yes? 707?”

“Yes. 707 is also level 2 classified for assignment status. So it is notified separately.”

The flustered Yi-hyeon received it in civilian speech by mistake, but the instructor said without paying much attention.

“You, go pack your luggage and stand by. Someone will come to pick you up within tonight.”

“Yes.”

For now he answered like the youngest. If told to go one has to go, what else.

In fact he is not afraid no matter where he goes.

Yi-hyeon was confident. It was because of his changed physical ability, but also because of the OOPART that had awakened again not long ago.