Surviving Among the Entities

“You bastard! That’s no way to speak to a superior……”
“6th Division Commander, I’m speaking right now. Stay quiet.”

The Defense Minister, who had stopped the officer trying to restrain me from behind, sat on the bunk and asked:

“So, you’re accusing me? For what reason?”

I informed him of everything I had experienced.

“Dereliction of unit management and lack of competence, just as I said.”

The story of Sergeant Jang Hyeong-seok’s Defense Security Command colonel uncle.
His vicious behavior I witnessed immediately upon arriving at the unit, and the unit commander’s attitude of indirectly witnessing yet ignoring it.
The transportation department sergeant’s routine drinking on duty and proxy driving, and the major incident at the brigade that resulted.
Lastly, the ongoing corruption among soldiers, and the company commander, brigade commander, and division commander’s actions of deliberately ignoring such incidents for the sake of promotion.

“In the current situation, it is clear that ranks below the division commander lack both the will and ability to resolve these incidents, and there are rumors that the Defense Security Command colonel’s authority is equivalent to a corps commander’s. No matter what method, there seemed no probability of improvement.”
“So you’re accusing me?”
“Yes, despite personally coming for this inspection, the fact that you were completely unaware of the situation until I mentioned it casts doubt on your competence as a commander and constitutes dereliction of management, so as a citizen before a soldier, I wish to accuse you.”
“I see.”

The Defense Minister took my hand.

“Yes, I heard you well.”

In the barracks where even breaths seemed to cease, the Defense Minister was the only one smiling.

“Thank you for the good suggestion.”

‘I couldn’t find out about this part even here.’

After that, I continued waiting in the barracks. Even the monitoring personnel disappeared, and I was left alone to eat and rest without unit mates, not even attendance checks.

“This is the military police. We will now be conducting an investigation.”

A few days later, the military police appeared to investigate internal unit corruption. Since no investigation came to me, I didn’t know what had occurred, but through the soldiers’ chatter I learned that Sergeant Jang Hyeong-seok and his cohorts who had returned from discharge vacation had disappeared somewhere.

‘The other officers are no longer visible either.’

The unit commander and company commander were also nowhere to be seen. After spending several days alone in the unit like a castaway with no one taking care of me, I boarded a vehicle that visited the unit and headed to the division.

“We will conduct a few examinations.”

As I completed a questionnaire examining if I had any mental issues, I looked around the barracks.

[Commander: 6th Division Commander – Colonel Park Min-hu]

The 6th Division Commander had changed. I always checked the news through the barracks TV, but I had never heard of a division commander-level change occurring so abruptly.

‘Not just the Division Commander, the Brigade Commander and Company Commander must have all changed too.’

Perhaps in the interim the battalion commanders had changed too, or even the corps commander above the division commander, or maybe the other brigade commanders had all changed as well.

‘Quietly remove any potential issues and bury them – the Defense Minister is no different.’

That even the military’s highest commanding authority was like this meant it was an overarching predicament. I pondered how I could change the military beyond this point, but I had no further opportunities.

“You’ll need a dishonorable discharge. You have too many mental issues.”

I was immediately deemed to have issues in the mental evaluation I underwent and forcibly given a dishonorable discharge on those grounds.

‘It’s over.’

This was the end of my military service. If I had a bit more time, if I hadn’t received a dishonorable discharge, perhaps I could have changed the military, but unfortunately becoming a civilian meant I had no choice but to give up.

“Ah! The new Division Commander wants to see you? Let’s go report in.”

But then something occurred that wasn’t in my memory.

“Salute!”
“……Salute.”

And the face of the new Division Commander I met was a familiar one.

“Well done. While many dumbasses fail to remember their actions and idealize their military service, you remembered everything.”

It was the very man who had requested the survey from me.

“Now then, let me send you back to your ori……”
“Wait, there is one thing I’d like to request.”
“What is it?”

Thinking it might be a good opportunity, I asked him:

“Is it possible to go one more time?”
“……”
“I’d like to try out choices I couldn’t make in the past. For example, this time I’d like to try reporting to the military police, or directly converse with the Defense Security Command colonel to enlighten Sergeant Jang Hyeong-seok, or report to the brigade or division commander to see if the military can change.”

After a long silence, the man spoke.

“So you’re saying you want to go through military service again?”
“No, not just once but multiple times.”
“Even though your previous experience was only 1 month, you still want to experience more despite the duration potentially extending beyond that if you change the process that way?”
“Division Commander.”

Entities truly don’t understand human hearts, it seems.

“All humans have an innate intellectual curiosity of ‘What if I had done that back then?’ Commonly referred to as regret, your space is the optimal place to satisfy that.”

While I didn’t know how much time would pass in reality, since such opportunities were rare I tried anyway, but the entity’s tone changed.

“So you want to go through military service multiple times?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”

The space became distorted.

“You crazy bastard.”

When I regained my senses, I was right back at the place where I first took the survey.

“……What a pity.”

There was so much more I wanted to do.

While the period spent in ‘Reserve Forces Survey’ was approximately one month, only a day had passed in the outside world.

“I’ve resolved it. If you go to the location where the missing persons were last seen, you’ll be able to find them.”
“Really?”

After informing Officer Lee, who had requested I handle the case, I received news of the missing persons along with a letter of appreciation a few days later.

-Thank you. While the missing persons’ conditions are not good, they have all safely returned!

Apparently they were all showing severe symptoms of confusion.

[Uhih! Uhihih! Did I hear that wrong?]
[Discharge me. Discharge, please discharge……]
[Uhuhuk, even if my discharge date comes I can’t go home. Mom, dad……]

‘From my experience, one month there is one day in the outside world.’

I hung the letter of appreciation on the office wall.

‘Since the first missing person was 3 months ago, does that mean they spent a minimum of 90 months, 7 and a half years, unable to be discharged from military service?’

While I didn’t want to envy others’ good fortune, I couldn’t help feeling a tinge of jealousy.

‘Come to think of it, this entity didn’t feel like dealing with an entity, but more like time traveling to the past.’

It wasn’t just a feeling, that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t a case of dealing with some tremendous, transcendentally incomprehensible existence, but merely re-experiencing my military service once more.

“It feels like I just came back from vacation.”

However, the ‘Reserve Forces Survey’ entity did not disappear.

‘Someone else might get kidnapped again.’

For the next few days, I steadily searched the news.

[No Side Dishes for 8,000 Won, Reserve Forces Lunchbox Corruption?]
[Reserve Forces Dog Food Controversy, Not Even Forced Labor was This Bad.]
[Military Bigwigs’ Pilfering, 1 Trillion Won Scale Military Provisions Corruption.]

There was nothing particularly noteworthy, but then the police contacted me again.

“Resolver, there’s another missing person!”

I immediately retrieved my military uniform.

“I’ll go now.”

“Senior, so you’re saying you came because you wanted to do reserve forces training?”
“Yes.”
“Well, dishonorably discharged personnel may not be allowed to do reserve forces training depending on the circumstances?”

The active-duty soldier conducting the investigation looked at my rank insignia.

“You’re even a repeat offender.”
“I didn’t originally intend to enter.”
“Yes, it was our mistake thinking you were someone who came late, so we let you in… But senior, are you really saying you just came in because you wanted to do reserve forces training?”
“Yes.”
“……Please don’t do this again. You understand?”

As I exited the reserve forces training gate, I let out a sigh of regret.

‘If I had just gone a bit further, it would have been firing training.’

And as I was leaving the unit that way, I bumped into someone.

“Excuse me, could I trouble you for a surv……”

It was an unfamiliar face, but I knew exactly who he was.

“……”
“Hello?”

He frowned deeply.

“Uh……”

And then disappeared without conducting the survey.

‘What was that?’

Shortly after, I received a call from the police.

-Resolver! The missing person has returned!
“……That’s good.”

After that, there were no more reports of reserve forces personnel going missing.

Having likely permanently resolved ‘Reserve Forces Survey’, I returned to my daily routine. Since there was a high probability it had moved to another dimension or country, there was nothing more I could do.

“Then I’ll see you next week.”
“Yes! I’ll study hard! Learn survival knowledge! And science too!”

I changed the policy to gather other world transfers once a month to send them. Having sent many people over that period, the numbers had gradually dwindled so doing it this way was not a major issue.

[I finally finished one semester of Final School! Just six more semesters until graduation!]
[Congratulations. Have you decided on your path after graduation?]
[No, I was thinking of doing business with Seung-hoon Lee?]
[So there’s a slang term “doing business” over there too.]
[Huh? There’s no royal jelly over there? Royal jelly is a plant that produces an exquisitely delicious honey when sucked, I’m so sad it doesn’t exist.]

I also conversed with Shingu Hwerang.

[Anyway I’ll be graduating soon. Six semesters will fly by. And the semester breaks come quickly too, so I’ll do business again then!]
[Understood. But I’m curious what you study over there.]
[Should I write out some formulas and send them to you?]

Shingu Hwerang then sent a reply with various formulas written out. The numbers, symbols, and formulas were the same as on Earth, but the formulas made no sense at all.

[1+17∈/273333℉(÷55)Ω5=Yay!]
[99/9999⦡Thought∋Concept∑Freedom=Bondage]
[【Gravity】+【Expansion】/Flesh∞1㎞=Counterflow]

I asked her for an explanation but could not understand regardless.

[The first formula is the “Terraforming Equation”, Partion’s greatest achievement! After this formula emerged, the cost of terraforming dropped to one trillionth!]
[The second formula is the famous “Proof of God” equation by Ramada. Thanks to this equation, the religious and scientific realms could be unified.]
[The last formula is the “Gravity Manipulation Formula” by Asia United’s proud scientist, Sumjungoonan! After the Gravity Manipulation Formula emerged, all sorts of colonies could be established!]

Interesting but impossible to replicate in our world, so I decided to just keep them as souvenirs.

“My office is becoming increasingly bountiful.”

After framing Shingu Hwerang’s formulas and arranging them on my office desk, I returned home with Rubber Rubber Duck.

[Hello there.]

The lights of the DialTV in the living room turned on.

[Your DialTV news anchor for prophecy news concerning you.]

It was the DialTV’s prophecy news broadcast activating after a really long time.

‘It was wise to have snacks prepared in advance.’

I sat on the sofa and opened a bag of snacks along with a Zero Cola. As if alive, the DialTV did not begin the news until I had finished all preparations.

[Then let’s start with the first piece of news.]

Now, let’s watch the news to see what future awaits.