– Sergeant Woo, this is what hip-hop is!
Back when I was demoted from being a hunter and became a soldier,
The rank I was given was sergeant.
I’d been completely trampled.
Even trainee hunters are treated like captains in the military.
As a hunter instructor, I had been treated at the level of a colonel.
Even if I’d been dishonorably expelled and turned into a soldier, I should’ve at least been given a junior officer rank.
But instead, sergeant.
And in a unit assigned the most dangerous missions.
They basically wanted me to die out in the field.
During those already exhausting days, there was one particularly strange guy under my command.
– Sergeant Woo! So, what hip-hop is, you see, it’s a culture from the previous era, and the way you do songs like this is called rap… and then you add movements like this…!
– I more or less know.
– Oh, you did, sir! Ha! Isn’t hip-hop awesome?
– Hip-hop isn’t awesome.
In truth, I didn’t really know.
I just wanted him to shut up.
He used that old-style military speech ending “-sir,” which I’d heard had already disappeared by the end of the old world.
That guy had been infused with some strange culture or ideology called hip-hop.
It almost felt like a religion.
Anyway, he was always pulling bizarre antics at all hours.
Suddenly getting oversized uniforms and wearing them around, or moving his body in loose, strange ways.
Just like the guard in front of me now, shaking his head like that.
Still, there was one thing I had to give him credit for.
That unique style of singing called rap.
Maybe you could call it the way they recite the scriptures of the religion called hip-hop.
Anyway, it had a strangely pleasant sound.
Except for the fact that, thanks to his nasty personality, he always filled it with aggressive lyrics.
Of course, I never once told him, “I like your rap.”
He was already exhausting enough. If he got full of himself on top of that… yeah, no.
Anyway.
The guy who had been swaying as I insisted on delivering the letter in person spoke firmly.
“You’re going to deliver the letter directly to that woman? That’s a problem. The woman you mentioned doesn’t accept any mail.”
“I’m not asking you to persuade her. Just bring her out. I’ll do the persuading.”
“Bring her out? Hey, that’s not the issue. She specifically and repeatedly asked that all mail addressed to her be refused. Bringing her out is also not possible.”
What is this? Does she have mail she really doesn’t want to receive?
“So give up on delivering the letter. I’ll compensate you as promised. Prefer cigarettes? Or ammo?”
Normally, I would’ve reluctantly settled for the compensation.
But this time, it’s different.
I have to deliver it.
I need to clearly show that explanation-obsessed bastard what I’m capable of.
The level of dignity of the greatest postman in Korea.
Step, step.
“Halt! What the hell….don’t come any closer!”
As he panicked, one of the guards on the wall disappeared somewhere.
Looks like he went to report the situation.
Doesn’t matter. This is already settled.
That hip-hop-obsessed soldier who used to be under me.
Now that I think about it, he got transferred to another unit later on.
“I said don’t come any closer! You crazy postman bastard, I’ll shoot!”
The reason for his transfer was a severe leg injury.
It was the kind of damage that couldn’t be fully healed.
I never saw him after treatment, but he probably ended up with a limp like that guy.
Sometimes in life, things line up a little too perfectly to be called coincidence.
And when that happens, it usually isn’t.
“It’s hard to see your face from this far. If we’re making a deal, shouldn’t we at least see each other properly?”
“Cut the crap! I’ll shoot your leg!”
Click.
I can see it.
He looks like he’s put on a bit of weight, but that face….no doubt.
“What should I call you? You’re certainly not still Private Jung, are you?”
“…What did you just say?”
“Looks like you finally gave up on wearing oversized uniforms. You never listened to me back then. Guess your current commander has a worse temper than I did.”
Swoosh.
Slowly, the rifle lowered.
He leaned his head forward, frowning deeply.
“Uh… Sergeant Woo?”
There’s the effect of pulling him outside the wall.
Like I thought. When you’re face-to-face, you start noticing things you couldn’t before.
Right about now, he’s probably recalling what I used to be like.
That’s enough.
He’s someone I’ve already broken in once.
Bang.
The gate in the wall swung open roughly.
A group of men holding rifles appeared, glaring fiercely, but—
“That’s enough. He’s someone I know.”
The hip-hop guy casually stopped them from rushing forward.
“So, still a private?”
“No, sir… well…”
He scratched his head awkwardly.
I got the gist.
“Looks like you made sergeant now.”
“Yes… haha… I’ve grown a lot, haven’t I?”
“Didn’t think you were the type to volunteer for NCO.”
“I survived the battlefield, and this is what happened. A soldier earns promotion on the battlefield, after all!”
He’s casually talking about being a “sergeant” and “promotion” but he’s not actually a soldier right now.
More precisely, he’s not part of the Republic of Korea’s regular army.
Deserters still wearing military uniforms.
Promotions happening only among themselves.
They’ve built a new army within this country.
Calling them rebels would be about right.
“So what should I call you?”
“You can just call me Sergeant Jung.”
“No, not that. I mean your group.”
“Ah.”
Sergeant Jung glanced over the men standing behind him like background props, then met my eyes again.
“We are! The Freedom Liberation. Fighters who struggle for the freedom of this land—”
“Cut the bullshit.”
***
About ten minutes later, Sergeant Jung came back out from inside the wall with a bright smile.
Looks like he got permission for me to enter.
“You can come in now!”
The recipient of the letter refuses all mail.
Since they won’t come outside, the only option is for me to go in.
So I asked him to get me permission to enter directly.
Along with suggesting a method.
“That anti-aircraft gun over there that isn’t moving. It’s broken, right?”
“Is it that obvious? I suppose we should do something about it…”
“Were the engineers too busy to fix it?”
“No, actually, everyone just gave up on repairing it, sir. We don’t even know what’s broken… Ah! Weren’t you a master repairman?”
I’ve had a lot of experience fixing various things since my time in the military.
But it’s not like I have deep mechanical knowledge or I’m some kind of master repairman.
It’s all thanks to my ability to work the odds.
If I could see how to increase the success rate of getting a broken machine to work, I could quickly pinpoint the cause of the problem.
It was the same back when I worked as a survival instructor during my Hunter days.
I was able to reach that position because I kept checking how to improve survival rates.
But no one knows that my ability is to see probabilities.
Even when I registered as a Hunter, I lied and said I had gained survival skills.
Unless a Hunter reveals their own ability, there’s no way for others to find out what it is.
In the first place, it’s illegal to even ask a Hunter whether they possess a core ability.
Of course, that doesn’t apply between governments or among Hunters themselves.
But for anyone else to ask is a serious crime.
There are probably other Hunters like me who don’t reveal their true abilities.
Once your ability is known, it becomes that much easier to be countered.
“But I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to fix that anti-aircraft gun. I’ll give it a try, though.”
“That’s fine! You’re clearly far more skilled than all of us combined! I’ll go and report it! For some reason, I’ve got a feeling they’ll grant you entry.”
And just like that, I was allowed inside.
“It’s been a while since we’ve let an outsider in. No one inside is going to welcome you, so please don’t take it too personally.”
Sergeant Jung smiled warmly.
Hard to believe this was the same guy who had been acting so intimidating earlier.
Then again, that’s how soldiers usually are.
He’s no exception.
Normally, he’s like a cheerful kid next door who smiles easily.
But put him in a proper uniform and hand him a gun, and he looks like a completely different person.
As I approached the entrance, a soldier stepped in front of me and spread his arms.
Sergeant Jung looked at me and gave a nod.
It was a familiar routine, so it didn’t bother me.
When I spread my arms, the soldier skillfully began a body search.
While he thoroughly checked even inside my bag, I took a look at the interior through the slightly open gap in the wall gate.
Inside the door, there was a corridor that turned to the right after just a few steps.
A design that prevented anyone from seeing into the settlement through the gap.
All I could really see were the skull decorations covering the corridor walls.
What a taste in interior design.
At that moment, the soldier searching my bag pulled out the 99.99% one-way ticket to the afterlife and looked at me.
“…What, what do you want? First time seeing a core?”
The soldier kept staring without saying a word.
“Ah, he’s asking what kind of core that is.”
“Is he mute?”
“Not at all. Once he starts talking, you’ll wish he’d stop.”
“Then what’s with him right now? Did you all agree to communicate by telepathy or something?”
“Our rule is to avoid interacting with outsiders. Only a select few, like me, are allowed to speak with them.”
So that’s why Sergeant Jung had been the only one talking this whole time.
“You’ve got all sorts of rules. Like you’ve got some kind of valuable secrets worth stealing. I’m not interested in whatever you’re saying anyway.”
“In any case, that’s how it is, so please speak only with me!”
In a way, that makes things easier.
No need to ignore people one by one if they won’t speak to me in the first place.
“So, what kind of core is that?”
“Do I really have to tell you that too?”
“A rule’s a rule…”
That’s most likely an ability core.
But if I said that, they’d probably turn me away.
Cores with a high chance of failure are dangerous, so they’re usually not allowed in.
“It’s a fuel core.”
I went with the cheapest excuse.
“Ah, I see. Normally we’d need a proper appraisal, but… well, this is how trust is built!”
Looks like that worked.
The soldier who finished the search returned to his post without a word.
Sergeant Jung then stepped in close to me.
“Please understand that I’ll have to accompany you at all times inside headquarters.”
So they call this settlement a headquarters.
“That’s fine.”
“But you’re no longer Sergeant Woo… so what should I call you?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Postman-nim.”
“Th-That feels a bit awkward…”
Of course it does.
Soldiers don’t usually add “nim” when addressing a postman.
“That’s why I’m telling you to use it.”
“You mean… Postman-nim?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Hearing it from someone in uniform makes it nicely awkward.”
What you call someone has a significant impact on relationships.
So in here, I need to be known as “Postman-nim.”
An ordinary postman wouldn’t be able to carry out special deliveries.
“Then, Postman-nim…”
“Why are you whispering?”
“No, sir! Postman-nim, this way!”
As I stepped into the corridor, I saw that the skulls covering the walls were real human remains.
There’s no way they’d hang up their dead family members like this. These must be the heads of their enemies.
But most of the skulls were clean, without a single crack.
That’s not something you see often in battle.
If that’s the case, then the way they gathered these skulls was probably…
Executions.
I was curious who they were and why they were killed like that, but I didn’t ask.
Some things are better left unknown.
After winding through the corridors, the wide view of the settlement finally opened up.
It looked like a forward operating base set up on the front lines.
Between properly built structures, military tents were scattered here and there.
Various unit flags fluttered, and the walls were covered with neatly written slogans.
– For true freedom!
– In the end, the Freedom Liberation Front will be the one smiling!
– Our fate is to die fighting!
And it was eerily quiet.
There were more than thirty people in sight, yet not a sound.
They were even gathered in small groups working together, but not a single one of them spoke.
“Don’t tell me everyone’s keeping their mouths shut just because I showed up?”
“Yes, you’ll get used to it soon!”
“Looks like you all have a fun way of doing things.”
The place we arrived at was a well-built red brick building.
“The person receiving the letter must be pretty high-ranking?”
“Ah, you’ll need to meet the captain first. After that, you can go deliver the mail right away.”
“What kind of ‘captain’ is this?”
“He’s the one who authorized your entry, Postman-nim. Naturally, the captain is allowed to speak with you!”
“So I have to report in now that I’m here, is that it?”
“You know how it is. Military procedure.”
I know. I hate it.
***
While the postman was inside the building, Sergeant Jung stood guard outside.
One of his comrades, who had been watching from a distance, took the chance and approached him to speak.
“Is that mail for the captain?”
“Shh! Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk?”
“Hey, just for a second. I’m dying to know what’s going on.”
Sergeant Jung glanced around before answering.
“I reported about the Postman-nim earlier, and he said he wanted to see his face at least once.”
“Did I hear that right just now? What did you call him?”
“…It’s a thing.”
“Did the postman get a silver spoon or something? And why is he even receiving mail? Thanks to him, we’ve all gone completely silent. Much appreciated.”
Sergeant Jung let out a small chuckle.
“Do you remember why we couldn’t make it into Seoul and got stopped?”
“What are you on about all of a sudden?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Man, that was impossible from the start. With just our forces, there was no way……”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking which unit stopped us.”
“The Heart Unit. Our target was the headquarters, so of course they showed up……. Oh?”
He paused for a moment, then continued.
“Wait, don’t tell me that postman is from the Heart Unit or something…….”
Sergeant Jung shook his head in his usual laid-back way.
“That’s not it.”
“Ah, then why the hell are you bringing up those annoying bastards?”
“If you fought a member of the Heart Unit one-on-one, do you think you’d win?”
As Sergeant Jung asked with a slight smirk, the man’s voice rose.
“Hah, I’m not who I used to be.”
“Oh?”
“The problem is when those bastards move in groups. One-on-one, I’d win now. All this time, I’ve……”
Sergeant Jung’s eyes flashed.
“Then what if it’s not one-on-one?”
“Huh? Two, I could maybe manage…… No, just winning one-on-one is already insanely impressive, you know?”
“So anything more than two is tough?”
“Unless you’re a Hunter, that doesn’t even make sense.”
“Then what if it keeps increasing…say, a whole platoon?”
“That’s insanely hard even for a Hunter. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
Watching him get all worked up, Sergeant Jung let out a faint snort.
Then he turned his gaze toward the door the postman had entered and said,
“If there were a soldier who could take down an entire platoon of the Heart Unit by himself, wouldn’t you want to see his face at least once?”
Hearing that, the man hesitated for a moment.
His eyes slowly widened.
It seemed like he was trying to hold something back as it welled up inside him.
Then—
“—Haaam.”
He let out a long yawn.
“Guess I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Man, I’m tired…… You done with your nonsense? I’m out.”
He turned away like that, not believing a word Sergeant Jung had said.
Muttering to himself the whole time about a story no one could possibly believe, he kept grumbling to the end.
“If you didn’t want to talk, you could’ve just said so instead of spouting bullshit, asshole…….”
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