The Military Chef of a Ruined World

Chapter 5

Episode 5: Increasing the Number of Awakened Individuals (Part 2)

Even Taejun succeeded in awakening his powers.

Though we couldn’t hear about his ability due to the injury he has sustained.

“Everyone, focus!”

Zap—

Amidst the soldiers’ focused gaze, a blue electric current flowed through Minjae’s body.

He even gathered electrically charged energy in one hand.

“Magic… it’s real.”

The soldiers witnessing this unbelievable sight couldn’t close their mouths.

Being a chef who awakened was fascinating enough, but aside from using a knife to set a table, there wasn’t much visible change.

On the other hand, Minjae’s magic was dazzling even at a glance.

Just one look was enough to make you believe in the phenomenon of awakening.

“He’s a real mage who can use magical powers!!”

You can awaken such magical powers if you kill a monster from a close distance.

Now that this fact has been confirmed, there was no more delaying.

Systematically, we began to awaken the soldiers, according to the plan.

One day, we’ll have the power to fight monsters even without guns.

“So, next we need to awaken Gwang-il from the facility unit, right?”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il.

He happened to be the top member of the facility unit who had also attended the previous meeting.

However, something seemed off about his gaze.

“I, I can’t… I absolutely can’t do it.”

“What?”

…This guy?

—

“I, no, I… I can’t do it. Absolutely not.”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il trembled in fear as he spoke.

“Hey, do you think me and Taejun weren’t scared? “I’m one of those people who had only killed mosquitoes in my life.”

Even after pressure and encouragement Corporal Jeon Gwang-il outrightly refused.

Seeing the progression of the current situation Min-jae stepped up to persuade him.

“But you know, the situation right now isn’t normal. If we want to survive, we need to set an example.”

“I, I understand that. But still, I can’t do it.”

“Hey, you…”

Zap.

Blue electricity crackled around Sergeant Min-jae’s angry face.

Electricity flows around him when he’s angry.

It was a bit reminiscent of Pikachu, but we overlooked that.

“What, what are you saying! How can I deal with something so terrifying!”

The soldier who was originally the best in the facility unit was already dead, now he was the best one in the current facility unit. So, naturally he had to participate in all our meetings.

When the topic of increasing the number of awakened individuals was brought up, he didn’t raise any objections.

But suddenly, he was acting like this, causing stress and confusion among the soldiers.

I guess there must be a reason.

“Is it because Taejun was attacked by a monster? Is that why?”

Taejun’s foot was bitten by that monster that he thought had lost his strength, right before he died.

“There’s no rule that says it won’t happen to someone else.”

No.

Perhaps Taejun was lucky as he ended up with light injuries.

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If this happens again, it might not end with just injuries.

It’s understandable to be afraid.

But even considering that.

“It’s too pathetic…”

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il ended up lying on the ground shouting “I can’t do it” repeatedly.

An adult lying on the ground whimpering was even more pathetic than imagined.

‘That guy wasn’t that bad of a loser, was he?’

Rather it was the opposite.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il was over 190cm tall, with massive bulged out muscles.

Though his personality was rather on the gentle side. So, even if there was a tough task in his unit, he would never complain and always tries his best to complete his assigned tasks.

He was overwhelmingly favored by his superior such that he was constantly being recommended to become a professional sergeant as soon as he became a corporal.

‘Why is someone close to being an ace, acting like this?’

“Corporal Jeon Gwang-il, I’ve heard that despite his size, he is quite timid…”

At that moment.

We heard the voices of the soldiers talking behind us.

“Really?”

“Yes. He does tough tasks easily, but he can’t climb heights, can’t watch horror movies… That’s what I heard.”

“Well, he looks like someone who can easily beat a monster to death.”

It was unbelievable.

A man who was over 190cm tall and can lift over 500kg lying on the ground saying he can’t do it,

“Is he really that scared that he’s acting like this?”

Sergeant Min-jae seemed to be fed up with Corporal Jeon Gwang-il’s behavior.

In the end, he sighed and said,

“Ha… Alright. If you can’t do it, then you can’t do it. We can’t do anything about it. Do as you please.”

“Th-Thank you-”

“But!”

“Yes?”

“Don’t expect to be treated as a senior in the unit from now on.”

The military is a strict hierarchical society.

But ironically, rank, whether it’s corporal or sergeant, isn’t everything.

The military is a place where sensitive people gather.

Due to this nature, they often cannot tolerate having someone inferior to them above them.

If it were a matter between individual soldiers, they would end up on bad terms with each other.

But if there is an individual who doesn’t seem to fit his/her assigned rank in eyes of other soldiers then in those cases the soldiers may not treat that individual accordingly.

“No, I’ve only heard about such cases. There wasn’t a single person in our unit who was that serious about rank and stuffs.”

Unless the soldier really had issues adapting to military life.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il was receiving the affection of the unit leader and was almost like an ace in his unit,

Not receiving proper rank treatment now would be the same as being denied all of the military experience that he had worked and gained so far.

Sergeant Min-jae was telling him to accept that disgrace if he wants to avoid awakening.

“…Understood.”

What’s surprising was.

Corporal Jeon Gwang-il nodded in agreement to that statement.

To be so terrified that he agrees to accept the disgrace.

Does he even realize that he’s showing such a pathetic side of himself?

He silently accepted the humiliation.

But…

“Min-jae, and Gwang-il, hold on.”

From what I see,

This shouldn’t end like this.

I decided to intervene in the midst of their conversation.

“Young-joon?”

“Sergeant Shin Young-joon? No matter what you say, I can’t…”

“Ah, I understand, but for now, calm down. Can you go to the mess hall and wait for me? I want to talk with Min-jae.”

“…Alright.”

After sending Gwang-il to the cook’s lounge in the mess hall, I called Sergeant Lee Min-jae separately.

“Sigh… What do you want to talk about?”

Seemingly not having calmed down yet, Sergeant Lee Min-jae lit a cigarette before starting the conversation.

I waited until he took a drag from his cigarette.

“Min-jae, I go it that you’re upset. But even you can understand, it’s not right to end it like this.”

“…Hey, Young-joon. I know you’re a good guy, but that bastard Gwang-il did something really shitty there. He should face the consequences. If we just let it slide…”

“Ah, it’s not about that.”

To begin with, I’m not that nice.

While it’s nice to cook for others, I also frequently nag and swear at my juniors.

Being too kind in the military doesn’t get you anywhere.

But this incident was different.

“If it were something else, I might have just let it go, but this situation is different.”

“…Go on.”

“It’s just my guess, but there might be a lot of guys thinking about desertion right now.”

“What?”

Sergeant Min-jae was surprised by the sudden remark.

“Think about it. Monsters suddenly attacked the base, officers and soldiers are dying. We can’t even contact the outside world.”

Except for the fact that it’s monster attacking us this time instead of the usual North Korean soldiers.

“You may think about desertion if a real war broke out, right? It might seem calm now on the surface, because of the incident that just happened. But I’m sure many of them are having a mental breakdown internally and must have been thinking about deserting this war.”

“Hey, our base is an hour away even by car. How can they desert? And even if monsters attacked our base, there might be more safety here with soldiers gathered together, especially if there are monsters outside.”

“That’s why there haven’t been deserters so far. But give it some time, and there might be guys who think it’s safer outside. They’ll worry about their families outside.”

In fact, this isn’t just someone else’s problem.

I’m worried about my own family outside right now.

But what’s important right now is survival.

“To survive, we need to strengthen the unit.”

“…Right.”

“If the soldiers desert, the unit weakens. On the other hand, if the unit becomes stronger, more soldiers will think it’s safe here, and we won’t have to worry about desertion.”

It was a natural conclusion.

The talk of desertion in a war happens when soldiers are in danger.

If the military is safer, who would desert?

“Yeah, that’s why I wanted to awaken them, but Gwang-il stirred up trouble, didn’t he?”

“Hyung, what I said wasn’t about not treating Gwang-il fairly.”

“What?”

“The problem is, if you don’t want to awaken, then don’t do it.”

If the awakening process had gone smoothly, there wouldn’t have been a problem.

But in the middle of it, Tae-jun got seriously injured.

And many soldiers witnessed it.

Fear must be spreading.

“Gwang-il isn’t the only one like that. There are probably many guys who want to bailout if they can. Getting ostracized and not getting proper rank treatment is much better than dying, isn’t it?

“…”

“If even one person falls like this, there will be more who refuse to do it. There might be friction between awakened soldiers and those who un-awakened ones.”

“Sigh…”

“We don’t have any officers who can control us right now. If such conflicts arise at this time, it’ll eventually lead to division…”

“The unit will weaken.”

“Right.”

If my profession were something else…

I could have just abandoned the unit and survived on my own.

Like being a detective or an assassin.

Those kinds of professions often end up playing solo in games.

I could have tried to survive alone in a similar way.

But my profession is a level 1 novice chef.

Support class by name.

It’s not suitable for solo play.

To make good use of my profession, I need to feed someone, ultimately.

And for a chef like me, the soldiers are my customers.

If this unit falls apart, there won’t be anyone left to eat my cooking.

The path to survival lies in keeping this unit strong.

“Awakening all members. No exemptions allowed.”

Sergeant Min-jae, as if suffering from a headache, massaged his head before taking a deep drag from his cigarette and spoke.

“Yeah, let’s say you’re right. But then we have to persuade that guy, what’s he going to do?”

In the end, that’s a problem.

Sergeant Min-jae didn’t let Gwang-il go just because he felt like it.

“Ordinary persuasion won’t work on him.”

“I have a plan. Just trust me once.”

“If you say so, then I will… But it won’t be easy.”

With a doubtful expression, Sergeant Min-jae returned to the living room.

It’s a difficult task.

But I have a corner of trust in me too.

After sending Sergeant Min-jae back to the living room, I headed to the mess hall.

“Sergeant Shin Young-joon…”

As I opened the door to the cook’s lounge, I saw Corporal Jeon Gwang-il sitting with his head bowed in a dark mood.

“Hey, hey. I didn’t call you here to scold you. Just sit.”

“Huh? Oh, okay… got it.”

He was trying to get up, but then awkwardly sat back down in the same posture.

I feel somewhat sorry for him.

“The reason I called you here is nothing special.”

“…”

Looking him in the eye, I asked seriously.

“Do you have a favorite food?”

“Um, yes?”

“Is there something you want to eat? Never mind, it’s hard to say with someone watching. Let’s just go for some simple fried rice.”

My profession is a chef.

So naturally, as someone who believes in that…

“I’m a chef.”

I’ll make you a real soldier.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Translator: One Force

TL Note: In the novel’s context the facility unit, sometimes also known as an engineering unit in the army typically refers to the branch responsible for managing and maintaining the infrastructure and facilities used by military personnel.

This includes tasks such as building maintenance, repairs, construction projects, and ensuring that facilities meet safety and operational standards.

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