Actually, Dad Was a Hero

Chapter 1: The Truth Is, Your Dad Was a Hero (1)

A Passing Middle-Aged Man

“Dieeeee! Dieeee!”

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! Bang!

A soldier, his face covered in blood and dust, screamed and fired his rifle. Spent cartridges bounced off the ground with a cheerful sound, scattering in all directions.

Crack! Crunch!

It was effective. Three or four skeletons, shambling forward with vacant stares, were smashed and scattered on the ground.

But it was meaningless. There were still dozens of skeleton soldiers approaching him.

Moreover, the skeletons that had just been shot and collapsed were getting back up again.

Broken and shattered, but still moving.

“S… Shit…! What the hell is this?!”

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The gunfire stopped. The soldier frantically pulled the trigger, but the rifle no longer fired.

He was out of ammo, naturally.

But the 21-year-old Private First Class, experiencing his first real combat, didn’t have the composure to properly assess the situation.

“Shit, shit!”

Private Jung Yoon-Ho dropped his rifle as if throwing it away and crouched down, using a concrete flower bed as cover.

“Shit… I’m dead…!”

A sob escaped from under his ballistic helmet.

He had enlisted six months ago. Just a few months ago, he had been happy to be assigned to the Capital Defense Command, known as a comfortable post.

He had just started to feel like a seasoned soldier, shedding his rookie status…

“Why are there monsters like that…!”

A few weeks ago, when he heard the news about monsters suddenly appearing in the United States and attacking civilians, he thought it had nothing to do with him.

After all, the monsters on TV looked weak, reminiscent of goblins from fantasy novels.

Moreover, those monsters were easily repelled by the SWAT team and the National Guard.

It was news that caused a stir around the world, but like the alien autopsy video that was a hot topic a while back, few people believed it was real.

And last week, a sudden”Jindogae Two”alert was issued.

He didn’t know the details, but he sensed something serious was happening from the stony expression of his company commander.

Rumors had it that monsters had reappeared, causing many casualties and kidnapping dozens of civilians.

However, no such news was reported on TV or the internet.

Everyone thought it was a hoax.

They believed that the Jindogae Two alert was due to some situation in North Korea, and that although war wouldn’t break out, it was issued as a precaution.

It was ridiculous, after all. In a world where a single flick of a finger could launch nuclear missiles and obliterate cities, how could mere monsters harm people?

Even without resorting to nuclear missiles, most monsters could be easily dealt with by infantry, armored vehicles, and tanks.

Even if a high-level monster like a dragon from fantasy novels appeared, a single surface-to-air missile would reduce it to dust.

But what was happening before his eyes now was beyond imagination.

Skeleton soldiers that got back up even after being shot and blown up by grenades.

Eerie ghosts that bullets passed through like smoke.

And a gigantic monster that remained unscathed even after being bombarded by fighter jets.

All of his squad members had been killed by those monsters.

His comrades, friends, humans, who had been laughing and chatting just yesterday, snoring right next to him, smoking cigarettes while drinking sweet coffee.

They were all dead.

“Gasp… Gasp… Gasp, gasp, gasp!”

He covered his mouth and nose with trembling hands. Uncontrollable fear mercilessly stimulated his autonomic nervous system, and he burst into ragged breaths he couldn’t control.

Tears and snot mixed with the dust covering his face, making it a sticky mess. Just as the skeleton soldiers were about to take his life, a panic attack threatened to claim him first.

Step.

It was a small footstep that stopped his seizure.

What his wide, hopeful eyes saw was…

A middle-aged man in armor, wielding a longsword.

“Gasp… Gasp…! Wh-what’s that?”

His breathing gradually returned to normal.

And the man in heavy, dark gray armor slowly approached him.

“Ah, mister! It’s dangerous here! Run away!”

“Thank you. You’ve worked hard.”

The man approaching with a calm expression replied with a grin.

He was fully clad in ancient armor, but his helmet was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh?”

As if to answer Private Jung Yoon-Ho’s questioning look, the man drew his sword.

It was a longsword, straight and long, like something out of a fantasy movie.

Jung Yoon-Ho rubbed his eyes and looked again, thinking he might have seen wrong, but his eyes weren’t deceiving him.

The man in armor had drawn his sword.

In the heart of Seoul, in 2020, long after the 21st century had begun.

“Crazy… bastard…?”

A state of emergency had already been declared. The bodies of civilians and soldiers lay scattered everywhere, and debris from buildings that had collapsed from the bombing was strewn about.

It was hard to believe that this was the heart of Seongsu-dong, where people had been bustling just a few hours ago.

In such a place, someone cosplaying as a knight couldn’t be sane.

“Well, not crazy, but…”

The man in armor finished his sentence and took a stance with his sword.

The skeleton soldiers were now only a few meters away from him.

“Mister! Get out of there!”

Ignoring his shout, the man continued to adjust his stance.

Then, he paused for a moment, tilted his head, and muttered to himself.

“Ah, I can’t remember the name of the technique.”

“This guy’s really crazy!”

“Oh, whatever. The name isn’t important.”

“Hey, crazy…!”

Jung Yoon-Ho stopped mid-sentence. He was speechless at the sight of the mysterious blue glow emanating from the man’s sword.

Ziiiing―.

The energy surrounding the sword intensified, emitting a bluish light, and the high-pitched sound of vibrating metal spread in all directions.

“Roughly… Horizon Slash…?”

Whoosh!

The man in armor swung the sword horizontally, enveloped in blue energy.

Or rather, it seemed like he swung it. To Jung Yoon-Ho’s stunned eyes, the movement itself was invisible.

In fact, it was too fast for even a normal person’s eyes to see.

Clang! Boom! Crash! Screeeech!

The tilted streetlights, the buildings that had been barely standing, and the overturned vehicles all made loud noises at once.

The streetlights were cut down and scattered on the ground, the buildings collapsed, and the vehicles were split apart.

And the approaching skeleton soldiers were all cut in half horizontally and lay scattered on the ground.

“…Huh?”

Jung Yoon-Ho uttered a dumbfounded question.

“Uh, uh?”

The skeleton soldiers didn’t get back up.

The skeleton soldiers, who had been moving even after being shot and smashed by grenades as long as their skulls were attached, were all lying on the ground, motionless.

“Uh, uh, uh? They usually get back up…”

As he muttered in bewilderment, the man spoke in a casual tone.

“Stay hidden a little longer.”

“Huh?”

The man in armor pointed his chin towards the distance. Something glowing green was approaching, passing through buildings.

“Uh oh! That, that!”

Jung Yoon-Ho unknowingly sank to the floor and backed away.

The green monsters that took the lives of his comrades. Ghost-like things that bullets simply passed through.

But once they clung to a person’s body, they melted clothes and flesh as if doused with acid.

Those who died in such terrible pain were soon revived as skeletal monsters and attacked others.

About half of the skeletons felled by the man’s attacks were civilians and soldiers who had been sacrificed in that way.

Jung Yoon-Ho trembled again, recalling the horrific memory.

Suddenly, the armored man kicked off the ground and leaped forward. It seemed as if he covered almost 10 meters in a single stride.

Pabak! Pak!

And every time the man swung his blue-tinged sword, the green ghosts were cut down and scattered into pieces.

It was so simple it was almost absurd.

“Th-… Uh…! Uh? Wow! Whoa!”

The soldier, Jung Yoon-Ho, who had been paralyzed by fear, unconsciously stood up and cheered.

The monsters that had taken his colleagues and friends were disappearing so easily.

“Kill them, kill them all! Damn it!”

Just a moment ago, he had thought the man was crazy, but now he was cheering him on fervently.

The dozen or so green ghosts had all been shattered and dissolved into the air.

“That’s it, damn it! Yes! Mister, what are you? Wow! Damn, that’s awesome!”

“Don’t come out yet.”

“Huh? Why?”

At that moment, Jung Yoon-Ho remembered the giant monster. The massive beast that stood behind all the other monsters.

The unrealistic figure that had remained unscathed even after being directly hit by a bombing that had completely demolished nearby buildings.

And that giant emerged from behind the building.

A height of at least 5 meters. Muscular arms and legs thicker than ancient trees. Protruding fangs and red eyes. Dark red skin with terrifying patterns painted in crimson.

It was a monster straight out of a nightmare.

“Uh, that…! Uh… Ah, I can’t remember the name again.”

The man shook his head and muttered to himself before readjusting his grip on the sword.

“Ah, mister.”

When Jung Yoon-Ho called out in fear, the man replied with a shrug, his gaze fixed on the monster.

“It’s okay. I’ve killed a lot of these in the past.”

“…In the past…?”

“Yeah… about… 28 years ago?”

Jung Yoon-Ho, who had just turned 21 this year, briefly wondered if such monsters had lived in Korea before he was born. But that couldn’t be true.

Perhaps 250,000 years ago, or even 2.5 billion years ago, but such creatures had never existed on Earth.

At least, that’s what he had learned.

“Ah, back in my day, you know, guys like these Kruk Orcus weren’t even… Ah! I remembered the name.”

“Kruk… what?”

“Well, it’s a bit tricky to translate. Something like… High Orc… I guess? What would it be in Korean?”

But his words were cut short. No one could continue talking when a house-sized monster was charging at them with an axe the size of a telephone pole.

The man in armor charged explosively, raising his sword. A blue light trailed behind him as he dashed forward.

He stomped his feet fiercely and swung his sword down. The ground trembled, and a bright blue flash erupted like lightning.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

The giant monster, which he had called a High Orc, was split vertically in two and crashed to the ground. It continued to roll across the ground with the momentum of its charge, scattering blood and guts everywhere.

But the man in armor remained spotless.

He was just as pristine as when he first appeared.

“Hmm… I guess I can’t control my strength properly after not using it for so long.”

The man muttered to himself and nudged the monster’s corpse with his foot. Then, he picked up the giant axe the monster had been wielding.

“This is just a hunk of metal with no magic on it.”

After briefly examining the axe, the man casually tossed it aside.

Thud! Boom!

The metal, weighing at least a few dozen kilograms, rolled on the ground, shaking the earth.

Jung Yoon-Ho could only stare blankly at the surreal scene.

The man used his foot to flip over the monster’s corpse, which was still oozing warm blood and guts. Then, he rummaged through the large leather pouch attached to the monster’s waist.

“…What’s this?”

He pulled out a rolled-up scroll from the leather pouch. It looked like a typical magic scroll from fantasy novels.

After tilting his head in puzzlement for a moment, the man sighed and stuffed the scroll somewhere inside his armor. Then, as if he was done with his business, he turned around.

“Hey, hey? Mister, what are you? No, who are you?”

Jung Yoon-Ho asked urgently as the man was about to leave.

“Me?”

The man in armor asked back.

“Yes. Who are you, and how… what… uh… Damn it, what is this? Is this a dream? No, is this real?”

Even as he spoke, Jung Yoon-Ho couldn’t understand what he was saying. He had experienced so many things beyond his imagination in such a short time that he had lost all sense of reality.

“I’m just…”

The man in armor replied hesitantly. Unlike before, his voice was filled with a lack of confidence.

“…Just?”

“…Just a passing middle-aged man.”

“Huh?”

The man in armor scratched his head awkwardly, grinned, and then ran away as if fleeing.

“Uh…!”

Jung Yoon-Ho hurriedly took a few steps after him, but the man had already disappeared from sight.

He was unbelievably fast, beyond human comprehension.

“…What was that…?”

After standing there blankly for a while, Jung Yoon-Ho suddenly realized something important.

As the sole survivor in this place, he was the only one who could report what had happened today.

He had to report to the battalion commander, no, the division commander, no… whoever it was, someone with at least a few stars on their shoulders.

An absurd story about a man in armor who appeared with a longsword and single-handedly defeated monsters that were impervious to bullets and bombs.

“Ah… I’m fucked…?”