NOVEL NEXT chapter 3
Chapter 3
“…Sigh.”
Jin Crow grabbed the towel thrown beside the sofa and wiped his neck.
The dry towel quickly became soaked.
It was no different from a disaster for him to suddenly face Ideale.
‘Damn Jin Crow.’
It was clear that his personality, constitution, and even various illnesses had not disappeared.
When Ideale left a warning at the end, it was quite difficult to suppress the rising irritation and respond.
‘When receiving the awakening effect, Jin Crow’s original personality becomes more intense. No, in this case, should I say it returns?’
The reason he expressed it as awakening was because his mind had become somewhat clearer.
But that doesn’t mean it’s always a welcome thing.
Especially in front of a strong person like Ideale.
‘Ideale Kuchenhausen.’
Anyone who has read the Galactic Chronicles would never be unaware of this name.
She is listed as one of the top-tier strong characters in the world until the latter part of the story, and at the same time, she is the protagonist ‘Baek Hwi-young’s’ ally and heroine. And…
‘A Penta-level special officer of the Synthetic Nation.’
It’s not that there are no stronger people than her, but it was an undeniable truth that she showed the strength to single-handedly open a front if she wanted to.
“Sigh.”
Anyway, having passed a hurdle, Jin Crow pressed his tired eyes with his hand and looked down.
The important thing is not Ideale.
Staring at the black cigarette and glass of liquor on the table, he continues his thoughts.
‘It’s not the cigarette, at least.’
He was originally a heavy smoker.
That’s why, when he first realized his possession, he smoked to forcibly steady his mind, but it had no effect.
‘Then…’
Slowly, he lifts the glass and takes a sip.
Gulp-
Just then, the sharp alcohol flows down his esophagus.
–
■User_Jin Crow
□Rank: Major
□Serial Number (S.N): SMCO55-1113027
□Gear: Dual (Error)
□Health Status: PTSD, Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Headache, Drug Addiction (30min), Paranoia, Anger Management Issues
–
“That’s correct.”
The time that had been reduced after meeting Ideale increased back to 30 minutes.
‘So, the reason Jin Crow could be strong was…’
He must have been drinking alcohol with stimulant ingredients.
No wonder he drank often.
Now that he knew the other side of the character he had become, he couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.
It wasn’t just a simple alcoholic concept.
It must have been his best effort.
“This is troublesome.”
Frowning, he opens the drawer and looks at the bottles of liquor, roughly over thirty of them.
In principle, instructors are allowed to smoke and drink, but the headmaster, Ideale, had come and warned him.
It meant it was unreasonable to blatantly ignore it.
But he couldn’t just offer up the liquor that had become his lifeline.
He blinked his characteristic murky black eyes for a moment, then sighed and began to open all the bottles of liquor of various kinds.
“Drinking alone, huh. Tsk.”
It seemed like it would be no easy task to drink everything by midnight.
Since returning the alcohol wasn’t an option, I would have to try each one and keep only those with the best effects.
Gulp-.
“Cough, ah.”
One bottle, two bottles, three bottles…
Downing almost thirty bottles on an empty stomach was no small burden, but it wasn’t entirely fruitless.
Among the more than thirty bottles of whiskey, I found four labeled as stimulants lasting 30 minutes.
‘Is this all I can salvage?’
This should be enough to satisfy Ideale.
Honestly, I wanted to keep them all, but it couldn’t be helped.
However, aside from finding a solution to the lack of strength, another obstacle arose.
“Lectures…”
An academy instructor must give lectures to the cadets.
It’s a perfectly natural ‘common sense.’
The problem was that he had never taught anyone in his life.
At least he had served in a rather tough military unit, which was a relief.
…Nothing ever goes smoothly.
As he felt that frustration, a thought suddenly struck him, and he sprang to his feet.
“Curriculum.”
The instructor’s quarters were quite spacious, but aside from the bottles and cigarettes, it only had the basic furniture provided.
He immediately searched the room and found a device linked to the watch on his wrist, and fortunately, it was the right one.
‘Yang Jinrei, Thomas Ed, Loki Lutz…’
Opening the device with biometric recognition and sifting through the files, he found a file containing all the instructors’ curriculums.
Scrolling down, he saw Jin Crow’s subject.
“Understanding Modern Warfare – Instructor Jin Crow”
Fortunately, it was still a theoretical lecture.
‘With my current condition, combat training is out of the question. And I can’t go in drunk every time.’
Having stimulant pills would have made things much easier, but bringing stimulants into the academy, especially for a superhuman, was nearly impossible.
Moreover, if it were revealed that an instructor at the Central Special Forces Academy couldn’t function without stimulants, it would be the worst for someone like him, who already had many enemies.
That’s probably why Jin Crow smuggled in alcohol with stimulant effects and kept it in a hip flask.
“Phew.”
At least he felt a bit relieved.
Maybe that’s why.
He sank back into the sofa, feeling the slight buzz from the alcohol, and put the black cigar he hadn’t finished earlier back in his mouth, tapping the table with his fingers.
‘Jin Crow.’
He felt the need to revisit everything he knew about the character he had now become.
This was both a natural thing to do and something prompted by Ideale’s reaction a moment ago.
‘Come to think of it, Ideale couldn’t bring herself to be particularly harsh to Jin Crow even in the story.’
Ideale Kuchenhausen.
She clearly belonged to the ‘good character’ category.
The fact that such a character treated Jin Crow, who was close to a villain in the story, in that manner suggested there was something in his past, something hidden, that explained it.
‘A member of Rosen, one of the largest factions in the military. And conscripted as a child soldier at the beginning of the 3rd Galactic War, spending 20 years on the battlefield. That’s why he’s so broken.’
That’s all that was revealed about Jin Crow in the story.
As he reached that point in his thoughts, he felt relieved that while he had inherited Jin Crow’s personality and speech patterns, he hadn’t inherited his memories.
Given that even the mock battles and training from the military sometimes appeared in his nightmares, the things Jin Crow experienced in a world where planets were bombarded were memories no 21st-century civilian could handle.
‘And I don’t know much about Rosen either.’
He only knew that they weren’t a benevolent group and that they were up to something.
…And that they never left traitors or incompetent members alone.
‘Competent b*stards with unknown motives. That’s about right.’
In the end, it was clear that this wasn’t something that could be resolved with a brief contemplation.
Therefore, Jin Crow. What he could do was clear.
Ssshhk-.
He stubbed out the nearly finished cigar in the ashtray, filled a hip flask with one of the four carefully selected bottles of whiskey, and stood up, muttering quietly.
“By midnight, was it?”
It seemed he needed to hurry.
*
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Space had been a long dream for humanity.
In the distant past, humans created various myths while gazing at the constellations, and when the age of myths ended and science and reason filled the void, space became another new continent to conquer rather than a dream.
And finally, in 2063.
When humanity terraformed Mars, built colonies, and invented hyperspace jump technology, the emotion they felt was ‘ecstasy.’
The excitement of a new continent before their eyes.
The fear of an unknown world.
A vague anticipation for the future.
A century has passed.
Vast colonies were established, intelligent life forms were discovered, and humanity could finally be certain of one thing.
‘We are the first pioneers.’
Just as America did in the distant past, opening the era of the Western frontier, countless people, legally or illegally, reached out into space.
In AD 2126, humanity declared the ‘United Human Federation,’ combining all existing governments, and simultaneously proclaimed a new space era (UC).
Decades passed.
During that time, rebellions in the colonies, coups by alien races unable to bear discrimination, the rise of demagoguery, and various scandals shook the United Human Federation, but their territory continued to expand day by day.
〔Recently, many pioneer fleets have lost contact.〕
In UC 47, the United Human Federation, having expanded as much as it could, encountered another galactic empire that called itself the Holy Galactic Empire.
The result was the Third Galactic War.
The great war, which lasted from as short as 10 years to as long as 20 years, brought at least tens of billions of human casualties and astronomical material damage to both sides each time it broke out.
Of course, even then, some scholars who were observing the sporadically rampaging space monsters, the creatures, urged to stop the unnecessary war of attrition and prepare for the space monsters, but their cries were thoroughly marginalized and became empty cries.
Yes, in a state where no one knew what consequences it might bring.
“Ugh!”
Baek Hwi-yeong hurriedly ran into the bathroom, grabbed the toilet, and soon, along with yellow gastric juice, the little vomit he had spilled out.
Fortunately, there was no one in the dormitory.
Perhaps, around this time, his roommate, who had been living with him, had left the academy due to personal reasons.
“Ugh! Ughhh!”
It seemed he hadn’t eaten much at that time.
It was fortunate.
He didn’t have to hold onto the toilet for long.
Baek Hwi-yeong briefly composed himself, then straightened his back and flushed the toilet.
“……How many times has it been?”
He could barely remember anymore.
Had it been more than ten times?
Baek Hwi-yeong briefly retraced his memories, then recalled memories he didn’t want to remember, causing his eyes to twist, and he muttered softly with a sinister smile on his lips.
“Creature. Creature. Creature…”
The future always changes.
No, he twisted it himself.
But the end was always nothing but the march of countless creatures and the collapsing galaxy.
‘The end, the end is nowhere in sight. Damn it.’
The regression he thought was an opportunity was hell.
He twisted, tangled, and broke it.
But the helplessness that nothing changed choked him as if it would devour him at any moment.
Slap-!
However, he immediately slapped his cheek hard, opened his blurred eyes, and muttered softly.
“…It’s something that must be done.”
Ignoring the agony of having to watch the foretold destruction, even if he felt a false sense of comfort, nothing changed.
It only added another death to death.
The only way for him to escape the prison of regression, where even the screams of agony were not allowed, was to break this loop.
Swoosh…
After turning on the faucet to erase the traces of nausea, he walked out of the dormitory.
The familiar campus of the military academy came into view, and he heard the bickering of seniors passing by the dormitory.
“Ugh, I’m really going to die at this rate.”
“The supernatural department is whining. You guys don’t even spar with the instructors like we do…”
“What? Want to taste some electricity?”
“If you’re upset, then spar.”
Baek Hwi-yeong, who was watching them for a moment, slowly turned his gaze to the right and soon captured a face that was endlessly familiar.
“Ah!”
At that moment, a girl with light brown hair like a small squirrel discovered him and ran over with quick steps.
“You said you’d be in the dormitory, but you came out? Where are you going?”
“…Miel. Miel Amber.”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
He now muttered her name out of habit.
A childhood friend, and someone he had lost countless times.
Baek Hwi-yeong looked at her for a moment, then collected his expression and, pretending to be calm, opened his rarely used lips.
“Should we… go to the store?”
“Oh, I was just about to stop by. Perfect timing.”
Baek Hwi-yeong forced a smile on his face.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Glancing at Miel, who was grinning beside him, Baek Hwi-yeong recalled the events to come.
‘Chanse Mavre picked a fight, and I broke his leg.’
It didn’t seem like that at first, but every time he went back in time, his actions became more excessive.
It was inevitable.
That guy would eventually lose to his lust and jealousy, cause trouble, and get killed. And the target was Miel, more than once.
Gritting his teeth unconsciously, he thought.
This time, he would have to half-kill him.
“…What.”
But his steps soon came to a halt.
Baek Hwi-yeong’s black pupils shook wildly as he stared at someone.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
Miel, standing beside him, sensed something strange and waved a hand in front of his eyes, but he just stood there like a statue, staring blankly at the approaching figure.
‘Why is that person here now?’
At the end of his gaze was a man with a twisted face, carrying a box full of something.
…How could he not recognize him?
With dazed eyes, Baek Hwi-yeong muttered his name softly.
“Jin Crow.”
A fearsome presence that everyone overlooked, an enemy he had to cut down several times with his own hands. And…
‘My benefactor.’
This was the first time he acted as a variable in the countless times he had returned.