Chapter 2

[You have awakened] [World Event – Faction War is in progress]

Unite to survive!

Create a faction or join an existing one.

Those who establish their factions quickly may receive special rewards!

[Current Faction Affiliation – None]

[World Event – Occupation Battle is in progress]

I’m the crazy one in this area!

Occupy and expand your territory.

As your faction grows, you may receive special rewards!

[Current Area Affiliation – ROK. 17]

[Occupation Battle Status in the Area]

1. ??? (??%)

2. ??? (??%)

3. ??? (??%)

“What in the world is this…?”

An unidentified message appeared the moment I killed the monster.

People were dying.

I, too, was trembling with exhaustion after barely surviving this disaster.

But the message that appeared before me seemed utterly absurd and mocking.

‘You have awakened? What awakening?’

A hologram appeared before me, and judging from its interface it was quite similar to a game panel that appears in those popular Role-Playing Games.

My awakened profession was that of a chef.

It seemed to have some characteristics related to cooking…

“What is this? Occupation battle?”

As I was bewildered by the contents a loud noise echoed from afar.

Tadada Tadang.

Soldiers would be familiar with that sound.

Gunshots.

Gunfire ringing out on a weekend, with no training, within a perfectly intact unit.

It wasn’t very difficult to guess the reason.

“Has this thing appeared somewhere else too?”

This dreadful creature, even if just one, can give nightmare to an entire unit.

I glanced down at the monster’s corpse lying beneath my feet.

“I almost died just dealing with this one.”

No, it was more than just dying.

I was almost dead, if not for the oil and the sashimi knife.

My junior was lying dead with his throat torn near the back door of the mess hall.

And the youngest was killed inside the greasy mess hall, his stomach ripped open by the monster.

Two of my juniors were actually dead.

Out of a total of four.

Except for one on vacation, two out of the three casualties were from the cooking team.

In essence, more than half of the casualties were from our team.

Only one creature caused this many causalities, and if there are multiple creatures then…

Honestly, I didn’t have much confidence in surviving.

“I somehow managed to survive just now.”

It wouldn’t have been surprising if I had died in place of my two juniors.

Death.

Only three days left before I can be discharged from the army; will I be left alone and die here?

“That can’t happen.”

I will survive.

I will survive, go out into society, learn proper cooking, and open a restaurant.

I will focus on the design and marketing of the store, and even register it with Michelin-starred restaurants.

But for that to happen.

I can’t afford to die here.

“To survive…”

A famous saying came to mind.

“We must unite.”

With trembling hands, I grabbed my knees and pulled myself up with determination.

To survive, I needed to join forces with other unit members.

I held Jun-hyuk’s sushi knife with my left hand, instead of my right hand, which was trembling from strangling the monster’s neck.

I moved in the direction of the gunfire.

* * *

The restaurant building was somewhat distant from the other buildings in the unit. Although the unit wasn’t particularly large, the distance between buildings wasn’t that far.

I turned my head in the direction where the gunfire was heard.

“It’s probably the ammunition depot.”

It was a natural assumption.

Due to the nature of the military, soldiers rarely carried bullets around during normal times.

Except during training situations, most bullets were stored in the ammunition depot.

Considering the direction where the gunfire was heard.

It was likely that the place where the unit members were located was the ammunition depot.

The problem was…

“Of all places, it’s on the exact opposite side.”

If the restaurant building was at the western end of the unit, the ammunition depot would be at the eastern end.

To get from the restaurant to the ammunition depot, I would have to cross the entire unit.

Given that the unit wasn’t particularly large, during normal times, one could leisurely walk and eventually reach the destination.

But now, with the possibility of monsters roaming around, it was an infinitely dangerous and distant journey.

“Let’s try to move through the buildings as much as possible.”

The unit’s roads were too open.

Walking casually could attract the attention of monsters from afar and lead to being chased. It would be the end, if I encountered a monster on the way to the ammunition depot.

It would be better to move through the interiors of surrounding buildings to avoid being noticed. First, I dashed to the supply building right next to the restaurant to hide my body.

Then, after crossing through the supply building to the opposite entrance, I quickly ran to the facilities building next to it.

Moving from building to building like that.

I cautiously headed towards the ammunition depot, being vigilant for any signs of monsters around.

Despite passing through quite a few buildings, there was not a single indication of anyone.

Today was a weekend.

Except for officers and a few departments, most soldiers didn’t come to work.

Tadada Tadang.

Even in this quiet environment, sporadic gunfire could still be heard in the distance.

I was moving while relying on that sound.

I arrived in front of a building.

“The Living Hall.”

While other buildings might be quiet on weekends. The living hall, where the unit members lived should be noisy with various chatter and TV sounds.

But now, it was as quiet as the other buildings.

“If those monsters attacked people…”

I opened the barracks door with a foreboding feeling.

Inside was…

Exactly as I had anticipated.

“Ugh…”

Communications squad’s youngest, Yunsu. Facility squad’s Corporal Park, who came back from playing soccer outside, and someone whose face was torn to shreds beyond recognition.

These were the people who were lying dead in the dormitory hallway.

“Just how many people died here?”

Bodies were visible inside each room of the dormitory.

Some windows were shattered, and the fixtures were broken.

Even if I didn’t know, it seemed there was quite a commotion.

Seems like even the soldiers resting on the weekend in the dormitory experienced the chaos. I was lucky back then to have boiling oil in the kitchen.

The monster’s scales were incredibly tough.

It would have been difficult to scratch them with ordinary attacks.

I barely survived by frying the creature in boiling oil, but…

The soldiers in the dormitory had no way to fight the monsters.

It must have been a massacre.

However, it seemed that some guns were missing from the gun lockers placed in each dormitory.

I roughly pieced together the situation in my head.

“The monsters attacked the dormitory, and those who judged that fighting was futile took out their guns and ran to the ammunition depot.”

And then they replenished their ammunition from the depot and started fighting the monsters.

That must be the cause of the gunshots I hear now.

As I crossed the dormitory, I headed towards the ammunition depot.

After leaving the dormitory, I began to see bodies little by little along the way to the depot.

Well, the monsters wouldn’t just let us run to the depot with guns.

Those bodies must have been soldiers caught by the monsters’ pursuit.

As I passed by the bodies and headed towards the ammunition depot.

Twist.

Something, which I thought was another corpse began to move.

I was startled and couldn’t help but hold my breath.

“Grr…”

A low growl of a beast.

“Darn it…”

I thought it was a corpse abandoned in the sewer beside the road. Who would have thought that a monster was behind, devouring it slowly.

The creature, looked just like the one I saw in the kitchen, rose to its feet.

Its reptilian eyes glared at me eerily.

“Darn it, darn it, darn it, darn it!”

I tried so hard not to be noticed by the monster!

And now, there’s not much distance left to the ammunition depot!

“I don’t even have any boiling oil.”

I remembered the corpses in the dormitory.

The helpless, slaughtered soldiers.

There were no monsters, only corpses there.

So many soldiers died without being able to do anything.

What makes me any different?

“I… Have only three days left before my discharge?”

If I had known this would happen, I would have applied for it three days earlier.

Even if Taejun hadn’t asked him to leave in time for his vacation.

Rather than comradeship, it ended up with us being buried together in the unit.

While having such trivial thoughts.

The creature, resembling a lizard, slowly began to walk towards me.

“Damn it. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

I couldn’t just let myself be that monster’s meal like this.

I held the sashimi knife that Jun-hyuk diligently maintained in my right hand and prepared myself.

“No matter how much of a monster it is, if I poke it with a knife, it’ll get hurt somewhere.”

Though I was all ready for the fight, I didn’t have a plan.

But still, I concentrated on the monster’s movements, thinking that I mustn’t die so easily.

[Skill – Chef’s Insight activated.]

[Analyzing ingredients……]

Before my eyes.

Once again, an unidentified message popped up.

“What the…!”

The strange characters that had appeared before.

The difference from before was that these characters blocked my view, so I couldn’t see the monster.

Just when I held the knife with resignation and had thought that I might die for such a ridiculous reason.

[Ingredient analysis complete]

[Acquired ‘Novice Grade Cooking Secret: Enlightenment of Lizard Butchery.’]

The ‘method of butchering’ that monster came to mind naturally.

[Although lizards appear difficult to butcher due to their thick scales and large size, they are an ingredient that anyone can easily butcher if they know the trick. First, it is important to cut off their airways and drain their blood…]

I looked at the monster just like a butcher with 30 years of experience looks at pigs, cows, and chickens

“Graaah!”

The monster swung its sharp claws at me as it charged.

Perhaps expecting me to dodge and flee, it was a big move.

‘In that case.’

I didn’t flee to avoid the attack.

Instead, I dove into the creature’s embrace.

There were many openings in its claw-swinging posture.

Especially because it swung its arms wide, leaving its armpits exposed.

‘Left armpit.’

From my perspective, it’s the right one.

I thrust the knife into that spot.

‘Huh?’

The reason for my confusion wasn’t something else.

‘Did I stab wrong?’

Because the blade went in too easily.

I wondered if I had stabbed into thin air.

[Trait – Novice Dagger Mastery]

[Proficiency increases when using dagger-type equipment.]

I felt warmth in my hands.

“Blood?”

Blood gushed out vigorously from the creature’s wound.

“Grr, argh….”

The force with which it charged at me was nowhere to be found.

The creature, which was spilling blood through its armpits, gradually seemed to be losing its strength.

It collapsed on me with a thud.

Dead.

‘It’s not pretending to be dead. It’s really dead.’

As the monster died,

I felt something filling up inside me.

A sensation of ecstasy, something I’ve never felt before in my life.

[You have gained experience points.]

***

[Chef’s Eye]

[A great chef never encounters an ingredient that they cannot handle]

[Even if it’s an ingredient they’ve never dealt with before!]

[By observing objects deemed as ‘ingredients,’ you can discern their correct cooking methods, handling techniques, etc.]

That’s how the skill was explained.

“…. Ingredients.”

An old video I watched on YouTube came to mind.

A fish thrashing wildly on a cutting board, but as soon as you pierce between its fins, it becomes still.

And then blood began to pour out.

A video on fish preparation.

“Is this monster considered a food ingredient?”

Even if there’s a handling technique, what about cooking methods?

[Acquired Revelation of Lizard Cooking Method]

[Lizard meat is characterized by its savory and nutty taste, but if overcooked, it tends to become tough, and if not properly cleaned, it can have a strong odor. It is one of the ingredients that requires careful attention in cooking. Recommended cooking methods include…] sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Insane.

I deliberately pushed away the thoughts of how to cook the monster that came to my mind.

It’s a monster that eats people.

It’s horrible to think of eating that man-eating monster.

“Anyway. I’m lucky to be alive.”

A sudden message appeared before me.

And even the handling method injected into my mind out of nowhere.

I still didn’t know what’s going on, but I was grateful to be alive.

I cleared the corpse of the monster that lay on top of me and moved toward the sound of gunfire near the ammunition depot.

Luckily, I didn’t encounter any other monsters besides the one I just ‘prepared.’

So, I successfully made it to the ammunition depot unharmed.

“Sergeant Shin Young-joon?”

“Quickly, come inside!”

Near the ammunition depot, soldiers were gathered and were equipped with rifles and combat gear.

“I-I’m alive.”

Relief washed over me, and my body felt weak.

Sitting down on the ground, I looked around at the gathered soldiers.

At that moment.

[Acquired ‘Novice Grade Cooking Secret: Enlightenment of Primate Preparation’]

“….”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Translator: One Force

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