However, after waiting for a while, there were no other suspicious noises apart from the grumbling sounds, which seemed quieter than before but still had a sharp tone that occasionally echoed.

“Why is that? Is there a fight happening up ahead?”

When Jeong Taeui asked Qing, who was standing in front of him, Qing stepped forward, then turned back with a frown then opened a water bottle and shook his head.

“It’s that guy.”

“Huh?”

“That damned bastard. He’s marching with our team. Damn, is this insane or what? Having to face that crazy guy at this late hour…… “

Jeong Taeui’s face also scrunched up after hearing Qing’s words. He heard the complaints of others about how it would be hard to sleep peacefully tonight, or how one guard was not enough. He kept his frown as he looked straight ahead. It seemed like the situation up front had been resolved, and they were preparing to move again. Unfamiliar faces began stepping back and blending into the crowd. Of course, those faces were equally grim.

“I’d rather deal with snakes than these bastards. How did we end up with these guys?”

“Hmph. If we were with people more vicious than snakes, they probably wouldn’t come near us.”

Sharp conversations echoed all around. Members of the European branch with fierce expressions interspersed among them, while Jeong Taeui lowered his head then pulled his hat down and raised his collar high.

The ranks began marching again. As he fell behind, he glanced forward and saw only the ominous back of someone faintly visible through the fog. The moment he noticed the head towering a full head above others, it struck fear in him and he knew exactly who it was.

As Jeong Taeui walked more slowly and fell farther behind, he gradually moved toward the back of the group. Although he was still among the crowd, the front to the middle of the group consisted of members from the Asian branch, while those from the middle to the rear were from the European branch.

Jeong Taeui quickly realized that most of the people around him were from the European branch, but he didn’t want to move forward, so he just kept walking. In any case, very few people paid attention to him as he walked alone with his face concealed.

By the time he had fallen this far back, the distance had become quite considerable, and the ominous head was now obscured by the mist, no longer visible. The faint silhouette that appeared and disappeared in the fog only intensified the chilling feeling.

Think about it, isn’t the current situation the perfect opportunity for that man?

The fog was thick. And their current location was deep in the forest. The whole group would have to spend the night here. Moreover, this wasn’t a situation of being completely trapped in enemy territory. This means that if someone wanted to, they could kill a person, bury the body in the forest without anyone knowing, and then pretend as if nothing had happened.

“Damn it. We’re stuck with these Asians again. Are you telling me we have to stay up all night with these filthy guys?”

“Don’t joke. We still have to divide the sleeping areas. How could we sleep with those bastards? Just walking a few meters apart already makes me nauseous.”

“I’m sick of this bad luck. Ever since I came to this damned Asian branch, nothing has gone right.”

He could hear the murmuring of the men from the European branch walking nearby. Jeong Taeui chuckled. He had heard those kinds of comments before, only with the roles reversed from Asian to European. Even though everyone was cursing, they all seemed the same, lacking any creativity.

“But I’m more worried about Simon than the Asians…… Is he really okay?”

One of them suddenly spoke up. The voice was vague, tinged with worry and unease.

“Yeah. But I don’t see him anywhere. Where did he go?”

“I heard he was up front earlier and then went behind Rick. Is it okay to leave him like that? I feel a bit uneasy.”

“Hmm…… But maybe not. He knows his place, so he wouldn’t dare do anything.”

“No one can tell. When a person goes mad, there’s no predicting what they might do. If he loses it and stabs that guy in the back, the game would be over right then and there.”

“Yeah, but even if it’s a surprise attack, Rick wouldn’t be easy to stab. Even just grazing him would be terrifying.”

“Even if he gets stabbed, the blade might not even pierce him. There might not be a single drop of blood. Has anyone ever seen Rick bleed?”

“Blood might flow if it gets out, but I’m sure his body doesn’t have any blood to spill.”

Although they were joking, they didn’t laugh. At most, there were bitter smirks. They were extremely cautious and full of anxiety as if just speaking about it could bring bad luck.

Taeui listened to their words as he walked a few steps behind them, and a similar sense of worry and unease rose within him.

He quickly realized who they were talking about. That man not only commanded respect and fear from members of other branches but even from those within his own branch. That person was Riegrow, also known as Rick.

“Forget it, damn it. Whether Simon can stab Rick or not doesn’t matter to me as long as it doesn’t happen where the Asians can see. There’s nothing good in exposing our internal issues to them.”

“You’re right. But if I were Simon, I’d probably want to kill Rick too.”

“I don’t need to be Simon to dislike him. It’s unbearable to be on the same team as that guy. Every day, things just keep getting worse. Damn, why haven’t they split the team yet?”

“Ever since I had to become a member of the same team as him, I can’t look at a piece of meat the same way anymore. I might have to become a vegetarian by necessity.”

“Honestly, we’re lucky that at least he’s on our team within the same branch. Imagine running into him in a duel or joint training where he’s the opponent.”

Hearing these conversations gave Jeong Taeui a strange sense of bitterness. He felt that he had clearly understood what kind of person Riegrow really was. He was someone who was always isolated, lonely, and didn’t fit in even with his own team. Everyone felt both reassured and anxious knowing that he was on their team. He was someone nobody wanted to get close to, but he couldn’t be considered an enemy either.

Jeong Taeui couldn’t understand why he felt such bitterness. Perhaps Riegrow himself didn’t care about these things, but the bitter feeling continued to rise within him.

Well, it made sense; not being afraid of someone as crazy as that would be truly strange.

Jeong Taeui didn’t want to hear any more of their conversations, so he quickened his pace. When he had distanced himself from them, Riegrow appeared in front of him once again. The area around him was sparsely populated as if an invisible wall surrounded him.

Seeing that, Taeui couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Well, it made sense; he was someone who had made so many enemies that he could be assassinated even within his own branch. It would be absurd if people casually gathered around him.

Well, Jeong Taeui thought that maybe he wouldn’t help if someone tried to kill Riegrow right now. He felt this even more strongly when he remembered the cold yet covetous look Riegrow had given Xinlu.

It was dangerous. It was threatening. It was overwhelming. Riegrow was someone Taeui could never feel safe around, especially if he targeted or belittled things that were precious to him.

At that moment, Riegrow suddenly slowed his pace. Seeing this, Jeong Taeui, who had been watching his back, instinctively slowed down as well. Riegrow turned his head. Jeong Taeui reflexively lowered his head to avoid his gaze. As if nothing had happened, Riegrow spoke a few words to the person behind him, then turned back and continued walking.

Jeong Taeui sighed, pulling his hat down further and lowering his head even more.

They only stopped after walking for another three to four hours. The faint sound of waves suggested that the sea was not far away. Hearing the waves, Jeong Taeui naturally thought of Xinlu and couldn’t help but relax his expression.

“A thick fog and the sound of the waves. Truly wonderful.”

“Do you mean wonderful in a good sense or a creepy one?”

Following the instructors’ orders, the men stopped and began carefully choosing a place to spend the night. In the middle of the forest, there was a small clearing. Although there were no trees, the place was still filled with bushes and rocks, so clearing the ground took quite some time.

The instructors also seemed unwilling to face risks or danger, so they led another team to a different clearing a few kilometers away. Just turning around, they could see each other directly, but in terms of position, they were separated.

“I’ll choose the farthest corner…… Yes, under that rock will be the best spot.”

Jeong Taeui quickly picked the farthest spot from the European branch, where a large rock cast a shadow, obscuring the view.

“A remote place like that is where snakes and insects tend to crawl in.”

Tou was clearing the bushes and looked at Taeui, offering a warning, but Taeui just shook his head. Outside, there was someone he wanted to stay farther away from than snakes and insects. Perhaps Tou understood this, so he said no more.

After shooing away a lizard crawling in the shadow of the rock, Taeui lay down and listened to the faint sound of the waves. The muffled sound of the waves in the misty and dark surroundings felt truly strange.

While Jeong Taeui was absorbed in listening to the waves, his comrades had gathered dry branches and lit a small fire in the clearing. They sat around the fire, discussing how to divide the night watch among seven or eight people. Although everyone was tired after a long day, no one easily fell asleep; instead, there was a quiet murmuring.

The group on the other side of the trees was similar. Though they didn’t engage in close conversation with each other, they seemed to have found a comfortable spot around their own fire.

Despite concerns that conflicts might arise or something bad could happen in the darkness, it seemed neither side wanted to be the first to provoke. No matter how unpleasant or disgusting the other side was, exhaustion had become the top priority.

In fact, Taeui also wondered whether a night watch was even necessary, but he knew that saying so wouldn’t help, so he kept silent. He knew that if he brought it up, he would only receive responses like – “Don’t you see the evil people nearby, always watching for an opportunity?” – Instead of being criticized, it was better not to cause more trouble and to just perform his watch duty lazily when it was his turn, taking the opportunity to rest.

Suddenly, Jeong Taeui felt a gaze on him, so he looked up. He saw his uncle sitting on the rock he had chosen as a shelter. His uncle was still sitting on the rock, though it looked uncomfortable due to its uneven surface. He looked around before his eyes settled on Jeong Taeui.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable sitting up there, uncle?”

“As a leader, I have to sit where I can observe everyone.”

His uncle smiled, half-jokingly. Not far from there, just a few steps away, a commander was still standing guard beside his uncle. Jeong Taeui smiled softly, then lay down and slipped into his sleeping bag. His night watch shift was the third one.

He closed his eyes with a silent sigh, thinking that he would wake up around 1 or 2 AM, stay alert for about an hour, and then go back to sleep. Though his eyes were closed, he didn’t fall asleep right away, listening to the distant sound of waves and the murmured conversations of his comrades fading into the background.

“I wonder where the other teams are? Have they met any yet?”

Carlo’s weary voice broke the silence. He was probably asking Uncle Changin, who mumbled from atop the rock and then burst into laughter:

“Everyone’s probably the same. No matter where they are, they probably haven’t met a more terrifying opponent than us.”

His uncle’s joke sparked soft laughter from all around. Perhaps because everyone was tired tonight, the laughter sounded quieter. Jeong Taeui also smiled slightly as sleepiness crept over him.

“I heard Instructor Grimsson’s team had an impressive performance recently. The training results this week seem pretty good.”

Someone else asked. Jeong Taeui’s uncle replied – “This week’s results are pretty good. But no one knows what will happen; there’s still one more week left.” –  Jeong Taeui with his eyes still closed, tilted his head in thought. Results. It seemed they scored each team to see which one performed better even during joint training sessions. Now that he thought about it, he had heard about this before.

“The reward for the last joint training was a one-week vacation for the whole team, right? What will the reward be this time?”

“Last time, they gave out $30,000 per team. Maybe it will be a similar reward this time.”

“I prefer rest over money. Right now, I just want to drop everything and rest for three days straight.”

“But only the top-performing team gets the reward, not everyone. ……Well, we’ll try harder next week.”

People talked to each other in not-too-loud voices. Jeong Taeui thought to himself – ‘Yeah, I’d prefer rest over money too.’ – He nodded in agreement. From what he heard, it seemed like they would tally the scores after the joint training and reward the team with the best performance.

“I don’t hope to be the best, but I at least hope we can surpass Instructor Grimsson’s team.”

His uncle sighed as if joking, eliciting short laughs.

“But lately, Instructor Grimsson and everyone around him seem tense…… Is it time for his promotion evaluation?”

Carlo joked and laughed, while Jeong Taeui’s uncle also laughed and replied, “When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound like a joke at all.”

Promotion, huh. Now that he thought about it, he had forgotten, but these six months were indeed the time for that.

How are things progressing? His uncle’s superior was Rudolph Jantil. It seemed they were trying to push this person up to the position of Supreme Commander. I wonder if things are going smoothly.

But thinking about that, Jeong Taeui couldn’t understand why he had been dragged into this. Although they said he was lucky to survive until the end, upon entering, he realized that the atmosphere wasn’t as dangerous as if everyone might die. It seemed only a few unlucky ones got caught in accidents and died…… His uncle didn’t have many people around him either.

But looking at it from another perspective, the person his uncle originally wanted to bring in was his older brother. If his lucky older brother were here, perhaps that luck could have been helpful to his uncle. But then he got called in to replace him.

……

Anyway, it didn’t matter. All he had to do was wait for time to pass in the current situation. If his uncle asked for his help, he would help; if his uncle said nothing, whether he was helpful or not, he could only focus on the tasks before him.

Jeong Taeui took a deep breath. The scent of damp grass and earth filled his lungs. There was also a salty scent. It was the smell of the sea. The sound of waves. The smell of the sea. The smell of grass and earth. Somewhere, the rustling of insects could be heard. The leaves rustling in the wind. These sounds evoked a strange sense of longing and a quiet melancholy.

The sound of the wind occasionally broke through the silence. The scent of the night suddenly seeped into his nose during the tranquil moment. These things made the right side of his soul tense while the left side relaxed.

Time passed in solitude and stillness, just enough to be bearable.

That moment of tranquility was broken when someone gently grabbed his shoulder and shook him lightly. Jeong Taeui opened his eyes. In front of him, Qing was gently tapping his wristwatch to signal him.

Jeong Taeui blinked in surprise and sat up. He realized that everyone had fallen asleep, with only the fire crackling quietly. When he turned his head, his uncle, who had been sitting on the rock and chatting earlier, had also disappeared.

He thought he had just closed his eyes for a moment, but it turned out he had dozed off without realizing it.

“Is it time already? I thought I just closed my eyes. Oh, my back hurts……”

Mumbling: “My back hurts……”, and rubbing his shoulder, Jeong Taeui stood up, shivering in the cold night. Qing, who had just finished his watch, sleepily crawled into his sleeping bag.

“Good luck with your hour of watch. I’m going to sleep. See you in the morning.”