Bang—!
Although I attached a suppressor, the gunshot didn't completely disappear.
The remaining goblin scouts were startled and looked toward the direction of the sound.
'One cut.'
Piercing the weak point, the head, it went down in one shot.
'Ammo consumption will be low, huh?'
Whoosh—.
With the influence of [Breathing], [Rifle Marksmanship], and [Aiming] skills, I could quickly fire a bullet at the next target.
Bang—!
"Kweeeek―!!!"
'Two cut.'
[You hunted a monster in real combat.]
[Proficiency of 'Rifle Marksmanship' and 'Aiming' increases significantly.]
'Skill proficiency rises more in real combat.'
Good information.
But if it's like this, I might have to submit a resignation letter to KAMC?
'I should think about this a little more.'
It might be better to experience real combat by taking requests.
"Think about that later."
Bang—!
Three goblin scouts died instantly from three shots.
'Good.'
Twelve goblin scouts remaining. And seemingly realizing the direction I was in, they started running toward me.
'They are fast, but....'
The distance is still far. And my shooting speed is...?
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
"So this is the power of skills."
I finally feel how comfortable it must have been for Awakened to fight.
To think the difference of having a single skill is this big.
'It's on a different level from when I shot the K2 in the army.'
It wasn't a perfect score, but I often hit 18 or 19 shots... but with skills, it's a hundred out of a hundred.
"Kweeeek―!!!"
"Kereuk―!!!"
Three more died from the three shots just fired. I've already killed six.
If it were an emergency, I would switch to burst fire, but seeing how the situation is unfolding, it seemed possible to handle them all with single shots.
Bang—!
"Fifteen lowest-grade magic stones... fifteen goblin poison daggers... fifteen goblin leather armors too...."
[You have acquired the skill 'Collection'!]
[Collection Lv.1: Item collection probability increases.]
[You have acquired the skill 'Butchery'!]
[Butchery Lv.1: You can butcher carcasses and obtain byproducts intact.]
After finishing off fifteen goblins and farming, I acquired two additional skills. And there were skills that leveled up.
[Rifle Inspection Lv.1 $\rightarrow$ Lv.2]
[Rifle Marksmanship Lv.1 $\rightarrow$ Lv.2]
[Beginner Dagger Mastery Lv.1 $\rightarrow$ Lv.2]
[Aiming Lv.1 $\rightarrow$ Lv.2]
'Since I butchered goblin corpses with a dagger to get magic stones, [Beginner Dagger Mastery] skill also leveled up.'
This is what happens when every single action becomes a skill.
"Now I just need to take photos of the fifteen goblin corpses, clean up the scene, and upload the request completion report."
It felt somewhat fascinating to be doing things I had only heard about.
"Resolution complete. Now the money will be deposited."
The fee deposited upon request resolution is 5 million won.
This is on the very cheap side. Usually, monster resolution requests go over 10 million won.
'It was probably because they were easy goblins and few in number....'
Still, I can't perform expensive requests from the start. Since I'm new to this industry. Requests that a beginner with no experience like me can do are only things like this. For right now.
"Now... I just need to leave the cut goblin ears at the designated location, right?"
The final condition the client placed was to cut the ears of the killed goblins and leave them at a designated location, since photos alone aren't certain.
Thud—.
"Done. Let's go now."
I sprinkled oil on the corpses, set them on fire, and incinerated them until they turned to ash.
"What did you do during your vacation to look this good?"
"Ah, just went to see my family. Brother, anything special today?"
"Nothing special... no wait, the Team Leader wasn't in a good mood."
"Eh? Did something happen?"
I returned to work after my vacation ended, and Team Leader Han Gye-seon looked incredibly stressed.
"You know the land he sold last time. That...."
"Ah, the one the executives above told him to sell if he had any?"
"Yeah, that's right. A sustainable Gate opened on that land yesterday. Sigh... if he had sold it just a little later, how much would that be…."
Ki-jun lowered his voice and told me.
"A s-sustainable Gate...?"
"Yeah, from what I heard, Golden Arrow Guild bought it for 2 billion won. A first-place lottery win just flew away."
"Wow...."
'Deserved to be stressed.'
Gates are divided into single-use and sustainable.
Single-use ends once it opens and closes.
Sustainable is a Gate that remains open continuously. From the perspective of a guild or KAMC, it is an entity that must be purchased.
So a sustainable one fetches the price of a decent apartment in the metropolitan area. Truly fitting of the phrase 'life reversal'....
'To miss that.'
"He must be so regretful."
"Exactly... sigh...."
Under KAMC, there is the Gate Research Center.
So even if not precise, it is possible to roughly grasp where a Gate will appear.
'That's why the audit on KAMC employees is even stricter.'
Because of the reason that one could profit using internal information.
'So the Team Leader sold the land too....'
But a lottery jackpot hit on that land.
"A salaryman's life could have blossomed, shame."
"Sigh, I wish a sustainable Gate would open at my house too."
"Isn't that everyone's wish? Hehehe...."
To become stronger, money is needed.
'Five million won for solving one request.'
Of course, considering the costs I prepared for the request out of the 5 million won, the net profit is less than that. Anyway, it's a hugely profitable business. To earn that much money by investing just a few hours a day.
'If I perform Untied requests, there won't be a shortage of money for a while.'
One might think, can't I just leave KAMC then, but....
'I should suck all the honey I can suck as much as possible before leaving.'
I decided to stay at KAMC as long as possible. KAMC is the place where one can detect and grasp abnormal phenomena faster than any other group or people in Korea. Plus, I can use the training facilities made with poured money for free.
"Phew...."
[Proficiency of 'Breathing' skill increases.]
I didn't realize, but [Breathing] has already reached Level 3. No wonder fatigue has almost disappeared lately, and the stuttering in every single action has vanished.
'Combining [Agility] with the [Breathing] effect, the efficiency is tremendous.'
"What are you thinking about so intently again?"
"Ah, brother. Just... thinking about the next time I go into combat."
"Combat?"
"Just... thinking of performing properly once and getting some bonus?"
"Hey... don't overdo it. Don't you know about the accident Team 1 had last time."
"Haha... right."
Ki-jun is the person I'm closest to within KAMC. And a trustworthy person too.
'I should reveal it to Ki-jun hyung first. Not now but... later.'
"By the way, I heard a single-use Gate appeared near Cheorwon yesterday, and an unregistered Awakened handled it."
"Really?"
Flinch—.
"Yeah, the monitoring team said they confirmed an unregistered Awakened performed the request on Untied."
The task dedicated to the monitoring team is monitoring everything including issues related to Awakened. So naturally, surveillance of Untied, the deep web community for unregistered Awakened, is included in their work.
"They must be comfortable. Going home after just surfing the internet."
"Ey, everyone has their own difficulties."
"Why are you acting like a saint? Did something good really happen during your vacation? Did you get a girlfriend?"
"No."
There wasn't anything special during the vacation. Just that things were running as usual.
"Ah, and did you hear that rumor? They say this administration is planning to conduct an operation to retake the Kaema Plateau?"
"Yes? Retaking Kaema Plateau? Are they crazy?"
"Exactly... but I heard the budget attached to this is tremendous. Rumor has it that the 3 Great Guilds all stepped up to participate."
Kaema Plateau.
The day of Great Chaos when the first Gate opened. North Korea was destroyed.
Korea had rotting piles of shells and armored forces, so they managed to somehow wrap up the chaos that arose nationwide with massive bombardment and armored waves.
Of course, the power of Awakened was needed for powerful monsters above the level of Orc Elite Warriors.
But North Korea?
'They had nothing but nukes.'
No oil to run armored forces, no bullets for soldiers to shoot, and no food for them to eat.
On top of that, the so-called 'Baekdu Bloodline,' which tried to further solidify their ruling base through the existence of Awakened, was killed by the betrayal of a single Awakened who was a close bodyguard, and North Korea collapsed from within.
Korea wrapped up the Gate Incident, entered the anarchic North Korea, and succeeded in the unification they dreamed of.
Why didn't China intervene?
'Well, their land is vast so it took a long time to resolve the Gate Incident.'
The disadvantage of a country with vast territory and a large population is that the damage from the day of Great Chaos is large. At least the US, with its weight class, managed to hold on somehow and still maintains its status as a superpower.
'China and Russia really struggled.'
Still, China eventually resolved it and succeeded in maintaining the position of the 2nd ranked country.
On the other hand, Russia lost control of Siberia, and the country split in two as the Far East region centered on Vladivostok and the Western region bordering Europe completely separated.
Russia in the west centered on Moscow, and the Siberian Republic in the east centered on Siberia were formed.
Anyway, South Korea succeeded in unification without much difficulty, but the Kaema Plateau still remained an unrecovered territory.
"I think entering Kaema Plateau is a suicidal act...."
"It seems they plan to mobilize not only Awakened but also the military to sweep everything away. There was also discussion about using nuclear weapons."
"They've gone mad, really."
Korea, which had a bloated army on a small territory, wrapped up the Gate Incident faster than expected and quickly marched north to unify.
When superpowers like the US, China, and Russia couldn't even pay attention, Korea got its hands on the nuclear weapons North Korea had. The US, which resolved the Gate Incident only about a year and a half after the day of Great Chaos, just turned a blind eye and moved on. Like that, Korea was unofficially recognized as a nuclear power.
But to use nukes too? This government is really crazy.
"There's also a rumor that this time they even contacted the Untied side. It seems they intend to take all the unregistered Awakened as mercenaries."
"???"
Is that real?
'Then what about me?'
I joined Untied too?
"Then when do they say the Kaema Plateau retaking operation will proceed?"
"I don't know. In my opinion... wouldn't they announce it in the New Year's address next January?"
'Then roughly 6 months left....'
"Thanks for the info."
"Well... but what do we do knowing this info anyway. We're destined to be dragged along anyway."
"Haha, right?"
I didn't inform my family about the fact that I re-awakened, and I felt I made the right choice.
'To stand on the front lines of the Kaema Plateau recovery operation... the burden is too big.'
If it is revealed that I am a strong person who re-awakened a good Unique Ability, it's unconditionally the front lines.
I'll have to think a lot and decide when to reveal my re-awakening.
Bang—!
"You are good at pistol shooting too."
"Thank you for the compliment."
"I'm saying it because it really deserves praise. Looking at your records, Mr. Lee Si-woo, it seems like your first time shooting a pistol, but your breathing is so stable, and you're really good?"
I can't help but be good at pistol shooting.
[Pistol Marksmanship Lv.1: Accuracy of pistol shooting improves. Damage of pistol shooting increases slightly.]
[Pistol Inspection Lv.1: You can quickly check for abnormalities through pistol inspection.]
Skills appeared like this as soon as I held the pistol and fired once.
But this surprised me a bit.
[You have acquired 5 gun-related skills: 'Rifle Marksmanship', 'Rifle Inspection', 'Rifle Maintenance', 'Pistol Marksmanship', 'Pistol Inspection'.]
[Upon acquiring 1 more gun-related skill, all gun-related skills will evolve into 'Advanced Skills'.]
[Advanced Gun-Related Skill '???': Acquisition Condition 5/6]
'What?'
Advanced Skill.
A concept I've never seen before appeared.
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