A Space Marine Got a Status Window

Private First Class Park Boseop completely lost his composure the moment Sergeant Kim Seojun handed him the steering wheel.

There was no way he could remain calm.

‘Shit, shit, shit!’

Heading toward the destroyed headquarters was already insane, but who could have imagined that they would end up encountering Thorn Snakes along the way?

Furthermore, it was Park Boseop’s first time seeing a Thorn Snake.

There was nothing strange about that.

Among Space Marines, far fewer than one might imagine had ever seen a Thorn Snake.

Not many Space Marines survived after seeing a Thorn Snake, and among those survivors, even fewer continued serving as Space Marines.

To make matters worse, those Thorn Snakes were targeting the truck.

It was a situation where losing one’s head was perfectly understandable.

Vroooooom!

However, the moment he grabbed the steering wheel, Park Boseop’s wildly racing mind began to calm down.

‘Focus, focus. I can’t lose my head while I have the steering wheel in my hands.’

Naturally, Park Boseop didn’t practice motorsports simply as a hobby.

Although it might seem like a far-fetched dream, his goal was to someday compete in American NASCAR, and he was doing everything he could to achieve it.

Of course, not only did he have a racing license, but although they weren’t particularly major competitions, he had also accumulated some experience competing professionally.

Within the Korean motorsports world, there were even people who called him a genius.

And he had also trained extensively in racing.

Thanks to all that, the moment he grabbed the steering wheel, his confusion disappeared and he began driving skillfully.

Whoooosh!

He began moving to one side, then the other, and then to the side again to dodge the thorns fired by the Thorn Snakes.

While stubbornly keeping his gaze fixed ahead, dodging enormous rocks and continuing to drive, Park Boseop finally saw it.

‘A sandstorm!’

A gigantic sandstorm was approaching, covering everything before his eyes in brown.

“Sergeant Kim Seojun, sir! It’s a sandstorm!”

He immediately warned him.

Of course, even as he spoke, Park Boseop assumed that Sergeant Kim Seojun would know perfectly well what to do and come back inside on his own.

After all, he was someone with a completely different level of experience from him.

Vroooooom!

‘Huh?’

However, even with the sandstorm approaching, Sergeant Kim Seojun didn’t return to the passenger seat.

‘What is he doing?’

It was difficult to understand.

‘There’s nothing he can do.’

In a sandstorm like that, in a world where absolutely nothing could be seen, a Space Marine couldn’t do anything with a weapon.

While Park Boseop wondered what the hell he was doing, he heard something.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

The sandstorms one encountered in space were completely different, in many ways, from those one could encounter on Earth.

In the middle of a sandstorm like that, the Space Marines’ weapons were naturally completely useless.

And the same was true for Mogdogs.

In particular, not even Thorn Snakes could properly carry out their thorn attacks in the middle of a sandstorm.

That was why, whenever a sandstorm appeared, one of the virtues every Space Marine needed to possess was to run away without even looking back.

And Kim Seojun knew that virtue better than anyone.

However, this time he didn’t run away.

There was no particularly grand reason behind his decision.

‘X-Ray Vision.’

He now possessed a new skill.

‘Let’s test it.’

He had no reason to carefully keep that skill hidden and wait until later to secretly test it.

“X-Ray Vision.”

So he immediately used the X-Ray Vision skill.

Truthfully, until that moment, he had only intended to test the skill once and then run away depending on the situation.

‘……My God.’

However, the moment he used X-Ray Vision and saw the world that appeared before his eyes, Kim Seojun could no longer run away.

‘I can see them.’

Because he could see the Thorn Snakes on the other side of that dense sandstorm.

He couldn’t see them clearly.

It was like watching one of those extremely low-resolution videos from the early twenty-first century through all kinds of visual noise and interference; he could only vaguely make out the presence of the Thorn Snakes.

However, for Kim Seojun, that was enough.

Because that red line extended from the barrel of the weapon he was aiming, and the moment that line touched something, the shot hit with one hundred percent accuracy.

Furthermore, that accuracy didn’t work under such a simple concept as, if the light touched the target, then the bullet would hit.

For starters, bullets didn’t fly properly inside a sandstorm.

Even if you used the laser pointer installed on the weapon and managed to place the laser exactly on the target, if you fired just like that, not only would the bullets fail to hit, but they would veer completely off course.

Light wasn’t deflected by the wind, but bullets were greatly affected by it.

However, that red line was different.

All of that had already been adjusted for.

In other words, if the red line touched the target, the shot would hit no matter what kind of natural disaster was occurring.

On the other hand, all the difficulties mentioned above, the difficulties that affected ranged attacks, fully applied to the Thorn Snakes.

Then what should he do?

There was nothing to think about.

Kim Seojun immediately aimed his weapon and, the moment the red line touched the blurry silhouette of a Thorn Snake, pulled the trigger.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Gunshots rang out.

And shortly afterward, he heard a notification.

[Combat has ended. Beginning calculation of results.]

[You have eliminated 15 Thorn Snakes. You have obtained 75 points.]

[You have eliminated 15 Thorn Snakes from a distance greater than 500 meters. You will be awarded 150 points as an Expert Marksman bonus.]

[You have won the battle. You will be awarded 100 points as a reward.]

The moment he heard the notifications and could no longer see any Thorn Snakes, Kim Seojun returned to the passenger seat without hesitation.

Thud!

Kim Seojun, dressed in his battle suit, practically dropped himself into the open-top military truck, producing a loud thud as he sat down.

“Sergeant Kim!”

Park Boseop called out to Kim Seojun without letting go of the steering wheel, his gaze still fixed ahead as he concentrated on driving.

“Good job driving.”

Kim Seojun praised Park Boseop.

And he sincerely meant it.

Even throughout all the hells, hardships, and space battles Kim Seojun had experienced during his active service, he had met very few drivers capable of maintaining their concentration behind the wheel in a situation like that.

“T-Thank you, sir.”

Park Boseop responded to the praise without taking his eyes off the road ahead.

‘The Thorn Snakes are behind us. I have to stay focused. I don’t know when they’ll attack us again.’

From Park Boseop’s perspective, since he had no way of knowing that all the Thorn Snakes had already been eliminated, he couldn’t afford to lower his guard.

Kim Seojun didn’t explain the details to him.

He had no reason to tell him from beginning to end about the miracle he had obtained.

He simply asked.

“How much battery is left?”

“Around 77 percent, sir.”

“That’ll be enough to reach headquarters. Let’s go straight there.”

“Yes?”

Park Boseop showed a surprised expression at those words.

“To headquarters, sir? Isn’t it dangerous?”

They had just encountered Thorn Snakes, and furthermore, those Thorn Snakes hadn’t remained in one place, but had been moving.

That proved that the Mog were on the move.

Precisely because of that, during their training before becoming Space Marines, that point had been drilled into them again and again.

When a Mog horde began to move, they were to immediately stop whatever they were doing, enter a base, remain completely silent, and wait there until they received orders from their superiors.

Kim Seojun knew that too.

He knew better than anyone that extreme caution had to be exercised when a Mog horde was on the move.

However, everything depended on the circumstances.

“The fact that a group of Thorn Snakes is moving on its own means the Mog horde is mobilizing hastily and quickly. And the Mog only move quickly when they’re going to hunt humans.”

It was clear that those Thorn Snakes had been moving toward their next battle.

That was also the reason they had suddenly attacked Kim Seojun’s group the moment they saw them.

It meant that the Mog had received an attack order.

“Although I could only estimate it roughly, the direction the Thorn Snakes were moving was toward our headquarters.”

Combining that with the rest of the information led to the following conclusion.

“In short, there’s a high probability that the Mog horde that attacked our headquarters is already moving somewhere else. That means there’s a possibility that headquarters is empty right now or, even if there are still Mog there, there may not be many of them.”

The moment he heard that, Park Boseop no longer had any doubts.

“Yes, sir. Then I’ll floor it.”

Vroooooom!

Space was immense.

And the planets of the universe were gigantic.

Even those who had lived in fairly vast regions of Earth, after visiting a planet in space just once, ended up thinking.

‘Earth really was small.’

Planet Amotia was no exception.

It was enormous, and because of that, even traveling at full speed, Kim Seojun’s group took no less than seventeen hours to reach headquarters.

After traveling that enormous distance, Kim Seojun immediately used a pair of binoculars to observe the headquarters of the Korean division on planet Amotia.

“It was definitely the Mog.”

The state of the Korean division that appeared before his eyes was completely different from what he had seen when he first arrived there.

From the resource extraction plants to the military factories and barracks, every facility that had formed part of headquarters had been brutally destroyed.

“Ah……”

At that sight, Park Boseop was completely stunned.

He had seen countless cases like that.

After all, during his time at the training center, one of the things they had been shown most often was precisely how terrifying the Mog were.

He had seen countless videos and photographs of armies and bases brutally devastated by the Mog.

However, the impact of seeing that scene directly was incomparable to seeing it in photographs or videos.

Faced with the overwhelming destruction the Mog were capable of causing, even his will to fight such monsters was crushed.

‘I feel like I’m going to throw up.’

Park Boseop even felt as though the energy gel he had eaten at the supply base was about to come back up his throat.

“What a relief.”

“Yes?”

Park Boseop reacted in surprise at the words Kim Seojun had just spoken.

“W-What is a relief, sir?”

Seeing his confusion, Kim Seojun explained.

“I’m not saying it’s fortunate that headquarters fell. From what I can see right now, it looks like headquarters was destroyed by Mogdogs, Thorn Snakes, and Bomb Bugs. I don’t see any traces of individuals more powerful than those.”

After hearing that explanation, Private First Class Park Boseop understood to some extent.

Of course, he still wore a surprised expression. From his perspective, the situation remained just as desperate.

For Kim Seojun, however, that was quite important.

‘It looks like absurd monsters like a Behemoth or a Sky Whale didn’t come. What a relief.’

If terrifying existences such as a gigantic Behemoth or a Sky Whale that flew through the sky while spewing out all kinds of monsters had appeared within the Mog horde, it would mean there was no way to leave planet Amotia alive.

And it wasn’t simply because those things were terrifying.

‘If the situation gets too serious, the higher-ups will immediately begin a cleanup.’

From the perspective of the higher-ups, if they judged that the situation had become unsustainable, they would simply make the decision to sweep the entire planet.

‘If they send in the Battlecruisers, then it’s over.’

And the moment that cleanup began, everyone on planet Amotia could consider themselves dead.

However, from what he could see now, although the situation was serious, it still hadn’t reached a level that required the intervention of Battlecruisers.

‘I don’t want to see something like what happened on planet Sylph ever again.’

Precisely because he had already experienced one of those cleanups, Kim Seojun could now let out a sigh of relief.

Of course, it would be a different story if the situation worsened even further.

In any case, for the moment, it wasn’t an extremely serious situation.

At least by Kim Seojun’s standards.

And the simple fact that he had confirmed that already made this reconnaissance mission a success.

There was no doubt about that.

[We request rescue.]

“Huh?”

A rescue request came through the speakers installed in the battle suit.

Naturally, it could only have come from one place.

“It looks like there are survivors at headquarters.”

At that moment, Private First Class Park Boseop and Kim Seojun’s gazes met.

Park Boseop didn’t respond with words.

He said it with his expression.

Accepting that rescue request was complete madness.

Faced with that expression, Kim Seojun didn’t respond either. He simply turned his head and once again observed the situation at headquarters.

Headquarters had been brutally destroyed.

Kieeeeeek!

Mogdogs could be seen moving back and forth across the ruins of headquarters.

‘About three hundred?’

There weren’t many.

And that wasn’t a mistaken perception.

No matter how weak the Korean division on planet Amotia was, the forces at its headquarters weren’t at a level that could be destroyed by barely a thousand Mogdogs.

At the very least, a horde of more than ten thousand must have arrived.

If a horde like that had devastated the place and only three hundred remained afterward, that was truly a small number.

Of course, it still wasn’t a number that just two Space Marines could handle.

Furthermore, if they fought a battle there, it would be combat in open terrain, whose difficulty was on a completely different level from fighting from inside a bunker.

And above all, what they had just received was a rescue request.

They would not only have to eliminate those Mogdogs, but also rescue an important person who must be trapped somewhere.

The conditions were terrible in every respect.

And even that wasn’t all.

Kim Seojun raised his gaze toward the sky.

The sandstorm had temporarily stopped, and in that sky, he could see a black dot moving.

‘It’s a Cyclops.’

Its true identity was a Cyclops, one of the Mog species.

It was a twenty-meter monster that flew through the sky and looked like a balloon that had grown legs resembling a squid’s tentacles.

Furthermore, it had an enormous eye on its belly, which was why it had been given the name Cyclops, for being a one-eyed monster.

Its appearance was ridiculous.

It didn’t possess any combat ability either.

However, for the Space Marines who fought the Mog, a Cyclops was a nightmare in itself.

The reason was simple.

‘The moment we touch the Mogdogs, the Cyclops will alert everything in the surrounding area.’

That Cyclops was the leader commanding the Mog.

The moment they caused a disturbance there, the Cyclops would summon every Mog in the surrounding area.

That meant thousands of Mog, or even more, would rush there to attack Kim Seojun’s group.

In other words, if they carried out the rescue operation, they would have to complete most of the necessary actions in less than an hour.

It was an absurd mission.

“Uh, Sergeant Kim……”

At that moment, Park Boseop called out to him in an almost pleading tone.

In other words, that voice was saying.

‘Please, give the order for us to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.’

Kim Seojun answered.

“We’re soldiers. That’s why we can’t ignore a rescue request. Even if we have to die trying.”

“Ah……”

At that response, Park Boseop’s face hardened into an expression of absolute despair.

Who would have imagined that he would answer like that?

“Y-Yes, you’re right, sir.”

On the other hand, it was a completely natural response.

Receive a rescue request and ignore it?

That wasn’t right, not just as a soldier, but even as a human being.

“W-We have to rescue them.”

So Park Boseop desperately suppressed his dejection and nodded.

Then Kim Seojun told him.

“……Honestly, I don’t give a shit about that kind of thing.”

“Yes?”

“I’m not interested in military creeds or anything like that. There’s only one reason I reenlisted in the military money.”

A bewildered expression appeared on Park Boseop’s face.

Kim Seojun continued.

“If we rescue an important person, we’ll receive a monetary reward.”

“Yes? Really, sir?”

“It doesn’t happen very often, and the military deliberately doesn’t publicize it, so most people don’t know that clause exists. If they don’t want to pay you, you sue them afterward and they end up paying.”

At that moment, Park Boseop’s gaze changed.

“I’ll say it again. I reenlisted to make money.”

Because Park Boseop was the same.

He also wanted to make money and return to Earth.

And now that opportunity had appeared before him.

“Of course, I don’t intend to let money blind me and end up losing my life either. But I think it’s worth taking a gamble right now. And above all, if we really manage to rescue the Major commanding this division, our chances of surviving from now on will increase enormously.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

“Officers with the rank of Major are given a tracking device that ordinary Space Marines aren’t provided with. If we begin a rescue operation, we’ll first track his location and move toward it.”

After hearing that explanation, Park Boseop stopped hesitating.

“What do I have to do, sir?”

He asked.

And Kim Seojun answered.

“Do you know how to drift?”