A Space Marine Got a Status Window

The future of humanity in the year 2126 was not very different from what humanity a hundred years earlier, that is, in 2026, had imagined.

Humanity had ventured into space to free itself from the limitations of Earth’s space and resources, and now explored the seemingly infinite resources and mysteries awaiting in the cosmos.

“Humanity will win the war against the Mog!”

And, just as humanity had imagined a hundred years earlier, it was now waging a war against alien lifeforms that roamed through space and threatened humanity.

That was all.

Human life expectancy had surpassed three hundred years. Most existing diseases, including cancer, could be cured.

Technology had advanced to such an extent that it was possible not only to go on space tours, but also to own a private home on Mars or the Moon, complete with a swimming pool and vegetable garden.

However, the way most of humanity lived was not very different from a hundred years earlier.

“Humanity’s technological advancement is dazzling! We can now enjoy countless things that would have been unimaginable a hundred years ago!”

The reason was simple.

“As long as you have money!”

Everything mentioned above cost money.

A tremendous amount of money.

In fact, in a certain sense, making a living was even harder than it had been a hundred years earlier.

After all, a hundred years ago, humans at least did not have to compete for jobs against robots capable of working twenty-four hours a day without complaining or even taking a smoke break, autonomous vehicles capable of traveling at three hundred kilometers per hour without causing a single accident, or artificial intelligences capable of producing a thousand illustrations per second.

In a world like that, there was practically only one way for an ordinary person to make a large amount of money.

“We’re recruiting soldiers to fight in the war against the Mog!”

Hunting the Mog, a race of space monsters that threatened humanity from the depths of the cosmos.

Kim Seojun had also chosen that path.

“Yeongcheol.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Why does Korea still have mandatory military service?”

“Because we’re still a divided country, aren’t we? You’ve got North Korea right there.”

“Does it really make any sense to talk about a divided country in the space age? In a world as vast as space, do you think that dividing line still has any meaning?”

“Bastard, you got your draft notice, didn’t you?”

When he turned nineteen, he received his draft notice.

“Yeah, I got it. Damn it. I don’t understand why they’re still sending out draft notices in the middle of the twenty-second century.”

“Why do you think? From the country’s point of view, it’d be absurd to waste an opportunity to get cheap labor. Besides, these days it’s not like they force you to do anything dangerous. You get a little basic training, they send you to work at a military factory, and that’s it. Right? Isn’t that how it works? Hey, wait. Seojun, you’re not thinking about… Hey, no. Don’t fuck with me. You’re not thinking about that, are you?”

And when he received that draft notice, Kim Seojun said.

“I’m going to enlist in the Space Marines.”

He would become a Space Marine, cross through space, and fight alien monsters face-to-face.

“Are you fucking crazy, idiot?!”

Naturally, it was madness.

“Why the hell do you want to do something that suicidal?”

“Why do you think anyone enlists in the Space Marines these days?”

“For money?”

“Yeah.”

But Kim Seojun had no choice.

“My brother collapsed.”

“Jinsu hyung?”

“My sister-in-law doesn’t want to tell me anything, but it seems pretty bad. Especially his liver and pancreas. He needs new organ transplants, but you know what the prices are like, don’t you?”

His brother was sick.

“Hey, even so, that’s too……”

“It’s not a matter of whether it’s too much or not. Yeongcheol, you know too. You know everything my brother went through for me and Hyeeun.”

“Well, that’s……”

And to Kim Seojun, his older brother, Kim Jinsu, was not simply a brother.

“I still can’t imagine what it must be like to become the head of the family at fifteen and have to take care of two siblings aged five and three.”

A tragedy had befallen their parents.

But, in the midst of that tragedy, Kim Seojun’s older brother had not broken down and had sacrificed everything for his younger siblings.

“I also can’t imagine what it must be like to go into space as a mercenary at seventeen, before you even get your draft notice, to shoot at the Mog.”

He would save his younger siblings.

With that single purpose in mind, his brother had demonstrated courage and a capacity for sacrifice that no one else would have dared to show.

And now that brother was sick.

“He did it for me. Now it’s my turn to do it.”

So, when he had the opportunity to help that brother, Kim Seojun did not hesitate.

He enlisted in the Space Marines.

His life from then on was even more miserable than anyone could have imagined.

Facing those monsters while wearing a battle suit and wielding a weapon was absolute madness.

He wrote his will before every mission.

Countless times, he had watched comrades who had been laughing and joking with him barely ten minutes earlier get eaten alive by the Mog.

“Sergeant Kim, you’re being discharged in a week?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, what if you stay in the military? I’m serious. I’ve seen a lot of soldiers by now, but you’ve got extraordinary talent. If you want, I can even write you a letter of recommendation for the special forces.”

“I haven’t gone crazy yet, sir.”

“……What a relief. If you’d accepted, I was planning to send you straight to a psychiatric hospital.”

However, Kim Seojun survived, and eventually the time came to bid farewell to the battlefield against the Mog.

“Sergeant Kim Seojun, you did a great job. And I’m not just saying that. Thanks to the courage you showed on the battlefield, hundreds of people were saved.”

“It was an honor to serve in your company, sir.”

After giving that final military salute, Kim Seojun finally boarded a ship bound for Earth and returned home after three years.

The next six years were the very picture of happiness.

The money he had earned serving as a Space Marine was no small amount, and thanks to it, his brother recovered his health. In addition, his recovered brother and sister-in-law had a son whom they adored more than anything in the world.

Watching his brother and sister-in-law, Kim Seojun also began to dream of getting a good job, finding a partner with whom he could share mutual trust, having children, and living happily.

He dreamed of a rosy future.

However, that future soon came crashing down.

On the day his nephew turned five, an incident occurred.

A terrorist attack.

And his brother was caught in it.

He suffered burns all over his body and was mangled from head to toe.

In the twenty-first century, those injuries would have meant instant death, but twenty-second-century medical technology was capable of saving him.

Of course, there was one condition.

Money.

It required a tremendous amount of money.

“Uncle, when is Dad going to wake up?”

Hearing his nephew’s question as he looked at his father, who still had not awakened, Kim Seojun answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“Soon.”

The very moment he uttered that word, Kim Seojun applied to join as a non-commissioned officer.

And at the same time, he volunteered.

“Sergeant Kim Seojun, is there anywhere in particular you’d like to serve?”

“I want to go wherever pays the most.”

“……Are you serious?”

“Yes, sir. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have enlisted for a second time.”

“So you are serious.”

He went to the most fucked-up place of all.

A planet where resource extraction had barely begun and where no one even knew what might be found.

He was not afraid.

“Sergeant Kim, is this your first mission since receiving your appointment?”

“Yes. Why?”

“No reason, sir. I was just curious. By the way, did you bring diapers? I’m not trying to make fun of you. When someone sees a Mog for the first time, ten times out of ten, whether they’re soldiers or NCOs, they shit or piss themselves. Even I still wear one from time to time, sir.”

“Corporal Lee Jihoon.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I reenlisted.”

“Sir?”

“This is my second time in the military.”

Because he had already been through all of it before.

And that was precisely what made the difference.

[We will soon enter the planet Amotia.]

When they arrived on that developing planet where resource extraction had barely begun.

[Mog detected ahead!]

[A pack of Mogdogs is approaching!]

The Mogdogs were two meters long and possessed an insect-like exoskeleton. They ran on four legs like dogs and, above those, had a pair of scythe-shaped limbs resembling the forelegs of a praying mantis.

A hundred of those creatures charged directly toward them.

“G-God! T-There are too many!”

“Then inject it.”

“Sir?”

“Do you think you can look at those things while sober? Everyone, inject your Stimpaks!”

Kim Seojun did not lose his composure.

With absolute calm, he injected himself with a Stimpak, the stimulant supplied to the Space Marines.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

And within that transformed world, with all his senses altered, Sergeant Kim Seojun fought alongside his subordinates in a battle where everyone put their lives on the line.

It was an extremely fierce battle.

To the point where it would not have been strange if all of them had died.

“Survivors?”

“Eight, sir.”

Fortunately, luck was on their side, and Kim Seojun and his subordinates managed to win the battle.

They had witnessed a miracle.

“Two dead.”

There was sorrow as well.

However, even then, Kim Seojun was neither shaken nor surprised nor crushed by grief.

Because he had already lived through all of it before.

And because he knew he would live through it countless times again in the future.

Although, of course, there was another reason as well.

“Wooooo! Fireworks! They’re fireworks!”

“Hehehehe, hihihihi.”

The side effects of the Stimpak stimulant were distorting their five senses, and under those conditions, it was impossible to properly express emotions or make rational judgments.

Kim Seojun was no exception.

Whenever he injected a Stimpak, he naturally suffered its side effects as well.

The world began to look different from usual, and his ears heard auditory hallucinations, sounds that could not possibly exist in reality.

That was why.

[The status window has been activated.]

‘Hm?’

When he suddenly heard that voice in his ears, Kim Seojun thought it was simply another side effect of the Stimpak.

And it was not a particularly strange side effect either.

He had already seen some of his comrades, completely drugged by the visual and auditory hallucinations caused by the Stimpaks, shout things like.

I leveled up!

The Constellation sponsored me!

I got an instant-death skill!

That was why Kim Seojun did not think too much of it either.

“A status window, huh?”

[Kim Seojun]

— Strength: 11
— Endurance: 14
— Mana: 1
— Skills: None
— Talents: Dynamic Vision (E)
— Points: 0 pt
— Tickets: 1 Gold Ticket

Even when he saw a holographic window appear in front of him as soon as he uttered the words ‘status window,’ he thought the same thing.

‘……This hallucination is pretty intense.’

He simply believed that the side effects had hit him harder than usual.

“A Gold Ticket?”

Ssssss.

“Huh?”

However, things changed when, as soon as he uttered those words, he saw a golden ticket appear on the glove of his battle suit.

‘……Is this a hallucination?’

As he thought that, he stared at the Gold Ticket that had appeared in his hand.

Then another window appeared.

[Gold Ticket]

— By tearing the ticket, you can obtain an attribute, a skill, or a talent.

Of course, even after reading that, Kim Seojun was still not completely convinced.

He still believed it could be a hallucination.

Riiip!

But then he tore the Gold Ticket.

[You have torn a Gold Ticket.]

[Congratulations! You have obtained a Platinum-grade reward.]

[You have obtained Apollo’s Blessing (55 days)!]

[You can now see the trajectory of all projectiles.]

It was at that very instant.

[Mog detected ahead!]

[333 Mogdogs have currently been confirmed!]

Suddenly, a combat alert rang out.

Kim Seojun regained his focus and shouted at his subordinates, who were still under the effects of the drugs.

“Everyone, prepare for combat! Aim your weapons!”

“Huh? R-Right now, sir? I… I’m seeing strange things, sir!”

“Same here.”

And then Kim Seojun could see it.

Click!

He aimed his weapon at the Mogdogs charging toward them.

And from the end of the barrel, he saw a line of red light extending outward, as if it were a laser.

“……I’m seeing something strange too.”

Kim Seojun’s first day as a non-commissioned officer.

He obtained a status window.