Chapter 3

#3. Since I'm Enlisting, Let's Aim for a Medal (1)

My brother served on the Cheonan, and he was killed in action just before his discharge.

Seung Sejun. My brother was a good person. He lost interest in studying and gave up on college, but he was outstanding in physical strength and diligence.

To be honest, he could have gone to a local university. With his physical strength, he could have aimed for a physical education university in the capital region.

But my brother, who knew better than anyone that our family's financial situation was not comfortable, gave up on college for my sake.

Instead, he studied for certifications and helped with my parents' business.

My brother had a bright personality and the charm to draw people to him.

He was the complete opposite of me, who was good at studying but lacked social skills.

He was always the one who made me laugh, even when I was always being snappy.

That bright and reliable eldest son died pointlessly one day in the military.

It was only natural that the family was devastated.

From then on, my parents, who always smiled despite the hardships of running a small business, always had a shadow on their faces.

Thanks to my brother's death, I received a military service benefit. I served for only six months as a public service worker.

Because of this, I always felt a debt of gratitude to my brother.

―Are you really going to board our ship? I can probably talk to the administrative officer. It's a 2nd-class ship of the 2nd Fleet, which everyone avoids, so there's no pressure to get a white card.

My brother's voice, which seemed to find the situation absurd, continued to reach my ears, which were lost in a daze of memories.

Like other branches of the military, the Navy also allowed personnel transfers with a white card.

Going to a land-based post or the Cheonghae unit, which everyone wants, is difficult for a family without a white card.

However, being assigned to a 2nd-class ship of the 2nd Fleet, which everyone avoids, is something you get even if you don't want to.

“Yeah, I'll board the Cheonan where my brother is and benefit from his legacy.”

―Sigh... Do as you please. Just let me know when you're enlisting. I'll talk to the administrative officer and the chief during the later part of the training.

My brother spoke as if he had given up, but he seemed slightly excited that I would be on the same ship he was on.

That's how I finished my first semester of my first year, mining coins at home, and enlisted in the Navy in January 2010.

* * *

It has been two months and 23 days since I enlisted in the Navy.

I completed basic training and the later part of the deck training in Jinhae and have been on the Cheonan for two weeks now.

Thanks to my first choice for the 2nd Fleet and 2nd-class ship in the later part of the training, I was able to board this ship as planned.

I heard that the 2nd Fleet headquarters easily approved my assignment to the Cheonan, not just the Cheonan itself.

The fact that brothers would serve on the same ship was a good story for publicity.

Thanks to this, as soon as I boarded the ship, I took a photo with my brother.

Our photo was featured on the front page of the "Defense Daily." I wasn't happy at all.

If it were wartime, they wouldn't have put two brothers on the same ship or in the same unit.

But it was different back then. The Navy was relaxed after the victory in the Battle of Daecheong.

For publicity, the unwritten rule of not putting brothers in the same unit could be easily ignored.

“Sigh...”

I sighed for the umpteenth time while putting on cold-weather gear for my watch duty. It was mid-March, but the sea breeze was cold. Very cold.

Moreover, if the waves were a bit rough, I would suffer from seasickness, making my stomach churn for 24 hours.

I regret it, but I don't regret it.

‘You really suffered...’

Before the regression, I vaguely thought it must have been tough, but experiencing it firsthand makes it even more heart-wrenching.

Even the Navy training center in Jinhae was on a different level from the public service training center I experienced.

But the training center was nothing. Being on this old ship, built in the 1980s, made it feel like I wasn't living like a human.

How could anyone eat, sleep, and live 24 hours a day in such a narrow, stuffy, and noisy place?

Even when Korea was in ruins and I wandered around the United States, working odd jobs, it wasn't this hard.

As someone who fulfilled their national service obligation with a six-month public service stint, I find it remarkable. Not just my brother, but all the young men of this country.

Thinking about how the young men of this country have suffered and will continue to suffer, past, present, and future, makes me feel bitter.

The more I think about how they suffered and were sacrificed, yet received all sorts of contempt and ridicule, such as "military vacation" or "military slave" or "reverse discrimination," the angrier I get.

While changing into my uniform and waiting in a daze at the crew mess, I heard Sera's voice.

She had been wearing the Navy uniform since enlistment to create the impression that she was serving with me.

‘Right.’

I communicated with Sera by strongly thinking in my mind, as it's impractical to talk to her like I'm talking to myself in the confined space of the military.

My brother was on watch duty and was a senior sergeant nearing the end of his service, so he had the highest rank among the sailors on this ship.

Thanks to this, I was relatively free from the bad practices that secretly took place among the sailors.

I asked my brother for one more favor.

March 26. I asked my brother to let me stand watch on this day only.

My brother, who belonged to the engineering department, was close to a fellow recruit from the torpedo department and readily agreed to help me. He didn't ask why I wanted to stand watch on this specific day. Originally, watch duty was popular, and it was a Friday.

He just thought I was tired and wanted to sleep longer.

The officers just thought, "Oh, these privates are finally interested in the advanced military camp," when a second-class soldier was assigned to the watch duty, which was usually monopolized by corporals.

‘I'm glad the Cheonan attack data from the North Korean side is in your domain.’

[Even though I look like this, I'm a military AI. It would be strange if I didn't have the North Korean military secrets that were later revealed.]

Sera was a military logistics AI. So while she didn't know the historical lottery numbers of Korea, she had a wealth of military-related data.

Thanks to this, we had a scanned copy of the logbook of the North Korean Yono-class submarine.

We knew where they were waiting and from where they would launch their torpedoes.

* * *

I started my watch duty on the bridge at 8 PM.

The sea was pitch black. The sky was bright with the moon and stars, but clouds obscured them.

I stared at the sea for an hour, but I couldn't see anything.

Damn. The problem is that I can't see anything. Well, they would only extend their periscope to observe this place.

Seeing a periscope in broad daylight is hard enough; seeing it with the naked eye in this dark night is almost impossible.

Sera's voice kept coming from beside me.

She marked a red point somewhere in the black sea based on the logbook records.

But even with the red mark, I couldn't see the periscope.

I wish the clouds covering the sky would disperse.

If I had my enhanced body from before the regression, I could have seen it with the night vision function in my eyes. But now, all I had was an old telescope.

“Port watch report! Periscope sighted! Bearing 120! Distance approximately 1,000 yards!”

In the end, I had to make the watch report even though I couldn't see anything.

* * *

“Seoryu, are you sure you didn't see it wrong?”

The officer on duty, who was on the bridge, came out into the cold upon hearing the unexpected report from the second-class soldier on watch.

He then looked through the telescope at the place the sailor pointed to.

“It's definitely there! It's been aiming at us since a while ago.”

The sailor, Seoryu, spoke with urgency.

“Hey, this is the West Sea, not the East Sea. The West Sea coast has many reefs, so submarines can't operate here.”

The officer wanted to scold him but tried to calm him down. This sailor was the one featured in the "Defense Daily," and the captain and chief also paid attention to him.

“It's really there! It's right there.”

But Seoryu, the sailor, spoke as if he was about to go crazy.

During this time, neither Seoryu nor the officer pointed at the direction of the submarine with their fingers. They just talked while looking through the telescope.

If they pointed, they didn't know what the submarine, which was aiming at them, would do.

“Hmm... I'll talk to the situation room first. I'll ask the sonar operator to check again...”

The officer said this and tried to go back to the bridge.

But then.

“...Huh?”

The clouds that had been covering the sky moved, and the moonlight shone down, illuminating the periscope.

“Damn...!”

The officer, who saw the periscope in the moonlight, felt a chill run down his spine.

That periscope was clearly aiming at our ship like a sniper.

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep.

[All hands, anti-submarine combat stations! Actual combat!]

A few moments later, the urgent combat stations alarm echoed throughout the Cheonan.

* * *

After the actual combat stations alarm went off, the Cheonan, the ship the captain was on, fought hard.

The combat information center tightened the previously lax tension and went all out for anti-submarine operations.

“Sonar contact! Sonar contact!”

Eventually, the sonar operator, using the old sonar, detected the North Korean submarine. As a military logistics AI, I can confidently say this is a human victory.

However, the enemy also knew that our ship had detected them.

Whoosh!

“Torpedo signal confirmed!”

“Where? Where is it coming from!”

A torpedo was launched from the North Korean submarine, and the old sonar seemed to have difficulty pinpointing its exact location, causing the situation room to fall into panic.

Oh, well, in such a situation, there's nothing we can do.

The captain's watch report was a ray of light in the storm of panic.

“Seoryu! Seoryu found the torpedo!”

Now, the officers on the bridge follow the captain's words like a cult leader.

“Seoryu! You saved everyone!”

The captain, who rushed to the bridge, gave a thumbs up to the captain and immediately ordered an evasive maneuver.

“Evasive maneuver! Rudder left 80 degrees, set 270 degrees!”

“260 degrees passed! Set 270 degrees!”

“270 degrees set!”

The Cheonan barely avoided the torpedo while performing an evasive maneuver.

And then.

Boom, boom.

The Cheonan quickly moved in the direction the torpedo was launched and dropped depth charges. Soon, the North Korean Yono-class submarine was capsized by the shockwave of the depth charges and was captured by the Navy.

If it had been a perfect ambush, the North Korean submarine's torpedo would have hit. But since we had already detected them, the opposite happened.

Our sonar is broken, but North Korea is a gold medalist in the broken equipment Olympics, one tier higher than us.

The North Korean submarine, known for its poor performance, was so bad that even our nearly deaf frigate would have to sink to be of any use to national defense. It was practically being fed.