Clearing the Game at the End of the World

When is it that a person feels the desire to live the most?

When they set an ambitious goal they want to reach?

When they want to save someone?

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Nope. I guarantee you but a person will reach their peak of desire to live when they face a barrage of bullets from the enemy.

‘I want to live.’

Watching the skies brighten as the sun came up… that was the first thought that came into my mind as tears unconsciously pooled in my eyes.

The sunlight split into dozens of rays as it poured into the tent through the countless bullet holes. They were all created just a day ago.

“…Roll call.”

“No need. Falmur and Dorris aren’t here.”

“I know, asshole! I just want to hear from the guys that are alive, so just shut it and do roll call!”

“…Lance Sergeant Liam Olson.”

“Samuel Marcheti.”

“Do it properly, Miss. Sergeant Dorris Richach.”

“Staff Sergeant—”

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“S-Senior Private Gyosu Park…”

Ending the roll call with my name, a heavy silence enveloped the atmosphere in the barracks.

The gunshots flew through the morning air.

Enemies pushing through the layers of booby traps they placed and invading the camp.

Without any combat boots, uniform, or firearm, I carried just a single radio in my pack and ran after Squad Leader John through the jungle in the rain of bullets. The boots I were handed down had no front or backside. Looking closer to a flip-flop and running through the jungle with them led to his feet suffering all sorts of scratches and wounds.

“…F**k. Good job saving your own skin, everyone. Specially M.J., that’s one hell of a grenade toss. Over half of the guys here lived thanks to that f**king major league throw.”

“Heheh, that’s the last of that too. We’re all out of grenades now.”

“S**t. Hope Dorris and Falmur wait a bit before they go. We’re probably joining them soon anyway. Hey! Everyone get your stuff out!”

On Squad Leader John’s command, the squad members sprawled out on the beds, got up with a string of curses and took out all sorts of knickknacks from their personal lockers. Some pulled out underwear that was still usable, someone a half-dried pen. Someone a bulletproof vest with holes in it.

When all of the objects that the squad members pulled out gathered together, it became supplies enough for two people.

Liam, a middle-aged man separable with his distinct blonde hair and blue eyes, took out a bible instead of taking out an object of his own. Under the light shining through the bullet holes, a small mass for the comrades who passed was held.

“Our heavenly father, please help guide the tired and anguished. The world is painted from the blood of war and tribulation. Bear pity on our brothers who have drowned in blood and murder so that they are not turned away…”

‘This isn’t going to work.’

Inside Gyosu’s head as he closed his eyes was not grief, but something else.

The things he saw as he followed behind John.

Guard posts and trenches were built in each direction. The place was built originally for a machine gun nest but was turned into a trench a long time ago after they ran out of bullets. With just two proper machine gun nests on higher ground, they would have been able to push away the enemy without any casualties.

The squad members’ conditions were a problem as well. The soldiers were all starving, barely sustaining off of one spoiled can of beans a day. I could clearly see that they were much more trained than him, but they still tired quickly. They didn’t have anything to eat, so there wasn’t any energy left in them. There was a reason why they all lazily lied around during the day.

‘We’re all going to die if this goes on.’

Gyosu thought about what he, with inferior stamina and shooting skills, could do for them.

Unlike the others who were on the brink of starvation, he still had strength left.

Enemies in the front and the allies in the back were doing nothing more than stopping them from running away. The 14 Special Ops Squad was trapped.

If he wanted to live, he needed to save everyone else.

The prayer ended, and even as Squad Leader John collected the two people’s supplies and shared them with the people who placed a bet on them when they first came here, Gyosu’s mind didn’t stop thinking.

15 Minutes Later.

There were now even more supplies in John’s arms as he came back. It was because four members had died in Squad 3, who were ambushed by the enemy first, and another had died in Squad 1.

‘I’m really bad at gambling, aren’t I?’

That was what Luwil said as he burned the ‘Rookie Survival Betting’ when the dead squad members were brought in.

“Eh, I don’t really like the helmet size. I liked Dorris’ ’cause he had the same head size as me.

When he returned to the squad with a heavy heart to share out the belongings of the dead squad members, they all returned to their playful grins and started to divide the supplies among themselves.

“Keeping the dead guys’ stuff’s just gonna make you sad.”

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“I wasn’t close to them, though?”

“Marti was.”

John pointed at Marti, who was still dabbing away tears with his handmade handkerchief. Continuing to look at the belongings of someone who passed away reminds you of them, so it became a sort of tradition to pass it over to other squads in the way of a bet so that the squad members that were close to them couldn’t see it. The uniform, cartridge belt, boots, and most of the other things he owned were belongings of people who died in other squads. That was how the 14 Special Ops Squads worked.

John picked up a decent pair of combat boots and uniform from the decent pile of supplies. He remembered Gyosu’s feet, which had been covered in blood as they ran through the jungle together.

‘Hm?’

But he didn’t see the kid that had just been sitting on his bed when he left the tent.

“…The rookie?”

“Dunno. I don’t know what he wanted to do with his feet in that state, but he took his clothes and knife too.”

“I saw him. He ran over there, to the jungle towards Trench C.”

“…Must have deserted. You could have stopped him, Marti.”

“And if I did, what next? Lock him up somewhere?”

John could only nod to Marti’s response.

‘What a shame.’

But he could still understand the kid. Seventeen back at his home would just barely make him a student in high school. He didn’t even get to experience society yet, and he was pushed into war. It isn’t weird for him to lose his composure.

Looking at the other guys, it seemed like they all understood too. The rookies weren’t the only ones that thought about deserting. It was just that they couldn’t. The 14 Special Ops Unit was being treated as a sort of cheap alarm or breakwater made with trash by the headquarters that assigned them here.

Headquarters told them that they would respond with fire to any movement they detected beyond their defensive lines. Since the 14 Special Ops Unit’s barracks protruded far ahead of their defense line, it basically meant that they were going to be killed if they came back.

“I hoped he got away safely. Honestly, you saw how the kid was curled up with his eyes closed even after you finished the prayer. When I thought about what he could have been thinking about, I got so sad, you know? I wanted to give him a big hug, but he was gone when I looked away for one second.”

“Thankfully, Trench C had all of its traps deactivated when the enemy came in. The kid’s a smart one.”

“Damn right. At least we won’t need to bury his corpse with our hands.”

And so, as the other squad members joked about the child soldier who had temporarily become their family, they quickly forgot about him.

That was until Gyosu came back with swollen lips and an armful of a weird plant.

That night, they all gathered inside the Squad 1 barracks as they always did and shrugged over the news of Gyosu’s desertion and were just about to shove a spoonful of hot beans into their mouth when.

“Put one on the stove for me too, John.”

Someone opened the tent flap and sat down on one of the empty seats in Squad 3’s area.

Though he was concerningly pale and had lips swollen up like he ate a bee, the boy was clearly the new recruit that they had just heard ran away.

“Kid! Didn’t you… run away?”

“Hah! As if. You think Maditch, that crazy bastard, would let me? He would have somehow shoved me in a pit to die if I did.”

“Then why did you…?”

“This.”

Clutter!

Grumbling to himself, Gyosu put down the pile of plants next to the fire.

“I got some sides for dinner. We can’t starve to death when we just came back from death’s door.”

In front of the other squad members, who were staring at him like some zoo animal, Gyosu scooped up a big spoonful of beans and shoved it into his mouth with the plant root.

“H-he ate it!”

“Damn it! Hey, kid! Spit it out! You’re not the only one that’s thought of that! Chuck, Billy, Nelson! They all died after turning literally blue!”

“Don’t eat things you that you don’t know!”

Regardless of whether the other soldiers stopped him or not, Gyosu continued to shove beans and plants into his mouth.

Gu-lp—

The squad members’ eyes tracked the food moving slowly down’s Gyosu’s throat. When the food completely passed his esophagus, they all jumped up from their seats and ran up to Gyosu.

“That crazy bastard really swallowed it!”

“Make him throw it back up! Someone go get Shepherd’s socks!”

“Urp, argh! Let me go! I’m not gonna die! That’s 100 percent safe to eat!”

“We’ve already had four people die like that eating mushrooms and fruit from the jungle!”

“Those people didn’t know what they were doing. I actually know what this is!”

Even the squad members who were causing a ruckus, starting with the Heimlich thrusts to shoving sweaty socks down my throat, slowly started to give up as I continued to look fine even as time passed.

Lieutenant Colonel King, who had just been quietly watching the situation unfold, got up from his chair and picked up one of the plant roots to look at carefully, then came up to me and asked a question.

“Senior Private Gyosu Park. Do you happen to have expert knowledge of the plants of the jungle? It is not guaranteed that you will be fine later on just because you are now. If we accidentally ration a poisonous plant, then the entire 14 Special Ops Unit can be wiped out.”

“…I can’t really call it expert knowledge, but I know that this is completely safe to eat.”

Crunch!

As if to prove my point, I took the small root from the Lieutenant Colonel’s hands and took a big bite out of it.

“These are reeds. Reed shoots and roots that grow not just in the jungle but in any humid place across the world. I just got a bunch of those.”

“Reeds?”

“By reeds… you mean the ones that grew near my house?”

“There was a bunch of these in the park. You could eat those?”

Murmur murmur, whisper whisper!

Just when the suspicious glances that the squad members had been giving him started to change to confused ones…

Clunk—

John, who had been quietly listening to the Lieutenant Colonel and Gyosu’s conversation, stood up and pulled some of the reed stems and roots towards him.

Gulp.

The green and soft shoots and roots that looked similar to the inner side of a sweet potato seemed harmless to the eye.

The can of beans was empty after just a few spoonfuls. In the time it took for him to drink a glass of water, that terrible hunger was going to come back.

When the idea that these might actually be edible became plausible, that thought slowly started to engulf John’s entire mind, and he couldn’t help but pick up a handful of those plants,

Crunchh!

And shoved everything he had in his hand into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch crunch!

Gulp—

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He ate it.

It tasted like dirt, slightly bitter, with even a little watery smell…

“It… It’s edible.”

It had a little sweetness to it, and some sort of powder seeped out of the stalk as he continued to chew on it that filled up his stomach.

“It’s… edible?”

“My girlfriend bought a bunch of weird plant roots this one time, saying that it was some sort of well-being diet, and it sort of tastes like that. It kind of tastes like drinking a glass of water with flour in it…”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you. It’s not just edible. It’s actual food. Reed roots, it’s called something like nogeun in Korean, and it’s even used as medicine.”

Before the war broke out, Mother had gotten some sort of hanyak1 during his testing week, saying that it was good for him.

It tasted so bad that I looked up what was in it to make it taste like that.

Nogeun. Roots of a reed.

Just when I charged mindlessly into the jungle, surrounded by odd-looking mushrooms and plants that smelled like soap, I almost jumped in relief when I saw the familiar green plant.

I was cheering in glee as I dug up the muddy marshes with my bare hands to discover the exact roots I saw on the internet.

“Well, it was thanks to that experience I was certain this was edible. I was in a rush, so this was all I got this time, but I did see a couple other plants that looked similar to the things I saw in books or online. So I’m going to go collect those and test them out later on.”

The murmuring crowd slowly started to get quiet. It wasn’t that they calmed down, but they were concentrating on their objective like a predator stalking their prey.

What seemed like professional knowledge was coming out of the young Asian boy. Add that together with their empty can of beans and empty stomachs, and the fear of poisoning started to fade away from the minds of the 14 Special Ops squad members.

Above anything else, it was more than enough proof for them when they saw John pick up the rest of the reeds he pulled towards him and slowly back away.

It’s edible.

It’s food.

Food! Eat!

“Oy, Shepherd… Put that down.”

“We’re comrades… aren’t we?”

Tip, toe…

Dashhhh!

“That son of a—!”

“Shepherd’s run off with the food!”

Instead of answering, the dark-skinned Squad Leader chose to disappear into the dark with the food in his arms.

“Catch him!”

“Shoot him!”

Blinded by starvation, the squad members all flipped out and chased Shepherd out of the tent and inside the barracks that were suddenly empty. The only ones left were me, the Lieutenant Colonel, and Luwil.

Crunch!

Taking a bite out of the reed roots that he snatched at some point, Luwil looked at it with a satisfied expression and turned to me.

“Kid. Were there a lot of these?”

“I looked around a little, and it’s harder to find somewhere that’s not a marsh.”

“Really?”

To my answer, Luwil tossed one of the reed roots he was holding to the Lieutenant Colonel.

“Then I can share. Lieutenant Colonel King, I think we’ve just got a little extension pass to life.”

Instead of responding, the Lieutenant Colonel just took a large bite out of the root he caught.

It was the taste of fresh produce, one he experienced for the first time in two months.

About half an hour later, when the squad members who chased after John came back to the tent covered in mud, each one of them singing happily as they held an armful of uncut reeds, the Lieutenant Colonel couldn’t help but agree with what Luwil said.

a traditional oriental herbal medicine ↩️