Chapter 185: Re-enlistment
He rarely had dreams.
He slept very deeply and for a very short time.
But sometimes, very rarely, he had dreams.
They were so vivid that they felt real, and surprisingly, the story continued.
The main theme was about suffering on a remote planet, but the natives were very peculiar.
It was a continent where various races that usually came to mind when thinking of fantasy lived together, but surprisingly, the elves had the upper hand.
And they were fascist elves.
“Am I having such a dream because I’m a dictator?”
He flew in the sky and slowly observed the world.
The dream seemed to be updated, as it faithfully reproduced the world beyond the forest that had frustrated many gamers in the metaverse.
The civilization was quite advanced, and surprisingly, there were mechanical dolls, or something like robots, roaming around.
They seemed to use magic rather than science, which was incomprehensible to him.
“Why did they put legs on them? Wouldn’t it be better to make tanks?”
Well, it wasn’t strange to have legged robots in a world where elves wearing unified uniforms reminiscent of an evil empire oppressed humans.
It was just a dream anyway, so he enjoyed flying around in the sky as much as he wanted.
“There are also several countries that rebel against the elf empire.”
They were human kingdoms.
They seemed to have not lost hope despite losing several battles in a small scale war.
Their appearance was similar to his, except for their small stature.
“There are dwarves too… This place is as diverse as Earth.”
In some ways, it could be seen as more conflicted than Earth.
At least on Earth, they were all humans, but there they were different races altogether.
The main cause of the conflict was the world tree that the elves occupied, which was so huge that it couldn’t be seen entirely even if he flew high into the sky.
“I’ve never seen a tree that reaches up to the stratosphere.”
He wanted to explore more and wander around, but someone’s voice came into his dream.
“Master, it’s time to wake up.”
It was Arma’s voice.
He realized that he had returned to his original body.
“It seems that the soul exchanger worked without any problems.”
When he first entered the body of the Korean Yu Ji-ha, he was confused because his memories were so different, but now he didn’t have that problem.
The current United Human Federation was made by him anyway.
Actually, it was Arma and the Walker Corps who made it, but he made sure that the United Space Force was as close as possible to the original.
Therefore, everything was familiar to him.
This stiff blanket and hard bed too, and also the soft something on his cheek…
“…”
He pushed away Lucia’s face and got up from the bed.
A brown-skinned android with glasses smiled brightly at him.
“Are you awake? Do you want to eat first? Or me?”
She seemed to be Lucia rather than Arma by exposing her chest slightly.
She wouldn’t act so recklessly if she were Arma.
In fact, it didn’t matter what shell she had as long as her main body was on Settler.
Arma was Lucia and a strong artificial intelligence who called him master.
Only their personality modules were different.
He got up and looked at the mirror on the bathroom wall.
A giant man with brown hair and brown eyes looked at himself in the mirror with a slightly awkward face.
“I guess I have to live as Yujin from now on.”
Lucia’s arm gently wrapped around his stomach.
“Please call me Lucia from now on.”
“Okay, let go of your arm.”
Yujin’s current status was a candidate officer of the 2nd Mobile Fleet under the Mars Station Command of the United Space Force.
He hadn’t been commissioned as an officer yet because he hadn’t completed pilot school.
It was difficult to make dummies do such delicate work.
Nowadays, special commissions were being conducted for those who obtained licenses through simulations.
Coincidentally, Yujin was the first case.
“So you’re a parachute. Your seniors will love you.”
“…How long was pilot school training?”
“Five years. They spent their early twenties in hard training and barely became candidates. But you came in at 22. You must feel refreshed.”
No matter what workplace or era it is, parachutes are not welcome.
In Yujin’s case, he was able to get on the candidate list thanks to Congressman Baek Sung-min’s recommendation letter instead of the president’s recommendation letter.
There seemed to be some noise about this in the fleet.
“They can’t openly oppose it because he’s the president’s son. They’re probably planning to make him shut up with training.”
“But he’s actually a former colonel who hid his skills as an uber pilot! His superiors and colleagues start to accept him as they are amazed by his skills…”
Yujin blocked Lucia’s mouth.
“Be quiet and go outside.”
There was no one who would like a candidate who was with an android in the morning, not even a formal pilot.
Androids themselves were popular, but the atmosphere of the United Space Force was different.
It was because assault armors were about to be rolled out.
This machine first appeared 10 years ago, but it was so difficult to control that no one could control it until then.
But with the establishment of professional training courses such as pilot school, the way to control assault armors was finally opened.
Everyone was tense waiting to drive the legendary machine.
—It must be completely different from the simulation, right? The ether receiver must be sensitive too.
—Can you believe that he fought against the plague swarm while circling the earth at 250 km per hour? I feel like my body would break apart just by accelerating.
—I thought the prototype was special, but according to the engineers, it actually had lower performance. The ones we get are improved ones.
—So we’re better at maneuverability since we’re controlling the improved ones?
—Are you crazy? If you look at the flight record at that time, the assault armor moved in 0.01 second intervals. Can you do that?
—Ah, cancel.
But not everyone was tense.
Some of them stood out since school days and achieved excellent results in various tests after being assigned to the fleet.
They were the children who inherited the president’s genes.
It didn’t mean they were his actual children, but they just received his ether responsiveness and the seed that was essential for controlling assault armors.
All candidates received various seeds, but receiving the president’s seed meant that they had high skills.
Actually, it was more accurate to say that they had a body suitable for implantation.
Anyway, they were just waiting for the assault armors to be deployed to the fleet.
At the same time, they were also interested in Yujin, a new candidate who had just transferred to the fleet.
It was closer to jealousy and inferiority than curiosity.
It was because he was the president’s biological son.
***
“I’m going to introduce a candidate who will train with you from today. You all know that he has a special background as the president’s son. But it would be better not to expect any special treatment in our fleet. Do you understand, candidate Yujin?”
The voice of the 2nd Mobile Fleet training instructor was blunt, as if he wanted to establish authority from the start.
“Yes, sir.”
Everyone looked disappointed at his ordinary response.
They thought he would say something more special as the son of the legendary president.
The instructor nodded and ordered them to start physical training right away, and the pilots glanced at Yujin.
“He’s pretty tall.”
“He must have taken after his father.”
“I wonder if he’s as good as his father.”
“I heard he was homeschooled. Can we trust his skills? It would be a relief if he can move an assault armor.”
“But isn’t he handsome? He doesn’t look like his dad though.”
“Well… I like his physique. And his muscles.”
The physical training that followed was more intense than usual, and everyone gasped for breath, but Yujin didn’t even breathe hard.
The instructor seemed to dislike that and raised the intensity even more, and thanks to that, the morning training that should have been easy turned into hell.
Even though it was mealtime, everyone collapsed on the floor and wheezed.
“Hey, bring that candidate over.”
“What are you going to do with him? He looks stronger than you.”
“…Anyway, he’s impressive in terms of stamina.”
“He’s the president’s son. He must have received some genius education.”
“As far as I know, he’s not on good terms with his father. He hasn’t seen him in a long time.”
“Well, he’s a very busy person.”
“…”
Sonya Viktorovna Averyina looked at Yujin’s back as he talked to the instructor.
She had heard that he had a good physique, but she didn’t expect him to be so muscular.
His face was also very mature, not like someone in his early twenties.
Most of all, he didn’t have the naive look of a typical candidate.
Had he been here before?
‘That’s impossible.’
This Seoul-class combat cruiser Los Angeles had been built for almost seven years, but it was mostly operated unmanned.
It was only recently that they decided to deploy assault armors and train reserve pilots.
There was no room for civilians to get in.
She focused her hearing to hear what Yujin and the instructor were talking about, but it was nothing special.
They just listed the training schedule and precautions for living in the fleet.
Soon it was mealtime, and Sonya sat down in front of him with her food.
“You don’t look alike much.”
“Do you know me, Lieutenant Averyina?”
Of course, Yujin knew who she was.
She was a Russian-born reserve pilot with blond hair and a cold expression, who was about 170cm tall.
She was from an orphanage and moved to Megacity Russia when she was young.
She received pilot suitability assessment and trained at school.
She had a longing look and a joyful voice at the commissioning ceremony, but now she looked at him with crocodile eyes.
“Who doesn’t know you here? You’re the president’s son.”
“Please don’t call me that. I’m fine with just Yujin.”
Sonya erased her faint smile and dropped her fork on the plate.
“Why, is being the president’s son too heavy for you? Then throw it away. I’ll take it instead.”
“I don’t know what you mean, lieutenant. I just want to eat. I have a test schedule since this morning.”
“…”
She wanted to pick on the android who served food, but she calmly cut her sausage instead.
Many people came to greet him soon after.
From the flight squadron leader to the admiral of the mobile fleet, all kinds of officers came over and shook hands with him and asked him to do his best in the future.
It was an unprecedented greeting for a candidate who wasn’t even an officer yet.
‘Surely being the president’s son is quite impressive.’
That made her more annoyed.
He was enjoying such benefits because of his bloodline, not his skills.
‘That position should have been mine.’
Sonya recalled her childhood.
The orphanage in Russia was extremely harsh when she was young.
All they had for meals were hard pieces of bread and watery soup, and they had to work hard until their hands bled.
What saved her, or rather the orphanage children, was President Yu Ji-ha of the United Human Federation.
He visited the orphanage with gifts and hugged the children.
“You’ll have a new life when you go to Megacity. Who wants to go with me?”
No one didn’t raise their hand.
They didn’t know what Megacity was, but the orphanage life was terrible and Yu Ji-ha was kind.
Young Sonya hugged him and heard his warm words.
“You have talent. You’ll be able to blossom your talent in Megacity.”
She didn’t know what talent it was, but Yu Ji-ha’s embrace was very warm in Sonya’s memory.
Warmer than her father’s embrace that she didn’t even remember…
Their meeting was short, and Sonya did everything she could to meet him again after moving to Megacity.
She endured the painful procedure and persevered through the training at school.
She finally met President Yu Ji-ha at the commissioning ceremony, but he didn’t look at her with the same warm eyes as before.
He just shook hands with her as a matter of course and asked her to use her skills for the United Human Federation.
There were too many candidates waiting for a handshake and the event time was short.
He disappeared somewhere surrounded by people as soon as the handshake was over.
‘Dad, I’m here. Your daughter is here.’
She bit her lower lip as she watched him disappear cruelly.
She didn’t resent him.
Instead, she tried her best to make him look back at her with training.
Thanks to that, she was rated as the best pilot in the 2nd Mobile Fleet and was scheduled to be promoted to captain soon.
But she was shocked when she saw the president’s flight record during the plague swarm incident 10 years ago.
‘Is this a human record?’
Yu Ji-ha surpassed humans in every aspect.
He wasn’t using a special modified assault armor either.
It was rather an early model with low ether receiver response and maneuverability.
There was nothing wrong with the performance, but according to the simulation, the pilot had to control the delay of the ether receiver.
It would shorten his life by a few years just to worry about that during intense flight.
Anyway, she didn’t give up and trained harder.
She had only one wish.
To become an uber pilot of the Unified Space Force and stand in front of him someday.
And to hear him say one thing.
That he was proud of his daughter.
“…”
She lifted her head and looked at Yujin, who was eating without any worries.
With a face that didn’t resemble him at all.
Sonya suddenly felt annoyed and got up after clearing her plate.
“Are you leaving? I’ll see you later. We’re in the same squadron anyway.”
If he passed the candidate test, they might really be on the same team.
Yujin turned his body and looked at her leaving with a snicker.
‘She grew up well, but she needs to calm down a bit.’
She would do that after experiencing real combat.
He quickly finished his remaining food.
The food in the military was as tasteless as ever.
“As soon as all the ingredients enter the military, they go on strike for sure.”
It was a strange thing indeed.
***
The 2nd Mobile Fleet under the Mars Station Command was busy.
A guest came from Earth all of a sudden.
They didn’t care about any guests as a combat unit, but it was different if he was a member of the Supreme Council.
Especially if he belonged to the Planning and Budget Committee, which had been granted budget allocation authority.
The Administration had recently transferred some of the budget authority that artificial intelligence had been in charge of to the Supreme Council.
The budget dominated the organization, so the power of the Planning and Budget Committee was beyond imagination.
Thanks to the atmosphere of the United Human Federation, lobbying and solicitation had not been attempted yet, but Bae Sungmin’s influence was considerable.
Anyway, his shuttle landed on the Los Angeles combat cruiser with an assault armor package.
The officers of the Mobile Fleet greeted him warmly.
“Welcome, sir. It’s good to see you.”
“You’re too kind. I could have taken care of myself…”
“How could we do that when you’re here? Come on, this way.”
Bae Sungmin was dragged by the commander to tour the inside of the combat cruiser, which he didn’t want to do.
He greeted the officers of the Mobile Fleet and listened to the briefing on Mars Station’s operations, of course.
He was held up for three hours before he finally achieved his purpose.
It was meeting Yujin.
“It’s been a while, Yujin.”
“Nice to see you, uncle.”
In fact, they weren’t that close before.
Bae Sungmin was very busy and Yujin lived alone on Terra Island, so they didn’t have time to meet.
But after hearing that he grew up without his father’s love, he contacted him occasionally even if he couldn’t meet him.
He played a kind of foster father role.
And after Bae Sungmin became a member of the Supreme Council, they became closer.
They didn’t meet often, but they sometimes had dinner and talked about old times.
It was mostly about Yu Ji-ha’s outrageous actions and Bae Sungmin’s chief secretary’s hardships.
Yujin hated old stories and shuddered, and Bae Sungmin said that young people these days didn’t know how hard those times were and clicked his tongue.
Despite their huge age difference, they looked like brothers because of anti-aging treatments.
Anyway, he came today not for such romantic reasons.
“I’m sorry for coming so suddenly. You must be nervous about your commissioning test.”
“No. It doesn’t matter. But you look pale, uncle.”
He smiled bitterly.
“If I look that bad to you, it must be serious. It’s nothing. I’m just having a hard time lately.”
“Who’s making it hard for you? Who is it? The senior member of the Supreme Council Planning and Budget Committee?”
He joked with a playful tone and Bae Sungmin gave a bitter smile.
This kid wasn’t as blunt as his father, so it was fun to talk to him.
Of course, President Yu Ji-ha also made jokes sometimes, but it was hard to talk to him lately.
It was probably because of the moles around him.
They didn’t care about war preparations or stable operation of the United Human Federation at all.
They only tried to get more power by any means possible.
Vampires who sucked blood from him.
The president was surrounded by them.
‘The war hasn’t even started yet…’
They were eager to secure their shares as if they had won the war against Plague.
There were many things to do after that. The remaining land and heritage, and how to treat countless outsiders.
They were busy trying to secure their influence over them in advance.
Yujin didn’t want to entrust the United Human Federation to those who drank soup before it was cooked.
He would gather all the hatred and trash and blow them up at once.
‘I’m sorry, but you’ll have to take care of the United Human Federation, chief secretary.’
He had been a member for a long time, but Bae Sungmin was always his chief secretary.
He would take over the United Human Federation when he left for the prophet’s homeland.
‘It’s a pretty good choice.’
He could have a drink and tell him everything if they ever met again.
But it seemed unlikely.
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