17. Welcome Boys~

“What’s your major?”

“Social science.”

After confirming the student’s ID, the recruiter turned to Jackson.

“Soldier.”

With a mischievous smile, Jackson grabbed and pulled on the student’s hand.

“Welcome, boys~!”

“Huh?”

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Hearing the foreign English words, the nervous college student tried to resist instinctively. However, he could not overpower the muscular man in front of him, no matter how hard he tried. In defiance, the student tried to kick Jackson but failed as Jackson yanked him hard. Naturally, Jackson was not only talented in shooting and firing guns from far away. He was also experienced in close combat, a soldier through and through.

“Don’t resist. You can’t escape me,” Jackson said while chuckling, almost like a devil.

The student was brought to the temporary training hall. A crowd of students in similar situations was already gathered here. Perhaps because they were being enlisted as soldiers, the atmosphere was oppressive. Everyone was feeling nervous for what was to come. Amongst them, there was a particular face that stood out. It was the temporary leader of the university—the student council president. Having attended the military earlier than most students, the president’s face was already masked with paint, ready for action and combat training.

‘Re-enlisted again?!’ he was crying internally though, unlike his external appearance. Unfortunately, the president majored in Chinese; therefore, there was nothing he could do under the current circumstances. Perhaps the situation would change once the militia met some foreigners. When he decided to join, he knew enlistment was an inevitability, so he wasn’t opposed as much as the rest of the students were.

“Don’t worry! We won’t shave off your hair!” Jackson said while chortling. He was having fun teasing the new recruits. They were like lambs placed in front of a wolf, just ripe for hunting.

“Now, next. Show me your student ID.” The recruiter commanded without much emotion in his voice.

The next person in line was a female student. After seeing the scene unfolding in front of her, she was quite nervous. Hearing the recruiter’s instruction, she handed over her card apprehensively.

Comparing the female student’s face with the student ID, the recruiter mumbled.

“Engineering.”

This time, another subordinate guided the female student elsewhere. Students in the STEM fields were regarded as valuable human resources in the Kwang Hwi Faction. This was mainly because there weren’t enough people to maintain the equipment, and they needed anyone who could give a helping hand.

Whether it was because she was female or an engineering student, the subordinate guided her with courtesy, showing due respect.

“Next!”

This time a middle-aged professor stepped forward, looking rather calm and composed.

“Please show us your teacher identification card.”

The middle-aged professor pulled out his ID card from his wallet.

“Dean of Food Science & Nutrition?” The recruiter gave a slightly perplexed look. It would have been easier to make the call if he was a Dean of STEM majors but Food Science & Nutrition? From a glance, the professor only looked suitable for cooking.

‘Ah, screw it!’ he shrugged it off.

“Ahem, cooking duties.”

The old professor was baffled. He couldn’t believe his ears, and his face was screaming, ‘I am the dean, but you are telling me to cook?’

The recruiter did not care about his reaction. While he didn’t want to abuse his authority, he was the one in charge of assigning tasks.

“C-cooking duties?” The professor stuttered. It was unimaginable for him that his luck would be so miserable.

“Next!”

***

Amongst the students, only a few were technically skilled. Most were majoring in social sciences, and they were naturally enlisted as soldiers. What was unusual was that one of the students was an ROTC cadet. Due to this problem, Jackson had to visit Kwang Hwi to seek his opinion.

“Boss, what should we do?”

Kwang Hwi’s answer was simple.

“He’ll start out as a soldier like the rest and climb the ranks.”

Although the student partaking in the ROTC program was more talented than the others, Kwang Hwi had his own philosophy and set of rules. Knowledge that lacked experience was useless, and it was even more so in such chaotic times. Also, though some of his subordinates had been affiliated with the army, Kwang Hwi still drilled obedience into all of them regardless. As a matter of fact, Kwang Hwi himself was a former Sergeant.

“How is the pilot?”

“We assigned him a student who’s good at playing console games,” Jackson reported.

“Good job. The boy should get the hang of it in no time. Tell the pilot to teach him well.”

Kwang Hwi had assigned the UAV to members experienced in piloting. However, he was in dire need of troops. With the addition of personnel, his combat forces could focus solely on combat missions from now on. His support squad was finally taking shape now, a significant boost to his armed forces.

“We have also secured a handful of STEM professors and students. They should be able to handle the weapon maintenance.” Jackson continued his report.

“That’s good to hear. Anything else?”

“This is a suggestion made by someone in our first batch of recruits—” Jackson put down the paper he was holding: it was handwritten with several drawings on it. “—Having marketing experience, he made these suggestions to help us grow in strength.”

“Hm?”

‘A marketer.’ Kwang Hwi looked at the paper with interest.

“Not bad.” Kwang Hwi sincerely appreciated his suggestions. Although they were simple, they were like a fresh spring breeze in these apocalyptic times. They needed as much manpower as they could get, and the marketer had helped them solve that dilemma.

Given that graffiti was started by the American gangsters who used it to mark their territory, the plan was certainly not bad at all. Until now, there hadn’t been any regular patrols or rescue missions due to the lack of transportation and soldiers. However, the situation was now different since most of their problems had been resolved with the fresh injection of recruits.

While the second batch of newcomers had to undergo training, they could still defend the base. The same was true for the first batch when Kwang Hwi had gone to secure the hospital.

Kwang Hwi quickly brainstormed ideas. The vague plan he had in mind was starting to become more concrete as he thought up the details.

‘If we can organize a team using the two Light Tactical Vehicles…’

A driver and a machine gunner with two people per vehicle, four in total. It was possible to organize a team with just 4-5 soldiers. And their firepower wouldn’t be lacking either thanks to the machine gun mounted at the top of the vehicle. With extra seats, they could bring back the survivors. He finally decided to put the idea into action.

“Let’s do the radio broadcasts first.”

Kwang Hwi browsed through the [Communication/Reconnaissance] category in the Merit Shop. It took him some time to choose one because there were so many things in the shop, but he finally found something that could be used for broadcasting. Despite being an old model, it looked brand new after being purchased from the Merit Shop.

“Take this. Find some people who are good at talking and assign them the task. Make sure to share the broadcasting content with me beforehand.”

“Roger.”

“For the Recon Team, bring me a list of members. I’ll draft up a plan.”

“Yes, sir!”

Even though he could leave the task to his men, Kwang Hwi was not the type to dump his duties to others. It didn’t take much time, and it was one of his responsibilities as the commander in chief. He also liked to remain in control.

“There’s one more thing I forgot to mention.” Jackson suddenly spoke.

“What is it now?”

“We lack electricity.”

Kwang Hwi was at a loss for words. The solar PV panels installed on the rooftops of the compound were household products. With their efficiency and scale, they couldn’t keep up with the increase in power usage. They needed to resolve this as soon as possible since the plan hinged on using electricity.

‘I’ll need to use more MP.’ He was bitter at the fact that he would have to spend his hard-earned MP now. Having killed more than a thousand monsters yesterday, Kwang Hwi now had over 100,000 MP. However, as his MP increased, more useful options were available, and he needed to save up for them. Kwang Hwi’s eyes naturally shifted towards the [Energy] category.

『Energy 』 『This category is currently locked.』 『This category can be unlocked immediately for 50,000 MP.』

『Would you like to unlock the Energy category?』

Kwang Hwi’s finger started shaking. It was almost as if he could see the points flying way, waving goodbye.

‘To think that I have to use half of what I earned yesterday, just to unlock this.’

Even so, he couldn’t just leave it as it is.

‘Let’s unlock…’

Just as he was about to make the purchase…

“When I asked around, the people told me that there is a power plant nearby.”

“A power plant!?”

Kwang Hwi shouted urgently. He was sweating due to the sudden turn of events.

‘CANCEL! CANCEL!’

『You have canceled the purchase.』

Kwang Hwi sighed in relief. Thankfully, he had reacted in time, or else, he would have made a hasty decision to use his MP.

“How far is it?”

“They said it should be 30 minutes away.”

“Anything else?”

According to Jackson, the power plant was operated by a private company. The facility generated electricity using LNG and solar power. It was capable of producing approximately 1700 MW of electricity at full capacity. Since the plant provided 700 MW of electricity for 500,000 people, 1700 MW meant that it could handle more than a million people.

‘If I could get it, I won’t have to worry about electricity for a while.’ Kwang Hwi’s heart was filled with desire. This was an opportunity that he couldn’t let go.

“… We must get it, at all costs.”