As of today, I am a civilian, not a mercenary.
7 years as a South Korean special forces agent.
7 years as a mercenary for Alpha Lead Corp.
It was the first time in 14 years.
*
California, a state in the western United States.
Brrrrrr.
With the wind in your face, the motorcycle roars like a beast as it speeds down the road.
The journey began in the eastern United States and continued from the south to the west.
We followed the Oregon Trail, an old western pioneer route, through Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas.
Passing through 17 states, Jo Yoo-gang was traveling across the United States in accordance with the will of the deceased Eric.
We planned our travel route around the abandoned mining towns of the old Western frontier era and boldly skipped the big cities.
It all began at Sutter’s Mill near the Sacramento River in California.
“Is this town the starting point of the gold rush?”
The funny thing is, the people who started the American gold rush in 1848 didn’t actually own any gold mines.
The first people to discover gold actually ended up living in poverty.
It’s ironic.
It may be unfair, but on the other hand, isn’t it fortunate that he didn’t die? The outlaws were coming to get the gold.
I toured an abandoned mining town that had become a ghost town and also visited several museums.
Meanwhile, the clothing also changed, one by one, to resemble that of people from that era.
When he came to, he was wearing a cowboy hat, a vest, a red scarf, and a holster for an unloaded revolver.
‘What kind of fandom is this….’
Although the trip began because of a colleague’s will, Jo Yu-gang was clearly enjoying it.
It was interesting to look back at the United States, which has become the world’s most powerful country despite its short history.
“What was Joseon doing at that time?”
Like a historian, I studied by looking up materials on my tablet from time to time.
I wonder what the point is, but I personally believe that traveling is more enjoyable when you have knowledge. I also originally liked reading books.
From western California to Nevada,
Then we moved from Utah to New Mexico.
A time when I was driving on the road and admiring the vast fields.
I happened to stop by a gas station to fill up my tank.
“Fucking Asians! This is not your place.”
“Get out, you little shits.”
“Whoa!”
Three white men are shoving and swearing at an Asian family.
It was the first sight I saw during my trip.
‘Are you a Korean family?’
Fluff, fluff, fluff.
Push.
The motorcycle’s engine stalled.
All eyes in the room are focused on Jo Yu-gang.
The white people are roughly in their early 20s.
One of them burst into laughter at the sight of Jo Yu-gang.
“What kind of cowboy cosplay is this, you fucking asshole.”
The smell of alcohol is definitely coming from the mouth of the guy approaching me.
At this time, Jo Yu-gang spread her legs and pulled her jacket to the side.
“!”
But when the white people confirmed that it was an antique gun, they burst into laughter.
Cho Yoo-kang also raised the corners of his lips.
“Hey bro. Is that kid smiling?”
“Psycho cubs today.”
A guy runs up to me and swings his fists.
Jo Yoo-gang took off the hat he was wearing and wrapped his fist around the bastard’s body to change direction.
Hey, I elbowed the face of the guy who lost his balance.
There was a cracking sound and a short scream, and the creature covered his face with his hands.
While the other two flinched, Jo Yoo-kang grabbed the man he had just hit by the collar and dragged him away.
These punks just need to be picked off one by one.
Of course, it’s okay to jump in all at once.
As soon as he grabbed her by the neck, her face instantly turned red. She tried to get away by hitting Jo Yu-gang’s arm, but she didn’t move at all.
“Ouch···.”
His face is so red that it looks bluish.
Jo Yoo-kang glared at the two people approaching.
“If you come near me, I’ll break your neck.”
“!”
A voice dripping with life.
Those who stopped didn’t move as if they were frozen in place.
Jo Yu-gang raised one corner of his mouth as if mockingly and threw the man he had caught to the floor.
He approached and kicked its head with his foot.
“Be thankful you were born in a good time. If it were the West, you would have already perished.”
He snorted and took his foot off my face.
The terrified man didn’t get up right away.
Then his friends came over and helped him up.
Jo Yoo-kang didn’t take his eyes off the men until they returned to the car.
If it were me, I would have hit him with my car.
They couldn’t be that stupid.
He just left the gas station and disappeared.
‘scared···.’
The family that had just been discriminated against felt even more scared of Jo Yoo-kang. They should have been grateful. There was fear in their eyes.
Jo Yoo-gang turned his back on people’s gaze and stayed true to his original purpose.
Insert the card and fill the motorcycle’s belly.
Fluff, fluff, fluff.
I left the gas station leisurely.
A cute girl who looked like an elementary school student among the family blinked and said.
“He looks like a real cowboy···.”
Wheww.
The child’s hair blew in the warm New Mexico breeze.
*
Bistii Badlands.
We finally arrived at the place Eric was talking about.
“Wow, there is a place like this in the world.”
I’ve traveled to many countries while working as a mercenary, but this is the first time I’ve been to a place as unique as this. It felt like I’d arrived on an alien planet that wasn’t Earth.
A desolate plain.
Rocks rising up in strange shapes.
I went inside, entranced by the exotic and mysterious scenery.
“We have to camp here today.”
A mysterious place that makes you wonder if it is really Earth. What will the night sky be like?
I lay on the ground and looked at the sky just after sunset.
As expected, the Vista seen at night was a place that held the mysteries of the universe, not of Earth.
I wonder if I picked a good day.
The sky was filled with stars shining in the darkness, and the Milky Way’s waves embroidered the sky.
He held a cigar in his left hand and a necklace high in his right.
A metal pendant of unknown material.
The Milky Way reflected through the hole in the center and the frame with a strange pattern create a strange harmony.
“Are you watching, Eric? I came instead of you.”
– After my life as a mercenary ends, I’ll live freely, doing whatever I want.
“So you wanted to be a cowboy? That’s the life you’ve been dreaming of. I’ll live it for you.”
If it weren’t for Eric, would there have been any reason to come here?
Memories with him.
The scenes from the Wild West that I learned about during my travels are depicted, and I am reminded of romance.
Then, before I knew it, I fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes again.
Someone was kicking himself.
“Even if that monkey slave cub jumps, it’s useless. Hehe.”
‘!’
A western part of America in the mid-19th century.
Jo Yu-gang was possessed by an 18-year-old Korean named Lee Mak-san.
Lost in the wilderness
Hood thud.
Raindrops falling on my cheeks.
My eyes start to twitch, and after I regain consciousness, I feel extremely thirsty.
‘Just a moment ago, I was clearly camping in Vista···.’
I try to speak, but my lips are stuck shut due to the overwhelming thirst.
furthermore···,
Headache and tingling in the extremities. Blurred vision and numbness, along with dizziness.
‘Is this a sign of dehydration?’
In his previous life, Jo Yoo-gang had experienced a similar phenomenon while conducting an operation in the desert.
Loss of up to 15% of body water.
A state of exhaustion followed by visual impairment and decreased sense of touch.
But, as luck would have it, it rained just before he died, so he came to his senses.
I barely managed to raise my head from the ground.
After checking the surroundings, I crawled to the place where the water was.
Knock knock, knock knock.
The chains attached to the handcuffs dragged on the ground, and I landed face to face in a puddle.
‘what!?’
Jo Yu-gang, looking at his own face reflected in the puddle, opened his eyes wide and swallowed his breath.
‘Hey, is this me?’
A face I’ve never seen before.
A man who looked to be no older than 20 years old was looking at her, with a haggard and shabby appearance.
But the surprise was short-lived.
I started to quench my thirst from the inside out.
“Ah, now I can live.”
As you rehydrate, your slow heart rate will begin to return to normal.
Now I finally have time to think.
Jo Yoo-gang looked at the boy reflected in the puddle once again. And at this time.
“Eww! Ewww!”
A series of memories came flooding into my head, along with a brief but severe headache.
Lee Mak-san, a poor Korean.
Dreaming of rising in social status, he sets out to find a gold rush that he happened to hear about, but the place he arrives at after boarding a ship from Shanghai, China to California is not a place of hope, but of despair.
Slavery contracts, never touching gold, days of being killed or chased by Indian raids and outlaws. Then, a white man approaches Imaksan, pretending to be kind.
Since I couldn’t understand what was being said, I used hand and foot gestures to understand what was being said.
– I’ll introduce you to a job where you can eat, sleep, and even earn money.
But it was all a blatant lie.
He was a slave trader, and he approached Yi Mak-san with the intention of selling him as a slave in the South.
The advent of the cotton gin led to an explosion in demand for slaves on Southern ranches, and slaves, whether black or Asian, could be sold for quite a high price. However.
– Damn it! Get that kid!
– That fucking kid!”
Imaksan takes advantage of the opportunity to successfully escape.
The problem was that in this wild West, it was difficult to find even drinking water, let alone people.
Moreover, I had absolutely no survival knowledge to survive here.
‘So that’s why you ended up wandering around the wilderness and collapsing from dehydration.’
All memories are absorbed.
Jo Yu-gang, or rather Lee Mak-san, let out a deep sigh as his headache subsided.
‘In the end, it turns out that I entered this body···.’
It doesn’t feel real at all.
The feeling transmitted through the five senses is vivid, but I just hope to wake up from this dream as soon as possible.
I just thought it was quenching my thirst in my dreams.
“Hurrup.. hurrup···.”
It was time to put my head in the puddle again and drink water frantically.
“Even if that monkey slave cub jumps, it’s useless. Hehe.”
Someone came up to me and tapped me with their foot.
When he raised his head, a white man was standing there, making a mocking noise. According to Lee Mak-san’s memory, he was one of the group hired by the slave trader.
In Joseon terms, this guy was a Chuno.
‘I didn’t notice it until it was this close!’
As expected, my physical condition is not normal.
The man who saw Imaksan’s shaking eyes suddenly grabbed his hair.
As his face fell, the bastard spat and opened his mouth.
“I want to cut off all your limbs. Tsk, be grateful for being a slave.”
Ouch.
He was slapped in the face, fell down, and then kicked.
Thud, thud!
His face was distorted and his body was shaking.
Pain in the body. When you get hit, you realize it.
That it was definitely not a dream.
As an 18-year-old Korean, not Jo Yu-gang
That means we have to live in the Wild West.
As he realized the reality, his pupils that had been shaking violently calmed down. The eyes of the crouching Imaksan became cold and settled.
“There are a lot of monkey babies besides you anyway. You can just report that they got lost in the wilderness.”
The angry man trampled the mountain so hard that its bones were crushed.
If I get dragged away like this, more enemies will be waiting for me and my escape will become more difficult.
