“Wow. I think I’ve really stumbled into a film set.”

Not just any movie, but that one with aliens in gigantic ships invading Earth! Of course, the facilities here weren’t as futuristic as from that sci-fi movie. But that only made Lee Hyeon-Su even more stunned.

In the center was a vast open plaza, while passages were to its left and right. And on one side of this vast open space was...

“...? Huh? Is that a Burger K*ng outlet?”[1]

He could see the signboard of a certain famous American burger franchise!

What the...? Are these people insane?

Didn’t they set this base up in the middle of the desert, and deep underground no less, to be as secretive as possible? So why on God’s green earth did they allow a famous burger franchise to set up shop here? Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t comprehend this mindset.

Willie Reese explained. “Oh, that place? The ones working in there are soldiers, actually. As for the ingredients, we divert the stock allocated to a specific branch on the surface and airlift them in.”

“...You can do that?”

“Yes, Mister Lee. Nothing is stopping us since we reimburse all the relevant parties sufficiently. As a side note, everything you see here is free of charge.”

When he heard “free of charge,” Lee Hyeon-Su suddenly developed a little hankering for a good ol’ American hamburger. Maybe he could stop by on their way out and...

“...Heol? You even have an ice cream franchise here, too?”

Lee Hyeon-Su did a double take, then hurriedly looked at other places. That was when he belatedly realized there were all sorts of shops down here.

“Hang on a minute? I thought this was supposed to be a military installation? Where soldiers train and stuff? So why does it resemble a shopping mall instead?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Willie Reese asked back while looking puzzled. It was as if he couldn’t understand why Lee Hyeon-Su would ask that.

“All these people are sacrificing themselves for our country. So, handsomely rewarding them for their services is a given, wouldn’t you say? And it should also be a given that the government would try everything in its power to make their stay down here as comfortable as possible.”

“Keuh-euh...!” Lee Hyeon-Su wiped the imaginary tears away from the corner of his eyes. “Unfortunately, not many countries can do something that obvious, you see?”

He wasn’t talking about South Korea only, of course.

This scene was more like the American government strutting its stuff. After all, it clearly illustrated its ability to sink an ungodly amount of money into a project like this, didn’t it?

Before Willie Reese could explain some more, a well-built man rushed toward the group from the far side of the passageway.

This man saluted briefly at Willie Reese, then smartly turned toward Kang Jin-Ho before thrusting his hand forward for a shake.

“It’s an honor to make your acquaintance, sir! I’m Major Jimmy Bower and I oversee the operations in Area H27.”

Kang Jin-Ho lightly shook the offered hand. “I’m Kang Jin-Ho.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, sir!”

Kang Jin-Ho’s expression subtly cramped up as awkwardness crept into his heart.

It felt like every person he ran into lately all claimed to know him. Although it certainly made life a bit easier for him, Kang Jin-Ho still had a long way to go before being able to accept this kind of thing without feeling awkward about it.

“Allow me to show you around. Please, come this way.”

After taking over the proverbial “baton” from Willie Reese, Major Jimmy Bower began guiding Kang Jin-Ho and his companions.

Kang Jin-Ho nodded and followed. “This facility is quite big, isn’t it?” 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Major Jimmy Bower grinned proudly. “Yes, sir. It was already large, to begin with, but we kept adding more stuff and widening the area. That’s how we got here, sir. It’s gotten so large, in fact, that we don’t know what to do with some of the free space we have these days.”

“I see. How many people are down here, though?”

“Currently, around five thousand individuals are stationed at this base, sir. However, only two thousand of them are combat-ready. The rest are not.”

Five thousand? That was on the level of a brigade, wasn’t it?

That meant this underground space was large enough to accommodate a brigade. Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t wrap his head around the scale of this operation. How was it even sustainable?

For the first time since his arrival in this country, Kang Jin-Ho finally began appreciating the impressiveness of America’s wealth.

“It’s very impressive,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Hahaha! It’s too early to be surprised, sir. Because this isn’t our only base, you see? There are several similar bases in Nevada alone. Of course, I can’t tell you how many of them are out there, since that’s classified information.”

Even Wiggins flinched nastily at that revelation. “Hang on, young man. Did you say there are several bases of a similar scale in this state alone?”

“Yes, several. Although not all of them boast the same scale of operation as ours.”

“Huh...!”

Wiggins’ jaw fell in stupefaction. Maybe because it was him that his shock was greater than Kang Jin-Ho’s.

Unlike Kang Jin-Ho, whose financial sense could charitably be described as not fully formed, Wiggins could estimate how much money one would need to maintain a base of this scale.

If this had been England and not the United States of America, it’d have trouble building and maintaining a facility like this even after pouring every resource at its disposal.

One might say this set-up was similar to how the Round Table operated, but that was a coalition of European nations. That was what made it financially feasible. England alone wouldn’t have enough money to even dream of an operation of this scale!

So, to hear that America had several more bases like this one...!

“And people kept telling me America this and America that...”

Wiggins sighed deeply. Here was the reason why America could claim to be the sole global superpower.

Even Kang Jin-Ho was looking around the place like a wide-eyed tourist. He watched as soldiers in full uniform brushed past him.

Major Jimmy Boar helpfully explained. “If you keep going that way, you’ll soon reach our dedicated muscle conditioning center and an indoor pool.”

Lee Hyeon-Su blinked his eyes furiously. “Hang on a minute! Did you say a pool just now? As in a swimming pool? Underground?”

“Is there a reason why a pool shouldn’t be underground?”

“No, but aren’t we in the middle of a desert? Where did all that water come from?”

Major Jimmy Bower grinned. “A desert doesn’t mean there’s no water to be found, Mister Lee. In fact, there is plenty of groundwater to draw from. It’s just that it’s usually buried deep underground, and bringing it to the surface costs a lot of money. However, we’re underground, to begin with. Which means it’s now a cost-effective solution.”

Lee Hyeon-Su hollowly chuckled while thinking, Yup, I give up.

He shouldn’t try to understand these people using his common sense! Rather than trying to decode these people’s way of doing things using his logic, he should just accept them as-was.

Jimmy Bower pointed to another passageway. “If we head this way, we’ll reach the barracks. Would you like to see the living quarters of our soldiers?”

“N-no, I don’t think that will be necessary.”

Lee Hyeon-Su might end up tasting the bitterness of his own incompetence if he inadvertently clapped his eyes on one of those rooms. Because they might actually be more luxurious than his own home back in Korea!

He believed he was more or less satisfied with his living conditions. As such, he didn’t want to take a gander at other people’s lives and grow disillusioned by his own.

Wiggins glanced around while asking a question. “How do you deal with provisions? Bringing in enough supplies to feed all these mouths can’t be an easy undertaking, after all.”

“We prepare all of our food down here, sir. However, being underground means it’s nearly impossible for us to grow our own crops. That means we airlift everything in from external suppliers,” said Jimmy Bower.”

“Isn’t that risky?”

“Even if we lose contact with the outside, we have enough supplies to survive for around six months, sir.”

“That is enormous, isn’t it?”

Enough to keep a brigade going for another six months? The more he thought about it, the more absurd this place seemed, forcing Wiggins to shake his head helplessly again.

As for Lee Hyeon-Su, his impression of this place was that of a gigantic submarine. For example, this underground space’s walls were all metal, and its internal layout was designed to maximize efficiency and utility. The overall concept felt similar, even if the walls were painted in a slightly brighter hue!

Well, it’s an apt comparison, is it not?

Living for months underwater or underground, away from the public’s eye? Both things sounded about the same to Lee Hyeon-Su. After all, you were isolated from the world at large and had to live inside a confined space in both cases.

“And our training facility is this way,” said Jimmy Bower.

The group kept walking down the passageway, eventually arriving at a wide-open plaza-like space. In the center was a large athletic field, while the walls were lined with windows that provided views into smaller, more intimate training rooms inside.

Lee Hyeon-Su looked around. “Is this where you train your soldiers?”

“Yes, but this isn’t our only training area. We’ve prepared several others to suit different training regimes. It’s just that we haven’t been able to discard the traditional way of training. Which necessitated an open field-type training area like this.”

Wiggins silently nodded. Although various facilities he saw along the way were all modern, that athletic field still reminded him of the old-fashioned training field found in European nations. Knights would usually swing their swords and other weapons as practice on such fields, while mages would use the smaller rooms to the side to research and refine their magic.

Jimmy Bower explained while making a somewhat proud expression.

“You’ll soon see for yourselves, but allow me to explain briefly. We have combined traditional training methods with modern ideas to create the most scientifically advanced training methods. Of course, we’re constantly adding and refining our methods even as we speak. But the result of our methods is that... Well, I can confidently say our martial artists will not lose to anyone in terms of skill and power.”

Kang Jin-Ho and Wiggins glanced at each other in silence.

Jimmy Bower continued to speak. “That’s not all. While researching better methods, we’ve even eliminated one of the deep-seated problems of the martial world.”

Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow. “Deep-seated problem?”

“Yes. It’s regarding how difficult it is to control martial artists,” said Jimmy Bower with a confident grin. “Until now, the best the martial artists could do was form a coalition. Individuals looked after their own interests and grew their strength through a coalition. But that kind of mindset would inevitably lead to ruination. Because you’d end up butting heads with the government sooner rather than later.”

“Mm...”

“Even if you decide to work with your government, there’s the issue of the difference in culture between the martial artists and the government to consider. However, these martial artists are soldiers. They receive military drills and behave like bona fide soldiers. In other words, these soldiers can focus 100% of their martial prowess on the shared targets and goals.”

Jimmy Bower glanced briefly at Kang Jin-Ho.

“It should be obvious what the results will be if and when they are deployed into real combat situations.”

“Hmm. I’m getting curious about something here...”

When Kang Jin-Ho said that, Jimmy Bower stood taller in pride.

“Yes, sir. Please ask me anything.”

“Am I allowed to smoke in here?”

“...?” Jimmy Bower was momentarily flustered by that unexpected question. “O-oh, uh... Yes, of course.”

“I see. Great.”

Kang Jin-Ho leisurely pulled out a packet of cigarettes, then methodically pulled a cigarette out. When he mouthed it, Lee Hyeon-Su speedily took out a portable ashtray and stood next to his boss.

Kang Jin-Ho sucked in a deep puff, then casually dusted the ashes on the ashtray.

Jimmy Bower cautiously asked, “Is there... anything else you’d like to ask me, sir?”

“Well, sure.” Kang Jin-Ho casually shrugged. “When is lunch? I’m getting curious about the food you serve here.”

Wiggins chimed in. “Mm, I agree. I’m also curious.”

Lee Hyeon-Su nodded weightily. “Me too! I heard the American military food can be pretty good, so let’s see if that’s true or not.”

Jimmy Bower faltered ever so slightly. What were these people even saying?

This was not the first time this secret base welcomed visitors from other nations. Even if it was ostensibly a secret military installation, there was no need to hide the facilities from the people of the martial world, anyway.

Indeed, beside Kang Jin-Ho, several members of the martial world had already taken a peek into this place. And when they saw this facility and all these highly trained soldiers, they all got sh*t-scared and voluntarily asked to join hands with America.

But the reactions of this trio couldn’t be more different from those people even if they tried! Judging from their unflustered attitude, it was as if... As if everything they had seen so far was not worthy of their time!

When Jimmy Bower seemed lost for words, Willie Reese quickly stepped in. “Assembly Master, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at him. “Mm?”

“Shouldn’t we confirm the strength of our soldiers next?”

“Do we have to?”

It was now Willie Reese’s turn to get flustered when Kang Jin-Ho asked back nonchalantly.

After all, the purpose of this visit wasn’t to give Kang Jin-Ho and Co. an all-access tour of the facility but to confirm, with their own eyes, how strong the American martial artists being nurtured in this place were.

But now, Kang Jin-Ho was saying something that wasn’t in the script.

“A-are you implying that you don’t have to confirm, sir?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Willie Reese’s head reflexively turned toward the soldiers on the field, currently training on their own. Did Kang Jin-Ho already figure out their combat strength by watching them for a short time?

That didn’t make any sense, though?

However, Kang Jin-Ho defied all common sense, to begin with, so...

“...Do you mind if I ask you for your impression of these soldiers?”

Kang Jin-Ho casually shrugged again. “It might be better if you don’t.”

“No, sir. I insist. Please.”

Kang Jin-Ho stared straight into Willie Reese’s eyes, then muttered emotionlessly. “These people are no good as a combat force.”

“...”

“Although it was interesting to watch you people horsing around like kids, that’s about it, really.”

Horsing around? Like kids?! Jimmy Bower’s face instantly grew flushed when he heard that. He had never heard something so insulting in his entire life!

He slowly chewed his words out while doing his absolute best to suppress his anger.

“But, sir. I assure you, your thoughts will change once you experience them in combat situations.”

Despite Jimmy Bower’s best attempt, however, he still couldn’t do anything about his sharp, rebuking tone.

“No, it won’t,” Kang Jin-Ho smirked. “At least, my mind won’t.”

Jimmy Bower glared at Kang Jin-Ho. “Do you mind if I confirm what gives you such confidence to say that, sir? My apologies, but I’ve met too many people who can’t back it up, you see!”

Willie Reese freaked out and hurriedly grabbed Jimmy Bower’s shoulder. But it was already too late by then. Kang Jin-Ho had heard everything, after all!

The corners of Kang Jin-Ho’s lips gradually curled up.

“You’re going to regret saying that.”

He sounded slightly excited just then.

1. Yes, it was censored in the raw. Not sure why, though! LOL! ☜