Chapter 25 — The Last Guard Shift
1. Dream Demon God's Blessing (60 days)
▶ Effect 1: Luck related to sex increases dramatically.
▶ Effect 2: Receive a 200% bonus effect when mastering any skill.
▶ Effect 3: Stamina overflows endlessly.
2. Gym Rat's Blessing (60 days)
▶ Effect 1: Male hormone levels increase dramatically.
▶ Effect 2: Proficiency in all forms of exercise increases by 200%.
▶ Effect 3: Muscle recovery speed increases by 300%.
The Dream Demon God's Blessing rapidly accelerates his mastery of physical abilities, while the Gym Rat's Blessing has an enormous impact on his muscle synthesis. On top of that, the proficiency effect from the Gym Rat's Blessing stacks with the Dream Demon God's Blessing.
If a hardcore gym rat who knew their stuff ever experienced a blessing like this, they'd be switching religions on the spot.
Seo Juhwan lay down on the bench, warmed up with the empty bar, then loaded 25kg plates on each side. With the bar weighing 20kg, the total came to 70kg.
'Alright. Let's absolutely destroy these pecs!'
He wanted to get rid of this damned chest fat — it looked like gynecomastia — as soon as possible.
Lee Junghoon placed his hands at the center of the bar and said:
"Okay, I'll spot you so it doesn't drop — now lift!"
With that, any risk of injury was completely gone. You always have to be careful when working out.
"Hup!"
He held his breath and lifted in one clean motion. Then one, two, three… He completed two sets of eight. Now it was the last set.
"Six! Two left. Keep going."
"Unngh."
"Seven!"
"Hrgh!"
"Eight! One more and we're done."
Lee Junghoon called out one more. Seo Juhwan gritted his teeth and squeezed out everything he had.
"Hrrgh!"
"Nine! One last one!"
"Hrrrrrgh!"
Seo Juhwan dug deep into every last reserve he had — not from drinking milk, but from a certain other activity — and pressed out the tenth rep.
But Lee Junghoon called out again.
"One more for real!"
You little son of a—
*
Tomorrow was the day Seo Juhwan would head out on his end-of-service leave.
The 4th Company had a tradition: the soldier going on leave stands night duty the day before. Since the company was short-handed and they wanted to be considerate to those staying behind, it had become a tradition. In return, the soldier wasn't put on duty the day they returned from leave.
Beep beep beep. Beeee-
Tap.
When the time came, the alarm he had set went off. He immediately silenced it so as not to wake the others.
'Ugh, I'm exhausted.'
Of all the dawn shifts, 3:30 AM was the worst. After finishing a two-hour guard post shift and returning, less than an hour remained before morning reveille. Too short to go back to sleep, but too awkward to just stay awake. It was one of the most dreaded duty time slots for every soldier in the unit.
Click. Shhhh.
The barracks door opened quietly and a soldier in combat uniform stepped in — the overnight sentry, coming to wake the next person on duty. He scanned the room and made eye contact with Seo Juhwan.
"Oh, Juhwan, you're already up? Junghoon too… you're up as well."
"Yeah. Hang in there."
"Thanks. You too, Juhwan."
They exchanged brief pleasantries and got up.
"Hey, you ready?"
"Yeah. Let's head down and grab a smoke first."
"Sure."
This was the perk of pulling guard duty with someone experienced. They got ready fast, leaving plenty of time to leisurely smoke a cigarette.
The two of them had a smoke, then headed to the command control room.
When they pushed open the door and walked in, the duty officer and adjutant were there. Seo Juhwan's eyes went wide when he saw who the duty officer was.
"Kangchul. Ma'am, were you on duty officer today?"
Jeong Sora was on duty. She returned their salute with slightly tired eyes. Then she noticed Lee Junghoon beside him and tilted her head.
"You two are on shift together?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Why are two senior soldiers on the same shift?"
A string of question marks practically floated above Jeong Sora's head.
Normally, a shift was made up of one senior soldier and one junior — so the senior could demonstrate and the junior could learn. In other words, Seo Juhwan, a late-stage sergeant, and Lee Junghoon, who would make sergeant next month, had no business being on the same shift together.
Seo Juhwan put on a slightly sheepish expression.
"This is my last shift, so I wanted to do it with Junghoon."
"Ahhh."
Jeong Sora nodded as if she understood.
Once Seo Juhwan returned from this leave, he would be discharged without pulling any more shifts. So he had adjusted the duty schedule to spend his last guard shift with Lee Junghoon, the person he had known longest and gotten closest to. Lee Junghoon had agreed to it too, of course. The problem was that he had forgotten to report it to Jeong Sora separately.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I should have reported it in advance."
"Hmm. It's fine. You've worked hard all this time — it's the least you deserve."
Fortunately, Jeong Sora let it slide without much fuss. Lee Junghoon, who had been watching nervously from the side, let out a quiet "yes!" under his breath.
Not long after, the ammunition depot guards who would be deployed alongside them arrived. They received their ammunition, then moved out to their posts along the designated route.
The two of them took up their primary and secondary positions and set their rifles down at an angle that avoided the CCTV cameras. At this stage of service, they had the blind spots of every camera memorized cold.
Lee Junghoon leaned against the iron bars of the secondary position and said:
"Can't believe you're already getting discharged, Juhwan."
"Still about two weeks left."
"Come on. You come back from leave and it's literally the next day."
"Heh. How much leave have you saved up?"
"Leave? Hmm. Honestly I was running a little short, but the days you gave up helped me out a lot. Really, thank you."
The two kept watch of their surroundings and chatted in low voices. They had been in the military together for over a year now, so there was plenty to talk about. For Seo Juhwan, it all felt like something from ten years ago, a little hazy — but whenever Lee Junghoon brought something up, it came back to him with surprising clarity.
They had been talking for a while when Lee Junghoon suddenly asked, as if something had just occurred to him:
"Hey, how'd it go on your overnight pass? Did you score?"
At that question, Seo Juhwan's heart dropped straight to the floor.
- 110 Advanced Chapters of {The Desire System: Reincarnated with a Demon God's Gift}: patreon.com/aristo0_0