Uncle Sam

Lucas, the Supreme Commander of the European Allied Forces, hadn’t been sleeping well lately.

The reason was obvious – it was because of the undead that had increased hundredfold.

What was unfair was that his lack of sleep wasn’t due to being busy with work.

If the undead had only appeared in specific regions it would have been manageable, but now with undead pouring across all of Europe, every country had diverted their military forces to national defense, leaving the Allied Forces with no troops to deploy.

Despite this, those above kept pressuring him about why the Allied Forces weren’t doing anything while those below cursed at him.

Lucas, who had become a scapegoat in exchange for holding the illustrious position of Supreme Commander of the European Allied Forces, was under severe stress from receiving more curses since the undead surge than he had heard in his entire life.

His dark circles had reached his cheeks, his cheeks were sunken, and he’d even developed circular hair loss.

Until just a few minutes ago, he thought things couldn’t get any worse.

However, beneath rock bottom was always a basement.

“The coffee tastes good.”

An Asian youth in a somewhat unbalanced fashion of white shirt, black suit, and leather gloves.

Though he felt like grabbing him by the collar, Lucas suppressed the urge with superhuman patience and tried to maintain courtesy.

There was nothing to gain from getting on bad terms with Shooting Star Han Yuseong, one of less than ten heroes in the world.

Especially in the current situation.

“Never mind the coffee. More importantly, is what you said true?”

Only after speaking did he realize his tone had been somewhat rude, but fortunately Yuseong answered calmly without seeming to mind.

“Yes. Twenty hours from now, all heroes including myself will be leaving our posts to eliminate the cause behind the abnormal appearance of undead monsters.”

“And it’s also true that you don’t know how long this operation will take?”

“That’s correct. We don’t know what’s there, what monsters we’ll face, nothing at all. With luck it might end quickly, but in the worst case it could take days, maybe even over ten days.”

“Over ten days…”

Considering the users’ power, he thought it unlikely to take that long, but given the case of Dragonia that withstood Kasim’s bombardment for ten days, he couldn’t jump to conclusions.

Lucas’s face turned black.

Europe was currently engaged in total war.

All factories were producing wartime supplies, and able-bodied people were being forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines with World War II-era weapons that belonged in museums.

But even with all this, holding back the undead was impossible.

While modern weapons could somehow handle zombies, skeletons, and flesh golems, there weren’t enough Contractors to stop ghost-type monsters like spectres and wraiths, and elite monsters like Death Knights and Liches could only be handled by heroes.

‘One or two days might be manageable, but if the heroes are gone long-term we have no way to hold out. What should I do? Request support from home? Or from the International Contractors Association?’

Neither option looked promising.

America was so short on forces they’d had to tap into their storage of aging fighter jets in the Arizona desert, and the newly launched International Contractors Association wouldn’t have many people they could send.

“Couldn’t even two people, no, just one person stay behind?”

“As I said earlier, we don’t know what dangers await. We can’t spare even one person.”

“Then what are we supposed to do! Don’t you know what will happen if the heroes disappear in the current situation?”

“Of course I know.”

“Someone who knows that would… Kuk!”

Lucas grabbed the back of his neck with a bright red face mid-sentence.

Recognizing that Lucas was about to collapse from high blood pressure, Yuseong quickly took out a palm-sized metal case from his chest.

“Of course we’re not going without any countermeasures. I’ve prepared a small solution to deal with the undead.”

“…What is this?”

To Lucas’s question, Yuseong paused slightly before speaking slowly.

“It’s a drug that can awaken non-ability users into ability users.”

The drug that should have been distributed to various countries through the users was decided to be invested entirely in Europe as a desperate measure to block the undead offensive.

It took Lucas a while to grasp the meaning of Yuseong’s words.

It was such an outrageous notion that it was that difficult to accept.

“W-what did you just say?”

“I said it’s a drug that can awaken non-ability users into ability users. The awakening probability is around 20%, and the awakened abilities include moderate physical enhancement and energy detection capabilities.”

“Wait! Moderate physical enhancement? Energy detection? More than that, a drug that can create ability users, surely you’re not joking?”

“Do I look free enough to joke around?”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant. But it’s so unrealistic… Where did you get this from?”

“I made it.”

“…You made it yourself?”

Since the appearance of Contractors, all countries had tried to analyze or reproduce Contractor abilities, but even after several months, not a single country had achieved meaningful results.

Even America with its astronomical funding and research personnel, and China which was unofficially conducting human experiments, couldn’t even analyze the abilities let alone reproduce them, yet suddenly an individual had invented a drug that could artificially awaken abilities?

It was natural to be skeptical.

“The other heroes also vouch for the drug’s effectiveness. If you don’t believe me, you can confirm with any of the heroes currently active in Europe.”

The thought that this might be a scam briefly crossed his mind, but seeing him speak this way, it was clearly not a lie.

‘How it was made isn’t important. What matters is the effect. If this drug is real…’

After quickly calculating, Lucas spoke in an excited voice different from before.

“This drug! How much does it cost? How many doses are there? How do you use it?”

“At current exchange rates, roughly $2,000, and there are enough doses for about 300,000 people. For usage, just inject one ampoule’s worth using the syringe there.”

“$2,000? Good heavens! It’s that cheap?”

“This is cheap?”

Yuseong was confused seeing Lucas who was beyond surprised, almost shocked.

Not 100% but only 20% probability, and it doesn’t even make proper ability users but just creates the foundation to learn abilities.

He thought $2,000 was quite expensive, but seeing Lucas’s reaction, it seemed he could have raised the price several times without issue.

Yuseong would soon understand why.

‘The standards were different.’

From a user’s perspective, this drug wasn’t that impressive.

Though it was attractive that it didn’t require karma points and could be mass-produced, looking at performance alone it couldn’t compare to drugs that could be brought from other worlds, so not just the users but even he hadn’t valued the drug very highly.

However, by normal people’s standards, even this much qualified as an amazing elixir.

‘Should I raise the price?’

After briefly considering, Yuseong shook his head.

He could raise it as much as he wanted, but that would defeat the meaning of developing lower-tier forces.

Considering the current world economic situation, this price was appropriate.

Yuseong subtly mentioned the drug’s problems to Lucas who was staring at the case as if entranced.

“However, this drug has the issue that we can’t guarantee its safety. Though I’ve done my own checks, most experiments were on animals or monsters, and I’ve only done human trials once, so we don’t know what side effects there might be.”

“When all of Europe is about to be massacred by monsters who we don’t even know are alive or dead, who cares about side effects? Well, unless there are side effects that turn people into zombies or something, no one will complain! Hahaha!”

“Ha, haha, hahaha…”

Yuseong forced a laugh.

Though Lucas had said it jokingly, that was precisely one of the side effects Yuseong was most worried about.

“Well, but certainly the safety issue isn’t something we can take lightly. Even before safety, using an unidentified drug without proper test results is problematic from the start. I’m prepared to trust and use this drug, but naturally not many civilians or even soldiers will think the same way.”

“That can’t be helped, but won’t people come forward to take it when put in extreme situations?”

“That’s true, but there’s an even better way.”

“A better way?”

Lucas reached toward the case while smiling at Yuseong who had questioned back.

Then he quite naturally drew the contents of an ampoule into the syringe and injected it straight into his arm.

Yuseong stood up with a cry a beat late.

If it was someone else it might not matter, but if something happened to the Supreme Commander of the European Allied Forces after taking the drug, the aftermath wasn’t something he even wanted to imagine.

“Uu, uuuu.”

Yuseong held a status recovery potion while focusing his entire attention on Lucas’s every movement.

* * *

To state the conclusion first, Yuseong didn’t need to use the status recovery potion.

No side effects occurred.

Far from side effects, the drug actually showed over 120% effectiveness.

Ratatata!

A machine gun was firing at the zombies surging forward like a tide.

It might not have seemed unusual, but if that machine gun was being held not by a mount but by an elderly man with graying hair, and if that elderly man was the Supreme Commander of the European Allied Forces, it was a different story.

With ammunition belts crossed in an X and firing a machine gun, Lucas’s appearance reminded one of Rambo from the movies.

“Kuhahaha! Die! You monsters!”

Though his hair loss remained, his sagging belly from age had disappeared and his muscles were pumped enough to make his uniform look tight.

People who knew what Lucas had been like half a day ago doubted their eyes, but that old man was definitely Lucas himself.

Making those around him wonder if his head had gone wrong as a drug side effect as he burst into wild laughter, Lucas put down his red-hot machine gun and raised his index finger toward a nearby camera, striking Uncle Sam’s pose.

Though Lucas didn’t say a single word, people around the world watching through the screen could understand what he was trying to say.

“…Maybe I should charge for advertising.”

It was the best possible promotion.