The Retired Max-Level Worker Wants to Rest - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Retirement?

TL/ED – Miso

Construction robot operator.

Exactly what it sounds like, a operator who rides a construction robot and works in space. Product name: Tactical Utility Robotic Constructor, or [Turk], the all-purpose robot that was my workplace.

Really, I was just a Worker.

A Worker who did whatever he was told.

-Why did you enlist, Private?

They were asking why I volunteered.

The answer was obvious.

“Sir, you’re not from around here, are you?”

To survive.

For someone born in the colonies, there were three options.

Die to monsters.

Starve to death.

Or go to the battlefield.

Whirrr-

The Fusion Cutter.

Collecting gleaming minerals.

These things were so tough that most weapons couldn’t even scratch them. Of course, smashing them apart only made refining harder anyway.

-Enemy spotted! Rally up! Battle stations!

An order came in.

Wait, why me too?

My rank was private, but I was closer to a civilian laborer working for the military. Yeah, basically a civilian.

-Repair support!

Sure, that I could do-

-No, block the path!

Are you insane?!

You want me to block the path?

Against those terrifying monsters?

‘This isn’t what I signed up for!’

I came here to avoid monsters.

And now I was about to fight them.

Still, better than being bare-handed, I supposed.

BANG BANG!

A monster attacked me.

The armor was pretty solid, at least.

Whirrr-

I was repairing a bunker,

then attacking a monster.

Then repairing the guy next to me.

“You crazy bastard! I’m about to blow up! Repair! Repair! Repair!”

-Moving in! Mo- AAARGH?

BOOM!

The guy next to me blew up.

Battlefields like this were routine.

Nearly dying, watching a friend die right beside me.

Sometimes.

“Aren’t we on the same side?”

The enemy was other humans.

Monsters were awful, but people were worse.

“God damn it! This is too much!”

Gunfire everywhere, missiles raining down.

Screw it! Now tanks and warships were showing up too.

Through all of that, I was always the same.

-Repair! Repair-!

-We’re low on resources! Resources!

-Hold the line! Use your body if you have to!

-You’re being deployed! Build a bunker in enemy territory!

-Cross the wasteland and construct a command post at the mineral zone!

They made me do everything.

That’s why, whether they called it a construction robot or a mining robot, the operator was just called a “Worker.” An all-purpose Worker who got every single job done!

Still, I survived somehow.

And along the way, I learned. How to repair systematically, how to build quickly, how to mine resources efficiently.

-Senior, this is way too scary.

I even got juniors.

Honestly, after a few years, almost everyone was a junior.

Why? Because the survival rate on this job was abysmal.

“Life is always the real deal, kid.”

I never thought the day would come when I’d say that.

And so casually, too.

-AAARGH! It’s a monster!

“That’s small fry. Block it with your body.”

-Senior! Senior, you son of a-!

“Kids these days have no manners.”

Whiiiirrr-

SPLAT!

The monster burst apart.

My junior stared at me with dumbfounded eyes, and I shook my head, pulled out a stash of snacks, and tossed some into my mouth.

“Get back to work.”

-Ah, yes sir. S-sorry.

Before I knew it, I’d gotten used to it.

A comrade blowing up right beside me didn’t make me flinch, and most construction jobs were a one-man show.

Repairs? I could do those with my eyes closed.

By now, most monsters were almost cute.

Thirty years passed like that.

“So you’re that sergeant? The one they call a war hero.”

I’d formally enlisted.

I’d received all sorts of medals.

Thanks to that, my rank had climbed quite a bit.

And then.

‘War hero.’

What a joke.

I wasn’t even a combat soldier,

yet I’d survived the longest on the battlefield.

And become the one with the greatest achievements.

So people started seeking me out.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“We need a veteran like you.”

“I’ve retired, sir.”

I’d decided to discharge just the other day.

The paperwork was already done.

All I had to do was enjoy my leave and walk out.

“Just help us this one time.”

“……The thing is.”

“If this fails, humanity won’t be able to maintain peace any longer. This operation is absolutely necessary, and it must succeed.”

“…….”

“We need a hero.”

And so it happened.

I wanted to rest, but they said it was the last time.

They said humanity was in danger.

‘I’ve saved up money, bought a small house, even got a weapon to fend off wild monsters and a decent construction robot.’

My retirement preparations were complete.

I’d been here for thirty years.

As far as I knew, among those who started as Workers, only 1 in 1,000 survived past three years, 1 in 10,000 past ten years, and for thirty years, I was the first.

And yet.

“……Assassinate the queen of the monster species?”

First Phase.

Infiltrate a planet teeming with monsters.

The survival rate was already below 1% just from that.

These days, the monsters were sharp enough to see right through stealth, and there were millions of anti-air biological defense structures blanketing the surface.

“We need to build a base there. No one but you can do it. You’ll have to mine minerals and gas in contaminated zones and handle the construction.”

Second Phase.

Building in a place crawling with every kind of monster, the entire planet drenched in their secretions. Obviously, it wouldn’t be easy, and ambushes could come at any moment.

The survival rate dropped even further.

“We’re going to build a nuke inside.”

Third Phase.

A nuke. Even with enough resources, no simple task. Not something I could do alone; even hundreds of Workers operating simultaneously would need years.

Of course, if it were me, a few months would do.

“What do you say? Will you help?”

A job no one else could do.

This was the last one.

I’d finish this and retire.

.

.

.

“So, you’re asking how it turned out?”

We were in a bar.

My friend Park Dong-cheol listened with a tipsy wobble.

“Hehe, you failed?”

“We succeeded.”

Yeah, we succeeded.

And I died.

Why?

“Damn it, I finished building the nuke, but there was no extraction plan! That insane commander, seriously-!”

On that godforsaken planet, I built a forward base. I dug underground tunnels, gathered resources, evaded the monster detection network, and succeeded in building a nuke.

Then detonated it.

Deep beneath the planet’s surface.

Blew up the planet itself.

Did the queen die?

‘Who knows.’

I died.

Along with the planet.

Was that even an assassination?

‘Well, if there are no witnesses, I guess it counts.’

Anyway,

that’s how I was reborn.

Into a completely new world.

“Yeah, it was great. Reborn on this peaceful Earth. I thought this was true retirement. I was planning to coast through life without a care, but-!”

“Hehe… you’re full of it.”

My friend waved his hand, telling me to drop the act.

But I needed to say this.

“But even here! Even here! I have to survive again!”

“Isn’t that just how the world works~”

“Exactly! Why is everything like this!”

I’d been reincarnated.

When I was young, it was wonderful. In this world with no monsters and no wars, I’d planned to rest for the rest of my life. Get a decent job, relax a bit.

How beautiful it was.

A peaceful life.

“Ugh, this pisses me off. And why! Again! Why am I seeing those monsters!”

“Thanks to that, you Awakened, didn’t you?”

“I never asked for it.”

“And you’ve gotten plenty strong.”

“I just want to rest!”

“Sure, must be nice. S-Rank Hunter-nim!”

That’s right.

Just one year ago, the world changed.

Things called Gates appeared and unleashed monsters into this world. Monsters that were all too familiar to me.

That made it even worse.

“Blegh, I’m gonna puke.”

My friend fled to the bathroom.

I sipped my Jack and Coke and worked on my retirement plan.

……Not that I knew when it would be possible.

.

.

.

One year ago.

I was living an ordinary life.

Born into a reasonably average family, studied a reasonable amount. Because all I wanted was a reasonably decent job.

Of course, “reasonably” wasn’t enough to land one easily.

“Still, I’m happy~”

I said that all the time.

Thirty years old and still job-hunting.

My parents nagged me.

But I was happy.

“Now this is happiness~”

No monsters.

No risking my life.

I lived every moment with gratitude. Even when I had to go to the military, which every Korean man was required to do.

‘This is a total cakewalk~’

And it really was.

Just training with no actual combat?

‘Now this is retirement~’

Maybe that’s why heaven killed me.

Dear heavens, thank you for this retirement gift.

‘This turned out for the best, honestly.’

Even if I’d retired in that hellish world, the monsters wouldn’t have disappeared and the wars wouldn’t have ended.

I could’ve been dragged back in at any time.

But this place was different.

‘The world itself is at peace!’

That was the best part.

This was the retirement I’d always dreamed of.

Every single day was bliss.

I wanted to live like this forever.

Then one day.

“What is that? Are they filming a movie?”

“Wow, those special effects are amazing!”

“Something’s coming out of it.”

I saw it.

A crack forming in midair.

‘It looks awfully familiar… I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’

I felt like I’d seen this somewhere before. Was it when those monsters would breach through space for ambushes? This phenomenon was strikingly similar.

And then.

SPLAT-!

An unknown force burst outward.

It swallowed dozens of people, myself included.

Thud.

I fell to the ground.

A stinging pain blossomed through my body. But more than that, the sight unfolding before my eyes left me speechless.

“…….”

A wasteland of ruins.

But the wreckage scattered everywhere, and the contaminants coating it, looked frighteningly similar to what I’d seen countless times in my previous life.

No, I could tell.

It wasn’t just similar. It was identical.

“What the? Where are we?!”

“KYAAAAH!”

“Quiet down, please!”

“No, where, where is this-!”

I could see people.

About fifteen.

All of them looked panicked.

Then, something appeared in midair.

Ding.

It was a message.

Like something from a game.

-Welcome! You have arrived at the [Ruined Planet]!

No way.

This can’t be happening out of nowhere.

-You have been invited to this place.

-If you find the Gate exit, you can return to your original world.

At those words, things got noisy.

Some cursed, some started crying.

-However.

With one word.

The room fell silent.

-You will not be thrown in empty-handed. You can hunt monsters to raise your Level, and raising your Level will earn you rewards.

Like some kind of game.

I watched in silence.

-And those rewards will prove useful in protecting Earth.

-Assuming you survive, of course.

That was it.

The message vanished.

Then a transparent barrier formed around my body.

-You have Awakened.

-Innate ability [Super Regeneration] has manifested.

This was a personal message.

Super Regeneration? What was that?

-You must survive in this place.

-[Beginner’s Grace] will remain active for 15 minutes.

I scanned my surroundings.

The atmosphere felt thin; there was no wind. Seeing broken oxygen masks among the wreckage told me the atmospheric conditions were bad.

‘This is brutal.’

Was there only one Gate?

Was it just this area with these conditions?

Were there others who got dragged in besides us?

Questions piled on top of questions.

But there was no time to dwell on them.

Dash.

I ran.

Without a word.

I wasn’t confident I could persuade that many people here. But I didn’t intend to abandon everyone either.

I’d help whoever was willing.

“H-hey, that guy’s running!”

“Does he know something?”

“What do we do! Am I going to die?”

“Agh! Damn it! What the hell is going on!”

Some of them noticed me,

but they didn’t bother following.

Except for two.

“Huff- huff- Hey, wait up!”

“Let me come with you!”

One man, one woman.

I kept running without stopping.

‘A battery.’

I found one while running and picked it up.

And then, the most important thing.

‘A Fusion Cutter.’

Broken?

Just needed a few parts swapped out.

I grabbed that too.

“Here, take these!”

I handed one to each of them.

One apiece.

“AAAH! What is this?!”

“I-it’s heavy!”

At least they listened.

They’d be useful.

After that, I picked up a Gauss Rifle split in half and an almost empty ammo box.

Where I ended up was a prefabricated temporary base that looked relatively intact. Most of it was destroyed, with only the main section and two side corridors remaining.

“Huff, huff.”

I was short of breath.

Should’ve exercised more.

Of course I hadn’t.

Why?

‘Because I was retired!’

I wanted to rest.

In all this happiness, I wanted to die happy.

And then something like this had to happen.

‘Retirement… guess I’ll have to put it off just a little.’

Just get out of here.

Then retire for real.

But right then.

KYAAAAH-!

A scream echoed from far away.

Monsters had appeared.

Just as I’d feared, it was those things.