Gyeomyongsang, Chungcheong Province, Kingdom of Joseon
June 7th, 1592 (April 28th, 1592 Lunar Calendar)

"Yamero!"

The sound of heavy panting and footsteps echoed through the dimly-lit forest as five figures streaked through the trees. The two silhouettes at the front were considerably ahead of the others, but the pair was noticeably slowing down. Despite the fact that they were only wearing helmets and hanbok, they were barely ahead of their pursuers. A loud crack filled the forest and a shot ricocheted off the trunk of a tree near the fleeing conscripts, throwing up bark and dust into the air. One of the runaways tripped over a tree root while glancing behind him and was roughly pulled up by his partner.

"Sorry," Jong-eun, mumbled as he continued to sprint away from their hunters.

"Save your breath. If they catch us, we're dead." The older man, Hwang Yong, replied as he tightly gripped his Hwando.

No more words were muttered between the two as they continued their escape. After another five minutes, Jong-eun started to wheeze and stumbled over his feet. As he did, the flail in the young man's hand fell onto the ground just inches away from his face. Hwang Yong took a moment to catch his breath before looking at his partner with dismay, "We finally managed to put some distance between us and the Japanese. If you take a break now, they'll catch up quickly."

Jong-seun struggled to lift himself off the ground and leaned against a tree for support, panting heavily as sweat rolled down his face, "I can't."

The jongyin frowned as he looked towards the direction which they came from, "Then I'll tell your owner that you perished in battle."

Instead of fleeing immediately, Hwang Yong raised his sword and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Hey you wae-nom! We're over here!"

The Japanese soldiers, that were some distance away, were attracted by the Korean man's cries and began to move towards them. Hwang did not turn back as he fled the scene, leaving Jong-seun by himself. Jong's mind barely processed his (former) partner's betrayal as he tiredly picked up his flail and slowly ran away. His robes felt heavy and his entire body felt sluggish as he ventured through the forest, but he had no choice. The Japanese yaman-in had killed thousands of Korean soldiers and conscripts in battle just hours before, completely annihilating the vaunted Korean army under General Shin Rip's command. If he was caught, he knew that his head would be cut off and his body would be tossed into a forgotten pit.

Another sharp crack resonated through the forest and the shot from the Japanese chongtong narrowly missed once again. Thankfully, it seemed as though only one of them was carrying a chongtong, which increased his odds of survival. However, his luck ran out quickly as he was pushed into a small corner on the edge of a cliff. There was a river down below and Jong was able to discern that it was the Namhan River, the river that was about two li east from his master's home in the city of Choongju. The crescent moon reflected off the surface of the water as Jong took a nervous step towards the edge.

Two Japanese yaman-in emerged from the forest, with one of them armed with a strange-looking chongtong in his hand. The armored-clad soldiers looked menacing in the dim moonlight and Jong shuddered as the warrior that was only armed with a sword moved forward. Meanwhile, the yaman-in with the chongtong put down his firearm and unsheathed his own blade. The Korean man silently whimpered as he attempted to look threatening with his wooden flail, but the Japanese soldiers merely laughed as they closed in on their prey. Jong's strength failed him and his knees forced him to the ground as he closed his eyes for his death. In his mind, he sent out a silent prayer to his ancestors for a miracle, some sort of sign that would calm his nerves as he braced himself for death.

Suddenly, the Japanese soldiers began to scream and Jong opened his eyes to see a bright ray of light blinding his surroundings. His hunters were shielding their eyes from the sudden brightness, as they were looking directly towards it. Jong desperately covered his own eyes from the light and caught a glimpse of an opening on the cliffside down by the river. It was as if his ancestors had answered his pleas and was giving him a chance to escape. Steeling his nerves, he prepared to dive into the river right as one of the samurai wildly slashed his shoulder with their katana. Jong screamed in pain and tumbled off the cliff, landing awkwardly in the water with a gaping wound. Fighting back the pain that threatened to overtake him, the Korean nobi sluggishly walked into the cave. When he did, the brightness of the illumination dimmed considerably and he was able to move forward without his eyes being blinded. Thankfully, the soldiers were no longer chasing him and he heard their voices echo off into the distance.

The light was coming from the end of the cavern, and Jong slowly walked towards the source of the brightness while gripping his wound. Blood leaked into his right hand and he smelled something unfamiliar within the cave, but he continued forward to his source of salvation. When he reached it, he found shimmering air in front of a stone wall. Looking around, he saw the shimmering air was surrounded by some sort of curved metal, with some source of light blinking at the very top. The entire structure was huge, easily as big as a house, and was making an unfamiliar humming noise. Curiously, he touched the metal and accidentally stumbled as he felt his strength weakening from the exhaustion of the chase and the wound.

Right as he was about to hit the wall, his body vanished into the unknown. The machine surrounding the portal whirred but continued to hum.

+++++

Near the Namhan River, North Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea
June 7th, 2022 (May 7th, 2022 Lunar Calendar), 100 Days until "D-Day"

"There's nothing out here," Police Inspector Kim Kwon-joon reported through the radio as he warmed up inside his comfortable patrol car, "I think that hiker might have been hallucinating. I haven't seen any bright lights nearby and nothing seems out of the ordinary. I'll check the riverfront one more time though, just in case."

"Probably another drunkard, but go ahead. Stay safe."

The policeman stepped out into the open and pulled out his flashlight. The lonely road between two small villages on the edge of the Namhan River was completely devoid of life. It was about forty minutes past midnight and despite the warm weather recently, the night air was chilly. Inspector Kim checked his utility belt and walked towards the riverfront to see if he could locate the source of the light. A hiker called the Choongju Police Department to report that there was a "godly ray of light" coming from the Namhan River and Inspector Kim was sent out to investigate the matter. He discovered that the hiker had left the scene shortly after making the call and despite his twenty-minute search, he had not found a single piece of evidence to verify the caller's claims. The river was calm and peaceful, and the only sources of light were the lamposts that illuminated the road and the crescent moon in the sky.

"Next time, I'm making the assistant inspectors do this," Inspector Kim grumbled as he took a flight of stairs and walked down to the banks of the Namhan River. The river was clear of any boats, though the policeman was able to make out a small port facility on the other side of the river, "Maybe it was from a boat... I'll need to check with the workers there tomorrow morning."

He walked around a bit more with his flashlight on and stopped completely in his tracks when he saw something foreign in the sand: a trail of blood that continued to the north.

Inspector Kim's heartrate skyrocketed as he grabbed the radio on his vest, "Choong-15, Code 8."

The radio responded almost immediately, "Repeat that one more time, Choong-15?"

"C4-D3, Code 8."

"What is your current location?"

"On the Namhan riverbank, directly across from some sort of port facility with a dozen boats. I'm near that small, rural road that splits Jonmin-dong."

"Across from the Choongju River Cruise Agency, on the mountain road. Got it. What did you find?"

"A trail of blood. Bring an ambulance as well."

"Already on it. Four officers are on your way."

"I'll follow the trail to see if I can see anything."

"I highly advise you to wait for the others."

"If I spot any danger, I'll pull back immediately. If there's an assailant, then the sirens will warn them ahead of time."

"Take extreme caution. The other officers will join you shortly, and all of them will be armed."

Inspector Kim pulled out his taser and slowly followed the line of blood. This was one of the few times he wished that all police officers were allowed to carry handguns. Normally, officers only carried non-lethal weapons unless the situation called for it (such as an armed robbery or a murder). However, he continued forward as the amount of blood on the sand informed him that the injured person was bleeding out rapidly. After a few minutes of search, he discovered a body leaned against a small rock. He looked around at his surroundings quickly and cautiously approached the figure. When he shined his light on the body, he saw a man with a nasty wound in his shoulder. The man looked young, approximately in his early twenties, and he seemed very thin. The strangest part about the young adult was that he was wearing a very worn out hanbok, and not even the modern type of hanbok either. His clothing made it seem as though the injured man stepped out of a Korean historical drama.

After making sure that no one else was nearby, Inspector Kim kneeled next to the man and applied pressure to the man's wounds, "Can you hear me? Who did this to you?"

The man gasped out a few words that the policeman only heard in passing. Words such as "sword" and "yaman-in" made the officer more puzzled than before. What did barbarians have to do with the situation? Was the man saying that a (foreign) barbarian struck him with a sword? Something seemed extremely off.

Within fifteen minutes, the other officers and the ambulance arrived. Thankfully, the wounded man survived, as the assailant missed his vitals. But it would take some time for him to wake up.

And discover that he was no longer in 16th century Joseon.

+++++

AN: Useful things to note:

"Yamero" means "Stop" or "Halt" in Japanese, in an authoritative tone.

Hanbok is traditional Korean clothing, worn by members of every caste (though, the lower classes wear less fancy/less complicated hanbok).

Hwando is a type of Korean sword. It's similar to a katana, but shorter and lighter.

The caste system of Joseon is as followed:

-Yangban: Nobles and the King. Controls nearly all of the land in Joseon. The Yangbang class consists of administrators, court officials, governors, magistrates, generals, highly-educated scholars, etc.
-Jongyin: "Middle Class." Many aspire to be part of the Yangban class, though nearly all of them fall short. The Jongyin class consists of doctors, translators [that translate Chinese], law counselors, assistants to administrators and magistrates, and tax collectors.
-Peongmin: Peasants. This class is larger than the Yangban and Jongyin class combined. This class consists of the backbone of feudal society: farmers, merchants, traders, craftsmen, etc.
-Chunmin: Undesirables, or "Untouchables." This class can be set apart into two groups. The first group consists of slaves (nobi), which makes up nearly 20-30% of the population. Most are privately owned slaves, with a Yangban owner. There are a few state-owned slaves as well. However, unlike most slaves in America or elsewhere, most nobi in Korea are ruled like "subjects" by their masters. They are usually paid a wage, hold land (rented out from their owner, like tenant farmers), and gain their own independent families/belongings. Indeed, it might be better to call them "serfs" rather than "slaves." The other group placed under the Chunmin class is a group called Baekjeong. This group consists of people that work in jobs that are considered "sinful" in Joseon society. That includes butchers (as Confucianism and Buddhism greatly influenced Korean society, which resulted in a negative view of killing, even animals), executioners, performers, fortune tellers, leather makers, etc.

Chongtong is a reference to what firearms were called in Korea during the Joseon period. During the Imjin War, Joseon didn't produce any muskets or arquebuses. In fact, the only firearm that Joseon soldiers carried were hand-held cannons that acted as a single shot shotgun (seungja, translated to "victory gun"). During the majority of the war, Joseon heavily relied on archers, which was a huge reason why Japan completely demolished any resisting Korean armies during the initial invasion.

Jong, who is a nobi, is escaping from the Battle of Chungju. It was one of the worst Korean defeats in the Imjin War. Many Koreans were hastily conscripted to fight against the Japanese in the battle, which was why Jong was carrying a flail (which was a common weapon for many Korean peasants) instead of a sword or a spear.

As you may have already guessed, yaman-in means "barbarian." Before and during the initial stages of the Imjin War, Koreans often referred to the Japanese as "barbarians" due to the prevalence of the Waegu Pirates on Korea's southern shores. In fact, the Joseon government strongly believed that the Japanese states were inferior to Joseon (hence the lack of preparations to deal with a Japanese invasion). That only changed after Japan kicked Joseon's teeth in.

Wae-nom means "small Japanese bastard." It was (and still is) a derogatory insult towards a Japanese person.