I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 112 – Anthony Owens

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“───Anthony, Anthony! Have you lost your mind while eating?”

“…Damn it, my head is ringing. My ears aren’t deaf, so shut up. Did you auction off your call sign to Amazon?”

The heavy smell of gunpowder, impossible to mask with the restaurant’s food aromas, lingered around the two men.

The building wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t particularly noisy either. No more than five people were scattered around, each engaged in their conversations.

Anthony, who glanced at the steaming mac and cheese, stabbed his spoon into the food and threw it aside, then brought his hand to his neck. A cracking sound echoed.

He spoke first.

“I haven’t been sleeping well these past few days. My head keeps hurting.”

“What does the medical officer say?”

“He said it might be from tinnitus. If the headache doesn’t stop or gets worse, I’ll have to step out for a while.”

“Haha, Hardwall is having a hard time. Don’t live so rigidly.”

“Eat shit, Carson.”

Anthony shoved the spoon into the mac and cheese and mechanically chewed the food while Carson, the man across from him, patiently waited before speaking again.

“Don’t pack up your things by missing the A-zone during training with a bad condition. Take your medicine after eating.”

“I’m going to do that anyway, so mind your own business, George. And a guy who can’t hit a target after just two days of headaches would have been kicked out already.”

“Sure, sure.”

A brief silence.

“Considering your condition is bad, the results you’ve shown recently were quite good. Am I mistaken?”

“You’re not wrong. Anyway, don’t nag me while I’m eating and go take a shower.”

“Did you secretly go down to the range during personal maintenance time and shoot until your head hurt—ah, damn it! Okay! I’m going, I’m going. Damn it, my shin…!”

“Stop lingering while I’m eating, damn it.”

Of course, even as he said he was going, Carson left the cafeteria, flipping Anthony off with a perfectly extended middle finger and limping slightly.

Despite saying that, Carson had been a good companion for years. He had decent social skills and even better abilities. He would probably set an outlandish trap to mess with Anthony later, but for now, that was something Anthony had to endure.

It felt like dreaming while awake.

‘…What am I seeing?’

It wasn’t just a simple headache.

It was a confusion of memories. Not someone else’s, but his own, flowing in from a non-existent future. Even with his eyes closed, he saw the silhouette of a woman. A clumsy, round-faced girl holding a gun.

He had been the one to hand the gun to that girl with a snake tail, and the one who had given her the opportunity…was himself.

From the future.

—Yoo Jin, I’ll briefly explain your schedule. After waking up, have your meal and be at the shooting range by 08:00.

—Yes.

—Conduct flat range shooting until 13:00, have lunch by 14:00, and then return to the shooting range. Continue shooting until 18:00. All shooting will be based on live-fire exercises.

—Understood.

“…Damn it, am I dreaming?”

Fragments of the future flickered in his mind like shards of broken glass reflecting sunlight. Passing through the fragmented memories were the numbers 2036. It was at least almost eight years into the future.

The patches, ranks, and authority attached to his body…he, who had been a Sergeant, was now a Master Sergeant. Countless non-existent memories flowed in, combining with present memories to create new chemical reactions.

Dark Zone.

The game that provided simulations to operators from The Unit, like himself, though the servers were separated.

“Hah.”

The headache had long since disappeared.

The remaining hallucinatory pain was closer to sparks caused by the friction between newly integrated memories and the present.

At this moment, he was Sergeant Anthony Owens, but also a Master Sergeant. He was also the ICARUS instructor in a world that didn’t exist and the sole mentor to someone named Yoo Jin….

Of course, he still couldn’t understand why she had a snake tail.

After returning the empty dish, he arrived at his private room and threw off his gear. Sweat poured from his body due to the live-fire training before lunch.

He was going to shower.

For a very long time.

“You really were here.”

In the relatively top section of the mailbox, overflowing with unread messages. Among those still brightly lit was one containing the word ICARUS.

Normally, he wouldn’t have missed it. But yesterday wasn’t ‘normal,’ and the emails that should have been checked were delayed to the next day due to the slightly more important task of drafting a curriculum for Harmony.

Fortunately, he checked it now. Otherwise, he might have to question why such emails were sent just a day before.

Of course, thinking like that was rather narrow-minded. Since the establishment of ICARUS International, had they ever sent such emails to anyone else? And for such matters.

So, strictly speaking, this was not a spontaneous request but one that had to be spontaneous. It seemed like a measure to prevent him from unnecessarily participating in a match he didn’t need to tomorrow.

However, being active as a special caster was another matter. Even though it was hard to say he was bad with words, commentating for a match watched by tens of thousands was a completely different issue from participating in it.

He examined the email more closely.

Fortunately, it kindly allowed him to choose the match and time slot he wanted to commentate on. The latest match was at 8 PM. It could be considered prime time.

Moreover, he only had to commentate on one match. The only somewhat burdensome part was that he might have to conduct an interview as well, but the email provided guidelines for that.

You may act like an interviewer in front of the interviewee.

“…It seems more like an interrogation than an interview.”

As strange as it might sound, he had been in charge of interrogations in the past….

He hoped his tone wouldn’t become too stiff.

Although it was somewhat late, he chose a time slot and sent a reply. Almost immediately after it was sent, a read receipt popped up, indicating someone had been waiting. Pushing the confirmation message aside, he prepared for what needed to be done next.

There were three main tasks to summarize.

The first was writing a notice for the viewers. There was no need to take a break from the stream. Even if it was a virtual reality game, it would only take about an hour. He could write the notice in advance and add to it when the time came.

The second was making at least minimal preparations and practice for commentating. No matter what, he had to check how commentating worked and prepare some lines. Of course, he thought there was no need to force himself to raise his tension too much.

The third was writing a message for Harmony. Tomorrow’s curriculum and the joint session would proceed without problems. They had become accustomed to each other stepping away for matches over the past few days.

It wouldn’t be any different this time.

The first and third tasks didn’t take long.

It was 11 PM. A bit late. To avoid wasting time, he had no choice but to practice in virtual reality.

Lying on the bed, he pressed the button on his choker and logged into the official Yourspace account of ICARUS International’s Korea branch. Numerous well-organized commentary videos lined up. He picked one at random.

High tension, uninterrupted voice. Detailed yet concise explanations and excellent pronunciation. Being a commentator required tremendous effort.

However, discussing whether he could become like them at this point was absurd. As always, he could only do his best. In a way, it was his own style of commentary.

Of course, that didn’t mean it could be a low-quality commentary.

“Ah, ah.”

After activating the pronunciation check software, he recited a few sentences displayed in front of him.

About ten minutes of measurement. It could be said that there were no severe, incomprehensible pronunciations. It was actually above average. Thankfully, the operator training program included conversation correction.

While practicing various things, a reply arrived.

However,

—[Harmony : ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡］

—[Harmony : I’ll come to watch tomorrow too~~~~!!］

…why was she so excited?

Stopping the video playback, he added.

—[Yoo Jin : Don’t expect too much］

—[Harmony : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ］

—[Yoo Jin : Did you enjoy the match?］

—[Harmony : It was so coolㅎㅎㅎㅎ］

—[Harmony : You did way better than when playing with me??］

—[Yoo Jin : It was easier compared to when we run missions togetherㅎㅎ］

—[Harmony : ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ;;］

—[Yoo Jin : Just kidding, just kidding］

Half was the truth, half was a joke. Approaching real users and AI required slightly different methods.

Even if he couldn’t completely deny that he had used hammer tactics against real users, facing AI opponents naturally removed any brakes.

Moreover, in PVE, enemies often appeared in bizarre places to compensate for the AI’s shortcomings, and ruthless hammering was nearly the most effective way to deal with such situations.

—[Harmony : I want to carry a hammer too!(··)］

—[Yoo Jin : Don’t even think about it］

—[Harmony : (·？·)］

—[Yoo Jin : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ］

A sharp answer.

Unfortunately, using melee weapons like that shouldn’t be necessary. If it ever came to that, something had gone seriously wrong. He was an exceptional case.

If she

just wanted a tactical hammer, it wasn’t a big deal, but for someone of Harmony’s skill level, there was no reason to carry an extra 1kg of metal.

Anyway, Harmony’s commendable effort was cut off there.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.

—[Harmony : Oh, by the way, I’m planning a collab with some streamer friends soon. Any tips on not trolling during it?］

—[Yoo Jin : Just do what I taught you diligently］

—[Harmony : Ohㅎㅎ; did I sound like I was trying to get an easy tip,,］

How should I put it?

Maybe because she hadn’t played with other users besides me, Harmony strangely lacked confidence in her skills. I guess she didn’t know how good she was.

According to my assessment, she was still far from reaching the level where I could say, “She’ll survive anywhere.” But that might be too harsh.

Anyway, seeing her keep up with me and handle tasks relatively well, I thought she wouldn’t get criticized wherever she went.

Now that proper training had started, she would improve significantly in about a month.

—[Yoo Jin : If skill improved overnight, people wouldn’t struggle so much］

—[Harmony : ㅠㅠㅠ］

—[Yoo Jin : But you’ve reached a level where you won’t be a burden to others during our time together ㅎㅎ］

—[Yoo Jin : No one is perfect from the start, so don’t worry too much XD］

—[Harmony : ( ”)］

—[Harmony : Thank you♡］

After talking about various things, my throat felt a bit dry.

I took a sip of water and replied.

—[Harmony : When do you plan to hit the bed tonight?］

—[Yoo Jin : I’ll probably be up for another two or three hours］

—[Harmony : Oh no….］

—[Harmony : Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but there’s training tomorrow…ㅠㅠㅠ］

—[Harmony : I’ll head to bed first~~］

—[Yoo Jin : Goodnight (′?)］

Watching the “1” beside the message disappear, I felt the silence.

Turning back to the screen, I popped up various voice wares and gathered the commentary scripts. The accumulated text went through the suggestion engine and turned into a new script suitable for me.

The night was still dark and would get darker.

My own night was flowing by.

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