I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 145 – Firepower Enthusiast

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“Ha, I’m exhausted, ugh….”

A match ended.

The fifth match ended.

And Dice staggered and collapsed onto the bed in her personal room.

Even if she became the sole victor among 99 losers, it couldn’t completely erase the fatigue that followed the end of the match. Being a winner meant she had stayed on the battlefield the longest.

Therefore, the joy of winning didn’t last long. A new match would start in just 10 minutes. It might have been an endless cycle.

The quicker you were eliminated, the more time you had to prepare for the next match. Those who were expelled to the lobby early in the session had plenty of time to reflect and prepare better for the next round.

In short, the rest period after a match was 10 minutes, but those who were eliminated early had up to 30 minutes for mental control and preparation for the next round.

In contrast, for the first-place finisher… like me, it meant being thrown into the next match right after 10 minutes.

With only 600 seconds, it was tough to relieve mental fatigue, prepare for the next match, or even review the match results. Plus, I had used all my focus to secure first place….

Anyway, I needed to rest as comfortably as possible here.

“I need to sleep a little….”

I lay down on the bed.

Fortunately, here — the virtual reality didn’t make my body sticky or hot like in summer in the real world. It was always cool and slightly dry. Moreover, since it was VR, I could intentionally induce a sleep state.

With the advent of virtual reality, humans partially gained freedom from many things. Being able to sleep whenever and as much as one wanted was just one of many things that could be done in virtual reality.

Emotions, too, influenced by the body’s physical state and hormones, were no exception. The avatar connected in VR omitted many relations to the real body, and interestingly, women benefited immensely from this.

In other words, I also benefited from this.

“…Somehow, it’ll be fine, I guess.”

About 20 seconds remained until sleep induction.

Dice had set an alarm to wake up 1 minute and 30 seconds before the match started, and she was sorting her thoughts until she fell asleep.

Last year, someone had taken a brief nap even during this short time. It was to replenish the large amount of focus consumed during combat and relieve brain fatigue caused by intense actions. In a way, it was as productive a rest as preparing for the next match.

Of course, there was also the risk of starting the next match in a half-asleep state.

There were roughly 10 seconds left until sleep started.

As I was lying there, I suddenly thought of Yoo Jin.

That person… I don’t know. She was undoubtedly a monster who could only be seen once every 40 years. If she had been born in the past, she might have turned history upside down, like King Richard the Lionheart or Xiang Yu.

So, am I learning from such a person in real-time? I had thought about this many times before, but honestly, I didn’t know. Anyway, it wasn’t important.

After 10 seconds passed, I succumbed to the overwhelming sleepiness, and my consciousness faded.

───Beep, beep, beep!

“…Ugh, unbelievable… I just closed my eyes and opened them.”

Naturally, 8 minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Considering that even a nap usually lasts about 20 minutes, it was indeed a short time, but what could I do? This was the burden of being first place. Though it probably didn’t apply to Yoo Jin.

I took several deep breaths. I breathed in oxygen to shake off the sleepiness and checked the next map.

[Notification: The next map is Atakaya Volcanic Island.]

A map roughly modeled after Hawaii.

If it were real, it would be a vacation spot I’d want to visit even if I had to pay for it, but unfortunately, here, instead of the cheerful sounds of ukuleles and tourist music, the cacophony of gunfire and burning villages dominated.

The main strategies stored in my mind and all the experiences taught by Yoo Jin sprang up reflexively. I got up from the bed and did some light stretching. Though I couldn’t completely shake off the sleepiness, I decided to take it slow at the beginning.

Before I knew it, there was about a minute left until the match.

“Let’s see.”

The score from the first cycle was 41 points. Considering that I scored only 12 points in the first cycle last year, it was more than three times higher. And with 19 points from the fifth match, my current score was exactly 60.

Compared to the past, it was a huge leap… no, it was more like a vertical takeoff. Regardless of the outcome, if I performed moderately in the next round, I’d win.

But I didn’t plan to take it easy. Blades needed to be sharpened, and tempered to become stronger… This sounded like I was too influenced by Yoo Jin.

I moved my fingers around, setting the expected deployment point, and ran a simple simulation in my head. My thoughts naturally turned optimistic. With the next match, the dreaded KSM would likely end.

It hadn’t even been a day, yet it already felt tedious, but I had a reason.

Though the scores received in the recent matches were far superior compared to last year, it also meant I played each match with the mindset that losing meant the end.

In other words, I had clung to survival in situations where I would have given up halfway last year. Thus, the number of near-miss survival instances was incomparable. No wonder KSM felt tiresome already.

I played every match as if it were the final game.

[Notification: Session starts in 10 seconds.]

“…Next is Blue Ming?”

Thoughts started to flood my mind as I woke up.

Unlike me, who had no intention of stopping at KSM, Blue Ming was a relatively ordinary SSM pro-gamer who had been moving slowly between the first and second teams. There were more battlefields waiting for him — though not necessarily higher ones.

In other words, he was likely to be done for this year. Despite his improved skills thanks to Yoo Jin’s curriculum, excelling in the preliminary ranks, it was unlikely he could compete against the highly refined first teams of each club.

Anyway, that wasn’t my concern. Results were results, and training was training. Regardless of his results in this tournament, today, after KSM ended, he’d head straight to the shooting range to address his shortcomings.

It was time.

[Notification: Entering the battlefield.]

My vision turned white, and the scent of gunpowder mixed with the air.

She set foot on the vacation spot turned into hell.

Operations were always flexible, and individual tactics were even more so, while multiple strategic maneuvers created under the coach’s and director’s guidance were also like that.

Of course, there was some direction. It considered the flow of KSM, the player’s condition each day, and even the starting point and acquired weapons.

This year, several significant variables existed, so coaches had to witness numerous tactics they had established crumble like a cookie.

Naturally, the first variable didn’t even need to be mentioned.

‘Should we just run if we see Yoo Jin?’

‘…Is she really that strong?’

‘Think about fighting in the kill zone.’

Reluctantly, I had to admit it.

Yoo Jin possessed the skill to enter the finals and achieve excellent results immediately. Many analysts even believed she could compete equally against former tier 1 and 2 special forces users from the US.

The KSM, being a regional preliminary, was practically just a stepping stone. Even the proud Korean players and coaches had to surrender to the overwhelming inhuman gameplay.

But conversely, Yoo Jin was predictable strategically — no one doubted she’d be selected first in the initial cycle.

As expected, she ascended faster than anyone.

If that were all, there would be nothing more to say.

───Boom!

‘…What’s that?’

The size of the explosion in the cyber-world was fortunately virtual.

Not only did it leave everyone with their mouths wide open, but it also glued them shut with an explosion equivalent to 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. The scene of hundreds of containers, larger than people, flying in the air like paper boxes in a typhoon, was etched into everyone’s minds.

In this context, although it’s not usually used this way — like the phrase ‘better a chicken than a pheasant,’ without Yoo Jin, someone she mentored would inevitably cause havoc. Dice, who was already leading the SSM’s AP soloing category, had a dramatic reaction after meeting an exceptional teacher.

The grand finale of that outcome was a massive explosion.

In other words, it was an extraordinary trolling that hit the analysts and coaches of other clubs who expected a relatively normal KSM without Yoo Jin right in the head.

Of course, from their perspective.

‘How do we stop that?’

It had to be stopped.

But how?

In the vast AP maps, some stretching over dozens of square kilometers, was there a way to stop a single person? It was an extreme dilemma. Either way, it was a loss. Whether to stop or let it be, the outcome was negative.

If they tried to stop it, the established routes and plans would be disrupted, and if they didn’t, there was no telling what might happen. The sure thing was that either way, the plans were shattered beyond repair.

In a way, Dice could be seen as having absorbed Yoo Jin’s teachings well. Not only refusing to do what the opponent wanted but also flipping the entire ‘game’ everyone anticipated was a specialty of someone.

However, the difference between Yoo Jin and Dice was that the former was an unstoppable natural disaster, but Dice was

not quite to that extent.

Thus, the conclusion reached was dramatically different from the way to deal with Yoo Jin.

‘It’s best to kill Dice on sight.’

‘Right?’

An assassination order.

A moderately powerful being always stood out the most.

But if they overlooked — or intentionally ignored — anything, it was that Dice received more focused training on tactical elements rather than strategic capabilities.

‘What, why did you die?’

‘Dice is too strong.’

‘Wow.’

It was an entirely predictable result.

Dice wasn’t a light bulb but the flame itself, and those who rushed in like moths met a fitting end — thus, except for the eye of the storm, a complete chaos party ensued.

In the midst of an unmanageable situation, the sixth match approached. By now, only two matches remained on the first day of KSM — the only fortunate point was that Dice was also about to be selected first.

But conversely, it meant soon.

Not yet.

“This place is always hot whenever I come.”

Full of humidity,

Extremely hot due to flowing lava,

And with vision messed up by constantly rising smoke and volcanic ash piling up like snow.

In the middle of this natural disaster-like apocalypse, 99 people jumped in, and among them, her golden hair stood out, sparkling in the sunlight. Her slightly drooping eyes gave the impression of being sleepy.

Dice.

She stepped onto the Atakaya Volcanic Island, which might be her last KSM match.

───Clack!

Opening the box revealed guns popping out.

Gunfire was already heard from all directions. It seemed the early mind games had failed. I thought I had chosen a place where fewer people would come, but apparently, many had the same thought process.

However, there was something more important than that,

“…Is there a curse or something?”

ASh-12.7.

Why do suspiciously large-caliber guns keep following me since the last match? Although I could use it well, this was a bit much. I didn’t want to become like that person.

Luckily, by cautiously moving around and opening other boxes, I quickly found guns using 5.56mm NATO rounds. The familiar touch and weight were reassuring… but.

Hmm….

­Glance.

…Yeah. Carrying it as a secondary weapon shouldn’t be a problem.

I wasn’t obsessed with firepower.

With the second gun on my back, I set out on a path that might be my last match.

In retrospect, I might have been slowly infected.

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