NOVEL WEB Chapter 36 - Gatecrasher
Chapter 36 – Gatecrasher
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– Isn’t it because all the other users didn’t want to get killed by the teacher, so they all ran away? There’s no way we wouldn’t see them otherwise.
– LOL, seriously.
– Honestly, thinking about getting my head blown off in first person is kind of scary, lol.
– Everyone turned on the mode to smash the enemy team’s heads in Team Six mode, right? No way we’re going close if we’re going to die.
– It’s either die or surrender and join the party, really.
– Running away disgracefully, lol.
“Thank you for your donation, Three-Leafed Kicker. Is that so? I just thought the map was so vast that they weren’t coming.”
Saying that, she popped up the map in front of her.
Although parts were omitted and abbreviated, it was a vast map that would take quite a long time to traverse on foot.
40 people. It sounded like a lot. However, unlike other battle royale games, the survival zone didn’t shrink, and just being inside a building was enough to stay safe…
In essence, it was like users were scattered like stars across an extremely large area.
Anyway, whether or not the users came to kill the two of them was not important right now.
She intentionally kept silent on the communication network to avoid disrupting the operation, but human curiosity was incredibly hard to resist.
At some point, she had come back outside the building, leaning against the wall near the main entrance she had been standing at earlier, carefully observing the internal movements.
There was an eerie silence.
“…Shall we go in?”
– No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
– Ugh, there’s no friendly mark showing up; it’s so frustrating.
– Wait, you’ll know if the teammate is downed or dead by the alert.
– I came back after turning off the lights, and my teammate was gone, lol.
– This is really a horror game.
Indeed. This is a horror game.
Watching a single chat log pop up and then disappear on the chat window, Harmony couldn’t help but deeply agree. Considering that most horror movies start with someone’s disappearance…
Moreover, she was incredibly timid.
But at that moment,
From the deep darkness inside, someone began to walk out.
In an instant, both the chat and Harmony’s mind began to whirl wildly like the current weather in Manhattan.
It was highly likely to be Yoo Jin, but she couldn’t let her guard down. Taking a deep breath, she immediately aimed and captured the silhouette within the red dot.
Then a green light began to glow in the darkness.
“…Lower your gun. I’ve finished clearing inside.”
“…”
Of course, the one who came out was not a super fat anaconda, but Yoo Jin, holding a tomahawk in one hand.
As she came out, she took a deep breath and spoke.
“Let’s just gather the items and head into the contaminated zone.”
“…Yeah, well. I thought it would come to this.”
“Haha.”
With an indescribable feeling, Harmony followed behind her.
With a small resolve that she must improve her skills before Yoo Jin is no longer around.
– [Crafted: Virus Filter.]
– [Filters high-level environmental toxins. The enhanced filter can additionally filter out non-volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, acidic gases, ammonia, etc., through a multi-layer structure.]
“Wow, after taking out the place where the enemies were gathered, the items and materials are…”
“We shouldn’t have to worry too much before going in.”
The crafting table inside the shelter.
Near the almost fridge-sized black box with the ICARUS logo engraved on it, Harmony marveled as she watched all the items she had picked up being diligently reassembled and transformed inside.
It was unique, indeed. This was the crafting table in survival mode. It wasn’t about assembling guns and tactical gear in a literal workshop.
When you touched the box, the gear displayed the quantity of items and materials you currently had, and when you put in the necessary materials, the nanomachine printer inside would disassemble them and create them according to the blueprint chosen by the user.
It was a system first introduced in Survival.
Harmony, wearing a gas mask with a virus filter around her neck, fiddled with it in amazement.
“Wow, I’ve never seen a mask like this in my life… Where do you normally use these? They look like they’re meant for really dangerous places.”
“We’re heading to a dangerous place now.”
“Oh… now that I think about it, yeah. We’re entering the contaminated zone.”
A perfectly appropriate answer, almost like ThinkBig level.
While they were talking, they were turning into – if they didn’t lack skill – a resilient duo that could withstand any situation.
Of course, they kept some materials aside due to numerous tips in the chat suggesting that they could upgrade to higher-tier items after entering the zone.
At some point, the two, now looking like proper operators, carefully opened the shelter door.
Outside, the snowstorm was still raging.
───Whiiiiing!
“We’re moving out.”
“Yes, yes.”
Braving the harsh weather, the two moved out.
Though not completely insulated due to the still raging storm, the wind whipped their bodies as if hitting them with snow.
Amidst this, advertisements and lights that could operate in much harsher conditions than humans illuminated the darkness brightly. The lights, shining even brighter without any onlookers, were a contradiction in themselves.
But at some point, a huge barrier came into view.
The boundary dividing the city.
– [Warning: Entering a contaminated zone nearby.]
QUARANTINE.
The single word, written in large yellow paint on the wall, invoked a colossal sense of oppression.
Inside, due to jamming, nothing could be confirmed. What lay inside, if anyone had escaped, and if not, what was happening there.
It was a mysterious space shrouded in secrecy.
Two contrasting expressions. Their gazes lifted into the air, loosely connected towards the vanishing point of the endless barrier beyond the horizon.
One was merely overwhelmed by the grandeur, mouth agape, while the other…just shook their head in reluctance.
“…Wow.”
“How do you feel?”
“Even if you ask how… this game really nails the atmosphere.”
Pandemic Apocalypse.
It was a giant tombstone for those who had died and could no longer witness this sight.
Yoo Jin let out a small sigh and added briefly.
“Let’s go. There probably isn’t an entrance… But there are a few ways in. Like a wall blocked by incomplete construction with barbed wire.”
“Then let’s go quickly. I hope it’s not too late.”
Nodding, the two ran with the towering wall on their right.
Though she didn’t know why she seemed so knowledgeable, Harmony put her dwindling curiosity behind, thinking Yoo Jin might have studied in advance.
“Damn… No matter how much I play, I can’t get used to Survival.”
The term ‘sniping’ had been used before, but with the emergence of the profession of streamers, it took on a new meaning.
To put it simply, it meant obstructing a streamer’s broadcast of a multiplayer game by any means.
This action, completely opposite to participating as a viewer to contribute content, typically aimed to provoke the streamer’s anger or irritation.
As technology advanced, sniping methods diversified, but fundamentally, it was nearly impossible to completely prevent them.
Similarly, Harmony’s broadcast couldn’t avoid this grand premise.
Simply put, her broadcast included not only fans called 녹냥단 (Noknyangdan), but also those who did anything to ruin the stream for their pleasure.
And this perfectly explained the user with the unreadable nickname lillliillililll.
“Damn, this is the right session, but where are those girls going?”
The screen in front of him flickered with the broadcast.
Dark Zone had measures like automatic blocking of broadcasts during PvP to prevent sniping, but if he could gather information through other means, it was a different story.
By opening an internet site on an independent computer in the room and setting up a camera to monitor it remotely during the game, he went to such lengths just to ruin the broadcast.
He had no particular reason. It was just his joy in life. His twisted sadism and innate attention-seeking were his driving forces.
He had been blocked from countless broadcasts and blacklisted over the years.
Despite this, the reason he hadn’t been permanently banned was simply because he hadn’t accumulated enough reports to be hardware banned.
“Ha, these bitches. Why are they moving so weirdly?”
As they entered the contaminated zone, the temperature, which had dropped to minus 30 degrees, was now halved.
Proving this, the UI displayed a maximum low temperature of only minus 17 degrees.
As the snowstorm abated, the wind quietly covered the streets of Manhattan with thick snow, and one person passed through it.
Constantly cursing, he headed in the direction with the most combat noise.
Turning curves, dodging through alleys, sometimes taking detours to avoid enemies, he approached the area where Yoo Jin and Harmony were likely to be.
Though the external computer was now showing the two just starting Survival mode, the clueless real-time comments were very helpful.
Meanwhile, he devised a plan to annoy the streamer the most.
Kill her. Especially when she’s most vulnerable, like during combat, before Yoo Jin could react. Avoid during helicopter escape, since that granted invincibility.
First, he had to join the party by chance.
A bit of preparation was needed.
───Rustle.
As the combat noise grew louder, he discarded most items on the ground.
Carrying only slightly more than the minimum
survival items, he intended to pose as a clueless beginner who had barely made it inside.
Yoo Jin was a major concern, but he figured he could handle it somehow.
With preparations complete, he turned the block’s corner.
───Drdrdr!
In the distance, he saw the familiar sight of Harmony and Yoo Jin sweeping away a patrol squad unknowingly.
As the battle was wrapping up, he began to run towards them with hands raised, trying to appear as harmless as possible.
“Hey, you two, wait a moment───!”
The first to react was Yoo Jin, retrieving the cluster seeker mine she had crafted.
Her sharp gaze scanned him from head to toe, but she cautiously lowered her gun due to his shabby appearance, responding with a subtle expression.
As he approached closer, Harmony, who had been staring into space, spoke up.
“Stop! Lower your gun!”
“Oh, yes! I really have nothing worth taking!”
Immediately dropping to the ground and putting his hands behind his back, his gaze turned downward.
If he had known what conversation Yoo Jin and Harmony were having at that moment, he would have fled without hesitation, unaware of the trouble he was in.
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