The Lone Sniper: I Was Just Minding My Own Business Sniping Players, and I Ended Up Becoming a Raid Boss

Chapter 12

Monday, July 29, 2047.

After overcoming numerous accidents yesterday, a new threat was now looming before me.

Yes——the threat known as school was right in front of me.

You can't save, you can't log out midway, there are unreasonable tests (bosses), you're forced into parties and guilds—it's seriously the worst dungeon. It forces you to interact with people, shoves youth down your throat, makes you do physical labor like cleaning, and gives no rewards at all. I can't deal with this.

On the way to school, I passed by a familiar convenience store. Just about three more minutes straight ahead and I'd reach the high school.

Compared to commuting to school, any high-difficulty quest is a piece of cake. I'd feel safer in a demon lord's castle than at school.

I entered the classroom. The lively atmosphere right before summer break greeted me.

"Summer break starts tomorrow~!"

"I heard a new theme park opened in the virtual world. Let's go once break starts!"

"My boyfriend had his first kiss—not in real life, but virtually! Isn't that insane!?"

"Eh—I think it's fine, honestly."

Ahh... I can hear everyone having fun conversations. Of course, no one speaks to me. Me is lonely.

Arriving early brings an overwhelming sense of loneliness. But my introvert brain would rather face that than risk being late and standing out, so I always come early.

Summer break starts tomorrow. Normally, it wouldn't begin until August, but this year a heatwave is expected to hit starting tomorrow, so the closing ceremony was moved up.

"Good morning, everyone."

Sakurai-sensei entered the room. Everyone took their seats.

"Alright, it's time for the closing ceremony. Log into the assembly hall using your Simple Device. Don't mess up the URL."

I turned on the choker hanging around my neck and full-dived.

Unlike the Full Device, the Simple Device isn't a headgear but a choker, and it can only connect to a nearby 'Another Real' terminal. It's kind of like old-school local communication.

We logged into a plaza modeled after a gymnasium known as the assembly hall, using our school avatars—or rather, exact replicas of our real-life appearances. The reason we hold assemblies in the virtual world is purely for time efficiency. In basic AR (short for Another Real), time flows differently; one hour in AR equates to about twenty minutes in the real world.

Classes are held in real life as per usual, because there's a law stating "AR use in schools must be limited to 30 minutes of real-world time." Apparently, using AR for extended periods drastically reduces learning efficiency and negatively impacts mental health. Before the law, there were schools that conducted 20 hours of lessons in a single day using AR. Yeah, that would break anyone.

At the assembly hall, the principal gave us her usual valuable lecture. It was mostly about being cautious due to the recent surge in AR-related incidents—same message, just dressed up differently every time, which made it incredibly boring.

Incidentally, the principal doesn't use a microphone. She's already over 60, but her voice reaches every single student. That's because she activates the voice chat function to broadcast to all students on the site, so even a quiet voice resonates with everyone.

Being in the virtual world means you don't feel sleepy, but I still felt drowsy enough to yawn. I just wanted to touch a gun. Pull a trigger. As I was thinking that—

"Alright, that's it from me. Next, the student council president, Seika Tsukigami, will go over some summer break reminders. Tsukigami-san, please."

"Yes."

A girl with long silver hair stepped onto the stage.

Every time I see her, I think: God is unfair.

"She's the first-year student council president... So cute."

"She's not even wearing makeup, right? That's crazy."

She shattered the norm that the student council president is always a third-year. The previous president willingly handed over the position to her back in June—she's that popular.

Beautiful, brilliant, a perfect superhuman. Her fans aren't just at school, but outside too. She comes from a prestigious family—her father is the CEO of a major game company, and her mother is a famous fashion designer, if I recall correctly.

She can do anything, has everything, is popular, and adorable. The complete opposite of me.

(Still... her voice...)

It feels like I've heard it somewhere before...

"——So everyone, please be careful and enjoy your summer break."

Her speech ended. Then came the guidance counselor's talk, and with that, the closing ceremony concluded.

—

"Sigh."

The closing ceremony was over, and the class had dispersed, but I still had to stay at school.

As the president of a club, I had work to do.

At this school, joining a club is mandatory. I joined the 'Plastic Model Club', but it turned out there were only four members including me. Two third-years and one second-year. The third-years were ghost members, and the second-year passed the president role onto me and also ghosted.

In the end, I think it worked out. I have feelings about the seniors, but being able to run a club solo is a good thing.

Today, I had to submit my summer activity plan to the student council. It's mandatory for all cultural clubs.

You don't have to write the plan in great detail. Unless you're doing something like a training camp, a rough outline of your goals is fine. I just wrote a list of the plastic models I plan to build over summer break.

Since the other cultural clubs crowd the student council in the morning, I planned to submit mine in the afternoon.

I grabbed the bag with the lunch Azuha-chan made for me and headed quickly toward the stairs. Up, up to the higher floors.

In front of the door leading to the rooftop, there were desks, chairs, and other equipment lined up. The rooftop itself was off-limits, but this area wasn't technically closed off. I always ate here alone.

Among the supplies were three electric fans. Since there was an outlet, I plugged them in and powered them on to cool off while I ate lunch. I'm not sure why there's an outlet here. Maybe it's for the AR equipment on the roof?

"Man, it's scorching in the peak of summer."

Still better than eating in the bathroom. A hot bathroom is hell.

"Today's lunch is delicious as always."

Azuha-chan is such a perfectionist. The sausages are cut into octopus shapes, and there's a heart drawn on the rice with pink furikake.

Clack.

"Huh?"

I heard footsteps.

Someone was coming up from below.

(S-someone's coming up the stairs!? Wh-wh-what do I do!?)

While I was panicking, the footsteps reached right in front of me.

"You there, what are you doing in this place?"

The person who appeared was completely unexpected.

I reflexively rubbed my eyes.

"Tsukigami... -san."

"Yup. That's right, Koshi——Rei-san."

A bolt from the blue.

It felt like lightning had struck from a perfectly clear sky. No, not lightning—a meteorite-level shock.

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