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

Chapter 14

July 30th, the first day of summer vacation.

After having breakfast, using the bathroom, and taking a shower, I equipped my headgear and lay down on the bed.

Right now, I'm more motivated to play games than ever before.

Fifty percent of that is... pure curiosity and excitement for Infinite Space.

And the other fifty percent is...

"Tsukigami-san..."

Shooting Meteor-chan. That's my goal.

"Let's do this!"

I dive into the world of Infinite Space.

"...Ahh, that was a good sleep."

I woke up in the bedroom of the Space Station.

The bedroom is lined with countless capsule beds, and I had awakened in one of them.

By sleeping in a 'capsule bed', you can log out of Infinite Space. When you log back in, you start from the capsule bed you last slept in.

Even after logging out, your avatar remains in the capsule bed, but within the base area, these capsule beds are indestructible and safe.

It's also possible to place capsule beds outside the base. However, outside the base, capsule beds have durability, and if the durability reaches zero, they are destroyed, leaving your avatar exposed and defenseless.

If you log out forcefully without using a capsule bed, you're forcibly returned to the Space Station's bedroom. In that case, of course, you receive a death penalty.

For a game that's called a god-tier game, it has quite a few detailed restrictions.

Or maybe it's precisely these little inconveniences that make it so appealing.

After all, just because a game is freeform doesn't mean it's good.

If you could save or log out from anywhere, there'd be no tension.

"Hm? What's this?"

There are two new messages in my message box.

'Shiki-san, sorry to message you. This is Sheena, the one who lent you the spaceship. I'll be waiting for you at 30:00 on July 30th at Café Time Break, Space Station ch2921.'

In this world, time moves three times faster than in the real world, so a single day has 72 hours.

30:00 would be 10:00 in real-world time.

It's currently 24:00, so six hours from now.

Judging from the timestamp, it looks like she sent it right after I logged out last time.

Ugh... I don't want to go, but I guess I have to.

"And the other one is..."

This one seems to be a system message.

'A special mission has occurred. Coordinates: 8221,33,526 Time remaining: 92:02'

"A special mission?"

I check the manual.

'Special missions are side stories that occur when certain conditions are met.

They have independent story developments, and upon completion, you receive rewards such as items, titles, or chips.

Items and titles obtainable through special missions cannot be acquired elsewhere, so actively challenge them!'

So, it looks like I accidentally met the conditions for a special mission during my previous journey.

The location is——the Desert Planet, the one I visited last time.

(Seems like I can get some useful items, and it sounds interesting. No reason not to go.

I do want to go shopping too, but depending on the mission rewards, my equipment setup might change, so I'll tackle this first.

If I lack the gear, I can come back and buy equipment suited to the mission.)

I hop aboard the spaceship and input the coordinates from the system message.

Let's go to the Desert Planet!

After setting everything to the fastest configuration, I arrived in a matter of seconds.

"A forest...?"

The place I arrived at was near where Sheena and the others had parked their spaceship before.

There's a yellow flag on the minimap.

The spot marked with the flag is the mission trigger point.

When I go to the flag, I find an old-fashioned TV sitting there.

"Is this what they call a CRT? I've only seen these in old movies."

The TV isn't connected to any power source, but I press various buttons on it anyway.

Then, with a flash, the TV turns on, and a sepia-toned landscape appears on the screen.

Audio comes from the TV.

"From 1911 to 1985, an era where guns were loved, and loved in return."

The sound quality is terrible—almost like it's doubled.

Probably part of the retro atmosphere.

"Rapid economic growth, technological innovation, a world constantly changing.

In the midst of these changes, people always yearned for dreams, worrying about the future of their times."

A male voice reads out this mysterious narration.

Before I knew it, I was completely absorbed.

Maybe it's the old-fashioned TV, the voice, or the sepia-toned visuals, but I felt like I had time-slipped into the 1900s.

"I was born in this era, shouldered many dreams, and took many away.

It was a world full of ambiguity and inconvenience, with no clue about the future.

But because of that, people freely envisioned and imagined the future.

I was lucky to be born in this era.

No matter how much history people build from here on, no matter how great that history is,

I will always call this era the 'Golden Age'."

As the narration ends, a window appears.

'Would you like to start the special mission "Golden Age"? YES/NO'

Before pressing YES, I check the details.

'Recommended level: None

Special conditions: All weapons except M1911 will be forcibly unequipped

Item use prohibited

Role: Fixed to "Gunner"

Level fixed to 1

Reward: M1911 enhancement'

Only the M1911 is allowed.

The role is forcibly set to Gunner (only within the mission).

Level is fixed at 1.

A mission that purely tests player skill.

And the reward is only an enhancement to the M1911.

Most people probably wouldn't bother with this mission.

It looks hard, and the reward seems too minor.

Me? That's a silly question.

"YES."

When I pressed the button, my body was sucked into the TV.

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