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

Chapter 6

Floor 8, "Ship Dock."

I'd been wondering what kind of "ship" the Ship Dock's ship referred to, and it turned out to be space-ship, as in spaceship.

In short, it's a berth for spacecraft—an open-roof hangar. Space Girls were boarding ships and rocketing into space one after another.

My body felt light; maybe gravity is set lower here.

Come to think of it, Space Girls are supposed to be perfectly fine in space. For a regular human, this area connected to outer space would mean instant death.

"......Hey, guide-girl."

'How may I help yoU?'

I called the guide-girl over again.

"Um, can I just take any of those spaceships and use it as I like?"

'The ships here may be used freely. There is no rental feE.'

Great—I'm flat broke, so if they'd charged money I'd have been doomed.

"There are rocket-looking ones and ball-like ones—do they have different specs?"

'The rocket type seats up to three. The ball type is for one persoN. For ships of four or more, you must order at that console over there and pay a rental feE to use theM.'

(Yes! Straight to the single-seater!)

I approached the ball-type ship and examined it.

(I press this red button to open it? Ah, it opened. Barely room for one person inside—just like a capsule hotel.)

I sprawled inside the craft. A map of the surrounding area appeared on the front panel, along with a message: "Please select destination."

Might as well head to the nearest planet (what other RPGs call a dungeon). "Desert Planet Difficulty ☆," "Green Planet Difficulty ☆," "Flame Planet Difficulty ☆☆." The star count seems to indicate enemy level.

Desert or green? If I had nothing to lose I'd dive straight into the Flame Planet, but I don't want to tackle a high difficulty with my current loadout. Hmm... the Desert Planet is probably all desert, right? The green one's probably nothing but forests.

Oh, before that let me check whether my stat debuff has worn off. It's been about an hour.

"All right, the stat debuff is gone."

Now I'm ready.

All that's left is forest or desert. Forests have poor visibility. Deserts have annoying sandstorms. Honestly either's fine... but yeah, let's go with the desert.

I chose the desert over the forest to check the graphics. To gauge this game's graphical fidelity, a desert is better than a forest. With fewer objects in a desert, there's no way to fudge the visuals. You might think graphics aren't important, but for a sniper they're crucial—sometimes you calculate distance from the pattern on an object near your target. Low-quality graphics would ruin that.

"Let's go!!"

With no one around to hear, I got a bit carried away.

A floating sensation enveloped me. At the same instant, everything except the chair turned transparent, giving me a full view outside.

"Whoa! W-wow! Amazing!"

No one can see in from the outside. From the inside, I can see everything. Nobody ever looks this way, and I never saw any ships with fully exposed interiors.

The ship shot up in the blink of an eye, leaving the station for open space.

Traveling through space. It felt as though I myself were gliding through the void—a breathtaking rush.

The grandeur and loneliness of space flowed from my eyes to my brain and straight to my heart.

I caught sight of a sandy sphere—and a second later I was already inside it. Before I knew it, I was flying over a vast desert in my ship.

'Now entering planetary orbit. Touch the landing button to land directly below. Use the speed gauge beside the button to control orbital speed. You may be attacked by Machine World Beasts inhabiting the colonies, so we recommend landing promptly.'

"Machine World Beasts" (Kiseijuu) are the monsters of Infinite Space—mechanical beasts with no lifespan; unless a Space Girl destroys them, they live forever.

"I'll land somewhere with as few people as possible..."

The desert planet has lakes and forests too, but those areas are crowded.

I land in the desert, one mountain range away from my original spawn point.

"Ngh~! Being alone is the best~!!"

I step down from my ship onto the sand.

Alone in a vast desert—thrilling.

I scoop up a handful of sand and study it.

(Yeah. Feels and looks exactly like real sand.)

The graphics look solid; I can relax on that front.

"All right, here we go! I'll overcome the worst start ever!!"

That was when, two steps in, my radar pinged—an enemy contact. A mini-map popped up at the edge of my vision, two red icons appearing.

Two mechanical dogs stood at those spots. Names popped up beside them: "Mecha-Dog-Sword" and "Mecha-Dog-Rifle." The sword dog clenched a laser saber in its mouth; the rifle dog carried a rifle on its back.

I pull my Colt Government from its holster and shoot the rifle dog in the head.

The gauge above its head drops by about 10 %. Next I target its front right paw—now the paw's gauge drops from full to 90 %.

(I see. Each body part has its own durability.)

"Bau!!"

With a canine roar the rifle dog fires a beam from its back-mounted rifle.

As a Space Girl my reaction speed is way up; I easily dodge the laser. Then—

BOOM!!!!

......the ship behind me explodes.

"My shiiiiiiiiiiip!?"

——————Afterword——————

Having your ship blown up and your escape route cut off is a classic newbie trap. There are a few ways to fix it, but few a beginner can use. Just respawn immediately.

You can also build your own ship; if you can secure a hangar you can even build a huge one. Some players have built Whi*te Base or Ar*changel. Others role-play like Ya*to, barely using the station and instead traveling planet to planet aboard a mothership with lots of friends. A women-only game packed with male dreams—that is Infinite Space.