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“What’s going on? Isn’t someone helping?”

“No, Yu-ri said to wait.”

What is this noise?

A-jin tilted her head in confusion. There was nothing in the team chat.

Looking over the railing, Yu-ri wasn’t even looking this way.

“Did you use telepathy or something?”

“I’m not some kind of psychic. We just locked eyes while I was trying to snipe. Her eyes told me to wait.”

“Hm, really?”

Da-young avoided A-jin’s suspicious gaze and turned her head.

If assumptions just ended in speculation, it wouldn’t be this embarrassing.

No matter how hard I tried to remember, those eyes and the shape of her moving lips clearly said “wait.”

“Anyway, let’s go back down. It’d be better to predict a point to meet Yu-ri and move…”

Before the words could finish, Da-young and A-jin shot off in opposite directions like lightning.

—Bang! Bang!

“Hey! I’m still here! Hurry up!”

“Don’t let your guard down! They took my garter belt and Cattula’s gear!”

The bullets that struck the ground around them were a beat late.

Ah, have they already caught up to us? That was fast.

I locked eyes with A-jin, who was hiding behind cover at an angle.

In the shaky, darting movement of our eyes, we were transmitting our desperate signals to each other.

‘I’ll cover you. Fire one shot and rush in right after.’

‘Got it.’

Watching A-jin reload her dual machine guns, Da-young frowned at the cylindrical scope on her sniper rifle.

Well, it’s something you can’t do without in an FPS game.

“It’s annoying.”

It’s the sense of being forced to rely on the scope that didn’t sit well with her.

[Huh? Forming, what are you doing?]

[Hey, why did you take off the scope?]

[How are you gonna cover fire without a scope? It’ll be a disaster for sniping!]

[If you’re Forming who got carried by Friede in the war, that seems kind of suspicious?]

[What the hell is this?]

Despite the barrage of comments in the chat, Da-young took out the gun modification kit and removed the scope.

Even in virtual reality, sophisticated skills like real-time weapon customization are something players can’t replicate.

As she input the command to remove the sniper rifle’s scope with the kit, she couldn’t help but smile at the automatic movements of her hands following the graphics.

Within just a couple of seconds, she lifted the sniper rifle, which now had no scope.

‘This feels a lot better now.’

It was a liberating feeling, like a curtain being pulled away from her face. The feeling of having better visibility after taking off the sniper scope would be ironic for a regular user.

But right now, Da-young felt this state was perfect for her.

Yes, this is now my second magic wand.

* * *

Since the ambush wasn’t working, they spent time hiding behind cover.

Knowing they all had sniper rifles, no one dared to make a move.

However, this building had a complicated ant-like structure.

‘There’s no need to get too close.’

Since the interior was designed to be open, there were plenty of openings from the upper floors to aim from.

Hearing news from her team, the sniper on the fourth floor crawled stealthily toward the place where Forming hid.

The structure perfectly covered her body, giving her the opportunity to move more boldly.

A giant mass, with several balloons attached, was struggling to rise into the sky but kept fluttering in the air due to the tether holding it down.

She slid down and extended the long barrel downward. The tip of her gun slowly moved toward her target.

The balloons were concealing her, repeatedly hiding him from view, but since the movement over there was limited, it didn’t matter.

With a consistent rhythm, the pile of balloons moved in intervals.

The time it would take until the image of the streamer Forming reappeared was about 2 seconds ahead.

That time was the perfect moment to take aim and pull the trigger.

As the fluttering balloons slightly shifted due to the air flow, revealing Forming’s position just before….

—Bang!

—Boom!

‘…Huh?’

The sharp sound of a shot and the explosive noise pierced the air, and his head jerked back sharply.

Hit by something powerful, his head inclined backward and then fell forward again due to gravity.

As this fleeting moment felt eternal, even trying to gather strength in his neck or his finger on the trigger was useless.

Slowly, the overwhelming sensation of falling into an endless abyss was taking over his whole body….

Before his head dropped to the ground, the last thing he saw was Forming looking his way through the fragments of popped balloons.

From the muzzle of that sniper rifle, wisps of smoke already left as if one round had been shot and his field of vision darkened.

* * *

[Huh? Was that?]

[So it really is Forming. That skill she had when carried by Friede wasn’t fake.]

[How good are your eyes to spot a guy from dozens of meters away?]

[Plus, without a scope. For real, this is insane, Forming.]

[What’s going on? Why are you suddenly so good? Where did our Forming go?]

Da-young felt her heart race, not caring about the reactions in the chat.

‘One shot!’

She raised her upper body, unleashing the signal promised to A-jin.

The muzzle of the scope-less sniper rifle moved toward the corridor ahead.

She caught sight of A-jin rushing forward in that direction.

She likely thought they could shake things up through the sniper on the fourth floor, but after firing once, she must have already realized.

And,

‘Now’s the chance.’

She must be shocked.

If they saw through her intent, the front would be a feint; the sniper on the fourth floor was the real threat, and now that one side had been crushed, it was going to be hard to make more moves.

Now that the hammer is gone, the anvil is only a punching bag. Now is the time to strike, her experience urged her.

With a rhythm like she was playing piano keys, she moved seamlessly from loading to placing her finger on the trigger.

There was no need for focus for a sniper shot. She’d prepared for more precise attacks in this world more times than she could count.

In the completely stable view where there was no shaking while aiming, Da-young pulled the trigger.

—Bang!

With a single gunshot, she perfectly pierced the forehead of the opponent who was peeking out from behind the pillar.

“Phew.”

For a moment, she let out a sigh seeing A-jin spraying bullets everywhere like a machine gun.

Once this is sorted out, I need to quickly get Yu-ri and head toward my sister’s direction. I heard they got into an encounter over there; I wonder if it’ll be alright.

[Wait? What is this?]

[No way, there was no head behind the pillar when aiming.]

[How did you hit it as it popped out while shooting? Lucky much?]

[Did you just lock on without any glare?]

[Were you a fortune teller or something?]

Seeing the last message in the chat made her chuckle.

This was a guess hit made by the Hero’s intuition.

* * *

“What’s happening? What’s going on up there?”

“Forget about it. There’s enough trouble with the guys right in front of us.”

Sweet Guy A couldn’t hide his anxiousness at the continuous gunfire from above.

As if the zombies generated from the encounter weren’t enough, the shower of bullets raining from above was no small problem.

‘Sounds like there’s trouble up top as well.’

Yu-ri slightly raised her gaze and caught the flashes of light with consecutive gunshots from above.

There must be a battle going on between the other players and her sisters up there.

It seems the raiding party was glaring down at others regardless of what happened to them.

‘It’s about time to clean up.’

With a slight sense of boredom, it felt like it was time to cut ties.

She couldn’t keep playing around as childhood friends forever.

Coincidentally, the self-proclaimed knights were slowly being pushed back.

“We’re being pushed back.”

“Damn, if we can just break through to that side…”

“Think a little!”

“Yu-ri, are you okay?”

Despite pretending to be cool, they were ultimately showing their pathetic state when faced with a crisis.

Initially, she was a player who barged in to snipe Friede, but now they had banded together to help the cute fairy Yu-ri.

The fact that their skills seemed to be falling short was exasperating.

Did she expect too much?

The equipment was good. Their skills weren’t bad. Their experiences were rich. They had blabbed around so confidently moments ago.

But judging by their real capabilities, all those standards seemed to match a commoner’s criteria.

From Yu-ri’s perspective, the swarm of zombies and the knights charging didn’t seem that different.

The annoyance began to rise within her, slowly boiling as she watched from the back.

A subtle fury flickered in her eyes. Those quick-witted people wouldn’t realize even if they were dead and buried.

They were just exaggerating their gestures and loud voices, trying to appeal to her like they were vying for her attention.

‘Just like back then…’

In the past, when they thought they had nurtured true feelings and bonds.

Despite the constant crises, they managed to defeat the Demon King because they had trusted and believed in each other.

But….

‘Just being cursed like this…’

So much dedication seems meaningless now, discarded like trash.

Unconsciously, as the previous sorrows resurfaced, she gritted her teeth.

The trust and faith they had thought were firmly bound, the friendships and bonds believed to be so solid had to be recklessly discarded, and the misery of that recollection stung like a knife cutting through her heart.

‘Ah, no.’

She didn’t want to waste such emotional energy on a mere game.

“Ugh!”

Just as she regained her senses from the scream ringing in her eardrums, Sweet Guys collapsed under the weight of the approaching horde, frantically trying to struggle.

Ah, truly helpless.

The gunfire above had quieted down, and her sisters seemed safe. They must have already taken what they needed….

‘Shall I move?’

The repairs on her bag felt quite heavy.

The items she got from Sweet Guys felt like carrying a whole pig. How generous of them to provide so much.

I wonder how much they had given for this to be the case.

If she ever asked for a guarantee later, would they even agree to it?

As the urge to test that tugged at her, deep down, she knew such an opportunity wouldn’t arise.

‘Let’s go.’

Dodging the swarm of zombies while swiftly moving through Sweet Guys’ hindrances, she advanced with agility that she had never shown before.

Had they seen this, they wouldn’t have easily accepted her. Well, that didn’t matter now.

Yu-ri looked down at the man crawling on the ground.

He was already on the brink of exhaustion, slowly fading away to respawn somewhere far away.

Yet all those many items he bragged about would be lost, and he would have to start over from scratch.

“Yu, Yu-ri!”

As she was about to pass by, she felt a weak hand grab her ankle.

Empathetically glancing down at Sweet Guy A, who gazed up with a desperate look as his last struggle.

The prickly tone he had about being a “popular guy” from an esteemed university had long disappeared.

Just as he lay there, drained of strength, his pitiful state became somewhat amusing to her.

“Huh?”

Her voice rose a few notches as she cheerfully replied.

It felt like he didn’t understand her emotional shift as he looked at her with trust-filled eyes.

“Uh… the revival kit I gave you! Can you please use it?”

Ah, that?

The item which can instantly resurrect when used during the brief time before respawning at a hideout.

How he always demanded she’d be a saint in the back while gifting her things like this.

A smile involuntarily crept onto her lips as she leaned closer to Sweet Guy….

“About that,”

With a smile brighter and purer than ever, she said,

“I’ll be giving it to my sisters. Thank you for everything until now. Rest well! Don’t play games too much. Live your reality.”

“What?”

What was she saying? Didn’t she promise to save him if he was in danger? That she’d be there for him like a saint!

“Hey! Hey! Yu-ri! What’s going on?! I have a lot of items to give to the hideout! The same goes for the others! I’ll give you all of it, so hurry!”

Suppressed laughter erupted as his cries grew frantic behind her.

How absurd that someone could invest so much emotion into a mere game.

Struggling to calm her shaking shoulders, Yu-ri turned away, slowly gazing at the Sweet Guy slipping into unconsciousness….

—Chu~♥

She sent him an initial and final kiss that could never reach him.

‘Goodbye…’

My knight.

* * *

 

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