I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 374

“The lighthouse, huh? Doesn’t seem like the lighthouse is the main feature though.”

Clink, clink.

After scattering the bullets I received from the Commander on the workbench, I inserted one into each of the magazines. However, there were only four magazines, and with 35 bullets left, I had to decide whether to take them. I decided to take around 30 more. After aligning them in one direction, I tied them together with a cable tie so I could easily pull one out in case of emergency without making much noise.

Aside from that, there wasn’t much else to take. Maybe a few first-aid kits. I had already drunk some water, so I wasn’t thirsty, and I didn’t feel hungry either. The strange thing was that I needed to eat quite a few pieces of food to feel full. Not sure if this level of detail needed to be followed, but it was how things were.

Anyway, back to it. Among the maps suggested by hundreds of thousands of viewers, the one that received the most votes was the lighthouse. Its proper name was the Coastal Complex Base, but everyone called it the lighthouse due to the lighthouse located in the southwest.

“The map layout is pretty simple. The sections are neatly divided, which is convenient, I guess.”

The lighthouse is in the southwest. The bottom half of the area was a villa and an abandoned village, while the northern part was the Artemis base. There was also what seemed like a train station up above.

If you get into the details, it might get a bit more complicated, but with many rock piles around that could be used for observation points, it seemed unlikely there’d be any problems figuring out the overall map structure.

Of course, it would be a huge headache if a player got there before me and took the spot first... but, well, when has the world ever gone the way I wanted it? Almost every outcome I achieved was hard-earned after countless struggles.

Anyway, the plan should be simple. The exit would be somewhere, so I just needed to estimate the spawn point, check if I woke up in the northern or southern area, then hit the hotspots and move out.

As I was thinking about it, a question arose.

“By the way, do all the other players play like this?”

• “No way, right?”
• “If only people like this played, no one would come to EU. LOL”
• “Sir, the average player can’t just pull off such crazy stunts every match.”
• “This guy? He’s cleared five games in a row, crushed a boss, and finished a 3-man hunter raid, all while looting with human corpses as his items.”
• “LOL”
• “He literally farms with people’s corpses.”

Seems like no one else plays like this...

Anyway, it was time to get moving. Getting tired of riding around in the vehicle, I pressed the “skip script” button and my view went black. A simple message asking if I was ready to be deployed appeared, and after a moment, I closed my eyes, only to hear a soft voice in my ear.

• [Notification: You are being deployed to the Coastal Complex Base.]

And with that, my eyes opened.

Contrary to what I expected, the air smelled of grass and water. Not far to the right was a small lake, and behind me was a high rocky cliff. Combining a few keywords, I could easily confirm the likely spawn point and realized I had spawned somewhere near the northeastern edge of the map.

Had there not been a lake to my right, I would’ve had to roam around, figuring out the terrain. But fortunately, that wasn’t the case.

However, the viewers had a slightly different take.

• “Oh, this place is perfect for a sniper run, lol.”
• “Living point: The gun this guy brought? It’s a Mjolnir with AP rounds!”
• “If you hear cannon shots coming from the sniper rock, run the hell away, lol.”
• “Damn, it’s like Thor himself has descended, lol.”

The chaos was real.

Anyway, today’s goal was to rack up 30 kills and, if I encountered a boss, kill them and retrieve any intel they might have to bring back to the Commander. If I had time, I could also tear apart the loot, but I wasn’t here for that.

Speaking of the sniper rock, now that I knew my location, I needed to head toward the observation point. I pulled out the map for the Coastal Complex Base, which had been folded and crumpled, making it a little hard to read. Still, I could make out the general layout and the location of the key points.

As I spent about 30 seconds pondering over the map, I suddenly heard a whoosh sound.

• “Ugh, what’s that?”

I thought I was well hidden in the grass, but suddenly, a bullet shot past me, grazing the soft earth near my leg. The sound of the shot was muffled, likely due to the suppressor. Fortunately, I could estimate the enemy's position based on the angle and the direction of the scattered dirt.

It seemed like they were just taking a random shot, so I decided to wait for a moment. Keeping my gaze fixed to the north, I didn’t move a finger. After a while, I could hear the faint rustling sound and noticed a small silhouette disappearing to the left.

That person would be my first victim of the day.

I thought to myself that I needed to hide better next time and spoke up.

“Let’s follow them. Consider it a free guide.”

• “Which guide gets sacrificed like that, LOL.”
• “Guide (on a time limit).”
• “I can’t even... LOL”
• “No one here thinks Bi-Yam is going to follow and die. www”
• “Event: Kill Eugene, and you’ll be the owner of 5 million credits!”

I followed quietly, walking along the small lakeside and then checking the map again to avoid any landmine areas. Suddenly, a rock came into view. According to my pre-check, most people referred to this rock as the sniper rock. From there, I could get a good view of the Artemis base, and it was easy to approach too.

I decided to head up there first.

While avoiding the landmine area on my left, I saw someone ahead, moving between trees and frantically searching for something. Unfortunately, my gun wasn’t equipped with a suppressor right now, so I needed to figure out how to take them down without drawing too much attention.

Maybe I should grab the MP7 from my gear box next time. I thought, watching the enemy through my LPVO scope. The enemy pulled some items out of the ground, then began to climb. Judging by the color of the weapon, it was clearly an SV-98 sniper rifle.

• “They really are just doing a sniper run.”
• “If they shoot, they’ll ruin the cost-effectiveness, lol.”
• “As soon as they fire, all the Artemis logs in the area will flock to them.”
• “If they take out all the rushing players and escape, it’ll be worth the ammo spent, lol.”
• “Who brings all those AP rounds for free, lol.”

All they seemed to care about were the ammo prices.

They’d been talking about it all day, so there must’ve been a reason. The flea market wasn’t even open yet, so it made sense they wouldn’t know.

Suddenly, I noticed something strange. It looked like there was an item box buried in the ground. How did they even find that? I wondered. Apparently, the latest map updates show even buried items. Picking the right map could’ve been a mistake on my part.

Well, on the flip side, players like me, who aren’t here to farm, don’t really need to care about such things.

While continuing to follow, I suddenly stopped.

“…What the hell is this?”

I spotted something suspicious—an expertly hidden tripwire between the rocks.

I paused and checked the source. Inside a tree, I saw a fan-shaped device— a Claymore mine. It was the work of a professional.

But as always, someone had once said, “When you touch someone else's explosive device, it could very well become your own.” And since this tripwire was connected to the Claymore, it was worth considering the trap's structure. Sure enough, the tripwire wasn’t attached to the Claymore itself.

It was actually connected to a small device at the bottom of a mine's concave surface, which would send an electrical signal to the detonator if the wire was triggered. So, if I carefully touched it, the Claymore would be harmless.

Of course, there was a chance I could mess up.

“If I set this off by mistake, someone else can loot my stuff. Hope you find it useful.”

• “This guy is way too cool for this world, LOL.”
• “Imagine the goosebumps if that explodes. 5 million gone, LOL.”
• “I’d probably get rich if I just died twice with this gear.”
• “Fact: Either way, this will be a huge task for the editor.”
• “LOL”

Anyway, solving the problem was simple. I just needed to remove the detonator next to the Claymore's aiming device.

But, as expected, it wasn’t just about spinning a screw loose. There were more intricate steps involved—removing the cover from the electrical wire and unscrewing the connected components. After about 20 seconds of careful disarming, the Claymore was partially deactivated.

I tucked the detonator and tripwire safely away and resumed the broadcast. Then, I climbed up to the sniper rock.

About a minute earlier, I’d been hearing faint gunfire in the distance—still, the enemy was likely nearby.

Sure enough, I spotted the enemy's rear end.

Tap, tap.

“Delivery’s here.”

“What...?!”

“Got to deliver the slap.”

Bang!

With that, the stock of my Mk.18 slammed into the enemy’s face.

The rock was now engulfed in silence.

???Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Ugh, this is a bit risky..."

• "Wow, the sniper rock sounds deadly, lol."
• "What kind of cannon is that? LOL"
• "What’s that? A big-caliber sniper rifle, AXMC?"
• "Doesn't match the cost-efficiency at all, lol."
• "People like that are truly terrifying, no joke..."

Unreal, the expert Dark Zone streamer, found himself in a dilemma like never before.

With a sniper rifle in hand and a small submachine gun slung on his back, he approached the outpost from the east of the Artemis base. Crossing the Village Bridge and passing the oil drums, he knelt down, steadying himself on the ground, and aimed his rifle at the log manning a mounted machine gun.

The bullet shot out with a snap, piercing the log’s body and leaving the enemy slumped to the ground like a lifeless marionette.

At that moment, a tremendous noise came from the sniper rock.

"All attention's focused on that direction, but judging by the rate of fire, it’s definitely an Mk.18, right? Whoever they are, they’ve missed the essentials, but they’ll need to run fast."

• "LOL"
• "Yeah, how could someone challenge Thor himself?"
• "Forget about farming, this is now about surviving."
• "If they loot a single warehouse and then sprint out, it'll almost match the value of the ammo they’ve spent, lol."
• "Who else would carry all the free AP rounds? Oh right, this guy, lol."

They were all obsessed with the ammo prices.

Considering the constant chatter about it, there must’ve been a reason behind it. Since the flea market wasn’t even open yet, it made sense that they didn’t understand everything.

Meanwhile, Unreal found himself in a surprisingly good position. The logs on the rooftop were frantically shifting their machine gun positions, aiming toward the sniper rock, while the patrol team moved toward the source of the noise—the noise of his rifle shot that came from hundreds of meters to the southwest.

In short, his freedom of movement was greatly improved.

Seizing the opportunity, Unreal moved east, quickly eliminating the second log man holding the machine gun. There weren’t any bandits nearby, so he easily refocused on the machine gunner on the rooftop of Warehouse 1.

"Phew..."

Snap!

The head of the AI burst into golden polygons and fell backward.

In the meantime, Unreal was already processing his next steps. Normally, he would need to clear the 3-person patrol team roaming the base, but with someone else already attracting the aggro, the chances were high that they would head in that direction.

"I’ll just loot the bodies I’ve already killed and leave."

He swallowed and quickly moved over. Each time he climbed the stairs connected to the red container, his heart pounded faster, and his hands moved quickly to drag the corpses and shove items into his bag.

The Western-mod AR-15, decent but with a bit of wear on it, some good bulletproof vests, and a few miscellaneous items. It was tempting to check the ammo in the magazines, but now wasn’t the time.

The gunfire was starting to die down, but with someone deliberately drawing attention like this, it was likely they were either very skilled or completely insane—probably both.

And sure enough, it turned out to be true.

"…That person already cleared the rooftops of Warehouse 3 and Warehouse 2. I think it’s best to leave now. I came here to do a log-run training stream, but things aren’t going as planned."

• "LOL"
• "Dome king~"
• "Wait, wasn’t that the log from Warehouse 2? They have no head??"
• "Well… I’ll let it slide this time."
• "If they came down from the sniper rock, they'll clear Warehouse 3, then Warehouse 2, and finally head for Warehouse 1. Better leave now."

That was a valid point.

So, Unreal immediately steeled himself, and with that, he started running toward the road heading north. No signs of life around him yet.

After moving a bit further, he carefully crouched and aimed at the log man with the machine gun on the rooftop of Warehouse 1.

But then...

‘...This one’s dead too.’

The head of the enemy had completely disappeared, and their body fell lifeless on the machine gun, dripping golden liquid.

In other words, the only person Unreal had killed on the rooftop was a single log. What had happened was unclear, but with the concept of hacks long gone from this current Dark Zone, it was entirely possible that someone who caused this kind of mess was coming toward Unreal from the sniper rock or below.

And so, Unreal threw caution to the wind, abandoning all attempts at stealth, and made a run for it. He reached the area near the train station and hid behind a rock. It had only been 3 minutes since he started looting.

He checked the road he'd just passed through with his scope, still tens of meters away from the northern checkpoint—the escape point. Naturally, he made sure to equip a killflash filter, just in case.

20 seconds passed.

"…Ah."

• "Wow, lol."
• "Snake tail in the butt, lol."
• "That was almost a close call, lol."
• "This is what a horror game should be like! This is what a horror game is like! This is what a horror game is like!"
• "The scariest 5 seconds in EU history, lol."

A haunting movement, followed by a familiar silhouette holding a gun bigger than their body, swaying their long tail as they entered the first-floor warehouse.

Only then did Unreal sprint toward the escape point.

"Lighthouse phobia... this is real."

There are plenty of scary things in the world.

"Did I sense something in the north?"

• "Ah, no way, lol."
• "Looks like someone’s been killed on the roof of Warehouse 1. Pretty sure there’s someone else around."
• "Are there any bandits? Could check, maybe."
• "Not farming, just out killing logs, this bi-yam guy, lol."
• "He’s fired 18 rounds so far—about 1.5 million credits, lol."

Was I mistaken?

Maybe I was just imagining it.