I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 436

“…This is a real mess, isn't it? Three enemies…”

“Let’s just hold on for now.”

“This isn’t something we can just hold on to. Those are all the insane, overpowered characters from this season, lumped together.”

Meanwhile, about five minutes earlier.

I was checking my weapons above C, with sunlight pouring down, and standing next to me was a Viking warrior from my team, holding a claymore that was as big as a human body. We encountered an enemy team of three. Technically speaking, the enemy had probably ignored A and just charged straight for C, but I wasn't sure.

Spinning my dagger, I checked their weapons.

One has a mace with a fire shield, the other has a wide-bladed Chinese saber, and the last one is holding a flail… a mace with a heater shield, I guess.

But it didn’t matter much.

The sunlight streaming from the sky made their individual figures extremely clear, and I had already figured out where to attack with my dagger – the inner elbow, thigh, and neck, where there was no armor. Although the last one, the knight-like enemy, was a bit more of a hassle, since I didn't really like dealing with those types.

It was simple.

“Take care of that flail-wielding one, will you? I’m not too comfortable fighting those thick gauntlet types with a dagger.”

“…Be honest. How many seconds can you hold out? Or would it be better to just get wiped here and respawn, then go support B?”

“Well, I can’t guarantee anything.”

But there was one thing for sure.

The two enemies, who seemed like they were about to rush at us, implied that they weren’t going to approach leisurely like knights, keeping a steady distance. Given the action and attack adjustments of Glory and Honor, the difficulty would be ramped up, as if I were facing actual warriors.

But it didn’t matter. No matter how fast they were, in front of me, their moves would be useless once I saw a bullet coming at me.

It all depended on how well my body, with the reverse correction on it, could move… but for now, this would be enough.

“Let’s at least send one of them to the respawn window.”

“Huh? What?”

“Let’s see.”

Whoosh!

The mace-wielding guy closed the distance in an instant and then spun his body, swinging his left foot downward in a stomp. There was no need to block it. Even through all that, I could clearly see the spikes embedded in the back of his shoes. It didn’t look like they were meant for regular use, but I wasn’t bothered.

I dodged the mace, which cut through the air horizontally, by lowering my body, and then, taking advantage of the lowered center of gravity, I darted toward the guy with the saber who was swinging it widely from behind, as if I were a bullet. Of course, it was slow compared to before, but to anyone with a normal reaction time, it would be impossible to counter.

If I remembered correctly, the guy with the Chinese saber was called a Guardian – anyway, after knocking the Guardian down, I rolled sideways. I could hear the mace thud on the ground, a beat late, as it missed me.

“Crazy!”

“Damn, too fast!”

But I had already turned my body with the clouds and shot forward. As I did so, I rolled and passed through the legs of the class—The Wanderer—who was recovering the mace.

With my right-hand dagger, I slashed across my left thigh and with my left-hand dagger, I slashed across my right thigh, crossing my hands in an "X" motion, then snapped them open, like a spring releasing. That was enough to tear through one of the human body’s most vital areas: the thigh.

A heavy sensation followed, and in an instant, the thick fabric of the pants was ripped apart, the dagger digging deep into the thigh and tearing through it. From the depth of the blade, it looked like both femoral arteries had been severed.

It felt like I was reviewing a tactical CQC lecture.

“Ah, hrrgh, aaaah…!”

“How is his HP dropping so fast?!”

“Cutting both femoral arteries will do that.”

A typical feature of hardcore mode players.

When an enemy takes damage, it doesn’t just decrease HP—depending on where they’re hit, the avatar’s feedback is direct and immediate. In this case, as mentioned, the arteries were cut, so the enemy wouldn’t be able to walk and would likely bleed out in less than a minute.

Golden blood gushed from the inner thigh of the enemy, as I slid to the floor, brushing off the dirt that had accumulated on me. I turned to face the guy with the Chinese saber.

…If my physical abilities had been at their full potential, I’d have been able to send each of them straight to the respawn window with just one attack.

That was exactly how it had been when I played half-heartedly last time.

But sadly, with my physical capabilities currently down by at least half, maybe 90%, there was no point in thinking about that – but, fortunately, this guy also had his inner elbow and thigh covered with thick cloth. In other words, they were still attackable areas if needed.

The saber was too wide to block with a gauntlet, but fortunately, this guy was wearing a helmet that exposed his entire face.

The first move came from him.

“Hah-!”

Whooosh!

From here, it would be all about dodging his attacks.

The saber was wide but not heavy, so all his attacks came fast and tight. It was likely because the weight was lighter than expected, but then a left kick came flying. Since of course the positioning wasn’t ideal, and I wanted to block at least one attack, I crossed my daggers in an X to block the kick.

Thud. A heavy blow forced my body back. Immediately after, I leapt back to dodge a follow-up roundhouse kick while throwing the dagger in my right hand directly at his face.

It didn’t take long before the spinning dagger sank deep into his eye.

“Argh…!”

“Next time, come wearing a full face helmet.”

After that, it was simple.

I rushed in, wedging the saber against his left arm and waist to block it, and then grabbed the dagger in reverse and immediately jammed it into the skin between his armor and helmet. Because of the angle, it was enough to cut the carotid artery and reach the opposite armpit artery.

With a sickening sound, his body began to lose strength.

Thud.

One in the neck, one in the eye. As soon as I retrieved both daggers, the sound of metal clanging from the other side gradually stopped.

“…Unfortunately, it seems our team lost this time.”

The Highlander Viking's body lay dead on the floor.

The Crusader, whose HP had dropped to about half, let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the two corpses scattered around me.

“…Are they all dead?”

“All dead.”

“Now we’ve got a monster carrying the game with a dagger, one that no one even uses anymore… geez.”

But despite that, I really wanted to crush that annoying armor.

I sheathed my daggers and then picked up the blood-soaked claymore that had fallen on the floor.

“You have no complaints, right?”

“…Of course not.”

The flail swung, and the claymore tore through the air.

On that day at C, two bodies had bled out, and one was cut in half.

What on earth is going on here?

The pale bodies, drained of blood, were scattered all around.

It wasn’t just that. As if someone had been doing action painting with blood, the walls were completely splattered. The only fortunate thing was that the blood wasn’t red, but golden. Even a veteran user, who had witnessed countless bloody scenes – though not as gruesome as one might expect – couldn’t help but shake their head in disbelief.

The remains of the dead would slowly disappear over time, but the traces they left behind would remain until the session ended. The golden liquid, sprayed across the walls like a spray paint, was proof of that.

Those who were there may not have known, but such spray-like bloodstains were typically caused by arterial cuts, which forcefully sent blood flying in every direction.

Of course, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that there was only one person standing amidst the corpses.

“…I’ve pretty much cleaned up, but I need some time to recover stamina. Could you give me a hand?”

“Ah, sure.”

Though it hadn’t been long, the evaluation had already flipped.

It wasn’t that the suspicion of Eugene from our allies was unfounded – in Glory and Honor, there were countless cold weapons with blades as long as a person’s thigh, and some even had giant claymores where the blade was half the size of the body.

Weapons of all kinds, developed to study how to obliterate someone from the farthest distance. Among them, the dagger, which could only reach full power up close, often blocked by armor, had long been abandoned in the blacksmith's workshop.

Of course, daggers weren’t entirely useless. The technique of wielding a dagger in the left hand and an arming sword in the right was developed ages ago, under the class name Vowkeeper.

So there the allies stood, watching Eugene, dripping with golden blood, laughing uncontrollably.

“…Wait, you’re not a long-time player who’s just bored of ranked games and decided to play casual, are you?”

“That can’t be it. I’ve barely even played two hours in total.”

“No, sir. If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable…”

Huh?

A faint doubt arose. The user, who had dismissed Eugene’s words as an unbelievable lie, opened Eugene’s profile. It was astonishing, beyond mere surprise. Eugene had been telling the truth, and beneath the Glory and Honor game window, it simply said “under 2h” for playtime.

Under 2 hours of playtime.

Once a character profile is registered, it’s shared across all access points, which means the playtime recorded under that profile cannot be modified by any means. This made the playtime count an unchangeable indicator.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

He pressed the Dark Zone button next to Glory and Honor—

“Phew-whoosh!”

“What the hell?”

“Is that a new skill?”

“No, wait… Sir, are you seriously…?”

“I haven’t hidden any memories.”

The Dark Zone – playtime over 10,000 hours. And next to it, the message Final Championship First Place.

Thinking about it, even the engraving and color of the daggers were so unique, they’d never been seen before in Glory and Honor. Moreover, the blade’s design shimmered in a way that resembled an aurora, which was odd, because Glory and Honor didn’t allow real-time moving patterns on weapon paints.

The only exception to this would be extremely rare paint jobs available across all games hosted on the Icarus International platform or something that could be bought in the shop – but even those had been discontinued long before this game had launched, and no one wore them anymore.

So the case was clear.

“…This paint, could it be…”

“Well, as you can see, it’s a special one I received as a result of my glorious victory.”

The Dark Zone, not only accessible in Glory and Honor but across all games on the Icarus platform, had a unique skin that only one person could use for a special reason.

And then, only then, did her nickname catch my eye.

Before the game began, I’d assumed it was just the same nickname, especially because Eugene’s tail had been half-removed as a balance patch to prevent distracting the users in Glory and Honor. What remained was a well-polished female avatar.

As Eugene carried the entire Dark Zone Korean session, countless similar or identical nicknames appeared in other games, resulting in the bizarre situation we had now.

But there was no time to discuss her true identity.

“It’s time to get back to work.”

Creak.

In the neighboring game, there was a standoff like never before. The three enemies we’d met at B and the ones who had charged to C had all converged on B, creating a 6v6 setup.

The difference now was that everyone standing there had experienced firsthand what two daggers could do.

“…Well, I’ll trust you.”

“Ha-ha.”

No further words were exchanged.

Eugene raised both daggers, then took up a posture never before seen in Glory and Honor—left hand in reverse grip, right hand in hammer grip. The reverse grip resembled the stance for a shield or guard, while the other hand was ready to strike at any moment.

A user with a great shield stepped forward, and the frontlines were now about to clash, like two lines meeting head-on rather than dots colliding.

The silence didn’t last long.

“For honor!”

“Uraaaaaaaaaah!”

It was strange, but ironically, it was exactly that which made the war cry fit perfectly.

But the thought didn’t last long. Eugene, using the terrain around her as a springboard, stomped on the advancing shield’s tip, gradually closing the distance. As she spun mid-air, she deflected the thrown spear with the faces of both daggers and then landed, sinking the two daggers into the warrior’s collarbones.

Chak…!

“Got one.”

In that moment, the 6v6 became 6v5.

The final battle, where blood would wash blood, began.