I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 438

[Notification: The battle has started. Capture the sectors and defend against enemy retaking.]
Bwoooom!

The shofar sound echoed, not only in my ears but seemingly in my very heart. The moment the game started, the massive cathedral built on a sharp cliff was filled with the majestic tones.

The screen cam, spinning down from the air, briefly showed the six users taking their positions before it zoomed into the back of my head.

The surroundings were eerily silent, clearly showing that human touch had long since been abandoned.

The broken stained glass, the decayed and fallen wooden doors, the once-grand and now-missing anti-fall stone fences… amidst these, the abandoned cathedral still stood, welcoming the six of us, me included.

As the faint mist dissipated, a dragon emerged from within. Strangely, even though it was just a background feature, dragons did exist in Glory and Honor.

"As discussed beforehand, let’s go. User Eugene, please head to C alone, and we’ll go straight to B. Once we capture it, we’ll come to support you, so don’t worry too much."

"Okay."

"Let’s all do our best!"

Dust kicked up as six pairs of footsteps forcefully pressed against the ground.

A beat later, I started moving behind them. I surveyed the area. If I remembered correctly, this map was... uniquely designed with a peculiar sector layout. To explain simply, there were few maps as fair as the cathedral.

Let’s assume the spawn point for our team is Alpha, and the enemy’s spawn is Omega.

At this point, the distances between A, B, and C and between Alpha and Omega were the same. The structure of the map was equally simple. If we folded the map in half, Alpha and Omega would overlap, and when unfolded, A, B, and C would be marked on the centerline.

Looking ahead at the cathedral, with its common area inside, I referred to B. C was located to the right.

It was a rather small open area. It was too smooth to be considered a place that hadn’t been touched by human footprints for long. The stone floor was meticulously carved, and there was even a makeshift altar that provided some visual interest.

Considering the weapon I was holding, my speed in reaching C was the fastest in this session, but unfortunately, it didn’t provide me much of an advantage.

I looked straight ahead.

And then everything went dark.

???Pop!

“…Huh?”

????????
Why the hell is there suddenly a chain scythe in their hands?
Did they seriously pick that up?
Hahaha, are you for real??
??? : I literally just grabbed it because something flew at me, and it turned out to be a chain scythe.
Clink.

I quickly raised my left-handed dagger to block something that seemed to be coming at me. As I looked around in confusion, I saw a sharp chain scythe almost piercing my brow. Not paying it much attention, I glanced at the approaching figures—two classes, a Ninja and a Samurai.

The Ninja wielded two chain scythes freely, and the Samurai fought with two katanas in a dual-wielding style. I lifted my gaze to assess their gear and armor. Both wore light armor, though the Ninja had more armor-like gear on. Perhaps it was due to the lightweight weapons.

In any case, by blocking it, I was essentially holding the scythe in place with my dagger, preventing it from being recalled.

???Kreek…

The struggle between the person trying to recover the scythe and me blocking it continued.

Of course, the chain scythe had to be retrieved once thrown, but traditionally, the scythe’s hooked, “L” shape made it difficult to retrieve once it got caught.

However, their confusion didn’t last long. Realizing the scythe was difficult to recover, the Ninja charged straight at me, with the Samurai doing the same. Since they weren’t too far apart, their distance would close in just a few seconds.

Seeing this, I threw my right-hand dagger into the air, grabbed the chain scythe still tangled with my dagger in my left hand, and hurled it at the approaching Samurai.

“Ugh!”

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing as the Samurai, not wanting to take a critical hit to the face, blocked the incoming chain scythe with the sword in their left hand. Naturally, this momentarily blinded them.

In other words, it created an opening.

In the blink of an eye, the distance between us closed to 3 meters. Surprisingly, this was also a result of the reverse correction—though it wasn’t impossible in reality.

However, surprisingly, my attempt to drive the blade into the Samurai's neck failed in a rather pitiful manner.

???Thwack!

“Aagh!”

The scream wasn’t mine.

It was the Samurai’s.

In an instant, the Ninja’s kick struck the Samurai’s side, sending them crashing to the ground with a groan. A nearby user managed to save them in the nick of time.

Meanwhile, the chain scythe in my right hand took a strange arc and flew through the air like a guillotine. As I read its trajectory, I quickly jammed a dagger into its path, creating more sparks. At the same time, I threw the dagger in my right hand toward the Ninja’s face, and the Ninja successfully blocked it with their weapon in the left hand.

But they didn’t expect my right foot to slam into their chin.

“Ugh…!”

I told you so, hahaha.
After all that, you expect people to stop using dual daggers? What a psycho, hahaha.
I know this from reading fantasy novels: guys like this usually end up as mercenary kings and founders of great empires, hahaha.
How come there are three people who symbolize defeat, but only one keeps winning?????
But the losers are still two, hahaha.
Wow, even the losers come in pairs, huh?
I had to give credit to the Ninja, though. They managed to avoid falling back after taking my attack.

As I watched the Ninja retreat about six or seven steps, I quickly retrieved the falling dagger that had hit the ground after striking the scythe. I turned around and hurled it at the Samurai charging toward me again. Unfortunately, it was blocked by the sword in their left hand again. This is the issue with dual daggers.

But in that short span, I feigned an advance and then sliced horizontally with my right hand dagger. As I dashed forward, I performed a body check against the Samurai, spinning to the left to dodge. Meanwhile, I threw my left dagger behind their legs.

This time, it landed perfectly.

The blade, deeply embedded behind their knee, would surely slow them down significantly.

Even before I could fully think, I swiftly recovered my earlier thrown dagger from the ground and observed the two users surrounding me, thinking about how to deal with them.

“Hmmm…”

"Well then, shall I twist that ninja's neck?"

Thinking this, I deflected the horizontally flying left scythe with my dagger and then caught the other one with my right hand's gauntlet.

"What the hell!"

"Come here quietly."

Now it was my turn to pull the scythe.

Ninjas often coil the chain around their wrist, so as soon as this player pulled his weapon with his right hand, he was dragged toward me helplessly. Of course, there was no reason for me to let go of the weapon I had just grabbed, and the ninja found himself in a position where his own scythe would strike him.

Unfortunately, the danger wasn’t going to end there.

Even though I quickly retrieved the scythe I had deflected with my dagger, I was much quicker at closing in, and during that moment, the dagger in my left hand had already pierced through the ninja's right wrist.

It was time to neutralize the other hand.

The scythe in my right hand completely pierced through the ninja's left forearm.

"Grrr...!"

Thud!

The ground buckled as both of the ninja's hands were forcefully bound, and he let out a strained scream, but that wasn’t the end.

I pulled my right hand down with force, and the scythe broke the bone in his left wrist, tearing through his flesh — though of course, this part was heavily censored — and came out. He was pushed all the way back into the cathedral’s wall.

With his left hand lost and his right hand in no better condition, there was nothing he could do. As his weapon dug into his throat, he was ejected to the respawn screen.

There was only one thing left.

"...Do you think I can ask for mercy now?"

"Haha. Where's the honor in a duel like that?"

"Ahhh, hahahaha."
"??: Please spare me."
"Sounds like something Mecha Biyam would say, huh?"
"No way, I didn’t think he’d cut out 1v2 in just one minute."
"Why is it only showing off daggers when you're supposed to show what weapons the opponent uses?"
Well, I don’t know about the aftermath.

Looking at the limping swordsman, I spun the dagger I had transferred from my left to my right hand, then charged forward.

As expected, within a minute, I was the only one left in C.

"...No, teacher. Why are you doing this in a normal game and not in ranked?"

"Ah, I’m doing a Glory and Honor advertising stream, so I guess I don’t have much of a choice..."

"Oh my, really."

"Killer response, hahaha."
"Yupjin, you don't need to introduce all these modes; there are already enough players for Glory and Honor."
"My honest opinion: just running ranked games and hitting #1 would finish the advertising."
"Haha, the influx of new players will just be handled by the veterans of Glory and Honor."
"Teacher, just go and create some word-of-mouth."
A massacre.

But now, it was made of the enemy's blood and bodies.

It seemed like a scene I had seen somewhere before, but the twist was that it wasn't different from the last time — the bodies were unusually clean. There was almost no sign of anything being roughly torn off or completely severed.

Instead, as before, it looked like an action painting made with golden paint.

The enemy team had stopped charging toward A, B, or C and instead gathered in the respawn area to vote for surrender, while I was sitting in B, slowly recovering my almost depleted stamina.

"…Is it true that reverse correction was applied to my physical ability?"

"I wonder why no one believes me when I said it was applied."

Of course, if reverse correction hadn’t been applied, the weapon I was holding would have been different, and this game would have ended at least five minutes ago.

At this point, my body’s physical abilities felt like they were just barely around the level of a 3-rep max of 450. Of course, the physical stats of other players here had been similarly adjusted. The reverse correction data provided by the game company had been taken from all users and averaged by the number of players.

In other words, I was average.

The real issue was my hand-eye coordination.

"Seriously, Eugene, if you made a dagger combat motion and guide, I think around 100,000 new players would join."

"Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s possible."

"Oh... Why?"

"Because I might get caught for leaking classified information."

"???????????????"
"What the hell, hahaha."
"Are you serious, teacher? Did all your methods of beating players come from the US special forces' knife fighting guide?"
"??: So, what can you do? All you do is get beaten up, what else can you do?"
Half joke, half truth.

Naturally, the close combat techniques I had learned… were originally based on a US military special forces knife fighting guide, but after going through a great war, these techniques had evolved and been updated. In short, the techniques I used now would differ quite a bit from the current US SOF CQC manual in this world.

So, I wouldn’t get caught… but was that important? Either way, I couldn’t teach this officially.

Meanwhile, the enemy team reached a dramatic consensus, and the grand horn sound played again as the phrase "Our Team Wins" flashed across the screen.

The enemy had completely surrendered.

The camera, now focusing on the center of the cathedral, highlighted the six of us confidently walking through it. Among them, I walked out again, and the words "Conqueror of the Battlefield" appeared above my head.

At the same time, the best plays were shown.

'...I’ve seen this somewhere before.'

The world was truly bizarre.

In any case, the players I had just fought alongside had completely disappeared, and my character was half-spat back into the lobby.

Hmm, how should I put it?

Calmly, and as shamelessly as possible, I spoke.

"This is roughly the game."

"Of course, hahaha."
"Is this an ad stream or Eugene’s Mad Movie 2? Hahaha."
"Well, this is how advertising should be done."
"So, to wield two daggers, you have to be able to do that, right?"
"It might backfire, or maybe it won't. Haha."
Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong, so I guess it was fine.

Anyway, after that, I continued explaining Glory and Honor's game system in more detail — though I wasn’t sure if the viewers were paying attention — as I planned to show off some more gameplay today, both the system and various modes.

For a moment, I fiddled with the controls in a regular game before lowering them.

Ranked game.

After a brief hesitation, I pressed it firmly.

"Well, I’ve said a lot, but… I guess this is what you all like the most."

The ranked play modes unfurled in front of me.

I didn’t hesitate and pressed the Domination button, as a timer-like bar spun overhead, starting the placement match.

The chat window was already in full celebration.

I turned my head slightly and spoke.

"Then, let me show you what you all want to see."

Thus began the long climb.