I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 468

“You bastard shark! You son of a bitch, dumping everything on me and running off like a coward!”

“Ugh, I couldn’t help it, the headquarters contacted me directly!”

“Is that your last will? I’ll engrave it on your tombstone.”

I knew it was going to be like this.

Lauren Tina, holding the ringing phone, glanced at who was calling, then pressed the green button. The scream, close to a roar, burst through the phone as soon as the call connected. The word Polar Bear that appeared on the screen was particularly clear today.

As expected, the Polar Bear’s roar was as powerful as the original animal.

Lauren Tina, unlike her usual self, hesitated for a moment. It made sense. The shark and Biyam had passed the trouble onto her, but the one who would take the aftershock was Logan, who was quietly asleep back in the U.S. And, true to form, Logan’s face on the video call looked… very angry.

Logan, sharing his screen, scrolled through the numerous missed calls, and Lauren Tina pretended to look uninterested.

Instantly, threats started flying.

“That bastard, if you pretend not to know about these calls, I’ll buy you a one-way ticket straight to Korea!”

“…Looks like a lot came in. They’re the type of friends who contact you whenever they can, huh.”

“It’s all your fault!”

How much had she suffered until now?

Lauren Tina was sincerely grateful that Logan wasn’t physically beside her at this moment. If he had been, the probability of her spine being bent backwards and executing a shrimp twist on him was extraordinarily high.

With a slight chuckle, she began to present a proposal she had prepared in advance. As expected, sharks weren’t the type to do reckless things without an escape plan, and they always thought of retreat strategies in advance.

Though it wasn’t certain, this seemed like a good compromise.

“Redirect all the calls to me. When I get back, if I have the energy, I’ll handle everything on this side.”

“Do you really think someone going to Hawaii will be able to do that?”

“The vacation approval won’t come until early October, so there’ll be about a week of time. During that time, if I move around a bit, there won’t be any major issues. I’ll deposit half the test participation fee to you. Does that sound good?”

“Money? Just go to Hawaii and buy something nice for the kid instead.”

Of course.

As the extreme anger from earlier started to subside, it seemed the proposal was reasonable. Lauren Tina thought so and slumped down onto the couch in the kid's house, syncing the hologram projector with the call. The silhouette of Logan also appeared, sitting on a similar couch.

Their gazes met. Nothing had changed from the past. Of course, Logan was expected to be incredibly busy going forward, and it was highly unlikely that he’d be visiting Korea freely as he had before. After all, Lauren Tina was a deployed agent.

By the end of this year, there would be a final championship like last year, but Logan, Lauren Tina, and Owens would not be present for it.

The unsaid words disappeared into the ether, and Logan shifted the topic.

“By the way, those two who always follow you around are coming, right?”

“Hah, you’d know better about that. I don’t know how she convinced them, but… those two little snakes, no matter what Eugene does, they’ll be cheering her on. I figured they’d follow her.”

“Looks like you’ve made quite an impact on them.”

He wasn’t exactly wrong, but that didn’t mean they could laugh it off.

Considering that the person who had been “taken care of” by the kid had buried Logan under a storm of bullets with the help of many Donuts… It wasn’t far from the idea of completely breaking someone down to the atomic level and then reconstructing them. But if she brought this up, Logan might actually book a ticket to Korea.

She avoided touching on that core issue, but that alone wasn’t enough to avoid trouble. The topic eventually shifted to the types of firearms they’d be shooting in Hawaii, and Logan slowly scanned the list before stopping abruptly at a particular point.

The Barrett sniper rifle, she could understand.

But—

“…Are you out of your mind?”

“…”

“20mm? Are you planning to treat those two’s dislocated shoulders while you’re in Hawaii?”

“Damn it, only me and the kid will be using that gun. It’s legally produced or imported by an FFL Type 11 holder.”

“Yeah, sure, you crazy woman.”

The FFL Type 11, one of the most limited types of firearm handling licenses issued by the federal government. It was granted only to people who had special relationships with museums, wealthy individuals, or government agencies, and it allowed the import of rare, collectible military-grade weapons. That was how a 20mm Barrett sniper rifle, made in South Africa, was able to make its way to Hawaii.

And it would be used in early October, held by a manifested individual, to unleash a barrage.

“…You’re the only ones in this world who would think of soaking two perfectly good women in gunpowder.”

“Oh, do you not think of me and the kid as women either?”

“Shut up, seriously.”

Naturally, it was all in vain.

Muttering, Lauren Tina gazed outside at the darkening world. It was possible because the match was on a weekend. The time in Korea was 9 PM, while Logan’s was around 8 AM, which was why they were able to connect. Regardless, not many days were left to witness this scene.

It was time for the shark, who had spent more than half a year in Korea, to leave.

“Well, now that it’s come to this, it’s a bit regretful. Maybe because I’ve had so much fun recently…”

“Of course. Stop thinking weird thoughts and just shoot some guns in Hawaii before you head back. I’ll submit a suggestion bomb to have those seal bastards do joint training because of you.”

“…How about I do a cross-legged twist the moment I enter the country?”

“Eat shit.”

Of course, Logan wasn’t letting it slide, as it had been proven back in the Final Championship when she had thoroughly beaten Dice.

After that, they continued discussing the minor details of what they’d do in the future and what they’d do once they returned to the U.S. After a while, when the conversation had run its course, Logan quickly looked around.

The reason was simple, and Logan voiced it.

“So where’s the kid, and why are you the only one here?”

“Oh, the kid, huh…”

What was she trying to say now?

But Lauren Tina added it without much thought.

“Right now, she’s probably playing tag.”

“…What?”

Before she could even ask what that meant, Lauren Tina showed something in front of her.

It wasn’t Eugene, but Harmonie, with a green snake tail, running across the map.

“…What is this?”

“Think of it like some kind of snake tail blessing.”

What that snake tail blessing was, wasn’t worth asking, because the situation was unnecessarily clear.

It would take quite some time before Logan realized what was happening in Korea.

"This is... Eugene's gaze? Eye level? Footprints...?"

"Please don't react like a pervert."

"But!"

Meanwhile, the Tag content that followed the second event match.

Originally, the event involved putting about 50 participants into a large area, attaching tails to about three people, and engaging in a sort of tag or catch-and-be-caught game. Last year's motto had been something like that, but this year’s event match creators interpreted the idea of tag quite differently.

Moreover, just at the right moment, there was someone who suited the word tail perfectly. She had gladly agreed to participate in the event match. And when the map engineers made a secret suggestion to Eugene, she agreed.

What was that suggestion?

“The tail in this tag is a snake tail, wow...!”

It was literally the power of virtual reality that could turn someone into an EM-level manifested user.

It wasn’t just a simple avatar. After thoroughly analyzing Eugene's body movements, they converted those into electric signals, allowing even someone without a tail to learn exactly how she behaved and how she moved her tail, all while transmitting that information to the user.

And this power, known as Eugene, was being extended to… naturally, to those two little Biyams who adored the tail more than anything else.

It was just 20 seconds ago that Dice and Harmonie fell amidst 599 users.

“I feel so strong right now!”

“If I put in just a little more effort, I feel like I’ll fly! What do I do...?”

“Once your tail is caught for more than five seconds, you won’t feel this sensation anymore. Do your best.”

“Gah!”

And with that, Eugene grabbed the two snake tails, each in their personal color. Naturally, ?? had a light green tail, and Dice had a yellow one that reminded one of a ball python. Of course, as soon as she grabbed them, loud screams followed.

How did it feel to experience this sensation for the first time, these two?

In just a few seconds, Harmonie and Dice’s cheeks and ears turned bright red. They screamed loudly, asking why she grabbed their tails like that. Eugene then gave their heads a whack with her mallet.

With a silly sound, both of them were incapacitated.

“If I wasn’t here, you wouldn’t even have tails.”

“You’re so mean for doing this with just the tails...”

“I want a big tail, not just great power and responsibility...”

“Stop with the weird stuff and look at the map.”

Pop.

Below them, the vast arena appeared. It was a huge space, like several football fields combined, and around 600 users were clustered there.

All users were armed with weapons available in Playful — handguns capable of loading freeze rounds, electroshock rounds, lightsabers, mallets, jelly grenades, and occasionally, jelly rocket launchers. Naturally, they were there to bind two people’s legs.

However, the difference from previous rounds was that these users wouldn’t die even if they were hit with instant-death attacks. Instead, they would be incapacitated for 30 seconds.

Meanwhile, the remaining time dropped below 5 seconds.

Eugene wasn’t participating in the match but was instead watching Harmonie and Dice’s fight, casually munching on popcorn. The two about to be released into the match would desperately try not to get caught for the next 5 seconds.

In the meantime, the original Biyam activated the camera function and took pictures of the two, whose bodies had been transformed. Their ears grew longer, their pupils became vertical, and they grew sharp teeth, all while their bodies started to change — and, of course, they couldn’t react.

“Have a good time!”

“Aaaahhh!”

“Eh, eh? Falling? What do we do if we fall!”

Before they could even argue, they started falling from hundreds of meters above.

All they could hear was the sound of the wind rushing past their ears, and beneath them, hundreds of users were waiting. After falling for several seconds, the two only realized their bodies were moving uncontrollably at the very last moment, landing with a loud thud on the ground, like superheroes.

The ground was soft but firm enough to absorb the shock, but it created a highly noticeable crater around them.

Boom!

“What the heck was that?”

However, no one answered Dice’s remark.

A delayed thud echoed from another direction. Dice instinctively knew it was Harmonie, and as a massive wave of sensation rushed through his five senses, he nearly lost consciousness. What they didn’t know was that it was the vibration detection function of the tail.

He could clearly tell where everyone was.

So, Dice carefully took a breath and began thinking about how to move. Unlike other users, those with tails couldn’t use weapons and could only rely on unarmed attacks and running.

The time they needed to hold out was 15 minutes. What was certain was that, unlike Eugene, who could perfectly control her body, it was going to be extremely difficult for the two to keep their tails safe in the midst of so many people for such a long time.

But no one was going to pity them.

As the vibration of the air spread, Dice instinctively moved away—

Crack!

“Ugh!”

Dozens of bullets rained down at his position.

But that wasn’t the end. With a whoosh, about seven jelly rockets followed, leaving a trail of white behind them. As they crashed into the ground and walls, a deafening sound followed as an immense amount of pink jelly poured out.

At that moment, Dice’s body tensed, and he fled with a speed beyond human comprehension.

“What the heck! It’s way too fast! Agh!”

He avoided the incoming bullets and rockets, escaping the blast radius, and ran to an empty space.

In just 15 seconds, Dice managed to dodge all the attacks, running at a speed close to 70 km/h.

Of course, Harmonie, too, was feeling the same thing.

Around them, a hundred or so users, trying to touch their tails and steal Eugene’s power, were closing in from all directions.

Unlike most users, Dice’s mind screamed at him to snap back to reality and figure out a strategy. But, overwhelmed by the sensory flood, it was hard to think straight.

Gripping his pounding heart, Dice muttered to himself.

“What do I do, what do I do?”

Such overwhelming strength could drive anyone mad.

Dice and Harmonie were no exceptions.

The world was truly a strange place.