I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 489

"Taaang!"

"...Hmm, it's the Utan. It doesn’t seem to be a problem with zeroing, wind speed, or direction; it’s really just improper aiming. Don’t be too discouraged. The breath between shots, scope alignment, the use of both eyes or just one, the cumulative recoil on your shoulder, and other factors like condition degradation could be contributing variables."

"Ugh, this is so hard…!"

Wow, the difficulty skyrocketed from 800m.
Summary: Do more aiming practice.
But sniping is tough; stabilizing the aim is harder than regular shooting, and breath control needs much more attention.
But how did Harmony and Dice manage to hit targets at 1550m? Are they insane?
Those two already have maxed-out aiming and breath control, hahahaha.
My eyes were throbbing, and my shoulder was aching.

After exhausting two full magazines of five rounds each, the target at 800 meters remained frustratingly clean. Not a single shot hit. I knew the reason, but as I sat in the chair to the left, Eugene looked like he knew it all too well, piercing straight to the point.

With my shoulder firmly braced against the M24 SWS sniper rifle. Before entering the Dark Zone, I had come to know this rifle through YouSpace or action films. But the reality was that when you're a beginner, no matter what tools you’re given, it all feels the same. Unfortunately, that statement was not wrong.

The sound of gunfire echoed around. Hotteok and Limit were also attempting long-range sniper shots with their rifles.

I sighed and, feeling like I would never hit the target, exhaled deeply, lowered my head, and hunched forward.

What a shame.

"Cease fire. Let’s take a break and regain some composure."

"Yeah, let’s do that."

Ugh.

Struggling to rise, I sat down on the soft case, and without a sound, an ion drink appeared right in front of me. But Eugene’s gaze was fixed on something resembling a tablet. In other words, it wasn’t something handed to me directly.

Beneath the scorching Hawaiian sun, the scales of the tail shimmered unusually brightly. The blue ion drink was wrapped around it. Instead of grabbing the drink, I absentmindedly poked the tail with my finger. What was it? It was cool to the touch. It felt unique, like pressing on a toothpaste tube.

Mina and... Yerin seem to lose their minds when they see a tail. Maybe there’s a reason for that...

I grabbed the ion drink, twisted the cap off, and gulped it down.

"Phew… Breathing control is so hard. My body keeps moving, and it feels like the reticle is shifting too."

"That’s the hardest part. You’d need to practice for months, focusing solely on shooting, to have it ingrained in your muscle memory. Mina and Yerin managed it, which is why their groupings are so clean."

"...What exactly did you make those two into?"

"Hahaha."

What else could it be but a beast, hahaha.
Eugene School’s first batch has already taken over the world...
How many times have I been asked that question? Hahaha.
Probably until Biyam quits streaming and enjoys life, haha.
Mina not participating in the streamer competition was all because of Eugene.

Just last year... well, it all started with picking a specific game mode and calling over several Dark Zone streamers for a competition. That’s what the streamer competition was. Naturally, the skill levels varied, but even at their best, it was just the level of professional gamers.

But starting from a year ago, things started to feel unusual. Now, Harmony had risen to a level unreachable by most. What kind of streamer can get 4th place in the final championship – really 2nd place – with a 30% chance of winning?

Anyway, as I grumbled, Eugene continued to adjust the scope, making two hand gestures and then pointed at the camera with his finger.

To interpret this:

"Broadcasting not possible. Sensitive data. Do not speak of it. Blurring function activated. No questions allowed."

That was a relief.

I didn’t know what he was planning, but it looked like he was going to try something, so I nodded. Eugene finally spoke.

"Check the scope again. Look carefully, and let me know when the red dot lights up in the upper right."

"Uh… Yes, I see it."

"The red dot indicates that the scope’s reticle is perfectly aligned for shooting. When it blinks, that’s when you should fire."

"Aha."

It would’ve been nice if you had told me earlier.

Hearing my grumble, Eugene chuckled and casually brushed it off, then pulled something out of his pocket. I turned to see it was a patch, somewhat resembling an aqua pad, with a small chip or sensor inside.

Meanwhile, I glanced sideways. The blue light from the drone cam was blinking. This meant visual and auditory data was being monitored.

Then came the somewhat surprising words.

"Place this patch on the spot closest to your heart. The neck area is fine too."

"...What’s this?"

"It’s a heart rate sensor. It will sync with the scope and indicate the perfect moment between heartbeats to fire. When the green light appears next to the red one, you should shoot."

"Aha... there’s really everything, huh."

Of course, the moment I finished hearing that, the sensoring kicked in.

I quickly turned halfway and concealed the patch placement, then resumed aiming. Once I carefully adjusted the scope and repeated breathing in and out, the red dot began to blink, followed by the green light at regular intervals.

This is really cool.

Thanks to the two lights, I quickly began to grasp what I needed to do. Eugene handed me a new magazine, and after loading it and moving forward, the chamber was loaded with one round, and the magazine had four more.

"Let’s keep shooting. We have plenty of ammo."

Bang, bang, bang!

Each shot added a bit to my skill. I didn’t hit the target directly, but gradually... the trajectory of the bullets became more consistent. Although the wind speed and direction changed slightly in between, it was still better than before when I couldn’t even predict anything.

Like a sculptor with a chisel and mallet, slowly but surely, I began to shape the groupings.

After about 20 shots total—

Kang!

"...Whoa!"

"Impact. Well done."

Wow, hahaha
What did Eugene do? Suddenly, he’s amazing at this??
"Threat"
What the heck is going on here? Hahaha
One shot.

It wasn’t perfectly centered but was on the right side, with a slight deviation. Still, at 800m, it counted.

The crisp Kang! sound rang out, and the distant metal target shook. The moment that sound hit my ears, all the fatigue seemed to vanish, and a smile formed on my face without me realizing.

Meanwhile, the next words came.

"Want to shoot more?"

And of course, the answer was already clear.

"...No. I don’t think sniping is for me."

I’m done. This is too hard.

Boom!

"Heheheh..."

"...Is Kim Stone crazy?"

"I don’t know. Maybe he lost his mind while sniping."

After a few minutes, Kim Stone found the rifle that suited him the best.

It was Autumn.

"Ugh, my shoulder still hurts."

"Did everyone have fun?"

"...It was pretty impressive."

The night in Hawaii was dark but bright.

Not long ago, Harmony, Dice, and Lorentina had been the only ones in the group, but now, three more had joined. Seven of us walked the streets of Hawaii. It was a rather chaotic ratio, with 5 women and 2 men, but Limit and Hotteok didn’t seem to mind much.

Anyway, this would likely be the last shooting for the day—though I wasn’t sure. The people here had probably each fired at least one of the guns I bought or borrowed. Even Harmony, Dice, and Kim Stone had shot the mini-gun, M2, and KPV.

Thankfully, using the low tripod made recoil manageable for everyone. If the recoil had been worse, I would’ve had to consider how to control it, but it all ended smoothly.

Of course, holding and shooting the guns was a whole different story.

Reflecting on a few hours ago...

Boom!

Wow, my arm… that was much harder than the mini-gun.
It’s a 14.5mm round, shooting 10 rounds per second. Luckily, it's not impossible to control the recoil. Other people would struggle just lifting it, but Hotteok can be proud.
Not something you'd want to hear from someone firing an NTW-20.
Well, it wasn't too bad.

At any rate, shooting a large-caliber machine gun was impossible for non-manifesters. Hotteok couldn’t form a meaningful group of shots due to the gun’s weight and recoil.

On the other hand, Lorentina and I could handle the firearms without much trouble.

Maybe if we brought an Oricon 20mm autocannon, it would be more challenging, but that’s something for another time. Shooting was almost done for today, so it was time to enjoy Hawaii.

However, despite that, hearing the feedback from others was quite enjoyable.

"I'm glad we finished the NTW-20 shooting without too many problems. Does anyone’s shoulder hurt?"

"I do."

"Mine hurts too."

"Massage, please."

"Last... ahh, screw it."

Who’s last?

Anyway, as expected, since the guns were made for people to shoot, Harmony, Dice, and Kim Stone all shot the Snipex Alligator and the South African "big lady" with no problems.

By now, the employees of Firearms International must’ve been loading massive gun cabinets into countless trucks and heading back. Of course, they couldn’t take them back to Korea, so we negotiated to leave them in the gun shop.

Specifically, the agreement was that I could rent out the guns I bought to other customers for a small commission. Of course, the cleaning was handled by the shop employees. It was a decent win-win trade.

Anyway, aside from that, tonight was not much different from a few days ago when we walked the streets of Hawaii. I guess there were a few changes.

The first difference was that I had preemptively mentioned on the broadcast that it would be tough to give autographs. Given that the recent content involved shooting machine guns... Unless someone had guts, they probably wouldn’t ask for an autograph openly. They must’ve been nervous.

The second difference was...

"Hello! I’ve been watching your broadcasts for a long time. I was really impressed by your recent shooting training. Would you consider visiting our base to work as a tactical instructor for a day or two?"

"Ah, that’s a bit difficult. Sorry."

...These types of requests had been increasing.

Since I was on vacation, I had been ignoring most important messages, except for a few things, and hadn’t been reading donations either.

Anyway, these kinds of requests had been coming in more frequently, and when I turned to Lorentina for help, she was... nowhere to be seen. She had this incredible ability to make herself almost invisible.

I sighed softly. Thankfully, I had a reservation at an outdoor restaurant, and I planned to head there. Hopefully, I could shake off some people.

The restaurant was about a 10-minute walk away, and I had about 40 minutes before the reservation, so I needed to find something to do until then.

Luckily, there were many hotels nearby, and some even had hula performances in their internal theaters. I didn’t even have to go inside anywhere to kill time.

If that didn’t work, walking around the city wasn’t a bad option either, although it was inevitable there would be a lot of people around, which could cause some trouble.

However, in the meantime, I witnessed an interesting sight.

"Come on, everyone! Challenge yourselves! The entry fee is only $1! But if you beat any of the 5 competitors here, you get the entire $726 we’ve collected!"

Street arm wrestling.

At a glance, these were large, muscular guys welcoming guests. They were filming the event live. Among them were some with unique tattoos, probably one of them was from Samoa.

I vaguely remembered seeing this kind of action movie somewhere before—probably with Dwayne Johnson. In that case, the guy could very well be Samoan.

Hawaii and Samoa don’t share much besides being island nations, but, well, it wasn’t something worth dismissing.

Anyway, strength versus strength always stirs something deep inside, and I quietly walked behind Hotteok and said,

"Want to give it a try?"

"...If it weren’t for the ‘Manifesters only up to E1’ sign, I’d have jumped in. Too bad."

"Ah."

Well, that was that.

But just as I was about to speak, Lorentina, who had silently approached, chuckled and added:

"It’s impossible for a manifester to arm wrestle with a non-manifester, but there’s no problem if two manifesters go head-to-head."

"Excuse me?"

"It looks like they’re filming it, so if we cooperate with the filming, there shouldn’t be any issue asking to borrow the venue, right?"

A brief moment of confusion.

But when I quickly interpreted Lorentina's words, it became clear—she wanted to challenge someone to an arm wrestling match. She must have been planning this from the start.

Before anyone, including me or the group, could say anything, Lorentina walked confidently toward the big, muscular competitors. She added a few words, and then her gaze returned toward me.

At the same time, applause erupted, and she waved her hand, signaling me over.

The crowd, which had already gathered, now had nearly a hundred people preparing to watch the match of a lifetime. I gave a wry smile and added:

"...You really know how to make things happen."

"Don’t worry, I’ve already calculated the risks and returns. Shall we place a bet for fun?"

"Let’s win first and then think about it."

"...Heh."

Lorentina’s competitive spirit flared up.

But we were in front of a huge crowd. I, too, wasn’t about to lose easily, so I placed my right arm on the sturdy table and gripped Lorentina’s hand.

The arm wrestling ring was fully equipped, with elbow supports and magnesium powder.

The surrounding noise faded as the focus sharpened. The countdown began, and I noticed Dice and Harmony watching with ambiguous expressions—not in anticipation or support, but with the feeling that “someone’s about to break something again...”

I didn’t realize then that their expressions were filled with that particular meaning... until the moment—

Crack!

"Ugh...!"

"Whoa!"

The metal table literally crumpled from the inside.

It looked like someone had pressed down on the table with a hydraulic press. Naturally, the part where my elbow was fixed under the table began to bend, and in less than five seconds, the table collapsed.

The top of the table bent in a V-shape, and the four legs, which had supported the table, bent into a ">" shape. The destruction was instantaneous.

As I got up, brushing off the table’s debris, I saw two EM-level manifesters awkwardly stand up, and the crowd of around 100 was frozen in shock.

The world was indeed a strange place, and Dice, Harmony, and Hotteok’s group realized it in that moment.

The night in Hawaii was deepening.