I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 498

"You're not going to the front lines again, are you? ...Why does everyone look like that?"

"...See? Everyone, open your wallets quickly! Give me 5 dollars each!"

"Dammit, I told you I sent the detailed data to the rookie! You said it wasn’t coming! But here the rookie is!"

Crash, boom.

The gate that I had forgotten to close, which had previously been a passageway for the Dagger Team to freely use my house, had now served its purpose. After returning from Hawaii, that door was used for its original purpose again, meaning it had become the opening for the mecha-monsters following me around to storm the base.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw multiple high-rise buildings. It was the familiar New York skyline, one that I could draw even with my eyes closed. This meant that the Dagger Team was still staying in New York—though, even knowing this, my steps remained swift.

Navigating through the unnecessary piles of clutter stacked between the hallways—of course, since Jin and Rain had knocked over the tower of objects, they had to start stacking it back up again— I entered the room where the Dagger Team was staying.

And we’re back to square one... but.

While I was away, I had no idea what had transpired, but they were now gambling with money, of all things.

"...So you even made a bet. You sure are living the good life."

"Stop talking nonsense and come here, rookie. I bet you came to check whether we’re heading out to the field or not, right? I’ll give you credit for not just jumping to conclusions based on the data, but actually coming here to confirm it."

"Wait."

At that moment, a voice continued from the side. It was Logan.

Lorentina—not the one I had just been shooting with in Hawaii, but the Lorentina in New York—paused for a moment, then, seeing Logan take a deep breath, gave me a small, knowing smile and shot a pulse in my direction.

The two senior operatives grabbed my arms, one on each side, and pulled me to a corner of the lounge. Logan sniffed my hair, while Lorentina analyzed the pulse results that she had sent through my body.

As I stood there confused, wondering what they were doing, the following words came.

"Your body smells like shark. There’s also a hint of sea breeze."

"Shark?"

"What should I call it? It’s not that you smell like a real shark, but more like... well, your scent? Something like that?"

"You read that?!"

In the meantime, Lorentina was analyzing the various components within my hair, reading the data.

When I glanced over, I saw a hologram... a globe. As it spun rapidly, X marks appeared over countless beaches on Earth. Then, I noticed some of the components: it turned out to be very fine volcanic dust floating in the air.

From a volcano.

And so, I realized the "shark" scent was because I had recently visited a volcanic island, and through countless minor data points, they figured out that my most recent location was Hawaii.

Meanwhile, Logan spoke up:

"Eugene, have you been with her even outside?"

"Well... it’s been a busy time."

"That’s beside the point. Why are there elements on your hair and clothes that resemble black powder? Have you been firing guns all day?"

"I guess there’s nothing I can hide from you two."

But why were they using the Icarus Gear for such detailed and even frightening analysis?

Anyway, just a few minutes ago, my plan of "I’ll tell them about the Hawaii trip later" was completely shattered. These two had interrogated me so thoroughly that I didn’t even have the chance to explain.

Thankfully, just as the Dagger Team was about to corner me, Jin and Rain, who had finished organizing outside, walked into the lounge.

"...Owner, why are you surrounded as soon as you arrive?"

"Perfect timing. Try to get these people back to their places—ugh, ugh!"

"Our rookie’s been avoiding us lately, and now they’re getting cuter."

"Ah, please stop tormenting Archetype."

It was complete chaos.

Fortunately, Jin’s mild request seemed to work, and the seniors, saying "Now that the Dagger Team is all here," finally returned to their places. As I watched them leave, I promised myself that next time, before coming here, I would definitely spritz some perfume to confuse these two operatives.

Within just a few minutes, I’d been given several cheek squeezes and head pats. Even with Jin and Rain around, I was still the rookie of the Dagger Team. I wasn’t even trying to be the center of attention, but somehow I always ended up monopolizing all their love.

It was maddening.

Setting that aside, a holographic operations map was projected onto the table, and between Dan Dae-ho and the other symbols, the Dagger Team was clearly not mixed in. Moreover, the majority of the mission's early stages would involve unmanned drones and UAVs being deployed from transport planes.

I had seen it briefly before, but as expected, the Dagger Team wasn’t planning to move until Savannah’s urban area was subdued. Furthermore, the only international airport in Savannah was going to be converted into a base, so they didn’t have the reason or resources to deploy right now.

Besides, analyzing Jin and Rain, and learning that the U.S. in this world had already begun preparing to produce remote-controlled humanoid robots for the Icarus strike teams, I felt somewhat relieved knowing that the Dagger Team wouldn’t get hurt in the battlefield.

But then, as the Dagger Team showed me the prototype...

"...Why does it have such feminine curves that look familiar?"

"Rather than changing the appearance, we just used the pre-designed body frame."

"Why do the facial features look similar to mine?"

"We didn’t change the face, we just..."

"Well, at least it doesn’t have a tail, thank goodness. Dammit."

The design of the prototype the Dagger Team showed me—though it wasn’t even in production yet—was a mess. It had a look that, if mass-produced, would probably drive me insane. I could tell that the Dagger Team already knew this, as they slid an electronic signature document in front of me.

It was a petition for me to officially oppose the design.

When I raised my thumb, the signature vanished into thin air, automatically sent to the higher-ups. If I hadn’t come here today, things could have really gone wrong.

"Who in the world approved this design?!"

"Who else? Cost issues, most likely."

"…"

"Well, there’s a bit more to it, but..."

I had mentioned it before, but the United States in this world... doesn’t have money. To be more precise, unlike in the past when it made money through trade or content production, there’s no real source of income anymore. They’ve just managed to catch their breath a little with reparations from China and Russia, slowly paying off their debts.

Now that the war is over, but in just about six short years, six out of seven Americans took the express train to heaven, there was an urgent need to supplement the workforce, or rather, to create humanoid robots to fill the gap. Thanks to Artemis' technological prowess, things had improved to some extent, but...

In the meantime, a few idiots had suggested that instead of redesigning the humanoid robots, they could just make them based on Jin and Rain, and change the appearance later—what nonsense.

And the Dagger Team said...

"Of course, the ones who said that all got their heads bashed in. Emperor Henry I of the Holy Imperial Federation had a good time pounding them and then kicked them out."

"Well, that's a relief."

The reason was equally ridiculous. It was a person to whom he had personally awarded the Medal of Honor, and he was yelling about how they were going to sell off the publicity rights and then just casually produce them—this outburst had apparently filled the HQ office in Central Park.

My chest was swelling... or rather, I was feeling petty. Thank you, President Henry...

Anyway, the events I just described were the ones that happened while I was briefly away. The world is truly strange.

"So when will the new design be ready?"

"Changing the design means the internal structure has to change too. The engineers are probably pulling their hair out. Not that it’s any of your business."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

In any case, thankfully, the conversation shifted in a different direction.

Not that there was much new information to be shared. Specifically, it was about the operation day, the situation in Savannah, or the recent happenings with the Dagger Team. As for the Dagger Team, other than the fact that they had gained some weight, nothing had changed.

It seemed that now that the world was becoming a bit more livable, gaining weight was as natural as the fact that 1 + 1 equals 2.

And that fact allowed me to relax.

"I'm glad they're all doing well."

"Well, 'doing well' is a stretch. We almost had humanoid robots that look like the rookie running around everywhere."

"Even if I hadn’t come, you would’ve stopped them with a petition bomb anyway."

"Would you leave them as they are?"

The sound of chuckling echoed from all around.

By now, the hologram on the table had been turned off, and the atmosphere became warm and cheerful.

The conversation continued.

"Since the rookie’s finally here, let’s take a break. Hope no one has a schedule coming up."

"Weren’t you all having fun before we got here?"

"For people like us, not having to go out on a mission is a blessing."

That was true.

Anyway, everyone went off somewhere to get wine and beer, and cups and glasses started appearing as the fridge in the lounge was opened and simple snacks were prepared.

I instinctively knew.

I wouldn’t be getting home anytime soon.

Before I knew it, two senior operatives who had taken my seat beside me cheerfully asked:

"So, are you going to tell us what happened in Hawaii?"

"...This isn’t an interrogation, is it?"

"It’s an interrogation with alcohol instead of confession, of course."

Ugh, really.

The world was truly a strange place.

It didn’t take long before the room was filled with the smell of alcohol.

"Finally, you've come up, Minah! Congratulations on making it onto the Asian qualifiers. You’ll be going to the U.S., right?"

"Mikael, long time no see! I was disappointed that we didn’t meet at KSM, but now I’ll finally get to see you in the main competition."

"After Dice, now there’s someone else we need to watch out for, it’s already terrifying..."

Somewhere in Seoul, at a banquet hall, while Eugene was spending a few days with the Dagger Team in another world’s New York.

Precisely 20 people, each dressed in business casual attire, wandered around, greeting familiar faces and offering kind words to newcomers or those they knew through others.

At first glance, they didn’t seem to have much in common, but if you looked at the bracelets they were wearing, with the words "Asian Qualifiers Korean National Team" written on them, you’d understand the reason.

"It’s only been two days since you returned from Hawaii, and now you’re here. I really can’t keep up with the speed at which the world’s turning."

"Where is this coming from all of a sudden?"

"Hehe."

Harmonie and Dice, more heavily made up than usual, were moving around the banquet hall like a whirlwind.

The Asian qualifiers selected players, ranking from 1st to 20th in the Korea Selection Match, had to attend the pre-briefing for the Asian qualifiers, which had been delayed by about 6 weeks compared to last year. As a result, these two had to show up here just two days after returning, still not fully adjusted to the time difference.

However, it was clear that their natural abilities were still intact—whether from their genetics or because the woman with a snake tail had modified them. The moment they made eye contact, Harmonie and Dice began shaking hands with the many people who greeted them.

In fact, half of the people walking around the banquet hall were already familiar faces.

"Mikael, Gambit, Ink, Blooming, Summit, Crossline, Corvus... Minah, you probably don’t know some of them, right?"

"I know the first three, but unfortunately... oh, I know Corvus. Isn’t that the person who gave Eugene the nickname ‘Axe Goddess’?"

"Ah, that..."

The Axe Goddess was certainly a powerful moniker, but when I thought about it, didn’t Dice also have her own time of joy when she was joking around in front of Eugene?

During a break between scrims for the Final Championship, she showed Eugene the tail avatar made by a fan, only to get hit in the head by a steel pipe in the next match and be ejected into the lobby.

Of course, Harmonie didn’t bring this up. She had also contributed her share of strange nicknames for Eugene, so bringing it up would only result in a chicken game.

In the meantime, Gambit, who had quietly approached, spoke next.

"But you guys... went all the way to Hawaii to practice with real guns. Everyone laughed about it. They said you went to Hawaii for reserve training."

"Well, kind of... but it’s a little different."

Dice, who had been chuckling, finally spoke up.

"The difference is that we received real training from Byam and can now hit targets at 1500 meters?"

"Cough."

It was both a disappointment and a funny contrast—this wasn’t the same as reserve training, which had turned into a meme. These two had actually received structured training from Byam.

Although Eugene never explained how to perform the scout role, in comparison to reality, the Dark Zone omitted many elements. Above all, in the virtual world, all users had the Icarus Gear that helped with real-time ballistic calculations.

Gambit, who had once wondered if we had any similar training, jokingly said:

"That’s terrifying. I hope I don’t get kidnapped by Eugene and end up in the military."

"...I’m already so anxious. I came back from the trip, and I’m being kept in the dark about when I’ll get a call, it’s driving me crazy."

"Wait, doesn’t that include us too?"

"Ah."

Thinking about it, I realized. The pre-briefing for the Asian qualifiers might have just been a trap set up by Byam, with twenty fresh recruits caught in the snare.

They likely had the same thought, and nothing really changed.

The world was still running as usual today.