I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 578

“…Ah, hello. Is this Kato? I don’t think we’ve met in real life before…”

“Nice to meet you. As you said… this is our first time meeting in person. But I must say, you three seem quite familiar with me.”

“Haha, I can’t deny that.”

December 2, 8:00 AM, Incheon International Airport.

Breath visible in the cold air, and the darkness gradually lifting from the sky, three men and one woman gathered in the lounge of Incheon Airport. On the phone screen, there was a first-class flight ticket to Toronto, departing around 10 AM.

For the four of them, the atmosphere was calm and quiet. If someone knew how wildly active they were in the Dark Zone and other virtual realities, it would have been a shocking sight, but fortunately, the first-class lounge was nearly empty except for them.

The ones setting the mood today were, of course, the men. Each of them had a distinct personality, so despite it being their first time meeting, the mood remained warm and friendly.

And the conversation began with Hotteok leading the way.

“…Hey, you, are you not going to eat the in-flight meal later?”

“What are you talking about? I have my own space for meals. A few cup noodles and about three chicken breasts should be enough for snacks.”

“You’re really something… Well, I guess there’s no point in telling someone who eats as much as Eugene does.”

For Kato, this was truly a new world.

He wasn’t unaware of this fact. Back when Eugene had a housewarming party, Hotteok had been invited too, and the overwhelming food show that Hotteok put on back then was deeply imprinted in Kato's mind, along with the minds of millions of others.

But seeing it in person was a completely different experience. Kato found himself staring in disbelief at the mountain of food containers left behind by the brawny White Tiger-like manifestation of Eugene.

And that wasn’t even the end of it. The world of manifesters was truly amazing.

“It’s impressive seeing it in person. I wonder if Eugene would eat like that in real life.”

“Now that you mention it, Kato, have you never met him in person? That’s actually pretty remarkable in many ways.”

“There was an opportunity in Hawaii, but I chickened out…”

“Ahh.”

Fear couldn’t be helped.

But even as he thought that, the conversation didn’t stop. The reason they gathered here today was to shake off the awkwardness they all felt.

As expected, being a streamer—except in some special cases—was one of the most socially demanding jobs, and the distance between Kato and the three men quickly shrank.

“By the way, out of all of us here… not a single one uses a male avatar. Is this intentional, or is this just weird?”

“Hey, there’s a lot more going on behind that than you think.”

“Stop talking nonsense. You made that... creepy avatar after getting a million-won mission. That was two years ago!”

“Well, if my avatar is creepy, what about yours, Hotteok!?”

Hotteok.

His avatar was a White Tiger woman with breasts bigger than her head.

Despite the teasing, Hotteok didn’t seem to care one bit. Instead, he wore a proud expression. Kato rolled his eyes and glanced at him to figure out what was going on, and the reason became clear in no time.

“What’s this? Now you’re picking on my avatar? You’ll get a workout from me.”

“Hah, no, I’m sorry. Your avatar is the best.”

“...So if you have overwhelming strength, you can be that confident, huh? I’m learning something good today. Maybe I should start performing a ritual to become Biyam from today.”

“Oh, I’m going to become Biyam first, so you better get in line.”

Why were people so obsessed with Biyam?

For a moment, the thought crossed Kato’s mind, but he couldn’t entirely dismiss it. After all, she had once been taught by Eugene, and the determination, intelligence, and rationality she had experienced back then had left a deep impression on her.

But even as she thought that, the topic of conversation quickly shifted, and soon enough, it was about why such a topic had suddenly come up.

“So, why the sudden question?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just browsing the internet recently and saw a fan-made item based on you, Kato, on the creation market. I guess male avatars need to use female ones to sell better.”

“...What do you mean by selling ‘better’?”

“You haven’t been to the creation market at all? It’s insane. You don’t even know how well your package is selling, huh?”

“Is that a face that doesn’t know?”

As she said that, Kato turned his head slightly, and as soon as he glanced at the person in question, the surprised expression on their face was obvious. Kato quickly realized that this was something he hadn’t expected. As all three of them stared at her, she shook her head and added:

“Ah, you guys just check it out! You can access it from here!”

“Fine, fine… wait, why is this actually real?”

“Kato, did you do some promotion or something? It’s ranked third in the creation market sales right now.”

“No, really? That’s just something I made quickly because fans asked for it a long time ago!”

“That's why everyone is surprised. At this rate, you’ll probably end up appearing somewhere in the game like Eugene.”

Kato’s eyes widened like lamps, but he instinctively realized that this could indeed be true.

Fundamentally, Dark Zone was different from other games like Terra in that it had very few NPCs, and even if they existed, they didn’t play a major role in the story. This meant there was almost no interaction between users and NPCs, and cutscenes followed this same idea.

This was the main difference between Dark Zone and Terra, where numerous NPCs existed and interacted with the main characters, advancing the storyline. In Dark Zone, the users’ actions themselves were the main story.

And then came the thought:

“A user appearing in the game… Could I experience that?”

Sometimes, users got involved in the main story, creating new developments that led to larger ripples. Eugene was the biggest proof of this, but it was undeniable that this had happened before to some extent.

Originally, Dark Zone was supposed to be focused primarily on PVP, but PVE still held a significant portion of the game, and that was largely because of this phenomenon.

But that aside, Kato’s face was burning with embarrassment. His own avatar was a bit, well, unique. It resembled a pop idol with sky-blue and pink hair, complete with butterfly-shaped brooches placed all over her body.

The idea of such an avatar appearing in the game was dizzying.

While Kato was at a loss for what to do, the conversation continued.

“Funny thing is, if you appear in the game, I’d imagine you’d be like a singer-songwriter from the U.S.”

“Limit, you should go too. I think you’d be fun as a duo group.”

“Does it really work like that?”

“...Wait, you were actually thinking of doing that?”

“They must have woken up early, so now they’re losing it. Anyway, let’s get ready.”

With that, all four of them stood up, cleaned the area, returned their dishes, and threw the trash into the trash can.

While walking down the stairs toward their designated gate, Kato muttered to himself.

“Right, so a few days ago, Ikarus asked me if I was interested in collaborating on avatars or even product creation.”

“Ah, really? Congratulations. Since you have the chance, why not go for it?”

“I guess I should. But when I saw the drafts, they were a bit bolder than what I made before... I’m okay with it, though.”

Kato snapped his fingers, and at that moment, a window appeared in mid-air.

It was the kind of email they had seen before. But as they checked the product creation examples below, Limit, Hotteok, and Kimsstone’s expressions twisted in many ways—half-naked Kato’s female avatar lying on a bed, and an unnecessarily well-made music video.

A bit of time passed before Kimsstone spoke up.

“I never thought that girl group thing would actually come out.”

“Won’t it be sold in that Dark Zone Town thing Eugene mentioned?”

“Ikarus people are crazy... Sometimes, they really seem insane.”

“Well, if Kato likes it, that’s all that matters, right?”

No one could answer.

The world was indeed a bizarre place.

“No, wow, this is just too much!”

“Isn’t this a horror game, Lorenatina?!”

“Oh, you’ve still got some energy left? You can even cry now.”

“Hah, sorry…”

Meanwhile, in America, Lorenatina was participating in the AP for the first time.

“Attempting to collapse the entire building using abandoned ammonium nitrate fertilizer was a good idea. But the movements are too obvious. I understand why you’re trying to lure them here, but you should have paid more attention to the details.”

“...Are you seriously teaching my students while on vacation?”

“It’s just job ethics. Don’t mind me.”

Dice and Harmony, getting battered.

Until now, I had explained this from the perspective of the person involved, but the second day of the journey for the Final Championship began with an AP mock battle. Lorenatina had barged in, and the result was as we had just seen.

Of course, I had expected this. Unlike me or Logan, whose play styles were already well known, Lorenatina primarily focused on stealth play. We hadn’t seen it much yet because most of the missions and raids we’d done didn’t show that aspect.

Well, it makes sense that stealth would fit the special forces image better than charging in like a polar bear. In any case, from my disciples’ perspective, it was completely unknown territory.

After being thoroughly beaten, my two disciples returned with difficulty and woke up in reality, still lying on the bed.

They didn’t get up right away. Instead, they squirmed on the bed, throwing a tantrum.

“Agh. I thought I was fighting a ghost…”

“You’re beating them too harshly, Lorenatina.”

“Fighting a ghost, huh? I suppose you could say it like that. Interesting.”

Though Dice and Harmony seemed to have been quite shaken, I didn’t have to worry about it. The reason I was thinking this was because, before I could say anything, Lorenatina had already logged them back in and hit restart.

It seemed like today Lorenatina had decided to teach all five members of the national team, including Harmony and Dice, but I wasn’t involved today, so I wasn’t concerned.

As I continued watching the stream, which was being broadcast exclusively to participants in the Final Championship, I noticed that, unlike usual, the competitors’ time was fixed at 1x speed during the preparation period. Thanks to that, I could easily follow along without having to log into virtual reality.

It seemed like this had caught Olivia’s interest.

“Should I join next time?”

“...You’re not planning to just beat up my students, are you?”

“Would I really do that? I’m not sure what I’d even teach them if I went. Things like TACP wouldn’t even be used in the main event, and the sharks and polar bears probably know more about combat tactics than me…”

“Well, does it really matter? If you want to do it, then go ahead. My kids haven’t grown so smoothly that they couldn’t learn anything from you.”

When Olivia said that, her expression blossomed with a smile. Not only that, but she got up and started doing warm-up exercises.

I had been holding back, but it seemed she wanted to get involved. It made me feel a bit more at ease, so I found myself in a semi-meditative state, thinking to myself, ‘Let them handle it.’

Much like yesterday, Kissinger entered the room with an even more casual outfit, and he sat down in a chair.

“Hm. Can I join in too? I’ve been working in a place that’s always short-handed, so I thought I’d hand out some business cards. Do these kids know how to do J-turns?”

“...Don’t talk nonsense. Go back before my students get scared.”

“Geez, that’s harsh. I didn’t think I had a scary face.”

“That’s not it… They’d be shocked if they saw you! How did you even get in here!?”

“There are ways.”

I didn’t even need to say it. It was probably one of the many infiltration techniques he had learned in the Secret Service. Technically, that wasn’t the kind of place where they trained, but still.

Fortunately or unfortunately, he was just here for a local report and information gathering, so he left quickly. I’d probably be seeing more of him before dinner with Henry, but maybe it was better just to introduce them to each other.

As I watched Kissinger leave, the door opened again, and the three familiar Mecha Monnans, who had been enthusiastically trained by me the previous day, quietly entered, making eye contact with me.

I had told them they could walk around freely in Dark Zone Town, so instead of wondering why they were here, I first wondered what they had been doing while we were here.

“Master, play a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors with us.”

“...What an odd request. Sure.”

Round one, two, three…

But from the second round, it didn’t feel like normal rock-paper-scissors. Specifically, the reaction time felt much faster. By the third round, it started to slow down, and by the sixth round, the difficulty seemed much more manageable.

It didn’t seem like we were just playing a game. It felt more like some kind of coordination exercise. As I thought this, the phone screen was handed to me, and an explanation followed.

“Ikarus asked for a little event. The person who wins rock-paper-scissors gets a coupon for the game. I’ll probably be running around outside, hiding all day.”

“...I didn’t think I’d be hearing this, but I guess you people do all sorts of weird things.”

“Hehe. I’ll have fun. I’ll be back soon.”

I looked at Rain, who spoke with that smile, patted the three of their heads, and laughed.

“Alright. Have fun.”

I wondered if this was something my parents asked for, or if it was just random. But I knew one thing for sure: it didn’t matter.

It seemed like this Final Championship would be quite enjoyable even before it started.

“That said, I didn’t expect them to be so loud.”

“What can you do?”

After sending the Mecha Biyams out, I looked out the window and let out a helpless laugh at the sight of a crowd of a hundred or more people.

I thought this would happen