I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 616

"Why does your expression look so deadpan again, Iris?"

"Ah, Teacher..."

"It seems like someone caught you using your tail. I thought so."

"Well... when the EMP grenade rolled towards me earlier, I accidentally grabbed it with my tail without realizing it. I think Sonia saw me do that."

"Is she someone you can trust?"

"Uh..."

She was caught so quickly—those words almost slipped out of my mouth.

Since it was a private communication, there was no concern about anyone else overhearing our conversation, and from checking the bait in the chat room with around 450,000 people, it seemed Sonia was still keeping quiet about it.

But how long could she stay quiet, I wondered. Glancing over, I suspected that her silence was probably the peak of her patience.

At this moment, when focus was crucial for each person, being distracted by other thoughts could be quite problematic. It would probably be better to address the issue and resolve the doubts now.

After that thought, I said—

"...Well, it's a little embarrassing."

"Do you really want to get hit?"

In just a week, a very feminine, tail-waving, twisted character was born.

Anyway, whether this was due to the hidden feminine side of this person being revealed after the TS transformation, or if it was because their mind was catching up with their body, wasn't all that important. The issue was that Sonia couldn't focus on the combat.

Besides, when I briefly spoke with the editor before the broadcast, I heard that I had actually prepared to reveal this fact in advance today.

And the result?

"...I-I’ll reveal it, but please don’t look at me so intensely. It’s overwhelming."

"You don’t need to tell everyone. Just tell the one who’s not focusing right now. Once this mission ends, we’ll see how things go. A few days ago, Dice and Harmonie also proudly revealed their identities… just kidding, their cases are different."

"Yeah... there aren't many cases where someone changes this dramatically in history. The only two cases where someone changed their gender happened in an incident at the end of June."

"You’ve been through a lot."

And so, Iris fluttered her tail and quietly approached Sonia.

It didn’t seem like she was avoiding it, so she probably wasn’t opposed to it, but the likelihood was that she was genuinely embarrassed. That seemed likely. The change was so unique and dramatic after all.

Iris communicated secretly with her, as if no one noticed—

???!

It was as if she had been electrocuted, Sonia almost leaping out of her seat.

What should I say... I wondered if this felt something like when Archimedes shouted "Eureka." Of course, I would never know. In any case, she covered her mouth with her hands, trying as hard as she could to stop any scream from slipping out.

Since we were on our way to the next combat location, I wasn’t too focused on it, and Iris came up beside me and added:

"I thought it would be hard to say, but this is way more fun than I thought!"

"Yeah, well done. With this, we’ve overcome another hurdle… Ah, without thinking, I just patted your head like I do with Harmonie or Dice. Was that not okay?"

"...Actually, that feels way stranger than earlier. What should I say? I never thought I’d be the one being petted."

"..."

Maybe I'm leading her to... what’s that word... ‘female corruption’? Maybe that's what's happening here.

I pushed that ominous thought aside, and we climbed the spiral stairs that connected the underground and ground level to enter the courtyard. Naturally, everything around us was tightly guarded, and there were countless turrets already in operation.

At that moment, another memory passed through my mind.

'...The other assault teams had set up a ton of booby traps in advance, lured the enemies by drawing aggro, then blew them up and wiped them out, breaking through at one point.'

It was quite a decent strategy.

Especially when considering that once aggro is drawn, enemies would infinitely spawn at set intervals from surrounding buildings, making it even more effective. Unfortunately, our numbers were too small.

I reviewed what we had to do. The objective was surprisingly simple. We just needed to wipe out the enemies guarding the turrets and then alter the algorithm to target the enemies as shooting targets.

If that didn't happen, the combat here would continue endlessly...

Thud.

"Huh?"

"We’ll lead the way. The remaining three, if you have stealth drones, please use them to tag the enemies around us."

"Ugh, it feels like we’re being carried by the god right now..."

"Now that you mention it, that’s not wrong. If so, how about I control the stealth drones, and you guys try using them?"

"Uh, well..."

Seconds ticked by—

"I-I’ll do it!"

"Me too!"

"Wh-what's going on? Is it weird if I don’t do it?"

"Hehe, if you fail, we’ll step in. Don’t worry, just go for it."

With a somewhat confused expression on Iris’s face, I took the stealth drone.

I connected the drone to the tablet and activated it. The drone floated slowly in the air, its propellers spinning very slowly, making it almost invisible to anyone outside.

About three minutes later, the drone, now fully blended with the darkness, began observing a plaza in front of the UN General Assembly. There appeared to be about one company of enemies nearby.

The ping for movement was coming in well, so the connection seemed fine.

"Everyone, focus on the comms and carefully observe where the pings are. As long as you listen to me, you won’t die. Probably."

"Probably!?"

"Even if we die, we’ll just wipe out the nearby enemies and revive. Don’t worry if we fail, just go ahead and try."

"...Is our god actually Ares?"

"I think it’s more terrifying that you, Evelyn, are saying that so boldly."

Of course, there wasn’t time to talk further, and the three of us began moving forward.

Considering turret firing angles, rotation speeds, the positions of mini-gunners, and detection ranges of the sensors, I continuously pinged and gave real-time orders through the comms.

Even so, since we couldn’t move all three at once, only Salus could reach the position to control the turret.

After hearing the occasional rattling sounds from inside the building, and not long after, a shared vision showed Salus successfully taking control of the building and hijacking the turrets.

Now, we just needed to hijack the last one, and then synchronize our shooting to wipe out the nearby enemies—then something unusual caught my eye.

I might have misseen it, but through a brief window in the display, I saw someone lifting a rocket launcher, aiming it—

"…Damn it, Salus. Get out of there now!"

"Eh—"

???KABOOM!

The fight began immediately.

But due to the overwhelming difference in numbers, there was little we could do, and the friends outside fell one by one, shouting their last words before collapsing onto the concrete or asphalt.

It couldn’t be helped. It was time for me to take matters into my own hands.

Although I had died, I could still hear my voice, so I activated the automatic scan feature on the tablet-connected drone and pulled out a tomahawk from my pocket.

As Iris’s expression strangely changed behind me, I added:

"My mistake. Let’s agree that we’ll wipe out those friends outside in exchange for your lives."

"...Shall I take the lead?"

"You know well. Hold the ballistic shield and move forward."

In that moment, the assault troops rushed in.

As their bodies collided, 14.5mm rounds cut through the air, and three enemies dropped on the spot like cut dolls.

Confirming that the declaration of war had been successfully delivered, Iris and I—well, mostly I—began crushing everything in sight.

Five minutes before the plaza in front of the building was bathed in silence.

"I want to touch Iris’s tail..."

"Hey, Sonia. You’re RP’ing out."

"Wh-what are you talking about? I’m not!"

-Fact: It’s already been heard -Why so sudden, haha -It’s just an avatar, she’ll let you touch it -The tail is more attractive than the soul-crafted avatar -Iris went full female mode today, must’ve been that -No, don’t use that word, it reminds me of the red pill

Sonia’s inner thoughts slipped out.

After a long battle, she was half-dazed, but she had to keep it together. If she wasn’t careful, the shocking truth she had heard earlier might slip from her mouth.

Someday—rather, very soon—it would be revealed. But for now, it was only Sonia who knew the truth: Iris’s real form had become identical to her avatar.

Perhaps this could be the highlight of today’s broadcast. Well, it wasn’t so much a highlight as it was a truth only the person involved could share, but regardless, it couldn’t come from anyone else.

Shocked by the forced red pill—or rather, blue pill—Sonia regained her senses slightly and discreetly scanned her surroundings.

The hardest mission in the UN Assembly was quietly wrapping up, with Evelyn and Salus looking half-dazed. They had gone off the rails in a different way.

The number of viewers for Eugene alone had surpassed 1.15 million. Given that the maximum number of viewers usually topped out around 15,000 when the three of them gathered and talked—though that was already a lot—it was an absurd number.

Because of this, most of the people there became even more focused on the battle, and the backlash was already coming.

But...

'...It looks like there’s no intention to hide this at all, huh?'

Whether she thought no one would notice, or if she was just losing her mind.

Though they were still relatively far away, Iris, without going beyond the range of sight, was subtly wrapping her tail around Eugene's arm, laughing joyfully.

What should I say? It almost seemed unnecessarily sacred. Since the avatar itself was created based on that motif, it made sense, but...

'Does this mean her behavior changes this much after TS? She’s even more feminine than I am.'

Of course, everyone gathered here from Stella Universe’s third cohort was female.

With the popularization of holographic idols and the ability to set one's voice separately through a voice mixer for use in virtual reality, gender boundaries became blurry, and it became easy to deceive one’s gender.

For this reason, holographic idols debuting under known agencies had to have the same gender in both their avatar and real form. The so-called red pill, or when the real identity is revealed, would be a disaster.

On the other hand, holographic idols working independently without being tied to any agencies were not bound by such rules, so Iris had debuted with everyone already knowing who she was in real life.

And then—

"What are you looking at, Sonia?"

"Ughhh!"

"Mom! What’s going on? Why are you so surprised? Were you secretly watching something naughty? You turned off the first-person cam, right? The viewers don’t know what they saw, so don't worry."

-Why are you so surprised, haha -What are you watching, haha -Been zoning out from the start, haha -Usually, it’s Evelyn zoning out, but today Sonia’s the one freaking out -What was she watching, probably watching something naughty, haha

Thankfully, Sonia thought, "It seems like I wasn’t noticed."

She sighed deeply and regained her calm, while the rest of her peers continued talking on their own.

"I’m jealous, so jealous… What was Iris’s setting again? The Substitute of Ouroboros or something?"

"It’s totally legal fan service. Well, we’re kind of doing it semi-legally today, aren’t we?"

"That’s true. Anyway, you were secretly watching, right? I can’t help but be startled when you suddenly tap my shoulder."

"Right, right. Bad things are always done secretly. If you get caught, of course you’re shocked."

But even so, the sense of déjà vu didn’t disappear from the conversation.

And, as expected, someone opened their mouth first. When they heard the content, Sonia realized that maybe a woman’s intuition was even sharper than she thought.

"Is Iris acting strange today? Something’s off about her."

"Yeah, yeah. But, I’m just understanding it. From an RP perspective, or even just from a general view, our employer and god personally showed up, right? I’m holding back my fan girl feelings right now, you know?"

"Yeah, probably. So, should the two of us join the audience? The front row seats are mine."

"Watching is fine anywhere, but don’t relax yet. We’ve got several missions ahead."

-This is a collab stream? Haha -This feels more like a fanmeeting review, haha -Summary: Jealous of Iris -They know Iris is pulling off those female moves, haha

Meanwhile, heavy footsteps were heard from far away.

It seemed like Eugene and Iris, who had been chatting, returned to their original spots and greeted the three of them. Iris was sticking by Eugene's side like a personal secretary, and Eugene, not particularly concerned, spoke.

"The first mission ended smoothly. There were a few tough spots, but you all have the basic skills to make it possible."

"Ah, all thanks to the god."

"Right, right."

"...I won’t mention that strange nickname, as it’s a headache. Anyway, since I don’t know exactly how much stamina you all have, we’ll take a 15-minute break and then move on to the next mission. No problem, right?"

"Yeah... huh? Eh?"

"Ugh."

"...?"

Suddenly, strange sounds echoed. It was something like when you see something you shouldn’t, or when you witness a strange scene.

Since neither Eugene nor Iris knew what was happening at first, they looked around, and the answer came soon.

Iris’s white tail was gently swirling around Eugene’s waist.

Naturally, two of the three members of the third cohort had tails, but those were part of the avatars. They could only perform repetitive movements, with no bullet hit detection and no physics engine applied. If you wanted to see that kind of thing, emotional expression and interaction were necessary.

However, Iris’s tail was about to wrap around Eugene’s waist carefully, and as soon as Eugene noticed, it stopped moving and was pulled back from behind his back.

It was an instinct Iris herself didn’t even realize.

Watching the situation, Sonia couldn’t help but say something.

"...Iris. Isn’t it time to just openly admit it?"

Although Iris didn’t intend to do so, as it turned out, she was right.

The broadcast was about to burst out just 20 seconds later.