“Sigh.”

 

Long mint-colored hair flowed down her back, and her cat ears perked up.

 

The fierce winter wind whipped the breath streaming out of her mouth like a waterfall.

 

Even as her breath playfully tickled her hair before disappearing behind her, a somewhat naive-looking figure carefully handled a laptop.

 

“It’s summer in reality, but it’s winter here. Luckily, it’s not really cold….”

 

A girl who looked more like a small cat than a person seemed to be talking to someone invisible.

 

She constantly moved her fingers, staring intently at the laptop.

 

However, despite her tactical appearance, there was a slight difference in reality.

 

­Avatar Soondoon really ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

­Is this a high school girl with military service? Is this a high school girl with military service? Is this a high school girl with military service? Is this a high school girl with military service?

 

­Dark Cretes who prayed for rain 30 times a day are now crying and giving a standing ovation ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

­Character creation, let’s gooooooooooo

 

Customizing and setting up characters, creating them.

 

The actions that seemed sophisticated were actually just one of the random motions during character creation.

 

Even so, the beginning of a game with the concept of activating an agent ID was particularly well-received in the virtual reality FPS game, Dark Zone.

 

Regardless, the chat window that was floating in one corner of her vision was truly moved.

 

<IsThisADreamOrReality님이 1,000원 후원!>

 

­Thank you… thank you… I can finally rest in peace… Is Harmony a god?

 

Glancing at it, she left a thank you message as always.

 

“Thank you for the donation, IsThisADreamOrReality. Many of my acquaintances recommended this game. Also, as a variety game streamer, I thought I should try FPS games… Anyway, yeah.”

 

She carefully adjusted the sliders.

 

Aim correction, recoil correction, damage correction, health correction, action correction. The five sliders that controlled the game’s overall difficulty.

 

Despite all of them staying below 90%, the chat window was as volatile as ever.

 

Harmony glanced at it sideways without showing any expression.

 

But there was one unbearable word among them.

 

Feeling as if a red button hidden deep in her heart had been pressed, she snapped.

 

“…Ugh, wait a minute. Hey! You guys said it’s hard even if I pull all the sliders to full, so why are you calling me a super coward!”

 

The chat window instantly burst into laughter.

 

Of course, she knew from her many years of streaming experience.

 

The thousands of people in the chat were, to put it bluntly, just there to see her various reactions.

 

To put it nicely, they were pranksters, and to put it bluntly… they were scoundrels.

 

Sigh.

 

Anyway, thanks to the advice she received in advance, her goal was clear, and it didn’t take long to create the character.

 

Mechanical voices and holograms popped up near her ears and eyes, blessing her as she took her first steps on the ground.

 

­ICARUS Device activated. All systems operational.

 

­Operator recognized: Codename Harmony.

 

­Welcome to Brooklyn Heights.

 

“Wow….”

 

An exclamation naturally flowed out.

 

If it had been a virtual reality fantasy game, a fairy for guidance and adaptation might have flown in,

 

But the mechanical and inorganic lines actually piqued her interest more.

 

At some point, a gun automatically appeared in her hand.

 

Without paying it much mind, Harmony looked at the in-game objective floating before her eyes.

 

­[Head to Central Park HQ.］

 

It was quite a daunting instruction, so she cautiously spoke up.

 

“I heard before playing this game that getting to Central Park HQ is the tutorial, right? They said it was really hard, other players.”

 

­Open the coin betting arenaaaaaaa

 

­You’ll probably die more than 10 times on the way ㅋㅋ

 

­You’re gonna get wiped out in a PVP zone? Game over?

 

­Are there any other players spawned nearby?

 

The flood of comments.

 

The chaotic mess, fitting the term “collective brainlessness,” was hard to even look at.

 

However, Tricky, the latest streaming platform serviced by ICARUS, had a system that automatically extracted logs most helpful to the streamer.

 

It popped up, and she compared the information she had pre-researched with what the viewers provided, shaking her head slightly.

 

“From what I heard, all players have random spawns, and you have to get to a safe house to meet others. Is that true?”

 

­Correct

 

­Meeting someone at the safe house and forming a party to go to HQ is the standard <Agreed by many viewers>

 

Dark Zone, played by countless people.

 

However, to attract newcomers to this game with its absurdly high entry barrier, the chat window rarely started agreeing with the correct comment from a viewer.

 

Of course, to put it simply, they just spammed “Really” a lot.

 

And then, a mission that put the finishing touch.

 

<New Mission Registered! [Time Limit 2 hours 45 minutes, 50,000 won reward for success]>

 

­Party up with a player you meet at the safe house and reach HQ

 

She silently smiled at that.

 

Jackpot.

 

A task she had to do anyway, now with money on the line?

 

She couldn’t resist.

 

But as Harmony was about to accept immediately, another new mission was added as if it were prearranged.

 

<New Mission Registered! [Time Limit 3 hours, 100,000 won reward for success]>

 

­Absolutely no party until you reach HQ

 

….

 

Feeling like a vein was popping on her forehead, she added,

 

“…I’ll proceed with the party mission.”

 

Anyway.

 

There were many contrarians in the world, and even more people who enjoyed seeing others suffer.

 

Thinking it was better to avoid losing interest in the game from dying repeatedly than to double the mission reward,

 

She selected the shooting practice mission and slowly crossed the death-filled city covered in white snow.

 

Without knowing what was about to begin.

 

They said the start of this game was completely random.

 

Even the spawn points were random. Some started on a stranded battleship, others woke up underground,

 

And some lucky ones even started in a safe house.

 

Accordingly, the tutorial within the tutorial also varied,

 

According to information, some shot various objects on the battleship, some fired at targets in the safe house, and others hit cans.

 

And….

 

Among those targets, there were also people.

 

Splat.

 

Red blood dripped onto the previously white snow, forming a shallow puddle, slowly freezing and disappearing.

 

A figure crossed through. Smoke rose from the gun barrel, blending into the sky.

 

Watching two thugs fleeing, leaving behind a comrade with holes in his head and chest, she continued aiming.

 

It felt too realistic to be a game.

 

Some might hesitate to shoot people, but if those two had just axed someone, the story was different.

 

A familiar weight.

 

A familiar texture.

 

A familiar sight.

 

With four consecutive shots, each felt without any attenuation, two more human-shaped objects were added to the cold New York street.

 

After ceasing her aim and confirming her surroundings, she spat out her honest impression.

 

“This game is insanely well-made….”

 

The feel of the air on her skin. The vibration hitting her shoulder with each trigger pull. Even the brilliantly clear sky, indifferent to the events on the ground.

 

Everything about this game resembled my four years too much.

 

I melted back into the world I once belonged to, and that feeling was… always the same. It was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t view the game as just a game anymore.

 

Three thugs and one victim.

 

After confirming all were lifeless, she walked forward.

 

Manipulating the gear was as simple as breathing to identify her current location.

 

­Current location: Brooklyn Heights.

 

Strangely, it was the same route I had experienced.

 

Approximately 8 miles or 10 kilometers in a superior unit away from Central Park HQ, according to my memory.

 

If there had been a speedboat, I could have safely and conveniently navigated the East River, but I couldn’t expect that at this point.

 

One bullet in the chamber, 30 in the standard STANAG magazine. Having fired two shots each at three thugs, that’s six rounds. Though the UI showed it, I needed to check for myself.

 

Buildings in utter chaos, without any maintenance. The massive Brooklyn Bridge loomed over the main street.

 

From memory, if there was no boat, I had to take a long detour to enter via the bridge.

 

After thoroughly checking for enemies again, I started manipulating the system in earnest.

 

But,

 

­Tactical support equipment: Unavailable.

 

­Nanomachine protection function: Activated at minimum strength.

 

­Module system: Unavailable.

 

­Accessible funds/weapon stash: Unknown.

 

“Damn.”

 

Of course.

 

What kind of equipment would they give a newbie who just started the game less than five minutes ago?

 

The faint sense of the bulletproof vest and tactical rig, the weight of fourteen magazines and a few grenades inside, was all I had now.

 

Adding a few more things, like the small EMP generator in the utility pouch, given for reasons unknown.

 

In some ways, it was a thousand times better than being thrown in naked, but my memory indicated numerous enemies ahead.

 

And many of them had better equipment and gear than I currently had, even using drones and UAVs.

 

Sigh.

 

Heavy breath dissipated into the air through the weighty gear.

 

I adjusted my grip on the gun and checked if the zeroing was properly set.

 

“It’ll work out somehow.”

 

For now, this rifle with just a dot sight on it, the pistol in the holster, and the tactical knife were my only lifelines.

 

There was no time for complaints.

 

I started moving.

 

* * *