Fenrir Translations
[Notice] Today is the day for a joint Dark Zone stream with the teacher!
Hello, everyone! It’s Harmony!
I’ve already posted a notice on the café and my personal website, but today we’re back with a joint Dark Zone stream instead of playing a bad game, hehe. Yujin-sensei, who started with me, has been really into battle royale games lately.
From what I’ve heard… she’s going to participate in the Asia Qualifiers, which makes me think she might really be talented.
I know I’ve been rambling a bit, but anyway, today we’ll focus on the main missions, which I’ve been putting off for too long because of other things.
Of course, I don’t think we’ll dive straight into missions as soon as we start… I’m guessing Yujin-sensei will probably drag me to the shooting range first thing, since we’re meeting again after a while.
I’d better prepare myself… sigh…
It’s really hot, so everyone, please take care to avoid heatstroke and sunstroke, and if you’re wealthy, I wish you a day full of blasting air conditioning~~~!!!
I hope only good things happen to the Mint Cat Clan!
Harmony.
And Yujin.
Recently, these two have undoubtedly been the hottest names in the Dark Zone community.
Their encounter, which began by chance, and the awkward meeting in the restricted zone became a hot topic. The tutorial overlapping with a PVP zone, something that’s impossible to plan, was enough to cause a stir. And Yujin’s skills, which were fully exposed during this, were like pouring gasoline on an already roaring fire.
But that wasn’t all. Their skills were showcased in various PVP modes, as well as in the main missions, and even in successfully fending off snipers. If you stretched it, you could call it manipulation, but the daily updates on legal proceedings showed that Harmony was seriously responding to the situation.
Although the fire has died down over time, the results triggered by it remained.
Despite going through all sorts of extraordinary events, Harmony managed to handle them well, gaining an additional 50% of her steady viewers. Yujin, another beneficiary, became an unprecedented broadcaster, holding a steady average of thousands of viewers, despite having only recently started streaming, with the support of a strong streamer senior like Harmony.
This wasn’t just a win-win; they had brought each other complete success.
Naturally, this showed that the two had quickly become close.
"Ah! Teacher! Over here, over here!"
The Shooting Range.
When Yujin first started Dark Zone, Harmony had an awkward appearance, like she was forcing herself into ill-fitting gear. But now, in Yujin’s eyes, Harmony seemed to be getting more comfortable in her gear, starting to carry herself with a bit more ease.
When Yujin’s eyes met the mint-colored ears of Harmony, they twitched.
It was a sign of her excitement at seeing Yujin.
"It seems you’ve been doing well. You look quite refreshed."
"Of course. That’s what streamers do, right? There’s nothing particularly strenuous, and all we do is eat well and lie around at home all day, isn’t it?"
"Not at all."
"Gasp."
As Harmony deflated like a balloon with a hole in it from the cold rejection, Yujin added with a playful smile.
"Maybe you should do some cardio. Two days ago, you did a mukbang stream eating four slices of pizza at 3 a.m., right? If you keep eating like that, you’ll end up with rice cake rolls on your belly."
"Ugh… You know me too well…."
Two days ago.
Yujin, who rarely woke up in the middle of the night, drank a glass of cold water and was about to go back to sleep when she noticed a notification on her phone about Harmony’s stream.
Curious, she clicked on it and saw a girl with light brown hair, resembling Harmony’s in-game avatar, chewing on pizza under the stream title "This is really the last one) Late-night Pizza Mukbang."
It was the kind of mukbang that would fit perfectly with the word "om nom nom."
She was too sleepy to type in the chat at the time, but that memory hadn’t faded from Yujin’s mind.
"…Are you sure your main job isn’t as a trainer, Yujin?"
"I could be one. Don’t let your guard down."
"Heuuuk…."
And so, the light conversation came to an end.
The topic gradually shifted to Dark Zone, where Yujin naturally became the instructor and Harmony the student.
In other words, Yujin was planning to overhaul Harmony’s skills from the ground up.
"Since it’s just a game, I won’t go into detail about disassembly and reassembly. As long as you get the hang of malfunction handling, tactical reloading, and rapid single shots, there shouldn’t be any major problems, but even that will take a while."
"Uh… I was thinking of something like the CQB videos I saw on YourSpace, but I guess that’s not it, huh?"
"That’s more advanced. It’s something you tackle after you’ve built a solid foundation. To be honest, I don’t know what you watched, but it’s probably better if I just teach you."
Even as such chat messages flooded in, Yujin continued to impart her knowledge to Harmony without much thought.
The joking comments disappeared, and as the lecture progressed into something you wouldn’t easily find elsewhere, more viewers began to clip the content.
Experience combined with fundamental knowledge turned what could have been a stiff and difficult lecture into something easily understood, and even Harmony, who had initially tilted her head in confusion, began to grasp the concepts after a few attempts.
Without much praise, the not-quite-a-lecture continued.
It started with handling the gun and moved on to actual shooting. Because there were no limits on the available ammunition, unlike in reality, Harmony was learning in almost a crash course manner.
The chat was filled with alternating criticism and admiration. The former when Harmony was learning, the latter when Yujin was demonstrating.
When one cycle ended, Yujin spoke up quietly.
"…You’re definitely more skilled than when I first taught you. Have you been practicing something in the meantime?"
"Hehe, of course! Whenever I do a Dark Zone stream, I always visit the shooting range first. It’s like stretching before exercise, so it’s manageable."
"You’ve done well."
Of course, the chat was going in a rather unsavory direction.
It took quite a while and a verification photo of Harmony’s gym registration before the flames died down, and the topic of conversation finally came to an end as the broadcast screen showed the proof.
It was time to start focusing on the main mission.
In-game, about an hour had passed, and the two left the shooting range.
There was a small crowd gathered around them, but unfortunately for them, Yujin had no intention of playing with viewers, believing that you only improve by playing hard.
Their next destination was Upstate New York.
A lawless area that had been devastated by the Rust Belt’s decline and then hit directly by the Omega Virus, completely outside of any jurisdiction. It was a barren land occupied by mysterious machines and mercenaries, with nothing but corpses lying around.
Investigating this place was their goal.
<Nattogohan donated 1,000 won! Thank you so much!>
"Ugh… Man, that feels so good, so damn good. I even sent a donation, a friend request, and a private message. I said I didn’t care if they put a hole in my head, just kill me with a bullet, please."
A first-place marker appeared on the screen.
His whole body tingled with excitement as he let out a sigh of relief. It was a fundamentally different feeling from a few days ago, when every match felt like walking on a bed of thorns.
A few days ago, even when he wasn’t matched with Yujin, he played nervously, anxious about dying more than five times a day by anything other than guns, grenades, or skills. That wasn’t a pleasant experience.
After that, Yujin had readily accepted his request and even offered an official apology, saying she was sorry.
In a way, it was a quick resolution.
And today, Yujin had temporarily left the Apex Predator battlefield to collaborate with other streamers for a few days.
Taking advantage of this, Kato decided to play hard and stabilize his rank, so he wouldn’t have to suffer anymore by avoiding that battlefield.
For some reason, he felt like his skills had improved even more than usual.
Specifically, after going through so much, he had honed his senses, making him play more sharply than before.
It was absurd, but if it was a beneficial side effect, so be it.
"Phew, today’s going well. Maybe it’s because I’m pushing myself hard, but it’s easier than I thought. If I keep this up, I might reach the Tier 1 promotion match in a few days."
Growing pains.
Maybe… just maybe, you could call it that, but wasn’t it a bit too horrific to be called growing pains? Honestly, living a more comfortable life, like the chat suggested, might be better.
Anyway, he returned to the lobby as usual. It was a thoroughly satisfying victory, a match he could easily upload to YourSpace.
Even when he was on the verge of winning, words like "Uha" flooded into his mind.
There was no hesitation in starting the next match.
As the gears turned and the matchmaking began, this was Kato’s time to interact with his viewers.
While reading the chats he had missed, he continued to think about various things. There were only a few weeks left until the tournament. The tournament rank would close a bit sooner than that.
No one in this world was without a competitive spirit. Even though he had agreed to participate in the Asia Qualifiers in a hurry, under a deal with his friend and coach Russ, he still wanted to seize glory with his skills now that he had secured a spot.
So, he was thinking about what to do next.
Until one donation came in.
<I Don’t Think This Person Is Human donated 1,000 won! Thank you so much!>
"Scrim? Of course, I’ll have to scrim. The pros are already scrimming like crazy with the Tier 2 players in the tournament rank, so I think I’ll jump in as soon as I can get a spot."
The Asia Qualifiers.
And the Final Championship, which could be called the global event.
Each country selects twenty players through its own competition, bringing together a hundred players for the qualifiers. From there, they select up to four players from each country to compete in the Final Championship in North America.
In the process, they not only compete but also share information. After all, the most important thing after winning yourself is ensuring your country’s victory.
In other words, everyone is both a competitor and a colleague.
Returning to that logic…
"And as for that player… um…."
He opened his mouth to answer but couldn’t come up with a clear response.
"Of course, I have to invite them…."
He needed to avoid overestimating, but…
Still, it was hard to completely erase the possibility from his mind that the scrim might get wrecked.
For some reason, that thought kept lingering.
nice
And what's wrong with Eating 4 slices of pizza?! I'm a girl perfectly healthy and fit and I can eat 2 boxes full of pizza and still have some room for more.