"Heh."

Lying on the bed in his private quarters within the building, a single person was lost in thought.

Corvus.

He had shoved a quick dinner into his mouth and finished the last match of the week, but the decision weighing on his mind continued to trouble him.

Whether it was because of the fatigue from the day, the sweet treats Whale had bought him earlier in the afternoon, his intense focus on the match, or simply lying in bed—whatever the reason, his mind was quite hazy.

The offer he received from the company’s PR team wasn’t much different from what Ulysses, or Hyukjin, had relayed to him. Although it was wrapped in flowery language, the basic premise was the same: asking if they could use that clip.

What should he do?

In truth, it didn’t matter all that much, but the idea of just sending a quick text saying it was fine left him with an inexplicable feeling of unease. It wasn’t like he had played particularly well, and the thought of sending a clip of his less-than-stellar performance didn’t sit right with him.

Of course, they said they’d focus more on that terrifying silhouette than on his gameplay…

He looked at his phone multiple times. There hadn’t been any replies since the few messages he received just a few minutes ago.

-[Whale: How am I supposed to know that, LOL]

-[Whale: Laughing at you getting wrecked is one thing, but spreading it worldwide is a whole different story.]

-[Whale: It’s tied to your pride, so I can’t just tell you what to do. If I did, that’d be completely thoughtless of me.]

This was true.

He was the one who had been on the receiving end, while the others were in a position to laugh it off. At least Whale was aware of this and had the sense to hold back and not cross any lines.

In the end, it was up to him to decide…

"If it were that easy, I wouldn’t be lying here like this."

It was a complex mix of emotions, too much to lump together into one.

He stared at the ceiling for a long time. Maybe he just didn’t want to make a decision. He didn’t even understand why the PR team suddenly made this proposal.

Just as his mind was about to quickly tip the scales toward rejection,

───Bzzz.

"What’s this?"

A new message popped up. It was from Whale.

The message had been sent with a slight delay. It wasn’t exactly short, but it wasn’t long either. Since the screen was still on, the ‘1’ next to the message disappeared immediately.

And then…

-[Whale: Or just think of it as getting back at that person and send it, LOL. If you send it, she’ll probably be more annoyed.]

-[Whale: When else will you get a chance to legally give that human tank a hard time?]

"Oh."

A spark went off in his mind.

It all came down to the complex feelings he had toward Yujin since that incident. If he had to choose a direction, it definitely wasn’t a positive one—however, if this decision could burden her with even a little more trouble later on…

Wouldn’t that be a perfectly legal and wholesome form of revenge?

The haziness in his mind cleared up. People say that just one inspiring keyword can change your entire mindset, and here it was, proving true.

Thoughts raced through his mind, forming into a torrent and eventually aligning themselves into the desired shape, generating countless scenarios. He quickly sat up, sent a thank-you message to Whale, and opened his email.

His fingers began moving like they were motorized.

-[To. Public Relations Department: This is Corvus, regarding the offer I received earlier. You have my permission to use my clip.

Also, I have a few questions: Do I have any interviews lined up in the near future? If so, would it be okay to mention that a cinematic video is in production?]

How long did he wait after that? A reply, filled with positive content, came back.

Suppressing a grin, he sent a thank-you email and began imagining the fireworks-filled future that lay ahead.

In a game where even lower-ranked users would beg pro players for mentions in interviews to get noticed during tournament ranks, scrims, and prelims, surely he could get away with a little lip service about her.

A new nickname was soon to be added to the already bizarre and fearsome list of names Yujin had acquired.

A truly satisfying form of revenge had begun.

"They said it would take about 30 minutes, but you’re here in 20! How did it go?"

"Not much different from usual."

- "Did you win first place again?!"

- "Of course, LOL"

- "Who else would describe winning first place so casually? LOL"

- "Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin! Yujin!"

- "She’s a goddess! She’s a goddess! She’s a goddess! She’s a goddess!"

Naturally, Yujin continued to sail along, completely unbothered by any of it.

"Good work today."

"Ugh, it’s finally over…"

Today’s streaming session had come to an end.

As was expected, the more missions Yujin completed with Harmony, the more the main story’s progression curve began to rise sharply.

With the main story as a focal point, the operators had been cutting off the many tentacles of Artemis spreading in all directions, while thoroughly destroying their facilities and eliminating roughly two companies' worth of forces through the first two missions.

If one considers that Artemis sold data to China and Russia to secure their survival, it’s clear that their downfall was as tragic as it was inevitable.

Of course.

It would have been nice if the story ended there, but both in my memory and in this game, the avalanche that Artemis set in motion was far from over, leading to an all-out invasion by the hostile forces.

I vaguely explained it once before, but Artemis had their hands in U.S. defense as well. The first Artemis mission, where you acquire the Icarus Gear’s Pulse skill, says it all.

So, the top brass in the military-industrial complex that dabbled in Homeland Security were aware of various useless pieces of information, and the technology they passed on wasn’t limited to just drones.

And what kind of snowball did that roll into?

-[Alert: A message has been sent via a secure network.]

-[Alert: Confirmed to be related to the sudden decline in coastal defense power post-pandemic.]

"…What is this about now?"

"They're saying the waters off New York have become the enemy’s playground. In short, we’re about to get a lot busier."

If I had to roughly guess what lies ahead… Before the full-scale invasion begins, we’ll probably gather all the scattered friendly forces around Washington. After retaking the White House, we’ll head to NASA to reconnect the satellite network.

From that point on, we’ll be moving back and forth between New York’s waters, Washington, and Virginia, providing support where needed. In other words, we won’t have much time to stay in New York.

When I explained this to Harmony, she didn’t have much to say.

"Is this really something just a few operators can handle? I mean, are the scenario writers out of their minds, or what?"

"…I’m not sure."

…Why do I feel like I’m the one taking the hit?

What kind of time did I spend in the past?

Shaking my head to clear out the random thoughts, I returned to HQ. With fast travel unlocked, getting back was literally instantaneous. Though it was winter, the atmosphere was much livelier and busier than when I first arrived.

Given that mission activities were reflected in real-time, this was only natural.

As we made our way to the personal space assigned within the facility, Harmony muttered, seemingly nostalgic.

"Can you believe it’s been almost a month since we crawled in here, completely clueless, under strict surveillance? Remember that?"

"That was really… never mind."

"Come on, it wasn’t that bad!"

But it really was that bad.

After reminding her once again about what happened with the magazines back then, she hesitated before finally sinking into silence. Just as I thought—though, to be fair, she had improved a lot since then. More than a lot, actually.

And it seemed she was aware of that, as she quickly changed the subject.

"But haven’t I gotten much better since then?"

"Your skills have improved almost vertically."

"Wow! Really? That much?"

"I don’t lie about these things."

It wasn’t an empty compliment—really.

Partly due to the knowledge I’d been forcing into her as we continued to play together, I had also heard from her off-stream that she practiced at the shooting range during her breaks.

I’ve mentioned this several times before, but considering that special forces are trained, not born, and that this is within a game, she was doing an excellent job of following that process.

Even though guns didn’t malfunction in the game, sitting on her bunk and inspecting everything had become part of her routine.

As Harmony, who had entered my space because we were in the same party, looked around, she added:

"This really is a room that suits Yujin. So bare. You don’t live like this at home too, do you?"

"I’m not one to fill my space with a bunch of stuff…"

"…Well, I bet your house is just full of exercise equipment or protein shakes. I know someone like that too, so I’m not entirely clueless. Right?"

"…"

"See, I knew it."

…It’s not like I raised Harmony to be a nag.

But perhaps having someone who can point out these things isn’t so bad, after all. We continued to chat, exchanging a few more words.

After some conversation, I learned that:

"You want more structured training?"

"Well… yeah, kind of."

"What brought this on all of a sudden?"

It didn’t seem like something she had thought deeply about before saying it.

But it was also difficult to dismiss because while she had a tendency to expand things thoughtlessly, she also had a strange stubbornness that made her see things through once she started.

At this point, I figured it would be best to give her a more concrete reason to be serious about it.

I decided to listen a bit more.

"I mean, even if it’s just the main mission, we can’t always do it together. And if I’m by myself… or if I play with my crew or viewers again, I don’t want to hold them back, you know? That’s kind of it."

"I get what you’re saying."

I didn’t bother telling her that she was already good enough—there was no need to state the obvious. It seemed better to nurture her enthusiasm instead.

After a brief thought, I decided to help fulfill Harmony’s request to some extent.

"I won’t go into detail. Just show up two hours before the stream."

"Uh… in virtual reality?"

"Of course not."

Click.

I added this as I placed the fully disassembled and reassembled gun back in its case.

"Let’s start with six hours a day."

For the time being, the sound of gunfire wouldn’t be leaving our ears.

BangBangHammerBrotherhood - It’s Fun Just Seeing Their Ugly Faces

-[Dol: Yaaaaahhhhhh]

-[Dol: Being completely honest]

-[Aurora: --------StopThisNonsenseCutHere--------------]

-[Dol: Wow, too harsh]

-[Dol: Look at how the numbers don’t disappear]

-[Dol: Moni!!!!!!!!!]

-[Dol: We’re all gonna die at this rate!!!]

-[SonOfGangneungSeoHyochan: What the hell is this noise? I thought the neighbor was causing a ruckus]

-[SonOfGangneungSeoHyochan: Hey, Mr. Kim Stone, your shin and boots seem to want to get to know each other better. If you don’t want that misfortune, keep it down.]

-[Dol: ChirpChirp]

-[Reservist15Years: What’s happening again, LOL]

-[Limit: As expected from an internet warrior, LOL]

-[Limit: So what’s going on?]

-[Dol: Nothing much, Harmony has been in Dark Zone for a while now]

-[Dol: I was thinking that once she hits max level, maybe she could join in on some co-op content with us]

-[Dol: If anyone has free time or wants to collab, I thought it’d be fun to play together]

-[Dol: I started the conversation, so no pressure if no one wants to, but is anyone interested?]

-[SaltBunny: Let’s go?]

-[Hotteok: Can’t resist playing with a newbie, LOL]

-[Aurora: No way! Our cute greenhorn is turning into a fitness junkie. Hotteok, you can’t!]

-[Dol: Just one more, and we’ve got 3/4]

-[Limit: Ha, I can’t stand it. I can’t let a newbie who hasn’t even hit max level yet run around with us.]

-[Planetarium: This place is full of weirdos, even though it’s a big group, LOL]

-[Planetarium: But isn’t Harmony running around with someone who’s really good these days? Isn’t she better than us?]

-[Limit: It’s a shame, but since she’s only doing main missions, who knows, LOL]

-[Limit: Anyway, Dol, since you brought it up first, let us know the schedule when you figure it out!]

-[Dol: Okie dokie~~]

-[Dol: Since Harmony hasn’t been in Engram lately, I’ll contact her directly]

-[SaltBunny: Good]