Fenrir Translations
──── BOOM!
"Whoa-!"
A flash of light burst from the missile pod.
Leaving a trail of white smoke in the sky, it accelerated across a hundred-plus meters, heading straight for the window where the .50 BMG rounds had been flying out just moments ago.
The moment the high-explosive round hit the center of the room, the flash turned into a fireball. The window frame, the room itself, along with the booming explosion, black smoke, flames, and large fragments of the makeshift building, all spewed outward in unison. In the next instant, the third floor, where Dice had been, completely collapsed.
The staircase beneath her shattered in an instant. It was a devastating sight—like smashing a freshly steamed bun with a fist. The audience collectively gasped.
But when the floor of the third floor, which doubled as the ceiling of the second, began to collapse at an angle, the gasps turned into murmurs that spread like wildfire.
Shattered concrete, smoke from the explosives, and various other debris mixed together, creating thick, choking white dust billowing from the ruins. A few seconds passed, but no movement could be detected nearby.
The kill log didn’t show Dice’s death. She hadn’t been removed from the participant list either. She could be stuck due to a physics bug interacting with an object, or buried under debris.
But none of that mattered much. More than three seconds had passed, and there was no sign of life. The noise and dust were starting to settle, and with it, the audience’s attention began to fade.
However, in the next moment, just as apathy was setting in, amidst the faintly settling dust, something metallic began to stir in the second-floor window, where only concrete smoke had been billowing.
A sudden tremor rippled through the dust clouds.
It was Dice.
──── BOOM!
With a thunderous explosion that pierced the air, a .50-caliber round struck its target. The Juggernaut wielding the missile pod staggered violently, dropping its launcher.
But this was a Barrett, and it wasn’t a bolt-action rifle.
A professional gamer once said that engaging a Juggernaut was madness itself. They were meant to be unbeatable by design. Even with a powerful gun, the damage wouldn’t register, and the enemy wielded a minigun.
The overwhelming difference in firepower made it nearly impossible to win in direct combat.
However, Dice had the firepower needed to bridge that gap—and she wasn’t about to waste it.
Alternating between green and white, the HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) rounds screamed through the air at 853 meters per second.
And not just once.
Each round, costing over 90,000 won apiece, knocked on the Juggernaut’s nano-machine shield twice before it shattered. But the next two rounds were not about to show any mercy.
The tungsten carbide penetrators within the rounds, designed to punch through steel rails used for train tracks, smashed into the Juggernaut’s surface armor. Upon contact, the rounds pierced through the armor, and the RDX explosives inside ignited instantly, setting fires and causing the tungsten penetrators to punch cleanly through their target.
What sealed the Juggernaut's fate was the high-performance rear armor plate.
"Gah!"
Crkkk!
The Juggernaut, having taken two rounds to its body armor, twisted and fell face-first into the ground in a grotesque manner.
It was internal ricochet.
Though the tungsten penetrators pierced through the front armor plate, the energy was reduced enough that they couldn’t exit through the back, causing them to ricochet inside the Juggernaut's body.
Two rounds, spinning inside the Juggernaut like blenders, shredded its internal organs. The Juggernaut collapsed lifelessly.
But that was just Dice’s first magazine.
"Whew!"
In the next instant, a maniac Juggernaut—a crazed ninja assassin capable of running over 50 kilometers per hour armed with nothing but a knife—came charging from a distance. Dice’s life was in immediate danger.
She fired two more rounds, but hitting a human-sized target running at the speed of a car? Impossible. Shooting at moving targets was always difficult, and it was even harder with a Barrett.
In the end, Dice pulled out an EMP grenade.
But how was she supposed to hit it?
Before she could even finish that thought, a loud noise erupted from below.
Dice didn’t have time to throw the grenade. Instead, she swapped the magazine in her Barrett, tossed the EMP bomb to the ground, and detonated it just as the maniac Juggernaut reached the top of the stairs, locking eyes with her.
The next thing she saw was the blade stopping right in front of her face.
──── BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Ahhh!"
Her right hand trembled in terror—but the problem was that her finger had been resting on the M107CQ Barrett's trigger. The ensuing destruction was inevitable.
The massive barrel unleashed three breaths in rapid succession.
What followed was nothing short of a disaster. Not only had the EMP deactivated the Juggernaut's nano-machine shield, but it had also shut down all of its suit’s enhancement functions. The board marker-sized round from the Barrett flew at Mach 2.5 and struck the maniac Juggernaut dead center.
THUNK.
The explosion sent the Juggernaut's shattered body flying over the crumbled concrete debris. The damage was enough to make even a gore site in real life look tame.
As the dust settled, Dice struggled to regain her composure. She had just taken out two Juggernauts from a seated position, meaning this place was already a kill zone.
Cautiously, she descended the stairs to the first floor, just as the warning alarm sounded from the ceiling.
-[Alert: The large simulation room has now been designated as a scan zone. Failure to comply with Juggernaut instructions may result in immediate removal.]
Dice moved carefully out of the makeshift building, keeping herself hidden as much as possible.
She intended to make a quick exit along the path she’d scouted earlier, but a minigun-wielding Juggernaut was already blocking her way. Still, staying put would guarantee death, so Dice decided to take a gamble.
Her only choice was to take the Juggernaut down before the chaos spread.
It would take at least three or four rounds to kill it. Two shots to break the nano-machine shield, and the remaining two—well, they just had to hit somewhere vital. In other words, she had to endure the recoil of the Barrett at least five times.
She inhaled deeply, shifting her weight onto her extended left leg and lowering her body. This was to brace against the recoil. In her mind, she pictured the person she hated most. She didn’t think about whether she could do it.
She just did.
The Barrett's heavy recoil swept through Dice’s body.
──── BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The rounds hit, causing the hexagrid shield to flare up in the air. Her aim had been a bit off, so it took three shots to break through the nano-machine barrier.
The recoil was brutal, sending the barrel skyward. But oddly enough, this worked in her favor.
The next thing she heard was the heavy groan of the Juggernaut.
Dice’s gaze locked onto the Juggernaut. The first shot had hit its torso, but the extreme recoil had lifted the barrel, causing the next round to hit the armored headgear directly.
She had used three rounds on the maniac Juggernaut, and five on the minigun Juggernaut. Which meant Dice still had two rounds left. She managed to control the soaring recoil just in time.
The Juggernaut, swaying and kneeling, came into her crosshairs.
Her index finger moved twice, and the enemy slumped to the ground.
"Wow."
Was this… really a sniper rifle?
The firepower was awe-inspiring.
As the empty box magazine fell to the ground, Dice darted out of the exit, leaving the headless minigun Juggernaut’s corpse behind.
Another disciple of the Barrett cult was born in that moment.
-[Harmony: Teacher~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!] -[Harmony: Congratulations on being selected as Korea’s representative for Dark Zone AP!!!!!!!!] -[Harmony: I can’t believe I’m being taught by such an amazing person (❁´▽`❁)]
Early selection.
Or pre-selection.
An opportunity that even most professional gamers could only dream of—though chatting with players from other teams was still off-limits, and even teammates couldn’t communicate during rest periods, but whatever.
Of course, that wasn’t all. She couldn’t log out or sync with reality either.
Still, she could communicate externally to a limited extent, and more importantly, there was no need to play any more matches. That alone made it all worth it.
Even if she wasn’t physically tired, she wasn’t particularly fond of moving around too much.
"Ha."
It felt like an anticlimactic end after running nonstop for several weeks.
But thinking about it in reverse, it felt satisfying to have achieved a small success. If other pro-gamers heard this, they’d be shocked, but she still had many steps left to climb.
As she organized her thoughts, memories long forgotten began to bubble up again. Seeing Harmony’s messages only made them more concrete.
In short, the main mission had almost reached its end. In other words, max level.
Plus, Harmony’s collab stream had wrapped up yesterday, so there were no other plans in the works.
Harmony knew that well too.
-[Harmony: Wanna continue the main mission next Monday? Hehe] -[Harmony: I’m watching Yu-jin’s personal stream right now. If you’re okay, make a circle with your fingers, lol.]
…Right, there was a function like that.
To explain how I knew this, I’d have to go back a bit.
After the event match, Dice had said something about touching my tail, which made no sense at first. But she’d entered the participant cam and synchronized the senses. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded if she’d just asked, but she’d done it secretly.
In retaliation, I gave her a good whack on the head.
Anyway, to bring it back to the present, that’s how I knew there was such a function. Harmony was probably watching for something like that.
Lying down on a bed implemented in virtual reality—since it was virtual, I’d set my tail as a separate variable, so I could comfortably lie on my back—I contemplated for a moment, then subtly raised my tail.
I made a simple circle with it, and suddenly messages flooded in.
-[Harmony: Hahahahahahaha!] -[Harmony: Teacher, you’re amazing, lololol.]
What’s so amazing about this…
Anyway, as more things buzzed in the background, I manipulated my fingers to open a chat window in the air. I didn’t want to open it, but I glanced at it anyway.
-"Whoa!" -"OMG OMG OMG!!!!" -"Noona… I think my snake phobia is cured…" -"Wow, this is so damn cool, lol." -"Forbes No. 1 snake-phobia cure: Yu-jin, lol."
"If you keep this up, I’m ending the stream."
These perverted weirdos.
I mean, I could understand, but that didn’t mean I had to tolerate it. After punishing the weirdos that had snuck into my stream, the chat finally went quiet.
Since my name was still on the KSM entry list, I couldn’t respond to Harmony too casually, so I’d gone with an indirect method. But… honestly, it was better than them obsessing over other body parts.
Anyway, enough of that topic. It was time to resume analyzing Dice’s gameplay.
Where did I leave off? Thinking back carefully, I quickly remembered. It was the point where she’d escaped the large simulation room after the desperate fight with the Juggernauts.
I still didn’t get why she’d suddenly become obsessed with the Barrett.
"Hmph."
Of course, my facial muscles didn’t match my inner thoughts.
Still, a disciple… I guess? It’s only natural to feel good when someone you’ve taught plays so brilliantly based on what you taught them.
Just then, a message popped up.
-[Harmony: Are you feeling happy about something, teacher?]
I responded casually, as if it was no big deal.
"Well, it feels good when someone I’ve taught does well, right?"
The chat exploded with question marks, but my focus was elsewhere—on Dice.
-"Waaaah, finally─!"
"Is being first really that great?"
Watching Dice howl in triumph over the glowing corpse of the second-place finisher on top of the deserted research facility, I quietly muttered.
"Congratulations."