NoveLight ™
"Ugh, I lost again! Seriously!"
Dice, a pro gamer from SSM Entertainment, finished in fifth place in the first match of day three.
As soon as she got out of bed, she let out a scream and kicked the thin blanket away, a sight that was truly a spectacle, but there was no helping it. The matchups in top-tier battles were determined solely by luck.
The Final Championship was an immensely huge tournament, and everyone naturally played cautiously. As a result, before reaching the second-to-last kill zone, about 30 to 40 players were still around, but by the time they arrived at the last kill zone, only about ten remained.
With death looming dangerously close behind, there was no room to choose opponents, and once the brutal battle began, it wasn’t uncommon for the victor of one engagement to turn into a corpse within seconds.
However, Dice had managed to break through that very limit once again.
'…I was shocked when I suddenly heard a noise from the balcony above me.'
Of course, she calmly shot nanites above her head, and as the platforms melted, she steadily knocked out the falling enemy with the butt of her rifle, using them as a meat shield.
In any case, when she successfully wrapped up such a challenging engagement, the subject returned to the initial point—this time, luck was not on her side.
When only five users remained, Dice found herself facing Yujin, who was armed with a foam launcher.
"I thought I had a good chance, but… Ugh, this is just ridiculous."
Lying sprawled on the bed, Dice began to replay the events in her mind.
The notion of having a good chance was somewhat accurate. The nanite launcher Dice had chosen could demolish the makeshift cover Yujin created with polyurethane foam in just a few seconds.
But the opponent couldn’t possibly be unaware of that. The fact that the person who had taught her all of this was now aiming a gun at her was already a disaster waiting to happen.
So, to summarize the acrobatic battle that unfolded:
"No, how can I possibly beat Yujin in a brawl without any skills…?"
Yujin created cover, and it was remarkably effective.
Dice shot at it with nanites, and that was effective too.
But while Yujin had foam grenades, Dice didn’t have any nanite grenades. In reality, such a thing didn’t even exist. In the end, Dice was outnumbered by the number of canisters she possessed, and the aftermath flowed in a direction everyone could predict.
She fought desperately, but the cover she could hide behind had already been melted down to less than half by her own hands, and the attacks that surged like a tidal wave were too much to endure.
And that wasn’t all.
"Isn’t it cheating to shoot while tossing grenades?!"
With both hands firmly gripping her firearm, Yujin tossed a grenade that had been wrapped around her tail. The sound of the pin being pulled was drowned out by gunfire, and the trajectory of the throw was obscured by the flames erupting from all directions.
What would happen next didn’t even need to be explained. A thunderous explosion and shockwave shook her body. If she had saved a nation in her past life, perhaps she wouldn’t have fallen, but sadly, she was not that fortunate.
As if she had been punched in the side, Dice was flung sideways, and the last thing she saw was Yujin closing in on her. At that moment, she lost all will to live.
Of course, she couldn’t casually chat like in reality or scrims.
Dice was hit with a bullet named lead and was ejected into the lobby, leading to her current situation.
"It’s my fault for not responding properly."
She had seen Yujin use foam grenades quite a few times.
She had naturally considered countermeasures, but if she failed to respond properly in the tournament, it held little meaning. The only saving grace was that there was no need to waste much time on unnecessary debriefing. The reason for her death was clear to anyone.
After lying down for quite some time, her mind felt hazy. Thinking she should drink some water, Dice got up, and various notifications popped up on her terminal.
One notification, glimmering in her eyes, was particularly noteworthy.
"…Come to think of it, there was this too."
Recently, Harmony had been diligently preparing… or rather, had not been preparing at all.
In essence, the tournament served as a friendly match featuring partner streamers gathering in New York. Following the fierce and intimidating Final Championship, the consecutive matches served to stabilize the viewership that had been ready to exit the main stage.
Of course, given the prominence of the main event, the number of viewers was less than 10% of the total viewers from the Final Championship. Nevertheless, that still amounted to millions, a number comparable to the total population of many countries.
With advertisements plastered all over, the hundred streamers wandered around, chatting with those they already knew—thus, the partner streamer tournament resembled a festival.
And amidst it all was Harmony.
She was receiving countless requests for handshakes she had never imagined.
"No, what in the world is happening…?"
Only she was unaware of the truth. At this moment, Harmony was one of the most noticed streamers.
With the Omega rank insignia on her shoulder and a Dominator Mode Tier 1 badge. While the weight of the former was overwhelmingly greater, the latter was an item she wouldn’t even have dared to dream of possessing had she not met Yujin.
In any case, her numerous footprints left behind had caused a bizarre chemical reaction, making Harmony the focal point of interest today.
Of course, not all of this attention was positive.
"How does it look from the outside? Doesn’t seem that special."
"I don’t know. Guessing the contents before opening the box is foolish… but I’m not saying I disagree."
When people hold limited information about a specific area, they tend to feel the most confident, yet at the same time, they are more likely to draw unfounded and incorrect conclusions.
And Harmony had already sprinkled sufficient pre-keywords to trigger this effect all around—making those who were oblivious to the surrounding context think that she had merely gotten lucky and taken a bus to get to this position.
Of course, as is often the case with the beginning of all matters, that statement wasn’t entirely wrong. When she was breaking the Omega rank and hanging out with Yujin, her skills couldn’t be said to be exceptional.
However, the truth always lay a few steps away from what people firmly believed, and that was precisely what most people easily overlooked.
And Harmony saw no reason to correct that fact.
She was prepared to remove every obstacle that stood in her way.
"Well then, I hope your partnered streamers achieve great results over the three matches leading up to Friday! Let the matches begin!"
The hundred users boarded the transport aircraft crossing the harbor city of Tannheiser, waiting to drop. As the heavy BGM played, the lower hatch of the transport opened, and numerous people began to drop in sequence, with Harmony stepping onto that line as she made her way closer to the ground.
There was no tension. This was a place she had already traversed hundreds of times while practicing with the solo representatives from Korea. Among the hundred users scattered across Tannheiser, there was likely no one who could match Harmony’s amount of practice.
Just minutes after setting foot on the ground, gunfire rang out from all directions, and kill logs started to rise.
Ignoring it all, she entered combat at her own tempo.
'…It’s a bit hard to show explosive movements like the representatives.'
Yujin had chosen Harmony as a whetstone to sharpen the Korean representatives, and in that process, she too had become a whetstone of unparalleled quality.
Harmony began to move in earnest just as the skill activation zone appeared.
Inside her multipurpose pouch, grenades were securely fastened in the MOLLE grenade pocket.
However, the number was double the standard carry count of four—eight grenades. Grenades were her defining feature, and Harmony was ready to use them more appropriately than anything else.
And this fact shone even brighter as a pack of hyenas gradually gathered toward the skill activation zone.
Clang!
"What, what’s happening all of a sudden—"
BOOM!
The lives of users who had settled near the skill activation zone of Tannheiser were slowly but surely extinguished like candles.
Harmony's weakness compared to Korean users was her difficulty in making rapid movements, but conversely, this allowed her to engage in precise and silent stealth play. Coupled with her advantage of thoroughly understanding the map, Harmony became a reaper, and the results spoke for themselves.
BOOM!
"Ahhh!"
Another unfortunate sacrifice crossed the threshold into the lobby.
The green cat had nestled in a spot where users transitioning in and out of the skill activation zone were clearly visible, and the fishing line she held glinted ominously under the weak light of the ceiling.
From the door.
From the ground.
From the window frames.
Grenades, which could separate from safety handles with just minor movements, could appear from anywhere.
And as the kill count for the grenades marked with Harmony’s name continued to rise, all the users gazing at the kill log from safe spots began to chuckle one by one.
"…What on earth is going on?"
However, those who intuitively grasped that fact were far from Harmony, while those who needed to realize that fact were far too close to her.
At the point when the warehouse that overlooked the skill activation zone had transformed into the lair of a massive monster devouring people, a user stepped inside.
The action was swift and unwavering. The shield from Icarus Gear could thoroughly defend against attacks below a sufficient physical quantity to disable that function, and thus he began his search without even considering the possibility of any traps that might exist.
And a mint-colored gaze was observing that scene from a safe distance.
"Everyone seems so relaxed."
While it should have been natural, Harmony had no intention of letting it remain so.
And that was her objective.
If sending one person to the lobby would draw some complaints, sending five would only amplify that voice.
Then all she had to do was eliminate those who would utter such reactions.
Her sharp gaze continued to scan the user searching around the warehouse on the metal scaffolding. That user likely didn’t even realize that the sound of his footsteps echoed throughout the warehouse.
But there was no need to inform him.
All he would learn was only his own sign and the nickname of the person who killed him.
And at a certain moment, a smile spread across Harmony’s lips.
At the end of her gaze was the user she had been watching closely.
He cautiously opened the door of one warehouse and, following the CQB principles, began to carefully scan the inside from outside. That action, akin to slicing a pie, was referred to as pie slicing. However, it took less than four seconds before he stepped cautiously inside the room.
At that moment, countless thoughts flooded Harmony’s mind, but how many seconds had passed since then?
BOOM!
"Hehe."
Another kill count popped up on her UI.
The moment he opened the door, the fishing line connected to the doorknob twisted and loosened the safety handles of three grenades, and as he stepped inside, the grenades detonated all at once.
Hundreds of fragments poured over the barrier that could reliably block a single grenade. The barrier shattered like a candle in the wind, but the power from three grenades was more than enough to tear through the fragile polygonal fabric beneath the shield.
All of that transpired in an instant, and once again, everything returned to the starting point.
As the explosion subsided, Harmony carefully descended.
Looking down at the corpse that had vanished without a trace and the loot scattered haphazardly, she smiled softly.
"It’s time to restock on grenades."
The explosion light.
It was a primal instinct she had long forgotten.