"Why on earth would anyone think to place a skill activation device in a place like this?"

The air touching my body is hot.

It's not just warm; it's hot enough that mirages, flames, and acrid smoke rise all around. Perhaps there's no other place where thermal imaging scopes are so useless than this map, a pointless thought flitted through my mind.

Not only had I taken a direct hit from a volcanic bomb, but there was also red lava oozing from the underground passages. This place was both a skill activation area created at the edge of the map and a building adjacent to a river of lava flowing through the tunnels.

Of course, the river was a kind of line, and there was still quite a bit of time left before the sea of lava, which could be considered the kill zone itself, would sweep over this point.

—Tududududu!

—Kwahng!

However, despite the situation, the users nearby were shooting at each other as soon as they encountered one another. At least in this map, the lava wasn’t something to be regarded with awe. Sure, if you got face-planted in it, it would be quite interesting.

Anyway, the skirmishes at this point were, quite literally, a battle of wits. Skills could only be activated in the activation zone, meaning that not a single person had a skill yet. Thus, the skirmishes at this stage relied entirely on physical prowess, individual sense, and luck.

But there was one more new variable to keep in mind at this stage: fire. To be precise, the fire itself wasn't something to worry about, but the toxic smoke that was hardly visible was the real issue.

Thus, many users carried oxygen tanks and gas masks.

Of course, wearing one meant you'd have to forfeit the other.

“Cough—!”

Masks made of gas mask or heat-reflective materials performed excellently in this area, but they also brought the significant drawback of narrowing peripheral vision.

Given that the users who made it up here could somewhat account for such disadvantages, that was when comparing themselves to those who were less skilled. If they bumped heads with other users capable of representing a country, the outcome could be pretty predictable.

Of course, my mindset was simply that I could hold my breath for a bit or resolve things before entering a serious abnormal state.

By throwing a flash grenade right in their face and using a grenade in an appropriate spot, I could completely mess with their vision and hearing. Though this had become quite a standard tactic, compressing the activation speed to its limits and finely adjusting the timing would turn it into a guaranteed win against the enemy.

Several .300 AAC BLK rounds rattled against the shield, eventually breaking it and piercing through the ballistic plate. Ultimately, in CQB, speed, speed, and speed were everything. The further one delved in, the more victory depended on who moved more nimbly rather than on uniquely creative strategies.

Of course, once skills were acquired, the breadth of available tactics would expand dramatically.

"About three left, maybe…."

I murmured in a voice no one could hear.

In fact, I could roughly gauge where the enemy was based on the small vibrations they made when they stepped on the ground. But since this was a game, I didn’t want to rely too much on such additional physical functions—anyway, I attempted reconnaissance again.

If the number of users in the vicinity reduced to about two or three, I could take the opportunity to activate my skill. However, gambling by leaving everything to chance and luck wasn’t my style, nor was it a good idea, so there was no reason to do so.

Jumping from a damaged car onto the enemy's vehicle and breaking the window of a car traveling at about 50-60 km/h to attack and eject them into the lobby was merely a possibility I considered.

Anyway.

"…."

After circling around a few times to check the situation, the structure was quite simple, but the paths leading upward were limited, and the stairs weren't in a confined area but rather an open space. Rushing up could lead to bullets striking my back or abdomen.

That said, climbing the metal scaffolding and temporary stairs scattered around would also be problematic. As my boots touched the metal, the sound would resonate everywhere, and with so much material around, setting up traps would be incredibly easy.

In short, I needed another way.

And I had enough strength to execute that.

“Hup…!”

An abandoned lower building still under construction. I gripped the metal column combined with the scaffolding firmly. The column was quite hot, as lava was lapping against the first floor of the building. In just a few minutes, it would be too hot to hold.

I pulled myself up, the pose might have looked somewhat awkward, but lifting my body, including gear, weighing in the upper 200 kg range wasn’t difficult. In an instant, I climbed up the vertical column and crossed to the third-floor exterior.

With my feet on the horizontal beam of the third floor, I carefully tore down the flapping cloth covering the construction site and surveyed the situation. I spotted a user, establishing a safe zone and scanning the surroundings with agile movements. They had set up a trophy system - in other words, a portable ADS capable of intercepting thrown objects, indicating they were quite serious.

Of course, it seemed they hadn’t anticipated this situation.

Thus, a new dilemma arose that had to be addressed.

‘…Should I use my gun? Or should I not?’

Or if I do use it, can I suppress them in the least amount of time possible?

The MCX Rattler was a splendid gun, but the Icarus operators had the skill called Shield. A product that jutted out like a spire above modern technology that has linearly evolved to secure survivability in any situation.

One magazine would be enough to break the shield and chip away at their HP, but I had to land all the shots. And the noise produced in that process was likely to echo everywhere. In other words, this time, I had to choose between speed and accuracy, leaning towards the former.

After adjusting my gear to avoid noise from colliding while moving, I took out the tactical spike hammer I had stowed in my multipurpose pouch and began to move very carefully. Of course, this time, I intended to use the blade at the back instead of the hammerhead.

I activated an EMP grenade, clutching it in my left hand and detonated it.

Despite its nickname of being useless since the shield only goes down for three seconds, in this situation, it was indeed useful.

And—

—Kuwung!

A heavy noise, but it was exceedingly small compared to gunfire.

As I accelerated momentarily and charged at the enemy, I let out a cough, expelling all the air from my lungs. It was a type of shock that couldn’t be blocked by a shield. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it, and before they could hit the ground, the blade at the back of the hammer pierced through their jaw and palate.

At that moment, my face was just centimeters away from the ground. In other words, I had face-planted onto the ground. After pinning the squirming body of the enemy down with my foot, I swung my right hand down from above. The blade behind the swung hammer neatly penetrated the cervical spine.

But that was only a moment; the enemy was ejected into the lobby.

“…Huh.”

Close-range attacks were indeed more certain than using a gun. I could see the enemy die from very close range - though I certainly didn’t enjoy it. Rather, it was more like a confirmation of a kill.

Anyway, it seemed that the vicinity near the skill activation zone had mostly been cleared.

And there was an unexpected harvest as well.

—Click!

After carefully folding the trophy system and stowing it in my bag, I began to move earnestly.

The fact that there was only one person left nearby meant that even if I got shot while activating my skill, I could retaliate and also pinpoint the enemy's location simultaneously - and once I knew the enemy's location, I was more than confident in my tracking abilities.

It was a moment when the risks were significantly reduced.

The last match still desired the lives of many more players.

“Hmm….”

It felt like someone was following me - Dice.

Thinking that, I continued to scout the area, but nothing particularly stood out. It was merely a conclusion derived from instinct, but it couldn’t be recklessly ignored. It was a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but my judgment criteria and instincts were among the harshest and sharpest in the Korean national team, further enhanced by Yujin's curriculum.

That was the conclusion I drew from that. I felt as if a skilled tracker was pursuing me. I couldn’t be certain, but there had been bullets flying from an impossible direction while I was engaged with another user. If it happened once or twice, I might consider it a nearby third party, but if it repeated one more time, it was a different story.

The distance was about 200 meters. It neither widened nor closed. Despite my intentions to approach and deal with it, the enemy concealed their position through some means while accurately pinpointing mine.

If I had to guess, it was a user employing a portable UAV function through a concealment pulse.

“Thank goodness it’s not Logan….”

Of course, I said that, but I didn’t think that person would deliberately follow me. Rather, it would be more plausible that we would happen to run into each other and I’d end up getting beaten.

Thinking that, I opened the map. After marking a radius of 200 meters, I looked for spots where shooting angles emerged. Thanks to my years of experience and enhanced map analysis skills, it didn’t take long to derive a rough location. However, it wasn’t without issues. In fact, it was riddled with problems.

Firstly, the area where the enemy was presumed to be was at a higher elevation. The path to get there was a winding slope and incline, making it all the more troublesome. Furthermore, the terrain was being submerged from behind. This was another form of kill zone. The underground passages penetrating this town were probably filling with water.

In short, I had to pass through that route if at all possible. There were no vehicles around, so if I tried to escape on foot, I’d likely get blasted by a sniper.

“My skills have improved, but why does it feel harder than last year?”

What could I do? The world was just like that. Or maybe the opposite: last year’s self was probably unable to overcome such a situation and died. I could say that I had developed the ability to objectively judge how dangerous a situation was.

Anyway, my concern was how to shake off the user clinging to me like a mosquito. In reality, it was more like a gatekeeper than a mosquito, but it was all the same. This game had neither electric fly swatters nor mosquito repellent.

So what should I do? — No, wait.

Mosquito repellent?

‘Though calling it mosquito repellent feels a bit off…’

That was essentially the idea.

Every map of Atakaia Volcano Island and all the cities were connected through underground passages. Of course, they weren’t passages made for people to walk through. If I had to say, paths were artificially created to direct the flow of lava to the sea in order to somewhat mitigate the eruption during volcanic explosions.

At least that’s how the game tooltip explained it, but in reality, since lava alone wouldn’t form the kill zone quickly, there were mechanisms in place to block paths and direct the lava through the city’s sewage and subway tunnels to create a circular kill zone.

In any case, that wasn’t the problem. The important thing was that as the island submerged, seawater would flow back into the passages. The moment seawater came into contact with the flowing lava, toxic gas with tiny glass shards mixed in would rise in clouds. Moreover, the enemy’s location was elevated enough that gas could easily escape.

If things went well, I could suffocate the enemy to death, or at the very least, create enough time to escape while disturbing the UAV with the gas.

Therefore, the target was the control rooms of the underground passages, each located in the cities.

The skills I chose this time were two. One was a chemical - the nanite projector, and the second was a holographic decoy. Fortunately, I felt that I could trick the enemy with the latter.

After throwing the decoy on the ground, I moved hastily. From now on, time was of the essence. Since the routes and areas I was heading to wouldn’t be visible from that high ground, I didn’t worry too much about stealth. As I descended into the underground passage with only an AAC Honey Badger in hand, a chilling breeze brushed against my skin.

I thoroughly checked the surroundings, but it seemed that there were no people in this outer town, which was likely to be submerged soon. Only a few AI enemies remained. Of course, within seconds, I had shot a few of them in the head without much thought and entered the control room.

“Ugh, it’s complicated.”

However, there were only certain things I could handle.

Through the holographic panel floating in front of me, I could see which gates were open and closed and where the lava was stagnating. My current position was already marked, so I quickly prepared to open a gate.

One, two, three… marking the point where I wanted the lava to reach, a system would automatically indicate which doors needed to be opened and closed, and I granted permission immediately. I sent simultaneous opening signals to multiple doors. If there were no opposing signals for the next 10 seconds, the gates would automatically open.

Now it was time to open the door that was holding back the seawater. Of course, since an unknown liquid had flowed in from the drainage passage, the door wouldn’t open, but after installing the nanites in various parts of the door, I fired the last round into the door's locking mechanism. With a loud clanging sound and ominous noise, water gushed forth as I returned to the control room and locked the triple lock.

And the moment I activated the nanites,

—Kuwung!

With a heavy noise, the door was ripped off entirely, and water began to gradually flood in.

The water swirled like it was alive and was sucked into the long passage that was nearly invisible, and at that moment, lava was also rapidly flowing down from above. Since the lava maintained its fluid state due to insulation from the tunnel without cooling in the external air, it wouldn’t take long to reach the marked point.

With that, I had done what I needed to do. After grabbing a set of protective gear, I exited the control room and climbed upward, once again enveloped in a chilling silence. I detonated the decoy and entered a nearby building, observing the high ground while waiting.

And how long had it been?

“Well, well.”

Thick white smoke was billowing from the elevated town, visible to the naked eye.

Only then did I step outside, starting the silent four-wheeled motorcycle, and in the meantime, the UAV that had been flying low corroded and crashed.

The situation was entering a new phase.

—[Warning: Toxic acid gas detected. Impurity concentration lethal. If inhaled for more than 1 minute, the probability of fatal damage to the respiratory system is 99.9996%. Immediate evacuation from this location is recommended.]

“What the hell….”

It was absurd. I couldn’t grasp how such a thing occurred. But the situation was clear. The warning that I would suffocate in one minute if I didn’t put on my gas mask was genuinely chilling, so I hurriedly wrapped the mask around my face and exhaled.

Naturally, I couldn’t dream of conducting reconnaissance from the moment the UAV crashed.

My skin, not covered by the mask, began to itch slightly. Of course, since this was virtual reality, there was pain suppression, so it was just a slight tickle, but had it been reality, it would have likely been quite painful. This was due to chlorine gas coming into contact with my skin.

I hurriedly stepped outside, but the surroundings were a complete mess. With white smoke spewing from the sewers and all directions, I could barely see in front of me.

I barely found the buggy I had parked for a smooth escape, opened the driver's door, quickly sat in the seat, and started the engine. With a rumble, the wheels spun powerfully as I desperately checked the barely visible front and attempted to steer.

But about four seconds later—

—Kwahwaang!

“Cough!”

An explosion erupted from behind.

The vehicle turned into a literal inferno, and I was thrown to the ground, shield shattered. The toxic gas was creeping into my lungs since my mask had been broken.

In the midst of it, as the thick white smoke dissipated, a figure clad in full protective gear and wearing a gas mask was staring at me.

For some reason, it seemed like she was grinning.

The gun was raised.

She muttered a few words just before that and flicked her index finger.

Thus, my Final Championship came to an end.