───Drdrdrdr!

"…!"

The vibrations were everywhere.

Normally, I could gauge roughly where the enemy might appear through vibration detection, but as the building collapsed, the shock felt from all directions became a disadvantage that led to sensory confusion. I had to determine Logan's position solely based on information from my five senses.

Of course, the moment I carelessly extended myself, bullets would fly from somewhere, slicing through the concrete walls with a whip-like sound. I desperately hoped that Logan was having a tough time just as I was, but somehow, I was certain she would be holding up better than I was.

In any case, the most urgent task was to locate the enemy.

"Huff…!"

Tududududu!

I braced my legs and stomped the ground. The surrounding terrain instantly became an afterimage. A few bullets whizzed past as I slipped between cover, but not a single one hit me. From this, I could estimate the enemy’s location.

Logan was on the edge of the sky garden, while I was inside the building surrounding the garden. The actual distance was roughly between 40 to 50 meters. I needed to push harder to detonate the bombs and nanite canisters I had set up earlier in that area to ensure Logan was buried in the lava flowing on the first floor.

Of course, she was likely aware that the ground there was unstable. She wouldn't easily venture inside. If I pressed too hard, she would probably move in another direction.

So I needed to force her movement.

───Pung!

I attached a sticky bomb to the sleek end of the launcher. The target was the ceiling. Normally, I would have to precisely align the ceiling and the landing point, but there was no time for that. After a quick estimation and visual calculation, I planted explosives in the already cracked ceiling.

The moment I triggered it, a loud boom echoed as a massive crack spread wildly from the explosion's epicenter. What followed was predictable. A concrete block, larger than my body, crashed down onto the ground.

As the debris shattered into thousands of fragments, I immediately sprang into action before the vibrations had fully subsided. It seemed Logan had realized that this moment was a turning point, as I could hear the sound of her shield being deployed in an instant. The run-and-gun began, and at least 30 bullets pelted her shield like hail.

I fired the Honey Badger with one hand while launching a nanite canister with the other. It flew with a bang, but her reaction speed was alarming. The instant the spring compressed to its limit, Logan swiftly folded her shield to dodge.

• Chiiick!

 

What melted was not the shield but the large stone block behind Logan. In just a few seconds, it was incinerated without a trace. The word “nanite” had the same meaning as “nanomachine,” so such results were inevitable.

The distance was closing. It was now Logan’s turn to retreat. I had three canisters left, a sufficient number to dissolve all the cover she could hide behind. As I shot bullets, piercing through the descending concrete dust, I systematically reduced the number of covers. Of course, Logan didn’t seem to care much about it.

While it might appear exciting from the outside, the combat was practically at a stalemate.

But the one to break that situation would not be a person.

───Eek!

The ground beneath the sky garden was nearing its breaking point.

At first, it was a hairline crack, but soon it began to emit a foreboding noise as if directly pricking at my spine. It wasn't a complete collapse yet, but it would likely end with one more shock. In other words, there was no time to lure Logan into the trap.

In most cases, traps didn’t work out like this. I had witnessed many situations where traps I painstakingly set up couldn’t even be used and had to be detonated. Thus, as I detonated the pre-buried explosives, a faint vibration occurred about 10 meters from Logan's hiding spot.

The moment I took a few steps back while suppressing fire to prevent the enemy from moving out,

"Ugh…!"

Gggrrk!

The ground, about 20 meters away, stopped its screaming and began to collapse inward under the force of gravity. Of course, I had anticipated this. Accordingly, I accelerated my retreat speed.

However, the area of collapse was greater than expected, and it wasn’t until I was only about 15 meters away from entering the building that the cracks finally ceased.

At that point, Logan was leaping off her cover.

"No way, what…."

For a moment, I forgot that we were in a match as I muttered softly.

The instant the ground collapsed, she jumped off her cover. The very spot she had just stood on tilted completely, dropping dozens of meters below into the sea of lava without a trace. Yet, she was still hovering above the sky garden. Like someone jumping on a jump map, she bounced off the crumbling ground multiple times.

To be frank, Logan’s and Laurentina’s combat methods were nothing special. When finely honed combat skills and physical abilities combined beyond my level, they could easily overcome poor conditions and terrain, and what I was witnessing was precisely that.

I hadn’t expected much, but I had blown my chance to eject her into the lobby. It was now time to enter serious CQB (Close Quarters Battle). Both of us were pushing into the inside of the building while suppressing fire.

And based on the information I had gathered so far, I confirmed:

'…Shooting a submachine gun with one hand while holding a shield. If it were a processor handling two skills, she could have only shot a pistol, but since that’s not the case, has she only unlocked the shield?'

I momentarily pondered whether there was any doubt in that conclusion but didn't seem to arrive at a wrong one. If that was the case, I would put aside thoughts about any other skills and redirect my strength to other areas.

In other words, it was now purely a battle of strength.

As a brief lull in the fight occurred, I quickly removed my bag and carefully hid the trophy system I had snatched during the earlier combat among the rocks, making sure it wasn’t visible. Meanwhile, two grenades Dice had almost thrown earlier were rolling on the wall, so I picked them up and stashed them in my multipurpose pouch.

Then, I placed the last Honey Badger magazine into the pouch as a final touch.

With that, the fight resumed.

As the number of covers increased, the engagement distance shortened. Just a few minutes ago, the combat distance had been around 40 meters, but now it was halved. In an area where smooth shooting was impossible and many paths to bypass existed, I had to deeply consider ammunition consumption.

Of course, Logan’s relentless advance, like a living fortress, was incredibly intimidating.

───Kwaaaang!

"What the…!"

The wall I had been leaning against suddenly buckled under a massive shockwave. It took me a moment to realize that it was the result of a delayed explosion from a grenade, causing the concrete cover to be completely destroyed.

I saw Logan, folding her shield and raising her gun beyond the shattered concrete wall. I immediately hid behind the adjacent wall, but she unloaded an entire magazine, sounding as if she intended to smash the wall to pieces. About 30 rounds later, the wall crumbled, and the only thing left to stop the bullets was my shield.

As I hurriedly dodged from my position, I saw the stock of the gun.

Even a UFC heavyweight champion would be sent flying several meters if hit by that, but I barely evaded by leaning my neck back.

• Swoosh!

 

A chilling split. But the next moment, a kick hit me. I rolled backward a few meters as the bullets thudded against my shield. Just as I regained my stance and hid behind the wall, I heard the sound of her kicking off the ground, determined not to lose momentum.

At some point, I switched the sticky bomb to a forward explosion mode, then charged at Logan, who was unloading bullets while abruptly stopping. I pressed the launcher against her abdomen and pulled the trigger with a click.

With an explosion at long range, Logan was sent flying through the air.

───Thump!

I too was thrown in the opposite direction.

However, I already knew I would be tumbling backward, so I quickly regained my stance and injected a nanomachine injector to recover HP and heal my injuries. Of course, Logan had vanished as well. She was likely hiding behind the wall. This returned the combat to square one.

The situation was stagnant, and ammunition was running low. I had two magazines left—three if I counted the ones hidden in the pouch—and although I wasn’t sure how many Logan had, considering she was using her pistol more frequently and actively employing grenades, it was not a good situation.

The battle had already lasted over five minutes, so it was no wonder.

It would be best to mix in some tricks to lure Logan.

Of course, the bait was myself.

"Just as I thought."

I quickly retrieved the MCX I had discarded when I switched to Dice’s gun.

Although I couldn’t control the recoil due to processor handling issues preventing me from synchronizing it with Icarus gear, there wasn’t a gun I couldn’t handle the recoil of. Holding the MCX with one magazine each in my left ring finger, pinky, middle finger, and index finger, I began pulling the trigger without hesitation.

Noticing the sound of gunfire had changed, her movements became somewhat more passive. In that moment, I gripped the handle with my left hand, took my right hand off the trigger, and pulled a grenade from my pouch, throwing it.

To the audience, it likely appeared as though I was genuinely attempting a counterattack. And to some extent, that was correct.

But my aim was to completely crush Logan’s shield. The existence of that ballistic shield was a burden to me.

And then—

───Kakakakang!

Logan began to raise her shield to face me seriously.

In an instant, she used two out of the four magazines. For several seconds, she blocked bullets with her shield, but it seemed wiser to retreat rather than lose the shield, so she quickly backed off. Naturally, in the process, she managed to chip away at some of my shield.

In less than a minute, both sides had expended well over 120 rounds of ammunition. It was effectively a war of attrition. However, digging deeper into the fight would put me at a disadvantage. If both sides had exhausted their ammunition, facing Logan, who only wielded a tactical hammer and had a shield, would likely not yield favorable results.

But it was worth it.

I successfully lured Logan to the cleverly hidden position of the trophy system by burning through a significant amount of bullets, and at that moment, I heard the sound of a grenade pin being pulled.

In that instant, with a simple gesture, the interception system hidden among the rocks activated, targeting the grenade that had just left Logan’s hand.

And then…

"Ugh."

Kwaaaang.

While it was quite small for a grenade explosion, the impact from the grenade, which had only been a few centimeters away from her hand, was considerable. As Logan was pushed back and crashed into the wall with a thud, I charged the nanite canister I had loaded in the chemical launcher, melting everything around and devouring her cover.

Thus, Logan had no time to fold her shield. But I also had only enough ammunition left for two magazines of the Honey Badger. From now on, it would be a chicken game to see whether I would run out of bullets first or whether Logan's shield would break.

Chasing and being chased in combat. Unfortunately, I was faster, and Logan had to choose whether to let her shield's durability break first or her own. At that point, I swapped magazines, which was essentially the last magazine for my main weapon. Logan likely knew that there were no magazines left in my armor pouch.

However, at this point, a significant problem arose for me.

───Drdrdrdrdrdrdr!

"…!"

The runaway phenomenon.

In other words, a cook-off.

The chamber was severely overheated, causing bullets to discharge automatically without pulling the trigger.

Not only was the suppressor cylinder glowing bright red from all the shooting, but the air itself had heated up due to the lava below, which was spewing radiant heat, leaving the gun unable to cool down. Naturally, the result was disastrous, and the situation had already reached an irretrievable state.

Thus, rather than separating the magazine, I continued aiming with the mindset of firing off everything I had left, and as I shot the last round, Logan threw her completely shattered shield to the ground.

In that instant, without hesitation, I drew my pistol from the holster and began firing. It was literally a fight where everything was at stake. Due to the effective range and aiming of the pistol, the engagement distance narrowed in an instant. It was time to truly finish this. Only a minute remained before the entire building would collapse and be swallowed by lava.

"Ugh…!"

"Kugh!"

Kwaaaang!

As we faced off behind a wall, the moment I tossed the last grenade Dice had left behind, Logan sprang out from her cover. The shockwave from the explosion enveloped both Logan and me, and I filled the remaining bullets into her shield. Her shield broke first, but I had also exhausted all the bullets from my magazine.

It was too close to exchange magazines now. It was time to start CQC (Close Quarters Combat) rather than CQB. I spun my pistol around, grabbed the front, and swung the handle as a hammer while facing Logan, who was skillfully wielding her knife.

Of course, the opponent’s blade was literally faster than light. With a swoosh, the blade pierced through my right arm. However, I held onto the hand wielding the knife, preventing my arm from being severed, and kicked her in the abdomen to push her away.

With a sound, my right arm was completely ruined. Even as I kicked and pushed her away, it seemed she had firmly held onto the handle. Ignoring that, I coiled my tail around the pistol and placed the tip of my tail on the trigger, letting my limp right hand go and switching the magazine with my left.

Thus, I held the tactical hammer in my left hand, supported by my tail in my right hand, and aimed the pistol at the enemy.

"Hah…."

A chilling silence.

But the next moment, the silence was shattered. As if she intended to completely destroy my already disabled right arm, Logan threw a newly drawn blade along with a throwing knife. I defended with my useless right arm while shooting with the pistol coiled around my tail. Since I was shooting with my tail wrapped around my right hand, the recoil wasn’t too strong.

Neither Logan nor I had anywhere left to retreat. The real close combat began. Now, that damn polar bear charged forward, taking shots from the pistol bullets, and within seconds, the knife and hammer created graceful arcs of deadly potential in the air.

The force behind the blade and hammer was so immense that each swing shattered and chipped away at the concrete walls. As I crushed the polar bear's collarbone with the hammer in my left hand, both her ruined right arm and my tail were severed at once. The tail holding the pistol flew through the air. But not caring, I widened the distance a little, grinning as I added:

"I still have one skill left."

And with a whoosh.

In an instant, I held the sticky bomb launcher in my left hand. There was no need to embed it into my body; I just had to aim it at the ground near my opponent and pull the trigger. Of course, even then, she threw her tactical knife in a final attempt, penetrating my abdomen. However, the damage she took was far lesser than mine.

The explosion dissipated. Thankfully, she wouldn’t survive this time. Logan, lying on the ground with a couple of her limbs blown off, chuckled absurdly and continued speaking.

"You won."

"Of course. Who taught you?"

There were only 15 seconds left until the total collapse of the building.

I tossed the launcher aside and struggled to open the multipurpose pouch with my left hand. The moment a silver magazine was inserted into the Honey Badger, Logan's expression changed strangely, but I chuckled and added:

"…It would have been easier to use this earlier. Why?"

"I wanted to be sure."

Clank. The sound of metal scraping as a bullet was pushed into the chamber echoed sharply in my shoulder and ear. Thankfully, it seemed to have cooled down enough, so the cook-off phenomenon didn’t occur again.

I lifted the AAC Honey Badger with my left hand and firmly braced it against my shoulder.

I searched for words to say, but I had nothing significant to offer. I would also die from excessive blood loss in about 30 seconds.

"You fought really well."

That was my final reply.

The moment I pulled the left index finger, I felt a subtle recoil, and the gun barrel trembled.

-[Alert: Operator killed.]

-[You are the apex predator!]

With that one shot, the Final Championship came to an end.

"The final match of the 3rd Final Championship is won by Yujin!"

Wowwww—!

The sound of thunderous applause and roaring cheers echoed. Even among the tens of thousands, there were 60,000 people. Even the most professional hosts couldn’t suppress the strain in their voices, let alone the audience. The 3rd Final Championship was hotter and more passionate than ever.

Not only the audience but also the players were swept up in the excitement, materializing into the Korean representative team going wild in the debriefing room. Everyone embraced each other, and even Dice, upon seeing Yujin win with the gun she had used, covered her mouth and expressed her joy, tears spilling over.

Of course, just as everyone cheered,

"…Ah."

It was really exhausting.

As the session ended, Yujin lay sprawled in an empty room, staring at the ceiling and thinking that.