NoveLight ™
───Crackle.
"Bad reception, poor signal… I thought so. But the rain’s not too bad. The sound of it should help mask our footsteps. Hopefully, water won’t get in and cause any damage."
"This unit was designed for short-term engagements and operations in favorable conditions. However, all waterproofing is in place, so there’s no need to worry. Furthermore, in this weather, the cooling efficiency of the advanced plasma cannon will slightly increase."
"That’s a welcome piece of news. Let’s go."
The steady hum in my ear, the rain falling steadily from the sky, and the dim sky above. The sunlight was certainly pouring down above the thick clouds, but the beings on the ground definitely weren't benefiting from it.
In the meantime, Jin and I arrived at our destination. We had arrived at the customs office. The spawn area was a logistics warehouse. I couldn’t yet confirm how much the map had changed, but based on the chat comments, I could tell that what should have been a dormitory area was now littered with old and new frameworks, sniper towers, and such... it was a mess.
The layout was chaotic, and the sizes of the buildings and structures were so large that the long diagonal road that should’ve divided the map north and south had become a winding, twisted path, as if it had been compressed from above.
The logistics warehouse and the river to the west of the customs seemed to be in their original locations, though...
"I wonder what happened to the power station. Let’s roam the map and check."
The large beacon inside my bag rattled.
The beacon, roughly the size of a tank battery, could be split into five parts, and today we were planning to place them in designated spots across the map. The locations were five in total: the red warehouse, dormitory, new framework, water storage, and the power station.
By placing them, we’d be able to receive updated map and enemy data.
The method was simple. Jin, who had made significant progress with firepower last time, would lead, and I would follow behind as the operative, placing the beacons. If we were lucky, we wouldn’t have to deal with any enemies roaming the map.
Of course, no one here was expecting that.
───Boom!
"…I’ve been seeing that four-legged tank a lot lately. Do you know what it is?"
"MEP-1. The Multi-purpose Engagement Platform model 1. It’s equipped with a 130mm thermochemical cannon and can fire any compatible type of shell. It also has wheels between its legs, allowing it to quickly change direction in emergencies."
"So, it’s basically a tank with legs. Can we disable it with the plasma cannon?"
"If we target the main gun, ammunition storage, or the turret-body joint, there’s a 70% chance of destroying it. However, it’s possible it has an electric field generator that creates significant interference, so we should avoid attacking recklessly."
"Then let’s ignore it for now."
Why are they like this?
No matter what, I’m still human. I can’t just take down a tank with my bare hands, it’s obvious. But what are the viewers thinking, making such claims? Of course, if I had the Icarus Gear, it wouldn’t be that difficult to win.
EMP it to temporarily disable the controls, then jump up to the turret, drill-charge the hatch, and it would be over. I’ve done it a few times in New York... though, obviously, I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I had to because we were short on personnel.
In any case, I passed by the squad patrolling the logistics warehouse and headed toward the red warehouse.
I slipped through the opening and peeked inside. It was full of enemies. Naturally, I couldn’t just ignore them and install the beacon secretly. In other words, all of them, or at least half of them, needed to be taken down and laid out on the cold ground.
I sighed and added:
"This is something Lorentina would excel at."
So, what I pulled out wasn’t an axe.
Instead, it was a dagger, shaped like a wine corkscrew, called a Push Dagger. It was a T-shaped blade that protruded between the fingers. Its power was naturally inferior to an axe, but given the large number of enemies, I needed to take them down with minimal noise and movement.
I hadn’t forgotten the suppressed pistol either.
Handing the bag with the beacons to Jin, I added:
"Follow me slowly."
"...What kind of close-combat weapon does the Archetype not handle?"
"Don’t worry about it, just hurry up."
Tap.
At that moment, I dashed quickly across the interior of the warehouse. With the tactical backpack, loaded with not just beacons but all sorts of items, passed off to Jin, I felt much lighter. But now it was time to focus. Since everyone here was wearing exoskeletons, their strength had probably matched mine. If I wasn’t careful, it could be difficult to suppress them.
I moved stealthily behind the reconnaissance squad of three. The first thing to target was the back of the neck, particularly the brainstem and cerebellum, a combination of the midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord—exactly where my hand would strike.
In less than 0.1 seconds, the enemy I targeted collapsed to the ground as their central brain functions were destroyed. The enemy to the right tried to identify my direction, but by the time he saw me, the last thing he would’ve noticed was a suppressed pistol with a black Osprey silencer.
As soon as my left index finger twitched, another enemy collapsed, and there was one left. I quickly placed the knife back into my right hand and aimed the pistol in the opposite direction. A small shot rang out, and the subsonic bullet pierced his skull.
Before the body hit the floor, I carefully placed the warm bullet casings down and added:
"Come on, hurry up, we don’t have time to hide the bodies."
"...Confirmed."
Well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t seen this before.
There was still a long way to go, and many more bullets to be fired.
"Looks like the north part of the map, from warehouse 17 to the sniper tower, has completely shifted. But the dormitory area is still there. I think the depot area remains the same though."
"Curious. The movement route seems strange. I wonder why it’s being shifted in this way."
"Well, buildings have been erected in the high ground to the north. If the scouts catch us, it’ll cause trouble. We can’t afford to be careless, even if it’s raining."
"Understood."
With the lighter bag in hand, I moved toward the center of the dormitory.
After erasing all the enemies near or inside the red warehouse, I installed the beacon. The bag now had a lot of extra space. There were still four beacons to place, but that number would soon be reduced to three, making our journey a little easier.
Of course, there was no time to slack off. It was obvious that anyone near the logistics or red warehouse would quickly notice something was off. While they might not figure out where we had gone, they would certainly know someone had infiltrated.
Even though the beacon was hidden in a space where no one could find it, I wasn’t worried about it being destroyed.
Anyway, back to the mission, Jin and I were currently checking the dormitory area where the new framework used to be.
There were quite a few enemies, but not too many. The dormitory area itself wasn’t strategically valuable, so it seemed like only the minimum necessary personnel were deployed. Therefore, the pre-scouting didn’t take long, and we didn’t spend too much time there.
Meanwhile, Jin seemed quite impressed by the close-assault tactics I used earlier. She was eager to try it herself, making it clear she wanted to give it a go—and I only had one method to teach her.
Breaking necks.
"I did it."
And within three minutes, Jin had sent seven enemies to Styx River with swift precision.
It was expected. A machine that had already surpassed the physical limits of a human wearing an exosuit could easily snap a human neck with all its might. The result? A loud snap, of course.
And because Jin had followed my advice not to be careless and eliminate enemies before they could alert the communications network, the second and third bodies she took down had their ribs shattered—essentially preventing any leakage of information.
At this point... Artemis would probably see us as walking disasters, but I didn’t care. That wasn’t my problem.
As I activated the second beacon, I muttered:
"The rain’s muffling the noise… but something feels off. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Do you have any solid evidence for that?"
"No. But sometimes, a feeling can emerge without logic or evidence. It’s just a 50% guess whether something will happen or nothing at all."
"The logic circuits of this unit have concluded that preparing for possible outcomes would be more helpful."
"I like that conclusion."
Although I said that, the problem was that the possibilities were too vast.
Assuming the worst-case scenario—the Artemis enemies detected us while we were roaming the map—then the escape routes would likely become the only option.
Thankfully, the depot area hadn’t changed much, and there was still a ZB-1012 exit on the list. If necessary, we could escape that way.
'...I don’t really like thinking about escape as the plan, but...
Back when I was active with Dagger Team, at the beginning of the crisis, we didn’t really plan for an escape route. It was either we’d push through and wipe out the enemies or get overrun. Looking back, it was truly insane, but on the other hand, it planted an odd idea in my mind.
If we wiped out all the enemies on the ground, there’d be no need to retreat, something like that.
In any case, my brain was full of scenarios about what to do if the enemy suddenly swarmed in, and after a quick mental calculation, the simplest conclusion was...
"Either we steal one of their tanks, or we’re going to need at least an NSV or a grenade launcher... in that case, I’d need to head for the new framework. I should’ve brought the KPV if I had known."
"…Is that part of the joke, Archetype?"
"Perhaps."
Sadly, that was the extent of the firepower available.
Since I didn’t know how many enemies were in other areas, the primary objective was to focus on combat first. Naturally. Going into a stealth mission while assuming combat would be necessary was the right preparation, but treating combat as inevitable would be crazy.
So, I focused again on moving silently, passing through Na Dong and heading toward Warehouse 4. The depot was a cluster of three warehouses, so it was quite dangerous. Fortunately or unfortunately, there were no enemies at the old gas station, and we crossed the side gate, passed under the gas station, and turned toward the depot.
That’s when a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"The worst-case scenario would be if one of those same-model units suddenly barged in, don’t you think?"
"...That’s also a possibility."
"I’m certain that if that happens, our chances of survival would be nearly zero..."
"But there is one thing we can rely on."
"What’s that?"
"This."
At that moment, Jin rummaged through her bag and pulled out a grenade.
I took it, confused, and examined it closely. It looked like a standard 40mm grenade, but... the word written on the side stopped me in my tracks.
Antimatter Grenade. Literally, a "antimatter grenade"—usually, we call grenades "hand grenades." The destructive radius was 75 meters. It was something so terrifying, it almost made me afraid to even look at it. The inside was hollow, but upon closer inspection, there was something almost invisible, as small as the tip of a needle, floating inside.
I wasn’t sure what exactly it was, but it didn’t matter. More importantly, when had she gotten this? Then I remembered, we had been chatting with Dagger Team before I logged in, so maybe it was a gift or something.
Remarkable, really.
Meanwhile, Jin spoke up.
"…Archetype."
"Yeah?"
"I’m picking up friendly signals on my radar… but they’ll likely register me as an enemy."
"No way."
"It seems the worst-case scenario I suggested is becoming a reality."
───Whoooom!
But there was no time to answer.
Somehow, a device came flying from a distance, soaring in an arc and landing right in front of Jin and me. Its tail opened in a spiral, and rails formed on either side. A blinding arc of electricity discharged as I made out a single point in the center of the flash.
As I stepped off the wall and leapt up, a blue line of energy shot toward the air from behind. It was Jin’s plasma cannon. The enemy’s final shot missed, as it veered wildly, targeting the empty air instead of me.
The sensation of time slowing down spread throughout my body, but in that moment, I saw a black spot moving at such extreme speed that even my enhanced vision couldn’t track it. Along with it, memories of past conversations returned.
‘Is this a follow-up model to the Minigun-equipped unit...?!’
An epsilon-type unit equipped with a railgun on its tail.
As I watched from a distance, the chimney of the sniper tower to the north was obliterated by a direct hit from the railgun, and my body, which had done a quick aerial flip, landed back on the ground.
Changing the magazine, I added:
"Let’s survive this."
"Of course."
The battle to survive had begun.
"What did I expect, right? This mission was practically impossible from the start."
"Two beacons installed. Switching to thermal imaging."
"M145A1 anti-material sniper rifle locked in, internal current circulator operating normally. Antimatter rounds loaded. Lethal range: 35 meters. We can’t let Artemis scum interfere with the rookie’s engagement."
Click.
The sound of metal as the antimatter rounds slid into the chamber. Under the pouring rain, Lorentina, covered with an optical camouflage net, and Logan, loading grenades, locked onto the four-legged tank moving along the road.
The power of E=mc² would soon sweep through the customs building.