The two individuals, with their unique appearances, should not have been in this place, yet they left carrying long weapon cases. As they did, the drone cameras focused on them. And Lorentina—having memorized the order of the sniper rifles waiting in the cabinet—could tell exactly what the junior team was carrying.

The auditorium was filled with a small murmur, barely reaching an audible limit. Most people were busy exchanging information on their devices, indicating just how much everyone here was strategizing.

When the rifles the two carried were revealed, someone smiled, while others' expressions twisted as if they’d bitten something unpleasant.

SVDM.

A Russian semi-automatic sniper rifle, once scattered by the thousands across the United States after the Russian military's involvement.

"Without knowing the rifle list, I can't say if it's a failure or if it's just better than the rest."

"It’s decent, isn’t it? Or is it on the harder side?"

It was difficult, but not excessively so.

I answered the lost question silently as it flowed through the air. Still, the reason I didn’t give it an easy score was because the SVD series rifle was the most common among Eastern Bloc sniper rifles.

Perhaps as a "foreign weapon" or through "enemy nation firearms training," there might have been no one here who hadn’t fired this rifle at least once. But still, I said it would be a bit difficult—because, despite looking like a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the internal structure was completely different.

That being said, considering the events in New York in another world, where you had to use whatever weapon you could find, I thought Eugene and Logan, like the other members of this group, had probably fired this rifle more times than most people here.

So, with a calm expression, one of the control officers sneaked a question into the comms.

"From the way your expression is full of confidence, I suppose those two will do quite well again, huh?"

"Of course. What else would they do?"

I wasn’t mistaken in making those two "extra participants."

Moreover, at night, the youngest could demonstrate unique physical abilities that others could never replicate—thermal vision. Unlike others, they could have a built-in infrared camera in their eyes, commonly used by special forces.

That’s why the youngest didn’t even need night-vision goggles, unlike Logan. In a sniping event, even though the gap between the physical abilities of the earthlings and the activated ones had narrowed, the baseline starting point was still different.

The youngest and Logan headed for their waiting point, and the control officer standing there held a stopwatch. Logan and Eugene placed their weapon cases on the table, waiting for the start.

A few seconds later...

BEEP!

With a brief signal, the case was opened, revealing highly distinctive parts nestled within shock-absorbing foam, filling the camera feed.

A moment of silence—but it was only for a moment. Logan retrieved a rectangular box from one side of the case, opened it, and began calmly loading the rifle with bullets and a magazine. Eugene, carefully removing each part to avoid damage, moved into assembling the gas piston.

Logan handed a bullet to Eugene, who placed it between the parts, securing the gas piston and covering it with the handguard. Then, they connected the bolt carrier to the upper receiver and covered it with the upper assembly.

Next, Eugene attached the scope that had been included on the Picatinny rail, securely fastened it, and placed the two magazines, now loaded, into her tactical vest before stepping outside.

It took 55 seconds.

"Damn it. Did they even disassemble the gas block?"

"I hope they don’t end up failing just by fiddling with the gun all day."

"Those two must not know what it’s like to shoot a gun they’ve never handled before."

You had to be able to handle almost every firearm like an expert.

But that didn’t mean you had to memorize the disassembly and reassembly of hundreds of firearms in any situation. Sure, if it was your country’s weapon, that could be possible, but the chances of handling unfamiliar firearms perfectly, especially without having seen them before, were pretty low.

Still, the youngest and Logan ran excitedly to the shooting point, placed their soft case on the ground, and immediately dropped into position. The Arctic Bear quickly adjusted the focus on the spotting scope, identifying the target hundreds of meters away that was blinking with the friend-or-foe identification device.

Eugene, without night-vision goggles, instantly found the target using the heat signature from the IFF, then adjusted the vertical and horizontal clicks to zero in.

"See that broken tank ahead? The target is about 40 meters to the left of it. Distance: 390 meters. Wind is blowing from left to right at 9 meters per second. Fire when ready."

"...Okay."

BANG!

And then CLANG.

Sparks flew from the darkness, and instead of the usual dull thud of impact, a sharp metallic sound rang out. Eugene and Logan both realized the mission was successfully completed, and the control officer behind them confirmed with the word "Impact."

1 minute 37 seconds. A remarkable time.

"Would you like to shoot more?"

"No, I’ll stop here."

With that, the two returned confidently with their weapon cases, and applause, which had now become a kind of annual tradition, erupted. Naturally, the general observers, invited from outside, clapped with impressed expressions, except for one person—Olivia, who was glaring with a sulky expression.

"One person doesn’t seem too impressed."

"I suppose so."

I knew what Olivia was thinking. Her sour expression was clearly an unspoken protest: "Why am I the only one who didn’t get to do something fun?"

But there were also others who didn’t seem bothered.

Anyway, the youngest team’s turn was over. Now, the day’s final mission was about to begin, and—as everyone expected—it couldn’t go smoothly.

Not even 10 minutes had passed before complaints began to surface.

"Given that the spring connects all the way to the stock, this looks like an AR-style rifle... Damn, I’m just glad the springs and clips weren’t disassembled."

"Damn it, it’s all screws... Well, thank goodness only the upper handguard is screwed in; that’s at least manageable, but... this thing..."

For semi-automatic sniper rifles, most were based on the Armalite platform, some rare ones based on the M14, and unlucky ones might be from Eastern Europe. In other words, those who picked this rifle had no problem assembling it and hitting the target within 2 minutes, unless it was an M14 or Eastern European weapon.

But the real trouble came with the bolt-action rifles, which were often unpredictable and involved.

"Damn it’s huge, is that a Barrett?!"

"DSR-1? This is nuts."

"DVL-10M3? Wasn’t this Russian? The internals aren’t much different, though..."

"Arctic Warfare... This might actually be doable... Damn, it’s a .50 caliber, this is going to be rough."

When the firearm was either easy to assemble or didn’t have many parts to disassemble, it was inevitably heavy and fired large-caliber rounds. Sometimes, the rare rifles in the weapon cases didn’t even provide many opportunities to fire.

As the drone cameras followed the competitors to their shooting positions, it was clear that those carrying heavier rifles often had to catch their breath as soon as they arrived. Even though the night-vision equipment worked fine, the time limit and night conditions still caused discomfort.

The difficulty level varied in different ways. Complaints about how the choice of rifle affected scores were minimal.

'...The difficulty of assembling the rifles inside the weapon cases is vastly different.'

The .50 caliber sniper rifle had been on screen multiple times. Considering the added weight, there weren’t many parts to disassemble, while the lighter, easier-to-carry rifles were divided into more detailed parts.

There were no rifles that couldn’t be assembled. Even for rare rifles, a brief assembly guide was included.

The difficulty was finely tuned, and the testing done repeatedly before participants even arrived had brought the unreasonable difficulty to a manageable level. It was a challenge designed to torment participants in the most creative ways possible under the name of "differentiation."

The third match, which started at 7 PM, didn’t end until 9:30 PM.

"That concludes the first day of the 2036 International Sniper Competition."

Points earned by each team from the three missions were displayed on the screen. However, only the top 16 rankings were shown. Teams ranked 17th or below had their scores hidden. If anyone wanted to know their exact position, they could contact the control officers later. Despite the numerous discussions, November 3rd came to an end without any incidents.

The first day, filled with the smell of gunpowder, had come to a close.

"How was today?"

"My mind is completely dizzy. The difficulty seems to be off the charts. Despite that, it’s impressive to see you guys pass all the missions perfectly."

"Ha ha."

Port Moore, 10:30 PM.

After all the missions had ended, every special forces member who participated in the competition returned to their vehicles, finished cleaning their weapons, and went back to their rooms to prepare for tomorrow.

They planned to cram what they had learned into their heads, then head back to their rooms to discuss and devise countermeasures for hours. But not everyone was following that plan.

For example, two members of the Navy SEALs, who started out in a country similar to Eugene’s, were in a different state of mind.

"About 20 minutes ago, the list of events from day one of the 2036 International Sniper Competition and our team's results were sent to Korea. Apparently, they were quite shocked."

"Yeah... There were some extreme scenarios in the missions. It makes sense."

"But we’ve never trained for something like this, so we can’t just sit around and do nothing. It’s been... a very beneficial time."

This was a conversation that could only take place between people from the same country.

"The friends in Jinhae are probably thinking, 'Does the US train for such extreme scenarios?' After we get back, we’ll probably add some extra training to the advanced sniper course and request additional funding from the higher-ups… it’s already making my head spin."

"Well, the US has already gone through that stage. Of course, I’m not saying Korea’s curriculum is outdated... it’s just that here, everything is touched on in one go."

"It’s necessary because it’s needed."

As they continued talking, Eugene and the others sat down.

"By the way, I heard you won’t be participating in the infiltration mission on the third day."

"I suppose so. Maybe Logan could do it, but for me... there are parts that are a bit hard to hide. The same reason why being deployed as a covert agent is difficult, ha ha."

"I think I get what you mean. I sincerely hope you won’t be the spotter identifying infiltrators."

"Ha ha."

As everyone checked their watches, it became clear that it was time for them to part ways.

"If you’re bringing more frozen pizza tomorrow, maybe you could spare us a slice or two?"

"What nonsense. Let’s get going, Haeil. There’s a debriefing to do."

"Then I’ll eat all the pizza tomorrow... Gah, please stop with the headlock...!"

"Don’t worry, I’ll get a slice for both of you."

With those words, the two from the same country and one other person slowly walked in opposite directions, disappearing into the distance.

The long, long first day of the competition was finally coming to a close.