"I mean, even though it was 5x speed in virtual reality, finishing the mission in less than 15 minutes? In real-time, it’s barely been 3 minutes since we entered and finished."

"Well, you didn’t intend to drag it out here anyway. You know the longer you stay in enemy territory, the lower your chances of success. We wrapped it up quickly."

"Phew, still... As a control officer, I know we shouldn’t talk much with the participants, but it’s so much more comfortable when it’s just the two of us talking. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest."

Lorentina exhaled like someone who had been suffering from indigestion and finally had the discomfort ease away.

The reason she acted that way was simple. Participants couldn’t watch others doing the third mission, but both the regular observers and control officers could – which meant she could directly see how the others were struggling through their factory infiltration mission.

What should I say? I don’t think Logan or I would have been lacking as participants in this mission. Even the least experienced among us here had military service records equal to or better than mine.

But, as much as that might seem to count, the reality was different. Service records weren’t the key to everything. A single wrong decision could lead to disaster, and when a mission failed, the people who died weren’t judged by their rank or experience.

And that was the result playing out right now in the simulation.

"The scout drones shown before the competition didn’t have any direct combat capability. Even if they marked the enemy’s position in the air, ultimately, it’s the people who have to take them out."

"Right. They’ve got the equivalent of three company-sized enemy forces, almost 200 enemies, but two people can only carry so much ammunition."

Approximately 240 rounds per person.

With two people, that would be double the amount, but it’s important to remember that it takes several shots to kill a single enemy. If you go into a factory with only about 500 rounds, and the firefight drags on… things could get bad pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, this was the situation playing out in real-time within the simulation.

"Sniper turrets combine the roles of a spotter and sniper. While they’re not as good as scout drones, they still have limited UI functions to mark enemy positions. It’s good to have as much information as possible before an operation, but sometimes, you need to be quick and move without gathering all the intel."

"How does it feel, Lorentina, to watch people walk into a trap you’ve carefully set?"

"Well, I suppose they’ll learn their lesson."

And then she continued.

Of course, as usual, Shark, Logan, and I headed straight to the lounge as soon as the test ended, and the room became a private space where no one else could enter or eavesdrop once we stepped in.

So, we could say things like this.

"As soon as the tests are over, we’ll distribute the videos to the losers, showing how the youngest and Logan got through this mission, with commentary. We’ll also keep the simulation room open. The eliminated teams should get enough feedback."

"It won’t be easy."

"Well, this mission doesn’t have a clear answer anyway. Some might pass by using scout drones perfectly, while we’re just showing one of the many possible successes. There’s nothing more to it than that."

Lorentina scrolled through the results again.

Eliminations, eliminations, eliminations, engaged in combat, eliminations, success... unlike the fairly smooth progress of previous missions, the third mission, starting from 3 PM the next day, was seeing an increasing number of eliminations.

Eliminations were inevitable. Unlike other missions with partial points, this one only had binary outcomes: elimination or success.

But the number of eliminations was high this time.

Still, some people were succeeding.

"Some people are playing really sneakily. But, looking at it, you can say it’s a great choice rather than just being sneaky."

"Seeing a few teams succeeding with scout drones... that’s impressive. There were teams that waited outside, reduced enemy numbers, and infiltrated calmly."

The 75th Ranger Regiment’s method.

They literally stuffed 500 rounds into each person’s backpack, fully loaded, and then launched scout drones from at least 700 meters away, hunting down everything in sight.

Once 30 enemy soldiers had their heads shot, the rest panicked and hid inside the building, but these guys closed the distance, circled the base, and took out another 25 enemies. Afterward, they moved to a less occupied area on the opposite side and infiltrated.

It took them 7 minutes in virtual reality from retrieving the data from the central building to their exit.

Their total time was 48 minutes and 22 seconds, leaving just about 1 minute and 30 seconds before the deadline.

"That was a brilliant play."

"Yeah, when our allies waste time inside the enemy base, it’s a problem, but they really did a good job dragging it out outside. Choosing not to rush into the base was a clever decision."

"Impressive observation and decisiveness. It’s no surprise that the groups with more real combat experience are ahead."

SAS, JTF-2, and countless other special forces, including many I can’t even list.

Logan and I had built an overwhelming career, and with our physical advantages, we were on a different level, but there were many teams chasing our records. It seemed that the world was full of monsters.

Despite that, Lorentina continued.

"I want to slack off as much as possible, but more tasks keep coming up. Especially, I think the instructors from the sniper school are really interested in this competition."

"Didn’t they start watching already?"

"Seems like that wasn’t enough for them. Tomorrow, I think a group of sniper course candidates will be coming for a tour."

"...Isn’t that a bit late?"

"Everything from the first and second days has already been recorded, you know."

Hmm.

It made sense that the military personnel working here would be interested in the competition.

With sniper schools, basic military schools, CQB schools, armored schools, and non-commissioned officer schools, this place had it all. And, as I mentioned earlier, it was the home base of the 75th Ranger Regiment. In such a place with incredible facilities and human weapons testing their limits, of course, people would be curious.

Lorentina continued, summarizing that the military streaming available only to designated personnel yesterday had exploded in popularity by today, with a massive surge of people eager to observe and assess the footage.

It seemed Shark might have to deal with a potential flood of people. Of course, he wouldn’t let that happen.

"I guess that’s why you wanted to go have some beers before things got busier?"

"Haha, yeah, that’s pretty much it. Though, I’m joking. There’s nothing to really do tomorrow, right? You and I won’t touch the ghillie suit infiltration mission, and once the shooting without spotters and helicopter ground shooting is over, we’ll be completely free."

"Yeah, you won’t have much to do either."

Shark nodded quietly.

Tomorrow’s infiltration mission was set to involve eight of the nine control officers, excluding Lorentina. These eight would split into four pairs, heading to different fields where eight snipers would crawl around in the grass for three hours, trying to spot them.

A two-person team would need to find eight snipers crawling around in the grass, and this would take place in multiple locations simultaneously, with 16 teams under strict supervision for 3 hours.

There were 32 teams in this competition, so after repeating this process, it would take 6 hours. Logan, Lorentina, and I would have nothing to do during that time.

It might seem odd that Shark was just spectating, but...

"If you participate, you’d be spotted in less than 10 minutes. The ones who get caught would end up with long faces and be sent to the auditorium. For 3 hours, maybe 6 hours, depending."

"If it were Olivia, she’d be done in 2 minutes, no doubt."

It was, after all, because of the ability user.

No matter the animal that served as the origin, once someone became an ability user, their physical abilities and senses would develop rapidly. Naturally, they would surpass human limits.

What would happen if Lorentina, the human scanner, used a spotting scope? The benchmark would skyrocket. That’s why Shark couldn’t join the infiltration mission.

After thinking for a moment, Lorentina spoke again.

"Weapon recovery and maintenance will be done by the youngest and Polar Bear, and I have to distribute the tour participants properly tomorrow, so..."

"Anything going on?"

"...Youngest, if I give you some information, can you calculate the movement routes, vehicle allocation, seat order, food quantities enough for everyone, the number of binoculars, and then make some documents based on that?"

Ah, she was making a joke.

But with the Icarus Gear, there was no problem.

I smiled slightly, and Lorentina, at that moment, subtly fiddled with the terminal in her pocket—of course, the fact that Shark had asked for it would disappear, and it would seem like I hacked the terminal to retrieve the information for easy handling.

It didn’t take long to write. After confirming a few variables, the AI provided some drafts, and Lorentina selected the most suitable ones. Within seconds, several cooperation request documents were created.

Lorentina immediately submitted them to the command, and within minutes, she legally obtained the authority to mobilize various vehicles and supplies on the base.

And then Shark hugged me and added:

"You really are the best, youngest."

"Of course."

"Phew..."

At the point where all tasks for the day were reduced to zero, Shark discarded all the shackles tied to the shark fin.

Tonight, Lorentina would turn Shark into a shark fin soaked in alcohol.

"Upload approval granted! They say this level of censorship is sufficient!"

"Great. I don’t know how much they’ll watch, but let’s go see."

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away on the Korean Peninsula.

The sniper competition—especially Korea’s performance—along with the video of Eugene and Logan, heavily censored and only containing a tiny fraction, was uploaded to the South Korean Ministry of Defense channel.

That video reached the number 1 spot in real-time trending videos just 2 hours ago.

"...This is exactly why it happened. My head is spinning. The longest distance we hit last time was about 1.5km, right?"

"You remember well."

"I haven't even left yet, so of course, it's impossible to forget something like that!"

"I didn't upload it, though."

Georgia, USA, Columbus, 10:00 PM local time, about 9:00 AM in Korea. Harmony and Dice urgently called me.

As mentioned earlier, while Lorentina was getting drunk with whiskey and beer, turning into something like a shark fin, this call came — and the content was something I hadn't expected. The urgent message sent me scrambling through YouSpace, and the result appeared right in front of me.

The video had been uploaded about... 9 hours ago. It seemed like it was posted exactly at midnight, Korean time. It was about 10 minutes long, and it had already surpassed 2 million views. In other words, Korea without me had completely exploded.

And unfortunately, it seemed that Harmony and Dice had been directly hit by the fallout.

"Anyway, it looks like you’re doing quite well, Eugene. Logan’s there too, I think…"

"Of course, right beside the youngest. Were you missing me? If I had the time, I would’ve gone to see you. It’s been a while, don’t you think we should spend some fun time together again at AP?"

"Kyahhh—!"

"Stop tormenting Dice."

What in the world was I doing to Ye-rin, who had already developed a phobia of Logan?

Of course, looking at the situation, it was clear she was probably doing it on purpose. So, for retaliation, I slapped Polar Bear’s thigh with a satisfying sound, and she almost jumped out of her seat, letting out a squeaky, feminine scream. Lorentina chuckled at the scene.

Even so, it seemed like she knew her mistake, as she didn’t do anything further to me.

That aside, the conversation continued.

"If that was the video from the first day, does that mean there will be videos from the second and third days too? This is crazy. It’s a good thing our departure is tomorrow, or I’d have been really surprised by how much this video blew up."

"Departure is right around the corner. I hope you’ve been studying Russian well."

"Thanks to the guide, who’s basically with us all the time, it shouldn’t be a big issue. But... Eugene, if you were there, it would have been so much better. By the way, you're coming on time, right? We’ll be in St. Petersburg first. You’ve never been there, have you?"

"No, unfortunately."

If I had stayed in that other world, I probably would’ve had the chance to visit Russia and China. Though, I likely would’ve taken a cargo plane instead of a commercial flight.

Becoming a reverse-Genghis Khan, trampling over Europe, China, and Russia, bombing everything with napalm... What was I thinking? I’ve had too much to drink.

I had to watch my words, so in the end, the only thing left to say was this:

"From the sound of your voice, I don’t think I need to worry too much. Looks like we’ll be able to secure the five spots for the final championship this year..."

"Right. It’s a bit awkward to say it like this, but this year, Japan isn’t even competing. Well, they’re not completely out, but their situation is pretty chaotic right now due to internal conflicts."

"If there’s anything to be cautious about... I’m sure someone else has already analyzed it much better than I could."

"Haha, I doubt that."

Like last year’s final championship, the Asia qualifier in St. Petersburg would see athletes from each country arrive a week in advance for jet lag and food adjustment.

In the worst case, if someone caught a cold or something similar, considering the VR competition, physical condition wouldn’t be a major issue, so I could relax about that.

So, continuing the conversation:

"Thanks to that, it looks like we’ll be able to go to St. Petersburg without much worry. Let’s meet on the Monday after next."

"Uh, yeah. That’s the day of the Asia qualifiers. You’re timing it just right, aren’t you?"

"Exactly."

And then the next comment:

"Before we leave, I’m taking Shark and Polar Bear to Disney World to recharge our childlike wonder."

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

After an unnervingly long silence, Dice burst out laughing.

"You’re not going to Disney World to recharge your childlike wonder. You and your friends are going to Disney World to spread violence with no dreams or hope."

"I’ll make sure to pass that on to Shark and Polar Bear. Just wait."

"Hey, wait, what!? Eugene, Eugene!?"

Of course, it didn’t get through.

It was then that Dice made a reservation for a shrimp cracker for Polar Bear and a special massage for Shark.