Actually Shooting Guns
After all that chaos had finally settled down.
So, for now, the basic avatar setup. The customization and settings seemed more or less finished.
I opened my mouth while twisting around an avatar that looked exactly like Camilla — one that wouldn't lose out even compared to my real body.
"Shall we go play a game now? That one we got recommended last time. Yeah, the police special forces game. It was a two-to-four player thing, right?"
If I dragged in people around me, I could easily scrape together four. And one of them I could call right this second.
"I'm basically the neighborhood punching bag, huh? Call me whenever you're bored."
Her mouth grumbled, but her body was honest — Ririyang answered my call immediately. I was a little speechless and shot back.
"You were already watching my stream anyway. From earlier. You were in the viewer list, so that's why I told you to come."
"When did you even see that… Still, just watching a stream and actually appearing on it are different things."
I roughly got what she meant. As far as I knew, Ririyang had the day off and was resting. Part of that rest involved watching a fellow streamer's broadcast — mine.
Even I, on my own off days, often relaxed by catching streams from people like Ririyang or Nikang. Getting suddenly yanked in while comfortably watching someone else's stream would be a little jarring, sure.
"But if I didn't call you and played with someone else instead, you'd complain later that you felt left out."
"…"
I'd already half-figured out Ririyang's psychology and behavior patterns. She couldn't argue with that one and shut her mouth.
And so began Police Swat. For now, we decided to run it in two-player mode.
"Oh…"
The background flipped in an instant. Some grand BGM boomed and thudded as we were moved into a space laid out with a handgun and an emblem that seemed to symbolize the police.
I'd felt it during the tests too, but it was a truly strange sensation. Like my body was still right here in reality, and only my field of vision had been relocated somewhere else.
The game — the world seen through VR — had better quality than I'd expected, which only made it more so.
While I was looking around in brief admiration, Ririyang's voice came through Discord.
"You in?"
"Yeah."
"Set the chat window so it's easy to see, too. When I stream with a VR headset on, I can barely read chat. It's just too chaotic."
That tracked. A chat window floating in a highly visible spot could easily get in the way of actually playing the game.
From viewers who'd watched it, and from Ririyang herself, I'd heard this game was already pretty tense even on PC. Physical ability and reflexes for quickly subduing criminals mattered a lot.
Playing it in VR now would only amplify those elements, not diminish them. Reading chat and interacting under those conditions? Completely unrealistic.
If anything, when you were mid-chase after a criminal, firing a gun, and pulling off all kinds of action, you'd be lucky if the chat window floating in front of you didn't just block your view.
Ririyang had apparently run into similar issues and, for VR streams, left chat management entirely to her managers.
Seeing her do that, I didn't figure I'd have much spare bandwidth either, so I handed chat management over to Kim Jaejun, one of the managers who was usually on my stream. While I was at it, I shoved the chat window I'd had floating in a visible spot all the way to the edge of the screen.
"Guys, I probably won't be able to read chat much while we're playing. I put it away because it looked like it'd block my vision once we got going. Don't be too sad… But I did set donations so the sound still comes through, so if you've got something to say, just donate."
Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't going to read chat at all. I planned to read it whenever there was a gap in the action. If you just played the game without reading chat, was that even a stream? That was just a live playthrough video on loop.
This was just preparing for the unexpected. Handing chat management to my manager Kim Jaejun was for the same reason.
"If you're ready, accept the invite. Just hit the interact button, yeah. There she is. If you start feeling motion sick, say something. Even if you were fine during the test, once you actually start playing you might get queasy."
Ririyang was showing a surprisingly professional side.
From our first meeting in Abyss to everyday life, I'd seen more of her airheaded moments than her sharp ones, so this version of her felt unfamiliar and new at the same time.
Following her instructions, I accepted the party invite and finished getting ready.
"Should we start with a one-star mission? It says subdue the terrorists who've seized a building and rescue the hostages."
"Is one star the easiest? Where do you even look at the mission list?"
"Check the file folder next to the map."
We were currently hanging out in a place that looked like a briefing room out of a movie. The lights inside were off as if a meeting had just wrapped, and assorted documents were scattered across a long conference table.
Among them, I checked the file folder Ririyang had mentioned.
"A bomb maker manufacturing homemade explosives, an illegal drug dealer, a serial killer… Just the names alone are pretty creepy, huh?"
We hadn't even entered a mission yet. With that much free time, I could chat with the stream for a bit.
"A two-person party of pure untrained civilians, is this even okay… Fair point. For now, if we just spray and pray, it'll hit something, right? Da-hee, have you ever fired a gun in VR?"
"Nope, this kind of game is a first for me too. But I don't think we necessarily have to use guns. There's a shield over here, and a baton too?"
Ririyang answered as she headed toward the space adjoining the conference room. Following her over, I saw she was right. Looking at the various weapons lined up, this place was some kind of armory.
"So we each grab whatever we want? You can take multiple, but there's a weight limit."
"Looks like you can only take one of something like an axe."
"There's a practice range next door — want to fire a few rounds before we go?"
"Good, good. If it doesn't feel right, we can just switch to a shield or an axe."
A shooting range sat right next to us. As if the game wanted you to finish picking weapons and handle the rest of your setup before starting. Looking at it, it almost felt like an FPS.
"Do we just shoot freely?"
Ririyang grabbed a rifle, stepped into a lane, and started blasting away at random. It didn't sound as loud as a real gunshot, but it was enough to make you think, yeah, that's a gun firing.
After however many bang-bang trigger pulls, Ririyang stepped out of the lane, and together we checked her target sheet.
"Hmm…"
"I kind of figured it'd go like this."
Without a word of protest, Ririyang turned around, headed back to the armory, and came back with a shield.
I figured she could've just played one round first and then grabbed a shield, but well — if she wanted to carry one, I wasn't going to stop her.
So was it my turn now?
I drew the rifle and pistol I'd equipped and stepped into the lane.
Oh. Maybe because it was VR, it really did feel different from a regular FPS. Something about it felt real. Old memories were bubbling up one after another.
Well. I guess we'd find out.
With the viewers' expectations riding on me, I settled the rifle against my shoulder.