Groundwork for the Approach
"Hey, how'd it go?"
"Shot down."
"You idiot. Called it."
The other part-timer at the PC Bang sneered at Choi Yunho's report. Yunho's face twisted at the jab, but his gaze never left the Connector the woman had just stepped into.
She'd been a beauty even at first glance. Her pale skin seemed to glow white even under the shop's thin indoor lighting, and set against the long black hair that fell straight to her waist, that white face stood out all the more. The slight upward flick at the corners of her eyes was striking. Paired with her blank expression, those lifted lids gave her a faintly irritable cast. Her bangs hung just over her eyes — the kind of cut that could have looked messy, except that it veiled her gaze in a way that only made her more attractive.
Doesn't even look like she's wearing makeup. She's actually gorgeous.
A girl or two walking into a famous PC Bang was nothing worth writing home about. A beauty of that caliber coming in alone, and with no makeup? That was genuinely rare. And more than anything, those furrowed eyes and that decadent face sat dead in the center of Yunho's strike zone.
They say there's no tree that won't fall if you strike it ten times. Yunho had no intention of giving up. In any other situation he might have backed off, but now they had Last of Quantum as a shared topic of conversation. There was no reason to retreat.
Honestly, when she'd said she played Last of Quantum, Yunho hadn't been able to hide his surprise. What kind of game was Last of Quantum? It was an FPS that had exploded in popularity on word of mouth, famous for a vividness indistinguishable from reality — soldiers in body armor, grenades at their belts, rifles in their hands, trading fire with the enemy, feeling the savage kick of the gun against your shoulder as you punched holes through another person's body. Every scene rendered with zero filtering, utterly realistic. A game that might as well have been war itself.
Last of Quantum. LaoQuan, for short. Yunho loved the game enough that watching a woman who'd only just picked it up, he couldn't help but worry.
She's not going to rage-quit in five minutes, is she?
For Yunho, it was a perfectly reasonable concern. How many female players did this game even have? Its overwhelming popularity was a story that applied to men and men alone. You could tell just by looking at how vanishingly few female pros there were, even in a country where esports was thriving. And if she was a complete newbie who'd never even fired a gun?
Unlike other games that held a new player's hand, LaoQuan was not kind to newbies. The high barrier to entry was part of it, but the real problem was the so-called "newbie hunting" — other players treating fresh meat as a joke. He had no idea what wind had blown her into a PC Bang to play Last of Quantum, but he could already see the newbie getting carved up.
Then again, they say a crisis is an opportunity. You teach a brand-new player the ropes, and you get close in the process. Even Yunho had to admit there was no more perfect plan than this.
She was probably underestimating Last of Quantum — how hard could a game really be? That kind of lazy thinking. Yunho knew it well, because he'd been the same. If someone else's play looks easy, that's because they're actually good.
He remembered the first time he'd encountered Last of Quantum. A stream he'd stumbled across. The streamer dropped enemies with aim that was close to perfect. Back then, Yunho had no idea how hard it was to shoot like that. The streamer's casual, like-it's-nothing commentary had fooled him too. And besides — every Korean man has fired a rifle at least once in the military, right? Viewers going wild over play that didn't look that difficult. Unable to make sense of the phenomenon, he'd started Last of Quantum. He could play at that level too. Hell, maybe he could play better.
A stupid, pathetic thought. The moment he took his first step into Last of Quantum, he understood just how foolish he'd been.
Yunho had no doubt the woman would go through the same thing. Last of Quantum was the kind of game that burned you badly if you walked in thinking it was easy. That was the deep-rooted advice of someone who'd charged in brainlessly and gotten his skull cracked.
But the situation wasn't so bad for Yunho. After a few matches, she'd realize just how hard LaoQuan really was. And she'd get discouraged. If he showed up then and walked her through the basics, step by step... was there a better way to build favorability?
Having settled on the plan, Yunho pulled up the woman's game feed on the computer at the counter. Ordinary Connectors didn't allow spectating a player in-session, but given the unpredictable nature of a PC Bang, they'd been set up so staff could watch. Of course, the feature hadn't been built for this kind of use, and peeking at every little thing a woman he'd just met was doing did sting his conscience a little. Yunho, however, was unashamed.
This was preliminary prep for the approach. Showing this much interest in his future girlfriend was only natural.
His coworker was staring at him from behind like he was pathetic. Yunho didn't care. Whatever else was going on, his number-one interest was that woman.
I looked around. Roughly stacked boxes and wooden planks came into view. Being indoors, the air had a stale smell, like the place hadn't been ventilated in a long time. Dust even drifted through it — and somehow those details only made it feel more real.
Looking further, I spotted a firing range, and beside it a man in military fatigues. Given the situation, he was probably the NPC who taught the basic controls. I stepped closer, and a booming voice rolled out as guidance text bloomed in front of my eyes.
Before you're deployed, I'll teach you the basics of combat! First, pick up the rifle in front of you!
I did as I was told and lifted the firearm from the table. In the corner of my vision, remaining ammunition appeared alongside my health.
M16 Assault Rifle
Ammunition remaining
Vitality displayed
The issued rifle was an M16 assault rifle. I'd used one more than a few times, so it wasn't a particularly unfamiliar weapon.
Once you've been issued a weapon, take your place on the firing line! I'm going to see what this trainee can do!
An arrow blinked along a shabby firing lane that looked like it had been slapped together out of lumber. I followed the marker, and a hologram identical to me flickered into being right beside me. The sudden projection plucked a rifle out of empty air and settled into a firing stance.
I'm supposed to copy that?
On the off chance that was the idea, I mirrored the hologram's posture exactly. A bright ding rang out as if to confirm I'd gotten it right, and text unfurled in front of my eyes.
Steady your breathing and pull the trigger on the count.
So this was the shooting stance the guide articles had mentioned.
Bang!
I fired on cue, and the hologram beside me vanished. As if that were only natural, the instructor's booming voice rolled in again.
Excellent shooting, trainee! From here on, we raise the difficulty. Keep firing until it feels natural!
The words had barely left him before the targets in front of me started sliding left and right. They were large silhouettes, head and torso showing at once. The range was long, and they were moving, but not enough to give me any real trouble.
Bang—!
Bam-bam!
Everything was more real than I'd expected. From the recoil slamming into my shoulder to the acrid bite of gunpowder in the air — even the way the rounds flew, even the instant the casings hit the ground, it all insisted this was reality. I understood why the men at the range had said there was no difference.
The faint sense of wrongness I'd felt when I first logged in had already started to fade. With this much realism, I found myself thinking it might actually be worth sticking with. The finer points would only become clear once I'd played a little more, but so far the impression wasn't bad. If anything, I'd only finished the tutorial and my interest in the game was already climbing.
This trainee's got the fundamentals down! Let's move on!
After that I worked through pistol fire, grenade throws, and close-quarters combat before I was finally allowed out of the tutorial. Relearning things I already knew was more of a slog than I'd expected. Even so, I couldn't help being surprised by how practical the instruction was. I'd assumed a game would only go through the motions, but it was teaching tactics that actually got used in real combat.
If the tutorial was this thorough, what was the real game going to be like?
I quieted the thrum in my chest and queued for a match. It was time to actually play.