Encounter
Dark Zone.
Thanks to its overwhelming realism and the countless convenience patches that came with it, the VR FPS game had become the most successful of all time. It pulled in every military enthusiast like an octopus, and even those who cared about the military just a little bit.
Despite having been created by literally tearing people apart, its in-game quality was believable, the BGM majestic, and it had bought the copyrights of countless existing computer FPS games to keep updating the game internally. In short, it was a bottomless fountain of content.
Even a movie made entirely from in-game play had been successfully released and racked up impressive box-office numbers. Dark Zone and Ikarus International had gone beyond just a game to lead culture itself.
But, as always, Dark Zone was never perfect.
And among its flaws, one in particular had always led the charts.
───!
“Hic, hey! Just a second! Just a second!”
The moment Harmony started rolling toward the tutorial area—Central Park HQ—her movement became severely difficult.
She had almost deliberately chosen party play, and the level design had been built around it. In the very beginning of the game, when she knew nothing at all, she had been told to find her way to a designated spot by herself. It was a tutorial that felt no different from falling off a cliff onto flat ground.
Of course, as the game matured and countless players studied it, they discovered that this tutorial was a brilliant way to force players to learn every single survival skill in the Dark Zone from scratch—albeit brutally.
Whenever the topic of the tutorial’s difficulty came up, it instantly turned the community into a battlefield of discussion and argument, burning for hours at a time.
But no matter how you looked at it,
“Hey, this… this is way too realistic…”
Harmony barely managed to snatch the grenade that had rolled at her feet and throw it back the other way. She had gone from one impossible situation to the next without knowing how she was even still alive.
To put it plainly, the difficulty level was straight-up hell.
-How the hell are you still alive lolol
-Brain cells lolol
-How the hell did you even throw that grenade? You already died lolol
-Ulnim, the prison-break pirate just blew up that drone, let’s go~~~~
To the viewers, it was pure entertainment. But to the players, the battlefield was always the perfect place to see the true face of a person, and Harmony had finally thrown away all honorifics and was yelling at the top of her lungs.
“No way! The safe house is right up ahead! Why did I get pinged for scouting in this timing?!”
But it was always obvious that the thing you wanted most would never be handed to you.
Fortunately, she had maxed out every single stat point. That was the only reason she had even made it this far.
It was a magical aid that let a completely normal human being fight decently in a real gunfight. Thanks to it, she had somehow managed to keep her M4A1 steady on her shoulder, ignored the bullets whipping past, and fired the trigger with her finger on the red dot.
“Please, just all of you… die───!”
Shell casings rattled to the ground. One of the prison-break pirates who had been advancing with his shotgun roared forward only to take a bullet right in the chest and collapse.
Many new players didn’t know this, but this was still the tutorial. Enemies without body armor would die after just a couple of shots. The difficulty had also been affected by the stat points the user had chosen. Because Harmony had poured every single one into maxing out her stats, she was facing the weakest enemies only.
But,
───CLANG.
“Hey, hey! What the—! No bullets left! Why is this happening?! Help me!”
This was a story that didn’t apply to the average beginner who had forgotten to change magazines even in the middle of a life-or-death situation.
Her pain had only just begun.
Crunch.
The sound of something cracking—like a branch snapping—came from right at her feet.
Steam and a red pool rose from the ground, then dissolved into a single hazy cloud in the air. The twitching finally stopped.
That made eight bodies. Judging by their uniforms and gear, they were Russian marines on patrol.
“…Hah.”
That wasn’t exactly a warm greeting.
Still, it had turned out better than expected. If this had been real life, he would have done every dirty trick imaginable. But the AI wasn’t that smart.
He hadn’t expected the incoming rifleman to swing a knife, but he had sidestepped and bashed the butt of the gun into the man’s chin. That had felt way too good.
Really good.
Of course, these enemies were classified by unit, but four years of experience had already carved the movements into his body.
The result was a scattering of corpses around him. He began checking them one by one.
There was a reason.
“Three grenades and a couple of extra mags… normal.”
On the real battlefield, where you could never count on resupply, the amount of usable supplies changed depending on how well-armed the enemy was. In this fight he had burned through a lot of grenades, which meant—
───RUSTLE.
“…Guess so.”
He found an RGD-5 grenade in one of the enemy’s pouches. It was a Russian grenade.
In short, he had been fighting both unarmored prisoners and prison-break pirates. He had to be careful with ammo against the lightly armed, and when he knew he was facing properly equipped troops, he had to predict how much loot he could get and fight smartly.
Of course, there was no mercy when it came to portable turrets or combat dogs. Just spray and pray.
Anyway, he had picked up six more grenades. The clinking in the pouch and the heavy feel of the grenade gave him a strange sense of nostalgia.
Because he had only ever met enemies who left no room for negotiation, carrying explosives for area denial and heavy-weapon support had become a daily necessity. This was its result.
After pulling the pin, he had learned to throw the grenade while still firing—wrapping it around the barrel and sending it to the desired spot. Of course, several times he had almost lost his tail in the process.
Looking back now, it was a crazy thing to do.
───SAFE HOUSE DISCOVERED: New York City Hall, Lower Manhattan.
“So there was a safe house like this here.”
In his memory, Lower Manhattan had always been the site of the worst disasters. Chinatown had burned after some kind of rebellion, and the roads connecting to New Jersey had always been the supply route for the Russia-China alliance when they attacked Manhattan. Now a safe house? It felt a little weird.
Like a thorn buried in the flesh, the Brooklyn Bridge cut through part of Lower Manhattan. He reached the very end of it. Night had already fallen silently over the city.
But the high-rise buildings’ underground backup generators and the various searchlights installed in the safe house lit everything up white, as if to say that he had no choice but to go there.
His navigation route had already pointed that way, so he slowly walked forward. Every step crushed the snow that had frozen and thawed again and again, leaving footprints.
How far had he walked?
“…”
A huge number of footprints and piled bodies.
Since this was a game, they had already started despawning and disappearing, but he could still tell exactly where each one had been shot—legs, stomach, chest, arms, face… shot everywhere. If someone had planned it that way, it was insane. If not, it was something only a complete newbie who had never held a gun would do.
Anyway, he already knew someone had been here.
Among all the footprints, the small hiking-shoe tracks that continued unbroken all the way to the city hall were easy to spot. So there had probably been one other player on the same route.
But that wasn’t something he needed to worry about.
Countless crowds that had been moving through the city had vanished like lies, leaving only the wind and the crunch of footsteps on the giant coffin of a city. He couldn’t help but love that silence and peace.
Switching the control wheel to safety, he moved to the junction between the entrance of New York City Hall and the bridge end. The iron bars were gone. Only the high concrete barriers and the searchlights surrounding the safe house lit him up.
“Halt! Halt!”
…Back in the old days, he would have just opened the door from far away just to see his tail. But this was a game, so he had no choice.
He shook his wrist device nervously. The searchlights dimmed, and the thick iron door slid open from both sides.
Guard NPCs came running over to greet him at a sprint.
“Sorry. There was still fighting nearby until just now, so everyone’s nerves are really on edge.”
He gave a slight nod.
There was nothing special to say. Looking at it from the outside, New York still looked like a complete mess, and their hardship was probably only natural. He entered the armed safe house—New York City Hall—along with the usual tired remarks.
Inside, it was packed with people rushing back and forth. But most of them looked like NPCs, and there were no players worth interacting with at all.
Plus, just to prove that the tutorial wasn’t over yet, he couldn’t find any other operator who looked like a player.
I wonder if it’ll be different once we reach Central Park HQ.
───THUD.
“Hah…”
The safe house built underground beneath the city hall. It was exactly the same as he remembered—cold and mechanical, but with a few spots where you could actually rest.
There was a warehouse area that looked barely cleaned up, surrounded by boxes whose contents he couldn’t guess. On one side was a board with a New York map pinned to it.
There were gun lockers, boxes, a temporary workbench for gun repair, a shooting range, and more. The air was a little stuffy, but it was fine.
He sat in a suitable spot and checked the functions of his gun. The sights were still zeroed. He had plenty of spare magazines.
While doing that, he quickly inspected the chamber, bolt catch, magazine catch, and everything else… Did this game even have a durability system? Did guns ever need repair?
Considering that his Phoenix had just been blown apart, this was a little… game-friendly.
“…Still, you have to be prepared.”
If a gun suddenly broke down in the middle of combat, he would be in a lot of trouble.
He was starting to get tired. He opened the navigation route and checked the estimated arrival time. They had just reached the bottom of New York, so he had to move fast. When he got there, it would probably be around midnight in-game. He stood up.
Just as he was about to start climbing the stairs,
“Just a second───!!”
An unusually high voice echoed through the safe house.
His finger instinctively flew to the trigger as he switched the control wheel to semi-auto, but his eyes had already moved a step ahead and were analyzing the armed status and IR markings.
Ally.
He almost got himself killed.
A figure leaped in front of him and skidded to a halt. He couldn’t help but look bewildered.
“Who are you?”
Mint-green hair. A triangular ear sticking up on top of the head… no tail, though. The girl who looked like a tiny cat with a mint scent somehow gave off a strong tactical-gear vibe.
But even without deep analysis, he already knew she was a fully geared player. Specifically, she was also in the middle of the tutorial like him.
Since there were no players around for him to see, his conviction grew even stronger.
Anyway, she had stopped right in front of him, gun in hand, and was staring back at him.
And—
“Um, sir!”
“Hm?”
“Would you like to party with me?!”
No.
Why was she asking so desperately? She looked pitiful.