No Easy Day
The chat in the game flickered with a flood of panic.
“Everyone… this game is seriously too scary… my head’s going to explode…”
New York City Hall, fortified safe house in Lower Manhattan.
Scattered across the floor were field beds. One cat-eared avatar with mint-green hair lay sprawled out flat, eyes glazed, gun placed carelessly nearby. She stared at the ceiling and exhaled a long, lifeless breath.
Hearing the nauseating, spicy intensity that set Dark Zone apart from every other VR game that fed you missions from start to finish, Harmony shook her head dizzily. She was moments away from merging with the bed completely.
“This… I’m dying… lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol”
“You thought making money was this easy, cat-human? Wake up right now!!”
“Dark Zone… successful newbie detox again today…”
“Fuck, Henslow’s shit color is killing me. Tutors, please lower the difficulty already!!!!!!!!”
“No, that’s not the point. I’m fine with the difficulty. It’s fun enough. But why is there not a single player in the safe house!? You guys all logged out, didn’t you?!”
Of course the chat was flooded with replies like “Teacher, excuse me, what is this rambling?”
Still, whether it was time or bad luck with spawns, the safe house was nothing but swirling dust. Harmony had pushed through every obstacle to reach it, even if she had become something between a person and a rag, but the road ahead was still endless.
“KimPiaNo-nim donated 1,000 won!”
“I’ve leveled up my sub-characters so many times, but I’ve never seen this. Must be bad luck lol”
“KimPiaNo-nim, thank you for the 1,000 won donation… wait, really? You’re throwing money in and the universe still won’t help me? Ugh…”
“????????????”
“I suddenly switched to brain-melting drama lol lol lol lol lol”
“You should have begged harder lol”
“We’re about to die at this rate. Fuck lol What happened to the green team?”
“Did the clowns get their brains checked? Did they get their brains checked? Did they get their brains checked?”
“I can’t take it anymore… I’ll go grab some water. Dehydration warning just popped up.”
At the same time, the words “AFK – Away From Keyboard” appeared on every screen watching.
As one of the login features, the safe-house status allowed instant real-body movement the moment the AFK signal dropped. She had simply cut the signal, stood from the bed, and walked to the water fountain.
Of course the chat exploded with messages.
Meanwhile, Harmony’s avatar started rotating slightly because of the structural fault in the old field bed.
With an ominous creak, her vision spun. Concrete ceiling pipes vanished, and the view swept toward the entrance. A figure descended.
“Oh?”
“Oh? Is that a user?”
“Whoa, snake tail? You died lol lol lol. Bullet spread was insane.”
“You smell like a pro.”
“Fuck, where did Harmony go? lol lol lol lol lol What are you doing without joining the party?”
“She fell asleep….”
A lively tail whipped around. Between long black hair peeked sharp ears. Beneath thick clothing, the generous volume was obvious. Anyone who saw it would guess user in a second.
Yet even with two mission timers flashing at the bottom of the UI—only two hours left—she did not move.
Everyone assumed she would come to her senses soon, but the assumption shattered when she stayed sprawled on the bed for far too long.
While the user in front checked his rifle, aimed to verify the reticle, removed the magazine to check the chamber, counted the rounds, and finally stood… Harmony remained motionless like an object.
Thousands of viewers felt their hearts race.
“KimPiaNo-nim donated 1,000 won!”
“For real, when are you going to drink the water? The bus driver is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The time felt painfully short. The user had already spent plenty of time here, but to the viewers it was never enough.
Harmony’s gaze moved. Everything had been checked. The firm step forward to leave…
“Eh… ugh… why am I lying here…?”
She had arrived. With a calm voice.
The chat had already gone into overdrive.
“That’s not important lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol”
“Catch her! Catch her! Catch her! Catch her! Catch her! Catch her! Catch her! Catch her!”
“There’s a user right in front, please!”
“I want to see her eyes explode!?!?!?!”
“Eh? Eh? What? Who? Someone’s here? Where?”
With the viewers’ patience pushed to the limit…
“Wait a second───!!!”
The encounter was complete.
“Eugene. I’ll briefly explain your schedule from now on. After waking up, eat breakfast, and be at the range by 08:00.”
“Yes.”
“Once there, conduct live-fire training until 13:00, then eat until 14:00 and return to the range. Fire again until 18:00. All in live-fire format.”
“Understood.”
“After finishing breakfast by 19:00, continue kill-house training until 23:30. This schedule will repeat until your gun skills are completely mastered. Once you reach the level where a dedicated gunsmith can be assigned, the weight of kill-house training will increase.”
“…Yes.”
“Your physical and stamina stats are impressive. But the outside is still a real war zone. Either become familiar with all this and prove yourself, or die. The choice is yours.”
That was the exact line Sergeant Major Anthony Owens, former commanding officer and mentor of the 1st Special Actions Group’s operation team, had spoken when they first met.
There was no special reason for the memory to surface… well, a brief flashback. I hadn’t even known back then why I had to run so much. Of course, I had never actually completed that training. I had been sent straight to live combat before it could be finished.
But…
“Wow, just for joining the party I feel this good. Thank you so much…”
“…When in non-combat mode, never point your gun at anything. Check for hostiles clearly.”
“Ah, okay.”
Now that I was in this situation myself, I truly felt that I had followed the Delta team perfectly back then.
At the same time, I finally understood why the instructors drilled harsh words into soldiers—because normal people dressed in ordinary clothes could never become operators…
Every second I wanted to peel the green cat’s calves off, but I had to keep reminding myself this was just a game. Besides, my seniors had raised me with love. For others I was Delta; I couldn’t become a ghost instructor.
That was the only reason I endured the cuteness.
“…You seem to have quite a bit of interest in that area. Your actions are really professional and amazing. How did you set the correction?”
“Correction?”
“Ah, you didn’t touch it?”
“…That would be accurate.”
No. Because I had never logged out, I had never touched it. But I remembered seeing that word hours earlier at login—then some memories surfaced.
If I hadn’t forgotten, I was sure… the correction and slide had been completely omitted. I had been too focused on the Icarus abbreviation and operator valid code, and there had been no explanation.
Well… it wasn’t a big problem. No effect on gameplay, and it probably never would be.
Separately, the city was dark but still noisy. The far-off sound of something frying, the unnecessarily multiplied animals…
After confirming no hostiles nearby, the mint-green cat-eared user who introduced herself as Harmony wasted no time starting to talk nonstop.
“This game is really too hard.”
“It could be adaptation trouble.”
“But I’ve cleared every game I’ve tried. I’ve ridden pots and Skykong-kong, hiked, climbed with a one-tool jump… but…”
Did this person have a hobby of deliberately suffering?
Still, her explanations held interest. They were about games I had never heard of.
“…This isn’t even a bullshit game, it’s this hard. How is there so much variety of suffering in this world…?”
“That’s just how the world is.”
“Right? Then the world is wrong, not me.”
Naturally, the words that circled back could even apply to me without effort.
Yet she glanced toward the sky for a moment and added,
“No, what are you saying? Think about it. If there were no shit games flooding the world, would you have given this to me?”
Wait…
Was the correction function attached to imaginary friends or something?
Maintaining a completely blank expression so I wouldn’t look like I had seen something weird, she suddenly remembered and hurried to add,
“Ah, sorry. I forgot to mention— I was streaming. I should have said earlier, but the situation was too urgent so we couldn’t talk.”
“Situation?”
“Yes. I wanted to do party play, but no one was around, so I was worried we wouldn’t even finish the tutorial.”
That explained the desperate party request earlier.
Anyway, streaming. As always, because I had logged in before, I had searched my memories before falling here. So… were they broadcasters?
The thought crossed my mind: what fun is there in watching someone else play games? But that was just one of the many weird people in the world.
Using the pieces that fit, I opened my mouth.
“So the strange games I mentioned earlier were… all for streaming…?”
“That’s right. Who would want to suffer while playing games in the real world? Of course the satisfaction of clearing is there, but oh…”
“You might have some strangely unique taste.”
“Huh!?”
No, wait.
What the heck?
Tap.
A sharp voice bounced off the building wall, echoing like a knife through the cold winter air.
She clamped her mouth shut, but it was too late—the rustling sounds came from the nearby park at the same time.
A bad feeling hit.
Removing the hand, she added quietly,
“…Prepare for combat.”
“Yes, net!”
With awkward movement she slipped behind cover near me and aimed in the direction of the sound, fingers fidgeting.
Please don’t cross my line during the fight, I prayed in my heart.
“Clink.”
“Ah…!”
“…!”
Damn it.
Why is that dropping?
Time seemed to slow. For a second I thought I had seen something wrong, but even if I had eyes to see it, that was a magazine.
Harmony, who had been firing, had the magazine lock jammed. The magazine she should have been holding had fallen freely to the ground.
She caught it with her tail,
“………….”
“Ah, no, that, uh…”
She didn’t say it, but my expression was clearly not good.
Keeping my red dot on target, I seated the magazine back into position with my tail.
As this fight ended, I imagined countless future scenarios in which I would make her head feel like a tile.