Trash Game
"Oh, it seems one of them's already dead."
-????
-Oh lol
-What the hell is that on top? An axe? This is my first time seeing a kill count like that
-Teacher, I told you to use a gun! A gun! lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
-The point-of-view conversion is really disorienting
Even without knowing exactly what was happening, after only thirty seconds of play the enemy team had already lost one member.
Harmony fingered the EMP grenade rattling inside her multi-purpose pouch while she checked the UI floating in front of her eyes.
Outside the stock trading room terrace, three operators who had taken the repels up with Harmony had split up: two guarding the roaming enemies while the rest pushed hard toward the enemy stronghold.
There were no claymore operators, but that would be handled later when the other two quickly closed off escape routes.
Hard to call it the standard method, but honestly it felt more like a normal firefight than a tactical masterpiece.
A red ping appeared in front of them, marking a wall near the mining stairs.
She twisted the top of the heavy EMP grenade in her palm, and like some old arcade toy it began to flash bright green.
Following their pre-mission plan, she hurled it at the reinforced wall.
───BOOM!
Blue electrical arcs exploded through the air and shut down the claw mechanisms stuck to the wall.
The next instant, twelve pellets split six to each side and streaked across the open space.
"Oh, direct hit."
"Just in case, toss one more grenade when the pellets go off."
"Roger!"
The top twisted again and another burst of blue light erupted.
The pellets sparked with a strange high-pitched whine that somehow looked like flowers blooming.
Harmony threw the second one exactly as instructed.
The reinforced wall exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere, and one of the team members immediately started operating the drone as a signal.
They couldn't just rush in because the second floor was too wide.
"Where are the other two cleaning up?"
-We're heading up the central stairs. One on the first floor will go toward the lobby stairs, the other will circle around the kitchen toward the mining stairs.
"Got it. Shout when you're ready to push. I'll lock the central stairs with a breaching charge. Harmony, just watch out for anyone trying to slip out the back corridor."
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The wooden planks covering the stock trading room had completely shattered, exposing the frayed inner wall.
This was what they called "construction"—a deliberate trap to keep the enemies from rushing in.
Scouting time passed. Even while they moved, the distant gunfire still proved the enemies were still moving freely inside.
But because of Team Six's cult-favorite search-and-destroy style, most players could instantly identify who was shooting just from the sound.
One teammate quickly added more info.
"Only two left inside. But both of them are using shotguns, so we shouldn't push until the other two roamers are taken out."
Click.
One operator on the roof added, "I'm coming down from the roof and entering through the back of the lobby. There are two enemies roaming around—don't leave them loose or they'll kill us."
"Be careful. We'll keep watching this side. I'll cover the opposite direction, so keep your eyes on the same way."
"Yes."
So the five operators gradually scattered.
"The lobby is pretty big…"
In the past, they hadn't skipped this game even when it wasn't in Dark Zone, but actually stepping on the ground and walking around… it was bigger than they remembered.
It had a strangely fresh feeling. Hearing a game they'd once enjoyed so much now perfectly recreated in VR was an experience no one had ever had before. And then actually holding a gun and fighting yourself was even more special.
It would have been nice to just enjoy it normally.
Anyway, they entered the lobby from the first floor of the central stairs.
Everything felt wide open. The ceiling soared impossibly high, supported by several elegant curved stone pillars.
The floor was black-and-white marble arranged like a giant chessboard, cluttered with all kinds of objects.
A spiral staircase on the side led to the second floor. The reception counter that should have been there was completely empty, and behind it lay unknown spaces.
───CRASH!
Glass shattering sounded from one side.
She quickly turned her head and aimed, and the IR marker confirming they were on their team flashed as the operator entered from behind.
She approached cautiously. The teammate who had just arrived whispered, "Ah, you're here. Heading up the lobby stairs?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll check the first floor for hidden enemies and push toward the central stairs."
They crossed paths on the stairs. One climbed carefully while the other slipped around the counter and vanished toward the back.
She hesitated for a second but noticed the wiring tangled around the stairs.
After a quick glance above, she made her decision fast. The ping far away meant the teammate had just entered the kitchen area.
This side had fewer people, so it was better to wait for the teammate to draw aggro and slip in than to rush the push.
She loaded fragmentation rounds into the grenade launcher and added quietly over comms.
"I'm going to draw attention to the opposite side for a moment. I'll try entering from there."
-Understood.
The soft pop of the launcher came quickly.
From across the lobby came loud noises. It wasn't clear if it was combat or just suppression fire, but the teammate's health hadn't dropped much, so it was probably just harassment.
Just as she pulled the trigger,
-AAAK!
───!!
4 : 4.
Light, rapid gunfire from the first floor mixed with a panicked scream through the comms. The wall had absorbed some sound, but the gunshots were very fast.
Thankfully, the shot and grenade sounds blended so well that the attention drawn was less than she expected.
Now she had to watch her back. By this point her position was probably exposed, so she moved fast.
She climbed the stairs quickly, peeked at the barricaded door, and had just entered the curved section known as the "banana"—
"Eugene! One enemy coming toward you! In front of the central stairs corridor!"
Pop.
At the same time, a red cursor popped up in front of the first-floor elevator. That had to be the enemy. They were moving faster than expected. The voice had mentioned sounds from below.
Even if they came straight at her, she didn't want to waste time on them when there was still fighting on the other side.
She had no choice.
-…What are you doing!?
"I need to concentrate, so just a second…"
The railing was surprisingly sturdy. It would probably hold even if it broke.
She wrapped the railing with her tail and, like taking a repels, swung her legs over the railing at the same time, using both feet to push against the wall and assume the inverted repels position.
Her vision spun wildly, floor becoming ceiling, ceiling becoming floor, and the previously checked counter now appeared upside down right in front of her.
That was roughly three seconds.
Then a loud bang sounded, and the wall across the counter she had been aiming at exploded.
Through the circular hole, a thick-looking enemy rushed in holding an assault rifle. She couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like an MP5.
She put the enemy square in the center of her LPVO sight.
There was no hesitation.
Light recoil swept across her shoulder.
"Aah!"
With one shot, the enemy's head exploded and they dropped.
4 : 3 flashed on screen.
Her tail felt stiff after such a long time, so she carefully released her strength, spun around, and landed back on the first floor. The heavy recoil faded through her joints.
Just as she prepared to push in again, urgent comms hit her ear.
-First floor! Enemy in the record storage room! This might make it hard to go up…!
"Enemies all around."
Now there was no other choice but to relieve pressure from another side.
So what was the way? Well, it wasn't that fancy…
"Just draw their attention. I'll try entering the second floor."
If she could completely smash the enemy's base, it would be a way to help the teammates.
Thinking that, she ran up the stairs at terrifying speed.
"…Did all the ones who went out die?"
"One's still alive, but the stairs are all locked, so it's not meaningful."
"That's why you shouldn't roam. The VR game made it too hard."
Shotgun slung forward so she could aim and fire anytime, two members carefully checked the situation outside the second-floor base where plenty of gas grenades were planted.
They had taken one out, but two teammates who had already exited were dead. The other one probably wouldn't survive either.
They cleared every floor from the one farthest from the bombs and only entered the base when everything was perfectly safe.
Even though they were evenly matched and there was a gap, the overwhelming skill of the Eugene operator deleted local variables one by one and tightened the encirclement.
Had she only watched Harmony's broadcast, she wouldn't have known, but in person… she was even more difficult than expected.
Specifically, it had gone from "who is this person?" to "how are there so many like her?"
"…The wall over there broke through, but they'll make noise before they get in. No one repelling from the outer wall, so just stay alert and we can take them all."
"That makes sense."
"Aigoo, my rank is SOF. In other games that's Diamond level, so trust me."
"Oh… but why don't you help when Harmony noona is streaming?"
"Because that noona finds suffering fun…"
"Yeah, that's true."
Even in a squad like this, people died unnecessarily sometimes.
Thirty seconds until the end of the first round. The enemies were about to push into the base for diffusion.
The lobby was filled with the sound of drone motors and the rough noise of barricades being torn down. Chaos was spreading—whichever team lost would end the game.
Amid that indescribable tension,
───KWA-JIK!
"What the—!"
"What are you doing? Shoot!"
One enemy body-checked the barricade and smashed it apart, then rushed in from the opposite side. Insanely fast. They had already hidden behind cover by the time they were aimed and fired.
Eugene.
Both teammates' eyes locked on the same spot.
The upper-tier operator knew this was bad and quickly adjusted the shotgun.
"I'll take that side!"
No more words, but the others instinctively understood they needed to check other entry points and aimed elsewhere.
At the same time, a shotgun versus carbine firefight began.
───BANG!
The M590A1 shotgun roared and spat twelve-gauge pellets into the air.
Unlike other games where damage dropped sharply beyond a few meters, this was powerful enough to kill at dozens of meters.
They tore through the thin wall and fragile structures in front of them, and thousands of fragments and pellets scattered into the air.
Even as a close-range weapon, Eugene dodged with terrifying speed and pulled the trigger.
Response fire in a desperate situation. After thousands of real fights, her accuracy was simply proportional to how well the other players aimed.
Pellets and lead bullets crossed in opposite directions in the air, but the result was different.
"Oof!"
A high-pitched female voice. But the owner wasn't Eugene—the defender holding the shotgun.
One of Eugene's three counter shots had pierced the shoulder. The HP bar in the bottom right dropped to two-thirds instantly. Whoever made that gun, a two-speed two-armor rifle that could destroy it in three shots had to be good.
It was fortunate for her. Team Six mode had limited HP recovery but no status effects from wounds.
Meanwhile, a strange sound came from the same place. A heavy bullet passed through a suppressor and produced a half-dead gunshot.
-[Remaining enemy operators: 2]
'…!'
She couldn't figure out what was happening, but one teammate had disappeared from the same room and the voice through comms sounded like she had hit two backs with slug rounds after circling around.
She guessed it had been through the hole in the reinforced wall.
The current standoff was 2 : 3. If she played well from here, she could easily take the first round.
Thinking that, she aimed the remaining shotgun back toward the direction Eugene was in.
But,
'…Where did they go?'
Nothing.
The presence vanished instantly.
But she judged coldly. Only two directions to enter from. Either way. And with a shotgun, she could get the kill angle no matter how fast they came.
In the suddenly quiet space, only a faint breathing sound remained. The teammate who had gone out was coming back down the corridor.
If she drew it out, she could take the advantage again.
But,
Click, bang!
'…!?'
Eugene wasn't the type who could be caught with that kind of judgment.
The next moment, an insanely loud explosion ripped through the room where she was standing. Fragments flew everywhere—she knew it was a breaching round.
The shockwave shook her vision and completely blocked sound.
Eugene didn't miss the short moment.
───BANG!
Instinctively pulling the shotgun trigger, pellets punched through the broken wall. But she was already gone.
Simple choice. Over the destroyed wall or normally?
The shotgun wasn't aimed correctly.
"Aaaah!"
Three shots in quick succession pierced her body armor and tore through her head.
Her strength left her and she fell to the floor. But the gunfire didn't stop. Looking up vaguely, Eugene was still firing a storm of lead at the teammate who had just come back.
The situation changed from 2 : 3 to 2 : 1 in an instant. The person who had fallen to the floor muttered weakly one last time.
"What a trash game…"
If I win it's a god game, if the other wins it's a trash game.
But the winner never got the loser's final words.