Watch Your Bag
The passage of time had transformed the game's execution medium from a computer into VR, where sniping naturally evolved—or simply faded—into something more sophisticated.
Unlike the old days when a sniper could close their eyes and ears, psych themselves up, and run away no matter the success or failure, things had changed. Advanced notification systems now sent direct personal attacks the instant the act occurred, and snipers struggled to endure them.
Considering anonymity had been the biggest reason sniping worked at all, the whole process still felt natural.
But the flip side was clear: people who spat in someone else's face and then kept acting cocky... in other words, snipers who somehow stayed shameless existed, whether they were truly crazy from the harassment or just started losing their minds during the shots.
And the public called them insane.
"Whoa, this is actually fun. Never tried broadcasting like this before."
Suddenly that thought drifted through Harmony’s mind.
She knew she was controlling an avatar instead of a real person, but could anyone call a normal human being normal if they casually spat such words at a perfectly moving person right in front of them?
She had been streaming for a while and had met countless weird people, yet these individuals... were they genuinely crazy, or had they snapped after a few successful snipes?
No. That wasn’t the point.
No matter what she said, she had to buy time.
"Are you trying to broadcast? You think the stream is gonna cut? How did you even follow me..."
"Ah, got it. Must be a streamer, huh? Try taking a couple of sniper shots yourself. Your head must be spinning by now, right?"
Her body felt unstable.
The warning that she was falling had already appeared. They had probably set her to a limp state so she wouldn’t fight back. All she could do was slowly crawl.
She hadn’t even had time to draw the handgun yet—the situation had flipped too suddenly.
Should she cut the broadcast? The chat would be a mess even if she didn’t check it. She didn’t really need to keep streaming now...
No. A new idea clicked.
This was the most important thing: how to resolve it.
She had to draw the handgun.
"...Well, if you’re just gonna kill me anyway, why don’t you tell me why? What exactly are you after?"
"Just wanted to see your reaction. And because the viewers watching your stream are all trash."
Actually, she wasn’t curious at all.
Gritting her teeth, she leaned her back against the wall where she had been hiding and drawing her weapon. The handgun remained safely clipped inside her multi-pouch for use in combat.
Thankfully, it was strapped to her right thigh. She could reach it with a quick, subtle hand slip if she just loosened the string.
To do that, she had to keep the enemy’s gaze scattered.
Breathing raggedly, she kept tossing out comments to bait him.
"So? That’s enough, right? I’m already pissed enough for today."
"That’s your opinion. This ends when I say so. Your head still spinning? Doesn’t matter if I live or die. I’ll just kill you and run before my teammates or the Hunter show up."
"..."
"Full of talk for a dying man. Wanna file a complaint? Against what? This is the kind of thing that just tires you out. I’ve got money. I can drag things out through appeals and just pay the settlement."
The barcode user crouched and stretched his hand to grab her cheek.
It was an insult too vile to stomach, but Harmony barely registered it. She hadn’t answered because all her nerves were locked on the tips of her fingers.
The string on her multi-pouch loosened. The space that had been completely sealed suddenly opened a little.
Weird sensation.
No matter what the enemy was babbling, her mind stayed perfectly calm. Every sense and nerve concentrated on the tips of her fingers, pushing all her power toward one single goal.
Like it was the path ahead.
While streaming, and in life, she had never once heard such vulgar words aimed at her, but all of it slipped past her ears and vanished.
"Hah, boring. Should’ve checked what the chat was saying instead. On computer it’s just 1x speed."
"?"
"What’s with that look? You set up a cam and watch on computer? How impressive. So cocky you let your guard down and got backstabbed."
Snap.
She carefully moved her hand inside the pouch.
Her stamina was dropping fast. A warning flashed across the UI that if things continued, blood loss would kill her in under two minutes.
The noise from outside was fading. The Hunter... hadn’t caught her yet. That meant they were still in the middle of fighting her. Maybe they should have shown up sooner.
What a clueless enemy.
The feeling that the end was near grew stronger.
Her hand movements sped up.
"Ah, I’ve talked too much. Time to finish this and run."
"..."
"Hihihi."
The moment happiness and misfortune crossed, a boot slammed onto her arm.
"...Aaaah!"
"So you planned something like this? A grenade in there? Want to blow up together? You must have watched too many movies; your emotions are all over your face. Even a stray dog would see through it."
The man’s lips twisted into a smile far more vicious than imagined.
The instant the last shot was interrupted, the anger that had been flowing in a direction completely unrelated to her surged back through her veins. With the rising rage, the power she had been holding back flowed through her fingers.
She had to loosen the safety clip and grip the handgun.
But the pressure on her ankle exploded.
"I, ugh..."
"No, it won’t do. Thought I’d just leave it like this? Nope, now I really have to kill you."
Swoosh.
The muzzle rose.
But ironically, as they reached the final moment, the emotion she showed was nothing but a smile.
The hostile sniper’s expression began to twist.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No, it’s nothing..."
At the end of her gaze, in the Tactical League of the hostile user...
A red laser beam—its origin impossible to tell—locked onto him without the slightest tremble.
She didn’t know if Eugene or a Hunter had fired it, but with the thought that this was enough, she opened her mouth carefully.
"...I think you tied the string a little too well."
───!!
And a storm broke.
The Hunter’s pressure bomb slammed into them like an entire body was crushed, detonating in mid-air and blasting the enemy standing and aiming straight at her completely away.
The shockwave spread in all directions, so Harmony took damage too, but leaning against the wall had been a huge blessing and she barely kept from flying off.
Moreover, the aftershock yanked her hand out of the pouch.
At the end of it, the handgun was clutched tight.
"Shit, the Hunter bastard is here!"
He slammed into the wall and rebounded, then rushed over to pick up the rifle that had fallen near his feet, having recovered quickly enough to stand.
But by now he should have realized.
Harmony’s expression wasn’t normal.
In the space of tens of seconds the situation reversed completely, and their gazes locked.
"Where... where did the gun go... who the hell are you. Hold on. That’s not a grenade... right?"
"I wonder. Not a grenade, but..."
She gripped the weapon tightly in her hand and added with a mischievous tone.
"...Isn’t it similar, though?"
Clang.
A crisp sound echoed.
In the brief silence that followed, countless emotions crossed between the two.
And then—
───PEBBERBENG!
"Aaaah—! Aaaaah! Aaaah—!!"
From the bag the sniper user had been carrying, an explosion erupted with an absurdly loud boom accompanied by a cluster-seeker mine.
-[Notification: Hostile Agent Bag — Cluster Seeker Mine activated.]
"...Impressive."
Whether he could hear it or not... anyway, Harmony seemed far tougher than she looked from the outside.
Her handgun hadn’t fired, and Pao had taken her down too quickly for her to finish the Hunter before time ran out, so his heart had been racing with worry.
But she had kept him occupied far longer than expected and handled her assigned task perfectly.
On the other hand, that meant a fair amount of time had passed since Harmony went down.
The second Hunter fight was nearing its end, but one more remained, and the cluster-seeker’s twitching wouldn’t last long.
She had to move.
Right now.
───KACHINK!
She discarded the rifle and bag on the ground and sprinted in Harmony’s direction wearing only her bulletproof vest, gripping a tomahawk and a single pistol.
To prepare for any unexpected situation, her bag had contained two cluster-seekers and a reactive grenade for shocking electricity, but both were just to buy time.
In the blink of an eye the surroundings stretched long. At least she had run at over 30 km/h across the rooftops of buildings with accumulated snow.
A jaw a full 150 cm or higher appeared right in front of her, the distance she needed to cover in just a few seconds. The Hunter had already climbed it, and the fallen user was still staggering above.
It was too late to slow down.
The choice was simple.
"!"
She jumped and vaulted over the jaw, planting both hands on the ground to roll once, landing as she drew the tomahawk.
She gripped the handle as if it would crush, lowered her body, and swung at the Hunter who was turning toward her. The target was the thigh, but the moment she swung, the leg severed with a sonic boom and fell away.
The Hunter lost control of his body and collapsed sideways, yet he immediately tried to fire.
She barely caught the barrel and twisted it aside.
The next instant the enemy’s head and neck separated in a terrible sight and he dropped to the ground, never to move again.
Meanwhile the fallen user, only now realizing she had arrived, tried to flee, but she triggered the electric grenade she had placed in his bag with a simple hand signal.
The horrifying sound and flash spread.
"Ugh—! Aaaaah—! Aaaah—!!"
He lay on the ground in the same state, staring at the sky, his whole body trembling like a broken electric toothbrush.
She slowly approached while spinning the tomahawk once in her hand.
"This... this is... shit..."
"Five people who died at my hands recently got in touch. Nothing special, but one of them said something interesting."
Harmony, on the brink of death.
She used the remaining emergency medical kit on her, and the pained expression on her face eased instantly as the Icarus Gear’s regenerative function activated.
It would take about a minute to walk again.
She turned back toward him who was trying to stand up with twitching limbs.
"I heard that hardcore mode users keep the sensations from their death. Normally there’s no reason to know that."
"Damn... what the hell are you mumbling..."
"I thought it might be useful to tell you."
Swoosh.
She stepped on his chest with her foot, pinning him completely to the ground, then slid her instep into the gap between his body and his body armor to flip him face-down against the floor.
He was now lying flat on his stomach.
She briefly loosened his body, checked the narrow gap between the bulletproof vest and helmet.
What should she say? In that moment a memory from the past flashed before her eyes.
The same as when she had captured traitorous operators attacking the northeast branch of the cement factory near Hartford—back then she had sliced off their wrists.
Old story.
"Never meet again."
"W-what? Don’t bullshit, you’re joking, right?"
But the moment she put weight on her left foot and confirmed the trajectory of the axe swinging down, it shifted from something he wanted to believe to a harsh reality he could no longer avoid.
A soul-wrenching scream echoed through the center of Manhattan.
"Don't do it! Please! Let me live! I’ll do anything! Just don’t—!"
"Then go in peace."
"Aaah—!!!"
Crack.
Flesh crushed, spine shattered, the dull impact mixed with the final scream and spread into the air.
<[System: Cluster Seeker Mine activated in hostile agent bag — 100% damage. Enemy neutralized.>