Unbannable Anonymous Flow

The instant the barrier vanishes, I sprint for the rock I'd already marked. I drop behind cover and lock my eyes on the entrance across the way.

A little time passes.

KRAAAH!!

A goblin's cry splits the air. I run back through the previous stages in my head. Floor 1 was twelve goblins. Floor 2 was five enormous ones. Floor 3 mixed the two together. So what's Floor 4 going to look like?

The shaking in the ground ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grows more violent. Then goblins come pouring out in a flood.

This... this isn't a number I can handle with single shots.

I flick the selector to full auto, jam the stock into the pocket of my shoulder, and bring my eye in tight to the sights. All that's left is to pull the trigger.

So why am I shaking?

Excitement? Nerves?

The goblins seem to move in slow motion. Or that's how it feels, anyway. I swallow.

Then flame erupts from the muzzle in a storm.

DADADADADA!

Instinct takes over. I ride the muzzle down and soak up the recoil.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

The goblins bursting from the entrance get chewed apart in a line.

Tink-tink-tink-tink.

Spent casings rain onto the dirt. I take the recoil through my whole body. I'm shaking pretty hard, but I've got it locked down, and the rounds keep punching out clean — no jams, just a straight, hungry stream of fire.

The muzzle that had been spitting without pause finally goes quiet. Looks like I dumped a whole magazine. No more goblins come out, either.

A thick wash of red spreads across the entrance. Sometime in the last few seconds, a pool of blood has formed on the drab gray wasteland. The acrid smell of gunpowder punches straight up my nose.

Heh... heheh...

I've stopped shooting, but my hands won't stop trembling. Afraid of the goblins? Gripped too hard fighting the recoil? No...

Even my breathing, which never used to break no matter the situation, has gone ragged. Hah...

The corners of my mouth are twitching. In a word: I'm happy. A taste I'd been forced to forget for a long, long time. The shudder of the gun. The smell of powder. The sound of brass hitting dirt...

I look up at the sky, and a shiver runs through me.

How did I ever live without this?

I watch the blood pool from a distance. Things that used to be goblins lie submerged in it, reduced to lumps of meat.

The GOAT of precision mechanical engineering in all of human history.

Guns. It's you again, isn't it?

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Ahem...

Why doesn't everyone use something this good? You just camp the entrance and it's over. Well... I'm sure there's a reason.

While I'm lost in thought, the settlement wraps up without me noticing. Today's reward?

Every day used to be the same old grind. Now I actually look forward to each one. Kahaha — come on, show me the loot. The usual stuff is fine. It's only Floor 4, after all... but a new reward wouldn't hurt either. Hurry up! Hurry!

Before I know it I'm bouncing on my heels. Maybe I should calm down a little?

I settle my heart, sit down, and wait. Right on cue, the orb starts to spin.

Kiiiiing.

Not a rainbow this time. Today's gold. That's fine.

Crack!

The reward list blooms in front of my eyes.

The usual haul, then.

The moment I'm back, I use the Growth Ticket. If last time is anything to go by, I should get a new skill, right? I pull up my trait through the status window.

Oh...

It's gotten noticeably bigger.

The x is still pretty small, but I don't have to mash my nose against the screen to see it anymore. From a distance, you can at least tell it's an x.

To get it as big as the E sitting next to it... hmm. How many more times do I have to grow this thing? Is it one of those structures that gets harder the further you go? I'll figure it out as I go.

I check my skills.

Huh? Molting — that's the skill I saw last time. It was on the trait skill selection list. I remember the description being ridiculously vague. Should I read it again?

Still no idea what that's supposed to mean. If this is all you're going to give me, why even have a description box? Same with Jacobson's Organ. Could you maybe explain things in a way that actually makes sense? Hello?

When you don't know, you just try it. I shout it in my head.

Uwaaaaaah?

My whole body feels like it's rippling. It's not a feeling. It's actually rippling!

I lurch off the bed in a panic. A figure that looks exactly like me is standing on the mattress. A second later it slumps like a balloon dummy with all the air let out, then the shed skin breaks apart piece by piece and vanishes.

Just looking at that, I still have no idea what it actually does. I'm sitting there thoroughly confused when a system window pops up.

Ah...

So it's a skill that clears debuffs on me? Nothing happened because I didn't have any on me right now. Looks like I picked up a pretty useful one. A hundred times better than Jacobson's Organ, which I still don't even know how to use.

And purification-type skills always pull their weight, no matter what game you're playing. Not just in games, either — they're useful in real life too. On ops, CBRN was as much of a pain as drones ever were.

Time to go brag.

Ophiuchus Minor Gallery. Still nobody posting except the usual trio. Including me, I guess that makes it a quartet now?

I didn't notice when I first got here, but these people don't seem all that interested in Extra difficulty. Works for me.

I throw up a post.

Bzzzt.

Huh?

They've always been fast, but today's comment speed is next-level. Were they camped on the gallery? Even so, how is this even possible. I hurry to check the post.

Who? Is that aimed at me?

IP? Why is he suddenly talking about IPs? I check my username.

Wait.

Why does my IP look like that?

I said it's me, damn it!

What's going on with this? I walk over to the router and smack it.

Thwack!

I said it's me!

Aigoo, how am I supposed to prove this? Even if I drag up the conversations we had last time, anyone can read the thread, so that doesn't prove who I am.

Kraaaaagh. I finally found a sanctuary and I am not getting kicked out like this!

Why does the IP keep changing?

Whoa... did I just survive that?

Cold sweat feels like it's sliding down my forehead. This is somehow more nerve-wracking than climbing.

Molting flashes through my mind out of nowhere.

Is this part of the skill too? IP address constantly changing, and immunity to bans besides...

Unbannable Anonymous Flow?

My heart slams against my ribs. If nobody can track who I am... I can post verification threads whenever I want. I could even show up saying I'm Kim Deokbae and it wouldn't matter. Hunter registration is one thing, but posting on the gallery? I could do whatever I wanted.

Assuming all of that is actually true, anyway.

I set down my phone and turn on the computer. The boot time feels uniquely, personally long. Come on, hurry up...

The monitor lights up and I scramble to look up my IP. Once, twice, three times... No matter how many times I check, it keeps changing.

Molting. This is what the skill was?

Not just a debuff cleanse — it hides my identity too?

Heh... heheh...

Wahahahaha!

Every recommended post and every scrap of attention in the world is mine?

My pounding heart refuses to settle. Still. A little more certainty wouldn't hurt. Let's suffer just a bit longer.

I look up the IP currently assigned to me. Some ISP in Uzbekistan I've never even heard of. I plug in another IP — some American carrier. Another one — a Japanese ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ISP.

I can't take it anymore. The grace of Snake Changseop — I'm posting this right now.

I'll be honest: at first I was disappointed by a name like Gunner of the Evil Eye, which had approximately zero aura of a proper origin story. But it was a jackpot this whole time. I want to kiss it.

Khahat...

I can't stop laughing. Anyone who saw me would think I was a genuine weirdo.

"Status window."

It blooms into existence with a snap.

"Show me my current ranking."

I'm the only climber, so of course I'm in first. I take a screenshot.

Hah...

My hands are trembling. This time it's definitely nerves.

Shall I go pick it up, then?

A recommended post.

In the last life I hit the ceiling and still never got one. A long, long stretch of humiliation and persecution...

Slowly, letter by letter, I write the title and the body with real care.

Hah...

Screenshot, title, body — all done. The tip of my finger drifts, slowly, toward Submit.