The Malicious Sniper Suffers Defeat

A female character sprinted across the field.

Brave Bone — the quest reward sitting on that board was fifty thousand won.

Seolgam thought back on every near-death scrape she had clawed through just to finish the Brave Bone quest.

All that was left was to walk up to the village NPC, hit the Quest Complete button, put this miserable job behind her, and collect her fifty thousand won.

"Hahh… finally…!"

She was stretching, eyes fixed on her running character, when it happened.

From the brush in the corner, something like an afterimage flickered.

"…?!"

Three hundred meters to the village. She could not afford to let her guard down now and watch every ounce of that effort turn to nothing.

Seolgam tightened her grip on the VR sticks and swept the surroundings.

"…What was that? Something just moved, didn't it? Did you guys see it?"

Her voice shook as she asked the chat.

Seolgam glanced at the chat, decided it had been her nerves, and took off running again.

The quest had worn her viewers out as badly as it had worn her.

Before she knew it she was at the village gates, a mere ten steps from a clear —

Swish— thwuck—

"…Huh?!"

A character appeared out of nowhere and dropped her into a groggy state in a single hit.

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

Seolgam leaned in close to the monitor.

It was vvDarkWarriorvv — the one who had killed her more times than she could count.

Black plate greaves filled her vision.

The leg wearing them snapped toward her character in a brutal kick.

Her groggy character took the kick and died. Seolgam stared at the monitor with a hollow, disbelieving face.

"N-no…"

Chat went still for a beat, as if a wave had swept it clean.

Then the messages came crashing in like thunder — disbelief, curses aimed at the scumbag stream sniper vvDarkWarriorvv, and above all a flood of question marks.

Seolgam said nothing for a long moment. Then, quietly, she ended the stream.

I dumped her items into my dimensional storage.

Judging by that reaction, she wouldn't be touching this game again for a while.

I went looking for another live.

That was when I saw the game plastered across the front page of the streaming platform.

"…Ah. Right. Launch day was today."

I'd completely forgotten while watching Seolgam's stream.

The game had gone live about two hours ago — right around the time Seolgam had started the Brave Bone quest.

I swore under my breath and rushed the download.

Then I set up the VR gear with restless hands.

The newly released VR PVPVE RPG: V-Route.

With an RPG, if you fell even a little behind at open, you were done. Plain and simple.

And if that happened, my streamer-sniping career would hit a wall just as hard. That much was obvious.

I finished calibrating the full-body tracker VR rig and pulled the headset on.

I stared at the screen. For all my nerves, the download was only just about to finish.

98%… 99%… 100%.

I held my breath, and the second it hit 100% I mashed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠button.

I slapped a character together, then typed in the name I'd reserved during the beta — vvDarkWarriorvv.

One of those little privileges the studio handed out to named players in the VR gaming community.

My character spawned in the starter village square. A crowd closed in around me almost immediately.

"Whoa, is that actually DarkWarrior?"

"Hey you $#$@!"

They packed in around me like I was a celebrity, buzzing and murmuring.

…Most of it was cursing.

I hit the shortcut to mute in-game VOIP and hurried through the terms of service.

"…Christ, why are there so many."

I slammed through the checkboxes and mashed I Agree.

Terms done, and now the tutorial was in the way.

I'd run through enough VR games to last a lifetime. I skipped the tutorial as fast as the game would let me and dropped back into the world.

"……!"

The moment I was back in-game, a character named Seolgam was standing right in front of mine, staring me down.

I popped out for a second and pulled up her stream info. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was already live on V-Route again.

She was looking at me in a way that felt a little too intense.

I didn't give her so much as a glance. Instead I checked the chat piled up in the lower left.

I hadn't blocked whispers, and my inbox was drowning in them.

…Too noisy. Shut that off first, then play.

I hunted for the whisper-block setting.

A system message sat in the chat.

…I followed the system tip and pressed the sticks.

Click.

Ten seconds later…

"…Did it work?"

I checked the chat window in the lower left again.

"…??"

Somehow the chat hadn't stopped. If anything, it was scrolling faster than before.

The feed accelerated until I couldn't even read it. I stared at the unnaturally racing window, baffled.

Figuring it was a glitch, I started walking so I could at least get on with the game.

Something felt off, though.

Every time I took a step, I could see a chest below my line of sight.

"What… what the hell?"

I had definitely picked male at character creation. There was no reason for a chest that size to be in frame.

Looking closer, my character was wearing the exact same clothes I had on in real life.

"..??"

Not understanding a thing, I opened my status and checked my appearance.

……And there, instead of game graphics, was my real-world self…..?!

That was when it clicked.

At the same instant, my whole body felt like it had frozen solid.

Every heartbeat started pumping terror instead of blood. My fingers and toes went numb. My lungs felt like they were collapsing.

With shaking hands I pulled up Seolgam's stream.

And there I was — unmistakably, undeniably me.

…And in her stream chat, scrolling over and over, was the line Seolgam had been feeding me:

She must have been copy-pasting it nonstop to bait me.

…I couldn't believe I'd fallen for cheap aggro like that just because I was in a hurry to play.

And that command I'd half-read and input after taking Seolgam's bait was almost certainly…

the feature V-Route had been marketing to death — the one that replicated your real self inside the game.

My legs were shaking. My eyes shook harder as I stared at the chat on screen.

Seolgam's stream chat had completely lost its mind.

Messages flew by too fast to read, and most of them looked every bit as stunned as I felt.

……

The second I finished processing it, I tore the VR rig off and killed the game.

vvDarkWarriorvv — the anonymous mask who'd made a career out of sniping streamers.

And with one idiotic slip, that identity had been laid bare for the entire world.

Including the home address.

I fled to the bed and collapsed face-down.

I buried my face in the pillow and pounded the innocent mattress over and over.

My body was still ringing from the shock.

I didn't make a sound for a long time. More accurately, I was wound so tight I couldn't have gotten a single word out.

Face in the pillow, hot breath spreading over my skin, I wished I could just black out on the spot.

…But wishes never work that way.

Suffocating, I rolled onto my back and lay still.

Comparatively cool air brushed my nose.

……I closed my eyes for a moment.

Beep.

My phone alarm went off.

I stared at the blinking phone in the corner of the bed for a while.

…Hands still shaking, I grabbed it, dragged in a long breath, and hit the power button.

The screen lit up.

……

…Just an ad. Thank god.

I considered putting the phone down right there.

…But in the end I couldn't help myself. I opened it and went straight into the VR gaming community.

I didn't even need to search. Posts with vvDarkWarriorvv in the title packed every page.

Past page ten it was still nothing but threads about me.

I knew full well I hadn't exactly earned kind words with the way I'd behaved, so I could already guess what those posts said.

…Even so, curiosity won. I tapped the most upvoted hot post.

"Hahh…"

One deep breath, and I started reading.

……

Countless other comments piled under the post.

Most of them were sexual remarks about me. Scattered between them were people insisting a scumbag sniper was still a scumbag sniper.

…I sent a message to the community mods asking them to take down my photo.

…So what the hell was I supposed to do now.

I set the phone down irritably and let out a long breath.