Chapter 54
Confirming our forces. We have Reina, Momiji, me, and Urairo. Nakamoto still hasn’t arrived. On the enemy side, only Greg is visible. Based on the size of the bullets, the thing behind him isn’t a turret but some kind of sniper. It’s certainly not an Apollyon either.
「OK, so the Order folks are engaged in combat with the other escorts, huh… Quite some nerve, taking on the likes of us with just two people.」
「More importantly, what happened to Professor Nakamoto? Did you involve him in this too?」
Reina stands in front of me while raising two fingers behind her back. Greg’s words seem to be true according to Reina’s assessment. Considering their opening move was just that one shot, it makes sense. Maybe they intend to lure us to where the sniper is located, but with their leader Greg here, a trap without bait has no value.
In other words, they seriously think they can kill all of us with just these two.
「Nakamoto? He went out for a walk. We’d rather not make an enemy of him, y’know.」
As Momiji says that, she shoves me away. With her cyborg strength, I’m sent flying 3 meters. I instinctively try to complain but understand when I see what’s behind me.
「If I kill Orange here, the situation will—!」
Intense heat rushes past me, melting the air and dirty wall behind me. The source of those flames is Urairo… Come to think of it, she was the one who brought up disguises and whatnot. So she was a traitor from early on. Is she that desperate for money!? Maybe she racked up some revolving credit debt in this world. If so, I guess it can’t be helped. Seriously though, this damn debt system needs to die already.
Urairo’s expression distorts slightly upon seeing her supposedly decisive attack dodged. Then she looks at us, unsurprised by her betrayal.
「So you figured it out after all…」
「It was obvious. It might’ve worked if we were just individuals, but the scale and seriousness of our current opponents is on a whole different level.」
「Well, I guess she was suitable as a decoy, since she managed to capture Nakamoto. I was really surprised when I found out about this ‘Reformist’ faction though.」
「Right, right. Now please quietly cancel your revolving payments.」
「How did you arrive at that conclusion!? Damn it, I’ve been getting jerked around so much lately. I’m definitely gonna land a hit here!」
「So you were a comrade. Alright, let’s kill these guys.」
We naturally form a battle formation. Reina stands in front of Greg with a knife raised. Momiji faces Urairo with both hands extended. And I position myself facing the alley where the sniping came from earlier.
…Hm? Wait, is this one of those situations where we each need to take out one enemy?
◇
It was over a month ago. When I tried to buy a powered suit to deal with Reina, I was told:
『They’re designed to interface with the brain, so wearing a powered suit makes it impossible to pilot an AP.』
Those words were true. The systems for brain synchronization are vastly different, making memory-based switching impossible. Especially for something like Apollyon that requires converting a large amount of external information and sending it to the brain.
Therefore, what I purchased this time was something entirely different. It’s a specialized suit for Apollyon users, equipped with an auxiliary brain on the powered suit side. The reason this was developed is apparently due to increased demand following the spread of Apollyon, so you could say it’s basically thanks to me. Just kidding, it’s all thanks to Kōmitsu Solutions.
So I can pilot an Apollyon while fully clad in a powered suit. However, there’s one major weakness: lag.
Originally, it only needed to exchange data between the powered suit and brain, but now information has to go back and forth between the brain, the auxiliary brain in the powered suit, and the powered suit itself. In this sniping situation, that lag is far too deadly.
The armor attached to my right arm is blown away in a flash of light. It’s a secret technique for killing AIs. I somehow manage to dive behind cover while performing the Inexplicable Step Lv3 I mastered to throw off cheaters’ auto-aim. However, the enemy’s sniping is far too accurate. I get an unpleasant feeling I’ve experienced in 「VR Sniping」 and instinctively spin my body. A bullet penetrates the building’s wall where I was and crushes the floor.
Normally I’d have more leeway to dodge. This isn’t intuition, but rather predicting the firing intervals and reading the aim in advance. He’s not taking his eyes off me to shoot at Reina and the others. He’s trying to kill me by shooting through walls, and the aiming time is about 1.7 times longer than usual for a skilled player… I think. I don’t really know though.
Now, what to do? I confirmed the sniping location while running. It’s the rooftop of the biggest building that looks like a supermarket. But for now, the closer I get, the shorter the interval between sniping and impact becomes. And with this lag, dodging will become nearly impossible. As I’m thinking that, a voice comes through the communicator. A voice that sounds familiar yet unfamiliar.
『…Hey, can you hear me, Orange?』
「Huh? How do you know it’s me even with this disguise?」
『What do you mean, ‘know’? Who else would move in such a shitty way besides you, you idiot? Doing that creepy walk in an ultra-niche game with no cheaters, all while claiming it’s an anti-cheat measure.』
「Oh, I remember now! You’re ‘☆Star_Night☆’ who has a hobby of criticizing my walking style! Long time no see since ‘VR Sniping’!」
『Don’t call me by a name from 20 years ago, you moron! Die!』
Another bullet flies through the wall, but this time I dodge it with ease. However, this is troubling. This ‘☆Star_Night☆’ guy has top-notch sniping accuracy. I don’t recall ever surpassing a 50% win rate against him. ‘☆Star_Night☆’ replies in a gloomy voice, much older than I remember.
『I thought you were just some weirdo playing niche games, but then you started moving to save the world and triggered the ‘Scorch War’… Just what the hell were you?』
I really wonder that myself. Seriously, I think it’s a bad idea to put players’ names in the main story of a game. The devs are trash, I should be allowed to repeatedly call them that. While thinking that, I operate the screen. That’s right, the streaming screen.
「Oh, I just turned on the stream. Testing, can you hear me? I haven’t been checking the comments lately because they’re too noisy, but I’m turning it on to showcase how crappy ‘HAO’ is. 」
『Hey, what are you doing, you bastard!?』
「Gaming. 」
『Not that! And don’t call our lives a game!』
There’s only one purpose, of course. To capture ‘☆Star_Night☆’s esteemed face on camera. If I can show this, everyone will understand just how much ‘HAO’ disregards players’ privacy, since he looks way too similar to his real self! Creating AIs that are too close to the actual person while ignoring individual privacy, like Momiji and Reina, should be seen as problematic.
Fortunately, ‘☆Star_Night☆’ used to occasionally do face cam streams. Compared to that, anyone can see how messed up this game is!
『Orange is streaming!』
『What’s the situation now? Also, who’s this girl?』
『10,000 viewers in the first minute, lol.』
『This is from Seitō News Agency. I have some questions I’d like to ask. Is there any way I could get in touch with you?』
『Based on the skeletal structure, it’s a crossdresser.』
With that, I finish 」configuring「 and switch the magazine of the hefty assault rifle I’m holding. This assault rifle is versatile, capable of loading various types of ammunition from buckshot to grenades. I load the anti-machine beast buckshot for close-range and say in a cool manner, 」…I’ve read it.「 Don’t I sound like a prophet?
Then I ready my gun and dash straight toward the building where the sniper is located. The leg strength enhanced by the powered suit propels my body at a frightening speed. But to crush that, the top of the building lights up again, and bullets come flying toward me. I don’t dodge, I just charge straight toward death—
The bullet impacts next to me.
『Huh?』
「I told you I read it, didn’t I? 」
Another bullet slices through the air with a flash of light. But the noise erupting from my assault rifle drowns it out, and the bullet is deflected to the side. I’m just running straight ahead without dodging.
A trembling voice comes from the other end of the communicator. I had enough leeway to check the stream comments while intercepting another shot that flew at me… Actually, I can’t see them. There are too many comments and they disappear instantly.
『You’re intercepting my sniping with buckshot…!』
What I’m doing is a prayer game. The power of the anti-machine beast buckshot is insane. If I fire it at the same timing as the enemy’s sniping, the buckshot or its shockwave should twist the trajectory of the sniper shot. And given the ridiculously large caliber of this buckshot, it’s not impossible since it fires 400 pellets per shot with enough force to crush a machine beast’s armor.
『But how!? How are you timing it with my sniping!? Even if you see it and pull the trigger, there’s a minimum 0.1-second brain lag and a 0.3-second lag from the specialized powered suit! The distance is 400m, and my bullets travel at 1600m/s, taking 0.25 seconds to hit! No matter how you struggle, there’s no way you can make it in time! Don’t tell me… don’t tell me you’re really predicting the future…!?』
A trembling voice is heard from the communicator. As I thought, he’s weak to agitation. Some of the bullets are already starting to fly in trajectories that won’t hit me. And of course, this trick isn’t some future prediction. It’s image processing.
Right now, my assault rifle’s scope is constantly pointed at the sniping location, and it’s directly connected to the rifle’s trigger via a terminal. What I’m doing is simple. When the light level at the target location increases, pull the trigger. That’s all there is to it. Light detection and a turret firing software (300,000 yen) for night battles were being sold dirt cheap, so I bought and installed them to try it out. I see, it’s extremely fast. After all, there’s only one terminal in between. It can issue the firing command and pull the trigger faster than the sniper shot hits.
And once I get close enough, I resume the mystery step. It’s a distance where intercepting with buckshot won’t make it in time, but the hassle of re-aiming and the intimidating barrage of shots induce fear, and he can no longer make proper shots.
『S-Stop! Don’t come any closer! Stop moving like that, I can’t aim properly. Ah, wait, forgive me, I’m totally hopeless in close combat—!』
『☆Star_Night☆』
13 years old as of 2040. Skilled at gaming, especially long-range shooting. Achieved the highest accuracy in ‘VR Sniping’. The reason he’s not the strongest is due to strategic losses against veteran gamers and frequently falling for Orange’s beginner’s traps. Member of the Orange Victims Association. Unlike Greg, he’s the type to chicken out and run away from the 2055 operation (which is why he’s not that strong).
『Light Detection Software』
Automated control program. The development of Apollyon technology and the restricted underwater environment greatly increased the value of automated control programs. The most well-known one detects movement and fires. Light detection types were used for a while, so many of them circulated in the market, which is why they remained in the protagonist’s memory. But don’t suddenly use it in actual combat. It misfires just from someone flickering a flashlight at it.
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