I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 202 – Break Time Again

“Ugh, I feel like my head’s going to explode…!”

“Oh dear, kids. When I did this with Yoo Jin….”

It was a complete mess.

A totally insane person had taken control of the squad’s vehicle and was driving the squad members around the main mission – extremely difficult, as if that wasn’t enough, they were running in circles at the shooting range. At least three of them thought so, excluding Harmony.

The virtual reality connection time had already exceeded fifteen hours. It wasn’t a great amount of time. It was possible to fulfill this amount just by connecting to VR for five hours in real-time, and it was achievable for hardcore gamers or streamers to stream for quite a long time.

However, the story changes if most of that time is spent seeing not with two eyes but through dot sights and holographic sights, and constantly maintaining concentration to the point of getting a headache while flicking the index fingers of the right and left hands.

Moreover, it wasn’t like they could quit saying they couldn’t do it anymore,

“Ugh, I can’t do this anymore! I quit! Just kill me instead!”

saying that, Stone, who was rolling around on the floor in the middle of shooting range training, claiming he was too tired, Harmony looked at him briefly,

or rather, acted.

───Clack.

“Argh! Okay! I’ll do it, just spare me!”

“It’s better to do it when I tell you with words, isn’t it?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she took out a magazine, inserted it, then pressed the bolt catch to load a round into the chamber, unlocked the safety, and aimed. That was how Squad Leader Harmony ruled her squad members with an iron fist.

Of course, she had no choice. It was even more so because they were close colleagues. If someone didn’t take the lead and clearly set the milestones, this gathering would continue to be just a social club until the tournament was almost upon them.

In other words, it meant they wouldn’t practice.

Moreover, their skills weren’t enough to let things go like that. At least, that’s what Harmony thought.

At least these were not the cases where each squad member had excellent judgment and could produce outstanding results individually without much interference from the squad leader.

Even if they were, that had its own set of problems.

“So, before we go for the main mission, we have homework. These are things I’ve tried myself, so it won’t take long. About an hour? That should be enough for a warm-up.”

“Yoo Jin, what did you do to Harmony…?”

Everyone imagined the same scene. The tail wriggling seductively before their eyes. The avatar was copied exactly… no, it was the other way around. It was as if the real-world appearance was brought into virtual reality.

The fact that a form suitable for a VR avatar was walking around in reality was still a shock even after several days.

In fact, the tail was the most noticeable thing among many others, so they only talked about the tail. If there were no tail, they might have talked about her top-tier appearance. Of course, this would be under the assumption that they had permission.

Anyway, aside from such words. Time was melting away like ice cream left out on a hot summer day. The saying that time flies when you’re tired was effective everywhere.

So, in real-time, it was 11 PM. After finishing the training and a brief debriefing, they were having talk time.

“…But, I’m scared I might slip up while talking on Monday. So, I just didn’t mention meeting Yoo Jin at all. Did you guys talk about it on your streams?”

“I kept it as brief as possible and went straight to gaming. The editor even asked if I wasn’t going to talk about it more. But I couldn’t trust my mouth….”

“Really, you too?”

“What about Harmony?”

Three pairs of eyes turned.

But she added without any change in her expression.
“I just mentioned it briefly and then played a crappy game.”

“…Ah, yes. Of course you did.”

“You… you… really are insane….”

“What? Content is important.”

“That’s not content, it’s called maintaining order, you… idiot.”

They all desperately wanted to say she didn’t know why they were asking ‘why?’, but for fear of the repercussions, they needed to change the topic slightly.

So, Limit spoke up quietly.

“But since you have a personal relationship with her, didn’t you get more persistent questions? Didn’t Yoo Jin make a hologram appearance before the Asian preliminary round?”

“That’s true, but everyone understood when I said she barely managed to come watch just before the match. I didn’t talk about anything else after that.”

“Ah, I see.”

The stories gathered one by one.

To summarize, it was about placing an embargo until Yoo Jin revealed herself. Naturally, the end was self-deprecating.

“Looks like we’ll be biting our tongues for a while.”

“Well, according to Harmony, there’s a high chance of her going public at the end of December… so we just need to keep our mouths shut until then.”

“Then I won’t stream until then.”

“You’re planning your break around this? Are you crazy?”

The four of them, who had taken off their heavy military gear, were now in their basic avatar outfits, chatting quietly around a table.

Even without the squad leader’s official disband command, it was naturally the end of a day’s work.

As the conversation drifted through various topics, it eventually started to steer towards the tournament.

“Yoo Jin hasn’t quit streaming, right? If we ask her to help us later… would that be too rude?”

“I should ask the organizers about it. To what extent we can practice with outside help. I’ve heard most teams ask pro teams they know even a little.”

“Uh… what’s Yoo Jin up to lately.”

At the same time, waving her hand in the air, Harmony opened Yoo Jin’s personal tricky site popup. She wanted to check the streaming schedule Yoo Jin herself had set on a calendar-style table.

But before that, the topmost announcement caught her eye.

-[Notice: No streams on Tuesday/Wednesday.]

To celebrate the end of the Asian preliminary round + reaching 900,000 subscribers on the Yourspace channel, I’m treating the hardworking editors and thumbnail creators to a delicious meal.

See you 20000

“….”

Watching it with an indescribable expression, Harmony finally spoke.

“Tomorrow’s not going to work.”

Phew.

A small sigh of relief echoed from somewhere, but unfortunately, Harmony couldn’t identify who it belonged to until the end of the day.

Even after the Asian preliminary round was over, the day rolled on like this.

“Hic.”

“Hiccups, huh? That’s new.”

Meanwhile,
Yoo Jin was slowly preparing for the time after she revealed her identity.

───Sizzle!

“Wow….”

“There’s plenty of meat, so eat as much as you want.”

Is this… a dream? Or reality?

Gathered at a rooftop glamping spot in Hongdae were five people – more precisely, three editors and two thumbnail creators from Yoo Jin’s Yourspace channel. Such thoughts were crossing their minds. Actually, it was Yoo Jin’s form that was crossing their minds, not thoughts.

Anyway, there were some minor twists and turns before this meeting happened.

Specifically, a message received a few days ago.

-[Yoo Jin: Is everyone free early next week?]

During the midst of the Asian preliminary round, Yoo Jin sent a message. As shown, it was a somewhat random question asking if they could take two days off. However, everyone accepted it without much issue. It was natural for editors and thumbnail creators to work from home.

Of course, they could sense what their employer wanted with their keen senses. They thought it might be some kind of MT or team-building event. Naturally, there was a statement saying they could skip it if they felt burdened.

So, one editor and one thumbnail creator, making a gender ratio of 3:2, packed their simple luggage and gathered in Hongdae, which didn’t take long.

The first meeting was a bit awkward, but under the common ground of Yoo Jin, they began to open up, and by evening, they were waiting for Yoo Jin, who said she would bring a lot of meat, as the sky started to turn red, they finally saw their employer.

And the slight error in their prediction was,

-Nice to meet you all in person. Hello.

-…Huh?

Their employer was the real-world avatar torn from VR.

The perspective returns to the present.

“Ouch, wow… this is really delicious…!”

“I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t been able to take care of you all properly, but I’m glad you like it. Here, it’s cold, so eat while it’s hot.”

“Oh, it’s fine! We’ll take care of it quickly!”

“Opportunities like this are rare, so please relax. Just sit comfortably. I can handle grilling.”

How is this possible?

One of the two EM-class manifesters in Korea, the operator of Yourspace with nearly a million subscribers in just a few months, the natural disaster who overwhelmingly won the Asian preliminary round, and also their employer.

This person was grilling meat in front of them and even serving it on plates. How could they relax and enjoy? Seriously? How does one do that?

Silent screams filled the air, but Yoo Jin, whether knowing or not, poured gasoline on the blazing fire.

“This is for Editor Kkori. You seemed to enjoy operating the fanspace, but I couldn’t reply right away. I’m glad we can continue working together… is there anything uncomfortable?”

“Huh, th-thank you so much! Always!”

“Wow, I didn’t even salute the division commander like that.”

It was a metaphor that would leave any military person speechless, but it couldn’t be helped.

It felt like being rewarded for their efforts. They had experienced many things before and after becoming Yourspace editors, but this was the first time for something like this.

Moreover, others felt similarly, though to a lesser extent. Editors and thumbnail creators were freelancers. They repaid with results and diligence rather than intimacy with their employer, and vice versa, the way to build trust was through diligence and the results that followed.

Anyway, setting such stories aside, Yoo Jin was….

The real deal.

‘…Come to think of it, why didn’t I even consider this possibility?’

A blind spot.

Even if something is plausible, if the result is utterly absurd, it won’t be taken seriously in the end.

But by directly seeing the person involved, they realized that the seemingly absurd hypothesis was the actual reality. The final thought was… well, whatever it was, it couldn’t be expressed in words.

There were many things they were curious about and wanted to ask, but-

───Sizzle!

“Ah, I can help with this. Are you making ramen? How many packs?”

“I’ve got the ramen packs… whoa, what’s this!”

“Then can you catch them if I throw them?”

“Oh, okay?”

Rustle.

Whoosh, the tail quickly wrapped around a five-pack ramen bag. It flickered in the light and then the ramen bag floated in the air. In an instant, it used its elasticity to fling it toward someone else.

As two packs filled one person’s arms, others began to open them. The condiments started pouring into the large heating container filled with water.

As steam began to rise from the water due to the strong firepower, Yoo Jin added without much concern.

“Put all ten packs in.”

“Uh, will we be able to eat all of that?”

“I’ll eat more than half anyway, so don’t worry.”

“Oh….”

Yoo Jin’s reputation as a big eater, which occasionally came up during broadcasts, was being proven in a very simple way.

Even as the noodles were being dropped into the boiling water, Yoo Jin kept grilling meat with her tail wrapped around the tongs. The sight of her flipping meat with the tongs left everyone speechless with amazement.

Of course, with Yoo Jin joining in, the speed at which the meat disappeared increased several times.

‘…I’m glad I’m an editor, not a broadcaster.’

There was never a day they were more grateful for that fact. If they were broadcasters, they wouldn’t have been able to keep quiet about what happened today.

Meanwhile, Yoo Jin’s watch on her left wrist, which hadn’t made a sound until now, was glowing brightly.

It resembled the ICARUS Gear. From memory, it seemed like a similar smartwatch Yoo Jin had received as a gift during the last unboxing.

Curious, someone asked.

“Wow, did you get that directly from ICARUS? It’s really pretty. Does it actually work?”

“Of course.”

“Ah… so what happened all of a sudden?”

Haha. Yoo Jin laughed shortly and added quietly.

There seemed to be a strange satisfaction in that laughter.

“A package has arrived.”

Ah. As they nodded in understanding, Yoo Jin carefully hid the other emotion that had briefly surfaced on her face.

Old friends were coming.

Crossing an invisible bridge, following the thread that led here.