I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 74 ­ Animal Cafe

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“I don’t want to go outside… Uwaaaaah!”

“Hurry up. The weather is so nice today.”

“Only reptiles would call this nice weather!”

“You know well.”

Squelch, squelch.

I tried to retrace my steps back to the hotel lobby, but Harmony clung to the cool air-conditioned interior like glutinous rice cake stuck to a warm place.

I wrapped my waist and shoulders around her like a crossbody bag, making it easy to drag her along. My tail could support over 300kg, so dragging an adult was no problem.

The weather forecast couldn’t be entirely trusted, but it seemed like it would be a while before heavy raindrops would start falling. The sky was still dark, and the air was humid.

We walked, each holding an umbrella. There wasn’t any specific destination. To be exact, I didn’t have anything in mind. Maybe the shooting range. The hotel was surrounded by high-end department stores.

If there was nothing else, we might have to go there.

The sound of cars passing by on the wet ground echoed off the walls endlessly.

“I was originally thinking of going to the MCN I belong to next, but it’s a bit far and I didn’t get a visit permit, so unfortunately, it fell through. Do you have any place you want to go?”

“Shooting range…?”

“…That’s a line-up only a teacher would suggest. The department store right in front… well, you might not like it.”

“Unfortunately, I have to custom order my clothes… but I could look at some tops.”

“Then, if there’s nothing else, let’s go to the shooting range. I’ve been curious about how real guns feel.”

I had just said it casually, but Harmony took it seriously, making me a bit flustered.

Luckily, in this world where the game Dark Zone was more commonplace than I thought, I didn’t receive any strange looks. But when I glanced at Harmony, she seemed to be seriously considering my suggestion.

If I didn’t say anything, we might naturally head there. That wasn’t a bad thing either.

It was still hot, but without the direct sunlight, it was bearable to walk around. The downside was the extreme humidity, making it feel like walking through an aquarium. But chatting away as we walked made it less bothersome.

As expected of Seoul, there was nothing we couldn’t find around here.

Sandwich shops. Mala soup. Cafes appearing every minute as we walked. Tall buildings and roads as soon as we stepped out of an alley. Occasionally a homemade bakery. Hospitals here and there.

It felt like seeing the same components put together differently.

Further down was Namsan, and up was Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo. Both were quite far to walk to. The weather and temperature weren’t great for Harmony either.

Just in case, I searched for a nearby live-fire shooting range. Not by pulling out my phone, but through the ICARUS Gear. A hologram only visible to me began popping up directions.

The closest one was roughly within a 400m radius. It was close enough.

Just as I was about to mention this, Harmony suddenly stopped.

Despite stopping, she was still dragged along the ground due to the weight and strength difference.

“Ah! Wait! How can you drag me when I stopped!”

“Oops, somehow… Did you find something?”

“Yes, yes. What do you think of that?”

­[Experience various exotic animals! Welcome to Animal Cafe Healing with Pets! Cute raccoons, cats, prairie dogs, guinea pigs, fennec foxes, ferrets, amphibians and reptiles, meerkats, and other cute animals are waiting for you!]

­[※ Free for awakened people! // This event can be participated in only once!]

…This.

Was it okay for me to go in?

“Oh dear, hey. How can you climb on my head! The volume will turn off!”

“…”

“Hehe, hey! I’m letting it slide because you’re cute. Oh dear, it’s so chubby.”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself quite a bit.”

“…Oh…”

Harmony, hugging a raccoon and sipping her drink, looked like she had mixed feelings.

“…Somehow, none of them come near you, Yoo Jin.”

“You’re teasing me, right?”

“Ouch, sorry.”

How should I put it?

The animals treated us differently. While Harmony was just a regular cafe patron… I was treated like a sudden apex predator.

As soon as we entered, the animals started running around, and the caretakers were busy explaining to me that even when other awakened people visited, the animals never acted like this.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for them to calm down. I guessed they went from ‘we’re going to be eaten!’ to ‘…we’re not going to be eaten?’

Thankfully, they calmed down quickly. If it had continued, we might have been kicked out. Gradually, the nearby dogs and cats approached me with curiosity, so it should be fine.

“Coochie coochie coo.”

“…Pfft.”

“Harmony, have a treat.”

“…I’m not one of the animals here, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hand.”

Chirp.

Still, she placed her fist on my open palm.

Since Harmony was successfully tamed, I shredded the chicken breast (shrimp-flavored) I bought at the entrance and shook it with my fingers. A raccoon tried to climb my tail to reach my hand.

“Wow, you brought it with your tail.”

“You adapted so quickly, yet you threw a fit saying it was scary…”

“Yeah, right.”

Holding a raccoon, I shook a fishing-rod-style cat toy with my tail. Contrary to the earlier reaction, the animals now happily ran around.

My tail had quickly become a favorite toy for the nearby animals, drawing the attention of other guests and even the caretakers.

A cat climbed my tail and settled on my thigh, engaged in a territorial dispute with the raccoon. Meanwhile, Harmony, with an animal in her arms, played with a cat rubbing its cheek against her leg.

“Hey, don’t touch my phone! Guys, let me take a picture! Come on!”

“You shouldn’t be on the table.”

Meanwhile, a ragdoll cat tried to climb onto the table from an empty chair. With a drink in a glass on the table, I gently moved the cat down with my tail to prevent any accidents.

I heard a click. Since they had asked for permission to take pictures earlier, I didn’t mind.

As the cat reluctantly meowed from the floor, I finished my drink. I drank it quickly since I couldn’t carry it around.

As the staff collected the empty glass, Harmony, surrounded by several animals, spoke up.

“I feel like I’ll be covered in fur when I get home.”

“Same here.”

“Did you finish? There are reptiles and foxes upstairs. Thanks to you, I’m curious to see a snake now.”

“Then let’s go. And just so you know, I don’t know how to communicate with snakes. Got it?”

“Ah, I was going to ask… Oh! Sorry! You can’t take my shoe!”

I grabbed her sneaker with my tail. I considered tossing it and catching it again but decided against it since we weren’t at home.

After helping her put her shoe back on, we stood up. The caretakers, who had been waiting, skillfully guided us to the second floor.

The snakes were resting in glass enclosures. There weren’t many types, but they started to move a bit as we approached. As I watched absentmindedly, a ball python and I made eye contact.

How should I put it?

Its eyes seemed to ask, ‘Why are you there?’

“…I just thought of something. Can I say it?”

“Depending on the content, our next destination could be home or the police station.”

“Hehe… Awakened laws are too scary…”

“Exactly.”

There wasn’t much to see with the snakes, so we moved on to the fennec foxes.

Their ears were huge, and they were incredibly fast. Plus, there were several puppies playing together, creating quite a spectacle.

Naturally, within minutes, they were playing with my tail. Harmony, meanwhile, was handing out treats to a fox in her arms.

One thing I learned here was that the fennec fox’s cry was quite unique.

The third floor, which we visited next, wasn’t much different.

Despite our sudden visit, I got some mental healing, and there were no accidents because of my body, which was fortunate.

When will I fully understand the secrets of this body?

It seemed like a distant task.

“Whew, that was fun… How about you, Yoo Jin?”

“It’s my first time touching so many animals up close. They all seem very friendly.”

“Right? It’s my first time seeing animals approach people like this. My parents’ cat throws a fit whenever it sees me.”

“That’s probably its way of showing affection…”

The only animals I had seen before were those wandering the ruins of big cities or a few deer crossing main roads. Otherwise, there were the combat dogs the enemy special forces had.

I remembered those dogs wearing bulletproof vests.

Before we knew it, it was around 4 PM. We left the buffet around 2:30 PM, and we spent a little over an hour at the animal cafe.

Time flew by. My schedule after meeting Harmony included the temporary coaching position, starting at 8 PM.

Fitness club and dinner. I was mentally calculating the time distribution when Harmony spoke.

“…I seriously thought about it, how about we go to the shooting range next?”

“Are you really going?”

“Hehe, thanks to Dark Zone, I’ve been interested in this. Shooting in the game is very different from real shooting, right?”

“You’re surprising.”

Then a brief evaluation.

“If we had gone to the animal cafe after the shooting range

, no animals would have approached because of the gunpowder smell. It’s an interesting coincidence in the schedule.”

“Now that you mention it, it’s true. We caught a rat by stepping backward.”

“Right. I’ll pay this time. This is my specialty.”

“That sounds like… Do you know that movie where Keanu Reeves plays a killer and shoots everyone?”

“Oh, that one.”

With that casual conversation, our second destination was decided.

The shooting range.

Time to feel a different kind of trigger happiness compared to the mental healing from the animals.