I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 85 – New Common Days

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───Thududududu!

Bullets rained down and sparks flew.

While forcibly restraining my racing heartbeat, I sorted through the numerous pieces of information filtering in between the suppressed gunfire, picking out anything useful. How many bullets the enemy fired, their movement routes, if they were preparing to throw a grenade….

The more immersed I became, the fewer UI elements surrounded my field of vision, until it was just the enemy and me. The methodology ingrained in my body and years of accumulated combat experience calmed the tremors in my muscles, finding tranquility amidst the chaos.

I felt the trigger under my gloved finger. Applying pressure on the trigger that could go no further, the firing pin struck the primer, and the bullet easily broke the sound barrier to reach the enemy.

Lapua Magnum rounds sliced through the air and struck the concrete cover wall. With a chilling whip crack, the kinetic energy concentrated on one point began to break the weakened cover.

A single magazine of ten bullets fulfilled its role in an instant.

As gravity pulled it to the ground, a new polymer magazine was inserted, ready to spit out a hail of lead once again. Or tungsten rounds, perhaps.

Pull the trigger, intercept incoming grenades, and close the distance while the enemy took cover. These were numerous fragmented plans. It was almost like a puzzle.

One objective was a precursor to a larger goal, steps leading towards the destination.

Move positions, shoot, and kill the enemy.

Kill the enemy, overcome the obstacles the session presented, and achieve victory.

Achieve victory, advance from the preliminary rounds to the main event.

Reaching the main event would inevitably lead to a visit to the ICARUS headquarters.

Would I find out there why the Dark Zone was connected to my past and the world I had been to?

───Boom!

A grenade intercepted mid-air exploded with a deafening roar, scattering tiny metal balls everywhere. It was like a rain of death. In reality, it was no different.

I checked the nanomachine and stamina levels. Due to being hit by armor-piercing rounds, both my nanomachine and stamina levels were dropping. They had pierced and exited my body.

Nevertheless, the few bullets that hit had inflicted enough shock to prevent the enemy from aiming properly, so I leapt forward without much hesitation. As expected, there were no follow-up shots.

Causes had effects, and this became usable information.

The suffocating engagement had finally come to an end.

Consistently and continuously diminishing the enemy’s combat capabilities without accumulating damage to my own body always brought effective results.

Though the enemy was no longer capable of inflicting significant damage on me, it didn’t mean I could approach them carelessly.

Before the enemy could recover, I pulled the pin on a grenade.

Click, the sound of the pin being pulled.

The grenade’s body hit the ground with a dull metallic sound, and the final puzzle piece fit into place.

Thus, I took one more step forward.

───!

[Notification: The winner has been decided.]

[Notification: This session will end in 20 seconds.]

With an explosion that deafened my ears, I survived once more today.

[Notification: Congratulations on being one of the first 16 winners in the Preliminary Rank!]

[Notification: Adjusting tiers….]

“Sigh….”

Cool water ran down my throat.

How should I describe it? It felt like climbing stairs. The quality of matches I had to face gradually increased over time. It wasn’t exponential, but it was noticeable.

The congratulatory messages that popped up were fascinating. Sixteen people. Come to think of it, in each session of a hundred people, with sixteen such rooms — although one might not be filled completely, there was additional recruitment — there would be sixteen winners.

Sixteen out of 1600. It was indeed rare. Still, I couldn’t quite grasp that I was one of them.

I glanced at the notification window.

There were many greetings from people I wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with, having exchanged messages with them at least once. Interestingly, the messages seemed to be in the order of how I had come to know them.

Harmony. Unreal. Cartographer. Dice. And a few others…all familiar faces. I started reading from the topmost message. It was from Harmony.

[Harmony: Thanks to you, I even watched match broadcasts I wasn’t aware of, hehe. Your fights were impressive! I’ll never experience such intense battles, haha…ㅠㅠ

Anyway, you always do so well, so I don’t think you need my worries, I’ll just cheer for you instead! Feel free to contact me anytime if you have time!

P.S) The Cthulhu dating sim you played recently was so much fun, hahaha. Will you play the sequel?]

It was a message very typical of Harmony.

Of course, the last comment would be quite difficult to accommodate. The content was so daunting that it was hard to hold back my bewilderment while playing it.

I remembered the name Cartographer. We had coincidentally met while I was cycling through tournament ranks — not the preliminary rank — in the past. Rather than a coincidence, it was more like I had unilaterally beaten them.

Anyway, we hadn’t interacted much after that, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t talked at all. There was a certain level of distance.

To summarize, the content was quite mundane. Just a typical greeting, mentioning that they had also entered the preliminary rank, and suggesting we meet at KSM later. Roughly that level.

And Dice…well.

Before introducing the content, I quickly moved my fingers.

[Yoo Jin: Dice, do you have few people you interact with?]

Then, as if to drive the point home — the reply came very quickly.

[Dice: No!!!]

[Dice: Why are you roasting me after a greeting, hahaㅠㅠ]

[Yoo Jin: Sorry, hehe]

[Yoo Jin: Did you do well in your match?]

[Dice: Finished in the top tier, hehe]

[Dice: There was some unfair situation at the end, so I couldn’t get first place, but the LP I gained from defeating many enemies is not much different from the person who came first.]

[Yoo Jin: Congratulations.]

Back to the content…in fact, it was about three times as long as Harmony’s message.

To summarize, the beginning was a typical greeting, the middle part detailed recent events and the last broadcast they watched, and towards the end, they suggested meeting not just in the preliminary ranks but also at KSM or the Asia preliminaries.

Of course, the final note was a plea not to encounter each other in the same match.

The next match was scheduled for three hours later.

While preparing a shake that amounted to 2000 kcal per cup, the conversation shifted topics slightly.

At some point, the text message had turned into an avatar-call.

— By the way, you completely demolished Michael. Pardon me, but are you really human? Should I suggest adding real CQB to the temporary coaching position…?

“I’ve heard that a lot….”

— It’s understandable. Well, I only saw clips, so I didn’t catch all the context. But does it really matter? Just that scene alone says it all.

Of course, the conversation didn’t end there, and the topic shifted again.

— …When did you start carrying that Tomahawk around? Isn’t it a bit…odd to get kills with that? You’re not going to use it to kill me later, right?

“It’s quite an old item. I can pull it out anytime if things get rough….”

— That’s scary, seriously….

It wasn’t exactly uncommon.

In real combat, anything could happen, and this included not just carbine range but also distances suitable for handguns — and even hand-to-hand combat where handguns were unusable.

Simply put, it was the same reason many soldiers carried tactical knives in actual deployments.

I just carried an axe instead of a knife.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely unaffected by the influence of Hunters sent to kill ICARUS operators.

The conversation continued.

It was still raining outside.

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[Analysis] Today’s Yoo Jin Route Analysis.anal

Hey, Dark Gallery people.

Today, I’m here to explain Yoo Jin’s gameplay, which has been quite a hot topic lately, for those who missed it.

Since I’m only sharing what I know, it might differ slightly from actual gameplay, but keep in mind, I’m just a perpetual second division player, while Yoo Jin is a human tank splitting open the heads of renowned pro gamers.

There’s a three-line summary above and another below.

To summarize Yoo Jin’s movement route in three lines:

1. Don’t do it

2. Don’t even think about it

3. If you do it, you’ll be shredded

To be blunt, Yoo Jin’s route isn’t great because as you move up the tiers, AP’s motto is survival, not kill catch.

As many know, AP can have slight skill differences between tiers, but there’s often a situation where master players can instantly crush pro gamers.

Therefore, the tactics analysis on Yourspace usually look similar because playing safely while maximizing survival rates is the basic strategy — a form of convergent evolution.

Thus, Yoo Jin’s play inevitably stands out.

If one had to label this user’s behavior as a tactic, it could be called the Bulldozer Tactic or Blender Tactic, as they crush everything in their way.

Although it’s a playstyle ordinary people can’t replicate, it subtly reveals insane psychological warfare.

For instance, take the 1:2 situation currently under heated debate.

If you look closely, Yoo Jin threw a

smoke grenade deep into the hallway during the engagement.

Many people missed the fact that the sound of the smoke grenade rolling and detonating was completely drowned out by the gunfire.

I think this was an attempt to withhold additional information. If Michael had heard the smoke grenade, he might have thought:

— Huh? Smoke grenade sound? There’s a long hallway ahead?

— Trying to obscure vision and breach the hallway? I need to close in quickly.

At least that’s what I thought. He would’ve judged it like this if he heard the smoke grenade.

Anyway, the sound of the smoke grenade was masked, and Yoo Jin blatantly wasted bullets. To me, this seemed like a move to guide the location of a grenade throw.

Here’s why I think so.

Michael didn’t throw the grenade deep into the hallway, indicating he thought Yoo Jin was there.

But Yoo Jin was already hidden in the smoke. Kyle thought Yoo Jin would charge straight through after throwing the smoke grenade, so he ran away to the back.

After avoiding the two grenades, Yoo Jin immediately closed the distance. Yoo Jin must have decided to end it here.

Then came the famous ‘that throw’ scene everyone knows.

Frankly, if it wasn’t Yoo Jin, anyone else would have died there, as there’s no way to win a close-range fight against someone with a shield charging in.

I’ve seen countless plays in this game, but this one made me dizzy.

And then….

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[All Comments][By Order of Registration]

— First comment, then read, lol.

— Summary: If it’s not Yoo Jin, don’t even dream about it.

— I saw it roughly during Unreal and Russ’s commentary, but seeing it analyzed bit by bit, it’s insane, lol.

— While everyone else is busy surviving like cowards, Yoo Jin is shooting a movie… which is why he’s cooler.

— So the tip today is that to take down shield users, you just throw them, right?

ㄴ[Author] That’s right^^

ㄴIs this serious or a joke, lol.

ㄴIs this real life? Yoo Jin, you crazy bastard, can you see the bulletproof shield as an ice cream bar?????

ㄴIf it was possible, I would’ve already broken the heads of shield users, lol.

— Seriously, lol, what’s with the title, lol.

ㄴ’anal’

ㄴAdd ‘yze’ to the end, lol.

ㄴToday’s Yoo Jin Route Analysis. ‘Butt’.

ㄴI’m dead, lol.

ㄴThe next game won’t be in the Dark Zone, but in court, lol.

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