-[Notification: Pulse activated.]
-[Notification: 6 enemies identified.]
───Ratatatatat!
The deafening noise filled the room. The firing pin struck the prir, igniting the powder inside the casing, creating a loud explosion. Although it was muffled by the silencer, the sound was amplified by the tight indoor space, bouncing off the walls and shattering into pieces before gradually fading into the background like dust settling on the floor. Russian-uniford players, struck by bullets, collapsed face-first onto the ground with strange wheezing sounds. However, just seconds later, they disintegrated into polygon fragnts, leaving no trace behind.
One player crossed the now-empty corridor.
Her hair was ssy and singed in places, her bulletproof vest caked with dust and dirt, and her gun scratched and pierced by bullets. Yet, her light mint-colored eyes continued scanning the surroundings, never letting her guard down. Of course, there was so grumbling to go with it.
"What is my team even doing...?"
D was still gray, aning it hadn’t been captured by anyone.
She had witnessed both friendly and enemy forces repeatedly battling for control, but it was clear that unless D ca under friendly control, it was all pointless. Perhaps this was because of the tactical decision made when they first arrived at D, a thought that crossed Harmony’s mind.
And what was that tactical decision? Let’s rewind a few minutes to when the squad first arrived at D. Thanks to the enemy transport’s excellent support, at least two enemy squads had reached D first, and more may have arrived since then.
That’s when Harmony shared her improvised plan:
"Even if we can't capture D, we can make sure the enemy doesn’t capture it either."
Outnumbered.
The friendly forces were advancing toward D, but the enemy had arrived first. Therefore, their mission wasn’t to engage in a direct firefight but to circle around inside the building, picking off the Russian players who had snuck in and sending them back to the respawn screen. Harmony's squad chose to crush the enemy’s vanguard.
With Harmony’s skillful command and the enemy struggling to capture D in an exposed, open area, the enemy forces that had tried to take D multiple tis were wiped out just as the main U.S. force arrived, costing them their early tactical advantage.
Of course, that didn’t an Harmony’s squad ca out unscathed.
-[Notification: 45 seconds until enemy UAV recon ends.]
They hadn’t captured the point, and now an enemy UAV hovered above, ready to drop an EMP. This ant that despite Harmony’s survival at D, her squad couldn’t spawn nearby.
A quick glance at the half-updated holographic map showed Kimstone, Limit, and Hotteok running toward D from far away. Whether they caught a ride, ran, or parachuted out of a wrecked transport, they were on their way.
But there wasn’t much ti for rest.
───Boom!
"Ugh, no matter how many I take down, they keep coming!"
Shards of stone, shattered by bullets, flew everywhere. Dodging from her previous cover, Harmony repositioned herself, ready to fire back. More enemies had appeared. D had turned into a warzone, with friendly and enemy forces mixed and fighting from every direction. Harmony wasn’t spared from this chaos.
She checked her hologram, spotting two enemies sneaking around a corner, their positions revealed thanks to the still-active pulse. She placed her finger on the trigger, took a deep breath, and lined up her shot.
Leaning out just slightly from behind cover, Harmony, ard with her HK416, aid down her holographic sight.
The barrel spat bullets with a strange hiss.
"Argh!"
"Ugh...!"
Pew, pew, pew.
Because this scenario didn’t involve operators, but instead regular U.S. soldiers, players had lost their nanomachine barriers, leading to drastically shorter ti-to-kill (TTK). What would normally take a burst of rounds to bring down an enemy now only required three well-placed shots to the upper body and head to send them straight to the respawn screen.
Unlike in the Dark Zone main mode, the chanics of Conquest naturally divided players into two groups:
Those who die easily.
And those who kill easily.
Harmony was clearly the latter.
-[Intercepted comms: Enemy in the right corridor! Throw a grenade!]
She wasn’t one to miss such an opportunity.
Skipping over the disappearing bodies, Harmony peeked out and spotted a Russian player who had just pulled the pin on a grenade. Their eyes t, though Harmony saw them through her dot sight.
A sharp sound followed by the grenade falling from the enemy’s hand, and the four others diving for cover.
-Boom!
With that, that squad learned the valuable lesson of not throwing grenades in an area occupied by enemies.
Returning to the hallway, Harmony reloaded. anwhile, cheers and encouragent filled the chat window floating in the corner. The rate at which the chat scrolled was faster than the altiter of a crashing jet.
"Whooooaaaaaa!"
"Bartender! Give us a round for Harmony!"
"That timing was perfect, lol!"
"I’m done! That was sick, lol!"
"I wanna play like that! I wanna play like that!"
Normally—or at least five or six weeks ago—she would never have heard such a flood of praise. It sent chills down her spine, and a smile crept onto her face. She barely suppressed a laugh, but the overwhelming joy made her hair stand on end.
It was obvious without looking—her cat ears and tail, reacting to her emotions, were probably twitching like crazy.
The exhaustion from the intense battle began to set in, but when she heard over the comms that the EMP UAV had disappeared, her spirits lifted slightly. The crackling noises faded, and communications were restored.
A familiar voice echoed in her ears.
-[Friendly Comms: Hey, Harmony! You still alive!?]
-[Friendly Comms: She’s no ordinary cat, she’ll outlive you. Anyway, we’re on our way as fast as we can, but...]
"Why, what’s up?"
A mont of silence.
Not understanding what was happening, Harmony waited for the response.
-[Friendly Comms: Limit the princess got swept away. It’s like sothing out of The Wizard of Oz. He managed to escape from the transport, but got caught in a whirlwind, so he’ll be a bit late. We’re heading over without him for now.]
"...What?"
...A whirlwind?
She was about to ask what kind of nonsense that was when—
-[Broadcast: Attention to all personnel in the building. A powerful windstorm is currently raging outside. Please move to the inner areas of the building. Do not attempt to go outside. Once again, a powerful windstorm is...].
"No way, what’s wrong with this map!?"
At the sa ti, Harmony started making her way outside, retracing the now-familiar interior layout. The sound of the wind grew stronger as she moved through the corridors. Friendly players along the way advised her not to go outside, but curiosity is hard to resist.
The view outside was vastly different from just a few minutes ago. The sky, once clear, had darkened. Naturally, rain was pouring down, and the roaring noise created by the vortices hitting the building grew loud enough to hurt her ears.
She stepped outside.
And then she saw it.
───Whoooosh!
"...Whoa, what the heck is that."
A massive pillar of wind, descending from the clouds, was spiraling down, swallowing everything in its path.
"You seem to be enjoying the view."
"It’s not every day you see a tornado invade a battlefield."
To put it differently, it piqued my interest.
Honestly, I’m not a fan of combat or fighting. Why would I be? Anyone who thinks about where I’ve been can figure out the answer quickly enough. Still, being interested and liking sothing are two different things.
I may not like battles, but it was fascinating to see Harmony, who had been training with , displaying her growth across various combat scenarios. And with a tornado—a unique variable I had never encountered before—entering the battlefield, it wasn’t sothing I could ignore.
Having only experienced New York's blizzards, heatwaves, rainstorms, and the occasional hurricane, this was definitely worth paying attention to.
"Have you played Conquest mode before?"
"Not yet, no. Seeing all the transport vehicles, helicopters, and tanks, I feel like I'd just end up dying to a stray bullet. It doesn’t seem like my kind of ga."
"Yeah, I get the feeling... you don’t seem like soone who enjoys dying."
Soone who, no matter the odds, finds a breakthrough—or at the very least, obliterates everything around them. That was generally the external assessnt of Yujin.
She had told once. Getting too used to dying could, in a way, beco a decline in skill. At first, I wasn’t sure if she was serious, but without adding any embellishnts, Yujin had demonstrated that philosophy over and over through her actions.
Of course...
"...What are you writing?"
"Just noting down things I might incorporate into training."
"Ha."
It was honestly a bit terrifying. What could possibly be going through her head? Did she even have any thoughts outside of her expertise—like favorite foods, clothes, perfus, or costics? Not that I could make assumptions about her gender, of course.
Glancing over, I asked:
"By the way, you weren’t stationed at Jinhae Naval Base before you started Dark Zone, right? You’re not UDT or Special Forces or anything like that, are you?"
"Who knows. That part is..."
"Uh... Should I not have asked? Sorry."
"No... That’s not it. I was just thinking about sothing."
Had I touched on sothing I shouldn’t have? As I started to feel uneasy, Yujin was sorting through various thoughts, particularly fragnts of the past that had surfaced unexpectedly.
As I ntioned before—fragnts of a past I hadn’t anticipated.
- The Departnt of Holand Security is waiting for you.
There was no need to dwell on that ssage. Fortunately, DHS seed to rember my efforts, for reasons unknown to . And if I dug into my mories, I’d find that DHS held an extraordinarily high status.
Even at a glance, DHS stood shoulder to shoulder with major federal departnts like the State Departnt, Treasury, Defense, and Justice. It handled everything from presidential security, intelligence, and counter-espionage to customs and immigration. Its power within the U.S. was unrivaled.
Considering that the ssage was signed by Richard A. Bernstein, the current Secretary of Holand Security—who was already dead when I was in New York—it was clear that they weren’t taking my significance lightly.
...Maybe if I talked to them, they’d even rewrite my military record.
"Umm, uh..."
"I’m not mad."
"Wah!?"
Wrapping her tail around Dice’s waist and tapping her head lightly with the tip, Harmony heard the resulting shriek. Harmony seed to like it, but Dice still had a long way to go.
In any case, there was no reason for to be angry. I just didn’t feel like saying anything because it all seed like such a distant matter. The issue of my military record would undoubtedly co up soday. And when it did, I might need all the help I could get.
Taking a small breath, I added:
"...You’re really not mad?"
"I’m really not."
"Whew, that’s a relief... Oh, I had sothing to say, but I forgot... Ah, right. By the way, there’s a eting tomorrow with the 100 people competing in KSM. Are you going? You can always watch the recording later if you want. But since it’s in VR, I’ll probably be there."
"Really? Well, if that’s the case, I don’t see a reason not to go. It’s probably in my inbox, right?"
"Check your inbox more often."
"...I probably should."
Of course, Dice shot a fiery glare, so I quickly averted my gaze. Why am I always the one to get nagged?
Anyway, by then, our break ti had flown by.
Tapping her shoulder, I added:
"Let’s get back to it."
"Ugh..."
Splat, splat.
Today, too, my training camp was running at full capacity.
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