Chapter 34
It seemed like I was the only person who knew that anymore.
Actually, FPS games were a genre I played more back when I was Han Seongwon than when I was Ahyeon.
There was a game called Sudden Attack—which doesn't exist in this world—that I used to be really good at.
I matched against actual pros, and sometimes even sniped streamers, so I was good enough to use them as floor mops.
So I was confident I could make a big impact in LEx too.
[Gaaah!]
Until I died three times in a row and sprawled on the floor.
“Oh.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, where did that come from?
-There are a shitload of angles here
“Ah, this is haaard.”
-You're moving around way too recklessly
-You need to cut down on the angles you expose
-This bastard thinks he's a veteranㅋㅋ
“Hmm, I'll admit it.”
To be honest, I'd underestimated it a little.
When you watch YouTube, streamers just stomp everyone so easily, don't they?
Since I was confident in FPS games, I thought I could do the same….
-You have to die three times before you'll admit itㅋㅋ
-Stop acting cocky and play it safe, okay?
It was harder than I'd expected.
“Should I be using high-penetration rounds?”
-Yeah, you need high-pen
-That iffy loadout won't do shit right nowㅋㅋ
And, more importantly, I'd forgotten something crucial.
LEx was basically an RPG with guns.
Unlike ordinary FPS games, bullets mattered more than guns in this one.
Every bullet had stats for damage and penetration, and armor came in tiers.
So if I wore Class 4 armor, even if the other guy sprayed me with bullets with a penetration value of 20,
it meant I would barely take any damage until my armor plate's durability was completely depleted.
The reverse was true as well.
[Ghk!]
That was why I died even though I'd put a bullet in the enemy's head first.
Fuck.
It wasn't like I was Iron Boy or anything, but every bullet I put in his head just bounced right off.
-Wow, look how it won't penetrateㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I told you, just shoot the legs
-Don't shoot the head, fuck
“What am I supposed to do when my aim automatically goes there?”
Isn't shooting the head the basic thing to do when you see a person?
But when I shot the head, every bullet just bounced off.
-What can you do when you're using trash ammo?
-Just shoot the legs and kill him with heavy bleeding
“Good grief.”
Another distinctive feature of LEx was that you had a separate health bar for each body part.
That was why they were telling me to shoot the legs.
Unless it was the head or thorax, you wouldn't die instantly even if a body part's health was fully depleted.
Instead, once that body part hit zero and blacked out, any further hits there spread damage to other body parts.
In other words, if you had trash ammo, it was better not to shoot the protected head or torso.
You should shoot only the soft, squishy legs and aim for an instant kill from the damage spread.
“What a gay-ass….”
Of course, it was a distasteful method that someone like Taejin might use.
Wasn't it basically an exploit?
When you play FPS games, you're supposed to put the enemy down with fast headshots.
And they wanted me to lie down and wreck their legs? Good grief.
-Then what, are you just going to keep dying??
-The leg-shredding budget loadout that absorbs their gear is the real deal;;
“The helmet has durability too, you know? And getting hit in the face seems to be a one-shot.”
Normally, helmets only protect the front and back of the head.
So even with trash ammo, a hit to the eyes or chin would kill you in one shot.
Especially since low-penetration bullets had high raw damage.
-There is absolutely~~ no angle for thatㅋㅋㅋ
-The guys rushing the launch are fucking seasoned already
But apparently, that angle wasn't easy to get.
…In that case, I had no choice.
“Whew… I didn't want to bring this out.”
Still, there was one fortunate thing.
Who was I?
A Royal Package buyer.
I had received a generous supply of starter weapons in my stash.
-Go in with the budget loadoutㅋㅋ
-You're seriously taking that in??
-You'd be better off saving it
When I pulled out an M4 with some seriously slick modding and high-penetration rounds from the weapons in my stash, the chat erupted.
To be honest, I wanted to save it too, but there was no helping it now.
“No, fuck, how many hours have I wasted already?”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The matchmaking is fucking ridiculous ㅆㅂ;;
That's because matchmaking took forty fucking minutes every time.
With everyone flooding in for launch, the server was throwing a tantrum, complaining of a high fever.
So far, four raids had taken three hours.
In that time, ARAM had gotten through six games.
I'd spent more time on ARAM than on LEx itself, practically.
-But can you actually do it??
-With mods like that, I'd only be able to get one later
-If you're going to die with that, give it to me, fuck
And more importantly….
“How could I possibly die while carrying this?”
Assuming I had the upper hand in equipment, I didn't think I could lose.
Who was I?
Wasn't I the guy who used streamers as floor mops?
Honestly, if my gear had been better, I could have won every fight I'd lost so far.
-Just don't come back whining about itㅇㅇ
-Let's gamble on points or something, shall we?
“All right, all right.”
So I boldly opened a point bet and clicked Start Matchmaking.
“One more game of ARAM?”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, this game really doesn't want to match us
-Server, f~uckㅋㅋ
After waiting about forty minutes, I finally connected to a raid.
I succeeded in showing the source of my confidence.
[Ghk!]
[Gah!]
“Phew! Phew!”
Namely, I took out the two-man camping squad that had suddenly popped out in front of me in one go.
-Wow, those reflexesㅋㅋ
-He mopped them up
-Kyaaㅋㅋㅋ
-This is what gunplay is about bb
To be honest, I was startled myself.
Having them suddenly pop out right in front of me was fucking scary.
“Told you high-pen rounds make a difference, right?”
Grinning from ear to ear, I looted the dead players' items.
There was nothing like taking down an opponent to put me in a good mood.
People didn't wait forty minutes for matchmaking for no reason.
-Yeah, it really is different
-Look at him punch straight through their headsㅋㅋ
“Maybe I have a talent for this?”
-He's got some moves
-Using good ammo really does change your whole buildㅇㅇ;;
“For reals….”
See? I kept telling you, you need to use good bullets.
Long live high-penetration ammo.
With the two users' gear safely in hand,
I moved on to look for the quest item in a good mood.
The place I'd entered for this raid was an urban map where buildings formed a forest,
and the quest would be complete if I found the files in an office there and extracted alive.
“I just strip the whole thing, right?”
-ㅇㅇStrip it and grab the loot
-You might find a graphics card too?
-RAM and graphics cards are expensive
“Okay, okay.”
So, after reaching the office without incident,
I grabbed the files and took apart the computers while I was there.
Since the game's main appeal was scavenging junk, you could loot computers for things like wires and CPUs and sell them.
It took an absurd amount of money to get anywhere in this game, so you had to collect diligently.
“Shall we start looking for an extract and get out?”
-ㅇㅇLet's go
-I'm stuffedㅋㅋ
-Finally cleared the quest
I'd already killed someone and stripped their gun.
And my bag was packed full of junk.
Just as I was about to happily look for the nearest extract,
Plop, roll-roll.
Something round and green rolled into the office.
“Ah-”
-God fucking damn it.
-Ah
-Uh
-Ah
BOOM!!
[Ghk!]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋ
“Shit….”
After a moment of confusion, a deep surge of fury came over me.
“Empty-handed in, empty-handed out….”
To think I'd gotten blown up by a grenade without even having a proper fight?
I should have closed the door before looting.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Empty-handed in, empty-handed out, my ass
-He just became a beggarㅋㅋ
“...Having nothing is actually the most valuable thing.”
That's what my devout Christian mother used to say.
She also said that it was harder for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
-When you say it, thoughㅋㅋㅋ
-<<Bastard who can't get into heavenㅋㅋ
-It's hilarious hearing that from a rich bastardㅋㅋ
“What money do I have?”
…Well, it's not like I have none.
But what could I do?
Was I supposed to stop making money just because I couldn't get into heaven?
Anyway, since I'd been wiped out, I loaded a full magazine of trash ammo into a gun with a high rate of fire.
-Huh??
-Didn't you say you weren't going to shoot the legs??
-That won't penetrate their headsㅋㅋ
Right, this was the so-called leg-meta setup.
It was a vicious method that shredded an opponent's legs to pieces and killed them regardless of whether they were wearing armor.
Maybe because I was an emotionless psychopath, I adopted even this brutal method without hesitation.
-Where's the guy who said the leg meta was gay or whatever?
-I've still got some money left, so let's blow it all in style??
-You have more high-pen ammo in your stash
...I did my best to ignore the oblivious viewers' comments.
I was merely making the rational choice.
If the quest had been to kill users, then bringing strong gear would have been the right call.
But this mission was just about bringing back an item, wasn't it? Why bother taking strong gear?
Exactly, that's right.
“All right, let's go.”
-Let's goㅋㅋ(40 minutes later)
-Let's go ARAMㅋㅋ
So, as always, I clicked Start Matchmaking and waited forty minutes.
Fuck… Looking out the window, I saw the morning sun rising and office workers starting their early day in the streets.
I'd stayed up all night.
[Entering….]
Since it was getting close to bedtime, I entered the raid determined to play this one properly and then shut things down.
[Thud.]
I lay flat in a nearby passage just like that.
-???
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Where did Wayo-hwang go, and why is there a camping rat..
“I shall quietly await salvation.”
For the Lord bestows grace upon those who wait.
This wasn't cowardly camping; it was a religious act.
-The Lord, my ass
-Since when did you start looking for Godㅋㅋ
“I grew up in the church nursery.”
How many times had I been dragged to church in a stroller?
Of course, once I learned to talk, I immediately refused and stopped going.
-Look at him saying church nurseryㅋㅋ
-Not even the young adults' group;;
-Do you even remember it?
“Shh, here he comes.”
Perhaps because I'd gone prone near a spawn point,
I heard footsteps nearby not long after hiding.
From the sound, there was one person. Perfect.
Tap-tap—tap.
The other person seemed to be walking carefully too,
but unless their eyes were mounted up in the sky, finding me lying in the alley would be nearly impossible.
Tap-tap—tap tap.
So I stayed prone, gauging their location with the sound-whoring skills I'd honed in other FPS games,
Tap, tap—tack!
When I thought they'd come right up to me,
Ratta-tat-tat!!
I sprang out and shredded their legs.
Through the muzzle flash, I could make out a helmet and loadout that looked solid at a glance, but
[Ghk!]
unfortunately, since this game didn't have armored pants,
their legs were shredded in an instant and they collapsed to the floor.
-Wow, no way
-What the hell is that guy's loadout??
-Fuck, that's so stacked
Just as the chat said, they had an obviously massive loadout, so I immediately went prone and buried my face in the floor.
-Wow, Class 5
-But the server's barely started;;
-What gun is that??
A Class 4 helmet and, incredibly, Class 5 armor.
Since I'd targeted only the legs, its durability was still pristine.
On top of that, they had the endgame bag that could hold a whole person, nicknamed the corpse bag, and a brand-new, fully modded gun.
“Uh, ugh….”
-Ugh, ugh
-Wow, fuck
-That's fucking sweetㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
The loot was sweet enough to take my breath away.
Coming in with a budget loadout and walking away with loot this sweet….
So this was why people kept talking about the leg meta.
Judging by their gear, the other player seemed to be a Royal Package user too.
Still, since I, a fellow member of the Royal Family, had taken their items, they probably felt a little less wronged.
“Extract, extract….”
Anyway, I'd gotten a huge haul right from the start, so I immediately went looking for an extract.
I wouldn't be able to sleep if I lost this.
-But didn't you say rich people can't get into heaven??
-With you that fat, you wouldn't fit through a needle anyway
-You should keep fighting now that you've got that gear;;
So, as I ran endlessly toward the extract,
the viewers started heckling me, apparently jealous that my budget loadout had left me so full from looting.
“What are you all talking about?”
Goodness, rich people can't get into heaven?
I asked back with an expression that said I'd never heard such a thing.
-???
-You were the one who said it
-Aren't you a camel right now?
Tsk tsk, how foolish.
How many rich people are Christians, anyway?
The camel is too big to fit through the eye of a needle?
Then I could just ask the Lord for a needle bigger than a camel.
-???
-??
-What the hell is this bastard sayingㅋㅋ
-What kind of insane logic is that??
“Amen.”
I returned with my bag stuffed full.
Long live camping.