Chapter 53
“Mm. The coffee smells nice.”
“Hey! What are you doing? We need to push through.”
“Just a second.”
Again, after entering the tanker.
After breaking through the first corridor, I took a moment to savor the coffee Aseong had bought.
Today, on a whim, I ordered hot coffee.
The fragrant coffee aroma was strikingly different from an iced Americano.
This place really is good.
It's run by a brother-and-sister pair, and both of them are remarkably skilled.
-You really love coffeeㅋㅋㅋ
-Do you order from the same place every time?
-Is the café open at this hour?
“It's open 24 hours.”
The private café I frequent is about six minutes from my house and open 24 hours a day.
In practice, I consider it two minutes away round-trip.
Because Aseong can get there in one minute if they run.
Anyway.
Since my little sibling went through the trouble of buying it at one in the morning, shouldn't I savor it?
“Because this bastard doesn't want to go first.”
“You cheap-ass bitch!”
“....”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-What are they doing?
-They’re both trying not to go firstㅋㅋ
As I savored my coffee, I heard the whining of my uncultured friends.
They sure caught on quickly.
“That's not it.”
I keep going first, so I die first.
This is our fifth time coming to the tanker.
You should have gotten the hang of it by now, right?
At a glance, this was clearly a place where you had to die if you didn't know the layout, so learning the rules through blood was the proper strategy.
So shouldn't the friends whose lives were a little cheaper go first?
-Look at this fucking mindsetㅋㅋㅋ
-Weren't you the one who invited us??
-This is some next-level pettiness bb
“I really don't have much money left.”
“Neither do I.”
However.
Everyone had already been wiped out four times.
Having fully learned the value of money, they slowly—
took up positions in the rear so they could go later.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Such deep affection
-<<<Aren't you the richest bastard here?
-What happened to all the weapons you earned by hoarding?
“Sigh….”
Fine, I guess I have to go in the end.
It was also true that I had plenty of weapons stockpiled in the warehouse.
“Fine, I'll go. Wayo the Joan of Arc is taking point.”
“Wayo of Arc.”
“I knew we could count on you.”
Clank!
In the end, I violently opened the metal door and led the way.
-That sound is fucking ominousㅋㅋㅋ
-Whoa, look how damn dark it is
Inside the pitch-dark tanker, we had to make our way forward relying on the lights attached to our guns.
Ting ting ting ting!!
We hadn't even been inside for long when the sound of military boots stomping across the metal floor came from beyond the darkness.
“Prepare smoke!”
Having already experienced this during our last attempt, I casually threw a smoke grenade.
Green smoke soon filled the area in every direction.
-Ahㅋㅋㅋ
-Smoke-bro is so reliable
-We won't die if we have thisㅋㅋ
"This is it."
Normally, there was no reason to use smoke in LEx.
But since this place was so cramped, smoke was incredibly effective.
Step, step—
Ah, if you don't know much about this, you might wonder.
Why throw smoke grenades?
Couldn't the players and the enemies see nothing just the same?
The conclusion was that the AI couldn't see ahead through smoke.
Players, however, were different.
“Careful!”
The corridor was thick with smoke.
When I swept my flashlight forward, I saw a blurry silhouette.
“Shoot!”
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!
[Gaaagh!]
[I'm hit!!]
Right, players could see vague human shapes through smoke.
So throwing a smoke grenade meant tilting the playing field.
-Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Whoa, that's fucking brokenㅋㅋㅋ
-Who could fail with this??
I didn't actually want to do things this way either, but what else could I do?
If even one White Reaper was mixed in among the mass of enemy units over there, we'd be dead without a chance to fight back.
“Enough smoke.”
Still, we couldn't use smoke grenades recklessly.
Their current price was practically worth its weight in gold.
They'd been used in the laboratory and continuously on the tanker before that, so their price had shot through the roof.
What could we do about it?
We had to take the hits with our bodies.
“Yeonbal throws a grenade, and Haesin breaks through.”
“Can I ask why you're calling them Haesin?”
“No.”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Fucking bastard, fucking idiotㅋㅋ
-This bastard is getting more and more foul-mouthed
Still, once this twenty-first-century K-Joan of Arc, Wayo, took command, we could at least communicate.
Right, this was the whole point of coming as a three-stack.
Bang—!! Bang!!
“Aww! I'm dying!”
…The problem was that our pilot left much to be desired.
“Hey! What are you doing? Fight back!”
“I'm dying! I said I'm dying!”
After charging ahead and getting pelted with bullets, Haeganom must have been nearly dead, because they dropped prone and busily jabbed themself with a syringe.
Damn it.
This was a place where enemies swarmed us from every direction, so we needed someone watching our backs.
Why else would I have stayed back?
I was protecting the most important rear flank.
Ping—!
In the end, I had no choice but to drop a smoke grenade behind us.
If we didn't break through the front, all our efforts would be for nothing, so we had to ignore the rear and focus on the way ahead.
“Reloading.”
Still, it was fortunate that Yeongukno was doing well.
Yeah, they were at least better than Haeganom.
They were the type to contribute nothing in Rell without looking at a guide, but their actual skill wasn't bad.
“Watch the rear and keep covering….”
Anyway, if we continued clearing the map like this, killing the boss today wasn't a pipe dream.
We could just throw down smoke and kill everything, after all.
Click for smoke, rat-a-tat-tat—! Carry.
Heh heh, so this was the game company's philosophy.
I learned yet another lesson today….
Ting—tingting.
“Huh?”
“What was that sound?”
“What else could it be….”
It was obviously the sound of a grenade.
So these guys used grenades too.
Boom!!
“Aaaah!”
Fuck….
**
The viewers said the laboratory was hell on earth, but to me, the tanker was no different.
If I had to be specific, it was the hell of confinement.
After playing for several hours, I realized that anyone with claustrophobia should never come here.
Inside the tanker’s gloomy corridors,
breaking through battlefield after battlefield filled with smoke in every direction wore down my mental strength like nothing else.
We died in all sorts of ways.
We died after getting hit by explosions, from team kills, and when an unlucky bullet struck us in the jaw, among other things.
Considering the entry fee and equipment costs every time we entered, they were truly painful losses.
Still, coming to this tanker wasn't all bad.
“Should we head out around here?”
That was because this map had a checkpoint-like point where we could leave partway through.
“Our ballistic plates are all worn out anyway.”
“Let's go back and resupply.”
That was why everyone had piles of White Reaper equipment stored at home.
I had stocked up on plenty myself, including bulletproof vests and helmets.
There was no need to hoard anymore, was there?
Why hoard? If you run out of weapons, you can just come to the tanker and farm more.
Anyway, we could make money off the White Reaper equipment and now reach the midpoint without much trouble, so things were looking up for the tanker clearing team.
But where there was light, there was also darkness.
There was one setback just as powerful as the good news.
“Thanks for the coffee….”
“What? You still haven't slept?”
I accepted a morning coffee from Aseong with hollow eyes.
Everything was good.
It was good that we were clearing the map smoothly, and it was good that we'd farmed so much.
But I was so sleepy I could fucking die.
“Sis, did you not sleep?”
Aseong, on the other hand, was full of energy; they'd slept soundly yesterday, after all.
Yeah, that part was only natural, but….
“Are you losing?”
“You're already getting sleepy??”
-For real
-You're sleepy right now???
-I took a day off work because of youㅋㅋ
What the hell was wrong with these girls?
I stared at the profile avatars of the two women who were still perfectly fine in disbelief.
Was it really this hard to beat people who did nothing but eat and play games all night?
I thought my stamina was decent, but I felt like I'd been utterly destroyed in terms of gaming endurance.
…Honestly, I hadn't been this bad before.
At this hour, shouldn't all three of us normally be on the verge of collapse?
Had those two grown stronger too?
While I was feebly doing photoshoots, they'd steadily built up their stamina as streamers.
“So what about food? Mom says you should eat."
"Food? I'm not eating."
I answered Aseong while sucking on my coffee.
-Wayo's such a picky eater bb
-If she eats now, she'll literally die of food comaㅋㅋ
...Just like the chat said, if I ate now, I'd really pass out.
I was so sleepy I could fucking die.
"Sigh."
I briefly rubbed my heavy eyelids with my hand, then opened my eyes.
Fine, I'd decided.
“Little sis.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you sit here for a bit?”
I really couldn't hold out any longer.
I'd sleep for ten minutes and get back up.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Stand-in mode onㅋㅋ
“Wayo, giving up?”
“Just sleep~ If you're sleepy, you should sleep, right?”
Honestly, I would have gone to sleep under ordinary circumstances.
But I couldn't lose to those two.
“Ah, ah, no way.”
Aseong panicked when I told them to sit there.
But I was actually relieved. Judging by that expression, they wouldn't get excited and cause trouble.
“I'll really just close my eyes for a moment.”
“No, seriously?”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You're really leaving just your brother-in-law with us??ㅋㅋ
-He's so fucking dead
-Brother-in-law~~ Come sit here^^
The viewers were thrilled.
Of course they were excited; after watching LEx all day, a new face had appeared.
In that case, wasn't this killing three birds with one stone?
“Watch what you say… You know what I mean, right?”
“No, I don't….”
I could close my eyes for a while, which was good.
“Wake me up in ten minutes.”
“Sis, you never get up when I wake you…!”
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-For real
-Sis's special trait: never gets up for shit
The viewers were happy to have a new face….
“Are you Wayo's younger sibling?”
“Come sit here!”
And finally, our Aseong would be happy too.
I don't know about the pretty part, but at least Aseong got to play games with their older sisters.
“I'm going to lie down for ten minutes.”
“No, that's insane, seriously!”
So I lay down on the yoga mat right behind me and closed my eyes.
“Ah, seriously, wake up! Sis!”
Normally, the floor was unbearably hard,
but today, it felt as though I were lying on a soft grassy field, and—
“Zzz….”
I immediately succumbed to sleep.