Chapter 5
1.
“N-no, why are you cursing all of a sudden….”
I flinched and worried my lower lip. What on earth had I done to make her say something so vicious?
[Sigh….]
A deep sigh came through my headset.
[Sorry for cursing out of nowhere. Sometimes I have trouble controlling my emotions.]
“I-it seems that way… If it gets really bad, maybe you should try seeing a psychiatrist….”
[……….]
A chilly silence settled over the line.
“I-I’m sorry….”
Ah, I’d blurted it out again without thinking. Since becoming this body, I’d found it strangely hard to keep my thoughts to myself. If I didn’t say them, something inside my chest would start to itch.
Was it the personality of the body’s original owner? Or a side effect of the cheat program? I had no idea.
[I’ll deal with that myself.]
Her voice dropped.
[Just get in here for now. And actually, that’s exactly what I wanted to say to you.]
“Huh? What do you mean…?”
[You know I’m a higher tier than you, right, Bullet? I mean, don’t come crying and begging me to let you stay on the team after I beat the crap out of you.]
“I-I don’t think that’ll happen… If anything, A-Aura, you’ll be the one begging me to please let you stay on the team… Hehehe….”
The thought alone made me laugh.
『’Aura Is the Best’ has sent you an invitation.』
Instead of replying, Aura sent me an invite.
[Let’s use ‘Scare Forest’ for the map. Is that okay?]
“A-any map is fine… I don’t think it’ll make any difference anyway….”
[……Starting now.]
The game began with her icy voice.
‘Which hero should I pick….’
Right now, the ability I had, Aim Assist, did exactly what its name suggested: helped me hit my opponent. But that didn’t mean it could only hit their head.
‘It mostly seemed to move my aim toward their body….’
Nova Syndicate’s damage heroes could be divided into three broad categories based on their aiming style.
Flick.
Prediction.
And tracking.
Flick shots were common with hitscan weapons, where the bullet hit the instant you fired. You snapped your aim onto the target, and each shot dealt heavy damage.
‘The tradeoff is that missing comes with a big risk.’
Predictive aim was used with weapons that had projectile speed or bullet drop. Instead of shooting straight at the enemy, you had to read the path they were going to take and fire ahead of them.
It sounded like the trickiest style, but it had its advantages. Projectiles like rockets and arrows didn’t lose their power over distance.
‘If you can land your shots, it has the highest ceiling. In theory, at least.’
Lastly, tracking. This style kept your crosshair on the enemy to deal damage continuously. Each shot did relatively little damage, but the rate of fire was high.
Given my ability, a tracking damage hero was the right choice.
‘Which one would be best?’
[Um, Bullet? Aren’t you coming out of the base?]
At the voice in my headset, I hurriedly picked a hero.
“I-I’m coming!”
2.
[I-I’m coming!]
While Bullet fumbled around, Aura had already taken up position near the entrance.
‘Unbelievable. “It won’t make any difference no matter what map we play”?’
Aura’s lips curled.
She had reached Diamond 3, after all. She wasn’t anywhere near the top-ranked players, but among regular players, her rank was high enough to earn her a reputation as someone who was good at the game.
And she’d told someone like her that the map didn’t matter. A nobody who’d been trembling in fear just moments ago!
‘I don’t know how good you are, but….’
Aura crouched low, keeping her crosshair fixed on the base entrance.
‘I have a huge advantage now that I’m already in position. You’re finished!’
The hero she’d chosen was ‘Phantom,’ a character who used shotguns and shadows to turn the tide of battle and dealt massive DPS in close combat.
In other words, now that she’d already closed the distance, Aura’s victory was all but assured.
‘You dare look down on me? I’ll kill you instantly, laugh at you all I want, then kick you off the team!’
Aura’s eyes blazed. Her heart pounded and her breathing grew ragged, but she took a deep breath and barely managed to suppress her excitement.
Creak, clank—creak, clank—
Footsteps drew closer. But they sounded heavier than she’d expected.
‘Could this be…?’
Before she could finish wondering, her opponent appeared.
A red gleaming lens. A sleek body shimmering with purplish metal. And a submachine gun mounted on its wrist.
Bang—!
The instant she recognized her opponent, Aura’s Night Flame shotgun spat darkness.
[Eep….]
A startled voice came through. But her opponent reacted swiftly.
Whirr—
The robot’s head snapped around the instant the bullets struck its body. Then the submachine gun on its wrist opened fire.
Rat-a-tat-tat—!
Its health vanished in an instant.
But in a fight at this range, Phantom had the clear advantage. The rate at which their health bars fell wasn’t even close.
‘You’re done for…!’
The shotgun spat darkness again and again, chipping away at the robot’s health. Then, at that very moment—
Boom—!
An explosion went off at the robot’s feet. The shockwave shoved Aura backward, and the distance between them suddenly widened.
‘Damn it!’
She was just about to use Shadow Shift to close the distance when—
Vrrrrm—clank—!
The robot’s body rose into the air, folding, unfolding, and locking back together. Smooth purple armor plates spread out in overlapping layers, changing its shape.
In the blink of an eye, the humanoid robot had transformed into something resembling an armored vehicle.
Brrrrrrrrrrt—!
Just as Aura used Shadow Shift to close in again, the armored vehicle’s turret opened fire. She instinctively activated Shadowform.
But it made no difference. It only delayed her death for a brief moment. The result was the same.
Whumm—
The moment her body reformed from the shadow, the enemy’s gun barrel swiveled toward her.
Brrrrrrrrrrt—!!!
Dozens of bullets pierced her body in an instant. Her health hit zero, and her body was reduced to chunks of flesh.
『You have died.』
The instant Aura saw the message appear before her, she slammed her desk.
Bang—!
[Eek—!]
“Huff, huff….”
She heard Bullet gasp in surprise through the headset. But Aura was too rattled to react.
『Round 2 begins.』
Biting down hard on her lip, she grabbed the mouse again.
[Y-you picked Phantom and even ambushed me, but you still lost to me…? Y-you’re such a scrub… A scrub!]
“Shut up.”
[Eek….]
“I was going easy on you that time. No, to be precise, I let my guard down.”
Aura exhaled sharply, then continued.
“I admit you’re good. But things won’t go your way from here on out. Because from now on, I’m going all out.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than she selected a hero wielding a Japanese sword.
“Aah, I didn’t want to bring this out…! This cool, weighty feeling…!”
『Hagane Shinya』
A cyborg samurai who wielded the power of the sword and wind.
[Y-you didn’t really pick Hagane Shinya just to be a sore loser, did you? He’s an Odin counter…]
The hero Bullet had used in the first round, Odin, was also hard-countered by Hagane Shinya. In theory, if Hagane Shinya played well, Odin had absolutely no way to win.
[H-hello? A-Aura…?]
Bullet’s uncertain voice came through.
“Shut up! A lion gives it its all even when hunting a rabbit!”
Aura’s face flushed as she shouted. She knew that this was exactly when she had to brazen it out even more.
“Look closely!”
『Round 2, begin』
“And don’t tell anyone—!!!”
3.
[P-please don’t tell anyone….]
I stared blankly at the screen as the meek voice came through my headset.
[Match Result]
[Aura Is the Best 0 : 10 Bullet Is the Best]
I’d absolutely demolished Aura, so badly it was downright cruel. Part of it was because I’d played Nova Syndicate before, but there was another reason.
[Aim Assist - Lv.1]
‘Aim Assist is seriously overpowered.’
At first, I thought it was just an ability that corrected my aim. But that wasn’t all. It also controlled the gun’s recoil, not just my aim.
Odin was designed as a war robot, and it was the undisputed number one in firepower. The problem was controlling all that firepower.
Its deafening gunfire gave away its position instantly. Its hitbox was huge, befitting its massive frame. It was limited by overheating. And above all, its recoil was so severe it was practically impossible to control.
Because of these drawbacks, Odin was treated as a hero who was only good on paper. But today, I’d seen what it could do.
‘And this is with Aim Assist only at level 1….’
My heart thumped with excitement.
‘How strong will it get when I level it up?’
Maybe I’d even be able to achieve the ridiculous aim you only saw in hack videos.
“Hehehe….”
[Um, Bullet…?]
“Ahem… y-yes?”
Aura’s voice snapped me back to my senses. I hurriedly wiped the drool at the corner of my mouth with a tissue.
[So you’re still going to compete in the Battle of Ruin with us… right?]
“Hmm…?”
It was strange.
Aura, who’d always been so high-handed until now, was watching me anxiously. Seeing that made me want to tease her a little.
‘She’s put me through a lot, hasn’t she?’
So surely a little joke like this would be okay?
“Who knows? I’ll have to think about it a little… Hehehe… Could I take some time to decide before I give you an answer?”
I said, barely holding back a laugh.
[……Really?]
Aura asked again, sounding dejected. Hearing that made me soften a little.
‘But she was the first person who wanted to give me a chance.’
It wasn’t my doing, but the original owner of this body had committed a serious offense. Of course, I had made it as though it had never happened.
‘But the tournament really was affected.’
And even so, she was willing to put me on the team. Even for a big-name streamer, that couldn’t have been an easy decision.
The moment she accepted me, she’d be covered in the same filth alongside me. How could I say something cruel to someone like that? Even a beast wouldn’t do that.
“I-I was kidding…! Let’s w-win the tournament together…!”
[All right!]
At Aura’s enthusiastic voice, we cheered each other on. But even as we did, a question suddenly crossed my mind.
‘How desperate was she to accept even someone like me…?’
[With Bullet on our team, we’ll have a chance at winning! Waaaaaaah—!]
“W-waaaaaaah—!”
I was about to ask, but then I shut my mouth.
Aura was so happy that I couldn’t bring myself to ask. Besides, it’d seem strange to ask at this point. We were already on the same team.
‘I’ll find out eventually.’