Chapter 3: Let’s do it right now

It was the day I first met the organizer.

“Why me?”

“Because you were desperate.”

To my blunt, unfriendly question, she wore a look that seemed to ask why I was asking something so obvious.

“I thought someone desperate enough not to even look at their own graduation photo would be cooperative with the experiment.”

……

Unable to refute her, I remained silent.

Although I always grumbled, as she said, there probably wasn’t a test subject as excellent and cooperative as me.

“Honestly, wasn’t it comfortable? It was designed exactly like the game you enjoyed. Wasn’t it literally your playground?”

As I remained quiet, she arbitrarily began to answer my unspoken questions.

She rambled on about how amazing I was, useless behind-the-scenes stories about bringing me in, and even asked if I liked my new body, which was apparently to her taste – all stories I had no interest in whatsoever.

‘And this body was to your taste?’

Just as a question I might have been better off not knowing was answered.

There was one last thing I wanted to ask her.

“Does it have meaning?”

“What?”

For the first time, a hint of bewilderment appeared on her usually relaxed face.

“I asked what the meaning of all this is, at the end of such actions.”

Bringing people, giving them new bodies, pushing them into deadly situations, and repeating it.

What lies at the end of it?

“How unexpected… and quite profoundly so…”

She still had a very displeased expression.

“For you, of all people, to ask such a thing… I thought you were enjoying this very moment.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

‘Maybe I should have just grabbed her by the collar earlier.’

I slightly regretted my choice to hold back from grabbing her collar when I first saw her.

“Oh my. It seems you still haven’t accepted it? Anyway, meaning…”

She, who had been speaking fluently until just now, closed her eyes for a moment and began to choose her words.

As if her thoughts were somewhat organized, she opened her eyes wide and smiled at me.

That smile was not the playful one from before, but a complicated smile that slightly distorted her eyes.

“I don’t know. Whether I should say this now.”

“What?”

‘After all that pondering, that’s all you came up with?’

“Hold on! Even I get hurt if you look at me like that! And it’s scary when you look at me like that!”

“Even if it’s to my taste, scary is still scary!”

She flinched and wiped away cold sweat.

It seemed I had unconsciously looked at her as if she were pathetic.

She glanced at me, pretending to check on me while drinking coffee.

“…I don’t know either.”

She, who had lost all her previous seriousness, replied with a wry smile.

“Still… there will be meaning someday. Definitely.”

Was it just my imagination that she seemed to be deliberately speaking in riddles about something she couldn’t say now?

“Who knows? Perhaps there’ll be a gift for you when you eventually return.”

****

It was just a coincidence.

As usual, I was lying on my bed, watching videos on my phone.

Soon, one video ended, and I naturally pressed the button to go to the next.

The young man heated and hammered metal, just like in other videos.

But something was different.

There were many videos filmed with equipment set up in natural environments, but what was this?

There was more than one strange thing.

‘Why does this surrounding look so familiar?’

A minimap, like one seen in battle royale games, showing a progressively narrowing, red-tinged terrain with only a circle remaining, was located in the upper left corner of the video.

Despite my confusion, the video continued to play.

Before long, the young man was preparing to move on to the next task.

Quenching, the process of cooling heated metal by immersing it in water or oil. True to its name, this process absolutely requires water or oil for immersion.

However, the container the young man in the video brought was empty.

After a moment of finding that strange, the young man extended his hand towards the container.

Then, water materialized from his hand and filled the empty container.

It wasn’t a particularly surprising sight for me.

Because where I had been, everyone, including myself, possessed their own special powers through experiments.

But now, the story was different.

This was modern society, not an experimental facility.

It was a strange place for someone with powers to appear, other than myself.

Thinking it would be similar to the previous video, I hadn’t bothered to read the title, but now I sought it out and read it again.

[Weapon Survival: The Nerfed Blacksmith’s New Paradigm! Hammer + Water Still Unstoppable! Crafting Highlights]

“Game…?”

Just in case, I checked the comment section.

[That water hammer needs more nerfs, I’m telling you.]

[It’s ridiculous how he’s playing a different game by himself; they balance without thinking, honestly.]

[If you meet that guy in the last circle, you just sigh, seriously.]

Nerf, balance patch, last circle. These were all terms frequently encountered when playing games.

I couldn’t have seen it wrong.

The familiar scenery, the battle royale rules, and superpowers…

Suddenly, a hypothesis and the organizer’s words flashed through my mind.

‘No way…’

‘”Still… there will be meaning someday. Definitely.”’

I closed the video and opened the internet.

My finger trembled slightly as I prepared to press the keyboard that appeared for typing.

It felt like opening Pandora’s Box.

‘Yeah. What’s the big deal?’

[Weapon Survival]

I closed my eyes tightly and pressed search.

‘……’

‘My god. What is all this?’

[Weapon Survival. A virtual reality game produced by Special People. Survive with your unique talent and weapons! Game of the Year #1! Grand Prize Winner in Virtual Reality Technology Category……]

What greeted me after I pressed search was a simple game introduction and an overwhelming number of game videos, so many that other categories couldn’t even compare.

I clicked on the video located at the very top.

My judgment was that there must be a good reason for its high view count.

[Rain, December 11th, XX Broadcast Highlights]

My judgment was accurate.

A streamer’s career decorated the video’s opening.

Streamer Cup winner, runner-up. He was a famous streamer named Rain.

In any popular game, professional streamers naturally emerge.

And the popularity of such streamers depended not only on their eloquence but also significantly on their skill.

‘I chose well. If it had been a clumsy person’s video, it might not have been a proper reference.’

[I’d like to talk about the new weapon class, Daggers, which was added a few days ago.]

Subtitles appeared with a calm voice. It was quite easy to watch.

[Based on dozens of rounds I’ve played, my conclusion is that more research is still needed.]

Rain continued his explanation, waiting for the game to start.

An elevator from underground carried him up.

[There are definitely performance issues. Plus, the skill set is completely opposite to the meta, which holds it back. The reason the nerfed hammer is still Tier 1 in this patch is because the meta favors passive play so much. For daggers to become Tier 1, simple stat adjustments won’t be enough.]

Thud. With a loud noise, the elevator stopped, and then the doors opened.

[The keyword for this round is ‘No Fun Meta’.]

[The experiment begins.]

I was startled by the familiar voice.

Hearing the organizer’s voice in this manner felt novel.

Simultaneously with the announcement, Rain slung a hammer over his back and ran towards the field.

He began picking up items scattered around him.

[The core of hammer play is ‘camping’.]

Rain hammered the collected items into materials, creating something.

‘So this was the blacksmith I saw earlier.’

Each time a completion notification sounded, the number in the upper right corner increased.

He picked up materials and hammered.

When the restricted zone circle approached his location, he quickly predicted the next circle and moved.

Rain repeated this action until the late game without a single engagement.

Honestly, this part was quite boring.

Because few people, even if it weren’t me, would find repetitive sections enjoyable.

Just before the game reached its very late stage, Rain ran to a spot within the circle marked with an ember symbol.

‘A vending machine?’

There was a vending machine-like object there.

Luckily, there was no one around.

As Rain placed his hand on the vending machine, the number in the upper right decreased, and the hammer he was carrying began to glow.

[Now, finally, the preparations are complete. Even with good luck, I almost died of boredom…]

Finally, the designated last circle.

Inside it, Rain confronted the last remaining opponent.

[My specs are about one tier lower than my opponent’s. That’s natural, since I played passively. This could be considered the one downside of the hammer.]

The ability revealed for the first time in this round.

Pure white flames erupted and enveloped the hammer.

Holding the hammer, Rain charged directly at his opponent.

Contrary to his statement that there was a one-tier difference, the game unfolded one-sidedly, befitting his reputation as a skilled player.

[The final survivor has been confirmed. Congratulations.]

[It’s ridiculous that weapon skills are automatically enhanced just by surviving without kill points. It pairs well with most talents unless they’re exceptionally unique. They need to lower the rank defense points, or nerf the self-generated credit production even more.]

The video ended with Rain looking at the congratulatory message for his first-place finish with a bored expression.

Now, her words from back then began to make sense.

“So that’s what it meant.”

After the video ended, I felt two emotions.

“That damned coffee addict…”

One was anger.

Instead of writing brief, pretentious notes in letters, she should have explained this.

Glory to the victor, my foot… What’s glorious is that woman’s head, which proved she was more incompetent than the algorithm.

It wasn’t my place to say, as I had been so indifferent to the outside world that I hadn’t even gone out once, but nonetheless, it was outrageous.

And the other was…

“Where can I play that?”

Excitement.

My past had become a game.

And a hyper-realistic, top-tier virtual reality game at that.

That alone made it worth playing.

But Rain said something at the beginning of the video.

That daggers were added this time.

I imagined.

Myself, holding a dagger in the virtual reality world, facing everyone.

A slender-eyed, silver-haired beautiful girl, holding her favorite weapon, calmly surveying her surroundings.

‘Cool…’

‘Let’s play it right now.’

****

“I wonder if you liked your gift?”

Somewhere, she smiled.