Chapter 50 : Stop the equipment

“Hmm…”

Originally, this wasn’t the plan.

I was just going to scout the area with a recon drone, locate the building with the data package—my mission objective—sneak in, grab it, and get out.

It seemed like a simple stealth mission, or something like that.

*Rat-a-tat-tat!*

I wasn’t really planning on fighting.

*Rat-a-tat-tat!*

Even if I had to, I was thinking short, quick bursts, taking out only those I absolutely had to and then bolting.

This isn’t a superhero game, and my character’s physical settings are just that of a trained mercenary, not a superhuman.

Taking on dozens of enemies would be tough.

*Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!*

So, why am I fighting an armored vehicle right now?

[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

[Armored Car Enters the Chat LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

[Why’s there an armored car? LOLOLOL]

[Guess they got caught deploying their parachute too early LOLOL]

[‘A show of respect for the strong’]

[Gotta bring out the big guns against the commie robots LOL]

I glanced at the chat window filled with laughter, then picked up my rifle and ran again. The bots that spotted me quickly aimed their weapons, but I fired from the shoulder as I ran.

*Bang! Bang!*

Clean, single shots, aiming for the head.

I don’t have much ammo, so I have to conserve.

[Kya]

[Clean shoulder fire]

[Single-fire headshots DDDDD]

[Real talk, looks like they’ve actually handled a gun before]

[Definitely not a civilian]

[Red Android Goddess]

But there were too many enemies swarming in, making conservation impossible. The number displayed on the LED screen dwindled, approaching zero.

And the moment it finally hit zero…

*Click!*

Immediately, the side of the rifle popped open, ejecting the built-in cartridge box—the magazine. I’d anticipated this, so I instantly took cover against a nearby wall, pulling a fresh magazine from my waist pouch and reloading.

[How does SeongWon reload so fast?]

[Real smooth]

[Special Forces Military Girl Smile LOL]

[Do the commie robots look like a joke to you?]

[She just messed with it a few times and learned]

[Genius is different]

Moving again, I grumbled.

“This mission is weird.”

Seriously, why is there an armored vehicle in a stealth mission?

[Armored cars appearing is extremely rare]

[I know they appear if you try for a full extermination route]

[Streamers tried it a lot when this was popular]

[I think SeongWon killed too many on the way here and triggered the extermination route LOLOLOLOL]

[That’s pretty unfair though, it was just a parachute error]

[Not on purpose?]

[Yeah, it’s an error]

[Mistakes made by robots and AI are called ‘errors’]

It seemed like the armored car was a control measure to keep veteran players from messing around in the tutorial.

Dodging the concrete debris sent flying by incoming cannon fire, I quickly asked the viewers.

“So, what am I supposed to do now?”

[Once you’re on the extermination route, I think there’s no way out besides dying]

[That’s real BS. It tracks the player’s location and fires]

[You can’t beat this. Someone tried to just retrieve the data package and run before, but the HQ said it was too dangerous and didn’t rescue them LOLOLOL]

[It’s not officially stated to be impossible, is it?]

[But it’s honestly easiest to just die and reset]

So, the original mission objective is essentially void once you’re on this route. Fine. Forget finding the data package.

Now’s not the time for that anyway.

There’s tastier prey than the tutorial.

“My awesome subscribers, has anyone in the entire world actually cleared this extermination route?”

[Nope]

[The greatest achievement is eliminating everyone except the armored car]

[But it’s meaningless since you can’t destroy it anyway]

[Yeah, that person didn’t clear it either]

[As far as I know, no one has cleared it]

Good.

“Then, it’s worth a shot.”

[?]

[This robot is spouting nonsense again]

[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]

[‘I can do it’]

[It’s scary because it actually seems possible]

[But this is impossible LOL]

[Mission?]

[Can we make a mission bet?]

[This person doesn’t even have missions open yet LOL]

“Missions… right. I’ll open them up after this tutorial. Though the format will be a bit different.”

[Really?]

[This is seriously impossible]

[Let’s finish the tutorial and get to battle royale]

[Oh ye of little faith, do you still doubt SeongWon?]

[Don’t say things that are impossible are possible LOL]

I grinned and ran through the facility again.

I’m not saying I can do the impossible.

It just looks doable.

That’s all.

◈ ◈ ◈

▣This crazy kid LOLOLOL

[Sno.1 Broadcast Clip]

Went into the tutorial and screwed up and got on the extermination route LOL

Good luck~

─LOLOLOLOLOLOL
└Real noob, so funny
─Did you kill yourself?
└Nah, I’m struggling to see if I can beat it LOL
└Idiot LOL
└Like that’s gonna work LOL

▣But she’s pretty good

[Sno.1 Broadcast Clip, showing SeongWon shouldering her rifle]

[Sno.1 Broadcast Clip, showing SeongWon reloading]

[Sno.1 Broadcast Clip, showing SeongWon taking out an enemy with a single shot]

Her posture and everything, definitely shows some training;

Good marksmanship too

Could be ex-military

─With that face?
└That’s true, but we need to see her without filters
─If she’s ex-military, wouldn’t she be an officer or NCO? Then even if she didn’t re-enlist, wouldn’t she be at least late 20s?
└It’s a chicken coop…
└But her face and height aren’t really military material
└Her face, whatever, but her height LOL
└Is she even 160cm? LOL
└Idk, she has a lot of simps but there’s no info

▣Oh, she almost made it to the end

[Picture of SeongWon killing two enemies]

[Picture of the armored car]

But there’s still the armored car, right? Can’t destroy that, right?

Gotta restart, right? LOLOLOLOL

─She’s good at the game, but that’s it LOL
└Real talk LOL
└A ton of famous shooters and YouTubers tried, and she’s gonna do it? She’s gotta be dating the CEO of World War or something. They’re rigging the system to let her win.
─Can you even destroy that armored car?
└Idk, no one really tries to take it on
└qwerty1234 once buried like 20 grenades, lured the armored car over, and blew them up, but it was still fine. Just think of it as an invincible object.
└Real BS gimmick
└Location tracking, invincibility, it’s just designed to kill you LOL
─Is the location tracking real?
└Yeah
└Then how did qwerty1234 bury the bombs?
└Idk

▣Someone’s looking for it

[Sno.1 Pachick Live Streaming Address]

Go watch

It was entertaining at least

─Thanks thanks
└Sno.1 SeongWon~ live streaming on Pachick~ Subscribe, Like~ and hit that notification bell~

◈ ◈ ◈

Extermination Route.

I thought about why it was called this.

Probably someone wanted to kill everyone and say something like, ‘No survivors means assassination’.

So why did the Black Ops developers block the extermination route? Why drop a monstrous armored vehicle in front of a user with a single rifle, making it ridiculously unfair?

Because they didn’t like the word ‘extermination’? No way the FPS game developers would care about that. Because they don’t like how it deviates from their intended ‘data retrieval’ story? After seeing all the rail shooter games die out with the advent of virtual reality, there’s no way they’d try to control players like that.

Of course, the answer is obvious.

‘This is an achievement.’

Achievement.

Or a challenge.

It means guiding users to achieve certain goals in the game.

And that means there must be a way to destroy this ridiculously invincible armored vehicle. It’s obvious. If there’s no other route, isn’t destroying the armored car clearly the win condition?

So, I made a plan to destroy the armored vehicle.

First, I kept moving around, eliminating any bots that might get in the way. I noticed that the armored car’s cannon fire rate was slower than I thought.

‘At this rate…’

With a little skill, I could avoid the armored car’s attacks long enough to kill all the bots on the map. Meaning, the right move was to kill all the bots first.

Once all the bots were eliminated, the armored car’s movements changed. Before, it would move directly towards me and fire its cannon, but now, it seemed like it couldn’t find me.

‘Does the location tracking turn off once all bots are eliminated?’

It wasn’t a completely illogical gimmick.

It makes sense if the setting is that the bots kept reporting my position as soon as they saw me.

Then.

‘The last thing is how to take down the armored vehicle.’

As I pondered, I suddenly remembered playing V-BAT.

‘Hmm, let’s see what happens.’

Nothing to lose.

I gathered grenades, bundling them together and attaching them to my waist. Then, holding a single grenade in my hand, I took a deep breath outside the armored car’s field of view.

‘Okay.’

I rushed towards the armored vehicle.

While it couldn’t track my location, it wasn’t completely blind. The armored car immediately turned its turret as soon as I came into view. However, since I’d charged from an appropriate distance, I reached its proximity.

Maintaining my momentum, I climbed up onto the armored car, shoved the grenade next to the coaxial machine gun, and jumped back down, curling myself into a ball.

*Boom!*

The impact washed over me, but the angle shielded me from damage. I climbed back up.

I could see the turret hatch slightly dented. A smile crept onto my face. As expected, it was some kind of V-BAT homage!

I shoved the barrel of my rifle into the gap and twisted, using it as a lever. As the hatch opened, the bots inside fired pistols and such, but the angle prevented them from hitting me.

I tossed the bundle of grenades inside and quickly retreated.

Then, *BOOM!*

The armored car’s turret went sky-high.

I grinned, flashing a smile at the viewers.

“Piece of cake, right?”