Chapter 43

Chapter 43

A window on the fourth floor of an abandoned building.

Kim poked his head out of the broken window. The ruined cityscape came into view.

A giant tree has grown into the wall of a commercial building. Vines reaching up through the cracks in the broken asphalt. The damp smell of moss hits your nose.

I looked around and saw the following. A familiar figure was standing a few dozen meters away.

‘Westcreek…….’

Round glasses and dark circles that reach the bridge of the nose. Thin build but strong back.

It’s more edgy than grim. True to the game’s description, my first impression was that it was quite nervous.

The words I’d heard earlier echoed in my head.

– Be careful. There may be unidentified monsters out there. Agents periodically clear the neighborhood, but… you never know.

Westcreek smiled coldly as he spoke, and it almost sounded like a sentence: “I’m going to kill you under the guise of a monster.

But it was a genuine expression of concern.

– Westcreek is the name of a bar that used to be owned by a benefactor to whom he is indebted.

– Newcomers often mistake him for cold, but as his name suggests, he’s actually a deeply caring person.

– If you need his strength, we recommend gifting him a whole cake – he enjoys piling up desserts and eating them, but he has a small stomach, so you’ll see him distributing them to other agents before they eventually spoil.

This is the Human Resources record that you’ll see when you select a character. It’s only brief for lower-ranked agents, but once you hit 6 stars, it becomes quite detailed.

Unlike other collectible games, Polaris has a decent amount of male agents. Of course, as a male gamer, Kim preferred female agents, but…….

‘Westcreek, meh. He’s kind of likeable.’

There’s a backstory that’s easy to relate to, even for a modern-day person who lived in poverty, and it’s mostly intertwined with the later characters, who have great chemistry.

In secondary creation, he’s the butt of jokes. It’s because of its so-called serious concept, but it’s also because it’s secretly ridiculous.

But you can’t ignore performance.

“It’s about tier two.

It has a lower high point than Ast, but it’s easy to use. There are a lot of roles you can play on your own, so it’s a good idea to pick it up as a rookie to ease your progression.

“And now I have to fight him?

Simulation.

Ghost’s answer. It would take months to fill in all the gaps, so he’d rather you focus on combat.

“I don’t know if I have a chance.

In terms of equipment, they have the upper hand. Westcreek’s weapon is a training iron sword. It doesn’t look like it’s of high quality, even by pretense.

But we didn’t want to underestimate them.

This is not the case with Asterike, which is still growing. Westcreek is still an elite agent at this point.

‘Or even combat specialized.’

Like Ghosts, they’re not used for espionage or anything. A pure combatant. He may not be as good as Snowfield, but he’s no match for Kim.

‘I’m tired, but…….’

It’s more helpful because it’s chaotic.

With your experience so far, you’ve gained some confidence in fighting what the game categorizes as “mobs”. Now it’s time to prepare for a named or boss fight.

“I’m not going to be able to beat them one-on-one, but I’m going to be able to hold my own.

Once you can hold your own for even 10 seconds, you’ll have a lot more strategies at your disposal.

“Let’s do it.

The distance to West Creek is about 150 meters. His opponent could not find this side. This was an advantage for Kim.

“Fight like you’re being ambushed.

He was also given permission to use live ammunition. Kim didn’t mind, either. He made a firearm out of Spell and mounted it by his window.

3-Star Semi-Automatic Rifle [Garand]. A special armor for a weapon that slightly reduces the speed of a normal shot, but greatly increases its accuracy.

The upside is a whopping 50%. It’s a good shot. With my finger on the trigger, I aim for the center of Westcreek’s upper torso.

tang-!

Heavy gunfire erupted. The bullets flew faster than sound, and before they could reach their target, Westcreek was sprinting.

Exactly toward Kim’s location.

“Crazy.

No matter how good the fuselage vision was, there was no way he could have seen it with the naked eye. He was shooting from the wrong angle.

Westcreek didn’t even look. He ‘sensed’ the trajectory of the bullets and located the sniper. His spell made it possible.

When the ambush failed, Kim boldly leaned out the window and pointed the gun at him, only to give up after less than two seconds.

“Holy shit, how am I going to fit that in?

There are degrees of hit compensation. Kim didn’t feel confident sniping at a human running faster than a horse.

Bam, bam, bam!

Too scared to put my upper body back in, something smashed through the window and into the ceiling. A small piece of stone. He must have thrown it as he ran.

“What bullet?”

My physical prowess would overwhelm a trained Pecatum warrior. Kim stuck out his tongue, but didn’t stop moving.

I waited for West Creek in the stairwell on the roof. In less than 10 seconds, I realized the difference between Ghost and West Creek.

The sound of footsteps came out of nowhere and didn’t sound like human footsteps. Sure enough, Westcreek had invaded from the front, without any warning.

“He fights like a maniac.

It was as expected.

Boom!

A booby trap on the second floor was set off, shaking the building. It was a non-lethal grenade with a rubber casing and rubber beads.

You can’t use a lethal thermobaric grenade in a simulation when you have enough live ammo. It’s not even a 3-star piece of equipment.

‘That’s not exactly a weak powerhouse….’

Smoke billowed from the explosion. Kim drew his pistol and checked under the railing.

Through the smoke, Westcreek leaped out. He didn’t climb the stairs one by one. Using the railing as a foothold, he leaped, gaining the floor in one bound.

It’s a monster. It’s almost funny to think that I was worried that I had overreacted. Kim fired a bullet straight down the stairs.

Bang, bang!

With a generous shower of bullets, Westcreek disappeared into the floor. A narrow passage, hard to dodge. He didn’t feel comfortable jumping in as he had before.

That’s when I thought.

Koo-koo-koo!

The floor started to wobble underfoot. The tiles cracked. Before he could figure out what was going on, Kim turned and ran out onto the roof.

Soon the stairwell collapsed. Westcreek emerged from the breach, the iron sword in his hand now shattered.

‘Mr. What. Did you hit a building?

Kim turned away in horror.

Bam!

The flashbang you left behind the rooftop door went off. It was now. I ran without looking back.

It was connected to the building next door. It wasn’t designed to be connected from the start, but rather had a thick tree hanging over it like a bridge.

This is the aftermath of some kind of disaster. It’s an incredible coincidence, but it was Kim’s choice to utilize the building.

Boom!

I drove the [tactical hook] into the trunk of a tree and made a bold drop. The rope attached to the hook came with it.

I pressed the button at a height of about two stories. The rope pulled stiffly. Kim gritted his teeth and endured the pain and recoil of the grip.

“Okay, that worked.

When the acceleration died, I immediately let go and landed safely on the ground. I was about to move on to the next building that I had pre-plotted.

A shadow fell down.

Thump!

With a crash, Westcreek fell. The distance was close. Kim reflexively formed a shield to protect his front.

Poof!

“Ugh…!”

An unearthly jolt came from beneath the shield. Westcreek had struck the shield with an iron blade that was barely a hilt.

Kim’s feet lifted off the ground. Watching him float away, Wesrick thought to himself.

“That’s it.

It was better than I thought it would be. He’s bold and he’s good. I was about to wrap up with the feeling that I enjoyed it.

The muzzle of a gun was visible. For some time, Kim’s right hand had been clutching a Han Jung pistol.

“……were you holding it so that it was covered by the shield?

Without delay, the trigger was pulled. Westcreek spun his torso halfway around, the bullet grazing his cheek.

Their postures are unsteady on each other. Westcreek reached out with his left hand and grabbed the top of the shield, which instantly turned to a patch of light and disappeared.

So did the gun he had just fired. A knife appeared in Kim’s unclenched hand.

“Is this how much freedom I have?

It’s a ridiculous ability. Westcreek inwardly laughed, and corrected his center of gravity.

Less than half a step apart. There’s a huge disparity in their physical abilities. In close combat, he figured he could easily take her out.

The predictions were off by a small margin.

Boom!

A shattered iron sword clashed with a dagger, a punch thrown was blocked by an arm.

Twice was the limit. Each time, it was a matter of seconds. The next moment, Westcreek kicked Kim’s leg and knocked him down.

“Billion!”

Kim fell to the ground. He lost his grip on the sword. When he raised his head again, the iron sword was pointed at his nose.

“…… bitter. Sucks.”

He raised both hands, meekly admitting defeat. Only then did Westcreek lower the hand holding the sword.

“Thank you for your efforts.”

It wasn’t a 6 for nothing.

* * *

After the mock was over, they had a calm conversation. Westcreek was outspoken in his assessment of Kim.

“I don’t think you’re in your right mind either.”

“Me? Why.”

“You didn’t hesitate to use live ammunition in the simulation. And explosives. That’s not something a person in their right mind would do.”

“You said I could use it.”

“At least it was our first time meeting each other.”

In retrospect, it made sense.

Of course, Kim had the background. She was familiar not only with the fact that Westcreek was an elite agent, but also with the details of his abilities.

“He was a bit of an electrician.

She can’t shoot electricity to incapacitate opponents like Leila can. It’s a very weak electricity, but it’s a very versatile setup.

He can strengthen his body by extremely activating the muscle cells in his body. He can detect the approach of enemies by spreading an electric current around himself. …….

It’s a game-changing ability.

Kim believed Westcreek would be able to handle it. But to anyone who didn’t know what was going on, he’d look like a lunatic.

“And… hmm. I think I know a little bit about why Ghost asked me to take you.”

“Huh?”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but listen.”

After a short pause, Westcreek explained.

“Ghosts aren’t really the best agents for combat, actually; they’re physically strong, but they’re no match for Pekatum’s warriors, and they don’t have spells.”

“That’s right.”

In fact, he has a history of being outplayed by Shadowdoor. His performance in Episode 0 was widely considered to be mixed.

“Instead, Ghost makes up for it with his honed skills… For example, if we were to play a simulation with the same conditions, he wouldn’t attack me for at least two days.”

“Two days is a bit much.”

“Yeah, he’s going to be nasty, he’s going to set traps everywhere, he’s going to try to catch you when you’re tired, he’s that kind of guy.”

It requires as much knowledge as it takes of the environment around you. For most agents, not just Westcreek, this is impossible.

Kim doesn’t count as “most. Westcreek wasn’t disappointed, but they were very surprised by Kim’s combat abilities.

“I heard you were struggling with three speeders a few months ago.

That? Where did you look?

Given time to design, he could single-handedly wipe out hundreds of Speeders. Even now, he has a higher operational capability than most agents.

“You don’t even have to play like a ghost, you can easily create advantageous situations with your spells, and you have great combat intelligence.”

“Uh, thanks for the compliment, but what’s the bottom line?”

“The thing is, I already have the advantages of Ghost, so to speak, and even if I could learn to go deeper than that, it would be too much effort, and what’s more…….”

Westcreek recalled their last discussion.

“I didn’t think they’d stop me.

I didn’t really touch it. I thought I’d seen enough, and I was going to end it with a bang.

But Kim seemed to respond.

That’s because I’ve been through the battle with Snowfield. Snowfield, Westcreek. Kim’s combat prowess might not be up to par with the big boys. He was adapting quickly.

“You’re better suited to be a fighter than a spy. You’re good at it, Hyun.”

Westcreek poked his finger through my hair.

“Sometimes it’s good to empty your brain and fight, because there are some opponents that you can’t shoot, you can’t trap, and you have to rely on your body.”

With that, he exhaled with a whoosh. As his muscle cells returned to their original state, a feeling of exhaustion took over his body. His whole body felt heavy and lethargic, like it was soaked in water.

“Anyway… yes…….”

His back was hunched. What a changeable figure he was up close.

At first, he was quiet, like a cynic, then he became more talkative in the middle… and now he’s like an after-hours worker.

‘While using a spell, she becomes more emotional and talkative. Turn it off and the recoil will leave you dazed for a few minutes.’

Kim nodded, approvingly.

Anyway, I got the idea, so no problem.