Chapter 100

“Drag him out.”

“Should we get him treated?”

“There’s no time for that. Just take him out to the hallway. Besides…”

The man added.

He won’t be able to run on that leg, he said.

A shootout that erupted from an unexpected situation.

Fortunately, he wasn’t dead, but the American player had sustained a major injury to his thigh.

Judging by the wound, he likely wouldn’t last long without treatment.

At the Leader’s command, two men dragged the injured player out the door.

Many of the other players looked away from the scene.

It was too difficult to watch.

But I was watching the scene intently.

And I asked Kato.

‘The Power of the Ley Line. If I focus and use it, can I make it stronger?’

<Why all of a sudden? What are you planning to do?>

Kato was a little flustered by my question.

With one person shot and dragged away, she seemed worried about what I might do.

‘There are only two of them left now.’

I thought.

If we were to break through this situation, wasn’t now the only chance?

Rush in and subdue one of them, then take his gun and subdue the other.

It was impossible when there were four enemies, but with two, I judged the chances were at least higher.

‘It’s dangerous if we just stay like this anyway.’

<Are you crazy?>

They’re the crazy ones.

The ones who kill a hostage every five minutes.

What if they run out of hostages to kill?

Couldn’t we be next?

<Hey. I told you the Power of the Ley Line doesn’t turn people into superhumans or anything, didn’t I?>

Kato said that no matter how much of the ley line’s power I drew on, I couldn’t move faster than a bullet.

And she also said that the more strongly I used the power, the more of the Recoil I would have to bear myself.

<I told you that even good things can be poison in excess, right? I’m recuperating right now, so I’m not confident I can do that well.>

There wasn’t much time.

If the terrorists gathered in the room again and became four, we would completely lose our chance.

I wracked my brain once more and conveyed my idea to Kato.

‘Then I’ll go into one of them and make them attack each other.’

<Stop talking nonsense!>

This time, Kato’s opposition was even stronger.

She said that attempting Possession against an unwilling target was unlikely to succeed, and even if it did, getting shot in that state would cause immense shock to me, a Soul.

However, there was no time to argue further.

I could clearly hear the footsteps of the men who had moved the player outside returning.

A chance that might be our last.

‘If I succeed, you owe me one.’

<Aargh! This crazy human!>

An operation I had attempted several times.

I left Kato’s body and charged toward the terrorist with all my might.

The only difference from usual was that this time, I had to enter a man’s body.

‘Huh. Doesn’t this make me a real Evil Spirit?’

Wouldn’t a being that performs an Out-of-Body Experience at will and possesses someone regardless of their consent be considered an Evil Spirit?

With that thought, I drew on my power with all my might and slammed my Soul into the man’s body.

“Keuk!”

‘Aaargh-!!!’

The moment the criminal flinched, I had to feel an extreme pain, as if my whole body was being torn apart.

I had tasted terrible pain when Kato Mikane hit me with her fan on Jeju Island, but that was nothing compared to this.

There was a reason Kato had told me to stop talking nonsense.

She had known from the beginning that this was impossible.

Taking control of a body is out of the question…

Just as I thought that and my consciousness began to fade, there was a thud! and a shock.

In the end, my attempt wasn’t entirely useless.

My entry into his body had made the terrorist flinch, creating an opening.

And as soon as I had performed the Out-of-Body Experience, Kato, who had drawn on the Power of the Ley Line and charged, had taken down one of the criminals with a flying knee kick.

Hissing, I was flung out of the man’s body again.

Simultaneously, the remaining terrorist in the room started spraying fire at Kato.

The players screamed and cowered, and chaos erupted.

Fortunately, Kato showed her quick reflexes and used the terrorist who had been hit in the head and collapsed as a Shield to dodge the enemy’s attack.

A one-on-one, using an opponent as a barricade to dodge attacks and Counterattack, was a situation that often occurred in UA.

Kato very naturally grabbed the scruff of the terrorist-turned-shield’s neck and held on, then pulled out the Glock from his holster and returned fire.

A three-round burst.

Three gunshots rang out, and the body of the remaining criminal slowly fell backward.

The terrorists were all wearing bulletproof vests, but their heads weren’t bulletproof.

How could he survive with a bullet hole in his forehead?

At that moment, everyone in the room had a look of complete incomprehension as to what had just happened.

The scene was just too unrealistic.

It was strange that a terrorist suddenly grunted and showed an opening, and that Kato moved like lightning to subdue the enemy and sweep them up.

This entire spectacle had happened in the blink of an eye.

“Misaki. Come and help.”

And amidst it all, Kato, who was the only one with her wits about her, quickly seized the two terrorists’ Rifles, kept one for herself, and threw the other to the team’s sub-Attacker, Misaki, demanding her cooperation.

Weren’t there still two terrorists in the hallway outside the Waiting Room?

Knowing they could charge in at any moment, Kato waved her hand quickly, signaling for them to hide.

Considering the power of a submachine gun, the chances of a wall-shot penetrating the concrete wall were low, but it was better to be prepared.

“I-I’ll take one, too.”

Nakano Ui, who had been cowering ever since the terror attack began, said she would take even a pistol and took a gun.

Thus, the players set up a barricade with tables and created simple Cover, entering a state of readiness for an ambush.

It was a moment that showed their will to turn the remaining criminals into beehives if they returned.

However, although they heard signs of people outside, the men never came inside.

It seemed they, too, were greatly flustered by the sound of the gunfight that had occurred inside.

In the end, after a short while, they gave up on entering the Waiting Room, instead retreating and disappearing completely.

Whether they went to call for Support or had another objective was unknown, but for now, we had overcome one crisis.

“…Are you dying to die for real?”

Kato, who had picked me up as I lay spread out on the floor like slime, muttered in a small voice that no one else could hear.

I thought that if there was such a thing as a critically ill state for a Soul, I would be in it.

That’s how much it hurt.

“Even if you’re going to die, get my permission first from now on.”

‘…….’

Kato, taking care of my wrecked self that could only make gurgling noises, then broke a mirror in the room to make a shard and prepared to go outside.

“Can’t you give us some guns, too…?”

“No.”

Kato flatly refused the American team’s request for weapons out of anxiety.

Her reasoning was that since we were all going outside together anyway, the weapons were limited, and in that case, it was better for players with good teamwork to coordinate.

Thus, the two Rifles were given to the Attackers, and the remaining two pistols were taken by Sasaki Sena and Nakano Ui.

“Everyone, grab your phones first.”

At those words, the players quickly grabbed the electronic devices the criminals had confiscated.

Of course, Kato’s expression was not very good.

Because the phones had been ringing so much that the criminals had smashed them with their Gun Stocks.

“It was a limited edition…”

Kato, grumbling under her breath, diligently stripped the bulletproof vests from the terrorists and put one on (one of them had quite a few holes in it).

She asked the American team to take the unconscious terrorist with them.

They could have just left him, but there was a risk he could threaten someone else, and he might have important information to be extracted later, so she meant for them to bring him along.

The terrorist, entrusted to the American team, was subjected to all sorts of curses and a group beating from the players, to a degree that it wouldn’t have been strange if a few of his bones were broken.

In the meantime, Kato stuck to the doorway and used the broken mirror to survey the situation outside.

There was no one in the hallway.

Only the American player who had been shot and collapsed earlier was slumped over, unconscious.

“Let’s go.”

After confirming there were no enemies nearby, Kato was the first to leave the Waiting Room.

Once outside, the American team cried out the name of their fallen player, their voices choked with tears.

“Please be quiet. Let’s get out of the Arena like this.”

The Directors and Coaches re-bandaged the player’s wound, administering first aid, and as she brought the situation under control, Kato led the group from the front.

How many steps had they taken?

Somewhere in the Arena, gunshots began to ring out again.

This time, it was Rapid Fire, not Single Shots.

The entire group of players flinched at the noise, which sounded like a gunfight had broken out.

“Let’s move a little faster.”

At first, they had applauded the grand scale of the LA Main Arena, but now, the fact that the Arena was so large was actually hindering their escape.

And just then, an armed group emerged from around the corner on the opposite side.

They were men in the same attire as the terrorist group that had occupied the Waiting Room, clearly not soldiers or police.

Kato was the first to react.

The Rifle in Kato’s hands spat fire, and an Engagement unfolded in the outer corridor.

This was the frightening power of a VR Pro Gamer.

Even if it was just a game, Pro Gamers who repeatedly trained with the same range of physical motion as in reality unknowingly acquired formidable combat skills.

In particular, the marksmanship of UA Pro Gamers who specialized in firearms was as precise as that of special forces soldiers.

If you only considered the number of shots fired or the amount of practice, it was probably more than that of special forces personnel, so it was only natural that their shots were sharp.

With the sound of shell casings clattering—tarrreureuk—the Japanese National Representatives’ coordinated fire continued.

Even wearing a bulletproof vest, it was not enough to completely defend against a Rifle’s Live Rounds.

Moreover, the opponents, their fighting spirit broken from the start, couldn’t even put up a proper resistance before shouting their surrender and prostrating themselves on the floor.

I found out later.

The Rapid Fire we had heard a moment ago was the sound of the police SWAT team, attempting to enter and subdue the terrorists, clashing with the enemy.

The US government, seeing hostages being killed in real-time, must have decided there was no room for negotiation and deployed military and police forces all at once, turning the inside of the Olympics Arena into a war zone.

The reason these guys had been hit by Kato’s preemptive strike and shouted their surrender was that they had been caught while trying to flee.

The national team, which had unintentionally aided the government’s operation.

Of course, Kato, unaware of this situation, did not approach the surrendering terrorists meekly and was seriously considering whether to go around another way.

But before she could finish her thought, she came face to face with armed military forces and was able to get the situation under control.

It was Director Butler of the UA American National Representative team who stepped forward before the American soldiers who were forcefully shouting, “Hands up!”

“We are the American national team! We are not the enemy! So don’t shoot!”

Showing them the unconscious player and saying they had an emergency patient, Director Butler requested that they be safely escorted outside.

“What… what about the man who’s tied up?”

A soldier with a captain’s insignia on his shoulder asked about the man we had tied up and were dragging along.

“He’s a terrorist. The Japanese players subdued him.”

“They subdued him?”

Did the UA team have real guns?

The captain looked puzzled, but treating the patient was the priority.

And so, under the protection of the soldiers, we were able to exit the Arena.

It was the moment we escaped from that nightmarish Sunday afternoon.

The Olympics terror incident that occurred on Sunday.

This incident could be called the worst terror attack to happen in the United States in the last 20 years.

What kind of era was this?

An era of information warfare.

A world where most terror plots were intercepted and nipped in the bud before they could even begin.

And yet, the Olympics Arena had become a sea of blood.

Three Olympic National Representative players were killed, and dozens of civilians died after being swept up in the terrorists’ takeover of the Arena.

The number of people injured in the stampede while hastily trying to escape the Arena after hearing gunshots was countless.

Furthermore, the terror attack didn’t just happen here.

It was revealed that a data center on the West Coast of the US had also been attacked at the same time.

A large-scale, simultaneous terror attack that had evaded the eyes of US intelligence.

It was a catastrophe that occurred under the gaze of the entire world, and the United States, pouring out its fury, began to investigate the truth.

The result was shocking.

It was revealed that this terror attack had been a meticulously planned operation from the start by individuals who had colluded with the enemy, both inside and outside the US.

The reason was singular.

To root out the dangers inherent in Virtual Reality.

The investigators were greatly shocked by the fact that more people than expected had sympathized with the enemies’ ideology.

Did they really believe that VR Games were created by the devil?

The fact that even some officials responsible for national defense and security had colluded with the enemy to turn the United States upside down threw the entire world into chaos.

Naturally, with the situation being what it was, the Olympics could no longer continue.

After long discussions, the Olympic Committee decided to suspend the games.

Since the number of culprits involved in this incident was not just one or two, and it was impossible to know when or where another incident might occur, they decided to end the games altogether.

The worst terror incident.

It seemed it would take a very long time to uncover the full story of this incident and punish those involved.

A flag was flown at half-mast at the Olympic Main Arena where the incident occurred.

It was to honor the victims who had died unjustly.

As things stood, the national teams of each country hid their feelings of emptiness and began to head home one by one.

The games were over anyway, and the atmosphere was certainly not one for enjoying leisure time.

It was, quite literally, a tournament that left only scars.

But not everyone was talking about depressing stories.

The American media, in an attempt to lighten the mood, intentionally began to focus its reporting on one player.

That player was none other than Kato Mikane.

A hero who, as a Pro Gamer, had killed a terrorist and saved an injured player from the American national team.

The media focused on her exploits to an extent that seemed a bit excessive.

To exaggerate a little, it was to the point where there probably wasn’t a single person in America who didn’t know Kato Mikane’s face.

In the face of the attention pouring in from all sides, Kato Mikane maintained a blank expression.

It was attention born from a catastrophe, after all.

It would be strange to smile and say, ‘Thank you for the attention~’.

Just as the Japanese national team was also preparing to return home, Director Ikeda received a call.

“Yes? From where, did you say?”

Receiving the call with a slightly flustered expression, he looked at Kato and said.

“Kato. There are some people who want to talk with us.”

“Where is it this time.”

CBN, Fox, BGTN, USN, BT America, W24 News, and so on.

Kato was sick and tired of interviews.

To her, the Director cautiously began.

“The President wants to see us? It’s a call from the White House…”