I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

[General] "From now on, I withdraw my support for Artemis."

<An image of Eugene and others together>

"From today, I will no longer be part of the support group and will join Artemis as one. Any attack on Artemis will be seen as an attack on me."

"If there are 7 billion Artemis fans in the world, I am one of them. If there are 100 million Artemis fans, I am one of them. If there are 10 million Artemis fans, I am still one of them. If there are 100 fans of Artemis, I am still one of them. If there is only one fan of Artemis, it is probably me. If there are no fans of Artemis, then I no longer exist in this world."

"Artemis, my love. Artemis, my light. Artemis, my darkness. Artemis, my life. Artemis, my joy. Artemis, my sorrow. Artemis, my rest. Artemis, my soul. Artemis, me."

[All Comments][Newest First]

"Looks like Rain is also fumbling in the beginning."

"...What else can I do? I’ve never shot a gun properly before."

Thud!

The sound was so loud that it seemed like my eardrums were about to fall off. But it wasn’t just me in this shooting range, and it wasn’t only Jin. In fact, Rain was awkwardly holding a gun and shooting at the target.

I watched the scene without much thought. Of course, Rain was born with the same purpose as Jin, meaning she had to relearn her combat methods. Unlike a heavy machine gun, those who are resilient enough to shrug off a few bullets should have a different style of combat from humans.

But that didn’t mean human combat tactics could be disregarded. These beings might look completely different from humans, but their origin was still me—after all, I don’t avoid precise targeting, so why should they?

There’s still a long way to go.

"For a first shot, not bad. But since it was a stationary target, don’t delude yourself into thinking this shows your real skill."

"...Cold."

"Heh, you're still 35 days away from earning praise from the Archetype... Ah, ah! Please stop the violence."

"Already struggling with basics? How did I teach you to pick up things like this?"

Looking at Jin with a half-frozen gaze, it seemed like she had become flustered, and she desperately began to explain herself. But there was no helping it. Still, just seeing her awkward expression was amusing enough to make my own expression soften, and Jin let out a sigh of relief.

Anyway, I sat down in a chair to calmly gather my thoughts. The main agenda was the upcoming prototype Mecha Eugene raid.

Based on the information gathered so far—through investigating places like the Artemis research lab, and by finding clues one by one—it was clear that in order to capture the prototype, the four towers within the facility had to be destroyed first. Only then could the enemy stop repairing itself.

Of course, it wasn’t just that. I also had to consider that Beta, Gamma—the one I captured, and another one that was produced after I caught mine—Delta, and Epsilon were guarding those towers.

Epsilon was something I took with me.

Well, the main point was this. Epsilon—Rain's skills needed to be improved quickly.

That way, I could safely take her along during the raid.

"...So, stop staring at me with those suspicious eyes. It’s making me uncomfortable."

"Ah, I got caught."

"Not that it matters. Dais, just teach Jin properly. Rain’s my responsibility."

"Ugh..."

As expected.

Of course, it was obvious when I thought about it for a second. In the past, whenever we had new recruits, I personally trained them one-on-one. On the flip side, Rain’s situation was urgent.

That said, there was no better feeling than knowing that once I trained the newbies properly, I wouldn’t have to be the one doing everything anymore. At this point, Harmony and Dais were taking the lead and teaching the others beneath them. Harmony was going to teach Cato, and Dais was supposed to teach Blue and Jin.

Fortunately, after a brief chat, Dais's expression softened, and he disappeared into the opposite side of the training area. That left only Rain and me in the shooting range.

Rain, looking uncertain about what to do next, carefully set her gun aside and tried to sit on a chair a little away from me.

I added, without much thought:

"You shouldn’t sit down."

"...Why not—Ahh!"

───Crack!

She fell flat.

Unfortunately, I was a second too late. Like Jin, Rain weighed well over 500 kg, and most of the chairs in the facility weren’t strong enough to hold her. As a result, one of the chairs in the shooting range met its untimely end, and I could only watch the scene quietly.

Rain shook her head a few times and got back up, finally sitting on the bare floor.

After watching her, I spoke.

"Is this livable?"

"...How long have I been here? Why are you asking about that?"

A brief silence passed.

Our eyes met. The gaze she gave me wasn’t quite human, but it wasn’t exactly robotic either. For a moment, I wondered if this was the performance of an AI built from a human core. She seemed like she wanted to say something, so I waited quietly.

"...What happened to the research lab?"

"Do you want to know?"

"..."

Another silence.

But I had already guessed she wanted to hear about it. We hadn’t known each other for long, but I recognized her hesitant behavior—her outwardly fiery nature was almost like a disguise for her fragile inner self.

Whether it was a disguise or not, I simply replied nonchalantly.

"It’s in ruins. There’s probably just a 500-meter wide crater now. No one survived. The bunker-buster laser hydrogen bomb completely vaporized the facility."

"...Did the Warden die too?"

"Warden?"

"...Never mind."

Warden, huh.

But at that moment, I had a strong feeling that the Warden was one of the two people in the room where Rain had been—an engineer and another high-ranking officer I had executed. So I spoke again, this time in a calm tone.

"I killed him. With my own hands."

"...I see. All the things I’d been pondering vanished so easily..."

"That’s how things are in this world. And Artemis... well, they touched something they shouldn’t have. And now, here I am, wide awake, and they want to show their faces again."

At that moment, our eyes met again.

Thinking back now, I should have realized something was off the moment I found out Icarus wanted to put a character based on me in the game. But when I realized that events occurring in the EU mode were mirroring what was happening in another world, my anger toward Artemis surpassed its limits.

I hadn’t spoken about it, and I hadn’t shown it to Jin or Rain, who could be considered victims. I had kept my rage bottled up because there was no need to express it to them. But truthfully, I had already vented that anger in many ways. I had called in the Dagger Team here, and eventually, President Henry had given the order to erase Artemis from this world. So in a way, my anger had already been fully expressed in the background.

Then, once again, silence filled the room. But that wasn’t entirely unexpected because the reason was simple.

The Dagger Team, who had just woken up, had sent me a message.

"...What’s going on? Why is no one saying anything?"

"No, it’s nothing, really."

Everyone’s awake and breakfast is done. A comprehensive briefing on Prototype Mecha Eugene and personal combat skills training is scheduled for 2 PM.

P.S. Make sure to bring Rain.

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I chuckled while looking at the tablet screen with that message on it. Naturally, I met Rain’s gaze, which was filled with a somewhat ominous expression, but, well, what did that matter? It seemed like things would be tough for Rain from here on out—but it wouldn’t matter much since her body didn’t experience fatigue.

I added with a smirk:

"Rain."

"Ugh, what now?"

"If you want to keep up with our pace, you’ll have a rough time."

She gave me a confused look, almost as if seeing a version of me from back when I fell into New York. But, well, in the end, you just adapt.

It had only been 15 minutes since Rain was officially designated as the team’s punching bag and newest recruit.

"Y-You guys, you’re as tough as the data in the database!"

"If you use the railgun attached to your tail, you’ll have to start over, so get used to it quickly. The recovery’s handled by the coffin, so it’s fine."

"Archetype—!"

Not long after, the Dagger Team, under the pretense of preparing for high-value target elimination training, thoroughly "cleaned up" Rain, much like clothes being wrung out in a dryer. Of course, I was scheduled to be sent in next.

As I thought about what tactics and strategies I should teach next, Jin, who had completed one cycle, came over, looking worn out and added:

"The world is full of terrifying things."

"Yep, it is."

"Even you, Archetype."

Me?

Why me?

Of course, that question was never answered.