Chapter 283 – End of Final Championship
───drdrdrdrk!
“…!”
Everything around me was vibrating.
Normally, detecting vibrations would allow me to roughly determine where the enemy was coming from, but with the building collapsing, the shocks felt from all directions were nothing more than a disorienting disadvantage. I had to figure out where Logan was using only the information my five senses could provide.
Of course, the moment I recklessly exposed myself, a bullet would come flying from somewhere, whipping through the air and chipping away at the concrete wall. I could only hope that Logan was having as hard a time as I was, but I doubted it. He could endure better than me; that much was certain.
The most urgent task at hand was locating the enemy.
“Ha…!”
Tudududu!
I pushed off the ground with all my strength. The surrounding terrain turned into a blur. Bullets flew past as I darted between cover, but none of them hit me. Through this, I could roughly estimate the enemy’s location.
Logan was at the edge of the aerial garden, and I was inside the building surrounding the garden. The practical distance between us was approximately 40 to 50 meters. To ensure Logan was buried in the lava flowing on the first floor, I needed to push harder.
Logan must have known the ground in that area was unstable. He wouldn’t try to enter easily. If I forced him, he would likely move in another direction.
So, I had to make him move.
───fwng!
I attached a sticky bomb to the end of the launcher. The target was the ceiling. Normally, I would align the ceiling and the drop point precisely, but there was no time for that. I quickly estimated by eye and stuck the explosive to the already cracked ceiling.
The moment I detonated it, a booming sound echoed, and massive cracks spread out from the explosion’s epicenter. The next thing was predictable. A huge chunk of concrete, larger than my body, crashed to the ground.
As the chunks shattered into countless fragments, I immediately sprang into action, even before the vibrations settled. Logan must have realized that this was a critical moment too, as I heard the sound of his shield unfolding. As I began to run and gun, more than 30 bullets pelted his shield like hail.
While firing the Honey Badger with one hand, I launched a nanite canister with the other. It flew with a thump, but Logan’s reaction speed was remarkable. As the spring compressed to its limit, pushing out the chem, Logan quickly folded his shield to dodge it.
-chiik!
Thus, the only thing that melted was the large boulder behind Logan. It disintegrated within seconds, leaving no trace. The nanites, or nanomachines, produced such results.
The distance between us shortened. Now, it was Logan’s turn to retreat. I had three canisters left, enough to melt all the cover she could hide behind. We reduced the number of covers while shooting at each other through the descending concrete dust. Logan didn’t seem to care much.
Although it might have looked exciting from the outside, the battle was practically at a standstill.
However, it was not a person who broke the stalemate.
───whizik!
The ground of the aerial garden was nearing its limit.
First, there were small cracks, but soon the floor began to make a spine-chilling creaking sound as it started to give way. Although it wasn’t a complete collapse, one more shock of a similar magnitude would be the end of it. In other words, there was no time to lure Logan into the trap.
Traps were often like this. I had seen many situations where meticulously placed traps had to be detonated without being used. Without much thought, I detonated the pre-planted bombs. A faint vibration occurred about 10 meters from Logan’s cover.
As I stepped back, suppressing fire to keep Logan from coming out,
“Ugh…!”
ggggrk!
The ground, about 20 meters away, stopped screaming and began to cave in under gravity. I had expected that much. I started to retreat faster.
However, the collapse was more extensive than anticipated. The cracks stopped only when I was about 15 meters from entering the building.
And at that moment, Logan was hopping on top of the cover.
“No way….”
I momentarily forgot I was in the middle of a match and muttered.
As the floor collapsed, Logan jumped off the cover. The spot she had just stepped on tilted entirely and fell dozens of meters below into the lava, vanishing without a trace. However, she was still floating above the aerial garden. Like in a jumping map, she used the collapsing ground as a platform to bounce repeatedly.
Frankly, there was nothing special about the way Logan or Laurentina fought. When combat skills and physical abilities honed to the limit were combined, overcoming adverse conditions and terrain was easy, and this was proof of that.
I hadn’t expected much, but now I had lost a chance to eject her into the lobby. It was time to get into serious CQB. Both of us moved inside the building, suppressing fire at each other.
And then I confirmed it with the information I had gathered so far.
‘…Shooting an SMG with one hand while holding a shield. If there were a processor issue with the skills, she would only be able to shoot a pistol, but since that’s not the case, has she only unlocked the shield?’
I doubted my conclusion for a moment but it didn’t seem wrong. This meant I could disregard other skills and focus my strength elsewhere.
In other words, it was now purely a contest of strength.
In the brief lull, I quickly took off my backpack and carefully hid the Trophy System I had carried since the initial skirmish among the rubble. There were two grenades that Dice had almost thrown earlier rolling on the ground, so I picked them up and carefully placed them in my multipurpose pouch.
Lastly, I replaced a Honey Badger magazine with one in the pouch for use at the final moment.
With that done, the skirmish resumed.
More cover means shorter engagement distances. The distance that had been about 40 meters a few minutes ago was halved. In areas where smooth shooting was impossible and there were many bypass routes, the ammunition consumption had to be considered deeply.
Of course, Logan advancing slowly like a living fortress was incredibly intimidating.
───bang!
“What the…!”
The wall I was leaning on suddenly shifted due to a huge shockwave. It took me a moment to realize that the concrete cover had been completely destroyed by a delayed grenade explosion.
Through the shattered concrete wall, I saw Logan folding her shield and raising her gun. I immediately hid behind another wall, but she fired an entire magazine as if she was going to demolish it. After about 30 rounds, the wall crumbled, leaving only my shield to block the bullets.
The moment I hastily dodged, I saw the stock.
Even a UFC heavyweight champion would be sent flying if hit by that, but I barely avoided it by pulling my head back.
-ssik!
A chilling swish. However, I was hit by a kick in the next moment. As I rolled back a few meters, bullets pounded my shield. I scrambled to my feet and hid behind the wall as the sound of Logan charging filled the air.
At some point, I switched the loaded sticky bomb to forward-directed explosion mode and rushed at Logan, firing bullets. I pointed the launcher at her abdomen and pulled the trigger.
The click was followed by a close-range explosion, sending Logan flying.
───thud!
I was flung in the opposite direction.
But I had anticipated being thrown back, so I quickly steadied myself and injected the nanomachine injector to recover HP and heal injuries. Logan had also disappeared by then. She was likely hiding behind a wall. The skirmish was back to square one.
The situation was deadlocked, and I was running out of bullets. I had two magazines left – three if I counted the one hidden in the pouch – and I wasn’t sure how many Logan had. But
considering she was using her pistol more often and actively using grenades, she was probably in a similar situation.
The battle had been going on for over five minutes, so it was inevitable.
It was best to mix in a few tricks to lure Logan.
Of course, the bait would be myself.
“As expected.”
As I swapped out Dice’s gun, I quickly retrieved the abandoned MCX.
Due to processor processing issues, I couldn’t link it with ICARUS Gear, making recoil control impossible. However, there was no gun whose recoil I couldn’t control. With a 40-round magazine between my left ring and pinky fingers, middle and ring fingers, and index and middle fingers, I picked up the MCX and pulled the trigger without hesitation, without worrying about wasting bullets.
Noticing the change in gunfire, Logan’s movements became more cautious. At that moment, I grabbed the grip with my left hand, released my right hand from the trigger, and retrieved a grenade from the pouch. To the viewers, it must have looked like I was making a serious counterattack. And, to some extent, that was true.
But my real aim was to completely destroy Logan’s shield. The ballistic shield was a significant burden for me.
And then—
───Kakakakakang!
Logan began to fully confront me with her shield.
In an instant, I used up two of the four magazines. Logan quickly retreated, seemingly preferring to lose the shield rather than withstand a barrage of bullets. During that time, she managed to chip away part of my shield with sharp suppressive fire.
In less than a minute, both sides had expended over 120 bullets each. It was practically a war of attrition. But if it dragged on, I would be at a disadvantage. If both sides exhausted their ammunition, facing Logan wielding a tactical hammer and a shield head-on wouldn’t yield good results for me.
But it was worth it.
I successfully lured Logan to the cleverly hidden Trophy System location using a substantial amount of bullets. At that moment, I heard the sound of a grenade pin being pulled.
With a simple hand gesture, the interception system hidden among the rubble activated. It targeted the grenade that had just left Logan’s hand.
And then.
“Whoa.”
Boom.
The explosion was small for a grenade, but the blast of the intercepted grenade only centimeters from Logan’s hand was significant. Logan was pushed back, hitting the wall with a thud, while I loaded a nanite canister into the chemical launcher and started dissolving everything around, eating away all the cover.
Logan had no chance to fold her shield anymore. But I only had two magazines left for the Honey Badger. From now on, it was a game of chicken to see whether I would run out of bullets first or Logan’s shield would break.
A fierce pursuit ensued. Though it was unfortunate, my speed was faster, and Logan had to choose whether her shield or her durability would break first. Around that time, I reloaded the magazine, which was effectively the last one for my main weapon. Logan probably knew I had no magazines left in my armor pouch by now.
However, at this point, a significant problem arose for me.
───drdrdrdrdrdrdrk!
“…!”
Runaway phenomenon.
In other words, cook-off.
The chamber overheated, causing the bullets to fire automatically without pulling the trigger.
The suppressor cylinder had turned red-hot from the continuous firing, and the ambient air heated by the lava covering the building below prevented the gun from cooling down. The result was inevitable but irreversible.
Rather than removing the magazine, I continued to aim and fire, deciding to shoot out the remaining bullets. As I fired the last shot, Logan threw her completely broken shield to the ground.
At that moment, without hesitation, we both drew our pistols and began shooting. It was a battle of attrition, scraping the bottom of our resources. Due to the effective range and aiming of the pistols, the engagement distance rapidly shortened. It was time to end this for real. Only a minute remained before the building would collapse into the lava.
“Ugh…!”
“Grr!”
Bang!
We faced off, separated by a wall. As soon as I threw the last of Dice’s grenades, Logan leapt from cover. The blast shockwave hit both of us, and I emptied my remaining rounds into Logan’s shield. Her shield broke first, but I also used up all my bullets.
The distance was too close to reload. Now it was time to switch from CQB to CQC. I spun the pistol, grabbed it by the barrel, and swung it like a hammer, countering Logan’s precise knife strikes.
Her blade was faster than a flash. Thunk. The blade pierced my right arm horizontally. But since I grabbed the hand holding the knife, my arm wasn’t severed, and I kicked her in the abdomen to push her away.
With a sickening crack, my right arm was completely ruined. Even as I kicked her away, she kept a firm grip on the handle. Ignoring it, I coiled my tail around the pistol, inserted the tail tip into the trigger guard, and reloaded the magazine with my left hand.
With the tactical hammer in my left hand and my right hand supporting the pistol by coiling my tail around it, I aimed at Logan.
“Ha….”
An eerie silence.
But the next moment, the silence shattered. Logan, determined to finish off my already unusable right arm, threw a series of throwing knives alongside her new blade. Blocking them with my useless right arm, I fired with my tail-coiled pistol. The recoil wasn’t too strong because I supported it with my tail.
Neither Logan nor I had any place to retreat. The close combat began. Ignoring the pain, Logan charged, taking pistol shots, and within seconds, our knife and hammer clashed in deadly arcs.
Each swing of the blade and hammer was so forceful that concrete walls shattered and splintered. I smashed Logan’s collarbone with the hammer, but my ruined right arm and tail were severed simultaneously. The tail holding the pistol flew through the air. Ignoring it, I backed away slightly and smirked.
“I still have one skill left.”
And fwng.
In an instant, I held the sticky bomb launcher in my left hand. I didn’t need to aim it at her body; it was enough to fire it at her feet. Even then, she made a last-ditch effort, throwing the tactical knife she was holding, which pierced my abdomen. But compared to the damage Logan sustained, it was negligible.
As the smoke cleared, she was down for good this time. Logan, lying on the ground with a few limbs missing, chuckled in disbelief and spoke.
“You won.”
“Of course. Who do you think taught me?”
Fifteen seconds remained until the building’s total collapse.
I dropped the launcher and struggled to open the multipurpose pouch with my left hand. As I slotted a gleaming silver magazine into the Honey Badger, Logan’s expression changed strangely, but she chuckled and added.
“It would have been easier if you used that sooner. Why didn’t you?”
“I wanted to make sure.”
Clack. The metallic sound of a round being chambered echoed in my shoulder and ears. Fortunately, the cook-off didn’t happen again as the gun had cooled down enough.
I raised the AAC Honey Badger with my left hand and firmly shouldered it.
I wanted to say something, but there wasn’t much to say. I had only about 30 seconds left before I would die from excessive bleeding.
“You fought well.”
That was my final response.
With a slight recoil felt through my left index finger, the muzzle shuddered.
-[Notification: Operator killed.]
-[You are at the top of the food chain!]
With that last shot, the Final Championship ended.
“Yoo Jin is the winner of the 3rd Final Championship’s last match!”
Cheers erupted.
The thunderous applause and roaring voices came from an audience of 60,000. Even the most professional host couldn’t help but put extra effort into his voice, and the audience had no chance to prepare for it. The 3rd Final Championship was hotter and more passionate than ever.
Even the players, not just the audience, were excited, materializing as the Korean team went wild in the debriefing room. Everyone hugged each other as a basic courtesy, and Dice, seeing Yoo Jin, who had won first place with the gun she used, covered her mouth and let out a cry of joy, tears flowing freely.
Of course, amidst all the cheers,
“…Ah.”
This was really damn hard.
Lying spread-eagle in an empty room after the session ended, Yoo Jin thought while staring at the ceiling.