Chapter 223

The sound of footsteps, weapon, equipment clanking, gunfire.

An absolute area with a radius of 360 meters. Within this range, every possible sound reaches me and tells me where my enemies are.

Located in the center of the field is a town called Babel Town. The city area stretches out for about 400 meters on each side, and this is said to be the biggest battleground section in Zero Wars VR.

I am now at the highest point in this Babel Town and looking down on the entire area from the rooftop of a large 10-story apartment building commonly known as the [Babel Mansion].

"One on the next floor, just to the right as you climbed up. One to the right of the door, one diagonally to the left, I'll break the one in diagonal left."

"roger."

I tell Suu-chan the results of my search. The reply is short, but it is sufficient.

Suu-chan is now running up the stairs of a small four-story building, which is located across a large building from my position.

There were two players holed up on the top floor, cornered after Suu-chan had killed one of their team members.

I told Suu-chan that I would [break] the one in the building. What I meant by that is that I would destroy the bulletproof vests by sniping from across the building.

There is an 8-story building that stands between my position and a 4-story building where my target is.

The enemy seems to be by the window with her back open to me. As a matter of course, I can't aim directly at her because the 8-story building in front of me is in the way.

I could not get a clear view to shoot down from the rooftop of the apartment building I was in, and even if I tried to extend my body through the window, I would just end up crashing into the floor.

Of course, if I wanted to, I could have used a [magic bullet], but Suu-chan had strictly ordered me not to use it in this match.

That's why I decided to go for it differently.

"Yosh!"

I lightly shouted and jumped down from the rooftop of the apartment building.

Even if I couldn't directly shoot down, I could match the height and shoot when I passed her. With my concentration at its highest limit, I let gravity take over and waited for that moment.

The opening will be there when I pass a large room window with an open door that directly shows the passageway window on the other side.

The sniper's eyes passed with mine there for only a fraction of a second, in this moment, not even a 0.01 second margin of error allowed.

A bullet is released along with a 'pashu' sound. It's the sad sound of my rifle muffled by the silencer.

At the same time, I let go of my rifle and put my fingers on the window frame of the apartment building to twist the trajectory of my fall. Unable to kill the momentum, I crashed into the apartment building window.

The window glass shattered and scattered, but it was just for dramatic effect and with no meaning. I know there are no enemies around, so it didn't matter if the sound loudly echoed.

"Ugh... I almost died."

Although I did an ukemi, the damage done by the fall from the rooftop to the third floor was serious. It takes away 80% durability of my bulletproof vest.

However, my acrobatic sniping while jumping down seemed to have hit the target as intended, and the log showed 110 damage, indicating a headshot.

"Fufu, Suu-chan, you're on a rampage."

I chuckled as I looked at the damage displayed across the building. It seems she effectively made good use the opening created by my sniping.

Unlike in the real world, the impact of a bullet is not transmitted to the avatar. Even so, if the remaining HP and the durability value of the bulletproof vest displayed in my field of vision decrease rapidly, I will certainly be surprised.

Especially since the vest is destroyed in one go, or if they are broken without any warning.

Even though they are cornered, those players are also strong fighters who have fought many battles. A mere headshot will not greatly shake them.

However, the slight confusion caused by the sniper fire from their unprotected backside was not missed by Suupaa.

Eleven shots were fired, and three overlapped on each other. Then I heard a loud stamping sound, followed by six shots.

Since the damage displayed in my vision was 17 times, it seemed that three overlapping shots were counterattacks that were aimed at Suu-chan.

In the end, Suu-chan took down two players in less than five seconds. To be precise, the team seemed to be wiped out when the second player went down, and both the first player and the second player were logged as dead.

There is a possibility for the downed player to come back, but only if they still have at least one survivor on the team. If all team members are down, there is no possibility of recovery at that point.

Therefore, the system will deliver death judgment when all players were down.

"Nana, you alive?"

"I'm alive. I'm recovering now."

"Next."

"That building is clear. The next step is to get the team in the big warehouse, which is a little far away from the town's centre. The remaining three are in an underground workshop, so it's a little hard to pick up their sound."

"The basement is too troublesome. I'm going to make a frontal attack on the big warehouse. Support me."

"kay~"

Before the communication on Suu-chan's side is cut off, the sound of a psshhhh reaches my ears. She must have used the recovery item.

That also means that the three bullets that were fired in return had done damage to Suu-chan.

In Zero Wars VR, there are two types of armor that players can equip: bulletproof vests and helmets.

The helmet is an armor that reduces the power of headshots. And bulletproof vest will protect the player's HP gauge from damage. It acts like a second HP bar.

Both items had a rarity level, which similar to item rank in MMO, and the higher the rank, the more effective the item was, and the harder it was to find on the field.

The HP of the character is 100, and the durability of bulletproof vests ranges from 25 to 100 depending on the rank. There is an exception for the highest-ranked vest that will appears 20 minutes after the start of the match. It has a durability of 200.

The bulletproof vest that Suu-chan is equipped with is rank 4 and has a durability of 100, which is the best equipment that can be normally picked up. Or, to be precise, she probably did not pick it up but rather robbed It from her dead enemy's body.

Anyway, it seems Suu-chan received a decent amount of counterattacks and took damage to her bulletproof vest.

And this is the fact, Suu-chan took damage just like everyone else. It is said that she is sometimes ridiculed and glorified for [avoiding bullets], but no matter how good she is, it's impossible to avoid all the bullets.

In fact, Suu-chan is the type of player who gets her kill by pushing forcefully, so it's natural that she takes a lot of damage.

When I asked her why she did not die, she replied, [I carry a small number of magazines, so I can bring more recovery items. And since I frequently recover, it may seem as if I can't be killed from the eyes of others].

The strength of Suu-chan seems to lie in her ability to kill with a minimum number of bullets by taking advantage of her outstanding shooting ability.

Anyway, my HP is taking more damage than Suu-chan because of my fall. I should recover my HP and vest's durability and make my way back to the rooftop.

"I'm back."

"I'm almost in front of the big warehouse. Enemy positions."

"One on the warehouse roof, one near the back door from Suu-chan, one on the second-floor corridor to the left of the entrance, lastly, one behind the stairs on the right."

"Please take care of the rooftop."

"Call out before you go in."

"Yes, ma'am."

Unlike the previous building, there is no obstruction between the large warehouse and the apartment building that Suu-chan will attack this time. The location of the warehouse is the exact opposite of the previous building. The warehouse is located in the corner of the city, nearly 200 meters away in a straight line.

On the roof of the warehouse, there is a player who is cleverly hiding and watching his surroundings. I can't see him because he is hiding behind a large container, but I can hear some rustling sound from him.

Just as I can read his position on the rooftop, he probably knows where I am. But that's because I have been sniping from this rooftop ever since I first landed.

As long as I was at the most conspicuous high point in the city, my presence was obvious enough to be noticed by anyone who looked hard enough.

I jumped down from the opposite direction of the warehouse rooftop, so the apartment building shielded me from being shot, but if I had jumped down from the warehouse side, I am sure I would have been shot out of the sky.

Thankfully, the rooftop of this apartment building is the highest point in the surrounding area, so unless I was standing on the edge of it, there was no way for other snipers to target me.

I had a monopoly on a spot where I could have had the upper hand for more than 10 minutes from the start of the match just by keeping my eyes on an enemy sniper.

So why don't they just climb up normally to where I am instead of sniping me? Some people might think so.

In fact, there were many who tried, probably because it was obvious that I was here right from the start of the match. But I am still alive thanks to Suu-chan, who was guarding the only entrance to this apartment. She was like a guard dog who devoured every enemy that came to her.

And the reason why Suu-chan stopped guarding me and decided to take the plunge was that there were not enough people left in this town to be vigilant.

Anyway, she killed more than 10 people in 10 minutes just by guarding this apartment.

"I won't use the [magic bullet] here either."

I aimed at the enemy on the warehouse roof that naively exposed himself.

The enemy will be aware that they are being targeted by a higher elevation sniper spot, but that's fine, it was purpose to serve as a deterrent.

This one seems to be hiding behind a container on the rooftop, my job now is not to kill him but to prevent him from attacking Suu-chan. In other words, as long as I can nail the enemy to the rooftop, I don't need to hit them with my bullets.

"They are aware of my presence. I'm going in now."

Suu-chan, who had been hiding in a gap between buildings, ran to the warehouse. It seems the enemy's search skill has caught her. Since her location is known, Suu-chan must have decided that there is no point in hiding and approaching the warehouse.

I pulled the trigger on the enemy stationed on the rooftop of the warehouse, who was about to give a welcoming shot to Suu-chan.

The bullet, which I did not intend to hit, became a signal of our confrontation and made him distracted.

During the brief exchange between the enemy and me, Suu-chan stormed into the warehouse.

However, the enemy was quick to judge and apparently switched his target to me when he realized that he could not stop Suu-chan from entering.

The enemy, who revealed himself, is a male mercenary character called [Winario]. He was holding an energy weapon called a laser rifle. It was a rifle that fired a penetrating laser that flew straight through without any deviation in its trajectory, usually caused by wind or standing position.

Since the range is virtually unlimited and travels straight ahead until it hits an object such as a building or the floor, it is sometimes known to cause accidents involving other players in a straight line.

While it is very powerful and unrestrained, it is also one of the slowest of all weapons because it charges energy with each shot, and its reload takes a long time. Specifically, it can only fire one shot every three seconds.

In addition, it has no damage bonuses to specific parts of the body, such as headshots or critical hits, so although it has a sense of stability in power, it is inferior to sniper rifles in terms of one-hit performance when it lands directly.

A laser flying straight at me landed into my stomach. This alone reduced the durability of the bulletproof vest by 65. The bulletproof vest I was wearing was rank 3 and had a durability of only 75, so if I did not repair it, it would lose its function with the next attack.

But the bullet I fired to passed the opponent's laser also land on the enemy's forehead. The headshot bonus did 101 damage, and now his bulletproof vest should no longer be functional.

He was wearing a better helmet than the enemy earlier, but my bullet has enough power to penetrate even a helmeted opponent with a single blow.

The ability to achieve this kind of power is an advantage that only [Rufa], a character who specializes only in sniper rifles, can have. If this were the [Ritu] used by Suu-chan, it would probably only do 70 damage.

The enemy hid behind the containers again, perhaps to reload or perhaps scared by the destruction of his vest's durability.

Right now, he was probably trying to recover the durability of his bulletproof vests.

Even if the vest loses its durability and stops functioning due to an enemy attack, its function can be restored by using recovery items. Once worn, a bulletproof vest never disappears.

"Now, I need to support her."

I know that Suu-chan has just reaped one of them who hides behind the right staircase within three seconds of entering the building.

While Suu-chan had charged in from the entrance of the warehouse, her opponent had decided to strengthen their position inside the warehouse.

The enemy behind the staircase was just a little bit naive in his position, while the other members were keeping watch at the entrance by hiding behind a natural shield.

I said naive because the said staircase was what is called a watermark staircase, and Suu-chan's ability is too good that she could easily shoot a bullet through the watermark gap without any trouble. To be honest, I was too harsh to call the opponent standing in that position naïve because Suu-chan also already knows his location because I told her about his location beforehand.

But, no matter how good Suu-chan is, she can't so easily kill an opponent who is behind a shield. She won't lose, but she will have a bit of a hard time.

In order to aid Suu-chan, who was in the middle of storming into the warehouse by herself, I ignored the enemies on the rooftop and fired bullets into the warehouse window.

I fired five bullets in succession. The bullets passed through the window frame of the warehouse and bounced to their respective target positions.

The bullets did not hit anyone. I shot at them so that they would not hit anyone.

They probably knew that I was aiming at the warehouse from the roof of the apartment building through the communication from [Winario] on the roof, and the two remaining enemies in the warehouse would also know about the effective range at which I could shoot them directly through the windows from this roof.

Of course, if I were to use [Magic Bullet], it is possible to hit almost anywhere, but their use is forbidden this time.

That's why the two enemies will not be in my sniper range right now.

Even so, I still need to provide some aid to Suu-chan. That is why I fired my bullet inside the warehouse to give a sense of threat that I was targeting them from the outside.

If my bullet can distract them even for a second, it would be my win. Our ace is a monster who can destroy the enemy with that much gap.

About 12 seconds later, six shotgun shots rang out in the warehouse, and the sound of the enemy in the warehouse disappeared.

If [Ritu] wields a shotgun, it would do more than 100 damage per shot, and Suupaa most likely will fire 3 shots at each person.

One to destroy the vest, one to cut off the HP, and one to finish them in a down state.

Zero Wars VR also follows the typical Battle royale rules. The down state has a gauge that decreases overtime after a downed timer starts.

Finishing a downed enemy will remove that gauge, and when it's gone, it's game over for you.

There was still one more enemy on the rooftop, so if Suupaa left two downed enemies unattended and revived, it would be troublesome. It was a natural thing to do to kill downed enemies when you could afford it.

"How many kills with this?"

"With Touka kill, we got a total 18."

"Just as plann.... oops."

Suu-chan, who had destroyed the enemies inside the warehouse, was talking with me, and during that time, a laser flew from an enemy on the roof and pierced my chest. My bulletproof vest stopped functioning due to excessive damage, and my HP was directly shaved off.

It was a very accurate sniper shot.

Nevertheless, this was just as planned.

"I'm going to drop out of here then."

"I'll follow after I've done my fair share of rampaging. See you later."

After reloading, he took another shot. This time he aimed at my neck. No matter where you hit, the damage is the same, but to hit a thin neck from 200 meters away is quite amazing.

I was done in such a way, and I send out honest praise for the enemy sniper's skill as I watch his HP drop to zero. Now, my avatar has entered a down state, and I can hardly move from this spot.

A down state that I have not experienced that much yet since I started playing this game. In terms of the avatar's weight, it feels like when SP is running out in WLO, but unlike that one, there is no feeling of discomfort. In this world, you just become difficult to move.

If Suu-chan comes to help me, I can get back to the front line again. On the other hand, if the enemy finishes me or a certain amount of time passes, I will retire.

However, as we exchanged words in our earlier communication, Suu-chan and I's work ends here. We had already finished what we had to do in the first game of the main tournament. The exposure of our hands should be minimal. That was the reason why I didn't use [Magic Bullet].

So let's die quickly.

"Toutou!"

Fortunately, I was standing on the edge of the rooftop and was able to jump down from the apartment without any particular effort.

After being exposed to quite a bit of wind pressure, I was knocked to the ground and bounced off the ground.

The fall damage instantly wiped out my recoverable gauge, and I was forced to retire from the first game.

===*

If you put Nana in the highest position in the middle of the town area, she becomes a control tower with a sniper. This is a must-do strategy.

So, we were suddenly in the middle of the game.

We are now entering the final phase of the game! Nana retired at this point. Suu-chan, Touka, and Rinne are alive at this point.

By the way, the "rooftop" of Babel Mansion is not a strong sniping point. The only buildings that can be directly targeted are the adjacent buildings and the large warehouse at the edge of the area. Even if adjacent, it's difficult to aim at people in it due to the angle.

To begin with, Babel Town is a map like a mini skyscraper with small glass-walled buildings, making sniping itself more difficult. There are too many buildings in the way.

By the way, Nana throws away her rifle in the middle of the game, but she had five of the same one for reserve. Suu took them from the enemies she killed and passed them to Nana. Saying [I don't want it].

Tln:

Elf on the shelves. Rufa on the roof.