You Guess

Players are the most amazing beings in the world.

They can reach across a whole battlefield, calmly clean the bathroom drain with the highest efficiency, shoot cars on the highway, and work in a maid's restaurant in a short skirt and 10 centimeter high heels.

There's also the possibility of 'I don't like you, I'll kill you', 'Nice car, I'll steal it', 'House? My house.' 'Aren't you my rightful wife?' , 'just open the lock, sprinkle water', 'too many people in front of the traffic jam, wait for me to blow up a little' and other skills, chess, poetry and painting to kill people to open the lock sniper aircraft cooking upside down to drink water all proficient.

Why is this because the players are too angelic and too devilish? No.

It's because of the NPCs.

If the NPCs were nicer, how could the players kill them for no reason? Even if it was for no reason, couldn't the NPC have done some soul-searching to find out why they killed him instead of the others? Even if all of them are killed, then all of them should reflect on themselves.

Not to mention the shameless NPCs who force players to light up Morse code, languages, how to blow shit up efficiently, sniper rifles, and so on, all of them deserve to die.

That's how Ichijō Mirai feels right now, standing on the rooftop, staring silently at the sniper rifle mounted on the edge of the rooftop, all the mixed feelings in his heart can be summarized into one simple sentence: Rum is dead.

Rum deserved to die.

It wasn't because he had guessed the rare weakness of the great player, or because he dared to force the great player to learn the sniper rifle, as the player was so great that he wouldn't hold such a grudge.

It's because he stepped into the earth with his left foot first.

On the other end of the phone, Rum sensed something from the long silence, "You don't know how to snipe?"

He was surprised, as if Ichijō Mirai didn't know how to snipe, but how to drink water. How could a human being not know how to drink water? How can a man not drink water? How can a demon who terrorized Tokyo alone not snipe?

...Is there even a little bit of a connection between the two?!

"I've had plenty of experience being shot at," Ichijō Mirai added the key information, "with a pistol."

"The number of times I've been pursued by sniper fire, is very few."

It takes time for a sniper to make a move, but once they've experienced it, the clever criminals gain valuable experience in making a quick retreat.

Rum: "So?"

Ichijō Mirai put it succinctly, "Less experience."

"But it's not impossible to try."

He got down in a very substandard position, opened his sniper scope, and locked his direction through the lens to find the meeting place.

Sniper rifles and handguns are almost completely different things, snipers need observers, need to measure the wind speed and distance for estimation when shooting, and need to withstand a huge recoil after shooting.

These are things that a standard sniper needs to consider, but Ichijō Mirai doesn't consider any of them, and he aims at the Tokyo Metropolitan Council.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Council is a rather conspicuous building, white in color, with the front building spread out in a curved shape with three floors, and a rounded fourth floor directly above the main entrance, with a circular glass window at the center of the fourth floor.

Ichijō Mirai's first target was the window, and he held it steady for three seconds before slowly moving the muzzle down, counting the distance he needed to move down to reach the crowd, "Time for target to appear."

He breathed calmly and spoke in a quiet tone.

He was sure that he would have to read the file and go back to it anyway, so any more words now would be a waste of feelings and energy.

On the other end of the phone, Rum sensed the change and narrowed his eyes, "Earlier, Gin told me that you're a crazy person, and to let you carry out your mission, you must be supervised at all times, otherwise there will be unexpected 'surprises', I originally did not believe it."

Because Ichijō Mirai was so normal.

Aside from the fact that the topics they exchanged were a bit alarming to the police, Ichijō Mirai's tone of voice and reactions were so normal that it was hard to think of him as a madman who would dare to single-handedly terrorize the entire city of Tokyo.

But now, "I have some faith."

Ichijō Mirai: "Time."

He scanned the quest prompt in the upper left corner.

[Mission Name: 'Sniper Operation'.]

The mission description reads.

[In your first month of joining the organization, you have been exposed to an important mission, and the opportunity to learn part of the organization's mysterious face is truly a marvel to behold.

But perhaps that wasn't fast enough, you weren't just satisfied, you wanted to move up faster, you wanted to be taken more seriously, you wanted to be given a codename, to become a true member of the darkness.

To do so, you must satisfy Rum.]

There are two mission objectives.

[I. Uemoto Tarō is seriously injured (basic goal).]

[This is an extremely difficult task. There are countless complicated forces at the meeting site. Rum knows the difficulty, otherwise he would not give you the task. His bottom line is that Uemoto Tarō has four limbs missing. If you can do it, he will admire your ability.]

[II.* (advanced goal)]

[...How far can you go?]

The quest reward for the basic objective is three Low-level Painkillers and Blood Tonic Medicine, while the quest reward for the advanced objective is also in the * state and cannot be viewed until it is completed.

Ichijō Mirai calmly withdrew his gaze.

Rum said, "Three minutes." 

"He'll be at the door for ten minutes when he arrives. You'll have plenty of time to observe."

There was a moment of silence on his end before he answered, as if muting to his contacts for confirmation before giving Ichijō Mirai the exact time.

"You're in two states when you're on a mission and when you're not," he added, "No wonder that Gin guy thinks so highly of you."

So he's a guy who's very 'Gin'-esque when it comes to characterization, so aloof that he won't say a word.

Rum said meaningfully, "Try not to be so cold."

"Black organization fighters can be cold-faced and just go up and swing their fists at anything, but we in management are different and still need some disguise."

'We'.

Intellectually, Ichijō Mirai knew that it was time to talk.

Emotionally... it was a waste of time to read the file anyway.

He holds the scope still and reads, "Oh."

In the scope, a black car appeared, followed by a crowd of reporters and security guards surrounding the building.

In the crowd, a black-suited male in his thirties or forties got out of the car, waving cheerfully to the others, and instead of going straight into the lobby, he stopped at the door and began to accept interviews.

Rum cut the crap and said in an irritated tone, "That Uemoto guy is here."

"He's the one who got off at the door."

Ichijō Mirai raises the muzzle of his gun to the round glass window again, files it, and then moves it down, silently noting the distance, so that it's aimed at the man in the suit's head.

Rum was still talking, "This is a difficult mission, failure could delay your codename, you must..."

The target is fixed on Uemoto Tarō's head.

This shot is a matter of luck.

Ichijō Mirai interrupted Rum, "Uemoto Tarō is the target."

He squeezes the trigger hand harder, "My mission is to..."

Rum: "Your mission is to..."

A shot rang out.

As the massive recoil of the sniper rifle hits Ichijō Mirai's shoulder and neck, the bullet from the sniper rifle spins out, dragging the slightly slower shot to hit Uemoto Tarō.

A bright red color leapt up and splashed the entire room in solidification.

"Huh?" Ichijō Mirai puts the gun away, holding down his aching shoulder in amazement, "I actually hit it?"

Unbelievable! It's a stroke of luck! No need to read the file!

Rum: "Protect Uemoto Tarō."

...

Wait, what?

Ichijō Mirai: "?"

Rum: "?"

"You fired your weapon," Rum spoke slowly in the silence that followed the words, "because you found the assailant who was going to assassinate Uemoto Tarō?"

He spoke more slowly, "Weren't those guys planning to attack after the meeting?"

"...Who did you shoot?"

...

Ichijō Mirai wisely asked back, "You guess?"