I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 24 Aftermath

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“Ah, my neck.”

The gradually setting sunset cast a dim glow over the balcony on this early August evening.

Thin, delicate fingers carefully removed the choker-style blocker from around the neck, passing through disheveled light brown hair.

Rolling my eyes to scan the wall, my gaze halted at the wall clock, which briefly indicated it was around 7 PM.

The virtual reality, boasting a time acceleration of precisely threefold, had muddled my sense of time.

Although it was a virtual avatar speaking, my neck felt dry from lying on the sofa in the same position for about three hours.

Pressing the home bar button to get cold water from inside and pouring it into a cup, Harmony gulped it down coolly and sat back down on the sofa.

Quite a few messages had come in.

Several streamers who had recommended Dark Zone to her, and even an editor.

The vaguely visible content on the screen was all similar, but the first person to respond to was clear.

The editor.

The content… seemed predictable.

[Luddite: Teacher]

[Luddite: You said to stream, but you went and shot a 9-hour action movie]

[Luddite: Our editors are going to die from overwork]

[Harmony: ^^;;]

[Harmony: I’m sorryㅜ I had unavoidable circumstancesㅠㅠ!!]

This was indeed true.

Unlike FPS players who could only look straight ahead, this VR game allowed viewers to check the user from multiple angles for various effects during streaming.

This meant the number of edit points the editor had to check had increased several times.

Of course, it wasn’t that the platform didn’t have its own broadcast summary function built-in…

[Luddite: Besides me, Rubin and Waltz will also be involved]

[Luddite: So, other videos like Nogari might be uploaded a bit later during the one or two days it takes to finish editing this….]

[Harmony: Oh noㅠㅠ Is it that serious,,?]

[Luddite: We’ve agreed to upload it in three or four parts, each about ten minutes long]

[Luddite: If you want all of it uploaded as a priority, it might take about 3-4 days?]

[Luddite: If we work overnight, we could upload it faster]

Her fingers stopped.

Should I tell them not to do it, or send them five or six caffeine drink gifticons without saying anything.

Considering the average view count on Yourspace….

There was no need to overdo it at this point, but something unprecedented had happened in the history of her broadcasts, let alone recently.

It might be good to quickly release the first video and have them anticipate the subsequent ones.

[Harmony: How about this??]

[Harmony: Since you said you would divide it into 3-4 parts, quickly release just the beginning part and then take your time with the rest!]

[Harmony: I think it would be good to break it down into entry / party / battle / base arrival parts]

[Luddite: Hmm]

[Luddite: In the end, night shifts confirmed^0^]

[Harmony: (>？]

[Harmony: Could we possibly manage with some bonuses..??]

[Luddite: Sir, I will start working immediately, loyalty loyalty [ㅡ］7］

Oh dear.

A faint smile drew itself on her lips. She knew she shouldn’t think like this, but money often made impossible things possible.

Now, the remaining task was…adjusting the broadcast content, and other such things. It felt so comforting to have one problem settled.

Her stomach also growled slightly.

However,

[Luddite: By the way]

[Harmony: _( :0 」 ）_ ?]

[Luddite: Did you get the approval from the person involved?]

“Ah.”

She was in trouble.

It had been so long since anything like this happened that she had forgotten such basic and fundamental things.

[Harmony: Just a moment,,!!!!]

[Luddite: Oh dear]

It didn’t take her long to drop everything and immediately enter the platform’s linkage app.

Leaving behind the editor’s comment that she had expected.

-[You have received a message from a friend.]

“Huh?”

Just as she finished organizing the firearms she acquired that day and finished her live-fire practice, a message popped up in front of her just as she was about to log out.

Since it was based on the in-game time, it was sent roughly four hours later, and of course, it was from Harmony, whom she had just friended today.

She settled into position and examined the content.

-[Harmony: Did you get home safely?? It seems too late, but I’m only now reaching out,ㅠㅠㅠ]

-[Harmony: As I mentioned a few times beforeㅜㅜ,,, I’m broadcasting on TreeWiki, and thanks to Yoo Jin, today’s stream was a huge success!!]

-[Harmony: But after we parted ways, I was so caught up in talking about the aftermath that I forgot to get your permissionㅠ I’m really sorry…///]

-[Harmony: To make a long story short, would it be okay if I edited the day’s events into a video and uploaded it??]

-[Harmony: I can show you the edited video as soon as you request it,, and feel free to specify any revenue sharing ratio you prefer^^!]

-[Harmony: I’d really appreciate it if you could reply whenever you feel comfortable,,,]

-[Harmony: // Here are the links to my TreeWiki area and Yourspace channel!!]

“…Right. There was this.”

Huff.

She took a deep breath and let it out.

The issue she hadn’t thought about separately – or perhaps had intentionally ignored – now confronted her head-on.

She stopped writing a few words and sank into a deep pool of thoughts.

If it had been back when her identity needed protection, she might have refused, but… no, now that she thought about it, it wasn’t much different.

In a city filled with well-armed lunatics, crazy people, those obsessed with killing, and those who kill for money, we were the only semblance of law and order.

Moreover, she stood out too much, both physically and outwardly, and couldn’t even dream of disguising herself back then.

So, whether it was before or now, it didn’t matter; she was too conspicuous to be a special forces operative.

Thinking about it like that, there wasn’t a particular reason for her to refuse here, though there were still a few concerns.

Streamer.

She identified herself as such.

Up until now, she didn’t know how big the broadcast was or how many viewers had watched their actions. She hadn’t checked yet.

Given that, she needed to make a more cautious decision.

-[Yoo Jin: I saw your message]

-[Yoo Jin: Please wait a moment]

Fortunately, Harmony hadn’t forgotten to include links to the sites she seemed to run.

Two sites appeared in front of her eyes. Inside the pretty and neatly decorated homepage, various videos were well organized and uploaded.

The view counts were…

No.

Did she really need to confirm this?

Maybe it was right to be mindful of such details, but at the same time… it felt like she was approaching this too calculatively.

Her actions lacked consistency.

If she was going to approach it this way now, she should have thoroughly calculated the pros and cons when Harmony first introduced herself as a streamer.

Although one could argue that was a different story…

The V symbol below the message turned blue. It indicated that this cat had read the message she sent.

Numerous assumptions simultaneously emerged, making her head spin.

Unlike the past where she could easily judge by good and evil, the number of unknown territories she had to handle gradually increased.

Perhaps, she was gradually adapting to this world again.

Her conclusion was short, and her action swift.

As always, diving headfirst into challenging new areas was a specialty.

-[Harmony: If it’s hard to decide now, you can take your time and contact me later^^!!]

-[Yoo Jin: It’s okay]

-[Harmony: ????]

-[Yoo Jin: I’m also curious about the content]

Determining whether she could handle it or not was pointless. When had she ever judged everything before acting?

Accept or refuse.

She made a decision.

-[Harmony: !!!!!!]

…Was this person Victor Hugo?

Even so, her messages were about four or five times longer than his.

-[Harmony: Can I really upload it????]

-[Yoo Jin: Yes]

-[Harmony: Σ( ˙˙ ）!?]

-[Harmony: I didn’t expect such a straightforward response,,]

Three dots appeared.

It indicated the other person was typing.

After waiting for a while, a Korean standard phone number format appeared in front of her eyes.

In other words, it was probably Harmony’s phone number, though not entirely certain.

-[Yoo Jin: ??]

-[Harmony: Since money is involved?]

-[Harmony: We should be able to contact each other directly if there’s an issueㅎㅎ]

-[Harmony: Please add it and send me a message!]

…She wasn’t sure if this was a normal conversational procedure.

Though slightly dumbfounded, the phone number in her hand didn’t disappear.

However, whatever it was, the fact remained that this would be the first step built upon her previously wiped-out relationships.

-[Yoo Jin: Okay]

-[Yoo Jin: I’ll check it out later after you upload it]

Of course, there was one thing she had overlooked at this point.

-[Harmony: Thank youㅎㅎ!!]

She was the type to only focus on necessary details and not consider the aftermath much.

* * *