Chapter 25 – Virtual Reality – The Hero (3)

Double-barrel shotgun.

– Uh… What the fuck? What’s that?

Not only the guild members who had been quietly watching, unsure of what this broadcast was about, but even the Awakened participating in the tutorial were startled.

A gun? An Awakened using a gun?

More importantly, where did that come from? Such questions arose.

However, the girl believed this shotgun would take down the demon.

After all, wasn’t the double-barrel shotgun famous for sending people, beasts, or beastly people to the Lord’s side in one shot?

In a certain movie, it even took down vampires and demons.

-“Firepower! Only overwhelming firepower can defeat the unclean demons!”

The girl hadn’t forgotten the teachings from the cult.

The downside was that since it was summoned by her ability, she could only fire two shots before discarding it.

[Consecrated Demon Hunter’s Explosive Tracking Double-Barrel Shotgun]

As the name suggested, it was an overpowered item others couldn’t even dream of.

Click-

The girl gripped the shotgun tightly with both hands, aimed forward, and immediately pulled the trigger.

Bang-!

The muzzle flashed, and the incoming rocks disappeared without a trace.

“No, this, what, fuck.”

The man watching couldn’t find the words.

Wait, how is this possible?

More importantly, how can this tiny kid be stronger than me?

She’s so damn charismatic?

Is she some kind of bio-weapon raised from the cradle by a major guild?

Or is she not human, but an AI?

– Where can I buy that? I want one too!

– Seeing how she suddenly summoned it, it might be an ability

– Yeah, virtual reality can simulate Awakened abilities but can’t bring in outside items

– Inventory items can be summoned though?

– More precisely, ‘bound’ items can be used like abilities

– Mom! I want to be an Awakened too!

The chat was in chaos as well.

Non-Awakened employees couldn’t bear to watch the screen and poured out their concerns in the chat.

Awakened employees started to focus on the broadcast, intrigued by the girl’s unusual movements.

“Mister, you’ll fight, right?”

Caught off guard by the girl’s question, the man nodded blankly.

After all, who could back down when even this small child wasn’t giving up?

As he pulled out rock fragments embedded in his shoulder and thigh, the girl glanced over.

“You shouldn’t be hurt this much…”

She frowned and stepped closer.

“Here. I’ll heal you.”

She reached out her tiny hand and brushed over his wounds. Surprisingly, they began to heal and disappear.

“What the fuck…”

He didn’t want to swear in front of a kid, but…

No, this was really too unfair, wasn’t it?

Just how many Awakened abilities did she have?

What have I been doing all my life until now?

The man had an epiphany.

Ah! It’s not that I’m lacking, it’s that this girl is extraordinary!

Then… I should worship her, right?

“Let’s go! I’ll take the lead!”

Awakened with healing abilities were top priority for protection.

He couldn’t let this little treasure get hurt!

The man flexed his thick arms and strode forward confidently, but…

Thump-

He was immediately stopped.

“Why?”

“…You’re weak, mister.”

Hearing what amounted to “you’re a loser,” he froze in place as if hit by the villain’s petrification ability.

“Just watch my back. You need to follow carefully since you’re weak, okay?”

“Uh, um… okay…”

It was a statement that completely shattered the man’s self-esteem.

But for the girl, it was just a matter of fact.

She knew how many people without proper abilities had died trying to catch heretics.

Even children who couldn’t endure the training had died in numbers too great to count on both hands.

Dying while facing demons was martyrdom.

It was a shortcut to heaven, a glorious and joyous thing, but…

Other people shouldn’t go to heaven before me and meet my mom and dad.

They might worry about me.

And selfishly, she thought that if too many people went to heaven, there might not be room left for her.

I guess I really am a sinner from birth.

The girl felt guilty seeing the man’s disappointed expression but still strode forward.

“The Hero,” infamous for its extreme difficulty in raising awareness about villains.

In the meantime, many Awakened had died at the hands of the villain.

Right near the girl, the three-lane road where the first battle took place was now unrecognizable.

Despite the scene, the girl’s gaze was fixed on one corner, the site of the massacre.

It was hard to find anyone still standing normally.

“Sa… save me… Please save me…”

People were slowly turning to stone from their toes up.

Some had already become stone statues.

And there were shattered stone fragments in human shapes.

The scattered stone pieces looked just like people’s blood and tears.

“Hahaha! Feels so good, you bastards! You desk jockeys should’ve been prepared to die the moment you dared to challenge an Awakened!”

The girl froze in place, unable to imagine such a horrific scene.

– Oh no… Won’t this traumatize the kid?

– She’s frozen in fear

– Yeah, panicking on the first dispatch is common

– But didn’t they say “The Hero” has 80% of real pain sensitivity? Is this really okay?

This isn’t real.

They said it was virtual reality, fake, a game.

Even knowing this, her arms trembled with surging anger.

As I thought, all demons must die.

This ability called “wish” was given to a sinner like me to prevent things like this.

“Are you going?”

“Yes.”

The girl discarded the empty shotgun and slowly approached the villain.

As if boasting that he hadn’t been subdued by the Awakened, the villain crushed the ankle of a citizen who had been begging for his life.

Crunch!

“Aaargh!”

“Bullshit. You shouldn’t even feel pain, why are you screaming?”

The citizen, petrified while standing, collapsed onto the concrete floor as his ankle shattered, smashing his forehead.

Blood splattered with a squelching sound.

The villain spat a stone loogie on the corpse, then finally turned to look at the girl.

“What’s this, kid? You want to die too?”

He had an ordinary face.

A completely unremarkable appearance you might pass on the street.

The girl slowly opened her mouth.

“Why did you do this?”

Her voice was cold.

It was an unfamiliar tone to those who knew the girl’s usual voice and appearance.

It was as if… she had suddenly grown up into an adult.

Perhaps noticing the killing intent in her voice, the villain’s expression stiffened slightly, despite his earlier cackling.

“Why? Because I can’t stand how these lowly bastards act like they’re something. These fuckers need to realize their identity as slaves.”

The girl couldn’t agree with this.

Those chosen by the almighty God were His messengers.

Wasn’t it natural to work for the happiness of ordinary people?

Above all, by doing so, one could go to heaven in the end.

Recklessly wielding God-given abilities as if they were one’s own was a sin of pride in itself.

Clear contempt appeared in the girl’s yellow eyes.

Why didn’t they understand his thoughts, even though they were all Awakened?

Wasn’t it frustrating that mere non-Awakened were giving orders from above and reaping all the benefits?

Seeing even this much younger girl react this way, the villain provoked her more aggressively.

“What, did I kill your mommy and daddy or something?”

The girl just smiled silently at the villain’s taunt.

Ah. This one really is a demon.

And demons aren’t meant to be persuaded or reformed.

– Why is the kid smiling so creepily…?

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll send you off the same way.”

As the villain approached, snickering…

Click-

The girl summoned the double-barrel shotgun again.

The black barrel was thicker than her thin forearm.

As she aimed the shotgun, the startled villain burst into laughter.

“…A shotgun? You’re going to fight me with that?”

Being human, he was startled by the two large, imposing barrels.

But in the end, a gun was just a gun.

For someone with petrification abilities, it would at most scrape off some moss from his skin.

“Well, I don’t know where you got that gun, but do you even know how to shoot it? Huh?”

The villain, regaining his confidence, pressed his forehead against the muzzle.

As the muzzle touched his stone-hard forehead, an unpleasant scraping sound echoed.

“Go ahead, shoot. If you can hurt me even a little with this, I’ll let you live.”

Anyone else in his place would have reacted similarly.

Could that tiny kid even shoot a shotgun?

Even if she could, was she prepared to kill someone?

Setting aside such concerns, it was nearly impossible to kill him with modern weapons.

However, the girl’s response differed from the villain’s expectations.

“You’re just like Lucifer.”

Ah, how arrogant.

Surely Lucifer must be hiding beneath that gray skin.

Hesitation in killing a demon is a sin.

The girl pulled the trigger without mercy.

Bang-!

Fierce flames erupted from both barrels of the double-barrel shotgun.

Unable to withstand the recoil, the girl’s thin wrist bent at a right angle with a crack.

The mercilessly fired bullets hit the villain’s forehead and exploded.

Boom! The shattered bullet fragments scattered along with gray stone pieces in all directions.

“Guhk!”

It was an undignified scream for someone who had so confidently offered his forehead.

The viewers burst into laughter as he fell flat on his back, unable to withstand the impact.

– LOLOLOL What the hell was that?

– Usually it’s the dumb ones who become villains LOLOLOL

– How is the power that strong? That’s not just a normal gun, right?

– Yeah, if it was a bit stronger it would’ve been a one-shot kill

It wasn’t just the viewers.

Other players watching the girl’s arrival, as well as the man ready to rush out to protect her at any moment, gaped in shock.

Modern weapons don’t work on beings from beyond the Gates.

The same was true for Awakened who gained their powers from beyond the Gates.

As this common sense was shattered, concerns about the girl quickly faded.

Instead, speculation about the girl’s abilities and anticipation for the unique battle ahead arose.

The only ones not surprised by this situation were the Guild Master and Instructor Yang Joya, who knew the girl’s abilities.

As expected, most suspected the girl’s ability was creation-based.

– It might be an enchanter-type

– Enchanting guns is one thing, but what about that running speed earlier?

– It’s rare, but there are cases where bio-enchantment is possible

Amidst this confusion, the situation in virtual reality intensified.

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