C-Rank Ranked Match — The Otherworldly Sniper

I pick up one of the sniper rifles lying on the table and peer through the scope. Thirteen belt conveyors slide sideways without pause. The prizes sit about a meter apart, with a decent gap between them; the farthest conveyor runs right to left, and the instant a prize vanishes into the hole on the left, it comes straight back out of the hole on the right. The whole path from the Snipe Circle to the target teddy bear only opens up clear for a scant 0.4 seconds.

Full-auto and three-round burst are both out of the question. If I’m staking everything on a single shot, it has to be a bolt-action, for the accuracy.

The McMillan TAC-50…

This bolt-action rifle has landed shots from over 3,500 meters out; of everything laid out here, it’s the best suited to precision shooting…

B-u-t.

My eye keeps drifting to one particular rifle.

“The Mosin-Nagant M28-30 rifle.”

The sniper rifle of the White Death, Simo Häyhä¹. Its base design dates back to 1891, making it something of an ‘old soldier’ in the world of guns; nearly a century of development separates it from the McMillan.

Its performance is inferior to the McMillan’s, of course. But this gun has one huge thing going for it: Simo Häyhä did all his sniping with this very rifle and no scope at all, working from nothing but the front and rear iron sights. In a game that forbids the scope, a proven record of landing shots without one counts for a great deal.

On top of that, I’ve never handled a McMillan in another game, but I know my way around a Mosin-Nagant. Just like when I picked up the M1911, familiarity counts for a lot.

“I’ll go with this.”

“Which numbered conveyor will you aim for?”

“Number 13.”

“Understood.”

The lighting on the farthest conveyor grows brighter. I happen to glance over toward Tsubasa.

“Huh?!”

There’s, like, a whole line forming in front of Tsubasa! And wait, is she signing autographs?! An actual signing session?! Why?!

Th-th-this is bad…! There’s no way I can snipe calmly in front of a crowd this size…

“Ah! Shiki~! You’ve got this!!”

Tsubasa notices me looking and waves. At the same instant, the crowd’s eyes come stabbing into me. Even as she signs, she keeps her body turned my way.

“Hawawawawawa…!”

Trembling all over, I step onto the circle and pull the trigger, my concentration completely scattered. The round smashes into a prize on the frontmost conveyor.

“Huh?! Shiki?!”

“Wawawawawa…!”

I fire a second shot, a third, a fourth, and every one of them sails off in some direction it has no business going.

“Wait, time-out! Time-out!”

Tsubasa steps into the circle.

“…What’s the matter, Shiki? You don’t look like you’re hitting a thing. Are you really a Sniper?”

“U-u-um, the stares… when there are this many people within a ten-meter radius and all their eyes are fixed on me at once, my whole body just seizes uuuup…!”

“Whoa?! You’re just like a broken doll!!”

My neck’s stiff. My back’s gone numb. My vision spins round and round~!

“So what’s the deal? You can hit it as long as nobody’s looking at you?”

“Y-y-yes. P-p-probably-y-y…”

“…Got it. So I just have to pull everyone’s eyes onto me instead.”

Tsubasa opens her item pouch and pulls out a microphone.

“This is a casino, after all — if it gets the place fired up, an illegal live gig is more than fine by me~♪”

“Huh…?”

Tsubasa moves off to a spot well away from me.

“Everyone~! You all having fun?! It’s your high-school idol, Shinkai Tsubasa~! Today was supposed to be my day off, but just this once, I’ll sing you a song~!!”

With a roar, the whole casino shakes. Every gambler in the hall, every last pair of eyes in the place, turns to Tsubasa.

A-an idol?! Th-that’s an unreal cheer…! The instant she started singing, she gathered every gaze onto herself. From the casino’s side of things this is one heck of a disruption to business… but the dealer looks like he’s enjoying it too, so I guess it’s fine? Anyway—

With that, everyone’s attention peels away from me.

Right. Time to salvage my honor, to clear my name of this shame… No! Here, let me deliberately put it the wrong way — time to reclaim my disgrace²!

Those first four shots told me everything about how the Mosin-Nagant behaves in this game. I handled the old models back in the Golden Age, too. I’ve already got a perfect grasp of both its trajectory and its muzzle velocity.

I step into the circle. I’m already not looking at the conveyors past the third row; I’m picturing them in my head. They move at a fixed rate, so once I’ve locked in how every row sits relative to the others, I can work out where the prizes on the back rows are from the positions of the front three.

“Innn~… haaah~…”

Yeah… feels good.

Guess it’s the rebound from being wound too tight. Just like that, the tension drains out of my shoulders.

My whole body goes loose.

Sound vanishes from my ears. Without looking, without listening, the scene around me rises up in my head. The feeling in my fingertips sharpens, and the faintest bead of drool pools at the corner of my mouth. My body forgets to blink, and the far distance sits right before my eyes.

Every so often, it happens. Before I’ve even fired, I know: ‘this one absolutely cannot miss.’ I settle into my firing stance and take aim.

“Leap.”

I fire into the 0.4-second gap that comes around once every thirty seconds. The bullet strikes the white-winged teddy bear at the very back.

“Hit! Congratulations!”

I’ve still got one round left.

Next I loose a round at that teddy’s color-inverted twin, the black-winged bear. The bullet is drawn straight into it.

“Wha—?!”

There’s no way to miss.

The round lands dead center of the target.

“…Not off by a hair.”

Time in the world starts moving normally again.

“H-hit… aaah, it landed… th-that something like this could happen…!”

The two items I shot clean through drop into my item pouch.

“You’re the first person ever to take two Number 13 prizes in a single game…”

“Is that so. Th-this must not be a very popular game, then…”

“N-no, that’s not it at all… but even so…!”

What’s with this NPC? Panting, sweat crawling down his face… he’s incredibly expressive.

“Shi-ki-i~!”

“Wagh?!”

Tsubasa flings her arms around me and nuzzles her cheek against mine.

“T-Tsubasa?!”

Ah, crap. The customers’ eyes are all back on me again…!

“No way! No way, I’m telling you!! Two Number 13 prizes back to back?! Just who are you?! It’s a waste — such a waste, letting a talent like that go to rot! We can reach it… you and Tsubasa, together, we can reach it! The very top!!”

“Wa-wa-wa-wait…?!”

“—If you’re up for it!”

“U-u-um, here, you can have these!”

I materialize the two data-fied stuffed animals and shove them at Tsubasa.

“Well then, I’ll be going!”

“Huh, wait, I still owe you your reward—”

“Pardon me!”

I beat a hasty retreat. Tsubasa tries to come after me, but a horde of fans surges in and she sinks beneath the wave of people.

Idols really are amazing. Even with a hundred lifetimes to spare, being an idol would be flat-out impossible for me…