And immediately got shot.
About two moments after hopping up to her feet, a bullet pierced her left shoulder.
“Eep?”
Shoved backward, Llenn found herself tumbling to her right, and she cracked her head on the corner of a stone.
“Owww!” she yelled, louder than when she got shot.
She was now sprawled out on top of the pile of rubble.
“Oh, crap!”
Llenn rolled over and, using the backpack as a sled, tumbled down the pile. As she did so, a second sniper shot passed right through the spot where she’d been resting.
It very well could have hit the grand grenade on her stomach.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Brilliant work,” David murmured with admiration.
He was peering through the scope of his STM-556 at a distance of fifty yards when he saw the instant the pink shrimp popped up, but another bullet came flying in from the right before he could even react.
It hit Llenn on the left shoulder and sent her sprawling. The second shot missed on account of her slippery speediness, but he certainly caught sight of the grand grenade she had affixed to her front.
“Llenn’s got the grand grenade. Don’t let her leave that spot!” he warned his squadmates.
The target of his admiration, Vivi, muttered, “I was trying to hit her in the face.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Vivi was crouched beside a barricade with her secondary loadout, having failed to eliminate Llenn. The long rifle she had steadied against the side of the structure was an English L86A2 LSW.
This was an updated version of the bullpup-style 5.56 mm assault rifle known as the L85. A 4× scope was equipped by default.
LSW stood for Light Support Weapon, a designation that was often called Squad Support Weapon. In other words, a light machine gun designed to provide support for a squad of troops.
They extended the L85’s barrel, made it thicker to increase precision and durability, then placed a bipod under it and added a left-hand grip so you could lie down behind it and fire with both hands and called it the L86. A2 meant that it was the second improved model.
It was a machine gun, but it used assault rifle thirty-round magazines, so it could only load and fire a few bullets at a time. But the US Marines used a similar gun, with the logic being that precision shooting would be more effective and desirable than a gun with a larger magazine wasting its bullets.
Then again, back in England, they had already phased out this gun by 2019.
Because the L86A2 had the benefit of high precision, it was often used for simple sniping, amusingly enough. It underwent a class change into a marksman rifle: a gun that snipers did not need, but that a skilled foot soldier could use for aimed shooting.
ZEMAL were the Machine-Gun Lovers, so they had an ironclad rule that nothing aside from machine guns could be used as main weapons. Actually, it wasn’t a written rule, just a general vibe. An ironclad vibe.
So Vivi’s choice was the light L86A2, because it could actually provide some sniping support for the team.
Just another brilliant Vivi decision that everyone could admire. They called that a brill-Vi for short.
✦ ✦ ✦
“An L86A2. What a rare gun,” David said admiringly, watching her from afar.
Before the L85 series was refined in the 86A2 model by H&K, it was infamous for its poor performance. But after it was improved, it still got treated like a joke gun or a novelty; even in gun-crazy GGO, there were few people who would choose it, the poor thing.
“And she’s good with it…”
He was confident in his own shooting skills, but he’d been late to notice the target and missed out on the chance to shoot. She was very good. Very, very good indeed. Or at least, highly leveled up.
You would never imagine that from her red hair and adorable profile.
And it caused David to slip into a bad habit.
“Vivi, I’d like to talk to you in Glocken sometime. Maybe over a cup of tea.”
Fortunately, his comm wasn’t tuned to all the members of ZEMAL.
“Are you asking me out?”
“I just want to know the secret of your strength,” he lied.
“Like I told you earlier, I have a lot of time to dive; that’s all. I have more time than anyone else here, so I spend it all in GGO.”
“So would you happen to know a restaurant with a nice ambience and good food? I would appreciate your experience in this regard. It would be on me, of course.”
“Why, you charmer.”
As they listened to David speak in a more pretentious air than usual, the other members of MMTM thought, Captain. Hey, Captain. You sure you wanna do this? You’re gonna get stiffed.
Plus, searching for a girlfriend in the virtual world was inadvisable. After all, you never knew what they’d be like in real life.
But they didn’t say anything.
They were good teammates and helped their captain look good. By thoroughly enjoying his escapades at a distance. If he got dumped, they’d be there to help him recover. Anything to have a party.
“Maybe once this massacre is over.”
“Good idea.”
That’s right. The pink shrimp is still alive. This is no time to be picking up chicks.