Idol Gunner [Yuri Villainess LitRPG]

“Could you be more annoying?” Kelsey rolled her eyes, reloading her sniper as the horde closed in on the three of them.

“Why…is it not enough already?” Kana, prepared to use her new weapon once more, placed it on the ground and started calculating.

It had been fun when she had been levelling up the Portable Landmine earlier, but she hadn’t expected that fun to get quadrupled when real monsters were involved. Putting the device on the ground and then using the marker to place it under the ground before enemies could come closer was more satisfying than she could have expected.

Aiming right between their group and the horde, she pressed the button once. Then, moving it to the left and right once, she put one bomb in each location. Three mines ready to blast them to hell the moment they came closer were now ready.

Kelsey shot a few of them from her vantage point on top of a nearby rock, while Jina waited in anticipation for them to get closer. The mines were dangerous to the enemy, of course, but they hadn’t determined if the same applied to humans. And since nobody was being kind enough to volunteer their bodies to the cause, Kana had decided it would be safer if Jina didn’t approach the weapon at all.

“Stop it!”

The blonde girl cried once more as the first mine exploded and smoke filled the air. That was what had been triggering her the last few minutes. The smoke caused her to lose all sight of the enemies and basically made her useless. As if the stage wasn’t enough, Kana and Kelsey were incompatible in combat, too. It was a shame, according to the former, because the sniper wasn’t half bad either way.

After a while, as the smoke cleared, Kelsey shot once. A second after that, before the hiss of her barrel had even died down, the second mine went off. She groaned once more and then waited for it to dissipate. Before that could happen, though, Kana equipped her toy once more.

Weapon Selected

Grenade Launcher

Level 60

The maximum it could go to right now was Level 10. The Grenade Launcher had reached Level 60, while the Railgun was at Level 3. All the farming in the last few hours had been worth it. And most of all, it had been way too easy. Did Ruby Passion even train anymore at all, or had they gotten their levels from Rank 5 in a matter of seconds?

“Kana, no!” Jina cried, smacking her shoulder, “Just let them come, please!?”

Twirling the brand-new axe in her hands, the melee user was itching to get into combat. Kana looked up at Kelsey, who was trying her best not to support someone she was actively fighting with. She sighed and kept the Portable Landmine to receive a thanks from Jina in return.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you want. But stay away from the grenades, alright?”

“Huh!?” Jina cried, “You make sure that the grenades don’t get to me. It’s not my fault, I don’t have eyes behind my head, you know?”

“Kelsey does. You should ask her to give you some, too. She’s quite good with them.”

“And? Is that supposed to be an attempt at a clever joke?” The sniper scowled, “Leave me the fuck out of your bickering, got it? And don’t interrupt me when I’m at work.”

Kana laughed, “Oh no, it has no sense behind it all. I just thought it would be fun to take your name and say something stupid! Hehe!”

Pushing her tongue out, she equipped the Grenade Launcher and got ready to blow her enemies to kingdom come. Jina, for some reason, laughed at that pathetic joke of a declaration and started running closer to the approaching enemies. Or maybe, now that Kana realized, it was just because she was happy about getting to kill monsters.

With the melee user stepping deeper into the group of monsters, Kana finally let her smile drop and looked up at the keen-eyed sniper.

“Thanks.”

“Fuck you.”

“Wow.”

“I didn’t do it for you. I just can’t let your interpersonal drama affect my group, got it?” Kelsey shot her a dirty look, “You better talk it out with her and solve whatever’s up between you two. I won’t help you again to cheer her up.”

“Ah, ah. I didn’t know we had a tsundere between us.” Kana sighed and shot a grenade, “Don’t you ever get tired of pretending like you are angry when you’re clearly not? You don’t even have, like, one percent of the malice you had three weeks ago.”

Kelsey shot a demon before it could get closer to Jina’s back, and looked down at her, “Yeah, cause I realized there’s no changing you, Minami. You get angry at people you have hopes for. For people who are so far gone that they can’t be saved anymore, all you can do is stare. And think.”

“Oh yeah? What you thinking?”

Kelsey stood up and hopped down from the rock as the monsters got closer. Kana shot the ones nearest to them without looking, keeping her eyes on the blonde girl, who moved further back to another rock to get a better vantage point. As she walked by, though, she replied in a hushed voice right beside Kana’s ear.

“It’s gonna be so, so fun to watch how you fall.”

“Hmm.” Kana smiled, almost unable to control herself from blushing at how sweet that admission was, “I know I always say you should dream big. But that isn’t right, Kelsey. You shouldn’t dream the impossible. Because then, you’re the one who will suffer as it fails.”

“Maybe.” She got on the rock and aimed down her sights once more, “Once upon a time, I used to think Mari Sanada was invincible, too. That no matter what happened, she would make it out on top. So, you know…you’re the one who taught me that nothing is impossible.”

And she shot.

Kana got back to focusing on the enemies.

Every shot, for some reason, reminded her that time was running out. At some point in the near future, things would come together. Yamazaki’s firing, the Coalition’s collaboration plan, Ruby Passion Jr’s incredible growth…

Because that was what it had been. Despite all the work to beat them in their first week, they had effortlessly destroyed it all yesterday. The results had not just been clear as day, but loud enough to be heard across the industry. Breaking the cursed repetition that the Position 2 and 3 groups had been stuck in for months, Nobuko and her team had stolen third place for themselves.

That put them at Rank 4. Already. Two weeks after their debut, they were strong enough to be a challenge for Ruby Passion if they wished to be. Kana expected it to happen soon, too. Maybe by the end of this month. Tanaka would make his move and let Ruby Passion Jr. win. And then that plan would be complete.

That was the deadline for now, then. Everything had to be solved before that could happen. Things needed to change, and they needed to change in a drastic manner. At this point, Kana would not even mind help from one of those massive, smart demons if she could manipulate them somehow.

“How long is this!?”

Jina cried, switching to her sword to better deal with the increasing number of enemies. Kana snapped back to reality, only to notice that Kelsey had gotten closer to them because of the enlarging horde. By now, they all should have been dead. But the further she saw, the more monsters appeared.

“What the hell?” She whispered, “This is…unusual.”

“Is that right?” Kelsey gasped, “Thanks for the information.”

Their attacks got quicker, wilder, and more out of control. Kana shot rapidly, hoping to get as many of the demons as she could. Without a thought, she blasted through the throngs of monsters as the numbers on her gun went up. Switching to the Railgun for a quick shot, she ripped an arc through the circle around them, vaporizing anyone in sight. For about a minute, that side remained empty. After that, more demons took their place.

This was not right. This should have been happening.

“Move towards the gate!” Kana cried, looking at Jina, who nodded back.

Using her sword, she started to clear a path by cutting down the monsters in their way. They moved southeast, where the gate was supposed to be. Kana did not need help. Far from it, in fact. The more demons, the better for them. But it could become a problem if they got too occupied by the enemies and could not get back on time.

She did not have any plans to stay here all day this time. It had been a novel enough experience twice, but doing it every day would destroy the whole point. Some other method would have to be found to weaken and beat Ruby Passion Jr.

For now, following Jina, she shot. Grenades flew through the air in every direction, with Kelsey’s sniper shots featuring between their concert once in a while. As she crossed the one thousand kill streak, the rush started to take over her. The murder became a song, and every move felt like she was participating in a choreographed routine for Velvet Beats. Now that they were safe enough and moving to the exit, she could let it all out.

Blasts echoed through the battlefield, and she smiled. Every boom, another ten or twenty kills were added to her total. More points, more climbing, more money. The ring of it was something she had missed for the last week. Letting it consume her like this was intoxicating. Of course, she wanted this to last forever. With it, she could win. She could get it all. She could…

“Watch it!”

A scream tore through the shrieks of the monsters and made her turn. In the distance, a blue energy field peeked through the settling dust from a blast. Behind it, Saturn lowered her ability.

Fluorescent Angels.

“Ah! Atlas-chan! Saturn-chan! Neptune-chan!” Kana waved her arms, hoping that they had gotten over the little event already.

“Shut the fuck up and stay away from us!” Atlas shouted back as they started moving the other way.

Saturn cleared out the horde in front of them as they moved to the gate. Standing on a rock as their circle of safety moved, Kana checked out the entire map.

It was flooded. Completely overrun with demons that were littering the ground like trash. There were no other visible teams, but she was sure that they were facing something similar as well. She couldn’t quite feel the gravity of it all, but the words still left her mouth.

“Isn’t this, like, legit really bad?”

“Right again, Sherlock.” Kelsey mocked her with another shot.

Getting down from the rock, Kana patted Jina on the shoulder and asked her to change direction. She couldn’t do anything about the monsters overrunning the map, but she could do something about this other group. It wasn’t in her best interest to have the Fluorescent Angels against them, especially considering their hatred for Sakai. It had been better when they were friends.

One less enemy to worry about.

So, Jina started moving. Changing course, they started to get closer to the neon-dress-wearing idols. Looking at them approaching, Neptune changed her firing direction to ensure they didn’t get hit.

“What do you want!?” Atlas screamed from their side.

“I want to talk to you.”

“About what? We’ve got nothing to talk about, alright? It was a mistake getting acquainted with you, and we don’t intend to pay as Rie Rin did, do you get it!?”

“Oi, watch your fucking mouth.” Kelsey snapped.

“Watch our mouth!?” Neptune cashed in, “How about you reconsider what you’re doing with those two, Kelsey? I’m not speaking as a competitor right now, I’m speaking as a co-worker. I’ve seen you perform for ages now, do you know? And you’re just gonna…be with them?”

“I have my reasons. No need to tell me what’s right and wrong, got it?”

“Atlas-chan!” Jina added as she got right next to the leader, “I’m…sorry. We didn’t mean for that to happen. I mean, of course, we didn’t. You…you were with us.”

“Yeah. With you, we were. Had the front seat to see how much you bullied and excluded that poor girl until she died.”

Kana sighed and jumped over to their circle, getting right next to Saturn, “We didn’t bully her. We were just fighting. Kind of like how we’re fighting right now. You can say whatever you want about me, but never tell me that I bullied someone.”

“You totally bully people, Minami. You just decide not to think about it. Leave them alone and get back. We need to reach the gate on time.” Kelsey chimed in with her valuable opinion.

“Kelsey, just keep it to yourself and shoot. I didn’t ask.” Kana scowled, “And Atlas! Look here. We didn’t do anything to you, and we don’t intend to, either. What we had here was valuable to us as well. Ask Jina, why don’t you? What happened to RiRi was unfortunate. I’m still paying for it. But that does apply to you!”

“The gate’s in sight!” Saturn mentioned.

Both groups changed their course just slightly to head directly to it, while Jina ensured they were side-by-side. She wasn’t speaking much, since she was busy clearing the path, but that was probably for the better.

Kana looked at the gate. A bunch of Coalition officials had assault rifles in their hands, too. They were keeping the area near the gate clear to make evacuation easier. This had turned into an actual crisis of some sort in no time. And once more, Kana felt none of the pressure. Despite being bad, it was too easy.

All they had to do was make it to the end there. Get into the safe circle, and they would be free. But that would mean they would give up on all these points. Railgun Level 3 allowed for two total shots, which meant she still had one left. If she could get to that open zone, and then use it…

“What’s…that?”

Neptune was the one who whispered first. The one who made all six of them look back at the horizon.

Stopping in their tracks, Saturn and Jina gasped. Atlas groaned and readied her weapon. Accidentally hitting that shield with her grenade had been more like a preliminary repeat of their first meeting. Because, for some reason, a more obvious repeat was approaching from a distance.

A regular-looking demon, but just fatter than the rest. It had massive horns that were twice the size of its head, and bangles on its wrists that clang with every move. Just like the rest, it had reddish skin covered in the dust of the battleground. All of that – and it was right about seventy feet tall.

“Holy shit.” Kelsey’s whisper summed up all of their feelings quite well.

Given its size, it wasn’t slow, either. Or rather, it was slow, but had such a wide step that it was covering ground at an alarming pace. Kana switched to her Railgun in a hurry and aimed it at the thing. It would be difficult to get the head since it was bobbing as it ran, but even a body shot could do good damage.

She took a deep breath. There was no telling how long this was going to be, but doing this was not a bad idea. If she used her strongest weapon first, she would have no need to worry about switching later. She could blast it with her grenades after that, and wait for it to fall over. Her arms shook as the demons started to swarm them once more. Saturn and Jina got back on guard duty to keep the four inside safe.

Aimed at the stomach, Kana took a deep breath. One, two, three, four, five…the railgun built up energy as the demon got dangerously close. Its legs thumping on the ground and crushing the regular-sized ones under it were a clock of doom. The meter hit full, and she shot. The recoil pushed her body back, and Kana closed her eyes. Getting some friction on the rocks once more, she heard the attack hit its body – along with multiple other attacks – and hoped that it had done some damage.

After Stick Demon, she wasn’t sure about anything.

Kana opened her eyes, hoping that it wasn’t as powerful.

“Eh?”

“Huh?”

“Ah…”

“Ou…ch…”

Kelsey had used her sniper. Atlas had thrown her axe at its leg. Neptune had unloaded two whole magazines into its body. All of that, with Kana’s Railgun shot. It should have been enough. It should have done some damage. What Kana had not expected…was that it would be overkill.

Half its stomach blasted apart, the demon got down on its knees. Its eyes rolled back into its head, rid of consciousness, and it fell down. A large thud, and the ones below it were crushed. A bunch of similar thuds rang across the ground at around the same time, for some reason. Kana put the Railgun away, wondering what had happened. Surely, just being at Rank 3 had not made them that powerful, right?

She looked at the System, hoping to see the points soon. If they were low, then it would mean it hadn’t been that strong after all.

As they all waited, Atlas chuckled.

“And I thought it was some big shot.”

She chuckled for just a second.

In the next, her weapon vanished. Then Neptune’s weapon vanished. Then Saturn, and Jina, and Kelsey. The System screen in front of Kana went down next. A bunch of hazy static, and then…nothing. It did not come back up, no matter what. The System had died.