Summary:
One-shot, one kill. These words are associated with trained snipers all over the world.
In reality, I am one of them and the training I had since childhood made me who I am as a sniper when I first tried to shoot a safe gun designed for target shooting for people all ages at the age of 6.
The interesting game, Infinite Dendrogram? I am one too there, they don't even know my face because of that mask I wore.
Unlike the 'inferior' quality snipers in that game who failed to take down a moving target when I observed them with my scope at that time, I showed them, including the Infinite Dendrogram community, what a real one with real-life training, in the words of gamers, a pro, can do.
Seriously though, at one time in my Infinite Dendrogram life around the time I started playing, there's this group who asked me such a question of why I am able to grasp it and what's the secret.
I teasingly gave them a reply: "Family tradition dating back to the American Revolutionary War, all thanks to my ancestor who recreated and kept the written accounts that'll later become known as sniping today. Now, now, everything's classified if you ask what kind of training I've been through including real life."
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Harem, Romance, Slice of life
Tags: Alternate World / Alternate Universe, Childhood Friends, Childhood Love, Original Character MC, Original Character Heroine(s), Younger Love Interests, Older Love Interests Protagonist Strong from the Start, R-15, Polygamy, Unique Weapons User, Secret Organizations
A/N: Discord Link - 5zKT5MFPEy (Corrected the link. Sorry for typos)
Note to remember: Besides this site, this anime fanfic is also available in Wattpad, Scribblehub, Ao3, and Foxteller. If you want to see the appearance of the heroines and the MC, feel free to go check ScribbleHub and look for its Glossary because I inputted their pictures and profile.
Volume 3
The First Day
'This episode 1 is a typical isekai story as always. Hmm, why did they put that past life part in the last minutes though?' I thought as I looked at my girls who were watching new isekai anime with me through smart TV.
Before we started watching, I told them that I'll be at the fountain of the starting point of Altar bearing the same online handle I used.
The girls themselves already readied themselves for the journey today after they trained themselves last year with the help of my clan, Dad, and others for the scenarios such as counter-sniping, hostiles armed with a rifle besides precision rifle, rush hour and customer for restaurant, etc.
'Here it comes.'
"Son, I am very sorry."
"Sorry? Sorry about what old man!? About those things when I was younger and that caused me to study abroad and started to live instead of that joke of a country?" asked the man. "Give me a break! Your personality-based mindset disgusts me! People who think like that in political discussion disgust me and kill my brain cells! Goodbye old man and stay away from my children. The last thing I need to see is my children becoming irresponsible voters and citizens like that old hag, you, and those other inferior beings!"
"W-wait, we-" the old man tried to stop him but the man left him already.
The old man sighed at his foolishness and shook his head sorrowfully at the mistakes he created. He was hardworking... Oh, it must be love! It affected his judgment and thinking! His wife was a blind fanatic to the politicians and celebrities who support and endorse politicians, their friends, and family without a question like a fool.
'That bitch from the start got a problem in her head. Sigh, if only I have a chance to start anew, please let there be a scanner to check the nature of the person. I will also promise to become a better father.' Closing his eyes out from his regret, the old man rested as the gears of time got plans for him.
Opening his eyes, the old man in the form of a boy finds himself facing three beautiful goddesses.
Holding a guitar in the middle of Altea's fountain with my embryo nowhere to be seen, including the armor, I decided to sing a song here while waiting for the girls to arrive in our meeting spot.
The guitar was a normal guitar by the way. It might be different if someone had a job called bard or something.
"I am just feeling alive..." As I started to sing without my mask covering my face while wearing typical fairly normal-looking clothes, I heard footsteps stopping from the environment as others were moving and pausing with others to listen and watch.
With the song I sang about to finish, I gave the guitar string a nice strum to finish it in time for the masters and the worlders giving me applause for my performance.
"Thank you for listening! May everyone here have a nice day." I said as I bowed to the audience as I recognized Alice, Hina, and my girls amongst them, smiling.
Their appearances were all the same as in real life except that their hair and eye color were different. Yuu and the minority of them added fox ears and tail on their Infinite Dendro bodies.
Alice hugged me first. "For the first day, you started a scene, Caesar ❤️."
"That I did." Breaking off from our shared hug for a moment, I examined Alice's in-game appearance.
Alice basically looked the same as her real-life beautiful appearance. The only difference was her in-game hair was sort of blueish green(?) which I think might be cyan.
"So what's your name here?" I asked Alice.
"Similar to the one I used, it's Alys Augustino." replied Alice with her cute blush. "It's a way to show everyone outside our group that I belong to Darling in real life and here."
"Okay, Alys." I said to her as I looked at my harem of girls who were slightly blushing as I turned my attention back to Alice as I asked her. "Did everyone form a group?"
"We did." replied Alice. "We each have a party leader. As planned, the group leader position is for you, Caesar."
"Okay. Let us go somewhere to start and prepare."
After accepting the invite and position, I led my group to one of the places near the branch of Black Sparrow.
The place was an open target shooting range, a place like the real life version where every person gets training, lessons, and coaching by the experienced shooters who served as the personnel and staff for that kind of business.
So when we entered, there's employees from the Black Sparrow in stand-by.
The first to receive us was Alexandros.
"Welcome, Caesar! " greeted the familiar face from Sakai, Alexandros. "I take it you are to equip your companions with the equipment?"
Alexandros was that veteran rifleman in charge of handling Black Sparrow in the Kingdom of Altar. Francis himself had stuff to do in Sakai but last I was told he had one of his brothers take the wheel in Sakai. The things for the Black Sparrow, it was a good deal with Lord Gideon establishing a Gideon branch there in Gideon. Having met the king himself, we discovered that he's an idealist type of monarch which I hoped it'll not bite back to our arse in Altar someday.
"Yes, my friend. Not all of them though." I answered with a smile.
The sharpshooter girls of our group made up of Alys (Alice), Priscilla(Leen), Alicia (Alisa), Rafaela (Raffie), Snow (Suzu), Yumiko (Yumi), Claire (Éclair), Elisa (Konoka), Erica (Eri), Julienne (July), Annabelle (Koyomi), Irene (Irina), Clara (Ashe), and Lucinda (Ellie), then formed a line in sync with their starting precision rifles safely locked.
"I see...they're in sync like the Sakai Rifle Regiment, the Saika Rifle Brigade, and the Oda Rifle Brigade. A group of disciplined sharpshooters trained by you, huh?" commented Alexandros as he then looked at me with his small smile. "Okay, I'll give them equipment in your tab and an examination for them to warm up."
"Thank you very much." I thanked him as I faced the sharpshooters and our group. "Girls, please say thank you to Alexandros. He and the Black Sparrow will be our partner for firearms, clothing, food, and supply of ammo."
Like what I suggested, the girls thanked Alexandros.
After gearing up, we went to the open target range for the sharpshooters of our group to do warm-ups.
We were the first to arrive with some masters following behind to see what way when they saw our group numbers in their sights.
While watching the Sharpshooter Squad making shots at the dummies, me and the girls who had themselves equipped with a gear decent for a newbie, chatted a bit as we drank some refreshment.
"Hey, Darling." said Lucinda (Ellie), who had her rifle hidden and finished doing her warm-ups. "How about you give them a show including the bystanders?"
"A show?" I asked as I saw her, Ava (Prisca), Angela (Arisa), Yuu (Lucia), Sophia (Sophie), Caterina (Cathie), and Celine (Hina) smiling. "Okay, I know what to do. Bring out the camera."
Standing up from my chair, I called out Alexandros who had a couple of veteran Sakai riflemen examining their shots at the range. "Excuse me Alexandros, you got the Model 15 for me to borrow?"
The veteran rifleman, who became the branch manager, turned and faced me. "We do. What do you want to do with it, Caesar?"
"A show. You know, Sakai." I said in a low-key tone, referring to the Confidence Firing Test we did before.
"Ah, I know what you meant!" replied Alexandros with his knowing grin. "I'll call one of the boys for 'that'."
"Thanks, Alexandros."
With Alexandros having returned to me with one of the riflemen, an AR-15 style rifle, and two balloons held by a stick, followed by the girls who finished doing warm ups in time, we went to one of the vacant booth of the range where the rifleman himself made a distance between us 50 meters.
Putting on the fully loaded AR-15 mag from my inventory to the Black Sparrow Model 15, I switched to prone, turned the safety off, cocked the rifle, and set it in semi-auto.
"Girls," I said to the sharpshooters of our group in a neutral tone. "Never do this at home in real life. We did some but it's a safer method."
Looking through the iron sight with zero in place, I looked at the left target balloon held by the unarmed rifleman who had a neutral face on.
'8 m/s NE. Temperature 19 degrees Celsius. Distance 50 meters.' Done checking and zeroing followed by the usual steps, I fired the AR-15 style rifle at the left balloon.
BANG!
The balloon popped without harming the man.
'Target Down' Changingtarget from the now nonexistent blue balloon to the next one, I calmly looked at the right target - balloon 2 positioned on the right end of the stick, color green.
'Change of wind speed. 5 m/s. Same temperature and distance.' Done calculating, I fired a shot at the remaining balloon.
BANG!
The balloon popped without harming the man.
After I finished shooting, I removed the mag first to store it in my inventory, checked the chamber, turned the safety off, and stood up from a prone firing position for me to give it back to Alexandros who was impressed alongside the girls and other masters and worlders who were here in the range.
"You still got it, Caesar." praised Alexandros.
"Thank you, Alexandros." I thanked the veteran sharpshooter as I then asked him. "How is their performance?"
"They're good to go." replied Alexandros. "With guild here, I recommend your sharpshooter girls go take hunting quests. Not sure about the rest but you know them the best."
"I do." I pridely commented as I then thanked him. "Thanks, Alexandros."
"Anytime, my friend."
Leading the girls way out of the range, we went to the path for the Altea Branch of Adventurer Guild.
The path to the Adventurer Guild was a normal walk except that I saw a black-haired master at one of the shops, looking for a way to start some money.
That black-haired master, I thought he looked like someone familiar when I was in Japan last year and the time we watched the pankration tournament during our childhood.
"I'll go talk to him. Girls, watch the surroundings. Snipers, you know what to do."
With our party following my command, I approached the master.
"Excuse me," I said to him. "Is something wrong?"
The black-haired master, noticing my presence and hearing my question, nodded his head. "Yeah..I do."
'No lie.' I thought before asking him. "What's the problem?"
The man looked somewhat embarrassed. "My avatar...is based on my real-life appearance."
"So do I, sir. My appearance in Dendro is based on my personal OC which is based on my real life appearance with modifications added with fox ears." I said, letting out an easy-going smile due to certain girls. "What's in it for you? Surely, that's the least effort method for me and my friends to explore early and see what this world can offer."
"I-it's like that but what I mean is the control A.I played a cruel joke on me during the character creation."
"What!? You mean to tell me that it's your..." Stopping mid-sentence, I looked at the man who nodded his head in confirmation.
"Yikes!" I commented, feeling sorry for the master. "Okay, go to Black Sparrow and look for a guy named Alexandros. Tell him everything you need. Tell him I, Hotaru, sent you to Black Sparrow."
"Thank you." thanked the black-haired master. "May I know what's your name?"
"Caesar, Caesar Augustino, sniper. The girls in my group are my family. " I said to him as I offered my hand. "What's yours?"
"Shu, Shu Starling." replied the guy named Shu, accepting my gesture.
"Well met, Shu!" I said. "If you need someone who can watch your back a far or a long-ranged support, count me in!"
"Sure! Let's add each other when that time comes!"
"Gladly! By the way, take this spare balaclava for free. It should do its job to keep your face hidden until you have an item to cover your face. Please accept it..."
Having added each other, we parted ways with our group entering the Adventurer Guild and Shu going to Black Sparrow.
Entering the guild door, I told the girls who will be taking combat roles to pick a quest that was located near the gates of Altea per each party in our group which they did, leaving me and a couple of others to visit the place for the location of our residence in Altar.
"Eve, Caterina, Celine, what do you think of this building?" I asked Eva, Cathie, and Hina by their in-game names about the product of the blueprint reward and the expensive deed that came with a forest and a pond. They, together with Arisa who was with the combat group right now, knew what to do. Catherine herself was a swordswoman but she decided to go with us to check the house. We can defend ourselves in the capital from any snatcher or any troublemakers but she's that being herself which I love her for it
"Very beautiful." replied Eve (Eva). "It feels like home."
"I agree." supported Celine (Hina).
"Me too." added Caterina (Cathie). "Everyone will love it once they see this."
"I am happy to know that then." I said to them, smiling. "It'll be our home in Dendro. As what me and my kin discussed, it'll serve as a temporary Clan HQ until we get our hands on the blueprint and a deed to start a restaurant and construct our Clan HQ."
"A clan, huh?" said Prisca. "What will be the name of our clan, Caesar?"
I smiled. "The name will be Ghost Legion."
"Ghost Legion, Darling?" curiously asked Alexandria (Alessia).
"Yep." I said. "Think of it the way A.L.P.H.A. and our clan works except that we do not go that far killing players for the heck of it like those player killers who we will assassinate and collect a bounty reward. What we will also do is to look for a battlefield for us to hunt and fight and live like those typical isekai characters."
"Okay! We'll check our home!" said Caterina (Cathie) with her excited smile. "We'll tell the girls about it once they return."
"Thank you, Cathie." I thanked her as I said to the girls. "Girls, do take a walk or something ASAP, okay? Quests are randomly generated."
"Noted."
After kissing and hugging everyone, I returned to the fountain to meet up with my cousins and relatives who will be manning up the operations of Ghost Legion.
Like everyone and the rest, they started playing today, the first day release of Infinite Dendrogram.
"Yo Caesar!" called out my cousin, Daisuke who went by "Creed Lazyblade" in Infinite Dendro. "You finished setting up the operation of our clan, yet?"
"Not yet, Creed. Including a blueprint for the Clan HQ, we need a building and a deed to start off a restaurant like real life." I low-key muttered as I broke out a teasing smile. "And really, Lazyblade? It does not suit you at all, Mr. Modern Day Lancelot."
Daisuke laughed. "Blame one of my girlfriends for it. I lost a bet from our spar. She wanted me to use that as an in-game surname."
'You obviously held back, Daisuke.' I thought, noticing one of his girlfriends a couple meters away having a smug smile and the other, a playful smile.
"Good move, Creed." jokingly remarked Kuya Butch, one of the brains, who go by "Bryan Stewart", with his genuine smile as he then asked me. "Caesar, are you busy today?"
"Somewhat, Kuya Bryan." I replied by calling out his in-game name than his real name added with the honorific since he's one of my big brother figures and older than me. "I was thinking of going to go check for a bounty request or something."
"Hmmm, how about you join us?" suggested Daisuke. "With us together, we can have you kill off any pkers far away while we do our quest."
"I agree with Creed." supported Kuya Butch. "Just because it's the first day of release does not mean there won't be pkers yet."
"Okay then! Let's go to the Adventurer Guild but first let's start with the basic essential things."