“You can do this, Zelo,” he tells himself before running into the city. He makes his way towards the heart of the city and the first target pops up from behind a shack. The target takes a shot at Zelo but he quickly dodges it and fires at the target.

“Yes,” he says under his breath and smirks once he hears the bullet hit the target.

“Good job, Zelo. Alright, pay attention now. To the left!” Youngjae says into the headset.

Zelo quickly turns to the left and fires right when he spots the target. Another successful hit and a sigh of relief comes from Youngjae.

“He’s not doing so badly,” Jongup says, while glancing through the glass down at the city.

“You’re right, this is too easy. Throw in the civilians,” Yongguk says, glancing down at Zelo, Jongup and Daehyun watching Zelo closely as well.

“Zelo, I’m putting the civilian setting on so be more cautious before you shoot,” Youngjae whispers into the mic so Yongguk can’t hear.

“Roger,” Zelo replies as he runs through the city heading towards the terrorist base.

As the distance between the base and him decreases, the numbers of terrorists increase. He swiftly dodges their bullets and shoots down all the targets. He keeps running towards the base as time is against him and suddenly he hears a target pop up to his right. He turns to face a house and as he pulls his finger on the trigger, he notices that he’s about to shoot a civilian. Right as his finger presses down completely on the trigger, he panics and bucks up his arms shooting the top of the window, barely missing the civilian.

“Holy , he almost killed a civilian…,” Jongup mutters under his breath.

Yongguk runs over to the control desk and pulls the headset off of Youngjae and yells into the mic, “What the hell are you doing out there, Zelo! You almost killed someone! If this was a real mission, you would have just taken an innocent person’s life! Stop ing up!”

Zelo flinches when he hears Yongguk’s deep, raspy voice but he tries to keep his focus on the mission. Yongguk throws the headset onto the control panel and walks back over to the glass to observe Zelo once again. Youngjae places the headset back on, a little startled from what Yongguk just did.

“Alright, Zelo, you have ten minutes left. Don’t worry about what just happened. You’re doing fine. Keep it up, you’re almost at the base,” Youngjae says, trying to keep Zelo from losing his concentration and to reassure him.

As Zelo runs towards the base, he takes down targets one after another with the help of Youngjae’s guidance. Zelo actually feels proud of himself and his confidence begins to build up. Once he reaches the edge of the base, he hides behind a terrorist vehicle. Targets begin rapidly shooting at the vehicle but he takes a few quick shots at some targets before hiding back again. He does this for a few minutes or so until he hits them all.

“All clear, Zelo. Locate the hostage but be careful for any terrorist roaming inside the building.”

Zelo sprints into the building and runs through all the floors checking every door he sees. The members of Squad 6 begin to watch Zelo’s actions from monitors as cameras inside the building record him. Along the way, he shoots several terrorists down but finally as he reaches a room on the third floor, he locates the hostage, well so he thinks.

“Uhhh… Youngjae… Is the hostage a sack of sand?” he asks into his headgear.

“Yep, you need to carry it to the safe zone in one arm and use your free arm to shoot targets. Don’t let any targets hit the hostage or you fail the mission.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Zelo says sarcastically and makes his way out of the building.

“Hey, he might actually complete the mission,” Jongup says, with a hint of surprise and excitement in his voice.

“Youngjae, switch the difficulty to hard now.”

“Yongguk…,” Youngjae says softly, letting his voice trail off, signaling to Yongguk that he’s pleading for him to change his mind.

“Did I stutter?!” Yongguk retorts.

Youngjae shakes his head, hits the switch, and then whispers into his headgear, “Zelo, concentrate. Yongguk made me bump up the difficultly level so be prepared for more terrorists to attack at no hesitation.”

Yongguk walks over to Youngjae and pulls his headset off but Zelo can still hear the whole conversation.

“Were you letting him know this whole time that you were changing the settings?” Yongguk says very calmly, which Youngjae knows that means he’s furious.

“Uhh… I-…”

“Don’t bother,” Yongguk says before hitting a switch on the control desk and walks back to the glass screen.

“, he’s super pissed,” Youngjae thinks to himself before looking over at the control desk to see what Yongguk activated.

“Yongguk! Are you out of your mind?!” Youngjae screams.

“Don’t even think about lowering it,” Yongguk says sternly, still keeping his eyes on Zelo.

“There’s no way he’s going to get to the safe zone on the ‘extreme’ difficultly level!” he yells, staring at Yongguk.

“Now, weren’t you the one telling him that he could do it? Weren’t you the one who believed in him and told him to be confident? Now Youngjae, I wouldn’t want to call you a hypocrite for saying that he’s not going to complete the mission so I think you should put that headset back on and help Zelo out,” Yongguk says with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Jongup looks over to Youngjae and both notice the fear in each other’s eyes. They know that only the best of the best can get through a mission on the ‘extreme’ setting. “Maybe he can do it, I mean he’s almost to the safe zone,” Youngjae thinks as he puts the headset back on.

“Am I going to be okay? I’m getting really tired. I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Zelo asks, running towards the safe zone in fear, shooting down targets as fast as he can.

“Zelo, you’re almost there! You’re about to reach the heart of the city and then you’ll just need to sprint a few hundred more meters to the safe zone! After that you’ll complete the mission!” Youngjae shouts into the mic due to the excitement that Zelo might actually be able to pull this off and also from the anxiety he’s feeling.

Zelo continues to shoot down targets while holding the sandbag but suddenly a bullet grazes it, allowing grains of sand to pour out of the sack slowly.

“Youngjae! The bag’s been hit!” Zelo panics into the mic.

“It’s okay! Just think of the sand as blood! As long as all the sand doesn’t drain out, you’ll be fine. Just like in real life, as long as the hostage doesn’t lose too much blood, he'll be fine!”

“Alright!”

Zelo finally reaches the heart of the city and all of a sudden targets pop up from all directions. He jumps behind a stack of crates and hides there thinking of what to do.

“Zelo, you have four minutes! Hurry!”

“I don’t know what to do! I don’t think I can make it! There's just too many!”

“Don’t say that right now! You’re almost there! You can do it!”

Both boys keep shouting back and forth to each other in the mic and panic together as Yongguk just smirks and chuckles to himself.

“Zelo! Now's your chance! There’s an opening! Most of the targets need to refill on ammo so sprint to the safe zone!”

“Alright!”

Zelo picks up the sack of sand and runs for his life while shooting the remaining targets. The rest of the targets go back down in hiding position to refill their ammunition; however, they refill their ammo faster than expected. They all pop back up as Zelo almost reaches the exit of the city core and fire rapidly.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” Youngjae screams once he sees Zelo go down. “Zelo! Are you okay! Speak up!”

Silence. Youngjae knows something bad is happening. The targets continue to shoot at the body sprawled out on the dirt and sand.

“Yongguk! He’s unconscious!” Youngjae yells in horror.

“Shut down the simulator!” Yongguk says once he knows the mission has gone too far.

Youngjae hits the switch to shut down the simulator, “What’s going on… why won’t the shooting stop?! It’s out of control!”

“Hit the emergency shutdown!” Yongguk screams, now beginning to panic as well as he sees Zelo’s body taking heavy impact.

Youngjae slams his hand on the button and still nothing happens.

“It’s completely out of control…,” Youngjae says, his voice and face showing that he’s lost all hope as he turns to face his squad.

“Dammit! Put on some gear, Jongup! We’re going in! Youngjae, try everything you can with that stupid computer and shut that thing down!” Yongguk screams as he runs over to the gear and scrambles to throw everything on.

Jongup follows his lead and Daehyun still stares out through the glass, face turning completely white.

“Let’s go, Daehyun!” Yongguk shouts once Jongup and he get all their gear on.

They all run down the stairs as Youngjae runs his fingers across the keyboard. They start running through the simulator and straight into the city to Zelo’s body, which is still taking countless shots.

“Alright! Once we get to Zelo, take down all the targets with me Jongup! Daehyun, you retrieve Zelo and head towards the exit, Jongup and I will cover you!” Yongguk shouts at them while running and shooting down targets at the same time. “How are you doing, Youngjae?!”

“Captain Bang! Nothing is working! I swear I’ve tried everything!” Youngjae replies, his voice full of terror.

“Just keeping trying!”

After shooting an enormous sum of targets, they finally reach Zelo in a little over a minute.

Daehyun quickly looks at Zelo and while throwing Zelo onto his back, he somehow calmly tells everyone, “He’s seriously injured. We need medical aid now.”

“Youngjae! Call the medics!” Yongguk screams into his headgear.

Youngjae quickly throws off his headgear, jumps out of the chair, and heads over to the phone. He rapidly dials the number for the medics and they tell him that they’re on their way. Youngjae doesn’t put down the phone just yet as he also calls for the computer technicians to come as well.

The rest of the squad is nearing the exit but then Jongup takes a shot to the leg. He lets out a cry but keeps running. He begins to fall behind and Yongguk yells at him to hurry it up as they continue to cover Daehyun and Zelo, taking down all the targets that pop up. Finally, they reach the exit and slam the door shut once they all make it out. They all run upstairs with Zelo and the medics arrive just on time, putting him onto a carrier and take him away, Daehyun going along. Youngjae explains everything to the technicians and works with them to get the simulator to shut down. Yongguk closes his eyes and lets out a sigh of relief before opening his eyes and taking a seat. And last, Jongup finishes taking off his gear so he can head over to the military hospital to be with Zelo and Daehyun and to retrieve their gear to bring back to the shooting facility later. On his way out, he passes by Yongguk.

“I can’t believe you…,” he says before stopping in his tracks, not even looking at Yongguk, who is now looking up at Jongup from his seat.

Jongup hesitates before speaking again, but what he says sends a sharp, cold pain down Yongguk’s spine.

“I’ve lost respect for you…,” he mutters as he limps out of the room, leaving a wrecked Yongguk behind to think.