The girl glanced over me from 45 degrees to the right and said this,
"Of course, everyone has their own personal fighting style."
"Yeah. If it's sold, it means that it can definitely be used, even if it's this."
I answered as I used my right hand to hold tightly onto the short cylinder shaped weapon, and then brought it right in front of it. I used my thumb to press the switch, and with a low *Guun*, a purplish-blue energy blade vibrated out as it reached out with a length of about 1 meter, lighting the entire place.
"Oohh."
I couldn't help but simply call it. I had already wielded swords of different sizes up till now, but this is the first time the blade I'm wielding is made of pure light.
I stared at it for a while, and found that the sword itself didn't have any direction as the entire circular section was just like a long and thin cylinder. I tried to swing in a horizontal manner, and then used the one-handed sword skill I was familiar with in SAO even without the system assisting, the 'Vertical Square'.
*Bu-n*, *buon*, the light saber let out a delightful sound as it sliced out into the air in complicated trajectories before finally stopping. Of course, my hand didn't feel any resistance because of the weight of the sword.
"Heh—"
The girl clapped a few times beside me and showed a shocked look.
"You really looked like the real deal there. Is that a skill from a fantasy world...? Looks like I can't underestimate you, huh?"
"No, not really... but this is really light."
"Of course. This weapon has no other advantages other than being light. Alright— If you want to use that as your main weapon, it's better to have an SMG or a handgun as your sidearms. You have to restrain your opponent if you want to close in."
"...I see. That's true."
"How much do you have left?"
I called out the window. My 300,000 credits had dropped to 150,000 credits. I said out the amount, and the girl blinked before shrugging.
"Uhe, so a light saber is so expensive? 150K left... You have to have money to buy bullets and protective gear. Looks like you can only buy a handgun."
"I'll leave the rest to you then."
"If you want to take part in BoB, it's better to have a powerful weapon... If you want to hold the enemy off, it should be more important to take accuracy over power...hm..."
The girl coughed dryly as she slowly moved towards a shelf with a pile of handguns over there. Finally, she pointed at one of them and said,
"You'll run out of money like this, but this «FN Five-Seven» should be good."
Her slender finger pointed at a small automatic handgun with a smooth round grip.
"Five...seven?"
"It refers to the caliber. It's 5.7mm, and a little smaller than the normal 9mm Parabellum bullet, but the shape is similar to a sniper bullet, so the accuracy and piercing ability are rather good. It's a unique bullet, so it can only be shared with the assault rifle «P90» that was also made by FN, but I guess it's alright since you only have this gun..."
"I-I see..."
On hearing such an unrestrained explanation from her, I again felt a slight interest in this girl with light blue hair.
GGO is a game where the gender is fixed, so she should definitely be a girl in real life, but I really couldn't tell her race and age. What I could tell from my gut feeling is that her age should be about the same as me.
Since we're playing this MMORPG, it's natural to be familiar with the items in the game. It's like when Asuna and Lyfa were mentioning the swords and magic in ALO. It wouldn't end without talking for 50 minutes.
But— for some reason, I feel that the 'gun' and those things were completely different. Also, I heard that most of the guns that appeared in GGO were weapons that existed in real life. Also, this kind of weapon would easily make one think about bloodshed and killing. This girl who's of the same age as me would actually dive into such a world, and continue to fight until she becomes a veteran player that understood all the guns. I'm rather interested in her motivation and driving force to play this game...
"Oi, are you listening?"
"Ah, ye-yeah."
I hurriedly interrupted my thoughts and nodded my head.
"I'll buy this then. Is there any other thing that I should buy?"
I bought the «Five-Seven» pistol she recommended, no, the handgun, and also bought pre-prepared bullet magazines, a thick bulletproof jacket, a belt-type «Optical gun shielding Field» and other small equipment. Once I finished my purchase, the 300,000 credits I earned in the dodging game went up in smoke.
I felt the weight of the light saber on my right waist and the «Five Seven» on my left waist as I walked out of the shop, and once I went outside, I found that the sunset sky was gradually reddening.
"Sorry to delay you for so long. Thank you very much."
I lowered my head and said my thanks. The girl smiled under the muffler and shook her head before saying,
"No, I didn't really have anything to do before the preliminaries...Ah."
The girl stopped midway through as she spoke, and hurriedly looked over at the large and thick chronometer on her left hand.
"Damn it. The registration closes at 3. Wah, I might not be able to make it even if I rush over to the presidential villa..."
"Eh, you're going to register now too?"
"Yeah."
Having been affected by this girl who's giving a pale look, I looked over at the digital watch I just bought. The time over there showed— 14:51.
I looked up and frantically asked,
"The-Then, isn't there any teleport movement skill or something like that? Like a transport item or spell or some superpower or something!?"
"I'll tell you as we run!"
After shouting that, the girl hurriedly turned around and ran over to the north side of the road. I hurriedly followed that swaying muffler and spent a few seconds to catch up to her. She glanced over at me and said with an anxious voice,
"...There's only one kind of instant movement in GGO. That's when you revive after you die. The revival area in Gurokken is at the Presidential villa, but the HP definitely won't decrease on the streets, so we can't use that technique..."
We dashed straight down the street where NPCs and players were, and the girl continued to explain to me from time to time. Also, I had to use my entire effort just to catch up to her. I couldn't get used to the visual line that's weaker than ALO, and she was really running very fast. It's more of her refined movements than the support of her ability, and I could tell that she was completely used to movement after she dived.
The girl again looked at the watch in her hand and pointed at the street in front before saying,
"...The presidential villa's over there. It's at the north end of the street, so there's still 3km. it'll take about 5 minutes to operate the registration machine, so if we don't reach within three minutes...!"
I looked over at the main street that was extended out, and found that there was a large tower that was giving off red light because of the sunset. It was a straight path, but even if we run at a speed of 1km/min while dodging people, it would be very tough in the VR world even if we can't pant.
If I can't register in time, it'll be because I didn't do my investigations properly, but if the light blue-haired girl beside me didn't help me, she could have done the job easily. Feeling somewhat guilty, I glanced over at her and saw her gritting her teeth. The side of her face was showing desperation, and a slight voice came with the virtual breathing sound could be heard.
"...Please...Please, got to make it..."
—I suppose that to this girl, the preliminaries of the 'Bullet of Bullets' that's about to happen shouldn't be just a game, but something with a huge meaning behind it. There must be a reason why she had to take part in this tournament...
After I instinctively realized this, I hurriedly looked around, hoping to find a way to get to the presidential villa that's far away within 3 minutes.
At this moment, an advert billboard appeared in my eyes.
On the wide land on the left, there was parking space that expanded after a while. There were 3 mini vehicles that were colored red, yellow and blue, and deep inside at the upright panel, there were words «Rent-A-Buggy!» on a Neon Sign. Of course, I immediately knew what that meant.
"...That's the one!"
I hurriedly grabbed the left hand of the girl and started to change direction. The girl let out an 'eh!?' in shock, and nearly floated up as I grabbed her, but we still moved through the pedestrians and rushed into the carpark with the «Rent-A-Buggy!» sign.
The vehicles that were lined up inside were all buggies, each having a wheel at the front and 2 wheels at the back. I tossed the girl into the red buggy that's parked in front of me and leaped onto the front seat. I found a fingerprint scanner under the meter panel that was similar to the one when I was shopping, put my right hand on it, and the engine immediately started with the sound of a checkout.
Luckily, the front part of the buggy was exactly the same as the motorbike, and it was fully manual. I gripped hard on the handle and pushed the throttle valve without saying anything. The ignition switch inside let out a roar, and the front wheel of the buggy rose up before shooting onto the lane like a bullet.
"KYAH...!"
I heard a cute cry from the back seat, and two slender arms were wrapped around my waist.
"Hang on tight!"
Though it might be too late for it, I cried that out, and after a right turn where the wheels practically scorched the road surface, I threw the acceleration to the max right as we got on the road. After shifting gears up several times, the meter finally crossed 100km. I truly felt glad that I wasn't riding on an electric scooter but an old bike with manual gear selection in the real world.
As I continued to dodge the incoming four-wheelers of the future on the street, I continued to switch gears, and heard the girl shout out into my right ear,
"W...Why!? This buggy is really hard to handle. There aren't even that many male players who can drive it well...!"
—Sorry, but I'm one of those male players that is the exception.
But in such a situation, of course I couldn't say the truth, so I could only vaguely hide it and say,
"No...not really, I played a race-type game before... Woah!"
The large bus in front suddenly changed lanes, and I could only use the rear wheels to glide fully to dodge it. After lowering gears, I again accelerated before moving past it. In fact, in the age where the year 2025 is about to end, it's logical that not many people had the experience of riding on an old-fashioned manual bike. In the first place, the standard for practice at training institutes was electric scooters. I got my bike because an acquaintance of Agil was willing to hand it over to me for free, which was why I worked so hard to get that medium license that allowed manual vehicles. However, a while after collecting that bike that's made from Thailand, I noticed that it was meant to save the owner's money so that he didn't have to scrap it. That's because it's said that vehicles with gas engines will not be allowed in a few years...
—As I thought about this, laughter suddenly came from behind, and I was shocked as a result.
"Ahaha...this is great. So nice!"
I spent a lot of time only to realize that this voice belonged to that cat-eyed girl. It's unexpected of a girl who's somewhat tense and lonely to let out such laughter.
"Hey, come on...faster!"
After hearing the girl's voice, I glanced over at the large presidential villa that was 1km away, and answered 'OK!'. I lowered my head and got the gear on the foot lever to the maximum. The engine let out a *KA-A-A-A-A-A-AN* roar, and the speedometer showed about 200km.
At this speed, it'll only take about several seconds to cover 1km.
But the cheers this girl made during this short time left a deep impression in me.
At the staircase leading to the wide stairs of the presidential villa, I parked the buggy in a parallel manner and stopped.
I looked at my watch, and there's still slightly more than 5 minutes till 3.
"We'll be able to make it! This way!"
The girl who leaped off from the rear step grabbed my right hand and continued running. The side of her face reverted back to showing a sharp expression that was like a sharp blade— no, like a high powered machine gun. I forced myself not to think which side of her was her real side and continued climbing the stairs.
After climbing about 20 steps, an abnormally large tower stood in front of me. It had a long and narrow streamlined-looking plaza on both sides, and I could see a round disk that looks like an antenna or radar plate.
"This is the presidential villa, commonly called the bridge. The place where you started the game from is the «Memorial Hall», and it's on the other side."
The girl pulled my hand as she said so.
"Bridge? Crossing bridge...?"
I asked, and the girl tilted her head slightly and answered,
"Not a crossing bridge, but a 'navigation bridge', I suppose? Gurrokken is the command post of a spaceship, so it had such a name."
"Spaceship...ahh, so that's why this city is long."
"Yeah. The actual name is «SBC» or «Space Battle Cruiser» for short. Registrations for participation or anything related to the game are held here."
As she explained till here, we just happened to pass by the large tower, the first level entrance of the bridge.
Inside it was a rather spacious round hall.
The round pillar that was lined up in a cross shape extended up to the roof, and it looked rather futuristic. On the surrounding wall, there were large flatscreens that were all around, showing advertisements about all sorts of activities and real life enterprises as they showered down primary colors. Of course, the brightest of them all was the promotional video of the «3rd Bullet of Bullets».
But right now, I didn't have the time to enjoy this as the girl pulled me and continued to move into a corner deep into the right.
There were several long machines beside the wall, and they looked like ATMs in a convenience store or a multimedia platform.
The girl brought me in front of a machine and quickly said,
"Register here. It's just like a normal touchscreen. Do you know how to use it?"
"Haa, I'll give it a shot."
"OK, I'll register over there. If there's something you don't understand, ask me."
After saying that, the girl moved forward towards the neighboring machine that was separated by a board.
The main screen showed the words «SBC Gurokken Presidential Villa», and what was shocking was that all the words inside were all converted to Japanese. Before diving, I checked through the official website of GGO in the real world through the internet, and was really troubled that the words were all in English. However, it seemed that the game itself was somewhat localized to some extent.
I used my fingertips to scroll down the menu, and immediately found the button to register for the third Bullet of Bullets. Of course, I immediately pressed on it, and the image immediately showed a form where I had to input my name, occupation and all sorts of particulars. There's still 180 seconds left.
Since it's a game, at least the character's name would be automatically entered, and also, what's my occupation and such...I continued to grumble as I looked at the form, but I immediately found the most shocking blank.
It was written 'In the following blank, please fill in your real world name and address. Of course, you can take part in this activity by leaving this space blank or entering a fake address, but you won't be able to get the top few prizes."
This caused my fingers to immediately stop. My main aim was to reveal myself as much as possible in the tournament and let myself be «Death Gun»'s target, the term «prize» caused my soul as an MMO gamer to hesitate. That's because the prizes at this moment would be rare equipment that normally couldn't be obtained in game.
As my finger was attracted over by the name panel and got ready to enter the 'K' in 'Kirigaya' on the hologram keyboard, I finally forced myself not to do so.
I didn't come here to play. My priority is to meet with this mysterious player «Death Gun» and decide whether his ability is real or fake. If «Death Gun» really had such an ability, it wouldn't be smart to reveal my real particulars in the game. I couldn't deny the possibility that «Death Gun» was someone inside the operating company, and that there's a possibility that he could read all the log in records of all the players.
I finally shook off the allure of the rare prize, and the bleeding heart in me left everything blank before hitting the submit button at the bottom most part.
The screen changed again, and a paragraph of text showed that I had registered successfully, and then showed the time for the first round of the prelims. Unexpectedly, the day was today— 30 minutes from now.
"Are you done?"
The girl with aquablue hair suddenly asked from beside me. It seemed that she had finished her registration successfully. Thus, I relaxed and nodded my head.
"Yeah, finally completed. Thank you very much...and...sorry for making so much trouble for you."
After hearing me apologize, the girl smiled.
"It's alright. I was rather happy during the ride on the buggy just now. Speaking of which, which group are you in?"
"Umm..."
I again looked back at the screen and answered,
"I'm Group F. Group F, number 37."
"Ah...I see. We registered at the same time, so I'm group F too. I'm number 12 too...that's great, even if we meet in the finals."
"Why do you say that?"
"If we can enter the finals of the preliminaries, we can enter the battle royale in the finals no matter whether we win or lose. It's likely that both of us can get the right to take part in the battle royale. However, if we really meet in the finals of the preliminaries..."
Those cat like eyes of hers shone, and then she spoke,
"I won't hold back."
"Ahh...I see. If we meet, I'll definitely do my best."
I smiled and answered before switching the screen back to the main screen. Then, I asked a question,
"Speaking of which, it's a foreign game, but the machines here are all localized to Japanese already. The official website was in English..."
"Ahh... The operating company, «Zasker», is an American company, but there seemed to be Japanese amongst the people working on the Japanese Server. But...you should know that whether it's Japan or America, GGO is in the grey area when it comes to the law."
"That's because of the «Money Trading System»."
After hearing my response, the girl gave a somewhat wry smile as she nodded her head.
"That's right. In a certain sense, this is a privately-run casino. Thus, the official website would only give the most basic information and not reveal where the operating company is. Also, things like character management, money conversion to an electronic bank account and all game related stuff could only be done in the game."
"All I can say is... This game really overdoes things."
"That's why this place could be said to be a completely different realm from the real world...but because of this, it feels that the me now and the me in reality are two completely different people..."
I felt that there was a shadow in the girl's eyes, and I blinked for a while, feeling puzzled.
"...?"
"It-It's nothing, sorry. We should be going to our preliminary's arena— it's just under this place. Are you ready?"
"Ehh."
I nodded my head, and the girl again held my hand and said 'over here' before moving deep into the first level hall of the presidential villa. There were a few elevators at the wall, and the girl's slender finger pressed the down button beside the elevator door on the most right.
The door immediately opened, and the girl moved in before pressing onto the button «B20F». It seemed that there's a lot of space to move up and down. My body really felt like it was descending and decelerating, and the door opened.
Once I saw the darkness outside the door— I immediately lost my breath.
It was a half-shaped dome that was as wide as the first level hall. There was very little light inside, only a few arc lights sealed in metal frames giving off a dim gloom.
The floor or the pillars were either giving off the black polish of the metal floor or the tea-green color of the wire mesh. The wall of the large dome had some crude tables, and the roof had lots of large hologram panels. But right now, the current images only showed complete darkness. There were only the words in crimson red 'BoB 3 Preliminary' and a countdown timer of approximately 28 minutes.
However, what made me nervous weren't these scenes and the metal-based BGM that bellowed out.
More accurately, I was rather uncomfortable with those black shadows that were gathered at the tables near the wall or those that were right beside the metal pillar— the presence they gave off.
We were in a game, but there wasn't anyone busy shouting about. They were either whispering to each other or standing around alone. I could tell that they were participants for the BoB preliminary that was about to begin, and I knew that they were already thoroughly used to this virtual world. Those are really veteran VRMMO players.
—No, in terms of the amount of time we dived in, I don't think anyone here would have dived in longer than me. I was logged in at all times during the two years, both two years ago and last year.
However, each player had their own «Play Style». Like for me, I specialize in P v E, and they were players who were of the complete opposite from me. They were guys who were passionate about P v P. From the sharp glances they gave from the helmets that didn't have any glow of the heavy headpiece, I knew that these people were desperately trying to get information about this.
I haven't really fought against players much, ever since ALO switched over to its current operating company in spring this year. During that far too long gap, I must have definitely lost touch in P v P, and how the stare these guys shot over at me felt so overwhelming was the proof of that.
—These guys, this job is getting more and more difficult, Kikuoka-san.
Unwittingly muttering this deep inside my heart, my right elbow was suddenly pushed. After looking aside, I found a girl with light blue hair giving a surprised look.
"...What's wrong?"
"No, nothing..."
After I hurriedly answered softly, the girl nodded her head slightly and whispered back,
"Let's head to the restroom first. You have to change into the battle clothes you bought just now anyway."
And then, she started to move around the players. Her feet were moving naturally, and I couldn't feel any tension from her. However, this wasn't because the people around us ignored her existence. The stares this group of guys shot at her were of so much battle intent that it couldn't be compared to their looks when they stared at me. A guy who placed a terrifyingly large machine gun even deliberately cleared his barrel loudly.
Unexpectedly, this girl had such amazing courage and could ignore such tremendous pressure. I felt even more shocked as I raced to catch up to that dirty-yellow muffler.
There weren't tables deep inside the dome, but rather, several icy cold metal doors were lined up over there. The girl opened a door with a green light, led me in, closed the door behind me, and pressed on the operation panel on the inside of the door. With a clicking sound, the indicator changed to red.
There was a somewhat narrow changing room inside the door. Of course, there wasn't anyone else other than us.
"...Fuu."
After arriving at the center of the room, the girl breathed out slightly and then seemed to grumble,
"Really...such a bunch of naive guys..."
"Wha...nai-naive guys? Were you talking about those guys with tremendous killing intent?"
I recalled the faces of those guys who were frowning in the dome, and the girl seemed to treat it as a matter of fact as she nodded her head and said,
"That's right. Taking out their main weapons to brag 30 minutes before the tournament is basically asking other people to think of ways to deal with them."
"Ah...ahh...I see.."
"You better equip your light saber and the Five-Seven only before the tournament begins."
The girl smiled as she said this, and after seeing me nod my head slightly, she turned around.
Then, she did something that was much scarier than those words she said just now.
She waved her right hand and called out the main menu, and immediately clicked on it to remove all the equipment.
The dirty-yellow muffler, the curry colored jacket, the loose cargo pants and the patternless T-shirt were all gone in a systematic manner.
Sword Art Online Vol 05 -223.jpeg
Right now, the girl was only wearing underwear that covered a small area and had its fibers showing a little gloss.
"U...uwaa!?"
I let out a hoarse voice and frantically used my right hand to cover my face. Then, through the gaps, I saw the girl's inexplicable look.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and change."
"O-Okay, errm, that..."
Even when facing the biggest shock ever since I dived into GGO, I continued to desperately think of countermeasures.
In this situation, there's not much choices I have. I could find an excuse to escape from this room, or I could continue and pretend to be a girl and put my equipment over my clothing. However, both methods would be fooling this girl who helped me out a lot.
In this desperate situation, I could only grit my teeth and make the third option before the girl does the ultimate tragedy of de-equipping herself.
I lowered my head at the fastest possible speed and let my name card materialize from the main menu before handing it over to the girl with both hands.
"Er, erm... Excuse me! I haven't introduced myself up till now... This is who, no, what I am!"
"Eh? Wha...What?"
I felt the namecard left my hand with a puzzled voice.
"Kiri...to. Fuun, that's an interesting name...wait..."
I, Kirito, never joined any guilds, no, «squadron» in this world, so on my namecard, there's the name— and the gender only.
"Male... Erm, eh...!? But, you're, well..."
The dumbfounded voice came over, and at the top of my sight, with my head lowered straight down, I could see a cute little naked foot take a step back.
"This can't be...a-a guy...!? With such an avatar...!?"
And then, there was silence.
I couldn't stand the tense atmosphere that surrounded this changing room and got ready to lift my head.
At this moment, a white object quickly flew over, and after exploding at the left side of my face, there was a purple flash effect.
I continued to spin around like a top due to the impact, realizing that it was the palm of the girl after collapsing onto the floor with stars.
"Don't follow me."
"Bu-But I don't know what to do next..."
"Don't follow me."
"Bu-But I don't know anyone else..."
"Don't follow me."
As we kept the volume of our conversation down, I continued to desperately chase after the aqua-blue haired girl in front of me.
Right now, she was wearing a desert colored military jacket, bulletproof armor that's of the same color and combat boots. The only thing that was the same as her street attire was that muffler on her neck. Just like the advice she told me, she didn't materialize her weapon.
My dress up was somewhat similar to hers, but mine was black clothing that was more suited for night camouflage. This time, I wanted to give up on my preference and choose a more vibrant color, but the battle venue was decided randomly, and the girl noted that my budget wouldn't allow me to buy colored clothing for all terrain, so I ended up choosing the color I liked the most.
And the person who gave me that suggestion just 1 meter away from me continued to walk on without looking back.
Of course, I could understand why she was so angry, but I didn't lie to say 'I'm a girl' or speak in a female's tone. It's my fault for taking advantage of her error, but if she actually told me when we were about to change, I would have responded to her...
I couldn't help but start to grumble in my heart as I somewhat deliberately tailed her from behind. However, the girl suddenly stopped. At this point, we had already went around half the dome.
The girl turned around to look at me, who also stopped.
Her blue eyes were glaring at me. The icy expression was more like a leopard than a cat now. I thought that she would roar and shrink back as her small lips breathed hard, but she merely sighed quickly.
She sat down hard on a box seat at the side and then turned her face to another direction. I timidly sat opposite her.
I lifted my head and looked over at the full panel hologram screens, and found that there was less than 10 minutes till the start of the preliminaries. I didn't know what to do afterwards, whether I had to move somewhere once the preliminaries start or that I still need to go through some steps. I didn't even know where to get this information.
I could only timidly back my body away as it continued to fidget uneasily. At this moment, the girl glanced at me and sighed hard.
"...I will explain the basics at least. We're enemies after that."
After hearing her say that with a deep voice, I couldn't help but smile.
"Tha-Thank you."
"Don't be mistaken. I haven't forgiven you. Once the countdown at the top ends— all the participants here in this building will be automatically transferred to the first round arena where there's only you and your opponent."
"Fu, I see."
"The field is a 1km square space. The landscape, climate and time are all randomly generated. At the beginning, both players will be at least 500 meters away from each other, and the winner in that battle will be transferred over to the waiting area while the loser will be transferred to the hall in the first floor. The loser won't lose his weapons or drop things randomly, and if you win, you'll be immediately transferred to start the second round if the next round opponent's match was over. If the opponent's still battling, you have to wait until the battle ends. Group F has 64 people, so if you win 5 matches, you can enter the final round and also get the right to enter the finals of this tournament. That's all for my explanation— I won't answer any more questions."
She sounded cold, but after her detailed explanation, I more or less understood what's with the preliminaries. I again thanked the girl.
"I think I got the gist of it. Thanks."
And then, she again glanced at me before she immediately looked away. The girl then opened her mouth and said softly,
"—You must make it to the finals. Since I taught you so much, I hope to teach you one last thing."
"Last thing?"
"I'll make you taste the bullet that will cause your loss."
After hearing such words, I couldn't help but smile. This wasn't a sarcastic smile or a forced one, but one that was from deep within me. I really like people with her personality.
"...I'm looking forward to that moment. But are you certain that you can make it to the finals?"
The girl snorted coldly and breathed,
"If I lose in the preliminaries, I'll quit for good. This time, I must definitely—"
It felt like she was staring at all the opponents as she let out a glass-colored shine.
"—Must kill off all the strong opponents."
These words were said under silent circumstances, but the slight soundwaves entered my ears. The girl's lips smirked as she showed a beast like smile. My back started to have chills that I never had for a long time.
It's no wonder that this girl wouldn't notice the pressure the other guys gave.
That's because she was a lot stronger than those guys. No matter whether it's the skill as a VRMMO player— or the mental strength that's supporting her.
The girl glanced over at me who held my breath and remained silent. The smile on her face disappeared. She seemed to be thinking about something as she stopped her gaze. Then, she used her right hand to summon the menu window. After some simple operations, a small card appeared in her fingertips.
The girl then let the card slide across the table, which I caught. She said,
"This should be the last time we're talking like this, so I better announce my name. That's the name of the person who's going to defeat you—"
I silently looked over at the card. The word indicated on it was— «Sinon», and the gender was obviously female.
"Sinon..."
I muttered. The girl moved her aqua-blue hair and nodded slightly. I again reported my name.
"I'm Kirito. Nice to meet you."
I subconsciously reached my right hand out from over the table, but of course, the girl called Sinon ignored my action as she immediately turned her face away. I could only give a wry smile and pulled my hand back.
After that, Sinon kept her silence, and didn't seem like she intends to continue talking.
I looked at the large screen in the dome and knew that there was about 5 minutes left. At this moment, I started to hesitate over whether I should just hug my knees together and wait on the chair or just try and talk to her again. However, just when I was about to make my conclusion, I could hear footsteps heading towards Sinon.
I lifted my face and saw that there was a tall and large male player with long silver hair on his forehead walking straight to this table.
He was wearing a grey patterned streamlined camouflage that was slightly lighter than charcoal color, and there was a somewhat large machine gun that was slung over his shoulder— probably not a submachine gun or an assault rifle, and he had an intelligent looking face that fit his tall and skinny body. As he didn't look like he had much armor on him, it gave me the feeling that he was able to move about agilely on the battlefield. He looked more like a special ops member than a thoroughly experienced soldier.
The man didn't look at me while I was sitting silently in the corner as he smiled at Sinon. Immediately, what looked like a highly skilled avatar showed a boyish-like gentleness, which made me blink.
"Yaa, why are you so slow, Sinon? I was worried whether you were late."
On hearing that guy's tone that sounded like he was trying to act like an acquaintance, I thought that Sinon would definitely give him a death glare and cringed back. But unexpectedly, the icy presence around the girl immediately eased, and she even showed a slight smile.
"Hello, Spiegel. There was some accident, so I was delayed. Eh, but...don't you intend to show yourself?"
That man called Spiegel grinned awkwardly as he used his right hand to touch his hand.
"Well, I don't know whether you'll be bothered or not, but I came to cheer for you, Sinon. Besides, I can see the live telecast on the large screen."
It seemed that both of them were either friends or members of the same guild. Sinon moved her body away, and Spiegel naturally sat beside her.
"Speaking of which, what's that accident you mentioned?"
"Ahh...nothing much, just that I brought a certain person here and such..."
After Spiegel asked, Sinon immediately glanced at me with an icy expression. I reluctant retracted my shortened neck back to shape, and the man who only noticed my presence now nodded his head.
"Hello, I'm that certain person..."
"Ah...he-hello. It's nice to meet you. Well...are you Sinon's friend?"
He didn't look like someone that's to be trifled with, but this man called Spiegel didn't seem to match his outwardly fierce look as he was rather polite. Or rather— Is he treating me like a girl now?
I tried to juggle around with my choice of words as I thought of how to answer this in a more humorous manner, but Sinon immediately shot out,
"Don't be fooled. He's a guy."
"Eh!?"
I could only use a normal tone to say my name at Spiegel, who widened his eyes.
"Ah— I'm called Kirito. I'm a guy alright."
"A-A guy... Eh, that means, erm..."
Spiegel gave a rather bothered expression as he looked back and forth from me to Sinon. It seemed that he couldn't understand why Sinon would go out with a male player.
Thinking that this was the case, I felt like teasing them, so I tried to add fuel to the fire as I said,
"Well, I was really taken care of well by Sinon, you know."
At this moment, Sinon immediately shot a bluish-lightning like glare at me and said viciously,
"Oi... Don't say that. I never took care of you at all. Speaking of which, when did I allow you to call me Sinon...?"
"Why are you saying that so mercilessly?"
"What about mercy here? You're just a stranger!"
"Eh— But didn't you help coordinate my equipment?"
"That...That's because, you..."
Just when we got to that point...
The slight BGM inside the dome gradually faded out, and what rang next was a fanfare of an electric guitar. After that, a sweet synthesized voice set at a loud volume blared above several hundred people's heads.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. We will now begin the preliminaries of the 3rd Bullet of Bullets tournament. All entered players will be automatically transferred to the field of the first round once the countdown reaches zero. At this moment, I shall wish you good luck."
A deafening applause and cheering rang inside the dome. *Katatata*, the sound of the machine guns being fired and the high pitched sound of lasers being fired was let out, and lights of different colors decorated the roof like fireworks.
Amidst all the ruckus, Sinon stood up and pointed her right index finger at me.
"You must get to the finals. Then I will blow your head."
I then stood up, grinned, and answered,
"If you want to go out on a date with me, I'll be glad to."
"You-You ba..."
The 20 second countdown timer was about to reach zero, and I waved my hand at Sinon before turning around and heading to the front to be transported to the field. At this moment, my eyes met Spiegel, who had been staring at me all this time.
His sharp eyes showed obvious wariness and hostility. Just when I felt that I may have gone overboard—
My body was surrounded by a pillar of blue light, and my sights immediately turned blue.
Finally, I was transported to a hexagonal panel that was floating in the darkness.
There was a light red hologram window in front of me, and on top of it were the large words «Kirito Vs Uemaru». Unlike SAO, which only allowed for English alphabets, it was possible to use Japanese in GGO. The name «Uemaru» was written in kanji, but of course, I had never met this guy before. Also, at the bottom of the window, there was a line of words «Preparation Time: 58 seconds left. Field: The Forgotten Old Monastery».
This minute of preparation should probably be to allow us to change into equipment that's suitable for this battle. I had no idea about my prepared weapons and maps, and I didn't even use them. I used my right hand to call out the menu, and in the equipment window that was similar to ALO, my main weapon was a «Kagemitsu G4» light saber, and my sidearm was a «Five-Seven». After checking whether I forgot to equip my defensive equipment, I closed the window.
As I waited for the time to slowly tick down, I suddenly had a strange thought.
That vicious smile shown for a moment by that girl called Sinon. It had the killing intent of a bullet, shot from a rifle, that could pierce through any shield or armor.
It made me remember that voice that resounded in my mind.
To eliminate the strong— this direct declaration sounded rather childish in a certain sense, but I never had such a chilling feeling, even including the time when I was in SAO. I felt her petite body let out a real will that far exceeded the roleplay in the game.
In this virtual world that's created through electric signals, I have not seen a player who showed such intense will like her. Amongst the female players, the only one I know who would go serious was Asuna. No— even when she's called «The Flash» or even «The Berserker» before that, she had never given me such an impression before.
Is it possible? Is that girl with light blue hair the «Death Gun» I'm looking for?
Kikuoka once let me hear the voice database of what's said to be «Death Gun»'s, but the screeching cry of metal rubbing against each other was completely different from Sinon's clear voice. However, GGO was just a world that was different from SAO. A player could have multiple characters, and there were many cases of logging in using different characters.
And from the sound of the tone, it seemed that Sinon had absolute confidence that she's able to make it to the finals. If my guess that Death Gun will definitely appear in this tournament is right, I can narrow them down to about 30 people, and of course, Sinon is one of them.
To be honest, I really don't want to test out this possibility. I didn't feel any killing intent from her, when she guided me to the shop and explained all sorts of things to me. Rather, she gave off a somewhat lonely feeling, like she wanted to get close to others.
Just which is the real Sinon, I wonder.
—No, I won't get the answer no matter how much I think. When our swords clash, no, when we both fire our guns, we should be able to get some clues.
Just when I thought about this and lifted my sights, the countdown timer reached zero, and my body was again surrounded by an effect.
After that, I was abandoned under a dim sunset sky.
The wind that blew beside me seemed to bring about a sharp whistle like sound. There were many layers of broken clouds floating above in the air, and below me, the wilted grass were all floating.
Beside me, there were large cylindrical pillars that were either of the Ionian or Corinth style. They were about 3m apart and lined in an arc shape. Some of the pillars were wrecked, and some of the pillars have completely collapsed. It just looked like the ruins of a lost civilization's temple.
I leaned my body on the closest pillar, and then quickly looked around at my surroundings.
The wide wilted grassland all around me was blowing around hard, and far away in the hills, I could see ruins that were similar to this place. According to Sinon's explanation, the field is a square, 1,000 meters wide, but to get from here to there would take about several kilometers. There should be some limiting boundary like a river or a cliff, or something like that.
I continued to remember her explanation. Right now, the opponent should be about 500 meters away from where I am now, but I couldn't see anyone in my sights. Like me, he should be hiding somewhere behind the ruins. There's no indication of the enemy around, so I have to find the enemy myself.
I can continue to wait here and let the enemy lose his patience before taking action. However, «waiting» really doesn't fit my personality. Instead of waiting here, I might as well run over to the closest ruin on the other side and use the gunshot of the enemy to quickly analyze my position...I thought as I used my left hand to feel the «Five-Seven» on my waist.
At this moment, a strong gust of wind blew by, and the surrounding grassland started to sway. As the gust stopped, the wilted grass again straightened...
And in the grassland about 20 meters away from my eyes, a profile suddenly stood up silently.
My blurred vision immediately saw the assault rifle the opponent whipped out, the tea-colored beard that was resting at the stalk of the gun, the goggles' lens that covered more than half the face and the helmet that had dummy grass on it. There's only me and my opponent in the battlefield, so he's definitely «Uemaru».
I had no idea when he shortened the distance between us at all. One of the obvious reasons was the camouflage suit he was wearing. That clothing looked similar to the surrounding grassland, and had slight streamlined patterns on it. Just when I thought I see, so that's the use of the 60 seconds...
The black assault rifle the enemy was readying on the right shoulder showed several red lines— «Bullet Line», and the lines were piercing through me and the space around me.
"UWAH!"
I couldn't help but cry out as I kicked the ground hard and moved to the place with the least bullet lines— up into the sky.
The enemy's rifle then went *katatatataatatata!!* And my right ankle got hit twice. The HP bar on the upper left corner of my sights showed a decrease of about 10%. Of course, I couldn't dodge all the bullets. At this moment, I remembered the «Full-Auto Shooting» Sinon warned me about.
I did a somersault in the air and landed on the half-broken pillar behind me. I tried to counter and drew the Five-Seven handgun from my belt with my left hand.
However, the enemy wouldn't give me time to aim at all. Immediately afterwards, numerous bullet lines appeared on my body again.
"WAAHHH!!"
I let out an embarrassing scream as I rolled behind the pillar. Another bullet grazed my left wrist, and my HP dropped mercilessly.
The rain of bullets that descended on me seemed to hit the pillar, causing a *Bishibishibishi* sound and creating several fragments to fly out. I hurriedly cuddled my limbs together and hid my entire body behind the pillar.
—This is definitely different from a battle between swords!
In that dodging game against the NPC gunman, there was a time lapse and at most 6 bullets, but I already had to concentrate fully just to dodge those attacks. Now, when facing such a— barrage of more than 10 bullets in a second, of course I'm at my wits' end.
To slash Uemaru's bearded face with the light saber «Kagemitsu» on my right waist, I have to get right in front of him. But before that, I'll have bullets blown through me and my HP would be depleted already.
If I can't dodge them all, I can only think of a way to «defend» against the bullets. Unfortunately, even if there's a «protective field» in this world that can weaken the power of bullets, there isn't any magic shield or something that can protect against actual bullets. In SAO, there's the «Weapon Defense Skill» that can allow a sword to replace a shield....
At this moment, I suddenly put my hand on the light saber that's held on the carabiner under my belt. I just need to deflect a few bullets if I can defend with this saber. This shouldn't be impossible. Didn't someone in a SF movie use a light saber to easily deflect bullets? If this game is developed by an American company, they would be able to recreate this scene. But to do that really tough skill, I have to first predict the trajectories the bullets are fired at me...
No—
No, I can do this. I should be able to do this. Aren't the «Bullet Lines» telling me where the bullets are flying?
I swallowed my saliva and used my right hand to pull the light saber from my belt.
Right now, the gunfire stopped. I suppose Uemaru is again hidden amongst the grass and is ready to come over from the left or the right.
I closed my eyes and concentrated with my ears.
The wind continued to blow. At this moment, I tried my best to eliminate the noisy sound effects from my consciousness and concentrated on the rustling of the swaying grassland to hear for some irregular sound in this system.
This was a skill that could only be done in a VR space where I can isolate each sound completely. From the time of SAO, this «Outside-system Skill» helped me out a lot. For example, an S level ingredient «Ragout Rabbit» would require this skill to deal a fatal blow.
But as for whether I'm able to succeed or not—
And this moment, my ears caught an irregular sound coming from the rear left side from 7 o'clock to 9 o' clock. He moved for about 2, 3 seconds before stopping and started to probe my position.
The enemy then started to move, stop and got ready to move again...
"L...LET'S GO!"
I used my cry to step hard onto the ground and run straight where the enemy was hiding.
Uemaru probably didn't expect me to rush over at him while he was hiding in the bushes. As he stood up from the wilted grass, it took him about half a second to get down on one knee and get into his shooting position.
We were originally about 25m apart, but at this moment, I ran past half the distance. I continued to run as I used my right thumb to slide the photon sword's switch. *Bu~n*. The sound that made me relax could be heard, and a blueish-purple glowing blade came out from the sword handle.
For the third time, the numerous «Bullet Lines» that came from Uemaru's rifle appeared on my body.
Up till now, I had been instinctively looking for places where I could hide. But this time, I only let my eyes look right in front of my body and endured the fear that came from the back of my neck and irritated my senses. After trying my best to observe the enemy, I found that not all the thin red lines appeared at the same time. There's a little time difference between them, and the difference should be the order where the bullets would come out from the rifle barrel.
I controlled the body that was a lot more petite than in real life and rushed forward. At this moment, there were 6 Bullet Lines that were aimed on my body.
The other Bullet Lines on the left and right were all slightly off course. With the current distance, the enemy's rifle— and the shooter's accuracy himself wasn't much.
The long forgotten thrill of P v P seemed to have caused my character to shift into battle mode. As the remaining margin in my sights showed an outward extension from the center, the target's body was extremely obvious. It's this accelerating feeling that made me feel memorable. During this time was when I started to slow down, my consciousness was the only thing racing.
The enemy's rifle's muzzle suddenly let out an orange spark.
During this time, the blade of the light saber blocked the lines of the first and second bullets with pinpoint accuracy.
*BA-BAM!!* The surface of the light saber let out two bright orange sparks. The moment I noticed this, my right arm immediately pointed the photon sword onto the third and fourth bullet lines at a lightning quick speed. Then, the sound of the bullets being deflected off the intense energy could be heard again.
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I continued to move forward while ignoring the bullets that «wouldn't hit me at all». Actually, it was really a mentally draining thing, but I grit my teeth and continued to swing the sword in my hand.
5...and that's the 6th one! After deflecting all the bullets that could have hit me successfully, I kicked the ground hard with all I've got to cover the remaining distance between us.
"No...No way!"
Uemaru's thoroughly bearded jaw dropped as he widened his mouth and cried out in shock. However, this guy didn't stop at all. He ejected the magazine skillfully and drew out the prepared magazine on his waist and got ready to load it into the rifle.
To prevent him from doing this, I gripped the Five-Seven in my left hand and pointed it at Uemaru. The moment my fingers touched the trigger, a light green circle appeared at the center of the enemy's chest. This shocked me, but I just continued to shoot 5 bullets.
The unexpectedly light recoil went from the wrist to the shoulder, and inside the half-transparent circle, Uemaru was hit once in the shoulder and the abdomen as the remaining three shots disappeared behind him in the bushes. However, the bullets that hit him went through his armor and caused damage to him. The screen showed his HP gauge drop by about 10%. Uemaru staggered and immediately hesitated.
To me, this was enough time.
As I entered the attack range, I slightly twisted my body to the right—
Just when I stepped out at a speed as if I wanted to break through the virtual ground, I lunged forward without wasting any of the speed at all. In the world of SAO, it's called a «Vorpal Strike», a critical hit as it lunged into the enemy's chest.
The jet engine-like buzzing rang as the blade of light pierced through the enemy's body easily. It felt that the burst of energy that couldn't be vented anywhere else imploded inside the enemy.
Then, with an exaggerated light and sound, the cylinder-shaped thing in my right hand shot out, and the enemy's body became numerous fragments as it scattered in the air.
I felt the numbing feeling of the fight that just finished as I slowly supported my body.
*Wu~wun*. I swung about the lightsaber and nearly sheathed the sword on my back immediately, but I hurriedly turned it off.
After hanging the sword on the carabiner on the right side of my waist and the handgun in my left hand into the holster, I finally let out a long sigh. I looked up at the sunset sky, and found that the low-hanging clouds looked like a screen showing the words 'Congratulations'.
I won the first round with great difficulty. It was really good news that I could use such a lightsaber to defend against rifle bullets. However, I needed a lot of concentration to wield it, and my nerves were already starting to char and smoke.
I still have to go through another 4 tiring rounds—
A blue light came over my dejected body and started surrounding me. The silent sound of the wind gradually disappeared. Once the sounds became the buzzing of many humans, I found myself back at the waiting area.
It looked like I was transferred to the box seats near the wall like how I was before. I looked at both the left and right side, but didn't notice Sinon or Spiegel around. If Sinon is still battling, what I'm wondering is where the man who was related to Sinon in some way went to. I set my sights onto the entire space, and found that there was a familiar figure near the center of the dome, dressed in street clothes. He didn't notice that I came back as he merely focused on the large screen on the ceiling.
I lifted my head up just like he did, and found that the large screen that was only showing the countdown timer was now showing several battles. The screen showed players in deserts, forests or ruins that used handguns, machine guns or rifles to fight in different angles like those scenes in movies.
These should be some of the hundreds of battles that were going on and were chosen to be telecasted. Once the scene of a player being hit and blown to bits was shown, countless players who were gathered inside the dome would let out a deafening cheer.
I thought about whether Sinon's match would be telecasted as I took a few steps forward. I checked every single image from the top right corner, but as the cameras continued to move, I really couldn't tell. I concentrated and tried to look for her aqua-blue hair.
—As I was too concentrated, I was too shocked that my heart nearly stopped when my right ear suddenly heard a voice. That deep, hoarse and somewhat metallic voice seemed to enter my mind.
"Are you, the real one?"
"...?"
I instinctively took a step back and looked back.
Immediately, I thought that I saw a ghost.
Of course, I wasn't referring to a real ghost, but a «Ghost-type» monster mob that appeared in the 65th level of Aincrad at night in the Ancient Fore.
The person in front of me wore a tattered dark grey mantle. The hood that was kept low was completely black, and only the eyes that were deep inside showed a little red light.
Under the light of the dark waiting dome, the stranger in front of me really looked like a ghost-type monster in SAO. Thus, I instinctively wanted to back away and draw my light saber to battle. I couldn't even control this instinct at all as my right hand jerked.
I panted as I looked at the feet of that guy. At the end of the tattered mantle, I could see the tip of the somewhat dirty boots.
He wasn't a ghost, but a player. After checking this obvious fact, I released my slightly held breath.
Looking closely, those red eyes weren't some ghost lights, but the shine on the lens of a pair of black goggles that covered the entire face. This somewhat rookie-like response from me and the way that guy just approached me at such a close place in such a rude manner, so I asked coldly,
"Real... what do you mean by that? Who are you?"
However, the player who was dressed in the dark-grey mantle didn't mention his name as he deliberately took a step closer to me even after I took a step back. This time, I didn't take a step back, but took his stare head on at about 20cm away from him.
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That voice that seemed to have some form of sound effect within it and had some reverb overtones ringing in an interrupted manner,
"I saw it, the match. A sword, you used it."
"Ah...ahhh. That's not against the rules, right?"
The damned AmuSphere really showed the wavering in my heart as my answer sounded somewhat hoarse. The dark-grey mantle guy seemed to have read my heart as he advanced a few more centimeters.
Then, he said another thing with an even deeper voice. As the voice was rather soft, at this distance, I had to concentrate just to hear it.
"Let me ask, you again. Are you, the real, one?"
Before I could understand the meaning behind these words, my heart felt like it got hit by a thunderous-like premonition, and I could only remain rooted there.
—I know this guy!
That's right. I definitely met him somewhere. I did once talk to him straight on like I am doing now.
But where? After logging into GGO, I had only talked to the guy who was at where I appeared who wanted to buy my avatar, Sinon who brought me to buy the items and register, and her friend, three of them altogether. Thus, I couldn't say that I met him in this world before.
Was it in ALO? Did I meet this guy with a different avatar in ALFheim? I frantically searched the database of my mind to see if his verbal mannerisms and presence resembled someone. However, I really couldn't think of another. I don't remember someone like him who would stand in front of me and raise goosebumps in me with the cold air around him.
Where...where exactly did I meet this guy...
At this moment, the tattered mantle swayed, and a slender arm came out from inside. I got ready to back away, but after looking at it, I found that aside from a glove that was as tattered as his mantle, there was nothing else.
That hand in the air was pointed at me, and opened a window before moving it in a lackluster manner. Right now, the matchup schedule that was going on in this third BoB preliminaries appeared on the window.
That thin metal-like finger pressed on Group F, and in the end, the image of Group F expanded to show the entire screen. He pressed it once, and the center part of the matchup schedule became wider.
My eyes were attracted by his finger.
There were 2 names on it.
On the left side was «Uemaru», and on the right side was «Kirito». On the name on the right, there was a light-glowing line extending out from it. The news that I beat Uemaru and entered the second round was already reported.
His finger moved slightly, touched the word «Kirito» up and down, and then, it rang again— his voice.
"This, name. That, sword skill... Are, you real?"
Immediately, I was shocked for the third time, and this was the strongest impact.
My knees started to tremble, and I had to work hard not to let myself collapse.
This grey-colored mantle player— I know him!
The origin of the name «Kirito», and the sword skill I used to beat «Uemaru». This guy knows about them.
In other words...I didn't meet this guy in GGO or ALO.
But in SAO, «Sword Art Online». I once met this guy in the main stage of that death game, the floating city Aincrad.
This avatar hidden under the tattered mantle...no, the player who's wearing the AmuSphere and playing this avatar was a «SAO survivor» like me.
My heart was already pounding like crazy unknowingly. If it wasn't for the fact that we're inside the dark dome, he would have found out that my avatar's face was all white already.
Calm down. Calm down!! At this moment, my mind could only continue to repeat such words.
Even when meeting a SAO survivor, I have no need to be panicking so much. When Aincrad was about to collapse, I became famous because of the report of my unique skill «Dual Blades» and how I openly took on the leader of the Knights of the Blood, Heathcliff. Also, the «Vorpal Strike» I just used on Uemaru was a rather common skill under the one-handed sword category. Those high-levelled players in Aincrad can guess from the footage of the match and the player's name in the matchup schedule that I'm Kirito of the SAO clearing group. If it was me, if I find a player who I may know of at first, I might talk to him and chit-chat about the past or something.
So I had no need to be scared at all. I shouldn't be scared.
But why am I so...
The next moment— the thin and long arm removed the matchup schedule and kept his arm back into his mantle, and a part attracted my attention.
There was a thin gap at the front side of the glove that looked like a tattered bandage, probably a little higher from the inside of the wrist. From there, I could see his pale skin.
And on the skin, there was a squared tattoo about 5cm wide.
It was a Western Coffin that was drawn in a manga style. The lid showed a mysterious smiling face, and the lid was slightly open. A white arm reached out from the darkness inside, waving at anyone it saw. At that other world, another guy used poisoned water to numb me and got ready to kill me. At that time, he had a similar tattoo too.
That was the emblem of «Laughing Coffin».
Once I recognized that image, it was really a miracle that I could stifle my shout or prevent myself from collapsing onto the floor, or even that I wasn't forced to log out because of the abnormal brainwaves.
The player under the tattered mantle stared at me, who didn't react at all, and then whispered,
"You, don't know, what I'm asking?"
I slowly and cautiously nodded my avatar's head.
"...Ahh. I don't understand. What do you mean, by the real one."
"...."
The grey mantle silently took a step back. The red eyes looked like they were blinking as they flickered.
After what seemed like a few long seconds, the inorganic-like feeling seem to be amplified as the voice rang.
"...Then, forget about it. Well, whether, your name, is a lie, a fake...or whether you're, real."
He turned back and left the last words.
—"One day, I'll kill you."
These words made me feel that he wasn't talking about killing within the game. The tattered mantle went away silently like a ghost— and then suddenly vanished.
Right now, the surroundings weren't like before where the player was still around.
My thin and petite body started to sway, and after barely supporting myself, I collapsed like an avalanche and sat down on the box seat beside me. I then cuddled my thin legs and put my knees to my forehead.
I closed my eyes, and inside my eyelids, I could see what was a clear little tattoo even though it was for about a fraction of a second.
A laughing coffin. There was only one guild that used such an emblem in Aincrad.
It was the killing guild «Laughing Coffin».
During the two years clearing SAO, it could be said that there were a lot of orange players who went into economic constraints and started stealing money and equipment from other players. Normally though, they would gather together in bunches to one person and force them to hand over valuable items. At the most, they would just use some numbing poison.
When someone attacks another person and causes the HP bar to be depleted, the player will really die in the real world, so no one would dare to do that. That's because these 10,000 players were all heavy Net-gamers, and were all people who had nothing to do with crime in real life.
However, this unwritten rule of «Not causing the HP to drop to zero» was broken by a strange player.
This guy's name was called «PoH». It was a really funny name for a character, but unexpectedly— or rather, it's because of this that he had a certain charisma.
The first attractive point about PoH was that he had an exotic-looking handsome appearance, and was a multilingual player who was well-versed in three languages. He may be a mixed-blood between a Japanese and a Western, and his Japanese, fluent English, and decent Spanish sounded just like a professional DJ singing rap, which would change the players around him. In the end, they went from being players to a real illegal organization that was cold and solid.
And the second point was really simple. PoH's own ability.
He was a talented dagger user. A dagger in his hand was just like an extension of his arm. The blade didn't even need an assist from the system and could crush monsters— or players. Especially at the end of the death game, once he got what's called a horrifyingly large dagger «Mate Chopper», his ability was so great that even players in the clearing group feared him.
The lawless followers who admired PoH were attracted to him in the opposite way people were attracted to Heathcliff of the Knights of Blood. Slowly, they expanded the boundaries in their heart.
A year after the game started, on the New Year's Eve in year 2023.
PoH and company, who have grown to about 30 people, attacked a small guild that was having an outdoor party in the field at a viewing spot, and killed them all.
The next day, there was the notification of «Laughing Coffin», a guild that wasn't accepted by the system and was designated as «red», and ended up in the main information providers of Aincrad.
However, the grey mantle player I just talked with shouldn't be PoH himself. That unrestrained and occasionally interrupted manner of speech was completely different from PoH's seemingly machine gun-like and extremely enthusiastic tone.
However, there was really a guy in «Laughing Coffin» who did talk like that. I met that guy before, and I think we did fight before. He wasn't just an ordinary member, but a rather high-ranking member. I could already remember so much, but why couldn't I remember his face and name?
No, I actually knew. The reason why I couldn't think of it was because I personally refused to remember.
«Laughing Coffin» was formed on the first day of 2024, and was eliminated on a certain summer night after August.
Of course, it wasn't automatically disbanded, but vanquished. It's because the clearing group, the players on the frontlines formed about 50 members in a crusade as we used force to destroy them.
Actually, we should have done that a long time ago, but we couldn't find the base of Laughing Coffin, so it was delayed till after August.
In Aincrad, players could buy houses or rooms, and whether it was on the streets or outside, we could accurately pinpoint the positions through the NPC real estate companies. The clearing group guessed that they would buy a larger house or a castle-like building that could allow 30 people to stay inside, so the information brokers accepted the clearing group's request and checked through all the large houses from the first level on.
But even though we found a few medium-to-small orange guild hideouts, we still couldn't find the most important Laughing Coffin's base after a few months.
Actually, it's no wonder we couldn't find them. Laughing Coffin used a floor that we had long conquered— a tower area that wasn't linked to the upper levels, which was a safe zone in a cave that would be easily forgotten once the designer installed it there. The clearing players will basically only take part in clearing the mazes in high towers, and medium-class players would slip into mazes where there're a lot of people. Of course, there would be players who would find that there were problems with the cave and enter in, but it's not hard to imagine that they were killed easily by Laughing Coffin to prevent their whereabouts from being revealed.
The reason the secret base of Laughing Coffin was revealed was because one of the members who may be unable to endure the guilt of killing exposed the secret to the clearing group. The clearing players then used this information to investigate and check that those guys were using that cave as a base before finally rallying a large-scale crusade. The leader of the squad was a member of the largest guild «Holy Dragon Alliance». Several strong players from the «Knights of the Blood» and other guilds joined in too. Of course, as a solo player, I was also invited to join the group.
Our numbers and average level were a lot higher than Laughing Coffin, so we thought that if we sealed the entrance to the safe zone to their base, there would be a high chance that they would surrender without fighting. However— just like how there was someone who revealed their secret...
Our thoroughly kept secret and battle strategy was known by them for some reason. When we entered the maze, none of the Laughing Coffin members were waiting in the large room of the safe zone. Of course, they didn't flee or hide in the alleys of the maze, but attacked us from behind.
They prepared all sorts of traps, poisons, trick items and all sorts of means to ambush us in random ways. The clearing group was severely confused at the beginning, but a response to sudden situations was an ability that was required of clearing groups, so we immediately readied ourselves again and started attacking backwards.
However— there was an unexpected difference between Laughing Coffin and the clearing group.
That was the guilt over killing someone. Once we realized that the berserk Laughing Coffin members wouldn't surrender no matter how much their HP was worn out, we started to waver.
Of course, we did discuss this possibility before, and at that time, we made the decision that we had to go all out even if we have to make the enemy's HP drop to zero. But including me, the members of the crusade couldn't deal the final blow when the enemy's HP was close to zero. One of the crusaders even threw his sword and knelt down on the ground.
First, there were a few martyrs in the crusaders. Then, the similarly berserk crusaders killed several members of Laughing Coffin too.
And what happened next was an ever bloody hell.
Once the battle ended, there were 11 casualties on the crusaders' side and 21 on Laughing Coffin's side. Amongst them, I personally used my sword to kill two of them.
But amongst the dead and the captured players, there was no sign of the name of the leader PoH.
The twelve remaining enemy players who survived that battle were all locked inside the Dark Iron Palace prison. If that grey mantle player was really a survivor, I may have talked to him at a certain time after clearing up from the battle. I remembered his verbal mannerism, but couldn't remember his face and name, all because I forced myself to forget about them all.
No...
No, maybe under that mantle...
Is one of the two people I personally killed.
Unexpectedly, I thought this. Thus, I continued to keep my knees cuddled as I sat on the seat and hurriedly shook my head. I started to grit my teeth with all I've got and tried to change my thinking.
The dead can't revive. In the SAO incident, whether it's the people I loved or loathed, the 4,000 victims wouldn't come back again. So that guy in the grey mantle must be one of the 12 Laughing Coffin members who survived. I should have known their names. I tried my best to endure the pain of searching through my memories as I tried to recall their information.
Then at that moment...
I again noticed a new possibility, and panted.
The metallic-like distorted voice that grey colored mantle guy let out was a rather deep whisper. What would it be like if he shouted with all he's got...
The roar from the voice file I heard a week ago rang deep inside my ears again.
"...This is real power, real strength! Foolish people, engrave the fear of these names in your hearts!"
"This gun's name and mine: «Death Pistol»... «Death Gun»!"
It was completely similar. I couldn't be mistaken. The voices would be the same.
That guy—
Was that grey mantle guy «Death Gun»?
If that's the case, my mission to dive into GGO, attract attention and become «Death Gun»'s target was quickly finished.
But... But, I never expected things to develop so quickly.
«Death Gun» was a survivor of SAO, and one of the original members of SAO— if that's the case.
Then he could use a gun inside the game to kill two players in the real world...
Maybe... Maybe... There really is such a power...
At this moment, I was suddenly tapped on the left shoulder, and nearly cried out. I was overly shocked as I trembled, and looked up, only to see the aqua-blue hair swaying in front of me.
"What's with your expression...?"
The girl— Sinon frowned as she said that. I could only force something like a smile at her.
"Ah...n-no, it's nothing..."
"Was your match just now a close call? But you came back rather early, didn't you?"
After hearing these words, I finally remembered that I was taking part in the preliminaries of the «Bullet of Bullets» tournament. I blinked, looked around, and found that the dome that's originally filled with players had about half of them left. It seemed that the first round of the preliminaries were already over, and the losers were transported to the surface. My next opponent should appear immediately, and the second round will then begin.
But in such a situation, I don't think I can still fight.
I continued to stare at Spiegel, who gave a somewhat shocked look from afar, and Sinon right in front of me before breathing out weakly from my mouth.
Immediately, Sinon gave a serious look and said,
"You're already so awkward after the first battle. You look like you definitely won't be able to make it to the finals. Buck up...I must pay you back for tricking me!"
After saying that, she raised her right fist and again slammed it on my shoulder.
I unconsciously used my hands to grab this little hand that was about to leave me. I then dragged it to my chest, and then kept her arm at my forehead.
"Wa-Wait a minute...what are you doing!?"
Sinon hurriedly whispered as she got ready to draw her hand back. However, I continued to grip onto the hand tightly and would not let go.
Even though it's heat that's coming from a polygonal avatar, it was able to give me this inexplicable warmth. Once I felt that terrifying freezing feeling that occupied my heart, my body started to tremble.
"...What are you doing...?"
I heard a bothered voice first, and then, I felt that small and warm hand at my chest start to relax.