Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  The reason to be overwhelmed was also, that the usual players hung on their shoulders and back; the clunky, black, rustic weapons—guns.

  It lacked the decorative-like element of swords and spears and instead, there was only one intention with guns. They are weapons. It was only for the sake of defeating the enemy that it was of this form and color.

  In other words, I saw something that can also be said of this world itself and I affirmed it in my mind.

  The only purpose to exist in this game is to “fight, kill, and rob.” ALO’s touted component of “enjoying activities in an illusionary world” was almost completely stripped away.

  Therefore, magnificent and pretty figures were probably a negative factor. For the sake of intimidating enemies, outward appearance was an important parameter for the soldiers. Why many of the males grew out their beards and carved out conspicuous scars on their faces was perhaps for this reason.

  As for how it concerned me, what kind of appearance does my avatar give off?

  I immediately wondered and looked over my own body. For the sake of my objective to be targeted by the prominent evil “Death Gun”, I wanted the form of a macho soldier from a Hollywood movie—

  … I had an unpleasant premonition.

  The skin on both of my hands was glassy white and the fingers were also surprisingly thin. My body, which was wrapped in a black military fighting jacket, depending on the circumstances, was more slender than me in reality. From the feeling of my viewpoint, somehow, I didn’t exactly think that my height was very tall either.

  Corresponding to the dive into Gun Gale Online, as I explained to Asuna a few days ago, I didn’t generate an initial character from the beginning. If I had done that, I would probably never be able to meet “Death Gun”, who targets strong people.

  Using the VRMMO development and support package, “The Seed”, and making generate—more than that, if I were to go into detail, for the worlds that operate with the “Cardinal” system, only one mutual meta-rule existed.

  If you use that function, it is possible to maintain those abilities if the character data that was built up in the game was transferred to a game administered by another company. It greatly resembled the SIM cards of cell phone terminals that you can potentially freely replace with a different carrier’s terminal.

  For example, you transferred a character with stats of 100 strength and 80 speed built up in a game labeled A to Game B. After doing so, a “Relative Preservation” transformation of Game A’s strength would occur, and in Game B, a character with 40 STR and 30 AGI would be born. To put it simply, a fighter-type warrior with strength in the upper middle level in ALO would be reincarnated as an upper middle fighter in GGO.

  Of course, this isn’t a function that increases the copies of a character. The moment it is converted, the character in the original world is completely eliminated and more so, because the only thing that could be transferred was the character, items could not all be brought over, though it is convenient, it was an act that required courage. This time, when I had to transfer over the character that I used in ALO “Spriggan Kirito”, to GGO, I forcibly left almost all of my items in a safe in the new general store that Egil just opened up on the 50th floor on New Aincrad.

  Now then, by the convert function, I acquired the strength of ALO’s Kirito, though, because the character was re-rolled and built up, it wasn’t the ridiculous status of the Kirito in SAO, but because I couldn’t bring over my appearance, like items, I couldn’t predict what kind of form would be randomly generated. Therefore, I might as well hope for the form of a brawny soldier, but…

  While feeling this unrelenting discomfort, I surveyed my surroundings, and walked up to the mirrored glass that adorned the dome that I had just left.

  Then, my eyes widened in astonishment.

  “What the hell is this!”

  What was being reflected in the glass was a form that was a hundred light-years away from my hopes.

  The height was obviously shorter than when I was a Spriggan, and furthermore, it was thinner. The hair color, without changing, was still black but, the hair flowed smoothly from the top of my head to around my shoulder-blades. My face was, just like my hands, an almost transparent white, and my lips were a vivid crimson.

  The eye color as well, even though it was black identical to the hair, it was shining excessively. Those eyes that were fringed with long eyelashes raised a pure yet bewitching sight from the mirror, so much so that I unintentionally forgot that the image was of myself and let my eyes wander freely. Again, I looked at the facade, and let out a long sigh.

  Asuna often said that SAO’s Kirito had a considerably feminine face but, this form was already beyond that level anymore. Just where the heck would you find a soldier’s strength in this form, and with that, I stood frozen in place, in a daze. A guy who was eating something a little way away suddenly waved at me and from behind, called out to me who was reflected in the glass.

  “Hey young lady, you have good luck! That avatar, F1300 type! That type rarely comes out. So how about it, since if it is now, you only just started, why don’t you sell that account? I’ll give you two mega credits!”

  “………………”

  Stopping my thoughts about my current state for the moment, I looked at the guy’s face but, suddenly, a certain possibility arose and, in a fluster, using both hands, I touched my chest. But fortunately, there was just a feeling of flatness so my misgivings were gone. It seemed that my fear of a sex reversal accident was unfounded.

  The recent VR games, for almost all of the titles, forbid changing the sex of the player and avatar. The reason is because the long-term use of an avatar of the opposite sex results in adverse effects for the spirit and body that cannot be ignored. However, I have heard that, because the identification of the players’ sex occurs due to the players’ brain waves, in extremely rare cases, due to some impulse the system decides with the opposite sex, players have been startled when they dive in.

  Now that I think about it, changing the sex setting was possible in the original SAO, but immediately after the start, the system reverted us to our original sex, I wonder if after all, it was because Kayaba understood the adverse effects … and with those sudden out of place thoughts wandering around in my head, I finally looked at the male face, and while shrugging my shoulders, I replied.

  “Uhh … I’m sorry but, I’m a guy.”

  That voice too, though slightly lower, was sufficient to be a tone widely used by girls. Dejectedly, while I was waiting for an answer, the guy, after becoming speechless for a short while, started to talk on and on with vigor.

  “Then, then, is that M9000 type!? That’s, that’s amazing .. Then I’ll give you four, no, five megacredits. Sell it to me, by all means, sell it to me please!!”

  Selling it, let alone giving it to you, I wanted to exchange it with your outward appearance but, unfortunately, that isn’t something that I can do.

  “Um, this isn’t my initial character but a converted one. It can’t easily be exchanged for money. Sorry.”

  “I … I see …”

  The guy, with a characteristic face of disappointment, observed me from all sides but before long, pulling himself together, he asked,

  “Gossip then, that rare avatar that seems to be used for a long time in the previous account. As a reference, can you count up your previous account’s play time for me?”

  “What? My, my play time?”

  I suddenly thought about it. The account before I converted, basically, the play time of the swordsman Kirito that went from SAO to ALO was at least around 2 years… in other words, seven hundred and 30 days multiplied by twenty-four hours.

  “Uhh… ten thou …”

  I started to answer truthfully, but I quickly caught myself. Because it has only been three years since the VRMMO game genre came out, the only ones who have up to ten thousand hours of dive experience are the former SAO players.

  “Uh, around one y
ear. That’s why, of course it’s a coincidence right?”

  “I see … well, if you change your mind, please contact me.”

  After saying that, he pushed an item resembling a transparent card on to me and reluctantly departed. These were cards that had the character name, sex, guild and other things written on them, but then it disappeared into light particles while I was looking at it, but the data had probably been added to the address book or something else in the system window.

  With a sidelong glance, I still glared at the me that was unrelentingly reflected in the evil glass, and I wondered if there was something that I could do about it, but nothing came to mind.

  This conversion log is embedded into my character data so when I returned to ALO I will be in Kirito’s pointy-haired Spriggan form, but if I convert to the GGO world once again, I will get assigned to this avatar which one couldn’t tell apart whether male or female.

  ‘Looking for good luck inside of misfortune’ is my motto so I, for a few minutes, thought about this and that and finally, I spun out a “good thing.”

  The reason that I came to this world was solely to contact the rumored player who was called «Death Gun» and although I didn’t want to be attacked, it was the only way in deciding the authenticity of that power by any means possible. For that reason, as long as I showed off my strength, I would definitely stand out.

  Because GGO, from the nature of the game, probably has a very small amount of female players, this form that looks like a pretty girl at first glance will definitely stand out in a way that I didn’t want to. They would be extremely unlikely to wish for even a fragment of such things like the intimidating air of a battlefield, but here, there is no choice but to covet more combat capability.

  In relation to advertising strength, for now, there is one way.

  With the common gameplay—in other words, with things like dungeon clearing, and something I don’t want to do, namely player killing, time is needed for your name to become famous. However, fortunately, in this game, in just a few days, the event to decide the strongest player «Ballet of Bullets» will be held. I’ll register for that event and advance to the finals of the battle royal match. If I cut to the top, I would certainly be noticed by «Death Gun» or perhaps, depending on the circumstances, there is the possibility that the person himself would show up on that stage.

  Diving into a game for the first time, I felt uneasy about how I was going to fight or how much, but anyway, I couldn’t do anything but try and find out. Fighting against someone who fights with a gun is probably not the same as fighting an archer or a mage in ALO but, generally speaking, there are limits with VRMMO’s; there should be a decently common feature. I can only try as much as I can - if I can’t reach that power, at that time, it would become the responsibility of Kikuoka who forced this unreasonable task on me.

  Anyhow, first is the tournament entry procedure and then the equipment purchase.

  I looked at my body one last time, sighed, turned in the direction of the main street, and then started to walk. Immediately afterwards, I realized that I was unconsciously fingering the hair that was swinging against my cheek and was assailed by a dark and gloomy mood.

  —After a few minutes, all too quickly, I was lost.

  The city with the strange name of «SBC Grokken» seems to take the form of a huge floor with many multilayered structures seemingly piled on top of one another. In front of me while I was standing still, there were a series of hierarchical buildings like a smaller scale of the floating city Aincrad, the colors of the sunset peeping through the apertures in the distance. The buildings, lined up as if to penetrate the layers and connected with escalator and elevator like corridors through the air, shining and sparkling were, truthfully, beautiful but, in all practicality, were also rather complex like a dungeon.

  Of course, I could have brought out a detailed three dimensional map from the main menu but, with my current position, in actuality, it couldn’t compare to the scene spread out right before my eyes.

  If this was a standalone RPG, I would recklessly walk around in desperation, and even have to walk back to the starting point, but fortunately, this is an MMO. At times like these, there is a measure that one could take.

  I found the tag of a person coming and going in front of my eyes that were not of an NPC but a player, and trotting over, called out from the rear.

  “Excuse me. I seem to be a little lost…”

  And then, immediately thought that I had messed up.

  It was because, however I looked, the person turning around was a girl.

  The thin pale blue swaying hair was casually short but there was a tuft of hair tied up on both sides of her forehead. Under her distinct eyebrows, large indigo colored eyes that gave off a feline ambiance was shining, and a small nose with a color that continued to her thin lips.

  Unwillingly, I had a thought that by some possibility, this person was the same as me and was a boy with a girl-like avatar and ran my eyes over her body with lightning speed but, under the sand-colored scarf, through the open zipper of the jacket, the shirt visually expanded out. Furthermore, she had a considerably small stature. Why I didn’t realize that was because my line of sight had also been considerably lowered.

  In VRMMO’s, situations when a male player who calls out “I’ve lost my way” to a female player, up to 70%, were entirely to flirt.

  —However, unexpectedly, that kind of facial expression immediately disappeared.

  “… Did you just start this game? Where are you going?”

  The mouth that talked in a clear and pretty voice even had a faint smile appearing. Puzzling it over in my mind as to why that could be, I finally hit upon the reason. This girl was making the same misunderstanding as the avatar buyer who had talked to me earlier. That I was a girl like her. How the hell did this happen.

  “Ah…um…”

  On reflex, I thought to clear up my gender but right on the verge of doing so, I stopped.

  There is a certain reason to this, as the circumstances of this situation seem to be good. After this, at another time, if a male player were to call out to me and misunderstand that I am female, it can become a little bit of a difficult situation. ‘Use whatever you can use’ is my second motto so, though it is a bit mean to this girl, it’s best to just leave this misunderstanding as it is.

  “Yes, it is my first time. Is there a cheap weapons shop and the administrative building? I want to go to those places but…”

  After answering with a comparatively, slightly less husky voice, the girl inclined her head in confusion.

  “The administration building? What are you going there for?”

  “Well… to register for the battle royal event happening soon…”

  The moment she heard that, the girl’s big eyes grew wide and started blinking with surprise.

  “Uh…uhhhh, even though you just started today? Well, there is nothing about who can or can’t register for the event, but your level is probably not sufficient…”

  “Ah, this isn’t an initial character. It was converted from another game….”

  “Wow, so that’s how it is.”

  The girl’s indigo blue eyes momentarily flashed, and this time, her mouth rose up in a clear smile.

  “Is it alright if I ask? Why did you decide to come to this game that’s full of dust and reeks of oil?”

  “That is… uhh, until now, I’ve always been playing just fantasy games but, I thought once in a while, I should try a cyber-like game… something like a gun battle seemed interesting.”

  Well, this wasn’t exactly a lie. How far the VRMMO sense of someone like me who specializes in fighting with swords can go in GGO somewhat interests me.

  “I see. That’s why you suddenly want to attend the BoB. You’ve got guts.”

  The girl, after a laugh, nodded.

  “Alright, I’ll show you around. It just so happens that I’m also going to the administration building. Before that is the gun sho
p right? Is there a gun that you like?”

  “Uh, well…”

  Even though she said it, nothing immediately came to mind. After I couldn’t come up with an answer, she smiled again.

  “Well then, let’s go to a market with many different types. This way.”

  Immediately turning around, I frantically chased after the tail of the scarf worn by the girl who had already started to walk.

  We walked through winding paths, walkways, alleys, and staircases from one to another that I thought were impossible to remember and after walking a number of minutes, we reached the main street that the path had opened up onto. Positively, I saw a dazzling shop that I thought was a major company’s foreign investment group.

  “Over there.”

  She smoothly wove her way through the crowd and approached the shop.

  The large interior of the shop was full of various colored lights and noises that it was like an amusement park. The NPC clerks were all beautiful women scantily clad in large silver costumes and lavishing an innocent business smile, but what was shocking was what they were all holding and what was adorning every wall. Shining with a black light, they were all hand guns and machine guns and the like.

  “It’s… It’s certainly an interesting store.”

  After saying so, the girl next to me also let out a wry smile.

  “Truthfully, rather than at the overall shops aimed at beginners, you can find better bargains at the more specialized shops. But anyway, if we can find the gun type that you like, then that’s fine too.”

  Even if she said so, there were many players wearing flashy colored clothes loitering around the inside of the shop, who, compared to the desert color of this girl, gave off the feeling of being beginners.