Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  “Wh… Why not?”

  “Well, that is because, if you don’t cross over into close-range, you can’t hit, and to get that close, without a doubt, you’ll become like a honeycomb…”

  The girl stopped her words there and with her lips slightly open, stared at me.

  Almost grinning, I just smiled and responded.

  “In other words, it’s alright as long as I can get close, right?”

  “Bu-But, even though your evasion skills are amazing, against a full auto gun… ah.”

  While the girl had not yet finished speaking, with my finger, I pressed on the one with a metallic black hue coating that I liked. I selected [BUY] from the choices in the popup menu that appeared and with great speed, an NPC salesperson rushed over and with a smile, presented a metallic panel like object. I realized that the green surface scanner in the middle of the board was the same as the cashier in the earlier game and pushed on it with my right palm.

  The sound effect of the cash register chimed happily, and the panel showed a black photon sword appearing with a *fuun* sound effect. I took it, and the shop attendant said ‘thank you for your patronage~’ and bowed before returning back to its position.

  “…Ahh, I bought it.”

  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 was 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 a 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?”

  “Un.”

  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 this 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 there’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 was 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 a ‘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 buggys, 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!”

  I called out after the buggy had already raced out. Once I arrived on the road, I made a right turn out when the wheel was about to make sparks with the ground, and stepped on the gas pedal. After changing gears, the meter showed more than 100km. this time, I really felt that it’s great that I wasn’t riding on an electric scooter but an old bike.

  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’s really hard to handle. There aren’t 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 rode on an old-fashioned bike. Speaking of which, riding a buggy was just like riding an electric scooter, and I got my bike because an acquaintance of Egil was willing to hand it over to me for free, which was why I would work so hard to get a license of a medium-sized bike. 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 get 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.

  “Spaceship…ahh, so that’s why this city is long.”

  “Un. The actual name is «SBC» or «Space Battle Cruiser» for short. Registration 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 adverts 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 don’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.”

  “Un, 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 l
et myself be «Death Gun»’s target, the term «prize» caused my soul as a 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 already registered successfully and the time for the first round of the prelims. Unexpectedly, the day was today— 30 minutes later.

  “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.

  “Un, 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…”