Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  Asuna felt a little numbness deep inside her mind.

  It wasn’t just some special hand sign. It was merely an ordinary «Cross». Besides seeing this in Western movies, there were many professional healer-type players in VRMMO who often do this to cast magic. Of course, a real Christian who sees this would feel really unhappy about this , but Asuna wasn’t a Christian, and the feeling just now wasn’t of anger of unhappiness. If she had to say it—it felt like her fingers undid a knot that wasn’t supposed to be removed…

  Asuna’s body got tense unknowingly as she widened her eyes. She watched the mantle guy on the screen finish drawing the Sign of the Cross and then put his left hand on the side of the handgun. He took half a step back on his right foot, turned his side to Pale Rider, and squeezed the trigger—

  “Ah…?”

  Someone suddenly let out a shocked voice.

  The mantle guy seemed to be thinking about something as he suddenly bent backwards.

  However, 0.1 second later, Asuna and the rest immediately knew why he had to do this. There was a large orange bullet that flew in from outside the screen. It grazed past the open mantle, through where the heart of the avatar was supposed to be and instead traveled through the empty air..

  Someone must have sniped at the mantle guy from far away. Also, Asuna saw that the bullet seemed to be coming from the left rear side of him. He actually dodged that attack with such an angle and speed brilliantly, and even though the game world was different, she knew that that was a rather impressive technique.

  The mantle guy dodged the bullet that was suddenly shot at him and then lifelessly brought his body back up. He then glanced to the left rear side. Though the face couldn’t be seen from deep within the hood because of the shadows, Asuna could feel that he was giving a frivolous smile.

  At this moment, a sharp pain occurred deep inside Asuna’s mind.

  —What’s going on? What’s with this feeling? Is this…a memory? But how’s that possible…I’ve never been to GGO before. I haven’t even seen the game screencaps…

  The mantle guy looked like he wanted to shoot through Asuna’s doubts as he again raised his handgun.

  This time, he finally squeezed the trigger at the player who collapsed due to numbness easily.

  The dry gunshot. The bronze empty cartridge flew out and landed on the barren land beside him.

  The bullet that was shot hit the Pale Rider who was on the floor right in the middle, creating a small spark on him. However, this didn’t look like a powerful hit that would deplete the HP completely.

  A second later, Pale Rider himself proved that Asuna wasn’t mistaken as he finally recovered from his numb state and turned around, putting the large gun in his right hand right in the mantle guy’s chest.

  “Woah, a huge comeback…”

  Asuna was also predicting that things would go as what Lizbet said.

  However…

  Let alone a gunshot or sparks, there wasn’t even the sound of a trigger being squeezed. Pale Rider’s gun rolled on the floor.

  Then, the owner of the gun slowly fell to the right—before collapsing on the ground again.

  Under the silver-grey helmet, they could see Pale Rider’s skinny nose and tightly closed lips. His lips were trembling, and he suddenly opened his mouth. Then, there was a silent intense emotion that came from deep within his throat. Asuna’s instincts were telling her that the player who was controlling this avatar was really experiencing shock and fear.

  “Wha…what is happening…?”

  As Lyfa cupped her mouth with her hand and said this, something even more unexpected happened. Pale Rider, who was lying flat on the floor, frozen as if a pause button was pressed, then vanished with a white static special effect.

  The special effect light still remained in the air even after the avatar disappeared before forming a word. However, the word that showed ‘disconnection’ was stepped on by a dark black boot. The mantle guy brought his left hand back into his mantle and stepped forward.

  It seemed that he knew where the camera was as he raised the handgun in his right hand and pointed at the screen. This cause Asuna to feel that the wall between the worlds of GGO and ALO—no, the real world and virtual world were destroyed, that her real body was being pointed at gunpoint, causing a chill down her back.

  Within the darkness deep inside the hood, the red glowing eyes flickered. At that moment, a robotic-like voice stuttered through the screen.

  “…My name, and the name of this gun, is «Death Gun»…«Death Gun»!”

  The robotic voice had a twisted and intense emotion. On hearing that voice, a largest crack formed deep within Asuna’s memories.

  That caused her to be unable to breath and increase her heartbeat. Her eyes were watching the hidden face that couldn’t be seen on the screen, and the face was lowering his chin. The voice rang again,

  “One day, I will, appear in front of you guys, again. And then, use this gun, to bring real death to you. I have, such, a power.”

  The black handgun let out a soft sound. If he squeezed the trigger now, the bullet would feel like it would really fly through the imaginary screen. This caused Asuna to be wary. The mantle guy seemed to have read through her fear and gave a smile from deep within the hood. And then, he said—

  “Don’t forget. Nothing’s, over. Nothing, is, over—it’s showtime—”

  On hearing those stuttered English words, Asuna seemed to be dealt the final blow or something.

  —I know that guy.

  I couldn’t be mistaken. I met him somewhere before. I even spoke to him. But where…

  No, I know the answer already. At that floating city…Aincrad. Not the safe duplicated world that’s floating in the sky of ALO now, but the real unique world I once spent 2 years in. «Sword Art Online» is not over yet. That guy basically left out these words from what he said just now.

  —Who is it? Who’s the player controlling that mantle avatar…?

  Asuna looked lost, but she was thinking quickly. She nearly jumped up from the sofa the moment she heard something hard land on the floor.

  On looking back, she found that Cline, who was sitting on the bar bench let the crystal-base cup in his right hand fall to the floor. The cup that dropped onto the floor broke into many fragments of polygons and disappeared. However, he didn’t care that this expensive player made set was destroyed at all as he widened the eyes under the headband.

  “Oi, what are you doing…”

  Cline stopped Lizbet from grumbling with a low and hoarse voice.

  “Im…impossible…that guy…don’t tell me…”

  On hearing this, Asuna really jumped up from sofa. She turned and shouted at Cline,

  “Cline, do you know him? Who exactly is that guy?”

  “No, not really…I couldn’t remember his old name…but…I can be certain…”

  This swordsman had deep fear in his eyes as he looked at Asuna, and then said,

  “That guy’s… a member of «Laughing Coffin».”

  “…!”

  This time, Asuna, and even Lizbet and Scilica gasped. Even for these two girls who lived in the middle levels, the atrocities this brutal murder red guild «Laughing Coffin» committed in Aincrad left a deep impression on them.

  Asuna subconsciously placed her hands on their shoulders and timidly asked Cline,

  “Don…don’t tell me…it’s the leader of those guys, that one who used a butcher knife…?”

  “No…that’s «PoH». Their manner of speaking is completely different. However…that ‘it’s showtime’ just now was the catchphrase that ‘PoH’ loved to say. This guy should be a high-ranking guy beside him…”

  Cline seemed to be moaning about something as he finished talking then turned to look at the screen. Asuna and the other 3 looked over as well.

  Right in the center of the large screen, the mantle guy kept his black handgun and started moving far away. He moved in a phantom-like gliding motion and arrived at the b
ridge in the far corner of the screen. However, he didn’t cross directly, but went through the perimeter of the bridge before reaching the rive. In contrast to the sharp shadows that were caused by the red sunset, the dark grey mantle immediately went into the shadow of the metal bridge and disappeared.

  At this moment, Lyfa’s weak voice broke the heavy atmosphere in the room.

  “Well…what’s that «Laughing Coffin»…?”

  “Well…”

  Scilica, who was sitting beside her, explained to Lyfa, who was the only one present not an original SAO player, the killing atrocities the red guild committed and their vanquishing.

  On hearing that, Lyfa immediately bit her lips and looked straight at Asuna with her jade-green eyes

  “Asuna-san, I think onii-chan may know that that person existed in GGO.”

  “Eh…?”

  “He came back really late last night, and I felt that there was something strange about him when I reached home…maybe…he went to GGO to settle a grudge…”

  On hearing those words, Asuna was immediately stunned, and this time, Lizbet silently grabbed her hand. The girl forcefully grabbed her friend’s hand to calm her down and then shook her short pink hair to raise the question she had,

  “But in that case…what about the job? Didn’t Kirito go to investigate GGO because of a request?”

  That’s right. The one who requested Kirito for this job should be the Virtual Division’s Kikuoka Seijirou, even if he was the person in charge of the «SAO Case Victims Rescue Force», he should know the relation between Laughing Coffin and the various Guilds.

  But at the same time, Kirito’s transfer and the existence of the mantle guy shouldn’t be just a coincidence. There must be a certain link, something that made Kikuoka notice GGO and request Kirito to assist.

  Asuna forcefully took a deep breath, still grabbing on to Lizbet’s hand which was holding hers and said,

  “I’m going off first to see if I can contact the person who requested Kirito-kun.”

  “Eh? Asuna-chan, do you know that person?”

  “Un. Everyone knows him…I’ll call him here to confess. He should definitely know the reason behind this. Yui-chan, while I’m gone, can you please check the relevant records of GGO to see if there’s data on that mantle player?”

  “Got it, mama!”

  The black-haired pixie on her shoulder flew to the table and closed her eyes as she started searching through the important information through the vast network flow.

  “…Then, please wait for me, everyone!”

  Once Asuna finished shouting, she shook her aquamarine hair, jumped over the sofa and quickly called out her window. She again nodded at everyone and immediately pressed the log out button.

  The rainbow colors immediately surrounded Asuna’s body, causing her soul to fly from the World Tree in the virtual world to the real world that’s distant away.

  Chapter 12

  Gun Gale Online. The system for this game did not have the «Warrior» or «Mage» class like RPGs in the past.

  Each player could choose to increase 6 of their «stats» like strength ‘STR’, agility ‘AGI’, vitality ‘VIT’ and dexterity ‘DEX’. Also, there are hundreds of «skills» that include ‘masteries’, ‘suggestion’, ‘first aid’ and ‘acrobatics’, forming one’s own build. In a sense, this means that there were as many classes as the number of builds.

  But on the other hand, a build that wasn’t planned—like having low STR and unable to equip a large machine gun and yet increasing the mastery of a heavy machine gun—would weaken one’s own ability. Because of that, there would definitely be a fixed pattern where people have to attain certain statuses and skills before being able to equip certain weapons. Based on the slight differences of the skills, everyone would classify similar players as «Attacker», «Tank», «Medic», «Scout» and all sorts of names for different classes.

  Though Sinon’s class as a «Sniper» was extremely rare, it was one of these. To equip a large-sized sniper rifle, they have to strengthen their STR status, and then have to increase their DEX to improve their accuracy, and finally a suitable amount of AGI to get away quickly from the scene after a snipe. However, they would lose if they were discovered, so they gave up on VIT completely. As for skills, they need the necessary gun mastery and also other skills that could improve their accuracy. Of course, they gave up completely on defenses. However, there’s also the possibility of a failed snipe because of the «heartbeat count system» even if the build was perfect, and this would be the hard part about this class.

  Such an overly specialized class wasn’t really suited for a battle royale. While aiming for an enemy far away, they could be easily approached by others. A sniper could only surrender once an attacker-type player with a submachine gun or an assault rifle rushes in. Even if a sniper barely managed to fire at the rushing enemy without aiming—which were normally unable to hit the target—the sniper would end up becoming a pincushion of bullets before they were able to get a second shot out.

  Because of the above reasons, if Sinon acted on her own, she would have no chance of winning if a mid-ranged shooter who would value accuracy like the attacker «Xiahou Dun» reaches the range where the Norinco CQ would hit.

  However, things were different now. Because of a chance occasion, beside her was a «lightsaber warrior» which no one else in the world of GGO would possibly have. This person looked like a black-haired beauty no matter how you looked at it—but he’s actually a boy.

  The ‘lightsaber’ was a weapon that the programmers of ‘Zaskar’ created out of their own whims, and its range would be far less than a sniper rifle.

  The shooting range was as long as the blade of the saber itself, about 1.2 meters. The GGO world’s smallest firearm «Remington Derringer» had a range of merely 5m, but the attack range of the lightsaber was a lot smaller than it. However, that energy blade that was glowing blue and white seemed to have power that far exceeded expectations. The fact that it was able to slice the .50BMG the Hecate fired from close range was the proof of it.

  In another perspective, since it could slice any bullet apart, it would mean that this would be the strongest defensive weapon in the world. But even with the «Bullet Line», it’s not easy to use a 3cm wide blade to defend against a rain of bullet that was coming at a supersonic speed.

  This needed a calm prediction of the bullet lines, order, and perfect response ability to use the sword. Also, the most important thing was not to show any fear when facing a fully-automatic rifle—

  What sort of training allowed him to learn such skills? Sinon really could not imagine it. No, this may not be just a VR game technique. It’s when the player merged with the avatar through his own experience, belief and power of his soul.

  Once he reloaded his weapon, Xiahou Dun then again grabbed the CQ and started firing wildly. However, the lightsaber in Kirito’s hand created numerous afterimages in the air and accurately picked out all the bullets that would hit him in the grid boxes and deflected them. Sinon could only feel that way on seeing from behind his back.

  This real ability that far surpassed the barriers of the virtual world and the real world was exactly what Sinon was looking for. She learnt the calmness of a sniper, no, a coldness—ruthlessness, and then wanted to use it to crush Asada Shino’s weakness. She had been moving through the wastelands during the past half year, looking for an opponent who would give her real strength.

  Ever since she met Kirito yesterday, Sinon had this thought that she wanted to fight with this powerful foe with all she got, and that she would get such strength if she could win.

  But at the same time, she noticed that another emotion was growing in her.

  I want to know him more, I want to talk to him more. What happened in that world before Kirito arrived in GGO? What kind of life did he have in that world, what did he learn, and how did he fight his way through? No—I want to know what kind of person he is in the real world. I had never had such tho
ughts about anyone else while growing up…

  “SINON, NOW!”

  Kirito cleared off the second barrage of bullets Xiahou Dun fired and shouted, and Sinon’s thoughts were brought back to the battle on hand because of that.

  Her right thumb cocked the trigger of the Hecate into semi-auto mode. Though she lacked concentration ability right now, with a distance of less than 100m, Sinon couldn’t possibly miss when she based her build on accuracy. The bullet of the Hecate landed directly in the middle of the general warrior-type armor Xiahou Dun was wearing, piercing through it.

  In a normal battle, a player whose HP was down to zero would shatter like glass and disappear. However, the special rules of the BoB tournament specify that the corpse would be at the scene. Xiahou Dun was sent flying back after he was hit, and the helmet decoration flew in the air. As he landed on the chilly ground in a wide position, the red [Dead] tag started to spin on him.

  ‘Fuu~’, Sinon heaved a sigh and got up, changing the magazine of the Hecate which could normally hold 7 bullets, but didn’t have much left. Then, she placed her rifle on her right shoulder and glanced at her temporary partner.

  Kirito skillfully spun the lightsaber in his hand and placed it back at his waist buckle. The side of his face was dimly illuminated under the red sunset, and looked as enigmatic as ever. After taking a deep breath to hold back that earlier desire to know about him, Sinon quickly said,

  “That battle just now will attract lots of people. We have to move quickly.”

  “Un.”

  Kirito nodded his head and then turned his eyes to the river surface nearby.

  “«Death Gun» should have headed north down this river. He probably want to hide somewhere until after the «Satellite Scanner» works at 9pm and then choose his next target. I want to stop him before he kills… shoots someone. Can you think of a plan, Sinon?”

  On hearing this sudden request, Sinon blinked a few times and then frantically thought about what she should do. Though she really couldn’t think of some good idea since she didn’t really understand what was going on, but she immediately opened her mouth and said,