Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  “…Speaking of which, something was weird just now….”

  “Just now?”

  “At that metal bridge. That guy did use the Blackstar to shoot Pale Rider, yet ignored Dyne who was left helpless beside, right? I thought Dyne would be shot too…”

  “Un…but he was already dead that time, right?”

  “He was dead, but actually, it was just that his HP was zero and that he could not move. His avatar was still there, so his own consciousness was still there. If it’s a power that exceeds the game, it doesn’t matter if the HP was there or not, right?”

  On hearing Sinon mention that, Kirito pondered for a while and then said,

  “…That’s true. It’s weird now that you mentioned it. Like the ruins just now, Death Gun only attacked Pale Rider and not Dyne at the bridge…”

  “In other words…you and Dyne, Pale Rider and me, we have common points. This player designates between those who he could attack and those he couldn’t attack…”

  Sinon pondered and muttered. Kirito nodded his head, and the shaking reached her body.

  “Un, you can put it that way. If we think through it, Zekushiido and Usujio Tarako should have similar conditions to you and Pale Rider…maybe it’s ability or ranking…”

  “Pale Rider’s strong, but he didn’t take part in the last tournament. As for BoB ranking, Dyne was in front of me.”

  “Then…maybe it’s because of another specific event?”

  “I don’t think so. Dyne and I were in the same squadron, so we trained together a few times. But I never even heard of Pale Rider’s name, let alone meet him.”

  “What about Zekushiido and Usujio Tarako?”

  On hearing Kirito’s question, Sinon could only turn her body over and give a wry smile. She looked at the serious expression on that pretty face, shrugged her shoulders and answered,

  “Those two were famous, on a completely different level from Dyne and me…Zekushiido was the winner of the last tournament, so Usujio Tarako was 5th or 6th, but he was the leader of the largest squadron in this game. I only talked to him once or twice.”

  “Uu…Then, it should be equipment or stats…”

  “Our equipment are all different. You know that I use a sniper rifle, and Pale Rider uses a shotgun. Zekushiido probably uses the extremely rare XM29 assault rifle, and Usujio Tarako uses the light machine gun Enfield. As for stats…ah.”

  “Hm?”

  Sinon seemed like she wanted to explain to the puzzled Kirito as she touched her eyebrows before continuing.

  “It’s not really a common point…if I have to say it, it’s «all those who don’t focus on AGI» But that’s a little far-fetched…some of us focus on STR, and some focus on VIT…”

  “Un…”

  Kirito curled his beautiful lips and continued to scratch his head.

  “So he just randomly picked targets without reason, is it…for some reason…I feel that there’s a certain reason…did you say that you once talked to Usujio tarako? What did you say to him?”

  “Well…”

  Sinon racked her thinned memory as she cupped her hands between her head and Kirito’s legs to act as a pillow. This should be a form of a lap pillow, right? Thinking till here, she started to feel embarrassed. But still, she shook her embarrassment aside with an excuse ‘it’s urgent now’.

  Thinking about it carefully, she found that she realized the she never touched other people like that for so long. It was like she put the burden in heart together with her own weight on him, and her heart just felt unbelievably safe. Just when Sinon secretly hoped that this could continue, the seemingly weak smile of Shinkawa Kyouji suddenly appeared in her mind, which made her rather sorry. If she could return safely to the real world, she would open her walled up heart to him and talk with him…

  “—Oi, Sinon, what’s with you and Usujio Tarako…”

  “Ah, un…un.”

  Sinon blinked and shook that fleeting thought away before searching that distant memory of hers again.

  “…We really talked only a little bit. I remember…after the last tournament, once we returned to the first level of the presidential building, I met him at the entrance. We started talking for about 2, 3 minutes, about what prize we want…I never met him directly in the battlefield, so that was just random banter.”

  “I see. Death Gun never appeared in the last tournament…was he angry that he didn’t get the prize…it doesn’t seem useful to speculate about baseless things.”

  Kirito sighed. He blinked a few times to change his mood and then lowered his head to look at Sinon.

  “Speaking of which, I never checked out the prizes…what did you get in the end?”

  On hearing Kirito suddenly change the topic, Sinon was somewhat impressed that he would want to know about the prizes at this moment and answered,

  “Ah~that could be chosen. We could choose according to our ranking…our rankings are rather good this time, so we should be able to get something good. Of course, we have to get back safely.”

  “Like what?”

  “Of course, guns and defense equipment…or else it would be unique colored dyes or clothing that people can’t buy. However, it doesn’t seem to be really good, just catchy-looking. They would even send model guns from the game.”

  “Model guns? In other words, not equipment in the games, but something you can get in the real world?”

  “Yeah. I got a really low rank during the last tournament, so I couldn’t get any great equipment. I chose the model gun. Speaking of which, Usujio Tarako said that he chose a model gun too…it was just a toy, but it use metal, and the finishing was very good. Shin…Spiegel said this to me. But I…”

  On remembering the pathetic state of the model gun she held in her hands a few days ago, Sinon’s face couldn’t help but give a wry smile.

  “—I always kept it inside the drawer and never looked at it carefully.”

  But Kirito seemed to notice something else and didn’t notice the expression on Sinon’s face.

  “Getting a prize…in the real world…?”

  He first whispered to himself softly, and then said in a serious tone.

  “That model gun was sent over by the operating company from America, right?”

  “Un, through EMS, so a lot of shipping fees must be involved. Can Zasker really earn money like this…”

  The moment Sinon finished saying that, she looked at Kirito’s face—but couldn’t help but blink. She saw the lightsaber warrior biting his lips and looking up at a certain point. It didn’t seem that he was thinking about what prize he could get.

  “Wha…what’s wrong? What are you thinking?”

  “…EMS…but—when I logged into GGO a while back, the system only requested for the player to provide the email, gender and age for our particulars. How did the operating company know about the participants’ addresses…”

  “Have you forgotten?”

  Sinon, who was lying down, raised her hands in a somewhat impatient manner,

  “During the BoB preliminaries yesterday. When we had to register at the operating machine at the first level of the presidential building, there was also a blank line to fill our real addresses and names, right? There should be other terms and conditions there. We can register without filling in the address, but we may be unable to get our prizes. You didn’t fill it up, right? You can’t fill it later, so you can’t get the model gun—eh, eh?”

  Kirito suddenly placed his hand on Sinon’s right shoulder and then brought his face over, causing her to make a strange sound. The girl froze as she thought that this person was about to do something shameful, but of course, that wasn’t the case—

  The lightsaber warrior gave a serious expression like never before and raised a new question. But Sinon couldn’t understand the importance of this question.

  “What did Dyne get in the last tournament?”

  “We, well….I remember it was equipment in the game. He once showed it to me before, a
coat that had ridiculous colors.”

  “What about Zekushiido?”

  “Who, who knows…he never talked to me before. How could I know? But…I heard that the person himself demands on efficiency, so shouldn’t be appearance and stuff. Speaking of which, he could have chosen the model gun too. I heard that the champion and third place could get a large sniper rifle. But…so what?”

  However, Kirito didn’t answer her question, and merely watched Sinon’s eyes before sinking into deep thought.

  “Not equipment in the virtual world…a model gun in the real world…if this is the common point between Sinon, Pale Rider, Zekushiido and Usujio Tarako…EMS addresses…machine at the presidential estate…that place was…”

  Kirito seemed to be daydreaming as he continued to murmur,

  “…Optical camouflage…if…it wasn’t just on the practice field…”

  The hand Kirito placed on Sinon’s right shoulder suddenly became as stiff as stone. He widened his eyes, and his black eyes continued to roll. The expression shown in his eyes was—shock? Or was it fear?

  Sinon couldn’t help but straighten her back and shout,

  “WHA…WHAT HAPPENED. WHAT’S GOING ON?”

  “Ahh…so it’s like this…so it was like this!”

  A deep hoarse voice came out from between the bright red bewitching lips,

  “I…made a grave mistake.”

  “Mis, mistake?”

  “…When playing VRMMOs…the player’s consciousness is moved from the real world to the virtual world, and the player then talks, runs and fights inside…so Death Gun most probably killed his targets in this world…”

  “It…it’s not…?”

  “No, the player’s body and heart doesn’t move. What’s different about the virtual world from the real world is that only the brain accepts lots of information. The players wearing the AmuSphere merely sees and hears the electric signals being transferred into digital images and sound effects.”

  “So…Zekushiido and the rest died at where the corpses were, inside their own rooms. And the real killer was at those places…”

  “Wha…what in the world are you trying to say…”

  Kirito immediately closed his lips and opened them again. The voice and presence he gave next seemed to reflect his inner fear as it became a freezing air that brushed past Sinon’s face.

  “«There’re two killers» The first one…that mantle guy attacks his target in the game. The second person had already entered the target’s room in the real world, and will attack the helpless players at the same time.”

  Sinon couldn’t immediately understand what Kirito meant when he said that. She raised her upper body weakly, went into a dazed phase before shaking her head in an interrupted manner, and then continued,

  “But…how…how can that be possible? How do they know the addresses of the players…”

  “Didn’t you say it before? A model gun was sent to your house?”

  “Then…then the culprit’s the operating company…? Or Death Gun hacked into the database…?”

  “No….that possibility is too small. Even if it was just an ordinary player, he could still know the address of the real target. Once that target’s a participant of the BoB tournament, and if the player chose a model gun…”

  “…”

  “The presidential building. The players who hope for the operating company to send the model guns to them would input their own real name and address over there, right? I was a little worried when I registered… it wasn’t a single room, with a large open space behind, right…?”

  Sinon finally understood what Kirito was getting at and could only hold her breath and shake her head.

  “You’re saying…that he saw the image on the screen from behind? That’s impossible. With the distance effect, he won’t be able to see the words once there’s some distance, and someone will notice him if he was so close.”

  “But what if he used a scope or binoculars? Someone I knew before said that she used a mirror to read the button code in the game. If I look through some item, I can negate the distance effect, right?”

  “What you’re saying is impossible. If so many people use some binoculars that way, they would be kicked out by the GM and banned. This is an American game. It’s rather strict with this like how it is with regards to sexual harassment.”

  But Kirito seemed to know how to argue back at this. The lightsaber warrior brought his face closer and then used a soft voice to raise his guess,

  “If…just if, that mantle of Death Gun…that «Metamaterial Optical Camouflage» can also work inside the city? The presidential lounge is rather dark. Nobody would discover if they became transparent and hid in the shadows, right? In that situation, if someone uses binoculars or a scope to spy on the screen image…it’s possible to spot the address and real name in the entered data, right…?”

  “…!”

  Invisibility—scope. With these two things, it was possible to do so. Basically, the game menu window on default is that others couldn’t see it, but the touchscreen-type terminals in the game could be used by many people, so on the default mode anyone could see the contents. Sinon herself did input her address and name when she registered for the last tournament and this tournament with the anyone can see mode. Was someone…no, rather, that Death God wearing the mantle hiding behind her back then? Just to write down other people’s names on the list of death?

  Sinon really couldn’t accept this guess, and thus she continued to try and argue back.

  “…Even if they know our addresses in the real world…how can they enter our rooms without a key? And, what about their families…?”

  “If it’s just Zekushiido and Usujio Tarako, both of them were living alone…and they were staying in old apartments. I guess what’s installed on the doors were first generation electric locks which weren’t really safe. Also, when diving into GGO, the real physical body would be in an unconscious state. Thus, no matter how much effort he had to use to enter, he wouldn’t worry about being discovered…”

  Kirito’s words made Sinon gasped.

  Ordinary houses were only installed with the electric keyless sensor lock like those on cars 7 to 8 years ago. Though it couldn’t be broken through physically, the first generation locks’ electrowaves were cracked and installed into a opening mechanism, making this device seem like some master key that can unlock all sorts of doors. Sinon remembered from the news in the past that this device could be sold for a high price in the black market. After that, Sinon bought a metal lock and an entrance keypad beside the electric lock, but still couldn’t remove that uneasiness on her back.

  «Death Gun» wasn’t some dead soul that was resurrected from her past memories, and neither was he a game character with a mysterious ability, but a real killer.

  As this reasoning continued, the realism came with it, and Sinon’s heart started to create another fear that was different from just now. She felt pressured by this resistance she couldn’t explain, and said out the final argument she could think of,

  “Th, then…the cause of death? You said it was heart failure, right? Was there something that could cause the heart to stop and fool the police and pathologists?”

  “Maybe they inserted some drug…”

  “Then…then they could just investigate to check it out, right? Like some traces of drugs that were injected…”

  “…The corpses were only found after a few days, so the rotting was rather serious. And… unfortunately, there are many incidents where hardcore VRMMO players die of heart failure. They often won’t eat and would only lie on the bed…if the room wasn’t broken into or if there wasn’t any money stolen, there would be a high chance that it would be determined to be natural death. The police seemed to have investigated the head of deceased, but they probably never thought that some drugs would be administered…if they never investigated this right from the start, it’s unlikely for them to find this evidence.”

  “…How is i
t possible…”

  Sinon used both hands to grab Kirito’s jacket, continuing to shake her head like some disobedient kid.

  Planning so hard just to kill people meaninglessly—she really couldn’t understand the mental state of the person. Sinon could only feel a huge evil intent in that unlimited darkness.

  “That’s crazy…”

  On hearing Sinon mutter, Kirito nodded his head as well.

  “Unn…it is crazy. I can’t understand it, but I think I could imagine why he wanted to do this. This guy spent so much effort probably to maintain his identity as a «Red Player». I…I could also feel that I was still a «swordsman» fighting on the front lines in Aincrad…”

  Sinon immediately imagined—that name that she never heard before should be the floating city in the stage called «Sword Art Online». Immediately she forgot her own fear and nodded her own head.

  “…I can understand…I can often see myself as a sniper…but if it’s not just that mantle guy, but who is his accomplice….?”

  “Un, I think there’s a high chance that the guy is most likely a survivor of SAO. Also, he may be a remnant of «Laughing Coffin»…both of them must work together flawlessly to accomplish such a killer plan…ah, don’t tell me…”

  Sinon’s eyes immediately seemed to be asking Kirito who looked like he discovered something.

  “Nothing, it wasn’t anything much…it’s just that, the Cross action that mantle guy drew…wasn’t just to show off to the audience, but also some trick to check the time on his watch. He has to plan the «crime moment» together with his accomplice in the real world. But it would be too unnatural to look at the watch before firing.”

  “I see…if a mini-watch is on the inside of the wrist, it would be right in front of the eye once it touches the head…”

  Sinon finally agreed with this assumption and nodded her head—

  Her shoulders were suddenly grabbed by Kirito in front of her. He slowly opened his mouth and gave an even serious expression,

  “Sinon—do you, live alone?”

  “U…un.”

  “Did you lock up the door and put the chain on?”

  “I lock the door other than the electronic lock…but my house’s the initial version…as for the chain…”