Sword Art Online

Chapter 6

Turning on the LED lights and leaning sideways to turn while on my bike, I passed through a large gate.

At that moment, feeling the critical gazes of the people walking on both sides of the avenue, I lowered the speed of my bike in a hurry.

This 125cc, 2-stroke, Thai-made, dilapidated motorcycle obtained through Agil's connections was, in this era where electric scooters are common, emitting noise. When she rode with me, Suguha would explode with complaints like "Noisy— Smelly— Uncomfortable to ride." Each time, I'd lie by saying that if she could get used to the wind then she could get used to the noise, but I regretted not choosing a 4-stroke scooter as well.

Possibly, the place I was rushing to was somewhere like this, especially if it was within the grounds of the hospital.

With the speed of a donkey pulling a wagon, I slowly continued along the avenue and saw the parking lot entrance ahead. Relieved, I rode in and parked at the edge of the motorcycle lot. I took out the real ignition key even in this era, and while taking off the helmet, I could faintly smell disinfectant riding on the cold December wind.

It's Saturday, one week after my meeting with Kikuoka in the expensive cake shop.

I had left after reading the email saying that the preparations for my starting area in Gun Gale Online were finished. What kind of place was I heading to? It was a large municipal hospital in the Chiyoda ward, a municipal of central Tokyo. Though I don't usually enter the heart of Tokyo, I already knew the way. It was the same hospital I was previously hospitalized in for my muscle rehabilitation after being freed from SAO.

Though rehabilitation had only taken a month before I was discharged, I had continued to commute back and forth along this road many times for examinations and the like. In the past half year, I hadn't visited the hospital, but when I looked up at the white building, which had become a familiar sight, strong feelings of nostalgia and forlornness rose to the surface. I lightly shook my head, shook out the sentiments, and started walking in the direction of the entrance.

The discussion six days ago on Sunday in which I explained my current situation to Asuna reappeared in my mind. It had been at the promenade in the Imperial Palace near this hospital.

"...Eeeeeehhhhhhh!? Ki...Kirito-kun, are you quitting ALO...!?"

I saw Asuna's eyes, wide with disbelief, begin to grow teary, and shook my head vigorously in a hurry.

"Th... that's not it, that's not it at all! It will just be for a few days; I'll immediately transfer back! The... the truth is, because there is a certain reason, I have to check out another VRMMO..."

With this appeal, Asuna finally relaxed her shoulders and, this time, a dubious look rose to the surface in her eyes.

"Check it out...? If that's the case, why can't you make a new account like usual? Why do you have to convert over?"

"That, that is... It's that 'Glasses' from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications..."

Then, with some difficulty, I explained why Kikuoka Seijirou's summons comprised half of the reason why the place of the date was the Imperial Palace while intentionally omitting one part.

Just as we arrived at the gate, we finished our general conversation, returned our admission ticket at the window booth, and when we were near the Hirakawa Gate Bridge that spanned over the moat, Asuna, with a really complicated face, said.

"Kikuoka-san's request... Then it seems like it can't be helped. I, somehow feel unsure if it's alright to put my faith completely in him or not... But I am extremely in his debt..."

"No, I have the same feeling."

At that moment, we both wryly smiled.

But Asuna immediately returned to a serious expression, gripping my hands tightly and saying.

"...Return as quickly as you can. 'That' place is our only home.."

I nodded, lowered my gaze to the surface of the moat and replied.

"Of course. I'll return to ALO as soon as possible. It's just research on what's going on in the «Gun Gale Online» game."

—That's right.

I wasn't completely honest with Asuna about the true purpose of Kikuoka's request. In short, the core of my mission was to contact the player who might possess a mysterious power, the rumored «Death Gun». I didn't tell her, because I believed that if I did say it, she would undoubtedly stop me, or perhaps propose to dive together.

It was a selfish excuse, but I had already decided that I have no intention of letting her anywhere near a virtual reality with the slightest hint of danger.

Of course, I also believe that, probably 90% of the time, the «Death Gun» talk was a product of rumors.

That, from a virtual reality, a human in the real world could be killed.

No matter how many times I thought about it, I could not believe that such a thing was possible. AmuSphere, no matter how you say it, is only a machine a bit more technologically advanced than a normal TV. Technology such as «Virtual Reality» and «Full Dive» tend to seem magical but, in the end, it was merely a convenient tool, and was by no means something like a magic item that could detach the soul from a person's real body and transport it to a parallel world.

But, the remaining one-tenth of the probability moved my legs to this place.

Many months ago, I was sorting an accumulation of old electronic magazines within my PC storage; one magazine was published just before the operation of SAO. In it I discovered a short interview with Argus Director Kayaba Akihito. There, while he was alive, he talked about 'it'.

—'It' referred to the «Realized World» called An Incarnating Radius, abbreviated as Aincrad. Within it, all players would see many dreams becoming a reality. They would find swords, monsters, and mysteries, without stopping to realize that amongst those game-like symbols, a power which forces even the players themselves to change exists in that world—

Undoubtedly, I've changed. Asuna, as well, has changed. Even Agil, Klein, Liz, Silica and the others, as in that world, in the two years that passed, we definitely experienced a change in personality to a degree that we cannot return to how we once were.

But, what if we assumed Kayaba's «evolution» did not stop there...? Thanks to the VRMMO execution package «The Seed», now, while at the nook of the limitless growth of the VR Nexus, if we can assume the framework called reality and virtual reality itself are able to change, what kind of factors will be born...?

Making an *uin* sound, the automatic door in front of my eyes opened and the smell of detergent and warm air surged forward and interrupted my unending thoughts.

On top of the fact that two GGO players died in the real world, I cannot affirm that contacting «Death Gun» would pose absolutely no danger. After I return to ALO, if I am honest about this to Asuna, she will definitely get mad. But eventually, she will surely understand.

To me —who supposedly cut off the time to monitor Aincrad, the person named Kirito who released «The Seed» package into the world— there were no other choices beyond this.

After visiting the bathroom, relying on the printout of Kikuoka's email, I finally arrived at the designated room on the third floor of the hospital ward. There wasn't a patient's name on the plate beside the door. After knocking, I pulled the door open—

"Ossu! Kirigaya-kun, long time no see!"

The one who greeted me was a nurse I was acquainted with. She took care of me previously during my long rehabilitation.

Under the nurse cap, her long hair was braided into three thick strands where at the end of that, a small, white ribbon swung. Dressed in a light pink uniform, her considerably tall stature for a girl cast a sharp silhouette that most certainly appeared to be a temptation for the hospitalized patients. On the left side of her chest was a small nameplate with «Aki» written on it.

The small face expressing a smile was certainly, appropriately clean and beautiful like a white-robed angel, but, responding as necessary, knowing she can become scary when she likes, I got out of my stupor in one second and hurriedly lowered my head.

"Ah... He-Hello, sorry for not contacting you."

At that moment, Nurse Aki suddenly extended both of her hands, and touched me, from my shoulders to my arms, and tightly grasped the sides of my stomach.

"Wa...waaa!?"

"O—, you've sufficiently put on some meat. But, it isn't sufficient yet, have you been eating correctly?"

"I, I've been eating, I've been eating. But, uh, how should I put it, why is Aki-san here?"

I looked around the room but in the small, private room, there weren't any other people.

"I heard about you while talking with that government official with glasses. By all means, for the sake of that government official, the virtual... network? You're doing an investigation? Even though it hasn't been a year since you came back, it's difficult, isn't it? Given that, since I was in charge during your rehabilitation, I was requested to keep check of the monitors, and today, I got out of my normal shift. Having talked to my superiors, as one would expect from the power of the state, I certainly felt that. Anyway, again, for a short while, we'll be working together, Kirigaya-kun."

"Ah... Sa-Same here."

Somehow, believing that I am weak to beauties, he came up with this shrewd plan, Kikuokaaaaa— while cursing the agent who wasn't there in my mind, with a smile, I grabbed the hand that Nurse Aki held out.

"...So, that government guy with glasses didn't come?"

"Yeah, he said something about a meeting that he couldn't get out of. He entrusted me with a message for you."

I opened up the manila envelope that was handed over and took out the handwritten piece of paper.

'The report was forwarded by mail to the usual address. It has been requested for the overhead expenses to be paid completely with remuneration after the mission is completed. P.S.: Just because you are alone with a beautiful nurse in a private room, you shouldn't let your youthful impulses run wild.'

At that moment, I crushed the memo completely with the envelope and threw it into the pocket of my rider jacket. If this was read by Nurse Aki, her harassment act could really be prosecuted.

Offering a stiff smile at the suspiciously winking female, I said.

"Ah— ...Well then, we should immediately connect to the net."

"Ah, yes yes. Let's start the preparations."

At the side of the bed that I was guided to, bright colored monitors were lined up and on top of the bed rest, a brand new AmuSphere was giving off a silver radiance.

"Now then, strip, Kirigaya-kun."

"What... What!?"

"The electrodes, to stick them on. In any case, when you were hospitalized, I saw everything already so you don't have to turn red—"

"... Uh, is only the top okay...?

After Nurse Aki thought for a moment, fortunately, she nodded. Resignedly, I took off my jacket and my long-sleeved shirt and lay down on the bed. All at once, the electrodes used by the electro-cardiogram monitor were stuck to various places on my upper body. In terms of AmuSpheres, there exist some that also have heart rate monitors but Kikuoka seemed to have misgivings that the feature might be taken down by cracking. Looking at that one thing, I understood that he is, at least somewhat, truly concerned about my safety.

"Alright, with this, everything is ready."

When the nurse checking the last monitor nodded deeply, fumbling, I picked up the AmuSphere, put it on my head, and turned on the power.

"Uh, well then... I'm off. Probably, I'll be diving for around four, five hours so..."

"Alright. I'll properly watch over Kirigaya-kun's body so don't worry and take care."

"I... I'm in your care."

I wonder how things turned out this way... While I was thinking about this question, seemingly after everything that had happened, I closed my eyes.

At the same time, with my ears, the electronic sound informed me of standby completion.

"Link Start"

After reciting the command, the radiating white light that I had grown used to seeing blocked my field of vision, my consciousness was released from my body.

The moment that I landed in the virtual world, I remembered that faint uncomfortable feeling.

The reason was confirmed after a few seconds. That's because the sky had one side dyed with yellow with traces of faint reddish tinges.

I heard that the time inside «Gun Gale Online» was synchronized with reality. In other words, since it was just one o' clock, the sky was supposed to be the same blue that could be seen through the window earlier in the hospital. Despite this, the sky showed the depressing color of twilight, there was no discernible reason for this.

Anyway, after imagining one thing after another, I shrugged my shoulders and ignored it. The desolate earth setting of GGO was modeled on Earth after the last war. It was probably a production for the sake of giving an apocalyptic atmosphere.

Once again, I turned my eyes to the majestic appearance of GGO's central city «SBC Gurokken» spread out in front of me.

As one would expect, an excellence that only exists in SF VRMMO, that form differs a lot from the newly established capital city «Yggdrasil City» of the world up in the tree, Alfheim and from the previous Aincrad's layered levels' fantastic townscapes.

The buildings with a metallic feel rose as if piercing the heavens, air corridors connecting them together like the mesh of a net. Neon colored hologram advertisements were busily streaming in the gaps between the buildings; approaching the ground, they increased in number, like a flood of color and sound.

Finally, I looked at the ground and what I was standing on was not anything like soil or stone, but a path paved with metal plates.

Behind me was what seemed to be a domed building established as the initial character starting location, and in front of me, a street like a city's main street stretched out. To the left and right of the street, questionable shops were tightly lined up in a spectacle resembling some side street in Akihabara.

Then, the players coming and going were also only groups that held an atmosphere that couldn't go straightforward. Overwhelmingly, there were a lot of males. Perhaps it was due to my experience with ALO, which has a relatively high proportion of females, or possibly, that world's inhabitants' delicate fairies. The sight here instead was overwhelmingly of rough men, strutting while wearing military camouflage jackets and black body armor. Truthfully, it gave a feeling of oppression and, how should I put it, excess, or if I say it clearly, filth. In addition, with all of those unfriendly eyes, truthfully, it was hard to talk to them.

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 Agil just opened up in the Yggdrasil City.

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 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 seems to have been used for a long time in a 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 year. 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 «Bullet 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 Gurokken» 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 were 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. Where would a cheap weapons shop and the administrative building be? 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 royale 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 shop 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.

"Now then, what kind of player are you?"

After being asked, I immediately thought about it. Due to converting from the other world, the tendency of the character's abilities would have been brought over.

"Umm, main focus is strength and then speed... I guess?"

"A strength-agility type huh. Then, probably the type who carries a heavy assault rifle or a large diameter machine gun for the main arm and a handgun for a sidearm would be good... but, you just converted right? Then, money is..."

"Oh... right"

In a flash, I shook my right hand and brought out my window. Even if my abilities were transferred by the convert, it couldn't transfer over items and money. Therefore, the amount of money shown at the bottom of the storage column was—

"Um... 1000 credits."

"...So the initial amount."

When our gazes met, I was met with a troubled smile.

"Yeah..."

Her expression returning, the girl touched her thin lips with her fingertip and inclined her head.

"...With that amount of money, you probably can't buy anything more than a small ray gun... for a live ammunition gun, a second hand revolver... what to do... umm, if it's okay..."

Guessing what she was trying to say, I hurriedly shook my head. No matter what MMO, a newbie who receives too much help from a veteran cannot be praised. I didn't come to this game to have fun but, even so, as a gamer, there is a line that I cannot cross.

"No, it's okay. You don't have to do that. Um... Is there somewhere where I can make some money fast? If I'm not mistaken, I heard that there was a casino in this game..."

The girl, as expected, showed a smile that was slightly amazed.

"For such places like that, it would be better if you have an excess amount of money. That said, around here, there are both small and big ones. If I remember correctly, in this store..."

Pivoting her head, she pointed to the inside of the shop.

"There's a similar kind of gambling game. Look."

Looking closer, it was a large walled off area that, in terms of game machines, was an excessively large substitute.

It was roughly 3 meters wide and 20 meters long. Laid out on metal tiles, surrounded by a waist high fence, an NPC dressed with a gunman butt strap was standing the furthest inside. At the front, instead of a fence, there was a metal closure bar where I could see a square cashier-like pillar.

Behind the gunman, who would sometimes draw his handgun from the holster on his hip, twirl it around with the end of his finger, on the brick wall with countless bullet holes etched into it, at the top, there was a pink neon sign with the word "Untouchable".

"...This is?"

After I asked, the girl, while shifting her finger, explained it to me.

"It's a game where you enter the gate in front of you and while avoiding the gunfire of the NPC inside, you try to see how close you can approach. The highest score until now is, look over there."

Where her index finger was extended and pointing to, in the inner part of the fence on the floor, there was a thin, red, luminescent line. It slightly exceeded two-thirds of the entire area.

"Wow, how much can you receive?"

"Um, it costs 500 credits to play and you get 1000 if you break through ten meters, and 2000 for fifteen meters. And if you can somehow touch the gunman, you get all of the money that players have poured in up until now."

"All, all of it!?"

"Look, the sign indicates that there is a carry over. 1, 10, around 300,000 huh."

"That... That's an incredible amount of money."

"But it's impossible."

The girl immediately replied and shrugged her shoulders.

"That gunman, once you cross the eight meter line, will respond with cheating quick draws. Even though it's a revolver, with an unreasonable high speed reload, it does a 3-round burst fire. By the time you can see the prediction line, it's already too late."

"Prediction line..."

At that time, the girl pulled my sleeve and with a small voice, whispered.

"Look, there is someone who will increase the sum again."

Returning my eyes from the gunman to the entrance, a three-person group of guys were approaching it.

In that group, one person, the guy who was wearing a military jacket apparently intended for use in cold areas with a gray on white camouflage, stood in front of the gate while psyching himself up. He pushed on the top portion of the cashier panel with the palm of his right hand, and with just that, the fare was paid and exceptionally lively fanfare resounded. All at once, from here and there, a gallery of around 10 people gathered.

The NPC gunman shouted a "Let's knock this bastard's ass up to the moon!"—like slang, and brought his right hand to the holster holding his gun. In front of the cold camouflaged male, a green hologram indicating a large number {3} materialized, with a sound effect accompanying the decrease to 2, 1 and at the same time as it reached 0, the metal bar at the gate opened.

"Nuuuuuooooooorrrryyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The cold district guy, while raising a war cry, dashed a few steps or so I thought, and spread out both legs and did an emergency stop. He opened his eyes completely, and suddenly, bent his upper body to the right, raised his left hand and right foot in a strange posture.

'What kind of dance is that?', is what I thought and at that moment, bullets, shining brightly red, passed through the space ten centimeters to the left of the cold district guy's head, under the left armpit, and under the left knee. The NPC gunman had pulled his gun from his holster and fired three shots in a row. It was a splendid evasion but it was like the cold district guy seemed to understand the course that the bullet traveled through.

"...Just now, that was the trajectory...?"

I whispered, turning my head and the girl with the water colored hair nodded, and replied with the same low voice.

"That's right. Evasion by means of «Trajectory Perception»."

The cold district guy ferociously dashed again right as the firing line disappeared and again, halted immediately. This time, he spread both legs wide and bent his upper body ninety degrees.

Immediately, along with a high-pitched growl, two bullets passed above his head and one below his crotch. Forward again and then halting. It was like a game of «Red Light/ Green Light»

The cold district guy showed quick movements, and all at once, he had advanced seven meters. At that moment, I thought, 'another three meters and he can get back twice the amount he used to play.'

Up until now, the NPC, who has been rapidly firing three shots steadily in the same interval, unloaded the bullets with a lag between the first two bullets and the third bullet. The cold district guy avoided the bullet that flew late with a jump but, with the landing, he destroyed his balance and one hand approached the ground. When he tried to stand up in a rush, it was already too late. The gunman's right hand flashed and the emitted firing line scattered orange colored sparks on the guy's white vest.

A miserable fanfare played. The gunman shouted out abusive victory words and the pool money display in the background, accompanied by a small metallic sound, rose by five-hundred credits. The cold district guy dropped his shoulders, and dejectedly walked out of the gate.

"...so?"

The girl next to me, while slightly smiling under her scarf, shrugged her shoulders.

"Because you definitely can't move in a straight line, you can only move largely to the left and right and whatever you try, that is the limit."

"Hmm...I see. When you can see the perception line, it's already too late."

While I was muttering, I was moving my legs forward and approaching the gate.

"Wait... Wait a sec, you..."

To the girl with wide eyes trying to stop me, I returned a light smile and pushed my right hand on the cashier.

I heard a sound like an old style register. A lively sound reverberated.

Perhaps because of the appearance of another fool or perhaps due to my own appearance, the audience and the three man group grew astir. The girl with the scarf put both hands on her hips and was shaking her head slightly with a fed up expression.

At the same time as the gunman's abusive voice that was different from earlier, the countdown started right in front of my eyes.

I lowered my waist and took the posture for a full power dash. The number decreased and the moment the metal bar opened, I kicked off and jumped onto the floor.

While advancing a few steps, the gunman quickly raised his right hand and from the tip of the tightly held gun, three red lines extended. They were pointing at my head, the right side of my chest, and my left leg.

—The moment I felt this, with all of my strength, I jumped forward to the right. Immediately after, an orange firing line passed through to the left of my body. Right away, I kicked off the panel with my right leg and returned to the center.

Of course, inside a VRMMO game, this was my first time confronting a gun.

However, in ALO and SAO, there are many monsters that attack from long range with bows and arrows, venom, and magic. There is one way to avoid the trajectory of those attacks and that is to read the shooting line from the enemy's eyes. Probably due to the developer Kayaba Akihiro's fixation on details, the behavior of the monsters in VRMMO's based on the cardinal system were all given the characteristic of pointing their sight at the targeted point without any deviation.

The NPC who was pointing his gun at me at this moment was also probably not exempt from this rule.

I stared at nothing but the gunman's eyes, not even looking at the red trajectory perception line or even at the black muzzle. From the lifeless, twitching movements, I grasped the hint of the trajectory that the bullet will fly, and at the same time, just barely moving to the left or the right, and possibly up or down, and avoiding the soundless indicated perception line itself. In fact, when the bullet passed through, I was already entering the stance before the next dash.

When I had avoided two sets of three-burst attacks, it seemed that I had passed the ten meter mark and a short sound effect sounded. However, that sound nearly didn't reach me.

The gunman released the cylinder that had become empty after shooting six bullets and at the same time as he hurled the empty cartridge behind his back, with his left hand, he fully loaded the gun with six bullets. The entire series of operations took half a second —truly a cheat-ish quick draw— to pull off before again being pointed towards me.

The next attack was not the clear cut three-shot rapid-fire up until now. More than half of it due to intuition, I avoided the irregular rhythm of two, one and then three bullets and moved five meters. Again, there was a short fanfare. At the same time was the gunman's lightning fast half second reload.

The remaining distance was five meters and I was already in front of the enemy. It might have been my imagination but I could clearly see the bearded face distort into a loathsome expression.

Under the ten gallon hat, the black eyes quivered a little and moved down to the same level as my chest. Deciding that avoiding to the left or right was impossible, I threw my body down, sliding on the metal tile. I passed under the six firing lines that were released like a machine gun and reached two and a half meters remaining.

With this, the enemy had no more bullets again. Even if there was a half second gap to reload once more, it was enough for a touchdown.

While rising, what I thought was that I saw the gunman's eyes broadly grinning. At least, that was what I felt.

On reflex, I changed the intention of my last dash and jumped up with all of my might.

Without any reload, six laser beams from the revolver passed through the space where I was standing just before.

While screaming 'What the hell was that!' inside my mouth, I spun a complete rotation and landed in front of the gunman.

Here, I wanted to shout out something cool but, before any further trump cards are used, like a beam coming from his eyes, I should decide the match, so I quickly leapt at the leather wearing opponent's chest.

After a moment of silence as if the sounds in the shop had disappeared.

"YOU ACTUALLY....!!!"

Along with that grandiose shout, the gunman collapsed onto the floor onto his knees holding his head with both hands. At the same time, there was a storm of disorderly fanfare.

A collapsing sound resounded, and raising my head to it, the brick wall behind the gunman collapsed as if it exploded from within. Without losing any time for surprise, a rain of all of the goods roughly flowed out from inside. It sprang back up at my feet and as a good sound came from it, it disappeared.

Underneath the neon sign, the digital numbers of the carry-over sum hectically decreased and before long, it became zero and at the same time, the money colored waterfall also stopped. A noticeably noisy sound echoed from inside the shop as the game was reset and the gunman, too, rose up and started to spin his hand gun around his fingertip. As usual, he started to yell out provocative slang but after the cheatingly extreme display of 12 rapid-fire shots earlier, it was doubtful if anyone who decides to challenge him will appear.

"...fuu"

I let out a breath and escaped the game lane from the exit on the left side.

At that moment, from the audience of people that had multiplied at some point, a swirl of commotion sprang forth. Voices saying things like 'what was that earlier', 'who is that person' mingled together.

From the edge of the crowd of people, the girl with the water colored hair, half-jogging, rushed over to me and with both eyes unintentionally wide open like a cat, stared at me. After a few seconds, a jumbled and cracked voice flowed out from her lips.

"... You, what kind of reflexes do you have...? That last moment, in front of my eyes... You avoided the laser beams from two meters away... Even though, at that range, there's already nearly no time lag between the bullet path prediction line and the actual fire..."

"Uh, ummm... that's because..."

I hesitated for a short moment as to how to answer and in the end, said.

"That's because, this bullet avoiding game is a game to predict the bullet path prediction line isn't it?"

"Pre...Predict the prediction line!?"

The girl's cute scream traveled through the air inside the shop. All of the audience also opened their mouths and fell silent.

.................................

After a few minutes, finally, at the point when the crowd had broken up into small groups, I was twisting my neck here and there to see the rifles inside the showcases.

"Umm... Even though the caliber is smaller than the submachine gun, why is this assault rifle bigger?"

I tried the simple question on the kindhearted girl standing next to me, but it seemed like she still hadn't cooled down from the lingering effects of the shock, and like a cat that saw something it doesn't usually see, she was staring at me with eyes mixed with caution and curiosity.

"... You don't even know something like that and you have such an unthinkable evasion skill... You said you converted right? What kind of game were you in before?"

"Uh, umm... I was always in a fantasy type game..."

"I see... Well, whatever. If you're entering the BoB preliminaries, there's an opportunity to show me how you actually fight. Now, what was it, the reason the assault rifle has a small caliber? That started from America's M16, with the high-speed small diameter bullet design concept based on accuracy and an emphasis on penetrating power..."

At that point, abruptly closing her mouth, the girl frowned as if she felt bitterness from her own words. But that strange reaction also disappeared in a moment and right away, a more temperate smile took its place.

"... That kind of thing doesn't matter does it? Now, let's hurry up and finish your shopping."

"Ri...Right. Let's go."

While I was doubtfully nodding, she turned her sight from me and started to slowly walk in front of a large showcase.

"Having earned more than 300K, I think you can buy a pretty good one but... because it comes down to what the person likes and is committed to in the end, the first thing is to know that."

"Committed to...?"

I followed after the girl and looked around at all of the gleaming black guns but, no 'ping' would come. That was natural, as in terms of my knowledge about guns, it ended at 'for handguns, there are revolvers and automatics'.

While groaning, before I knew it, we had reached the end of the display cases that were lined up inside the shop without any gaps. Since it's come to this, I'll leave it up to the girl to decide——— is what I thought when something strange entered my field of vision.

In the corner of a long showcase, something that was clearly different from a gun, a few metal, tube-like objects were lined up.

They were three centimeters in diameter and around twenty-five centimeters long. On one side, a metal fixture like a mountaineering carabiner hung down, on the other side was slightly thicker and in the center, there was a black hole like some kind of discharge opening.

"Umm... What is this?"

Hearing me, the girl gave a fleeting glance and shrugged as if there was a kink in her shoulders.

"Ah... That is a 'Kouken'."

"Ko-Kouken?"

"Sword of light, written as 'kouken'. The actual name is «Photon Sword» but everyone usually calls it 'Laser Blade' or 'Light Saber' or 'Beam Sabre'."

"Sw-Sword!? In this world, there is a sword?"

I rushed up to the showcase. Now that she mentions it, it strongly resembles the weapon in an old science fiction movie that the knights who protect the order of the universe wielded.

"There is but, in all practicality, there's no one who uses it."

"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 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 are 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.

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 gone 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.

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.

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.