Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  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 was only the words in crimson red ‘BoB 3 Preliminary’ and a countdown timer of approximately 28 minutes.

  However, what made me nervous wasn’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 know that these people were desperately trying to get information about this.

  I haven’t fought anyone since I switched over from ALO to this operating company in spring this year. During this time which wasn’t really considered empty, I supposed I really lost touch in P v P, and the best proof was the stares these guys shot over at me.

  —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 him.”

  “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 else I could continue or 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 han
ding it over to the girl with both hands.

  “Er, erm…excuse me! I haven’t introduced myself up till now…th-this is my name!”

  “Eh? Na…Name?”

  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……!? Wait, then, you’re a guy………”

  The blank voice came over, and with my head lowered, I could see a small 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 as she 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 went 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 by body away as it continued to fidget uneasily. At this moment, the girl glanced at me and sighed hard.

  “…I told you all the basic information. 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—”

  If 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 intend 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 th
an 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, Spiegels. There was some accident, so I was delayed. Eh, but…don’t you intend to show yourself?”

  That man called Spiegels 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 Spiegels 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 Spiegels 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 Spiegels 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,