Sword Art Online - Volume 5 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  “Don’t be fooled. He’s a guy.”

  “Eh!?”

  I could only use a normal tone to say my name at Spiegels, who widened his eyes.

  “Ah— I’m called Kirito. I’m a guy alright.”

  “A-A guy…eh, that means, erm…”

  Spiegels 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 was taken care of well by Sinon, you know.”

  At this moment, Sinon immediately shot me 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 were talking till here…

  The slight BGM inside the dome gradually fade 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. I’ll blow your head then.”

  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 head to the front to be transported to the field. At this moment, my eyes met Spiegels, 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 showed blue light.

  Finally, I was transported to a hexagonal panel that’s floating in the darkness.

  There’s 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’s 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 girl called Sinon showed a vicious smile for a moment and a killing intent of an indomitable sniper.

  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 that «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 is 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 couldn’t feel any killing intent from her, who brought me over to the shop, explained all sorts of things to me. Also, she gave a somewhat lonely feeling and that she wanted to get near to someone.

  Who was the real Sinon.

  —No, I can’t get the answer by thinking too much. When our swords clash, no, when our guns are fired at each other, perhaps 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, a 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 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 vision the opponent whipped out, the tea-colored beard that’s 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—rapid fire 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 that 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 looked 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 gunhole.

  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 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 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 for me.

  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 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 left and right side, but didn’t notice Sinon or Spiegels around. If Sinon is still battling, what I’m wondering is what 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 using handguns, machine guns or rifles to fight in different angles like those scenes in movies.