Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  “…No matter how mysterious his power is, «Death Gun» is still just a sniper, so he shouldn’t be used to fighting in a place without cover. But if we continue moving north from here, we’ll leave the forest stretch on the other side of the river. We’ll continue moving up to the center of the island, the abandoned city, and it’s all a grassland with great line of vision.”

  “In other words, he could have chosen that place as the next hunting ground… right?”

  Kirito muttered and then looked over at the ambiguous buildings that were far away in the north. Though the distance effect made it look very far, it was just 3km straight on. Without bad AGI stats, they can reach there in around 10 minutes if they run and watch their surroundings.

  “Alright then. We’ll head towards that city too. If we run down the river, we shouldn’t be spotted from both left and right sides.”

  “…Got it.”

  After Kirito nodded and said that, Sinon looked back slightly.

  Dyne’s «corpse» was still lying at the end of the bridge slightly far away, but the existence of the red [Dead] tag showed that he was still alive. The person who was really dead—though it could be just a possibility—was «Pale Rider» who disappeared completely.

  To be honest, Sinon still couldn’t believe this, but at the same time, she couldn’t feel that this was all a lie.

  However, there was a definite feeling within her, that during the 3rd BoB tournament, something in her would change. It’s just that she didn’t know what direction the change would occur—and she didn’t know if the opponent who would change her would either be Kirito or that mysterious mantle guy.

  Right now, she could only act on her own inspiration. That’s because ‘inspiration’ was a skill that couldn’t be enhanced with any build.

  Though Sinon didn’t boost it that much like Spiegel, her AGI wasn’t that low, and it should have at least been about the same as Kirito’s who should have boosted STR stats.

  But eventually after running together like this for a while, Sinon had to run with all she had before catching up to the flowing black hair in front of her. To put it simply, their «basic movements» were completely different. There were cracks appearing suddenly on the numerous rocks on the riverbank, and Kirito seemed to have memorized them as he quickly dodged them or leaped over them. He would often turn his head around to match Sinon’s speed, which made her all the more unhappy.

  Even so, it was because of Kirito’s help, running in front of her and pointing out paths that were easy to move through, that she was able to pass through the mid-south area, the grasslands. Unknowingly, the riverbed below her feet became concrete, and when she looked up, she could see the crowd of skyscrapers. They were about to enter the main battlefield of this island, the abandoned city.

  “We didn’t catch him.”

  Kirito slowed down and said softly to Sinon. He was somewhat hoping to meet «Death Gun» who went underwater and head towards the city, and attack him while he was unarmed.

  “…Maybe we went past him somewhere…”

  Once Sinon answered, Kirito turned over, gave a deep thought, watched the river flow behind him, and said,

  “No, that’s impossible. I checked the water while we were running.”

  “Is, is that so…”

  Speaking of which, a person couldn’t stay under water for more than a minute without an aqualung. The large sniper rifle Death Gun was carrying shouldn’t allow for more space to carry one. Then, he must have slipped into the river below the metal bridge, swam north together with the water flow that was heading there, and then got up before running into the abandoned city.

  “—That means he should be lying in ambush somewhere inside this city. The river flow stops there.”

  The river in front of Sinon became a drain that flowed to the city’s underground, and the entrance of the underground drain had sturdy metal bars there, which any player could tell that it wasn’t to be entered. That obstacle couldn’t be destroyed even if hundreds of plasma grenades were thrown.

  “I see… there’s still 3 minutes till the scan. We can’t avoid the satellite scan if we stay in this dump, right?”

  Sinon considered Kirito’s question and then nodded her head forcefully.

  “Un. During the last tournament, the map would show even the 1st level of a tower. If there’s really a need to hide, it’ll be water that’s extremely dangerous or a cave. Other than that, there’s no other way to avoid the scan.”

  “Okay. Once the scan locks onto Death Gun’s position, we can immediately attack to stop him from firing. I’ll run straight at him. Please provide covering fire then.”

  “…I’m fine with that…”

  Sinon shrugged, but after that, grabbed Kirito who had been waiting for this chance and said,

  “But there’s a small problem. Haven’t you forgotten that «Death Gun»’s not that guy’s real character name? If you don’t know the name, you can’t track his position through radar.”

  “U…tha, that’s right.”

  The lightsaber warrior crumpled his beautiful eyebrows and sank into deep thought.

  “In fact… amongst the 30 participants, you don’t know three of them, right, Sinon? Amongst these three, the «Pale Rider» I was tracking wasn’t Death Gun. Which means that remaining two… «Gunner X» and «Sterben», one of them is Death Gun… if there’s only one person in the city, it’ll definitely be him…”

  “If both of them are present, we don’t have time to hesitate. Now we have to decide which side we want to attack. Well—I just thought of something…”

  Sinon coughed dryly a few times and continued,

  “…If you read «Gunner» backwards, wouldn’t it become «Death Gun»[2], and «X» can be read as «Cross», which is the Cross that guy drew… no, things shouldn’t be that simple…”

  “Hm… but most of the character names in VRMMO were randomly created. Someone like me merely modified my own real name… what about you?”

  “…Me too.”

  They stared at each other with a strange expression, and then coughed dryly a few times,

  Kirito seemed to be undecided as he sighed and said,

  “If that guy called «Sterben» was really a foreigner like what his name indicated. Are there players from overseas in BoB?”

  “Well…”

  Sinon looked at her watch. There was less than two minutes before the next scan, so she tried her best to explain as quickly as possible,

  “During the first tournament, we could chose American (US) or Japan (JP) servers, but there were still a few foreigners who played the Japanese version. I hadn’t played GGO then, but from what I heard from Shin… Spiegel, the winner of the first BoB was a foreigner. That person seemed really strong. He managed to kill off all the Japanese with a knife and a gun…”

  “I see… what’s his name?”

  “I believe, Sato… Satori or something weird. But when I started playing, the Japanese servers only allowed for players in Japan to play, so the 2nd and 3rd winner are all Japanese… or at least in Japan. Though that «Sterben» was written in a foreign language, he should be Japanese.”

  “I see…”

  Kirito blinked hard and looked like he finally decided as he said this,

  “Okay, if both of them are at the dump, we’ll head to «Gunner X». You don’t have to panic when I get stunned by the stun bullet like Pale Rider, so just get ready to snipe. Death Gun will definitely use that black handgun for the final hit, so use that chance to hit him.”

  “Eh…”

  On hearing those words, Sinon immediately forgot that there was less than 1 minute left as she widened her eyes. She looked at the black eyes beside her and asked,

  “…Why are you so…”

  Trusting of me? However, Sinon could not let out the voice at the latter end—

  “…I may not attack Death Gun and snipe you from behind, you know…”

  Kirito lifted his eyebrows in an unexpected m
anner and smiled

  “I know that you won’t do that. Come on… it’s about time. I’ll leave it to you then, partner.”

  The black-coated lightsaber user then patted Sinon on the left hand and then walked towards the stairs as he wanted to move from the riverbed to the street.

  The place that was touched felt mysteriously hot and painful as the fingers from yesterday, but Sinon chased after the figure wordlessly. Though she told herself that this was an enemy countless times since yesterday, she did not have that feeling anymore.

  On the upper levels of the short concrete steps, Sinon and Kirito crouched down at a position that couldn’t be seen from the street and waited for the 4th «Satellite Scanner».

  Her right hand held onto the device as she watched the watch on her left hand. Right now the time is 8.59pm 55 seconds… 56, if the proceedings of the finals was as fast as last year, it should be about time to enter the second half, which meant that there were only half the number of players left. In fact, she could even hear gunshots and explosions from the abandoned city. However, the sounds finally stopped for now, so everyone should be hiding in the shadows and watching the device.

  58 seconds, 59 seconds, 9pm sharp.

  The device map showed numerous white and grey dots.

  “Kirito, check the north!”

  After saying that softly, Sinon then touched the two gathered spots that were at the soutern-most part of the street. The names that were on them were naturally [Kirito] and [Sinon]. As a battle couldn’t last for more than 15 minutes, the other players should know that these two weren’t fighting, but working together as partners. Even though this wasn’t against the rules and there were many instances of players working with each other, the rest would have the thought that ‘this Sinon would actually work together with others’. She couldn’t help but pray that they won’t be caught on camera together.

  —She abandoned those unnecessary thoughts and quickly checked through the names. «No-no», «Yamikaze», «Huuka», «Masaya»…these were all famous players Sinon knew of. The names she was looking for weren’t in this city, so that would mean that their hypothesis was wrong—

  No.

  “…Got it!”

  As Sinon shouted this, Kirito’s voice answered in perfect unison.

  The center of the street had a round building perimeter that looked like a stadium. A light spot remained in what looked like a perfect sniping position. As Sinon touched it with her finger, the name of the character appeared—«Gunner X».

  She immediately exchanged glances with Kirito, but immediately returned back to her device. To check through the information again, Sinon continued to move her fingers north, and Kirito moved south at the same time. 5 seconds later, they lifted heads at the same time.

  “«Gunner X>’s the only one in this city for now.”

  Kirito then answered Sinon with a nervous voice,

  “Un, looks like «Sterben»’s not here. In other words, «Gunner X»’s the «Death Gun», and the prey is…”

  Kirito used his finger to point at his own device, showing a building that’s slightly west from the stadium in the center—the name was «Ricolo». Being alone, if he wanted to move his hiding place to somewhere else, he would have to put himself in shooting range of «Gunner X».

  As Sinon nodded her head, the light that represented Ricolo started moving to the exit of the building. Once he stepped onto the road, he would be immediately hit by the L115 sniper rifle stun bullet. They had to stop Death Gun no matter what before he fired that black handgun.

  Kirito kept his device and looked at Sinon. He looked like he had something to say, but he merely said,

  “Please cover me.”

  “Understood.”

  Sinon answered simply and got up. She then moved up the stairs where Kirito was in front of, observed the surroundings, and moved her right hand to indicate that they should move on before rushing up the steps.

  The official name of this lone island that became the grand stage of the tournament finals was the «ISL Ragnarok».. Right now, the ancient city was right in the middle of it, and it should be modelled after famous cities from the world like New York City. There were many skyscrapers that mixed all sorts of functions with traditional beauty, and there were numerous English adverts and bulletins. Of course, these things had become old and were covered by weeds and sand.

  Sinon and Kirito tried their best to run up the river that became the drain. Right now, other than the two of them, Death Gun and his target, there were also 5 or 6 players in this city. However, they wouldn’t care about that. Luckily, the scan just now did not show anyone who could immediately move to their position. Also, those broken yellow taxis and large buses on the road could act as perfect cover. Both of them moved through like this and continued north.

  This abandoned city was about 700m in radius, and with the assist of AGI boost, both of them ran past this distance in less than a minute. They could see a large round building, and that was their destination, the stadium was in the center. Sinon gave the hand signals, and they ran into the shadow of the bus before observing the surroundings through the broken windshield.

  The stadium wall was about 3 stories tall, and there was a exit at the north, south, east and west areas. If Gunner X did not move away after using the Satellite Scanner, he should be waiting above the west exit. Sinon widened her eyes and stared at the top of the outer wall. With the improved vision skill ‘Hawk Eye’, the distance effect of an object would be reduced, and the visual identification rate would increase. She found that there was something like a gun muzzle in a triangular hole on a damaged concrete wall, and behind the hole—

  “…Got it. Over there.”

  Undoubtedly, the sniper gun’s gunhole was under the place where the sunset shone. At this moment, Kirito seemed to recognize the thing Sinon saw and whispered softly like her,

  “Looks like he’s still waiting for «Ricolo». Okay… I’ll use this chance to attack him from behind. Sinon, get ready to snipe at the building opposite this street.”

  “Eh… I can go into the stadium too…’

  Though Sinon objected, she was immediately interrupted by Kirito’s strong and forceful expression.

  “This is a battle where you can use your ability to its maximum. I trust that you’ll definitely use your gun to cover me when I’m in trouble, so I can fight with that guy. This is what partners are for.”

  “…”

  Once these words were out, Sinon could only nod her head and agree with Kirito’s plan. He smiled, glanced at his watch and continued,

  “We’ll begin action 30 seconds after I leave. Is that enough?”

  “…Un, that’s enough.”

  “Okay, I’ll leave it to you then.”

  Then, the black-haired swordsman moved his back away from the bus without hesitation—

  He looked straight at Sinon from the front, and then ran to the southern exit of the stadium without seemingly letting out any footsteps.

  Sinon watched his slender back profile gradually move away, and felt something strange deep within her. Was this nervousness? Or anxiety? They were similar, yet different. This was—right, it’s fear…

  How is it possible! What am I scared of!?

  Sinon gritted her teeth and forcefully chided herself.

  —In order to win in this BoB tournament and become the strongest player in the world, this had to be done. I need to eliminate this Death Gun who’s using some unknown power outside the system to mess with the tournament, so I have to work together with Kirito for now. The moment we succeed, that lightsaber warrior will become my enemy again. Once I meet him again after that, I will squeeze this trigger without hesitation, take him down and forget about him. That’s because I won’t meet him again.

  While forcing down the sharp pain that’s near her heart, Sinon started running. Amongst the buildings on the streets, there were two kinds, the accessible ones and the inaccessible ones. The buildings that could be
entered would definitely have a place where one could tell that it was an entrance. This building that’s in the southwest position from the stadium, separated by a ring road had a large hole on a wall that collapsed. Once she entered, she would climbed up to the 3rd level, and she should be able to see the path on the wall of the stadium. The two positions were really too close, and normally speaking, it’s likely that she would be spotted if she sniped here. But even for someone as strong as Death Gun, he had to notice the surroundings when he fight against Kirito. Once she finds an opening, she would shoot without hesitation. Then, she would leave the slum and meet up with Kirito somewhere else. This should be enough…

  Even though Sinon tried to take action coolly like usual…

  Her heart was already taken up by an emotion that was different from usual.

  As she was about to move through the collapsed hole in the tower wall, she felt a sharp chill behind her back. The moment she was about to turn around, Sinon found that she had collapsed onto the road.

  —What’s happened… why am I on the ground…?

  She couldn’t recover immediately.

  There were goosebumps on her back… there seemed to be something glowing on the left side of her vision field…she raised her left hand in reflex, and the exterior of the arm received a strong hit. Once Sinon realized that she got hit, she immediately intended to run back into the tower. However, her feet couldn’t move for some reason and she immediately fell back.

  After finally realizing the current situation, Sinon tried to get up immediately, but her body just couldn’t respond to command at all. It seemed that she could only move her eyes. She tried to look at her left arm to check the front shoulder that was hit.

  There was something that pierced through the desert-colored jacket sleeve and had pierced into the arm—it was more like a silvery needle-like thing than a bullet. It was only 5mm in diameter and about 50mm in length. The base created a thread-like spark that came with a sharp vibration that let out blue and white sparks, and these sparks spread from Sinon’s shoulder to her entire body. This was—

  A stun bullet.

  This was the special bullet that numbed Pale Rider. Assault rifles, machine guns or handguns couldn’t load it, and only a few large sniper rifles could use it. However, Sinon never heard the gunshot. There should be only a few players in GGO who had a large sniper rifle that came with a suppressor.