Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online Vol 3 Chapter 9

As the 14:20 satellite scan began, the spectators in the bar,

"This is probably the last scan."

All watched it with the same sentiment. After all, the previous tournament was resolved in 1 hour and 28 minutes, and merely four teams remained at the moment.

The scan that began from the west displayed the results on the left half of the map at high speed, while slowly on the right half.

It did not seem like such a handy artificial satellite could exist, but no one retorted at that.

On the screen, the light dots of the survivors stretched out from south to north, forming a nearly straight line── this signified the position of LLENN's group, PM4, and the amazon group. They were within 1,000 metres of each other; so close that they could only be recognised as individual dots after greatly magnifying the map.

As for the final team, the group of six armoured guys running around atop the rampart with bicycles, Team T-S──

They were positioned at practically the centre of the eastern rampart.

During the previous 14:10 scan, they were in the north-eastern corner, thus they had travelled along the rampart by bike to advance further south.

"Their goal is to approach and a.s.sault the ones who survive the fierce fight among the three teams from the valley."

"Keh! Those guys make me sick! If you're really men, go at them with dignity! Aside from M, all the survivors are women!"

Among the group of men,

"Girls, do your beeeeeeest!"

The sungla.s.ses-wearing, golden-haired beauty Anna, having returned from the after-death standby area, shouted loudly.

She was still wearing her equipment and camouflage, and there was a large hole, the damagefrom being shot with a .50 calibre, open in her vest. This was because players would return with all the damage to their equipment left as is.

It was not just her vest, as the camouflage around that area was also shredded. The T-s.h.i.+rt that made the bulge of her s.e.xy b.r.e.a.s.t.s obvious── was, of course, fixed up.

Filth would not be brought over during SJ, so her long, golden hair was still pretty, though quite ruffled. With the long Dragunov sniper on her shoulder, she had a rather strong 〝remnant〟 feel to her.

The bar had momentarily turned silent due to the shout with all of Anna's heart and soul, but,

"You're right, yeah, I understand how you feel. Hey, how about watching it with me? I could teach you quite a bit about sniping."

"How about going on a quest with me after this? I know a place with quite the romantic sight."

The men, filled with ulterior motives and making use of the chance they had because none of the other amazons were there, approached Anna with lewd looks on their faces,

"Shut yer trap! Wud ya be able to say that to me IRL, haah? Be quiet an' watch the d.a.m.n monitor!"

And dejectedly pulled back after the thundering cry from the beauty.

"Ugh, what a creeper…… I'm taking that offer back."

"So uncute. She's probably quite the d.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h in reality anyway……"

The men secretly muttered excuses, but if they met the meek and timid high school girl that was Annaka Moe IRL, they would probably die from shock.

The scan results were also seen by the surviving players.

Thinking 〝this is probably the last time this terminal would serve its purpose〟.

LLENN and f.u.kaziro

h, as well as the survivors of s.h.i.+NC── Boss, Tanya, Tohma and Rosa were hugging the ground in the same spot as before MMTM had rushed inside.

About 500 metres to the log house. A distance where they could not be sure when they would be sniped by M if they showed themselves.

They confirmed that PM4 was still inside the building and that the team called T-S was barely away from the eastern edge.

Boss,

"This team is moving atop the rampart. Probably with vehicles. And unscathed."

Informed her own comrades and LLENN. Anything else was unimaginable, thus everyone agreed.

Having seen Pitohui's overwhelming display of power, LLENN,

"Only one team left……Could it be that, even if I don't do anything, Pito-san will just end up winning at this rate……" 

Let out her umpteenth faintheartedness and hope.

"…………"

Neither Boss,

"…………"

Nor f.u.kaziroh answered her.

Lying upside-down, LLENN forcefully gripped her hands,

"But no, that's wrong! I'm gonna do something! But what should I do what should I do what should I do──"

Repeated this as if it were a Buddhist prayer. In her mind, she desperately thought out a plan.

'Can we win if we just charge in like this? I do have confidence in my speed, so I should be able to reach the building. But, will I win the battle that'd ensue? Even though someone like MMTM couldn't win with six guys?'

"What should I do what should I do what should I do──"

'How would I have f.u.kaziroh support me in an indoor fight? How about cooperating with s.h.i.+NC? Won't we end up in friendly fire? If somebody carelessly brings down Pito, it'd all be for naught, so how can I prevent that?'

"What should I do what should I do what should I do──"

‘It'd be bad if everyone just charged in haphazardly I need to think of a plan or like MMTM we'll end up losing being killed losing losing.’

"What should I do I need a plan a plan a plan a plan some kind of plan plan plan plan plan ──"

LLENN's Buddhist prayer, with her brain overheating,

"Girls, get ready to charge all at once!"

Was stopped by Boss's words.

"Wha?"

"We ain't waiting for LLENN's instructions anymore. We'll do it ourselves! Begin supporting fire!"

"Wha?"

And she heard… gunshots from the PKM machine gun.

On the other side of the log house, they were undoubtedly conducting suppressive fire towards the window where Pitohui and M would probably be.

"He-hey! Not yet──"

As LLENN raised her head in panic,

"What's wrong?"

f.u.kaziroh, who had creeped up right next to her before she noticed, touched her face with her own as she asked. Surprised by such intimacy, LLENN,

"B-Boss just ordered an a.s.sault of her own accord!"

"Hoh……"

f.u.kaziroh grinned broadly. With an impish smile.

"Girls, wait! We're not yet ready!"

LLENN's words to Boss,

"Too slacky! We shall be doing things as we please!"

Were dismissed with such a reply. Boss,

"Everyone, charge!"

Referring to s.h.i.+NC rather than her, gave a command.

"Ah, hold on── No way! Hold up!"

LLENN's appeal did not receive a reply from Boss.

"Hoh, so in short, Boss and the others are a.s.saulting of their own accord without any coordination or any clear chance of winning."

f.u.kaziroh enquired,

"Apparently…… It's suicide! Why! We can't beat Pito-san without cooperating! A plan! We need a plan! A plan! A plan! A plan!"

Shouting the same words numerous times while hitting the gra.s.s with her hands, LLENN,

"Huhuuhn……"

Did not notice f.u.kaziroh working on something behind her while humming unconcernedly.

And so, after 5 seconds,

"Well then, I'm gonna go too!"

When f.u.kaziroh stood up with these words,

"A plan── Hah?"

Lying on the ground, LLENN raised her half-weeping face.

With the same smile as before, holding an MGL-140 only in her right hand, f.u.kaziroh,

"They to whom only bad ideas come might as well be asleep! Nothing will come of just saying 〝plan plan〟! If you're like that, LLENN, you can just cry yourself to sleep there! Alone, you're just a weak crybaby who can't do a thing!"

Added an elementary school student jeer as she began running. Towards the log house.

"Hah──?"

"Oh you just watch! We'll capture Pito-san alive, wrap her up in a bamboo mat(1), and bring her here!"

Telling her such an impossible plan, f.u.kaziroh ran out.

Seeing her back become smaller and smaller with one MGL-140 in hand, LLENN's thoughts came to a standstill.

'Err?'

'Meaning?'

'Err?'

After about 2 seconds worth of thinking, she realised but a single truth.

Namely,

'My comrades, all of them, have left me behind.'

"Hey wait noooo!"

Shouting this, LLENN was about to stand up,

"──Fuwah! Bubeh."

But she was unable to do so. She returned to lying on her belly on the gra.s.s.

She had attempted to stand up as agilely as always, but her left leg did not move as usual. She fell on the gra.s.s chest-first,

"Wh-y……?"

Turned her body to look at it,

"──Wha? Whaaaaa?"

And caught sight of the reason.

Her realisation lagged behind for a moment due to the excessive shock, but it was impossible not to believe what she saw.

Her left leg, specifically, the ankle of her boot was wrapped in a wide, nylon cloth. And mounted at its end was an MGL-140 grenade launcher.

She did not know whether this was 〝Yuuta〟 or 〝Sako〟, but it was undoubtedly f.u.kaziroh's weapon. The absurdly heavy weapon had become LLENN's shackle. The iron ball was replaced with a gun, but she was otherwise no different from a prisoner of old.

The culprit was evident. While LLENN hesitated, f.u.kaziroh had f.u.c.king done it.

'Annyaroooooooooooooooooo!"

A shout from the depths of her mind resounded in LLENN's brain.

She immediately extended her hand and attempted to pick it up,

"Why you! s.h.i.+t! Why you!"

After her hands slipped numerous times, she had no choice but to take off both of her pinkgloves and try it again, but the sling that was wrapped around her,

"Ohhhh, c'mon!"

Could not be taken off at all.

The sling was dreadfully firm and, through f.u.kaziroh's idiotic strength, tightened so severely that the thick nylon was turned into a small ball.

Even while keeping her head low so as not to be spotted and shot, she desperately pulled on the knot and her hand slipped once again,

"Ohhhhhhhh cooooome on!"

As she let out a scream, LLENN's ears,

"Calm down, listen, just untie it slowly."

Caught the completely disparaging voice of f.u.kaziroh, who had foreseen what she was doing, through her comm item.

"f.u.kaaaaaaaa! What are you thinkinnnnng! Don't go off on your oooown!"

LLENN stopped her hand movements, shouted, and glared at the small back sprinting away from her through the gra.s.s.

The reply from f.u.kaziroh,

"〝Whoever untangles that knot shall surely be king of this world!〟, ahhahhahhahha!"

Was this.

"Yo── you idioooooooooooot!"

Hearing LLENN's scream through her comm item, Boss chuckled.

With her Vintorez in hand and das.h.i.+ng at full speed in zig-zags through the meadow, she turned the switch for her comm item with LLENN to off,

"This is to make LLENN fight like before! Everyone, charge ahead boldly!"

She gave a strict command to her comrades.

Instantly understanding the 〝plan〟, first came Tanya,

"In order to make LLENN show off her lovelykaren skills, that's our only choice!"

Then came Tohma,

"This will make her greatly indebtedkas.h.i.+, so let's get our sweetskas.h.i.+!"

And then Rosa,

"So we're going with a splendidumai plan to eat something tastyumai!"

In succession, replies filled with puns reached her.

"…………"

Boss fell silent for a moment, but eventually,

"Shhit! I can't think of anything!"

She felt honestly bitter.

"The four amazons have begun their a.s.sault. Distance 400. And still approaching."

M held his beloved M14 EBR in a p.r.o.ne stance.

This was on the south side of the building, atop a balcony connected to the room. It was not all that wide to begin with, thus almost the entirety of M's large body was inside.

The barrel of the M14 EBR, erected on a bipod, was only slightly sticking out through the gaps in the balcony's guardrail.

On the thick, wooden guardrail, the same 〝sheets〟 that Pitohui had also used some time ago were affixed.

Joining the two sheets while leaving a gap for the barrel to stick out of were〝crossbars〟 and duct tape──

Used as crossbars were the a.s.sault rifles used by the MMTM members, the G36K and ARX160. The 2 a.s.sault rifles were wound together with duct tape, and the product was attached to the s.h.i.+eld.

Characters-turned-corpses spent 10 minutes in a standby area and could watch the battle broadcast to kill time. The owners of the 2 rifles were surely lamenting right now.

The Bullet Lines from Rosa's PKM flickered around the room, then scattered bullets came through the gla.s.s window, opening holes and creating sounds as they sank into the thick logs.

Carefully aimed Dragunov sniper bullets also came flying, but, fired from a low position, they only hit the thick logs or roof of the balcony.

Not minding them as long as they would not hit him, M calmly ignored the numerous bullets,

"Awaiting the leader's orders."

And asked Pitohui, who had been handed the role.

"Let's see……"

Pitohui was on the building's north side, that is to say, the corridor side.

She was holding a bolt-action sniper rifle, the Savage 110BA that her comrades had left behind, in a p.r.o.ne position.

The bipod equipped on it… was not used. What was used to support the gun was──

A member of MMTM, that is to say, a corpse. She had placed the body of Kenta, which had been restored from his burst and scattered state merely for form's sake, upside down and was using the hollow of his back to support her gun.

It would not move, it would be bulletproof, and its height was just right; it was practically the same plan as s.h.i.+NC's just a while ago, except that theirs was an ally while hers was an enemy.

'How would that look ethics-wise?' was a question that remained, but it did not seem like Pitohui was concerned with that. In this case as well, how would Kenta himself, most likely watching the video stream at the corpse standby area right now, think of this?

There were no windows to serve as eyelets at such a low position in the corridor, but if there were none, you could just make one. There was a hole about 40 cm in diameter gouged out by piercing the thick log with her photon sword, and Pitohui was currently aiming her barrel and scope at it.

In the round field of view of her scope, she saw the figure of a tiny enemy das.h.i.+ng through the meadow. There was but one of them. A grenade launcher that could consecutively fire 6 grenades in hand. The distance was still long, more than 450 metres.

"On my side, I wonder  why, LLENN-chan isn't coming out…… The girl with the 6-shot grenlaun is approaching happily and boldly by herself. What d'ya think? Former leader."

Maintaining her status of being able to fire at her at any moment, Pitohui asked in return.

"What do I think…… I can't read their intentions with a plan that has them recklessly plunging right at us. In this situation, it's as if they're telling us to shoot them."

"True…… It's kinda weird. I wonder if they have something up their sleeve……?"

Pitohui also said dubiously. If she had not placed her cheek on the stock to peek through her scope, she would probably have inclined her head.

"However, the enemy count should be decreased while we can decrease it."

"I guess that's our only choice. Okay then, here's my command. Fire at will and destroy them. If they get within 200 metres, we'll revise."

"Roger."

1 second later.

M's M14 EBR and Pitohui's Savage 110BA spouted fired at the exact same moment.

The streaming screen in the bar──

Showed how a hit effect gleamed from the head of the woman who had been firing her PKM machine gun from a p.r.o.ne position.

"Aww!"

"She got hit!"

Among the screams of the men,

"…………"

Anna watched the battle of her comrades in silence, with her arms folded in an imposing stance.

"I got shot── but not dead yet! I'm covering you!"

While reporting to her comrades, who were running ahead, with a red light s.h.i.+ning from the edge of her head, Mother Courage Rosa stood up with her PKM in hand. Her hit points decreased until it stopped in the deep red zone of twenty percent.

She did not apply a first aid kit. As if saying 'like I have the time for that', she pressed the heavy machine gun against her shoulder and aimed it at the second floor of the log house about 300 metres ahead, towards the muzzle that had just shot her,

"Doryaaaaaaa!"

She unleashed as much firepower as she could.

While using her Strength to press down the rising gun, she continued sending the light of her tracer bullets into the room.

As if embodying the fighting spirit of its owner, the PKM continued roaring smoothly.

Fire and hot wind spouted from her muzzle, radially swaying the gra.s.s around her. Her empty cartridges were expelled with extreme force to the left, then they eventually shattered into polygon fragments, and brilliantly disappeared.

And so, 5 seconds later.

The 100 round ammunition belt supplied from the ammunition box below her gun were completely used up and the world suddenly went silent.

"Huu……"

As Rosa lowered her PKM, a single bullet flew right at her brow──

And pierced all the way to the other side.

f.u.kaziroh, running as she heard the gaudy gunfire on the south side of the building,

*Jagyari!*

Heard a metallic clank she had never heard before atop her head. At the same moment, as if being pressed down by an invisible person, her head slightly inclined to the right.

"Uhi, a bullet grazed my helmet daaamn scary… But lucky!"

Nevertheless, she continued running.

Having fired, Pitohui,

"Being so tiny is unfair……"

Operated the bolt of her Savage 110BA, expelled an empty cartridge, and loaded the next bullet into the chamber. Then,

"How's it going on your end?"

She asked M, who was shooting on the opposite side of the building,

"I just brought down a second one. I can take them all.

And heard his voice.

The spectators in the bar,

"This… looks bad."

"They're done for……"

Were in a mood of complete resignation.

On the screen, a member of s.h.i.+NC, the Dragunov user Tohma, was shot during her decisive though reckless a.s.sault.

She had been repeating the actions of running, firing a few shots, running again, then firing again, but once the support machine gun user Rosa was shot and stopped firing, it was only natural that she would be chosen as the next target.

The 10-round magazine of her Dragunov was used up and the bolt which had been vehemently going back and forth stopped in the backward position, and the moment she was about to take out her next magazine from her pouch──

A bullet to her head.

Then another one high up her chest.

Having received a merciless rapid-fire attack, Tohma fell knees-first, and collapsed with her face on the ground. Before long, a 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker lit up.

"I guess… the revenge for the 〝s.h.i.+eld〟 was taken……"

"s.h.i.+NC only has two more. The Bizon user and the Vintorez user."

"Their moves together are great, but they have yet to land an attack on M."

"However, considering how hard they've been trying so far, it seems like it will end up in a relatively painful end……"

One of the spectators in the exchange glimpsed at the woman standing to the left behind him.

Anna, still in her imposing stance, had her eyes fixed on the screen.

She was wearing sungla.s.ses even indoors, thus her eyes could not be seen. What kind of eyes could she be looking with at how her comrades were shot, or about to be shot?

There, a member of the amazons team, a very short and stout woman, appeared. It was the woman who had intentionally turned into a corpse and became a pedestal for the PTRD 1941. She had just now returned from the standby area.

"Anna, how is it?"

At the dwarfess's question,

"Boss and the others are carrying out the plan."

Without turning her gaze, the golden-haired beauty gave a short answer.

M reloaded his magazine and turned his scope towards the next target.

The silver-haired woman, running the fastest, with a Bizon. The distance was about 250 metres. She was running in zig-zags in intervals of about 3 seconds, but her pattern was monotonous,

"Right…… left…… right……"

M easily predicted it and, because her body was small, he aimed at her torso rather than her head, and fired.

The bullet went into the target's abdomen and her body was knocked over, collapsing frontward. Despite having dealt large damage, she did not suffer instant death, thus the woman, still lying on the ground, searched for her dropped Bizon, grasped it, aimed it at him, and fired out a magazine with her right hand.

This was nothing but futile resistance.

No matter how much she fired the submachine gun that used pistol bullets, they would not reach him.

In fact, far from hitting M, the Bullet Lines did not even extend to his surroundings──

M calmly fixed his aim on the head of the woman that had become a still target and squeezed the trigger.

During the instant between the firing of his gun and the impact of the bullet, M saw.

A cheerful smile on the woman's face.

"…………"

The two eyes on M's stern face opened wider than ever before──

Due to the angle, it was not displayed on the broadcast.

"Oh dear, so I'm the only one left, huh."

Running at a speed that did not suit her large build, Boss confirmed the elimination of her comrades by looking at the hit point gauge at the upper left corner of her view.

Returning her gaze, she continued running to no end, close to 200 metres remaining.

There was now a rather large log house before her and on its second floor, she saw the figure of a man with his gun at the ready.

"So, what are we gonna do now……?"

The moment she muttered this, a deep red Bullet Line shone from the man's gun,

"Hoh!"

Boss smiled.

It was undoubtedly her first time receiving a Line from M, who had always used Lineless fire,

"Hah! Not bad! Typical M! You've already caught on to what we're thinking!"

Boss gave great praise to the man who was attempting to kill her.

At the same moment, she stopped and jumped aside to avoid the Line. Her large body lightly revolved through the air, as a bullet pierced through the spot she had been just a moment ago. Boss landed on her hand and went into a forward ukemi.

Having displayed a magnificent evasion, Boss,

"My chance!"

Still in her half-rising posture, readied her Vintorez, aimed at the man with her scope, and squeezed her trigger.

The certain-kill silent sniper rifle fired out a bullet at a truly low volume, and the bullet sank into the guardrail of the balcony, creating wood chips.

"Dah! She missed!"

Among the shouts of the spectators, M fired on-screen.

In this case, with perfect aiming as before, a bullet sank into the left eye of the braid-haired gorilla with her Vintorez at the ready. As the head of that large body swayed, a second bullet hit nearly the exact same spot.

*Dosun*, the gorilla woman toppled over face-up so heavily that such a sound could even be heard──

A 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker conveyed. The elimination of the previous runner-ups, team s.h.i.+NC.

In the audience, rather than praising M's skills, there were more voices feeling sorry for the defeat.

Among them,

"Fuh!"

Anna smiled lightly,

"Oh dear. That is overkill, Boss."

Next to her, Sophie muttered.

Taking off her sungla.s.ses, Anna turned to meet the face of the short Sophie to her left. Her eyes were vivid emerald green, increasing her voluptuous beauty even further, and a sigh escaped the mouths of the men in the bar who managed to steal a glance. 

Without any regard to the men, Anna asked Sophie.

"How many points would you give Boss just now?"

Having shot down Boss and completely eliminated the threat on his side, M,

"I eliminated s.h.i.+NC."

First gave Pitohui a short report,

"How's your end?"

Before asking this.

During M's shooting, Pitohui had also fired twice.

The superb sound of discharge of the 338 lapua magnum that boasted twice the power of M's 7.62 x 51 mm bullets spread to the side of the Savage 110BA's muzzle due to its muzzle breaker, and was echoing through the corridor. The gunshot should be louder inside than outside.

This was a question to confirm his thoughts that 'she had naturally taken them down', but,

"Well, about that── not coming out."

There was no subject, thus he did not understand the meaning of her reply.

"I'm coming to you."

"Go ahead."

Lifting his beloved gun, M stood and pa.s.sed through the door, filled with holes he had made himself as the 1.5 metre hole was small, into the corridor.

First, he stopped the giga-nade whose timer was still ticking.

Then, he stood beside Pitohui, who had her Savage 110BA placed on a corpse that served as a pedestal, readied his own M14 EBR, and peeked through the window gla.s.s with his scope.

"11 o'clock. 370 metres."

He moved his gaze to the direction that Pitohui told him,

"…………"

There, he saw a girl character that was not LLENN, meaning that it was probably LLENN's partner.

The girl had an MGL-140 hanging on her shoulder via its sling, a large helmet on her head, a large backpack on her back, and she was desperately crawling through the meadow. Her course was straight at them.

And, the girl lacked the ends of her legs.

He could tell what was going on by looking through the magnified field of his scope. The legs moving in tandem with her arms, specifically, the ends of her slender ankles were s.h.i.+ning red and were missing.

"The first one was a coincidence, y'know?"

While aiming, Pitohui explained.

"I hit the left foot of the cute girl and tore her leg off. Then she fell. I tried waiting for a bit, but n.o.body came out, so I shot the other foot. But, still n.o.body came out. I wonder where LLENN-chan is……? Or perhaps she has zero motivation to save her comrade?"

Pitohui said in such a tone as if she were searching for her partner in hide-and-seek.

Wounding one person to an extent that they would not die instantly, and shooting down every single soldier that came to save them, due to being unable to abandon their comrade-in-arms who were moaning in pain and fear of death──

A cruel, yet effective sniper technique frequently used in actual battles.

Though, GGO was just a game, thus a more likely scenario was,

"Soz, you're unlucky, so give up."

"How heartless."

"If you'd like, I could put you out of your misery?"

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, don't mess with me."

A conversation like that.

"Enough already, bring her down in 1 shot. You should be able to do it easily. Or did you, in fact, run out of bullets?"

When M said this,

"What is that? Kindness? Love? Compa.s.sion?"

Pitohui pouted. While M,

"Love and compa.s.sion are the same thing. And all of them are wrong. This is not a real battle. LLENN won't come out to help her comrade who recklessly jumped out. She is a brave who paired up with me and fought all those battles. She happens to have that much composure."

Answered indifferently.

"More importantly, a bigger concern is whether LLENN has secretly went around into our blind spot, and whether the other surviving team has found a vehicle and closed in on us. I cleaned up the south side. All that remains is the north and east sides. I want us to just hurry up and slaughter that girl, then return to being on the lookout on the surroundings. We don't have time to play around."

As M slowly gave a drawn-out speech, the enemy girl continued to show guts by crawling forward and closing in.

About 340 metres remained. It was a distance that a grenade launcher could reach, and if she had the luck to get one in through the window, even if that was considerably difficult to do, it would be quite dangerous.

Though, she had yet to ready her gun while going towards them, thus Pitohui nonchalantly,

"Can we wait a bit more?"

"No. I'll do it then."

M opened the gla.s.s window in front of him with one hand. He slid it up, fixed it in place, and once again held his M14 EBR.

"Good grief."

Pitohui fired.

Along with a roar, the bullet flew and it the crawling girl's left wrist.

Together with a red hit effect, her small hand wearing a glove fluttered in the air.

The shot girl twisted her body with shock and pseudo-pain, then──

Lying sideways, she pressed down on her left wrist with her right hand. Her movement was as if she had actually lost a hand and was trying to stem the flow of blood.

"Ah, sorry. I was aiming for the head but missed. I'm not experienced with this gun, you see."

Loading the next bullet, Pitohui said brazenly, then fired again.

The second one also 〝went off aim〟 and hit the girl's right wrist. Just like with her left one, it was blown away.

"Pito……"

M said in a bitter tone but did not fire.

Without loading the next bullet,

"With this much damage, she should die right about now── wait what?"

Unexpectedly, atop the girl who didn't move after lying down, or more accurately, became unable to move, a 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker did not lit up.

That is to say, despite suffering enough damage to blow all of her limbs off, her hit points had yet to reach zero. In SJ, one could not see the opponent's hit points, thus it was impossible to tell how much remained, but,

"How tough! Just what you can expect from LLENN-chan's partner! I wonder where she brought her from…… Was there such a small and strong girl in GGO before, I wonder……"

Pitohui expressed admiration, doubt, and finally she said with no hesitation.

"But now she can't do a thing for more than 2 minutes, right? Without hands, she can't shoot."

In the bar──

f.u.kaziroh's great pinch was broadcast live.

"Hey! Dat's naaaasty!"

"This should be off-limits to anyone under eighteen……"

"Even though it's just an avatar, how is bullying such a tiny girl fun to you!"

To which there were people who said this,

"With heads blown off and chopped off moments ago, what are you talking about now of all times!"

"Even that girl herself mercilessly minced several people in that station back then, 'm I rite?"

"And the one bullying is also a woman, so……"

There were also people with reason.

And finally,

"Well, no matter how nasty it looks, a game is just a game. Be sure to make it a proper distinction from RL, 'kay?"

Someone concluded in a blunt tone.

Turning the clocks back a bit──

"Why you! Why you!"

When LLENN failled to untie the knot for the umpteenth time, she heard a gunshot. Evidently, the shot came from this side of the building.

And then,

"Uhi, a bullet grazed my helmet daaamn scary… But lucky!"

f.u.kaziroh's voice.

"Are you being shot? Hit the dirt!"

"I don't wanna!"

She heard her answer, as well as faintly heard the flashy gunfight taking place on the other side of the building. She recalled the sound of a rapid-fire sniper rifle. It was M's M14 EBR.

As s.h.i.+NC charged at them, M responded with his gun── having been once trained by M, LLENN understood.

In that case, the one shooting f.u.kaziroh was undoubtedly Pitohui.

'What should I do?'

At any rate, she had to take off her shackles.

LLENN once again put great effort into untying the sling, but still failed

"Shhittt!"

She gave a cry as if she were cursing the world.

"Oi oi, are ya still doin' that? Alexander the Great-san."

Hearing f.u.kaziroh's voice,

"Hah?"

The flabbergasted LLENN opened her mouth and then realised. When departing, f.u.kaziroh had said something strange.

『〝Whoever untangles that knot shall surely be king of this world!〟』

And then again,

『Alexander the Great-san』

This.

She put the two hints together in her brain, and after 0.5 seconds,

"s.h.i.+tt!"

LLENN stopped her hand from untying the knot and turned it to her back──

"I should have done this from the start!"

Like Alexander the Great, who deemed the 〝Gordian Knot〟 to be impossible to untangle and thus cut it in one fell swoop, she cut off the knot on her ankle with the combat knife she had pulled out.

Having finally regained her freedom, put away her knife, and put on her gloves again, LLENN caught another gunshot with her ears.

And then,

"Uhi! I was shot!"

She heard f.u.kaziroh's tensionless voice.

"Wha! Safe!?"

While asking that, 'Oh right, I could just look at that', she gazed to the upper left corner of her view.

f.u.kaziroh's hit points were decreasing, until they decreased by 10 percent and a bit. Luckily, it wasn't that great of a damage. The bullet probably missed her head and chest.

"f.u.ka! Enough already, hide! I'm going in for support!"

"No, that's impossible."

"Why?"

"They shot my left foot. Cut off again. Honestly, the youth these days are so easy to snap."(2)

"Haaaah?"

With her monocle, LLENN searched for f.u.kaziroh. She found her. And saw how she was crawling through the meadow 129 metres away with a red light s.h.i.+ning from the end of her left foot.

The next moment, another roar.

And this time, she saw. How f.u.kaziroh's right foot was blown away.

"Buhih! Uwah── oh right foot, not you too! Ah, I wanna eat some Caesar's salad."

Was f.u.kaziroh's voice, unclear whether it was composed or chaotic. Her hit points decreased even further. The remainder was about seventy percent.

LLENN searched for the shooter.

She roughly know the location, thus she instantly found them.

In the vicinity of the centre of the building, on the wall of the second floor corridor, there was a small hole that was not there before. At maximum magnification, she was somehow able to see the muzzle. She still intermittently heard the gunshots from the M14 EBR even now, thus this was undoubtedly Pitohui.

'Seeing as I found her, might as well shoot her', she was about to draw her P-chan that was placed ahead of her,

"…………"

When her left arm stopped.

There was no chance of her being able to aim properly with a P90 at a distance close to 500 metres. If she only had to send some bullets in, she could probably do it, but she had no expectation of hitting the target and, most importantly, the Bullet Lines would give away her own position.

If only she had a sniper rifle of her own, setting aside whether she would actually be able to hit with it, she could at least pinpoint her aim on that hole. 

''Aww, I should have taken that first tutorial, the sniper rifle course seriously……

It was too late to think about that now. In the first place, if she had not used a submachine gun-type gun all this time, LLENN would probably not have been able to grow so much.

"Uhm…… My dear LLENN……My dear partner…… Heed my words with caution……"

f.u.kaziroh sent her these words.

"Right now, I have finally realised. I can't move freely, so this probably isn't gonna work out."

"You knew that from the start! Seeing as you went on such a reckless attack!"

"But I don't have any regrets or reflect on anything."

"Well do so! Going off like that without a thought!"

"It's better than worrying incessantly like you just did, LLENN. Haven't you heard the famous words〝A soldier values swiftness most of all〟? You've done so during Science cla.s.s in primary school, right?"

"No, I haven't!"

In her view, LLENN saw f.u.kaziroh, who had lost both of her feet, still advancing forward.

"Heave, ho. And a one, and a two."

Using her elbows and knees, she continued crawling.

"Enough already, just fire your grenades from there! You don't even need to reach them! You don't even need to hit them! Because I'll use the timing of the explosion to jump out! Okay?"

"I see, that might not be a bad idea──"

A roar.

"Uhyo?"

Came f.u.kaziroh's shriek── or something like that, probably.

And scattering in the centre of her view was a hit effect. LLENN saw her partner's left hand being blown away. Her hit points decreased by another twenty percent.

"Guyah! My left hand! How can I possibly put on an engagement ring now!"

Shouted f.u.kaziroh, who had no such intention.

"…………:

LLENN could only watch on in silence now.

How, along with yet another gunshot, even the right wrist that was pressing down on her blown off left hand was blown off.

"Ah…… I'm done for,huh…… Bullets coming without a Line sure is unfair, after all……"

f.u.kaziroh muttered feebly and became unable to move while still lying on her sides──

Her hit points were in the yellow area, around thirty percent,

"S-s-s──"

"s.h.i.+t!"

Shouted while punching the ground.

Before she knew it, the M14 EBR's gunshots stopped.

As if the tumult thus far were all a lie, the world of GGO fell silent,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

LLENN lay on the meadow, wearing her camouflage poncho, all alone.

"d.a.m.n it all……"

Like a soumato(3), recent events replayed in her mind.

SJ2 was pretty much full of just about anything that could have gone wrong.

She just needed to find Pitohui quickly and bring her down somehow──

Yet she was placed at the farthest point from her target, and during her long journey she was forced to engage multiple nuisances in battle,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

They were forced to consume a ton of bullets and although she was able to increase her own supplies, f.u.kaziroh's pink smoke grenades were largely used up,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

Nevertheless, they held on, formed a plan, and when they used it at the 〝critical moment〟, an unthinkable nuisance entered the fray,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

Nevertheless, they frantically regained control, and when they were about to execute their plan, this time a veteran team riding a car barged in,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

Those guys were taken down in the end, but because of them, she saw the strength of a fierce G.o.d or monster in the opponent she had to fight now,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

Then, when she tried to think of a new strategy, a splendid plan, her comrades all decisively began an a.s.sault of their own accord and, as she feared, they were all torn to shreds,

"d.a.m.n it all……"

And right now, she could only tremble with nothing to do.

"Aaaaah! Enough of this!"

LLENN shouted this to the sky.

"Why should I care about Pito-san! She can just win this thing already! She's as strong as a monster, so as if she's gonna die!"

'Hohoh……'

Still collapsed, f.u.kaziroh listened to shout of LLENN's soul with a broad grin.

"Pito-san's obliteration, aaah, like I care about that anymore! Enough of this enough! If that's the case, I didn't have to go through all that trouble! I can just die!"

"So, what should ya do?"

f.u.kaziroh's voice asked her, as if it were a question from a G.o.d,

"Beat to a pulp!"

LLENN answered.

"Whom?"

"Pito-san!"

"How?"

"Like I care!"

*Buwasa!*

LLENN stood up with a jump and tore off the camouflage poncho she had been wearing.

"I don't care how, I'm just gonna shoot her to death one way or another! Or by knife! Or by any other means!"

Pink appeared on the meadow, clearly conspicuous. There stood a strange-looking girl.

" I'm gonna beat Pito-san to a pulp!"

And right now, her feet kicked off the ground.
 

"Nice! In that case, I'll also help! LLENN-chan!"

Her beloved 〝P-chan〟 in hand spoke to her in high spirits from below, and LLENN clearly heard it.

"Alright! Let's go! P-chan!"

Answering it, LLENN began das.h.i.+ng at full speed.

Hearing that shout,

'Buhahahahahahahah!'

f.u.kaziroh spouted out in her mind, and then thought.

'I see, so  that's what a deranged LLENN is like, huh.'