On the other hand, they reached the flatlands of the southern half of the island much faster than she expected, thanks to the way Kirito found the easiest route to run. Eventually the riverbed beneath her feet turned to concrete, and the skyscrapers of the city were just ahead. They finally reached the ruined city, the main battlefield of the map.
“We never caught up to him,” Sinon noted to Kirito as he rested his legs. She’d been hoping that they might catch Death Gun emerging from the river in an unarmed state, so they could pick him off easily. “You don’t suppose we passed him at some point, do you?”
Kirito turned back and grimaced at the river behind them. “No, definitely not. I was watching the water while we ran.”
“Oh…”
For one thing, without an Aqua-Lung, he couldn’t stay submerged in the water for more than a minute. Death Gun was already carrying the massive L115 rifle, so he couldn’t have the weight capacity for another big piece of equipment. He must have sunk into the water, followed the current north, then gotten out somewhere out of sight and run off.
“Then he must be hiding out somewhere in town already. The river ends right over there,” she pointed out, indicating the culvert beneath the city that the water flowed into. Thick metal bars blocked the pipe, making it clear no player could slip in. Obstacles like that were programmed to be indestructible, even to a hundred plasma grenades.
“Good point…Only three minutes until the next scan. And as long as he’s in this city, there’s no way to hide from the satellite’s eye, right?” Kirito asked. Sinon thought for a second before nodding.
“Right. In the last tournament, you showed up even on the first floor of a high-rise building. The only places to hide are the water or the caves, both of which have major risks. There’s no other place to hide from the scan.”
“Okay. Then once we learn his location in the next scan, we’ll rush him before he can shoot anyone else. I’ll go in directly, and you back me up.”
“Fine,” Sinon shrugged, “but there’s one problem. Death Gun isn’t his character name, remember? We can’t confirm his location on radar if we don’t know which name refers to him.”
“Oh…g-good point,” Kirito murmured, his pretty eyebrows wrinkling. “Well, there were three names you didn’t recognize on the list of thirty, right? I was chasing after Pale Rider, and that wasn’t him. Which leaves two…Musketeer X and ‘Steven’… If one of the two is in the city, then we’ll know for sure.”
“But if they both are, we don’t have time to think it over. We need to decide which one to attack right now. Oh, and by the way…” She cleared her throat. “I couldn’t help but notice that a musket is a type of gun, and if you turn the X diagonally, it becomes a cross, like the sign he was making. I don’t know, maybe that’s a little too convenient…”
“Hmm…Well, I think everyone’s character names in MMOs are generally pretty cliché. I mean, mine is just a wrinkle on my real name. What about you?”
“…Same.”
They shared an awkward look, then cleared their throats simultaneously. Kirito clearly wasn’t able to decide yet. He mentioned, “Meanwhile, if this ‘Steven’ is a foreigner, like his name suggests, that would settle the matter. Are there any foreign players in the BoB?”
“Umm…”
She checked her wristwatch—under two minutes until the scan. Sinon tried to explain as quickly as she could. “For the first tournament, you could choose either the US or JP server, and I understand that a few non-Japanese players were on the JP server, with the Japanese interface and all. I wasn’t playing GGO yet at the time, but from what Spiegel told me, the first BoB champion was one of them. Supertough, just slaughtered all the Japanese players with a knife and handgun alone.”
“Huh…What was his name?”
“Um, Sub…Subti-something. It was a weird name. But by the time I started playing, you could only connect to the JP server if you were actually located in Japan, so all of the players in the second and third BoB have been Japanese…or at least residents of Japan. So even though ‘Steven’ was written with the alphabet, it must be a Japanese person.”
“I see,” Kirito muttered, blinking hard, then made up his mind. “Okay, if they’re both in the city, we’ll go after Musketeer X. If I get hit with a stun round like Pale Rider, don’t panic. Just get into sniping position. Death Gun will emerge and try to finish me off with that black pistol. Shoot him then.”
“Uh…”
Sinon forgot that there was only a minute left. Her eyes went wide, staring into his big black pools. “Why…would you…”
…trust me so much? she finished without saying. “I mean, what if I shoot you in the back, rather than Death Gun?”
Kirito’s eyebrows shot upward in surprise. He grinned very slightly. “I already know you wouldn’t do that. C’mon, it’s time. Let’s do this, partner.” The lightswordsman dressed in black patted her arm and starting trotting up the stairs from the riverbed to the city.
The spot he touched got the same odd, warm tingle she felt in her fingertips yesterday. She followed him up the stairs. She had already lost count of how many times she’d reminded herself since yesterday that he was an enemy she needed to defeat.
They lined up near the top of the concrete steps, crouching just below the spot where they could be seen from the city, waiting for the fourth satellite scan of the day.
She had the satellite terminal in one hand and the chronograph on the other. In real-world time, it was 8:59:55…56… If the battle was going at the same pace as the last time, they’d be in the latter stages, with less than half the combatants remaining. In fact, just moments ago they’d heard gunshots and explosions from the city overhead. The sounds temporarily stopped—they were all in hiding, watching their terminals now.
Eight seconds, nine seconds…Nine o’clock.
A number of white and gray dots appeared on the terminal map.
“Start from the top, Kirito!” she commanded, touching the two dots next to each other on the west bank of the river at the south end of the city. The names that appeared were, of course, KIRITO and SINON. Since no close-range battles would take fifteen minutes, the other players had to realize by now that they weren’t fighting, but working together. It wasn’t against the rules, and players had cooperated this way in the past, but they had to be thinking, Sinon? Of all people? All she hoped was that none of the stream cameras caught her in the act of working with him.
She kept all of this distraction at bay as she touched all the northern dots, dead or alive, checking the names. No-No, Yamikaze, Huuka, Masaya…all famous, recognizable names. If neither of the two names they were searching for showed up in town, it meant their theory was wrong from the very start…
Wait.
“…There!” they both shouted in perfect synchronization.
At the outer edge of a round, stadiumlike building in the center of the city. The name popped up at the perfect sniping location with a great view: MUSKETEER X.
She and Kirito shared a look, then returned to their terminals. They cross-checked, Sinon from the north and Kirito from the south. Five seconds later, they looked up again and nodded.
“Musketeer X is the only one in the city,” Sinon whispered.
“And ‘Steven’ isn’t,” Kirito rasped. “That means Musketeer X is Death Gun. And he’s probably aiming for…”
He placed a finger on a dot over a building to the west of the center stadium—the name was Ricoco. In order to move to another spot, he would have to expose himself to Musketeer X.
Even as Sinon noted this, Ricoco’s dot started heading for the building exit. The instant he stepped out into the street, he’d be hit by that L115’s stun rounds. They had to stop Death Gun before he approached and shot his victim with that pistol again.
Kirito stashed his terminal away and faced Sinon. He was about to say something, then closed his mouth, followed by a simple, “Cover me.”
“You got it,” she
replied, getting up. She walked up the stairs in front of Kirito, checked the area, then waved him onward, bouncing up the last stair herself.
The ancient ruined city at the center of the island known as ISL Ragnarok seemed to be modeled after New York City in the real world. Soaring towers that combined practicality with traditional beauty split the evening sky, while English signboards and advertisements covered the street-level surfaces. Naturally, they were all cracked with age and covered in vines and sand.
Sinon and Kirito sprinted down the street that ran over the river as it went underground. Aside from the two of them, Death Gun, and his target, the city contained at least five or six other players, but there was no time to worry about them now. Fortunately, the previous scan showed no one close enough to reach their street at a moment’s notice. There were also rotted-out yellow taxis and large buses here and there that served as excellent cover. The pair ran north, weaving through the vehicles.
With their AGI-aided sprinting, they raced 700 meters in less than a minute—half the length of the city—until the large round stadium appeared before them. Sinon motioned Kirito over to the shadow of a nearby bus. They peered out through its cracked panorama window.
The outer wall of the stadium was about three stories high, with entrances at each cardinal direction. If Musketeer X hadn’t moved since the satellite scan, he would be just above the western entrance. Sinon stared up at the top of the wall. Thanks to her Hawkeye skill, the distance effects faded away, bringing the distant objects into focus. At the lip of the crumbling concrete, there was a little triangular split, just like an arrowhole…
“…Found him. Up there.”
She’d seen the glint of a rifle barrel in the light of the setting sun, and so had Kirito. He responded, “Looks like he’s still waiting for Ricoco to emerge…Let’s attack from the rear now, while we have the chance. You get into sniping position from the building across the street.”
“What…? But I’m going with you into the stadium,” she started to protest, but he cut her off with a look.
“This is the best way to make use of your ability. I’ll be able to fight him freely, knowing that you’ll back me up with your gun if I get into trouble. That’s how a team works.”
“…”
She had no choice but to agree with him. He grinned the tiniest bit and checked his watch. “I’ll start combat thirty seconds after splitting off from you. Will that be enough time?”
“…Yeah, more than enough.”
“Good. Let’s do it, then.”
The black-haired swordsman pulled away from the bus, faced Sinon directly for a moment, then took off running for the stadium’s south gate without a sound.
Sinon felt a strange feeling in her chest as she watched his slender back race off. Nerves? Concern? It was similar, but different. Was it—could it be—forlorn loneliness…?
What a stupid thing!
She clenched her teeth, cursing herself.
I’m acting entirely rationally, all in an attempt to win the BoB and prove that I am the greatest player in this world. I want to get rid of Death Gun so that he stops sowing chaos with his mysterious system-transcending power, and temporarily working with Kirito is a necessary step to achieving that. As soon as we succeed, the lightswordsman becomes my enemy again. We will split up, and the next time I meet him, I’ll pull the trigger without hesitation, defeat him, and forget him. I’ll never see him again after that.
She ran, ignoring the prickling sensation around her heart. Some buildings in the city could be entered and some couldn’t, and those that could had very obvious entrances. For instance, the building to the southwest side of the wide, barren circle surrounding the stadium featured a gaping hole where the wall should be.
If she climbed up to the third floor, she’d be able to see over the outer wall of the stadium. It was too close for proper sniping; the target would almost certainly see her. But if Kirito creeped up on Death Gun, the player would be too distracted to notice her. She’d wait for an opening and shoot. Then she’d leave the city and Kirito behind. That was the plan…
Sinon believed she was acting as calmly and rationally as she always did. But she couldn’t deny that a considerable part of her was dominated by a very different, uncharacteristic thought.
She recognized this just as she was about to pass through the crumbled part of the building wall, and felt a powerful chill in her back. She started to turn around, but couldn’t even do that before she fell right into the street.
What…just…?!
At first she couldn’t tell what had happened.
A shiver ran up her back…something shone on the left side of her vision…she automatically raised her left hand, and a violent shock ripped through the outside edge of her arm. She was about to leap forward into the nearby building, thinking she’d been shot, but her legs wouldn’t move, and she sprawled out onto the street.
Once all of that had properly registered in her brain, Sinon tried to sit up, but her body wouldn’t listen. All she could move was her eyes. She tilted them down at her extended left arm, to check the forearm for damage.
But it was not a bullet piercing the sleeve of her desert camo jacket—more like a silver needle. It was about a fifth of an inch wide, and two inches long. The base of the needle made a high-pitched whir and glowed, while little stringlike sparks traveled from her arm to the rest of her body.
An electric stun round.
It was the exact same projectile that had paralyzed Pale Rider—noncompatible with assault rifles, machine guns, or handguns, but usable only with certain large-bore rifles. And she hadn’t heard a shot.
There weren’t many players using large rifles with suppressors.
But even after accepting all of this, Sinon couldn’t bring herself to accept that it was him who had shot her. After all, the stun round hit her from the south. But he was in the stadium to the north. He was supposed to be aiming for a different target, unaware of Sinon’s presence. And she was certain that no player would be able to attack her from the south this early, based on what she’d seen in the Satellite Scan. No-No, Huuka, and Yamikaze were all on the other side of the severely collapsed region that would take time to navigate.
She couldn’t understand. Why? Who? How?
It wasn’t words that answered her, but a single sight.
Little dots of light fizzled into life in a space about sixty feet to the south, where there should have been nothing. Someone appeared out of thin air, like a chunk had been cut out of the world itself.
Her paralyzed throat opened in a fierce, soundless bellow.
Optical Camo!!
It was the ultimate camouflage material, sending light itself through the surface of the armor and making the wearer invisible. But that skill was supposed to be available only to a small subset of extremely high-level unique boss monsters. Did they throw some mobs into the map of the BoB as a new experiment? They hadn’t announced any such thing.
With a flap in the wind, the dark gray cloth cut through the chaos of her racing thoughts.
A long, trailing cloak, the surface in tatters. A hood of the same color that entirely covered the head. To her shock, her attacker turned off the Optical Camo and revealed himself. It was the cloaked player, who should not have been there.
Death Gun.
The silent assassin who had erased Pale Rider just minutes ago, and possibly killed the previous champion, Zexceed, and the major squadron leader, Usujio Tarako.
On the inside of the wavering cloak, she could see the barrel of the massive rifle stretching nearly to his feet, and the sound suppressor fixed to the end. If the large cloak had camouflage abilities, it could cover the entire rifle and allow him to snipe while invisible. Even better, in fact—he could hide from the Satellite Scan. It was the only explanation for why there hadn’t been a dot near the road on the latest scan.
Did that mean Death Gun wasn’t Musketeer X…?
…Kirito.
Sinon called the name of the swordsman in the back of her head, realizing that he was somewhere in the stadium behind her, about to attack the wrong player. She didn’t hear his voice respond, of course.
Instead, she heard only a soft, scraping footstep. The cloaked player was sliding closer. In the depths of his dark hood, two glowing red points blinked at irregular intervals.
The eerie, ghostlike presence stopped about six feet away from Sinon’s prone form. A hissing, creaking whisper came from his hidden face.
“Kirito…This will tell, if you are real, or false.”
The cloaked player knew that Kirito was in the stadium, and yet was speaking to him, not her. The halting voice was metallic, and nearly without emphasis of any kind, though it seemed to be hiding some kind of enormous, burning emotion on the inside.
“I remember, seeing you, fierce with rage. When I kill this woman…your partner, I will know, you are real, if you go mad again. Now…show me. Show me, your anger, your bloodlust, your madness, once again.”
Sinon didn’t understand a word of what he was saying. But the cloaked man’s terrible announcement actually had the effect of lowering her shock and fear somewhat.
Kill? Me? A guy who has to skulk around and hide behind camouflage?
Anger burst forth within her. The heat of that feeling overrode the numbness in her body.
The stun round was still sparking madly, but because it hit her in the left arm, she could just barely manage to move her right hand. Fortunately, the grip of her MP7 SMG was just within reach. She might be able to hold it, point it up, and pull the trigger. If she could fire a whole magazine into him, she just might win.
Move. Move!
The commands Sinon sent from her brain through the AmuSphere somehow overcame the game system’s paralysis effect, and her right hand began to crawl. Her fingers brushed the familiar grip of the MP7.