An attack in the virtual game world killed a player in the real world. From the way nobody believed in the rumor of the "Death Gun", it's likely that this is impossible in theory. However, this rule occurred in the world that doesn't exist now.

At this moment, I could only remain silent, and Sinon stared at my eyes with a sharp gaze-and opened her small lips to say, "You are...Kirito, perhaps you're, from that game..."

This seemingly voiceless question immediately vanished as it melted in the dry air of the bar. The wavering blue eyes looked down before shaking silently.

"...Sorry, I shouldn't be asking about this."

"...No, it's alright."

I could only answer this with regards to this unexpected apology, and we continued to look at each other under this tense silence.

I don't intend to tell Sinon that I was an ex "Sword Art Online" player, a "survivor of SAO". But if I don't say so, she will never be able to understand my explanation just now.

This Sinon should be able to understand the meaning of the word "enemy" I used, and she would be able to understand the detailed meaning of "killing each other".

I just waited silently for the girl to show that disgust and annoyance in her eyes.

However- Sinon didn't look away, and she didn't leave her seat. She leaned forward and stared at me. The sapphire eyes of hers, for some reason, seem to be giving some sort of...maybe a glint, a plea for help, or maybe that's just my imagination.

The next moment, Sinon closed her eyes tightly, and then bit her lips tight.

I didn't even have the time to be shocked as the tense atmosphere between us disappeared. After exhaling deeply, the sniper girl gave an obscure smile and whispered to me softly, "...Well, it's about time to head back to the waiting dome, or else we won't have time to check our equipment and warm-up."

"Ah...ahh, that's right."

I nodded my head, and Sinon stood up. I looked at the simple digital watch on my left wrist, and found that the time was soon going to be 7pm. There's still an hour before the finals tournament start.

As we arrived at the simple elevator at the corner of the huge bar, Sinon pressed the down button, the metal gate let out a creaking sound as it slides aside, and the elevator appeared. The moment we entered, I was the one who pressed the bottom most button.

In this cramped space that's had an imaginary descending feeling and the sound of machinery, a soft voice rang.

"I know you have your own difficulties."

Behind me, Sinon seemed to walk towards me, and there was something pointing at the center of my back. That's not a muzzle-but a fingertip. She said with a slightly forceful tone.

"However, your promise with me is another thing altogether. I'll definitely return that humiliation during the final battle yesterday with interest, so you must not let someone other than me shoot you down."

"...I understand."

I nodded my head slightly.

The biggest aim I had when I dived into GGO was to interact with "Death Gun" and solve the mystery behind the murder, but this incident now isn't just about Kikuoka Seijirou's request, but also related to me. Thinking through it calmly, I should avoid this duel with the scary sniper Sinon and achieve my aim.

But I met Sinon in this world, talked to her, and built a new relationship in this battle. I really can't ignore or belittle her actions. That's because, even in another virtual world, even if the thing attached on my waist is a light saber without a physical blade, "Kirito" is still a swordsman.

"...I'll survive until the time I fight you."

The moment I said this, the finger behind my back left my body, and a soft voice rang again.

"Thanks."

Before I could even ask why she said thanks, the elevator came to a sudden halt. After the door opened, what immediately came in from the front of the slightly dark elevator were the smell of iron and smoke-the smell of battle came over at me and engulfed me.

Chapter 10.

Sinon sighed for a long while, and spent the same amount of time trying to exhale the icy air out from her virtual lungs.

She slowly tried to adjust her breathing with her heartbeat, and the green reticle[1] of hers started to expand and shrink.

She looked right in the middle of the screen. A player was moving through the bushes. He was holding a mini "Yatei" assault rifle, and though other support weapons couldn't be seen, there were all sorts of abnormal lumps on him. Perhaps he lightened his rifle to the bare minimum, and used hi-tech optical shielding and multi-layered armor against live rounds to fill up the capacity. Also, he was wearing a helmet with face shield, and looked just like a giant boar. His name was called "Shishigane", and the stats showed that he was a defensive player who focused on VIT. Although he took part in the last finals, Sinon didn't face him directly.

With a distance of more than 1,200m, even the anti-tank sniper rifle "Ultima Ratio Hecate II" can't give a fatal shot through that thick armor. Of course, it'll be different if she could hit twice consecutively, but the enemy's no slouch. Once he's hit, he would definitely hide in the shadows and not show up again. Until then, if she waits for him to show up at that position, the other players who heard the first shot would definitely gather over, and it'll be a wave of machine gun fire swarming around her like a beehive.

As Sinon was laying prone between the large rock and the shrubs, the trigger in her finger was silently muttering, "...Come over here."

Once the distance between the target and her were within 800m, she believed that she could break through the thinner part of the armor, the face, and deal a larger amount of damage to eliminate this player from the stage.

However, Sinon's wishes didn't come true as the guy turned away and moved further away from her. He was careful enough to put heavy armor on his back too, and it could be said to be that there were no openings about him. It was a pity, but it seemed that the best choice she had would be to give up on this prey and wait for the next enemy. Just when Sinon was about to move her right eye away from the scope, she found that there was a round thing on the guy's right waist.

It was a large plasma grenade, two of them. Perhaps he was using it as another means of protection as he didn't have any support weapons. However, in this game, those "cheap and effective tools" would normally have some elements of danger to them. Sinon made herself tense and narrowed her eye that was on the scope.

She moved the scope down from the guy's back to the bottom right area, and finally aimed the crosshair at the shaking metal ball.

Inhale, exhale. She inhaled-and stopped.

As the screen of success removed all random thoughts, her body and the hand on the sniper rifle would fuse into one for a moment, and pinpoint into a fine circle. The girl naturally squeezed the trigger.

Then, there was an impact rushing through her body. Her eyes were immediately dyed white because of the sparks released by the muzzle. However, Sinon's vision immediately recovered as she looked through the scope, and through the vision that retained its color, she could see a grenade on the right waist of the man go 'bam', and she turned her face away from the gun.

"Bingo."

As she muttered, a blue explosion occured in the middle of the hill far away, and all the neighboring trees collapsed. A few seconds later, the sound of a thunderclap came over, and she didn't need to check to know that the guy's HP was reduced to zero.

At this moment, Sinon stood up, straightened her legs and carried her Hecate. As the gunshot and the muzzle spark revealed her position, the next few minutes after a snipe would be the most dangerous moment for a sniper. She quickly scanned around and then decided on the route she would take.

This path had shrubs all around, so she wouldn't be discovered easily. Also, the nearby enemies should be attracted to the large explosion of the boar guy. However, despite knowing this, Sinon didn't stop as she continued to run for more than a minute before kneeling at the base of a large dead tree before heaving a sigh. As she looked up, she could see through the gaps between the thick layers of clouds, the bloody red sun that was setting to the west.

It's been about 30 minutes ever since the Bullet of Bullets tournament finals started.

That boar guy just now was the second one Sinon sniped and eliminated, but the participants can't tell how many survivors were there until the satellite did its per-15-minute scan. The girl took out the thin "Satellite Scanner", activated it to show the map of the entire area and silently waited for the intel to refresh itself.

The time on the left of the screen indicated that the time in the real world was 8:30pm, and the highly detailed map showed numerous blinking lights. There were 21 of them, and in other words, 9 people had been eliminated. Sinon continued to stare at the screen as she tried to check the current scenario.

The place that became the stage of this tournament was a 10km wide isolated circular island. The north of the island was a desert, and the south was all forests and hills. Also, there was an abandoned town located in the middle of the island. Right now, Sinon was located at the southern-most hills. Moving on slightly north, there was a river flowing through, separating the hills from the forests.

Right now, there were 3 spots of lights within 1km radius. Sinon used her fingertip to tap the names on the lights. The nearest was "Dyne", who was moving northeast 600m away. Slightly further east was "Pale Rider" who was chasing "Dyne". And finally, the last point of light which was 800m from there in the rocky hills, remaining completely still was "Lion King Richie".

Richie's equipped with the hi-firepower heavy machine gun "Vickers". Perhaps he wanted to occupy the highest point in this area and sweep any players that got near him. He used the same strategy during the last tournament, and had to withdraw as he ran out of bullets. However, he should have a counter strategy now. Either way, she could leave this enemy that wasn't moving alone.

The problem was the lights points of "Dyne", who seemed to be running for his life, and "Pale Rider", who was chasing after him. Dyne wasn't just the leader of the squadron Sinon belonged to, but also a veteran who made it into the finals of the BoB 3 times. He had an assault rifle "SG550" with him, and specialized in mid-ranged combat. This person wasn't really worth respecting in terms of character, but he wasn't an enemy that's to be underestimated.

And as for the Pale Rider, who chased Dyne, was one not to be taken lightly, to be honest, Sinon never met him before, and of course, never fought against him. Was he really that strong? Was it that the weapon suited the landscape? Just when Sinon felt suspicious, the satellite in the sky seemed to be gone, and all the lights that were on the map were flickering. The Intel would disappear in about another 10 seconds.

Sinon raised her hand in reflex, ready to count the 18 dots that were far away. But just when her index finger was about to touch the screen, that hand clenched into a fist. That's because she noticed that she was looking for a certain special name.

"...Why should I even bother, with a guy like that."

Sinon muttered softly. There was no need for her to worry about that kind of guy-whether that despicable light saber user "Kirito" was alive or not. Right now, she should focus on the prey that's entering the Hecate's range. If Kirito entered the range, she should just aim, fire and end his life immediately without any feelings.

The flickering lights finally disappeared silently. Sinon placed the terminal back into her pouch and again ran through the forest.

Below her was a gradual hill, and opposite it was a lush forest. Right now, Dyne and Pale Rider were in a deep part of the forest, moving from Sinon's right to her left. Both of them should be aiming for the river that split the area in half and the bridge that spreads across the river. The cautious Dyne must be trying to avoid a high risk forest battle and chose to fight on a bridge where the range of vision was great to take on the pursuing Pale Rider.

Sinon was closer to the bridge than them. If she ran off now, she should be able to reach a sniping position first. She wanted to watch their battle from there and snipe the victor once his guard is down.

Readying the Hecate on her right shoulder, Sinon lowered her body and ran through the forest again.

The girl managed to pass through the red tea-colored hilly region safely, and a deep red band of reflected light swooped into Sinon's vision, as she swooped under the final bush there.

It was a river. Flowing out from the southern hills, it grandly snaked its way through the middle of the entire map as it headed towards the north before disappearing into her clouded view of the distant ruins of that abandoned city, far away.

On the opposite side of the river was a forest that had lots of old trees, and slightly below the trees, she could see a meandering rocky path. The path reached the river 200m north of where Sinon was sneaking, and links to a simple metal bridge. At this moment, those two players should be running down the path- Her intuition seemed to be correct since, a figure came running out from the shadows of the large old trees that's growing on the way between the path and the metal bridge. Sinon hurriedly readied the Hecate on the floor and brought her eyes over before she even lined her eyes on the rip-up cover of the scope.

That body was wearing a woodland patterned clothing, and his chin could be seen from below his helmet. Also, the SIG assault rifle confirmed that this was Dyne. He ran smoothly down the path like a veteran, and after leaving the forest for a few seconds. He quickly ran 50m down the metal bridge, over to the side where Sinon was hiding and immediately got down on the floor, proning.

"...I see"

Sinon muttered with some respect. In this situation, he could attack the enemy who wants to ran across the metal bridge. However, he was still too careless. To an enemy who may be hiding on the riverside, he showed his back in a completely defenseless manner.

"You have to watch your back no matter when it is, Dyne."

Sinon muttered as the crosshairs lined itself and caught that somewhat rough-looking face. Now she could take direct action without even waiting for Dyne and Pale Rider to fight. Though Pale Rider would notice Sinon's existence, he had to cross the bridge if he wanted to force his way. Sinon was only 200m away from the metal bridge, and even if the enemy ran with all he got, she had the confidence that it'll be a sure-kill hit.

--Of course, I'll just be sorry to those who were watching live from the gallery.

Sinon thought as she silently placed her finger on the Hecate's trigger, but at the next moment...

There was an icy chill behind her.

There was also someone behind her.

--Idiot! I forgot to watch my back because I was focused on sniping!

As Sinon was screaming this in her head, she quickly moved her right hand away from the Hecate. She turned 180 degrees like her body was a spring and used her left hand to pull out her support weapon, the "MP7" sub-machine gun. While doing all that, her mind lets out flashes of interrupted thoughts.

--But how could there be anyone behind me? There was only Lion King Richie when I checked the "Satellite Scanner" a few minutes ago, wasn't it? That guy can't have possibly ran down the mountain. And I can't possibly not notice the enemy's footsteps if he ran in with a heavy machine gun. Speaking of which, it's practically impossible for any enemy other than Richie to get behind me in such a short time. What's going on-who is it- Even though she was really surprised, Sinon reached the MP7 right behind her, and placed the black muzzle right in front of her. Of course, she wasn't paying that much attention to things; she couldn't believe that someone gotten the jump on her.

Right now, she couldn't dodge this assault. They would soon use up all their bullets in their magazines to reduce each other's HP-Sinon got ready to squeeze the trigger after preparing herself for this.

But just when she was about to pull the trigger and fire the bullet...

The attacker muttered softly as he raised his right hand, looking like he wanted to stop Sinon, "Wait!"

"Uehh...!?"

Sinon widened her eyes and turned to look from the muzzle to the enemy's face.

She immediately saw that long waist-length glamorous black hair, and the white tender skin even when under the sunset, and the long narrow eyes that were sparkling.

Her arch-enemy Kirito seemed to be half-sprawled on Sinon, wielding the FiveSeven pistol with his left hand and aiming at her.

After realizing the current situation, Sinon's heart had several feelings combining together to form a flame. She forgot the muzzle in front of her eyes and subconsciously gritted her teeth, giving a malicious look and intending to fire the MP7 in her left hand.

But Kirito again said with a cool voice that made Sinon stop exerting the force on her fingers.

"Hold on. I have a proposal."

"...What's there to propose in this situation..."

Sinon argued back with a soft voice that was filled with killing intent.

"What's there to propose and compromise in this situation!? We're only waiting to see who dies first!"

"I could have shot first if I wanted to shoot!"

Kirito's words were abnormally tense, causing Sinon to shut up. It felt that there was something more troubling to him than this faceoff at gunpoint.

And though she wasn't happy about it, what Kirito said was right. If he could get near easily, he could have back-stabbed her by firing bullets or using the lightsaber.

Facing Sinon, who was forced to remain silent, Kirito again continued to speak softly, "I don't want us to attack each other here and let the other two hear gunshots."

Kirito's eyes immediately turned to look behind Sinon, at the metal bridge where another battle was about to begin.

"Uehh...? What do you mean..."

"I want to watch that battle on the bridge until they decide the winner. Before that, please don't take action."

"...Watch? And what do you intend to do after that? Are you going to say something stupid like, let's start attacking each other after that?"