Karen had a one-sided conversation with Miyu, who had called to talk about Kanzaki Elsa’s mini live performance to be held in town around mid-April.

Karen wanted to kill a character operated by an insane female manager, whom she knew nothing about, to save her.

And to do that, Karen needed Miyu’s help. She needed her to convert to GGO and partic.i.p.ate in SJ2.

Having poured her heart out,

“I know that this is an unreasonable request. But, I have no one else to turn to. P-please──, I beg you!”

And, Miyu answered Karen’s plea.

“Fu…… This spring, f.u.kaziroh will go really wild in GGO…… I’ll have to go easy so I don't accidentally end up killing this Pitohui myself in overenthusiasm.”

LLENN was waiting at the starting point in GGO for the moment f.u.kaziroh converted.

The starting point in this game was located in a corner of the capital, Glocken.

It was hard to tell whether this world, with its buildings on sparkling metal ground stretching outward to soar in the sky, and gaudy neon s.h.i.+ning under the always red, out-of-order sky, was magnificent or crazy.

The conversion system allowed transferring to a different VR game under the same ID, but when this happens, the avatar’s appearance was determined as a 〝thing that’s specific to the game〟.

Some time ago, having wandered between numerous games in search of a chibi avatar, she was able to obtain her current LLENN. What appearance would f.u.kaziroh, who was a beautiful fairy with long hair in ALO, take on in GGO?

Having concealed her body with a brown robe, LLENN antic.i.p.ated with her heart pounding in excitement, until particles of light began to a.s.semble, and slowly formed the shape of a human.

“Ooh!”

For the first time, LLENN saw how a new character was born in this world. The particles finally a.s.sembled into a shape with colour,

“O── o? Ooo!”

In front of the sparkly-eyed LLENN, a single character formed.

The character, who raised her head and blinked,

“Yo! Kohi! ──Whoops, LLENN!”

Was definitely f.u.kaziroh.

Her self in the world of GGO,

“What is it? Does my face look weird?”

Was a blonde beauty──

“No! You’re cute!”

Who did not lose to LLENN in shortness.

LLENN and f.u.kaziroh began their strategy meeting in a private room of a rundown bar.

There were a lot of preparations that had to be made in order to fight in SJ2 and defeat the formidable Pitohui.

First, they checked f.u.kaziroh’s stats in GGO.

During the conversion, the character’s strength was 〝relatively〟 transferred over.

In other words, a character that mainly trained in physical strength in the previous game would receive a new character with a high strength value even in the new game.

For example, if LLENN converted to another game, she would of course get a character with high agility. Even if she looked like a sumo wrestler appearance-wise.

In GGO, and most other VR games, a management window would appear in the air via a specific motion using the left hand. Although it was basically only visible to the user, it was possible to make it visible to others by facing them and pressing 〝send〟.

Looking at the character status screen that f.u.kaziroh brought out,

“Wh── what…… is this……?”

LLENN was astounded.

Strength, Agility, Vitality (Endurance), Dexterity, Sensibility, and Luck.

Among these six stats that GGO characters had, LLENN was better only in Agility and Dexterity. f.u.kaziroh was far better in the rest of the stats.

Her Strength and Vitality were especially high. With these, she could carry a considerably heavy gun and a large amount of equipment, and she had a tough body that could withstand a lot of punishment.

She had a delicate-looking girl’s body, yet her Strength and Vitality might be equal to M’s. It was as if she was a cyborg.

“Well, I guess this’ll do.”

f.u.kaziroh said very naturally while toying with her long, golden hair in front of her face. She was completely unsurprised.

‘Just how much does Miyu play VR games? Has she sunk in hours, tens of hours── no, hundreds of hours on them?

LLENN now felt alarmed. But at the same time,

“She’s! Reliable!”

She could not hold back her inner thoughts.

‘I’m the one who asked for help, so by all means, allow me to help. I’ll leave an item box at a certain place in town.’

Of course, it wasn’t an actual box, they would just receive data by going there and touching the item. She also got the pa.s.sword to open it. The reason for not transferring the items directly was probably to avoid leaving records of their transaction.

Having dived into GGO once again, LLENN,

“Forty three people called me in this short time! Not bad! Though, this game really does have very few female chars, huh! It’s possible to get a reverse harem here!”

Went to the designated location together with f.u.kaziroh, who had to dress in a robe because her excessive beauty made her stand out. Indeed, they found a present from M behind a trash can in a back alley.

f.u.kaziroh touched it, entered the pa.s.sword, and a certain amount of credits entered her completely empty wallet.

Seeing that, LLENN,

“WHA!”

And f.u.kaziroh too,

Were both so surprised at the displayed number that they jumped up in astonishment.

“LLENN…… you're sure that this isn’t a mistake, right……?”

“Probably……”

“And afterwards, I won’t be told to sell my organs or go on a tuna boat(2), right……?”

“Probably……”

There was a short message from M, along with the enormous amount of monetary aid.

『This should do for now. Let me know if you need more.』

Having read the letter, f.u.kaziroh faced LLENN with an expression that was the very embodiment of seriousness, and said.

“I wanna marry this guy right now. Give me his email now.”

It was an awfully ugly object.

Its overall length was around 70 cm. About the same as a rather long submachine gun. As it had astock for holding against the shoulder, the gun was probably a gun. As for the colour, it was mostly desert tan, a soil-like shade of brown. Though the grip and some other parts were black.

Nevertheless, it was actually an unattractive gun.

The most unsightly part of it was the protuberance in its centre.

Its revolver-like rotating cylinder protruded like the stomach of an obese middle-aged person. Its excessively large and short barrel was nothing more than another bad part of its appearance.

‘The gun looks like a crossbreed between a revolver and submachine gun that had a mistake insize adjustment and thus ended up growing a belly.’

LLENN had such an impression about it.

“LLENN, you don’t know about it either? But, it does look good, right! I’m set on it! What kind of gun is it?”

“Ehm……”

Even though she was asked what kind of gun it was, LLENN did not know anything about it other than the fact that it was 〝awfully unsightly〟, as this was the first time she had seen it after all.

LLENN read the displayed tag. 《MGL-140》. That was probably its name.

Even if she knew its name, she could not say anything else about it. For example, what kind of gun it was and what kind of bullets it used.

At that point, having greeted another customer, the shop a.s.sistant came in front of the two girls.

He was a young man who wore jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt, as well as an American Marine Corps camouflage-patterned ap.r.o.n on top.

He wasn’t a computer-controlled NPC (Non-Player Character) like the shop a.s.sistants working at the huge mall. It was a player character, who was doing business in GGO to earn money.

“Miss, that is a continuous-fire grenade launcher! It’s the first time I've see one too. It seems that they have just recently been implemented, and then someone discovered them in some ruins, thus yesterday, we got 2 of them at our store!”

The shop a.s.sistant said in a cheerful, merchant-like tone, and gave an invigorating smile.

“A grenade launcher. Ah, so that’s it, huh……”

LLENN realised. Even though she knew about them, this was the first time she saw the actual thing.

“What’s a…… grenade?”

As f.u.kaziroh, who did not even know about them, asked this question, the shop a.s.sistant politely answered.

“In j.a.panaese, grenade means high-explosive projectileryūdan. You can just think of it as 〝a sh.e.l.l packed with gunpowder that explodes〟. A hand grenade is a hand-held high-explosive projectileshuryūdan. It’s literally a bomb thrown by hand.”

“Hmmhmm.”

As the shop a.s.sistant’s explanation was polite, and he was clearly more well-informed than LLENN, she kept quiet.

“A grenade launcher is a gun that can discharge grenades farther than by hand. Using the power of gunpowder, it can send 40 mm-diameter grenades flying up to 400 metres away.”

“Ho! This gun’s not just cute, but superb too!”

“That’s right! The way the grenades fly in a parabola is fun right! Normally, they’re single-shot── in other words, you can only load in 1 grenade at a time, and then need to remove the empty sh.e.l.l and load in a new one after firing, but this gun is different. It has a rotating cylinder. You can load in 6 grenades into it, and fire 2 per second just by pulling the trigger. In other words, you can fire all 6 of them in 3 seconds!”

“Hoho. A hail of bombs, huh!”

“Right! The explosion of a single grenade can scatter fragments in a 5 metre radius, and then multiply it by 6. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest grenade launchers in GGO at this moment.”

“Nice nice!”

“And there’s a large variety of 40 mm grenades; rather than just the exploding kind, there are tons of them that you can try, like ones that create a smokescreen, thermite incendiary grenades that burn people to a crisp with super-high temperatures, or flares that s.h.i.+ne as they descend by parachute!”

“Even nicer!”

“Moreover, there are 《plasma grenades》 , which don’t exist in RL, in GGO! Oh the pleasant feeling when you fire those, and blow away your opponents with super-high power!”

“Hyahaa!”

At the end of the high-spirited talk that sounded like a sale on the way to the station,

“Mister! I’m buying it! Sell it!”

f.u.kaziroh shouted as she jumped around in excitement, but the shop a.s.sistant toned down a bit.

“But, it is expensive, you know? Have you…… seen its price?”

‘Come to think of it, I still haven’t looked at it.’

When LLENN looked at the price tag,

“Guh── hah!”

She felt like vomiting blood.

As is usual with powerful weapons, even the price packed a punch. How many of her beloved P90s that were by no means cheap could she buy with this? She did not want to calculate that.

But, however, f.u.kaziroh right now──

“I can afford it I can afford it!”

Was super rich because of a certain someone,. Having manipulated her window, she showed the shop a.s.sistant an amount of money enough for the purchase, and at the same time,

“I’m buying 2! I wanna hold one in each hand and fire them like a bada.s.s! I’ll also buy all the ammo you have!”

“…………”

The shop a.s.sistant, who seemed like he was looking at an unbelievable idiot, at a loss for words,

“Th-thank you for your patronage!”

Quickly shouted, smiling from ear to ear. And then,

“Aah…… with this, I’ll make enough for next month’s expenses too……”

It seemed that this person was facing quite the hards.h.i.+p in RL.

‘Even if I fail at job hunting, I’ll pa.s.s on making a living via a game.’

LLENN carved this thought into her heart.

“The 《Bullet Circle》 makes it easy!”

f.u.kaziroh masteredthe system a.s.sistunique to GGO right away.

The Bullet Circle, impact prediction circlechakudan yosoku en(4) in j.a.panese, was a green circle that could only be seen by the character who was shooting.

Once the user readied their gun and touched the trigger with their finger, a circle would appear in the shooter’s field of vision in less than a second.

The size of the circle depended on the variety and ability of the gun and bullets, as well as the estimated distance to the target, character abilities and so on. And, matching the player’s heart rate, the circle decreased and increased in size.

Once fired, the bullet would hit somewhere within the circle randomly, thus it was an ironclad rule to fire at the moment it was at its smallest. Naturally, if the heart rate sprung up due to nervousness, it would be awfully difficult to grasp the timing. 

With guns that were basically aimed pretty much straight towards the target, like LLENN’s P90 and normal guns, the circle appeared pretty much straight ahead.

‘So, how on earth does it work for a grenade launcher which, aside from at super-point-blank range, attacks in a large parabola, like throwing a ball?,’

LLENN wondered, and,

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Seeing is believing. In one ear and out the other.” (5)

f.u.kaziroh fired a single shot after saying that, and presented her beloved gun to LLENN.

“It’s heavy……”

To LLENN, the MGL-140 felt like a ma.s.s of lead. There was no way she could hold and shoot it one-handed.

According to actual gun data, the gun alone weighed nearly 6 kilograms, but there were 6grenades that weighed at least 300 grams each in it, thus the whole thing weighed at least 8kilograms when firing.

It was entirely different from her P90, which weighed just 3 kilograms even including the bullets.

LLENN realised how strong f.u.kaziroh was, as she could move around carrying 2 of them.

“Then, just 1 shot.”

Grasping the grip under the barrel, LLENN held it against her waist, rather than her shoulder, and then touched the trigger with her finger.

And then, a green circle, tilted by about 45 degrees, emerged clearly on the surface of the wilderness about 200 metres away. When she tried moving the muzzle slightly upwards, the circle moved farther away.

When she squeezed the trigger, *pon*, along with this lovely sound and less recoil than she had antic.i.p.ated, possibly due to the launcher's body being heavy, a black ma.s.s flew out, and the rotating cylinder turned 1 grenade to the right at the same time.

About 3 seconds after discharging, the launched grenade exploded within the circle. A cloud of smoke whirled up high, and the sound of the explosion came late by a beat.

Returning the MGL-140 to f.u.kaziroh,

“I see……”

This definitely made aiming easy. The shop a.s.sistant,

“Optical sights are attached to a real MGL-140 to help aim while changing the angle of the stock as it is held against the shoulder, but you see, in GGO where we have the Bullet Circle, it instead becomes a hindrance, so you don’t need it.”

Said this, and now she understood what he had meant. There really were no optical sights attached to f.u.kaziroh’s MGL-140.

She now understood how the Bullet Circle worked in this case.

“What about the Line?”

LLENN expressed a question. In GGO, there was another system that corresponded to the Bullet Circle, called the 《Bullet Line》.

It was an a.s.sist that was applied for the defenders, a red line that informed a character being targeted that 〝Bullets are going to fly here right now〟, which was impossible in reality.

However, as an exception, it would not be displayed if it was 〝the first bullet fired by an unspotted sniper〟.

Upon seeing them, GGO players were able to avoid incoming bullets, which would mostly be impossible in RL.

In order to confirm the grenade launcher’s Bullet Lines with her own eyes, LLENN stepped away by about 200 metres, and had f.u.kaziroh target her.

“Ah, I see.”

As expected, it drew a large parabola. Going diagonally upwards in the distance, the line then descended in an arch.

LLENN conveyed,

“Yeah, I got it. Just as I imagined.”

Via the communication item, which allowed them to converse as if they were on a phone, that f.u.kuaziroh had bought, but,

“Well then, let’s try practicing dodging for a bit. I’m firing 3 of them.”

Right after LLENN was suddenly told this, she heard *pom pom pom*, sounds of her gun discharging, and became shocked.

“Uhyaaaaa!”

And so, the fields they went to were essentially not at a difficulty befitting beginners like f.u.kaziroh, but just as LLENN had predicted, there was no need to worry about that.

f.u.kaziroh never did anything unreasonable, and completely understood LLENN’s role in attacking, thus she quickly deduced monster attack patterns, and supported her with powerfulgrenades from afar.

‘We can’t lose like this!”

Blazing with fighting spirit, LLENN made more and more bold attacks than she used to, accepting the risks involved, in order to further train herself.

She tried moves that she had never attempted before, and did not mind even if she failed right away. She continued her practice, running, running, shooting, reloading her magazine and then shooting again.

‘Speed is my s.h.i.+eld! Attacking is my defence!’

‘Don’t stop! You’ll die if you stop! Fire away!’

The second generation P-chan, as if speaking for LLENN’s fighting spirit, created harmonic gunshots.

LLENN’s goal was but one. To defeat Pitohui.

To kill her──

And save her.

Players, who happened to come across this scene of asceticism in the wilderness, took a quick look at it from afar with their binoculars, and then,

“Those girls sure are scary…… They don't seem to have noticed us, and I don’t want them to catch sight of us, so let’s not get involved with them.”

4 minutes later, a telephone rang somewhere in Tokyo.

『What? Gous.h.i.+-kun. I’ll be having a business meeting with the other director very soon. Make it brief.』

『Then, I shall only convey the essentials. The aforementioned team, has entered. Just now.』

『Director?』

『Thanks for the report. I’m looking forward to it.』

『Okay. But──』

『I know. I’ve got the 4th of April all planned out. See you.』

1 hour later,

“Boss! Karen-san── I mean, LLENN has entered!”

“What did you say!”

At the entrance of a certain dungeon in GGO, a certain six-member party was surprised.

“You’re, right…… This…… is getting more and more interesting!”

“I wonder why Karen-san had a change of heart……?”

“Who knows! Not asking that is the principle of soldiers! From now on, we won’t make any contact with her even in RL! Until the tournament is concluded── she’s an enemy!”

“Ro~ger”

“Let’s hear her out over sweets after it’s done.”

“I want to eat some marshmallows. And Hokkaido sweets too.”

“The black tea was tasty too! Those tea leaves were really expensive, probably!”

“Alright, ladies! Enough chatter! Now, let’s try it again today too! Let’s advance farther than yesterday! Follow me!”

At Boss’s words,

“Uraaa!”

The five who gave a war cry moved forward through the tunnel that went underground.

But as for SJ2, whose prizes were no longer disappointing──

Excluding the seeded teams, naturally, only twenty seven of the forty six teams could partic.i.p.ate in the main tournament.

Therefore, the day before the tournament, at 20:00 on the 3rd of April, preliminaries would be held. The rules for it were sent via message.

The preliminaries would be a confrontation between randomly paired teams.

The preliminaries would be settled in a single round, which had a 20 minute time limit. Out of consideration for members that could not dive at the specified time due to work, teams were allowed to partic.i.p.ate if at least two of their registered members were present.

As for the battlefield, a 1 km x 300 metre rectangular and flat field, dotted with numerous barricades was specially-designed to allow teams to engage one another immediately, and to prevent running around. All battles would be held simultaneously under the same conditions.

No matter how many members there were in an opposing team, wiping them all out would of course result in victory.

In case of a time-out, the side with fewer casualties would win.

Or if that was a tie, the side which received less damage would win.

If even that was a tie (for example, in the case where n.o.body received damage), the side which spent fewer bullets would win.

If even that was a tie (for example, in the case where both sides ran away from the battle without firing a shot), the management company would throw a coin to decide the victor.

The winners would naturally get the right to partic.i.p.ate in the main tournament. By this method, twenty three teams would be decided, but four teams among the losers would be repechaged.

This would be based on the fewest casualties. In the case of them being identical, based on longest survival time. Followed by damage and fired bullets. Incidentally, teams that lost by coin toss would not be given repechage.

The state of the preliminaries would not be broadcast at all. Therefore, aside from the losing teams that were repechaged, n.o.body would know what kind of teams would become their enemy until they ran into them during the main tournament.

Looking at the entry list and rule boo