The broadcast did not display M’s team. Therefore, the audience did not know where they currently were, but,

“No matter what, they must have noticed the conspiracy. And honestly, would the best plan be to run away in this case?”

Said the man who had drunk who knows how many cups of beer,

“And where would they run to? Descend the mountain to the north and go to the valley? At some point, they’ll be caught up to, ya know? No matter how much they struggle, their position will be revealed during the :40 scan.”

Answered the man who was nibbling his dozenth jerky.

“So…… it would be better to set up an ambush?” 

“If they had equal forces, they would have the advantage by ambus.h.i.+ng them from above the slope…… but with this difference in force, I wonder.”

The screen was showing the men steadily climbing up.

Each of them was armed with their best small arms, thus they had quite the firepower. There were also machine guns and sniper rifles among them.

“Still hopeless, huh……”

The man shook his head, and then finished his beer.

The men in the mountains were advancing triumphantly.

Their legs would feel tired due to the tough climbing, but as they understood that it was merely a false sensation, it was no big deal.

More importantly,

〝Just a bit more and we’ll probably be able to take down a tough enemy.〟

This stimulus outweighed it, and their pace quickened.

In their field of view, the men saw their comrades nearby. And slightly further, characters that were enemies mere moments ago.

They would definitely have to exchange gunfire once the favourites were defeated, but that was a matter for the future. Right now, they, too, were 〝comrades〟.

The mountainside was dim, and their field of view was poor due to the rocks and trees; there was no telling when or where they would be under fire. 

But, once they fired even a single bullet, their position would immediately be revealed. And when that happened, they would suffer a volley from more than twenty people.

‘Just come at shoot us! Come on!’

Provoking their enemy in their thoughts, the men advanced up the slope.

As they spent more and more time in an advantageous situation, the men’s tension loosened as well.

Around the moment the clock’s needle indicated that 13:37 had pa.s.sed,

“I kinda feel bad for their opponents.”

“Indeed.”

Or,

“Will there be a prize for the ones who defeat M?”

“If you like, how about we make a bet? Grenades or magazines?”

And other such obvious jokes were murmured by some.

It was nothing but a nuisance to those characters who had braced themselves and were trying their best not to overlook any sounds that their opponents might be making.

Eventually, a man wearing a reddish-brown jacket,

“Quiet! Our plan was not to talk except for reports!”

Scolded another team, wearing pale brown desert camouflage and cackling nearby.

The teammate who was talking to the scolded man stopped there, but the desert camouflage man clicked his tongue in blatant displeasure, and,

“What are you…… Trying to be the force’s leader?”

Was obviously belligerent. The reddish-brown jacket-wearing man, who also seemed to be annoyed by this,

“No you idiot. I’m just gracefully educating a man who’s negligent. You should thank me, ya know?”

Gave him a splendid t.i.t for tat.

The two then stopped and glared at each other from a 10 metre distance, in a serious mood.

They of course had at least a slight sense of reason and did not aim their muzzles at each other, but,

“Once all of this is over…… I am definitely gonna kill you.”

“What a coincidence. I had the same idea. I won’t forget that mug of yours or your camouflage uniform.”

They made such a promise to each other.

Not long afterwards,

“Everyone stop where you are. Prepare for the scan.”

The same order from the stronghold, in other words the seven leaders, reached everyone’s ears.

The men slowly squatted,

“Half of you be on the lookout. The other half look at your terminals.”

And then followed this order.

13:39 pa.s.sed the 40 second mark, then the 50 second──

“The scan is beginning.”

The fourth scan in SJ2 began.

“Now then, how will this turn out……?”

The scan results were displayed on-screen in the bar as well, thus the audience watched on with bated breath.

The scan began from the north, thus MMTM’s survival was confirmed first. This was no surprise to anyone.

Then, LF who had arrived at the west side of the dome, s.h.i.+NC who had arrived at the south, and three more teams inside the dome were indicated.

Although the dome, where a fierce battle should break out, looked very interesting, the south-eastern mountain district was the current centre of attention.

‘Where is PM4?’

‘Did they read our moves and descended the mountain to the south? Or did they move further to the east?’

What the scan displayed was──

The seven leaders had to make a prompt decision.

If they took their time pondering over it, PM4, whose position they had finally grasped, might escape.

Knowing this, they made a decision after a short talk.

“Leave one team to the left and right of the valley each, to be on the look out for attacks from above. The rest, move down to the valley.”

One of the men on the scene,

“It’s a waterfall. With quite the size. About the size of a four-storey two-family house with a store.”

Used these words to report to the leaders,

“That spoiled the mood.”

Another person could not hold back whispering this quietly enough to not be heard.

“Is this really the place that came up on the scan? On the waterfall? ──Roger.”

Seemingly having received an answer right away, the man shouted to his comrades in the area. He had no choice but to do so to surpa.s.s the noise of the waterfall.

“Their position during the scan was over there. Around the whereabouts of the waterfall!”

“So they’re above? ──What about the teams above? Can they see anything?”

The answer came from a leader, in other words, the stronghold.

“They can’t! There’s only a river connected to the waterfall above it!”

At this point, at least 3 minutes had pa.s.sed since the scan. Someone who looked at his wrist.w.a.tch,

“Did they move out? Don’t tell me we let them escape?”

And then,

“Possibly…… We came out empty-handed.”

Words of regret came from one of his comrades.

At that moment, a man from another team who happened to be close by spoke up to the two while shaking his head,

“No…… That might not be it……”

“Why?”

“How do you figure that?”

“I just realised…… Isn’t there something big protruding above the waterfall?”

‘Above?’ The two stuck their heads out from the rock that they were hiding behind, and it was indeed as he said.

The upper section of the waterfall had quite a few rocks sticking out, but the curtain of water began from a spot that stuck out quite a bit.

It was possible to go behind the curtain of water by climbing along the rocky wall beside it.

“There could be a person hiding there……”

All twenty men in the valley aimed their muzzles one after another.

The snipers and machine gunners mounted their beloved guns on bipods atop the rocks. Thesubmachine gun- and a.s.sault rifle-wielding men lay down as if they were hugging the rocks.

Their target was the waterfall curtain tens of metres ahead. It was a narrow valley, thus the twenty men could not lie down to form a horizontal line.

“Guys in the front, make sure you don’t raise your heads! Otherwise, you’ll be shot in the backs of your heads!”

A man that mounted a machine gun on a rock behind them shouted loudly. He lay down as low as the people in front and raised his muzzle as high as the people in the rear, as if he were taking a commemorative photo.

Having finished his preparations, the man voiced a simple question.

“I wonder if the bullets are going to go through that waterfall?”

“Who knows. We’ll find out when we try, I guess?”

“Indeed.”

The order from their five leaders reached them simultaneously.

“Fire!”

“That looks! Awesome!”

“Yeah. First time I’ve seen so many people firing with all they have in GGO……”

The nine men located to the left, right and above the valley had forgotten their original duty to guard the surroundings──

And gazed at the flashy 〝drama concert〟 from their special seats.

“I kinda wish we were down there. We drew the old maid, huh?”

A bluish-white flame sprang forth to the left and right of the waterfall, and mercilessly blew away the four men.

Both men in the lead were blown 5 metres away and crashed into the side of the valley. The other two lost their balance, as if they were pushed by the two men who were blown away, and tumbled down to the basin from the rock wall.

“Plasma grenades!” They’re alive! Enemy behind the waterfall! Fire fire fire!”

The short man had a shotgun.

The 《UTS-15》, a pump-action shotgun that could fire 〝14 consecutive shots〟. With its squarish appearance that made it look like an optical gun, and two tube magazines, it was a rather unique shotgun.

By repeating the high-speed pump-action, the man could fire 3 times per target. Its ammo was the double 0 buck.

The storm of shots that were fired from behind his rock hit the four men, overlooking the waterfall from the edge of the valley, throughout their bodies in succession.

Right behind his two mates, the masked, fat man pulled the bolt of his gun, and ejected a large, golden, empty sh.e.l.l.

The sniper man, who had the const.i.tution of a sumo wrestler, held a large sniper rifle. It was the gun responsible for piercing the target’s arm and head just now.

Its full length was about 120 cm. The name of the sniper rifle that had an independent pistol-style grip and fish tail fin-like stock was, 《Savage 110BA》.

The bullets it used were the powerful 338 Lapua Magnum. It was quite a rare, and powerful, gun in GGO.

The ones who noticed the change immediately were the two leaders in the stronghold.

Seeing the display at the upper-left corner of their view informing them that their teammates were wiped out, they at first thought that it was some sort of mistake. However, seeing that they were not the only ones with a change in complexion, the two,

“My teammates died!”

“Mine too! They were wiped out!”

Informed the stronghold of this.

Knowing that both reports were from the teams stationed at the top of the valley, the other five immediately understood the situation. And relayed this to their teammates in the valley.

“Enemy above! Support teams wiped out! Watch out for attacks from above! Did you hear me?”

No reply reached the ears of the leaders.

“Why?”

“I’m doing it. You can keep your support to a minimum.”

The men above the valley did not fire a single bullet.

Due to their alt.i.tude advantage, they were able to clearly see the enemies squatting, lying, and hiding in rock shades, and they were all ready to fire as soon as they saw that their teammate would be shot, but──

But there was no need to take action at all.

As Pitohui ma.s.sacred the enemies in the valley while gleefully running around,

“…………”

They watched on in silence.

“What’s going on! Did something happen?”

The leader stronghold was in a state of complete panic.

Because, just as they began to worry that they received no replies, the hit points of their comrades decreased one by one as they screamed, and the number of casualties continued to grow rapidly.

The death reports from each leader continued to pile up quickly until it was no longer possible to keep track.

“There’s one outrageous──”

*Basun*

She must have fired from extremely close by, as the mike picked up the gunshot that halted his words. They did not even need to take a look at the hit point gauge to know what had happened.

The man loaded with protectors, who was the one to come up with the plan, confirmed that all of his teammates were wiped out,

“Is… anyone… still alive……?

And asked his fellow leaders.

Four of them shook their heads, and only two,

“One, somehow…… But his hit points are yellow.”

“One here as well, but deep red.”

Answered miserably.

“Yiippieeee!”

“Awesome! She actually managed to kill all eighteen of them by herself!”

The hype in the bar,

“That’s the champions.h.i.+p favourite for you!”

“That was fascinating! Awesome!”

The roaring cheers did not reach the valley.

“Oi? What’s going on here?”

The old j.a.panese Army officer inclined his head upon seeing the six lined up next to him.

“It goes without saying. We’re going to fight too. Everyone here is from different teams, but our goal is the same. You’re a Gun Gale man too, so you get what I’m saying, right?”

“That’s right! Like we’re letting you be all cool by yourself!”

“The other side has six. We have seven, right? We’ve got numbers on them!”

“If one guy gets one kill, someone’s going to be left empty-handed. First come, first served, right?”

“We’re going to wreak the grudge of our comrades on them. I haven’t fired a single bullet yet, so it’s perfect timing.”

“I dare say. That our SJ2 has just begun.”

Hearing the consecutive replies, the officer suddenly smiled,

“In that case── Let’s all fight together. Comrades.”

On scree