Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online Chapter 11

He could not pull it.

The HK45’s trigger refused to move. If the trigger did not move, the gun could not fire.

M’s eyes opened wide and saw. That the small lever near his right hand that controlled the safety of his beloved gun had been raised.

What LLENN’s small hands were aiming for wasn’t to knock his HK45 out of his hands——

It was only aimed at activating the safety.

The moment that M realised this, a pain ran through his right hand.

“If you move even in the slightest, I’ll pull the trigger with all my strength! M-san!”

LLENN gave a shout that was probably the loudest in her life so far. The wristwatch on her left arm quivered, but she could no longer worry about that.

She planned to completely squeeze the trigger to discharge all 47 remaining bullets in themagazine, showering M from the neck up if any part of his large build moved even 1 mm. M looked like he had high vitality, but he would probably die anyway.

“…………” 

With a muzzle thrusted to the left of his laryngeal prominence, M looked down at her.

His stern face with his eyes and mouth open hardened, as if time had stopped.

“Listen up. Firstly——”

LLENN smiled sweetly,

“I really have to thank you for telling me the location of your safety, thinking that I might need to use it as some point. It was really useful!”

“…………” 

“Moreover, I want to ask—— why?”

“…………” 

“Why did you try to kill me? If you have a proper reason, I’ll hear you out.”

“…………” 

“After all that effort to get here; we fought together, you even saved me, and thus we’re one of the last two teams standing, so why? I have no intention of saying that we absolutely have to win, but I can’t accept that you tried to kill me for unknown reasons. If you couldn’t continue with the match, then you could have just discussed with me first! Am I wrong?”

“…………” 

“If you don’t want to answer, suit yourself. Then, I’ll fight on my own from this point on——”

While saying this, LLENN put more force into pressing the P90.

“Noooooooooooooooo! I don’t want to die! ——Pppp-please…… Ppp-please wait! Please…… I beg of you! Please don’t…… shoot…… Noo! Please stop!”

LLENN understood that this shout and feeble keigo were M’s words, but it still took some time for her to realise that.

Just in case, LLENN tried looking at the back, but really was all there was to it.

She skillfully folded it using only her left hand and, for the time being, inserted it in her waistbelt. Drawing her left hand back to her P90, she once again aimed firmly,

“Who wrote this? …I don’t even have to ask, do I…… It’s Pito-san, right?”

“Th-that is right……”

“Well, somehow, it does feel like something that person would write.”

Remembering Pitohui’s smiling face with a tattoo, LLENN let out her honest thoughts. And then,

“But you know, „die“ and „kill“ are about the game, aren’t they?”

Having made a completely sensible judgement, she told this to M.

In GGO——

Anyone would commonly use the words „shoot“, „kill“ and „died“, but they were all referring to the in-game events. No one would imagine that it meant „death of an RL person“.

Also, there were no idiots who got reality and the game confused and angrily exclaim, „Do you guys really know what it means to die?“ or something like that.

M lifted the face of his huge bear-like build. His face sopping wet from all the tears and nasal mucus.

And then, he laughed.

“Hahahaha! You don’t know a thing.”

At his exceedingly creepy smile,

“Wah——”

For a moment, LLENN was at a loss for words. The contraction Bullet Circle overlapping M’s face sped up.

“What don’t…… I know?”

“How screwed up Pitohui’s head is.”

“…………”

“When that woman says that she’ll kill, she means that she will really kill in RL. Killing in-game? Ahahahaha! There is no way she would be that soft! I know that she’s talking about killing in RL! And, that woman definitely knew that I would immediately realise this, that’s why she wrote this letter! She says to enjoy the game for an hour, but treats me so badly! She really does adore thedeath game! Even now, that woman has her heart set on that game! She’s crazy! Ahahahaha, that’s so like that woman. Ahahahahahaha!”

“…………”

LLENN felt a slight dizziness.

It’s great that RL Pitohui and M are acquaintances but then, just what is the relationship between them?

LLENN previously thought „I don’t need to know“——

But now, she changed it to „I don’t want to know“.

She previously thought „I want to know“ about Pitohui in RL as well——

But now she changed it to „I don’t want to know.“

Be that as it may, she had to continue her conversation with M.

“M-san…… In other words, this is what you want to say? That if you are killed in action in SJ from this point on, the RL you will be killed by the RL Pito-san?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!”

It was a feeble shout.

“…………”

The RL M is an actor, and this is a very good performance——

There was still the possibility that this was true, but for the time being, LLENN pulled her finger away from the P90’s trigger. As the Bullet Circle disappeared,

“T-thank you very much…… I was scared…… I don’t want to die……”

She heard these words from M, who no longer saw the Bullet Lines.

“Then, why did you assume that you had to kill me?”

At LLENN’s question,

“I thought…… I’d become the leader……”

M vaguely answered.

After thinking for about 2 seconds, LLENN asked,

“What were you going to do after becoming the leader?”

“I would be able to resign. Since there wasn’t anything about resigning written on the letter, I thought I could use it as an excuse.”

“That’s so quick-witted……”

LLENN was amazed.

“But! I thought I would properly explain myself after resigning……

“Huu! Did you make light of my agility?”

LLENN said jokingly with a smile, but…

“You’re right. I should have kept quiet and thrown a plasma grenade. I really regret it.”

M answered with a serious look.

“………… Well, that aside——”

While saying that, she took the writing paper with her left hand,

“Sorry for returning it to you like this.”

LLENN threw it in front of M. Then, she looked at her wristwatch. 3 and a half minutes past 15:10.

“The scan is probably over by now……”

Just to be sure, she took out the terminal from her left thigh pocket, and tried turning theswitch, but…

“As I thought.”

Only the map appeared.

The opponents had realised their position at least 3 minutes ago, and were probably in the middle of heading towards them. If this place provided an unobstructed view, they would have probably sniped at them just like the last time.

Now’s not the time for quarrelling.

LLENN thought——

“Well, whatever.”

And muttered.

LLENN returned the terminal to its original place. And then,

“M-san! Listen up, it’s alright! I’ll be fighting alone from this point on! M-san, hide somewhere so that you won’t die! If I get taken down by the enemy team, the leader mark will move to you, so you can just resign! Thanks for your help until now! Cya!”

She spoke quickly, then turned back and began running. 

Being vigilant just in case she was shot from the back, she immediately entered the shadow of a nearby rock, and once again dashed at full-speed.

She was not shot.

After wondering where she should head to for a moment,

“Alright! I’ll go wild with all I have!”

Muttering this, she headed to the east. In other words, the direction that the enemy would be coming from.

Weaving her way through the gap between rocks, and sprinting at full-speed, LLENN touched the communication item on her left ear.

And then, she set the switch that she thought she wouldn’t disable during SJ to off.

Thus, all the girls were equipped with matching Russian-made guns, but Russian-made small arms all had a common characteristic in GGO.

Which was—— „they were cheap for their firepower“.

In one only considered firepower, they would lose to American and European-made guns, but if the „cost“ parameter was factored in, they would be much better. It was possible to acquire both the guns, and the bullets with not that many credits needed for the purchase.

GGO players had come up with various reasons for that.

There were opinions that „Russian-made guns were originally cheap“,

And an opinion that „This is an American game, thus Russian guns were unfairly treated as cheap products“.

Among the various opinions, the most realistic one was,

„Russian small arm makers put a low price on their license.“

This.

Although this was in a game, implementing items with their real names, whether it be cars, planes or guns, could not be done without the permission of the makers.

GGO, which was obsessed with perfectly reproducing small arms, from their appearance to their sounds to their firepower, had acquired all the necessary licenses. Even if „guns that were excavated in the future and reproduced“ was the setting.

The license for the Russian-made guns was extremely cheap, thus with the permission acquired, the guns were cheap in GGO, in other words, this was done to increase popularity for the guns; this was the most prominent opinion.

But then, the management company Zaskar has not announced anything, so the truth behind it remains unknown.

Moreover, the most popular weapons in GGO were, nevertheless, American and European-made ones. 

“It-it’s not like it’s my fault! I-I’m fine with this!”

A single man shouted in the wilderness of rocks.

“Nobody knows about how scary that woman is! That’s why I can say such a selfish thing! I’m not mistaken! What’s wrong with being scared of death!”

M continued continously saying such self-justifying lines, but there was no one there to listen to him. 

Judging that there was no point to record this, there were no cameras in the surroundings either.

There was but a trail of small footprints extending to the distance in front of him.

1. ^ Seiza (正座, literally "proper sitting") is a term for a Japanese traditional way of sitting when a person kneels down with the tops of the feet flat on the floor, and sit on the soles.

2. ^ Until this point, M had been using the first person pronoun 俺 (ore), but as of this point, M begins using 僕 (boku). Both ore and boku are first person pronouns used by males to refer to themselves, though ore is more casual.

3. ^ This could be referring to Mother Courage and her Children, or a Japanese TV drama 肝っ玉かあさん

4. ^ The first verse of Furusato, a Japanese children’s song.

Chapter end