Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online Vol 2 Chapter 7

A battle had begun in the hilly area north of the centre of the map, beyond a gently-sloping valley that was about 400 metres in width.

However, it did not turn into a gunfight. It was a one-sided gun down.

On one side was a team dressed completely in black and wielding only submachine guns, the effective range of which was but 200 metres. They were a group of men who gave the impression of being members of the police special force, the original SWAT, and looked quite strong 〝if they were in an indoor battle〟.

On the other side, was a team with 3 members, all armed with 7.62 mm calibre machine gunsthat boasted an effective range of 800 metres.

“Get theeeeem!”

“Hyahaaaaaaaaa!”

The three members of the Zen-nihon Machine Gun Lovers, whose name tag-abbreviation was 《ZEMAL》, sat firmly on a slope and did not miss a chance to pound away.

Their weapons were an 《FN MAG》 and an 《M240B》── the two models were mostly the same, the latter being an improved version of the former, thus the guns were like sisters. And the last one was an 《M60E3》. All of them were 7.62 mm calibre.

They were guns that, right after SJ began, showered LLENN in bullets, but did not land a single one on her in the end.

“Machine guns! They are so fu~n!”

Their refreshing smiles as they pounded away, and the large number of empty shells expelled from their guns, shone under the cloudy sky.

As expected, they were not the kind of idiots to 〝raise their Strength to carry two machine gunsin their hands〟, like they had discussed on the phone after the previous SJ.

They accumulated experience points within their capacity, and did their best within their capacity. Thanks to that, even their accuracy improved.

Furthermore, they also learnt a new phrase called 〝team play〟.

“Alright, a bit to the right! ──About that much.”

Two of the group’s members, whose favourite guns were 5.56 mm-calibre and thus had slightly insufficient range, took on the role of being observers. Using binoculars, they kept track of where the bullets hit and the tracer bullets, and gave instructions to their shooting comrades.

“Alrighty, leave it to me!”

They aimed their relentless full-auto fire where they were instructed.

Honestly, there was no need to shoot that much in order to simply bring down non-resisting enemies, but it seems that the words 〝bullet conservation〟 had not yet reached their heads. Incidentally, that also applied to 〝samurai’s compassion〟.

The bullets became a horizontal rain of steel, and one by one pierced the black-suited group running high and low in the valley in an attempt to escape.

“As if we can win this!”

Their plan to escape from the terrain that was disadvantageous to them as soon as possible, by recklessly taking the shortest route, backfired on them.

In this state, the pitiable all-black-team members who were at their wits’ end,

“Craap! We definitely wouldn’t have lost if we were indoors!”

Had no chance of showing off their skills in their situation, thus the one-sided shootdown continued; *pikon pikon*, 【Ｄｅａｄ】markers lit up, until eventually, all of them turned to corpses.

“Alright, he’s down. I think that’s all of them, but Lax and Bolt, go confirm it. The rest, keep a watch on your vicinity.”

The leader of MMTM, who was hiding behind a snowy tree, gave out instructions to his comrades.

He was wearing a white parka, with green conifer leaf patterns, on top of his camouflage. It was a camouflage for snowy fields that he had put in his storage ahead of time, taking into account the possibility that this might happen.

He reloaded his beloved assault rifle, the 《SteyrSuteā STM-556》.

It was a 〝clone〟 of, in other words, basically identical to, the AR-15, which was manufactured by a long-standing European small arms maker, 《SteyrShutaiyā-Mannlicher (typically called Suteā in Japanese)》.

The AR-15 was a gun based on the M16 and M4A1. There were a whole lot of people who used these, both among the military and civilians, thus they had a large market scale, and even clonesof them were sold by various companies.

Of course, they did not just copy them; each company ruthlessly competed to make them easier to use, reforming the parts that were unfit for the times.

One of the AR clones, the STM-556 had a feature that none of the others had. It was the advantage of 〝being able to switch gun barrels with a single press of a button, without the need to dismantle anything〟.

A long barrel increased precision. However, it was hard to handle in a narrow place.

On the other hand, a short barrel made it overwhelmingly easy to maneuver indoors. However, it wasn’t suited for sniping. Its effective range was also short.

Hence, shooters had to pick one of the two options or go for a compromise when choosing the barrel length, but there was no need to do so for the STM-556. One could carry both a long and a short barrel, and just keep the unused one in a bag.

The leader’s STM-556 was currently equipped with a long barrel suited for sniping.

The magnification of the small scope on the gun was set to high, set up as a mid-range sniper rifle. This was why he was able to so accurately hit the commentating player’s vitals from such a distance.

Just in case they ended up in a battle indoors, he materialised a short barrel from his storage and exchanged it. Also, he disabled the magnification of the scope, in other words, made it a simple tube which guaranteed a wide field of vision.

Additionally, there was a large tube attached under the leader’s STM-556’s barrel. This was agrenade launcher, a so-called 〝weapon attachment〟 that could be used along with the rifle. Of course, it was possible to remove it just by loosening the screws.

Unlike Fukaziroh’s MGL-140, it could only fire 1 grenade at a time, but even so, it drastically increased the weapon’s firepower.

The grenade launcher was an object that he had spent a large sum of money to buy for SJ2. He had also practiced shooting a grenade effectively while firing with his rifle.

The reason for all of this was but one.

To bring down the pink chibi that was constantly running around and the giant man hiding behind a shield, the duo who had given them a hard time and made them taste lake water.

He, who dreamt of taking part in GGO’s most prominent battle, the 《Bullet of Bullets》, and managed to make that dream a reality after decent training──

Did not imagine taking part in a mini tournament that was held in the outskirts without proper notice, even in his wildest dreams.

And so, he of course felt excited.

And, honestly speaking, he planned to 〝have a good time〟 while also simply trying out his abilities and getting in some training with his teammates.

But, he had to thank the pink chibi and the giant for making his blood seethe this much.

‘I’m counting on you.’

As the leader overlooked his beloved gun and his mouth moved without making a sound,

“Six bodies confirmed. Wipe out.”

“No sign of enemies in the area.”

He heard his teammates reporting.

The leader raised his eyes.

Under the cloudy sky, the snow field and the battlefield beyond it stretched out. He could faintly see the mysterious dome, the town beyond it, and the rampart that became an enclosure.

‘Now, let’s fight.’

‘Trust your comrades, trust yourself, and trust your gun.’

“Alright. We’ll wait for the next scan and descend the mountain along the northern rampart. Be vigilant while on standby. Get your spare magazines out.”

The scene of their shootout was caught on camera and broadcast to the bar,

“Huuh?”

And a man with a beer stein in one hand who was watching it tilted his head. His friend, nibbling on beef jerky snacks next to him, asked, ‘What is it?’

“That amazon machine gunner, no, the very short and stout one who’s currently not shooting── if I recall correctly, she had been shooting with a PKM last time too, right?”

“Ah? Yeah.”

“But now she’s unarmed?”

Even now, Rosa was the only one loudly shooting on the screen.

On the other hand, Sophie the support was unarmed, in other words, had no weapons at all.

They thought that she might have left her machine gun nearby, considering it to be in the way, but the video showed enough to check on that theory, and it was clear that this was not the case.

“She hasn’t materialised it yet. She’s keeping it in her storage?”

The jerky man replied, unable to imagine any other conclusion,

“What for? Why would she go out of her way to do something that would put her at a disadvantage?”

And the beer man asked a question from the bottom of his heart, but──

There was not a single person in the bar who knew the answer.

Boss, who shot with her silent sniper rifle 《Vintorez》 from the window of a house about 50metres away, took her eyes off the scope,

“I guess so, sorry.”

And replied to the killed man.

This scene was broadcast on one of the monitors in the bar, but,

“Sigh. Those guys are crossing the bridge without thinking it over……”

“Even idiots like us know. That those guys are idiots.”

The attention it drew was minimal.

Naturally, they had no chance of winning against the fights of LLENN’s or Boss’s teams in ratings, but there was no one in front of that monitor, and the people watching it in private rooms changed the channel.

The remaining three were engulfed in panic.

Drawing their heads back into the dried-out waterway like turtles, they began quarreling through their communication items.

“Wh-whwh── why! Why couldn’t he see them? A system error?”

Said the 《FAL》assault rifle-wielding Rhodesian mercenary,

“No, that can’t be possible…… I’ve never heard of something like that. Besides, even we, who were close, couldn’t see it.”

The USSR soldier denied resolutely.

“But! The leader couldn’t have overlooked it! He was sober!”

The leader had logged in drunk several times and caused trouble for the squadron, but he was sober today. Because the West German soldier, who was also an IRL associate, had been watching over him since last night and made him abstain from drinking.

“Then…… there’s only one possibility that I can think of.”

The 《Type 100 submachine gun》-wielding ex-Japanese army officer said in a calm tone.

“What is it?”

“The enemy character is relying on their knowledge and skill to snipe; it’s the so-called 〝Line-less shooting〟. It’s possible by not putting one’s finger on the trigger until the last moment. It’s not really a cheat.”

“Well, that’s true…… So, they aimed all this way without the system assist, and hit the head on their first shot?”

“That’s just how skilled they are. Which means──”

‘Which means?’, the other two awaited the answer.

“It means that we’re no match for them in our current state. We can’t go any further. Let’s change course toward the east.”

He said. The words ‘change course’ sounded nice, but ultimately meant ‘retreat’.

In response to the proposition to run away with the enemy right in front of them, and half their teammates down,

“You’re right.”

“Agreed.”

The two nodded. And so, leaving behind three corpses, they,

“Kuwabara kuwabara.”(4)

Began crawling away.

Their buttocks were caught on camera in silence.

The ferocious smile that Pitohui gave was, luckily, not broadcast.

Chapter end