Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online - Volume 2 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD 
Hello, everyone, I am your author, Keiichi Sigsawa. 
Thank you very much for picking up this book, titled Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, Vol. 2: Second Squad Jam: Start. 
Once again, I will treat this afterword segment seriously. 
Listen, maybe it’s time I stopped writing so much weird nonsense in my afterwords that makes readers worry about me, or maybe I should quit writing stuff on the inside of my covers that wreaks havoc on the libraries that put protectors over their books. Maybe it’s time to graduate from these shenanigans… 
I mean, I’m going to be forty-three this year (2015), so maybe it’s time to settle down. Most people would normally have a kid in high school by this point. And yet, I’m still single—owing to my lack of opportunity with women—but it’s still late enough in life that I feel I shouldn’t be jumping up and down and pounding my keyboard, shouting, “Yahoo! Afterword! I’m gonna whip up something nobody’s ever seen before back here!” 
It’s time for a mature, grown-up afterword. A ripened afterword. I’m not really sure what that is, but you get the gist of it. 
My point is, this afterword is very normal. 
As always, there will be no spoilers in here. That’s the one whatchama-thingy I will never break. 
So… 
Gun Gale Online, this spin-off set in the world of Sword Art Online, has now stretched into multiple volumes. 
This is all thanks to those of you who bought the first volume! 
It did have “1” in the name, so clearly I was thinking in terms of a multipart series, but that was not the same as actually having that come to pass. To put it in very stark terms, if I hadn’t sold a single copy of the first volume, this book would not exist. So I am extremely grateful that we are here. 
This volume revolves around the second Squad Jam event, and little pink Llenn is front and center again! Other characters from the first book appear, too, of course! To say any more would be a spoiler, so if you’re reading this first, do enjoy the book! 
Also, like the first volume, the majority of this book depicts a bunch of virtual gunfighting. There’s no tender romance between star-crossed lovers, no space opera about a war for the fate of the galaxy, no controversial nihilistic depictions of youths with no outlet for their rage. Please read with confidence. 
Also, Volume 2 is labeled Start, meaning the later Volume 3 will be the concluding Finish of this arc. That’s right—the story continues. 

I should’ve been able to wrap it up in one, but partway through, I realized what an incredible number of pages I’d already written. The fact that I had to change plans on the fly and stretch the story to an extra book is something only my editor and I know, so I won’t mention it here. In fact, it was always planned that we’d go to three books. Why would it ever be anything different? 
What’s the final scenery Llenn will see in the world of guns and gales? 
Who will win the second Squad Jam? 
Who’s the new blond girl on the cover of this volume? What will she do? 
What’s the mystery behind Pitohui and M? 
Will Sigsawa actually buy more air guns and pretend they’re for research? 
All these mysteries and more will be revealed in Volume 3. 
It’s slated to come out on June 10th (in Japan). Hope you look forward to it. 
I’ll get back to my acknowledgments now. First of all, my heartfelt thanks to Reki Kawahara for allowing me to use the wonderful world of Sword Art Online to my own ends. The game system of Gun Gale Online is so brilliantly put together; I could tell as I was writing that, knowing my own meager experience playing video games, I would never have come up with such an idea. 
If virtual reality games ever become a thing like this, I’m terrified I’ll get so addicted that I’ll forget to write, and I’ll blow past all my deadlines. It’s pure terror. 
My editor’s avatar approaches, ready to strike. 
“Write your damn manuscriiiipt!” 
“Never! Yaaaaaah!” 
Bullets and ideas shoot back and forth. A ferocious battle ensues. 
It’s all very easy to imagine…but fortunately, there are no such games at the moment in 2015, so I’m betting Volume 3 will come out safe and sound. 
Until we meet again in the next afterword. 
Keiichi Sigsawa—March 10th, 2015