Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online - Volume 4 - Chapter SS

SPECIAL TEARJERKER EPIC III 
I Fight With My Pride on the Line!
~I Write, Therefore I Fight! Let the Soul of
My Gunshot Tentatively Roar~ 
He was struggling. 
How do I stand out? How do I become celebrated? How do I get seen as a champion? 
In short, he wanted to be a hero who everyone looked up to—in Squad Jam. 
At this point, you can probably tell who he is. 
It was none other than the middle-aged author who set up the first Squad Jam and got bashed when he sent out autographed copies of his own books to the winners. He seemed to think that just because he knew a few things about guns, he was therefore the best writer of gunfights in the entire world. 
A generous fan might assume that it meant he would be good at shooting, too, but that could not be further from the truth. He was restless and hated practicing in general, so the best you could say about his skill was that he was as bad at shooting as he was obsessed with it. 
Once he successfully launched his sponsorship of the first Squad Jam, he managed to take part using his own avatar without anyone realizing it, but SHINC easily destroyed him in unceremonious fashion. 
In SJ2, he was beat to the sponsoring punch by Pitohui, so he entered the tournament himself, swearing revenge (in multiple ways), but an early skirmish left him injured and missing his weapon. 
He vowed to die in a blaze of glory, so he leaped into the fray with a grenade in his hand, only to find that no enemies were around anymore. Therefore, he blew himself up while feeling relieved, about as dumb an ending as anyone could envision, and it drew more than a few stifled chuckles from the audience. 
Argh, it’s so frustrating! I want to show off more! I know I can! he thought, full of resentment and anger. The only thing that could bring an end to that frustration would be to sponsor SJ3 before anyone else could. 
So he sent Zaskar, the company that ran GGO, an obnoxiously long e-mail, until they finally sent back a response that said Fine, we’ll do it, just stop sending us these stalker-ish messages. 
He was also annoyingly insistent with his suggestion of a special rule, which they played along with. He even got a little encouragement: “Whatever, just do what you want.” 
He reached out to his GGO friends, all of whom put up with his unfortunate personality, and he recruited a few new companions to assemble a team for SJ3. This time, he made sure he was ready. He abandoned his actual job in order to put all of his time into GGO, beefing up his avatar. He might have had a middle-aged gut in real life, but in the game, he was a macho tough guy. 
His main weapon was still the SG 550 sniper rifle that he bought with real currency, but to make sure he was completely outfitted for battle, he acquired an MP5SD3 silenced submachine gun, the SIG P226 pistol, and the Benelli M3 shotgun. He was armed to the teeth like a damn fool. 
And no, he didn’t put any of them into his inventory until they were needed. He kept each and every gun out on his person, a true man’s man ready for anything battle could throw at him. A damn fool, indeed. 
Then the preliminary round arrived. 
It was time for him to be a man. He might have been a chicken in real life, but at least in GGO, he was a fearless warrior. He was known as “virtual Benkei,” after the famous warrior monk who wore all of his weapons on his back into battle. Better than being a chicken, right? 
Because the arena of the prelim round was long and narrow, there was no need to worry about running or hiding. It was all-out attack time. 
“Let’s go, boys!” the author shouted, all bravery now. This round would be a brief, single opportunity to advance. The crude method of overwhelming the enemy with firepower was also an effective one. His companions followed behind him. 
And there was the enemy, visible behind a distant barricade. They were aware of their opponent, too, but they hadn’t expected such a reckless charge and weren’t ready to return fire yet. This was his big chance. Time to capitalize. 

“Heh-heh-heh! The time has come for my fangs to howl! My soul quakes with midnight!” he shouted, attempting to sound cool but mixing his metaphors something fierce. He stopped in his tracks and raised the SG 550 to blast the enemy. 
“Hubh!” “Hrng!” “Bwah!” “Guoh!” 
His companions around him made an assortment of silly noises as they got shot. Their bodies glowed with gunshot effects, and they collapsed. Forward. 
“Ga-whuh?” the author gasped. Where in the world had that noise come from? His eyes bulged in disbelief at the sight of his teammates dying. 
And he couldn’t be blamed. They’d all been shot in the back. 
“Ha!” 
The author spun around. He saw the gun muzzle pointed toward him and the bullet line emerging from it. 
Barely thirty feet away, his hundred-round M4A1 assault rifle pointed at the fallen teammates, was the man who’d signed up for the team just the other day. He never took his sunglasses off, and his name was Kadowaka. His skill and stats were good, and he seemed quite comfortable playing VR games. He’d been a promising member of the team, until… 
“Have you gone mad?! How dare you shoot the comrades who were supposed to make me look good!” the author screamed, forehead veins bulging. 
Kadowaka replied, “Sorry, but you’re going to die here, too. You won’t be appearing in the SJ3 final.” His expression was unreadable behind the sunglasses, but his voice was clear and cold. 
“Wha—?! What did you say?!” 
“You forget your job as a writer, wasting your time with games. Deplorable. Your deadline is in three days. Go back to the real world.” 
“Wha—?! How do you know about my deadline…?” The author’s face swiftly changed from fury to terror. “N-no… It can’t be… You’re the man who sends writers and illustrators obsessed with VR games back to reality—” 
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bakk! 
The M4A1 rattled. 
“Guhhh…” 
The author slumped to the ground, full of holes like Swiss cheese. 
Lastly, Kadowaka pulled out a four-inch barrel S&W Model 19 revolver and pressed the end to his own temple. 
“Didn’t my name tip you off? In fact, I made it extra obvious…” 
Blam. 
He killed off his own avatar. 
“The Kadokawa editorial office hires an incredible VR assassin to do their dirty work…” 
The urban legend turned out to be true. When the word got out among the gamer authors and illustrators, the creative types banded together to form a counterplan, kicking off a new round of the eternal battle between artists and editors…but that is a story for another day. 
The End