Sword Art Online Alternative – Gun Gale Online - Volume 9 - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 

To Prevent Disaster 

“Run away, Pito! I think another enemy’s coming up from the south!” Llenn warned. But there was no response. 

She peered out from a side street sandwiched between two ruined buildings. Unfortunately, Pitohui’s smoke grenade had left a thick haze over her surroundings, and she couldn’t tell what was happening beyond the fog. 

If the hit point gauges Llenn noticed out of the corner of her eye were any indication, however, Pitohui and M were on the ropes. 

Llenn could hear a vibrating sound, endlessly repeating, like a buzzer. Pitohui had shown her a video once that depicted the source of this sound: an ultra-high-speed weapon called the M134 Minigun. 

Pitohui was also on the video, begging the man who owned it, Behemoth, to sell it to her. “I’ll pay you whatever you ask!” she insisted, but he brushed her off. 

When Llenn saw how fast their hit points were dropping, she braced herself for the worst. 

Is this…an insta-kill…? 

Pitohui and M had undoubtedly taken some hits from the Minigun. Its rate of fire surpassed several dozen bullets per second; it was tearing them apart. 

Next to Llenn, Tanya was talking to someone, probably Boss, but Llenn couldn’t hear her. Actually, she could; she just wasn’t processing the conversation. 

As her teammates’ hit points continued to drop lower than even Fukaziroh’s 20 percent, Llenn found herself unable to do anything but pray. 

“Help…God of Gun Gale!” 

Suddenly, she heard Pitohui say, “Armored Humvees! Forget us; go to the west!” 

Pitohui’s and M’s hit points finally stopped dropping, but each had only a tenth of their life left. 

“Boss! Llenn says enemies are coming!” 

Boss heard Tanya’s report while watching the Minigun on the Humvee destroy Pitohui and M. Then the turret atop the vehicle slowly rotated so the gun was pointing toward them. A bullet line extended right toward Boss’s chest. 

“Yeah…I know…” 

The muzzle blazed to life. 

Certain she was going to die, Boss gave her final message. 

“If you survive, run for safety! Don’t wait around for the rest of us!” 

She wasn’t sure she was going to get all of it out before she perished—but thankfully, she did. 

Much to her surprise, she actually suffered no damage. 

“Huh?” 

There was a wall in front of her, a concrete one. 

Sophie, the strongest member of the squad, had used every last ounce of her strength to lift a collapsed portion of a nearby building’s wall, propping the slab up with her back. 

The concrete was about six feet to a side and only two inches thick, but it had deflected the bullets upward because it was at an angle. 

All the fury of that hail of lead bounced upward into the sky. After every few bullets, a tracer flashed. Little red lights repeatedly streaked off into the distance. It was a pretty sight, like fireworks. 

“Boss! Inside!” urged Sophie. Boss leaped into a building on the right side of the street, carrying the PTRD-41. 

She moved more nimbly than her large size would suggest, but the Minigun’s shots chased after her like a streak of fire. She only just barely managed to make it out of the way. Both of her pigtails had been struck, shortening them a bit. The braids came loose, and her hair fell onto her back when she leaped into the building. 

With her hair undone and draped over both sides of her face, Boss looked like the classic image of a fallen samurai warrior who’d lost his liege lord. Sophie let go of the concrete wall and lunged through next to her. 

“You all right, Boss? Take the others and run!” Sophie said. 

Boss confirmed that the other four hadn’t lost any hit points yet. While she and Sophie had attracted the attention of the Minigun, the rest had fled into the buildings on the other side of the street. 

“What will you do?” Boss asked Sophie, who was busy healing, though her hit points hadn’t risen above 20 percent. 

“I’ll back you up as you retreat! I’m talking about the Humvee and Minigun! If you try to run without help, they’ll wipe you out!” 

Boss understood the implication in Sophie’s words—she was going to sacrifice herself here to protect the rest of the squad. 

Boss knew that she would do the same if she were in that situation—just like what had happened back at the airport. 

So Boss didn’t insult Sophie’s honor by contradicting her. Instead, she gave the other girl three words: “Do your best.” 

When the smoke cleared, the battlefield was suddenly quiet. 

The Humvee was still sitting smack in the middle of the street. The Minigun on the roof turret was circling around, hungry for a new target, but no such prey appeared. 

“Well?” asked an armored man in a mask and sunglasses from the driver’s seat as he peered through the bulletproof windshield. 

His teammate standing in the turret space behind him, dressed in the same uniform, glared down the street and answered, “I can’t find them. I’m sure I hit the two from LPFM, but they got blasted into the building, and I can’t get a visual anymore.” 

“You shot the hell out of them. They can’t still be alive,” remarked the driver. 

Moments ago, after Pitohui and M fell out of sight, the one manning the Minigun had continued to pepper the building with bullets. The first floor of the dilapidated structure was riddled with holes. Surely, anything inside had been torn to ribbons. 

“I’d agree, but I don’t see any death tags. Those two are real tough; we can’t make assumptions. Most likely, SHINC got away without much injury, too. I’ll keep an eye out; you handle the reporting,” said the vigilant turret gunner, his thumb on the trigger. If anyone jumped out into the open, he would unload on them instantly from the safety of his bulletproof shielding. 

Despite the overwhelming advantage he possessed, he refused to get cocky or lazy. The driver put the Humvee in reverse to ensure that he could immediately back away if someone attacked. 

“This is Car Two,” called the driver to his distant teammates. “LPFM’s grenadier spotted us, and we engaged. We’ll wipe them and SHINC out, as discussed. Requesting backup in this area.” 

“What does this mean?” Llenn asked Tanya, who was running alongside her to the left. 

It was a broad and simple question, but Tanya knew what she meant. They were supposed to be enjoying their duel, so why had other squads interrupted? Who were they? How had things gotten to this point? 

In short, Llenn wanted to know what SHINC had been up to in SJ4. 

Just as Boss and Pitohui had instructed, the two were running off to safety on their own. They were the fastest players on their respective teams, and they covered lots of ground. 

No matter what they did, they didn’t stand a chance against the monstrous armored Humvee with a Minigun. Even approaching it seemed ill-advised. What’s more, they had no idea if the enemy had reinforcements lurking behind it. 

Given that situation, Llenn and Tanya’s best bet was to escape to somewhere they couldn’t be picked off. At worst, if the rest of their teams died, the two of them would still be safe. 

“We joined their alliance because we were about to get killed by a different team! They showed up and saved us. We were in the middle of their formation on the frozen lake, where a weird tall guy in a tracksuit promised to help us get our duel with you. That’s why Boss agreed to go along with it all.” 

Stupid Fire, Llenn thought, gritting her teeth. 

“So I can assume the Humvee is part of the alliance?” 

“Yup. I mean, they drove us here like a taxi service. We had no idea they had a Minigun, though! A hidden, secret weapon! Very clever!” 

“If they’d stayed put and let us wear ourselves down, they could have swooped in and wiped both our squads out.” 

“Pretty much.” 

“Why did they start attacking us before then?” 

“No idea! But they broke their promise! I’m gonna tell the teacher on them!” 

Okay, so…that was definitely my fault…, thought Fukaziroh. 

She was creeping down the staircase as silently as she could to avoid drawing attention to herself. She could hear Llenn’s voice through the comm, but she wasn’t going to say anything herself. 

She’d been busy bombarding the enemy with grenades when she just so happened to spot the Humvee. On a lark, she thought about attacking it from the roof of her ten-story perch, just for something fun to do. 

Unfortunately, they’d spotted her before she could. Fire’s henchmen sure were canny! 

Fukaziroh’s grenade attack had tipped them off; they’d spotted the bullet line before she fired. So they shot her first, sending a lead present right into her chest. 

The attack hit the weak seam in the protective plate armor covering Fukaziroh’s chest and back, tearing a diagonal hole through her. It was a very long-distance sniper shot, one that could have only been accomplished with excellent aim. 

By some stroke of luck, it missed Fukaziroh’s heart, and she only lost half of her hit points. Fukaziroh was very hardy thanks to all her time playing ALO. Llenn probably would have died twice over from the same shot. 

However, Fukaziroh had quickly discovered she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Something had flown toward her from a distance and exploded on the roof. 

The explosion had tossed Fukaziroh’s body across the roof to slam down next to the staircase that had taken her up there in the first place. Shrapnel had bitten into her body, dealing more damage. Barely 20 percent of her health remained. 

If only that was the worst of it. 

Fukaziroh was missing her MGL-140s. After the shock of the blast, Rightony and Leftania had left Fukaziroh behind and gone on a journey. They’d flown off the top of the building and landed on some lower floor. 

Their weapon icons were still visible in the lower right corner of Fukaziroh’s vision, so they hadn’t been destroyed, but they were likely buried in the rubble below. Fukaziroh didn’t know if she’d have time to go down and search, or if she’d even find them if she tried. 

As she descended the steps, she thought, If I hadn’t tried to attack the Humvee at that moment…maybe LPFM vs. SHINC would still be on, and win or lose, at least Llenn could have gotten her fight. This is my fault. 

Thus Fukaziroh decided to play dumb for all she was worth and told Llenn, “Geez, so not only do they collude, but they also like to betray people?! What do they think this is, SJ3? What a bunch of jerks! Cutting ties with them was the right idea!” 

“Fuka! You okay?” 

Llenn hadn’t heard Fukaziroh’s voice in quite a while. She leaped up onto the side of the rubble and stopped there. Tanya followed her lead. 

They’d moved a few hundred yards to the west of the street where they’d fought earlier. The road was littered with chunks of concrete, which would keep the Humvee away. 

However, there was always the danger of a sniper, so they kept low. 

“I’m alive. This isn’t some zombie game. You can see my HP. Time for my injection,” came Fukaziroh’s reply. The force her voice usually carried was noticeably absent; she was trying to keep quiet. 

Llenn glanced to the top left and saw Fukaziroh’s hit points slowly increasing from 20 percent. Two med kits would get her back to eight-tenths of her life, but the process would take six minutes. 

Below Fukaziroh’s HP bar, Pitohui and M hadn’t budged from 10 percent. 

For whatever reason, they weren’t using their emergency med kits. They also weren’t moving or contacting anyone over the comms. 

Llenn prayed for their safety but kept her focus on Fukaziroh. 

“You aren’t pinned down beneath anything or trapped by the enemy, right?” 

“No, I’m fine. I got hit on the rooftop where I was earlier, but it’s not worse than a cat scratch.” 

“How so?! Wait, what are you doing?” 

“I’m slowly making my way down the stairs. I don’t know where the enemy might be hiding. If I just pop out, I could get shot. It’s not SHINC that’s doing it, right?” 

“They’re Fire’s buddies! I don’t know what they’ve got aside from the Minigun! Or how many there are!” 

“What’s a Minigun? Is it cute and mini?” 

“It’s horrifying! It has a super-high rate of fire, so if they catch you with it, they’ll turn you to dust in an instant!” 

“Dust… Hey, Llenn, do you know about dust explosions?” 

“Is this really the time for that?” 

“Just wondering if I could explode after I get turned to dust.” 

“No.” 

“Oh, I’m almost on the first floor. Talk to you later. Who were you chatting with earlier, your imaginary friend? Or was it Tanya?” 

“The latter.” 

“Then you two get along and scamper off. That’s what Pito said earlier. Survive. Or in Spanish, sobrevivir.” 

“But…” 

“I’ll be fine. I’ll hide as much as I can and skitter around like a cockroach. From this point on, we’re each responsible for our own safety. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to regroup! I’m gonna switch off my comm so I can listen for the enemy.” 

With that, Llenn’s communication with Fukaziroh came to an abrupt end. 

“……” 

Llenn was left speechless. Next to her, Tanya exclaimed, “Ah!” 

She turned at the sound and saw the silver-haired woman looking ready to cry. 

“Sophie’s dead.” 

“Do your best.” 

A few minutes earlier, Boss was giving Sophie her final message while considering how best to survive while preserving as much of the team’s strength as possible. 

The five aside from Tanya were on either side of the major street, hiding in buildings. 

Boss and Sophie were on the right side. Anna, Rosa, and Tohma were on the left. 

Boss could hear Tanya speaking, but it was clear that she was in conversation with Llenn. They were probably far away by now. She’d be okay for the time being. 

Boss switched off her communication with Tanya for the moment. Then she addressed the rest of her squad. 

“We’re going to survive this, one way or another! Then we’re all going to bury our boots deep in Fire’s ass!” 

The words came effortlessly, but they weren’t the type of thing one should go around spouting. 

“Yeah!” 

“Got it!” 

“Khorosho!” roared Anna and the rest. Boss’s trusty companions put a smile on her face. It looked very creepy. 

Despite their enthusiasm, Boss couldn’t think of a way to break free from this predicament without substantial casualties. There was no exit on the backside of the five-story building and no connection to the adjacent structures. She could use a plasma grenade to bust open the wall, but that would probably make the building collapse onto their heads. 

They’d have to go back out into the street. And that would mean exposing themselves to the assault of the Humvee’s Minigun. 

If Sophie played the decoy, it might create an opening for the remaining members to escape. 

No, Boss decided. That wasn’t going to happen. 

It was about thirty meters from their hiding place to the intersection where they could find safe cover again. Fortunately, there were no obstacles in the street, so once they were out in the open, they’d need only a few seconds until they could round the corner to safety. 

However, those few seconds would be a significant challenge. 

Regular guns were one thing. But there was no way to escape the Minigun. 

It was the kind of weapon that could literally kill a person in an instant. In five seconds, it could flood the street with bullets. None of them would escape its wrath. They would all die. 

So what was the plan, then? A direct attack on the Humvee, over three hundred meters away? It would require sneaking from building to building until they could hurl grenades. 

That seemed even less likely to succeed. Boss and her squad would be picked off before they got close to the Humvee, and even if everything else somehow actually worked out, the driver had the option of simply backing the vehicle away. 

Boss was thinking so hard for an answer to their predicament that she didn’t even notice that Sophie had circled her and started rebraiding her hair. It was something that Kana often did for Saki in real life. 

“There, that’s better.” 

“Huh? Oh, Kana—I mean, Sophie, thank you.” 

“Let’s do this! Make sure you don’t trip, everyone!” 

“Wait, do you have a plan?” Boss asked her. 

“What Llenn’s team just did, remember?” Sophie grinned as she extended a hand to Boss. 

“Timing is crucial! No mistakes. Everyone, stow your weapons in your inventory for now. I’ll carry the Degtyaryov!” Boss ordered her teammates. 

She put away her silenced Vintorez sniper rifle and her backpack, then cradled the antitank rifle like a laundry drying rod. It was very heavy, so holding it gave her an encumbrance penalty, meaning that her usual agility was no longer at her disposal. 

But there was no other option. The Degtyaryov was going to be crucial against the armored Humvee, and it could come in handy further down the line, too. 

“Is everyone ready?” Sophie asked. “I’ll match your timing. Don’t worry; this isn’t as nerve-racking as a competition meet!” 

Sophie had a thin length of rope clutched in her hand. It was made of a tough nylon material called paracord. Tied to the end of it was a round object resembling a watermelon. 

Sophie stood right next to the broken window and shouted, “Here goes! Yah!” 

She spun the end of the rope clockwise and hurled it into the street like a shot put. 

“Four! Three! Two! One!” 

Zero! Boss and the other three leaped out. 

Suddenly, the large plasma grenade attached to the end of the rope exploded. It was a present from Boss. 

A hemisphere sixty-five feet across exploded outward with azure brilliance in the middle of the street. 

“Shit! They got us!” 

The Minigun shooter did not fire. 

The burst that covered the width of the street either destroyed or deflected all bullets that tried to pass through it. SHINC was almost certainly running for safety behind that blast. 

“Very clever!” praised the driver. “But…” 

All he had to do was wait three seconds. 

The gunner let the delayed sound of the blast and the accompanying rush of air pass over him. His hands tightened around the handles of the Minigun. His thumb hovered near the red firing trigger as he waited. 

The surging explosion of the plasma grenade ended after about three seconds. If he fired at just the right time and swept across the width of the street, he should still be able to catch SHINC as they hurried along it. 

One more second. 

The gunner’s thumb slipped over the trigger and squeezed down hard. 

Right as the blue hemisphere faded away, another took its place. 

It was the same type of burst, one that was only possible with a grand grenade. And this one was closer to the Humvee. 

Again the thundering sound and rush of air washed over the Humvee. 

Then came yet another. 

This one was even nearer, about seventy meters from the Humvee. 

“Someone’s coming closer to us!” called the gunner, who had figured out the enemy’s tactic. They weren’t using the grand grenades as a shield to escape but were throwing each successive one closer so that they could approach. 

“Got it! I’m amazed they can throw grand grenades that far, though!” 

The actual perceived weight depended on the player’s Strength stat, but still, they were weighty objects. The driver was skeptical, but the gunner was actually watching it happen. 

An object—the grand grenade—soared over the thirty-foot-tall explosion of its predecessor. A six-foot rope was tied to it. 

“Ahhh, it’s got a cord tied to it to add more centrifugal force.” 

“Ohhh, I see!” 

Though the blasts and dust concealed it, the men in the Humvee could guess at what was happening out of sight. 

The moment one explosive was tossed, a SHINC member hit the MATERIALIZE button in an already-opened game window, producing another grand grenade tied to a rope. If you grabbed that, hit the activation switch, and spun it exactly one time via the cord before releasing, even one of those heavy objects would travel a fair distance. In other words, if a shot put throw was too difficult, you could use a hammer throw instead. 

The men in the Humvee were left guessing who had come up with such an idea. 

They thought that SHINC’s players had to be skilled at tossing things in real life. But neither of them had any clue as to how they’d gotten their practice. With plates, when they got into shouting matches with their husbands, maybe? 

The fourth blast was 160 meters away. 

The gust of explosive force rattled the heavy Humvee’s frame. 

“Damn that replenishment—I still can’t believe they’re actually tossing those things out there,” the driver muttered. 

“But it’s also what’s enabled us to go ham on shooting. It’s a wonderful rule.” 

“Agreed.” 

The Minigun’s greatest strength—its incredible rate of fire—was also its weakness. It chewed through ammunition in the blink of an eye. A gun like that would not find nearly as much use in this situation without a helpful custom rule automatically restoring all ammo at regular intervals. 

The fifth bomb landed 130 meters away. Each new burst instantly blasted clear the dust of the previous one but created a fresh cloud of its own, so there was no increase in visibility. 

“They’re close. And getting nearer. Should we back up?” 

“No. Pulling away or approaching, it makes no difference. Plus, it would be rude to them not to engage here. Let’s give it a try.” 

“Give what a try?” 

“You’ll see.” 

The fifth explosion began to fade, and the sixth grand grenade plummeted toward the ground—and it was within the gunner’s line of sight. 

“Yaaah!” 

Vrrrt! The short bark of the Minigun was the sound of a swarm of 7.62 mm bullets that caught their grenade target. 

The downside of plasma grenades in GGO was that they were easy to set off if shot. The large ball-like thing exploded in midair, forming a perfect sphere over the middle of the road. 

It was a pale-blue orb, like a bright planet shining on the city street. 

“It’s beautiful,” murmured the driver. 

The shape’s apex was quite high in the air, while its bottommost point nearly made contact with the ground. 

“Now they can’t throw the next one over,” the gunner explained, aiming lower. Once the light was gone, he’d sweep the street clean, like using a broom made of hot lead. 

However, once the azure explosion began to wane— 

“What?!” 

The man at the turret couldn’t believe his eyes. A woman came charging through before the blue light had vanished. 

She was short and wide, as stocky as a fantasy dwarf. The gunner had overheard Boss call her Sophie. 

“Nice aiming! Well done!” 

Sophie had known that one of her lobs was bound to get hit. 

The closer she got, the surer it was that the Minigun would hit the grand grenade and blow it up before it hit the ground. 

That meant that when it did, she had to be ready to slip around it instead. 

The pushback from the blast wouldn’t make that easy, but it was her only chance to close in on the Humvee. 

With shock waves buffeting her body, Sophie raced between a building and the blue sphere until she saw the armored Humvee. 

It had been far off before, but now it was just a hundred meters away. 

At this very moment, Sophie had the option of running into the building to hide. If she fled into the five-story building, the Humvee couldn’t follow her, she’d be safe from grenades from above, and it would give her an avenue of escape. 

However, that would also enable the Humvee to proceed down the street and attack her teammates from behind. She had to keep it where it was. 

Once Sophie was thirty meters closer, she began to twirl around her last rope-tethered grenade. 

“Take this!” 

She hurled it with all the finesse she’d honed in real-world gymnastics and all the strength of her in-game avatar. 

The gunner and the driver watched it happen but remained dubious. 

“No way.” 

“She can’t.” 

They didn’t believe Sophie could hurl that heavy grand grenade the remaining seventy meters. They expected it to fall short and form another blue wall of an explosion. 

“Don’t move! I’ll finish her!” ordered the gunner. 

“Got it!” answered the driver. 

All the man in the turret had to do was shoot Sophie before the grand grenade exploded between them. 

His aim was true, and dozens of bullets hurtled at Sophie, instantly shattering her body into polygonal pieces. She burst as surely as if a bomb had hit her. 

Sophie from SHINC was out of SJ4. 

“Yes!” the driver exclaimed. 

“Shit!” the gunner spat at the same time. 

The grenade Sophie had given her life to toss made it those critical seventy meters that separated her from the Humvee. However, it didn’t make it through the roof and inside the vehicle. 

Instead, it landed just a few centimeters in front of the Humvee and exploded there. 

The man at the Minigun saw that it wasn’t a grand grenade this time, nor even a regular plasma grenade. It was an M67, a standard American issue. 

In other words, it was just a plain old shrapnel explosive you could find in the real world, no bigger than a baseball. Hurling one of those seventy feet was far easier than throwing a watermelon-sized explosive. 

It was set to explode five seconds after the pin was pulled, and it let loose in front of the vehicle. The Humvee was heavily armored, so an antipersonnel shrapnel grenade wasn’t nearly enough to destroy it. The payload didn’t pierce the body or glass; it only shook the chassis a bit. 

However, the tires were a different story. They popped immediately. 

Sophie could have aimed for the open top of the Humvee, but that would have been much harder. Flattening the tires was a much easier task. 

“She got us… Damn, what a woman,” the gunner said, grinning behind his mask as he realized how perfectly Sophie had outwitted them. 

“She was always after the tires! Damn, nice one!” remarked the driver as he checked his side mirrors and put the Humvee in reverse with its two flats. 

The Humvee was a military vehicle, so it came equipped with special run-flat tires with an internal structure that enabled them to stay more intact than regular tires when running without air. 

Even so, driving the thing was difficult. The Humvee wouldn’t be able to keep charging ahead for long. 

The driver chuckled as he gripped the shaking steering wheel. “Ha-ha-ha! That’s a pretty smart opponent. I gotta say, this Squad Jam is really fun.” 

The gunner chimed in, “Yeah, they’re good. We’ll probably get scolded if we try to have all the fun for ourselves.” 

“Sophie’s dead,” Tanya said. 

A moment later, Llenn heard Pitohui’s voice in her ear. “Llenn, are you okay?” 

She wasn’t sure at first whom to respond to but decided to prioritize her teammate. 

“I’m fine! What about you, Pito? What’s happening?” 

“I’m super-good. Ahhh, I can finally move again!” 

“But you’re almost dead!” 

“Just took an emergency med kit.” 

Llenn noticed that Pitohui’s and M’s HP gauges were slowly refilling. 

They were both at just around 10 percent. Pitohui had two med kits, so she’d be back at 70 percent in about six minutes. 

M had all three of his items still, so he could get back to full health in nine minutes—assuming he didn’t get shot. 

“Is M there with you?” 

“Yep. You alone?” Pitohui asked. 

“I’m with Tanya!” Llenn admitted. 

“Okay. You play nice now. Watch the scan and report in. We’ll talk after.” 

Was it that time already? Llenn hastily pulled her Satellite Scanner out of her chest pocket. At her side, Tanya was already staring at her own screen. 

Llenn checked and saw that it was already 1:40. 

Only ten minutes had passed since she’d spotted SHINC and charged in after them. She’d been running and fighting virtually every second since then. It was almost too much. 

The tenth Satellite Scan was already in progress. She hadn’t noticed her wristwatch buzzing thirty seconds beforehand because she had been busy talking to Fukaziroh. 

The scan had started from the south and was already about halfway up the map. 

The leaders of the six allied teams were all still gathered on the lake. Their respective members were doubtlessly on the way over. They had cars, so Llenn couldn’t forget that they’d be arriving much sooner than anyone on foot would. 

MMTM was at the airport with only two members left. 

ZEMAL hadn’t budged from their spot in the crater area. Were they asleep now? 

As the scan moved north, it showed Llenn’s own location. That meant the enemy knew where to find her, but it also indicated to Llenn herself where she actually was. 

She’d been running all over the ruined city, which was in the northwest part of the map. By shogi board rules, going west and then south from the northeast corner, it was Sector 7-1. SHINC’s dot, belonging to Boss, was one square over, in 6-1. That was where Llenn had been fighting SHINC earlier. 

Llenn looked around for more enemies and quickly found them. The sci-fi soldier team, T-S, was on the western end of the ruined city, in Sector 10-2. 

Seeing that Tanya was talking to Boss, Llenn told the part about T-S to Pitohui as the scan concluded. It sounded like Pitohui was running somewhere. 

“What should I do?” Llenn asked. 

“Stay there for now. They know your location, remember, so keep your eyes peeled for enemies. If you catch even a glimpse of them—” 

“I know. Run full speed west.” 

“Exactly. We’ll head there from the north. Of course, we’re pretty beat up, so if we trip and fall and die as a result—sorry.” 

“Don’t say that! Honestly, I’m amazed you’re alive after the Minigun got you…” 

“Yeah, I thought we were dead, too! But as it happens, luck was on our side.” 

“What’d you do?” 

“It was M. He covered me up.” 

“Oh, with the shield plates on his back…,” Llenn said, figuring it out instantly. 

Even one of those plates would completely stop a 7.62 mm bullet. M must have used his considerable size to protect Pitohui. 

But even if the plates stopped the bullet, the force of the impact would remain. 

“You took damage from being pushed down?” 

“Yep. That turret is scary. It can hit a single spot when it’s spitting dozens of bullets per second. It smashed M and me against a concrete wall. In real life, we would have broken all our ribs.” 

“Yikes…” 

Thank goodness this is just a game, Llenn thought. It was a sentiment she’d had about GGO many times over now. 

She wondered if the person whose crotch she’d sliced vertically in SJ2 was still playing GGO. 

“The Humvee was still right in front of us the whole time, so we couldn’t leave the building until that short, squat girl from SHINC did her thing. Once she popped the front tires, the Humvee backed away.” 

“Ahhh…” 

Llenn didn’t know the details, but she guessed that was how Sophie had died. 

She’d have to thank her later. Or maybe feed her some snacks. 

While Llenn was talking with Pitohui, Tanya was in communication with Boss, getting a report on the situation. 

Thanks to Sophie’s sacrifice, the other four were unhurt and running their way. 

“Let’s regroup!” 

Boss replied, “Of course. We’ve got to get back at them for this— Gfk!” 

“Boss?” 

Tanya could see on the gauges that Boss’s hit points had immediately gone down 30 percent. She was at 70. 

“Sniper! On the left!” 

Boss toppled over in the intersection. 

It was the second major junction from the point where she’d escaped. There was no way across it without exposing herself to a potential enemy to the south. 

Faced with no alternative, though, Boss had risked it to escape to the west. 

Tohma, Anna, and Rosa had safely slipped through the hundred-foot danger zone already, but since Boss was carrying the heavy PTRD-41, her running speed was slow, and a bullet had caught her through the left thigh. 

“Rrgh!” 

Boss lost her balance. Her left leg could no longer support her weight, and she couldn’t stop herself from falling. 

However, if she fell onto her stomach, the sniper’s next shot was sure to hit her. 

“Daaa!” 

Clutching the lengthy PTRD-41, Boss spun her body, using just the strength of her right leg. With the spear-like gun as an axle, she rolled over and over, evading two bullets that whizzed past. 

Boss’s movement seemed too swift for a body as large as hers. Such a maneuver wouldn’t come naturally unless you had plenty of acrobatic experience. 

“Sniper to the south! Boss is hit!” 

Anna promptly threw a smoke grenade around the corner, creating a screen of gray between Boss and the sniper, who had to be somewhere to the south. 

“Where are they?” wondered Rosa, who had her PKM machine gun at the ready behind Anna. She wanted to spray some covering fire through the smoke, even if there was little chance of hitting the enemy. 

Anna could only answer, “I don’t know!” 

There had been no gunshot when Boss had been hit or on the following two misses. Anna hadn’t spied a muzzle flash, either. 

So the sniper was using a suppressor. It was merely a metal tube with a small chamber inside, and it was fairly easy to craft if you had the item blueprints and the technical skill. Nonetheless, a suppressor was a terror in the field, where it could make your location impossible to trace. 

All SHINC’s members could tell based on the short firing interval was that the gun was automatic and that the shooter was part of Fire’s allied team—as well as one other fact. 

“They’re really coming after us now!” 

“I bet!” Tohma agreed, pulling Boss, whose leg had gone numb, and forcing her to crawl out of the intersection. 

Somehow, Boss managed to get there, but she’d had to drop the thirty-five-pound PTRD-41. While the smoke hid it for now, it was currently resting in the middle of the intersection. 

Boss scowled and said, “I won’t be able to run for a while. You guys go ahead!” 

“But—!” protested Tohma. 

“If you don’t hurry, another sniper will take up a position at the next intersection!” 

“Ugh!” Tohma couldn’t argue with that logic. 

Now that SHINC knew they were outnumbered, it was clear that they’d quickly be cornered unless they withdrew and regrouped. 

“I’ll catch up! Prioritize meeting up with Tanya!” 

“Got it! Good luck!” 

Anna, Rosa, and Tohma left Boss behind and ran off. As they went, she called, “You heard that, Tanya? You guys can still manage. Take point, like always. Flee to the west, bit by bit, making sure it’s safe first.” 

“G-got it! But what about you, Boss?” 

“When I can walk normally again, I’ll try to recover the Degtyaryov.” 

“That’s crazy!” 

“Maybe.” 

Amid the heavy smoke, Boss massaged her thigh, trying to regain feeling. 

If she jumped out into the intersection now, the enemy couldn’t snipe her. And the shooter wasn’t foolish enough to waste shots that wouldn’t land. But Boss couldn’t see the PTRD-41, either. 

To give up on that gun or not? 

Boss’s leg was still numb, so she waited for the smoke to clear. 

If she could see, and she thought there was a chance she might be able to retrieve it, she’d take the risk. If it really looked like there was no way, she’d give up. 

She wasn’t desperate enough to die for the gun, but she didn’t want to leave it behind, either. 

Before Boss could arrive at an answer, however, a gust of wind sent the smoke whipping away, exposing the scene. 

“What are you doing here?!” Boss exclaimed despite herself. 

Standing in the middle of the intersection was a large figure dressed in green camo. 

M was aiming the PTRD-41.