A year after Sword Art Online (SAO) was cleared, online in a bar on another VRMMO game, Gun Gale Online the players were watching the live stream of «This Week's Winners», which was featuring the winner and runner up of the last Gun Gale Online tournament, called Bullet of Bullets: XeXeeD and Yamikaze. XeXeeD was giving an interview about his victory in the tournament, remarking of how the age of AGI based builds was over as opposed to the STR build, which allowed wielding stronger and heavier guns. Most of the people in the cafe showed disdain for the top player, as he had spread false rumours about AGI builds were the best option, thus most players invested in that stat.
However, once there was a break in his speech, a cloaked player stood up and took out a pistol, the cloaked player then proceeded to walk towards the television screen and give a speech about "judgement". Although, he was mocked at first, after the pistol was used to shoot the TV screen, at XeXeeD's face and, moments later, XeXeeD let out a face of pain, clutched his chest, and disappeared due to a disconnection error, everyone became shocked. The cloaked figure then declared himself as Death Gun and that he wielded true power through the Death pistol.
A month later, while waiting for Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito) to come to their date at the East Garden of the Imperial Palace, Yuuki Asuna wondered what the difference between the virtual world and reality was and Kazuto, who had only just arrived, answered that the difference was the amount of information. Coincidentally, they ended up wearing clothes that were the same in colour as the ones that they wore in SAO, in Kazuto's case due to Kirigaya Suguha washing all his other clothes. While walking through the imperial garden, they talked about the special nature of the Imperial Garden and how it was unique in Tokyo because it was completely cut off from the outside world.
After a while, they sat down on a bench and Asuna brought up the survey they had taken about what they were planning to do after graduation. She then asked what Kazuto was planning to do and the latter announced that he wanted to become a designer of a new FullDive technology instead of a simple player. Asuna responded by whispering that she wanted to always be with Kazuto, but covered it up by saying she wanted to find a way to make Yui a real person. When Kazuto brought up the difference in the amount of information between the virtual world and reality, Asuna asked him what he meant by it. Kazuto explained that people sense much more from their surroundings in real life than in the virtual world.
Kazuto then had a flashback to around four hours ago, when Kazuto met with Kikuoka Seijirou at Salon de café. It was revealed that he was the first person to visit Kazuto, and he was pat of the Virtual Division of the government. After ordering light snacks and drinks, Seijirou informed him that a person, Shigemura Tamotsu (XeXeeD), had died while wearing the AmuSphere because of heart failure a month earlier.
Although he had not eaten in two days, a player reported him being shot at on the TV screen by a player who was watching his interview moments before his disconnection. In addition, another player happened to record the unknown player's speech through an audio blog that was published on a video site. Although Kazuto dismissed the incident as a coincidence, Seijirou quickly notified him of a second death with similar factors, such as the involvement of a player calling himself Death Gun, a speech, a pro player, and heart failure.
As Seijirou seemed to have investigated all of the possibilities that he thought about, Kazuto attempted to leave, concluding that it was impossible for someone to die from an in-game cause. However, Seijirou stopped him and asked him to investigate the matter by confronting Death Gun in Gun Gale Online. After remarking that Seijirou wanted him to get shot by the player, Kazuto was about to storm out, but after hearing that Death Gun had strict criteria for his targets, Kazuto returned to the table. After Kazuto explained what pros were, Seijirou offered to pay him for the investigation.
After the flashback, back at the Imperial Palace, Kazuto and Asuna talked a bit more about SAO then, right before they went on their way back home, Kazuto wanted to say something but held back and instead suggested that they should have a picnic there together with Rika (Lisbeth) and Suguha (Leafa) by spring.
Meanwhile, in Gun Gale Online, Sinon was given word to open fire on a mob-hunting Squadron. Momentarily reflecting on a certain time, she shot a player with her PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II.
Rating: 8/10
コメント