Gun Gale Online did not have the old RPG concept of fixed classes such as warriors, mages, and priests.
Each player had six stats, including Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Vitality (VIT), and Dexterity (DEX), along with hundreds of skills to choose from and improve: firearm proficiency, bullet prediction circle expansion, first aid, stunt movement, and more. In other words, in this game, there were as many roles as there were ways to build a character.
It was a design with an extremely high ceiling and an extremely low floor.
The most stable class design in games was the simple warrior-mage-priest triangle. It was also the most classic form of balance. Samuro's first encounter with that kind of classic balance had been in an old game where the beginner quest was killing chickens, and if there was no light at night, you had to light candles. Once players had too many choices, balance became incredibly difficult to tune.
In GGO, a reckless build directly reduced combat power. For example, raising heavy machine-gun proficiency while having low STR and no large firearm in hand was simply wasted strength.
If someone wanted to use a certain kind of gun, they needed to meet the required stats and skills. Naturally, certain build patterns spread among players. Even if the exact skill choices differed, players with similar patterns came to be called by role-like names: attackers, tanks, medics, scouts.
Sinon's role was sniper, a rare build chosen by very few players. To equip large rifles, she had to prioritize STR. She also needed enough DEX to improve her aim, and enough AGI to strengthen the hit-and-run speed that followed a single shot.
In exchange, she had abandoned VIT, which meant she could be beaten easily once discovered. For skills, sniper rifle proficiency was mandatory, of course, and she needed several others related to accuracy. Defensive skills were abandoned entirely. Even so, because of the heart-rate-linked system, a missed shot was still a missed shot. That was part of what made sniping difficult.
Because it was a build aimed so heavily at experts, almost no one chose it in a multiplayer Battle Royale.
While sniping someone at long range, another player could sneak up beside the sniper. And if that opponent was a close-range attacker with a submachine gun or assault rifle, the sniper would have almost no room to fight back.
A desperate, unaimed shot would most likely miss, and before the next round could be fired, the sniper would be riddled with bullets from a full-auto weapon.
For all those reasons, if Sinon had been acting alone, she would have had no chance once the mid-range, accuracy-focused attacker Xiahou Dun got close enough to fight.
This time, however, the situation was completely different. The way things had developed was subtle, and that was because beside Sinon stood probably the only person in the entire GGO world whose role she could not identify, positioned right at the front.
To begin with, he had an absurdly obsessive AGI build, to the point that even his main and side weapons were revolvers. From what she had seen of him, he had probably maxed out skills like enemy detection, concealment, tracking, and trace erasure. In that sense, his build could be called the peak of the scout archetype.
With that high AGI, he could weave through gunfire and play around the enemy. Considering the rate of fire and range of revolvers, he should have been suited to mid- and close-range skirmishing.
That alone was already hard enough to understand. He could have been called a point man.
But somehow, he was actually a pure melee player. He fought with a self-made katana, relying on maxed knife-crafting proficiency. In that case, he became something like an assassin who depended on godspeed charges: a solo lunatic who cared less about front or back than about rushing in and having his fun.
People like that either got themselves killed doing reckless plays, or were currently on their way to getting killed doing reckless plays.
That katana seemed to have been made from the bridge deck of the Isaro Ruins, perhaps the rarest and hardest material currently in the game. The fact that it could block a shot from the Hecate II made that clear. Even so, this game had not a single skill related to cold weapons. In other words, he swung that blade entirely with his own ability, without receiving any system assistance at all.
Sinon could not imagine what kind of practice it would take to master such graceful, terrifying technique. It might already be a skill that went beyond VR games: the player's own experience, conviction, and soul, fused with the virtual body.
It was a strength that crossed the wall between the virtual world and the real world. It was also the realm Sinon had wanted to reach. In this world, she had made herself into a sniper, calm, no, cold, even ruthless. Yet she still had not been able to break the cowardice of Shino Asada.
She had wandered this wasteland for half a year, searching for a way to become stronger.
From the time she met Samuro yesterday until now, Sinon had kept thinking that if she fought him with everything she had and won, then surely she would win. If she could defeat someone that complete, then defeating the cowardly Shino Asada should be no problem either.
At the same time, she had become aware of another feeling taking shape in her chest.
She wanted to understand him. To talk to him. She wanted to hear about the world he had come from before GGO, how he had survived there, what he had felt, what battles he had fought, and what kind of person he was in the real world. She wanted to know all of it. No one had ever made her feel this way before.
"That fight just now must have drawn a lot of people."
Samuro looked over the river nearby.
"He... Death Gun should have gone north along the river. After the nine o'clock Satellite Scan, he will decide on his next target. Before the next unlucky player runs into him, we deal with him first."
Sinon looked at this cool-headed solo freak in front of her, blinked several times, and hurriedly turned away. This was no time to say she still had not sorted out the situation. It was not as if she had a plan of her own either.
"...No matter what kind of power he has, Death Gun is basically still a sniper. He probably will not show himself in an open area with little cover. But if he goes north, the forest on the opposite bank ends soon. From there to the ruined city in the center of the island, it is all wide-open plain."
"So there is a high chance he will choose the ruins as his next hunting ground... right?"
Both of them, especially Samuro, were launch-era GGO veterans. They had fought through countless battles in this world of guns, and both had deep experience and judgment.
After speaking, Sinon looked toward the faint outline of buildings on the northern horizon. With the distance effect, they looked quite far away. The straight-line distance was probably more than three kilometers. With Samuro's current AGI, he could likely reach it in two or three minutes, but he had to account for Sinon's speed.
"All right. Then we will make that our target too. If we move along the riverbank, we should not be visible from either side."
"...Understood."
Sinon nodded to Samuro, then looked back for a moment.
Not far from the iron bridge, Dyne's corpse was still lying there. But as long as his body remained, that actually meant he was still alive. The one who might truly be dead was Pale Rider, whose body could no longer be seen.
To be honest, Sinon still had not fully believed it. At the same time, she could not think that everything was fake either.
Still, she did have a premonition. During the main tournament of the third BoB, something about her would definitely change. Whether that change would lead toward hope or not, she did not know.
For now, she acted by trusting her own instincts. Instinct was also the one skill no stat build could improve.
Although she was nowhere near Samuro's extreme type, Sinon's AGI was not low.
Even so, when they ran together like this, she could not catch up with Samuro no matter how hard she tried. Leaving numbers aside, the difference was in how his body moved. The few large rocks scattered along the riverbank and the sudden cracks in the ground were things he avoided one by one, as if he had memorized their positions, glancing at Sinon from time to time.
It annoyed her, because it was obvious he was matching her speed.
Still, because he ran ahead and guided the route, they arrived sooner than expected at the grassland strip cutting through the south-central part of the area. At some point, the riverbed under their feet had become concrete, and the cluster of skyscrapers reaching into the sky stood directly ahead. They were finally entering the ruined city, the main battlefield at the center of the island.
"We did not catch up."
Sinon said it to Samuro as he slowed. They had hoped to catch up with Death Gun as he moved underwater toward the city, then attack the moment he emerged from the water in an unarmed state.
"...Could we have lost him somewhere?"
Samuro turned around and looked at the river behind them with a serious expression.
"No, I do not think so. While we were sneaking along, I kept scanning the water."
Generally speaking, without an oxygen tank, it was impossible to stay underwater for more than a minute. Death Gun was carrying a large rifle like the L115, so he should not have had much weight capacity to spare. If he had dived into the river under the iron bridge and swum north with the current until he was somewhere Sinon and Samuro could no longer see, then how was that any different from running along the bank?
"Then we hide in this city. The river stops over there."
In front of Sinon, the river became a culvert and flowed underground beneath the city. The entrance was blocked by iron bars, clearly impassable to players. Even several hundred enhanced grenades would not blow that obstacle open.
"Three minutes until the nine o'clock scan. Even in these ruins, he should not be able to hide from the satellite's eye."
Sinon thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Right. In the last tournament, even people on the first floor of high-rise buildings showed up on the map. Diving underwater or hiding in caves could evade the scan, but those places are dangerous too. Other than that, there should be nowhere to hide from it."
"Good. If the next scan gives us Death Gun's location, I will strike before he attacks someone else. I am counting on your support."
"...I suppose I can."
Sinon shrugged. That last part had not sounded sincere enough, so for the first time in a while, she cut straight at Samuro.
"I have one question. Death Gun is not that guy's official name, right? You did not forget that, did you? If we do not know his name, we cannot find him on the radar."
"..."
Samuro frowned and fell into thought.
"I know the name he used before, but..."He might even have guessed the man's real name.
"There are thirty entrants and three I do not know. Of those, Pale Rider, the one I was chasing, can no longer be Death Gun. That leaves two: Musketeer X and Sterben. Death Gun may be one of them."
"If both of them appear, we cannot hesitate. We need to decide beforehand which one to attack."
Sinon cleared her throat and continued.
"If you read JUUSHI backward, it becomes SHIJUU, and X can be read as Cross. Put together, it points to juuji, cross... but I do not think it would be that simple."
"Nicknames are not always that complicated. At the very least, if it is him, I do not think he would choose a name like Musketeer X," Samuro said slowly.
"I am more inclined to think he is Sterben. I just do not know what the name means."
"Hmm... In VRMMO games now, most people's nicknames are fairly simple. Mine is an abbreviation of my real name... What about yours?" Sinon asked.
"Not mine. I just took the name of a character from a game I played before and carried it over as is," Samuro said, shaking his head.
"Then we split up and search for Musketeer X. If I get hit by a stun round like Pale Rider did, do not panic. Either enter sniping position immediately or leave. Death Gun will definitely come out. He will not use that black handgun to deliver the killing blow right away. He wants to enjoy it."
"You, on the other hand... be careful."
"Okay..."
Hearing that, Sinon forgot that there was only one minute left until the scan. Her eyes widened, and she looked closely into his black eyes.
"Why are you so..."
Why do you trust me? She did not say it aloud.
"Because I am not Death Gun, but I might still shoot you from behind..."
After hearing that, Samuro raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. Then he smiled.
"You will not shoot me. I understand that much. You want to fight me fair and square at least once, right? Now... time is up."
He tapped Sinon's left arm and climbed the stairs leading from the riverbed up to the city district.
The spot he had touched carried the same strange pain she had felt that day on the rooftop, when his gaze pierced into her. Sinon followed him in silence. He is an enemy I have to defeat. She had told herself that countless times since yesterday.
...She no longer knew.
Sinon and Samuro stood side by side on a short concrete stairway that could not be seen directly from the city streets, waiting for the fourth Satellite Scan of the day.
With the satellite terminal in her right hand, she looked at the watch on her left. Real-world time: 8:59:55 p.m... fifty-six... If this Battle Royale was progressing at the same pace as last year's, the battle was already in its second half. In other words, the number of players should have been cut roughly in half.
In fact, the gunshots and explosions that had been ringing through the ruined city above them until moments ago had temporarily stopped. Most likely, every remaining player had ducked into cover and was staring at the satellite terminal in their hand.
Eight seconds. Nine. Exactly nine o'clock.
Several white and gray points lit up on the terminal map.
"Samuro, you search the northern side!"
After whispering that, Sinon tapped the two adjacent points at the southernmost edge of the city district, on the west bank of the river. The names displayed were, of course, Samuro and Sinon. Since close combat could not possibly continue for more than fifteen minutes, no matter how anyone looked at it, the other players would realize the two of them had not been fighting and had formed a pair.
It did not violate the rules. There had been players who cooperated in past tournaments. Even so, she could not help imagining people thinking, That cold sniper actually did something like that?
For now, she just hoped the camera would not catch the two of them together.
Brushing away that stray thought, she quickly checked whether the cluster of points to the north were alive or dead, then confirmed their names.
No-No, Yamikaze, huuka, Masaya. Every one of them was a familiar, well-known player. If both of the two names they were looking for appeared in this city, then she and Samuro had been wrong from the foundation up.
"There."
"Found him!"
Their voices overlapped perfectly.
At the center of the city, outside a circular, stadium-like building, a single point stood in a place with a clear field of view that would make an excellent gathering spot. The instant she tapped it, the name appeared.
Musketeer X.
Their eyes met, then dropped back to their respective terminals. To check more thoroughly, Sinon scanned farther north while Samuro scanned farther south. Five seconds later, they raised their faces again and nodded at the same time.
"Musketeer X is the only one in this city," Sinon whispered.
Samuro answered, "Sterben is not here. Musketeer X should be Death Gun, then... Judging by the taste in names alone, I am not ready to say it for certain, but either way, he is someone we need to confront. If he is Death Gun, then the target he is after is probably..."
Samuro pointed at his own terminal. The point he indicated was on a building slightly west of the stadium. The name was Ricoco.
Ricoco was alone, and the direction they were moving would definitely expose them to Musketeer X's line of fire.
As Sinon nodded, Ricoco began moving toward the building's exit. The moment they stepped into the road, they would likely be struck by a stun round from the L115. Before Death Gun could shoot them with the black handgun after they fell, they had to stop him.
Samuro put away his terminal and looked straight at Sinon. He seemed about to say something, but closed his mouth again. Then he said only one short thing.
"Be careful..."
"Is it that hard to say, 'please cover me'?" Sinon raised an eyebrow.
Samuro's eye twitched, but in the end he gave a wry smile.
"Please cover me."
"Understood."
Sinon answered and straightened. She climbed the stairs in front of Samuro, checked the surrounding area, made a forward gesture with her right hand, and mounted the last step.
The island serving as the stage for this tournament was officially named Island Ragnarok. The ruined ancient city at its center had probably been modeled after New York in the real world. Skyscrapers designed around a blend of functionality and traditional beauty rose straight into the evening sky, while the ground was filled with English signs and billboards.
Of course, all of it had weathered away, covered and defaced by parasitic plants and dust.
Samuro and Sinon ran at full speed along the road stretching out from the point where the river became a culvert.
Inside these ruins, at least five or six players stood between them and Death Gun's location, but there was no time to think about that now.
Fortunately, because of the scan just now, no one would expect someone to pass through this road immediately. Several rotting yellow taxis and a large bus tipped onto its side served as cover, allowing them to move north through the gaps between them.
With their AGI correction fully engaged, a sprint of less than a minute was enough to cover the seven-hundred-meter radius of the ruins. A massive circular building appeared ahead of them. It was their destination: the central stadium.
At Sinon's hand signal, the two slipped into the shadow of a bus not far ahead and observed the situation through its shattered panoramic windows.
Judging from the stadium's outer wall, it stood at least three stories tall. Entrances were set in the north, south, east, and west. If Musketeer X had started moving at the moment of the Satellite Scan, their current position should be directly above the west entrance.
Sinon widened her eyes and stared toward the top of the outer wall. With the correction from her vision enhancement and Hawk Eye skill, the distance effect weakened and the scene became more pixelated. She looked toward a triangular break in the edge of the decayed concrete wall, shaped almost like the muzzle of a gun.
"...There. I see him."
For an instant, something reflected the sunset. It was unmistakably the muzzle of a rifle. As if confirming Sinon's discovery, Samuro spoke in a low voice.
"Looks like he is still waiting for Ricoco to arrive... All right. I will assault him from behind while we still can. Sinon, take sniping position inside the building on the other side of the road."
"Huh...? I should go to the stadium with you..."
The protest came out before Sinon could stop it, but Samuro cut her off with a sharp look.
"This is the operation that lets your abilities work at their maximum. I trust you to cover me with that rifle when things become dangerous."
"That is not what this is." Sinon pursed her lips.
"Uh..."
"Listen. You are giving off this huge 'I am going to solo everything myself' aura. No matter how you look at it, we are a team right now, so how about restraining that lone-wolf streak a little?"
"That person is coming for me. I have a responsibility to settle things with him..."
As Samuro said that, he began to feel the sharp gaze of the girl beside him.
"...Either way, I am not agreeing to let you come with me," Samuro said firmly.
Hearing that, Sinon had no choice but to nod, thinking that this guy might be hopelessly dense.
Samuro, completely unaware, gave what he apparently considered a gentle smile and glanced at his watch.
"The fight begins thirty seconds after we split up."
"...Yeah. That is enough."
"Good. Then... I'm counting on you."
With that, Samuro snapped his coat once, turned without hesitation, and left the bus. After meeting Sinon's eyes head-on one more time, he ran soundlessly toward the stadium's south entrance like a ghost. Earlier, when he had been matching Sinon's pace, he had probably been holding back half his speed.
As Sinon watched his thin back, that strange feeling rose in her chest again.
Tension? Unease? It was close, but not quite.
This was... yes. Was it worry?