CHAPTER 20
Battle of the Mall I
At 2:40, every player in the game, and every audience member in the bar, watched the scan results with great interest.
Those near the mall only needed a single glance at the results before they were satisfied and immediately put away their devices. Then they charged through the shattered glass into the building.
MMTM from the east.
WEEI and SATOH from the north.
LPFM and SHINC from the west.
The battle of the shopping mall had begun.
As soon as she passed through the broken doorway, Llenn saw a warning message that she’d been expecting.
You have entered the handgun area! Long guns such as rifles are locked. Only handguns, grenades, photon swords, knives, and bludgeoning weapons are allowed here!
Llenn glanced around the new battlefield as she ran. There was an entry hall about forty yards wide. It felt like a tunnel, yet the ceiling height was the same as in any other shopping center.
It was abandoned, of course, but the building structure was still firm, with less trash and rubble than she would have expected. There were fashionable brick tiles underfoot, with few cracks or potholes that might catch her as she ran.
About half of the ceiling lights were out. It was darker than outside, of course, but once Llenn’s eyes got used to it, it was hardly difficult to see. Plus, lots of natural light came in through the massive skylight in the middle of the building.
The mall’s interior was not so different from the style you saw in real-life Japan. The main difference was that it was about five times larger. If it wasn’t for the ceiling overhead, Llenn might have thought she was just running through the shopping area of town.
“This place is huge,” marveled Fukaziroh. “Llenn, don’t run too far ahead and get lost.”
“Same to you! We can’t put out a call for you over the PA!” she shot back, right as she reached the intersection with the main thoroughfare that circled the mall.
The walkway was carpeted.
It was thick and easy on the feet. The material muffled footfalls, making a clandestine approach much more feasible.
Here, too, there was tons of space, about sixty feet from side to side. In the center of the walkway were benches and small stands, like a street during a festival.
The stairs and escalators were also located in the middle of the path, creating a narrow vertical space where the routes between floors were open.
If Llenn turned right here, she would proceed around the building on the south side. To the left was the north route. She also had the option of rushing up some nearby steps or an escalator.
From this point on, scan locations were no longer useful. Llenn could encounter hostiles at any time. Although the shopping mall was enormous, the environments were far smaller than outdoors. She’d be able to hear the sounds of battle when they erupted.
And once the fighting started, it probably wouldn’t take long to finish.
“Time for the pistol battle at last…,” murmured a member of the crowd as he watched LPFM and SHINC venture into the mall. On other screens, you could see MMTM, SATOH, and WEEI in their respective locations.
MMTM was down to two members, so they had to stick together for survival. David and Kenta rushed up the stairs at the east end, hoping to gain a height advantage over their foes.
SATOH’s group of six stayed close as well. They were going to fight as a team.
More surprising was WEEI. The men in the tracksuits did not show up on-screen. They’d come through the north entrance, but they hadn’t yet emerged onto the main path around the mall. It was impossible to guess what they were up to.
“Pistol fights will be tough,” remarked one of the spectators, slapping his holster. “You can only hit a target from so far away. If there was someone twenty yards away from me, I couldn’t hit ’em with this. That was a shock to me when I started GGO.”
It was a shameful thing to admit, but no one laughed at him.
The grim truth about pistols was that they were inaccurate.
When you were shooting, the slightest change in a muzzle’s aim would only grow more pronounced over distance. And no matter how much you practiced, there was no way to aim with a handgun as reliably as with a rifle. Especially when you were on the move and trying to strike a running target.
Optimal ranges ran at about thirty meters for a stationary target and twenty for a moving one, though someone truly skilled could hit a mobile opponent at up to thirty-five meters. At such distances, the bullet circle could help, but the bullet line was virtually meaningless to the one being attacked. By the time you saw the streak, the bullet had already hit you.
Pistol rounds were individually weaker than rifle shots, and a bullet or two that didn’t happen to strike a vital area wouldn’t kill a target. So even if you were taking body shots, you had a few seconds to fight back with your own pistol or knife.
A chaotic, close-range handgun fight inside the mall was sure to be much fiercer than outdoor combat.
“Crap, I can’t wait to watch this!”
“Me too! It’s nice when you can actually see the two sides fighting on the same monitor.”
This was the sort of action the audience appreciated more than any other.
“Go on, guys! Let’s see some shooting!”
“Llenn, take the lead and keep your eyes peeled. Boss, your pair can go next. M and I will go in the middle. Fuka, you’re on rear guard and support.”
Although they hadn’t discussed or planned on it, Pitohui naturally started calling the shots. Nobody was going to argue.
“Okay, but which way?”
Llenn had three options: straight ahead into the courtyard area, right to the south side, or left to the north.
Fire’s group had entered on the north, so if they wanted a showdown with the archenemy, left was the answer. Llenn wondered if that was too aggressive.
“Let’s see—,” Pitohui began.
The rumbling of an explosion shook their feet, and a split second later, the sound of it echoed through the mall.
A distant blast hit them like a punch in the gut. That kind of deep register belonged to a grand grenade, most likely. No one spied the signature blue flames or smoke from the blast.
“From the north…?” Llenn guessed on pure instinct.
“Yep. Where Fire’s group is located,” Pitohui agreed, then added, “but isn’t it too early for battle?”
“You don’t think their alliance finally broke down, do you?” Llenn posited hopefully. That’s it, more! she thought.
Da-dooom.
There was another tremor.
“No, that’s not it,” M commented in his characteristically calm manner. “The explosion’s coming from the left side. They’re rushing forward and blowing up the corridor behind them.”
“Ahhh, I see. It’s an invitation to fight them head-on,” Boss concluded.
“Okay, then! We’ll take the bait!” exclaimed Llenn.
“No, we’ll withdraw to the south side,” corrected Pitohui. “M and I will take up the rear. Everyone else goes first.”
“Hrmm.”
“An explosion?”
David and Kenta from MMTM were in the overlook area on the sixth floor over the courtyard interior when the first blast happened.
They had raced up the stairs as fast as possible to ensure the advantage of altitude. As a team of just two, they could not win in a straightforward fight against bigger squads, so they decided to wait for the time being in a location with good visibility. They’d settled on one of the balconies that could be found at the edge of every cardinal direction on every floor but the first.
The rounded verandas leaned over the courtyard area, with fashionably designed railings at their edges. The view from there was enough to make you forget that you were still indoors.
Up above was a glass roof supported by a pipe frame. The pipes came in different sizes, and the arrangement looked like it belonged in some kind of temple. The metal pieces were falling apart, but none of the glass was broken. The gray sky illuminated the structure’s interior.
Below was the spacious courtyard area.
As shown on the map, it was about six hundred yards across the long way and a hundred the short way.
Most of the space was taken up by the amusement park, with a roller coaster that wound all around the interior, plus a Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, a Viking ship, and even a waterslide.
Little stands dotted the ground, offering hot dogs and ice cream treats. The ground was painted kid-friendly pastel colors. It was creepy now that it had faded with time, but it was perfect for people who loved ruined environments.
Thick, black gas was billowing from the right side of the courtyard—the north end. It clearly hadn’t come from a smoke grenade. The vapors were from a more commonplace source.
“A fire… The north-side teams are igniting the building,” David snarled.
There was another explosion. This time, David could see the pale surge of fire. The grand grenade blast started on the first floor of the mall and took a piece of the second and third floors with it.
That explosion alone shouldn’t have been enough to start a fire. Someone had to be spreading gasoline, too.
Slowly but surely, the flames and smoke began to fill the vast mall.
Llenn’s group had moved down the circular path to the southern side and were now approaching the center portion from the third floor.
There was a large food court here, more spacious than was typical. Light from the courtyard flooded through, so it was very bright.
A series of wide pillars crossed the hundred-yard space. Each one was three feet across and sturdy, reinforced with steel pipes. They were placed about twenty yards apart.
Unlike elsewhere in the mall, the ceiling here was raised through to the fourth floor. The pillars went all the way up there, with three-foot chandeliers hanging between them. It was like a high-class restaurant, an unthinkable extravagance for a shopping mall food court.
The floor here was tiled for cleanliness and packed with tables and chairs. They were not simple plastic but fashioned of wood for a chic look. The tables were round, four feet in diameter, and reasonably thick. They looked suitable for deflecting pistol bullets if you tipped them over.
Along the wall of this space were the food court offerings, if they had still been operating. From famous burger chains to Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, and even fusion cuisine, all kinds of food had once been served here. However, the area was silent as death now.
As the place boasted excellent visibility, Pitohui had designated it the group’s base for the time being. The only wall was to the south, so they turned their backs to it and split up to watch the points of entry.
About five hundred feet away, on the opposite side of the courtyard, black smoke rose from the ground floor and steadily filled the building.
“Not only are they blowing stuff up, but they’re also committing arson! How dare they trash this place of rest and relaxation!” fumed Fukaziroh.
“Yeah!” Llenn chimed in.
“Hang on. What did you do to that cruise ship last time, again?” Fukaziroh felt compelled to quip. Llenn’s past exploits included splitting a cruise ship in half.
Boss peered out at the billowing smoke from behind a table and said, “Are they trying to drive us out of here? Did they not intend to fight in the mall at all?”
The structure was so massive that it would take quite a while for the entire place to fill up with choking smoke, but they couldn’t just sit back and let it happen. For one thing, their side didn’t have any weapons suitable for outdoor combat.
Rosa thought of this as well. “Did that Vivi woman tell them? She could have alerted the allied team—”
“Nah, she wouldn’t do that,” Fukaziroh stated. There was no evidence to overturn that assertion, so SHINC said nothing more on the matter.
The explosions continued unabated on the north side, and they were a source of distraction when the enemy abruptly arrived.
“Enemies! From the east!” Boss called.
At the same time, Fukaziroh shouted, “Attack incoming from the west!”
“Whut?” chirped Llenn, who was looking north and didn’t know which way to turn.
Assuming that one of them was confused about directions, Llenn decided that Boss was more trustworthy. With a silent apology to Fukaziroh, she turned to the east. Their companions were near the center of the food court, twenty meters to the south of Llenn’s position.
As the gunfire started, Llenn saw her friends shooting both left and right from behind the food court’s tables and chairs.
On the left, Boss and Rosa were hiding behind a pillar and reaching out around it to fire their Strizh pistols toward the east.
On the right, Fukaziroh was concealing her head behind a table and blasting away with her M&P, while M held up his shield nearby so Pitohui could fire her XDM over it. They were all facing west.
It was about three seconds later that an electric cart rushed toward Boss and Fukaziroh.
The mall provided electric carts for the elderly, children, and others who could use assistance to traverse all over the building’s prodigious span.
Despite the cute name, the vehicles were nearly five feet wide and close to ten feet long. They were practically miniature automobiles. They’d be a significant impediment in any walkway smaller than those found in this shopping center.
The brilliant blue of the car had faded over time. Rust had consumed much of its exterior, making for a hideous sight. Behind the driver’s seat were two rows of sideways seats, four each. Eight passengers could sit in the cart in total. No framework enclosed them.
Before the driver’s seat was a large basket like the type found on shopping carts. A table had been shoved into it. It resembled the ones Llenn and the others were using for cover. There must be another food court on the other side of the building.
The table blocked the 9 mm and .40-caliber bullets Boss and Pitohui were shooting.
Aha! So that’s it!
It took Llenn only an instant to put everything together in her mind.
SATOH had split up, three members each into two carts, placed tables on the fronts in place of bulletproof armor, and come racing down the walkway—from the east and the west.
At top speed, the carts could move faster than a person could run. They hurtled pell-mell toward their prey.
All of those explosions had been a mere diversion from the assault. The vibrations and smoke were meant to cover the carts’ sounds and draw attention to the courtyard area. The enemy must have seen that Llenn and the others were setting up here on this floor.
There was one other thing that could be gleaned from this, too.
This level of preparation was only possible because they had come to the mall long before this point. In previous scans, they must have left their leader outside to hide that fact.
By the time Llenn arrived, they had probably already been in the shopping center for a while and had closely inspected the place. They would have known that they could use the carts and stack the tables on them for protection.
When Boss spotted the cart, it was still eighty meters away.
Because it was heading straight for her, she was briefly freaked out by the sight of a table rushing in her direction, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that it was being pushed by a cart with adversaries driving it.
“Enemies! From the east!” she warned her companions, and she pointed her Strizh out from the side of the pillar.
When the bullet circle was over the table, she fired. Rosa began to shoot the same way.
The projectiles struck the table and sprayed wood chips but did not penetrate through to the other side.
“No good!”
The exact same thing happened to Fukaziroh on the other side of the food court.
She spotted the cart, warned her friends, and started to shoot—except that not a single shot hit the target. The 9 mm bullets tore up carpet, punched holes in the glass windows of stores behind them, and burrowed into the stairs’ handrail.
However, when Pitohui started shooting from behind Fukaziroh, she put new marks on the table.
“Tsk!”
Llenn watched as the electric carts charged forward from either side, crunching and smashing tables and chairs out of their way.
She wondered if the vehicles meant to carry passengers through the mall were really supposed to be going as swiftly as they were. It was actually just a different driving mode for moving the carts quickly through large parking lots, or after hours when there were no pedestrians around.
The enemy was using the high-power mode to burst into the food court at top speed.
The carts gouged through the lines of tables and chairs in the food court before coming to a stop after a few dozen meters of progress.
Then a trio of men in brown combat fatigues jumped out and began firing their pistols.
Immediately, things descended into chaos.
There were seven friendlies and six hostiles in a space measuring no more than a hundred meters to a side. The battle was a mess of confusion.
An incredible number of events happened within the span of just a few seconds.
After Fukaziroh wasted an entire seventeen-round magazine and her gun was empty, the cart plunged toward her. Chairs sent flying by the vehicle nearly struck Fukaziroh’s head.
A man got off the cart just ten meters away and pointed an M45A1 at her.
“Oh crap.”
She ducked, and the first shot passed over her head.
“Aieee!”
By falling on the ground, she ensured that the next bullet deflected off the table.
When she lifted her head, the man’s face was a mere three meters away, smirking with the certainty of victory.
As Boss changed out a spent magazine for her Strizh, she told Rosa, “Split off!” and jumped out from the right side of the pillar.
Rosa took the left side. But a table deflected by the cart struck her leg and caused her to take a spectacular tumble.
“Haugh!”
Boss had a good angle to aim at the left side of the electric cart. Unfortunately, that meant she was in the enemy’s sights as well.
It was nine meters away. Boss saw the man through her bullet circle. He was training on her chest.
“Haah!” She pushed off the ground with her feet, hard. Her large body collapsed to the floor, back-first. A fat .45-caliber bullet passed through her arms and whizzed past her face.
The moment Boss hit the ground, she fired her Strizh—and the bullet struck the man’s M45A1, breaking his finger and yanking the weapon out of his hand.
“Dammit.”
Rosa tumbled until she wound up resting belly-down atop a table, where bullet lines quickly trained on her. They were coming from the driver and right rear passenger of the cart.
The merciless .45-caliber bullets penetrated Rosa’s thigh and side.
“Urhgh!”
The shock forced her body to roll over.
One of the SATOH members continued to fire, pushing in closer all the while. Standing with a column in front of him, the rear member was protected from enemy shots while the lead member attacked. Once the one in front was out of bullets, the pair would instantly swap places. This switch tactic was common in VR games.
As the hail of bullets mercilessly riddled Rosa’s body, she pulled the pin from a grenade on her waist.
“Take this!”
Pitohui saw the electric cart stop twenty meters away from her and M. Two men disembarked and wasted no time aiming their weapons at them.
M quickly stepped forward and raised his shield with both hands. The bullets clattered against it, creating quite a racket.
He withstood the pounding to protect Pitohui from harm. Then he began to charge forward against the flow.
“Yaaaaah!”
Tables and chairs bounced away as they collided with the barricade in his powerful arms. It resembled what the carts had done only a few moments ago.
“There we go!”
Pitohui dropped the magazine out of the XDM she’d been firing and stuck the gun into her backpack. With her other hand, she drew another gun.
Then she hurried through the opening M had cleared like a snowplow and ordered, “Duck!”
M obeyed, leaving his shield up. Pitohui ran onto his shoulders and then off them.
She soared over the metal plates with an XDM in each hand. As she glided through the air, Pitohui let fly a storm of lead down upon the men.
* * *
Llenn aimed with one arm, holding up one of her new Vorpal Bunnies.
As soon as the carts began crashing through the food court, she had rushed for her companions, gun in each hand, but she would not arrive in time. The man shooting at Fukaziroh had his sights trained right on her where she’d fallen.
There was still twenty meters of distance.
Llenn had no confidence that she could hit an opponent at that range, but if she didn’t do something, Fukaziroh was going to die.
She stuck out her right arm, took aim over the sight—no time to wait for the bullet circle—and pulled the trigger.
Please work!
At the same time, the grenade on Rosa’s belt exploded, showering the entire area with shrapnel and bits of wood from the tables and chairs.
Yet again, several things happened in the few seconds that followed.
As the burst blew past her, Fukaziroh saw the head of the man who was about to finish her off pop into pieces, like a watermelon dropped onto the floor.
Out of sheer momentum, the headless body took a few steps forward, then toppled over toward her.
“Whoa!”
Fukaziroh lifted her feet upward to catch the falling man’s chest.
“I know you like me, but the rules say no touching.”
Boss rolled backward and used her spine as a spring to flip up onto her feet, her boots on carpet once more.
The blast caused her to wobble to the right, but she did not stop charging at the man whose gun she’d shot loose.
“Raaaahh!”
She fired her Strizh like mad. He took several bullets but kept his fists raised like a boxer. Boss jumped.
A powerful kick to the face was the end of his story.
She looked just like a ballerina.
The grenade explosion left Rosa with only half a body, and she was out of SJ4 for good.
Her final act of resistance had embedded shrapnel in the face of the man before her, taking him down with her.
However, the enemy behind was virtually unharmed, and he turned his attention and M45A1 to his left.
When he saw the gorilla-woman with pigtails ram the tip of her boot into his teammate’s face, he pulled the trigger on instinct.
Pitohui landed between the men she’d been shooting at.
“I’ll start with you,” she said, pointing her right XDM at the enemy on the right and putting a bullet through his eye.
Then she gave the foe on the left a powerful elbow. The bearded man had already taken several bullets, so he was unable to evade in time. Pitohui’s arm met his neck hard, tossing him onto his back.
“There!”
Pitohui’s left foot came down on his head. Between the kick and the impact with the ground, the man bounced and shrieked. “Aaagh!”
“M! Grab him!”
“Got it.”
M’s considerable mass came diving onto the helpless man, shield and all.
“Huh?”
Llenn could not understand why the man who’d been aiming at Fukaziroh suddenly lost his head.
She hadn’t fired her Vorpal Bunny. Her target’s skull had simply exploded before she could shoot at him.
Then the gust of air from Rosa’s grenade to the left rustled the ears of Llenn’s cap.
“Huh?”
It was Boss who kept fighting the longest.
When she kicked her adversary to death and landed back on the ground, she was greeted by a pain in her left shoulder.
It was only because Boss evaded the next bullet so quickly that she managed to stay in the game. Immediately, she raised her Strizh in the direction the projectile had come from.
She spotted the man who’d tried to take her life standing beyond the electric cart. He narrowed his eyes at her, glee apparent in his expression. The muzzle of the large pistol he was carrying was pointed squarely at her.
“Take this!” Boss shouted back happily, and she fired.
Bullets flew over the cart from both directions.
From the arrival of the carts to Boss’s last bullet passing through the man’s head, the battle of the food court lasted less than twenty seconds.
It was pandemonium that began and ended very abruptly.
In that time, five members of SATOH died, and M caught one.
Rosa died, and Boss dropped to 30 percent health.
Llenn rushed over to M and his captive.
The bearded man was in brown combat fatigues, sitting cross-legged on the ground. He’d been relieved of all weapons. His body was covered in glowing bullet-wound effects.
“You got us… I can see why you’re champs and high rankers. You folks are really tough. I thought this plan had an excellent chance of working. We got beat by a team of only seven, and we only killed one. That’s pathetic. Carrying the shield in your hands like that was a good move. Mind if I borrow that tactic?” he asked, gracious and forthright in defeat.
I guess that’s what it’s like when a man comes clean and admits he’s lost, Llenn thought. She was dead wrong.
Bang.
Pitohui shot the man right through the knee.
“Aaah! Owww!”
“Eep! Pito, what are you doing?”
It was just a game, so this didn’t count as torturing prisoners, but blasting at an opponent who had already surrendered was extremely poor form. Not that this was a surprise coming from the same player who had committed similar atrocities in SJ2. In fact, Llenn had done something very similar under the dome.
“All right, no passing along information anymore!” Pitohui snapped at the man. Llenn suddenly realized how naïve she’d been.
The man’s comm was still live to Fire’s team, and he had just passed along enemy tactics to his allies, as well as the fact that Llenn’s group totaled only six now.
In that case—! Llenn thought. There was something she wanted to ask about Fire, too.
She walked over to the bearded man, Vorpal Bunny in each hand. She kept her right-hand gun aimed directly at him.
“So…you’re with Fire, huh?”
The bearded man looked up at her and laughed. “With him? I suppose. We’re on different teams, but we decided to team up this once. You must be Llenn, eh? I’ve seen you on the previous Squad Jam videos. You’re fast. Pretty tough, too.”
“Thank you.”
Fukaziroh, Pitohui, M, and Boss—after offering a quick prayer for Rosa—all listened to the conversation. Shirley had been absent during the fight but had reappeared and was watching the exchange as well. Of course, they were all watchful of their perimeter.
“You tell Fire that we’ve taken out a number of your coconspirators.”
“I don’t like the word conspirator. It has negative connotations. But sure. You’ve done really well and eliminated a number of our teammates. Very impressive.”
“And only your team is left.”
“That’s right. Only Fire’s team is left.”
“And we’re going to go beat him now, no matter what.”
“Hmmm. No matter what, you say? Well, I like your spirit. I’m sure he’s happy to hear that, too. It wouldn’t be worth it any other way.”
Llenn bobbed her head, then pointed the Vorpal Bunny right at the man’s face. Her finger touched the trigger, putting a bullet circle on his forehead.
“One last thing: a personal question to you.”
The man looked at the bullet line, the Vorpal Bunny, and then Llenn.
“What is it?”
“How much did that guy give you for partaking in this collusion? How many credits does it take for you to serve him so faithfully? Why would you give up on your chance in Squad Jam, when your team could have won on its own?” Llenn demanded.
“Bfft!” the bearded man suddenly chuckled. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha, ah-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
The outburst of mirth caused Llenn’s brow to furrow. “Did I say something funny?”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! You sure did! Here, I’ll let you in on a little secret… You don’t understand a thing!”
“I don’t care about that. I’m asking how much money Fire gave you.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha. I can’t answer that question.”
“……”
Llenn glanced at Pitohui. The other woman gave her a permissive smile, so she pulled the trigger.
A man watched the little girl in pink execute his teammate with a pink pistol through the lens of his binoculars. “They’ve done their job. Let’s do ours. I’ll make the first attack. You all do whatever after me.”
“Got it. Good luck, Beralto.”
The man in the tracksuit known as Beralto lifted his head, mask and sunglasses still on, and picked up his “pistol.”
“Get down, Llenn!” Shirley cried. Llenn complied immediately.
She practically left an afterimage with her tremendous agility as she squatted. No sooner had she done so than a shot raced overhead.
“Urgh!”
It rammed into M’s stomach; he’d been standing next to Llenn.
M fell off his feet, losing hit points. He crumbled to the ground next to Llenn, shaking the floor.
“Sniper! Keep your head down!” Shirley shouted again.
If it hadn’t been for the first warning, Llenn would have died. It hit M because she dodged it, but that was merely poor luck.
M’s hit points went from 60 percent to 50. The bulletproof armor around his midriff had done its job, but 10 percent of his health from a shot that didn’t even penetrate his skin was some serious power.
“From where? Why? How?” Llenn wondered. Or, to elaborate into proper questions, How could such a powerful bullet be here, and from where? In an area where only pistols are legal? And there aren’t any enemies in range, are there?
Without getting up, M replied, “Sniper. Rifle round.”
“That’s crazy!”
You weren’t supposed to be able to fire a rifle inside the mall. Which meant…
“From outside? The roof?” Boss wondered.
Llenn thought that if you could get up onto the roof, then break the glass, it might be possible.
However, Shirley ruled all of that out. “No. The enemy’s on the other side of the courtyard. About two hundred yards that way!”
“There’s no pistol that can shoot that far,” Boss argued.
“There is! You haven’t been studying enough! I’ll show you!” Shirley replied, and she held up her gun.
The pub’s audience marveled as a member of the tracksuit gang placed his pistol against a table in the food court for support.
It was a weapon nearly eighteen inches long, over twice the length of a typical handgun.
“Whoa! A Remington XP-100!” shouted one spectator, who had been studying.
If Remington’s XP-100 could be described in a phrase, it would be A pistol made by chopping both ends off a rifle.
Remington was famous for its bolt-action rifles and shotguns. The XP-100 had resulted from its attempt to create a handgun with a long range that could shoot rifle rounds.
The weapon had been intended for hunting. There was a benefit to a powerful, long-range gun being comparatively compact and light. Eighteen inches was quite large—but tiny compared to a nearly three-foot rifle—and it could be stashed in a backpack.
The firing mechanism used the same bolt-action power as a rifle. Because it was a single-shot gun, the bolt had to be used after each bullet was loosed. It was a simple, reliable mechanism.
Since it was a pistol, it had no stock, of course, so it could only be held and steadied by the grip below the middle of the body.
It was also adorned with a pistol scope with long eye relief—the distance between the lens and the eye.
Wouldn’t that just make it a customized rifle that had been cut down?
You might think so, but given that the XP-100 was always labeled and sold as a pistol by its manufacturer, it fell into the Handgun category in GGO.
In real life, it was a minor gun that only aficionados would know about. In GGO, it was something of a hidden oddity that most people didn’t even know existed.
Its range and accuracy were low for a rifle, while as a pistol, it was too big and hard to aim. The weapon could have its uses in hunting, but its master-of-none design made it a poor choice in battle.
Any battle except this one.
Beralto’s XP-100 had a rifle bipod attached to it, which he used to steady it against the tabletop. He peered through the scope, aimed at the little pink target, and fired.
If it hadn’t been for Shirley’s keen eye picking up faint, distant movement beyond the thin screen of smoke through her scope, Llenn would almost certainly have died.
Beralto saw the bullet hit M, pulled back the bolt, and expelled the empty cartridge. The large piece of metal flew out of the gun, hit the floor, and vanished. He took another .308 Winchester rifle round out of his vest pocket, stuck it into the gun, and pushed the bolt closed.
Once again, he aimed at the target two hundred meters away.
“Hmm?”
Then he saw the green-haired woman pointing her gun at him.
“Ha-ha!” he chuckled, and he quickly withdrew.
A bullet passed through the spot where he’d been just a moment before.
The gunshot drew Llenn’s attention to its source.
About ten meters to the south, next to one of the food court pillars, Shirley was holding a large gun, the likes of which she’d never seen before.
Shirley pulled the bolt back, then loaded a sizable bullet from a pouch on her waist.
“I see. An XP-100, huh? Good thinking,” muttered M.
So Shirley had wound up packing the same gun as the enemy. But that didn’t mean she knew all about the weapon.
For one thing, she was a rifles-only kind of girl, with no knowledge of any sort of firearm outside of what she might use to hunt.
When she went shopping with Clarence, who knew more about pistols, her eagle-eyed partner had spotted the odd duck and picked it out for her.
The XP-100 came in several calibers, but naturally, Shirley had chosen the .308-caliber model, which was the same size as her R93 Tactical 2. That meant she could use her homemade explosive bullets in this gun, too.
Shirley did not attach a bipod to it. She wanted the weapon as light as possible.
She couldn’t balance it against her shoulder as she could a rifle, so she had to prop it up on something else or press it against some surface as she fired.
After practicing, Shirley was able to hit a human-sized target with perfect accuracy at four hundred meters. That was without showing a bullet line, of course.
In the category of pistols, where hitting a target at fifty meters was considered a colossal jackpot, Shirley was able to transform into a handgun sniper with a range eight times as large.
Naturally, it was Shirley who’d killed the man aiming at Fukaziroh earlier.
Beralto reported to the other WEEI members through his comm.
“This is hilarious. Someone else had the exact same idea I did. The green-haired sniper woman. She’s shooting explosive rounds,” he explained while crawling slowly on all fours.
Once his comrades had responded, he held up his reloaded XP-100 and kicked over a nearby table.
“I’ll pin them down here. You handle the rest… This should be a fun one.”
Shirley fired. Although she’d pressed the left side of her XP-100 against a pillar, the gun still bounced up from recoil.
The shot passed through the merry-go-round in the courtyard and exploded against the table that Beralto had just kicked over. Typically, a bullet would cut a hole less than an inch in diameter through the wood, but this one blasted a chunk the size of a human head out of it.
“Whoo! Yikes, man! Guns are scary,” Beralto remarked leisurely. He stood up in the open and took his time aiming.
One thing that made an XP-100 different from a rifle was the long loading time.
You pulled the bolt to expel the empty. Then took a new bullet out of a pocket or vest loop, inserted it in front of the retracted bolt, and pushed it forward to close.
Doing all of these steps quickly required both hands. It was nearly impossible to do them while maintaining sight of the target through the gun’s scope.
Beralto deliberately generated a bullet line to shine on Shirley as she rushed to reload, letting her know that he had her dead to rights.
“Shit!”
Shirley pulled back, but no bullet flew toward her.
“Ahhh…”
As a fellow sniper herself, Shirley realized what the other man was doing as she kissed the food court’s tile floor.
To her teammates—temporary though they were—she said, “Get away from here!”
“Huh?” said Llenn.
“The enemy sniper’s trying to keep us locked in this area! If you don’t move now, we’ll be surrounded soon!”
“Ack!”
That was very bad. Even Llenn could understand that this location was dangerous. Nobody wanted another fight in the food court.
First of all, it was visible to the enemy sniper. Even with Shirley giving him trouble, it was possible Llenn or the others could get taken out when they popped out of cover. Getting hit with a rifle bullet was instant death at this point.
Additionally, other enemy players were undoubtedly on the way, and Llenn’s group was open on both sides, allowing an approach in a pincer formation.
Pitohui understood as much and drolly stated, “Okay, people, listen up, I got an announcement. We’re gonna leave this one up to our girl Shirley and skedaddle, got it?”
She sounded like a meddling auntie at an arranged-marriage meeting, making an excuse to get up and let the potential couple get to know each other.
“Whaddabout me, Pito?” asked Fukaziroh.
Shirley snapped, “Don’t need you! Go!”
“Hey, don’t be like that! We’re buddies! Guess I’ll be off, then!”
“Did you want to stay or not?” Llenn muttered.
“Okay, Evacchi and Fuka are new buddies! This time, M and I will take the lead. Llenn, you get the rear. Let’s go searching and kill us some baddies!” Pitohui said, as though they were about to embark on a picnic.
“Yeah! Let’s go!” Llenn agreed heartily. She wanted to get into a good fight with Fire’s team and send them to their virtual demises with her Vorpal Bunnies. “I’ll turn this mall into their graveyard!”
“That’s my Llenn.”
“Excuse me? I’m not yours, Pito.”
LPFM was running high on morale.
But had they forgotten about somebody?
Go east, to the right, or west, to the left? There would unquestionably be enemies in either direction.
“Right, then,” decided Pitohui, and the team was off.
The opposing sniper had eyes on the food court, so they snuck beneath tables until it was safe to stand up again.
M took the lead down the broad walkway, holding his shield in front of himself to catch any shots from foes they might encounter. Next came Pitohui. Then Boss and Fukaziroh, and lastly Llenn.
“Do your best, Shirley!” Llenn called out to their other member, who was behind one of the food court’s pillars.
“Like I need your encouragement to do that.”
Bakoom. Shirley fired her huge pistol, the noise resounding through the entire structure.
Though the enemy couldn’t possibly hear her, she shouted anyway.
“C’mon, shoot me! I’m your opponent here!”
The bullet flew toward the pillar where Beralto was hiding and exploded there, gouging out a massive chunk of concrete. It caused quite a lot of damage. Another ten shots in the same spot might topple the entire pillar.
“Damn, that thing packs a punch. Don’t destroy the whole mall.”
Beralto lifted the XP-100, rested the bipod on a table, and aimed over Shirley’s head as she ducked down to reload her gun.
It roared.
The bullet speed was lower than that of a rifle because of the short barrel—but it still moved far faster than any pistol bullet, striking a spot seven meters from Shirley.
“What? Where is he shooting?” Shirley asked mockingly. She looked up with her gun loaded again, right as a chandelier collapsed onto her back.
“Aaagh!”
The thing landed directly on Shirley’s head, back and shoulders, slamming her body down onto the tile floor.
“Gaah…aaah…”
Her avatar glowed all over with damage indicators, and her hit points dropped quickly. The damage the center part of the chandelier did to her head was particularly bad. In the span of four seconds, her 90 percent health dropped down to less than 40.
“Shit…”
Under the weight of the chandelier, she moved her left arm to take out an emergency med kit and use it. The slow healing process began.
Then she tried to push back against the chandelier, which weighed dozens of pounds. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t budge.
“Rrgh…”
Her back and shoulders were numb to simulate the sensation of pain and wouldn’t let her summon enough muscle strength to move the heavy object.
Pew! A bullet split the air over her head. It hit the chandelier and shattered the glass.
“How can…he aim at me…?”
The enemy sniper was on the same floor as Shirley. No matter how high he stretched, there was no way he could get an angle on her when she was flat against the floor.
Pew! A second bullet grazed Shirley’s boot.
“Can’t hit her. Not in this position,” said Beralto, who was attempting some extreme acrobatics in the attempt to hit the spot where the chandelier had fallen.
He had retrieved a ten-foot rope from his inventory and tied it around the pillar, and he was holding the end in both hands, then pressing his feet against the surface. By maintaining tension on the rope with the weight of his body, he yanked it upward with him as he climbed the side with nothing but the strength of his legs.
Like a monkey, he scaled about twenty feet, nearly to the ceiling, then wrapped the end of the rope around his left hand to maintain position and shot the gun with his right hand. Once he had fired, he rested the gun on top of his tilted belly and used his free hand to move the bolt, put a new bullet in, then aim again and fire.
This one actually hit the chandelier, but there was still no DEAD tag over it to indicate that he had bested his quarry.
“Rrrgh…”
This time, Shirley felt confident that she was going to die.
The projectile passed through the chandelier and hit her butt, numbing her right leg. Her hit points dropped down to 10 percent. She was down in the red zone.
Yet, by budging her body, bit by bit, Shirley was slowly freeing herself from the light-fixture prison.
Inch by inch, she crawled forward.
“Ugh…”
Shirley refused to give up. She wanted to live. She wanted to kill Pitohui.
Then a red line landed on her face.
This time, it was aligned perfectly to hit her in the head.
“Dammit!”
She opened her mouth wide, allowing the line to intersect with the back of her throat, intending to catch the bullet in her teeth out of sheer determination.
Then Shirley’s field of vision went light blue.
Gank!
Her ears caught a metallic crunching sound.
“Huh?”
Just inches in front of her face was an electric cart.
And sitting in the driver’s seat was Fukaziroh.
“Yo, buddy! Need a hand?” she said, and she hopped down. Then she grabbed the center shaft of the chandelier that had Shirley pinned and, using all the strength she’d earned in ALO, roared, “Get the hell outta here! Yeet!” and hurled it over to the other side of the cart.
“……”
Liberated but stunned, Shirley had enough presence of mind to grab her XP-100 and get up.
“That’s it! Let’s move!” said Fukaziroh, who ran a few steps in the other direction, but Shirley did not follow her. “Huh? Hey, c’mon!”
Using the electric cart’s rear seats as cover, Shirley rested the XP-100 on top of one and peered through the scope. She found the man at the top of the pillar, looking very much like a power company technician, finishing his reload, and took aim.
He aimed her way as well.
“I like your spirit!”
Shirley did not back away. She pulled the trigger.
As the lens bounced with recoil, she saw the muzzle of her opponent’s gun flash.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login