Sword Art Online - Phantom Bullet

Chapter 14

Asuna fought against an increasing uneasiness as she continued to wait for the moment to arrive.

Three minutes ago, she logged out from her room in Yggdrasil City, went back to the Dicey Cafe in the real world and then dialed that person's number. After questioning that person and forcing him to log into ALO, she went back to where everyone was gathered. It has been less than a minute since she logged in, but each second just felt extremely long.

"Calm down, Asuna...but you won't be listening to me anyway."

Sitting beside her on the sofa was Lisbeth, and once she said this, Asuna then exhaled slightly before answering in a stiff voice,

"Yeah...sorry. But...I just have a bad feeling. Something big must have happened for Kirito-kun to hide this «Laughing Coffin» incident from us and convert to another world. This is definitely not because of a grudge...maybe there's something dangerous in the real world..."

"After seeing that just now...I can't say that you were thinking too much..."

What Lisbeth referred to was the strange incident that happened in the tournament event of the other world «Gun Gale Online», which was airing on the large screen on the wall that's facing the sofa.

The player in a mantle used this chilling handgun to fire one shot at the other player. And then, the player who was hit suddenly disappeared because of a disconnection. And the live telecast they were watching showed the mantle guy declaring to countless players "Don't forget. Nothing is, over. Nothing, is, over—it's showtime—"

On hearing these words, Klein, who was in front of the bar counter felt extremely shocked, but still indicated with certainty that the player under the mantle was a member of the SAO red guild «Laughing Coffin».

During the two years they wandered in the floating city, Asuna herself went through many large-scale battles, and the crusade alliance against the Laughing Coffin members may be one of the most dangerous ever. In a group battle of players vs players, there had never been a case when more than 30 players died.

To be honest, Asuna herself had forgotten about the details of this battle. However, what left the deepest impression on her was the back profile of the «Black Swordsman» that continued to swing his sword like a devil as he stood right in front of the crusade that was about to collapse. If it wasn't for him—Kirito's fighting, the crusade could have been wiped out.

The duration of the battle was rather short compared to clearing boss levels. After the deathmatch, there were about 10 casualties on the crusaders side, and Laughing Coffin had more than 20 casualties. They locked up the survivors of this red guild into the prison of the Black Iron Castle and then held a little mourning for those who died in battle—after that, nobody mentioned that battle again. No matter who it was, Asuna, Klein or Kirito, everyone forgot about this in their own way. That should have been the case...

...However, the unexpected thing was that it's been a year after SAO was cleared and every player was released, yet the bloodied past appeared right in front of them in such a manner.

In the room, Asuna, Klein, Lisbeth, Silica and even Lyfa, who had no direct connection to this continued to remain silent and wait, waiting for the person who should know what was going on.

Another minute after Asuna logged in again, someone finally knocked on the door. That person probably tried his best to log into ALO after receiving contact. However, Lisbeth shouted 'too slow!' the moment he opened the door, which did reflect the thoughts of the other four people.

"...I, I flew over here directly from where I logged in. If ALO has a speed limit, I'll have my license revoked."

The person who said such a joke was the Undine mage who was like Asuna. His tall and skinny body was wearing a simple robe, and his deep blue hair was casually scattered aside. His gentle and skinny face was wearing silver round glasses.