This is a major rendition of Sword Art Online : Fatal Bullet game so while it still have the same story line, it would definitely have major differences in dialogue, character interaction, and how I present the event happened to deepen the depth of characters, plot, or background. I mean, I even scrap all the dialogue in game just to make my own rendition of the dialogue. Don't say I have not warned you.

"Click… Click… Click…" Another kill.

I was in front of my computer, playing an old game that was bragged by the time it was released and now left with dust with the rising of VR game. Personally, I love this kind of game more as I felt more alive by playing them and some other reason. VR game gave me a bad memory. Not because of Sword Art Online but for something else.

"Knock… Knock…" I could hear someone knocking my door. I paused my game and led myself to open my apartment door.

I did not know how many days I have been "exiled" from that job for something that I should not poke my nose into. A job that could get me fortune worth of ten years living in luxury. I was just doing what my dad once said, always be honest and stick to the truth. I never thought that being fired from that job will led me to my job nowadays. A job that is very secretive that I must hid it even from my closest family. My family knew me as an executive engineer in a huge government telecommunication company and been there after I was kicked out of the previous company. But the truth is…

"Ah, Seijirou-san. Another mission?"

"I am sorry but yes. We need your help."

I am a government agent for investigating cases inside VR and AR worlds. My codename is Hierophant.

"Now, how to enter that game without pulling too much suspicion?" I looked at the files that were brought in by Seijirou earlier.

The government always saw me as their personal hit man. They came, gave me a file, and I executed their order inside VR games. My history and skill in VR gaming made them believe that I am the perfect person for that job. But today was different. The government always wanted me to lay low as I execute my order but this time, they specifically asked me to raise to the top so I could root out the criminal from their hiding places.

My target is a hiding criminal who has stolen two NerveGears from the government's evidence room. They insisted to keep this a secret until I met a certain person who was personally trusted by government or when the culprit has been caught. I did not know who the trusted person is but I knew that I would eventually met him in time. Inside the file, I found a copy of a game that I should be into. Gun Gale Online. A game developed by Zaskar. At least it was not any game that developed by that shitty company. I opened my closet to take my Amusphere and let it connect to my computer.

"Entering the game without any warning would not be wise. I should act like a newbie first." I said to myself.

I was thinking that if a newbie player came and hit the top player list without any warning, it most likely draws the criminal's attention. Especially if the criminal himself is one of the top players in the game. But to establish that newbie status, I needed someone who were many levels above me yet he still wanted to be my partner.

"Ring… Ring…" I heard my phone rang.

I searched for it and finally found my phone laying unattended on my bed. I scrambled my way to my phone and answered my phone soon.

"Yoshimoto speaking…" I said to the phone.

"Ah, Tama-chan?" I could hear a soft female voice from the other side.

"Yeah?" I answered halfheartedly since I still have no clue who was in the other side.

"Uh… I know this is awkward but it's me, Momiji. Still remember me?" Ah, now I remembered.

She is Momiji Takamine. A friend of mine when I was still in middle school and she had been my friend since kindergarten. She was a very shy girl who often got bullied and I was her only friend back then before her family decided to move and left the town. Everyone knew her as Momiji but I knew better her as…

"Kureha? Ah, long time no see! How's going?" I asked her.

"Ah, yeah. I'm fine Tama-chan. Listen. I am going to enter a competition inside a VR game but I have no trusted partner here! I need you so much! Would you mind to join me? I'll teach you few tricks I learned here!" Kureha asked.

I looked away at first and saw the copy of GGO that was brought by Seijirou-san.

"Hmm… But I just made my mind to start playing GGO. And I will definitely suck because it will be my first VR game I have ever played." I made an excuse that half true.

"Oh! What a coincidence! The VR game I was talking about is GGO! How about I'll meet you at first spawn? Don't worry! I'll register your e-mail at the competition!" Did I just drag my childhood friend into a death government business?

"Nah, I think it's a bad idea. I will definitely hold your back and sucking a lot." I said just to make her change her mind.

"No! No! You won't! I am a great teacher after all! So, I think you would do great in GGO with me! What do you say?" She insisted.

"Oh, well. But don't cry if we ended up losing." I reluctantly accepted her invitation.

"Great! I know that I could count on you! After all, you are my best friend!"

That time I was happy and smiled widely because Kureha still accepted me as her best friend after whatever happened in those time we were not in contact. But now, seeing you in front of me while hearing that you wear a NerveGear for the sake of my safety, I am never feel so much regret like now. I fall to my knees hoping that you will forgive me someday. I am the one who dragged you to this mess at first place.

I booted my game and wore my Amusphere. I laid on my bed and made sure that I have set my air conditioning system with a program I made that integrated my Amusphere with all of my home, including phone and air conditioning system. One last check and I was ready to go.

"Okay. Link start."

…

I entered the game world but not in Lobby yet. I was a new player so I should enter my username and all sorts of that. I remembered that this game generated a random avatar. My name, huh? I refrained myself to type Hierophant as my codename was already infamous enough that the enemy would most likely take a step back when saw my username. How about an abbreviation of my real name or something from my real name? My name is Tamaki so I thought Maki would be great. I typed Maki but they said the username has been taken. Figures. I added -kun on the back of my username so I could devote myself as a tomboy more than the real world me. Maki-kun, I entered the username.

"Username confirmed! Welcome to Gun Gale Online!" The system voice said to me.

I suddenly spawned into a town that looked so much futuristic. I sniffed the air and smiled. I could smell the sweet smell of post-apocalyptic sands. I always love this kind of setting. Before that, I realized that everything I looked was far shorter than usual. I immediately searched for a glass just to look on my reflection.

"OH MY… GOD!" I was shocked because my avatar has a very tall height. Something I really wanted from long ago since my real self is only 155 cm tall.

My avatar has this short blue hair and sharp looking eyes. I have this scar across my right eye and my right eye was different in color from my left. I had green right eye and silver-grayish left eye. My eyes looked like I was borrowing somebody else's right eye and that somebody have my real right. I stood tall over 180 cm and I knew it's more than just that. Maybe 185? By the time I saw my avatar, I knew right away that I would love to play this game again and again. Is this why Seijirou-san asked me to do this mission? Nah, that's probably impossible. I dismissed that thought as Seijirou-san is just some random government official who got too close with me after so many missions that being supervised by him. I called him by his first name at these last three months because of his personal request.

"Hey! Tama… I mean, Maki-kun! Sorry! Registering us is actually takes more time than I predict." A female shouted from my behind. I instinctively looked for where or who the voice came from.

"Aha! I know it's you! You have that friendliness yet unsociable aura around you! Marveling at your own avatar, huh, Maki-kun? Talk about a handsome avatar. Are you sure that is not a man's avatar?" I finally found who the one who called me with my real name and quickly fixed her way of talking.

I could see a girl with pink hair and blue eyes. Even she had different look from her real life, I was very sure that the girl is my childhood friend, Kureha. Wait, why did her username is Kureha?

"Well… Um… Maybe let me take back the man's avatar part. Ugh, it's intimidating on its own way. You already have a fairshare back at middle school, you know?" Kureha said after she took a good look on my chest area which I just realized that I have a prominent size there.

"Hahaha… Well, yeah… I really wanted a tall body for some reason. Mainly because I was not growing again after middle school and everybody left me as a short tomboy girl. And this..." I pointed my chest area.

"Came out as a bonus" I continued.

"Hahahaha… Well, I am a little bit jealous, you know? You were tall in middle school though. Towering above anyone else back at primary school days. Maybe you have not ran out your luck yet?" Kureha said.

"Yeah. Maybe the one that I have ran out is actually my unluckiness." I said in a rather grim tone as I remembered my days in that company.

"Maki-kun? Are you okay? I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" Kureha asked me with worry.

"No! No! I'm okay! You did not say anything wrong." I denied and gave out a huge smile for an assurance. I only knew that I should change the subject right away.

"By the way, why Kureha? Are you missing me or something? I know that I was the only one who called you Kureha." I said in a cocky tone.

She realized my teasing and I saw red started to paint her cheeks. Ah, we could not hide our feelings in the VR world. I almost forgot about that. Maybe that's why Kureha knew right away that I was not okay back then. But now, what I really want is to let out a wicked smile.

"No! It's not like that." I saw her blushing even more.

"It's just. I love to hear you call me Kureha. And if someday you play GGO, I will always hear you calling my name given by you." That time, I was the one who started to blush.

"Ah, come on! Stop teasing me!" Kureha gave me a little fist to my arm as a protest.

I giggled and then laughed so hard as she pouted. Why did I want to stop? It's been a long time since I could tease her like this again and made her in a mess of blush. After middle school, we just contacted each other via phone or social media before we were stopping to contact each other when we started to attend college. Then again, she invited me into the game because of this competition of sorts and I decided to make her lead the way to the venue.

"Alright! Alright! Just let's go to the event venue, shall we?" I said to her.

She lead our way to the lobby through a very long escalator. Along our way, I looked around the scenery of place they called SBC Glocken. It was stunning and beautiful on its own way. It kinda reminded me of an old sci-fi anime movie. You know? That one with a woman who have that camouflage suit and jumped off from a skyscraper then vanishing into an epic opening sequence. Then my thought ran to a realization that my stats and level were very low that I guaranteed that I would be killed rather easy. While I wished that I could convert my major account under the name of Hierophant to this game just to retain enough stats and level, I could not do that since the higher ups demanded to start from a perfect zero. Which weapon should I specialize? My primary would definitely a sniper rifle. I just love that huge damage number even sniper have a very slow fire rate. But how about my secondary? It should be something that is very effective within a very close range.

"Maki-kun? What are you thinking?" Kureha asked me as she noticed that I was spacing out.

"Ah, nothing in particular. Since stats are very low, I am beginning to think where should I specialize myself into."

"Hmmm… Beginners love to start with rifles or SMGs then after reached a decent level or stats, they started to differentiate and specialize with one or two weapons. Especially with guys who specializing in sniper rifles. They spent many time to level up on their STR and DEX because those two are the very demanding stats for sniper rifle users." Kureha said specifically like she was reading my mind.

"How did you know I am going to aim for sniper rifles?" I asked her.

"Figures. I don't know exactly but I think it suits you best. You are a very supportive woman yet you always the one who attacks head first. You know, just like when we were in primary school. You said that I should not be afraid to fight back those bullies but you were the one who got into the fight for me."

"What comes next is a painful detention, tho. Haha. But I never regret it." I said with a huge pride and smile across my face.

Finally, we arrived at Governor's Office. I could see many players already packed in the lobby. There was a short player with cute pink rabbit hat on her head and wore her clothes in pink. She was cute and I definitely spotted her advantages in desert area as her apparel would definitely camouflaged her. I could see she was conversing with a woman with tattoo on her face which made her looked very fierce in my opinion. Then I saw a player who wore black from head to toe conversing with a woman who looked very elegant in a group consisted of sky blue haired woman with a rather hypnotizing beautiful eyes, blonde woman with noticeable huge boobs, fairy looking girl, pink haired techie girl, girl who had flying bird like animal on top of her head, red haired tall guy, and huge foreigner guy. The black attired guy was looking very mysterious with a huge vibe of very skilled solo player around him as his color stood out from others around him. And last, I saw a male player being swarmed by female players. He seemed notice me and Kureha's arrival as he waved his hand as he saw Kureha and Kureha replied his wave.

"That's Itsuki. One of the best players around here and probably the most popular guy in female players' opinion since he got his looks that… Yeah. I will probably cringe if I continue my sentence." Kureha explained to me.

"Ah, it is Kureha and you brought a friend there? Is that newbie's gear? Is she just arrived here?" Itsuki came closer and greeted.

"Yeah, this is my partner for this competition, Maki-kun. I am the one who invited her here so she is very new to this game." Kureha introduced me to Itsuki.

Itsuki came closer to me into a very dangerous close distance. He looked into me as he was trying to inspect me and it made me awkward as hell. I could hear fangirls starting to scream from the background as his face was starting get closer and closer to mine. Since my face looked like a man's (courtesy of Kureha's comment), I thought those fangirls were yaoi fans or something like that and my deduction supported by someone said from my back that it would look very great if that woman is actually a man. I resisted him by placing my forearm on his chest to shove him away and it just made the fangirls screamed even louder. Talk about wrong decision. He pulled himself back into a distance before I could shove him away. He let out a smile as I felt my cheeks heated up.

"Cut that out, will ya?" I said to him rather harshly.

"You are lucky since my stats are low or I would pound you with my fist." I continued.

"Yeah, you should follow her. She's rather… fierce when she's angry." Kureha tried her best to put out my fire.

"Okay, okay. I got the idea. But I like you." Itsuki said to me while looking seriously deep into my eyes.

"And let your skills decide whether you could pound me with that fist of yours, newbie. Let the best one win." Itsuki said as he left the scene.

I took a deep breath and let out a huge sigh of relief. I looked to Kureha who was giving me an assurance smile.

"Don't worry, we will kick his ass or some kind like that." Kureha said to me. I smiled and gave her a pat on her back.

"Don't underestimate me. In other game, I am a very skilled player, you know? Or my name would not be Hierophant." I said to her which resulted in her confusion.

"Uh… Ah! I mean I played regular PC games. The one that used keyboard and mouse. Ahahaha…" I managed to save myself from Kureha's suspicion as she changed her expression quickly after I said that. How much did I spill the beans? I hoped it was just her who hear about that.

"Hiero… Ah, whatever. You should not be cocky. This place is pretty different from those kind of games, you know? Don't let it get over your head." Kureha reminded me while slapping behind my head.

"Yes, madam. If there was no pain absorber here, it would been very hurt."

"And that's my first lesson of basics to survive in Gun Gale Online. Don't be cocky." She said firmly.

"THE COMPETITION WILL BEGIN IN 5 MINUTES. ALL CONTESTANT SHOULD MOVE TO THE DESIGNATED TELEPORTERS." The system began to announce.

"Alright, we will continue our next lesson in the competition." Kureha said, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me to our designated teleporter.

This is going to be painful, huh?

A/N : Right now, I am just going to throw ideas and let time decide when I will start to start the next chapter as I am a busy woman and it seems I can't have any down time soon. While this will be a very slow updated story, I will try as much as I can to continue this story.