Before this continues any further, I'd like to state that after re-reading chapter one myself, I came to a realization that it is very easy to mistake France as an over glorified version of myself. France is not supposed to be an interpretation of me at all, and this story isn't just me rewriting SAO with myself projected into it. Thank you for your time.
Chapter 2 – Red Inc.
There was a gun in my hand. I looked down to see the shell jammed in the slide. My hands were covered in blood. I looked up and saw a man, the one I'd just shot. The only emotion on his face being pain. Two steams of blood ran down his face, starting at his forehead. He stared at me a good five seconds before he collapsed. I looked over at my mother, who was also on the ground. She was staring directly at me, in total shock and awe. I then heard the man I had just killed stir. I looked over in the direction I had seen him last, and he was suddenly inches from my face, a crazed look on his face as the blood gathered together and trickled from his chin to my legs, adding to the blood I had already accumulated. I wanted to scream, to run, but I was too scared to either, so I just stared into the man's eyes.
Suddenly I came back to reality. It was dark in my room. The moon was gone, but the sun was yet to rise, creating a darkness that was, well, darker than usual. The sheets of my bed were thrown off, and I wasn't wearing any pants, causing me to slightly shiver. I sat up and examined the details of my room before turning to look at the alarm clock. It was 5:15 in the morning. I could try to go back to sleep, but there really wasn't much of a point, as once I was awake, I was awake, no matter how much sleep I've had. I mean it was good sometimes, but just because I couldn't sleep doesn't mean I wasn't tired.
After pondering what to do, I decided to text my friend Kyouji, the one that got me into GGO. He was probably my only true real friend I had. He was sweet for the most part, but sometimes he could be clingy. I guess we all have our flaws, including me.
I looked down at my phone and pressed the home button to turn it on, and swiped to the right to unlock it. I didn't have a password, because I never let anyone use my phone anyway, so I don't see a point in it. I tapped on the little contact icon and quickly scrolled down to the K letter of my contacts. I tapped on Kyouji's contact and selected the "Send Message" option.
'Hey, you up?' I looked over the sentence briefly before pressing the send option.
I knew he wasn't going to respond right away, so I took the buffering time I had to get ready for the day. It was Sunday, which meant I had to go shopping for food and water and what not.
I walked into my cramped bathroom and turned on the light switch. I looked myself over. My white button up shirt was wrinkled and my hair was messy. I needed a shower. I walked out of the bathroom, unbuttoned my shirt, and lazily through it in my laundry basket.
I then grabbed my phone to see if Kyouji had replied. Sure enough, he did.
'Yeah, another early morning walk?' was what the text read
'Yeah, I mean only if you're not busy, if you're not be at my place in twenty minutes'
I threw my phone back on my bed and removed the rest of my clothing and threw it in the laundry basket with the same lazy fashion I had thrown my shirt with.
I walked back into the bathroom and looked myself over in the mirror once again before turning on the shower. I played with the knob a few moments before finally getting the water to the right temperature, and stepped in, the warm sensation of the water quickly took over my entire body, and warmed me up.
After my shower I stepped back into room and quickly checked my phone. Kyouji had replied with a simple 'Ok, I'll be there'.
I then walked to the small dresser I kept in my room, next to the zip up closet I used to keep my scarves and jackets in, and picked out a new pair of underwear. After I had that on, I grabbed the first shirt and pair of pants I saw and put them on. There was a knock on my door. I looked myself over one last time. I had a very basic outfit on, really. Just a black long sleeve shirt and jeans. I shrugged and grabbed my glasses on the night stand and approached my front door. I looked through the little eyehole to confirm it was Kyouji. It was. I unlocked the chain lock and opened the door to stick my head out.
"Morning" Kyouji spoke in his soft voice
"Morning, let me just tie my hair and grab a jacket and I'll be out in a sec ok?"
"Alright"
I shut the door softly and hurried into the bathroom. I grabbed the loose lock of hair on the right side of my cheek and tied it together with one of the ribbons I had on the counter, and repeated the process to the other side. I then went to my coat closet and grabbed a simple grey hoodie and put it on, then hurried back to the door.
I opened it and stepped outside, then shut and locked the door behind me.
I breathed in the morning air and then looked at Kyouji.
He was wearing his usual outfit, a dark yellow nylon jacket, jeans, and a black baseball cap. He never seemed to wear something different.
"Well, let's get going"
He nodded
We walked all over town. First he took me to a coffee shop that is open twenty four hours, where we got some much needed caffeine. After that we decided to walk to the park and wait a bit for all the stores to open, as he had agreed in helping me shop. By the time we finally got back to my place, it was 10:52. I quickly punched in the combination on the dial pad of my door, and heard the familiar click as I pressed enter. I turned the door handle and casually opened the door, and held it open so Kyouji could come in, as he had a few bags himself.
I set down the bags on the small kitchen counter I had in the first room of my apartment, and instructed Kyouji to do the same. After we had put everything away, we sat at the small coffee table I had in my room, sipping at tea we had gotten not too long ago.
"So" He spoke "Got any plans in GGO today?"
I shrugged "I don't think so, Dyne said the next assignment isn't until Thursday."
I looked at the digital clock in the microwave. Sunday, 11:04 AM.
"How'd the last job go?"
I shrugged once again "Alright I guess, would've gone better if Ginrou could just keep his mouth shut and his gun pointed down.
Kyouji smiled "He still flirt with you on the job?"
I nodded, causing Kyouji's smile to elongate as he sipped his tea
"What's so funny?' I questioned curiously
"Oh nothing…" He paused as he took a large gulp from the cup, finishing it entirely "I just think you guy's would make a cute couple"
I practically choked on my tea and playfully punched Kyouji's arm, causing him to chuckle
"What? I'm serious, think about it, you and Ginrou…sleeping together"
I kicked his knee "The day that happens is the day they make a VR that you can fly in"
He then broke out into total laughter "I mean, he's not that bad" He said after catching his breath
"I'd rather play a game about magical fairies for the rest of my life than be with him"
"Be careful what you wish for" He said in a careful tone
I rolled my eyes "Whatever"
My phone buzzed, signaling a text message. I pulled it out of my pocket to read what it said. It was from France. I know it's not a good idea to give others your phone number on a game, but I trusted him enough, and I doubt he could find me with just my phone number.
The text read 'You should get on GGO, we have a bit of a situation'
"Something come up?" Kyouji asked
I looked up from my phone unto him "Yeah, apparently something is going down in GGO."
"Well, you should probably get on" He stood up, stretching his back and legs "This morning was fun, we should do it again sometime" He then turned and began to walk out
"We should, cya later Kyouji"
He did a simple wave as he opened my apartment door and walked out. After the door was fully closed, I walked over to it and locked the chain lock, then laid down on my bed.
I took off my glasses and traded places with the amosphere, carefully folding my glasses and setting them down in the place the amosphere once was. After that, I opened the amosphere and slipped it over my head. I closed my eyes and felt around for the power button, which took a few moments, then slid it to the on position. Once I got the familiar beep signaling everything was good, I fully laid back on my bed and relaxed my muscles.
"Link start"
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling fan momentarily as I got used to the world of GGO again. Your character is always sluggish for a bit once you log in, so it's usually best to wait in town for a few minutes before heading out, some defect the amosphere suffered from, but it was promised there was soon going to be a software update to fix this.
I stretched out my arms, legs, and back before turning sideways and placing my boots on the floor. I hadn't taken off my combat gear. I opened up my menu and tapped on the "appearance" selection and quickly equipped the gear labeled as "casual wear".
It wasn't that different from my combat gear, and kept the same color scheme. They were simple black jeans along with a green winter coat with a simple pink shirt under it, along with my white scarf.
After equipping that, I checked my messages and not surprisingly France had messaged me.
'Something rather bad is going down, meet me at Geiger Counter'
Geiger Counter was one of the many bars in SBC Glocken, except this one was player ran. The purpose of bars and restaurants in GGO is supposed to be to help players regain stamina that is lost after a long firefight, and to keep from getting sick, because that is a feature this game has.
I closed my menu and stood up from my bed. After locking up my house, I proceeded to walk towards the Downtown District, which had all the big buildings and shops and what not. I looked up at the sky as I was walking, and admired the clouds the developers had made. Contrary to the usual orange brown color they had, they were a darker grey today. Perhaps it would rain.
GGO keeps up with real life seasons, and since it was winter, it wouldn't be that surprising if it rained. Although it didn't rain that much in Japan during the winter, GGO was on an American server, so it rained quite often during the winter, at least that's what I'm told.
Before long I was passing by more and more people, and the streets were getting more crowded. I came around the final corner and saw the large neon sign with the bar's name on it. I opened the doors and heard the electronic, royalty free music GGO provided, playing over the speakers, along with the chatter of other players and the clinking of metallic forks to ceramic plates, and MMO Today was streaming on the holovision widescreens located in various locations of the bar. I looked around before my eyes landed on the person I was looking for. I walked over to him and took a seat at the bar directly next to him.
"Hey" France said
"Hey"
I quickly looked him over. Like me, he too had casual wear. It was a simple brown leather jacket that looked worn down, along with worn down blue jeans and a plain black hoodie under the former that he wore the hood of. His messy jet black hair parted to the right and covered the majority of his forehead and some of his right eye.
"You said something was going down?"
He finished the drink he had ordered
"Yeah…remember that merchant Ginrou killed when we assaulted that caravan?"
I nodded
"Well you see"
The bartender came up to me, and France ceased talking
"Sinon! Long time no see" the friendly voice of the man said
"That it has Tsume"
We both bumped knuckles
He then looked at France "Nice to see you too France"
France simply waved politely.
"So you want anything to drink, or eat? Or ya'll just come her to take up space as usual?"
I grinned. We did often come her to discuss different matter, and tended to walk out without buying a single thing
"Let's go with the former this time, to keep you happy" France answered
"Alright, what would you like?"
"Get me another one of these" he gestured at his empty glass. He then looked at me "You want anything Sinon?"
"I'll just have some tea please"
Tsume nodded, grabbed France's glass, and disappeared into the back
"Anyway" France spoke "Our problem. That merchant had more money and knows more people than we thought. And he's hired one of the best mercenaries in the business to kill us…all of us"
I stopped a moment to think before I formed a response. France seemed to have legitimate concern for this person, if he needed to call me here to tell me about this guy, that means he's tough, really tough, especially since France, winner of the first Bullet of Bullets and notoriously known for not giving a damn, was concerned.
"Must be pretty tough if he's got you riled up"
Tsume came with our drinks and set them down in front of us, I thanked him and he walked off
"He is. Very. His name is Rizzy" I began to drink from my tea "He's an ex member of Red Inc."
I nearly choked on my tea for the second time today. Why did it have to be Red Inc., any battalion but them. Red Inc., when it was still around, was the top mercenary guild in the game. They're very distinguishable all black armor with a red "R" painted somewhere on the chest plate making all the more notorious, and intimidating. The only battalion that could rival them was Raven Co. We had run into them once, and it didn't go well at all.
There were ten of them, and seven of us, but we were used to being slightly outnumbered, as most often our skill made up for our missing two or three other players. This however, was not the case.
The caravan we were after was from Badger Co., the biggest live ammo gun merchant company in the game, so it was an opportunity not to pass up. I don't know why we expected such a little defense from such a big name, but we tried it anyway.
They were moving through the canyon that's not too far off from the city district in the desert, heading south east towards SBC Glocken. With me positioned at the top of the ridge, France and Arashi coming out that from the front, and everyone else from the back, it seemed like a pretty solid plan.
As usual, Dyne spoke over coms to me "Fire when ready"
Right before I took the shot, France spook frantically "Shit these guys are red, don't take it don't take it!" It was too late.
The bullet was already speeding towards my first target.
'Red' I said in my head 'What does that mean?'
Right before the .50 caliber round connected with the target I had lined up, he sidestepped, dodging the bullet.
I could only stare in awe. There's no way he could've done that. I was only five hundred meters away, he'd have to realize the bullet is coming for him, decide what to do, and carry out that action in literally half a second.
"No way" I spoke softly to myself.
I then saw Dyne, along with Miso, Ginrou, and Jin, pushing from the back.
The mercenary group casually took fighting positions, with five in the back and five in the front.
Dyne and the others had to quickly take cover, as they were being suppressed by the five members hanging in the back.
One of the members in the front then dropped down, and was greeted by the death animation, following the slow and steady push from Arashi and France. They were side by side, slowly moving from each rock buried in the sand of the canyon while suppressing fire, keeping from any counteractions to happen on the mercs end.
Quickly, I disengaged my bipod and slung Hecate over my back, running down the ridge to aid France and Arashi's push.
By the time I had reached the two, they had already pushed the mercenaries farther back, and were still slowly progressing.
They were taking cover behind one of the rocks that collapsed due to a high explosive grenade, and I was soon to come up behind them.
"Well, pleasure to have your acquaintance miss Sinon" Arashi spoke in that sarcastic tone he always used
"Pleasure to be here mister Arashi"
I pulled my Glock from its holster and took aim
Three mercenaries peeked their head over the rocks they had taken cover behind, and the three of us immediately rained fire.
"We need to move up" France spoke "Or they might realize how defenseless we actually are at the moment"
"Good idea, but where else is there to move to? We can't rain fire while slowly moving forward like last time, we don't have the element of surprise anymore" Arashi questioned
"We can move to that wall" I gestured at the canyon wall that was somewhat dug into the side, which would provide us a place to momentarily take cover before we continued to move forward.
"Good idea, Arashi, throw a smoke" France ordered.
Immediately, Arashi threw his gun over his shoulder and reached into his coat, and after some searching, his hand reappeared with a smoke grenade
"Alright, wait for the cloud to puff up, then book it to the wall, got it?"
France and I both nodded
Arashi pulled the small silver ring from the grey cylinder and held it for a few seconds, letting the smoke puff out a few times before preparing to throw it.
All during that time France and I were suppressing fire so none of the mercs peeked over to see what our plan was.
After a few seconds, Arashi tossed the grenade towards the mercenaries, and waited for the grenade to really cloud up. Unfortunately, Arashi's throw had been a faulty one, and the grenade had landed a lot more to the right of the canyon then we had hoped, which gave the mercenaries a small but convenient line of sight to the far left, exposing the last few feet to the wall.
"Arashi, throw another" I ordered, but he shook his head.
"No time, just run, I'll cover you two"
Immediately, France took off next to me, running towards the canyon wall we had previously discussed. I heard the loud rounds of Arashi's DMR going off next to me, and the clattering of the shells hitting the rocky dirt shortly after.
I glanced at the smoke screen, and then looked at France, who had already reached the wall and was peeking around the rocky bulge, providing cover fire a long side Arashi. He looked at me and gestured to run.
"What are you waiting for?" I heard the rough voice of Arashi beside me "Go for it, I'm right behind you"
I nodded and began to sprint for the wall to join France.
When I passed the side of the smoke that was uncovered, it was like time began to slow down.
I looked to my right and saw two mercenaries peaking their heads up to look.
I pointed my Glock in the general direction of their heads and began to take shots, causing them to go back into cover.
After confirming they had resumed their original positions into cover, I looked forward and continued running towards France.
Once I had closed most of the distance, I slid behind a small rock next to the wall we had discussed, and France took aim over my head.
I looked over at Arashi, who was still suppressing fire, and had started to make his way towards us.
Once he was fully exposed from the rock he had taken cover behind, he turned and starting rapidly sprinting towards us.
When he was about half way, a figure appeared through the smoke behind him.
In one swift motion, he took aim and put a bullet in the back of Arashi's head.
His avatar quickly collapsed and was taken over by the death animation. The whole encounter happened so fast that I barely had time to react.
I had already raised my Glock to fire at the mercenary, but when I saw Arashi fall, I had lost focus.
By the time I had regained focus, there was already bullet lines on my body, and the AUG that the mercenary was carrying began flashing as the multiple 5.56 rounds sped towards me.
The rounds quickly tore through the light armor I had on, and knocked me on the ground. If your avatar sustains damage to certain areas, like your spinal cord, you become paralyzed for a maximum of three minutes, or until someone shoots you. This state of paralysis had taken over my avatar.
France quickly realized that me and Arashi were down, and opened fire on the mercenary that had just taken me down. The mercenary took cover behind the rock we were next to before moving to our current position, and France quickly changed to his forty round hollowpoint magazine, disengaged his hybrid scope, and took aim.
The mercenary threw a flash bang, and France quickly turned away and covered his face. Unfortunately, I was unable to do this.
There was a loud bang and my vision went completely white. I heard the sound of gunshots but it was too hard to make out who they belonged to through the loud ringing in my ears.
After what felt like hours, my vision came back to me, along with my hearing. Once I made sense of my surroundings, I focused on the now dead mercenary a few feet from me, and then at France, who was wounded, but alive.
How? I'd never seen France take a single bullet in all the time we've played together.
He had also gone through the entire magazine taking out that one person, as the action was back on his M21.
He disengaged the empty magazine and quickly inserted a new one. This was his last assault mag.
I heard fast approaching footsteps from around the bending wall of rock we were taking cover behind, and I saw two more mercenaries rush from around the bulge, one dual wielding Beretta 92s whereas the other had a highly modified M4.
The latter immediately began lighting up France who was quick to return fire. He managed to get a head shot off of the first few rounds, but not before taking a lot himself.
A round had gone into is left arm, causing his arm to fall limp in a similar state of paralysis I was in, so he reached into his Ghillie suit and pulled out his Desert Eagle.
He got one shot off before he was dropped by the second mercenary. He only shot once. Just one bullet, whilst dual wielding. And it wasn't from luck, he waited and timed his gun to line up with France's head at an exact moment, and blew him away. I was shocked.
France's body collapsed next to mine, and the death animation swept him away. The mercenary then began to slowly walk towards me in realization that I wasn't dead.
Every time he stepped towards me, it was like a sense of darkness got closer and closer. I couldn't and still can't explain it, but there was something off about this player, like he didn't belong, or like I'd seen him before.
By the time he was right on top of me, it was like a sense of time was lost, and everything stopped as he slowly raised his hand and pressed the barrel of the silver and black gun to my forehead, and applied three pounds of pressure to that metallic trigger.
There was a loud bang and then my entire screen went red, and the words "YOU ARE DEAD" in an even darker maroon color went across my screen.
