His name was Johnny Black.

Not in real life. In the game. Unlike in real life, names were all picked as part of the character image, so it was completely appropriate to judge people based on their name, since it was something they had consciously chosen to be judged by. His was simple and easy to remember, but it was also whimsical and slightly ominous, or rather, that was the image he was going for.

Right now he was in a pinch.

The road between the first town of the second floor, [Urbus], and the second town, which he didn't know the name of yet, was pretty long. Since both towns were on two different mountains, the road was pretty long, and full of switchbacks as it went down the first mountain, across a bridge over a river canyon, and then up the second mountain. Right now he was in the bluffs of the second mountain, so visibility was poor.

Since it was still early in the exploration period of the second floor, the road was pretty deserted, or at least, he thought it looked that way.

He was being followed.

The other guy was using a [Sneaking] skill, but it wasn't enough to beat his [Searching] skill. But he wasn't sure that it really had all that much to do with it, since the GM had basically announced he was nerfing all the support skills during the beginning of the [Death Game].

He had mixed feelings about the [Death Game]. In a life where he was bored by everything, where he casually despised the world for being colorless and grey, he already knew what emotions this story was supposed to make him feel. He was supposed to learn the meaning and joy of his everyday life, and then when he was released from this blood-colored world, it would tint his grey world rose colored.

He didn't feel anything like that. Compared to his shitty everyday life, and compared to those shitty everyday people like his parents, it wasn't like he actually missed any of it. The danger of death was scary, but after cursing the sanitized, boring world, letting something like [Fear of Death] hold him back wouldn't be wisdom, but rather, the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy.

Johhny Black wanted to be a more colorful guy than that.

Even if the specifics were different because he'd never really thought about it, wasn't this what he wished for? Since Kayaba Akihiko had granted his wish for a more colorful reality, he had no intention of complaining. That was like complaining because his winning lottery ticket only paid out in hundreds of pounds of copper instead of in actual currency. Someone that complained that the wonderful prize wasn't perfect was an ungrateful guy colored like shit. Johnny Black had no intention of being so uncool, not when this was the colorful world he'd inarticulately wanted.

Like his pinch right now.

Getting staked out by pickpockets in Shinjuku or wherever was pretty interesting, but in the end, most pickpockets were just more shitty people trying to scrape a shitty living in a shitty world. Once you had met three of them, the novelty wore off and they were just as grey as everyone else.

So compared to walking down the grey concrete world under neon lights surrounded by thousands of people just as shitty as him:

Now he was wandering up a mountain by himself in a cool outfit, while the big sunset cast everything in warm lights and cool shadows like a Western movie, while he stood all alone while a figure in black stalked him from behind.

Compared to getting rolled by six guys too cowardly to do it by themselves or swiped by someone who didn't even want a confrontation at all, this game was far more interesting, more dramatic, and more colorful than anything his real life had been.

With a casual motion while he pretended to ignore the guy in front of him, Johnny Black rested his hand on the hilt of his knife. He even went so far as to whistle a jaunty tune to himself, just to be more colorful.

Carefully, he kept his back turned. He flipped open his Circuit. It hurt, but it was a cool pain, like when his lungs hurt after running and escaping from too many guys that brought pipes to an ambush. It was a pain like he'd challenged himself and won. He used the [Reinforcement] on his eyes and ears, and even though it wasn't much, the sound of that guy's muffled steps was slightly louder, slightly more obvious.

The other guy didn't have his Circuit open. Johnny was about to scold the other guy in his mind, but stopped when he realized it could have been deliberate. Since you could tell when other people had their Circuit open, this guy could have deliberately kept it closed to improve his stealth odds. If Johnny hadn't already known, then he wouldn't have been able to tell just by sensing this other guy's prana.

He heard the steps come up behind him, and then, at just the right time, turned and looked.

"Yo." He said, with a cheerful smile and a delighted voice, turning to look at this other guy. With a sweeping glance, Johnny Black took this guy's appearance all in.

Dark pants and a dark shirt with leather-type armor and a knife equip, and a face that was surprisingly old. If you were to think about what kind of guy would try and use the pick-pocket skill, your natural inclination would be to think a young kid, one of those paint-by-numbers lovable scamp types that was too young and insecure to challenge monsters, but was willing to bank on their adorableness buying them sympathy from other players, or at least a margin of safety if they were caught. But compared to that, this square-jawed guy was even older than Johnny Black, in his mid-twenties or so.

Even as that guy took a startled step back with a hilariously surprised expression on his face, a notification box popped up in Johnny's vision.

[Pick-Pocket attempt failed!]

Based on the flick of the other guy's eyes and the concerned look on his face, he could see it too. His character cursor turned colors from [green] to [orange]. Since the attempt at a stealthy crime failed, the whole game would recognize this guy as a criminal now.

"Yo." Johnny repeated his greeting.

The other guy didn't even say anything back, he didn't draw his knife to fight, he just turned and ran, sprinting down the path.

Johnny laughed, and took off running after the guy. The other guy might have been slightly faster, but with the switchbacks going back and forth, it wasn't like he could make the most of his speed, and in the first place, unless he stopped to Reinforce himself, his stamina bar would go down faster than Johnny's would.

Well, even if the stamina bar went down, there was no effect on his breathing, so there was nothing to keep him from shouting or talking while running at the same time.

"Thieving?" Johnny called after the other guy. "That's kinda pointless in a multiplayer game, you know? Targeting other players, either they're stronger than you or their gear isn't worth your time."

The other guy skidded to a halt, and took the switchback, sprinting away.

Instead, Johnny changed direction by jumping off a convenient rock. It looked pretty precarious, but the scenery was pretty static, so it wasn't like it would break in place from that, so he was able to gain on the guy.

"And since you're Orange, no matter what I do, even if I chase you like this, it's still counted as self-defense, you know?" Johnny continued. "That's so hilarious."

When he judged the distance was right, Johnny struck a pose while running, and pulled of a lunging knife skill, swiping the guy and knocking him off balance. His HP only went down a little bit though. That was definitely the weakness of knife skills, was how little damage they did.

When the guy pinwheeled a bit before landing, he had the most ridiculous expression, like he couldn't believe what had just happened. "Are you crazy?" He demanded. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Johnny laughed, and dropped into a stance, holding his knife. "You're the one that challenged a match, so why are you complaining about the rules now? Are you really that stupid?"

"Dammit!" The guy cursed, pulling his weapon from inventory. It was a one-handed curved sword, almost the size of a machete. Compared to Johnny his weapon was much scarier, but somehow he was already acting like the terrified victim.

Johnny sneered, and opened his inventory with his off hand, and he materialized a vial of bright green stuff. The color was already suspicious, but the skull motif on the stopper was the most exciting thing.

Since a knife couldn't do enough by itself, something like this was necessary. The other guy just stood around like a rube while Johnny activated the use icon, although he took an almost involuntary step back when the vial shattered and the bright green stuff appeared on Johnny's knife.

This was the thing Johnny was most proud of in the whole fake world of Aincrad. In fact, even he would admit it was kind of pathetic, but there was nothing he was more proud of in the real world than how bright green that stuff was, either.

Because it was the proof of his [Unique Spell]. It wasn't really anything special, just another kind of [Reinforcement Specialization], and he was confident that other players would come up with the exact same idea as him, but for now it was something [Unique]. Turning the [Paralyzation Poison] from the dull green of its normal appearance to this electrical bright green was the evidence of his [Extend Poison] magic. He'd seen on TV once that poison and drugs both wore off as the body digested them, so what he did was apply the [Reinforce Durability] parameter to the poison that was sold in a shady corner of the Starting City. He imagined the molecules of poison in the liquid becoming harder and more resistant to the white blood cells or whatever it was that digested them. When the game had acknowledged his cleverness with the [Unique Spell] screen, it was the best praise that he had received in his whole shitty life.

"Let's gamble!" Johnny gleefully said. "If you can tag me even once with that sword, I'll let you go. If I tag you even once with this knife, I'll let you go!"

The other guy took a step back, holding the sword in front of him like it was a cross and he was a vampire of something. "What's the catch?"

Johnny chuckled. "The gamble is just with yourself. What kind of poison did I add? Is it [Damage Over Time] that will kill you slowly? Will you have to save vs [Instant Death]? Is it paralysis?" Johnny grinned. "That's the gamble!"

"And if I say no?" The other guy was probably trying to sound menacing as he said that, and it was true he kinda held the sword like he knew what he was doing, but since he took another step back at the same time, it wasn't like Johnny was all that concerned.

So he lunged forward, and slashed with his knife. The other guy reacted slow, but he managed to get his guard up and step back, dodging.

But it wasn't a system skill, so Johnny immediately swung again, stepping forward with a laugh, forcing the other guy back. That guy was brave in his own way, though, since he chanced turning his back to turn and run, pounding down the road, taking the next switchback more nimbly, slowly building more distance.

He was a third of the way across the bridge when it happened.

Johnny had less than a tenth of his stamina bar remaining, but the other guy stopped running, staggering on unsteady feet instead as the system forced him to heave shaky breaths. He stumbled sideways, leaning against the stone railing along the side of the wide bridge, at least keeping his other sword hand somewhat free.

"Looks like the end of the line, man!" Johnny called out in a cheerful voice. "Now you're the one in a pinch, huh?"

But he had gotten careless, so when the other guy pulled the same kind of baiting opening Johnny had used way at the beginning, it caught him.

The sword launched up and out, and a sword skill pushed Johnny's HP all the way to yellow, taking more than half his HP in just one attack. That sent a frission of fear and excitement up Johnny's spine, seeing his HP bar go down so much. It hurt. It was like a huge scratch that tore open his skin, or a wide cut, and the pain radiating from it made his smile tight and savage. But it wasn't enough pain compared to his HP bar: he was more than halfway to dead, just like that.

"Got you!" He shouted, triumphant.

"Yup." Johnny cheerfully agreed. "Too bad I lied, huh?"

The incredulous expression was just fabulous, it was the best. Johnny had never seen a face so full of surprise, shock, and just that hint of betrayed dismay all at once, as when he plunged his knife into the other guy's chest. The absolute best part though, was that the guy couldn't do anything other than make that face, when he was still locked for that instant in the [Skill Cooldown].

"Ha ha ha!" Johnny laughed. "Oh man, oh man, that was just perfect, it was just, there's no other way to say it, that was perfect."

The cooldown ended, and the guy slumped backward, landing on the railing behind him, his ineffective attempt to catch himself failing when his arm bonelessly slumped over, dropping his arm over the railing. He lost a sliver of HP when his chest slammed into width of the railing, and his sword pitched from his grasp, falling into the canyon below.

Slowly, he slid forward, towards the edge.

"Hmm?" Johnny considered. He leaned over the side, peering down into the ravine. It was only about three meters deep, and since they weren't in the middle of the bridge, only about a third of the way in, it wasn't the narrow river under them, but instead a bank that was half gravel and half sand, where the river would swell bigger during the spring season.

Johnny leaned far enough forward to look the other guy in the eye, holding himself on the edge. "Hey! You've got enough HP, I bet you could survive this much falling damage, huh?"

The other guy moved his mouth, but this wasn't a [Paralysis] that would let you talk, so whatever that guy had to say, he wasn't able to create the voice he needed to say it. "What's that?" Johnny asked, cocking his head like a dog. "I can't hear you?"

The guy slid a little more, and after reaching the tipping point, fell.

Johnny laughed, as the other guy fell like a ragdoll, landing flat, facedown on the riverbank. "Ha ha ha! Lucky, man, you didn't land on your neck, lucky!" Johnny sighed, pleased. "Oh yeah and the paralysis poison should wear off in a couple hours. If you get attacked by an otter monster or something like that in the meantime I guess that would be the end!" Johnny waved, on the off chance the guy could see him out of the corner of his eye. "Now you're gonna see if you get lucky again, you know?"

With a sigh, Johnny hopped back from the side of the bridge, dismissing the orange player down there from his mind.

He started whistling again. In the bright red, yellows, and oranges painted across the sky and the rocks of the mountaintops of the colorful evening, Johnny Black walked into the sunset just like John Wayne.