5th December 2025

Gun Gale Online

Solitary Sands Field

"If they don't get here soon, we'll have to consider switching to night vision gear." Dyne commented checking his watch, the Solitary Sands area was, as the name implied an expansive desert with very few light sources at night.

Sinon nodded, her back rested against a group of rocks atop the mountain the six-member squad had set up at. An ideal location for an ambush, which was, as usual, the party's objective. Not exactly an honourable or noble objective as they primarily hunted weaker, PVE squadrons, but Sinon never complained, never questioned Dyne. After all, she had every intention of putting a round in-between his eyes at some point.

She rested her hand on the barrel of her rifle. A giant of a sniper rifle, the PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II, the 50. Cal rifle was used in the real world to destroy vehicles or to weaken building structures. But here, in GGO, it was Sinons' partner, her one true companion in any battle she faced. The weapon was currently deployed on its bipod in a gap between rocks, allowing Sinon to immediately take up a snipers' position should she need to.

One of the other squad members gave an audible groan. "Dyne, are we sure these guys are even comin'? Is your info reliable?" He spoke with a distinct tone of annoyance, probably since they had been waiting, by Sinons count, for around two hours longer than expected.

Dyne gave a grunt before responding. "The desert tends to have some decent mid-level mobs; hunting squads can get some decent loot to sell off here. This group takes the same route every time, which is why we're waiting here." He checked his own pocket watch. "Still, they must be having a busy day, which means more rewards for us, so quit complaining."

Sinon cast Dyne a sideways glare, this was why she wasn't particularly fond of the man. Hunting PVE squads was the same, to her at least, as hunting insects. There was no real challenge in it. It was boring. 'I'll never get stronger doing this.' She thought to herself.

"Plus, it's a dead-set victory. We got the best shooter in GGO with us, right Sinocchi?" Another of the group added, his voice smug as he spoke. He then turned to Sinon. "Say, do you have time after this? We could grab a drink, I know some pretty good places we can check out for some new gear too. Whaddya say?"

The squad members eyes strayed a few inches south of Sinons' eyes. It almost made her shudder. She had to strain in order to find the members name. "Sorry…Ginrou-san, I have something to do in the real world after this…" She wasn't entirely lying, but it seemed a convenient way of declining his offer without being perceived as callous. Ginrou wasn't the first guy to ask her out in GGO, in fact he was one of a long list. Sinon never thought of herself as particularly 'cute' or 'attractive' in real life, in fact she thought she was quite the opposite. But in GGO, Sinon had much fairer features, natural beauty that could make most models jealous. Although this was the furthest from what she wanted.

Ginrou continued to leer at Sinon, he was either unaware that she knew exactly where he was looking or simply didn't care. "…You a university student in the real world, got a report to hand in?" He asked.

Sinon buried her face into her muffler. "Something like that…" She responded. He wasn't too far off though, although she was a student she was still in high school. But like hell would anyone hear that from her mouth.

"They're here." The squad member they had designated as lookout pointed out. Arashi, if Sinon recalled, she only cared to remember his name and Dynes, Arashi was competent and Dyne had placed 18th in the latest Bullet of Bullets tournament. She was aware she may have to go up against both at some point and made a point to memorise their names. "Hey, uh, boss? How many were we waiting for? Six, right?" He asked turning to face Dyne.

"Six, yeah." Dyne responded popping his head over the rocks to observe their prey himself. He brought his binoculars up to his eyes to get a better look. "Eight? Two more than last time. Shouldn't be too much trouble." He looked over the party they had been waiting for. "Four in front, all carrying optical rifles. Four in back, one carrying another optical. Two big guys, probably carrying their gear and loot, try to ignore them if possible. And another one…Yeah, that's a Minimi." Dyne looked to Sinon as soon as he noticed the last targets weapon. "Sinon, he's your primary target."

Sinon lay down looking through her scope. She looked over the party and set her sights on the Minimi carrying target. Dyne was right, compared to optical weapons the live ammo Minimi was a problem but the other two were both wearing long cloaks obscuring any weapon they were carrying, their huge frames gave away that they were Strength-Vitality types, meaning not only could they use most heavy weapons, but they could take a few shots to take down. Dyne was undoubtedly right the Minimi was certainly a problem here, but the cloaked players didn't sit right with Sinon.

"I want to take at least one of the cloaked targets." She told Dyne. He and the rest of the squad were readying their weapons and preparing to move in once Sinon had taken her shot.

"Why? They're not the main issue, if the optical-users close in when we get stuck dealing with the Minimi we're done." He shook his head. "Minimi, that's your target, after you deal with him, do whatever you want." Dyne and the squad proceeded down the mountain into the derelict city below them, the only place in the area that provided any real cover.

Sinon shrugged and dug out a small earpiece from her muffler. She placed it on her left ear and took aim at her target. A green circle pulsated in her view, the Bullet Circle. 'One shot, 1500 meters, that's like tossing paper into a waste basket' She slowly pulled the trigger. A loud bang rang out and the player carrying the Minimi was almost totally vaporised by the 50. Cal round tearing him apart.

Sinon heard Dyne order the team forwards as shooting began. She took aim at one of the two cloaked figures and fired. Her second target sidestepped the shot as if he knew where the shot was heading, which he did. The Bullet Prediction Line allowed him to see the path her shot would take, only her first shot was invisible. Any further shots would be pointless, at least until she re-positioned. Surveying her surroundings, she concluded that she had nowhere to re-position, she had made her shot the others would have to deal with the rest of the PVE squad.

"Dyne, Sinon. Target 1: Kill confirmed, Target 2: Negative." She radioed in over her earpiece.

"Roger! Move in close, take out the optical guns next!" He ordered.

Sinon kept watch over the battlefield from her position. The entire squad advanced, as per Dyne's orders. A clear attempt to rush and overwhelm the enemy. Sinon noticed the two cloaked players reaching up to grip their cloaks. They yanked their cloaks off revealing their weapons, Sinon gasped.

"Dyne! Miniguns!" She yelled warning over the radio. She watched Ginrou get turned into what was, essentially, swiss cheese by one of the two minigun wielders.

Dyne ordered a retreat as Sinon grabbed her rifle and ran as far from her previous position as she dared. 'I wanted this, someone strong. But two people like that? This is bad.' She thought to herself.

Ryuji stood on top of a collapsed building far above the battlefield, observing the two parties battle. He had assumed that the party who struck first would have the advantage, but he was proven wrong. The two Minigun users had turned the tide greatly. As it stood only three of the PVP party remained, of course he had assumed the sniper had retreated. The Miniguns would spool up and cut through any cover that the players had moved into, the derelict city usually provided enough cover, but it was growing sparse. Ryuji estimated that the team would last another 4-5 minutes.

His pure white armour reflected the sunlight as the battle raged on, he ducked into cover before he was seen by the combatants below, cursing the full body armour. A one-time event item his NT-RX Tiamat armour provided a boost to both Agility and Vitality, however as a trade-off it was permanently white, which was only helpful in the arctic fields, and it required, as Ryuji had described it, 'a disgustingly high Strength requirement' to even wear. In fact, the Strength requirement was so high that Ryuji's own was too low to use both the armour and a primary weapon, thus he had chosen to dual wield G18C machine pistols.

The stat boost was invaluable however, so he continued to use the armour if ever he took on a job, one of the few jobs players could take in GGO, Bounty Hunting. He had been hired to take down one specific combatant of the battle going on below. However, if need be, he'd wait until the battle below was over, for him a softer resistance was far preferable.

Another of the PK squad was sawn in half by one of the two minigunners. Leaving the total players in the fight at six. Two of the PK's and four of the hunters. Ryuji smirked beneath the helmet, its green 'eyes' enabling him to zoom in as if he was wearing binoculars. He planned to strike when the fight had died down to the point where the players were all focused on one target.

"Oh, how amusing." He mumbled to himself. From behind the two PK's a certain Blue-haired sniper had emerged sprinting towards cover. "Well then Sinon-san, lets see how you handle this…"

"They hired bodyguards!" Dyne yelled, his earlier gung-ho attitude completely gone, as far as Sinon was concerned the man was now even more loathsome as a quivering wreck. "We're screwed!"

"Bodyguards?" Sinon murmured."Bodyguards my ass, these guys are a straight up army by themselves."

"They're legends…" The only other surviving member of Sinons group, Arashi, responded. "Goliath and Behemoth, costs a ton to hire them, but they've never let a squad wipe."

Sinon dived down as the prediction lines form one of the miniguns shredded through the metallic wall she was hiding behind. "If you two push up, I can hit the two optical gunners. Then you'll be within grenade throwing range." She suggested.

Dyne shook his head. "No, we'll be killed, maybe we should just log out at least then we won't have to deal with a harsh penalty. Sure, we'll lose some of our equipment but not as much as if we get wiped! Hell, it's a game anyway it doesn't matter!" He looked genuinely terrified, despite saying it was a game.

Sinon stared at him for a second dumbfounded before she snapped. "Don't you dare take that attitude with me!" Sinon knew all too well what it was like to feel powerless, in the real-world Shino Asada was weak, cowardly and utterly powerless, but in GGO Sinon was the best sniper and she wasn't about to lose to two hired thugs. "You're right, this is a game! So man up, and die with some damned dignity!"

Sinons' yell had such conviction behind it, that Dyne and Arashi suddenly felt empowered. Arashi emptied a magazine from his M4 at the area the Optical gunners were firing from. Just as he was about to duck down, a volley of energy shots punched through his Defensive Barrier and drained his HP. Dyne had already begun to run towards the two gunners, with an almighty yell he took a plasma grenade form his belt and threw it, before his own hp was drained by the energy rounds.

The optical gunners shared a quick high-five before they noticed dynes grenade landing two feet away from them, the device detonated vaporising the two.

Sinon gave a sigh 'Nice guts' the only compliment she would ever give Dyne. 'If I'm gonna do this I need a vantage point.' She looked up at the derelict skyscraper, the only building in the area. She waited for a moment, steeled herself and ran. All her Agility being used to make the 500-meter run from her current cover to the entrance to the skyscraper. A thick red prediction line enveloped her body. She dived prone and slid for a few feet before rolling to her feet and somersaulting over the second minigun volley. She barely made it into the tower. She began ascending using all her acrobatic abilities to speed up the process. As she ascended the tower several volleys of bullets smashed through windows, or punched through walls, sometimes they were far away sometimes they were closer it seemed her two remaining adversaries were firing at random.

As she reached the top of the tower, she fired a single shot at one of the guards. His gold targeting visor shattered, it seemed he had clocked her and had jerked his head out of the way at the last second. Sinon saw the immense volume of the prediction line now coming towards her, both miniguns now aimed at her. She took a gamble and leapt from the tower the miniguns firing as she did so. A sharp pain dug at her as her right leg was severed.

'One, if I can kill one…' Sinon span helplessly as the gunners struggled to get an accurate shot on her. Sinon felt the spinning slow and aimed her rifle at the guard whose visor she had shattered. The two had been smiling the whole time, Sinon never allowed herself the luxury but this one time neither were smiling.

"The end!" Sinon pulled the trigger the round tearing through one of the minigunners bodies. As he exploded Sinon closed her eyes and waited for the volley that would finish her off. It never came, instead an almost cheerful male voice spoke.

"Hello there, Goliath-san." Whoever spoke was clearly taking joy in this. A burst of machine pistol fire rang out and the distinct sound of a players' avatar shattering into red shards was heard. "And now for you Sinon-san."

Sinon opened her eyes, the white armour almost blinding her as she did. The red G18C was identical to the one she kept holstered in every way but the colour. She knew the owner. An infamous Bounty Hunter that was only known by a nickname. "White…Dragon…" She whispered, the pain of losing her leg getting to her now. It would regrow in a matter of minutes but even so, the pain wasn't easy to ignore.

The White Dragon holstered his pistol. "Killing you now wouldn't be worth it, besides, Goliath was my target this time." He turned and walked away. Leaving Sinon to lay in the sand until finally logged out.

Shino Asada awoke in her bed, she made a vague gun shape with her hand before lowering it. 'Not yet, I'm not strong enough yet.' A thought that crossed her mind all too frequently. She thought to the two minigunners she had faced moments before, how they smiled on the field and how the White Dragon sounded joyful as he executed his target. Shino curled up into a ball and allowed a few tears to leak from her eyes. 'I have to…I can't go on like this.' The only thing she was thankful for in this moment was the pitch blackness of her room. At least she could pretend she wasn't crying.

Authors note: Christ what a long chapter. What up its your boy Author-san here. Thought I'd add one of these to the end of chapter 2 for a bit of a laugh and it might give me some time to address some questions I've had.

Firstly, whilst I plan on rewriting all of Phantom Bullet, I'm not just gonna rip the thing wholesale and add my own OC in. No thanks, that'd suck. Problem is, the beginning of PB is kind of important. But we only have one more introductory chapter, then I'll start diverging. Although most of the diverging will be with Shino in the real world. But I'll try my best to throw some curveballs in GGO too.

Secondly, why is that I spell armour with a 'u'? Simple I'm a British man. It's how I've always spelt it and that's not gonna change.

Anyway, that's all I got for this one, hopefully you enjoy Chapter 2 as much as the first. It is currently 5:00 AM and I've been at this since 8:32 PM so I'm pretty much dead at this point.

Oh, one last thing you want to know what Ryuji's armour looks like? It's basically Narrative Gundam.

Anyway as said before I'm out.