December 8th, 2025

SBC Glocken Bar

Gun Gale Online

Ryuji slammed his drink down onto the table after downing a significant portion of the orange liquid. The blue haired girl who was sat across from him was simply stirring her cyan coloured drink with the straw it came with.

"Hey, Virgin-kun. No need to look so angry, I'm not gonna tell anyone." She told him. Her voice was becoming seriously grating to Ryuji at this point.

"Not only do you know who I am offline, but you also claim to be my supervisor? I'm having a tough time believing that." He replied. He had dropped any semblance of tolerance and was displaying a distinct tone of annoyance towards the much shorter avatar.

Mina sat up slightly in her seat. "I introduced myself over mail, remember earlier today? Yeah that was me."

Ryuji gestured a hand towards her. "Prove it." He said.

Mina shrugged and with a series of gestures produced an image of an ID card with an image of a woman looking almost identical to Mina but with brown hair and a name: Nakamura Miyami. The woman who had e-mailed Yuuto earlier that night. The serial barcode below the image provided evidence that it was indeed hers, and not simply a falsified image.

Ryuji relaxed slightly, silently being thankful that the bar was virtually empty except for a few patrons who were too engrossed in their own conversations to pay them any mind.

"Fine, why meet me here? Like in-game?" He asked, his voice taking on a slightly politer tone.

Mina smiled slightly. "Honestly? Rina-chan asked me to keep an eye on you, in-game and I kind f owe her one so…here I am!" She lowered her tone and started intertwining her fingers under the table. "Besides I wanted to help."

Ryuji cocked his head. "Help? Why? How?" He asked. "This doesn't seem the sort of game you'd be into, besides you don't look useful at all." He folded his arms.

Mina slammed her fist down onto the table. "I'll have you know I'm an expert armourer in this world!" She was yelling loud enough to draw the attention of some of the other patrons. She clearly noticed and assumed a calm demeanour immediately. "Also, I use this game to meet guys…occasionally."

Ryuji rubbed the back of his head. 'I'll say it again shallow.' This wasn't a particularly uncommon thing for female players to do in GGO, find a tough guy and try to hook up with him in the real world. He had never been approached in this way and thus wasn't sure what the success rate was of these encounters, but it wasn't that important to him anyway.

He raised an eyebrow. "Expert Armourer? How high is your skill?" He leaned in closer to Mina.

"Maxed out." She replied.

Ryuji smiled and looked both ways before opening his inventory and showing her the NT-RX Tiamat he used in combat. "You can modify this right?" He sounded excited.

Mina smiled. "Oh yeah, you bet I can." She looked over the item. "The materials could be tough to come by though and it only has two bonus effects to unlock. You sure you want me to do this?"

Ryuji nodded. He had never invested enough time into grinding his Armourer skill to upgrade the armour, and he didn't trust anyone else to modify it. But Miyami? Perhaps she would understand that selling the armour would be detrimental to their shared goal of eliminating Death Gun.

"It'll take some time. I can get the materials, but it takes time to actually upgrade the gear, and then there's the wait times…" Mina advised him. "Don't worry I know how much of an asset this gear actually is."

Ryuji gave a nod again. "It only has to be in your inventory for the wait time after you initiate the timer. You can log out in the meantime." He told her, he'd never experienced this first hand, but a certain whiskered info broker had told him about this feature of the upgrade system.

A flew flicks of his fingers and Mina received the armour, she inspected the equipment requirements and her eyes widened slightly. "These requirements, woah." She whispered.

Ryuji heard her whispering. "Disgustingly high, aren't they?" He stood up from the booth and locked eyes with Mina putting on his most intimidating look and voice before telling her "Sell that gear and I'll know who to shoot."

Mina laughed and waved him away. "Sure, you will Virgin-kun. Anyway, weren't you gonna investigate Death Gun?"

Ryuji smirked and pointed to a holographic screen. "The victims were high ranking players, I just found a place he'll definitely show up." The screen showed and advertisement for the gathering for the best players in GGO, The Bullet of Bullets tournament. "This Saturday huh? Looks like I can give Kirito a lead."

Mina finished her drink and stood up herself. "Hmm, not a bad place to look."

Ryuji thought back to the plans he had for the next day, he looked down at Mina. "Hey, you know I was thinking, maybe I should let some people know about Death Gu- "

"Sure, but you don't get to tell them the nature of your job." Mina's response was immediate and curt. "You've already found a lead though, so I'm happy to report that you've earned a day off. Perhaps you should use that day to warn any friends you have. Minor details only though." She sounded surprisingly professional.

Ryuji nodded in acknowledgement. He had already decided that Shino didn't need the in-depth details. Only to be warned to avoid GGO. "Mina-san?"

"Hm?" She looked up at him. Ryuji couldn't help but wonder if she wasn't taller in real life.

"You know this isn't being done in-game, right? It's not possible." His face took on a grim look, he still didn't know how it was being done but there was simply no way it was within GGO.

Mina nodded. "Yes, we've looked into it; You have a theory?"

Ryuji shook his head in response. "Not exactly, but I think it might help to check the apartments of the victims for any similarities, locks, security cameras. Anything."

Mina smiled at him. "Well done Virgin-kun, we might make an investigator out of you yet." She opened her menu and motioned to log out. "I think we can call it a day, you're gonna take part in the BoB tournament, I'll mod your armour and get you a report of the apartments." She logged out.

Ryuji took a few minutes to himself, he thought about how he was going to explain things to Shino and her friend. 'Man, this is gonna be a tough conversation.'

Authors note: We're getting to the BoB, but next chapter you might get to see my writing really get stretched, like to its breaking point. Big ups to my editor for putting up with my general lateness with this chapter. He's a swell guy.