Date posted: 4th July 2021

Full summary: Sinon had faced many horrors in her time in Gun Gale Online: slavers, raiders, mutants, blood machines, and transhuman warriors. But turning into a cat was a new one. Why does she continue playing this stupid game? It also didn't help that Kirito kept scratching her ears. (KiriSinon)

Thanks to Panzer Hippo for giving the name for the mob. You know the one.

Trigger warning: There are a few mentions of suicide. It's not super serious, but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, you have been warned.

Chapter 1: Mystery Syringe

Amongst the playerbase of Gun Gale Online, there were certain mobs that everyone despised fighting. It varied from player to player, different builds had different challenges and there was no consensus of what was the worst enemy.

From what she gathered, everyone hated fighting enemy snipers. It wasn't fun being killed by someone from a kilometer away, which was understandable. But Sinon would be lying if she didn't enjoy fighting them. The game of predator vs predator, hours of stalking only for one side to pull a single shot was the best feeling in the world. The fact that actually getting proficient at sniping was a long, laborious process that involved a lot more math than normal, was another reason why sniping wasn't as popular in GGO compared to other games.

Personally, Sinon hated fighting big spongy enemies like the «Colossi» that dotted the Wasteland. They were huge, slow, and required a small nation's worth of ammunition to destroy. Sure they dropped a lot of good material, but there's a reason why guilds with artillery and tanks go after them and no one else.

But with the launch of the newest expansion, everyone and their mother agreed that the Gene-Wizard and Lord of Ark Biologis of Mutantopia, was the absolute worst.

But she was getting ahead of herself.

Kirito emerged into the open, the hospital was in ruin and on fire. In the night sky, was the wizard himself, an old man in the robes of human skin and large soul piercing goggles, laughing and cackling as two «Corvo-Bats» grabbed him by his arms in their talons, the avians' massive wings audible even in all the chaos.

They failed their mission.

"FOOLISH CORPORATE SLAVES! THIS WILL NOT BE THE LAST TIME YOU SEE THE LIKES OF DOCTOR FABIUS ASCLEPIUS!"

Then he cackled evilly, because wizards do be like that, and flew off into the distance.

The boss arena was completely out in the open thanks to high explosive yield, yet even that failed to kill the wizard. There was a field of glass and debris. He ran into the ruin, heedless of any danger.

"Sinon!" he yelled.

He climbed over the debris and rubble and he found himself at ground zero. The captain was gone, completely removed from the HUD, and he could see the corpse of his other comrade, a pile of bloody bones. Nearby was the corpse of some sort of giant, he'd never seen anything like it.

One out of four alive.

He found the battered remains of her assault rifle. His heart stopped. "No …"

Kirito knelt by it, picking up the broken weapon. He kneeled over, punching the ground. If only he had been here …

"Oh God … Shino … I'm sorry. I was too late …"

There was only the sound of wind blowing. Tears swelled in his eyes.

"Why does this always happen to me?!" he screamed to the heavens. The sky was silent save for the odd explosion.

"Nya."

Kirito was far too crestfallen to react. "Away from me, creature. Can you not see I am mourning my beloved comrade?"

"Nya."

"She was a good soldier, a solid friend, and man, did she make the best pancakes."

"Nya!"

His HP went down by one point, and he cried more out of habit than actual pain."Ouch! Stop biting you little -"

Kirito stopped. There was something odd about the whole ordeal.

For one, Sinon was still alive as indicated in the HUD which he just noticed. Full health even. Secondly, why was there just a random cat in the middle of a warzone? Cats existed in-game, but these were usually strays back at the city, or wild cats in the wastes.

Thirdly, the cat was blue. A light cyan, with matching eyes. A tabby he thought, but he was no expert.

The blue cat looked at him with some form of disgust and anger. That was familiar. Maybe it can help?

"Hey listen, cat. You wouldn't see a sniper girl around here? Sand coloured clothes, blue like you?"

The cat stomped angrily. "Nya! Nya!"

"Well, you don't need to act like that, I just lost one of my only friends, you know! I mean, sure she'll respawn, but still -"

The cat was now circling around and stood on its hindquarters. It was swatting above its head.

"What's the matter, puss?" Kirito squatted and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. There was a tag above its head.

The cat was level 48! Wow, this thing must be a real badass. Oh, and it even has a name. It was -

Kirito fell back on his bum. "What?! What?! You're …" The word was not uttered from his mouth, but only one word described the cat.

Adorable.

Neko-Sinon rolled her big blue eyes. "Nya." Idiot.

Eight hours earlier.

The new expansion for Gun Gale Online, Mutant Horrors of Old Earth, was getting rave reviews from most sites.

It added an entire new area to the Wastes, a large ark-city not unlike SBC Glocken in what was the southern edge of the continent, in the city of what was known as Corinth. Mutants had always been a common enemy since GGO's launch, the suffering earthlings that didn't launch to the stars when Armageddon came to the world, who despised their starborn relatives and saw them as invaders.

The revival of the Ark Biologis by one Doctor Fabius Asclepius, reskinned the mutants of Old Earth, made them tougher, stronger, faster, smarter. He offered them hope in a world that hated them. It was some pretty neat lore.

Sinon had seen such a cycle before. Expansion comes out, new mobs added new mechanics. There was the mandatory rebalancing of stats, weapons, and builds. Fanboys raged on the forums, called the developers hacks, frauds, and demanded refunds for a game that they've sunked a thousand hours in already. They vowed to never return to GGO ever again and three days tops, they were still playing. As annoyed as she was at some changes to the game, Sinon could never muster the vitriol that some toxic players always had on balancing.

The problem was they were a bit too tougher, stronger, faster, smarter.

On the outskirts of the Republic of Mutantopia, a great battle raged on as five thousand players tried to assault the high walls of the Ark Biologis, two hundred meters tall, ninety meters wide, encapsulating a land the size of Sendai city. Players tried (and failed) to brave the Aegean sea, only to be devoured by sea-beasts (most of which did not even work for the burgeoning Republic). Artillery thundered against the concrete walls with little effect, and atop the walls, a barrage of AA turrets shot down any idiot player who thought they could bypass them with aircraft. Those that did were menaced by man-bats the size of choppers. Those that escape via parachute would be torn apart by the mutant army below, backed by bio-mechanical machines of war.

Twenty kilometres north of the wall, half a company of Type 10 Hitomarus MBTs were making headway across the desert waste, massive dust clouds signalling their arrival for all to see. Any rookie could see they were committing a massive mistake.

"Ugh. Idiot."

"What?"

"See there?"

"What? Those Abrams?"

"Those aren't Abrams!"

"Sorry, the only tanks I know are Abrams and fighting men in plate armour."

"Whatever. Can you see what's happening?"

"Those tanks are kicking butt!"

"But …"

"I said butt."

"No, the other but."

"Ah." He thought for a while. "He's going too fast?"

"No, Kirito. Remember those videos I sent you the other day."

Her shooter thought a bit harder. She was trying to teach him how to snipe and she was playing spotter.

A lightbulb appeared above his head. "He's got no infantry support."

"Nope."

"That's bad."

"Yep. Why is it bad?"

"Well, I think -"

Before Kirito could give his theory, the earth shook and split asunder as three «Great Worms» exploded upwards like a fountain, darkening the sky itself. One instantly destroyed four tanks, leaving six left. The lead tank halted and spun on the spot, yet it was too late. Another Worm rolled over like an eager oversized dog, annihilating it and the rest of the company were destroyed in a shower of debris and flames.

"I saw those worms in a movie once," he said nonchalantly.

Sinon cursed and reached for her radio. "Eagle Nest, this is Owl 1. The front assault completely failed, as expected."

"Copy that, Owl 1. Retreat to Eagle Nest, we've got another assignment for you."

Kirito frowned. "But I haven't killed anything yet."

"It's called reconnaissance; you've scouted before, yeah?"

He looked up. "Oh, those crow-bats are coming right at us."

"No they're not, they're attacking that Chinook." Do these people not understand they shouldn't fly so close to AA gun range?

She looked at him sharply. "Don't you dare shoot them, we're being stealthy for a reason."

"But …"

"You've got plenty of chances to wet your blade, c'mon."

Kirito grumbled and pouted like a puppy, which Sinon thought looked adorable but would never ever voice and give him the satisfaction. He replaced his warmask on his face.

Slowly, they packed up the sniper rifle and the rest of their kit and began the slow descent down the building. Kirito was far better at rappelling than her, owing to some experience in a past game.

They were halfway down the twenty storey apartment complex when bullet holes started to materialise right next to them. Below, Sinon spotted half a dozen «Living Turrets», a mass of flesh and cybernetics with old Kalashnikovs attached directly onto their forearms. They weren't accurate due to their inability to aim, but volume of fire alone was enough to be a threat.

"Finally! I was getting bored!"

Oh, they do not have the time for this. "Kirito, no."

With that, Kirito unhooked the rope from his kit and leapt, landing on the top of a nearby building, a twenty foot drop. He landed, lost a quarter of his health but broke no bones. He unpinned two grenades of his belt and lobbed both right at the mass of «Living Turrets» and moments later, the explosion rocked the plaza.

The remaining mobs continued on firing, refusing to take cover, as Kirito pulled out a TMP in his right and an arming sword in his left. It wasn't a vibroblade, or a power sword of any kind. It was literally just a medieval sword. He was too low level to even afford such fancy weapons and refused to use his AR-15, a hand-me-down from Sinon.

He began spraying them with rounds, hollering and laughing as 5.54 rounds whizzed past him. His machine pistol had a range of four hundred meters and was missing entirely from the distance. Bricks exploded to rubble between the two fighting forces.

Sinon sighed and quickened her pace. If he wanted to satiate his bloodlust, so be it.

When all was done, they reconvened in the middle of the plaza. Kirito was at 70% health, he got shot a few times and his flak was ruined in some parts but the boy was happy as a clam. Somehow he got in close enough to bloody his blade. She will never understand his obsession with melee combat.

"You good?" she asked.

"I'm good. You know, shooting's a lot different than swinging a sword," he said, as if remarking on a great discovery.

Just another day in the Wasteland.

The prefab bunker was the kind that had been copy pasted throughout the line with numerous aides at radios and computers. The Overlords of Glocken sent some thirty mercenary companies to gauge the threat, like a cavalry sally to test the enemy's will. It was the weekday and there were few players, but come the weekend, the five thousand players would multiply by ten.

A great figure stood in the command bunker, tall as a tree, wide as a bear, with an eyepatch over one scarred eye. Across his wide shoulders was a greatcoat and upon his chest was a Desert Eagle which looked to be the size of a Glock in his giant paws. The green beret spoke of his past experience in the art of irregular warfare and his scarred face and bushy grey beard looked to be carved from granite.

The cigar was the final stereotypical touch to General Edward 'Havoc' Grizzly, the NPC quest giver for the expansion. There were some two dozen soldiers in various gears and levels standing at attention in front of him.

"We need a strike team to get in and assassinate the warlord," he growled. "I require a team of four. Too large and they'll be detected, anything smaller is suicide."

General Havoc placed a gloved paw on a shoulder pad of a particularly bulky man in World War 2 GI gear. "What about you, trooper? You wanna kill a wizard?"

"THIS ONE HATES WIZARDS, SIR. GENE-WIZARDS, PSY-WIZARDS. HATE THEIR GUTS."

"What's your name, son?"

"TROOPER TITANIUM WALL, SIR. ENEMIES CALL ME TITANIUM, FRIENDS CALL ME THE WALL, THE LADIES CALL ME TITAN."

"A strong name! A warrior's name! You'll do it for glory? For money?"

"THE WALL WILL DO IT BECAUSE THE WALL HATES WIZARDS."

The old bear laughed. "Outstanding! You'll do! Who's next?"

With that, every man in the bunker offered their services.

The soldiers were in various sorts of gear, both real and fantastical. The most common were fatigues similar to real life, but lore appropriate according to the game. Yet even then, cosplaying as some real world military unit was popular. Russian Spetsnaz, US special forces, British SAS, Japanese Tokushusakusengun, and so on. Not one soldier looked similar to the other, either having brightly coloured insignias, medals, furs, or caps.

Sinon herself always dressed for the environment, in this case desert camouflage. The only thing that would give her away was her blue hair which she always kept under a helmet.

"Ooh, never done this before. We should take it," whispered Kirito.

He dressed in all black - black fatigues, black boots, black gloves, black kevlar - all the time, damn the environment. Camouflage was a foreign concept to him. He looked effeminate with a soft face, long hair and purple eyes. He could be (and was) mistaken for a girl. According to him, the reason he looked so was because he was in such a hurry to get into the game, he randomised character creation and got settled on the look he had now.

It was entirely possible to change appearance and gender even, but it cost real world money, and Kirito despised spending in-game currency. He had only played the game a few months and he wasn't even at half level. The reason he even got as far as he did was because he begged Sinon for XP Boosters.

The only thing not black was his white titanium warmask shaped like that of a wolf, like something out of a kabuki theater. He wore it all the time, embarrassed of his girly look.

"Well that depends on if we're the highest level player in the room, and honestly, I think most of us are the same level." Currently she was level 45, the max cap going from 50 to 60 thanks to the new expansion.

Kirito frowned at this. "Damn, I'm only level 25."

"Don't worry, levels in GGO aren't that big of a deal." Which was true. A level 1 player could kill a level 50 player with a lucky shot, the high lethality of the game was both a great pro and con. There was a reason that GGO was something of a hardcore sweaty game. Even Kirito scored a kill on a level 30 player once in PvP.

"Trooper, to me," said General Havoc to Sinon.

"Sir!" she saluted.

"What's the longest shot you've done?"

"Two point one kilometres, sir." The room reacted with a mixture of whistles and jeers, belief and disbelief.

The general flicked the ash off his cigar. "Aye, you'll do. We need a certain level of experience for this mission. What about your friend here?"

"He's new to war, sir -"

"No, I'm not," he protested.

"But he's a good shot, good with a blade, and I believe him with my life."

The old bear approached Kirito, his six foot eight frame dwarfing him. "You look a little green, boy. You got what it takes?" He took a drag of his cigar.

Kirito smirked, took one step forward and swung his fist in an uppercut. Sinon's heart jumped into her throat.

A third of the general's cigar fell to the floor and Kirito's knife (also black, because of course it was), clicked back in its sheath.

The room was dead silent as everyone in the command buker stopped what they're doing. Only distant gunfire and artillery could be heard. One could hear water drop onto the concrete floor. Everyone save for Sinon took a step back and she had precognition, that the general would wrap his paw around Kirito's pretty face and squeeze like a grape.

The general took a moment to process what happened and roared -

- in laughter.

"AHAHAHAHA" His voice boomed like a grenade. "I like your spunk, boy! You're with the sniper and Titanium Wall. The rest of you may leave. If these four die, well, you'll get another chance too!"

The rest of the players left, some grumbling, some not. The general began to instruct a camp aide about giving the details and they received a stream of information in their HUDs.

Sinon however continued to glare at Kirito. She spoke telepathically, What the hell was that?!

Kirito only gave her a grin.

The GI raised a hand, "PARDON ME SIR, YOU SAID FOUR, BUT THE WALL ONLY COUNTS THREE."

General Havoc retrieved another cigar from the depths of his coat. "Don't worry, your team leader is a special one."

They were in the motor pool. Grease monkeys were running about, repairing and maintaining the various vehicles like bees in a hive. Trucks, humvees and APCs were the most numerous while a separate motor pool for the tanks and IFVs existed half a kilometre away. Engines revved as players, many of whom probably don't own a license, fly off with little in the way of planning. Glocken Doctrine for this sort of thing was to let a bunch of wild men poke at the enemy while the actual core of players engage in proper operations later on.

The three players stood at attention as their captain was packing necessities in the panniers of his motorcycle. On the nearby table were a row of weapons, high tier stuff, plus a few bricks of C4. Three similar motorcycles were nearby.

He was clad in full tactical gear, a red lens gas mask covered his face. His loadout was simple but effective: a custom MP5 in a saddle holster, a .357 Manurhin by his armpit, a 7.5 FK BRNO on his left hip, plus a few grenades.

He was a legend amongst the playerbase. Some say he was some sort of bored American SEAL or other special forces type; some believe he was a highly advanced AI NPC. They spoke of the Man in Black, who saved noobs from the jaws of death; of the Dragonslayer, who dived into the jaws of a Panzerwyrm and cut himself out after a week of innard massacre. In the early days of GGO, there used to be a large griefer guild who used to terrorise the playerbase, until someone snuck into their base and detonated a thermonuclear device. Now the name of the guild was long forgotten but its saboteur was made legendary.

They called him CHAD, but most people referred to him by his nickname - Mister Shinigami, for he was the one player who never once died. The DLC had only been out for a few days and he was already level 52.

Sinon could feel the cool professionalism exuding from the man and replicated it. The same cannot be said for her two comrades.

"DUDE, DUDE. IT'S HIM," Titanium Wall whispered/yelled to Kirito.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Kirito breathed out. "I based my SMG build on him."

CHAD either did not hear the two fanboys or chose not to. He said, "We're going to kill the wizard. We'll ride on bikes to the western part of the wall. There, we will go on foot through enemy lines, sneak into the sewers, put a bullet in his head and blow up his lab. Any questions?"

Sinon suppressed a sigh. She hated sewers. Too close quarters for her liking.

"THE WALL DOES, SHINIGAMI-SAMA!"

"You can just call me CHAD."

"Uh … well ..." Amazing, the Wall was so tongue tied, he stopped yelling.

"Is … IS IT TRUE THAT YOU KILLED THE TECHNO-BARBARIAN KING, URGARD THE BUTCHER, WITH ONLY A KNIFE?"

"I expected questions about the mission … but no. I used a sword that I stole from one of his Chosen."

"Hah! Told you swords are still useful," said Kirito.

Sinon rolled her eyes and decided to ask something useful. "What sort of resistance will we be facing?" The intel they received was barebones and rough.

"The mutant horde of the usual kind. Flesh-servitors, tall-walkers, nuker-suiciders, the works. Stealth is of the essence and I expect you all to bring suppressors and not engage until needed."

"We can do that, right Kirito?"

"I am the definition of stealth," he smiled sweetly.

"Before you ask, the C4's just backup. The Overlords would prefer if we could secure as much equipment as we can. Data, machines, that sort of deal. Not mandatory, but a bonus."

They all saw the bonus. It was quite the paycheck.

"Any more questions?"

There were none.

"Good. We move at 2000 hours."

They rode like the desert wind in the darkness of the night. Miniature suns erupted and died in the sky as the bombardment continued on both sides, streams of tracer rounds erupted back and forth, a deadlier version of fireworks. To the rest of the world, it was all black but to them, it was a hazy green as the night vision goggles did their work.

They kept at a steady pace, the exhaust pipes of their bikes quieted even further thanks to high grade mufflers.

Sinon struggled to keep up, she was going far too fast to her liking and the weight of the equipment made it hard to control. She had just started getting her driver's license and it was only thanks to riding Kirito's own real life motorcycle that one time that it gave her any sort of confidence.

She saw her friend enjoying the breeze and the travel as if it were his evening rides, ponytail flapping like a flag. Kirito spent too much money on three things: video games, swords, and his bike, and his bike took up most of his own meagre funds.

They reached a particularly large outcropping of rock and parked their bikes there. Sinon almost slipped as she skidded on a particular soft patch of sand but righted herself at the last moment. She saw Kirito giving her a look. "I'm fine."

"You know, if you want some more bike lessons, I could teach you."

"It's fine."

"It better be, or else you'll fall and detonate all the C4 in that saddle bag of yours."

Oh. She almost forgot about that.

"We'll trek from here," said CHAD as he covered his ride with a tarp. "Careful, intel says they've got «Flesh Puppers» here."

"HATE FLESH PUPPERS," said the Wall. "HORRIBLE CREATURES."

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "What's a Flesh Pupper?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

So Kirito did, forty minutes later. Combine two humans, some sort of animal - usually some sort of canine - mixed them in a slurry, and strip them of their skin, and you've got yourself a Flesh Pupper.

This particular pupper had the head of a man (woman? - it was hard to tell) and a coyote. The human head lolled its tongue about, missing a jaw, while the coyote part sniffed the air. Four legs, it had two human arms and two coyote legs.

Its handler was nearby, a «Mutant Raider» wit pipe gun in hand. He had a third useless arm hanging off his left shoulder blade and was smoking a cigarette. They were about eight hundred meters away.

Kirito put down his binoculars. "Ugh, forget I asked."

"IT IS TOO FAR, THE WALL CANNOT SLAY BEAST AND HANDLER WITH HIS WEAPONS," said Titanium Wall, who despite whispering, felt he was shouting in all caps.

Red eyes looked to her. "Sinon, can you take a shot?"

Sinon unfolded the bipod of her rifle, a Remington MSR. It was fitted with a bulky night vision scope and had a foot long suppressor attached to it. It had been her fire forged companion for the last few months, bought from her usual vendor at some 75,000 credits.

Breathe in, breathe out. She waited for a particularly large explosion, she didn't have to wait long.

Cold as ice. She squeezed the trigger.

The raider's head exploded like a blood sausage. A cycle of the bolt, an ejected .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, and the Flesh Pupper followed soon after.

"That's my Sinon, best sniper I know!" said Kirito.

One word hung in her mind, my Sinon. She was glad night vision didn't show blushes.

CHAD humphed. "Should have taken a center mass shot. No need to show off. Let's move."

This was repeated a few more times, with half the encounters being Flesh Puppers with handlers. With no handlers, the men closed in to engage en cuerpo a cuerpo. Kirito slit throats, Titanium Wall supplexed bodies and CHAD broke necks with machine-like precision, all the while avoiding searchlights and sensor towers.

They finally reached a putrid river, massive drains shooting forth waves of gunk and filth. Thankfully, the game dampened the overwhelming smell, and it smelled something more like stinking socks. The grate was ancient and rusty and the Wall's mighty thews were sufficient to tear it open.

They entered, knee deep in filth. "I hate sewer levels," said Sinon, switching to her Daewoo K2 and unfolding the stock.

CHAD tapped his headset. "Eagle Nest, this is Kill-Team Alpha, we are breaching the walls of Mutantopia. Communications may be nil, over."

"Copy that, Alpha Team. Glory to the Market."

The gas masked warrior retrieved a few cylindrical canisters from his thigh pouch and handed them to the rest of the team. "PEPPER SPRAY CANISTERS?" asked a confused Wall.

"It's for the Sewer Hydras. Try to conserve them."

Kirito's eyes bulged from behind his mask. "The what."

Imagine sewers in video games. Imagine every type of enemy you can find in sewers - gators, slimes, rats, snakes.

Now imagine if some mad wizard combined them into one. That's what a Sewer Hydra is.

They were fighting in a large chamber and the sewers splitted in a dozen directions like a maze. The Hydra had the head of a snake and the paws of rats. A mass of slime tentacles shot forth from the blob of beasts towards the group but Titanium Wall's BAR blasted the offending thing apart. CHAD lobbed a grenade like a pitcher right into its gator jaw and the beast expanded momentarily before deflating like a sad balloon.

Nearby at another platform, Kirito and Sinon let out a torrent of fire into a Hydra, killing it. He finally chose to use his AR-15 this time.

While this happened, another tendril from another Hydra flanked around back like a snack, except the end of the snack was the snout of a gator. It lunged at Sinon but Kirito shoved her away with a boot and slammed his sword into its head. Sinon turned around and blasted a burst of 5.56mm into the main body, slaying it.

So much for staying quiet.

"I killed a real hydra once," he said, reloading his gun. He was not that proficient at it as he was with his TMP, but 9mm was doing nothing against these mobs. "I'd rather be fighting a proper hydra, if you please."

Finally, gunfire stopped and there was a ringing in their ear as everything around them dropped dead.

"Well, that was unfortunate," said CHAD, calm as ever. "We need to double time. According to the map we've given, if we follow this path, we'll be right under the gene-wizard's labs."

They moved further in, shooting down any Sewer Hydra with overwhelming firepower, watching their six. They were spongy things, and their ammo was already at half capacity.

Sinon, scouting ahead, held up a fist. "We've got a big one." The kill-team inched forward the end of the tunnel, and looked down.

It was big. Like, tank-size big and the sewer chamber was the size of a great hall. There had to be at least half a dozen gator and rat heads, a hundred snake-tentacle combinations, and the slime itself was bright green like putty. It was snoring and its rumbling sounded like ten car engines strapped together. Somehow, the sound of battle echoing in the tunnels had not woken up from its slumber.

A name hovered above the beast: «The Wizard's Pet». Behind it was a ladder and above an opening. It looked to be at least five stories tall.

The Wall looked at it the same way one looks at anything ugly. "THE SEWER DOGGO HAS OVER 20,000 HITPOINTS. THE WALL DOES NOT HAVE THE AMMUNITION TO SLAY IT."

Sinon made a mental calculation as she surveyed all the remaining ammo in everyone's inventory on her HUD. He was right. Even if every single round scored a crit, they don't have enough ammo to kill it. Maybe if they didn't use so much ammo fighting in the sewers, but that milk was spilled.

"It'd be a shame to miss the XP reward for killing it but that's why we're going for Plan B. Everyone still has their pepper spray canisters?" asked CHAD.

"What are we gonna do, pepper spray it?" Kirito said sarcastically.

"Yes. It looks like we have just enough for all the mouths. We need to spray directly at every single face and there's twelve in total. Apply a debuff to make it so it doesn't attack us while the rest of us go up and assassinate the wizard. Which means …"

"Someone has to stay here to do it," Sinon finished.

"I estimate we need at least five minutes to climb up that ladder. You three draw straws."

"Aren't you gonna draw straws?" asked Kirito.

"No." The sheer force of «Authority» behind the word was so mighty, so utterly overwhelming, all three of them almost saluted on the spot.

They did so and Kirito said something very vulgar. "Whatever! I've got dibs on the loot when I kill it."

"You won't," said the sniper. Further back, CHAD and Titanium Wall were duct-taping the C4 packs into one large bundle.

"But what if I did?" he said in a sing-song voice.

"Tell you what, if you do, I'll buy you pizza later. But if you can't, you'll do the dishes for a week."

"Deal! And it better be the cheesiest of crusts."

CHAD handed the explosives. "Keep this safe. Hopefully we won't have to use it." Sinon nodded.

They descended the mouth of the tunnel slowly. The rest of the team hid themselves behind some rubble as Kirito approached the Wizard's Pet, the pepper canisters in hand. With that, he lobbed at the biggest gator head and shot at it. It exploded in a cloud of orange and the Hydra awoke and roared at the intruder. It crawled/slithered across the floor to meet its attacker.

"C'mon, Lassie! Let's go!"

"We've got an opening! Move!" ordered CHAD. The three bolted across the chamber and the Wall reached the ladder first. They clambered up at top speed.

Another roar, and the sneezing followed soon after, then a particularly large splat. "Eww! Gator snot!"

Poor Kirito. The gunfire became more muffled as they reached the top.

The sewer lid opened slowly and the Wall peered above it, giving them the all clear.

They found themselves in what appeared to be the back of a hospital where the carcass of ancient ambulances lay rotting. The building was reinforced with patchwork quickcrete and flak walls. Great cables hung from the building, power surging from primitive power plants. Those power plants could be dungeons by themselves and likely were. They spied no enemies at all.

The kill-team entered the hospital. Empty. They entered the halls. Empty. They examined the rooms. Empty. Even the music stopped playing.

The blocked paths and debris railroaded them on a particular path - the operating theater. CHAD pushed the door open.

Amazingly, it resembled some ancient theater instead of the more modern definition. Large, imposing, classy, and places for people to sit and see. Strange machines reached as high as the ceiling and spotlights shone onto the stage. Countless glass vats lined the walls and in them, many an abominable creation - the stuff of nightmares. And in the middle of the theater was the gene-wizard himself.

He was operating on a bald giant on the table. It had great trees for limbs and its torso was a slab of steely muscle, numerous cables were attached to its skull. It was as if someone took a large man and made it 50% more man. A simple towel covered his groin.

The wizard meanwhile looked like any stock evil scientist - old, wild grey hair, large goggles covering his eyes and a wicked smile on his lips. He had a gauntlet of gadgets on one arm, a large drill in the other. His small frame was covered with a lab coat made of human skin. Leaning on said table was a massive chainsword.

"Assassins," spat out Doctor Fabius Asclepius. He did not look up from his work. "Come to destroy my great work?!" he intoned, like a Shakespearean actor.

CHAD pulled out his BRNO and shot from the hip. The 7.5 FK round bounced harmlessly, hitting the personal shield that the doctor was wearing. It was expected, because almost all bosses had it. What's the point of programming and writing an NPC if he wasn't gonna monologue his evil speech?

The boss did not take note of the bullet. "You are but mere wage slaves to the capitalist overlords of Glocken!"

"You knew that was gonna happen," said Sinon.

"One day we'll have a boss that we can just shoot on the spot," said CHAD, quickly loading another round into the mag. "One day."

The doctor went on a three minute spiel. Something about how he was going to fix the human race, how they were soulless soldiers of fortune, how capitalism brought about climate change and destroyed the world, and now with him at the helm, he will bring about peace and socialism for the downtrodden. He would overthrow the Overlords of Glocken, who themselves were descendants of billionaires who escaped the planet that they themselves destroyed.

All the while, the three cleaned their weapons and checked their stats.

A while ago, when Kirito started learning of the lore, he asked her, "Sinon, are we the baddies?"

"We're mercenaries serving greedy CEOs who continue to ravage an already destroyed earth. So yes."

"Okay, just making sure."

The Wall pulled out an energy drink and chugged it down; a pre-boss fight ritual if she had to guess. "ALWAYS WITH THE MONOLOGUES! THE WALL TIRES OF THIS!"

The music picked up the pace and Sinon shut down her character sheet and shouldered her Daewoo.

"Now - I bring forth a new man! Not homo sapien, but homo superior! Behold my creation, a soldier for the grim darkness of the future: the THUNDER FIGHTER!"

The giant awoke, like a transhuman Frankenstein's monster. He slipped off the table, cables snapping off his skull, the towel somehow still attached to his waist (thankfully). He took the massive chainsword that was leaning on the table and roared. Behind him, the Doctor pulled out a syringe gun and cackled maniacally.

The fight started off well enough. CHAD alone was sufficient in baiting the raging giant, he floated like a butterfly, avoiding the massive blade, and stung like a bee, swapping between his Manurhin and BRNO when needed and scoring multiple shots yet the giant was no slouch either, destroying the soldier's MP5 after a mistimed attempt at a reload.

Meanwhile, the Doctor had summoned more creepy crawlies to his aid. The vats started to drain as the abominations exited their birth chambers, ready to kill. This forced Titanium Wall to unload his BAR at the vats, and even then he wasn't quick enough. Sinon periodically switched between her sniper rifle and her assault rifle, the former to take shots at the abominations that escaped the vats, the latter for spraying lead to break them. The glass of the vats gave her more trouble than the monsters.

When all this was happening, the Doctor gave them trouble too. He shot at them with his syringe gun, the darts failing to penetrate their flak armour.

This worried Sinon immensely, who knows what the darts were filled with? They didn't waste their ammo on him for the shield was far too powerful to be penetrated with ballistics alone. Yet personal shields were useless in melee, and any of them would have gone in for the knife kill but the Thunder Fighter and the rest of the mobs were giving them far too much trouble.

Titanium Wall lobbed a grenade at a growing horde of mutants. It detonated, destroying much of the lab equipment but it barely seemed to stop them. The Thunder Fighter wasn't even at half health yet and CHAD had holstered his wheelgun and focussed his shots with his BRNO, giving the odd slice with his knife.

It dawned on Sinon then. They were running out of ammo, about to be overrun. The mission will fail.

Titanium Wall voiced her worries for her: "BOSS-MAN, THE WALL THINKS WE SHOULD FORGET THE BONUS!" He didn't mention the C4, lest the enemy heard it.

The revving sword flew at CHAD's head and would have lopped it off until he ducked at the last minute. He went at the monster with his blade to cut at his hand and managed to only remove the pinky.

"Sinon! Arm it!"

"THE WALL WILL HOLD OFF THE HORDE! GO, SNIPER COMRADE!"

So she did. She threw her Daewoo at the Wall and he caught it, and began blasting both weapons at the same time. The sheer number of mobs ensured he did not miss.

She ran at the nearest pillar, knelt down and began arming the explosives. She wasn't gonna die here.

The thing about GGO is that you only get experience if you manage to live throughout the ordeal. Sinon had accumulated a good chunk of XP throughout the entire day, but she had to complete the mission to reap the reward. This ensured that players didn't just become suicide bombers when they go charging at bosses. If she died then, she would lose at least one level's worth of XP, and she wasn't going to go about doing that. Not only that, but level ups could only be done at base or safe zones.

Even without the XP loss, there was also a matter of pride. She had yet to reach triple digits in regards to death and she was aiming to keep it that way. She may not have CHAD's legendary zero death count, but she still had her professionalism at stake.

She was done. The detonator was in hand and she moved towards the door. "It's set! Let's go!"

Then she felt a sharp pain. "Ow!"

She pulled out the foreign object in her arm. It was one of the Doctor's darts, successfully striking her unarmoured bicep.

"Ahahaha!" Doctor Asclepius gave her a wicked smile from across the room. "What awaits you, corporate slave, is a fate worse than death!"

The mutant horde had ravaged Titanium Wall. He went down punching, kicking, screaming. The Thunder Fighter had finally scored a hit on CHAD, throwing him against the wall, his handguns flying away from him.

His gasmask was broken, she could see his bloodied mouth. "Sinon! End it!"

"But your zero death run!"

"That is an order, soldier!"

She pushed the detonator and everything went white.

Kirito found himself standing in front of General Havoc again. The bunker was the usual hive of activity. The bear-man examined the creature on the table. He was utterly infatuated with it.

"Sir, I apologise …"

"Don't, lad. Operations go wrong, it happens." He laid a finger on Neko-Sinon, scratching her chin. If looks could kill, he would have been a smoking crater.

"In the meanwhile, our eyes will find a way to hunt him down and I'm sure the eggheads will find a way to … reverse your friend's condition. With the Wall dead and CHAD missing, we'll need to find a new way to kill the son of a bitch."

"THE WALL IS RIGHT HERE AND IS COMPLETELY FINE," said Titanium Wall in a nearby chair. He had just respawned from the field hospital and logged off to have dinner or something.

Kirito ignored him. "What do I do now?"

"Rest, go on other missions. If we find the wizard again, you'll be the first to know. We'll get 'im, son. I promise ya'."

"Nya."

The general laughed. "You remind me of my own Riceball, soldier."

Neko-Sinon hissed violently.

It had been two days since the event and Shino was still not talking to him. They ate dinner in utter silence.

Their homey apartment had become a cold place. He knew she was a real Hardcore (™) Gamer, but he had never seen her like this. When she came home from work, she had been in an even fouler mood. Even pizza didn't cheer her up.

She was currently stabbing at her pizza with a knife, perhaps imagining an enemy combatant instead. This won't do.

Kazuto let out a sigh. "Listen Shino, why don't you just, you know …"

"Kill myself?"

"Well I was gonna say respawn, but yes."

"Did it, I'm still stuck in cat form."

"Did you message the devs?"

"There's only one way to get myself back in human form and that's by killing the wizard again. They said it's not a bug, but a feature."

"So it is a bug."

"Of course. Incompetent idiots." She took another bite.

"Ah." He was silent again. "I could kill him for you."

She looked him dead in the eye, her glasses shining under the kitchen light. "Kazuto, we had the best damn player in the game with us and we still failed. Do you suggest I ride around on your shoulder like a parrot while you level up?"

"Hey, I may not know anything about guns and modern warfare, as you know I'm more of a spear and cavalry kinda guy, but you're my friend and I can see this is bumming you out. If I have to hunt down some sort of secret potion to fix you, I will."

She munched on her slice of pepperoni and pondered. "Hmm. There is this super rare medicine. It's either got a super low droprate or doesn't exist at all, some sort of dev tool. More of a legend than anything."

He smiled. "So you're saying there's a chance?"

"It's a real longshot, but yes. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course. We're friends aren't we?"

The girl looked away, suddenly covering her face. "Cool, we'll start tomorrow."

"Don't you have work tomorrow?"

"I'll use my holidays."

"Wow, you are serious about this." At least with Kazuto being a freelancing programmer, his schedule was flexible. Shino never used her holidays, which really spoke to the endemic problem of Japanese work culture.

"I'm gonna make you the best damn GGO player in the world! Even if it kills you." She smiled brightly, he had been missing that smile.

"Wait, don't you mean even if it kills you?"

"I know what I said." Then she leaned over and gave him a chaste peck on the cheeks. "Thank you, Kaz. It really means a lot."

Kazuto sighed. The things he'd do for her.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Agent, what the hell is this?"

Well I've got something of a writer's block since the latest chapter of Merchant Prince of Aincrad and decided to write this one-shot to get the creative juices flowing. Except as you've noticed, this isn't a one-shot. Now, the story will likely only be a few chapters long, three chapters tops so don't expect anything long.

Besides, I've never done a GGO fic before, and have always wanted to try my hand at this. As you've noticed, this isn't a Death Game, and I've always wanted to write a game setting that also isn't a Death Game. Might as well combine the two desires together. The concept came from SAO Fanfiction Central Discord and the constant cat girl jokes. The idea being: What if Sinon was literally just a cat? Thus this fic was born.

The Battlefield 2042 trailer coming out also contributed to this story being made. Mötley Crüe music was playing at full volume while writing this.

Not sure if I'm going to actually to continue writing this, I guess that depends how much traffic this gets. In the meantime, leave a review and tell me what weapons you'd like to see, what vehicles, monsters, that sort of thing. As you can tell, I'm also no pro at writing gunfights so criticism appreciated!

Lastly, join us at the Discord!: discord . gg /z9Pz3Jzc7y (remove spaces)

Until next time, loyal readers. Glory to the Market.

Patch notes:

12 Sept 2021 - Added a bit more geography