Part 2: Game of Traitors, Past and Present

Special rule announcement and activation. At the end of this message, one person will be designated from each surviving team. The designation will be spelled out on the terminal of the chosen player. The designation is not random but chosen for the purposes of game balance by the staff and sponsor observing the event. Victory conditions will be altered for the chosen players. The chosen players will leave their teams as betrayers. The betrayers will form a new team that will fight together from this point onward. For a period of time, all weapons will be locked. Transportation will be provided to send the betrayers to the rest of their team, opening up travel to the UNKNOWN area. Now go forth and kill. Your former comrades are now your enemies.

Six teams - LPFM, SHINC, MMTM, DEVA, T-S, and ZEMAL - each lost one player to the new group of betrayers. With the formation of the surprise seventh team, the game has fundamentally been changed. As before, last team standing wins, but now if a traitor remains as the last man standing, their original team doesn't win - the traitorous team does.

As captain of Crimson Squad and a member of LPFM, I could only stare in what may seem like outward nonchalance at my team's betrayer. In all honesty, I'm more stunned by the rules than the selected individual...and it's 100 percent leaning towards the special rule. If we knew the rule beforehand, I could have selected our Judas and kiss her on the forehead before sending her off with five pieces of silver.

"Whoo-hoo! Yeah! It's meeee! Now I get to fight Llenn!"

So when the Satellite Scan confirmed my thoughts, I'm even less surprised than I expected. My mind lateralizes to the other five teams, wondering who their traitors are...and find myself thinking that Boss and the leader of Memento Mori might have been chosen too. As for DEVA, ZEMAL, and T-S, I don't know their teams as well besides the latter two being returnees, so there's no anticipation there. All and all...a ridiculously boring turn of events in terms of team composition, but a thrilling turn of events in that a team of traitors is definitely changing the game.

The other traitors' might be upset by the revelation, but Pitohui is delighted. "Yessss! Yahooooo! I'm! The! Betraaaayer! I'm! The! Betraaaayer! Oh yeah, baby! Loo-loo-loo, la-la-laaa! Ah, how beautiful it is to live the betrayer's life!"

"Aww, you're so lucky, Pito. Switch with me! I'm good at flying, you know. I fly every day in ALO! Exchange terminals with me!" says Fukaziroh.

"Not so fast! This is a very important part of the game set up by the developers. Obey the rules!"

"It had to be you of all people," M grunts. "Well, go on and enjoy yourself, I suppose."

"As if I need to be told that by you! Why don't you focus on not dying before I get the chance to kill you, M?"

"I'll do my best."

"Fine, Pito, I'll kill you!" Fuka chirps happily. "Which would you prefer, plasma gernade or pistol?"

"What? You're a terrible shot with teh pistol, Fuka."

"I mean thatI'll pistol-whip your skull! A hundred blows should do it, right?"

"Ohhh, that sounds painful. I'd become a vegetable from concussions long before that point."

"Ah, that's an option, too."

"But I'll be fine, because you won't get anywhere close to me. If you've got a problem with that, feel free to prove me wrong!" As our maniac and explosive expert banter, my eyes are attracted to a circular flying object that descends to about ten yards away. This must be the transport the announcement spoke of.

"Oh! So I get on that for a ride!" Excited, Pitohui grabs her KTR-09 and proceeds to the flying helipad, passing me and Kureha. She smirks with a sparkle in her rid irises. "Jaymes, Kureha... We didn't face off last time. You aren't going to go easy on a poor traitor like me, are you? You know the sentence for traitors is death, right?"

Kureha scoffs. "Don't worry. Unlike Fuka, I have excellent aim, and I don't care to turn you into a vegetable. You better bring your A-game."

"Well said. And you, Captain? I expect the same treatment Itsuki got, except pull the trigger this time. Got it?"

I smile and shake my head. "Don't worry, I won't hold back. But it won't be a pistol that'll end you." I tap the holstered cylinder that is the hilt of my photon sword, in which Pitohui grimaces.

"They say you're a hero, but what a villain! Hmm, will I actually be able to ride this?" Attention now on the helipad, Pitohui takes a cautious step on the platform, then brings herself onto it. The helipad's engine whirls faster and louder once the woman is aboard and starts to ascend. "Ha-ha! I'm riding it! Yay! Well! Hey, guys! Oh—and Llenn! Hello! Llenn?"

Llenn, who has been quiet for the most part since the reveal, stares at Pitohui with a daze. From both her mouth and from the earpiece, we all could hear Pitohui's message to the shorter pink girl. "Llenn! I'm going to come looking for you first! So look forward to that! I'm not going to die right off the bat! Make sure you beat me before you beat SHINC! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha—"

Pitohui's voice is cut off then and there's a solid moment of quiet. I had no thoughts on my mind other than my team was repeating SJ2 sort of when I glance in Llenn's direction. The woman who had to face Pitohui once to save her life and enlisted us before had the gears in her head turning, trying to process what just happened, and bellows out, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangh!"

"Ooh-hoo! We get to fight Pito again! Yippee!" says Fuka, a gamer first and foremost in this development.

And speaking of gamer souls, I look at Kureha, her arms folded and eyes on me. "What?"

"I... I'm just glad it's the less dangerous of the two options. I dare not say what would happen if you were the traitor."

"I guess so. But that means you guys would come up with a plan for me, and I wouldn't like to face that. But I know you'd face me alone to win, huh?"

She brushes her ponytail off her shoulder with a smile while turning to M. "Any ideas, M?"

Calm and collected, M nods. "This is a dangerous foe to deal with...I say you should take charge, Jaymes, from now on. Dealing with changing variables is your expertise moreso than mine."

Sword Art Online and the constant variables it presented before us could be what he means. I haven't spoken much of my time there to anyone outside of the survivors except to Sinon, Kureha, and Kirito's little sister, but he is on the money. My experience of SAO changed the day Akihiko Kayaba trapped us within the game. As a beta tester, I explored nine of the ten available floors; the official release changed every one of them, from minute to a complete overhaul. Floor 11 to 75 was new territory for everyone. Most of all, we had our own share of traitors - the red guild known as Laughing Coffin, lead by PoH. I could say my experiences in Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, and Sword Art: Origin have shaped me for this moment too.

"Fine, I accept. But I'll leave the planning to you, M. You're our best tactician."

"Very well. Now we need to think of some strategies for the five of us."

The Real World

Much like the bar where Crimson Squad and other audience members of Squad Jam 3 are watching, the real world livestream of the tournament features multiple perspectives of the action. Watchers can select a specific cam to view or let the stream focus on the action automatically. For most people, the former method is used to select multiple camera angles of a specific area, such as the swtichyard LPFM fought the allied forces earlier. In that scenario, they could watch the switchyard action from the cameras around the place, never missing a beat.

For Kotone Takemiya, her full attention has been on LPFM. She - or her avatar, named Philia - is a member of the squadron, but she decided to watch the event offline from the comfort of her bedroom, laptop connected to her television, and seated in a beanbag chair. She's not alone; her best friend since SAO, fellow member of both Crimson Squad and "Team Kirito", and popular rising idol Nijika "Rain" Karatachi is with her.

But right now, all the cameras are focused on the six traitors as they fly towards each other and a single destination: the fog-covered UNKNOWN Area. The two friends sit shoulder to shoulder in silent awe as the fog is blown away in an unnatural fashion. It wasn't long before Pitohui and her flyiing teammates - Sinon, Crimson Squad and audience within GGO - Nijika, Kotone and the real-world audience - and Jaymes and his team on a hilltop all saw the foggy veil casted aside, showing what's been hiding within.

"It's..."

"...a cruise ship?"

From Kotone and Nijika's perspective, the cruise ship was aground in the middle of the island on a hill. !,600 feet long and visibly 300 feet tall, the faded white ship was the last thing they could have expected. It rests in perfect balance on the hill, as if the hill formed around it or the ship sails on a sea of green. Among the white body are spots of brown and red, probably dirt and rust. Along the sides are plenty of balconies and windows. Estimating with the number of balconies, there had to be about twenty decks on the ship.

As the cameras got closer and started to span the circumference of the ship, they can see the ship is ill-preserved. At the prow of the ship - the front - is a green painted circle with an H on it. That must be the helipad for the flying platforms. Behind it is the upper body of the cruise ship, and the cameras keep moving back. Broken glass windows line the edges, showing the internal destructive of the cabins and the exterior mess of the balconies. The lower promenade of the ship's sides featured yellow lifeboats that still looked usable despite their age.

An top-down view of the ship revealed a courtyard in the center of the ship, about a thousand feet in length and 160 in width. Within the courtyard are a myriad of nearly indeterminate features, including a part, walkways, and carts. The cabins are connected to the courtyard from the sides, and there was plenty of features above the topmost cabins. A dirty basketball court, bridges crossing from port to starboard, and a huge observation deck towers the rest of the ship.

As the cameras reach the stern of the ship, there's an open area present, something akin to a open-air theater with a large half-circle stage and rows of benches. Behind the stage is another deck for viewing the water behind the ship. Then the screen switched back to the prow, revealing the name of the ship in a giant English font: Conqueror of the Seven Seas. But it's crossed out with a X, replaced by a grossly painted title: There Is Still Time.

There isn't a single telling of the ship's lore, but if one understands the lore of GGO, it's obvious what the environmental storytelling is playing at.

The passengers of the Conqueror of the Seven Seas must've survived the war that turned Earth into the post-apocalytic world that GGO players know. In seeking a new hope, they gave it the name There Is Still Time...but it seems they ran out of time, for the lore of GGO states that all humans - players and NPCs - are of the Space Battle Cruiser Glocken. There weren't humans in the other cruiser to land on Earth, the SBC Flugel that Rei, Daisy, Lievre, and all Arfa-Sys call home,

"It's amazing and sad at the same time," Nijika says, hugging a pillow close to her chest with mixed emotions. "When I thought about the special rule, I couldn't have imagined this ship as the final stage."

"Yeah." Kotone looks to the screens with the six "traitors." Pitohui's presence isn't much of a surprise, but it is a threat to LPFM, SHINC and the other teams. With her is SHINC's large leader, who they know as "Boss," carrying her Vintorez. From what Kotone knows, SHINC and Llenn were supposed to face off in a SJ1 rematch, so this is a wrench in their plans again after Pitohui spoiled the potential SJ2 rematch.

Next is Memento Mori's leader. His camo-painted face is hard to read, but if he's noticed Pitohui, he cannot be happy. Memento Mori was annihilated (and that's probably an understatement still) at her hands - or her blood red photon sword - in a log cabin in SJ2. Philia has only seen that slashing brutality once before in GGO, and that was Jaymes and his blue beam sword minutes before in the coliseum, but the murderous intent in Pito's eyes were haunting.

ZEMAL and T-S's traitors are unknown to Philia, so she pays them little attention, and almost does the same to the third woman of the six-member team, the representative from DEVA. Underneath a dark cloak is a skin-tight black attire and long, thigh-high heels. Her lengthy dark hair flows freely in the wind, unusual for girls who play GGO. If their avatars have long hair, such as Pitohui and Kureha's, they style their hair to be out of their face. But this girl's hair has nothing holding it back expect the wind and the hold of her cloak when raised. Three weapons are present on the girl; a photon saber's hilt, a black pistol, and a SMG in her hands.

Red eyes burn with a strange intensity as she approaches the cruise ship, accented with a slight smile on her beautiful face. Kotone thinks herself cute, and with a little help of makeup, she could stand out. But she's seen true, unaltered beauty in the likes of Asuna and Momiji. Perfect faces, perfect hair, perfect proportions, perfect sense of style, and perfect personalities, those two are goddesses and Kotone is a mere mortal. Well...Asuna's a goddess in every right of the word, but Momiji...her quick-temper is more suited for a devil.

But the girl on screen is a jaw-dropper. Yet... Kotone feels as if she's seen this girl before. Granted, she's seen thousands of players in her life since Sword Art Online, and that game aside, player appearance is randomized. Some, like Kirito and Jaymes, get lucky with an appearance that looks similar to their real-world likeness. Others, like Llenn and Pitohui, get a drastically different appearance.

It's the former reason why Kotone believes she knows this girl from back in Sword Art Online. SAO used each player's real appearance after Kayaba trapped them, so it would be easy to believe you saw someone in future and attributed it to seeing them in SAO if the appearances matched. But where in SAO did Kotone meet this girl...and when?

"Nijika, that girl... Do she look familiar to you? Like from SAO somewhere?"

"Hmm... Maybe? I don't know... Ask Sanya when she-"

"Kakogo leshego! There's no way!" Sanya Sokolova, the third member of their watch party, another SAO survivor and childhood friend or Nijika, reenters the bedroom with a shocked expression on her pale-white face. She stares at the television with focused blue orbs and stammering lips. "H-How is she... Why is she there?"

"Sanya? You know who she is?"

Sanya's hand brushes against her neck. "All too well...she once put her blade to my neck on the twentieth floor...and we dueled for a bit on the thirty-fifth...but my encounters with her are not as memorable as for who she is to both me and Jaymes. I hadn't seen her since we went down to the Black Iron Palace dungeons on that day..."