Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds
Chapter 27: Squad Jam and Poison
Date: Infinityverse Days 849-900
The 77th Floor contains the Volcano Of Purgatory field, a town in which a mad scientist dwells, and some more areas from GGO. But we'll get to that more later on. For now, let us timeskip to the day we fought against the 76th Floor Boss who was not in fact where it was supposed to be. Instead, it was smack dab in the middle of a rocky area that clearly still has bullet holes from when GGO was still its own separate game before it was merged to become part of this damn death game. We were going to reveal all of the comrades who had been recently revived after being dead for a long time but because the boss battle was outdoors, we couldn't exactly do that in a way that we planned to. Actually, we ended up just saving the reveal for Squad Jam because we thought it would be better that way. That and no one has really seen or heard much of anything from XaXa or anyone else linked to Death Gun now. We even checked in the 'underworld'. But still, the 76th Floor Boss was really really hard. We almost just revealed our hidden comrades by calling on them to help us in the battle but we chose to delay it for now because hiding them is such a good strategy and besides, the chaos of the battle allows some of them to attack the enemy from some hidden vantage points using really fast guns. That allowed them to get away with being involved without being spotted. Thanks to that, it was soon apparent that we were just itching to get them all to help us stop XaXa. On Day 858, we reached the 77th Floor. I speak: "Woah, this place looks incredibly dangerous.." Leuer speaks: "Indeed it does. On this floor, our brave heroes took it upon themselves to get their hands on an ingredient required to craft a most dangerous poison. It was all in order to prevent anyone else from getting it so that that could cause a poisonous massacre that would have ended in a very cruel and vile way sure to devastate the hearts of hundreds if not thousands."
Typhon criticizes him: "No one likes your tales, Leuer. Stop making things sound that way with your speaking. You're wasting time." Mater sighs: "Don't mind Leuer. He's always annoying like this." Stilla nods: "In fact, he's often been much more annoying like the one time he.. Nevermind. Let's save that for later." Orochimaru chuckles: "Did you say, a poison?" Tsunade yells: "Absolutely no one let Orochimaru get his hands on that poison! Or.. XaXa for that matter.." Yamato pulls the "I'm watching you" gesture and look on Orochimaru. To be honest, a lot of us still do not fully trust him. And I don't blame them. Kakashi sighs: "Okay so who is going to get that poison and how can it be obtained?" Argo shrugs: "Ya know, I have no clue. Everything's new territory to me at this point other than the Ruby Palace, GGO, and the Underworld." Typhon speaks before Leuer can as he's clearly annoyed with the self proclaimed trabajor or however you spell it: "You have to talk to the Mad Scientist NPC and fulfill the request for him. It requires one Pure Heart which you can win by participating in a contest between small teams to shoot down monoliths and score the most points for shooting down. In our Aincrad, the contest was only held once I believe so only one Pure Heart can be obtained as far as we're aware." Heathcliff sighs: "I do not remember programming such a contest into Aincrad. But maybe that's because it's been at least 6 years by now at this point since the first day of SAO after the beta test ended.." Sasori also expresses interest in the poison: "Tell us more about this poison. It would pair well with my puppets if I still had them with me in this game."
Koharu speaks up with a concerned look on her face: "Well.. It has a massive AoE and is really powerful. It can kill a lot of players or even a Floor Boss. Kirito, Sinon, and my world's Swiftdrawer agreed on keeping it around and to ourselves in case we needed it.. I don't want to talk about what happened with it after we were done with the quest.. But there is something all of you should know. The mad scientist tricked us and didn't just create the poison, thus causing his masterpiece as he called it to be complete at last. He saved some of the Pure Heart as he had some left after making the poison. With it, he revived a event boss monster that was a friend of his and we had to defeat it and save a brave player who tried to beat it all by themselves.. Much of this floor is covered in a poisonous mist and you need a special kind of potion to withstand it but.. it's not that simple to just get. When the event boss appeared, the poison spread out further, the safe zone of the nearest town was disabled and the monsters came into town, terrorizing many players in the process." Eva exclaims: "Damn it! How the hell are we supposed to juggle all of that AND XaXa?! We know that XaXa is going to go for that poison!" Kaito smirks: "Then we will just have to prevent him from winning that Pure Heart." Anna laughs: "I bet I could take down a lot of those monoliths!" Sinon perks: "I could shoot some down easily with my skills." Pegasus J Crawford laughs: "My oh my! Sounds like we got ourselves some competition going on!" I sigh: "This isn't going to end well. Can we just all agree that whoever gets the poison is to not use it for anything unless we get into a situation in which it is thrown at a Floor Boss AFTER all clearers get out of its range?"
Sakura nods: "We should just go for that and make several teams to fight for the Pure Heart." Shikamaru sighs just like I did: "It's a real pain. But still, we can't rule out the possibility that not only will XaXa try to win it but the contest can keep happening for an unlimited number of times and that he might put together several teams of Death Guns to increase his chances of getting it. No, that's exactly what he's going to do. He wouldn't miss the chance to get something like that. We know he wouldn't. After all, he was a Laughing Coffin member and went on to create Death Gun with his brother." Bray adds: "We must hurry then. XaXa might have already accepted the mad scientist's quest. Where is he located?" Mater gives a "don't say a word" look to Leuer before saying: "I remember the way well. Anyone interested in doing the quest, follow me. But first.. Argo, how are you going to handle the guidebook given the quest?" "Ya know. I'm not sure at the moment. I want to include everything I possibly can but that would mean making it common knowledge that this floor is a way to win the ingredient needed to make a powerful poison. That information is too dangerous but at the same time. The mad scientist NPC won't be invisible to anyone. Looks like I got no choice! Nyehahaha! I will be part of a team for the contest myself! I will write extensively about all of it, even the event boss situation in order to try to deter anyone from going on the mad scientist's quest." Diavel speaks: "We need to keep tabs on anyone who accepts that quest and/or goes to participate in that contest." I sigh again: "I hate mass surveillance. And I've been thinking.. Mass surveillance is a sign of a paranoid controlling state or other entity.
Lucky for us that we won't need snooping security cameras. I hate those things. We could just have undercover individuals take turns keeping watch. I'm willing to do so every so often even. I did door guarding at 2 conventions in the past before this game began over 2 years ago for us. And ya know, I've done a lot of watching in this game and other places and tanking and what have you." A bit later, myself and a few others group together to accept the mad scientist's quest. He greets us with: "Oh hello travelers. Could I get a moment of your time?" I reply: "Yes." "Very good. As you may have noticed I'm a scientist. Some call me mad. Some call me revolutionary! And well, I've created a lot of brilliant inventions in my time but there has been something I've been wanting to create. It's something I've wanted to do for many years now and I'm afraid I will never get to do it." Bray replies: "What is it that you are speaking of? Will you indulge us by sharing?" "I will do so! I wish to create a masterpiece. The ultimate poison! A poison so brilliant and yet dangerous! It would be my truly greatest invention by far! Imagine a poison that could be unleashed without the victim even needing to be tricked to ingest it since it can spread through the air?!" Sinon speaks: "And you want us to help you create it?" "Very good. You catch on quickly. I have everything I need except for the one ingredient that isn't so easy to get. It's called a Pure Heart and to get it, you must conquer a trial of sorts. I'm no good with ranged weapons so I'm afraid I can't partake in it myself. Otherwise, I would have won it by now. With my genius mind, I can certainly calculate very easily how to shoot down each monolith that appears but my skills in bows or even guns just aren't up to standard.
That and I'm far too busy with my many experiments to even bother learning the skills better and my body doesn't move like it used to years ago." The Mad Scientist NPC goes on to tell us more details about the challenge itself. Once he's finished sharing everything we need to know, he says: "That's everything. I'm hoping for your good news as soon as possible. When you get the Pure Heart, be sure to come back here right away with it." We nod and head off. Kirito speaks: "I hope this doesn't take too long. Some of the mid level players are getting restless again due to the fact that we're approaching 900 days of being trapped in this game." Carlos utters: "I want kitty cuddles." I sigh: "Don't mind him. A lot of miis who have adventured in Miitopia talk like that at times. Anyway, I'm with you, Kirito. We need to get this settled as soon as possible. Luckily for us, we already got a message telling us that a large supply of something that will allow us to breathe without being poisoned by the poisonous gas in the field nearby is under development. Until it's done and we got our hands on some of it, we can't get to the site of the challenge unless we want to die of poison. And we've had enough death lately as it is so we had better not take any chances." Sinon nods: "You're right. In the meantime, let's try to hunt some monsters while we wait. It's a good thing that everyone we're hiding can be fully visible on this floor now." Bray speaks: "For now, we can. However, at the first sight of anyone who isn't supposed to be on this floor yet, XaXa, or other Death Guns, that's going to have to change." Carlos chuckles: "It will be fine! I'm really good at finding a good hiding place quickly!"
We do in fact grind some monsters shortly after all of that. But then, Argo messages Kirito and he tell us what we need is already ready. Sinon smiles: "That was a lot faster than I expected." Kirito nods: "Yeah. Really goes to show the importance of having everyone we lost along the way to the 75th Floor back with us." Carlos snickers: "I bet Dominic is yawning and about to nod off after working so hard!" I sigh: "Now's not the time, Carlos. We aren't in the clear in the slightest. We have to keep being on the lookout. Honestly, maybe we should have you and the others just disguise yourselves instead of hiding. I wonder if NPC disguises would fool our enemies." In the distance, we can clearly see the glaring red eyes of Death Gun aka XaXa. We notice and acknowledge that and pull out our weapons before Carlos surprises us by easily disguising himself as an NPC just like I pondered over before giving Bray a disguise to disguise herself similarly with. Thanks to that, it becomes pretty clear that the enemy is in fact fooled. Well, it would later anyway. It's not even uncommon for players to team up with NPCs on quests and battles at this point given that Lyusula and Kales'Oh are fully fledged parts of the Assault Team not to mention the "Archmage Inventrix". We then head to a set meeting location to get our hands on what we need. There, Barla and Dominic end up joining us on the mission of trying to win that Pure Heart. Barla yells: "Hell yeah! Let's do this now!" Dominic yawns: "Each of these things provides an hour of protection. That's the best we could do in a rush job but oh well. It's still really helpful and that's no big deal. Each one is still highly effective for the hour of protection they provide."
And so, we head to the sight where the contest is to be held. It's a large and open area for the most part with poisonous gas all over the place. What a dangerous place to be. Sinon speaks: "I hope I'm not the only one who targets those monoliths. But do I even need to say that? No." Case in point: we all pull out guns ourselves though Kirito, myself, and Carlos insist on doing protecting and watching instead because we can't let our guards down. Not after we saw Death Gun in the distance. Of course, the 4 miis on our group play the role of mere highly skilled NPCs very well. Especially Carlos who was clearing enjoying the acting. In no time at all, the contest began. It would later be noted by Koharu that she was shocked that it happened so soon after we got to the 77th Floor. As we went through it, we were hounded by teams of Death Guns almost right away. "Damn it. There's more of them again and they've already found us." XaXa's voice is once again projected: "Clearers, I will not allow you to stand in the way of the plans I have for the poison the Mad Scientist NPC is giving out as long as you provide him a Pure Heart. Therefore, I have taken measures to recruit new Death Guns and have them hamper your chances of winning. They won't even need to kill you for once. No. All they have to do is stop you from winning this contest, setting the stage for my revenge. You were lucky last time. The system saved you all but that's not going to happen again.
Death Gun is fear. Death Gun will not be stopped. Remember. I am Death Gun, the name I share with my gun. XaXa is my name as well but it is not the one I most identify with in order to strike fear into the hearts of players and NPCs alike." I immediately turn my sword skills on the nearest Death Gun. "You will not stop us from winning, Death Guns! We will make you fail at your attempt to sabotage our team's performance in this! Haaaaaa!" "Hahaha. Do you really think stopping us is going to be that easy?" We knock several Death Guns unconscious but the rest soon surround mostly me, Kirito, and Carlos as a few others go for our teammates. Kirito yells: "Damn it!" The 3 of us start dual wielding blades and guns in response to this. We each shoot the other few Death Guns before focusing once again on the foes that are surrounding us. As a result of this, we end up in a bloody brawl with all of them that nearly extinguished our lives. And this kept happening. We were forced to kill so many Death Guns in order to keep them from ruining our chances of winning. After all, while they didn't have to have us, they still kept trying to anyway which is only natural for anyone named Death Gun at this point. As time went on, things only got worse. What we were forced to do and contend with started feeling more like something straight out of a horror film with how gruesome all of it was. And it only got darker and darker until the contest finally ended. But that's not all that happened. You see, other teams containing cleaners dealt with the same things we did. Swarms of Death Guns from places unknown attacking and trying to kill. No one was fully prepared for something like that.
We didn't expect there to be so many Death Guns in the end. That's just how it was. After the contest was over, you'd think the Death Guns would stop. But no. They never stopped. They changed their tactics. Sure but that's all. Sinon sighs: "We didn't win the contest. We didn't get a Pure Heart." Bray asks: "Then who did get one?" Argo appears from out of nowhere and speaks: "Ki-boy, Sinonon, everyone. I know you are busy handling Death Guns still but I have some bad news. First. The Death Guns aren't stopping. Two. None of us won the Pure Heart. That means that XaXa won it." Soon after that, we regrouped with some of the others to take down more Death Guns in plain sight or hidden nearby. However, the ground began to shake suddenly as the poisonous gas suddenly expanded in reach and volume. Koharu shouts: "No! XaXa triggered the event boss on this floor!" We can see a volcano from a distance become active as monsters in large droves start fleeing from around it back towards town where the gas was also headed. It was just horrific what was going on. We ready ourselves for one hell of a battle. Most of us clearers ended up heading towards the base of the volcano where the event boss was clearly visible: Rafe the Wreckingman. The only comfort was that Koharu told us that only she, Kirito, Sinon, and their timeline's Swiftdrawer fought it so with all of us fighting it, we had far more than a fighting chance. We could win but we also knew that it's wasn't going to be easy especially since the Death Guns came after all of us so we had to fight on 2 fronts to beat the boss and the Death Guns at the same time. It was really difficult to pull off the win that we managed to pull off.
It took just about everything we had to defeat all of our visible enemies: especially the boss. The Mad Scientist NPC even appeared along with XaXa shortly after we got forced into a 2 front battle. The NPC laughs: "Yes! I have done it! With the remains of that Pure Heart, I have brought back my dear friend at long last and he will destroy you all!" XaXa also laughs: "You may have fooled me but that doesn't mean your friend will end Death Gun. Instead, I'm going to kill you and let the clearers deal with your friend." In one of the few known incidents of an NPC dying for good, XaXa kills the Mad Scientist NPC brutally in cold blood. It was gruesome as well. When that was done, I saw him move to a location away from the battle as he once again projected his voice: "Clearers, I know you will survive this. However, I have the poison and that means that someday soon, I will use it to kill all of you." At the end of the battle, the boss was dead but so were many Death Guns and about 8 of our own, we had a ceremony for our dead. Something really dark has begun happening as I wrote previously. The bodies of our fallen comrades aren't disappearing anymore. Hell, none of the dead Death Guns are shattering into polygons either. Something has changed to cause them to stick around like real corpses. We had to loot the bodies instead of just collecting what the dead drop like we normally would in this awful death game. But once all of that was finally done and taken care of, it was time to finally move on. Squad Jam was going to happen soon but we were left under the impression that the 78th Floor would be opened before sign ups for it began.
That left us to prepare for that AND the 77th Floor Boss. By doing quests around the town we were in, us clearers eventually learned some likely outdated information on the Floor Boss. (In Integral Factor, this floor was featured for only about 40 minutes of gameplay tops. It's treated as an event floor in the game and so, we never get to see the Floor Boss on it be fought against through the actions of our characters in that game. Koharu and the others did have info on the boss though and shared it with all of us, filling in blanks from what the quests taught us.) A strategy meeting was of course held for the 77th Floor Boss and we found it near the volcano were the event boss was at. We were able to defeat the boss with concealed help from those who should still be dead. That made it easier to deal with than the 76th or 75th Floor Bosses. However, upon the shattering of the Floor Boss, that's when tragedy struck and it was nasty. It was now Day 862 by this point. But the date stopped mattering for some time after all of this. XaXa was responsible for what happened. We were cheering over our victory of the 77th Floor Boss. Liten yells: "We did it, everyone! After some preparations, it will be time for the next floor and Squad Jam as well!" The loud sound of the poison being deployed is heard and stops all of us dead in our tracks. Even though we had constantly made sure to keep ourselves protected from the poisonous mist/gas, that proved to be nothing and completely useless compared to the concocted poison. Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. The effects only took a few seconds to kick in. Most of us dropped like flies while displaying severe symptoms such as coughing, headaches, intense pain, rapid heart rate, purple skin, dying flesh, seeing things, and loss of consciousness,
It was far worse than any of us expected it to be, almost as if XaXa upgraded it to make it even more dangerous than it already was. After all, outside of this game, his dad works at a hospital. He has broken into that hospital with his brother to get things like the muscle relaxants used against past victims of Death Gun to kill them. XaXa appears in the midst of all of this, completely immune by the poison. As I myself dropped like a fly, I saw and heard him laugh harder than any villain has ever laughed up to this point in the game, himself included. I died again but used my unique skill to come back with a few buffs. The poison was still inside of me even though it had just killed me and I died again only to bring myself back one more time at which point the poison became less severe for me personally. I was able to have all of my senses still intact and not die again from the poison but the carnage was frightening beyond words. XaXa speaks: "I do not know how some of you have survived but this is the first phase of my final revenge. It was going to be the final phase but since some of you appear to have survived, I will simply finish my revenge in Squad Jam. My Death Guns and I will slaughter all of you and anyone else foolish enough to enter the tournament." And just like that, he vanishes right after saying that. The death toll was extremely high. That's what the few of us who survived thought at first and thus, we were at a loss and in great despair. But then, some kind of technical gamewide malfunction occurred. How did I know that? I started sensing Ki which is impossible inside of this game. Dominic sighs: "Something is happening. I can feel my abilities returning to me."
Things got weirder as the game itself appeared to warp and bend in unusual ways that you'd expect to see only in highly dangerous situations in which dimensions are being played with by some all powerful being. I'm not going to describe everything that happened as it's too much even for me to describe, understand, or comprehend but somehow, in the middle of all of the chaos of the malfunction event, most of our fallen comrades were soon found to be still alive, barely holding on with extremely low hp. It took hours to help them out as well as bury our dead. We lost 300 clearers due to XaXa's poison despite the malfunction that stopped the poison from killing most of our comrades. It was a heavy loss that sent shockwaves throughout the entire player population: the greatest loss of clearers in a long time if it wasn't by far the greatest loss. No one was really sure if there were any losses that were as huge or even more so in the past. We have been through far too much in this death game and we all desire to be free of this place with all the merged worlds returned to their original separate forms. It wasn't easy to move on from what happened. We spent weeks trying to. The 78th Floor was no longer on anyone's minds for the time being. The only thing really keeping us forward now is the coming Squad Jam where we will deal with XaXa once and for all or be massacred trying to. Squad Jam is where everything with him will finally be settled. It could be the end of Death Gun or the rise of Death Gun to a level like never before in the past.
Everything was riding on the outcome of Squad Jam now. On Day 887, Squad Jam sign ups were opened and hardly anyone could have waited much longer for them to. Most clearers didn't stay out of the tournament. No, they registered, making this Squad Jam a record breaking one in all ways. Fortunately, after the Infinityverse was cleared, most people forgot all about what happened during it to the point it's like the Squad Jam never actually happened. As discomforting as that sounds, it actually was really helpful for us given the circumstances of the death game. But anyway, the plan was for our teams to work together to bring down XaXa and pals. This would also serve as a chance to truly put Laughing Coffin in the grave once and for all. Every single player who still believed in Laughing Coffin was now clearly one of XaXa's Death Guns, it took a lot of information to come to that conclusion. This is where everything was going to end at long last. Tension was at an all time high. For the past weeks, we have dealt with constant attacks by Death Guns on the 77th Floor. As I said earlier, they just never truly stopped what they were trying to do to us. 43 more clearers were murdered by them in those weeks. They didn't even go after any mid or low level players or even the Assault Team reserves. Just the core Assault Team. Due to the loss of members, some reserve clearers joined the core team to replace them and grow its numbers further than ever before. The Death Guns represent an extremely violent and fanatical minority much like the TERF movement as well as white supremacists. They did a lot of things you'd expect fascist mobs and militias as well as police to do.
And some of their victims were even attacked at night while sleeping. The atmosphere in the GGO lobby area was not like it was during BoB. It was much darker. Most players who came to watch weren't lively at all. Death Gun has been fully established as a fear powerful enough for some young players to be tucked in at night while being told to not let Death Gun get them. It's like Death Gun has become a true boogeyman except as an actual threat rather than a seemingly made up one. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Boogeyman, and others had nothing on the fear Death Gun was causing all throughout Aincrad. A fear that never truly took root during the Death Gun incident some years ago for Kirito and Sinon. Hell, the sky had even darkened many hours early to show a midnight sky with shadows lerking at every single light source. There was a large silence in the GGO lobby area. Hardly anyone spoke. And for the teams made of clearers competing in Squad Jam, other players just stared at us as if to say: "Good luck. Don't die out there." It was chilling. No one said a word at this point. We just silently got ready for Squad Jam. Not even the GGO announcer for the Japanese server was speaking. She just made gestures at handwritten signs being held up towards the camera. But then, someone put a bullet through her. She slumped to the floor. XaXa appeared on camera: "It's time for Squad Jam to end all of your hopes and dreams. Death Gun is unstoppable. Death Gun is eternal."
The camera then turned off. And those of us competing were suddenly just teleported into the map for Squad Jam even though hardly any of us made it to the teleportation rooms. I teamed up with Llenn and friends. We were also joined by Sinon. We were Team LMFPSS. M speaks: "The first scan is in a few minutes. We need to move to an optimal position to watch the other teams and possibly team up with some of our comrades on other teams in the process of doing so." Pito is missing her usual excitement for highly dangerous and risky life or death thrills: "We have to kill that damn XaXa. There's no other choice." Llenn nods: "For once, you sound rational, Pito. You're right. We can enjoy ourselves when he and his Death Guns are brought down. And the only way to do that is to kill them. They won't resign. Unlike anyone else we might face. Us clearers all agreed to resign if our teams got hurt enough so that we don't get killed for good. Additionally, none of us will fire on other clearers with really low health who are to hide should resigning not be an option. After all, only the team leader of a squad can resign for the team." I add: "The rules for Squad Jam themselves have not changed as we saw through the announcer's verbal free communications in the broadcast before she was shot live by you know who." Sinon sighs: "This is going to be one of the greatest challenges any of us has ever had to face. It took a lot of effort to keep players who aren't clearers from entering too just like with BoB. It's far too dangerous to let any of them compete in this along with us and all of the Death Guns."
We start moving around in search of a vantage position. We find it but only some of us go up. In Squad Jam, only the locations of the team leaders are displayed on the map beginning with the first scan so we had Llenn go into an open area just to invite our foes to come at us. If a team leader dies, someone else becomes leader and that continues on and on until the last member dies in an ideal world. In actuality, the passing down of leadership isn't that simple given the chaotic nature of Squad Jam. That's how it's meant to work but ignores resigning and mass slaughter of teams. But still, it makes things less complicated in the end. Once the first scan is complete, Llenn runs to join us all now that we have all reached the vantage point. We all pull out guns and prepare to look out for any Death Guns. We then see several teams of Death Guns. They fell for our bait. M speaks: "Enemies coming towards Llenn's recorded location from all 4 major directions. We'll have to take down the closest team to our current location." Thus, we fire at the team coming from the south. They don't see us coming and fall like dominoes. Sinon speaks: "We've given away our position to our remaining foes in the area by doing what we just did. It was worth it but we'll have to change tactics in a very short time from now." The bodies of our foes will remain for a good while as immortal objects that can be used as body shields if needed. I reply: "You're right. We could use the bodies of the Death Guns we killed. Have someone hide behind them. As in, let Llenn hide behind them while the rest of us keep the enemy distracted long enough until she can get into position. But we have to be careful. Many incidents of Death Guns paralyzing players using copies of the trademark Death Gun have been recorded and observed.
They probably have some snipers around just itching to stop us from moving, allowing the rest of them to kill us up close and personal. We'll have to out-trick them in order to beat them. That's the only way we can get them and not allow them to get us. But we have to be fast. They're already responding to what we just did. They know we're right here." We end up scattering to make it hard for any snipers to shoot us down. But that just leaves us to the ire of the Death Guns on the ground who are clearly only having 5 members each right now, meaning that there's 3 snipers or even 4 around here up high where they can nail us good and easily. We hear the shots of the snipers every few seconds but they aren't able to get any of us as we pursue their friends on the ground. In the middle of the chaos, Llenn slipped away to hide behind the bodies of our dead foes, ready to shoot with a sniper gun herself. Sniper guns aren't her style but she's become very adaptable between GGO and this death game. I silently go for some of our foes while tanking their bullets. In time, we kill them all, even the snipers, though we got pretty hurt and it took until the 5th or 6th scan to finally defeat them. By then, a large number of teams had been eliminated but we had no time to pay attention to which teams were eliminated and which were still in the game. We then run into a downtown city area and take cover in an alleyway where we encounter more Death Guns who were planning on jumping us in that alleyway. But we saw that coming and fought them through 3 entire scans until we defeated them at the price of being nearly killed.
We were a mess now. If we didn't heal ourselves, we would leave behind blood wherever we went and that would draw enemies to our location even more than otherwise so we ran into a skyscraper of some kind until we made it to a middle floor. There, we healed ourselves and waited for the enemy to come. By being inside a building, the enemy couldn't easily find us right away. But the Death Guns were persistent. We knew they were going to find us eventually. So we just decided to stay where we were and let them come to us, leading to yet another bloody and violent brawl that only got larger by the minute. We were losing so much hp while also enduring all kinds of taunts and increasing our kill counts significantly. When we got a chance to rest, we would loot the dead Death Guns for anything they had on them at Llenn's insistence. Unlike in the first, second, and third Squad Jams, nothing funny happened. No magazine robbery or anything. All that happened was death. And more death. And more death. We could hear screams constantly as we fought for our lives against the Death Guns. We had no clue that XaXa would be able to round up so many players to become Death Guns. He really was finishing his final revenge. The revenge he was certain was going to work. 20 scans in and we were still killing inside of the skyscraper. We almost died many times and were slowly beginning to run out of healing items.
Sinon sighs: "When will this end? How many more Death Guns are coming for us?" We all check the map and see something we didn't see coming. Most of our comrades' teams are still on the map with only one team out of place: Team Death. That's clearly XaXa's team. We stay put just in case for 2 scans but Team Death doesn't move during either of those scans while some of the other teams actually head towards them from different directions. Llenn speaks: "Look at this. Team Death is inside of the dome. But why would they? That's one of the places on the map where you can easily get cornered and ambushed.." M replies: "It's a trap. 100% a trap. They must be hiding in the trees of the dome, ready to slaughter all of us before we even see them." Pito frowns: "Don't forget the grass." Fuka exclaims: "Then we just have to smoke them out with explosives!" I add: "We had better get a move on. The next scan's in 2 minutes. XaXa is really clever. I bet he knows everything about all of us but what he doesn't know is the surprise we have in store for him.. Soon, the other teams will do something drastic before the next scan as planned when XaXa's team becomes the only real enemy team left.. That's only step one of the surprise." And I was proven right as on the next scan, it shows that all of the teams have scattered to the corners of the map. In the scan after that, Team Death has moved a little inside the dome. Seeing that, we get moving. All of the teams on our side got a special teleportation device before the tournament began courtesy of all the scientists and builders in the Assault Team.
It allows us to go anywhere on the map instantly as long as we know where we want to go. We use ours to teleport instantly to right outside the dome. Fuka then yells when the other teams arrive: "Let's blow down this house!" All of us clearers get out stuff that can explode and set up as much of it as we can before backing away far from the dome and letting the likes of Anna and Fukaziroh unleash rocket missiles at what we set up. Seconds later, the entire dome is blown sky high along with the immediate surrounding area, creating a giant crater. Before someone says the cliche thing in a moment like this one, Sinon yells: "This isn't over yet!" When the dust and smoke clears, XaXa is revealed to be unharmed with 5 dead Death Guns around him. He smirks as we could see through his now cracked Death Gun mask and projects his voice again: "I knew you wouldn't fall for my trap. I knew you would counter it with something. I didn't know what it was so I had my last Death Guns take whatever you had planned for me. And now that all of my pathetic pawns are dead, the final part of my final revenge can begin at last! This will be a show that is seen throughout all of Aincrad and it will end in all of your deaths. So far in this tournament, 102 of your own have perished while 599 of my Death Guns have died, leaving me the only Death Gun alive. You do not know of what I have planned. I was disappointed at how my plan to wipe all of you out on the 77th Floor ended up playing out in largely failure. But now, you will all know true fear as I kill all of you one by one." We try to attack him at the same time but none of our attacks land. Instead, he starts knocking us down one by one by engaging in hand to hand combat.
When it was my turn to fight him, I noticed how many of us he had already brought down. We have to unleash our surprise on him. We're just waiting until he thinks it's surely hopeless for all of us now. Just waiting. When the waiting is over, our once thought to be gone forever comrades will join with us and we will try to turn the tables that way. There's too many of us for even XaXa to count. If he did count, he would notice that there's a huge mismatch in the number of us and the remaining teams even despite the actual mismatch clearly caused by 102 of us being killed in this tournament. Those of us who aren't known to be alive publicly are hiding around all of us. Just waiting. Just waiting. It's almost time. I block a hit by XaXa as soon as he comes at me with a sword and handgun. "Not bad for a weakling who refuses to accept being the killer that it is." "It?" "Yes. It." "I have no time to comment on how villainous you calling me an it despite the fact that I'm a they/them non binary is. I have to fight you and that's exactly what I shall do! HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I put every ounce of effort and strength into fighting him. I go all out with my sword, alternating between 2 handed and 1 handed techniques with ease. But nothing I do fazes or damages him. He was expecting every move I made even when I started to change weapons to use all of the fighting skills that I can in this death game. But still, I'm the only one getting hurt. My armor is holding up well but it has begun to take heavy damage already. After 2 minutes of fighting against him, my armor breaks, Im reduced to near death, and collapse onto my knees in a pool of my own blood. XaXa speaks: "You never had any chance against me. This is how it ends for you. I will return in time to finish you off after I defeat the rest of you weak clearers who never had a chance of truly stopping me."
Just like that, he moves onto the others and does the same thing to them. He even leaves Kirito and Sinon for last and fights them at the same time. The rest of us were too crushed and weak to say or do much of anything as he easily took down the both of them despite their flawless teamwork. When they fell to the ground, XaXa laughs: "You are all defeated and will begin dying quickly one by one. Our game starting multiple floors ago has been something. But now, it ends with the deaths of each of you. Death Gun wins. The Assault Team loses.. Everything. No one is escaping this game alive. All your hopes and dreams will now end with your deaths. All players will know no world except this one someday. I will also destroy everything you clearers leave behind including that thing called Twisted Land." Sinon gets back up despite how much it hurts and smirks: "This isn't over.. Not yet." "Sinon. It is over." "You do not understand, Death Gun. XaXa." "But it is over. I've won and no one will dare fight against me or my movement ever again. Death Gun is supreme." "You really don't get it, do you? *coughs heavily* We got you right where we want you." Suddenly, a whole bunch of individuals appear and remove identity concealing disguises. Some of them cast healing spells almost immediately, bringing those of us who were brought down back to full health through ALO magic. Barla yells: "We got you! Hell yeah!" He looks around at all of them: "This.. can't be.. How are all of you alive again?! You've all been dead for months if not years! ..*calms down* It does not matter. I will kill all of you no matter what you try to do next.
This is the last time you will ever manage to surprise me. My final revenge will be completed and attempts to stop it from being completed will easily be stopped. This is the end of the Assault Team. For good. It is your fate. It is your destiny. All of you will die and Death Gun will be supreme over Aincrad and the system that's been trying to destroy me." All of us suddenly take flight with our fairy wings. He chuckles and does so himself: "And what will flying change about your circumstances?" Yui replies: "Everything. We have all spent many hours practicing flying and even fighting while flying in secret." Klein cheers: "Let's go! I'm ready to get a piece of the action! As a samurai, it is my honorable duty to take a stand here!" Agil shakes his head but says: "Don't hog the spotlight. This is going to be a group effort. I plan on reviving my shop once Death Gun is taken care of here for good. We can figure out how to end this Squad Jam after Death Gun dies one way or another." Alice shouts: "It is time! We shall vanquish you, Red Eyes XaXa!" Eugeo adds: "This is our power as the Assault Team! Kirito! Let's do this! Together!" "Yes. Of course, Eugeo!" Eugene, the leader of the Salamanders in ALO yells: "No one hold anything back! We must fight as a united force with many independent parts!" The Cat Sith leader in ALO adds: "Do not hesitate! Let's try to have some fun today!" A past victim of Death Gun, Pale Rider states: "It is time for the nightmare of Death Gun to be shot dead."
Eva yells: "Let's just kill this damn bastard already!" Sachi exclaims: "It's all or nothing! You can count on us to help too!" Bray speaks: "We must cease talking now. The real battle shall begin here at last." A lot of us let out war cries as we try to hit XaXa but he evades even faster than ever before now that we've taken this to the skies above the GGO map. We fight and we fight but don't do any damage. XaXa laughs as he easily deals a lot of damage to all of us only for us to get healed: "You will not defeat me. I have become as powerful as the very system itself. I can impose all kinds of restrictions on all of you. I am immortal. I can control the very game itself. You cannot stop Death Gun. I am Death Gun just like my gun. We are Death Gun." Spectre smirks widely: "I wouldn't be so sure of that. Sunvine Thrasher, Sunavalon Dryanome, and all of my other deadly plants! I summon you to get XaXa!" The rest of us duelists finally activate our disks and summon our monsters. Tron laughs: "I activate one of Number 8's abilities! By using one overlay unit, it will steal all of your powers, Death Gun! HAHAHAHAHA! It's really good to be back to life in this game! Isn't that right, Kazuma?" Kazuma Tsukamo nods: "You have that right." "My Melodious monsters will now make some music!" XaXa laughs: "And how will this help you clearers defeat me?" Kaito smirks: "It won't. It was just a distraction and a way to increase our numbers and firepower while weakening you and taking your powers for a minute. Now for the next step in defeating you." Romeo grins: "It's time!" Yui nods: "It's time to take away your permissions, Death Gun! You won't have any power over this game for any longer!" Playmaker, Yui, Romeo, Heathcliff, Revolver, Ghost Gal, Akira Zaizen, Kaito, Orbital, and more do a lot of messing around with the system before they manage to override XaXa's permissions completely in order to erase them right off of him right as his powers are returned to him.
Ghost Gal smirks: "Your days of ultimate power are over, XaXa. We are going to defeat you." XaXa widens his eyes only to calm down again: "I don't need any of that power. I am still as strong as I can possibly get as a player. Even my gear has been upgraded and advanced to the highest points possible." Case in point, now that we were all attacking him again, our attacks were only doing 10 points of damage at first. Crow laughs: "You may be nearly unstoppable but that doesn't mean we won't find a way to defeat you anyway! And we aren't going to die so easily this time around! The Assault Team has never been this powerful before! It should be easy to defeat the next Floor Boss with this team and more around!" I add: "You are expiring, XaXa! There is a way to defeat you and it's coming closer within reach of being discovered by the second! Haaaaaa! No holding back! We're going to keep trying to defeat you with everything that we have and can give to this fight! The tide of battle has turned completely now. You can't predict what we do next anymore because many of us who should be dead are fighting you: right here and perfectly well and healthy. Isn't that right? You'll have to improvise now just like we largely have been against you." The ways we fight him from then on become spectacular. All kinds of action cards are found through activated action fields and used to slip away from the path of some of XaXa's attacks. The Minecraftians start building all kinds of things to use against our foe. But no matter what any of us do, the most damage we're doing a hit is 10. Most do 1 or 0 damage. We will not defeat him like this. Instead, he will just end up defeating all of us if this keeps going the way it's going.
Something has to change in order to turn the tables back again. But what? What will it take to defeat the last Death Gun who can argued to be the original Death Gun since it's his avatar that was used in the Death Gun incident. Alice shouts: "I see that many of us are still holding back and I'm not an exception to that. There's no point in holding back even just the slightest. We shall defeat Death Gun and it requires EVERYTHING that we have to give. Release Recollection! Go, my flowers!" "Night Sky Sword! Release Recollection! Turn XaXa into a tree!" "Release Recollection! Blue Rose Sword! Freeze our enemy in place!" "Heh, you kids sure are impressive. Time Splitting Sword. Let's use the axis of time against this enemy of ours, shall we?" "I must keep using my adapted moves! Great Infernal Tornado Slash!" "My Galaxy Eyes dragons! Let XaXa have it! Help destroy the bastard who stands in our way!" "Go, Hope Beyond! Hope Ray Victory! Hope Ray V! Hope Ray! And Hope, King Of Wishes!" "Shooting Quasar Dragon, attack with all of your cosmic might!" "P-Chan! Let's win this!" "Roger that, Llenn. Let's do this!" "Hahahahaha! Now I'm having fun again!" "The enemy won't be able to stop all of these attacks. In fact, we have him right where we want her. Don't lose control again, Pito. We don't need that right now." "Ladies! Let's show this guy everything we have! Consider this to be Operation Sweets Plus Ultra!" "Oh yeah! I'm fired up! The warrior in me is hyped and I'm excited for what's aboit to happen!" "Don't get careless, Kakarot!"
"My my. This is going in a way even XaXa didn't plan for. I'll use this as inspiration for one of my future experiments." "For the pain XaXa has caused, he will experience true pain as he cannot be changed from his ways of evil. Even without my Rinnegan, I can see that." "Ponies! Let's show them we can help bring this to an end as well!" XaXa tries to kill us all but is too slow for the healing spells of the healers to keep going into effect. He is so far evading our attacks but we aren't going to stop delivering them just because of that. No, that only makes us work harder to do so again and again. Death Gun attempts to kill the members of the support team only to get a taste of sneak attacks by Carlos and others well versed in that form of attacking. At this rate, the entire Squad Jam map that we're flying above is going to end up flattened until there's nothing left but dirt, sand, and stone. Oh and fallen trees, dust, and all other kinds of debris. The neighborhood house area is already gone much like the dome close to the center of the map. He isn't being dealt much damage and keeps nearly killing some of us but we just don't stop fighting against him for even a second. In fact, XaXa just becomes more and more predictable, allowing us to deal with him more and more easily. Thanks to this, I am able to get enough time to pull something that may do some actual serious damage. I shout while placing down one of my full circuit death coasters before removing the last piece of track on it: "My col balance may have almost reached 0 just now but it was needed! Let's get Death Gun onto the roller coaster!" Many would laugh at that if the situation still weren't dangerous and serious.
We work together to make him ride it. I put it in test mode while some of the others hold him down to the best of their efforts. The restraints lock on XaXa and without admin perms, there was no way he could get out of them now. Those who held him down back away. A few seconds later, the coaster launched and under a second after it did, we see a rocketing blur hit the top barrier of the GGO map before losing momentum, plummeting to the ground, hitting the ground, moving due to the impact of hitting the ground, and exploding while hitting one of the other barrier walls of the map. XaXa emerged out of it with 5% of his health taken away. I delete my coaster to get my col back. This among several other things marked the ultimate downfall of Death Gun. We began to outsmart him again and again from there, causing him to slowly weaken more and more. Not even his gear was so tough anymore. Even perfect gear in this game has its limits and the death coaster's g forces were too much for it to handle. Now, we were in the final stretch of the final battle with Death Gun. He brings all of us down to low health and almost manages to start slaughtering us all despite everything we've put him through up to now. However, fortune would turn away from him once more after we landed back onto the ground. Thinking that meant we all needed to rest, he prepared to attack us again only for us to start throwing things at him which was much more precise standing stay than while flying around in the air. All of that led up to another chaotic Switch technique that was too much for him. The attacks kept coming and they didn't stop coming until they actually did. Our foe was in shock as we were now completely overpowering him.
We were throwing dead bodies still located on the map at him and using them as shields at times. The bullet lines were used to distract him a lot. And some of us even started loudly being annoying. Against all of that, just like with The Gleam Eyes, his brain became incapable of counteracting everything that was going on. It was a complete information overload for his mind. And that quickly caught up with him especially as his emotions began to flare out of control. XaXa had been trying too hard to stay calm in a killer's way and that was costing him now. He also has been clearly affected by the fact that his brother was killed. Despite being a serial killer, he actually still cared about his brother and I hope we can bring his brother back and to back how he was before this game started. XaXa doesn't show his grief but we've caught glimpses and rumors of it every so often. After some time, now that his brain just couldn't take it anymore, he was lashing out with all sense of rationality gone. That made him easy to take down. It happened so fast too. One moment, he was going wild. The next, he was dead. Death Gun is over. And all of us decided to have all of our teams resign from Squad Jam at the same time, creating an absurdly large draw that would never be broken. Now that Death Gun was finished, no one cared about that finish. All of Aincrad saw the fall of XaXa live. It was truly unforgettable. Overnight, most of the fear of Death Gun vanished since it was undeniable that he was dead. So many players and NPCs alike saw his death. Now that was something to celebrate. I chose not to partake in the resulting festivities. I just wanted to keep getting stronger, prepare for what's to come, and spend time with those I love. By the next afternoon, Leuer was singing a bard's song about the battle with XaXa.
It was ridiculous and embellished some things, leading to Typhon arguing with him and Mater calling him annoying again. Stilla just laughed. I sweat drop hearing all of that go on as I was invited to hear Leuer sing live at an inn. On Day 894, we defeated the 78th Floor Boss without losing anyone and didn't have much trouble doing it. We got a lot of stuff from taking down XaXa and his last Death Guns. That helped us quickly prepare for the 78th Floor after Squad Jam ended. And now, it was onto the 79th Floor on Day 900. Dead on the 900th day. Fitting. We prepared everything and everything and everything. Why? Because POH and Subtilizer have started to be spotted all over Aincrad. Those 2 monsters were waiting for Death Gun to fall before getting into action. And we knew that things were going to be even worse than with Death Gun considering it was those 2 at the same time. So here's what happened when we got to the 79th Floor. It was made public that Klein, Agil, Bray, and the many others we had lost throughout Aincrad were alive and well as seen live through Squad Jam. That and the fall of Death Gun renewed hopes in the Assault Team as well as clearing the game. In the 'underworld', all talk of Death Gun transformed into gossip about how he failed as well as the fact that those who still sympathized with him or were alive with some of his money in their hands due to tricking him should consider thinking again about what they really thought about Death Gun. XaXa's movement finally died with him, no one wanted to join it anymore. It was over.
Anyway, we get to the floor only to encounter POH and Subtilizer. They both smirk at us. POH laughs: "It is almost time, clearers! We're going to get our revenge and more! And Kirito! You bastard! We have a score to settle!" Subtilizer licks his lips: "I look forward to having a taste of so many delicious souls." They make further threats and promise to wipe us out unlike Death Gun. Sinon speaks after they left by vanishing before our eyes which was nothing new obviously: "Those two.. They gave me chills looking at them.." Kirito nods: "We'll settle things with them and then, it will be time to stop Quinella before eventually defeating the final boss of Aincrad: An Incarnation Of The Radius!" To be continued..