Chapter 1 (2/2)

Her short character with a frame of less than 150 cm was a considerably rare sight.

In this world full of rough and rigid people, both player characters and non-player characters(NPC) controlled by computers, she only attracted attention.

If she walked through a town in a valley of skysc.r.a.pers in this SF world, overflowing with gaudyneon,

“Uwaa! How tiny!”

“What is that……? A girl? A boy?”

“Have you ever seen anything like this? There’s a kid in the game……”

“Cute, huh, oi.”

“It’s so small. There are even avatars like that.”

“An NPC?”

Everyone unanimously muttered about LLENN.

Each time this occurred, LLENN could not contain the impulse to slacken her lips; letting anyone see her reaction would be embarra.s.sing, so she covered everything below her nose with abandana.

Just enjoying a virtual chibi was considerably fun on its own, but deep down LLENN was a serious person, and she had begun playing a game after going through all that trouble, so she figured that she should try fighting. Isn’t someone small and strong cool?

In games, there was usually a training course aimed at beginners called a ‘tutorial’.

In GGO’s case, an NPC demon instructor would have the player experience every single piece of knowledge he had, starting from how to shoot with a gun, to how to conceal oneself during a battle, the appearance and weaknesses of all sorts of monsters, how to find them and so on.

Some time ago, Miyu said:

『You don’t need to take a tutorial! That is just a big waste of time! If you listen to your comrades, you’ll naturally learn what you need! It’s a an on-the-spot decision-making kind of thing! An on-the-job-training!』

And things like that, but Karen was suited for silently training on her own. In the first place, she did not have any comrades.

Thus, LLENN mastered how to use guns, which she had never touched in her whole life, in thevirtual world.

She even studied matters concerning the GGO-specific a.s.sistance feature, the ≪Bullet Circle≫, in-depth.

Called the ≪trajectory prediction circledandō yosoku maru≫(5) in j.a.panese, it was an a.s.sistance system that told the person on the offense where their bullets would hit.

Touching the gun’s trigger with one’s finger would switch the feature on, and a light green circle, in other words, a circlemaru, would appear before one’s eyes. A bullet would randomly hit somewhere within the circle, fluctuating between being big and small.

The size of the circle would change depending on the distance to the target, the gun’s performance, and the player’s own abilities. And so, the contraction of the circle wa.s.synchronised with the user’s heartbeat.

In other words, if the user is constantly tense with their heart pounding heavily, the circle will violently contract and one’s aim will not be stable. Although it can be disregarded in close-range battles where the target appeared to be large, it truly is important in long-range sniping.

In the tutorial, there was a course called 【Learn long-range sniping!】, but the „calm yourself down, then aim“ was the least successful session for LLENN. With her considerably poor results, the NPC instructor kept becoming angry.

“Yeah, let’s stop using sniper rifles.”

Humans were beings that had both their strengths and their weak points. LLENN completely gave up on sniping without any regrets.

On the contrary, as she got an unexpectedly high score at nimbly aiming and shooting at nearby opponents, a technique called ≪snapshot≫, the instructor,

『Yep! Submachine guns are the most suitable for you!』

Gave her such a recommendation.

Thus, the honest to a fault LLENN who cleared the tutorial entirely began farming monsters by herself.

As for her first farming session, she attacked monsters walking sluggishly, which looked like a crossbreed between a pig and an ostrich, in a hilly area a short distance away from the city.

Although after seeing most of the monsters, LLENN considered shooting them to be a pity, she surprisingly pulled the trigger of the optical gun without any resistance.

As the spot that was struck only s.h.i.+ned red as a hit effect, and since monsters dispersed into fragments and then disappeared upon dying, the resulting feeling of „hurting and killing“ the creature was rather light.

LLENN earnestly enjoyed the game. She practised the things she was taught one by one; even after she was killed by monsters that she had no absolutely no chance of winning against, she contemplated on where she went wrong.

Whenever she encountered monsters that she could not defeat by any means, she peeked atInternet walkthrough sites and learned the proper method to defeat them.

Plain effort resulted in her steady progress. LLENN continued killing monsters and steadily earning experience points, as well as credits, in other words, the money that could be used within the game.

As her experience points increased, she was able to gain attribute points.

These points would then be distributed among the six stats: strength, agility, vitality (endurance), dexterity, sensibility and luck, to build „oneself to one’s tastes“.

'Since I obtained a short-build avatar after great pains, by increasing my agility, I would be able to run faster. I want to raise my dexterity as well to be able to produce something. Luck would probably be nice and would be helpful. If I don’t have sufficient strength, there will be guns that I won’t be able to fire, so the stat sounds reasonable. I’m not planning on getting hit and I don’t mind being frail, so I have no need for vitality. Sensibility? No clue.'

As LLENN considered that, she proceeded to raise her agility and dexterity as her main stats, as well as strength and luck as her sub stats. Her trauma of always being the last one in footraces due to the hugeness of her body influenced her decision considerably.

As her on-hand credits increased, she was able to purchase an additional weapon and equipment. LLENN bought a submachine gun-type firearm with a high rapid-fire ability to replace her optical gun.

And then, deliberating on the use for the remaining credits, she decided to spend them for changing her attire. As she got her hands on a cute body after great pains, she desired to wear girlish, cute clothes as well.

In a savage SF world like GGO, this was a wrong decision no matter how one thought about it, but LLENN herself did not mind.

LLENN went to the town’s tailor―― or more like a combat uniform shop, and excitedly searched for cute clothes.

Since this was GGO, there naturally weren’t any clothes with frills. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find the lolita clothes that she had been yearning for ever since she was a junior high school student and had seen them in a magazine but had to give up on them as they had no chance of suiting her eucalyptus tree-like self.

What she discovered instead was a system that allowed the colour of the initial equipment that she was wearing to be changed to one’s favourite colour. As expected from a game world.

In that case, LLENN desired pink.

No matter how much she yearned for cute and lovely pink clothes, she was unable to wear them in the real world. Although they would absolutely not suit Karen, she was sure that they would suit LLENN.

The sole shade of pink available in the colour sample, unfortunately, wasn’t the highly bright and vivid one that she had once yearned for. It was a dusky pink that she hadn’t really seen much in reality.

Well, even so, pink was pink. LLENN changed her combat uniform to that colour from top to bottom: her short boots, bandana, gloves, equipment belt and even the knit cap that was meant for holding down her hair in battle, all of them were changed to the same pink.

Having been reborn by changing the colour of her entire body to pink and with her heart pounding as she left the shop, LLENN looked at the self that was reflected in the display window(6), and…

“…………”

Looking at it, she frowned in silence. That’s right. There was still a part that wasn’t in pink. LLENN rushed to a weapon custom shop and requested a paint job.

She had both the optical gun, which she carried on her shoulder, and the deep gray gun painted in the same pink as her clothes.

Thus, LLENN became completely pink from top to bottom, like a famous photogenic celebrity couple, even as far as the grim weapon in her hands being pink.

Seeing LLENN like this in town, even though there were people who laughed as they thought it was weird, at the same time, there were also people would call her cute.

There were also those who were curious to know whether she was a boy, or a girl, as her short hair made it hard to recognise her gender.

Of course, LLENN didn’t worry about it, as she liked what she had done and thought that this was, after all, inside a game and n.o.body knew her true self.

However, wearing pink downtown like this was her first, and final time.

LLENN killed another player for the first time, shortly afterward.

LLENN, who had enough fun farming monsters, had no desire for activities like going into a firefight with other players and killing them. She persistently aimed her gun only at monsters. Although this was a game, she did not want to overdo it by „murdering“.

That day, LLENN was, as always, farming monsters in a discoloured wasteland by herself.

Although the sun could be seen high up in the slightly cloudy sky, as always, the sky and world were dyed in red, and the morning looked like evening. Setting-wise, during the last war, even the atmosphere of this Earth was destroyed or something.

In a „farming ground“, dotted with tanks that were rusting on the ground littered with rocks, LLENN was waiting for the appearance of monsters.

This time, a monster, which looked like a crocodile with its body changed to a cow’s, had settled down in a hole dug under the tanks.

LLENN laid mines around one of the tanks, and fixed thin wires close to the ground. As she had raised her dexterity stat, she became able to set up such a trap.

If a giant crocodile that came out of the hole triggered it, a sound and explosion would notify her.

Then, she would close the distance in one breath, and, nimbly avoiding the attacks of her opponent, she would ceaselessly fire at it from point-blank range. That was LLENN’s usual farming technique.

LLENN had free time while she waited, so, as usual, she was listening to music while sitting and leaning against a rock a short distance away. The music player and earphones materialised as items allowed her to listen to the music source data entered into her own AmuSphere.

With her gun in her hands, and clad entirely in pink clothes and equipment, she was the sole person in the wasteland that faded into dusk.

LLENN enjoyed what she would be completely unable to do in reality. Sometimes she would manipulate her menu screen and take out a thermos flask with warm tea from her ≪storage≫, in other words, an item vault, and drink it carefreely.

The storage was a „transparent bag“ kind of thing. Here, items could be placed, so that the person wouldn’t need to carry them on hand.

However, there was a permitted weight limit, determined by her strength parameter, thus one would not be able to store anything and everything. The maximum weight that could be put into one’s storage and the maximum weight that she could practically carry herself were the same.

To take out the contents of the storage, it was necessary to wave one’s hand in the air and manipulate the screen of a window. No matter how fast one was, such an action would still require several seconds, thus it was impossible to put away weapons and ammunition that one would want to use right away.

Normally, one should fill their storage with weapons and medicine, but――

“Ah, the tea is delicious.”

LLENN put in a thermos flask and snacks, even though it decreased the amount of weapon ammunition that she could carry.

In VR games, it was possible to artificially experience even the sense of taste. There was no one who wouldn’t use it. As no matter how much one drank and ate, one would never gain weight.

Once the Mozart’s piece that she was listening to ended, LLENN switched to „Kanzaki Elza’s“ alb.u.m.

Elza was a booming female singer and songwriter.

She was an artist with a clear voice who sang gentle lyrics alongside a melody, which gave the impression of cla.s.sical music. Under the influence of her friends, Karen also became a complete fan of the singer.

LLENN enjoyed her feminine, light, and perfectly clear singing voice in a world that had fallen into ruins. When that alb.u.m ended, as she couldn’t hear the sound of an explosion, she wondered whether today’s ambush had been in vain. But, after enjoying a satisfactory picnic, should she return to the real world?――

Just as LLENN was considering this, humans appeared before her eyes.

Weren’t those three men, who appeared around 200 metres away from the other side of the shade of a rock right in front of where LLENN was sitting, walking straight towards her? As they were ascending a slope, she didn’t notice them until they climbed up.

All the members were machos without exception, wearing extra clothes with attached protectors that made it look like armour, and each of them carried a large optical weapon on their backs via a sling.

In this game, if one encountered other players in a field――

If they weren’t very good acquaintances of a close friend, the beginning of the encounter wouldn’t be a conversation, but a gunfight. There were even people who would say „Talking via gunfights is what GGO is about!“ or something like that.

The three were getting closer.

The other party had several people, who looked somewhat strong. On the other hand, she was alone, and to make matters worse, had no experience in battles against people.

LLENN was engulfed in a fear stronger than when she first encountered a large monster. And at the same time, the number of question marks in her head kept multiplying and exploded.

‘Should I run and escape?’

No, before that, the most important one――

‘Why were they coming straight towards me? And while carrying guns!’

LLENN continued observing without moving. Before long, the distance separating her and the men decreased to 30 metres, and she could even hear the wind carrying their voices, talking cheerfully about gun performance.

LLENN realised. That „they haven’t noticed me“. That they were completely unaware of her existence.

The men continued to come closer, and before long, only 10 metres separated them――

The moment, which was extremely unfortunate for them, and which decisively changed LLENN’s playstyle in GGO, came.

First of all, and explosion took place behind LLENN, the point the men were advancing towards.

At that moment, the giant crocodile that LLENN was hunting finally fell for her trap. Of course, the men did not know about that. The three men, who were startled by the abrupt explosion and fell into a panic, had their eyes caught by the sand soaring on the other side of the rock, and completely failed to notice that LLENN started moving right before their eyes.

The explosion shook off LLENN’s fear. Given the situation, all her actions were already made out of desperation. She decided to leave it all to chance.

LLENN grabbed the gun on her knees, aimed it at the closest man and discharged it in rapid-fire. The man’s anti-light bullet defence field weakened LLENN’s bullets, but she continued firing at him ceaselessly without any concern, and before long, after who knows how many shots, she managed to hit his face from point-blank range. At that moment, LLENN was within a 2 metre radius of the other two. While looking up towards the tall men, LLENN fired, fired and fired ceaselessly.

And so, when her rage that lasted merely around 10 seconds had settled down, the figures of the three men were no longer there. All of them, shot from extremely close range, had their hit points shaved off, and had „died“.

All that remained in the desert was LLENN with her heart pounding in excitement, and the giant crocodile that was hurt by the trap and was growling in pain next to a tank.

Why didn’t those three notice me?

Having eased the pain of the giant crocodile, LLENN was troubled for a moment, when,

“Could it be……”

She came up with one hypothesis.

LLENN placed her pink optical gun in the shade of the rock where she had been hiding, then tried moving a little to the side. She understood that her hypothesis was correct with just a glimpse.

It could not be seen. The gun that she placed in the shadow a moment ago.

In the reddish atmosphere of GGO's world similar to a constant evening twilight, LLENN’s dusky pink blended in with the rock’s tawny brown soil and sand, making it very difficult to see the gun. With the current amount of light, it was completely impossible to see it.

“This is interesting…… This could come in handy……”

LLENN muttered.

Thereafter, LLENN completely stopped wearing pink garments in town. As a precaution to avoid revenge.

She instead wore a newly bought, common green combat uniform, with a robe that came with an olive brown hood that covered her face and entire body. She looked as if she was a child who had put on a blanket and was playing a ghost, but it was of course less eye-catching than an entirelypink body.

And then, she would go to a wasteland or desert field, change to her favourite pink in a place where n.o.body could see her, and begin her ambush. Basically, she would farm monsters just as she did before, but if she happened to see another player――

She would mercilessly switch her prey.

If the opponent moved towards her, she would conceal herself and wait. Without a single twitch.

Then, when she had grasped the number of people that she could kill (though it was usually one, at most two), she would jump out at point-blank range and mercilessly shoot her target until he died.

Right as she started the game, she thought „if possible, I don’t want to shoot human(-like things)“―― but she had completely forgotten about it.

If it was even slightly unreasonable, whether it was because there were too many of them, or that they wouldn’t come close enough, or that their arms were outstanding and the targets were strong etc., then she definitely wouldn’t take action. While continuing to hide, she would gradually retreat, and silently let them pa.s.s.

Thus, LLENN became addicted to the fun of battling against people.

This reminded her of playing tag, hide and seek or cops and robbers with her siblings and friends when she was a child.

The feeling of her heart pounding while hiding. The feeling of nervousness of being found. And, in addition to those―― a sense of superiority of „shooting her opponents to death“.

That's right, was this what fighting seriously in a game was about? What enjoying a match was about?

Having deepened her knowledge, LLENN, who had up until now made fun of gamers around the world, apologised to them in her mind.

Earning experience points via monster farming and battling against players, LLENN further increased her agility stat, thus being able to move more and more nimbly, as well as being being able to run increasingly faster.

LLENN completely didn’t notice but――

This style of increasing agilitybinshō seinō, or agility, AGI for short, was called the ≪AGI superiority theory≫, and these days in GGO, it was judged to be „the most effective build in battles against people“.

With her earned credits, LLENN procured a live-ammunition gun suited for battles against people.

Using her budget and knowledge to the utmost, what LLENN picked was a ≪Škorpion vz. 61≫ made in the old Czechoslovakia.

With its stock folded, its overall length was 27 cm, and it was one of the smallest and most lightweight submachine guns in the world. Although it used a small caliber meant for pistols, just by pulling its trigger the gun could discharge all 30 bullets in a magazine in just under 2 seconds. It was a gun that had the demerit of having low firepower, but had the merit of having a weak recoil, resulting in high accuracy.

LLENN bought „2“ of them. She removed both of their stocks and, as expected, painted the gunspink.

LLENN’s way of fighting was „certain kill with one blow“, like the sting of a scorpion.

When other players came within approximately 10 metres of the location she was hiding in―― she would jump out towards her opponents while carrying the Škorpions in her hands, and show off her agility.

And then, as she pointed the tip of her muzzles towards her opponents’ heads, as if to stab them from below, she would ceaselessly attack. If her opponent was alone - with the Škorpion in her right hand; if there were two of them - she would quickly handle the other with the Škorpion in her left hand.

In GGO, there was a system called ≪Bullet Lines≫. In j.a.panese, it would be ≪trajectory prediction linesdandō yosoku sen≫.

This was a red line that would be seen by a character who was being targeted by a muzzle, excluding the initial bullet when the victim was not aware of the presence of the a.s.sailant, like when they were sniping or ambus.h.i.+ng. It was something that enabled one to see the trajectory of the incoming bullets in advance, allowing for evasive action.

Of course, there was no such thing in reality; it was defense system a.s.sistance function that was created to increase the enjoyment of the game.

Seeing the Bullet Lines and taking the minimum necessary action to avoid them was the basis of battles against people in GGO.

However, even that wasn’t useful in cases of „being shot from around 3 metres, when the bullets would be suddenly fired at about the same time the muzzle is aimed“.

What LLENN created was a truly vulgar „way of killing“, like that of the eastern a.s.sa.s.sins during the cold war between the east and west, that demonstrated the special characteristics of the gun.

Thus, LLENN steadily increased her spoils at every chance she had. One day she would kill amonster, another day, she would decisively kill some poor guy.

And so, eventually…

『An unidentified, dreadful player killer has been ambus.h.i.+ng in a desert field. It’s been said that a number of solo players have been killed without even getting the time to note the attacker’s appearance.』

Such a rumour reached LLENN’s ears as she was walking through town while wearing a robe.

There was even a notice for the recruitment of a subjugation party that would have someone be a decoy to find the PK b.a.s.t.a.r.d and ascertain their true ident.i.ty. It seems that they even offered a reward.

As expected, this weighed heavily on LLENN, and she stopped her ambushes, which came off as cowardice, in the desert.

Thereafter, she would usually dress in green camouflage and farm monsters in a forest field, or leisurely enjoy an adventure in some historical site or ruins.

As the third month after she started playing the game began――

By playing untiringly, LLENN procured strength that could be said to be on the level of a centre fielder. Though the person herself was not aware of this.

That’s when she met the female player named „Pitohui“.

NOTES

1. ^ The English word “mansion” was used in this case; however, the word is usually used in the sense of “large apartment” or “apartment house” in j.a.panese.

2. ^ A jou (畳) is a traditional j.a.panese unit used for measuring the size of a room. It is equal to 1.653 square metres (the size of a Nagoya tatami mat).

3. ^ Abbreviation for “science fiction”.

4. ^ The j.a.panese version is the “u” from “utsukus.h.i.+sa” (美しさ)

5. ^ Sigsawa uses 弾道予測円 as the translation for the Engrish term “bullet circle”. However, Kawahara translated the term as 着弾予測円 (impact prediction circle, chakudan yosoku maru).

6. ^ Literally, it's “show window” in Engrish.

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