Chapter 2 (2/2)
“As for my sidearm pistol, it’s a ≪Colt Double Eagle≫! It’s a double-action auto gun based on Colt’s Government, but its appearance and ability are poor, so it’s not a popular gun! Well, as soon as I heard that it was in GGO, I looked for it! I found out that a collector had it, so I piled up my credits and bought it!”
Pitohui was a strong character who had been playing for a long time, but even so, she possessed a lot of expensive, rare, strange and unconventional guns.
One day, during the waiting period of their farming session, LLENN couldn’t hold back her curiosity any longer and asked how she obtained that many credits.
“Ah, through the ≪real money trade≫, of course.”
Pitohui quickly told her about it.
Real money trade, abbreviated as RMT, is the act of exchanging the real world’s electronicmoney for in-game credits and items.
GGO was currently the only VR game that officially allowed interchanging in-game currency with the real world’s electronic money. For that reason, in GGO there were pro players who would obtain „sellable” items by playing the game and selling them to earn a living.
Pitohui took advantage of her RL financial power. Such a playstyle was frequently flamed by people who thought that games were about putting in extraneous effort to obtain the items. However, everyone was free to choose their own playstyle, and, most importantly, it wasn’t prohibited by the system, so though it was sad, they were just the cries of the poorer players who were jealous..
Pitohui was rich in the real world. At the very least, to the extent of inexorably investing in agame. LLENN knew just this one thing about her RL. Because of this,
“Today’s gun is a ≪Remington M870≫! Speaking of pump action shotguns, it’s cliched. Wanna try shooting with it? Come on, shoot!”
“Finally, I got my hands on it! An ≪M16≫! Look closely, it’s not an ≪M16A1≫! It the originalmodel M16!”
“Today, I’ve brought five guns, all of them automatic pistols using 9 mm Parabellum bullets. I’ll explain, firstly this is――”
LLENN was told a considerable variety of details regarding small arms.
She would try firing guns that her strength value allowed her to hold, but
“Well? Well?”
“Yeah. It was fun shooting with it, but……”
“Just as I thought, you’re set on P-chan, huh.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re earnest. LLENN-chan! And here I thought that you wanted to try shooting using all the live-ammunition guns in GGO has to offer!”
Pitohui cried out. And then,
“LLENN-chan, do you know about ≪anti-materieltaibutsu rifles≫?”
“I have heard the name, but that’s it.”
“Well then, Onee-san shall explain! A taibutsu rifle, anti-materiel rifle in English, is well, simply put, it’s a gun that uses the hugest bullets by far.”
“What do you mean by huge?”
“Ordinary a.s.sault rifles have a calibre of 5.56 mm or 7.62 mm, right, but one that has a calibre of 12.7 mm or higher is usually called a „taibutsu rifle“. These are bullets of a heavy machine gun. They are such large bullets that during World War II, they were equipped on fighter aircrafts.”
“I can’t even imagine it, but if the bullets are big, then the gun’s power is also high?”
“Naturally. 5.56 mm bullets can only be used up to around 400 metres, 7.62 mm bullets can only be used up to around 800 metres, but if you use 12.7 mm bullets, you can fire at a target that’s over 1000 metres away.
“A thousand metres? 1 km?”
“An unthinkably long distance, right? Of course, the gun is equally large and heavy! The required strength value is extremely high.”
“It’s probably impossible for me, huh……”
“Well, the gun is around as large as you are tall, LLENN-chan.”
“Tee-hee”
“Why are you happy? ――This kind of large rifle was called an ≪anti-tank rifle≫ until the Second World War, but then tanks became st.u.r.dier and harder to destroy, so they changed its name. It’s used as a gun that’s suitable for things like long-range sniping, or attacking enemy resources. Although it’s big, it can be used by a single person, so it’s convenient.”
“Hmm. A large gun that can be used to aim far, huh. Then, if you have one, would you be the strongest in the game?
“No, not at all.”
“What?”
“At any rate, it’s large and heavy, so the strength value requirement seems to be equally large. Super long-range sniping itself requires skill. Well, you wouldn’t be able to use it if you’re not overly absorbed in it, right? Since it’s a very very very rare gun, you can’t let your guard down as a shock defeat can cause you to lose it as a random drop.”
“Even so, Pito-san, you want to have one……”
“Right! I want to decorate the gun locker in my room with it! ――In the server, it’s said that there are only around 10 guns of this cla.s.s; they are extremely expensive and n.o.body sells them. Actually, I know one character who has one. And what’s more, she’s a girl player.”
“What! Leaving aside the gun, the fact that she’s a female player surprised me.”
“She's called Sinon, don’t you know her? The blue-haired girl.”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Well, it’s fine. That Sinon-chan defeated a monster somewhere in an underground ruinsdungeon, and what she got as a drop was a taibutsu rifle called ≪Hecate II≫. After hearing that she really really cared for it, I looked for her, found her, and tried saying something to her. „h.e.l.lo! Sell me your Hecate II!“ to be precise.”
“Pito-saan, did you really think that it was for sale……?”
“It was hopeless! She was such an inflexible girl!
“…………”
LLENN knew that Pitohui was extremely rich and was a gun maniac (and so she had a few problems with her personality), but aside from that, everything else was mostly a mystery.
Once, on the way towards a farming session in a wilderness, LLENN,
“Pito-san, what are your hobbies?”
Inadvertently asked something that made it sound like they were in a formal marriage interview.
“Huh?…… Hmm, aside from this game? I don’t have any.”
She received such an answer from Pitohui.
Since she ended up asking about it, she had to say something about herself――
LLENN shared various things about her own hobby, music, such as that she frequently listed tocla.s.sical music or movie soundtracks, that her current favourite singer was Kanzaki Elza, and Pitohui gave a weak reply,
“Music, huh…… I mostly don’t listen to any.”
“Is that so? That’s unexpected……”
LLENN said honestly, and then
“Really?”
Pitohui, giving an expression of surprise, answered.
“For some reason, I arbitrarily thought that you, Pito-san, liked music.”
“Hu, would you be surprised if you saw that the real me can’t even read a musical score?”
“…………No, sorry. Let’s end the talk about RL here.”
Apologising, LLENN tried to stop the conversation, but against her expectations, Pitohui said,
“Well, since I have become good friends with you LLENN-chan, I think that we can probably even meet IRL and you could teach me in person. A so called offline meeting. How about you, LLENN? Do you have the guts, or should I say, resolution for it?”
LLENN thought about her absurdly tall self IRL for a few seconds and,
“Pito-san…… you would probably…… be surprised, I think……”
Answered in keigo.
Usually, if she used keigo, Pitohui would definitely tell her off for that, but just this time, she did not say a word about it. Instead, seeing LLENN shrinking her small body, she smiled.
“Then, let’s do it! Some day, when you, LLENN-chan, are able to win against me in a head-on match, let’s meet IRL! Wherever your house is throughout j.a.pan, I’ll come to meet you!”
It was a mystery how their talk ended up like this, but LLENN did not dare to retort. Instead,
“Me, beating Pito-san in GGO……? L-like that’s ever going to happen!”
“Then promise me! Until then, train yourself in GGO and some day, using P-chan, try to utterly slaughter me!”
“U――understood! No, gotcha!(3) Some day, for sure, I am going to, defeat Pito-san.”
“Yep, good answer. Then, the oath kinchou!(4)”
“Kinchou?”
“Hitting each other’s metal as proof of an oath. It was popular in the Edo period(5), don’t you remember?”
“Pito-san…… Are you over a hundred and seventy years-old IRL?”
“Still a secret. So, if we were samurais, we’d use a katana and a tsuba(6), while girls use mirrors, but we don’t have either, so we’ll do it with guns! Now! ――One day, we’ll take part in a serious match, and if I lose, I’ll meet with LLENN IRL! That’s a girl’s promise!”
And so, the two raised their guns in the wasteland. The P90’s muzzle and Pitohui’s ≪SKSCarbine’s≫ barrel knocked together and a dry metallic sound resounded.
At that moment, LLENN did not understand what the smiling Pitohui was thinking, but thought,
‘That’s impossible, such a day will never come.’
Around 1 month after that promise was made, on 18th January, 2026. While on their way back from a farming session――
LLENN heard about the Squad Jam.
NOTES
1. ^ Nanpa (ナンパ) is a type of flirting and seduction popular among j.a.panese teenagers and people in their twenties or thirties. Basically, guys “girl hunting”.
2. ^ LLENN used the word なまら (namara), a Hokkaido dialect word that means “very much, exceedingly”.
3. ^ LLENN first used a -masu verb, but then remembered about Pitohui’s hatred of hierarchical society and used a plain verb.
4. ^ A kinchou (金打) was the act of hitting each other’s metal objects to signify that an oath will be kept. In the case of samurais, they would hit each other’s sword, while women would use mirrors instead.
5. ^ The period in the history of j.a.pan between 1603 and 1863.
6. ^ A tsuba (鍔) is a part of a j.a.panese sword. An English equivalent would be ”sword guard”.
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