Am I the only one streaming Sword Art Online on the entire internet?

"Sorin... I'm a little nervous..." Kirito huddled next to Sorin, looking at the shadowy figures around them, some alone, some in small groups, all staring at them. They were clearly participants in the upcoming BOB preliminary rounds, and all seasoned VRMMO veterans—though probably none of them could match Sorin and Kirito's total stealth time.

"What's the panic? Let me tell you, these guys are all noobs, okay? You've been with me for so long, what haven't you seen?" Sorin patted Kirito's shoulder and comforted him. "Relax... We've faced things they've never even dared to imagine."

"But those are all... all PVP players, right? I haven't fought anyone in a long time, is it really okay?" Kirito's tone was still full of hesitation. But just then, his right elbow was suddenly nudged by someone.

"Let's go to the rest room first. You need to change into your combat suit too."

As Sinon spoke, she pulled Kirito towards the changing room without further ado, ignoring the intense fighting spirit and immense pressure emanating from everyone along the way. Of course, she didn't see that as soon as she dragged Kirito towards the changing room, Sorin's smile was barely contained.

But just then, a dry, mechanical voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

"Really, beautiful. Your eyes... are they the real deal?"

228. The Threat of Death Gun

"Who the hell are you? Are you crazy to stand so close and scare people?"

Solin had never liked guys who were deliberately mysterious, let alone one whose voice sounded completely unfamiliar to him. However, he had a vague premonition, which prompted him to temporarily turn off the audio recording device for the live stream.

He turned around and looked at the guy who had disturbed his peace and quiet with his suspenseful act. The man in front of him was wearing a tattered dark gray robe, and under the hood pulled low, there was only darkness, with only a faint red light showing in the depths of his eyes.

"Your look is familiar, but I might need to think back—as for the real thing? Hall of Fame players' unique IDs can't be registered by others, so you can't possibly see a fake."

“Well… good, one day—I’ll take him down.” The robed figure said this, turning and leaving Sorin. However, in the brief moment Sorin turned away, he subconsciously activated his accelerated thinking, using this ability, similar to time stop, to see a part of the figure’s slender arm.

The gloves, which looked like tattered bandages rolled up, had a thin slit at the forearm, about a little above the inside of the wrist. Through that slit, one could glimpse his pale skin and a square tattoo about five square centimeters in size.

The tattoo design depicts a Western coffin in a cartoon style, with a face on the lid showing a sinister smile. The lid is also slightly ajar, with an arm reaching out from the darkness inside to beckon to anyone who sees it.

After thinking carefully for a moment, Sorin recognized the pattern—it was the "Smiling Coffin," the red-named guild he led to defeat on the fifth floor. In other words, this person was a survivor of SAO, probably one of the people Kayaba Akihiko had let go.

"Are you sure? You really think that... [Death Gun] can kill me in real life with just one shot here?" Sorin deactivated his accelerated thinking and said to the receding figure, his tone full of mockery. "Don't be ridiculous. I was the one who spared your lives back in SAO. Do you really think I wouldn't dare to kill you?"

"Well, we'll see, Sorin, Markov." The response came from a distance, still a dry, hoarse, mechanical voice. Sorin had no way of checking the person's ID at this moment; all he could do was silently memorize the name and relay it to the Rainbow Squad.

"Target detected, target ID unknown, expected to participate in BOB soon." He opened a special voice channel and said this. This voice channel was directly connected to Rainbow Team's special operations command center in Tokyo.

The operational pattern this time is basically similar to the SAO rescue operation. Sorin will still be inside providing intelligence and interacting with the enemy, while the Rainbow Squad outside will be responsible for the on-site assault. Of course, this unknown enemy shouldn't have the same abilities as Kayaba Akihiko, so this operation plan is quite reliable.

"Received, we'll try to get their IP remotely, over."

After saying that, there was no further response, and Solin shifted his attention away from the strange man in the robe. But just then, he suddenly saw two figures emerge from the changing room, one in front and one behind. In front was a sulky-looking girl with light blue hair, followed by a timid-looking girl with long, straight black hair.

"Don't follow me."

"I...I'm sorry, Ms. Sinon."

"Don't follow me."

"I didn't mean to... I wanted to explain to you, but Suolin wouldn't give me a chance."

"Don't follow me... Sorin! Is this the little sister you were talking about?" Shino had been suppressing her emotions, but when she saw Sorin, the feeling of being tricked surged up all at once. "Now even cute boys can be used as little sisters? You...

"I must emphasize that I had no intention of taking advantage of you. You dragged me into the dressing room without saying a word." Sorin looked directly into Shino's eyes, then looked her up and down, and said seriously, "Speaking of which, this outfit looks pretty good and quite practical."

"Thank you for the compliment... Wait! Don't change the subject! What's going on between you two?" Sinon nodded approvingly at first, but then realized the topic had shifted rather subtly, so she quickly steered it back on track. "While it's certainly hard to tell... that's no excuse for letting this thing follow me into the changing room."

"How many times have I told you? You were the one who dragged him in. What does it have to do with me?" Sorin's tone remained perfectly serious and flawless. Then she looked at Kirito, "Wow, you're a boy, yet you followed Sinon into the changing room. I really misjudged you, my silly little brother..."

"The battlefield map is randomized, drawn from the current season's intelligence war map. But it's only the first season, so it should be easier to check." Sinon glared at Sorin, sat down on a nearby chair, and awkwardly turned her face to the side. "The winner will be teleported back to wait for the next round. There will be six rounds of Swiss-systems to determine the top 100. Let me make this clear beforehand: even if I meet any of you in the sixth round, I won't make any arrangements. I'll make sure you taste what it's like to be defeated."

"I'm really looking forward to this moment, but are you sure you can make it to the finals?" Kirito suddenly smiled from the side. He seemed to have always had a good impression of confident people, even after he had just been slapped.

However, he witnessed an astonishing scene the next moment—the girl's eyes, which were fixed on all the enemies present, radiated a strong, glassy light, and her lips curled up into a smile like that of a ferocious beast.

"If I lose in the preliminaries, I'll retire. This time, I'm determined to take down all the strong opponents."

"You're overthinking it. Do you even know what 'Great Earth' means? If we really clashed, they could probably take on ten of you." Sorin had also witnessed this scene. He was somewhat familiar with Sinon's strength, so he explained this to Kirito, adding a word of caution, "Remember, this game is about guns. Don't just rely on having a knife and charge in headfirst, understand?"

“…I understand. But I feel like there’s something you haven’t told me.” Kirito nodded obediently. He noticed that Sorin seemed to be hiding something, so he couldn’t help but ask.

"If I were to tell you about awkward dance moves, Qin King circling the pillar, or Pineapple head tilting, do you think you could learn them all? If you can't, then what's the point of me telling you?"

Sorin calmly answered Kirito's question, while concealing the fact that he had just encountered Death Gun.

229. Fierce Battle with Pealuo

After this little incident, nothing particularly significant happened. However, it's worth mentioning that afterwards, it seems a friend of Shino's came to visit her, and the two chatted for a while.

Soon, the countdown on the big screen was about to reach zero. Sorin waved to Sinon and Kirito, then turned to face forward, preparing to be teleported to the battlefield. Suddenly, his body was surrounded by a blue beam of light, and then his vision was immediately filled with blue light. Finally, he was teleported to a hexagonal panel that appeared in the darkness.

A pale red holographic window appeared before them, displaying the large text "SorinMarkov VS Pealuo". The lower half of the window read, "Preparation time remaining: 58 seconds. Battlefield: Lexington Event Center Armory".

"This map is so easy you could memorize it with your eyes closed. Seriously, Pineapple didn't stream Rainbow Six Siege today, so he's playing this instead?" Solin muttered to himself, looking at the familiar ID on the other side. This one-minute preparation time allows players to equip themselves with gear suitable for the battlefield. For example, the boss fight area in this "Grandma" dungeon is indoors with complex terrain, making weapons that deal high damage at close range more suitable. Of course, Solin currently only has a Lone Star set and Cassidy's set, along with a full set of smoke, flash, and grenades, so he doesn't need to bring anything extra.

"Countdown complete, get ready to begin..."

Thorin's body was once again enveloped by teleportation effects, and he landed on the second floor of the Lexington Armory. His location was where he had run up from underground, while Pealuo's location was on the third floor where Lyry had appeared.

"I shouldn't be able to start fighting right away from this spawn point, it's so far away... Damn it!" Solin was just thinking this when Pealuo's main weapon seemed to be an M700 carbon fiber or something similar, and he fired a shot at Pealuo's head from a distance with a 12x scope.

He immediately dropped to the ground when he realized the attack was coming, and then took advantage of a gap in the shooting to find cover nearby and pulled out his competitor.

Using a competitor to engage in gunfights at this point is actually a poor strategy, since even if the competitor is called an RF disguised as an HG, it can't compare to a proper RF in terms of performance. However, Pealuo's position is just too good; if he doesn't come down from that position, Sorin really has no way to deal with him.

"If you're so capable of sniping me, then come down here! What kind of nonsense is this?"

Solin, hiding behind cover, shouted dejectedly to the other side, but Pealuo remained calmly in place, ready to fire a shot at any moment if Solin dared to peek out. In this situation, Solin was essentially doomed. If he didn't come up with a way to break the deadlock, the only option would be a draw, which was clearly unacceptable to him.

He thought for a moment, then activated his flashbang skill, quietly aimed the launcher at the wall behind Pealuo, and took out a decoy projection from his inventory, throwing it to his left.

Pealuo was aware of the decoy projection ability, so he didn't immediately reveal himself and fire. However, he needed time to determine whether it was a decoy projection or Sorin's true form, which gave Sorin a slight opportunity to act.

He fired a flashbang at the wall behind Pealuo and then quickly ran in that direction. Unlike hardcore FPS games like CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege, The Division doesn't have a backflashbang tactic. In other words, as long as the player's character model is within the flashbang's effective range and there are no obstacles between them, even if they are facing away from the flashbang, their vision will be temporarily impaired.

"Alright friends, now it's time to launch an offensive!" Solin continued to explain as he charged forward. Pealuo had recovered from his dizziness, but in his haste, he couldn't effectively hit Solin, who was running and constantly dodging.

Left with no other option, he put away his sniper rifle and began to reposition himself. In fact, he was wearing a Hunter's Faith set of equipment, which was specifically designed for long-range sniping. In other words, if this fragile sniper were to let Sorin get his hands on him with two Cassidy rifles, he'd be down in a single exchange.

So Pealuo basically has no choice but to run away now. The problem is that the only exit from his location is the stairs. If he takes the stairs, it's no different from the Lexington Event Center instance where he leads his gang down from the top to the bottom to deliver Lyri. He doesn't even have any of the Lex's gang's men with him.

Of course, he has another option: to jump from that spot. However, jumping would be practically suicide; the fall damage, combined with Sorin's ability to shoot from a distance, would allow his rival to take him down instantly.

Pealuo quickly realized this. His only possible way to win was to hit Sorin with a flashbang as he went upstairs, then take him out with two close-range sniper shots. With that in mind, he threw a decoy projectile upstairs, then quietly hid behind the door, holding a stun grenade, carefully listening to the footsteps coming from the stairs.

He heard rapid, hurried footsteps approaching from the stairs. After estimating the frequency of the footsteps and the number of steps, Pealuo threw the stun grenade in his hand into the corridor.

A clear sound echoed down the corridor—the sound of a stun grenade exploding. Strangely, however, the previous rapid footsteps continued to reverberate through the corridor.

However, he couldn't care less about that now. He shielded his eyes from the blinding light, grabbed his sniper rifle, and rushed downstairs, only to find that Solin had been waiting a little below and hadn't come up at all. In fact, he was indeed going upstairs, but he used a little trick: halfway up, he suddenly went downstairs and then went upstairs again. This kind of footstep sound gave Pealuo a great illusion and directly led to his defeat.

Pealuo reacted very quickly, aiming at Solin's head the instant he saw him. However, Solin had fired a pre-emptive shot directly at the stairwell. Cassidy's flames shot out a fraction of a second before the M700 carbon fiber, instantly knocking the equally powerful but fragile pineapple to the ground.

Exaggerated light and sound radiated outwards in a cone shape from Sorin's right side, while Pealuo's character disintegrated into countless polygonal fragments that scattered in the air. As he savored the afterglow of the battle, he sheathed his weapon, looked at the "Congratulations on your victory" message before him, and let out a long sigh.

"The first game is already this difficult..."

Two hundred and thirty, fishing in troubled waters?

"Always remember that our greatest advantage is being an outsider. Vector, when you can't be sure you see everything clearly, it's best not to get involved in the chaos."

This was what Chu Ziyu said to Vector when they discovered the first person killed in real life by "Death Gun" in the game. Vector didn't really understand the meaning of those words, or rather, in all the years she had worked with Chu Ziyu, she had never truly understood his orders. Fortunately, it didn't require complete understanding; she only needed to remember and obey.

Moreover, the order itself is very convenient to execute: all she has to do is stay at home. She has been doing just that lately, never appearing outside, and even within the base, she maintains an energy-saving mode. Incidentally, in human terms, energy-saving mode is essentially sleeping.

This situation continued until the day of BoB, when Rainbow Team commissioned Mo Yulan and Kirito to enter TD3:GGO. Although, in Vector's view, this change was somewhat sudden.

"...These guys really know how to play the game. First of all, we can be sure that Death Gun and his gang of idiots were just pushed into the spotlight, but we don't know who's behind them yet."

As Chu Ziyu muttered to himself, he continued to scribble and draw on the white paper. The paper was covered with a complex web of relationships, and he could vaguely make out a lot of information that would be considered confidential even within some organizations. However, he didn't seem to have found any clues. At least, after bringing up all the organizations or individuals he was familiar with, he still couldn't guess who the people behind Death Gun were.

"When you can't be sure you see everything clearly, it's best not to get involved in the chaos... right?" Chu Ziyu pondered for about an hour, then sighed deeply, put the pen back on the table, and lit a cigarette.

"Vivi? Vivi, wake up?"

He softly called to the silver-haired girl lying on the bed, fast asleep in a pristine white robe. Upon hearing his call, the girl stirred slightly, then slowly sat up, her orange eyes filled with confusion.

"Can I interpret this as the all-powerful yet shameful Commander having seen through everything, and therefore intending to personally join the chaos and begin reaping the rewards?"

Her tone remained indifferent. At least from the day Chu Ziyu found her, her voice had been indifferent, basically unchanged.

“Your commander isn’t necessarily omnipotent, but he’s constantly embarrassing himself…” Chu Ziyu exhaled a puff of smoke. Although he was talking about a very heavy topic, his tone didn’t sound heavy at all. “I think that in a sense, things have gradually slipped out of my control.”

"Why? So far, both Death Gun's and Rainbow Squad's movements have been within your predictions, right?" Vector pondered as she listened to Chu Ziyu's words. However, she was never good at this, and after thinking for a while, she gave up the idea and lay back down on the bed in a lazy posture.

"The same event can lead to different conclusions depending on who sees it. For example, the Death Gun incident, to uninformed passersby or ordinary players, is just a paranormal event where shootings on the internet cause real-world harm. But even the Rainbow Squad only came to the completely unrelated conclusion that some organization wanted to use the internet to spread terrorism."

Chu Ziyu explained, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, then took out his lighter and held it up to the blank sheet of paper he had just written on.

"Of course, it's not entirely unrelated, but now it's your responsibility, Vivi. I have a feeling... this night in Tokyo won't be peaceful again."

A larger flame ignited in the ashtray, but it only leaped up twice before falling weakly, covering the white paper inside, which had already turned to ash. The room fell silent, with only the sound of Vector putting on her equipment. She moved quickly, transforming herself from a girl in a bathrobe into an elite soldier in full-body exoskeleton armor in about two minutes.

"Go find Grace and find a way to get Death Gun's infiltration location offline. Tell me the location and wait nearby." Chu Ziyu said, then took out a special communicator and pressed a few buttons on it. "Now it's up to our new partner..."

------

Yuna was still sitting with Aiweixin watching the live stream. Mo Yulan had already achieved a 4-0 record in the Swiss round and was now playing in the fifth round. His opponent didn't seem strong, at least not relative to his level.

"Daddy's so amazing! It feels almost the same as before," Aiweixin whispered, suddenly feeling something deep in her mind calling out to her: "Vector calling Aiweixin, Vector calling Aiweixin... Please confirm that you are in a region where you can receive communications."

Seeing that Ivy had suddenly stopped speaking, Yuna asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong? Ivy... what happened?"

“Mom, someone is looking for Ivy. Can Ivy go back to her room for a bit?” Ivy paused, then remembered Chu Ziyu’s instructions when she woke up—she didn’t need to keep it a secret that she had joined Chu Ziyu’s team. So she explained to Youna, “It’s an invitation from the gentleman who provided Ivy with the body before. Ivy should at least respond.”

"Okay. Let me know if you're leaving. Be careful on the road." Yuna nodded with a smile, as if she had already seen through what Ivy was up to. "And it seems Ivy has her own good friends now."

"I wouldn't call us good friends, we just met. Calling us friends... colleagues would be more appropriate." Ivy's tone suddenly became somewhat subtle. She gently got off Yuna and walked back to her small bedroom. Her current bedroom was completely different from the one in SAO. The once girlish bedroom had become a strange room consisting of half a messy art gallery, half a neat but particularly cold armory, and a bed filled with girlish plush toys.

"This is Vivi, what can I do for you?"

231. Friendship between girls (seems a bit strange)