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

“Very likely. But thankfully they shouldn’t have more people, or I took them out earlier. So what do we say now?” Sinon nodded, peeked out slightly to observe the situation outside, and then immediately pulled back in. “We only know that there are two of them, and the direction one of them is heading. The Dead Gun we saw at the beginning probably isn’t still in the water.”

"It's hard to say. Even if he's not in the water, he's probably near the rocky shallows on the shore, which is perfect for close combat." Sorin thought for a moment, pinched a smoke grenade in his hand, and then pointed in the opposite direction with his right hand. "Even if you're not good at close combat, you should be able to handle it, right, Sinon?"

"Yeah, if he charges at me, I definitely won't die on the spot, but don't expect me to kill him. I can't guarantee that," Sinon replied calmly, then installed a brand-new extended-magnitude quickdraw magazine into her AWM. "Have you figured out what to do?"

“That’s easy, just go for it. You stay here and keep an eye on the front, I’ll go try to flank and take out the second guy on the other side.” After saying that, Sorin threw the smoke bomb that he had prepared earlier onto Kirito’s corpse. After the smoke was completely released, he ran to Kirito’s box and picked up his Groza. “But I still have to say something, you’ve really become a Kirito box person now.”

"Don't think I don't know what you're talking about... This is too much! And you're the one who set the flag, so why am I the one suffering the consequences?" Kirito watched Sorin's actions from a third-person perspective, while complaining in a resentful tone, "Back in SAO, at least you could just nullify your flags. When did you learn this skillful flag-transfer technique?! And do you think I want to be a box spirit?"

"If it weren't for Shino and me taking care of you, you would have turned into a box spirit by now, okay? Don't complain too much. Young people sometimes have to be brave enough to bear things they don't have to bear. You'll get used to it."

Solin was spouting nonsense with a straight face, then he ran in a huge circle toward the bridge that led to the other side of the river. A small portion of that bridge was currently submerged in what was known as a bioelectric field, but was more commonly called the "poison circle." It was currently the third-to-last poison zone, and going into it headlong into it would be very dangerous.

Solin was out of options. If he swam across, he would almost certainly fall into Deadgun's ambush and be killed instantly. Crossing the bridge was the only possible option. However, there was no cover on the bridge, and he would have to use smoke grenades to pave the way to cross safely.

He hid behind a rock very close to the bridge and calculated for a long time. Then he threw out three smoke grenades in a row. Instead of rushing out, he first injected himself with adrenaline behind the rock.

Adrenaline can instantly fill the energy bar below a player's HP, and a full energy bar provides a considerable boost to movement speed and health regeneration, offering some protection. After injecting adrenaline, Sorin used a smoke grenade before rushing into the thick smoke. The sniper on the other side, who hadn't yet shown himself, was also quite cautious. He knew the chances of hitting Sorin through the smoke were slim, so he didn't fire in vain. He remained hidden in a corner, searching for Sinon's location.

Indeed, this is quite strange, because he clearly hit Kirito, the only one without a level 3 helmet, when the three of them were still together. However, after the two separated, he was focused on Sorin's movements and didn't pay attention to where Sinon had run off to. After observing for a while, Sinon didn't see the enemy sniper appear either, but she still narrowed down his possible locations to three pieces of cover based on her experience.

"Sorin, he might appear behind the tree at 235, near a box at 230, and near the hut at 225. I just calculated that only these three locations could hit Kirito from that angle."

Sinon's voice rang in Sorin's ears. Sorin nodded, then went straight into the second floor of a watchtower on the other side of the bridge after crossing it. He lay down inside and began to use bandages to restore his health.

"Watch closely, Kirito. This is how the game is played. And to that sniper who appeared out of nowhere, since you dared to harm my comrades, you'd better be prepared to die..."

Sorin muttered harshly, then crouched down and smashed the windowpane with his fist. He then turned and ran towards another exit. This was a common feint tactic; of course, he could have opened the door and jumped out the window, but he chose to trust Shino's earlier suggestion. If the opponent was indeed in one of those three positions, then only the window was within his firing range; the door was actually safe.

"Come on... it's time to reveal our final trump card!"

270. The Execution That Was Not Sent Out (A Long Chapter of 4000 Words)

"Do you know what artists and snipers have in common? It's the details."

Shino crouched behind the rocks, observing the scene on the opposite bank of the river through an 8x scope. She saw that Sorin had successfully reached the vicinity of the watchtower on the other side of the river, and the other party did not seem to be in a hurry to fire, as if waiting for the moment when Sorin would truly reveal his presence.

"For example, an artist might notice that the colors are wrong, the shadows don't match the surrounding environment, or that a certain shape is problematic."

She muttered to herself, as if trying to relieve stress. Snipers are arguably even more assassin-like than assassins; they need to wait in one spot for a long time, just for that one fatal shot, especially against an evenly matched enemy. Making the first move often means being on the defensive, while the one who strikes last often truly wins.

“But snipers still face risks. And I face even greater risks.”

"I feel like I've heard this passage somewhere before, it feels so familiar."

Suolin's sarcastic voice came through her earphones, and she just smiled silently and answered him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Glaz's lines in the Rainbow Six Siege cinematic. Although I'm not an artist, I think this monologue really resonates with me."

"...Okay. Has the other side not shown up yet?"

“No, and from a professional sniper’s perspective, your feint just now seemed a bit amateurish.” Sinon calmly criticized Sorin’s actions, then, as if afraid that the conversation would distract her, she quickly stopped the seemingly useless chatter. “Keep quiet, I need to carefully observe the other party’s movements.”

"But I suggest you test the waters with one shot and then move to another location, since they know your approximate location."

Solin said with some concern that he seemed to have found one of the three remaining spots that Shino had eliminated after a long time, but the sniper didn't seem to be there.

“No, they don’t know. If they did, that Dead Gun from under the river would have already crept over.” Sinon replied without hesitation. “Of course, you need to hurry now. The sniper on the other side probably marked my possible hiding spot for the original Dead Gun, just like I did. If I keep fighting with the sniper, it might end up with both of us being killed by someone else, and then you’ll be one-on-one with the original Dead Gun.”

"Don't worry, when that time comes, it will be the sniper on the other side who dies first, I guarantee it... I saw him, inside room 225, take care."

After Sorin left those last words, Shino never heard Sorin's voice again. She only saw him rush into the small house at 225 degrees through the scope, wanting to launch a CQB.

"Thinking about it carefully... that guy on the other side should be charging over by now." Sinon thought to herself, taking the bison off her back and peeking out from behind the rock, peeking out half her head to observe the situation on the shore. "Maybe I should try blasting some fish later, if I know he's down there."

Thinking this, Shino put away the bison, then took a fragmentation grenade from her waist, held it in her hand, waited three seconds, and then threw it down the river. She repeated this action three times, and although the three grenades exploded at different times, the firepower was enough to force Dead Gun, who was trying to stay hidden in the pit, out of there.

Sure enough, as the first grenade exploded, the dark figure wearing a homemade ghillie suit emerged from beneath the riverbed. Upon seeing this, Sinon immediately took out the bison she had put away for throwing grenades, and Peek went out and fired about ten shots before retreating.

With Sinon's steady recoil control, most of the dozen or so 9mm shots hit Dead Gun, taking away about half of his health. Seeing this, Dead Gun immediately retreated and hid behind the tree where Sorin had been hiding, intending to use a first aid kit before coming out to fight Sinon again.

However, Shino knew she wasn't good at close-range gunfights, so she never intended to play seriously with the enemy. She put away the Bison again and then threw four grenades in a row at where Dead Gun was hiding, covering all possible hiding places.

"You want me to pack it up? You want to show respect by packing it up in front of you, huh... I'll send you flying today!"

Perhaps due to being suppressed by the opponent for so long, Shino was now quite angry, and her tone had become much more irritable. Her tactics seemed to be working very well; Death Gun was indeed using a first aid kit to restore his health behind the tree, but Shino's sudden grenades had truly disrupted his plans.

To escape the blast radius of the grenades, he had to interrupt his first-aid kit's progress bar and run out from behind the tree. However, after taking half a volley of bullets, he had pinpointed Sinon's exact location. As he ran, he pre-aimed behind the rock where Sinon was hiding, planning to launch an effective counterattack the moment she attacked again.

Sinon had indeed anticipated that the opponent would aim at her, but with the opponent at half health and her at full health, she decided to strike first without any fear. With that thought, she decisively slipped out of cover, raised her hand, aimed at Death Gun's head, and steadily pulled the trigger. A burst of 9mm bullets instantly erupted from the Bison's muzzle, heading straight for Death Gun's exposed level 3 helmet.

But at that moment, the man standing opposite Sinon did something that surprised everyone... The instant he saw Sinon fire, he immediately lay down and aimed his AUG at Sinon, unleashing a barrage of 5.56 bullets.

"What?! Drop Shots are allowed in the BoB finals? Have they no shame?"

Sinon left her last words in a surprised tone. After missing her target with her first shot, it was difficult to change her aim. Even though she pulled her gun down the instant she saw Death Gun drop shot, it was too late. Death Gun, lying on the ground, fired a series of 5.56 bullets at close range, instantly turning her into a loot box.

"As far as I know, at least in the Chinese FPS community, there's not much opposition to the prone-camping playstyle... Are you going to let DS kill you later?"

Sorin's surprised voice came through the voice channel, but Shino was in no mood to reply. She was trembling with fear because after eliminating her, Death Gun didn't rush back to his teammates to support them. Instead, he stood in front of his own corpse and the loot box and pulled out Death Gun.

It was only then that Shino recognized the true nature of the "Death Gun"—the pistol used by the robbers in that bank heist, the Tokarev. Even though she now knew the truth of what happened, seeing the gun still filled her with an overwhelming sense of fear and nausea.

[Alert...Alert...Player's health condition is abnormal. Initiate logout procedure? Y/N]

"Why? If it's normal for those old apartment buildings to be breached... I'm in Ms. Rebecca's house right now... Why is this happening?" Sinon whispered in a trembling voice, then watched in despair as Death Gun stood in front of her in a ritualistic gesture and began to make the sign of the cross. Suddenly, she shouted into the voice channel, "Sorin! Sorin! Can you help me stop him? He's executing me!"

"What? I'm going right now... Damn it!" Sorin's voice was filled with almost continuous gunshots, as if he was also engaged in a fierce battle and had no way to escape for the time being. "Wait a minute, I remember I should have told you last night to sneak around in a different place tonight... Where is your main body right now?"

"At the psychologist's house where I had my appointment today? So I was thinking about that too. It's a villa in the suburbs, so it shouldn't be..." Shino tried her best to calm herself down, but just as she finished speaking, she felt a particularly violent tremor that almost knocked her out of her fully immersed state. "Ah!"

"Shino? Shino! What happened? Answer me!"

Sorin shouted from the other side. He had already penetrated deep into the small-looking hut, while the sniper had somehow escaped. The two were now in an awkward situation, a classic case of "the King of Qin circling the pillar." In this state, even if Sorin wanted to run out and use his 98K to kill Shino's dead gun, he would most likely be taken out by the sniper hiding nearby. In that case, the entire plan would be a complete failure, and he wouldn't be able to save Shino either.

"I... Huh? Sorin, he's gone?" Shino's tone was full of surprise and joy at surviving, but the next moment she became worried about Sorin, "Wait, are you going to have to fight two people at once?"

From Sinon's perspective, Death Gun's situation looked rather comical—the lower half of his face, exposed to the elements, wore a strange smile as he made the sign of the cross. However, he suddenly stopped halfway through, the eerie smile freezing on his face, followed by a look of utter astonishment. He lowered his head, sheathed Death Gun, and crouched down, beginning to loot Sinon's supplies and weapons in the manner of a typical PUBG player.

"Don't worry about me taking on two people at once. The fact that he left means he couldn't execute your real body in reality. Maybe he couldn't get in the door or some other random reason. Anyway, you're safe now. Go offline and hide. If you really want to see me take on two people at once, go to my live stream. The password is myl141592."

"...I understand. Myl? Oh right, that's the initials of your name, right? I'm logging off now, be careful."

After replying, Shino immediately clicked "Yes" on the screen. Suddenly, everything went black, and she regained her sense of touch. We'll leave what happened after Shino went outside for now and switch our focus back to Sorin.

Suolin has previously achieved several impressive 1vN victories in the final rounds, but those were mostly against weaker opponents, quite different from facing two skilled players simultaneously. Therefore, he's currently playing under immense pressure.

Of course, you can tell whether Sorin is under pressure in a battle by whether he talks trash while fighting. To draw an analogy, back in SAO, when he encountered six red-named enemies on the third floor with Yuna, he barely said anything except to Yuna. But when facing Giddens Yura or Kayaba Akihiko, he even went live and started talking trash. That shows the difference.

"Alright, so now we see this scoundrel acting as the King of Qin, running around this house... like Jing Ke assassinating the King of Qin with his two hairy legs on his shoulders, right..."

As Sorin spoke, he glanced out of the corner of his eye in Shino's direction. Death Gun was nowhere to be seen again, and he could easily deduce that the guy now had the 8x AWM he'd taken from Shino. If he were to suddenly shoot him, he'd be dead on the spot.

As he subconsciously explained, he forced himself to calm down, gripping the Groza's handle tightly twice, as if that would bring him some sense of reassurance.

"What were the last two sentences again? [Data deleted], [Data deleted]..."

Stop for a second, you're going a bit too fast.

This was a message from Grace, but Solin completely ignored it. He knew Grace was a seasoned pro, even faster than him. He continued searching the house for the enemy sniper, while simultaneously opening the public chat and launching into another round of psychological manipulation.

"You run ahead, I chase after you, and when I catch you I'll...hehehehe..."

"Enough! You bastard! When will you ever stop?"

To Solin's surprise, after he had barely circled halfway around, the guy opposite him couldn't stand his mentally polluting banter and suddenly shouted something in the public chat. Solin chuckled and continued to verbally abuse the other guy with another joke.

After exchanging two rounds of fire, the sniper on the other side deeply felt the profoundness of the Chinese language. The slang, so complex and nuanced that even translation software couldn't fully capture it, left him momentarily at a loss for words. However, while his attention was being diverted, Solin had already unknowingly crept up behind him.

"Now I've caught up with you, I'm going to have some fun with you..." Solin said, aiming at the guy who had appeared in his field of vision, suppressing Groza and firing a burst of shots to headshot him, instantly emptying the guy's health bar.

"Now you're the only grandson left, aren't you, Dead Gun... Today, Grandpa's going to play you to death!"

Chapter 271, The Final Battle (Bonus Chapter 1/27)

After completing this series of actions, Solin immediately lay down on the ground. Sure enough, Death Gun on the other side saw his teammate being attacked and decided to abandon his teammate to attack Solin, but Solin dodged it and even revealed his approximate location.

However, revealing his position at this moment won't cause any problems, because he now has a significant advantage: when he's exchanging fire with Sorin, even if Sorin gets a headshot, he can't kill him, while if he gets a headshot, he can take down Sorin instantly.

Of course, Sorin knew this too, so he had no intention of engaging in a gunfight. In fact, when only he and Death Gun remained on the battlefield, there was no need for further fighting. The last potentially harmed Shino had already left the battlefield, and his position was clearly safe from Death Gun's men. In other words, Death Gun had no more targets to execute by now.

He's still fighting here, driven by a deep-seated obsession. It's not that he believes no one in the world of esports can defeat him, but the one who can defeat him is definitely not Death Gun, or more precisely, definitely not the cowardly figure hiding behind the mask of Death Gun.

"The remnants of Laughing Coffin... I remember there aren't many of those scum from Laughing Coffin who I've met and are still alive. Besides PoH, there should only be the six that Kayaba let go back then. I wonder who he is."

As Sorin pondered this, a particularly dangerous thought suddenly occurred to him. Before leaving, he had given Sinon all the grenades Kirito was carrying, along with his own stockpile—more than twenty grenades in total. But just now, he had only heard fewer than ten explosions from Sinon's location, which meant…

"So that bastard still has about ten grenades waiting for me, right...? They're not far from where I am. I can't let them just smash me to death with those grenades, can I..." Just as Solin finished muttering this, he saw three or four grenades suddenly flying towards him from mid-air, and even more grenades kept flying towards him from Death Gun's side. "Damn it, you're really throwing them at me... I'm outta here."

Seeing the situation was dire, he immediately retreated to the small two-story building where the sniper had been hiding. In fact, he wouldn't have chosen to go inside if the enemy hadn't forced him to do so with a barrage of grenades. Because once inside, he would lose his position and suddenly find himself in the enemy's shadow.

But that's something to consider later. Right now, he was incredibly glad he had decisively chosen to go inside and take cover, because the moment he stepped inside, a grenade exploded behind the door, shattering a section of it. At that moment, Sorin suddenly had a bad feeling. He quickly ran a few steps and dodged behind a wall, then watched helplessly as a .300 Magnum grenade ricocheted along the upper part of the door and struck the opposite wall, its trajectory hitting his head exactly where he had been a second earlier.

"This guy's got some skills. He just threw a grenade and then he hit me like that. His quick-scope accuracy is terrifying." Solin muttered to himself, still shaken, while trying his best to think of a way to break the deadlock. He hadn't had time to loot the sniper's bag after taking him out, while Death Gun had obviously looted Sinon's bag before coming over. Even if he held his ground here until the last safe zone disappeared, he couldn't out-suppli Death Gun.

In other words, stalling for time is pointless; his only option is to shoot the enemy dead—that's the only way out. While he's confident he's stronger than his opponent, his equipment is simply inadequate. In a duel between highly skilled players, both equipped with level 3 helmets, the 98K is inherently at a disadvantage against the AWM.

"What should I do? What should I do? I need to make a decision immediately!"

As Thorin muttered to himself, he quietly moved from the first floor to the second floor of his small apartment building. The building was the most common type on Jedi Island: three rooms on the first floor, including a bathroom, and two rooms with four windows on the second floor, one on the left and one on the right. He felt that he might be able to do something with this.

"Although this guy probably won't be so easily fooled, I still have to give it a try. I was just pretending to be Jing Ke for a while, and now I'm the King of Qin."

Suolin paused on the stairs for a moment, then suddenly started stomping on the spot, the loud thumping of his footsteps leaving the few spectators outside completely bewildered.

[Lan, what are you doing?]

"Oh, it's Yuna. It's nothing, I was just teasing him. Anyway, there are still five minutes until the last circle shrinks, so if he's not in a hurry, neither am I." Solin said casually, feeling that the show was going well. So he continued running up to the second floor in the same way, flashed in front of the window, and quickly ran back. "You see, this idiot is definitely looking upstairs. I'll just dart around without going in. If I go out the door now, he definitely can't hit me."

That's what he said, but he still threw a smoke grenade towards the front door before slipping out the back door. Sure enough, after missing his target with his first shot, Dead Gun realized he'd been tricked and quickly threw a grenade near the half-blown front door, which collided head-on with Solin's smoke grenade. The smoke billowed out rapidly, followed by a violent explosion from within it.

As the saying goes, "no harm without smoke." That's certainly the case now, but the reason Solin was unharmed was simply because he didn't go that way at all. After he circled around through the back door, he didn't even think about using his 98K to snipe Death Gun; instead, he directly cut out Groza.

This tactic is a bit risky, but knowing that a single shot from a 98K won't kill the opponent, finding a blind spot and using the Groza to spray water and eliminate them is more likely. Solin crouched outside the low wall outside the building, circled around for a long time, and finally stood behind a tree, attaching the extra 4x scope to the Groza.

"Next, I'll give you a demonstration of textbook-perfect 4x scope Groza recoil control. Kirito, take note." By this point, Sorin looked completely confident. He positioned the entire body of the Death Gun within the 4x scope's aiming range, held his breath, and then pulled the trigger sharply. At the same time, he pressed down hard with his left hand gripping the handle, managing to subdue this untamed wild horse.

An entire magazine of bullets was instantly sprayed out, and the unsuspecting Dead Gun was immediately hit squarely, his health bar being emptied in an instant to his astonishment.