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

"Doc, is that one of your people...? Who is this? Why is he looking for me at this time?"

Mo Yulan looked at the incoming call message in front of him with a puzzled expression, then tentatively pressed the answer button floating in front of him, and then heard a familiar voice that surprised him.

"Don't make a sound. He hasn't found my location yet. Continue your operations. I will help you."

"Stop fooling around. Where are you now? Withdraw from the battlefield immediately. This is not something you should be involved in." Mo Yulan replied sternly in a low voice. "That's an order. Repeat, withdraw from the battlefield immediately."

He recognized the voice as belonging to the girl who had fought alongside him for so long, and that's why he tensed up again. He didn't want to see anyone else get hurt, especially people who had absolutely nothing to do with this.

"Don't worry about me. I'm quite far from the battlefield right now—I'm on a rooftop more than 800 meters away from here, so it's alright, Sorinmarkov... or should I call you by your current name?"

Shino answered from the other side, and then Mo Yulan saw the window break again, accompanied by a similar sound of something breaking through the air.

"No need, you can just use this as a code name. Although it was very irrational, I have to say... well done." Hearing her say this, Solin breathed a sigh of relief. "Right now, that guy is probably bandaging his wounds or something, or something more advanced. In short, he shouldn't have time to launch any more attacks."

In fact, this was the only time he misjudged. At least he hadn't considered that the opponent had another option besides changing cover for defense. The mysterious man took a small syringe filled with a dark brown liquid from a pocket on his combat suit, injected it into himself, then rolled out of cover and rushed towards Yuna.

As Yuna watched him rush towards her and pull out a hand axe, she quickly drew both katana from her waist and blocked the sudden attack.

"Is that all?" Yuna sneered, then thrust out with her backhand, which he dodged by dodging to the side. Immediately afterward came a powerful-looking elbow strike.

Yuna had just witnessed Vector lose most of his mobility after being hit, so she didn't choose to take the hit head-on and quickly retreated. Seeing Yuna retreat, the guy pressed closer, and the two exchanged several blows at close range, but they were all just hitting the metal.

After another round of exchanges, the mysterious man suddenly swung his axe forcefully straight ahead. The strike appeared powerful, but its trajectory was rather rigid; it was something Yuna could easily dodge with a simple sidestep. However, as Yuna sidestepped the axe, the man suddenly released his grip on the axe and reached for his waist.

However, as if she had anticipated his actions, Yuna released the katana in her right hand, then quickly drew her FN-57 and pulled the trigger several times in succession.

This was an attack that no human could react to. Although the mysterious man was equipped with bulletproof plates under his combat suit, thanks to the FN-57's excellent armor-piercing capabilities, the hastily fired 5.7mm rounds still inflicted considerable damage on him.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his steps involuntarily faltered slightly backward. Following the principle of striking while the iron was hot, Mo Yulan and Ai Weixin simultaneously circled around to different directions and launched attacks on the mysterious man.

A hail of bullets from two directions instantly pierced through him, knocking him to the ground. The area around his mask and the ground nearby was covered in blood; he looked like he was about to die, but no one present dared to approach him rashly.

"Let's finish him off. We probably won't get anything out of this guy who hasn't said a word from beginning to end. Besides, there's no room for us to wander around with such a dangerous prisoner." Mo Yulan said without hesitation, picked up her V308 and fired half a magazine. Then she picked up the walkie-talkie again and reported, "The situation here is resolved. I'm standing by and waiting for further instructions."

“There probably won’t be any further instructions. The only thing they’re using to blackmail us is the bomb on the second floor. We’re currently arranging the hostage evacuation. Things seem to be much simpler than we thought.” Doc’s calm voice came through the walkie-talkie. It seemed that things were going quite smoothly on their end, unlike here. “Once we’ve confirmed there are no enemies on the lower level, we’ll go straight up the stairs. As for the air purification work around here… let others handle that. At least we should take a break now.”

------

Half of the space was still almost completely dark, while the other half was a room with a faint metallic sheen around it, and it was still the same two people.

“The plan failed, Vasak. I told you long ago, such a probe was pointless and even risked exposing our existence.” Gabriel watched the scene before him go from Yuna pulling out a pistol to the screen going dark, and complained with some annoyance, “If they’re smart enough, they can easily see that this is our handiwork, if they even remember that we ever existed.”

"It wasn't entirely meaningless, was it? At least we forced them to reveal some of their trump cards, didn't we?" Vasak maintained his teasing tone, removing a helmet from his head before letting out a heavy sigh. "That little girl is really something. She wasn't like this before. It's truly astonishing..."

"Enough, Vasak, stop changing the subject. You used almost all your resources in Tokyo, just to cause some insignificant trouble for Rainbow Squad? Look at them... they didn't even inflict a single casualty. You personally took action and even used up a unit, but you still didn't achieve anything. Besides 'meaningless,' I don't know what else to describe your setup." Gabriel slammed his cigar on the table, pointed his right finger at Vasak's face, and questioned him.

“Listen up, Gabriel. It’s just a simple show of weakness. You can’t see the significance in it, but that doesn’t mean everything I’ve done is meaningless. In about six months, find a way to cause a big disturbance elsewhere, and I guarantee you’ll get what you want.” Vasak’s tone remained sinister. He picked up a satellite phone and spoke into the other end, “That’s enough, Shasa. Evacuate according to plan. The rest is none of your concern.”

279. The Dispute Comes to an End (4000)

It was still the noisy after-school time. Shino sat on the edge of the flowerbed, quietly watching groups of students laughing and joking as they walked out of the school gates, her mind still replaying the events of a week ago. In the aftermath of that horrific terrorist incident, which could be considered a major global event, universities in Tokyo, citing "student safety concerns," arranged closures ranging from a week to a whole month. Of course, Shino's school had the shortest closure period, probably because it was relatively far from the scene of the incident.

"I really did it? I stopped that horrible guy?"

Even now, when she recalls that moment, she still finds it quite unbelievable. She can't even imagine why, when she picked up the R700, she wasn't afraid at all, and was able to calmly aim the scope at someone and pull the trigger. But she did it, without a doubt, and she even changed the offensive and defensive situation that was clearly unfavorable to Mo Yulan's side at that time.

"Asada, you've been really arrogant lately."

A sudden voice broke Sinon's reverie, but she didn't even bother to turn around. She simply sat there calmly and replied:

"Since you've invited others here, you shouldn't be late; that's basic etiquette for entertaining guests."

"Hey, hey, hey... This is too much to treat your friends like this." Another voice rang out from a different direction. Sinon looked up and saw Endo and the other two standing in front of her from different angles, each posing in what they thought would be the most intimidating angle, their eyes full of threats.

However, what they didn't know was that Shino was drifting further and further away from her previous introverted and timid persona. She looked directly into Endo's small eyes, and after a few seconds of silence, it was Endo who finally broke the silence first.

"Well, what can I do? We're friends, after all. By the way, you'd probably help us if we ever run into trouble. We're a bit short on cash right now... so let me borrow 20,000 for now."

Endo's tone was as casual as if she were borrowing a pen from a classmate. She rubbed her right hand together, a gesture almost universally used to ask for money. Shino calmly took off her glasses and replied to them with the same excuse she had used a few days ago.

"I didn't bring any money or bank cards, and PayPal doesn't want to tell you."

Instantly, Endo's eyes narrowed even further, becoming almost slits. A stubborn glint shone in her eyes, and she spoke in an even deeper voice:

"...Don't think you can stay arrogant like this forever. Let me tell you this first, I really did bring that with me today. Don't be scared, Asada."

"Whatever you want, what good stuff is it? Let me see!"

Sinon spoke nonchalantly, her last sentence, clearly spoken with a Hokkien accent, leaving Endo and the other two somewhat bewildered. However, Endo didn't care what Sinon had said. She smirked, reached into her bag, pulled out a dark black HG pistol, and immediately pointed it at Sinon.

"I heard that this can shoot a hole in a thick cardboard box~ Although my brother told me that you should never use it to shoot people, Asada, you probably won't listen to that, right? Because you're already used to it."

Sinon's eyes were naturally drawn to the black muzzle of the gun, but what would normally cause her a violent reaction now seemed like any other ordinary object. To her now, it was no different from an empty soda can.

"I recently played with a huge gadget that can shoot a hole in thick glass, and it's definitely big enough to shoot people. I really don't know what you're so proud of."

Shino thought this to herself, of course she couldn't just say it out loud, but at this moment she had no need to give in to such a ridiculous toy gun.

She shifted her gaze to Endo, noticing the veins bulging and her irises turning a dark, murky black from excessive excitement, and suddenly laughed mockingly. The owner of those eyes was nothing more than a pathetic wretch obsessed with violence. She had seen many like that before, and several had fallen to her gun.

The truly terrifying thing isn't the gun itself, but the person holding it. And the person before me is far removed from being terrifying.

Perhaps because Sinon did not react as expected, Endo's tone suddenly became anxious.

"Quickly cry, Sinon! Kneel down and apologize, or I'll really shoot you!"

Then she pointed the model gun at Sinon's right foot, gave a strange smile, and then her shoulder and arm trembled slightly, but nothing happened.

"Damn it, what's going on?" Endo exclaimed in surprise. She then pulled the trigger two or three more times, but there was no response, let alone anything shooting out of the muzzle.

“So in a sense, there are advantages to being old. At least in modern HGs, there are almost no designs with so many safety features that it’s annoying.” Sinon said this, pressing down hard on Endo’s wrist with her left thumb, then taking advantage of the moment when Endo’s grip loosened to snatch the gun with her right hand, and finally twisting her index finger into the trigger guard, supporting the grip with her thumb and forefinger. “The Type 45 has a manual safety and a grip safety. You can’t shoot without opening both of them.”

As she explained, Shino unlocked the two safety mechanisms, producing two crisp "click" sounds.

"And because this thing is a single-action firearm, you have to pull the hammer first... It's normal that this outdated design was abolished. If all the mainstream firearms were designed like this, at least half of the new recruits would misfire during their first combat exercise... Thinking about it carefully, it's not so bad."

She was used to casually offering a few words of explanation at times like this, or perhaps it was because she wasn't afraid of Endo and the others at all. She shifted her gaze from the dumbfounded group, looked around at her surroundings, and then fixed her attention on an aluminum can standing on a trash can about six or seven meters away.

Sinon completed all the complex steps from adjusting her posture to aiming almost instantly, her movements as precise as those of a professional soldier. She raised her hand and fired a shot that struck the center of the can. Then, maintaining that posture, she looked back at Endo, her gaze still calm, yet strangely dangerous.

At this moment, Endo's arrogant demeanor had completely vanished, and he could only stand there blankly, having lost even the courage to look Shino in the eye.

"no, do not want……"

“Indeed, this thing isn’t really suitable for shooting people, the power is a bit weak… No, you didn’t hear anything, right?” Sinon said, flipping the hammer back and disengaging the safety. Her gaze towards the three suddenly held a hint of threat. “Hopefully I won’t hear any strange rumors tomorrow, otherwise…”

She didn't want to be the bad guy, but in front of these three, playing the villain might be more effective. With that, she turned and calmly walked out of the alley towards the gate. According to some agreement, someone was waiting at the gate... and had probably been waiting for a long time.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Sorin... and Miss Yuna, it's a pleasure to meet you."

She knocked on the window of the AE86, and saw the person inside roll down the window and greet her.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you, Ms. Shino." Yuna smiled and nodded in response, while Mo Yulan simply pointed to the back seat of the vehicle and then looked out the window.

"It's not like I've been waiting for a long time. I've only been here for a short while... How have you decided? Although I personally don't really recommend you join, it's ultimately your own decision, so you should decide for yourself."

The "joining" he referred to was naturally joining the Rainbow Squad—more precisely, the special unit where he was currently the only member. Although this job had the advantages of ample free time and high pay, the fact that it required him to be involved in battle at crucial moments still made Mo Yulan worry about the girl in front of her.

The reason why Rainbow Squad chose Sinon is quite simple. One reason is that Sinon is also a well-known streamer in the field and can easily handle various situations in the virtual space. Another reason is that her long-range sniping skills displayed in that battle really amazed Gustav.

At that time, Rainbow Team's forward operations team had already defused the bomb and advanced to the third floor. They were initially helpless against the terrorist on the third floor who possessed a remote control capable of detonating and collapsing the three lower floors of the building. However, Sinon knocked the remote control out of his hand. This was the primary reason why Gustav's side was able to resolve the situation so quickly.

It can be said that without Shino, not only would Mo Yulan's side be in an awkward "three heroes fighting Lu Bu" situation with that hunter and then be completely wiped out by Lu Bu, but the three-layer action team would also be stuck in a stalemate with the opponent.

Shino didn't immediately respond to Mo Yulan's suggestion. She sat in the back seat, curiously observing the situation inside the car. Yuna was naturally in the passenger seat, while the little angel sat beside her, watching her curiously.

"It's nice to meet you, Shino-neechan... Is that okay to call you?" Ivy looked at Shino with curiosity, as if pondering, "So that's what the super-skilled sniper looks like in real life," or something else rather childish. "Ivy's name is Ivy. Listen carefully to how you pronounce it, or who knows how you'll pronounce it."

“I saw her during the live stream before, but she looks a bit more mature in person than in the game… I take back what I said earlier, sorry, it turns out she's still an angel after all…” Sinon was quite calm at first, but then she suddenly bristled when Ivyxin pounced on her and started rubbing against her. However, seeing how cute the little angel was, she managed to suppress the urge to explode on the spot. “Hey, Sorin, control your kid…”

"Alright, Ivy, stop fooling around." Mo Yulan quickly stopped Ivy's reckless behavior. "Speaking of which, this isn't a game anymore, so why are you still calling me that?"

“Generally speaking, IDs are easier to remember than real names, especially when we’re all in the same industry. And I told you before, I was going to take you somewhere.” Sinon’s tone suddenly became mysterious as she said this, “Actually, there’s someone who wants to see you, and it’s someone you’d never guess.”

"What else could we not guess? There are only so many people who know both of us. If it were Mr. Gustav looking for me, he wouldn't be so mysterious... Hmm, that does seem to be a problem."

Mo Yulan pondered for a while, then finally gave up thinking about it. He turned the key to start the engine and then activated the car's navigation system.

“I’ve sent you the address. As for Mr. Gustav’s invitation… I think this is probably the best option for me, and I’m no longer afraid of anything.” Sinon tapped a few times on her phone, then replied about Gustav’s invitation. “Anyway, this job isn’t usually too dangerous, and things like that night can’t happen too often.”

“If this happens frequently in Tokyo, I think some people might have to commit seppuku. But since you’ve already made your decision, I won’t stop you. I’ll take you to our current operational base when you have your day off in a couple of days, and we can collect your equipment there.” Mo Yulan sighed, as if he felt sorry for the girl who had willingly stepped into the conflict. But when he saw the location displayed on the GPS, his tone immediately became quite surprised. “Wait, what kind of desolate place have you pointed me to? This is almost a two-hour drive, which is enough for me to drive all the way to Chiba.”

"It's not some desolate wilderness; there's actually a villa there. As for who it is... I can give you a hint: it's someone who knows you but you don't know her, and you should have known her."

"Wait a minute... So many women know me, this hint is practically useless. And what do you mean by 'should know me'? That's a lot of information in what you're saying..." Mo Yulan asked疑惑地, but Shi Nai didn't answer his question this time. Instead, she said mysteriously, "You'll know when you see her. Trust me, you should be able to tell who she is as soon as you come up."

"So what's the difference between saying this and not saying anything at all... And with my terrible driving skills, don't make me chat while driving, it's easy to cause an accident." Mo Yulan took the initiative to stop this increasingly confusing topic and focused her attention on driving. The conversation in the car then turned into a chat between the three girls.

280. The Unfulfilled Reunion

Unknown area, repair center.

Vector is currently submerged in a chamber filled with repair fluid, which is gradually restoring her body to normal, although it seems to be a rather slow process.

"While I asked you to ensure the young man's safety as much as possible, you're pushing yourself a bit too far, Vivi..."

Chu Ziyu stood directly in front of the cabin, his eyes filled with helplessness and heartache as he looked at her. Whether he was heartache for Vector or heartache for the money... it was hard to say.

Next to the cabin was a display screen that looked like a repair countdown, showing "Remaining Time: 24, 20, 35". Vector certainly couldn't respond to him now, so he was just talking to himself.

He held a report in his hand, which Clark had handed to him after the incident, since he ultimately hadn't intervened. However, the contents of the report seemed strange to him; at least, they seemed very strange.

“Something just doesn’t feel right. If this is Horizon’s trump card, it seems a bit too weak. Assuming they have more unknown methods, isn’t Tokyo enough for them to wreak havoc?” He examined the report, his mind still racing. “Wait, if they’re not just a simple terrorist organization, but want to achieve some goal… then what would make them use such a failure as a prelude, or rather, to attract our attention? Cardinal certainly wouldn’t, but as it stands, there’s nothing particularly compelling enough to warrant such an action. It’s truly mysterious…”

After muttering to himself for a while, he simply put the report aside and left the room. What he didn't notice was that shortly after he left, the girl who seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep in the repair fluid suddenly opened her eyes, only to close them again immediately, as if nothing had ever happened.

------

After driving for more than two hours, Mo Yulan finally found their destination—Rebecca's villa—with the help of Shino and the GPS. The villa still looked as grand as before, and Rebecca had changed the gate after that incident.

"Looks like you've brought me to meet a very important person. Even in the suburbs, having a villa like this is quite amazing..." Mo Yulan exclaimed after looking around. You Na didn't say anything, but she also showed a look of amazement.

“That’s right, he’s a big shot in every sense of the word,” Sinon replied matter-of-factly. What intrigued Mo Yulan was that Sinon seemed to always have a faint smile on her face, as if… she was waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

"Wait, Ms. Sinon, I have a question." Yuna suddenly seemed to remember something, looked at Sinon with a puzzled expression, and asked, "If that person wants to see Arashi, wouldn't it be inappropriate for me and Ivy to be here?"

“Um…it’s actually quite suitable, if she sees you guys.” Sinon replied with a smile, her expression suddenly becoming subtle.

"So what exactly are you talking about, all this mysterious stuff...?"