Hold over Myriad of Worlds

Time quickly passed, and before I noticed it, almost half a year flew by. We all continued according to our plans, and so, I now found myself in a futuristic city surrounded by bustle and occasional echoes of gunshots from afar.

Looking around, I quickly came to notice a strange thing: I became short. Gauging my height to be around 1.5 meters by comparing passersby and some objects with a standard size, my face became strange. Now, if I were to stand side by side with Griseo, she would be the same height as me, and even the somewhat short Elysia could easily see the top of my head.

But I quickly got over it, as I never was high by the Hold's standard. Standing around 1,8 meters, I was dwarfed by Night Elves whose normal height, even among women, was over 2 meters, let alone 2,2 meters of trained men.

Taking a quick step toward a nearby glass window, I looked at my reflection to see other changes in my appearance. Luckily, I still looked like myself, maybe a little younger due to my height. The only change was the default hairstyle of this avatar; rather than my usual loose hair or single ponytail, I now had most of my hair styled into a long braid that was almost touching the ground, with some loose strands falling on both sides of my face.

As I was contemplating whether to change my hairstyle or leave it as it is, I heard a rather unpleasant whistle from the side.

-"My, my! What a cute."-A rough voice called out to me.

~"Thank you for your compliment, but please leave."

-"Oh, common..."-The player rolled his eyes and ignored what I told him.-"I see you are a newbie. How about you come with me and I show you how to have fun here? I promise it will be a pleasant experience."

~"I'm not interested."

-"Hey, don't be..."

-"Stop it."-Another, this time female voice, sounded nearby.-"Leave her be."

-"Tsk. Fine. What an ungrateful bitch."-The player left while cursing me.

-"Are you okay?"-The female player approached me and squatted slightly to be the same height as I.

~"I'm all right, thank you. Though I'm male, sorry for the misunderstanding."

-"Eh..?"-She looked me up and down, before showing a somewhat strained smile.-"Sorry, this avatar..."

~"I'm aware, don't mind it."

-"Ehem."-She tried to change the subject to cover the now awkward atmosphere.-"Are you waiting for someone?"

~"Not currently. Someone will join me later, but I came earlier to get used to the new game."

-"Then how about I show you around?"

~"It would be helpful. Thank you..?"

-"Shinon."-She introduced herself.

~"Thank you, Shinon. I'm Yue."

-"Yue? Even your name is rather feminine."-She joked, while starting to lead the way.

~"My 'parent' didn't want to dictate my gender while naming me, so THEY chose a somewhat neutral name and left that decision to me."~I answered truthfully, to the point that it sounded absurd.

-"Ugh, how to say it..."

~"Strange, right?"~I smiled at Shinon's strange expression.

-"Let's call it progressive."-Shinon spoke to be polite.

~"As you wish."

-"Right, do you have only the starting amount of money?"

~"No, my account is migrated along with some cash."

-"Then, rather than a low-level spot, let me take you to the top one."-Shinon entered one of the shops on the street.-"What weapon are you interested in?"

~"For the start, a pistol would be perfect."

-"Sure."-She took me to the rack showing many pistols, revolvers, and other small arms.-"Any preference?"

~"Light and reliable."

-"Hmm... Then I suggest either a Glock or a Sig."-She pointed out a few models.

I took a quick glance at the stats of the weapons, and after a moment of thinking, I took the P226 into my hands. I picked this weapon not only because of its overall good parameters, but also the fact that I often see it in the hands of Sakura and Fu Hua when they act as my guards in this world.

-"This guy, huh? Nice choice. What next?"

~"Main gun."

-"Type?"

~"DMR."

-"Oh? Why not sniper?"-Shinon looked at me with interest after hearing my choice of weapon.

~"Few battles occur at ranges where snipers offer advantages over DMRs here, so I prefer the firerate and capacity of DMRs over sheer power sniper rifles."

-"Valid opinion."-Shinon nodded and took me to the aisle showcasing DMRs.-"As you chose P226 as your sidearm, how about continuing with the special forces weapons and testing the M110A1 SDMR?"

~"It looks solid."~I took the gun that was almost half as long as I was high and fiddled with it to check how it felt.

-"I used it for a while and was quite pleased, but I prefer the power of AMRs."

~"Oh? So you are a sniper?"

-"I guess."

~"Interesting."~I now connected this female player with the name of a well-known sniper about whom I read a report some time ago.

-"What now?"

~"Is there some more specialized equipment?"

-"You mean grenades, mines, and such?"

~"Partially. I want to know where I can find drones."

-"Oh? You plan to hunt some monster?"-She looked at me, interested.

~"While I want to test my new equipment, the drones are for a slightly different purpose."

-"Is that so? Well, whatever. If you have free space in your squad, you can write to me, though I may be busy later this week."

~"So you are planning for BoB?"

-"Yup."

~"It would seem that we will be rivals then."

-"Eh?"-She looked at me, surprised.-"You plan to compete as a newbie?"

~"That's why I logged the week before the preliminaries, to train."

-"Like it would be enough..."

~"We will see. I plan to shoot some targets outside the city, interested?"

-"Why not, let me see how good you are before BoB."

And so, two of us left the shop and teamed up for now.

For the next five days, two of us would play together every afternoon, hunting monsters and fighting other players. Thanks to those days, my mastery of game mechanics rose rapidly, surprising Shinon greatly in the process, as even she learned a thing or two from my tests of the game limits.

On the sixth day, we decided to rest before the competition, and so we went our separate ways after deciding where to meet tomorrow. After Shinon disappeared in the crowd, I walked to a nearby cafe, where a familiar face waited for me.

-"Lord Yue."-Sakura bowed to me in greeting.

~"Sakura, how is the progress?"~I sat in front of her and ordered some tea.

-"We put monitoring on all registered contestants and suspicious players."

~"Any breakthroughs?"

-"Not for now."

~"Now that the trap is set, we only need them to walk into it."

-"This is the items you asked Vill-V to make."-Sakura passed me a briefcase she was carrying.

~"Perfect."~I nodded after checking the contents of the briefcase.~"What about the US government? Still blocking us?"

-"Officially, they allowed us to proceed, but some parties are dragging their feet."

~"They want to clean their hands of any connections to those remnants."

-"Sigh."-Sakura glanced at the empty cup before her with tired eyes.-"Are there no good politicians? In every world, would they support even the greatest scums if it profits them?"

~"They will, after all, who can climb that high in power without having their hands stained, not to mention the greater their power, the more afraid they are of losing it. Helping some murderers from a 'stupid video game' is not a problem for them."

-"But isn't the US one of our backers?"

~"There are no allies in politics, only interests. They back us as we are the winning horse in the technological race, but that doesn't mean they will not try to secure even more of their interests quietly. The biggest powers of this world, while being the core of the UN, are more often not the most staunchly opposed to allowing the UN to influence them."

-"Sometimes I wish I could just cut through any impediment and not play with such people."

~"We are not tyrants or demons, while we came to conquer, I wish to gain loyal subjects, not subjugated slaves. War and raw power are as much of a tool as politics and faith; we only need to use them when it's appropriate."

-"You are right, Lord."-Sakura looked at me with a renewed conviction.

~"But soon you will have an occasion to swing your sword."

-"My blade is always waiting for the Lord's command."

I smiled after hearing her pledge, feeling truly gratified.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived, and with it came the time for the preliminary round of BoB. Meeting with Shinon at the agreed place, we went to the venue with some time to spare.

-"This cloak?"

~"You can call this my secret weapon."~I smiled from under the hood of a black cloak that was now covering my avatar, leaving only my braid exposed on the back.

-"Secret weapon? Could it be..."-Shinon thought for a moment.-"An optical camouflage?"

~"I can give only partial points for this answer, as this is not the cloak you are thinking about. This thing is a masterpiece of my friend, a camouflage cloak modified to work with my style of combat. I can tell you in secret that while it has reduced effectiveness as optical camouflage, its ability lies in utilizing and blocking electronic means."

-"Oh? You just disclosed it to me like that?"

~"Treat it as a friend's benefit. Not to mention that we will only meet in the main game as our preliminary blocks are different."

-"Shinon! Here!"-As we were speaking, a loud voice interrupted us from the side.

Looking toward the shouting player, Shinon showed slight surprise, though some mixed emotions appeared on her face. Despite that, we still approached and sat with that player.

-"Shinon, this is?"-The player looked at me with slight hostility, but he quickly assumed me to be a female, so this animosity turned into friendliness.

-"This is Yue, we met recently and teamed up."

~"Well met."

-"Yes, hello. I'm Shupigeru."-He introduced himself with his nickname.

-"As you are here, did you..."

-"Ahah..."-Shupigeru laughed awkwardly.-"No, you know my build can't win in the current meta. I'm here to support you."

~"Current meta?"

-"This... don't you know?"

-"Yue is a newbie to the game after all."-Shinon spoke for me.

-"I see. The current meta in-game focuses on STR due to high requirements of powerful weapons, while my character leveled AGI for speed."

~"Huh..."~I brought out my character panel and looked at my stat hexagram.

Time spent in SAO made my character over-leveled, so even my lowest stat, VIT, was comparable to those who invested it, despite my not putting any free points in it. The attributes I leveled most were SEN and DEX, with AGI and STR falling a little behind.

I chose such a build as it allowed me to showcase my abilities in SAO the best. DEX helped with the handling of weapons, while SEN increased the effectiveness of skills, especially the OSS. In GGO, there is much less focus on skills, so SEN here works on auxiliary equipment, allowing me to use mines, special grenades, and even turrets.

-"Eh?"

-"It's the first time I've seen such high parameters."-Shinon looked at my panel with confusion.

~"Well, you'll probably know this in a moment but..."~As I was about to continue, an announcement coming from the screens floating around interrupted me.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, let me officially start this year's BoB with a match most of you are waiting for! Let's welcome the 'Great Hero' himself, the Flame Chaser Emperor, Yue!"

The moment those words ended, I was enveloped in white light, teleporting me to the arena.

The light quickly receded, and so, I was able to see my surroundings for the first round. The whole battlefield this time was a heavily forested ruin with few high buildings, so it favoured more ambush strategies, meaning it was perfect for me.

First thing I did was take out a drone from my inventory, and let it scout the surroundings while I headed toward a nearby structure. Being a futuristic game, drones here were much quieter and harder to detect, even possessing optical camouflage and radar shielding thanks to my SEN stat, so they were perfect tools for searching enemies.

As for why no other players use them, the answer was simple, not only did using them require you to focus on the controls, but also, drones here were purely support items; they could not deal damage themself. Some utilized them in PvE to locate monsters, but to waste time and leave oneself exposed for a surprise attack in PvP was wasteful in the eyes of all players. Luckily for me, multitasking was something I considered myself a master of, so controlling a drone while running at full speed or even fighting was easy for me.

After running for a minute or so, I entered one of the ruined highrises and climbed to the top, not forgetting to leave some surprises on my way if I were to be followed. Taking M110A1 from my shoulder, I took position on the edge of the roof, aiming where my drone was flying through the forest.

I was ready to shoot at any moment, and I didn't have to wait for long, as my drone spotted the enemy a few seconds later. Slowly exhaling my breath, I aimed at the foliage beneath me, and ignoring the fact that I lacked a direct line of sight, I took my shot. As the sound of gunfire echoed around, I saw through my drone feed that my opponent's head exploded as he was stepping over some roots.

Standing up, I hoisted my gun on my back as I waited for my drone to fly up here. As soon as I secured it back in my inventory, I accepted the prompt before me, teleporting me back to the waiting room.

As I appeared there, everyone looked at me in silence. Some were surprised after seeing my performance, some were excited after knowing who I was, but what all of them had in common was the respect for a strong opponent and admiration for a SAO's hero.

Only one pair of eyes showed other emotions, but they must have thought that it would be hard to know who it was in a crowd. Sadly, I instantly locked eyes with them, or at least this is how it looked from their perspective, as all I could see was an empty space.

Smiling slightly, I mouthed an 'Optical camouflage, huh?' at them before ignoring them. This was their unintended mistake, as even in virtual reality, detecting intent was not problematic for me, but this error gave me the last piece of a puzzle I needed to know how our targets worked.

Sending this info to Sakura and Mei, I returned to where Shinon was sitting, looking at me with a mix of surprise, fighting spirit, and slight resentment mixed in. Knowing that what awaited me was some explaining to do, my smile became much more wry, but I still joined my sniper instructor at the table.