"The idea that agility is the only stat that matters is only an illusion." "Sure, agility is an important stat." "Firing speed and dodging..." "If you were good at those two things, you were good." "Until now, anyway." "But that's all in the past now." "And to those of you who spent the past eight months never leaving the house, raising that stat..." "Sucks to be you." "That's what we'd expect to hear" "Zexceed" "Dark Wind" "Presenter from the top player of the most hardcore VRMMO, Gun Gale Online." "Pretty extreme!" "Well, I may only get one chance in my life to be on MMO Stream..." "Oh, don't say that." "Aren't you aiming for the next Ballet of Bullets?" "Of course." "If I'm going to enter," "I'll play to win!" "But you know, Zexceed-san..." "BoB is a solo tournament, with random encounters." "Doing the same doesn't guarantee you'll get the same result." "I'm not sure you should be chalking your victory up to your status type." "No, the results were indicative of a broader trend within GGO." "You're an agility-based character, Dark Wind-san, so I can understand why you'd want to deny it." "It's true that, until now, the strongest strategy has been to raise your AGI, and fire a powerful physical weapon as fast as possible." "But the balance of a MMO changes all the time." "In particular, games with levels don't let you re-spec your stats." "You need to constantly predict the future when you spend your points, because the best style for your level zone won't always stay the same." "Minimum strength requirements and accuracy bonuses keep increasing for new equipment introduced..." "Zexceed always used to talk about how awesome agility-based characters were." "I can't believe I listened to him." "Zexceed..." "False victor..." "You will now be judged by true power!" "So you see..." "In the end, what's really important is the player's own ability—" "Oh, my..." "Looks like we lost the connection." "It should be back in a second, so don't touch that dial!" "This is true power!" "True strength." "Fools..." "Remember this name, and fear!" "The name this gun and I share!" "Death Gun!" "Gun World" "Mom" "I'll be home by 6." "Be sure to be home by dinner." "December, 2025..." "Soon, it'll be a year." "What's the difference between the real world and the virtual one?" "The amount of information." "That's all." "You surprised me..." "I got here right on time." "I guess I was running on autopilot." "Anyway..." "Hello, Kirito-kun." "That's dangerous." "Hey, Asuna." "Wh-What?" "It's just..." "Those clothes look good on you." "They bring back a lot of memories..." "Yeah, but I don't have a rapier." "And I see you're wearing a lot of black today." "Well..." "Sugu washed all my clothes this morning." "This was all I had." "That's why you shouldn't let your laundry pile up!" "So we both happen to be wearing our old colors today..." "What are the odds of that?" "Well, if we meet all the time over a year—" "Just say, "Yeah, you're right!"" "Come on." "Let's go." "Hey, don't you think the palace is kind of interesting?" "Interesting?" "How?" "It's 2 kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide." "It covers 20% of Chiyoda Ward." "No tunnels or subways run under it." "Planes aren't allowed to fly overhead, either." "It's a giant off-limits zone in the middle of Tokyo." "And it's cut off, not only physically, but information-wise, as well." "See that security camera?" "This place has its own unique closed network, and you can't access it from outside at all." "That's a strange-looking camera." "Yeah." "This place is in the middle of Tokyo, but it's also its own, isolated world." "Maybe that's taking it a bit too far." "Maybe." "This is where Edo Castle's inner citadel used to be." "Let's go." "Former Cannon Emplacement" "Hey, remember the survey about what we'll do after graduation?" "What are you planning to do with your future?" "I think I'm going to go from a player to a creator." "A creator?" "What kind of game will you make?" "Not a game..." "A man-machine interface to replace our current full-dive technology." "I've been frequenting a lot of tech forums, to study." "But they're all in English, so it's pretty rough." "I want to stay with you forever, Kirito-kun." "It'd be great if Yui-chan could be with us here, too..." "That'll be possible, once we can use an augmented reality environment whenever we want." "Right now, there's too much difference in the amount of information." "You were saying that earlier, weren't you?" "The real and virtual worlds are only different in the amount of information..." "What does that mean?" "Well..." "You know how there's a difference between holding hands like this in the real world and in ALO?" "You're right." "I can feel a lot more from your real hand." "Oh!" "That's what you mean by more information." "Yeah." "But what if, someday, we could replicate the sensations your skin feels?" "Could you tell the difference between a real hand and an avatar's hand just by touch?" "I could." "If it were your hand." "It isn't only touch." "Don't sound and taste convey a lot more information in reality, too?" "So even if the Amuspheres had AR capability..." "Yeah." "You'd know whether something was real or not the minute you saw or touched it." "But if there's a huge technology breakthrough someday, and we're able to receive a large amount of sensory information in the real world..." "We could cross the boundary between worlds and be with Yui-chan all the time." "That day is coming, right?" "Yeah." "Make something like that for us, okay?" "About 4 hours earlier" "Welcome." "Hey, Kirito-kun!" "Over here!" "I'll pay, so order whatever you want." "I'll do that, then." "Thank you very much." "Oh, don't be so formal..." "Just talk to me like you would in ALO." "S-Sure..." "I'll have..." "Um..." "I'll have the parfait au chocolat, the framboise mille-feuille, and a hazelnut latte." "Sorry to bring you all the way here, Kirito-kun." "If you're really sorry, don't bring me all the way to Ginza..." "And don't call me that in front of others!" "You're so cold..." "After you woke up in the hospital a year ago, I was the first person to visit you." "He's right." "He was my first visitor after I woke up." "The leader of the response team." "Kikuoka Seijirou, of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Telecommunications Bureau," "Advanced Communications Networks Promotion Division Section 2," "AKA the Virtual Division." "Well, what else do you need?" "I told you pretty much everything there was to know about SAO..." "I want to discuss something else today." "Look at this." "Who's this?" "Hmm, last month, on November 14th..." "The landlord of a Nakano, Tokyo apartment building smelled something while cleaning." "She got worried and opened the electronic lock on the door, and discovered the body of this man, Shigemura Tamotsu, age 26." "He'd been dead five and a half days." "His room was messy but hadn't been ransacked." "The body was on the bed." "And on its head..." "An Amusphere?" "Exactly." "Given the possibility of foul play, an autopsy was held." "The cause of death was acute heart failure." "Heart failure?" "His heart stopped?" "Why?" "We don't know." "Here you are." "Given the time of death, and the low probability of a crime, a thorough autopsy was not conducted." "But he'd been logged in for two full days without eating anything." "That isn't so unusual." "What's so special about this case?" "The game he had installed was Gun Gale Online." "Do you know it?" "Sure..." "It's the only game in Japan with pro players." "He had won a tournament in Gun Gale Online, GGO for short, that was held in October, to determine the strongest player." "His character name was Zexceed." "Then he was playing GGO when he died?" "No, he was appearing on a program called MMO Stream, as his Zexceed avatar." "We know the time from the logs." "And this hasn't been confirmed, but another user wrote on their blog that something strange happened in GGO at the same time as his heart attack." "Strange?" "At the exact same time this was happening, a player was acting strangely in a bar." "He screamed something about "judgment" at the TV Zexceed was appearing on, and fired his gun." "One of the players watching this happened to have an audio log running, and uploaded the file to a video site." "The file contains a counter in Japan Standard Time." "The shot was fired at the TV at almost the same time Shigemura disappeared from the program." "That's just a coincidence." "There was another one." "What?" "!" "This one happened on November 28th." "Somewhere in Saitama City, Saitama." "Another body found in a room, in a two-story apartment." "A newspaper salesman looked inside and saw a man, lying on a futon, wearing an Amusphere..." "Another horrible smell." "Well, skipping the particulars of the corpse..." "Another acute heart failure." "He was also a highly skilled GGO player." "His character name was..." "Lightly Salted Tarako?" "He was playing the game at the time." "He was at a meeting with his squadron..." "I guess that's what they call a guild... in a Glocken City plaza..." "When he was shot by another player." "Was it the same guy as Zexceed?" "Probably." "He said the same things about power and judgment, and used the same character name." "What was it?" "Death Gun." "Death Gun?" "You're sure it was heart failure, right?" "What do you mean?" "There wasn't any damage to their brains?" "I wondered that, as well." "I spoke to the coroner who handled the autopsies, and they said there was nothing wrong with their brains." "And what's more, the NerveGear used microwaves powerful enough to burn out the signaling devices and destroy part of the brain." "But the Amusphere is designed for that kind of power emission to be impossible." "The developers were insistent on that." "You've done a lot of homework, Kikuoka-san..." "All this for something that seems like nothing more than coincidence and rumor?" "Well, I'm ninety percent sure it's coincidence, or someone's making it up." "So we're speaking hypothetically here." "Do you think it's possible to stop a player's heart with a bullet fired from within a video game?" "I don't think so, but assuming this Death Gun could send some kind of signal to Zexceed's and Lightly Salted Tarako's Amuspheres..." "Some sensation of touch that would stop their hearts..." "Or taste, or smell, or sight, or sound..." "Some kind of sensory information..." "Hey, wait." "You've already looked into all this, haven't you?" "If you smarty pants have thought this through, there shouldn't be much left for me to do." "No, no..." "I'd never do that to you, Kirito-kun." "I enjoy talking to you." "I'm done." "Here's my conclusion." "Stopping a player's heart from within a game is impossible!" "The gunshots and heart failures are unrelated—" "W-Wait!" "You can order another slice of cake." "Just stay for a while!" "Well, I'm relieved to hear you say that aloud..." "I was thinking the same thing." "These two deaths weren't caused by gunshots from within the game." "So I'd like to ask you..." "Will you log into Gun Gale Online and make contact with this Death Gun?" "Why not just say it, Kikuoka-san?" ""Go get shot."" "Well..." "No way in hell!" "What if something happened to me?" "!" "We both just agreed that was impossible!" "And it looks like Mr. Death Gun has pretty strict criteria for his targets." "Criteria?" "Yes." "Zexceed and Lightly Salted Tarako were both renowned top-level players." "In other words, he won't shoot you unless you're good." "Probably." "Kayaba-sensei recognized you as the strongest player—" "That's impossible..." "GGO isn't that easy a game!" "It's filled with pros." "That's it." "What does it mean to be a pro?" "Just what it sounds like." "Gun Gale Online is the only virtual MMO that lets you exchange game coins for real money." "Basically, you can take the money you earn in-game and exchange it for real cash." "Description Amount Deposit 1 GGO 132,000 yen Deposit 1 GGO 65,000 yen Deposit 1 GGO 157,000 yen" "The pros are the ones who can earn money in GGO every single month." "A top player can make anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 yen a month." "For that reason, the high-level GGO players spend far more time and passion on their game than other MMO players." "I can't just log in and expect to match them." "Find someone else." "Wait, wait..." "I don't have anyone else!" "If you don't think you can fight the pros," "I'll pay you to cooperate with the investigation." "This much." "Why is this such a big deal to you?" "It's just another Internet horror story." "You see, my bosses are worried about this." "The effects of full-dive technology on the human body are the single biggest focus of research right now." "I want to know what's really going on before they start trying to use this to restrict the technology." "I want to be sure." "How's that for a reason?" "Wouldn't it be faster to ask the administrators?" "Zaskar, the company that develops and operates GGO, has its servers in America." "The real company's address, phone number, and e-mail are all confidential." "Since The Seed went public, all kinds of shady virtual worlds have popped up." "Which means the only way to get at the truth is to make contact with them within the game." "Of course, we'll take every safety precaution." "And I won't tell you to get shot." "Just tell me your impressions, and give me your judgment." "Will you go?" "Four thousand people died in Aincrad." "After a year, I've almost put that behind me." "But now, more people are being murdered in virtual reality, and I'm being called back." "It's like someone is telling me not to forget." "Former Cannon Emplacement" "I think I understand why you brought me here." "Y-Yeah?" "If the world is composed of an axis called time and a plane called space, then Tokyo's center—in other words, our reality—is this place." "The center of the endlessly expanding virtual worlds, thanks to The Seed, is the castle that's gone, right?" "That's why this twilight brings back so many memories." "I see..." "You're right." "There's something your words just now helped me to understand." "Huh?" "What?" "The shape of Aincrad." "It's possible that its shape represented an axis of time and a place of space." "But that would mean that the world the commander tried to create was intended to taper off to a point, and someday disappear." "And a certain person made it explode midway." "Without waiting to see the end." "I'm s-sorry, Miss Second-in-Command..." "Asuna, listen..." "Nothing, it's getting cold." "Let's get going." "Yeah, let's come back with Liz, Leafa-chan, and the others." "I'm sure eating lunch on that lawn would be fun!" "Yeah, in the spring." "I'm in position." "Roger." "The enemy hasn't changed course or speed." "They're 400 meters from you, 1,500 from me." "That's pretty far." "Can you do it?" "I'll be fine." "Okay, open fire." "I'm counting on you, Shinon." "Roger." "This pressure, this unease..." "This terror... 1,500 meters?" "That's like tossing a wad of paper in a wastebasket." "Yes..." "Yes..." "Compared to that time..." "Next." "Next Time:" "Ice Sniper"