He had slain his way through the preliminaries.
The magnificence of the three-dimensional mobility devices continued to astonish every BOB player.
And yet, the game was far from over.
Clips of the matches, paired with the opening theme from Giant Animation, had already spread like wildfire across the internet. Suddenly, this tournament had become the new traffic password of the entire gaming community.
But the one responsible for all this…
Haruto.
He wasn't concerned with popularity, nor with being the focus of the online frenzy. He simply enjoyed the game itself.
After finishing his own semifinals in record time, Haruto strolled into the grand lobby of the Presidential Palace. His gaze lifted to the massive broadcast screen, where the names of the next duel appeared:
Shino Asada vs. Mirai Kuriyama.
Although the two girls knew each other, neither was the type to deliberately put on a spectacle.
The randomly generated battlefield appeared — a city in ruins.
Broken bridges spanned rivers of debris, abandoned streets wound through shattered vehicles, and a scattering of crumbling low buildings dotted the map's edge.
For a sniper like Shino Asada, the most natural perch was high above, in one of those isolated structures. A position with a wide view and plenty of distance — perfect for picking off prey.
But the moment she entered the field, Shino didn't head for the rooftops. Instead, she sprinted straight toward the broken bridge.
The tall buildings may have offered vision, but they also left her vulnerable to opponents with mobility gear. Someone like Mirai, equipped with motor boots, could launch a surprise attack from any angle.
Shino believed in her sniping more than in her hiding.
So she abandoned distance and chose the most direct duel possible.
She claimed an abandoned bus near the edge of the bridge, climbing to the second level. Propping her rifle on the window ledge, she adjusted her scope and waited in silence.
The wind whistled across the bridge's twisted metal, a cold, cutting sound.
At this range, she didn't even need to calculate bullet drop — the shot would be true.
Her eyes narrowed, steadying.
BOB's snipers all shared the same creed:
In a true duel, there is only one bullet.
GGO's system assisted players by showing red bullet-tracing lines — alerts that let targets dodge ordinary fire. But in that first, decisive moment when two opponents laid eyes on each other? The system gave no warnings.
That first shot decided everything.
Through her scope, Mirai Kuriyama came into view.
The girl darted left and right with dizzying unpredictability, motor boots roaring with compressed gas thrusts. Conventional gunfire would never track her movements — too erratic, too fast.
But Shino was no ordinary gunner.
Her breathing slowed. Her finger caressed the trigger. The aiming circle rose and fell with her chest, shrinking with every steady exhale until it locked firm.
Across the ruined bridge, Mirai focused just as intensely on the bus.
She knew.
One bullet — dodge it, and victory would be hers.
Though she hadn't come to this tournament for glory — her only true goal was hunting Youmu — she wasn't the type to surrender.
The world itself seemed to still.
The silence pressed down like suffocating weight.
And then—
Boom!
A thunderclap of gunfire split the air.
The sniper round tore from Shino's rifle, smashing through the bus's glass window. Fractures spidered outward before the pane exploded into shards.
"Got you…"
Shino felt the hit even before she saw it. Snipers always knew when their bullet was true.
Her timing had been perfect.
Mirai's momentum had just shifted — the old inertia expended, the new thrust not yet formed. She was vulnerable, helpless.
The bullet's line was flawless.
But fate had other plans.
Mirai's boot clipped a jagged stone on the bridge deck. Her trajectory skewed wildly. With instinctive desperation, she clenched her controller and overcharged the motor boots.
The thrusters screamed.
Her body lurched upward — just enough.
The round hissed past her side, grazing rather than killing.
She rocketed forward, momentum carrying her straight toward the abandoned bus.
Shino's eyes widened. She tried to swing her rifle back into line — too late.
Mirai crashed through the shattered window.
Two bodies collided hard inside the cramped bus.
Though it was supposed to be a brutal match, the sudden entanglement was almost… indecent.
They tumbled together, limbs tangled, breathless shouts spilling into the enclosed space. The impact left both momentarily stunned.
When Mirai propped herself up, the two girls locked eyes — confusion flashing between them.
What just happened?
Shino's hand instinctively groped for her fallen rifle.
Mirai's fingers found her shotgun, lying nearby.
Their movements mirrored each other — weapons drawn, bodies rolling across the bus floor in a desperate grapple.
Outside, Haruto stood with folded arms, clicking his tongue as though watching a stage play. He even opened his interface and casually activated the photography function.
Inside, chaos reigned.
Shino's sniper rifle was far too heavy to maneuver in such tight quarters. She couldn't get it aimed.
Mirai's shotgun was within reach, but Shino locked her arms, pinning her before she could bring it to bear.
It was a struggle of agility versus agility-strength builds. In the real world, Mirai would overpower Shino easily. But in GGO, their stats dictated otherwise — and here, Mirai was the one disadvantaged.
The tension built. Breath mingled. Neither would yield.
With grit, Mirai yanked her trigger finger.
But Shino was fiercer still. The instant she realized Mirai's intent, she shoved her hand straight into the barrel of the shotgun.
No pain — it was only a game.
The chamber detonated.
A deafening blast of pellets filled the bus.
Both health bars plummeted to zero.
Draw.
The system whisked them out of the arena simultaneously.
Mirai blinked, dazed. Shino sighed in frustration.
Neither had claimed victory.
And then Haruto's voice chimed in over the comms:
"I got some really nice shots."
Both froze.
Images popped into their inboxes. Photos — of their tumble, their entanglement, their tangled limbs.
Only now, outside the adrenaline of battle, did the girls fully process what those moments had looked like.
Heat flared across their necks and cheeks.
"Delete those! Right now!" Shino's voice was sharp.
"No way. These are treasures." Haruto's smirk was audible.
"I'm not happy!" Mirai shouted.
"But I am," Haruto replied smoothly.
The preliminaries were over.
The list of finalists appeared on the broadcast: twenty players.
The rules of the finals were simple but merciless: a massive map merging five different terrains. Each player began at least a kilometer apart. Every hour, a satellite scan revealed all positions to everyone's receivers for five minutes.
No special gimmicks. No mercy.
The one left standing at the end would be crowned BOB Champion.
Winner, winner — chicken dinner.
The finals wouldn't wait for tomorrow. After a short rest, they would begin immediately.
Weapons damaged in the preliminaries would be restored, but players themselves needed only to recover.
On the central screen of the Presidential Palace, the giant mixed map flickered with life. The twenty finalists were scattered across its terrain, some studying layouts, others replenishing energy.
Haruto's eyes narrowed.
In the original story, the finals were where Death Gun appeared — a killer who caused panic by shooting players in-game while accomplices poisoned their bodies offline.
That near-disaster had almost taken Shino's life.
But this time…
The mastermind was gone.
Shinkawa Kyouji's brother and his guild allies from SAO — captured, stripped of rank, perhaps even executed.
And Shinkawa Kyouji himself? Attacked by a Youmu, his soul devoured, leaving him a vegetative husk confined to the Foundation's labs for endless experimentation.
Death Gun could never appear again.
But that didn't mean the finals were safe.
The Foundation had already detected unusual energy surges during the preliminaries. Human spirits drawn into the game had begun luring Youmu into the digital field.
The finals would be the true hunting ground.
And that was why Haruto and Mirai were here.