Drawing her sword, Asuna finished the line with a smug, triumphant expression.
Unbeknownst to her, someone was recording the entire performance—Komachi.
"Big sister, you were so cool!"
"Thank you, Komachi-cha... n? What is that in your hand?"
"An in-game video camera, Big sister!"
"Um, I can see that, but why are you aiming it at me?"
"So I can show Big brother later and get paid an allowance as a reward!"
"Right. You're not even trying to hide it, are you?"
Asuna reached out to snatch the camera, but Komachi thrust it into her inventory a fraction of a second faster.
"Mhfuh."
"Grr..."
Asuna's expression instantly turned expressionless like a Noh mask. She tapped on the monitor screen and said in a deadpan tone:
"By the way, that little kid named Benkei who was acting like a smug attendant a second ago? That's this very same Komachi-chan."
Komachi's face drained of color as she squawked in protest.
"Wha... Big sister, you traitor!"
"Fufun. This big sister doesn't just spoil her little sister-in-law unconditionally."
"Guh..."
Watching the exchange, the others chimed in.
"Wait, Komachi was in GGO too?"
"So he just packed the game with family members?"
"Is there anyone else who joined GGO?"
"N-No, I don't think so..." Yukino stammered nervously.
Suspicious eyes immediately locked onto Yukino. At that exact second, the video feed switched, filling the screen with the flashy, gyaru-styled avatar of Nyangoro.
"Eh?"
"Wait, syncing up at this exact moment... Are you serious?!"
"The mismatch is insane... especially a certain part of her chest..."
"S-Shut up! What's wrong with me having a game avatar with a body like this once in a while?!"
"So it is her..."
"Ah..."
Having inadvertently outed herself, Yukino's cheeks flushed bright red.
"So that means this is..."
"Yup. That's Nyangoro—Yukino-chan's GGO avatar after getting a little carried away upon rolling such a miraculous character model," Soleil announced.
"S-Sister?!"
Soleil stood nearby, smiling smugly. Syncing up the video playback had clearly been her doing.
"Alright, playtime is over," Soleil said, her tone shifting to business. "Chrysheight, I got a response from Zaskar. They said they can't disclose personal data for a large number of players based purely on speculation. Though from their tone, it sounded like they might yield if it were just one specific individual."
"I see... As expected of an American corporation," Chrysheight replied.
Soleil had evidently taken the initiative to contact Zaskar on her own after assessing the situation.
"Are there any other options? Does anyone have a good idea?" Soleil asked the room.
"Wait, before that, we don't even understand what's going on..." someone spoke up.
Soleil blinked, realizing she had jumped too far ahead.
"Ah, sorry, my bad. Basically..."
Soleil laid out the full truth of the incident to the guild.
"Are you serious...?"
"Those Laughing Coffin scumbags..."
"The target is one of the participants. To protect them right now, we need their real-world identity."
"Out of everyone remaining, only seven have confirmed real-world safety: Shana, Hachiman, Kirito, Sinon, Pitohui, Yamikaze, Lightly Salted Cod Roe, and Musketeer X," Soleil explained.
Unbeknownst to Shana, Yamikaze and Cod Roe were actually logged in directly from Soleil's corporate headquarters. After their shift ended, Haruno had "courteously" (read: forcefully) arranged for them to play from there. Her original motive had simply been a desire to watch the BoB tournament live from their perspectives, but that whim had turned out to be a massive stroke of luck.
Meanwhile, as information poured in from various channels, Haruno had deduced that Sterben's faction was behind the attacks and tried to leverage Zaskar—a move that ultimately hit a wall.
As for Pitohui and Musketeer X, their job backgrounds meant their home security setups were already known to be airtight, while Sinon's safety had been verified directly through the wild method of asking Hachiman-kun.
The group frantically put their heads together, coming up with a couple of potentially game-changing leads:
1. If the target uses SNS, can we make an inquiry through their Japanese branch?
2. If there's a record of their account converting from a Japanese-made game, can we trace it from that end?
The second option, however, was impossible. Due to the inherent design of The Seed—engineered by Kayaba to prevent fake games from harvesting personal data—it was impossible to gather accurate login location data unless a player specifically filled out a form like the BoB registration.
The sole exception was ALO. ALO retained legacy server data from before its transition to The Seed standard, making it possible to trace user info through those older logs.
Factoring that in, Soleil determined they could move forward on both fronts.
"Chrysheight, if we go through ALO, we might be able to trace addresses from the legacy servers. As for that 'Steven?'... or 'Sterben' guy, we'll demand Zaskar disclose his IP address on an emergency basis. That might let us pin down his current physical location. I'll leave the SNS route to you."
"Understood. I will initiate the investigation immediately."
With that, Chrysheight logged out to issue commands. Soleil bade farewell to the group and logged off as well.
Left behind in the virtual room, the remaining guild members kept their eyes glued to the screen, silently sending their earnest prayers and support to Shana and Kirito.
This level of twist isn't out of left field just yet—something like tomorrow's chapter is what you'd truly call out of left field.
Next Chapter — Chapter 418: Operation D8
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