best villain

Taking out the portable terminal and swiping it from the payment machine, after paying the fare with a beep, Asuna ran out of the taxi without looking back.

It is now 09:30 in the evening, and the entrance of Ochanomizu Hospital in Chiyoda Ward is brightly lit, but through the glass door, you can see that there is no one in the hall, and the light is relatively dim, giving people a quiet and eerie feeling.

However, there is also a nurse on duty at the front desk of the lobby, which is really helpful.

Asuna strode to the front desk.Before leaving Alo, she had contacted Kikuoka Seijiro, so she said to the female nurse, "I made an appointment to visit Yuuki in Ward 7025!"

At the same time, take out your student ID card from your pocket and place it on the counter.

While the nurse was carefully comparing his appearance with the photo, Asuna asked about the location of the ward.

"It's Ms. Yuuki Asuna. This is a visitor's permit. Please don't forget to return it when you leave. The elevator on the right is for the ward..."

"I see, thank you!"

After receiving the so-called permit, Asuna saluted and hurried away.

The nurse's expression looked a little surprised. After all, in the hospital's records, the girl named Kazuko Kiritani was not seriously ill, but just a routine examination.So there's no need to be so anxious, but she doesn't have time to care about it at this time.

Feeling that the elevator is slowly rising, the numbers on the electronic screen continue to beat.

It's obviously only the seventh floor, why is it so slow?

Asuna was almost defeated by the anxiety that filled her heart.

According to Kikuoka Seijiro's explanation, the reason Kiriko accepted Kikuoka's entrustment to go to GGO was all because of a strange player.

That player is called 'Death Gun'.

And 'Death Gun''s true identity, or former identity, is a member of Sao's most active red-named player guild, also known as the killing guild—Smiling Coffin, and a core member at the cadre level.

It was this person who killed two ggo players in succession with unusual and mysterious means some time ago.This incident attracted the attention of the relevant department, namely Seijiro Kikuoka.Later, I asked Tongzi to investigate.

Whether this was an intentional move by Kikuoka Seijiro is not important anymore, the key lies in the two dead players, what kind of method did "Death Gun" use to kill them.

Unscientific power?Or accidental death?

Or... brainwaves?

No, the cause of death was heart failure.It has nothing to do with brain waves.

Thinking of some words her father said before, Asuna's hand trembled unconsciously.

Although she rejected the relationship between the two from the bottom of her heart, she actually didn't know much about it. What if someone imitated Kayaba Akihiko's modus operandi and tried to use brain waves to cause the player's heart to fail... this may Sex isn't zero either.

In this way, the two players who were killed first might just be experiments.

The real intention of 'Death Gun' is to wipe out all the players in this bob competition....

"Ding--"

With an electronic sound effect, the elevator stopped on the seventh floor.

Asuna took a deep breath of cold air, trying to calm down the turmoil in her heart.

She has not forgotten her purpose.

Remember the ward is on the left....

for a while.The corridor echoed with footsteps.

Asuna was walking, scanning the house numbers of each ward with her eyes.

Seven thousand two three... two four... two five, that's right.

Take out the access card given by the nurse, and slide it through the gap in the card inserter.

The red light turned green and the door opened automatically.

This is a single ward in white tones.

Asuna is very familiar.Because she had spent more than two years in such a room before.There are many medical instruments around the hospital bed, the curtains are being opened, and the cool wind blows into the room. The almost naked girl is lying quietly on the hospital bed, wearing a virtual game helmet on her head.

"Miss Kazuko!"

Suddenly, Asuna heard someone else's voice.

Walking into the ward, I saw a beautiful nurse.I remember that Kikuoka Seijiro said that someone would take care of it.At that time, Asuna, who was worried about whether she would suffer a small loss if she was a male doctor, was completely relieved now.

"Ah, Miss Yuki? I have something to tell you, please come here."

Seeing Asuna, the nurse quickly stood up and said in a slightly hoarse tone.

Asuna couldn't help but walk to the side of the hospital bed.

Kiritani Kazuko's eyes were tightly closed.

But this is not sleep.Not fainting either.

The helmet blocked her five senses from the real world and brought her to a distant alien world.

Even so, Asuna was keenly aware that Kiriko's condition was not good. She had a calm expression, but she was sweating uncontrollably.The nurse kept wiping her with a dry towel.

"What happened to Kazuko?"

Asuna raised her head and asked the nurse who was wearing the 'Aki' nurse certificate.

Hearing this, Nurse Aki frowned and shook her head slightly.

"There is nothing dangerous, but from just now, the heart rate suddenly increased to 130."

"Heartbeat?"

Asuna subconsciously looked at the instrument on the right.There is a very unstable waveform on the electronic screen similar to a computer.Under her gaze, the waveform graph ushered in a peak again.

It is by no means abnormal to experience a rapid heartbeat during gameplay.Fighting scary monsters, of course, will be nervous, and receiving rewards after completing tasks, of course, will be exciting.It's not so much abnormal as it is normal.

However, she is Tongzi.

That player in the floating city of Aincrad, as a solo player in the strategy team, often explored alone at the forefront, wandering on the verge of death, and escaped from desperate situations countless times.

Such a girl, even if she is a young girl, no one dares to underestimate her.

In fact, since Sao escaped, during the year when Alo and everyone played together, no matter what kind of tricky monsters they encountered, Asuna had never seen Tongzi panic.

What the hell happened?

At this time, Weiyi's voice came from the portable terminal.

"Sister, watch it on the TV on the wall. I will connect the line to the live video of the network broadcasting station."

Yes.

A [-]-inch ultra-thin LCD TV is placed opposite the hospital bed.Weiyi should be able to use the wireless network of the portable terminal to jump to the live broadcast of the finals of the game trend broadcast on the Internet.

Asuna immediately found the TV remote control.The image displayed after opening it is exactly the same as the live broadcast I watched on alo not long ago.

The full name of ggo is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen.On the right side of the screen is the id list of the finalists.

Then occupying most of the screen area is a game screen similar to a third perspective.

It's as if someone is carrying a camera and broadcasting live by the side.

At this time, the screen showed a girl whose whole body was wrapped in a battle suit that was darker than darkness, and her long hair was blowing in the wind.In his right hand, he held a sword with a blue-purple glossy blade.

"This is Miss Kazuko..."

Next to the hospital bed, Nurse Aki said with a little doubt.

"Yes. In battle. That's why the heartbeat goes up so fast."

Asuna answered quickly.However, it seems that the opponent has put a lot of pressure on Tongzi, and you can see that there are many red marks on Tongzi's body, which are 'scars'.The opponent is probably a survivor of Sao, and also a member of the Smiling Coffin of the murder guild—Death Gun.

However, she found that she was wrong.

As the camera slowly shifted, the appearance of the enemy Tongzi faced also appeared in the screen.

The 'Death Gun' that she identified as causing damage to Tongzi was the player wearing the tattered cloak, but... at this moment, the cloaked man had fallen to the side, and a red dot on his chest kept bleeding The same light particles, the slightly slender dots are not caused by bullets.It's more like the marks left by piercing with a sharp weapon.

So, Kiriko has ushered in victory?

No, it's not that simple.

"How could it be him..."

Asuna was shocked beyond measure again and covered her mouth with her hands.

***************

In the days of fighting in Aincrad, all the swordsmen who were qualified to be members of the clearing team.More or less mastered some 'external skills'.

For example, the "prejudgment" used in duels can determine the moves used by the opponent based on the opponent's movements and the angle of the sword.Sometimes it can also be used to deal with monsters that use their skills from a long distance, and there is also a 'destroyer' that responds to the opponent's tricks.

Eliminate all distracting thoughts, free your thinking from the shackles of the environment, and use this to judge the location and actions of the target.

This is 'listening'.

A 'misdirection' that induces the enemy to counterattack with a fierce offensive.Fight as a team and find the right opportunity to make substitutions.Take this to get the 'transformation' of rest opportunities,

finally--

Among these 'outside-system skills', the most difficult to acquire profound meaning is also the most mysterious to human beings - its name is intuition.

A lot of people think this doesn't exist.

But for Tongzi, during those years in Aincrad, she did have several 'intuitive experiences'.He obviously didn't see or hear anything, but he sensed danger, so he changed his itinerary.Don't go any further into the maze.

As a result, she was also rescued because of it.

The strategy team almost stumbled, dozens of elite players were definitely stronger than her alone.

Even so, there were almost casualties.

Needless to say, if you didn't trust your feelings in the first place.If you insist on continuing to explore, you probably won't be standing here today.

In retrospect, it was a very fortunate thing, but right now there is a major crisis that makes Kiriko have to devote herself wholeheartedly.

Although there were only a few brief encounters, 'Death Gun' was absolutely unmistakable.

Even so, facing the man's sword, he fell to the ground without any resistance.

The speed of the sword surpassed dynamic vision, and Kiriko couldn't help but think of Heathcliff.

"Okay, no one is in our way now."

The man turned his head.

Although her face was the same as she was familiar with, her hairstyle and dress had undergone earth-shaking changes.

The first thing is to dress up. The original monotonous bulletproof trench coat was replaced by an antique and simple trench coat full of fantasy style.

Then, the bluish ponytail also turned into just-right black short hair.

This makes people wonder whether it has copied the reality.

It's really weird.

But what made Tongzi even more speechless was that the man snapped his fingers casually, followed by two puffs, and two heavy swords plunged into the sand at his feet.

One is black and the other is cyan.

The style is very delicate and... very familiar.

"The Interpreter...and the Dark Chaser...."

Tongzi murmured.

(When did I say 'I don't write heroines'...)