The Spectre eye (Sword Art Online Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: Lockdown

I did seven more duels until I reached the finals. And my opponent was Sinon.

"Some great performance out there," Sinon smiled to me. "Looking forward to taking you on."

"Same," I smiled back. "But I won't go easy."

"That was my line, but thanks," Sinon extended her hand to me. I shook it, and both of us got into position.

My power was put to test, for real this time. I've seen Sinon shoot in previous duels; her hands never went off by a millimetre from where she was aiming, and her instincts are just as quick as mine. I calculated Sinon's head position in my brain, and I put it in my biological compass.

As soon as I heard the fire signal, I turned and shot at the exact point I had in my mind. She also pulled the trigger, and our bullets went in the same trail. A "clink" projected throughout the arena.

Our bullets collided. It was a draw.

The crowd went silent. Then they went crazy. Then I got teleported out, along with Sinon.

"Unbelievable," Sinon gave me a smile.

"Anything is possible here in a game," I smiled back.

"I guess," Sinon shook her head. "Anyway, now you should have the prize money added to your account."

I checked it. My balance went from 90,000 coins up to 190,000 coins. I also had a gift in my mailbox. I opened it and received a golden trigger. I looked at Sinon, who had the same thing in her hands.

"This is the prize for Deadeye Showdown winners. It has no use other than being a trophy," Sinon explained. "At least it's good for flexing."

"True," I laughed but was immediately interrupted by an alarm.

"Attention players," the alarm said. "We are about to install a new server update. Please do not log out of the game; you will be teleported to the main lobby where you'll learn about the new features. Thank you."

Then my screen started to flash numbers: 5, 4, 3, 2, then 1.

Then I got teleported to the main lobby. It was filled with other people who were as confused as I was.

Someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned to face Sinon.

"Do you know what this is about?" I whispered to her.

"No idea," Sinon shook her head.

"Attention again players," the same voice said again. "This in-game update added a new biome with its own enemies, new weapons, as well as a new system - weaponsmithing. We also introduced accessories such as grappling hooks."

"There is also a new change to the game mechanic itself. You can now only log out when you finish the mainline objectives. Additionally, you will die of tachycardia in real life if you stay in a soulless state for more than 5 minutes or your AmuSphere has been forcefully removed from your head by another person."

"Wait!" I turned to Sinon. "Isn't this what happened with the Sword Art Online incident?"

"I'm afraid yes," she replied in a solemn voice. "This game has the same base code as SAO, so it is completely possible."

"But I thought they removed microwaves that were used by NerveGear?"

"Didn't you hear? They can't fry your brain anymore, but they can increase your heart rate drastically and cause you to die."

"If you believe this is a joke, you may proceed to kill yourselves. However, I shall not be held responsible for the resulting deaths. Have fun," the mysterious voice continued. "And farewell."

Then it came to me. Rinfest. The voice that said "farewell" belonged to Rinfest.

"But... why would they repeat the same stupid thing?" Sinon asked me in confusion.

"It's not official," I responded. "It's a virus or something of the same sort."

"A virus?"

"Yeah. Or it could be the Gamemaster disguised as a hacker, but I highly doubt the chances of that," I shrugged.

Everyone else around me was panicking. Some were yelling "I didn't sign up for this!", while others were crying out of fear. Some even yelled "These bastards lied to me" out towards where Rinfest and his partner were just standing.

I turned. This just turned real. But I didn't miss the real world like everyone else was whining about. This was my chance to get a "real" life. 

"You would think that after the SAO incident, people would start to believe that this is very much possible," I shook my head. "It only made them more certain that technology is safe."

"It's not," Sinon seemed calm, but I could see the shiver in her pupils. "It's not safe at all."

"Well, the only thing we could do to get back faster is to get a headstart," I gestured towards Sinon. "Let's get a move on."

She nodded, and we moved away from the main lobby and commenced our journey in this unforgiving yet blessed world.

Thank you again. I paused for a few days to see the response on the first few chapters, and it really did surprise me, even after seeing my old story get past 25k views. Keep it up! Glitch-Out!

-GlitchOut