"?! .....Y-Yeah. Thanks," Sacrifice stammered, cold sweat pouring down his virtual brow.
"Well then, put that incident behind you and enjoy GGO," Rosalia said with a gentle smile.
"Y-Yeah! If you ever need to ask me anything else, feel free to reach out. It's the least I can do. Seriously... I'm so sorry for leaving you to your fate back then." Sacrifice's voice carried a lingering note of genuine guilt.
"Thank you. I'll let you know if anything comes up."
"Right."
"Alright, let's head back to Mount Kurama," Yamakaze said.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's do that. Farewell, then."
"A-Ah, farewell."
After the two departed, Sacrifice let out a long breath and began making his way toward his usual tavern.
"Phew... It feels like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders..."
Knowing he could finally play GGO normally without constantly looking over his shoulder, a profound sense of liberation washed over him. Glancing around at the bustling streets, he couldn't detect even a whisper of the recent war. Everyone was simply enjoying the game as they always did.
"Maybe I was just overthinking things..." Sacrifice muttered to himself. Feeling a twinge of regret for being too cowardly to log in for so long, he stepped into the tavern.
"Uh, no, that's not what I meant... Though when it comes to Shana-sama, even then..."
The sudden mention of Shana's name caused Sacrifice to flinch violently. It seemed that despite his newfound relief, the sheer terror associated with that name was still hardwired into his reflexes.
"Ix, you really are head over heels for that guy, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"What do you even like about him?"
"...Everything."
Sacrifice cast a wary glance toward the source of the conversation, and his eyes widened in surprise.
(Wait, aren't those two Xeexee's companions, Yukko and Haruka? And the person they're sitting with is Muse X, Shana's right-hand officer?)
Seeing such an improbable group sharing a table truly drove home the reality that the war was over.
"I see... So it really is done..."
A peaceful smile found its way onto Sacrifice's face as a deep sense of security settled into his heart.
But in the next instant, the tavern fell dead silent.
Sensing the sudden shift in the atmosphere, Sacrifice raised his head, only to freeze instantly in terror. A cold, dark gun barrel was pointed directly at his forehead.
The man holding the weapon stood tall, his voice echoing authoritatively throughout the quiet tavern.
"My name is 'Death Gun.' You committed an unforgivable sin during that war. It is time you face judgment by the hand of true power."
Without another word, the man identifying himself as Death Gun pulled the trigger, firing a bullet straight into Sacrifice's forehead.
However, they were inside a safe zone city. While the impact caused his head to jerk back slightly, no actual damage could be dealt. As if to prove the game's system limitations, the bullet wound on Sacrifice's forehead rippled like water and vanished completely.
Yet, a second later, Sacrifice suddenly clutched his chest in agony. Falling from his chair, he began to writhe and convulse violently on the floor.
"I'm sorry..."
It was entirely unclear who those final words were meant for, but they were the last he ever spoke. In the space where Sacrifice had just been agonizing, the glowing red letters of a DISCONNECTION notice materialized. By the time the stunned patrons of the tavern managed to regain their bearings, the man who called himself Death Gun had vanished into thin air.
"Wh-What on earth was that?!"
"I don't know... I have no idea..."
Amidst the rising panic of the tavern, Ix stood up, her expression grim. "...I am going to report this to Shana-sama."
"Yeah, that's probably for the best," Haruka said, her voice shaking. "We'll see you later, then."
"Stay safe, Ix."
"Yes. Until next time."
With a final nod to her new friends, Ix departed the tavern and made haste toward Mount Kurama. Upon arriving, she relayed the bizarre incident to Rosalia, who happened to be present, before logging out to track down Shana in the real world.
Tragically, Rosalia had no way of knowing that the victim in the tavern and the lookout she had confronted moments ago were the exact same person. Although a video of the execution was quickly uploaded to the net shortly after, Sacrifice's face had been omitted entirely, with the footage focusing strictly on a menacing close-up of Death Gun.
Because of this lack of connecting information, Shana's counter-measures were fundamentally delayed—a misfortune that, under the circumstances, was entirely unavoidable.
Later that evening, a young man named Taira Honda was discovered dead in his apartment, still wearing his Amusphere dive gear.
With the number of instances where individuals passed away while playing virtual reality games on the rise, the police conducted nothing more than a routine, perfunctory investigation. The medical examiner performed a standard autopsy, but never dreaming that a lethal chemical agent might have been introduced, the subsequent blood work was not subjected to rigorous toxicological screening.
Finding no physical evidence of foul play or third-party involvement, the authorities officially ruled his sudden passing as an unfortunate accident.
The march of Laughing Coffin would not be stopped.
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