“Oh! Sorry, Boss!” remarked Sophie, realizing that she was stepping firmly on her squad leader’s head.
“Just get down!”
“Huh?”
She was just a fraction of a second too late.
A bullet line flashed for a moment on Sophie’s wide face, and the .338 Lapua was upon her.
It struck true, passing through her head.
Sophie only had the time to murmur, “Alas…”
It was a headshot insta-kill; Sophie died on her feet.
And in that instant, Sophie’s second loadout in Tohma’s inventory—the PTRD-41 antitank rifle, which Tohma was actually supposed to use—would no longer appear in SJ5.
When they saw Sophie get hit, Rosa and Tohma stepped off of Boss and dropped down—Rosa landing on Clarence, and Tohma on Fukaziroh.
“Urgh.”
“Oof!”
The two got squished, but it couldn’t be avoided. There just wasn’t any room.
“Hrrrg!” Boss roared furiously. She was incensed.
Llenn glanced over to see what she’d do and was so startled that she actually said, “My word!”
Boss was lifting up the freshly dead corpse of Sophie. She carried it over to the stone pillar where she’d just been using her binoculars, then set it down hugging the stone and propped it up from behind.
The pillar was only sixteen inches across, not adequate to hide behind, but now it was significantly bolstered by Sophie’s wide body.
In Squad Jam, a corpse was an indestructible object. It would serve as a shield that would block any and all attacks for the ten minutes until it vanished.
SHINC hadn’t used Sophie’s body as a shield since at least SJ2. That time was an intentional tactic, but this time around, her death was incidental and unplanned.
“Anna! Tohma!”
“Roger that!”
“Yah!”
The two SHINC snipers, Dragunovs in hand, set up next to the body. They hadn’t had them materialized, probably because they were sprinting to get to the keep, so they had to retrieve them from their inventories and load them.
With the dead body acting as a shield, they allowed only the muzzles and scopes to protrude, minimizing the amount of space that could be hit. If he still got them after this, you just had to give him props.
They fired.
High-pitched Dragunov semi-auto filled the partially enclosed tower; on top of that, it was doubled. Empty cartridges flew out and over the edge into the open air.
At a distance of 2,500 feet, the Dragunov’s precision left a little something to be desired. With Lux crouching out of sight, their chances of hitting him were low, but if they could just keep his head down and prevent him from sniping, that was a big win.
They kept shooting, while Boss held the body in place.
“Girls!” she shouted. “Go down now, while you’ve got the chance! Tanya, you take lead! Leave the tower if you can!”
“Roger!” said silver-haired Tanya, rolling over to the hole in the floor with her Bizon in hand. Llenn watched her drop out of sight.
She was going to descend the stairs and attack MMTM, who were very likely to be outside. She’d be surrounded and die, of course, but it would buy more time.
“No!” Llenn fumed, outraged that this was costing SHINC more members.
But Boss said, “M’s last words to me were, ‘You have to survive and protect Llenn.’ He kept us alive, so I’m going to keep my promise to him alive, too.”
“……”
A storm of emotions passed through Llenn’s mind, robbing her of the ability to argue back.
So Fukaziroh took it upon herself to join the conversation. “Well, well, look who’s a real samurai. C’mon, Llenn, let’s go. Our battle is only just beginning! Have no fear. I’ll be the one to accompany you and keep you safe to the bitter end!”
“Fuka…”
Her friend’s touching attempt to cheer her up brought a little moisture to Llenn’s eyes.
“After all, it’s the only way I’ll be able to shoot you in the back and get that million yen for myself at the end.”
Llenn was forced to consider the idea of making sure she shot Fukaziroh first before the end of the game.
✦ ✦ ✦
After losing Pitohui and then M, Team LPFM was suffering a major decrease in power.
Regardless, Squad Jam would continue until either you died or the game was over, so simply giving up wasn’t an option.
No matter how bad things got, she would never give up—the only option was to fight as hard as she could.
That was simply the courtesy she owed all the players she’d killed up to this point.
That was what Llenn—er, Karen Kohiruimaki—had learned in GGO.
Huh?
But I started GGO so I could be a different person, so… Huh?
Wait, no, this still fits… I think?
Inside her own thoughts, Llenn had gotten herself totally confused, but she realized that this was not something she should bother herself with at the moment.
What should I do right now? I should do what I can!
Once again, after so many times today, Llenn steeled herself for action.
“We’ll secure the area below! You come after us later, Boss!” she said, crawling on hands and knees toward the hole in the corner.
“Huh? Where am I?” said Shirley, teleporting into existence. She landed with both feet directly on top of Llenn.
“Gaaah! You’re too heavy!”