It was just after two forty-five PM.
“Seems like we’ve made it through,” Shirley said. Everything was quiet outside the tower.
She wasn’t shooting, in fact. Her position was at the second highest of the holes they made in the tower exterior, about forty yards high. And Boss was another five yards up.
They were using binoculars to monitor the movement of the enemy and give directions to their teammates.
Since the shooters had only tiny holes to look through, having someone who could spot things quickly and give accurate instructions was extremely helpful.
“That was a brilliant plan, Shirley,” said Boss. “So—”
“Hang on, that’s the end of my leadership role. I’m not meant to be a leader,” Shirley said, cutting her off before she could continue.
“Grr…”
Fukaziroh, who, like Shirley, had not fired a single shot, added, “Hey, remember? You’re the leader, Boss. You inherited M’s will.”
Fukaziroh was ordered not to take a single shot, for two reasons.
First, the grenade launcher’s barrel was nearly three inches across and would require a rather large hole to stick out, which would likely draw the attention of their foes.
“Aw, c’mon, let me shoot! I got twelve whole plasma grenades waiting to get fired!”
And second, because an unlucky bullet that went through that hole and hit a plasma grenade would set off a chain reaction that would destroy the entire tower.
With that aside, Boss murmured “Fuka” with deep emotion. The person inside her avatar was the captain of the gymnastics team, so being accepted as the leader was something that made her very happy.
The team had gone through a lot before they were as tight-knit as they were today. And they still had some problems, considering that there were no new members this year.
“So go ahead and give that order! Tell me to go out there and raise hell!”
“I can’t do that. We’re conserving our firepower until we hit the two big teams.”
“Well, what if I get taken out before my moment to shine arrives?! I want to help everyone out!”
“Fuka…,” murmured Llenn, feeling a warmth in her chest at her friend’s touching sentiment.
“At least let me shoot Llenn before that happens!”
“Hang on.”
That warmth was for nothing.
Speaking of Llenn, she had blazed through plenty of barricades with full auto fire, constantly exchanging magazines as they dispatched their foes.
Her remaining ammo was still at 80 percent, meaning that she had a thousand bullets left. Getting those kill shots in helped replenish quite a lot. It was very helpful to her.
“Shirley! Switch loadouts!” Clarence yelled from much farther below.
“All right, fine. I’ll head down,” Shirley grumbled. Everyone could hear her.
“Yay! Shirley, I love you!”
Clarence had switched to her second loadout earlier, but on Shirley’s orders, she had been put back on AR-57 duty. This was because her secondary weapon was not suited for fighting back against invaders inside a tower.
“Hang on,” Boss said, confused. “If we’re going to fight off ZEMAL and MMTM here, wouldn’t it be better not to switch now?”
That had occurred to Llenn, too, but a much more frightening idea was now running through her mind.
“Shirley, you’re not gonna…”
“What is it, Llenn? Speak your mind.”
“You’re not gonna give up…are you?” Llenn asked, hoping against hope that she was wrong.
“That’s exactly it. You got it,” Shirley admitted.
“Ugh. But why?”
“ZEMAL and MMTM are gonna make their move on us next, right? The same trick isn’t going to work on them. Plus, I don’t know what their second loadouts are, but they probably have something tremendous up their sleeves. If we can’t escape, then we won’t be able to muster a good counter, and they’ll probably just knock the tower over with all of us inside it.”
“Wha—?!”
Don’t jinx us! Llenn wanted to protest…but she couldn’t.
“You might be right…”
“Then we’ll blaze a new path for us! The rest of you escape while you have the chance! Make use of your speed to circle around behind them so we can do a pincer attack!” Boss raved, full of purpose.
“That won’t work; the arena’s too small,” Shirley said, cutting that idea down. “If we could get distance by running all the way to the other end, I might have considered it. But if that were possible, we wouldn’t be taking refuge in here in the first place.”
Boss groaned, and Llenn had no comment to add; she knew it was true. They had made it through so far, but the crisis was ongoing.
“Well, we’ve enjoyed our SJ5 for this long. If we’re gonna die anyway, why don’t we each go out our own way, doing what we want?” suggested Shirley.
“Nice, Shirley! Let’s buddy up and wild out until we’re dead!” Clarence promptly added.
Of course she’d feel that way, since she got that monkey off her chest by killing Pito, Llenn thought. For her part, she was going to do right by the departed Pito and M and try to figure out a way to survive and win as a team. She had to think very fast, because there wasn’t much time.
If they stayed put, they probably wouldn’t withstand the attack.
But if they rushed outside and fought head-on—meaning, got into a typical barricade fight, with Llenn using her speed to rush and attack—they still wouldn’t be able to beat ZEMAL and MMTM together in either numbers or power. Which meant…
Out of ammo.
She had nothing left.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” she lamented.
“Llenn, my lass, it’s too early to give up,” said Fukaziroh, eager to speak up. “Look. I have a good idea.”
Her ideas were generally trash, but at this point, Llenn was willing to give her a chance. You never knew, she might have another solution that was completely outside of the box, in a way that no native GGO player would consider.
“And that is?”
“Shirley has a long and sturdy rope.”
“Yes, I know.”
“We’ll use it to tie you up.”
“Huh? And?”
“We’ll write, ‘Here’s the hundred million credits’ on a piece of paper, and Boss will use her monster strength to roll you out the doorway. You keep rolling the way you like to do, real fast. And no one will be able to read your trajectory, because you keep hitting the barricades. It’ll be a game of human pinball. The enemies will be distracted and go after you. And in the meanwhile—”
“Do I have to listen to the whole thing?”
It was a mistake to count on her for help, Llenn thought.
But in that moment, she had an epiphany.
If she had not been listening to Fukaziroh’s stupid idea, lightning would not have struck her brain.
“Shirley! Get out the rope! All of it! Now!”
“Oh, are we going with it? Was my flash of insight brilliant after all?”
“No! Not at all! But thanks!”