Server Name: Gamma Orange.
Starting Location: Tokonatsu City, Prostitute Island.
Log-in credentials accepted.
#Message: Here’s what I think of your lockout order!
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“Phew.”
She sat in the driver’s seat of a black-and-white highway patrol car, a red bikini top paired with denim hot pants tighter than a bikini bottom. This, along with her thick boots and the ten-gallon hat that sat atop her fluffy blond hair, made her look like a stereotypical cowgirl, or perhaps a sheriff.
When was the last time she went through the log-in procedure? She didn’t remember it leaving her this dizzy.
That’s right, I can only wear fingerless gloves like this in the game…
Apparently, Dealers all over the world were currently unable to log in to Money (Game) Master, but she alone was the exception.
Because she was the Admin Without Sin.
And since the AI had granted her these privileges, they couldn’t very well complain when she used them to fight back.
“Oh!” came a voice from in front of her.
The voice belonged to her partner, a dark elf with long black hair, brown skin, and glasses that did little to hide the fact that she was a complete simpleton. She was currently busy hosing off a car and seemed surprised at the blond girl’s sudden reappearance.
It had been a long time since she’d left Cindy here in the game. But back at the campsite, the girl’s brother had told her this:
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Your Magistellus, Cindy. She’s still alive.
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As the Admin Without Sin, she had caused a lot of trouble, and it had turned her off the game for good. Perhaps she never should have come back. But her brother and her old partner had each risked their lives to fight back, and she couldn’t just sit by and watch.
In order to demonstrate that, she’d rejoined the game as Ayame Suou, the Dealer.
“Sorry I made you wait so long, Cindy.”
“Not at all. I’ve been having lots of fun with Kaname lately, so I haven’t been lonely at all!”
“Oh, I definitely wanna hear about that. You’ll have to give me aaalllll the details.”
Her partner had always been like this. When bad situations got her down, she would start joking around. It must have been her way of dealing with the stress.
Aside from the car, the garage was filled with all sorts of weird and wonderful pieces of equipment—they must all be Criminal AO’s Legacies. Apparently, Cindy and Tselika had brought all these back from somewhere.
…I wonder if they went back to Jungle Park. The Dealers are all dead, and the PMCs would just ignore weapons lying on the floor unless specifically ordered otherwise.
As for why the Legacies hadn’t disappeared with their bearers’ bodies—that was because the weapons hadn’t belonged to them.
But Ayame had her mind on something else. Toying with the rolled-up whip at her belt, she asked, “Where’s my gun?”
“It should be in the trunk.”
Ayame opened the back of the car to find her trusty armament. Despite not seeing use in so long, it looked as clean as the day she’d left it.
It was an old-fashioned rifle with a wooden stock, but it was not a sniper’s weapon. Beside the gun were several explosive packages, each about the size of a cola can. They were rifle grenades meant to be fired from the main barrel. Ayame was not nearly as fine a marksman as her elder brother, and so a weapon with a large area of effect was more her style. Kaname and Cindy were both single-target snipers, so having someone geared to take out multiple hostiles at once was a good way to round out the team… However, that also meant her shooting accuracy had never improved.
“How are you planning to use this fine day, Ayame?”
“I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on, thanks to my admin rights,” she replied. “It seems my brother is fighting a war on three fronts: against the Magistelli, the angels, and Criminal AO. At this rate, he’s totally outnumbered. If we don’t help him out, I’m not sure he’ll be able to stage a comeback. So come with me, Cindy. Just for today, I’ll show you what it’s like to fight by my side—a position usually reserved for my brother alone.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Kaname was a master of two styles: urban marksmanship and close-quarters combat. But Cindy was a purebred sniper, as evidenced by her choice of weapon, a bolt-action rifle. Each shot was as powerful as you could get, but reloading took time, so once you were surrounded by foes, it ceased to be an effective strategy. It was best, then, when paired with another method of fighting that could keep the hordes at bay.
The pair headed for a nearby strip club on the same island—one that prided itself on the fact that all its employees were 100 percent human. Right now, that worked in Ayame’s favor. With no Dealers anywhere in the game, the place was completely quiet. Well, save for the pounding drum and bass coming over the speakers.
“…Shame, I would have liked a little warm-up,” she quipped.
“What are we doing in a strip club with no strippers?”
“Looking for something Criminal AO left behind.”
Ayame strode through a back door into the changing rooms, where there was a row of lockers. Heading straight for the two at the end, she pulled them away from the wall. Luckily, they had not been bolted down and toppled over easily, revealing a large person-size hole in the exposed wall.
“Bingo.”
“How did you know that was there?”