When Karen dove into the Unlimited Neutral Field, the first thing she felt was a cold chill that seemed like it belonged to the wrong season. Then her vision filled with a world made up only of white and blue. Snow and ice. Every bit of the terrain was made of thick ice, with a thin layer of pure white snow spread over it. Above, the sky was nothing but milky clouds.
"Hoo... so this is a ‘snow and ice’ stage."
A faint puff of white breath spread from Karen’s soft sigh. Around her, there were almost no large objects blocking her view. On a snow-and-ice stage, almost all buildings disappeared except for a few special landmarks. Thanks to that, Karen could see a huge ice palace far off to the southeast across the nearly flat terrain.
Comparing it with the map in her head from the real world, it had to be the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda Ward—no, the Imperial Castle. It was a rare snow-and-ice stage, but now was not the time to leisurely admire the scenery. Karen looked around first to find Kojiro. Then, before she knew it, Kojiro’s avatar, [Ultramarine Swallow], was standing behind her.
But something about Kojiro’s avatar looked strange. When they had first met in the regular battle field, Kojiro had been wearing traditional samurai clothes, but now he was dressed in a black haori Karen had never seen before. Even the black sword he had been carrying on his back was nowhere to be seen.
Karen asked, "What are you wearing? A haori?"
"I bought it at a shop in the Unlimited Neutral Field. How do I look? Does it suit me?"
Kojiro turned this way and that, as if showing off his new clothes.
If she asked whether it suited him, then yes, it suited him like crazy... He looked like one of those late-Edo loyalists... or maybe like a Shinsengumi member from a drama...! Karen let out a sharp cry.
"What did you do with your important sword?!"
"Ah, that? It stood out too much, so I hid it on purpose."
"Huh?"
"You’ll understand what I mean soon enough."
With that, Kojiro suddenly scooped Karen into his arms and leaped from where he stood. Karen screamed in surprise at the sudden physical contact, but Kojiro ignored her and shot upward in an instant to the height of a three-story building, then landed soundlessly a little farther away like a feline beast.
Boom!
At the spot where Kojiro had just been standing, a massive explosion sent snow and shards of ice scattering everywhere. And from that spot, a Duel Avatar appeared.
It was a Duel Avatar with a deep blue overall color and an unusually massive upper body compared to its ordinary lower half. Just by its build, it looked like a gorilla. Its proportions were a little unbalanced, so it seemed somewhat sluggish, but at the very least it gave the impression of being extremely strong.
"You were acting all big and tough in the real world, and now you’re running with your tail between your legs? Huh?"
Judging by the way he spoke, he seemed to be some kind of thug in the real world. Around the thug, a group that looked like his companions appeared one after another. They must have been waiting nearby and come running after hearing that explosion.
The gang consisted of a reddish avatar holding a heavy-looking crossbow, a dark, murky avatar with long ropes hanging from both arms, and finally a gray avatar with a huge single-edged greatsword resting on his shoulder.
Since opponent names did not appear in the Unlimited Neutral Field, Kojiro could not know their avatar names, but all of them were avatars he had never seen before. Then, because the situation was a little different from what they had expected, a bit of arguing broke out among the PKs.
"What the hell, why are there two of them?"
"Hey, Muscular, what’s going on?"
"Damn it, what’s the big deal? Two is better than one, isn’t it?"
"What? This bastard still hasn’t learned his lesson after all the trouble he had with that rabbit bitch last time."
The PKs started talking among themselves as if they couldn’t even see Kojiro and Karen. Were they already treating them like prey in the bag? Then Kojiro stepped forward and said, "We came to avenge the Burst Linkers who were PKed by you."
At that, the PKs who had been raising their voices fell silent in an instant. Then the gray avatar with the huge greatsword said, "What? What the hell are you talking about?"
The question was aimed not at Kojiro, but at the thug who had gathered them. All of the PKs turned their gaze to him at once.
"You said you had prey ready like usual and told us to come, right? What the hell is this situation?"
"...Actually, I got PKed just now. I’m being held by these guys in the real world."
The thug explained his situation in a voice full of embarrassment. How he had been lurking around the amusement center arcade as usual, looking for Burst Linkers, and been caught by Karen. How he had then been led into a karaoke room and subdued by Kojiro. And finally, how they had agreed to duel with all their Burst Points on the line. He had dressed it up a little in his favor, but the meaning got across, and curses immediately flew from the other PKs.
"Wow, what a fucking idiot. You were always acting so high and mighty, and now you’re the one getting PKed?"
"And if you were going to die, you should’ve died alone. Why did you call us here?"
"You bastards! Is that really what you should be saying right now?"
"Shit! Then what, it’s fine for you to sell us out?"
Then the gray avatar, who had been listening quietly from the start, slammed his greatsword into the ground.
Bang!
"Shut up, all of you."
In the suddenly quiet atmosphere, the gray avatar spoke again. It looked like he was the leader among them.
"So, let me get this straight. You dragged us all here like this to get revenge on us? Using that idiot as bait?"
The thug, who had been listening in silence, looked ready to protest, but perhaps because he was wary of the gray avatar, he shut his mouth tightly. He seemed to be the type who couldn’t lift a finger against anyone stronger than himself, both in the real world and here. The gray avatar scratched his temple and went on, "I get the gist. I do. But are you guys out of your minds? You think you can take down four of us with just two people? Aren’t you looking down on us way too much?"
"Heh heh heh."
The gray avatar said that because he was truly dumbfounded by the situation, and the black avatar listening beside him let out a mocking laugh. The difference in numbers was absolutely decisive in Brain Burst. Of course, it could be covered to some extent by matchup or level differences, but every one of the PKs present here was a high-ranker and a veteran.
In other words, two players had challenged PvP against four players ranked among the top in this game called Brain Burst. From their perspective, it was only natural that they would find it laughable, considering how confident they seemed in their own abilities.
But Karen, watching the situation quietly, could not understand what was going on. Did they not know who this blue avatar standing before them was? If they did, they would not be acting so smug.
Reading her expression, Kojiro raised a finger to his lips and whispered, "Shh." Karen nodded and decided to trust Kojiro for now and keep watching.
"Do they think they’re the main characters in some manga or something? Fine. No need to drag this out. I’ll fight you however you want. But don’t start spouting nonsense about fighting one-on-one fairly now, got it?"
Whether he knew what Karen was thinking or not, the gray avatar said his piece and then suddenly pulled a blood-red card from inside his chest. It seemed to be some kind of special item sold at shops in the Unlimited Neutral Field, since most of those items were card-shaped. After manipulating the card a few times, the gray avatar made it glow a vivid crimson. Then he tossed it to Kojiro and said, "This is a ‘Sudden Death Duel Card’ I bought pretty damn expensively at the shop. I’ve charged it with all my points, so you should charge it with all of your Burst Points too. Then whoever’s health gauge hits zero first, whether it’s me or one of you, will instantly lose all their points and lose Brain Burst as well. Of course, if you run back to the real world, Brain Burst will be forcibly uninstalled anyway. In other words, it’s a death match, plain and simple."
Karen had almost never used the shops, so she had no idea items like this existed. Kojiro again whispered a tiny "Lucky" only Karen could hear, studied the sudden-death rules output from the card in detail, and then, without touching it, tossed it right back to the gray avatar.
Receiving the card, the gray avatar said in an intentionally irritating tone, "What’s this supposed to mean? Don’t tell me you’re scared now? You already lost the moment you dove into the Unlimited Neutral Field. Think you can run?"
"Don’t misunderstand."
Kojiro beckoned with his finger and pointed at the other three Duel Avatars besides the gray one. "The rest of you need to put your points on the line too. Right?"
For a moment, the gray avatar was left speechless, then he laughed. "Heh, you’re a real piece of work. Fine. Hey, Muscular, you go first."
The thug, who had been listening quietly, objected. "No, why do I have to do what that guy says?"
"Then do you want to waste time for nothing? And you’re handing back every point you got from this job."
"What?! That’s—"
"Damn it, can’t you see we’re wiping your ass for you right now?"
With a reluctant tone, the thug manipulated the card and passed it to the others after the gray avatar’s words. The other gang members handled the card without hesitation, as if they were enjoying the situation. They truly did not seem to think for even a second that they might lose.
Once Kojiro and Karen had also stored all of their points into the card, it flashed with an even brighter blood-red light, broke free from Kojiro’s hand, and shot up into the sky. Then a countdown made of digital numbers slowly rotated around it.
If this duel had been widely advertised on BB Net or somewhere like that, a terrifying number of spectators would surely have gathered. It had been only a little over half a year since the Accelerated World began, so it was still a fairly short span of time, but a death-match duel like this would surely be the first in the history of the Accelerated World. As the numbers ticked down, Kojiro said, "Since it’s come to this, how about you three fight me while my partner takes on that gorilla?"
By gorilla, he naturally meant the thug. Before the thug could even flare up at Kojiro’s words, the gray avatar said, "Interesting. But why should we go along with what you want?"
"My partner seems to have a grudge against that gorilla. Or are you scared?"
Maybe because he was still only an elementary schooler, a roar burst from the thug in response to Kojiro’s provocation.
"What?! You bastard, I’ll rip your arms and legs off first!"
Thud, thud!
The thug, who had been about to charge Kojiro using even his massive gorilla-like arms, stopped in his tracks at the gray avatar’s words.
"Hold it, Muscular! Since it’s come to this, you handle that pale blue avatar. We’ll take care of the manga hero over there."
"No! I won’t be satisfied until I break that smug bastard’s neck!"
This time, the gray avatar whispered into the thug’s ear as if to stop him from protesting further. "...We’ll cut that guy’s arms and legs off and leave him alive, so you go tear off that bitch’s arms and legs and bring her back. Wouldn’t it be fun to see what kind of reaction they make then?"
The thug thought for a moment at those words, then nodded with a vicious smile. They looked pretty close, always hanging around together in the real world too, and just imagining that proud face twisting in agony was already getting him excited.
"Fine! I’ll take your offer. Then you come with us."
Of course, the gray avatar had not split the team up without thinking. Normally, when Burst Linkers formed a tag team, they did so to gain synergy based on their matchups. So he had divided them in order to prevent any possible trump card those reckless bastards might have. Of course, whether they split up or not, he truly did not think for even a second that they would lose.
The gray avatar gestured to Kojiro. It looked like he intended to move to a not-too-distant location and fight there. The other two avatars stood behind them, watching in case Kojiro tried anything suspicious. Before following them, Kojiro tapped Karen’s shoulder and said, "Good luck."
Then he hid his sly expression and went after them.
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