We stood around Kirito's place. Everyone that didn't go with us waiting for the news.

"I asked Daisy if she knew anything, but she came up blank just like Hikaru did." Zeliska stated.

"We ArFA-sys units come with translation functionality in order to utilize the SBC Flugel's various systems. However, with respect to the ship's internal structure, I unfortunately have no functional memory banks left and as such know very little, as well." Daisy explained and Klein sighs, folding his arms.

"That's a shame. But if Daisy says it, it must be true!" He exclaims, causing Hikaru to glare at him.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Hikaru yelled at Klein. Asuna looked over at me while the two argued.

"I tried looking into it myself, but since the update is so fresh and the ship is the latest frontier, I didn't come across much." I sighed and Sinon shrugged as well.

"There's too much bad info mixed in with everything else to know what's really true and what isn't. That's part of the fun of being in on the ground floor of new content, but yeah..." Sinon stated after what Asuna had said. Intel... Intel... Argo!

"What if Argo has something for us?" I asked and Kureha's eyes lit up.

"She could know something, that's true! I'm gonna go pay her a visit!" Kirito tried to stop her.

"Wait! Argo is expensive!" He runs after her as she leaves the apartment. I laugh softly, looking back at my remaining friends. Sinon chuckles as well.

"And off they go... Something seems to have really lit a fire in Kureha." Sinon noted and I nodded in agreement.

"She seems like she's in a much better mood than the other day." Zeliska side-eyed Itsuki.

"I noticed that too. She's been really enjoying herself on this quest. Wouldn't you agree, Itsuki?" She asked Itsuki. He glanced back at her before folding his arms into his chest.

"Yeah, definitely. The prospect of us being first and beating out the other players to the mainframe probably has her really motivated." He then looks over at me.

"You better hurry up before she leaves you behind, (Y/N)." I gasp when I realize he's right. I managed to catch up to Kureha and Kirito right as they got to Argo. I look between the two of them.

"Man you guys are fast when you're determined." Argo laughs.

"I knew you guys'd be back sooner or later. I can tell by tha look on yer faces that yer starvin' for intel!" She glances over at Kirito and I.

"And I see ya brought ol' Kii-boy with ya too! That'll be an extra fifty percent as yer friend price!" Kirito flinches.

"C-C'mon now, Argo, that's a little steep don't you think?" He exclaims nervously. Argo laughs.

"Well, ya did bring (Y/N) too, so I guess I could lower it down to thirty percent." Kirito looks over at me like I'm a lifesaver. I only sweatdrop.

"Thanks, Argo!" I smile brightly at her. Kureha looks back to Argo.

"We'll pay it!" Kirito and I look over at her in shock.

"What? We have to do whatever it takes to get to the mainframe first! We're on the frontlines of the latest content after all." She explains to the two of us. Argo sighs as she looks back at us.

"I like yer attitude, so you won't have to pay the friend fee." She then sends Kureha a message with the information on it.

"I still feel like it's gonna cost us a lot." She mumbled as she opened the message, causing Argo to laugh.

"To gain money, you gotta spend money. And I'll gain lots of it after you guys look into this for me." She stated and gestured for Kureha to read the message.

"To open the SBC Flugel, you have to defeat every zone boss and collect the card keys that they drop." Kureha read aloud. Kirito frowned.

"Wow. I figured we missed something, but nothing like this. So basically it's like when we had to search for ArFA-sys parts, then. These key cards are spread throughout the game, and we have to retrieve them." Argo nodded to Kirito, proving that he was correct.

"Ya've got it. When tha SBC Flugel update hit, it also added tha key cards ta every boss's item drops." I see, it's not that we missed it, it just wasn't in the game yet.

"I see we've got no time to lose. We've got to gather those key cards before the other players catch on to them!" With this information we went back to the others. I stood in the center of everyone.

"Okay, since we're a large group, lets all split up into, hm, let's say four groups. Each group will be in charge of a zone and all of its key cards. We don't have to pull this all off today. We can take breaks if we need to." Everyone nodded. My group consisted of Itsuki, Kureha, Hikaru, Zeliska, Sinon and Kirito. We were going to focus on the Old South's bosses. Once everyone was split off into groups, we all took off to our respective zones one at a time to not gather any suspicion from the other players. Our bosses were a field zone boss and a dungeon boss. The field zone boss could be seen flying around. I sighed.

"I can only assume that's one of our bosses. That won't be an easy fight, you guys." And I was right. I was the only one who could grapple onto the tops of the surrounding buildings, so I opted to stay on the ground with the others. By the time we were done with it, I received messages from the other groups that they had gotten at least one of their cards. I told the others about this and Kureha sighed in relief.

"We're making good headway on those key cards, but man... I'm beat after that last boss." I agreed with her. Itsuki did too it seems.

"We've definitely been picking them up at a pretty decent pace. I doubt anyone is going to catch up to us soon." Kirito nodded.

"Yeah, at this point, we need to start thinking about the boss inside the ship and making sure our equipment is still up to snuff." He stated, Sinon looked into her inventory.

"Now that you mention it, I could use some more ammo." Zeliska beside her agreed with Sinon.

"I'm running low on items myself and could use a refill." I looked into my inventory and it was just like they said.

"Well, (Y/N), you're the leader. What's your call?" Kirito asked me, so everyone's eyes were on me for our next move.

"We'll head back for now. I'll have Hikaru send out a message to the other groups and say that we're taking a break for today and that we'll pick back up on this another time." Hikaru nodded and got to work on getting that message out to everyone. When we made it back to the city, Sinon and Kirito split off from the group and so it was just Kureha, Zeliska and Itsuki left with Hikaru and I. Kureha looked over at us as we stood around deciding what to do now. We were outside of the shop. On the screen they had an interview getting ready to start with one of the top players of GGO.

"Hey, do you guys want to get something to drink somewhere? All that hunting today has really left me feeling parched." Zeliska smiled at the younger girl and nodded.

"Great idea. Let's go to our usual place." Zeliska stated and Kureha smiled in relief.

"Anywhere that serves cold drinks is as good as an oasis to me!" She exclaimed, causing Itsuki to laugh.

"I definitely feel like jumping into an oasis myself. My throat's as dry as a bone..." We walked over into the shop. There's a bar connected to it, so most people hang out around here. I noticed that it was getting more crowded by the second. Itsuki voiced my thoughts.

"This place sure is crowded. It's not normally like this." I hummed.

"It must be because of this interview." Kureha nodded.

"That's MMO Stream, I believe. They do special features on popular VR games and tricks on how to play them." The crowd was talking over the dialogue from the stream, so it was hard to understand what they were talking about, but the blue-haired top player was making an ass out of himself. From what I could understand, he was bragging about his AGI build. Wait, haven't I heard someone mention that before? Who was it though... Itsuki laughs at the screen.

"He sure looks like he's full of himself. That's that XeXeeD guy who kept going on about how AGI builds are the best in GGO." Zeliska looked over at Itsuki.

"People that get caught up in what's hot at the moment are idiots. Isn't that something you'd say, Itsuki?" She asks and he nods.

"Yeah, I don't let other people decide things for me. Well, I like to think of trends as important pieces of information. I'm just putting that info to good use, unlike a certain stubborn person I know." He piped back at Zeliska. She smiled teasingly at him.

"Stubborn, eh? And who might that be?" She asked. Itsuki looked in front of him, which would happen to be me.

"The one in front of me, of course..." I turned around and glared at Itsuki.

"What did you say?" He didn't meet my gaze, rather was staring at something going on in the crowd.

"What's with that guy?" He asked. I turned around. A familiar cloaked individual was aiming a pistol at the screen. I felt my blood freeze. I unknowingly stepped back into Itsuki, shocking him.

"(Y/N)?" His calm, questioning tone shook me out of the fright.

"That's him." It's all I said. It's all I had to say for Itsuki's expression to change from concerned to serious. We watched the scene that XaXa was making.

"XeXeeD, you're nothing but a fake! And now, you'll face judgement from someone with real power!" He cocked the pistol and shot the screen. A sudden, bad and forboding feeling came over me. Everyone around looked at the cloaked figure in confusion.

"What's up with that guy?"

"That's gotta be embarrassing. I can't blame the guy for not liking XeXeeD, though."

The players all around us laughed at him. Something isn't right, here. It's not possible to kill someone in GGO, right?

"This is real power... Real strength! Let your fear carve one name into your brains!" The player, XeXeeD, on the screen suddenly started to convulse in pain. His screams of pain were traumatizing.

"The name that I share with this weapon... is Death Gun!" So he finally reveals himself. XeXeeD was forcibly logged out and amidst the confusion, Death Gun attempted to flee.

"No you don't!" I exclaimed, chasing after him. Itsuki and the others called out after me. Death Gun knew I was chasing after him. I heard footsteps chasing after me as well. It sounds like the others are following me. He turns around a corner. I push myself around the corner, but once I get there. There's no one. I curse as my friends catch up to me.

"(Y/N)?! What was that about?" Kureha asked. I glared at the ground.

"It..." I sigh. I've got to tell the truth. "That was the person who killed my friends." Zeliska and Kureha both step back in shock. Itsuki looks around.

"Where did he go? He couldn't have gotten far..." He moves to try and find Death Gun, but I stop him.

"Don't, Itsuki. This is something I have to do." Zeliska frowned in concern at me and she shook her head.

"Not alone. That Death Gun person has possibly killed someone through GGO. It shouldn't be possible. This isn't SAO, but yet..." I shake my head at them.

"He's after me. If anything, I brought him to GGO. Anything that happens because of that man is my fault. I can't let him kill anymore people!" Zeliska shook her head.

"(Y/N), I'm sure XeXeeD is fine! MMO Stream is run through an entirely different program than GGO. That bullet would have had to travel between programs and that is in no way possible!" She exclaimed, slowly loosing her cool. I moved to talk, but Itsuki beat me to it.

"But the timing is suspicious. And Zeliska, you're starting to lose your poker face." Itsuki's words put a halt on Zeliska. She cleared her throat and shook her head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She stated. Itsuki looked around.

"The fact that the guy was using the game's privacy function to hide his avatar name suggests that this might have been a planned attack." Zeliska sighed, shaking her head.

"That was a pretty nasty stunt he pulled. I should probably contact the admins and let them know what happened." Itsuki looked back to Zeliska.

"Stunt? Based on his little speech, it sounded like that guy wasn't just pulling some stunt. He was serious." That made me flinch slightly. My small movement caught Itsuki's attention.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." I loosened up, closing my eyes and sighing.

"Thanks, Itsuki. But... I think I'll be alright. I can protect myself, after all." He chuckled.

"Oh, I know. That wasn't an offer, but a statement by the way." He stated, causing Kureha and Zeliska to laugh. I huffed at them.

"I just said I don't need protection!"