Upon spawning in Gun Gale Online (GGO) first, the Protagonist was amazed by SBC Glocken and its residents. Moments later, they were greeted by a girl in a pink outfit, who apologized for being late due to the tournament registration taking longer than she had expected. As she looked different from her life persona and had a different name, the girl introduced herself as Kureha, the Protagonist's childhood friend. After introducing them to GGO and explaining the basics, Kureha led the way to the tournament area, where both of them were to participate together.

On their way to the tournament, the Protagonist and Kureha met Itsuki, one of the top players in GGO, whom they later crossed paths with inside the tournament map. Highlighting his bad luck, Itsuki did not wish to confront the boss in the next room and thus made a deal with them. As a part of the deal, the Protagonist and Kureha defeated the boss, while Itsuki refrained from attacking them, as well as allowed them to be the first to choose their path at the next crossroad.

After parting with Itsuki, Kureha reminded the Protagonist of the need to be vigilant, since not everyone would be as nice as Itsuki. Just as Kureha highlighted that the rare item was their goal, the two stumbled upon a dormant teleporter. As the Protagonist waited in the middle of the room, Kureha jumped up to the console and accidentally teleported the Protagonist to another room while attempting to deduce how the controls worked.

While exploring the new room, the Protagonist found a strange capsule. Upon touching it, they were informed by the game's system that the Master Registration process had been completed. At that moment, the capsule rose upright and its lid slid open, revealing an Artificial Financial Adviser System Unit, or Afasys for short. As the Protagonist watched in awe, the Afasys Unit soared up, before promptly beginning to fall. At that instant, a weapon targeting the Protagonist missed its mark due to the Protagonist rushing to the Afasys Unit.

Kirito ModeEdit

Intrigued by the UFG device in the Protagonist's possession, Kirito decided to have a conversation with them regarding the weapon. Following a discussion on the advantages of the UFG in Player versus Player combat, the Protagonist introduced the topic of Death Gun, stating he had his own tricks as well. As Kirito was concerned about the possibility of encountering Death Gun, the Protagonist offered to lend his UFG to the swordsman during the Protagonist's offline hours to be better prepared for battle with him.

Some time later at his home, Kirito spoke to Asuna and Yui about his decision to investigate the Death Gun incident. Although Asuna offered her help in the upcoming battle, Kirito declined the offer, citing safety concerns, as members of their group could become possible targets, which was why Kikuoka Seijirou had prepared a new account for him. Although Kirito held suspicions about Seijirou's job offer based on his resources and ties with the government, he admitted to Asuna that he agreed to it due to the good pay.

After parting with Asuna and Yui, Kirito switched from his personal account to the one created by Seijirou to use against Death Gun. Upon spawning in Governor's Lobby as Kiriko, Kirito realized how feminine his new avatar looked, which resulted in attracting two other male players. Moments later, Sinon noticed the scene and decided to intervene, believing that Kiriko was a female player who was being harassed. As Kiriko discovered that Sinon had also registered for the Bullet of Bullets (BoB) tournament, he decided to keep his identity a secret for the time being.

After a brief dialogue with Sinon's friend Spiegel and still unaware that Kiriko was Kirito, Sinon guided him into the female dressing room, where she began changing her outfit. Due to the awkwardness of the situation, Kirito decided to reveal his identity to her, explaining that he was using a different avatar in order to confront Death Gun.

Once the preliminaries began, Kiriko decided to avoid attracting unwanted attention as he defeated his opponent in the first qualification round. In the aftermath of the battle, a guy dressed in a ragged cloak confronted him in the lobby while he was waiting for Sinon's results. Having recognized the sword technique Kirito had used in the first preliminary round, the man referred to Kirito by his actual in-game name, rather than his current Kiriko avatar name. Due to the man's knowledge of his sword techniques, Kirito became certain he knew this person from either Sword Art: Origin (SA:O) or ALfheim Online (ALO), the sword-based games he had played before. However, upon witnessing the man's Laughing Coffin tattoo, Kirito realized that the player was actually one of the Player Killers (PKers) from Sword Art Online.

Moments later, having finished her first match, Sinon found Kirito in the lobby, looking very pale and unfocused. Upon returning to his senses, Kirito informed Sinon about his encounter with Death Gun, explaining what Laughing Coffin had committed to Sword Art Online before Sinon appeared in Aincrad on Floor 76. Kirito also shared his regret at not even remembering the names and the faces of the people he had killed during the assault on Laughing Coffin. In the aftermath of the second and final preliminary match, Kirito realized that the voice of the player with the ragged cloak matched that of the sound recording of Death Gun that Kikuoka Seijirou had provided him with. Recalling that he had crossed swords with the man before, Kirito concluded that Death Gun was a high ranking Laughing Coffin member, yet he was still unable to remember his name.

Following his conversation with Sinon, Kirito was transported to the middle of a desert of the Solitary Sands map for the main Bullet of Bullets tournament. Assuming that he would not be targeted immediately, Kirito carefully started heading to the center of the map in hopes of finding Sinon. Meanwhile, having spawned in a different area, Sinon decided to avoid conflict until she was able to regroup with Kirito. However, upon encountering two other players dueling each other in the distance, Sinon noticed that one of them was wearing a ragged cloak, immediately realizing that he was Death Gun. Although she considered approaching the two players to inspect Death Gun's avatar name, the girl realized that the other player, Pale Rider, was in trouble and decided to kill him first. This action saved Pale Rider's life by not allowing him to die against Death Gun, yet it also revealed Sinon's position, prompting her to relocate to avoid being targeted by the cloaked man.

Meanwhile, Kirito's friends not participating in the tournament were watching the tournament in his room, immediately recognizing Kiriko as Kirito based on his swordsmanship. Just as Yuuki attempted to take a screenshot of Kiriko, the feed changed to a different camera, displaying Sinon. While most expressed surprise at Sinon having joined the Bullet of Bullets, Agil suddenly requested to rewind the feed, bringing the Laughing Coffin logo of Death Gun to their attention. Upon this revelation, Asuna left the room to inform Seijirou.

Back in Gun Gale Online, Kirito reached the center of the map. Assuming that Sinon was already in a good sniping position, he headed straight to the most favorable location he could find, only to find Sinon struggling against Death Gun. Upon Death Gun's question, Kirito revealed that he was using the Kiriko account and read the name of Death Gun as "Steven". Growing more confident that Kirito did not remember his name, Death Gun planned challenge him to a duel. However, due to a sudden increase of players fighting right below the platform they were on, the cloaked man deemed the location unsuitable to dispense his judgement and thus decided to retreat, leaving Kirito to deal with other players gaining on their location.

After the fight, Kirito and Sinon took shelter in a cave, where the girl explained how powerless she felt when she froze against Death Gun and the firearm he was using. She shared her memories of when she had killed a robber with a gun identical to Death Gun's firearm, revealing that the event had left her traumatized. Although Sinon desired to overcome her trauma and fight against Death Gun, Kirito attempted to dissuade her by emphasising that it would be too dangerous. In response, Sinon reminded him that her real body was safe at her home, prompting Kirito to think about how Death Gun might have been killing people in GGO.

Kirito's deliberations led to his reasoning that Death Gun must have had an accomplice in the real world to perform the killings at the homes of his victims when he pulled his trigger in GGO. Upon hearing his theory, Sinon remembered that players were able to enter their real life information, including their addresses, on the registration form for the Bullet of Bullets, in case their desired real world prizes for their achievements. As the realization that she had entered her own personal information on the registration form for this very reason resulted in Sinon panicking, Kirito attempted to alleviate her concerns by reminding her that Death Gun had to shoot the victim with his handgun before the real life accomplice could take action. Advising Sinon to avoid confronting Death Gun to remain safe, the boy departed from the cave to lure Death Gun to an open location.

When Kirito confronted Death Gun on the field, the boy revealed his discovery of the secret behind Death Gun's murders; however, the man remained unperturbed, as Kirito could not stop them without knowing his name. Drawing a handcrafted estoc-like weapon to Kirito's surprise, Death Gun reminded his adversary of their confrontation in Aincrad, during which Death Gun had shared his name yet Kirito purposefully ignored it. As their fight continued, Death Gun reminded Kirito of their promise, prompting the latter to recall his confrontation with a mysterious person who had been temporarily making use of Richter's account in Sword Art: Origin. This led to the boy remembering a pre-assault meeting, during which Asuna had mentioned an estoc user from Laughing Coffin.

While staring into the red eyes on Death Gun's mask as their swords were locked, Kirito remembered that the name of the estoc-wielding player was Red-Eyed XaXa. Kirito's abrupt mention of this name made Death Gun lose his balance, forcing him to take a step backwards. As both parties stared at each other while standing still, Sinon suddenly aimed her sniper at Death Gun, generating a Bullet Line that prompted Death Gun to dodge backwards by reflex. As the man attempted to use his camouflage cloak to retreat, Kirito rushed forward and shot at his adversary to prevent him from cloaking. Before the man could regain his balance, Kirito slashed Death Gun and his handgun in half with a single slash. In his final moments, Death Gun warned Kirito that he was not acting alone, before his avatar shattered into polygons.

Moments later, when Sinon came to Kirito and shared her worries that Death Gun's accomplice may be standing right next to her at her home that very moment, Kirito promised to visit her home after they logged out to ensure her safety. To bring the tournament to an end, Sinon used a grenade to cause a double suicide, resulting in both of them being crowned as winners. Having logged out several minutes later, Asada Shino awoke in her bed and started checking her home to ensure she was safe. At that point, she was visited by Shinkawa Kyouji, who began questioning Shino on her feelings towards him and Kirito. Incited by his jealousy, Kyouji attempted to inject Shino with a syringe; however, his plan was interrupted by Kazuto's arrival to the scene with police sirens approaching the area.

In the aftermath of the incident, everyone visited Kirito's room in Gun Gale Online to congratulate him and Sinon on winning the Bullet of Bullets tournament. There, Kirito informed the others on how Death Gun had operated: Shinkawa Kyouji (Spiegel, Richter) and his older brother Shinkawa Shouichi (XaXa) had been using an account named Sterben, rather than Steven, to secretly observe people with the invisibility ability of their cloak as they entered their personal information on their registration form for the tournament, allowing them to locate the people in real life to perform their murders.

Kirito had also learnt from Seijirou that the Shinkawa brothers had denied having stolen any NerveGears, meaning that they were unrelated to the recent cases of theft of such devices.