The explosion rocked the ground as Kommando293 ducked down behind a barricade of sandbags and metal as he reloaded his G36 rifle before muttering. "Yeah, oh I can't wait for us to find out about these guys now."

A towering mech armed with a pair of autocannons and a missile launcher was stomping its way through the ruins of the Wasteland-based guild base, firing its autocannons at anything around it while the remaining guild members of the Purple Immortals began to try and push out of their base in order to escape the area. The Rangers were raiding another guild, another attempt to try and find perhaps a lead to Laughing Coffin as this was the third one in total over the last week or so. It hadn't been going well to say the least, been making a lot of enemies over the last week, but now they were hopefully somewhere close in getting a lead on laughing coffin now that they had found a guild with a literal mech that was worth twice as much as the Sturmtiger they had fought a week prior.

Another explosion and dust flew by Kommando as he heard the mech slowly moving away before he then said into his radio, "Sinon? Babe? Can you like knock out a joint. Theodosius should be here in a moment with his King."

Five seconds later, the sound of a .50 BMG blowing out a mechs leg joint, followed up by a sound of it crashing down into the ground with enough force to flatten a tank beneath it, was heard over the sound of the battle and then Kommando glanced over towards the shape of Theodosius's King Tiger slowly grinding its way towards where the mech should be which allowed Kommando a small smile as he knew that these guys were as good as hooked on getting the Good Cop, Bad Cop show they were going to do.

Or so he had thought back then in the beginning of the day.

It was now in real world 3 in the afternoon and Kommando293 was just now logging off Gun Gale and sighing with much frustration. Their so called "lead" ended up leading nowhere to Laughing Coffin and simply went towards a random group of players that were more or less handing out free stuff to small guilds regardless of what the guild do. This had been more or less a disaster to say the least and Kommando was now put in a position where he had no choice but to start trying to make it seem like the Rangers were people not into Random Raiding, which was going to take time and resources they needed for other things.

Kommando sighed as he put his Amusphere next to him on his dresser as he rubbed his eyes and then went to go make some food really quick, probably ramen or some quick yakisoba as he remembered he had gone to the store very recently to grab food as usual. He walked through his kitchen as he soon came to the cupboard and when he opened it up, he found a few prepackaged meals of ramen and yakisoba, amongst other things, in front of him so he picked one and began to follow the instructions of making it. While he was making it, he began to take a moment to reflect on all of it as this whole situation was absolutely the worst when it came to managing his already stressed-out self. Laughing Coffin was known in America, mainly to those who did VRMMO's, but it was believed by many that the remains and the survivors of the Laughing Coffin Guild not apprehended in various incidents and searches in the aftermath of Sword Art Online likely went to America and other countries to hide and lay low.

He believed it very much so, more or less because it made the most sense to leave the place that was actively searching for ya to throw you into prison/jail.

As he finished up making his food, blowing on it as he ate with a fork because he would be that weirdo to do so instead of use chopsticks, he then thought about what Sinon said and had to give it to her for this one. It was bold trying to actively go after them in any manner or way to say the least, especially given the events of Gun Gale that made many in the VR community concerned of those who would go out of their way to visit them in real life as they were logged into virtual reality and kill them before they could stop it. He thought about everyone he now saw as a form of friend thanks to Sinon and the event, how slowly but surely, he desired to see them protected from anything and everything that might be thrown at them, even if he needed to get extreme about it.

"Mrow!"

He looked down mid-bite for his noodles and found a small cat looking at him with big eyes and a slowly whisking tail as it began to headbutt him for attention and whisk around his ankles.

"Oi! Sith! I'm eating here you little furball!" He reached down and pet the cat, scratching under its chin and behind its ears as he glanced over towards the food to make sure it was still good on its food and water.

Suddenly, he heard a knock at his door, and he looked over to see Sith rush over to the door and begin loudly meowing while he slowly walked over as he wasn't expecting any visitors at the current moment, but he had a few ideas of who it might be and was hoping for one in particular.

He went to look through the peephole but then found it being blocked. Interesting.

So, with a sigh, he opened the door as he used his foot to move Sith back before it decided to run out again like it had done previously and was relieved to find a friendly smile looking back at him as Sinon said, "Is that my little Sith trying to get out again?"

"Excuse you, its my Sith... what you got there?" asked Kommando as he pointed towards a few boxes she was holding in her hands.

Sinon smiled as she was allowed inside by Kommando as she then told him, "I got pizza."

As Kommando finished up his noodles and looked towards Sith, the small cat currently pawing and meowing for the attention and affection of Sinon as it had not seen her in sometime, Sinon then caught his attention again as he realized she was wearing clothing he hadn't seen on her before. It more or less was some shorts and a baggy T-shirt that likely was a little bit too big for her but as she sat down on his couch and put down the pizzas onto the small table in front of her before she then realized Kommandow as noticing what she was wearing so she simply smiled and told him, "Yeah, I'm not here for a nice-looking date. Just a very casual date of some pizza and something to watch."

"What sort of horrendous weebery are you going to show me this time?" asked Kommando as he looked at her with a deadpan, wathcing as Sinon picked up his cat and began to coddle it.

"It's just a movie, that's all. I figured since you likely didn't have a good time on Gun Gale that I should come over." said Sinon. "Try and cheer you up."

Kommando sighed as he sat down next to her and pet Sith the cat while telling her, "We got nothing out of them about Laughing Coffin.... it feels like we are just doing this all for nothing... I hate it, I just..."

Kommando stopped petting Sith for but a moment when Sinon leaned in and told him, "You're going to find them... we all will. And when we do so, we will make sure that every last one of them can never hurt anyone else."

Kommando looked at her and then smiled before Sinon picked up the movie and went to put it into the movie player across the way to play it.

Midnight996 was casually strolling along through Alfenheim as he was just simply chilling out in the game, not really doing any questing or any jobs for people for once and was simply just strolling around the main city at the base of the World Tree with his cane in hand swinging along in lazy arcs. The streets of Alne were quiet and peaceful, something he enjoyed occasionally as he walked along the cobblestone streets, watching the other players around him talking and joking about things happening in game and in real life while they walked along. He was thinking himself of a few things as he walked along, taking this time now to think and reflect on what's been going on with him and his life over the last few weeks and even months if he thought back hard enough.

Though not like much has happened since then, from the Alfheim event ending interestingly to the recent events across the VR web, namely what was happening over yonder in Gun Gale Online and a few other places with various investigations around guilds that seemed a bit suspicious. It was quite a Witch Hunt for Laughing Coffin, one that Midnight was not apart of but knew that his buddy Kommando very much was given the fact the very girl in his guild that also was his girlfriend happened to have been the Laughing Coffins target in the Alfheim event.

Midnight sighed. What was he to do about his friend somedays, that is for certain given that usually its Kommando bailing out Midnight from something bad that happened online or offline in some cases. But now Midnight was beginning to wonder if he was going to have to bail his friend out of sticky situations, both outside in the real world and in the virtual world but as he walked along, he then saw someone standing at the corner of an upcoming turn to go away from the tree and head towards what he knew as the trade part of the town.

"Yo, Midnight. Got some Information for ya if you are up for it."

Midnight smiled quite broadly behind his plague doctor mask, a staple of every outfit of his, as the beak pointed upwards while he said to the waiting figure of Argo as he immediately said while continuing to walker over to them, "Argo! So nice to see you, my fine friend! However, today is my off day from back-stabbings and double dealings!"

"Oh? What's the occasion?" asked Argo as they looked over to the dapper-looking virtual assassin that was waltzing over to them.

"Just... wanting to do something different." said Midnight as he walked up to Argo and then asked, "Still, what's the information about?"

"Another desired hit on someone, you know the usual stuff."

"Ah, well they'll have to wait for a bit longer. I need a day where I'm not trying to actively ruin my outfits with blood."

As Midnight glanced over to Argo, he then asked them, "So... what you have going on besides being another leak?"

"Eh, just... bored." said Argo with a large sigh before she then said, "It's been one of those weeks with the crackdowns across Gun Gale with various guilds, the various conflicts between some people slowing down... just not a lot happening right now."

Argo and Midnight began to slowly walk away down the street while Argo said, "Still, must be nice you can just take a day off from you usually do. Im far too into information brokering to take a day off without losing so much information sales that keep me afloat, just gigabytes of data on players skills, stats, and equipment waiting to be sold to the right bidder."

Midnight sort of chuckled before he then said, "Well... let me know when you do have a day off. I'm available to hang out with Kommando acting like every Red Player out there right now and Reaper currently busy with... stuff."

"What has Reaper been up to lately?" asked Argo as they glanced over. "Is like... Lisbeth keeping him offline for something or has he taken a break?"

"I don't have the faintest clue to say the least. I'm just aware he hasn't been on for a bit." said Midnight with a sigh before he then said, "But still... give me a heads up. I have nothing else to do for a bit until the ruckus Kommando stirred up has quieted down... though I have heard the payouts for his head is starting to get quite high." 

"Always one to kill your friends for money... a true mercenary and assassin as they come. " Said Argo with a slight sigh.