Sword Art Online - Phantom Bullet Volume 01 (manga)

Sword Art Online - Phantom Bullet (ソードアート・オンライン ファントム・バレット) is a manga adaption of the Sword Art Online light novel series by Kawahara Reki. This adaption cover the Phantom Bullet Arc of the original series, which is composed of Volume 5 and Volume 6 of the light novel. The ongoing manga is illustrated by Yamada Kotaro and published on Comic Walker, a manga serialization site owned by Kadokawa, the parent corporation of Dengeki Bunko, with an indefinite release interval.

Summary
After clearing Sword Art Online (SAO) and regaining his lover, Yuuki Asuna, from ALfheim Online, Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito) suddenly received a request for help while enjoying his peaceful days. The request was to search for the truth behind mysterious deaths that were rumored to cross the line between game and reality.

Chapter 1
The chapter began with Kazuto's flashbacks of MMO Stream reporting people queuing up to buy copies of Sword Art Online before its official service the game later becoming a death game. He then mentioned the different reactions of people to the announcement and how he eventually got close to Asuna. The flashback continued with several more scenes until the scene where Heathcliff was defeated, the game was cleared and Aincrad was destroyed.

One year after the end of SAO incident, MMO Stream was reporting a Gun Gale Online special report that included an interview of the winner and runner up of the 2nd Bullet of Bullets tournament, XeXeeD and Yamikaze. During XeXeeD's interview, a player in a mantle, calling himself Death Gun, shot an image of XeXeeD on a TV in one of the pubs in SBC Glocken and seemingly caused XeXeeD to disconnect.

After that, the scene shifted to Tokyo in December 2025 where Seijirou was talking to Kazuto and mentioned some death cases regarding Gun Gale Online. Meanwhile, in Gun Gale Online, Sinon was preparing to shoot, under Dyne's instruction.

Chapter 1

 * Most of chapter 1 are flashbacks which are adapted from various parts of the Aincrad Arc and were not part of the original Phantom Bullet Arc story.

Trivia

 * The manga's first chapter was released via an appendix of Dengeki Bunko Magazine Volume 37 before its serialization on Comic Walker.
 * The official Comic Walker site originally stated the manga's upcoming release time as indefinite. However, basing on the past release records of the manga on the site: chapter 1 was released on May 13, 2014, while chapter 2 was released on July 12, 2014, and the fact that its magazine affiliation is listed as Dengeki Bunko Magazine on the site, it is likely that the manga will follow a release cycle of roughly a chapter every two months.