Part 13

Sword Art Online Progressive — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 1

Aria of a Starless Night

Aincrad 1^st Floor, November 2022

Just once, I saw a real shooting star.

It wasn’t during summer vacation; it was from the window of my house. For people living in town with crisp air and truly dark nights, shooting stars are not uncommon, but unfortunately, Kawagoe City of Saitama prefecture, where I have lived for all fourteen years of my life, has neither of those qualities. Even on a clear night, the most that can be seen with the naked eye are second magnitude stars.

But, late one midwinter night, when I happened to glance outside my window on a whim, I definitely saw it. On that deep night without many stars, the city lights formed a pallid shroud covering the sky. And in an instant, it was cut through by a quick flash of light. My soon-to-be 5th grade self thought childishly, "I must make some kind of wish"…which up to that point was fine, but the wish that appeared in my mind was, "I wish my next monster drop will be a rare item", without a hint of feeling in it. I suppose it sprang from the fact that I was playing an MMORPG I was hooked on at the time.

The shooting star I glimpsed that day, I saw once again three (or was it four?) years later, glowing with the same color, moving with the same speed.

However, this time, I didn't see it with the naked eye, nor was I beneath a dark grey night sky.

I saw it in the depths of a gloomy dungeon, produced through a Nerve Gear—the world's first full sensory type VR interface.

One could describe the fight as bloodcurdling.

The level 6 humanoid monster, «Ruin Kobold Trooper», was swinging a barbaric hand ax, and the person fighting the Kobold was barely able to dodge. I felt a chill run down my back as I watched the battle. But after the player dodged three consecutive strikes, the Kobold completely lost its balance and, without missing that chance, the person used a sword skill at full strength.

It was the first skill that could be learned in the rapier category: the single thrust attack «Linear». It was a simple basic skill that consisted of thrusting straight forward by first holding the sword in front of the body and then putting in a twist from there, but the speed was terrifying. Clearly, the speed hadn't been left to the system motion assist alone, but was boosted by the player's own movement commands.

During the beta test, I had seen with my own eyes numerous party members and enemy monsters use this very sword skill countless times. But this time, I could not see the rapier itself, only the trajectory drawn by the light effect that was characteristic of sword skills. That pure white flash, as it pierced through the darkness of the dimly-lit dungeon, made me recall the shooting star from that day.

The rapier user continued to dodge the Kobold's three strike combo, following with a counterattack using «Linear». After using this attack-defend pattern three more times, the player finished off the armed beastman, one of this Labyrinth's stronger monsters, without a single wound. Despite this, the battle didn't seem to have been an easy one. Once the lethal sword skill had pierced the center of its chest and the monster dispersed into particles as it collapsed backwards, the rapier user then staggered as if pushed by the insubstantial polygon shards and leaned back onto the corridor wall. The person slowly slid against the wall down to a sitting position, and began breathing heavily.

The person didn't seem to notice me standing about 15 meters away at the corner of the intersection.

To wordlessly distance myself and find my own prey was my normal procedure. A month ago, on that eventful day, I decided to selfishly live as a solo player. Ever since that day, I have never approached a lone person. The only exception was if I saw a player in battle who was clearly in danger; however, the rapier user's HP gauge was still near full. At the very least, the person didn’t seem to need the help of some busybody at all.

Even so…

After about five seconds of deliberation, I left the shadows of the intersection and strode toward the still-sitting rapier user.

Skinny figure, somewhat slender. The torso was equipped with a dark red leather tunic with a lightweight copper breastplate, while the lower body was dressed in neat leather pants, with boots up to the knees. A hooded cape cloaked the body from head to below the waist, so the face could not be seen. Other than the cape, the equipment seemed to be that of a fencer, but my own appearance as a swordsman was almost the same as well. My beloved sword «Anneal Blade», the reward from a high-difficulty quest, is very heavy. So, to keep my skills on point, I wear very little metal armor—just a small chest guard with a dark-grey leather coat over it.

Noticing my approaching footsteps, the rapier user's shoulders trembled suddenly, but didn’t move any further. The fact that I wasn't a monster should have been revealed by a green-colored cursor in that person's view. He had his face buried deep behind raised knees, giving a strong 'Just pass by and move on' impression, but—I stopped about two meters from the rapier user and opened my mouth.

“…That was an extreme overkill just now.”

The small shoulders covered by the thick cloth of the cape moved slightly again. The hood jerked, moved up about 5cm, and from the darkness within, two pupils sharply shot towards me. The only thing I could discern were light brown irises. The features of the face couldn't be seen at all.

For a few seconds, the rapier user continued to watch me with that same sharp gaze he used in the battle earlier, but eventually his head tilted slightly to the right in an 'I don't get it' kind of gesture.

Seeing that, I thought, 'So it's as I thought'.

For what looked like solo play to me, there was one huge incongruity.

The «Linear» released by the rapier user was so perfect that I couldn't help but shiver. The conciseness of the pre-motion and post-motion, and, most of all, the speed of the thrust that prevented perception of the rapier itself. Never before have I beheld such a terrifying and beautiful sword skill.

So from the beginning, I thought that he must similarly be a beta tester. Before this world became a death game, extensive battle experience must have been accumulated to attain this speed.

However, seeing «Linear» a second time, I had doubts about my guess. The skill was perfect, but the pace of battle was too risky. Certainly, «Minimal Side Step Defense» has a higher counterattack speed over parrying or blocking, and won't decrease weapon/armor durability. However in exchange, when the defense fails, the danger is the greatest. At worst, counter damage may be applied and a stun could occur. In solo battles, a stun is fatal.

The imbalance between the perfect sword skill and the risky defense tactics. For some reason I wanted to know the reason why, no matter what. That's why I moved closer and greeted the person, saying that no matter what the circumstances were, it was overkill.

However, the opponent didn't seem to understand the well-known net game term. Meaning, the rapier user in front of me was not an original beta tester. Not only that, he might not even have been an MMO player before coming here.

I took a short breath, and explained anew.

"Overkill means…in comparison to the monster's remaining HP, the damage dealt was way too much. The Kobold earlier was almost dead after the second «Linear»…no, it was practically dead already. Its HP gauge had only two or three dots remaining. Instead of finishing it with a sword skill, a light normal attack would have been more than enough."

In this world, how many days…how many weeks had it been since I had talked so much? Pondering that question, I close my mouth.

Even after listening to my speech, the fruit of my hard work and poor speaking skills, the rapier user had no reaction for over ten seconds. Just when I thought I hadn't managed to get through, a small voice finally slipped through the lowered hood.

"……Overkill, is there any problem with it?"

At that moment, I belatedly realized this rapier user huddled in front of me was one of this world's extraordinarily rare—especially in the depths of a dungeon like this—«Female Players».

It had already been a month since the official launch of the world's first VRMMORPG, «Sword Art Online».

By this time, the average MMO would begin to see players approaching the level cap, and the world map should have been explored from end to end. However for SAO, even the current top class group was barely Level 10—I didn't know how high the cap was, but—there was no way that could have been it. The floating castle Aincrad, where the game is staged, had only been conquered by a few percent in total as well.

The reason was that the current SAO was a game that wasn't a game; in a sense, it had become a «Jail». Manual logout wasn't possible and death of the avatar amounted to death of the real player. With these conditions, not many people entered dungeons filled with dangerous monsters and traps.

Also, after the Gamemaster forced all avatars to be the same gender as their real-world players, females were very rare. Even after a month, I think almost all of them still stayed in the «Starting City». In the first sizable dungeon, the «First Floor Labyrinth^¹», I have seen female players only two or three times, and they were all members of big parties.

That's why I would never have imagined the solo rapier user I met in an unexplored area of the Labyrinth would be a female player.

For a moment, I thought about mumbling an apology and leaving the area. It wasn’t because I found fault with the kind of male players that always spoke out to any female player they saw; I just sincerely didn't like to be thought of that way.

On the other hand, if the opponent had said something like 'It's my choice' or 'Leave me alone,' I would have said 'I see' and left immediately. However, the rapier user's curt reply had been a question. So, I stopped myself from moving away at the last minute, and once again answered by desperately putting to use all my language skills.

"……Overkill has no penalty or demerit from the system, but…it's bad for efficiency. Sword skills require concentration, so using them continuously is mentally exhausting. There's also the return path, so it's better to not fight in a way that makes you tired."

"……Return path?"

Again, a questioning voice emanated from deep inside the hood. Fatigue made it very faint and the intonation was also thin, but regardless, I thought her voice was quite beautiful. Of course, that's not something I'd say out loud, though.

Instead, I explained once more.

"Yes. It takes about an hour to get from here to the Labyrinth exit, and from there to the closest town is about 30 minutes even when moving quickly, right? Exhaustion increases mistakes. You look like a solo player, and for a single person, any small mistake might cost you your life."

While my mouth moved, I asked myself, 'Why am I speaking with all my might?' Because the opponent is female—that couldn't be the reason, since I had given a long speech before knowing that.

If I were her, and an upper rank person had lectured me like this, I would have said, 'It's my choice, so leave me alone,' or something like that. So, with my personality and actions rather at odds, I was about to break a sweat, when the rapier user finally replied.

"…Then, there's no problem. I'm not returning."

"What? …N-Not returning to town? But…replenishing potions, repairing equipment…and sleep..."

I asked dumbfoundedly. The rapier user's shoulders shook slightly.

"I don't need medicine when I'm not taking damage, and I bought five of the same sword…As for resting, I use the nearby safe area."

As the murmur faded, I was speechless for a while.

Safe areas were certain rooms in a dungeon that monsters would not enter. A safe area could be recognized by a special colored torch placed on the wall in each of its four corners. While hunting and mapping, it's a nice place; but, even so, it could only be used for maybe an hour of short rest. The floor was made of cold stone and of course there was no bed, and the footsteps or growls of nearby monsters could be heard frequently. No matter how courageous a player was, deep sleep was absolutely impossible.

But, based on what I just heard, this rapier user had been using a safe area in lieu of a town inn and has continued secluding herself in the Labyrinth…is that what she means?

"……How many hours has it been?"

I fearfully inquired.

The rapier user answered after taking a long breath.

"Three days…or four days…Is that all? The monsters around here will revive soon, so I'll be going."

With her delicate left hand wrapped in a thick leather glove, she pushed off the wall and stood up unsteadily.

Her still-unsheathed slender sword drooped down heavily as if she were holding a two-handed sword one-handedly, and the rapier user turned her back to me.

As she took one, two steps away from me, her cape was in tatters all over, revealing that much of its durability had been lost. No, for cloth equipment that had been used for a four-day hunting expedition, the mere fact that it had maintained its shape was a miracle. The earlier 'As long as I don't take damage' comment might not have been an exaggeration…

After realizing that, I spat out some unthinkable words to her slender back.

"……If you fight like that, you will die…"

Suddenly stopping, the rapier user leaned her shoulder on the right wall and turned around slowly. From within the hood, her eyes, which I had seen were hazel before, pierced through me with a light red inner glow.

"……Everyone is going to die anyways."

The hoarse, cracked sound made the cool Labyrinth air even colder.

"In just one month, 2000 people have died, and still not even the first floor has been cleared yet. It isn't possible to clear this game. Where and how you die, and whether it's sooner…or later, is the only difference……"

The longest, most emotion-filled speech that I had heard up until now faltered in the middle and trailed off.

In front of me, as I stepped forward in reaction, the rapier user was struck by an invisible paralyzing attack and slowly sank to the floor.

As she was falling to the dungeon floor, a prosaic thought drifted through her mind. 'How is it possible to faint in a virtual space?'

Loss of consciousness meant the brain's normal blood flow was momentarily delayed, and its functions stopped. The reason for this ischemia could be a malfunction in the heart or blood vessels, anemia or low blood pressure, hyperventilation or many other reasons; but while FullDiving in a VR world, the physical body is resting on a bed or reclining chair. Furthermore, the physical bodies of the players imprisoned by this death game «SAO» were probably currently placed in a hospital; their health would obviously be checked and continuously monitored, and if necessary, even medicine would be used. It's hard to believe that loss of consciousness would be due to some physical abnormality—.

After she thought that far within her fading consciousness, at the end she thought, 'That kind of thing doesn’t matter.'

Yes, nothing matters to me anymore...

Because, she will die here. Fainting in a dungeon full of violent monsters, there was no way she would be unharmed. There was another player nearby, but she did not think he would go so far as to endanger his life to help another who had fallen.

Anyway, how could he help? In this world, the maximum weight a single player can carry is strictly limited by the system. In the depths of a dungeon, everyone carries medicine and extra equipment to their weight limit, leaving space for monster drops such as gold and items. With all those combined, the act of carrying a whole person is absolutely impossible.

—Upon thinking to this point, she finally realized something.

What she thought as she was hit by a strong sense of dizziness and she fell to the ground was, 'Finally, I can relax without thinking for a long time'. The hard stone floor of the dungeon was what should have been under her body, but somehow, the feeling against her back was curiously soft and fluffy. Her body felt warm, and a light breeze caressed her cheek…

She opened her eyes with enough force to make a sound.

She was no longer in a dungeon lined by thick walls. She was in a clearing in a forest, surrounded by old trees covered in golden moss and thorny brushes with small flowers. At the center of a round space of about 7 or 8 meters in diameter, she seemed to have been lying on a soft carpet of grass while unconscious…no, asleep.

But—why? How had she, who had fallen in the depths of the dungeon, been moved to this far away field?

The answer to that question was found when she turned her view 90 degrees to the right.

At the edge of the clearing, there was a grey silhouette crouching over the root of a particularly majestic tree. He held a somewhat large one-handed sword both arms, and its sheath was propped up under his lowered head. Long black hair covered his face so that it couldn't be seen, but judging from his equipment and physique, there was no mistaking that he was the male player who had spoken with her before she fainted in the dungeon.

Most likely, that man had used some kind of method to move her out of the dungeon to this forest after she had fallen. She quickly looked past the grove of trees forest in the background. On the left side, about 100 meters away, a huge tower reaching up to the sky—the First Floor Labyrinth of Aincrad stood towering above there in deep black.

She returned her gaze to her right again.

Sensing her movement, the man's dark-grey leather coat covered shoulders shook and he lifted his head slightly. Even in the bright midday forest, the man's two eyes were black, like a starless night.

The moment her eyes met his dark-colored eyes, she felt small fireworks exploding in her head.

From between her grinding teeth, Asuna—Yuuki Asuna, forced out a low, hoarse voice.

"Unnecessary…effort."

After being imprisoned in this world, Asuna had asked herself hundreds and thousands of times.

Why, at that time, did she touch a new game machine that was not even hers? Why did she place it on her head, lie down on the mesh recliner, and issue the start command?

The dream VR interface and cursed killing machine, «Nerve Gear», and the game disc of the prison of an immeasurable number of souls, «Sword Art Online», hadn’t been purchased by Asuna, but by her older brother Kouichirou. However, even for her brother, things like MMORPGs or anything with the name of 'game' had been unrelated to his life since his youth. Born as the first son to the president of the huge electronics-manufacturing company «Recto», he had grown up while receiving all the education and training needed for him to become his father’s successor, and at the same time being excluded from everything unnecessary to that. Why that brother of hers would be interested in Nerve Gear…no, in SAO, was something that she did not, even now, understand.

Ironically however, Koichiro would not be able to play the first game he bought in his life. On the first day of game's official service, he was sent on a business trip overseas. On the day before his departure, when facing her from his seat at the dining table, he had complained about it jokingly, but she sensed that he genuinely had regrets about it.

Though not as extreme as Koichiro, the only experience of game playing that Asuna, a third-year middle school student, had previously had up until now were free games on her cell phone once in a while. She knew about the existence of net games, but with high school entrance exams closing in, she had no reason or motivation to be interested in them—or that was how it should have been.

That’s why even she couldn’t explain why, on that day one month ago, on the afternoon of November 6, 2022, she had visited her brother's vacant room, taken the fully set-up Nerve Gear from the top of his desk, placed it on her head, and said «Link Start».

From just one action, everything changed on that day…no, it could be said to have ended.

In the beginning, Asuna had locked herself within an inn room in the Starting City to wait for the incident to end, but after two weeks passed with no word from the real world, she gave up hope on being saved from outside. Also, having learned that the number of player deaths had already reached over one thousand at that time and yet in spite of that even the first dungeon had not been broken through, she realized that waiting inside for the game to be cleared was useless.

The only remaining choice was therefore «What kind of death?».

Staying in the only safe city for months, no, years like this could be one way. However, no one can be sure that the rule of «Monsters cannot enter cities» will continue forever.

Instead of continuing to huddle in a small dark room while fearing for the future, it's better to go outside. Use all her ability to learn, train, and fight. If she ended up dying after using all her strength, at the very least she would not need to lament whims of the past and regret a lost future.

Run. Charge forward. Then disappear. Like a fleeting shooting star burning up upon entering the atmosphere.

Holding onto that single thought, Asuna had left the inn, and stepped out into the wilderness of the MMORPG world, of which she didn't know a single piece of terminology. She chose her own weapon, and relying on the one skill she learned, reached the bottom of the dungeon that no one had been to before.

Then today, Friday, December 2, at 4 AM. Asuna had fainted due to, most likely, a natural neural reflex from the fatigue of continuously fighting, and her path should have come to an end. In the Starting City's «Black Iron Palace», near the left side on the «Monument of Life», the name 'Asuna', run through by a horizontal line, should have been neatly inscribed, and everything would have ended—is how it should have been. And yet.

"Unnecessary……"

Asuna again squeezed out that single word again. The dark haired, single-handed sword user crouching four meters away from her lowered his night-colored eyes. Her first impression of him was that he was a little older than she was, but that unexpectedly naïve gesture made her furrow her brow slightly.

However, a few seconds later, the man's mouth formed a cynical smile that overwrote her previous impression.

"I didn't save you."

A low quiet murmur. It sounded youthful, but something in it camouflaged his age this time, too.

"……Then, why didn't you leave me there?"

"What I saved, was the map data you have. If you secluded yourself near the front lines for as long as four days, you should have mapped a considerable amount of unexplored areas. It would be a bit wasteful if it disappeared along with you."

With this logic and pragmatism pushed onto her, she took a deep breath.

'The importance of life' and 'How everyone should team up and work together'; up to now, when people in the city had told her such things she had immediately cut them down—with words only, of course—and she thought of doing that now, but couldn't come up with any reasonable responses.

"……Then, just take it."

With a low mutter, she opened her main window. Navigating through the tabs with a hand motion that she had finally gotten accustomed to recently, she accessed her map data and copied it all to a parchment item. She turned it into an object and took it out as a small scroll, and then tossed it near the man's feet.

"With this, you've achieved your objective, right? Then, I will be going."

Pushing on the grass with her hand, she stood up but wobbled slightly. Judging from the window's time display, she calculated that she had slept for seven hours since she fell, but it seemed that she had not fully recovered from her exhaustion yet. However, she still had three spare rapiers left. She had decided earlier that she would not leave the tower until the last rapier had only half its durability.

She had many unanswered questions. Through what kind of means had the grey-coated one-handed sword user moved her from the depths of the dungeon to the forest clearing? Even accepting that he had moved her, why had he especially gone to the trouble of moving her outside, instead of a safe area in the dungeon?

Even so, she didn't think it was something that she needed to turn around and ask. Therefore, in order to return to the dungeon that towered darkly from above the tree grove to the left, Asuna tried to take a step forward. —But, just before she could.

"Wait, Fencer-san."

"……"

Asuna ignored it and took a few steps forward, but the speech that followed after made her feet stop.

"You, too, are basically working hard to clear the game right? Not just to die in the dungeon. Then, wouldn't it be better if you show your face at the «meeting»?"

"...Meeting?"

After she murmured that with her back still turned, the swordsman's voice reached her in an altered tone over the gentle breeze within the forest.

"This afternoon, in the town of «Tolbana» that is the closest to the dungeon, the first «First Floor Boss strategy conference» is supposed to be held."

Since the floating castle Aincrad had a tapering structure, of course the first floor on the lowest level was the widest. The first floor was almost perfectly circular, with a diameter of 10 kilometers, and an area of about 80 square kilometers. To use a reference for comparison, Kawagoe City in Saitama prefecture has an area of 110 square kilometers, and a population of over 300,000 people.

For its huge size, the first floor actually held a lot of geographic variety.

On the southern edge was the «Starting City», surrounded by a rampart that drew a semi-circle around it with a diameter of 1 kilometer. In the grasslands surrounding the city, mainly boar- and wolve-type animals were prevalent with worm-, beetle-, and wasp-type insect monsters also inhabiting the area.

Northwest of the grassland was a deep wide forest, and towards the northeast there was a lake region. After passing through either of the two there were mountains, valleys, and ruins that contained monsters waiting to ambush passing players, and on the far northern-most edge of the floor, there stood a 300-meter wide, 100-meter tall squat tower—the First Floor Labyrinth.

In many places on the first floor, there existed many small- and medium-sized towns and villages other than the Starting City, but the largest of them—though even then, it was only about 200 meters from edge to edge—was the town situated in the valley closest to the Labyrinth: «Tolbana».

The first time players arrived at this town lined with huge windmills was three weeks after the official service of SAO began.

At that point, the total number of deaths had actually reached 1800.

The mysterious female fencer and I set out together—that is, while maintaining a certain distance between ourselves, we left the forest and arrived at Tolbana's north gate.

The purple letters [INNER AREA] flowed into my view, showing I had entered a safe town area. At that moment, I felt a heavy fatigue on my shoulders, and I involuntarily let out a sigh.

If I was so exhausted just from heading out from this town early this morning, I thought that the rapier user walking behind me must surely feel worse. But when I turned around, her feet covered by knee-high boots did not seem to waver. I didn’t think it was at all possible for one to completely recover from the exhaustion of three continuous days of hunting with just a few hours of sleep, so she must be straining herself as always. I had thought about telling her that she should at least relax her body and mind (although in the virtual world, those two are essentially the same) when returned to town, but the atmosphere between us didn’t seem to allow idle talk like that at all.

Instead, I turned toward the rapier user, and spoke very business-like words.

"The meeting is supposed to take place in the town center, at 4 PM in the afternoon."

"……"

The face hidden by the cloth hood moved slightly up and down. However, her feet did not stop, and the slender body passed by in front of me.

The breeze that blew in the valley town caused her cape to flutter behind her. I opened my mouth slightly, but unable to find anything more to say, I closed it wordlessly. Thinking about it, I, who had been solo playing hard for three weeks, was not qualified to seek interaction with others. Up until now, I had only been spending every day protecting my own life, after all…

"A strange girL."^²

Suddenly hearing that murmured behind me, I turned my gaze away from the back of the rapier user and looked around once again.

"…I thought she would soon die, but she did noT. No matter how you look at it, she is a net game beginner, but her skill is fearsomE. What kind of person is shE?"

The high-pitched voice continued, ending its sentences with a special nasal inflection. The speaker was a truly nimble-looking player that was more than a head shorter than me, who by no means had a large build in the first place. Her armor, like mine, consisted of full-body cloth and leather. Her weapons were a small claw strapped on her left waist and throwing nails on her right waist. These were not weapons regularly used by those who reach the front lines, but this person's greatest weapon was something else.

"Do you know something about that fencer?"

I reflexively inquired, but knowing what the opponent's reply would be, I grimaced. The claw user did not betray my expectations, as she held up five fingers and said.

"I'll sell it cheaP. 500 Cor."

Her grinning face had one big distinct feature. On both her cheeks were three distinct animal-like whiskers drawn on with a make-up item. Matched with her curly auburn hair, her appearance was reminiscent of a certain rodent.

One time in the past, I asked why she used such markings. However, I only received the angry outburst of 'Don't ever ask the reason why a girl puts on makeuP' reply, immediately followed by, the statement 'I will tell you for 100,000 Cor', so I had no choice to hurriedly backed down.

Someday, when I find an ultra-rare item, I really will pay that 100,000 Cor—as this secret vow continued to stick in my mind, I sourly replied.

"I feel awkward about buying a girl's information, so I will refrain from doing it."

"Nihihi, you have a good hearT."

The person who said these words that were at the limit of shamelessness and laughed was most likely Aincrad's first informant: the one known as «Argo the Rat».

'—If you chat with «Rat» for five minutes, you'll end up paying for 100 Cor worth of stories without knowing it. Be careful.'

That was a warning by someone. However, the actual Argo had said that she had not once sold information of doubtful authenticity for money. She said that she would only treat it as «merchandise» after she determined that a story had value, made sure to pay an appropriate information fee to the source of the story, and also collected as much of her own evidence as possible. Thinking about it, if a false story was sold even once, then the reliability of the informant would drop, so the business of information gathering possessed a different kind of danger and anxiety compared to gathering material items in dungeons and selling to NPCs in towns.

Although it was a kind of a sexist question, 'Why would a female player choose this kind of job'…is something I inevitably thought whenever I saw Argo’s face. But even if I inquired, the most she would say would be another '100,000 Cor' as an answer, so instead I asked another question after giving a cough.

"So? Today once again, you aren't here for normal business talk, but as a proxy negotiator as usual?"

Then, Argo grimaced this time, and after quickly glanced left and right on the street, she pushed my back with her fingertips and made us move toward a nearby alleyway.

The «Boss strategy conference» was still two hours away, so there were not many players here yet, but it seemed like this was a conversation that she didn’t want to be heard by others just in case. The reason was—because it had to do with her reputation as an informant, most likely.

Argo stopped when we were deep inside a small alley, and then leaned her back against a house (inhabited only by NPCs, of course) and nodded again.

"Well, yeaH. It’s been raised to 29,800 Cor."

"The offer has reached 29.8k Cor now, huh."

I smiled wryly, then shrugged my shoulders.

"…Sorry, but no matter how much Cor is offered, my answer remains the same. I don't want to sell it."

"I also already told the client that the last timE."

Argo's main business is as an informant, but by using her very high AGI (Agility) stats for movement, she also maintains a side business as a «Messenger». Normally it was just delivering oral messages or short messages on a scroll, but the person who had been contacting me through her over the past week seemed to be a slightly complicated…or rather, troublesome client.

He (or she) wanted to buy my one-handed longsword,

«Anneal Blade +6 (3S3D)».

The weapon enhancement system in SAO was simple compared to those of recent MMORPGs. There were five kinds of enhancement parameters: «Sharpness», «Quickness», «Accuracy», «Heaviness», and «Durability». You could try to perform an ability enhancement on a weapon for one of those categories by commissioning a NPC or a player smith to do so. The factors of requiring material items that are exclusively used for raising weapon parameters and also having a fixed probability of failure were similar to other MMORPG titles.

Whenever the enhancement of any of the parameters succeeded, the item's name in the equipment window would have a +1 or +2 appended to it. However, that number's «breakdown» could only be seen when the weapon was directly tapped and its properties window was opened. During player-to-player sales of weapons, saying an item had 'Accuracy +1, Heaviness +2…' and such quickly became tedious, so instead, it had become custom to use a shorter abbreviation: for example, a +4 item with a breakdown of Accuracy +1, Heaviness +2 and Durability +1, would be denoted by the phrase «1A2H1D».

In other words, my «Anneal Blade +6 (3S3D)» was enhanced by Sharpness +3 and Durability +3. Having an item of this quality on the first floor actually required a lot of patience and luck. Because of the situation within Aincrad, not many players have trained smithing skills which have no direct relation to the rate of survival, and although the NPC blacksmiths do have a truly appropriate dwarvish appearance, their level of skill is very unreliable.

Considering that my weapon «Anneal Blade» was also the reward from quest that required a lot of hardship to clear, the current specs of this sword could be said to make it almost the most coveted item on the first floor. —However, that being said, it's still only a «Beginner's equipment», after all. I could only enhance it a few more times at most, so around the 3rd or 4th floor, I would have to upgrade to my next sword and re-forge it from the beginning again.

For the above reasons, I wasn’t able to guess the motives of Argo's client, who wanted this sword so much he would pay the undoubtedly large amount of 29.8k Cor at the present time. If this was a normal face-to-face transaction, I could ask for the reason directly, but that doesn't work when I don't even know the client's name.

"……The hush money the person paid was 1000 Cor, right?"

At my inquiry, Argo calmly nodded and said,

"That's righT. Are you willing to raisE?"

"Hmm…1k huh…hm——m!"

Hush money was the amount of Cor that X-shi^³, who wanted to buy my sword, paid Argo to keep his name hidden from me. If I decided to pay 1100 Cor, Argo would instant message her client to inform them of that, and ask if they would like to counter it raising to 1200 Cor. If YES was the reply, then this time I would be forced to choose whether to pay 1300 Cor or not. If I won this raise and counter battle, then I would learn the opponent's name, but I would end up losing a substantial amount of money in this «sword transaction» at a fearful rate as a result. No matter how you think about it, that would be idiotic to the extreme.

"……Good grief, you can’t just sell information, since even when you're not selling something, it's a business, huh…that really is one impressive merchant's spirit……"

While I complained, Argo's whiskered cheeks relaxed into a snicker.

"That's the true joy of this businesS! When I sell someone information, at that instant the story that «Someone bought such and such information» is born."

It was probably an absolute taboo for people like lawyers in the real world to reveal a customer’s name, but such a rule didn’t exist for the rat whose motto was «Sell all the information that can be sold». The people who became her clients had to be prepared from the beginning for their names to sold, but since her abilities as an informant was first-class, one couldn’t complain about it.

"…Please tell me when a female player wants my personal information: I'll buy her information."

As I said that while sighing, Argo once again gave a jolly laugh, but then she changed her expression.

"Then, I will tell the client the offer was rejected this time as welL. Also, that this deal is impossible toO. See you theN, Ki-bou."

Waving her hand, she turned around and, with a nimbleness that befitted her «Rat» nickname, left the alley. After watching her curly auburn hair disappear into the crowd in an instant, I idly thought, 'That person surely won't die'.

After being trapped in death game SAO for a month, I have learned a few things.

Just what was it that separated life and death among players? There existed an infinite number of minute factors to this—like the number of potions you have in stock, or when it’s time to quit dungeon exploring—but I think that the key factor existed in the center of those details was most likely whether one had their «personal core» that they unconditionally believed in or not. To put it another way, it was their «ultimate weapon» that they depend on in order to survive.

In Argo's case, it was probably «Information». Dangerous monster locations or, conversely, the most efficient hunting locations—this person knew them all. Her belief in knowledge created a sense of peace within her, and increased her chances of surviving.

So then, for me, Kirito’s «core» was namely the sword on my back. To be precise, it was that certain mental state that occurred when my body and sword completely became one. I had not fully been in that zone many times, but the single thought I want to make that world my own someday, and I will not die before then had kept me alive till now. The reason Anneal Blade's enhancement was Sharpness +3 and Durability +3, while ignoring Quickness and Accuracy, was because the former two were merely simple number spec-ups, while the latter were system-assisted enhancements that changed the feel of a sword swing.

—However, then that means.

That rapier user I met today at the front lines of the Labyrinth. What was her «core»?

I did move her unconscious body outside the Labyrinth (I can't really say how I did it myself), but, on the other hand, even had I not been there, the moment that the next kobold appeared, she would have unconsciously stood up and used that ultra-high speed «Linear» like a shooting star to kill the enemy…I couldn’t help but think that.

Just what on earth drove her to fight such a bloodcurdling battle, and how had she managed to survive until now? It was probably a «Strength» I didn't know about.

"……I should have paid Argo the 500 Cor…"

Murmuring with a small shake of my head, I then looked up at the sky.

The windmill towers that were the symbol of the town of Tolbana had their white-painted outer walls slightly tinged orange from the afternoon light. The time should be a bit after 3 PM. To prepare for the approaching lengthy boss strategy conference, I should go fill my stomach somewhere.

The meeting starting at 4pm would be, without a doubt, stormy.

The reason was that today, one type of player that had remained hidden in the world of SAO would show up in front of the numerous normal players for the first time. That's right—«New Players» and «Experienced Beta Testers», a gap that was hard to fill lay between them…

For «Argo the Rat», who sold anything that could be sold, there was only one type of information that she would never make a transaction on. That is, the identities of the original beta testers. No, it wasn’t just Argo. Fellow original beta testers, despite having different faces from before, may have had hunches about their respective identities based on each other’s names or tones, but they would never come into contact without each other. In fact, it was like that just now as well.

Argo and I were both certain of each other's identity as a beta tester, but that was the only topic we circumvented in our conversations, no matter how many light-years we had to travel to do so.

The reason was simple. When a beta tester's identity was discovered, his life could be at stake.

Not from the danger of being killed by monsters in some dungeon. But while walking around outside safe areas, New Players could «Execute» you. Because they believed that all the responsibility for the deaths of no less than 2000 people in the first month belonged to the original beta testers.

And I could not completely deny this blame.

Asuna's selection of food for the past three (or was it four) days consisted of the cheapest black bread from an NPC baker, and a bottle of water that could be filled as many times as you liked from the fountains that were scattered throughout town.

Even in the real world, she hadn’t enjoyed eating that much, but the food and drink in this virtual world was so bland that it was beyond description. No matter how much you gorged yourself on luxurious food, not even a single morsel would reach your real body. She thought it would be better if the food system and the sensations of hunger and satiety did not exist at all, but, when your stomach was empty three times a day at mealtimes, the hunger would not dissipate until you had eaten some virtual food.

Even so, she had recently become able to cut off this fake hunger by using willpower only when she went into the Labyrinth, but after returning to town, she had to eat. She bought the cheapest items on the menu as an act of minimal resistance, but she found it strangely annoying that even a dry and coarse piece of black bread seemed delicious in and of itself as she tore it apart and chewed it little by little.

At the center of the town of Tolbana, Asuna sat on a simple wood bench in the corner of an open fountain space and continued to move her mouth to chew while keeping her hood low over her eyes. She had finally finished half of the piece of bread, which was comparatively big for a price of 1 Cor, when—

"That bread looks pretty delicious."

That familiar voice was coming from her right. She stopped her hand that was just about to tear off a piece of the bread, and threw a sharp glance.

The person who stood there was the man she had just left at the town entrance a few minutes ago. The black-haired and grey-coated one-handed swordsman.

A troublesome person that had used some method earlier to move her outside after she had fainted inside the depths of a Labyrinth, and had forcibly reconnected her path which should have been severed then.

The moment she realized that, her cheeks grew hot. Even though she had said her ambition was to die, he was seeing her here, shamelessly eating a meal as soon as she came back alive. A strong embarrassment ran through her entire body, and she did not know what to do at that moment.

As she remained awkwardly stiffened like that while holding the half-moon shaped black bread in both hands, the man coughed slightly, and then said in a low whisper.

"May I sit next to you?"

Normally, she would have left the bench without a word, and moved away without turning back in this kind of situation. However, right now, she was assailed by a stunned confusion she rarely experienced in this world, leaving her unable to react. Perhaps interpreting Asuna's stiffness as a sign of approval, the man sat down at the furthest distance possible away from her on the right side of the bench, and began searching through his coat pocket. What he took out was a round, black-colored object—a black bread worth 1 Cor.

At that instant, Asuna momentarily forgot about her embarrassment and confusion, and instead looked at the man in amazement.

Judging by his ability to be able to go that deep into the Labyrinth and the grade of the equipment all over his body, this swordsman should easily earned enough money to choose from a decent course menu at a restaurant. In that case, he was either a super thrifty person, or—

"…You seriously find it delicious, don't you?"

Without realizing it, she had asked the question aloud in a small voice. Hearing this, the man raised his eyebrow outrageously, and then nodded deeply.

"Of course. Since coming to this town, I eat it every day…Well, I add a bit of a twist."

"A twist…?"

Not understanding his meaning, she shook her head under the hood. Instead of answering, the swordsman put his hand in the pocket opposite from the one earlier, and took out a small unglazed pot. He put it on the center of the bench, and said.

"Try using this on your bread."

The phrase 'use it on the bread' momentarily confused her, but she then realized it was a net game phrase, similar to «Use the key on the door» or «Use the bottle on the fountain». She hesitantly extended her right hand, and tapped the pot lid with her finger. From the pop-up menu which appeared, she selected «Use», and then her fingertip started to glow with a faint purple light. In this state which was called «Target Selection Mode», she then touched the half-eaten black bread in her left hand.

Then, with a small sound effect, one side of the bread was smeared white. The thing that had been fully, or rather, thickly applied to it was, no matter how you looked at it—

"…Cream? Where did you get such a thing…?"

"This is the quest reward from «Cows of the Counterattack» that I accepted one village back. Though, not many people do it, since it takes some time to clear."

After giving this answer with a serious face, the swordsman also «Used the pot on his bread» with a practiced gesture. Then, with its contents presumably used up, the pot shattered with a small sound and light effect. The swordsman opened his mouth incredibly wide and bit into the bread that was now similarly had a heap of cream applied to it.

Hearing the sound of his chewing, Asuna's own stomach felt not the unpleasant pain that she had been experiencing for quite some time, but instead the onslaught of a healthy hunger.

She hesitantly bit into the cream-covered black bread still held in her left hand.

At that moment, the taste of the normally dry and coarse bread spread inside her mouth as if it had transformed into a certain country-style cake with a heavy texture. The cream was sweet and smooth, along with a refreshingly yogurt-like sour taste. As she was struck by a feeling of fulfillment that numbed even the insides of her cheeks, Asuna dreamily stuffed the bread into her mouth with two, three bites.

When she suddenly came back to her senses, the food item that had been in her hands had completely disappeared without literally leaving even a single morsel. When she looked beside her with a start, she seemed to have finished two seconds or so before the swordsman. Again, a strong embarrassment rose intensely within her and she wanted to escape from this place, but having been treated to food, it would have been very bad manners.

After repeatedly taking several breaths and somehow calming herself down, Asuna said in a vanishingly faint voice.

"……Thank you for the food."

"You're welcome."

Having finished his own meal, the swordsman brushed off his leather glove-covered hands, and then continued.

"The cow quest I mentioned earlier. If you want to do it I can give you some tips. If you do it efficiently, you can finish it in two hours."

"………"

To be honest, her heart was moved. With that yogurt cream, even the 1 Cor black bread could become a magnificent feast.

It was a false fulfillment from the taste recreation engine, but she wanted taste it once more…no, to eat it every day if possible, is what Asuna couldn’t help but think.

However—

Asuna lowered her eyes, and shook her head gently beneath her hood.

"…It's okay. I did not come this far to this town just to eat delicious things."

"Hmm. Then, for what purpose?"

The swordsman's voice, while it could not be said to be an especially beautiful voice, did not have a single part of it that was unpleasant to the ear, and it had the cadence like that of a boy somehow. Maybe because of that, Asuna spoke without being conscious of it the thing deep inside her heart that she had spoken of to no one since coming to this world.

"It’s to…prove that I exist. Instead of locking myself in a room of a town inn like I did at the beginning and slowly rotting away, I want to be myself up to the last moment. Even if I lose to a monster and die, I don't want to lose to this game…to this world. No matter what."

Asuna—Yuuki Asuna's 15 years of life had been a series of battles. Beginning with her kindergarten entrance exam, she had had an endless number of challenges big and small imposed on her one after another, and she had overcome them all. It was set so that even one failure would make her a worthless person, so she continued to brush aside that heavy pressure.

A new challenge with the name of «Sword Art Online» had come upon her at the end of these 15 years of fighting, but she probably could not beat this challenge. With rules and a culture that were far too unknown and far too different, this was a type of battle that a single person's strength could not do anything about.

This was the required winning condition: 'Reach the top of the 100 floor floating castle, and beat the final enemy.' However, one month after the game started, one-fifth of the players had already fallen, and furthermore, most of them were experienced veterans that were confident in their abilities. The remaining fighting force was too small, and the distance that blocked their way was too long…

Asuna said all that in intermittent bits, as if the faucet of her heart had been loosened and drops were slowly dripping down. As she had given her fragmentary monologue that probably didn’t have any consistency, the black-haired swordsman had listened in silence, but—eventually Asuna's voice was cut off by the evening breeze, and then he quietly whispered one small word.

"……Sorry."

After a few seconds, Asuna wondered, 'Why would he say that?'

She met this swordsman for the first time today, so there should be no reason for him to apologize. When she glanced at the person beside her from beneath her hood, the grey-coated man that was sitting lightly on the bench rested both elbows on his knees and hung his head down. His lips moved slightly, and she heard his voice again.

"Sorry…—What brought about this current situation…or, to put it another way, what pushed you this far, is in a sense my……"

However, she could not hear the rest of what he said. Because the wind-powered clock bell of the particularly huge windmill that stood tall at the center of the town rang loudly.

It was 4 PM in the afternoon. The time the «Meeting» started. Looking around, Asuna saw that players had gathered at the nearby fountain space for some time now without her being aware of it.

"…Let's go. It's the conference you invited me to."

Asuna remarked that, and stood up. The swordsman also nodded, and slowly stood up. What had he been going to say—? She probably wouldn't talk to him again anyway, so it didn't matter. But in a corner within that thought, there was a feeling like that of a small prickling thorn.

‘I want to know.’ ‘I don't want to know.’ Which of those feelings were stronger, even Asuna herself did not understand very well.

44 people.

That was the total number of players gathered at Tolbana's fountain plaza.

Compared to my predictions—or rather my expectations, all I could say was that this was far too low. In SAO, the maximum size of a party was 6 people, and by adding together 8 of those you could made a raid party with a total of 48 people. From my experience during the Beta-Test period, if we were going to try beating the Floor Boss with zero deaths, it would be difficult without at least two raid groups to switch between while fighting, but these numbers couldn't even fill up one full raid party.

I sucked in a breath in order to sigh, but I lost my chance to breathe out.

"…This many…"

It was because the rapier user in a hooded cape whispered that from behind me to my left. I involuntarily turned around and asked.

"Many...? This number of people?"

"Yes. Because…they gathered here for the first challenge against this floor's boss monster, right? Even though the chance of complete annihilation exists…"

"……I see."

I nodded, and then looked at the faces of the warriors gathered in groups of threes and fives around the plaza again.

There were five or six players here whose names I knew, and vice versa. Additionally, there were around fifteen of these people who I had seen previously at the towns near the front line and in the Labyrinth. As for the remaining 20-plus people, this was the first time I saw most of their faces.

Of course, the male-to-female ratio was extremely skewed. The only female player that I could see at a quick glance was the rapier user, but that couldn’t be discerned just by looking because of the hood she wore low over their eyes, so the other people here besides me should be thinking that everyone here was male. «Argo the Rat» was also here leaning against a high wall on the other side of the plaza, but she would not be participating in the Boss-capture operation.

Just as the rapier user had said, no one had yet seen anyone—not within the current Aincrad, anyway—challenge the First Floor Boss. The risk of one’s HP gauge reaching zero, or in other words, the risk of dying would be the greatest here among the large-scale battles that had occurred on this floor until now. In other words, everyone gathered in the plaza was prepared for their own death, and by being here, they accepted they would become the stepping stones for future players…that was what it should have meant, but…

"…No, I wonder about that…"

I unconsciously whispered that. The rapier user sent me a questioning look from under her hood. In response, I answered while carefully chosing my words.

"I cannot say this for everyone, but rather than «Showing a spirit of self-sacrifice», I think that a lot of people came here due to the «Uneasiness about being left behind», too. Since I’m also here for the latter of those two reasons, after all…"

"…Left behind? From what?"

"From the front line. Total annihilation is scary, but having a boss being beaten in a place you don’t know is scary, too."

The cloth hood tilted slightly. Since she was a complete beginner to net games, she wouldn’t be able to understand what I just said very well—was what I thought, but.

"...That is like, not wanting to fall below the tenth place rank in your school year, or wanting to keep your standard score^⁴ of 70, that kind of similar motivation?"

“………”

This time, it was my turn to be speechless. Thinking about it a bit, I nodded at a subtle angle.

“Yeah…Well, probably…maybe it’s like that…”

Then—

Peeking under her hood, I saw her nicely-shaped lips smile slightly. ‘Fu, fu’, a faint sound could be heard. Was she…laughing? From the beyond-perfect «Linear» skill user, who had called my actions an "unnecessary effort" when I carried her out of the maze?

I unconsciously tried looking directly into the interior of her hood, but fortunately the situation changed before that. With a *Pan, Pan* hand-clapping sound, a shouting voice that carried well flowed throughout the plaza.

"O—K! Now then, it's five minutes late, but let's start! Everyone, a bit more to the front…there, come three steps closer!"

The owner of the truly majestic voice that spoke was swordsman with shiny metallic armor covering his entire tall figure. He nimbly jumped without a running-start onto the edge of the fountain that stood in the center of the plaza. To have jumped that high with that much armor, he must have possessed very high Strength and Dexterity.

When they saw the back-turned swordsman, several of the forty-odd people present rustled and murmured slightly. I understood what they were feeling. Because I, too, wondered why that man standing on the edge of the fountain was so handsome, to the point that I couldn’t help but think it was the product of a VRMMO.

In addition, his long hair flowing down in waves on either side of his face was dyed a brilliant blue. Since hair-dying items were not sold in shops on the first floor, he must have hunted for or bought a rare monster drop.

If he went to all that trouble to customize his hair style and color for this gathering, with only two female players here (although one of them was in a hooded cape so no one could tell from the outside), I think he must have felt some reluctance, but the man bore a refreshing smile that completely deflected my suspicion and said.

"Today, thank you for heeding my summons! Some people here know me, but I will again introduce myself! I am «Diavel», and my class in my heart^⁵ is «Knight»!"

With that, the people around the fountain burst out with whistles and applause, mixed with various cries like 'You meant «Hero», right!' flew through the air.

In SAO, «classes» prescribed by the system did not exist. Each player was given a number of «Skill Slots», and could freely select and set up all kinds of skills and train them. For example, people with manufacturing-type or trade-type skills as their main skills could be called a «Blacksmith», «Seamstress», «Cook», or other such official job titles—however, I have limited knowledge about the «Knight» and «Hero» classes, having not heard of them before.

But, of course, ‘calling oneself by whatever title they want’ was every individual’s freedom of choice. Looking at him closely, the man named Diavel was wearing bronze armor on his chest, shoulders, arms and shins, with a large longsword on his left hip, and a kite shield on his back. You could say that was this was the so-called Knight-class armament.

While gazing at his majestic from the back of the crowd, I quickly searched through the index in my brain.

His equipment and hair style were different, so it was hard to connect, but I felt like I had seen him many times in the front line villages and towns. And then, what about before that—the «Other Aincrad», did I see him there? At the very least, I don't remember having heard his name before…

"Now then, as for the reason why I gathered you top players who are active at the front lines like this, I don't think I need to say it, but…"

As Diavel's speech continued, I stopped my thoughts and concentrated on him. The blue-haired knight raised his right hand, pointed to the huge tower that rose faintly beyond the town scape—the First Floor Labyrinth, and continued.

"…Today, our party found the stairs leading to the top-most floor of that tower. In other words, tomorrow, or at the latest the day after tomorrow, we will reach it: the first floor's…Boss Room!"

The players rustled and became noisy among each other. I was a little surprised, too. The First Floor Labyrinth had 20 floors; I (and the rapier user beside me) had been close to rising from the 18th to 19th floor when we passed through the Labyrinth today, but I didn't know that the 19th floor was already mapped that far.

"One month. Coming this far took one month…but even so, we have to set an example. We have to beat the boss, reach the second floor, and show everyone still waiting at the Starting City that it is definitely possible to clear this death game. That is the duty of us top players here right now! Isn't that right, everyone!"

Again, cheers. This time, it seemed that there were people clapping who were not Diavel's friends. Certainly, what was being said was splendid and nothing was hidden. No, it would be strange to even wonder about anything hidden in those words in the first place. Right now, should I come out with my high opinion of the mediator of the front lines players that had been scattered until now, give my own applause to the Knight-sama——

"Wait a minute, Knight-han^⁶."

At that moment, a low voice flowed out.

The cheering immediately stopped, and the front of the crowd split into two. Standing at the center of the newly opened gap was a short yet solidly built man. From my position, I could only make out a rather large one-handed sword on his back, and some kind of pointed, cactus-styled brown hair.

Taking one step forward, the cactus head growled in a deep, gravelly voice that was the opposite of Diavel's beautiful voice.

"Before that, there is one thing that I have to say, or otherwise I cannot join you."

Despite this rude intrusion, Diavel’s expression nearly didn’t change. With a smile overflowing with composure, he said while beckoning.

"What is it that you need to say? Well, whatever it is, opinions are very welcome. But, if you are going to speak, you should tell us your name first."

"………Hmph."

Cactus head gave a huge snort, and then took one, two steps forward. When he reached the fountain, he turned around to face us.

"I am «Kibaou»."

The cactus head swordsman who introduced himself with a somewhat daring character name glared at all the players in the plaza with beady but sharp and bright eyes.

His sweeping look stopped for just an instant on my face—or maybe it was just my imagination. I didn't know his name, nor did I have any memory of passing by him somewhere.

After taking plenty of time to look at everyone once, Kibaou eventually said in an even more threatening voice.

"In this group, there should be about 5 or 10 people that need to apologize."

"Apologize? To whom?"

The «knight» Diavel, who was still standing behind him on the fountain’s edge in the back, raised both hands in a questioning manner. Without looking at him, Kibaou spat out in hatred.

"Ha, isn't it obvious. To the 2000 people who died up until now. Those guys had a monopoly on everything, and so 2000 people died in one month! Isn't that right?!"

At that moment, the audience of forty-odd people that had been murmuring in low voices became completely silent. What Kibaou was insinuating, everyone finally understood. Myself included, of course.

In the oppressive silence, only the evening BGM from the NPC orchestra played quietly. No one tried to speak. If anything was said, then at that instant you would be labeled as one of «those guys»—that was the likely fear on everyone's mind. No, more than likely. At the very least, I was certainly caught by that fear…

"—Kibaou-san. «Those guys» who you’re referring to are…the original beta testers, right?"

With his arms crossed, Diavel showed the sternest look he had worn up till now as he asked for confirmation.

"Obviously."

With the thick metal pieces of his scale mail clinking over the leather he wore, Kibaou gave a glance towards the knight behind him, and then continued.

"Those beta testers^⁷, on the day this shitty game started, dashed from the Starting City and disappeared. They left behind over 9000 people who didn't know left from right. They monopolized good hunting grounds and profitable quests, got only themselves stronger reservation, and then always feigned ignorance about it afterwards…There should also be some in this group, some sly people hiding their beta status and thinking of joining the Boss Fight. I say we should make them kneel down and spit out all of the gold and items they stockpiled for the sake of this operation, and that they cannot be entrusted with the lives of our party members!"

Just like his name^⁸, he cut off his condemnation with a snap of his teeth, but still, no one tried to raise their voice to speak. As a member of the original beta tester group, I also clenched my teeth, held my breath, and continued to keep silent.

It wasn’t because of an impulse to shout out a retort to him. Like, 'Do you think that none of the original beta testers died?'.

About one week earlier, I bought a certain piece of information from Argo—to be precise, I requested her to investigate something. To find out the estimated death toll for the original beta testers.

The SAO closed beta test that had been conducted over summer vacation had accepted only 1000 people. Every participant was later given the priority purchase rights for the official-version package, but considering the login status at the end of the test period, my guess was that not all 1000 testers had moved to the official service. Probably 700 to 800 people—that was most likely the total number of original beta testers at the start of the death game.

However, finding out «Who is an original beta tester» was not so simple.

If a player's colored cursor had a [β] mark, then of course it would be easy—having said that, it could be called fortunate that such a mark did not exist, and all of our avatars’ appearances had been reset everyone's true appearance in reality due to the GM Kayaba Akihiko’s forethought. The only clue we could go by was the name, but many had probably changed their user names from the beta to the official release. Incidentally, the reason that Argo and I are mutually certain that we are both original beta testers was related to how we first met, but that's another story.

Anyway, for these reasons, Argo's research should have been quite difficult. However, it took her only 3 days to give me a number.

Approximately 300 people. That was Argo's estimate for the death toll of original beta testers.

If that number is accurate, that means, within the current death toll of 2000, 1700 were new players. Percentage-wise, the new player death rate was about 18%. On the other hand, the original tester death rate was—close to 40%.

Prior knowledge and experience did not necessarily mean safety. On the contrary, it could also be a pitfall. I myself nearly lost my life in a difficult quest that I accepted right away on the first day of this death game. Also, there were external factors. In this SAO official service, the geography, monsters and items are mostly the same as in the beta test, but once in a while, there is a slight difference, like a small deadly poisoned needle……

"May I speak?"

At that time, a rich and forceful baritone resounded through the evening plaza. When I returned from my thoughts and raised my head, there was a silhouette moving forward and coming out from the around the left end of the crowd.

Huge. His height probably was over 180cm.

An avatar's size was said not to have any effect on one’s stats, but the rustic two-handed battle-axe slung over his back certainly appeared lightweight to him.

His appearance, too, was impressive and did not lose to his weapon. A completely bald head, and chocolate-colored skin. However, that radical customization actually suited his chiseled face very well. He was far from looking Japanese…or rather, he might actually be of a different race.

Moving forward near the fountain, the muscular giant lightly bowed to the other forty-odd players, and then turned to Kibaou who had a dramatically different height.

"My name is Agil. Kibaou-san, what you mean to say is that many beginners died because original beta testers did not take care of them, and that they should accept that responsibility and apologize along with giving reparations for it, is that correct?"

"Th…That's right."

Kibaou, momentarily overwhelmed, took a step back, but soon returned forward, and then glared at the axe user called Agil with his blazing, small eyes, and shouted.

"If they had not left us behind, 2000 people would not have had to die! Moreover, they were not just any 2000 people, most of them were top-ranked veterans from other MMOs! If those stupid testers had properly shared information, items and money, then there would have been 10 times as many people here right now…no, by now we would have broken through the 2nd or 3rd floor!!"

—300 of those 2000 are comprised of what you called 'stupid testers'!

I desperately held back the impulse to shout that. Trivial reasons like 'I could not show a basis for the number 300 right now' and 'it would be scary to be hanged and denounced by everyone' were of course part of what stopped me.

However, more than that, it wouldn’t be smart to reveal my status as an original tester by objecting here in this situation, no matter how I thought about it.

Right now, about four to five hundred remaining original testers were mixed haphazardly among the new players. Level and equipment-wise, they could no longer be said to stand out. In this situation, I had a fear that, even if I revealed myself as an original tester, let alone progressing towards reconciliation, a dangerous witch hunt might arise instead. At worst, the front line players would divide themselves between beginners and testers, and they would start fighting. That had to be avoided at all costs. Because, in SAO, player attacks were allowed in the fields and dungeons collectively known as the «Outer Area»…

"That's what you say, Kibaou-san. I don't know about the money and items, but I believe that there is in fact information from them."

While I lowered my eyes shamefully, Agil the axe warrior again responded in a rich baritone. From the huge pouch on his muscled and leather armor-covered waist, he took out a simple sheepskin-bound book item. On the cover, there was a «Rat Mark» designed with round ears and three whiskers on each cheek.

"This guidebook, you got it too, right? It’s freely distributed from the item shops in Horunka and Medai, after all."

"…F-Freely distributed?"

I involuntarily spluttered quietly. That, just as the mark on the cover indicated, was the «Strategy Guide by Area» sold by the informant Argo the Rat. It comprised subjects from detailed terrain information to monster appearances, drop items and even quest explanations, and the slogan [It's fine. This is Argo's strategy guide.] written on the bottom of the cover in huge letters was no exaggeration. Although embarrassing, I myself obtained the whole set to supplement my memory—but, according to my memory, each book should be 500 Cor, a pretty respectable price…

"…I got it too."

Next to me, the up-until-now silent rapier user whispered. I inquired "For free?", and she nodded.

"There's a commission to the item shop owner, but since the price is 0 Cor, everyone got it. It really came in handy."

"Wh…What's going on…"

That «Rat» —that business demon who would sell even her own status information if it could make her money, had freely distributed information? Impossible! I shifted my gaze, but the stone wall Argo had been quietly sitting on a few minutes earlier was empty. The next time I met her, I wanted to ask for the reason why, but somehow I could already see her saying "That information is 1000 Cor" in response.

"——I got it. What about it?"

Kibaou's sharp voice made me reluctantly interrupt my thought process. Agil put his strategy guide back in his pouch, and said with his arms crossed.

"This guide, whenever I reach a new village or town, is always found in the item shop. You must have noticed that too. The information comes too quickly, don't you think?"

"So what if it's too quick!?"

"It means that the ones who provided the information on monsters and map data that appear in this, cannot be anyone other than the original beta testers."

The players went abuzz all at once. Kibaou closed his mouth sharply, and the knight Diavel behind him nodded in an 'I see' way.

Agil turned his gaze over the assembled group, and spoke in far-carrying baritone.

"You see, there is information. And even still, many players died. I think the reason for that is because they were veteran MMO players. They measured SAO with the same rules as other titles, and missed points that they should have noticed. However, now is not the time to hunt down who is responsible for those casualties. Whether we are or aren’t responsible, it will influence this meeting, this is what I think."

The two-handed axe user Agil’s attitude was very imposing and his argument was also extremely straightforward, and so Kibaou clenched his teeth as it seemed that he couldn’t find any chink in what had been said. If anyone else other than Agil had claimed the same thing, then Kibaou would probably counter with 'Saying that means you are an original beta tester', I think. But, as it was now, all he could do was glare at the giant with hatred.

Still standing on the fountain’s edge behind the two confronting each other silently, Diavel nodded once more as his long hair swayed and was dyed purple from the setting sun.

"Kibaou-san, I can also understand your point. I, too, went into fields without knowing left or right, and finally arrived here after many near deaths. But, as this Agil-san said, isn't it now the time to look forward? Even original beta testers…no, especially original testers, we need their fighting strength for this boss fight. If we removed them, and that resulted in the attack failing, what would be the point?"

This was truly a refreshing speech that make me think 'Just as expected from one who calls himself a knight'. Many people in the audience also deeply nodded. I felt the atmosphere change from 'condemning original testers', and I involuntarily breathed a sigh of relief. Though I realized it was shameful of me to do so, I listened to Diavel continue.

"Everyone, I’m sure you each have your own thoughts and feelings, but right now, I would like for you to cooperate to break through the first floor. If there are people who will not fight alongside original testers under any circumstance, then it is unfortunate, but you are free to leave. For a boss fight, teamwork is more important than anything else."

Sweeping his gaze across everyone, the knight finally stared at Kibaou with a serious look. The cactus head swordsman took that gaze for a while, but made a huge snort and then spoke in a stifled voice.

"……Fine, I will obey you here. But I want it to be clear in black and white, that it is only up until the boss fight is finished."

Turning around, Kibaou retreated from the front of the group with his scale mail clinking. The axe user Agil, too, spread his arms to show that he had nothing more to say, and returned to his previous place.

In the end, that scene was the highlight of this meeting. Because, even if we worked out anti-boss strategies, we had only just arrived at the top floor of the maze. In a situation where no one had seen the boss's face, things like strategies could not be made, but……

—No, the truth was slightly different. Because I knew that Aincrad's First Floor Boss was a gigantic Kobold, that its weapon was a huge Talwar, and that once engaged, 12 heavily armored Kobold royal guards would spawn.

If I revealed that I was original tester here and provided information on the boss, our chance of success might increase to some extent. However, if I did that, they could ask 'Why did you remain silent until now', and there was the fear that the 'hang the original testers' atmosphere would reappear with that flow.

Also, my knowledge was acquired from the old Aincrad, so there remained the possibility that, when the official service began, everything or just a small detail about the boss had been changed. If we based our strategy on information from the beta and rushed in now, then when we actually fight the boss, if the boss’ appearance or attack pattern were completely different…or anything else like that, then the raid group could be annihilated in the confusion. Ultimately, until the boss room door was opened and its inhabitant popped up, nothing could start.

I convinced myself with that half as an excuse, and continued to keep my mouth shut.

The meeting finally ended with the knight Diavel giving extremely positive words, and the participants responding to that by giving a collective grand war cry. I also raised my right hand up in the air for show, but the rapier user next to me did not even move her hand from beneath her cape, let alone give a shout. Turning around without a sound even before the word "Dismissed" was spoken, she whispered to me at a volume only I could hear before she left.

"Before the meeting, you said something…if we both live through the boss fight, tell me what you said."

To her back as she disappeared into the dim road, I silently answered.

—Sure, at that time, I will tell you. That for my own survival, I threw away everything else.

Although the meeting lacked any real discussion, it still seemed to have boosted the players' morale, and the 20th floor of the First Floor Labyrinth was mapped with unprecedented speed. On the afternoon of the day after the meeting, Saturday December 3rd, the first party (Diavel's party of six again), discovered huge double doors in the innermost depths of the Labyrinth. The sound of their cheers reached me as I fought solo nearby.

I heard that Diavel's group had boldly opened the Boss Room door, and saw the inhabitant's face. On the evening of that day, at another meeting around Tolbana's fountain plaza, the blue-haired knight reported back proudly.

The boss was a huge Kobold, 2 meters in height. Its name was «Illfang the Kobold Lord», and its weapon was of the scimitar category. Around it, there were three metal-armored, halberd-wielding «Ruin Kobold Sentinels»—

The information up until that point was exactly as it was in the beta. If I remember correctly, the «Sentinels» would reappear when the boss lost one of its four HP bars, totaling 12 «Sentinels» that had to be eliminated, but, as usual, I did not have the courage to say this at the meeting. In any case, the actual fight would not occur any time soon, and since several scouting battles will be conducted first, this will soon become known information—that's what I told myself as an excuse, but something that proved my worries were entirely pointless was discovered in the middle of the meeting.

At an NPC stall shop in a corner of the plaza, «the aforementioned item» was put up for sale since who knew when. Composed of three pages bound by sheep skin, it was more a pamphlet than a book. 'Argo's Strategy Guide: First Floor Boss edition'—was its title. The price was 0 Cor from the start.

Of course, the meeting was temporarily paused as all the participants purchased (or more like took) a guide from the NPC, and perused its contents.

As usual, there was an impressive amount of information. From the recently discovered name of the boss to its estimated HP, its main weapon the Talwar, the weapon’s speed, how much damage it dealt, and the boss's Sword Skills, this information comprised the first three pages. The fourth page contained information on the surrounding «Sentinels»; there it was clearly written that they would POP four times, to 12 total.

Also, on the cover of the guide, there was a single line of text in a bright red font that had not been on any previous «Argo Strategy Guide» until now. It said—

[This information is from the time of the SAO beta test. It is possible the current version may be different.]

When I read this, I reflexively raised my head, and looked around the plaza for Argo. However, I could not find the «Rat» dressed in simple leather armor today. I lowered my head again, and whispered in a small voice.

"…She went on the offensive…"

This red warning line might have destroyed Argo's current status—her positions of «An informant who simply bought information from original beta testers no one knew». Almost everyone who read this would begin to wonder whether the Rat herself was an original tester or not. Of course there was no proof, but later, if the feud between new players and original testers expanded to more than it was now, there was no doubt that the danger of her being the foremost target of denunciation would increase.

But on the other hand, thanks to this strategy guide, some troublesome and dangerous scouting battles would surely be avoided as well.

Like yesterday, the forty-odd people who read the guide looked to the blue-haired knight standing on the fountain's edge as if to let their leader decide how they should react.

Diavel lowered his head as he seemed to think and consider something for several dozen seconds, but soon enough he quickly stood up straight and shouted in a voice filled with positivity.

"—Everyone, right now, let's be thankful for this information!"

The audience was immersed in a buzz. Because that speech chose reconciliation instead of confrontation with the original testers. I thought Kibaou would again jump out growling, but the brown cactus head that appeared and disappeared at the front of the crowd was standing still for the moment.

"Leaving aside its source, thanks to this guide, we can skip two or three days of scouting battles. Indeed, I think this is incredibly helpful. Because, scouting battles have the possibility of incurring the most deaths."

Here and there in the plaza, different colored heads nodded.

"…If this is true, the boss's numerical stats are not so bad. If SAO was a normal MMO, then even if everyone’s average level was level three... no, level five, that would be enough to kill it, I think. So, if we polish our tactics correctly and bring a lot of POTs[6] to the fight, it's possible for us to defeat it without any deaths. No, sorry, not even that. There will be absolutely zero deaths. That, I promise you on my pride as a knight!"

Loud clapping continued as 'Yo, Knight-sama!' and other cheers filled the air. The fact that Diavel was someone with good leadership was something even a rebellious solo player had to accept. Guilds could not be made until the third floor, but at that time an impressive conquest guild would probably be made…

I was feeling various degrees of admiration like this, but as the knight continued speaking, I choked slightly.

"—Then, it's a bit fast, but I am thinking of starting the actual conquest strategy meeting right now! In any case, if we don't make a raid party, we cannot split up our duties, right? Everyone, first make a party with your friends or the people near you!"

………What did he say?

With that single phrase that reminded me of the times during my elementary school gym classes in the past, I hurriedly calculated in my head. In SAO, one party was 6 people, and there are 44 people here, so…if people aimed more towards balance, the best would be 4 parties of 6 members and 4 parties of 5 members? But even if that were so, if the leader didn’t specify that……

My high-speed thoughts as I thought it over while standing still were useless in the end. Because, in slightly less than one minute after Diavel's directions, seven 6-member parties were quickly formed. Understanding that the knight wanted to make 6-member parties from the beginning, even Kibaou who was a lone wolf no matter how you looked at him and Agil who gave off the feeling of a gentle giant found five friends in an instant. Maybe the only person who didn't say 'Let's fight together' really was me——

No, that wasn't correct.

When I glanced around with a downcast look, I discovered the hooded cape rapier user standing around by herself, and I quickly approached her.

"……So you got left out too, huh?"

To my quiet inquiry, a hot, angry glare was directed at me from beneath her hood, and at the same time a suppressed voice replied.

"……Not left out. All the people around me seemed to be friends with each other, so I simply refrained."

That's what left out meant—

I wisely prevented myself from retorting like that, and instead just nodded seriously and said.

"Then, how about forming a party with me? A raid is up to eight parties; if we don't do that then we cannot join."

It seemed attacking in a systematic way like that was correct, as the rapier user showed hesitation only for a moment, before she scoffed and said.

"Since you invited me, I will have to accept."

The competitive childlike expression that said 'you asked first so you make the request' that she gave here was something that I had graduated from the previous month, so I nodded and touched her color cursor in my view to send the party invitation request. The rapier user pushed OK with a curt gesture, and then in the left side of my view, a second small HP gauge appeared.

I gazed at the short alphabetic letters displayed beneath it.

【Asuna】. That, was the name of the mysterious fencer who possessed the godly fast «Linear».

The knight Diavel's leadership was pretty good not just with speeches, but also with the finer practical details, as well.

He checked over the seven completed 6-member parties, and with only the smallest number of switches, formed seven specialized parties out of them. Two heavy-armor Tank parties. Three high-mobility and high-firepower Attacker parties. And finally, two long-weapons Support parties.

The two Tank parties take turns being the targets by the boss Kobold Lord. Two of the firepower Attacker parties would concentrate on the boss, while the third one would kill the sentinels first. The Support parties would mainly use the Delay skill with mostly long-reach weapons, and interrupt either the boss' or guards' attacks when possible.

Although simple, this plan didn't have many holes, and I thought it was a good strategy.

While I was lost in admiration, the knight came at last to the good-for-nothing two-person party (of course, that's me and the rapier user), and after appearing to be lost in thought for a while, he said pleasantly.

"You two, please support Group E in order to make sure none of the Kobold Guards remain, okay?"

In other words, 'Don't interfere with the boss fight and stay quietly at the back' was what I felt his words meant. Sensing that the rapier user, who was apparently called «Asuna», beside me was about to give an unfriendly response to that, I stopped her with one hand and replied with a smile.

"Understood. That's an important role, leave it to us."

"Yes, I am counting on you."

Flashing his white teeth, the knight returned to the fountain. At that moment, close to my left ear, I heard a voice tinged with a dangerous tone.

"…What important duty. It will finish without us being able to land a single attack on the boss."

"W-We can't do anything about it, we only have two people. There's not nearly enough time for Switch and POT rotation."

"…Switch? POT…?"^⁹

Hearing that questioning whisper, I once again thought. This rapier user really did leave the Starting City as a complete beginner without any knowledge, and struggled all the way here by herself. Most likely with only five non-enhanced store-bought rapiers, and by relying on just the single sword skill «Linear»—

"…I'll explain in detail later. If we talk here it will never end."

I estimated that her response would be 'Unnecessary' with more than a 50% probability, but the rapier user remained silent for a few seconds, then nodded with a minute motion.

The second boss strategy meeting ended after a short greeting by the leaders of each group that were designated from A to G and the plan for how the Cor and item dropped in the Boss Battle would be divided was established. The giant axe user Agil was Tank Group B's leader, and Kibaou, who had a burning enmity for original beta testers, was Attacker Group E's leader. Since Group E's goal was to kill the Kobold Guards, it meant that the rapier user and I, the remaining pair, would be assisting Kibaou. To tell the truth, he was one opponent I wouldn't want to be too close to, but he didn't know that I was an original tester—he shouldn’t know, that is. On a side note, the face of the «Rat» was not among the raid party. Of course, I didn't mean to criticize her at all. With that «Strategy Guide», her duty was well fulfilled.

For distribution of drops, we adopted the simple rule of 'Cor will be automatically divided evenly among the 44 raid party members while each item will belong to the person who receives it'. In the MMOs in recent years, drop items would typically have a system where a dice roll was performed between the people who wanted a drop and competed for it, but for some reason, SAO used the previous era's method, where the item was suddenly dropped into a random player's storage, and moreover, without anyone else knowing either. In other words, if a «Boss-dropped items must be dice rolled anew» kind of rule were set, then the person with the actual item would have to turn in the item by notifying everyone of it themselves. I also experienced this many times in the beta test, but it is a big test of willpower. Rather, in reality, after a boss fight, no one will come forth and say anything (in other words, someone kept the drop), so there were many rather awkward raid disbands.

Diavel, probably to prevent this kind of development, used the «Drop to person» rule. What a truly perceptive Knight-sama.

At 5:30 PM in the afternoon, the meeting was ended and dissolved with similar messages as yesterday like 'Let's work hard!' and 'Yea—!', and then the group split into threes and fives, disappearing inside bars and restaurants. While moving my awfully stiff-feeling shoulders, I wondered if this stiffness was an illusion, or if my real body were actually tense, though it would not matter either way—

"……So, the explanation, where shall we do it?"

…'What did you say', I was confused for a moment, then I hurriedly faced the rapier user.

"Ah, yeah…Anywhere is fine with me. How about that bar?"

"……No. I don't want to be seen by anyone."

That speech almost pierced me for a moment, but then I rallied my spirits by arbitrarily supplementing the part she omitted as «seen together with any male player» instead of «seen together with me», and I somehow managed to calmly nod.

"Then, how about an NPC house…but, someone might enter. An inn room can be locked, but that's no good either, right?"

"Of course."

This time I sustained a light piercing damage from those words that were like the point of a rapier. Since this is a virtual world, I could somehow manage to talk to female players, but until one month ago, I was a 2nd year middle school student whose interpersonal skill was so low that I even had difficulty talking with my younger sister. In the first place, how did only I, who followed the straight path of a solo player, end up in this kind of situation? I understood that I couldn’t help but enter groups when it came to boss battles, but when I thought about it carefully, all other seven parties are male-only groups, so if I had joined those then it would be over without so much bother…

While I was timidly thinking about these things, the rapier user sighed and continued.

"…Anyway, most of the private rooms at inns in this world cannot even be called a room. A space less than six tatami mats with only a bed and table, just that costs 50^¹⁰ Cor a night. Eating doesn't really matter, but since only sleep is genuine here, I want to sleep in a slightly better room."

"Eh…R-Really?"

I unconsciously tilted my head.

"If you search for it, you can find better housing conditions somewhere, right? Though it will cost a bit more…"

"You say 'search,' but there are only three inns in this town. The rooms are all similar."

Hearing that reply, I finally understood.

"Ah…I see. You only checked places with [INN] signboards, right?"

"Yes, since…INN means inn."^¹¹

"True, but on lower floors like this one in this world, it just means shops where you can sleep at the cheapest price for the time being. There are plenty of other rooms besides those at inns that you can rent with Cor."

The instant I said that, the rapier user's lips became open-mouthed.

"Wha……Y-You should have said that earlier……"

Feeling like I had finally found a clue to counterattacking, I grinned and promptly started bragging about the room I was currently renting.

"The place I rented in this town is on the second floor of a farmhouse at the cost of 80 Cor^¹² a night, but it has two rooms that come with the bonus of getting all the milk you can drink, it has a bed with a scenic view, and on top of that there is also a bathroom attached…"

I had gotten carried away talking, but at that moment.

Extending forward at a godly speed like the «Linear» I had seen in the depths of the Labyrinth, the rapier user's right hand grabbed my grey coat's collar with force just shy of triggering the Crime Prevention Code. Then a low husky voice barked out forcefully.

"………WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

Although she had said it herself already, Asuna thought that, among all the acts within this world, the only act that could be called real was «sleep».

Everything else was a virtual imitation. Walking, running, talking, eating, and fighting. It would not be a lie to say that all these actions were nothing but data-code calculated by the server that ran Sword Art Online. Since, no matter what one’s avatar did, the body in the real world that was lying down somewhere would not move a single finger. The only exception was when the avatar slept on a bed, and one’s real brain also went to sleep. Therefore, she wanted to at the very least sleep soundly which was done when she slept at town inns—however, this was actually rather difficult.

She got caught up in the heat of battle when she fought in fields or dungeons, so she had no time then to look back and reflect, but when she returned to town and laid down on the bed of her single room, she would inevitably replay her actions from a month ago in her mind. Why, on that day, did she have such an unusual whim? Why had she not been satisfied with just touching the Nerve Gear? Why had she put the grim headgear on her head, and say the single phrase "Link Start"? —That was what she thought about.

She would fall into a shallow sleep while thinking of such regrets, and naturally saw bad dreams. Her classmates, ridiculing Asuna at having hugely stumbled at the important time of their third year of junior high, all because of a mere game. Her relatives, pitying Asuna for have dropped out from the race that would continue on during the many years ahead. And—her parents, staring at Asuna’s comatose body on the bed of some some hospital, with expressions that she could not see—…

With a trembling body, she would suddenly jump up in bed and see at the time displayed in the lower left corner of her vision, indicating that, even though a long time had passed since she went to sleep, the actual amount of time she had slept was less than three hours. After that, no matter how many times she closed her eyes, she simply could not fall back asleep. Then again, if she had slept properly every night, she might not have been able to drive herself to fiercely fight for three or four days continuously in the dungeon.

Therefore, Asuna had always wanted to at least spend the money she saved up on a high-class bedroom and bed. The rooms in this world’s inns were all narrow and gloomy, with beds made out of unknown materials that were rustling and hard. If it was made of Italian high-elastic and high-tech urethane foam…or at the very least normal cotton, she might have been able to turn her three hours of sleep every night into four hours. And speaking of things she wanted, she wished that there was a bathroom or at the very least a shower attached to the rooms. Even though bathing here was nothing more than a virtual experience and her body in the real world would probably be regularly washed by the hospital staff, this was just problem of feeling. She was already prepared to die alone in the depths of the Labyrinth, but before that she wanted to just once, even if it would only be virtual, dip her hands and feet as much as she liked into some warm water……

——And that ardent wish of hers had been directly hit by the black-haired swordsman’s words.

"………What did you say?"

Asuna asked with a hoarse voice, while unconsciously grabbing the other party's collar. If she wasn’t having a hallucination in her brain’s hearing, the swordsman had really said just now that…

"A-All the milk you can drink…?"

"After that."

"I-It has a bed with a nice view…?"

"After that."

"T-There's a bathroom…?"

—It seemed that she hadn’t heard wrong after all. After letting go of his collar, Asuna continued as if becoming impatient.

"You said that your room costs 80 Cor to stay one night?"

"Y…Yes, I did say that."

"How many of those are still available at those lodgings? What's the location? I want to rent one, too, so please show me the way to it."

At that point, the swordsman seemed to finally realize the situation. After coughing once, he put on a strangely solemn face and spoke.

"Ah, didn't I just say that I rented the second floor of a farmhouse?"

"…You did say that."

"I meant that I rented out the entire second floor. Therefore, there are no vacant rooms. Incidentally, there are no rooms for rent on the first floor."

"Wha………"

In that moment, she became weak from the knees and she was just barely able to brace herself.

"……t-that room……"

Though she only said that, he seemed to be aware of what was omitted. His black eyes flitted about, and with an apologetic expression he said,

"About that, actually, I am already very satisfied after staying there for about a week, and I would be more than willing to give it to you, but…the truth is, I have already paid in advance for the rented room system’s maximum number of days…ten days' worth of rent. And, there's no way to cancel it."

"Wha………"

Her body staggered again, but this time Asuna somehow withstood, as she was hit by a huge conflict.

What the swordsman before her had just told her was 'there are rentable rooms besides those within inns, and in addition, there are also deluxe versions among them'. In that case, if she searched hard enough, there might still be available rooms with bathrooms in Tolbana village that she could find. But, dozens of players aiming to reach the next floor had already gathered within this village in throngs. Naturally all the good rooms were already taken, and that was precisely why this black-haired swordsman had paid rent for the maximum number of days.

Then, what if she went back to one of the previous villages? But, after sunset there would be strong monsters that shouldn’t be underestimated roaming about the surrounding fields, and tomorrow morning she had to meet with the clearing group at 10 AM at the fountain plaza. Even though she originally had little interest in this boss clearing group, it was simply not in her character to disregard her duty and be late or absent without notice—for such a trivial reason, no less.

So then, there was only one option left.

For a few seconds, Asuna was conflicted in body and soul. If this were the real world, she would not do such an action even if the sky and earth turned upside down. But, this was merely a virtual world where everything was made of digital data, and her own avatar was also no different. Besides, the person in front of her eyes could not be considered a passing stranger anymore.

They had eaten cream-covered bread together, been pushed into the same party for the boss fight, and, that's right, this man had said earlier that he would explain something or other to her somewhere anyway. If she used this opportunity to receive that explanation, that should serve as a proper excuse somehow…right? Definitely. Probably.

Turning to the swordsman whose gaze was wandering aimlessly as usual, Asuna suddenly lowered her head—and spoke at a volume that could somehow only be heard by him.

"……Let me borrow the bath at your place."

The farmhouse that the black-haired swordsman had rented was situated along a small pasture in the eastern part of Tolbana. It was much larger than she had expected. If the barn and main building were included together, the place would be about as large as Asuna's house in the real world.

A beautiful stream flowed through the side of the farm grounds, and the installed small waterwheel made peaceful *pitter-patter* sounds as the water passed through it. At the two-storey main building, there lived a NPC farm family on the first floor, and the cheerful missus of the house directed a wide smile at Asuna when they arrived at the entrance. There was old woman who was sleeping on a rocking chair near the fireplace and had a golden [!] mark—the indication for a quest starting point—floating above her head that was worrisome, but she ignored it for now.

Asuna followed the swordsman up to the massive staircase to the second floor, where there was but one door at the end of a short corridor. When the swordsman touched the doorknob, there was a sound of a lock opening automatically. Had it been Asuna who touched it, this door would definitely not have opened. It was completely impossible to unlock rooms rented out to players even with the «Picking»^¹³ skill.

"…W-Well, please come in."

The swordsman pushed open the door, and made an awkward welcoming gesture.

"…Thanks."

Expressing her gratitude in a low voice, Asuna then entered the room—and at that moment, she cried out unintentionally.

"W-What is this? So large……T-There’s only a thirty Cor difference between this and my room!? I-Isn't it too cheap……?"

"Being able to find a room like this quickly is a fairly important Outside System Skill…Well, in my case…"

At that point, the swordsman cut off his words unnaturally so she turned to look at him, but he only shook his head slightly. Asuna then looked around the interior of the room again and let out a big sigh.

The room the two of them were in right now was at least twenty-tatami^¹⁴. If the door that could be seen on the east wall was the bedroom, then that room was certainly about the same size as well. And on the western wall, there was a door with a [Bathroom] plate hanging on it. Those alphabet letters, inscribed in a strange typeface, seemed to release a magical attractive power to Asuna. The swordsman quickly unequipped his one-handed sword from his back and the defensive equipment on his hands and feet, and comfortably sank his body into the soft-looking sofa among the set of furniture that was simple yet possessed an excellent ambience.

After giving a long stretch of the body, the swordsman looked at Asuna, who had been lost in thought for a while, and then he cleared this throat and spoke.

"Erm, well, you probably can tell just by looking, but the bathroom is over there, so…F-Feel free to use it."

"Ah…o-okay."

Asuna couldn't believe that she would visit someone else’s room and then suddenly rush into the bathroom, but it was too late to show restraint now. As she muttered "Well, then" and headed to the door, the swordsman's voice called after her.

"Oh yes, I’ll tell you just in case, but even if it’s called bath, it’s not the same as in the real world. The Nerve Gear seems to be inadequate at recreating a liquid environment…So, don't set your expectations too high."

"…As long as there is a lot of hot water, I don’t desire anything more than that."

Responding with complete sincerity, Asuna opened the bathroom door. She slipped inside and then immediately drew back the doorknob firmly.

…In addition to the hot water, another feature of the bathroom was that it could be locked.

She stared at door that was merely closed and considered adding that precaution, but regrettably, it was unlikely that she could do so. She couldn't find any kind of notch or button in the vicinity of the doorknob, and even after tapping with her fingertips just to make sure, it seemed that the operation menu couldn’t not be called up by Asuna, who was not the tenant of this room.

Nonetheless, the presence or absence of a lock was already a trifle in this situation. After all, she had intruded into a room belonging to a man she just met yesterday and was borrowing his bath. She couldn’t grasp neither the age nor character of the black-haired swordsman—come to think of it, she still didn't know his name either—but at the very least he shouldn't be the type to suddenly break into the bathroom, probably. Well, even if by any change he did rush in, he shouldn’t be able to do anything here «within the city boundary» where the «Crime Prevention Code» or something would activate, but…

Thinking up to there, Asuna finally removed her gaze away from the door, and turned around to face the south.

"……Amazing……"

And then she involuntarily spoke out in a small voice.

This room was also fairly spacious. The northern half was a dressing room, with a thick carpet laid on the floor and solid wood shelves built into the wall. And the floor of the southern half had a spread of tiles made of polished stone, while the majority of that section was occupied by a white bathtub in the shape of a ship.

High on the western brick wall was a hot water faucet in the shape of a monster’s face, and from its mouth cascaded large quantities of clear liquid. It filled the bathtub filled to the brim while raising pure white steam, and water overflowed from the edge and flowed into a drain in a corner of the tiled floor.

—Based on common sense, such large-scale hot water supply facilities should not exist in a Medieval European manor house that this building was modelled after. However, Asuna didn't have the heart to complain about the errors of historical research in the virtual world. She brought up the Main Menu window with an aimless hand motion, and pressed the button to unequip all her armor and weapons in the «Equipment Figure» that was displayed in the right half of the window.

Her hooded cape that she had always covered herself with up until now, the copper armor covering her chest, both her gauntlets and long boots, and the long and slender sword hanging at her waist; all of these disappeared, and her long, straight chestnut hair flowed out behind her. The only clothes that remained were a wool tunic with three-quarter-length sleeves and some tight leather long trousers. The button she just pressed changed to «Unequip all clothing», so she pressed it again. The tunic and pants then disappeared, leaving only two simple pieces of cotton underwear.

Asuna glanced at the door one more time, and then pressed the button that had changed once again into «Unequip all underwear». With just these three operations, her avatar became unequipped of everything, and a virtual sense of cold brushed across her bare skin. In the oddly named castle known as Aincrad, the four seasons were tentatively synchronized with reality, and because the real world was currently in early December, the room temperature was fairly low.

She hurriedly rushed across the bathroom, and the instant she straddled over the edge of the ceramic-looking bathtub and submerged her left leg into the hot water, the complicated sensory signals that were generated from it directly hit the top of her head. Withstanding the urge to plunge her whole body into the water, she first put her head under the shower of water from the mouth of the water faucet. As the feeling of warmth enveloped the surface of her entire body, the difference in temperature from the surrounding air faded away—

*Splash*.

She lowered herself down into the hot water from behind.

"……Uaaa……"

Asuna couldn't help but let out another low moan.

Indeed, just as the black-haired swordsman had said, the sensation of bathing in the real world could not be reproduced. The feeling of hot water on the skin, the pressure of the water against the body, and the light reflecting off the water's wavering surface; they all left a subtle sense of incongruity.

But, the «sensation of taking a bath», which was pre-set to a certain extent like eating, seemed to be sent to her brain, and when she closed eyes and stretched her arms and legs out, the difference was so trivial that she didn’t care anymore. This was a bath. Moreover, it was a deluxe version two meter-long bathtub with the luxurious hot water freely flowing within it.

While sinking into the hot water up to her mouth with her eyes closed and completely relaxing her whole body, she started to think.

——Right now, it's fine even if I die. I have nothing more to regret.

Since she had left the Starting City two weeks ago, there was a thought she had constantly dwelled on. Clearing this death game was an impossible task; thus, all of the ten thousand people imprisoned would eventually die. It was just a matter of sooner or later, so everything in this false virtual world was meaningless. In that case, it would be better to just continue forward and forward recklessly, until one collapses after no longer being able to move, and then die.

Looking back on the «strategy meeting» that was held yesterday and today, Asuna was fairly indifferent in her heart. She didn't care who the beta testers (which she still didn't know the exact meaning of) were or how the items were to be distributed. What they were going to try challenging tomorrow on Sunday was the greatest and final barrier on Aincrad's First Floor which had so far swallowed two thousand people. It wasn’t possible to clear something like that with a mere forty-odd people, and moreover on only the first battle.

There was a high chance of total annihilation, and even if it did not go that far, a routing defeat was inevitable.

Wanting to take a bath to the point that Asuna greatly deviated from daily behavioral had, in other words, a wish that she wanted to accomplish «at least once before dying». Now that it had come true, she felt no more regrets about disappearing from this world in the boss battle tomorrow……

————That cream-covered black bread.

————Before I die, I want to eat it once again……

This desire that suddenly welled up from within her chest confused Asuna. She opened her eyes, and raised her body slightly in the hot water.

The taste was indeed not bad. But, it was completely an imitation. Her eyes saw only polygons, and the taste signals were pre-set. For that matter, even this bath was the same. What looked like hot water was no more than a mathematical boundary surface that created its seeming permeability and reflectance. The warmth enveloping her entire body was also in reality merely the enumeration of electronic signals emitted from the Nerve Gear.

But……But.

In the real world that she had lived in until one month ago, had she ever wished to eat something as much as this? Had she ever wished to take a bath as strongly as this?

The course menu of organic ingredients that she had mechanically moved to her mouth while talking to her parents even though she didn’t want to eat, and the virtual cream-covered bread that her body had wished for so much that her mouth salivated. Which one should be considered more «Real»……?

Asuna was struck with wonder by the feeling that she now somehow considered this a very, very important matter, and she quietly held her breath.

To think I would be forced to use such a high Will Saving Throw^¹⁵ just in order to withstand the urge to look at the bathroom door.

As my body sank deep into the sofa in the living room, I exerted all my mental energy and tried to stay focused on «Argo's Strategy Guide: First Floor Boss Edition» which I had obtained today. However, despite following several times the lines of simple Japanese font that was my priority to read, the content still failed to reach my brain.

—But well, at least this proves this place isn’t in the real world.

For example, suppose that this was in my home in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, that my mother and younger were absent, and there was a female classmate taking a bath in my bathroom for some reason. In those circumstances, what would I do? It’s obvious. I would go out from the front door with silent footsteps, get on my beloved MTB^¹⁶, and then ride at full speed towards the prefectural road No. 51 in the Arakawa district.

But fortunately, this was the second floor of a large farmhouse built on the outskirts of Tolbana on the first floor of the floating castle Aincrad, and I was not a net game maniac male high school student, but instead the swordsman Kirito. Since my body was just an avatar in a virtual world, nothing would happen even after the female fencer called Asuna walks out of the bathroom. No, well, the possibility wasn’t zero that this might be an elaborate trap and that when I took my turn to take a bath she would disappear along with the contents of my chest in the living room, but the box held only several low level raw material items that I got from small fry monsters.

Or rather, I have no reason to go to the bathroom anyway. When she comes out, I’ll say "Well then, let's work hard tomorrow", show her out of the room, and end it there. That's all.

Shaking my head, I returned my attention to the guidebook on the low table, but at that moment.

From the door—not the bathroom one, but the one leading to the hallway outside—came a tap, tap-tap-tap noise.

The sound of knocking. But the one who knocked would not be this house’s landlady. This rhythm was a signal that had been agreed upon between me and a certain someone.

Surprised, my whole body trembled, and I timidly turned around to face the thick oak door—to look at Argo the Rat, who should be standing on the other side of the door.

—I could escape out of the south window to the front yard, jump astride the donkey tied to the stable, and gallop full speed straight down the path through the forest in order to reach the dungeon area.

I couldn’t deny that I didn’t momentarily consider this option. However, riding any of the various mounts in SAO was unusually difficult. I’ve heard that the horse-riding skill can be trained and leveled up gradually, but I don’t have the space on my skill slots to add such a hobby-like skill right now.

Therefore, while getting up off the sofa, I first took a glance at the bathroom to check the situation. Currently, on the other side of that door, the rapier user Asuna-san was in the highly praised bath. If Argo learned of that, she would definitely write words like «Kirito is the type of man who would bring a woman he met for the first time into his room» in her notebook. If this information were distributed around, my reputation as a solo player and the like would be completely ruined. But fortunately—it could be said, all doors in this world have perfect soundproofing performance under certain conditions.

As far as I know, the only three sounds that could be transmitted through the door were ① a shout, ② knocking, and ③ the sound of combat. The sounds of normal speech or the splashing of the bath couldn't be heard even if you pressed your ear against the door.

Therefore, even if I let her in, she shouldn't notice that a player was here using the bathroom in the next room. If, by any chance, the rapier user comes out while Argo is here—I will definitely jump out of the window, and leave on a donkey.

Deciding on that with the speed I normally used in battle, I stepped up to the hallway door and, with my mind made up, opened it. On seeing the face of the person on the other side, I exclaimed,

"How rare, for you to come all the way to visit my room."

The phrase I had earlier prepared in my mind came out from my mouth. The face of the informant «Argo the Rat» with her trademark whiskers twitched in a suspicious manner for a moment, but she immediately shrugged and replied,

"Yes. The client wants to hear your reply today no matter what."

Just like that, Argo walked into the room nonchalantly and sat down with a thump on the sofa I had just left. I shut the door, walked to the wagon in a corner of the room while seriously resisting the urge to look at the bathroom, and poured out two cups of fresh milk from a large-sized pitcher. I brought them over to the sofa set, placing them on the low table. The «Rat» raised an eyebrow and laughed.

"For Ki-bou, that sure is considerate. By any chance, did you put some sleeping drugs in it?"

"…That kind of thing would have fundamentally no effect on players. Besides, I couldn't do anything while you are asleep within the town boundary anyway."

At this, Argo clapped her hands and said "Well, that's true" while nodding. Lifting the glass, she drained its contents in one gulp.

"Thanks for the drink. This unlimited drink sure has a very good taste. How about bottling it up and selling it to other players?"

"Unfortunately, when you remove it from the farmhouse, its endurance level will completely drop after five minutes. Moreover, the remaining liquid becomes a gunky mess instead of disappearing…"

"Ho, I didn't know that. Looks like there's nothing scarier than free things."

…As she spoke, my heart was filled with the single thought of 'Hurry up and get to the point!', but if she discovers that I was thinking this, who knows what she would do. With an innocent expression, I picked up the «Argo's Strategy Guide: First Floor Boss Edition» I had left on the table, and lightly tapped it.

"Speaking of free things, what’s this about? Although I’m indebted to you for it every time I buy it, I've always bought this book for five hundred cor…yet at yesterday's meeting, that axe user Agil said that these books are distributed for free, didn’t he?"

Hearing my slightly resentful tone, the Rat laughed with a "nishishi".

"That’s because, with the sales from the first edition that Ki-bou and all the other front runners bought, I released a second free edition. But don't worry, only the first edition has Argo-sama's autograph printed on it."

"……I see, then in the future I won't buy it anymore."

—In other words, the free edition is Argo's way of taking responsibility as an original beta tester. Although I wanted to plunge in and ask about it more deeply, there was an atmosphere of taboo between me and the Rat about voicing the word beta.

No, since I didn’t do anything to contribute earlier as an original tester, I might have no right to ask about it.

The atmosphere became momentarily heavy. Argo swung her golden brown curly hair and changed the subject.

"Well then, I guess it's time to get to the main topic."

While silently shouting 'Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead!', I nodded gently.

"Well, I think the client is at the point where he’s feeling considerate. The subject is about his wish to buy Ki-bou's sword…if you sell it to him today, the client will buy it for thirty-nine thousand and eight hundred cor."

"……Th……"

'Three nine eight!?' I barely avoided yelling that out. After taking a deep breath, I thought hard a few seconds, and then opened my mouth.

"……I don't mean to insult you, but…isn't that some kind of scam? No matter how you think about it, the sword is not worth forty thousand cor. After all, the market price of an original «Anneal Blade» should be around fifteen thousand cor, right? Add another twenty thousand cor to that, and you can basically buy the materials to enhance it to +6 almost safely. Although it might take some time, I reckon that thirty five thousand can be used to make a sword comparable to mine."

"I, too, have told the client that three times already!"

Spreading out her arms, Argo had a rare "I don't get it!" expression on her face as well.

As I crossed my arms and leaned back against the sofa, the whole ordeal with the bathroom and all that momentarily left my mind and I became troubled. In this matter, I'm absolutely against diminishing my assets.

But, to let this mystery go felt more distasteful. Having made up my mind, I spoke to Aincrad's best informant.

"…Argo, I want to know the name of your client for one thousand five hundred cor. Please check with your client about whether they’ll increase the price."

"…I understand."

The Rat nodded, opened her window, and typed rapidly before sending the instant message.

After a minute, a side of her eyebrows twitched as she read the reply, and then she gave a big shrug.

"He doesn’t mind you learning his name."

"………"

While in an ‘I don’t care anymore’ state of mind, I opened my own window as well and materialized one thousand five hundred cor. I piled up the six coins that represented it in front of Argo.

Pinching them casually with her fingertips, the rat playfully deposited the coins one by one into her own inventory. After nodding with an "Indeed"—she spoke.

"…Ki-bou, you already know his face and name. From when he went on a wild rampage at yesterday's meeting."

"………Could it be……Kibaou?"

Hearing my whisper, the Rat nodded clearly.

—Kibaou. The man who burned with intense hostility against original beta testers. That guy, wants to buy my sword for the large sum of forty thousand cor?

Certainly, the weapon he carried on his back was the same kind of «One-Handed Longsword» as mine.

However, yesterday should have been the first time we met. Yet Argo first offered this deal one week ago…

This information that I had obtained for 1500 cor merely made me more confused. Argo, sitting cross-legged on the sofa while facing the brooding me, spoke as if to remind me.

"…So I guess this means that you reject the sword purchase this time as well?"

"Yeah……"

Of course, regardless of the price, I had no intention of selling my beloved sword. I nodded half-automatically, and the Rat stood up without a sound.

"Well then, excuse me for bothering you with thiss. I hope that strategy guide will be of use to you."

"Yeah……"

"So, sorry for asking, but before I leave, I'd like to borrow the next room. I want to equip my night equipment."

"Yeah……"

—If I think back hard, I did have the feeling during yesterday's meeting that, while Kibaou was out in front of everyone, his gaze had lingered on my face for a moment. Then that gaze wasn't because he suspected I was an original beta tester, but to look at my sword…was that it? No, maybe it was because of both…

——Wait a minute. What did Argo just say?

While eighty percent of my thoughts were preoccupied about Kibaou, I looked up blankly.

In the corner of my eyes, I saw Argo just about to turn the doorknob. The door was neither the one leading to the corridor outside, nor my bedroom door on the east wall—it was the door with a plate saying Bathroom hanging from it.

Before my eyes as I watched dumbfounded, the Rat's petite figure slipped into the bathroom and disappeared.

Three seconds later—

"Waaah!?"

A surprised voice, and,

"……Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

A terrible scream shook the entire house. Subsequently, a player who was not Argo flew out from the door.

I have no memory of what happened after that.

December 4th, Sunday, 10 AM.

This death game had started at one o'clock in the afternoon on a Sunday, on November 6th. In three hours, it will have been exactly four weeks since it began.

When I first noticed that the Log-Out button was missing, I believed it was a system glitch, and thought that even if it took a while, I would be able to log out in a few dozen minutes. Then, the release condition of clearing all hundred floors of Aincrad were thrust upon me by the Kayaba Akihiko who was clad as a faceless Game Master, and I had vaguely expected that we would be imprisoned for a period of a hundred days. That was the calculation based on the assumption that we could clear an average of a floor per day.

But—even after four weeks had passed, we hadn't even reached the second floor.

I could only laugh at that far too naïve estimate of mine, but depending on the results of today’s Boss Battle, we would be knocked down to a situation where we couldn’t even speak of the time until our release. The forty-four players that were now gathered at the fountain plaza in Tolbana could be considered to be the strongest fighting force we could have hoped for at this point. If by some chance this raid party is wiped out, no, if it was even partially destroyed, rumors of it would spread to the Starting City in an instant, and the resignation that «SAO is impossible to clear» would surely spread throughout the first floor. Reorganizing a second force would take who knows how long—or, a second challenge against the boss many never even happen. Even if we tried increasing our level in order to fight the boss again, we had already reached the de-facto limit of efficiency to gain experience from the monsters on the first floor.

Everything depended on whether the Boss Monster «Illfang the Kobold Lord»'s strength had changed from the time of the beta test. If it was the Kobold King I remembered, it shouldn’t be impossible to keep it down to zero deaths with our current level and equipment even if we were only one raid party. With that, if everyone could calmly keep cooperating until the end in this battle where we risk our actual lives…

While I was thinking over these overheating thoughts in my mind, I suddenly glanced at the player standing next to me, and after taking a short breath, I gave a bitter smile as I breathed out.

The profile of the rapier user «Asuna», half hidden by her hood, looked exactly like the first time I saw her in the labyrinth area the morning of the day before yesterday. Her appearance combined the fragility of a shooting star with the sharpness of live steel. Compared to her, I looked extremely agitated and restless.

As I continued to look at her, Asuna suddenly turned and glared at me.

"……What are you looking at?"

This faint, but forceful whisper caused me to shake my head. The reason for her bad mood since early this morning was, according to her, due to drinking from a pail of spoiled milk which I had offered to her, but I couldn't recall this myself.

"I-It’s nothing."

When I said those un-ingenious words, Asuna once again gave me a look as sharp as the tip of her rapier, before turning her back to me. Will today’s strategy meeting turn out okay like this? Well, she and I are just an extra party because the numbering didn’t work out. While I was thinking on such things—

"Hey."

Hearing a voice that could hardly be called friendly from behind, I turned around.

Standing there was a male player with pointy brown styled hair. My body reflexively flinched back. Because today, even if other people spoke out to me, his was the one face I had least expected to see. Just this man—Kibaou.

Glaring with extremely dangerous eyes from a slightly low position at me as I stood there stunned, Kibaou said in an even lower voice,

"Listen here, today you should stay in the back. You guys are only here as support for my party."

"………"

I’ve never been a smooth-speaking person, but I had no response to this. Because, yesterday, I had directly rejected his large offer of forty thousand Cor offer, and in addition, I had learned his name that he had specifically hidden through the representative he sent, so this situation was quite awkward to anyone with common sense. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn't want to approach him at all within a twenty meter radius.

Yet, Kibaou's attitude was so unpleasant that it withered my intention to say "Of course". His hatefully distorted face protruded forward even more, and he spat out,

"Listen up, you guys should only take on the small fry Kobolds that slip past my party."

Spitting some virtual spit onto the ground for emphasis, Kibaou then finally turned aside and left. I watched his back as he returned to the other members of the Group E party. Still stunned, I continued watching his back as he lumbered back over to his E-party members, but I came back to my senses when I heard a voice beside me.

"…What was that?"

Of course, the «you guys» mentioned also included Asuna-san. Her gaze was about 30% more terrifying than the leer she gave me just now.

"W-Who knows…Maybe he doesn't want solo players to get cocky…"

I spoke without thinking too deeply, but suddenly a thought came, and added inside my mind.

—Or, maybe, he doesn’t want original beta testers to get carried away.

If that was true, then based on his attitude, there was no doubt that Kibaou had already determined that I was a beta tester. But—what was his basis for believing that? Even Argo the Rat would never sell any information on whether another player was an original tester. And up until now, I had never ever mentioned the word beta to anyone.

While once again feeling tormented by an unpleasant feeling like yesterday, I kept my eyes on Kibaou's back as he walked away.

"……Eh…?"

Then, I suddenly realized something, and let out a sound.

Yesterday, that man offered me the large sum of forty thousand Cor to buy my Anneal Blade +6. This is the only certain fact. And his purpose in doing that was, of course, to use it in the boss battle today. Regardless of the matter of how he would suddenly be able to wave around such a heavy sword due to having been enhanced by three extra points in Durability, I could understand his motive to get a powerful weapon and play an active role on the battlefield in order to improve his influence and leadership abilities.

However, if that was the case, then by now, he should have upgraded his other equipment with his forty thousand Cor.

Yet, the scale mail Kibaou was wearing now and the one-handed sword on his back were the same ones that he had equipped at yesterday’s meeting. They weren’t poor quality equipment, but with forty thousand Cor, it should have been possible to upgrade to much stronger equipment, since there was enough time.

In fact, the thin sword hanging from the waist of Asuna beside me had been upgraded from her store-bought «Iron rapier» to a «Wind Fleuret +4» which had been obtained as a drop last night after following my advice. After all, depending on the flow of today’s battle, we could die, so what's the point of keeping forty thousand Cor in storage…

—However, at this point, my train of thoughts was brought to a halt.

Before I had realized it, the blue haired knight Diavel stood on the edge of the fountain and raising his familiar beautiful voice.

"Everyone, although it may be sudden—thank you! Just now, all forty-four party members have gathered here, without a single person missing!!"

After he said that, a loud cheer of ‘Uooh’ shook up the entire plaza. It was followed by a cascade of applause. I ceased my conjecture reluctantly and also clapped my hands.

After look at everyone with a smile, the knight pumped his right fist, and shouted out again.

"I’ll say this now, but I was actually thinking of aborting the mission today if even a single person didn't show up! But…that kind of worry is an insult to everyone! I'm very happy…that we weren’t able to make the best raid party like this…Well, though our numbers are slightly short!"

Some people laughed, some people whistled, and some people pumped their right hands mimicking him.

I didn't want to find fault with Diavel's leadership right now. However, I couldn’t help but think inside that he was raising the excitement a little too much. Just as nervousness could become the poison known as fear if taken too far, too much excitement could also become negligence.

During the beta testing period, being defeated for being over-enthusiastic was just a funny story, but right now we were in a single situation where failure could lead to the death of a player. Rather, it would probably be good if everyone were too tightened up and strained.

While I thought about these things, I looked at the other groups from behind, and I saw that Group B's leader Agil, the two-handed axe wielder, and several other people all had stern expressions with their arms folded in front of them. At critical moments, they would probably be reliable. Kibaou of group E had his back to me, so I couldn't see his expression.

As everyone shouted and yelled for a while, Diavel raised both hands to suppress the cheering.

"Everyone…I have only one thing left to say!"

His right hand moved to his left hip, and he drew his silvery long sword with a ringing peal—

"……Let's win!!"

The huge war cries that rang out in response was, I thought, slightly similar to four weeks ago, in the packed central square of the Starting City, when ten thousand players screamed.

The distance taken by the large group of people from the town of Tolbana to the Labyrinth tower prickled a part of Asuna's memories. After a few minutes of thinking, she finally recalled it.

It was the school trip that she had went on in January of this year. The destination had been Queensland, Australia. Her classmates’ excitement from suddenly being in the Gold Coast in the middle of summer from mid-winter Tokyo had been through the roof, and their revelry had continued wherever they went.

Even if the situation was entirely different—to that point, it was the only common feature, the atmosphere among the forty-odd people walking down the path beneath the trees bore a strong resemblance to that time with her classmates. The endless chatting, the frequent explosions of laughter; the only difference was that monsters would occasionally attack them from the forest on either side. However, all the monsters that came close were instantly slain by the skills that everyone was bragging about.

While walking at the rear of the group, Asuna spoke to the swordsman next to her, letting herself forget about the tragedy last night for a moment.

"…Hey, you, before coming here, you also played other m…MMO games? Is that how they’re called? Anyway, did you?"

"Emm…Yeah, pretty much."

Despite still giving off a withered feeling, his black hair swayed up and down as he nodded.

"In other games, is there also this kind of feeling when people move around together? How should I put it…like going on a field trip…"

"…Haha, a field trip would be nice"

After giving a short laugh, the swordsman then shrugged slightly.

"Unfortunately, the other games that I played had nothing like this. After all, those are games that don't use the FullDive technology, so even if you move around, you have to use the mouse and keyboard. Therefore, there's not much time to dedicate to speaking in the chat window."

"…Ah, I see…"

"Well, there are other games that include voice chat, but I haven't played those kinds before."

"Hmm."

After imagining for a little while the scene of a group of game characters continuing to dash silently inside a flat monitor screen, Asuna murmured once again.

"…I wonder what the real thing feels like"

"Eh? R-Real thing?"

The swordsman gave her a questioning look, so Asuna tried to describe the image that had appeared in her mind.

"What I mean is…in a real fantasy world like this…while a group of swordsmen or magicians venture forth to go beat a terrible boss monster. During the journey, what do they speak about? …Or would they walk along silently? That kind of subject."

"………"

The swordsman remained oddly silent, and when she glanced at his expression, Asuna finally became aware that she had asked a very childish question. She reflexively turned away, and just as she was about to say "I guess it doesn't matter",

"Walking on the road leading either to death or glory, huh."

Those quiet words reached her right ear.

"For people that live doing that kind of thing normally and every day…I think it would probably be like going together to a restaurant for dinner. If you want to talk, you talk, and if not you stay silent. I think these boss battle raids will become like that eventually. If we challenge the floor bosses every day."

"…Fufu, fu."

Finding the swordsman’s straightforward words funny, Asuna gave off a small laugh. She explained immediately, half as an excuse.

"I'm sorry for laughing. But…this is really strange. This world is the ultimate form of unusualness and non-daily life, yet there are ordinary aspects in it."

"Ha ha…I guess that's true."

After laughing in the same way, the swordsman spoke quietly.

"However, it took four weeks to reach this point today. Even if we beat the boss today, we still have another ninety-nine floors to go. I'm...... prepared to go for two, no, three years like this. If it goes on like this, even the unusual will become ordinary and everyday."

Those words would have caused great shock and despair to the old Asuna. But now, acceptance and understanding simply blew through her chest like a dry wind.

"……How strong. If it were me, I couldn't think like that at all. Since the thought of living in this world for years…seems much more terrifying than dying in today's battle to me."

The swordsman glanced at her for a moment, and then thrusted his hands into his grey jacket pocket, and said in a subdued voice,

"If we can reach the higher floors, maybe there is an even better bath there."

"……R-Really?"

She involuntarily responded, before realizing what she had just said. Forcing down her returning shame, she lowered her voice and said,

"…You better remember that. Or I’ll make you really drink a barrel of spoiled milk."

"Then, the least we can do is to come back alive today."

After making that remark, the swordsman grinned and laughed.

11 AM, we reached the Labyrinth.

12:30 PM, we finished travelling by foot to the top floor.

For now, I secretly felt relieved that there had been no deaths reported so far. After all, the majority of our near full 48-member raid party marching through here must be coming to this place for the first time. In this world, any action that was done for the «first time» held the danger of mishaps, without exception.

In fact, there was also a situation that was three times as frightening. That is, if Group F and G, which consisted of only people wielding long weapons such as «Spears» and «Halberds», were ambushed by the melee-type Kobolds along the road. In SAO, melee weapons wouldn’t cause damage to other players even if they accidentally hit each other in a confused battle (this didn’t equal them becoming a criminal player either), but normal attacks and sword skills would be halted when this happened due to contact with an obstacle. Since ranged weapons were already at high risk from this, an ambush by melee monsters made the situation even worse.

In that kind of small pinch, however, the knight Diavel showed his ability to command precisely. He boldly made all the surrounding party members fall back save for the individual leaders of each group, made them use heavier sword skills to knock back monsters, and then switched over to melee weapon-equipped members without delay. These decisions would not have been possible at all if he hadn’t been familiar with being a leader in everyday life.

In light of this, it could be said that for a solo player like me to have feared something like "Everyone’s getting too excited" before we departed was very presumptuous of me. Diavel had his own philosophy about leadership, and trusting in him fully now that we had already come this far was the duty of every raid member.

—As I recognized these things, two huge doors finally appeared in front of us, and I stood on my tiptoes at the back of the group in order to look up at them.

On the surface of the grey stone was a relief of a terrifying monster with a beast head and human body. Speaking of Kobolds, in other MMO games these monsters were the weakest of the weak, but in SAO alone these «Demi-Human»-class monsters were formidable foes that couldn’t be made light of. This was because they had the ability to wield weapons such as swords and axes, and therefore could even use sword skills. Possessing speed, power and hit correction abilities that exceeded those of normal attacks, these «sword skills» could critically hit an enemy in a defenceless position and reduce their HP gauge drastically even with just an elementary skill. The fact that the rapier user Asuna beside me had reached the deepest part of the Labyrinth using only «Linear» proved the strength and terror of sword skills…

"…Can you listen for a while?"

I leaned in close to Asuna, and whispered in a lowered voice.

"Today, our opponents are the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels», and even though they’re small-fry that act as the boss’ followers, they're still strong enemies. Like they roughly explained yesterday, a large portion of their head and body is tightly covered and protected by metal armor, so your «Linear» won't be enough to attack them with."

After listening, the fencer gave me a sharp look from under her hood and nodded.

"I understand. The only point that can be pierced is the throat, right?"

"Exactly. After I throw up their poleaxe with a sword skill, please switch with me and jump in at once."

After Asuna nodded in reply and then turned around to face the huge door, I continued to gaze at her for a few more seconds.

Where and how you die, and whether it's sooner or later, is the only difference.

When we first met, she had told me that. I couldn't let those words be proven true. Asuna's «Linear» clearly demonstrated a natural talent that she herself was probably unaware of. All shooting stars did not necessarily burn up and disappear in the atmosphere. There were stars that withstood the flames that burned them and managed to reach the ground.

If she could survive today's battle, Asuna’s name would surely one day resound throughout Aincrad as a swordswoman that was faster and more beautiful than anyone else. The many players gripped by fear and despair would surely be illuminated and guided by the brightness of that shooting star. I firmly believed that. And this responsibility was a role that someone marked by the stigma of being an original beta tester like myself could never take on.

Once I confirmed my determination, I also faced the large door. In front of us, Diavel had finished finely arranging the lineup of the seven parties.

Not even the knight-sama dared to shout "Let's win!" in this place. This was because humanoid monsters would react to loud noises here.

Instead, Diavel lifted his silver long-sword up high, and gave a large nod. The forty-three raid members also raised their weapons and nodded in reply.

His long blue hair fluttering as he turned around, the knight placed his left hand in the center of the large doors and—

"——Let's go!"

With a short cry, he pushed the doors open with all his might.

Was it this wide?

Looking at the First Floor Boss Room for the first time in around four months, this was the first impression that I had.

It was a rectangular space that extended out far towards the back of the room. Its width from the left to the right wall was about twenty meters, and the distance from the entrance to the back was about one hundred meters. Since the 20th floor had already been mostly mapped except for the boss room, its area could be estimated by looking at the blank area on the map, but even so, actually seeing it with our own eyes made it feel a lot larger than the numerical digits.

This room was spacious in order to contain the gigantic monsters here.

In Aincrad's boss rooms, the doors would not close even after the battle against the boss began. Thus, even if the events took a turn for the worse, we could retreat without having to wait for total annihilation. However, if we merely turned and dashed way, the enemy's long ranged sword skills would hit us and cause a delay effect, or in the worst case stun us. Therefore, we would have to retreat while facing the boss, but in that situation, the hundred meters needed to escape would feel infinitely long. Rather, if it was a boss battle on the upper floors, where it was possible to obtain «Teleport Crystals» that allowed instantaneous teleportation, retreat might actually be easier then. Well, since crystals were absurdly expensive, our money deficits would undoubtedly rapidly increase after retreating, though.

While I was contemplating such thoughts, a series of igniting sounds rang through the boss room that was almost completely sunk in darkness, and crude torches blazed to life along the walls on either side. As the sound of flames popping into existence continued, the lit torches increased in number one after another further towards the back of the room.

As the sources of light were generated, the internal Gamma^¹⁷ brightness also rose.

The stone floor and walls were filled with cracks. Skulls of all sizes decorated the room everywhere. In the deepest part of the room stood a huge and crude throne, and upon it sat a rough silhouette of something large—

The knight, Diavel, raised his long-sword high, and then swiftly swung it down in front of him.

With that as the signal, the forty-four members of the Boss Monster Capture Forces raised a battle cry as they all rushed into the large room like an avalanche at once.

The ones to rush in first in the front row were Group A, led by a hammer-user brandishing an iron heater shield^¹⁸. They were followed by Group B diagonally to their left, led by the axe-warrior Agil. To their right was Group C composed of Diavel and his five friends, and Group D with a tall man wielding a two-handed sword as their leader. Behind these three groups were the search-and-kill Group E led by Kibaou, the polearm-equipped Group F and Group G running alongside each other.

And still further behind them, there were two extra people—

When the distance between the advancing Group A and the throne was about 20 meters, the gigantic silhouette that had been still until now suddenly jumped fiercely into the air. It somersaulted once before landing on the ground, causing the earth to rumble. After that, it opened its wolf-like jaws wide, and howled.

"Gurururaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

The Demi-Human King, «Illfang the Kobold Lord», looked exactly as I remembered. Its muscular body was easily over two meters tall and was covered in blue-gray fur. Its eyes blazed a bloodthirsty copper red.

Its right hand wielded an axe made of bone, while its left carried a leather buckler. Behind its waist, a meter and a half long Talwar^¹⁹ protruded.

The Kobold Lord raised the Bone Axe in its right hand up high, and struck with all its strength at Group A's leader. The thick heater shield received the blow, causing a dazzling light effect and a loud impact sound to reverberate throughout the hall.

As if that sound were a cue, three heavily armed monsters jumped down from various alcoves high up on the walls on either side. These were the guards, the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels». Group E led by Kibaou and the support Group G quickly moved towards the three monsters, locking onto their target. Asuna and I glanced at each other, and then dashed to the nearest Sentinels.

Thus, on the 4th of December at 2:40 PM, the first Boss Monster Battle finally began.

«Illfang»'s HP gauge had four bars. During the first three bars, it would fight with its Bone Axe in its right hand and its leather buckler in its left, but when it reached the fourth, it would discard them and remove the Talwar from its waist. The fact that its attack pattern would drastically change at that point was the biggest hurdle for us, but Argo’s strategy guide had also included details on that without sparing anything. Of course, the kinds of sword skills it used after changing its weapons from the Bone Axe to the Talwar and the ways to deal with that had been completely confirmed amongst us during yesterday’s meeting.

While I fought against the «Sentinel» that had slipped past Group E and Group G, I continued watching the situation on the front lines from the edge of my vision, but there was no sign of our tactics collapsing.

The switch replacements between «Tank» forces and the «Attacker» forces and the POT rotations were done with sufficient margin for error, and the average remaining HP of each raid party member that was displayed in a small window at the left corner of my vision was also stable at 80%.

Please, like this—just let it keep going like this.

It wasn’t something I did at all when fighting solo, but now I prayed like this with all my body and soul for someone else.

Since the time he had (through some unknown means) rescued her unconscious self from within the almost deepest part of the Labyrinth tower, Asuna had thought that the black-haired swordsman was probably a considerably strong person.

However, after seeing his way of fighting for the first time, Asuna could tell that her assessment fell far short.

—Strong.

No, there was something in his fighting that could not accurately be described by the word “strong”. Something that transcended measuring scales like power or speed, and left like it went into a «further dimension».

As a beginner who had never played a net game or been in a FullDive environment before, Asuna couldn’t put that something into words. But if she had to express them, it would probably be as a feeling that everything was optimized. Excessiveness was eliminated from all his movements, hence his techniques were quick and his sword was heavy. With an instant slash, he would repel the dreadful-looking halberd wielded by a heavily armed Kobold guard into the sky above, and then casually retreat while calling out "Switch!". In his place, Asuna would quickly jump in front of the Kobold, but it was very easy for her to fire a «Linear» into the weak point at its unprotected throat while the Kobold was bent over from the recoil.

Asuna now recalled the words that he had spoken the first time they met. In response to how he had pointed out "Overkill has no demerit or penalty from the system, but it's bad for efficiency", Asuna had answered with "Is there any problem with it?". Now, she had no choice but to admit that it was a huge problem. If you could remove useless movement, it would produce a margin of time and space to spare, and that margin would widen one’s view.

These «Sentinels» were much stronger in comparison with the «Trooper» she had fought back then, yet Asuna could see each move it made quite clearly—

The Kobold guard's HP gauge that she had just attacked with a «Linear» to its throat’s vital point had a little left in its bar. If it were the old Asuna, she would have waited for the enemy’s counterattack, dodged it at the last minute, and then fired off another «Linear». But that was pointless «Overkill». As soon as the delay from the sword skill ended, Asuna once again jabbed at the throat with minimal movement. With that, the enemy's HP gauge reached zero, and disintegrated into blue fragments.

"GJ.^²⁰ "

Behind her, the black haired swordsman whispered that softly. Although she didn't know what the abbreviation stood for, she still replied with "You too".

At that time, the first bar of the Boss Kobold's HP gauge had disappeared. In the front row, Diavel shouted "We're on the second bar!", as additional «Sentinels» jumped down from the holes in the wall.

Forgetting that they were the extra forces, Asuna and her partner dashed towards the nearby monsters. The sword in her right hand, despite only having been bought just yesterday, had already perfectly adapted to her palm, and the response from the sword was clear when she fired off her techniques as well. It was as if the sword was a part of her arm, from the leather wrapped hilt to the tip of its sharp, glittering blade.

—If this is what a «battle» is like in this world, then everything I did up until yesterday was like a false imitation.

—I’m sure there will still be many more battles «ahead» of us. The swordsman running next to me had always been heading forward down that path.

This world is a virtual illusion, and all our actions are imitations…but…but I’m sure, this feeling is real. This feeling of wanting to see what he sees as well.

A Sentinel's axe swung down, and the swordsman countered it with a high blow. The next instant, Asuna herself shouted "Switch!", and jumped towards the enemy with her beloved sword.

The battle between the Kobold King with its guards and the 44 players proceeded far better than I expected.

Diavel and the rest of Group C had taken out the first HP gauge layer, Group D had gotten rid of the second layer, and now Group F and G had reduced the third layer by half. Until this point, the members of Group A and B, the «Tank» teams, had their HP reduced to the yellow «Half» region several times, but none of them ever entered the dangerous red region. Since the heavy-armored guards could be taken care of with ease by Group E and the two of us, Group G changed roles to supporting the main battlefield midway through.

What was truly remarkable was the intense fighting from the rapier user Asuna. The «Linear» sword skill that had amazed me when we first met, with the stronger and sharper rapier she had obtained, accurately pierced the Kobold guards' throats, their weak point. The time from the first motion of the skill until the damage occurred was close to half of when the attack was launched while relying the System Assist on its own. Looking at that pure speed, I doubted that even I, who had been practicing deliberately boosting the sword skill since the beta testing period, could achieve that much acceleration.

She was just a beginner that knew only one skill. Just imagining how far she could go if she increased her knowledge and honed her senses made my spine tingle.

If this truly occurs, I'd like to see the progression by her side—was the thought that came to my mind, but I forced it back into my chest. On that day one month ago, I had decided to survive in this world as a selfish solo player, so I had no right to want to be together with other players. Because Klein, my first friend in this world, should still be around the Starting City, carefully and safely levelling up in order to make sure he and all his friends survive…

As I looked on while recalling those unpleasant memories, Asuna had already struck down her second prey. The «Ruin Kobold Sentinel» was a rare monster on account of the fact that it only spawned here, so although it did not give as much experience and Cor as the boss, it still dropped an item. Only money was automatically distributed evenly among members in a raid party, while the experience was split between those who defeated it, which were Asuna and me. The item drop had a higher probability of going to Asuna because she made the final blow.

That was probably the real reason why Group E's leader Kibaou, whose party was also fighting similar Sentinels, wanted only his group members to take the monsters down. However, the extra pair of Asuna and I defeated our targets much faster than the full six-member party of Group E. This way, even he couldn't complain—

Just as I thought that, Kibaou’s voice resounded loudly from right behind me.

"I know what you're up to. Feels good, doesn’t it?"

"……What did you say?"

Not knowing what he meant, I turned around to ask that. Since the last two of the three Sentinels that had spawned in the third wave were just about taken care of now, there was spare time to talk until the next wave spawned. The cactus-headed swordsman glared at me as I frowned, and then raised his voice and spat out,

"Don't pretend. I already know your motive for slipping into this boss raid."

"My…motive? Aside from beating the boss, is there anything else?"

"What, playing innocent, are we? I know exactly what you're aiming for!"

The premise behind this conversation didn’t seem to be connecting for me. As I unconsciously grinded my teeth out of a strange frustration, Kibaou finally told me the heart of the matter.

"I know about it. I heard a little about you…in the past, you did the dishonourable act of LA on the boss!"

"Wha………"

——LA. Last Attack.

It was true that, in past battles against bosses, I had prided myself on having a good grasp of the boss's remaining HP gauge to determine the best time to use my strongest sword skill on the boss and get the LA bonus. However, that was not in this world, but in another floating castle that existed for merely a single month—in the «Sword Art Online Closed Beta Test».

Kibaou not only knew I was a former beta tester, but he even knew my play-style from back then. But, wait a minute. This man had just said "I heard it", if I recall right. In other words, it was hearsay information. But, who did he hear it from……

At that moment, a second insight ran electrifyingly through my body.

Last week, Kibaou used the informant Argo the Rat to attempt to buy my «Anneal Blade +6» with a large sum of money. Yesterday, he had even raised his offer beyond the market price to forty thousand Cor, but even though I gave a final refusal, he did not spend that money.

No. It was not that he did not spend it. In fact, he didn't have that kind of money in the first place.

It was not just Argo, Kibaou himself was also a mediator. Because even the day after I refused his offer, he still talked to me calmly.

The real buyer was someone else. The source of the forty thousand Cor was that person. If another person was put between that person and Argo, no matter how much I paid for information, I could not have found out who the original buyer was.

That mastermind gave Kibaou information about the beta period and manipulated him to stir up trouble.

If it is like this, that person's aim was not to get the «Anneal Blade +6» to increase their own battle power. No, that may also be a part of it, but his main aim was different. It was to decrease my—Kirito’s battle power. To make me weak and prevent me from doing my old signature move, obtaining the LA bonus—

"……Kibaou. That guy who told you that, how did he manage to gain information on me from the beta test period?"

"It’s obvious. He used ridiculously large amounts of money and bought the information about the beta period from the «Rat». In order to deduce the identity of the hyena that snuck into the raid party."

——Liar. Argo, even if she would sell information on herself, would never sell information on other beta testers.

As I clenched my teeth, the front row gave a loud cheer. The boss's long HP gauge had finally reached the fourth and final layer.

My attention was drawn to the front lines. It looked like Groups F and G were retreating after taking out the third HP gauge, and in their place the fully recovered Group C was rushing towards the boss. The party leader was the commander of the raid itself, the blue haired knight Diavel. Even in the dim light of the Labyrinth, his blue hair glittered brilliantly.

"Uguruooooooooooooo——!!"

«Illfang the Kobold Lord» gave out a particularly ferocious roar. At the same time, the final wave of three «Ruin Kobold Sentinels» jumped out of their holes in the walls.

"…More small fry Kob, this time I won't let even one go. I won't let you LA them."

His voice dripping with hatred, Kibaou returned to his comrades in Group E.

While still feeling lingering shock and confusion, I reluctantly turned away and went to regroup with Asuna who was not far away.

"……What did you talk about?"