"...Until the sins are determined, judgment will not come, right?"
Kayaba Akihiko interpreted what Yuzuru meant, and then asked, "There are only nine days left. Do you think your chosen one can really reach the promised land? Excuse me, even if she is performing well at this stage, the power of the 'gatekeeper' cannot be easily broken."
"There's still a little time."
Yu Zhuanjin did not give a direct answer. In fact, she was not sure. If it went according to the original estimate, there should be no problem, but she ignored the real needs of the first-line players.
Conquering the BOSS is not the main goal; collecting resource intelligence is more in their interest.
……
Aincrad, ninth floor.
Five days left to closed beta test.
Kiriko and Kazuhime battled in the labyrinth area, and to this day, they are still wondering who conquered the boss of the eighth floor.
Several well-known forces have denied their actions.
Those groups had no need to hide anything, which meant that the eighth level was cleared by unknown forces just like the fourth level.
"Hey!"
With the help of Kiriko, Yiji also reached the advanced level at the end of the closed beta.
Breaking the sky fist! Chasing the wind fist! Protecting the body with mind energy!
Punch after punch, the impact of the petite body was very strong.
Soon a smooth path was cleared.
“This is also a dead end.”
Tongzi called up the data on the exploration map and found that they had returned to the original place again. This was not the first time. The marked areas on the map recorded their several failed cruises.
The reason why the maze area is called a maze area is because the routes are complicated. Walking back to the original place is considered a better result, at least you can quickly connect to another road.
"If the third hole doesn't work, then we'll have to go to the fourth one. If we go back to the original path, we'll have to go back to the last fork."
When you are in doubt, use the process of elimination. Ichihime and Kiriko have always had bad luck, so it is better to be safe and try them one by one. You will eventually find the place.
You see, more than half of the maze area maps have been unlocked by them, although this is not something to brag about.
Just as Tongzi was about to continue exploring forward, she suddenly sensed a ray of sight in the shadow area not far away. Although she clearly didn't see anything, she just felt that there was something there.
--see through!
A universal skill for "stealth". A blood-red ID immediately appeared in front of Tongzi's eyes. It was a short figure wearing a gray cloak...
"Cape Rat?"
Tongzi immediately judged.
"Your whole family is the cloak rats!"
Hearing this, the figure jumped up suddenly.
"It's a red-named player."
Yiji also saw the other party's ID clearly at this time.
【ID Argo】
Here, the red-named player named "Argo" finally walked out from the depths of the shadows.
Kiriko noticed that the other person also looked very strange, with golden brown curly hair and a beard on his face. Although he was not a cloaked rat, he was not much different.
"It's really unexpected that they can advance to the middle area of the maze area during this period, and it's just a two-person team. You are worthy of being the 'Black Swordsman' Kiriko-san."
Argo recognized Kirito at a glance. Although the latter was a lone player, he had won several boss battles after all, so any first-line player would naturally know him.
"You're no ordinary person, coming here alone. But I've never seen or heard of your ID."
Kiriko felt puzzled. There were only a thousand players in the SAO closed beta test, and anyone with a little bit of ability would know about it.
"Of course. I am affiliated with the 'NFF Service'. As a red-named player, I will not easily appear in the sight of the general public."
Argo tries to imply that she is extremely capable.
Although the name "NFF Service" has a very high hatred value among the player community, lone players who have no grudges will hardly take the initiative to provoke it.
Obviously, Kiriko is the type of person who has no grudges against him, and apart from the leader of "NFF Service", Yang Yangski, no one can deal with her.
If the situation would have ended here, but just before the two sides were about to separate, a large number of monsters suddenly refreshed in the surrounding area.
【Skeleton Warrior】
"what!!!"
Argo was startled when he encountered the skeleton soldiers head-on, and hung right above the cave in the maze area with his grappling claws.
Tongzi and Yiji: "..."
"I'm dying! Help!"
The skeleton warrior raised his spear and stabbed upwards continuously. Argo, who was hanging in the crack of the rock, immediately called for help.
Upward strike! Horizontal four-way slash!
Kiriko used a range skill to repel the surrounding skeleton soldiers, and Yiji then used the "Sky Breaking Fist" to launch a joint attack. The two of them cooperated more and more tacitly, and then prepared to leave.
"Please help me!"
Argo, who was hanging in the air, shouted hurriedly.
"That kind of thing, can't you just come down and clean it up?"
Tongzi didn't think this was a problem.
"Help me! If I die here, I'll be finished!"
Argo looked at Kiriko for help, but the number of monsters below him was less than two digits.
"Why should I help you..."
Tongzi turned around and was about to leave.
"I know a piece of information! Aren't you looking for the boss room on the ninth floor? I know this!"
Argo quickly proposed conditions for Kiriko's help.
Horizontal four-way slash! Sharp claws! Brutal force point!
Upon hearing this, Tongzi immediately took action to eliminate the monsters below.
Argo then let go of his hand and fell to the ground, falling on his butt and losing half a bar of health.
This also made Tongzi discover something unusual.
……
Fall damage is set very fixed in SAO. No matter how much the defense value is, there will not be much change without "fall protection".
Based on the height of the cave from the ground, Tongzi initially judged that if it were him, he would only lose 1 or 2 percent of his total health at most, but Argo fell nearly one-tenth of his total health.
Even though the SAO system encourages extreme point additions, she feels that no high-end player would not add points to health points. Otherwise, when facing elite monsters and bosses, the series of concussion damage and splash damage would be unbearable.
However, the abnormal reduction in Argo's health was a fact, which meant that the opponent was a weakling, and this result could be directly judged.
Kiriko lifted Argo's collar and asked with even greater curiosity, "How did you get into the deep labyrinth area when you're so weak? And how did you get into 'NFF Service'?"
The red-name group "NFF Service" is a high-risk organization that has been attracting hatred from all parties since the closed beta test. Its internal members are basically first- and second-tier players.
It is said that if you want to join the "NFF service", you must make a pledge to kill well-known figures from all parties, no matter what means are used.
"Let go~№"
Argo, whose neck was being strangled by fate, struggled to break free from Kiriko's hands, stomped his feet on the ground, and said, "How rude. Here you go. The data of the nine-story maze area is all here. The boss room is also marked. We are even now."
After that, Argo unfolded the interface, copied her map data into an item and gave it to Kiriko.
"To be honest, it's hard for me to imagine how a weak player like you can explore the entire maze area?" Kiriko was still curious about this question.
"Can you please not add 'weak' to every sentence? Aren't you afraid of being beaten by others when you speak like this?"
Argo gritted her teeth and decided that if she couldn't beat him, she would definitely have a PK with him.
"But I usually don't say weak to strong people."
Tongzi, who is not good at communication, didn't think there was anything wrong.
"It's up to you! I'm leaving now."
Argo turned and was about to leave.
"No, you can't leave."
However, Tongzi stopped him with a sword.
"What else?"
Argo asked unhappily.
"I'm not sure your intelligence is accurate."
"Huh? Are you kidding? I copied this map data directly from the interface."
"But it's very strange. Who knows if you set a trap ahead? For someone as weak as you..."
“…Again?!”
"Okay, let me change the description."
Tongzi lowered his head and thought for a moment, then continued: "For someone as weak as you..."
Argo: “╮(﹀_﹀”)╭”
Already, it doesn’t matter.
"For someone as weak as you, it's not right to have this map data. And are you really affiliated with the red-name organization 'NFF Service'? The condition for joining is to kill a famous player. Are you just deceiving the players into going into the trap to fulfill your pledge of allegiance?"
Tongzi raised many questioning points, but most importantly, they were all very reasonable.
"I really want to hit you."
Taking a deep breath, Argo forced himself to calm down and asked, "So what do you want?"
"Please walk ahead of us."
Tongzi at least used the word "please".
"That's enough."
Argo glanced at the blade of Kiriko's sword pressed against her neck and had no choice but to nod in agreement.
The group headed deeper into the maze area. Along the way, under the sword-wielding questioning of Kiriko, Argo took the initiative to tell them some things about her.
The reason why she was able to explore the entire maze area was mainly due to her skills.
[Stealth (Level 5)]
The combat experience required to upgrade the fifth-level active skill is no less than that of the fifth-level passive skill. If you can practice the skill to this level, you should have the strength of a second-tier player.
The problem is that Argo has only been playing the game for less than a week.
Argo, who is still in school, needs tutoring, so although she won a spot in the closed beta test, she is being taken care of by another classmate during this period.
Coincidentally, that classmate also won a spot and was a very hardworking person.
Log in to an account and leave it in the wild, then log off.
You will not disappear if you go offline in the wild, unless you are killed and return to the town. Then you can log in to the main account again. The characters of the two accounts will establish a team relationship, and then you can just brush, brush, brush.
Because the idle account cannot be operated, the student who is in charge of the Argo account will use all its combat experience points to hide-related skills, and then throw it into the grass or tree.
This way you can avoid unexpected disasters.
Over time, the "Stealth" of this account was upgraded to level five. In addition, active skills such as "Anti-tracking", "Lock Picking" and "Sprinting" were all at level four.
It's about the attack aspect. I didn't click on it because I don't need it for the time being.
But after school started, the classmate who had been playing games all the time failed the monthly exam and is now taking a make-up exam. Argo, who had some free time, logged into her own account and accidentally noticed a red-name organization called "NFF Service".
It’s just that the conditions for joining this organization are too difficult.
However, after hearing Argo's idea, the hardworking classmate was very open-minded and directly let her kill her account character. Anyway, the closed beta test would end soon, and she also had to prepare for the make-up exam during this time, so she simply helped her.
This is also the process of Argo joining the "NFF Service".
