Go Into the Muck 63

Chapter 63 – Sword Art Online (31)

Then, the reason why all the top players, so to speak, who are active on the front lines like this, gathered, I think you all know, even if I don’t tell you anymore…”

Diabel resumed his speech.
The blue-haired knight raised his right hand and continued, pointing to the first floor labyrinth area, a giant tower towering twilight across the village.

“…Today, our party found a stairway leading to the top floor of that tower. In other words, we will finally be able to reach it tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow at the latest. On the first floor… To the boss room!”

Buzz buzz. The players murmured.
Seo-joon and his party were also a little surprised.
The labyrinth area on the first floor has a 20-story structure, and since the place where Seo-jun and his party hunted was on the 18th floor, he did not know that the 19th floor was mapped to that extent.
Well, there was also a point where they prioritized leveling up rather than attacking.
If the raid had been prioritized, Seo Jun and the others would have found the boss room first, at least a week or two ago.
Still, the surprise was the surprise.

‘It’s pretty.’

It was a character that was not badly evaluated in the original.
However, he dies in the end. If he had survived to the end, wouldn’t he have become the leader of the strategy group?
Whether or not Seo-joon thought so, Dearbell continued to speak.

“One month. It took a month to get here… , But we have to show. You must defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the starting city that you can definitely clear this death game itself someday. That is the duty of our top players gathered here! Isn’t that so, gentlemen!”

Clap clap clap!
Applause rang out.
This time, it seemed that there were people clapping their hands besides Diabel’s colleagues. Clearly, his words were without fault.
However, an uninvited guest broke through the good atmosphere.

“I hope you wait a little longer, knight.”

Such a voice came out softly.
The cheers stopped suddenly and the crowd in front split into two sides.
Standing in the center of the gap was a small but stocky man. He was a man with a rather large one-handed sword carried on his back and brown hair styled like a cactus.
Cactus Head took a step forward and spoke in a voice that was the exact opposite of Dearbell’s sweet voice.

“Before that, even if I don’t say this, I’m not good at playing with my colleagues.”

Sudden intrusion. However, Diabel hardly changed his expression. He gestures and says with a smile that overflows with ease.

“What is ‘this word’? Anyway, comments are welcome. However, if you wish to speak, please state your name first.”
“… Joy”

Cactus Head snorted loudly, took one step, two steps, and turned around when it reached the fountain.

“My name is ‘kibao’.”

The cactus head, given the rather courageous character name Tooth King, glared at all the players in the square with its small but sharp eyes.
His eyes, moving horizontally, were directed at Seo-jun and the others, and he stared at them in a fairly still state.

‘What are you trying to do, bastard?’

Seojun also glared at him.
Kibao spent a long time looking around at everyone, then spoke in a more menacing voice.

“Among the people gathered, there must be 5 to 10 of them who will have to apologize.”
“Apologies? To whom?”

Standing on the edge of the fountain from behind, Dear Bell raised his arms in a graceful gesture. Without even looking at them, Kibao spat out words in disgust.

“Oh, is that obvious, a child? About 2,000 people who have died so far. Those mundijasuk monopolized the make, so that 2,000 people died within a month. Am I wrong?!”

At that moment, the audience of about 50 who had been talking quietly shut their mouths. Only then did everyone understand what Kibao was trying to say.

In the heavy silence, only the evening BGM played by the NPC orchestra quietly flowed. No one opened their mouths. Whatever he said, at that moment he seemed to be afraid that he would be considered a member of ‘the bastards’.
Excluding Seo-joon and his party, of course.

“… Kibao. By the ‘guys’ you speak of, in other words… , Are they from beta testers?”

Diabel, with her arms crossed, confirmed it with the most solemn expression she had ever seen.

“You keep asking me about the obvious, Grano.”

Kibao glared at the diabelle behind his back while his scale mail, which was sewn on leather with thick metal pieces, continued.

“Golden horses from Beta, disappeared from the starting village the very day this hungry game started. I’m talking about 9,000 rookies who don’t even know anything about it. Golden horses are advantageous hunting grounds, monopolize quests with good pay, and each other grows stronger, and even after that, I kept pretending I didn’t know. W You should be inside too? I’m from beta, so I’m not cargo, and I’m going to have a good time at the boss capture party. Unless the golden horses get down on their knees and apologize and vomit up the money and items they had saved up, they can’t risk their lives or take care of them as party members. That’s what I want to say!”

As the name suggests, even after the condemnation ended, which seemed to bite with fangs, no one was still willing to open their mouths.
No, there was only one.

“I can’t agree with that.”

It was Seojun.
Kibao glared at Seojun and asked.

“What else are you interfering with?”
“Pretend you don’t know anything. He just stared at me like he was going to kill me.”

Seojun smiled.
Kibao already seemed to know very well about Seojun’s group. Yeah, just like he knew Kirito was a beta tester in the original story.
This is unavoidable
Seojun should have been famous during the beta test.

‘Still, it’s okay to be annoying.’

It’s a fight over there.
There was no reason to avoid it.
Seojun kept an eye on Kibao without avoiding his gaze. At that, Kibao frowned. After a moment of glaring at each other, Dearbell, who was watching the situation from the side, intervened.

“Um, sorry. If you don’t mind, could you introduce yourself?”
“Ah, yes.”

Seo-jun happily shook his head.
Then he said

“My name is Jun. I am a beta tester.”

Buzz buzz.
At Seo-jun’s words, the surroundings become agitated.
No way, it was because I didn’t know that he would reveal that he was a beta tester like that. But Seojun didn’t care.

‘What would I do if I was a beta tester?’

Are you going to kill me?
No, absolutely impossible. That Kibao man didn’t have that level of knack. He just felt jealous and jealous of the beta testers as a regular player.
There was no need for Seo-jun to take care of such a guy.

“Nice to meet you, Jun.”
“I am also pleased to meet you.”

Seojun and Dearbel exchanged greetings.
Right after that, he spoke directly to Kibao.

“Hey, cactus head man.”
“What, what?!”

Ignoring the surprised Kibao, he continued.

“What you wanted to say was that 2,000 people died because the former beta testers didn’t take care of the beginners. Take responsibility and apologize and compensate, is that something?”
“Yeah, yes! 2,000 people would not have died if the golden horses hadn’t been rioting! Besides, 2,000 is just a kid, and in other MMOs, he’s either a top or a veteran! Ten times as many people opened the specifications if the testers mundijasuk properly released information, items, or money… , Hey, you must have already broken through to the 2nd or 3rd floor!!”

Seojun shook his head at Kibao’s shouting remarks.
He scanned the crowd. The person presumed to be a beta tester seemed to disagree, and the general players showed extremely sympathetic expressions.
“Ha,” He said with a short sigh.

“According to what you said, all beta testers are veterans, and of course they are all still alive, right?”
“Okay!”
“That is really absurd. Do you think none of your beta testers died?”
“… Uh?”
“I looked for information about a week ago. The content of the information is the number of beta testers who have died to date.”

Seojun asked Argo to gather information.
The number of recruits for the SAO closed beta test, which started this summer vacation, was 1,000.
All of them got the right to purchase the official package first, but Judging from the log-in situation at the end of the test, Seo-jun guessed that not all thousand people entered the official service.

Probably 700 to 800 people. That would be the number of beta testers at the start of the death game.
And Argo brought the information he wanted in just three days.
About 300 people.
That was the number of deaths of former beta testers counted by Argo.

If that number is correct, it means that out of the 2,000 deaths to date, there are 1,700 new entrants.
As a percentage, the death rate for new players is about 18%. On the other hand, the mortality rate of beta testers reaches 40 percent.

Knowledge and experience do not always bring safety.
On the contrary, sometimes it becomes a trap. Those who blindly believe in the information they have and act tend to fall into a panic easily when something different from what they knew happened.

There will also be external factors.
This official SAO service has almost the same terrain map items and monsters as during the beta test, but there are sometimes very, very minor differences.

“… Uh.”

When I informed him of this fact, Kibao blatantly showed a look of bewilderment.
I bet you didn’t know that I was going to show you statistics like that.
Embarrassed Kibao and the silence that fell.
It was just then that Diabel, who had been paying attention, was about to say something.

“Can I speak?”

Someone said that and came forward.
He was a bald black man over 190.

“Of course.”
“Thank you. My name is Egil.”

Seojun nodded.
Then Aegil smiled and said.

“Kibao-sama, you say so, but aside from money and items, there must have been information.”

After saying that, Egil pulled out a booklet from his bosom.

“This guidebook, you should have bought it too. It’s distributed for free on Horunka or Medai’s tools.”
“… I got it, so what?”

At Kibao’s barbed voice, Agil put the strategy book into his pouch and crossed his arms.

“This guide was always at the tool table when I arrived in a new town or village. I bet you did too. Have you ever thought that information is too fast?”
“That’s right, it’s fast, so it’s long anyway!”
“This means that only beta testers can provide information about the monsters and map data listed here.”

The players murmured in unison.
Kibao kept her mouth shut, and behind her, Dear Bell nodded her head in understanding.
Egil turned his gaze to the group and shouted.

“Everyone knows. There was information Still, many players died. The reason, I think, is because they are veteran MMO players. We measured this SAO with the same standards as other games, and we couldn’t figure out when to step down. But now wouldn’t be the time to hold that accountable. Whether or not we ourselves will be, I think, will depend on this meeting.”

The two-handed ax warrior named Egil was indeed proud, and his reasoning was perfectly valid, so even Kibao seemed to find no room to argue.
Behind the two silently confronting each other, Dearbell, who was standing on the edge of the fountain, nodded once more.

“Kibao-sama, I understand what you mean. I came this far after almost dying several times in a field I knew nothing about. But, as Mr. Egil here said, isn’t now the time to look ahead? Beta’s too… , No, since it’s from beta, you’ll need that power to defeat the boss. If you exclude them and fail to attack, then there is no meaning, right?”

After saying that, Dearbell looked at Seo-joon and his party.
Dear Bell may have said that because he was also from a beta test, but he knew all about Seo-joon’s performance during the beta, so he decided that he could never be left out.

There were several people in the audience who were unaware of such a deep nod.
It was noticeable that the atmosphere that the people from Beta should be condemned had changed. And everyone listened to Diabel’s remarks that followed.

“Everyone may have their own thoughts, but for now, I want them to join forces to break through the first floor. For those of you who can’t possibly fight alongside the Beta natives, feel free to skip it. Teamwork is more important than anything else in a boss battle.”

After looking around Hurick and everyone, he gave Kibao a serious look for the last time.
Cactus Head caught that gaze for a while, but then snorted loudly and spoke in a low, suppressed voice.

“… Alright, I’ll follow you now. However, once the boss battle is over, I will definitely cover black and white.”

At the same time, he did not forget to stare at Seo-joon’s group.
At that, Seo-jun smiled as if he was laughing and waved his hand as if to chase away flies.
Kibao’s expression was wrinkled, but he didn’t say anything more and returned to his original seat and sat down.
After the series of fuss ended, the strategy meeting resumed.