Chapter 66 – Sword Art Online (34)
The Kobold Lord’s gigantic body lost its strength and staggered backwards.
It raised its wolf-like face toward the ceiling and roared thinly and high. Countless cracks cracked through its body.
Shortly thereafter, the floor boss of Aincrad’s 1st floor, «Ilfang the Kobold Lord», whose body was replaced with thousands of tens of thousands of shards of glass, was majestically stillborn.
A purple system message [You got the last attack!!] Flashed silently on Seo-jun’s watch.
At the same time as the boss disappeared, the sentinels that remained behind also vanished.
Torches on the surrounding walls change color from dark orange to bright yellow.
The light darkness that enveloped the boss room was pushed away at once, and a cool breeze blew from somewhere, dispelling the heat of the fierce battle.
And the words 【Congratulation!!】 Appeared on the spot where the boss had been.
After that, new messages appeared in Seo-jun’s field of vision one after another, as if informing him of the clearing. Acquired EXP, amount of calls distributed, and even acquired items.
“It’s easy.”
Seojun smiled.
At the same time, Yuuki, who had run up, hugged him from behind.
“Wow!! Oppa is amazing!!”
“Ouch, that’s dangerous.”
He said that, but he stroked Yuuki’s hair.
The girls followed behind him. They expressed their admiration for Seo-joon’s performance. I knew it was strong, but I didn’t expect it to allow even a single effective hit against the boss.
The girls once again became very fond of Seo-joon’s skills.
“June! What item did you get?”
“Wait for a sec.”
At Kirito’s words, Seo-jun checked his inventory.
Just like the original, the item that was dropped after hitting the last boss was a unique piece of equipment called 《Coat of Midnight》.
Seojun tried to install it right away.
A small light enveloped him, and his clothes turned into dark jet-black leather. The length was also stretched out quite a bit, and the hem of his clothes came down to his knees.
‘It looks like a second grader.’
Long black long coat.
It was a symbol of the second grade, but I had a not bad impression.
“Oh oh… Pretty cool.”
Kirito admired.
Seeing her eyes twinkle, it seemed to fit her sentiments quite well.
Well, that’s why in the original work, it must have been unified in black.
Well, the other girls also nodded in agreement with Kirito’s words, but they were the exception because they would have reacted like that no matter what Seojun wore.
“It’s pretty exhausting. Mainly mentally.”
Leading Seo-joon turned his shoulder around.
It wasn’t a very threatening opponent, but maintaining close combat for a long time consumed a lot of mental strength, so there was a bit of fatigue.
‘When I’m a hunter in real life, I think it’s more because I fight more based on my abilities rather than my body.’
Anyway, after successfully attacking the boss, Seo-joon and his party sat down on the floor to take a break.
Then, I started calculating the things I gained through this strategy. The experience points and calls that came in from attacking with only 7 people were enormous.
In the first place, it was natural because they all ate all the food that 40 to 50 people were supposed to share.
“Oh, the proficiency has also risen considerably.”
“Really?”
“Oh, I’m up too!”
As a bonus, weapon proficiency went up a lot.
To go up to this level, they were delighted because it was a figure that could only be raised by focusing on hunting for a week.
‘I guess I’ll be able to unlock the katana sooner than I thought?’
It was around the ninth floor that Seojun unlocked the extra skill Katana during the beta.
Compared to the beta, at this speed, I wonder if I can unlock the katana faster on several floors.
‘That’s how I’ll be able to acquire unique skills.’
Unique skill of the curved sword series.
Seojun was aiming for that. Because if he didn’t get a unique skill, dual swords wouldn’t go to Kirito or Yuuki.
Well, anyway, after paying the bills and being happy for a while, time passed quite quickly.
There is a high possibility that by now the attacking force must have been assembled and is coming this way. Maybe they are waiting for themselves who never come.
But Seo-joon didn’t want to think about them too much.
Because what mattered to him were the girls in front of him right now.
Seo-joon got up from his seat and brushed his butt and opened his mouth.
“Then shall we go up to the second floor soon?”
Girls nodding their heads.
Seo-joon smiled and fluttered his long black coat and headed for the small door inside the boss room.
Seo-joon pushed open the door leading to the second floor right behind the ownerless throne. Then they climbed the narrow spiral staircase that appeared.
After climbing to a certain extent, the door appeared again.
When I opened it slightly, a magnificent view came into view. The exit of the gate was in the middle of a steep cliff.
“Wow.”
“It’s cool.”
The girls are genuinely in admiration for the superb view with shining eyes.
They participated in the boss raid during the beta, but they weren’t the ones who went up to activate the second floor’s transfer door, so this was the first time they’d seen this.
“I think it’s this way.”
The stairs leading down like a narrow terrace lead to the left, but Seo-joon and his party looked around the second floor first.
Unlike the first floor, which has a variety of topography, the second floor has a table-shaped rocky mountain from end to end. The top of the mountain is covered with soft green grass, and large wild monsters roam peacefully there.
The second-floor residential area, «Ulbas», is a village dug out entirely from the Table Mountain in front of you.
From now on, they will go down the stairs, break through the field for about 1 kilometer, and if they touch the 《Transition Gate》 in the central plaza of Urbas, the facility will be activated and connected to the door in the 《Village of Beginnings》 on the 1st floor.
Even if they do not activate it, the transfer door will open automatically 2 hours after the boss disappears.
But today, the first attack unit… It’s a party that can’t be said, but anyway, the first challenge to the boss must have already been known in the starting town, and by now, many players in front of the transfer door will be looking forward to the moment the blue warp gate appears.
If it’s for them, I have to get to Urbas quickly…
‘There’s no need to do that.’
Seojun decided to enjoy the superb view here.
Seo-joon took a few steps forward and sat down at the end of the terrace from the stone.
On the other side of the connected rocky mountains, from the opening outside Aincrad, I could see a tiny bit of the blue sky.
How many minutes were there?
One by one, the girls sat next to him and enjoyed the view while feeling the warm breeze. After enjoying the peace for a while, Seo-jun and his party soon moved to activate the gate.
***
Bubbly.
The labyrinth area on the 1st floor.
There was a group walking around the 19th floor. It was a strategy group with Diabel as the main axis. As they headed to the 20th floor where the boss was supposed to be, they had a buzzing conversation.
“Why didn’t he come?”
“It must have been a beta test and then got scared and ran away.”
“Is it? Haha.”
They were constantly talking behind Seo-jun.
Hey, it wasn’t that nice to see him dragging aggro like that and disappearing as soon as the day of the attack came.
“If you were a kid, you knew you would be a gore. Just looking at his appearance gave me a bad feeling. Don’t you draw? Dear Bell.”
Kibao smiled ferociously and asked Dearbell.
At that, Diabell only smiled bitterly. Whether or not he reacted like that, Kibao continued to shake his mouth excitedly.
Diabel thought as he heard the words with one ear.
‘… It can’t be.’
Dearbel knew Seojun.
Because he was also a beta tester. He had not personally witnessed Seo-joon’s inaction at the time, but he was very aware of how absurdly strong he was from the word of mouth.
If his strength had been a rumor, he wouldn’t have become so famous.
So it didn’t make sense that he got scared and ran away.
‘There’s no way a human who single-handedly slaughtered the boss of the 5th floor would get scared and leave on the 1st floor.’
Perhaps… There may have been a fear of death.
But the last time I saw him was far from that.
While thinking about it, Dearbell saw a possibility in Seo-joon. That is the possibility of becoming a ‘scapegoat’ on behalf of other beta testers, including himself.
At present, anger was running rampant toward the beta testers in SAO.
The point of the rage is, if the beta testers had led people on day one… Also, if they had given without monopolizing the information… It was that there were more people who would have survived.
When I first heard it
Dearbell wanted to spit out swear words in his voice. Beta testers are people like them. How many people have died because they believed only in information and acted?
In other words, that anger was just like taking out anger that became a death game to beta testers.
That’s why Dear Bell thoroughly hid the fact that he was a beta tester.
Then he looked for ways to improve the image of beta testers, and that was how they acted as initiative takers.
It is clear that if beta testers go through the process of overhauling themselves, the views of others will change.
However, the current situation was not very good for that, so he thought of revealing his identity when he thought he could lead the attacking party and gain some response from the people.
I am a beta tester, and there are beta testers who work hard for you like you, so please don’t reject me too much… Go.
But this took too long.
It may take several months.
But recently, another method came to mind.
‘One beta tester can sacrifice for another beta tester.’
If a single beta tester bears all the malice of the other players, the malice will not be directed at the remaining beta testers.
And Seo-jun was the perfect scapegoat to bear the evil.
There were three main reasons for this.
First, he was famous.
To the extent that no one knows about it during the beta test. In addition, he even revealed that he was a beta tester himself, so he will pull all the aggro.
Second, it is easy to make enemies.
It was the first time I saw him, so I didn’t know the details of his personality, but at least when he saw it, Seo-jun’s personality didn’t seem to be suffering.
If this is the case, it will automatically draw attention to other beta testers.
Finally, thirdly, it is strong.
This is the biggest reason, it is clear that no matter how much he makes enemies, he will never be defeated. From Diabel’s point of view, he wanted him to survive as long as possible and bear the enmity.
Selfish thoughts.
However, it was inevitable for Diabel himself and other beta testers to survive.
Simply put, you have to sacrifice a cow for a generation.
Well, anyway.
He walked, thinking about how to make Seo-jun his scapegoat.
Soon after, we reached the 20th floor.
And what they saw.
“Uh?”
It was a wide open boss room.
A raiding party that goes inside carefully. Even though it was already half way over, the torches were not lit, and the boss had no sign of revealing itself.
Only then did they realize it belatedly.
“… You attacked the boss?”
Who the hell
A heavy silence fell in the boss room, which was only for them.
