Anime Crossover: Master is Not Here Today

Argo stated her deduction with a smile, but her eyes became meaningful.

"In other words, there is no such thing as a special mission that can acquire a large amount of resources. The large amount of resources in the hands of the [Legendary Hero] are entirely obtained by deceiving other players."

"That's really quite a terrible act."

"It's more than just egregious; in reality, fraud would be a crime!"

Asuna frowned deeply, her expression more serious than ever before, and her tone became heavier than usual.

"But why would they do such a thing? Aren't they afraid of being exposed?"

Indeed, since there isn't actually a weapon breakage penalty mechanism in SAO for failed enhancements, even if they don't investigate deliberately, someone will eventually discover the problem.

In a normal game, there might be cases of scammers running away after a few hits, but in the current SAO, it's foreseeable that they will stay in the game for a long time, meaning their scams will be discovered sooner or later.

Thinking from this perspective, it is indeed difficult to understand the choices made by those "Legendary Heroes".

After pondering for a moment, Kirito attempted to analyze:

"As long as we use the resources we've obtained through deception to quickly become stronger, strong enough that even if we're discovered, they can't do anything about it, that's fine." Perhaps they hold such thoughts.

Although SAO emphasizes skill, as an MMO game at its core, numerical values ​​are also crucial.

According to Mr. Agil, the opponent's skills are slightly weaker than those of the frontline players, but if the opponent's entire team is equipped with the best gear and upgraded to the limit, then it is indeed quite troublesome.

However, some details in the intelligence provided by Argo made him think of another, somewhat cruel possibility—

"I have another guess."

Argo said with a smile:

"Have you noticed that, although the other five members of the [Legendary Heroes] are all famous legendary heroes, the name Nezuha is quite ordinary?"

"At least to my knowledge, I have never heard of a hero named Nezha."

"That makes sense."

Upon hearing this, Asuna looked enlightened, then rested her chin on her hand and fell into deep thought.

Argo continued:

"I'm wondering if the other five members of the [Legendary Hero] didn't really consider Nezha as one of them."

"If that's the case, then all we need to do is quickly sever ties with Nezha after his fraudulent activities are exposed, and then shift all the blame onto Nezha, right?"

"this?!"

Asuna was immediately stunned.

Just then, Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had been deep in thought for a long time, suddenly spoke:

"Nezha must also be the name of a legendary hero."

"Ok?"

"Ritsuka, do you know this name?"

Argo turned his head when he heard this, and Kirito and Asuna suddenly remembered that Fujimaru Ritsuka had said before that she was a fan of this kind of hero story.

"That's it."

"However, if I'm not mistaken, the correct pronunciation of his name shouldn't be Nezha, but rather—"

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded slightly and clearly uttered two words:

"—Nezha."

Nezha, also known as Prince Nezha or Marshal Zhongtan, is a young deity in ancient Chinese mythology.

Besides the records in traditional folk mythology, His deeds and image are most widely known in the novels "Journey to the West" and "Investiture of the Gods".

I won't go into the specifics of his deeds here, but in short, he was a powerful deity who possessed many treasures.

However, for Asuna and the others, Nezha is indeed a rather obscure hero. Perhaps only someone like Fujimaru Ritsuka, who is obsessed with mythology, would know so much about him.

After listening intently to Fujimaru Ritsuka's introduction of Him, Asuna exclaimed:

"From this perspective, Nezha is quite a remarkable hero. But speaking of which, Ritsuka, you really are a super mythology enthusiast, you even know such an obscure hero."

"No, for me, it's not exactly an obscure genre at all."

Fujimaru Ritsuka gently scratched her cheek and smiled.

Don't talk about it being an unpopular character; she knows Nezha's situation all too well, after all, he's her follower.

If we were to specify how familiar we are...

The treasure [Qiankun Ring] that the other party possesses should still be lying quietly in her [Minister's Treasure Vault], but BB has temporarily sealed her abilities and items, so she cannot take it out to display for the time being.

Back to the point.

After Fujimaru Ritsuka revealed the other party's real name, while reducing the likelihood of Argo's speculation, many new questions arose.

For example, when Argo was eavesdropping on the conversation, he explicitly mentioned that the other people who called him "Legendary Hero" called him Nezha instead of Nezha, which means that the other people did not know the correct pronunciation of his name.

Why would the other party deliberately conceal the pronunciation of "Nezha" and choose to be called "Nezuha" instead? This is also a puzzling question.

Of course, this is not the most pressing issue right now. The most important issue is—

How exactly did Nezha carry out his fraud?

Based on the clues currently available, they are almost certain that Nezuha and the Legendary Heroes are engaging in shameless fraud and money-making schemes.

But before they can be fully exposed, crucial evidence is still lacking to prove that they are indeed committing fraud.

Specifically, the goal is to figure out exactly how Nezha carried out his fraudulent activities.

According to Argo, there is no penalty mechanism in SAO for weapons breaking after a failed upgrade, but in reality, the weapon being upgraded did break right before their eyes, in full view of everyone, which is an indisputable fact.

How is this done?

At this moment, Argo once again demonstrated her strength as SAO's strongest information broker, and she said with a smirk:

"Although there is a penalty mechanism for failed weapon enhancement, I know of a situation that can cause a weapon to break during enhancement."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 181 The Truth, the Secret to Strengthening Deception

181.

2023-12-17

Although failing to enhance the weapon will not cause it to break, enhancing a weapon that has already reached its enhancement limit will achieve the same effect.

Besides the cases like theirs where all enhancements were successful, there are also weapons that reach the enhancement limit, such as the one encountered by the player in [Urubas], whose enhancement level dropped to zero after four successful enhancements and four failed enhancements, turning it into a useless weapon.

Such junk weapons are very cheap to recycle.

Therefore, the general principle gradually becomes clear: during the enhancement process, the same type of junk weapon is quickly swapped with the weapon that actually needs enhancement, and then the weapon that has reached the enhancement limit is enhanced, resulting in the weapon breaking.

At this moment, Asuna asked:

"However, switching weapons must be quite troublesome. How can you do it in an instant without being noticed?"

的确，目前他们想要切换装备的话一共需要1、打开系统视窗2、触碰装备栏中的武器3、选择装备更变选项4、选中想要更变的装备5、点击确认按钮这样漫长的过程。

No matter how fast a person's hands are or how skilled they are, it is impossible to complete all of this in an instant without being noticed.

Fujimaru Ritsuka said:

"If it's about quickly switching weapons, I remember there's a weapon-specific derivative skill called 'Quick Switch' that can do that."

Each skill increases proficiency when used, and once a certain level of proficiency is reached, different derivative skills will be unlocked and available.

Because their weapons occupy a skill slot, they also have a proficiency system. By increasing their proficiency, they can not only unlock stronger sword skills, but also unlock and select corresponding derivative skills.

For example, there are features like [reduced sword skill cooldown] and [increased critical hit rate], while [quick switching] is one of the options that can be unlocked early in the game for all weapons.

After selecting quick switching, the system window will have an additional shortcut key. Once you have set the target weapon to switch to beforehand, the weapon switching operation will only require two steps: 1. Open the system window; 2. Click the shortcut key.

The weapon switching settings can be done openly during the trading process, and with the weapon switching simplified to only two steps, it becomes possible to complete the process instantly without being detected during the enhancement process.

Because the same weapon is being switched, the weapon will only appear to flicker slightly during the rapid switching, and unless you are staring at the weapon intently the whole time, you will hardly notice it.

However, because Nezha's right hand is constantly moving during the enhancement process, and the light emitted by the nearby furnace will also attract the player's attention, almost no one will notice the barely perceptible movements of his left hand.

"Could this guy be a magician in real life?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't help but sigh.

Misdirection is a common technique in magic shows, where a more obvious action draws the audience's attention away from a crucial, subtle movement occurring elsewhere.

Some excellent magicians can still subtly distract you even when you are aware of the misdirection.

"Although we don't know if he is a magician or not, we can be sure that this guy is probably the first con artist in SAO."

Kirito was amazed by the other person's brilliant idea, but also felt sorry for it.

Thus, the blacksmith Nezha and the [Legendary Hero]'s deceptive tactics were basically replicated by them.

First, they buy up low-quality, upgraded weapons at a low price. After identifying their target, they set up the weapon to be switched during the transaction. Then, they quickly switch the weapon during the upgrade process and finally sell the switched weapon at a high price, thereby obtaining a large amount of resources to upgrade themselves.

"So, now that you understand the situation, what are your plans next?"

"While it's a bit disappointing that there wasn't a special mission I was hoping for, this is still some heavyweight intelligence that could make us a fortune, you know?"

Argo looked at Fujimaru Ritsuka with a beaming smile, as if he was enjoying the spectacle.

Asuna said somewhat indignantly:

"Of course we should expose them and make them compensate and apologize to the players who were scammed. No matter what, this behavior is simply outrageous!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka pondered deeply.

Several suspicious points still exist in this entire fraud case—

For example, why don't the other members of the [Legendary Heroes] know that Nezha's name is pronounced as Nezha? Why does Nezha, a crafting-based player, have weapon proficiency?

But now

"Should I go and meet with them first?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka made her decision, then looked at Argo and said:

Do you know where the players of "Legendary Hero" are now?