Am I the only one streaming Sword Art Online on the entire internet?

While complaining, he glanced at his HP and discovered that with Yuuki constantly interrupting his skills, his health had unknowingly dropped to three-quarters. In this half-health duel mode, this meant that half of his HP had been chipped away by Yuuki.

"What's the point of playing this... is the other side a person?"

There were still people on the other side, but Grandpa Su was already an elderly man.

[Upstairs, are elderly people not considered human?]

As he muttered this, taking advantage of a gap in Yuki's attack, he instantly switched his weapon to a rapier and stopped using any sword techniques, instead engaging in a direct confrontation with his opponent.

"Let me tell you, blacksmithing is a man's romance. Besides, I won't gain any advantage by using my skills anyway."

This did have some effect, because he attacked based on intuition without any fixed routine, making it impossible for his opponents to detect the wind-up animation and interrupt him first. The battlefield was soon filled with the clanging of weapons. His stance had changed from those he had entered into the system to a mysterious sword technique he had learned from a sword saint surnamed Xia, consisting of eight strikes in a cycle—commonly known as Xia Ji's Eight Slashes.

There's a saying that even a novice can defeat a master with a flurry of punches. Yuuki had previously been able to predict the initial animation of Sorin's sword techniques through various means, but against Natsuki's Eight Slashes, she lost that innate advantage. However, being unable to counter her attacks was one thing, but when she also stopped focusing on countering and began to exchange attacks with Sorin in a similar manner, Sorin once again showed signs of weakness.

"I can only be thankful that I also took away a quarter of the opponent's health. It's not that embarrassing... Wait, when did I become so low-minded?"

He suddenly realized that, though he didn't know when it started... probably after that battle with Kayaba, his once indelible confidence and unwavering tenacity, seemingly forever etched into him, had gradually faded. Perhaps, as that fellow viewer had said, when the game no longer represented another layer of reality, his edge had gradually dulled.

But that doesn't mean he'll always be like this. At least for now, he's decided to take it seriously again, regardless of victory or defeat.

301. Lin Shen Returns to His Position

“I’ve decided to at least be serious and respect my opponent,” Sorin said softly. He disrupted Yuki’s rhythm with a series of attacks with his rapier, then cut his long staff and unleashed a low slash, forcing Yuki back as she tried to charge forward again.

"So you weren't using your full strength just now?" Yuuki tilted her head in confusion and asked, "To be able to hold back against me, you must be quite strong."

She hadn't spoken during the previous battle because she held the initiative and didn't want to be distracted. However, now that Sorin had restarted the fight, she had the opportunity to communicate with him briefly.

"It's not that I didn't give it my all, it's just a matter of mindset... Anyway, don't worry about the details." Solin didn't explain much. He drew the katana from his back and gripped it in a reverse hand. "I can accept defeat, I can admit that I'm not as skilled as others, but I shouldn't be cowardly in front of anyone."

"Even though I am no longer everyone's hope, no longer that radiant president, this has never changed... I should have realized this long ago."

He swung his katana in a beautiful flourish, then placed it diagonally at his side, standing straight in place.

"Then... I am Solinmarkov, the Thousand Swordsman and guild master of the Edelweiss Guild!"

Can tears be washed away?

[Lin Shen is back!] *N

It seems a powerful enemy forced Solindrich to release the God of Rain.

[At least this is somewhat watchable, unlike before when he was being hung up and beaten.]

"Is this more interesting? Take this!"

Yuuki's tone remained cheerful as before, but her expression had become noticeably serious. Although she had never heard of the guild "Edelweiss" or the title "Thousand Swordsman," she vaguely realized that the person standing in front of her was no longer the amateur player who had allowed her to endlessly interrupt his moves.

Not much different from her previous swift attack, she charged forward, unleashing a dazzling series of close-quarters strikes with her twin swords. Sorin tried his best to see the trajectory of each slash and parry them one by one, but after the first three strikes, he gradually lost sight of his opponent's movements.

"Am I getting old after all? Since this aggressive approach isn't going to give me an advantage..." He quickly took a few steps back, then switched to his one-handed sword, leaped up, and slashed downwards. This skill, resembling a mountain-crushing strike, also had the same special effects, causing a brief knockback effect upon hitting the opponent. Of course, he didn't expect this knockback effect to work on Yuuki; he simply wanted to force her to stop her attack and dodge.

Yuki couldn't interrupt Sorin's skill at this distance, but she didn't choose to dodge. Instead, she met Sorin's leaping slash head-on, parrying it with her right sword while simultaneously thrusting her left sword straight at Sorin's chest.

"Go to heaven!" Sorin shouted. This phrase is usually used to send an opponent into the air, but in this case, he himself flew into the sky. He first used the force of Yuki's upward slash to jump up one step, then switched to his battle staff in mid-air and accurately stabbed the tip of Yuki's left-hand sword with the staff, and then flew up a bit more.

Now he had nowhere to borrow leverage, but he didn't need to increase his height further. He just needed to make sure he landed behind Yuuki and unleashed a combo. He adjusted his position in mid-air and then slashed down forcefully.

"Splitting Mount Hua with all my might!"

Of course, this was accompanied by some incredibly arrogant and embarrassing words. Yuuki didn't dare to take it head-on anymore; who knew how much stun it would cause? Keep in mind she only had half her health left, and although her opponent was barely alive, she'd seen plenty of people pull off comebacks from near-death experiences in PvP duels.

She quickly rolled to the side, avoiding the approximate landing area of ​​Sorin. However, after seeing Yuki's movements in mid-air, Sorin instantly stopped his attack, landed lightly on the ground, and immediately switched to his rapier, launching another feinting charge at Yuki.

"Did you think the same move would work on me twice? Besides, I interrupted it the first time, didn't I, little brother?" Yuki smiled slightly as she watched Sorin use the same opening move as before, then planned to use the same trick to interrupt Sorin's skill again. However, just as she drew her sword with her left hand, she saw a sly glint in Sorin's eyes.

He abruptly stopped his charge, then switched to his katana, using a kesazhan (a type of katana-like attack) to graz Yuuki while simultaneously using the kesazhan's movement to dodge the thrusting left-hand sword. This left Yuuki's entire right side severely vulnerable, an opening that could be fatal in a half-health duel.

[Textbook-perfect softening]

[Grandpa Suo: You didn't expect that, did you! I had this trick up my sleeve!]

That was a brilliant move; we have a chance to turn the tables.

"Alright friends, tonight's show is—a sudden, decisive attack!" Sorin shouted, gripping his katana tightly and swinging it forcefully before unleashing a powerful draw slash towards Yuuki, "Spirit Blade Great Spin!"

This was originally intended to be a powerful counterattack, but he overlooked one crucial point: he had already squandered his health to a sliver in the previous exchanges. While Yuuki now had a significant opening, she was still capable of launching some limited counterattacks.

...For example, he might throw his left-hand sword like a throwing knife at Sorin's face. Sorin was just about to read the wind-up animation of this Great Whirlwind Blade when he saw a dark shadow flying straight toward his face. Before he could even figure out what was going on, the shadow had already pierced his forehead, reducing his health to 47%, which meant the end of the duel.

You lose

[Second ride]

[Even if he succeeds, he cannot escape]

"What's going on? This works?" Sorin exclaimed in surprise as he took Yuki's left-hand sword off his head. He was still in a daze, after all, this was not a conventional fighting tactic. "Alright, you win, Miss Yuki."

"It's alright, Mr. Sorin. You're very strong too." Yuuki's face still wore an innocent and genuine smile as she extended her hand to Sorin. She continued, "Then let's work hard together from now on! We are the Sleeping Knights, remember that name!"

Sorin laughed too. He hadn't truly enjoyed a battle in a long time, and in a sense, he had to thank Yuki. He gently grasped Yuki's outstretched right hand and nodded earnestly.

"The Sleeping Knights, is it... I'll remember that."

302. As is well known, there are nine of the ten alliances.

"Hello. My name is Solin Markov, they all call me Solin. This is Yuna, she is..."

“She’s Sorin-chan’s fiancée~” Yuna said, then suddenly hugged Sorin and winked at Yuuki, “Isn’t she super cute?”

Sorin felt somewhat helpless at Yuna's domineering behavior, but there was nothing he could do. He could only give Yuki an apologetic smile. Yuki, however, didn't seem to care. She watched with interest as Sorin suddenly became meek, completely different from the incredibly assertive weapons master she had just been, and then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Um… Mr. Sorin does look quite adorable.” She remarked, then looked at her teammates behind her. “Let me introduce you to the members of my guild, the Sleeping Knights.”

"I...my name is Darken. Please, please take care of me...it hurts!"

The one who spoke was the bespectacled, fiery red goblin. He bowed respectfully to Solin, then for some reason, his face began to turn red. As for why his words ended in a wail, it was because the emerald-green-haired fairy standing next to him had kicked his shin hard with her boot.

"Please! Dahl, can you change your shy personality? How can you become like this in front of girls... Besides, Mr. Sorin is clearly a man!"

After speaking in a vibrant voice, she scratched her head slightly, gave Sorin and Yuna a bright smile, and then introduced:

"I'm Xiao Ji. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Yuna, and Mr. Sorin..."

“No, there’s no need to hesitate. If I could, I wouldn’t want things to turn out this way, Miss Ji. It’s also a pleasure to meet you.” Suolin nodded politely, correcting Ji’s statement.

Next up was the Vidoken artifact maker, who held a mechanical device floating in his hand. He lowered his head and slowly announced his name.

"Ah, um—my name is Teach, nice to meet you."

The last member was the light blue-haired, mature-looking fairy older sister. She bowed slightly to Solin, then introduced herself in a calm and wise voice: "Hello, I am Zhu Nie. Thank you for taking the time to come."

"And lastly, it's me! I'm Yuuki, the guild leader of this guild. I met Mr. Sorin once before... but not in this form~" Yuuki said, extending her right hand towards Sorin and Yuna. "Let's do our best together!"

"Good luck and stuff... Can I ask what else you guys are doing besides this mission?" Sorin understood what she meant. He shook hands with Yuki again and then asked, "It seems your reputation is already quite high."

"Hmm... Mr. Sorin doesn't know yet? Oh right, I forgot to mention it. We moved to this game because we heard that this expansion would have an epic world quest. And our wish is to leave our mark on this epic and enjoy this story... It sounds strange, but it's true."

Yuki pondered for a moment, organized her thoughts, and then explained, "You can see this on the official website. The mission is called 'Battle of Sparks,' but nothing else is revealed. We can only guess that this epic mission is a battle, but I don't know what the word 'lamp' refers to."

The Japanese translation of "War of the Spark" is "Tenma Taisen" (yes, it's still written in kanji), where "tenma" refers to sparks—author's note.

"An epic world quest? The War of Sparks?" Yuna asked疑惑地, "I feel like I've heard this phrase somewhere before, is it just my imagination?"

“It’s not your imagination, Yuna. This story does indeed sound like an epic, after all, I personally experienced it back then, although I was just an observer.” Sorin understood what Yuki was referring to. When he heard this word, the first thing that came to mind was his first meeting with Yuna, and only then did he think of other things.

He coughed twice and then explained, "It's like what you see in the trailer. That's the ending of the whole story, or rather, the part near the end. I think that since this event is designed as an epic mission, it means that the original story trajectory can actually be rewritten, otherwise it wouldn't be interesting."

"Is that so? That tall knight charging towards the ferocious dragon was indeed a spectacular sight." Yuki looked at Sorin curiously, seemingly wondering why he knew so much. "It sounds like you know a lot of details. Could you tell us about it, Mr. Sorin?"

"Let's talk as we go. The First District is still quite a distance from here." Solin suddenly fell into deep thought as he said this, wondering where to begin the story, since some of the things involved were indeed quite complex. "So, do you want a spoiler-filled version of the story or a spoiler-free version?"

"Let's not spoil it. Wouldn't it be no fun if we knew the ending beforehand?" Yuki shook her head, stopping Sorin's urge to spoil it. "Just tell us some things to note."

"But I think we should at least explain the setting of this world first. You should know that there are ten guilds in Ravnica Guild City, right?"

Sorin pondered for a long time, trying to figure out how to explain the preliminary work they needed to do and why they were doing it without revealing any specific details. However, upon hearing Sorin's first sentence, the five members of the Sleeping Knights all showed expressions of surprise.

"What? Where did the tenth guild come from?" Yuki asked in surprise. "Both the official website and the NPCs' introductions say that although there are ten alliances in Ravnica, there are only nine guilds in reality. And there are only nine guild landmarks in the initial locations that players can choose."

"Seriously, is this considered a spoiler...?" Solin sighed inwardly, realizing he had forgotten about this. "There are ten guilds, that's right. Let me put it this way, all the guilds are made up of two colors, and there are ten combinations of the five colors: red, black, white, blue, and green. Aren't you curious why we haven't seen any blue and black combinations?"

303, is this the legendary "four protect one" strategy?

“It’s normal that you don’t know the specifics, but I dare say that someone has already figured out a way to farm Dimir reputation.” Sorin looked at the surprised expressions of the five members of the Sleeping Knights and understood the situation. “Oh right, I forgot to explain. Dimir is actually that blue-black [Unknown Guild]. This guild is full of spies or similar intelligence personnel. Their existence is the biggest secret to Ranika.”

He suddenly became very curious about these Sleeping Knights players because he could tell that they were all veterans in every sense of the word. Their actions in full stealth mode were almost indistinguishable from those in reality, which was an ability that only those who had "lived" in the virtual world for at least two years possessed. That's right, apart from the SAO survivors that Sorin knew, everyone he saw had some degree of sluggishness in their movements in the virtual world.

"Who exactly are these people...? If they have this kind of talent, they should be famous online by now, at least as well-known as OB Seafood Group. This doesn't make sense..."

As he pondered this, Yuki, who was walking in front of him, suddenly spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

“I see. Oh right, we haven’t talked about the details of this mission yet.” Yuki turned around and gathered the members around her together. “Acting Officer Victor received a report from the residents of the First District. They said that there is a group of unaffiliated bandits roaming the First District and they hope to bring them to justice as soon as possible. Our mission is to find and eliminate these unaffiliated bandits.”

"Unaffiliated? I suddenly find things interesting. These people actually dare to cause trouble right under Bane's nose... It's really strange. Speaking of which, do we have any transportation, like a griffin or a sphinx?"

Solin placed the map in front of everyone, measured the distance between their tenth district and the first district, and then looked up and asked.

"There should be, but we haven't gotten any transportation within the city yet, so we can only walk there for now." Yuki shook her head and replied regretfully, "If we hurry, we should be able to get there within an hour. We've been doing this for a while now, so we're used to it. We can also take this opportunity to hear Mr. Sorin's tips, can't we?"

“I don’t think there’s much I can say without giving away any spoilers. I can only tell you one thing: try to familiarize yourself with the terrain of New Bluff—that is, the area around the Fountain of the Sacred, and don’t trust the Great Arbitrator—that is, Dorwinbane.” Thorin put the atlas back into his backpack and continued, “New Bluff will be one of the main battlegrounds in that epic quest, so it’s necessary to be familiar with the terrain.”

That's all he could say. These players weren't originally part of the Spark Wars, and the role they would play in this conflict remained unknown. Furthermore, Thorin couldn't say whether any Magic: The Gathering players as familiar with the story as he was might choose to become traitors in this new era and support Bolas's faction.

“New Bluff? Is that the fountain square?” When Yuna heard Sorin say that, a worried look suddenly appeared on her face. “It’s such a beautiful place that it’s going to be engulfed in war… It’s such a pity.”

"It's not just about getting caught up in the war; we'll also need to blow up the New Bluff Tower next to the fountain later, but that's a story for another time." Sorin shrugged, looking nonchalant. "Speaking of which, I should also find out about my companions' abilities. I only know that Miss Yuki is a swordswoman with agility as her main attribute, and as for the others... Titch should be an artifact master?"

“That’s right, Brother Sorin. My ability is to use these mechanical creations to help us fight, roughly equivalent to a summoner in a traditional MMORPG.” Victor’s tone was always unhurried and leisurely, giving the impression that he was a very reliable person. “The skill tree is the pre-built artifact mastery set provided on the official website, but I replaced some of the offensive artifact skills with defensive ones because the team lacks a tank…”

“Understood. This setup is actually more helpful in battle than a traditional tank. Yuna is a bard build, with both combat and support abilities, but her support abilities are stronger. As for me… you should have seen it just now.” Sorin nodded, then turned her gaze to the fairy sisters beside her, “And what about the elf ladies?”

“Xiao Ji is a mage, and her spells are more focused on sealing, making her a support type. I’m the healer in this team, so my damage output isn’t very high.” Zhu Nie nodded to Suo Lin, patted Xiao Ji’s head, who seemed eager to explain her abilities, and smiled as she replied, “This child doesn’t like to hurt others, even in MMORPG games, which is why she chose these abilities.”

"Wonderful! It would be perfect if it also had color-reversal protection... But come to think of it, this game probably doesn't have anything as powerful as color-reversal protection." When Sorin first heard Junie's description, he thought that this girl might be a DNT player in real life. Then he immediately thought of Rune Granny's overpowered ability. "You guys are doing the legendary four-protect-one strategy... What about Mr. Goblin?"