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

Sorin replied with a wry smile. In the current team, both Yuuki and he possessed some aerial combat capabilities. However, these capabilities were already somewhat strained against Cephane, and against an opponent like Nicol Bolas, they would likely be swatted down with a single claw as soon as they took off.

This is different from before. Previously, Thorin seemed to easily ride Cephane and pin him to the ground, but that was because Cephane was "manipulated." At that time, the controller, Liliana, had to control four immortal demons and tens of thousands of immortals simultaneously, which was equivalent to multitasking in space. Therefore, Cephane's actual combat ability was not very strong.

However, such tactics don't work on Nicholas. First, Nicholas wouldn't let him ride on so easily, and second, even if he did manage to get on, Nicholas would use some strange methods to knock him off—yes, this elder dragon can use magic. In simpler terms, this is a matter of intelligence.

Just then, a childish voice rang out behind everyone. Solin had completely forgotten that there were two NPCs in his team who were just slacking off, but he now realized that these two NPCs' abilities might be the key to breaking the deadlock.

"A fleeting glimpse!"

Illusion brandished her short staff, and a dim purple light flashed above Nicol Bolas's head before vanishing without a trace. Although her illusions weren't as unpredictable as they had been in the black market, even a moment's delay, or even just allowing Nicol Bolas to slightly split his body, would greatly affect his flight ability, not to mention the subsequent deadly attack from Prag.

"Arc Light Forged—Flame Spirit Summoned!"

At Prag's command, phoenixes formed from condensed red electricity suddenly surrounded him. After circling Prag once, they flew towards Nicol Bolas, unleashing even more intense bursts of electricity above his head. At the same time, Sinon activated her gun-sword's firepower mode, standing on the ground and deploying the launchers hidden in the blade, firing several shots at Nicol Bolas in quick succession.

"I got up, one shot and I was dead. What's there to say?"

"Well done, kid! And Shino, keep blowing him up! Don't stop!"

Sorin had just exclaimed in admiration when he saw Yuki once again attach the device, which resembled the 3D Maneuver Gear from Attack on Titan, to her waist. Two steel cables shot out from the launch port and struck Nico Bolas's wings directly.

"Wait a minute... hey hey wait a minute, are you planning to put that rope on his face, my lady? That's too reckless!"

"Watch me! Don't worry about the details!"

Yuuki's voice, brimming with fighting spirit, echoed high in the sky. She spun around, swiftly drawing a red blade across Nicol Bolas's chest before instantly reaching the other side. Nicol Bolas, though eager to retaliate, was suppressed by the harassment of Prag's firepower below and the illusionary trappings of Illusion, and didn't even have a chance to aim at Yuuki.

"You've angered me, you ants! You're courting death!"

He roared and crashed down from the sky, waiting for the right moment to unleash a powerful attack on the ground. In an instant, the sky was filled with intricate runes, and the thunderous dragon chants nearly shattered Sorin's eardrums.

However, he showed no signs of panic; instead, he wore an expression of smug satisfaction. Just as Nicol Bolas landed, the Tornado Engine, which suddenly emerged from the ground, slammed heavily into him, knocking the dragon-sized mechanical worm to the ground.

While it's said to be an "invention of the Kaladesh," the Tornado Engine itself wasn't actually a product of the Kaladesh. It originated from another artifact-time dimension, "Mirodi," which was the time dimension manifested in the fiftieth floor of SAO. Therefore, although it wasn't tainted by this powerful ability, it was still coated with highly toxic smoldering oil.

This attack dealt tons of damage, with large amounts of dark blood flowing from Nicol Bolas's back, causing him to stagger.

"The weakest villain in the multiverse, that's really true. His individual combat ability is truly lacking," Thorin mocked mercilessly. As the saying goes, a fallen phoenix is ​​worse than a chicken, and a dragon that lands severely injured... isn't much better off than a lizard. At least a lizard can sever its tail and escape, while Nicol Bolas, surrounded by the sleeping knights, doesn't even have a chance to run.

Theoretically, he still had a chance to escape, but Elder Dragon's pride wouldn't allow him to flee. This was a grand conspiracy he had planned for a long time, and no one would willingly let it be ruined. However, what he didn't know was that even without the interference of players in the original storyline, his conspiracy had failed, let alone now with so many players resisting the army of immortals, and a player team wielding five blades protected by Nicholas to challenge him.

"If Nicol Bolas is defeated, it'll probably be a three-point loss. We might as well just call it Bolas's Fate," Solin joked. Nicol Bolas's health bar had already dropped to thirty percent, and the two middle-stage skills hadn't been able to be used due to the illusion's interference. His health was still decreasing at a very rapid pace; it would only take two or three minutes to clear that remaining health, after which he could watch the cutscene.

"That's it? I thought this guy had some amazing tricks up his sleeve, but I didn't see any of them."

He sighed slowly. In fact, without acquiring the five color-matching swords from New Bluff, a normal player would have had trouble even breaking through their defenses; and without rescuing those two NPCs, Nicol Bolas wouldn't have been unable to unleash a single skill during the boss fight. Of course, these weren't his concerns right now.

After another two minutes of focused fire, Nicholas's health finally reached zero, triggering a cutscene. The gist of it was that Sumter, returning from Amonkai, along with two traitorous immortal demons, stabbed Nicholas through the neck, followed by his brother, the spirit dragon Ugin, sealing him away. But just as the cutscene finished and everyone regained their vision, Yuuki suddenly waved at her.

“arigatou, sayonara,” she said.

333. A blunder?

"Saying goodbye? Why..."

The thought had barely crossed Solin's mind when the girl in front of him suddenly disappeared—a sign that she had logged off. Besides her, the other original members of the "Sleeping Knights" also waved to Solin and his companions before vanishing one by one from the battle-ravaged open field.

"Hey! Yuuki!" Yuna called out anxiously, then her expression suddenly darkened. "Are you in such a hurry to log off... If you wanted to go to bed early, it's already past midnight. Is it really just a little bit more?"

“I don’t think it’s a matter of just a little while longer.” Solin ignored the notifications flashing before his eyes and the cheers ringing in his ears. His ominous premonition was so strong that it sent chills down his spine. “I’m logging off now. I need to confirm a few things.”

"Let me help you. If it's about..." Sinon was only halfway through her sentence when she saw Sorin wave her hand.

"It's not about that kind of thing. If it were me, I would have told you straight up. It's not that serious."

"Wait... what kind of riddles are you two talking about, Sinon? And Solin?" Kirito stared blankly at the two, wondering what they were discussing. "What kind of thing are you talking about..."

"I told you, Kirito, the less you know, the better it is for both you and Asuna." Sorin's tone suddenly turned cold. He manipulated the system menu in front of him, then vanished from everyone's sight, along with Yuna and Sinon beside him. Indeed, although Sorin stated that this wasn't work-related, she still chose to try and assist him.

"Okay, I'll know less... You always say it's better for me to know less..."

------

Sinon removed her AmuSphere and slowly sat up in bed. She was no longer living in her previous apartment. She was actually at the Rainbow Team's newly established Tokyo branch headquarters. In fact, after the last incident, most of the Rainbow Team members had retreated to their headquarters in Manhattan, leaving Sinon here as a liaison.

She walked slowly to the wardrobe, skillfully entered a key, and opened the cabinet, which was more like an armory than a wardrobe.

"MP7, FN-57, two stun grenades... that should be enough. I wonder what that guy is up to, acting all mysterious."

As she muttered to herself, Shino hung the miscellaneous equipment on herself one by one, then took a key out of her pants pocket.

"I hope they don't suspect why I'm out so late at night," Shino thought to herself. She easily found her way to the building's perimeter, then drove her car, arriving at Mo Yulan's house in less than half an hour. But it was only then that she realized she'd made a blunder.

"I remember telling you this isn't anything particularly serious," Mo Yulan said helplessly, looking at Shino who was practically armed to the teeth. "And frankly, you didn't even bring a sniper rifle. If something happens, you're just a sitting duck."

"What do you mean by 'giving away for free'? I've been training really hard these past few days, okay?" Shino sighed, sat down on Mo Yulan's sofa, and casually opened a can of iced tea on the coffee table. She clearly didn't consider herself an outsider at all. "So what exactly do you want? I'm not leaving until I find out."

“I just wanted to find out why ‘Yuuki’ left in such a hurry. And it wasn’t just her; all the ‘Sleeping Knights’ logged off around that time…right?” Mo Yulan explained. “I had suspected this before, but I thought if it was something like college entrance exams that they were facing, then they would have taken this event quite seriously. However…”

"However, if it were something so seemingly insignificant, they wouldn't have logged off so hastily, is that what you mean?" Sinon nodded, squinting as she leaned back on the sofa, and suddenly asked, "By the way, where's Yuna-nee? Why are you the only one here?"

"Ah... I was just changing clothes." It was Yuna who spoke, having just come out of the room. She waved to Sinon and then sat down naturally next to her. "I think it's probably a group of high school seniors who are about to take their exams. You know, in this game, you can customize your appearance, so it's not surprising that they could choose any look they want."

"I've never thought that you can customize your appearance in these kinds of games; at least I've never succeeded in doing so." Mo Yulan was still bothered by the fact that she always had a beautiful appearance in a new game, but after You Na brought it up, he realized where his blind spot was. "So... did anyone keep their contact information before?"

“No. Before you’ve gotten to that level of familiarity, no one would rashly ask for the real-life contact information of someone they met online.” Yuna shook her head and continued, “Although I did try it once before, they were quite resistant to it, so I haven’t tried it again since.”

"Alright, let's put this aside for now. Continuing like this would seem like meddling, and besides, we really know nothing about their situation." Mo Yulan coughed twice, then concluded the matter, "So now... are they really going to let you out alone in the middle of the night?"

He looked at Shino with some surprise as he said this, but Shino just shrugged, looking like a rebellious girl.

"As you know, I'm the only one left in the entire Tokyo branch right now, but I'm really too lazy to go back. How about I stay here for the night if it's convenient for me?"

"Whatever. Little Ivy went to Vector again tonight, you can sleep in her room... Anyway, if you ask me, that room is fine except for being a little messy. Nizi always makes me and Youna help clean it up, saying that she can't find her things after we clean it up." Mo Yulan pointed to the other closed door, then took out a key from under the TV cabinet. "You shouldn't have any of those 'can't sleep alone' symptoms now, right?"

"I have a feeling you're brewing some rude ideas... Never mind, let's not dwell on it. Lend me your AmuSphere for a bit, I'll play a couple of rounds of CS:GO before I go to sleep."

334. Homecoming

"The smog in Harbin is fucking awful, but at least it's awesome."

Standing in front of the airport, Mo Yulan sighed and then casually adjusted You Na's scarf. More than half a month had passed since that event, and now, just before the Spring Festival, he had returned to his hometown with You Na and Ai Weixin.

After all, introducing a girlfriend to one's parents requires going through certain procedures, especially since I've brought my daughter along as well. Plus, it's Chinese New Year; if time weren't so tight, I'd always come back eventually.

He looked up at the starry sky and the few snowflakes slowly falling from the sky, and sighed softly again.

"There is nothing here but death and loneliness."

"You're spouting nonsense again. Where did you get that idea about death and loneliness?" Yuna tilted her head in confusion and asked.

"Just a joke, don't take it seriously. This year's weather is unusually cold, probably over minus thirty degrees Celsius." Mo Yulan exhaled a breath of cold air, then felt something icy cold hit her head. "Whoa, which troublemaker ambushed me again?"

“Hey, I remember you said at the beginning that you really liked the snowy scenery, right that night.” You Na gently patted the hem of her clothes, shaking the snowflakes off her gloves, and snuggled close to Mo Yulan’s side, saying with a touch of nostalgia, “Speaking of which, ever since you came here last time… to save me, you’ve never come back, have you?”

"That's how it is. Luckily, I had my junior take the car. But I forgot to ask someone to pick me up, but it doesn't matter, the airport bus goes directly to my house anyway."

Mo Yulan affectionately patted You Na's head. He knew that the snowball had been thrown by You Na, but it was rare for his fiancée to act so childishly, and it looked quite cute, so he didn't pay much attention. Ai Weixin, on the other hand, was pulling on the hem of Mo Yulan's clothes from behind, carefully trying not to slip on the thin layer of ice.

Just as the two were interacting, a distinctive horn sounded from the doorway. Ai Weixin looked up at the familiar car, then tugged at Mo Yulan's sleeve, signaling him to look in that direction. Mo Yulan looked up and saw that it was his own AE86 parked in front of them, with a familiar figure sitting in the driver's seat.

"To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it were my dad or junior Muxin picking me up. What brings you here today? Is the shop closed?"

"Damn, I knew you'd be back around this time. Can't we have that unspoken understanding between men?" Liu Ziyang rolled down the car window and looked at the girl next to Mo Yulan with interest. He asked curiously, "Your girlfriend? And how come your daughter is so big already? That doesn't make sense."

"Let me correct you, we're already engaged," Mo Yulan said seriously, subtly steer the conversation away from Ai Weixin's topic.

He opened one of the car doors, let Yuna carry Aiweixin to sit in the inner seat, and then climbed in himself.

"By the way, I brought back another PT trophy. I'll leave it with you there. Has anyone been cleaning my place lately?"

“I had your junior classmate tidy up for you, so you don’t need to worry about the house getting dusty if you haven’t been back for a long time.” Liu Ziyang seemed to have seen through Mo Yulan’s worries. “But you left in a hurry, just like that. You didn’t even say goodbye to us.”

"Damn, didn't I tell you? I said I'd go to the competition venue a month in advance to get a feel for it and also to check out the other MPL Pros." Mo Yulan asked in surprise.

"I just didn't expect you to be gone for almost a year. Nobody would have thought that... Oh, I've picked up your son. I'm on my way to his house. When are you coming over?... I know, okay, okay, hurry up and come over. Stop dawdling. I'm driving. I'm hanging up."

"My dad?"

"Yes, I've been thinking about when you'll come back these past few days, but I haven't gone to see you. I just don't understand what this father is thinking."

Mo Yulan didn't reply, but silently looked out the window at the city that was both familiar and suddenly felt strange. The smog was still thick, but the street scenes he'd seen since entering the city were unfamiliar. It was indeed almost Chinese New Year; red lanterns hung everywhere, and streetlights were decorated in vibrant colors, yet he felt no sense of homecoming whatsoever.

"Perhaps this city is getting further and further away from the Ice City I remember? Or..." he murmured to himself, then suddenly lowered his head and sighed.

"What's wrong?" You Na looked at Mo Yu Lan with concern and asked. Although Ai Wei Xin didn't ask, she also looked at her father with a slightly puzzled expression.

"It's nothing... just some unique sentimentality. And now that I think about it, it wasn't necessary." Mo Yulan shook her head, then smiled at You Na and Ai Weixin, "No matter where I live, as long as you're here, everything will be alright."

“I don’t quite understand, but Lan, come here for a moment.” You Na looked at Mo Yu Lan thoughtfully, then suddenly revealed a mischievous smile, gesturing for him to come closer, and then gently touched his forehead with her lips. “That’s a response, so don’t be down anymore. Aren’t we home now? We’ll go see him later. Little Ivy Xin must have stayed with you for a while, right?”

“Yeah, but to be honest… there’s really nothing to see. My room’s decor is pretty plain too, not as cute as the house in Tokyo.” Mo Yulan smiled and ruffled You Na’s hair, gently holding her slender fingers peeking out from between her half-finger gloves. Her tone softened. “We’ll be going to a lot of places this winter. Let me show you the Ice and Snow World tomorrow. I wonder what it will look like this year.”

"That place must be really fun, and I bet you've been there a lot before."

"No, locals never go to the Ice and Snow World. The main reason is probably that they get tired of seeing so much of this stuff. Anyway, when I was in school, most of my classmates didn't go much either." Mo Yulan shook her head, then felt the car suddenly stop, and she was already at the gate of her residential compound.

"I won't see you in. It'll be too much trouble to go around the parking lot." Liu Ziyang waved his hand, feigning impatience. "I'm leaving."

"Okay... wait a minute, this is my car! Brother Liu, you fucking come back here!"

335. How do you view the rising fireworks? From below or from the side?

"So I really don't understand this nonsense. If you really want to control the smog, you should first investigate those illegal heavy construction projects. What's with banning fireworks and firecrackers within the Fourth Ring Road? Now I have to come all the way here to show you how to set them off."

While complaining, Mo Yulan put the large firework tube she was holding on the ground and took out a lighter from her pocket and handed it to You Na.

"We're almost at Bu Kui territory. If you ask me, I'd like to take you there for some barbecue tonight, and then we can go to Zhalong to see the snow tomorrow. We won't be able to see any birds, they're all sleeping in their nests right now."

The current time is February 1st, which is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. Mo Yulan doesn't have many relatives, so he didn't go through the tedious ritual of visiting each other's homes after New Year's Eve. He simply had a New Year's Eve dinner at home.

Yuna took the lighter from Mo Yulan, carefully brought it to the fuse, lit the paper fuse, then covered her ears and ran to Mo Yulan's side, her bright eyes full of anticipation.

"I remember watching a movie once that said fireworks have one shape when viewed from below and another shape when viewed from the side," she sighed softly. "But I haven't seen many fireworks in real life. The last time I saw fireworks was a long time ago."

"Don't even mention that lousy movie. I skipped evening study with four high school classmates to go see it. When we came out of the theater, I said one thing: 'This is worse than going back to evening study. What a piece of crap.'" Mo Yulan still seemed to have a grudge about the movie You Na mentioned. After casually complaining, he took Ai Weixin from You Na's arms and sat down next to a snowdrift under a tree. "Enjoy this peaceful time while there's nothing else to do."