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

"Just watch him. But things might not turn out the way you think, assuming that Orlando is even a man."

Kirito eventually stopped. Asuna had initially planned the same thing, but Sorin stopped her as well.

However, what happened next was truly unexpected for Kirito and Asuna. With their attention fully focused, they heard Orlando's barely audible whisper.

"I'm sorry, Nezha... I'm so sorry."

He gently placed the sword beside the Ring of Belbas, then walked to Nezha's right, removed his pointed helmet, and knelt down in a similar posture to Nezha. Not only him, but the remaining four members of the Legendary Heroes' party also knelt in a row to his right, following their leader Orlando.

A hush fell over the room. Everyone stared in astonishment at the legendary six-person team of heroes. Then, Orlando's voice, a mixture of fear and determination, echoed throughout the boss room.

“Nezha… is our comrade. We were the ones who sent Nezha to carry out the enhanced scam.”

[The one leading this, I respect you, you're a true man]

Although what they did was pretty shady, those who stood up for each other now are true brothers.

"Ah, isn't this interesting?" Sorin finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood in the center of the crowd again, saying loudly, "I think even if everyone here is angry, it's not right to execute six people at once. Besides, if the perpetrators are the 'Legendary Hero' team, then there will be funds to compensate these victims for their losses. Am I right?"

Those present fell silent again. The more rational among them understood that Sorin's approach at this moment was the most appropriate. After Orlando and the others confessed to the fraud and handed over all their equipment, the total value of the mountain of equipment not only made up for the total amount of money obtained through the fraud, but even exceeded it by a large margin.

Regarding the previously mentioned incident of "players dying because of this," when Solin summoned the player from the Tooth King team with the shrill voice, he only stammered, "I've only heard about it." This was clearly nonsense.

The remaining time was spent figuring out what to do with the equipment. After what could hardly be called a dispute, Fang Wang and Diabel each took one set of equipment, while Solin took four sets. The three guilds would also compensate all players who suffered losses in this scam in proportion to this. The compensation amount was much higher than the original price of the weapons, so the three players had no complaints and instead looked delighted.

"And Swata, you have 50 DKP as compensation this time. Go back and get a better weapon, don't let it interfere with your leveling." Sorin added casually, "Everyone from Edelweiss, come upstairs with me! We've already completed one-fiftieth of the game content!"

"It doesn't sound wrong," Kirito said thoughtfully. "So, the Legendary Heroes who no longer have equipment should have to start training from the Beginning Town, right?"

"That's true. But if you're dedicated enough, you can still achieve something on the front lines." Sorin nodded. "So, on another note, this successful campaign is all thanks to you, Kirito."

"Me? Why?" Kirito asked in confusion. "Wasn't it Mr. Nezuha who turned the tide at the last moment?"

"Think of it this way, Kirito. If you don't crossdress, you won't be able to make Nezuha think you're not on my team, you won't be able to expose the deception, and you won't be able to convince him to come to the front lines. Don't you think that makes sense?"

"...That seems to be the case." Kirito nodded, then realized he might have been fooled. "Yeah, right! Why does something like this have to be dragged into so much trouble?"

"So, Kirito, cross-dressing is the ultimate motivator! Everyone in the guild is really looking forward to the appearance of the adorable Nashley." Sorin's tone remained as serious as ever, a perfect example of earnest nonsense. "Even I was quite surprised by your performance that day. Looks like Asuna's training was excellent!"

"Please shut up, thank you, Suolin. Don't drive anymore."

[Liar! If Nahiri really existed, the streamer would have turned to stone long ago!]

[Initre is a famous tourist attraction and a notorious scumbag, confirmed to be a jerk]

Reaching the top of the tower from the maze area takes a long time, but through repeated practice, people have learned a valuable lesson: joking around can effectively shorten the perceived time. After Solin told jokes the whole way and even drove a few rather hidden vehicles, the entire team finally reached the top floor and was about to enter the next level.

"The team is now disbanded. All members of Edelweiss, form teams and explore freely. We'll meet in the main city." Sorin, after arriving at the third floor, also gave the order to disband the team. "Thank you for your cooperation, Diabel and Mr. Fang Wang. See you later!"

The last sentence was spoken in Chinese with a Beijing accent. Regardless of whether Diabel and Ya Wang could understand it, after saying this, Sorin led Kirito and Asuna away from the main group and randomly chose a direction to explore.

"Oh, right, I should remind you that from the third floor onwards, you can say that this is the main part of the SAO game." Kirito suddenly seemed to remember something and prompted, "Because from this floor onwards, you'll encounter real humanoid monsters, instead of the kobolds and minotaurs that were the previous [demi-humans]."

"I don't see any difference, after all, in my impression, ghosts, kobolds and minotaurs are generally intelligent races." Sorin shrugged, nonchalantly. "I might be interested if you said there would be fairy NPCs on this floor."

"Then congratulations, you guessed right, Suolin."

"What?"

35. It smells so good!

Full title of this chapter: Even if I, Thorin, am beaten to death, die outside, or be guarded in Stranglethorn Vale for a whole day, I would rather be an Alliance dog! So satisfying.

The following is the main text--------

Thorin actually used the word "Elf" when describing that species, which involves a very old translation trope: in Magic: The Gathering, the species "Goblin" was originally translated as "精灵" (jingle), while the commonly known "精灵" was translated as "地精" (dijing). Later, because this translation sounded too awkward, the original "精灵" was changed to "鬼怪" (guiguai), and "地精" was changed to "妖精" (yaojing). As for the more widely known name "精灵," it has never been used since.

(Two classic examples are: Elven Learning [which depicts a goblin] and Bloodbraided Goblin [now called Bloodbraided Fairy])

This directly resulted in the fact that whenever someone mentioned the word "elf" to Thorin, the first thing that came to his mind was always goblins.

"The theme of the third floor is the forest. There are two factions of elves here: forest elves and dark elves. In this floor, players need to choose to assist one side, and this assistance relationship cannot be changed until the completion of the ninth floor questline." Kirito introduced the information of this floor to Sorin and Asuna while there was nothing else to do on the way. "Also, the two story NPCs that start this questline spawn randomly, so you need to find them slowly."

"Then you go find it yourself, I don't have any target acquisition skills." Upon hearing the description "two factions," Solin became incredibly excited. "Will there be faction wars or something like that?"

"Faction wars... there were some during the closed beta, but it's like this now. Even players from opposing factions won't fight each other so fiercely..." Kirito thought seriously for a moment and replied, "It's not like in WOW where the Alliance and Horde would fight each other to the death like dogs when they meet."

"No, no, no, the Alliance are dogs! They don't have a single brain!" Thorin quickly retorted. "I won't accept any arguments. I was born a member of the Horde, and I will die a member of the Horde."

"What are you two talking about that I can't understand?" Asuna suddenly interrupted, her expression quite strange. "It was the same back on the first floor; sometimes I couldn't understand a word you were saying."

“That just proves you’re a good kid, unlike Kirito who’s a complete internet addict,” Sorin replied with a smile. Suddenly, they heard the sound of swords clashing in the distance.

"You talk like you're not an internet addict... What is it then?" Kirito had only finished half a sentence when he heard a faint voice in the distance, "It sounds like the beginning of a quest line, let's go take a look."

The three stealthily made their way forward. While it was technically far, the unique terrain of the forest gave them the illusion that the sound was coming from a great distance. After advancing for five or six minutes in the direction of the sound, Thorin spotted two elves locked in combat. One wore gleaming light armor of gold and green, his longsword and arm shield clearly high-quality, and he possessed the typical handsome features of a Norseman. The other, quite the opposite, wore dark purple armor, his scimitar and kite-shaped shield also in a dark hue. This person had smoky purple hair, light black skin, and a slightly raised breastplate and bright red lips, indicating that this black-clad swordsman was a woman.

Both of them had a golden exclamation mark above their heads, indicating that they were ready to accept the mission.

"What do you mean? Who are you helping?" Kirito asked in a low voice.

“Let me give you a deduction. The deduction is very simple. The man has white skin and blond hair, and his light armor has a bright color and style, which means he is Sin'dorei, and the Sin'dorei are in the Horde faction. The woman on the other side is obviously Kaldorei, and the Kaldorei are in the Alliance, so I suggest we help the Horde,” Thorin replied seriously.

(Note: Kaldorei is a transliteration of Night Elf, while Sin'dorei is a transliteration of Blood Elf. Thorin used these names because when he mentioned elves, he immediately thought of goblins.)

[Famous Mystery]

[Too powerful]

“I object. I want to help that dark elf older sister,” Asuna raised a different opinion. “Besides, I don’t understand Mr. Sorin’s argument at all. Although it sounds reasonable, I don’t understand what it means at all.”

"Even if I, Thorin, am beaten to death, die outside, or am guarded in Stranglethorn Vale for a whole day, I would rather be an Alliance dog!" Thorin declared righteously. "You simply don't understand the spirit of the Horde! You simply don't understand what a great man Thrall was!"

“Yeah, but this isn’t WoW. A normal person’s first reaction would be to help the dark elf, right?” Kirito suddenly changed his mind and stopped siding with Sorin. “Two votes to one, then it’s decided, we’ll help the dark elf.”

"No! This vote is completely illogical! You all don't understand anything!" Sorin protested in a slightly louder voice, but he forgot that a few nights ago, he and Asuna had used the same method—two votes to one—to turn Kirito into the adorable Nashley. However, even though he said that, now that the team had decided on the future mission direction, he could only choose…

[Sorlin: It smells amazing!]

To be fair, the streamer is still incredibly tough; it's just that his teammates don't understand.

What do you know?

Want to know? I have some great stuff here, even more exciting than games, and it can even teach you how to become an adult!

[The person upstairs is being abrupt again!]

"I'll engage now, you guys follow." Solin said, switching to his one-handed sword and charging to stun the forest elf NPC. He then switched to his rapier, which had a faster attack speed, and did two normal attacks. Just as the NPC was about to recover from the stun, he used his scythe's weapon skill, "Final Blade," to disarm it for four seconds. Only then did he switch to his katana, which currently had the highest damage output.

"Don't get in the way, get out of here!" The dark elf lady uttered her standard line upon seeing Sorin and his companions rushing out. Of course, the forest elf NPC also had a standard line when seeing others approaching, but before he could say it, Sorin's combo sent him sprawling into silence.

As the yellow marker above the forest elf's head, indicating the quest NPC, gradually turned into a red marker signifying hostility, Kirito and Asuna followed behind Sorin and began attacking the NPC. Of course, after the four-second disarming period, the NPC finally retrieved his weapon and immediately took away one-fifth of Sorin's health with a single strike.

"What kind of damage is this?" Sorin exclaimed in shock. "Is this a monster that should be on the third level? How can it hurt this much from just one strike?"

"I forgot to tell you, Sorin, this is a scripted death. When all three of our health drops below 50%, the other NPC will unleash a powerful attack and die, handing the quest to us." Kirito explained the situation as quickly as possible. "So all we need to do now is defend and wait for him to finish the cutscene!"

“Then there’s something wrong with his design.” Solin said, his fierce attacks still not stopping. “Since he didn’t design it to reduce me to half health and bring me to the critical value in one strike, there’s still a chance to change things.”

"Besides... I really want his one-handed sword too!"

Twenty minutes later.

"So what's going on here?"

Sorin looked at the forest elf NPC lying on the ground, then turned to Kirito and asked, "What happened to the plot-driven death? My attack power wasn't high enough to trigger the plot immediately, yet I still got killed, and he didn't even drop his one-handed sword...un-fxcking-believable."

36. Tree Spirit: NMD, WSM?

“I must now fulfill my duties as guild leader and return to the main city to unite my members. However, I will inform them of the specific circumstances of your absences.” After saying “un-fxcking-believable,” Sorin requested to leave the party. “If you don’t disband the party and continue with the missions, I should be able to benefit from your progress. I’ll leave it to you. See you later.”

"Alright, good luck." Kirito knew that as a guild leader, Sorin couldn't just abandon the guild to do this hidden quest with them. "This progress should be able to be inherited by the entire guild, so you can go ahead and get busy."

Sorin nodded, calculating how much DKP to give Kirito and Asuna as a reward for their progress in clearing the dungeon, before turning and leaving. Kirito, Asuna, and the dark elf NPC then experienced an unforgettable time together, but we'll leave that for later. Let's shift our focus to Sorin.

The return trip didn't take long. Due to the special circumstances of this level, the main city of Zumford was essentially just for show. Most players would be active in the faction capitals located at the north and south ends of this level—the Dark Elf Camp and the Forest Elf Camp. These capitals offered faction quests with much richer rewards than regular quests and also had all the corresponding functions of a capital city.

Of course, Sorin was unaware of this situation before. But now that he had completed the prerequisites for joining the Dark Elf faction with Kirito and Asuna, he naturally needed to bring all the Edelweiss guild members to the Dark Elf camp to start the quest.

He stood in the square of Zumford, facing the Edelweiss Guild members standing in formation. And what he was doing was something a college physical education teacher often did—taking attendance.

"Alright, 29 people were expected, and 27 people are present. Your efficiency is not bad." Sorin put the roll call aside, cleared his throat, and continued, "The ones who are not here are Kirito and Asuna. They are currently doing a faction quest. I will explain this to you later. Now we need to go to the guild hall on this floor to register as a formal guild."

That's right, the "Guild" function only appears on the third level. The guilds on the previous levels were basically makeshift organizations, meaning they existed in name only. Only at this point do formal guilds have some corresponding functions, such as guild buffs, guild warehouses, and guild emblems.

Of course, the [Register Guild] function is unique to the main city; it's not possible to register a guild in the camps of Dark Elves and Forest Elves. Sorin found the function NPC in the guild hall, opened the menu, and began entering the information item by item.

There wasn't much to input, just the guild name and a drawing of the guild logo. The guild name was naturally 【Edelweiss】, and the logo was a simple version that Solin created on the spot using SAO's built-in Photoshop and a drawing tablet in about ten minutes. He plans to further refine this symbol that represents the guild's image when he has more time.

Of course, Solin had learned some painting skills before, which at least disappointed the viewers in the live stream who wanted to see Solin perform his "soulful" paintings.

[I thought it was something like: an old man named Ding borrowed our car for a spin, I said I'd return it in three days, but he said he'd return it in four.]

[Isn't the streamer's style to draw 9.18 and let it shine?]

[Stop right there! This isn't the bus to kindergarten!]

"Now let's head into the forest. It's said that the faction quests on this level can only be completed up to the ninth level, and you can't change factions in between." Sorin briefly introduced the faction quests on the way. "Just now, the three of us unlocked a hidden character questline, or rather, we encountered a bug. In any case, the questline we're about to embark on is quite unique."

"Bug? What type is it?" Yura, the stinky MT, immediately became interested when he heard him say that.

"To put it simply, there was originally a scripted death quest at the beginning. According to Kirito, the two NPCs fighting at that time would eventually die together. However, we killed the NPC on the forest side, preventing him from unleashing his ultimate attack. Therefore, our questline has a living Dark Elf Royal Guard NPC assisting us."

"That sounds pretty impressive, Guild Master Sorin," Agil exclaimed. "I've heard that the humanoid monsters of the [Royal Guard] series are considered quite high-end monsters on the seventh floor. How did you manage to kill him?"

“After all, I have high damage output; I’m a man with four tricks up my sleeve,” Sorin replied with a smile. “Anyway, don’t worry about so many details; we just need to keep going with this questline.”

To reach the Dark Elf territory, you need to walk from the main city to the staircase at the junction of the second and third levels, and then cross the entire southern forest to reach the Dark Elf territory located at the southernmost end of the entire level. You won't encounter many monsters while traveling along the road, but once you enter the forest, the number of monsters suddenly increases.

Thorin, clad in ornate light armor, spared none of the forest elves, hacking them to death with his Edelweiss Guild members. However, besides the humanoid NPCs with faction markings, this level also contained a type of monster without faction affiliation. These tree spirits disguised themselves as large trees and would suddenly ambush passersby.

Without experience in dealing with such monsters, solo players are at a disadvantage. However, Sorin had a whole team. After the vanguard was attacked by the tree spirit the first time, Sorin simply ordered that upon seeing a tree, they should first slash it once, and once the health bar was visible, they should follow up and hack away at it until it was dead. After that, they never had to worry about tree spirit attacks again.

[Tree Spirit: What the hell did I do wrong? Why are they doing this to me?]

[Tree Spirit: NMD, WSM?]

[No more nuts allowed to become sentient, understand? It's 2202 already!]

Under such violent advance, by the time they arrived at the Dark Elf camp, almost all members of the guild had leveled up by a full level.