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

39. News from Yuna

Many people who drink the night before may wake up the next day feeling like their head is about to explode, and the next questions they often ask are, "Who am I? Where am I? What did I do last night?"

Even Sorin, who was drinking in SAO, was no exception.

“A strange ceiling… Where am I?” Sorin stared blankly at the ceiling, puzzled. “Let me think… Last night I went out to look for Yuna but couldn’t find her. On the way, I saw Agil go to the tavern with him, and then…”

"Damn, then what happened?"

“You’re up.” Akiel came out of the kitchen carrying a plate. “This is my current place. You collapsed a bit hastily yesterday, so I just dragged you back to my house.”

"What?!" Sorin exclaimed in shock. "Is that so? What did I say to you last night?"

He didn't doubt that his drunken state last night was part of the Jekyll storyline, because in SAO, no one except the player can usually access the menu or even remove their equipment. Of course, there are indeed cases where someone takes advantage of a person's unconsciousness to pry open the menu, but Sorin believed that Agil wasn't that depraved.

He was just worried that he might have said something he shouldn't have last night.

“You told me last night that you had a crush on a girl who plays the organ, but she gave you the ‘friend zone’ treatment,” Agil said without hesitation.

"And then?" Solin pressed, feeling something was off. If it were only this bad, he wouldn't have gotten so depressed that he got completely drunk and lost consciousness. "I definitely couldn't have only said this much."

"You also told me about your family..." Left with no other option, Agil had to honestly reveal another topic from their conversation the previous night, "To be honest, it was a bit..."

"No need to say anything more. Just let this matter rot in your heart. Besides, your statement is not accurate, because I live alone." Sorin's voice suddenly turned extremely cold, but it softened again in the next second, returning to its previous gentle tone. "By the way, didn't you say you had news about Yuna? Tell me about it."

“Yuna…you must be referring to that girl who plays the organ.” Agil put the plate on the dining table in the living room, turned back and thought for a moment, “I heard she’s someone with a very mysterious ability. Everyone who has teamed up with her wants to recruit her into their permanent team, but she has never agreed to any requests for permanent teams.”

"Wait, I thought she was just a casual player..." Solin recalled the day he first met You, her pure white forest-style dress and strappy sandals, and the Irish accordion she was holding, and asked in surprise, "So she's actually a combat player?"

“I don’t know about that, but since you’ve already teamed up with a lot of people, you could try asking Argo,” Agil suggested. “By the way, what happened to you last night? I clearly remember that the alcohol in SAO was supposed to only taste good and not have any intoxicating effects.”

"What?" Suolin was taken aback. "I drank too much fake alcohol yesterday... no, it wasn't fake alcohol."

He clearly remembered drinking that bottle of vodka exactly like he would in real life, and feeling it completely like real life. Vodka is a rather peculiar type of liquor. As a distilled spirit, vodka isn't meant to be savored slowly like traditional distilled spirits; it's meant to be poured into a small glass and drunk in one gulp. Those who frequently drink vodka generally prefer to chug it down, and this isn't unique to Russians. Of course, what Suolin did yesterday was clearly a case of not controlling his intake properly, something he'd experienced before, especially during times of disappointment.

Not only that, he also recalled that during the first half of the first and second floors, he did not feel any pain when hit by monsters. However, during these days of monster hunting, if he was hit by a monster, he would feel corresponding pain, although it had been reduced to some extent, it was still quite painful.

"What's wrong with me..." Sorin wondered, but now was clearly not the time to wonder. Now that he had found a way to contact Yuna through Agil, he should take action.

Thinking of this, he immediately sent a text message to Argo.

“wei, zaima?”

——————Ten hours ago, outside the world——————

"I've seen a ghost! Now I can confirm it, Xiao Mo's implantation was definitely successful!"

The bespectacled young man cursed as he stared intently at the electrocardiogram in front of him.

"Who the hell can tell me how to cure a drunkard who's drunk too much in a virtual game?"

------

“Buzai, cmn!” Argo has now learned some embarrassing phrases, and immediately replied after seeing Sorin’s text message.

"Enough with the joking, I have something important to say. Do you know a girl named Yuna?" Solin thought for a moment, then directly answered the voice call, getting straight to the point, "It's urgent and crucial!"

"Ah...it's urgent and crucial. Looks like I can charge a bit more for this information." Argo sounded somewhat annoyed. "All I can give you is information about her character build. The rest is up to you."

"...Fine, how much do you want?" Although Solin didn't think the information about this character Build was very useful, he was in such a hurry that he would accept whatever came his way.

“5000 Cole, I know you just bought four full sets of equipment and don’t have much money right now. How thoughtful of me, right?” Argo replied from the other end. “I’ll come find you for the money later. Let me tell you about the intelligence first.”

"She has a unique skill called [Bard], which allows her to cast various buffs on teammates during battle. This skill is particularly useful in regular combat, so many people who have teamed up with her want her as a long-term teammate. However, due to her poor self-defense capabilities, she does not participate in boss battles."

"The rest are all kinds of buff skills, from Power Word: Strike to Bloodlust, there's a really complete range," she added.

"Wait a minute, these two buffs aren't even from the same class!" Solin felt that something was off.

"Don't worry about the details, just get the gist. Here's another piece of information: she plays her accordion somewhere in the city every evening, but she leaves quite early, usually around 7 or 8 pm, so if you keep going out shopping in the evenings, you'll see her. That's all I can do for you."

"Wait...you should know where she lives, right?" Solin suddenly extracted some information from her words and asked urgently.

“Indeed, but I’m not that depraved. If you find out the information yourself, that’s your own business. I’m not going to sell such low-class information.” Argo quickly stopped Sorin’s dangerous thoughts. “I’ll come find you in a bit. By the way, why are you at Agil’s house?”

"...You're overthinking it."

40. Heading West

Taking a break is fun, and taking a break all the time is even more fun.

Sorin also wanted to do that, but the current situation really didn't allow him to slack off. Even if Kirito and Asuna really wanted to give him a surprise, he couldn't possibly wait three days and then give Kirito 1.8 million to go out of the city to suppress bandits... I mean, to conquer the boss.

Currently, the Edelweiss Guild faction content is being handled by Kirito and Asuna, as they are progressing through the main story's faction content with the assistance of a powerful NPC, while everyone else is just grinding side faction quests to gain reputation and faction currency.

Furthermore, Kirito's situation was rather unique. During a mission, he discovered a double agent who was active in both the Dragon Riders and the Aincrad Liberation Army. This agent had even attempted to kill Kirito at night by using a method of "destroying nearly 50% of his HP with high damage in a half-HP duel in the wild." Although the attempt failed, this agent's existence made Sorin more cautious.

(PvP within the city will be forcibly stopped when one side's health drops to half, but PvP duels in the open world will not.)

According to Kirito, during the Chapter 6 faction quests, he overheard a rumor, possibly true, being spread to the Aincrad Liberation Army guild: the final stage of the faction quests would drop special items related to the boss battle. While the Dragon Riders and the Aincrad Liberation Army were locked in a dispute, Kirito and Asuna seized the opportunity to steal the Chapter 6 faction quests. Feeling hopeless about defeating the boss, the two guilds decided to make preparations in a nearby village and then directly tackle the dungeon area.

Therefore, the most urgent task now is to organize the exploration of the maze area before these two guilds, and at the same time study the boss's strategy. After experiencing the dangers caused by the lack of information in the first and second floors, Solin decided to rely on his exploration experience to prepare a large number of contingency plans in advance to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Of course, one problem that still exists is that the Edelweiss Guild is not the only contingent on the front lines. Although the Aincrad Liberation Army and the Dragoon Regiment are theoretically allies, Thorin cannot expect to command them as easily as he commands his own elite forces.

After all, he had heard about the recruitment standards of these two guilds during registration. The Dragon Riders' standard was only a player level of ten or above, while the Aincrad Liberation Army, in order to compete with them, set the bar at level nine. On the other hand, Sorin was still personally reviewing every player who wanted to join Edelweiss, and after several days, the guild had only gained two members.

"Let's make a plan. Today, we'll lead a team to explore the maze area first, and then go for a walk back to the main city tonight. Let's see if we can get lucky and find Yuna." He thought to himself and sent a message to everyone through the guild channel.

[Everyone, gather at the central square of the main city to prepare for exploring the maze area. Those doing faction quests, please message me to request leave.]

He was currently in the square of the main city of Zmford. After waiting for a while, people began to arrive and stand in front of Thorin. Of course, there were still people staying at the Dark Elf camp, so Thorin had to wait a little longer.

"This game has such a huge map, yet there's no Hearthstone or anything..." Sorin muttered to himself. "How are we going to collect everything if there are even bigger maps in the future..."

This wasn't just unfounded worry. After all, he had previously seen the side profile of Aincrad, and the entire floating city was shaped like a spindle. This meant that at higher levels, the map might be two to three times larger than it was now, or even more. Without a suitable means of teleportation, even gathering guild members scattered across different locations would be an extremely troublesome task.

After waiting for an hour, the last member, panting, ran up to Sorin, carrying his tower shield. It was none other than the guild's most sturdy shield—MT Yura from Shimokitazawa. Players specializing in tower shields have a much higher survivability than other players, but conversely, tower shields are not very efficient at clearing mobs, so his late arrival was understandable.

"I'll call out names. Now everyone except Kirito and Asuna should be here." Sorin opened the guild menu and began checking people one by one. "Everyone who is present today will receive 10 DKP, 1 DKP for every 0.1% progress in the dungeon area, an extra 10 DKP for finding the boss room, and an extra 10 DKP for all tanks. Did everyone understand?"

"understand!"

Previously, when Sorin was forming the guild, he introduced the DKP system. After he put the equipment he collected from the "Legendary Hero" into the guild warehouse, it immediately ignited everyone's fighting spirit, and they also gained considerable approval for this relatively open way of distributing loot.

"First of all, I want to clarify that since Kirito's faction quest has already reached Chapter 6, it's impossible for him to abandon this quest, so he and Asuna will not be participating in our initial exploration activities. According to unreliable sources, a special item related to the boss battle will drop in the final stage of the faction quest."

"Like the Storm Ruler?" Yura suddenly interjected.

"Similarly, if you find a hint like 'Only a storm can knock down a big tree' at the entrance of the boss room in the maze area, then there's probably a special way to defeat it." Sorin nodded and continued following Yura's hint, "So we're not in a hurry to defeat this boss. We just need to explore the maze area and improve our equipment and level at the same time."

To reach the labyrinth area on the third level, you still need to defeat a gatekeeper boss. This labyrinth area on the third level, in Thorin's view, is somewhat similar to the labyrinth between the Stone Fields and the Dark Forest in Diablo II. The entrance is located inside a mountain range at the northernmost end of the third level. If you consider the entire third level as a circle, then the Dark Elf camp, the main city, and the labyrinth entrance are exactly the three vertices of an inscribed triangle within this circle.

(I will post a map of the third floor at the end of this chapter.)

"Now everyone, form teams as previously assigned. The two new members will join Agil's team." Sorin put the map back in his backpack, drew his scythe, and pointed west. "Alright, guys, westward! Let's go!"

41. Reclaiming wasteland

As it turned out, compared to the Edelweiss team, whose members were all elite players, the Aincrad Liberation Army and the Dragoon Regiment were far inferior in both overall speed and advancing ability. When the two sides finally arrived at the entrance to the labyrinth area, they found that there were not a single monsters left on the outer perimeter of the labyrinth area.

“This is bad. Now they have all the resources in the maze area and the boss's LA. Aren't we going to end up getting burned?” Diabel thought to himself, then asked a player wearing a chainmail hood standing next to him, “Morte, what do you think we should do now…”

"I'm just an ordinary player. Decisions should be made by the guild leader," Molt said with a hint of sneer. "Yesterday I said the final part of that faction quest would include a key item for the boss fight, but you still gave it to those two from Edelweiss, didn't you?"

Diabel was choked and immediately fell silent. On the other hand, the Tooth King didn't seem to care much, simply shouting, "Charge!" and leading his men inside. Seeing the Tooth King's recklessness, Diabel thought that if he didn't hurry, he might miss out on everything, so he also led his men into the maze area.

Deep within the labyrinth, Sorin led his team, relentlessly hunting monsters. He knew he couldn't match the numbers of the Aincrad Liberation Army and the Dragon Riders, but his advantage lay in the superior individual strength of his players. Therefore, upon entering the labyrinth, he immediately dispersed everyone into small teams to hunt monsters separately, securing more prime farming spots before subsequent players entered.

After navigating three floors of the maze, Thorin gradually discovered the common characteristics of these mazes. These characteristics can be compared to the maps in Diablo II: a large map with complex terrain, where the boss is often located at a random location deep within the maze.

So this time, he explored the map just like he would in Diablo, looking at the minimap and exploring each branch of the road, trying to expand the map as much as possible. This way, he could not only check his progress, but also avoid some unnecessary detours.

"So we don't need to keep slashing back and forth to deal with these tree spirits, it's too troublesome. Since our katana is powerful enough, we can just charge straight in. We'll start with the Kesa Slash followed by the Great Spinning Body - See! Cut! Like! Wind!"

It seems that the members of Sorin's team have gotten used to their guild leader muttering some incomprehensible things while fighting monsters. Even though they are all very strong players, they still can't beat their guild leader in stealing monsters and can only cheer from behind.

I don't care, I want to see acrobatics!

Did Grandpa Suolin find that young lady? Waiting for an answer online.

[As expected, I'm more interested in what happened after that night than in fighting monsters.]

[Just kidding, what woman is more fun than video games?]

"...Looks like I really should find a moderator to deal with all of you making fun of my single status." Solin looked at comments like these and seemed to be about to turn dark. "Everyone thinks they have the emotional intelligence of a breakup guru. Do any of you even have a partner?"

[How many old movies has this anchor actually watched?!]

[Science Popularizer: Two months ago, the streamer played a four-hour game of MTGA, watching "The Breakup Master" and "The Ordinary Road" in between, and then spent the whole night complaining about those two movies.]

Four hours is so realistic!

"Don't even mention that guy to me. I even suspected he was watching a movie too, and he didn't need to do anything at all." Suolin was furious when she mentioned those awkward four hours. "I thought he would realize he was going to lose after about twenty minutes, but he could hold on for so long. What else could I put on the screen besides a movie?"

He just wanted to vent his anger on the tree spirit monster in front of him. Sorin, who had never switched weapons before, suddenly started switching weapons. His previous simple katana sword skills had turned into a variety of sword flashes mixed with various weapons, which greatly improved his efficiency in killing monsters.

Furthermore, some team members who were closer to Solin and could understand Chinese could hear him muttering to himself while slaying monsters: "You guys called me a single dog! You guys called me a single dog!"

"...The guild master is still single...?" A wielder of curved swords whispered to his companion.

"I think if the guild leader heard you ask that, he might get so excited that he'd cut off half your health," another teammate with a hammer whispered. "But I feel like something's not right. With our guild leader's appearance... it shouldn't be like this... cough cough."

"Stop talking, pack up your loot and keep going!" Solin overheard the entire conversation between the two, but since they were both his elite (and silly) players, he didn't intend to dwell on it too much. "Let's speed things up as much as possible, try to find the boss's room before nightfall, and then head back home."

I know: Old man Suolin is going to try and pick up some young lady.

Chang Wei! You still say you don't know martial arts!

"Guild Master, I don't understand. We should be able to deal with the monsters that get stronger after nightfall, so why do we need to go back before nightfall?" asked the swordsman standing to Sorin's left.

Sorin still remembered this person; he was one of the three victims who were swindled out of their weapons during the second-tier enhanced scam, and he was compensated with 50 DKP at the time.

“Svarta, if I had to come up with a reason, I could give you a lot. But the truth is, I want to be back in the main city before nightfall, though I can’t say why right now.” Sorin sighed and said to the swordsman, “Just consider it a personal reason of mine.”

"I wouldn't say I have any ulterior motives, I'm just curious. If you need me to, President, then let's speed things up." Swata scratched his head, seemingly a little embarrassed by Sorin's frankness. "Besides, we've been watching from the sidelines the whole way, we haven't had a chance to make a move at all."