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

"..." Solin thought for a moment, and realized that he had indeed been dealing damage from beginning to end, and had not slacked off even when using only one weapon. "Then I'll take my turn, you guys do the fighting, let me rest for a while."

The streamer, wielding a black sword in his left hand and a bright blade in his right, shouted: "Goushi, touch it!"

[It's okay to touch, too realistic]

[Shocking! He just touched me like that!]

However, Sorin's team members weren't unhappy about their leader's slacking off, since they had already been slacking off for quite some time. After another hour of progress, Agil's team finally found the boss's room and marked it on the map. Meanwhile, Sorin checked his watch and the guild chat every two minutes or so. Upon seeing Agil's message, he immediately tagged everyone in the chat to head back, and was the first to lead the team out.

"Just kidding, nobody can stop me this time. I don't believe they'll give me another card."

42. Just because I glanced at you in the crowd

After exiting the maze area, you only need to cross a short stretch of forest to reach the main road. After walking along the road for a while, you will reach the main city. This distance is actually much shorter than the distance from the dark elf camp to the main city.

"Then we'll meet at the city hall in the center tomorrow at noon for a meeting to discuss the boss's strategy. Dismissed!" Solin looked at the Edelweiss members standing in a circle in front of him, glancing at the time every now and then. After saying "Dismissed," he ran straight into the city, leaving everyone else stunned.

Only Agil probably knows what happened, but he couldn't possibly tell everyone about it, so when his squad members asked him about it, he had no choice but to play dumb.

So what is Solin doing right now?

"It's 5:10 now, there's still plenty of time to reason things out, but where are the people?"

He hurried along the main streets of the city, the sound of the wind and the noise of the street passing by his ears, but all he was searching for was the organ music he had heard that day, and that pure white figure standing under the moon.

At this moment, he desperately wanted Kirito to be by his side. In this situation, a high-level target acquisition skill would make it very easy to find his target. However, he also knew that this was just an unrealistic wish.

"Whatever happens, happens... okay, whatever happens, if fate allows, I can find it even if I wander around aimlessly." Solin thought about it carefully. The main city is only so big, and the target is a fixed point, so there will always be a chance to find it, as long as he doesn't get lost in the city.

Thinking of this, he slowed down and his mindset became more Zen-like.

"That's all for today's live stream. See you tomorrow, friends."

After saying that, he casually brought up the backend of the live stream, clicked the end of the stream in the lower right corner, and ignored the barrage of comments that instantly appeared: "[Solin, that old scoundrel, is heartless. I will live and die with the camera]".

[So-called enlightenment is simply creating a low-brow feeling of a massive online frenzy even in a black screen livestream room.]

[Alright, alright, Grandpa Solin has passed away. He's livestreaming from inside his cat helmet right now.]

[It was clearly the cactus on Grandpa Suolin's windowsill that was being broadcast live.]

[Bullshit, I went to check, the streamer's pet pigeons were inside the helmet, and their feathers were sticking out.]

We need a big enough rice container to get rid of all that sweetener on top (serious face)

[Confirmed by fans, exclusion process begins]

Of course, Sorin also turned off the comment assistant, out of sight, out of mind. His fighting spirit has now reached an extremely high level, and it can be said that no one can stop him from searching for Yuna's whereabouts.

However, some things are beyond anyone's expectations. At least, Sorin himself couldn't understand why such a coincidence occurred for a long time, and could only attribute it to the choices made by Steins;Gate. He certainly hadn't imagined that the girl who haunted his dreams would appear before him in such a way.

...or rather, his back.

Impacted by an unknown force, Sorin's hitbox overlapped with an object moving towards him at high speed, and then pushed him away.

"Who dares to harm me, you scoundrels?" Suolin asked, getting up from the ground in bewilderment. He turned around and saw four young men with brightly colored hair and clothes emblazoned with the phrase "Night Dew, Deathly Happiness, Superior" (meaning "The most desolate place in the night"). "Are you the four scoundrels?"

The four biker gang members, seeing Sorin's human-shaped weapon rack, were already intimidated before the battle even began, and simply glared at him with hostile eyes.

However, they did not know that in Sorin's hometown, such a gaze was itself a signal of war, and of course, the response to such a declaration of war was often accompanied by this statement.

"What are you looking at?" Suolin's tone was one of impending conflict. "Hey guys, are you guys from the underworld? Where did you get your kicks?"

(Note 1: The proper noun "立棍" refers to establishing a gang in a certain place. Here, "索林" is just using it sarcastically. Of course, you can assume that there is a corresponding word in Japanese.)

(Note 2: "Opening the slicing" is similar, referring to the start of a fight. Because machetes were commonly used in street fights in the past, it was called "opening the slicing".)

"We're looking at you! What's wrong with you?" The leader of the four biker gang mustered his courage, stepped forward, pointed at Sorin, and shouted.

This could be considered a direct response to the declaration of war. However, Thorin forgot one thing: this was a safe zone. And he had a feeling something was amiss. Judging from the distance between himself and the four bikers, even if he had flown a short distance, he shouldn't be this far away. This meant that someone else had knocked Thorin away.

The only possible location for him was beneath Sorin's feet. He looked down at the ground and noticed the slender white figure and the long, golden-brown hair scattered across the floor.

“I have come at your call, and I am willing to cut through the thorns for your sword, Miss Yuna. (Russian)” Solin bent down, took Yuna’s hand and helped her up from the ground, and asked in an extremely flamboyant tone, “Please tell me what the situation is now. (Japanese)”

After discovering Yuna, Sorin had no time to deal with the biker gang. Anyway, this was within the circle, and even if all four of them attacked him at once, Sorin was not afraid of them in the face of this kind of unarmed street brawl where no weapons could be used and no health was lost.

"..." However, Yuna didn't say anything, but simply hid behind Sorin. Sorin could clearly feel that the fingertips of Yuna's right hand, which he was holding, were trembling, and she was probably in the same state right now.

"Don't be afraid, I can handle these people quite easily." He whispered in Yuna's ear, "Leave it to me."

Sorin's naturally gentle voice and his words greatly comforted the frightened Yuna. She pulled her hand away, hid behind Sorin, and then tightly grabbed the hem of Sorin's [Senate uniform jacket].

“With you holding onto my clothes like this, it’s not easy for me to do my job.” Solin lowered his head, his tone somewhat troubled. “After all, as you saw, Miss Yuna, these petty villains can’t be dismissed with just a few words.”

"Hmm." Yuna's voice, barely audible, reached Sorin's ears. "Thank you. You're a..."

Sorin sensed something was wrong as soon as he heard the first half of the sentence, and sure enough, what Yuna said next was...

"...What a good person."

As everyone knows, people from the North always start a conversation with three sentences. Now, because Yuna gave him another "friend zone" card, Sorin, who was extremely unhappy, walked directly towards the four biker gang members, thus adding the last third of those three sentences.

"What the hell am I looking at you for? You jerk? Looking for a beating? (Chinese) Cyka Blyat (Russian)!"

He didn't like to swear in front of women, but if they didn't understand his swearing and the situation required it, then that was another matter. At least for now, he felt it was necessary.

As someone from a half-warrior race, Sorin, who grew up in Siberia, knew all too well that talking the talk was a major no-no. So, as soon as he uttered those two sentences, he charged forward, pinning down the tallest biker and unleashing a devastating attack. The ensuing melee was too chaotic to describe, but the final result was that the experienced Sorin was virtually unharmed, while the four seemingly weak Heisei bikers were bruised and battered, their eyes filled with terror as they looked at Sorin, even though their HP hadn't dropped an inch.

"Although it's finally resolved, it feels like I've seen this plot so many times before..." As Suolin walked back after finishing his work, he was still thinking to himself, "But I have to take the initiative. This young lady basically does nothing but give out friend cards. If I don't take the initiative, I'm afraid I'll never have a chance in this lifetime."

Thinking this, he raised his left hand to brush off non-existent dust from his body, then walked to Yuna's side, bowed, put his left hand behind his back, stretched out his right hand, stepped back with his left foot, and performed a very complicated greeting.

"Miss Yuna, would you be interested in having dinner with me?"

43. A Night Talk Under the Moonlight

Yuna stared blankly at Sorin, who was making such a flashy gesture in front of her, unable to utter a single word for a long time. Sorin, on the other hand, waited for Yuna's reply, but dared not move an inch.

"Damn it, I miscalculated. I can't move at all in this situation," Solin thought to himself. His hands were almost sore, but thanks to the slightly wider sleeves of his Senate uniform, there was no sign of trembling yet. "Besides, isn't it a bit too fast to bring up dinner right away? I'm not some French Casanova like D'Artagnan..."

Just as he was lost in thought, the voice that sounded like heavenly music to his ears finally answered him.

"Please get up, Mr. Sorin. Thank you so much this time." Yuna took two steps forward and placed her right hand on Sorin's hand. "I don't know much about your etiquette, but this is probably how it is."

"???" A million question marks immediately popped into Suolin's head. "What does this young lady think I'm from?"

He began frantically recalling what kind of cool he had acted when he first met Yuna, and then his thoughts suddenly stopped on this sentence.

"I just heard familiar music from my hometown, and out of curiosity I came to find out what it was, but I never expected to find a tree bathed in moonlight illuminating a beautiful woman."

"My God, does she think I'm Finnish?" Sorin realized this as soon as he understood, feeling that this guy was about to slip up. If he had actually been to Finland, it would be fine, but theoretically he was half Russian, so it was better to just clear up the misunderstanding, and it would be even better if he could use a more sophisticated way of putting it.

"By the way, may I ask what happened with those people just now?" Solin asked, while subtly sending a short message in the guild channel using the menu.

[SorinMarkov: @All Members]

[SorinMarkov: Does anyone know which restaurant in the main city is suitable for a couple to dine together? I need an answer urgently.]

"I...I don't know either. I was practicing bagpipes in the West Square when those people suddenly came over and said some unpleasant things to me. Then they started to touch me inappropriately, so I ran away." Yuna said, still sounding a little shaken. "If I hadn't met you, I really don't know what would have happened, Mr. Sorin."

“Just call me Sorin, Miss Yuna… Excuse my bluntness, but don’t you know that this game has an anti-harassment system?” Sorin asked, somewhat puzzled. “That should have taught those scoundrels a lesson.”

"Wow! There's such a setting? I really didn't know that," Yuna exclaimed in surprise. "But Sorin, you just said you wanted to have dinner with me. May I ask where we'd like to go?"

"Where are you going... wait a moment, let me think." Solin hadn't received a reply yet, so he stalled for time while urging him in the guild channel.

[SorinMarkov: Did you guys go back to sleep so early?]

[SorinMarkov: This is urgent and crucial! Please lend a hand!]

[Kirito: I remember there's one in the west of the city. Asuna and I went there a few days ago and it was pretty good... I'll send you the location.]

【Kirito: ! 】

[Kirito: Sorin, how could you!]

[Kirito: You're not the Solin I know! Tell me, who are you?]

After extracting the coordinates, Sorin immediately closed the guild channel and mapped the coordinates to a location on the map, discovering it to be a restaurant called "Waning Moon".

"If a surprise is revealed too early, it's no longer a surprise, Miss Yuna." Solin's tone was elegant and mysterious; after all, he was quite familiar with the "good spots" of these sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls. As for why he didn't have a girlfriend in college…

"Sorin's voiceover: How do you think I got my Hall of Fame status and all those trophies? Women are nothing compared to games!"

One of Suolin's seniors once told him some common sense about taking a girl out to dinner for the first time. Although Suolin had never asked a girl out to dinner during his entire university years, he still remembered these common sense tips, which would be enough to get by for a while.

The west side of the city wasn't far from where they were, and Solin quickly found the seemingly inconspicuous sign. While it might be considered inconspicuous compared to places like "XX Grand Restaurant" in China, Solin knew that generally, the more elegant and unassuming the sign, the more upscale it was.

This Western restaurant isn't very large, with only a few tables, but the ambiance is quite in line with Suolin's vision. The interior lighting is specially designed with a cool-toned, dim effect, just like the soft moonlight falling from a clear, cloudless night sky, perfectly complementing the name "Crescent Moon".

This reminded Sorin of the night he met Yuna. He stood to the side of the table, pulled his chair out slightly, his left hand still behind his back, and his right hand outstretched, gesturing for her to sit. After Yuna sat down, Sorin straightened up, slowly walked back to his seat, pulled out his chair, and sat opposite Yuna.

Ordering didn't take long, and the first piece of common sense the senior told him was: never bother the girl you're having dinner with to order. Although he didn't know why at the time, he figured it out later.

However, to his utter surprise, he was stuck on finding the first topic to discuss. And Yuna, being rather reserved, didn't speak first, causing an awkward silence to fall over the room.

“Sorin must be a music lover too,” Yuna finally broke the ice. “And you said you heard music from your hometown that time, are you Finnish?”

"That's not it. It's just that right now I prefer the feeling of being grounded to an illusory vision. Reality is our common home, isn't it?" Sorin quickly clarified, "I lived in Vladivostok, Siberia when I was young, and now I'm in China."

"Is that so...? Speaking of which, I heard before that you, Sorin, are a frontline player, right?" Yuna paused to think for a moment, then continued, "The guild leader of the Edelweiss Guild, [Thousand Swordsman] Sorin, I'm not mistaken, am I?"

“That’s true. In fact, when I met you, I had just returned from leading a team in the maze area.” Sorin nodded, tacitly agreeing with her statement.

"Actually, I've always admired people like you who are able to fight on the front lines. You must be working very hard."

Suolin suppressed the urge to reply with "Serve the people," coughed twice, and continued, "It's not about hardship, it's just that with great power comes great responsibility."

"After all..." He was about to continue talking about his usual dating strategies when he realized that he was now trying to woo a girl with the intention of dating her, so he forcibly changed the subject. "Ahem, compared to boring dating strategies, I still appreciate Yuna-san's performance more. I wonder if I will have the chance to hear it again in the future."

“If that’s the case, then I can help you,” Yuna suddenly said.

"What?" Solin asked in surprise.

"You guys are going to take on the boss guarding this floor tomorrow, right? I want to go too."

44. The First Mechanism Boss