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

"Well..." Solin seemed troubled as to how to help the girl in front of him resolve her inner conflict. He had been in the underworld for over two years and had seen his share of things, but no senior had ever taught him how to handle such a problem. Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered that he had a group of seniors who had definitely killed people and he could consult them. So he reopened the live stream and selected someone from his private message list.

"Hopefully they can give me some reliable conclusions or advice," Solin thought to himself, opening a chat window with the ID [Mox] and typing a line of text.

[SorinMarkov: I have a friend who just killed a bad guy in self-defense, and she's feeling down right now. Can you help me figure out how to comfort her?]

[SorinMarkov: Waiting online, it's urgent.]

65. I'm willing to spend the rest of my life protecting your smile. Will you say yes?

"Son, wait a moment, let's discuss this."

After hearing the rather unusual notification sound, Mo Tianfang immediately picked up his phone, saw the message his son had left for him, and hurriedly replied.

"What's going on? Did Xiao Mo find a place to eat?" Grace was the first to look up and ask, then slapped away a chopstick that was trying to reach into her plate with her right hand. "Damn shameless thing, don't steal my salmon."

"Good brother, I raised you from childhood to adulthood, and I even officiated at your wedding. Now you're complaining so much about eating a piece of your fish..." Chu Ziyu muttered to himself, but it felt strangely incongruous for him to say this with his childish, almost underage face. "Let me tell you, in a city as big as Tokyo, if Kayaba just found a place to hide anywhere, you'd be completely lost. I remember you guys have a guy whose code name is [Jackel], right? Why didn't you call him over?"

“Jackel, our older brother, and Thatcher retired last year. They’re all in their sixties and seventies, it’s not good to bother them anymore,” Surat replied casually, then looked curiously at Mo Tianfang. “Besides, it doesn’t look like they’ve found the location of the Maochang. It looks more like something else.”

“My son asked me, saying that a friend of his killed someone in self-defense and is now feeling down. He asked us to help him figure something out.” Mo Tianfang picked up his phone and showed Grace and Chu Ziyu, who were sitting across from him, what Mo Yulan had typed. “He said he’s waiting online and it’s urgent. Anyway, this problem has stumped me.”

He didn't show this chat log to Surat, who was sitting next to him, or Monica and Elias, because they couldn't quite understand it either. However, Grace's first reaction upon seeing the message wasn't to offer a seemingly appropriate initial explanation, but rather…

"Is Xiao Mo in love?"

"Yeah... wait, is your first reaction so strange?" Mo Tianfang had just finished asking this question when he saw Chu Ziyu across from him nod, her eyes filled with tears.

“Don’t say that, I think so too… This salmon is good, but damn it, there’s a bit too much wasabi juice on it…” He casually picked up a tissue to wipe his tears, folded it over and wiped his nose, and continued, “Don’t look at me, I have no memory of anything before 1972, I definitely forgot what happened when I killed someone for the first time.”

“As for me… the scene was too chaotic. I called out the names of five people from about thirty meters away. Later, when their light machine guns pressed up, I killed the two machine gunners. I didn’t feel anything then or afterward.” Grace recalled carefully and shook her head. “So is it really appropriate to ask us this kind of question?”

"So you're thinking too narrowly. There are clearly better ways now, but it seems none of you except me have thought of them." It was Surat who spoke. After saying this, he took out his phone and sent a message to someone else.

"Jack, there's something I need to ask you..."

------

Sorin himself hadn't stopped thinking, but it was indeed a difficult problem for him, so he simply said nothing, only gently holding Yuna and stroking her back like soothing a frightened kitten. Yuna didn't stop Sorin's actions; she just sobbed softly, but her trembling had stopped, as if Sorin's presence made her feel more at ease.

[Mox: I found a negotiation expert on our team. I'll send you our chat history in a bit, and you can decide what to do.]

"My God, Dad, you finally replied!" Solin thought to himself, while refreshing his inbox every two seconds, ready to receive advice from the negotiation expert.

However, after a while, when he finally received the message from Mo Tianfang, he looked at it carefully and found that something was wrong.

[Mox: Uncle Pulse's Advice.docx]

"Was that negotiation expert's method really to comfort Yuna instead of taking advantage of her vulnerability...? What is this? A strategy guide?" Sorin pondered as she carefully memorized what was written on it. After all, although it looked like a guide on "how to win a girl's heart," many of the things inside were worth referencing.

"Hey, have you cried enough?" Sorin whispered in Yuna's ear, his voice still so gentle. "If you can, please listen to me."

Yuna remained silent, but Sorin noticed that her head twitched slightly, as if she were nodding.

"Do you know? In this game, a red name means they've killed at least one innocent player. And everyone here was a red name back then. Do you know what that means?" Solin felt that this way of speaking seemed quite effective. At least now Yuna was able to respond to him, although her response was still not words but a slight swaying of her head from side to side.

"This means they already have lives on their hands. And my preliminary investigations indicate they are an organized group of players with red names. This is likely their pledge of allegiance; that is, to join them, one must already be a red name, for example, have a life on their hands. The very existence of such people is a threat to all other players, so there's nothing to feel guilty about, do you understand?"

"But... that shouldn't warrant killing them, right? We can just lock them up in the Black Iron Palace..."

“You should have heard the Chinese proverb, ‘A life for a life.’ When you can’t bring yourself to kill someone like that, the consequence could very well be the death of someone important to you. Think about it carefully. When you used your flute to kill that pikeman, what drove you to do it?” Sorin said, then suddenly seemed to remember something and handed the [Phializ Ode] back to Yuna from her inventory.

"I...I don't want that person to bother you, I don't want him to hurt you." Yuna stopped sobbing, and her tone softened again. "I understand."

Seeing that Yuna had finally managed to temporarily escape that subtle feeling, Sorin was naturally very happy. However, in his happiness, he also remembered the last sentence of the docx file from before.

"Girls are usually delicate and fragile inside, especially when they've just recovered from trauma. Once you've successfully comforted your friend, you can try using bolder words to break down her defenses (you know what I mean). Gustave successfully confessed to Grace back then, and that seems to be how it happened. Trust me, at least try; it won't hurt your feelings for her. —Pulse"

"Is that so..." Solin thought about it carefully and felt that what the bald uncle said made some sense, so he decided to give it a try.

"But remember this from now on. In this game, I am unconditionally on your side, supporting you. I will not let you stain your hands with blood again, and I will bear the consequences of your killings today. So put down your anxieties." Sorin held Yu's slender hand in his own, and said something extraordinary, "I am willing to protect you in SAO, and if possible, I am willing to spend the rest of my life protecting your smile after leaving SAO."

"Would you... agree to be with me?"

66. The cheat program is now online.

The scene fell silent once more, save for the gentle sound of the waves lapping against the breeze. This brief silence seemed to Solin endless, as if he were awaiting a verdict.

"Miss, do you want to give me a card or do you want to say yes? Just give me a straight answer, what is this?" Solin thought to himself, but all he could do now was wait patiently for Yuna to give him a reply.

He now felt as if he were standing on the guillotine, a sign stuck in his head, a muscular man standing behind him, waiting for the judge to toss his execution warrant, declaring, "Noon has come, execute immediately!" Since this was his first time experiencing something like this, he was naturally uncertain about his fate.

"It's advice from an experienced driver, so it should be fine, right..."

“…Mmm.” Yuna answered softly, nodding slightly, her fair cheeks flushed. She turned her head slightly, looking into Sorin’s sea-blue eyes beside her, and as if she had made a great decision, she leaned in and gently placed a kiss on his forehead.

“I promise you, Sorin, but it’s fine inside SAO, but outside…” She thought for a moment, then gave a slightly playful smile and explained, “It might only be an engagement, because I’m still a minor.”

Sorin still didn't respond immediately. Yuna initially thought it was the same situation as before, where Sorin would suddenly freeze upon seeing her, but after she tried shaking Sorin a couple of times, there was still no response, as if he had gone offline.

"Hey? Suolin! Don't scare me! What's wrong?" she called out anxiously, but Suolin, who usually responded with "Don't ask, just say awsl" (a Chinese internet slang for "I'm so happy"), remained silent.

Meanwhile, in the unknown area.

"Ahhhhh, Uncle Heartbeat, I love you! It actually worked! Huh?" Solin was so excited that he almost jumped up, but then he found himself in a white, empty area. There was nothing around him except for an orange-yellow concentric circle symbol above his head.

"Where is this? Why am I here?" Solin muttered to himself in confusion. Unfortunately, this space provided him with very little information, and he had no way of figuring out where he was. He could only guess based on his intuition. "Hmm... Is this where characters are created? Why was I suddenly teleported here? It's very mysterious and I can't explain it."

[A large-scale emotional fluctuation in the recipient has been detected. System activated.]

[System startup complete. Current status is default; no armor detected, status unchanged.]

Solin heard the voice of an electronic female voice, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. So far, he had heard three unfamiliar terms: "Sensor," "system," and "armor."

He could roughly guess that this was something that originally belonged to him, but he had never received medical anesthesia in the first half of his life, so it shouldn't be that someone could unknowingly put such a thing into his body... etc.

"After I entered SAO, I was supposedly housed in a ward at the University of Technology Hospital. Because the NERvGear blocked the electrical signals that controlled the brain to control the body, wearing the NERvGear was essentially like being under general anesthesia. If this so-called 'system' was implanted into him during this period, then everything makes sense."

Just as he was figuring out what was going on, the young woman's electronic voice gave him another hint for the next step.

[The user currently has Level D access, serial number 054. You can use all Level D access functions of the system.]

"This D-class doesn't mean the SCP Foundation's D-class, does it...? I don't think so, but functionally... these things are useless now."

Solin glanced at the D-level access permissions provided. Excluding a bunch of functions that required [Armor] to use, only [Self-Healing] and [Mind Acceleration] remained. [Self-Healing] appeared to be for emergency treatment, but it wouldn't affect his in-game character; in other words, it was for real-world use. [Mind Acceleration], on the other hand, seemed to be a useful function even within the game.

"Well, so this is another cheat code, huh... Let me guess what this thing does. Never mind, I'll just look at it myself." Solin muttered to himself, examining the description. The feature, called "[Mind Acceleration]," only mentioned that it "will speed up thinking to a certain extent, lasting three seconds, and can be used three times a day." Solin vaguely guessed it was a similar function to "bullet time," but it probably wouldn't actually increase his attributes; it would only give him more reaction time and a margin for error. Even so, it was still a very useful little feature in boss battles and regular monster grinding.

"We can't stay here too long, or Yuna will get worried. Let me think of a way out..."

Although the electronic voice lady didn't tell Solin how to log out, Solin just stood there, thought about logging out for a moment, and then his consciousness returned. He saw Yuna in front of him, who was so anxious she was about to cry, and smiled faintly.

"I'm back now, aren't I?" He smiled and gently patted Yuna's head, comforting her tenderly. "It's alright. I promised to protect your smile for the rest of my life, how could I leave first?"

After hearing Suolin's gentle words of comfort, she was no longer as worried as before. Relieved, she first wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, and then looked at Suolin in surprise once again.

"Sorin, your...your hair color is fading..." Yuna said, sounding confused. Hearing this, Solin quickly leaned close to the gunwale and looked into the water. His hair color had gradually faded from a light gold to a crystalline white, then solidified into a pure, bright silver. His eyes, once a clear, azure like Lake Baikal, now held a more alluring purple hue.

"I feel like I look more like a gigolo now..." Sorin thought to himself, but when he turned his head back, he saw that Yuna was also staring at him blankly, her face full of blush.

"What's wrong with you now, Yuna?"

“awsl.”

67. Master Wang, what is "super kill"?

For Sorin, this hurdle was finally over. He also predicted that the red-named attackers wouldn't launch a second attack for the time being, so he brought Yuna directly to the labyrinth area. The labyrinth area was located directly below Yuffie City, accessible from the other side of the waterway fork. In front of the labyrinth area was a shallow beach, the area where the gatekeeper boss of this level of the labyrinth was located.

This boss has a chicken head and a matching rooster comb, its lower body resembles a manta ray, and it even has two legs. Upon closer inspection, Suolin noticed that the legs actually have two chicken feet underneath.

"The design is a bit bizarre... Would you believe me if I said I knew what skills this mini-boss had just by looking at it?" Sorin said suddenly, looking at the familiar design of the mini-boss in front of him. "It's probably a weakened version, but if two people are fighting it... I might have to tank it."

"I remember the strategy guide said that this fish monster has the ability to spray water and dive. I wonder if it has been buffed in the official version." Yuna thought for a moment and replied, "But if we want to take down this mini-boss, we'll need at least a team."

"To be honest, as soon as you mentioned water spraying and diving, I pretty much knew I was right. But we still need to go up and try it out. If it doesn't work, we'll retreat." Solin said, jumping off the ship and casually drawing his katana. He twirled it with his sword. "After I engage, you buff yourself. Once you've got all the buffs, follow behind me and DPS, but be careful not to over-aggro... Never mind, you probably won't be able to steal my aggro."

"Although it's a correct deduction, it still feels like you're looking down on me." Yuna shook her head somewhat unhappily, took her flute from her waist and put it to her lips. Seeing Sorin charge in front of the fish, she immediately started playing the melody of "Katyusha".

"A familiar melody... wait, what's with this boss's name? Does Kayaba even know this kind of reference?" Sorin exclaimed after hearing the familiar intro, then saw the name next to the boss cursor—【Rooster Big Fish Monster】. "Friends in the live stream, can someone ask Master Wang next door what a super kill is?"

He shut down his livestream when those six red-named troublemakers came to assassinate him. After some crucial moments that weren't suitable for livestreaming, he reopened the livestream later on his journey. Of course, it wasn't too late yet, so there were still quite a few people in the livestream room.

The rooster-shaped giant fish monster has so much health it's practically a killer move.

The super move triggers during your turn, meaning that if your opponent attacks you during your turn, it's also a Rooster/Big Fish Monster combo.

After charging in, he immediately switched to a scythe and unleashed a basic attack, followed by a vertical slash skill to finish off the monster with a four-second disarm. Although the rooster-like giant fish monster didn't seem to be equipped with any weapons, it was still affected by the disarm debuff, glaring at Sorin with its outstretched hand (or perhaps fin?), but it never actually struck.

"So the current bosses are all susceptible to single-target crowd control. Normally, the Tyrannical Fish King boss would require two crowd control abilities to be controlled, but this isn't BNS, so we don't need to worry about the details." Sorin explained briefly during a break in the battle. "So here, after applying the debuff with the Final Blade, we immediately switch to our damage weapon, which is our Phantom Blade. We use the Kasaya Slash followed by the Spirit Blade Great Spin to sheathe the blade... There's no red blade effect, but we can just turn around and follow up with a Rising Dragon Sword."

This combo dealt significant damage, instantly reducing the damage of the ultimate skill. Even then, Yuna's first buff was only half-activated. After shaking off the disarm debuff, it slapped Sorin, but he quickly switched to his rapier and used the invincibility frames of the thrust to block it, then followed up with two normal attacks to further reduce Sorin's health before switching back to his katana for more damage.

Normally, the biggest advantage of the Weapon Master skill should be the ability to use different skills at different times. However, looking at Sorin's skills at these levels, the extra special effects seem to be designed solely to enhance output while constantly switching weapons. In this case, using one weapon as the primary weapon and reserving the others only for switching buffs would be the most cost-effective approach.

Using the scythe to control the monster, the katana to deal damage, and the rapier to soften the attack, the Rooster Fish Monster's health quickly dropped to the critical point of 75%, entering its second phase. Just as Yuna finished playing the [Sharp Concerto] buff and was about to play the second [Gale Rhythm], the Rooster Fish Monster suddenly ran to the center of the shallows.

"Stand behind me. I told you to crouch, so crouch. You can't block this skill without a shield." Sorin ran to Yuna's side and reminded her, then stood directly in front of her and raised his shield. "Crouch down now!"

Upon hearing Sorin's slightly anxious voice, Yuna immediately crouched down to defend herself, while Sorin, holding up her arm shield, stared intently at the rooster-like giant fish monster. She watched as it spewed a stream of water from its eerie beak, which struck Sorin's shield squarely, taking away a small portion of its health.

"This small shield has a parry function when facing monsters with relatively low strength. After parrying, the monster will be stunned. This is the first lesson that new Lords of Cinder learn from Gundyr in the early stages of the game." Thorin said this, and the giant rooster fish monster had already sprayed out four streams of water in succession. It was still standing in the center of the entire field, with steam constantly emanating from its body.

The surrounding water temperature was getting hotter and hotter, and this heat caused Sorin and Yuna's health to drop slightly. Sorin knew what kind of skill this was, but Yuna did not.

"Look around for anything blue, the kind you can hit, quick!" Solin said rapidly, then quickly scanned the surroundings and saw a strangely shaped blue herb suddenly growing in a spot not far away. He pointed at it and shouted, "That's it! Go and knock that down, then keep your distance from me."

Yuna instinctively responded, then jogged to the herb and swiftly severed its stem with a single stroke of her sword. In that instant, the entire herb transformed into a ball of blue light, freezing a small patch of shallow water nearby. Sorin found a similar object; although the freezing effect of a severed herb could cover both of them, Sorin, as the main tank, had other tasks and wasn't standing with Yuna.

After a period of gathering strength, the water in the shallows suddenly boiled, but the frozen area where the two were standing remained unaffected, only the frozen area decreased slightly. Just then, the giant rooster-shaped fish monster retracted its enormous fins and, in a very illogical way, dived into the shallows.

68. When you see this chapter in the morning, I'm actually still awake.

"Okay, now we can confirm that the boss's mechanics haven't changed at all. So this rooster-shaped giant fish monster will charge directly at the current number one threat after diving. This charge should be able to be blocked, and after blocking, there should be a relatively long period of free output time."