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

"There are 27*27 squares in total, divided into 81 independent 3x3 Sudoku puzzles. In fact, the Sudoku puzzles in this city are refreshed every day at dawn, so solving the floor Sudoku puzzle in this main city once became an impossible task." Kirito recalled the situation during the closed beta and explained, "Later, this Sudoku puzzle was actually solved in a way that was similar to cheating. They copied the entire Sudoku puzzle, solved it with a computer outside, and then filled it back in."

Solin was initially amazed by the method's ingenuity, but after thinking about it, he realized he could easily replicate it. So he stopped dwelling on it. Besides, there was another issue: he had been so focused on outsmarting PoH on the fifth floor that he hadn't really touched the quests there. Now he needed to at least do some quests to level up and acquire better equipment to maintain his current leading position among all players on the server.

There are many types of tasks on this floor, but after consulting with Kirito, Sorin chose the task with the most generous rewards from the closed beta test—a request from the lord of the main city on this floor. So, after parting ways with Kirito, he immediately took Yuna to the lord's mansion. Since this was another long questline, Sorin once again simultaneously opened his livestreaming room and screen recording software, beginning his regular work.

"Hello everyone, welcome to Sword Art Online brought to you by MagicTV and Suolin. We have just broken through the defenses of the fifth floor boss, [Void Giant Machine], and successfully arrived at the sixth floor. The sixth floor is a floor with various intelligence-testing activities, which is quite interesting."

"...Hello everyone, I'm Yuna." After Sorin introduced herself, Yuna greeted the viewers in the live stream in somewhat broken Chinese. Of course, her voice was still rather weak and shy, just like when she first met Sorin.

When this live stream turns into a stand-up comedy show, R18 jokes will follow immediately. I wonder if that will happen this time...

[Upstairs, please stop having such dangerous thoughts]

【sxj.j, awsl】

[Quickly tell us! What's the relationship between the streamer and the girl?]

[Wow, this girl can speak Chinese! Does that mean we can listen to crosstalk now?]

"No, no, no, I only talk like a comedian when I'm doing a live stream with Xiao Han or Qin Sanshu. Back then, we were all adults, so we had to be quick with our words. It's different now." Since confirming his relationship with Yuna, Suolin was afraid that his reputation would be damaged, so he quickly explained and steered the conversation back on track. "Okay, after consulting with Kirito, we're going to do the longest questline in this city. The first part of this questline requires us to find Stacion, the lord of this city. Then we might have to go through a CG sequence."

His commentary took place on the road, during which he briefly observed that it wasn't just treasure chests or various doors; even the access conditions for certain important NPCs and shops required solving a puzzle. Of course, his current goal wasn't to find and solve each puzzle; since he had already started the live stream, getting straight to the point was what he should do.

So, about ten minutes later, Solin and Yuna arrived at the city lord's residence. No other players had visited yet, so Solin and Yuna, as the first group to arrive, received a warm welcome from the city lord. The city lord had a long goatee, wore a magnificent Roman-style robe, and his small eyes gleamed with wisdom; he was clearly no ordinary person.

"Greetings, adventurers from the lower realms. You may call me Theron. What are your impressions of this city?" The city lord invited the two into his residence and then offered them a pot of tea. "Is black tea acceptable?"

"..." Suolin almost blurted out "Please commit suicide," and at this moment the barrage was filled with all sorts of disgusting comments, such as "The righteous are dead, so shall I die, and Yiling will remain forever." These comments almost filled the barrage assistant in the upper right corner of Suolin's field of vision.

“Starchion is a magical city, a true symbol of command, and I love it here.” Sorin thought for a moment and decided to go along with the city lord’s wishes, since praising the city in front of the city lord was definitely not a problem.

A simp who licks his boots will end up with nothing.

If it weren't true love, who would willingly become a simp?

However, this is only true under normal circumstances. When Lord Seron heard Sorin's praise, his expression wasn't one of pride. Instead, he sighed deeply, his voice sounding much older than before.

“This is not a gift from heaven to the City of Wisdom, or rather, this was never the City of Wisdom to begin with,” he said. “The reason it is like this is because of a curse.”

"A curse? Mr. Theron, would you mind telling us about this curse?"

Although Thorin failed to flatter the lord, he inadvertently advanced the conversation. At least for now, Lord Seron's explanation of the curse is the most valuable information for this mission, and resolving the curse may very well be the mission's objective.

"The reason this city is filled with intellectual games is a consequence of the curse placed upon the previous lord, Lord Paisagros. Lord Paisagros was a man who greatly loved number games and puzzles, and it was said that there was no puzzle he couldn't solve." Theron didn't directly answer Sorin's question, perhaps because even the person who designed this dialogue hadn't considered this point. "We all used to think so, because Lord Paisagros was simply too talented and so witty and perceptive; no puzzle could escape his meticulous thinking. Until that day, an uninvited guest came to this city, visited this mansion, and presented an extremely complex number puzzle."

“We all thought that Lord Paisagros, who was always invincible, would find this puzzle easy to solve. However, to our surprise, it stumped him for three days and three nights. What's worse, during those three days and three nights, he couldn't even figure out where to begin.” Theron sighed again and continued recounting what happened next, “So Lord Paisagros, enraged, used the golden Rubik's Cube at hand to kill the uninvited guest. And before he died, he left behind this curse. From then on, Stacion was filled with all sorts of intellectual games…”

89. The Curse of Pisagros

[Killing someone if they can't solve the problem is so realistic]

[Puzzle Solving (Physics)]

[It reminds me of when I was a kid, if I couldn't solve a Rubik's Cube, I'd just take it apart. This is probably the same principle.]

"...Looking at it this way, Pisagross is really a hardcore city lord. Hardcore puzzle-solving is the most deadly."

Sorin also casually made a comment, but he noticed that the city lord Seron stopped talking at this point and was not very willing to continue. So he decided to try to guide the NPC, since it would be unclear how to do the quest if he only talked to this point.

"But at the end of this story, only the traveler died at the hands of Pisagros, and it wasn't Pisagros who was cursed but the entire city of Stacion. What happened to Pisagros in the end? Why is Mr. Theron the current lord of the city?"

"...Because Lord Pisagros went mad after killing the traveler. For three days and three nights, he smashed everything in his path, becoming extremely irritable. And three days later, he left Stacion with that blood-stained golden cube." Theron's expression suddenly turned pained and uneasy, as if he were heartbroken and guilty about the matter. "Ten years have passed since then... I'm afraid Lord Pisagros is no longer in this world..."

He took a large gulp of tea in frustration, his brow furrowed, and his eyes, which had previously gleamed with shrewdness, dimmed.

"As Lord Paisagros's top disciple, I was appointed the city's administrator in a time of crisis, and I have been working tirelessly to lift the curse left by the murdered traveler. However, those terrifying puzzles continue to multiply every day, more and more!" His voice trailed off, high-pitched and shrill. "In this city, every house's inner door and chest are sealed by the curse of these puzzles. If this continues, we may soon be unable to live in this city... Respected adventurer, could you please find that golden cube and bring it to me? If we use that cube to appease the traveler, it will surely lift the curse on this city! Please help us, please help the city of Stachion!"

“Understood, we accept the mission.” Sorin nodded, then summarized the information Lord Theron had just provided. “Let’s review the mission background: a city lord, unbeatable in intellectual games, was stumped by a problem, so he decided to engage in a real-life duel, letting his opponent cast a curse that turned the entire city into this horrific state. However, to be honest, there are still some doubts about this mission. First, why would such a supernatural phenomenon as a curse occur in a place where magic is almost nonexistent? And second, why is Lord Theron so certain that offering the Golden Cube to the Traveler will lift the curse?”

“These are probably just mission settings. If we’re going to worry about so many details… there were a lot of missions before that didn’t seem very logical,” Yuna whispered in response. “So we just need to do what he says, right?”

“It’s just a habit. The tasks on the previous floors weren’t considered because those floors didn’t have the same distinctive features as this one,” Sorin said without hesitation. “And the theme of this floor is puzzle-solving. I find it hard to imagine that the tasks here will be as ordinary as those on other floors, without any added content.”

“Well, I’m obviously not very good at thinking about these things, so I’ll leave it all to you, Sorin.” Yuna nodded and whispered playfully in Sorin’s ear.

The girl was just biting my ear!

[Voice-centric fans are completely satisfied]

[It made my jaw drop]

"Hey, hey, hey, that's enough, you guys." Solin couldn't help but complain when he saw the terrible comments. Although he used to say "awsl" or "wtmsb" to the girls with these silly viewers, his stance changed completely when the girl everyone admired became his girlfriend.

"By the way, Lord City Lord, how should we find this golden cube? There should be some clues, right?" After teasing Solin (and the viewers in the live stream), Youna looked at Lord Seron and said seriously, "If we search aimlessly, we may not make any progress for a long time."

“Alright, but I hadn’t seen the old city lord for a while before he disappeared. If you want to find some clues, you might as well ask around among the people who are related to the old city lord.” Theron paused for a moment, as if he was thinking about something, and then suddenly continued, “Mr. Sai, Lord Sargerus’s steward back then, is now the owner of a prop shop in the south of the city. You can try to find him.”

"I understand. Farewell, Lord City Lord." Solin nodded, saw the cursor above the City Lord's head change from a yellow "!" to a "?", and then left the City Lord's mansion with Youna.

The city lord's mansion is located at the northernmost part of the city, and it would take the two of them a long time to walk to the south. However, the scenery along the way was quite nice. After all, apart from the theme of intellectual games, this city was at least a normal city, not a ruin like the fifth floor, so it looked much more pleasant.

"By the way, I heard that many people have set up their residences in the first three floors of the main city. All the suitable accommodations in the first three floors have already been taken." Yuna walked along the road, thinking about this problem, and suddenly became worried about the accommodation issue. "It seems that they are all very unwilling to live on this floor."

"Ah...it doesn't really matter. I can handle any project as long as it's not particularly outrageous. Actually, if you ask me, we can find a place to stay first, and then test how difficult this room is."

Solin comforted Youna, glancing at the time. It was already noon when they arrived at this floor, but after leaving the city lord's mansion, it was past one in the afternoon. This was normally the hottest time of day, and Youna had somehow managed to open a parasol and was now nestled beside Solin. Thanks to Solin's relatively modest build, the not-too-large parasol provided just the right amount of shade for both of them.

“Sometimes I think, if time could stand still at a certain moment, and you could stay by my side forever, how wonderful that would be.” Solin looked at You’s profile so close to his and suddenly sighed, “If you can, stay with me for a while… just for an afternoon.”

"You've been traveling for so long, and you didn't even get a break on Christmas Day because of an accident. You must be exhausted, Sorin." Yuna looked at Sorin with some concern, noticing the weariness that could not be concealed in his blue-purple eyes, and then gently stroked them with her right hand. "You can rest as long as you want, I'll stay with you."

90. Magic Squares and Sequences

The ambiguous atmosphere only lasted a short while. After all, Suolin was still streaming, and such public displays of affection usually drew the ire of many single viewers. After a barrage of "FFF" comments flooded the chat, Suolin decided to avoid the drama and ended the stream immediately, pausing the recording.

He chose a hotel that looked like a Rubik's Cube. The hotel door was locked, and there was a 3x3 grid drawn on it. Next to the grid was a sign that read: "Please fill in the blanks with numbers, ensuring that the sum of the numbers in each row is the same."

"...Sorin, do you know how to do this?" Yuna asked softly. "It looks like it's going to be difficult, since there aren't any numbers provided."

"This is a relatively old number puzzle. Its scientific name is a 3x3 magic square, which was called the Nine Palaces Diagram in ancient China." Solin explained simply, then clicked on the nine-square grid and filled in the numbers one by one, "Nine on top, one on the bottom, three on the left, seven on the right, two and four on the shoulders, six and eight on the feet, five in the center, done."

"That sounds pretty impressive." Yuna watched as Sorin filled in all the numbers, and then the door opened with a click. She couldn't help but admire him. "But what did you mean by all that you were saying just now?"

"It's the solution formula for a third-order magic square. If we personify this 3x3 grid, '戴' refers to the hat on the person's head, and '履' refers to shoes. '戴九履一' means filling the top middle number with '9' and the bottom number with '1'. '左三右七' means the same thing." Solin thought for a moment and explained, "2 and 4 are filled in the shoulders, that is, the top left and top right corners, 6 and 8 are filled in the bottom left and bottom right corners, and finally, 5 is filled in the middle."

After saying that, he pushed open the door and walked to the NPC shopkeeper. He rarely chose the first floor of a hotel when traveling for matches, a habit he carried over into SAO. There were many rooms on the second floor, so he randomly chose one with a balcony facing the street, and then had Yuna pay for the room, as his several weapons requiring high-level enhancements had already emptied his wallet. Although Yuna didn't say anything, Sorin felt extremely ashamed of his behavior, which resembled that of a kept man.

Of course, that's a story for later. After reaching the second floor, Sorin followed the signs and found their room. Then, looking at the six empty spaces on the door, he pondered. The door to this room also required solving a numerical puzzle to open, but this time there were almost no clues, only six empty spaces, a number [35] next to them, and a vague hint.

[Six-digit number, decimal places, no repeats]

"At least give me some other hints! I don't even know what this thing is asking me to fill in, how am I supposed to play the game?" Solin shook his head and casually filled in a string of numbers [123456] into the blank. After the string of numbers was entered, a vibration suddenly came from the side of the door, and at the same time, the words [0A3B] flashed below the six blanks, and the 35 next to it changed to 34.

“I think I understand the game now.” Solin said, entering 567890 without hesitation. The [0A3B] that flashed below remained unchanged, except that 34 had changed to 33 again.

"What is this?" Yuna found that her thinking ability had dropped rapidly since she got to this floor, probably because her thinking was more like that of a typical liberal arts student. "This should be the password, but why are we trying it like this?"

"This password means it has six digits in total, possibly six numbers from 0 to 9, and no repeated digits. 'A' means the digits are in the correct positions, and 'B' means the digits are correct but in the wrong positions," Solin explained, leaning against the door. "'35' refers to the number of attempts. My two attempts just now failed, so the number of attempts has changed from 35 to 33. That's it. Actually, there's a certain pattern to this. If nothing unexpected happens, about twenty attempts should be enough to crack the password."

他采用的策略是最简单直接的那种，也就是在第一次123456和567890都得到0A3B的反馈之后，首先确认5和6的情况。于是他输入了555666，得到一个0A0B的反馈，排除掉了5和6两个选项。

"Now we can confirm that there are six correct numbers between 1234 and 7890. Next, let's try entering 123478." He said this and entered the string of numbers. This time the feedback was 1A4B, which is a very gratifying answer.

"1A4B...Does this mean we've already guessed five of the numbers correctly, and now we just need to confirm which five they are?"

"That's how it is. And we also know that there's another correct number between 9 and 0. We need to verify it now." Solin said, inputting six 9s and getting the feedback 0A0B. He then determined that the last number was 0. So far, he had used up five chances, and Solin had narrowed down the possibilities to seven numbers.

"To be honest, this progress is a bit slow, but I haven't played this kind of thing much before, so this is the best I can do." Sorin looked at the prompt that there were still 30 attempts left by the door, stopped and began to think carefully. Yuna, who had only been watching the excitement from the beginning, couldn't help but feel nervous under these circumstances.

She didn't make any sound that might distract Solin, afraid of interrupting his train of thought. About half a minute passed like this, and then Solin suddenly raised his hand again and entered a string of numbers.

【123780,0A6B】

"The first step is done, good luck." Solin nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the result. Besides confirming the six digits were 012378, there were some additional discoveries: this time, apart from the newly added 0, only 7 and 8 changed positions, but the correctly positioned digits were no longer present. This indicates that in the 123 78 attempt, the positions of 7 and 8 might be correct.

“This time, we can determine a number by trying and eliminating one more time. In order to separate the variables, we must now change the arrangement within the smallest possible range. So let’s keep the first four numbers in the same order and swap the last two numbers.” As Suolin said this, he used his seventh attempt and entered the six numbers 123708.

【123708,2A4B】

This makes things much clearer; it instantly changes from A66 to A44. Assuming all other digits remain unchanged, the only two correct positions are 0 and 8.

Moreover, the problem is actually solved here, because there are only 24 possible arrangements of the first four numbers, i.e., A44. After eliminating the order 1237, only 23 arrangements remain. Solin has 28 chances left, meaning he only needs to exhaustively search all the permutations to find the password.

At this point, Sorin became somewhat reluctant to think. Of course, he still patiently explained to Yuna what had just happened and why the problem was solved so quickly. However, his luck was really not good; without any thought, he only managed to guess the password on the twenty-third try.

[327108, 6A0B, unlocked successfully]

Ninety-one or eighty percent certainty? (Bonus chapter 4/75)

The room was fairly well-equipped. There was a table that wasn't too big, a double bed, and a washroom cubicle.

After entering the room, Suolin went straight into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Generally speaking, in this virtual world, one wouldn't experience any unusual sensations from not showering for a long time. However, many people habitually engage in this meaningless cleaning activity every now and then.

"Please wait a moment, I'll try to be quick."

"Ah."

Yuna responded with a soft "yes." She removed her Serenia-style leather armor set, changed into a white nightgown, and quietly lay down on the bed to wait. She felt quite tired after such a long journey and desperately needed a good rest.

Meanwhile, Solin removed all his equipment, lay in the bathtub, turned on the shower to adjust the water to a suitable temperature, and then opened the private message page of his live stream, finding Grace's ID: Dokkaebi.

"How's it going on your end? I'm about 80% sure I've identified Kayaba Akihiko's alias. Now I'm just waiting for you guys." He typed this message by waving his hands in the air.

"So fast... but we've run into some problems on our end." A reply came quickly from the other side, but the situation seemed less than optimistic. "Our investigation has encountered significant obstacles from the Japanese side, and we're temporarily unable to locate Kayaba Akihiko in the vast expanse of Tokyo. By the way, you said you were 80% certain, so what's your basis for that?"

“He revealed his biggest weakness to me, a piece of information about me. Of course, it still needs further confirmation. I need to know if any of the contracted players from Sunnyvale and Musashi, as well as all Japanese Gold-level or higher Pro players, are trapped in SAO. If not, then the chances of success will increase to 90%.” Sorin’s words were full of confidence, but he knew that now was not the time to reveal everything.

"You mean... the Magic: The Gathering pro?" Grace replied after a long delay. "I may have to wait a while to give you the relevant investigation results, because this information is not in our circle."

“I can give you a suggestion. Call this number and contact a man named Liu Ziyang. He’s the owner of a club there and should be able to get the relevant information as soon as possible,” Suolin said without hesitation. “I don’t plan to alert them right now, but I hope you can hurry up. I don’t want to stay in this godforsaken place anymore.”

“However, the reality is this. We’re being investigated like a cat chasing a mouse by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and if we get caught, we’ll be deported. They’ve already rejected visas for several agents who were planning to enter the country to support our investigation, so we’re truly fighting alone now.” Grace’s reply carried a hint of helplessness. While Sorin had heard about the country’s efficiency, this was the first time he’d encountered such a situation. “If we try to proceed slowly while protecting ourselves, the progress will be extremely slow, conservatively estimated to take about six months.”

“…Alright, if the situation is this awkward on your end, I can accept waiting here.” Solin sighed, turned off the water, stood up from the bathtub, rubbed a liquid that should be called shower gel on his body, then lay back down in the water, turned on the showerhead to rinse off the foam. “However, please give me a result as soon as possible regarding the matter I asked you to investigate. I’m still a little unsure about the 80% certainty.”

He closed the private message page, then reached into the bathtub to empty the water, dried himself off, found a set of pajamas in his inventory, put them on, and opened the bathroom door.