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

"Alright, enough said. It's already pretty good that you even made it here." After saying this, Yura glanced at the fifty-odd members of the [Boros Order] dressed in various red and white armor who had arrived in the conference room. Suddenly, she felt like two people were missing. "Wait, where are Kirito and Asuna? Why aren't they here?"

"You mean Detective Kirito and Moriasna? They've gone to handle the [Inner Circle Murder Case] ​​for me. By the time they're done, we'll probably have already defeated the boss." Sorin made a joke without thinking, then suddenly became serious. "Also, try to make the most of this time. I'm not going to slack off; I have things to do later."

"In a little while... are you perhaps going to test out the 'high-end, mysterious setting' you mentioned?" Yura looked at Yuna with a half-smile, her tone carrying a hint of amusement. "Will we soon see a child who inherits the Markov surname?"

“I think we can put these kinds of dirty jokes aside for now and talk about the boss mechanics first.” Sorin coughed lightly, his face flushed, and quickly tried to steer the conversation back on track. When Yuna saw Sorin’s reaction, although she had the urge to tease him, she stopped herself from doing anything that might waste time, considering that they had a little daughter waiting for them at Ya Wang’s place.

"Then I'll continue. This boss's name is Bai Xiang. After entering the battle, he will randomly copy one of the bosses from the previous 1 to 47 floors, and use that boss's skills at 10% and 30% health. After he uses his ultimate move after 30% health, he will be weakened for five seconds, return to his original state, and then switch to another boss. This means we need to review a lot and adapt to different situations. Suolin, I'll trouble you to give instructions as needed, since not everyone can remember the skills of every boss on every floor."

"You're overthinking it. There are some things I can't remember either. I'll just have to improvise. I'll just have to do my best." Solin pondered for a moment, then nodded. "In that case, we don't really need to have this pre-battle meeting. We can just set off."

He thought about it carefully, and this thing felt particularly familiar to him. He felt that it was a replica of that guild leader whose name he couldn't say, the cross-dressing master Razaf. It seemed that designing such a boss was really the malice of the world.

"That concludes our discussion. Let us now depart. May the glory of the Order forever accompany you all!"

------

Meanwhile, on the first floor, in the town of Origin, the headquarters of ALS & MTD.

“I think this child is indeed a bit difficult to take care of, Sinka.”

Yuriel looked at Ivyxin, who sat quietly to one side, with a headache. Ivyxin hadn't moved since Solin brought her here, her eyes unblinking, like a silent statue. Yuriel tried various methods to comfort or interact with Ivyxin, but as always, there was no response.

"Then let's wait a little while. Anyway, Mr. Sorin only said he was going to a war meeting, so he should... be back soon."

130, Hundred Phases T1 - Medusa Sword Saint

"Hello everyone, welcome to Sword Art Online brought to you by MagicTV and Suolin. Today, our live broadcast will cover the final boss of the 48th floor, named Hyakko."

The opening was the same as before. Since Sorin decided to leave quietly and keep his achievements hidden, Yura has been in charge of the floor boss battle. Sorin can now give some explanations or chat with the viewers in the live stream between boss battles, instead of shouting "Let's fight De!" like before.

He was standing at the edge of the Boss room, a lone free agent in his own team. He saw that the boss, named "Hundred Forms," ​​appeared to be a man wearing a black cloak whose face was obscured. The cloak was embroidered with dark blue patterns that, when put together, roughly resembled the shape of a spider.

[A hundred faces? Hassan?]

[It should be Dimir who is right]

[Did anyone see what was said upstairs?]

"The most frustrating thing about this boss is that it only starts to transform after entering the combat phase. And although it is extremely vulnerable during the first transformation, it is a magical girl and comes with a Holy Shield when it transforms, so we can only watch from here."

As he was explaining this part, Yura had already gone up to engage the monster. He drew his rapier from his shield and launched a swift, precise charge directly at Hyakki. After taking the initial damage, Hyakki seemed to melt away, her form rapidly transforming into a tall, beautiful female Gorgon, wielding two short katanas in each hand, glaring menacingly at the raiding team.

"T1 is the Medusa Sword Saint from the tenth floor! Everyone prepare antidotes, pay attention to your facing direction, and don't get hit by the Gaze!" Yura looked at the boss's appearance and immediately gave the order, "All tanks in the team, prepare to block the Gaze that reduces the boss's health by 30%! Sorin, is your shield enough?"

"That's enough. Just let me play as a free agent; I won't make any mistakes. Yuna will stand behind me for a while."

After confidently replying, Sorin drew his katana, casually twirled it, and then darted around to the back of the Medusa Sword Saint using two short thrusting sword techniques. He then switched to dual daggers and delivered two consecutive backstabs, finishing with a follow-up stab. "Yura, once you've established aggro, I'm going to unleash a powerful attack."

"Hold your hand tight, don't let the Medusa get below 30% before activating Gaze." Yura instructed, then raised her shield again, exposing her right hand, which she used for taunting. "Eek... Hmph... Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

"WDNMD... Yura, do you dare to use a different way to taunt me?"

Sorin turned around and shouted to Yura. By this time, Yuna had finished casting all her buffs and charged forward with her rapier, and naturally, he couldn't fall behind. Yuna had studied foil fencing in real life, and at first, when fighting monsters, she was more used to the rhythm of foil fencing competitions. Later, after spending more time with Sorin, she also learned to use normal attacks to cancel the aftercast animation of sword skills without interruption, resulting in an attack frequency as fast as a mad dog.

The Medusa Sword Saint will cast "Contempt" every time his health drops by 10%, randomly selecting a non-primary aggro target and casting a spell. After the cast is complete, he will petrify the target regardless of their current status. Therefore, interrupting this Contempt skill is crucial in this boss fight. The original strategy team used a mirror to reflect the petrification beam, but since none of them have a mirror, this Contempt skill can only be interrupted by someone with an interrupt skill.

Sorin was tasked with interrupting her. He kept a close eye on the Medusa Sword Saint's health bar, and when it reached 91%, he counted for two seconds. Then, he switched to his battle staff ahead of time, leaped up from the ground, and swung it in mid-air, striking the Medusa Sword Saint on the head. He then kicked her from behind, using the battle staff to pin her neck down.

"Well, let's try riding this Medusa Boss. To be honest, she's too small, so I can't guarantee we'll be able to ride her, but we should at least give it a try... Nice, we rode her!"

He adjusted his position, trying to stabilize himself on the Medusa Sword Saint, and then repeatedly thrust and stabbed him with a long dagger. The War Staff's mounting skill had a fixed cast time; as long as the boss wasn't thrown off before the cast time ended, it would temporarily knock the boss down. Of course, once he mounted, the first 10% health cast of the Defiance skill was interrupted.

"Okay, let's hold our ground and wait for him to finish casting... Alright, the boss is down. We have about ten seconds to deal damage. With our current weapons, we can switch to the katana to give her an eight-hit combo, then unleash a set of dual dagger skills, and finally use the rapier to do two normal attacks before sheathing and running away. Given Yura's high skill level, she shouldn't over-aggro."

[Eight...eight consecutive kills?]

[Eight-kill streak, so powerful, done in one fell swoop...]

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

Sorin continued his commentary, demonstrating a powerful eight-hit combo with his katana, called "Phantom Sword Dance"—the eight-hit combo he'd just mentioned. In reality, he still primarily used the same few weapons for damage output; the rest were reserved for special situations, such as a one-handed flail for armor penetration and a two-handed tower shield. Therefore, his damage output method hadn't changed much from a year ago; he'd simply adapted a few skills to deal higher damage as his proficiency improved.

This combo nearly killed the Medusa Sword Saint. Thorin forced her to skip a stage. By the time he finished the combo, stabbed her twice with his rapier, sheathed his sword, and ran away, he had dealt a full 13% damage, leaving the Medusa Boss with only 7% health remaining.

"I'm stopping now, or I'll lose my OT!" Solin shouted, then quickly retreated, switching to the shield that could transform into a full-body shield. He found a spot to stand and placed a mark on his head.

This is a common practice for tank players, because at higher levels, many bosses' gaze skills need to be blocked by the tank, making it crucial to identify the tank's position immediately. After unleashing her final combo, Yuna ran back behind Sorin, crouching and waiting for the Medusa Sword Saint's wide-range petrification beam.

With some preparation, the Medusa Sword Saint didn't cause much of a stir; even her team-wipe skill only hit the six easily repairable shields. She struggled for a moment, then collapsed to the ground, motionless. Her body gradually began to melt, transforming into another shape—a tall human figure holding a scepter and with the head of a jackal.

Chapter 131, Hundred Phases T2 - Frenzied God Hazore (Bonus Chapter 25/75)

This boss appears on the 35th floor. At that time, the 35th floor was an Egyptian-style desert environment, and the monsters were all similar to mummies or sand bandits. This floor was also a raid-type maze area, just like the 6th floor, with a total of five bosses named after gods. The final boss was this jackal-headed monster named [Frenzied God Hazore].

[Wow, that was Vasca a moment ago, and now she's become the Crimson God?]

Will there be more people from arid Hunan and those suffering from exhaustion?

[Didn't those of you who watched the gameplay before see Amonkai on floor 35? This boss has appeared before.]

"Red God on the 35th floor! Watch out for the mobs!" Solin recognized the boss immediately and quickly reminded him, while complaining to Yura, "Damn it, this is definitely the worst possible outcome!"

The five gods on the 35th floor will not attack when their health is at half. Instead, they will summon their respective minions to prevent players from attacking the boss itself, while granting their minions buffs based on their colors. For example, the fanatical god Hazore, representing red, grants a speed buff, making these minions extremely fast in both movement and attack. Once the boss's health has decreased by 15%, it will personally engage in the attack.

After transforming into the Crimson God, [Hundred Phases] stood motionless in the center, holding a double-pointed spear in one hand, just like the previous Crimson God. Then, eight Jackal Men and four Minotaur Crushers spawned from all directions of the room and attacked the players.

"DPS teams, go deal with the main body of the Crimson God. Tanks, spread out and pull all the monsters away. Don't kill the Jackals!"

Yura caught up with the command at that moment. This jackal had caused them a lot of trouble before, because although these monsters were not strong, if they were killed on the first summon, they would not refresh their corpses like normal monsters. Instead, they would stand up from the ground on the second summon, and even become stronger, with all their attributes increasing by more than double.

Even with this strategy, the second phase of the boss fight, when the Zealot Hazore begins her attacks, becomes exceptionally difficult. Sorin is essentially standing right in front of Hazore, relentlessly attacking like a mad dog, quickly rising to the top of the DPS list within seconds. Of course, he has his reasons for doing this, as Hazore clears all previous aggro in the second phase, so he doesn't need to worry about over-aggroing after the phase transition.

However, those players responsible for dealing with werewolves and focusing fire on tauren are now under the most pressure. They were facing a level 35 Zealot, but now it's level 48. The strength of both the boss and the mobs has increased significantly.

"DPS, kill the Tauren first! Ignore the Jackals!" Sorin looked up and reminded them again, slowing down his movements before heading to the chaotic front line. He found a Tauren wielding a giant wooden stake as a weapon. "Once the enemy is at 30%, clear the smaller mobs first. Ignore the newly spawned bosses for now!"

When the Mad God Hazore is at 30% health, her ultimate attack summons minions. However, since this boss is not the real Mad God Hazore but [Hundred Phases], she won't summon any more minions after her last summon. You can take advantage of her transformation to clear out three waves of 24 jackalmen before dealing with the new boss.

He reversed his grip on the katana, switching to the "Unknown Punishment" skill set, which was more advantageous in chaotic battles. The flashes of his blade occasionally slashed through the minotaurs known as "Arn's Swarm Crushers," taking down one every two or three seconds.

"Such swift swordsmanship... Is this the strength of our former guild master?" A swordsman who had recently joined the Poros Order glanced at Sorin during a break in the battle and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

"You only saw how fast his sword was, but he has ten swords, and every single one of them is just as fast." Another player, who seemed to have fought Sorin for a long time, calmly explained, as if he had gotten used to Sorin's explosive output. "He was once the hope of the entire strategy team, but unfortunately he was hurt by rumors."

"Is that so..." The swordsman muttered to himself for a moment. After watching Sorin cleanly and efficiently deal with the two minotaurs, he returned to his position and used another set of skills to wake up the Red God.

"We've entered T2! Everyone, watch out for fireballs and charges!" Sorin shouted again. "Yura, come over here and solo tank the Red God! The rest of you tanks, pull all the jackals away! Unleash a burst of damage and kill him instantly!"

Before Yura arrived, he first switched to a one-handed sword and charged in front of the Red God. After taking two normal attacks, he switched to a war staff to perform mixed attacks while dodging the Red God's thrusts and fireballs. Only after Yura charged and taunted him did he switch back to his offensive weapon to perform stationary attacks.

To use a particularly apt analogy, the members of the Boros Order were currently racing against time. They had to reduce the health of the Zealot Goddess Hazore before the tanks collapsed. Fortunately, just as the first tank responsible for drawing the adds was forced to retreat due to low health, Sorin finally managed to whittle down Hazore's health to its last shred. He watched as she swung her scepter, summoning eight jackals and four minotaurs once more, before melting them down again in preparation for her next transformation.

"Hurry up! Clear out those mobs quickly! Let me see what this monster turns into..." Solin ran non-stop to the area where the mobs were spawning to help deal damage, while also keeping an eye on the [Hundred Forms] in the center to see what it would transform into. However, after it completed its transformation, Solin suddenly felt like laughing.

"This story is called 'Three Battles with Ilfang,' that unlucky kobold lord has made us suffer three times already." He looked at the familiar form that [Hundred Images] had transformed into and muttered, "Does this mean it all started and ended here?"

------

First floor, the town of beginnings, the headquarters of ALS & MTD.

ALS & MTD currently have the largest player base in SAO. Among these players are many female players, who are quite curious about Ivy, who is sitting alone in the corner. However, everyone who tries to approach her feels extremely frustrated.

At this moment, Ivy Xin stared blankly ahead, sitting there motionless, ignoring anyone who came near, and anyone who tried to attack her was simply flung aside.

"This can't go on. When is Brother Suolin coming back?" Ya Wang looked at Ai Weixin and felt a real headache coming on. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Let's wait a little longer, although I don't know why a strategy meeting is taking so long."

Chapter 132. Don't stop! (Bonus Chapter 26/75)

An hour passed. Ivy remained motionless. The players who wanted to come and watch had been dismissed by Tooth King, and he now didn't know what to do.

"The message says the 48th floor has been cleared. The strategy team and another group of advanced players have already moved into the 49th floor." Sinka suddenly received this message, which he relayed to Ya Wang, and then looked at Ivy Xin with concern, "Mr. Solin... he should be back by now."

“I think it’s almost time. If we estimate based on the fastest possible time, he’ll use TP to come back and then directly…” Just as Ya Wang finished speaking, he felt as if a gust of wind had swept past him. His vision blurred, and he only saw a white figure flash past the doorway, rushing into the room and picking up Ivy Xin.

He felt Aivisin's small body trembling in his arms, and couldn't help but stroke her head tenderly, wanting to comfort her in his own way.

“Daddy, Ivy is very good. She didn’t cause any trouble for the uncles and aunties here… Please don’t leave Ivy behind again next time, okay?” Ivy whispered, her voice carrying a heartbreaking loneliness, like a kitten that had spent an afternoon alone at home. “Ivy is fine, she just misses you so much, Daddy.”

"Let's go home first," Solin said gently, then bowed to the three of them. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I'll take the child home now, and... thank you."

After saying that, he left ALS & MTD's location. His exaggerated departure from the raid site sparked considerable discussion.

Because the final stage of the Hundred Phases boss randomly assigned a boss that was arguably the most familiar and easiest for the team to defeat, they cleared the last 30% of the Kobold Lord Ilfang's health in less than five minutes. Due to the unique mechanics of this boss, nothing particularly special happened during the last 10% of its health; they simply eliminated the relatively weak Hundred Phases itself.

However, the moment Bai Xiang collapsed, everyone in the Boros Order stared in disbelief as Sorin said, "Okay, that's all for this episode. See you next time." Then, in front of everyone, he took out a teleportation crystal, said "[Transfer - Beginning Town]," and disappeared on the spot. No one even realized what had happened.

"Is this okay?" Yura found it very strange that Sorin left in such a clean and efficient manner. "Even if he was in a hurry, shouldn't he have let you come with him? Why was he alone?"

"Don't worry about the details, I'm leaving too." Yuna also said this, and left the Boss room with a crystal, leaving the remaining people looking at each other.

"Yura, what's going on?" Agil, carrying his giant axe, looked at the open space where Sorin and Yuna had been standing with some confusion. "Even if you're going back for your honeymoon, there's no need to be in such a hurry."

"Who knows? Maybe a daughter really did inherit the Markov surname?" Yura chuckled twice, then slung her sword and shield back over her shoulder and headed first towards the stairs opposite the Boss room. "We're almost halfway there! Once the fiftieth floor is breached, I've decided to have a grand celebration. I hope everyone can fight until then! I won't stop! As long as you don't stop, I'll be waiting for you up ahead!"

So, don't stop!

Because Sorin left early, he didn't see the chaotic scene in the Boss's room. He and Yuna didn't waste too many crystals, because Yuna later flew to the 22nd floor, and Sorin and Ivy saw Yuna waiting for them in the teleportation plaza as soon as they exited the teleportation array.

"This is really a headache... We can't keep doing this every time, there's still a long way to go to get to the top floor." Solin said this, of course he didn't mean to complain about Ivy, he was just a little tired of having to go through this every time, "But I think it might be worse for little Ivy to stay at home... Are there really no kindergartens or anything like that around here?"

"Thinking about it carefully, when you first started dating me, you subconsciously thought I couldn't fight, right?" Yuna seemed to suddenly remember something and said with a light laugh, "What if our little Ivyxin can fight head-on? Wouldn't we not have to worry about this kind of thing? Besides, you also said that in that story, Ivyxin was the guardian of the entire Innistorian timeline."

“There is some truth to that, but I instinctively don’t want women and young children to go to the battlefield, especially young girls like this. Maybe it’s because my family members are all soldiers.” Solin shook his head and ultimately rejected the proposal. “We are fighting now to keep our children out of danger. If we send little Ivy to the front lines, it would be putting the cart before the horse.”

“Let’s discuss this when we get back.” Youna looked at Ivy, who had fallen asleep in Solin’s arms again, and sighed, her tone seemingly tinged with jealousy. “It’s so sad that such a good daughter isn’t close to her mother at all, but clings to her father so much.”

“Look on the bright side. Who was it that said that once little Ivy was asleep, we would…” Solin’s lips curled up slightly. He lowered his head again to confirm that Ivy was indeed asleep, then leaned close to Yuna and kissed her.

Since they were outside, he was still wearing a mask. To an unsuspecting outsider, the scene inexplicably exuded the scent of citrus. Yuna was no longer as awkward as when she first started dating Sorin; she cooperated by wrapping her arms around Sorin's slender waist, then tilting her head back and standing on tiptoe, passionately responding to him.

A full minute passed before the two reluctantly parted ways.

“I told you so. It seems Sorin is getting impatient.” Yuna flirted with Sorin as confidently and boldly as ever, not worried at all that he would resist, and her hands became bolder as well. “But then I suddenly remembered, this is a virtual world, so it seems like I could have already…”