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

“However… I’ve come here only to uncover the truth. Your accusation is unfounded, sir.” Grimlock smiled, then calmly retorted, “What you just described is only one scenario. Where do you think the items a person is still wearing before they die will end up?”

"That ring has a really high stat boost, so it wouldn't be a problem to try it out before deciding to sell it, right?"

He smiled at Sorin, seemingly confident of victory. After all, the two, familiar with the game's mechanics, understood that without more concrete evidence after his explanation, their accusations would be invalid. However, upon hearing this, Sorin glanced at his hands and nodded knowingly.

"Do you really think your explanation is flawless, Mr. Grimlock?"

136. The Aftermath of the Murder in the Industry (Part 3) (Bonus Chapter 28/75)

“Objection!” After saying those words, Sorin switched from Detective Conan to Ace Attorney, turning to the side and pointing at Grimlock once again. “This flaw would be hard to spot if one wasn’t simultaneously the president and husband.”

"Wait a minute, Sorin... are you still the guild leader?" Asuna looked at Sorin with some confusion. "Isn't Yura the current guild leader?"

“I only transferred the guild master authority. If you look closely at the guild page of the Boros Order, you'll see that I'm still the guild master.” Sorin calmly answered Asuna’s question, and further explained, “If I remember correctly, the deceased Ms. Griselda was your guild master before, right?”

“That’s true, but so what?” Grimlock retorted without changing his expression.

"As we all know, in the game SAO, each player only has two ring equipment slots. Since Griselda is a wife, she should be wearing a wedding ring on one of her hands. At the same time, as the guild leader, she will definitely be wearing her own guild mark ring, just like me."

As Sorin explained, he raised his hands. Just as he said, he wore the lily-of-the-valley shaped ring that Yuna had given him on the ring finger of his left hand, and the red and white fist-shaped Boros mark on his right hand.

"These two rings are impossible to remove under any circumstances; one side represents career, and the other represents love. So, I would like to ask Mr. Grimlock, where do you think she found a third ring to wear that expensive ring on her hand to experience its powerful attributes?"

“Then I don’t know what happened. But in any case, your accusations are still unfounded!” Grimlock remained calm as he looked at Sorin, sneering and denying it outright. “You should at least hear what I have to say first. Griselda is my wife—how could I possibly kill her? This is completely illogical. You’re just slandering me.”

Now even Sorin was at a loss for what to do. After all, all his testimony so far had been based on deduction; he didn't have any irrefutable evidence to prove that Grimlock hired a red-named player to kill Griselda. The situation reached a stalemate, and he fell silent.

However, upon hearing Grimlock's words, Yoko suddenly trembled. She pointed at Grimlock and slowly shook her head.

“You’re wrong. I have evidence… The person who murdered the guild leader left all the items they deemed worthless at the murder scene in the leveling area. The player who found the items happened to know the guild leader and returned her belongings. And now, her belongings… are right here.”

As she spoke, she stared straight at the spot that served as the cenotaph for the former president, Griselda, and then slowly walked over, digging into the ground with her sword.

Soon, she dug a small pit in the ground. At the bottom of that pit was a small wooden box, about the size of a jewelry box.

"Is this the [Permanent Preservation Box]? I prepared one for little Ivy before." Solin looked at the small box, which was about ten cubic centimeters in size, and suddenly realized, "This should contain the relics you mentioned."

Yoko didn't speak, but silently opened the box. At the bottom of the box was a piece of white silk cloth, on which were placed two rings. One was a larger silver ring engraved with an apple pattern, and the other was a small ring that shone with a golden light, with the name Grimlock engraved on the inside.

"This is the [Golden Apple Seal] that was always worn on the Guild Master's right hand, and this is—her wedding ring that she always wore on her left ring finger, Grimlock! Your name is clearly engraved on the inside of the ring! These two rings are irrefutable evidence that the Guild Master was still wearing them when she was murdered! Am I wrong? If I am, then refute me!"

Yoko initially tried to control herself, but by the end, her voice was choked with sobs. Tears streaming down her face, she showed the wedding ring to Grimlock.

For a long while, no one spoke. Kainz, Schmidt, Asuna, Kirito, and Sorin simply held their breath, staring wide-eyed at the two of them.

Grimlock was also stunned. After a short while, he slowly spoke.

“That ring… Yoko, you asked me on the day of the funeral if I wanted to keep this ring, right? And I answered that I should just let it disappear. If I had said I wanted it then…”

Grimlock lowered his head, collapsing to his knees like a puppet that had lost its support. Yoko put away the ring, looked up at the sky, letting her tears flow, and whispered in a deflated voice.

"Why...why did you do this? Why did you kill your wife for that ring? Did you just want money that badly?"

Solin shrugged helplessly. He had thought that was the end of it, just like the black teams he had encountered with their black AL swords and black egg daggers—it was just that someone had died in this death game. However, he really didn't expect that there would be such a surprising development afterward.

"Money...you're saying I want money?"

Grimlock chuckled in a hoarse voice, waved his left hand to bring up his inventory, and tossed out a money pouch. Judging from its heavy weight, it contained quite a lot of Kolko.

“This is the other half of Cole that was left after selling that ring. I didn’t spend a penny of it. I… I’m going to kill her while she’s still my wife, no matter what.”

This was completely unexpected for Thorin. He had been somewhat disappointed by the ending of the story, but after hearing Grimlock's words, Thorin's interest was piqued again.

“Griselda, Grimlock, it’s no coincidence that these two names start with the same pronunciation… In the real world, she is also my wife.”

"WTF?" Thorin was taken aback. Although he had vaguely had this feeling before, his guess was different from hearing Grimlock say it himself. "There's such a thing as this?"

"Sorin, don't interrupt, let him speak." Kirito was also surprised. He quietly nudged Sorin, signaling him not to rush to criticize.

Solin was also quite curious about the story, so he readily shut his mouth. And after that, he heard a bizarre tale he had never heard before in his life.

Chapter 137: The Aftermath of the Murder in the Industry (Part 4) (Bonus Chapter 29/75)

"To me, she was the perfect wife, without any flaws. You could even say the idiom 'a wife who follows her husband's lead' was created for women like her. She was so lovely and obedient; we never even had a single argument. But... after we were imprisoned together in this world... she changed..."

Grimlock shook his head, sighed softly, and continued.

"I'm the only one who feels fear and terror because of this inescapable death game. I never imagined she would have such talent, both in combat and judgment. Griselda... no, [Yuko], she far surpasses me. And not only that, she finally established a guild against my wishes, recruited members, and started training herself. Compared to the real world, she's full of energy and living a very fulfilling life... Seeing her like that, I have to admit that the Yuko I loved has completely disappeared. Even if someone completely conquers the game and returns to the real world, the Yuko who always went along with me will never come back, never."

His shoulders trembled slightly, whether from self-mockery or grief over the loss of his beloved wife, it was hard to tell. After listening to this long monologue, Suolin finally couldn't bear to listen any longer.

He stepped forward and slapped Grimlock hard across the face. Of course, while he said hard, he actually controlled the force, so he didn't inflict any damage or turn Grimlock into an orange cursor.

"You're a fucking piece of trash! Coward! You've shown me the depths of Japanese scumbags, Grimlock!" Sorin roared. "Because you can't keep up with your wife, and you're worried she'll dump you after leaving the game... then pull yourself together! Using methods like this... are you even a man?"

“No, you don’t understand. When you gain love and are about to lose it, you will also…” Grimlock passively endured Sorin’s rebuke, still looking dejected and disheartened.

“I can’t do anything, because I’m not as cowardly and weak as you. At least I know what a man, a husband, should do.” Sorin had calmed down a bit by now, his tone flat but full of contempt. “Your feelings for Griselda aren’t love at all; they’re pure possessiveness. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, the problem is that you’re a useless piece of trash. You’re incapable of maintaining your possessiveness, so you can only resort to such despicable means. If you really loved her, you would find a way to catch up with her, not…”

"Say what you want..."

Grimlock replied dejectedly, seemingly no longer wanting to dwell on the matter with Sorin. However, he probably didn't realize that Sorin's initial contempt for him had shifted to something else entirely.

"Kirito, are all the men of your Yamato race like this after the war?" Sorin was very annoyed by Grimlock's submissive attitude and casually made a sweeping generalization. "I'm not surprised at all by the term 'Heisei otaku' now, and I even think there's some truth to it. People like this wouldn't even have a chance to find a wife in the Federation or the Tohoku region."

An awkward silence fell over the scene once again. Schmidt and Kainz wanted to refute Sorin's statement, but looking at Grimlock kneeling on the ground, they didn't know what grounds they had to refute the man's contemptuous words.

"...Mr. Solin, could you hand this man over to us for disposal? Of course, we won't resort to vigilante justice, but we will make him pay for his crimes. Also, this estimate is an isolated case; in statistical terms, it's called a sample that is not representative and cannot be used to estimate the population."

"He said in a deep voice, he was no longer as timid as he had been just now," Schmidt said.

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you." Solin sighed and said in a emotionless voice, "Although this story isn't really to my taste, it has certainly broadened my horizons."

Schmidt nodded silently and bowed deeply to Sorin.

"Anyway, thank you all. If it weren't for you..." Yoko no longer felt the same fear she had towards Sorin before, even though she had witnessed Sorin kill another red-named player and almost kill PoH, the leader of the red-named players. "By the way, Mr. Sorin, since you are not a red-named player, why are you wearing a mask?"

"...Do you really want to know?" Sorin asked helplessly, looking at Yoko's expectant eyes, then slowly removed his mask. "This is the reason. Are you satisfied?"

"..." Yoko stared blankly at Sorin's exquisite face, which could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. For a moment, she didn't know what to say. She just stood there, and after a long time, she finally managed to utter this sentence, "Is this the reason..."

"Of course, it's also thanks to you for providing enough evidence to prove you're a Fatal Push, Miss Yoko." Sorin looked at Yoko's reaction, put his mask back on, and said seriously.

“Hmm… You might not believe it, but it was actually Miss Griselda’s voice that told me to take out those two rings just now,” Yoko suddenly said. “I heard her voice at that very moment.”

When Sorin, Kirito, and Asuna heard Yoko say that, their faces immediately showed expressions of utter disbelief. As soon as she spoke, a golden shadow suddenly appeared in front of the tombstone not far from them—a semi-transparent female player. She was fully armed, a confident smile on her face, and a confident gleam in her eyes.

She gazed at the three people with Sorin, then extended her open right hand. The three of them instinctively extended their right hands simultaneously, clenching them tightly the instant their palms felt warmth. It seemed to be a message she wanted to convey; although Sorin couldn't understand how she did it, he certainly received the message.

“I will carry on your legacy… and one day, I will free everyone from this game. I believe that day is not far off, Miss Griselda.”

Sorin muttered to himself, watching the golden figure that might be Griselda disappear in the distance, then silently bowed towards the direction of the tombstone.

"Well then, I'll be going now, Kirito. See you next time in the campaign." Sorin said this, and gradually walked away towards the main city. After he had walked far enough, he brought up the live stream interface and switched to the in-game chat.

"I don't want to play offline PvP, PoH, you forced me to." He muttered to himself as he sent a message to Grace.

[SorinMarkov: Do me a favor, find out where the player with the ID PoH lives, and then kill him. Consider it a personal request; he's the biggest destabilizing factor right now.]

Chapter 138, The Zero-Level Maze (Part 1) (Bonus Chapter 30/75)

Solin left in a hurry. After all, he hadn't forgotten that when he first came out, he only told Aivixin to wait at home, and now Aivixin and Youna should still be waiting for him at home.

This time, he didn't need to use Teleport (TP). After all, even for a player as wealthy as him, using TP so frequently wouldn't be a small expense. However, just as he reached the main city gate, Yuna suddenly sent him a message.

[Yuna: Come find me on the first floor, it's urgent. I brought Ivy with me.]

[SorinMarkov: Just a moment, I'll be right there.]

Solin casually replied, then jogged to the teleportation array on this level of the main city and placed his hand on it.

"Transfer - The Starting Town!"

The familiar teleportation method, similar to switching maps during a Temple raid, brought him to the square of the Town of Beginnings when his vision cleared again. At that moment, Yuna was holding Ivy's hand, standing at the entrance of the teleportation array. Upon seeing Solin, she immediately asked with some concern.

"Solin, are you... alright?"

"I'm really annoyed. First, PoH was left with just over a hundred health points and escaped with the rest of the team. Then I heard a story that made me rethink some people's values," Sorin complained, then looked at Yuna with a puzzled expression. "By the way, is something urgent? Why are you in such a hurry?"

“Someone from ALS came and said that Ya Wang and Sinka were attacked by an unknown monster and are now trapped in the safe zone of the hidden labyrinth beneath the Black Iron Palace.” Yuna explained the situation as concisely as possible. “The person who contacted me was Yuriel. She can’t reach the two of them now, so she had to ask us for help.”

“I… well, this is really giving me work.” Solin shook his head helplessly, but the fighting spirit in his eyes, which had not been completely extinguished, reignited once again. “Take me to see Yuriel first, and I can leave little Ivy with her as well.”

“I’m afraid that won’t work.” Youna looked at Aiweixin with some difficulty. When Aiweixin heard Suolin say this, she ran to Suolin’s side, gently pinched the hem of his clothes, and looked at him with eyes full of longing.

"Dad, are you going to abandon Ivy again?" Her fragile voice carried a heartbreaking quality. "We made a promise... and Ivy won't cause you any trouble. Please don't leave Ivy, Dad."

Solin was usually ruthless about these kinds of things, but seeing Ivyxin like this, he couldn't help but soften. After all, this was just a rescue operation, and there wouldn't be any particularly powerful bosses. Even if he hadn't experienced the zero-level maze beneath the Black Iron Palace, nothing should go wrong.

Moreover, Solin had a premonition that there was something inside this zero-level maze. As for what it was, he couldn't guess yet, or rather, he didn't know where to begin even if he wanted to.

"Yuna, you'll be taking care of Ivy for a while." He sighed, reluctantly agreeing to Ivy's request. Then, he leaned down and looked into Ivy's red eyes, saying earnestly, "Daddy isn't worried about you causing me trouble; Daddy is only worried about losing you. Protect yourself, stay by Mommy's side, understand?"

"Okay! Ivy will be a good girl!" Ivy nodded seriously, then gently squeezed Solin's half hand and followed him step by step.

Sorin's current destination is naturally the headquarters of ALS & MTD. Such a rescue operation requires prior intelligence; after all, even a Rush would need a vehicle. While he could communicate this information with Yuriel via text message, he felt that face-to-face communication was more direct and polite.

So he took Yuna and Ivy to visit the sprawling base once again. Of course, the journey wasn't long; after contacting Yuriel beforehand, he went straight to their meeting room.

He stopped at the door, gently knocked twice, then opened it and walked straight in. Only Yuriel was inside the conference room; she was sitting at the table, looking somewhat haggard.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Solin, I’m troubling you again.” Yuriel’s voice was low and filled with worry for the two (especially Sinka). “Please, you must rescue them…”

“I just heard a brief overview of the situation from Yuna on the way here. Now we need to know other things, since I’ve never been to this underground labyrinth.” Sorin also found a seat at the conference table, then let Ivy sit on his lap, propping her elbows on the table in a classic Commander Ikari pose. “First of all, besides Sinka and that idiot Fang Wang, is anyone else trapped in the safe zone there?”

“No. The team members who went in with them all came out. They said that Fang Wang and Sinka were trying to lure the monster away for them…” Yuriel’s voice was trembling with tears, but she remained calm in front of Sorin and Yuna. “I can see that they are still alive on my friends list, but I don’t know which safe zone they are in.”

"That monster? What exactly is it? Can you tell me?" Solin keenly sensed an unknown element. "Also, I need you to share the map of the Zero Layer Maze, as well as information on the monsters inside."

“That’s all fine. According to the team members who ran out, the monster was a creature wearing a large cloak and wielding a scythe, somewhat like… Death, yes, Death.” After recalling for a while, Yuriel gave Sorin this answer. “As for the monster information and map information of the Zero Layer Maze, they are on the bookshelf over there. However, we haven’t fully explored the Zero Layer Maze, so the map and monster information may not be very detailed.”

"Death depends on where it comes from, but you're probably referring to the Thanatos type, right?" he muttered to himself, then walked to the bookshelf in the corner of the conference room, found two books with the spines labeled "[Zero-Layer Labyrinth Monster Data]" and "[Zero-Layer Labyrinth Map]", clicked the "Share" button to copy this information into his notes, and then put the two books back in their original places.

“Alright, let’s set off now. If all goes well, you’ll still have time to enjoy a meal with the two gentlemen.” Sorin smiled at Yuriel and casually drew his rapier, flashing it with a flourish. “However, I probably won’t be able to join you for the meal, you should understand.”

"Yes, I wish Mr. Suolin great success in his military campaigns!"