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

“Perfect. It seems I just need to keep training here every day for a while to fully master it.” He placed the gun on the table and clapped his hands. “Avishin, shall we continue training?”

"Ivy thinks it's ready. If Dad is in a hurry, let's go find Professor Shigemura now."

186. The Flawless Sky and the Frozen Roc, One of the Five Asian Tigers (Bonus Chapter 59/75)

——————Tokyo, Shigemura Research Institute, Director's Office——————

“Strictly speaking, this is our first meeting, right? Sorinmarkov, or I should call you Mo Yulan now.”

Looking at the middle-aged man in the white coat in front of him, Mo Yulan suddenly felt a little uneasy. After all, this was the first time he had met You Na's father, and although he had nothing to do with him, it was an undeniable fact that You Na was still unconscious.

"Hello... Professor Shigemura." After hesitating for a long time, he finally managed to say, "I feel that I need to come and see you now."

“I know. You did beat Sword Art Online, and my precious daughter did survive to the end. You're here to ask me why Yuna hasn't woken up yet, right?” Shigemura Toru sighed deeply, clenching his fists tightly.

“I need some relevant clues, and I’ve received information that Yuna… is currently in an unknown corner of ALO,” Mo Yulan said, carefully choosing her words.

“I know. When SAO was just completed, there were still three hundred people who hadn’t woken up. I immediately started investigating this suspicious point and eventually found that their consciousness was trapped in ALO. But when I checked the data at RECT later, I couldn’t find them. It’s like… they were hidden by something.”

Shigemura Tetsu waved, gesturing for Mo Yulan to come over. Mo Yulan walked to his side and looked at his screen. It was filled with dense data and code, far beyond his comprehension.

"Professor Shigemura, I...I don't understand."

"Let me get straight to the point. An unknown organization has concealed their location, but considering your current identity... I can actually tell you that this unknown organization is known." As Tetsuhiro Shigemura said this, he used the PC in front of him to turn off the indoor cameras, lock the door, and block all signals in the room. "You should have heard of... the Brotherhood and the Templars, right?"

"I've heard of it. Ubisoft released a new game called 'Assassin's Creed: Clash of Kingdoms' a while ago. I remember the protagonist was a shrine maiden named Shigemura Chika... Wait a minute!" Mo Yulan responded subconsciously, then suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Don't tell me this is true! What kind of amazing company is Ubisoft anyway?"

“Believe it or not… that’s how it is. But I have no connection with them. It’s just that one of my ancestors was a master assassin, that is, the priestess.” Tetsuhiro Shigemura spoke with a heavy tone as he recounted this story. He switched the screen, and the image instantly changed to the cover of Assassin’s Creed: Clash of Kingdoms. “I wanted to hide this fact to protect Yuna, but I don’t know why they were able to find out and find the opportunity to steal Yuna’s consciousness.”

"Then their motives are almost certain, meaning that there really are forerunners and Eden artifacts in this world..."

“I don’t know. But no matter what kind of damned Eden’s artifact or fucking Templar Knights it is, they shouldn’t be able to take my precious daughter away. Listen to me, kid, we’re on the same page now—you know what to do, and I’ll do my best to help you.”

As Shigemura Tetsudai said this, he pulled up another picture. It showed an exquisitely designed large birdcage, which appeared to be located at the top of the World Tree. Inside the birdcage was a girl who looked very familiar to Mo Yulan.

"Do you know what this means?" Tetsuhiro Shigemura asked in a deep voice, pointing at the picture.

"The top of the World Tree... is probably where the consciousness of these three hundred people is imprisoned, and the mastermind, for unknown reasons... placed Asuna here?" Mo Yulan tentatively guessed.

“Go for it, kid. You’re a hero who saved over seven thousand people. I believe you can do it.” Tetsuya Shigemura patted Mo Yulan on the shoulder, encouraging her. “Although I’m reluctant to admit it, it’s obvious that you’re probably the only one who can save her, Sorin Markov.”

“…I understand, Professor Shigemura, see you later.” Mo Yulan clenched her left fist, then waved at Shigemura Tetsuya, turned around, pushed open the door he had just opened, and left the office.

"Dad, where are we going now?"

"First, I need to find Kirito. Then I'll need a few helpers. I'll take some time to contact them."

------

After receiving Mo Yulan's message, Kirito arrived at the location Mo Yulan had mentioned—a room he had just rented alone—within just one hour. The two stood side-by-side by the window; Mo Yulan gazed into the distance, a cigarette dangling from his right hand, while Kirito looked down, then stared at him in surprise.

"You mean... the consciousness of three hundred people, including Asuna and Yuna, is sealed at the top of the World Tree in ALO?"

“That’s it. More specific details and how I obtained the information need to be kept secret, but you know I’m not lying to you, and that’s enough.” Mo Yulan slowly exhaled, then patted Kirito’s shoulder. “Now we need to reach the top of the World Tree… and that’s something I can’t do on my own.”

"So you found me?" Kirito retorted, then pointed at Mo Yulan. "Anything else?"

"Are you even an adult yet? You're done." Mo Yulan replied irritably. "It's not just you. I'm going to find a few more people who can log on anytime. You'll see when you get into the game."

"Do I know him?" Kirito asked, suddenly curious after hearing what Mo Yulan said.

“They know you, but you don’t know them. They’re a few Chinese livestreamers I’m quite familiar with,” Mo Yulan explained simply, casually throwing her cigarette butt on the ground and stomping it out. Then she took out her phone and started contacting them one by one.

At the same time, three streamers on Twitch, Huomao TV, and Douyu TV received a message from SorinMarkov: "Tian Ge/Que Ge/1551, can you play ALO? Come help me, it's urgent and crucial, meet in the Water Sprite city."

[Mr.Quin33: I'm playing as a Water Sprite, I'm in the main city right now, waiting for you?]

[All Leftovers: Damn, I'm 800 miles away from the Water Sprite capital city, can I use an alt account?]

【Ywwuyi: Wait a moment, I'm playing the summer event】

"So, did you get in touch?"

"I'll find a studio to buy an account for Brother Tian later. You go back and log into the game first, then choose the Water Sprite and wait for me in the main city. You should be using the account you had in SAO, so you'll be able to play after a little familiarization. Also, I have a bit of a special situation here, so if I die on the way, remember to come and pick up my corpse."

Chapter 187: Solin has respawned in the grove! (Bonus Chapter 60/75)

After logging into the game, Kirito found himself in a wilderness, next to a muscular male water sprite who looked unfamiliar. He glanced at the man's head and saw the ID [SorinTSRMarkov], realizing who this person was.

"Sorin, how did you sculpt that face? Teach me sometime." Kirito looked at Sorin's muscular appearance with envy, then wondered about his location, "And why wasn't I born in the starting village or the main city?"

"I bet all SAO survivors have bugs in this game, and my luck is random too. You can try creating a new account and see if you get a chance to get a random one." Sorin said casually, then searched for the three IDs [Mr.Quin33], [Ywwuyi], and [MG5 (the account Sorin bought for Tian-ge)] in the player search, added them as friends, and then his tone suddenly became mysterious again, "By the way, Kirito, let me teach you a way to sense killing intent in the game."

"Sensing killing intent?" Kirito asked curiously.

"Simply put, if you feel a frame drop when you walk to a certain place, there's probably someone nearby. This was a very useful technique when I used to play PUBG," Solin said, then raised his hand. "At our current frame rate, there are at least two squads of people nearby."

"Two regiments... what are they doing here?" Kirito asked, then suddenly saw more than fifty large fireballs flying from the other side. He immediately dove and lay flat on the ground. "An attack!"

"Come and kill me." Sorin said calmly, pulled Kirito up from the ground, and flew towards the Water Elf City. "You can think of it this way: in this game, I have become someone who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Sanjidao."

When Kirito heard what he said, he looked back and saw at least two hundred different colored sprites flying towards them at high speed, shouting slogans like "Sorin must die."

"What do we do now?" Kirito suddenly panicked. The largest group battle he had ever fought in SAO was the one during the siege of PoH, and even then, there were only a little over a hundred participants. Now, they had to fight two hundred people against one. It was impossible not to panic.

"Reinforcements will arrive soon, let's fly into the forest first." Solin seemed quite calm at this moment. "This is a 3D game, if you play it well, you can easily outplay all two hundred people. By the way, what class did you choose?"

"Swordsman, what's wrong?"

"...It's alright, you're probably not going to make it this time." Sorin sighed. Although he had expected this outcome, he really hadn't anticipated that Kirito would be fighting alongside him. In this kind of skirmish, large-scale battle, or guerrilla warfare, the role of warriors is very limited, or rather, practically useless.

He thought about it and figured that now he could only rely on the trio of Que Tian and Shuang. However, he then realized that Qin Chuan would most likely choose a warrior as well. Shuang and Tian would most likely choose ranged classes, and if they could coordinate their attacks, they should be able to fight... that's assuming they could coordinate their attacks.

"But I'm having fun while he won't turn on his mic..."

Sorin let out a sigh, then watched as the main force dispersed into the forest to search separately. He then pulled Kirito down to a tree and hid in a nearby bush.

"Watch closely in a moment. I'll pre-cast the Polymorph first, then you rush the enemy Cloth Armor and try to kill one of them instantly." Thorin finished speaking quickly and began chanting complex incantations.

In the game ALO, when you cast a spell, you are surrounded by glowing runes, which is a disadvantage for stealthy combat. However, Thorin had anticipated this problem; when he cast Polymorph, he was actually lying on the ground.

The group consisted of five people: two warriors wielding two-handed greatswords, a mage, a priest, and a hunter. Kirito focused on the mage and then waited for Sorin.

Sorin lay on the ground reading for a long time. After the group entered Kirito's charge range, he directly sheeped the enemy priest. Upon seeing this, Kirito immediately charged in place, followed by a powerful attack that instantly killed the mage. Then, he cast a Commanding Roar and, taking advantage of the enemy priest being sacrificed by the sheep hunter, immediately summoned a Blade Storm.

While Kirito was performing this series of actions, Sorin calmly cast Frost Arrow, freezing two warriors with it, followed by an Ice Spike that hit all four of them, and then casually cast Blizzard.

Then the unfortunate five-person team instantly perished on the spot, leaving behind five wisps of soul fire. With their vision turning gray, they could only watch as Sorin and Kirito swaggered away, then took a screenshot of their approximate direction and posted it on the official ALO forum.

"Without reinforcements, this wave will be tough. Back in the day, the highest record for the Three-Season Rice team was only 1 vs. 40, and that was after leading them into the Endless Sea in a freestyle swim. The problem is... where is this Endless Sea?"

Sorin continued his guerrilla warfare with Kirito in the forest, while also keeping a close eye on the locations of his three newly added friends. Qin Sanshu was currently closest, nearing the edge of the forest. Tian was a little slower, having just left the Water Sprite's main city. As for Shuang… Sorin could only see a Steam online notification, presumably still playing the summer event.

[Mr.Quin33: Stop rushing me, I'm almost there. Have you ever lied to me about needing an older brother?]

[SorinMarkov: Go find me! Good brother, I need supplies!]

[Mr.Quin33: There are probably over a thousand fans behind me. I'm going to overturn their rice bins in a minute!]

By this time, Sorin and Kirito had been running for quite some time, and in the forest terrain, the pursuers had all chosen to land and search for the two on the ground. Sorin had tricked three more groups of people along the way using incredibly underhanded methods, but this was just a drop in the ocean compared to the total number of pursuers, who numbered over two hundred.

Worse still, they now seem to have discovered Sorin's exact location and quickly assembled in the forest. There were still more than two hundred people blocking their way, a dark and intimidating sight.

"If you don't come soon, Qin Chuan, I'm doomed..." Solin lamented, then Kirito suddenly tugged at Solin's sleeve and pointed in the direction behind them.

"Solin... there seem to be even more people now, what should we do?" He had just asked this in a panic when he saw more than a thousand people flying over from behind rushing over and instantly tearing the enemy's already disorganized formation to shreds. Then he heard a powerful shout suddenly come from mid-air.

"A male ghost has appeared out of nowhere!"

188. Nuclear-grade shockwave detected ahead.

Yuna has been living in the Sengoku period for seven days under the identity of Shigemura Chinatsu. In fact, Oda Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto in 1568 is considered the end of the Sengoku period, but she now discovers that history seems... not so simple.

According to Elizabeth Balian, the master assassin from the British Empire whom she had met earlier, Oda Nobunaga was supported by the Knights Templar. His sole purpose in unifying Japan and ending the Sengoku period was to gain complete control of the four main islands of Japan and then assist the Knights Templar in finding the Edenic artifacts hidden in Japan.

Thus, Oda Nobunaga and his forces naturally became targets of assassins, a truth Yuna only learned later. To stop the Templars, the Brotherhood needed to overthrow Oda Nobunaga's regime at the end of the Sengoku period. The simplest and most direct way to achieve this was to assassinate Oda Nobunaga. This was also Yuna's highest priority main quest.

"Although I won't really die, can I really get out of here?" Yuna was still a little unsure. After all, she was all alone here, unlike before when she was in SAO with Solin by her side to help her.

During her initial assassination attempts, her stealth and combat skills were lacking, resulting in her being killed several times by the foot soldiers and samurai. At first, she thought she would die instantly like in SAO, but each time the white bar in front of her was cleared, and she would see [Shigemura Chinatsu] lying on the ground from a third-person perspective, with a [Disconnected] message flashing in her vision, before returning to the starting point of the mission a moment later.

The saying "playing Assassin's Creed from scratch is embarrassing" is no exaggeration. But Yuna persisted in the fight, solely because of that one and only message she received from the outside world.

Once you've completed this game and found what you're looking for, you can leave.

------

The large-scale battle in the forest had ended, and the players who had come to help had left, returning to their main cities to rest or accept quests. Only five people remained on the clearing: a swordsman in beginner's gear, a mage whose appearance was that of a blue-and-white porcelain figure but who was actually still wearing beginner's gear, a kobold swordsman with a scarf around his neck and a dog-head appearance, a handsome hunter carrying a longbow on his back, and a priest who looked seven or eight parts like Sorin in SAO and was holding a notebook.

"I'm really curious, Shuang-ge, why did you make a face like mine?" Suolin covered her forehead and looked at Shuang-ge's face—that is, the priest's face—and immediately felt a strong sense of incongruity. "So, is my Shuang-ge's real body really a 17-year-old white-stockinged, taciturn high school girl?"

[Don't worry about the details] Shuang Ge took out a pen and quickly wrote a few strokes, showing it to Suolin. Then he lowered his head and wrote two more sentences: [I am still outwitting the replica of the Deep Sea Princess. I just fought eight more battles in the night battle. In my eleven years as an admiral, I have only seen this once.]

"Oh right, Kirito, let me introduce you first. That kobold is Que, you can call him Kobold or Qin Mengnan; the hunter is Quanlu Shangfan, you can call him Tian Ge; and lastly... the priest with the taciturn attribute has a rather difficult name to pronounce, Ywwuyi, just call him..."

Just as Sorin finished his introduction, Shuang-ge flipped through two pages of his notebook, showing Kirito the long string of text that read: "[The shadow of Allah on Earth. Successor of the Messenger of Allah, Caliph…King and Sultan of the lands of Albania. Such a long title is more fitting for me.]"

"Is this the shadow of Tanaka on the earth, the successor of Tanaka's envoy, the Caliph... the king and master of the rice-jar lands, Shuang-ge?" Sorin mercilessly mocked the name Shuang-ge, then turned around and patted Kirito, "Just call him Shuang-qiu."

"Why isn't he... Sougo saying anything?" Kirito honestly used the name Sorin had taught him, then watched as Sougo turned another page of his notebook, on which was written: ["CNM, did you hear that, CNM!"]

"Deaf and mute streamer, please understand... It's just that I'm happy but don't want to turn on my microphone."

At this moment, Suolin's fans all flocked to Que Tianshuang's live stream to become refugees, because Suolin wasn't currently streaming. He coughed twice, signaling the three of them to temporarily shut down their live streams, and then explained the current situation.

"To make a long story short, there are still three hundred original SAO players who haven't woken up. And according to my investigation, their consciousness is trapped in this game, or more precisely, trapped at the top of the World Tree. Among these people are Kirito's girlfriend and my fiancée, so I hope you can help me with this, okay?"

"Women are so complicated. Luckily, I don't have a girlfriend." Hearing Suolin say this, Shuang Ge's expression darkened instantly. "A man shouldn't be bound by love. Pursuing ideals is the most important thing, so not having a girlfriend is the right thing to do."

"I see, that's really real. A bit mysterious." Qin Chuan nodded, then expanded the mini-map and marked the location of the World Tree. The World Tree was located in the very center of the map, quite a distance from the forest near their main city... well, it was a long way to go.

"This should also be considered confidential information, which is why you asked us to close the live stream," Shuang Ge nodded, seemingly understanding something. "Is it really okay to tell us like this?"

"If I could solo the World Tree, I wouldn't be bothering you guys. But I can't solo it, can I?" Sorin was also helpless about this situation. "Please help me out. It's urgent and crucial."

"We're both shameless streamers, so we're brothers. We've come this far, so let's not beat around the bush anymore," Tian Ge agreed readily. "Let's go, let's shoot the World Tree to pieces!"