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

"Wait a minute, friend, only you are the Suzhou fire hydrant." Qin Chuan quickly reached out his hand, then took out the greatsword that he could finally see in its entirety from behind his back—the Dark Sword. "World Tree... another great tree."

【Let's do it then. It's a live stream anyway, so what's the difference between fighting and fighting?】

"Wait, Solin, are they really reliable?" Kirito watched the three of them embarrass themselves one after another and suddenly felt a little panicked. "Why do they look so pathetic..."

"You'll get used to it. They're just being a bit unserious in these more relaxed circumstances... You're facing a man who can be called the strongest admiral in Asia, bar none; a professional gamer who has done more strategy guides than you've played games; and the biggest fire hydrant in Suzhou. There won't be any problems."

"Why does this 'autumn bean sack' become a giant fire hydrant in my case?"

189. Ghost Recon/Supreme Master

Let's shift our focus for a moment from the five who reacted with nuclear-level embarrassment and Yuna who kept losing sync. In fact, some observant readers might have noticed that our little angel, Ivy, seems to have gone offline.

So here's what happened. Actually, when Mo Yulan entered the game, she didn't let Aiweixin come in with her. Instead, she arranged for her to do some other things. For example—to visit the RECT building, a comprehensive electronic instrument manufacturing company, and search for traces of the Templar Knights.

Mo Yulan was initially hesitant to send her eldest daughter out on an adventure; the plan was actually proposed by Aiweixin first. This was because the android's built-in database contained numerous techniques for stealth operations, and Aiweixin herself could hack into electronic devices alone without relying on external equipment, greatly enhancing her security.

"Keep it up, Dad. Ivy is working hard too," Ivy murmured to herself, looking up again to straighten her clothes. She was now wearing a meticulously tailored handmade dress: a simple white shirt with a white undershirt adorned with crimson patterns. The undershirt reached just to her waist, while the shirt hem was longer, extending to just above her knees, flaring out like flower petals at the ends. The fitted cut perfectly showcased her slender waist and perfect upper body curves.

A crimson shawl, seemingly woven from bird feathers, draped over her back. She wore matching fitted trousers and high-heeled ankle boots, giving her an elegant yet commanding presence, very similar to her battle form in SAO. Of course, she also carried an FN-57 rifle in the inside pocket of her coat, just in case.

She stood in front of the door waiting for the automatic doors to open, then walked into the RECT building. The first floor of the building was open to the public, and it was mostly exhibition areas showcasing corporate culture; of course, only the first floor was open to the public. Most of the people on the first floor were tourists visiting or looking to buy related items, and there were also a few RECT employees wearing name tags.

"Miss, are you looking to purchase an Amusphere?" An employee approached Ivyxin with the characteristic smile of a service staff member and asked.

"No, thank you, I was just looking around."

Ivy politely shook her head and continued walking. She was now looking for other ways to get to the upper levels, as she noticed that the central elevator shaft was only accessible to RECT employees with a card, presumably not open to tourists. Even if she could hack into the elevator, it wouldn't be easy to get to the upper levels from such an obvious location.

So she needs to find a fire escape. According to fire safety and earthquake preparedness regulations, such safety exits are not allowed to be closed or blocked under normal circumstances, and it's unlikely that many people would be standing at the entrance of the safety exit to guard the main gate. As long as the person guarding the main gate doesn't block it, she can use her humanoid's built-in optical cloaking ability to sneak up to the upper level.

Sure enough, there was only one middle-aged man sitting guarding the fire escape. Ivy found a spot where not many people would notice, activated optical cloaking to make her image gradually become transparent, and then swaggered up the fire escape.

"Current map recorded and uploaded, Dad, I've reached the upper level."

------

"Hurry...hurry and come save me, Kirito..."

Asuna sat on the cold chair, her hands clasped on the table, and spoke to the man in her heart as usual. She didn't know why she was here. It was a golden birdcage hanging from a giant tree, and a huge mirror was nailed to the wall supporting the Gothic-style bed ceiling, her reflection slightly different from her past self.

Her face and chestnut hair were the same as always, but she wore an unsettlingly thin white dress, adorned with a blood-red ribbon near the chest. The chill of the marble tiles seeped into her bare feet.

"You look most beautiful when you make that face, Titania. That look of you about to cry, I wish I could freeze it and preserve it forever."

As he spoke, the man entered through a small door outside the golden fence. He was a rather tall man with a thick head of blond hair that swayed with his steps. He wore a silver crown and a green robe decorated with fine silver threads. Behind him were huge butterfly wings, four wings as black as velvet with vibrant emerald green patterns.

"Then you can do that. You... you should be able to do anything, after all, you're the system administrator. Do whatever you want."

"Why are you saying such heartless things again? Until now, have I ever used any forceful means to touch a single hair on your head, Titania?" The man's words were quite frivolous. He stood aside, watching the furious Asuna with great interest.

"You have the nerve to say such things after locking me up here. Also, please don't call me by that weird name. My name is Asuna, Oberon—no, you should be called Sugo."

Asuna looked up again at Sugou Nobuyuki's avatar—the Fairy King Oberon. This time, she didn't look away, but instead glared at him with a strong and powerful gaze.

"What a disappointment. In this world, I am the Fairy King Oberon, and you are Queen Titania… In fact, I know the real Titania, but she is nowhere near one ten-thousandth as beautiful as you—"

He raised one corner of his mouth and smiled, then slowly extended his right hand towards Asuna's cheek.

"I've been wondering when you'll finally accept being my partner and open your heart to me, but right now I think it's quite enjoyable to forcefully take you away from me like this..."

He grabbed Asuna's chin, forcibly turning her face around, and then began to stroke her face with his left hand. His slender fingers slowly moved from her cheek to her lips, the sticky touch sending a chill down Asuna's spine.

However, at that moment, Sugo suddenly frowned. He released Asuna and then answered a communication call.

"Master, our plan has encountered a slight problem. Perhaps due to the excessive difficulty, Shigemura Yuna is stuck at the position of 'Assassinate General Mori Yoshinari' and has lost synchronization several times."

“…This is truly a difficult situation. If we lower the difficulty for this reason, the plan will lose its meaning.” Sugou tossed Asuna, who was blushing and glaring at him, aside, pondered for a moment, and then said in a commanding tone, “Try to give her hints about the route and the angle of the assassination, but don’t lower the difficulty. Recreate the historical situation as realistically as possible. This sacred artifact—the [Cross]—is extremely important to us. It’s not something that my research can replace, like the [Golden Apple]. Continue to observe, and if she successfully assassinates General Mori Yoshinari, report to me immediately.”

"As you wish, Supreme Master."

190. The Most Embarrassing Day (Part 1)

Leafa felt like she'd encountered every bad thing in her life. Yesterday, she was chased by a group of fire elves, and just when a water elf mage helped her deal with the pursuers, he turned around and sent her back to the capital. Now, she was still being chased by a five-person squad, and to make matters worse, she didn't even have her unreliable helper, Regan, from last time. She had to figure out how to escape their pursuit on her own.

Just then, she noticed five water sprites with different appearances and professions appearing in her field of vision, and the one leading them was none other than SorinTSRMarkov, the real PK fanatic she had just seen yesterday.

"Now we're really in a bind... This is terrible." Leafa lamented, then suddenly realized that one of the five people seemed familiar. "Kirito... Isn't that my brother? What's he doing with that guy?"

Meanwhile, Sorin and his friends also noticed the chase and then had a serious discussion about whether to step in and break up the fight.

"Sorin, let's try to save her." Kirito suggested, then suddenly noticed that Sorin had already rushed up with Qin Chuan, while Tian Ge, who was nearby, first placed an explosive trap on the spot, then aimed his longbow at the fire spirit at the front and unleashed a set of skills. "You guys are going in already?"

"What else? I'll fucking blow it up!" Tian retorted, then unleashed another barrage of skills on the warrior in front of him, showcasing his explosive power as the biggest fire hydrant in Suzhou. None of them paid attention to Leafa, who was being chased. With a powerful shield warrior providing cover, Solin activated his turret mode, unleashing various short-cooldown skills precisely on cooldown, executing a pure PVE damage rotation.

"That's why I don't play weapon combat, it's pointless. The real charm of this game lies in parrying and then parrying... You bastard! Come here~" Qin Chuan was currently streaming his live stream, though he was probably still in Qin Chuan Derich's persona, spouting weird nonsense to emphasize how embarrassing it was. "Look at these greatsword warriors, they don't even carry a shield. When they see a tough guy like me with a shield going up high, they can only act like a hollow, slashing at my shield with their sword and deflecting it, then getting executed by me! They fall down on the spot with a 'rua' sound, it's so embarrassing."

"Kirito, stop holding back! Charge in and get him! Damn it! I've frozen and stunned that priest! Quadra kill combo, let's get this one, Shuang Ge!" Sorin shouted, his hands still frantically casting skills, one deadly frost after another hitting the enemy front line. "Charge in and pull the fan, they're all dead! All of you, die!"

Leafa was so frightened by the furious roar that she barely dared to move. She just stood there and watched as the five burly men wiped out the fire elf squad on the other side and then formed a circle around her.

"Social security! Nai Zi!" This was a powerful shout from the Wei Tian Power Armor, which was then met with the same look from the other three as if they were looking at an idiot.

"You really are something, shouting about social security in front of people." Suolin remarked, noticing that Shuang Ge, who was standing to the side, also seemed unable to look away for a moment. Only Qin Chuan and Tong Ren, who were as hardcore as he used to be, were able to maintain a normal state. "Shuang Ge, if this keeps up, our rice bin is really going to be empty."

However, what happened next was somewhat unexpected for Sorin. Leafa drew her longsword from her waist, pointing it straight at Sorin, as if to say, "I'll fight you to the death."

"Murderer! You...you...don't come any closer!" she shouted, clearly terrified from both her expression and tone.

"No, no, no, don't be nervous. We're not the kind of people who just kill people randomly," Sorin said, trying to reassure herself. At the same time, she gave Kirito a wink. "Go up there and comfort them."

"Why do you think I can do this?" Kirito had just asked this when he suddenly realized the state of his teammates, so he reluctantly walked up to Leafa. "Um... don't be afraid, we mean no harm. We need to conquer the World Tree now, could you take us there?"

"The World Tree... was it for Asuna?" Leafa thought to herself, her expression suddenly turning melancholy, and her gaze towards Kirito filled with resentment. "Well, anyway, you did save me. Going to the World Tree, right? That's a very difficult dungeon. At least since ALO was launched, no one has ever been able to break through the blockade of those NPC soldiers."

Leafa didn't really want Kirito to follow these four powerful but obviously unreliable guys to conquer the World Tree, so she deliberately exaggerated the difficulty, thinking that maybe these guys would back down, and then she could find someone to help Kirito, and also spend some time alone with her older brother.

However, her plan backfired. Shuang Ge was the first to respond; he opened his notebook, which contained only two words: "[Successfully]."

Then the notebook turned to another page, this time with significantly more text: [Go ahead and whet your luck with all the hype, whatever big events, 7 maps 9, the Dean's line up and a horde of kids, I'll still get to eat first, if I can't finish, I'll admit defeat]

"Don't talk about how difficult it is. Last week I witnessed Grandpa So demonstrating the potential of humanity. Is it any harder than taking on a GM one-on-one?" Qin Chuan said with a hint of disdain. "I've made plenty of strategy videos. Have you ever seen me fail in any game?"

"I don't care, I'm just here to help." Tian Ge was quite casual about it, while ruthlessly exposing Qin Chuan's boasting, "That's probably because before you became a streamer, you yourself said that you should know your own limitations, why brag about these useless things."

“I’ll take you there, but let’s make this clear first: I’ll only guide you to the World Tree. The rest is up to you.” Leafa said, then flew up from the ground toward the World Tree. “Come with me, and hurry up.”

——————RECT Headquarters Building, 6th Floor, Office Area——————

The office area here specifically refers to the offices of the company's senior executives, while the work areas for ordinary employees are located on the second to fifth floors. Ivy has yet to encounter any detection devices similar to laser tunnels or optical invisibility, therefore she suspects that this place is still not the core area of ​​the Templar organization.

She passed by a door with the words "CEO's Office" written on it, and Yuuki Shozo—Asuna's father—whom she had met once before, was talking to someone in this office.

Ivy wanted to find out who he was talking to and what they were talking about. The glass door separating the office from the corridor was quite soundproof, but Ivy used a special method: she placed her hand on the glass, then transmitted the faint vibrations from the glass surface into her storage device and amplified them proportionally to obtain the conversation. Although it was almost completely lossy audio quality, as long as she could get the content of the conversation, that was enough.

She analyzed the conversation and discovered that it was the other man she had met that day, Nobuyuki Sugo, talking to Shozo Yuuki. The conversation was also about Asuna and the wedding, but it wasn't particularly important. After the two talked for a long time, Nobuyuki Sugo finally came out of the door and went straight to the elevator.

"This person is suspicious. Follow him."

Thinking this, Ivy Shin lightened her steps, getting as close as possible to Sugo Nobuyuki, and followed him into the elevator. The elevator ascended rapidly, reaching a floor near the top floor in a short time. In fact, from the seventh floor onwards, all elevator buttons required a specific elevator card to open, so while the RECT employees knew their company had built such a building, they had no idea what was on the upper floors.

The elevator stopped. Aiweixin continued to follow behind Sugou Nobuyuki, only to find that he suddenly seemed like a different person. He had transformed from a respectful and subservient subordinate to Yuki Shozo into someone who was sharp and assertive.

Furthermore, while the employees on the lower levels would simply offer a perfunctory greeting, here, everyone who sees Sugo Nobuyuki stands still and bows respectfully, appearing extremely formal. Ivy Shin silently memorized their words of greeting: "Homage to you, Supreme Master, may the Father of Insight forever guide us."

"Who exactly is he?" This question lingered in Ivy's CPU, refusing to leave her mind. This place seemed to be within the Templars' territory, as the RECT logo on the wall had been replaced by a red cross representing the Templars.

She watched Sugo walk into his office, but this time she didn't follow. Instead, she decided to conduct her investigation on this floor first. After all, at this point, she could already gather enough information from the floor itself.

"The information about the Templars that Dad sent to Ivy before all came from the game Assassin's Creed. However, we know almost nothing about the Templars in the real world. But judging from the reactions of those people just now, that man named Nobuyuki Sugo is very likely their Supreme Master."

Aiweixin silently noted this down, and also noted the location of Xuxiang's office, planning to create a major power outage that night to investigate further.

"No matter who you are, don't even think about taking Mom away, not even if you are some kind of supreme master."

191. The Most Embarrassing Day (Part Two)

As Ivy abandoned her surveillance of Sugo and began searching for other intelligence on the RECT building, Sugo sat in his office, jotting something down in a notebook. The office was unremarkable, except for a recliner and an AmuSphere near the desk, presumably for Sugo's convenience in infiltrating ALO.

"I don't understand, Master Sugo, is there anything special about the youngest daughter of the Yuki family?" Sugo asked respectfully, bowing his head as a butler in a suit with a red cross on the chest stood before him.

"There's nothing special about it; it's just a test. After all, I don't know if it's him or his sister who inherited the Assassin legacy of the four islands of Japan. To put it another way, it's just to insure my research." Sugo calmly replied to the person's question, while his hands continued working. "If my research is exposed, I can claim that I was attracted to Miss Yuuki's beauty, thus concealing our true plan. After all, my research is just a substitute; if it fails, we can simply bring back the golden apple from the moon. You understand, right?"

"...I understand. Is there anything else?"

“Continue to strengthen security on this floor and prepare as many backup generators as possible. After all, we're not using our own Animus for observation now, so we must maintain the server's power supply.” Sugo put down his pen, then stared at the paper already covered in writing for a while before continuing, “Although I have no evidence, my intuition tells me we've been infiltrated. I suspect it's our colleagues in North America.”

"North America... I understand. I will launch an investigation as soon as possible. May the Father of Insight always guide us."

“May the Father of Insight guide us forever,” Sugo replied softly, watching the deacon leave the office. He then picked up a cross-shaped pin from the table, pinned it to his chest, put on the AmuSphere, and muttered to himself, “For true order, everyone must be ready to make sacrifices at any time. Fortunately, we are not far from that goal.”

------

"The kobold over there with the red scarf is Qin Chuan, you can call him Mr. Qin or just the kobold; then you can call that social security hunter Brother Tian, ​​as for the three-no priest..."

Seeing that Leafa seemed to know Kirito, Sorin introduced her to his other three companions. When he introduced Shuang, Shuang once again flipped to the page in his notebook filled with writing and showed it to Leafa.

“Call him Shuangqiu (爽球), ignore all that nonsense. Speaking of which… how many lifetimes has Shuanglifa (爽里发) been through? Are you the real body, a cat, a potted plant, a toilet seat, a router, or Red Bull?” Solin shoved Shuangge's notebook back into place, silencing him, and then asked, “By the way, Miss Leafa, could you explain the situation of the World Tree instance in detail?”

"The World Tree instance... it's more like a large map than an instance, because it doesn't limit the number of people who can conquer it at the same time. However, since only the first race to reach the top of the World Tree can be reborn as a Light Spirit, there has never been a case of different races conquering it together before. You should also be sent by the Water Spirits to conquer it, although I don't know why only the five of you were sent."

After explaining, Leafa looked at the five people with suspicion. These people were clearly not newbies; she knew about Kirito's situation, but she didn't know about the other embarrassing individuals.

Furthermore, when she saw Sorin's ID, she assumed it was a high-quality imitation of Sorin Markov's ID, because it contained a few letters with unclear meanings in the middle of the name due to the similarity. The face of the emotionless priest next to him was quite similar to Sorin Markov's image in SAO, yet he didn't have the inexplicable habit of not speaking.

When Leafa explained it this way, two of the five people had a "damn, we've lost out" look on their faces, while the other three were more normal.

"Is it too late for me to call for help now?" Solin asked. "Should I turn on the live stream now? By the way, who's with everyone right now?"

"I have a little over a million viewers in my live stream, probably because they came to watch me since you weren't streaming," Qin Chuan shrugged and explained. "If you ask me, you should call everyone you can, then there won't be any situation where you can't win."

“Wait a minute, I suddenly thought of something else. What if this map was like Warframe, where the number of players determines the number of monsters that spawn? Wouldn’t it be a waste to have more players?” Sorin suddenly thought of this question. “While it’s true that more players mean more rewards, what we need right now is to clear the map, not to get the rewards. We might as well use an elite tactic.”

"More likely, we'll have worked hard all day only to end up disappointed, or even completely humiliated." Qin Chuan glanced at Shuang Ge standing next to him and then asked, "Wei? Zhan Fuhui?"

"Are you stupid? Where do priests get battle resurrection?" Shuang Ge wrote in his notebook for a long time with a blank expression, then showed it to Qin Chuan. "Even if there is battle resurrection, it doesn't give points, so what's the point of recruiting you?"