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

"Star Map, Code Name 1043, light on."

It was still the same tender yet cool voice of a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl. After uttering the activation command, the ceiling of the attic flickered once more, its surface covered with the trails of stars. Rebecca, meanwhile, sat upright in her previous spot, a quill pen in her hand, continuously leaving stroke after stroke on the parchment.

She quickly filled the originally blank parchment with writing, then it floated out and landed in a wooden box to the side. Then another parchment would float down from the side in front of her, and she would fill it with various circled patterns and formulas within minutes, and then repeat the process.

Throughout this time, Rebecca's brow remained furrowed, as if she had gleaned some kind of information from the dazzling array of stars and the numerous formulas and patterns that were incomprehensible to most people.

"So that's how it is... After two millennia, the world is finally breaking away from the path of conflict between the Ancient Order and the Unseen, but perhaps an even greater chaos lies behind this..."

Rebecca muttered to herself, but as soon as she said it, she suddenly collapsed to the ground in pain, blood flowing from her tightly closed eyes, and she threw the precious-looking quill pen aside.

This was perhaps the limitation of being an astrologer. She could see many things, but once she spoke of what she saw, such negative effects followed. She struggled to her feet again, fumbled for a piece of white silk cloth with some runes written on it, and gently wrapped it around her eyes to make an eye patch. Then she leaned against the bookshelf, panting.

"If I had a choice, I would rather give up this eternal time just to enjoy a moment with you. But that's just a baseless fantasy... How ridiculous, the scribe advises me to give up something, and I'm thinking of giving up this mission—or rather, this shackle?"

(Author's note: I was so happy when I heard about this. I thought, if you, astrologer, are going to quit, I'll skip work too, just abandon this book and go on a trip. From now on, human history will have nothing to do with me. But then I thought about it, and I don't have a girlfriend. It's not worth abandoning so many of my readers over such a small thing. Now it seems that calming down is a good thing.)

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Someone once listed the three scariest professions in the world: American homeless people, Japanese high school students, and time travelers from China. The last one is self-explanatory. The reason the first two are scary is that no matter how amazing their abilities or how important their missions, they still have to pick up trash and attend classes—they're incredibly dedicated. And that's exactly the situation now.

"Kirito, where did you go yesterday?" It was Asuna's concerned voice asking. Kirito was about to answer her when Mo Yulan suddenly gave him a subtle look, making him quite conflicted.

After all, some of what happened last night involved confidentiality regulations, so I definitely couldn't tell Asuna the truth directly. However... if I really said that I slept in the same bed with Mo Yulan all night... it just felt a bit strange.

“Yesterday I asked him to make up for the class he missed, but it was a bit late when we finished, so I just let him sleep at my house. That’s all.” Mo Yulan explained briefly for Kirito, then went over to help him pack his schoolbag. “Let’s go, school gets out early today, let’s go home and get ready.”

"Hey, Yuna, are those two...?" Asuna turned her head away, quietly walked to Yuna's side, and whispered in her ear.

"No, but I'm very unhappy."

Yuna's tone was flat. She calmly packed her bag and then slammed the bag full of books onto the table with a loud bang.

"Lan, can you help me carry my bag? It's a bit heavy today."

Mo Yulan knew something was wrong. He never expected this could turn into a chaotic scene. Fortunately, he only hesitated for a moment before choosing to replace the embarrassment of running naked with the pain of a severed limb.

"Kiritani-kun, pack up yourself, and come downstairs to wait for me when you're done."

After saying that, he walked straight to Yuna's table, head down, looking like a submissive apologizer. Fortunately, there weren't many idle students left to watch the drama unfold, so he didn't feel too embarrassed.

"But it's still so embarrassing...rua!" Mo Yulan thought to himself as he carefully picked up the shoulder bag that You Na had thrown on the table. Then he felt the girl lean gently against his back and subtly take his right hand.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you for so long, Yuna, but don't worry, I think this matter can be put to rest tonight."

246. Preparations for War

This was the first time Mo Yulan had cooked dinner for so many people since moving into this house, but frankly, it just meant two more mouths to feed. Aiweixin sat on one side holding Vector, while Kirito and Yuna sat facing each other. Finally, the side of the table closest to the kitchen was left for Mo Yulan so he could easily bring over the dishes he had just prepared.

"We need to hold a brief operational meeting today because the current situation is far too complex, and we need to consolidate intelligence from all sides. So, do you have any suggestions?"

Mo Yulan carried a clay pot to the table, placed it in the center, and then said this. No sooner had he finished speaking than Ai Weixin was the first to raise her hand. He gave Ai Weixin an approving look, but was then utterly stunned by her words.

"Dad, can you make some shredded pork with garlic sauce again? Ivy wants Vivi to try it." Ivy held Vector's wrist and waved at Mo Yulan. Vector was a little helpless at this obviously childish behavior, but she did not clearly show any resistance. Instead, she let Ivy play around and treat her like a puppet.

"...Why didn't you say so earlier, kid? Wait for me a minute." Mo Yulan shook her head helplessly, turned around and walked back to the kitchen. "This is the last dish, you can't eat any more. Speaking of which, Vivi, doesn't your... embarrassing guy know how to cook?"

“Yeah, if you spend every day with him, you’ll easily find that he’s a good-for-nothing, good for nothing and good for nothing.” Vector didn’t hesitate to start complaining about his old boss here, his tone quite impolite. “He does have a lot of outstanding qualities, but that shouldn’t be a reason for him to eat nothing but instant noodles and fried chicken every day.”

"I find it hard to believe that there are still weaklings in this world who can't cook." Mo Yulan followed up with a complaint, then realized that the topic had unknowingly veered off to an unimaginable place. "Shouldn't it still be the combat meeting time right now? Why did we suddenly start talking about cooking? This topic has gone off-topic too strangely."

“Because Arashi’s cooking is really good~” Yuna said matter-of-factly, then picked up the chopsticks on the table and slapped them back at Kirito as he tried to reach for the plate. “Arashi hasn’t finished cooking yet, don’t rush to pick up your chopsticks.”

"I know, I know..." Kirito reluctantly put his chopsticks away, then relaxed and slumped onto the table, a single strand of hair sticking up on his head. "But I'm so hungry. If we're going to discuss something serious, can't we eat first? And why is there another little girl in your house now...?"

"Always making those 'ahhh' noises, are you a crow? And do you think all girls shorter than you are lolis?" Vector suddenly looked up at Kirito, still expressionless, her words as sharp as ever. "And no matter what, not touching your chopsticks before the master sits down at the table should be the most basic etiquette, right?"

"The problem is, when has he ever cared about this..." Kirito muttered to himself, no longer thinking of moving or talking back. After a while, he suddenly felt his ahoge (cowlick) being slapped down by something, and he quickly looked up at Mo Yulan, who had just brought over a plate.

"Take a good look at your hair. Your ahoge is standing up. Do you expect it to be used as a radar?" Mo Yulan placed the plate in front of Aiweixin and Vector, then produced a comb from somewhere and gently combed down the ahoge that was still struggling on Kirito's head, and continued.

"Now, let's get down to business. First, here's the information I have: Death Gun appeared in front of me once. He had a smiling coffin emblem on his arm, which means he's a SAO survivor and was once a member of a red-name guild. I just don't know which batch PoH recruited him from. After he appeared, he bravely chose to confront me directly. If he hadn't run away so fast, I would have definitely used my full range of skills to poke him right in the face."

"Um... if he comes to threaten you, it probably means he's already made it to the finals of the BoB tournament," Kirito tentatively guessed.

“That’s a reasonable guess, but unfortunately, this guy started trash-talking me before the preliminaries even started, which means he basically gave us a pre-taunt.” Mo Yulan shook her head, then picked up her chopsticks and put a piece of sweet and sour pork on her plate. “We can’t confirm whether he’s made it to the finals, but it’s best to just assume he’s here. When the time comes, Ivy Xin will have someone follow me, and once we see him, we’ll find out his exact location, and then I’ll lead the Rainbow Team over there.”

“That sounds like a good idea, Dad.” Ivy responded approvingly as she fed Vector with her chopsticks. After a moment’s thought, she revealed what she knew: “I didn’t obtain the information about Death Gun’s location. Someone directly gave me the information that Death Gun was located at Amherst Corporation, and this person… wasn’t Vivi’s boss, nor anyone from Rainbow Team. After that, we didn’t get any meaningful clues at Amherst Corporation, except for the fact that Death Gun knew many players’ real-world addresses.”

"Who is that person? Has he done anything that might reveal his information?" Mo Yulan immediately grasped the key point and asked anxiously. However, Ai Weixin just shook her head in confusion, the meaning of which was self-evident.

"That person... calls himself the Princess of Heaven, a very strange title. The only reason I think this information is credible is that the information he provided overlaps significantly with the investigation requirements from Chu Ziyu's side."

"Now that you mention it, the situation is actually a bit complicated." After pondering for a while, Mo Yulan summarized the brief meeting in one sentence, "In a bit, Ivy will be online with me and Kirito on a separate thread. Yuna and Vivi will keep watch over the area for us and be ready to contact Rainbow Team at any time. The rest is up to me to handle."

"I understand... Vivi, try this, Daddy's cooking is really good."

247. Landing and Getting Killed: The Great Escape?

—Just a day ago I was wondering who would save me, but it turns out… he saved me back then? Who exactly is he? What is his relationship with [SorinMarkov]?

Sinon suddenly pondered this question, and the small spoonful of cheese baked rice that was placed to her lips stopped there. Rebecca saw Sinon like this, but didn't say anything, just smiled and stroked Sinon's head.

Shino subconsciously squinted her eyes, then, thinking that she might be able to verify this with Sorin soon, she stopped thinking about it. Of course, it was strange that Shino should have been more concerned or curious about the true identity of this mysterious psychologist, but subconsciously she didn't seem to find the fact that "this person claims to have lived for at least a thousand years and looks like this, and even has a child" to be anything strange.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Ms. Rebecca." Sinon neatly placed the cutlery and nodded slightly to Rebecca. "I'm ready. Let me make the connection."

“Wait a minute, there’s actually a more advanced device here than the standard AmuSphere. I suggest you take a shower first.” Rebecca said, walking into another room and pointing out the bathroom to Sinon. “I’ll go set up the device for you, don’t worry.”

“I understand.” Sinon nodded knowingly and followed Rebecca’s directions toward the bathroom. She had heard of this device called an “isolation chamber”: after showering, the user would lie naked inside what looked like a large capsule. It contained a viscous liquid with adjusted specific gravity, about forty centimeters deep.

When players lie on it, their bodies float, and even the pillow supporting their necks provides almost no contact. After putting on the AmuSphere hanging on the inner wall of the facility and closing the isolation pod, the interior of the pod is completely enveloped in darkness and silence.

Shino had once tried this high-end facility at an internet cafe at Shinkawa's invitation, but the complete separation of body and mind made her even more worried about her physical condition in reality, so she never tried it again.

"But this time it's at Ms. Rebecca's house, so it should be more reassuring..."

She stood under the showerhead, letting the warm water wash over her body. In fact, Shino herself didn't realize that she, who was usually so wary of the outside world and strangers, had completely let down her guard in front of Rebecca. This was something she had never experienced before during her therapy sessions with her therapist.

The short shower didn't take long. When Shino came out in her yukata, she found Rebecca waiting at the door.

"Come with me, everything is ready."

Rebecca still wore her ever-present smile, but Sinon was quite puzzled when she saw the white silk bandage covering Rebecca's eyes. She had already noticed the bandage while Rebecca was eating, but hadn't asked about it yet.

"Ah, these are just some special devices that astrologers often use, don't worry about them."

Rebecca shook her head with a wry smile, then said this as if she didn't care. Seeing Rebecca's reaction, Sinon didn't press the matter further. Instead, she obediently removed the only piece of clothing she was wearing in front of the isolation pod, lay down quietly inside, and put the AmuSphere on her head.

"Li.nk start!"

------

"Let me tell you, this is basically a fun PVP set. It can definitely kill people instantly, but you're also super fragile. If the finals use a different game mode, you'll probably lose."

After that dinner, Sorin and Kirito logged into the world of TD3:GGO again, and of course, he didn't forget to turn on his live stream. Some viewers were already used to Sorin's inconsistent live stream frequency and his seemingly out-of-time streams, so even though he had just started streaming, many people still rushed to the live stream room to start spamming the chat.

"Alright, now we're about to begin the player competition event in The Division 3, which is the final part of the BoB competition. Of course, since this is our first time playing this game, we're not familiar with the final competition mechanics yet, so I'll take a look at the instructions and explain it to you... Sinon, you're here."

"I'm here. Is it strange that I'm here at this time? After all, I'm one of the finalists." Sinon shrugged calmly, her gaze towards Kirito still full of scrutiny, but her hostility towards Sorin was noticeably less. "You probably don't know what the finals will be like, do you?"

"Indeed, I only heard that the finals are a free-for-all on a large map, but I haven't had time to look into the specific mechanics." Solin readily admitted, and then tried to make the girl in front of him another non-special guest in his live stream, "So, Miss Sinon, could you explain the finals of this BoB to us?"

"Actually, there's not much to explain. If I explained it clearly, you would be very familiar with it, at least you would be very familiar with it."

Sinon stood naturally beside Sorin, looked around at the other contestants, and then suddenly added a sentence.

"Don't you think that having a hundred people standing in the middle of a field, where everyone has weapons but can't harm each other, and even if they fall from a height, there's nowhere to be hurt... gives people a very familiar feeling?"

"It does seem familiar, it always reminds me of a shooting game that was incredibly popular a long time ago... Wait, Sinon, don't tell me..."

After a moment's thought, Suolin's tone became unusually surprised—or rather, excited.

"That's right. In the BoB finals, one of four maps of different sizes and with slightly different environments will be randomly selected. Then, one hundred people will sit in a plane and parachute down to decide their landing point. In this final, our equipment is just for decoration, and weapons are not allowed to be brought in."

"Well, isn't this just 'landing and getting eliminated'? The Great Escape?" Sorin exclaimed in sudden realization. "Let me guess if you'll say that the four maps are the Archipelago, the Desert, the Snowfield, and the Quality Square?"

"Yeah, you guessed right. Although I don't know what 'landing and getting eliminated: the Great Escape' means, isn't that game called PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds?"

248. A coward with no gun skills, he relies on dirty tricks to win in PUBG.

This place isn't called Quality Square. The reason it's called Quality Square right now is simply because there's a place in the game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" that looks very similar and is also called Quality Square.

That place wasn't originally called Quality Square, but after the game suddenly became popular, the square, which originally only had gunshots, turned into a strange chat room that lasted for sixty seconds. Later, people gradually started calling this place Quality Square.

Solin sat quietly to one side, watching the countdown above disappear bit by bit. When he first logged on, there were still about ten minutes left before the start of the finals, but now, without realizing it, there were already sixty seconds left.

“It’ll be a one-on-one battle soon. If I encounter you on the way, I won’t hold back.” Sinon said to Sorin in a tone that sounded like a challenge. “And… after this battle is over, I have a question for you.”

"If you have any questions, just ask them now. Why wait until after the game is over?"

"...It's nothing, I'm not going to talk to you anymore."

Sinon lowered her head, avoiding the question. Her thinking was actually quite simple: if she asked Sorin now and got a definite answer, she would inevitably waver or hesitate when she met him. The famous swordsman Isshin Ashina once said, "Hesitation leads to defeat," and Sinon clearly did not want to be defeated, so she did not want to give herself any room for hesitation.

"If there's nothing else, that's fine. Kirito, remember not to jump to places marked on the map, and don't go to areas with lots of people." Sorin looked at the countdown, which only had twenty seconds left, and hurriedly gave Kirito the last reminders he had been nagging about three or four times. "I'm telling you, the saying 'a coward's gun isn't good, and winning in PUBG is all about dirty tricks' is true. Don't be fooled by those PUBG highlight reels where they look so cool; those people have a long history of FPS training. Right now, all you need to do is play it safe and get into the safe zone."

"I know... Sorin, you've repeated that to me so many times already..." Kirito replied impatiently, then leaned lightly on Sorin's shoulder, placing his right hand on Sorin's left, and gave a mischievous smile. Sorin instantly jumped up, performing a tactical roll away from the bench where he and Kirito had just been sitting, and casually pulled out Cassidy from his back, pointing it at Kirito.

"Calm down, we're both married men, don't be like this." These were the last words Solin said before boarding the plane, and as soon as he finished speaking, he felt a familiar teleportation sensation, followed by a cutscene.

The cutscene shows people in the square, under the watchful eyes of another group of soldiers, boarding a large transport helicopter. Then, the canopy under the helicopter closes as the last person enters, and the scene goes dark again.

"Okay, let's take a look at the flight path and map. The map is a military base that we're quite familiar with, which is the same map we started with; and the flight path runs through the C-shaped building and the city at the top center, which is quite dangerous. I'm not sure how far you can drift after opening your parachute in this game, so it's best to choose a relatively central location on the flight path to jump from. Of course, jumping in the wilderness is actually a better option."

[A relatively moderate location (referring to the airport)]

[Grandpa Su said he wanted to play it safe, but his actions betrayed him; he really wanted to fight.]

[Start the guessing game! Start the guessing game!]

I'll make a prediction: Uncle Solskjaer will take down at least ten people as soon as he leaves the airport.

Solin explained in a very serious tone, then marked his location directly on the C-shaped building. Generally speaking, the airport is where the most players jump, and of all those who choose to jump there, half will choose the C-shaped building as their landing spot. Of course, his choice of location drew a lot of criticism from his viewers, mostly about his hypocrisy.

He sat upright in the cabin, noticing Sinon and Kirito a little distance away. Sinon's eyes were filled with fighting spirit, while Kirito looked cowering. But at that moment, he noticed a face sitting opposite him that was incredibly familiar—it was the man who had provoked him earlier, the former killer from the Laughing Coffin guild.