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

"These elegant and fearless creatures enjoy adventuring among the floating crystals in search of unknown treasures. They are naturally skilled with weapons, even those they have never encountered before."

This was an introduction to the Ko tribe, all of which Sorin had anticipated. He could see that his reflection in the mirror had temporarily taken on the appearance of this race: the long hair hanging down to his waist was not the bright, shimmering silver-white he was in reality, but a darker, grayish hue; his skin was similarly pale; and his captivating blue-purple eyes had turned silver.

"Next is the skill setup. I plan to use most of the weapon master skills from SAO for now. That means I'll probably only play for a short while after finishing the skill tree tonight. There's still a lot to work on."

He skipped the character customization step, which was not of any practical use, and the system then automatically redirected him to the section for selecting an initial weapon and creating a custom skill set.

"And there's another advantage to this: in every sense, I can be a 'need-to-all' player from now on. After all, this build requires a lot of high-end weapons to be fully developed. Of course, once it's fully developed, its combat power... I've experienced firsthand how terrifying it is." As Sorin said this, he recalled the days when he could command the wind and rain and control lightning in SAO, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.

[A man who can even kill a GM (confirmed)]

To be fair, Yuna's skill tree is really powerful; her buff-generating abilities are the best!

To be honest, this was just the only buff ability in the flawed system of SAO. It probably wouldn't be that strong in this game. Weapon Master was a genuine damage-dealing skill back then, and it would still be powerful in this game.

I don't care, I want to see Uncle Solskjaer debut as an idol.

He didn't explain much after that, but simply entered in each of the Weapon Master's skill characteristics that he still remembered. After he finished entering the last paragraph and clicked the [Self-Balancing] button, the "Hyperdimensional Fantasy World" game system began to self-balance the skill, and after a while, it displayed the self-balanced skill tree.

It is similar to the Weapon Master skill in SAO, but the damage bonus when switching weapons has been reduced from 50% to 20%, and the mark damage when hitting the enemy with different weapons has also been reduced to 150% of the original attack power.

"So Kayaba Akihiko put his heart into making the game but his feet into balancing it. I felt there was something wrong with the damage design back then, as if I had never tested it myself, and now it seems that was indeed the case."

Sorin relentlessly criticized Kayaba, whom he had already beaten up, but of course he forgot about one thing... Kayaba Akihiko could appear near him at any time, like right now.

"Hey, hey, hey, using your feet to balance is going too far. Besides, I tested all those unique skills back then, and none of them had as many fancy tricks as you did!"

This message popped up in Sorin's private chat. This part of the content wouldn't be broadcast live, which is why Kayaba dared to retort at this time. After seeing this message, Sorin just shook his head helplessly and then casually typed four Chinese characters back in the chat.

"That's because you're bad at it."

"That's even more outrageous!"

Sorin ignored Kayaba's constant private messages and harassment. He had already spent a full hour writing the skill tree, while Yuna had already created her character and was waiting for him.

"Okay, so we've now created our characters. The ID will remain SorinMarkov, and that won't change. Next up should be a cutscene from the game, which will also give you a general overview of the game."

He replied to Yuna, "Just finished creating my character and watching the cutscenes. I'll team up with you in a bit," and then stood there waiting for the cutscenes to start. Nowadays, most full-immersion games have put a lot of effort into their cutscenes, and the final effect is often as immersive as watching a movie in IMAX. So, generally speaking, few players will actively skip the cutscenes, and some people even replay various cutscenes on the login screen over and over again.

Each expansion pack for Hyperdimensional Fantasy is released in collaboration with other major IPs. This means that the opening cinematic of each expansion pack gives players who are drawn to the collaboration a strong sense of déjà vu, which has attracted many players.

The melodious strains of "In the End" (which sounded strange, but were indeed the case) filled the air, and the scene around him instantly transformed into a war-torn city. Directly in front of him stood a towering, dark palace, above which hovered a colossal dragon with two curved horns. Facing the dragon was a female necromancer in a deep purple robe, while countless undead armies launched a fearless charge towards the dragon.

"The Battle of Sparks... I was wondering why that expansion's promotional page on the official website looked so familiar. Capcom really knows how to get the license."

Sorin gazed at the familiar scene before him and sighed silently. The image before him froze on the warrior in white armor and black sword standing atop a demon's head, wielding his sword against a giant dragon. Then, a line of text flashed before him: "The Hyperdimensional Fantasy V2.00 crossover expansion, 'War of Sparks,' is now online, opening the quest world 'Ranica' and new races 'Vidocken,' 'Kor', and 'Creator.' The multiverse still awaits your exploration, explorers."

"When it comes to creating demons, I think of the immortal demon god Fubizo. I wonder how many people would choose that small, cute-looking guy." After watching the CG, Solin opened his friends page, politely declined Kayaba Akihiko's invitation to play together, and then found Yuna's icon. "I've got this sorted out. Now what's next?"

"Wait a minute, Lan, I'm doing the tutorial... You should go and finish the tutorial too. This game doesn't seem to be quite similar to what we usually think of as an MMORPG..."

Sorin sensed a hint of urgency in Yuna's voice, and he wondered if she had encountered some trouble. However, this only made him more interested in the game.

"Are all the beginner quests quite difficult? Then this game seems pretty challenging... That's good, too easy games don't interest me as much, a bit of challenge is what makes it fun."

292. The Tree King - Not a Giant - Nor is His Name Yhorm

"Only a storm can bring down a big tree? FNNDP!"

Sorin instinctively blurted out that line, and then he saw the giant tree in front of him suddenly begin to shake violently, revealing a long health bar. Above the health bar was a rather ridiculous name: 【Tree King - Not a Titan - Not named Yhorm】

[Task objective 1 has been completed]

[Mission Objective 2: Defeat the Tree King - not a giant, and not named Yhorm]

[Mission Hint: Only a storm can bring down the great tree]

The mission prompt flashed before Sorin's eyes. He stared intently at the Treant King, who, after a violent tremor, uprooted itself from the ground and swung its massive branches at Sorin.

"Hey friend, stop! This isn't right... This thing is way too big!"

Sorin dodged the Treant King's attack with a roll, glancing fearfully at his nearly empty health bar before quickly running away. After landing, he surveyed his surroundings. Behind him lay a dark forest, the contents of which remained unknown, but clearly safer than continuing to stand in front of the Treant King.

"Okay, we see this seems to be a puzzle-like part. It gives the hint that 'only storms can knock down trees,' which means there's a greatsword like the Storm Controller in this forest or nearby that can kill with a single blow." He explained rapidly as he ran. "So now we have two ways to pass this level, one more normal and one more ridiculous. Which one do you want to see?"

He didn't actually want to use that rather idiotic method—like endlessly washing his feet under the tree roots and slowly grinding down the Treant King with his Novice Longsword. Yuna had probably already completed the beginner quests and was waiting for him on the loading screen; wasting too much time like that would be inappropriate. However, the viewers clearly didn't think that way.

[I want to see Grandpa Sortie's pedicure kill it.]

[Go, Uncle Suo! Here comes Brother Que's secret technique!]

Don't stop!

"Hey, hey, hey, that's enough already! I don't even know what his attack style is like. What if I mess up and have to create a new character and waste a lot of time..." Sorin muttered to himself, then rolled away to dodge another attack from the Treant King. He then ran to the Treant King's feet and swung his sword at him. "No, I can't beat him. This beginner's sword can't break his defense. I'd try to at least scratch him a little bit. It looks like I can only run into the forest now."

A damage number of "-0" flashed before his eyes, so he decisively abandoned his plan to wear down the Treant King by slaying its feet and turned to run straight into the forest. Although the Treant King was imposing, it had inherited the typical characteristics of treants—slow movement—and could not catch up with the fleeing Thorin at all.

"It's a fact that the Night Elves' base couldn't catch up with the players even if they were uprooted, which is quite normal. If such powerful siege units had the same movement speed as wolf riders, the Night Elves would have already unified Azeroth and marched on Draenor. Would they have needed Gul'dan, that traitor, to open the gates?"

The earth trembled violently, following closely behind Solin's footsteps, but the distance between them grew wider and wider, until finally it could only watch helplessly as Solin ran into the woods and stopped.

Solin felt the tremors beneath his feet suddenly stop and breathed a sigh of relief. However, he was now in an awkward situation—he was lost because he had nothing in the forest to determine his direction.

"How am I supposed to play this? Who remembers where I came from?" Sorin looked at the countless almost identical trees around him and suddenly felt a headache coming on. "After I find the Storm Controller, how am I going to get out and cut down the Treant King? That's still a problem, isn't it?"

He jogged along, quickly traversing the forest, carefully searching his surroundings for any particularly obvious clues. After running for about a minute, a cross woven from vines appeared before him. The cross resembled a sword sheath, with a long, emerald-green sword stuck in its center.

"Excuse me for being blunt, but this is quite different from the Storm Controller's design. At least the art style doesn't match at all." Sorin walked to the front of the cross, examined the sword stuck in the center of the cross, and complained, "This thing should obviously be called something like Druid's Oath or whatever. Calling it Storm Controller is a bit out of place."

[The fact that the Tree King isn't a giant, and isn't even named Yhorm, is already quite jarring!]

[Would that greatsword be named something like "This is not the Storm Controller"?]

"Stop joking around, or this game will become a complete comedy, which doesn't fit the style of this hardcore game. At least so far, this game is still very hardcore, except for the name 'Tree King'," Thorin explained seriously. He took two steps forward, pulled out the sword fixed to the cross, and the item name on it was displayed: [You thought this was the Storm Controller?]

You think this is the storm controller?

【Category: Artifacts ~ Weapons, Swords】(Note: Artifacts are not an item level, but a general term for man-made items. The English word is artifact...yes, that's the name of the DOTA TCG that died out incredibly quickly.)

[Effect: You can use it to deal far more damage than you can imagine to the Treant King—not a giant, nor named Yhorm—because it is not the Storm Controller.]

[Background: Perhaps Mr. Qin can defeat Wang Youm using his intellectually challenged methods, but you can only use them to cut down that big tree.]

"...You win. I take back my opinion of this game. What kind of idiot designed this thing?"

Sorin suddenly felt a mix of amusement and exasperation. He held the [You think this is the Storm Controller?] in his right hand, weighing it in his hand for a moment. Just as he was worrying about how to get out of the forest, he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble violently once again.

He looked up and saw that the truly towering tree was moving towards him at a slow but unstoppable pace. In that case, there was no need to worry about locating the enemy, because the enemy had already delivered itself to his doorstep.

"So the simplicity of this beginner mission is beyond my imagination in every sense. Oh well, it's just a beginner mission after all. Don't worry about the details. Just finish it off."

293. Destined Love (Special Dog Food Episode at Midnight on May 20th)

Five minutes later, in the B3 public area, in front of the Sacred Fountain.

The public areas in "Hyperdimensional Realm" are updated based on expansion packs. In the first expansion pack, public areas starting with A were the new continent bases from Capcom's Monster Hunter World. However, after the second expansion pack, "Battle of Sparks," the newly added public areas starting with B became the Ravnica Guild Castle.

The Sacred Fountain is a typical landmark building. It's the headquarters plaza of the guild [Ozoli], which represents order. Normally, it's an area that shouldn't be easily entered in the game's lore. However, in this public area, it has become a well-known tourist attraction, where players often come to the fountain plaza to sightsee or relax. For example... a brown-haired girl is lightly asleep on a bench covered in the shade of a tree.

After completing the beginner quests, Yuna came here to wait for Sorin. After sending her location to Sorin, she sat on the bench and started fiddling with her flute. However, perhaps due to the quiet night making her drowsy, she had only been sitting there for less than five minutes when she uncontrollably closed her eyes and began to doze off.

"If you feel tired, just log off and go to sleep. Sleeping here feels like deceiving yourself."

A familiar, gentle voice sounded behind her. Yuna slowly opened her eyes, yawned, and then without hesitation changed her position, lying on her side on the lap of Sorin, who had somehow ended up sitting next to her.

Even after all this time, whenever such blatant displays of affection occur in the live stream, the chat is still flooded with "FFF" and similar messages that almost fill the entire screen. Solin ignored the FFF comments; he relaxed back in his chair, gently took Youna's outstretched right hand, and recounted his experiences during the beginner quests.

Actually, nothing particularly strange happened after that. The Tree King wasn't attacked by Yhorm; it was just hit by Thorin's sword, and the entire tree turned into a pile of ashes. Then came the mission settlement page.

That incredibly powerful, aggro-level weapon [You thought it was the Storm Controller?] didn't end up in his hands. In fact, the rewards for that newbie quest were only experience points, unlocked personal quests, and unlocked group quests. So his current equipment is still the same as when he started out, making him look like a typical newbie.

"So, Lan's newbie quest just now sounded pretty simple?" she asked softly, her eyes half-closed in contentment.

"Yeah, after I pulled out that thing, what do you think it is, the Storm Controller?, the Treant King rushed towards me like crazy. When it got right on my face, I killed it with one sword and it was gone in an instant. I didn't even really understand what this tutorial was trying to teach."

While complaining, Sorin examined Yuna's new look. Actually, it wasn't really a new look, because she always wore a white dress and strappy sandals in the virtual space, with only slight differences in color schemes. For example, the dress she was wearing today had a bright green tree-patterned design. The rapier and flute that should have been hanging at her waist were instead resting flat on her thighs.

"Hmm, my Yuna is still adorable today." Sorin thought to himself, but then he regretfully realized that he hadn't used such lines to make Yuna blush since a long time ago. Instead, Yuna often made him feel soft and cute with similar or even more proactive words and actions.

“I feel like it would be nice to just lie here for a while and then log off and go to sleep, Lan. It feels like when we first met and went on a date in the evening.” Yuna’s tone suddenly became melancholy. She slowly sat up, put her rapier and flute aside, and then naturally leaned on Sorin’s shoulder.

“Yes, I was so naive back then. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so captivated by you the first time I saw you, thinking I had to win you over, or I would regret it for the rest of my life.” Sorin’s voice carried a gentle calmness. He placed his left hand on Yuna’s clasped hands, and pointed with his right hand to the brightly lit fountain in the distance. “You know, Yuna, this is the center of order in Ranica. But it’s clear that when the Sacred Fountain was built, the Ozoli people weren’t so rigid; they designed it as a tourist attraction.”

"Is that so? Come to think of it, even though I invited you here, I feel like you know this place better than I do." Yuna followed Sorin's finger and looked at the fountain, which was drawing a heart shape in the air, shining brilliantly under the lights. "Arashi, are we going to continue fighting today?"

Her voice held a hint of reluctance, as if she were afraid that Solin would actually drag her into a team and click the match button. However, Solin didn't do that. He affectionately stroked Yuna's head and then deliberately ruffled her neatly combed hair.

"I wouldn't want to leave such a beautiful view and such a lovely you to do quests, wouldn't that be a waste?" Solin replied with a smile. He didn't choose to end the stream, but because the FFF comments kept flooding the screen, he thought for a moment and then turned off the comment assistant. "Like you said, let's sit here for a while and chat, then log off and go to sleep. Anyway, we have plenty of free time, don't we?"

"Ah."

Yuna nodded, hurriedly tidying her hair, which Sorin had just messed up, but suddenly felt a sense of peace. After countless conflicts, the one who had always protected her, her beloved, was still as romantic as when they first met—this was truly a rare thing.

The fountain's patterns changed again and again. Sometimes, Yu would childishly point to some of the strange patterns and exclaim in wonder, while Sorin would explain the unique patterns to her, such as their origins and the meanings they represented. It wasn't particularly meaningful idle chatter, but both of them clearly enjoyed it.

"Sometimes I wonder, if I hadn't chosen to put on the helmet and enter SAO at that time, would I still have had the chance to meet you?"

Yuna gently embraced her lover and whispered this question in his ear.

“It definitely will. I believe this is a love destined for us. Even if we don’t enter SAO, we will eventually meet on a certain day in a certain month of a certain year. I will still be completely captivated by you the moment we first meet.” Sorin answered without hesitation. He turned around, looked directly into Yu’s beautiful golden-brown eyes, and suddenly lowered his head to kiss her.

We promised to hold hands from now on, because we'll be going a long way.

294. A Girl's Date

Ivy got up very early today. After all, she was the one who took the initiative to ask Vector out shopping, so she needed to prepare properly. She always felt that her feelings for Vector had become particularly subtle, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She just felt that it wasn't a simple colleague relationship anymore.

"Yes, Ivy is still full of energy today!"

She stretched comfortably in front of the mirror, admiring her reflection with satisfaction. She slowly slipped off her white nightgown and walked to the wardrobe, seemingly pondering what to wear that day.

"If it's Vivi, she'll probably be wearing more boyish casual clothes. She always has that cool, expressionless look," Aiweixin guessed, her pretty face suddenly turning slightly red, and the CPU fan blowing even faster. "Just thinking about it makes me excited."

She waited for her body temperature, which had spiked to 56°C after thinking about Vector, to drop to 40°C before opening the double doors of the wardrobe. The wardrobe was crammed full; the left side contained hardcore clothing such as combat suits and protective gear, while the right side was filled with various light-colored dresses with a girlish style.