A journey to another world starting from a sword

Xiaochun even joked that she was just an ordinary person in the guild. Although Leafa thought Xiaochun was also very cute, with her smooth black hair, emerald eyes, energetic personality, and the kind of girl-next-door charm.

"Then what about Dante? The only boy in the guild?" Leafa teased.

"Haha, it seems Dante tried to invite a few male players before, but they refused when they saw that the guild was full of girls," Xiaochun said, shaking her index finger.

"Wow," Leafa exclaimed, "Isn't this a vicious cycle?"

"Ah, when you transfer, remember to clearly state the name of the place you're transferring to, it's the starting town." Before they knew it, Koharu had led Leafa to the transfer marker on the twenty-second floor.

"I understand." Leafa swallowed nervously, knowing she was about to experience something only found in games.

Then, imitating Xiaochun, she shouted in a clear and resonant voice.

"Transfer! To the starting town!"

Chapter 173: Naruto and Kirito

"Wow—what a beautiful city!" Leafa exclaimed, captivated by the plaza before her after the blue light surrounding her disappeared.

“…Is that so?” Xiaochun reluctantly agreed. This was her first time returning to this town since joining the guild, and her feelings were quite complicated.

She tugged at her hood and said to Leafa, "Let's find a place to eat first. The Black Iron Palace's player list has a whopping 10,000 members. It will take some time to check them all."

"Yes!" Leafa turned around and smiled brightly.

After leaving the square and walking forward for a while, although the roads were intersecting, the intersections were all right angles.

Perhaps for this reason, Xiaochun did not hesitate at all when she moved forward.

Leafa followed behind Xiaochun into the shopping street. There weren't many players; everyone was just passing by in a hurry. However, when they passed Leafa, they suddenly showed expressions of surprise.

"Oh, right." After noticing this, Xiaochun took a cloak from her inventory and placed it on Leafa's head. "If you feel like there are too many eyes watching you, put this on."

"Oh, oh." Leafa tugged at her ear, then imitated Haru by putting it on and putting on the hat. A feeling of peace welled up inside her in an instant.

"I'm starting to understand why you all like wearing this."

Leafa stretched out her arms and, finding that it didn't affect her movements, looked up at Koharu and smiled.

"Hmph." Xiaochun slowly opened her mouth, "Of course, that's not the only reason."

Then, a white building resembling a coffee shop came into view on the street. Although the surrounding buildings were medieval in style, this shop seemed different.

After Leafa asked the question, Xiaochun nodded, "That's right, that's right, and this shop is super famous! Many female players love it here."

This is a player-run restaurant recommended by the Aincrad Weekly, and the players here are likely to have surpassed Vice President Asuna in terms of cooking proficiency alone.

Upon entering the restaurant, Xiaochun greeted the NPC staff and, after hesitating for a moment, conveniently ordered her food.

Indeed, the beautiful decor seemed to be very popular with women. After leaving the ordering entirely to Xiaochun, Leafa took the opportunity to observe the restaurant's environment.

"You just said this restaurant is very famous, but what makes it famous?" Leafa noticed that there weren't many players in the restaurant.

"The taste is amazing. This restaurant is on the Aincrad Weekly Food Ranking. Generally speaking, the food in player-run restaurants is much better than that in NPC restaurants."

"The guest is right, but we're about to move to the twenty-fifth floor."

Suddenly a male voice came from the side. Xiaochun and Leafa turned their heads and saw a male player wearing a white chef's uniform.

"Huh? Why?" Leafa asked curiously.

"Haha, because there are very few customers," the male shopkeeper said, spreading out his free left hand. "Once people leave the town of origin, they rarely come back."

Xiaochun nodded with a wry smile in agreement with what her boss said.

"Now, the 25th floor, 'Gildestan', is more popular, and many famous strategy guilds use the 25th floor as their base."

Gildestan, "Gildes" is a transliteration of the English word "guild," and "stan" means "land."

The twenty-fifth floor, being located below the floating city and being an extremely important floor, is very large, making the main street area one of the largest cities currently.

The facilities inside are very complete, and the supply of items is convenient. To be honest, apart from the slight advantage in housing prices, "Starting Town" is much worse than "Gildestan".

"Oh, I see." Leafa nodded.

"Please enjoy your meal." After placing the food down, the male owner blinked and turned back to the kitchen.

"Pork cutlet donburi?" Leafa looked at the food placed in front of her in surprise.

“That’s right, each player’s restaurant has its own secret recipe, which is why it tastes better than the NPC restaurants.” Xiaochun handed the chopsticks to Leafa and said, “Let’s eat.”

“I’m starting,” Leafa said in return.

After finishing their meal, Leafa and Xiaochun strolled along the shopping street, patting their bellies repeatedly, "So satisfying."

"Haha, you won't get fat no matter what you eat in SAO, so you can eat as much as you want without worry," Koharu said casually, her hands behind her back.

"That's great." Leafa breathed a long sigh of relief, now she felt no guilt at all.

Because she was in a sports club, her appetite was much larger than that of the average girl, which resulted in everyone looking at her with surprise whenever she brought a lunchbox. This made her afraid to eat too much at lunchtime.

"Hahaha..." Xiaochun laughed heartily, probably because she had a similar experience to Leafa in real life.

Just then, Leafa passed by the prop shop next door and saw the newspapers displayed on the shelf. This was...

"What's wrong?" Xiaochun stopped and asked.

“Hmm, wait a moment.” Leafa took a few steps towards the prop shop. “The Aincrad Weekly… ah, just now…”

"That's right, the food list I'm talking about is the one published by the Aincrad Weekly. However, it's because it doesn't have any particularly reliable travel guides or information. To make up for this, it has put a lot of effort into the entertainment aspect."

According to Argo, the guide was riddled with errors and had little informational value, yet it cost 500 Cor! More than twice the price of his own newspaper!

“Ah, this is it!” Leafa looked at another newspaper being sold side by side, which read “Argo Weekly”.

She remembered that Argo was someone Mr. Nishida had mentioned, the kind player.

The newspaper Leafa was holding was from the previous issue, and the headline was still about breaking through to the twenty-eighth floor.

"If you want to watch the new episode, you don't need to buy it. I have a copy in my inventory." Xiaochun peeked out from behind Leafa.

"I see." Leafa put the newspaper back on the shelf. "Mr. Argo must be a very capable person."

"......?" At this moment, a big question mark appeared above Xiaochun's head. "Um... Argo is a girl."

"Eh?! E ...

"Hahaha, Argo would definitely laugh if he knew you thought she was a man," Xiaochun burst into laughter. Even Argo sometimes refers to himself as "older sister," so being thought of as a man...

"Ahem, I understand." Leafa coughed lightly twice. "Give me the newspaper."

"Here you go." Xiaochun handed Leafa several newspapers from her inventory, including one called "Weekly Story Collection."

It is one of the three major newspapers in SAO, along with the Argo Weekly and the Aincrad Weekly, but it mainly focuses on columns and novels, making it a purely entertainment newspaper.

However, SAO, despite its lack of entertainment, provides fertile ground for growth. To be honest, one thing that mid-level players look forward to every week is the release of the new issue of the newspaper.

Lifa also compared several newspapers along the way. The Argo Weekly rarely had entertainment-related news, which shows that Argo is a very pragmatic player.

The headline photo of the Aincrad Weekly was actually a picture of a very beautiful player.

"Leafy, are you interested in Argo?" Xiaochun tilted her head, watching Leafy carefully examine the contents of the newspaper.

"Hmm, I am somewhat curious. I heard from an old man on the 22nd floor that Argo established the guild for casual players, is that right?"

"Not really. When President Dante made the suggestion, Argo complained that even if we didn't do this unnecessary thing, the players below would spontaneously band together. However, Vice President Asuna felt that what Argo was talking about would take time to happen, so it wouldn't hurt for us to take the initiative to do it."

"......Eh?"

"Huh?" Xiaochun turned around and stared at Leafa, who had stopped.

“Xiaochun, do you know Argo?” Leafa asked in surprise.

“Of course, Argo is a member of our guild, ‘Rat’ Argo,” Xiaochun said matter-of-factly.

"Eh—" Leafa never expected the world to be so small, that the celebrity she knew was right next to her.

"Then... is Dante also super famous?" Leafa reconsidered Dante's earlier statement about how amazing he was, as well as what Haru had just said, and asked cautiously.

“Hmm…” Xiaochun took out a book from the inventory. “This is the 25th floor commemorative edition of Argo’s Chronicle of Aincrad.”

"oh oh."

After Leafa took it, she heard Xiaochun say, "Our president is written on the first page."

With a sense of awe, Leafa turned to the first page.

The first strategy tournament was held, and the "Hero" and "Knight" teamed up to conquer the first floor boss...

Scrolling further down, you can find information on most of the major events that happened in Aincrad.

For the first time, members of the red guild "Smiling Coffin" have survived with eyewitness accounts; the "Knights of the Blood Oath" participate in a boss battle for the first time...

"Argo originally hoped to record the movement patterns of all players, but because the amount of information needed was too large, he could only record the names of some guilds that contributed to the strategy."

Seeing Leafa intently browsing the chronicle, Xiaochun smiled and said, "I'll give it to you."

"Really?" Leafa turned to look at Xiaochun.

"You can buy this book at the prop shop, and if all else fails, you can just ask Argo for it," Xiaochun said, indicating that it was a minor matter.

"Thank you."

When Leafa returned to the square, she realized that the black palace on the other side of the square was the "Iron Palace," and that it had been so close before.

However, there were guards at the entrance, heavily armed warriors wearing green undershirts and full armor.

"What are you doing here?" the guard shouted before they even got close.

"We're here to check player names," Xiaochun explained to the other party.

"Don't wander around," one of the guards warned sternly.

Xiaochun nodded unmoved, then led the bewildered Leafa inside.

"Is this some kind of forbidden area?" Leafa quickly caught up with Haru and asked in a low voice.

“No.” Xiaochun shook her head. “It’s just that this place has been occupied by a certain guild without permission.”

She never expected that there would be someone guarding the Black Iron Palace, making it seem like "this is our guild's headquarters."

Guild headquarters should usually be owned by the guild itself, right? Is it really okay to occupy public facilities like this?

However, Xiaochun comforted herself with the thought that she probably wouldn't have the chance to come here again, and led Leafa to the stone wall that recorded the names of all the players.

"Ah... so many?" Leafa looked up and discovered that the names were engraved near the ceiling.

Many of the names were underlined. She pointed to one of them and asked, "What's this?"

“These are players who have already died,” Xiaochun answered Leafa’s question with a gloomy expression.

"..." Leafa fell silent for a moment, because she noticed that there were quite a few names with horizontal lines drawn.

“But Leafa’s brother is still alive, right?” Koharu said with a smile, trying to comfort her.

"Yes!" Leafa nodded vigorously; her brother was still lying peacefully in the hospital bed.

"Since they are all English names, we have to check each one carefully, which is a lot of work. I'll be there for you, let's do our best together."

I really didn't expect that they would be able to find out all those 10,000 names by nightfall.

Even Leafa was a little unsure which name her brother would choose. At first, just in case, she wrote down all the possible names, but later she realized there were too many, so she filtered them out.

Finally, they continued searching based on clues from the Romanized pronunciation, and Leafa concluded that two names were the most likely.

There is also "Kirito" (or "Naruto").

Chapter 174: Why is it the forest spirit again?

Because her brother has two names: Kiritani Kazuto and Narusaka Kazuto.

"You two aren't siblings?" After learning that Leafa's real name was Kirigaya Suguha, Koharu crossed her arms and tilted her head.

"Yes, my brother's former name seems to be Narusaka Kazuto, which is my mother's sister's surname."

After her brother was trapped in SAO, she was told by her parents that she was not her brother's biological sister, but their cousin.

The older brother's parents passed away unexpectedly, so the mother decided to adopt her older sister's son. Even in terms of household registration, as the adopted son of the Kiritani family, Kiritani Kazuto also has legal inheritance rights.

That's why Leafa felt it wasn't strange that her brother used his old name, taking the first and last syllables of the Romanized spelling, and called him Naruto.

“Kirito? I recognize that name,” Koharu said, pointing to one of the names on the paper.

"Really?" Leafa grasped Haru's hands, her worries immediately half resolved. "What kind of person is he?"