My avatar is the heroine

Although he is essentially one person, Su Lin is a guild in himself, and can even solo bosses.

Unlike others, he shares his thinking, enabling him to achieve maximum efficiency in everything he does, and he can concentrate the funds and equipment he acquires for the most rational use.

Not to mention that clones are inherently fearless, and when fighting certain bosses, they can even be a bit reckless. This allows them to easily kill many bosses that normal people wouldn't dare to fight out of fear.

Having made these decisions, Su Lin began to act in separate groups.

Although it was a little awkward for a guy to be leveled up by five adorable girls, he was incredibly proud, wasn't he? People along the way looked on with envy.

But he ignored those stares and rushed to the high-end area on the first floor as fast as he could.

Upon reaching their destination, the only weapon was given to Yukino Yukinoshita, who then took the initiative to engage in a direct confrontation with the hostile giant boar.

"Sure enough, the monsters are much stronger and more powerful as we go deeper into the area."

Not only have the wild boars grown larger, but there are also giant bees and spider monsters.

Essentially, they are all simple beginner-level monsters with simple behavior patterns, but their attack power is much higher than that of the initial wild monsters. Therefore, getting accidentally injured during battle can be very damaging.

But in games, people are bound to die. Even in the safest games, players cannot guarantee that danger will never happen.

"The sword that cuts through".

After a fierce battle, the boar was left with low health, and Yukino seized the opportunity to use one of her special skills.

With a flash of green light, her body suddenly accelerated, the sword cutting a long gash in the air and piercing through the wild boar's body.

The target's HP is reduced to zero, gaining 175 experience points and level up by 1.

"Finally, I've reached level 4."

Leveling up is relatively fast in the early stages, but the amount of experience points required increases with each level up.

Suddenly, Yukino discovered that she had acquired a piece of equipment in her inventory.

[Lost Boar Ring: Occasionally grants 1% bonus attack damage during combat.]

"What kind of crappy prop is this?"

She was speechless when she saw the item's attributes.

The extra 1% attack damage only triggers occasionally, which just goes to show how utterly useless the items in the beginner village are.

However, she soon realized that this thing wasn't bad at all.

First of all, rings are a relatively rare type of item, not to mention that at the beginning of the game, no one had been able to obtain any equipment yet.

This 1% increase in damage is actually quite overpowered. It's useful even in the late game, and a player might die from a tiny difference at any time.

"It seems that the ring's ability is more passive, meaning it doesn't require any conscious effort from the brain; you can just wear it on your person."

Su Lin hesitated for a moment before deciding to use the equipment himself.

Give the best stuff to the original product first.

Yukino continued to fight monsters.

The clones coordinated their attacks, essentially taking turns delivering the final blow. There were quite a few large boars, but under their frenzied and increasingly skilled onslaught, the entire leveling area had been almost completely cleared.

"Indeed, let's change locations next."

Su Lin was quite diligent at this point; his level had already surpassed that of ordinary players. He spent most of the day leveling up in this high-level area before seeing other players gradually arrive.

At this point, she finally obtained her fifth piece of equipment that allowed her to fight.

[Standard Short Sword: A sturdy and durable ordinary short sword capable of cutting, making it a good helper on the battlefield.]

"Not bad, 3 knives and 2 swords."

The clones don't all use swords, so all of these weapons are usable, and just right.

"That's about it. All the daily-type clones have their equipment. Let's split up and level up."

Chapter 317 BOSS Strategy Meeting

A month later.

Getting started was the hardest part. Everyone was unequipped and inexperienced. In addition, the first floor was the largest, with a diameter of ten kilometers. Therefore, even the closed beta testers were unable to find the BOSS's room and defeat him.

In just one month, two thousand out of tens of thousands of players were lost.

Players have already experienced firsthand the cruelty of SAO.

Once a character dies in battle, they are gone forever. Not only will you never see your teammates again, but their loved ones in real life will also lose them forever.

This environment has gradually led some people to develop evils that were not originally present in their lives.

A month is enough to drive people to despair. After all, Aincrad has as many as 100 floors. So much time has been wasted and so many people have been lost on just the first floor. No wonder some people have lost faith in the future.

The battles that eliminate danger make this a wonderful game, with delicious food and lifelike NPCs. If you immerse yourself in it, life can be far better than the stressful reality.

Therefore, many people would rather remain immersed in this forever.

Among the players, excluding the large organizations, there are fewer than 500 people whose main goal is to conquer the world but who do not belong to large groups. They have formed about fifty small groups, which are called guilds.

Then there were two or three hundred people who chose special professions and merchant professions. They also established their own guilds and trained their skills in order to earn the game currency called Cor.

After that, there were fewer than a hundred solo players.

It's fair to say that these guilds and solo players are the main force in navigating the game. The vast majority of highly skilled and adventurous individuals come from these groups. Future strategy teams will naturally emerge from among them.

On this day, after Su Lin finished his training, he canceled several clones that were almost out of time and returned to town with Qiong Mei.

Just as he was about to enter a tavern, several players suddenly appeared in his line of sight.

"The first BOSS strategy meeting is being held tomorrow at the town's open-air conference square. Aren't you going to attend?"

"A strategy meeting?" Qiong paused for a moment, then asked, "Did all the players attend?"

"No, only a portion. In fact, most of them are just loafing around and waiting to die."

"alright."

So, the scheduled time for the next day became the time when Su Lin from Qiong Mei arrived at the scene on time.

"There aren't many people, less than a hundred."

She sat quietly in one of her seats, waiting for the meeting to officially begin.

There was no other woman present besides her.

No, that's not right. As the only woman, Asuna concealed her appearance with her robes, and since she was sitting in the back, few people noticed her.

Ke Qiong was a little unlucky; someone had already started whistling at her. Of course, these people didn't mean any harm; they were just the kind of people who wanted to show off when they saw a pretty girl.

Qiong doesn't look like the kind of person who can fight.

However, since they were willing to accept the invitation, they are probably the kind of proactive person who wants to play the game and leave the virtual world.

Everyone arrived quickly, and the blue-haired guy who was in charge of inviting everyone clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention with his voice.

"Well then, we can begin. Thank you all for coming today. I am Diabel, a self-proclaimed knight." With that, he tapped his chest.

"Hahaha." A group of players on the steps laughed. "There's no class system, is there?"

The blue-haired boy just smiled at this, then his expression suddenly turned serious, and he said earnestly, "Today, our team discovered the BOSS's room on the top floor of that tower."

"What? Really?" Everyone focused their attention.

"Of course it's true. We must defeat the BOSS and reach the second level. We must tell everyone still waiting in the starting town that this death game will end one day, and that is our duty as people living here now. Isn't that right, everyone?"

Perhaps encouraged, many people in the audience applauded.

"Well then, without further ado, let's begin the strategy meeting. First, please form teams of six. The level-defining boss is not something ordinary teams can handle; we need to gather our teams and form a united front."

"Makes sense."

So everyone at the scene started talking to people they knew, and teams began to form.

Kirito, a lone player who had no friends at the event, awkwardly found himself alone. This situation made him feel inexplicably awkward.

He looked around and immediately noticed the most conspicuous Kasugano Sora, and Asuna sitting below her.

So he crept closer and said to the two of them, "You're both alone, aren't you?"

“I wasn’t alone, but everyone around me acted like they were my companions, so I just avoided them,” Asuna replied.

"A solo player... What about you?" Kirito looked at Sora again. "As I just said, it's impossible to defeat a boss alone, so why not form a team, even just once?"

Qiong smiled and nodded, while Asuna hesitated for a moment before agreeing as well.

Why do I feel like I've been handpicked as the main character?

After all, the male and female protagonists are Kirito and Asuna, and this is an important plot point when the anime airs. If this plot point is included, then the audience will probably consider them important characters as well.

A few seconds later, Kirito sent a team invitation, and both Sora and Asuna clicked "confirm".

Around this time, the blue-haired Diabel spoke again: "Alright, everyone's almost assembled, so what's next..."

"Wait a minute!" A sudden voice interrupted everyone's attention.

An annoying guy has appeared.

He stood at the top of the steps and rushed down the stairs.

"Hmm, is it this guy?"

Qiong curled the corners of her lips, instantly summoned Rikka ten meters above her head, released the ability to fall, and then deactivated it.

Because he was moving so fast, those present couldn't even see the afterimage clearly. So they only noticed that while he was running wildly, he suddenly and inexplicably fell down, and then rolled down the steps like a ball.

"Hahaha!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the audience.

"Damn it." The guy cursed under his breath, got up and said, "My name is Tooth King, and I have something to say before we defeat the BOSS."

Everyone was staring at him, and the guy began to shift his gaze to everyone present: "Someone in here has to apologize to the more than two thousand people who died earlier."

After he finished speaking, he pointed to the crowd present.

Chapter 318 Team Formation

The blue-haired Diabel immediately asked, "Mr. Fang Wang, are the people you're talking about the players from the previous closed beta test?"

"Needless to say, those guys who finished the closed beta disappeared on the day this damn game started, abandoning the newbies. They monopolized the good hunting grounds and easy tasks, only caring about getting stronger by leaps and bounds, ignoring everyone else's business." He finished, then roared indignantly at the crowd, "There must be some of those guys who finished the closed beta among them. They have to kneel down and admit their mistakes, return the money and items they've accumulated. Otherwise, as teammates, we can't entrust our lives to them."

This statement has clearly given everyone pause for thought, and if no one stops it, it might easily be swept up in a controversy.

Qiong Mei originally thought that Agil, the dark-skinned giant, would immediately step forward as in the story, but she suddenly found that he was not there.

Glancing at Kirito's uneasy expression, she sighed and said to the people below, "From a long-term perspective, giving up the resources of the weak to the strong to support them in conquering higher levels is the truly wise approach."

"What?" Ya Wang was taken aback, not expecting anyone to answer her like that.

He looked up abruptly and noticed the girl who was speaking, who didn't seem very capable. His brows furrowed.

"You actually said that we, the weak, should share what belongs to the strong?"

“Yeah, that’s right.” Someone else nodded. “Even though they didn’t ask the closed beta testers to do anything, it’s still unreasonable for them to take things from us.”

Even Kirito looked at her incredulously.

Kasugano Sora chuckled softly: "In this world, there are always the weak who can't be helped and the strong who stand at the forefront. Especially in games, the weak can be killed with the slightest carelessness, and their money and items disappear with their character's death. Not to mention, many weak players have been hiding in towns all along, wasting all their resources. And you want those strong beta testers who are at the forefront of expanding the territory to give up their items, weaken their own strength, and feed them to those who have no skill and only drag the game down. The direct consequence of this is that the beta testers and frontline players will be weakened, and may even be unable to advance the game anymore. I just want to ask, what gives you the right to make such a suggestion? Or, if your suggestion causes the frontline players to be unable to complete the game, are you willing to take responsibility for it? For example, to atone for your sins with your own life to the many players who are about to be trapped in the game?"

These words caused the man's expression to twitch.

But he still argued, "That's none of your business. Once we've got the supplies and intelligence, we'll naturally be at the forefront."

"I don't care how you use these things, I just want to ask you, if your actions cause the strategy to fail and many soldiers on the front lines to die, are you willing to take responsibility alone? If you are, then... the closed beta players might agree to your request."

Qiong's words made Ya Wang back down.

He never expected things to turn out this way.

“That makes a lot of sense.” Diabel nodded in agreement. “It is indeed more efficient to hand over the wealth of second- and third-tier players to the front-line conquerors, but it is unethical to ask everyone to hand over their things for that reason. On the other hand, if we weaken the strength of the higher-level closed beta players, we cannot guarantee the combat power of the front-line conquerors, and may even put the entire player group at risk of not being able to leave SAO.”

“Everyone should have the guides that are given out for free by the item shop, right?” Someone spoke up at this moment. Qiong turned her head and saw that Agil was walking over from a distance. “These were given to you by the closed beta players. Many players risked their lives for them, so we should be discussing how to challenge the BOSS and learn from our mistakes, not fighting amongst ourselves.”

"Makes sense."

Everyone agreed on this point, and so a meeting began to discuss the specific strategy for the first boss, known as the monster. The final agreement was that the money obtained would be split equally, the experience points would go to the team that killed the boss, and whoever picked up the dropped items would keep them.

"Anyway, let's set off together at 10:00 AM tomorrow. Everyone, dismissed."

……

Everyone dispersed in twos and threes. Asuna got up to leave, but when she turned around and saw Sora, she paused for a moment.