Chapter 11: An Unexpected Evening

[Third Person Pov]

[10th of November, 20.58]

Two people could be currently seen conversing in a small room.

"... Please, come again?"

"Ayanokoji-kun, I want you to act as my fake boyfriend... Do I need to repeat this again?"

Ayanokoji shaked his head. "No. Care to explain to me why?" he asked.

"Well, I saved a player from being killed by a <<Little Nerpent>> yesterday, and ever since then, he's following me everywhere. He's justifying it as doing his 'duty' and returning the debt, but well, yesterday evening, he confessed to me. I'm not really able to tell him to stop, and he didn't listen to me when I told him to stop following me. I want him to stop bothering me, so do you mind acting as my 'fake boyfriend'?" she asked.

[Horikita's Appearance:]

"I have no one else to ask..." she muttered.

Ayanokoji seemed to think. Then, he relentlessly agreed, seeing no problem with that. "Sure, I can do that."

Horikita did a slight japanese bow in gratitude. "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"No problem. If that helps you, I'll do it gladly."

Ayanokoji then remembered how Ichinose in the past asked him to act as his 'fake boyfriend'. He had told her to confront the person, as it wasn't fair to deceive the person who took the courage to confess.

But unlike that time, this situation is completely different. Even when Horikita told the person to stop, he still followed her. It didn't seem like love. It seemed rather like an obsession. But what did

he know?

Horikita didn't tell him much details and just hoped that the person would voluntarily stop following her. She was a good person who didn't think that the person had malicious intent.

Well, if, in any case, he needed to reaffirm whether the person held malicious intent or not.

He didn't know all too much about that person, but he knew that he was too renting a room in this Inn, just for the sake of Horikita.

"Do you perhaps know the room number of that guy? And perhaps also his username?" Ayanokoji asked.

Horikita nodded her head. "It should be 201, if I'm right. As for his username, it should be Dai, if I heard it right."

Ayanokoji nodded his head. "Okay," he said, opening the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Confronting the player, obviously."

Then, he closed the door, leaving Horikita in a shocked state remaining.

Without hesitation, he knocked at the door of the player.

Happily, he shouted, "Coming," as he didn't tell anybody aside from Horikita his room number.

Opening the door, his expression made a 180-degree change from happiness to disappointment.

Then, he looked asked. "Who are you?"

"I'm the 'boyfriend' of the girl that you are lately bothering. Mind stopping following my 'girlfriend' everywhere she goes?"

At the moment, the guy heard Ayanokoji saying

that he's the 'boyfriend' of the girl he loved, his eyes have become completely empty.

With his now dull and empty eyes, he responded, "Her boyfriend? Sorry, I didn't know that..."

Without any second further, he walked away from the room. "Won't you take your pouch with you?" asked Ayanokoji.

He shaked his head. "I won't need that anymore. You can keep it."

Then, the player left the Inn. Ayanokoji, for one, knew what he'd do, but he didn't stop him. It was his decision to do what he'd do now.

Although he had the choice of taking the pouch with him, then later getting the ownership of it, out of common courtesy, he didn't take it.

He closed the door and materialized a small flower from his inventory, putting it in front of his room.

It'd take thirty minutes until the flower would despawn.

[Small Flower:]

[Durability: 5/5]

[Time remaining: 29 minutes and 58 seconds]

Ayanokoji then knocked at Horikita's door again. "Everything is done. He won't bother you anymore," exclaimed Ayanokoji.

Horikita looked in shock. "You did it that fast? It didn't take you more than a minute," she exclaimed.

Ayanokoji nodded his head. "Yeah, seems to be the case. I will leave then."

Ayanokoji walked away, Horikita watching him from behind, but then she noticed in front of the room of Dai that there was a small flower lying there.

A sudden thought crossed her mind. "Impossible, he wouldn't do that? Would he?"

Horikita immediately sprinted towards his room, seeing that it wasn't locked. The pouch was there, the room was not locked, and Dai wasn't there anymore.

She took the pouch with her, then sprinted outside of the Inn, meeting Ayanokoji, who walked away.

Horikita looked as if she couldn't possibly believe what Ayanokoji did. "Ayanokoji-kun... what did you do?"

Ayanokoji responded. "Nothing much. Just told him I was your 'boyfriend' and that she shouldn't bother you anymore."

Horikita looked shocked. "Nothing more."

"Yeah, nothing more."

She couldn't believe it. Ayanokoji was more than intelligent enough to know how Dai was feeling and what he'd possibly do now.

But he didn't do anything to stop him, reassure him, nothing. He simply walked away without a look of guilt written inside of his face.

"Where did he go?" Horikita asked, for an immediate answer from Ayanokoji.

"Frontgates," Ayanokoji replied.

Without hesitation, she sprinted with her full speed towards the Frongates.

Ayanokoji, who was also heading there, decided on sprinting there. He didn't want to waste his time on killing monsters. It'd be a waste otherwise.

Besides, there was one more additional thing that made him head to the front gate. According to Argo, an event boss spawned during this time period in the Beta.

If it is just like in the Beta, an event monster should spawn around 9:30 PM in the middle of the Map.

He got this information for free in exchange for the five requested valuable skills that would be worthwhile in the beginning.

He needs to affirm whether that was true or not.

It was a level 6 monster, that however dropped quite the amount of Cor's. Besides, in the Beta, it had a rare material only available at the 10th Floor. If that was indeed true, Ayanokoji would definitely get it.

But he wouldn't craft a sword with that.

He was still patiently waiting until he knew how to unlock a Katana.

Ayanokoji immediately caught up to Horikita, shocking the latter one quite a bit. She was really shocked that Ayanokoji caught up with her, in particular, as she was Level 3 and mostly put her stats in agility.

And it looked like Ayanokoji was quite holding him back, if she had to say. But that didn't matter now. There were far important things right now.

[TimeSkip]

It took them four minutes to arrive there, at the Frontgates. Ayanokoji definitely would have token less, but well, he held himself a bit back, not giving Horikita an estimate of his level and stats.

Not even fifty meters outside of the gate, Dai, the person who confessed to Horikita, could be seen with low health, that was slowly going to Zero.

Horikita, who didn't have anything like healing potions with her, took from Dai's pouch the item he stored there, in the hope there being a healing potion.

But there was something unexpected...

The item she has gotten from the pouch was a beautiful banquet of flowers that he planned to give her today.

Realizing that Horikita took the banquet of flowers from his pouch, he made a peace symbol with his fingers.

"Sayonara," he said, seeing both Horikita and Ayanokoji looking at him. Then immediately, the <<Frenzy Boar>> rammed his body, reducing his health to Zero.

His avatar shattered in hundreds of blue pieces. Thus, his life ended this evening, on the 9th of November, three days after the death game started.

The very first person to confess his love to Horikita now did a suicide as he couldn't be together with her. A tragic story, indeed.

Horikita felt guilty. Immensely guilty. If she had been honest all along and did not fabricate that she and Ayanokoji were dating, he'd still be alive. She just couldn't believe that he'd do suicide because they couldn't be together.

Out of the shock, her grip around the banquet flower released, causing it to fall on the ground, thus shattering the last remaining thing of him in this world.

"It's not your fault. It's Kayaba's. He created these circumstances..."

With saying that, Ayanokoji snapped Horikita back to reality. "Yes, you're right. Thank you for reassuring me..." Horikita said in gratitude.

"No worries."

Ayanokoji had planned to leave, but Horikita held his robe from behind. "Do you mind if I accompany you?"

"Sure. But do you really feel ready?" asked Ayanokoji.

Horikita nodded her head. "I think so..."

"Well, just tell me if you don't feel ready. Don't feel forced to come with me."

"I'll do so," responded Horikita, advancing with Ayanokoji to the West Field.

Ayanokoji didn't tell her about the possible event monster that could arrive there, as their was no reason to do so. He didn't precisely know why he accepted Horikita to accompany him.

It wasn't like he cared about her and his class anymore, since the only purpose of them has gone away. He wanted them to defeat him, but at the same time, he did not. It was the mere contradiction he held because of his upbringing in the White Room.

They were now complete different cases instead of when they enrolled at the school.

"Ayanokoji-kun, don't you want to know what is happening in our class?" she asked.

"Not really," he answered.

"I see..." she responded. "You can sometimes be really cruel..."

"It's not that I'm not cruel, but instead that I don't see any reason to hang out with you. Perhaps you already figured it out, but we won't be in the same class anymore when we leave this game. I'm not sure when it'll be, though."

Horikita thought of that, too. She wasn't one to play often MMORPG'S, but from what she knows, for some players, it would take years to finish them. If this was like Sao too, then it should take far longer than she or any might expect.

"Yeah... I guess you're right."

Ayanokoji came immediately to the point. "Did something happen to anyone?" he asked.

Horikita shaked her head. "No, we're all more or less fine. But everyone is quite scared ever since they heard that Sakagami-sensei and Sube-kun died."

"Figures," answered Ayanokoji. "What do you plan on doing? You can't let forever a few people fight while everyone else does nothing."

"I'm not sure.... I mean, what can I even do?"

"Give them tasks. Those who aren't killing monsters should learn skills that are beneficial to you. A blacksmith, perhaps, a potion maker, a merchant, I don't know, you can think of something as there are quite many skills here."

"There's still something else, too..."

Ayanokoji looked in confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Ike-kun and Shinohara-san, plan to leave."

"And?" Ayanokoji asked.

"Ike-kun has been quite helpful since the death game started. Without him, I doubt we could have achieved this much..."

"So, you plan on keeping him there?"

Horikita looked flustered. "No, I'm just not sure how we'll do, with one person less."

"Well, that is something you have to deal with."

"Yeah..."

[TimeSkip]

It was 9.30 PM, yet nothing appeared there. Ayanokoji walked with Horikita in this area for tens of minutes, and yet, there was still no monster in sight.

It wasn't just him. He saw other players too, presumably BetaTester's. But nothing happened.

It was unfortunate that nothing appeared, but well, what could he do.

Horikita looked a bit flustered. "Horikita, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just not accustomed to seeing so many people staring at me."

"I see. Does it bother you?"

"A bit."

"Then here, take this," Ayanokoji said, materializing a robe from his inventory.

It was quite a mystery of how many robes Ayanokoji had in his inventory. All he could say was that he liked being hidden.

"Okay," exclaimed Horikita.

While Ayanokoji and Horikita were talking, all of a sudden, the event monster that Ayanokoji thought of not spawning anymore spawned right in front of them.

"That doesn't look good..." exclaimed Horikita.

"It isn't..." responded Ayanokoji.

Unlike what Argo had told him, it wasn't a Level 6 event monster. It was far more dangerous than that. It was a Level 15 monster.

Alongside Illfang, it was the most dangerous monster he faced until now.

The BetaTester's from the back, seeing the Level of the Monster, couldn't help but flee, especially since the Monster wasn't in their league.

All of them fleed immediately, as the area where the Monster could move was within three miles. In other words, if these two died immediately, they were fucked, as they weren't fast enough to run this fast within mere seconds or minutes.

They could handle a Level 6 monster, but no way in hell could they handle a Level 15 Monster.

To begin with, this monster had even a higher level than Illfang, the Floor Boss of the First Floor.

They just needed to either hide or completely get away from the radius where the Event Monster could move. If they couldn't be gone that fast, hiding was the best option.

But no one really wanted that, as it was still enormously risky, so all of them ran away in the hope that these two could at least hold them back long enough.

Horikita's legs were trembling. "Ayanokoji-kun... What are we supposed to do?" she asked in fear.

"We can't do anything. All you should focus on is fleeing. I can hold him back for at least a minute or two. Don't worry, and just run with all your might away."

Through her frail and scared voice, a simple word came. "H-How?"

"I'm at level seven. So just don't think about anything and run the hell away from this place."

Without wasting another immediate second, Horikita ran away with clenched fists as Ayanokoji was facing this monster in order for her to win time.

The monster was following Horikita, but Ayanokoji activated his [Slant] skill, having the Monster paying attention to him.

Horikita, who noticed what Ayanokoji did, couldn't help but bite her lips in frustration. What if the same thing she experienced today would happen again? How'd she feel when Ayanokoji dies in order to protect her?

She didn't want to think about it at all. From the depth of her heart, she hoped for Ayanokoji's well-being.

Ayanokoji sprinted in the opposite direction of Horikita until not a single soul could be seen anymore that was there.

The two of them were alone.

Ayanokoji's spead was so fast that even the Level 15 monster couldn't catch up. Well, it didn't seem appropriate to call him a monster anymore, he guessed.

<<Anfang, the Kobold King>>. That was the name of the Monster in front of him, who happened to look almost precisely as Illfang, but was ten feet tall instead of seven.

The monster of what Argo told him and this were completely different. It was supposed to be special <<Frenzy Boar>> but he guessed Kayaba changed it again.

He was wondering, was Kayaba currently watching him and deliberately spawned the Monster in front of him, or was this simply a coincidence?

No, definitely not. As much as he hoped this to be a coincidence, he didn't think this to be the case.

"Well, Horikita, I forgot to mention a syllable. I'm not level seven, but level seventeen," exclaimed Ayanokoji.

[Ayanokoji:]

[Level 17: 164.732/183.600]

[HP: 3.880/3.880]

[Stats:]

[Strenght: (19)] – [Strenght: 21]

[Agility: (24)] – [Agility: 25]

[Vitality: 5]

[Skills]

[Sprint:] – [Lvl. 47/1.000]

[Searching:] – [Lvl. 52/1.000]

[Horizontal Arc: (New)] – [Lvl. 6/1.000]

[Slant:] – [Lvl. 45/1.000]

[Weapon Proficiency:] – [Lvl. 61/1.000]

He had another skill unlocked, [Treble Scythe], but he didn't equip it for the sake of letting Horikita see only a normal beginner skill when they were killing monsters.

But now, he regretted it quite a bit...

He had enough health potions, luckily. This would be a hard battle. If he had the chance, he'd definitely take it to equip his sword skill. But he was only barely faster.

Besides... This monster had just like Illfang four HP Bar's. He didn't see a weapon behind him, which was a bit reassuring, but well, he didn't have any information regarding this monster at all.

The only thing he knew was that the Monster should be around one hour here, which was short, as three minutes had already passed, and he hadn't attacked yet, to get familiar in different situations with the attack patterns.

Well, there was one more thing...

This Monster was also fighting with a Japanese Sword. To be more precise, it was a Tachi, with which he has gotten once again suspicious that Katana's should be available.

Especially since the Monster was aiming a sword skill towards him.

Immediately, the monster appeared right in front of his eyes as the sword skill allowed him to speed up.

"Oh shit...," Ayanokoji exclaimed, parrying the attack with the rather bad weapon he had equipped.

It was better than a beginner weapon, but in comparison to this guy, it was simply a garbage weapon.

He hadn't had the chance to equip his curved <<Anneal Blade>> yet, but he needed to do it during the battle somehow.

Ayanokoji had expected it already, but from the impact of Anfang's attack, he was sent flying through the air. It was just evident that he was that strong, as it was a Event Monster.

Unlike when this case happened with Illfang, this time was different. Illfang had only sent him more than thirty meters flying midway through the air around three meters above the ground.

This guy, however, had sent him 9 meters above the ground, while it seemed like he wasn't stopping anytime soon on arriving on the ground.

Especially, that tall ten feet figure was following him, but couldn't get him, as Ayanokoji was flying too fast. He wasn't sure whether he should be reassured or not, that Anfang didn't catch up with him, but the difference was only up to ten meters at most between them.

He didn't know if that worked, but it'd be really great if that worked, as he didn't think he would be able to equip his weapon when he arrived at the ground on time.

Midway through the air, he opened his interface, which was possible to his surprise, then pressed 'Status', coming across multiple other interface options on where to tip with his finger.

But he chose the most important option, 'Player Equipment', equipping the <<Anneal Blade>> as Anfang destroyed his prior weapon. On the interface 'Status', there was also the option to change the skill slot bar, so he changed switched the skill [Slant] with [Treble Scythe], which was far stronger than the [Slant] sword skill.

This process was done within more or less around six seconds, and Ayanokoji was slowly approaching the ground more and more.

He was still high in the air, around seven and a half meter, but he needed to somehow regroup himself. But when he looked behind him, he saw an opportunity.

He caught sight of trees, potentially one of the smaller forests in this area, and not the large one in the Horunka Village.

The way he was flying currently, he would crash into a tree, but what if that was his goal. It might sound stupid, but considering how this game was, he was thinking of regrouping himself during air so that his feet would face the trees and not his head.

Then, when he arrived there with his feets, he'd push himself with all strength he had from the tree away, throwing himself towards Anfang's direction and activating mid through his sword skill [Horizontal Arc] slashing Anfang with a 'V' attack.

He didn't know if that would work, but it took him less than four seconds to collide against the tree, so he needed to do something fast.

He regrouped his body, and in the anticipated interval, he calculated inside of his head he pushed himself from the tree away towards Anfang's direction, activating [Horizontal Arc] and slashing with a 'V' attack his head and neck.

The attack seemed to be highly effective, as the interface showed [Critical Attack] reducing one full HP Bar and one half of an HP Bar.

With a single attack, Ayanokoji had done the impossible. But that didn't end there quite much.

Anfang was holding his large sword Horizontally around his stomach area, so Ayanokoji landed there and jumped up, activating the sword skill [Treble Scythe] towards the face of the Monster.

Another [Critical Hit] popped up, reducing the HP Bar even more.

Unlike the prior attack, this reduced 2 complete HP bars, making Anfang only have one and a half HP bar remaining from his initial four that he had five seconds ago still.

Ten feet were quite much, so Ayanokoji pierced his weapon through Anfang's neck, slowly getting down, as he was sliding with his sword through that ten feet large monster down.

To his surprise, this was also a [Critical Hit], which resulted in reducing the HP Bar of him to only one.

"This went better as expected," exclaimed Ayanokoji in satisfaction.

He was right now under Anfang's feet, so he attacked them with his sword, making him slowly stumble.

It seemed like he didn't cut deep enough to make him fall on the ground, unfortunately. But this was also quite effective, no matter how disappointed he was.

But who knew that this monster would try on backing one step away and kicking him away with his feet.

He didn't think that something like that'd happen, but he was able to efficiently dodge it without taking any ounce of damage.

Ayanokoji then looked above, thinking if the monster was a man, would he also share the natural weakness of all men?

He thought a bit and thought of himself as quite devilish of what he was going to do.

He couldn't jump quite high, so he backed away for now, then ran upwards Anfang's leg until the stomach area, and then attacked with [Horizontal Arc] the manhood area of that monster.

'Did that do something?' he frowned, whether the people in charge programmed something like that as for the weakness.

"Nothing happened, huh? I'm sorry for your loss..."

Ayanokoji felt immediately sorry for the monster in front of him. He knew how effective a kick in the manhood area was, but to pierce it, that was a different topic.

It was a hundred times far greater damage than a kick could ever be. Yet the Monster couldn't share that pain. It was incomplete, robbed of being a man.

Ayanokoji backed away, thinking of a new strategy. He wasn't sure whether he should try on running upwards again, but rather than piercing his manhood area again, he'd aim for his head or neck.

His skill [Treble Scythe] was ready again so he could get started.

But the Monster in front of him was getting quite angry. While he was sprinting towards him, Anfang attacked with his Tachi Horizontally.

Ayanokoji jumped right at the top of the large sword, sprinting from his arm onwards up to his body, then activating the sword skill [Treble Scythe] at his face, reducing the HP of the Monster to Zero.

[Congratulations!]

[You gained 20.000 EXP]

[You gained 140.000 Cor]

[You gained the weapon <<Nozarashi>> (UR)]

[You gained the title "King Slayer"]

[Level 17: 164.732/183.600] –

[Level 18: 184.732/205.200]

[Cor: 122.320] – [Cor: 262.320]

Then, a sudden interface popped up.

[Event Details: Anfang, the Kobold King, the prior Lord of the Kobolds, and Illfang's father, appeared to get revenge on the humans that were killing his kind. To his unfortune, he could only stay during the realm of the First Floor for one hour. During his one hour stay, he'll slaughter all the greedy humans that are within three miles of his location and avenge his kind with his curved Tachi.]

[Event Boss: Completed]

Ayanokoji, after progressing all that newfound information, opened his inventory.

[Inventory:]

[Nozarashi:]

[Status: Can not be equipped currently. Requires Extra Skill: Katana]

[Details: An antique Katana used to be passed down to the next Kobold family head. After the sudden death of Anfang, the Katana has been presumably thought to be lost forever. Illfang never received his family heirloom back again.]

[If this Katana is equipped during the battle with Illfang, he'll make you the target of his attention, no matter which enemy confronts him.]

[Weapon Status: Ultra Rare Weapon]

[Nozarashi: (UR)]

[Katana / One Hand / Two Hand]

[Range: Short] — [Type: Slash]

[Attack: 150] — [Durability: 1.000]

[Weight: 98] — [Requires: Level 20]

[Equip: +22] — [Strenght: +13]

[Agility: +19] — [Armor:]

'As I thought already, it does exist. If I'm also right, you should unlock the Katana through leveling up the Weapon Proficiency for the curved sword. It's nothing more than a hypothesis, but considering that you can unlock the Extra Skill Katana already on the first floor, and I did more quests, then I can count, yet never heard of something like a Katana, this seems to be the most logical conclusion I can think of.' Ayanokoji thought.

'The question is, how long would it take? I doubt that

it's thousand, it'd be quite unfair, if any other player could level their weapon to the maximum up, and the Katana players would need to repeat that progress twice, once for the curved swords, and once for the Katana.'

'Since Kayaba wasn't the only one who developed Aincrad, but with [Argo] the company, it makes more sense if you need to have your weapon proficiency between the Levels 100 and 500 to unlock the Extra Skill Katana.'

'Although, I tend to say it should be around 500, as it doesn't require that much effort to level up your weapon proficiency. Three to four months on average.' Ayanokoji estimated.

"But I am different. Within this very first month, I'll have the Katana Skill unlocked."

Later that day, Horikita messaged him and asked him

for a meet-up, when she heard it took one hour until that monster would disappear.

[TimeSkip]

Ayanokoji arriving at the location saw Horikita crouching, having her head put inside her lap.

"Ayanokoji-kun..." she said, sprinting towards him, hugging him. "You're alive! Thank goodness."

Ayanokoji awkwardly stretched his hair. "Yeah, I managed to hide somehow."

Horikita looked in worry. "You did? I thought you escaped."

Ayanokoji shaked his head. "I was only able to hide myself because of the direction I was running to had a forest, and I had quite the moderate high leveled [Hiding] Skill. If it weren't for the forest, I'm not sure how long I'd have lasted."

"I'm sorry to have caused so many troubles. I didn't think that something like that could have happened."

Ayanokoji shaked his head. "No worries. We were just unfortunate to be at the wrong time at the wrong place."

Horikita nodded her head. "Yeah..." she answered. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here anymore."

"Don't worry about that anymore. The important thing is that the two of us are alive. That's all that matters."

She nodded her head, agreeing with Ayanokoji. "But still... I never ever want to feel that helpless again. I want to get stronger so that a situation like that doesn't happen anymore."

"Me too," Ayanokoji exclaimed.

[TimeSkip]

Ayanokoji walked Horikita towards the Inn, then headed to his home.

With a satisfied expression, he opened the door.

[1x Map Data Purchased]

[Earnings: 5.000 Cor's]

--

A/N: This concludes this chapter.

I initially planned on not having this event situation included, but then I had gotten a sudden idea and then wrote it.

I'm satisfied with the results and won't change anything.

Also, the monster 'Anfang' was created by me, and anything relating to that. I'm not sure how I've gotten to that idea, to be honest. I guess it was because the name of Illfang was <<Illfang, the Kobold Lord>> so I thought why not create a Kobold King.

I really had everything depicted inside of my head, but well, I'm not a native English speaker, so it is quite hard finding sometimes the right vocabulary.

If there is something awkward, please just know in advance that I'm usually not proofreading my chapters at all.

Anyways, how did you like this chapter?

I hope you liked it.

Goodbye! Have a great day!

[Word Count: 4779]