5 Chapter 5: A Frightening Sight
[Third Person Pov]
[6th of November, 17.36]
In a remote area in Saitama, hidden in the mountains, there was an underground facility, kept from the eyes of the public, a certain man was looking through the windows to the 15th Generation of the White Roomers, who would be soon starting with their real training. The difficulty for this batch of children was Level 4.
All of these seventy children would soon pass the age of five, the moment the real training in the White Room would start.
A man running through a large white hallway more than five hundred meters could be seen, opening the door that connected the hallway to the 15th generation of the students.
Out of breath, he couldn't immediately say his matter of concern.
"What is?" A brown haired man, with piercing yellow cold eyes and a blank expression, asked.
The man appeared to be midway through his late forties or his early fifties his gaze, however, was filled with extraordinary ambitions one could nearly feel.
The man who ran was grasping for air for a few additional seconds before speaking. "Professor Ayanokoji, it's about your son," the man, who appeared to be some sort of scientist, exclaimed.
"Did Kiyotaka perhaps have gotten expelled?" Even though the probability was none to zero, he couldn't outright deny it. He didn't believe it, though. He didn't believe that the two White Roomer he sent would be able to do that. Kiyotaka was simply far too superior to them. But if it was in case because one of these special exams he heard of, it could be naturally possible. If his class turned his back on him and the second White Roomer was manipulating a high social figure, the probability wasn't non-existent.
While something like that happened in the past, Ayanokoji hadn't gotten expelled. The second White Roomer also didn't think that this should be enough to expell him. It was a simple declaration of war at that time.
The scientist immediately shaked his head, denying the professor's doubts. "You need to look at this, Professor Ayanokoji," the scientist said, showing him the video that was being casted currently through the whole of Japan and some other countries too.
After listening a bit of the news, he immediately realized what the matter of concern was.
The school wanted to teach the future leaders of the country the future applications of the VVMORPG that was only produced in Japan.
But what they didn't expect to happen was a death game where the student would be trapped.
"Dammit," the Professor shouted, throwing a tantrum by breaking bottles, glasses, wines, by throwing them on the ground.
"What should we do?" the scientist asked.
"Figure out in which of the ambulances Kiyotaka is right now, and deliver him here," exclaimed the Professor.
"Ayanokoji-sensei, that's impossible. Throughout the whole country, more than 45 thousand ambulances are on their way. It'd be impossible to deliver him here. Besides, we don't know which ambulance has your son in."
Professor Ayanokoji slowly began to understand the situation. "Then contact one of our people at the private hospital and let them take Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from the Advanced Nurtiring High School. The room number is 401," exclaimed the Professor.
"How long is it since the announcement, and how long do we have?" asked the Professor.
"If the plug isn't put in within 1 hour and fifty one minutes, your son's brain will..."
"I see. There is no need to speak further. Tell my driver to make the car ready. I'm heading to Tokyo."
"Professor?!" exclaimed the scientist. "What will you be doing?"
"Isn't that obvious? I'm going to let others see how sad I am about my son's dire situation."
"With others, you mean – reporters, right?"
"That's obviously, is it not?" he responded.
Even in a situation like this, Atsuomi Ayanokoji had found a way to use it for his own advantage.
"What will we be doing about the second White Roomer?" The scientist asked.
The Professor seemed to think a bit. "He should be useful in the future, for me or Kiyotaka, when we plan on starting our political campaign. He has the perfect background, academic capabilities, social communications, and, far more importantly, his dying loyalty to me. I'm sure I could make him into a high-ranking political figure that at least doesn't need to be reprimanded from me or Kiyotaka what he should be doing. Put him also in the private hospital," Atsuomi explained.
It wasn't a lie that the second White Roomer had quite the amount of worth, not as a possible instructor, but as a political figure.
Unlike his son Kiyotaka, where the publicity will be thinking as someone following his father's footsteps, he doesn't have that issue. Besides, the most praiseworthy thing is his social communication, which was unmatched by any other person in the White Room.
In the end, he was a valuable possession, like Kiyotaka, that he should keep.
As for Ichika, she wasn't his problem anymore. It should be by now her father's problem, an uncaring billionaire, towards his two children. But it was obvious that he needed for his own reputation to have her at the very least inside a private hospital.
While Atsuomi was changing himself for a few minutes, a sudden call rang from his phone.
The one who called was a familiar person he had done some business in the past. "Mr. Amasawa, how can I help?" he asked.
Even though there wasn't anything praiseworthy about Amasawa, he had money. He had plenty of it, which made him amongst his sponsors as one of the most important ones.
"Ayanokoji, it's been a while since we have talked, has it not? Anyways, I want you to deal with this trouble regarding her. Bring her into a private hospital. I don't want her to be the cause of ruining my reputation."
Amasawa was just as cold as Ayanokoji. But unlike the Professor, he didn't even slightly care about his daughter's well-being. The only thing he wanted to prevent was future business partners, the media, and the public to think bad about him.
"As you know—"
Before Ayanokoji could speak further, a single sentence could be heard.
"How much?" The person asked.
"2 Billion Yen."
"Oho, well, so be it. After all, you are dealing with quite a bothersome problem of mine. The money will be there within a few days."
"Good. Do you have any wishes on getting the performance results of your son?" he asked.
"Not needed."
Without any leftover second, Amasawa hung up the phone.
He looked at the scientist again, who had already imagined what he wanted him to do.
"It'll be done."
"Good."
--
[TimeSkip]
--
Professor Ayanokoji had cleared his objectives already. He got the pictures, his article, his chance of using this for his political advantage, but most importantly, he'd be able to make Kiyotaka now far easier into a politician, due to this incident.
A few men had walked alongside Professor Ayanokoji. "Make sure that these three get the best treatment possible."
To prevent muscles from being atrophying due to disuse, the bed they would be sleeping in would be needed to electrically stimulate their muscles, while also, the nurses would be doing massage therapy.
In advance, there were still some other things prepared to ensure the muscles were not to be all too atrophying, such as gel beds and far more other things.
--
[7th of September, 4.53]
Ayanokoji was in the midst of the merchant district in the City of The Beginnings. He was walking around in deep thought as to what to buy precisely.
A good robe, better-looking clothes, sleeping clothes, and, well, probably some other things too, he was dead set on buying.
While he was walking around, still deep in his thoughts about this game and everything else, a person suddenly had rammed him.
"Ah, sorry, it was my mistake," he exclaimed.
"At least ya have some manners," the girl said, looking at his username. "Ayano-bou."
"Ayano-bou?!" Ayanokoji frowned upon his sudden nickname.
"Ya don't like that nickname? Let me see if I have other nicknames for ya. Ayanon-bou, Ayaa-bou, Ay-bou. Hah, ya, these nicknames are shit, ya. I'll call ya Ay-bou. I like ya ring of that nickname."
Ayanokoji couldn't really comprehend what was happening. Who was this girl that suddenly decided to give him a nickname and acted all friendly with him. And besides, what was with her way of talking?
"I forgot to introduce myself to ya. I'm Argo, a info-broker, nice to meet ya."
Now that has gotten his attention. If she was an info-broker, she could tell him more about this game. There were still quite a few mysterious things he didn't know of and were quite strange. First of all, there was this case with the achievements that he didn't get anymore.
Besides not having gotten an achievement for killing 100 times, the <little Nerpent>, he also hadn't gotten anything when he killed 500 monsters and 1.000 monsters in total, within the first day.
That wasn't a coincidence. Did Kayaba decide to remove the Achievements since they were quite advantageous and could affect the power balance in the game.
If people like him had known that, they definitely would target these monsters immediately. Besides, with the floors getting higher and higher, the EXP from the achievements should naturally also go higher.
It was certainly something that might affect the power balance of the game, so he did understand if it was removed in order to stop players from gaining EXP like that, and instead from his quests and other things.
But there was one another mysterious thing that concerned him a bit.
It all began yesterday, once he reached Level 10.
--
[Flashback]
After killing the 118 <little Nerpents> Ayanokoji reached the Level 10. Just as usual, he has gotten three additional Stats Points, which he would be distributing immediately.
While he was primarily focusing on strength and agility, he had neglected his Vitality quite a bit. His task was rather focusing on quickly killing monsters, as long as he could during his advantage of being in charge of knowledge of the true nature of the game. Even after the game was announced, he wasn't with his past strength and Agility at the situation to kill the level three <little Nerpents> with one strike, which resulted in costly time as it required three strikes. After that, he made sure to level up his strength and agility in order to maximize his level as much as possible. Without a doubt, it spared him a handful amount of time and trouble.
But as much he was focusing on these Stats, he was neglecting his other one, the Vitality Stat.
So he intended on distributing two of his newly three towards his Vitality Stat.
But then there was this surprising thing that happened.
[Stats:]
[Strenght: 11] - [Strenght: 11]
[Agility: 12] - [Agility: 12]
[Vitality: (4)] - [Vitality: 5]
The moment he tried on distributing two of them towards Vitality, a [Error] Notification appeared. It was a shock for him because something unexpected happened, which shouldn't be occurring.
After inspecting his stats again, he saw that the Vitality Stat was only at 5. He began distributing one Stat Point once again, with the same [Error] Notification, like previously.
He also saw that there were other stats such as luck, which he had ignored until now. But the same [Error] notification appeared also there, when he tried on distributing even one Stat Point.
He had obviously not known how it happened at all. But he had some conclusions made, that although couldn't be proved at all, should explain it a bit.
When he was farming monsters and killed quite an amount of them, he would get at his hundredth kill achievements, for either having killed as the first player the first hundred monsters and killing the first hundred <Frenzy Boars>.
Through that, he gained quite an amount of EXP that helped him a lot in leveling up. After wanting to confirm whether he would get further achievements, he killed 400 additional Boars, which should make in total an amount of 500. He hadn't gotten anything, so he had focused on killing 100 <Dire Wolf's>, which he did just like the same two as before.
But when he killed hundreds and above in the Forrest, there wasn't anything like that. Even when he reached a total of 1.000, there was no achievement in sight.
He formed an unnatural conclusion about this. Kayaba removed the achievements because a single player could potentially monetize them all on their own, without any other players' knowledge. If he was right, this should be a new feature that the BetaTester's didn't know, so even they wouldn't be aware.
There were limited Monster's on the first floor, which he had killed more than any other player. So even they wouldn't realize that something like achievements exist, that reward you EXP. There wasn't something like that listed also in the Menu. Only the titles you had would be listed.
When he realized that it wasn't like he planned and the power balance could be immensely broken because of Ayanokoji, he decided on removing achievements, and no one besides Ayanokoji knows it, since no one unlocked a achievement.
After all, Ayanokoji definitely would target the Monsters on the second floor like the first floor before any other player gets the chance to beat them and get the achievements.
In other words, if he was right with this, and if he was also right that no one aside from him was able to raise the Vitality Stat Points at all, it meant that Kayaba tried on reimbursing him, without giving Ayanokoji an overly high advantage over any other.
Thus, he was only able to distribute 4 Stat Points at Vitality, where he originally shouldn't be able to distribute anything at all.
Without confirming it, however, it remained a conclusion. You'd need at least a Level 2 Player that tried on distributing a Stat Point towards Vitality.
[Flashback End]
--
Unfortunately for Ayanokoji, neither Ichinose, Horikita, nor Sakayanagi were at Level 2, so he couldn't confirm his theory from yesterday. Now, however, that he has met an info-broker, he'd somehow try to get his hands on that information.
"I'm Ayanokoji. But you know that already."
"Ya, you ain't wrong, Ay-bou. Ya interested in buying information. But ya look poor. Look at ya equipment," Argo said, thinking Ayanokoji was a Level 1 because he had the beginner curved sword on his back, the normal beginner's equipment, and didn't look like someone who ever played MMORPG'S.
"Ya, you can have this. I don't want to feel guilty if ya were to die."
Argo exclaimed, giving Ayanokoji a Survival Guide Manual for the 1st Floor that she planned on offering on the market for free today after checking whether everything was like in the Beta or not.
"Thank you," Ayanokoji said, expressing his gratitude.
"Ya, no problem. I expect ya to become a future client of mine, Ay-bou."
Ayanokoji nodded. "Sure. But before you go, I have a thing to ask. Which Stats would you recommend me on raising?"
"Ya, since you seem like a beginner, I will tell ya, Ayaa-bou. Ya, you can only raise two stats, strength, and agility. All the other stats must be raised through equipment, like special rings ya can equip. Ya, there are armors that support defensive builds, like tanks ya, while other builds might support on paralysis of monsters or simply on dealing with much damage. Those who focus on damage ya don't have much vitality or other stats, and usually ya are the main damage dealers, ya. If ya have a shield for ya weapon, it defends ya but also decreases ya agility by being limited moving fast, ya. I recommend ya a shield since ya seems like not a BetaTester or an MMORPG player at all."
The small little girl did help him a lot. Now, the probability has increased about his theory that Kayaba was responsible for allowing him to distribute 4 stat points at Vitality.
He questioned whether he would be able to distribute Stat Points on the other stats if he hadn't raised Vitality. But that's an answer he would only get from Kayaba.
"Ah, I see. Thank you for the information. I'll make sure to recompense you someday, Argo."
"Ya, there ain't no need. See this as free information and the start of our business relationship."
"Sure, if that's what you want, Argo. I'll contact you when I need to be nearby in the future some information."
Ayanokoji was relieved to meet her. Besides not only getting the survival guide, he had been able to confirm his suspicions. He had opened the survival guide and must say they did contain a lot of valuable information.
Where Monsters spawn, where the City Tolbana is estimatingly, where the Labyrinth for the first floor should be nearby, and also about the first floor Boss, called <Illfang the Kobold Lord> with the information about his attack patterns, weapons, and the estimated level of the Boss Monster.
<Illfant the Kobold Lord> was in the Beta Phase at Level 11, with 4 HP Bars, and as for his choice of weapons, he had a leather shield in his right hand, and a bone axe in his left. Besides that, he was described in the Guide as a flexible monster, who is around 2 meters tall.
But here came the most important information. Once Illfang's last Hit Bar was to a third of its capacity, Illfang would dispose of his Axe and Shield and use the Talwar, a weapon from the Indian subcontinent, which was just like the weapon he used, a curved sword. There was much history behind this sword, but it was unexpected thinking about this now.
The only thing that mattered was whether he would be able to get this sword since in the last pages of the survival guide, there stands that the player with the final blow gets a bonus item. As to what the item is, she has no info regarding that.
'The info-guide sure helped me quite a lot. Regarding future quests and getting general information about the game. I'll buy myself a bit of equipment here, before I'll go to the quests.'
Ayanokoji bought two good robes, one as a reserve and one to equip now, quite the amount of health potions, that although don't regenerate his full HP, it regenerates 200 HP, something that would be crucial if he ever was in the realms of low HP.
They were lesser potions and were as such not quite expensive, as he thought. One potion cost 100 Cor, which was quite cheap.
Well, it was for him. For other players on the floor, the price might be too high. Besides that potion, there wasn't any other available in the market, so he was forced to buy that or buy a higher potent potion from a person with the Skill [Brewing] who can brew multitude of potions.
There wasn't a person currently that should be able to do that as the Skill for high potents required from his conversation with the NPC at least [300/1.000] profiency for the Skill, and it would also only recover 800 HP at most.
He'd definitely think of suggesting a job like this to Sakayanagi, as he knows from his conversation with her today that she wants to live comfortably, but also doesn't want to fight monsters precisely.
He bought the current market capacity the shop from the NPC had to offer. It were 50 potions, which cost a total of 5.000 Cor's.
As for his other purchases, he bought two robes, each costing 1.000 Cor that were quite good. His sleeping clothes only cost 150 Cor. But they were quite comfortable, which was nice, despite this a bit of a high price.
[Cor: 38.850] - 7.150
[Cor: 31.700]
Besides that, he had purchased everything already. He had yesterday purchased weapons before the game would be announced, for a fair amount of price.
Now it was time, however, to go to the NPC, which was offering him the <Frenzied Hunt> quest. They weren't here in the city at all, but rather in the hunting village. So he made his way immediately there.
Unlike him thinking, he didn't encounter any monster at all on his way. Many players were busy killing the low-level monsters, which didn't give him time to kill them himself while sprinting.
He had hidden his name tag and was under a robe, but you could regardless still see his Hit Bar. You couldn't see the amount of Hit Points, which would have been troublesome otherwise for him.
He didn't take long to arrive there. It took him only a total of eight minutes.
Immediately, he went to the person and had accepted the quest. And just like that, it was also immediately finished. Unlike the troublesome thing he imagined, he could deliver him everything instantly without constantly accepting and repeating the process. It was repeatable immediately after you finished.
He also skipped the talk with the NPC and delivered him the requested items.
[Kill 20 Frenzy Boars]
[Bring back 5 Boar Tusks]
[Bring back 10 Boar Meats]
[Reward: 300 EXP, 450 Cor, Boar Tusk Knife]
The amount Ayanokoji had, however, was quite different.
[Inventory:]
[210 Boar Tusks]
[430 Boar Meats]
He had killed 500 of these Boars, but the drop rate for the Boar Tusks was only 42%.
That was, however, not precisely correct. He had originally only 172 Boar Tusks. But yesterday, when the person called Copper died, he dropped a total of 38 Boar Tusks.
In short, the drop rate probability of getting Boar Tusks lied only at 34.4%. The items weren't as easy as he thought to get.
He didn't, however, had any chance of taking the Boar Meat, as it wasn't on the ground at all, like the Boar Tusk.
As to how he had gotten the Boar Tusk, that was another question. Coper seemed to have putten the Boar Tusks in a special place, just like Kirito, who had put the Nerpent Ovule> in such a space, where it wouldn't disappear alongside his death immediately.
It was an adventure bag where the two of them put their items, so they wouldn't need to open their menu. You could store them there without opening the menu, or take them for there, also without opening the menu.
It was fast and efficient for instantly putting the loot away. Kirito didn't think Coper would do anything, so he had no qualms on putting the items on his inventory. A mistake of his, that was costly.
As for the Boar Meat, it was the loot that spawned quite often, with a percentage of 87%.
[A/N: Ayanokoji had originally 435 but had putten 5 boar meat in his fridge.]
Ayanokoji could complete this quest 42 times. In other words, he would receive 13.500 EXP and 20.250 Cor's and 42 Boar Tusk Knifes.
He had given the NPC all the items and then received his tremendous reward.
[Level 10: 45.576/66.000] – [Level 10: 59.076/66.000]
[Cor: 31.700] – [Cor: 51.950]
Unfortunately, there wasn't any quest for the items of the <little Nerpent>. The only thing he heard was that these items he had from them could be used for brewing a few potions. As to which potions it precisely were, the NPC's didn't seem to be eager to tell. He thought whether it'd be quest to gain this information, but it wasn't like that. Perhaps the requirements were to have the [Brewing] skill so that they would talk.
In any case, he didn't bother himself too much with this issue and began the next quest, <Running Down Wolves>. If there were to be a quest regarding the <little Nerpent>, he would just in case keep the items and search for various NPC's in other villages. In the survival guide, there wasn't any information, so perhaps their only quest purpose was for the <<Secret Medicine of the Forrest>> and nothing else.
He hoped that this wasn't the case because he had an amount of items from them dropped. But then again, he didn't imagine that Kayaba would make this game this easy since BetaTester's would be sure to use these as their advantages to level up.
The only reason Ayanokoji had these amounts of Boar Meats and Boar Tusk was because he realized the nature of this game earlier than any other. Now, even finding boars that aren't being surrounded and killed every second is hard to imagine.
He knew the spots, but after today, everyone would know them as well. Besides, at these spots, there would definitely be BetaTester's already to complete the same quest as him. Whether or not it was worthwhile was another question he asked himself.
But he definitely would try on killing a few hundred boar's and wolves in these spots if he could, without wasting much time on waiting or anything else.
Ayanokoji also wanted when he was back in the city again, buying for a few days the right at an NPC store to sell some of his items, the Boar Tusk Knifes. He definitely should profit a bit from that since they don't seem to be quite bad.
Regarding the quest again, he had accepted it and was now supposed to deliver Wolf's Pelts according to the conversation that he had with the NPC regarding the hunting quest.
[Kill 10 Wolves]
[Bring back 10 Wolf Pelts]
[Reward: 200 EXP, 350 Cor's, Wolf Skin Cloak]
Although it was far less than the previous hunting quest, it didn't require as many items as he thought to complete the quest.
The drop rate wasn't quite low, but also not extraordinary high either. He had 53 Wolf Pelts in his inventory. In other words, he could complete the quest 5 times.
[Level 10: 59.076/66.000] – [Level 10: 60.076/66.000]
[Cor: 53.500]
It was a bit discouraging, but well, he couldn't do anything for that. He had normally planned to teach Kei the basics about the game, but she had said that she wasn't ready currently. As such, he did respect her choice and instead decided to level up today as much as possible.
He had made the decision on going today to Tolbana, the city where the Labyrinth entrance should be nearby.
On his way there, he encountered a monster different than the other ones he encountered. It was according to Argo's guide, a monster called <Swamp Kobold Trapper>, a Level 6 monster that was trying to catch him with a net while having behind his back a whip.
Ayanokoji didn't have any trouble dodging the net once it was thrown. The only worrisome part was the whip the monster had, with which he was able to deal easily. His stats had given him the advantage over that monster by far.
[Stats:]
[Strenght: (11)] - [Strenght: 13]
[Agility: 12] - [Agility: 12]
[Vitality: (4)] - [Vitality: 5]
Unlike what Ayanokoji had expected, the Monster didn't go down after one single attack. It required three standard attacks, which weren't charged.
But it steadily increased his weapon proficiency for the one-handed curved sword. As of now, his weapon proficiency for the curved sword was at [18/1.000]. Since he had only equipped the curved sword yesterday, not since the beginning, but rather later, it was to be expected because his weapon profiency wasn't that high.
[You gained 55 EXP]
[You gained 60 Cor]
[Level 10: 60.131/66.000]
[Cor: 53.560]
Through his way to Tolbana, he had seen countless of these monsters. Tolbana was quite far away. It was in the complete opposite direction where the City of The Beginnings were. It'd definitely take him a while there.
He already took quite a bit of time to the Horunka Village, from there to Tolbana the way was still far away. He didn't even set much foot of the village until a <Swamp Kobold Trapper> had attacked him.
But then, he remembered something from the guide again. At the Horunka Village, there was this supposedly quest called "The Lost Calf," a quest that seems to be one of the best next to the <Secret Medicine of the Forest> in Floor 1, that had a six hour cooldown until it could be started again. The quest could be found in the upskirts of the Horunka Village.
Ayanokoji was a few hundred meters away from the Village, thinking of doing this quest fast, although it might not be quite effective, considering the high level he was in comparison to other players.
Ayanokoji, just wanting to walk away, had heard a sudden noise in the bush, seeing a person leaving the bush. "You damn BetaTester! You left us all here to die while you'd be accepting quests after quests leveling up using this to your advantage, while the rest of us didn't know what to do and would be dying."
The person who had hidden himself in the bush said, thinking Ayanokoji was having good equipment and leveled up, because he was able to defeat the Level 7 <Kobold Swamp Trapper> with just four standard attacks, remaining completely unscathed.
The male person had tried it too. He knew how hard they were to kill. It took him more than ten minutes, and he was able to kill the Kobold only close to his death, with only 80 HP remaining.
Ayanokoji also had equipped a curved sword twenty minutes ago from his inventory because the durability was almost broken from the beginner sword.
That's why there was probably the misunderstanding that Ayanokoji was a BetaTester. After all, if you look into his equipment, it was far too good for someone who is a normal player, thus the conclusion about him being a BetaTester. Additionally, killing the monster with 4 Standard Attacks, not even charging them up or using a sword skill.
Ayanokoji wanted to talk but didn't come to that.
The player gritted his sword with extreme anger, not able to hold himself any longer. "Die!" the person shouted.
The person used the sword skill [Sonic Leap] from the one-handed straight sword aiming towards Ayanokoji.
Ayanokoji dodged at ease. "Hold on. I'm not an BetaTes—"
Immediately, another attack was followed from another angle.
"I should have expected that from a BetaTester. You probably already know the basic sword skills, so I need to win through using my own skills."
It wasn't like that, however. It was a Forte from the player. He knew that he couldn't beat the BetaTester like that, so he activated midway through his attack the sword skill [Slant], wanting to catch Ayanokoji off-guard.
Ayanokoji once again dodged.
"Dammit, why can't I beat you. You damn BetaTester scum!"
With all the rage he had gathered for BetaTester's, he ran near enough Ayanokoji, then activated his sword skill [Sonic Leap] so that even the BetaTester couldn't dodge.
Ayanokoji simply sighed. "I guess I'll stop playing around now," he remarked, his calm demeanor hiding the immense strength he was about to unleash.
In a clash between the two of their swords, Ayanokoji did not use a sword skill, while the other one did use one.
From the two of them, only one person would remark victorious from the battle.
Who would win? That was the question the player asked himself. But he realized it soon enough.
His sword shattered in tens of pieces, alongside all of his remaining HP that dropped immediately to Zero.
"You...Beta scum murderer.. I hope... you die!"
Saying that, the person's avatar disappeared, shattered in hundreds of blue pieces in the sky, with a smirk and slight stretched middle finger towards Ayanokoji before leaving the virtual and real world world forever.
This was Ayanokoji's first time ever having killed a human being...
Yet his facial expression was just like always; apathetic.
Did he feel something?
Remorse?
Guilt?
Sadness?
There wasn't anything at all he felt.
It was nothing more than a mundane task.
That was all he felt.
He wouldn't stop his task over something like that. He'd continue on his task of killing monsters, doing quests, and leveling up.
Because that was all that mattered in this world...
--
A/N: Well, with that, the chapter has come to an end.
I had actually forgotten that you could only distribute the stats at strength and agility, which is why I did this thing with the whole Kayaba thing, because I didn't want to rewrite a bit of my previous chapters.
I mean, if you look into it a bit differently, there's no way that Koji wouldn't have made use of the achievements and would probably prevent anyone from finding out, so it'd really disrupt the power balance enormously, since I guess he would monetize it for him as long as possible.
In the next chapter, Ayanokoji will meet two of the Sao Casts. I have somehow visualized it, like many other scenes.
I think they'll be quite amusing.
I have a question. Do you think it'd suit Sakayanagi to have the [Brewing] skill, because it seems quite suitable in my opinion for her to brew potions, make money from it, live comfortably, since I can't really imagine her fighting at all.
I'll search for other potential job categories of other characters, too, since I doubt many would voluntarily participate in fighting monsters and risking their life.
Well, as usual, I want to ask, how did you find this chapter?
I did write quite a bit again, so I want to ask, what do you think should be the average word count per chapter?
This chapter has a word count of 5656, so quite much, if I'm being honest.
Well, that will be all.
Goodbye. Have a great day.
