Chapter 100: First Meeting with Asuna

"Sir, is there something you need?" Seeing Lingyun speak, Diabel asked.

"Do you all still remember the most conspicuous information on the bulletin board in the center of Starting Town?" Lingyun asked, looking at the people present.

"Are you referring to the matter of the Berserk Monster?" Diabel asked with some confusion.

"Did you not realize that all the monsters in the Labyrinth Area are Berserk Monsters? If even the monsters in the Labyrinth Area are Berserk Monsters, then how could the floor boss not be a Berserk Monster?" Lingyun's gaze swept across the people present.

"Berserk Monster?" The people present all gasped.

The people here were all the best among the players, and many of them had confronted those so-called Berserk Monsters, so they naturally understood the strength of such monsters.

"Moreover, there is another piece of important information on the bulletin board: this world is no longer exactly the same as it was during the closed beta. If you still view the floor boss with the perspective from the closed beta, you will absolutely pay an unimaginable price!" Lingyun reminded everyone present. "Although the beginner's guide contains a lot of important information, it is inevitable that there will be mistakes and omissions. Facing this information, what we need is to carefully verify it; we must never blindly believe it, otherwise, it is very easy to lose your life. That is all I wanted to say."

Lingyun's words caused everyone present to fall into thought, and afterward, they left the plaza in twos and threes. Diabel, who was standing in the middle of the plaza, also muttered to himself for a while before leaving.

"Master, actually, those words of yours just now were mainly for Diabel, right?" Walking on the street, Luo Yexi asked Lingyun softly.

"Hmm, but whether he listens or not, and how much he takes in, that is not something we can concern ourselves with," Lingyun said with a smile.

"Ruoxi, how is your analysis of the first floor of Aincrad coming along?" Lingyun contacted Ruoxi in the Cloud Realm.

"It is almost finished. Preliminary estimates suggest the floor boss's strength will increase by about 1.5 times," Ruoxi replied.

"Is that so? Thank you for your hard work." Lingyun nodded.

At night, almost everyone who participated in the strategy meeting gathered together to hold a banquet. After all, tomorrow would be an unimaginable, fierce battle, and it was only right to relax tonight.

These people talked about the precautions for tomorrow's battle while trying to find powerful people to protect them during the fight.

Lingyun held a drink and sat on a stone bench at the edge of the plaza. Many people around wanted to come over and strike up a conversation, asking Lingyun to look after them during the strategy battle—after all, Lingyun's team currently looked like the strongest group among all those raiding. However, the young girls around Lingyun were all radiating a "keep away" chill, making them afraid to approach.

"Hey, Lingyun, so you're here!" A black figure approached Lingyun and said with a smile.

"Sister." Suguha, who was sitting next to Busujima Saeko, pounced over and hung onto Kirito.

Kirito's mouth twitched, and looking at Suguha hanging on her, she shook her head helplessly.

"A sister-complex is truly terrifying!" Watching Suguha stuck tightly to Kirito, Lingqi said with a tease.

"Suguha, get down quickly." Kirito pushed Suguha hard, looking helpless. Being hugged tightly by her own younger sister in front of so many people made her face feel a bit hot.

"No, no!" Suguha shook her head vigorously.

Kirito spent quite a bit of effort, and finally, with a hand-chop to Suguha's head, she got Suguha to come down from her.

Turning her head away from the teary-eyed Suguha, Kirito looked at Lingyun: "The plaza is so lively, why aren't you going there?"

"It's boring. Once you go there, you get surrounded by people saying things like 'please take care of me in the battle,' and my ears have grown calluses from hearing it," Lingyun spread his hands. "Clearly, in tomorrow's battle, everyone has to risk their own lives; how could they have the heart to take care of others?"

"Ah, that's true too. Tomorrow's battle will probably be very difficult," Kirito sighed.

"Kirito, what are you doing here?" A slightly cold voice came over. Everyone looked up to see a player wearing a cloak walking in their direction. From within the cloak, a few strands of chestnut hair were faintly visible. Although the player's cloak wrapped her entire body, one could tell from her voice that this was a female player.

"Ah, Asuna, why did you come over?" Looking at the person before her, Kirito said with a smile.

"Nothing, I was just a bit bored by myself," Asuna said softly.

Suguha's gaze swept over Asuna a few times, and a top-level alarm sounded in her heart. Although this female player was hidden entirely in a cloak, one could tell from both her figure and her voice that she must be a beauty. Moreover, she seemed to have a good relationship with her sister. Was this the prelude to competing with her for her sister?

"Lingyun." Kirito reached out her hand toward Lingyun.

"What's wrong?" Lingyun asked with some confusion.

A blush appeared on Kirito's face, and she said somewhat embarrassedly: "I'm hungry, the bread doesn't taste good!"

Seeing Kirito's appearance, Lingyun couldn't help but find it amusing, and then he took several portions of roasted meat directly from his inventory and placed them in her hands.

Kirito took the roasted meat and put a portion of it into Asuna's hands: "This is something others in the game can't eat right now!"

"This is..." Asuna looked at the roasted beef in her hand, stunned. How long had it been since she smelled this kind of aroma? "Roasted meat?"

Opening her mouth to take a light bite, Asuna froze instantly. Afterward, her whole body seemed as if it had been pressed on fast-forward, and she swallowed the palm-sized roasted meat in a few bites. Feeling this long-lost taste, Asuna's body trembled slightly. Kirito was also unceremonious, swallowing the roasted meat in her hand in a few gulps.

For nearly a month, they had only eaten dry, hard, tasteless bread; what kind of torture that was for the players. Being able to taste delicious food, they naturally wouldn't let it go. You know, when Lingyun finished making dinner at the inn, the way Kirito and Argo ate had given Lingyun and the others quite a shock.

It is no wonder that Yazi and the others were jealous when they saw that Lingyun and his group could enter the highest-class inn; after all, even the lowest-grade food provided by the inn was better than the hard bread in their hands. Perhaps Asuna's future successful evolution into a cook also had something to do with this month's experience.

"Lingyun, I think your choice of Chef as a life profession was truly an incredibly correct choice," Kirito praised after finishing the roasted meat in her hand, while looking at Lingyun with eager eyes.

Looking at Kirito and Asuna, who was making the same expression, Lingyun couldn't help but chuckle. He hadn't expected Kirito and Asuna to have the potential to be foodies. Lingyun took several more portions of roasted meat from his item slot and handed them to the two. Kirito and Asuna took the roasted meat from his hands and began eating rapidly.

Chewing the delicious roasted meat, a flash of light passed through Asuna's eyes, and she silently made a decision.

Suguha watched the three of them—Lingyun, Kirito, and Asuna—and felt that some inexplicable tacit understanding had already appeared between them, one she simply couldn't participate in. This situation caused an alarm to ring in her heart: these two people were, in a sense, very dangerous to her!

"Kirito, what do you think of tomorrow's battle?" Lingyun asked softly.

Kirito swallowed the roasted meat in her mouth, a touch of gravity appearing in her eyes: "I think this will definitely be a difficult battle. I have been to the Labyrinth Area, and there, I encountered some powerful monsters and even fell into dangerous situations several times. Under these circumstances, the strength of the floor boss can be imagined."

"When we raid tomorrow, you and Asuna should not stray too far from our side. Only then can we protect you if something happens!" Lingyun said to Kirito.

"Protect us?" Kirito looked at the person before her with some confusion.

"Our strength is very strong; you will know when the time comes!" Lingyun smiled and suddenly reached out to pat Kirito on the head.

"You, what are you doing? This, this is a very rude act!" Kirito froze, then retreated several steps like a ruffled kitten, her face flushing with red clouds.

"Nothing, I just felt that Kirito looks a lot like a younger sister of mine," Lingyun said with a smile, waving his hand.

"Sis, sister or something, that is just too foul..." Kirito muttered to herself, not knowing what she was thinking.