Chapter 127: Target: Titan's Hand

"It's getting late, we should leave here as soon as possible. I've heard that this forest has a special condition: at night, the monsters' strength can increase significantly, but the items obtained from killing them do not increase," Lingyun suggested.

"Mm." Silica, who had just walked on the edge of life and death, clearly had a certain fear of this forest; hearing Lingyun speak, she nodded from the side.

"Who's there?" Lingqi suddenly turned solemn, drawing the gun at her waist and aiming it at a patch of dense forest.

Lingyun frowned slightly, then reached for the long sword behind his back. Recently, Lingqi's sensory abilities seemed to have improved significantly, and along with that, her Search Skill in this world had also reached a near-maximum level, and she was even better than Lingyun at detecting people or things hidden in the darkness.

With a "rustle," a sound came from the dense forest, and then a black figure emerged from it.

"Kirito, why are you here?" After seeing who it was, Lingyun said with some helplessness. "Shouldn't you be struggling in the Labyrinth Area at this time?"

Seeing that the person was Kirito, Lingqi also quickly retracted her pistol.

"It's nothing, I just had a sudden whim today to go down to the lower floors for a walk, and ended up running into another matter. I didn't expect to meet you here," Kirito shrugged, looking a bit embarrassed. "However, Lingqi, when did your Search Skill get so high? My Concealment is clearly trained quite high, and I hid myself very well, yet I didn't expect to be spotted by you at a glance."

"That's a secret. Asking about a lady's secret so casually is a very impolite thing to do," Lingqi said with a smile, placing her right index finger in front of her lips.

"Uh..." Kirito was still a bit unaccustomed to this state of Lingqi's.

"Let's go first; there are already ill-intentioned guys surrounding us in the darkness," Lingqi suggested, looking at the forest hidden in the dark.

"Let's go, Kirito, you come along too!" Lingyun took out a Transfer Crystal.

Aincrad, 35th Floor, Mishe.

In a tavern, the four of them sat at the same table.

"Kirito, you said earlier that you went to the Dark Night Forest because you ran into a matter. What exactly is it?" Lingyun asked.

"Well, it's like this. When I was returning from the front lines, I met a man there. That man was the leader of a small guild called 'Silver Flag'. Some time ago, this guild was attacked by an Orange Player guild called 'Titan's Hand', and all their valuable items were stolen. Thanks to them, when the members of this guild were returning to the Town, they were attacked by monsters and almost wiped out; only their leader managed to escape back to the Town under the desperate cover of the other members." Kirito's expression was somewhat gloomy.

"How could such a situation happen?" Silica's expression was very ugly.

"This world is no longer the original world; there is no protection of the law, so it is inevitable that such evil people will appear." Lingyun sighed, reached out to pat Silica's head, and then looked at Kirito. "This matter should have something to do with you, right? Hmm? Could it be that you promised that leader something?"

"There's no help for it. Although the concept of law doesn't exist in this world, someone still has to stand up to uphold justice. I just happened to run into it," Kirito smiled. "That leader exhausted his savings to buy a Corridor Crystal, with the exit set to the Black Iron Palace Prison. Although his guild members died because of the people from Titan's Hand, his idea was just to have them imprisoned. That person is truly kind!"

Lingyun inwardly muttered to himself: "If you say that leader is a kind person, then aren't you, who took on this dangerous commission that has nothing to do with you, also a total pushover?"

"Does this have anything to do with you going to the Dark Night Forest, Big Sister Kirito?" Silica asked, feeling a bit strange.

"I went to find that profiteer Argo earlier and got information about this guild from her. According to the records, the leader of this guild has been wandering around the 40th floor for some time, seemingly looking for the next target to strike, so I came here to investigate," Kirito replied.

"I haven't seen any Orange Players in the Dark Night Forest during this time!" Silica said.

"The culprit isn't necessarily an Orange Player!" Kirito said to Silica with a mysterious look.

"Not necessarily an Orange Player?" Silica was a bit confused.

"Kirito, how much do you know about the strength of this Orange Player guild?" Lingyun asked.

Although in the original work, the members of the Titan's Hand guild were few and their combat power was not strong, and they were completely crushed in front of Kirito, this world had already become a real world, and many more players had entered it, so it was inevitable that some changes would occur.

"Titan's Hand, this Orange Player guild is quite famous in SAO. The leader is a woman, and there are over twenty guild members, all of whom are men. A portion of them have decent combat power," Kirito's expression was somewhat grave.

"Over twenty people?" Lingyun frowned slightly. "Can you handle them alone?"

"Crushing them is no problem at all!" Kirito said with full confidence.

"Then what if the other side runs? If twenty-plus people scatter and run, can you catch them all?" Lingyun raised another question.

"This..." A trace of hesitation appeared on Kirito's face. If the other side were within ten people, she would be confident that not a single one could escape. If the other side were monsters, she would also have ten-tenths certainty that not one could escape. However, the other side consisted of over twenty players, and when facing her, there would definitely be some who could escape using Transfer Crystals.

"Why do it alone? We can just go together when the time comes!" Lingyun shrugged. "We'll take Silica to the Hill of Memories tomorrow; you come with us, and then we'll go wipe out this Orange Player guild together."

"This, alright." Kirito pondered for a while and nodded slightly.

The night was already deep, and Silica had gone to sleep. Lingyun took Lingqi and quietly knocked on the door of Kirito's room.

"What's wrong, Lingyun?" Kirito opened the door and yawned at the same time.

"I have information about the leader of the Orange Player guild; do you want to hear it?" Lingyun smiled.

"Really?" Kirito instantly perked up. "Come in."

"You said earlier that the leader of the Titan's Hand guild is named Rosalia, right?" Lingyun asked.

"Mm." Kirito nodded.

"I heard from Silica earlier that during her time grouping up recently, there was always someone in her party who went against her, and this person is also named Rosalia. If I'm not mistaken, this person is very likely the leader of Titan's Hand!" Lingyun said.

"Rosalia has been in a party with her for these past few days?" Kirito frowned slightly. "Could it be that she's probing Silica's combat power, waiting for an opportunity to strike?"

"It's very likely. I heard from Silica earlier that the reason she crossed the Dark Night Forest alone was because she was sulking with this woman!" Lingqi nodded slightly. "Moreover, because she didn't take a Recovery Crystal when she left, she lost her greatest support in the forest, her familiar Pina. To actually cause the death of such a cute familiar, this woman is truly unforgivable!"

"Trying to weaken the target's combat power?" Kirito thought of something else. "It seems they might make a move on Silica very soon; the most likely time is tomorrow when she goes to the Hill of Memories!"

"Then let's catch them all in one net tomorrow when these guys attack Silica!" Lingyun said.

"Mm." Lingqi and Kirito responded.