Chapter 17: Asuna: Turns Out My Teammates Are All Big Shots

To be honest, since Maochangjingyan appeared, Kirigaya had worried about being trapped in the game, but he hadn’t been panicked.

Because during the closed beta, they had cleared up to the eighth floor of the Sky Tower in just one month.

Kirigaya had originally thought that, with SAO’s player count now a hundred times greater than before, the game should be cleared much faster.

But unexpectedly, during this past month, nearly a thousand players had died in-game, and there had been zero progress in clearing the floors.

Compared to the inner-test maze areas, the location of the floor boss room had changed, and it was only today that Diabel discovered it.

The maze area having changed is perhaps one reason the clearing progress has been so slow.

But Kirigaya believed the players’ current mindset was also a major problem.

This time, Diabel made such a big deal out of organizing the clearing meeting—if they succeed in defeating the floor boss, it’s obviously good, but if they fail…

Then players who were already terrified of the maze areas would become even more afraid to face the floor boss.

In the worst case, they might be stuck on the first floor for months, half a year… or even longer.

“It’s hard to say. Although this beginner’s guide does contain information about the first-floor boss, the Kobold,

but compared to the closed beta, the floor boss room’s location has changed—who knows if its skills and mechanics have changed too?”

“And today’s situation—you must’ve seen it too. That idiot named Yawang started stirring up conflict among players even before the battle began. How can you expect them to cooperate like this?”

“I don’t think Diabel, who organized this meeting, is a simple guy either.”

“Organizing everyone to clear the boss together isn’t just about boosting morale—it’s also to build his own reputation.”

“After all, if we successfully clear the first floor boss, we’ll be pioneers—and as the leader, he’ll have a reputation bonus, making it easy for many to choose to follow him.”

After Shengzai’s analysis, Kirigaya and Asuna agreed with most of it, but they both felt Shengzai was seeing too much darkness in everyone else.

They didn’t understand—everyone looked roughly the same age, so why was Shengzai’s mindset as cynical as those dirty adults?

“Hmph, you’re still just innocent, naive middle schoolers. Not understanding the cruelty of society is normal.”

Kirigaya: (▽｀) We grew up together—trying to show off in front of me?

Asuna: (￣￣), according to his self-introduction just now, he’s actually a year younger than me, right?

And you two are middle schoolers—I’m already in high school this year! Why is a high schooler being scolded by a middle schooler? So annoying!

“In short, if anything unexpected happens, we’ll just go solo as the three of us!”

“A single floor boss—even just the three of us—shouldn’t be a problem.”

“If we hadn’t been unable to find the room earlier, we’d have soloed that Kobold already.”

To be honest, Shengzai’s tone was incredibly arrogant, leaving Asuna sitting beside him utterly speechless.

She was also a game newbie, but thanks to her excellent learning and adaptability, she had mastered the game’s mechanics in an extremely short time.

Even so, even against ordinary same-level monsters, Asuna often struggled badly—so she truly couldn’t understand why Shengzai made soloing a boss sound so easy.

Was he just a boastful fool, or did he truly have real strength?

But soon, Asuna would directly experience whether Shengzai was all talk or truly powerful.

Diabel scheduled the clearing meeting for two days later, giving each team time to prepare and improve coordination.

Kirigaya and Shengzai were fine, but since Asuna was a new teammate, Shengzai suggested they go grind some monsters together to build better synergy.

And during these two days of synergy training, Asuna came to realize that Shengzai’s claim about soloing the boss was absolutely not empty words.

Because both of her teammates in this squad were absolute monsters!

Asuna had seen solo players before—she herself was one.

But Shengzai and Kirigaya’s soloing completely shattered her worldview!

These two claimed they were taking her to build team synergy, but instead dragged her straight into the most densely packed, highest-level dangerous zones!

And not only did they fight monsters above their level, they always took on multiple enemies at once.

Their combat style—dodging among multiple monsters—made Asuna truly understand what it meant to dance on the edge of a blade.

Even more insane: after the first day’s warm-up training, these two took her on the second day to find a Yewai BOSS with a higher level than theirs.

And they directly taught her the “switching” mechanic in boss fights!

Although Yewai BOSS were weaker and less powerful than floor bosses, and weren’t unique, they were still far beyond what normal players could defeat—especially when they were fighting above their level.

But absurdly, the Yewai BOSS that Asuna had thought nearly unbeatable was directly worn down and killed by the three of them under Shengzai and Kirigaya’s careful guidance.

And as the final killer, she gained a huge amount of experience, leveling up, and received a rare reward: a fine sword named “Feixing.”

From that moment on, Asuna realized she had accidentally teamed up with two players of legendary caliber.

Especially Shengzai—he was a monster among monsters; his reflexes and skills were simply inhuman.

When she had still not fully mastered the “switching” mechanic, every opening she made was patched up by Shengzai.

The term “Saint” didn’t just mean wealth—it meant combat power as godlike as a saint!

The two days passed quickly. Shengzai’s trio met the other squads at the maze entrance, as originally agreed, joining the clearing group.

Compared to her two days ago’s ragged cloak, Asuna now had waist-length light-brown hair, wore a fitted leather armor, and carried the fine sword “Feixing” at her waist—she looked every bit the elegant, formidable female swordsman.

Previously, she hid her figure under the cloak because she didn’t want trouble and didn’t trust others easily.

After all, in this game, there were no police or similar roles—it was a true lawless zone.

(End of chapter)