Chapter 6: You Call This a Newbie?

"I'm also very pleased to meet you, Brother Shengzai. It seems our personalities are surprisingly compatible."

"And you’ve done a great job with this face—could you send me the data? I’ll adjust my character model later."

"I still think this face has a tiny bit of a gap from my real appearance."

The friendly Klein draped an arm over Shengzai’s shoulder and noticed several female characters glancing their way—suddenly, he felt his own face, despite its polish, still fell slightly short of his original aura.

"No, no—I think your face, Brother Klein, feels like something I’ve known forever."

"Since it’s our first meeting and I’ve got nothing to give you, how about you wait right here? I’ll go buy two tangerines nearby."

Watching Shengzai and Klein, who had known each other less than a few minutes, already slinging arms over shoulders and exchanging exaggerated boasts while calling each other “brother,” Kirito could only stare in silence.

Over the years, he’d played plenty of games, but due to his crippling social skills, he’d always been a lone wolf.

Yet Shengzai, who’d grown up with him, was the exact opposite—when it came to social ability, this guy could probably walk into any company and effortlessly become a sales genius.

Although new players kept flooding in, making Start Street increasingly crowded and lively,

Thanks to Kirito—the “Closed Beta Player”—the three of them quickly found a less crowded leveling zone under his guidance.

On the first layer of Aincrad, the main structures were Start Street and the town of Tolbana.

At the northernmost end of this layer stood a massive tower, 300 meters in diameter and 100 meters tall—the labyrinth zone.

Around the streets lay vast grasslands, where level-one minions like “Raging Boars,” “Wasps,” and “Giant Wasps” appeared.

Since Shengzai and Klein were both absolute newbies, Kirito ultimately chose the boar as their training target—smaller, flying enemies like wasps and giant wasps were harder to kill even at the same level.

The “Raging Boar,” about the size of a young calf, had significantly thicker health and stronger stats than “Wasps” or “Giant Wasps.”

But since boars only charged straight ahead and were large, obvious targets, Kirito deemed them the perfect monsters for beginners.

Though it was a fully immersive game, the real experience felt no different from being physically present.

The breeze brushing his face, the scent of soil carried on the wind, the piercing roar of the Raging Boar—all were indistinguishable from reality.

And that was precisely the charm of fully immersive games!

After demonstrating with a dazzling sword technique and instantly killing the Raging Boar before them, Kirito looked at the two with confidence and explained:

After watching Kirito’s demo, Klein eagerly grabbed a longsword and prepared to try it himself.

But sadly, though it looked simple, the actual execution proved far harder than he imagined.

When the Raging Boar charged at him, overwhelmed by the realism of the scene, Klein froze in fear and was instantly launched several meters into the air by the boar’s charge.

Only because he’d set his pain sensitivity to the lowest level did he escape psychological trauma—otherwise, that direct hit to his rear would’ve left him scarred for life.

Watching Klein fly through the air after being rammed, Kirito picked up a stone from the ground.

As a flash of light appeared in his hand, the stone shot out at incredible speed and struck the boar squarely on its rear.

“There’s no magic in SAO. And because skills operate with high autonomy,

as long as you assume the starting stance of a sword technique—even if I just threw this stone—it can trigger the skill.

So beyond in-game sword techniques, real-world swordmasters can also excel here.”

Kirito’s final remark was clearly meant for Shengzai, standing beside him.

Hearing this, Shengzai’s fingers twitched with eagerness. He glanced at the nearby Raging Boar, then slowly picked up a rusty one-handed sword and stepped forward.

“The starting stance of a sword technique, huh? Then…”

Watching the Raging Boar charge straight at him, Shengzai didn’t panic like Klein had moments before.

Having trained in swordsmanship for over a decade, if he couldn’t even face a beast without fear, he might as well go back to square one!

When the Raging Boar reached ten meters from Shengzai, he stood still. At five meters, three meters, even two meters—

Watching Shengzai remain motionless, Klein grew increasingly anxious.

Shengzai was a great guy. Having just endured the “ball-busting pain,” he understood exactly how excruciating that was.

Because his rear had just been hit by Kirito’s stone, the Raging Boar was now angrier than before.

All Klein could hope for was that Shengzai hadn’t set his pain sensitivity too high—otherwise, that “fatal butt-strike” might knock the guy out cold.

“Wenren Sword Style Form One—Lan Ya!”

The scene Klein imagined never happened. Shengzai didn’t fly backward after taking the “fatal butt-strike.”

At the very moment the Raging Boar was about to collide with him, Shengzai finally moved.

Shengzai tilted his body slightly, slipping past the boar’s flank like a gust of wind. His sword blade turned, a faint blue glow appearing along its edge as it swept across the boar’s neck.

A streak of light exploded through the air. The Raging Boar, mid-charge, collapsed instantly—and dissolved into countless fragments.

Kirito was startled by the sight, but given how many times Shengzai had stunned him since childhood, he wasn’t entirely shocked.

But Klein, the true newbie beside him, stared dumbfounded as the Raging Boar was beheaded and erased in a single slash.

If he remembered correctly, Shengzai was just like him—a brand-new player, not a “Closed Beta Player” like Kirito, right?

So then—why did he suddenly feel Shengzai was even stronger than Kirito?

Sure, they’d both killed the Raging Boar in one hit—but in terms of movement and sword technique, Shengzai’s was far more astonishing and dazzling!

(End of Chapter)