Chapter 66: The Bookish Asuna Who

Seeing Shengzai still confused, Xing was about to remind him with a sigh of frustration, but was quickly stopped by Asuna beside her.

“Xing, thank you so much for helping me—I’m already very satisfied with how things turned out.”

“Shengzai’s personality has always been like this. After all, everything takes time and gradual progress, doesn’t it?”

Watching Asuna’s smile, which seemed to carry hidden meaning, Xing’s face instantly flushed red.

But she soon realized that when it came to matters of the heart, outsiders like them could only play supporting roles—they could do little more.

“Miss Asuna is truly a perfect person: beautiful, thoughtful, and utterly radiant.”

Female friendships often form suddenly and inexplicably, but after this incident, Asuna and Xing became quite good friends.

Even until Kirito and the Black Cat Moonlight Guild left, Shengzai still stared at Asuna beside him with an expression of utter disbelief.

He simply couldn’t understand why the first meeting between the rightful wife and the first love had been so harmonious.

Asuna and Xing’s meeting hadn’t sparked any bloody rivalry—it had even turned into a close friendship. To Shengzai, this was absurd on top of absurdity, absurd to the extreme!

“Um… Asuna, what do you think of Xing? Doesn’t it bother you at all that she’s with Kirito?”

Given how unexpectedly everything had just unfolded, Shengzai cautiously asked Asuna, who was still fiddling with “Meteor” beside him.

“Xing is a wonderful girl, and I think she and Kirito are perfectly matched.”

“By the way, are you free right now? I just got my new weapon and I’m itching to fight—let’s do some PVP.”

“Of course, considering you’re the national kendo champion, you’ll let me win a little, right?”

“Actually, I—”

“Great, since you have no objections, it’s settled then.”

“For this PVP, you’re not allowed to use any weapon, and there’s no time limit.”

Shengzai’s half-spoken words were immediately cut off by Asuna, who grinned at him and issued a PVP challenge with utterly unfair conditions.

“What the hell do you mean no weapons? What’s the difference between me and a lamb about to be slaughtered?”

“You’re definitely mad! I knew it—even though you pretend not to care, seeing Kirito with Xing still got to you!”

Asuna, who had been in a decent mood after receiving “Meteor,” nearly exploded with rage upon hearing Shengzai’s words.

Without caring whether Shengzai agreed or not, she grabbed his hand and clicked “Accept Duel” on the system interface before him.

After being forced into this completely unfair PVP, Asuna had expected to vent her anger on this annoying guy—but Shengzai instead summoned a flame tiger and a giant flying bird.

In the past, without weapons, Shengzai couldn’t have defeated the current Asuna.

But after their last power-sharing, he was no longer the same—he could now summon spirit beasts to fight, and even without swordsmanship, his martial arts were just as formidable!

——————Separator Line

Aincrad Floor 55, Gransam.

The town’s main settlement, built entirely of steel glowing with black light, was known as the Iron City.

The strongest guild in SAO, the Blood Alliance Knights, was also headquartered here.

After completing today’s team training, Asuna, as deputy leader of the Blood Alliance Knights, prepared to head home early.

“Asuna, you’ve worked hard today. Have you spoken to Shengzai about it yet?”

As Asuna was about to leave the guild headquarters, a middle-aged man in red knight armor with gray hair called out to her.

The man who stopped her was none other than the guild’s leader—Heathcliff, reputedly the strongest player alive.

Heathcliff’s strength was said to have held the collapsing front line alone for ten minutes during the Floor 50 boss battle.

It was also said that since the game began, his HP had never dropped into the yellow zone—never below fifty percent.

“Um… I haven’t had the chance to speak with him yet. But knowing his personality, he probably won’t agree.”

“Still, I’ll try to persuade him again…”

After bidding farewell to Heathcliff, Asuna sighed deeply, then walked alone to Aincrad Floor 50’s Algate.

Algate on Floor 50 of Aincrad was currently the most bustling town, second only to the first floor’s “Start Street.”

Though the streets here were chaotic, they were lined with all kinds of shops and stalls.

Compared to Start Street, the players here were generally of higher levels.

After arriving on Floor 50, Asuna first bought some edible monster ingredients from several vendor players, then went to Akir’s general store, an old friend’s shop.

“Akir, got any good ingredients today?”

Seeing Asuna standing before him with a shopping basket, like a housewife, Akir wasn’t the least surprised.

For the past six months, the famous "Flash" from the strategy group had been a regular customer at his shop.

Since both were from the strategy group and Akir was one of the few friends Shengzai and Kirito had, Asuna was naturally very familiar with him.

“Asuna! You’re here just in time—a player sold ‘Golden Herring’ here in Algate because he needed money, and I managed to get it.”

Upon hearing “Golden Herring,” Asuna’s eyes lit up instantly. “‘Golden Herring’? The S-rank ingredient ranked with ‘Stew Rabbit’ and ‘Hexagonal Honey’ as one of the three culinary treasures!”

As a foodie, Asuna had maxed out her cooking skill and memorized every ingredient in SAO inside and out.

Yet she had only ever heard of the legendary “Golden Herring”—never seen it.

“Akir, please, sell me that ‘Golden Herring’!”

Legendary ingredients were rare and unpredictable, so as a foodie, Asuna had no hesitation in deciding to buy it.

(End of Chapter)