A little heads up, this is kind of an intermission chapter (and a fairly short one at that) in between me working in chapter 3 of this fic and revising the previous chapter, though more of that will be explained at the end so yeah, this is solely on Kirito's perspective.

In the VR world known as Sword Art Online, there was only one way to get out, beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, death in-game meant death in real life, I was given a reminder of that on two occasions, one was on the first day of everyone being trapped and second being in the boss fight in floor 1 where Diaval nearly died and Jose jumped in to save him, after that battle I was given the name of the Beater, a combination of a cheater and a beta tester, I didn't pay much attention to this as I "embraced" the term and I hoped that it would drive some hate away from the remaining 600 or so beta testers.

"I'm going to activate the floor 2 teleport gate, if you want to follow me go ahead, but the walk is very long and if you encounter your first monster there, expect that to be the last thing you see." I leave everyone in their angered daze as I look back at Asuna and Agil and give them a small semblance of a smile. I also remember what Diaval told me.

"Ensure that everyone escapes." Yeah easier said than done, I basically took the blame for the rest of the beta testers, I have a feeling that it might get me killed later on or I won't be invited to a guild, but that really didn't matter much to me, when it comes to dying, yeah I was afraid, hell I was terrified, especially after what transpired on the first day between me and Copper, It opened my eyes to how dangerous this word really is, that THIS is reality. As for the whole guild thing, well I've always played solo, even during the beta I worked alone for the most part, but Copper did party up with me every so often, at least until the beta ended. I've stopped directly at the door behind the throne of the former Kobold Lord, it begins to open slowly.

A part of me is hoping that Jose and Koharu never reveal themselves to be beta testers. I'm also thinking that with me being a "Beater" it will likely cause people to divide the beta testers into two groups, those who were just amateurs who knew nothing, similar to Koharu, or those who knew a lot about this game, in other words, Beaters like me and MAYBE Jose. I then heard footsteps approaching me, I assumed it was another player, probably an angry one trying to hit me. But it stopped beside me, I had a feeling of who it was.

"You shouldn't have come, people wil-" I get interrupted by Asuna's voice.

"You said that we can follow you, so I did exactly that." I let out an audible sigh.

"Right, I said that." I glanced at Asuna and saw her eyes stare at me. She looked beautiful, but I didn't dwell on those thoughts as we began our walk to the second floor. The spiral staircase is all that we see for around 2 minutes and we make it to the floor itself. It was a dry savanna with large flat top rock formations, the teleport gate was there, but it wasn't the towns, so a huge influx of players wouldn't be able to use it unless they wanted to make the thing to lag. Regardless of that I still activated it.

Me and Asuna haven't spoken to each other since we left the throne room, I didn't know how to really approach a topic, maybe talk about the weather? No that would be weird and awkward, her sword style and how beautiful it looked? Nope, she would likely think I'm a pervert.

Floor 2 town Urbus, one hour after Floor 1 was cleared.

I activated the teleport gate of the town and swiftly rented a room in an inn. I sat on the nearby couch, Asuna still close by.

"So um, you gonna go or?" I ask after 30 seconds of awkward silence.

"Sorry." Asuna apologized "it's just, well, I wanted to thank you." I raise an eyebrow.

"For the bread or the bath?" I ask in a joking kind of way, in response, Asuna shakes her head.

"No, for giving me a purpose to fight, thank you." I widen my eyes at this and raise an eyebrow.

"Really?" I was taken aback by her saying that, but regardless.

"If it wasn't for you, I likely would've died in that labyrinth."

"No problem Asuna." Asuna then looks at me in a questioning manner.

"What?" I ask.

"During the floor boss you said my name, even though I never told you, I only said it to Jose, but even then, I said my name in a way that you wouldn't hear." I tilt my head, she doesn't know?

"Um, if you look to your left." She turns her head to her left. "No not like that, move your eyes to your left." I get up and direct my hand to her left, her eyes follow. She begins to pronounce my name.

"K-i-r-i-t-o. Kirito?" I nodded in response. She giggles a bit "I'm so dumb, this whole time your name was there." I give out a small sliver of a smile. Only for me to realize that my hand was really close to her cheek and in a swift manner, I pulled my hand back, one would mistake that as me activating a skill.

"S-sorry I uhhhh, didn't mean to do that." I apologized. I scratch the back of my head as I look at Asuna, I close my eyes as I begin. "There are things that a solo player can't do, so if someone you trust invites you to a guild, don't turn it down alright." I open my player menu and dissolve the party between me and Asuna.

"I'll keep that in mind." She promptly leaves the room. I let out an exhale as I didn't realize that I was holding my breath. I remained sitting on the couch before getting a notification, it was a friend message pop up. I only had two people registered on my friend's list. Klein and Argo The Rat, I left Klein behind at the Town Of Beginnings simply because I couldn't protect him and his friends at once, as for Argo, she was another beta tester that I met and is the one who made the guide book, crazy rat, she was doing this to help others even if it will get her killed, as for me, I only looked out for myself. Maybe, I do deserve that title, the Beater. I shake my head a bit and open the message.

Hey, Argo here, do you have some spare time to kill? I have a bit of info, not things about quests. If anything it's something a little worse, either way once you do have time, meet me at Horunka, we'll discuss it there.

I was confused, it's a little worse than quests? I responded to the message.

Alright, I'll meet you there in 10 minutes, deal?

I wait for a response, then I hear a ding.

Deal.

I got up from the couch and I opened my player window and unequipped my Coat Of The Midnight, as with me being the most hated player in Aincrad people will likely notice my coat. After that was done I headed to the teleport gate.

"Teleport! Horunka!" I heard a loud buzzing noise and my vision turned white for two seconds. Then the small town of Horunka is now in my vision. I open my message window.

Alright, where should we meet?

"Behind you." I jump in surprise and see Argo.

"Geez Argo, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"How can little ol me be scary." Argo asks in a mock dramatic tone. I sigh at this.

"Whatever so, are we gonna talk here or-"

"Follow me." She walks ahead of me, I can tell something is spooking her, what it is, I'm gonna find out, we eventually reach a…..restaurant?

"Wait Argo, why are you taking me here?" I questioned.

"Not many players come here." She says as she opens the doors. We take a seat at the far corner of the restaurant. She looks around, to make sure there are no prying eyes.

"You okay?" I ask, this is odd, Argo is acting differently, normally she's pretty chipper, so her being acting like this is worrying me to a certain degree.

She takes a deep breath. "You remember your old Kobold friend Illfang….right?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Weeell." She scratches her head "how should I put this?…..he's back."

"What?!" I yell in response "h-how? we killed him." Argo in response shrugs.

"Look, I don't know either, how I know this info is from a party of 6 players." 6 players eh? A small group like that shouldn't have been able to survive a boss fight, and so I voiced it out.

"Wait 6 players, if it was the floor boss, then shouldn't they've died?" She holds a finger up.

"That's the thing, Ki-boy, it's weaker according to them." She says, still I have to see to actually believe what she's saying is true.

"…."

"Look Ki-boy, I know it seems like a hoax, but I'll tell you this, I went there." A part of me resisted the urge to immediately sit up and say what!? But I didn't.

"…" She raises both of her hands in a defensive manner.

"I'm telling the truth alright."

"I believe you." I reassured, "it's just, how can a boss spawn back? That's simply impossible." Argo snorts in an irritated way.

"Yeah, if the bosses are respawning th-" I interrupt her mid-sentence

"It's only a matter of time until some waltzes in on accident and activates the boss." I slightly shuddered after I finished talking. The mere thought of bosses spawning back with no explanation, is off to me. I know that things from the beta would change, but nothing to this degree, was this Kayaba's doing or…..was it something else? Argo snaps her fingers in front of me.

"Look, I said that Illfang is weaker now, so it's possible that a party of 6 players can beat that guy." She says. "And I already know a few players that might help you out." I slowly lifted my head and made eye contact with her.

"That being?" I ask, I have to make sure these players are up to the task.

"Agil, Asuna, Jose, Koharu and Kibaou." The first four I trust, Kibaou on the other hand, well let's just say he'll get pissed at me the moment he sees my face, but regardless I agreed to it.

"Alright, I'll try and find a time we can all fight Illfang." Argo smirks a bit, but then it fades away.

"I have a bad feeling that this won't be the last time we'll see respawning bosses."

"…..yeah."

Welp that's the end of this small chapter, pretty much hinting at another, smaller fic I'm gonna do later on. Originally this chapter was supposed to be the beginning of said fic, but I scrapped it and went on to put it here, cause why not really. As for chapter 3, I'm gonna be honest, I haven't started it, due to school and me writing something else, and that goes for the edits on the prologue, chapter 1 and 2, but eith—connection lost—

Things are different, everything is different, I didn't intend for these GLITCHES to occur, more will likely appear throughout this and the other universes.—connection regained—

Huh, that's weird my internet must've turned off oh well, this doc is not tampered so that's good.

No responses once again, welp see in the next chapter, whenever that is.