Kirito closed his eyes as the world in front of him began to vanish and he found himself remembering something he wished he could forget.

They had just defeated one of the strongest boss monsters that they had run into but considering that by now everyone had realized that if they were going to beat the game they had to work together even if that meant running out of crystals.

Then it happened.

"Congratulations everyone for getting this far."

"Now I know that there are those amongst you that don't want to play but still want to leave, but you can't do that unless you play."

Kirito felt his chest tighten as he remembered what happened next.

He remembered how his help screen opened on its own and it showed Ancrads lower floors begin to vanish.

Everyone who was with him began to panic as they remembered that there were still a lot of people on those floors.

One by one all of the players who had given up and decided to stay behind began to teleport into the room, unfortunately, they weren't alone.

Kirito tried to forget about what happened next, as he began to hear their screams.

"Kirito, Kirito" Kirito heard 9s calling him as he heard the low-level players scream as the room began to fill itself with monsters.

"Sorry I was just remembering something," Kirito said to 9s.

"Kirito we should return to the camp, Inkow that you have something to do but it's too dangerous."

"I was built for this so I can handle it, but," 9s said to Kirito who began to stand up.

"Okay, from the looks of it Asuna hasn't taken out anything I put in the inventory anyway, so that means that we have to take back everything we find to them" Kirito answered 9s.

The two of them began to walk back to where everyone else was, not knowing that they were being watched.

][][

Asuna placed her head in her hands as she listened to the kids playing.

A few days ago Devola and Popola arrived saying that Kirito had allowed them to come to their camp and while everyone was suspicious of the two no one had any reason to say no to them.

The exploration groups, she called them, groups because none of them were a team had begun to bring back all sorts of things and while most of it was junk, it wasn't like the camp couldn't use it.

She had just watched the video that Kirito had sent her and she had to restrain herself from running to go help him.

In Aincrad the players had turned to the guilds and by extension, the guild leaders for guidance, and unfortunately things weren't any different here.

She knew that by sending all of the players out to scout the area they were sending them to die, but they couldn't afford to have everyone committing suicide like when everything started back then.

She let out a breath and rubbed her forehead, sooner or later they would have to fight, and judging by how bad both Klein's and Kirito's fight went she didn't expect the players to win.

The sounds of the kids laughing made her briefly forget about their situation ad as she turned towards where the sound was coming from she noticed the twins were playing with them.

Devola and Popola looked just a little bit older than her and could pass off as women who were in their early twenties, while they had light peach skin, a thin figure, and bright red hair, but what caught Asuna's attention was how Human they were.

According to Devola and Popola, the machines that Kirito Klein and the rest of Fuurinkazan had run into were created by an alien race that forced what Humans remained to live on the moon.

Why the aliens didn't just attack the moon was anyone's guess, considering that they had spaceships, but they were aliens so what did she know about the way they thought.

Devola and Popola also explained that there aren't any other Humans on Earth at the moment because the entire planet was being fought over and that there were only a couple of safe zones that didn't last as the lines were constantly changing.

When the guild leaders heard the twin's explanation, a silent conversation happened between them and everyone decided that it was better to keep the other group a secret for now.

A beep from her help screen told her that another hour had passed, it was hard to tell time here as night never seemed to come, so she needed a way of knowing what time it was.

Asuna wished that there was something to help her take her mind off things, but considering that she only had a few minutes to relax before something needed her attention, she usually passed her time looking through the messages that the scouts sent her.

She was going to close her help screen when she found a message from Battle Hammer, it had arrived a few hours ago and it was for everyone but she hadn't had time to look at it.

She was about to click on it when everyone began to run into the building and went in as deep as they could before using the pieces of metal as a make-shift wall to hide with.

Devola and Popola pulled out a pair of swords from their inventory while at the same time pushing the rest of the players into the building.

Asuna wanted to ask what was going on when the sound of motors reached her, the motors weren't alone as she soon heard what sounded like clanking noises.

Everyone stayed quiet as the clanking sounds grew louder and louder with each moment the sounds grew until they were strong enough to shake the entire building that she was hiding in.

Devola and Popola who had hidden behind the metal wall with them didn't seem to relax even when the sounds finally stopped and finally, after two hours passed the pair moved the wall aside and let everyone out.