A/N: Looks like Tyler got what's coming to him, wouldn't you say? I'd say we won't be seeing him anymore...OR WILL WE!? Only one way to find out: Continue on with the story.


JANUARY 16TH, 2023. FLOOR 9, GOLD SHANDO LAKE.

The ninth floor is just like the field of battle against Shadow of Terrors. Only instead of standing on the springs, we're in a light-golden grass field with autumn orange leaf trees and rivers and lakes. It would be a peaceful floor, only it's not for it's crawling with monsters.

I have not seen that Tyler jerk since the events on the eighth floor. Rokel hasn't seen him either. I better hope that moron is hiding until the end of this world has come.

Right now, I just lay in the shade by the lake. I'm not really napping or being lazy, I'm just lost in thought.

This is a death game. The moment our HP hits zero, the helmets unleash a microwave shock that'll kill us. I understand all of that. But why would Kayaba Akihiko do all of this? Why did he disappear? Did he vanish because he knew he would be in trouble the moment this game is launched?

Nothing makes sense. Where is he?

What's more, is that I have reached level 50 with 4160 HP. For some strange reason, I've stopped gaining experience. But I'm not the only one. There are 102 other players who reached 50 and stopped leveling. I know leveling would have limits, but why now? We're only on the ninth floor, and it's a level 40-45 area.

Is the next floor and all the other 40 floors going to be all level 50? If that's true, then hopefully beating this game is going to be easier than I thought.

"What are you doing laying around?" I was surprised to hear someone approaching. I look to see it's only Asuna. "You are a member of the Assault Team! You should be taking this more seriously!"

She's not wrong, but I'm not really doing anything wrong. My level and equipment are just fine for the next boss. I stand up. "Nothing. I just need a moment to think."

"About what?" Asuna asks.

"Nothing...just some real-world problems," I say.

"I see," Asuna says. "Well, anyways we need to prepare ourselves for the next boss fight. The Assault Team takes off in two days."

Asuna turns and walks away. 'When did she turn into a floor clearing demon?' I thought. I guess that whole 'Vice Commander of a powerful guild' got into her head.

Figures.

I make my walk, heading back into town. While I'm walking, I think about Serah. How is she doing in the real world? In few times, I keep imaging her in either crying her eyes over my real body or spending time with that husband of hers. I don't know which is worse, even though I did ask for one of them to happen.

I would give anything just to have a single connection to Serah. But in this game, we're completely cut out of the real world, just as the real world is cut out from ours.


FLOOR 9, SHRINE OF SEVEN MOONS.

Nighttime has fallen and I just go right to bed. I have a bit of a hard time falling asleep. I just stare at the family picture until exhaustion gets the best of me. Now I also wish I could have a book to read. Perhaps 'War and Peace' or 'The Hunger Games'.

I soon fall asleep.

I dream about the real world. I'm out on the porch reading a book on a rocking chair, rocking steadily back and forth, with Hope asleep right next to me. This really happened back in the real world. I was eighteen and Hope was eleven. This was the first time we've ever been very close without one of us breaking down in despair and sorrow, other than the Christmas tradition we do with Serah.

It's a warm summer day, the breeze and the sound of the ocean waves are perfect. Serah is out on the beach playing Volleyball with Snow and his NORA crew. Strangely, it doesn't bother me when they're here. Probably cause it's all the dream.

I feel very happy here, it's so peaceful. But that peace is pretty shuttered.

What happens next didn't really happen in the real world. The sky fills with dark clouds. A storm is raging on. Lightning strikes. I stand up, alarmed by the powerful storm approaching. Hope has disappeared and the beach appears to be empty as well.

"Serah! Hope!"

There's no answer. Whatever the lightning hits shatter, just like how players and objects in the game do when they meet their end.

Everything shatters until nothing but sand and grass and the ocean remains. Blood oozes from the skies and they form into the large cloaked avatar Kayaba Akihiko appears on the first day of this game.

Two light dots, where his eyes would be at, glows and my body instantly becomes paralyzed. The paralysis lifts me from the ground up to Kayaba's head level.

"The moment your HP hits zero." Kayaba points his finger at me and gives me a single touch. I feel agony all over my body from the touch. My HP greatly depletes. "The helmet will unleash a microwave shock...and it'll destroy your brain."

My HP hits zero and my body shatters.

My eyes shot open and I gasp for air, then my body sits right up. I run my hands all above my body. I still have it, and I noticed on the corner of my vision, I'm still at full health. I was only having a nightmare.

I'm covered with sweat and my heart is pounding. It's funny. I'm nothing but data in a virtual world, but my body sweats and my heart pounds like it's real. I take a deep breath to calm my nerves then lay back down.

I just hope we'll get out of this death game soon enough.


JANUARY 18TH, 2023. FLOOR 9, ELITE DUNGEON ENTRANCE

I wait outside of the entrance to the Elite Dungeon on the ninth floor. The Assault Team is gathering up. So far, the Dancing Fairies, few of the Knights of the Blood Oath, including Asuna, Rokel, and Kirito have arrived. We're raiding as another 20 member party. We are just waiting for the other five to arrive. I wonder who could it be.

"We're here!" I turn to see it's Hope and team NORA. Figures. Those idiots would be here. I am surprised though, this is the first time I've seen Snow's gang on the boss fight.

"I'm surprised to see you four here," I say.

"Yeah. We figured it give a shot on the Assault Team." Gabot says.

'Good luck with that' I thought.

"Hey, Lightning." I look at Rokel. "Is this the boy you were talking about?" I notice Rokel looking at Hope.

"Yes. This is Espeon. Espeon, this is Rokel from my guild." I say. "He kind of reminds me of you."

Rokel and Hope give each other a close look. They both follow the exact same movements they make. Lean forward into each other's faces, an eyebrow raised, fingers on the chin, tilting their heads, Hopes to the right and Rokels to the left, then tilted their heads in the other direction.

It's like they're playing mirror.

"I'm not seeing it," Hope says.

"Me neither," Rokel adds.

Maybe they don't but I do. After gathering everyone, we head into the dungeon.

The Elite Dungeon...The field is just like how this floor is, only it's been corrupted by those negative creatures. This time, they're all about Pride. Purple with light-blue highlights. I nearly had about enough of these creatures, ever since I encountered that Shadow of Terrors boss.

I order Hope and Rokel to stay close to me. I'm protecting these boys, and it's going to be hard to do it with both of them together. I strike down any of the Pride creatures that come at us. I'm not the only one who's being protective. Apparently, Kirito is looking after his cousin, Leafa.

At one point, the three of us become ambushed. Dozens of Shadowy Arrogance line up on the floors from above and jump down on us. Luckily, Rokel chants a spell then pins his staff to the ground protecting us with an arcane barrier. The moment those creatures touched it, they suffer magical damage.

They didn't suffer enough to kill them, just weakens them. We were able to finish them with just one hit.

We go up to three floors until we finally reach the doors to the boss room. While we rest up, I gather Hope and Rokel. I tell them that they should stay close to me and with each other.

Preparations are done. Asuna opens the door. We all arm ourselves, ready to charge right in. The door fully opens and we charge right into the center room.

Up ahead in the dark, we can barely see the boss. Its six eyes appear in the dark and it softly growls. The door shuts behind us and vanishes. The darkness in the room brightens, revealing the boss.

It's the negative creature of Pride: Overwhelming Arrogance.

The boss room is different from the rest of the dungeon. It's all contraption-themed. None of us charges in to fight. We just stand back shocked seeing the boss. Overwhelming Arrogance chuckles with delight, in an evil delight of course. "So foolish!" It says with a deep growling tone.

"Everyone!" Asuna holds out her sword. "Attack!"

We all charge right in. The rangers and casters stay behind and attack. Lizbeth and two other Crusaders take all of the attacks. Overwhelming Arrogance isn't like all of the other bosses. This one seems to hurt as all. Whatever attacks it lands on its current target, we suffer a bit of that as shadow damage. The Clerics had to raise their healing on us.

Not only that, but a small bar appears right next to my health bar. It's purple and empty, and it's known as 'Arrogance' The bar seems to fill up every time we are hit by the shadow attack, little by little, like 1%. During the fight, the boss puts a 'Mark of Pride' on me. I suffer a lot of damage and the Arrogance bar fills 2% each.

I attack the boss with hard charged swings, screaming in anger. My Mark of Pride is removed by a Cleric. Overwhelming Arrogance turns his attention to me and starts channeling some dark magic on me. The next thing I know, I can't control myself.

"You are better than your companions!" It shouts.

My body turns black and white and I grow black claws. I start attacking the other members of the Assault Team. My mind is my own but my body is not. I'm guessing this is how Elementalist and Shinon feel when they were being controlled by Shadow of Terrors.

To my greatest fears, I charge towards Hope. He must have noticed I'm coming at him, cause he casts an offensive holy spell. When he's done chanting, holy chains surround me, and my body freezes.

I'm held in place.

I just stand in place watching the whole fight. The benefit is I'm not suffering any damage from the Overwhelming Arrogance's attacks. Overwhelming Arrogance loses its two HP bars. Then it starts channeling massive power. "You should bow to no King!" Then unleashes a powerful shadow nova. Send everyone from full health to the red zone, even the Crusaders, and their Arrogance bars greatly increase. "Or Warchief!"

The blast has freed me of both Hope's Holy Shackle and the body control spell. I continue attacking this monster. After that dark nova, the fight starts to get tough. The Crusaders are taking regular damage but the rest of the group suffers greater shadow damage.

A bar fills up on one of the members, and he instantly turns into one of those negative creatures. The player is lifted as Overwhelming Arrogance channels some dark magic on him. "Your arrogance feeds me!" The players' health drops really fast, like instantly. I'm shocked to see this as the player dies.

I notice a buff on the Overwhelming Arrogance, next thing I know we're suffering even more damage. I'm guessing the buff gives him greater strength. "A full Arrogance bar instantly kills us and makes the boss stronger? That's insane!" I say.

"Don't give up! Keep fighting!" Asuna orders as she rapidly stabs the boss.

I follow her order and continue attacking Overwhelming Arrogance. The rest of the fight was bloody hell. Even with the help of the Dreamers, everyone had trouble staying alive.

Overtime in the battle, two other players have died. We all attack head-on when Overwhelming Arrogance was down to its last HP. The boss shatters as we have defeated it.


JANUARY 22ND, 2023. FLOOR 7, BAMBOO VILLAGE.

The Assault Team has been real quiet ever since that battle against the Overwhelming Arrogance. I did earn some leggings: Kings Legguards. It's black tights with silver plates on the front upper and lower legs. We barely made it out alive with only a few health left. We were lucky we defeated the creature just when all the Clerics and Dreamers were out of mana.

Asuna has given everyone on the Assault Team some time off. A vacation. But I don't want this, I want to get out of this death game as fast as possible. But I have no other choice. Not unless I can somehow solo the next floor boss. Even if that were possible, would I be able to do it? I have a feeling the next boss is going to be even more dangerous than the Overwhelming Arrogance.

I just got back from doing some farming. I can't level any further, but I can still make some money. I am now selling my items to a vendor. I now have a total of 39,678 Krystals.

I now go for a walk around town. When I arrive at the plaza, I see Kirito just laying down in the shade by a tree. He looks to be taking a nap.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I approach Kirito.

Kirito opens his eyes and looks at me. "Oh, it's only you."

"What goes on in that thick head of yours? Taking a nap outside of town. You trying to get yourself killed?" I ask.

"What's to worry? This floor rarely has any monsters." Kirito says.

"True. But there are still players who can attack or kill other players." I tell him.

Kirito just closes his eyes and laughs. "Yeah! I'll wear a dress and scream like a monkey outside of town in front of everybody if that ever happened."

I hate it when he gets smart with me like that. I let out an annoyed sigh after hearing that. Just then, someone screams. Kirito and I are on alert hearing that scream. Sounds horrified. Like someone's in trouble.

We both run in the direction of the scream at high speed. In a minute, we notice a crowd of people gathering in front of a cliff. At the top of the cliff, there's a play hanging from the neck with a sword impaled through his chest. This can't be good.

I look at Kirito. "Cup your hands." Kirito looks confused at first, then he does what I say. I put my right foot on his hands. "Launch me!" He does what I say, and then I'm launched.

I reach to the Swordsman and then I cut the rope with a swing of my sword. The man falls. I look down to see Kirito attempt to catch him, but as soon as they make contact, the player dies and shatters.

Everyone screams in horror seeing that.

I land right next to Kirito, looking at the spot where the man had died. "We're too late," I say.

"How did this happen?" Kirito asks.

Just then, a woman screams. We all look at her to notice her pointing at something. I look in the direction to see a large mark on the cliff. The mark is a coffin with far apart eyes, large lips, and a skeleton arm on the right. My heart stopped at the fight of it. I know what it is.

It's the emblem of the murder guild: Laughing Coffin.