"B-but I thought you were..." Lamia struggled, staring in disbelief at the sight of the unknown man in front of us.

"H-how did you get here?" The man spoke.

We glanced back and forth between Lamia and the unknown man.

"Do you know him, Lamia?" Sinon asked.

"I...he's my...he's my brother."

"But you told us your brother was..."

That was the last mistake we did.

While we turned our attention to Lamia, the unknown man moved swiftly and knocked Asuna backwards, before summoning his own sword and held her from behind, effectively taking her hostage.

"DAMN YOU!" Asuna cursed while desperately trying to break free from his grip, to no avail.

"Let her go!" Agil yelled.

The unknown man grinned.

"Well, you see. There's five of you there, and only one of me. So I need a bargaining chip..." He pointed his sword at Asuna's face.

"Put your weapons away, or else!" He demanded. "This is a dungeon area, so if you don't do as I say, I can't guarantee what will happen to her..."

"Brother, please!" Lamia finally regained her senses. "Why are you doing this!?"

"Don't you remember, Lamia?" He said. "It's people like them that left our guild for dead back then!"

Wait, what!?

"What the hell are you talking about!?" Asuna sneered, but he ignored her.

I stood frozen. Something isn't right about this...

It's people like them that left our guild for dead back then!

Back then?

That guy, his face seems familiar.

"And you, Black Swordsman!" He pointed his sword toward me, his eyes filled with anger. "I have a score to settle with you!"

And that's when realization kick into me.

I met him before.

"Please! I beg you! We can't do this on our own!" Somebody spoke.

I turned my eyes away from a book I was reading. I'm sitting in a cafe on floor fourteenth. It's just been three months in since that Kayaba Akihiko trapped us in the game.

Nearby, other players are minding their own businesses, but there was a group of five people that stood out. They've been running around the cafe for a while now, asking others to help them doing something.

Finally, they stopped by me.

"Hello, mister? Could you help us fighting a special boss in Fulcrum's Pass dungeon? We're still not strong enough to face them by our own."

I stared at the guy. He must be new to this game if he thought he and his friends could beat that boss at all, at least right now.

"That boss you're talking about is The Archaeopteryx, right?" I asked for confirmation.

"Yeah! That blasted thing just won't stay still! It flies away all the time, out of our reaches, to heal itself. We need more people to take that thing down."

"It's a bird, so it's not strange that it flies away. Plus, it's a special boss, meaning it isn't meant to be fought right now, not when we're low levels like this. You need certain ranged skills so you could attack it with your weapons while it's flying which you'll got when you have enough levels."

"But why would they put such a strong boss at low floors like this?" One of his friends asked.

Damn it, they're such newbies.

"Just give it up, guys. It's not worth it, not right now. When you're strong enough, you could come back to finish it. At level forty will do, I think."

"FORTY? Are you kidding!? We can't wait that long!" The lead guy cried out. "I've read about that thing. It dropped an extra-rare longsword that could cut down monsters like onions. If we got that thing, then we can clear this game a lot more easier!"

"Like I said, it's not worth it," I insisted. "You could bring all the people here with you if you like, but it still doesn't change the fact that you couldn't attack it while it's airborne."

"We just need more people!" He argued. "If we keep pummeling it, it'll eventually go down! With strong players like you, we could really pull this off!"

"What makes you think I could really help you guys fight that thing." I asked him back, this guy's starting to get on my nerves!

"Y-you're that Beater from the first floor! The Black Swordsman!" One of his friends pointed at me. "You're the one who helped with that girl defeated the first boss!"

"Yeah, I saw you too!" Another of his friends spoke.

The lead guy then continue. "That's why I wanted you to help us! You're the one with the most experience here! With you with us, we can beat that boss in no time!"

"Who do you think I am, a miracle worker?!" I snapped. "I'm not going to waste my time doing something that was doomed from the start. I'll say it one last time, give it up! That boss's too much for any of us at this time, even me!"

That's it. I gave him my final warning.

"You...at least you could've just..." The guy paused a moment, his face turned angry.

"FINE! You selfish bastards won't get anything when me and my friends beat that thing! One way or another, we're going to take that monster down, with or without you!" He declared, before running out of the cafe with his friends.

"Wait, WAIT!" I ran after them, but I found myself struck at the door.

"Why can't I get out!?" I tried to push through the invisible barrier that blocked me from exiting, to no avail.

"You haven't pay for your breakfast." The AI waitress walked up to me. "Players must pay for their orders before they can leave."

Damn it!

I quickly bringing up my inventory window, before transferring my money to the waitress and left the cafe. By the time I got out, that guy and his friends were nowhere to be found in a large crowd of players outside.

I never saw him again...

...until now.

"You're...you're him..." I slowly said. "You're the guild leader who tried to convince me to slay the special boss."

"So you remember it now, Black Swordsman!" He shouted angrily. "Had you been with us that day, my guildmates won't have to die fighting that boss! You're the one to blame for their deaths!"

"B-but I did bloody warn you!" I argued. "I warned you that you won't have any chance taking that thing down by your own! And you still go through with it!"

"You Beaters will never understand! You know everything about the game! You could do anything! What about beginners like us, huh!? What about US!? You never did anything to help us to stand a chance in this fucking game! YOU'RE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE!" He screamed, his sword pointed at me.

That's when he let his guard down.

Asuna moved swiftly, as she always did, and grab the armed hand of that man before twisting it so hard, he cried out in pain. The sword dropped down to the floor, and Asuna slammed him onto the ground.

"Gotcha, you bastard!" Asuna shouted.

"Brother, no!" Lamia, who finally regained her sense, ran to the downed man.

"Why! Why!? Why are you doing this!?" She started crying. "You told me to stay at the usual meeting place while you guys went to kill that boss, and the next thing I know, your name just crossed off the guild members list! I thought you were dead!"

"I...I did what I have to do, Lamia. I was doing something very dangerous, I couldn't bring you along, so I disconnected from the group after...after our friends died..." He said. "All those players out there kept getting all the best items...we had to do something. Nobody would care to help beginners like us. They're just wanting to save their own asses."

"That's just a poor excuse!" Asuna said. "Just because life doesn't go your way doesn't mean you have to blame it all on others! Those people all had it rough just like you guys did! What rights do you have to blame them for something they didn't do just because you suffered more?!"

"I DON'T CARE!" He screamed, trying to break free of Asuna, but she's far stronger than him.

"Why should I care for them when they don't give a damn about us!? You call this fair!? We're fighting to free everyone out of this game, but everyone's just too busy at each other's throats! It's you people who made us suffered! It's you people who make clearing the game harder than it should be! Am I wrong!?"

"ENOUGH!" Lamia shouted, before slapping her brother hard in the face.

"You...stupid...moron...Ryuji..."

And then she hugged him, breaking down in tears.

"You...you're always like this! Always try too hard! So what if we can't get out of the game!? So what if we have to stay in here forever!? So what if we have to die in here!? As long as we're still with each other, I can stand it all! I don't want any of this! I don't want you to be like this! You're better than this, brother!"

"I..." The man...Ryuji...slowly moved his arms up and embraced her back; Asuna already let him go from her grips, but still holding out her rapier in case he tried to do something.

We stood in silence, watching Lamia and her brother reconciled.

A few moments later, I walked to check the console of the machine at the cave pillar.

"So, where are our friends, Ryuji?" Asuna asked. "There's six more people with us, where did you take them?"

Ryuji looked up at her, his face filled with confusion.

"Th-there's six more of you guys?"

Wha?

"They're not with you? Where could they be?" Asuna continued.

"Anyway, brother, tell us how to turn the captured townspeople back to normal." Lamia wiped her eyes, finally stopped crying. "Killing machines or not, it's not right to use them as weapons. They're human, too."

Ryuji shook his head.

"But I never turned them into monsters...I just helped kidnapping them..."

The hell?

"B-but you said that you know about Cardinal! And you wanted to use this machine here to hack the game!" I said.

"My colleagues told me!" He said. "I was never into those hacking stuffs. All the knowledge I have, I got from someone else, someone who asked me to help them in their works! I could never do something like this by myself!"

"I figured as much. No one could pull off an entire operation like this on their own." Sinon said.

"But then, who was helping you? I mean, who were you helping?" Lamia asked.

"Would you like to know the answer, young girl!?" A voice came from the front of the cavern.

We looked back, and saw five large men standing there, along with...

Keita, Sasamaru, Tetsuo, Izumi, Oren and Sachi.

Those five men...are the same townspeople we saved from last night.

Those that had the strange markings on their faces when they were in beast forms.

Except, right now, those markings reappeared in the exact same positions.

"Nobody moves an inch, if you don't want your friends to get hurt!" The man in the middle demanded, his sword's right at Sachi's throat.

"Those bastards!" Sinon cursed. "Those are the rogue red guild I was looking for!"

Editor's note: I'm so, so sorry this chapter took so long, guys! I've been busy with a lot of things lately! I'll try to continue the story every week from now on, just stay patient! Also, I wrote this chapter in a very short time, so it might contain some flaws, feel free to tell me! And thank you for all your support!

See you next week! ^^