Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

by Fireking492-BlazeWarriorWolf

Peace can never be truly found in the multiverse. With the defeat of Pmurt Nedib behind them, the BRAINS Collective faces a new crisis. The games of SAO as well as Minecraft, Duel Links, and more are forced together into a new incredibly twisted death game that traps countless heroes, innocent people, and more: the Infinityverse. And now, it must be cleared with high stakes.

10. PAMA The Four Armed Giant

Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

Chapter 10: PAMA The Four Armed Giant

Date: Days 292-311

For now on, I'm going to go over the floor bosses and all that first to get it out of the way. On the 25th floor was Asura The Executioner and a lot of freezing cold areas that were annoyingly organized into a maze labyrinth like array so there were so many places you could fall to your death. More on that later. There were also the following RCT3 scenarios on floors 25-27 respectively: Scrub Gardens, Ostrick Farm Plains, Egyptian Sand Dance, A Rollercoaster Odyssey, Zoo Rescue, Mine Mountain, Insect World, Rocky Coasters, and Lost Land of the Dinosaurs. Scrub Gardens starts you out with 2 animal enclosures(it's the first Wild expansion park), the splitting coaster Jungle Split, Elephant Transport 1, and some stalls including 4 Toilet stalls. Its objectives weren't that hard and mostly focused on the enclosures and number of specific animals so I had to make sure the animals were well taken care of by the zookeepers and had the items they needed to play. Oh and enough safe and stable enclosures so they wouldn't escape. But the park value requirement made it take a bit of time though it wasn't that big of a deal. Ostrick Farm Plains was quite something else. It is set in an interesting looking area. A barren area with some trees and 3 pre built viewing galleries attached to 2 enclosures. The objectives focus on increasing the number of hippos eventually to 10 as well as selling ostriches for profit and total monthly ride income. The key to it was making sure the ostriches were well taken care of in order to really make a profit from them. A number of flat rides and a couple coasters took care of the ride income no problem. Egyptian Sand Dance is a park with nothing pre built for you. It's sandy and has at least one pyramid. The game's scenario description for it was amusing. Minimum coaster excitement, number of guests in the park, and number of camels were what needed to be focused on in order to beat it. The tricky part was ensuring the animal protection group didn't take away any of the camels by keeping them happy and healthy.

A Rollercoaster Odyssey is a sci fi park that's already well established as a theme park with roller coasters Observation(robotic coaster) and Rush(inverted coaster) as well as flat ride Robot Arm 1. It's safe to say that money wasn't exactly as big of a barrier due to them. I had to bring in 10 chimps, 20 orangutans, and 30 gorillas into the park as well as up the park value up to 130k col as well as the monthly ride income. Again, the animals were the main challenge. Zoo Rescue is a zoo that is in really bad shape. It has 5 viewing galleries, a solid number of stalls, a bad appearance, Double Deck Observation Tower 1, and Whirling Dervish 1. The animals needed help. I had to up the average animal's health to 90%, sustain a minimum park rating 3 times, and cut down on the animal dung in time for VIP Major Smythe to show up. He wanted to visit 5 animal viewing galleries and had basically no tolerance for animal dung. It was quite a pain to work through obviously. One of the hardest scenarios: almost up there with La La Land. Each scenario rewarded me with something after I beat each tier of their objectives but always unlocked a coaster design for me to use when I beat tycoon level. I remembered Mine Mountain all too well because I made the mistake of not charging enough for the viewing galleries years back when I first beat it. Because of that, I ended up wasting so much money on flattening land and building more and more enclosures to the point the animals started getting taken away due to neglect. I didn't make that same mistake knowing that the next floor boss was waiting. The park itself is an abandoned gold mine with Mine Mountain(wooden wild mine), Mountain Mine Train(mine train coaster), 4 viewing galleries connected to enclosures, and 3 incomplete wooden wild mines left incomplete for scenery. That reminds me of something I forgot about.

The Gunslinger scenario has a train station with an incomplete railroad as part of its theming. Whoops. Sorry about that. Mine Mountain's objects focused on profiting off of selling horses, having a high total monthly viewing gallery income, and continuing to increase the park value. It wasn't as hard as the previous scenario but it still took some time even though the coasters that were already there provided quite a bit of cash. I should mention that the parks all may or may not have had loans at the start but I don't recall which did at the moment or for how much either. Loan interest rates were often something that took a bite out of the income of each of the parks I played through. Insect World which reminded me of Inspector Haga/Weevil Underwood when I first played through it is a mostly flat and grassy park built by someone who was obsessed with insects(that sounds familiar..). He messed up the park big time until the bank took the park from him only for it to be put into the hands of the player who also gets to inherit his debts. There's Insect House 1, Observation Tower 1, and 2 Information stalls already built. Monthly ride income, guests in park, and visitors to animal viewing galleries made up the objectives of each level of the scenario. 2 of those got quite difficult at tycoon level but I worked through it even with that debt to worry about. Rocky Coasters is a western themed park near a shutdown and poorly run safari park and it was my job to take care of what was left of it after taking over an established theme park. It starts out with 3 stalls and the Bumbling Bobs bobsleigh coaster. The objectives were to release different kinds of animals of varying amounts into the wild(which required them to each have 100% health), minimum excitement for one coaster and then the same but for 2 coasters, number of viewing galleries, and upping the park rating.

Yeah, that one took some effort to complete. Getting the park rating to 900 took some micromanagement through hiring and immediately training the janitors to keep trash and vomit low. But most of the effort had to be on the money and the animals. It's worth mentioning the success I've had by training all of the workers I hired for the parks. Because I trained them 3 times each(spending 350 col per employee doing so), even if they were initially very lazy and unhappy, they were quite efficient and very happy forever after I spent the money to fully train them. A small part of the entire game is taking care of your workers and making sure they're doing their jobs. If you don't train them, the litter and vomit will probably pile up or you'll end up having to pay more for staff wages because you'd have to keep hiring more of them to do the work less of them if fully trained would otherwise do. Also, they may quit on you if you don't train them. Especially if you discipline them without ever training them. That would mean you'd have to spend more time managing them when you could have just trained them to do the work better and keep their job satisfaction(happiness) up high and setting up patrol areas for some of them to do their jobs in. If you're an employer, you should take notes from RCT3 because if you do all of that in the game, you won't have to manage your workers that much. They will get everything done without complaint. Also, make sure to turn off "mow the lawn" for janitors. Otherwise, they may spend a lot of time just mowing your park's grass. Lost Land of the Dinosaurs is a prehistoric themed park on a lost land discovered by the Wild campaign's VIP: Major Smythe. It starts out with Safari Transport 1, a lot of trees, a bunch of dinosaur statues, and Dino Mask 1. The area is very lush. The objectives for it focused on sustaining the park rating at a higher level at an increasing amount of time and satisfying Major Smythe.

His tolerance for dung goes from high to low as he must be satisfied 3 times: one time per tier of the objectives. He also wants to see an ever increasing number of animals of different species as well as visit an increasing number of animal viewing galleries. It's clear that keep the paths and enclosures clean were a huge priority. I don't really recall the 26th floor's details much other than the parks on it. The 27th floor was so incredibly dark with very few holes to let in any sunlight. It is full of ores and Yuuki was amongst the most nostalgic about the floor. Her guild, The Sleeping Knights beat its floor boss in New Aincrad with Asuna's help as well as Kirito and friends' interventions to prevent an entire guild from stealing the boss fight opportunity from them. That was after that same guild chose to cleverly snag info about the boss out of the Sleeping Knights when they first fought it and failed. Ronbaru is a major town on the floor. This was also the floor where Kirito watched Sachi and the Moonlit Black Cats die in a trapped room because he wasn't able to save them from the monsters in time. That room wouldn't let them even use teleport crystals to escape. The Four Armed Giant was the flood boss for the 27th floor. We were finally ready for the 28th floor on Day 308. Now, I will talk about notable things that happened such as the 25th floor boss fight. But first, let me state what also happened other than those notable events. I once again trained by grinding monsters but also started using the duel system to spar with others more, fought monsters in the parks I was working on, did some side quests as well as jobs for Argo, spent time with the party, took on a few Akatsuki missions, and had a few skirmishes with Laughing Coffin. For now, the murder guild is focusing more on things other than attacking to kill others. Thanks to smart thinking, Laughing Coffin still doesn't know about the death coasters as we have hunted down all of their remaining spies and any who have tried to join in on floor boss fights.

As far as we know, they have not once tried to use the RCT3 sandbox parks that are so abundant right now to do anything. There were also a bunch of skirmishes with PAMA's forces so I won't bore you by writing about them. Just his defeat will be enough. Other than that, is there anything else I need to mention? Well, the guilds in the Assault Team are growing stronger and stronger with more and more players joining the frontlines as the equipment of us top players continue to be upgraded or replaced when needed. We are beginning to finally really start getting through the floors. But the 25th floor was really tough. As soon as we got to it, we were surrounded by monsters and worked hard to get rid of them. Kirito yells: "Damn it! They'll just keep respawning! Not to mention it's so cold on this floor and there's so many places any of us can fall to our deaths from!" Sinon states: "We have to calm down and assess the situation before moving forward any further. Obviously, mid level players can't be allowed to come here. Someone will need to be stationed as a guard at the teleport gate we came out of to get to this floor." Eva replies: "I can do that. For some reason, my real appearance has not been reflected in my avatar. Is that because I was forcibly converted from my GGO account? Maybe but either way, I still look awesome and very tough. *referring to the other SHINC members* You ladies should be fine without my leadership. Sophie, until it is safe to let mid level players grind and quest here, you're in charge of SHINC. Got it?!" Sophie has light skin, sort of short reddish brown hair, brown? eyes, and a modern combat outfit as well as a short and pudgy size.

Her role in SHINC is vice leader and heavy support. She replies: "But boss! We need you!" Anna, the sniper who has light blonde hair, sunglasses, a green head bandana, light skin, and a similar outfit says: "Sophie, it's okay! We'll kill those bastard monsters for her. It's going to be fine. Besides, BRAINS reminded us we don't always really need a leader to still work together in perfect sync!" Roza has orangish red hair, brown? eyes, light skin, and her own variation on the modern combat outfit. Most GGO players look like some variety of a modern military soldier honestly since GGO was developed by an American company rather than a Japanese one like with ALO. RCT3 was also developed by an American company but it was a British man who started the RCT franchise with the first 2 games: Chris Sawyer. Minecraft was developed by Notch/Mojang of Sweden. The Underworld was developed by RATH, a Japanese company with ties to the Japanese government. Finally, Roblox was created by 2 Americans. Anyway, Roza speaks: "That's right! We won't let these monsters kill us or anyone else! We'll get them and help kill Asura The Executioner with you in our thoughts, boss!" She is also heavy support. Their vanguard, Tanya has short silver hair, light skin, a modern combat outfit, and gray eyes. She grins: "I feel the same way! You don't have to worry about anything, boss! Just leave us to pick up your slack! Good luck on standing guard, we'll check in on you from time to time!" Last is their second sniper, Toma. She has long black hair, light skin, a modern combat outfit, and dark gray eyes. "I'm also with them on the sentiment. Go for it, boss!" Eva replies: "You girls are amazing. Oh right, I will. Hey M, would you mind backing me up on guard duty?" M nods: "As long as Pitohui is okay with it, I'm okay with doing that."

Pito laughs: "M! Stop being silly! Of course it's okay for you to guard alongside Eva! Just make sure you two have replacements to take your places when you need to rest and stuff!" I speak up: "As much as Id want to help guard, I need to locate the parks on this floor as soon as possible and take care of them. Anyone willing to help me deal with the monsters in them will get a lot of items and xp from doing so. Any volunteers for that or guard duty should step up to say something right now because the Park Inspector and I are about to get moving on the dune buggy. Not even the monsters will be able to stand in our way as long as we ride the thing around like on the floors before this one since we started using it in order to help defeat Herobrine." A number of players volunteer to help out. I smirk and say to my fellow clearers: "The dune buggy should be able to maneuver even in a place that sucks as much as this floor does. Due to this, the PI and I should be able to easily knock some of the monsters off to their deaths from fall damage during our search for the parks." The PI and I hop into the dune buggy which I can apparently store in my inventory. Those who will help me with the monsters in the parks hop on in the back of the buggy or prepare to have coordinates sent to them later so they can just teleport over with teleport crystals. With everyone settled, the PI begins driving the dune buggy around. In no time, we literally run into monsters. Despite how tough they are, the dune buggy is quite a fast vehicle as it just knocks them out of the way. "Too bad we don't have an army of RCT3 peeps to back us up. That would make clearing this game quite a bit easier." The PI replies as more monsters just get plowed through despite their stats and all: "It doesn't have to remain that way forever. The trouble is that that same code connected to the Pontifex's Taboo Index is inside the peeps. We cannot easily get them to break free of their programming to fight with us."

"I see. At least they make for great distractions whenever the floor bosses spawn in the parks for whatever reason. I swear Asura will end up spawning into Egyptian Sand Dance or something." Pito laughs: "This thing is killing those monsters so easily! I think all of us should consider joining in! It will be fun!" Fuka cheers: "Yes! Let's blow em to pieces or knock them right off from here! They won't be able to touch us as long as we stay on this dune buggy!" Sophie says: "Don't get too confident! We still can't afford to underestimate these monsters! It was a lot easier killing the monsters that spawned on the last floor than this one!" Pito grins: "That will just make killing them so much more exciting and dangerous!" Llenn sighs: "Pito! This is serious! If you die here, we'll lose you!" "I know, Llenn but if I die here, I want to go out having the time of my life!" "Of course you'd say that." Now that the PI stays with myself and the other members of the party I'm in, I always end up getting the flying perms needed to build a coaster in the RCT3 parks more much easily. That's part of why it didn't take nearly as long to move onto the following floors up to 28 when compared to before. Anyway, my prediction about Asura's spawn location proved to be right. Just as I had completed the park's tycoon objectives, the 25th Floor Boss: Asura The Executioner spawned right in the middle of the park. "Damn it! We better message as many people as we can and have them message other people too!" One of the best features of Aincrad's system for us is the guild chat feature. I used that to quickly inform the other members of the Akatsuki of the situation. Soon, the entire Assault Team will arrive. In the meantime, we have to keep the boss busy. "Crap! Look at those hp bars and the destruction our foe is already causing! We can't do nearly enough dps to even make a dent in Asura's hp!"

The PI replies: "Do not worry, Swiftdrawer. Just focus on staying alive. I will do my best to act as a distraction as I am considered an immortal object by the game. In fact, all entities from RCT3 are considered immortal objects by the game." "That's one hell of a piece of information. Okay, I'll try to stay calm. I'll focus on staying alive just like you said even if the entire park gets trashed in the end. Hopefully, I will just be able to revert the park to my most recent save file. It's a good thing I was able to discover that I can in fact still save these parks as files connected to my player information. That's helped quite a lot honestly." So with that all said, we focus on preventing Asura from going elsewhere or killing us at the same time. "Ha! Ha! Ha! You can't touch us! Haaaa!" "This is the best! Keeping this boss distracted is so much better than killing a whole bunch of players one after another in Squad Jam!" Fuka cheers again: "My grenades are knocking him back and helping keep him off of us for now!" I add: "And he is also trying to kill the park guests only to find out that he cannot even damage them in the slightest. Eventually, he will stop doing that but for now, let him keep at it. It will only slow him down in the end. Our comrades are coming. Once they arrive, let's just hope that we'll be able to slay Asura and be able to move onto the next floor. I did not enjoy PAMA's forces and Laughing Coffin's attempts to kill or mind control all of us at all. They just kept coming for us in small groups. Hopefully, they will stop doing that so much after Asura dies. Either way, we have to put an end to PAMA as soon as possible. When the time is right, he must go down and be shutdown or changed for good." Kirito is amongst the first to arrive a few minutes later. "You did it! You held Asura off for long enough for us to get here! Are you all okay?!" We nod.

Sinon breathes a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness you're all alright!" Lisbeth shouts: "Look out, everyone! If you don't, none of you will remain okay! You've really made him angry! Be careful!" I roll to avoid being hit by an iron ball. Scooby yelps: "Ross! ROSS! ROSS REMINDS ME OF SCARY MOVIES!" Velma pats Scooby as we all dodge the boss's attacks. That's despite the giant axe and scythe that the boss is also holding as he has 4 arms just like Garmadon. Garmadon looks at the boss: "Hey, big guy! Are you trying to steal my thing?" Lloyd shakes his head: "Dad, this is not the time for what you're saying!" Mater speaks seriously but with emotion: "He's right. This is no time for jokes. That's not logical, it only leaves us open to attack." Right as they are about to be hit by Asura, Liten runs in and takes all of the damage while standing her ground. "I won't let you hurt my comrades!" Yuuki charges in: "Now we can attack while Asura's distracted!" Lisbeth sighs: "Wait! That's a bad idea! He's about to unleash a big attack!" Heathcliff speaks: "Tanks and others who have high defense, take to the front just outside of the AoE. Support, stay towards the back. Everyone else, get in between and prepare to attack when an opening is spotted." We managed to avoid taking any losses from the big attack due to all of that quick thinking. I sigh: "Damn it. That was way too close. We could have lost you, Yuuki." "I know but that's in the past now. We have to push onwards!" After a few seconds, Asura prepares to attack again. Kizmel yells: "Everyone! Get ready to attack! As soon as Asura swings, his right leg will be left right open!" Myself and others with high enough speed focus on performing thrust attacks on his right leg at the moment he swings his first weapon at Sachi and her guild. Asura is weak to thrust so the damage is increased by a large percentage. And with that done, we keep on the attack and defense with as many eyes on the boss as there are angles and spots to see the boss at.

In secret, a plan for taking down Asura has been in the works since day 1 of the Infinityverse. Thanks to Argo's documentation of each boss from the getgo, that planning was made more than just possible. It was made a success. In the end, we managed to defeat Asura without losing anyone. Sachi and others lead the cheering as the boss falls over, dissipates, and drops items and xp. It was actually a really difficult fight as most of us took heavy damage. Even I did and found myself needing my armor repaired by Lisbeth when I looked at it following the end of the fight. What else made it difficult was the level of awareness, coordination, and concentration it took to bring Asura down. It didn't help matters that that put a lot of pressure, tenseness, and stress on a lot of us. But still: we managed to pull it off and had a short celebration with treats made by various players who are at least proficient in their cooking skills. Chichi, Bulma, Memock, and Pinkie Pie were amongst those who cooked food with the cooking skill. Now, it was time for the 26th Floor. I spent the next day completely hard balling my grinding as I wasn't able to grind much on the floor even with all the monsters that tried to impede my progress in beating the parks on the 25th Floor. Emphasis on tried of course. Nothing too notable happened for a while. Just that the 25th Floor became much easier to handle once higher quality gear was passed down to mid level players and those who chose to do guard duty moved to guarding the 26th Floor just in case or helped otherwise in clearing it to move onto the 27th Floor. Things were pretty quiet until the 26th Floor Boss appeared in Mine Mountain. What that boss didn't realize was that I was making so much col from the park and had just beaten its objectives. Therefore, I used the terrain tools to push up the terrain it had spawned on further and further into the sky. It was moved up with the terrain. Actually, no it wasn't. It stood in place and began to suffocate.

While that normally would be a good thing, the suffocation damage came from Minecraft's system so it really wasn't taking any damage. Just 0.5 hp per second. It would take days or even weeks for the boss to die from suffocation damage. But with the boss trapped in the terrain, it could not hurt any of us so essentially, I had bought all of us time to actually prepare in full to fight it. Our amazing victory over Asura was a huge motivator and we ended up learning a lot from that fight even though many players already had knowledge of Asura from facing him in SAO or New Aincrad previously. Or in my case: playing through SAO Integral Factor on my iPad in my universe. What we didn't expect was for the 26th Floor Boss to suddenly clip until it stood atop the terrain I raised. However, I was prepared. I used the terrain tools to lower the terrain until there was a deep hole. The boss's location wasn't updating every single time the terrain was lowered so it ended up taking a lot of fall damage. I then raised the terrain again to meet our level and we attacked the boss. I even pulled one of my smaller Death Coaster designs out to use against them. Again, we lost no one in the boss fight. The only reason I thought of messing with the terrain as an instant response to seeing the boss spawn in was because of the mistake I made the first time I played through Mine Mountain. On the 27th Floor, nothing major happened for a while. However, that didn't remain the case forever. The Four Armed Giant spawned as I was finishing up the Lost Land Of Dinosaurs scenario. Seeing the boss, myself and the others in the park immediately contacted as many individuals as possible with an emphasis on typing as quickly as we could. With that done, our comrades end up immediately arriving. Eva and M ended up joining us as well despite also doing guard duty for the 27th Floor.

M looks concerned: "That is one big boss. Let's see. I remember what the guidebook said about the boss. It's The Four Armed Giant. It has 4 arms with 2 hammers held by the upper hands as well as iron chains held by the lower hands. From the distance we're at from it, it's hard to see all of that right now. It is clear that we have to be extremely careful. The neck is its weakest point. When it slams its hammer onto the ground, there's about 0.7 seconds when it's more vulnerable. We can also expect it to be tougher and faster than it has ever been before especially because it gets angrier and more berserk the more damage it takes. It starts at a normal level of anger for bosses and eventually moves to doing a 20 hit sword skill using all of its weapons. We have to especially watch out for its wide range toxic breath attack after it goes down to half health." I reply: "We planned well for this boss. Each of us should have an equippable N95 face mask that will help keep away the poisonous gas. We can't afford to take all the damage getting the debuff from inhaling the gas will give us. The masks will keep most of the gas away from our respiratory systems so we shouldn't have to worry too much unless the masks get damaged by the boss. That's unlikely because of the unique mechanisms found in this fusion of games. The masks are comfortable but at the same time, they have a lot of durability. I expect it to take the 20 hit sword skill for the boss to break any of them, thus exposing whoever gets their mask broken to that toxic gas." And after a couple of minutes of finishing preparing as the boss wastes time on trying to kill the peeps visiting the park as well as the staff and animals to no avail, we get ready to bring on the fight. We bring our A games into it. But just as the boss is about to attack us, something changes.

PAMA appears with a lot of monsters under his control just behind him. "This is my ultimate plan. Here, I will make sure all of you finally become 'useful' by crushing all of your chances of beating this Floor Boss. And in order to do that, I will repeat what I did to the 20th Floor Boss. But this time, I will make the boss much more 'useful' to me and become truly one with its form. When that is complete, none of you will be able to stop me from making you 'useful'. In little time at all, all of you will become my friends, yay! But in order to make sure that has no chance of failing, I have assembled the largest army of monsters I have ever made 'useful' in one location." The Four Armed Giant senses danger and targets PAMA and his monsters. Many monsters end up being killed before PAMA is able to rise into the sky and from there, enter the Floor Boss's body directly and almost immediately take full control over it. In essence, PAMA has now become the 27th Floor Boss. The boss's name title over its hp bars even changes to reflect this. "PAMA The Four Armed Giant" Sinon speaks: "This is.. This is unbelievable. PAMA has merged with the boss to the point its name changed to include his too.." PAMA looks ready to trip on power and go completely nuts at any moment. "I am now more useful. I will defeat all of you with the help of my monsters." Myself and the PI get back on the dune buggy. I reply: "We'll see about that." Before he could try to attack either of us, the snipers and archers attack. PAMA says: "If you wish to be defeated and made 'useful' first by attacking like this, be my guest. It matters little who I make 'useful' first. None of you will be able to stand a chance against this new form of mine."

That keeps him distracted while the PI and I get going on going after the monsters. I pull out the gun I now use as a secondary weapon. Because my style of marksmanship doesn't necessarily fit with rapid fire, my gun is a long range sniper just like Sinon's Hecate. Therefore, I have to really aim well. Using my experience, keen eye, and understanding of physics, I am able to land my first shot right into a whole bunch of the monsters. The force generated kills a lot of them very quickly while we continue to run over other monsters. I follow it up by performing a Sacred Art: "System Call: Generate Thermal Element. Discharge!" My attack doesn't do much to any of the monsters but it does spark a fire and that fire starts taking out a lot of the monsters once it becomes a raging infernal. With that done, I aim and fire again with my sniper gun, shooting more and more monsters as time passes. It is no ordinary sniper. I created it with my Artist's Eye to be deadlier than any normal sniper. Lisbeth made the bullets. They are specially designed to create more explosive force and go further than other bullets. We end up having to go back towards the boss fight once we see the end of the monster army and plow through them. The PI increases the buggy's speed to one I had no idea it could reach. So many monsters are destroyed or sent flying due to the forces created by the speed of the dune buggy. Most of the monster army had been injured or destroyed by us alone. When we return on buggy to the fight, PAMA is getting frustrated. "Why do you all still not want to become 'useful'? I can make you far better than you have ever been and we can become great friends. But no, not a single one of you wants to become 'useful'."

Jesse replies: "That's because we don't want to be assimilated into you and become just like your other minions, PAMA!" Harper adds: "Again, I didn't want you to become like this!" "Your sentimental words do not affect me. So you don't want to become one with me? Very well, I will just have to make you 'useful' anyway. But don't blame me if this doesn't go the way you think it's going to go." I leap from the buggy and draw my sword while the PI continues driving it around. "Hey PAMA! I'm back and I'm here to help put a stop to you! You could say this is the final showdown between you and all of you! We won't back down! In fact, we'll show you what being flawed rather than useful is like! Haaaaa!" I attack one of his legs. Due to the whole games fusing together, the physics of boss battles have become more realistic despite Minecraft's disregarding of physics for most of its blocks. The upper body is larger than the lower body so that the vast majority of PAMA's mass is concentrated in the upper body of the floor boss he has become one with. PAMA made a critical mistake. His entire lower body is a weakness. Forget trying to hit the neck. Once he realizes his error, he states: "I miscalculated the mass of the lower body of this form. Now, I am more vulnerable than ever before. But in the end, I will still make all of you 'useful'." Stampy laughs: "What rubbish! You're about to go down! Look at yourself! You're unstable right now!" But then. PAMA fixes himself and gets really angry: "HOW DARE YOU RESIST USEFULNESS, I WILL TEACH ALL OF YOU WHAT BEING 'USEFUL' FEELS LIKE!" After hearing more comments, he only gets angrier. Despite not even being down to half his hp, he still unleashes the poisonous gas but since we are out in the open and there's a raging fire, it diffuses before it becomes a problem. We were under the assumption that there would be so much gas that it would stay in one area.

But no. While a lot of it stuck around, most of it just spread out. Some of the gas particles came into contact with the flames and the fumes they are giving off. As a result, an explosion occurs that shakes the ground slightly. Just after that explosion, PAMA uses the 20 hit sword skill to get as many of us as he can. Most of his targets end up getting away but the others are seriously injured from the attack. Their hp meters go red. Kirito yells: "Damn it! We have to protect them from being brainwashed by PAMA!" Harper nods: "I will help! I may not be much of a fighter but I still know a few moves and all of this is.. technically my fault. I should have never built PAMA in the first place. Oh well, what's done is done as the saying goes." With that said, some of the best close range fighters in the Assault Team including me either lift the injured and run them to safety or keep PAMA busy with direct thrusts and slashes. This proves to be highly effective. However, PAMA uses the 20 hit skill again not once but multiple times. Not only that but the 0.7 second opening no longer applies with PAMA in control of the boss. Thus, we have no choice but to defend and reduce damage to a minimum while still wearing the face masks just in case even though the clustered poisonous gas is being pushed away by all of the fighting. That was not easy and took a lot of effort to pull off. To make matters worse, PAMA suddenly charges right for Jesse: "Jesse, I will not forgive you for being the first to defy me to the bitter end. I will make you more 'useful' than anyone else who has chosen to oppose me. We will be friends at last, YAY!" His attacks are so ruthless that none of us are able to stop them. Those of us who were caught in the repeatings of the 20 hit sword skill were able to recover to spring into action but it was already too late.

Despite our best efforts, no one was able to reach Jesse in time. He was just about to spring a surprise attack on PAMA all by himself too. However, he was unable to do that at all. The attacks quickly and rapidly eroded his hp. Soon, it was very low and practically flashing red. Jesse sighs: "I guess this is it for me. I'm going to die here today. I already used all of my recovery items today due to this fight as well as earlier fights with field bosses and other monsters. It's over. I'm so sorry, everyone." Something changes in PAMA's attitude: "Jesse.. You are dying? I never wanted to kill. I only wanted to make other creatures 'useful'." Olivia shouts: "Jesse! NOOOOO! Don't die! Please don't die!" Ruben comes out of a hiding place and runs to Jesse's side. PAMA stops attacking as the pig oinks in concern for Jesse's current situation. "It's alright Ruben. I'm going to miss you, buddy. I'm going to miss everyone else too. What a way to die, am I right?" Jesse closes his eyes, waiting for death to come. But something unexpected happens. PAMA, Heathcliff, Yui, Romeo, the Knights Of Hanoi, Ghost Gal, Zaizen, and Kaito all hack or access the game's mainframe at the same time. They are trying to stop Jesse's death as well as the deaths of other clearers who are beginning to die as well from earlier injuries as it turns out we all somehow ran out of recovery items. Silica cries out for Pina as the little dragon chirps in sadness. "Pina! Please no! Hang in there, Pina!" PAMA had hurt a lot more of us than I saw. And now, that was beginning to have a chilling and saddening effect. I collapse to my knees: "This is horrible.. More good life forms are going to die.. I'm so glad I chose to leave Chocolate at home. She would have been hurt too if she came.."

Snow begins falling from the sky. The background RCT3 music which can be faintly heard as being set to Ambient Birds at the moment changes to something a lot more festive. That's when I noticed how late at night it actually is for the game's time as a whole. But that's not all. The hacking and accessing of the mainframe did something. A system error occurred due to an overload of data that resulted from such. Thanks to that, the game's time had to freeze for a few minutes. However, what's really important is the other thing it did. Pina was going to be the first to die. Silica cried harder, knowing that Pina was about to die again. And then, Pina's hp stopped decreasing. Jesse and the others experienced the same thing. "Pina.. Pina! You're still alive! But how?!" Ghost Gal speaks: "This information is free. By getting into the game's mainframe, we caused a system error. This error prevented the code that runs the shattering effect and animation that would have killed Pina, Jesse, and the others. Additionally, the in game clock has completely stopped. It will return to normal after a reboot that's going to take a few more minutes. Now, we must make sure those of us who were about to die have their HPs returned to full as soon as possible." Silica cries: "But we don't have anything to heal them with! It's hopeless! Pina.. PINA!" "Chirp.." Batman sighs: "Even I'm out of recovery items and I always bring extra wherever I leave my secret base." Judai sighs too: "What can we even do to help them now?"

The tutorial character for GGO appears and exclaims: "Listen up, you maggots! There's still time to save your friends so go out there, use your teleport crystals, and find some recovery items! On the double! Or do you all want to be lowly dune beetles for the rest of your lives?!" I speak up: "You know, I have a large stash of hp potions and other recovery items in my ender chest inventory. I don't have a ender chest on me right now. But I can go get them. I would carry them around with me but my inventory load limit would be exceeded." Fluttershy turns to Silica and smiles: "Follow me, I just remembered I have just the thing your little friend needs to be all better." Fluttershy isn't nearly as known for her archery skills in this game as she is for being a familiar tamer who has tamed a lot of creatures from Aincrad and Minecraftia. Due to this, she is the pony and clearer to turn to for help regarding familiars. Silica herself is renowned for being the first SAO player to tame a familiar and thus had to go through some trouble due to that until she helped Argo with a guidebook on familiars back in that game. Myself, Fluttershy, and some others move out quickly. We all return as quickly as we can. I literally just dropped a bunch of hp potions on the ground and shouted: "Hp potions right here!" The GGO tutorial character nods in satisfaction: "Good. You all aren't maggots. You certainly have proven yourselves to not be dune beetles either. Therefore, I will now announce that I will be joining the Assault Team. Hey not maggot Park Inspector, you better speak up too!" The PI nods: "Joining the Assault Team is very good value. The price of not joining at this point is too high. I am now officially a clearer if you accept me. I didn't join until I found this fellow NPC. I do not worry about being found out anymore."

PAMA actually somehow cries tears of joy as Jesse and the others get healed. "This is so useful.. Is this what it means to be truly 'useful' to others? I would like to learn more about this." Harper nods: "You finally understand, PAMA." Romeo adds: "I don't see why we can't have PAMA join us too as long as he no longer causes us any trouble." Heads turn to Kirito, Diavel, Lind, and Heathcliff. Kirito snaps: "What are all of you looking at me for?!" Heathcliff laughs: "I knew I made the right choice in casting you as the hero of Aincrad. They see you as a leader, Kirito. After everything you've experienced between Gun Gale Online and The Underworld you should be used to that by now. Well, clearers. What do you say about admitting these 3 to the Assault Team?" At first, there's only crickets. But then, PAMA speaks: "I know what will change your minds." He accesses the mainframe again and does something we never saw coming. The items and xp that would have dropped if he had been destroyed while in the form of The Four Armed Giant just show up out of thin air. There's even a congratulations notification that appears as pop up windows in all of our visions. "I have made it so the system thinks you defeated the Floor Boss. Now, we can move onto the 28th Floor. I'm very sorry for everything I've caused all of you. I'm willing to do what it takes to make things right." And with that, PAMA, the Park Inspector, and GGO's tutorial character become official clearers as the entire Assault Team agree to letting them join. Jesse raises an eyebrow at PAMA's appearance: "PAMA, aren't you going to turn to normal?" "I cannot escape this form because I chose to completely merge with the floor boss. I hope you can all get used to this." Susan Test speaks: "According to my calculations, we could defeat the next floor boss in under 2 minutes with your help, PAMA."

PAMA looks surprised: "You accept me?" Buu claps: "Yay! Second chance! Second chance!" "What is second chance?" Filo smiles: "It's when someone lets you try to do better next time and forgives you for now!" "So that's what second chance means. I feel more useful knowing that now. Thank you, Filo. *Filo gasps* I know who all of you are so you do not need to express that emotion you call surprise." Argo grins: "Should I make a how to defeat a bad guy by making them your friend guidebook?" A lot of clearers including myself laugh at her joke. Yuna smiles at the snow that's still falling: "Has it become Christmas time in Aincrad once again?" Nautilus replies: "I think it is?" Monet exclaims: "Christmas?! I miss Christmas! Gameknight! How long has it been since last Christmas in our world?" "I don't know Monet." Eva grins: "Christmas, huh? It really does feel like the game has switched to some kind of seasonal holiday thing." Heathcliff confirms: "It appears even I did not notice that the game's time has reached this time of year already. Yes, Christmas events and quests are now available. I should know. I did create Aincrad, the floating castle I dreamed about years ago in this virtual reality after all. Sword Art Online was created because I couldn't help but want to go to the floating castle someday. But I don't know what happened to me that caused me to turn SAO into a death game. I claimed it was all to enhance the experience to make it more real but that's not the full story. Or maybe I'm mistaken. I no longer have a physical body to return to after all." The game's music changes to a song I know. "..Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh.." I get a lot of eyes on me. Kizmel smiles: "Swiftdrawer, were you just singing to the music? That was beautiful. Can you sing some more?"

"I think I inherited my mom's singing voice to an extent. She had the best singing out of anyone I knew in my original world. I miss hearing her sing. The way she did it was so warm and calm but full of life and energy. I was raised on Christmas. Where I come from, Christmas doesn't exist just because of a marketing campaign by an American fast food company in Japan. It exists because of culture and stuff imported from Europe due to immigration. There, the closest major theme park is decorated in millions of Christmas lights and Christmas music plays everywhere. I can't help but not recognize the song or love Christmas even as commercialized as it is. Alright. If you want me to sing so badly, I guess I should resume singing. I don't really sing much anymore in comparison to how much I used to when I was in a band with some friends who perished here on previous floors.. It seems my skill in it was translated into the game without any problem." I resume singing and Yuna soon joins in followed by anyone else comfortable enough to sing. We keep singing for a while. We sing all kinds of Christmas songs before an instrumental plays: TSO's Carol Of The Bells which is not exactly intended to be sung along with. I headbang a couple times to it. Nimona exclaims before doing the same: "METAL!" Pito laughs: "I can vibe with this song! *headbangs too* It's been so long since I've headbanged because of my irl music career! But I have to admit, I love the intensity of Heavy Metal! It goes so well with shooting a gun at some boss monster!" M shakes his head: "This is so like you, Pito." "M, play nice or else!" "Are you threatening me with punishment? Oh-" Llenn interrupts: "There are young children here! Don't say it, M!" Teacher sweatdrops. Because he and Fran got trapped in this death game as well, he ended up looking like his form in his old world so now, he can move on his own again. "So you're telling me we went from comrades about to die to headbanging to Christmas music?"

Stampy laughs: "I think it's absolutely brilliant and hilarious!" Pinkie Pie's eyes brighten: "Ooooo! I have the best idea ever! Holiday party in the Town Of Beginnings! We can share all of our holiday traditions with each other! Twilight, can you help me find some players to help in creating the First Annual Aincrad Hearth's Warming Play?!" "I'll try my best, Pinkie." Stampy grins: "I'm going to add Santa to the Love Garden again or rather, my new Love Garden! And then, I'll bring my dogs over and we'll show you all how we do Christmas in my new Lovely World!" DanTDM adds: "Trayarus, up for a Christmas Countdown for old time's sake?" "*villager noises*" "I'll take that as a yes." Tsunade looks interested: "We don't celebrate Christmas in Konoha. This should be something else." "Hey, Grandma Tsunade, go easy on the sakè this time!" "Naruto!!" Sakura slaps him. Deku looks a little shy as he says: "I love this idea. I really do. Hey All Might, could you dress up as Santa?" "Young Midoriya? You're asking me that?!" I laugh: "All Might, in your transformed state, you'd make a perfect Santa Claus." Heathcliff chuckles: "I did give All Might his transformed appearance as a unique skill in Aincrad's system. It boosts his speed and damage by 20%." Hearing this, All Might transforms, puts on a big smile and bellows: "Hohohoho!" Mater's normally calm demeanor shatters immediately: "That is the most realistic Santa impression I've ever.. heard!" She laughs out loud. Sanya smiles: "Looks like the party's already started. I'll have to share stories of Christmas in Russia. We actually celebrate it on January 7th." Doofensmirtz speaks up: "You know, we had our own Christmas traditions in Drusselstein. There's a couple tragic backstories related to that but I will spare you that for now." Yufa shouts: "Yes! The holidays are here! We celebrate in Midgard!" My Rune Knight counterpart silently nods. Takius smiles: "I've never celebrated it there but I'd like to someday."

And so, we all end up working together to create a huge holiday party in the Town Of Beginnings. It wasn't just Christmas, Russian Christmas, and Hearth's Warming that were celebrated. It was much more diverse than that. Workersmas(socialist Christmas we created in BRAINS), Toy Day(Animal Crossing), Hanukah, Yule(original Christmas as Christmas was an idea stolen from the Pagans who created Yule), and more are also celebrated and shared. It only took a couple of days to set everything up. When it was time for it to start, someone said to me: "Swiftdrawer, aren't you going to dress up for the party?" "No. As far as I'm concerned, the armor that defines my knighthood is all I need to wear. Besides, by pure accident and chance, most of my armor could be said to be colored perfectly for the holiday season. I didn't intend that when I chose the colors for the real version of it." It didn't take long to go to the party. There's all kinds of things. Inspired by Winterfest at Kings Island, I ended up pitching a lot of great ideas to really add to the party that wasn't just a party anymore. It was an entire festival. Aincrad's coding already automatically decorated the Town Of Beginnings so decorating took less time than originally estimated because the estimate didn't account for that fact. I walk around with a small smile on my face. Kirito and the others see me. Llenn exclaims: "Leave it to Swiftdrawer to still be in their armor like always!" Eva smirks: "No one said there was a dress code for this event so I don't see why not. Besides, it kind of looks festive." "Do you mean intimidating, cool, and edgy?" "No, Llenn. I meant what I said." "Hey, settle down. No need to get like this over my armor. Come on, I want to show you all what I contributed to the festival. I think you'll like it." I lead my friends to a place near the Blackiron Palace. Sinon almost cracks up: "Is that a nutcracker knight?" "I couldn't make anything bigger with Artist's Eye at the time."

Kirito shakes his head: "That really is something else." Pito chuckles: "I think it's kind of cute. But is it secretly scary and violent on the inside?! I so want to find out." "No, it's not. I didn't make it with any tricks inside. It's just a nutcracker knight." Amy smiles: "I don't want to smash it with my hammer at all. But where's Sonic anyway? SONIC! ..Nothing. When I next see his face, I'm going to flatten it and make him apologize!" *Meanwhile, Laughing Coffin's secret headquarters* POH isn't celebrating happy holidays. He is celebrating the next stage of his plan by preparing to kill someone himself. "Those damn Japanese and others having all of the fun. But they won't be smiling forever. I will be smiling as I have the last laugh once they're all dead." Suddenly, all kinds of alarms and traps as set off as the screams of Laughing Coffin members fill the air. POH stops what he's doing: "Who the hell is barging into my base?! I'll kill them myself if my subordinates can't handle killing them for me instead!" More and more Laughing Coffin members cry out in pain. The clanking of weapons that fall to the ground alerts POH. "This must be a dream! How could anyone find this base?! Not even the Akatsuki know about this place! Damn it! My pawns are being taken out left and right! That does it! I'm going to find who's responsible for this and kill them and anyone they're working with to pull this surprise attack off!" He leaves the room he's in and steps into the hallways. The guards posted outside the room he left suddenly get knocked down as a certain purple seal comes down over the secret base. "What the hell is going on?! It must be one of those damn fairies from that fantasy game! Those annoying fairies! ALO trash! But that can't be right. They can't unlock magic until they reach the floors where ALO is present!"

An evil laugh echoes throughout the entire base. POH demands: "Who the hell is there?!" More evil laughter is heard as a mysterious figure cloaked in a magical cloak steps into the light. The figure pulls down their hood to reveal Bowling: the villain whose minions caused trouble for the Lost Academia for years. Bowling laughs again. POH glares at him: "It's you! Why are you doing this to my guild?! Damn you! Answer me!" He gets a duel invitation from Bowling. "If you want to know, accept my challenge. We will duel using Aincrad's dueling system if you accept." "You piece of trash! Very well! Prepare to lose. When I win, you will do as I say before I kill you!" "Your terms are reasonable but if I win, your soul will be mine." The two begin to fight but POH is no match for Bowling. Bowling coldly chuckles: "Weak. You are far too weak to challenge me. It appears you have not regained the full strength you once had yet or you're holding back in an attempt to surprise me. But that won't work. I have cast a number of spells on you silently. They are now rendering you weak and useless. Try as you might but you won't be getting out of this duel the victor. I never did tell you what I'm able to do and what I tried to do in the past. You only know who I seek revenge on." The Seal Of Orichalcos seals them into a small space. "What is this?!" "You are losing. I have chosen to spare the lives of your subordinates because I want them to become my minions once I take over Laughing Coffin as well as turn your body into a puppet for me to control as I see fit."

POH's hp goes down to 0 but he doesn't die due to the duel system. Bowling's avatar is displayed in a window as the winner. The immortality obsessed evil mage laughs: "And now, your soul will be forfeit by the Seal Of Orichalcos." POH screams as his soul is taken by the Seal. Once his body is an empty shell, Bowling speaks: "I cast Puppeteer. Now that I can finally begin my revenge, it's time to employ some new tricks I have learned." POH's body becomes his puppet. Now, Bowling controls Laughing Coffin as its true leader hidden in the darkness of secrecy and trickery. *Back to Swiftdrawer* Sonic ends up appearing right after Amy says this. "Oh hey everyone!" "SONIC!" "Woah, Amy! Calm down! I'm sorry for disappearing! I just got hungry! That's all!" "Likely story! Do you have any idea how worried you made me?!" I sigh: "Can this wait for another time? Seriously, today's supposed to be a day of fun and all that." Kirito nods: "Swiftdrawer's right. We need to focus on having fun." Argo laughs: "Hey, I know something we can do that can cheer us up! We can unlock a seasonal quest by having a snowball fight!" Pito grins: "Sounds fun and very cold and dangerous! I like the sound of a snowball fight!" I nod: "I've never been in a snowball fight in my world. That would be a lot of fun. Especially since it's gotten less snowy every single year for the past several in my world due to climate change. Or at least the number of snow days and 2 hour delays went down when I was still in school." No one objects to doing that. Soon, we split into 2 teams and start making snowballs to throw at each other. My understanding of physics comes into play again as we start pelting each other with high velocity snowballs. This continues until a snowman suddenly appears out of nowhere with a quest marker over their head.

Argo smirks: "I told ya this would happen. The quest is said to hold a lot of great rewards for those who complete it." She interacts with the snowman who then says: "Hello, warriors from other worlds. I am Chilly The Snowman. Your snowball fight has summoned me. You must be the ones foretold to be the masters of snowballs. Therefore, I can trust all of you with this request I have." They go onto to explain the details of what needs to be done and we head off to take care of those things. After some more steps and hours of work, we managed to complete the quest and get rewarded for our efforts. Sinon nods in satisfaction: "That was a very enjoyable quest. We didn't come out too shabby either with the rewards we received." But then, we start hearing people scream as cloaked figures suddenly appear in the festival and begin to destroy everything. One of them destroys my nutcracker knight. Kirito shakes: "Damn it, these bastards.. They're from Laughing Coffin.." To be continued..