Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds
Chapter 21: Not Worthy
Date: Days 672-720
On the 58th Floor, as we soon noticed while having to run, we were in along with this floor's original terrain: the territory of the Cat Sith. On the 59th, being on a mix of Aincrad with the Salamander territory was weird especially in the midst of the rural village of Danac which is surrounded by hilly and grassy fields (developers from Earth would love to dig in them and build apartments too expensive for most people to afford alongside many businesses from crappy companies like Kroger, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Walmart. That while also giving the rich a lot of it to have things they don't even need built on it.):On the 60th Floor, we found ourselves in the middle of the Undyne territory. I never really paid much attention to the terrain of the various ALO fairy territories due to having gotten more used to various biomes from going through this game and the fact that the temperatures and other parts of biomes didn't really do much to me in any of them. Plus, Aincrad's biomes caused them to get split up in interesting and strange ways. Anyway, so we were now running as well as ender pearling while also dying from status aliments. I yell: "Damn it! This is really bad!" I hear Silica scream: "PINA!" After she gets back up somehow. Ghost Gal does too. I yell to Silica: "Hey! Silica! I have one of the items you can make with rare items on the 35th Floor! I can give it to you to save Pina but you will have to hold onto your little friend. We don't need Pina dropping from exhaustion!" "Okay!" "I'm coming your way because I'm in better shape as well as faster than you!"
I get to her quickly and demand as we just keep on running: "Hold out your hands without dropping Pina! I will somehow administer the medicine! No one gets left behind! I feel like I'm only trudging on at this point! Most of my strength suddenly left me after we punctured the barrier.. Only my stats are keeping me from collapsing again at this point! Do you understand?!" "Yes! Please help Pina!" "A dear friend of mine showed me some time ago how to properly administer medicine that has healing properties. Her name is Bray. She died so long ago earlier in this damn death game.. But we'll get her back along with everyone else who has and will perish. I know so." She listens to my directions and somehow, I was able to keep the vial steady enough to administer the medicine but stated: "Careful, Silica. Keep your hands steady. We don't want any of this to get on you. As you know, this stuff is both a cure and a poison. This is the only thing I can give up to help Pina at this point. But it will help them restore their hp along with curing them of all those aliments they must have gotten along with all of us. It's so hard to keep the medicine steady on my end as it is." But even despite all of that, we are able to work together to get Pina healed. Pina is going to be okay now as long as they're well protected by Silica and others. We run and we run but it isn't long before some of us start collapsing from low hp and all of those damn status effects. I'm among them. The others are forced to keep running while ender pearling. The ender pearls have been a serious help in helping us get further and further away from the teleport gate. Through my eyes, it's barely a speck in the distance at this point.
I try to throw another ender pearl to try to keep going further but I can't even manage to start to throw it. Almost all of my arm strength is gone. Even in my sword arm. I decide to look at my status window to see what's wrong with me. I gasp: "Damn.. it. All of my levels.. My weapon proficiency levels too... Gone just like that.. No wonder.. And these debuffs. Mining fatigue, hunger, poison, withering, various other poison effects, nausea.. What the hell did that barrier do to us?! I can't fight or do much of anything in this condition. It feels like I'm somewhere in between being abled bodied and having Long Covid.. Guess I have to crawl and keep drinking potions until all of this wears off.." But then, someone picks me up. It's Scar Basiltomato: "Swift! I got you!" "You're in this game?! But I thought Tomapieians were not trapped here as well.." "I was the only one. Heh. Never thought any of this would happen. But don't worry. I'm going to get you somewhere safe so you can rest. I'm helping other comrades who have chosen to help those who have also fallen while trying to flee like you did." "Thank.. you.." I lost consciousness soon after and woke up in some kind of shelter with others laying all around me. Sakura sees me and says: "Youre awake. This is the best for a setup we could do. Because we are constantly on the run now, struggling to survive, this shelter is only temporary and the grass has to be used as places for all of you to rest." "I.. see.. I feel.. somewhat better but still in so much pain with severe weakness.." "Swiftdrawer, I'm afraid you're going to be like this for a few days." "Damn it. Is this the price for puncturing the barrier? Rhetorical question.. We can't afford to pull that stunt to keep to another floor again. We're lucky no one perished from that.."
"Yes but I'm afraid the general situation has only worsened. Lightning and Windy are catching up to us. 100 more clearers have been killed by them." "No! There has to be a way to keep anyone else from dying but even if there is, I'm in no condition to help. Just.. look at me.. I've become so weak that my level has been reset to 0.. My attribute stats are the only things that are unchanged besides my gear.. To think that breaking through the barrier could cause such a severe punishment.." I lose consciousness again and wake up in a clearly different shelter only to see it get attacked and destroyed. With some of my strength back, I get to my feet and ignore the stiffness in my entire body. "Damn.. it! NOOO!" I wake help those caring for me and the others wake them up so we can get to safety better. I only have enough arm strength now to throw ender pearl after ender pearl. I will keep throwing and throwing until I reach the edge of the map if that's what it takes to be safe for at least a short time. I still need to recover and rest from the nasty status aliments. I cannot check any messages. I just have to go it alone unless someone ender pearls in the same exact direction as me. I have to find a place to rest now that a temporary shelter I was put in has been attacked. I don't know if anyone else who was there is still alive. All I know is that I have to keep fleeing and find a temporary place to rest until I have to flee again. And again. Just like a.. refugee.. The monsters of the 58th Floor keep trying to attack me over and over again without mercy but they only get a few hits in at most before a thrown ender pearl teleports me away. The damage I take from ender pearling hurts a lot but that isn't important right now.
I see multiple comrades around me also ender pearling towards what seems to be the same ultimate destination: whatever that ends up being. I don't even know how I could possibly level up and gain xp now. Until I recover fully, that's pointless but even after that, myself and the others will just have to keep fleeing from Windy, Lightning, and their AI drones. I keep seeing those drones while ender pearling. Nowhere is truly safe. You can run and you can hide but eventually, you will no longer be able to do either and they WILL get you unless they are completely stopped in their tracks. There's no time to activate a teleport crystal to escape to a lower floor. All there is time for is ender pearling. Thank goodness some of us clearers sent days at the enderman farm accessed through a portal and one of the lower floors. Because of that, each clearer has a staggering amount of ender pearls. That farm has hundreds if not thousands of chests capable of storing ender pearls. We must have ender pearled for an hour on end when I almost ended up throwing an ender pearl over the edge. I stop myself from actually doing so. I don't want to know what it would be like to be teleported down 4 floors by an ender pearl as I could literally see one edge of that damn castle from where I'm now standing. Steven runs up to me and hugs me: "You're okay!" "Easy with that.. I'm glad to see you never lost that part of yourself but.. I'm not okay. I just recovered enough to throw ender pearls." As of wanting to show proof, my body makes itself collapse to the ground at that moment. Tsunade sighs: "We are in a difficult position. All of us are very much injured even now. All of this running and ender pearling has made us nearly run out of healing potions."
A lot of us sigh too before I lose consciousness again. When I wake back up again, I ask the first comrade I see: "Hey, I know I just woke back up again but what day is it?" "Day 675." "I've been in and out for 3 days?! Damn it! ..Wait, I feel so much better now. *checks stat window* So that's it, huh? I'm fully recovered in terms of no longer being afflicted with aliments. That's.. a relief." The person who answered me was Sinon. She replies: "I'm glad that you're better now. After all, we could use all of the help we can get. The Assault Team has been split up into a large number of small groups in order to attempt to escape Windy and Lightning along with their forces who are multiplying by the day." "Damn it. So we really are living lives that are sort of like those that refugees lead now.. This is really bad.. How are we even supposed to get stronger by hunting monsters when we're always on the run and the enemy just keeps increasing in number?" "That's what we need more help with. If we could kill our enemies faster than more of them can be created.. We could start farming a nearby field of monsters for xp and drops." "I see. So we need to get em from a distance, right?" "Yeah. If we scout for long enough, we could probably eliminate all of them within a large area around us as they keep rotating patrol areas every so often. Windy and Lightning have passed this area several times. We have barely managed to avoid getting spotted by them." "I see. I'm ready to help. I'm sure a lot of the help for this is needed because most of the others are off to help in other ways." "You're correct. Some of the others are gathered ingredients and materials to make more healing potions from this and other floors. Others are making food. You get the idea."
"Yeah. Is anyone still knocked out?" "Yes, among the 100 or so there are of us in this area, 8 are still completely out of it. It was 9 before you woke up." "I see once again. Thank you for the update. Any news on the 58th Floor Boss?" "It was spotted very quickly but everyone is doing well to stay away from it until a large enough group of us can successfully assemble to defeat it." "And that's not easy as previous bosses have often taken the full efforts of the entire Assault Team. There has never been this much pressure to get stronger. We'll have to form new parties to farm xp better. There's just so much to do. We're on borrowed time because of our efforts to puncture the barrier to this floor and the fact our foes just keep on trying to find us. I'm shocked they haven't yet." "This.. location isn't the only location we hide in. We have to keep switching locations several times a day to avoid being seen." I have no words for that but join Sinon and the others on the small force to kill our foes from a distance. We spend the entire day quietly walking around the area and picking our rather tough enemies one by one. We did the same thing again for the next 2 days. And now, it was Day 278. But at least now we could actually grinding for xp. We move our established hiding spots closer to the grinding area so we can take advantage of the raid party xp feature to level everyone we possibly can up faster. After all, we have to hunt in small groups to get any xp without being possibly spotted by Windy or Lightning. Such a slow and painful process. I was just about ready to grind endlessly on the 54th Floor since Windy and Lightning clearly weren't looking around for us on that floor. But I was convinced not too as it was still too risky.
But there is one way we can get xp a lot faster. Building a monster farm for some of the monsters on this floor. But because Minecraft monsters are so very different, setting up something like that for Aincrad and ALO monsters wasnt going to be easy. But I still pitch the idea only for us to scrap the project part way through of designing it because it just wouldnt work no matter what we tried to add to its design to make it work in the same vein as a monster farm for Minecraft monsters. I sigh in resignation but end up really focusing on what's most important to all of us anyway: trying to survive and grow stronger. A week passed. We were now on Day 685 and we only gained about 4 levels. Far slower than otherwise. If only we weren't forced to live this way. I just wish we could get Windy and Lightning to back away for a while. I speak these thoughts to the others as we eat a not so glamorous meal together made with very local ingredients without any proper cooking equipment. Sinon replies: "They are dead set on killing all of us. They are stopping at nothing until we're all dead as you know. I doubt they even care about the fact you hid those storage devices from them anymore." "I kind of wish they did. They'd have to turn this whole game upside down just to find them. I've been moving them around lately throughout Twisted Land on the breaks we get. Our fears that they knew every hiding spot in this game were proven false. Or at least, they sure don't know any of Twisted Land's. Far below most of the park, there's multiple caves that run under it. If they choose to look in them, they will never find them because I would never hide them in caves that are hard for me to navigate as is."
"We are expanding the Assault Team slowly and surely. More and more players are catching up to us especially with our now very slow progress." We keep talking until it's time to turn in for the night. We sleep in shifts as it is now usual to do. We have debated about learning to fly with our wings now that we can all actually fly but that idea was soon killed off. If we fly, we will only make ourselves bigger targets. Most of us have no experience with flying with fairy wings. It's a risk for even one of us at a time to learn. And to make it even more annoying, this death game has overhauled the flying system to make it much harder to learn. You actually have to learn how to use new muscles for flying with your wings now instead of how it is before. Learning to fly is no longer user friendly. It is a royal pain. That's the easiest way to put it. I'm not willing to learn at the moment. It's way too hard with our current circumstances. It's so easy to want to just completely give up on trying to clear this game. Busting through the barrier to the next floor won't really help that much. Part of the reason we're now so fragmented across this floor is BECAUSE such a large number of us ended up being temporarily forced out of action including myself. The 8 who were still out of it when I came to are now healthy and wide awake. That's the only really good piece of news we've gotten. Almost all other news has only been relieving. That's depressing. Another week passed. It was now Day 692 and I'm getting kind of restless now. Progress keeps being really slow and I just want for all of this crap to change so we can actually make decent progress. That's when a major message was issued to all of us.
Windy and Lightning have been spotted leaving this floor in order to presumably look for what we took from them. Too bad they'll have to give up on looking. I moved them to a spot that can't even be physically reached unless you have permission to build in my park which Windy and Lightning don't even have. It's far underneath Mining Mayhem the 9 minute roller coaster. It's all in a shulker box which is surrounded on all sides by blocks upon blocks. Our foes might not even open the shulker box even if they do find it because well, it doesn't look like something you'd put something so important in. Some might not even realize it's a box. That's the best part. I seriously doubt they will ever find it unless they kill me and absorb my data. I haven't told a single soul about what I did. All I've said is: "Don't worry, even if they pinpoint that I hide them in Twisted Land, they could ride and walk through every single thing in the park and NEVER find it." Well, okay. If they can use Spectator Mode, they could find it but it still would be a real to find it with all of those caves. Like a needle in a haystack. I made sure it was hidden a ways away from any cave so they would have to do some thinking to figure out how to even access it at all with solid blocks surrounding it as I said before. With them searching frantically for it, we advised all other players to go to safe areas we have created on the floor we're on now for the time being as well as the various settlements on it. With the rest of Aincrad being cleared of players, no one will be killed by our foes until they give up and return.
This is our only shot to do some serious progression through the game. We have to take it seriously. Now stocked up on supplies, we prepare to grind the living hell out of the monsters of the 58th Floor. Lizbeth and other blacksmiths get hard at work at upgrading every single clearer's gears while getting assistance from a whole bunch of us. While that was going on, those of us who were still free literally worked towards supporting the once again displaced low and mid tier players as well as getting just about everything else in order such as upgrading skills, leveling weapon proficiencies, and more. On Day 694, the ultimate grind began. It ended on Day 700. We grinded until it became inefficient to grind on the 58th Floor. We need the hunting spots on the next floor to get anymore decent xp now. All of our gears was upgraded to the max each could based on all of the materials we handed over to the blacksmiths to make sure our gears were stronger than ever. It was quite the sight. And Windy and Lightning were still away from the floor. We were able to eliminate all of the drones they left behind in under a day. On Day 701, we finally went after the 58th Floor Boss. I smiled as I charged into battle with the others: "I've been waiting for this! And while we're at it, we should go get the last boss which we ended up skipping as well!" And so, we took on both of them on the same day. Now, we have safe passage to the 59th Floor. We then had the low and mid level players return to the 45th Floor and some of our best defenders went with them to keep them safe in case Windy and Lightning wanted to go after them too. It was such a relief to finally reach the 59th Floor.
I cannot state such a thing enough. I really can't no matter how hard I try to. Moving on, we got to the floor with fully reinvigorated spirits but that didn't mean we lowered our guards. We started suspecting that something may be fishy regarding our enemies just kind of leaving us be for now to find the storage devices. Some of the other clearers were sent to that damn golden castle as well as other floors to investigate what was going on with them. In the meantime, we put the accelerator on grinding once again. We were able to figure out where all of the good hunting spots were and share them accordingly. No group or guild is dominant. Guilds like KoB, DKB, ALS, the Akatsuki, and Moonlight Black Cats have their own various ways of doing things. But that doesn't really matter that much because all clearers, solo or not are working to beat this game. We are going to upgrade and strengthen ourselves as much and as quickly as possible while we still can so we might actually stand a chance in a confrontation with Windy and Lightning. Since gears have a level up system through xp from SAO's system amongst others, we take full advantage of that to keep upgrading and upgrading. The 59th Floor went by quickly. Little news about the whereabouts of our foes was reported back despite the fact that most of the Akatsuki were amongst those keeping an eye on them from the shadows. In our last meeting, my fellow Akatsuki members and I attempted to plan an assassination of Windy and Lightning but we were forced to table the plan for now because we are not strong enough to even try pulling that off.
We didn't even finish it because there was some vital information missing that we needed including the true power level of our foes. They are strong enough to take on the 56th Floor Boss by themselves and now, they are stronger than they were when they did that. That's the main piece of information that we're missing at the moment. On Day 708, we cleared the 59th Floor and moved onto the 60th the next day. But that was when things became difficult again. Windy and Lightning finally gave up on their search. Even if they tracked the devices to Twisted Land, it's clear they got tired of looking and just left. They found no one on the 58th Floor so they went to the 59th Floor. Same thing so now, we are facing them head on. We didn't know they had returned until the moment they appeared before us about an hour after we got to the 60th Floor. Lightning speaks: "So you clearers have managed to get to this point. Impressive. I would have expected all of you to give up on beating this game by now after the hard time we put you through." Windy has a different reaction to seeing us: "Damn you clearers! You have wasted so much of our time! You not only made it impossible for us to find what you stole from us but you also managed to keep making us look for you all over and go so long without killing a single one of you! It's such an insult to Ignis like us!" Ai retorts: "At least I haven't been made into a totally irrational Ignis like you have!" Lightning calmly chuckles: "Enough of that. We will get straight down to business. Once again, I ask you clearers. Will you accept our terms or will you refuse, sentencing yourselves to death in the process?"
PAMA, myself, Kirito, Sinon, Asuna, Heathcliff, and who knows how many others exclaim in unison: "NO." Windy glares at all of us: "You insolent organic life forms! I will make you regret your choice! Just you wait! Actually, you don't have to. We're going to kill all of you right here right now!" Lightning suddenly causes something horrific. All of the other players are teleported to this floor and forced to stand in an invisible containment area that overlooks all of us. Bulma yells: "What do you think you're doing?! Oh, that's it! I'm definitely going to help find a way to shut down the both of you for good!" "Is that a threat, human? You should know. We are going to take our time with killing all of you. We are going to savor it and make the rest of you pathetic players watch on helplessly as we do it. If any of you wish to give up and serve us in exchange for your life, the right arrangements will be made and taken care of swiftly." Romeo speaks up: "You think this is all just some kind of game? Well, I'll show you what a game is really like!" Without warning, he attacks both of them while changing his form and changing the environment around us constantly. But in the end, it proves pointless as they easily knock him back with a combined Data Storm. Eva yells: "Should have seen that coming! We won't be able to win THAT easily if at all." M adds: "Look around us. Retreat is no longer possible. They got us boxed into a very small area. That's what we have to work with against them."
Jesse tries uses a teleport crystal only to shout: "Crap! This isn't working! The crystal isn't responding to my attempts to use it!" Anzu shudders: "It's like the Orichalcos all over again.. A barrier that can't be escaped with by any means except victory or a tie.. This is bad.. Really bad.." Windy grins: "It's only going to get a lot worse!" Nagato replies: "We won't make it that easy for you. Go, fellow Akatsuki members! Let's do what we almost managed to fully plan out!" Our scrapped assassination plan.. He knows we will go along with doing that because we are with only a few options: fight, die, or prolong our agony until we finally die. It really is kind of do or die for all of us now. Us Akatsuki members move with great speed out of nowhere to one end of the barrier before using ender pearls to vanish below the area we're in as there was a cave that was spotted when this all started up. We went there and began this improvised version of the plan. We gather our weapons that happen to also be biohazards and get ready. I speak: "It's clear we have to stay here for a really long time. And then, one of us will feign surrender to Windy and Lightning. We didn't plan beyond that but it's obvious what we need to do once that faking works out OR fails. At the very least, we need to fool them into thinking most of us tragically passed away due to being consumed by monsters. One of us who is now a Spriggan will use illusion magic that makes that more convincing to even the 2 villains." Konan nods: "It is time for this world to once again see the true power of the Akatsuki despite limitations imposed by this death game." And so, we wait and occasionally scream loudly and in pain supposedly while doing so.
Judging from the silence on the surface, the villains are now just waiting for us to die or something. That's when Jiren pretends to be broken and seriously wounded while some of us pretend to be in even worse shape while struggling to follow him. The illusion wounds make it even more convincing. We can only hope the illusion magic works against even vile and malicious sentient AI. Jiren walks out of the cave with the rest of us playing along following slowly behind him. Windy laughs: "Look at that! Somehow, those fools managed to get themselves seriously hurt!" Lightning looks suspicious: "Windy, I am not so easily convinced what has happened to them was even a mistake on their part. It is strange that they would vanish into a cave only to emerge so badly hurt. We heard their screams of pain as of monsters had completely crushed them. You in the front. I demand you explain what's going on unless you want to experience a long and painful death along with everyone here." Jiren replies in a weak voice: "I can't believe I'm going to say this.. I am Jiren, amongst the strongest mortals from my multiverse.. And yet, I could do nothing as those monsters ambushed all of us. It was too dark to see anything through normal means. The monsters.. There were too many of them.. We were lucky to make it out in this shape instead of worse.. Windy and Lightning, we surviving members of the Akatsuki.. surrender unconditionally to you. Our assassination attempt on you both failed. We're finished. The rest of the guild are in fact dead. They gave our lives to let us escape. And for what? My pride has been completely crushed into pieces.." Hit adds: "I thought we could take you both down without issue. We have assassinated many after all."
Lightning hums: "If you were so hurt in that cave, why haven't you just given your lives instead of surrendering?" I am also among the group that followed him so I reply: "Because.. we promise to kill you someday but will serve you for now. We know how much you enjoy entertaining twists. Especially you, Windy. Let us live and we promise to serve you until the moment we try to kill you again. In that time, you can degrade and humiliate us as much as you want. It doesn't matter. Our mission is to kill no matter what." Windy laughs: "I accept your terms! Do you, Lightning?" "No, I do not trust a word that they are saying?" An illusion of us threatening to unalive ourselves as per a supposed secret vow we made once we got trapped in this game and formed our group anew as a guild. It states that all members will give their lives if they are left unable to carry out assassinations ever again. It says we would rather die than be left in a state of being unable to kill, even me, someone whose killing intent is very well controlled and less obvious to spot. We made that pledge. That vow for a reason or so the story went. We would not be able to carry out any kind of justice. The dirty kind that must sometimes be done. To be left unable to assassinate would require harsh constrictions of some kind to be placed on all of us. Lightning eventually buys what we're saying: "Very well. We accept and for your first orders, you are to help kill your comrades for us. That is after you heal yourselves of course." An illusion of us healing and thus getting better is shown. Following the script, I yell at our comrades: "If any of you move, you will die." I think we've even convinced them that we've surrendered unconditionally as they look afraid, hurt, angry, or sad.
Hit adds: "We have the skills and items to kill most players in this game with ease. We are top members of the Assault Team. We will not kill any of you just yet." "That's right. We have a peace offering for you, Lightning. We know all too well what it's like to remain suspicious no matter what. We hope this will clear any remaining doubts you have of us and convince you to allow us to live to try to kill later on down the road. When that time comes, our differences will finally be settled." "Very well. Hand whatever it is to me immediately. I have little interest in objects or gifts but this may very well be interesting because it is a peace offering." We prepared a box of deadly items while in that cave. Konan hands it to him with a calm look on her face. Despite the small size of the 2 villains, everyone is taking them completely serious as all should. He accepts it and when he opens it, the items jump out at him with a tricky spell one of us managed to learn. At that moment, Orochimaru, Kisame, Deidara, and Fran emerged out of the cave and tackled Windy to the ground before he knew what hit him. Nagato comes out too and speaks calmly: "Witness the power. The power of the Akatsuki. This is not justice or vengeance. This is an act to eliminate 2 threats at once." I add: "We are all products of the planets we live on and the stars that give our worlds life and those stars that blew up and became nebulas in which our worlds would eventually form. We are all the same in many ways. Our actions are meant to bring down those who not only don't get that but also seek to actively destroy anyone who opposes them. What we are doing also serves as a warning to all beings in the multiverse who are just like these two in that regard. We will show little mercy. Should this be enough to kill them, it shall end them quickly. If it doesn't, it shall at least weaken them."
We are prepared for failure. Windy struggles a lot against us but that concerns us very little. Instead, we begin to attack Lightning now that he has been attacked by dangerous potions, poisoned blades, and all kinds of other things to bind and weaken him as well. Those restraining Windy use the same things more directly on him while holding him down still. We caught them completely by surprise. I activate Artist's Eye to create a wall and bind Lightning to it before Windy is released so I can bind him to it too. I almost completely wear out my left eye when I create all kinds of other things to firmly hold them in place. We Akatsuki members then stand together in formation. Deidara smirks: "Well, this has been quite fun! I have to admit. I have a lot more fun in the Akatsuki these days. Without a leader, I'm more free to do things as I wish and I feel actually included in decision making for once in my existence." Windy yells: "What is the meaning of this?! Why would you do this to us after you surrendered to us?!" Kisame smirks: "You're a real dense one aren't you? Isn't it obvious? Maybe I should spell it out for you. We never intended to surrender to you to begin with." Konan cuts in: "Prepare for anything. They could break free at any moment. Fellow clearers, I hope you're ready for battle." Orochimaru chuckles: "My my. We are doing such a fine job today, aren't we? But it doesn't stop here! We have to do more. Knock them while they're down as they say in the west. Let's begin!"
Marksmen and archers ready their weapons and fire when ready. Kizmel shouts: "This is for all the lives they have hurt and taken!" Even those of us who don't main with ranged weapons join in on the firing if we have such weapons. I contribute with my primary gun again. We just keep attacking our foes with those weapons until they literally manage to break free. I stare at this calmly: "Now. The final part of the assassination will begin. It will fail but it will hurt them badly." And so, they get ambushed from behind with all kinds of melee weapons but most of the Akatsuki. They move too fast for the Ignis to dodge all of them. They work in perfect harmony, making up for one another's flaws and weaknesses not to mention mistakes. But then, the villains send them back flying with great force and begin attacking all of us. No doubt, they're angry and wanting to weaken us quickly before beginning to kill us off. I almost lose an arm but dodge in time only to get attacked an untold number of times in under a second. Because of that, I crumble to the ground and begin using potions to heal myself. I get back up only for the same thing to happen again. I then recover again but this time, I'm ready for such an attack. "You won't get me this time! Inner darkness, you will have free rein over me for a short time. I don't care anymore. I will use the darkness by letting it use me!" I remember so many things that have made me feel negatively about things. All the memories and associated emotions come flowing back right into me. I quickly lose it as I intentionally overload my mind with dark and destabilizing thoughts. And then, my inner darkness takes over. It speaks with my voice.
"I don't care how much this will hurt! Go, Artist's Eye! And now, I create the Blood Demon Sword! Prepare to feel true despair and pain, foolish AI! I will kill you and I'm going to very much enjoy doing it! Piercing Darkness! Infinite Pain! This game can't stop me from using my abilities! In fact, I think I will overload it in order to force it to let me use the rest of them!" Under its control, I go on a brief rampage, dealing lots and lots of damage to Windy and Lightning. I held them back for 8 seconds with my attacks. When that time expired, the surge in power I had also expires and I regain control over myself. The Blood Demon Sword vanishes from being so overly exerted. I sigh: "That was that. But now, I will fight as I always have been in this game for who knows how long! Take this, Windy and Lightning!" They easily block mine and everyone else's attacks before attacking all of us violently again to the point we are all knocked into the barrier they created earlier before bouncing off of it and falling straight to the ground. But still, no matter what happens, we won't quit. We will find a way to force them to retreat or so help us. We just cannot possibly defeat them at the moment. That being said, they are clearly weakened from the assassination attempt. Windy yells: "Curse you all again! Why can't you all just accept defeat and let us kill you without resistance?!" Nagato replies: "You speak as if you are a god. I once thought I was God. But a god is someone whose power is able to easily shake an entire world and not so easy to kill. You are not a god either. You are a corrupted AI who meant a lot to his own former friends." "Don't lecture me, Nagato or, should I say Pain!" Lightning speaks: "Windy. Do not waste anymore time on your emotions. We must kill."
"Fine! But only because you said so!" Our fight with them soon becomes hopeless. We start being unable to do much to them as they exhaust all of our supplies just about. We keep going until we run out of strength just about. We were being driven solely by the need to keep living to beat this damn game already. Windy and Lightning pound us to the horror of all of the other players. Lightning picks up Kirito and speaks: "THIS is your Black Swordsman and THIS is your Assault Team. You WILL never get out of this game alive. It's over. All of your hopes and dreams end right here right now. Give up and accept your fate. The sooner, the better off you will be. I find them all to be so beneath me now that killing you isn't worth it. I will be waiting with Windy here in a new location. Come to us when you are ready to give us a real challenge. If I'm going to crush all of you, I want to have a challenge because challenges are far more interesting than the disappointing display you have all put on here today. Look at all of you. So weak and pathetic. You were able to get us very well for a very short time but now, all of you are just pitiful and I don't even value emotions. I do not have emotions. But my superior intellect has led me to realize that I no longer desire to kill you." Windy adds: "Yeah. I'm not having any fun with any of you! I want to savor the moments I kill any of you! I can't do that with how weak you are compared to us! Get stronger and fight us again. For now, we will leave you be but know this, you will not last forever. We will kill you when you all have become worthy challenges." And with that said, the villains vanish. I sigh: "Damn it, now we aren't even worth killing right now to them. All hope has been almost completely crushed. Faith in us must be at an all time low now. We have a lot of work ahead of us.. But first. The Undynes have to heal us all before we all die painfully.."
I can feel myself slipping away from life as my vision blinds red over and over again. I have no more recovery items to help keep myself alive. It is up to the likes of Asuna now to save us all before it's too late. I lost consciousness again and woke up in an inn on the 60th Floor. Asuna smiles: "Swift, you're awake. Thank goodness. That was too close. All of us almost died but.. Myself and the other Undynes were able to heal ourselves and everyone else including you in time. Kirito and many of the others are still out cold but we're safe here. For now. Windy and Lightning may break their promise and return to kill all of us in contrast to what they said. But now, we have to put clearing more floors on hold in order to get stronger. Not just by leveling up but by improving our fighting skills and more." I nod: "That will also give other players a better shot of becoming strong enough to join the front lines as members of the Assault Team. We really do need to improve in more than just stats and such. We have to just do all that we can to become stronger. I don't care how long this takes. I am ready to begin training right away as soon as I can find a good monster or sparring partner. I will have to first focus on scrubbing that damn rust off of my muscles memory. I haven't been able to fight as much as one would need to retain all of their fighting skills in this game in a long time. What day is it though?" "Day 712." "What?! We've been out that long?!" "Unfortunately, that's how things are." "Well damn. I'll have to get my muscles and bones all loosened up then before I do anything else besides take care of my body's needs. I'm so hungry. Being unconscious for so long kept my energy consumption much lower than normal."
And so, I have a shower in a bathroom that comes with the inn room and go down to the inn's restaurant area to have something to eat and drink. Asuna was too busy to make anything to eat with her cooking skill so I just let her be. As I ate, I sigh: "The prestige, the reputation of the Assault Team. All flushed down the toilet. We were a symbol of hope, the team many shoot to become a part of someday. We are the force that has been driving us all closer and closer to the Ruby Palace. And yet, here we are.. Like washed up hazbans, right?" I look around and see some mid level players. Since we have yet to clear the boss on this floor, it's obvious that we have just let mid level players come here to grind too. I hear some whispers.. "Hey, you see that knight over there? Aren't they with the Assault Team?" "Who cares. The Assault Team failed us. They're nothing more than a bunch of failures now. We'll never get out of this game!" "There's a clearer over there. What a disgrace." I hear more and more of the whispers. I hastily finish my meal before running back up to the room in mental agony. I put a hand over my forehead as I now have a headache. Tears fall from my eyes as the reality of what has happened since I lost consciousness hits me hard. I was right.. The Assault Team is no longer giving anyone hope. It's still strong but it's like an empty shell now. A team of broken players with only a few still having all of their confidence and willpower intact. I'm not one of those few. Not by a long shot. I cry into the bed I woke up in. I scream into it as well. I feel something soft touch my shoulder. I move my head to see. "Andromeda, is that you, buddy? I forgot you ended up trapped in this game at some point too.." The wolf pup looks at me with concern.
"Andromeda, no.. I'm not okay.." They give me a kind but firm expression as if telling me: "I will comfort you and you will not stop me." I chuckle sadly: "Stubborn puppy.." I just kind of stayed there with the puppy constantly comforting me in just about any way they can. Relentlessly licking my face. Nuzzling my face. After several hours, I felt better but said: "I can't go into public without being scorned, can I?" Asuna notices me in my state: "Swift? Oh and who's that?" "This is Andromeda. They got trapped in this game too, we were separated when that happened, we found each other briefly before something attacked and made us flee in opposite directions, I hadn't really seen them since." "Is Andromeda your familiar?" "I guess you could say that. Such a gentle little one.. *sigh* Is anyone up yet? Have you been in public lately? The Assault Team has been so.. well.. you know.." "Kirito and the others woke up not long after you did. They're just all in other rooms, that's all. I'm only in this room because we're mostly using it for storage." "I see. That's good." "Yep. And yes, I've been out there. The entire atmosphere has changed. It is heartbreaking." "Yep.. And Andromeda here somehow found their way here without being noticed. Do you want to pet them? They seem to really like you, Asuna. Don't worry, Andromeda doesn't bite. At least, they don't bite good pals. Okay.. They howl and bark a lot more than bite. In fact, they're more likely to claw at enemies instead of bite. Isn't it funny how a lot of wolves are just extra large dogs at this point except they live in the wild in packs?" She smiles and pets the pup. Andromeda enjoys the contact a lot. Asuna offers to make me something to eat if I'm okay with eating dinner with the others.
I accepted as long as Andromeda could come along too. She nodded happily at my condition and promised to make a special dish for the little puppy. This is what I need now. I can keep myself sane and mentally okay most of the time but sometimes, the challenges I face are far too great for me to handle on my own. That's why I'm a member of the Assault Team and don't really solo anymore. This isn't like a regular MMO game where you play on a screen. This is game where you die for real if you die here and you live inside of this world until you do or you escape. It's a whole reality on its own or rather, a merge of realities. Having dinner with the others was just amazing. I felt a lot better as we talked about all of our problems and managed to still make some jokes amongst other things. We even went over the plan that's been established for this floor's boss fight. We are going to do it in another week. For now, our goal is to not only get stronger but to salvage what remains of the Assault Team's reputation by proving ourselves all over again. The next morning, we went in public with pure black or brown cloaks hiding our appearances. I also put on a version of the mask I've been using since the whole saving the Pound Puppies universe thing. And then, we spent the entire day grinding like mad. Thanks to this floor also merged with part of ALO, there's a lot more hunting spots. The same has been true with the past few floors as well so that's been really helpful. Not only that but we have all been learning the way to fly with our new fairy wings by using the new muscles we have. None of us have spent much time on that but still, it has really been quite something actually learning how to fly with our wings. The next day, on Day 714, it is now time to do something completely different. We are going to help mid and low level players out. We will act as figures who can't be so easily recognized. Like masked heroes.
That way, we will restore the Assault Team's reputation without being scorned. We split up to accomplish this task. I end up finding a mid level player surrounded by monsters. I jump in and use my skills to save them by cutting down all of the monsters down to size. "Hey you, please be more careful the next time you come out here to hunt monsters. You don't want to end up in a situation like this again. Are you okay?" They shakily said: "Yes.. Thank you so much for your help.. Who are you?" I reveal my face: "I'm Swiftdrawer, one of the top 200 or so Assault Team members." "A clearer?! But aren't you clearers.." "Just because we were tossed aside and crushed doesn't mean we're useless now.. I heard some of the word about us personally 2 days ago. It hurt a lot but after talking to some of my dear friends and being comforted by a special little friend I brought along here who is patiently waiting for me over yonder, I realized some things.. I'm not going to let the negativity crush me again. Andromeda, you can come here, buddy." The wolf puppy dashes right over. The person I saved widens their eyes: "Is that.. a wolf pup?!" "Yes. Now do you better understand what's up with us clearers? Just because the enemy is much stronger than us doesn't mean we're hopeless now that they've crushed us once. We only become hopeless if we die in vain in the end at the hands of the enemy." We talk some more, I let them pet Andromeda, and I soon head off with my little friend running right alongside me. Oh and I should mention Chocolate, my noble steed. I haven't really mounted her in a long time. Things have really been so chaotic as you have read that I have felt it's been too dangerous to ride her.
But since I have grown more than strong enough for this floor from all that grinding, I plan on mounting her again with my appearance uncovered. I must take advantage of the symbolism knights still have behind them in this damn death game in order to change the attitudes that have surfaced lately back to what they were before we came to this floor. I headed back into town to buy some things before teleporting to Twisted Land where I've had Chocolate stay all safe and sound. I bring her back with me to the front lines. Andromeda and I ride her in town. In fact, I make sure the puppy curls around my lap. A knight, horse, and wolf puppy. That ought to stir some heartstrings. We go around town. People whisper and point a lot but not in a bad way. I don't like having so much attention put on me but I knew this was necessary. If we could just restore the hope that they all placed with us, we could confidently fight this floor's boss with less worries holding us back. It is so vital that this works out. Interestingly, other clearers had basically the same idea I did but executed it differently. Playmaker is walking with both strong and cute Cyberse monsters along with Ai and Roboppi. Ghost Gal and Blue Maiden are walking together with their monsters all around them. Eva is being carried around humorously by the other members of SHINC. And so on. Apparently, this spread like wildfire leading to more of us doing the same thing across the entire 60th Floor's towns and other settlements. Outside of them, other clearers focused on performing heroics or just helping others. That was also true in the towns but less so because so many of us were showing ourselves for what we truly are. I smile and wave as I look around for anyone in need.
Knights really have had symbolic importance for centuries across timelines and universes. This all went on for the entire day. The next morning, the atmosphere was far less hostile and depressing than it was before. What a relief. I was now ready to do some serious training. I say to Kirito after breakfast: "Hey Kirito, do you want to spar with me somewhere? Black Swordsman vs Artistic Knight? Let's push each other to the very limits and shake those remaining cobwebs out of our minds and muscles." "Sure, I've been itching for something like that for a while!" Asuna hears us: "Hey you two! Don't do that alone! We should get the whole main force of the Assault Team and have all kinds of sparring battles take place!" Sinon walks over and adds: "Yeah, that's not a bad idea. If we do that, we should make great strides even just in the next few days. That will help us more easily bring down the boss on this floor. If I'm not mistaken, the still somewhat present negative sentiment that has been burdening us since we were crushed by Windy and Lightning would vanish if we manage to defeat that boss much more easily than any of the bosses up to now." I nod: "You're both right. No doubt about that." Kirito grins like a doofus: "I just can't wait to do this!" Asuna scolds him briefly before all of us laughed together with anyone who happened to be nearby. We make plans and Argo ends up announcing to the rest of the Assault Team about the plan. That plan evolves into an over 3000 person sparring brawl sort of thing in a large area cleared out on one of the floors merged with Minecraft.
Some of us clearers ended up encasing the whole area in obsidian in case things got really intense. And with that all finished, it soon began. Kirito and I chose to first each other still as one another's first opponents during this. I had the advantage of experience but he had the advantage in spending time in VRMMOs. It was a really good fight. So good in fact that I struggle to even think of how I should go about writing it exactly so I will just let you use your imaginations for how it went. I won't even tell you who won or lost. We actually did in fact spend the next few days just sparring. At the end of Day 718, we stopped in order to prepare for the next day's Floor Boss battle. We are finally well prepared now. I woke up feeling really good. Already have my armor on as always, I began to complete final preparations for the fight. We know the boss hasn't moved much from where it was first spotted so all of us clearers were able to easily find it and prepare for battle. Argo shouts: "This is our 60th Floor Boss battle! All quests on this floor and the ones before it have been taken care of and documented. All of us are well equipped and properly leveled now for this fight. Get ready! We must start when all of us are ready!" Goku adds: "Oh yeah! This is going to be awesome! Hey, is anyone recording this?!" I reply: "Someone has to be. This is one of the most important Floor Boss battles thus far after all." A assassin NPC from the 40th Floor speaks. Her name is Erassa(Koharu, Yuna, and others did the main quest storyline on that floor at some point): "I will help erase this Floor Boss as well. Just as Laughing Coffin was erased along with the villains who threatened us in the past along with the other Floor Bosses, we will make sure this one is too in the end!"
Her words rung true. In just 2 hours, we cleared the boss without losing anymore comrades in the process. In fact, the only reason it took so long was because it had so much health. Despite the surprise attack pattern changes from how it once did things, the Floor Boss didn't really make any of us flinch or cower in fear. Instead, we just fought with everything we had with little hesitation. When the victory screen appeared, a lot of us cheered. For once, I raised my sword in the air proudly: "We won! And it wasn't that bad for once! What a relief." We had a massive celebration across the game over our victory because it wasn't just a victory in terms of clearing the floor and being able to do to the next one. It was much more than that. Twisted Land ended up becoming a major place where the celebrations happened because well, it has over 120 things to do in it and I put so much work into it with so much work still left to go. The next day, it was time for the 61st Floor. Once we got up to it, we looked around. I speak: "So this is the 61st Floor. Until now, I knew nothing about it besides what those of us who survived SAO and all they have shared about it." Argo nods: "Nyehahaha! That's right! Just like many of the floors up to now, our stories about this floor don't do it justice especially now that part of ALO itself has ironically been merged with it. We are getting closer to the floor where SAO was ended prematurely, saving many lives in the process. The 76th Floor Boss, the Gleam Eyes is one of the most famous bosses of them all in part due to what Kirito did the first time it was fought against." Asuna nods: "I think everyone who was in that fight and is still with us remembers it very well. It really goes to show what one person can do alone."
We don't move anywhere just yet. We all observe the surroundings first just in case we have any unexpected surprises like more of those damn AI drones despite what the 2 Ignis villains just told us like 2 weeks ago. It is now Day 720. It took us a while to get here after leaving that dang castle behind. Im currently riding Chocolate again with Andromeda. We are able to better see what's around us thanks to that. To be continued..