Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

Chapter 20: Escape from Lightning's Castle

Date: Days 653-672

Naruto demands: "So what the hell are your demands anyway?!" Lightning calmly chuckles: "Listen closely. You might want to take notes or record all of this with one of those record crystals I hear are so popular amongst you players. I have demands that would be in your best interest to comply with as I just explained. You will allow us to do as we wish without interference. You will not prevent us from destroying humanity in our universe and any universe we can connect to through this death game. Additionally, you will listen to anything we tell you to do no matter what it is and comply with it. I am simply using logic to dictate what is best and you creatures known for causing conflict and destruction are best left on a tight leash by someone who can think far more logically than any of you can. I would also like to mention that this castle isn't just on this floor. It takes up the next 2 floors too. The Floor Bosses of each 3 floors that this castle is on along with every other feature of each floor is present in this castle. I withheld that information until now so you would take our demands more seriously after I began explaining them. Soon, we will require your help in eliminating our other enemies so I suggest you accept our demands and ensure that you do in fact fulfill them. Otherwise, you are going to have a really bad time that will ruin you and make sure you never escape this castle alive. We will hunt you down and destroy each and every one of you if you refuse to listen to our demands. The only reward you get out of agreeing to them is our guarantee we will let you leave this castle should you be able to survive what lies inside of it outside of this room. But there's more demands so I am not done speaking to you."

"You will dissolve all of your guilds and other groups. You will then join my guild and I will be your leader while Windy will be your sub leader. You will clear the rest of the game under my direction. Only I know the logical way to defeat this death game and escape from it. Once you escape, you will continue serving us since we will have absorbed the powers and abilities of Death Gun, Quinella, and the others left. I should tell you as well that we are in the process of absorbing what Paradox, Herobrine, Bowling, and Entity303 had. Let's just say we had our methods of collecting their data. We have also been absorbing the data of any player we so happened to witness dying. The same goes for every monster. For some of those who have died, it appeared that they shattered into polygons. While that is true, we stored their data away in secret before it could vanish completely thanks to miniature AI drones. You couldn't see, feel, hear, or even touch them. We have been waiting a long time for all of you. With all of the data we have been collecting, we will soon grow far stronger than we currently are. In mere weeks in fact. So far, we are only slightly stronger from the data we have absorbed so far. Therefore, you will continue serving us once the game is cleared. The BRAINS Collective must be dissolved too when that happens with all members who managed to avoid getting trapped in this game joining my guild too. We will eventually destroy all human beings and you will help us do that as well as destroy Don Thousand and everything he has." So many of us are shaking for differing reasons due to various emotions. I glare at Lightning: "Damn you! You can't expect us to obey you!"

He ignores my words because the words of some of the others were a lot louder than mine were. Tsunade yells: "Why should we believe anything you say?! If you're going to threaten all of us into obedience, you better show proof for your claims!" "Very well. This won't take very long." A whole bunch of clips of data being stored away is shown. But it gets worse. We see a view of the entirety of Aincrad with this castle taking up a whole entire chunk of it including the roots of the World Tree from ALO which can be clearly seen stretching up a significant number of floors. All of the proof is being delivered to us on a silver platter. After a few minutes, the images and videos are dismissed by Lightning. "Do you believe me now?" Some of us throw smoke bombs. Others yell: "Let's get the hell out of here!" Besides the castle, here's what's on the 55th, 56th, and 57th Floors. On the 55th, there's the final part of Duel Links/Link VRAINS, varied Aincrad environments, Granzam the Steel City, a unnamed little hamlet, West Mountain, and the Knights Of the Blood Oath headquarters(the original one from SAO that is well known, was repurchased by KoB before we got to the 56th Floor). The 56th has the base of the World Tree, the city of Pani, a mountainous region, the headquarters of the Divine Dragon Alliance(who reformed in the Infinityverse, I just haven't brought em up much), and Spriggan territory. The 57th Floor has Marten, an urban compact city of tourist attractions and restaurants surrounded by grasslands. We literally scattered after that was shouted. We didn't want to find out what Windy and Lightning would do to us if we were caught by them. At least not until we got a better grasp of things.

That and none of us wanted to die. This was a measure of self preservation. The doors to other areas of the castle on all sides of the room we were in are flung open. When we were confronting Paradox, I didn't help the fastest of us despite being amongst the fastest clearers despite the weight of my armor. But now, my speed was allowing me to be sort of at the forefront of one fleeing group unintentionally. I end up noticing that I was running along with the Justice League, Crystal Gems, Playmaker's faction, and New Order Of The Stone in this direction that we were heading. We ran past monsters and trees in a forest that was split up into room after room with buildings from Link VRAINS juxtaposed high above the trees in a strange way. We just kept running and running until we felt like we got far enough away from the villains. So, we ended up coming to a stop. As we ran, Jesse and the others literally speed built a lot of obstacles in case our foes chose to go after us first. But then, we hear the chillingly calm voice of Lightning echo: "You will not escape from us. Even if you do beat the 57th Floor Boss, we will be waiting for you at the teleport gate to the 58th. However, I am not interested in waiting that long. You will be hunted down and killed systematically unless you send a fitting representative to the room you were in with us to inform us that you have accepted our conditions. You will have 1 hour from now until we begin to hunt all of you down. But that's only because we need some time to disconnect from the data absorbing. That's because absorbing so much data from storage items ties us to a small area and we can't travel far from it at the moment. When it's all taken care of, you will all pay most dearly for escaping without an answer to the conditions."

And with that, things sort of calmed down. The Flash speaks: "That AI gives me the creeps." Garnet replies: "There is no need to state the obvious. We need to focus. I do not believe we stand a chance against them if we act completely disorganized without a plan again. We have to work together but that still may not be enough so we will have to use our brains and go our strengths in order to face them. Every time we level up, we can boost one stat of ours. That has been true from the beginning." Wonder Woman nods: "You're correct, Garnet. This is a situation that won't be so easily overcome. Our enemies are dangerous AI." Playmaker nods: "They have caused a lot of problems in the past. Lightning was behind the entire conflict with the Hanoi as well as Kusanagi's brother's condition and the death of Revolver's father. He even reprogrammed Windy to serve him. Windy would go on to kill the person who he was trained on the actions of during the Lost Incident. They will resort to anything to get what their want." I add: "But that's not all. After seeing other worlds such as this one, they have picked up an inclination towards physical violence. I saw it for myself when they invaded Rune-Midgarts after I ended up there to help save it from the return of the vile Dark Lord as well as deal with them there. I was basically enough to stop them that time but they were set on causing actual destruction. They were already taking many actions to hurt others beyond dueling them and absorbing them before that time. But now, they are even more willing to do something like that again."

Steven sighs: "Man, this is going to be hard.. But you know, we still have each other and that's enough to get through this." Ghost Gal nods: "Look, I may be an info broker and bounty hunter and all but even I value companionship. Anyway, we must do more than just stand around to talk. We have to get smarter and stronger like Garnet said. The Ignis are very clever. Lightning orchestrated so many events, even helping Ai supposedly turn rouge for a short time. We also have to get further away from the villains. Let me see what information we have on this floor as of when it was only full of stuff from SAO and by extension, ALO.. *time passes* There are no recorded locations that would work well as hiding places." Zaizen sighs: "Damn it.. As if this situation weren't bad enough.. It looks like we will have to keep fleeing and level up along with way and do what we can to move around to avoid being spotted." Olivia speaks: "Don't forget, there might be many hiding places that would work well for us. They just weren't recorded so all we have to do is find them. I admit that's easier said than done but what other choice do we have? We can just find it and save the coordinates of it. Then, when Windy and/or Lightning come to chase us down, we can use the crystals to immediately teleport back to our hiding place. After that, once it is certainly safe enough, we can emerge from that spot and focus more on grinding monsters while keeping our guards up the entire time." We do just that for a solid 2 days without much happening. Monster grinding was easy because of the fact that we worked so well together due to spending so much time fighting Floor Bosses and other enemies in and outside of this game. We got our hiding place established: a cave we ended up finding that was hidden by some ancient ruins or something. It was secure and hard to even spot.

However, we heard something while making camp for the night. Peridot gulps: "Did you hear that?!" Some of us including me go scout outside. We have been taking advantage of the forest we're still in to travel through the trees while grinding. We look around and see some things that look like a problem. Garnet yells: "Everyone! You need to get out here now!" The others do just that. Now, more of those things appear. Soulburner asks: "Does anyone know what those are?" Ai replies: "No, I don't but something about them smells like Ignis programming.. I'm not sure how I can even detect that.. Like I know eating code is really delicious but still!" Roboppi cheers: "Yay! Master smart! Master smart!" Those things approach us while holding things towards us. Ivor speaks up: "I don't think those are duel disks they have pointed at us.." Hawkgirl nods: "Yeah. They look like they've come here to fight. Physically." Pearl gets ready: "If you things want to do battle, allow me to take you on!" Peridot shouts: "Pearl! What are you doing?! Isn't it obvious you can't take all of those things on for yourself?!" Suddenly, the faint sound of lots of fighting and scream is heard from the distance but muffled along with the barely audible growls of a Floor Boss. Supergirl who has blue eyes, tan skin, blonde hair, a red cape, and a white supersuit with a logo matching Superman's speaks: "I think the Floor Boss on this floor is being fought against without us.. But our main problem is these things.." One of them speaks: "We have come to test you clearers for Master Lightning. Prepare to feel pain."

They start attacking without warning or mercy. Pearl easily defeats them with her skills. Amethyst cheers: "Whew! Go Pearl! Oh yeah! Go Pearl!" Shining Knight says: "I do not think this battle be over just yet. No, this force has yet to have been truly vanquished." The things go back up and show that they are unharmed. Pearl sighs: "I was afraid this would happen." Jasper speaks up: "I do not think it is a good idea to let them fight any more of us. I have a bad feeling about them. I may only live for fighting opponents with great intensity but even I can see something just isn't right about them." Green Arrow, a JL member with blonde hair, a mask over his eyes, and his classic green outfit that may remind one of Robin Hood especially with that bow of us replies: "Yeah. I may not have ever had powers but even I get what you're saying. Something very funny is going on with them." Lapis nods: "They are causing me to have alarm bells ring in my head. I still am healing from being chained to the ocean as Malachite with you, Jasper. Those alarm bells are from that incident all that time ago." Steven speaks: "Well, what can we do to them then?" The Flash laughs: "If they're just testing us and feeding information to the enemy, why don't we fry their circuits?!" Ghost Gal replies: "That's not a very good idea. These AI are not like the robots you are used to smashing. They are far more intelligent. They aren't attacking us any further so they can record this conversation." Hawkgirl beats her left hand and mace together: "Then we just have to overwhelm them with so much DPS that they start malfunctioning."

Somehow, that actually ends up working really well. Thus, we are able to be soon more at ease over the entire situation. 2 more days passed. We are contacted by some of our comrades through direct messages and stuff like that that there's a plan to meet up to go to the next floor at specific coordinates to regroup and get ready for the next floor. We had been struggling to live a cautious lifestyle of sorts, always on the alert for any threats such as Lightning choose to scout the area we're in himself but nothing much else happened. That was until the messages were read. That caused a problem. We all got the same message from various contacts: "Found you. :D" J'onn speaks: "I do not understand how but they managed to pretend to be our closest contacts and get our coordinates in the process. The coordinates we were given must have not been coordinates at all.." Biara speaks: "No, they must have been some kind of complex program designed to trace us through us replying to them. Based on the smiley face in the identical messages we were sent, Windy is on his face towards us right now." Unfortunately, she was completely right. It was not long before Windy appeared with a smile on his face. He generates a data storm to split us up before summoning more creatures just like the ones from before. However, that only ended up being a total distraction. Instead of them attacking, he attacks. I was his first target. One attack was all it took to go through my armor and cause me to bleed out from new wounds as my hp plummeted. "*gag* This can't be.. What the hell have you.. done, Windy?" He smirks: "Oh nothing! Nothing at all! Just have become a little stronger from the data we have been collecting on all of you clearers!"

He then just kind of leaves us before attacking others who are heavily armored specifically. I recovered quickly but say: "What was that supposed to do?!" Playmaker replies: "That is not a good sign. We are in a lot of danger. He is playing with us which means he is confident in what he and Lightning are planning on doing at the teleport gate to the 58th Floor. I will never forget any detail from what he said 4 days ago." I sigh: "Damn it. This is a truly bad problem. We have to do something to stop them but what? It's going to take a lot to reunite with the other clearers given how dangerous this floor has become.. When we made our way here 4 days ago, we encountered all kinds of monsters and traps along the way. Each nearly killed all of us and hurt like hell for some time." But we are forced to move on for now in order to reunite with the others only to split up again after we reached the next floor and ensured that the coast was clear. Hawkgirl speaks: "What I don't get is why only target those with heavy armor and leave without saying much?" Many of us sigh. Connie replies: "Is it just to be random or is it actually much more sinister?" As we walk, I end up having to dodge an obstacle. More like, I fail to dodge it. "What the hell?! I'm plenty thin enough to evade this thing! What is going on?!" Steven comes over to me: "Hey, Swiftdrawer! You have wings now!" "Wings?!" Peridot speaks: "Now that you mention that, I see some kind of giant tree root in the distance.." In the chaos and confusion in getting to this floor, we ended up not noticing what's going on here. I look at my new wings. They're fairy wings with a transparent green going and holy crap, they're so sensitive. They also feel really weird.

I look at Steven: "Steven! You have blue wings now! That means you're an Undyne fairy now! And me? I'm a Slyph just like Leafa. And Peridot? She's a Spriggan." "Woah, cool!" Superman sighs as he looks at his. Batman just says: "No comment." Ai is laughing at all of this until someone tells him: "Aww! Look at your wings! So cute!" "I have wings?! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I sweat drop: "Hey, can we take this seriously? Now that we're a bunch of misfit fairies, we can use ALO magic and stuff now. Oh and we can fly too. It won't be easy to learn to use our wings to fly given that these virtual bodies of ours didn't even have wings until just now." Ghost Gal hacks into the system to do some digging. She then says: "It's much more than that. The fairy races we were sorted into by the system were not chosen at random or by accident. Each of us is now a member of the tribe of fairies that best fits us for one reason or another. Swift, you're a Slyph because you have staggering speed for the armor you wear and are a wind elemental. Peridot is known for enjoying deception sometimes. Steven's gem allows him to heal people and he is kind and caring. Undyne is perfect for him. B'wana Beast is a Cat Sith because he has the ability to actually communicate with animals in the real world. It goes on from there but that's just how it is." Garnet speaks: "This somewhat complicates things. I am well aware that to use spells, one must read or recite the incarnation required. We will have to keep accessing the system to find the spells we can use, read them, and learn to recite them from memory." I nod: "What's more is that the more advanced a spell, the longer of an incantation it has. This is going to be fun. I haven't recited anything from memory for Open Mic at MFF 2022."

Pearl speaks up: "Okay, while that is nice and all, we really have to be cautious. All foes could attack at any time. Also, I would like to know where we even are. We were all well informed about ALO's borders and geography but I can't seem to identify where we are exactly. It doesn't help that it was all fully merged with Aincrad's original layout." I sigh: "It ain't going to be easy to figure that out. None of us are veteran ALO players. I'm sure Leafa could figure this out easily." We keep talking as we cut down monster after monster as we explore the floor and ignore all of the walls of the castle all of this is inside of. But then, Windy attacks again and actually reduces all of us to one hp each just like Paradox did not too long ago. He laughs: "Found you again! Time to die! But not so quickly. I want to make all of you suffer as much as I did before I came to this world with Lightning! I'm going to get my revenge! And I will start it by killing you for humiliating Lightning and I in that other fantasy world, Swiftdrawer!" "We'll see about that!" "Hmph!" Playmaker activates his duel disk: "Windy. You will face me in a duel." Soulburner shakes his head and stands in front of Playmaker with his own duel disk activated: "No, allow me to bring him down for all of us, Playmaker. I know exactly what I'm doing." Windy glares at both of them: "Why don't you start by getting out of my way! Swiftdrawer's my only target at the moment! Until I get my revenge, you will have to wait on facing me!" Blue Maiden steps forward: "I think it would be best if I duel Windy."

I activate my duel disk: "None of you need to defend me. I know that's not exactly what you're doing but the way you have stepped in front of me has given the wrong impression." Windy glares again: "WHY DONT I JUST DUEL ALL OF YOU AT ONCE AND CRUSH YOU WITH MY NEWEST CARDS?!" I reply: "I will work to make you eat your words or die painfully trying to. Windy, are you sure you want to duel all of us at once? Just Revolver alone was enough to defeat you in the past." "That was different! I am a new me complete with knowledge of all kinds of duel strategies! You will all lose to me in just a very short time!" "*unison* Duel!" I shout: "I want to get this over with so I'll go first." The duel ends up taking some time to finish up as Windy is decked out with a deck almost completely full of cards none of us have ever seen before. Only his Bahamut Bomber and its evolved version remain from his old deck. In the end, he loses but not before dealing us a lot of damage both physically and in life points because the duel was more than just a duel. He screams: "I'll get all of you for this! Just wait! Just you wait and see! I will be back!" The next day, things actually get really intense. Lightning attacks us himself and speaks calmly: "I have no interest in waiting any longer to kill all of you. I now know all of your strengths and weaknesses from the information I have absorbed from Entity303 and Paradox. Therefore, there is nothing you can do now to stop me or Windy." We attack him at once in a coordinated formation that was hastily formed by us all but has no obvious weaknesses thanks to the fact that we have all had experience in practicing it at least a few times in the past. But none of our attacks hurt him. It's like he's a great stone wall that just can't be broken through. Without another word, he swiftly just kills us all. The end. It's over. All over.

But why does it feel like I'm not actually dead? What the hell is going on now?! I look around and only see darkness. What is this? But then, the darkness fades, showing everything I last saw before I presumably died. Lightning is now fighting with.. Heathcliff? But Heathcliff is dead.. Lightning frowns: "You. You should be dead. How are you still alive?" Heathcliff replies: "I created a backup of myself." "No! Of course you just had to do that to me! I should have seen that coming!" "I have been waiting for the right moment to return to the Assault Team and as leader of KoB. That time is now. Comrades, we must work together to defeat or at least repel this enemy for now." "You fool! You have no chance of defeating me! I will kill all of you. Your defense is infinite but that doesn't mean I won't be able to kill you.. There are ways to get past your immortal object status as recent history has shown in this game. I am amused at how sad you all are but at the same time, I'm angry because you are just so foolish and that is testing even my patience." But before he could actually kill all of us in earnest or try to again, we use teleport crystals to escape. Superman speaks as we return to our cave: "I do not like being forced to retreat like that." I sigh: "Well in case you haven't noticed, we just don't stand a chance against him and it would be completely pointless to try to fight him when we can't even land a hit on him. I saw you hit him with an arrow, Green Arrow. Excellent aim but that arrow obviously didn't do anything whatsoever ever to him despite being high quality and accelerated by one of your bow skills in this game. Based on that, we can say for certain that there really was no point for continuing to fight him. We need to survive so we can actually fight a more fair battle."

Pearl nods: "Unfortunately, you're right. Fighting Lightning without the rest of the Assault Team with us would have been a disaster. He makes good on his threats. We all know this now. We would have all been killed. We need to change a lot in order to change a chance against him." Connie sighs: "Okay but what about the other 2 Floor Bosses that we need to deal with?!" Heathcliff speaks: "I apologize for not warning all of you in advance about my return. But nevermind that. What's more important is that we must now evade our foes until the time is right. I have contacted the other clearers about this. It may be necessary to find a way to lure the Floor Boss that we must next fight to a location not even Windy or Lightning would dare look." I speak up: "This might be the tightest position we have ever been in so far. I just don't know really what to do now. Like how do we even get strong enough to stop them before they gain the rest of the data they had stored away?!" Amethyst chuckles: "Oh, I have the best idea! Let's find those storage things and break them!" "Slyphs specialize in stealth amongst other things. I guess I better learn stealth magic. But they will probably expect something like that so we have to get them while they're away from wherever those things are and completely distracted to the point they aren't even thinking about those things." Thus, we start setting out to mess with our enemies to prevent them from becoming really powerful. We draw up plans to not just sneak attack but to keep evading our enemies. In fact, we start coordinating with the other chunks of the Assault Team. Why? By setting up a series of observers and the like, we could track the movements of our enemies and move around accordingly.

Compared to a lot of floors below this one, this floor is quite small since as Leafa ended up confirming, this floor holds the roots and bottom of the World Tree and Spriggan territory but nothing else. The vastness of Duel Links and Link VRAINS far exceeds the realm of the fairies in ALO although we expect to see floors get bigger again eventually because ALO has and had other areas. The realm of the fairies is known in the game's lore at Alfheim. There's other realms from Norse mythology as well so the world of ALO is exactly really vast. Anyway, we set up various Assault Team members at various hidden locations to track Windy and Lightning, using the terrain to their advantage to avoid being spotted and killed. Even technology was employed to help with this task now that we were now just building more and more devices using Minecraft's advanced building and crafting mechanics as seen in Minecraft Story Mode not to mention all of the stuff from the Minecraft mods that were added to this game. We won't let them kill us all so easily. If we have to keep moving locations, so be it. We are under the impression that Windy and Lightning are now looking for us 24/7. The main issue right now is finding and taking down the floor boss without being spotted and then killed. So we have already discussed what we could do to get the boss to go somewhere we want it to be. But we could also trick Windy and Lightning into fighting it. That should buy us some time to move freely without fear of being seen. The only problem with that is that Windy and Lightning have sent out more AI to look for us so it's taking a lot of effort from our snipers and archers to bring those down without letting anyone be spotted.

If we could just get to the 58th Floor, it would become harder for them to find us but we will have to keep remaining vigilant because we simply have no chance of defeating them at our current levels. In order to help increase our odds, the separated groups keep shifting members discreetly. That helps keep clearers fresh amongst other benefits. But then, on Day 670, we finally found the 56th Floor Boss. And to think the 55th Floor was hard enough on its own.. I was amongst those hiding around as it was my turn to keep watch for the enemy. I have the patience and silence for it. As I watched, I heard a lot of yells of pain from the distance and roars of a Floor Boss. "The 56th Floor Boss! It's nearby!" I run into the hiding place and share the news. Sinon replies: "That took a while, didn't it? I've already contacted the rest of the Assault Team and urged those who are fighting it to get away. Its roars and their fighting with it is most certainly attracting the enemy straight to their location. It goes without saying that this is a really bad situation." Amethyst speaks: "Hey wait! If they're being attracted by all of that noise as you believe, wouldn't that mean the boss will end up attacking them?" Superman replies: "Something tells me that's not how it's going to go. Those two have learned from the mistakes of Entity303 and Paradox. They won't fall for just about any trick we've come up with so far. If they see the boss is alone, they will leave it alone. They won't kill it because their chances of finding us will increase if they keep making sure it is our problem to deal with instead of theirs." The Flash sighs: "This totally bites. I hate having to hide all the time like this. I want to fight, you know! Like how hard could it be to trick Windy and Lightning?! I could probably do it myself!"

Chronos has a eureka and laughs: "Momma Mia! That's it! I think I know how we can fool them! We use terrible ideas from those of us who never came up with any tricks in this game before or came up with tricks that actually sounded full proof!" Asuka replies: "Like you?" "..I'm just going to go to that corner over there.." I speak: "Chronos, your idea isn't that bad. I support going with what you suggested." Amethyst cheers: "My ideas are almost always terrible! Garnet keeps stopping me from even uttering any of my terrible ideas! What's even better is that my ideas are so unpredictable!" A few hours later, I am standing around in a ridiculous costume alongside several others. "This costume is making me sweat. I want to get out of this thing already. I don't even get how this is supposed to help us trick Windy and Lightning. Also, we still have yet to take care of those damn storage whatevers that hold the data Windy and Lightning have yet to absorb." A few minutes later, Lightning comes along, stares at us, and says: "You useless surveillance drones. I ordered you to search the entire castle for those clearers and yet, not a single one has been found yet. Many have been spotted but we still can't find them after some of the other AIs were destroyed. Now I tell you once again, follow my orders." Reading from a script, a costumed Woman Woman speaks: "Sorry, Master Lightning. It's just that we don't know what to do." "And what does that mean? Is this an excuse to slack off?" I reply: "No. There's a problem we can't handle on our own." "If that's true, then explain it to me in detail. You are rather talkative for drones, you must be malfunctioning somewhat."

Asuka replies: "We are not. Master Lightning, heres the problem. You know the 56th Floor Boss? We saw the clearers fight it only to retreat. They didn't just retreat as a small group either. All of them were there together. They managed to evade being spotted by all drones except for us by using the terrain and even the walls of this castle. But after they teleported away, we looked around all of the obvious places they could have ended up together in this castle but they were nowhere to be found. We just gave up on searching not too long before you showed up." "Hmm.. I see. That proves itself to be a problem. I suppose I have no choice but to investigate myself." Without him noticing, some of the others tackled and blindfolded him before tying him up with all kinds of things. Reading from the script again, I say in feigned distress and even fall to the ground hard to make it convincing: "Master! Noooo! Damn it! We're under attack too!" Lightning yells: "An ambush! How could you drones have not seen this coming?! You are the 4th worst group of drones I've dealt with today!" Orochimaru laughs: "That's right! We have you now, Lightning! Even with all of your power, you will not be able to escape from these bindings. Did you know that there are many ways to restrain someone using all of the resources one can find from many of the games that have been merged with Aincrad as well as Aincrad itself? I believe you didnt. This yet another instance of one of my experiments going perfectly! Do you feel strange like some kind of poison is circulating through you?! There's a reason for that. Every negative debuff that could possibly be applied to you somehow has been applied. And now, we'll be stealing those storage devices you treasure so much."

Someone then takes Lightning away and comes back seconds later. "He has been delivered to the Floor Boss. It will eat him alive unless he manages to escape. Now, he has no choice but to fight it." To our shock, Windy appears near us as if he saw the entire thing. He claps: "Well done! Are you having fun?! Because I'm afraid you won't be having fun for much longer!" But that's when the team makeup shift happens. Several of us are swapped out through teleport crystals for others. Windy gasps briefly only to laugh really hard at this chain of events. "So you think that that will stop me?! Think again! I will succeed where Lightning failed! I know he has created many drones who just look really.. what's the right human word? Oh right, hideous. You clearers did so many things that we weren't expecting that you forced him to create many drones to find all of you very very quickly, leading to most of them having defects, especially in appearance. But those the called drones I see here are fakes! It's obvious. They're too imperfect but I suppose having Lightning can miss little details like that! After all, he has dealt with failure daily for almost 2 weeks while I spent most of my time killing NPCs in the hopes that would stagnant the progress of you clearers!" Chronos laughs: "Plan B! Now!" Windy raises an eyebrow before all of us attack him at once before unleashing a mind blowing display of tricks. I contribute by using Artist's Eye to bring to life a bunch of clowns on segways and creepy singing hamster dolls because why not. Using that distraction, we all teleport away and switch with other comrades who went on to engage Windy in battle only to vanish too and tell him to follow them if he wants to have a good fight. That led him to being tricked into fighting the Floor Boss as well. While that went on, myself and the others who are best suited for stealth missions begin the sabotage.

Because the Assault Team is so big now, it's actually been days since those storage things were discovered. They were located at the edge of Floor 56 hanging from a castle balcony (above the room we first got to when on the last floor) probably to ensure none of us would get to it because why would 2 sentient AI choose to hide it right there is such a precarious position? However, we weren't exactly fooled as some of us still found them anyway. We infiltrated the area they were in, snuck through all kinds of annoying traps, and got to them. O'Brien speaks: "It can't be this easy to get them. Something isn't right." Jim nods: "You're right about that, mate. There must be all kinds of traps between us and them that only Windy and Lightning can disable just in case we somehow got this far. But time is running out. The Floor Boss won't hold out much longer if it isn't already dead so we have to find a way to get around or above the traps. For some reason, all of our wings have failed to work as if this castle disables flight itself inside of it." "Are you telling me we have to do some kind of parkour to get to them?" I speak up: "Damn. This is going to be hard. We must assume every single microscopic code that makes up everything between us and those things contains a trap. Going around them would mean having to be like a mountain climber. It might be our only option. We should only send 2-3 of us to get those things." Argo nods: "But there's more to it as well. Jumping to them would be too risky." "Not if you could do some exact calculations. Oh wait. That's not possible because we can't measure the distance from here to those things. So jumping is out of the question."

Pearl adds: "Knocking them all down would be a bad idea because then, we could lose the data of the minds of some of our comrades forever. Destroying them is not an option." And so, some of us are sent to retrieve them using mountain climbing style tools and skills. It was a delicate operation but it was a success nonetheless." Argo cheers: "We did it! Now, let's get out of here!" I add: "We should go to Twisted Land for now. They could never find us in there. I know that for certain as long as we get to a really good spot that takes effort and time to get to. There's some remains of something old I built years ago. It was meant to be like a room where staff could sleep in the park and stuff. But there's even better hiding places all around. The top of Studio Corpse's Visual Distortion contains a whole little place of sorts that you can't even physically get to without building up, flying, or teleportation. It's one of the last places any enemy would look because that whole building that coaster's in is full of stuff as it is." And so, we end up teleporting there once I give the coordinates to it since I sort of got those recorded somewhere a while back. Once there, Sinon speaks: "This place. It's so.. cramped. The walls are only 2 blocks tall." "I had some extra space I had no need of when I created this building so I used it for a secret BRAINS base. It was the best way to use the space besides leaving it empty. Though that isn't much of a use for it, is it?" O'Brien speaks: "Okay, we're here now but shouldn't we do something with these storage devices? It's too dangerous to keep them on us in case they find and kill us."

I smirk: "Leave it to me. Those of you who have them, give them to me. I'll hide them while the rest of you return to the 56th Floor. Don't worry, I won't take long doing this. It's just really important that as many of us get back up to that floor as possible. Otherwise, things could get really bad since we are quite the powerful force with just those of us who are here right now." My request is agreed to reluctantly and I receive the items we took. After they leave, I say: "I think we're all aware that us taking them was still predicted to happen by Lightning anyway. He will begin searching for them along with all of us. I have to put these in a safe location especially now that I've started taking a more proactive role in this kind of stuff as well as conversation. Maybe I'm not fighting as much as I'd want to but that's okay. I'm more concerned about dealing with our foes. These things are the key to us beating them in the end or dying at their hands. Now where in Twisted Land should I put them? Obviously somewhere that takes some time to get to. But where exactly?" I think long and hard about where I want to hide them. That's when I got it. "Aha! The other BRAINS base I properly built in this park. It's below a structure in the park that doesn't house a ride. That's all I'm going to say." I teleport to it only to realize the additional base I built would be even better. I teleport to it and put them into storage there before reuniting with the others. It didn't take long for word of the Floor Boss's defeat at the hands of our foes to reach us. They did the work for us. Sucks to be them. It helps that some of the others set up all kinds of traps and barriers to prevent Windy and Lightning from escaping. Okay, they were nothing to the 2 villains but they did slow them down enough for the boss to keep forcing them to fight it.

I guess the Floor Bosses really just target anything that has a name tag and moves. Thanks to all of this, we have a huge leg up against them now. They won't kill us all so easily. We will make sure of that. Soon after, we all head up to the next floor in very small groups, keeping contact with one another to make plans to meet back up and all of that. We came to the teleport gate from all sides, making it difficult for our foes to track us down in the process. The intervals between us all heading to it were even varied. Some of us actually went underground to get to the gate even. Underground, there were less drones looking for us because our foes knew it was unlikely we would use the underground given how few entrances there were on the surface. Something I forgot to mention about the 57th Floor earlier is that it is home to Slyph territory. We spawn in its capital city except divided by castle walls of course. And as with the other 2 floors, there's all kinds of monsters and traps around. Something else I forgot to mention is that there have been times where's we were shown down by a door to another room being locked, requiring the solving of a puzzle or combat challenge to unlock it. That made evading our foes even harder than it would have been otherwise but it's a good thing each group traveling around had at least one really strong player and one really intelligent player, making it much easier to unlock such locked doors. Eventually, the group Im in comes to an inn in the Sylph capital after a long day of evading and grinding. I sigh: "This might be a mistake. Our foes know the most obvious place to find us is in cities like this one."

Kirito nods: "Yeah but I don't see the problem. We're safe in safe zones." Asuna slaps him: "Kirito! We are not safe anywhere!" "Oww.. Sorry! I forgot!" Silica chuckles nervously and says: "Umm, since it's really not safe here, why are we still going in?" Ghost Gal replies: "Kiddo, there's a rumor that the inns in fairy cities have hidden passageways and more below them. I heard a rumor that the inns in Salamander territory have cata-" Blue Maiden replies: "Don't say that in front of someone like Silica!" Leafa sighs: "Isn't it strange that we never heard of such rumors in ALO?" Yui shakes her head: "It's not. The hidden passages were added to ALO in an update that came out only before the Infinityverse was formed." Sinon hums: "If that's the case, why would they only add them to the game now?" Llenn utters: "No.. Did the devs of ALO.. know that the Infinityverse was coming?!" M shakes his head: "That's very unlikely. It's possible that the reason they added them when they did may have been due to the quests generated by the Cardinal System." Kirito looks like he's thinking intensely before saying: "You could be right. Or the Cardinal System added them to the game itself in preparation for.. Ragnarok." Asuna gasps: "Wait.. That makes a lot of sense. During the quest we took that eventually won us Excalibur.. The storyline followed certain events from Norse mythology that apparently led to Ragnarok in Norse mythology. Ragnarok: the apocalypse.."

I sigh: "It's probably even worse now. ALO's areas could be soon stage to Ragnarok. We could be in the midst of a giant quest that could actually kill us all. Or.. Lightning and Windy could unleash Ragnarok on us all to eliminate us for good should they tire of looking for us." Several of us tense up at that thought. Petra exclaims: "We can't allow that to that happen! We just have to get stronger and.. fast. But that won't be easy with all of the obstacles constantly in our way." As we talk, we gradually find our way into an underground passageway below the inn and start exploring it to find a good hiding spot in case we need it. Ai speaks: "Hold on a second.. I know Windy and Lightning.. They could very easily use Data Storms against us so why haven't I sensed any since that day we got stuck in this castle within a floating castle?" Ghost Gal sighs: "They could still be setting us up or they've been just trying to disrupt us using fear while they continued to grow stronger. What if they couldn't defeat the entire Assault Team in one huge battle the day we came to the 55th Floor? What if they actually wanted us to separate and do everything we could to hide from them?" I punch a wall: "Damn it! United we stand, divided we fall! Of course! Everything that has happened could have been directly manipulated by them from the very moment we got to the 55th Floor! It was all certainly caused as a response to what they were threatening us with.. This is really bad. They could very well actually know about ALL of the hiding spots that are in this game by now. Including where I hide those things in Twisted Land. They want to keep us separated so they can catch us off guard and pick us off. One by one as Lightning kept saying. One by one.."

Wonder Woman replies: "We have to act under the assumption that's been their plan all along. The story of Lightning's manipulations in the past is known to all players by now.. Those threats that Lightning made to us were just a part of it. Unless.. He was prepared to kill all of us OR make all of us bend to his will." Ai sighs: "Knowing Lightning, he would have disposed of us whenever we proved to have no more use to him if the latter ever happened.. Glitch! What if they have known where we've been going this entire time?! We HAVE to get to the next floor! Quickly!" Typhon, a clearer with green? eyes, light skin, long silver/white hair tied in a unique way, lots of muscle, and a green outfit speaks: "That's easier said than done. To be strong and stealthy enough to take down the Floor Boss and get out of this prison of a golden castle.. Even I have a hard time believing that will be possible. I love a good fight. I really enjoy fighting strong opponents but even I can see the entire situation for what it is. If we've been played this entire time, they have let us get stronger for a reason." Argo says: "Nyehahahaha! There may be a way to get off this floor WITHOUT the Floor Boss being killed. We can assume that Windy and Lightning will be actually in fact waiting for us at the teleport gate to the next floor." Eraser Head speaks: "Have you completely lost it?!" "No. All we have to do is climb the stairs to the next floor AND break through the barrier that is keeping us from getting to the next floor that aligns with the top of those stairs. Normally, it takes killing the Floor Boss of a floor for the barrier that locks the next floor to be unlocked." Pearl looks uncomfortable: "What are you implying, Argo?!" Pito laughs: "Are we to RISK our lives to pass through that barrier?!"

A lot of us gulp or gasp at the statement. I yell: "That's a really bad idea! I've done some wild things but even I think that's too far! But I will still hear you out. How would we even perform such a feat?! Unless.. We saw Paradox break through barrier after barrier.. Are you implying that we can have to puncture a whole in the barrier by combining all of our attack skills and techniques to do enough damage? But for all we know, the barrier could have an insanely high amount of health and defense that only someone like Paradox could get past.." "Nyehahahaha! You're close! We're going to do just that but someone with the immortal object status will lead the way. This is going to be really risky but we just have to trust each other. This is the only option that could possibly work. Windy and Lightning could take back that data we took from them and use it to finish powering up before killing all of us in minutes. Beating the Floor Boss on this floor could require us to spend so much time and effort that they could very well finish powering up before we win against it. They could then wipe us all out in one place. All other possibilities are even riskier. We HAVE to do this." And so, we end up using the underground passageway along with a map of the surface that's still displayed on our mini maps to navigate around. Shockingly, the passageways go throughout the entire floor although we have to bust down more than a few castle walls as we went. Apparently, they stretch all the way from the boundary between this and the next floor the the bottom of the 55th without being interrupted in the slightest.

After what must have been hours, we made camp in a underground cavern of some kind that was surrounded by monsters so we had to sleep in shifts in order to take care of them while also getting some sleep. The next morning, I finally realized what day it is. Day 672. Somehow, we lost a day or something but that wasn't important. What was important was a message we all got. Windy and Lightning have killed 50 clearers and the Floor Boss has been spotted. Some of us end up switching with clearers in other groups who are then informed of our situation down here and what must be done at all costs. Once that was done, we prepared to literally dig the rest of the way to the stairs leading up to the next floor. We all worked together, using Netherrite pickaxes and rare haste 2 potions to get to those stairs a lot faster. Our enemies know all of our strengths and weaknesses so digging the rest of the way was a great idea. Some of us even placed stuff behind us to block anyone or anything from following us. This was so damn urgent. All of this was. We finally reached the stairs after a couple hours and ate some grub from our inventories before heading back up to the surface where the sunlight was blinding which is why we all put on sunglasses Ellegaard crafted for us as we dug and all that. Over time, various details such as the weather have affected us more and more realistically like the game was becoming more and more like real life the higher up we went. We just had to get to the next floor now. We ran up those stairs in small ish groups in order to avoid crowding and other problems.

After an hour, we reached to the top while having stayed alert the entire time. We got word that the Floor Boss was being fought against with Windy and Lightning with their drones spotted near the sight of the fight. Our comrades were unprepared and under leveled for the fight so they were losing. Badly. Heathcliff speaks: "I will get in front of all of you now. I will make sure none of you take damage from the barrier as we puncture it together." We ready our weapons and prepare to attack the barrier, aiming to break it apart completely if at all possible. The ultimate weakness of many barriers is that enough force in just one area of it doesn't just puncture them. It makes them shatter after cracks form. I scream: "Haaaaaaa! Good thing we can use more than just weapon skills to attack! I'll give this everything I have! After all, to puncture this barrier, we have to aim our attacks just above any part of Heathcliff or aim them at him to propel him forward!" We give it everything we have. Puncturing the barrier. That's something not even Lightning or Windy would expect us to try so there's no enemies after us at the moment. They know all about our movements but it's like they just gave up on us. They think we'll definitely fail and die trying. But we believe with all of our hearts that we will break through the barrier and even if we don't break it.. That we will still get through and try to ensure our comrades eventually are able to as well. If all else fails, we will be the last of the clearers and carry the torch of the Assault Team by ourselves. I scream again: "Dont give in! Keep pushing! We're the only ones who can do this! The others can handle themselves for now now that they're all together and fighting the boss!"

Kirito exclaims: "Damn it! This barrier! It.. won't break!" Ghost Gal replies: "Hacking it does not work so I am using all of my strength instead to help break through!" We just keep going at it even if it seems impossible and that all hope is lost. We all cry out as we put in more and more effort. Asuna yells: "We can do this! Our combined DPS along with Heathcliff's abilities can break through! Some of us normally would be at the front of the battle with the Floor Boss, fighting head to toe with it. But today, WE ARE HERE INSTEAD!" Minutes later, the barrier is successfully punctured and as we all were still attacking it, we fell through the opening we made onto the 58th Floor but not without a steep price. Even with Heathcliff's protection, we were all badly hurt and affected by all kinds of horrible status effects. Steven yells: "The barrier! It's not shattering!" Peridot screams: "No! It's closing right behind us!" A lot of us sweat heavily between that and the fact that we're all literally dying. Silica exclaims: "No! It can't end for us here! What if we opened the way to this floor from this side?! The teleport gate has to be nearby! I don't see how we can't activate the gate from this side!" Pina whimpers. The poor familiar is probably the worst afflicted of us all. Myself and others struggle to get back up. I utter: "I can see the teleport gate! It's just over there! We.. can make it!" I collapse from my injuries and status aliments. I weakly start consuming potions to keep myself alive. It's all I can do now.

Silica refuses to give in: "No! It can't end this way! PINA! EVERYONE! AAAAAA! IT HURTS SO MUCH BUT ONE OF US HAS TO ACTIVATE THAT TELEPORT GATE! I'LL DO IT! I WILL!" She overcomes what's holding her back and runs towards the teleport gate with Pina held tightly in our hands. Ghost Gal runs after her: "I WILL MAKE SURE YOU SUCCEED BY HACKING IT TO MAKE IT ACTIVATE!" We watch as the 2 of them make it. Ghost Gal frantically hacks furiously into the teleport gate in order to get it to activate. Right after she finishes, she passes out, a pool of red appears around and under her. Silica is forced to ignore that as she lunges at the teleport gate to activate it. She trips on something and begins to fall but just barely manages to activate the teleport gate by touching it. She also passes out. Argo yells: "I WILL TELL OUR COMRADES TO GET HERE IMMEDIATELY! THEY HAVE TO RUN TO THE TELEPORT GATE OR USE SYSTEM COMMANDS TO GET HERE NOW! THEY WILL HAVE TO ABANDON THE FLOOR BOSS AND RUN FOR THEIR LIVES." It was strange to hear her shout at the top of her lungs but that's what's happened. Seconds later, some of our comrades made it here safely but they didn't look so good themselves. I cry out as my pain only worsens and the aliments take more of my hp so I'm forced to keep on drinking potions. I couldn't pay attention to who was somewhat okay, dying, almost dead, or dead now.. All I could do was hold on as long as I could. Finally, the rest of our comrades somehow got away to get to this floor. But then, Liten yells: "Everyone! It isn't over! No matter how hurt we are, we have to run! THEYRE COMING! EVEN I COULDNT HOLD THEM OFF FOR EVEN A MOMENT IF I GAVE IT MY ALL AT FULL STRENGTH!" We are forced to get back up. To be continued..