Floor 19 - Boss - The Disturbia Experiment
The lift that the group had found in the pantry could best be described as ''snug''. So snug in fact, that they'd decided to split into two groups as the lift categorically wouldn't hold nine people. Jet had decided to lead his group down first, whilst Kirito's group followed a few minutes later.
Even with just five of them in the lift car, it was still a tight squeeze as they descended into the unknown. A sense of unease hung over the group for the thirty seconds it took to reach the terminus of the shaft, and that didn't ease up as they left the lift. The room they found themselves in certainly didn't fit the medieval setting of Aincrad, that much Jet could state with certainty, and it looked far more like it belonged in an episode of a Sci-Fi drama than their current situation.
''This... is not what I was expecting.'' Phillia thought aloud, as she looked around the room. He found himself agreeing with her assessment of the room, as they walked around the proximity of the lift shaft. A number of steel cabinets around the area, all neatly organised and filled with brown folders. Detailed diagrams of the anatomy of almost everything in Aincrad so far, test results of something, drawings of unknown prototypes, the cabinets were a complete treasure trove for anyone gathering information!
Phillia attempted to look over his shoulder, before settling for looking over his arms instead. ''Huh, shame Argo isn't here... we'd never get her away from this!'' Despite his relatively poor mood, he found himself snorting at the joke. She'd nailed one of the most basic tenets of humour, in his eyes - basing it in reality. Had their info broker friend been there, any mission they might have had would've been sidetracked by Argo trawling through the files...
Their digging through the cabinets was interrupted as the rest of the group rejoined them, and they made a note of the files to grab on the way back - mostly ones relating to enemies they had already faced, but a few looked very unfamiliar, so could be a way of giving them the edge going forward. If nothing else, the files on current enemies could be a great use in assisting lower level players on how to grind as safely as possible.
Heading deeper into the room, the darkened void soon gave way to a surprisingly well lit facility. Almost too well lit, as the activation of the lights were almost enough to blind them. They'd decided to split into two groups - Kirito's group would look through the side of the room nearest to the lift, whilst his group took the far side of the room Looking deeper, the room they'd found themselves in was some kind of laboratory, a fact that probably shouldn't have surprised anyone given the files they'd seen earlier. What did concern them, however, was the test tubes full of sand, and the numerous vents located in the roof, over what appeared to be a chamber on the other side of the room.
Perhaps they were once part of a ventilation system, long since lost to time and disrepair, but something about that didn't sit right with Jet. The design of the vents looked awkward, almost as if they were designed to allow something in, rather than take it out. Add into that that the vents looked far larger than you'd need normally, almost to the size of an average person, if he had to guess...
His contemplation over the aesthetic design of a ventilation system aside, the quiet was soon broken by gasps of horror from Koharu and Rain, who'd gone to take a closer look at the chamber. Koharu looked almost completely shaken to her core, swaying like a leaf caught in an updraft, only barely staying on her feet, as she struggled to get even a single word out, whilst Rain clutched her hands over her face, and tried to look away, equally shaken by the sight in front of her. Seeing what the girls could see, Jet didn't blame them one bit. Two small bodies, a number of their features recessed, with sand pouring from whatever orifices were visible. Their flesh had gone almost grey, with a sickening sheen over it. The feeling of sickness in his stomach became even worse when an awful realisation struck him...
They were very small bodies for an adult. Too small, really.
Placing a hand on the glass of the chamber, and fighting the urge to gag at the sight, Jet muttered to the bodies... ''What did they even do to you?...'' Somehow, he took a pretty good swing that it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for the children, and decided to leave that particular thought process there. The less he could think about what hell they'd endured, the safer his sanity was...
''Th-they are dead, right?''
''I'd hope so.'' He really did hope they were long since gone, and decided not to consider the possibility that Koharu had raised. Down that path really did lie madness...
''Uhh, guy and girls? I think I know what we-oh God!'' Phillia walked over, and almost immediately regretted it, as she recoiled in horror, her eyes closed to avoid looking at the sight in front of them. ''That is sick!''
''It can't be...'' Kizmel looked at the bodies with a look of abject horror, her tone becoming uneven as she spoke quietly. ''That's just a myth...''
''Kizmel?''
''We have to leave.'' She stated, uncharacteristically afraid if the uneven tone of her usually resolute voice was anything to go by. ''The creature that did this, it is something called a Sandman. We thought they were nothing more than tales to frighten children into compliance, but...'' She trailed off, as if she had a major part of her world view suddenly, and without warning, dismantled in front of her eyes...
''I think I understand what's going on here, and Kizmel's right, we need to go. Now!'' Phillia stated, unusually forcefully for the normally upbeat treasure hunter. ''This was the Professor's journal, and look!''
The creature is an interesting specimen. Long since thought to be a fairy tale, the locals have named the occurrences to be the work of the creature known to them as ''The Sandman''. It appears to be placid most of the time, but its retribution when enraged is nothing short of biblical. Subjects 002 and 003 were found in an advanced state of decomposition, despite their time of death being thought to be only an hour prior. The mark of the Sandman, and its handiwork was visible to anyone aware of the creature.
Retaining the creature in Nesse has proven... challenging, but I am undertaking a procedure to move it to a secure facility elsewhere.
During testing, we believe the creature is weak to only one substance-
''Oh, for - Of course that section is torn up!'' Jet growled, as he shut the book in frustration.
''Kizmel, that ''Sandman'', what is it?'' Koharu asked, her questions not really being answered by the excerpt of the journal.
''In our culture, dreams are considered sacred. The Sandman is supposedly a demon that visits the dreams and nightmares of children, and determines if they are worthy...'' She answered,
''And if they aren't deemed worthy?'' Rain asked, dreading where this was going.
''I believe we have seen for ourselves what happens...'' Kizmel's words were hammered home as Jet looked over towards the chamber, and shuddered. One of the bodies began to collapse further, an arm disappearing into the pile of sand around it.
''That sand, if that got into the water nearby...'' Jet realised, looking towards a tank that appeared to be pumping water into the pond above them, right next to the mill. ''Hello, mass hallucinations and dream plague...''
''What about the mist though? Surely it didn't become airborne, right?''
''If it did...'' Jet quickly flipped through the journal, and spotted something. ''Ah ha, that's... oh. Oh God...'' His face went almost white as a freshly cleaned bed sheet as he read the words on the page...
''Jet?'' Koharu asked, clearly unnerved by the tense body language.
''Test subject 001?'' He asked the obviously leading question to no one in particular.
''The dog, yeah.'' Phillia answered, her nonchalant tone betraying the ever growing look of panic on her face.
''Test subject 001 was a child.'' Jet answered, his voice lowered almost to the point of whispering. ''Aged around 7 years, according to the good Professor...''
''So what was-'' The same realisation that had struck Jet quickly struck Rain too. ''Oh no.''
''Just tell us!'' Koharu, evidently at her wits end with the situation, snapped at the pair.
''The dog, that was the Sandman...'' Rain answered, holding her own arms to stop herself shaking. Jet couldn't blame her there, as he thought about what they'd accidentally unleashed on the world of Aincrad - a creature, no doubt very angry at being imprisoned for a quarter of a millennia, with the ability to wipe the population of a village completely off the map in a particularly brutal way, as it poured sand through its victims...
Not one of their finer moments, he had to admit.
His concern about this creature being loose was soon interrupted by an automated voice, and the room going dark yet again...
Containment Breached. Lockdown protocol active.
That, he thought to himself as a glass shutter slammed down around the room, really didn't bode well for them...
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Containment Breached. Lockdown protocol active.
An automated voice announced, as the once well lit room was bathed in an unnatural red light, followed by a deafening siren, piercing through the quiet of the room, and a violent clattering, as a clear shutter closed between the chamber they were investigating, and the other chambers.
''I think we set off an alarm!'' Strea made the most obvious deduction she could in that moment.
''We gathered.'' Mito rolled her eyes, as she scanned a control panel. Plenty of dials, but none of them were marked handily as ''shutter release''. All to do with the venting system, from what she could work out. ''Urgh, it's a puzzle dungeon. Just great...''
''A what now?'' Both Asuna and Strea asked, talking in stereo.
''A dungeon that we have to solve a puzzle to escape from. Think of an escape room...'' Kirito explained, as he looked for any weakness in the shutters. However they sealed, they were airtight, which added a new dimension to the discomfort... they had a limited air supply too.
''Fun...'' Strea mumbled, as she started shaking the shutter. He wasn't exactly sure what she thought that might do, but it certainly wasn't having the desired effect. Not unless the desired effect was being really quite annoying, which it probably wasn't.
''Not going to work. They're hermetically sealed.'' Mito stated, not even bothering to turn around to address the other purple-ette, as she continued to examine the panel. ''And don't bother shouting. We're running out of air as it is.''
Kirito, for all his many faults, was at least aware that a statement like ''We're running out of air quite quickly'' might just be enough to cause a panic in most people. Hell, it may actually have been worse than not mentioning it to the other two girls. Not mentioning it at least reduced the likelihood that they would start panicking, and waste their precious air supply even faster, at least in his mind. Mito, on the other hand, just didn't seem to care about the others, choosing to focus on the panel instead.
Still though, they did need to think of a way out of this, and very quickly. He'd finally looked up towards his HUD, and noticed a new gauge in the left corner. This time, the gauge was around 90% full, and simply read ''Air''. At current rate, he reckoned they'd have another 5-6 minutes of air left, so they'd need to come up with something very fast...
''Uhh, have you guys got a new gauge on your HUD? Because I do, and I really don't like the look of it...'' Strea stated, giving up on trying to pull at the runners, and returning towards the centre of the room.
''Yeah, we don't have long, I think.'' He answered, scanning the room again. There had to be something that they'd all missed when they were- ''The vents!'' He exclaimed, rushing over to the panel that Mito was still trying to work out.
Four buttons, none of them marked as to what they related to, but if he was right, he reckoned they related to the four chambers of the room. As he pressed the fourth button, he really hoped he was right, and that they weren't about to subject themselves to some kind of gas...
SHINKK.
Much to his relief, no visible mist or gas poured in to the room, and the Air gauge appeared to be increasing back to full. With that crisis dealt with, he began to wonder how the other group were handling their situation...
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''I don't get it! Why is the air gauge plummeting now the vent is... oh. The air's escaping! Damn it!'' Jet could safely say that he would not be sad to see the back of this floor... that was, if they survived that long. He wouldn't say he was a betting man, but if their odds were anything to go by... he'd be betting on Aincrad right now.
''Try that button!'' Phillia exclaimed, before immediately slamming her hand onto the button. A few tense moments passed, before the air gauge began to rise again. Needless to say, everyone was relieved at that outcome, as none of them had happened to bring an oxygen tank with them.
''I think the celebration may be premature...'' Kizmel pointed out the new elephant in the room. A rather literal one at that, as what appeared to be some kind of armoured elephant now stood in-between the four chambers, and most importantly... the lift out.
''You have got to be kidding me...'' Jet looked over the beast, and couldn't help but draw a rather morbid comparison between their current situation and a zoo. Though, that comparison drew a new question into his mind... who were the ones in the zoo? Considering they were trapped behind glass that looked thick enough to stop bullets... somehow, he suspected they were the exhibits.
Above its head, a health gauge appeared, along with its name...
The Disturbia Experiment
''Oh great, that isn't just The Sandman...'' Jet muttered, looking directly at the beast. For a brief moment, the creature stared back at him. He wondered exactly why every creature on this floor seemed to have escaped from the depths of hell itself, but quickly realised that this lab was a place of horrors. Of course many of them would resemble monsters, and the others were just... indescribable. Those were not images he would ever be able to unsee, nor were they going to fade away any time soon...
Before any attempts could be made to free themselves, the Experiment charged for them. Even bulletproof glass had weaknesses, Jet reminded himself, and he wasn't sure there was much that could be made to restrain a beast like the one they were facing. Glass could shatter, and when hit with considerable force by a creature that must've weighed at least a ton, as well as being covered in armour, he didn't fancy the glass's chances.
The creature struck the glass with a violent crash, the concussive wave throwing all five of them to the rear wall, or into the corners of the chamber. Remarkably, the glass had survived without so much as a chip, and the Experiment was badly stunned from its attempted attack. It stumbled confusedly across the room, swaying like a drunk at the end of a particularly good Friday night, before collapsing to the floor - also just like a drunk, Jet thought to himself.
Something about this whole fight felt... off. Jet couldn't place it, not even slightly, but had that attack hit, it would've been a one shot kill. Add into that the colour of its cursor - not blood red, as were most bosses they'd fought, or even maroon, as the Pyrovile had been... but almost black in colour - and Jet had a thought, and based on the looks on Koharu's face, it may have been one that she was having too. ''If we get hit, that thing will kill us...''
''Then we need to think of a way to get out of here!''
''The room has... what did you call it again, Jet? A ''hermetic seal'', wasn't it?'' Kizmel asked, remembering the confused ranting when the air started to filter out of the room.
''Uhh, yeah, why?'' Jet looked back at her with a small degree of confusion, whilst the rest of the group wore looks of deep thought.
After a few seconds, Kizmel spoke up again, ''Perhaps we could disable the creature, rather than defeat it. It appears to be a creature of Aincrad, rather than some kind of creation after all, so it stands to reason that...''
''It needs to breathe!'' Koharu exclaimed, coming to the same conclusion as Kizmel. ''We just have to remove the oxygen from the main chamber, right?''
''Easier said than done, I think.'' Phillia answered, looking over the console that had opened the vents. ''I think we need people in each of the four chambers that surround it.''
''So...'' Jet felt his stomach knot up, as he figured where this was going. ''Two of us have to go out there, with that thing...''
''I think so, yeah.'' Something in her tone made Jet realise that Phillia had come to the same conclusion before he had. There was an apologetic manner to it, as she reasoned with herself as to just how dangerous this thing was - a single, unlucky hit and whoever was out there, was gone. In theory, Kizmel was the obvious answer to go first - she wasn't a player after all, no matter how human she acted. She wasn't human, she was an, admittedly complex, set of ones and zeroes, formed to look like an inhabitant of this world. She was, at least pragmatically speaking, the expendable one of their group. He, Koharu, Rain, Phillia - all of them had some kind of life waiting for them outside Aincrad. Kizmel simply didn't have that. Her family had been... nothing more than flavour text for a quest they'd long since completed.
In practice though, that would require a degree of ruthless pragmatism that Jet honestly wasn't sure he possessed - nor one that he ever wanted to possess. That way of thinking meant seeing people as expendable, not as people, or friends, but as objects in some grand game. Kizmel had become a friend, they'd fought alongside each other, through the ice and fire, through swamps and catacombs... Maybe Kizmel wasn't human, but she was still as real as they were - she was a Dark Elf after all, so she wasn't human in the first place, he reminded himself!
Outside his head, he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It was his fault that the Sandman had escaped, after all, so if nothing else... he would accept that blame, and the risk would be his to shoulder. ''Then I'll take one of them. It's my fault we're in this mess, after all.'' He muttered the last bit, as Koharu gave him a glare that told him a thousand words. At least four of them were ''Don't be so stupid.'', he was sure of that much.
''Or... we could just use the vents.'' Phillia drew the group's attention to the vent cover above her. ''Though, uhh, I don't think you'll fit in there.'' She pointed at Jet as she made the comment.
''We might, though.'' Koharu answered, looking to Phillia. Koharu and Phillia were both the shortest members of the group, and he knew that Koharu was easily the most flexible of everyone present, so it wasn't too ridiculous an idea that they'd fit in the ventilation system.
''Well, first things first, we need to get the covers off...''
''And of the days to forget a crowbar...'' Phillia replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Even with the joke, he did wish he'd bought a toolbox - if they had a screwdriver, this would be an absolute doddle, as only four screws held the vents in place. He examined them as closely as he could from the ground, and noticed something... ''If I didn't know any better, I'd say they're flathead screws. Ginge, can I borrow your dagger for a few minutes?'' He asked, picking the object that was closest to flat that he could.
''Uhh, sure... just don't use it to prize the vents off please. Liz went ballistic last time you used it as a kitchen knife...''
With a load of material summoned from their inventories - mostly wood, but also random pieces of small furniture - Jet had managed to reach the vent on the ceiling, and began the process of removing the screws. Getting the dagger into a position where it was not only comfortable to use without slicing his hands to ribbons, but also wouldn't slip constantly, took a few seconds, but once that was done, the process was relatively quick; around 30 seconds per screw.
''Well, we know who to ask when we need a shelf putting up, ey?'' Phillia quipped from below him, earning a light giggle from Koharu, whilst Kizmel and Rain held up the... structure that he stood on. A bodge job would've been putting it lightly, considering how rickety the ''structure'' looked.
''See, not just a pretty face, me!'' A smirk escaped onto his face, as he retorted from above, whilst removing the second screw.
''You've gotten lucky, Koharu.''
''I know.'' The way she said that, he felt a weird sense of happiness inside. The past few days hadn't been much fun for... well, for any of them, and if he was honest, he hoped the Lost Village of Nesse stayed lost after they all left
''Two down, two to go!'' He shouted down, moving on to the next screw.
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A few minutes later and the final screws were removed from the vent, which fell onto the structure with a clattering that rung through the room, eliciting winces from everyone with a sense of hearing. Helping Jet down from the pile of scrap wood and furniture that was now forming an impromptu scaffolding to the vent, an unpleasant sight awaited them - the Experiment had reawakened from its nap, and looked just as angry as before, if not more so.
Koharu supposed it was now or never, if they were going to get out of this one alive, and whilst Phillia began to climb up the physics defying scaffolding, she turned to Jet, reaching onto her toes to place a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, before going to speak...
''Be safe, I don't want to lose you...'' ...Only for Jet to take her line first.
''You too.'' She smiled at him, before looking to the other girls. ''Rain, Kizmel... make sure he doesn't do anything too silly, please.'' The snickers from both gave her a sense of confidence in them.
''We can try... but no promises there. He is Jet after all...'' Kizmel joked back to her, and Koharu found herself grinning for some reason. A grin that soon became laughter as Jet made a stupid face in the background, claiming that they'd already failed in that task.
From inside the ventilation shaft, her moment of quiet reverie was interrupted by an echoing voice. ''Hurry up Koharu, it's a bit cramped in here!''
''Coming!'' She yelled back, clambering onto the scaffolding herself, and squeezing herself into the vent.
She would be the first to admit that she'd never been a fan of cramped and closed spaces like this, but this was on another level! Her shoulders rubbed against the walls as she moved, and for the first time, she regretted not wearing a full top as her stomach made contact with the cold metal floor of the ducts. It was an experience she really hoped she'd never have to repeat, and from the way Phillia was shivering, she could tell the treasure hunter was in the same situation too...
''Gu-guess I was right af-after all...'' The treasure hunter stammered, the chill in the air made ten times worse by the wind tunnel effect they currently found themselves exposed to.
''About what?''
''We'd never have gotten Jet in here. Doubt the girls would've been able to fit through either, if I'm struggling...''
''How far to the chambers?''
''I think we'll have to split off somewhere ahead, but keep going straight on for now.'' In an attempt to not turn into her boyfriend momentarily, Koharu fought back a quip about just how obvious that answer was. That thought was interrupted by the roaring of the Protocol underneath them, and the reverb that carried through the vents...
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Inside the other occupied chamber, the other group were observing the creature known as the Disturbia Experiment, and trying to work out a strategy to fight the creature. Strea's suggestion of tackling it head on had been shot down immediately, with Kirito pointing out the the creature was at least thirty levels above them - something akin to a field boss they could expect to fight on the fiftieth floor, rather than the twentieth. Though, with her suggestion shot down, that did mean they had absolutely no plan whatsoever, rather than simply a bad one. The observation of the creature, after it had rammed the glass wall that contained their friends, did seem to give the two gamers present an idea.
''I don't think it's too happy about that headache...'' Strea commented, watching the beast stagger around, before it fell over. ''Still, good to know the glass is solid.''
''Those air vents, they had to be placed for a reason, right?'' Mito asked, looking at one of them.
''Sure, ventilation I'd imagine.''
''Yeah, that too. But they can filter the air out of a specific chamber - we've seen that - so, maybe...''
''They can remove the air from the central area.'' Kirito answered, having come to the same conclusion. ''Now, we just need to get the vents open.''
A few moments passed by, as everyone paused to think how they would get the vents open. Strea stepped up, retrieving her smaller blade from her inventory. Thin enough that she could use for what she planned to, and solid enough that it wouldn't just shatter in half the moment she put pressure on it in the wrong place...
''You can't just hack and slash it, you know.'' Mito stated, a judgmental look on her face as she did.
''I am capable of other thoughts than just smashing things, you know...'' Strea replied, a biting edge to her words, as she stabbed the blade between the wall and the vent panel, and started to prize the vent cover away from the wall. The more time she spent around this girl, she could understand her brother's disdain for her. Stubborn, either ignorant or dismissive of social cues and with an answer for everything, she could start to see why he'd described her as ''like looking into a corrupted mirror''. Still, less thoughts about her, and more about getting out of their current situation... though the dull thuds coming from the vents were more than a little concerning, she had to admit.
A few moments, and some prying on the walls, later and the vent was open. The dull banging she thought she'd heard became more pronounced, and she could've sworn she heard talking too, and made sure she was on full alert. Who knew what this damn lab had waiting for them?...
The source of that dull banging became apparent a few seconds later, when a blue and orange blur became crashing to the floor in a heap. ''I wasn't expecting the floor to fall out from underneath me...'' Phillia grumbled, as she picked herself up and shook the dust off.
''Phillia!'' Koharu shouted, her head and shoulders poking out from the vent to check on her friend. ''Are you okay?''
''I've survived worse...'' She muttered, before realising something. ''Koharu, you'll have to go on ahead to the next chamber. I'll be behind you, but it'll take a bit to get back up!''
''Okay! Be safe!''
''You too!''
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As Koharu reacquainted herself with the art of gymnastics trying to cross the almost collapsed vent shaft in front of her, she realised something. For the first time in a while, she had time to think. Which was, admittedly, an unusual thing to have in the middle of a boss fight. Usually that was all dashing about, desperately avoiding attacks, rather than crawling through vents.
Her thoughts passed back to the whole Sandman thing - the creature that had taken the lives of not only the two children they'd found, but those of everyone in the village too, even if that had been indirectly. A creature like that was sure to be a floor boss, and if she was honest, she wasn't sure what to expect with that one. Too many things about it didn't make sense - first, there'd been what Kizmel had said about it, a creature that judged people through their dreams. Then there was the whole illusion thing, which worried her more; what exactly would they be facing? This thing could look like anything, and they'd be none the wiser...
Her thoughts were interrupted as she reached the furthest chamber from them, the one closest to the elevator and no doubt the one that the Experiment would keep its focus on. Without hesitating, she jumped down to the ground, managing a far more graceful landing than Phillia had made and found the control panel. The same buttons as the one in the chamber they'd found themselves in - four buttons, none of them marked as to their function.
Except for a fifth button, conveniently placed in the centre of the four buttons. If she had to guess, she'd have said it was some kind of master control panel, capable of overriding the others. She sent the rest of the group a message, telling them what she'd found, and didn't have to wait long for a reply. The reply was simple: ''Try it.''
Koharu took a deep breath. As a child, her mom had always told her not to press random buttons in a case of trial and error - it had been how she'd broken more than one TV remote, after all - but today, if they wanted to survive... she would have to disregard her mother's advice, sound though it was. Scarcely more than a second passed by as she thought about it, but it felt considerably longer to her as her hand fell on the button.
The ambience around the chambers suddenly changed, as the rooms ceased to be bathed in red light, a piercing blue light replacing it, whilst the same automated voice was earlier rung through the area:
Activating Oxygen Starvation Protocol.
Science was never one of her strong suits, but she knew just how bad that would be if she'd gotten it wrong, and it was starving the chambers of oxygen - hypoxia was lethal to practically every living creature, and she had no reason to doubt that was the case with Aincrad too. She looked up to her air gauge, and much to her relief, it hadn't moved from completely full.
The Disturbia Protocol, on the other hand... well, it was discovering that particular science lesson as the creature's thrashing became increasingly slower and erratic. Its claws came towards its throat, the creature rasping rather than screaming, as it clearly struggled to breathe. Its three health bars rapidly reducing as the creature fell to the floor, its attacks ceasing as it fell into a deep sleep from which it would never awaken...
Around a minute passed by, and despite its HP being reduced to only a slither of a single health bar, the Protocol remained alive, but comatose. No doubt that, if the creature were alive, the lack of oxygen to the brain would have started to render brain damage by now, and Koharu couldn't help but feel a shred of sympathy at that thought. Unlike many of the other bosses they'd thought, the Protocol wasn't an evil tyrant, nor was it a corrupted being with unimaginable power... it was a test subject. It had spent who knows how long trapped in this place, and how had they dealt with it? They'd locked it in a room to die a horrible death...
Luckily for the creature, its death came soon after that. What should have been an insurmountable obstacle for them - a creature so far above their level it wasn't even ludicrously funny, a dungeon that had trapped them there with far fewer people than they should've had, and they'd managed to prevail over it! She couldn't help but feel a sense of pride on that one, even if she found their victory left a somewhat bitter taste in her mouth.
As the final sign that they'd won came up - the massive ''Congratulations!'' in the middle of the room, where the Protocol had once been - the lighting in the room changed again, this time going from the icy blue that had told them of the oxygen purge in the chamber, back to the clinical white light that had bathed the room before the boss had shown up.
Disturbia Experiment ended. Lockdown protocol terminated. Have a nice day.
Koharu couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the... unusual way that announcement had ended. She hadn't read as much sci-fi as her boyfriend - in fact, the only sci-fi she had read was one of her father's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and it hadn't really been her thing, but that announcement certainly felt rather similar in tone to that book. Clearly, someone at Argus had read them before it had become a death game...
Either that, or Kayaba had a sense of humour.
As she pondered on the meaning of a throwaway joke that had been left in Aincrad when the game became a world of death, the room began to reopen, and the two groups reformed into one... except for one member. Phillia was nowhere to be seen, though if Koharu wasn't wrong, she could still hear her.
''Uhh guys?'' The echoey voice of the treasure hunter rung through the room as her lower half dangled aimlessly above them. ''The vent sort of collapsed, and well... I'm kinda stuck.''
Jet sighed, before laughing softly. ''We'll get her out. If you guys want to, you know, go on ahead, we'll catch up.''
''How do you plan to get her out, anyway?''
''I have a sword.'' Jet answered nonchalantly, as both Asuna and Mito demonstrated their best impressions of unimpressed parents at the suggestion. Mito began muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ''like brother, like sister...'' before Asuna looked Jet over awkwardly, prodding at space under his eyes. ''Oi, gerroff!''
''When was the last time you slept?'' She asked, stopping before she poked him in the eyes. ''Because the bags under your eyes, have bags under them.''
Jet mumbled something, before admitting it aloud. ''It's been a couple of days.''
''I know I have no power over you...'' Koharu was wondering where this going, before Asuna pointed towards her and Strea. ''But they do. I order you to take a day off and get some rest.'' She smiled towards everyone involved... but the smile she sent towards Jet held a considerably sharper edge to it, that much even Koharu could see.
The uncomfortable scene was interrupted by the flailing legs of the treasure hunter, and her increasingly annoyed tone ''Now that's settled... could you help me down please?''
This was going to be a long evening, Koharu thought to herself as she reached up to Phillia's legs...
{Author's Comments}
Happy new year to all of my readers! I can only hope that 2023 is a better year than 2022...
It's been a long few weeks, so I'm sorry for the delay - especially as this was actually supposed to come out before Christmas! Life, illness and a degree of not knowing how this was going to end, all contributed to that delay.
Due to having exams this week, I'll be taking a two week break between this and the first chapter of Floor 20.
Signing off,
Midland 2541.