“Liz!”
Asuna got angry and frustrated when she saw Liz chasing Shion and Silica around. She looked at Wu Yan while biting her lips.
Wu Yan bitterly laughed.
“Go for it, don’t let that crazy girl ruin her own big day. Seriously…”
Asuna nodded and Sachi offered her help too.
“I am coming with you!”
Asuna and Sachi ran over to Lisbeth’s side as they held her back. They kept scolding her until she looked meek as a kitten. Wu Yan, Kirito, Souta, Klein, and Agil exchanged a look with each other.
Wu Yan patted Kirito on his shoulders and he sighed.
“I am really worried about your future from now on…”
Kirito shrugged as if he’s given up on this. Klein planted his face in his palm.
“Maybe you should hire more players, at least, enough to keep Liz in check…”
Kirito rolled his eyes at Klein. He leered at Klein until Klein’s hair stood on ends.
“I don’t know a lot of people, Liz only has a few friends too, where are we going to find more players?…”
“What are you talking about?!”
Klein slapped Kirito’s back, almost knocking the breath out of him.
“I might not be a big deal but I pride myself in my vast connections. I got a lot of players I can recommend, just say the word, I personally guarantee they will be of service!”
“Yeah, sure I believe you!”
Kirito smiled at Klein.
“You mean like last time, during Yan’s wedding, I sure knew all the players that tagged along with you back then! Isn’t that right?…”
Klein’s smile froze and he turned his head the other way awkwardly. In the end, the task of servicing them fell to Klein and they partied until the end without talking much with Wu Yan, they only congratulated him one time during the whole event.
Agil grinned and he shook his head.
“That’s what I have been going on about. Why host weddings? Imagine the items you can buy with that money? This is so not worth it…”
“This is all Yan’s fault!”
Kirito glared at Wu Yan.
“Weddings used to be about registering it in the system and exchanging a ring. Liz was going on about ‘Yan threw a huge event for Asuna, I am her soul sister, how can I lose to her?’ In the end…”
Kirito looked at Liz who is very tired of all the nagging she’s getting from Asuna, Shion, Sachi, and Silica who didn’t how to talk some sense into her. Then, he let out a long sigh…
“In the end, it became like this…”
“Ahaha…”
Wu Yan laughed in a dry manner.
“I didn’t think it had anything to do with me…”
At this point, Yui who was holding Wu Yan’s hand spoke out.
“Yui thinks this is better…”
Wu Yan & co flinched as they looked at Yui. Meanwhile, she continued after taking a look at Asuna and the girls who are still busy partying over there.
“Everyone’s wearing a smile, they all look so happy…”
Yui hugged Wu Yan’s arm as she looked up at him. She smiled so radiantly her eyes were shut.
“When I see everyone being so happy, Yui feels happy too!”
Yui’s cute smile melted the hearts of Kirito, Klein, Agil, and Souta. They couldn’t help but grin widely as well. Wu Yan frowned imperceptibly. His pupil red eyes shone for a moment as he examined Yui.
After taking a good look at her, Wu Yan grinned and he rubbed her head.
“If Yui’s happy then papa and mama are happy too…”
Yui looked at Wu Yan with a gleeful look and she nodded heavily. Her smile widened even further.
Kirito, Souta, Klein, and Agil exchanged a look when they saw the weird mood between Yui and Wu Yan.
“By the way, Yan…
Souta turned serious and he lowered his voice.
“Did you discover the 98th-floor boss’ room?”
Souta’s raid query turned the mood stern as everyone looked at Wu Yan. He helplessly shook his head.
“Look, I am mostly by myself. I dive into the labyrinth with Asuna so there’s only so much we can explore. Given the members in our squad, it’s relatively harder for us to locate the boss room than you guys…”
Aincrad is basically a floating iron castle. It looks like a weirdly-shaped pyramid. The area decreased the more one ascended the castle with the 1st floor boasting the largest area and the 100th-floor boasting the smallest area.
The labyrinths are also proportionately smaller to reflect this decrease in space. The labyrinth on the 98th-floor was smaller than the ones before it.
However, this means the concentration of monsters inside the dungeon increased the smaller the labyrinth got. Even fighting in squads can be very tiring when assaulted by waves and waves of monster. For a monster like Wu Yan, killing the mob monsters are easy but it’s the time taken to do so that significantly slows down the raid progress. Partnering up with Asuna marginally decreased the search time too.
To locate the boss room with just the two of them, well, that’s just too hard. They were lucky when they found the boss room of the 96th-floor and the 97th-floor.
Wu Yan rubbed his temple and he shot Souta a puzzled look.
“Why did you suddenly brought the floor boss up?”
Souta lowered his head. Kirito, Klein, and Agil looked like they understood where the question came from, they turned deathly silent. Wu Yan furrowed his brows when he saw this.
“Did something happen?’
Kirito & co stayed silent. Finally, Souta spoke up.
“The raid group’s not faring well recently…”
“The raid group?…”
“Ah…”
Klein shook his head with closed eyes.
“The clearers suffered 10% casualty in the most recent raids.”
“What…”
Wu Yan sucked in a cold breath of air.
“How is that possible?! The monsters are strong but they aren’t lethal enough for the clearers, right? How did so many players die? Was it the traps?…”
“N-no…”
Agil bitterly smiled.
“Some kind of instant-death setting? Or is there an abnormally strong monster roaming the labyrinth?”
“No, none of the above!”
Souta gnashed his teeth.
“No traps, no sure-death settings, no god-awful monsters, the labyrinths aren’t changed. Excluding the monsters, the location of safe areas, the floor boss’ room, everything is unchanged!”
“You’re telling me everything’s normal?”
Wu Yan narrowed his eyes at the four of them.
“If that’s the case why are so many players dead?”
“Let me explain.”
Kirito continued.
“The players who died were courting death…”
Wu Yan frowned as he silently urged for Kirito to continue.
With 97 floors cleared, he’s not far away from clearing the remaining 3 floors. After he kills the final boss, SAO will end and the players here will be able to say goodbye to this death game!
He will be able to complete his penalty quest too!
No matter what, he must make sure the clearers make it to the boss room on the 100th-floor.
