The beautiful color of sunset enveloped Aincrad. It was such a beautiful scene. However, no one was in the condition to enjoy the sunset.
At the very least, everything in the game will be the object of curse and hate before the players were freed from the fear of dying in the game.
Maybe the time when people could notice this beautiful scenery will come one day, but one thing for sure now was not the time.
It was only five minutes after the Kayaba Akihiko announced the beginning of this death game, and everyone was already panic.
While the players were still in a panic, Rozen has already left the Town of Beginnings and arrived at the grassland outside the city.
The only one who could address this situation calmly and quickly took action was Rozen, as expected of a magus who shouldered the task of saving humanity from complete incineration.
Rozen knew he couldn’t just hide from the truth. If he did, at that moment, he’d deem himself unqualified to save humanity.
Surprisingly, when Rozen came out of the town, there was another person who also came out of the city.
“Aoga…”
It was Kirito.
Rozen noticed that just like him, Kirito’s avatar also turned into his real-life appearance.
Kirito wore the same equipment as the first time he met Rozen except for the sword on his back.
That is the one-handed sword (small sword) that could be purchased in the weapons store at the beginning of the game.
As Rozen expected, Kirito picked a one-handed sword as his primary weapon.
Despite his looks, Kirito was no less game maniac than Rozen.
Among all games that they have played together in the past, if Rozen played fairly, the ratio of victory and defeat between the Rozen and Kirito was estimated to be 6:4.
The reason why Rozen could achieve a 60% winning rate over Kirito was because the time he spent in-game was much longer than that of Kirito. If they played for the same amount of time, the outcome would be unpredictable.
Moreover, in the game, Rozen has always picked a magician class. Meanwhile, Kirito has always picked a warrior class. In this world without magic, Kirito’s skills may be higher than Rozen’s, so he shouldn’t let his guard down
Kirito, just like Rozen, also rushed outside the city as fast as possible.
The reason was simple.
“At least you figured out that staying in town is not the best course of action.” Rozen said that as if he was unfazed by the reality that was just forced onto him, and added, “And, I already told you not to call my real name in this world.”
Although technically, that was his real name.
“You’re as calm as ever.”
Kirito said after a brief silence.
It couldn’t be helped that Kirito would arrive at such conclusion. He didn’t know who Rozen really was after all. For Rozen, who shouldered the task of saving humanity, death games like this didn’t particularly mean anything.
“What can I do if I am not calm?” Rozen said sarcastically, “If crying can solve the problem, then I will cry for you now.”
A direct and on-point statement, as expected of Rozen.
“Goo!”
The Rainbow Butterfly cried as if affirming Rozen’s words.
Kirito has just noticed that there was a cute butterfly behind Rozen’s shoulder.
“You really found a colorful butterfly.” Kirito said in a complicated tone, “Tamed beast might become more useful considering the current state of this game.”
Since there was no longer resurrection and if the avatar died, the player will also die, players have to use any means to survive. It could be level, weapons, tools.
And of course, having a tamed beast to assist in a fight would be a big help.
Otherwise, players will find themselves in a difficult situation. They could be surrounded by monsters all of a sudden for all they knew.
Not to mention there were other risks such as poisoned out there, without having sufficient strength to support oneself out there, players will always have the risk of dying.
Of course, other than strengthening their avatar, there are other ways to stay alive.
That is to stay in safe zones all the time.
It was an area where criminal behaviors were prohibited.
In this world, there were safe zones, even in the wild area and labyrinth area, to provide players some safe space, and allow them to rest there as monsters couldn’t attack players in that area.
A good example of safe zones were towns or important villages that existed on various floors. Once players were inside, they will be protected by the system. Unless they accepted other player’s duel requests, their health bar would never be reduced.
As long as players were inside safe zones, no attacks worked on them. Even if players were attacked, at most, they’ll only felt the recoil of the Sword Skill, but their hp will not be reduced, which meant players couldn’t PK other players inside safe zones.
Therefore, if a player’s purpose was only to stay alive, then staying in the town of the beginning until someone cleared the game, or found the solution to this current predicament in the real world was also an option.
But Rozen will not choose this option.
“I will clear all the floors with Saihou and complete the game.”
Rozen looked straight at the Kirito and asked.
“What about you? What are you going to do?”
And Kirito already had his own answer.
“I want to fight.”
Kirito muttered.
“I’ll do anything to level up, obtain better equipment and materials.”
They’ll do anything to survive, even if it was despicable.
“With the information we have from the closed beta. We can become stronger as fast as possible.” Kirito whispered, “We must monopolize all resources to become stronger.”
That was the choice Kirito made.
A choice that will probably cause him to be resented by others.
“Are you coming, Aoga?”
Kirito looked at Rozen.
In this regard…
“Really? I just told you to stop calling my real name a few minutes ago.”
Rozen said indifferently.
“Let’s go!”
