It has been five months since SAO has become a death game.
Four months ago, the Players led by Rozen cleared the first floor of Ain Grande, breaking the status quo where there was no progress in clearing the game, bringing a glimmer of hope to the players in that world.
Thanks to them, more and more players gained the courage to pick their weapons and helped to clear Aincrad at an alarming rate
It only took ten days before the second floor was cleared as well, and it only took a week to clear the third floor, which was quicker.
In other words, although the players were stuck for a whole month on the first floor, they managed to clear two floors in succession in a half month, and it took even shorter for them to clear the fourth floor, only three days.
Yes.
Three days.
That was simply an unbelievable pace.
There were three reasons why the progress became so quick all of a sudden.
One: Players no longer felt desperate and afraid of the status quo, seeing the game was not impossible to clear encouraged a lot of people to fight.
Two: A large number of testers have joined the frontline. Since they were a significant asset in terms of strength, it took shorter for players to be able to challenge the Floor Boss.
Three: The only player who had a tamed beast named Rozen, which eventually will be known as “Magician” led the players in the maze area to find the Boss Room as fast and possible, and once they found it, he’ll quickly hold a strategy meeting to defeat the Floor Boss with no casualty.
Thanks to those factors, the Players were more motivated, more and more of them joined the clearers, increasing their overall strength, thus improving the speed of their progress.
Of course, even with that many Players, clearing a floor every three days was not always doable, but at least they could clear a floor once in five days thanks to Rozen and Red Wings’ members.
Now it has been four months since the first floor was cleared, and the clearers were currently in the progress of exploring the 26th floor. Not long ago, they’ve just cleared the 25th floor, and that was a quarter of Aincrad.
However, the 25th floor was a little special since it was Aincrad’s quarter floor. Rozen had to get serious after once in a while. Now that the 25th floor was cleared, he finally could sit back and relax a little. Ever since then, Rozen has been sleeping for about seven to eight hours every day recently and still looked listless after he woke up.
However, in response to this, one of Red Wings’ members casually blurted out…
“Commander would’ve been listless every day even if he pushed himself or not.”
The bar that Rozen just entered was Red Wings’ base located on the 24th floor, in Panareze.
Generally speaking, a guild would have a base as a place where members of the guild usually gathered. A relatively strong guild with a lot of resources will even spend a lot of Cor to buy vacant houses in the game to be used as the guild’s base.
As the most powerful guild in SAO, Rozen’s guild had no intention of losing to other guilds in terms of strength or financial resources. Buying a vacant house was like a walk in the park for them.
Up until a few weeks ago, Rozen was still reluctant to buy a house for Red Wings’ base because the clearers could clear a floor so fast that they didn’t spend that much time in one floor, and there was also a chance that there’ll be a much better place in the floors above. But, after since reaching the 25th floor, the clearer’s progress has begun to slow down. So, after seeing the beautiful environment on the 24th floor, he decided to buy a bar as a base there
Rozen sat in front of the counter after greeting the guild members.
This bar had a particular benefit; members could store all kinds of drinks in the bar’s storage, which could be taken out anytime.
At first glance, it may seem trivial, but as mentioned before, foods and drinks have durability, and its durability will reduce over time once it was taken out of inventory or the place it was from, so players couldn’t carry it all the time in their storage. The reason why Rozen fancied this bar was that it could store all kinds of drinks and even foods, and their durability won’t reduce.
“Some foods and drinks would grant certain effects once they are consumed, these types of consumables usually have purchase limit, I can store it in the bar’s storage and distribute it to our members make Floor Boss Raid much easier.
That was another reason why Rozen picked that bar.
After tapping the menu in the counter, Rozen ordered a drink and grabbed a newspaper to read.
That newspaper was made by the Players.
Nowadays, in SAO, fighting monsters was not the only way to earn Cor. In order to earn Cor, Players have developed a variety of production skills, giving birth to a lot of businessmen. Compiling the latest news in SAO in the form of a newspaper and distributed it to each floor was a good example.
Rozen took the newspaper that cost 10 Cor, and read the headline.
“Major news: The former Clearers Guild “Aincrad’s Liberation Squad” merged with mutual aid organization “MMO Today” to form the new guild “Aincrad’s Liberation Force.”
Rozen frowned upon seeing this news.
“Aincrad’s Liberation Force…?”?
Rozen muttered to himself.
“Seems like you haven’t given up yet, huh Kibaou?”
A familiar voice replied to Rozen’s remark.
“It can’t be helped.”
Without Rozen realizing it, a petite girl wearing a cloak was already beside Rozen, tapping the menu bar.
“Considering his personality, I’m sure that guy still has no intention to give up even with almost all of his guild members wiped out, and guild’s strength is reduced significantly.”
Argo added after ordering her drink.
