It has been a year and a half since Kibaou led the Aincrad Liberation Squad’s remaining survivor back to the Town of Beginnings on the First Floor after their massive loss on the 25th Floor and merged with MMO Today that focused their activity there, and thus Aincrad Liberation Force was formed.
For the last year and a half, Aincrad Liberation has been occupying the First Floor as their stronghold to ensure the survival of the Players on that Floor while amassing resources and information without participating in the Boss Raid.
Despite never participating in the Boss Raid, Aincrad Liberation Force, also known as The Army, gradually built up its strength and had around 3000 members by now.
That being said, those 3000 members were mostly those who were too afraid to leave the Safe Zone or those who at most could go to the middle Floors, unlike the Clearers who consisted of top Players.
They did have around a dozen members who could hold their own in the frontline, level-wise.
Those members are the Players that Rozen and other Players were currently seeing in front of the 74th Floor’s Teleport Gate right now.
Of course, such a scene would cause a commotion among these Players.
“Didn’t they give up on the Boss Raid already?”
“It’s been a while since I saw them on the frontline, around the 25th Floor, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Who knows?”
The Players in the vicinity began to talk about those Players in army-like attire.
The surrounding players are whispering to each other.
Rozen, who stood quite far apart from the crowd, happened to remember something.
“Argo did mention that the Army made several preparations to go to the frontline.”
Of course, it was under Kibaou’s order, who was currently Aincrad Liberation Force’s sub-leader.
Kibaou, who has always been determined to clear the game, once led Aincrad Liberation Squad in the frontline in order to free all Players.
However, after their devastating loss, Kibaou decided to strengthen the organization’s structure and stopped participating in Boss Raid.
But after a year and a half, the guild that was ridiculed as The Army by the Players have amassed enough strength, and of course, Kibaou planned to participate in the frontline once again.
Argo also mentioned to Rozen that because of Kibaou’s obsession with the frontline, he was constantly in disagreement with the guild leader, leading to the dispute in power.
Eventually, the guild was divided into two factions, the faction that supported the guild leader and his aspiration to help other Players.
In contrast, the other supported Kibaou to return to the frontline in order to make a name for Aincrad Liberation Force.
It all stemmed from the constant bash The Army received due to their massive number yet their incompetence to contribute anything in the frontline.
With Kibaou’s personality, it was obvious he couldn’t take such mockery for too long, so he did whatever he could to overturn those mockeries, and thus the twelve Army members on the 74th Floor right now.
As long as these twelve Players could demonstrate their capability in the frontline, people would stop mocking Aincrad Liberation Force, and the other faction in his guild would be more inclined to participate in the frontline instead of maintaining the status quo like what they did now.
Based on such conjecture, Rozen arrived at the conclusion that it was all Kibaou’s doing, and his guess was confirmed in the next second when one of The Army’s members stepped out of their line.
“I am Lieutenant Colonel Kobatz from Aincrad Liberation Force.”
The Player named Kobatz, who claimed to be a lieutenant colonel, suddenly made a declaration among the crowds.
“I hereby declare that the Aincrad Liberation Force will officially join the Clearers from this day onward. We’ll purge those baseless rumors and mockery that say we’re nothing but a useless guild by demonstrating our power. Just you wait and see!”
The Players in the vicinity looked at each other in doubt after hearing Kobatz’s words.
“As I thought…”
Rozen sighed.
Kobatz must’ve said it in purpose to overturn the public’s opinion about The Army.
“Isn’t he being too rash here?”
Rozen had his reason for saying this. If The Army succeeded in demonstrating their capability, the public’s opinion indeed would change for the better.
However, if they failed, they would once become a laughingstock like what happened on the 25th Floor.
If they were prepared to do it despite the risk, it would be a different matter altogether. However, Kibaou apparently didn’t even consider the risk and sent his guild members to the 74th Floor without thorough calculation.
“Can they even adapt with our rhythm and strategy now that they’ve been away from the frontline for too long?”
Rozen had his doubts about that.
Under Kobatz’s leadership, The Army’s members made their way to the labyrinth.
Rozen pondered for a while and made up his mind.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check.”
Although the life of The Army’s members had little to nothing to do with Rozen, if they wished to join the Clearers, they’d be Rozen’s responsibility too eventually.
So, Rozen decided to follow them after hiding Saichou and Hanachou in the Tamed Monster Crystal since it’d draw too much attention if he tailed them with Saichou and Hanachou flying beside him.
Rozen then used Hiding and quietly followed The Army’s members. Little did he know that a certain girl with chestnut-colored hair happened to pop out at the Teleport Gate right after he left.
The girl seemed to be in a hurry, and she had this anxious look on her face. She immediately ran outside the Safe Area after teleporting to that Floor.
A few seconds later, a gloomy-looking man also popped out at the Teleport Gate; after spotting the girl earlier, he immediately went after her.
The girl seemed to be heading to the labyrinth with the man following behind her.
