Sword Art Online - Volume 8 - Early and Late

  Sword Art Online

  Volume 8

  ~ Early and Late~

  Written by:

  Reki Kawahara

  Illustrations by:

  Abec

  Hosted by:

  Baka-Tsuki

  Translators:

  Thinklife

  Teh Ping

  ePUB by:

  Simon

  A Murder Case in the Area

  Aincrad 57th floor, April 2024

  Part 1

  Just what is she trying to do, this girl?

  Just then, the one who said “The weather is so nice, so it’s perfect for taking an afternoon nap” was indeed me, the one who went back to lying on the grass to demonstrate those words was also me, and of course the one who did carelessly sleep was me yet again.

  But, I didn’t realize that before I had slept for even thirty minutes, I would open my eyes to find that she had actually fallen asleep right next to me. There should be a limit to how much someone can exceed my expectations. I don’t know whether to think this as boldness, a fit of anger, or maybe —— it was simply a lack of sleep?

  There’s really nothing I can do about this. Shaking my head left and right with an expression of helplessness, I stared at the beautifully dignified and soundly sleeping face of the rapier master Asuna «The Flash» —— the sub-leader of the guild “Knights of the Blood”.

  Originally, as today’s weather was so good that I couldn’t get in the mood to go to the dungeons, I planned to spend the whole day at a small knoll near the main street area counting butterflies.

  Actually, the weather truly was really nice. The virtual floating city Aincrad’s four seasons is synchronized with reality, but the degree of accuracy in reproducing the weather is really overly rigorous, whether it’s a dry winter or a humid summer. In addition to the temperature outside, the system also considered rain and wind, moisture, dust level, and even insects gathering as parameters. Usually if one of the parameters was good, you can expect another to be horrible.

  But today was not the same, not only was the temperature perfect, warm rays of sunlight permeated through the air, the gentle breeze was neither too humid nor dry and to top it all off, no insects appeared. Even if it was spring, this calm and soothing weather would occur no more than five times a year.

  The digital god was probably rewarding me for the hardships I endured whilst clearing the front lines, and wanted me to lie down for a nice nap. Understanding this, I was about to follow his will but ——

  When I laid down against the lush gentle hill and began to fall asleep, a pair of white shoes suddenly stepped onto the grass beside me. At the same time, a familiar voice strictly spoke from above:

  ——The clearing group is in the maze zone doing their best, why are you here sleeping with ease?

  With my eyes virtually closed, I replied:

  ——The weather today is the best out of all year, how could we not enjoy it to the fullest?

  The strict voice then said:

  ——The weather never changes and is the same every day.

  To this I answered:

  ——If you rest beside me you’ll understand.

  Of course, my reply was offhanded, suiting the scenario, but I have no clue as to what she was thinking when she actually laid beside me and even fell into a deep slumber.

  Let me now focus on the present.

  It was currently before noon, some of the players going to and leaving from the portal plaza were staring with apprehension at Asuna and I lying on the lush fields. Some of them stared wide-eyed in shock, some laughed aloud and there were even a few impolite ones instantly taking out recording crystals to take pictures.

  Then again, they can’t really be blamed. The sub-leader of the KoB, Asuna, was a conquest monster that could make crying kids quiet down, and has a turbo engine that continues to push down the frontlines. And as for this solo player Kirito —— even though I was unwilling —— a group of people often thought that I was always together with a bunch of frivolous guys, being stupid and someone who’s always playing games, and a super delinquent amongst the clearing group.

  With two such drastically different people sleeping together, even I, one of the people involved, felt like laughing. Even though I say that, she would get angry if I were to wake her up, and I would end up being the one suffering. Thus, it was of utmost priority for me to leave her be.

  ——Even though I said so, I couldn’t do it.

  Because if «The Flash» had continued to sleep like this, she may be targeted by all sorts of harassment —— and worst of all, she may be PKed.

  It’s true that the central square of the main street area of the 59th floor was still within the «area».

  More accurately, it should be said to be the «Anti-Criminal Code Effective Area».

  Inside this area, players definitely couldn’t hurt other players. Even if they used weapons to hack at each other, there would only be a purple system effect, and the other player’s HP bar wouldn’t drop by even one millimeter. Of course, they couldn’t loot other people’s equipment.

  In other words, the area was just like what the term «Anti-Criminal» meant. There’s no way to carry out criminal acts directly. This is the absolute rule in this death game called «SAO», on the same level with the rule that «Once the HP becomes zero, it means death».

  But unfortunately, there were still some loopholes around this rule.

  One of them is when the player’s sleeping. During the long moments of battle, players wastes a lot of energy, causing them to be basically unconscious once they start sleeping, and unable to wake up even with some slight stimulations. Once someone used this opportunity to raise a request to duel in «Complete Decisive Mode» and raised the sleeping opponent’s finger to press on the OK button, they could easily take down the other person’s head.

  Another method, that’s even more daring, was to drag the opponent’s body out of the area. The player lying on the ground couldn’t be forcefully moved through the protection of the «Code», but they can be moved about freely if the «Stretcher» item is used.

  These two methods were actually used by people in the past. The «Red»‘s evil passion can be said to be completely out of our imagination. Right now, all the players were using such tragedies as a lesson, and would definitely lock up the player homes or their inn rooms. Even for me, I’d use a «Searching Skill» before I sleep to set up an alarm nearby and wouldn’t dare to sleep soundly.

  ——However.

  AT the moment, «The Flash» was sleeping soundly beside me. I can tell that her brain was crazily letting out delta waves. She probably wouldn’t wake up even if I took out a make-up item to draw graffiti on that face of hers. I really didn’t know whether she’s really daring or stubborn or——

  “Maybe…she’s really tired?”

  I muttered.

  In SAO, even though there’s some relation to the build, solo play will be the most effective for those who are aiming to level up. However, this girl was not only spending time watching the leveling progress of the other members in her guild, but also leveling up at almost the same rate as me. I guessed she must have sacrificed lots of sleep to train on mobs until late at night.

  Actually, I once tried to do such a hard thing before too, 4 - 5 months ago, to gain my experience level, and I would sleep for 4, 5 hours, during which I felt like I was dead.

  I swallowed my sigh back, took out a drink from my storage to get ready for a long battle, and sat down on the grass again.

  I was the one who told her to lie down and sleep. In that case, I had an obligation to stay here until she woke up.

/>   As the outside of the floating city showed sunset, Asuna «The Flash» finally sneezed softly and woke up.

  I counted that she’d been sleeping for about 8 hours. It wasn’t a question of whether she was having a nap or not anymore. I, who had been watching over her without getting to eat lunch, wanted to see some interesting reaction from this cold and cool sub-leader-sama once she understood this situation as I stared at her.

  “…Unyuu…”

  Asuna muttered something strange, blinked a few times, and then looked up at me.

  Her perfectly shaped eyebrows frowned. She used her right hand to shake herself off the grass and got up, and then shook that chestnut-colored hair of hers before looking right, left and right again.

  Asuna finally saw me sitting beside her with my legs folded——

  Her transparent-like snowy-white skin immediately flushed red (most likely, out of embarrassment), and then turned blue (most likely, she’s thinking hard), and finally, red out (most likely, out of extreme rage).

  “Well…an…wha…”

  I gave my biggest smile to say to «The Flash» who was again muttering to herself.

  “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

  Her hand, covered by the white leather glove, trembled.

  However, as expected of the sub-leader of the strongest guild, Asuna seemed to have controlled her rage as she neither drew her rapier nor immediately ran away.

  She just gritted her teeth and forced out a line,

  “…I owe you one meal.”

  “Ha?”

  “A meal. I owe you one, no matter what you want to eat. We’re even like that. How about it?”

  I don’t hate this girl’s straightforward personality. She, who has just woken up, immediately understood that I’d been accompanying her until she awoke to prevent PKs and allowed her to relieve the fatigues she’d built up.

  I curled my lips —— for real this time —— and smiled before answering with an okay.

  I actually wanted to use this chance to joke and say that we should just go over to her house to eat her food, but I still managed to control this impulse in the end. I raised my stretched-out legs and used the reaction force to stand up. I then reached my right hand out and said,

  “The restaurant ran by an NPC on the streets of the 57th floor is rather good. Let’s go over there.”

  “…Fine.”

  Asuna coldly grabbed onto my hand and stood up before looking away. She raised her hands up high as if she was about to breathe in all of the sunset air into her lungs.

  It was soon going to be about 1 year and 5 months since the death game called «Sword Art Online» began operating.

  Before we knew it, about 60% of the 100 floors of the floating city of Aincrad, which we thought was extremely distant, were conquered. At the moment, the foremost frontline was the 59th floor. The time taken to clear each floor on average was 10 days. As for whether such a speed wwas fast or slow, I was part of the clearing group, and I couldn’t tell. However, with a constant clearing speed, I started to develop «A sentiment to enjoy life» in the upper-median areas.

  On the main street of the 57th level «Marten», such an atmosphere was rather abundant. This large street that’s only 2 floors away from the frontlines was one of the main bases for clearing groups and a tourist attraction. In the evening, this place would be busy with a lot of players coming down from the higher or lower floors to have dinner.

  Asuna and I, who came down through the transfer gate at the 59th floor, walked side by side on this abnormally spacious main street. Many people walking by us widened their eyes, looking somewhat interested and stunned. It’s no wonder that they would have such an expression, since the one-and-only high and mighty famous flower, reputed to have a fan club already, was walking brazenly with a very suspicious looking solo player. I guess Asuna really wanted to use all of her agility to rush into the shop, but unfortunately —— or fortunately, only I knew where the shop was.

  I had a thought that there wouldn’t be such a chance again once SAO ended as I walked for about 5 minutes. On the right side of the street, I could see a somewhat large restaurant.

  “Over here?”

  Asuna looked relaxed and suspicious at the same time, and I nodded to her.

  “That’s right. The fish here is better than the meat.”

  I pushed open the swing door and held it, and the rapier user just looked nonchalant as she walked in.

  The NPC attendant greeted us with a welcome, and we started to move around in this somewhat crowded shop. I could still feel several stares being shot at us, and the mental fatigue on me weighed a lot more than the happiness in my heart. It’s not easy being stared at like this every day.

  However, Asuna looked straight and passed through the center of the shop as she immediately headed for the table deep inside, near the wall. I gingerly pulled out the chair, and she sat down in a fluid manner.

  I had a feeling, wondering why the one being treated became the escort. However, I still sat down in front of her. I ordered the appetizer, main course and dessert before heaving a sigh.

  Asuna immediately drank up the beverage in the flute glass, and then, just like me, let out a long sigh.

  She used her light beige eyes that had let their guard down somewhat to stare at me, and murmured to me with a barely audible voice,

  “We…anyway, for today…thanks.”

  “Heh!?”

  Asuna stared at me, who’s looking shocked, and said again,

  “I’m saying, thank you for being my guard today.”

  “Ahh…no, well, erm, you don’t need to mind.”

  Normally, in our clearing group meetings, I would often debate with her intensely over the weaknesses of the boss and the positioning of the forwards and the rearguards, and after hearing such an unexpected thanks, I was really flabbergasted. Asuna then chuckled and leaned her body on the chair. She then looked at the sky with a gentle expression and whispered,

  “It felt like…this is the first time…I slept so soundly since I came here…”

  “Is…Isn’t that an exaggeration?”

  “Not at all. It’s true. Normally, I’ll just sleep for 3 hours before waking up.”

  I wet my mouth with the sour-sweet fluid in the cup and asked,

  “You didn’t wake up because of an alarm clock or something?”

  “Yeah. It’s not so serious like insomnia…but I often end up waking up due to nightmares.”

  “I see…”

  My heart suddenly felt a sharp pain. Someone had once said the same thing to me before, and that person’s face appeared on my mind.

  I then noticed the ever-ordinary fact that «The Flash» was a living player too, and pondered on how to answer.

  “Yeah…well…how to put it. If you still want to sleep outside, just tell me.”

  I knew such words sounded stupid, but Asuna chuckled again and nodded,

  “That’s true. If there’s some great weather someday, I’ll leave it to you.”

  On seeing her smile, I noticed that this woman in front of me was an absolute beauty, and was immediately at a loss for words.

  Luckily, the NPC who brought the salad over removed the current awkward atmosphere. I immediately took up the mysterious spice and sprinkled it on the suspicious looking vegetables, and then used the fork to stuff them into my mouth.

  After wolfing down for a while, I casually said this to ease the tension just then,

  “Thinking about it, even though it’s not beneficial to us nutritionally, why must we eat vegetables?”

  “Eh— this is good.”

  Asuna, who was elegantly chewing on what looked like lettuce, argued back.

  “It’s not per say disgusting…but there should be mayonnaise or something.”

  “Ahh—that’s right. I agree.”

  “And salad sauce…tomato sauce… and…”

  ““SOY SAUCE!!””

  Both of us shouted out at the same time and
started laughing——

  But at the next moment,

  A horrifying scream could be heard in the distance.

  “…KYAAAAAHHHHH!!”

  ————!?

  I held my breath and raised my waist as my hand reached for the sword on my back.

  Asuna, who also put her right hand on the hilt of the rapier, shouted sharply,

  “Outside the shop!”

  She shouted and immediately kicked the chair away before running to the entrance. I also hurriedly followed that white knight outfit to chase her.

  As we arrived on the road, another ear-piercing scream that sounded like silk being ripped could be heard.

  This voice most likely came from a neighboring building. Asuna glanced at me first, and then sprinted south with all she had.

  I continued to chase this profile that was like pure white lighting. As the spikes of the boots ground on the pavement to create sparks, I turned east and finally rushed towards the round plaza in front of me.

  There, an unbelievable scene laid before me.

  On the north side of the plaza, there was a stone building that looked like a church.

  A rope was dangling down from the middle window on the second floor, and at the front end of a ring —— a man was dangling there.

  Of course, that person was not an NPC. Perhaps that guy had just came back from hunting since he had a full plate armor with a large helmet on him. The rope had sunk completely into the armor on the neck, but the players gathered at the plaza weren’t screaming for this reason. In this world, there’s no such thing as dying because of suffocation by using an item to choke the neck.

  The source of fear for everyone was a black short spear that stabbed deeply into the man’s chest.

  The guy used both hands to grab onto the grip of the spear as his mouth was opened wide. During this time, the wound on his chest continued to give out a red flash effect that’s like blood and flickering away.

  In other words, this man’s HP was decreasing bit by bit. It was the «Continuous Pierce damage DOT» that only a few of the piercing weapons had.