I like crossing the most

Chapter 556: Using Alice to control the problem child
Kobayashi decided to use this information.

After all, it would be a waste if it wasn't used, and it would also be a waste of Xiaochun's kindness.

However, he did not leave the Starting Town with his companions and go to the next town, but came to the Black Iron Palace.

According to the closed beta player Koharu, the Black Iron Palace was originally the place where the resurrected people had their rooms. Now, out of kindness or bad taste of Kayaba Akihiko, a huge metal monument that was not there during the closed beta test has been set up there, like a tombstone.

The names of all the players are engraved on its surface, and a simple and easy-to-understand horizontal line is thoughtfully drawn across the name of the dead player, with the time and cause of death also recorded in detail next to it.

Xiaolin saw his own name and the names of the ten others on it.

This is a good thing.

If you think about it carefully, there are only 10,000 players in the game. Anyone would find it strange if ten unknown players suddenly appeared.

Rather than being found out and tripped up by Kayaba Akihiko, he was more worried about being kicked out of the game.

Now it seems that the game has officially started, and they have not been kicked out of the game, nor have they been tripped up, which means that Kayaba Akihiko treats them as players as well.

Excluding the 213 players who died before the game officially started, the person who got the honor of being the first to be marked on the elimination line appeared three hours after the game started.

Cause of death: suicide.

He proposed the argument that "given the structure of the NERvGear, as long as the connection with the game system can be cut off, consciousness should be automatically restored", and then crossed the southern end of the Starting Town and jumped from the high fence of the outermost observatory.

——Rinko saw all this with her own eyes.

Perhaps she didn't understand why the man did this, and she didn't get an answer from Koharu, so she couldn't bear the confusion in her heart and came to Kobayashi hoping for an answer.

Xiaolin didn't see it.

Of course, I won’t stop it if I see it.

A person whose ideas are growing stronger and stronger, and once he has an idea, he will try it no matter how much he is stopped.

This means that good words cannot persuade a damned person, and great compassion cannot save those who have committed suicide.

In short, two minutes later, the man's name was simply and mercilessly crossed out, and the cause of death was marked as falling from a high altitude.

“Darkness, don’t jump down like that guy. Got it?”

“Don’t underestimate me, Kazuma. I still know this kind of thing.”

"……Really?"

"Ah, if you're going to jump, you should jump from the 100th floor!"

"Is it a problem of height?!"

I have to say, it’s very Darkness style.

If a book about the 100 ways to die in Sword Art Online were to be published, the author would definitely mention these guys around him.

"Speaking of which..."

Kobayashi looked at the stupid goddess who was fiddling with the metal tombstone, not knowing what she was doing.

"Aqua, can you revive the dead players?"

"Huh? How is that possible! Xiaolin, you are an idiot, right? This is a game, we are in a game! In a world without entities and bodies, how on earth am I supposed to revive them? That kind of thing is impossible!"

Aqua taunted.

He had expected this situation, but the look of the stupid goddess was really irritating.

"Really? You can't do it. I see, so that's all you can do? Okay, it's decided. Since you're so useless, I'll just leave you behind now."

“Hey——————! No! I was wrong, Xiaolin! Please don’t leave me! I will find a way, please!”

Aqua cried and hugged Kobayashi's trouser legs.

...I still like your rebellious look just now, please recover.

He did not place his hopes on the stupid goddess. He said this only to let her know that he was useless now. Otherwise, what would be the difference between continuing to be complacent and being like him in Axel?
"Okay, we should set off to the next town."

Xiaolin clapped his hands.

Some conscious players have already started spawning monsters near the starting town, and the closed beta players have also headed to the next town early. It can be said that Kobayashi and his friends are now one step behind others.

But no problem, he trusted his companions.

I don’t know if it was a big giveaway, but the intelligence Koharu provided contained a lot of useful information, including the elements of fighting in this world.

The battles in SAO do require some sense and proficiency. The trick to combat is not to move around randomly but to rely on the system's assistance.

Take the simple one-handed sword upper slash as an example. After learning the one-handed straight sword skill, those who click on the upper slash in the sword skill list only need to think about this skill while making the starting action, and then the system will automatically help the player to make the slash.

However, those without any skills, even if they try to imitate the slashing action, will be completely useless in battle due to the slow swinging action or low attack power.

It's a bit like entering commands to perform a special move in a fighting game.

People who are not used to this fighting style will just swing the sword randomly even if they hold it. Even if they are facing a wild boar or wolf that can win by using basic single-shot skills in the initial stage, they will still end up in a mess.

However, for them who are already accustomed to fighting monsters and the Demon King's army, these are not a problem.

Thanks to the fact that SAO is not a game that the designer teaches you to play, they can move their bodies freely and get used to it after simple activities and experiences.

——Here a certain game is criticized by name.

On the way to the next town, everyone tried their hand at some tricks.

Needless to say, Kobayashi was proficient in physical skills, swordsmanship, and magic, so these were a piece of cake for him. Darkness, Sato Kazuma, and Kureya also easily defeated the wild boar with their initial swordsmanship skills—even though the wild boar was the weakest character in the game, almost the same as the slime in the other world.

As for Aqua, Rain, and Huihui, as he expected, they knew nothing about swordsmanship, taijutsu, or other close combat methods.

Instead, Youyou gave him a big surprise.

"Youyou, I didn't know you were so good at fighting?"

“Meihui, you are the one! There are people teaching Taijutsu in school, right? How come after so much time has passed, you still don’t understand anything at all!”

"I, what can I do? Because every time I have class, the seal on my eyes is about to be lifted or my magic starts to riot. It always prevents me from learning for some reason. So this is all the world's fault!"

"Is that why you're always lazy?"

The two members of the Crimson Demon Clan began to get closer once again without paying any attention to the people around them.

Xiaolin asked the blonde girl who had killed a wild boar, "Alice, how do you feel?"

"...It was very strange. I was stiff for a moment, and the posture of the moves was a bit awkward. It was different from what my brother taught me." Alice swung the sword.

"There is also information about this in the intelligence."

Kobayashi touched the girl's smooth golden hair.

——Skills outside the system.

This is something that almost every closed beta player knows. Instead of relying entirely on the motion assistance provided by the system, one can utilize one's own athletic ability to greatly increase the speed and power of sword skills.

After trying it a few times, they found that the speed and power had indeed increased a lot, and they were more adapted to this type of combat.

After adapting to the battles and the noise along the way, when the group arrived at the next town, there were already quite a few players there.

The exact number is unclear, but it will be no less than 100 people.

This is already very good. With thousands of players competing for scarce resources in the Starting Town, there will undoubtedly be better development in this town.

They didn't meet Rinko and Koharu, and they didn't know whether they were in this town or in the wild, leveling up desperately.

Let me say something else.

The first floor of Aincrad is very large, and the town of origin occupies about the second floor. There is a town in the southeast, northwest and northeast respectively, so it is quite difficult to run into "acquaintances".

After that is the boring leveling.

Xiaochun's information contains a lot of tasks about this town, including daily tasks, ordinary tasks, even hidden tasks and the locations of various treasure chests, etc. Unfortunately, the hidden tasks and treasure chests have been taken away or opened by others.

First come, first served is the nature of all games.

They took a lot of time on the way here, and other closed beta players must have taken away the tasks and treasure chests first.

It's a bit of a pity.

Other daily tasks and ordinary tasks are almost the same as the impression of online games. They all involve defeating some surrounding monsters and gaining experience and gold coins, or some props, etc., and can be accepted anywhere in the town.

The difference is that ordinary online games can be completed by clicking the mouse, and some online games even have a one-click task function, but in SAO, you have to do the tasks yourself.

This undoubtedly increases the time cost and is also accompanied by the risk of death.

In fact, these are quite common to Kobayashi and others. They did the same thing when they were in Axel. It was almost seamless.

...Huh?
Did I really travel through time?
This thought occurred to someone else at the same time.

Ah, there are still some differences.

Due to limited funds, they could only stay in ordinary hotels in the town at night. This was thanks to the fact that Kayaba Akihiko did not kill them but instead gave them a certain amount of initial funds, otherwise they would have to sleep on the streets.

Even so, Kureya was still very dissatisfied, saying that it was not appropriate for Her Royal Highness the Princess to stay in a small hotel, and that it was beneath her status.

However, when Alice invited her to live with her, she no longer complained about the simple living quarters.

An easy-to-fool guard.

"Okay, it's about time. Let's go to an area with higher monster levels today."

Kobayashi made this declaration.

Darkness asked worriedly, “Are we going now? Isn’t it too early?”

"Oh, that's strange. I thought you would be eager to go to a more dangerous place. Why, do you change your mind now and don't want to be hurt?"

"Hmm~~~"

The female knight who was being venomously tongued groaned.

"I, I, I, I'm not that kind of person! I'm just concerned about the safety of Her Highness Alice!"

Her excuses were somewhat self-explanatory.

Of course, Kobayashi knew what Darkness was thinking. Although he was willing to accompany Alice on adventures in this game world, he still wanted to reduce the danger as much as possible. This was also understandable.

But who made Kureya keep yelling in her ear, saying that Alice's quality of life has declined too much? Besides, it's almost the same stage now, and there are still ten of them. How can they catch up with the level if they don't go to more dangerous areas to fight higher-level monsters?
"Go ahead and see more powerful monsters!"

In the end, under the gaze of Alice's sparkling eyes, everyone else had no choice but to accept the result.

Xiaolin pinched his chin.

He found that since coming to this world, Alice seemed to be the center of the team, even though he used to be the one who had the final say. Don't get me wrong, it's not jealousy or anything like that, after all, Alice listened to him, it was just a little more troublesome than before.

Could this be...

Holding the emperor hostage to order the princes?
After confirming, the group set off.

Now, they came to a mountain road. This was the road leading south from the town, and the continuous mountains occupied almost half of the map.

"Be careful, the path here is very steep."

Xiaolin supported Alice as they walked.

Her Royal Highness the Princess was like a primary school student on an outing. She was so excited that she didn't pay attention to her feet. She almost fell off the cliff, causing others to break out in cold sweats.

"According to the information Xiaochun gave me, an advanced species of the small man-catching grass will appear in this area."

"Man-catching grass?"

"It's the pitcher plant. Because they grow in size and can move, and the objects they catch change from insects to people, they are called man-catching plants. I say, Aqua, the invitation that Kobayashi-senpai gave you is written in the newspaper. And I remember that he specifically mentioned it before I came here."

Sato Kazuma stared at the silly goddess who was laughing with dead eyes. It was obvious that she was definitely not listening at that time.

"But don't worry, we are at a higher level now, so we don't have to be afraid of it."

He spread his hands.

No need to ask, it was the high level that gave him the courage.

“But you still have to be careful of the danger.” Darkness interrupted. “Sometimes, there will be individuals with round fruits. If the fruit is damaged, it will emit smoke to call its companions, and then many monsters will surround it... Great!”

The perverted female knight hugged her shoulders with both hands and kept twisting her body.

"Okay, go back."

Sato Kazuma turned around and walked back.

He could already foresee that they would be surrounded by a group of monsters in a short while and would have no way of escaping.

“I’ll tell you, Mr. Kazuma.”

“Yes, I’m Kazuma.”

"Are you scared? You were so proud and confident when you came here, but now you are so cowardly that you want to slip away...Puchi Puchi, this is so funny."

This guy……!
Sato Kazuma glared at the stupid goddess who mocked him with gritted teeth, but he hadn't made up any excuses yet.

"It's okay, Your Highness Alice, I will protect you!"

"Me, me too!"

"Kureya, Rain, thank you."

The two guards on the side expressed their loyalty to Alice.

In fact, there is nothing to be afraid of. There are ten of them, and even if they are surrounded by monsters, they can easily break through.

at this time--

“Aaaaaaa——”

A sharp scream came from the top of the mountain and flooded into the ears of the group.

(End of this chapter)