I like crossing the most

Chapter 566: Unwarranted Malice

Kobayashi listened to Kirito's story in silence, leaning back slightly and taking a deep breath.

"...In other words, that guy - Morut challenged you to a duel with half-damage victory or defeat. When your HP was reduced to almost half, he planned to use the axe to cause you heavy damage. If he succeeded, you would die because of the complete loss of HP?"

"Well, that's right."

"Most importantly, since this is a mutually recognized PK, his buoy will not turn orange, indicating that he is a criminal? In other words, it is a legal way to kill players, just like PK with monsters... It can be called a one-on-one PK, right?"

Since it is a game, there must be PK.

Kobayashi can even bluntly assert that any game cannot run for long without battles between players. For MMORPG games like Sword Art Online, battles are indispensable.

There are three types of PK in this game.

The first one to bear the brunt was the death match, which was to win by reducing the opponent's health to zero. Originally, even if the health was reduced to zero and the player died, he could be resurrected in the Black Iron Palace. However, when Kayaba Akihiko took the resurrection function offline, no one used this method to PK anymore.

Then there is the first hit win-lose mode which is not used by players very often. Simply put, the person who attacks the opponent first and causes damage wins, but this PK method is very beneficial to people with high agility attributes, and is not friendly to players with strength and defense expertise, so very few people use this method to PK.

The last one is what Kirito just mentioned, which is also a commonly used PK method between players, the half-loss win-lose mode.

In fact, this PK mode is no different from a deathmatch. You can think of PK as a deathmatch in which the life value is divided by two, and whoever makes the opponent's life value drop below half first will win. However, the half-loss win-lose mode guarantees that the player will not die, so it is very popular among players who like PK.

But this was the loophole that was taken advantage of by someone.

Infinity will reduce the player's health to nearly half, but instead of killing the opponent, it will look for opportunities to use more powerful skills to reduce the opponent's health to zero in one fell swoop.

Any game has so-called priorities.

For example, the competition between skills and dodges is about who is faster, so that it is easier to confirm whether the attack hits.

In this game, health points have the highest priority. Once hit, health points will be reduced first no matter what. This is why in the original book, after Diabel was attacked by the BOSS, his health points continued to drop and he did not drink potions, because he was already judged dead at that time.

But there are several difficulties in using this reasonable method of killing.

The first is the strength of one's own strength. If you can't beat the opponent, how can you talk about reducing the opponent's health? The second is the accurate judgment of health. If you are not careful, your health will be less than half and you will be judged as the winner. How can you talk about killing the opponent? The last is that your own attack power must meet the standard, otherwise how can you reduce the attack power to zero?

Maybe this is why his profession is Axeman. After all, Axeman's attack power is the highest among all professions.

Of course, this method is only useful at low levels. As the level increases, everyone's stats will increase, and even in a half-loss win-lose mode of PK, the health value will not drop to zero due to a single hit.

...No, actually this trick doesn't work for some people.

For example, Darkness, in order to experience the thrill of dealing more damage, she added all the values ​​to her defense and health, so even if her level is low, she will never die in a PK with a half-loss win-lose mode.

But this is still a method.

No matter what, it still poses a considerable threat now that everyone has not yet reached a high enough level.

Xiao Lin sighed slightly, "That guy is quite smart. It's amazing that he could come up with such a trick."

"Right, right! I think he's awesome too!" Kirito's tone became high-spirited, as if he had found a close friend.

"Why do you admire me so much? You almost died."

"Well..."

Looking at the dark swordsman who was scratching his head in embarrassment, he could understand his feelings.

Players' admiration.

Just like he admires players for inventing new mechanics in the game and making them shine, Kirito also admires Marut for finding new mechanics, just like he admires Krillin.

But admiration does not mean that Kirito approves of the other party. On the contrary, he hates the other party's bad behavior.

"So, why did he challenge you to a PK? Could it be that he just doesn't like you and wants to kill you? Kirito, did you do something to make him angry? Like stealing an elite monster from the wild?"

"No, I didn't! Although I often did that during the closed beta period, I never did it in the official game!"

“But I still did it.”

"I--!!!"

Kirito felt like crying but had no tears.

This is also the reason why Diabel is so wary of him. It's all because he did too many bad things during the closed beta period, which is why he is in such a difficult situation now. It can only be said that it is retribution.

“But I don’t think that’s the case.”

"Why do you say that?"

"From the situation that has occurred, Morut should not just be a PK player who kills for pleasure. I think the reason why he challenged me to a duel is to hinder my preparations for the mission to capture the forest elves' camp. He wanted to use this time to delay me and make the [Dragon Knight Guild] and the [Liberation Army Guild], which were preparing to carry out their respective missions in the camp, confront each other... No, I should say he wanted them to fight each other."

Kirito frowned.

He realized the seriousness of the problem.

By the way, the Dragon Knight Guild is the guild founded by Diabel and Linde, and the Liberation Army is the guild founded by Kiba. Together with Kobayashi's [Axis Guild] and several lone wolf players such as Kirito and Asuna, they form the initial strategy group.

"Forest elf camping mission..."

Kobayashi and the others did not go on the mission because they were forming a guild, so they did not know what happened, but we can guess what his motives were.

——In order to hinder the attacking group.

Generally speaking, the motivation may be to take advantage of the chaos after the struggle to integrate the two guilds and then become the leader... that is, the desire to gain fame, or to plunder the money and equipment dropped by players who died on the battlefield, that is, out of desire for money and possession.

This is conventional thinking.

But are reputation and material desires really more important than one's own life...or the desire to survive?
In this world, no matter how high your status is, how much Kol you have saved, or how rare items you have obtained, if you lose to a monster or a player once and your HP is reduced to zero, all your efforts will be wasted. You will be unable to return to the real world and will be truly dead in an electronic prison.

Morut's actions were not worthwhile no matter how you looked at them. He was just deliberately hindering the strategy of the death game.

There shouldn't be such people in this world, not to mention those who are willing to risk death and leave the safety of towns and step into the dangerous wilderness.

When the topic was brought up again, Kirito looked serious as if he had noticed something unusual.

"That guy's motive was to hinder the raider group... In other words, if we think he was a spy sent by the death game operator, that would explain why he acted like this."

After saying that, he stared at Xiao Lin with burning eyes, as if seeking approval. ...It seemed that it was not just that, and one could sense other meanings from his dark pupils, a bit like questioning and judgment.

Xiao Lin shook his head. "No, I don't think so. The reason is simple. If the game is about to be completely conquered, it is possible for him to jump out and hinder it. But you have to know that SAO has a total of 100 floors. It's too early to start being active in secret from the third floor... At least I have never seen a troublemaker jump out so early."

"Speaking of a troublemaker..."

Kirito looked a little awkward.

It was the first time he had heard such vivid yet uncomfortable words, and it brought great shock to his little heart.

Then he nodded.

"I think so too. Jumping out so early will only make players wary. What he did is putting the cart before the horse and it further encourages players to complete the game."

Kirito is young, but he is not stupid.

Especially his parents died in a traffic accident, and living with relatives made him more mature. In addition, he was born with a keen sense of games that was far beyond ordinary people, so he quickly discovered the truth.

"That is to say——"

"Kirito."

Before the truth came out, Xiaolin interrupted him: "People have their limits. When they can't bear it anymore, some people choose to jump off Aincrad, so it's not impossible that they will do something worse."

Keigo Higashino said something very good.

——Just groundless malice.

This is the bad nature of human beings. There are always people who do such abnormal things.

Kirito's voice became even deeper. "I think that guy's goal is not just to split up the strategy group. He may want to manipulate the psychology of the majority of players and induce them to kill people in the end... You can call it inciting PK."

There is a smell of danger in the air.

This is undoubtedly bad behavior.

PK with monsters and players is also based on clear malicious behavior, but people who do this still have to bear certain risks.

If you do not understand the mechanism when fighting monsters or make mistakes when gathering monsters, you will be attacked and killed; if you PK with other players, you may also lose and die.

But inciting PK is not the case.

People who do this can completely avoid direct risks because they can stay in the circle and induce individuals or groups to fight each other.

Although the success rate is lower than the first two methods, there will always be people who are good at controlling others and fishing reels in any world.

Of course, Morut may have done this by coincidence or unconsciously, but Kirito has encountered others who have the clear intention to kill others.

Kirito asked as if he was talking to himself: "Could these two be the same person?"

"If that's the case, then Morut is the only unique and exceptional PK player currently in Aincrad. But if they are not the same person, the situation is even more serious."

"More serious means..."

"If they are different people, then we should assume that they are acting together. In other words, they are teaming up to PK... No, there may be more than just two people. There may be three, four, or even a larger PK group in Aincrad."

Kobayashi's voice was extremely calm.

But at this moment, a cold wind blew, and the night view that Asuna had just said was atmospheric now made Kirito feel bone-chilled.

why?
Why do you want to do this?
If you kill a player in the current SAO, that person will never be resurrected and will actually die in the real world.

Don’t Morut and the others want to play the game?
Don't you want to leave this world?
Kirito opened and closed his mouth and made a dry and hoarse sound: "Maybe... they didn't even consider whether to leave or not from the beginning. If the HP reaches zero, the player will truly die, so they only think about PK... No, it should be said that they only think about killing."

Maybe he couldn't understand how someone could do such a thing.

But suddenly, Kirito thought of what Krillin had just said, that it was just groundless malice, and he immediately understood why the other party did this.

That's right, just unwarranted malice.

Feeling a snapping sound from behind, Kirito quickly turned around and acted extremely alert. He completely forgot that he was in the restaurant, in an absolutely safe zone. The conversation just now was a big blow to him.

Then he saw Asuna, Aqua and a large group of people walking in from outside making a lot of noise, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

"Asuna, you found a lot of coins!"

"If Miss Aqua wants, I'll give these to you."

"Really?! Thank you!"

The stupid goddess has no idea of ​​being polite.

Seeing this, Sato Kazuma hit her on the back of the head with a knife, causing Aqua to scream in pain.

"——Don't take other people's spoils. They worked so hard to get them. How can you be so shameless?"

"Then Kazuma, give me some of your spoils."

"No."

“Don’t be so stingy! You picked up the most loot this time, right? I remember there was also a rare necklace! Ah, this is so annoying! Why can’t I use magic that increases my luck? Kazuma, you cheating player!”

"Don't be silly! I was able to find these only through my own hard work!"

The two started arguing about the spoils of war. Darkness and Asuna stepped forward to persuade them, and Alice, Huihui and others ran over to share the spoils of war.

With this interruption, the dangerous atmosphere completely dissipated.

Xiaolin touched Alice's head and said to Kirito, "That's it. We have established a guild after all, so those guys shouldn't be so reckless as to come and cause trouble. But it's different for you two, so be careful. ... Of course, if you want to join us, you're more than welcome."

"…Thanks for your kindness, but it's not necessary."

Kirito thought about it and refused.

He was still more accustomed to being a lone wolf player. After all, joining a guild meant constraints, and the progress of upgrading would slow down. In addition, his current reputation was not very good, and joining a guild would likely bring discredit to Xiaolin's guild.

As for Asuna, whether out of concern (love) for Kirito or other reasons (wanting to spend time alone together), she also refused.

So they separated again.

It doesn’t matter, we are just not in the same guild. We will still team up together when attacking the BOSS. There is nothing to regret.

After saying hello, we headed towards the guild base.

On the way, Aqua shouted that she wanted to exchange the coins for Cole, and the others agreed to go with her.

Kobayashi did not collect the relics, so he stayed on the street waiting for them to come back.

But suddenly, he felt a pair of eyes falling on him. After thinking about it, he sent an email to Aqua asking them to exchange the coins and go back first, then he walked towards the depths of the path at the side.

The twists and turns are enough to make people lose their way.

When he reached the deepest part of the trail, he stopped and shouted loudly without looking back: "Come out. Your lurking skills are very proficient, even my exploration skills have no reaction. But unfortunately, I am very sensitive to sight."

Tread-tap-

There were soft footsteps behind me.

Turning around, I saw a player wearing a cloak, whose face and gender could not be seen, appear behind me.

"…Is there a fan meeting today?"

Xiaolin sighed slightly.

(End of this chapter)