I like crossing the most

Chapter 575: Another Girl Who Was Fooled
After separating from Krillin and the others, Kirito has been leveling up with the members of the Moonlit Black Cats.

Of course, he never slacked off. In order not to fall too far behind the other members of the strategy team and to be eligible to participate in the BOSS strategy battle, he ran to the front line alone every night to kill monsters and level up. He even met Klein and others on the 28th floor.

Talented people will always come to the fore.

The [Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain] guild founded by Klein has also become a well-known guild in Aincrad. Although it cannot join the strategy group for the time being, it seems that it will be able to do so with a little more effort.

Kirito also realized what Krillin said.

The current level of Klein and his team is only less than five levels behind the Moonlight Black Cat Group, but their judgment of monsters, terrain, and battle situation are far superior to that of Xing and his team. Especially in terms of cooperation, they are like members of the strategy team.

Was he wrong?
Kirito was actually trying to guide them to cooperate with each other, but some things are innate and he couldn't do them no matter how hard he tried, especially in a death game. If he was not careful, his health points would be reduced to zero and it would be Game Over.

He thought of a girl who wanted to transform into a shield warrior but had made no progress.

This is not surprising. If you want to fight a vicious monster at a very close distance, what is more important than the numerical level is the courage to endure fear and fight to the last moment. Not long after SAO started, many players died because they panicked in close combat.

Something to say.

Sachi is actually a quiet coward, and doesn't think she's suitable to be a striker in any way.

Kirito has a high level, so he can temporarily take on the job of tank, but the other members don't think so. It should be said that they seem to feel bad for always leaving the tiring tank work to Kirito who joined in the middle.

Although she didn't say anything because the team had a good relationship, Sachi felt the pressure growing.

Finally, one day——

"Oh no, Kirito, Sachi is missing!"

"……what?"

"I said Xing is missing. We can't find her anywhere! Even the guild list doesn't show her location!"

For members who join the guild, the guild leader has the authority to know the location of the members.

Of course, the premise is in town.

If we were in the maze area, there would be nothing we could do.

The Moonlit Black Cats and the others were all in chaos and immediately went out to search. The directions they ran to were all maze areas. Only Kirito, who was a few levels higher than the others, knew that Sachi did not go to the maze area. He used tracking and exploration skills to successfully find the thin figure in a canal a short distance away from the street.

No wonder she couldn't be found, it turned out she was wearing a cloak with concealment function.

At this moment, Xing was squatting on the ground with his hands on his knees, staring at the canal with dull eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

Was he wrong?
Kirito thought again of what Kobayashi had said, and blamed himself for not noticing Sachi's changes as he had been leveling up lately.

"……fortunate."

"Kirito...how did you know I was here?"

"intuition."

"...That's it."

Xing smiled slightly.

Kirito clenched his fists, but didn't confess that he had used a high-level skill to find her. He moved his mouth and said, "Everyone is worried about you and even went to the labyrinth to look for you. Go back quickly."

There was a silent silence for several minutes.

Just as Kirito was about to say the same thing again, he heard the weak voice of Sachi who was still lowering her head.

"Kirito, let's run away together."

"Escape from where?"

"From this town, everyone from the Black Cats, the monsters... escaped from SAO."

The girl's words left him stunned.

"Does this mean... that we want to commit suicide together?"

Silence again.

This silence made Kirito feel uncomfortable, and his heart was about to explode.

“Hehe… Yeah, that’s right… No, sorry, I lied to you. If I had the courage to commit suicide, I wouldn’t be hiding in the safe area of ​​town.”

Kirito felt inexplicably relieved by Xing's words.

He didn't know whether the girl would not commit suicide again or she didn't need him to die with her.

"I'm very afraid of death. Because of fear, I can hardly sleep recently." Xing murmured: "Why did this happen? Why can't I leave the game? Why can I really die when it's just a game? What can that person named Kayaba Akihiko get by doing this? What's the point of doing this?"

The girl's question is the same as that of almost all players, and Kirito can answer each one of them. But he knows that Sachi is not looking for that kind of answer.

But Kirito doesn't know how to comfort people.

No matter what I did, I couldn't think of any words to comfort him, and I could only clumsily make the lie even more solid.

"——You won't die!"

"Why can you say that?"

"…Even if the Black Cats remain as they are, they are still a powerful guild, and you have reached the necessary safety level. As long as you stay in the guild, you will be able to survive safely."

Xing raised his head and gave Kirito a dependent look, but he couldn't look directly into those eyes and lowered his head.

"Really? Can I really survive to the end? Can I return to reality alive?"

"Ah, you won't die. You will definitely live until the day when the game walkthrough is completed."

These words were unconvincing and weightless. Even so, Sachi leaned towards Kirito, rested her face on his shoulder and cried.

The repressed mood is liberated.

After a while, he sent a message to everyone in the Moonlight Black Cat Group to explain the situation, and returned to the hotel with Xing.

Since Xing was tired from crying, she was allowed to go back to her room to rest, while Kirito waited for the rest of the Moonlit Black Cats to come back at the tavern on the first floor.

Because of this incident, the members of the Moonlight Black Cats realized what happened to Xing, so they were very considerate and stopped asking questions. At the same time, they readily agreed with Kirito's decision to continue to be the front row and Xing to be the spearman.

From the next night on, Sachi went to sleep in Kirito's room every night.

But make no mistake, nothing much happened.

Kirito and Sachi were not lovers. They had never slept in the same bed, cuddled up to each other, said words of love, or even looked at each other. Instead, every night, Kirito would repeat to Sachi, who curled up in anxiety, like a mantra, "You won't die, you won't die, you will definitely survive."

Whenever he said this, Xing, who was covered with a blanket, would smile slightly, look up at him, and then fall into a light sleep.

But this is only a temporary solution, if you want to change it completely...

Kirito made up his mind.

So, the next day, he brought Xing to the first floor of Aincrad.

The current Starting Town has changed a lot. Thanks to Kayaba Akihiko's wide permissions for players, any building can be modified after obtaining permission.

The first floor - this starting town with a huge number of players has also become the headquarters of the [Axis Church] and the [Business Alliance] established by Sato Kazuma.

By the way, the Business Alliance is not a guild, but a group, and the person in charge is Sato Kazuma, who founded it.

"Um, um...Kirito, what are we doing here on the first floor?"

Fortunately, I was a little nervous.

For high-level players who had rocketed from the 11th level to the 22nd level in just one month, coming to the Starting Town did not make them feel nervous or uncomfortable. However, it was a different story when they came to the east of the Starting Town.

Standing on the east side of the town, the cathedral occupies almost a quarter of the area and reaches almost to the second floor. It is filled with a sacred atmosphere that is awe-inspiring.

This is the headquarters of the Axis Cult.

Many players come in and out here, with different looks, genders, and ages, but the only thing they have in common is that they are all lifestyle players. Of course, their faces are filled with happy smiles.

If the 26th floor where the strategy group is located is full of the smell of death, then the floor where Xing and others are located is full of the smell of danger, but the starting town is full of the smell of happiness.

Our styles are different!
It was clearly a death game, but it was so happy and joyful. Xing felt uneasy inside and always felt like something was wrong.

"Kirito, why are we here..."

"Xing, I want you to meet someone."

"Meet someone...who is it?"

Kirito did not answer.

He fiddled with the system, sent an email to a player named Kazuma, and then stood outside the church door waiting.

Generally, large guilds, such as the Knights of the Blood, have players guarding the door. As long as you step forward and tell them your purpose, someone will go in and report. Of course, there are also players guarding the door of the Axis Cult, but Kirito didn't want to waste time, so Krillin said that you can come directly to him.

Soon, a man and a woman walked out of the church. Sachi was a little scared and hugged Kirito's arm, while hiding her body behind Kirito.

The man was… in a word, handsome, but that was all. On the contrary, it was the aqua-haired woman who was jumping behind him that caught Sachi's attention.

In Aincrad, there is only one woman with aqua blue hair.

It is said that the Axis Church was founded because of this aqua-blue-haired girl who helped those distraught people many times in the early stages of the game and helped them recover from their panic and fear. In order to help more players, she founded the Axis Church and also got the resounding title of "Goddess of Wisdom".

Because Aqua always claimed that she was a goddess, she got this title over time.

"Hey, you're here, Kirito."

Xiaolin looked at the man and woman at the bottom of the stairs.

He grinned and snapped his fingers.

"Aqua."

"Okay! Leave it to me!"

The stupid goddess eagerly walked towards Xing, then forcibly pulled her away despite the girl's resistance.

“Wait, wait…Kirito? Kirito!”

"Sorry, Sachi."

Kirito turned his head away and allowed Sachi to be led away.

Xiao Lin said, "I didn't expect you to bring her here. I thought you were the only one here."

"……What's the meaning?"

"After all, Kirito likes to dwell on trivial matters and always takes the blame on himself."

Kirito was silent.

He knew what Xiaolin meant, and it was indeed the case. He helped Xing, and Xiaolin also helped him.

"Don't worry, Aqua will take care of it."

"……yes."

After all, so many players in Aincrad, including Asuna, have been redeemed by Aqua, so there will definitely be no problem with Xing's words.

"So, why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

"friend?"

Kirito was a little confused by Kobayashi's sudden words, but when he followed Kobayashi's gaze to the few people who were unable to dodge at the corner of the street, his expression changed slightly.

He is a companion of the Moonlit Black Cat Group.

As if they realized they had been discovered, they did not continue hiding, but walked out awkwardly.

"Didn't you guys say that today is a holiday?"

"That's right, but I accidentally saw you and Sachi together and thought you were dating. I was so curious, so... But I didn't expect that you, Kirito, actually know Mr. [Thousand Changes]! Um, um... what is the relationship between the two of you?"

He seemed a little reserved.

This is understandable. After all, Axis is the top guild in Aincrad, and Kobayashi is a well-known player who can occupy the top few places even in the strategy group.

"me……"

"are friends."

Xiaolin interrupted Kirito and said, "Kirito once helped me, so I owe him a favor."

“Is that so—”

The members of Moonlight Black Cat Group accepted it easily.

Maybe in their eyes, Kirito is a helpful person, and there is nothing wrong with him helping Kobayashi unintentionally.

"I just didn't expect that Kirito would choose to use this favor on you."

"Well……"

Xiaolin's words silenced them.

Since the last time Sachi disappeared late at night and Kirito asked to continue to serve as the vanguard, they knew what was going on. It was just that they were blinded by their ever-increasing strength and subconsciously did not think about it. However, the consequence of their doing so was that Sachi's pressure became greater and greater, to the point where she had to seek guidance from outsiders.

"Uh, um...! What's the difference between us...us and the Clearers?"

"consciousness."

A decisive answer.

The members of Moonlight Black Cat Group were somewhat unwilling to accept this.

Xiaolin saw this and said, "In that case, why don't we try to fight on the higher floors? Then we will surely understand the difference between the Clearers and ordinary players."

The Moonlit Black Cat Group agreed without hesitation.

Since the monster's level was not much different from his own, and without any information provided by Kirito, the result was naturally that he was beaten black and blue.

On the other hand, Kobayashi and others were still able to maneuver easily on the upper floors.

"You know, the only thing holding the Clearers back is the boss. We can't even defeat ordinary monsters easily, so we'd better not even think about defeating the boss."

----

Afterwards, Kobayashi asked Sato Kazuma and Raine, who had been transformed into a shield warrior, to accompany them to upgrade on the upper floors. Several near-death experiences made the members of the Moonlight Black Cat Group realize how arrogant their ideas were and that their previous words were just unrealistic.

At the same time, the identities of Kirito's strategy group members were exposed, but with Kobayashi's explanation, Kirito's behavior was justified - it turned into screening talents to join the strategy group, which was a disguised acknowledgment that the members of the Moonlit Black Cats had the potential to join the strategy group, which made them extremely happy.

Although this lesson was not very impressive, at least they did not die because of it, nor did they hate Kirito because of it, and Kirito did not blame himself for it. It can be said that everyone was happy.

The only problem is-

"Axis believers can achieve this if they work hard. Even if they fail, it is not the believers' fault. If they cannot succeed, it is the world's fault. Just escape from unhappy things. Escape is not failure."

The girl clasped her hands together with a pious look on her face.

That’s right, I became an Axis cultist!

(End of this chapter)