I like traveling the most

After taking away all their equipment and Cole, Xiao Lin let them go generously.

After all, Xinka, the guild leader of the army, had a good relationship with him, and it would not be good if they were too tense. Of course, Xiaolin still sent an email to explain the matter. He expressed his intention to give him an explanation, but he did not receive a reply. .

A feeling of uneasiness came over me.

After leading a group of energetic children back to the church, Aqua generously treated the church children to a sumptuous dinner and mingled with them.

It doesn’t matter if you are an adult or a child, the silly goddess can always fit in. Even Xiao Lin was amazed by this exaggerated social ability.

Just then——

Looking at the happy scene, Yui stretched out her hands towards everyone at the table.

"Everyone's heart...is..."

"Yui? What's wrong?"

Seeing Yui's frightened expression, Aqua quickly held her in her arms and held her delicate hands.

"Yui, it's okay, I'm here, don't be afraid, I will always be with you..."

Like a soothing lullaby, Yui's expression was no longer frightened, but she still frowned and bit her lip as if she was remembering something.

"I...I don't have a place to live. I have always been...alone...in a very dark place..."

Suddenly, her face lifted up and she screamed loudly from her small throat.

"Ah...ahhh!"

There was a rustling sound like a system failure, which even Xiao Lin heard for the first time. The next moment, Yui's stiff body began to experience violent vibrations that seemed to be about to disintegrate.

"I'm so scared...so scared...!"

"It's okay, it's okay, I'm always here."

Aqua's body exudes light, just like a real goddess.

Then she took Yui to the room to rest temporarily, while Xiaolin played with the children outside. During this period, he was more curious about the army.

"Sasha."

"yes?"

"I want to ask about the army. As far as I know, although that group of people is too tyrannical, they are still enthusiastic about maintaining law and order. But yesterday, that group of people was equivalent to criminals. When did they start to become like this? "

That's what pissed him off.

Being bullied right under my nose, I always felt that I had failed as the vice president.

The corner of Saxia's mouth twitched and she said: "About half a month ago, I started to feel that their policy had changed... Some people started to make similar intimidation behaviors in the name of taxation, and some people started to ban this kind of behavior. People. Scenes of members of the army confronting each other are constantly happening. It is said that it is because of power struggles among the upper class..."

A power struggle?

This will happen in big guilds, so Xiao Lin is determined not to recruit other players. After all, the forest is big and there are all kinds of birds.

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Well...it's already troublesome for you. If you ask for more, it's really..."

"How can you have such an idea? Don't you know that the more you give in, the more they will push forward?"

Xiao Lin was a little angry.

This idea seems to be that they don't want to cause trouble to the Axis Cult, but now that the church is nominally under the control of the Axis Cult, daring to come here to collect protection money is a provocation to them.

Sasha looked embarrassed.

"Sigh... I know you don't want to trouble others or conflict with them. But no matter what, you have to consider the children. What if what happened today happens again and I happen to be away?"

"sorry."

She lowered her head.

There was also negligence on the part of Xiao Lin and others.

Again, there are too few people available for the Axis Cult. With Alice becoming an idol princess, Sato Kazuma busy managing the Chamber of Commerce, and Darkness and Aqua unable to help at all, It is really difficult to take care of these.

"I will tell Kazuma about this, and I will also inform Xinka."

What the military does is disgusting.

But Xiaolin couldn't eradicate this phenomenon, he could only make them restrain themselves.

At this time, there was a knock on the church door.

Sasha was slightly startled.

"Hey, are there any guests again?"

She looked at Xiao Lin, as if asking if he was the one who found her, but received a slight shake of his head in denial.

Because it was a public facility with no way to lock the door, the visitor opened the door.

A slender female player appeared in front of them.

Her long hair was tied into a ponytail. On her straight face, which could be described as smart, her azure eyes shone impressively.

Although covered by an iron-gray cloak, the female player is wearing a dark green top, loose pants around the thighs, and a metal armor that glows faintly like stainless steel, which is the standard uniform of the army. Moreover, a dagger hung from the right waist, and a black leather whip tied in circles hung from the left.

"Yuriel?"

After seeing her, Xiao Lin was slightly stunned.

The woman in front of me once wanted to join the Axis Cult, but she had no choice but to give up because of Kobayashi's belief that he would not accept combat players.

The two knew each other not only because she was Xinka's secretary, but she also learned how to use a whip from Xiao Lin... Although she didn't know how she connected the whip and the silk thread, they still had some common topics. of.

All in all, the relationship between the two is good.

"I thought Xinka would only send an email, but I didn't expect to send you? No, or is it to protest against what I did?"

"No, that's not the case. On the contrary, I would like to thank Mr. Xiaolin. It's really a great job."

Got it.

The person being punished is not from their side.

"So, what does Xinka mean?"

"President Xinka is currently not in the guild... No, the purpose of my coming here today is that I have something to ask Mr. Xiaolin."

"Please?"

The feeling of uneasiness grew.

Yuriel nodded and continued: "Let me explain from the beginning. The name "army" was not used a long time ago. It was actually changed into the army by the past vice-president, who is now the actual person in power - Ya What happened after the king took real power."

Kibaou, a very familiar name.

On the twenty-fifth floor, his guild was annihilated by PoH design. Frustrated, he ran to the initial town to win over a group of players again, and then joined a certain guild and became the vice-president before he could return to the strategy group.

"Xinka...he definitely doesn't want to form an independent organization like now. He just wants to distribute intelligence, food and other resources equally to as many players as possible."

Yuriel's expression was ugly.

The Axis Cult had the same idea at the beginning. Xinka also hoped to join the Axis Cult, but also failed, so the guild was established.

In fact, Xinka's idea is very good. Hunting monsters with a large number of people can not only avoid crises as much as possible, but also get stable income to be evenly distributed. This idea itself is not wrong.

But the essence of MMORPG is the competition for resources between players, even in a game like SAO that is in an extremely abnormal state.

No, it should be because of this.

Even the Axis Cult has only ten official members and does not need so much equipment and resources, so it can distribute the excess resources to children who cannot go outside the circle.

The same cannot be said for big guilds like the military.

You need a lot of resources yourself, so how can you squeeze out resources for others? In addition, people have selfish motives and think that why should they take risks to fight monsters and level up, but instead give resources to others. With the guild members dissatisfied, Xinka gradually lost his power and became a mascot.

Then Kibaou jumped out.

Using Xinka's laissez-faire approach as an excuse, he and his group of cadre players proposed to strengthen the system and change the name of the guild to the army. Then proceed with the recognized goals of hunting down criminals and efficiently occupying the labyrinth area.

At first, because they were friendly with other guilds, they could still abide by the etiquette of the labyrinth area, but they continued to occupy the labyrinth area for a long time with most violence. In addition to the rapid increase in the guild's income, the power of Kibao's faction also gradually became stronger.

Recently, the players of the Kibao faction have been getting carried away with themselves, and even in the neighborhood, they have begun to intimidate them in the name of taxation.

The one who suffered a head-on attack yesterday was the vanguard among that group of people.

Xiao Lin knew it when he heard this.

Kibaou also lost control.

What he must be thinking about is occupying the labyrinth area to collect a large amount of resources and hold them in his hands. But his indulgence made his subordinates mistakenly think that no one needed to be afraid, so they did such ridiculous things.

Kibaou was like this. Like ordinary people, he only saw the small profits in front of him and had no idea that things would gradually go to extremes.

Xiao Lin thought he must be very distressed now.

"However, the Kibao faction also has a weakness, which is that they only focus on increasing assets and continue to ignore the strategy game. This has caused dissatisfaction among many players. In order to suppress this dissatisfaction, Kibaou recently made a nonsensical bet and selected levels from among his subordinates. The top dozen players formed a strategy team and were sent to the front line to defeat the BOSS.”

If it is to conquer the floor, then it is understandable to seize the resources of middle and lower-level players.

After all, a game is a game, and it's worthless once you return to reality.

But now it seems they didn't do that.

"Even though we are at a high level, it is undeniable that we were originally unable to compare with the people in the attack team... In the end, it resulted in the team's defeat. Kibaou also suffered a backlash due to his unintended behavior, and he was almost exiled."

Almost means no.

Yuriel wrinkled her tall nose, bit her lip and said, "Three days ago, Kibaou, who was desperate, used a forceful strategy to frame Shinka. He used the corridor crystal with the exit set deep in the maze, and in turn exiled him. Xinka. At that time, Xinka didn’t bring any weapons because he believed Kibaou’s words to disarm and talk. It was impossible to break through the monsters from the deepest part of the maze alone.”

That explains everything.

Presumably Xinka didn't even bring the transfer crystal, so he couldn't come back. In addition, there was no way to send messages in the maze area, so he didn't reply to the email.

but--

"Three days ago, on the monument of life..."

"His name is still on the Monument of Life, so he should have successfully reached the safe zone. It's just that the location is deep in a very high-level maze, so he can't move. As you know, teleportation cannot be done in the maze. The message cannot be connected to the guild warehouse, so the transfer crystal cannot be sent to him. "

——Entrance PK

Kobayashi and others also know this method of killing others using the corridor crystal that sets the exit deep in the desperate situation.

Xinka is no exception, but he may think that even if he turns against him, he is still the vice president of the same union, so he should not be able to do this. In other words, I don’t want to think that way.

“He’s just so nice.”

Yuriel sighed softly.

Xiaolin also thought so. You should not have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others. Xinka was too careless.

Yuriel continued: "Only Xinka and Kiba can operate the scroll of the guild leader's promise. If Xinka never comes back, everything in the guild will fall into Kiba's hands.

It is my responsibility as a supporter that I failed to prevent Xinka from falling into the trap. I must rescue him. But my level cannot break through the maze, and I can't expect the players in the army to help."

She bit her lip and pleaded.

"After hearing Mr. Xiaolin teach them a lesson, I suddenly thought of you... Maybe I think it's too thick-skinned to make such a request, but please, please come with me to rescue Xinka."

Hmm?

This request is very thick-skinned as she said.

After all, the human heart in SAO is the most unpredictable, and they are also likely to lure Xiaolin and others out of the circle to persecute them.

However, with Kobayashi's understanding of the army and his relationship with Shinka and Yuriel, he could still tell whether this was true or not.

Even the transmission was impossible, so it was obvious that Shinka was trapped in the maze.

"Okay, I agree to help."

"Really?! Thank you, Mr. Kobayashi!"

Kobayashi waved his hand.

Saving Shinka was not just because he was a friend. You have to know that no matter how much the Axis Church helps players who can't level up by killing monsters, there are still many people who can't get resources. The help of the army will reduce their workload a lot, which is why Kobayashi wants to rescue him.

"By the way, Yuriel."

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"King wants to gather resources, right? So he should have collected a lot of resources, so did he say how to use them? It can't be stored in the guild's warehouse, right?"

I've said it before.

There is no such thing as inflation in SAO. As long as the purchased equipment is well maintained, it can be sold at the original price, or even at a higher price.

Saving money is the stupidest thing to do.

"It's not possible that those high-level players spent all their money on buying high-level equipment? That's the money earned by hundreds of people."

"Yes, we were also curious, so we checked secretly, but..."

"Just what?"

"Except for finding out that he once said he would give it to the "goddess", we didn't find anything. We don't even know who the "goddess" is now. I think we can only know it after everything is over."

Goddess?

Goddess? !

It is known that Aqua is the goddess, and Kiba was once her younger brother. Recently, the stupid goddess has spent money lavishly but Sato Kazuma has not complained...

Looking at the sumptuous dinner on the table and the children eating heartily, Xiaolin's brain is preventing him from thinking further.

Oh no, I need to grow my brain!

"That... Mr. Xiaolin?"

"It's okay! Don't worry, I will save Xinka!"

Xiaolin nodded heavily.