Credits

Raws: Celest
Translation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas, Cirtoyt (part 1), Kaantantr
Proofreading from the audience: Quietscheentchen (part 1)

Translation (choice/nuance) comments:

• Argo has a speech quirk wherein she changes the last kana (usually a sentence ending particle) in her sentence to katakana, when it would normally be written in hiragana. This is accounted for by emphasising the final letter in her sentence in the translation (making it capitalised). Argo also speaks in boyish tone, so we made her language more casual.
• “in the morning on the dot” - technically, Kirito used the English word “just” (ジャスト, jasuto) here, but they use the word in the sense of “precisely”, which isn’t how the actual English word works, so we corrected the phrasing to proper English for readability.
• “Who’s there.” - we used a period for this question to imply a lower intonation, since Kirito is trying to sound intimidating here. Basically, it’s less of a question and more of a demand.
• “Inner Area” (圏内) and “Outer Field” (圏外) are SAO-specific terms that refer to being inside/outside the Anti-Criminal Code effect area (basically, the in-town safe area), where players are protected from any and all forms of harm and attacks. These are the specific terms in English that players see on their UI whenever they enter/leave town, which is why I used these odd phrasings (Kawahara gave them in English in the original novel, so I didn’t come up with the translations).
• Traditionally, people in Japan wear their swords and what-not at their waist when sheathed. So much so that being “unarmed” is phrased as having an “empty waist/hip” (丸腰, marugoshi) in Japanese. So, in a certain instance, Kirito hyper-focuses on Argo’s waistline (腰周り, koshimawari, literally “around the waist”) looking for a weapon. He also uses the aforementioned word for “unarmed” that refers to the waist specifically, but we didn’t have a good way to translate that while maintaining the waist reference (we ended up going with the word “inocuous” somehow).
• “’tually” - Argo uses the phrase “つうか” (tsuuka), which is a slangy abbreviation of the word “というか” (toiuka), so I shortened “actually” to “’tually” to account for it.
• “How the heck was I supposed to tell, anyway!” - Kirito’s speech is uncharacteristically crude/rough in this particular sentence, so we tried to make it feel especially outraged.
• Japanese people frequently abbreviate the word “クエスト” (kuesuto = “quest”) to just “クエ” (kue = “que” or “Q”). Since the characters use both versions of this word, I chose to translate the shorter one as “q’st”.
• “Yo Argo, […]— ahem, Argo-san […]” - in two instances, Kirito originally begins his sentence with the word “あんた” (anta), which is a crude/casual/familiar way to say “you” in Japan, but then realises he’s being too familiar/crude with that phrasing, so he makes a pause and then corrects the “あんた” into “Argo-san”. Since any colloquial variant of “you” in English would also come with one steoreotype or another, we decided to convey the nuance of Kirito correcting his way of addressing Argo through sentence structure and tone, rather than exact wording.
• “clueless” - the original phrase was “ノー知識で” (Nō chishiki de), which literally means “with no knowledge”, but that phrasing was both awkward and unclear in English, so we decided to go with “clueless” instead.
• “early-bolters” - the original phrase was “スタダ勢” (sutada-zei), where “スタダ” is a (silly) abbreviation of the phrase “start-dashers” and “勢” is a suffix for “group”. We’ve considered various ways we could account for this slang, but since we’d have to resort to neologism either way, we settled on just using “early-bolters” and making a note that the original text used an abbreviation.
• “Cor” is the currency used in Aincrad. It stands for “Coin of the Radius”, where “Radius” is a reference to Aincrad (which in turn is short for “An Incarnating Radius”). Note that the anime mistyped “Cor” as “Col”, and all official translations went with that mistranslation.
• “just from a gander, unreal!” - in his outrage, Kirito mashed two sentences together here:[…]無理だろどう考えても！ (muri darou; dou kangaetemo!). The “daro” marks the end of one sentence, but then Kirito tacks on a “どう考えても” (“no matter how you think about it”) onto it. We tried to account for this nuance by tacking on “unreal” at the end, as it implies outrage, and the comma adds a pause to represent that double sentence nuance.
• “At least have the decency to throw some squeaks in at the end of your sentences if you care so much!” and “Totally not happeneak…… I mean, not happeninG!” - when Japanese people try to imitate animals, they usually tack on sounds specific to that animal at the end of their sentences. For example, when imitating cats, people tend to add “nya” (“meow”) at the end of their sentences, or even incorporating it into certain words (e.g. “nani” -> “nyani”). The sound a mouse makes in Japanese is チュー (“chuu”), which is what Kirito suggests to add to Argo’s vocabulary. In the following sentence, Argo accidentally does add a “チュ” to the first part of her sentence out of inertia, but then corrects herself by repeating the word without the mouse sound.
• “Front runner” is Argo’s preferred nickname for the players fighting on the front lines. She’s the only one who really uses that particular name for the group.
• Argo has two preferred personal pronouns to refer to herself: “オイラ” (oira) and “オレっち” (orecchi). Both of these are dialectal variants of the more standard “俺” (ore) pronoun. “Oira” has a more general “countryfolk” vibe to it, while “orrechi” is basically a cutesy/humorous variant of “ore” (technically, it’s a slang version of “俺達” (ore-tachi), which is supposed to be a plural version of “ore”, but “orecchi” ended up becoming a singular first person pronoun). I interpreted the usage of “orecchi” as being cutesy, so to differentiate between her two pronouns, I decided to translate “oira” as just variants of “I” in general; meanwhile, instances of “orecchi” are translated as “li’l ol’ me” for a more cutesy/humorous vibe to it.
• The phrase “cooldown time” was written as #冷却#(クール)タイム (Kūru Taimu). We added “down” to “cool” for clarity.
• “grand doors” - this is the only instance in this story that uses kanji (大扉, ootobira, literally “big door”), rather than the English word “door” (ドア, doa)
• “look who’s finally being more careful” - the original phrase was “ガードが堅くなったナ” (Gādo ga kataku natta na), which would literally mean “having one’s guard up”, or less literally “showing no weak points”. Since this phrasing would be awkward in English, we decided to localise the phrase into something more natural for an English speaker’s ears.
• Due to frequent use of apostrophes in Argo’s speech to account for her boyish tone, we ended up with a situation where we had dialogue quotation marks, apostrophes, and in-dialogue quotations all in the same basket, which made it considerably difficult to make out where the quotation begins and ends. To resolve the issue, we decided to use a different style of double quotation marks for the in-dialogue quotation for better readability.
• “dough” - Argo used the word 金 (kane, “money”) in katakana form as “カネ”. It’s a slangier way to say “money”, so we went with “dough”.
• “ThX” - Argo shortened the word “ありがとうナ” (arigatou nA) to “あんがとナ” (angato nA).

Markup explanation:

• Itallics mark text that was written in katakana English (I only highlighted the cases where the author uses both English and actual Japanese equivalents for the same thing, or when I needed to emphasise that an English word is used there).
• Ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ text indicates non-Japanese text that was written in the Latin/English alphabet, rather than katakana. Basically, what you see is exactly how it’s written in the raw.
• Courier font indicates that the original word was written in kana for emphasis (when such a word usually isn’t written in kana)
• Comic sans indicates emphasis added by myself when I needed to stress something to get the meaning across properly.
• In some instances, the original text used furigana. In cases where the furigana wasn’t exact match for the underlying text (usually when the author uses furigana to translate or describe foreign words in Japanese), I maintained the furigana format. Furigana text should be read as follows: #Japanese translation/description of what the term/name means#(What was actually said) (e.g. #cat fairy race#(Cait Sith) - “Cait Sith” is what was actually said in text, while “cat fairy race” is just a brief description of what Cait Sith are to help differentiate between the different fairies.
• Single quotation marks (’) are quotes that weren’t in the original text but were added for the convenience of English speakers to mark implied quotations. I used it mostly to separate Kirito’s internal monologue from his narration, as well as mark sound effects and so on. Actual dialogue lines or quotations (with 「」 punctuation marks) within a narration line are indicated with the usual double (") quotation marks.

The Next Day (part 1 & 2)

Part 1

On the one hand, 『Sword Art Online』 is the embodiment of innovative technology as the world’s first FullDive VRMMO-RPG; yet on the other hand, the game itself seems to contrast this very idea by painting its world in the palette of an idyllic fantasy realm, as classical as it can get. The townscape consists of stone and half-timber buildings reminiscent of Middle Age Europe; the world is populated with stereotypical monsters, such as kobolds and slimes, alongside races such as elves and dwarves.

And yet the world is never described using the traditional stock phrase of a 『world of swords and magic』 ; magic just doesn’t exist in SAO, after all.

Kayaba Akihiko, the developer of both SAO and the NerveGear, once had an interview, where he explained the reason for excluding magic from his world, despite oversaturating it with fantasy elements otherwise. His argument was: ‘If I were to implement magic and its so-called 《surefire long-range offensive capabilities》, it would turn the game’s combat into something akin to a shooting game¹, and I find that to be at odds with the unique concept of a FullDive RPG - the sense of taking part in the action yourself by being given dynamic control over your own avatar.’

Back when I read this article, in all honesty, I questioned his logic……does the presence of magic or lack thereof actually affect combat all that much? After all, I had played more than my fair share of non-FullDive fantasy MMOs thus far and yet never felt as if magic pushed the combat system over into #ＳＴＧ#(shooting game) territory. Heck, who ever said that all players would opt for magic classes anyway. My gut says over half of them would go for vanguard roles, taking up swords and axes to duke it out as Kayaba oh-so desires, no?

But when I managed to pull through my first encounter with imminent death just a few days prior², I realised that the man’s viewpoint had been predicated on SAO becoming a death game from the very beginning.

Since it was now imperative to avoid death by any means necessary, anyone in their right mind would opt for an offensive measure that didn’t involve getting close to a monster, given the chance. Just imagine if you were to throw a caster class into such a game; most if not all of the players that dared to leave the town would undoubtedly play it safe and ignore fighting monsters face-to-face in favour of a playstyle that allowed them to unleash spells willy-nilly from out of harm’s way - considering all of that, I can see where the ＳＴＧ moniker comes into play. And Kayaba surely didn’t want that to happen.

However. Come to think of it, given the chance to swap my class in favour of becoming a Mage, I──Kirito, the level-5 swordsman──may in fact just choose to remain a sword-wielder anyway.

On the day the Death Game began, I was probably the very first out of the ten thousand players shut inside Aincrad, to dart out of the 《Town of Beginnings》 and migrate over to 《Village of Horunka》 to the north-west. My reasoning for this was simple: I concluded that the monsters populating the fields around town would be farmed to death in no time, which would necessitate the inefficient practice of 《spawn-camping》 to reap any benefits from the area.

What’s more, the Village of Horunka features a quest that allows you to obtain a powerful one-handed sword. Not wasting a single moment, I took on the quest and began farming a plant-type monster known as a 《Little Nepent》³ inhabiting the nearby forest in order to obtain the required item.

The Little Nepents weren’t all that dangerous of a monster in their own right, yet I still nearly met my demise at their vines. I had come across another player named Coper working on the same quest as me; he brought up the idea of working together to finish our errand faster and I took him up on the offer; when we finally managed to get the fabled item to drop, however, Coper intentionally attracted a large army of Nepents and then tried to use the Hiding skill to get them off his trail in order to #MPK#(monster player-kill) me and hog the quest item all for himself.

However, the guy had no clue that the Hiding skill wouldn’t work on monsters without eyes, such as the Nepents. I drove out Coper’s screams from my ears as he was surrounded by the army of monsters, instead focusing all my attention on taking down the Nepents descending upon me with my beginner-grade Short Sword. I must have fallen into some sort of trance state midway through, seeing as my understanding of what went on throughout the battle is hazy at best, yet there’s one thing I recall clear as day.

During my battle, I finally felt…… actually no, I came to realise that “This is SAO”. Your sword is no mere object and your body is no mere avatar. There’s an apical state of mind that can only be achieved when these factors all meld perfectly with the player’s psyche. Of course, that kind of peak still eludes my grasp as of right now, but there’s one thing I am sure of: the 《road of possibilities》 extends far beyond the horizon.

Despite losing a whole seventy percent of my HP gauge in the process, I somehow managed to survive. Bidding farewell to the fallen Coper, I returned to the Village of Horunka, completed the quest, and obtained a one-handed sword known as the 《Ａｎｎｅａｌｅｄ　Ｂｌａｄｅ》 as my reward for the job.

The English word ‘Ａｎｎｅａｌｅｄ’, as in “#焼きなまされた#(yakinamasareta)” in Japanese, refers to taking a processed metal and treating it with heat once more to remove its internal stress, making it softer and stronger as a result……apparently. I’m not really sure if the blacksmiths from the virtual world actually go through all that trouble, though I can say that the selling point of the Annealed Blade is its Durability to withstand strain, which makes it the perfect partner for a solo-player like me.

This all comes at the cost of the weapon becoming quite heavy when compared to other swords of the same class, though I have to admit that even this trait of its has grown on me. I don’t have the slightest intention of implying that there’s anything wrong with the idea of going for a light sword, to focus on overwhelming your opponent with a flurry of attacks; on the contrary, my gut says that this might actually be the correct choice to make in the given circumstances, yet I still prefer the process of dealing with fastidious swords that allow me to get a good sense of the impact of my swings, mastering the handling of my blade over time. In that sense, the Annealed Blade that I have just obtained has yet to become my second-to-none partner. Although I’ve had my fair share of time with this sword during the Beta Test, it’s already been two whole months since then, so it’ll probably take considerable time to get my muscle memory back in the game.

The only way to make this process go faster is to go into battle more often…… yet for the past thirty minutes, if not more, I haven’t even managed to find it in myself to get out of my bed.

Today was the 7th of November, 2022──the second day of SAO’s official service.

It’s probably right about time for players other than the man who met his end yesterday, to start making their way into the Village of Horunka by now. Since I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to get involved with other people for a while, I’d like nothing more than to promptly check off my to-do list for this village and then set out for my next base of operations, but I just can’t quite find the energy to get into gear. Although I’m not one to talk, I do admit that even I had some trouble falling asleep last night; still, I should’ve managed to get four or five hours of sleep in nonetheless, and I don’t feel anything wrong with my body either. So why am I finding it so difficult to just go ‘Alrighty!’ and get my body up and running?

‘I’ve never felt this downtrodden even on the days of my choral or ball-game competitions at school. Could this possibly be some malfunction with the NerveGear; if so, does that mean I will never be able to get out of my bed for the rest of my life?’…… as I fiddled with such extremely pessimistic thoughts in my head—

Suddenly, there came a short knock at the door facing the inn’s corridor. Next came a muffled voice.

" ‘EllO～"

“…………!?”

I curled up with a jerk, before opening up my menu window from my horizontal position. Materialising my newly-acquired Annealed Blade, I grabbed it with my left hand, scabbard and all, before gently slipping out of my bed as if all my gloom was a thing of the past.

As I was standing up, I heard the voice again.

“Yooo, I didn’t come up to ya for some shady business or anythin’, honesT. I just wanna talk with yA.”

——Yeah, that sounds exactly what some shady dude would say!

I barely managed to restrain myself from shouting that comeback out. I couldn’t tell whether that high-pitched voice, with nasalised inflections, belonged to a woman or a boy, heck I couldn’t even tell if it belonged to a player or an NPC - it could be either one, for all I know. I don’t have any ongoing quests at the present moment, but who knows, maybe 《lying on a bed in this inn for thirty minutes or more in a wakeful state》 serves as a trigger for some weirdass event, who knows.

The time now is seven o’clock in the morning on the dot. Even supposing the player behind the door didn’t actually bear any ill-will against me, isn’t it a bit too early to be visiting people at this time of day?

As if having read where my thoughts were going——

“S’rry if ya were still sleepin’, maN, but I got my reasons for bein’ here, y’seE. Cantcha just hear me out, at the very leasT; I don’t think y’ve got anythin’ to lose here, y’seE.”

With these words, came another ‘ko-ko-kon’ knock at the door.

Generally, inn doors are indestructible within the domain of the Anti-Criminal Code; only the person renting the room should be able to open them. So, seeing as this person would be bound to give up and walk away sooner or later, I could always just ignore them, but it would give me the creeps if I got approached by the same player again somewhere in the village, or in the Outer Field, afterwards. As such, keeping my right hand on the grip of my Annealed Blade in case anything were to go wrong, I approached the door, careful to avoid being hit if it were to be pushed open out of the blue. Considering what had happened yesterday, there’s certainly no such thing as being too careful.

After spending some time observing the presence beyond the door, I mustered the most imposing voice I could pull off——

“Who’s there.”

My short question received an immediate answer.

“Thank goodness, ’ere I was beginnin’ to think that I’d be left hangin’ till the end of time, maN. The name’s Argo, seE.

“Argo……”

I may or may not have heard of that name before at some point in time, I can’t really say for sure; though at the very least, I definitely hadn’t heard of it since SAO began its official service.

“So, Argo-san, what do you want from me?”

“There’s somethin’ I want ya to sell me, maN.”

“‘Scuse me……?”

I let out a puzzled exclamation, before looking down at my own body. My protective gear was all beginner stuff, nor did I have anything on me that fell under one of the accessory categories. My storage was basically as empty as the void, so the only thing I had on me that anyone could possibly desire was the Annealed Blade in my left hand.

This visitor, calling themselves Argo, is undoubtedly after this very sword, but I had no intention of parting with it after I nearly worked myself to death to get my hands on it, quite literally. The bigger issue is how this Argo-whatsit character managed to find out that I was in possession of an Annealed Blade. I wouldn’t be able to grind my levels in peace until I got to the bottom of this mystery.

‘For now, I’ll just pretend I’m open to negotiations and then chase this person out once I get them to tell me where they got their intel from.’

Having made up my mind, I gave my answer through the door.

“……Fine, I’ll open the door, but wait five seconds before coming in.”

“Aye-ayE.”

Accepting my tedious terms right off the bat like this only made this character even more shady——but I couldn’t just go “Know what, I changed my mind, bye” at this point.

Tapping on the door with my index finger, I pressed the 【Unlock】 button on the window that popped up, jumping out of the way that very instant. This might be the Inner Area, but if by some chance, this Argo character turned out to be an event NPC rather than a player, I couldn’t entirely dismiss the possibility that the Code would be rendered useless.

As I continued gripping the handle of my sword, the door came flying open five seconds later, on the dot.

" ‘ElO”.

With that utterly casual greeting, in came a petite figure wearing beginner-grade leather armour and a sand-yellow hooded cape over……as my examination of their appearance reached that point, I quickly checked on the Colour Cursor floating over their head. Colour: green. So this was a player, rather than an NPC. Yet I still couldn’t put my finger on whether this was a man or a woman, even after seeing their avatar.

Upon having made sure that the door was closed, my guest shot a glance at me from under their low-hanging hood, then looked over the room, before shifting their gaze back at me as they said:

“No need to be so wary of me, I’m not gonna pull anythin’ against ya, maN. Ya wouldn’t mind if I sat down there, wouldjA?”

Their finger was pointing at a small, round table at the centre of the room. Once I responded with a nod, the person pulled out a worn-out, wooden stool from under the table, before sitting right down on it.

“Now, if ya could just take a seat yerself, that’d be great, maN.”

Despite nodding in response, I chose to sit down on the bed a short distance away from them, rather than on the other stool, before finally taking my right hand off my sword’s grip.

“……Just to get this out of the way, how much are you putting up?”

I shot the person a question to get the upper hand——or so I had intended, at least.

Yet after a few blinks under their hood, Argo only gave a small shrug.

“How am I s’posed to name a sum when I haven’t even mentioned what I was hopin’ to buy yet, remembeR?”

“Whu?”

I accidentally let out a half-witted exclamation, before lifting up the Annealed Blade in my left hand a bit.

“I-isn’t this what you’re after?”

“NoperinO, I ain’t even got One-Handed Sword on my list, paL.”

“……Oh, t-that so.” With the wind taken out of my sails, I looked over Argo’s waistline once more, but I couldn’t find any gear that even resembled a weapon. I know that we’re inside the Inner Area and all, but coming into a meeting with someone you’ve never met before with nothing at your waist… I’m not sure if this person is bold or reckless, or maybe they’ve left their waistline innocuous on purpose, hiding some small weapon behind their back instead——

“Oi, ooglin’ a lady’s lower body ain’t cool, maN.”

“Hea!? A l-lady, where?”

“Right over ’ere pal, duH. ’tually, how can ya possibly fail to tell that I’m a girl after one good look, it’s beyond mE.”

Barely holding myself from arguing back, I cleared my throat before giving my reply.

“Do excuse me then. Though, I was looking at your waistline, rather than your lower body.”

“Ain’t much difference there, paL.”

“Scratch that, not your waistline either; I was just trying to spot your weapon.”

“Do excuse me theN.”

Parroting my words right back at me, Argo gave a broad smirk under her hood.

“ThougH, what Weapon Skill I have in my roster is a valuable piece of intel, y’seE. I’m not about to let anyone get a gander at it so easily, ya feel mE.”

“…………”

I was about to complain that she was being way too much of a worrywart, but then I shut my mouth right before I could say a thing. I couldn’t exactly deny that the great number of Weapon Skills present in SAO all had their strengths and weaknesses in one-on-one fights——that is to say, compatibilities and counters do come into play—if we’re being nitpicky——so it’s not exactly impossible to take precautions if you were so inclined.

From that point of view, I basically ended up exposing one of the cards in my disposal to Argo, the self-proclaimed-female-player, but for better or worse, one-handed swords were average in just about everything, so there shouldn’t actually be any precautions to devise against it. Heck, she probably wouldn’t have gone out of her way to knock on my door if she was actually planning to ＰＫ me. Once I placed my Annealed Blade onto my lap, I worked over my question.

“So if it’s not the sword you want, what do you want me to sell to you?”

“Well, ya didn’t quite manage to hit the bullseye by thinking that I was after yer sword, but ya weren’t that far off either, seE.”

With that preface, Argo’s right hand moved nimbly.

“What I’m actually interested in buyin’ is info on the q’st to get that Annblade of yers, y’seE.”

“Annblade……”

I found myself nearly giving a strained smile at her simplistic abbreviation inadvertently and hastily tried to get my expression back in order, before asking a followup question.

“Yo Argo, since— ahem, Argo-san, if you wouldn’t mind me asking— since you already know of this sword, doesn’t that mean that you’re a former beta tester as well? Why do you even need to buy info on the quest from me when you should already know all about it?”

At that point, the corners of Argo’s mouth curled up in another grin.

“I never once called you a beta grad, now have I.”

“Wha……?”

After giving a frown, I realised that my phrasing “as well” basically exposed that I was a former beta tester myself. ‘Is it just me, or is she sucking information out of me every single time I open my big mouth. Who the heck is this girl’…… mentally cocking my head in puzzlement, I attempted to gloss over my mistake.

“W-well, that goes without saying. Under these extraordinary circumstances, do you really think anyone other than former testers could actually manage to reach Horunka this early in the game?”

“Hmm, maybe not, ya knoW? Even if we’re in a death game where ya only get one life, it wouldn’t really be all that strange to find fifty, maybe even a hundred clueless early-bolters rushing out of town when y’ve got a whole ten thousand players around, nO?

“…………”

She might just have a point. In most games out there, pioneers getting a leg up over their peers is an actual issue; if someone sweeps through all the treasure chests, rare mats and monsters in the same way a savvy businessman conquers the uncharted blue ocean markets—but in this case, with savvy adventurers conquering the blue fields instead⁴—they’ll establish a big lead over the late-bloomer players that come after. That’s precisely why I myself had chosen to bolt out of the 《Town of Beginnings》 right after Kayaba Akihiko made his death game proclamation.

That said, I for one had a stock of knowledge from the beta test under my belt to fall back on; on the other hand, I surely couldn’t call rushing out of town anything but reckless if you were doing so without any info under your belt whatsoever.

“……Yo Argo, I assume you’ve gone over the village and taken a gander at everything before coming to this inn, yeah? Roughly speaking, how many other players do you think have reached the village by now?”

Upon hearing my question, Argo let out a short ‘Mn～～’ groan, before saying the following.

“That info’s gonna run ya ten cor… or at least that’s how much I’d usually charge ya for somethin’ of this sorT, but whatevS. A grand total of zero players, maN.”

“Zero……?”

Her answer caught me by surprise so much that I couldn’t help but blink.

“Yo Argo, what was all that stuff about there being fifty, maybe even a hundred clueless peeps rushing out of town……”

“What’re the odds that someone runnin’ around willy-nilly would actually manage to reach Horunka by accident?”

Her snap counter had me faltering for a moment, before I managed to object.

“But all you’ve got to do is follow the road from the 《Town of Beginnings’》 north-western gate and you’d eventually reach the 《Forest of Horunka》; the forest might make it a bit easy to get lost, but it’s got nothing on the 《Forest of Wavering Mists》 on the Third Floor. You’re bound to reach the village eventually if you were to just scour the area.”

“The north-western gate…… is a mouthful so Imma just gonna call it westgate for short thougH; anyway, ya wouldn’t even know of the gate without extensive knowledge of the First Floor’s geography, so it’s practically unthinkable anyone’d pick it. The northgate is thrice as grand as the westgate, after alL…… the great majority of non-tester early bolters must’ve picked the route that has ya cross the grassland after comin’ out the northgate, I’m surE.”

“But the only thing you’re going to find on the other side of the road after passing through the grassland is a kobold village and a Field Boss……”

As I pointed out the facts in a whisper, Argo nodded in silence herself.

Located at the southern tip of the First Floor, the 《Town of Beginnings》 has three big gates: the northwestern gate, the northern gate, and the northeastern gate, but beta testers have been calling them westgate, northgate, and eastgate for simplicity’s sake. Each of them is a starting point for a road, which stretches on to the next town or village in that direction; however, the eastern road leading to the 《Village of Medai》 through the mountains is plagued with straight out overleveled monsters; on the other hand, the northern road through the grassland is peaceful at first, but in order to reach the 《Town of Tolbana》 at the northern tip of the floor, you’d have to go through a marshland nested by swamp kobolds, after which you’d have to beat a giant boar-type Field Boss that’s set up its nest in a ravine with no way around it.

In contrast, while there is a potential risk of getting lost in the forest by following the western road leading to Horunka Village, it is the least difficult road of the bunch, so it was the obvious one to take——or at least it’s supposed to be, but it is certainly hard to come to that conclusion unless you hear it from someone who’s privy to this knowledge, or by checking off errand quests at the 《Town of Beginnings》 to get that info from NPCs.

“……In that case, what about the other former testers? It wouldn’t exactly be odd to find peeps making their way over here by now if they already know what the map is like, no?”

Argo let out another “Mmn~~” groan at my question. As someone who went on about buying info, seems like she wasn’t about to give out any of her info as freebies either.

‘Not like you’re some sort of info broker or anything, sheesh……’, despite my exasperation, I stood up from the bed and moved over to the small desk by the window. I poured some water into glasses from the jug the rented room came with, before going back and placing them on the table in front of Argo.

“Here ya go. It’s just water though.”

“Just water, huH……”

With a brazen remark, Argo swiped away the hood she had been wearing over her head this entire time.

The moment I laid eyes on her now-exposed face, I could feel my jaw drop cartoonishly. Her goldish-brown frizzy hair, springing up in all directions, was quite unique, and the face underneath was quite lovely, yes, but what drew my eyes the most were the three distinct lines on either cheek, like whiskers. Seeing as they melded perfectly with the texture of the skin, it seems she used some costly face-painting dye, rather than drawing them on with some regular old paint or something.

“……W-what’s up with the whiskers?”

When I timidly brought up this question, Argo smoothly lifted her right eyebrow.

“What are ya so surprised about, maN, there were heaps of dudes wearin’ paint on their faces even back in the beta, remembeR?”

“Welp, sure, but aren’t makeup items supposed to cost a pretty penny…… and you’re not even throwing in any meows into your sentences for all that trouble of drawing whiskers on your face……”

“HaA!?”

With that shout, Argo pointed her left thumb at her face.

“What even gives ya the bright idea that these are supposed to be cat whiskers anywaY!”

“Wha, they’re not?”

“No they’re not, duH! These’re rat whiskers, how can ya possibly not tell the difference, paL!”

“Oh, well my ba-……”

Just as I jumped aboard the apology express, I gave another good look at the three radial lines drawn on either side, and argued back.

“Hang on, how can anyone possibly tell the difference between cat whiskers and rat whiskers just from a gander, unreal! At least have the decency to throw some squeaks in at the end of your sentences if you care so much!”

“Totally not happeneak…… I mean, not happeninG!”

Blowing a hmph out her nose, Argo grabbed the glass on the table and downed it in one gulp. After putting it back down with a thud, she said:

“Well, give it a week and all the front runners, you included, will know my li’l ol’ name whether y’all want to or noT. The name of Argo-sama, the Info Broker, y’ll seE!”

“…………E-ehm.”

Faltering, I sat down on the bed once again. Her statement just now was so loaded with info that I couldn’t decide where to begin.

In order to cool my head, I began drinking my own glass of water, when Argo opened her mouth once more.

“Oi mate, it’s about time ya shared yer own name, doncha thinK? Makin’ a lady give ya her name without respondin’ in turn ain’t very gentlemanly, y’knoW.”

“Whu…… wait, I thought you barged into my room precisely because you knew who I was to begin with?”

As soon as I asked my own question in return, I realised that I messed up yet again. Argo didn’t waste a single moment to show off her smirk as she dunked me with an appropriate verbal blow.

“Wowie, look at’cha, guess I’m not the only one who thinks highly of ‘emselves, eH. ThougH, sorry to disappoint’cha, but I wasn’t lookin’ ya up by name, maN.”

“Well then, why did you go out of your way barging into my inn room…… and how did you even know I was staying in this very room in the first place……”

“My manhunt was focused on findin’ the super dasher ass who went and cleared the Annblade q’st on the very first day out of nowhere, ya seE. I thought the guy might still be stayin’ at an inn at this early houR, so I looked over the bookin’ window at the front desk an’ found out that this was the only room already taken, seE. I’d spent quite a bit of time devisin’ ways to make ya spill yer guts on whether ya were the very same dude who cleared the q’sT, but ya saved me the trouble by showin’ it off out of nowhere, maN.”

Upon hearing all of that, I shot a glance at the Annealed Blade I had left back on the bed all this time. From the looks of it, I’d been leaking info on myself from the very moment the gal opened my door, apparently.

‘She might actually be serious about professing herself an info broker’……with that thought, I voiced my final question.

“One more thing. How did you figure out that there’s already a player out there who’s completed the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》⁵ quest that you get the Annealed Blade from? There’s no booking window for quests, now is there?”

The 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 is a quest given by the mother of a sickly child that tasks you with collecting an ingredient for a medicine that can only be acquired from a specific variant of plant-type monsters inhabiting the forest to the west (i.e. Little Nepents), which come to think of it, is a garden-variety type of job you can get here. The inside of the house the mother and child live in is turned into a personal temporary instanced area for each player that comes in; while the child I saw did get better because of the remedy, other players who’d drop by the house after me would just find the child bedridden again. So basically, there’s no way to tell if any other player has cleared the quest before you got to it, or at least there shouldn’t be a way to tell.

“Agh……”

Argo spent a few moments staring up at the ceiling with a pensive look, before she finally answered me.

“Oh well, guess I can write this off as a freebie too for yA. Unlike the beta version, the q’st now has a _cool_down time added to it, I’ll have ya knoW.”

“Whu, how many minutes long?”

“Twenty-four hours.”

“……You for real?……”

My mind went blank for a few.

In SAO’s case, a _cool_down time refers to the waiting period a player has to go through before they are able to take on a quest after someone else has taken it on. Back in the beta test days, the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 quest came with no _cool_down times, which is to say that it could be picked up by ten or even twenty people in a row without issue back then; however, if the _cool_down time has been set as high as twenty-four hours for the official service of the game, it would mean that only a single Annealed Blade per day could be acquired amongst the entire community.

Of course, unlike back in the beta, players who’d try to clear the game even if it meant putting their own lives in danger will only make up a small fraction of the community; the numbers are going to be even lower if we only count one-handed sword wielders. Nevertheless, there’s no way one sword per day is going to meet the demand at the beginning stages of the game.

“……Yo hold up, so if you’ve come to pick up the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 q’st yourself, doesn’t that mean you’re a one-handed swordsman too? Yet you’re actually interested in buying q’st info, rather than the sword itself?”

When I asked my question with a slight unease plaguing me, Argo tightened her whisker-painted cheeks to purse her lips.

“Haven’t I made it clear enough for ya already; I’m an info broker, maN. Even if I did wield one-handed swords, I’d never degrade myself to bargainin’ for the sword itself, ya heaR. It would be a different matter altogether if someone were to hire me to act as a middleman for their own negotiations, thougH.”

“……T-that so.”

The buying and selling of items between individuals is a fundamental part of MMORPGs; SAO even has a trading system to that end, so I don’t really see what’s so degrading about bargaining for a purchase, but I guess it’s insulting her name as an info broker based on Argo’s own standards. From my side, I’m actually grateful that she’s not here to hound me into selling her an item I have no intention of parting with.

“In that case……what kind of info are you looking to buy then?”

“Oi, how’s about ya tell me yer name first, paL.”

Now that she mentioned it, I remembered having failed to do so yet.

Since my player name 《Kirito》 is just a short form of my real name, 《Kirigaya Kazuto》, I felt a bit awkward about giving her my name, but even Argo can’t possibly figure that out. After clearing my throat, I whispered it out.

“I’m Kirito.”

“Kirito……”

Seeing Argo’s repeated scowls upon hearing it, I was beginning to panic whether she might have actually deduced my real name, but the self-proclaimed info broker just gave two or three nods afterwards, as if it all clicked for her.

“Oh, I see noW, so you’re the one who…… Guess I should’ve predicted as much, huH……”

“……What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Do I even need to spell it out for ya; y’re THE Kirito, aren’chA? The one an’ only guy who managed to catch a glimpse of the Tenth Floor boss’s mug, as they say.

“…………”

Well yeah, she is right about that.

Having been one of the thousand people that were blessed with luck——though ’luck’ is arguable, given the current circumstances——to participate in SAO’s closed beta test, I had managed to reach the top level of the Tenth Floor’s Labyrinth area, also known as the 《Castle of a Thousand Serpents》, by the final day of the CBT on the 31st of August. The countdown for the end of the test started up just as I was a stone’s throw away from the boss room, so I got into a frantic dash through the last corridor to at least get a look at the boss; having managed to shake off the other testers and barged in through the grand doors all on my own, I somehow managed to make out the Floor Boss’s figure and name, right before I was forcefully logged out.

I still vividly recall the peculiar blend of discontent and unfulfilment that I came to feel when I woke up on my own bed back then. I had vowed to bring down the Floor Boss of the Tenth Floor, 《Kagachi the Samurai Lord》, by my own hands this time when the official service of the game finally began, but who would have thought I’d find myself questioning whether I’d even make it to the Floor Boss of the First Floor.

Shaking off my momentary reverie, I whispered out:

“Well, I’ll leave it to your imagination whether I’m the very same Kirito or not.”

“Ooh, look who’s finally being more careful, eH.”

“Let’s focus on what’s actually important; what kind of info were you looking to buy?”

“‘Kay then, let’s get down to business, shall wE.”

Upon saying as such, Argo nimbly moved her body into a cross-legged position atop the small stool. Her upper body gear consisted of the same beginner stuff as mine, but below them she was wearing baggy, knee-length pants that looked similar to knickerbockers. Since you couldn’t find clothes like that for sale in this village, I presume she had to have procured them in the Town of Beginnings along with the hooded cape, but I had no clue as to where she might have managed to find them, even as a former tester.

“Oi, ooglin’ a lady’s lower body ain’t……”

Since Argo was about to repeat the exact same line she had uttered just moments ago, I hastily averted my gaze.

“I’m not looking, no siree, not looking at anything! Just get to the point already, will ya.”

“‘Aight, maN. There’s two pieces of info that li’l ol’ me is interested in buyin’, y’seE. First off, a detailed rundown on the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 quest, particularly any dangerous momentS. The other thing I wanna know is the pre-upgrade specs for the Annealed BladE. That’s two morsels in total, so what say I give ya two hundred cor for yer troubles, eH?”

“Whu, you’re givin’ me this much for just that?”

As soon as I finished my impulsive question, I realised I messed up once more. Sure enough, a smile found its way on Argo’s face, half proud, half exasperated.

“Sheesh, ya sure are no fun hagglin’ with, my maN. Granted, two hundred is already stretchin’ my pockets at this point, so hollerin’ for more would really leave me in a bind, seE.”

“……Can’t you just throw in a freebie piece of info to seal the deal in that case?”

I’d only mentioned this as my way of getting back at her a bit, yet Argo took on a blatantly sullen expression at my words.

“Me and my big mouth, sheesH. So whatcha wanna know, maN?”

“Hows ‘bout the reason behind the whisker paintjob on your cheekies?”

I hadn’t actually put that much thought into what kind of info I’d ask for, but my answer ended up instantly earning me a glare.

“Ya knoW, it ain’t cool askin’ why a gal’s wearin’ makeup, maN.”

“Uh…… that’s not exactly makeup though, is it……”

“If y’re really dyin’ to know the answer, just fork up a hundred thousand cor and the info is all yerS!

“A hundred…………”

‘Gakun’ went my jaw as it dropped down in shock, after which I raised my hands in surrender to backtrack on that.

“Okay fine, two hundred cor with no extras it is. Let’s start off with the details on the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 quest……” At that point, my mouth came to a halt as I gave a slight tilt of my head in puzzlement.

“Wait, if you’ve gone through the Annblade q’st in the beta yourself, shouldn’t you already know everything about it already, like what the job entails, the dangerous moments and stuff like that?”

“Oh, I do, yeaH. ThougH, the way I see it, that’s exactly where the trap lies, methinkS……”

“Trap? What do you mean by that……?”

“Remember what the hugeass red-robie told us back in the Teleport Gate Plaza at the Town of Beginnings yesterdaY? 『This very situation was my ultimate goal』, as he put it, y’seE.”

The moment Argo voiced that line with a serious look, the chilly voice of the red-robed GM——Kayaba Akihiko replayed in my mind. My tongue then gave voice to his very words.

“……『I developed the NerveGear… and SAO for one purpose, and one purpose alone: to create this world and take pleasure from observing it. And right now all of that has been achieved』……”

“Ooh, nice memory ya have there, huH.”

A smirk appeared on Argo’s right cheek, only to disappear not a moment later.

“What he said was, like, all messed up in the head, but if we’re to take ‘im at his word literally, the dude’s goal is to observe the ten thousand players inside the death game pissin’ their pants. I can see why too; this is basically the greatest entertainment show in history - not even millionaires ‘round the world get to watch somethin’ of the sort, after alL. Y’know, perhaps the guy might be monitorin’ us havin’ our li’l chat here right this very moment, hM? When it comes to progressin’ through the game, we’re the only ones who’ve pushed the line ‘ere so far, after alL.”

The moment I heard her idea, my eyes were drawn to the ceiling of the room. I could only spot some aged ceiling boards there, but someone’s gaze was seeping through them──or at least, I couldn’t deny the possibility that someone was, in fact, watching us.

“Stop creeping me out, will ya……”

I muttered this out after returning my head to its original position, which prompted a shrug from Argo.

“That’s what “takin’ pleasure from observin’‟ somethin’ is basically s’pposed to imply, nO? If yer plannin’ on progressin’ through the death game yerself, ya best be keepin’ Kayaba’s presence—or intentions, or what-have-you—in the corner of yer mind at all times, maN.”

“…………”

She might just have a point there. The monster inhabitants of Aincrad are what serve as our foes in battle, but it’s the SAO system that is controlling them, and Kayaba is the sole person capable of managing this very system. Which is to say that Kayaba is the god of this world, while we’re just like a bunch of ants scurrying around in a terrarium of divine making that was bestowed upon us──

As I followed my thoughts this far down the line, a sense of malaise that was hard to describe filled my chest.

But no amount of time spent thinking over the matter helped elucidate the cause for it, so I just gave up that thought train and pointed my gaze at Argo’s face.

“……So let’s go with the assumption that Kayaba’s goal is to take pleasure from watching this world; how does it all tie into the whole trap thing you mentioned though?”

“Just give it a thought, maN; if y’were in the shoes of the dude who painstakingly crafted the world map, only to see some folks ploughin’ through it with ease based on knowledge of it they’d acquired beforehand, what wouldja think of the lot, hM? Those who never seem to lose their way, or fall for any of yer traps, of us beta testers, that iS.”

“…………Killjoys?”

The moment I gave my answer, the info broker nimbly snapped her right fingers.

“’XactlY. The dude must’ve wanted to have all ten thousand of his players start off on the exact same footiN’. Yet, even he couldn’t just outright skip havin’ a beta test, nor could he call off testers gettin’ dibs on the game eitheR. Killin’ off all former testers just as the death game began… the thought must’ve at least crossed his mind, the way I see iT.”

“W……whoa whoa.”

Reflexively, I lifted my right hand to touch my temporal region. Yet I was unable to actually touch upon the NerveGear my flesh-and-blood body in the real world must still be wearing as we speak, of course.

I hastily lowered my hand back down, but Argo didn’t make fun of my action. Far from it, actually, as she was firmly clasping her hands on the table, as if resisting the same urge herself.

Due to the frizzy curls dangling down all the way to her nose, as well as the whisker markings on her cheeks, I couldn’t tell her actual age──I was struck by the impression that she was about my age, yet also struck by a different impression that she was far older than me──but one thing was for sure: Argo’s flesh-and-blood body was lying somewhere on a bed in the real world, a NerveGear mounted on her head, just as I was. And if her HP were to hit zero, her avatar wouldn’t be the only thing gone for good - a lethal output of microwaves from the NerveGear would ensure her flesh-and-blood body followed suit.

Yesterday, the moment I heard Kayaba’s explanation on the matter, I discerned that all of it was the cold-hard truth, no bluffs or anything. The Kayaba Akihiko I know──and had once deeply admired──wouldn’t shy away from following through it all. Looking at it the other way around, however, if he has proclaimed that he would “release all players if the last boss lying in wait on the Hundredth Floor of Aincrad were to be taken down”, he isn’t going to backtrack on that either.

A way to dispose of beta testers while still keeping his word…… that would be──

“Oh I get it, all you have to do is make minuscule changes to a bunch of different things from the beta and……”

The moment I muttered this, Argo gave another snap of her fingers.

“‘Xactly what I was gettin’ at, yeS. For example, if ya entirely changed the monster roster for a given area, even the former testers would be wary of surprises, nO? But let’s say ya kept the same appearance and even the name of the monsters, but made some slight alterations to their spawnin’ or attack patterns, what theN? Doncha think that their own experience would come back to bite the former testers, hM?”

“Valid point there……”

Nodding, I recalled the battle from last night.

The Little Nepent monsters that serve as the subject of the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 quest haven’t had any changes to their appearance, or their attack patterns from the beta test. However, the flowerhead Nepent strain that drops the 《Little Nepent’s Ovule》 needed as an ingredient for the remedy, now spawns alongside the fruithead Nepents; while they do sorta look alike, this strain comes with a fruit that can attract tons of his pals from the area if you were to attack it; this change was the driving factor behind Coper hastily choosing to stain his hands by intentionally striking down a fruithead and then hiding away to MPK me, fearing that he would otherwise lose the flowerhead to me.

I’ve never heard of fruitheads ever spawning alongside flowerheads back in the beta, so this might be one of those “slight alteration” moments that Argo had been talking about. Let’s suppose I had been farming Nepents all on my own and encountered both variants in one place: the flowerhead one that I really needed to hunt down, and the fruithead one that I had to avoid hunting at all costs; in that kind of a situation, odds are quite high that I would get hasty and screw up somewhere along the line.

“……So, what you’re saying is… the knowledge that former testers have under their belt only serves to hinder our progress through the game……?”

Upon hearing my mutter, Argo quickly shook her head.

“NaH, we should make good use of info from the beta test, maN. In fact, it’s thanks to this very info that both of us, me an’ ya, have managed to reach all the way to Horunka, even though it’s only been fourteen hours since the death game began, y’seE.”

“Fourteen hours……”

It came as a shocker to me that so little time has actually passed since then, but Kayaba’s announcement had in fact taken place at five-thirty yesterday evening, and it is only seven-thirty the following morning right now. However, it already seems like ages since I passed through the westgate of the Town of Beginnings.

“……Argo-san, say, when didja leave the Town of Beginnings?”

“Five o’clock this mornin’, or sO. It ended up takin’ me an entire hour to get through the Forest of Horunka, sheesH.”

“I see…… Though, it can easily take over three hours to make that same trip when you don’t already know your way around, to be fair……”

“See what I mean, hM?”

The corners of Argo’s mouth briefly went up in a smirk but returned to their original position in a matter of moments as she continued on.

“My guess is, the other former testers will follow our lead and migrate over to Horunka by this evenin’. Give it two, maybe three more days and the folk who aren’t former testers will also get a hang of the combat, which’ll prompt ’em to start goin’ on the move in search of untouched farmin’ grounds, I’m surE…… MmmhN, ‘former testers’ and ‘folk who aren’t former testers’ are both a mouthful to say, y’knoW. Got anythin’ more snappy to use as a nickname for ’em, hM?”

“Whu? ……Like, ‘veterans’ and ‘newbies’, or something……?”

The moment she heard the options I managed to squeeze out of my limited mental vocabulary, Argo gave me an exaggerated eye-roll.

“WhoA whoA, callin’ yerself a veteran just because ya happened to participate in the beta test for a single month… talk about bein’ brazen, yeesH.”

“T-then why are you asking me……”

“Nihihi, oh well, guess we’ll just have to let nature take its course for the nicknames, huH. Anyway……the newcomer crowd dwarfs former testers by a factor of ten, and before all these players get rollin’, I was thinkin’ of havin’ the bare minimum of info they’re gonna need to pull through compiled into a single, whatchacallit…… a guidebook or somethin’ of the sort, which I could then circulate amongst ’em, seE.”

“A-a guidebook? Circulate……?”

After repeating her words in a dumbstruck manner, I finally grasped what she was getting at. Argo’s trying to write down the knowledge that former beta testers have under their belt onto paper, which she could then hand out to non-tester players.

Yes, it is indeed possible to create something on the level of flyers or booklets by taking a manuscript written by the player to an NPC transcriptionist’s office to make copies of it. But the whole thing costs quite a lot; so much so in fact, that practically no one in the beta had ever used their services.

“But, doesn’t that, like, take a load of money to pull off……”

As I brought up this question as dumbstruck as I’d ever been, Argo just gave a shrug of her shoulders.

“Well, sure it doeS. That’s why I’m thinkin’ of chargin’ people for the first edition, which I could then use to fund the free second edition, perhapS…… Granted, I don’t even have the dough for that first edition at the time bein’, thougH.”

Seeing the self-proclaimed info broker’s ’nihihi’ smirk once more, I was hit by a sense of unadulterated shame.

I migrated over to the Village of Horunka all on my own for the sole purpose of increasing my odds of getting through this in one piece. While I do get the sense that taking shelter inside towns, where no monster can ever set foot, would have been the right move to make if my main goal was to avoid dying, there’s no real guarantee that the safety net will hold up indefinitely if I remained a level-1, I’d be all but guaranteed to find myself dead should the system barrier protecting towns ever crumble away one day, allowing hordes of monsters to surge in.

Argo herself… must have considered the same scenario. But instead of focusing solely on herself, the gal is instead trying to ensure the survival of as many players who’ve left the safety of towns as possible. Yes, I could logically wrap my head around the fact that this was the most optimal way to fulfil the task imposed by Kayaba to clear the game… but to think that there’d be someone willing to act on that idea as early as the second day since the game’s launch…

“……Yo Argo, are ya sayin’—ahem, Argo-san, do you mean to say—that the info you intend to procure from me will also be going on that guidebook of yours?”

“‘Course I dO, it’s the best early-game one-handed sword out there and it can last all the way up to the Fourth, or even the Fifth Floor, as long as ya upgrade it, after alL. Even if ya can only get one of these babies per day– actually, ‘xactly because of that issue, players are bound to flock to this q’st, seE. I presume I’m not the only one who’d have trouble sleepin’ at night if every single one of ’em were to die, eH?”

——Someone has already died.

Keeping that fact to myself, I responded with a slight nod. I had left another 《Little Nepent’s Ovule》 that had dropped for me at the spot where Coper had met his end as my parting gift, but I presume it’s already shattered away by now. I’m sure even he wouldn’t be against leaving some proof that he had once existed in this world in Argo’s guidebook.

“……Alright, I’ll tell you any and all info I have on the q’st and the sword, and I won’t even take any money for it.”

“Oh-ho, ya surE?”

“I’d come off as one heck of a money-grubber if I were to charge you for my info after all that lead-up, and you know that.”

Upon hearing my rant, “S’rry ‘bout thaT”, Argo responded with no signs of actually being sorry on her face, before breaking into another ’nihihi’ snicker.

I spent the next twenty or so minutes describing all the noteworthy moments of the 《Miracle Remedy of the Forest》 quest that I happened to come by while doing it myself, as well as some tips on how to pass through the Forest of Horunka while I was at it; as for the Annealed Blade, I just let her copy over the numbers from the property window itself.

After getting her hands on the info she desired, “ThX”, Argo gave a simplistic expression of gratitude as she stood up and headed for the door. But she stopped in her place as she was reaching for the knob, and instead lifted her right hand to the same level as her head, giving a rhythmical “kon, ko-ko-kon” knock on the door.

“I’ll come knockin’ like that next time, so be sure ya don’t keep me waitin’ at the door now, kaY.”

The info broker’s statement made me do a double take, blinking in surprise as I asked her to confirm whether I had actually heard her right:

“Whu……you’re planning a second visit?”

“‘Course I am, duH. I wouldn’t wanna lose a valuable source of info, so be sure ya don’t screw up and die on me now, ya heaR.”

“……Same to you, Argo-san.”

Hearing me say this with an awkward smile, Argo curled up the three whiskers on her right side in a smirk.

“Just call me Argo, maN. Welp, see ya laterS.

Having actually opened the door this time, the info broker slipped out of sight.

Still sitting on my bed, I spent another ten or so seconds staring at the closed door, before suddenly standing up after shaking my head lightly.

There’s tons of things on my to-do list. I’d like to sell off the non-essential items I picked up over yesterday, and instead get myself a new set of protective gear, then I also have to replenish my stock of potions, and I’d also like to upgrade my Annealed Blade to +1 or +2, if possible.

The peculiar feeling of emptiness that had kept me bound to my bed all this time, before Argo barged in, had all but vanished without my notice.

Part 2

By the time I finished up with more or less all of my shopping needs at the Village of Horunka’s plaza, it was already eight-thirty in the morning.

I’ve yet to see any other players in the village aside from me……though, if any players had left the Town of Beginnings earlier this morning, they’d probably show up here around noon or so. I don’t exactly have anything against encountering other players, but since I’m not in the mood to form a party with anyone else for the time being, it would be a hassle if anyone were to approach me to join them.

I figured I should take up all the quests in the village that I can and then go through them one after another until I run out of my stock of potions, so I relied on my memories from the beta to set off on my way.

And so, I chatted up every last quest ＮＰＣ scattered around the plaza, the village houses, the back alleys, and accepted all of their errands. While the great majority of them were the garden-variety types of jobs: 《Defeat several ○○ monsters》, or 《Go and collect several ×× mats》 and stuff like that, I should be able to find a rather hassly──but equally rewarding quest at a farm on the outskirts of the village, as I recalled.

If this were a farm in the real world, you’d expect a more farmlike stench hanging in the air, unless the farm you were visiting was almost entirely transformed into a tourist attraction, but all I could smell here was the aroma of dried grass. As I approached the small cattle barn, I found a middle-aged man in a straw hat holding a pitchfork in one hand, who was repeatedly looking up to the sky with a blatantly-obvious troubled expression or shaking his head with a sigh.

After confirming the presence of the golden 【！】 mark over his straw hat that signified his status as a quest ＮＰＣ, I approached the man and was about to call out to him.

However, just before I could.

“OoI, hold uP, hold uP!”

Hearing a familiar voice behind me, I turned around with a jerk.

There I found a small-statured player with a sand-yellow hood on her head running up to me; she was so accustomed to carrying herself in the virtual world that I could barely even hear her footsteps. Although the Colour Cursor over her head did not display any name, I was sure this was the very same info broker I had just parted ways with, no doubt about it.

“……You again… What do you want with me this time?”

When Argo the Info Broker heard the question I posed, a brazen grin peeked out under her hood from where she had stopped in front of me.

“Good thing I came over to check things out ’ere just in case, maN. If yer doin’ this q’st, lemme in on the action, toO.”

“What now?”

Although my displeasure at the notion was glaringly obvious from the interjection I accidentally let slip, it didn’t seem to perturb Argo in the slightest, as she prattled on.

“Amongst all the quests ya can get in Horunka, this q’st ’ere’s only second to the Annblade q’st in terms of tantalising meat on its bones, remembeR? So, it wouldn’t ‘xactly come as a shocker to find a _cool_down timer slapped on it, toO. Or are ya gonna tell me ya don’t give a damn that I’ll be forced to wait fer hours on end if it means ya manage to snap it up fer yerself now, hmM?” “W-well, I never said that……”

Although I argued back to save face, my heart was actually singing a different tune. While there are several ground rules to follow in ＭＭＯＲＰＧs, one stands out the most: 《first come, first served》. Whoever finds rare items first gets to call dibs on snagging them, whoever gets the first hit on a rare monster gets to call dibs on beating them, and whoever takes up a quest with a _cool_down timer gets to call dibs on doing them first.

But given the circumstances, we should focus on ensuring the survival of as many players as possible over adhering to rules and manners, and Argo is trying to compile a guidebook to that very end——

……Fine. We’ll need to be in a party, so I’ll…”

I halted my train of thought when I realised something. There’s no point in going out of my way to form a party with her unless this quest actually does have a _cool_down timer.

“As I recall, once a quest is accepted, anyone who joins the party later on can still get credit for it. Let’s do it like this: I’ll take up the quest for myself first and if it does turn out that there’s a cooldown timer on it, I’ll party up with you. If not, we’ll work on it separately. That should be reasonable enough?”

“Oh fine, suit yourselF. Just hurry up ’n get it over with, maN.”

Although I did pick up on some faint signs that Argo wasn’t exactly pleased with my idea, it was in my own best interest to get this over with quickly, too.

I turned back to the middle-aged man in a straw hat and called out to him: “Hello there, is something bothering you?”. Just like back in the beta, the man in turn responded: “One of my calves went missing. I think it must have wandered into the prairie beyond the forest to the east; mind bringing it back for me before it gets attacked by monsters?”, so I agreed right away.

Just then, I received a quest log change message and the 【！】 mark above the man’s head turned into a 【？】 mark to designate a quest in progress. From Argo’s perspective, however, an【！】 mark should have popped back up for her if there was no _cool_down timer slapped onto the quest.

“……Well?”

When I turned around to ask my question, Argo shrugged her shoulders with an implicit “told ya so”.

“Not gettin’ any marks herE.”

Shoving me aside, she approached the man——.

“SaY, pops, got anythin’ troublin’ ya, hmM?”

In turn, the man shrugged his shoulders just like Argo had moments ago, before responding:

“Could you come see me again at around three o’clock in the afternoon?”

This was the standard phrase used by quest ＮＰＣs when in cooldown. Since it’s eight-fifty in the morning right now, it’s probably safe to assume based on his three o’clock reference that the cooldown timer is set to six hours.

“SeE?”, uttered Argo upon turning around.

I kept my silence as I opened my menu window and sent the smirking info broker an invite.

The plot for 《The Stray Calf》 quest is as follows: as the quest’s title implies, a calf has gone astray and our job is to find and bring it back to the farm in one piece.

Now, if that was all there was to the job, it would be just a garden-variety search/escort quest, but there’s a catch: in order to find the calf, we need to borrow its mommy cow from the farmer and bring it with us all the way to the prairie area that we need to sweep through. And this cow is horribly temperamental - unless you give it its favourite rock salt to lick every four to five minutes, it will end up running off in the wrong direction in a hissy fit, ultimately returning all the way back to the farm. Luckily, monsters don’t go after the cow, but since it is quite possible to find yourself in a situation where its salt gauge runs out just as you’re in the middle of a battle, it’s quite the undertaking to go through smoothly when you’re doing it solo.

Likely fully aware of this fact, Argo chatted me up with a big old smirk right after we finished disposing of the first two worms that attacked us after we’d left the village.

“Well noW, must be glad y’ve got help on this, ainchA?”

“……Not like two measly worms are that big of a deal; I could’ve finished them off in a flash all on my own, so there.”

Jabbing back at her with a grade-schooler-level argument, I took out an egg-sized lump of rock salt from my belt pouch and let the cow lick on it. While the cow’s salt gauge wasn’t actually visible to the eye, the cow’s tail starts moving faster and faster as the gauge goes down, so as long as you’re aware of that little telltale sign, you’ve got no real reason to worry that the cow will run off on you.

Since the cow let out a satisfied “Mooo～”, I stroked her black-on-white (or is it vice-versa?) body, before setting off once more. The small path crossing eastward through the forest wasn’t labyrinthine, unlike the route to the Village of Horunka from the Town of Beginnings. Dangerous monsters didn’t spawn around this place either, so I had more than enough leeway to enjoy the glittering sunlight filtering in through the trees and the chirping of the little birds on them, but my gaze found itself drawn to the waistline——the weapon hanging at said waistline to be precise——of the info broker walking ahead of me instead.

Argo didn’t put on airs back at the inn for nothing, as her main weapon was quite the curio: 《Claws》. Basically, they’re claws made from iron, or 《tetsu no tsume》 in Japanese, that you equip on the back of both of your hands, but I’ve practically never seen anyone actually pick this particular weapon, even during my time in the beta test.

I did give them a shot myself in the early days of the test, actually, but I had no luck whatsoever figuring out how to use them properly, and threw in the towel before long. While they did benefit from a light weight and the ability to attack with both hands, their reach was underwhelmingly short, necessitating stepping in so close to your foe that it almost felt like you were going to crash into the monster instead. Yes, there are times when you do end up getting close to a monster during battle by accident, but it takes a whole lot of guts to get up-close-and-personal in a FullDive environment intentionally.

The fear factor in getting too close for comfort should’ve been incomparably far more pronounced in the official service of the game now that it’s become a death game, than it had been back in the beta days, so how come Argo specifically chose to use claws nonetheless…

As I continued trekking on with that train of thought occupying my mind, Argo turned around my way all of a sudden, and adeptly went on walking backwards, a smug grin adorning her face.

“Boyo, did Big Sis’s lower body catch yer eye that much, hmM?”

“Bo-……Sis……”

‘I ain’t no boyo! And you ain’t no Big Sis either!’, protested my inner-self, but I managed to force those words back down my throat with great effort; after taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth once more.

“What caught my eye was your weapon, actually. Why claws specifically, of all things?”

“That info’s gonna run ya a hundred cor, maN.”

“Grrr……”

I let out a short groan upon hearing the remark I should’ve seen coming. A hundred cor wasn’t exactly an unaffordable sum of money, but was I dying to know the answer so much so that I’d be willing to pay for it?… I’m not so sure… and more importantly, it’s ruffling my feathers on principle.

“……Nah, I’m sure I’ll figure it out on my own by the time we clear this quest, so I’ll pass.”

“Ho-hoh, can’t wait to see ya trY. Big Sis here’s willin’ to add ya to her friends list if ya actually do get it right, maN.”

“H-hey now……”

Just as I was about to kick up a fuss, my right ear caught a low ‘bzzzt……’ buzzing sound. Seemingly having noticed it at the same time, Argo equipped the claws that had been hanging at her hips so fast that my eyes couldn’t even pick up on her speed.

“Mooie, stop!”

Upon hearing my order, the cow obediently stopped in its tracks. Argo did give me a “Mooie, reallY?” look, but I ignored her and drew my Annealed Blade from my back instead. Closing in on us from the forest’s depths were giant wasp-type monsters that measured over forty centimetres in length each. Wasps this large back in the real world would provoke far more than just screams, but here in Aincrad, they actually belonged to the smallest class of monsters around. Which made them that much harder to land a clean hit on.

The giant wasps——formally named 【Forest Wasps】 numbered two. Taking up position to provide cover for the cow, I gave orders to the third ever party member I’ve had since the official service of the game began.

“Argo, the guy on the left is all yours. Forest wasps shoot venom, so watch yourself!”

“Didja hit yer head and forget whom yer dealin’ with ’ere, c’moN.”

Her response was biting, yet equally brimming with competence. Assured that she’d handle herself just fine, I turned my focus solely to the Forest Wasp on the right.

Continuing to make unpleasant ‘bzzt’, ‘bzzt’ buzzing sounds with its wings, the giant wasp approached me slowly, as if taunting me. They were considered the superior cousins of the 【Yellow Wasp】 breed inhabiting the prairie next to the Town of Beginnings for good reason: their movement patterns were trickier to nail down, and they even had ranged attack capabilities in the form of shooting venom from afar, just as I had warned Argo.

Liquid-based attacks were far easier to handle if you had a large shield on hand, but since I forwent the possession of shields in favour of a better visual field, I had to resort to dodging the venom attacks, seeing as I couldn’t block them properly. It wasn’t exactly impossible to ward off the attacks with my sword instead, but weapons tended to suffer far more durability damage from poison attacks compared to armour.

The same issue also affected Argo, given that she was just as shieldless, but I couldn’t very well take my focus off from my own foe at the moment. Until now, the Forest Wasp had been closing in on me with irregular motions through the air, but after hovering in one spot for a few moments, it suddenly stuck out the long stinger on its butt towards me, and just then…

“Toryah”

Subconsciously letting out a yell, I leapt to the right. Seems like I’d dawdled a bit too long, since I felt a scant burn on my cheek from the splatter of the venom, but it wasn’t enough to cause any noticeable drop in ＨＰ, nor was I afflicted with a poison debuff.

While soaring through the air, I propped my Annealed Blade on my right shoulder, initiating a single-hit diagonal slash Sword Skill: 《Slant》. Kicking off the ground the moment my feet landed on it, I executed my skill. Still reeling from its venom attack’s motion delay, the Forest Wasp was helpless to resist as I aimed for the small slit between its head and chest.

Although both the Annealed Blade’s reach and its weight were utterly different from that of the Short Sword I had been using as my starter gear, my feel for the sword had apparently been ingrained into my body far more profoundly than I had assumed thanks to all my time swinging it around back in my beta days. Letting off a pale blue light and a deep vibrating noise, the tip of the sword effortlessly sank into the under-five-millimetre slit, and gave rise to a sharp ‘Kah!’ as it lopped the wasp’s head off.

Split apart, the wasp’s head and torso remained unnaturally still in the air, then contracted for a moment, before dissipating into blue particles. I promptly turned my gaze to my left, where I saw that Argo was just in the midst of parrying her wasp’s bite attack with her right-hand claw, before following up with a deep thrust right into its defenceless abdomen with her left-hand claw.

As the wasp’s ＨＰ bar turned to zero, it scattered into the air with a noise reminiscent of glass being broken. After running a glance through the Results window that appeared in my view, I walked over to the info broker.

“Nice job.”

“Same to ya, maN.

Were my party member a longtime buddy of mine, this would call for a fistbump or something, but I’ve only known Argo for a few hours at best, and heck, she’s got those sharp claws equipped on the back of her hands to boot. This was going to be my excuse for skipping the whole fistbump thing altogether, but Argo seemed to be of a different mind: she returned her claws to the metal hooks on either side of her hips, before sticking out her right fist towards me with no hesitation.

Finding myself in a tight spot, I reluctantly extended my left fist and gave hers a light bump. That very moment, the memories I had locked away in the very depths of my mind slipped out of their chains ever so slightly.

Yesterday, from one o’clock in the afternoon when ＳＡＯ’s official service began, till five-thirty in the afternoon when Kayaba Akihiko announced that SAO had become a death game, I had been working hand-in-hand with another player.

A curved-bladesman, named Klein, had managed to identify me as a former beta tester despite being a complete newbie, and brazenly pestered me for a favour: “Dude, give a guy a lecture on the game, will ya!”⁶. Finding myself overwhelmed by the guy’s zeal and winding up responding with an ＯＫ to the guy’, I gave up on my early-bolting plans for the game, and instead found myself teaching the guy the basics of using Sword Skills.

While Sword Skills can actually be triggered mid-jump, or even from a prone position when you truly get the hang of things, everyone more or less has trouble getting it right the very first time. Even when you do fumble your way into figuring out the correct position and angle to adopt with your weapon to initiate the Sword Skill, getting a handle on the skill execution——or more precisely, the system assist——to land your attack on your chosen target is no simple matter. The skill will #fail#(fumble) if you get ahead of yourself and swing your sword before the assist kicks in; conversely, if the assist does kick in but you miss the timing for jumping onto the train and get dragged into the motion unprepared, proper aiming will be the least of your worries.

Having, like, basically zero experience in coaching someone on how to use Sword Skills… or teaching anything in general, for that matter, I only managed to explain how skills worked to Klein through awfully vague gut-feeling explanations like: “Just hold it in place for a moment and wait for it to go ‘kyuiin’, then let it go ‘bam’ into a slash”; still, Klein persevered until he did eventually manage to activate the Curved Sword skill’s basic technique, 《Reaver》, and finish off the weakest monster in the game, the #blue boar#(Frenzy Boar), with it.

The guy was so overjoyed at his success that it almost seemed like he managed to get the Last Attack Bonus for beating a Floor Boss when he shouted:

“Hec’ yeaaah, baby!”

while striking an exaggerated victory pose, before going in for a high-five with me.

I can still feel slight traces of the numbness in my left hand from when we bumped fists with great zest back then. I even remember finding myself thinking that I might manage to get along just fine with this guy, even though I’d originally been dead set on continuing with my solo-play ways in the official service of the game, just like in the beta…

But I abandoned Klein by the wayside.

When I decided to move my base of operations to the Village of Horunka right after the death game fact was announced, I offered Klein to go with me. But the guy rejected my suggestion, stating that he couldn’t just abandon his friends from another game, who had stayed behind at the plaza of the Town of Beginnings.

Back then, I was faced with two options. One option was to meet up with Klein’s companions and move over to Horunka with all of them. My other option was to part ways with Klein right then and there, and set off for Horunka all by myself.

As I dithered between the two options, Klein told me:

——I can’t exactly burden ya any more than I already have, now can I. See, I take pride in the fact that I used ta head a guild back in my ol’ game. We’ll manage somehow with the techs ya taught me, jus’ ya wait. So, doncha worry about us and just head on over ta the next village without us.

His words gave me an out, and I jumped right on board. I chose the path that ensured I myself got stronger, even if it meant abandoning the first friend I’d made in ＳＡＯ.

From a long-term perspective, I definitely made the wrong choice back there. No matter how many levels I stack up, even the Floor Boss on the First Floor would prove too much for me to defeat all on my own. In order to beat the death game, teamwork was absolutely essential.

Yesterday, Klein had still been just a beginner, but his handling of his own body in FullDive environment wasn’t half bad, and he was a 《nice dude》 with enough charm to claim “I take pride in the fact that I used ta head a guild” without embellishment. With a bit of _level_ing here, and a bit of building up some knowledge and experience there, he could very well make use of his leadership trait that I find lacking in myself, to spearhead players progressing through the game.

And yet I left the guy who could one day become a capable leader behind at the Town of Beginnings, choosing to prioritise my own extremely selfish desire: “I wanna get a headstart as an early-bolter”. Even though I could easily see it all happening: the guy meets up with his companions and likely leaves the town once more alongside them, only to find himself and his six-member party wiped out in a mere streak of misfortune in the Outer Field.

There is a way to confirm whether he is still alive. Since I remember his player name, spelled 《Ｋｌｅｉｎ》, I could simply shoot him an instant message. As a matter of fact, when we parted ways yesterday, I did tell the guy: “If anything happens, shoot me a message.”

But even now, over fifteen hours later, I’ve still had no contact from him.

That’s precisely why I just can’t find it in myself to send him a message myself, no matter what. If I were to send one and receive a 【A player by this name cannot be found】 error message…… just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.

In the end, I just keep running away from things, even now. Ever since I parted ways with Klein in that back alley in the Town of Beginnings and ran off, I’ve been turning my eyes away from all the responsibilities I should’ve taken upon myself, playing the fool who believed that I was making myself stronger. That’s probably why I ended up being unable to get out of my bed this very morning.

“What’s up with that freaky expression of yers, paL.”

Hearing that voice, I blinked twice, or thrice before focusing my vision. Only to find Argo peering into my face a mere fifteen centimetres away——

“Nowah!”

I found myself jumping back by reflex, so I tried smoothing things over in a hurry.

“O-oh, well, it’s nothing……”

Just then, I got the sense that if I didn’t get this question out of my system now, I wouldn’t get another chance to do so for quite a while, so I quickly shook my head.

“W……well, it’s not nothing, actually.”

“HaH?”

“Umm……Argo-san, what prompted you to become an info broker? I don’t really think you’re going to turn all that much of a profit doing this job, and you won’t be able to find as much time for your own _level_ing when you’re busy gathering info or compiling guidebooks, no?”

“MmN～～～”

Argo groaned for a bit while playing with the tips of her curls sticking out from the side of her hood, but then her usual sardonic smile found its way back on her face, catching me by surprise.

“I’ve got several answers: one fer free, one fer a hundred cor, and another fer a hundred thousand cor; which one d’ya wanna heaR?”

“……Hey, that last one stands out with its horribly inflated price tag.”

After mumbling a complaint under my breath, I gave a shrug of my shoulders as I answered:

" ‘kay then, the one for free.”

“RighT. ‘Kay theN, here’s my answer: I actually do think I can turn a profit ‘ere, seE.”

“Wha? But didn’t you just say that the guidebook business is going to leave you in the red, or something?”

“Welp sure, at firsT. But by the fourth or fifth book, I should start seein’ a profit, toO. Once my business is on track, I’m thinkin’ of hirin’ some help to start makin’ somethin’ more like a newspaper, to booT.”

“A-a nyuhspaper……”

I felt my jaw drop in surprise, but come to think of it, ＳＡＯ didn’t really have much in the way of entertainment. I could easily see players dead set on waiting for their rescue within the Inner Area to become starved for information and reading material in general, thus if someone were to publish a newspaper, they might indeed rake in a fair amount of sales.

“……So in a nutshell, you’re running an info broker business because you think you’ll turn a profit?”

“ExactamundO. Though, do keep in mind that it’s just the answer I’m offerin’ for freE.”

Staring at Argo’s ’nishishi’ smirk, I spent a few moments wavering whether I should ask her for the hundred cor answer too, before nodding instead.

“I see. Then I’ll offer some prayers so that your whole business thing works out for you.”

“Oh mY? Sure ya don’t wanna hear the answer fer a hundred cor, hmM?”

“Yeah. But I’ll have you know it’s not because I’m too stingy to pay up a hundred cor. It’s just, like……I don’t want to come across as paying money to pry into your heart.”

When I stated my answer with a sour look, it was Argo’s turn to blink in surprise a few times, and then the biggest smirk yet found its way on her face.

“Oh mY, oh mY, is that sO; I see my boyo’s finally startin’ to get the hang of how to treat a lady right, if only by a littlE.”

“Knock it off with that ‘boyo’ thing already.”

“YoopsiE, Mooie’s lookin’ pretty peeved right about noW, boyo.”

“Whu……”

When I turned around to look at the cow, I noticed that her tail swings had indeed picked up quite a bit of speed. Flustered, I rushed over to her, took out the rock salt from my pouch, and let the cow lick on it.

As the cow’s ‘Mnoooo～～’ entered my ears, I muttered to myself in my mind: “You know what, forget what I just said; one day I’ll save up two hundred thousand cor and get her to tell me both the reason for the whiskers, and her reason for becoming an info broker, mark my words.”

Notes