Labyrinth area.

Located at the northernmost point of the first floor of Al Aingrande is a stout tower with a diameter of 300 meters and a height of 100 meters.

Torbana.

Located in the valley not far from the labyrinth area, it is the most prosperous town in the vicinity.

Because the boss is located in the labyrinth area, a large number of players have come to Torbana to station.

Perhaps the game designer has long considered the situation of a large number of players, and the design of the town is unusually convenient, and you can see hotels, restaurants, weapon shops, taverns and other facilities everywhere.

The scenery of the town is also unique.

The building is located in an orderly manner, all European-style buildings, which look antique and exotic.

The urban greenery is also very aesthetically pleasing.

Parks, fountains, arenas...... The whole nine yards!

If in reality, in such a town, housing prices can definitely be speculated.

I don't know how many people have struggled all their lives, and they may not be able to buy a toilet here.

But.

In a death game like SAO, no matter how beautiful the scenery is, no one is in the mood to appreciate it!

In Torbana, a large number of players are silently licking their wounds.

I don't know how many people are carefully repairing their weapons and cloth armor, and it seems that only in this way can they give them a little sense of security.

There are really too many people who have died, and in just one month, nearly one in ten people have died, giving every player unimaginable pressure.

To make matters worse, after paying a tenth of the casualties, they still haven't been able to defeat the boss on the first floor.

You know, the entire SAO has 100 layers.

Will they really be able to beat through this game?

Every player has a psychological shadow on their minds!

Initially, players had illusions about the rescue of the outside world.

What is a mere game, in front of the state apparatus?

But.

Time passed and they were not rescued.

Players around them, both familiar and unfamiliar, are dying one by one, which makes everyone begin to despair of rescue from the outside.

Makino and Kirito walked the streets of Torbana, although they were not as desperate as those ordinary players, but they still had a heavy feeling in their hearts.

Along the way, life is varied.

Compared with half a month ago, it is a completely different situation.

Half a month ago, although the players were still extremely frightened, the pride of wanting to hit a hundred layers was still there.

No one wants to be a prisoner, let alone a prisoner in vain.

But now, there are more and more players with numb expressions on their faces.

After numbness, there is indulgence and sinking.

Half a month ago, the vast majority of players were even reluctant to spend an extra Keer on food.

They are the cheapest bread that tastes like firewood.

But now, a glass of beer up to 10~20 koll is drunk by a large number of players.

The two even saw players thrown out of the tavern by the irascible NPC tavern owner because they were drunk but didn't have Cole to pay for the drink.

What's even more surprising is that the player who was thrown out of the tavern was directly lying down where he was thrown from.

Drunk as mud, like a salted fish without dreams.

The sinking of people's hearts is far faster than the two imagined.

If you think about it, you can understand that in reality, everyone is an ordinary person.

There are many students who have never experienced social beatings, and how strong can they be expected to be able to resist pressure?

Makino looked at Kirito, "Would you like a drink?" ”

Kirito hesitated slightly, he was only 14 years old, far from the age of drinking.

But.

What he had seen and felt recently made him feel the urge to have a drink.

Then, Kirito felt like he was being dragged into the tavern.

After a glass of beer, Kirito cried out.

It's all Makino's fault, he's all broken.

Beer, the taste is very average!

Then, Kirito took the initiative to order a large cup.

At first, most of the people drank in silence, but after a few large beers, many people began to get drunk.

After drinking, some people are usually silent, but as soon as they drink, they immediately change their words.

"It's dead, even the president whose skills are far superior to me several times more than me are dead, maybe I'll be the one who dies next time!"

As soon as the words fell, the eyes of everyone in the tavern converged in unison.

Only then did everyone realize that it was a young man with a delicate face and wearing leather armor who spoke.

He looks like he is only fourteen or fifteen years old, that is, he is a middle school student.

At this time, his face was flushed, and it was obvious that he had drunk high.

However, it is precisely because of this that the true feelings are revealed and the tears are not stopped.

Because of drunkenness, his words were slurred, and even some of the preambles did not match the afterword, but everyone still made up the story of the teenager.

The boy is still a middle school student in reality, and he has always liked games.

However, the boy is not a technical stream player like Kirito, and he can't be called a high-level player.

But how many real game masters are there?

For ordinary people, playing games is enough as long as they have fun.

Even if it's a face-rolling keyboard, even if it's being scolded as a primary school student, so what?

The boy has a more withdrawn personality, but he still meets some friends in the game.

For example, the guild leader who often takes him to farm monsters together, and the guild friends who often level up together.

They even queued for days to be able to buy SAO's gaming helmet.

When I was lucky enough to be one of the first players of SAO, I don't know how excited I was.

However, no one expected that everything would change on the first day of the game.

Twenty days ago, the guild friend who usually took great care of him died under the siege of several gray wolves;

Fifteen days ago, the guy in the guild who had always liked to talk to him died.

And he wanted to apologize to him, because he was cowardly and failed to hold back the hatred of a little goblin as planned......

Ten days ago.

The prestige is very high, and the chairman who has been coordinating the overall situation has also died...... He's a piece of shit!

Hearing the young man's words, everyone felt related.

I don't know how many people have been hit by the soft underbelly of their hearts by the words of the teenager, and they can't be strong anymore.

"Waste, I'm just a waste, I said I wanted to protect Naoko, and I would live with her to the end. Outcome..... Results ......"

A decadent young man choked up.

Naoko is his real-life girlfriend, and Naoko doesn't play games originally.

However, he wanted to share what he liked with Naoko, so he dragged her into the game with him.

As a result, Naoko, who had never played a game and didn't even know about leveling, was directly killed by several small wild monsters.

And he swore that he would protect Naoko, but he was dragged by a little wild monster of level 4.

He could only watch Naoko die in front of him, and he couldn't even hug her one last time.

When he saw Naoko dissolve into countless small pieces in front of him, and then completely dissipate, the young man felt that his heart was completely empty.

The young man blamed himself so much, and his depression almost filled the entire tavern.

"Mom, I don't secretly play games anymore. I was wrong! ”

A young child burst into tears.

Normally, his parents have always been against him playing games.

He was full of games at that time, where could he listen to the nagging of his parents?

As a result, he was trapped in the game.

He hated SAO, hated Akihiko Kayaba, and hated the players who robbed him of his equipment and beat him up.

It's a pity that there is no regret medicine in life.

With the increase in the number of complainants, the tavern is like opening a Pandora's box.

More and more people have joined the ranks of regrets, complaints, pleading, and abuse.

A young mom wails in despair!

After getting married, she became a housewife.

However, this one is really too boring.

In a sense, she didn't even prepare to be a mother and became a mother of a child.

In addition, the child who had just been born was too noisy, which made her extremely depressed.

I even suffered from postpartum depression at one point!

So, I just want to play a game to relax.

How lucky she was when she grabbed the helmet, and how unlucky she is now.

She's stuck in the game, who will take care of her unweaned child?

My husband is also on the rise in his career, and now he has to take care of her and the children at the same time, can my husband still hold on?

She regretted it so much!

However, where in this world is there any regret medicine for sale?

Happy families are more or less similar, while unhappy families have their own misfortunes.

In the tavern, it became more and more depressing.

Complaints, sobs, weeping, and invective...... And so on!

Maybe it's almost time to vent, and the topic is crooked while chatting.

Scolding SAO, scolding the grounds, scolding monsters, scolding NPCs for asking for money, scolding closed beta players for only swishing up and leveling up, regardless of their life or death......

In particular, scolding the closed beta players has resonated with many frustrated players.

It seems that their failures and frustrations are caused by the selfishness of the closed beta players.

Later, even Makino and Kirito, who handed out game guides, lay down their guns.

The reason for this is that the guidelines are not comprehensive and precise.

I don't know how many players have mistaken the guide, and then regret it for life.

Makino can still see it, after all, he has traveled through several worlds, what kind of person has not seen it?

On the contrary, it was Kirito, whose eyebrows wrinkled directly into the word "Chuan", and in the end he could only pour wine depressedly.

Later, a bald man didn't know where to find a saxophone, so he buried himself in playing it.

For a moment, the desolate, melodious sound spread throughout the tavern.

Let that depressed, sluggish, and dull atmosphere go to the next level.

When the love was strong, a woman's voice sounded slowly, singing with the voice of the saxophone.

The singing voice is like weeping, faint throating, unspeakable sorrow, endless desolation.

The song is over, and the people are scattered.

More and more fed up with the repression and fled the tavern.

After stepping out of the tavern, Makino and Kirito couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In the tavern, there are too many frustrated people.

Everyone, is the protagonist of a sad story.

Even Makino and Kirito couldn't help but be affected by some of them.

Especially the story of that mother, which made the two of them feel very heavy.

Akihiko Kayaba...... And how many families have been ruined because of him?

Although both of them have a very good mentality, the abuse of those frustrated players against the closed beta players still makes the two of them a little concerned.

It's not that those people are justified in scolding, nor is it guilty of monopolizing resources.

After all, everyone is a player, not their patriarch, everyone is fighting, and no one owes anyone!

What the two care about is the loss of life!

Evening.

The sunset is like blood, and the beautiful town is impregnated, as if there are thousands of corpses lying in the blood, which makes people inexplicably desolate.

The hotel where Makino and Kirito live is in the core area of Torbana, a slightly remote location, but the living conditions are better, and it is a rare good place to stay.

Along.

Neither of them spoke, and their mood seemed quite depressed.

I don't know how long it took, but the street lights on both sides of the road turned on.

Only then did the two realize that the sky had unconsciously darkened.

At this moment, the two unexpectedly saw a young man wearing cloth armor and blue hair, handing out leaflets.

Handbill?

It's not worth mentioning in reality, and it's even a little annoying.

But in SAO, that's a novelty.

And what's even more coincidental is that the blue-haired boy, Makino still knows.

He didn't try to get the drop items, but who was Diabel who was killed by Akihiko Kayaba?

Diabel is very enthusiastic, and the content on the flyer is also clear at a glance, that is, calling on everyone to form a team to fight the boss of the defending layer.

The two didn't communicate much with Diabel, but with such a flyer in their hands, both of them were full of emotion.

Kirito, in particular, even became hot in his heart.

Kirito had a resolute face, "Makino, I've decided, I'll go to the boss strategy meeting tomorrow, and then defeat the boss of the defending layer." ”

Defeating the boss of the 1st floor is of great significance.

Nowadays, all players really need a shot in the arm.

Otherwise, no one knows if everyone can continue to persevere.

Makino didn't talk too much nonsense, and said directly, "The boss's head, I booked it." ”

Kirito immediately smiled, and he knew that Makino would never be left behind in this kind of thing.

"Don't dream about you, the head dog, I will never let you snatch the head of the boss of the guard."

"We'll see."

"Who's afraid of whom?"

The two were noisy, and the sound spread farther and farther.

At the street lamp where the two walked, several moths kept flying around the street lamp. (Recommended reading: Reading Files 2013)