The day after Argo left angrily, the news that Yi Tiancheng had given up on continuing the strategy game spread all over Ayn Grant, causing huge fluctuations.

In this regard, the vast majority of players questioned and refuted it, regarded it as a rumor, and waited for Yi Tiancheng to come forward to refute the rumor.

As a result, after waiting for a long time, I didn't see any movement from Yi Tiancheng, so someone who couldn't bear it took the initiative to go to the 21st floor and ask Yi Tiancheng what was going on in person.

And in response to these people, Yi Tiancheng's mocking smile and sharp blade.

It was only then that players had to come to terms with the reality that their hopes turned into despair.

Especially the moths at the bottom who are messing around and waiting for front-line players to play the game.

After all, it has been nearly half a year since the game began, and there has been no news of external rescue, but the progress of the strategy in the game is getting more and more impressive, which has allowed them to see a glimmer of life.

But even so, there are still two or three thousand people with a prize money left in the "Initial Street" at the bottom, pinning all their hopes on those players who are fighting on the front line.

Therefore, after learning that Yi Tiancheng had given up the strategy, the blow to these people can be imagined, and almost immediately an overwhelming amount of questioning, complaining, resentment and curses broke out.

However, it was at this time that the system suddenly issued an announcement that the 25th floor was raided by the "Blood Alliance Knights".

It didn't take overnight, almost instantly, for the original sluggish and desperate confidence to revive again, and even double the swelling.

All the players almost cried tears of joy and began to praise the greatness of the "Blood Alliance Knights", praise Heathcliff and Kirito's strength, and praise the bravery of the members of the strategy team.

At the same time, he also tried his best to belittle Yi Tiancheng, bluntly saying that he was a coward, a misbreed and a deserter.

Yi Tiancheng, as the person concerned, naturally saw all this, but he didn't care at all, but watched these clowns wantonly perform their inferior and ugly side as if he was enjoying a farce in the world.

As if in response to that sentence, everyone in this world is important, but the earth will turn the same way without everyone.

In the next few days, Heathcliff and Kirito were in the limelight for a while, instantly covering up Yi Tiancheng's past glory.

And the "Blood Alliance Knights" led by Heathcliff and Kiritto are completely worthy of the expectations of ordinary players, as if the meaning of existence is born for the sake of strategy.

From the twenty-fifth floor, their posture has completely replaced Yi Tiancheng and others, and they have always been active at the forefront.

In the following half a month, SAO's strategy progress progressed to the thirtieth floor at an average of three days.

Three days later, the front-line players found the room where the boss was guarding the maze area again, and the members of the strategy team responsible for collecting the BOSS's information entered the room to fight the boss briefly, and after initially mastering the basic information of the BOSS, they immediately evacuated back to the city and reported the information to Heathcliff.

In the afternoon of the same day, the strategy team led by Heathcliff and Kiritto went straight to the door of the boss room through the teleportation crystal, and started a new round of strategy operations.

At the same time, Yi Tiancheng also quietly returned to the "Initial Town" on the first floor, went straight to the Black Iron Palace near the central square, and entered the hidden map "Underground Labyrinth".

In it, there are a large number of monsters such as "carrion toad" and "giant pincer claw shrimp" with a level of 90 or higher, as well as a maze boss called "Death".

The purpose of these monsters is to prevent players from breaking in, so as to enter the inner safe room of the maze.

Yi Tiancheng is also powerless to fight the monsters in it, but he is well aware of the terrain and the mechanism of monster activity in the labyrinth, and Higajian deliberately inserted a route that will hardly encounter monsters.

In this way, Yi Tiancheng flickered and moved all the way, and finally succeeded in reaching the deepest part of the "underground labyrinth", that is, in front of the door of the safe area.

Right at the doorway, a humanoid black figure about two and a half meters tall and covered with a tattered black robe was floating in mid-air.

Deep in the hat and on the arms sticking out of the cuffs, all wrapped around the dense darkness swayed. In his right hand he held a long, large scythe, and drops of red viscous water continued to drip from the menacingly curved blade.

Overall, this is the image of the Grim Reaper, and the system matches its name, which is also a rather symbolic word like "Destiny's Scythe".

When Akihiko Kayaba announced to the players that "SAO has been reduced to a game of death", he used the image of "Scythe of Fate".

Although Yi Tiancheng was able to avoid the mobs, he couldn't avoid the boss guarding the door of the safe room.

Wanting to break into a small room under the nose of death can be said to be a difficult thing, but for Yi Tiancheng, it is not completely incomprehensible.

What really made him wary was not the boss in front of him, but the ultimate boss who was attacking the boss on the 30th floor, that is, Akihiko Kayaba, who was incarnated as Heathcliff.

Once he enters the small room, he is bound to be startled and detected by Akihiko Kayaba.

It is very likely that the other party will directly use the authority to take sanctions against him before he activates the administrator privileges, which will inevitably fall short.

So, he needs a moment, he needs someone to create that moment......

……

On the 30th floor, deep in the maze area, inside the boss room.

"Bang!"

As the blood tank of the floor boss Sea Serpent Emperor was emptied, a clear cracking sound like glass resounded throughout the room.

All the players present were shocked, and looked at the terrifying monster in a daze, and its body turned into pieces and scattered in all directions.

Immediately after that, everyone's favorite system announcement sound, the English letters representing the clearance flashed in midair, and the door to the upper floor also opened.

It wasn't until this moment that the heartstrings of the members of the strategy team that had been tense finally began to relax.

The health of the Sea Serpent Emperor boss is not too high, but the attack power is ridiculously high, except for Heathcliff, other players will basically die on the spot as long as they are hit by the trident in its hand.

Therefore, every player present did their best to devote themselves to the battle, and they were about to lose their breath, for fear that they would die if they were not careful.

By the time the battle was over and the Sea Serpent Emperor's huge body was scattered in all directions, all the players present had no strength left to cheer.

Some people sat directly on the obsidian floor, some people were lying on the ground panting violently, some people kept panting in their mouths, and some people had already begun to have tears on their faces......

Maybe it's the joy of the rest of your life, or maybe it's the sadness of your teammate's death.

As the battle ended, Kirito relieved his spirit for a while, then raised his head and asked in a hoarse voice to Achill, who was lying on his back beside him with his hands and feet outstretched, "How many people were sacrificed in this battle?" ”

"Four, after the boss went berserk, the attack power was too high, except for the head of Heathcliff, the others couldn't bear it at all, and they were all killed in seconds." Achill replied with a gloomy face.

"......" Kirito lowered his head, and his eyes lost his usual sharpness, although he knew that there were victims, but this number still made him a little unacceptable.

However, what made him even more unacceptable was the man.

Kirito's gaze looked into the depths of the distance, and in the crowd of players who were slumped, kneeling, and lying on their backs, there was only one person standing out like a flock.

It was Heathcliff, dressed in blood-red armor.

As he focuses on his opponent, a yellow player arrow appears.

Naturally, Heathcliff also suffered a lot of damage in this vicious battle, which can be seen from his HP bar.

However, the Sea Serpent Emperor's shuddering attack can knock out the tank player in the Raiders group with all his strength in a single blow, and even if he successfully blocks with his sword, he will receive a certain amount of shock damage.

But this man, but he relied on his own strength to support the whole battle, and he was still able to maintain that leisurely figure, but people couldn't feel any mental fatigue at all, and even his health value did not drop below half, but barely maintained at nearly fifty percent.

It's just an incredible thing.

Because Heathcliff doesn't have the perfect dodge technique, he always responds to the boss's attacks head-on, even if he can block most of the attacks with his shield, there is no reason to do this.

At this moment, Kirito couldn't help but think back to the email he had received from someone to him, and remembered some kind of almost absurd speculation mentioned in the email, and the request for him to verify it at a critical moment.

Kirito stared at the side of Heathcliff's face, the man's expression calm and steady, looking down at the members of the Blood Pact and the other players lying on the ground, with a warm and compassionate look - as if-

It's like looking at a swarm of white mice playing in a delicate cage.

At this moment, a terrifying shiver ran through Kirito's body, making him shiver and chill from his fingertips to his cerebral cortex.

The original confused consciousness also fully sobered up after gasping.

The other party's eyes were not expressions of sympathy for their injured companions, but more like the expression of a supreme being with another dimensional height, giving pity to the captive lambs—the expression of the Creator God!

In an instant, the seemingly absurd speculation in the letter began to swell until it broke through the ground and became a suffocating truth.

Kirito couldn't help but recall another incident, when Heatscliffe invited him to join the union, the two had a duel.

In that battle, at the final decisive moment, the opponent suddenly erupted with an extraordinary terrifying reaction power, which had surpassed the limit of human speed.

No, it should be said that it goes beyond the fastest speed that SAO allows players to use.

All kinds of clues made the Libra that existed in the hearts of Kiritoro people begin to press to the other side with a devastating weight.

At the end of that email, there was a clear mention of how to verify the real person.

Unconsciously, Kirito slowly regained his grip on the sword in his right hand, slowly moved his right foot back with very small movements, and shrunk back slightly with his waist to make a low-altitude sprint in preparation for a sprint.

- Even if there is only the slightest possibility, even if I will accept sanctions for this, I will stab this sword.

Skill [Gallop] is on——

Rush Skill [Anger Stimulus] Activated——

In the next moment, Kirito suddenly kicked the ground with his right foot, sprinting with all his strength close to the floor, instantly crossing the distance of twelve meters, and the sword in his right hand spun and stabbed upwards towards the target.

Heathcliff, who had been observing the depressed players, did not notice Kirito's preparations, and when he noticed the tip of the sword dragging a light blue flash from the left, he couldn't help but widen his eyes and show a shocked expression, and immediately raised his left shield with an astonishing reaction speed to prepare to resist.

It's a pity that Kirito, who has been fighting together for so long, and even once dueled with him, has seen and experienced this move many times, so how can he not have a way to deal with it.

The blade of the sword, which had been stabbed straight, suddenly changed its trajectory in the air, and it grazed the edge of the shield slightly, and stabbed into Heathcliff's chest.

In the next second, just as the sword was about to pierce into the opponent's chest, a wall that was invisible to the naked eye blocked the sword.

Purple flashes exploded, and a purple message representing the color of the system suddenly appeared between Kirito and Heathcliff-

『Immortal_Object』