Just as Sirika struggled to suppress her inner impulse and prepared to cross the bridge over the creek.

Zhang Yu, who was walking behind, suddenly put his hand on her shoulder. Celica turned her head in surprise and saw Zhang Yu looking indifferently at the other end of the bridge, and the lush trees on both sides of the road. He spoke in a deep voice:

"There are people there, and they're one of the purposes of my here."

"Huh............?"

Celica stared at the bushes in a panic, but couldn't see anyone at all.

"One of the purposes?"

After a few tight seconds, the leaves of the bush suddenly moved. The arrow showing the player jumps out. The color is green, and it is not the perpetrator.

On the other side of the short bridge—surprisingly, someone Sirika knew.

Bright red hair like flames, equally bright red lips, equipped with shiny black enamel leather armor, and holding a thin cross spear in one hand.

"Luo ...... Miss Rosaria......? Why are you ...... here?"

Instead of answering Sirika, who was dumbfounded, Rosaria smiled at the corner of her mouth.

"You can see through my stealth, your enemy-searching skills are really high, Swordsman. I seem to be too underestimated?"

That's when she finally turned her gaze to Sirika.

"Look at you like that, you should have successfully obtained the [Soul Flower]. Congratulations, Sirika. ”

Unable to grasp Rosaria's intentions, Sirika took a few steps back. She had an indescribable sense of foreboding, and her instincts didn't fail, and a second later, Rosalia said something that dumbfounded Sirika.

"Then you should hurry up and hand over that flower."

“……? You...... What are you talking about......"

At this time, Zhang Yu, who was expressionless, stepped forward and said:

"Rosaria, the leader of the Killing Guild [Titan Hand]."

Rosaria raised an eyebrow, and the smile that hung on her lips disappeared.

In SAO, if a player commits a systematic crime such as theft, injury, or murder, the arrow will change from the usual green to orange. As a result, the offenders are called the Orange Players, and the syndicate is called the Orange Guild - a basic knowledge that Cerica certainly knows, but she has never actually seen it.

However, no matter how you look at it, the HP arrows that appear on Rosaria's head in front of her are all green. Celica looked at Kirito beside her in a daze, and asked in a hoarse voice:

"Huh...... But...... Because...... Miss Rosalia is a green ......"

"Sirika, that's because you're naïve. Even in the Murder Guild, there are many people who are not famous. The Green members are responsible for picking targets on the streets, blending into the team, and then luring the team to the ambush location. They're always watching you, that's why they're here in ambush. ”

"How...... How could it be ......"

Celica looked at Rosaria's eyelid in amazement.

"This ...... So, what you've been joining that team for the past two weeks ......"

Rosaria replied with a smile that seemed to be poisonous:

"You're right. I'm assessing the strength of that team while waiting for the time when they can get a lot of money on their adventures and become fat sheep. I was scheduled to do a big deal today—"

She stared at Celica's face and licked her lips with her tongue.

"Because the prey I was looking forward to the most, that is, you ran away, and I was still thinking about what to do, but I didn't expect you to get rare items. [Flower of Soul] is in demand now, and the market is very high. It's really important to gather information. ”

At this point, he paused, moved his gaze to Zhang Yuhou and shrugged his shoulders.

"But, this swordsman, you know these things, but you still don't care about accompanying that child, are you stupid? Or were you really seduced by her body?"

Rosaria's insult made Sirika's vision almost red. Just as she moved her arm to draw her dagger, her shoulder was grabbed hard.

"Wrong, neither."

Zhang Yu's voice was still calm, but it contained a chill that could freeze people.

"Rosalia, actually, my goal is you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Ten days ago, you designed an ambush on the thirty-eighth floor to ambush the [Silver Banner] Guild, right? Four members were killed, and only the president managed to escape. ”

“…… Ahh ”

Rosaria didn't move her eyebrows before nodding in response.

"The man who used to be the president was at the front line of the transfer gate square every day from morning to night, crying and looking for someone who could help him avenge him. Coincidentally, I accepted his commission. ”

Zhang Yu's voice was covered with a chilling chill, like a sharpened hard ice blade, slashing everything it touched.

"Strangely, though. The man didn't ask for me to kill you if I accepted the commission, he just said that he wanted to put you in the prison of the Black Iron Palace—can you understand that guy's feelings?"

"How can you understand?"

Rosalia replied with a look of annoyance.

"What, why are you so serious like a fool! Even if someone is killed here, there is no evidence that the person actually died like this. Therefore, it is impossible to be regarded as a crime after returning to reality, let alone not knowing whether you can go back. Full of justice, laws and the like, don't laugh off other people's big teeth. I hate this guy the most, the guy who brings strange things into the world. ”

There was a brutal glint in her eyes.

"So, you took what the undead president said seriously, and kept looking for us? You're so idle. I'll admit I did get hooked because of the bait you prepared...... But ah, what do you think the two of you can do ......?"

The lips carve a cruel smile. The raised right finger quickly waved twice in the air.

Suddenly, the trees on both sides of the road that stretched to the other side began to shake violently, and one figure after another ran out. Several arrows appeared in succession in Celica's field of vision, and almost all of them were hateful orange, for a total of - ten. If you don't find an ambush and cross the bridge directly, you will definitely be completely surrounded.

The ten new thieves are all male players with silver jewelry or secondary equipment and gorgeous appearances. They had malicious smiles on their faces and cast sticky glances at Celica's body.

Feeling extremely disgusted, Celica hid behind Zhang Yu and whispered:

"Jade, Brother Jade...... There are too many of them, if you don't run away, ......!"

"It's fine. Before I want you to escape, all you need to do is get the crystals ready to look around. ”

Zhang Yu heard that Sirika finally didn't call Uncle Yu, and touched her head with a smile. I walked in the direction of the bridge. Sirika stood still. She thought to herself, this was too messy anyway, and she cried out again:

"Brother Yu......!"

When this shout resounded in the practice area—

"Jade ......?"

One of the thieves suddenly muttered to himself. His smile vanished, his brow furrowed, and his gaze wandered as if searching for a memory.

"—the dress...... ...... a [Blue and White Swordsman] with a one-handed sword but no shield ...... equipped?"

The man's face instantly turned pale and he took a few steps back.

"Miss Rosaria, no, no. This guy ...... It's a strategy group that has been played all the way from the closed beta......"

Listening to the man's words, the expressions of the rest of the members stiffened. Celica was equally stunned. She stared blankly at Zhang Yu's not-so-tall back standing in front of her.

Although it can be inferred from the battles so far, it can be inferred that Zhang Yu is a player of a fairly high level. But Sirika never dreamed that he would be one of the real top swordsmen in the "Strategy Group" who constantly challenged the unraided labyrinth at the forefront and defeated the boss monsters one after another. Obviously, I heard that they put all their energy into the strategy SAO, and almost never went down to the middle floor-

After opening her mouth for a few seconds, Rosalia shouted as if she had come to her senses:

"It's impossible for the talents of the attack and strategy group to hang out in this kind of place! This guy must be just a copycat who scares people with his name! What's more—even if it's a real [Jade Swordsman], it's not easy to deal with one person with our numbers!"

As if to take advantage of the momentum of this passage, one of the tall axe envoys standing in front of the orange player shouted:

"No, that's right! And the Raiders team must have a lot of money and props! That's a very fat prey!"

With their respective consents, the thieves drew their weapons together. Countless metals shone with a ferocious light.

"Brother Yu, it's impossible, let's run away quickly!"

Celica clenched the crystal and screamed. As Rosalia said, no matter how strong Zhang Yu is, he has no chance of winning in the face of this opponent with a large number of people. However, Zhang Yu didn't move, and he didn't even have the intention of pulling out his weapon.

Interpreting Zhang Yu's appearance as giving up, all ten men except Rosalia raised their weapons and showed a hideous smile, and scrambled to run. Stepping on the short bridge and rushing through it with a rattle -

"Oh, ah, ah!"

"——!"

After surrounding Kirito in a semi-circle formation, he slashed Kirito with three swords and spears one after another. At the same time, he received nine slashes, but Zhang Yu still kept his body motionless.

"Stop!"

Celica covered her face with her hands and shouted:

"Please! Stop it! Brother Yu will ...... I'm going to die!"

The men, however, turned a deaf ear.

All of them were intoxicated by violence, some laughing loudly, others cursing incessantly, and at the same time constantly slashing Zhang Yu with weapons. Rosaria, who was standing near the middle of the bridge, had an irrepressible look of pleasure on her face, licking her right finger and watching the tragedy with fascination.

Cerica wiped away her tears and held the hilt of her dagger in her hand. She knew that even if she rushed over, she wouldn't be able to help, but she just couldn't continue to watch. Just as she took a step in the direction where Zhang Yu was, she noticed something and stopped.

Zhang Yu's HP bar has not decreased at all.

No, to be precise, although it gradually decreases bit by bit due to the constant attacks, it quickly returns to the far right after a few seconds.

Soon, the group of men noticed that the black-clothed swordsman in front of them showed no signs of falling at all, and a puzzled expression appeared.

"What are you doing! Hurry up and kill him!"

Under Rosaria's impatient command, the rain of slashes continued for a few more seconds, but the situation remained unchanged.

"Hey...... Hey, what the hell is going on with this guy!"

One of them stopped his hand movements and took a few steps back with a twisted expression as if he had seen a monster. Because of this man's reaction, the other nine people also stopped attacking and distanced themselves.

Silence reigned all around. Zhang Yu, who was standing in the center, slowly picked up his head and said calmly in a voice with a cold tone:

"About 400 or so every ten seconds, that's the total amount of damage the nine of you can give me. I'm level 84 and I have 17500 health...... In addition, the recovery skill will automatically regenerate 800 every ten seconds during battle, so you can't kill me no matter how long you attack. ”

The men all stood in place with their mouths open in astonishment. Soon the two-handed sword swordsman, who seemed to be the vice-captain, said in a hoarse voice:

"What's the ...... How can there be such a ...... That's an exaggeration......"

"It's not an exaggeration at all, this is hierarchical suppression."

Zhang Yu threw out an answer.

As if suppressed by Zhang Yu's voice with an irrepressible emotion, the group of men began to retreat, and the expression on their faces changed from surprise to fear.

"Tsk!"

Suddenly, Rosalia was speechless, then took out the transfer crystal from her waist and raised it high into the air and shouted:

"Transfer!"

But before she finished her words, she only felt as if she heard a sound of air vibration, and in an instant, Zhang Yu was already standing in front of Rosalia with a sword.

"What......"

Zhang Yu snatched the crystal from Rosaria's stiff hand, grabbed her by the collar, and dragged her to this end of the bridge.

"Let it go...... Let me go! Bastard, what do you want!"

Still without saying a word, after throwing Rosaria into the center of the stunned group of men, Zhang Yu reached for the bag around his waist, and then took out a blue crystal. It was darker than the color of the [Transfer Crystal], but strangely enough, he took it out and shook it and then took it back.

"This is the cloister crystal that the man who asked me to buy with all his possessions, and the exit location is set in the prison area of the Black Iron Palace. He wants you all to move through this. After that, the army will take care of you. ”

Rosaria, who was sitting on the ground, bit her lip, and after a few seconds of silence, a strong smile appeared on her red lips and said:

"What if, I say no?"

"Whether you agree or not, I'm going to kill you all."

Zhang Yu replied with a cold smile on his face, which made Rosaria's smile freeze on the spot, and the hairs on her body stood up.