November 2023

Zhang Yu and Asuna's daily strategy boss has started again.

I only managed to reach the seventy-first floor before, and it took about a month to get to the seventy-fourth floor. This is still Zhang Yu being lazy, and only brushed a boss with Asuna. As the number of layers increased, Zhang Yu and Asuna also began to slow down the speed of the strategy.

It's not that Zhang Yu can't beat it, but Asuna's mentality needs to be properly relaxed. Asuna also didn't allow Zhang Yu to go alone to brush the boss alone, so the speed slowed down.

The two of them traveled from town to the labyrinth area, where they were presented with a grassland with many light blue flowers. The road runs through the entire grassland to the west, and at the bottom of it, you can see the labyrinth area of the seventy-fourth floor, which stands in front of them as if showing its majesty.

There will be a particularly large room at the top of the maze area, which is the boss room. Inside, there will be a boss guarding the stairs leading to the upper floor. After breaking through the boss's blockade, reaching the main street area on the previous floor, and allowing the transfer door to work, you will have successfully completed the strategy of one floor.

Usually, when [Exploring the Town], there will be quite a lot of players who will come up from the lower levels in order to explore the scenery and artifacts of the new town, and the whole town will be enveloped in a festival-like atmosphere. From the beginning of the current frontline seventy-fourth floor, it is the third day so far, and the leader's room has been locked by Zhang Yu and Asuna.

Towering over the other end of the meadow is a circular structure made of reddish-brown sandstone. Zhang Yu and Asuna had visited the interior several times, but as the distance gradually closed, the huge building almost obscured the entire sky. Compared to their insignificance, they bring a great sense of oppression, and this is only one percent of the total height of Aingrant.

Zhang Yu just smiled when he looked at it, thinking to himself. One day, even if it was really such a big building, he would be able to smash it with his backhand. He firmly believes that day will come.

"I can't see other players, I guess I've already entered the periphery of the maze."

The two of them didn't look at each other, and the long-term tacit understanding already knew what each other meant. Both sides quickened their pace at the same time and moved towards the entrance of the labyrinth area.

Zhang Yu's current location is near the highest point of the labyrinth area on the seventy-fourth floor, with columns on the left and right sides of the middle of the cloister.

They are currently fighting, and the enemy is a skeleton swordsman named [Demon Servant].

Measuring more than two meters in size, he holds a long straight sword in his right hand and a round metal shield in his left hand. Although it doesn't have any muscles on its body, its tendon value is extraordinary, and it can be said to be quite a tricky monster. However, even in the face of such a strong enemy, Asuna still did not back down.

"Purr, purr!"

With a strange roar, the sword in the skeleton's hand pulled out a blue afterglow and swung it down from above. This is a quadruple combo "Vertical Quad Slash". Zhang Yu calmly watched the situation a few steps behind, no matter what happened, he could handle it, so he didn't panic at all.

I saw Asuna stepping on a zigzag position that flickered left and right, completely dodging all the opponent's attacks. Zhang Yu looked at Asuna's skillful footwork and nodded with satisfaction, which was officially one of the little tricks he occasionally taught her.

Normally, it is two-on-one, but as long as you encounter an enemy equipped with a weapon, you can't attack two people at the same time. It's not that the system doesn't allow it, but under the shadow of the high-speed sword light invisible to the naked eye, the biggest disadvantage of two people attacking at the same time is that it will hinder each other's sword skills. Therefore, when fighting in a team, you have to use the technique of "switching", which requires a high degree of cooperation.

The Demon Servant lost his balance slightly after all four combo slashes were dodged or blocked. Asuna took advantage of this opportunity to immediately launch a counterattack.

A thin sword that glows with silver light, piercing the enemy's body from the midsection. Each attack she unleashes hits the enemy, and the skeleton's HP decreases. Although the power of one hit is not very large, the number of attacks can be said to be too large to calculate.

After three mid-thrusts in a row, it transforms into repeated slashes on the lower body of the enemy who is preparing for defense, and then the tip of the sword that is slanted upwards emits a pure white effect light, and performs two powerful thrust attacks on the enemy.

Asuna unleashed eight consecutive attack sword techniques, which were advanced sword skills called [Stardust Splash]. Zhang Yu's original [Infinite Sword Technique] Asuna couldn't learn it, because her mental power was not as strong as Zhang Yu's, so she couldn't use that kind of sword skill that almost exceeded the rules of the system.

But even so, she was trained by Zhang Yu. Now it is not weaker than his own level in the later stage of SAO in the original book, and the skill value has reached an incalculable level. Whether it is her terrifying learning ability or her sensitive nervous reaction speed, it indicates that Asuna is indeed the first female player of SAO.

Even against the most difficult skeleton monsters in the rappier, the tip of her sword can accurately hit enemies.

In addition to the power of the sword technique, which has the power to cut off one-third of the skeleton's HP, the gorgeous figure of the user itself is also extremely beautiful when attacking.

Asuna seemed to have eyes behind her back, and suddenly shouted to Zhang Yu, who was admiring from the sidelines:

"Jade, you have to switch!"

"Okay."

SAO Except for Zhang Yu's use of [Infinite Sword Technique] and Kayaba Jinghiko's use of plug-ins, anyone who uses the skill has a stiff time. So in normal times, Zhang Yu and Asuna are no exception, and they can only use switching to farm monsters more efficiently.

Zhang Yu picked up the long sword and stared at the skeleton swordsman with a sharp gaze. At the same time, Asuna unleashed a strong assault sword technique with a single shot.

However, the skeleton used the metal shield in its left hand to block the tip of the sword, sending out a large number of sparks. However, this is only expected, as the enemy will not be able to attack immediately due to a short period of stiffness after resisting a heavy attack.

Of course, Asuna will stiffen for a while when her heavy attacks are flanked, but it is important to get this [timing].

At this moment, Zhang Yu rushed to the front of the enemy like a bolt of lightning with his breakthrough technique. Deliberately creating a short gap in battle and swapping places with your companions is called Switch. Ordinary people, teammates don't have enough tacit understanding and skills, and they can't switch at all. Instead, the monster may seize the gap and attack.

After confirming that Asuna had withdrawn a considerable distance from the corner of his eye, Zhang Yu clenched the sword in his right hand and launched a fierce attack on the enemy.

Basically, against enemies with a lot of gaps in their bodies, such as Demon Servants, slashing skills will be more effective than stabbing skills.

Of course, if it's a top master like Asuna and Zhang Yu, it's a different story. There are no most effective attacks, only stronger sword skills.

Zhang Yu's "Vertical Slash" accurately hit the enemy in four consecutive attacks, and also greatly reduced the skeleton's HP. Skeletons become sluggish due to the fact that monster AI has a characteristic of taking a moment to react to different patterns of attack.

Usually when a person swipes alone, it takes a long time to induce the Lizardman Lord's AI in order to create this situation. But if you have a companion, you can just switch between them. That's one of the biggest advantages of teaming up. Of course, Zhang Yu is not among them, but he has Asuna as his teammate, so of course he doesn't have to think about these problems.

After Zhang Yu used his long sword to bounce off the skeleton's attack, he prepared to use [Infinite Sword Technique-Nine Combos] to completely eliminate it. [Infinite Sword Technique] Zhang Yu has been developed to a very deep level, and now the nine consecutive attacks are no longer consuming for him. He used it as a small special move to farm monsters, so the speed of monster farming is the same as flying an airplane compared to others.

Zhang Yu's figure flashed, and he instantly appeared in front of the skeleton. Looking at the skeleton burning with small handfuls of blue flames in the hollow eye sockets in front of him, he clenched his right hand and swung the long sword in his hand at a speed far greater than the normal number of times. Swinging the sword at such an ultra-high frequency has already produced an afterimage.

The enemy's bone-only body, every time it was struck by the tip of the sword, an orange-red glow would spread out with a "sonorous" collision sound.

Asuna, who was not far away, also sighed slightly when she saw this scene, and every time she looked at it, she felt that the [Infinite Sword Technique] was shocking and powerful. She saw the afterimage of nine swords, each of which left a scar on the skeleton.

The sword in Zhang Yu's hand was either stabbed or slashed or picked by Zhang Yu with different techniques to swing out nine swords. It was with the help of the Bagua Sword Technique that he mastered the sword skills. His sword skills are more than just speed and strength.

As a result of these attacks, the skeleton's HP has been greatly reduced to a near-death state. Zhang Yu casually used a move [String Moon Slash] to use it. The sword arced with the effect light, and slashed into the skeleton's neck as if it had been sucked in, and the bones of the neck were cut off at once, and when the skull flew quickly into the sky, the body left on the ground scattered to the ground like a puppet with a broken string, and made a crisp sound.

"Well done."

After Zhang Yu put away his sword, Asuna smiled and trotted over and patted him on the back.