In Torbana, the town closest to the labyrinth area on the first floor of Al Grande, dozens of players are gathering in a square in the middle of the town.

Today is the time for a few players to spontaneously hold the Sword Art Online Tier 1 Strategy Meeting. There were nearly five minutes left before the pre-agreed start time of the meeting.

In one of the corners of the hall, which is somewhat in the style of the parliament of a Greek city-state, two women and one man are seated.

One of the women was draped in a dark red cloak. There are hardly any physical details to be seen. Next to her was another petite girl with blond hair in light metal armor. On the other side of the blonde girl, about 2 meters away from the air, was a male one-handed swordsman with black hair and black eyes and a feminine face.

These three people are the trio of Asuna, Li Xiang, and Kirito.

After the glamorous scene that happened last night, Asuna became strongly defensive of Kirito. In terms of distance, they almost always maintain a distance of more than two meters.

In fact, Asuna also knew very well in her heart that Kirito should not be completely blamed for what happened last night. Afterwards, Kirita and Argo also explained things very clearly. Just a misunderstanding that wasn't very beautiful. If you really want to talk about it, you can't help but say that she is more hateful when she knocks Kirito away.

But after all, it's a girl, and she's still a lady who has been receiving traditional education since birth. Even though the player's body in the game world is just a 3D model made up of a bunch of simulated data, it still makes her feel extremely shy.

As for Li Xiang, because she is a girl in Asuna's knowledge, after seeing Asuna's body "feast her eyes", not only was she not dodged or guarded, but she seemed to be regarded by Asuna as a stress relief doll, sticking to it all the time, and moving her hands and feet from time to time. Hug here, pinch there.

Of course, being cuddled and hugged by a big beauty is not a chore. On the other hand, Li Xiang, who also saw the scene of Asuna rushing out of the bathroom, let Asuna fiddle with it out of a little guilt of the male soul in his body.

"Everybody, look at me."

In the middle of the square, a good-looking young man stood up.

The man made a brief introduction to himself. His game is called Diabelu, and he is also the host and initiator of this meeting.

Diabelu informed everyone present that just a few days ago, the team he led had discovered the location of the boss room on the floor in the labyrinth area. He suggested that the players present voluntarily form a challenge team and gather a large number of high-level players to attack the first level boss.

Because of his dignified countenance and the dignified speech of a medieval knight, everyone present responded to his call.

During this time, a man who claimed to be the King of Teeth also appeared at the meeting, and he launched a verbal denunciation against the game's closed beta players. He accused these closed beta players of irresponsibly not sharing their intelligence and experience, but instead using their own advantages in the game to occupy a lot of resources. Indirectly, it led to the death of a considerable number of ordinary players.

The agitated Tooth King even made the aggressive remark that closed beta players should hand over all the money and gear they earned.

With the rebuttal of some objective and rational players, and the mediation of the leader Diabelu, the only small wave in the meeting was finally calmed down.

In the end, under the organization of Diabelu, the 45 people present were divided into 8 teams. The first seven squads consist of 6 people each. The remaining three, Kirito, Li Xiang and Asuna, formed a small team. He also joined the mighty crusade.

On the way to the boss room in the depths of the maze area, the players of the team chatted one by one in order to pass the boring rush time.

This group of players are almost always the first optimists to accept reality and actively work towards winning the game. At this time, although it is necessary to overthrow the strongest person in the floor, the floor boss, there may inevitably be victims, but everyone's mentality is not bad.

Li Xiang patted Kirito on the shoulder: "Kirito-kun, why do you look sad." Have fun. ”

Kirito, who had been frowning since the beginning of the team, shook his head and said with a wry smile: "It's hard not that I'm not worried, to be honest, I've always had a bad premonition since this morning, I hope my feeling is wrong." ”

I'm sorry, you're right, in a moment of boss battles, bad things will happen.

Li Xiang said in his heart.

Soon, the mighty procession reached the depths of the labyrinth area.

In front of them was a very elaborately decorated gate. According to Diabelu, behind this door is the location of the first floor boss, the kobold lord Ilfang.

After a simple assignment of tactics and unification of the command system. Diabelu led a large team of more than forty people into the boss's room.

Diabellu is not only a leader in temperament, but also a strong conductor. Under his assignment, a portion of the squad was regrouped to form functional squads divided by weapon type and combat characteristics. For example, the tank team responsible for absorbing boss damage and attention, the assault team responsible for the output of the boss, the reserve team that is always ready to help fill in the gaps and reorganize the battle line if others make mistakes or unexpected situations, and the clearance team responsible for cleaning up the minions summoned by the kobold lord, etc.

Kirito, Li Xiang, and Asuna were assigned to the clearance team.

"Why are we assigned such an unimportant task? What did that person mean just now? ”

Asuna was slightly dissatisfied, and just now, the three of them were assigned to kill the monsters summoned by the boss. And the man who called himself the "Tooth King" and opposed the closed beta players somehow became the right-hand man of the leader Diabelu. Just now, the Tooth King came to inform the three of them of their mission.

After the tooth king explained the task, he also said inexplicably to Kirito yin and yang:

"You can just clean up the kobold soldiers who slipped away from us. Boss battles, you take care of yourself, don't cause trouble. ”

Before leaving, he spat casually near Kirito and them.

Kirito didn't seem to be affected by the Tooth King's words. He responded to Asuna very patiently, explaining to her: "The number of our team is only three, and if we make a mistake in battle, the team members will not even have a chance to rescue or recover. In a way, he was right. If you add a direct output to the boss, with the attack power of the boss, you will pay the price of blood if you make a mistake. ”

Li Xiang, who knew Kirito's original life trajectory, didn't say anything, but his heart had already begun to turn over the river.

The word cautious doesn't seem to match you at all with full strength and agility, and the reckless man who wants to fight the 74-story boss alone in the future doesn't seem to match at all.

And Kirito silently grew a heart in his heart.

Even though the Tooth King was talking about the correct assignment of tasks, his tone was filled with inexplicable hostility.

Combined with Tooth King's previous hostile attitude towards closed beta players, the most likely source of his hostility towards himself is Kirito, who once also participated in the closed beta of Sword Art Online, which is also what he called a "closed beta player".

If so, then where did the Tooth King get his identity?

Only a handful of people know who he is as a closed beta player, Klein, Argo the Mouse, and Saber. And to his senses, none of these three would betray their friends.

Where did the Tooth King learn about his identity as a closed beta player?