Chapitre 299: -295- [ Aincrad Liberation Force ]
Since SAO became a death game, players have been trapped in this world for a full five months.
Four months ago, under the leadership of Rozen, players broke through the 1st floor of Aincrad, breaking the stagnation of progress in the past month and giving a glimmer of hope to this world's players.
After that, players seemed to have been rejuvenated. They were no longer fearful of monsters, nor were they sorrowful about the situation. It was as if they were racing against time, rapidly progressing through the floating city of Aincrad.
Under these circumstances, by the time the 2nd floor was cleared, it had been merely ten days since players arrived on that floor.
The 3rd floor was cleared even faster, in just seven days.
In other words, although they were bound for an entire month on the 1st floor, in the following two weeks, the frontline players broke through two floors consecutively, reaching the 4th floor.
The clearing of the 4th floor took only three days.
Yes.
Three days.
It was an unbelievable speed.
Three factors contributed to this rapid progress:
1. Players were no longer despondent and fearful of the current situation. Some took decisive steps forward.
2. A large number of beta testers joined the frontline, accelerating the clearing speed.
3. Carrying the unique familiar and later known as the "Magus," Rozen, since the 2nd floor, had led the frontline players. He guided a group of top players, fearlessly delving into the maze-like areas, quickly locating the boss rooms, and clearing them without any casualties.
This led to heightened enthusiasm among players. They gradually joined the clearing efforts, increasing the number of top frontline players and boosting their collective strength, resulting in a continuously accelerating clearing speed.
Of course, even if players started advancing boldly, it wouldn't be possible to clear one floor every three days consistently.
However, with Rozen and the addition of his beta tester guild, "Crimson Wing," the frontline team managed to clear about one floor every five days, progressing steadily until now.
Currently, it has been four months since the 1st floor was cleared.
As for the frontline, they have already reached the 26th floor.
Not long ago, the 25th floor was cleared, symbolizing that players had conquered a quarter of Aincrad.
However, the 25th floor is special.
To clear it, not too long ago, Rozen also put in a lot of effort and only recently managed to relax a bit.
As a result, in recent times, Rozen has been sleeping for seven to eight hours every day, yet still waking up looking quite lethargic.
According to members of the guild...
"Even without this reason, the Guild Master always looks tired every day."
That's how it is.
Rozen arrived at this bar under such circumstances.
This is the base of "Crimson Wing" on the 24th floor of Panareze.
Generally, a guild would choose a place to serve as its base for members to gather. More powerful and affluent guilds might even spend large amounts of col to purchase vacant houses in the game to use as their base.
As the strongest guild in SAO, Rozen's "Crimson Wing" is no less capable in strength and resources than other guilds. Thus, purchasing a house to establish a base is effortless.
Taking all this into account, after seeing the environment here recently, Rozen immediately decided.
"Let's buy a house on this floor as our base."
Before this, Rozen hadn't thought about purchasing a house to set up a base.
Because, given the previous clearing team's speed of approximately one floor every five days, they rarely stayed on a floor for long. Furthermore, there was likely better terrain on higher floors, so Rozen didn't think about setting up a base for the time being.
However, since arriving on the 25th floor, the clearing team's speed had slowed down, prompting Rozen to consider making this place their base.
Under the greetings of the guild members, Rozen approached the bar counter.
This bar had a particular advantage.
It could store various alcoholic drinks in its own inventory space and provide them to players who placed an order.
Don't underestimate this advantage.
You see, in SAO, all food and drinks had durability settings. Some items lost durability over time, while others did so when taken out of designated consumption areas. They couldn't be stored in a player's inventory continuously and couldn't be carried indefinitely.
And this bar could store all types of alcoholic drinks and even food like appetizers, ensuring that the durability of food and drinks wouldn't decrease.
This is why Rozen was interested in this bar.
"Among food and drinks, there are types that provide additional benefits when consumed. These items usually have purchase and quantity limits. By buying them and storing them in the bar, they can be used anytime to gain some enhancements. This will help everyone in the guild to more effectively progress through the clearing efforts."
With such considerations, Rozen bought the bar.
So, Rozen tapped the counter, summoned the bar's inventory menu list, ordered a mildly alcoholic drink, and picked up a newspaper beside him.
This was a player-made newspaper.
Up to now in SAO, there were more ways to earn col than just going out to defeat monsters.
In order to earn col, players had started honing various production and life skills, giving rise to various types of merchants.
Customizing the latest news from within SAO into a newspaper and distributing it to every floor had also become a business.
Rozen picked up the newspaper, which cost only 10 col and provided daily updates, and looked at the front-page headline.
"Breaking News: Former Clearing Group Guild 'Aincrad Liberation Squad' Merges with Starter Town Support Group 'MMO Today,' Establishing New Guild 'Aincrad Liberation Force.'"
Seeing this news, Rozen's eyebrows raised slightly.
"'Aincrad Liberation Force'... huh?"
Rozen murmured to himself.
"It seems you haven't given up yet, Kibaou."
This statement was met with a familiar voice in response.
"There's no other choice."
A small girl dressed in a cloak arrived next to Rozen. While opening the bar's menu, she spoke.
"With his personality, even if most of the guild members were wiped out and the guild's strength suffered greatly, he probably wouldn't be willing to give up, right?"
Saying this was Argo.
The information dealer had come here and said these words.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone