章 9: Chapter 9: Prelude to First Floor Boss II
Sharia, at this point, had no reason to interfere, or rather, it wasn't time yet.
As rotten as Kibaou was, he still helped rule the Aincrad Liberation Army of the future, albeit in a corrupt way.
Sharia began to consider his options: should he let things happen as they did in the original, or should he intervene?
Without even realizing it, he had partially accepted the notion of willingly letting someone die.
But again, was there really any use in keeping Diabel alive?
'Since when did I become so cruel?'
Sharia mentally sighed, refocusing his gaze on Diabel, who had taken out the strategy guide and begun reading the information provided by the testers.
Looking around again, Sharia couldn't help but frown.
Among thousands of beta testers, why was Kirito the only notable tester participating in the first-floor boss raid?
A lot of things seemed jumbled and thrown out the window.
Even though Misumi was introduced only introduced in Progressive and not in the original.
She also appeared in Unital Ring, which meant there was a plot hole somewhere, either the anime was the one that rushed and filled the missing hole.
Then, if that wasn't the case, then it meant that Progressive was canon and some episodes in the original anime were the non-cannon events. [1]
After all, Progressive explored many aspects the original didn't touch at all.
It was somewhat confusing, but it would get more confusing afterward. But that would be for later.
"Say, Argo."
"Hm? What is it?"
Argo blinked, holding her own copy, or rather, the original copy—not the one being sold—of the strategic guide book in her hand and scribbling on it.
"Have you ever wondered that since many things have changed in the beta since its release, isn't there a high chance that even the boss phases may change?"
.... Hearing his words, there was a slight pause in Argo's movement.
She turned to Sharia, giving him a knowing gaze. As expected, he was also thinking the same as her too.
To answer Sharia's question, she nodded.
"I've also thought about the same. But we have no chance of knowing just what will or has changed."
Argo ruffled her head as she released a somewhat annoyed sigh.
She takes her job as an information broker—even though it was just in a game—very seriously.
And with the game master's changing some things from the beta didn't also make things easy for her too.
Rather than relying on information from the beta, they now had to consider many things.
As if the relationship between the newbie players and testers weren't bad enough.
Soon, others might start seeing even her and other information broker, as incompetent, which would ruin her job for her.
Continuing on.
"The boss in the first floor's boss room is called Illfang the Kobold Lord."
"He is guarded by underlings known as Ruin Kobold Sentinels."
As Diabel continued speaking, Sharia now had his eyes closed in contemplation.
"He is armed with an axe and a buckler."
The more Sharia reasoned it, the more he felt that, at the very least, he should change this man's pathetic death.
Sharia wryly smiled. 'In the end, I'm not so cruel as to let a person in front of me die like that.'
"He has four HP bars, and when the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar—"
At the very least, he still considered himself to be humane.
Knowing somebody in front of him was about to die a futile death would make his stomach churn.
Of course, he didn't believe he could save everybody.
And at the same time, he wasn't going to save this man without his payment.
"—Excuse me. Please make a stop there."
Before Diabel could continue, Sharia interrupted with his right hand raised.
Everybody directed their gaze to the back, Kirito and Asuna included, from the sides.
Diabel frowned slightly, thinking Sharia was going to interrupt in the same manner as Kibaou, but he still let him speak. "Yes?"
After nodding at Diabel, Sharia cleared his throat and began with a cold voice, "I believe we shouldn't fully trust the information given by the testers."
"What?"
"Huh?"
Several people frowned, Argo included, who rubbed her forehead in slight headache, glaring at him from beneath her cloak as if to say:
'Hey, you could have worded it better!'
Diabel below furrowed his brows.
Kibaou seemed pleased with what Sharia said, while Kirito looked exasperated, and Agil scrutinized him.
Watching their reactions amused him, but he continued. "Cease your frowns, I didn't mean it that way."
"Eh?" Hearing the words coming out of Sharia's mouth surprised them again. They couldn't help but internally echo, 'Then, which is it?'
However—
"You seem to have misunderstood me," Sharia shrugged before continuing, "I meant, the boss patterns may have already changed since the beta ended."
Sharia seemed to be dropping information bomb upon information bomb on their heads, but they listened closely with questioning gazes.
"A friend of mine—a beta tester—ran into trouble a month ago. Apparently, they were after a treasure chest in one part of the labyrinth."
"However, upon opening the chest, rather than treasure, they were met with a trap."
Sharia beamed a smile as he said those words, sending chills down everybody's spines.
Argo, beside him, glared and even pinched his thigh, but he ignored her, since he couldn't feel the pain.
"And, helping that friend in question, we investigated more and found out that, even though it was not much, some significant things have been changed since the beta."
"Hence. We can't fully trust the information."
"But since they're the only source of information we have at the moment, we'll approach the boss with caution."
He specifically glared at Diabel, who was nervous but tried to hide it and swallowed it down.
Kirito by the side was giving him an acknowledged and knowing glance, while Agil seemed to be satisfied.
Even though the beta source was accurate, they should have doubted that some things would change with the release.
Perhaps the reason why Sword Art Online never identified more than ten beta testers was because most of them fell into the trap of the knowledge they had about the game.
And hence, they were booted out of the game; otherwise, it was a massive plot hole that needs filling on the author's part.
Testers that had been hyped up to have been the strongest in the game had barely impacted the game in any way.
In the future fight against the 72nd floor boss, there were absolutely to no beta testers in that fight which just further shows how washed and overhyped they are.
Even Klien and Agil, who were newbie players, were still more relevant than those mysterious testers.
Ahem—*
After finishing, Sharia sat down beside Argo.
Of course, most shot him with an acknowledgement gaze, with Diabel smiling nervously. "That was wonderful. Thank you for the suggestion."
Diabel thanked Sharia with a nod; however, the boy simply shrugged it off, turning to the girl beside him.
"Wait, don't tell me you really think of participating in a boss raid? That isn't very becoming of an information broker."
Sharia said with an exasperated stare.
However, in this case, Argo was nonchalant about it. "Don't worry, I'm not that weak; besides, aren't you here to protect me?"
Her words startled the boy, prompting an immediate response from him. "Don't you dare raise a flag." [2]
"Huh?" The girl blinked upon hearing his words, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
"No, forget it. I'll do my best."
Those lines in SAO were, in a sense, cursed.
When Asuna and Kirito said those words to each other, what happened? They both nearly died, hehe.
When Kirito also said those words to Sinon before going to her house to save her from that creep, what happened?
He almost died again, hahaha!
And what happened after he said that to Alice in the underworld?
He was left in a vegetable—vegetative—state for six months straight. Hahahaha!
Therefore, Sharia didn't want to make such promises with her or anyone else, for that matter.
Sharia didn't want to become overconfident only to let his guard down again.
The strategy meeting was now concluding, with Diabel instructing them to form parties.
Things proceeded much like in the original. Asuna and Kirito once again formed one party, while Argo and Sharia formed the remaining party.
Although Sharia wanted to join Blackie's team, he refrained from intruding.
'Blackie-sensei, I'll leave her to you!'
TRIVIA:
[1] Yes, this is actually true. The light novel skipped everything from the first episode of the anime until the ninth episode.
Progressive is a light novel that explores what happens on other floors. The Light Novel is still updating, I think?
The order of SAO should be.
First Volume of Light Novel —> Progressive Light Novels —> The anime from Aincrad's ending.
For those complaining that they should have done more about other floors and stuff, the progressive light novels are the ones doing it.
It was the first LN that was released that was used to run the anime, hence the many missing arcs and stuff.
[2] The words "I'll protect you" in SAO are equivalent to "Nah, I'd Win," except that the author loves Kirito too much, which is why he isn't dead.
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