The first main city accessible on the Second Floor was Urbus, an astonishing feat of engineering carved out of a 300-meter mountain, with only its outer shell left intact. The moment you stepped onto its clean, refreshing streets, everything felt different from the First Floor, from the NPCs' clothes to the soft music drifting through the city.
It really made you feel like you'd arrived somewhere new.
The news that the First Floor had been cleared had probably spread long ago. Hundreds, maybe thousands of players were likely waiting eagerly for it.
So even though there were only three of them on the entire Second Floor, they still dutifully went to open the teleport gate first.
If they'd grabbed the best stuff before that and waited for the system to open it automatically after the set time, the complaints afterward would've been terrifying.
Even so, the job still got shoved onto Satoru.
Kirito, looking as righteous as ever, had dragged the rapier user off to who knew where. Considering what that female player named Asuna had going for her, maybe he ought to rethink what exactly was going on between those two.
With a sigh, Satoru made his way to Urbus's central plaza, climbed the somewhat overbuilt stone steps, and stopped before the massive archway. It was nothing more than an empty stone arch made of pillars and blocks, and from this side he could see clearly through to the other end. In reality, though, some invisible door seemed to exist beneath it.
The air and space there were slightly distorted, like a curtain of rippling water.
Satoru reached out and touched the "door," his fingers meeting a cool surface.
Like a structure in some classic fantasy movie being activated by magic, a silent tremor spread outward from the doorway. The once-faint "door" began to ripple. Deep blue light flickered across it, and if you looked closely, you could even see brief images flashing through the twisting blue glow.
In a game where only Sword Skills existed, anything this overtly magical was a rare sight.
Before Satoru could fully take it in, countless figures poured out beyond the gate. Footsteps crashed like an avalanche, and the rising chatter buzzed like a swarm of locusts descending out of nowhere.
There had to be at least five or six hundred of them. They'd all been waiting at the teleport gate on the First Floor.
Like prey about to be picked clean, Satoru quickly slipped away before the crowd could swallow him whole..
"We made it to the Second Floor!"
"So it really is possible if you want it badly enough..."
"Honestly, mooching along and waiting to die isn't so bad!"
"Yeah, let's go find an inn."
There really were all kinds.
The mass of players showered the forty-four-member assault team with admiration in all sorts of ways, then immediately turned that excitement into a mad scramble for resources.
They poured into what had been wide, quiet streets, and the whole city seemed to boil over in an instant. Even the town band made up of NPCs joined in with a grand piece of music.
Satoru watched the flood of people in speechless disbelief. To him, it felt like someone had just let loose a herd of half-starved pigs.
Still, the Second Floor had to have features the First Floor didn't, right?
Guilds aside for now.
Satoru gave the matter more serious thought than usual.
Did this game actually have that thing?
If it did, he could get by just fine on his own. Honestly, lasting a whole month already felt like his limit. He hadn't expected himself to hold out this long.
He'd ask Argo. She was a ruthless profiteer, but even so, he gave his wallet a symbolic pat and opened his friend list to send a message.
"Hm? Right here in the plaza?"
His finger moved to Argo's name, and the location marker in his list showed the information broker's rough position.
He'd only typed a few words when a familiar figure, one that never failed to bleed his wallet dry, flashed across his vision. Gold-brown curls, a rustic hooded cloak that looked like it belonged on Peter Pan, and blistering speed born from a full AGI build. Even in a crowd, an character like that stood out.
She really did look like a panicked little rat.
Wait. Panicked?
Two more figures came through the teleport gate with the crowd, moving just as fast as Argo's full AGI build. The moment they spotted her retreating back, they took off after her. That was way past simple tailing. It practically screamed pre-crime.
So the information broker had finally run into a troublesome customer.
Oddly enough, that didn't surprise him at all.
Satoru sighed. He needed something from her, so he didn't have much choice. He opened his skill menu and activated Tracking, which he'd acquired after leveling up Search. A string of pale green footprints appeared across the stone street in his vision, but his proficiency wasn't high enough yet, so it would only last for a minute.
He immediately followed them.
The trail led all the way out of town and into the field. When he saw the footprints already starting to fade, he picked up the pace.
All three of them were probably running full AGI builds.
Eventually the spacing of the footprints shortened, a sign that they had started to slow down. A few seconds later, Tracking ran out as well.
Just like when he hunted alone, Satoru moved with practiced caution, edging along the mountainside toward the voices.
On a broad, rugged plain like this, finding even a small rock to use as cover was a stroke of luck, and by now he could hear the conversation clearly.
"Didn't I already tell you? I'm not selling this information, no matter what!"
Argo's voice reached him first, tinged with anger and helplessness in equal measure. To be honest, seeing her cornered like this was a little satisfying.
Then came a shrill male voice.
"If you're not selling it to anyone and you're not making it public either, then you're clearly trying to inflate its value. Obviously."
"This isn't about the price! I just don't want the buyer resenting me after I sell it!"
"And why would we resent you? It's just money for goods. Obviously."
"Even if it's a Hidden Skill, you're an information broker. There's no reason to keep it hidden. Turning it into money is simply the most sensible course. Obviously."
That way of speaking was seriously irritating.
Satoru didn't dwell on it, but a Hidden Skill? Argo had information like that too? A skill with unknown acquisition conditions was exactly the kind of thing that could set a player apart from the rest.
He was interested, sure—but compared to what he actually cared about, it barely registered.
That was still his top priority.
"We're not backing down today!"
The man's sudden shout made it sound like a fight was about to break out.
"Either way, I won't sell it to you—so I—obvi—no, wait! I just won't sell it to you, okay?!"
Argo had clearly picked up their way of speaking, and from the sound of it, she'd nearly bitten her tongue.
What a pain.
Satoru frowned. After a moment's thought, he stopped hiding and stepped out.
"And obviously, I have no idea who you are… so who exactly might you be?"
Like startled crows, the two men dressed in black snapped their heads toward him at the same time. Their gear was impressively coordinated for a game this early on.
They must have put a lot of effort into piecing together matching equipment: light chainmail, with oversized headscarves deliberately wrapped around their heads.
You called that equipment? It looked more like a cosplay.
The curved swords they carried would've made much more sense at their waists, but they stubbornly wore them slung diagonally across their backs instead.
After staring at the ridiculous sight for a few seconds, Satoru finally understood why they talked like they were acting out some old-period ninja drama.
"Ninjas from a foreign land?"
One of the "crows" asked, openly wary.
How are you saying that with a straight face when I'm dressed like a rookie adventurer?
"I don't have time to waste chatting with you. I need to ask this information broker something urgent."
That was what he was thinking, and when he answered, his voice came out cold and hard.
"Wh...?"
The two ninjas blinked, clearly thrown off by Satoru's refreshingly uncooperative response.
"You can go after that woman afterward," Satoru added after a moment.
"Hey, no, that's not okay either!" Argo shouted from the side.
"There is an order to all things. Obviously. No matter what, we won't let that rat slip away again."
Apparently unwilling to let it go, the two black-clad figures whipped the curved swords off their backs. It looked more than a little theatrical, but the tension between both sides thickened instantly.
"We're outside the safe zone. You can deal damage here."
To everyone's surprise, Satoru said it like he was talking to himself, or maybe reminding them one last time. Then his hand went to the curved blade on his back. He didn't draw it. He only settled into a stance that looked ready to unsheathe at any moment.
One more upward motion and it would become the opening posture for a Sword Skill.
What a stupid way to hold a curved sword. Pointing it at an enemy like that did nothing except add extra motion before you could actually use a Sword Skill.
He bent his knees slightly and lowered his center of gravity. When he looked at the two men again, his eyes were no different from the way he looked at field monsters.
"..."
Both ninjas froze when they met that gaze. It was probably the first time they'd ever faced such naked hostility head-on.
"What's wrong? Not ready? ...Not going to move?"
Even Satoru probably hadn't realized how low his voice had become. It sounded like steel scraping across a whetstone, each pass carrying a faint, cold edge.
The weight of it was real. It settled over his not-particularly-large frame, over his tensed body, over the curved blade that seemed to be itching to leave its sheath.
This guy was serious.
Even here, even now that death in this world was real, he looked perfectly willing to stake his life on a wild PK and fight them to the death on equal terms.
But... wasn't that way too unreasonable?
"You're just making this even more troublesome!" Argo hissed behind him, keeping her voice down even though it sounded like she desperately wanted to shout.
"The ninjas of old treated their lives as worthless, burying themselves in endless night for one mission after another. What's wrong? You two wanted to become those awe-inspiring figures in body and soul, didn't you? Don't tell me you never prepared yourselves for that much."
Pretending not to hear Argo, Satoru kept his voice low and pressed the question.
"A-as for resolve… we've had that for a long time. Obviously."
That line really would've sounded more convincing if they'd said it properly.
Still, the two ninjas finally raised their weapons at him with the same caution they'd use against monsters.
Silence fell for a moment.
From where he stood, Satoru could see their faces had gone a little red.
Not used to PK, huh?
Then there was nothing to worry about.
His foot shifted forward with a crunch, nudging a pebble.
The sound might as well have been a signal.
The next thing he heard was the two ninjas yelping. They glanced at each other, dropped whatever resolve they'd been trying to cling to, and put their final decision into action.
"This isn't over, indeed! We'll... we'll find you again someday!"
Their full AGI builds weren't for show. Barely ten seconds later, their obvious black silhouettes were gone.
Satoru let out a sigh out of habit and lowered his hand.
"What was that?! That nearly turned into something completely irreversible!"
Satoru wasn't tall, but Argo was even shorter than him, so she had to tilt her head up to scold him. The result was that she didn't look threatening at all. The whisker-like lines on her face wobbled along with her puffed-up cheeks.
"For me, it wouldn't have been irreversible. You saw it too. They didn't have the guts."
"Yeah, I know. Back in the beta, idiots like that loved hanging around the front lines."
Argo clicked her tongue, rubbing her forehead.
"High AGI, high HP builds. If they pulled aggro and couldn't handle it, they'd just dump the monsters on someone else and run."
She let out a quiet scoff.
"Like some cartoon villain squad."
"Back then, it wasn't a big deal. But if they're still this obsessed with cosplay now… you really start wondering what the hell's wrong with them."
Argo pressed a hand to her forehead.
"No, wait... that's not the point. What you did was the worst possible option!"
She planted her hands on her hips again.
"Well, if the goal was to get rid of them as fast as possible, that was the only way. Besides, even if we did fight, I figure the odds were pretty good, so there was nothing to worry about." Satoru shook his head.
"You're just a newbie. What are you acting tough for...?"
"I know a little about PK. Anyway, I'm not that strong, but against total beginners like them, I'm not worried. In this game, you can more or less tell who's going to win a PK before it even starts, just by how both sides prepare."
You sure talk big.
Argo seemed to mutter something along those lines.
"...Yeah, whatever. You did get me out of that mess. Still—this feels bad. A guy like you going out of his way to help me? You've already got, what, ten ways to make me pay you back, right?"
She looked resigned.
"Fine. Spit it out."
She already had the pained expression of someone about to get fleeced.
"Right, well..." Satoru suddenly felt a little nervous and even rubbed his hands together.
"Hey… if this gets weird, I've got no problem spreading some nasty rumors about you," Argo said, taking a step back and giving him a once-over.
"It's just a simple request."
Satoru licked his lips. After a long pause, he spoke in a deep, sincere voice, like he was delivering some profound truth about life itself.
"Do you know where, or when, tobacco-type consumables show up in this game?"
For a moment, Argo just stared at him like she hadn't understood a word.
"Huh...?"
"I mean cigarettes. You know, the consumable you can hold in your mouth and inhale, that nicotine-based salvation for mankind that calms you down and makes you look cool and dependable."
Satoru sped up as he spoke, even pantomiming it with the ease of a seasoned smoker, pretending to hold one between his fingers and lifting it to his lips.
"..."
He looked at Argo expectantly while she fell into thought. Her golden-brown hair curled slightly over her forehead, and with her head lowered like that, he couldn't see her expression.
"So you—Mr. 'only cares about himself and counting his money'—saw me getting chased, followed me all the way out here, and were even ready to PK those two just to get rid of them fast… all for this?"
For some reason, the information broker sounded deeply deflated.
"Of course," Satoru said without a second's hesitation, eyes wide and full of certainty. "Obviously."
"..."
Argo slowly raised her face again. It was actually a pretty cute face, though right now it held a faint look of contempt.
"Hope you die of lung cancer someday, Yu."
"Thanks. So, can you take the request?" Satoru asked with a cheerful nod, apparently too used to that level of disdain to care.
"Tch."
Clicking her tongue with exaggerated irritation, Argo snorted and took off at a speed his character couldn't hope to match.
"I'll cut you a deal this time."
She still tossed that line back before she left.
So, all in all...
There was room for hope now, right?
Satoru let out a small sigh of appreciation. His impression of Argo had improved a little.
Every now and then, she was actually pretty easy to deal with.