As he promised, Drifter brought up Kibaou's proposal with the rest of the Assault Team. Reactions were mixed, to say the least.
At first, everyone but Heathcliff and Shivata reacted with outrage. And of those two, one didn't count, while the other was just as infuriated as the rest of the frontliners, just better at keeping his cool.
The former ALS members, especially Liten, were the ones who were impacted the most. For a long while, it was almost impossible to break the young woman from her stunned state.
But once the frontliner leadership calmed down and really thought about it, Kibaou's idea... It wasn't bad. If only it wasn't him proposing it.
"Alright, you can think about it later!"
Drifter clapped his hands to catch everyone's attention. His gaze sharpened in a way that was both striking and familiar.
"Today we are going out to explore the floor. It will also be the first real battles we get into since the update."
Update. It was strangely fitting since they were inside of a game, but at the same time it completely failed to fully encapsulate what the addition of pain to SAO meant.
"All of you already know that, but I'm going to repeat myself: be careful. Don't overreach. Don't get cocky. Don't do a stupid."
In better circumstances, they might have laughed at the way he worded it. But Drifter's expression was deadly serious, and so was theirs.
"At least two parties together at all times. Tell your people not to act tough. The moment someone can't deal with the pain, pull back to the safe zone. I would rather we take 2 months on this floor to adapt than lose frontliners because we let pride rush us."
He received nods of acknowledgement, and the next couple minutes were spent patting each others' shoulders and wishing good luck.
Once the other guild leaders and such had dispersed, Drifter looked to Kirito and Asuna, who had attended the meeting with him.
"We... Each time I think the Assault Team is incredible, I realize that the people in it are a lot stronger than I give them credit for."
When he spoke to them just not, Drifter had not seen an inkling of fear in any of their eyes. Wariness, yes. Apprehension too. But not fear.
Forget 2 months. The spearmaster would be surprised if it took them any longer than normal to clear the 51st floor.
"You are included in that too, y'know?"
Kirito playfully punched his shoulder, and Drifter smirked before throwing his arms around him and Asuna, pulling both against his sides.
"Yep, I'm aware I'm also pretty damn incredible. But somehow it seems easier to think of it as normal when compared to everyone else."
His friends tried half-heartedly to escape from his grasp, but smiled when they heard what he said.
"I know what you mean. None of us are normal or right, but finding so many others who are just as broken and committed..."
Asuna stared at nothing, her mind elsewhere. Kirito reached across Drifter's front to grab her hand.
"It makes us glad we picked up our weapons and went to that meeting so long ago. Not being alone... Not being unique... It makes everything that much more bearable. Enough that even though thinking about what Kayaba has in store scares me out of my mind--"
Kirito trailed off, but Drifter knew exactly what he was thinking. He unhooked his arms from their shoulders and tousled their hair.
"Let's fight. Let's climb."
...
Reaver's Requiem left the safe zone as a group. It wasn't as efficient as splitting up into two large groups, but today the name of the game was safety.
"Up ahead."
Sinon called put, her eyes glowing blue with Searching. Immediately, the other Reavers turned their gazes to the direction she named, and saw a lanky figure staggering through the mkst towards them.
Drifter used his own Searching skill, the mob becoming clearer in his vision. It was distinctively female, with pasty white skin, long black hair reaching the waist, and abnormally long limbs that just looked wrong.
"Impure Devotee. Watch out for inconsistent range."
Drifter eyed the katana the mob was dragging behind itself with a suspicious glare. The sword was nearly 1.5 meters long, and with the length of the Impure Devotee's arms, Drifter didn't trust his perception.
"Likely AoE slashes and swipes. Vallerk, Nautilus, Liz, Kizmel, surround it. Yuuki, Ran, Asuna, and myself will attack through the gaps. Watch out for thrusts. Everyone else, hang back and be ready to bail us out if necessary."
Theoretically, this floor should be easier than the 50th. At least, up till now, the floor immediately after a round floor had always been that way. A sort of recompense and rest stop for the players after their harsh trials.
But the frontliners had long since learned to distrust everything in Aincrad. And now, with the addition of pain-- Well, they would be treating the 51st like it was another sure-death floor.
"C'mon!"
Vallerk unleashed a Taunt on the mob, drawing it to him. As expected, the seemingly placid creature, once provoked, lunged forward with impressive speed, aiming to pierce straight through the young man.
Reaver's Requiem's main tank caught the tip of the katana with his shield, angling it just enough that the weapon slid over it in a shower of sparks, sending the Impure Devotee stumbling forward under its own momentum.
Taking a step back with his left foot, and sliding his right one at an angle, Vallerk let the mob pass by him, using a Shield Bash at just the right moment to push it to ground.
Even then, his movements were stiffer than normal. It was an unconscious reaction to the thought niggling at his subconscious that it would hurt like hell if that katana stabbed him.
With the mob on the ground, however, those fears abated somewhat, and Vallerk took murderous glee into slamming down with the bottom of his towering shield in a brutal Fissure.
A normal person would have been nearly snapped in half by the blow. Even the Impure Devotee lost a fourth of its HP at once.
The rest of the Reavers pounced on it, fully intending on beating the mob while it was down - And hit nothing.
The monster's figure flickered, and their attacks gouged into the earth beside it harmlessly. It was like the Impure Devotee had turned into mist for a moment, and suddenly it wasn't sprawled on the ground anymore, but kneeling, one palm open perpendicular in front of its chest, and katana sweeping at ground level in a circle.
"Ah!"
"Gnh!"
"Ugh!"
"Son of a bit--"
Vallerk, Liz, Kizmel, and Yuuki all cried out in pain as their ankles were slashed. Thankfully none of them were fully severed, but the pain was enough to stop all but Kizmel dead in their tracks. It was only their last couple days of hell-like training that ensured they didn't fall to the ground.
Reaver's Requiem's Dark Elf, much more used to it due to being an NPC before joining the ranks of players, powered through the pain to deliver a Serration Wave to the mob, nearly slicing its head in half.
It wasn't quite enough to kill it, but it was close. Ran's Sting, Asuna's Folium, and Drifter's Snake Bite all hit it at once, and the Impure Devotee burst into shards. Without consulting the log, it was impossible to say which one of them had landed the final blow.
"How are you doing?"
Drifter grabbed Liz's arm to steady her. The blacksmith, much like Vallerk and Yuuki, was hopping on one foot, grumbling under their breath while holding their other leg up.
"I'm alright. That just hurt a little more than I expected."
Drifter knew what she meant. The pain setting, at just one-fifth strength, was bearable. But even then, it still hurt. And Cardinal had done a damn good job of replicating the human body. Getting your ankle slashed, with all the muscles, tendons, and whatnot in it was a lot more painful than simply getting cut in the arm.
After Liz and the others had healed, and the Reavers had analyzed the patterns of the mob - especially that small moment it was intangible - they pressed onwards.
Deeper into the floor.
---------------------
"Ah!"
The one who screamed wasn't a frontliner. It was a short-haired woman, who was clamping her hands so tightly they turned white.
She was the older sister of Dragon Knight Lind. And although her little brother did nothing but grimace and curse quietly when an Impure Devotee stabbed him through the thigh, she felt the pain for him.
Ever since that first broadcast, she hadn't missed a single one. Seeing her brother fighting for his life everyday was a source of fear, pride, and relief in equal measures. She would much rather be able to accompany his battles through the screen, even if her heart seized every time he was hurt, than wait powerlessly for the dreaded phone call so many SAO victims' families had received.
And she was far from the only one who felt like that. The 'support group' Drifter's mother and Kirito's sister had started included many family members of other frontliners apart from Reaver's Requiem.
On the day of the 50th floor raid, although some people preferred to watch it alone, the bast majority of them had split up into small groups, and watched the entire thing together in a couple houses.
They had seen everything, including what came after. The inclusion of pain in Sword Art Online had caused much distress amongst them.
It also left more than a few feeling ashamed. They had thought their hearts had already hardened after routinely watching their loved ones challenge death, and it they still panicked when the ones who were actually in danger immediately threw themselves into training.
Even so, letting of that fear wasn't easy. Lind's sister still gasped in unison with her brother each time he got hurt, knowing that now when he cursed it wasn't just from surprise anymore.
"Brother..."
-----------------------
On the other side of Japan, a schoolar-looking young man pushed up his glasses, his gaze focusing unwavering on a cloaked player.
He knew it wasn't good to watch his ex-girlfriend for hours on end. We're it not for SAO's special circumstances, he would definitely get branded a stalker.
But he couldn't help it. It was barely a month before Sword Art Online began that they broke up. That he broke up with her.
Sometimes, even now, over 2 years later, he still woke up in a cold sweat, his nightmares somehow twisting it into making him believe it wad his fault Akari had entered Aincrad. His fault she had suffered so much.
Unlike the SAO victims, even Argo the Rat or Broken Spear Drifter, who only knew a small part of what Shadow Blossom Akari - and wasn't that title just perfect for her - and Fuumaningum had been up to, he had watched all of their adventures, all of the challenges and hurdles they surpassed while never leaving the darkness.
Nineteen. That was how many people Akari had killed to protect the souls of Aincrad. More than even Broken Spesr Drifter, who was the one the news, the politicians, the populace in general always mentioned when talking about the Laughing Coffin raid.
But he knew better. He knew how Akari had willingly stained her hands with more blood than any but PoH himself and his pack of monsters.
All to protect people she didn't even know.
Even now, she didn't stop. And so he watched Akari and her guild train in the darkest recesses of the 51st floor. Train how it felt to feel pain again.
How it felt to inflict it. So they knew not to stop when the time came they needed to spill blood once more.
----------------------
Shinkawa Kyouji hadn't left his home in weeks. Even his groceries were delivered to his door, and if the people doing the delivery ever got a look inside, they would be horrified.
The walls were covered in pictures. Two kinds of pictures, actually. One was of Reaver's Requiem's Aero Huntress Sinon. The other of the rest of the frontliners, especially Broken Spear Drifter, and of Laughing Coffin members.
The pictures of Sinon were pristine. The rest were scratched over, cut, torn, shredded, even burnt.
Kyouji hadn't left his apartment since the day of the Laughing Coffin raid, when Broken Spear Drifter killed his idol. Killed his brother.
Ever since them, he had been watching. Planning. Going insane bit by bit. He had thought of a thousand ways to kill Broken Spear Drifter. He had even toyed with the idea of finding a NerveGear and jumping into SAO himself, like PoH had apparently done.
He had done nothing in the end. Just endured it, losing more of himself with each plot and death threat.
"Haa... HaaaaHaaa... Hahakakakikikikikk!"
But now he was laughing. Insane like his brother and all the monsters he revered. And each time Broken Spear Drifter and the rest of the bastards who murdered his brother cried out in pain, he roared louder.
-------------------------
In a laboratory somewhere in Tokyo, Sugou Noboyuki's eyes shone brightly as he watched the data rapidly flowing through the monitors in front of him. He had an almost demented grin on his face.
"Thank you, Akihiko Kayaba. I will use your work proudly."
The megabytes of information that were being generated each minute, all of it new and unprecedented since the inclusion of pain in SAO, would pave his path towards the top of the world.
And once he got that old fool to sign away her daughter and her company, giving him direct access to countless live specimens, he would be unstoppable.
Truly, Akihiko Kayaba had given him a priceless gift.