"Ah, Auntie...?!"
Mito was instantly petrified, then squatted to the side and drew little circles.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became cheerful.
Kuradeel's death caused a huge uproar among the entire player base.
The high-ranking members of the Knights of the Blood, led by Vice-Commander Kirito, publicly and strongly condemned Tenya, angrily denouncing him as a public enemy of all players in Aincrad, a heinous murderer.
They attempted to tarnish Tenya's reputation with this.
Fortunately, Mito timely revealed the recording crystal from that time, allowing everyone to know the full story.
First, it was the Knights of the Blood who initiated the forced PK, and they did so with superior numbers, showing no honor.
Under such circumstances, asking Tenya to show mercy was simply asking too much.
However, although everyone understood the reasoning...
More than half of the players still tended to side with the Knights of the Blood.
This was simply because the Knights of the Blood were the core of the clearers and held high prestige among the player base.
Tenya was a solo player. Although his personal strength was very high, his popularity could not compare to the entire Knights of the Blood.
Besides this, another important reason was...
Asuna, Mito, and Silica were with Tenya.
The combination of two beauties and one cute loli was enviable, naturally attracting hate.
Tenya ignored the hostility from the player base.
In the following days, Tenya and his group took Yui and wandered around playing.
Artificial intelligence has strong learning abilities, and Yui quickly mastered basic human common sense. Her behavior was almost identical to that of a real human little girl.
Aincrad's 1st Floor, Tolbana.
Swish!
The teleportation gate opened. Tenya and his group walked out from it.
"Tolbana, it's been a long time since we came back."
Asuna and Mito exchanged glances, showing nostalgia.
They thought back to the first day the game launched, and Kayaba announced the start of the death game.
Asuna was panicked, and it was Mito who pulled her along to grind monsters and level up, leading to her name "The Flash" today.
"Yeah, I was scared stiff back then..."
"If Tenya-kun hadn't taken me, I probably wouldn't have been able to clear the first floor."
Silica recalled the past and was very grateful to have met Tenya.
"Yui, do you have any impression of this place?" Tenya carried Yui on his back.
"I don't know..."
Yui tried hard to recall, feeling her head ache, then she lied on Tenya's back.
"It's okay if you can't remember, Yui. Let's walk around first." Asuna quickly stepped forward to comfort her.
The group walked on the street. They found that there was a lot of foot traffic here.
"Hey, Mito-san, how many players do you think are still here now?" Silica asked curiously.
"Hmm... Let me see..."
"Currently, there are about six thousand players alive in Aincrad. I heard that about thirty percent of the players chose to stay on the first floor."
After checking the data, Mito came to a conclusion.
"That many?" Silica was very surprised.
"There's no helping it, not everyone is that strong."
"Up until now, the number of sacrificed players has exceeded five thousand."
"Among them, there are many players who couldn't bear the psychological pressure from losing family and friends. They gave up fighting."
Mito sighed deeply.
Back then, she and Asuna were surrounded by a group of blooming man-eating plants. If Asuna had died, she would probably have felt uneasy and eventually given up fighting, escaping to the first floor to rot and wait for death.
Just as the group was strolling around, they suddenly heard a quarrel coming from the entrance of an alley in the distance.
"Give me back the children!"
"Hey, it's the nanny's turn to appear."
"Don't say things that are easily misunderstood. We are just teaching those children some social common sense."
"This is also one of our army's important duties."
"That's right, paying property fees... Oh no, paying taxes is a citizen's duty."
The guild "army," which claimed to be composed of veteran players, was in reality the security team of property management.
Accustomed to taking money without doing anything, they also adopted this rogue approach in the game.
On the first floor, they specifically bullied low-level players, collecting protection fees under various pretexts.
"Damn it, you scum of society!"
The female player was a teacher in reality and had a strong sense of responsibility.
Originally, she entered Aincrad to understand her students, but she didn't expect to be trapped inside.
"Teacher, save us!"
A group of elementary school players were blocked by the army members.
"Give them all your equipment and money!" The female teacher shouted loudly.
"No, teacher, we don't have enough money."
The elementary school students were crying anxiously.
"Because you've been delaying the property... tax payment, interest needs to be calculated."
The property management was clearly trying to extort them completely.
Just then, Tenya and his group passed by.
"Stop it, you bastards!"
Asuna and Mito were immediately filled with righteous indignation.
"If you want to fight, go ahead."
Although Tenya didn't like to meddle, he wouldn't stop the people around him from acting.
"Sonic Leap!"
Asuna charged forward with a dash, instantly breaking through the players' encirclement and successfully rescuing the trapped elementary school players.
"This speed... a high-level player?"
The army was immediately startled, clearly seeing that Asuna's level was not low.
"Don't move."
Mito held her scythe, intimidating everyone in the army by herself.
"Tch! Don't be too arrogant, we have the advantage in numbers!" The army pretended to be calm.
"So what?"
"Do you know that the settings in Aincrad are very cruel?"
"High-level suppression and the huge difference in equipment attributes are enough to overcome everything."
Mito launched an attack without hesitation.
Asuna cooperated tacitly, and the two of them attacked from front and back, throwing the army into disarray.
"Teacher, quickly evacuate the children."
Silica led the female teacher and the elementary school students to retreat.
A moment later...
Although the army members were lying around, seemingly in a sorry state, their HP hadn't actually dropped much.
"Huh?"
"Brothers, get up!"
"That's right, what are we afraid of?"
"This is a safe zone, players cannot PK!"
Seeing this, both Asuna and Mito frowned.
With their levels and strength, they could easily defeat the army, who only bullied the weak, in the wilderness.
Unfortunately, within the town, which was a safe zone, they couldn't attack players.
"Stupid bitches, is it great to have high levels?"
"If you're so capable, kill me!"
Like persistent thugs, the army surrounded them again.
"This..."
Asuna and Mito stood back to back, confronting the army, and were at a loss for a moment.
"Yui, you stand with Silica first."
"I'll go save your mom and auntie."
Tenya took out Zangetsu.
"Hey... Who are you calling auntie?" Mito's face darkened.
"Mito, don't worry about that at a time like this..." Asuna gave a wry smile.