Half an hour later, Argo and Kirito arrived at the café.
"Mhm~" Argo said as soon as she stepped in,
"Dragging Kiri-bou out here in such a rush—what could be more important than the boss mission?"
There was a bit of fatigue on her face.
She asked the cafe's NPC for a menu and ordered the shop's signature dessert: a thick-cut Swiss roll—the triple-sized version.
(For reference, the regular version of this roll had a 20 cm diameter.)
"Yeah, there actually is. We found out the reason ALS is doing this."
"Eh?" Argo was surprised.
"Even my intel network hasn't picked up anything yet. You guys are fast. So? What's the reason?"
Kirito responded with a question:
"Argo, do you remember a certain special drop from the fifth-floor boss during the beta test?"
"Special drop?"
Argo froze for a moment, then started thinking back.
After quite a while, she waved her hand with a frustrated look and pouted:
"Ugh, nope. No memory of that. I didn't take part in the fifth-floor raid during the beta. Enough teasing—just tell me already."
Seeing Argo's pride as an information broker get a little bruised, everyone found it kind of funny.
"Ahem."
Kirito cleared his throat, hiding the smile on his face.
Then he picked up a fork and said:
"It's the Guild Flag."
As he spoke, he stood the fork upright on the table, tapping the surface lightly with the bottom of the fork.
"It looks like a spear, but it has very low attack power," Kirito explained.
"But if you plant it upright into the ground like this, then within a 15-meter radius of the Guild Flag, all guild members receive a full attribute boost—including resistance to interruption."
"W-What?!"
Argo showed the exact same shocked expression as Shivata had earlier.
She suddenly stood up and leaned toward Kirito, urgently asking:
"Can the flag be moved? Is there a time limit on the buff? Is there a cap on how many people it affects?"
She fired off a rapid series of questions, unable to contain the shock written all over her face.
Kirito was startled by her sudden intensity, leaning back slightly as he said calmly:
"I get that you're anxious, but hold on. Let me answer your questions one at a time."
Hearing this, Argo finally sat back down.
"First: yes, the flag can be moved. You just need to pull it out of the ground and replant it in the new location. The buff disappears when the flag is removed but will activate again once it's placed back in the ground."
"Second: the buff has no cooldown. As long as the flag is planted, the buff is continuously active."
"Third: there's no limit to the number of people it affects—as long as they're guild members, they'll all benefit."
After hearing Kirito's explanation, Argo pressed her lips together tightly.
In silence, she raised her fork, sliced off a quarter of the massive Swiss roll, and stuffed the whole thing into her mouth.
After swallowing, she wiped the corner of her mouth and said with a complicated expression,
"That's... really a dangerous item."
Indeed.
Beyond the system-level stat boosts, the Guild Flag also had a psychological effect—it significantly boosted morale.
It was like someone shouting, "You're all buffed up! Go, go, go!"—and it worked.
As for the morale of the other teams? It would definitely drop.
After all, if it takes someone one strike to deal damage, but you need two...
If they take a few hits from a monster and only lose half their HP, but you take the same hits and die instantly, how are you supposed to compete?
Fight over loot with your bare face?
"So... what do we do now?"
Argo's voice, for once, carried a trace of hesitation.
"Because once a Guild Flag has a guild name registered to it, it can't be changed," Akimi said, spreading his hands with a helpless expression.
"So sharing it between guilds just isn't possible."
"In other words…" Argo understood what he meant.
"This can't be told to Lind and the others. Of course, it's also possible they already know by now."
The four of them fell into silence.
The situation was becoming rather tricky, and none of them could think of a good solution right away.
"Let's defeat the boss."
Kirito said suddenly.
It was the same line Diabel had spoken to him just before he died—his very last words.
Argo, looking spaced out, blankly stabbed the remaining half of the Swiss roll on her plate and shoved the whole thing into her mouth.
Her cheeks puffed up like a hamster as she chewed for a while, then said:
"You mean... the few of us should take down the boss?"
"Of course not," Kirito shook his head.
"Hmm—we can count Agil and the other three, and maybe add Nezha..."
"..."
Argo waited for a follow-up.
But Kirito didn't say anything else, leaving her a bit dumbfounded.
"That's it?" she asked in disbelief.
"Ahem…"
Kirito cleared his throat awkwardly, rubbed his nose, then looked at Argo and asked:
"So… Argo, do you have anyone else in mind?"
Argo jumped to her feet, looking flustered, and said,
"Hey hey hey, don't push too hard, Kiri-bou. All the players I've invested in so far are ones with potential, sure—but they haven't grown strong yet. There's no way I can let them join something this dangerous."
"Yeah... that's true," Kirito said, rubbing his temples in frustration.
Akimi sighed and said,
"We don't even have two full parties yet… By the way, Argo, how's the boss intel coming along?"
"Hehe…"
The moment intel was mentioned, Argo perked up.
She struck a confident pose, thumb pointing proudly at herself, and said:
"Please, I'm amazing at gathering intel, okay?"
"Ahem. I'll give you the important bits… Anyway, you guys already know how Aincrad was formed, right?"
Akimi and the others nodded.
"The fifth floor, back when it was still on the surface, was a major industrial city in the human kingdom, full of mineral resources and magic stones."
"The minerals were used to make weapons and sold to war zones. As for the magic stones—they were kept to create true weapons of war: golems."
"Right when the kingdom's king finished building a golem and was about to invade the Dwarven Kingdom, he got caught in the 'Great Earth Severing' and was sent into the sky along with the golem. Of course, we already defeated the king—he was that zombie under Karluin."
After explaining, Argo picked up her freshly served coffee, took a sip, and smiled cheekily at the group,
"Normally, I'd charge 5,000 Col for this kind of intel."
Everyone rolled their eyes at her.
"Hmm… So that means the floor boss should still be a golem, just like in the beta test," Kirito said.
"Based on what we've gathered, that seems likely," Akimi replied.
"As for the remaining members… let's try asking Shivata and Liten. Maybe they can pull two people from their guild."
Asuna voiced her concern,
"Do you really think that'll work?"
"Let's give it a shot first," Akimi replied.
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