As Fuscus shattered into fragments of light, the black crystal-like material covering the floor gradually faded, revealing dark blue stone blocks, just like those found in the labyrinth tower.
In the next moment, a grinding clunk-clunk sound echoed from the ceiling.
"What's going on? Is there another monster?"
Under everyone's tense gaze, a stone spiral staircase slowly descended from above, eventually touching down on the floor—it appeared to be the staircase leading to the sixth floor.
"Did we... succeed?"
Someone's voice, thick with disbelief, broke the silence in the room.
Then, the group erupted into thunderous cheers.
"We did it!"
"That's amazing!"
Shivata even picked Liten up and spun her around in celebration.
Kirito watched the joyful crowd with a relieved smile.
He was just about to walk over when his legs suddenly gave out, causing him to stumble.
He quickly planted his sword into the ground to steady himself.
Just as he was about to fall, a hand grabbed his arm.
"Didn't expect you to be good at commanding too, huh?" Akimi said with a grin.
"Maybe you should change careers and become a full-time commander?"
Kirito gave a wry smile, then stood up straight and replied,
"No thanks. As much as I respect strategy and planning, I still prefer the thrill of battle."
With that, he looked again toward Shivata and the others—but this time, a trace of worry appeared in his eyes.
Noticing the concern on Kirito's face, Akimi rubbed his chin and asked,
"Worried about the loot drop, huh?"
Kirito nodded.
According to the rules of SAO, a boss's loot is randomly awarded to the player who contributed the most during the battle, and the item appears directly in their inventory—without anyone else being notified.
So now, with no one speaking up, Kirito and the others had no way of knowing whether the boss didn't drop the guild flag at all, or if someone received it and just hadn't said anything.
There was a solution: everyone could set their inventory to be viewable by others and go through them one by one.
However, that option was unlikely to be accepted—after all, an inventory is extremely personal, and revealing its contents was out of the question for most players.
Kirito felt a pang of regret—he should've addressed this issue with everyone before the battle and come up with a solution they could all agree on.
"This is a mess…" Kirito muttered in frustration, then looked at Akimi.
"Did the guild flag drop to you? I didn't get it."
Akimi shook his head.
"Nope. I got an item that enhances accessories. Asuna and Argo probably didn't get it either—if they had, they would've said so."
Seeing Kirito's growing worry, Akimi offered some reassurance.
"Hey, we all risked our lives and worked together to defeat the boss. Try trusting them."
Kirito fell silent for a moment, then nodded firmly and walked toward Shivata and the others.
As Kirito approached, Shivata finally let go of Liten.
He patted Kirito's somewhat thin shoulder with a grin and said,
"Haha! You really pulled it off! You've even mastered a four-hit combo sword skill!"
Kirito smiled and replied, "Thanks for the compliment."
Then, looking at the crowd that had gathered, he took a deep breath and said:
"First of all, I want to thank everyone for your hard work. It's because of your effort and teamwork that we were able to defeat the strongest boss we've faced so far."
"Honestly, we were pretty lucky," Hafner suddenly said.
"It's only because our group was small that we managed to clear the boss without any casualties. If we'd brought a full raid squad, there's no way everyone could've dodged those lines perfectly."
Okotan, holding his axe-lance, added,
"I doubt even the main force teams of ALS could've beaten that boss without losses. To be honest, our main squads don't have top-tier tanks. Liten is by far the best tank in ALS—she's like a bear… no, she is a bear."
Liten, who was holding onto Shivata's arm, patted her battered plate armor and protested:
"Hey! Okotan-san, comparing me to a bear is a bit much, don't you think?"
That remark made everyone burst into laughter.
After glancing at the time, Kirito's smile faded.
He addressed the group with a serious expression:
"Alright, everyone. It's already 8:30. The ALS group should be catching up soon. If we go back the way we came, we might run into them head-on. So let's head straight to the sixth floor and use the teleport gate in the main town there to return to Karluin. Sound good?"
"Sure, no problem!"
"Let's go! I want to see what the sixth floor looks like anyway."
Seeing everyone's excitement, Kirito managed another faint smile.
However, his voice remained serious as he said:
"Before we leave, though… I think there's one more issue we need to resolve."
Agil rubbed his bald head with a grin and asked,
"Hm? What issue?"
Kirito replied calmly,
"The matter of the guild flag drop."
Although his tone was calm, the way his lips tensed afterward betrayed the unease he was feeling.
Honestly, Kirito was afraid that someone among these reliable comrades might be withholding the truth.
Shivata was startled.
"Huh? I totally forgot about that until you brought it up."
The tall, dark-skinned bald man blinked in surprise, then asked,
"The guild flag didn't drop to you, Kirito?"
Kirito shook his head, indicating he didn't have it.
The others quickly followed, saying it wasn't in their inventory either.
After a moment of silence, Hafner said with a puzzled look:
"So... does that mean there was no guild flag drop on the fifth floor at all?"
"What a troublesome rumor..." Agil said with a frown.
"All that effort—what was it even for..."
But before he could finish, a realization seemed to hit him.
His expression shifted, and he looked around at everyone in disbelief.
Hafner and the others seemed to arrive at the same conclusion—someone might know the truth but is keeping quiet.
The group, who just moments ago appeared so close-knit, now began casting suspicious glances at one another.
Seeing everyone getting pulled into a whirlpool of doubt, Kirito spoke up with an apologetic tone:
"I'm really sorry. This was my mistake. I should have discussed the loot distribution beforehand. Now it's led everyone to start suspecting one another."
He looked genuinely remorseful as he continued slowly,
"At this point, it's impossible to verify the drop anymore… So I ask all of you: whoever got the flag, please, for the sake of our original goal—to prevent a conflict between the two major guilds—and for the sake of all the others still waiting in the lower levels, hoping we'll clear this game… don't make the worst possible choice."
As he spoke, Kirito kept subtly glancing in a certain direction.
After he finished, the room fell into silence—so long that people began to wonder if something was wrong with their hearing.
Then, finally, someone stepped forward to break the heavy stillness.
It was Okotan, the captain of the ALS recruitment team.
"I sincerely apologize," said Okotan, the oldest among the thirteen.
"The guild flag is with me."
Under everyone's fixed gazes, he pulled out a spear-like item from his inventory—it was the guild flag.
The silver-white shaft was engraved with delicate patterns, and the white triangular flag shimmered with a soft glow.
It was clearly a high-grade item.
"You knew from the start, didn't you, Kirito?" Okotan said.
"You kept staring at me earlier. Mind telling me how you figured it out?"
"Uh… well…" Kirito gave a wry smile.
"At first, it was just a hunch. Okotan-san, you're a hardcore FPS gamer, right?"
Okotan blinked, then nodded.
"In most FPS games, there's a mode called CTF—Capture the Flag," Kirito explained with a smile.
"In that mode, the player guarding the flag is often called the 'Flag Carrier' or 'Flag Bearer.' That's usually shortened to 'Bearer.' So when you said Liten was like a 'bear' earlier, you weren't comparing her to the animal, were you? You were subconsciously reminded of the word 'Bearer' because you'd just picked up the flag."
"…That's some impressive deduction," Okotan replied with a wry smile.
"But I never meant to keep the flag for myself. My plan was to use it as leverage to merge the two major guilds. But after thinking it over, I realized that was impossible… I'm sorry for doing something so foolish."
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