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Chapter 24 - Chapter 25: Aincrad’s Last Light

With that banter, we finish lunch and dive back into the North Dungeon.

Navigating passages, warehouses, and more passages, we've silently noticed the dungeon's oddity.

Kayaba's successor is a skilled designer. Despite preaching slaughter, he keeps the game fair, never breaking its framework. The world's apocalyptic vibe is meticulously crafted, reflecting his pride in not tarnishing Kayaba Akihiko's name.

In his own game, he seeks to crush the "power of human will." If he just wanted a massacre, he'd spam immortal level-300 monsters, wiping us out in an hour.

But he doesn't. He leaves room to win. Proof: the South Dungeon and its boss were cleared in a month. This death game aims to kill but doesn't guarantee death.

The North Dungeon, an early challenge, is a vast underground passage left by a fallen advanced civilization.

Yet its tangled corridors and warehouses lack a unified design flow. What's the concept? It feels like a labyrinth built as a labyrinth.

It's just a dungeon, so maybe the successor had no choice. But knowing him, even that compromise might hide a trap or a twisted message.

"Now it feels like an experimental lab. Maybe for testing robot performance," Shinon observes.

"If it's not clear, this area's swapped from the beta," I say.

"Correct," Shinon confirms.

"Then stay sharp. Those dormant robots might not be objects—they could be traps," Diavel warns.

He's right. Three-meter wrecked robots litter the area. If some—or all—are traps, we're doomed.

Since Presence Concealment is useless against robots, we advance cautiously, wary of every trap.

But our hopes are dashed. The lab's dim lights flare, focusing on one point: a five-meter, four-armed robot, less damaged than the rest, like the lab's champion.

"Looks like a mid-boss. Shinon, thoughts?" I ask.

"Agreed. But it's perfect—no one's stealing our EXP and Col. Diavel?"

"Dumb question. We can't progress without beating it. No future otherwise. Let's take it down!" Diavel declares.

Their cool and hot-blooded mix is a lifesaver. Time to grind proficiency with my other new skill.

The robot activates, five of its seven camera eyes glowing, extending six legs to stand and fight.

That's when it happens.

In the air behind it, a glitch-like noise erupts, as if data's being overwritten.

A warrior in a sleek, knight-like powered suit, riding a silver bike, emerges from the noise.

The warrior fires two cannons mounted on the bike's front, red optical beams piercing the robot, obliterating one of its three HP bars.

Landing, the warrior lifts the bike's rear wheel, slamming it into the robot's counterattack, then unloads with dual guns: a shotgun in the right hand, a high-speed beam machine gun in the left.

In a one-sided onslaught, the warrior obliterates the robot and turns to us, its camera eyes glowing an eerie red.

"Let's settle this. Show me again. Prove with everything you've got if you're [Possibility] or not!"

The glitched voice demands combat. A fight with us.

Something's off. My instincts scream. This isn't the madman's planned event—likely a surprise even to him.

As if on cue, a piercing alarm blares—not from the virtual world, but the system itself. System windows pop up around us, displaying one word:

ERROR

"Shut up! Don't interfere with this fight! Begone!"

A black mist seeps from the warrior's suit, erupting into a storm that shatters the system windows and silences the alarm.

My war pick trembles in my hand. Diavel's shaking beside me. Shinon's hyperventilating, face pale, as if suffocating in this virtual world.

This being's presence dwarfs any monster we've faced. It reminds us of another overwhelming entity we've encountered.

"Sorry for the interruption before our big fight. My apologies. Now, let's fight. Come at me with all you've got!"

As an apology, our HP fully restores.

The warrior revs the bike's engine, revealing its name:

Dark Rider

The once-dark horseman, now far deadlier on a steel steed, charges at us again.

Next Time

A rematch with the Dark Rider awaits. This named entity holds a pivotal role in the story, tied to its core. It returns stronger each time, like Biohazard's Nemesis, stalking players relentlessly. Pity those hunted—they'll suffer like Leon or Jill.

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