After entering the second floor, Aomori's legion continued without rest, successively breaking through the Labyrinth Area bosses on the second, third, and fourth floors, and reaching the fifth floor. Over eighty percent of the Monsters and all the bosses were handled by Aomori alone, earning him immense admiration.
Of course, there were plenty of sour grapes who complained, "If I had a max-level account, I could do it too."
These petty agitators could not sway the general perception of the majority of players. Aomori's prestige was soaring.
Fifth Floor, Leveling Area.
"Ah, five floors in three days, that's satisfying! I wish we could rush straight to the 100th floor right now." Klein twirled his katana, slicing open the belly of a Uniclaws Wolf. "Why hasn't Boss Aomori gathered us to conquer this floor's Labyrinth Area yet?"
"He's probably easing up. Eight people died yesterday when we cleared the fourth floor," Kirito, who had managed to find a black leather coat from somewhere, assisted Klein by finishing off the near-death Uniclaws Wolf.
Today was the fourth day of SAO's official launch. Kirito and Klein woke up early. Since they hadn't received a notice to assemble, they had gone to a leveling area on their own.
"Those few people were just an accident. Who knew an Elite Monster would suddenly spawn? Compared to other teams, our Aomori Legion's casualty rate is already low enough," Klein argued.
Indeed, other teams or players leveling independently had already suffered 158 deaths. Compared to them, the 8 deaths in Aomori's legion seemed extremely few. This led to a sharp increase in the number of players who defected to them, nearing 5,000—almost half of the total player base.
Kirito sighed and said, "Klein, haven't you noticed the Monsters are much harder to fight now? We on the frontline are only level 5 or 6, and the regular players are only level 2 or 3. If we conquer too fast, and the players' levels can't keep up, there will be problems."
"Huh? That sounds right. So what should we do?" Klein scratched his head, thinking for a long time before giving up. "I don't care! Boss Aomori is so amazing, he'll definitely figure out a solution. We just need to follow orders."
"Heh heh," Kirito rolled his eyes at Klein. "I hope so."
"Hmm~" Klein suddenly stared at Kirito, inspecting him from head to toe, letting out sounds of appreciation.
"What is it?" Kirito felt a little unnerved by the scrutiny.
"Kirito~" Klein threw an arm around Kirito's neck and said in a sickly sweet tone, "Are you trying to cosplay Boss Aomori? Boss Aomori has black hair, black eyes, and black clothes. And so do you! It's just that your face is too boyish, not as mature and handsome as Boss Aomori's."
"I... I am not!" Kirito's face flushed red. He wriggled free of Klein's headlock and stammered, "This is just my preference! Besides, Leader Aomori doesn't have black eyes; his eyes have a slight purple tint!"
"Really?" Klein tried hard to recall but couldn't be sure.
"Hey, you two! Focus on leveling! Don't let a wolf bite you when you're not looking!"
"As if! Kirito will protect me, right?"
"No, I won't!"
"Hahahaha." Klein's friends burst into laughter, teasing Klein mercilessly.
Amidst the joking, Kirito noticed a cloaked player not far from them who was fighting Monsters alone. They were petite, wielding a rapier, and their movements were swift. The timing of their Sword Skills was also excellent.
"A skilled player," Kirito assessed.
…
After leveling for over an hour, Kirito and the others received the assembly notice and left the leveling area.
Before leaving, Kirito glanced toward the cloaked rapier user, but they were nowhere to be seen.
Returning to the Central Plaza of the town, Kirito and the others noticed that the number of attendees was much smaller than expected. Kirito roughly counted less than 100 people.
"What's going on? Aren't we supposed to be conquering the Labyrinth Area? Or is there another event?"
"Did we come too early?"
"How could we? It's almost the scheduled time."
More people arrived sequentially, but the total number remained under 200.
When the assembly time arrived, Aomori appeared in the center of the plaza, standing as usual atop the towering 13 Totem Pole with Absol and Pidgeot by his side.
Accompanying Aomori was a shy girl wearing glasses, said to be Aomori's secretary.
"Good morning, everyone. The main purpose of calling you here today is to announce an adjustment to the personnel structure for future Labyrinth Area conquests," Aomori's magnetic voice rang out. "Some of you may have noticed that there are fewer people here today. That is because I have decided to drastically reduce the number of players responsible for conquering the Labyrinth Area."
"Drastically reduce?"
"So, everyone here was selected?"
"Yay! I made it! That's great!"
"Exactly. Everyone present here today is an elite player personally selected by me, and you will be given the opportunity to conquer the Labyrinth Area. To better raise player levels, I will establish four corps. Each time we raid the Labyrinth Area, two corps will be deployed, and the remaining two will level up in the leveling areas," Aomori paused before continuing. "I will appoint four leaders to fully manage these four corps. They will decide their own combat personnel lists; I will not interfere."
"Wow, I want to be a corps leader."
"Keep dreaming."
"Klein, I think you can do it."
"Hahahaha, I think so too."
"They are..." Aomori announced, "Heathcliff."
A middle-aged man with a solemn face, holding a shield in one hand and a knight's sword in the other, stepped forward from the crowd.
"It's him! The 'Shield of the Invincible.'"
"I heard he saved hundreds of people yesterday."
"He looks very reliable."
"Thinker, Diavel, and Klein."
Thinker was the guild master of the Army in the original work, and Diavel was the handsome blue-haired player who died early during the first floor boss raid in the original work. Aomori had observed that both of them had good organizational skills and were supported by many, so he included them in the list of corps leaders.
"Thinker, yes, he's strong."
"I vaguely remember Diavel."
"Klein? Who's that?"
"Damn it, I'm Klein! Have some manners, people!" The irascible Klein nearly rushed out if he hadn't been held back.
"These four are the candidates for corps leaders. They will be removed if they make major mistakes, and they will be officially confirmed after one month. All elite players present can choose which corps they prefer to join after this meeting."
"In addition, I will also establish a Boss Raid Team directly led by myself." Before the players could calm their excited feelings, Aomori dropped another massive bomb.
"Wow, that's the real highlight! Fighting alongside Leader Aomori would be absolutely cool!"
"Pick me! Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!"
"Kirito, I think you'd be a great fit!" Klein gave him a thumbs-up.
"Can I really do it? Fighting side-by-side with a person like that," Kirito felt a little unsure of himself.
"I am the Captain. The remaining five members are..." Aomori looked out at the bustling crowd below and announced directly, "Nautilus, Agil, PoH, Asuna, and..."
"Kirito!"
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You can read the ahead chapter on Patr if you're interested: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]