For players, reaching the Fifty-Fifth Floor boss room within two hours should have left plenty of time.
But that assumed the road was safe, with no monsters blocking the way and no traps waiting for them.
The players did not possess Mr. Kain's near-immortal ability. They had no choice but to advance cautiously and explore bit by bit.
At that pace, two hours was nowhere near enough.
Even two days might not be enough.
That meant they could only wait for the teleport gate to automatically activate after two hours.
And those two hours left Asuna feeling somewhat restless.
She wanted to contact him through the Hyperdimensional Channel, but she was worried that doing so might distract Mr. Kain.
For all she knew, he might currently be caught in some kind of trouble. If her message distracted him at the wrong moment, it could cause an accident.
"One minute left, Asuna."
Her friend Liz's words made Asuna refocus on the teleport gate.
Almost two hours had passed since the teleport option for the upper floor appeared.
Once the one-minute countdown ended, would the transfer to the floor above really activate automatically?
If it did not, then players would have no choice but to climb the stairs and activate it themselves.
"Come to think of it, Commander Heathcliff isn't here right now. What kind of important matter could he be handling?"
Lisbeth could not help muttering to herself.
Heathcliff was the strongest player in SAO and the founder of its strongest guild. For him to be absent during such an abnormal, major event felt wrong.
She had asked Asuna about it, but Asuna had said she did not know. Even so, Lisbeth felt that Asuna was hiding something. It seemed as though Asuna knew the specific reason why the commander was not present.
"Asuna, what are you hiding?"
That was the murmur of another person standing atop a stone pillar near the plaza.
As an information broker, Argo was certain Asuna knew what was going on with Heathcliff, commander of the Knights of the Blood.
His disappearance was very likely connected to the special quest Asuna had triggered.
During Argo's earlier questioning, she had also vaguely sensed that Asuna's emotional reaction toward Commander Heathcliff was somewhat complicated.
In the past, Asuna had respected the commander deeply.
Now, however, she seemed to feel hostility toward him.
Setting aside her confusion, Argo also fixed her gaze on the teleport gate.
Ten seconds remained.
She began silently counting down in her heart.
The instant the count reached zero—
"It activated."
Argo murmured.
Abnormal waves of light rippled across the teleport gate. This was not caused by Asuna teleporting. It was the phenomenon that occurred when the teleport gate on the next floor was activated.
"Wait, Asu—!"
Before Asuna could hear the rest, her vision had already shifted.
She arrived in a brand-new plaza.
This was the teleport gate plaza on the Fifty-Sixth Floor.
Thinking of something, she immediately touched the teleport gate again.
There was no teleport option for the Fifty-Seventh Floor.
That meant Mr. Kain should still be on this floor.
The next second, someone bumped lightly into her from behind.
It was Liz, who had followed immediately after her.
She had been the one who failed to finish speaking just now.
"Liz, what were you trying to say?"
"I was trying to say you were being too reckless. What if there was a problem on this side after you teleported over?"
"Then why did you follow me?"
"Because of course I was worried."
"Thank you. Let's move aside a bit. More people are coming through."
While feeling grateful, Asuna pulled Liz and Silica, who had also just teleported over, to the side.
As more people arrived, they began exploring the city and gathering information about it.
An hour later, the clearing group confirmed the location of the stairs leading down to the Fifty-Fifth Floor.
Starting from here and heading toward the stairs down to the Fifty-Fifth Floor was naturally much more convenient than starting from the Fifty-Fifth Floor and climbing up.
In general, stairs leading to the floor below were not far from the city, and the monsters along the way were not too dangerous.
Ten minutes later, the departing group arrived before a large door.
"The door is closed?"
"Did it open and then close again?"
"There isn't some problem, is there?"
The moment that person said those words, Asuna shot him a glare. In truth, however, she also felt uneasy.
She did not think Mr. Kain was the sort of person who would open a door only to close it again afterward. That felt like a pointless thing to do.
Then there was only one possibility.
After being opened, this door closed automatically, like an automatic door.
The problem was that from the First Floor to the current floor, every door leading to an upper floor had remained open once opened unless someone deliberately closed it again.
"Wait, Asuna!"
"Vice Commander!"
The members of the Knights of the Blood suddenly called out to Asuna, who had been about to step forward and open the door.
"Let us handle it."
"I... Liz, Argo, what are you doing?"
Lisbeth and Argo had suddenly moved behind Asuna and hooked their arms under hers, holding her back.
"Sorry, Asuna. We can't let you take risks so casually."
As Argo said that, one member of the Knights of the Blood had already stepped forward and touched the door. He grabbed the handle and pulled it back, and the door opened.
Even after it opened completely, nothing unexpected happened.
They could see the stairs leading down to the Fifty-Fifth Floor.
The Knight who had opened the door cautiously stepped inside, then began walking toward the stairs leading downward.
However, the moment he stepped through, his body suddenly stiffened almost imperceptibly.
Everyone watching immediately grew tense.
The Knight was turning around cautiously, as though there were some monster behind him.
Could there be something above the inside of the door?
At that moment, everyone outside entered combat readiness.
Once the Knight turned around, he looked back toward them.
His gaze was filled with shock, confusion, disbelief, and even a hint of fear.
His mouth moved, but no sound came out.
No.
Asuna was certain he was speaking, but his voice could not reach them.
Looking closely, he did not seem to have gone mute. If he had, he would have shown panic at suddenly losing his voice.
Rather, it looked as though only he could hear his own voice, while it could not travel to Asuna's side.
The next second, the Knight gritted his teeth and walked toward everyone.
He was trying to come back out and return to this floor.
"This—"
"What's going on?"
"Why did he disappear?"
Cries of shock, confusion, and panic rang out one after another.
The person who should have crossed through the doorway and stepped back out had vanished into thin air.
The confusion lasted less than ten seconds before the vanished figure reappeared.
"Vice Commander Asuna."
One of the members immediately came to Asuna and opened his friend list window.
On it were messages coming from the Knight on the other side of the door.
After Asuna finished reading them—
"So what you're saying is, from the inside, this door doesn't show the outside of the Fifty-Sixth Floor. It connects to another floor. If someone walks out from that side, they don't return to the Fifty-Sixth Floor. They end up somewhere else."
"Then if we go in now, we won't be able to return directly to the Fifty-Sixth Floor, right?"
"That isn't necessarily the case. We can go back to the city on the Fifty-Fifth Floor and then return through the teleport gate."
As for further information about that floor, they did not know much yet.
Beyond that floor's exit was a sheer cliff.
To cross to the other side, one had to use a chain bridge, but the bridge had been damaged and broken.
They could vaguely hear rumbling from the opposite side from time to time.
Even so, Asuna still wanted to go in and take a look.
But just then, a special message began flashing.
She opened it.
The sender was Yui.
The message told her not to enter that dangerous floor.
Every random monster inside could wipe out all the players.
That floor was the Ninety-Ninth Floor, a place where every monster was boss-class.
The lowest-ranking monsters there were already equivalent to guardian bosses from the Seventieth Floor onward.
This place was hell.
Do not enter under any circumstances.
(End of Chapter)
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