Deep inside the Floor 55 boss room, on the small landing at the end of the staircase that led to the next floor, everyone had witnessed the truth of Floor 99 through the image crystal.
It was practically a coliseum. Any monster in there could erase the HP bar of anyone present with a single basic attack.
Worse, some of those monsters even had attacks that were essentially magic—wide-area group damage. One strike could probably wipe out the entire clearing group.
And against monsters like that, one figure was fighting alone, cutting them down by himself.
Endless monsters.
The sight left everyone tense and deeply uneasy.
Because most of them did not know the truth, their fear was that if this NPC lost, then their chance to escape this world would be pushed even farther out of reach.
Only Asuna knew the truth. Even though Mr. Kain had told her he should be at this world's level cap—and that his HP was probably locked—the burden of nonstop, high-intensity combat without rest or sleep was still almost impossible to imagine.
Judging from the countdown in the sky, it looked like he still had to keep going for at least another six hours.
If only time could just speed up and skip to the end.
The thought had only just crossed her mind when the numbers in the image crystal truly began to accelerate at a breathtaking speed. In the blink of an eye, the countdown hit zero.
The ground, littered with the corpses of disaster-like incarnations, began to crack apart and vanish.
Even the monsters that had been attacking Mr. Kain disappeared like mirages.
Had he cleared it?
Before excitement could surge through them, a new anomaly appeared.
A colossal object came crashing down from the sky, slamming into the ground so hard the entire floor shook violently.
It felt as if Floor 99 itself was about to shatter.
For an instant, even Floor 55 seemed to feel the massive tremor coming from Floor 99.
Once the image stopped shaking and everyone could finally make out what had fallen, Asuna and the others all stared wide-eyed at the enormous structure.
"Asuna, th-that's the Ruby Palace, right?" Lisbeth asked uncertainly.
"It looks just like the image of the Floor 100 Ruby Palace they showed in the promotional materials," Silica murmured.
"It's the Ruby Palace."
"That means this is Floor 100!"
"So if the Floor 100 boss is defeated, does that mean we can finally leave this world?"
The moment those words left someone's mouth, everyone fell silent. Even their breathing seemed to stop.
Then came sharp, oxygen-starved breaths. One after another, their faces filled with excitement, tension, anxiety, and countless other emotions.
In that instant, everyone's emotions rose to a height they had never reached before.
They all stared fixedly at the image. Unfortunately, it was too far away for them to see clearly.
Then a sudden abnormality startled everyone.
Dozens of live-feed windows popped up in front of them all at once, each showing the scene from close range.
The NPC stepped into the Ruby Palace and walked toward its entrance.
The gate was so enormous it gave the illusion that a tiny person had wandered into the world of giants.
And the gate was not closed. It was already open.
The moment he stepped through, the image shifted toward the interior. The scene that appeared before them left everyone stunned.
"Wh-what happened in there?"
"That giant banshee-looking thing has to be the boss, right? It looks like it's about to die."
"Look, that thing has ten HP bars. They're almost completely gone. It's down to the last one, and there's barely anything left."
"What the hell happened?"
Everyone was lost. Some looked toward Asuna, but even Asuna herself had no idea.
The Ruby Palace had clearly gone through a battle beyond imagination. Scars of destruction covered every part of the chamber.
And that enormous banshee-like monster was now on its last breath.
Who had beaten it down?
Then, as the camera drew closer to the giant banshee-like monster, its name appeared.
[World Incarnation: Aincrad]
So it really was the final boss of this floor.
No—not merely the floor boss.
The final boss.
The world boss.
But why was the scene like this?
Suddenly, a figure dropped from high above, bringing down a streak of white light with her.
The attack struck the world boss as the final blow, nearly splitting its head open.
At last, the final HP bar hit zero, and the colossal body collapsed completely.
Everyone's gaze focused on the figure that had landed.
It was a young girl with pinkish-white hair, wielding a greatsword.
Her beauty was startling, almost too perfect to belong to a human being. Combined with her outfit, she looked like a Valkyrie from Norse mythology.
It seemed she was the one who had slain the world boss.
No, that was not merely how it seemed.
She had definitely been the one to kill it.
"Yui?"
Asuna could not help speaking when another figure appeared on the scene.
It was Yui, who should not have been able to appear there at all. Her small face was filled with unease as she looked at the Valkyrie-like girl.
"Strea, wh-what happened to you?"
Her voice came through as well.
Yui tried to move closer, only to cry out in distress as the other girl swung her greatsword at her.
The blade missed by a hair's breadth, stopped only because Mr. Kain blocked it with one of his swords.
At the scene itself—
"Strea, are you broken?" Yui asked, her voice filled with grief.
"MHCP Unit One, Yui. MHCP Unit Two, Strea, is not malfunctioning. I will now strip you of all privileges."
That was what Strea, who called herself MHCP Unit Two, said.
Yui did not panic. Strea was not trying to erase her. She was shutting down every one of Yui's privileges completely.
That meant Yui was now no different from an ordinary resident of this world.
Strea had originally shared the same duty as Yui. She was Unit Two, and in a sense, she could even be considered Yui's younger sister.
But Strea, who should have existed to comfort and support players, had also fallen into self-contradictory errors due to Cardinal's orders. Half a year ago, Yui had lost contact with her and had been unable to find her anywhere.
Now that they had met again, Strea had completely changed. She even possessed a combat module.
This was not right.
And she had become terrifyingly powerful, to the point that she had killed the Ruby Palace's world boss.
After stripping away Yui's privileges, Strea ignored her and turned her gaze toward the person who had saved her.
"Before the Creator arrives to fight you, I will serve as your opponent. The victory conditions are as follows—"
A virtual window appeared in front of Kain.
The contents made his brow twitch.
Since they knew he could not be killed, his opponent had also been placed under locked-HP status. That meant deciding the battle by annihilating one side was impossible.
So they had given him a rather twisted victory condition.
To Kain, it was merely in poor taste.
To the players still trapped in this world, however, it was overflowing with malice.
The victory condition was this: a number would be set. During the battle, whichever side landed that many attacks first—specifically, attacks that clearly dealt damage—would be declared the winner.
And that number was tied to the number of players.
It could also be said that the value was linked to the players' HP.
In a certain sense, the players' HP was his HP.
(End of Chapter)
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