"You want to lock down the whole raid?"
Satoru lay sprawled across the pleasantly warm floor, idly flipping through television channels. His phone was wedged between his shoulder and ear.
"Right. We're going after the Floor Boss on Aincrad's Twenty-Sixth Floor. I don't need to explain that part to you, do I?"
Souji Yae's voice was as familiar as ever. After countless online meetups, Satoru had heard more than enough of the man who had chosen Shadow Song as the counterpart to his own Sword Saint.
"Floor Twenty-Six..."
Satoru dug through memories that had gone untouched for years.
"High damage, low defense. A fully armored Magic Warrior, if I remember right."
"Information from one of the official beta testers is valuable, of course. But the Aincrad loaded into ALO has changed in a few ways."
"Obviously."
Eight months earlier, in May 2025, ALfheim Online had received the largest update in its history.
Aincrad had returned.
ALO had always run on a copy of the system behind the death game Sword Art Online, so the servers still contained a complete set of Aincrad's data. When Ymir bought the game's software and hardware from RECT Progress Inc., the new operator chose not to erase either Aincrad or the old SAO character data. Instead, it announced that both would be integrated into ALO.
Part of that decision was simple business. After the RECT scandal and its illegal human experiments came to light, a collapse in the player base was all but inevitable. A spectacular update was the surest way to stop the bleeding.
But that was not the whole story.
Ymir's founders were veteran MMO players from the old flat-screen era. Faced with a floating castle designed down to its smallest details, they simply could not bring themselves to delete it.
The biggest change was the return of Aincrad's Sword Skill system. Magic had always defined ALO, and the addition disrupted the old balance at first, but one taste of Sword Skills was enough to win most players over. The two styles now complemented each other surprisingly well. With the flight limit removed, battles could rage from the ground all the way into the sky.
Rumor had it that the testers also discovered ten skills buried in the data, each with absurdly specific requirements.
Naturally, all ten were removed.
Satoru knew exactly what those skills had been. He could not help feeling a little disappointed. Even after taking Aincrad's system apart and learning nearly everything it had to offer, he had never seen all ten Unique Skills in action.
"So what does any of that have to do with locking down the raid?"
"The studio wants the first clear on Floor Twenty-Six all to itself."
Souji's meaning was clear. Aincrad's Floor Bosses were nothing like ordinary dungeon bosses. Once defeated, they never respawned. With their difficulty and their one-time rewards, they were effectively unique world bosses.
Even during the death game, the major guilds had fought bitterly over the right to challenge them.
"Our studio should be strong enough to claim one Floor Boss."
Our studio.
Satoru had quietly walked away from the job long ago, yet the words still came out on their own.
"Defeating the boss isn't the hard part," Souji said. "The hard part is getting past everyone else who wants it. We've already had four or five guild wars in the field, and nobody's settled anything."
He sounded tired.
"New ALO dominates the Japanese VRMMO market now. The 'ruins of SAO' are one hell of a draw. Everything else is either small-time or has an entry barrier like GGO. ALO is the easy choice."
"The console market has been taking hits for years, so every major studio in the business is shifting toward VRMMOs. Every race has groups backing it now. Power-leveling studios are running their operations like actual armies. Half the time I feel like I'm commanding troops in the Warring States period."
Souji continued before Satoru could interrupt.
"The World Tree quest is gone, so everyone's focused on Aincrad. It's the ruins of a death game no one ever saw past Floor Seventy-Five, with a hundred bosses and only one chance at every first clear. And there's serious money in it. More than we ever made from the console market."
"So now it's dungeons, Floor Bosses, and an arms race."
"..."
Satoru understood. He had seen enough MMO competition to know how these things worked. It still felt strange watching people turn the prison he had once crossed so carefully into a fight over market share.
"None of the major groups can reach a deal," Souji said. "They fight, respawn, and fight again. Death penalties mean nothing to studios with this many resources. Since nobody can win outright, they've all started camping the floor gate and refusing to let anyone through."
"And ordinary players haven't complained about you people throwing your weight around?"
Satoru sighed.
At this rate, anyone without a faction behind them would never even see the gate.
"Come on, man. What MMO doesn't work like that?"
Fair point.
The frontliners had existed for much the same reason. And Satoru had been an even more selfish solo player than any of them.
"All right. What's the plan?"
He set down the remote, drew a cigarette from the pack, and lit it.
"Our people are camped at the gate too, staring down the other side. Nobody can make a move."
Souji paused.
"Ichiro's held himself back for three days, which is probably a personal record. He's planning to take a group over there this afternoon and start another brawl."
"Spoken like a former biker who actually did time."
"We'll send our best players into the fight and keep the others tied down, even if it costs us lives. While that's happening, an elite team slips through and kills the Floor Boss. The boss's younger brother, Eugene, will lead the main force outside. The strike team will be the usual group."
"That's still going to be rough."
"That's why I'm calling you. With you there, it's as good as done."
Satoru thought for a moment.
"All right. I'll convert my account this afternoon."
"Huh?"
Souji went silent. Apparently, he had not expected it to be that easy.
"You're in?"
"Of course."
Souji had invited him plenty of times before, only for Satoru to remain buried in GGO.
Back then, his Fluctlight had still been unstable. He had been afraid that one familiar view of Aincrad might send him spiraling again, and literally exhausting himself to death would have been a ridiculous way to go. His state of mind had been different then, too.
Now he was better.
The danger had passed.
He could finally enjoy a game for what it was.
Souji was not the type to pry. His voice immediately turned businesslike as he asked what support Satoru needed.
"Get the best gear you can find. Cap Agility and Durability first. With a full raid, you can keep the Magic Warrior pinned under focused fire, but a small team can't rely on that. Build a high-Agility tank instead. Its attacks hit hard enough that dodging is better than soaking the damage."
Satoru took a drag from his cigarette.
"Load everyone with consumables right up to the weight limit. Crystals if you can get them. Once the doors seal, they won't open again until the fight inside is over."
"New Aincrad uses ALO's elemental system too," Souji said, without the slightest concern for the cost. "A Magic Warrior might deal Dark damage. Should we stack some Dark resistance?"
"Then put a top-tier Light enchantment on the weapons while you're at it."
"Got it. We'll meet in front of the cathedral and pick up Prayer, Wind Speed, and Healing buffs. Once the fight outside starts, we'll open a Corridor Crystal and rush the gate."
The preparations would probably cost more than the Floor Boss could ever drop.
Neither of them cared.
The studio was paying.
With the plan settled, they ended the call.
...
Two hours later, at 4:23 p.m.
New ALO. Aincrad, First Floor. Town of Beginnings, Cathedral of Divine Grace.
So this was what coming back felt like.
Satoru took in a landscape that matched his memories almost perfectly. It was as if the castle had never fallen, and the man who had once brought it down was the one who no longer belonged.
There certainly had not been red-haired players with pointed ears wandering these streets before.
Elf NPCs, though...
Hadn't there been one on the Second Floor?
The face of a dark elf knight surfaced in his memory, framed by the violet light of a lake. That brought feelings he did not care to untangle.
Aincrad had been part of New ALO for more than half a year, but this was Satoru's first time setting foot inside it again. He was calmer than he had expected.
ALO players outnumbered former SAO players seven to three now.
This was a world without them.
Without her.
It really was just a game.
He looked up at the clear blue sky, where the vast underside of the Second Floor hung like a black shadow.
Satoru had seen everything from here to Floor Seventy-Five. He had explored every last corner with the caution of a man walking through a prison built to kill him. But Floor Seventy-Five was where his knowledge ended. He had broken the cage early and freed everyone.
Now he understood Kirito, Agil, and the others a little better.
None of them knew what waited above.
A game they had beaten without ever finishing.
The Divine Ruler on Floor Ninety-Nine had been a boss Satoru nearly replaced. So who would be waiting for the challengers on Floor One Hundred now?
The master of the Ruby Palace was already dead.
Satoru released a long breath and forced down the sudden urge to clear the castle for real. Then he turned toward his old companions.
Aincrad aside, this group had crossed one game after another together.
The studio's owner, Sakuya Miara, stood before them in the avatar of Mortimer, current Lord of the Salamanders. His extravagant robe literally shed starlight, and his handsome, almost sculpted features carried all the grave emotion of an elven prince greeting heroes at the end of an age.
"At last... at long last! My kin, my brothers-in-arms, my armor and my blades stand before me once more!"
He thrust one hand toward Souji, his voice rising and falling like an epic recitation.
"Shadow Song! Hunter of demons, heir to a storied name, my faithful retainer! He who sees what lies ahead, the breaker of foes!"
Souji's expression tightened.
"And you!"
Sakuya pointed again, his deep voice swelling into a hymn.
"The bond restored to me! Yurnero, the Sword Saint! He who raised a barrow from ten thousand corpses, my peerless master of formations! He who cleaves light from shadow, the breaker of ranks!"
Satoru looked away.
It had been far too long since one of Sakuya's pre-battle speeches. He was already fighting the urge to hit him.
Then Sakuya slowly turned toward Ichiro Narita, better known as Grannis Darkhammer.
"Don't you fucking dare," Ichiro warned.
The noble and melancholy Lord of the Salamanders ignored him. Emotion gathered behind his arched brow. His throat trembled.
"Aaah...!"
That was as far as he got.
Grannis Darkhammer, whose name was apparently meant to evoke a paladin of justice, integrity, and order, swung his thick, brick-shaped dagger and knocked the majestic lord flat.
"Oh, for fuck's sake! Again? You're still doing this?!"
Ichiro leaped on him and started swinging.
"Ow! Aaaagh!"
"You've got some nerve! Back when I was still running with a gang, I'd have tied a creep like you behind my motorcycle and dragged you through town!"
His beloved brick cracked against the elf lord's perfectly round skull again and again.
"Stop hitting him," Souji said, pulling Ichiro off. "Kill him and we'll have to wait for the respawn."
Flat on the ground, Sakuya clutched the back of his head as blood effects sprayed between his fingers.
"Grannis Darkhammer, heir to the paladin's legacy... why dost thou strike me with such cruelty?"
Ichiro nearly tore free of Souji's grip.
"Darkhammer, my ass! You're a disgusting chuuni freak. That pretty-boy face is bad enough, but then you purr my nickname in that voice? I am so fucking done with you! Get it straight: I'm not Grannis Darkhammer. I'm Grannis Brutal Hammer, and I'm about to hammer you into the ground!"
Satoru buried his face in one hand.
Back when a screen still separated them, it had never gotten this bad. Sakuya would recite his idiotic eulogies over voice chat, and Ichiro would scream into his mic.
VRMMOs had finally given him the chance to commit murder.
"They've started fighting!" someone shouted. "Corridor, now!"
Souji dragged Ichiro into the swirling passage. Satoru hauled the battered Lord of the Salamanders up and followed.
The least reassuring four-man strike team in ALO charged into the floor gate, past the flickering remnants left by several factions hacking one another to pieces outside.
...
An hour and a half later.
The Magic Warrior gave one last howl and shattered into light.
Satoru and the other two sheathed their weapons in perfect unison, then stepped aside and folded their arms. With the utmost professionalism and discipline, they left their captain, Sakuya, to handle the loot.
All four of them still had more than half their HP.
Floor Twenty-Six had been cleared.