Long Live Money in Anime Crossover

Clutching the money bag and the packed food, Argo hummed a tune as she left; robbing Momo was undoubtedly her favorite thing to do right now.

Although Momo's tasks for her were demanding, they were actually just simple intelligence gathering. Argo didn't need to do anything special; she just needed to accumulate information regularly and chat with her informants and friends.

As for what Mo Mo wanted to glean from these messages or what she was planning, that was not her concern.

With the first floor completed, Aincrad seemed to come alive in an instant. Ordinary players had the courage to step out of the starting street, elite players put in their best effort to level up and fight monsters, and the top players even rushed straight to the second floor of the maze.

Just three days later, the second level was breached without any casualties, which further fueled the players' enthusiasm. It was as if they had broken through not the second level, but the ninety-ninth level, and were only one step away from successfully escaping the death game.

However, naturally no one will stop this positive momentum. On the contrary, with the help of several major guilds, this momentum has become even stronger.

First, there's the Watcher Knights, a 500-strong combat player group, with Tilber leading a 100-strong frontline combat team. They defeated the second-floor boss without taking any damage.

The SAO Liberation Corps founded by Ya-o was not to be outdone. Ya-o, the black-clad swordsman, had transformed into a champion of justice. Apart from his hairstyle and face making him look nothing like a hero, Ya-o led his men to conquer the third floor.

After that, the two teams competed back and forth, drawing gasps of admiration and attracting more and more people who wanted to join the team.

However, the Watchers Knights are now confirmed to be an elite group and will no longer be recruiting. After all, there are only so many elite players, and any vacancies created by eliminating members will be immediately filled by newcomers.

Ya Wang's SAO Liberation Group initially expanded indefinitely, but stopped when it reached 1000 members. Lacking management experience, Ya Wang discovered that a larger team was not necessarily better. Managing 1000 people and maintaining harmony was a mess for him. Fortunately, he later handed it over to several players skilled in management, and things finally stabilized.

However, although these two guilds are the most powerful, it doesn't mean that they are the only guilds. Other guilds have also had their moments of prominence.

057 will give you a surprise.

First, there's another guild founded by Momo, Rose Garden. While some might not know the Knights of the Watchers or the SAO Liberation Army, every male player knows Rose Garden.

As an all-female guild that has gathered over 90% of the female players in Sword Art Online, this guild is practically the public enemy of all men!

That's right, the public enemy!

It provides a home for all female players, allowing them to find female partners and teammates, and to safely level up and collect materials in safe maps where monster levels are lower than player levels. By completing a certain number of tasks each day, they can receive daily necessities distributed by the guild.

If you're not satisfied with this, you can continue leveling up by fighting monsters, or team up to take on some simple daily tasks. If you're more persistent, you can learn a secondary profession, whether it's blacksmithing, cooking, or crafting. Whenever a female player has a secondary profession, male players will always be eager to hire her.

This left male players helpless. They lost their chance to level up and pick up girls, and were left only with a bunch of guys in the same area, chatting, joking, and killing monsters. Even those seemingly unpleasant, smelly, burly men started to look a little more pleasing to the eye...

Alas! A forbidden aura seems to be spreading...

Yes, ultimately it's all the Rose Garden's fault!

Rose Garden is considered the source of evil by male players, but it actually protects the vast majority of female players who don't have much gaming skill. After all, most female players enter the game with the intention of having fun, or are invited to the game by friends.

However, it wasn't just the all-female player group that made Rose Garden famous, but also its leader Asuna and her Rose Knights.

Although not many female players had the desire to fight, Asuna encouraged her to form a 20-person team and defeat the level 9 boss, and it was an all-female team that did so.

For players trapped in Aincrad, this was sensational news. After that, although Asuna did not lead her Rose Knights to solo the boss again, most of the negative rumors about the Rose Garden Guild disappeared.

After all, most of the secondary profession output in Aincrad comes from the Rose Garden. No one wants to offend the artisans who make the weapons, equipment and food for them. Moreover, the Rose Garden has its own capable teams, which has deterred many players and made them choose to keep quiet.

Momo felt this deeply as well. After all, the twenty female knights looked at Asuna with longing, but at Momo with the same hatred as if they had a blood feud, as if they were ready to rush up and make Momo leave at any moment.

The second guild—no, it's more accurate to call it a legion than a guild. Just like in the original story, Sinka created an army, but since the Fang King ran away and upgraded to the Black Swordsman, Sinka's army was essentially the same as Momo's Rose Garden, and it only operated at the bottom level, serving the last batch of players who couldn't find a foothold.

Furthermore, Sinka's future wife, Yuriel, the vice president of the army in the original work, was also brought to the Rose Garden by Momo with a single sentence, becoming Asuna's right-hand woman.

It was precisely because of Yuriel's talent in handling daily affairs that Asuna had the time to build her Rose Knights.

Now, Momo was starting to regret her suggestion. According to Argo’s 2000-column tip, more than the average female knight was speaking ill of Asuna behind her back, forming an anti-Playboy alliance.

I really don't know who this playboy they're talking about is. It's so shameless!

Momo was quite helpless about this. He had only been a hands-off manager for a few months, causing many people in the Watcher Knights to even forget that he existed. What was the big deal?

The third guild is a bit more interesting.

This is a player named Heathcliff who led a guild of like-minded players to grow little by little. At the beginning, there wasn't even a single decent player in the guild. However, under his leadership, the combat power of the entire guild's battle team continued to improve, and they eventually managed to kill the 15th floor boss, which can be considered as making a name for themselves.

As a result, players who couldn't join the Knights of the Watchers or the SAO Liberation Army started choosing his guild.

The name of this guild is the Knights of the Blood Oath.

In response, Momo really wanted to ask Kayaba Akihiko about the copyright issue of the guild name. Couldn't he stop using "Knight" all the time?

That's right, Kayaba Akihiko. This guild is the one that Kayaba Akihiko started in the original work, using the alias Heathcliff and pretending to be a player.

In short, the original Sword Art Online is a story about a boss who disguises himself as a hero, leads the hero to fight the boss, and is always ready to betray the boss and create a tragic drama.

Right now, Kayaba Akihiko is doing the same thing as in the original work, using the alias Heathcliff and the name Knights of the Blood Oath. Therefore, Momo suspects that this name and the guild's name might be a product of Kayaba Akihiko's unresolved childhood chuunibyou (middle school syndrome).

However, unlike in the original work, the Knights of the Blood Oath struggled to develop due to the overwhelming power of the Watchers and the SAO Liberation Army. For example, when Momo, Asuna, and Kirito mentioned this guild, they only knew that the guild had miraculously cleared the 15th floor, and they didn't even pay attention to Heathcliff.

Four months have passed in the game so far. Excluding the first month, there have only been three months of actual gameplay. However, a few days ago, the passage to the 22nd floor was opened.

This is because the strategy team deliberately slowed down the progress, since closed beta testers only knew information about the bosses of the first ten floors. The first ten floors were the fastest, almost two floors a week.

The progress slowed down after the tenth floor. During the attempt to reach the 20th floor, there was a near-fatal incident. Therefore, after discussion, the strategy team decided that from the 20th floor onwards, a one-shot clear would no longer be required. If a few players were in poor condition, the team would leave the boss room, discuss a plan, and start over.

After all, they've cleared 21 floors without a single player from the strategy team dying, which is practically a miracle.

However, the miracle also became a source of pressure for the strategy team, because ordinary players tend to take the strategy of not dying as the norm. Under this mentality, the strategy team cannot afford to make mistakes, otherwise it will be a huge blow to morale.

However, all of this had nothing to do with Momo for the time being. After Momo waited until the 22nd floor was accessible, he immediately took Asuna to the lakeside on the 22nd floor to check on the condition of the lakeside residence.

"Momo, where are we going?!"

Asuna felt perfectly at ease as Momo held her hand; the two had been sleeping together for over a hundred days and were already quite familiar with each other.

Several times, looking at Asuna's resentful eyes, even Mo Mo, a virgin for a hundred years, almost lost control... No, it seems that it was precisely because Mo Mo was a virgin for a hundred years that he almost lost control.

"Of course we're going to a great place. I told you, it'll be a surprise for you."

Asuna smiled helplessly. Others thought Momo was doing nothing, but only she knew that Momo was actually doing the most important work behind the scenes. The funds of both guilds were controlled by Momo. With 1000 people and countless funds flowing every day, if it weren't for Momo's management and control, things would probably be in chaos long ago.

Several members of the SAO Liberation Party claimed that their equipment and Cole were stolen, and they left the SAO Liberation Party. To outsiders, this might seem like the SAO Liberation Party was bullying them. However, Asuna, who also managed the guild, understood that it was likely just that Ya-o and his subordinates couldn't handle the thousands or even tens of thousands of accounts every day and simply messed things up.

After all, Ya Wang is currently maintaining his image as a righteous hero in black swordsmanship and would never destroy his own principles for such a small gain.

The two crossed the hill and the terrain gradually turned downhill. Suddenly, a shimmering expanse of water appeared before them, as if a sun had appeared before Asuna's eyes.

Asuna instinctively reached out to shield her eyes from the light, but then abruptly moved her hand away. A vast expanse of azure lake appeared before her, its blue waters resembling ice crystals, instantly calming Asuna's troubled mind.

"so beautiful!"

Asuna let go of Momo's hand, but immediately grabbed it again, pulling Momo forward. However, Momo stopped Asuna midway and said in Asuna's puzzled gaze, "Look over there."

It was only then that Asuna noticed that in another direction, a villa was located not far from the lake. From this location, you could definitely see the lake from the windows of the room; it was an absolute view room.

Momo pulled Asuna over, and it wasn't until Asuna saw a sign on the door of the room that read "For Sale" that she truly realized what was going on.

"Mo Mo... this, can players buy this?!"

Mo Mo smiled gently and said, "I told you, I'm going to give you a surprise, right?"

Asuna covered her mouth, her eyes already red-rimmed. A gentle emotion soothed her body and mind, making her involuntarily lean on Momo.

It's not sadness that brings tears, nor joy that brings immense happiness; perhaps this is what happiness is.

"Thank you, thank you Momo, I'm very touched by this surprise... but..."

Asuna seemed to have thought of something and said, "This house seems very expensive, right? Can we afford it?"

Momo shrugged and said, "The house costs 500,000 Cole, and I currently have about 300,000 in savings, which is not enough."

Asuna's face turned pale. "I only have 100,000," she said. "No, do I have to borrow some from Argo and the others? What if someone else buys it..."

"Alright, don't be nervous. This house is definitely ours. I'm just showing it to you today. Even I'm not enough for Cole, so who can afford it right now?"

"I saved up over 30 yuan by selling various skills. Do you think other players could afford it? I should be able to raise the money in a few more days. Once I have some reserve funds, the house will be ours."

Hearing Momo's words, Asuna breathed a sigh of relief, her tension vanished, and all that remained was gratitude.

"Mo Mo..."

Asuna leaned against Mo Mo's chest, looked up at him, her face flushed and her eyes misty.

Momo also put his arm around Asuna's waist, pressed his forehead against Asuna's, and looked at Asuna's exquisite face so close to his.

"Alright, are you ready for the surprise I have for you?"

"Ugh?"

058 Argo kindly provides the assist.

Asuna didn't react for a moment. She looked at the lakeside villa behind her, then at Momo who had a teasing look on his face, and her heart suddenly started pounding.

What exactly is the surprise?

Although Asuna didn't say it out loud, she still felt somewhat frustrated that Momo hadn't taken the final step.

It's not that she doesn't trust Mo Mo, it's just that as a girl, after giving her all, the other party didn't respond immediately but chose to put it aside.

Despite Momo's good reasoning and assurances to Asuna, Asuna inevitably experienced some loneliness when she was alone.

Especially when I saw Mo Mo, who seemed to be very popular with girls.

Even though Mo Mo has become a hands-off manager and rarely appears in front of most people, the rumors about Mo Mo have never stopped.

Putting everything else aside, just a few days into the game, he recruited Lisbeth and Silicala into his party, went out on a mission with Argo in the middle of the night, and unknowingly met Yuriel, bringing this outstanding woman into the Rose Garden.

In addition, Momo easily established a guild that included almost all female players. Most of the girls in the guild rarely showed themselves, but Momo, who was in a relationship with Asuna, was also very curious. Dozens of girls had already casually asked Asuna about Momo.

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad, but the group of girls that Asuna trusted most, the Rose Knights who fought and leveled up alongside her, have been intentionally or unintentionally telling Asuna some rumors about Momo lately.

For example, at some point, Mo Mo appeared in a certain place, was surrounded by some people, and chatted happily with some people...

Asuna didn't want to believe it, but these things still bothered her.

However, today, Asuna felt that all of this was about to end, because Momo decided to buy a house in the game, a house that belonged to him... no, it should be a house that belonged to both of them.

So, under what circumstances would a man and a woman consider buying a house?

Asuna's heart started pounding uncontrollably, her blood pressure spiked, blood almost seeped through her skin, and she felt weak and unsteady on her feet.

Has Mo Mo already made up her mind...?

Asuna endured Argo's teasing and repeatedly confirmed with Argo and several married players that the game does have a marriage system...

Through a complex and tedious task, players can obtain a pair of special accessories: wedding rings.

In the game, after repeated confirmation by the system, two players can wear this special accessory, thus becoming a couple confirmed by the system.

Once these ornaments are put on, they cannot be taken off unless another grueling divorce process is undertaken.