Long Live Money in Anime Crossover

117 Second Transformation, Boss Arrives

Who is this?

Why can some players suddenly transform into this appearance? Why did Heathcliff's appearance also change?

Did they use some kind of transformation or disguise prop?

The vast majority of players are pitiful; they have no idea what Kayaba Akihiko looks like, and they only enter this game because of the overwhelming publicity and the desire to experience new things.

People like Kirito, who are not only game enthusiasts but also deeply interested in game developer Kayaba Akihiko, are still a minority. Simply put, you might have played many games, but if the game's creators stood in front of you, could you recognize them?

Most people wouldn't recognize him, including Kayaba Akihiko. Even though he's known as a quantum physicist, most people would only glance at his face and then forget about him.

She's not a cute girl, why would you need to remember her face?

At the beginning of the game, Kayaba Akihiko also appeared as a person in a red robe, without a face, so no one would know what Kayaba Akihiko looked like at that time.

Kayaba Akihiko did this to prevent anyone from guessing his identity based on Heathcliff's facial features, even though Heathcliff had made many changes to his face shape, hairstyle, and age compared to Kayaba Akihiko.

Therefore, when Kayaba Akihiko finally appeared before all the players, the pathetic players felt more curiosity than fear or hatred. They were ultimately just Kayaba Akihiko's playthings, whether they admitted it or not, and whether Kayaba Akihiko said it outright or not.

"Oh dear, oh dear, this is really... it almost scared my heart out..."

“Yeah, Johnny, I really want to rub my eyes and make sure I’m not dreaming.”

However, some people still recognized Kayaba Akihiko. After all, Kayaba Akihiko had used this appearance to meet with PoH and the higher-ups in Laughing Coffin in order to set a trap for Momo. However, Kayaba Akihiko miscalculated that although PoH was not as difficult to deal with as Momo, he was far more difficult than an ordinary person.

"That face..."

Tilberu stared at Kayaba Akihiko, and combined with the white coat he was wearing, memories that had been dormant for several months suddenly resurfaced, causing Tilberu's face to turn pale in an instant. He stumbled backward and was caught by the player behind him, preventing him from falling.

"You...you are...you are!"

Everyone stared in astonishment at Tilberu's face, a deep sense of unease and fear rising in their hearts. They instinctively stepped back, all vaguely realizing what was happening.

"Do I really need to introduce myself?"

Kayaba Akihiko looked up and said, "Even if you don't know my face, I think you should remember my voice. Well, there's no difference if I introduce myself again. I am Kayaba Akihiko, the chief designer and developer of the Sword Art Online game, and also the mastermind behind this death game."

Upon hearing this, the group's reaction was even worse than Tilberu's. At least Tilberu was able to remain standing, but now most of the players fell to the ground, and the rest ran away as if they had seen a raging flood. In an instant, the circular formation was completely destroyed.

PoH waved his hand slightly, and the red-named players from Smiling Coffin brandished their swords, stopping the players who were running away. Only then did they realize that there was a demon behind them and an executioner in front of them... Was death the only way out?

Before the intense atmosphere of despair could even erupt, PoH smiled slightly and said, "Alright, my little lambs. Although we are a red-name guild, we don't kill people for fun when we're bored. If you hadn't attacked us, we wouldn't have had to fight to the death."

"So, let's quiet down for a moment. Sit down quietly, put down your weapons, and we won't attack you. Compared to you, isn't this GM more interesting to us? Let's have a good, quiet, and careful talk with our suddenly appearing GM and find out what's going on. What do you say?"

PoH's seductive words calmed down the players who were initially restless and on the verge of fighting to the death. They didn't want to die, and if there was a chance to survive, someone would try it.

Although no one sat down and gave up their weapons as PoH suggested, the violent emotions that made them want to fight to the death dissipated considerably.

Having achieved his goal, PoH smiled and said, "Mr. GM, what exactly are you up to? It was one thing to have us frame Momo a few days ago. Now you've jumped out again. And what's going on with you? Are you Heathcliff? Or did you do something to the player named Heathcliff and then impersonate Heathcliff yourself?"

"Hey, Mr. GM, this kind of perverse humor is really boring. Pretending to be one of the other players and interacting with us is just plain weird."

PoH's eyes flickered slightly. The current situation was somewhat unexpected. Although it was beyond Mo Mo's expectations, it was still within the scope of Mo Mo's backup plan.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that... Kayaba Akihiko did something that no one expected, but he still ended up crashing headlong into the web woven by Mo Mo.

"This is really..."

PoH licked his lips; he no longer knew how to describe his boss.

"A perverse sense of humor?"

Kayaba Akihiko didn't take it seriously, saying, "This isn't some kind of twisted sense of humor, but rather a plot that was set from the very beginning. The final boss of the 100th floor of Aincrad is the Crimson Lord, the Fallen King Heathcliff. In my setting, he is a fallen human who survived countless battles and became the recognized king of the 100th floor."

"Unfortunately, he still considers himself a human being and sees it as ironic that he has become the king of all monsters. He wants to find a warrior to solve all this, and to speed things up, he is even willing to join the ranks of warriors and train them himself."

"It's just a setting, and I'm just faithfully playing my own role. PoH, didn't you say you like theater? What do you think of this script?"

PoH tilted his head and said, "Probably at the level of a second-year middle school student?"

Kayaba Akihiko smiled and said, "So, you're a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur)?"

"Then let me be a chuunibyou. Anyway, I don't need anyone to understand what I do. After all, humans create their own morality and laws to restrain themselves, criticize and frame all the founders, but they will change their own morality and laws for the progress of the world, and then put the founders who have been put on the pillar of shame back on the hall of heroes."

Isn't this hilarious?

PoH grinned and said, "As expected of the creator of the Death Game. To be honest, I can't keep up with your thinking. Mr. GM, what exactly are you trying to do? What do you want to achieve? Now that you've shown yourself, does that mean we can find out something?"

Kayaba Akihiko looked at PoH, paused for a few seconds, and said, "Why resort to such petty tricks? You've activated the image crystal, haven't you? Even if you record the video, what can you do? Can you take it away? This is my game. I am the master here. Everything will operate according to my will, and no one can interrupt it."

PoH smacked his lips, took out the image crystal, and said, "We've been discovered? But, Mr. GM, isn't it a bit presumptuous of you to say that? You were clearly messed up by Mo Mojun a while ago, and the whole plan was in chaos. Do you have some solution now?"

"Using the phrase 'found a solution' to describe it is not quite appropriate. The solution had always existed, but I got stuck in a rut, trying to use my weaknesses to overcome others' strengths. I lost, my plan was shattered, that's a fact."

"So, I've come to my senses now. Since this is my game, I can achieve everything in my own way. Since the original plan has been broken, I'll just scrap it and start a new one."

"The warriors who were originally used to train and defeat themselves have disappeared; it's better to establish a new batch."

"Without you, there are still over eight thousand players in SAO. With them, we have a solid foundation. Although they may be held back by fear, I will always find a way to reignite their courage."

“I have plenty of time and many opportunities. So, I shouldn’t have fought you in the way you’re familiar with from the very beginning.”

PoH's smile vanished, and he said, "Although Mr. GM's words were cryptic, I sensed a dangerous undertone. If I'm not mistaken, Mr. GM, are you planning to restart the game, or something similar?"

Kayaba Akihiko wore a faint smile, as if discussing the weather with someone, and said, "Yes, as expected of PoH, you immediately understood my thoughts. Indeed, with troublemakers like Momo and you, my game is destined to fail. Therefore, I have decided to simply eliminate you all and then slowly rebuild the order of the game."

"I've already said I have plenty of time, I'm not in a hurry."

PoH squinted, tossing the image crystal in his hand to the ground. He muttered to himself, "This is a huge problem! Hey, Mr. GM, are you going to personally join the battle, or do you need to activate system privileges? We can't play at all! Or are you planning to use Heathcliff to wipe us all out with just one sword?"

"Don't try to provoke me, PoH. I won't use system privileges to cheat, so Heathcliff is just a player form, a player template, and certainly can't handle all of you. You're strong, and your plan is excellent, but it's all meaningless."

"In the face of absolute power, in the face of absolute strength, everything is empty. It's a pity that I realized this too late. If I had known, I shouldn't have tried to outwit Mo Mo with schemes and tricks, but should have crushed him with force."

A faint red pattern emerged from Kayaba Akihiko's body, and his appearance rapidly changed, transforming back into Heathcliff's likeness.

However, this time it didn't stop. The knights' uniforms of the Blood Oath Knights began to change gradually, and to everyone's horrified gaze, they transformed into a figure that everyone was familiar with.

The figure in the blood-red robe who first revealed the truth about the death game to everyone.

His blood-red robe, with its golden patterns, and the hood covering his face, seemed no different from before.

There was one difference, actually: a line of text appeared above the blood-robed man's head.

Boss: The Fallen King, the Crimson Jade Palace Master.

LV……100!

118 An invincible boss

As everyone watched this familiar scene, it felt as if they had returned to the day the game began.

That day, this very figure floated above everyone's heads, revealing the truth about the game and leading them into the abyss of a death game.

It was just a game, yet it became the world in which nearly ten thousand people lived. No matter who you are in real life, what job you have, how old you are, how high your social status is, or how extensive your network of connections is, almost everything is reset in the game.

There is only one outcome of the reset: everyone can only pick up a sword and become a fighter in the game, fighting to the death against the virtual monsters in the game for survival and liberation.

This is supposed to be a scientific and modern society, but they want to fight with swords and sword skills in the game, just like characters in a hero's story.

All of this was bestowed upon them by Kayaba Akihiko. Kayaba Akihiko, whom everyone hates and curses, is waiting for all players in the 100th floor of the Ruby Palace, waiting for the players to conquer him.

Everyone eventually embarked on the path of conquering the game, and under the leadership of Momo and others, and with the efforts of several major guilds, they made unstoppable progress, conquering the 22nd floor without losing a single person.

Everything seemed promising, and liberation appeared to be within reach.

But why has it turned out like this today?

Five days ago, everything changed. Momo disappeared, and everyone lost faith.

Today, nearly three hundred elite troops came to strangle the Smiling Coffin, but were almost completely wiped out.

Now, the final boss, the Fallen King, the Crimson Lord, Heathcliff, who was supposed to appear on the 100th floor, has appeared before everyone's eyes.

This game has completely fallen into chaos.

The blood-robed man transformed in an instant, his figure growing taller. Although he was nowhere near as giant as he had been on the first floor, he was still nearly three meters tall.

One, two, three... until the seventh health bar appeared, the Boss's health bar finally stopped appearing. It had three more health bars than a normal Boss, and they were also three different colors.

Originally, the boss only had four health bars, the first three were green, and the fourth would turn red. But with Heathcliff, in addition to the red health bar, there were three more health bars: gray, white, and black.

Without a doubt, there must be some special setting involved, perhaps involving form transformation or unimaginably powerful moves.

What's this all about?!

This is the 22nd floor! And we've only been on the 22nd floor for a few days. Most players are around LV25, and even the players in the strategy group are just over LV30.

And now you're asking a group of players who've just reached level 30 to face a level 100 ultimate boss?

Stop joking!

The level suppression in Sword Art Online is a real phenomenon. Once level suppression occurs, situations like those in the original work will arise, such as Kirito being besieged by the Yellow Name Guild, but the amount of health he loses is less than the amount of health he automatically recovers due to his level.

This is no longer just about being impenetrable; theoretically, no matter how you attack, Kirito's health will not decrease by even a fraction. Even if Kirito is paralyzed and you attack him, there will be no danger whatsoever.

The situation is the same right now.

Kirito's level advantage that time was just a level advantage between player templates, and the level lead was only thirty or forty levels.

But now, it's the Boss template that's crushing the player templates in terms of level, with a difference of up to seventy levels... How can you play like this?

After transforming, Kayaba Akihiko removed his hood, revealing Heathcliff's face. However, his face was now half human and half skull, with black, white, and gray patterns forming a bizarre design.

Aren't you going to run?

Heathcliff said with some surprise, "Well, I didn't expect you guys to be so shocked. Originally, in order to let players know how dangerous I, the boss, am, I thoughtfully set it so that players of any level can see my level directly, and I also added a huge blood-red skull to my name."

"Haven't you noticed the danger yet with this setup?"

Heathcliff sighed, reached out and grabbed, and a giant sword shaped like a cross appeared in his hand from the void. He said, "Do you really want me to kill people before you understand that I am dangerous and that it is time to run away?"

Run! Run for your lives!

Under Heathcliff's half-taunting, half-threatening tone, the players finally realized the danger. Then, a shout from one of the players, like a flare, injected vitality into everyone's trembling legs.

"President, this is bad..."

Johnny Black's face also turned pale as he looked at the Boss, who was wielding a giant sword and was at level 100, and said, "If this isn't some kind of illusion, then we shouldn't be able to defeat this Boss no matter what, right?"

PoH glared at Heathcliff with resentment and said, "Getting the brothers to retreat is already beyond our ability to handle. Next... although I don't know if our current boss can handle it, it is indeed the boss's job."

Hearing PoH's words, Johnny Black breathed a sigh of relief, put his hand to his mouth, and blew out a sharp blast of a signal. The red-named players surrounding him relaxed, put on their hoods, and turned to leave.