Their commission was suspicious.

"In short, that's the gist of it. Given the current progress of the original Aincrad, if you continue to develop the Gold and Silver Aincrads, some strange things should appear. This is the world's instinct—automatic repair and filling of gaps. In short, for you, as long as you can kill monsters, don't worry about what kind of monsters they are."

"Hmm... what you're saying reminds me of the heretics in the dungeons of some world. Could it be that something like that would appear in Gold and Silver Aincrad?"

Remove the phrase "couldn't be." This is something that will definitely happen.

"..." Chen Luo began to hesitate about whether or not to continue training Aincrad.

But you really don't need to worry about it too much.

"Fine... I was already annoyed, and now I'm even more annoyed."

"Oh, what's bothering you? Tell me."

"...Well, recently I've been planning to venture into the Dimensional Sea, and I've discovered that Paradise Coins, as soul crystals, combined with the delivery service that comes with the Domination ability, might attract the attention of many organizations in the Dimensional Sea. I'm a little worried that my teacher, the Puppeteer, might not be able to handle it, since other forces might also have Transcendent beings backing them up."

"No, what did you say? Say it again? I don't think I heard you clearly."

“I mean, I’m worried that my teacher won’t be able to protect me,” Chen Luo repeated.

"Why would you worry about not having a strong enough background?"

Good guy.

A father who is the most adept at amassing wealth in the entire dimensional sea and transcends worlds through alchemy.

A mother known for her madness, who is so ruthless that she would even kill herself, the only one in the entire dimensional sea who dared to reincarnate and successfully transcend twice, and incidentally brought her husband to transcend as well.

Even if almost no one knows about these two backgrounds, your teacher is no pushover either.

"You don't need to worry about that. Your teacher, the Puppeteer, may not be the most powerful Transcendent, but he's certainly one of the most feared Transcendents."

"How to say?"

"Back then, after long and meticulous planning, your teacher unleashed a wave of puppets throughout the entire Dimensional Sea. At that time, the already fragile order of the Dimensional Sea completely collapsed, and everyone lived in fear. Because no one knew whether their friends, wives, parents, or even themselves were puppets of others… Your teacher could even trace back the timeline and create puppets from people from countless years ago; all it took was a trivial real name. So at that time, everyone who wasn't a transcendent being truly wondered if they were the seed your teacher had planted countless years ago, waiting to explode at the most crucial moment."

"Uh...aren't there any transcendents involved?"

To be honest, Chen Luo never expected that his teacher, who seemed so kind, had been so ruthless before.

"Because even those who have transcended the dimensional barrier can't tell the difference. Furthermore, your teacher even has a history of nearly deceiving the entire dimensional sea to allow his puppet to successfully steal the Dao Fruit and become a Dao Lord (slightly weaker than a transcendent, but possessing a certain law). Hmm, nearly… This means that besides transcendents, your teacher can create puppets from anyone else, and make them indistinguishable even to transcendents."

"Your teacher, in her youth, was a transcendent being known as the most terrifying witch, and the biggest problem child in the Dimensional Sea."

"Of course, your teacher is still very young," World Consciousness suddenly added.

"...Are you scared?"

"Who, who's afraid?"

"Really?"

"Uh, okay, a little bit. If it weren't for the fact that my world consciousness was born after that doll disaster, I might sometimes wonder if I'm your teacher's doll."

"Don't laugh, your teacher really is capable of doing something like that. He's incredibly skilled at things like 'substituting one thing for another.'"

"And if even those who have transcended can be deceived, then the World Consciousness Headquarters naturally has no way to verify it."

"So how exactly was that doll disaster quelled?" Chen Luo asked curiously.

"Hmm...it seems it's because your teacher went on a date."

"???"

Is this really that outrageous?

And who was so brave as to try to seduce the most vicious witch of the time?

"It seems... women only slow down my doll-making speed." Chen Luo learned his lesson.

"You mustn't say anything reckless."

"Hmm, why are you suddenly so agitated?"

"Ahem, let's talk about Aincrad."

Chapter 1852 Asuna: I want them all (clenches fist)!

"In the month since this death game started, 1500 people have died, but no one has broken through the first level. Even I, a closed beta player, have not been able to enter the boss's room. Today, we are finally going to hold a meeting to discuss the strategy for the first level boss."

Seeing the scattered groups of people appearing in the square with their teammates, Kirito stepped out of the shadows by the wall and walked towards them.

Over the past month, when players finally realized there was no way to leave this world, their panic was arguably insane.

This is evident from the fact that nearly one-fifth of the population had died within a month.

Even though the mysterious person restored the resurrection items that Kayaba Akihiko had deleted, the game's normal death and resurrection function wasn't restored, so the death toll didn't decrease much... because obtaining resurrection items is quite difficult on the first floor. And most of the dead were lower-level players who couldn't obtain the resurrection items at all. (The original storyline had 2000 deaths.)

Today, this strategy meeting was officially convened, hosted by a player named Diabel who called himself a knight.

Their team discovered the boss's room today at the very top of a mountain.

Diabel is a leader among the players without any problem; while his speech may not be particularly inspiring, it does resonate with those around him.

However, Kirito is now facing an even more serious reality.

Kirito was initially smiling as he watched Diabel discuss the matter, but his smile quickly faded.

"Then let's not delay any longer and begin the strategy meeting now. First, please form teams of 6. The first boss is not something that ordinary teams can fight. We need to gather teams and form a company."

Kirito, who suffers from social anxiety and is a loner, looked around somewhat nervously and noticed that all the players in the arena ruins seemed to have their own teams.

"???"

He died before he could even begin his mission; that's how it must be.

Tech geeks might be able to save the world, but they can't form a team.

As we all know, the highest configuration requirement for a certain gaming platform called Steam is friends.

Money can be saved up, and skills can be learned quickly, but friends are simply nonexistent.

Somewhat panicked, Kirito searched around for potential teammates. In his anxious moment, he spotted a lone player sitting in a corner.

Overjoyed, he quickly moved while seated and got close to the other person.

"Are you alone too? Want to team up with me? I told you, you can't take on the boss alone, right? This is a one-time thing... Is that okay?" Kirito suppressed his nervousness and sent a team invitation to the other person.

“…Me?” Chen Luo pointed to himself.

"Ah."

"Didn't you see that big guy over there? Why did you choose a boy over a girl?" Chen Luo pointed to a girl in a cloak sitting two steps down from him.

The reason she is described as a young girl is because although she is wearing a cloak, obscuring her face and even the length of her hair, she is wearing white stockings.

"But... the other person is a girl," Kirito said somewhat awkwardly.

It turns out that for male otaku, given a choice, they would rather not team up with girls than with other males.

"...Your damn charm! Can you please rein in your succubus nature?"

"...If you call me a succubus again, I'll get angry." Chen Luo accepted Kirito's friend request while communicating with the world's consciousness.

Chen Luo was worried that Kirito might cry if he disagreed.

If you have social anxiety, you don't want to disappoint the other person when you finally have a chance to socialize, right?

[Ding! Mission complete!]

Two hundred raw gems, got it!

Sigh, it's so easy to make money off otaku.

【…】

The reason Chen Luo is sitting here is because he initially told the World Consciousness that women would only affect his speed in making dolls, and then the World Consciousness's reaction was a bit strange.

Then, the world consciousness used the excuse that, "Since today is the acceptance day, simply listening to your description of Aincrad's pros and cons is naturally somewhat one-sided. You should go in and experience it more, and also see how young people date." to forcibly stuff Chen Luo into Aincrad, which was already affiliated with this world.

Aincrad has completed the handover, having been plucked from the World Tree and sent into this world by Chen Luo.

Chen Luo witnessed firsthand how the world consciousness "cleverly" connected Aincrad to this world...

They threw Aincrad directly to the moon, and then projected phantom images of Aincrad into the skies above countless countries and regions...

That's not clever at all!

On the contrary, the violence was unacceptable.

However, this method was surprisingly effective because the message Chen Luo told all players in Aincrad a few days ago was disseminated to the world's media through the power of the Herrscher of Corruption, raising their threshold for the mysterious existence.

Moreover, the giant tower floating in the air is gradually becoming solid, and a 24-hour countdown has appeared in the sky.

No one knows what will happen after it ends, but every country and region is paying close attention to it.

Chen Luo knew that after 24 hours, once the power of the world filled the entire Aincrad, Aincrad would be completely transformed into the real world.

This is the most important step in transforming the virtual into the real.

Before this, the World Tree's sustenance meant transforming a data world into a conceptual world.

The current abundance of world power is the key step in transforming Aincrad into a real world.

"Um... Luo, right? Why don't you go invite that girl over there? She seems to be alone too." Kirito glanced at the names after forming a party and pointed at Asuna.

[Ding! You have a new request!]

"Yes, you can. Do you know her?"

"Uh, we wouldn't say we know each other, we've just talked," Kirito said.

"Alright. Miss, would you like to team up and fight the boss together?" Chen Luo pulled Kirito down the steps and asked Asuna, who was wearing a cloak.

"..." Asuna glanced over here.

"The boss cannot be defeated alone. It's just a temporary team."

Asuna nodded gently.

Then, following Kirito's method, Chen Luo invited Asuna to join his team.

[Ding! Mission complete!]

[Ding! Mission complete!]

Chen Luo completed two commissions in one go.

Although Asuna didn't say it, she panicked when she heard that a team of six was needed and everyone else already had teammates.

Wishes are often irrational; even if you don't want to say them aloud, just thinking about them in your heart creates a wish.

If you respond to your wish, you will naturally obtain the raw gem.

After the people in the square had mostly formed teams, Beldia clapped his hands, about to get down to business, when a voice interrupted him.

Everyone looked at the person above the steps of the arena ruins, who nimbly jumped down in a few steps and arrived at the center of the arena.

"My name is Tooth King, and I have something to say before we fight the boss. Someone here must apologize to the 1500 people who died earlier!" Tooth King pointed to the location where everyone was.

"Mr. Fang Wang, is the person you're talking about one of the previous closed beta testers?" Beldia asked calmly.

Kirito, sitting to Chen Luo's right, seemed quite nervous after hearing what Ya Wang said.

However, as Ya Wang continued to belittle the closed beta players and demanded that they apologize for their actions and return the money they had accumulated, a tall, bald man suddenly stood up and entered the arena.

The other party didn't say anything grand or righteous; they simply took out a small booklet.

A strategy guide compiled by a closed beta tester (Rat Argo, a closed beta tester and information broker) and then made available for free in the item shop.

He steered the situation, which was gradually spiraling out of control, back on track: discussing how to challenge the boss.

In fact, among the 1500 people who died, quite a few were closed beta testers, because the content of the open beta differed from that of the closed beta test, and this difference was getting bigger and bigger.

Kirito visibly breathed a sigh of relief after the conversation returned to normal. Then, Beldia used the free booklet to explain the information and strategies for defeating the boss.

"The strategy meeting is now adjourned. Finally, regarding item distribution: coins will be split equally among everyone, experience points will go to the team that defeats the monster, and dropped items will belong to whoever gets them. No objections?"

However, no one raised any objections.

"Alright, we'll depart at 10 a.m. tomorrow! Meeting adjourned!"

"Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock..." Chen Luo looked up at the sun in the sky.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with ten o'clock?" Kirito asked from the side.

Building good relationships with other team members is also a key to victory.