Evolution of a Girl

"I can't believe the little brother who was so cute two years ago is almost my age now," Asuna said with some emotion. "Also, if you want to introduce yourself, 'Kiriko' is more useful than 'Kirito'—when you're wearing a maid outfit."

Asuna found it quite amusing to see Kirito blushing and looking away.

"This is because of the relationship between titles and the achievement system. I have a title of 'Maid Knight', which allows me to get high attribute bonuses when wearing a maid outfit." Kirito forced an explanation.

"Yeah, it's okay, I understand, I understand~" Asuna expressed her understanding.

Kirito hesitated, he felt that he couldn't go on like this.

He thought for a moment and said, "Um—Asuna—why didn't you join the raiders?"

After everyone started working on the strategy, seeking common ground while reserving differences, they actually held quite a few meetings to discuss the direction of the strategy, and Kirito also participated in them.

Logically speaking, if Asuna was so powerful, there would be no way he wouldn't know about her appearance.

"Well, it's because I was a little confused. But I feel much better now." Indulging in the virtual world may be good, but escaping from it is not the solution you want.

Kirito breathed a sigh of relief: "Let's add each other as friends. I'll introduce you to the Clearers team then."

"Ah."

Kirito got Asuna's contact information in no time, and his skillful method made him look like a real veteran.

Kirito, who was completely unaware of himself, notified his superiors of Asuna's situation after adding her to his friend list.

"They also said they want to learn more about the 'real difficulty' as soon as possible." Kirito informed Asuna of their reply.

"It's nothing special, actually." Asuna thought for a moment. "I've been doing dungeons for a long time and have been to quite a few, so I'm probably quite familiar with it."

The strategy group is a semi-official organization that represents some authoritative forces among the players, and the top members are all high-level players from all over the world.

Some of these high-level players have excellent skills, some have outstanding command, and they are all the best among players.

Among them, players are also divided mainly according to different regions.

The person representing the Japanese-speaking area is called Heathcliff. In fact, when mediating conflicts in the real world, this Heathcliff also made great contributions.

——But in reality, this person is Kayaba Akihiko’s pseudonym.

In fact, Kayaba Akihiko didn't want to go on stage so soon.

But there is no way, because those players before did not consciously develop game strategies, and had no time to do this or that.

Later, Kayaba Akihiko understood.

Because the time flow in the game is five times faster than in the real world.

In other words, even if five years have passed in the virtual world, it is only one year in the real world.

This feeling makes it easy for the players to calm down their inner anxiety - hey, half a year has passed, don't worry, it's only been more than a month in the real world.

After two or three years have passed in the game, maybe the players will get used to this kind of time.

According to this game ratio, two years in the real world is ten years in the game world, and twenty years in the real world is a hundred years in the game world.

For a normal person, thirteen or fourteen years in the gaming world is equivalent to living a lifetime longer than others, which is not a loss at all!

The problem with time flowing too quickly is that it reduces players' tendency to work together.

But if Kayaba Akihiko shamelessly adjusts the time between the real world and the game world, that won't work either. Instead, it will reduce the sense of urgency that the death game brings to the players.

After Kayaba Akihiko personally took action, the originally loose organization began to become more and more formal, and formed a number of strategy teams to carry out the strategy.

Half a year after the game was launched, these people finally found the BOSS maze on the first level.

The BOSS is not really difficult, so the players are quite enthusiastic.

Soon they worked together to conquer the first floor.

In the following levels, development was even faster. The strategy team was assigned to the guild according to the intelligence, and basically they conquered one force in each region.

For example, players from the Lighthouse Country and well-known guilds - the kind that have branches in many other games - and so on.

The second floor is from a certain Eastern country, the third floor is from the Lighthouse Country, and the fourth floor is a European guild.

Of course, it sounds fast, but in fact each level requires a month of preparation time, which means that the time ratio between the real world and the game world is different, otherwise the time would be quite long.

This was also Kayaba Akihiko's strategy.

Since there is no demand, create demand.

Outsourcing one layer to a region is actually taking advantage of the previous contradiction.

When this contradiction is directed to the strategy, it naturally depends on whose strategy is faster, quicker and safer.

In this way, everyone formed a healthy competition, which improved efficiency and accelerated the pace of the strategy.

At the beginning, it took everyone a month to conquer a level, but later on, it only took a dozen days.

Of course, there will be situations where you get stuck, which mainly occurs at integer levels.

However, with the opening of Aincrad, after the players got through this initial period, the original players' personalities began to gradually reveal themselves.

For example, players who like to PK with others, red-named players who want to kill and rob, etc...

Chapter 517: Murder Guild

Before anyone knew it, five years had passed in the world of Sword Art Online, and the forty floors of Aincrad had been conquered.

It seems slow, but people in the game don't care much, because five years in the game world is just one short year in the real world.

Of course, it would be great to use one year to experience five years of life.

Especially after the expansion of Aincrad's floors.

With a million people crammed onto one floor, it's natural that things would get a bit tense.

But after expanding to the 40th floor, there started to be more and more space.

There are different towns on each floor, including desert cities, ocean cities, mountain cities, and forest cities.

Moreover, these towns are not just scenes in ordinary games. On the contrary, these cities are real towns with urban functions, and they are all very large.

These towns were created by a designer, Lelouch, who remains unnamed.

Lelouch is the one who creates the world, so the designs of these cities by Kayaba Akihiko are also things that Lelouch uses to practice.

Lelouch used these cities to hone his understanding of urban operations, and he created quite a few interesting ones. Some of them were actually randomly generated. After designing the initial few cities, Lelouch then designed some parameters based on their functions, adjusting the operating systems between them, allowing them to be automatically built and operated. This proved quite effective.

In addition to the city, another point is the intelligence of the game's NPCs.

If the NPCs in the game were all very rigid, the world would definitely feel very out of place. However, the AI system in Sword Art Online is very advanced, and the NPC villagers have their own lives and are very intelligent, even more "real" than the players themselves.

For example, if a player wants to equip himself, he can just use the system panel to equip himself with one click, but if an NPC wants to equip himself, he really needs to wear clothes.

In addition, if you want to distinguish between NPCs and players, you need very advanced reconnaissance skills to be able to detect the opponent's panel.

However, there are many ways to distinguish between NPCs and players so as to avoid confusion.

However, as the game progressed, conflicts between players began to arise again.

At this point, the so-called racial and regional conflicts have actually been diluted. The game between the major forces, the emergence of the killing guild, the paranoid forces who want to stay in Sword Art Online, and so on...

"...That's right. After years of fighting, the raiders are exhausted. So, for a while, we'll be pausing our efforts to allow the frontline members to rest and recuperate."

In the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood, Captain Heathcliff was discussing the future arrangements with Asuna.

"Then what are we going to do?"

Asuna, who was wearing red and white armor, asked casually.

"There's a lot to do. We've been focusing on conquering the Realm Master, but we still have many dungeons to conquer on each floor. Other guilds have conducted similar activities before, but it turns out that the highest difficulty of many dungeons is usually no less difficult than the Realm Master on the previous floor, so our strategy team is still needed to carry out this work. If we can develop a stable strategy, the output of dungeons will become very considerable - as we conquer more floors, our consumption also increases."

The strategy group needs to make corrections, and they have to make corrections.

Because strategies require resources, such as upgrades, equipment creation, enemy intelligence, etc.

Moreover, as more floors are opened, the level cap is also opened, and as the level increases, the resources consumed at each level also increase exponentially.

In other words, the strategy team needs to train some backup forces to do the hard work.

"It's not just this matter - the recent conflict between the Blood Alliance Knights and the PK guilds is what needs to be resolved more." Heathcliff talked about a very heavy topic.

"Those murderers..." Asuna frowned. "They don't care about strategies. They just want to release their animal desires."

"Well, who knows?" Heathcliff said, "But the presence of these people has undoubtedly affected safety. It's fine in the city, but once you leave the city, public security begins to deteriorate. In many places, some players don't even dare to go out alone anymore."

"Haven't we cleared them out several times before?" Asuna remembered that the strategy team had fought against these guilds before.

"Yes, but their main force was not damaged. All we captured were just a bunch of cannon fodder." Heathcliff lowered his voice. "It is very likely that there are spies among us."

After explaining all this, Heathcliff said, "To resolve this issue, the Raiders will conduct another investigation, with our Blood Alliance Knights as the primary force. This task will be tedious and may even take a long time, so be prepared."

"Yeah." Asuna nodded.

The Blood Alliance Knights does not have the largest number of members among all guilds, but the players of the Blood Alliance Knights are definitely very powerful.

For players in their own country, the Blood Alliance Knights are the country's face.

There are not many players in the Japanese region, and many of them have tried to stir up trouble, which made the image of Japanese players very bad for a time.

For example, when conquering the first level, there was a player named Ya Wang who tried to gain reputation by attacking the closed beta players, but the only people who responded were the Japanese players themselves. In addition, people from a certain Eastern country who came to watch the fun even felt that the Japanese players were "incredibly shameless and despicable."

Later, Ya Wang's behavior was made into a joke and widely circulated among foreign players.

After that, there was a civil servants' union called the Army or something. But this organization was even outshined by the one next door - the one next door even formed an organization.

It can be said that it was precisely because of the existence and help of the Knights of the Blood that the image of Japanese players gradually rose. With the help of the "Holy Sword" Heathcliff, the number of casualties in the strategy can be said to have dropped a lot.

To this day, the Blood Alliance Knights still hold great weight.

But a high status also means they will have more obligations.

"Our primary target right now is an organization called 'Laughing Coffin.' This organization originated in the Japanese region and is a red-name guild. Initially, it was just an ordinary killing guild, but later, it infiltrated many North American players. Now, it has become a cross-regional red-name guild and our greatest enemy. According to reliable intelligence, our insider information is likely related to them."

"Could it be that someone bribed someone on the inside?"

Asuna thought back to the members she had met.

"I'm not sure. But I heard that Laughing Coffin seems to be kidnapping NPCs in a premeditated manner. Try to investigate and see if you can start from this aspect."

"Yes."

Coming out of the Blood Alliance Knights' headquarters, Kladir, who was standing at the door, came over. He was the guard assigned to Asuna.

Although Asuna felt that she did not need any guards, this was the vice-captain's position, and it would not be serious enough without guards, so Asuna reluctantly accepted it.

"We have a mission later to investigate the murder guild Laughing Coffin." Asuna said to Kradir.

"Yes. Do you want to contact other people?" Kladil had a businesslike expression on his face.

"No need. Keep it quiet." Asuna thought of Heathcliff's instructions. "We'll ask for help this time—let's find Kiriko now."

"Ah - it's Miss Tongzi." When Kradir heard "Tongzi", his originally expressionless face suddenly came alive, and his whole body shook, as if he had eaten a big meal. His waist was no longer sore, and his legs no longer hurt. Life was so beautiful.

"Well, let's go."

"Yes!"

Kradir followed Asuna briskly.

Asuna was beautiful and had a good temperament, but her aura was too harsh and suffocating. When Kradir was first assigned to be Asuna's bodyguard, he was actually quite happy, but after spending more time with her, he found that beneath Asuna's perfect appearance and superficial gentleness, there was a rather suffocating feeling.

But Asuna's best friend, Ms. Kiriko, is a gentle and lovely woman.

Compared to Asuna here, Miss Kiriko, who is gentle and kind but also wields a sword, makes his heart beat faster.

"Tongzi!"

"Asuna!"

The two met in the tavern on the 28th floor.

Today, Kiriko was wearing a black Rococo-style dress. Combined with her naturally beautiful appearance, she looked more like a noble lady than a swordsman.

Asuna's eyes lit up as well: "You look so beautiful today."

"Ms. Tongzi - you are still as beautiful as ever." Kladil also took the opportunity to make his presence felt.

"Ah, I didn't mean to dress like this." Tongzi was at a loss for words but couldn't explain.

There is a reason why Tongzi dresses like this.

The reason is very simple, that is, the serial tasks that Kiriko completed. After obtaining the title of "Maid Swordsman", she has now been upgraded and has obtained the title of "Lady Swordsman".

The Lady Swordsman not only has the abilities of a Maid Swordsman, but also has an attack damage bonus. The more gorgeous and aristocratic the clothes she wears, the higher the damage will be.