I, the little cat, am a substitute for others who are starving and thin

Behind a humanoid monster, an unopened treasure chest appeared, causing Yimi to lean forward. However, the wall that should have been a barrier allowed her to slightly penetrate it, about the width of a normal adult's thigh, just enough for Yimi to squeeze in.

She had already arrived at the maze area, but when she looked back, she could no longer see the narrow passage she had come from. She tried to take two steps in that direction, but was unable to return. This was where the real bug in SAO finally appeared.

Yimi couldn't understand what was going on at all. She walked towards the treasure chest. The monster that seemed to be in charge of guarding it immediately woke up, but just stood there stupidly and didn't attack Yimi immediately.

"Flying Circle Slash!"

I learned from teacher Cornetto the good habit of saying the name before making a move.

A sweeping shot directly knocked off a quarter of the monster's health. This result was still very surprising. Before meeting Kirito, Yimi had lived in the wild for a few days, but all the monsters he encountered were killed instantly without exception.

Yimi brandished her spear and, in a rare move, performed a complete combo on the ground to kill the monster, but she couldn't actually get the huge amount of experience points that were rewarded.

Anyway, this monster is not the point.

After killing the monster, she trotted over to the treasure chest. It wasn't locked, and could be opened directly. Yimi was more interested in the treasure chest itself, which could hold her human form, than what was inside.

But just as she was about to reach out, the treasure chest suddenly opened by itself.

"Ow—"

He bared his sharp teeth and bit her upper body.

Delicious kiddos.

"Well!"

Yimi kicked his calves and his tail swung behind his butt.

She quickly put the treasure chest into her inventory to escape, but the treasure chest took up a lot of the space she had just freed up after eating catnip.

It's so weird, there's no good food in this place, and there's weird stuff!

Having lost interest, Yimi took out the transfer crystal and returned to the 55th floor of the Blood Alliance Knights.

"Ugh—I never want to eat that thing again in my life!"

I just happened to hear the triumphant sounds of the group members.

"Haha, there are still more than forty floors to go. I'm sure I'll need to use it again in the future. I'll just have to get used to it slowly."

"If I had known this boss was so simple, I would never have eaten it!"

"Perhaps many people found this dish so simple after eating it that no one even needed the resurrection chance. If possible, it would be best to give everyone a portion during boss battles in the future. Also, keep your voice down, don't let..."

Don't let the little guy hear it, otherwise he will be sad.

After all, the requirement for rat soup is to "eat it all", but it is not so demanding that there is not even a residue left. As long as you can finish it, it is fine.

But there's definitely no chance to test the waters during a boss fight. Can we wait until we realize we're losing and then start drinking soup together? Life is only once here, and no one dares to joke with that.

"I'm back."

Asuna pushed open the door and looked at Yimi who was sitting on a chair pretending to be obedient.

Asuna has a residence outside the headquarters, but since she had Yimi, she basically lives inside the headquarters.

"I didn't do anything."

In order to prevent Asuna from suspecting that he was running around, Yimi took the initiative to speak and dispel her concerns.

She felt the treasure chest monster in the storage space with a guilty conscience.

“…Huh?”

Asuna placed her hands on her hips and looked down at the scattered pieces of fabric on the table, thinking she was just feeling guilty about littering.

"Thanks to you, there were no casualties in this operation."

Kirito, who came in with Asuna, placed a box of snacks he had bought specially in Yimi's hand.

Because of this child, he has recently liked to visit the Knights of the Blood Alliance, but Heathcliff and Asuna both gave him the green light, which made many members who admired Asuna very angry.

Heathcliff's attitude towards him was a little strange. Kirito knew that this man had probably seen him use the two-sword style in the previous Geo Track Operation.

He gently touched the cloth on the table. "Have you learned how to make ruffles? You're making rapid progress. If you keep going like this, you'll be able to make beautiful clothes soon, right?"

It may also be related to the fact that there are certain corrections in the game.

Yimi held the snacks he gave her and her attitude became much better: "When I make something nice in the future, I'll give it to you first."

"Oh, that's really exciting..."

"Wait a minute, didn't you just say yesterday that you would give me the first piece of nice clothes to wear?"

Asuna interrupted Kirito in dissatisfaction.

Last time, too, Kirito inexplicably said that this child had a higher liking for him, but now I’m the one who accompanies this little guy every day!

Kirito sighed helplessly: "What an inexplicable jealousy! It seems that Vice Captain Riasuna hasn't changed at all in the past six months."

"Don't call me deputy commander anymore!"

"well."

Kirito waved his hand and asked Asuna to look at Yimi.

The kitten's ears drooped, and its head looked back and forth between Kirito and Asuna. It felt so guilty that it had forgotten what it had promised Asuna, and just now it suddenly agreed to Kirito.

"I'm sorry, I was just joking. Did I scare you?"

Asuna quickly patted his head to comfort him.

Yimi lowered his head and thought.

Then after making beautiful little skirts, I can divide them into two sets and give them to Asuna and Kirito respectively.

"We just mentioned changes, but Kirito has changed a lot."

Asuna returned her gaze to Kirito, and after a moment's hesitation, she brought up the topic they had been avoiding: "It might not be polite to ask, but what did you do after that?"

The 25th floor was a watershed moment for the early members of the strategy team. Due to misjudgment at that time, the strategy team suffered a heavy blow, which was the highest number of casualties in history.

Under pressure from public opinion, the main guilds that made up the strategy group withdrew from the front lines to the first floor, and the structure of the strategy group was completely transformed. The Blood Alliance Knights were established around that time.

Kirito scratched his cheek. "It's nothing bad to say. After that, I joined a low-level guild."

The members of that guild were probably only in their twenties or thirties, students who knew each other in real life and had a good relationship. Kirito, who had always been a loner, envied the atmosphere they had, so he hid his level, which was already at the top of the server, and joined them.

At that time, he had a very good relationship with one of the girls who lacked security, and they often talked together.

Because the closed beta testers went alone to look for the resources they knew about during the internal beta test on the first day of the server opening, there were basically no people willing to guide new players. For new players who don’t even know the game mechanics, their behavior is no different from that of thieves.

Not wanting everyone to be hostile towards the entire group of beta testers, Kirito simply classified himself as a beta tester who had explored higher floors. After the first boss battle, he mocked all the beta testers and took the blame for the hostility of ordinary players towards the group on himself.

"The Cheater", he was given this nickname and was treated unfriendly by others for a long time. Perhaps he was afraid that he would be despised by these people after revealing his level, or he might be afraid that he would not be able to fit into the small circle. In short, he concealed it.

It was a very pleasant time. He finally felt some warmth after not communicating with anyone for a long time.

But because of his behavior of hiding his level, during a team operation they reached a hidden room in the maze. It was a special room where crystals were not allowed to be used, and there was an unopened treasure chest lying there all by itself.

Seeing that something was wrong, Kirito wanted to stop them, but it was just a "stop" and the others were not very happy.

"The game crashed right after that. If it wasn't for that, we would have almost been wiped right there."

Kirito looked down at Yimi who was eating elegantly.

Of course, since he is at a high level, he will most likely not die, but in this world where there are only swords and knives and no magic skills, it is too difficult to protect so many people from the monsters.

There was about a day of 'nothing' after the crash was fixed, and thanks to that one they were able to escape.

"I'm collapsing..."

Asuna clutched her heart.

This was the main source of her loss of security, because the breakdown lasted too long. They couldn't actually tell the time, but the pain of being in complete darkness and unable to do anything would cause their thoughts to spread endlessly. Most players chose to sleep to cope, but many, like her, were afraid of never waking up again and couldn't fall asleep.

Seeing her abnormality, Kirito quickly changed the subject: "Come to think of it, there were a lot of bugs with gaps in the textures after the crash, but they were fixed in just one day. Kayaba Akihiko is truly a genius."

Asuna smiled. "If you were a genius, you wouldn't have collapsed in the first place, right? You already have a guild, so is that why you don't want to join another one?"

Kirito shook his head, helpless. "My level was exposed after that incident, and the president kicked me out, saying, 'Players like you should be working hard on the front lines, instead of wasting your time playing dumb and playing dumb around us.'"

In fact, after that incident, the people in that guild became extremely afraid of death and might never dare to enter unknown areas again.

Maybe they were afraid that the team's poor performance would affect him, so they kicked him out. We still keep in touch occasionally until now.

22

Chapter 22: No lying.

"Then, I'll take my leave first."

After visiting Yimi, Kirito waved his hand and left the room.

After he left, he breathed a sigh of relief because he could hardly tell who he was visiting.

"Wait a minute."

Then he was stopped by a thin and tall man.

"you are?"

"As you can see, I am a true member of this guild."

Kradir, the only one in the guild who wanted to avoid Yimi, looked at Kirito seriously.

"The others might be embarrassed to speak out because of the vice-leader and that little... mascot, so I'll be your messenger. This guild doesn't allow outsiders to come and go as they please. So, don't come here anymore."

What era is this? How old are the people? How can such a thing still happen?

Kirito turned his eyes away. As a young man, he didn't even bother to look at her.

"Asuna is free to be with whomever she wants, right? Besides..."

He finally turned around and gave Kladil a look: "I haven't seen you in the boss room. Are you a new member?"

Without further ado, he just left.

In fact, only dozens of people can enter the BOSS room at a time, and it is impossible for all the members of the strategy team to go there, but it is also true that he said he has never seen Kradir.

After defeating the BOSS on the 58th floor, Kirito had to go to the 59th floor to check the situation. In order to come back to visit Yimi, he had already fallen behind the others for a while.

"..."

Kradir looked at his back with gritted teeth, and his face gradually became gloomy.

He turned and went to Heathcliff's office and proposed:

"Leader, the deputy leader has made invaluable contributions to the progress of the strategy, but she hasn't made any valuable contributions recently. I believe she's been influenced by others. I suggest strengthening guild discipline to prevent unscrupulous individuals from entering and leaving without permission, and assigning a dedicated bodyguard to the deputy leader for her safety."

"..."

Heathcliff turned his gaze from the rat soup, which he had never been able to try, to him.

Do you want to listen to what you're talking about? That NPC is the one brought back by the deputy leader you mentioned who hasn't made any contribution recently.

-

"Have you ever seen a box that bites people?"

After Kirito left, Yimi tried to inquire about the strange room from the side. Mao Mao had begun to notice something was wrong, for example, many people on the road would only do the same thing repeatedly, and Kirito and the others were not curious, so there was something wrong with this world.

"A box that bites people... a treasure chest monster? That's something that only appears in the maze area, right?"

Asuna, who was helping Yimi change her clothes, looked at her suspiciously.

This child is really a treasure.

Asuna looked at the socks she had turned over in her hands.

@@'s socks: [Pads] have triple jumping height.

However, apart from the hat and bow, no one else can wear this kind of clothing tailored for children. It is true that there are children in this game, but they basically live in the safe first level.

Hearing Asuna's question, Yimi turned her eyes away.

Because Asuna said that if she ran away without saying goodbye, she would not teach her how to make clothes.

"Oh?"

Asuna held out her hand. "Where's the corridor crystal from earlier? Take it out and let me see it."

"Lost it."

"Lost it? Lost it or used it up?"