Chapter 63 - Risky Stroll

18 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

The innkeeper, who was definitely not an NPC, tilted his head towards the rooms without a word, as he eyed us intently.

He had some right to be suspicious of a group of 5 players suddenly giving him some business in his inn. Maybe he hadn't had great business in a long while, though if he had been grateful for the col he made from our decision to settle here instead of the other inns, he surely didn't show it.

2 rooms. Just 2 rooms rented, with the obvious grouping arrangements. I dared not to even flinch at the col prices which the innkeeper charged for each of those rooms, but all I could react about those prices was dearly missing the NPC innkeepers back in the safe zones, who would charge prices never even exceeding 100 col.

If you'd ask me, 5000 col per night was practically robbery at the very least, but what could I do in front of an orange player who was clearly having his eye on Meghan's green cursor floating among our orange ones?

"Is this the only inn you could find?" I turned to Meghan, as our group was walking to the rooms.

"Well, was there any other building with a sign that says it's an inn?" Meghan crossed her arms, her head shaking. "Unless you had spotted another one, which I assumed you didn't. I shouldn't even be surprised, for an orange city like this."

"Even if there were others, we wouldn't dare to find out," Alexis added. "Those dark alleyways gave us the creeps."

We stopped by the first room and entered. Its interior retained the same simplistic style as a normal inn, though there were 2 beds placed parallel to each other on either end. The window opposite the door overlooked the still bustling path of passers-by players.

"2 beds, but still not worth the 5000 col," Rakuno sulked, as she went for one of the beds. Though inn rooms usually only had a bed, this room had another one, though the amount of col that the extra bed was worth for the price of the room rent didn't seem to add up pretty well, compared to inns in the safe zones.

"A scam," I sighed like I always did. "Can't be helped, I guess. You wouldn't want to piss off that innkeeper. And speaking of that....."

I walked over to the window and took a peep out. Orange cursors swarmed the path down below.

"...You wouldn't wanna feel comfy around here," Frowning, I crossed my arms as I leaned at the side of the window. "This is an expedition, not a vacation."

"Heh, is there anywhere that's worth taking a vacation to?" Meghan smirked sarcastically as she stood staring at the window.

"The 22nd Floor, probably," Alexis took a seat on the other bed. "It's practically a safe zone all by itself."

"Well, where we are is the complete opposite," Tekion sat on a wooden chair. "I wouldn't be surprised if we're being Eavesdropped right now."

"Hmm....." I continued to look through the window. There was no reason not to heed the point that Tekion raised all too well. The Eavesdropping skill was a skill that, while useless in combat, could be a very dangerous factor that could jeopardize the expedition before it would even start.

"Then I'll just say this," I turned to face the rest of the party, keeping my voice low. "You guys can pretty much do what you want here, but don't get into trouble, and stay orange while you can."

"We aren't here to necessarily fight, but to get the feel of this place.....no, city. It's so damn big, so we do need to split up to explore as much area as possible. Roaming in pairs is great, of course, but it's easy to get lost here, so take note of that."

They all returned nods, with Rakuno holding her hand up, wanting to ask a question.

"So.....about Krieg and Grace....."

"They're still trying to get into Katalysis, I assume," I brought down my system menu to check for messages. "I told Krieg to let me know if they'd entered, though I imagine they wouldn't be in the city sooner than tomorrow."

I headed for the door, as Tekion stood up to follow me. "I guess that's all for tonight. You girls can take this room, Teki and I will take the other one with the door opposite to this one. If there's a need for another meeting like this, I'll let you know."

I held the door knob tight as I swung the door gently closed behind Tekion, both of us never uttering another word in the night as we pushed open another door only a step away.

===========================

19 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

Footsteps echoed through my ears as I ran forth, towards a player holding his claymore as a shield.

Holding my spear at the ready, I aimed, willing its blade to glow yellow. The spear skill, streamlined through the air as it struck the flat surface of the large blade with a clear sound.

PINGGGG!

I stopped short entirely, my right leg stretched in front with the desperate burst of energy that I had tried to imbue the force of that strike with. Behind the claymore, the player peeked his eyes out at me, dragging his blade with my spear, which still had activated, trying to pierce the large blade as if it had sheer determination.

Around me, the environment of the 40th Floor Labyrinth materialized, but jail bars as high as they were allowed to be were surrounding us in a circle, ridding us of any means of escape.

The face of Hallow simply smiled, his mouth never moving to tell me anything as he relaxed his grip of his claymore. As the tension of the collision gave way, so did my spear's , its yellow glow fading away in its deactivation.

But the momentum force of my spear lingered, pushing my spear forth as the claymore fell to reveal Hallow's chest. My eyes widened, as my hand tried to drop my spear with futility. My mouth opened, wanting to shout out a warning. Any warning, to get Hallow out of the way.

Instead, he closed his eyes, his arms spreading wide, all the while smiling through the fate that he could clearly see happening in front of him. As my spear struck his chest, my vision turned blindingly white, engulfing everything in an instant.

"Hah! Hah! Hah....."

My morning started off with hard panting, as I stared blankly at the wooden ceiling.

Getting up a second later, I spotted Tekion still sleeping soundly in the other bed of the room, all while my panting faded rather slowly back into the silence that the room once had. Without a word, I brought down my system menu, and prepped myself with my usual equipment.

My dream, which wasn't much of a nightmare to be honest, was still proof that I hadn't completely gotten over Hallow's death. Even after meeting his digital ghost and 'coming into terms' with him, there was always a thought of guilt left in my mind.

His suicide.....shouldn't have happened in the first place.

I could've convinced myself that his affiliation with Laughing Coffin was to blame for his decision to shove himself with his own weapon, but the fact that I could have stopped him at that time was unquestionable.

If only I had at least tried to knock his claymore out of his hands, then maybe I wouldn't have to blame myself for whatever happened to Hallow then.

Not wanting to wake Tekion up, I reached for the door knob without a word. Pushing it open, I turned to the door opposite mine, instantly staring face-to-face with Rakuno, her hand also on the door knob in her usual equipment.

"Ah!.....Good morning....." There was a tinge of drowsiness in her voice as she almost stumbled back, stopping short with a step. Her katana shook with her, dangling precariously at her left waist.

".....Morning.....," I gave an automatic reply. An awkward silence followed, as both of us stared at each other for no particular reason.

"Um.....," I finally broke the silence. "You forgot your hat."

The girl's eyes turned from half-open to being lit up as an "Oh!" escaped her mouth. She brought down her system menu abruptly, her pointed hat appearing on her head as her face had a flustered look.

What I had a chance to look at before she did that was her hair. Her hair, which would be entirely white, save for a few dark streaks scattered in the long strands.

"L-let's go." Rakuno said as she headed for the stairs. Putting my hood on, I followed silently, still trying to get out of my sleepy trance.

The pathways of Katalysis in the morning were as crowded as last night. It still felt weird walking past orange cursors where ever we went, but that weird feeling was very much needed. I wouldn't want to get used to this dangerous city and treat it as just another safe zone.

"Meghan and Alexis woke up first," Rakuno spoke as she walked beside me.

"So they're already exploring the city?" I turned slightly at her.

"Yeah," She stretched her arms with a little yawn. "Diligent, aren't they?"

"I thought you'd be as diligent as them."

"I do Drift with the SoH often, but I'm never as energetic as them."

"Hmm.....I'm just concerned about the green cursor that they have to take turns having. Do I have to practically pray for them not to get targeted because of that?"

"Maybe we have to find them to, you know, get them out of any trouble....."

"......."

I stopped for a short while, rubbing my hood with a hand in frustration. Maybe my instructions about 'doing want you want' wasn't that great for a variety of obvious reasons. I guess that's the kind of leadership a party gets with me as party leader.

"Actually, let's drop that concern for now," Rakuno skipped in front of me. "They're from SoH. They know what they're doing."

".....Alright. I'd like to think that as well." I sighed, as I started to continue walking. "As for us, I'm thinking that we go somewhere interesting today."

"Eh?" Rakuno fixed her gaze on me as she followed suit. "Where?"

It took us about half an hour to reach what looked like a giant circular stadium with a height that towered over the other buildings by a half of their heights. If it wasn't for its height, we wouldn't have found it any sooner than we had taken.

Its top part could be seen from anywhere in the city, even if the angle wasn't favourable, due to the buildings blocking the view at times. However, it was the only landmark that can be used to navigate the city, especially when the map from the system menu shows up point blank displays.

Point blank displays, which meant that the system never considered Katalysis as a geographical location in Aincrad. Everything here, the buildings and the stadium, might have been player-made. Even if a player had acquired skills related to construction and whatnot, it still didn't explain how a city as big as this was built in such a short time, assuming it was built some time before the PK surge happened.

"Now that I'm seeing it up close....." Rakuno slowly tilted her head up high, as she gawked at the structure. "Wow....."

"Yeah, but more importantly, the Gladiorium," I said, spotting an entrance up ahead, which was starting to crowd with orange players. "Let's check it out."

"Oh, lad! So you remembered what I told you, yea?"

That way of speech was, of course, still fresh in my memory. I turned around, noticing a face I'd seen just last night at the bar. Instead of her butler-like outfit, she sported with what seemed like her usual armour, just like any other player would for combat. Her weapon was simply a single-handed sword strapped on her back.

"Ah, the bartender." I pointed my finger at the orange player, staring at her blankly.

"Call me Puma, lad," The bartender walked past us. "I'm only the bartender at night."

"If you wanna get good seats for the Gladio, you'd best follow me to beat the queue."

Her definition of 'beating the queue' turned out to be squeezing at the edge of the entrance while the crowd was still flowing in. Though if I had wanted to call that human traffic a queue I would be lying to myself.

With all the pushing and shoving going around, it was amazing to see that no one had grabbed the chance to attack each other in the mess for any reason at all. Or maybe no one had space to even reach for their weapons.

Either way, those orange cursors clustered in one place still felt uneasy to me in various ways.

The interior of the stadium really mirrored that of one in the real world, but on a smaller scale. Although the arena in the center, which was an oval-shaped field of barren, hard canyon ground, wasn't as large as a soccer field, the spectator seats around it were plenty in their own right.

I mean, they were just simply structured as giant staircases for as many people to sit on.

We'd lost sight of Puma for a while, before spotting her sitting on the highest stair, overlooking the arena horizontally.

I took a seat beside Puma, as Rakuno plopped down beside me.

"Ain't it a great view, lads?" Puma shouted over the overlapping chatter filling up the atmosphere. "This week's Gladio's gonna be a special!"

Rakuno and I merely stared at her enthusiastic demeanor. Whatever the Gladiorium was, it must be some sort of event that players duel in, right?

But I was prepared to have my expectations blown apart, though.

"Oh, here comes the Council!" Puma pointed at the the round edge of the arena, which had a tunnel-like entrance carved to lead into the arena.

A few orange players came out of the tunnel, waving at the spectators. One of them caught my eye instantly, as her strikingly crimson hair contrasted the brownish orange colour of the canyon ground from afar.

I almost had the abrupt impulse to stand up and rush to the front seats below for a closer look. That player was who Kyozo from the KoB had told me to find back then, the one he had advised me to look out for in the city of Katalysis.

With fists clenched tight, I fixed my gaze onto the red head player, as the mumble that came out from my mouth sounded so cautiously soft that no one else could hear in the noise.

"Kira....."