Apostate Nicholas

On December 24, 2023, the Raiders finally reached the 50 mark.

And after handing Silica over to the Moon Night Black Cat Group, Ling Xue also started the journey of truly soloing and single-handedly fighting the boss, and angering the equipment. Oh, not counting, there is also Yui.

From the 30th floor to the 49th floor, Ling Xue conquered nearly half of it alone. In some cases, Lingxue was lucky enough to find the boss's room after brushing and knocking down the boss, and in some cases, she got the information from the informant and then rushed to knock down the boss before the strategy team.

I'll grab your boss, you bite me. This was Ling Xue's silent taunt to the entire strategy team.

Ever since, Ling Xue, the title of Xueyin, has completely resounded through Aincrad.

However, on the 50th floor, Lingxue suffered "retribution". The strategy team has already started to conquer the boss, but Ling Xue got lost in the maze area. Yes, you heard that right, she just got lost.

Because another 25th floor has arrived, the monsters on this floor are several levels higher than the previous one. Of course, this may not be a big deal to Ling Xue, the only thing he hates is the hidden setting of this layer.

He doesn't know what hidden settings are in the boss room, but the hidden settings in this labyrinth area make him extremely disgusted. That is, before the boss is defeated, the visibility in this labyrinth area will be very low, only about two or three meters. And there are many teleportation points in each node, well, Ling Xue said that these are nothing. The most important thing is that the map cannot be recorded until the boss is defeated. You can only remember the road purely by memory.

Now Lingxue is in a tragedy. Unable to record map. It means that the map interface is blank. Raiders group because of the large number of people. At least you can also take actions through team marking, that is, those small green dots. But Ling Xue is a solo player, where can he find his teammate's logo? Yui? Hehe, forget it, it will save them not finding a way out, and the two of them will be trapped at both ends.

Of course, Ling Xue also knew that he could use the teleportation crystal to go back to the city, but the key is that he didn't bring it with him at the time. Yes, I just didn't bring it with me. I usually bring it with me, but I didn't bring it that day. This is the rhythm of going out without reading the almanac.

Ever since, the "extremely lucky" Lingxue finally found the way back after the clearing team finished clearing the boss.

It was only later that I learned about the situation of the raiders through Asuna. It is said that the boss this time was extremely powerful. After beheading nearly one-third of the team members, the players in the raiders team fell into collapse. And the boss room is the crystal invalidation area.

What is Crystal Nullification. That is, no matter what kind of crystal it is, such as teleportation crystal. Detoxification crystals, recovery crystals, and the like cannot be used inside.

After the battle line collapsed. With the leader of the Knights of the Blood Alliance, Heathcliff stepped forward and held the nearly collapsed battle line for ten minutes before turning the situation around. After this incident, Heathcliff also became known to all. characters.

December 24th. . . In the real world, it would already be Christmas by this point. I don't know if it's Kayaba Akihiko's bad taste, Sword Art Online is also ushering in the Christmas festival. From the daytime, from the 1st floor to the 49th floor, pure white snowflakes fell, and Christmas trees and various decorations for the occasion were also hung in the town.

"It's been another year in the blink of an eye."

Sitting in front of the warm fireplace, watching the heavy snow falling from the window not far away, Ling Xue said with emotion.

It may be because of the heavy snowfall, or it may be because today is Christmas, so it is also rare that Ling Xue did not go to the maze area with Yui as usual, but quietly stayed in the snow hermit, soaking in a Pot of black tea, take a leisurely nap, chat with Yui when there is a topic, and close your eyes when there is no topic.

Ding~

A system beep broke the tranquility of the cabin.

"Dad, that profiteer sent the news." Yui, who was close to Ling Xue and was closing her eyes to recuperate, suddenly heard the system prompt from Ling Xue's side, so she reminded her aloud.

And "that profiteer" that Yui said was the most famous information dealer in SAO, the mouse Argo. It claims that as long as it is the information that it has, it will sell it, even its own ability value is the same. But there is one thing that she will never sell, and that is the player information of the beta tester.

As for why she had the title of mouse, Ling Xue laughed a little when she thought about it.

Once, because of Kirito's introduction, Ling Xue also met the biggest intelligence provider in this SAO. Because she was very curious about why she had a beard on her face and why she had the title of mouse, so after exchanging information several times, Ling Xue asked gossip, but was told that she only needed to pay one million, and then she would tell he.

In the end, without saying a word, Ling Xue directly paid a million dollars with the mentality of not being short of money and gossip, and asked her to narrate the matter in its entirety. Although Lingxue was not short of money, but for the one-time payment of so many coins, although it was virtual, Yui still expressed her distress and said, so the profiteer became Yui's code name for her.

In fact, there is nothing surprising about it. The beard on her face is a failure penalty for a certain task that was not completed during the closed beta. In addition, when he speaks, he has a characteristic nasal sound at the end of the sentence, combined with his short golden brown curly hair, it always reminds people of some kind of rodent, that is, a mouse, so during the beta test period, the intelligence That's how the merchant mouse Argo got its name.

And since the name of "mouse" has been spread out, in order to continue to sell information after the beta test is over, that is, after the server is officially launched, I plan to break the jar and take the initiative to paint three signs on my face. For the beard, he continued his title of mouse.

Listening to what Yui called her a profiteer, Ling Xue touched Yui's head with a smile. Maybe others don't know, but he and everyone who is familiar with the intelligence agent know that the reason why the mouse Argo charged the intelligence fee It is so expensive because it needs to support those lower class people. or make them stronger. Or keep them from starving.

This is the same as Agil.

Oh. Agil is another good friend of Kirito's, and also a representative of a profiteer. Now he has opened a weapon shop on the 50th floor. Although there is a shop, it is undeniable that a profiteer is a profiteer. "Sell cheap" is one of his favorite things to do. Well, in fact, in private, he will also use the money he earns to subsidize those middle-level players. This is also the reason why Ling Xue often takes care of his business.

"Well.. Let me see what interesting information this time. I hope I don't disappoint me too much." Every time Ling Xue trades with that mouse Argo, she always asks her to send the latest Either weird, or mission activities and other information are all packaged. Then calculate the money according to the information. This can be regarded as Lingxue's sponsorship method, after all, the money is enough. And Lingxue's money is because he has been wandering around in the maze area, plus the equipment, after handing it over to Qitai and the others to sell the equipment, there are already a lot of money. To put it in a simple way, it means that the master is not short of money.

"Huh? This looks good."

When turning to the last page boringly, Ling Xue saw a festival activity information.

On Christmas Eve. That is, in the middle of the night today, on the thirty-fifth floor. Under a certain large pine tree in the Lost Forest, there will be a small boss in a Christmas costume named Nicholas the Renegade. It is said that a rare prop, "Revived Saint Quartz", will explode from his body. It is said that this item can revive a dead player.

"Father, this looks very interesting, let's go and have a look."

Ling Xue saw it, and Yui at the side naturally saw it too, she pulled Ling Xue's hand excitedly, and said excitedly.

"This time you stay at home peacefully." Ling Xue cursed with a smile.

Then, seeing Yuyi limp like an eggplant beaten by frost, he rubbed Yuyi's head lightly, and explained: "It's not that Dad won't take you this time, you think your identity is so sensitive, what if someone pretends to be you?" What to do if the game master who is an adult player sees it. Although the possibility is small, it is not impossible."

"I see, Dad. I will take a good look at the house."

Yui also nodded clearly, she was not ignorant, it was just a whim just now. Now that I calm down and think about it, what my father said is very likely to happen. Usually it doesn't matter when you swipe solo, because basically no one sees it, but since Ling Xue can get the information this time, let alone those big guilds? At that time, there must be a mixed bag of fish and dragons, and it is better not to take this kind of risk.

As night fell, Ling Xue's figure also appeared in the town on the thirty-fifth floor on time.

Yep?

As soon as she came out of the teleportation array, Ling Xue keenly sensed something was wrong.

Familiar outfits are everywhere. . . . . .

One after another green pines stand on this land. It is absolutely impossible for anyone to come to the snowy forest at this point, but today there is an exception. In front of a certain huge green pines, there are densely packed The heads of people are moving.

From the perspective of style and color, these guilds can be roughly divided into five groups, the Knights of the Blood Alliance in red and white, the Holy Dragon Alliance dressed in steel, an army that is very similar to the Holy Dragon Alliance, and the Fenglin Volcano with red as the main body. , and the Moonlight Black Cat Group, which has recently risen to the fifth largest guild at an incredible speed.

Besides the members of Shenglong United, the leaders of the four major guilds are also acquaintances. Asuna, Klein and Keita. And why did Qitai say that he would be familiar with the people in the strategy group? It was naturally because of a chestnut figure with two ponytails next to him, wearing red equipment, with a short sword on his back, and a blue dragon parked on top of his head. It's Silica.

"It looks like there will be a fierce battle tonight." Asuna narrowed her eyes slightly and said.

"Well, it doesn't matter to us anyway, this excitement is just for fun." Mrs. Qi shrugged. After all, he knew very well that although his guild was listed by the players as the fifth largest guild equal to the other four major guilds, the difference in strength was still huge.

"Kirito, what do you do? There are so many people here, I think it will be difficult for you to grab it." Klein put his arm around his good friend's shoulder, half-jokingly said: "How about it, we need to form a team Well?"

"Okay."

Although Kirito has always been solo, he still has a clear understanding of his own strength. Anyway, my purpose is basically to join in the fun, let's group together.