-1619- Two connected worlds

"What's with the newcomer?"

"Instead of curiously looking around at the surroundings upon arriving in ALO, he immediately checked the main window's character status?"

"Looks like it's not his first time playing a game."

"But what's going on now? He looks so surprised."

"Who knows..."

The nearby Sylphs passing by exchanged puzzled looks as they saw Rozen's reaction. However, Rozen couldn't care less about them.

At that moment, Rozen's gaze was locked on the state of the skill bar displayed in his main window, verifying it over and over again.

There, in the skill acquisition slots—where everything should have been empty for a newly created character—nearly ten skills were listed.

"Are these the starting skills for a Sylph?"

No.

That was impossible.

No matter the race, having nearly ten skills at the start of the game was unheard of. And these were only the ones listed in the learned skills section—there might still be more that weren't displayed.

In ALO, just like in SAO, only the skills set in the skill bar could be used and have their proficiency increase. Any unused skill left out of the bar would remain stagnant without gaining proficiency.

When Rozen counted the skills beyond what was set in the bar, there were so many that he grew tired of counting.

But that wasn't the most shocking part.

If it were merely a matter of quantity, it wouldn't have left Rozen so stunned.

What truly shocked him was...

"One-Handed Sword Skill Proficiency: 1000."

"Blade Throwing Skill Proficiency: 1000."

"Martial Arts Skill Proficiency: 1000."

"..."

Looking at each skill's proficiency, Rozen fell into complete silence.

Proficiency: 1000.

That meant these skills were fully mastered, with no further room for improvement.

Aside from these maxed-out skills, the other skills also had incredibly high proficiencies—most of them exceeding 900.

Could such a thing occur in a freshly created character?

Absolutely not.

In SAO, it had taken Rozen over a year to max out a single skill. Based on what he found online, the situation in ALO was no different.

Typically, mastering skills in MMORPGs required a long, arduous process—how could they be maxed out right from the start?

It was impossible.

What startled Rozen even more was...

"These skill proficiencies are identical to the ones I trained for two years in SAO."

Indeed.

The skills—both in name and proficiency—were exactly the same as the ones his SAO character had mastered. Some skills were missing, likely because they didn't exist in ALO, but the overlap was unmistakable.

Now, the character he just created had almost the same profile as his SAO avatar, at least in terms of skills.

This was undoubtedly a serious issue.

"If this were just a bug, it could be explained, but with such a high degree of similarity between characters from two different games, it's basically screaming that there's some connection between the two games."

Rozen recalled entering his SAO account credentials when creating this new character.

That must be why the data from his SAO character had been transferred into this world.

As for why it happened, Rozen didn't know yet.

But he was sure of one thing:

"The game running on the SAO servers is definitely ALO."

That was the only explanation for the current situation.

"There's definitely something wrong with this game."

With this in mind, Rozen immediately began checking his character's other statuses, including the equipment tab and item tab.

The former contained no equipment from SAO; instead, the avatar wore only the initial gear provided to Sylphs.

As for the latter, Rozen's item tab was filled with garbled text.

"Are these the items I acquired in SAO?"

Rozen understood.

Since SAO and ALO had different item systems, many items didn't align between the two worlds. This mismatch had corrupted the item data, turning everything into gibberish.

"If anyone saw this, or if a GM discovered it, the problem would be exposed immediately."

With a sigh, Rozen decisively discarded all the corrupted items, emptying the item tab completely.

Only his money remained.

"Even the currency I earned in SAO transferred over?"

However, instead of Col—the currency used in SAO—the money in this world was listed in Yrd.

And Rozen possessed millions of Yrd, an enormous fortune in ALO.

"If I hadn't spent so much on character development and familiars back then, my fortune could've been way more than a few million."

Rozen couldn't help but feel a little regret.

But compared to other beginners, Rozen's starting conditions were far superior. Even without his equipment and items, having the same skills and wealth as in SAO gave him a game-breaking advantage.

"It feels like I'm using cheats..."

As a hardcore gamer, Rozen knew this was definitely not the right way to play.

Though ALO didn't have Sword Skills like SAO, only magic, the absurdly high skill proficiencies still provided an edge. Higher proficiency didn't affect attack power directly, but it allowed access to more powerful equipment.

In ALO, since there were no character levels, the ability to equip high-performance gear depended entirely on racial attributes and skill proficiency.

With his current skill levels, Rozen could equip many high-tier weapons—an undeniable advantage.

As for magic, the more proficient a magic skill became, the more spells could be learned across various elements.

Right now, Rozen only had access to basic Wind Magic, with a proficiency level of zero.

All in all, ALO relied heavily on player skill and movement to determine strength. Even with high magic proficiency, the improvement only expanded spell variety without increasing spell power.

Of course, if there were skills that boosted magic power, that would be a different story.

Thus, Rozen's greatest advantage lay not in his skills but in his wealth.

With enough money, Rozen could buy all sorts of items.

He could also replace his starter gear with top-tier equipment.

The only problem was...

"I'm unfamiliar with this place. I should explore first."

Just as he said this...

"How about I show you around?"

A lively voice spoke up from behind Rozen.