-296- Major difference

Listening to the information dealer's voice beside him, Rozen didn't turn his head to look at her.

"Didn't I tell you, this isn't your vending machine? You're not a member of our guild. You can't just come here randomly and order our drinks." Rozen responded to Argo with a roll of his eyes.

"Don't be so stingy, ZenZen," Argo playfully said, "As fellow beta testers, you shouldn't just take care of guild members. Give us solo players a little bonus once in a while too."

"Come on, I'm not obligated to take care of all beta testers. The supplies here were all purchased with the operational funds contributed by guild members." Rozen responded without holding back, "You haven't joined the guild, yet you want to freeload. That's too optimistic, don't you think?"

"Well, that's because I'm a master of information," Argo nonchalantly replied, "My services are for all players. If I were to work exclusively for a single guild, sooner or later my information-gathering abilities would lag behind the top player's clearing group. Think about that, will you?"

"You..." Rozen sighed in exasperation.

"Well, enough of that," Argo's tone turned serious, "Did you see it too? Kibaou's 'Aincrad Liberation Squad' is basically defunct now, right?"

Hearing this, Rozen nodded.

After the first floor of Aincrad was cleared, the second floor was conquered in a mere ten days. By the time the third floor was reached, the elite player groups in the vanguard had set their sights on creating guilds.

At that time, relying on the knowledge and information from the beta test, Rozen led the beta players to swiftly establish their guild, making "Crimson Wing" the first guild to be founded across the entire server.

Following shortly after was the "Aincrad Liberation Squad," created by Kibaou.

After the betrayal by Diabel, the ruffian-like one-handed sword user hadn't seemed to falter. He rallied a group of players to form the "Aincrad Liberation Squad."

As the second successfully established guild, the "Aincrad Liberation Squad," led by Kibaou, naturally became an indispensable part of the clearing group. Given their leader's temperament, players in this guild naturally didn't have a favorable opinion of beta testers. They frequently challenged and competed against "Crimson Wing" during clearing meetings on various floors. If Rozen's abilities hadn't been there, Kibaou might even have attempted to claim the leadership position of the clearing group.

Of course, the clearing group wasn't just composed of "Crimson Wing" and the "Aincrad Liberation Squad." There were various other guilds, expanding the number of players participating in the vanguard clearing effort far beyond the initial 60 players. It had grown to include hundreds of players.

Relying on this collective strength, the clearing group had made astonishing progress, conquering floor after floor. Within just four months, they had reached the 26th floor.

This was truly a great surprise.

After all, even during the two-month beta testing period, players had only managed to clear up to the 10th floor.

So, to conquer 25 floors in just four months was a significantly better achievement than during the beta test.

Even though there were still 75 floors to conquer, at the rate of taking down 25 floors in four months, fully clearing the game would still require another year. But at least it wasn't like before, where hope was completely absent.

Players in the clearing group gradually started to believe in their ability to fully clear the game.

However, having too much confidence had its downsides.

"Once the sense of crisis is gone, people start to consider their personal gains and losses."

Rozen, sipping his drink, began to speak.

"After all, the clearing group is made up of multiple guilds and even individual top players. They don't share the same heart."

And since they didn't share the same heart, when the sense of crisis was lost, the players in the clearing group naturally began to have various thoughts.

"For example, even without relying on other guilds, just with their own strength, they could clear a floor. By doing so, not only could they boost their reputation, publicize the guild, expand its size and strength, but they could also exclusively claim the experience points, col, dropped items, and LA rewards from the boss of that floor."

Rozen spoke in a hushed voice as if speaking to himself.

"The result, of course, is obvious."

This was the fundamental reason for the downfall of the "Aincrad Liberation Squad."

Argo also understood this reason.

"All I can say is that Kibaou is really unlucky."

Argo could only offer this sentiment.

Kibaou indeed had his share of bad luck.

Because, compared to previous floors, the 25th floor posed a challenge unlike anything players had faced since the first floor.

In the past, after clearing a floor and moving on to the next one, the monsters there were certainly stronger than those on the previous floor, but they weren't strong enough to make the clearing group struggle even with floor bosses.

For instance, in the 1st floor's labyrinth area, the average level of monsters was only around 6, and in the second floor's labyrinth, the average level of monsters was less than even 10. For the top players whose average level was above 10 at the time, these monsters posed no real danger.

However, the 25th floor was different.

When the clearing group ascended from the 24th floor, arrived at the main district, activated the teleportation gate, and exited the safe zone, they intended to swiftly move through the training area to reach the labyrinth. Yet, the remarkably powerful monsters there caught the clearing group members off guard and caused them to stumble.

Although they were merely normal monsters from the training area, these creatures were much stronger than the ones on the 24th floor, resulting in the clearing group's members being caught off guard.

And that's not all, the truly astonishing part was the terrain of the 25th floor. It was incredibly intricate, almost labyrinth-like, making the task of mapping it out incredibly difficult.

In such a situation, let alone moving to the labyrinth area, even the path to the next town became extremely challenging. Coupled with various poisonous swamps and terrain traps, if Rozen hadn't been present, providing guidance and directions in such abnormal circumstances, there would have definitely been casualties.

To make matters worse, while Rozen was dealing with these extraordinary challenges, a guild within the clearing group came up with a plan.

"Let others deal with the situation here, we'll head straight to the labyrinth area and take down the floor boss!"

The guild that came up with this plan was none other than the "Aincrad Liberation Squad" led by Kibaou.

Kibaou was goaded by his guild members and deceived by false information leaked by unknown sources. He led his guild members straight into the labyrinth area and the boss room of the floor boss, only to face catastrophic results.

And then... there was nothing more...

By the time Rozen received the news and led the entire clearing group to catch up, arriving at the boss room, over half of the guild members had already fallen victim to the overpower strength of the 25th floor boss, much stronger than the 24th floor boss they were accustomed to.

In the boss room, the sound of Kibaou's sorrowful cries filled the air, laced with resentment.

Afterward, Rozen led the clearing group members through hardships and struggles, finally managing to preserve an untarnished clearing record.

However, to protect everyone's lives and maintain this record, Rozen had to exert his full effort.

"If that Kibaou guy hadn't been so reckless, things probably wouldn't have deteriorated to this extent," Argo sighed.