Eventually, Akimi and the others found Argo in the field boss's respawn zone.
"Phew~ ahhh~"
Argo slammed her empty mug on the table with a satisfied sigh.
Kirito looked at her helplessly and said, "Argo, what's wrong with you? Wandering alone into the labyrinth zone in the middle of the night—are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"Ara, ara~" Argo replied nonchalantly, "You know me, Kiri-bou. If there's danger, I'll run. Besides, I came here to gather intel on the field boss."
Seeing how casual she was about it, Kirito frowned and said disapprovingly, "What if there's a trap somewhere in the labyrinth zone that locks you in? You could at least—"
"Yare yare." Argo interrupted him, waving her hand.
"I'll be more careful next time, okay? Stop nagging like a mother hen, Kiri-bou."
Kirito sighed in frustration.
After ordering another beer, Argo took a sip and said cheerfully, "Still, I do appreciate the concern, Kiri-bou. Mm—and you too, Aki-bou and Aa-chan."
Akimi rolled his eyes at her—making people worry about her in the dead of night like this?
Even little kids had more sense—not many of them would wander around alone at night.
Tapping the table twice with his index finger, Kirito straightened his expression and told Argo seriously, "Just be more careful from now on. At least make sure there are other players nearby—so if something happens, you can call for help."
Then, lowering his head slightly, he added in a quieter voice, "After all…"
After saying "after all," Kirito trailed off without finishing the sentence.
But as a natural instigator, Akimi couldn't help himself and completed the thought in his own way:
"After all, Kirito's a total introvert with a tiny social circle. Argo, you're one of the very few friends he's got. If you really died, he'd be seriously upset."
Hsss—how could you slander someone so baselessly?
Just as Kirito was about to refute Akimi's comment, Argo spoke up, cutting him off and forcing the words back down his throat.
"Ara~ is that so? Then I'll thank you for the concern, Kiri-bou~ But don't worry—your big sis here is very strong."
As she spoke, Argo reached out and playfully brushed her hand across Kirito's face.
Kirito batted her hand away and shot a helpless look at the smiling Argo, then turned to glare at the barely-holding-in-his-laughter Akimi.
After finishing her third mug of beer, Argo let out a long sigh, stood up, and said to the three of them,
"Well then, big sis has intel to organize and guides to publish. See ya~"
She pulled up her cloak's hood and darted out of the tavern in a flash.
The next day, upon seeing the new edition of the Aincrad Strategy Guide in the item shop, the raid team immediately organized an operation to take down the field boss.
This boss was a giant zombie wearing a crown, highly resistant to slashing, thrusting, and piercing attacks.
Inside the boss's chamber were numerous levers that could be used to rearrange ceiling puzzle tiles.
Once solved, the ceiling would open and let sunlight shine in, weakening the boss.
As it turned out, the reason Argo had ventured out in the middle of the night was to solve this very puzzle in advance.
It could be said that without Argo's effort, the difficulty of the boss raid would've likely doubled.
—
On December 31st, the players finally arrived at the final town of the fifth floor—Mananarena.
Akimi and Kirito were lying on the grass, relaxing (slacking off).
"It's already December 31st…" Akimi said with a touch of sentiment.
Even though it was December, the weather in SAO remained warm and sunny, with green grass and lush trees.
"Yeah, that's right," Kirito replied lazily.
"Tonight's New Year's Eve."
"Mmm—hey, Kirito, what were your last couple of New Year's like?"
Kirito thought for a moment, closing his eyes, and then slowly said:
"Hmm… last year—actually, I wanted to spend the countdown event in-game, but then my dad came back from the US and ordered me to do house cleaning."
"Even Suguha, who rarely talks, was bossing me around, making me clean the dojo… Man, that was exhausting."
Akimi laughed mockingly. "Hah, seriously? Weakling—can't even handle a bit of cleaning?"
Kirito rolled his eyes at him, then continued, "When I was tired and went back to the living room, my mom brought me some sweet soybean flour mochi—just thinking about the taste… I almost swallowed my tongue along with it."
"Then it was just watching TV with my family—stuff like the Red and White Song Festival—and eating toshikoshi soba. After the New Year's bell rang, we'd head out to a nearby shrine for the first shrine visit."
After finishing, Kirito looked at Akimi and asked, "What about you?"
"Me?" Akimi thought for a moment, his eyelids lowering slightly.
"Hmm… On New Year's Eve, my dad would always invite a bunch of uncles and aunts over, though I don't think any of them were actually blood-related."
"Our family name is Tomioka, but those uncles and aunts had names like Shinazugawa, Rengoku, Iguro, Uzui, Tokito, Kamado, Agatsuma, and Hashibira—not exactly common surnames."
"After New Year's Eve, my dad and those uncles would head into the mountains. I think it was for some kind of memorial or ceremony."
"In the early years, my grandfather used to go with them too, but not anymore these past few years."
"They'd usually come back from the mountain around 5 or 6 in the morning on New Year's Day."
Looking up at the underside of the sixth floor in the sky, Akimi slowly sat up.
"By now, I guess Dad's already gone to pick up the uncles and aunts…"
After a moment of silence, Kirito also spoke. "Right now, my dad, mom, and Suguha are probably busy cleaning the house too…"
The two of them fell silent.
After all, it had already been 55 days since they entered SAO, and they still hadn't cleared even the fifth floor.
No one knew how long it would take to truly escape this game.
Staring at the labyrinth tower several kilometers away, Akimi's expression gradually turned serious.
"I really didn't expect it… That bastard Kibaou actually plans to skip the New Year's countdown event and go straight for the boss raid."
From their investigation, they had basically confirmed that the short guy was someone from Kibaou's ALS guild.
Currently, both ALS and DKB were still in Mananarena.
To get to Karluin, the location of the New Year's event, would take over two hours.
The ALS members would probably head straight for the labyrinth tower in the northeast while the DKB made their way back to Karluin.
At this point, the only way to stop ALS's plan would be to inform DKB—because trying to talk to Kibaou directly in private would be useless.
He definitely wouldn't listen to Akimi and the others.
But if they did that, the New Year's countdown event would most likely be ruined.
---------------
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