"Yo, you're back. So? Did you bring the hides I wanted?"
"Here."
Lillian selected 20 [Frenzied Boar Hides] from his inventory and handed them to the burly middle-aged man in front of him. The man immediately broke into a wide grin, flashing a full set of white teeth.
"Haha, excellent! Here's your reward!"
[Exp: 240]
[Col: 200]
[Leather Bracers]
"Thank you."
Lillian opened his inventory and selected the bracers inside. They were a piece of ordinary defensive equipment. Once equipped, his defense increased slightly.
He checked his personal stats. He was now level 5, with his attribute points evenly distributed between Strength and Vitality. He had no need for Agility—despite his agility stat being low on the status screen, his actual movement speed was terrifyingly high.
That said, agility still affected critical hit rate, and Lillian considered himself cursed with terrible luck. Rather than gambling on crits, he preferred consistent, stable damage output.
As for equipment, he currently only had a basic one-handed hammer, the standard beginner's three-piece set, and these bracers. There was no helping it—equipment drop rates in SAO were low, and later on, many monster drops couldn't even compare to player-crafted gear due to massive stat gaps. Of course, there was one exception: "Demonic Weapons."
"Demonic Weapon" was a general term—it didn't necessarily mean a sword. These were the absolute top-tier weapons among dropped gear, boasting stats that overwhelmingly surpassed most player-crafted weapons. Only a small number of master blacksmiths could produce high-grade masterpieces that rivaled them. Kirito's black sword Elucidator and the Laughing Coffin guild leader PoH's "Mate-Chopper" were both examples of Demonic Weapons.
Lillian thought that instead of relying on monster drops, he'd be better off learning blacksmithing as a sub-profession and forging his own gear. Unfortunately, his level was still too low to learn it.
He closed the status window and glanced at his skill list.
At the moment, he only had two skill slots. One was empty; the other contained [One-Handed Hammer], with a proficiency of 14.
This wasn't a Sword Skill but a weapon-type skill—a broad category. Sword Skills were branches under these major skills and didn't occupy slots. The higher the proficiency of a weapon skill, the greater the numerical bonuses when using that weapon.
For example, Lillian didn't have the [One-Handed Sword] skill, but he could still use swords—just not as effectively as players who did. Another important detail was that once proficiency reached certain thresholds, advanced skills could unlock. For instance, when [One-Handed Sword] reached 150 proficiency, it unlocked the flashy Sword Skill [Horizontal Square], a classic skill for both style and intimidation.
As for hammers… Lillian couldn't recall seeing any hammer-wielding characters in the anime who were particularly impressive, so he had no idea what advanced hammer skills existed. That was fine—it gave him something to look forward to.
"I'm getting kind of hungry…"
Walking down the street, Lillian rubbed his stomach. In SAO, players still experienced hunger and the need to sleep.
Food in the game relied on the Taste Reproduction System, which transmitted the sensation of eating directly to the brain, allowing players to experience flavors just like in reality.
Interestingly, the original purpose of this system had been for dieting and controlled eating. By sending simulated signals to the brain's taste, aroma, and temperature centers, it created the illusion of eating, helping people feel full without actually consuming calories.
Lillian thought that if such a system existed back on Earth, overweight shut-ins would be saved. They could drink as much virtual soda as they wanted in-game and still log out with eight-pack abs. If that ever happened, food companies would probably be the first to oppose it—joining forces to buy out the technology and bury it. Capitalists were terrifying; never underestimate them.
As he walked, it became clear that after more than two hours, many players had already accepted the reality that they couldn't log out. Others still couldn't cope—some had even chosen suicide.
No matter what, those who accepted reality sooner would grow stronger faster. Those who remained depressed—even if they stayed inside safe zones where monsters couldn't enter—would still face problems like food, drink, and sleep.
Without hunting monsters, there was no income. Without Col, there was no food or lodging. Food was relatively easy—cheap black bread and hot soup could be bought with just a bit of Col from killing low-level monsters. Lodging, however, was expensive. Even renting a room for a single night cost a lot, not to mention buying property.
Many players chose to sleep on the streets. As Lillian walked, he occasionally saw players sprawled across benches, snoring loudly. This was only because the game had just started—once people discovered the "sleep PK" exploit later on, no one would dare sleep outdoors again.
After a few minutes, Lillian entered a small roadside restaurant. An NPC waitress greeted him with a smile.
"Welcome. Please follow me."
She led him to an empty table and handed him a menu. Lillian glanced at it.
"One glass of milk and four black breads, please."
"Understood. One glass of milk and four black breads. Please wait a moment."
She recorded the order and left. The total cost was 80 Col—20 for the milk, 15 per bread.
Based on the average drop of 20–25 Col from Frenzied Boars, killing four of them was enough to cover a meal. Fairly cheap.
Lillian deliberately ordered the cheapest options. He only had a little over 400 Col on him, and after eating, he still needed to hunt more monsters. Otherwise, dinner plus lodging would completely drain his funds.
"Here is your milk and bread. Please enjoy."
"Thank you."
Lillian took a sip of milk—it was rich and smooth. He bit into the bread; it was slightly bitter, but coarse bread wasn't meant to be delicious. Its strength lay in how filling it was.
As he ate, he thought about long-term plans.
His knowledge of SAO was limited. In the anime, most details were glossed over. Aside from being a bit clueless in the first episode, Kirito became essentially invincible from episode two onward. Almost no one—player or monster—could defeat him outside of plot-induced situations.
How he leveled, how he farmed monsters—none of that was explained. Time skips were frequent, jumping months or even half a year at once. It was absurd.
In theory, Lillian could do nothing—just grind low-level monsters daily to cover food and lodging, stay in safe towns, and wait for Kirito and Asuna to defeat Kayaba years later. Problem solved.
But that took far too long.
Lillian only had a few years left. He couldn't afford to waste them all in SAO. He had to level up and clear the game faster than Kirito.
As for directly confronting Kayaba Akihiko? That was impossible.
Even if Lillian identified him early and exposed his identity, Kayaba would simply grin. Found me already? Fine—duel me. Win, and I'll shut the game down.
Could Lillian win?
He had zero confidence. Or rather—it was outright impossible.
Who knew whether Kayaba would equip himself with bug-level gear? Never overestimate his integrity—he was absolutely the kind of person who would do anything to achieve his goals. His duel with Kirito in the original story proved that: Kirito broke through his defense, yet Kayaba shamelessly altered his own defense speed to block anyway.
So if Lillian wanted to challenge Kayaba, he needed at least decent equipment and several high-power skills first. And that meant one thing—rapid leveling.
"After a few more levels, I'll enter the dungeon."
Lillian thought. There were 100 floors total. The first floor's dungeon shouldn't be that dangerous. Soloing it might be possible—but preparation was essential. Plenty of potions, at the very least.
Lost in thought, he finished his meal, left the restaurant, and walked around town, chatting up NPCs to see if he could pick up quests. Unfortunately, there were none—either quests were scarce, or the good ones had already been snatched up by beta testers. With no choice, he accepted a repeatable [Hunt Wolves] quest from the town gate guard and headed out.
The experience from Frenzied Boars was no longer worth it for him. His new targets were level 5 wolves.
What surprised him slightly was that after only seven or eight minutes on the plains outside town, he was surrounded by four or five players with malicious expressions.
"No way…"
Lillian thought. It's only the first day, and people are already robbing others?
Yes—by the mid to late stages of SAO, the ten thousand players had split into several groups:
Frontline Assault Teams focused on clearing floors
Town Dwellers who never left safe zones
The Army, players who pooled resources after running out of Col
Crafters, such as blacksmiths, chefs, merchants, and information brokers
Solo Players who preferred operating alone
And the most infamous of all—Bandits, who preyed on other players in the wild
Right now, Lillian had clearly run into the last kind of scum.
Among the four or five of them, a blond-haired young man in his early twenties casually played with a curved blade in his hand, grinning.
"Hand over your Col and equipment."