“No logout button? That’s impossible. Take another look.”
Hearing Klein’s words, Kirito looked at his system menu bar in confusion and glanced at the bottom row.
“There isn’t!”
Kirito’s expression changed. The logout button, which should have been at the bottom of the menu bar during the closed beta, had disappeared. He felt shocked and a bad premonition filled his heart.
“Yaman? Do you have one?”
Klein looked at Xia Yaman, hoping to get a “yes” from him, which could at least comfort himself.
However, Xia Yaman shook his head and said, “I looked before, I didn’t see a logout button.”
Hearing Xia Yaman’s answer, Klein was quite disappointed. He looked at Kirito: “Kirito, you were a closed beta player, did anything like this happen during the closed beta?”
“No.”
Kirito shook his head and said, “There was a logout button during the closed beta, and nothing major happened until the end of the closed beta.”
“Ah, this can’t be.”
Klein said speechlessly, “This kind of situation happened just after the official release. It’s too bad.”
“Don’t worry.”
Kirito said calmly, “After all, it’s different from the closed beta. This time, the official release has nearly ten thousand people online simultaneously. It’s reasonable for the server to have some bugs.”
“If this kind of large-scale bug happens, the ones who should worry are not us, but SAO’s operators. They should have already discovered the bug now. They are probably busy dealing with it.”
Kirito said with a smile, “Let’s wait a bit longer. They should be able to fix it soon.”
“It’s already almost 5:30. My takeout is supposed to be delivered at 5:30!”
Klein said frantically, “Isn’t there any other way to force logout? For example, forcefully taking the game helmet off your head?”
“Our physical bodies outside are in an immobile state, so it’s impossible to take off the game helmet ourselves.”
Kirito explained, “Unless someone outside notices that something is wrong with us, that we can’t move, and they forcibly take off the helmet.”
“I live alone!”
Klein became even more anxious.
“I live with my mom and sister. If I don’t go out for dinner, they should take off the helmet.”
Kirito said with relief, “As for Yaman, he’s taken care of by his maid, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Sister?”
Klein immediately forgot about his inability to logout. His eyes lit up and he looked at Kirito: “Kirito, you actually have a sister? How old is she?”
“That... forget about it, she’s in the sports club, and she practices kendo. She hates gamers like us the most.”
Kirito smiled awkwardly, “You two probably won’t have anything to talk about. However, Yaman might have some common topics with her.”
“Kendo again! Kendo again! Why didn’t I meet a girl who practiced kendo when I was in school!”
Klein said in regret. He then looked at Xia Yaman with envy, jealousy, and hatred, “It’s just me who has to wait for the operators to fix the bug. My takeout!”
“There’s no way.”
Xia Yaman shrugged with a smile.
“Actually, you can think about it this way. This kind of bug is also beneficial to us players. After it’s fixed, they will definitely give us some compensation. After all, SAO’s operators are known for their commitment to protecting players’ rights.”
Kirito comforted him.
“That’s the only thing I can do.”
Klein sat on the grass dejectedly.
Suddenly...
“Ding dong ding dong ding dong!”
A bell-like alarm rang throughout the sky, echoing in everyone’s ears, causing an ominous premonition to arise.
The gazes of Xia Yaman and the other three focused on the direction from which the bell came, the starting town.
“Zheng—!”
The next moment, something unusual happened around the three of them.
A sky-blue light shone, enveloping their bodies.
Outside the blue light, the scenery gradually faded away, and space also changed.
“Is this the Black Iron Palace?”
Xia Yaman quickly realized where they were.
It was the initial login point when they first arrived in SAO.
“Zheng!”
“Zheng!”
The blue light kept appearing in the Black Iron Palace, just like when the game first started a few hours ago. One after another, players were transferred to the Black Iron Palace.
“Forced transfer?”
Kirito was stunned.
“Kirito, what’s going on? Why were we transferred to the Black Iron Palace?”
Klein asked in confusion.
“This is SAO’s transfer function. It’s a function that will be available to players once they progress to the upper levels. It seems that the operators are using their authority to forcibly transfer all players to the Black Iron Palace. Let’s see what they want to say.”
Kirito explained.
Klein nodded, his face serious as he scanned his surroundings.
“This is the Black Iron Palace?”
“I’m still in the wild! How did I get here?”
“What’s going on?”
“Why can’t I log out?!”
“Someone explain this to me!”
“What a terrible game!”
Many confused players around them made a lot of noise, making the noise louder and louder, gradually turning into panic. A tense atmosphere filled the entire place.
Suddenly, a terrifying sight appeared in the sky.
All the players noticed this, staring blankly at the sky. For a moment, the entire Black Iron Palace became silent.
In the sky, a bright red grid pattern appeared without any warning.
In the center, a huge drop of liquid, like viscous blood, fell from the sky, changing shape in mid-air.
The liquid kept twisting and changing, finally becoming a deep red cloaked giant nearly twenty meters tall.
To be more precise, it was just a cloak.
Because inside the cloak, there was no face. It was a black void, no flesh and blood, not even an arm extending from the end of the sleeve. There was only a pure white glove, as if an invisible person was wearing the cloak, giving a sense of horror.
“This is the game’s GM.”
Kirito explained.
“Finally appeared! This bastard, I want to ask him why he hasn’t fixed the bug. My takeout must have been missed!”
Klein stared at the cloak and said through gritted teeth.
“He should be here to explain.”
Kirito nodded, “But it’s strange. This kind of bug appeared, but there was no system announcement. They directly sent a game GM.”
........
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