After the disappearance of Akihiko Kayaba, the sky above the Black Iron Palace returned to its original state, and the plaza filled with players fell into a silent silence for a moment.
Moments later, the players reacted as expected.
“This is a lie… what’s going on? It must be a lie!”
“Stop kidding! Let me out! Get me out of here!”
“I have work to do!”
“No, let me go back, let me go back!”
The first player let out such a roar of anger, and then, like a chain reaction, most of the players fell into unprecedented panic.
Moans, roars, screams, curses, growls, pleas, and cries mixed together, the tsunami-like sound making the entire plaza tremble.
“You two, come with me.”
After being stunned for a moment, Kirito quickly regained his composure and pulled Klein and Xia Yan through the crazed crowd.
Soon, the three of them bypassed the crowd and came to a dark corner of the street.
“Kirito, you look so awkward, how old are you anyway?”
Although Klein’s expression was somewhat gloomy, his attention was focused on Kirito’s appearance.
“Is this the time to think about these things?”
Kirito was choked and said speechlessly.
“I'm also in a mess right now, I don't know what to think about. But Yan, why are you still the same? You didn't change your model when you entered the game?”
Klein looked at Xia Yan again.
“I'm using the initial character model.”
Xia Yan replied with a smile.
“Don't you two have any sense of tension at all!”
Kirito glared at the two with a rather stuffy feeling. He was worried about the future, but these two didn’t seem to have any fear of the future at all.
“Since it's already happened, there's no need to be so anxious. After all, this game is definitely not something that can be cleared overnight.”
Xia Yan shrugged: “Akihiko Kayaba had a point. Let’s focus our energy on this game.”
“If all else fails, just treat this game as a journey to a different world in a novel.”
“Good point!”
Klein’s face looked much better, and he said lightly: “This is a rare experience!”
But it was obvious that Klein was still a little panicky, just pretending to be relaxed.
“You two have taken away all my sense of tension.”
Kirito said with a wry smile.
After being told by Xia Yan, he did feel a little more relaxed than before.
“Okay, you dragged us to this corner, what do you want to say?”
Xia Yan asked.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
Kirito took a deep breath and said seriously: “If what Akihiko Kayaba said is true, now this game has become a death game, and if we want to survive in this world, we must desperately strengthen ourselves.”
“Are you talking about resource competition between players?”
Xia Yan pondered for a moment and replied.
“Exactly.”
Kirito looked at Xia Yan in surprise. He didn’t expect him to figure out the key point so quickly, worthy of a wealthy young master.
“I think many closed beta players already have the same idea as me.”
Kirito explained: “The training areas around 【Starting Town】 will soon be depleted of resources. In the end, it will only become a situation where players continuously search for monster respawn points in the game. Therefore, the best solution now is to use the next village as our training point. I know the route to the next village and the dangerous places, and with our current level, we can safely reach the next village.”
Kirito explained a whole bunch of game rules.
Klein said with a bitter smile: “I have other friends in the game. We actually agreed to play together. Those guys should have just logged in, they are still at the plaza. I can’t leave them alone.”
The meaning of this sentence was very clear, he rejected Kirito’s invitation to go together.
Kirito bit his lip and looked at Xia Yan, asking his opinion.
“I want to see if there are any acquaintances in the plaza. If I remember correctly, one acquaintance should still be there. I can’t leave her alone.”
Xia Yan shrugged helplessly, rejecting Kirito’s kindness.
The heroine, Asuna, was a newbie to the game. Xia Yan was still planning to go 刷一波存在感 (shua yi bo cunzai gan) (show off or impress others).
Even if he didn’t meet the heroine, there were several female supporting characters, and it was okay to 刷一下存在感 (shua yi xia cunzai gan) (show off or impress others).
Xia Yan was not a picky person.
Kirito showed a struggling expression, and resolutely said: “Then let's part ways here. If you need anything, just contact me.”
Kirito turned and prepared to leave.
In the face of life and death, it was already considerate of him to say these things to the two people he just met.
“Actually, you don’t have to be in such a hurry.”
Xia Yan spoke: “What was the average level and time it took to clear the first floor during your closed beta?”
“The average level is around level 5, and it took us half a month to clear the first floor.”
Kirito stopped.
“Was the way to clear the boss the same as in previous online games, using a human wave tactic, piling up players’ lives?”
Xia Yan asked.
“Yes.”
Kirito nodded.
“Then based on my estimate, it will be impossible for players to clear the first floor boss with an average level of 5 this time. The level needs to be doubled, maybe it’s possible to clear it without damage.”
Xia Yan analyzed: “And it will take more time to level up to level 10 than during your closed beta. Based on the leveling speed, conservatively estimate about a month.”
“A month’s time, the resource competition might not be that important. With your and my abilities, we should be able to reach level 10 within a month.”
Xia Yan continued: “Besides, there should not be any particularly rare special items on the first floor.”
“If we reach the higher floors, rare special items are worth fighting for, but on the first floor, there is no need to face danger alone for now.”
Hearing Xia Yan's analysis, Kirito was stunned.
He only considered grabbing resources, leveling up quickly, desperately surviving, and clearing the game. He had not considered these issues mentioned by Xia Yan.
“Yeah, Kirito, don’t you think Yan’s right?”
Klein immediately stepped forward to persuade.
Although they had only been together for half a day, Klein was almost 刷满好感度 (shua man hao gan du) (reached maximum affection or liking) by Kirito.
…
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