"Ding dong—"
"Please wait a moment."
After a series of hurried footsteps, with a click, the door opened.
Riko, Kirito's sister, looked at the man and woman standing outside the door.
"e,"
Ling Feng said.
"Master, I can use the highest GM authority to restore your character data in SAO and make it usable."
Mirai suddenly chimed in.
"What?!"
Ling Feng and the other person said in unison.
"I can rewrite and add code to restore and enable these things."
This statement was shocking, implying that they were god-tier accounts compared to others!
"Will Sugou, that scumbag, notice?"
"Master, even if he can notice, Mirai's authority is far above his. Even the game creator's authority can be modified and banned by Mirai in minutes."
Mirai said confidently and calmly.
"Amazing, Mirai."
"That's still a matter of game experience. Sayuri, I'll see you under the World Tree."
"Okay."
"Let's have a race. Whoever arrives first can ask the other for one reasonable request, how about it?"
"Victory will be mine."
Hearing this, Sayuri's spirits immediately perked up. When you talk about this, I'm not sleepy anymore.
As the light flashed, the two disappeared.
...
At the entrance to the World Tree's roots, Kirito, Leafa (Riko), and Regen (Riko's friend) were discussing tactics.
Not long ago, a dramatic scene unfolded: Kirito attempted to solo the World Tree but ultimately failed.
The revival time was long. At this moment, Leafa rushed in, saved his soul, and revived him with a resurrection potion.
As Kirito prepared to solo the World Tree again, he thought of Asuna's name.
Of course, his sister recognized him. His sister had always liked him, but hadn't told him. (She's not his biological sister.)
After his sister entered the game world, she fell in love with "Kirito" again.
Twice heartbroken, Riko's mental state completely collapsed.
Riko sadly logged out of the game, and Kirito followed, going to the adjacent room to find her.
Finally, they decided to put the matter aside for now and focus on rescuing Asuna.
"Alright, let's go."
With Kirito's command, the three pushed open the door and entered the World Tree dungeon.
As soon as they entered the center of the World Tree, guardians began to spawn. Kirito, in a race against time, gripped his greatsword with both hands, spread his elven wings, and soared into the sky.
With each sword strike, he cut down the guardians blocking his path, heading straight for the top of the World Tree dungeon.
Leafa and Regen stayed hidden nearby, ready to heal Kirito at any moment.
Soon, Kirito's advance was blocked by a large number of guardians.
Although the guardians were not strong, their sheer numbers were overwhelming. In just half a minute, they numbered over ten thousand.
And they were still increasing, darkening the sky. Kirito's killing speed couldn't keep up with the monsters' respawn rate, and he was effectively trapped in mid-air.
Furthermore, there were archers among them, providing ranged attacks. Kirito was quickly covered in wounds, his health dropping to half.
Leafa and Regen provided ranged healing to Kirito as planned, but unexpectedly, they were also targeted for attack.
Logically, one would not be drawn into the attack list without attacking.
"What's going on?"
"It seems the attack mechanics here are different from outside."
Leafa said grimly after killing a guardian with a slash.
"How is this possible? With this many, how can we possibly clear this?"
Regen looked up at the sky. The guardians, in their vast numbers, had formed a thick, artificial layer of cloud cover.
"Let's go help Kirito."
"Wait, Leafa, this matter is very important, isn't it?"
Regen stopped Leafa and asked.
"Yes."
"I understand."
Regen's eyes were resolute. He soared into the sky, continuously killing guardians to draw their aggro, approaching the "sky curtain."
Boom!!!
Ignoring the severe death penalty, Regen unleashed a self-detonation spell, forcibly creating a gap in the "sky curtain."
Seeing this, Kirito seized the opportunity and flew rapidly towards the gap, but was instantly focused-fired and reduced to critical health, falling from the sky.
At the same time, the gap in the "sky curtain" was filled by guardians within three seconds.
"How could this be!"
Leafa couldn't believe it. Gritting her teeth, she healed the critically injured Kirito, but soon they were surrounded by a swarm of guardians.
"Asuna—"
Kirito looked at the restored "sky curtain" with unwillingness.
"Heavenly—Beyond—Immortal—Flying!"
"This voice is—"
The voice that suddenly reached his ears made Kirito's spirit surge, and a glimmer of hope reignited in his heart.
Every time this voice appeared in the past, it had saved him from peril.
After a dazzling sword light, in an instant, the guardians surrounding Kirito were completely annihilated.
Kirito watched the familiar figure descend from the sky.
"Sorry, Kirito, I'm a little late."
"Not at all, it's just right. By the way, how did you use a sword skill?"
"I hacked into the world system and added sword skills, so..."
Ling Feng smiled mysteriously.
"I'll heal your wounds."
Sayuri flew up from below. As a water spirit, healing magic was the strongest among all the elves.
"By the way, when you came, did you see the wind spirit troops?"
"They've already arrived."
Ling Feng glanced downwards. A large number of players were continuously pouring in from the entrance.
"All troops, advance!"
"Kirito, we'll clear the path for you. Asuna is yours to save."
With that said, Ling Feng drew Fog Wind and activated his dual-wielding mode.
Hunt time!