Chapter 3

During the four days remaining until Christmas, my level went up

once more, to 70.

During this time, I did not sleep at all. This would be the price.

Sometimes I get these piercing headaches, as if I was being struck by

nails, but I think that even if I were to lie down, I wouldn't be able to

fall asleep.

Since that encounter, Klein's guild Fuurinkazan has never been to

the ant's valley again. I continued to mix in line with the other guilds,

hunting the mechanical ants alone. The expressions of those players

who saw my eyes had also finally turned from ridicule to disgust.

Although sometimes there are still players that respond to me, as soon

as anyone met with my line of sight, the face would immediately turn

away from me.

Among the group of players whose target was the Christmas gift,

the biggest question was where exactly was the giant fir tree that

«Nicholas the Renegade» would appear under—regarding this

question, I took advantage of the wait time in the ant valley, and

obtained a very likely answer.

I had gone to the coordinates that I bought from various

intelligence businesses, but even though the exteriors appeared to be

Christmas trees, they were in fact not fir trees, but pine trees. The

needles on pine trees are not the same. The front end of fir leaves has a

thin and elongated oval shape. Because in the real world I have these

two types of trees in my back yard, I know this.

A few months ago, I was on the thirty-fifth floor's training area

where there was a random transfer dungeon called the "Lost Forest",

and in a particular corner I found a giant curved tree. I thought that

there had to be some hidden meaning to the shape, possibly the

starting point of some unknown task and so carefully investigated, but

nothing was found. In retrospect, that giant tree was a fir tree. On

Christmas – that is, tonight, special Mob «Nicholas the Renegade»

should appear there under the tree.

I listened to the calling sound that indicated I was now up a level

to 70 without any feeling, and after the ant mob around me was dealt

with, I took out from my bag a teleport crystal. Without greeting the

players currently in line, I went straight to the frontline floor where I

was lodging, to the main street area of the forty-ninth floor.

I raised my head to look at the transfer gate plaza's clock tower,

to see that it was three hours away from midnight. Probably because

they wanted to spend Christmas Eve together, around the square was

full of players in couples. I quickly crossed them to go back to the hotel.

Charging into my hotel room, I immediately opened the storage

box installed in the room, taking from the item window that popped up

all the restoration, detoxification crystals and potions and the like.

Although these alone could count up a hefty balance sheet, I would not

pity it even if all of them were used up.

As soon as I took out a single-handed sword from my collection,

confirmed its durability, I took off the sword on my back that I used to

fight the ants and exchanged it. Then I also exchanged my leather coat

and armor and everything else for new items. When I had finished, I

was about to close the window when I saw my inventory and stopped

my hand.

There, in addition to the «Self» written there, my own inventory

page, was another label that read the name «Sachi».

This is the result of a very good relationship between two players,

but one which has not progressed to «Marriage» —such players set

their own common items window. This is different from the way that

all items in marriage are shared in that only items in this separate

window are shared.

Sachi, who had never asked for a confession or to hold hands

previously, requested shortly before her death to set up this window.

When I asked for the reason, she gave an answer that was difficult to

accept, that it was for easily exchanging healing potions and similar

items—if this was the purpose, there was clearly already a guild open

that could be used for that. But I nonetheless agreed, and set up this

window to share only between Sachi and me.

Though Sachi died, this window still remained. Of course, the

friend list would also still retain Sachi's name, but it would be a grey

that could not be contacted. And the few remaining healing potions left

in the shared inventory, these would also not be used. After half a year,

even with the guild page deleted without feeling, I was unable to

remove the label of Sachi's name. Of course—the reason was not that I

believed she could be resurrected—I just couldn't forgive the self that

would have been able to feel better after having deleted her name.

I only recovered and closed the window after looking at Sachi's

name for ten minutes. It was two hours until midnight.

As I walked out of the room and towards the direction of the

transfer gate, I kept thinking about that expression on Sachi's face in

her final moment, what she was thinking, and, what exactly she wanted

to say.

Transferring to the gate on the thirty-fifth floor, I came to a

completely different square from that of the frontline, one that was

very quiet. Maybe because there was still some distance from here to

the main battlefield of intermediate players, the main street area was

simply not worth strolling through. But still, I pulled up my coat's

collar to avoid the eyes of several players in the area, quickly leaving

the street.

Unwilling to spend time fighting against the small fries, I started

running after checking that no one was chasing after me from behind.

With the level I managed to gain during the past one month, my agility

went up a lot, and my feet that stepped on the snow were as light as

feathers. The aching pain that came from the temple never disappeared,

but it caused my mind to be unable to sleep at all.

After about 10 minutes of running, I arrived at the entrance of the

forest maze. This field dungeon was segregated by numerous 4-sided

polygons, and as the areas were connected to each other, it could be

said to be impossible to break through if there's no map.

After opening the map, I stared at the marked areas and went into.

After memorizing the path in my mind, I went alone into that silent

forest.

After two battles that I couldn't avoid, I entered the area in front

of all the trees that covered the target without any difficulty. There was

still more than 30 minutes.

Then, I would be fighting against this boss monster alone that

would likely take my life—a high chance at that. I couldn't feel any fear

inside. Or rather, maybe that's what I was expecting. To die in battle to

revive Sachi may be the only way I could accept death—

I didn't want to say something heroic like I'm looking for my

resting place. I caused Sachi and the other four allies to die

meaninglessly, and I have no right to look for a significance in dying.

What's the point of doing this? Sachi once asked me. And I

answered her, there was none.

Right now, I could finally turn those words into reality. Sachi died

meaninglessly in this meaningless death game SAO that the insane

genius Kayaba Akihito created. With that, I'll die in a place no one

would notice, not remembered by anyone, and to die meaninglessly

like that.

If, I beat that boss and survive, that revival item would turn from

rumor to reality. That was what I thought. Sachi's soul would return

from the Death Road or the River Styx, and then I can finally hear her

last words. Finally—just finally, let me wait for this moment…

Just when I was ready to step forward and finish walking the last

few meters, several players appeared from the warp point behind me. I

jumped back in shock as I held the hilt of my sword behind me.

What appeared was a group of 10 people, and standing right in

front was a samurai guy in light armor, a katana on his waist, and a

headscarf—Klein.

The main members of the Fuurinkazan guild each looked nervous

as they moved closer to me from the warp point behind them. I

continued to look at Klein's face and squeeze out a hoarse voice.

"…Were you following me?"

Klein grabbed the hair that was made straight by the bandana and

nodded.

"Yeah. We have someone with good tracking skill."

"Why me?"

"Because I bought the information that you bought all the tree

coordinates, and for safety measure, I went to look at the sentry gate at

the 49th level, but found that you were moving towards the level

where there was no information on. I felt that your battle ability and

gaming instincts were really strong, stronger than the clearing

group…even more than that Heathcliff. So…Kirito, you can't die at a

place like this."

Klein reached out his right hand, pointed his finger at me and

shouted,

"GIVE UP ON THAT RECKLESS SOLO ATTACK AND PARTY WITH

US! LET THE PERSON WHO GETS THE REVIVAL ITEM DROP KEEP IT,

OKAY!?"

"…In that case…"

I couldn't believe that Klein said that to me because he viewed me

as a friend, that he was worried about me.

"In that case, it's meaningless…I have to attack alone…"

I wielded my sword hilt tightly, and my mind was burning crazily

and somewhat unconsciously thought.

—Let's just kill everyone.

In the past, when the death game started, I abandoned Klein, this

beginner who didn't know anything, and went on to the next town. I

regretted over this for a long time, and was relieved that Klein was able

to live on in such a fine fashion.

At that time, I was seriously wondering, do I have to achieve my

aim even if I had to slay one of my few friends and fall as a red player?

My heart was weakly screaming that this was meaningless. However,

the other side was giving a voice, hoping that I would die

meaninglessly, but was roared back in an overwhelming fashion.

I really believed that if I drew my sword slightly then, I wouldn't

be able to stop myself from that moment on. And Klein was looking at

me sadly while my right hand trembled and continued to struggle.

At that moment, a 3rd group of intruders arrived.

Also, this group wasn't just 10, but about 3 times the party. I

stared at that large party blankly and muttered to Klein, who turned

back in a similarly shocked manner,

"Seemed like you guys were followed too, Klein."

"…Ahh, looks that way…"

At the boundary that looked like it was 50m away, there were

people I recently saw at the anthill, staring wordlessly at Fuurinkazan

and me. The Fuurinkazan swordsman that was standing beside Klein

leaned beside the leader's face and whispered,

"Those guys are the «Divine Dragons Alliance», a group of guys

who can become orange just to attack the flag boss."

I heard that name often too. Their name was as famous as the

Knights of the Blood, the largest guild amongst the clearing group.

Those guys should each be below me in level, but I had no belief in

beating that many people.

But—perhaps the outcome should be the same.

Suddenly, I felt that whether I was killed by a boss monster or a

guild, it would all be meaninglessly. But then again, at least it would be

a better choice than fighting with Klein, right?

I decided to draw my sword from my back. I was lazy to even

think. I just needed to be like a robot and focus on swinging my sword,

destroy everything in front of me until I break down.

However, Klein's shout caused my hand to stop.

"DAMN IT! THOSE BASTARDS!"

The katana user drew out the weapon at his waist faster than I

could and growled at me from behind.

"Get over there, Kirito! Leave this to me! Go beat the boss! I won't

allow you to die though! I won't forgive you if you dare to die in front

of me! Never!"

"…"

There wasn't much time left. I turned my back on Klein and

entered the last warp point without saying thanks.

The large fir trees, the location where I memorized, and the

curves of the memories, they were all standing there silently. There

didn't seem to be any other 4-sided areas of trees as the landscape was

glowing with pure white snow, and it looked like a barren land with all

life extinguished.

As the timer in the corner of my eye reached zero, an alarm

sounded from somewhere, and I lifted my head and looked over at the

treetop.

The pitch-black night sky, or rather, with the base of the upper

level as background, those lines of light continued to reach over.

Looking at them closely, I found that it was a strangely-shaped monster

dragging a giant sled.

As it reached the top of the trees, a black shadow flew down from

the sled, and I took a few steps back.

What landed hard and scattered the snow was a monster that was

3 times my size. He still appeared to be human, but his arms were

extremely long, and because his body was bent forward, those arms

almost touched the ground. The small red eyes were glowing under the

abnormal bulge on the forehead of the shadow. The lower half of the

face was full of curly grey beard, and the length even reached the waist.

Strangely, this monster was wearing a red and white shirt, a coneshaped hat that was of the same color, wielding an axe with the right

hand, and a large bag full of things on the left hand. The designer who

designed this guy probably wanted to let a large group of players to be

scared yet amused once they see this ridiculous ugly version of a boss

Santa Claus. But to me, who's facing this «Nicholas the Renegade» solo,

the appearance of the boss wasn't important.

Nicholas may be starting to say the lines for this mission as he got

ready to move his tangled beard.

"Shut up!"

As I muttered this, I drew my sword, and my right foot kicked

hard into the thick layer of snow.