Chapter 82: This is the time to replenish your strength! Time to challenge the Floor Boss!

Lewd?

Where's the lewdness?

The scene wasn't exactly awkward, but Shinobu quickly caught on to what Asuna meant—so fast that she didn't even have time to feel the changes in her body.

Her already blushing face practically steamed.

"It's… it's not what you think, Asuna! I just wanted to become one of the Chosen of Pleasure so Shirakawa-kun could bless me!"

"Mhm. I believe you."

Asuna nodded, though her eyes were clearly full of suspicion.

From where she stood, she could clearly see the divine mark on Shinobu's abdomen. While it was true nothing had happened yet…

Her face red, Asuna didn't even get to ask Shirakawa about his lunch preferences. She fled back into the kitchen to focus on cooking.

Sachi, helping with the ingredients, noticed something was off and asked curiously,

"Shirakawa-kun… what kind of food does he like?"

"Hmm…"

"He didn't say, but I think… we should probably make something that's good for restoring strength."

Shinobu didn't even blame her.

She could already feel her body improving—not just through Breathing Techniques, but from something much deeper and more fundamental.

And besides—

Asuna wasn't the type to gossip behind someone's back.

Shinobu blinked and asked,

"Is this enough?"

"Just about."

"The Chosen of Pleasure Mark enhances your physical abilities. Once this mission ends, we'll set your teleport anchor to Hestia's world."

But if being a Chosen only offered stat boosts, it'd be too underwhelming. Ideally, Shirakawa wanted to develop her based on a more advanced template.

As a servant of the God of Pleasure, they could gain power from sub-dimensional energy. What Shirakawa needed now was access to such a subspace.

"Let's hope this works…"

"If I can reconfigure a virtual seed that can store consciousness into a subspace core, then I can bring my Chosen ones into other worlds."

He didn't overthink it. Creating subspace might mean going up against three other chaotic gods—but if he could open one, things would go much more smoothly.

With her full housewife skillset, Asuna quickly prepared lunch, aided by Sachi.

"Thanks to Sachi's help…"

Looking at the rather hearty meal, Asuna turned to the girl beside her.

"I think it would've taken way longer to get lunch done otherwise."

"Once we've recharged, we can go start clearing the floor!"

Shirakawa looked over the food and smiled.

He could smell the delicious aroma—it was impressive what they made with such limited ingredients.

Since SAO players could feel pain, they could also taste food properly.

"Leveling up is important. Let's head out."

He wasn't sure if forcibly entering the SAO world through the dimensional chat would alert GM Kayaba Akihiko.

Speedrunning the game.

Without the Knights of the Blood Oath forming, Shirakawa was sure he could fully clear the game. Meeting its creator should be possible.

After a quick break, they geared up—just basic beginner equipment—and Asuna, Sachi, Shirakawa, and Shinobu made their way to Aincrad's dungeon entrance.

According to Sachi—

Some players who wanted out of the game had already started forming clearing teams to take down the first-floor boss.

There might even be a surprise—

Like Mito, one of Asuna's in-game friends.

She might've joined one of those parties to fight Illfang the Kobold Lord. Her strength wasn't in doubt—and most importantly…

She was a beautiful girl.

Which made her especially relevant.

Without her red cloak and in full battle stance, Asuna led her clearing team into the labyrinth.

However—

The player-made raid group had already cleared out most of the orcs and lizardmen along the way, so there weren't any major problems.

Except for two lizardmen they hadn't finished off—equipped with basic shields and spears—who now stood in the way of the raid group.

"..."

Still not fully used to the in-game combat, Asuna gripped her rapier tightly. She wasn't panicked, though—after all, she had Shirakawa as a safety net.

She stayed calm.

Just as the lizardmen were getting close and she was about to attack, a figure flashed by at lightning speed right beside her.

The fluttering garment on the figure's back looked as light as butterfly wings.

"Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter."

With her incredible agility, even Asuna and Sachi couldn't react in time—let alone the AI-driven monsters.

Shinobu's Nichirin blade sliced past the lizardmen's defenses, piercing their chests in a clean strike. Their HP dropped to zero, and they were instantly eliminated.

The lizardmen vanished without leaving corpses behind.

Shinobu was gaining a deeper understanding of this game world. Since she hadn't switched to an adventurer class or gained a character panel, she couldn't earn experience points.

She looked at Shirakawa, slightly surprised. "So this is what a game world is like?"

"More or less."

"If your HP hits zero, you die. No matter how much damage you dealt before that, the monster retains its full strength until you finish it."

He explained this mainly for Asuna and Yuki—to help them understand how the boss fight would work.

To Shirakawa, clearing low-level monsters was meaningless, so they continued deeper into the labyrinth without issues.

After walking through the long corridors—

The group arrived in front of the temple, where quite a few other players had already gathered. The route had been cleared out thoroughly.

The players were resting.

The leader was a young man with blue hair, the one who had initiated the raid. Seeing a new group of players arrive, he smiled warmly.

Even though the group looked… odd.

One guy leading three beautiful girls? Just Asuna and Shinobu alone could easily rank in the top ten of SAO's player base for looks.

Seeing the overall low morale of the raid team—

The leader, Diabel, smiled and called out, "You're here to help take down the boss too, right? The more people, the higher the chance of success."

"..."

Many players turned to look at Shirakawa and his group. Even if they weren't very strong, they could at least serve as cannon fodder—to increase their own chances of survival.

Asuna didn't respond directly to the invitation.

Instead, she looked to Shirakawa—ultimately, he was the one who decided whether to join or not.

"You're all trying to escape from SAO, right?"

Shirakawa didn't respond to Diabel's invitation. Instead, his gaze swept across the crowd before settling on a certain figure standing quietly in the corner.

A girl with a purple ponytail, thigh-high boots, and a scythe—Mito.

Sure enough, they'd run into her here. Shirakawa planned to invite her into the group after they finished off the temple boss.

For now, the focus was organizing the players.

Looking at Diabel—the guy who, in the original story, died at the hands of the Kobold Lord—Shirakawa casually said, "You're all just trying to get out of the game, right?"

"Of course."

Diabel didn't deny it. "We've all gathered here with the same goal—to conquer Aincrad and return to the real world."

"Then let your team handle the normal mobs. As for the floor boss in the temple, leave that to our raid group."

"What did you just say?"

"..."

Before Diabel could make sense of what was happening, Shirakawa led Asuna and Shinobu right past everyone and pushed open the massive doors of the temple.

The battle against the floor boss—the Kobold Lord—had begun.

By the time Diabel reacted and tried to stop them, it was already too late. The massive, intimidating monster had already appeared in front of them.

He clenched his teeth.

Diabel turned back to his team. "We've come this far, and now other players are jumping in too. Let's just go with it."

"We can win this!"

Some players grumbled at Shirakawa's team for trying to steal the kill—after all, clearing the mobs had taken a lot of time and effort.

And yet...

This new team barged in without even resting and started the boss fight!

One of the players, noticing something strange, quickly explained, "I just got a message from my friend..."

"He said there's a raid group back in the starting town that only accepts female players… led by a male player. That's gotta be them, right?"

"..."

It was a weird team—acting in strange ways.

But with the boss fight already underway, no one could afford to hold a grudge against Shirakawa. Everyone wanted to escape this world.

One after another, they picked up their weapons and entered the temple, hoping to help Shirakawa and Asuna take down the floor boss.

Among them was a girl who had only recently joined and wasn't familiar with the others—Mito.

Seeing Asuna's familiar figure ahead, she made up her mind. Clutching her scythe, she couldn't help but wonder how Asuna had changed so much in such a short time.

She used to avoid even leaving the inn.

Now she was forming her own raid group—and that Shirakawa guy… he definitely sparked her curiosity.

"Let's go help too!"