On December 2, 2022, Kirito reflected on how more than 2,000 players had died since the start of the Sword Art Online official service a month ago, while the 1st Floor had yet to be cleared. Even Kirito, a former beta tester, had been unable to locate the boss room. A meeting was being held in Tolbana to discuss how to find and defeat the 1st Floor Boss.
A self-proclaimed knight, Diavel, called the meeting to order at the town center of Tolbana. After a brief moment of joking among the attendees over the lack of a job system in the game, Diavel regained their attention and announced that his party had located the boss room at the top of the Labyrinth, much to their surprise. He declared that they, as the current strongest players of the game, had a duty to defeat the boss and reach the 2nd Floor, as well as inform the other players in the Town of Beginnings that it was possible to clear the game, and his proclamation was received with enthusiastic approval. Diavel suggested the players to form parties with each other, as a raid group would stand a better chance against the boss than a typical party. As Kirito panicked when he saw that practically everyone else had already formed parties, he noticed a hooded girl alone and asked her to form a party with him, which she accepted. After forming the party, Kirito noticed her name, Asuna, beside her hit point gauge.
After the parties had been formed, the meeting was interrupted by a player who introduced himself as Kibaou. When he demanded an apology from several vague players for the 2,000 deaths in the game, Diavel realized he was referring to the former beta testers. Kibaou affirmed the notion and accused the beta testers of not offering any help to the beginners and instead seizing all the best hunting grounds and easy quests for themselves. He then stated his suspicion that there were beta testers in the meeting and that they should relinquish all of their items and money, otherwise they would not be trusted by the others. However, Agil intervened and defended the Beta Testers, stating that they should not be fully blamed for the tragedies of the fallen players as they had already helped by distributing their knowledge of the game through a manual and that everyone had equal access to the information, and Diavel and the rest of the attending players were revealed to have a copy of the book. After the commotion ended, Diavel read the information book to the players in the crowd, telling them that the boss on the floor was Illfang the Kobold Lord, and that he had minions, called Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He also told them on his last bar of HP, the boss would discard his weapons and equip a Talwar and use a different combat style. Thinking that the book was completely correct, the attending members decided not to scout the boss to check if there was any mistake on the book and planned to battle Illfang the next day.
During the night, Asuna was eating dinner when Kirito came and joined her, prompting her to move away from him. Kirito gave Asuna a jar that tasted like a cream, which she enjoyed very much. Kirito told her that the jar was a reward he got from a quest and offered to show her the trick, but she quickly rejected the offer, stating that she didn't come to the town to enjoy food, but so that she can be herself rather than sit and wait at the first town. Even if she gets killed, she doesn't want to lose to the game. Kirito told her that he doesn't want a party member to die, and asked her to try to not die.
The next day, Kirito and Asuna were asked to target the boss's minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. While walking to the boss, they planned strategies to defeat the helpers. The group entered the Floor Boss room where Illfang the Kobold Lord awaited along with his spawning minions, and the two factions charged at each other. Diavel led the raiding party and gave out commands on blocking and attacking the boss and his minions. During the battle, Kirito noticed Asuna's speed, remarking that he could not keep up with her blade. As the Boss's fourth HP gauge reached the red zone, Diavel ordered everybody to keep their distance, advanced ahead of the group, and approached the boss alone, which confused Kirito, as the original plan was for the raid group to surround it. However, Kirito quickly noticed that something was wrong when Illfang pulled out a Nodachi instead of a Talwar, which Illfang had used in the Closed Beta. Kirito told Diavel to stop and pull back, but he was too late, and the latter received a deadly combo from the boss' katana skills. As Diavel's health speedily dropped to 0, Kirito tried to give him a healing potion, but Diavel rejected it. In his last moment, Kirito learned that Diavel was after the Last Attack and was also a Beta Tester, and that he knew Kirito had been in the beta as well. He asked Kirito to defeat the boss for everyone before he shattered into many polygons.
With Asuna’s help, Kirito attempted to defeat the boss, with the same strategies they had used on the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. The boss proved to be fast and attacked Asuna first, but she dodged the hit, resulting in her cloak being destroyed, revealing her face. They continued with their tactics until Kirito made a mistake and got hit, slamming into Asuna. Agil saved them from receiving the final blow and told them to recover while the rest held the boss off. After they recovered, Kirito and Asuna give one last hit and Kirito received the last attack on the boss, defeating the boss with Kirito obtaining the Last Attack bonus item, the «Coat of Midnight».
Everyone celebrated their victory until Kibaou and his group reminded everyone that Diavel died, stating that Kirito let him die by withholding information that he knew the boss's attack pattern, and accused him of being a beta tester, not knowing that Diavel was a beta tester also. As everyone suspected each other of being beta testers, Kirito remembered Diavel's last words and gulped. Agil and Asuna tried to speak, but Kirito laughed and told the clearing group that they were better than those "newbies" (beta testers) who did not know how to level up, and boasted that he was not like the other testers because he reached higher floors than them and knew the boss's attack pattern because he fought monsters using katana skills on higher floors, and stated that he knew more than any information broker. Kibaou and many players in the clearing group then accused Kirito of being a cheater and one of them categorized him as a Beater (Beta Tester + Cheater), but Kirito expressed enjoyment in having the new title, and told the other players not to confuse him with other beta testers.
After equipping the «Coat of Midnight» to distinguish himself from the other beta testers, Kirito soon left the group behind and proceeded to open the gate to the next floor. Asuna briefly stopped him and asked how he knew her name, thus Kirito told her to look at her interface for the party screen. She then finally learned his name and felt dumb that she did not notice since it was there since the very beginning. Kirito then told Asuna that someone strong like her should find a guild she can trust as there were limits on what a solo player could do, after which he dissolved the party and headed to the 2nd Floor.
Rating: 9/10
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