The First Floor Labyrinth of Aincrad stood at the far northern edge of the floor, while Tolbana was the closest settlement to it.
Anyone traveling there from Horunka Village or Medai Village generally had to cross grasslands, wetlands, mountain passes, and caves before finally reaching Tolbana, which lay nestled within a valley.
There was also the option of taking a longer route through Razer Village to rest and resupply, but Shindo’s inventory was already well stocked, so he saw no reason to make the detour.
At present, he was making his way through the interior of the mountain range itself.
After entering through one of the cave mouths, he followed a broad passage illuminated by naturally glowing crystal deposits embedded throughout the rock, making torches or other artificial light sources largely unnecessary.
The tunnels branching through the mountain formed a dense network, but they were far from cramped.
If anything, the place reminded Shindo of a gigantic sewer system, only far wider and more spacious than any underground drainage network he had seen in the real world.
He had left Horunka Village the day before yesterday, three days after parting ways with Asuna and Mito.
The moment Old Gray finally finished the boots he had promised, Shindo collected them and set off.
After one last round of restocking at the item shop and weapon store, he hurriedly said goodbye to the people of Horunka and began the journey toward Tolbana.
He had arrived in the village alone and left carrying far more than he had brought with him: the friendship of nearly every resident of Horunka, a full set of blue-quality equipment or better, and places on both Asuna’s and Mito’s friends lists.
Shindo had also sold Argo everything he knew about Horunka’s hidden quests.
Argo had already reached Tolbana herself, but because she was pouring most of her available col into printing strategy guides for newer players, she currently had no way to pay him.
Naturally, the debt had simply been added to the increasingly impressive amount she already owed him.
Kirito had reached the southeastern region around Tolbana—or perhaps the Labyrinth itself—even earlier.
With the abundance of stronger elite MOBs in that area, he was probably grinding levels at a frantic pace and would soon erase the EXP lead Shindo had gained by getting an early start.
Most of the surviving high-end beta testers would probably hit the limits of efficient EXP farming in their current areas within the next few days as well, forcing them to begin making their own way toward Tolbana.
Shindo was still thinking about that as he walked when a scream suddenly echoed from deeper within the mountain.
His wandering thoughts vanished immediately.
He quickened his pace.
Numerous side chambers had been carved into the mountain passages.
Some were relatively safe caverns where travelers could rest, usually marked by green light effects and torches.
Others contained treasure chests.
Whether those were remotely safe was another question entirely.
As a general rule, if a route had already been traveled by other beta testers and an unopened treasure chest was somehow still sitting in plain sight, opening it without thinking was a terrible idea.
Sometimes a supposed treasure room was nothing more than a death trap.
Shindo himself had opened several genuine treasure chests earlier in the journey, but once the mountain paths began converging toward the same general route, he started ignoring every treasure chamber he passed.
If a chest remained untouched on a heavily traveled road, there was usually a reason.
So when screams began coming from one of the nearby caverns, Shindo could already guess what had happened.
Either some fearless beginners had no idea what they were doing, or a group of stubborn idiots had decided that common sense was optional.
“Is anyone there?!” “Somebody help us!” “Anyone!
Please, just help us!
I don’t want to die!” Shindo pressed himself against the wall outside the cavern and carefully leaned around the entrance to inspect the situation.
An opened treasure chest lay overturned among a mass of monsters.
Several players were trapped in the middle of a large group of goblins.
To their credit, their survival instincts appeared to be functioning.
They were panicking badly, but they had still managed to keep their HP in the yellow zone rather than allowing it to fall into the dangerous red.
Shindo quickly estimated the monsters’ numbers and levels.
There were fewer than a hundred Goblin Soldiers, most between Level 6 and Level 8, along with an elite monster named Goblin Leader.
The leader itself was only Level 8, the same as Shindo, but the confined cavern favored the goblins.
Their small bodies and overwhelming numbers made them far more dangerous here than they would have been in an open field.
On the other hand, Shindo had learned «Horizontal Arc» only a few days earlier.
A broad multi-target Sword Skill like that should perform exceptionally well in a cramped environment.
After mentally calculating how much EP he would need to reserve for two activations of «Linear», Shindo drew his Anneal Blade and rushed forward.
Someone beat him to it.
Two figures shot past him at speeds almost too fast for his eyes to follow.
The displaced air whipped against him hard enough that his cloak nearly flew off his hood.
Shindo smiled.
He rolled the sword once through his hand, locked his grip around the hilt, planted his left foot against the ground, and launched himself at the nearest Goblin Soldier with «Slant».
The battle went surprisingly smoothly.
The two mysterious figures were cloaked just as thoroughly as Shindo, yet their speed at killing Goblin Soldiers was almost equal to his own.
That genuinely surprised him.
It meant their levels could not be far below his.
They were probably within a single level of him, and their transitions between ordinary attacks and Sword Skills were so fluid that neither of them could possibly be considered a beginner.
The force of their movements repeatedly sent their cloaks billowing aside, giving Shindo brief glimpses of the clothing beneath.
Skirts.
Both were girls.
Shindo mentally ran through the beta testers he remembered and came up short.
He could not recall that many female swordsmen who had reached this level of skill during the closed beta.
‘Then are these two monster rookies who somehow emerged from the nearly ten thousand new players?’ He had no way of knowing.
Argo had never mentioned anyone whose level had already overtaken his or Kirito’s, but the appearance of these two was still a substantial surprise.
Before long, the goblins’ numbers dropped from nearly a hundred to the single digits.
From their point of view, the monsters themselves had apparently been the unlucky ones caught in a trap.
Goblin Soldiers had little going for them beyond ordinary swings and slashes.
Even the Goblin Leader possessed no particularly dangerous Sword Skills or special abilities.
Once their preferred tactic of overwhelming players through sheer numbers stopped working, they were little more than sturdier versions of the MOBs outside the mountain.
With Shindo and the two mysterious girls working together, the remaining goblins soon shattered into crystalline fragments.
“Thank you!
Seriously, thank you so much for saving us!” The rescued players showered all three of them with gratitude and looked about one step away from dropping to their knees.
Shindo was less impressed.
“Next time you find a treasure chest sitting openly inside a cave like this, don’t just rush over and open it.
Throwing your life away for treasure of unknown value is a terrible trade.” His tone sharpened.
“And you won’t always be lucky enough to have someone passing by who is both capable of saving you and willing to do it.” The two cloaked girls nodded in agreement, though neither said anything.
Their faces remained hidden beneath their hoods, which only made Shindo more curious about who they actually were.
The rescued players looked thoroughly embarrassed and repeatedly apologized while continuing to thank them.
“Try not to get yourselves killed.” Satisfied that the lesson had gotten through, Shindo gave them one last look and turned to leave.
“Um…
wait!” He had only taken a few steps when an urgent voice called after him.
Shindo stopped and turned around.
The rescued players had suddenly frozen in place.
Purple text had appeared over each of their heads.
[Disconnection] Shindo stared at the message for a moment, puzzled.
Then he remembered.
His expression quickly returned to normal.
“Don’t worry.
They’ve only temporarily lost their connection.” He looked toward the two cloaked girls.
“We might end up in the same state ourselves before long.” This was the event that would later become known as the Great Disconnection.
Once the outside world learned what had happened inside SAO, authorities inevitably began taking measures to protect the thousands of players trapped in the death game.
During the time they remained imprisoned inside Aincrad, the chaos and uncontrolled spread of information surrounding the SAO Incident caused an enormous uproar across Japan and the rest of the world.
People from different backgrounds reacted in very different ways.
Some dismissed the entire technology with disgust or contempt.
Others looked beyond the tragedy itself and recognized the functions and possibilities hidden within FullDive technology—the changes it might bring to society—and quietly began researching how those possibilities could be developed.
Under intense public pressure, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications quickly established an emergency response team dedicated to the SAO Incident.
Within the weeks following the incident, authorities began using the two-hour network-disconnection grace period Kayaba had publicly described to transfer trapped players one by one into hospitals and other medical facilities where their bodies could receive proper care.
Clearly, the players standing in front of them were currently being moved.
Still, Shindo decided to explain one more thing for the girls’ benefit.
“We can leave them here.
They’ll be fine.
During the two-hour disconnection period, the system activates protection for disconnected players.” He gestured toward the motionless figures.
“Even if MOBs spawn nearby and detect them, the monsters won’t be able to approach or attack them in any way.” “Thank you…” The two girls quietly expressed their gratitude.
For some reason, Shindo thought he could hear a trace of sadness in their voices.
He looked at them curiously.
“Are you planning to wait here until they reconnect?” The girls themselves were standing so motionlessly that they almost looked disconnected too.
“No.” The answer was short and direct.
Apparently they had no particular interest in continuing the conversation.
Shindo had no reason to waste time either.
Reaching Tolbana mattered more.
He was about to leave when one of them suddenly spoke again.
“If you don’t mind…
could we form a party with you?” “What?” For a moment, Shindo honestly thought he had misheard.
Neither girl repeated herself, however, which made it clear that his ears were working perfectly well.
He exhaled.
“Sorry.
I’m probably going to disappoint you, but I’m a solo player.” Shindo spread his hands helplessly.
Then he reconsidered.
That answer was not entirely absolute.
The two girls had just demonstrated enough skill to earn his respect, so after a moment he added, “Although there’s a decent chance we’ll end up as temporary party members during the First Floor Boss raid.” He raised one hand in farewell.
“Anyway, that’s that.
See you around!” Shindo turned away.
Then his vision suddenly began to dim.
The cavern lost color at an alarming rate, like an old television abruptly losing its picture in the middle of a broadcast.
Within seconds, everything was black.
…
Shindo’s body in the real world was being transferred as well.
…
Back in reality, the house in Seijo, Setagaya, had received an unusual number of visitors that day.
With Aunt Hirako leading the way, uniformed government communications personnel and medical staff entered Shindo’s bedroom.
There was almost no decoration inside.
The room was clean, orderly, and meticulously arranged.
A network signal booster had been installed beside the bed.
More suspiciously, two backup batteries had been positioned nearby in case the external power supply failed.
The preparations were so thorough that they almost made it seem as though Shindo had known in advance that something like the SAO Incident would happen.
Had the authorities not already investigated his lifestyle and his side work as a paid game grinder—and confirmed that he could not realistically have known anything about Akihiko Kayaba’s plan—they might have subjected him to far more serious scrutiny.
As it was, the visitors assumed that Shindo was simply unusually meticulous, perhaps something of a neat freak, or someone with a strong habit of preparing for emergencies.
There was another reason no one pushed the matter too aggressively.
The family he lived with was clearly well connected, and the Commissioner General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was standing right beside them.
In the end, the officials did little more than examine the room and its contents.
One unusual-looking item briefly caught the attention of a member of the communications team: the elaborately bound God’s World Setting Compendium.
He picked it up and opened it.
Every page was blank.
Whatever suspicions the strange cover had inspired immediately disappeared.
“Mommy…
when is Onii-chan coming back?” Five-year-old Mano pressed herself against Aunt Hirako, looking miserable as she watched the crowd of unfamiliar adults enter the room belonging to the brother who had always treated her so kindly.
“The Tokyo Metropolitan Police are doing everything they can to find Akihiko Kayaba,” said Takeo Hayasaka, the Commissioner General himself.
He stared at Shindo, who had lived alongside his family for more than a decade and was now lying unconscious beneath the NerveGear.
The anger in his voice was impossible to hide.
“Once we capture him, Shindo should be able to come home safely.” He looked toward Hirako.
“I’ve already contacted the head of the Suzuki family.
We’re pressing the authorities above us to devote even more resources to finding Kayaba.
There should be progress within the next few days, so don’t worry.” The Hayasaka family watched as Shindo was wheeled toward the medical transport vehicle.
His face itself looked peaceful.
The rest of him did not.
Nearly two weeks without eating normally had left his body visibly thinner, while his dry, unkempt hair and general condition made him look painfully exhausted.
The official transport vehicle soon pulled away from the Seijo neighborhood, disappeared around the end of the street, and vanished from sight.
Back in the room that had now lost its owner, the God’s World Setting Compendium remained open where the government official had left it.
Its pages were still blank.
Then a small flame appeared.
Dark red fire slowly crawled across the empty paper.
The pages curled beneath the heat before blackening into ash.
A gust of wind passed through the room.
The ash scattered into the air, carrying faintly glowing embers with it.
Within moments, every trace of it had disappeared.
No one knew where it had gone.