Chapter 366 SAO Guilds

July 31st, the 31st day of the closed beta, is also the day when players enter the tenth floor.

So far, 2,500 players have been "killed" out of the 50,000 people in SAO, and more than half of the deaths are related to other players.

In the original work, 2,000 players died in a month out of 10,000 people, and only the first floor was conquered. The highest level among the players was Kirito Lv.14.

Compared with the original work, the current trend is much better. Whether it is the increase in the number of players or the emergence of Pokémon settings, it has greatly accelerated the process of conquering this game.

Just three weeks ago, after Madara led the team to conquer the dog-headed lord on the first floor, he immediately led more than 200 people present to form a [Strategy Group].

In the original work, this concept was originally supposed to appear in the fourth month under the leadership of Kayaba Akihiko.

The strategy group is equivalent to Lianhe Country, composed of many different guilds. They only gather together when they want to conquer a boss on the first floor, and usually they handle their own affairs.

At present, among the more than 47,000 players, at least 10% are gathered on the tenth floor.

This also means that the levels of these 4,700 or so players are all in the first echelon and can become a member of the strategy group.

At the same time, within a month, guilds of all sizes have been established.

There are three most well-known guilds.

The most well-known guild must be [Akatsuki], which was established by Madara and is also the first guild established in the game.

There are not many people, only 70 or 80 people, but the personal strength of these 70 or 80 people is top players in the entire game.

Madara adheres to the standard of "better to have less than enough" and only accepts players with excellent combat ability and potential. The level and equipment can be helped by the guild.

The second guild is [Army], a guild that appeared in the original work, the largest guild in SAO, and currently has more than 500 members.

The president is still Xinka, the manager of "MMOTODAY", the largest online game comprehensive intelligence station in Japan.

Xinka's original intention of establishing [Army] was to liberate SAO, lead all players back to the real world, and maintain order in SAO.

But according to the original story, he will be deceived and framed by Vice President Ya Wang and trapped in the deep underground maze of the Black Iron Palace.

Even before that, the actual manager of the [Army] was Ya Wang, and after he was seriously injured in the battle to capture the 25th floor, he brought the [Army] back to the Starting Town and acted as the local landlord, which made the members quite dissatisfied.

Until later, under pressure from members in the guild, they had to send a team to the 74th floor for a capture, which resulted in the death of the capture captain Kobaz and several other members.

Ya Wang was severely impeached by members after this incident. Under great pressure, he was forced to have a private meeting with Xinka and used the corridor crystal to lock him in the underground maze of the Black Iron Palace. Later, he was rescued by Kirito and his wife and the cadre Yuriel.

After this incident, Xinka disbanded and reorganized the [Army] and expelled Ya Wang's followers forever.

However, at that time, everyone had already reached the 74th floor, and on the 75th floor, Kirito would duel with Kayaba Akihiko and liberate SAO, so Xinka's move was useless.

But the contribution of the [Army] was also very huge.

Without this guild, the middle and lower-level players of SAO would have been in chaos long ago.

Now the president of the [Army] is still Xinka, but the vice president is not Kiba, after all, there are too many people who are more capable than Kiba, and Xinka would not choose Kiba to take the stage.

At the same time, the [Army] is also the largest component of the [Strategy Group]. Every time a boss is attacked, a hundred people will be sent out, which is the backbone of the boss.

The third guild, the [Trainer Association].

This is the most special guild, because only [Trainers] can join this guild, and the current number of members is only more than 50 people.

The president is the vice president of the Neon Animal Protection Association, a very caring middle-aged vegetarian woman. Her Pokémon is Bell Sprout, and she once saved two closed beta players on the first floor.

There are two vice presidents, namely, Celia, the ‘Cat Master’, and Asuna, the ‘Flash Trainer’.

In fact, the number of all trainers in SAO is at least more than 200.

However, places like [Akatsuki] and [Army] will definitely attract more talented people, and it is also possible that players who are already in other guilds become trainers, so not all trainers will join the [Trainers Association].

There is another point.

The conditions for joining the [Trainers Association] are relatively harsh and require a series of audits.

For example, players who use Pokémon as tools cannot join the Trainers Association. Nowadays, those who can stay in the Trainers Association are those who think that Pokémon is ‘not just a bunch of data, but a real existence with its own consciousness’.

However, it is precisely because of this that in the eyes of many players, the players in the [Trainers Association] are a group of idiots.

Because these people in the [Trainers Association] will do some strange things in addition to participating in the strategy battle.

For example, buying all kinds of food in the store and then running to the wild to feed those wild Pokémon.

Or you can spend your own money to buy building materials, and then build a comfortable nest for wild Pokémon in some secluded place in the wild.

Things like this that have almost no benefits are incomprehensible to them.

Wouldn't it be better to kill more monsters and level up if you have that time?

However, those who think so are basically ordinary players, and those who have become [Trainers] will not only not ridicule these things, but will secretly provide financial support.

Only they themselves understand the reasons, and they are too lazy to tell others.

These three guilds are the largest, most well-known and most powerful guilds in the entire SAO, and are also the core of the [Strategy Group]. Basically, all players will give face to the people of the three guilds.

In addition to the three major guilds, there are some small guilds that are well-known.

For example.

The [Holy Dragon Alliance] specializes in tracking players and robbing others' "last kill rewards" or dropped "rare items and equipment" as its main business.

Originally, this was the second largest guild in the game, with more than 300 members.

But after being blocked by [Akatsuki] and [Army] once, 80% to 90% of the players in the guild withdrew, leaving only a group of fearless iron-headed kids.

There is also a small guild [Wanderers] composed entirely of lone rangers.

The guild leader is Kirito, the ‘dual swords trainer’, and the vice-leader is a powerful swordsman who appears and disappears mysteriously, and few people have ever seen him.

This guild was established by Kirito with the encouragement of Izuna.

After Kirito accidentally encountered an attack on a lone player who was out alone, he decided to establish a guild to protect the lone players, and Izuna supported his apprentice’s idea.

There are actually very few direct murders in the game, which is the ‘bottom line’ in the hearts of most players.

But that’s because the time is still short, and most players have not yet lost the humanity they have cultivated in the real world.

But in the future, there will definitely be such guilds established, such as the [Hand of Titans] that specializes in fishing in the original work and the even more evil [Laughing Coffin] that enjoys killing people.

. . .

The tenth floor, the desert country.

This floor is almost covered with yellow sand. Even in the town, there is often sand blowing on the players' faces. The living environment is very bad, so as soon as they arrive at this floor, the players want to quickly succeed in the next floor.

The average level of players on the 10th floor is: Lv.16, and the upper limit level is Lv.18.

As the upper limit of the experience bar at each level increases, the speed of players' upgrades has slowly decreased. If you only rely on monsters, it will take about a week to reach the upper limit of this floor.

In a tavern on the edge of the central town.

"You should still remember the boss of the tenth floor."

Izuna took a sip of beer named [Sherry], took a look and thought it was not bad, and then asked Kirito next to him.

"'Samurai Lord'."

Kirito certainly remembered it, and he was very impressed with that lord.

Because this is the boss that is most like a human during the entire closed beta, and it is also the boss that is most like him.

The characteristic of this boss is 'double sword flow', using two samurai swords to fight.

He doesn't have any particularly exaggerated skills, but his swordsmanship is so strong that it makes people's scalps numb. When Dark and his three friends just entered the closed beta test, they were called the "boss with the strongest single-player ability".

It is not difficult to attack this boss.

Because the "Samurai Lord" has no group attack skills, even if its damage and critical hit rate are high, it can only be killed by one player at a time.

So the closed beta players at that time did not spend much effort to break through the 10th floor.

However, Kirito later challenged it alone again, and was beaten to a pulp, convinced that it was "a boss that one person can never single-player".

After that battle, he deliberately looked for the swordsmanship videos of several Japanese "Sword Saints" in the past and found that the "Samurai Lord" was a "stitched monster" made by Kayaba Akihiko based on the videos of those "Sword Saints".

Kirito believes that under the same attribute panel, among all the bosses in SAO, the "Samurai Lord" will have the strongest single-player combat ability, and no player can defeat it alone.

Until later, he brought Dark and his three friends to single-player.

I remember that the level of the three people was not high at that time, only Lv.22.

‘Samurai Lord’ never hit Madara and Izuna from beginning to end, and was hacked to death by the two.

Although Dark was hit a few times, his equipment was good enough to withstand it, and he successfully defeated the boss alone in the end.

Since then, Kirito has a deep respect for these three people and calls them ‘sirs’.

“I have informed Nissan, you and Ura will fight the boss of this floor by yourselves.”

Izuna grinned, looking at Kirito with a bit of teasing in his eyes.

Kirito & Ura:

“Ah? Me?”

“New?”