The golden king of Virtual Reality

Chapter 8: Babylon Mile

Y/n lunged forward, impaling two lizard-people on his spear. With a grunt, he hoisted them both up, pulled his weapon free, and smashed them away with the butt of the spear.

They shattered into polygons when they crashed into one of the pillars set in the glowing white pathway. Y/n sighed and dismissed the notification for his winnings, running a hand through his hair and looking around.

He was in the floor seventy-four dungeon. White paths made up the standable space, going up and down, twisting in every direction made for precarious fighting conditions lest a player fall off into the abyss. Aside from the paths were purple and green metallic pillars with large ridges on their rocky surface. Every once in a while, the paths would converge into a larger platform, a safe space where the mobs wouldn't spawn and couldn't follow the players.

He walked down the path, hands hanging limply over Gae Bolg as it rested on his shoulders, tired from the dungeon. He hadn't been using the gates of Babylon unless he knew for certain that nobody would see him, so now he had to rely on his spear.

He heard voices up ahead and quickened his pace, stabbing behind him inches before a mob could reach him with its sword.

He saw several figures in red crowding around one of the pillars that connected to the safe zone, making Y/n run through the guilds who were this high up who wore red.

He heard someone laugh from behind the crowd, and he was fairly certain it was a girl, so that pretty much narrowed it down to just Asuna, given how few female players fought at top floor level.

Asuna: "Kirito and I are together cause we're in a party."

Y/n almost did a double take. First the pink one, Y/n had forgot her name, and now this, where was the Kirito that Y/n knew?

Y/n heard another voice that he recognised as Klein, and then stomping metal footsteps.

Y/n turned to another path, and saw a small army approaching them. They wore dark grey armour, notably helmets that left their lower faces exposed, and dark green capes. The one in front had a red sash over his right shoulder. All of the men but the leader looked exhausted.

Y/n stayed where he was, scarlet eyes narrowing as he tried to remember who these players were. He snapped his fingers as it came back to him, getting the attention of those present. They ran floor one, truly the most impressive of accolades, and had pretty much stopped fighting in the front lines after being half eradicated at floor twenty-five.

Once they were in the safe zone, the leader yelled out to his men.

"At ease!"

They clattered to the floor, panting like dogs in a drought. The leader marched to the others, although Y/n noticed his helmeted face snap away from him with a snarl.

"I'm with the Aincrad liberation army. Lieutenant-colonel Kobatz."

He spoke directly to Kirito, who introduced himself back.

Kobatz: "Have you cleared the are up ahead."

Kirito: "yeah, we also got a map with directions to the boss room."

Kobatz: "Right. Then hand over that map and we'll be on our way."

Klein: "You want him to just give it to you? You know how much of a pain in the ass mapping is!"

Klein wasn't wrong, mapping was easily one of the most irritating parts of SAO, especially in a boss dungeon. And, with the location on the boss, could go for a lot of money.

Kobatz: "We share our information and resources with civilian players all the time! And we don't charge a thing for it! We maintain order in the chaos of battle, so that all players can leave this world as quickly as possible! Therefore, its your duty to cooperate with us, so hand over that map!"