"Horizontal Square Slash!? No way!"
Argo cried out in shock, unable to believe what she had just seen.
The wild boar's health was instantly depleted, turning into glowing crystal shards and vanishing.
A panel popped up in front of Haruto, displaying the experience and gold gained from the kill.
Since it was just a level-one regular mob, the experience it gave was pitifully small.
Argo quickly ran over and grabbed Haruto's hand in disbelief.
"How did you do that? Horizontal Square Slash is a mid-tier skill for one-handed swords! Even if a starting character had maxed out stats, it shouldn't be possible to meet the usage requirements!"
In response, Haruto casually swung his dagger a few more times.
The blade sliced through the air, producing sharp whooshing sounds as streaks of light danced through the air.
"Like this. Isn't it simple?"
Haruto shrugged.
Argo watched, her mouth slightly open, completely stunned and numb from the shock.
"Don't tell me… You performed the sword skill manually without system assistance?"
That was the only possible explanation Argo could come up with.
SAO's system assistance allowed even ordinary players to perform sword skills perfectly.
Force, angle, even muscle control and application of strength — the system would assist and execute everything with precision.
That level of control was something even a master swordsman of decades might not achieve.
After all, humans can't control their bodies frame by frame to execute a flawless attack. Normally, only the system could achieve such perfection. But the system's assistance came with one flaw:
There was always a slight delay between a player's intention and the system's response.
Experts could minimize the delay to almost nothing, but it was never truly zero.
However, if a player executed a sword skill completely on their own, there would be no delay whatsoever.
Only then could someone use a mid-tier skill that shouldn't be accessible at the starting level.
Haruto nodded as if it was completely natural.
He didn't like the system's assistance — why should he let a computer control his movements?
"But to reach that level of technique, your swordsmanship must be..."
Argo trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.
She looked at Haruto as if she were staring at a monster.
This level of strength had already far surpassed the game itself!
Haruto didn't mind. He reached out and poked Argo's cheek. The dazed girl snapped back to reality and hesitantly said,
"Um... should we disband the party? With your strength, you can probably skip the starting town and head straight to the next area."
While in a party, all experience gained from defeating monsters is shared. Argo, being a beta tester, was supposed to guide Haruto in leveling up.
But now, it looked like she was the one being carried.
Haruto simply shook his head.
"We agreed to the guide mission, right? Quitting halfway would probably ruin your reputation."
Argo was momentarily speechless, then laughed softly.
This "girl" in front of her was definitely the strangest person she'd ever met.
"Alright, then I'll fulfill my duties as a guide. Let's head toward the next area!"
In the world of Aincrad, there are 100 floors in the tower.
Each floor is split into a town area and a labyrinth area.
The players were currently still in the first floor's town area.
The wild monsters in the wild areas had limited numbers and could be completely cleared.
That meant the available experience points in the town area were limited.
Level-one boars would likely be hunted to extinction quickly by the many open beta players.
Thus, heading to the next area early was the best way to gain experience.
Normally, players would need to be at least level 3 — the safe threshold — to venture there.
Or they'd need to know detailed info to sneak past all the monsters.
Otherwise, they'd be slaughtered by stronger enemies along the way.
But Haruto was like a walking cheat code.
He could use mid-tier sword skills at level 1 and easily defeat higher-level monsters.
The two left the boar forest and ventured deeper into the first floor, arriving at a vast grassland.
The level-one boars were nowhere to be seen. In their place were oversized bees and beetle-type monsters.
These were all around level 3 to 5.
Argo was on edge the whole time.
"Watch out!"
A bee the size of a human arm flew toward them — a terrifying sight.
But Haruto casually swatted it away with his dagger.
Then came a few elegant slashes.
Several thin red lines appeared on the bee's body as its health bar rapidly dropped. After a brief moment of surprise, Argo stepped in and landed the finishing blow.
The high-level bee shattered into crystal shards and vanished.
Fighting above their level granted them a massive amount of experience.
It was far more efficient than boar hunting.
Argo stared at Haruto, feeling that this boy's strength was downright absurd.
"By the way, Miss Guide, what's with the whiskers on your face?"
Haruto even had the leisure to chat.
Usually, asking that question would get someone yelled at:
"Don't ask a girl about her makeup!"
But this time, Argo just looked embarrassed and hesitated to answer.
"That's a secret… But if you give me 100,000 yen, I might be reluctantly willing to tell you."
She was clearly trying to use a ridiculous price to dodge the question.
But Haruto didn't even blink and nodded.
"Sure. 100,000 yen. Deal."
Argo froze.
Someone actually agreed to pay that much just to uncover her little secret!?
She hugged herself and hesitantly asked,
"You… you're not into girls, are you?!"
Haruto's mouth twitched.
He flicked her forehead with a finger.
"Ow ow ow… okay, not that much ow."
Argo rubbed her forehead and pouted.
In reality, SAO's pain feedback system had strict limits.
Even if you got stabbed, it would only transmit a small amount of pain.
The two rampaged their way through and finally reached the grassland town on the first floor.
By then, they had both reached level 3.
Argo looked at her stat panel and sighed in amazement:
"Normally, even if you spent the entire first day grinding boars and doing starting quests, you'd barely hit level 2.5."
"To reach level 3 in under half a day is just… insane!"
Haruto only smiled in response.
As he looked around the grassland town, Argo pointed toward a certain location.
"Come on, over there's a unique hidden quest. Tons of EXP and a powerful early-game skill as a reward!"
She grabbed Haruto's hand again and started running in that direction.
But then, a strange bell began to ring.
Their bodies turned into white light and suddenly vanished from the town.
The next moment, they reappeared — still holding hands — in the central plaza of the starting town.
A deep, echoing bell sounded, as if announcing death itself.
Argo blinked, then looked around in confusion.
At the same time, all other players were being teleported to the plaza.
"What's going on? Did we get penalized by the system for progressing too fast?"
Argo was baffled.
Haruto, however, said nothing, just stared at the sky above the plaza with interest.
It was coming.
The big one.
As players murmured in confusion…
A massive figure in a blood-red robe appeared above the plaza.
The sky turned crimson, like a blood-drenched storm cloud, and the air grew suffocatingly heavy.
Instantly, all chatter stopped. The plaza went silent.
"Welcome to my world, players."
The towering figure stretched out his arms and spoke calmly. His hooded face was just a shadowy void — no features.
But Haruto could feel its gaze and locked eyes with it.
Kayaba Akihiko.
Now this was the real heavyweight.
"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of this world."
"You've probably all noticed by now — the logout button has disappeared."
"This is not a bug. Let me say it again: this is not a glitch. It's part of SAO's gameplay."
"You cannot log out. No one on the outside can remove the NerveGear for you."
"If they try, the helmet will emit a high-frequency microwave that will destroy your brain."
At those words, panic erupted among the players.
Argo turned pale.
Her fingers trembled as she opened the menu.
She had been so immersed in playing with Haruto that she hadn't really checked it before.
She went to the final tab where the logout button should have been.
But now… it was gone.
In SAO, without the logout button, there was no way to exit the game.
Argo's legs gave out, and she nearly collapsed.
Haruto gently caught her and held her without saying a word, letting her take in the full weight of this revelation.