Progressive Factor

Kirito and Jaymes Investigates

“Might as well chug it, Nazou! None of the beer in this place actually gets you drunk, anyway.” True, alcohol in VR cannot make a drinker truly drunk, but it is common to get “drunk” on the atmosphere. In other words. imagine a college party with the raucous sounds of alcohol but they’re drinking water.

“Okay…” Besides the usual noise one expects from a bar, everything goes quiet. Kirito takes a gamble and looks over the top of the swinging door, then back down. Kirito holds up six fingers, the number of people including Nezha. They are the only occupants in a corner of the small interior, the other five clad in leather and metal armor. Entering would definitely draw attention to the pair.

The Aincrad Liberation Squad, Dragon Knights Brigade, Legend Braves, and now Nezha’s group… Guilds are still unofficial until the third floor opens and a quest is cleared, but it wouldn’t be a typical MMO if players weren’t grouping up. As it stands, Kirito and Asuna are in the minority of being solo players, and in terms of groups, Koharu and Jaymes are in the minority of player numbers that they can be categorized as solo players too. One thing about having a large group is the potential to have a crafter in the fold, which means exclusive access to their craft for cheap, if not free, and the crafters have easy access to materials and business.

Yet something about Nezha’s group bothers him, but he doesn’t have another moment to figure out what that is when one of the party speaks. “So, Nezou, how was business today?”

“Oh...um, I sold twelve new weapons...and got a few visitors for repairs and upgrades.”

“Hey, that’s a new record!”

“We’ll have to scrape together some more ingots!” More cheers and applause follows, and Kirito begins to doubt himself. Kirito suspicions about Nezha potentially downgrading or destroying top players’ weapons doesn’t seem to hold much weight, even though Argo herself (who Jaymes was communicating with while Kirito got the girls settled) said something happened to a player with a high level Anneal Blade, a complete downgrade and loss of attempts. There’s no logical motive, just a series of coincidences.

“Jaymes--”

“Hush, listen.”

“...I don’t think we can keep doing this,” Nezha weakly says. Silence ensues after that statement, then one of the men whispers so low Jaymes has to push the door another few degrees to get that sound through.

“--ust fine, Nezou. Nobody’s talkin’ about it in the least.”

“It’s too dangerous to keep it up. Besides, we’ve already made back our cost.”

“Are you kidding me? We’re just getting started. We’ve got to rake it in so we can catch up wiht the top players while we’re still on the second floor.” Huh? What does that mean? As far as Kirito knows, Nezha should have lost money for buying back the downgraded Anneal Sword and he was just paid the standard fee for Asuna’s case. Even if he did have a somewhat good day, especially at the front lines, Kirito doesn’t see how it could have been anything but a normal, productive day--

“...Huh? Hey, look at the door.” Kirito doesn’t spend another second at the door, quickly retreating to a nearby tree and activating his Hiding Skill. Jaymes is gone too, but Kirito doesn’t see where his companion ventured. A second later, a man with banded armor and a bascinet helm exits and scans the area. As he glances towards the tree, Kirito holds his breath as the hiding indicator drops to sixty percent, and it continues to drop as the man’s eyes linger on Kirito’s hiding spot. It then shoots back up to seventy as the man looks away and returns to the bar. As soon as the man returns inside, Kirito dashes away from the tree down an alley and stops a block away from the bar.