Demon Swordsman: Remastered (Sword Art Online X Male Reader)

Chapter 3 - Boss Meeting

One month into the game, two thousand people are already dead.

Honestly speaking, I wasn't shocked by the sheer number of dead players two months into the start of the death game known as Sword Art Online. If I had to guess the leading cause of the deaths, it would have to be suicide and players venturing out of the safe zone and being killed by monsters is the second leading cause. That's not surprising. Not all thousand beta testers had returned to play the retail version of the game, so most testers dying was kept at a minimum while none offered their help to newer players. I wasn't going to offer any help. That sounded like a pain, and Kirito didn't seem eager to offer his help either.

The shocking part of the month is that the people trying to clear the game haven't found the first-floor boss room, including Kirito and me, beta testers. I get that the retail version of the game would be different than the beta tester version, but it's shocking nobody found the boss room.

Not finding the boss room sparked the boss meeting in the town of Tolbana. Naturally, Kirito and I will be attending the meeting.

I found myself staring at the blue midday sky interrupted by a hand pressed on my right shoulder, and only one person would be stupid enough to do that because they knew they could do it without being sent a glare by me.

I turned to see Kirito standing there. "It's time." I turned to see players gathering where the meeting would be held and followed after Kirito.

It looked like a stage designed to look like a theatre from Rome, with seats and stage all, especially the stone pillars around the top of the rows of seats. Most of the players were around the first few rows of seats near the stage, but Kirito and I chose to stay out of the potential spotlight, choosing a pair of seats to the top left while looking out from the stage. I did see a player to our left seating alone with a dark brown cloak draped over their body and hood pulled as far as they could to be still able to see.

The sound of loud clapping and a shout that echoed across the theatre drew everybody's attention.

"All right, people! It's five past already, so let's get started!"

The speaker was a swordsman clad in glimmering metal armour. He stood at the center of the stage, examining the crowd of players, which had to be at least forty-four. He had wavy locks framing his face, dyed a brilliant blue. Hair dye wasn't sold at NPC vendors on the first floor, so he must have gotten it as a rare drop from a monster.

He flashed a smile - God, how do people do that constantly? - and clapped again.

"Thank you all for heeding my call today! I'm sure some of you know me already, but just in case, my name's Diavel, and I like to think of myself as playing a knight!"

Someone cried, "I bet you wanted to say you're playing a 'hero'!" among the jeering and whistling.

There were no official character classes in Sword Art Online. Every player had a number of skill slots, and they were free to choose which skills to equip and advance. For example, players who focused on crafting or trading skills might be referred to as blacksmiths, tailors, or cooks... but I'd never heard of anyone called a knight or hero.

Diavel looked the part; bronze armour on his chest, shoulders, arms, and shins, a longsword on his waist and a kite shield.

"Now, you're all top players in the game, active around the front line of our progress, and I hardly need to remind you of why we're here," Diavel's speech continued. The blue-haired knight raised a hand and gestured to the massive tower - the labyrinth of the first floor - outside the town limits.