Virtual Evolution

Chapter 176: Bloody Christmas

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On December 19, 2023, more than a year has passed since the Death Game, and the second Christmas in SAO is about to begin. However, just a month ago, a message continued to spread from the mouths of various NPCs. come out.

A BOSS, a special BOSS, named Nikolas the Punisher, is defined as a legendary BOSS that is far more valuable than the floor BOSS. It only appears for one day, no, maybe a few hours, on December 2 At exactly twelve o'clock on the night of the 14th, legend has it that it will appear under a giant fir tree in a certain forest carrying a pocket full of precious items. If you defeat him, you can obtain an unimaginable treasure.

From the day this news came out, there was a treasure hunting frenzy throughout SAO. Whether they were ordinary scattered players or members of the strategy team who had been concentrating on conquering the dungeon, they all paused their work to study and judge Niko the Cultist. Russ's information.

The past year can be said to have been an ups and downs. Starting from the BOSS strategy on the 25th floor, the combined forces of Aincrad and the Holy Wing Knights suffered an unprecedented heavy blow. In order to defeat the BOSS on this layer, the two Nearly thirty people died in the guild, and the Holy Wing Knights were almost in despair. Dirubel led some people to join the Aincrad United Army, while deputy leader Xinka chose to lead the remaining people to retreat to a layer of black iron. Palace, and began to be responsible for maintaining the first-level security.

Starting from the twenty-sixth floor, a pony-tailed man named Heathcliff appeared in front of everyone and persuaded Asuna to become the deputy leader of the "Knights of the Blood Alliance" he formed. Kiriko was also half-tied on his chariot.

Heathcliff made a splash in the floor BOSS battle on the 26th floor, and then developed the Blood Knights into a large organization second only to the Aincrad Alliance at an extremely fast speed.

Although the current Knights of the Blood Alliance are still not as good as the Aincrad Alliance, they can surpass it within a short time. Moreover, the Aincrad Alliance seems to be strong now, but this is a situation where the promoted members of the army are still there. However, after a year of hard work, more than 90% of the remaining 63 army promoters have completed the three main missions. After discussion, they have given up on the optional missions and only plan to complete the main missions for everyone. Choose to leave.

Optional mission one: complete guide

Mission description: Break through the 100th floor of Aincrad, reward 5000 points, 200 experience points, attribute points*5, limited B-level lottery*1, lottery opportunity*2

Optional mission two: The culprit

Mission description: Find the culprit Kayaba Akihiko who caused all this, and present enough evidence to identify him in front of at least thirty people. Obtain 3000 points, 100 experience points, attribute points*3, C-level limited lottery*1, and lottery opportunity*1

Note: Promotion can be completed by completing the main mission. No rewards will be issued for the main mission, but the completion of the main mission determines the evaluation of the promoted character.

Nowadays, those who are promoted in the army have become somewhat passive in fighting. In order to ensure that more people are promoted, they have begun to reduce losses as much as possible. If Le Yuan had not had a tough attitude and the task had not been completed, he might have done the same as Luo Rou. , being "protected" within the guild building.

In a small alley in Miujien, the main street on the 49th floor, Le Yuan looked at Argo who was still dressed in a tacky outfit and couldn't help but said: "Hey, you don't even know how to dress up, a woman's basic survival skill. Well, why don't you go practice more with Asuna, maybe you can gain proficiency."

"Huh, your mouth is really unpleasant." Argo said with a nasal voice, "Originally, I wanted to provide you with an exclusive news, but now..."

"Hey, dear Argo..." Le Yuan rubbed Argo's head and said, "Aren't we close partners for so long? Can't you bear to watch that BOSS being snatched away by others?"

"Well, don't treat me like a child." Argo immediately got angry, knocked off Le Yuan's hand and said, "Actually, this is what Tongzi asked me to hand over to you. She asked me to thank you for her, and she didn't know What do you mean, but this is a text message from her to you."

"Tongzi? Haven't seen you for so long. I haven't seen Tongzi in the last two guides. I thought she had forgotten me." Le Yuan clicked on the text message and took a look, then immediately closed it and said: "Thank you I’ve got Argo, but can you find out some news for me?”

"Well, what is it? My intelligence fee has increased a lot recently!" Argo said, turning his head away.

"Don't worry about the cost, I want you to help me check someone." Le Yuan said looking at Argo whose face was half covered by a cloak.

"Who?" Argo asked without looking up, probably because he was curious about who Le Yuan, the man who had been chasing the orange player, was targeting.

"Heathcliff, the leader of the Blood Alliance Knights, especially the news before he appeared on the twenty-sixth floor." Le Yuan said lightly.

"What did you say?" As if he thought he heard wrong, Argo suddenly raised his head and looked at Le Yuan, but seeing that Le Yuan was already looking at him motionless, he nodded and agreed: "Okay, I understand, I Will investigate."

Le Yuan spent the next five days frantically leveling up, and his level had reached an unprecedented level of 72, far exceeding the number of floors.

As a death game, generally the number of floors plus ten is the safety level of the leveling area, and the number of floors plus fifteen or even twenty is the safety level of the floor BOSS. However, there are very few that can truly make the level exceed the level of twenty. , In other words, Le Yuan can now be said to be the highest-level player in SAO.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon on December 24, Le Yuan returned to his temporary residence on the 35th floor and began to prepare for the BOSS strategy tonight.

Tongzi's text message from a few days ago only contained a few words: "The condemned cultist Nicholas is at the coordinates 4921, 1921 of the random maze 'Lost Forest' on the 35th floor. It is extremely dangerous, so approach with caution."

Le Yuan took out the sword he had just asked Lisbeth to forge not long ago - the Fang of Sin. It was made from a piece of blood evil black crystal with a quality of "S" level as a reward from the bakery owner of the A-level mission. It can be said that it is one of the few super weapons that can match the magic sword level weapon. Le Yuan could barely equip it after reaching level 70.

Putting the sword on his back and checking the durability of the equipment on his body, Le Yuan filled the item column with items such as recovery, detoxification crystals and potions that he had collected for a long time.

With less than two hours left before midnight, Le Yuan walked out of the room and walked towards the random maze and lost forest.

Le Yuan walked very slowly along the way. In addition to avoiding unnecessary battles, Le Yuan also extremely vigilantly activated his fully acquired "Enemy Search" skill to prevent anyone from following him.

However, when Le Yuan completely entered the lost forest, he discovered that no other player appeared here except him.

"Huh, it should be said that Argo is still very ethical and did not sell the news about Tongzi." Le Yuan breathed a sigh of relief at this time. Compared with fighting the BOSS, the battle with the players is the most heartwarming. Tired.

When Le Yuan came to the coordinates given by Tong Zi, there were less than ten minutes left before 12 o'clock. Le Yuan looked at the huge fir tree and there were almost no other trees around it. A square area was covered with snow. Emitting pure white light, this is a natural battlefield.

The time on one side of the camera was passing bit by bit. When the time reached zero, a bell suddenly sounded from above. Le Yuan looked towards the top of the tree and saw the dark night with scattered snowflakes floating not far away. Two rays of light continue to extend from the sky.

When the light approached, Le Yuan discovered that a group of strange animals on the optical fiber were pulling a sled.

When the sled reached the top of the tree, a huge black shadow jumped off the sled. Le Yuan couldn't help but jump back to avoid the splashing snow.

When the snow cleared, Le Yuan realized that standing in front of him was a humanoid Santa Claus who was over five meters tall, had long arms, tiny red eyes, and was extremely ugly.

I saw it holding an ax in its right hand and a large bag full of stuff in its left hand, saying something unknown to Le Yuan: "Oh, wow, wow -"

"Death!" Le Yuan roared and rushed towards the traitor Nicholas in front of him.

"Wha—" Although the traitor Niklas seems to have difficulty moving with a bag on his back, he can swing his ax at an astonishing speed, but Le Yuan is not easy to deal with. One of his most powerful single-shot skills at present is "Death Heavy". "Hit" and accelerated away from Niklas's ax blow, the sword flashed with blood-red light, Le Yuan's attack range suddenly doubled, and he stabbed it in the head.

"Boom -" The fatal blow with huge impact knocked the traitor Niklas to the ground. Le Yuan also said that this was an opportunity to spend the hard time of this skill.

The traitor Niklas struggled to stand up. Le Yuan raised his head and used the high-level sword skill to slash vertically in all directions. The black sword light hit Niklas four times in a row, knocking him down again. land.

"Ouch -" Nicholas waved the giant ax in his hand angrily, raising the snow on the ground, and the snow was like cannonballs hitting Le Yuan one after another.

"Horizontal Arc Slash" Le Yuan only had time to use this move to knock down the snowballs in front of him, but the dense snowballs hit Le Yuan one after another. Although each shot did not cause much damage, dozens or hundreds of them hit Le Yuan. The shot still knocked Le Yuan's HP down to less than half. Le Yuan took out a tube of recovery potion at that time, and his health points recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," the giant ax in Niklas's hand flashed with white light, and then he slashed hard at Le Yuan. In an instant, the original shadow of the ax turned into three.

"Reverse wheel!" Facing the menacing giant axe, Le Yuan used his only counterattack sword skill. After consuming one-third of his health to block the blow, the sword in Le Yuan's hand turned into two meteors. Pointing to Nicholas's heart.

This battle began to evolve into a tug-of-war. Nicholas did not have the power to kill Le Yuan with one blow, and Le Yuan did not have the skills to quickly output damage. Le Yuan could only rely on the supplies in the item bar. A little bit and Nicola Simo.

At 1:47 a.m. on December 25, 2023, with only one recovery crystal left in Le Yuan, he ended Niklas's life with a fatal blow.

When he put the sword back into its scabbard, Niklas and its big bag had disappeared into the snowy night.

A large number of new prop names appeared in the prop column, including weapons and armor, gems, crystals, and even ingredients. However, Le Yuan did not have time to observe this, but focused on one of the things.

Its name is "Sacred Crystal of Resurrection", and as its name suggests, it has only one function - resurrection.

Click on "Saint Crystal of Resurrection" and see the message "Choose to use it from the automatic menu of this item, or hold it in your hand and shout "Resurrection: player name". As long as the target player dies, the effect will be achieved. If used within the time when the light completely disappears (about ten seconds), the target player can be resurrected. "

This is SAO's explanation, and the most special one is an explanation from the "New Territories" system -

Holy Crystal of Resurrection (Special)

Grade B+

Excellent quality priority 55

Attributes: None (takes effect when placed in the toolbar)

Effect: When the player who holds it dies, he can choose to resurrect in a semi-complete state within ten seconds, remove all negative states, and have three seconds of invincibility (cannot cause damage to anyone)

Whether to take out: yes

Note: This is a magical spar and a rare treasure.

The unique resurrection item is now in Le Yuan's hands.