“So, um…what are we doing?”
“Just be quiet.”
“……”
“…The window for the code isn’t popping up. So if we fall asleep like this, and it’s showing when we wake up, that would indicate that your theory is correct, to a degree.”
“……Ah, I see…”
The tension drained out of my body. Asuna’s pinkie pressure eased a little bit, and she whispered, “Well, good night…”
“If the prompt does show up, don’t hit the button in your sleep.”
“Yeah…I…know…”
“Good night.”
From that point on, silence fell on the land of the blankets, and the only thing coming over the border was the faint sound of sleeping. I closed my eyes again, but the gentle warmth of that pinkie contact prevented my wits from dispersing to all corners.
I was curious about the workings of the anti-harassment code, of course, but there were still many things for Asuna and me to do on this floor yet. We hadn’t finished the “Curse of Stachion” quest, we had to help advance progress through the floor, the handling of the guild flag was still up in the air, and tomorrow, we’d be helping Kizmel with the quest to retrieve the Agate Key. And the biggest problem of all was the PKers.
I’d told myself on numerous occasions that it was pointless trying to decipher their way of thinking, but I still couldn’t help myself.
Why were Morte, the dagger user, and the man in the black poncho trying to make the DKB and ALS fight? Especially when it was obvious that it would only harm our chances of beating this game and finding freedom from its electronic prison?
No matter their reasons, I would never forgive them for the act of attempting to kill Asuna. I would never let their wicked blades anywhere near her again.
For an instant, I was seized by a shockingly powerful urge.
I didn’t want this pinkie.
I wanted to grab her hand, pull her close, and wrap my arms around her. I wanted to make it clear that I was going to keep her safe.
But I couldn’t do that. Our partnership probably wasn’t going to last forever, and it shouldn’t. Until the day she stood at the lead of our best and brightest, standing as a symbol of hope for all the players of the game, I would continue providing her with whatever help I could, as a beta tester. That was my role.
I let the tension slowly drain out of my body, exhaled, and tensed my finger one more time, just to feel that the sensation was still there.
…Good night, I whispered in my mind, and I gave myself up to sleep at last.
(To be continued)
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Sword Art Online Progressive 5, “Canon of the Golden Rule (Start).”
The previous volume originally came out in December 2015, which means it’s been over two years since we left off. I’m very sorry about that. I’m also very sorry that this is the first two-part story in this series!
SAOP has been proceeding at the pace of one floor per volume, but even then, each volume required some part of the story to be told in digest form (quests, advancing through the floor, boss fights), and I always regretted that…So I decided that I wanted to write as much of this floor as possible this time around. But once I started, I realized there was too much to contain to one book, especially with lots of Kizmel material, and the idea of cutting anything after all that was too much to bear. So I’ve decided to make this a two-volume story and get it all out of my system. Because of that, all kinds of things are left hanging at the end of this book, but the second half should be coming very soon after this, so please, just have a bit of patience for our arrival at the seventh floor! Please!
As for the content…I chose to make the theme of the sixth floor “puzzles” because I always wanted to do a puzzle-based floor, but I’m also not very good at solving puzzles in dungeons whenever they show up in RPGs (laughs). Especially in MMOs—when it requires the coordination of several players at once. I feel like I’m getting an ulcer imagining myself being the one who screwed up and got yelled at by everyone else. I plan to put Kirito in just such a tricky situation in the second half, so let’s all cheer him on and hope he gets it right the first time!
Some of you might also be worried about how fast Kirito and Asuna seem to be getting closer by the volume. So am I! The idea is for the Progressive series to connect to the main series, so having them be so hunky-dory in the early stages feels like it’s straining the space-time continuum, but I will continue my irresponsible policy of leaving it all up to them and trusting it’ll probably work itself out in the end.
I also have a few announcements…At about the same time as this book, the Fatal Bullet game should be coming out. It’s set in the world of GGO, and it’s the first major release that features an original protagonist, so I hope you enjoy adventuring alongside Kirito and Asuna. Also, the mobile game Integral Factor is an MMORPG about conquering Aincrad from the very first floor, just like Progressive, so you should definitely check it out!
Lastly, to my illustrator, abec, and my editors, Miki and Adachi, my deepest apologies and thanks for putting up with my edge-of-your-seat deadline completion! I hope I see the rest of you in the second half of this book, coming soon!
Reki Kawahara—December 2017
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.
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Sword Art Online Progressive 5 Page 19
