It has been nearly two years since the last time I came to the first floor [First Town].

Asuna stood where she had just walked out of the transfer door, looking around the huge square and the horizontal street opposite, and felt a complicated feeling in her heart.

As the largest town in [Ein Grandet], both the types of buildings and prices are much better than other floors. If you want to save money or pursue convenience, this is the best choice.

Of course, it might be better if there was no 'army'.

As far as the people Asuna knew, as long as the high-level players were not still in the starting town.

The arrogance of the "army" is one of the reasons, but the most important thing is that as long as you stand in the central square and look up at the sky, you will definitely remember what happened at that time no matter what.

It was just a whim at first.

Her father is an industrialist and her mother is a scholar. They are both extremely self-disciplined and strong people. Although they are gentle to her, the more they are, Asuna, who has grown up under the strong expectations of her parents since childhood, is more afraid of seeing their disappointed expressions.

I don't know when she felt more and more breathless, as if she was stuffed into a shell smaller than herself and extremely hard, and she could never escape from it. She was afraid of such a future, but she didn't have the courage to choose to resist.

So, when she heard from her brother that the "virtual reality game" that appeared in this world for the first time, she became interested and even entered SAO by chance.

Then, the world completely changed.

She still can't forget it. When she transformed into Asuna and descended into a strange world, looking at different streets and people she didn't know each other, the excitement emanated from the bottom of her heart.

However, after that, when the self-proclaimed god Akihiko Kayaba appeared, he ruthlessly declared, "This world is an unremoveable game of death."

Even so, Asuna's first thought was the math homework she had not completed yet, because if she didn't go back quickly to finish her homework, she would be scolded by the teacher the next day in class.

This kind of thing was something Asuna had never thought of, and it might be called a stain of life...

But of course the seriousness of the situation is not only this level.

It is winter for the third grade of junior high school, and the joint exam will be soon, and the new semester will come soon.

For Asuna, who has been walking on the road planned by her parents, derailing from this established track is equivalent to the end of her life.

Thinking of her parents' disappointed eyes and her classmates' ridiculous eyes, she wandered weakly in the central square, hoping that soon after, someone would tell her that this was just a boring prank.

But as time passed, fewer and fewer people were on the central square. She became completely desperate and believed that she had been abandoned by the world.

At this moment, I saw the figure standing still in the square.

He may be the same as me.

This was what Asuna thought at that time. With this idea, she tried hard to pretend to be dissatisfied and tried to get close to the other person, but in the time she spent together, she was slowly infected by his courage to fight the world.

Thinking of this, Asuna leaned over to Lu Ming, who seemed to be holding his own feelings, looked over at the street, looked up at the stone cover in the sky again, and the pain felt became weaker.

As if he was about to drive away sentimentality from his mind, Asuna turned to look at Yui.

"Yui, do you have any buildings you have seen?"

"Woo..." Yui showed a distressed expression and looked at the stone buildings connected around the square, but soon shook her head, "I don't know..."

"After all, the starting town is so big, it's not surprising that I didn't see it. Let's go and inquire separately." Kirito said comfortingly, "Yuki and I went to the 'army'' station to ask. As for the Central Market, I'll ask you two."

Knowing that Asuna had a bad relationship with the "army" King of Teeth, Kirito took the initiative to take over the trouble.

"It's good."

Lu Ming nodded. Of course, he was not afraid of the guy named Tooth King.

But after all, he is still the deputy commander of the [Blood Alliance Knights], and the president of Asuna [Dawn Light], if he goes to the headquarters of the "Army", it will definitely cause a huge sensation.

This time is different from the "Christmas Event". The news that was known to everyone, and it was not surprising that it would attract the attention of Kayaba Akihiko, but only a few of them knew about this time. As long as that guy didn't know the login permission check, he wouldn't know about Yui.

Several people acted separately. Asuna held Yui's hand and walked towards the southern street with Lu Ming.

"Say it again." Asuna, who felt a little strange, looked at the square again while walking, "There are really surprisingly few people."

The transfer gate square of the starting town is quite spacious. After all, it accommodated 10,000 players when it started operating two years ago.

In the center of the circular space paved with stone floors, a quaint huge bell tower stands. Below the bell tower is a transfer door emitting blue light. Many slender flower beds are regularly placed around the square, and in the middle of the flower bed are elegantly shaped white benches.

Generally speaking, in this afternoon when the weather is good, players will be filled with temporary rest. Even if it is a little noisy, it is not surprising that the figures she sees are all moving towards the transfer door or the square exit, with almost no stopping or sitting on the bench.

If it is on a large street on the upper floor, there are always many players coming and going in the square of the transfer door.

Some players will chat about recent interesting things there, some players will recruit companions to go to the maze adventure, and some players will set up stalls to sell materials and props, but here...

"If I remember correctly..." Asuna frowned, "The [First Town] should be made up of many people, right?"

"Well, there are about 6,000 players alive, and about 30% of them, including the 'army', stay in the starting town, so it's probably close to 2,000 people?"

There were similar topics in the meeting of the [Blood Alliance Knights], and Lu Ming responded quickly.

"In this case, don't you think there are too few people?"

"This may be asking about the 'army'. They have been responsible for managing the place since their failure to attack the 25th floor." Speaking of this, Lu Ming couldn't help but sneer.

Asuna was silent for a moment and said, "Then let's go to the streets of the Central Market first, maybe there will be more people there..."

Even though he said so, he obviously didn't have much confidence in his words.

This is true. Even if you walk into the street from the square and arrive at the market area where shops and vendors are side by side, the street is still very deserted. Only the dull NPC merchants are still hawking, and empty voices echo throughout the street.

"What the hell happened?" Asuna, who had been in the upper level, obviously didn't understand what was going on.
Chapter completed!