Why did Hikigaya save the anime girls in Sword Story?

"I remember it was the empty dry floor. The shops and other things were all in the upper floors, like a ruins-style area."

"I see. Sounds like a very dusty place."

The group chatted about these things while climbing up the stairs, and it seemed that they would soon reach the fourth floor.

Cheers came from the front, and everyone seemed to start running. The four of them also started running, and finally reached the fourth floor. However...

"What is this......"

The moment the teleportation light faded, Hachiman's face was smothered by the salty, humid air. He looked down at the ankle-deep blue water and suddenly realized he was standing on a shallow beach with the texture of translucent jelly.

The young man in black was also in a state of confusion at this moment, his ahoge standing upright like antennae. "During the internal test, this was indeed a desert... Could it be that the programmers got lazy and replaced the fourth floor with a model of the Mariana Trench?"

"So this is why the store is built high up..."

"What do you mean?"

"Although we anticipated this situation and designed the map during the closed beta, perhaps the water-related programming wasn't completed in time."

"I see."

Asuna took a half step back, her skirt lifted. Her moonlight rapier drew ripples across the water. "Compared to this, don't you think this feels strange? You can actually... step on the water?"

At this time, Bakaha raised a simple question:

"This looks like an island, but how are we going to cross the river?"

After hearing this, the four fell into deep thought.

Shouts of "Check the surroundings quickly! There must be some trap!" were heard all around, and the four decided to cooperate in the investigation.

"Kirito, is there anything that wasn't in the beta test?"

"Hmm...it's this tree..."

"this one?"

Fifteen minutes later, the foursome gathered in front of a fruit shaped like a giant donut. Asuna poked the springy orange skin with her scabbard, and the jelly-like flesh suddenly "poofed" and spurted out cream.

"Could it be..."

"Lifebuoy?"

The two who tried to knock the fruit down decided to test whether it would work.

"Will this sink if the equipment is too heavy?"

"Who knows..."

"Okay, let me try it in my swimsuit first."

"You actually brought a swimsuit with you secretly..."

"Yeah, I bought it at the Elf Campground. I bought it because it looked suspicious."

"Good for you."

"Kirito, please don't let go! Don't ever let go!"

"Ok."

Hachiman changed into a swimsuit and used the fruit as a lifebuoy before diving into the water. It seemed his buoyancy was fine.

Yawata gradually increased the equipment tests and found that it seemed to be able to withstand considerable weight.

It turns out that the Donut Fruit's buoyancy is comparable to Noah's Ark. While lying on a pink lifebuoy in his flashy swimming trunks, Hachiman can even leisurely pull out his fishing rod and start fishing.

"Hey! What about the equipment weight test?" Asuna blushed and threw the sword over. "Pay attention!"

The moment the metal weapon touched the water, a magical scene happened - the water surface suddenly condensed into blue crystals, and Hachiman was unable to move like a bug sealed in amber.

"I see!" Kirito suddenly pounded his hands. "Exceeding the threshold will trigger the water surface to solidify! Bakaha's ring blade attack just now..."

After sharing this information, everyone began to cross the river.

Although some people greedily collected a large amount of fruits, everyone crossed the river smoothly. They were attacked by monsters several times along the way, but they were all solved by Bakaha's ring blade.

"Bakaha, you're getting along well with the enemy here, huh?"

“It seems so!”

After crossing the river, the group began to head towards the town. The main street on the fourth floor seemed to be called Rovia. As it was getting late, the team disbanded on the spot and returned to the hotel.

The three of them were looking for a place to stay on the fourth floor, and Bakaha was going back to his guildmates.

Asuna said she wanted to take a bath, but even though it was a bit far, she returned to the first floor.

Hachiman said he wanted to quickly explore this floor and disappeared into the city. Shortly after, he passed some information to Argo.

The next day, the four of them plus Argo gathered in front of the portal.

"Well, let's explore the mission-related areas first, shall we?"

Following Kirito's suggestion, the five of them split up to search for tasks, gathering intelligence with Argo, and contacting all members if anything special was discovered.

Just as the four of them were about to disperse, Argo called out to Asuna.

"By the way, Xiaoya, I received information about this property with a bathroom yesterday. Do you want to buy it?"

"Buy it! It's too inconvenient to go back to the first floor every time to take a bath."

Asuna answered instantly, Argo flashed Hachiman a lewd smile, which Asuna didn't notice, and Hachiman pretended not to see.

"Then I'll take you to see the house in person."

After Argo led Asuna away, the remaining three also went their separate ways.

That evening, the aroma of barbecued seafood filled the main city of Rovia. Hachiman, crouched by the canal, studying his gondola paddle, was suddenly struck numb by a text message from Argo.

[Information fee 500 Cor! Miss Asuna's Bathroom Play Home Buying Guide.ver]

The city is full of canals, and with the help of regular gondolas and the division of water areas, the collection can be completed in a few hours.

After receiving Argo's call, everyone gathered again.

"That's about it." Argo drew a [!] mark on the map.

"Argo, can you show me that?" Kirito suddenly realized something and pointed to a spot on the map. "There shouldn't be any quests here during the beta test. Maybe there's something hidden here."

The group immediately headed there, but Argoin wanted to create a strategy guide and act alone.

The four of them arrived at the abandoned hut and found the old man Romolo with [! ] above his head. No matter how they tried to talk to him, he didn't respond.

"There's a mission marker..."

"Is it because the trigger method is wrong?"

"Check the house."

Only oddly shaped screws and tools were found.

"This screw is..."

"Perhaps we should change our thinking... the new elements brought about by the change in floor plan... the canal..."

Kirito suddenly had an idea: "Right! We need a boat! It's too troublesome to move around here without a boat."

As the three of them marveled, Kirito said to the old man, "Can we build a boat?"

The [!] above the old man's head immediately turned into a [?]. After obtaining the list of shipbuilding materials, considering that the team might split up, they decided to build two double boats.

The collection of materials went smoothly, but in the end we had to defeat the giant bear monster Magnatareum.

"I think there's an extinct animal with that name."

"Although it's slow, it's very powerful."

"First, let's use Bakaha's ranged attack."

"Yes."

The bear monster mainly attacks by charging, and everyone uses trees as shields to deal with it.

After being defeated, it will drop multiple quest items. One will be left to the "Brave" guild, and the rest will be distributed to friends. The trees that fell during the battle will also be recycled as materials.

"It seems we can only build one at a time."

"Well then, let's give the ship we found to Kirito and the others to build."

"Okay, I'll contact you when I'm done. It'll probably take a few hours."

Three hours later, they received a call and began to build Hachiman and Asuna's ship. Kirito suggested installing a ram weapon on the bow.

It was finally named "Flash Sword". After practicing driving, everyone continued to explore. There was no new progress that day, so everyone returned to the hotel to rest.

"Hachiman, you're moving to the fourth floor too?"

"Yeah, it's a bit far."

"Yes! I've found a room with a bathroom, so I thought I'd invite Liz over."

"That's good. If it's just for transportation, this boat can seat three people, so there shouldn't be any problem."

Hachiman discovered that a shipbuilding craze had swept the players, with medium and large ships appearing one after another. Thinking that this might speed up the progress of the strategy, he fell asleep.

SAO : Chapter 25: Meet Again

The next day, at the Dark Elf City Tavern

The four decided to spend a day to complete other tasks first, because in order to trigger the subsequent tasks of the campaign, they might need to complete these tasks as a prerequisite.

"So, to trigger the campaign mission, you need to clear the side quests first? What a clichéd RPG setting." Hachiman complained while holding a honey bread in his mouth, watching Asuna slap the task list on the oak table.

The black-haired swordsman swiped the translucent menu: "After all, the program logic of this layer..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Asuna suddenly popped her head out from the kitchen, the four glasses of pumpkin juice swaying horribly on the tray. "Could you two tech geeks please communicate in a language humans can understand?"

By the time the four of them had completed the seventeen side quests separately, the setting sun was dyeing the dock the color of orange soda. They had spent the entire day completing almost all the quests in the city.

In the evening, news came that the wild BOSS had been discovered. It seemed that a combat meeting would be held early tomorrow morning to directly defeat it.

The next day, the battle with the outdoor boss began, and the most eye-catching was the combination of Kirito and Bakaha.

The battle was more spectacular than expected: every time Kirito steered the warship to split the waves, Bakaha's ring blade would flash with rainbow light, accurately severing the tentacles that tried to entangle the mast.

"Is this what they call a united heart that can cut through metal?" Hachiman said as he steered the boat to avoid the attack. Suddenly, Asuna poked him in the waist with her scabbard. "Focus on steering! Where's the chivalry?"

The salty sea breeze blew across Asuna's sweat-soaked neck. She knelt down in the shadow of the mast to catch her breath.

Through the white combat uniform wet by the sea water, one can clearly see the butterfly bones rising and falling in the moonlight with breathing.

"Hachiman-kun?" A voice with the scent of roses suddenly came close to his ear. The veins on the back of the boy's hand bulged to prevent him from dropping the oar.

As Asuna leaned over the side of the boat with one hand to check the dashboard. The moonlight just happened to highlight the graceful curve of her chest, pressed tightly against the wet fabric. "The course has deviated five degrees."

Everyone advanced the battle steadily, and no incidents worth noting occurred. The wild boss was quickly and successfully defeated.

After that, they started exploring again. According to Kirito's memory, an event had been triggered on the south side of the Dark Elf City before, so he was teleported through the ring after going there.

As Asuna finished speaking, their vision suddenly opened up, and a building that looked like a castle pier appeared before them.

There seemed to be someone standing on the pier. When I got closer, I found that it was Kizmel, whom I had parted with on the third floor a few days ago.

"Kizmel~"

Asuna waved happily, and as soon as the boat approached the pier, she couldn't wait to jump off and hug Kizmel.

Hachiman tied the boat rope to the pier's bollard, confirmed that it was firmly fixed, and then got off the boat and walked towards the two people.

"Finally you two, I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Sorry, we never thought of having to wear a ring to come here."

"Really? I should have said that beforehand. I'm so sorry. Um, Asuna, could you please come down first? I'm a little breathless."

Kizmel bowed his head and apologized, his gestures still natural, not like a normal NPC.

"Yo"

"It's great that Hachiman is in good spirits. This happened suddenly, and there's a problem..."

Following these words, a [!] symbol appeared above Kizmel's head.

It seems that the battle mission will continue here. The two were led by Kizmel to the castle patriarch.

Hachiman speculated to himself as he followed Kizmel.