Floor 35
January 1 – 5 am – Year 2
Bladescape was blasted awake as the building’s alert went off. They had visitors in their entry hall. The Wondercolts were too small to have someone posted to greet players 24/7, or ever. The system allowed them to set up an alert for visitor’s arrival and for messages to be sent. This was different. They also were banging on the doors, causing the system to identify it as a "break in" and setting off every alarm.
Bladescape tore downstairs, in just her sleepwear and with sword in hand. Backbreaker was right behind her. Astro and Thunder were already in the guild meeting hall. All of them had weapons ready. They fanned out to cover the door. Even though they could not knock down a player’s HP in a safe zone, they could give them a mental beating by the physical sensation of begin struck by a sword.
Bladescape slid forward and pulled the door’s open as it was pounded on again. Behind it was a distraught group of DDA members. They were fully geared out, but no weapons were drawn. Bladescape stared down the leader of the party, Yamata.
She had never liked him or the Holy Dragon Alliance. It was more than his stupid spiked pony tale on the top of his head or the dumb grin on his face. She didn’t trust him. The DDA was know to push things into the shady side to get a hold of rare items. The rarer, the shadier it got, but they did stay Green Players.
“Nice greeting,” Yamata smiled, wryly.
“Nice awakening,” Bladescape shot back as she lowered her sword. “You set the burglary alarms off. Another 15 minutes and I would have been awake. Come on in. This is obviously important. We have the chairs for a reason.”
Knightstar came into the room, also in her sleepwear. The girls were not worried about it. Rarity had made them. Each was personalized and, most important, they were modest; designed to be capable of being worn in public without exposing anyone. They did have two boys in the guild. Rarity had made them dashing sleepwear as well. They could all modestly walk around and enjoy something other than their armor.
“What is up?” Bladescape asked, once she was settled in her seat.
Yamata was nervously standing in front of them, while the five others sat down. “Where is your poison maker?”
“Doombunny?” Backbreaker asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Yeah. Not too long ago, a new guild formally arrived. A group of orange players joined up together and just killed a small guild that was enjoying a small New Year’s party outside a safe zone. The guild leader’s name is PoH.”
In the 13 months SAO had been online, no murders had occurred. This was the first time a player had actually purposefully killed another player, and this was a guild of players who decided to make this their profession. The first “Red Guild.”
The unspoken rule had been broken, on purpose. Every player understood and knew to never let another player’s HP hit zero. Even the orange players and guilds hadn’t crossed that line. They had been careful to only toe that line, but they had not crossed it. There was no coming back from being an orange player who had killed another player. It meant you wore a permanent orange cursor and you could never go into any village, settlement, town, or city on any Floor. The only safe place for murderers was a dungeon's safe zone.
“And you came because?” Bladescape asked. “This isn’t an alert about murderous players. Not at 5 am, banging on our doors, and forcing the break in alarms to go off.”
“We came looking to find out what Doombunny has been up to.”
“That’s a serious charge!” Backbreaker yelled, standing up.
Bladescape yanked her back down, and approached the situation more delicately, but firmly. “It is a serious charge Yamata. But it is not her. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She cries because she has to kill these game creatures.”
“I heard she tore up the 39th Floor Boss. Alone.”
“And barely handled the fight as a whole,” Bladescape retorted. “Also, she can’t confirm she killed him. She didn’t even take him down into his final health bar. She got one attack in. She can’t even confirm she got the LAB. She was too traumatized over the whole thing. I know she has poison mixing abilities, but she wouldn’t do it. And just because she has them, that doesn’t mean she is doing anything wrong.”
“She was and is upstairs,” Knightstar calmly said. “Thunderborne, bring her down please.”
“I’m right here,” Doombunny squeaked.
Everyone jumped. Yamata even drew his curved sword in surprise because it came from behind them. Doombunny was sitting in the back corner in her cute yellow sleepwear dress.
“I hate your hide skill,” Bladescape declared. It was a dumb thing to say, admitting she had Hide as a locked in Skill. But it was too late. Bladescape motioned for Doombunny to come forward.
“Was this a restricted meeting?” Doombunny asked sweetly as she walked up front.
“No,” Bladescape sighed. “We just didn’t know you were here. Did you hear the circumstances?”
“Mhm,” Doombunny nodded. “But I didn’t do anything with it. Or sell any poison. I never let the poison I have leave my presence.”
“But you are mixing more?” Yamata pressed. He had at least sheathed his sword.
“Hold back there,” Bladescape said as she was keeping Backbreaker from leaping to Doombunny’s defense. “She has a poison snake as a tamed beast. I was there when it was tamed. It was by accident, and by that I mean she wasn’t looking to tame it because it was poisonous. She wasn’t even aware of beast taming. The two of them are great together.
“So, Yamata, are you also saying she shouldn’t use her skills?”
“No,” Yamata conceded. To claim she couldn’t use any particular skill would put him in a police roll, not something anyone would let happen. Multiple guilds would pitch a fit, and for a good reason.
“Colorra,” Doombunny demanded. “Come here!” The snake slithered over from the other side of the room, out from under the chairs. It passed by Yamata, obviously giving him a warning, and circled around Doombunny before she twisted her way up her body to her usual perch. Doombunny scolded the snake. “That is no way to handle a situation like this, young lady. This is serious and they are just as scared as we are. This whole situation is just wrong.”
“Forgive her,” Bladescape said. “I have high level Search skill, and even she can hide from me. But I know her in real life. I know she isn’t one of these problematic individuals. But we do need to have more information to look out for. These individuals are concerning and their guild is as well.”
Yamata snorted, unsatisfied. “Laughing coffin. And they can be identified by a tattoo of a black coffin, half open with a skeleton arm hanging out and a laughing face on the lid.” Yamata pointed at Doombunny. “For being told you are afraid to even kill, you are not reacting much.”
“Oh,” Doombunny stammered. “Sorry? I don’t know what you want me to do or act like, but if it is like those nasty players, then I won’t. I can’t.”
“And you have been here all night?” Yamata pushed.
Bladescape yanked Backbreaker down. She caught her at a moment when she was off balance. This was not a time for an Applejack defense.
“Yamata,” Bladescape said, grunting as she tried to keep AJ from standing back up. “Yamata, unless you can make a real claim, or have any real business to update us on this incident, then please leave. I won’t let any of my guildmates be accused without evidence. And if you have that, I better be talking with a panel of guild leaders, not you and a full raid party.”
“Fine,” Yamata huffed. “I am satisfied. Frankly, I didn’t expect her to be here. Even if she can hide in plain sight.”
“She does that,” Knightstar replied. “In real life too. She just can be easily overlooked. She is the shy, quiet type. We are extremely proud of her for still being able to fight on the front lines. And she isn’t planning on leaving anytime soon.”
“Let’s go,” another DDA member said standing up. It broke Yamata out of his fixation.
They departed and the doors were locked behind them. The rest of the Wondercolts had been right outside in the hallway, listening in.
“We will be safe,” Bladescape said before Kiefer could ask. “I’ve been paying attention to our surroundings from early on. We also have the higher levels. We can take care of ourselves. And we have some advantages. For one, we are a well known guild and larger than most. We are a medium sized guild, and not easy to jump. We also are well organized in appearance. We have a projected power about each member because of our organized uniforms. That gives us the advantage. We also are usually in higher traffic areas, with other high level parties. The chance that we will get jumped in a Boss Labyrinth is very low. We have much bigger concerns in there.”
“I think I should get us hot coco,” AFCK said. “I’ll be right back. Sorry, I haven’t unlocked making marshmallows yet.”
“And just how far do we go if we get attacked?” Thunderborne asked.
“To the edge, but not over,” Bladescape said, coldly. “Self defense or not, it’s still a life. We must do what we can to not end one. I will allow you to go to the point of one strike to kill, to force submission. They may not fear to take a life, but they will fear theirs being taken.
“Besides we won’t be caught alone. We won’t get there. And if it goes to the absolute worst, we will be together and know we did everything possible.”
Bladescape repositioned herself. “Doom, I just have to ask. Because now we are dealing with players who have gone to a further extreme than just beating players to submission to rob them. You have control over all of your drugs, correct?”
“Mhm,” Doombunny confidently nodded. “I will go double check, but I keep a tight list of them and I know what I have distributed to each of you.”
“I want an account of it all by 7am,” Bladescape said. “And from every single one of you. Knightstar, get a hold of Argo and get information about a security safe, like a vault. I know in the safe zone, breaking in is supposed to be impossible, but I want to make this as hard as possible if there is a loophole. I’m talking a vault in a vault with a trap inside it secure. Doombunny is too well known about her ability to make poison. No one actually knows if she is leveling it up, but you better believe they ‘know’ it.
“Also, Doom, you can’t go anywhere without two others with you. That is a freedom Laughing Coffin just robbed you of. You would be extremely valuable to them. Do you understand?”
“Mhm. That makes sense. But um, if anybody tries to take us, Colorra may not be able to not harm them. The poison is DOT after all. If she is forced to use it, we can’t guarantee the end result.”
“We know,” Knightstar said. “We know. We will handle it. Just stay with at least two others outside of here. We will work to keep that at a full party of six at all times. I’m sorry it has turned to this.”
“It’s okay,” Doombunny said with her trademarked soft voice and soft smile. “I understand. And besides, I rarely ever go out alone. I’ll go check the poison stock, as soon as I have a drink of that coco Pinkie just brought in.”
“All of us need a coco break,” Bladescape chuckled.
After coco, a full account of the poison stock was made and nothing was missing. For now, they didn’t revoke any poison stocks for any members. All of them had at least 5 five various types on them for hunting monsters weak to poison. Not all were deadly. They all carried paralysis coatings to put on their weapons.
Bladescape (SS): Lvl 68 – Two-Handed Sword – Search – Weapon Defense – Leather Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Sprint – Acrobatics – Blade Throwing
Knightstar (TS): Lvl 60 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Equipment Appraisal – Parry – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Search – Armor Pierce
Thunderborne (RBD): Lvl 63 – Rapier – Sprint – Acrobatics – Armor Pierce – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Leather Armor – Weapon Defense – Extended Weight Carry
Backbreaker (AJ): Lvl 65 – Heavy Shield – One-Handed War Hammer – Extended Weight Carry – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Fishing – Search – Martial Arts
AFCK (PP): Lvl 63 – Two-Handed Axe – Parry – Cooking – Weapon Defense – Martial Arts – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Thrown Weapon
Diemond (R): Lvl 62 – Heavy Shield – Mace – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Heavy Metal Armor – Tailoring – Light Metal Armor Forging – Heavy Metal Armor Forging – Jewelry Making
Doombunny (FS): Lvl 60 – One-Handed Dagger – First Aid – Hide – Search – Listening – Battle Regeneration – Fighting Spirit – Familiar Communication (Colorra) – Drug Mixing – Reveal
Astro (PS): Lvl 63 – Two-Handed Spear - Purchase Negotiation – Armor Pierce – Acrobatics – First Aid – Light Metal Armor – Battle Regeneration – Weapon Defense – Parry
Kiefer: Lvl 60 – One-Handed Curved Blade – Parry – Weapon Defense – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Light Metal Armor – Slash Weapon Forging – Katana – Martial Arts
Lessa: Lvl 60 – One-Handed Sword – Shield – Light Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Equipment Repair – Metal Equipment Repairing – Armor Pierce – Search
Joltron: Lvl 60 – One handed Axe – Heavy Shield – Heavy Metal Armor – First Aid – Battle Regeneration – Metal Refining – Blunt Weapon Forging – One Handed Weapon Creation – Two Handed Weapon Creation
This just got more interesting and slightly nerve wracking.
That guy was a dick. We know for a fact that Fluttershy would never do what he was accusing her of, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is a Red Guild now. It could be Laughing Coffin, but it might also be just generic Player Killers.
sorry Blade the fact Pkers are in play I would kill in that situation.
Yeah... security in the Wondercolts just reached tier 1 priority, though as valuable as Doombunny and her Snake Venom would be to Laughing Coffin, with the measures stated in this chapter coupled with their levels, capturing her would prove to be very difficult, and probably not worth the effort to set up a trap considering they were all known as skilled poison makers in their own right. I'm pretty sure Laughing Coffin isn't a top level guild, considering when Kirito confronted three of their members (including the guild leader) during the safe-zone murder investigation, with his preparations and disregarding the threat of reinforcements incoming, they backed off rather than taking their chances of finishing him quickly and leaving before the reinforcements could arrive. I consider the three former members of Golden Apple who were also there to be non-factors, since it would have probably been easy enough for them to neutralize them with paralysis agents, making it 3 on 1 odds against Kirito. The only thing they really have going for them is their numbers, and even then that's a double edged sword, proving to be their eventual downfall when they eventually make too much of a problem of themselves for the top tier guilds to ignore and mobilize against them in force.
10004075
Is that a bad thing?
10004143
It still is taking a life though. With no trial and unless you physically see them kill, you can't be technically certain they did kill. Their orange cursor could just mean they broke the harassment code, or they killed someone. Killing someone is permanent orange cursor. They don't actually get a red cursor.
10004152
LC was the first confirmed player killers and they killed the silver flags on New Years.
10004294
Exactly, but this is hours into their arrival. They don't have a gauge for how strong they are. 3 on 1 against Kirito would end badly against Kirito. They already neutralized Schmitt, a high level Assault Team leader in the DDA. They backed down because they didn't want to risk being caught by the backup Kirito said was coming. Their status is certainly a strong guild of 30 higher level players. High middle at the lowest. At the time of the murder case, Kirito was around Level 70. They would have been in the mid 50s at the lowest. 3 on 1, Poison being used against Kirito, with a legendary cleaving knife, he would be in trouble. Bad trouble.
Plus, Doom might have, being of a more naive and trusting nature natural, she might have accidentally done something to help them.
10004294
Actually,they did made a raid against the red guild(the laughing coffin). If you watch the 2nd season of SAO.
10004327
my point still stands. In a Death Game I will kill Pkers
Sunset better take her own words to Doom to heart. She is a well known face, both for the raids and for being her Guild lead. It can't be that unknown that she goes out on her own to level up.
10004327
Oh, for sure, Kirito would have been hurt, and possibly killed, but if they were all on level parity, or at least at the clearer-tier capability, 3 V 1 odds against Kirito, even considering he's "The Beater" and just that D good, paralyzing the three other mid tier players there, and then killing Kirito before cleaning up the remaining three witnesses and being LONG gone before reinforcements could have shown up would have been simple. This goes back to my WoW days. Me, my brother and a friend of ours would run into high level Solo players from the other faction in the low level areas every once in a while. In the starter areas you can't attack players of the other faction if the zone isn't one of yours, but that doesn't mean people didn't find other ways to harass low level players. My group would be 3V1 on these people when we were bored sometimes, we would all be around the same level at or near level cap, and the fights would be over in seconds.
10004328
Hence the last bit of spoilered text in my post.
10004329
Yeah... sometimes there's justice, and sometimes, there's just us...
Unfortunately, this is a case of the latter. PKer's in SAO like to shuffle any "Blame" for their kills by shuffling the guilt off on to Kayaba Akihiko, blaming him for creating the death game in the first place, but in reality, any jury that could try that sort of case would call Akihiko as Accessory and the perp with the actual murder... Unfortunately, due to the nature of SAO, it's a murder without any concrete witnesses or forensic evidence that can be collected. The light novels mention that the government had managed to get into the servers enough to monitor player data, and were able to identify "Orange" players for observation and counseling once they got out, but apparently not enough to identify PK'ers from the bandits.
In all, the reality of the situation is that SAO has a kind of Wild West justice system, but people delude themselves into thinking the world is civilized. Any justice to be had for anyone must be met out by the players themselves, but most of the players never actually realized that simple fact, thinking that people wouldn't do something so abhorrent, and things would be set to rights as soon as the game was cleared, right up until they were the ones being PK'd...
In that sort of circumstances, I wouldn't blame anyone who would go out to become a "Red Hunter", and might even become one myself if I though it necessary...
10004382
yeah wouldn't seek but if attacked would go for a kill
Well shit's about to go down
10004764
And we haven't even made it to Floor 50.
10004328
10004353
Yep. Exactly the spoiler marked text. Rain happened August 2024 when the Front Line is Floor 70.
10004405
Glad to know its not killing others as a Red Player. I don't know what I would do. I would probably kill for my defense only. But I wouldn't hunt anyone.
10004405
Well, you gotta remember that taking a life isn't the easiest thing in the world, the fact that this takes place in a virtual world makes it even harder considering when even near-death you are still capable of fighting and hardly look the worse for wear. Fighting for your life in a game isn't quite the same as in real life and when the moment of truth comes the fact is many people can't bring themselves to choose to end the other person's life (heck it's even mentioned at one point that alot of people died against laughing coffin simply because they hesitated).
Which is fine, people shouldn't be gung ho about taking lives like its just a game (despite being in a game).
10005240
but unlike most games..if you die you respawn. not for SAO.
10005240
10005323
Game or Real life, the SAO series as a whole is full of themes that blur the lines between virtual world and reality. It's even mentioned that a lot of SAO vets, once they get out, tend to "Live" VRMMO's rather than "Play" them, compared to a lot of other players. They fight tooth and nail, even when backed into a corner and can't retreat any more, when living on through surrender isn't an option, and dying and respawning back at their spawn point would be the "Smart" thing to do, simply because fighting on to the last breath is so ingrained in their mentality that the thought of giving up and dying is anathema to them, and angers them if it's mentioned by non-SAO players who either don't know they are SAO-vets, or haven't figured out that aspect of their personality yet. Flight or surrender are acceptable options, but death isn't one for them. Despite this, we need to remember that the majority of SAO players are still civilians, and mostly geeks and nerds at that, not military or law enforcement with the training and conditioning to mentally be able to handle the need to actually kill another human being if it becomes necessary.
Everydaygamer has the right of it. SAO Volume 5: Chapter 6. When the clearing groups mobilized against Laughing Coffin, they heavily stacked the deck against the Red Guild:
.
When they attacked Laughing Coffin's base, they were lured into a trap, but their experience as clearers reacting to unexpected circumstances allowed them to turn the tables on Laughing Coffin fairly easily. The problems didn't really start when it came down to dealing the final blows. Most of the members of Laughing Coffin refused to surrender, even when their health was down low enough where even a single minor hit would kill them. Some of the raid party hesitated or even threw down their weapons even though they'd discussed the possibility beforehand and had all agreed that it might be necessary to deal final blows, while others charged in when Laughing Coffin refused to surrender, and things devolved into chaos. The final death count was 11 out of the roughly fifty crusaders despite their higher level equipment and levels, and 21 out of the ~30 members of Laughing Coffin, and not all of the ~9 remaining members were captured, including PoH.
Taking a life is serious business, and most of the SAO players are intimately aware of exactly what doing so means, but don't have the mindset to do it themselves despite the Sword of Damocles hanging over each of their heads every day. 40% of the original player base is dead by the time they get out, so the chances that a person won't have known at least someone who died are pretty low. It's what makes the orange and red guilds so abhorrent. Guilds like Titan's Hand try to brush off their kills by claiming that "it hasn't been proven that death in game means death in reality" but are too cowardly to test that "theory" out for themselves, while guilds like Laughing Coffin understand fully, but are mostly comprised of psychopaths and sociopaths who revel in the death they deal.
It's not something that should ever be taken lightly, and it isn't something just anyone can do. Those who hunt monsters must also take care, least they become that which they hunt.
I was wondering when the Laughing Coffin would make an appearance... now I kinda with they hadn't
10025519
They were too key to the overall story to miss out on at least mentioning them. Plus, with Doom's skills, she is a prime target for kidnapping.
Nooooo the horror!!
Laughing coffin!!!
She really needs to stop doing that.
Same.
Talk about an unexpected way to start the new year.