After dividing the loots from the boss, Rifat and others went back to the inn and celebrated till they literally passed out from exhaustion. Next morning, Rifat somehow managed to wake up feeling totally refreshed as he started to fiddle around with his system.
[A/N: I just realized that I totally forgot to release some missions to the subsystem holders. It's really annoying. At first I thought the idea of subsystem would be amazing but now it's just making the things more complicated. I guess it would have been better if I had left it out from the very beginning.
But since I have already added the idea of subsystem, I guess I have no choice but to go with it.]
---Flashback---
Time goes back to the first day of the SAO game when Akihiko just finished his speech. Rifat opened up his system as he decided to release a common mission to all the subsystem holders simultaneously.
As Rifat edited out all the details of the missions and sent it out, all of them got a common notification flashing in front of their eyes.
[Ding! It is detected that the host is in a very dangerous situation.]
[The system is checking the possible scenarios to make the host get out of this situation safely....]
[Analyzing all the possible scenarios. Analyze completed. Host is required to carry out the following missions if he/she wants to get out of this death game alive-]
[Mission 1: Follow the strongest beta tester(Rifat) among you and help him complete the objectives of the game.
Punishment for failing the mission: Lose the system completely
Reward for passing the mission: You get an extra life.]
[Mission 2: Keep your level as high as possible.
Punishment for failing the mission: If it goes five level lower than the highest ranking player, the system will make you do some embarrassing thing.
Reward for passing the mission: After the game ends, the system will give a special reward according to the level you manage to reach.]
'Good. Now I won't have to worry about them not joining me or not trying their best to level up. The first reward that they will be getting is also awesome. Since I can copy their rewards after they completes the mission, I will be getting a lots of extra lives as well.'
'With that many extra lives, I wouldn't have worry about being killed by anyone in the real life in future. And going to other worlds will also become much safer.'
Rifat gave out a very satisfied smile at that thought.
---Flashback Ends---
After checking a few things in his system, Rifat got out from his room and checked on others. He found that almost all of them already went out to farm xp.
'Those missions really made them quite diligent. If things goes on like this, it wouldn't even take a year before we manage to completely conqueror every floor.'
Rifat gave out a sigh and thought to himself, 'I am the only one who is being lazy and waking up this late. Well....my level is already at the top. So, I guess I can take a day off and go on a date with someone.'
'But whom should I choose? All the girls are already outside farming xp.' Rifat thought as he opened up his friend list and started to check the level of every female player in there.
'It seems Asuna is at the top among all the females in this game. Let's take her on a date then. Even if she takes a day off, she can make it up later. If I choose others, it might become somewhat risky for them as they could even fail the mission altogether. Though I can slow down my leveling speed to keep that from happening, it's not the best solution.'
'Anyway, the best option right now is Asuna who is only one level below me and one day off wouldn't make any kind of big difference.' As Rifat's thought came to this point, he opened up his chat box and sent Asuna a message.
Rifat: "Hey, wanna hang out together? I wanted to take you out on a date."
Asuna: "Sure, why not? Just give me a few minutes. Where do you want to meet?"
Rifat: "Near the teleportation gate. I will be waiting for you there."
Asuna: "Ok"
Dating isn't anything strange for Rifat and Asuna. Due to Rifat's constant efforts in real life, he managed to make their relationship very close. During these past few years, they have already dated quite a few times in real life.
From those dates, Rifat also confirmed that Asuna have already developed some emotion of love for him. The only reason Rifat is still delaying from confessing to her is because he is afraid of committing to the relationship too early without letting her know of his intention of having a harem.
'Although I have tried to indirectly suggest to her that I might marry several girls in the future, she would always try to avoid it acting like she didn't understand what I was implying. From this, I can be sure that even though she is against the idea of me marrying several women, she still loves me enough not to point it outright and discourage me from having a harem or even directly going into feminist mood and start insulting me.' Rifat thought.
'So, I don't want to fool her into making her think that I will only be loyal to her and then later on cheat on her with other other women. It's better to let her know clearly before committing to any kind of serious relationship.' While waiting for Asuna near the teleportation center, Rifat started to think whether to confess to her in this date or wait for sometime and let Asuna's love for him to grow more strong before coming out clean about everything and telling her that he loves her.
As Rifat was still lost in his own thoughts, Asuna silently came beside him and tugged his shirt and asked in a slightly curious tone, "What were you thinking so deeply? You didn't even notice me coming to you!"
"It's nothing important. So, did I interrupt you from leveling up by asking you to go on a date with me?" Rifat acted nonchalant as he asked her the question while totally avoiding the previous topic.
Asuna didn't mind as she replied back, "Well, you did interrupt me but I don't mind since I do like to spend time with you. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be here."
Unlike in the past, she said those sentences without any blushing or stuttering. With years of getting along, they are already quite used to flirting with each other without getting embarrassed.
"Well, good to hear that as I also enjoy your company very much. Anyway, where do you want to go first?" Rifat asked. He doesn't like to plan for dates as it seems too formal. Since they are already familiar with each other, Rifat decided to just go with the flow and enjoy their times with each other.
"Hmm...how about we go to shopping? Yesterday, we manage to get a lot of gold coins after defeating the boss. Since I am quite rich now, I want to buy some things which were too pricy for me back then." Asuna replied.
"Let's go then." Rifat directly held her hands as he led her towards the shopping center of this floor. Asuna gave out a happy smile at his action. She also adjusted her hand slightly to make both of their fingers crisscross as she quietly followed Rifat toward their destination.
[A/N: I don't know if you guys even understood what I was trying to say in the last paragraph but if you didn't then I can't do anything. It's very hard to describe every action of someone in details when English isn't your first language.]