At Ducker's insistence, the members of the Black Cats still ended up heading to the labyrinth tower on the 27th floor.
This time, however, there were two extra people in the party—none other than Akimi and Asuna.
The past few days, Akimi had been so busy with Asuna rushing to push through the game's progress that he had nearly forgotten about the Black Cats.
But that morning, Keita had sent him a message, inviting him and Asuna to a party that evening at their guild's new base.
When Akimi had felt something was off and asked if Keita had already bought the base, Keita replied:
"Not yet. We actually found the house a while ago, but only just saved up enough money yesterday… It's nothing particularly fancy, but it's still worth celebrating. Tonight at six o'clock, northwest street in the Starting City, mid-block. You have to come, okay?"
After reading the message, Akimi waved his hand to close the message window, narrowed his eyes slightly, and murmured to himself, "The timing really does line up… Since I've come to this world, I can't let things turn out the same way as before."
Over the past few months, the Black Cats' levels had risen to be among the higher tier just below the clearing group; their skills, under Kirito's guidance, were no longer inferior to the frontliners.
Combined with Kirito's high level, they had grown a bit overconfident.
That overconfidence was dangerous—perhaps in normal areas they could hold their own, but in a real crisis, they would be like overinflated balloons: big on the outside, but bursting at the first prick.
Inside the labyrinth tower, Tetsuo, Ducker, and Sasamaru swaggered along at the front, chatting and laughing.
Kirito and Sachi walked in the middle, avoiding such a showy demeanor, while Akimi and Asuna brought up the rear.
Asuna kept scanning their surroundings for hidden dangers, and asked Akimi with some puzzlement, "Why did you suddenly drag me along? We haven't even finished the quest on the 33rd floor yet."
"Ah, forget about the quest for now. We've been grinding for almost a month straight—can't we take a break? Plus, Keita's about to buy a house and invited us to the celebration tonight. It's on the way," Akimi replied, feigning a casual tone.
Thinking he just wanted to slack off a bit, Asuna didn't press the matter.
But strangely, after wandering the labyrinth tower for half a day, they had barely encountered any monsters.
By noon, nothing had changed.
This made Ducker and the others impatient.
They picked up their pace, completely forgetting Kirito's usual reminders to stay aware of their surroundings and watch for danger at all times.
Kirito's expression grew darker as he watched their careless movements.
After finding a safe zone and having lunch, Ducker, Tetsuo, and Sasamaru once again rushed off, eager to hunt monsters and find treasure.
As it happened, Ducker did stumble upon treasure—a hidden room with no visible entrance, only a wall adorned with strange patterns.
When Ducker touched the designs on the wall, they lit up with a blue glow.
Once the light faded, the wall itself vanished, revealing a spacious hidden chamber.
Inside, there was a finely crafted treasure chest: perfectly fitted wooden panels, neatly aligned brass rivets—everything about it suggested that whatever lay inside was extremely valuable.
"Oh—woohoo! A treasure chest!"
Ducker shouted in excitement and rushed straight into the room.
Sasamaru and Tetsuo followed closely, hurrying over to the chest.
But Kirito, Akimi, and Asuna immediately sensed something was wrong—this spot was already very close to the boss room, and given the strategy group's near carpet-style search methods, there was no way such a not-particularly-well-hidden secret room could have been overlooked.
Even if the clearing group had been careless at first and missed it, it should have been discovered long ago—after all, the twenty-seventh floor had been open for nearly two months, and the labyrinth tower had surely been searched over and over again.
There was absolutely no way a high-level treasure chest would still be here.
Which meant, without a doubt, that this was a trap.
But before they could think further, Ducker eagerly placed his hand on the chest, muttering to himself, "Come on! Let's see what kind of goodies a high-level chest on the upper floors has in store."
That made Kirito jump—traps in SAO were deadly, designed for the sole purpose of killing players.
If Ducker opened this "treasure chest" without any precautions, then maybe Kirito and the other two could still make it out, but the remaining four members of the Black Cats would likely all be wiped out.
Kirito strode quickly over to Ducker, grabbing his hand just as he was about to open the "chest," his expression deadly serious.
Ducker, however, had no idea why. L
ooking at Kirito with some confusion, he asked, "Huh? Kirito, what's up? Why won't you let me open it?"
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly looked enlightened and said with a grin, "Ah-ha, is it that you want to experience the thrill of opening a chest yourself? Hmm… but you've probably opened a ton already, right? Tell you what—let me have this one, and you can take the next."
Saying that, he tried to pull his hand free from Kirito's grip to open the chest, but Kirito held on tight.
"Ducker, stop." Kirito frowned.
"This is a trap room. The moment this chest is opened, the traps inside will be triggered."
"Oh, come on, Kirito, quit with the lame jokes. It's just a treasure chest in a secret room—what traps?" Ducker replied dismissively.
Sasamaru and Tetsuo chimed in too: "Yeah, it's probably just that other players were too careless and didn't find this place."
Then Ducker added, "Besides, how can you tell this is a trap room? Is it any different from other secret rooms? I think you're just being overly paranoid."
As he spoke, he once again tried to open the chest.
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