The 10th Floor, main city, Fingan.
A spacious conference hall with a high-domed ceiling and polished flagstone floors reflecting figures.
Over eight hundred players gathered here, the air thick with a hot wave of excitement and anticipation.
This was the largest Assault Team meeting since SAO launched.
In just one month, nine floors had been cleared.
This miraculous progress gave everyone a glimmer of hope for clearing the game.
And this glimmer of hope almost entirely stemmed from one name—Chen Mo.
"Everyone!"
In the center of the hall, a man in silver-white heavy armor spoke, his voice resonant, possessing a power that naturally united people.
The crimson cross emblem on his breastplate gleamed under the lamplight.
He was tall, handsome, a born leader.
Heathcliff, commander of the Knights of the Blood Oath.
"After a month of fierce fighting, we have already reached the 10th Floor!"
"Today, we will collectively challenge the guardian of this floor!"
His voice was infectious, and the hall instantly erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.
"However."
Heathcliff raised a hand, the applause gradually subsided, and his tone suddenly shifted.
"The BOSS of the 10th Floor is completely different from previous ones. According to the intelligence our Knights of the Blood Oath risked our lives to obtain, it is not only powerful but also possesses unprecedented special mechanics."
Suppressed murmurs began to rise from the crowd.
"Therefore, I propose," Heathcliff surveyed the entire hall, his gaze sweeping over the commander of each guild, "that for this Assault, our Knights of the Blood Oath will serve as the absolute main force, with other guilds providing support."
A confident curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"We are confident that we can defeat this BOSS with minimal casualties!"
As soon as he finished speaking.
A cold and disdainful voice, not loud but piercingly clear to everyone's ears, drifted from the very back of the hall.
"Confident?"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice.
A figure in a black trench coat stood up from the shadows, a barely concealed sneer on his excessively young face.
Chen Mo.
A flicker of imperceptible gloom passed through Heathcliff's eyes, but his face still wore a perfect, leader-like smile.
"Mr. Chen Mo, I'm glad you could attend this meeting."
"I'm just here to watch the show."
Chen Mo took a step, walking directly towards the high platform. The moment he spoke, he extinguished any possibility of pleasantries.
"However, hearing your ridiculous 'proposal,' I feel it's necessary to remind everyone here not to be sold out and then help count the money."
He walked slowly, each step seemingly landing on the beat of everyone's heart.
The originally noisy hall, as he advanced, strangely quieted down.
The crowd unconsciously parted to both sides, creating a path.
"The 10th Floor BOSS, Bloody Chieftain Ograph."
Chen Mo stopped, calmly stating information that was enough to suffocate everyone.
"HP, three hundred and fifty thousand."
"Attack power, thirty percent higher than the 9th Floor BOSS."
"Defense, possesses sixty percent physical damage reduction."
The gentle curve at the corner of Heathcliff's mouth visibly tightened for the first time.
These statistics were more accurate and terrifying than the intelligence he had acquired at great expense, pretending to be a player!
Moreover, as a GM, the data he knew was almost identical to what Chen Mo had just stated.
"Most importantly."
Chen Mo's gaze shifted to the audience, sweeping over faces that had begun to change color.
"It possesses a passive skill called 'Blood Sacrifice'."
"Whenever a player dies in front of it…"
"Its HP will instantly recover by twenty percent."
"And it will permanently gain a layer of attack power buff."
Boom!
The hall fell silent for a moment, then completely erupted!
Recover twenty percent HP? Permanently increased attack power?
How could they possibly fight it now?!
"Now, tell me," Chen Mo's gaze refocused on Heathcliff's face, his eyes like he was looking at a clown.
"Why do you think, with the current strength of the Knights of the Blood Oath, you can clear it with zero casualties?"
Heathcliff's expression finally turned completely cold.
"Mr. Chen Mo, are you questioning the efforts of all Assault Teams?"
"No." Chen Mo shook his head, his tone indifferent, almost cruel, "I am merely stating a fact."
He stopped three meters from Heathcliff, turned, and faced the hundreds of players below.
"If you want to die, I won't stop you."
"But don't drag down those who still want to live."
The audience was in an uproar, panic and doubt spreading like a plague.
"Then what do you think we should do?!" someone in the crowd cried out in despair.
Chen Mo gave the answer.
"It's simple."
"I'll go alone."
"What?!"
"Is he crazy? Challenging the 10th Floor BOSS alone?!"
"This is arrogance! This is playing with everyone's future!"
A glint flashed in Heathcliff's eyes, and he immediately seized the opportunity, speaking in a tone of profound regret: "Mr. Chen Mo, I admit your personal strength is unparalleled in SAO, but this BOSS is absolutely not something one person can contend with! How about this, you join our Knights of the Blood Oath and serve as vice-commander, and we combine our strengths…"
"No need."
Chen Mo coldly interrupted him, like shooing away a fly.
"I said, I alone am enough."
"Enough!"
A crisp, yet suppressed, angry shout suddenly rang out.
A red-haired girl in a red-and-white knight's uniform stepped out from the crowd.
Asuna.
Her sword sheath trembled slightly, not from fear, but from extreme anger.
"How can you say that? How can you look down on all of our efforts?"
"We are also desperately leveling up, we are also researching tactics day and night! We also want to contribute our part to clearing this world!"
Chen Mo watched her quietly, his dark eyes devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
When it came to life and death, he never allowed personal feelings to interfere.
"Then you tell me."
"With your current defense and HP, how many normal attacks from Ograph can you withstand?"
Asuna's breath hitched, her beautiful face flushed crimson, but she couldn't utter a single word.
"And you?" Chen Mo's gaze shifted to the others behind her, "And you all, who can tell me, can your DPS break through its sixty percent damage reduction?"
No one answered.
The silence was so profound that a pin drop could be heard.
"This is reality."
Chen Mo's voice carried no warmth, but every word was like an ice-tempered dagger, piercing everyone's hearts.
"I see your efforts."
"But effort does not equal results."
"We can continue to level up! We can farm for better equipment!" Mito stepped out from behind Asuna, arguing anxiously, "Just give us a little more time…"
"Time?"
Chen Mo let out a faint, cold laugh, a laugh that seemed to lower the temperature of the entire hall by several degrees.
"Do you know what the situation is like in the outside world right now?"
"Every day, people are dying because the NERvGear cannot be removed, and their bodily functions are failing."
"Every day, players lying in hospital beds are leaving this world forever due to complications."
"Time?"
"That is the most luxurious, and most lacking, thing for all of us."
The hall once again fell into a suffocating silence.
Heathcliff gave Chen Mo a deep look, suppressing all emotions deep within his heart.
"Then, Mr. Chen Mo. If you are truly confident…"
He revealed his characteristic smile again, as if the confrontation just now had never happened.
"We are willing to support you. But, I have one condition."
"Speak."
"If you fail, or fall into a critically injured state after the Assault, you must join the Knights of the Blood Oath. We need your intelligence, and even more, your strength."
Chen Mo looked at him and suddenly smiled.
That smile was full of amusement.
"Interesting. And if I succeed?"
"If you succeed…" Heathcliff paused, then said word by word, "I, Heathcliff, on behalf of the Knights of the Blood Oath, publicly apologize to you, and to the 'fact' you spoke of."
"Remember what you said."
Chen Mo agreed decisively, turning to leave this nauseating place.
But a voice firmly pinned him to the spot.
"Wait!"
Kirito.
He pushed through the crowd, tightly gripping the dark blue longsword whose blade flowed with starlight—[Meteor].
He stood beside Chen Mo, facing the startled gazes of everyone in the hall, and Chen Mo's indifferent eyes.
Then, with an unchallengeable, firm tone, he uttered three words.
"Take me with you."