Ch 15: Meeting in Tolbana Town.

A soldier entered the office, a bunch of papers in his hand.

"Colonel, we have the report of the forensic team, and they haven't spotted any sign of alteration. As far as they can tell, the footage is legit. All of it."

"Thank you, sergeant. Is there anything else?" said the man sitting behind the desk, accepting the report.

"Not at this time, Colonel."

"Very well. Thank you." Nodded the Colonel, giving his subordinate permission to leave the office.

Colonel Seijirou Kikuoka, a rising star of the JSDF, leaned against the back of his chair as he considered this new information, and cursed his luck once again. He had been saddled by the higher-ups with dealing with the Sword Art Online Incident. He was senior enough to make him an acceptable choice in the eyes of the public, and junior enough to be expendable if the same public decided the government had handled things badly.

The one bright point of the whole mess was that close to a fifth of the people imprisoned had been released, and more were every day, giving hope to the families of those still held captive in the game. As a result, the government had decided it was safer to simply wait for all the trapped players to be released when they died, rather than tamper with the Nerve Gears.

The people who had been freed were overjoyed after finding out that they weren't dead after all. They returned to their families, and the medias were loving the drama.  There were already talks of using the testimonies of the released players to make something like a national news bulletin, keeping the whole country updated every day on the events happening within the game. To the medias, once discharged of its tragic aspect, the SAO incident was the be all, end all, of all reality shows. Ten thousand people stranded in an alien environment, believing they had to fight for survival. Nothing could beat that, and it was certain to draw top audience not just nation-wide, but world-wide.

Some of the returnees had tried to log back in, to tell the players that Kayaba had lied to them, but none of those attempts succeeded.

A dozen players had reported being murdered in the game by other players, and the public had been shocked and disgusted. The alleged wannabe murderers had been identified by their victims, cuffed to their hospital beds, and were placed under surveillance.

Akihito Kayaba's and Rinko Koujirou's whereabouts were unknown. They obviously had well prepared for this, and all attempts to trace their connections or find their location had failed.

And when the investigation had upturned those two phone communications that took place just a day before the start of the game, the Colonel had taken a very keen interest in the person who had called them.

Part of the communication had been replaced by white noise, and another team of investigators was working on it. The government really didn't like the idea that someone had the ability to tamper with the recordings made by the security agencies, but this matter was outside of Kikuoka's jurisdiction.

Still, from the parts that weren't corrupted, a few things were clear. Kayaba had been contacted by someone who knew what he was about to do, and it was that someone who convinced the madman to release the people dying in his game instead of killing them all. When this would become public, and Kikuoka had no doubts it would leak soon, that person would be instantly famous. Some would consider him as some kind of national hero for saving thousands of Japanese people, others as an accomplice of Kayaba for not alerting the authorities. And he was the Colonel's biggest headache.

By tracing the communications' point of origin, they had identified that person, who had already been brought to the nearby hospital.

A late teen or young adult, handsome enough to be a supermodel, found by the paramedics in an appartement that was supposed to be vacant. An individual with no identification papers, and whose fingerprints and DNA samples didn't return any result.

The owner of that apartment had visited it barely a week before with two prospective buyers, and all three were positive that the apartment had been entirely empty at the time, without any piece of furniture. The potential buyers even had made a video of their visit with their smartphone to prove it.

To find out the identity of that teen, the team had tried to trace the origin of the electronics, television and computer, using their serial numbers. Surely that would lead them to some receipts.

But they were baffled when they met another wall. The serial numbers weren't unique. They were duplicates. It already was enough to raise eyebrows. But when the investigators compared the photos taken from both computers and televisions having the same serial numbers, they also found out that both had identical marks of wear and tear. As if they were the exact same objects, but at two different locations. Hell, even the operating systems of the computer and phone had the same ID serial keys, and yet it somehow hadn’t been spotted by the companies' online verification tool.

It was too much for an elaborate prank. This bordered on supernatural territory.

All the other nations had cooperated with his requests for information, and none had any information about that teen.

And now, this. Investigators had collected the footage of all the neighborhood's security cameras. That teen just had to appear in at least some of the footage, as all the building's access were covered by at least one camera. And yet, he did not. Kikuoka had suspected some of the footage had been faked, even if it didn't make any sense for someone to do so, and contacted a forensic team from the police to confirm his suspicions.

That left the possibility of entering the building from above. Not by helicopter, as some of the street cameras were equipped with microphones and would have recorded the noise. Not counting the countless neighbors. Not by a glider either, ridiculous as the thought was, or they would have found it. Or, he had been living in the building in another apartment, for a long time.

Seijirou rubbed his temples tiredly. It was as if that guy, with all the furniture in his apartment, had just popped out of thin air.

The investigators had started showing that teen's picture to the people who had been freed from the game. A few had seen in the game, but had not noticed him doing anything suspicious.

He had been placed under heavy guard. Eventually, he would wake up, and then, the Colonel would meet him personally. He had a lot of questions, and he wanted answers.

…

Noah was killing yet another Kobold in the labyrinth when he received a message from Argo.

"Hey, Noah, the boss room has been located!"

"Hi Argo. That's great!"

"There's a meeting being organized in Tolbana Town in five hours, at the fountain. Be there. See you later, I have tons of people to contact."

"I'm on my way. Bye."

With a light step, Noah started on his path down the labyrinth. Finally. He couldn't wait to reach the second floor and have more varied monsters to fight against, and material to play with. Although maybe he should focus on the boss first. From his memories, the boss was three or four meters tall, fat kobold, armed with a large axe for the first part of the fight, then a katana. The monster would be dangerous to him, as he didn't know much of anything about the Sword Skills associated with those two weapons. They would be much harder to evade. That boss would be surrounded by minions, and more would come constantly.

Noah came to the plaza early. Only a handful of people were already present.

"Noah, over there!" Called out a hooded figure, hiding her identity under a dark gray robe. She had been discussing something with the five other people present. Noah recognized two of them. The first man with short blue hairs was named Diavel or Diabel. A guy too cunning for his own good, who had died early in the novel for being greedy. The other was Agil. A tall, black, well-muscled guy with a shaved head. Maybe the only male character in the novel Noah was fond of. A calm, good natured fellow who silently supported other players. In the future, he would open a weapon shop, and his moto would be "buy cheap, sell cheap". The series' token black guy. That was to be expected. The novel was Japanese, and from the early 2000s. Minority representation wasn't exactly at the forefront of the author's concerns.

"Argo! Did you like the skewers?"

"They were well appreciated. But you'll have to raise your cooking a lot more you want to impress this lady!" She grinned.

Argo made the introductions, and they chatted for a while as more and more people came. Noah recognized Kirito, as well as Mito, a tall, slender girl with long purple hairs. She had the same side-braids Asuna favored, with semi-long bangs tied by a small ribbon on the right side of her face, and most of her hairs were gathered in a long ponytail. She wore purple and light gray clothes under a white cape, and had a scythe on her back.

The last person he identified was Kibaou. A man of average height and build, with short brown hairs styled like a cactus. That guy was just an entitled, self-righteous jerk, as he would no doubt prove during the meeting. In the novel, this power-hungry scum ended up sending a dozen people to their death just to try to earn some bragging rights, and even attempted to murder his guild leader to take over his position.

The time for the meeting arrived, and Noah found himself sitting on a terrace on the side, with Argo on his right, in easy speaking distance, and Kirito a few meters on his left.

There was a total of 44 people on attendance. Not enough for a full raid, but for this boss, it would suffice.

Diavel, as the organizer, took the floor and started speaking.

"Thank you all for heeding my call today! I'm sure some of you know me already, but just in case, my name is Diavel, and I like to think of myself as playing as a knight!"

Wearing a shimmering metal armor, he looked quite the part.

A few people present laughed in a good-natured way, as there was no class system in SAO.

"Today, our party discovered the staircase that leads to the top floor of the labyrinth. Which means that either tomorrow or the day after, we'll finally reach… the first-floor boss chamber!"

Some people cheered, and he waited a moment to resume.

"Three weeks. It took an entire three weeks… But we still have to be an example. We have to beat the boss, reach the second floor, and show everyone back in the town of beginning that someday we can beat this game of death. That's the duty of all top-level players here! Isn't that right?"

Another cheer rose, and some people applauded. Noah clapped, too. He wasn't a natural leader, and was perfectly ok with having others assume the role, as long as they did a decent job about it.

"Hang on just a sec, Sir Knight!"

It was the jerk, of course. People stopped applauding as Kibaou made his way to the center, near Diavel.

"Gotta get this offa my chest before we can play pretend-friends."

"What's on your mind, friend?" Asked Diavel with a confident smile. "I'm open to opinions. If you're going to offer yours, however, I'd ask you to introduce yourself first."

"The name's Kibaou!" He looked around with an angry expression. Which was, as far as Noah was aware, his default expression. He probably slept angry. "There gotta be five or ten folks in this midst what owe an apology first."

"Apology? To whom?" asked Diavel.

"Hah! Ain't it obvious? To the sixteen hundred people who already died. Sixteen hundreds people died because those damn beta testers hogged everythin' to themselves! Ain't that right?"

For a long moment, no one spoke, as everyone looked at each other. Until Noah couldn't stand it anymore.

"No, this is bullshit." Noah raised his voice to be heard clearly by everyone present. They all stared at him.

"My name is Noah, nice to meet you all. I'm a new player, not a beta tester. The reason I say Kibaou is wrong, is because the beta testers do not owe us shit. Their own lives matter just as much as our own. As for prioritizing one's own life over those of strangers, that's only being human. We're all guilty of it."

"How can you defend them! They're scum, seizin the best weapons before we folks get a chance to get them!"

"And? Try to use logic here. The beta testers are working harder to increase their level than most new players, and despite being only 10% of the player's population, I bet the ratio of beta testers that will end up being part of the frontline and defeating the bosses is going to be much higher. When you have a limited number of good equipment, you give it to the people best able to use them. In our case, the beta testers. It's a simple matter of optimization. If you arm average people with good weapons and skilled people with average weapons, all you'll get in the end is failed raids, a sharp increase of the death rate, and resulting morale issues. That concept is used in real life everywhere, like elite JSDF commandos having better equipment than the average trooper."

There were whispers among the crowd. Some apparently didn't like the patronizing tone Noah had taken when scolding Kibaou. But most, including Mito, he noted, seemed to agree with Noah.

"But they're bad people!" Growled Kibaou. "They'll get the good weapons, but that doesn't mean they'll go fight the bosses."

"They want to get out of this game alive just as much as anyone here. There will be exceptions, sure, but there's no reason to assume that. Unless you can show us some opinion poll with a majority of the beta testers stating that they aren't interested in beating the game?"

Dismissing the furious Kibaou, Noah looked at the rest of the crowd.

"On the first night after this madman trapped us in this death game, I went to the Horunka Village. There, a person, obviously a beta tester, waited in the village, to warn everyone about the dangers of the Nepenthes with the fruits. I'm sure everyone is aware of that danger by now. That person could have spent those precious first hours getting a head start over the other players, to increase their own chances of survival. That person instead chose to do what she could to help others survive. She isn't the only beta tester to have done something similar. And Kibaou here wants to saddle them with the responsibility for the people who died? Fuck that!"

"So what if that person did this? We new players still have to make do with their scraps! It's unfair!"

Noah rolled his eyes.

"Life isn't fair! And stop whining that someone wasn't there to hold your hand, you big entitled baby. I know your type. It's always projection with loud mouths like you. You complain about beta testers this and that, but if YOU had been a beta tester yourself, you would have been among the first to run out of the plaza to get the best quests and items. When I got out of the plaza that day, I helped another new player learn the basics of fighting monsters before I went on my way. Because the moral duty to help others isn't limited to just the beta testers. What have YOU done for others, Kibaou?"

Kibaou was fuming, his mouth opening and closing, and he put a hand on the handle of the sword he had on his back. Noah was almost expecting to see him request a duel here and now.

"Okay, okay. I think we should cool down a bit here." Interjected Diavel. "We're here to organize the boss raid, not to create a schism between the players. Kibaou, please return to your seat. No one has to apologize to anyone."

Kibaou, seeing that the majority of the group was clearly leaning toward Noah's opinion, gave up and retreated to seek comfort and validation from the company of his two sidekicks.

Noah didn't pay too much attention to the rest. Kibaou and his crew kept glaring at him, but he couldn't care less. He felt quite refreshed after venting like that. Kibaou's hypocrisy and entitlement had reminded him of Talia, and he idly wondered what happened to her. Was she in jail? Living in the streets? Maybe he might ask Lilith, one day.

The time came to form temporary teams for the boss raid. Most were teams of 6 players, but as there weren't enough people to make full teams, Noah found himself as part of a group of three, with Kirito and Argo. Their role in the boss fight would simply be to engage as needed some of the minions that would accompany the boss or come as reinforcements. Eight teams were made. One would be in charge of tanking the boss, keeping it's attention. Three teams would wear it down. And the remaining four teams would keep the minions off their backs.

Noah wasn't interested in getting the killing blow for the loot, but he would try to save that idiot Diavel. He had a quest about saving notable people, after all.

"Thanks, Noah. I appreciate it. A lot." Argo spoke softly, to not be heard by the other teams. She didn't want others to know she was a beta tester, for understandable reasons, so she could not defend herself.

"Yeah, you were…cool." Kirito added.

"There's no way I could let that guy accuse you of letting players die. Can't stand that Kibaou jerk. He's the type that will get people killed. Just think about it. He was going to sow conflict among the very players who were about to go fight the boss, at a time when everyone critically needs a victory, and one without heavy losses. He is sabotaging us."

"That's a pretty severe accusation. What would he gain from it?" Frowned Kirito, as he stared at Kibaou.

"I never said that it was his objective. he likely doesn't have the foresight to understand the consequences of what he is doing. I think he just wanted an excuse to extort money or items from the beta testers. As an apology or compensation."

"…That sounds a lot more likely." nodded Argo.

"Kirito, you're a beta tester, right?" quietly asked Noah.

Kirito hesitated briefly, looking around, before he nodded.

"Don't worry, I only asked to be sure our group would be up to the task. There's only three of us after all. Are the Kobold Sentinels surrounding the boss different from those Kobold Troopers we found in the labyrinth?"

"Yes. They're almost entirely covered in plate armor. they will take some time to kill. And they're armed with two-handed blunt weapons." replied Argo.

"What about the sword skills they use?"

Kirito rubbed his chin as he searched his memories... "The equivalent of Vertical and Horizontal. Those shouldn't be too hard to avoid. However, if they shift their grip to the end of their weapon's shaft, you need to put some distance between you. It means they're about to use Whirlwind. They will spin for three seconds and hit everything around them."

"Put some distance, or interrupt their motion with a stun. Something like a Linear to their head will make them stumble backward and break their stance. Noah, what level are you?" asked Argo.

"I'll be lv13 by tomorrow. I put most of my points in Agility. You?"

"Lv12, agility build, too."

As they both looked at Kirito, he shrugged.

"Lv15. Mostly strength build."

"Nice. You'll likely end up being our main dps during the fight."

"Noah, what are you going to do for now?" asked Argo suddenly.

"Well, it's a bit past noon, so I'll go grab a bite, then return to kill monsters. Why are you asking?"

"Invite me to eat." She stared at him with intensity from under the rim of her hood. Noah suddenly got the feeling that something bad would happen to him if he declined.

"You're unusually assertive, but I'll gladly accept, your company's always a pleasure."

"Good." Argo grinned, then turned to Kirito. "See you later, Kibbo."

Kirito, hearing his dismissal, made a helpless smile, said goodbye, and walked away.

"Which restaurant do you favor, Argo?"

She pointed to one nearby. "This one has some good pasta with mushrooms."

Noah brightened. "They have pasta? I must have the recipe!"

"Hehe, I knew you would like it."

"Is that why you wanted me to invite you?"

"No, but we'll speak about that while we eat."

"Fine, I'll be patient."

They entered the restaurant and sat at one of the free tables. The privacy filter proved its usefulness by decreasing the noise coming from the surrounding people to a buzz that could easily be ignored.

The NPC waiter came, and they both ordered the pasta. They were served less than a minute later.

The pasta was delicious, with its creamy sauce and small mushrooms.

"Where do you think they got the pasta?"

"It's something of a secret easter egg in the game. A Beta tester found out about it when he was testing how realistic cooking in SAO could be. Recipes using pasta aren't given when you level up your cooking, and NPC cooks won't tell you about it, either. You need to buy flour, mix it with an egg, water and a bit of salt, and pound the resulting dough into a fine layer using a blunt weapon. Assuming you want spaghetti, you fold the layer on itself two times, and then you cut the pasta into fine strings with a slash-type weapon. When you do, you will receive the basic spaghetti recipe. Once you get the recipe, you don't need to make the dough and cut it, the game will just take your flour, water and salt and process them instantly. Once the first recipe is unlocked, you need to experiment using various seasonings and ingredients to unlock more. No one knows how many recipes there are.

"That's… very valuable information. And you didn't even make me pay for it! You're slipping as an information trader, Argo." He grinned, and she nodded in acknowledgement.

They both ate in silence for a few minutes, savoring their food, when Argo said suddenly.

"Noah, let's have sex."

Noah choked on his food. She laughed cutely as he did, and Noah suspected that she had chosen the timing to obtain that very result.

"Did I hear you correctly?"

"Yeah. Or could it be that ya're not interested in this Big Sis anymore?" She feigned being hurt, and Noah smiled.

"No, I'm still very interested. But this is a little abrupt and out of character from you. You told me before you weren't up for a relationship."

"…I was thinking about it for a while. You are handsome, smart, and a good person. And oddly mature for your age. You'll end up being very popular, ya know? I can already picture it, me getting rich from selling intel about you to your future fan club… More seriously, I was thinking I might end up regretting it if I don't at least give it a try, before you find yourself a girlfriend. And with what happened earlier with Kibaou, I made up my mind."

"So, since we're in a game and that my virginity in the real world is safe, I'm offering you a chance to have sex with me, just once. If you impress me, I wouldn't mind us becoming sex friends in the game, so long as you don't become too clingy and understand that it's a no-strings-attached relationship. And maybe, maybe, once we get out of here, and if you somehow haven't found a girlfriend by then, we might take our relationship to the next level and become actual lovers, with strings very much attached."

Noah snorted.

"You know, Argo, you remind me of a cat. Cute as hell, very independent, and seeking affection on its own terms only. But I'm fine with it. I am confident in myself, and I will conquer your heart."

"That's the spirit!" grinned Argo.

"But what do you mean exactly by 'friends with benefits with no-strings-attached'? I understand the part where I should not treat it like we're engaged, and that either of us can stop it on simple notice. What else?"

Argo thought about it for an instant.

"Let's see… Either of us is free to pursue someone else. However, once one of us gets a SO, our relationship reverts to normal friendship, unless that person we found is fine with us still being involved physically. But we won't be allowed to still be friends with benefits while lying to our partners. That would be just wrong. You fine with that?"

"Yes, they are good terms. I'll just have to make sure you have no reasons to seek another. And if I get a girlfriend, I'll get her to accept me having occasional fun time with you."

"My, you are confident indeed. But that holds only in the game, Noah. I won't accept being a sidepiece in the real world. So, if you get a girlfriend here, once we leave this place, we'll just be friends. And what happened in SAO, remain in SAO. And that's assuming I let you do me more than once. Do not disappoint me."

Noah nodded, already wondering how long it would take him to tame this little cat.