Ch 28: Burying Laughing Coffin

In the middle of the night, Noah was hunting Nagas fairly deep inside the forest when his chat interface started blinking. It could only be Argo.

He finished the wounded Naga and searched for a quiet spot, then opened the chat window.

“NOAH! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!! COME BACK THIS INSTANT AND FACE MY WRATH!!! I’M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!”

“Kitty, I know you’re furious, but please don’t write in all caps. It’s only hurting my eyes.”

“I’M GOING TO HURT SOMETHING ELSE IF YOU DON’T GET THOSE THINGS OFF ME!”

“Be careful if you want to hurt me. You might end up wearing those items forever if I’m gone. And stop with the all caps, or I’ll just ignore you.”

“Fine! Please tell me you’re just pulling a sick joke on me.”

“Sorry, Kitty, but no. I’m dead serious. I have humored you, hoping you would change your mind if I waited for you to trust me more, but time is running out. So I’ll be more assertive.”

“What time? You know what, I don’t give a damn! How could you do this to me? I trusted you!”

Noah winced. He could all too well imagine her crying right now, and considered he might have made a huge mistake. But it was too late to change course now. He had to see it through.

“It’s for your own good, Kitty. We’ve been seeing each other a lot now, and I love you. I know you love me, too. I want you to be as happy with me as you can be. But we both know that you have a submissive streak. We’ve only experimented with bondage twice, because you’re scared of liking it too much. But if you keep denying yourself, you will never be truly happy. You need a push, to accept that you like being a submissive, and that there’s nothing wrong with it, and I will help you. From now on, our sessions will always involve bondage and master/slave roleplay. The choker stays on, until you accept that you are submissive, and that you belong to me. And you will keep wearing the belt between our sessions until you acknowledge me, from the bottom of your heart, as your Master.”

“There’s not going to be any more sessions! We’re done! You betrayed me, Noah.”

“I expected you would react like this. I didn’t do this without thinking about the consequences. And I’m sorry for the pain I’m causing you. But that is temporary. In the end, I will give you happiness. I promise you, Argo. I will take responsibility for what I’m doing and make you happy. This aside, be careful to choose the belt’s activity period at a time when you’re unlikely to be fighting. I suggest 21h to midnight. Now I’m off fighting more Nagas. See you later, Kitty. When or if the next time happens is up to you.”

“I HATE YOU!”

“I love you, Argo.”

Noah closed the chat with a heavy sigh. He really needed to harden his heart. If he wanted to impose reforms on the world, he would need to be utterly ruthless.

To distract himself, he searched for the closest Naga.

At nearly 4 AM, Noah was starting to feel tired. He was about to call it a day, or rather, a night, and started searching for a spot without nearby monsters to use his teleport.

And as he walked among the trees, Noah suddenly felt a prick on his neck, and collapsed.

Surprised, he saw a yellow blinking aura around his HP bar, and the icon of paralysis status.

Four shapes rose from nearby bushes on his right, with red icons on top of their heads, and Noah understood that he had just fallen into an ambush!

Noah slowly turned his head toward them and recognized them. Cradeel, not wearing his white and red KoB uniform anymore, was looking at him with a depraved grin. Besides him were a medium-sized man wearing a black, hooded robe, his face hidden behind a white skull mask. He held a thin sword in his hands, similar to a rapier. The third man had what looked like a grocery bag over his eyes, with holes for his eyes. He was twirling a dagger between his fingers. And the last person was a burly man wearing a banded armor and a pointy onion-shaped helmet, a blowgun in his right hand and a sword hanging from his waist.

Noah didn’t have a clue who the burly guy was, but he recognized the other two. White skull mask was Xaxa, and the grocery bag guy was Johnny Black, both famous members of Laughing Coffin, the most famous player killer guild in the novel.

The burly man quickly walked toward Noah.

“Hey, Orlando! We agreed I’d be the one to kill him!” complained Cradeel.

“Then do it quickly! You’re going to wait for him to use an antidote crystal?”

Xaxa and Johnny Black seemed content to watch the show as the other two walked to Noah.

Noah half-expected to see PoH, the cleaver-wielding leader of laughing coffin, before he quickly understood why it was unlikely. PoH, the Asian-hating murderer, had deliberately logged into SAO after knowing it was a death game, in order to assassinate a specific player that was too well protected in real life, and to indulge in killing Japanese players. But since Noah had arranged for players to be freed from death, PoH likely never entered the game.

“Orlando, eh? So you joined those murderers. Can you be any more pathetic?” Noah struggled to speak, as he slowly shifted his feet.

“You talk big for a dead man.” Said Orlando, looking down on Noah as he stopped three meters away.

“Well, the most pathetic here is Cradeel. Even without me, you’d never get Asuna to even look at you.”

“Shut up! I’ll slowly torture you to death!” Cradeel, his face red with anger, lifted his sword as he walked closer. He was about to stab Noah.

At that instant, Noah suddenly lost his sneering expression.

“It’s showtime!” He suddenly shouted, as the world seemed to slow down around him, and he activated Lesser Cure.

Noah’s left arm, still holding his sword, suddenly moved, taking Cradeel and the others by complete surprise.

The horizontal slash passed through both of Cradeel’s legs, leaving a damage line behind, above each knee, in areas unprotected by armor.

Noah was armed with a Sharp Steel Blade +8 (S3Q2D3), giving him 65 attack and 5 bonus strength. He also had 35 base strength on his SAO status, a 562 proficiency score in One-Handed Swords increasing his damage by 56.2%, and 20 strength in his Yin-Yang status, further doubling his effective damage. As a consequence, even his basic attacks without sword skills were now inflicting significant amounts of damage.

-530, -530.

The damage was inflicted once for each leg. Just like that, Cradeel lost over a quarter of his HP. And Noah wasn’t done. Before Cradeel could understand that he had been hit, Noah made a return slash, managing to hit the same damage lines thanks to his high agility.

-1060, -1060.

Both hits were big enough to trigger maiming status, and Cradeel’s legs separated from his body, shattering in blue polygons as he started to fall. Noah was already jumping to his feet and ran a few meters away from them.

“Argh!” Cradeel screamed pathetically as he stared in disbelief at his cut legs, and the others looked at Noah in consternation.

Orlando lifted his blowpipe to his mouth.

Noah hadn’t taken some distance because he wanted to flee. Dropping his shield to the floor, he quickly manipulated his interface to take another one-handed sword. He managed to parry away the dart from the blowgun. Three seconds had passed since Noah had activated Lesser Cure, and he had a remaining 27 seconds of immunity. He had no time to waste against opponents known for using the paralysis status a lot. Noah charged Xaxa and Johnny Black, who he assumed where the most dangerous of the bunch.

“What the hell? Two swords?” Johnny black started, and swallowed his comment as he hurriedly prepared to defend.

Xaxa took a premotion posture that Noah had often seen Asuna make, and he made a quick side step, and Xaxa’s body flashed past him. Noah had turned to the side, the sword in his right hand starting to glow, aiming at Xaxa’s extended right arm with a vertical. Xaxa didn’t have enough time to retract his arm or evade after the post-motion ended and was hit above the elbow.

-1220.

“Argh!” intense pain radiated from Xaxa’s arm, causing him to drop his rapier. He had just barely escaped a maimed status.

Johnny black managed to stick his dagger in Noah’s flank, exploiting Noah’s own post-motion-freeze.

-118.

“What the hell?”

Noah’s HP bar dropped by barely 3%, and he barely flinched due to the pain. In return, he flashed his left sword, and hit Johnny black in the neck.

-1060.

Xaxa was bowing to retrieve his dropped sword, and Noah kicked him in the stomach, sending him a few feet away, as the focused-on Johnny Black. Orlando was loading another dart into his blowgun, no doubt expecting Noah to be too busy to block again.

Noah parried his opponent’s dagger with a sword, while he mercilessly slashed at Johnny Black’s body.

-630, -630, -630.

“Help me!”

Johnny Blask desperately tried to open some distance while he frantically waved his dagger, but Noah was just too fast for him, and wounds accumulated.

-630.

The last one found his neck, shaving off another 1060 HP with a critical hit, and Johnny black died.

A blow dart impacted Noah’s right shoulder as he turned, causing the loss of 10 HP, and Xaxa’s blade skewered Noah from the back, emerging from his chest like an alien chest burster.

-287.

“That’s painful, you little shit!” roared Noah as he turned and stabbed Xaxa deep in the guts with his own sword in retaliation.

-630.

Xaxa, apparently not used to feeling pain, doubled over, and Noah used the opportunity to slash at his head. Just like Johnny Black, Xaxa simply couldn’t keep up, as Noah parried away any of his attack while delivering blows with his other hand.

He quickly fell under Noah’s furious blows, and both Orlando and Cradeel were frozen in terror.

Noah jumped toward Cradeel, the closest of the two. The later weakly waved his sword to try to fend him off, but Noah easily avoided it and finished him.

Orlando dropped his weapon and lifted his hands in surrender.

“Please, don’t kill me! I’ll give you money!”

“Really?” Noah looked at Orlando up and down, making a show of considering it.

“Yes! I’ll do anything!”

“Very well. If you lead me to your hideout, I won’t kill you. You guys must have gathered a lot of money, right?”

“Y-Yes. Please follow me, it’s this way!”

Orlando started walking, eying Noah warily, and the later followed after retrieving his shield and putting it in inventory.

“How did you resist the paralysis? And how can you move so fast, and take so little damage?” He asked after a while.

“Not telling you. How many murderers are in that hideout of yours?”

“There should be three more with red status, and a girl with green status. We use her to enter towns and buy supplies.”

“Makes sense. You’re going to stop being a murderer after our business tonight is done, right? You don’t want me to hunt you down.”

“Yes, I won’t commit crimes anymore, I promise.” Orlando felt relief, as Noah’s words implied that he intended to keep his word and let him live.

They made their way through the forest, and near the edge of the floor. There was a small cave, barely visible from that angle.

“That’s the entrance to our base.” Pointed out Orlando.

“Thanks”. Noah stabbed the middle of his throat, causing him to be inflicted with the “mute” status effect. Orlando eye’s widened, and he tried to speak.

“I’ll tell you a secret, Orlando. Kayaba lied. When our HP bar reach 0, we don’t really die in real life. We’re just disconnected, and can’t come back. So I’m keeping my word, you aren’t going to die.”

Noah stabbed him twice in the chest, bringing Orlando’s Hp to less than half.

“But, that also means that your victims are alive, ready to point a finger at those who tried to murder them. I suspect that police officers are waiting for you on the other side. Let’s not make them wait!”

Noah stabbed Orlando several more times, and he died.

He headed toward the cave. Noah was confident that he could deal with three or four more murderers. His Lesser Cure was off cooldown and usable again, and he didn’t even have to cast Heal on himself during the fight.

…

Argo was in a terrible mood and hadn’t been able to sleep. Her hands still tried to pry the belt and choker away from her body, even though she was aware it was futile. The betrayal really hurt her. Thinking about him again, sorrow and rage filled her heart, and she angrily wiped her tears as they formed.

Who the hell did he think he was, to force her into this position? Even though he was right about a part of her being submissive. Or even being masochistic. She had to be, after all. She felt aroused by the situation even now, simply by knowing that part of her body was under his control. She dreaded the time when the belt would become active. Would she really manage to endure it?

The chat icon blinked, signaling a chat request. It was barely 5 AM. She saw it was from him. Was he going to apologize?

With a sullen face, she opened the chat window.

“Hey, Argo. I have some good news. Four guys from Laughing Coffin tried to kill me.”

Argo temporarily forgot about her anger and panicked. She might be furious at Noah right now, but that didn’t mean she wanted him dead!

“How is that good news? Are you ok? Do you need help?”

“I’m fine, HP bar back to full. They, however, are not. I killed three, forced the fourth, a guy named Orlando, you might recognize the name, to lead me to their hideout, killed him, killed three more. That’s seven less player killers. As a guild, Laughing Coffin is likely dead and buried, for good. I’d appreciate if you could spread the word, it will do some good for the player’s morale, and might dissuade some people from turning to the dark side.”

“That’s... good, I guess. I’m less trilled about how lightly you seem to be impacted by the fact you just killed seven people, even if it was self-defense and they were murderers… I’ll check the monument of life tomorrow and spread the information. Still, is that all you have to say to me?”

“No. I’m sorry again for the pain I’m causing you, Argo. I know I did something terrible to you, and don’t think I’m not feeling guilt for betraying your trust or second-guessing myself. I’ll work hard to obtain your forgiveness later. But I’m not changing my mind. I’m not removing those items from your body until you accept being my submissive.”

“…I don’t want to speak to you right now. Don’t contact me again, unless it’s related to clearing SAO.”

Argo closed the window, not waiting for his answer. At least he seemed to know just how much he had wronged her, and seemed to feel some remorse. Her anger was, just a tiny bit, reduced. But if he wanted her to forgive him, she was going to make him crawl and grovel before she’d even start considering it.

…

Colonel Kikuoka was intercepted by a member of his staff the instant he set foot in the building that had been transformed into temporary headquarters.

He nodded to the lieutenant’s salute, and the latter began updating him.

“Colonel, we had a development three hours ago, but there was no urgency, so we didn’t inform you immediately. Three people in the red list woke up within a fifteen second interval. Then less than twenty minutes later, four more people from the red list woke up within a three-minute interval. It seems they were all single handedly killed by Patient Zero. But when asked about the circumstances, their testimonies are all over the place. I think they’re trying to cover up their own actions.”

“All from the red list?” Kikuoka frowned as he considered the information.

“Yes, Sir.”

Patient Zero was the temporary name they had attributed to the young man they had failed to identify. The name had actually come from the public, after the information related to his case leaked, and it had stuck.

The government hadn’t been happy about the leak, and Kikuoka had taken some flak from it, but he had argued that no one could reasonably expect a situation that bordered on the supernatural, and related to the biggest news story of the decade, not to be leaked eventually, and he had given them evidence that he had gone above and beyond to try to stop it. The politicians had at least been realist enough to concede the point. Or maybe they had decided to not to discard their convenient scapegoat just yet.

There were now countless conspiracy theories to attempt to explain the anomalies and find the real identity of the young man. Hundreds of people who had been freed of the game, as well as their family members, were eager to meet him, and all the government could do was ask them to wait for him to be awake.

“Accompany me to the nearest one. Which hospital?”

“Mistutaka, Sir. We can be there in ten minutes.”

“Let’s go.”

Kikuoka ruminated in silence as the lieutenant drove the car, and they quickly reached their destination. The colonel was now a well-known figure among the hospital’s staff, having visited many times before and having done a number of interviews for the television, and a nurse who was expecting his visit led him directly toward a specific room. A police officer was standing guard beside the door.

“Hello. I am colonel Kikuoka. I wish to visit the patient for an interview.” He said, presenting his ID card.

“Yes, Sir. You are on the cleared list.” Answered the guard as he opened the door.

Inside the room was a burly man, looking at them with worry. His left hand was handcuffed to the bed, and he had an IV drip in his right arm.

“Hello, Igawara-san. I am Colonel Kikuoka, in charge of coordinating the SAO incident’s response. Your relatives have been informed, and you can expect some of them to visit you soon. Meanwhile, I wish to ask you a few questions.”

Igawara Subaru, known in the game as Orlando, sighed and lowered his eyes in defeat.

“Yes. Can I get… leniency, if I cooperate?”

“That will be a point in your favor. The Judicial System has decided to treat murder within SAO as being the same as attempted murder in real life, as the perpetrators were unaware that death in the game wasn’t real. So you will be brought before a tribunal. But your cooperation will be notified to the judge ruling on your case. As far as I am aware, only one person accused you of murdering him.”

“…Yes. I only killed one, in the game... I needed a place to hide, after… Those guys from Laughing Coffin offered me a safe place. But I had to prove to them that I was willing to kill someone… I had nothing against that guy. Don’t even know his name. He just was in the wrong place, at the wrong time…”

“We are interviewing every player as they wake up, so we are aware of the reason you were… ostracized.” Confirmed Kikuoka. “I am more interested in the circumstances that led to you being killed in the game.”

“It was Noah who killed me. Before he did, he told me that he already knew that death wasn’t really real, and that I would be visited by the police after waking up... Is it true, what I have watched on TV? Is it really Noah who convinced Kayaba not to kill us?”

“As far as we know, it’s true. We still don’t know who this person is, but he already saved over two thousand people, and might still end up saving all those still trapped in the game. He is getting quite popular these days. What can you tell me about him?”

“He has participated in every floor boss fight, as far as I’m aware. He mostly uses a sword and a shield, but when we tried to kill him, he dropped the shield and equipped a second sword. Fighting him was like... Trying to fight a machine. His face was like a blank mask and he didn’t seem to even wince when he was injured. There was only one time where he scolded one of the Laughing Coffin members about the pain of being skewered by a sword in the chest, just before killing him. He resisted several darts tipped with paralysis poison without stopping, and he was abnormally strong, fast and tough. Could he have hacked the game?”

“We have no indication of that. What else?”

“…He is often seen with some of the most beautiful girls among the players. It was because of a girl named Asuna that one of laughing coffin's newest members, the one calling himself Cradeel, wanted us to kill him. He only managed to convince us because Noah was getting famous within the game, and killing him would bring prestige to us. I am sorry, but I really don’t know more about him.”

“You said he was getting famous within the game. Why was it?”

“There were several times, during the boss fights, where things became dicey. At those times, it was often Noah who somehow turned the situation around, by distracting the boss at a crucial time, or dragging people out of the way. To date, the teams clearing the bosses have lost… maybe seven, eight people? Without Noah, it would be at least four times that.”

Kikuoka turned to the lieutenant.

“Find out who that Cradeel is, we’ll visit him next.”

The lieutenant nodded and left the room. Kikuoka intended to identify this person named “Asuna”, assuming that was her real life name, and assign a guard to her room. She would likely be able to tell him a lot more about Noah.

“Now, Igawara-san, what can you tell me about the crimes you witnessed or heard about? The judge will be more inclined to leniency if you can help us convict some criminals.”

Igawara nodded, and started reporting on every crime he could remember. Kikuoka calmly took notes, already thinking about the next interview.