The Age of Heroic Spirits in the Eyes of the Reincarnated.

Chapter 34: Strange! Transformation! (Please read on!)
a few minutes ago.

Li Xia and his four companions saw the red smoke spreading out after the [Man-eating Grass with Fruit] was attacked from another direction of the Man-eating Grass Forest.

Realizing that someone might be in danger in the area, he immediately rushed over here.

Twenty seconds ago, they were already very close to here, with only a bush of one or two hundred meters between them.

Then, they also noticed the weirdness of the area.

In the field, a blonde girl was fighting with a high-level elite wild monster called a humanoid dragon and was in danger.

Outside the field, in two different directions, a handsome middle-aged man wearing a one-handed sword and a small shield, and a teenager about fourteen or fifteen years old, were hiding behind trees to watch the fight.

The middle-aged man didn't seem to plan to take action at first, but after seeing the blonde girl's wonderful response when facing the humanoid dragon, he may have been moved by her talent and took action at the last moment.

The other boy must have used the invisibility potion in advance to hide his figure.

After all, when they first arrived here, that is, when they were more than 200 meters away, they did not see the boy at first. It was not until the invisibility potion expired and lost its effect that the boy's figure was revealed, thus attracting the attention of several people who accelerated into the 200-meter range.

Yang Jie, Wang Teng and the other three didn't have any feelings towards the middle-aged and the young.

But when Li Xia saw the two, she was extremely surprised.

The middle-aged appearance is exactly the same as the game character created by Kayaba Akihiko in the later period of the SAO game world.

The boy is the protagonist of this series: Kazuto Kiritani, or Kirito for short.

He was surprised that Kayaba Akihiko would appear here. After all, the "hero saves the beauty" plot here was a part that belonged exclusively to Kirito in the subsequent patch set, and had nothing to do with that old hellhole Kayaba.

It was also surprising that Kirito was not the man who happened to pass by and rescued Asuna as shown in the anime patch, but arrived early and was waiting for Asuna to die before appearing as a hero to win her heart.

"It's strange, Kirito would be this kind of person?"

"Also, where did he get his invisibility potion? That stuff is a rare commodity."

Many questions surround my mind.

But Li Xia knew that this was not the time to think about anything else.

He had to rescue Asuna quickly.

The sword in the girl's hand had been knocked away by the gorilla-like humanoid dragon, and the whole person was thrown out.

Before he could get up, a bloody mouth had already bitten him.

It looked like a crunchy scene was about to happen.

Fifty meters...

Forty meters...

Seeing that the girl seemed to be hit by some system information and had really reached her limit, Kayaba Akihiko controlled his own level 10 uncle account and attacked. He rushed out from one side, jumped high and swung his sword, accurately slashing the left eye socket of the high-level humanoid dragon.

Kirito on the other side saw that the time was ripe, so he also controlled his level 12 character to charge out, and in the air he did a -degree spiral dance as gracefully as a gymnast, and then slashed the other eye of the humanoid dragon with a sword.

Suffering two heavy blows at once, the humanoid dragon also felt pain:

"Ouch..."

It immediately abandoned its prey, Asuna, and transferred all its hatred to the two people who suddenly appeared.

"Huh? There are people around here besides me?" "×2!

The middle-aged man and the young boy stared at each other for a moment, and then turned to face the humanoid dragon.

But before they could finish off their opponent, five figures rushed out from the side of the slope!
“Puff, puff…”

Five high-burst skills hit the humanoid dragon almost in no particular order.

It was Li Xia and his four men who completed the finishing blow.

"Boom."

The high-level elite monster exploded into a spot of light and disappeared.

The five people's experience bars advanced a very small amount.

Li Xia, who completed the final blow with the help of the high attack damage of the "Shadow Dagger", not only gained double the experience, but also received an item reward.

"Are you okay? How much health do you have left?"

Li Xia turned around, his eyes passed Kayaba and Kirito, and fell on the girl who was staring in a daze.

Covered in dust and in a mess.

There is not a single bit of the charm of the shining girl in the later period.

It seems that I still need to hone my skills.

Not crazy, not live.

Asuna now still lacks a lot of things.

"Thank you...I'm fine."

At the most desperate moment, she was rescued by several high-level players who suddenly appeared. The girl's heart was already in a mess.

She didn't know who to thank specifically or who to thank the most.

At this time, Kayaba Akihiko, who had already looked at Li Xia and the others with interest, nodded at the five of them, then turned and left.

He originally admired the dying blonde girl and saw some potential in her to become a member of the front-line attack team, so he planned to rescue her and then recruit her to serve under his command in the middle or later stage.

Now, the person has been saved, but it is not just his kindness.

There's no point in staying here any longer.

And this time, I also met Li Xia, a young man worth looking forward to, which was a pleasant surprise.

Very good skills, and a very high understanding of the SAO skill tree. It will be very interesting to play against him when he reaches level 100:
'Young man, grow up well and quickly, and don't die halfway. I look forward to the moment when you finally stand in front of me and swing your sword at me.'

"Uncle, thank you."

Asuna stood up and bowed almost ninety degrees in the direction where Kayaba left.

Kirito, who had just woken up from a dream and had been observing the situation for a long time without making any expression, took out a map and a dozen potions from his backpack and handed them to the girl:

"Here you go.

These should be enough for your trip back to the city.

Live well and finish this damn game together."

He was obviously very anxious, but he didn't dare to show it.

His original plan of being a hero saving the beauty now seemed a bit superfluous.

"What a mistake, what a mistake. I shouldn't have used the invisibility potion to get so close. I was probably seen by those five people when I was hiding."

Therefore, he had to change his plan and try to get the girl to accept his kindness and take some benefits from him, leaving a breakthrough for further communication. And in case Asuna refused, he put the things on the ground in front of the girl and turned away.

We can't stay here for long, for fear something unexpected might happen.

"Thank you."

The girl still bowed.

I am really grateful to the heroes who saved her, and I am really grateful to these people for keeping her alive.

"Well, let's talk later."

Kirito walked in a hurry.

From an outsider's perspective, it seems like he is a socially anxious person who is embarrassed to be around many people.

But Li Xia always felt something was wrong.

Could it be that the kind and simple Mr. Tong in the original novel was a disguise?
The real Kirito, after experiencing the backstab of his beta tester teammates, has actually become a very real guy?

Forget it.

Why think so much?

As long as Kirito continues to perform normally, learns and becomes proficient in using dual swords, he can then serve as a safety net for their side to challenge Kayaba alone and clear the level on their behalf.

Who doesn’t want to win without doing anything?

As long as the target of Kirito's first dual-sword fight was not the Sheep Horn Boss on the 74th floor but Kayaba Akihiko, and Kayaba did not deliberately collect all kinds of data about Kirito in advance; as long as Kayaba and Kirito fought one-on-one, someone exposed the former and made him turn off the system assistance to fight Kirito fairly.

With the combination of these two factors, GM Akihiko Kayaba is likely to fail.

This was originally a tentative little gift that Li Xia prepared for Kayaba.

It’s best to pass the customs as soon as possible.

If Kirito fails, it won't be too late for them to take over.

Because of this, not only did he not suppress or interfere with Kirito's growth these days, but he also implicitly reminded Kirito of the importance of the afternoon of the first day of the public beta.

“Is this Kiritani Kazuto who is a little different from the original really reliable?
Besides, he forgot my voice!"

During the transaction with Kirito in the real world, although he used transformation techniques to disguise himself, his voice did not change at all.

Well, it's been almost a month, it's normal to forget his voice.

"And Kayaba, why is he here?"

So many doubts.

...

"From here, you can go to the nearest town, Horonka Village, or to Torbana in the north. If you go there, we can go together. Of course, you can also go back to the starting town which is farther away but has the lowest level of wild monsters. So, Asuna, where do you want to go?"

"I have to go back to the starting town to see if my friends have returned..."

The girl's voice gradually faded.

"Okay, be careful on the road."

The two sides said goodbye.

Li Xia was not in a hurry to invite the other party to join the guild.

This girl still needs to undergo the final transformation of her character.

The Asuna at that time will be the real Shining Asuna.

Only then will it be possible to grow into the strategy ghost in the later part of the original work.

...

When the girl returned to the tavern in the starting town alone, she found that her best friend was gone. The tuft of hair on her forehead fell down without any spirit.

Then, he got into bed with trembling lips and fell asleep.

She slept very uneasy that night because she had a dream. The dream started out very beautifully. She dreamed that the "exit button" of the game appeared and she returned to the real world smoothly. She met her parents and brother, and her family prepared a sumptuous dinner for her.

But in the blink of an eye, she saw the scene where her best friend Tu Ze was besieged by the man-eating grass and then left her.

She wanted to grab her friend's clothes, but she woke up from the dream.

"It turned out to be just a dream."

She stood up from the wet pillowcase at the head of the bed, her nose suddenly felt sore and her eyes became blurry.

I opened the door and went out for a walk, and heard a lot along the way.

"We have been trapped in the SAO game world for three weeks, and more than 300 players have died."

"It is said that the closed beta testers suffered the heaviest losses. It seems that they were badly hurt by the inherent knowledge and experience during the closed beta test."

"It's what they deserve. They left us ordinary players behind..."

"Alas, so many people have died, and so much time has passed, but we still haven't found the boss guarding the first floor. This is simply incomparable to the closed beta period."

“When can we move on to the next level?”

"When can I pass the 100th floor and leave this damn place?"

How could these people know that if it weren't for the intervention of certain people that changed a lot, and if the timeline of the original work had still been followed, the number of players who would have died by now would have exceeded 1,800!

In a few days, this number will increase to two thousand!

Only more than 300 people have died so far, which is a blessing in disguise.

...

Under the clock tower in the square of the starting town.

The blonde girl, gnawing on a piece of black bread that cost a gold coin, thought a lot in the rain.

When she slowly stood up, her whole aura changed:
“It was left behind.

There is no difference from those ordinary players.

Is this where I am now?

But even if I die...

At least I get to choose how I die!"

Her eyes became particularly determined and sharp.

(End of this chapter)