Tap-!

The calm lake rippled as a stone continuously stepped on them. Without nothing to do, Kirito threw another flat stone to the lake, making it step just like before.

"Non-Beta players... Are they really like that?" He mumbled.

It has been a year since the 26th floor and the anomalous dungeon was cleared. Many changes happened within that time period, but the most significant one is their appearance.

"NEXUS... They must know some inside information about this game."

During that time in the 26th floor, Roman and Kouzuki made a mistake and got known too early, albeit this didn't cause much ripples until...

They officially debuted in the 30th floor.

...

Thud-!

One of the players responsible for tanking the attack flew right in front of Kirito. Their momentum got messed up, and he thought that they are about to suffer casualties yet again when...

Clang-!

The giant's sword got parried by a cloaked person that suddenly popped out of nowhere. 

"<<Switch>>!" An androgynous voice rang out before a spear-wielding player took his place and executed a sword skill.

Bzzzt-!

A laser beam was blasted right in front of the giant's face, prompting the players who went silent to look towards the source of that attack.

A tamed beast - A black skeletal dragon, to be exact.

Beside it is an expressionless woman who seemingly wore a cat-ear accessory. She rushed to the boss, parrying its attack once more.

As she shouted <<Switch>>, a tall and well-built woman took her place, severing the giant's tendons which made it go off-balance.

The former didn't stop there; she also stabbed the giant's throat twice before retreating.

"Who... who are they?" One player asked while he gulped down on his throat.

"Did we have a party like that? Their cooperation are impeccable!"

Suddenly, few players who went silent spoke one by one.

"They're clearly doing normal a few moments ago..."

"I was right beside one of them! Come to think of it, that guy cleared the mobs neatly."

"You didn't notice, too?"

At this moment, only surprise and confusion are present in every clearers' mind. Though, there's an exception.

'New variables? Interesting...' 

Heathcliff thought as he tapped the grip of his longsword. Since he didn't have any connection to Cardinal ever since that announcement of his, he only thought that it added some new stuff without him knowing.

Of course, he is completely mistaken.

"Kirito-kun."

"Asuna."

Asuna, who is wearing KoB's uniform, went besides him.

"Those voices... I think they sound familiar."

"Voices?"

"That's right. They're similar to the two people that we saw that night."

Kirito recalled the moment when they saw two people 'allegedly' clearing the labyrinth's boss alone.

"You mean... that man with the orange hair and the woman with long purple hair?"

"Un."

While they were mulling over that encounter, the man with androgynous voice complained at them.

"Ahem. Can we please get some help to finish this boss more easily..?"

"He's right." Heathcliff is the first one to reach out his hand. "What do you want us to do?"

"The same as the plan earlier. Though, we'll use <<Parry>> alternatively instead of tanking more hits."

"I understand."

Before, they could only choose to tank those due to lacking players who has an excellent reaction time to use <<Parry>>. Now that they have eight more players doing so, things would surely become easier.

That's what happened in the end. They defeated the boss with no casualties and with much shorter time to boot.

Moreover, no one berated them from not showing up until now since the most annoying player, Kibaou, went to the rear ever since the 25th floor accident where many players under him got wiped out due to the sudden spike of difficulty.

Before they left, someone among them declared, "Alright, folks. We'll clear every other floor that y'all clears. See you next time..!"

The crowd was too stunned to react as they all left the boss room through teleport crystals.

Also, the one who declared it is the one who possesses an androgynous voice...

...

"Only that girl remains unidentified."

Not only Kirito, but many other players had created a list when it comes to the strongest party in SAO. Since they've cleared every labyrinth boss alone, they are called as such.

Though, information related to them are scarce due to that.

Shinji, a kid whose 12 years old at best, a spear user.

Kal'tsit, a doctor in real life, a rapier user as well as a beast tamer.

Kuroneko, someone with eight-grader syndrome, a dagger user.

Shino, a teenager, a dagger user.

Touka, a mature adult, a greatsword user.

Roman, a sword user.

Kouzuki, a rapier user.

As for the last two, he only added it when he recalled their weapons back in the 26th floor.

"Kirito-kun!"

"Asuna?"

Suddenly, Asuna came running at him before she grabbed his right arm. Kirito didn't resist and asked about the problem.

"What's the problem?"

"I found a child!"

"Ah?"

His confusion didn't last long as he finally understood what did just happen. In the woods, a girl wearing plain white dress is asleep. 

It is none other than Yui, the "Older Sister" of Strea. 

*****

In the famous dungeon located in the 47th floor, two figures can be seen running quickly. Monsters akin to flowers spawned. Using their big horrendous mouth filled with of sharp teeth, they tried to bite off the player, but what they got is a cut on their stem.

Screetch-!

Psssk-!

A spear pierced through its head with one thrust, turning it into blue pixels before disappearing. This sight continued on until every single monsters were killed.

Reaching the end of the dungeon, they saw a floating stone cube surrounded by four different stone pillars. Strange enough, a white flower that emits bright white light is planted in the middle of the cube.

"That should be it."

"It seems like I'll be owing you a favor again..." The girl happily said.

"No, this is not that big, really..." The blue-haired boy scratched his cheek with his free hand as he continued, "We're friends, after all."

'Friends...' She thought as she looked at the boy with a slight blush on her face. 

"That's right!"

The girl has a short twintail-hairstyle, with both of them tied by a red ribbon. Her bright red eyes formed a sharp contrast to her light brown hair.

The girl whose name is "Silica" walked towards the glowing flower as her red robes fluttered.

A notification window appeared the moment she touched it. After clicking yes, the flower separated from the cube when she plucked it.

Placing it in her inventory, she faced the blue-haired boy, Shinji, once more. With a sincere look, she said, "Thank you for helping me."

Seeing gratitude being directed at him, Shinji couldn't react for a while. True, he and Silica goes way back a year ago, but he still couldn't get used to her sincerity and kindness.

'I'm a sinner, a scum that everyone would absolutely detest.' he thought.

He realized that it's not his fault that his future self had turned out to be like that, yet there's still a little bit of self-loathing and detest hidden within him.

Shiro noticed this a few months ago, but he knew that only Shinji himself could fix that problem. 

Shinji hid his inner conflict while he skillfully changed the topic of their conversation.

"Want to do some sightseeing after this?"

"Let's!"

The moment they left the dungeon, they were teleported back to the 47th floor's plaza. 

"Oh? Didn't knew that you two are on a date!"

A man with an androgynous face exclaimed beside them. Who else could it be but Shiro?

*****

A/N: The chapter has a double meaning, and it's up to you guys to guess it ;)

Also, I f*cking got Ling and Nian at the same time (just sharing). I lost all hope when I went broke in the bait banner, but RNG gave me another chance when I spent all my savings for more pulls. (F2P btw). However, I can feel my luck drained, so wish me luck on the upcoming summer proto merlin...

Anyways, here's the fact of the day~!

Fact #21: In Arknights, there's a heavy metal band called Alive Until Sunset (AUS for short). Why talk about them, you ask? These seemingly normal girls are actually... sea gods. In the sea, there's the Seaborn who is similar to an outer god, while the members of AUS are the true gods of the sea before the former appeared. It is said that 'they' made an avatar to roam the land of Terra, in hopes of them finding a way to resist the 'corruption' that the Seaborns brought. If they're corrupted, they would simply assimilate to the leader of these Seaborns. To be more specific, to their hive mind, thus losing themselves in the process.