Turning Back the Clock

Chapter 9: The Plan

Later that day, the players who signed up to be flyers gathered near the blacksmith shop to be divided into their respective groups.

Ui: Welcome flyers. If you're here for the main flyer group, go to Gus. For the bomb squad, see Kez. For the rescue team mission, come see me. Thank you.

Lis: Phew. Look at all of those flyers.

Ui: Taking a break?

Lis: Yeah. Blacksmithing can be exhausting sometimes.

Ui: Well, don't worry. One of the elite team members that we're looking for can help you out.

Lis: Ok, good. Two heads are better than one.

Ui: Anyway, I'm gonna talk to the group.

Lis: Ok. You do that.

Ui: Hey Gus, are you sure you're okay with leading a group. You haven't been saying much lately.

Gus: I'm not much of a talker, to be honest. Though I'll be fine with leading the group.

Ui: Okay, cool.

Riko: Hey guys! I found Agil!

Ui: Great.

Lis: Who's Agil?

Agil: I was told you needed help with a shop and I was looking for work.

Lis: Great! Welcome aboard.

Agil: Sweet. Thanks for having me.

Gus: Hi, everyone. You may have noticed that this floor is surrounded by a barrier of some kind. The same goes for all of the floors. The purpose of this flyer group is to leave and enter each consecutive floor until we get to the top, though we might skip some floors here and there. If any of you have experience flying in games before, great. If not, don't worry. As a trained flyer, just follow my lead when we meet tomorrow and I'll tell you what to do.

Kez: Hellooooo, bomb squad! You are gathered here to participate in the complete annihilation of one of the curves. As fellow gamers, you know that difficulty spikes are a pain, and it's even worse in a game like this where you can actually die for real. Case in point, the 25th floor. That floor is this game's difficulty spike, and without support or backup, a lot of players could end up dying on that floor. So, what are we gonna do? We're gonna blow it up! We'll plant bombs and any other explosive devices all over the floor, causing a chain reaction and clearing the floor of most if not all monsters and bosses. As for how we'll get there, Gus will lead the way. He'll explain everything tomorrow.

Ui: Hello, everyone. You're probably wondering what this rescue mission is for. Do you remember all those games that would tell you to take a break every once in a while. Well, in retrospect, I think that was for the physical and mental wellbeing of players. But in this game, you can't exactly do that since we're stuck here in this game. This game has something, or rather, someone who can help with that until we're out of the game, but ever since Kayaba trapped us in here, she's been kept from us as well. Health comes first, and she's just the girl for the job. So what do you say? Are you up to the rescue mission?

Flyers: Yeah!

Ui: Wonderful. We'll meet with Gus and Kez's groups tomorrow over by the fields just outside of town. See you there.

Kiyu: Since I'm not leading any groups, what am I gonna do?

Kez: Um....emotional support, I guess.

Kiyu: Sounds good to me.

After realizing and noticing it during her speech, Riko started wondering why Ui was very enthusiastic about her rescue mission group, and why she referred to this project as a mission instead. He thought to himself:

"Ehh...I'll look into it tomorrow or something. I'm pooped."

Kirito, Klein, Lisbeth and Agil then approached Riko after getting acquainted with each other inside the shop.

Kirito: Hey, Riko. What would you like us to do in regards to tomorrow?

Riko: You'll be following Ui on the rescue mission. Lisbeth and Agil will stay here at the shop to keep watch, unless we need them in battle later on. We'll let you know if that comes up. As for Klein, you can choose either of the groups.

Klein: Cool!

Kirito: How come I'm specifically needed for the rescue mission?

Riko: We'll explain everything later.

Kirito: Ok then.

Kirito was still confused and skeptic, but the four of them decided to go back inside in the meantime to chat with each other.

Riko: Hey, Ui! Do you want me to come with you on the rescue mission so we can both get Kirito up to speed about...well, Yui?

Ui: No. That's ok. You keep looking around town for the rest of his team members, and I'll explain her to him on the way up to her floor.

Riko: Which floor is her floor?

Inventor: We're working on that, now. We're tracking any signs of any mainframe or coding activity. According to legend, Yui should be trapped in a safe zone with or near a GM command console. Kirito said that Yui died at this location as well, or a similar location or console if not the same one.

Ui: So if we find mainframe or coding activity, we find a console.

Riko: We find the console, we find Yui.

Inventor: Exactly. We'll search each floor and its data and we'll let you know when we find her or activity.

Ui: Ok. If I hear back from the police interrogating Kayaba, we might be able to get some more information out of him.

Inventor: Well done, guys. Things are going pretty well so far. In the meantime, I guess you can just take it easy.

Ui: Ok, boss.

Riko: Wait a minute. Who's taking care of the ALF and the Knights and managing them?

Kiyu: Outside of this simulation, we figured that each group formed on its own, so we left them alone after putting up the signup sheets. If anything goes wrong, the bots will restore order, and the folks back at the lab will monitor them.

Riko: Ok.