Chapter 26: The Visiting Friend and Conversation with Keita

  After officially settling into the 22nd floor of Ba Yun Ju, Ba Yun Mo sent an email to all members of the Midnight Black Cat team, including Xilika, inviting them over as guests.

  After receiving the invitation from Bayun Mo, everyone rushed over quickly.

  "Wow! This place is so beautiful!"

  "Unexpectedly, Brother Mo found such a great place!"

  "Bayun, you've made me want to buy a house here..."

  "What about you? Ha ha ha, Qi Tai, you still have several decades of struggle ahead of you!"

  From far away, Bachiru Moku already heard the laughter of the people from the Tsukiyami Black Cat Group.

  Yun Mo, standing at the entrance of Bayunju, saw everyone walking along the wooden plank path and smiled to greet them: "This place is indeed very good, but in order to settle down here, I almost spent all my savings!"

  "So expensive?!" Keita's eyes widened in incredulity.

  Keita, who has become friends with Hachiguma and is also his business partner, is well aware of just how wealthy Hachiguma's family is!

  At least relative to the current players' average assets, Yiyun Mo can absolutely outrun the second richest person by several streets.

  Similarly, Cerica of Yakumo's household also looked at Yakumo with round eyes, and then her attention was drawn to the beautiful Yakumo residence.

  "Welcome!"

  When Bachun Mo led everyone into the courtyard, three maids who had been standing there for a while all bowed to greet them.

  "Oh oh oh! Maid NPC! Maid ah!!"

  Qī Tài's face was full of envy, if he wasn't afraid of being beaten by Bā Yún Mò, he would have pounced on him long ago.

  Baiyun Mo looked at the eager eyes of the people in the Moon Night Black Cat Guild and said, "Actually, based on the equipment I've given you each time we traded, after a few transactions, you should have enough funds to buy a guild house."

  "Guild hut..."

  "Our own guild hut..."

  Everyone in the Moonlit Black Cat Group revealed a look of longing.

  Hachiguma Moku looked at Cilica and walked up to her, stroking her head as he said with a gentle smile: "How's it going, Cilica? Have you been doing alright lately?"

  Cerica nodded heavily, and Keita and the others took great care of Cerica. With Shin as a friend who was also a girl, Cerica spent this period of time very happily.

  "I'm telling you, Yaichi, if we don't take good care of Celia, won't you come after us?" Keita teased, looking at Yakumo Moku and Celia.

  "Do you want to die once?"

  "Ah ah!? Don't say such terrifying lines so calmly, okay?! In SAO, if you die, you really die!"

  Hahaha...

  Joyful laughter echoes in the sky above Bayunju.

  Beyond everyone's expectations, Xin Jian actually learned a few life skills related to cooking that very few players would bother to learn.

  However, upon seeing Xīn's intentional or unintentional strange gaze at himself, Bā Yún Mò had some ideas about why Xīn would do this.

  Before meeting Hachiken, although Shin had the care of Kei and others, he would still be occasionally asked to go to the front lines to fight monsters. By nature a timid and cowardly person, Shin was naturally extremely afraid of this, and didn't have any other thoughts about learning these life skills.

  After meeting Hachijou Moku, the situation of Tsukita and others in the Mangetsu Kuro Neko group underwent a drastic change. Not only were they able to obtain top-level equipment from Hachijou Moku at any time under the current game progress, but also had the addition of Cilica, an extremely powerful support player.

  The strength of the Moon Night Black Cat Team is second only to the four major guilds of Attack Strategy.

  In this case, Shin didn't need to fight on the front lines anymore and was arranged by Keita and others to be in the rear responsible for miscellaneous union tasks. Out of gratitude for the care he had always received, and feeling a strong sense of security for the first time, plus with Silica joining as a friend who is also a girl, Shin began to think about wanting to do something for everyone.

  It's impossible for her to return to the front lines again, so Xin went on to learn many secondary vocational skills, including alchemy and cooking.

  When Yakumo Mukuro orders the NPC maid to prepare dinner, Shin offers to help. Although pleased with Shin's change, Yakumo Mukuro refuses Shin's request.

  Come on, Xin is a guest after all, what kind of host makes their guests cook in their own home?

  Moreover, the NPC maid's cooking skills are not top-notch, but they are still much higher than those of Xin, a player who has only recently started learning, so the dishes she makes are naturally very delicious.

  After everyone had enjoyed the delicious food, Shin and Silica took their pets Bina and White for a stroll around the area while the other members of Moonlit Black Cats gathered together to play some card games.

  As for Keita, he strolled along the lake with Yakumo Moku.

  "Did you say the army suffered heavy casualties on the 25th floor earlier?"

  For the news that Keita brought to himself, Hachirou Sumi did not feel surprised.

  Keitai nodded, his face somewhat serious: "Yes, perhaps it's because Hachiguma you've been continuously defeating several BOSSes recently, which has led people to have the misconception that 'BOSSes aren't actually that strong'. The army didn't report the strategy group after discovering the 25th floor guardian BOSS, but instead chose to strategize on their own."

  "As a result, they didn't think that the 25th floor BOSS wasn't something they could handle?" Yiyun Mo smiled lightly. Towards the military guild that was waving the banner of "Liberating all players" and extorting ordinary players at the bottom, Yiyun Mo had no good feelings to offer.

  "BOSS is not just strong, it's ridiculously overpowered." Qi Tai shook his head and said, "The difficulty of this 25th floor BOSS compared to the 24th floor BOSS far exceeds the usual difference in difficulty between two adjacent floors' guardian BOSSes. It feels like it was intentionally strengthened..."

  "Speaking of which, Keita turned his head to look at Yakumo Moku, who was as beautiful as a spirit under the moonlight. "Yakumo, do you think the BOSS on the 25th floor is special?"

  Ba Yun Mo sank into thought for a moment, then said: "It should be like this, when we reach the 50th floor of the strategy, pay attention to the difficulty of the 50th floor BOSS and you will thoroughly understand. If the difficulty of the 50th floor BOSS is too strong, then it can be confirmed that every 25 floors, the difficulty of the guardian BOSS will be greatly increased."

  "Yayun, why don't you take action?! Once we find the BOSS room, I'll let you know at the first time!"

  Qī Tài said this is not without reason, recently due to the great increase in strength of Yuè Yè Hēi Māo Tuán, they have been noticed by the players of the attacking group.

  The leader of the Blood Oath Knights, Hizukiri, even invited Kaito's team to join the raid party.

  "Huh?" Hachirou Moku smiled, "Keita, you're practically half a strategy team member now, right? Telling me the location of the BOSS room like this, isn't it obvious that you want me to monopolize the BOSS reward? Is that really fair to the strategy team?"

  The relationship between Yakumo Mukuro and the Strategy Group is a competitive one.

  "However, BOSS is really too strong, if you don't take action, who knows how many more people will die..."

  After a moment of contemplation, Bachyun Mo raised his head and gazed at the bright moon in the night sky.

  "Alright, after finding the BOSS room, tell me about it. But since we're friends, I won't make things difficult for you. You can notify the strategy team, this time's strategy, I'll participate with them!"

  "Really!?"

  Qī tài stared with wide eyes, his face filled with wild joy.

  "That's really great!"