Chapter 32: Asuna's Request for Leave

  "With your incredible strength, it's no wonder you can say something like that."

  Yi zhí bǎo chí chén mò de yà sī nà tū rán kāi kǒu shuō le.

  Always keeping silent, Yasnaya suddenly spoke up.

  Baiyun Mo looked at Asuna, the girl's face seemed a bit desolate.

  "Renowned Asuna from SAO is actually doubting her own abilities?"

  Upon hearing Yayoi Moku's teasing, Asuna instinctively wanted to retort something, opened her mouth, but only let out a sigh.

  "In the past, I would have been confident in my own abilities, but after seeing your performance today, if I still thought of myself as the strong one, that would be laughable."

  "Besides, I keep fighting on the front line only because I don't want to become numb and decadent like those who live at the lowest level..."

  Yakumo Moku smiled softly.

  "What's so funny?" Yasna frowned discontentedly.

  "I'm telling you, did you know there's a small ordinary village on the 22nd floor?"

  "Huh? An NPC village?"

  "Although it's an NPC village, there are also many ordinary players living in it, and the number of players is even equal to that of NPCs."

  "The players living in that small village are mostly some middle-aged or even elderly players, although I don't know what they are like in real life and why they come to play this game."

  Turning her head, Bachiko Moku gazed at Asuna's eyes with a profound and mysterious look.

  "But they lived happily."

  Happy?

  Asuna looked at him with an incredulous expression.

  "How is this possible? In such a death game..."

  "Don't be in a hurry to deny it." Hachigane Moku waved his hand and extended an invitation to Asuna, "Hey, if you're interested, how about going with me to that small village tomorrow?"

  Ayase hesitated for a moment.

  It's not that she didn't want to be with Yakumo Suke, but in fact, the girl had a subtle thought deep down inside her that even she herself hadn't noticed - she hoped for more time spent together with Yakumo Suke.

  "But... tomorrow's strategy still requires me to lead the team..."

  Ayase expressed her concerns in her heart.

  As the most notorious guild in SAO, the Knights of the Blood Oath are always at the forefront of exploration. After clearing each floor, they immediately head to the next one to pioneer, scout out monster distributions, quest situations, and dungeon area intel, etc. These tasks are mostly completed under Asuna's leadership.

  Baiyun Mo gazed at the serene lake surface, with moonlight shining on his face, making Yaxi Na look a little infatuated for a moment.

  "It doesn't matter if you take a day off occasionally, does it? Always maintaining such a high-intensity raiding lifestyle isn't good for you, don't you feel tired?"

  Tired?

  Asuna had never considered this issue before, and she always devoted all her thoughts and energy to the strategy, hoping to clear the game as soon as possible and return to the real world, and also hoping that she wouldn't rot away.

  It wasn't until Yiyulang asked this question that Asuna thought back to her life over the past few months, and it seemed like after joining the Knights of the Blood Oath, there was nothing else in her life besides clearing floors.

  Even when practicing cooking skills, what I think about in my heart is still about strategy.

  Watching Asuna's contemplative expression, Yui Moku patted her clothes and sat down on the grass, casually plucking a blade of green grass and putting it in her mouth, savoring the scent of grass and soil between her lips.

  "Although this world is virtual, we live in it after all, and you see the moonlight, this lake, these surrounding forests, and those animals that come to drink water by the lake, as well as the fish in the lake."

  Yun Mo pointed around and then pulled out a blade of green grass, handing it to Asuna.

  "Keep it in your mouth."

  "Huh?" Yaxin was taken aback at first, although she didn't understand, but still followed the words and gently put the grass into her small mouth.

  "Uggghhh..."

  The scent of earth and grass caused Asuna's expression to change to one of shock.

  "How's it going? Do you still think this world is fake?"

  Ayase shouted "green grass" and remained silent for a long time.

  The next day, early morning.

  In the light gauze canopy, when Ba Yunmo was still lying on the carved flower soft couch sleeping soundly, a "drip drip drip" sound suddenly rang out.

  This is the system alert sound when receiving an email from a good friend.

  "Umm... who's there? Ah, Asuna?"

  Her eyelids slightly lifted, opening a small gap, and after glancing at the sender's name, Bachiroku Moku let out a soft "hmm".

  I opened the email and it said: "I'm here, hurry up!"

  "This Asuna..."

  Gently laughing, Yayoi Moku got up from bed and rubbed his somewhat dizzy head due to just waking up.

  If a player's residence has been set to allow visits from other players, then those players with permission can visit at any time.

  It's clear that Ayase had already obtained visiting permission from Yakumo Sumeragi yesterday.

  It seemed that Asuna's words yesterday had an effect, and Hachiman didn't wear the Tenko long robe, but instead wore his usual casual clothes as he walked out of the bedroom and into the front hall.

  There, Yasnaya was already kneeling on a soft cushion, savoring the red tea brought by the maid.

  "You're really not polite at all..." Hachirou Moku smiled and greeted Asuna, "You came over so early."

  Ayase raised an eyebrow in dissatisfaction: "Still early? Don't you see what time it is now?"

  "It's only 9 o'clock..."

  "It's only 9 o'clock!? That's all?!?" Asuna's voice rose a few degrees, "Are you usually this lazy every day? I really don't know how you can have such great power like this!"

  Baiyun Mo walked over to Asuna's side and sat down, looking at the breakfast brought by the maid with a slight pause, "Did you make this?"

  Asuna lifted her small head, hummed a sound: "Look at you pitifully can only ask NPCs to serve, just made some for you, quickly eat it with gratitude!"

  How can Asuna be so arrogant...

  Yun Mo suddenly felt like crying without tears, where did the original Asuna with a strong wife flavor go...

  Although surprised and unaccustomed to Asuna's haughty attitude, Yui Hirasaka still picked up the sandwich made by Asuna and started eating it.

  No matter what, it tastes extremely good!

  "Mmm! Not bad! Asuna, you come and cook for me every day from now on!"

  "Huh?"

  Asuna's face turned bright red, although she had indeed asked to cook previously, but after that Asuna had been intentionally ignoring it, but now being brought up by Yachiru Miku, Asuna immediately felt her small face burning.

  "Otherwise all those ingredients would go to waste, wouldn't they?"

  Seeing Asuna's embarrassment, Yui Mokuryuu gave her a gentle smile and an exit.

  Ayase felt a little better with Yakumo's consideration, her face red as she said in a low voice: "Since you've said that, I'll reluctantly accept... otherwise those S-class ingredients would all go to waste..."

  Although he found Asuna's little proud expression amusing, Yui's face remained expressionless as she lowered her head and focused on eating the sandwich Asuna had made herself.

  Very soon, Hachiko Ink finished eating the sandwich made by Asuna and after taking a sip of red tea handed over by the maid, he said: "Has Shizu's leave been arranged?"

  Ayase nodded.

  Although she didn't explicitly respond to Yaiba Moku's invitation yesterday, now that Asuna has appeared at Yaiba's residence, it means she has agreed and taken a leave of absence from Shizuku Cliff.

  "The squad leader also agreed to let me take a break, he said that during this time he would personally lead the team to conquer."

  "Huh?" Hachirou didn't confirm or deny it, but he knew Hidzuki Cliff's true identity.

  Kayaba Akihiko, the one who created SAO and trapped ten thousand players in the game, indirectly killing countless people!

  He disguised himself as player Heathcliff, but it was just to observe players' behavior in SAO at close range and experience the game he created firsthand.

  So, Shizuki Cliff or Choujou Akira himself is not enthusiastic about conquering.

  But now is not the time to think about that person's affairs. Yaxin has finally taken some time off, and Bayun Mo naturally wants to take her out for a good time.