Clearance

Early the next morning, Pony Ma arrived at the company as usual, only to find the building surrounded by a massive crowd.

Fortunately, Pony Ma used his private entrance and did not go through the front doors.

Upon reaching his office, Pony Ma immediately called for his secretary.

"Who are all those people outside? Why are they crowding around the company so early in the morning?"

Hearing this, the secretary's forehead instantly broke out in sweat.

"Mr... Mr. Ma, the people downstairs are all beta players for DNF. They're here because a massive bug appeared in the game! And these are just the local players in Hangcheng. The public outcry on the internet has completely blown up!"

"What exactly is going on?"

Pony Ma frowned, then listened as his secretary explained.

"It's like this, Mr. Ma."

"After the game launched yesterday, many players topped up a lot of money, but they realized they didn't receive any premium currency at all. Last night, the game department's customer service lines were blown up with calls."

"How much was topped up?"

Pony Ma's brow furrowed tightly.

"Over 38 billion."

"What? Are you sure this is just one day's revenue?!"

"Yes."

"Sigh, there are still too many rich people in this country."

Pony Ma sighed in lamentation before giving his orders.

"First, have the head of the gaming department pacify those players. Tell the tech department to fix the bug and compensate the players with their premium currency. Then, get the legal department to contact the platform. The platform also bears responsibility for such a malicious incident."

At this moment, Pony Ma didn't think much of the bug.

It was just a game bug. Refund the premium currency, hand out some compensation, and the whole thing would blow over.

However, upon hearing this, the secretary didn't even dare wipe the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly replied.

"That won't work, Mr. Ma. The platform is completely ignoring us. We can't even get in touch with them anymore. The tech department even said they can't find the game's backend data at all. The game has completely slipped out of our control."

"What?"

Now, Pony Ma was truly anxious.

His first instinct was to tell the legal department to sue the platform.

But a moment later, he realized that let alone him, none of the major tech giants around the world knew where this platform had sprung up from.

Right now, the only way to quell the players' anger was to issue refunds.

But the thought of issuing refunds made Pony Ma feel uneasy.

It wasn't that he couldn't afford to refund them.

It was because he had realized the true purpose of that platform which had suddenly appeared.

It was planning to make all games completely free!

But if that happened, would any gaming company actually be willing to go along with it?

...

While a massive storm was brewing in the real-world gaming industry.

In Aincrad, after the Christmas event concluded, the players settled back into their daily routines, no matter how much they cursed Ai, the event planner, for being inhumane.

And as top-tier players like Sirin gained multiple powerful rewards from the Christmas event, their strength skyrocketed.

The game's progression once again entered the fast lane.

In just two days, the Floor 90 boss was found by the Number One Guild in the World and subsequently defeated with ease by a team led by Sirin.

Three days later, the Demon Mutual Aid Society found the boss in the Floor 91 labyrinth, and Serafall led her team to easily clear it.

A month later...

Driven by the intense competition among various guilds and players, the progression reached the 100th Floor.

Almost all the first and second-tier players had entered the Floor 100 labyrinth.

As long as they found the Floor 100 boss and defeated it, they would completely clear this game that had trapped them for nearly half a year.

However, not all players were so happy.

The Number One Guild in the World.

Sirin, the Dragon Knight who stood at the absolute pinnacle of all players, was uncharacteristically absent from the frontlines. Instead, she sat alone in the guild's massive conference room, staring in silence at the empty chairs.

Just then, a communication chime rang out from a friend.

She looked over and saw it was a message from Eriri.

"Sister Sirin! The final floor boss has been found! We're finally going to clear the game! Sister Sirin, hurry up and join the raid group, then teleport over! We can't let Rikka steal the boss kill!"

[Raid Leader Eriri has invited you to join the raid group. Accept?]

Sirin looked at the contents of Eriri's message, then at the invitation she had sent. She raised her right hand and hovered it over the accept button for a long time, but she just couldn't press it.

After a long while, her finger finally pressed down hard on accept.

The next moment, she joined the raid group. The member list displayed over sixty people, all of whom were first and second-tier players from the Number One Guild in the World.

As for the weaker players, they didn't want to be killed by the boss's shockwaves, so they chose not to follow the main force to witness this moment.

Sirin silently took out a teleport crystal and selected the raid group teleport.

The next moment, with her disappearance, the conference room became completely empty.

...

The players scattered across the 100th floor of Aincrad had already received the news to varying degrees.

Everyone was certain that within the next few days, the game would be completely cleared.

All players put down whatever they were doing and began to say their early goodbyes to this game.

And right at that moment, ribbons and fireworks that everyone could see appeared in the sky above every floor.

Ai's familiar figure appeared in the sky, her cute little face beaming with a bright smile.

"Players, after nearly half a year of your hard work, the Floor 100 boss has been defeated!"

"The world of Aincrad has been completely cleared!"

"Cue the confetti!"

After happily scattering flowers from the sky for a moment, the smile on Ai's face grew even wider.

"Players! Begin to enjoy the spoils of your victory!"

As her words fell, all the players discovered that a logout button had appeared on the game interface they were so incredibly familiar with.

...

"Whoa! This is awesome! The game is finally cleared!"

"Waaah! I can finally go home!"

"It's been so long since I've eaten my mom's cooking."

"..."

In the Floor 100 boss room, almost all the players wept tears of joy the moment they saw the floor boss slowly dissolve into motes of light and vanish.

Eriri hugged Sirin in boundless excitement, pouring out how much she missed her parents.

"Waaah, I haven't seen my mom in almost half a year."

Hearing this, Sirin forced a smile onto her face.

"Congratulations, Eriri."

"Mhm! Sister Sirin, you have to come find me once we return to the real world! We definitely have to keep adventuring together then!"

"And Kaguya and Ai! Chika and Asuna, too!"

"Oh right! You probably didn't know this, Sister Sirin, but Asuna is Asuna's name in the real world!"

"Mhm..."

Sirin looked at Eriri's excited expression and silently nodded, the smile on her face becoming much more natural.

As the players bid their farewells to one another, promising to meet again in the real world, the number of people in the boss room began to drop rapidly.

After receiving Sirin's absolute promise to come find her, Eriri excitedly logged out of the game.

Eventually, only two figures remained in the incredibly spacious boss room.

Sirin looked at the figure who, just like her, stood there with no intention of leaving the game, and recognized him.

"You're the commander of the Knights of the Blood, right? Aren't you going home?"

Kayaba Akihiko froze for a moment upon hearing Sirin's words. He looked up and saw her staring at him with a curious expression. Suddenly, he let out a soft chuckle and shook his head.

"Home, huh..."

"I probably can't go home anymore."

As Kayaba Akihiko spoke, he glanced at the logout button on his game interface.