In the previous document, the number of players who participated was equal to the number of HP points granted to the person representing them.
Settlement only began after victory and defeat were decided.
This new document was different. The sheer malice packed into it was suffocating.
This time, if one hundred players participated, the two sides of the duel would share those one hundred points.
If Heathcliff—Kayaba Akihiko—landed a hit on the character named Lance, one point would be deducted.
At the same time, settlement would take place immediately. In other words, one of the participating players would have their HP emptied and die on the spot.
The reverse was also true. If the character named Lance struck Heathcliff—Kayaba Akihiko—one point would be deducted again.
But that settlement meant one of the participating players would receive a Log Out button.
Both sides' settlements were random. No one could know who would be chosen.
"Bastard."
"Isn't this just pure luck?"
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Curses rang out one after another, mixed with voices full of regret—regret that they had not participated in the first round.
Now, the second-round contract document was completely dependent on luck.
"What the hell is Kayaba Akihiko thinking?"
"Bastard! This guy just can't handle losing!"
Argo, who still had not logged out, found herself agreeing. A contract document this dripping with malice really did make Kayaba look like a sore loser.
In that case, probably not many people would sign a document that relied entirely on luck.
However, once the final points were exhausted, if Mr. Kain—the person Asuna had mentioned—had more slash points than Kayaba Akihiko, there would still be one more settlement: a decisive victory settlement. Afterward, even players who had not participated would be able to log out easily.
Conversely, if Kayaba Akihiko had the higher count, there would be no third round.
The remaining players would have to slowly clear Aincrad themselves until they either beat the game or were rescued by people outside.
In other words, everything depended on how many people would be willing to sign this contract with the resolve to die, using their own lives to light the way for everyone else.
And from the looks of it, the more points they had, the better.
If the point total was too low, and if the start went badly like the previous duel—if Mr. Kain's side lost a large number of points right away—then it would be over.
"Hm? Someone signed?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"They've lost their minds."
The list began to swell rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it had passed one thousand names.
It would not have been too surprising if a few people who had already given up on life signed their names. People like that existed. But there definitely could not be many of them. There might not even be over a thousand.
Yet the number had shot past one thousand all at once.
That should have been impossible.
But in reality, the number of names was still rising.
Two thousand!
Three thousand!
Four thousand!
Just like that, more than half the players had been added.
This was absolutely wrong. There had to be a problem. There was no way everyone had gone insane.
Some people seemed to realize what was happening, and their faces instantly turned ashen.
Especially those who were exchanging messages with people on the lower floors. The information they received was—
"Automatic confirmation?"
"It didn't even ask for our consent. It forced us to sign the contract!"
The moment they received that information, the faces of everyone on the Fifty-fifth Floor who had not participated in the previous round turned ghastly.
Judging by the way the number was rising, it seemed to be scanning upward from the lowest floors.
So when the number broke past six thousand, everyone nearby felt their hearts leap into their throats.
The next second—
"Damn you, Kayaba Akihiko! I never agreed to this! You bastard, cancel it!"
The first person to start screaming curses was Kibaou, the same man who had just directed his malice at Asuna. His twisted face looked hideous, every ugly part of him laid bare.
Then his eyes, seemingly glowing red, locked onto Asuna.
"Asuna, be careful!"
Argo warned her in a low voice from beside her.
In most people's minds, this was a quest Asuna had activated. Some of them might think that killing Asuna would stop the quest.
However, even if Asuna died now, Kayaba Akihiko most likely would not stop anything. The process would simply continue.
Anyone whose head was still clear knew this no longer had anything to do with Asuna's quest.
But that would not stop people whose rationality had collapsed—especially trash like Kibaou.
"Kill her! Kill her! Then this damn 'event' can be stopped right now!"
Kibaou roared and drew his weapon, charging forward.
The people who had been about to fight him earlier did not stop him this time. Some of them were even shaken themselves, tempted to do the same thing.
Bang!
Kibaou, who had rushed ahead, was knocked flying.
"Thinker, what the hell are you doing? If we kill the Knights of the Blood deputy commander, we can stop this murder event!"
Kibaou angrily questioned the Army guild leader standing in front of him.
"Stop being hysterical. You look pathetic. This quest has nothing to do with Miss Asuna anymore. The moment she received the option to log out, the special plotline had already separated from her."
"Who says—"
Clang!
The sudden ring of colliding metal made Kibaou freeze. Then he looked regretful.
Someone had launched a sneak attack on Asuna. Worse, that person had been a member of the Knights of the Blood himself. Unfortunately for Kibaou, the attack failed and was blocked by a dark-skinned bald man.
"Calm the—"
Before Agil, serving as her guard, could finish telling everyone to calm down, he froze in confusion. The Knights of the Blood member he had repelled vanished in a bizarre fashion.
He did not disappear by shattering into fragments—that was the phenomenon of death.
Nor did he fade away transparently—that was the phenomenon of logging out.
Instead, he scattered and vanished like mist.
"It's started!"
A terrified voice rang out. Only then did everyone look toward the live broadcast window.
The two men had already begun fighting.
The points representing all remaining players—more than six thousand of them—were dropping every second.
Yet from the scene itself, no one could tell which side had landed more hits. The result would only be announced after the points were fully exhausted.
In other words, no one could tell whether each point being consumed meant a random player had been marked for death, or whether a random player had been allowed to log out.
The players could not rely on the dynamic vision granted by their current levels to analyze which side was taking more hits. The level gap was far too wide.
The two fighters were essentially max-level beings, and their speed exceeded the frame rate the players' eyes could track. All they could see were afterimages.
The wounds they left on each other healed as well, so even if the two paused briefly and their figures became visible, the injuries had already disappeared.
The only exception would be a severe penetrating wound, where the weapon remained buried in the opponent's body.
But this time, the weapons both sides had selected were locked as indestructible weapons. There were no longer so many weapons lying around to pick up and use. Naturally, neither fighter would do anything that left their weapon stuck inside the other person's body for too long.
Now, they could not change anything.
They could only pray that the consumption of the single point representing them had not been caused by Kayaba Akihiko.
And at the current rate of consumption, it felt like the points would be exhausted in less than an hour.
That meant that in less than an hour, the players of Aincrad would almost all be gone.
(End of Chapter)
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