Fortunately, Momo didn't let Eve do anything dangerous. After she shooed Eve and Mea back to their room to sleep properly. As for herself...
Well, she wasn't exactly a quiet one either.
She was indeed well-behaved, but she was still Momo, the top-tier little sister-in-law!
Fortunately, she didn't do anything, just gave Kaito a gentle kiss on the lips, whispered goodnight, and left.
Having witnessed the whole thing, Kaito closed the external display window and looked back at the streets of the Town of Beginnings.
By now, many women were approaching him.
Kaito's level wasn't high, but he was handsome!
Most of them were women who didn't dare risk their lives outside, so they were drawn to someone similar?
Too bad Kaito ignored them completely. Even if they offered themselves, he had zero interest.
Arriving at the plaza of the Town of Beginnings, Kaito approached the Teleport Gate and teleported directly to the 8th floor, the current highest floor.
This progress was much faster than in the original work.
But this was New Sword Art Online, not the original version, so differences were normal.
Besides, it could be seen that the early stages were fast, while the later stages would slow down more and more.
After teleporting to that floor, Kaito silently put on a robe that concealed his level and ID information.
He walked to a wooden house in the town and knocked on the door.
This location was what he had found using his GM account. With friends, it only gave a general location, not precise coordinates, unless they formed a party.
"Ugh..."
"Who is it, knocking so late at night..."
Combat was prohibited in the town, so no one could break in.
Asuna, woken up, sat up and swiped her hand in the air. Her pajamas transformed into casual indoor wear.
She briefly wondered if it was someone from the Knights of the Blood again. Recently, she, along with Asada Shino and others, had been repeatedly invited by that guild.
But they had their own guild and were already part of the clearing group. Joining or not didn't really matter.
Although more people meant more strength, and more players would follow her commands for better strategies, she wasn't the same Asuna from the original work.
"Sigh..."
"Coming, coming."
Another knock rang. Asuna rubbed her face and went downstairs, crossing the living room to open the door.
Before opening it, she instinctively thought it might be someone from the clearing group or another friend with news that needed to be delivered face-to-face.
Because private messages wouldn't reach Asuna while she was asleep; they'd just become voicemail.
"So... coming this late, did you find the labyrinth's boss room—"
"K... Kaito-nii!?"
"Is it really you!?"
Her eyes instantly widened. Asuna, now possessing a more mature aura, upon seeing that familiar figure before her, had eyes filled with 70% joy, 10% doubt, 10% the emotion of seeing someone she liked, and 10% suspicion that she was dreaming.
A month and a half had passed. Seeing this figure again, all the memories from before flooded back into Asuna's mind.
"It's me, Asuna. Long time no see. How have you been?"
Kaito actively removed the robe hiding his info and level, revealing a smile that seemed to electrify countless women.
Truly, love is blind. Especially after being apart for so long, this reunion was especially potent.
Asuna was too excited to speak, her face flushing deeply.
"K-Kaito... you finally logged in... that's great... please, come in!"
She didn't immediately call out the others sleeping upstairs. Whether Asuna forgot or had other intentions was unclear.
After Kaito entered the living room, Asuna hurriedly lit the candles inside, boiled water, and rummaged through the storage chest, finally finding some tea leaves from this game world.
"Kaito-nii, here you go. It's been a while since you've had tea from here, right? This is A-grade tea."
Carefully steeping the tea, she poured a cup and placed it before Kaito.
It truly felt like she hadn't seen Kaito in years.
She didn't even know if she had ever been this excited. Her heart pounded rapidly.
"Well, I'm in for a treat. Let me try."
"This tea... it's surprisingly good. Is this floral tea?"
The scent and taste of jasmine. Overall, it was very refreshing and had an eye-catching flavor.
S-grade would surely be even better.
"Mm-hmm, it's harvested from the flower fields on the 8th floor. You have to deal with many bees to pick from the trees. There's not much of the high-grade stuff, though."
Asuna poured herself a cup as well. After tasting it the first time, she hadn't been willing to share it anymore. Everyone had tacitly saved it, waiting for the man who loved tea.
Now, he was here.
Asuna had fulfilled her wish, brewing this cup for him herself.
"Heh, how have you all been while I was away?"
"We're doing okay for now. The players have formed different clearing groups. I'm currently the highest level, level 23!"
With a max level of 100, leveling gets harder the further you go, and the advantages of higher levels gradually decrease later on.
Earlier, a few people could solo a boss, but later, it would take dozens of max-level players to challenge one, and there might even be casualties.
"Level 23, huh? That's 5 levels above me. It's not a level you can just reach casually~"
Kaito said with a smile. Asuna couldn't help but roll her eyes at him.
They had been fighting on the front lines every day, slowly accumulating to level 23. How could it be as easy as he made it sound?
Even with higher-level players helping, it would take a lot of time.
"Oh, Kaito-nii, this time you're online... how long will you be staying?"
"Just one night. I've been busy with a lot of things recently. Now that I have some free time, I remembered you all and wanted to come see how you're doing."
"J-Just one night..."
Being able to spare time to log in was indeed very exciting for Asuna, but if it was only for such a short night, then there wasn't much they could do, was there?