Somewhere.

"Cardinal?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Explain everything that happened here."

Akihiko Kayaba glanced at the screens in front of him while speaking to the extremely advanced AI that managed SAO, Cardinal.

Kayaba had been watching the players since the first moment they entered his world. He paid special attention to the frontliner guilds such as the Aincrad Liberation Squad, Dragon Knights Brigade, Legend Braves, and, of course, Reaver's Requiem.

In fact, that last one had piqued his interest the most lately, mainly because of how they had managed to bend the AI known as Kizmel in ways he had yet to completely understand. The NPC was supposed to have a fixed role - to die - and fixed lines and actions. And yet, Reaver's Requiem had managed to keep her alive and pervert her code such that she had developed something close to sentience, and would now join their guild - he would have to make some changes to allow that, if only because he was curious as to how it would go. Overall, the whole situation had allowed him to further his studies and his project by a huge amount, so he was feeling charitable enough to let it slide.

Kizmel aside, the players themselves were most interesting. Starting with the archer, Sinon. The bow was a discarded weapon. Kayaba had tried it out in the closed beta, but felt like it didn't mesh well with the rest of the game, so he had taken the weapon out. The << Grafted Horn Bow >> Sinon was using was... A mistake. And did he hate to admit that.

The conditions to get it to drop were to deal above a certain percentage of damage to the 2nd floor field-boss with ranged items like the throwing picks. When he removed the other bows from this version of SAO prior to the release, Kayaba had forgotten to delete this condition. Once Sinon got it, he couldn't very well erase the item from her inventory. That would be unfair, and Kayaba would never stand for unfairness in his creation.

He had fully expected Sinon to give up the bow as a useless weapon soon after, maybe one or two floors later. The damage drop was too much, after all. But he had not expected Reaver's Requiem to basically nurture a top blacksmith like Lisbeth, who could provide Sinon not only with enhancements for her bow, but also stronger arrows, allowing the archer to still be one of the top frontliners even at the 9th floor.

Lisbeth. She was another oddity. Kayaba had taken into account natural talent and even real-life training when he created lifestyle skills such as << Blacksmithing >>, << Tailoring >>, << Fishing >>, and so on. Lisbeth had still developed far too quickly. She almost managed to unlock one of his Unique Skills, several floors before they were actually supposed to appear.

And speaking of Unique Skills... Kayaba looked at a monitor to the side. It was covered in lines that kept undulating and pulsating in a hypnotizing pattern. That was the Cardinal System. Or, at least, a representation of it.

"Well?"

"There were several unexpected factors during the battle, sir. In total, four subjects, namely: players Kirito, Yuuki, Drifter, and Nautilus, achieved the conditions to acquire Unique Skills 03, 03, 05, and 08 in order."

"Unique Skills aren't supposed to be available for several more floors."

"I have blocked their access for the time being, sir, while retaining their qualifications."

Kayaba frowned.

"And yet, player Drifter used << Serpentcoil Impale >>, a skill belonging to << Infinite Spear >>, which he should only have access to after passing the checkpoint AND completing << Two-Handed Lance >>. Which, I will add, he currently only has..."

Kayaba paused and pulled up another screen with a flick of his fingers. His eyebrows rose in slight surprise, which he quickly controlled.

"550 points of proficiency. Impressive, considering they are only on the 9th floor. But still 450 points away from complete mastery. Not to mention, all Unique Skills must be personally assigned by me."

There was a visible pause from Cardinal - the moving mass of lines on the screen actually hesitated for a moment. Kayaba sighed. That was the problem with super-intelligent AIs. They actually felt shame - an unnecessary emotion - when they made mistakes.

When Cardinal answered, a second later, it was still in the same synthetically generated voice, but definitely more subdued.

"Subject Drifter's motions matched << Serpentcoil Impale >> in my database with a 96% similarity. He momentarily bypassed the lock on Unique Skills due to that. I have strengthened the security walls since, and isolated the Unique Skills files to a different database. It won't happen again."

Kayaba paused. He hadn't been exactly complaining, since the battle was enjoyable to watch, and the way the players continued to overcome their obstacles and surpass themselves was very much in line with his goals. He simply didn't want to release Unique Skills before the time and break the balance of the game.

But the way Cardinal put it, this couldn't be considered entirely its mistake. Just in this fight of Reaver's Requiem against the << Elf War >> campaign final boss, there had been two instances of players breaking out of the system's parameters. The first was Drifter. The second...

"Cardinal, pull up the list of qualified candidates for Unique Skills."

Cardinal did so, and Kayaba looked through the short list. There were only about a dozen skills listed, and, of them, only six had the names of recommended players next to them.

01...

02... PoH

03... Kirito, Yuuki

04... Heathcliff

05... Drifter

06...

07... Akari

08... Shivata, Nautilus

09...

Stolen story; please report.

.

.

.

Now that Kayaba looked at it, of the 8 promising players currently on the list, half were from Reaver's Requiem - although two of them were added just this battle. And of the remaining four, one was himself, so it didn't really count. Which meant that the Reavers had over half of the most promising players in Sword Art Online amongst their ranks.

"Humm... Maybe something to do with age? Cardinal, pull up the psyche analysis of all the players on the list, as well as their real-life files. This deserves further investigation."

"Yes, sir."

"Set them aside for now, I will look over them later. Ah, and another thing. Unlock the skill << Serpentcoil Impale >> to Drifter. It would be unfair and biased to take it away after he managed to acquire it through his own efforts. But only that. Make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, where are the scripts for the 48th and 49th floors? I want to go through them again. Play another simulation, this time augmenting the stats of the common mobs by 17% and decreasing..."

His mind already somewhere else, Kayaba started going over how to improve his creation even further. It wouldn't do to deliver a sloppy showing for his heroes and his audience.

-------------------------

Unaware that the Game Master himself, Akihiko Kayaba, had watched their entire ordeal, the Reavers were currently sprawled on the ground or sitting resting with their backs against each other, completely exhausted. The battle against << Aater, Lord of the Fallen >> had been nothing short of a floor boss raid.

Drifter sincerely questioned whether the boss of the 9th floor, while doubtlessly more dangerous, could match Aater's sheer intensity. Especially the throwing attacks. Were it anyone but frontliners like them in their place, they would have died. Even if it was them, several of the Reavers had almost died on multiple occasions. It was only luck and the absurd display of skill from some of their members that saved Reaver's Requiem from sustaining severe casualties.

Drifter cranked his neck to look at Nautilus, who was sitting back-to-back with him. Yuna was resting with her head leaning against the shield-bearer's side, eyes closed. Drifter smiled and ran his hand through her hair.

"Uhm? What's it, Drif?"

Tiredly, the songstress opened her eyes and looked at him. Just looking at her made Drifter yawn. They could all use some sleep. But before that...

"Look."

Drifter changed his HUD to public, and pulled up a tab. He grinned while Yuna blinked.

"Wa- How?! You! When... No, I saw it! Your spear... You threw it and it glow- You got it!"

The songstress rambled on and suddenly jumped up, grabbing Drifter into a hug. The spearman laughed and hugged her back, also dragging Nautilus into it, who had no idea what was happening. The ruckus also roused the others, who looked up from where they were laying.

"What's going on? What did you get? Drifter?"

The spearman released Yuna and Nautilus and showed his screen to everyone else. There, sitting inconspicuously amongst his other skills, was a new one. << Serpentcoil Impale >>.

It was a strange name for a skill, albeit fitting. Kirito and the others blushed much like Yuna. And they were opening their mouths to speak when someone did it first.

"What is that thing floating in front of you, Drifter? There are... Words on it. It's not a language I know, but I can still read them. << Serpentcoil Impale >>."

Almost in slow-motion, twelve heads turned to Kizmel, who was looking confused at Drifter. Or, more appropriately, at the air in front of Drifter, where his HUD - which he had turned public - was floating.

Kizmel. Kizmel the dark elf. Kizmel the royal knight. Kizmel, the NPC. She couldn't see a player's HUD. No NPC could, it had been tested before. They had tested it before. Kizmel had no HUD. She had no health bar - they had asked, subtly - she could see, and she also couldn't pull up a menu to look up her items and skills. Or, at least, that was what they had thought.

"K-Kizmel? You can see this?"

Drifter waved his hand in front of his body and then directed his HUD to the left and then the right. Kizmel followed it with her gaze.

"Yes. Why? Shouldn't I be able to? I can see all of you seem to be used to it."

"Erm... Yeah, we are. But you... Hm."

"Kiz, can you see something right about here? Ah, don't tilt your head. Just look up, on the left side of your vision. Something like a long green bar?"

Kirito stuttered with a response, but Asuna was faster on the uptake. She gestured with a finger to where a player's - emphasis on the word player - health gauge normally was located. Kizmel squinted, then nodded.

"I can. I hadn't noticed it until now, Asuna. What is that?"

The Reavers exchanged glances. Most were still working on picking their jaws from the ground, such was their surprise.

Drifter was the one who carried out the ultimate test. He sent Kizmel an invite to join Reaver's Requiem. After explaining what it was to the dark elf - who had drawn her blade at seeing a screen suddenly pop up in front of her eyes - she accepted it.

Drifter rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating due to exhaustion or something like that. He wasn't. Reaver's Requiem had just officially gained its 13th member. The spearman looked around.

"Huh. We have a lot to talk about."

...

About two hours later, the Reavers were sitting in a restaurant back in Lyusula. They had been so shocked by everything that was going on that they barely noticed the revival of the << Sacred Tree >> or the notification about the completion of the << Elf War >> campaign. If it wasn't because the entirety of Lyusula was in a celebratory mood over << Aater, Lord of the Fallen's >> defeat, with festivities everywhere, they would have probably forgotten all about it.

"W-Wait a second, Aa-chan! Are ya sayin' what I think ya are sayin'?!"

"Yup."

Sitting with them was a very confused Kizmel and a thoroughly flabbergasted Argo. The info-broker was staring at the dark elf and then her friends in turn, as if expecting them to tell her it was a prank.

"So, ya became a player, Kiz-chan?"

"That appears to be the case, yes, Argo. Drifter and the others told me this... HUD and menu are part of what makes you - and now me, it would seen - players. I even have a... Level."

Some of the words rolled out awkwardly, but Kizmel showed Argo her HUD, and there was no denying it. The Reavers had already asked their newest guildmates all the questions they possibly could. Kizmel was, without a shadow of a doubt, a player now.

"How the hell did ya do that, Kii-bou?"

After a few seconds of processing what she was seeing, the short info-broker turned to who she believed was the most likely culprit, and asked with the most deadpan expression Drifter had ever seen. The spearman snorted while Kirito splattered for an answer. Ran took pity on their poor guild leader.

"I don't think we can blame this one on Kirito, Argo. Besides... I don't think we should even use the word 'blame'. After all, this is a good thing, is it not? Great, even."

The eldest twin smiled at Kizmel as she spoke, and the dark elf returned the gesture. She wasn't sure what was going on, but if she could become a player like her human friends... Well, Kizmel saw it as a positive.

Argo looked at Ran, and eventually shook her head and sighed.

"Aight. I still have a lotta questions, but I suppose... Haa... Completin' the << Elf War >> campaign, Kiz-chan becomin' a player, Dri-bou gettin' the silly skill nobody thought he could get..."

"What do you mean 'nobody'?! You guys believed in me, no?"

Drifter looked around, hurt, and several people, including a certain songstress and an ash-haired player, avoided his gaze. He harrumphed and decided to ignore them. Argo smirked and carried on.

"... and everythin' else that went down. Well, I say ya guys earned some rest. And since ya shared so much with little ol' me, how 'bout a share a secret back?"

"Oh?"

The players looked up at Argo. The info-broker had a huge grin plastered on her face, and she stared at Asuna. And winked.

"What do ya say 'bout a trip to the hot springs?"