Spring Gives Way to Autumn Again! Changes! Progress!...

Today was the day with the best weather in all of Aincrad...

Just as the real world had four seasons, SAO also had seasonal changes. Unlike the real world, however, where the seasons changed whenever they pleased without anyone's consent, perhaps before one even realized it, the environment around them would have already shifted into another season...

But SAO was different. As a game world, everything here had been set from the beginning and proceeded in an orderly fashion according to those settings. The seasons were the same—when it was set to change, it changed; when the weather was set to be good or bad, it would be good or bad. All of it had been predetermined!

Therefore, many players knew that, according to SAO's settings, today would be the day with the best weather of the entire year...

Today, even floors blanketed in ice and snow would briefly see sunlight and blue skies. On floors that were already exceptionally beautiful, the scenery seemed as though it had been coated in honey, filling even the air with a sweet fragrance. A gentle breeze drifted by from time to time, lifting one's spirits... Aincrad, Floor 22, beside a lake...

Sitting in a corner by the lakeshore, Wu Yan wore casual home clothes and held a fishing rod. Yawning as he watched the lake's beautiful shimmering surface through sleepy eyes, he observed a float bobbing gently atop the water. It was easy to tell that he was fishing...

Fishing was an activity that required tremendous patience and concentration, yet Wu Yan met neither requirement. He continued yawning as he pleased, only occasionally glancing at the rod in his hands and the float on the lake, looking entirely as though he had come merely to pass the time.

Still, it was hard on