Three days was far too little compared with the two years they had spent in SAO. The players even felt they had barely accomplished anything during those three days before they had to take on an extremely difficult challenge.
Every Floor Guardian BOSS room was different. Whether it was the hall on the first floor or the altar on the seventy-fourth, each possessed a certain degree of openness. The BOSS on the seventy-fifth floor alone was a completely enclosed space—it was a giant dome.
The unfamiliar sense of confinement placed immense pressure on the players, leaving some of them almost unable to breathe.
Hundreds of SAO's top players in skill and strength surged inside, spread out, and raised their weapons in preparation to face the BOSS.
"Bang!"
The players all knew what had made that deafening noise. Once the door was closed, there would be no possibility of leaving without winning. In this battle, they could only fight with everything they had. Like pawns on a chessboard, they could never retreat.
The footsteps abruptly stopped, and the players arrived at their assigned positions at the same time.
Their heartbeats and breathing were perfectly calm—but beneath that calm, how much unease and trepidation was there? And how much fear would they transform into strength and turn into courage?
The players gripped their weapons tightly as they swept their gazes across the surroundings. The target they were looking for had to be enormous: the monster that symbolized the strongest creature on this floor of the game—[Floor Guardian BOSS].
Some players pressed their backs against the walls. The cold sensation instead made them even more alert.
After they exchanged glances, several minutes passed...
"Hmm?"
"How could this be..."
"Nothing?"
The BOSS's figure never appeared in the players' field of vision.
Because the BOSS