Three days ago, a certain troublesome little girl had cleared forty floors of bosses in just three short hours, brutally and unreasonably hacking down every boss before reaching the hundredth floor's Ruby Palace. That feat had naturally set the entire Aincrad world ablaze with discussion.
The players who had somehow survived until now began singing, dancing, and spreading the news, all believing that thanks to the efforts of the little girl known by nicknames such as "Lone Wolf," "Invincible Greatsword," "Her Majesty the Queen," "Tower-Clearing Maniac," "BOSS Terminator," "Enemy of Kayaba," "Star of Aincrad," "Savior," and countless others, everyone would soon be able to log out and return to the real world, reunite with their families and friends, meet up in person, and check on their bodies that had been untouched for two years. Reality, however, dealt them a devastating blow!
Because...
No one knew why, and no one knew what had happened. In any case, that little girl had gone completely silent, and the system had not sent them a single notification.
Thus, quite naturally, all sorts of guesses and rumors began flying around during those three days, and the players went completely frantic.
Some said that the little girl had cleared the hundredth floor, the "Ruby Palace," but Kayaba Akihiko had gone back on his word and only allowed players who cleared the hundredth floor to leave. Thus, the little girl had left and abandoned the several thousand of them in this world.
Others said that because the little girl had been too aggressive, she had not had time to digest the huge amount of loot dropped by the forty bosses she had cleared and use it to strengthen herself. She had not even raised her level to one hundred before rashly heading to the hundredth floor's "Ruby