Chapter 737: A talk with my daughter...
Lisbeth and Kirito"s wedding ended in a cacophony of laughter and congratulations.
Kirito, Klein, Souta, and Agil returned to their usual selves after listening to Wu Yan. Maybe they decided to leave the heavier topic for another day, considering that it"s Kirito"s big day.
However, Wu Yan can see invigorated lights within their eyes.
He"s sure they took his words to heart.
With that, the raid group should change slowly but surely. The suicidal players are more or less dead, and, they don"t make up the majority of the raid group. Anxious as the remaining clearers are, order is still relatively stable. At least, they still listened to people"s advice.
At its core, this stemmed from the split leaders.h.i.+p within the raid group. Heathcliff is only the figurehead of the clearers. The raid group consisted of top guilds like Moonlit Black Cats, Fuurinkazan who weren"t subordinated under Knights of the Blood Oath.
The members not under Heathcliff"s leaders.h.i.+p listened only because they needed to work together during raids. Technically, they didn"t obey Heathcliff because they weren"t obligated to do so. When issues like this pop up, the players started feeling dissatisfied so they voiced their thoughts against their higher-ups.
This is also why Wu Yan warned Kirito & co ahead of time.
When the game is this close to being cleared, Kirito, Klein, Souta, and Agil are just as fidgety as the other raid members.
Granted, they had enough grey matter to avoid running into the labyrinths to turn into data polygons. They focused whole-heartedly on the raids ahead. They also left most of the guild management to trusted allies, a.s.suming the role of party leaders in their respective teams. Heathcliff had monopoly of the speaking power because the other players gave less weight to what Kirito & co had to say.
With his stern advise, perhaps Klein and Souta will realize their follies and rally their members to properly take down the last three floors!
Moreover, Wu Yan warned them for a good reason.
Heathcliff is actually Kayaba Akihiko, the person who locked them in Aincrad in the first place! He also knew about his ident.i.ty as the final boss of SAO.
Heathcliff is still leading the clearers for now but Wu Yan knows he"s going to turn on them when they arrive on the 100th-floor.
Without heathcliff to lead them. The raid group will most likely fall apart then.
Wu Yan gave Kirito & co preventine shots to make sure they check their att.i.tudes in regards to the remaining floors. At least, when Heathcliff inevitably does a face-heel turn, they won"t be so disoriented they lose coordination.
The best solution would be to make Asuna rejoin the raid group. That would solve most of the issues here.
With Asuna"s fame. Her partic.i.p.ation would no doubt calm the rowdy clearers down. But, Wu Yan doesn"t want to see Asuna getting dragged into this turmoil of emotions.
She finally got the quiet life she wanted. The last thing he wants to see is her blank and joyless face when she"s moody thinking about raids and strategies. Plus, it"s his duty as the man of the house to fight for her.
In any case, the wedding was a great success. Night fell at the same time the nuptial ceremony ended.
The discussion between Wu Yan, Kirito, Klein, Souta, and Agil was only an interlude in the grand scale of things.
Aincrad, 22nd Floor...
"Phew..."
Wu Yan threw himself onto the sofa, he laid the back of his hand against his forehead. He looked like he"s totally tuckered out.
"Man, that was tiring..."
"Don"t lie down the moment you come back!"
Asuna curled her lips at him only to be met by Wu Yan"s bitter laughter.
"Look, I can"t help it, okay? My whole head is dizzy from the event, I feel bad too..."
"You don"t feel good?..."
Asuna frowned. She sat by Wu Yan"s side and she rubbed his cheeks. He saw the queasy look on his face and she felt a bit worried.
"Are you okay? Are you feeling upset somewhere?..."
Yui closed the door and she dashed over. She told Asuna her findings.
"Papa drank booze!"
"He drank alcohol?..."
Asuna flinched and her almond-brown eyes started flaring up as she continued.
"Did you drink liquor?..."
"I couldn"t help it..."
Wu Yan rubbed his temples.
"Klein and Agil, those two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds forced me to drink and I thought to myself: "what the heck.", I didn"t think the designers included hangover in this game, I am clearly not inebriated..."
"Hmph..."
Asuna huffed and she turned her head the other way.
"If you can"t hold your drink then don"t drink so much! You brought this on yourself!"
Wu Yan pursed his lips.
"I got off easy. Kirito, who is underage, by the way, got conned into drinking twice as much as me by the two drunkards with lame excuses like "it"s only a game". One of two things will happen tonight, either he will be knocked out cold by the booze or he"s going to finally do it with Lisbeth under the influence of alcohol..."
Asuna blushed when she heard this. Yui blinked with curious eyes as she diverted her attention towards her mama.
"Mama, what is doing it? What is Uncle Kirito going to do towards Aunt Liz?..."
"N-nothing..."
Asuna awkwardly laughed before she slapped Wu Yan"s belly so hard he almost jumped out of the sofa.
"Don"t teach the kid things you shouldn"t!"
"Okay okay okay! It"s my fault, okay?!"
Wu Yan apologized but Yui didn"t relent.
"Ne ne, what"s doing it? Yui wants to know..."
"Er-erm..."
Asuna, rendered helpless by the situation, pointed at Wu Yan.
"Go ask your papa!"
"Oh, come on..."
Wu Yan wanted to cry but couldn"t for lack of tears.
Yui is still blinking in curiosity. Her eyes shone up when she looked at Wu Yan. Her cute face almost gave Wu Yan diabetes.
"Papa, what"s doing it?"
Wu Yan chortled and he used an authoritative tone with her.
"Child, don"t ask stuff you shouldn"t!"
"Okay..."
Yui answered and she got on Wu Yan"s lap. Asuna glared at him and she stood up.
"Seriously, when we got married, we didn"t touch alcohol at all. Look at you, how are we going to clean this mess up? I don"t there"s a cure for intoxication in SAO..."
"I don"t know about ammonia salt but..."
Wu Yan sighed.
"This technically counts as dizzyness and sleep so it should be affected by crowd control statuses, we should try using debuff cures..."
Asuna pondered for a bit and she nodded. She turned around to go into the kitchen.
"Yui, papa will be in your care for now."
"Yes~~~"
Yui perked herself up and she hugged Wu Yan"s arm while giggling. Wu Yan couldn"t hold himself back from pinching her adorable cheeks.
Wu Yan had other thoughts beside doting on his daughter. Yui behaved like her usual self but Wu Yan couldn"t stop thinking about what Yui said during the wedding. Her sentence sounded normal and weird at the same time.
Maybe, I should talk in private with Yui?