"This is definitely the Porter's quirky style," Daniel couldn't help but think after watching Genos and Mosquito Girl's fight.
In this battle, Genos did a lot of trash-talking before the fight, setting up numerous flags. Then, after a series of flashy moves, his efforts amounted to nothing.
The fight scenes were wonderfully drawn by the Porter, full of energy.
But what happened? Mosquito Girl transformed and almost defeated Genos, who barely avoided self-destruction.
It wasted the heroic face, abilities, and tragic backstory of Genos, which in any other story would make him the classic underdog hero who rises from hardship.
Yet, despite his progress, Genos still couldn't win.
Look at Saitama. Despite his plain looks and failure to kill a mosquito, he followed it from home to the battlefield, losing his clothes in the process.
But when facing a real enemy, Saitama's strength shone through. He defeated the powerful Mosquito Girl with one slap.
Wait, one slap?
Daniel paused, an equation forming in his mind.
Saitama = mosquito > Mosquito Girl > Genos?
What kind of divine mosquito is this?
Daniel shook his head and continued reading. At least the Porter's quirky humor hadn't fully emerged. If it did, the readers would be in for a tough time, just like with Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero.
Saitama is chased home by Genos, who wants to become his disciple.
During this, assassins from the House of Evolution suddenly appear.
But Saitama easily defeats them and learns about their organization from Armored Gorilla, one of the assassins.
Despite winning with one punch again, Daniel found himself still hooked.
Why was it so entertaining even when the enemies were defeated with one punch?
Daniel smacked his lips, looking forward to the next plot.
Especially curious about how Saitama got so strong in three years and why his thick hair turned into a bald head.
Various images flashed in Daniel's mind.
Maybe Saitama trained by dragging something heavy with a rope every morning and evening.
Maybe he trained underwater to withstand pressure or jumped into fire to build endurance.
"These monsters are really annoying," Daniel muttered, seeing the battered gorilla.
In the previous plot, Saitama said his training was tough. He seemed about to share it with Genos, but the appearance of these guys interrupted the story.
"Fine, let's check out Sword Art Online," Daniel sighed.
He was curious. Since the game was already cleared in the previous plot, how could it continue? Maybe it had turned into a daily life series showing Kirito and Asuna's sweet moments?
Daniel was looking forward to it. The Porter's slice-of-life works were great, as shown in Your Name.
With this in mind, Daniel opened Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online had transitioned from the SAO arc to the ALO arc.
ALO, short for Alfheim Online, is the second VRMMORPG game related to Kayaba's team after SAO.
It tells the story of Kirito discovering that his girlfriend hadn't woken up from the death game SAO. He finds her image in the new VR game Alfheim Online, built on SAO's backup server. To find out the truth, Kirito enters the game again to rescue her.
This work introduces a typical, idealized villain.
That's Sugou.
What's an idealized villain?
An idealized villain has traits like "high status, greed, cruelty, and stupidity," often seen in online novels.
They love to trouble the protagonist, steal their love interests, and seize their opportunities.
Seeing such a character makes readers want to kill them to satisfy their anger.
Many stories need such a character to make the readers enjoy the plot.
In the SAO arc, Ren had portrayed Kibaou as such a character.
In the ALO arc, Sugou plays this role.
In chapter fifteen, it's revealed that Asuna and other survivors haven't woken up and are still deeply unconscious.
Two months later, Kirito, visiting Asuna's hospital room, meets her father, Shouzou, and his subordinate, Sugou.
Kirito learns that Asuna, still in a coma, is set to marry Sugou in a week!
Watching Sugou touch the sleeping Asuna's hair and poke her face, both Kirito and Daniel, along with many readers, were furious.
"NTR must die!"
"Porter, how could you love cuckoldry so much?"
Asuna is a beloved character among readers—gentle, beautiful, and dignified, an ideal partner for many. Giving her to Kirito was acceptable since he's the protagonist.
But who is this Sugou?
How dare he touch Asuna's face? How could readers accept this?
However, when readers saw chapter sixteen, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Kirito finds a video in Agil's shop showing a female deity resembling Asuna in the new ALO game.
And the game developer is Sugou!
Readers immediately suspected Sugou was behind everything!
This excited them. Seeing Sugou harass Asuna made readers want to beat him up, and now they finally had a reason!
The surprises didn't end there.
Realizing Asuna is trapped in the game, Kirito logs into ALO and discovers something odd about his character's stats. After some thought, he realizes these are his stats from SAO!
For some reason, his SAO stats had transferred to ALO.
This thrilled readers. They could once again see the cool Starburst Stream in this new game!
Additionally, Kirito finds an item in his inventory that revives Yui, who had died in SAO!
Yui's revival revealed that ALO might be a backup of the SAO server!
"Of course, Sugou is a total villain, even stealing others' achievements!"
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