The cloaked person he had just saved came back from their reverie as they saw Sharia lying on the ground.
'What the—' they thought.
They weren't in danger, to be precise. They could have escaped if they wanted.
They simply didn't expect the treasure chest they were hunting to suddenly become a trap.
Curse Kayaba Akihiko!
However, they appreciated the help.
But then, thinking about the battle that had just ended, there was no doubt this person was strong.
'A beta-tester...?'
This person had to be a beta-tester; otherwise, it didn't make sense how they were this strong.
Heck, even most beta-testers would want to avoid fighting those Nepenthes, especially in hordes.
"Ah..."
It wasn't until after a few more seconds that they stood up and approached Sharia, who lay on the ground with closed eyes and a satisfied smile.
Hearing the person approaching, Sharia opened his eyes to look at the cloaked person. The cloaked person bent slightly as they offered a hand to Sharia.
"Uhm... Thank you very much," the cloaked person said as they stretched their outstretched hand towards him.
Accepting their hand, Sharia paused. 'This...' After a brief pause, he shook his head softly before replying.
"Don't worry about it, but why would you wander into such a dangerous area alone?"
"....."
'Big talk coming from a solo player himself,' the hooded person thought, stunned by Sharia's words, but they quickly composed themselves.
Clearing their throat, they spoke up. "Iya... It's not my fault. It's unexpected that so much would have changed from the beta test."
"Besides, I would have gotten away if I wanted, but your timely arrival was even better."
'Beta Test?' Hearing their words, Sharia's ears perked up, and his pupils widened slightly. "W-wait, you're a beta tester?"
The person paused for a brief moment before nodding. "I am... What about you, aren't you a beta tester?"
The cloaked person clarified as they nodded their head. They looked at Sharia, who seemed to zone out, but they continued regardless.
"Well, my name's Argo. An information broker; I've been one since the beta period, so it has just stuck with me."
The person said as they slowly removed their cloak, revealing a feminine figure with curly golden-brown hair, wearing full-body leather armor. Her most distinctive features were the whiskers on her face.
'Argo?' Sharia was further shocked when she revealed her name and appearance. A supporting but important character.
While she was shafted in the anime, she was one of the players who helped create the Aincrad guidebook for newbie players, which greatly reduced the number of player deaths.
She also gave Kirito lots of information that further helped him. Meeting such a character this early was surprising.
In short: This petite figure in front of him was a gold—no! An information mine.
Many quests and things that weren't shown in the anime and manga—she knows them all.
She has them at her fingertips! And since he wasn't bothered to read the light novel, this was the perfect chance. 'Hehehe.'
Sharia, who had thought of this, planned to milk information from her.
Looking at the silent Sharia in front of her, she narrowed her eyes. Originally, she thought he was just surprised, probably one of those people who recognized her.
But she didn't recognize someone like him.
Since she was curious, she decided to dig further. "Say, how did you become so powerful? Was there a new hidden quest nobody knows about?"
Since most players' avatars had been reset closely to how they looked in real life, Argo didn't have a way to tell who he was, so she purposefully made her words vague.
However, Sharia had already seen through this.
"Sorry, but I'm not a beta tester at all," he said, shaking his head before picking up his longsword from the ground. "I simply trained my skill proficiency and leveled up."
"Oh, so that's what you—Huh?" Argo paused, her body froze, and her pupils dilated. "Y-you're not a beta tester?"
She looked at him warily, even taking some steps away from him. What did he mean by he's not a beta tester?
Training up skill proficiency was basic knowledge to every beta tester, but the skills he used looked like they had almost been fully mastered, or was she hallucinating?
And more importantly, a newbie player as strong as a beta tester with foreknowledge of the game? Impossible.
"Ahhh!" Argo suddenly held her head, crouching down on the ground in shame while whimpering. 'This is bullshit!' she thought.
Even beta testers at the start of the beta test were worse than the newbie players of yesterday. Heck, they didn't even know how to level up.
Back then, they weren't allowed to share information about the game, so the privileged ones were the beta testers.
But here, someone who had never even played is telling her he simply became strong by doing the basics.
Looking at his gear now. 'F*ck! He's not even wearing armor! Even his sword is the newbie's longsword, what the heck?'
Other than the basics, there are also gears that can give one an advantage early on.
And as beta testers, they know some quests and places that can give them better starting equipment, but his! It's bullshit!
After thinking about it for a moment again, her eyes widened in shock, as she mechanically looked over at him. "A-are you telling me you basically dealt critical damage to the monsters?"
"Uhm.... maybe?"
"....."
"..."
"F*ck." Argo couldn't help but cringe as the boy himself looked unsure.
Amongst all the new players in Sword Art Online, she might have just discovered the honoured one.
Sharia seeing her weird reactions as she glanced at him made him nervous.
Afterall, the girl was looking at him like he was some kind of weird creature, so he decided to speak out. "Uhm... Are you okay?"
"....."
Holding her forehead, she released a sigh as she adjusted herself.
As a professional information broker with a sinister character, Argo put that matter behind her almost immediately. "Ahem!"
'Why did I just feel chills?' Sharia thought.
Argo blinked at Sharia with curios eyes as if reading him, which slightly uncomforted Sharia.
"Are you seriously not a beta tester?" She asked again for the second time to which Sharia shook his head.
This didn't even make sense to Argo. What had such a person been during the beta?
"You know. It hurts me how you're looking at me." Sharia said with a wry smile as he tilted his head.
Originally, he was the one planning on milking information from her, but now, he doesn't even have the chance to even bring it up.
"Haah. If you had been a beta tester, you might have been stronger than this by now. Unfortunately, you're not."
Argo shook her head. It has now been two to three days since the start of the game.
Especially by yesterday. Most of the NPC quest that gives good rewards would have already been swept up by beta testers.
"What do you mean by that?" Sharia's gaze now became serious as he asked. 'This is it!'
"You passed a village right behind this place right?" Argo asked, prompting Sharia to nod. "Thats good. At that village, there is a quest there that would have given you a better equipment."
"[Anneal Blade]."
Hearing this put Sharia's thought into overdrive. 'I think I'm familiar with the name of the sword but I can't put my hands on it.'
As Sharia was in thought, the information broker continued.
"With your strength, you should still be able to get the reward, however, the problem doesn't lie quest or you, but in the item."
"Those Nepenthes you fought; the item required to complete the quest is on them. However, the rates of getting said item is 1%."
"And while you're indeed strong, in the end, it's a matter of odds."
Argo explained everything to Sharia without hiding anything, and as she said, its indeed a matter of odds.
At this point, it's better if he didn't aim for that weapon anymore. It would be inefficient.
For him that relies mostly on his sword mastery and skill proficiency, fighting monsters that he would eventually surpass would be a waste of time.
While he would get the sword in the end, sometime would have already passed. And that time wasted would have been the time he's levelling up his proficiency.
"True... It's inefficient. If it was yesterday when I was around level 5, it would have been possible."
Argo who was in front of him furrowed her brows, staring at him in exasperation. 'Level 5 yesterday, ah, forget it—'
She decided it wasn't worth.
While it was indeed a pity, looking at him again, she had that desire to support him. To see how much he can grow.
Surely, such a promising player like this would be a well-known figure in the future. Hence, she can't let this chance pass.
A chance to make contact with one of the strongest players in the future.
"Since going back for the [Anneal Blade] is out of question for you, why not accompany me, I know some beneficial locations here afterall."
This way, not only would she gain a strong newbie player for a bodyguard, she'd also get to see how strong he is.
Killing two birds with one stone!
"However, are you sure most of your knowledge would not go to waste. The treasure chest over there being prime example."
Sharia's blunt words caused an arrow to pierce Argo's heart, but he wasn't wrong.
"Ahem. At the very least, we could try?"
Even she was not sure. While this might just be one change, she couldn't say for sure if its the same for every other locations.
She wasn't Kayaba afterall.
Ignoring that, she opened her [main menu] to open her map data to be precise.
People like her had marked down and memorized some important place, so, the first thing they did was to mark it down.
Some had even uploaded an image to their nerve gear for each floor to monopolize their gains, and she was one of them.
As she opened her main menu, she clicked on the friend icon, about to ask Sharia for his ID to add him. However, as she did, her face grimaced as she stared at her main menu.
Sharia tilted his head. "Is something the problem?"
Jolting up, Argo nervously shook her head. "No—no problem," she said in a rushed manner as she quickly scrolled away.
However, Sharia got a glimpse from his position. Several friend icons were greyed out.
Naturally, he knew what this meant. 'They died, huh?' They might have been careless, like Argo, who chased after a treasure box only to find out it was a trap.
"Of course, that damned human being Kayaba Akihiko would not allow beta testers to get strong that easily," Argo muttered in anger, her teeth gritted and her hands clenched.
This broke her facade as an information broker, and Sharia didn't say anything about it.
It was now again, reality reminded him that he couldn't be so careless in this world.
"Ah, what a beautiful but dangerous world this is."
Sharia could only echo these words, closing his eyes in silence for every player that had died. Argo also shared the same sentiment as she closed her eyes.
Seconds after that, Argo took a deep breath. "Fuu... Thank you. Thanks to you, I'm calm now." She gave a slight bow to Sharia, who waved it off.
"No, no, there's no need for that, after all..."
"From now on, I look forward to working with you." Both said together in unison as they stretched out their hands.
Seeing this, they paused for a moment before genuinely laughing out loud as they shook hands.
"My name—rather, in-game name—is Sharia. Pleased to meet you, Argo."
"Alright, Shar, once again, let me introduce myself. I'm Argo, an information broker. Nice to meet you too."
After greeting each other, both of them, with immediate effect now donned on a serious face with Sharia starting.
"Let's get down to business my dear Argo."
"Hahaha. I concur. Shar."
With that, Sharia gained an exclusive information broker.
The deal between them was that Argo would provide him with the information she knew and gathered, while Sharia would send her his weekly mapped data.
Mapped data is highly valuable, especially for newbies and even the experienced beta testers themselves, to ensure their survival.
And this deal between the two would eventually save a lot of player in the future to come.