Chapter 389 — Sugou Nobuyuki's Miserable Death
The onlooker who had appeared out of nowhere was, in appearance and bearing, identical to Wang Linchuan, president of Panda University.
As a star student of that university's esports department, Lu Mingze naturally knew a thing or two about the academy's intelligence.
The one thing he could not quite be sure of was the man's temperament.
The "player Wang Xu" standing before him and the "president Wang Xu" were utterly different in temperament!
If the latter's air was that of a cynical jester, then the former seemed to have a deep-seated evil soaked into his very marrow.
He cared only for whatever struck him as interesting, and for that, no matter how many people died, he would not care in the least.
Probably...
That was exactly the sort of man he was.
Lu Mingze had keen spiritual perception, and he trusted his first judgment.
And the facts proved his conjecture correct.
"I'm merely an administrator of this game called SAO."
Wang Xu waved a hand.
His evil was not the chaotic kind that wanted to kill everyone on sight; now and then he would still talk to people in a civil manner.
Beyond that, as but a projection of the Lord God in a micro-demon plane, his true body did not possess particularly high combat power.
Judging by the intelligence shared by the other "shadows," this brat called Lu Mingze was a rather interesting fellow.
GM?
Beside them, Sugou Nobuyuki, who had been agonizing all this while, suddenly lit up with delight and, embroidering the tale as he went, recounted what had just happened: "Lord Administrator! This fellow messed with someone else's pain perception out of nowhere... he must be a hacker! A saboteur of games like this must not be allowed to run rampant any longer!"
Wang Xu looked at him as though he were an idiot: "Everything that happens in the game is recorded in the data, and I was right there on the scene just now. Do you take me for a moron?"
Having said that, Wang Xu could not be bothered to pay this fellow any more attention.
Had he not been certain this wretch would not live past today, he would have already made a move to finish him off.
"I rather like the way you do things."
Wang Xu gave Lu Mingze an approving look, then turned his gaze to Kirigaya Kazuto: "Do whatever you want to do. The law can no longer punish you, so if you were still bound by morality, that would disappoint me far too much."
With that, Wang Huai'an's figure gradually faded in the air and vanished, as though he had logged out of the game.
A scene like that gave Sugou Nobuyuki an inspiration.
"Log out! I want to log out too!"
Sugou Nobuyuki was overjoyed.
That brat Lu Mingze whom he had offended, or that Kirito who for some unknown reason was filled with murderous intent toward him—no matter how formidable they were in the game, could they really crawl down the network cable and kill the real him?
These two fellows in the real world must surely be a pair of pathetic nobodies?!
Alas, Sugou Nobuyuki's joy turned to nothing the very next moment.
"You have been locked onto by the player 'Kirito,' ranked third on the combat power leaderboard, and cannot leave the game for the time being. Forcing an exit will cause the dissociation of body and consciousness. Are you certain?"
"10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3..."
The countdown was nearly finished.
Sugou Nobuyuki hurriedly pressed cancel.
What kind of joke was this!
"Dissociation of body and consciousness"—was that not just being a vegetable!
He did not believe the SAO officials would pull some prank of that sort over such a matter.
After he pressed cancel, the logout button vanished entirely.
The leather armor that had already been dried out was once again soaked through with cold sweat.
His heart pounded wildly, and his breathing grew heavy and ragged.
"Come on! You little thing! Don't think you can really do just as you please!"
A mad look surfaced on Sugou Nobuyuki's face; his facial muscles twisted into a hideous grimace, veins bulging on his forehead—he clearly had quite a flair for grotesque expressions.
He glared venomously at Kirito and Lu Mingze: "You two damned brats! That so-called official combat power leaderboard is nothing but a set of borrowed numbers! It has hardly any meaning or value at all!"
That was it!
It had to be so!
High combat power meant nothing more than good numerical stats. At their age, their combat technique and combat sense were surely dreadful.
In a real fight, they might not even match him!
If by some chance he could defeat them, rise to fame by stepping over their corpses, and use SAO as his foundation to expand his influence in the real world...
Sugou Nobuyuki's thoughts suddenly wandered.
He pictured the scene of himself after achieving fame and success.
Winning and marrying that little wench Yuuki Asuna, toying with her ruthlessly, and then, by virtue of his status, reputation, and wealth, acquiring plenty more beauties of the same caliber.
A man toils all his life for nothing but what lies below the belt.
Thinking of that little wench Yuuki Asuna's exquisite figure—though she had not yet submitted to him—Sugou Nobuyuki already felt a faint stirring in his loins.
Tonight, he would go and share dinner with Yuuki Asuna.
He had already bought the potion in advance.
A little wench with no worldly experience could never guard against such a trick!
A special mind-clouding draught—a single drop would strip Yuuki Asuna of all reason entirely, transforming her from a chaste maiden into a wanton slut, to be toyed with and ravaged at his pleasure.
How long would it take, he wondered, before he tired of that little wench?
Sugou Nobuyuki fantasized about Yuuki Asuna's fair skin and supple body—those jade-like hands and tender feet would probably take a full year before he grew bored of them?
By then, there would surely be even better women.
There was a saying in Huaxia that went well—no one stays sixteen forever, but there is always someone who is sixteen.
The new generation replaces the old, after all!
Sugou Nobuyuki's thoughts snapped back in an instant, and he fixed his eyes on Kirito: "Brat! Take this move of mine!"
By his reckoning, his true combat power could not be much different from Kirito's.
After all, with nothing but glibness and connections, the ever-scheming Sugou Nobuyuki had wrung a great deal of resources out of his team, prioritizing the crafting of enhanced equipment for himself.
He even had some potions on him right now that temporarily boosted his abilities!
Kirito was the opportunity for him to make his name!
"Pity I don't have kill permission, otherwise I'd just finish off this little thing and be done with it once and for all!"
Sugou Nobuyuki took out a "Medium Strength Potion" from his item slot and was bringing it to his lips when he suddenly felt a chill at his neck and waist.
His health bar—emptied!
"This isn't fair! I hadn't even said start!"
Sugou Nobuyuki wanted to turn around and argue with Kirito, who had brushed past him.
That damned fellow!
He had delicate features like a young girl's, and was so taciturn as to seem almost frigid—an androgynous creature, so why was he so ruthless and decisive in the kill!
Why!
This could not be happening!
He had died just like that?
Blood sprayed everywhere!
A hot current surged.
The blood bursting from his neck and waist gushed out in a mad torrent.
Everything before Sugou Nobuyuki's eyes blurred swiftly.
"You must be joking... kill permission and all that—it must be something the SAO officials made up, it can't be real!"
"I'll be able to make a comeback soon!"
"Kirito? Kirigaya Kazuto? I see it now! So this fellow is the 'kid who does nothing but play games' that Yuuki Asuna's parents talked about—no wonder he's got it in for me!"
In the final moments of his life, Sugou Nobuyuki finally understood the grudge between Kirigaya Kazuto and himself.