Money Can Buy Everything

034 Unexpected Surprise

With Momo and Argo side by side, they entered the wilderness. At night, monsters' attributes were boosted, elite monsters and bosses were more likely to appear, so very few people would venture out to level up at night, especially when everyone lacked the courage.

However, even with the attribute boost, scattered LV1 wild boars wouldn't pose a threat to Momo and Argo. Both of them were at LV3, one with combat experience equivalent to Kirito's and the other being a beta tester.

Even though Argo wasn't specialized in combat, a dagger in hand was enough for her to roam the entire Aincrad. After all, Argo's usual activities included solo exploration for information and numerous solo battles.

"It always feels like your combat skills are similar to that black guy's!"

"Is that so?"

Momo retracted his shortsword. A wild boar that had charged at him a moment ago had turned into a burst of light, leaving behind another pair of Rat Tail Dagger.

Suddenly, Momo began to sympathize with Kirito. He realized that his Rat Tail Dagger probably wouldn't fetch a good price. Was he unintentionally exploiting Kirito during the day?

Well, probably not. Definitely not. Absolutely not!

After all, the trading authority he used was granted by divine power. Exchanging items through this authority was based on a fair, equivalent, and voluntary principle. How could that be considered exploitation?

"It's not a coincidence. Kirito's sword skills were taught to me. In the real world, I'm his teacher, you know!"

"Really?"

Argo's interest was piqued. She said, "Well, looking at your age... it might be possible. How old are you, exactly? You don't seem very old, or is it just a baby face? Otherwise, how could you be so mature?"

"We can't all have Kirito's baby face. I'm the Silver Galaxy Pretty Boy, you know!"

"Ugh!"

As they chatted and joked, they arrived at the entrance of a desolate area and the LV1 wild boars had long since disappeared. Now, a different kind of monster appeared before them.

Giant Rat LV2.

Watching the rats with sharp teeth and red eyes, Argo cried out excitedly, "Oh, yes! No changes after all!"

Although Momo was somewhat surprised, he had a rough idea of what was going on. This should be a quest area, and Argo had used these rats for her disguise, right?

"Alright, Momo, it's up to you now. Since you're my hired mercenary, your task is to clear out these rats."

"What about you?"

"I'll naturally be a spectator! Hmph, my beautiful girl Argo's kiss isn't something that's easily earned!"

Momo shrugged. Since they were here, fighting monsters was inevitable. He drew his sword and assumed a stylish stance, then swiftly launched his attack. One rat charged at him, but Momo sidestepped, and his sword technique struck again.

Two strikes, KO!

Argo had just sat down in the distance and hadn't even clearly seen Momo's moves before the first rat was dead, leaving Argo gaping in astonishment. Although she knew Momo was powerful, she didn't expect him to be this strong.

"Ah, the God of Luck strikes again. Is that sword LV3?"

However, after Momo killed one rat, he suddenly stopped and said, "Aren't you planning to kill monsters? Although these rats look annoying, they might drop something unexpected."

"Don't try to trick me. During the beta test, I cleaned out these monsters myself. I killed 15 rats and got nothing, not even one col! Even though these are quest monsters, they're so stingy!"

"Is that so?"

Momo listened, and a strange smile formed at the corner of his mouth. He raised his hand and threw a dagger resembling a steel cone towards Argo.

"Ah, ah, murder!"

Argo scrambled to catch the dagger, then froze.

Rat Tail Dagger, LV3, Fine quality, Special Ability: Thrust, doubles attack speed when using basic thrust skill, unique weapon.

Silence.

Ten seconds.

"Ah, ah, ah, oh my God, divine beings, why are you torturing me, Argo? I've been worshipping you every year, and my fortune for this year is great!"

Argo wailed, rolling the dagger in her arms. However, Momo noticed that she occasionally stole glances at him, and when she saw his unaffected smile, her rolling became even more intense.

Finally, seeing that her efforts seemed to be in vain, Argo gave up her pretense, held the Rat Tail Dagger, and stared at Momo, refusing to give it back.

"Do you want me to reset the item?"

"Darn polite show-off, sooner or later, I, Argo, will defeat you and take what's mine!"

With a resentful expression, Argo exchanged the Rat Tail Dagger with Momo. Momo picked it up and said, "Actually, I don't mind giving it to you, since I don't use daggers. But the price remains the same: how about a kiss?"

Argo stared at Momo. Seeing that he wasn't lying, her face reddened. She glanced aside and said, "Give it to me. We'll settle it later."

However, this time, Momo didn't use the trading authority.

...

A dozen minutes later, the last rat was slain by Momo. Argo was right; these 15 rats dropped nothing as quest monsters, except for the Rat Tail Dagger, which relied solely on luck.

"Alright, Argo the Kindhearted makes her entrance!"

"Next up, an LV3 elite will emerge from underground. But don't worry, it just has higher health, everything else is the same as ordinary rats. As long as we use the exchange skill well and take turns blocking attacks, we can easily kill it. Do you know how to use the exchange skill?"

"No problem."

Although Momo appeared calm on the surface, he was prepared secretly. He had a bad feeling about this.

Suddenly, the ground to their left trembled, and a massive pit appeared.

"Oh, here it comes... I'm ready... how can this be!"

Indeed, they were coming, but the surprise wasn't just one!

The ground on the right also trembled!

Following that, two LV3 elite monsters, Giant Rats, leaped out. They were about half the size of a person and had blood-red eyes with a bloodthirsty glint.

"Not good! How could there be a change? We can't handle this, Momo, run! Let's run!"

"Squeak, squeak!"

Seemingly realizing that two prey were attempting to escape, the two rats squeaked frantically. A faint aura enveloped their limbs.

Acceleration, increasing movement speed by 10%.

In the beginner's stage, all monsters on the first floor had a movement speed of 95% of player movement speed. This ensured that players were almost invincible as long as they wanted to escape.

Of course, things were different now.

The two elite monsters had acceleration skills, their speed slightly surpassing the players'. Even though the difference was small, its implications were evident.

Kayaba Akihiko's twisted sense of amusement.

"It looks like we really can't run. Let's continue!"

Momo raised his hand and threw the LV3 shield that had dropped recently to Argo, saying, "Equip it. I'm not used to using shields."

Argo's face turned pale, her words caught in her throat. However, she ultimately chose to equip it. Holding a shield in one hand and a dagger in the other, shields in Sword Art Online were mainly used for blocking normal attacks and weren't very effective against skills. Therefore, shields were used when facing monsters.

At present, Momo handed his shield to Argo. She naturally understood that her survival odds had increased significantly.

"Don't die!"

Momo smiled slightly, leading the way towards the two rats. His sword skill swiped across the eye of the rat on the left, a critical attack that instantly depleted a tenth of its health.

Just a tenth?

In other words, normally, you'd need to use sword skills 20 times?

Don't joke around!

This is an LV3 Sword Skill, with 7 points of proficiency in one-handed swords, resulting in a 7% increase in sword skill damage.

How could a quest like this be completed by an average LV3 player? It must require a whole team!

Suddenly, Momo understood.

"I see, Kayaba Akihiko, intentionally sending me a gift after seeing my participation? Trying to get me out of the game early?"

"Damn it, over here, you rat!"

On the other side, Argo picked up a small stone, used the throwing skill, and instantly drew the attention of the fully healthy rat. It turned around and chased after Argo.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Momo adjusted his stiff posture due to the sword skill and quickly turned around for a straight thrust, creating distance from the rat once again.

However, this was just a temporary solution. In Sword Art Online, as a game, it naturally had restrictions on player abilities. For example, there was a restriction on using sword skills after completion or if they were blocked, and there was a cooldown for skill usage.

These restrictions turned exchanging blows into a crucial cooperative technique in Sword Art Online. The existence of skill cooldowns also meant that players couldn't spam their ultimate skills to chip away at monster health; they had to use various sword skills in combination.

Unfortunately, Momo only had a few sword skills at the moment, and even if he used them in rotation, the initial skill cooldowns were short and all his skills were on cooldown!

"Squeak, squeak—"

Seizing the opportunity, the rat pounced, attempting to bite Momo's neck. He raised his hand, blocking the rat's mouth with his short sword. Thankfully, the game was relatively realistic; otherwise, this action wouldn't have been possible.

"Good thing. I managed to stall this rat, at least..."

"Ah!"

However, just as Momo managed to steady himself, Argo let out a scream as she was sent flying by the rat!

Momo was taken aback. He instinctively thought it was impossible. Argo, with her skills, should have been able to handle this simple, skill-less rat. How could she mess up?

But then Momo saw the rat's health, and his expression changed drastically.

Argo's rat had already lost half its health!

The Rat Tail Dagger!

The unique, fine quality LV3 equipment had instantly boosted Argo's attack power above Momo's. Argo effortlessly chipped away at the rat's health, which in turn triggered the rat's half-health skill—a single powerful strike, its only skill, the Violent Charge!

This charge instantly caused Argo's health to plummet by over half. Her attack had increased, but she wasn't wearing any defensive equipment!

With one successful attack, the rat wouldn't stop there. It lunged towards Argo, its two front teeth aiming for her neck!