The sword flashed.

The pitch-black sword whistled down and hit a giant beetle heavily. The beetle that was hit instantly turned into data fragments and disappeared into the air. Then a prompt appeared indicating that the battle was won and experience points were gained.

"This way, you will be promoted to level 15."

Fang Zheng swung the sword in his hand and looked at the two people beside him.

"How are you?"

"Everything went well, no problems."

In response to Fang Zheng's question, Esther nodded slightly, and Restia also smiled slightly.

"This is a piece of cake for the sword elf, master."

"That's good, let's continue."

Fang Zheng raised his head and glanced at the dark night sky. At the moment, the three of them were in the forest on the northeast side of the first layer of Aincrad. Fang Zheng's current goal was to break through this layer of forest and then go to the castle deep in the forest. Although he didn't know what was there, according to general nature, artificial creations in the depths of the forest would always bring a lot of good things, and if he was right, that should be the core area of ​​this world.

Of course, there are also many dangers.

Although Fang Zheng and his team have been focusing on studying the game these days, they have not given up on leveling up. In fact, Fang Zheng, Esther, and Restia have already reached level 15, making them the top team. If Argo's intelligence is correct, then the three of them can be said to be the highest level players in the game so far - well, maybe one of the top.

The reason why it became like this was very simple - no matter how fantastic this world was, its essence was still an online game, and the characters in the online game were just characters. This meant that as long as Fang Zheng and his friends didn't feel mentally exhausted, they could spend 24 hours a day brushing the map.

In fact, they do.

For ordinary people, after a day of intense fighting, even if their bodies were not tired or injured, their spirits were exhausted, so they needed to rest. But Fang Zheng and the others were different. Whether it was Fang Zheng, the time dragon, or Esther and Restia, the sword elves, their spiritual attributes were far superior to humans.

This means that when those game players are clearing the map, Fang Zheng and his team are leveling up and studying the system. And when the players go back to rest and relax, they are still leveling up and clearing the map...

If they still couldn't surpass those ordinary players, that would be unreasonable. If Fang Zheng hadn't deliberately slowed down the leveling speed to avoid attracting too much attention, their leveling speed would have been even faster.

If he felt really tired, Fang Zheng would choose to find a safe place to rest - this was something many gamers didn't dare to do. Because the area after leaving the starting town was open to attack at will, if he was attacked by other players or monsters and died in his sleep, it would be too uneconomical.

Of course, this is not a problem for Fang Zheng and others.

But it’s different for ordinary people.

In fact, Argo was also extremely surprised when she first learned about Fang Zheng and his group's leveling speed. She immediately came up to him shamelessly and asked him to guide her. However, after Fang Zheng guided her for a day, she complained bitterly and decided to quit. According to Argo, if she continued like this, she might not die at the hands of monsters, but might die from overwork one day...

“Ding-ling-ling——!”

Speak of the devil, and he will appear. Just when Fang Zheng was thinking this, the system prompt sounded. Fang Zheng looked up and saw the message from Argo. He also reached out and opened it directly.

"What's wrong, Argo?"

"Ah, hello, Mr. Fang Zheng, are you still leveling up?"

"About the same, what's up?"

"yes."

Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the cunning intelligence businessman smiled and nodded.

"Didn't you ask me to find teammates for you before? I actually found three! Do you want to come and see if they're suitable?"

"Three?"

Fang Zheng was stunned when he heard Argo's answer.

"You're very fast."

"Because I didn't tell them your true identity this time... I just said that there was a promising and powerful team that was short of manpower and needed people to join, so I reluctantly brought three people over. If I told them your identity of 'F', I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to recruit anyone."

Fang Zheng certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to write his ID directly on the survival guide. In fact, on the published survival guide, Fang Zheng only wrote the first letter of his ID "F". Although he met many players in the square on the first day, it was only once. Most players probably had forgotten what he looked like long ago.

Originally Fang Zheng had thought that he could rely on his own reputation to show off so that he could get everyone to follow his lead, but the troublesome national character of the Japanese made Fang Zheng not only useless in his reputation, but also forced him to travel at night in fine clothes... Forget it, as long as he can trick these three people into joining the team, once he gets on board, there's no way he can get off!

"What's the level?"

"One is level ten, one is level thirteen, and one is level fifteen."

"oh?"

Hearing Argo's answer, Fang Zheng was stunned for a moment. Level 10 is the general level of current players, because initially players would fight monsters on the plains around the Starting Town and take on daily quests from NPCs. By the time they had beaten most of the wild boars and wolves on the plains, they would be around level 10.

But reaching level thirteen and fifteen is not so easy. You have to know that only about five or six days have passed in this game world, and this game is also different from ordinary online games. It can be said that those who can reach level ten or above in these five or six days are basically hardcore players. In particular, there is one person whose level is almost the same as Fang Zheng and the others. He must have been very hardworking.

"Anyway, these are the only three who are willing to join. Do you want to come and take a look?"

"Of course, wait for me at the usual place. I'll be there right away."

Fang Zheng quickly hung up the call and gestured to Restia and Esther.

"Argo has found a new member, let's go back to the city."

Through the teleportation point, Fang Zheng and the others quickly returned to the starting town. It didn't take too long for Fang Zheng to see Argo and the three newcomers waiting for him on the platform outside the tavern.

"Ah, Mr. Fang Zheng, this way!"

Seeing Fang Zheng, Argo also hurriedly waved and called out. Hearing her shout, Fang Zheng also came over with Restia and Esther. Then, he carefully looked at the three newcomers standing next to Argo.

The person closest to Argo was a woman wrapped in a cloak. Fang Zheng couldn't see her face because of the cloak, but he didn't think it was strange to dress like that. After all, on the first day of operation, that damn Kayaba Akihiko used some method to eliminate the characters created by the players and restored their real-life appearances.

As a result, the game world that was originally full of handsome men and beautiful women instantly became a paradise for ugly people, and those girls who were naturally good-looking were naturally more likely to attract attention. In fact, Esther and Restia beside Fang Zheng also dressed like this. After all, when a person is famous, he or she will be criticized a lot... It's understandable.

The girl standing next to the cloaked woman looked very beautiful, with a teardrop mole at the corner of her eye. Her fair skin and long straight black hair matched well with her. At this moment, the girl with long straight black hair was curiously gazing at Fang Zheng and the two people behind him. She remained silent, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Next to the black girl was a girl with twin ponytails who was even shorter than her. She had a pair of simple ponytails and bright purple hair. She looked like an elementary school student or a junior high school student... Are there elementary school students in this game?!

"Well, let's start by introducing ourselves."

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Fang Zheng smiled at the three of them and then spoke.

"I think you may have already known it from Argo. My name is Fang Zheng, and I am the captain of this team. This is Esther and Restia. They are my companions."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng made a gesture, and Esther and Restia nodded and greeted the three of them.

Then, the shortest girl came out.

"My name is Liangfeng Qingye... I'm currently in my third year of high school... ah... you can just call me Qingye..."

"Wait, you're...a senior?"

After hearing the self-introduction of the girl named Ryoufeng Qingye, not only Fang Zheng showed a surprised expression, but even the three people around her, including Argo, looked at her in surprise, revealing an expression of disbelief - this was understandable, after all, judging from her appearance, she was the youngest one here.

After noticing everyone's gazes, Qingye also retreated with a red face. Then, the girl with long black hair took a step forward, put her hand on her chest, and raised her head proudly.

"I am the fallen angel of Chiba - Black Cat! My servants, please take in my dazzling figure!"

“…”

This f*cking middle school student has even come out... No, she really looks like she is middle school student...

Facing the "Black Cat", everyone was speechless, but the Black Cat didn't seem to care about it at all. Instead, she retreated triumphantly. Then, it was the third person's turn, and her self-introduction was even simpler.

"Asuna, my name."

She just said this and then stopped talking.

“…Haha.”

Looking at the three people with very different personalities in front of him, Fang Zheng sighed helplessly.

He had a feeling that the future was going to be very difficult...