The black mist clears and the ground shook as the 10 foot giant falls on its back, never to rise again. Before the fallen beast was an exhausted figure of a man….. no…. this person is still too young to be a man, but too old to be a boy. He kneels on all fours, desperately trying to slow down his erratic heart rate.

He wore a long white hooded jacket, covering his blue eyes and most of his face. Underneath the jacket are a black long sleeve shirt, pants and boots. His appearance was to imitate one of his anime favorite character, but unfortunately, the lack of customization options prevented him to do that. At the very least, he wanted a red jacket, but the closest one he could get lacked all the necessary stats to match his fighting style, thus the idea was abandoned.

"*huff* *huff*"

He takes off his hood and ruffled his short brown hair, trying to cool his head down, but that is not necessary. Here in SAO, the character didn't need air, it didn't sweat, and most importantly, it didn't feel fatigue. But that's just the character, the one on the other side felt all this things and more, so much more. In the real world, he would probably be sweating buckets, all of it formed from the dangerous cocktail of fatigue, intense and prolonged concentration, and fear

Lots and lots of adrenaline inducing, mind numbing, pants crapping fear.

But due to that fear, his self-preservation instincts were pushed beyond the limits of human comprehension. It made him do things that even he couldn't believe.

"*huff* *huff*" He swallows and takes a deep breath, which effectively calms him down a bit. " …. I'm…. alive?"

While still kneeling, he waves his hand to access his status page…. And what he saw shocked him. His HP is currently blinking red, a clear sign that he is not in good shape.

Want to know the punch line to it all?

His life bar is nearly nonexistent.

Life remaining: 0.3%

"Zero POINT Fucking Three Percent… PWHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughs maniacally

It was like having a loaded gun shoved up his mouth, trigger cocked and ready to blow his brains out. But for some unknown reason, the gunner decided to spare his life out of pity.

"Not bad at all! HAHAHAHAHA!" Though he kept laughing, tears stream out of his eyes. He covered his eyes with his hands and began to cry. "*sniff* …I'm… *hic* … still ….*sniff*…. Alive … *sniff*"

These were not tears of joy, but tears of relief. Not one cry of victory can be heard, only the sobs of a young man thanking god that he was still alive.

His enemy was the boss of the 49th floor and belongs to one of the tougher monster race in SAO, a Cyclopes Champion. It was armored to the teeth with heavy armor, making it near invincible to physical attacks at the cost of speed. It also wielded the stone sword Nine Lives, a very powerful and very expensive one hand sword (two handed sword if wielded by a player) which is well sought off by those who wielded such a weapon.

This battle pretty much forced him to use all of his arsenals to win. Every strategy, every dirty trick, all of his current armaments and nearly all of his potions were utilized in the 40 minute boss battle.

He fought smart, abusing the enemy's slow movement speed and limited field of vision to bring it down. At the early minutes of the battle, he aimed his attacks at the little openings in its armor, mostly located at the joints, to put a dent in its HP. When he realized that the enemy HP was dropping too slow, he changed tactics and used his DIRTY TRICKS.

FYI, though it is labeled as DIRTY TRICKS, all of it is within the rules and regulations of the game. He used no hacks, he bent no rules and he won against the Cyclopes fairly. Unfortunately, most people would consider it as dishonorable and cowardly, thus labeled as DIRTY TRICKS. An example of this was the black smoke that dispersed after he killed the monster. It's a bomb with main function is to blind everyone within the area, but it also has nasty side effects if the alchemist tweaked the formula enough.

He also has other DEVICES that he used during the battle, but those explanations are for another time. Why spoil the mystery now?

Anyways, the total price tag of all the items used in the battle was a staggering 100k gold. One could buy a low quality house in a not so pretty neighborhood with that kind of money. In Aincard, a roof over your head is practically a symbol of wealth. But compared to staying alive for another day, 100k gold is a very small price to pay.

Thankfully, the battle was not a complete waste of time (and money, lots and lots of money). The loots dropped more than enough to pay for his expenses. If he recalls correctly, the Nine Lives fetched about 150k gold at the auction. Though it is a strong weapon, he has no uses for it, seeing how he is a knife wielder. There are other drops such as the Iron Spine (90K one hand saw-ish sword weapon), Juggernaught's Gaulent (50K Cyclopes gaulent turned shield) and the Tyrant's Breastplate (100k armor), but none of them are usable to him. The things that he is after are composed mostly of crafting ingredients, normally ignored by most players.

He wipes his tears and picks up the items and begins marching up the next floor.

"Man….. *sniff* I would be famous if it wasn't for my damn reputation" He speaks to himself

He cant help but regret coming here at night, but he has no other choice on the matter. He has 2 well known nicknames and 1 not so well known nickname.

His not so well known nickname is "THE AUCTIONEER", because his name, along with high grade items, is always spotted in the action houses. Thanks to that, a lot of players bid top gold for his finds, which in turn, makes him one of the richest people in Aincard. Unfortunately, he has a very stingy mindset, thus he doesn't own a house or whatever items associated with being wealthy. He hates worthless expenditure that comes with high class living, calling them a useless investment. He did come from a rags-to-riches family.

Next up is his 1st widely well-known nickname, "THE MIST". Yes, those black mist bombs are his signature move. Most people don't even know that he is using bombs, because he never deploys when someone has a clear view of it. Though expensive and tiresome to make, those bombs are his trump card in battles with overwhelming disadvantages, such as the boss battle a few minutes ago.

Finally, his most widely known nickname, "THE MURDERER". He has the highest player kills in all of SAO, which in turn, earns him the highest infamy. During the early days of SAO, the players lived in fear of being PK'ed by members of Laughing Coffin. Unfortunately, one of their victims happened to be a friend of his, which turned him into a vigilante. His quest for revenge resulted in the deaths of 21 of their members within a span of 6 months of the 2nd year. Other non- Laughing Coffin PKers also fell victim, causing his kill count and infamy to grow further. By the end of the Laughing Coffin extermination crusade, he has effectively killed 56 players. His kill count even exceeds the members of the Laughing Coffin.

Of course, his actions were not going to go unnoticed. His previous guild, the Aincard Liberation Force AKA The Army, labeled him a criminal and allocated a small group of soldiers just to hunt him down. And in a cruel twist of fate, the unit that is hunting him down, is led by his very own sister. To avoid The Army, he is only active during night, making his already lonely life even more depressing.

"*sigh*…. Sometimes, I wonder if god hates me…." He said to no one.

He reaches the top of the stairs, officially making him the first person to set foot on floor # 50. He takes out his last potion (a fairly expensive one) and drains it in one go, recovering about 50% of his health. He repositions the shield strapped onto his left arm and checks the condition of his dagger.

"Hmm… I'm ready as I'll ever be…" He looks at the sky and notices that dawn is fast approaching. "… and my time is almost up…"

He steels his will and begins his exploration of the next floor.

In his mind, he reaffirms the things he must accomplish before his eventual death.

Yes, he has already accepted that one way or another, he will hang for the sins he has made. He will die here in SAO, there is no doubt about that. But at the very least, he wants to be a stepping stone for his sister to go back to the real world. Even if their current relationship is far from ideal, it is his duty as an older brother, and a punishment as a murderer, to be sacrificed so that those who are still pure can return to the real world.