AFTERWORD Thank you for reading Sword Art Online Progressive 5, “Canon of the Golden Rule (Start).” The previous volume originally came out in December 2015, which means it’s been over two years since we left off. I’m very sorry about that. I’m also very sorry that this is the first two-part story in this series! SAOP has been proceeding at the pace of one floor per volume, but even then, each volume required some part of the story to be told in digest form (quests, advancing through the floor, boss fights), and I always regretted that…So I decided that I wanted to write as much of this floor as possible this time around. But once I started, I realized there was too much to contain to one book, especially with lots of Kizmel material, and the idea of cutting anything after all that was too much to bear. So I’ve decided to make this a two-volume story and get it all out of my system. Because of that, all kinds of things are left hanging at the end of this book, but the second half should be coming very soon after this, so please, just have a bit of patience for our arrival at the seventh floor! Please!
As for the content…I chose to make the theme of the sixth floor “puzzles” because I always wanted to do a puzzle-based floor, but I’m also not very good at solving puzzles in dungeons whenever they show up in RPGs (laughs). Especially in MMOs—when it requires the coordination of several players at once. I feel like I’m getting an ulcer imagining myself being the one who screwed up and got yelled at by everyone else. I plan to put Kirito in just such a tricky situation in the second half, so let’s all cheer him on and hope he gets it right the first time! Some of you might also be worried about how fast Kirito and Asuna seem to be getting closer by the volume. So am I! The idea is for the Progressive series to connect to the main series, so having them be so hunky-dory in the early stages feels like it’s straining the space-time continuum, but I will continue my irresponsible policy of leaving it all up to them and trusting it’ll probably work itself out in the end. I also have a few announcements…At about the same time as this book, the Fatal Bullet game should be coming out. It’s set in the world of GGO, and it’s the first major release that features an original protagonist, so I hope you enjoy adventuring alongside Kirito and Asuna. Also, the mobile game Integral Factor is an MMORPG about conquering Aincrad from the very first floor, just like Progressive, so you should definitely check it out! Lastly, to my illustrator, abec, and my editors, Miki and Adachi, my deepest apologies and thanks for putting up with my edge-of-your-seat deadline completion! I hope I see the rest of you in the second half of this book, coming soon! Reki Kawahara—December 2017
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