"So, you suddenly dragged me over here just because you couldn't come up with a good idea yourself?"
Asuna pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers, sounding a little exasperated.
Akimi nodded honestly without hesitation, then stared at her with puppy-dog eyes.
Under the expectant gaze of six pairs of eyes, Asuna stopped saying anything else and began seriously thinking about how to design a birthday surprise.
"Hmm… What does Keita like? Or, does he have something he especially wants, or something he's been wanting to accomplish?"
After thinking for a moment, Asuna decided to first figure out Keita's interests, so she asked Sachi and the others.
After pondering for a bit, they began chattering among themselves.
Ducker was the first to speak:
"I remember when we went shopping for materials before, the boss kept staring at that gilded staff in the weapon shop's display case."
Tetsuo narrowed his eyes and replied, "Yeah, that's right. Keita didn't say anything, but I could tell he really wanted that staff."
"How about… we buy that staff and give it to the boss?" Sasamaru said, scratching the back of his head.
But Sachi looked a little troubled. "The thing is… that staff is pretty expensive… If I remember right, it costs fifty thousand Col."
For a moment, they all looked a bit stumped — they were currently saving money to buy a house next month to use as their guild headquarters.
Fifty thousand Col was definitely not a small amount for them.
Seeing the difficulty on their faces, Akimi and the other two roughly understood the situation.
They could sympathize — after all, not everyone was as rich as they were…
Well, maybe Kirito wasn't exactly wealthy; that guy could never save money, spending it all on upgrading his gear the moment he got some.
But he had a ton of materials, so you could still say he had assets.
After hesitating for a moment, Kirito began flipping through his inventory while saying, "If it's Col you're worried about, I've still got some here. If you need it, I can front the cost."
But when they heard his suggestion, Sachi didn't immediately agree.
Instead, after exchanging glances with the others, she asked hesitantly, "But… having you put up fifty thousand Col for Keita's surprise… doesn't feel quite right. And we probably wouldn't be able to pay you back anytime soon."
Ducker and the others nodded seriously in agreement.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that," Kirito said, rubbing his nose lightly.
"We're comrades, after all. Preparing a birthday present for Keita is the least I can do."
He paused, then pointed at Akimi and continued, "And as for the Col, really, don't worry. Worst case, I'll just borrow it from him — this guy wouldn't blink at fifty thousand Col. Actually, even five hundred thousand would be pocket change for him."
Hearing Kirito's words, Akimi smiled with squinting eyes, holding up two fingers.
"Forget five hundred thousand — even if you doubled that, I could still produce it… But if you really needed that much, Kirito, you might have to sell yourself, you know."
Then he reached out and patted Kirito lightly on the chest.
Kirito brushed his hand away with a look of disgust, then vigorously brushed at his own shirt a few more times.
Asuna also looked at Akimi with clear distaste.
But Akimi didn't seem the least bit embarrassed.
Stroking his chin, he said, "Alright, it's settled then — we'll buy that staff, and then prepare some smaller gifts… As for food and cake, I'll leave that to Asuna. Oh, right — does Keita have any dreams?"
"I know this one," Tetsuo said.
"Keita, he…"
But just as he opened his mouth, Ducker suddenly jumped up, hooked an arm around his neck, and chuckled, "Heh heh! We all know that already! Keita wants to become a game creator like Kayaba Akihiko… well, the former Kayaba Akihiko."
Tetsuo nodded and said softly, "The computer research club we're in now was actually founded by Keita when he was in his first year of high school. Although it's called a computer research club, most of the time we're actually learning game development. Back during the SAO beta test, Keita already said that one day he would definitely make a game that could rival SAO."
"And just last semester, the game Keita made even won an award — even the teachers praised him for his talent," Sasamaru added.
After learning about Keita's situation, Asuna roughly formed a plan in her mind.
When she shared her idea, it was no surprise that it received unanimous approval from everyone, and they immediately began making active preparations.
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