[FlavoryFantasy]

Originally Posted by tomtkp

Volume 9 Chapter 1 Part 1 has been updated on BT.

Spoiler for Summary of Chapter 1 Part 1:

Kirito wakes up in the middle of an unknown forest. He still remembers his own identity and also the events in Prologue II and Interlude I but can't remember what happened after he told Asuna about his decision to study in USA during Interlude I. Initially assuming that he is inside a virtual world, he finds that he can't log out nor summon any command window. After some brainstorming, he suddenly recalls that he had talked to Asuna and Sinon about RATH and STL and theorises that he might be inside Underworld but later finds it strange that his real world memories has not been blocked which the researcher in RATH named Higa Takeru would normally do "to prevent the contamination of the test data. Unsure that whether he is in the real world or the normal virtual world (such as ALO, GGO) or in Underworld, he decides to try to approach other people nearby (if there's any) to find out any clue to the answer.

Kirito firstly arrives at the river bank to quench his thrist. Then, he decides to walk downstream as there might be towns or villages downstream. Suddenly, he hears the sound of what seems to be a person cutting a tree upstream. He then changes direction to head upstream. While walking upstream, Kirito has a vague memory of three kids playing along the river bank. One of them seemed to have a long glittering golden hair.

And Part 1 ends with the colour illustration below:

From this point on, the story truly begins.

Spoiler for Comments on Chapter 1 Part 1:

Kawahara-sensei's descriptions of the surrounding was excellent. It really was a detailed description of what Kirito sees and experiences. Kawahara-sensei really put much effort on this and I liked it. It really helped my imagination well. I think if the anime does cover Alicization arc in the future, Chapter 1 Part 1 might not cover even half of an episode because this part is mainly of the descriptions of the surroundings and Kirito's long inner monologue. However, those are vital in the novel form because that's what make a story really good.

Detailed descriptions on his surroundings huh? That will be a wonderful trip for the mind to imagine.

Spoiler for space:

And unfortunately, bad news from BT. From now on, the translation of Volume 9 will become very slow and might as well stalled for a certain period because of two reasons:

1. Teh Ping, one of the translators of SAO in BT had quitted the translation of SAO and also took an indefinitely leave from BT because apparently he received insults and death threats (judging from the comments within the BT community, I might misunderstand something) from some impatient readers.
   
2. BeginnerXP, another translator who was translating Volume 9 until now, also took a break from translating (don't know whether it will be a short or long break) for now.

So, unless another translator decides to continue what's left, the translation of Volume 9 is stalled temporarily for now. Regardless of that, I really thank these two translators for their contributions and especially to Teh Ping, wish you good luck.

I also want to take an opportunity to call on other readers to really appreciate the translators' work. The translators in BT are volunteers who really devote their time for the readers' sake. They do not receive even one cent for their work. So please appreciate them before we are losing them for good.

Death threats? Really some people these days...

Well translators always have my deepest gratitude for what they do.

I wish you the best of luck Teh_Ping! Thank you for all the translations you did for SAO and your other projects as well!
I don't know if BeginnerXP visits this forum/thread..but anyway thank you for translating SAO up to this point! (from whenever you started.)