I'm not sure what you mean about "halfway through a year and a half ago". The halfway mark would be somewhere around Christmas 2023 (when Kirito got the message from Sachi), when the front line was at Floor 49. Episode 8 takes place in October 2024, and they've just reached the boss of Floor 74, so that's 25 floors in about ten months. Not so shabby, considering the difficulty has been gradually ramping up.
That doesn't match up for me at all. Kirito's had a house on Floor 50 for several episodes, and only like, last episode did someone comment that they were six months into this mess.