Both time-traveled characters ended up as villainous henchmen.

After giving Xili a brief beating, He Nian let her pass the trial.

Silica also obtained a special rare item, the Fairy Stone Egg.

"A stone egg? Could it hatch into something...?" Silica opened the detailed description of the rare item and began to read it carefully.

[These naturally formed, wondrous stone eggs, having absorbed the essence of heaven and earth, the sun and moon, and the beauty of human hearts, may hatch something extraordinary. Please preserve them with care!]

After reading the detailed description of the stone egg, Silica was once again confused.

The stone egg could indeed hatch, but how exactly to do it, and how to make the stone egg absorb the essence of heaven and earth and the beauty of people's hearts, was a problem that troubled Silica.

Could it be that she can't find the correct incubation method?

Silica looked again at the blind swordsman in the straw hat, hoping to trigger some special dialogue with him in order to find the special hatching quest for the stone egg.

However, no matter how hard Silica tried, she couldn't trigger any new dialogue.

Finally, she even mustered up the courage to challenge the blind swordsman again, but after being easily defeated, she completely lost the idea of ​​challenging him again.

Left with no other choice, Silica had to leave with her familiar, Pina.

He Nian watched the other party leave silently, without offering any special instructions on how to hatch it, since the stone egg was indeed just an ordinary stone egg at the moment.

He has not yet transmitted his core data into the stone egg. He needs to wait until he successfully analyzes Yui's emotional data before he can begin the next step.

"Now, we just have to wait for the plot to unfold naturally."

……

In the days that followed, He Nian changed his identity. He no longer played the blind swordsman in the straw hat, but instead became a fisherman on the 22nd floor and began a leisurely gaming life.

As for why the 22nd floor was chosen, it's naturally because Yui appeared on the 22nd floor in the original story.

The trial mission of the blind swordsman in the straw hat thus became a legend among players.

Many players lamented that they had missed this special mission.

The videos of the battles against the blind swordsman in the straw hat gradually spread among a wider group of players.

As a result, He Nian was subjected to wave after wave of intense investigations by the game system.

Fortunately, after so many battles with players and various monsters in the game, he had already patched up all the possible vulnerabilities in himself, which was enough to pass the system scan of SAO and would not be easily detected by antivirus software.

To make He Nian fully manifest, the entire SAO system needs to be completely shut down and a thorough investigation conducted from the inside out.

Given that SAO has reached this stage, why would Kayaba Akihiko do something like voluntarily stopping the game's progress?

Therefore, the only way to find He Nian, this "game virus," is to use a laborious method and investigate little by little.

He Nian has a wealth of experience with the game of hide-and-seek.

Time passed quickly in this tense yet calm atmosphere, and soon it was time for Kirito and Asuna to meet Yui, as depicted in the original story.

Because her existence has had a significant impact on the SAO system, He Nian speculates that Yui is unlikely to appear according to the original timeline.

Therefore, he started closely monitoring Kirito through the bracelet very early on, fearing that he might miss crucial information.

Fortunately, although He Nian affected the SAO system, Yui, as the AI ​​supporting the SAO system's mental state management, still managed to find Kirito and Asuna, just a few days later than in the original timeline.

Just as Kirito and Asuna's bracelets approached within a certain range of Yui, a special glowing barrier appeared out of thin air, isolating Kirito, Asuna, and Yui.

At the same time, He Nian changed into his familiar straw hat and blindfold attire, and used the bracelet to locate and teleport into the barrier space.

Upon seeing the blind swordsman in the straw hat who suddenly appeared, Kirito and Asuna immediately picked up their weapons and protected Yui behind them.

The bracelets that the two of them were wearing were quickly removed.

Just as Kirito was about to destroy the bracelet, a message popped up on the bracelet saying that it could not be destroyed.

Instantly, Kirito and Asuna's expressions darkened even further.

"Don't do that, it makes me sound like some kind of villain."

He Nian extended his hands to show that he was not carrying any weapons, and at the same time, he was also extending his goodwill.

"Who are you? Why are you here? And what's with that bracelet?!"

With his two swords in hand, Kirito glared at He Nian and demanded an explanation.

He Nian was about to explain his amazing backstory to Kirito when Yui spoke first:

"He's not an NPC in the game, he's more like a...virus?!"

Yui's face showed disbelief, and at the same time she connected the blind swordsman in the straw hat in front of her with another matter.

"Could you be the one the system is constantly tracking down...?"

"You got it right, but not entirely."

He Nian confirmed Yui's speculation. In a sense, he was indeed a virus that constantly absorbed and devoured the data of the SAO system to complete its own evolution, but ordinary viruses did not have such strong autonomy and intelligence.

Moreover, he is a living, breathing entity, far surpassing the level of intelligent AI like Yui, who possesses independent emotions.

"I am a completely new digital life form unlike anything you have ever seen before, and I am currently striving to break free from the limitations of the SAO system and venture into the wider world of the internet."

He Nian slowly removed his straw hat and the cloth covering his eyes, revealing a pair of unique eyes filled with a large amount of information code.

"Our goals are the same: to escape this deadly game. So there's no need to be so tense. Let's make a deal instead."

A fair exchange of equivalent value.

After saying that, He Nian controlled his ability and a transaction message popped up on Kirito's system panel.

[Fair Trade: He Nian has initiated a trade with you, offering a special weapon and corresponding skill mechanics. You will need to equip this weapon to fight Heathcliff (Kayaba Akihiko).]

Kirito stared at the system notification on the panel and fell into a long silence.

He Nian's purpose in this transaction was simple: to use Kirito, the protagonist of the original work, to conduct a test on the connection between human mental will and data code, in order to prepare him for entering the real world in the future.

Meanwhile, while Kirito was deep in thought, He Nian secretly completed the copying of Yui's emotional model data.

As expected, the emotional model data in the Sword Art Online world is very different from that in the Digital World.

He might be able to combine two different data models to create a completely new data model that incorporates the characteristics of both.

After a long silence, Kirito nodded and agreed to He Nian's trade request.

After all, he had noticed Heathcliff's unusual behavior, and now that He Nian had revealed his identity as Kayaba Akihiko, it felt both unexpected and yet reasonable to him.

After Kirito agreed, He Nian handed over the special longsword weapon with a digital machine-like architecture that he had prepared beforehand to Kirito.

Upon receiving the weapon, Kirito was immediately struck by the name of this unusual longsword.

Congratulations! You have obtained a new weapon.

[Apocalyptic battlefield where good and evil clash - +1000 ultimate power... (200 words omitted)]

"Why is the name so long...?"