I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

Including their former selves, everyone firmly believed in the false memories that had been replaced, and automatically ignored some illogical parts.

For example, without the existence of Yuuki Tenkuji, Yukinoshita Haruno would not have refused her parents' arranged marriage, even if the other party was a male classmate she disliked—there was absolutely no motivation. How did she come to this conclusion?

Even her mother, who knew her own personality well, didn't question it, so it's clear that some mysterious corrective force was interfering, making them completely forget that that person was actually involved in all of these things.

"The most important thing is still you... Little Youyou."

With a soft sigh, Yukino Yukinoshita's face darkened. She wished she could drag Yuuki Tenkuji into her room right now, interrogate him for a whole day and night, and make up for everything she had lost during this time after all her questions were answered.

The broken and vanished wooden comb, the miraculous memory alteration, and the strange expression on his face when he first saw that comb...

The answer to all her questions lies with her boyfriend, who has been "missing" for three months!

Chapter Three: Asuna Yuuki's Dream

Asuna Yuuki had a strange dream.

It was strange because she couldn't remember what happened, but when she woke up, she felt two lines of tears on her face and a slight upturn at the corner of her mouth.

What remains in my heart is a warm feeling that is both regretful and sorrowful, yet so blissful that I don't want to lose it.

"Completely different from before..."

She blinked in confusion, and after a long pause, she skillfully wiped away her tears and glanced at her phone.

It was a little after five in the morning, not yet time for my usual morning exercise.

It started around the end of summer vacation when Asuna Yuuki began having strange dreams—or rather, nightmares.

Trapped in a stealth game she couldn't escape, forced by her mother to marry a hypocrite, attacked by a fugitive with a syringe filled with poison, separated from the love she had finally met... These were things that had never happened before, yet she felt as if she had entered another person's life, experiencing the pain and helplessness deeply and painfully until she could no longer bear it and suddenly woke up.

Waking up with tears in her eyes and unable to make a sound was nothing new to her.

However, Asuna Yuuki did not tell her family about this, partly because she didn't want to be dragged to see a psychiatrist, and partly because she felt it was a problem she should solve herself.

Perhaps it's because dreams reflect one's deepest psychology, or perhaps...

More than the reason for her frequent dreams, Asuna Yuuki wanted to know who her "beloved" was—the one who repeatedly groped her, used her tongue so eloquently that her dreams almost turned into erotic fantasies, yet always ended up heartlessly breaking up with her in the end.

The appearances of her mother, the beast, and the fugitive were all clearly visible in her dream, but the identity of the boy was completely blurry and she couldn't recall it no matter what. In the end, she could only remember two things.

First, he's a lecherous bastard who abandoned himself.

Secondly, in the dream, she liked him very much, even to the point of discussing marriage.

Every time Rika wakes up with tears in her eyes, Asuna always swears bitterly in her heart—don't let her know who that scumbag is, otherwise she will definitely use a combo of "four times the pain", "stardust flying" followed by "flash thrust" to poke a few holes in him first, so that she can be worthy of the tears she has shed these days!

The strangest part is here.

She subconsciously believed that the person was not a figment of her imagination, but someone who existed in reality, just like her mother and the others, and who was closely related to her.

She didn't feel there was anything wrong with taking out her anger on the other person for what happened in her dream. Everything seemed so natural, as if her instincts were urging her to quickly remember this bastard and then pick up her sword to settle the score with him.

These somewhat strange days have continued for some time now.

Yuuki Asuna, who was already used to it, was only surprised that her dream today was a little different from usual.

It left no memory, nor any unforgettable pain; it was as if all the nightmares of the past had been optimized and given a gentle ending, leaving her with lingering memories.

"Why is this happening? It can't be because we stayed out all night, can it?"

With her palm gently pressed against her burning chest, Asuna Yuuki sat up from the bed, making sure to move very quietly so as not to disturb others.

Today is Sunday, November 12th, and the last day of the national competition.

Naturally, she has been sleeping in this high-end Japanese-style guesthouse provided by the school for the past few days, surrounded by contestants from the Black Lily Girls' Academy. Their regular breathing sounds blend together, and it's estimated that no one will get up for another hour.

Having adjusted to the darkness of the room, Asuna Yuuki looked around, then casually covered her several shirtless, poorly sleeping companions with blankets. She reached out her hand to the luggage by the bedside and quietly took out a cool-looking, high-tech device shaped like two parallel rings.

This is the virtual infiltration device, an improved version of NERvGear, called AmuSphere.

It not only inherits all the functions of NERvGear, but also makes great improvements in security and portability. It was only recently developed and produced, and there are probably fewer than ten people in the world who own one.

As the daughter of the device's developer, Asuna Yuuki is naturally one of its owners. She even secretly brought it over without her mother's knowledge and would take it out to play whenever she had free time during the competition, making her a complete internet addict.

No one else would object, after all, she still had prestige within the department, and the competition depended on her to win. Sometimes, when she got so engrossed in playing, people would even take the initiative to bring her food back to her room.

As for the game downloaded from it, there's only one.

"Let's log in and play for a bit... just for a moment!"

Wearing a blindfold-like landing device, Asuna Yuuki lay flat on the bed, covered herself with the quilt, closed her eyes, and whispered a sentence.

“LINK START!”

Then, the light stream of data lit up in my consciousness.

……

Aincrad, first floor.

Wearing a red and white knight outfit and with her long legs encased in white stockings, Asuna walked lightly and gracefully down the main street.

The game's time is synchronized with reality, so the floating city is still shrouded in a hazy gray sky, with mist floating and swirling around the tops of the spires, and occasionally birdsong can be heard chasing away the tranquility of the morning.

It's still that virtual game that's so realistic it feels like another world.

Without pausing to admire the scenery he had long since grown tired of, the chestnut-haired rapier wielder quickly arrived at the central cathedral and gently knocked on the heavy and magnificent wooden door.

"Grandma Ma, are you awake?"

Without waiting for a reply, Asuna pushed the door open a crack, peeked inside furtively a few times, and then tiptoed in.

"Miss Asuna, you're here today too."

Without looking up, the white-haired nun, who was wiping the chapel tables and chairs, suddenly spoke. Her gentle voice echoed in the large church, causing Asuna, who had been stealthily approaching her like a thief, to stiffen involuntarily. Then, she stood at attention as if nothing had happened.

"Yes, I want to check on you every day to see how you're doing~"

"My body has almost recovered. You should hurry up and go on your adventure in the upper levels. Under the protection of the goddess, you won't have to come here every day to take care of an old woman."

Faced with the chestnut-haired rapier's coquettishness, the white-haired nun simply responded with a helpless yet amused expression, deliberately gesturing towards the door with her eyes.

"Hmm, is Granny Ma starting to dislike me?" Asuna pouted, the dashing swordswoman naturally revealing a girlish demeanor, pretending to be on the verge of tears, and said, "I just stopped by to check on Granny Ma, I won't be staying for long!"

Sister Mary looked at her with a half-smile: "And then, while you're at it, take my secret recipe from me?"

"It's because Granny Ma can make delicious dishes that I can't... I've already maxed out my cooking skills, but I still can't find a way to break through to the next stage." Asuna sighed, feigning grievance, then tucked her hair behind her ear and helped Granny Ma sit down on the bench.

“Really…” Sister Mary shook her head and smiled, her face full of tenderness.

As he let her support his arm and was about to sit down to rest, he suddenly paused, his eyes widened slightly, and he began to scrutinize Asuna.

"W-What's wrong?"

Chapter 4: Asuna Yuuki Begins Her Search for the Truth

Feeling a little uncomfortable being stared at, Asuna subconsciously shrank her shoulders and asked in confusion.

"Hmm, it might be a little strange to ask these questions now..." Sister Martha frowned deeply, pondered for a couple of seconds, and then spoke with some uncertainty.

"Miss Asuna, you haven't been in a romantic relationship with anyone else, have you?"

"Huh?" Asuna blinked in surprise. "Of course not, neither in the game nor in real life..."

"But the tasks here are all issued to couples or spouses. Have you ever thought about why you were able to accept the task of treating me in the first place?"

Tilting her head slightly, Asuna asked curiously, "Isn't it because you happened to collapse in front of me that you made me carry out the mission alone?"

As she uttered those words with an expression of utterance that seemed perfectly natural, her consciousness momentarily wavered.

--wrong.

Something's not right; things aren't that simple!

"Take a look at your inventory; perhaps 'that thing' is the reason."

Grandma Ma lowered her head slightly, sighed, and a dark and unclear light flickered in her cloudy eyes as she stared at the ground, sometimes calmly, sometimes blankly.

Coming to her senses and no longer focusing on the other person, Asuna quickly opened her inventory and began searching through the well-organized list.

"No, everything is normal..." After flipping through the entire list, she frowned and then casually clicked on the item disposal record. "Grandma Ma, what exactly is that thing... huh?"

In the grayed-out records, there exists a name I've never seen before.

"Broken Beloved Ring (Unusable)".

“My beloved…”

Asuna stood there, her mouth slightly agape.

Even though she was in the game, she could clearly feel her blood rushing backward and a feeling of nausea rising up, as if she were having a nightmare.

"Wait, when did I lose this thing... or rather, I never even had this kind of ring?"

Grandma Ma did not answer her.

Talking to herself, Asuna subconsciously clicked on the item description below, and a line of text caught her eye.

"Note: Asuna's wedding ring (data deleted), as proof that they once loved each other. (This item has been permanently lost and cannot be retrieved)"

It was such a brief and inexplicable explanation.

But for some reason, an overwhelming loneliness welled up in my throat at that moment, and my nose stung with tears, like a child who had been wronged but had no one to cry to.

The system's borders blurred, and Asuna wiped away the clear tears that silently rolled down her face with the back of her hand, her expression still one of disbelief.

"The game has a bug...?"

"When did I get married, and with whom did we fall in love..."

“‘Beloved’…wait, does that mean that person and I played this game together and even got married?”

The item inventory page cannot be closed for a long time.

Before the mystery of the dream has been solved, a new mystery has appeared before Asuna Yuuki.

From this moment on, the whole world seemed to become magical and unpredictable.

Were those dreams merely her imagination, or were they real events that actually happened?

Did that person really appear in her life?

Memories that were once firmly believed are now showing more and more confusing inconsistencies...