Great, we're doomed now!

What a joke!

"You... you really never think about others." Rinko Kamishiro laughed self-deprecatingly.

It's no secret that Rinko Kamishiro likes Akihiko Kayaba. Not to mention old acquaintances like Takeshi Higa, even a new assistant at the research institute could find clues if they observed carefully.

Kayaba is a guy who is seriously out of touch with "ordinary life" and has never had any idea of ​​building a marriage or family. Being with him is a very boring and hopeless thing.

Unlike her, Rinko Kamishiro is a person with common sense and is well aware of this—but she still can't help being attracted to her.

After joining the Kuse Group, Kayaba's work and life gradually stabilized, and he even contributed many technological inventions to TPC, seemingly transforming from a reclusive genius into a normal scientist overnight.

Rinko Kamishiro probably saw a glimmer of hope, thinking she could change him just like that... or rather, she was confident that she could change him.

However, in the end...

"Idiot! Fool! Bastard! You beast who's good for nothing except your intelligence!"

Rinko Kamishiro couldn't help but burst into a tirade, but as she cursed, her eyes welled up with tears, and her suppressed emotions suddenly erupted, large tears streaming down her face. She then collapsed to the ground with her legs spread wide.

Just as she was losing control of herself, a stack of tissues was handed to her from the side.

There is an old Chinese saying, "It is easier to change mountains and rivers than to change one's nature"—this probably describes this situation.

This person seemed to know everything, even Rinko's thoughts. He spoke directly to the point, causing her to subconsciously look up. Then, through her teary eyes, she saw the boss's figure.

"Mr. Kuze?"

Rinko Kamishiro quickly stood up, and Kuze smiled, signaling her not to be too nervous.

"Please accept my condolences, Miss Kamishiro."

Despite being filled with anger towards the kaori shop, Ye Shou remained outwardly calm and unaffected.

"He has a crazy side to his bones, or rather, he is unconventional and therefore reckless... It would not be surprising if he did something, even self-destruction."

You know him very well, so this shouldn't be too surprising.

"Yes... I am only sad, not surprised."

Rinko Kamishiro nodded: "But he always does things with a very strong 'purpose,' and life is equally precious to him; he doesn't give it up easily."

"Don't worry, I'll find out why."

"...Hopefully it's just his personal matter and won't affect anyone else." Rinko Kamishiro closed her eyes in pain, seemingly aware that her statement was unlikely.

Even though Kayaba Akihiko was being secretly monitored and restricted, the resources and technology he controlled were still there, making it very easy for him to cause trouble if he wanted to.

Ye Shou had come for this very reason, so he didn't waste any time with Rinko Kamishiro. He turned around and led Ruri into the laboratory. Soon after, all the staff, including the forensic doctor, came out one after another.

-

"That's disgusting."

Seeing the situation inside the cabin, Ruri frowned and covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief: "Kayaba Akihiko... if it was suicide, how abnormal would he have to be to use such a bizarre method?"

"He's always been an oddball."

Ye Shou curled his lip: "Let's not delay, let's begin."

As he spoke, he reached out into the cabin, and a golden arm phantom quietly appeared, only to disappear back into the void in an instant. A hint of disappointment appeared on Ye Shou's face.

"As expected, no, his soul is no longer inside his body... It's up to you, Liuli."

"It is my honor, Master~"

——【The Ingenious Heiress】!

Suddenly, a humanoid doll-like stand-in, as tall as a person, leaped out from the void behind Liuli. Its silver-white shell gleamed with a cold light, and its limbs were mechanical structures composed of ball joints. Without much instruction, its slender arms nimbly reached into the damaged holographic capsule.

bass!

bass!

bass!

The fingertips gently touched the blackened bulkhead, which had been stained with dried blood. Pale purple ripples spread across the metal surface, like ripples on water, across the entire hull.

The indicator lights inside the cabin, which had been flashing regularly, suddenly went erratic, their cold blue cyberpunk lights flashing alternately and emitting a crackling electrical sound, as if the entire device was trembling...

A moment later, the stand-in slowly withdrew its arm, holding a soft halo in its palm. Within it, dazzling geometric patterns rapidly shifted, like an endless kaleidoscope. Faintly visible within were the flashing data streams, the "living beings" extracted from the damaged hull.

No matter how much Ye Shou disliked Kayaba, he had to admit that the guy was a genius. He must have guessed that Ye Shou would investigate the cause of his death, so it was impossible to find any clues in the storage data of the cabin. He was absolutely capable of deleting or covering up all the clues.

—But he cannot erase the "memory" of the object itself.

This is something between soul and data, a concept. Even Liuli isn't quite sure what she extracted, and its existence is difficult to define in simple language.

Without the special Stand "Kiki no Senpai," Kayaba, no matter how skilled he was, would be helpless against this, or rather, he would be completely unaware that such a method existed.

"Let's go." Liuli gestured for Ye Shou to follow, and her stand-in followed closely behind, carefully protecting the halo in her palm, afraid of making the slightest mistake.

The two walked through the corridor to another building not far from the laboratory. The elevator went straight to the top floor, and when they pushed open the heavy alloy door, a studio suddenly came into view.

In the spacious area, several staff members were busy adjusting the equipment. A brand-new holographic projection gaming pod had been assembled in the center. It was entirely silver-white, exactly the same as the one used by Kayaba Akihiko, down to the layout of the interfaces on the side of the pod!

"You're here." Lucy hurried over, her face showing a hint of fatigue but unable to hide her excitement. "The system porting and environment matching are all complete. The hardware parameters and simulated neural circuits of this gaming pod are consistent with the original, and the heat dissipation module has even been optimized, so there will be no more overload issues."

She paused, then added some bad news: "But just like you said, there's no problem with the raw data. It's like a real accident. Kayaba Akihiko must have installed the 'cleaner' beforehand, and it cleared all the evidence and clues after his death."

In other words, if we only have this one game pod, we know nothing.

"Thank you for your hard work... but we don't need to know."

Ye Shou nodded, his gaze falling on the new game pod. Liu Li raised her hand in a gesture, and the staff in the room left silently.

The doll-like figure then appeared and slowly stepped forward, pointing the halo of light from its palm at the inner wall of the game pod. As [The Ingenious Heiress] lightly pressed her fingertip, the halo flowed into the pod like water, and the game pod, which had been in standby mode, suddenly lit up with a blue light. The indicator lights flashed in sequence and emitted a steady hum, clearly indicating that it had successfully received the "living spirit".

"Success... The system is initializing." Lucy stared at the monitoring screen next to her, where the data stream was scrolling rapidly. "The core program is not damaged, it just needs a little time to synchronize the information."

“No problem, I will make the spirit believe that this is the original body and make it repeat the previous ‘operations’.”

“That’s right,” Ye Shou added to Lucy, “Just remember ‘living spirit’.”

Liuli nodded, her gaze falling on the handheld console, observing the various data changes and operational procedures taking place within the cabin...

"Found it. Although there are still things deeper that haven't been retrieved, we now know what Kayaba Akihiko was doing before he died."

Liuli's beautiful eyes lit up, and she said incredulously, "He's actually playing a game?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Shou was immediately confused: "What game?"

"SAO: Rebirth of Aincrad!"

Interlude: Sword Art Online: Daughter of the Mirage: Chapter 410: Home! Home! Home! (4K)

Ye Shou lay down in the brand-new holographic game pod, the door slowly closed, and a soft blue light enveloped him.

"Be careful... Do you really have to do this?" Ruri's voice was slightly worried. Although she had confidence in Ye Shou, Kayaba Akihiko's example was there for all to see. Anyone who had seen that tragic scene would probably not be able to remain calm.

"I'll go down with you. Leave the Trojan program or the cleaner to me."

Lucy sat beside him, her eyes vacant, clearly already connected to the in-cabin program: "Game monitoring is activated. I will update Ye Shou's status in real time, so don't worry, Liuli."

"Don't worry too much, don't forget who I am." Ye Shou smiled slightly at the two women, then frowned.

Is this setting a flag a bit too high?

But after thinking it over and over, he really couldn't figure out what threat Kayaba Akihiko could pose to him. Even if he connected it with the monsters that had appeared all over the world before, and said that he had the ability to summon monsters... he would just be a bit troublesome for Ye Shou.

After all, Kayaba himself is just a scientist who is not good at fighting. He is someone who needs to use an invincibility cheat when playing games. What kind of skills can he perform in a real fight?

[Link start!]

With a slight feeling of weightlessness, the light in front of Ye Shou gradually brightened.

"Hey buddy, wanna buy an apple?"

"..."

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I smelled was the sweet aroma of fresh fruit. Directly in front of me was a stall full of red apples. The stall owner was a burly man with a stubble beard. When he saw that I was awake, he greeted me warmly: "Young man, have some apples, they're sweet and crisp!"

Ye Shou glanced at it but didn't respond. He raised his hand to examine his body—the texture of his skin and the feel of his fingertips were exactly the same as in reality.

That's fine, ordinary virtual games can do that too, it's not considered advanced technology these days.

However, Ye Shou's perception is much stronger than that of ordinary people. He usually restricts his five senses for the sake of convenience in life, but now he is trying to open them up and develop to a more subtle level... He can even feel the sound of blood flowing.

As his fingertips brushed against the pillar beside him, the rough texture of the wood was a level above all similar products on the market. Even Ye Shou himself would judge it to be indistinguishable from the real thing—it was hard to imagine that this was a "game".

"Has it really begun to erode the boundary between illusion and reality?"

Ye Shou tried to mobilize the power of the ripples, and a faint golden light circulated through his body along his blood vessels—he couldn't help but show a surprised expression.

The game can even simulate this?

No, that's going too far. The so-called virtual world is just a collection of data and combinations of various elements; it doesn't actually "create" anything new. And Kayaba Akihiko shouldn't have any data on Ripple at all...

Has this really created another world?

Can Moutai rely solely on itself?

He turned and looked around, confirming that this was a bustling market. People were coming and going on the wide streets paved with gray flagstones. With just a glance, he could see a burly, bearded man who was less than 1.4 meters tall but unusually strong, carrying a heavy iron hammer and hurrying past.

A young girl carrying a flower basket was selling flowers along the street when she was stopped by a slender, golden-green-haired elf.

The cat-eared and rabbit-eared demi-human races roamed freely, their shouts and laughter mingling together, creating a lively atmosphere... unlike ordinary NPCs.

If you open your mind and sense things, you can even receive "noise" from all directions, just like the streets in the real world!

Looking up, Ye Shou suddenly paused in surprise:

Above the city, beyond the floating clouds, a complete outline of the earth faintly emerges—there is another world above this sky!

In the very center of the city, a thick pillar soars into the sky, its surface covered with enormous and intricate runes, its top disappearing directly into the upper levels.

Eingrand... has changed a lot compared to the original.

"Hey, are you going to buy it or not? If you're not going to buy it, don't stand here and interfere with my business!"

"Ok?"

He withdrew his gaze, put on a formulaic, friendly smile, and asked the stall owner, "Uncle, I want to ask you something. Do you know the names 'Kayaba Akihiko' or 'Heathcliff'?"

"what?"

The stall owner's expression instantly turned strange, as if he had heard something unbelievable.

'Judging from this reaction, Kayaba must be quite a big shot here.'