Great, we're doomed now!

Ugh?

The glistening liquid dripped from the edge of the mask, scattering like pearls on the ground.

Why... am I crying?

Interlude: Sword Art Online: Daughter of the Mirage: Chapter 411: Sega? I thought it was a speed bump (4K)

"Oh oh oh oh oh!"

The female warrior suddenly clutched her helmet, her body trembling violently as she let out a painful roar like that of a wild beast.

She frantically scratched at the mask, as if her head was being torn apart. The familiar face in the ID photo kept flashing through her mind, but the memories associated with it were like a million steel needles piercing her brain!

A jumble of chaotic fragments of memory surged up like a turbid torrent... These various scenes intertwined with Ye Shou's figure before him, yet they could not be pieced together into a coherent logic.

"Who...who are you?" she screamed, her eyes filled with struggle and confusion.

That sense of familiarity clung to her like a leech, making her restless. In the end, she chose to escape—although she didn't know how to resolve this pain, she knew without a doubt that she had become like this because of Ye Shou.

Then kill him!

"Thunder Mark!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a yellow lightning bolt icon lit up above Ye Shou's head, making him chuckle – although the realism was undeniable, the combat system was still just a game template after all.

"Disappear...all of you, disappear!"

The image that appeared before her eyes was violently shattered. The black-armored female warrior suddenly raised her octagonal warhammer, her body glowing with a faint red light, clearly indicating that she had activated a combat skill. She charged forward, leaving a trail of afterimages, and slammed it down hard on Ye Shou's head.

Before the warhammer even hit the ground, the powerful wind pressure had already caused the ground to crack with fine lines.

Ye Shou remained calm, slowly extending a finger and precisely placing it on the head of the warhammer. Golden ripples flowed from his fingertip to his feet, spreading throughout his body in 0.01 seconds.

Bang!

With a dull thud, the warhammer's impact force was unleashed, and the ground around the two men shattered.

The stone slabs beneath Ye Shou's feet shattered, a testament to the power of her attack—twenty years of leveling experience might have made her fighting style somewhat rigid, but her stats certainly matched those of a "hero from another world."

In terms of technique... Ye Shou didn't use brute force to fight back, but instead used the ripples as a chain to transmit all of the female warrior's power to her, without feeling any pressure himself.

The guy in front of him didn't seem to understand what Ye Shou had done; he only knew that his attack cup had been nullified.

"Special skills? Paladin?"

Damn it... Damn it!

A look of surprise flashed across the black-armored female warrior's eyes, then she swung her warhammer even more frantically, attacking Ye Shou relentlessly.

The hammerhead collided with Ye Shou's fingers and palms, each time producing a deafening sound. The surrounding walls trembled, and rubble from the dome fell like raindrops.

Ye Shou remained completely still!

No matter how swift her attacks were, he could easily neutralize them. He could also clearly sense the chaotic self-awareness within the female warrior's body, as well as the "thoughts (memories)" that were forcibly suppressed. Because they were so active, Ye Shou could "hear" some insignificant information without deliberately listening.

It's definitely not an NPC... How could an NPC's memories be so rich and chaotic!

"Bad blood is accelerating!"

When she launched another fierce attack, her body had already broken the sound barrier, but Ye Shou simply flipped his wrist and used the basic technique of Flowing Water Shattering Rock Fist to deflect the shockwave of the warhammer.

The two were now face to face.

boom!

A burst of energy suddenly shot out from his palm, sweeping across her entire body in the blink of an eye and sending the black-armored female warrior flying!

She fell heavily to the ground, her helmet came off, revealing a face streaked with tears and with a vacant look in her eyes, while a small work badge flew out and landed on the floor.

"Hmm?" Ye Shou's eyes narrowed slightly. He raised his hand and sucked, and the employee badge flew up automatically and landed precisely in his palm.

"Kuse Heavy Industries, Osaka... Yumiko Michi." Ye Shou read aloud as he looked at the information on the employee badge.

Just then, a voice rang in his mind.

[...It has been verified that Yumiko Michi is indeed an employee of Kuze Heavy Industries. She went missing in the Osaka monster attack the day before yesterday. The search for "victims" is still ongoing, so she is registered as missing rather than dead.]

"Lucy?"

Ye Shou nodded in understanding: No wonder she reacted so strongly to him; it turns out she's an employee of the Jiushi Group.

"Help me retrieve all the files and records of her family members."

【OK. 】

Before Lucy could finish, Yumiko had already gotten up from the ground, her confusion replaced by a deeper ferocity. She picked up her warhammer and charged at Ye Shou once again.

"Give it back to me!"

"That won't work."

Ye Shou sidestepped the warhammer by a hair's breadth, simultaneously raising his hand to aim at her—

hum!

Ultraman's telekinesis activated instantly, and the three Yumiko bodies froze on the spot, unable to move an inch. Despite having a max-level account that had been grinding for twenty years and whose stats had reached the top of the career tree, they could not break free from this invisible constraint.

Ye Shou slowly walked up to her, and their eyes met.

The next second, Yumiko's eyes suddenly lost focus, her body went limp and she fell to the ground, her consciousness suddenly plunging into boundless darkness, completely losing consciousness.

[Found it... What do you need to do?]

"There's no technical problem, it's just that I've never done it before."

Ye Shou raised his hand, and green data flowed continuously: "Brainwashing!"

In a daze, Yumiko's consciousness drifted away from reality.

She seemed to be standing in a long corridor of time, quietly watching the various scenes from the past twenty years flash before her eyes:

When I first transmigrated, I found myself in an unfamiliar market. I picked up a weapon for the first time and fought. I fought against the dragons of another world with my companions. My friend gave up on going home, causing the team to fall apart. I struggled on the edge of life and death time and time again. From being afraid at the beginning, I eventually became completely indifferent...

I don't know when it started, but she became indifferent to everything.

Although I still have a sense of taste, I can't taste anything in my food; although I still feel pain, I'm too lazy to avoid it anymore...

She had always wanted to go home, but she also had a vague feeling that she had probably become an outcast who didn't fit in with "home".

The desire to return to the original world and live the same life as before is too extravagant.

But now, incredibly, all those feelings of pain or numbness from the past have disappeared. It's as if she's been split into two people, one struggling in the scene, and the other watching from the outside.

...The scene shifted faster and faster, and before we knew it, we had skipped over the other world period. The next scene to appear was the office building of Kuze Heavy Industries.

On her first day at work, she wore a brand-new business suit, her name tag neatly pinned to her chest, her face full of anticipation for the future. When her seniors introduced the company culture, they inevitably focused on the legendary figure—"Kusei Yoshimori."

Next came the university graduation hall, the cherry blossom trees on the high school campus, the elementary school classroom, and the courtyard of my old home…

Her life seemed to be going backwards; her long-dead eyes gradually revived as beautiful memories accumulated, and finally, the tears that had never flowed slowly welled up in her eyes.

The image freezes on the parents' smiles.

Her mother gently straightened her collar, and her father knelt down to remind her to be careful. The familiar warmth and voices brought a long-lost feeling of comfort to her heart.

"call--!"

Yumiko snapped back to reality, her chest heaving violently. She instinctively rolled over, her gaze suddenly focusing.

Ye Shou sat on the steps beside her, looking at her calmly.

Sunlight streamed through the window and fell on him, outlining his clear silhouette, though the backlighting made her feel slightly dazed.

"Why... why am I here?"

Yumiko raised her hand and touched her face in a daze, only to find that the heavy helmet had been removed at some point, revealing a slightly pale but unusually clear face underneath.

Those distorted and suppressed memories instantly returned to her senses, allowing her to recognize the person in front of her at a glance. She subconsciously straightened her back and bowed respectfully: "President!"

“I’m not some chaebol heir here.”

Ye Shou nodded gently, his tone calm: "No need for formalities."

"You... how did you get here?" Yumiko was somewhat dazed and incredulous. "And, just now..."

"I'm sorry," Ye Shou interrupted her, explaining, "I rearranged your memories and separated a portion of your consciousness without your permission."

"Dissociation of consciousness?"

“From the moment you entered this other world, I have separated your memories from these past years. You can still view them, but as you said, they don’t feel real.”

"Isn't this a good thing?"

He paused, then continued, "I have stored your twenty years of gaming experience separately in a specific area of ​​your brain, like a 'hard drive' that you can access at any time."

You can access it whenever you want to recall it, and it won't affect your emotions or judgment when you don't want to look at it.

Yumiko was stunned. She opened her mouth, her eyes slightly red, not from sadness, but from a sense of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. The emotions she had suppressed for twenty years finally found a place to rest, and those distorted perceptions were restored to their rightful place. She had finally found her true self again.

"Thank you... thank you, President." Yumiko's voice was slightly choked as she bowed deeply.

Ye Shou looked at her with a hint of seriousness in his eyes: "This is Kayaba Akihiko's death game, which has trapped the consciousness of you missing people in a virtual world... Now that you have regained your senses, don't worry about not being able to reintegrate into society. I will take care of everything."

No one doubted the strength of the Kuze Group, and Ye Shou's personal promise was like Aladdin's lamp to ordinary people like Yumiko.

The effect was obvious—Yumiko immediately relaxed.

"Lord...Kuse, how are my parents...?"

"I'm very sad and anxious, but I'm in good health."

Seeing Yumiko's hesitant expression as if she wanted to ask about Yamato Nichiko, Ye Shou smiled and told her the information Lucy had gathered.

"During the two days you were missing, they kept—"

“Wait a minute,” Yumiko thought Ye Shou had misspoke, “It’s twenty years. I should have been ‘missing’ for twenty years!”

"No, time flows at different rates on both sides. Twenty years have passed here, but only two days have passed outside."

"Varied--"

Yumiko was in a daze: "I'm at my hometown... I've only been missing for two days? How is that possible..."

"Before I came in, I couldn't have imagined that things would turn out this way, but that's exactly what happened."

"Then I really... had a really long nightmare, going around in circles for ages..."