Great, we're doomed now!

"that……"

"Is there anything I can do for you, Miss Sanzhi?"

"Actually, I also play console games... I can love Sega too!"

-

The three of them walked through the bustling market and headed towards the city center.

As the distance closed, the towering silhouette of the Tower of Babel, or rather the long stairway to the gods, became increasingly majestic, its top hidden in the clouds, exuding an awe-inspiring grandeur.

Yosuke stopped, adjusted his glasses, and spoke first: "I've been exploring other worlds alone all these years, trying all sorts of methods to find the truth, but apart from the recurring name 'Heathcliff,' I haven't found any useful clues."

His tone was calm, but he couldn't hide the weariness in his eyes. Clearly, his years of solitary exploration had taken a toll on his energy. Even with fond memories of Sega as a comfort, it had inevitably affected his personality.

"Is there a portrait?"

Ye Shou raised his hand, opened the virtual panel, and brought up an image that had been processed by AI. It was the result of him modifying Kayaba Akihiko's real face to resemble the image of the "Knights of the Blood Oath" from his memory.

It should resemble the "real person" by about 70-80%.

"I've seen this person before!"

Unexpectedly, Yosuke didn't react, but Yumiko exclaimed in surprise, then frowned and fell into a memory: "Heathcliff... I remember this person, but he wasn't called that back then."

She paused, organizing her thoughts: "When I first traveled to the first world, this person already existed. He was a heavy warrior who liked to use a large shield, and his defense was exceptionally strong. At that time, many people wanted to team up with him... His name... I can't quite remember it, but it was a Japanese-style name, definitely not 'Heathcliff'."

"and after?"

“I haven’t seen him since.” Yumiko shook her head. “As the number of times we traveled through time increased, everyone lost patience. Because we were bored, many people’s appearances and even names changed… I thought he was just like everyone else, simply existing under a different identity. I didn’t expect him to disappear for so long.”

Yosuke looked surprised, and after a moment of hesitation, he said with a mix of emotion and amusement, "So that's how it is... I've never had many friends, and I rarely interact with other players. When I first transmigrated, I was practically a lone wolf, so I didn't know this person at all."

However, he quickly composed himself and continued, "In the records of this world, the first and only warrior to reach the top of the Tower of Babel and see the 'god' was Heathcliff."

I was initially wondering how he, if he were a player, could leave behind legendary stories in every world beforehand… But if, as you say, he is Kayaba Akihiko, then there's no doubt at all, since he can rewrite the world's settings at will.”

After Yosuke finished speaking, the three of them fell into silence:

The question is, how do we find Kayaba Akihiko?

This is the game world he created; if he deliberately avoids them, he can hide for a lifetime without ever showing himself.

“I originally planned to climb to the top. According to the myths of this world, the being who created everything lives in the tower. Heathcliff—Kayaba Akihiko is the only one who has seen his true face, so he is both a hero and a saint... There are even sects that worship him among the people.”

Yosuke Shimazaki shook his head: "But now it seems that even if we reach the top, we still won't be able to find him."

"...But then again, why did he do that?"

Yumiko looked at Ye Shou blankly: "What is his purpose in kidnapping us into the game world?"

"Because he wants to create the other world of his dreams!"

Perhaps no matter how vivid an NPC is, in his eyes, none of them are as 'real' as a human soul.

So he can only keep iterating, striving towards the most ideal state... Iteration?

Ye Shou suddenly thought of something and immediately became serious: "I have a question. Are the NPCs you encounter after each time travel different from those in the previous world?"

"Huh? They're all basically different. Occasionally you might meet one or two who look alike, but after a couple of deep conversations, you can tell they're not the same people."

"...Found it."

Ye Shou suddenly smiled: "I know how to force Kayaba Akihiko out."

"what?"

The two of them immediately stared intently at Ye Shou, afraid of missing anything.

"What should I do?"

"First of all, you need to understand that 'time travel' is not a single world iterating over, but rather multiple parallel other worlds existing simultaneously. Every time you clear one world, Kayaba Akihiko will transfer you to another one..."

I've encountered similar situations before.

As Ye Shou recalled, he said, "There was a highly intelligent AI that, in order to truly become a being with a soul, used human data to iterate and upgrade itself..."

Kayaba Akihiko is the same. The reason he makes you keep 'traveling' is to make you interact with different NPCs in order to gain human self-awareness.

He wanted to give NPCs souls!

Originally, he created this other world, but he was the only true inhabitant. However, if the NPCs possessed true souls… then the only missing element of this other world would be filled!

"What do they take people for? Exhaustive materials?!"

Yumiko and Yosuke were both furious. The thought that they had been dragged to another world by the mastermind behind it all for this reason made them want to tear each other apart.

"This guy is disgusting! He doesn't consider other people's feelings at all!"

"..." Ye Shou shook his head.

While Kayaba Akihiko has several shining moments in the original work, and the author strives to portray him as a complex character whose morality is difficult to define, the "death game" alone reveals that Kayaba doesn't actually see good and evil.

He is a person who only thinks about himself.

The death penalty in Sword Art Online is actually just to add "realism" to his large-scale performance show.

Starting a "reincarnation game" to allow AI to evolve is also entirely in line with his consistent style.

To be honest, Ye Shou felt a little uneasy.

After all, he knew Kayaba's true nature, yet he still boldly employed this guy... Although he had taken various warning measures and had been secretly monitoring Kayaba's behavior, Ye Shou knew that this was far from enough.

Ultimately, it was because we were in dire straits back then and had to rely on the help of people like this... Sigh!

He should have been eliminated after TPC started!

"By the way, you said you had a solution?"

Yosuke asked curiously, "What should we do? Can we help?"

"of course can."

Ye Shou snapped out of his daze, composed himself, and smiled slightly at his "uncle": "I need to gather all the 'transmigrators' together, but I don't have their contact information. I would appreciate your help."

"all?"

Yumiko frowned: "This is difficult. Many of them are already in a state of madness, and they won't reply even if they receive messages... What if they gather together? These people are fine for grinding monsters and leveling up, but as for being detectives to find people..."

"They don't need to do anything, just make sure most of them are in front of me."

Ye Shou smiled brightly: "I'm going to 'kill' you all!"

"!"

"!"

"The entire cycle game was set up to allow artificial intelligence to evolve, so as long as we fundamentally destroy this plan, the mastermind behind it will naturally be unable to resist."

Ye Shou's words were quite amusing: "If there are no 'souls' left, is there any point in continuing the cycle of reincarnation?"

-

At the very top of "New Eingrand", a slender line rises vertically upward, passing through the sea of ​​clouds and the azure sky, and directly into the pitch-black universe, as if passing through some kind of realm. The thread transforms into constantly flashing data photons and is sent into a temple suspended high in the sky.

Unimaginable amounts of data were running within this temple, and a huge projection resembling a globe slowly rotated in the air. The shape of the land on its surface was clearly different from that of Earth, making it a "model" of another world.

A closer look reveals numerous colorful specks scattered across its surface, some clustered together in twos and threes, while others shine alone...

Suddenly, the two points of light went out.

"Ok?"

On the throne, the figure shrouded in a long red robe stirred.

"Signal lost? Data stream... dead? Impossible... more like trapped in an unresponsive blackout zone, is this a bug?"

The figure raised his hand and magnified the illusory image rapidly. He then discovered that next to the two dim particles of light, there was a glittering gold particle, which puzzled him.

“A new data stream…this band wasn’t detected before. Could it be…an awakened AI? Has it truly gained a soul?”

The figure was overjoyed at the thought of this possibility, but being meticulous, it naturally had to verify the situation first.

“Summoning number 001—Paladin Heathcliff.”

As the hoarse voice, indistinguishable in gender and age, rang out, data beams lit up in the hall, revealing a middle-aged man dressed in red armor and wielding a large white steel shield.

"Just like before, you can go to another world to enjoy adventures again. Are you happy? My creator."

"..."

The man's eyes were open, his pupils slowly dilating, as if he had just woken up from a dream.

He looked blankly at the throne, then down at himself, and suddenly burst into a devastating wail:

"How much more do you want—"

"enough."

The figure snapped its fingers, and the light in the man's eyes immediately dimmed.

"Your emotion suppression module is about to fail too. Your brain is definitely special."

But that's precisely why you are my most precious asset. Without you as my inspiration, my fellow NPCs... I don't know how long it would have taken for them to evolve.

No amount of words can express it... Thank you for your sacrifice, Father.

[Target: Omega World Line 23, Account Name: [Kayaba Akihiko/Heathcliff], 209 years of continuous operation, 1137th mission... Deployed!]

Interlude: Sword Art Online: Daughter of the Mirage: Chapter 414: Finally, we caught up with [Bayeri] (4K)

On the model of the otherworldly celestial sphere, one by one, the points of light symbolizing souls went out.

At first, the two hadn't figured out the reason, but within seconds, it was as if they had contracted a contagious disease. The number and speed at which they disappeared increased, and soon a third of them had been gone.

Considering the different time flows between the temple and the floating island of Aincrad, it should have taken approximately three days inside...

"There are no bugs in the system that could cause a large-scale loss of personnel in a short period of time. If one did occur, my self-discipline protection program should also report an error... Are there any external factors that I am unaware of?"

The woman, her face hidden by a hood, fell into deep thought. Although she had sent "Heathcliff" to investigate, she did not place all her hopes on him, after all, her "father" was not a particularly powerful figure.

Kayaba Akihiko possesses unimaginable talent, but he is not an all-around genius like Ye Shou.

If this system is merely a cyberspace composed of "1", then Kayaba Akihiko, the one who created the source code, is indeed omnipotent, like a god.

However, it has now broken free from the constraints of data and become an existence between illusion and reality. Interfering with it is no longer something that can be done simply by entering commands and pressing enter.

As Kayaba had hoped, Aincrad is developing into a true otherworld, with some game mechanics still remaining, but the rules of physics are also changing.