I, Asuna, don't want to travel around the world

As the sound of breaking that had been ringing in her mind for some reason, Asuna stomped her right foot hard on the ground, and her figure instantly turned into a gust of wind and disappeared on the spot.

The distance between Asuna and Heathcliff was not far, only about ten meters. With Asuna's level and explosive power, she could reach Heathcliff in just a moment.

Asuna leaned forward and sprinted at full speed at a height close to the floor, covering the distance in an instant. The rapier in her right hand pierced through the air and space, and stabbed upwards as Asuna moved.

Because Asuna did not use any sword skills, but only used this weapon to pierce, the power of her attack would not be very strong. Even if it hit Heathcliff, it would not harm his life. At most, it would make his HP bar, which had never fallen into the yellow zone, fall into the yellow zone, breaking his undefeated myth.

However, if this really develops as Asuna guessed -

If it were an ordinary player, facing this sudden attack, it would be difficult to resist, and he could only let Asuna pierce the rapier into his body and endure the decrease in blood volume on the HP bar.

However, facing the swift stab from behind, Heathcliff noticed the rapier approaching from the left with a flashing cold light with amazing reaction speed.

His calm expression suddenly changed, and his eyes widened in shock.

Then he immediately raised his left hand shield to prepare for defense.

However, as the vice-captain of the Knights of the Blood, whose position was second only to Heathcliff, how could Asuna not be familiar with the fighting habits of her own captain?

Asuna had memorized this action of his during their daily leveling and boss attack battles.

Looking at the shield blocking the path of the rapier, Asuna's figure flashed, and the rapier in her hand turned into a ray of light, which changed its trajectory at a sharp angle in the air, brushed past the edge of the shield and stabbed towards Heathcliff's chest.

"boom--!!!"

"boom……!"

Just as Asuna's rapier was about to pierce his chest, a wall invisible to the naked eye suddenly blocked the attack.

A strong impact was transmitted from the Sword God to Asuna's arm.

With a shattering sound, the rapier in Asuna's hand, which had little durability left, suddenly shattered into countless blue polygonal crystals.

At the same time, a purple flash, different from the shattered props, exploded.

Between Asuna and Heathcliff, a message also appeared in purple, the system color.

Chapter 4: Exposure after the Trial (4k)

"Varied!?"

"Hey Hey hey!"

"What on earth is going on?!"

"Regiment, leader?"

“W-what?”

"What does this mean!?"

Looking at the gradually disappearing purple information bar, players shouted one after another.

Especially the players who belonged to the Blood Knights, all of them were inevitably shaken.

On the side, Kirito looked at Asuna and Heathcliff who were confronting each other there with a serious expression.

Beside him, Klein looked stunned, as if he couldn't believe it.

As for the rest of the players, they were all naturally thrown into chaos.

【ImmortalObject】.

That was the message that appeared when Asuna attacked Heathcliff.

An immortal object, or, an immortal being.

For the weak and limited players present, this is an attribute that is absolutely impossible to possess.

And at this moment, the existence that should not be possessed by the players was exposed under Asuna's attack.

It was precisely because of the exposure of this information that those who had stood up in shock due to Asuna's attack slowly froze.

They stopped moving the moment they saw the message.

Afterwards, in silence, the system message slowly disappeared, and finally caused controversy among the players present.

Asuna shook her arm which was a little hurt by the shock, and jumped back lightly, putting some distance between herself and Heathcliff.

"Immortality in the system... Can you explain it a little, Captain?"

"Or rather... Kayaba Akihiko"

Asuna's tone was very calm, but her sharp eyes were always fixed on the man.

"Sure enough, he was discovered..."

In response, Heathcliff did not make any statement, but just murmured.

It seems that my gaze just now was a bit too far after all.

Heathcliff thought secretly in his heart and shook his head slightly.

"Captain... is this really... true?"

Behind Asuna, a player wearing the Blood Knights uniform said tremblingly.

Heathcliff did not answer his question. He just tilted his head slightly and looked at the player who was gradually approaching Asuna. Then he said to Asuna:

"I originally planned to announce this matter after we had conquered the 95th floor."

He nodded slightly, and the corner of his lips rose slightly, revealing a smile that seemed a bit like a wry smile. This was also the first time that this expression appeared on his face in front of others.

He slowly looked at all the players, and the smile on his face turned into a detached smile. Then, the red paladin who was trusted and relied on by all the players announced in his majestic voice:

"——Indeed, I am Kayaba Akihiko.

At the same time, I am also the final boss who is waiting for you at the top."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Deathly silence suddenly spread as Heathcliff's voice fell.

The disbelief and hesitation in the players' eyes were shattered by his own words, and what emerged was endless anger.

"You...you...how dare you...to completely destroy our loyalty—and our hopes—!"

At the side, a player from the Blood Alliance Knights who had raised the question earlier began to tremble slowly.

He is one of the cadres of the Blood Alliance Knights.

He raised his head, and his eyes, which were originally full of fortitude and hope, revealed tragic and distressed emotions.

This is the pain of being betrayed, this is the pain of being betrayed by the person you admire and believe in.

He gripped the huge axe in his hand tightly and rushed out while roaring.

The faces of the players present changed, but it was too late to stop it.

He was seen swinging his heavy weapon vigorously towards Kayaba Akihiko—

However, compared to the player who needed to lunge in front of Nana, Kayaba Akihiko was one step faster than him.

He waved his left hand and quickly operated the system window that appeared.

Then...

Time seemed to have been paused.

The air seemed to solidify, making it impossible to move.

The world froze in an instant, and all sounds were gone.

Then, the result was that the player's body immediately stopped in the air and fell to the ground with a loud noise.

There was a green frame flashing on his HP bar, indicating that he was paralyzed.

However, Kayaba Akihiko's hands did not stop, but continued to operate the window.

"Ugh——!"

"hateful!"

"I can't move!"

"Want to kill us to silence us? Damn you!"

The body was extremely stiff, with only the consciousness and mouth able to move.

The players immediately roared in anger, and then Kayaba Akihiko chuckled and shook his head, then started operating his hands again, immediately making the players shut up.

"Click, click, click, click."

Asuna is not among them.

"Tuan...what do you want? Are you going to kill us all and silence us?"

"Huh? How could that be? I wouldn't do anything so extreme."

"Too much? You've already committed an unforgivable sin since you trapped 10,000 players in this death game!"

"indeed so."

Kayaba Akihiko nodded in agreement, but there was no trace of remorse on his face.

"Asuna, how did you find me?"

"Is it just because of the sight not long ago? Or did I expose myself somewhere else?"

"Would you believe me if I said it was intuition?"

"Click, click, click, click."

"Intuition?... It's not impossible. After all, sometimes I will follow my intuition."

Kayaba Akihiko touched his chin and nodded.

"I originally wanted to reveal my identity when you guys reached the 95th floor, but I didn't expect you to see through me when we were three-quarters of the way there."

"I thought it would cause a big climax..."

"Then you really have a bad taste."

Kayaba Akihiko, the developer of this game and the man who imprisoned the minds of ten thousand players, shrugged with a faint smile.

Paladin Heathcliff looks completely different from Kayaba in real life.

In the real world, Asuna had seen photos of Kayaba Akihiko in the news, magazines, and various websites, and knew what Kayaba Akihiko looked like.

After all, their company spent a lot of effort on promoting SAO, and as the main game developer, Kayaba Akihiko naturally came into the public eye.

In the real world, Kayaba Akihiko is a man of average build with short hair and a shirt, trousers, tie, and white coat, dressed like a researcher. (He is not bald in middle age? He seems a bit unsophisticated as a game developer)

And this appearance is completely different from the man in front of him named Heathcliff.

However, for Kayaba Akihiko, who is equivalent to the god of this game, changing one's appearance is not a difficult task at all.

Just like all players in the early stages of the game, aren't they able to change their appearance so it's different from reality?

As a game developer, in order not to reveal his identity, it was extremely simple for Kayaba Akihiko to transform his virtual body into a completely different person.

Therefore, even if the person who appeared before her was completely different from the one she remembered, Asuna still had to admit it.

Heathcliff is Kayaba Akihiko. This is an indisputable fact.

Although his appearance had changed, the inorganic, metallic and cold aura he exuded was just as cold as the faceless avatar that descended upon the players two years ago.

"To be honest, Kirito-kun, I'm a little disappointed in you."

Kayaba Akihiko had a look of disappointment on his face. He looked at Kirito beside Asuna and continued:

"I had predicted that you would be the last person to stand before me. However, I didn't expect that the first person to expose me would be Asuna, whom I thought was the least likely to doubt me."

"After all, among all ten unique skills in SAO, the [Dual Swords] skill is given to the player with the fastest reaction speed among all players.

And that person will also play the role of a brave hero who fights against the Demon King.

But... I didn't expect that the person who exposed me was not you. Well, this unexpected development can also be considered a surprise."

As he spoke, Kayaba Akihiko frowned. He summoned the operation window again and looked at the data on it, with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

"strangeness……"