Yuzhongjin said while crossing his legs.
"I see."
Kayaba Akihiko swiped out of the system interface and chose to log off.
When his consciousness returned to the real world, Kayaba Akihiko took out a piece of paper from the printer, on which was the curse seal given to him by Mizutsu.
"Connection started."
Sticking to the inside of the NERvGear machine, lying on the bed, and reciting this startup sentence, Kayaba Akihiko immediately felt his consciousness gradually rising, which was completely different from before.
“…You’re back?”
Hearing this call in his ears, Kayaba Akihiko came to his senses and found that Yuzenjin was still there. He lowered his head to look at his hands, and then stretched them out. Surprisingly, there was no stiffness at all.
There is no delay at all...
"Am I out of my body now?"
Kayaba Akihiko found this experience strange.
"Half of...half of it."
Facing Kayaba Akihiko's puzzled look, Yuzun explained, "You have to know that even a promising Yamabushi sorcerer cannot easily leave his body. The human soul is too fragile. Once it leaves the body for too long, it will fall apart. So I will only let one of your four souls manifest, and the other three souls will remain sealed in the flesh as a connection."
"One spirit and four souls?"
Kayaba Akihiko found related terms on the Internet.
"Ah."
Yuzhongjin nodded, then raised his hand, and a little bit of his divine power turned into light particles and merged into Kayaba Akihiko's spirit body.
At that moment, Kayaba Akihiko felt that things around him were slowing down.
-
[Real name: Kayaba Akihiko 〈Remaining Spirit〉 (N)]
【Level: 3】
-
"My divine power can make your spirit body stronger, and the spirit body is beyond the flesh. I think you should know this. The 'heart' is far more sensitive than the 'body'."
Yuzhuanjin said.
It is just like reading a book. Scanning it with your eyes and understanding it in your heart is much faster than reading it out loud. It can even be said to be on a different level.
"If that's the case, things will be much more convenient."
Kayaba Akihiko checked the running memory and found that the part he had previously occupied was missing.
"Then……"
Yu Zhuanjin slightly increased the output of his divine power and said, "Now you can try to move your spirit body in a large range."
Kayaba Akihiko took a step forward, his speed several times faster than that of an ordinary human.
"By allocating the degree of divine power, I can make humans more transcendental based on their original spiritual bodies."
Yuzhong Jin stated this result.
"Just let me handle the rest."
Kayaba Akihiko smiled unconsciously, he was also looking forward to the subsequent results.
"But, Lord Inari, if you distribute your divine power to others, your strength will become weaker." Tamamonomae knew the consequence.
"We in the virtual reality can't die, so there's no need to worry too much. I won't give away too much of my power. I'll definitely keep half of it. And even if I can't, I still have you."
Miojin patted Tamamonomae's shoulder gently.
"Don't worry, sir! Leave everything to me."
Tamamonomae was immediately coaxed.
……
It took Kayaba Akihiko three days to finally complete the revision of the basic settings in Aincrad.
During this period, he and Yuzhong Jin worked out another setting for the spirit.
That is, the concept of time.
Plato discussed time in his "The Republic". He believed that time is a product of the soul and that the soul can feel the objectively existing time.
And this is relatively correct.
Throughout history, there are many records showing that people, after they died and came back to life, would describe the visions they had seen of the future.
The spirit's concept of time is much shorter than that of the physical body, but after it returns to the body, that concept of time is bound back by the elasticity of the timeline itself.
It is not so much that those people have seen the future, but rather that they have experienced the future and simply returned to the past.
Based on this concept, after determining that the player is a spirit, Kayaba Akihiko developed a time modulation system.
Seven days have passed in the virtual reality world, but only one day has passed in the real world.
This is also to maintain the connection between the spirit and the physical body. If it is forced to suppress, if it is overdone, it may easily cause the user's consciousness to be damaged.
The maximum limit of the system is one to three hundred and sixty-five.
That is, one day in reality and one year in virtual reality.
"…So will this thing interfere with you?"
Kayaba Akihiko had asked about Ootenzu.
"No, God is independent of the concept of time, or rather, the concept of time is a product derived from God during the creation of the world."
Yu Zhuanjin replied: "Although I only have the spiritual status now and don't have the power of a true god, I can't be completely immune, but I still have no problem resisting."
"Is that right?"
Kayaba Akihiko made a note of this, and then asked, "Do you want me to add bows and arrows to the equipment template?"
"Since you asked, you definitely don't want to. Just do as you wish. This is the world you built, and it's enough for me to just look down on it."
Shaking his head slightly, Yuzhongjin still rejected Kayaba Akihiko's kindness.
"What about magic... er, rituals?"
Kayaba Akihiko remembered that Ooten also used this.
“It would be too confusing if we added it.”
Yuzhongjin opened her in-game interface, pointed at the small words "Sword Art Online" at the top, and said, "Since this is Sword Art Online, swords are enough. If there are magic and bows, it will be boring. Besides, even without that kind of damage value bonus, do you think I can't fight against wild monsters with pure strength?"
"Looks like I'm overthinking it."
Kayaba Akihiko took back his remarks at the right time.
The settings are almost ready. You don't need to think too much about the skill templates. They are just attribute bonuses anyway and can be copied from the Internet, except for a few active skills that require actions to be finalized.
"The day after tomorrow, I will announce the closed beta test." After resolving this series of complicated issues, Kayaba Akihiko asked again: "How many players can you support at most?"
"one thousand."
Yu Zhuanjin was still somewhat confident in his own abilities. With only a thousand players, and all of them being in the initial panel, it wasn't too difficult, especially during the closed beta period, which wouldn't last long, only one or two months at most.
For a large-scale game, one or two months is at most just enough time to figure out how to operate it.
"I see."
Upon hearing this, Kayaba Akihiko casually sent a message to inform ARGUS, a major electronic machinery manufacturer, to prepare one thousand revised NERvGears.
Correction means engraving the curse mark used to allow the soul to leave the body on the original basic equipment.
Kayaba Akihiko claims it is the company logo.
Yuzhuanjin called up the "SAO" interface, from which he could check the game homepage. There were one thousand places available for the closed beta test, and the first batch of players would be selected on a first-come, first-served basis.
The number of reservations has now reached million.
Obviously, this number of places is not enough.
In just a moment, they were all sold out.
"Um~ Kayaba Akihiko, I want to invite someone specially and let her enter SAO."
Yuzhongjin spoke up.
"That's the one thousand and first person. Who is he? Where does he live? Is there anything special about him?" Kayaba Akihiko would certainly not refuse Yuzenjin's request.
"A very gifted child. I don't know where she lives, but I know she lives in a hospital. Her name is Kapok Ji, Konno Kapok Ji."
Yuzhongjin looked at Kayaba Akihiko and said, "I want to see her. No matter what she wants, as long as she is willing to come, I hope you can cover it for me. I will repay you one by one afterwards."
"God's choice?"
Instead, Kayaba Akihiko was a little curious about what kind of person this person looked like that could make Yuzhongzu care so much about him.
"Here's a letter. Give it to her for me."
Mizoe Tsutomu used his divine power to write a few lines of words and asked Kayaba Akihiko to copy them all.
It's not a secret, but Kayaba Akihiko still doesn't understand its meaning even after reading it.
……
Back in the real world, Kayaba Akihiko made a phone call and heard a female voice on the other end.
"I'll leave this matter to you, Kamishiro."
Kayaba Akihiko asked the other party to find the person described by Mizutsu.
"Leave it to me, Kayaba."
The woman on the other end of the phone paused for a moment, then whispered, "Also, congratulations on creating SAO."
Kaz...
The call was hung up.
……
In a research institute on the other side of Tokyo, a short-haired woman in a white coat moved very skillfully. On the upper left side of her chest was a name tag with the name "Kamishiro Rinko" written on it.
A classmate and assistant of Kayaba Akihiko, he also provided great help in the early stages of the production of "Sword Art Online", but was transferred back later.
In this regard, Rinko Kamishiro did not complain at all. As long as she could help Kayaba Akihiko, it was enough for her.
"Kayaba."
While repeating the name, Rinko Kamishiro quickly hacked into various hospital systems and found the location of the name "Konno Kapok".
"Konno Kapok, female, eleven years old, HIV carrier..."
Seeing this, Kamishiro Rinko fell silent.
HIV, AIDS, at this age, it should be contracted through blood infection.
Why does Kayaba Akihiko want to find the other party?
Although she was confused, Kamishiro Rinko still passed the information to Kayaba Akihiko.
……
The next day, Kayaba Akihiko came to the hospital according to the address, and Kamishiro Rinko followed him.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kayaba. And this one should be Ms. Kamishiro."
The dean personally received the two people.
After all, both Kayaba Akihiko and Kamishiro Rinko are famous scientific researchers in the country.
Standing outside the ward door, through the glass, Kayaba Akihiko could see the thin figure lying on the bed.
Is she the chosen daughter of God?
"Dean Yuecun, I believe you have heard of Sword Art Online."
Rinko Kamishiro knew that Kayaba Akihiko was not a good communicator, so she spoke to the dean on his behalf: "Although virtual reality technology is still in the testing phase, we have made some progress and it can be put into use. During use, the user will fall into a deep sleep state..."
Would it be therapeutic if suffering patients were put to sleep to reduce unnecessary suffering?
Kamishiro Rinko lobbied based on this theory.
