Part 3 Higa considered breaking the heavy silence that engulfed the Auxiliary Control Room.
“How do I say it. His physical body… in other words, the condition of the Kirigaya Kazuto in the real world, is similar to what I just described… not optimistic.”
Seeing Asuna, whose shoulders were gripped by Rinko, tremble her thin body in surprise, Higa added in a panic:
“B-but, there’s still some hope!”
“…How do you mean?”
Rinko asked with a sharp, yet seemingly praying voice.
“The Kirito-kun in the Underworld is still logged in.”
Higa looked at the screen that was much smaller than the one in the Main Control Room. He moved the cursor, clicked a few times, and the picture changed: a bird’s eye view of the Underworld, with the round Human Empire surrounded by the Dark Territory, appeared.
“That is to say, although his Self-Image has been damaged, his Fluctlight is dynamic, and undergoing stimulation. Therefore, even if we are completely out of options in the real world, we can probably heal his soul within the Underworld. Because he overly blames himself, he damaged his soul. If there was someone who could grant him [forgiveness]… it’s hard to say…”
Higa knew that his words were unrealistic.
But those were his unadulterated true thoughts.
Succeeding the NerveGear was the evolution of the Medicuboid Brain-Computer Interface, the Soul Translator. But Higa had found the human quantum consciousness «Fluctlight» through his development of that machine, yet there were still a great many things he did not understand.
Was a Fluctlight a physical phenomenon?
Or, was it a conceptual existence unexplainable by science?
If it was the latter, Kirigaya’s Kazuto’s injured, exhausted soul would probably only be able to be healed by some supernatural power.
For example — someone’s love.
“…I will go.”
As if Higa’s mind had been read.
A frail yet determined voice resounded in the Auxiliary Control Room.
The people in the room stared, shocked, at the owner of the voice. Yuuki Asuna nodded at Koujiro Rinko, who was supporting her shoulders, and took a step forward, continuing:
“I want to enter the Underworld. I will find Kirito-kun there and say to him: You’ve tried your best; many sad and terrible things may have happened… but you’ve tried your best.”
Higa, who had dedicated his entire life to researching this type of psychological awakening, was dumbstruck by Asuna, her great chestnut eyes flashing with tears.
Kikuoka, with an expression as though he had been struck by something, immediately concealed his expression with the lens of his glasses and looked to the STL Room on the side.
“… Indeed, there is still one empty STL.”
After saying this, the commander made a complicated expression, continuing:
“But, the current state of the Underworld is in no way stable. According to the predetermined plan, by our time, there are only a few hours left until it enters the Final Load Test Stage.”
“Final… Load Test? What will happen?”
Higa explained, gesturing with his hands, to Rinko, who wrinkled her brow:
“This… Put simply, the outer shell will be broken. The endurance value of «Gate of the East» that has divided the Human Empire and the Dark Territory for hundreds of years will decrease to zero… An army of monsters will pour into the Human World. If the humans have a complete military body, they will be able to repel them. But, the experiment this time… Kirito-kun has destroyed a large portion of the ruling power, the «Axiom Church», so… We really don’t know what’s going to happen…”
“If you think carefully about it, for the situation now, one of us needs to dive in no matter what.”
Kikuoka muttered with his arms crossed.
“As soon as the invasion begins, in the chaos, the «Alice» in the human world is very likely to be killed. If it comes to that, the time we gained when we painstakingly locked down the console will all be for naught… If we can let someone enter with an advanced account, protect Alice, and bring her to the «World End Altar», we can extract her from there to this auxiliary console.”
“Right… before this happened, you told Kirito-kun that already, didn’t you?”
Hearing Rinko’s words, Kikuoka helplessly nodded.
“Mm. If he’s fine, he can definitely do it. At that time, he happened to be with Alice… You could say that was a stroke of luck in the midst of misfortune.”
“In other words, in the months that have passed according to internal time, the chance of the two of them being together is very high?”
This time it was Higa who replied:
“…You, could say that. Perhaps it would be better if we had Asuna-san dive in… Aside from her communication with Kirito-kun; we need the combat ability to protect Alice. Among us, the one most familiar with activity in virtual worlds would definitely be Asuna-san.”
“Then, it would be best to use the highest level possible for the advanced account.”
Nodding to Kikuoka’s words, Higa moved his fingers across the keyboard at breakneck speed.
“Then, pick whatever you like. Knight, general, nobility… there are all kinds of advanced accounts.”
“Hey, wait.”
Rinko interjected, slightly nervously.
“What?”
“…The attackers, could they be thinking the same thing? Didn’t you just say it? The shortcut to securing Alice is to operate from the inside.”
“Ah… Indeed. This could very well become their method. In the Main Control Room below, there are two STLs. But they must not have the time to crack the login passwords for the advanced accounts. They can only login as LV1 normal citizens. It’s hard to comprehend taking action with that kind of situation during the Final Load Test Stage.”
While he was quickly explaining—
Higa suddenly felt a sliver of anxiety, as though he had forgotten something important.
But this concern was dispersed by the list of accounts quickly rolling in.
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