But without destroying the blast door to the Light Cube Cluster storage, he could not seize it through physical means.
Then, he could only control it from the system. That said, even the first-rate digital criminal Critter was helpless against the lock on the console.
Gabriel dragged his feet and moved behind Critter, who was leaning over the controls, his two hands moving at top speed.
“How is it?”
Two hands punched the air in response.
“The administrator login is really despairing. What we can do is jealously peek at the fairy-tale kingdom that the group of souls are happily living in.”
Critter moved his finger; a window opened on the big screen on the wall directly in front of them and displayed a wondrous scene.
It was quite unlike a [fairy-tale kingdom]. The sky was soaked in a frightening crimson and the ground was as pitch-black as asphalt.
In the middle of the picture stood several primitive tents made of what appeared to be animal skin. On the side gathered ten or so chubby, bald, strange creatures, causing some unknown commotion.
There were generally humanoid but no matter how you looked at them, were not human. Their backs were bent, their hands were nearly long enough to scrape the ground, while their crooked feet were very short.
“Goblins…?”
Gabriel muttered. Critter whistled softly, saying with apparent happiness:
“Oh, you’re pretty knowledgeable, Captain. That’s right, they don’t look like orcs or cannibals, so they should be goblins.”
“But, they’re way too large. These are probably heavy infantry; heavy infantry goblins.”
Vassago stepped besides them with his hands on his hips and added his own comment. Although he was just an expert in VR combat, he seemed to know much about fantasy RPGs.
At the place where Gabriel was looking, the movements of the ten [Heavy Infantry Goblins] finally heated up. Eventually, two of them seized each other’s chests, twisting together in a scrambling fight, with the surrounding goblins cheering with hands raised.
“…Critter–”
Gabriel felt a certain faint intuition, and spoke to the monk-headed man in the seat.
“Huh?”
“These… these monsters, are they a part of the system?”
“Hmm, doesn’t look like it. From a certain viewpoint, these guys are real [humans]. They’re artificial souls read from the Light Cubes… Fluctlights.”
“For real?! What’s going on?!”
Vassago jumped and yelled furiously.
“These heavy infantry are humans!? They have the same souls as us!? The old women in Frisco [2] would die if they heard that!!”
Drumming with a pitter-patter on the monk-head, he shouted:
“I can’t believe that these people would do this kind of God-forsaken research. Right, are those shiny things full of these goblins, orcs or whatever? Is our Alice-chan one of them as well?”
“No way~”
Annoyed, Critter pushed Vassago’s hands away and corrected:
“Listen, the world called Underworld that the «RATH» guys created is divided into two areas. Located in the center, slightly west, is the «Human Empire» where normal humans live. Then, outside is the «Dark Territory», where monsters like these are all over the place. Alice will of course be somewhere in the Human Empire. It’s impossible to find her now.”
“Well that’s easy. If there are humans, then won’t they understand us? Can’t we just dive into the Human Empire and ask the people there if they know an Alice?”
“Wow, a pig. There’s a pig here.”
“What the FUCK are you blabbering about!!”
“I’m telling you- the people who made the Underworld are Japanese. Of course, the [guys who live in there] would also speak Japanese. Can you speak Japanese?”
Hearing Critter’s words mixed with derisive laughter, Vassago revealed a twisted grin.
“Don’t take me lightly.”
Now, not just Critter, the entire team widened their eyes. Vassago had spoken Japanese so fluently that even Gabriel was shocked.
The young Latino man changed back to English and continued:
“No problems with communications, right? Got anything else to say, four-eyes?”
“Yeah… Yeah. Of course.”
Critter recovered from surprise and snorted.
“There are tens of thousands of people living in the Human Empire. Are you going to ask each and… every one of them…”
Critter paused his retort as though he had inspired himself through his own speech and suddenly stood up. Although his monk-head bumped into Vassago’s chin, who wanted to spit out expletives, Critter shouted unhesitantly:
“Wait. WaitwaitWAITWAIT~. There might be no need for any of us to go…”
Hearing this, the faint inspiration in Gabriel’s heart finally burst completely into being.
“… Yeah. Accounts set up to log into the Underworld… Can hardly all be LV1 normal citizens. Right, Critter?”
“Yes. Yes boss!!”
Critter slammed the keyboard like it was a percussion instrument; the big screen instantly rolled up lists of names.
“If «RATH» operators wanted to log in to observe or perform internal actions, their accounts should be identities that possess all capabilities. Military officers… No, generals… No, no, noblemen, royalty… Could even be the King himself…”
“Oh. OH!! That’s GREAT!!”
Vassago shouted, massaging his chin that was about to split in half.
“In other words, we can use a general’s, president’s, or whatever profile to log into the Underworld, and can make whatever commands we want! ‘Army parade! Right, face! Find Alice!!'”
“… Why is it that when you talk about it, something so brilliant would instantly lose meaning.”
Continuing his muttering, Critter manipulated the console with frightening speed.
But. Seconds later, along with a rare instance of profanity from him, the list was halted.
“Fuck, no. Not just direct commands from here, even using high-level accounts to log in are protected with heavy passwords. Unfortunately, it looks like we can only dive into the Human Empire as normal citizens.
“…Hmph…”
Clear disappointment floated onto Critter and Vassago’s faces, but Gabriel remained expressionless and tilted his head slightly.
There was not much time to hesitate.
But, that was but a limit of the time in reality. Beyond the screen, in the abnormal Underworld, time was compressed hundreds of times in an astonishing ratio.
In other words, the remaining 23 hours equated to over a year in the Underworld. With this much time, even if they logged in as normal citizens, after finding and capturing [Alice], it wasn’t impossible to use the internal information console to extract her into the real world.
But that was definitely a long task. Compared to such a time-wasting task, it would be better to fight along the border of the Human Empire.
“Critter. Are there any advanced accounts outside the Empire… prepared for the «Dark Territory»?”
“…Outside? But aren’t the chances of Alice being there infinitely close to zero?”
Although he questioned, Critter’s fingers flashed quickly.
Gabriel looked at the newly opened cluster of windows, replying:
“Mm, yes. But, the border is not absolutely impenetrable, is it? With the parameters given by the account, we might be able to cross the border.”
“Oh, as expected from my bro! Your thoughts are unique as always! It’s that… using a non-human general, or a monster general to fight your way through, right?! That’s burning hot!!”
To the whistling and shouting Vassago, Critter shot at him with utmost hatred:
“If you want to burn, then burn, if you’re the one who logs in: you’ll be a goblin or orc in that world. Eh, you fit the bill anyway… Ah, I got it, I got it.”
With the cli
ck of the keyboard, two windows opened.
“Hm~ It’s different from the Empire, there are only two super-accounts…Okay, there are no passwords! Let’s see… One of them is the «Dark Knight» profile. Privilege level is… 70! We can use this one!”
“Ooh, that’s great! I’ll have that one!!”
Ignoring the noisy Vassago, Critter activated the other window.
“Then, the other one is… What’s this? The profile’s blank… there’s no level, either. There’s only a name. This… How do you say this? … [Emperor… Vector]?”
“Oh, an Emperor. Then I’ll take this one…”
Gabriel patted Critter’s shoulder from behind, as Critter was just about to continue.
“No, I’ll use this account.”
“Eh? But bro, can you speak Japanese?”
“Not as fluently as you can.”
Gabriel replied with three years of Japanese study. Although he had given up on reading and writing from the beginning, he was effortlessly confident about conversational usage.
“Ho, you’re pretty good. Then my bro shall be the Emperor, and I’ll be the Dark Knight. Now we’re talking! Four-eyes, can we log in!?”
Completely ignoring the noisy Vassago, Critter continued punching the keyboard. Seeing his focused scanning of information on the screen, Gabriel walked besides him and asked calmly:
“What is it, Critter, is there another problem?”
“… Should I call it a problem, or a slight concern… There’s a strange phrase all over the data, I can’t really understand it…”
“Oh? What phrase?”
Critter took a deep breath and answered Gabriel’s question:
“«[Final Load Test]».”
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.”