"2024 Floor 1:" "Town of Beginnings" "There's so... huh?" "there are." "It's like this pretty much every day." "is Yui feeling any better?" "so I think she's okay." "I don't know." "You tell me." "Has this ever happened to her before?" "We have no idea." "we found her on Floor 22 wandering in the forest." "she's lost her memory." "Oh..." "That's the reason we came here." "We thought maybe someone in the Town of Beginnings might know who she is." "You live here." "Have you ever seen her before?" "I haven't." "but I've never seen her. a lot of the children suffered severe psychological trauma. so I moved to this church and made it a safe place for them to live." "kids who might need my help." "I've never seen her before." "Back to square one..." "Sorry to bother you." "I'm Yulier." "right?" "I hope you're not here to start trouble because of yesterday." "I'm here to thank you." "You did right by putting those men in their place." "I came here to ask the two of you for your help." "Seriously?" "60)}Mitometeta okubyou na kako 1060)}The cowardly past that I'd acknowledged" "60)}Wakaranai mama ni 60)}Kowagatteta ushiro no jibun ga Genjitsu wo ima ni utsusu scared Projecting reality onto today" "60)}Ikutsu mono sora wo egaita 1060)}I've drawn so many skies" "60)}Koko wa kitto hakanai kokoro 1060)}This must be my fleeting heart" "60)}Midashite 1060)}Out of control" "60)}Yume de takaku tonda karada wa this body soars so high" "60)}Donna fuan matotte mo furiharatteku 1060)}And it can brush away any fears that cling to me" "60)}Nemuru chiisana omoi hirogari dashite these budding feelings start to expand" "60)}Kizuku yowai watashi kimi ga ireba weak as I am..." "As long as I had you 60)}Kurai sekai tsuyoku ireta 1060)}I could stay strong in this dark world" "60)}Nagai yume miru kokoro wa sou eien de 1060)}My heart will dream a long dream forever" "I want to always be with you" "I'll give you everything I have... 716)}Yui's Heart" "we... he never wanted it to turn into the kind of dictatorial organization it's become." "the mission of the guild was to share information and food equally among as many players as possible." "didn't it?" "one man became very powerful." "His name's Kibaou. monopolizing all of the best monster spawn points." "extorting other players under the pretext of collecting taxes." "and that made a lot of people mad. so he sent the highest-level players he had to the front lines." "Corvatz..." "Kibaou was denounced after spearheading that massacre." "That's when we started to seriously consider kicking him out of the guild for good." "he's decided to eliminate Thinker." "and stranded Thinker deep inside a dungeon." "Can't he teleport out?" "Does he have any weapons?" "He didn't take anything with him." "Kibaou told him he wanted to talk unarmed." "Thinker believed him." "That was three days ago." "He's been gone that long?" "Can't he find his way out?" "The dungeon is the highest level we've seen so far." "He can't get out of there on his own." "this is my responsibility." "But the problem is... my level isn't high enough to reach him." "And Kibaou is using his influence to keep the rest of the Army from helping me." "I thought 'this is my chance!" "'" "I tracked you down because I need your help." "Asuna..." "I beg you for Thinker's sake." "Please help me rescue him from the dungeon." "we'd be glad to help you." "However... we'd like to make sure you're telling the truth." "I'm sorry." "I know we just met and I'm asking a lot from you." "I feel like I'm going insane." "Mommy." "Everything she's been telling you is the truth." "you mean you can tell?" "Mm-hm." "but... she is!" "I'd rather trust her and regret it than not trust her and regret it." "Let's go." "It'll all work out." "Right?" "mister easygoing." "we'll help." "I just hope we're strong enough to do it." "Thank you so much. especially someone you care for." "okay?" "I'm coming too!" "Yui." "Don't you wanna stay here with me?" "No!" "Great." "Now we get to see her rebellious side." "this is serious." "It's too dangerous for you to come along with us this time." "I'm going too!" "1070)}Floor 1:" "Town of Beginnings Black Iron Castle" "I never knew this dungeon was under the Town of Beginnings." "I know." "There wasn't anything like this during the beta test." "I think the dungeon opens up to reveal more as the floors above are cleared." "I bet Kibaou was planning on keeping this place all to himself." "Exclusive access to spawns can be profitable." "the monsters here are usually around level sixty." "He wouldn't be able to do much hunting." "This is the entrance." "I'm not afraid!" "it's okay." "she's a heck of a lot of tougher than she looks." " Mm-hm." "She'll make a fine swordswoman someday." " Mm-hm." "We should get going." "you frogs!" "I feel that I should apologize." "he's happy out there." "Really he loves getting his battle on." "We're pretty far down." "Are we almost there?" "Thinker hasn't moved from this position for a while now." "but I'm not sure." "maybe we can use a teleport crystal." "I fought my butt off." "I should've helped you." "not at all." "I had a blast." "they dropped some items." "You get anything good?" "Uh-huh." "Wh-What is that?" "It's scavenged toad meat." "Y-You mean those frogs?" "the better the taste." "Maybe you can cook it up later." "Not on your life!" "Ew!" "What the hell?" "!" "come on!" "What d'you do that for?" "Damn it!" "Oh fuck!" "What am I gonna do with these?" "no!" " Asuna!" "It's good to eat!" "You just have to cook it once!" " Shut up!" " You smiled." "I've never ever seen you smile before!" "let's go." "Look." "It's a safe zone." "There's a player inside." "It's Thinker!" "Wait." "Don't!" "Yulier!" "Thinker!" "stay away!" "The corridor's rigged!" "Stop!" "Yulier!" "Come back!" "Yulier." "okay?" "O-Okay." "Mommy..." "Come on... use a teleport crystal and get Yui and the others out of here now." "I can't see its data with my ID skill." "It could be as strong as something from Floor 90." "I can buy you time." "Just get everyone out of here!" " No way am I leaving you here." " I'll catch up!" "Move it!" "Mommy..." "Take care of Yui!" "Run while you still have a chance!" "Asuna!" "we can't leave!" " Hurry!" "Kirito!" "no!" " It's dangerous..." "Come back!" "What are you doing?" "Get away from it!" "Yui!" "Mommy..." "It's okay." "Yui!" "Immortal Object?" "Yui?" "Yui..." "Daddy..." "Mommy." "Don't worry." "I remember everything." "say something." "You remember who you are?" "Yes." "Kirito." "Asuna." "Everything in the world of Sword Art Online is controlled by a single massive system." "The system is called Cardinal." "It was designed to operate entirely on its own without any human intervention." "Its function is to regulate the balance of SAO according to its own discretion. everything here is controlled by the processes the Cardinal program executes." "That includes the psychological care of the players." "prototype 1." "Code name:" "Yui." "That is who I am." "You're a program?" "An AI?" "I was designed to put players at ease with me." "That's why I was given the ability to emulate complex emotions." "Nothing about me is real." "Nothing... not even my tears." "Asuna..." "Yui... what about your amnesia?" "Can that even happen to an AI? the Cardinal program banned me from interacting with any of the players." "I wasn't allowed to assist them." "I couldn't do anything except continue monitoring their mental states." "was horrible." "don't!" "rage." "People were overcome by negative feelings." "Some of them couldn't take it." "They went insane." "my function would've been to go to such players immediately." "But I wasn't permitted any contact with them. and I fell apart." "I saw two players." "Their mental parameters were vastly different from anything I'd seen among the others." "There was joy." "and peace..." "And there was something more. hoping to get as close to both of you as I could without being detected." "that's why you were in the forest." "Yes." "That's why..." "I wanted to meet the two of you for the longest time." "isn't it?" "It should be impossible for me to think things like that." "I'm not human." "I'm a program after all." "maybe what you're feeling are real human emotions." "I don't know." "I'm confused." "Nothing makes sense." "I don't know what's happened to me." "You aren't just some program anymore." "The system can't control you." "all you have to do is say it." "tell us what you want." "I want..." "I want..." "I want to stay with you forever..." "Mommy!" "You will." "Yui." "you're our child." "It's too late..." "For what?" "Look." "This is actually a console the GM can use to gain emergency access to the system." "I used it to delete the monster in the corridor. the system is running a check on my program." "It thinks I'm a foreign object now." "I'll probably be deleted at once." "no..." "There's gotta be a way around it." "thank you." "This is goodbye." "No!" "I don't want that!" "Stay with us!" "Please stay..." "We just started living like a real family." "don't go!" "you have a way of making people smile." "From now on... please continue my work." "Keep helping people." "Share your happiness with all of them." "I can't!" "I won't!" "You have to stay with us." "I can't be happy without you!" "Mommy." "Cardinal!" "Kayaba!" "You're gonna find out things don't always go the way you want them to!" "what are you... I might be able to use the GM's account to access the system." "Kirito!" "Are you okay?" "What's this?" "This system was about to reject Yui's admin credentials." "The only thing I could do was take her program and turn it into a game object." "So this is..." "You're holding Yui's Heart." "Kirito..." "what's going to happen to Yui?" "1070)}Floor 22:" "Coral 930)}Don't worry." "I fixed it so her data will be saved to the local memory on my NerveGear." "recreating her the way she was isn't gonna be easy." "we'll find it." "Okay." "we'llseeherwhenwe get back." "Our first child." "Yeah." "We'll see her again." "Asuna... you okay?" "Mommy... 60)}Tookuni kikoeta kane no ne ga sukoshi samishikute" "1060)}The tolling of the faraway bells sounded a little lonely to me 60)}Mou ichido tsuyoku kondo wa takaku kake nuketa all the way up" "60)}Tada kurikaesu genjitsu mo 1060)}Neither this reality that just keeps repeating itself" "60)}Hoshi no kazu no negai goto mo as numerous as the stars" "60)}Mezasu beki asu wo mitsuketa 1060)}Now that I've found the tomorrow I should strive for" "60)}Kono omoi ni wa katenai 1060)}None of them can overcome these feelings of mine" "60)}Me no mae ni hirakareta hate nai sekai opening up before my eyes" "60)}Tatoe yume demo ii 1060)}Even if it's no more than a dream" "60)}Mayoi tsuzukete mo mune no oku de tsuyoku it is strong" "60)}Zutto zutto hibiiteku 1060)}Echoing forever and ever" "60)}Sotto sotto hikatteru ever so softly" "836)}Next Time:" "The Depths of Hell"