Her words ............"

"It's very credible, and there's no need for suspicion. Clyde replied

"Really...... I'm going to log out later, what about you?"

"I'm going to meet up with the others, and tomorrow they'll be waiting for us at the predetermined location. Clyde said.

By this time, Nero had already left, and Kirito watched her leave here, combined with Clyde's words.

It's obviously to meet up with other people.

"Yes......"

"Kirito, don't put yourself under too much pressure, I believe that Asuna doesn't look like seeing you like this. ”

"Hmm......" Kirito didn't answer, but only responded symbolically.

"So...... See you tomorrow. ”

"See you tomorrow. ”

Meanwhile..................

A pair of birds snuggle up and sing the morning on a white table.

As soon as she raised her right hand, her fingertips touched the jasper-like feather. But the next moment the two birds flew silently.

They draw an arc in the air and fly towards where the light is coming.

She got up from her chair and chased a few steps from behind. But immediately I came across a golden railing blocking the way. The birds slipped out of the gap and flew farther and farther into the sky.

Asuna stood by the railing for a few moments, until the birds melted into the color of the sky, and then slowly turned around and sat back in her chair.

In front of her was a set of cold, stiff white marble round tables and chairs.

There is also a large white bed with a canopy next to it. That's all there is in this room.

Of course – if this could be called a room.

The white-tiled floor, which is a perfect circle, is about twenty steps from one end to the other, and the walls are all made of golden metal balustrades.

The gap between the railings was large enough for Asuna's size to easily pass through, but the system didn't allow her to do so.

The railings, which cross in the shape of a cross, rise vertically and finally take on a semi-circular spherical shape to trap the person inside.

It has a large ring attached to its apex, which is supported by a rather thick piece of wood passing through the ring. In addition, you can see a towering tree growing in all directions, with enough foliage to cover most of the surrounding sky.

The wood that holds the structure is connected to the trunk of the giant tree.

In other words, the room was a golden birdcage hanging from a huge tree - no, that seemed a bit incorrect.

Sometimes, the birds that come to play can come and go freely. Asuna is the only one imprisoned here, so it should be called a prison.

Slender, elegant, beautiful, but with a cold tree prison.

It's been about sixty days since Asuna woke up here.

Of course, this is not a very accurate number. In a place where there was no way to leave any mark, she could only calculate the date in her head, and the setting here seemed to be less than twenty-four hours before a day had passed, so even if she followed her biological clock, she would not always wake up day or night.

Whenever she woke up, she would tell herself that it was the first few days, but lately she had begun to lose confidence in the numbers.

Maybe you've repeated the same date many times – many years have actually passed. The more this thought arises, the more Asuna is immersed in the memories of the past SAO.

At that time-

The entire floating city of Ayn Grant collapsed, and the world gradually disappeared in the light.

She wasn't scared at the time, because it was the perfect ending, and with someone's help, her best friend defeated the final boss.

But he was instantly surrounded by darkness.

Asuna desperately stretched out her hands and called out her best friend's name.

But the relentless torrent carried her into the darkness, followed by intermittent flickering of light.

Asuna felt like she was being taken to some unknown place, and she couldn't help but scream.

Soon after, a rainbow of light appeared in front of him, and he entered the light—and by the time he woke up, he had already collapsed in this place.

A large mirror is nailed to the wall that supports the canopy of the Gothic bed.

The image I reflected on it is slightly different from the past. The face and maroon hair were the same as usual, but they were dressed in a disturbingly thin white dress.

Near his chest was a blood-red ribbon. The cold smell of the marble tiles is constantly transmitted to the body through the feet.

In addition to not being equipped with any weapons, he also has a pair of uncanny transparent wings that resemble insects instead of birds.

At first, she thought that she had really come to the afterlife (Lihua Song: Do you want to join the student union?).

But now she knew it wasn't like that. Even if you wave your hand, the menu window won't appear, but this is not Ayn Grant, but another imaginary world.

It's a digital prison made by a computer. Asuna was imprisoned here because of the evil intentions of humanity.

If that's the case, you can't throw in the towel. It cannot be defeated by evil attempts.

Asuna relies on this psychology to fight against the loneliness and anxiety that constantly invade her every day.

But lately, I have felt that it is becoming more and more difficult to support. She found that the poison of despair had slowly eaten away at her psyche.

Asuna sat down in a cold chair, crossed her hands on the table, and said to her best friend as usual.

- Hurry up...... Hurry up and save me, Kirito......

"You're at your most beautiful when you have that expression, Titania. ”

Suddenly, another voice rang out from the birdcage.

"You have that look like you're about to cry, you want someone to freeze it and keep it forever. ”

"Then you can do it. ”

Asuna said as she turned her head to the source of the voice.

A small door was placed on the part of the golden balustrade, which faced the part known as the World Tree. The branches of the tree with the staircase can be seen extending to the outside of the door, and the staircase itself serves as a passage to the trunk of the World Tree.

Entering through the door was a man of considerable stature.

A plump head of blond hair was swaying as he walked, and he wore a silver crown on his head.

He wears a large robe, dark green, decorated with thin silver threads. On her back, she has the same wings as Asuna, but instead of being transparent, the man's wings are huge butterfly wings. The four wings, like pitch-black velvet, have bright patterns of emerald green.

The man has a dignified appearance that seems to be designed.

In addition to the smooth forehead, there is a high nose bridge, and through the slender eyes, you can even see the pupils of the same color as the wing pattern blooming.

His thin lips were smiling, but they were an evil smiling that defied everything.

Asuna swept the man's face and turned her face aside as if she had seen something dirty. Then he said in a voice that did not subdued or frustrated:

"You should be able to do anything, after all, you're a system administrator. Look at it as you please, if you want to kill or chop. ”

"Why do you say such ruthless words again? Have I ever touched a finger of you in any strong way so far, Titania?"

"You have the face to say such things while you have locked me up here. Also, please don't call me by that weird name. My name is Asuna, Oberon—no, I should call you Sugo. ”

Asuna looked up again at Nobuyuki Sugo's incarnation, the Fairy King Oberon.

This time she didn't look away, but kept glaring at him with a powerful gaze.

The man moved his lips unpleasantly, and then threw out this paragraph: "It's really disappointing." In this world, I am the Elf King Oberon, and you are Queen Titania. Players always look up at Alpheim with wistful eyes, and we are the rulers of the land...... Isn't that great, and when will you be able to accept the fact that you're my partner, and then the Buddha will open up to me?"

"It's useless to wait any longer. I have nothing but contempt and disgust for you. ”

"Oh yes, it's really stubborn......"

Oberon smiled at the corner of his mouth again, then stretched out his right hand and slowly approached Asuna's cheek.

"But what...... I've been feeling ...... lately"

Asuna was about to turn her head away, but Oberon's hand grabbed her jaw and forcibly turned her face around.

"It's also quite a pleasure to snatch you like this with your strength......"

Oberon held Asuna's face in place with a vice-like force (sorry, I'm reminded of a man who walks in and out of the vise every day when I hear the vise) before stroking her face with his left hand.

The slender fingers slowly move from the cheeks to the lips. The sticky touch sent chills down Asuna's back.

The intense disgust caused her to close her eyes and lips, and Oberon touched Asuna's lips several times with his fingertips before slowly touching her neck.

Soon after, the fingers came to the bright red ribbon tied near the collar on the chest.

As if he was enjoying Asuna's shame and horror, he grabbed one end of the ribbon and pulled it down slowly, slowly—

"Stop!"

Asuna finally couldn't help but let out a hoarse voice.

Oberon let out a grunt of satisfaction deep in his throat before his hand left the ribbon.

He shook his fingers and said with a smile, "Just kidding." Didn't I say that? I'm not going to use tough tactics against you. Anyway, you're going to come and beg me right away. It's just a matter of time. ”

"-Stop talking stupid, are you crazy?"

"Hehe, you're only going to be able to harden your mouth now. Immediately your feelings will be controlled by me as I please. I say...... Titania, ......"

Oberon leaned his whole body out behind his hands on the table. With a malicious smile on his face, he looked around the outside of the birdcage.

"Can you see that? There are tens of thousands of players sneaking around the vast world and enjoying the game. However, they have no idea that a completely stealth system can only be used in the entertainment market!"

This unexpected remark made Asuna shut her mouth as well. Oberon spread his arms in an exaggerated act of acting, and continued:

"No kidding! The fully stealthy game interfaces, namely NERvGear and AmuSphere, focus on the cortical areas of the brain and then give imaginary environmental signals – what would happen if this restriction was removed?"

Oberon's turquoise pupils shimmered with something out of the ordinary, causing Asuna to instinctively feel a sense of fear.

That means it's possible to control functions other than sensory processing in the brain...... That is, thinking, feelings, memories, etc.!"

Hearing Oberon's words that were not at all like a normal person, Asuna could only be speechless. After taking a few deep breaths, she finally managed to squeeze out her voice and say:

“…… How is it possible, this kind of thing is absolutely impossible to be allowed......"

"Who would not allow it? Countries around the world have been conducting this study for a long time. However, this research must require human experiments. It must be a subject who can directly express in words what he is thinking!"

After a shrill laugh, Oberon stood up from the table as if he were jumping up, and walked around Asuna with hurried steps.

"There is considerable individual variation in higher brain function, so a large number of subjects are needed. However, because it was an experiment to test the brain, it was not possible to conduct human experiments for fear of problems. As a result, the whole study has been delayed. It's just that one day when I was watching the news, I suddenly noticed something. Isn't there just as many as 10,000 people here to study the material?"

Asuna's skin got goosebumps from fear. She wondered what Oberon meant by saying this.

- Senior Kayaba is a genius, but he is also a big fool. They have already developed such a great device, but they are satisfied just to use it to create a game world. Although I can't do anything with the SAO server itself, it's not so difficult to kidnap some people into my world the moment the player is freed from the router. ”

The Elven King put his hands together to make the shape of a large cup, and licked his lips with his tongue as if he were looking at invisible wine.

"As a result, I waited a long time for SAO to finally be fully attacked! Although I couldn't catch all of them, I still got about 300 subjects. There is simply no facility in the real world that can contain such a large number of people, so thank you so much for the imaginary world!"

Oberon seemed quite excited about his crazy thoughts, and began to gush on and on. Asuna had always hated this kind of character of his.

"With the help of these 300 former SAO players, it only took a month to make considerable progress in research! The technique of burying new objects in human memory and then inducing the subject to emotions about the object has been largely completed. It's also a soul manipulation – it's amazing!"

"Daddy......... How could Dad possibly allow you to do this kind of research!"

"Of course the old man didn't know anything. This research was conducted in secret by a small group of people, including me. If you don't, you won't be able to sell it as a commodity. ”

"...... goods?"

"A certain company in the United States has already craned its neck and waited for our research to be over. This one must sell for a good price. Of course, one day I'm going to sell even RECT—"

“……”

"I'm about to become a member of the Yuuki family. First of all, you will start with an adopted son, but eventually you will become the true heir of RECT, that is, your spouse, for that day to come, don't you think it would be good to practice first in this imaginary world?"

Asuna held back the shiver behind her, shook her head quietly but quite firmly, and said:

"I absolutely ...... I'm not going to let you get away with it. When I return to the real world, I will definitely make your evil deeds public. ”

"Oops, oops, why don't you understand. The reason I'm going to tell you all about the experiment is because you're going to forget everything right away! All that's left is ...... to me."

Oberon suddenly stopped talking, tilted his head slightly and was silent for a while.

Then he immediately waved his left hand to call out the window, and then said to it, "I'll go over at once, and wait for my instructions." ”

After closing the window, a smile appeared on his face again, and he added:

"—That's the way it is, I don't know if you know that the day is getting closer and closer when you're madly in love with me, and completely obeying my instructions! So the next time we meet, I hope you'll be a little more submissive, Titania. ”

After he finished in a gentle tone, he touched Asuna's hair again before turning away.

Asuna didn't look at the man walking briskly towards the door. She just kept her head down, desperately fighting the fear that Oberon's last words bringed.

Soon after, there was a 'click' of the door opening and closing, and silence returned.

"Kirito ............"

Bite!

？！！！

Just as Asuna was immersed in despair, an abrupt prompt sounded, and a window popped up in front of Asuna.

It's really not easy to hide such a sophisticated system, how did Clyde do it to invade? 】

Asuna, who was originally stunned by the sudden sound coming from the pop-up window, couldn't help but say after hearing the name 'Clyde':

"That'...... That ......"

[It's Miss Asuna, right?]

"Yes. ”

[My name is Filly, and I'm a friend of Clyde...... He asked him to save you, but I don't have much access to this kind of brain-spirit device, and I don't know what the consequences will be, so you may have to wait a little longer. 】

"This little bit of time...... I'll wait!" Asuna said with a serious expression when she saw hope.

[Well, since I've contacted you, then I should go back and report, it's very likely that I will be discovered after staying for a long time.] 】

"Wait...... Wait!"

Before Asuna could finish her sentence, the pop-up window suddenly closed.

"I haven't ...... yet Ask Kirito and Clyde about ......"

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