Hearing Lin Yiyan's emotion, Cardinal showed a faint wry smile.

"If you want to call yourself by the name of the god of this world, that guy should say this...... - no matter what, Quenera, who has become the administrator of this world in name and substance, first issued an order to make the four great nobles of the time emperors, and divide and rule the human realm into four empires, south, east, and west. Yi Yan, you must have seen the wall that divides Santoria, the capital of the central capital, into four, right? ”

Hearing this question, Lin Yiyan nodded.

The Sword Cultivation Academy, where Lin Yiyan lived, was located in the capital of the Northern Empire of Nolan Gales known as the Fifth District of Northern Santoria. Through the windows of the dormitory, you can always see a huge white marble wall that is taller than any other building. The giant wall known as the Wall of Immortality is flanked by the capitals of other countries, and I was really surprised when I heard this.

"The wall wasn't built over many years by the inhabitants cutting the marble. It's Quinella...... No, the Administrator used his divine power and appeared out of thin air in an instant. ”

“…… Instantaneous, instantaneous!? That giant wall!? This is beyond the realm of divine magic...... The inhabitants of Santoria must have trembled at that time......

"There is no doubt that she is the purpose. Demonstrate the power of the Cardinal System in front of the residents and imprint awe in their hearts. Through the inner barrier, there is also a physical barrier called the Wall of Immortality, which restricts the movement and communication of people. The purpose of restricting the dissemination of information to the network of Congregational churches is also to control people's hearts, so that people in the world will always be ignorant and simple, and faithfully believe in the church...... The physical obstacles that spawn are much more than just the nonsense wall. In order to impose the same restrictions on the living areas of the Pioneers who had expanded throughout the world, the Administrator also generated a number of large terrain objects on the map. What boulders that can't be cut, swamps that can't be filled, rapids that can't be crossed, trees that can't be cut down......"

"Wait, wait, you just said that...... A tree that can't be cut down? ”

"Yes. Add nearly infinite Priority and Durability to a tree that is incredibly large. ”

Lin Yiyan subconsciously thought of the hardness of the Demon Tree, Kigas Sida, which made people cry without tears, and rubbed his palms back and forth under the table. In other words, Kigascida is not a tree that is naturally created in the forest south of the village of Lurid, but an artificial obstacle set up by the Administrator to take advantage of its terrifying durability and resource absorption.

Is there anything like that all over the world? In order to get out of the way, so many people have to spend hundreds of years repeating unrewarded efforts......

Lin Yiyan raised her head, and the girl named Cardinal was still looking at him with eyes that seemed to have seen through Lin Yiyan's inner thoughts. The little lips trembled slightly, and he went down calmly.

“…… Thus began the era of peace and inaction under the Absolute Ruler Administrator. Twenty years...... Thirty years...... The common people have lost their enterprising spirit, the corrupt smell of the nobility has become smelly, and the swordsmanship, which was still improving, has been reduced to a useless showcase, as you know. Forty years, fifty years, looking at the human world as unchanged as if immersed in warm water, the Administrator felt a deep sense of satisfaction......"

This satisfaction is no different from the pleasure that a person feels when looking at an aquarium with a complete ecosystem. Lin Yiyan remembered the past when he was a child when he built an ant nest in a small sink, and he had mixed feelings in his heart. Cardinal lowered his head, as if immersed in deep thought, but his voice remained steadfast.

However, such a system did not come to a permanent standstill as she had hoped. I don't know when the change happened...... In her seventieth year as Administrator, she became aware of the changes that had happened to her. Unable to recall what happened a few days ago, and unable to immediately remember the system commands that should have been memorized perfectly, the dministrator doubled his Fluct Light using management commands...... The result made her tremble. The total storage capacity of the memory storage area has reached the limit at some point. ”

"Extreme, extreme?" Lin Yiyan, who couldn't think of what to say, could only parrot and repeat the other party's words. Memory...... In other words, is there a limit to the data capacity of the soul? This is the first time Lin Yiyan has heard of this kind of thing.

"At first glance it may sound a little surprising, but when you think about it, it's a no-brainer. Whether it's the Light-Cube where Fluct Light is stored or the biological brain, its size is limited, so the number of quantum bytes that can be recorded is naturally limited. ”

Facing Cardinal, who said this calmly, Lin Yiyan raised his right hand and asked for an annotation, "Wait, wait." That one...... The thing I just said called the Light-Cube is the medium that holds the Fluct Light of the people of Under orld, right? ”

"What, don't you even know this. Of course, the Light-Cube is a cube with a side length of five centimeters, and each Fluct Light of each Under orld person is sealed in one of them, and it costs no resources to store it. Together, these cubes form a Light-Cube Cluster with a side length of three meters. ”

"Eh, this...... Five centimeters make up three meters ......" Lin Yiyan began to mentally calculate the total number of Light-Cubes, and just as he was calculating three hundred divided by five, Cardinal gave the answer. "Theoretically, there are twenty-one thousand of them. However, due to the presence of the Main Visualizer in the center of the cluster, the actual value is lower. ”

"Two hundred and twenty thousand...... Is this the population cap for Under orld? ”

"Yes. By the way, there's still plenty of money, so even if you want to have a bunch of kids with a girl, you don't have to worry about the number of idle Cubes. ”

"That's right...... I said, "I, I'm not going to do that!" Lin Yiyan hurriedly shook his head, and after the young sage glanced at Lin Yiyan with a suspicious gaze, he turned the topic back.

“…… However, as the old body just said, each Light-dministrator has gone through more than one hundred and fifty years since he was born as a Quineira, and the memories that have accumulated during this time have finally begun to overflow from the water bottle, and the function of recording and recalling has been impaired. ”

Lin Yiyan couldn't take these words as wind in his ears. For Lin Yiyan, this is by no means a matter of self-interest. In this world where time is flowing at an accelerated pace, Lin Yiyan has accumulated memories for more than two years. Although only a few months or even a few days have passed in the real world, more than two years have indeed consumed a lot of Lin Yiyan's "soul lifespan".

"Don't worry, your Fluct Light is basically the same as white paper." As if he had seen through Lin Yiyan's heart, Cardinal said with a wry smile.

"What's that analogy...... It's like you're flipping through a book in my head. ”

"Pretty much. Compared to you, the old Fluct Light is already like an album and an encyclopedia. Cardinal took a sip of tea with a clear expression, but accidentally choked on it.

"—let's go on. Even the Administrator was embarrassed by the unexpected state of affairs of running out of storage space. Unlike the state value of Destiny, there is a lifespan in the world that she cannot manipulate, which she has never thought of before. However, she is definitely not a woman who will honestly accept her fate. Just like when she usurped the throne of the gods before, this time she came up with a demonic solution......"

She put down her teacup with a palpable look of disgust on her face and crossed her dahlias-slender hands across the table.

“…… Then...... That is, two hundred years ago, there was a girl who was just over ten years old as a probationary nun of the Congregational Church who was studying divine art on the lower level of the central cathedral. The name is ...... Call...... It seems to have forgotten. Born into a family of furniture makers in Santoria, she was granted the vocation of nun because of the fluctuation of random parameters, which gave her access to the system a little higher than the average person. The girl had brown eyes and curly hair, and was ...... skinny."

Lin Yiyan subconsciously blinked his eyes and looked at Cardinal's appearance. The descriptions, however you hear them, are like descriptions of Cardinal himself.

The Administrator had the girl taken to the top room of the cathedral, and welcomed her in with a loving smile like a virgin. Here's what the guy said - 'From now on, you will be my child, the son of God who guides this world'...... In a sense, there is nothing wrong with this statement - if the word "child" is understood as "the one who inherits the message of his own soul". However, there is no such thing as a relationship between parents and children...... The Administrator wanted to overwrite his thoughts and important memories from the Fluct Light on the girl's Fluct Light. ”

"What......" Bad cold climbed up Lin Yiyan's back for the first time. The rewriting of the soul - the act of saying it that feels terrible to the extreme. I don't know when my palms are already full of cold sweat. Rubbing his soaked palms on his trouser legs, Lin Yiyan pretended to be calm and asked, "But ...... However, if you can perform such a complex operation on Fluct Light, wouldn't it be nice to just delete the unwanted parts of your memory? ”

"Do you suddenly make edits to important documents?" In response to the other party's rhetorical question, Lin Yiyan was speechless for a while and shook his head.

"No...... I'll make a backup first. ”

"The dministrator never forgot that his consciousness was interrupted for the whole day as he wrote the Cardinal System's principles of action into his Fluct Light. Manipulation of the Fluct Light is inherently dangerous. In other words, she was afraid that her organization of memories would cause damage to important data, so she decided to first seize the girl's soul that still had a lot of usable memory space, and after confirming that the entire copying operation was successfully completed, she would abandon the old soul that had been worn out and use the new soul to continue her life. The plan was quite thoughtful and deliberate - and yet it became the Administrator, nay, Quinera's second failure. ”

"Failed ......?"

"Exactly. Because, at the moment when his consciousness has been transferred to the girl, and the original self has not had time to be disposed of...... Aren't there just two gods with equal authority? After careful planning, the Administrator prepared this demonic ritual, and through this ritual called 'Synthesis Secret Art', which is intended to artificially integrate souls and memories, he succeeded in seizing the Fluct Light of others. This is the moment that the old body has been waiting for...... After 70 years of waiting, I finally waited for the moment!! ”

In the end, Cardinal's voice was as excited as a shout, and Lin Yiyan looked at her inexplicably, "...... Wait a bit. You are...... Who is Cardinal talking to me now? ”

"-Don't you get it yet?" Cardinal pushed his glasses up and replied in a low voice, "Yi Yan, you know the original version of the old body, right?" So, let's talk about the characteristics of the Cardinal System. ”

"That'...... The program ...... "dinal system" was originally developed by Akihiko Kayaba in order to keep the SAO game of death running, that is-

“…… Can it be operated for a long time without manual correction and maintenance......? ”

"Exactly. So, for that ......"

To do this, the system is divided into two core programs...... The main program is responsible for regulating the balance of the game, and the sub-program detects errors in the main program in the process......" Speaking of this, Lin Yiyan suddenly realized, and looked at the young girl with curly hair in front of him dumbfounded.

For Cardinal System to have a powerful bug fixing function, Lin Yiyan should know better than anyone else. Because, Yui, the daughter of Lin Yiyan, was originally Cardinal's subordinate program. In order to protect his daughter from Cardinal, who recognized Yui as a foreign object and ruthlessly wanted to eliminate it, Lin Yiyan wasted a lot of means.

"You finally get it. - There is not only one basic principle of action that Quinera has engraved in his soul. In addition to the command given to the main program to "maintain world stability", there is also an order to ...... the subprogram to "correct the errors of the main program". ”

"Corrective ...... Mistake? ”

"When the old body is still unconscious of the program, this work is just to repeatedly check the data output of the main program. However, once the old body gains personality as Quenella's "shadow consciousness", he can only judge his own behavior without the help of lengthy data symbols. Here...... It's like the case of "multiple personalities" that you often talk about. ”

"In the real world, there seem to be people who think that multiple personalities are just a fictional concept."

"Oh, that's right. But for the old man, this word is very appropriate. Only in the moment when Quenella's consciousness relaxed a little, did the old body have a chance to appear on the surface of consciousness. Then, the old body began to think. What kind of mistake did this woman named Quenella, no, the Administrator, make? ”

"Big mistake...... Is it? Lin Yiyan couldn't help but ask back. Since maintaining this world is the basic principle of Cardinal's main program, no matter what drastic measures Quinella takes, his behavior should be completely consistent with this principle.

In front of Lin Yiyan's straight gaze, Cardinal replied in a serious voice.

"Ask you, then. To the best of your knowledge, has the Cardinal System in other worlds ever done something to hurt a player with their own hands? ”

"I didn't ...... Had. Indeed, while Cardinal is the player's ultimate adversary, it doesn't attack the player directly without reason. I'm sorry. Subconsciously apologized to the other party, but Cardinal only exhaled softly and continued.

"And yet, the guy did. She inflicted on those who doubted the taboo list she had established, or who uttered words of defiance, a punishment that was in a sense more cruel than death...... More on this later. As a result, the old body that woke up from its slumber, that is, the sub-program of the Cardinal System, judged that the existence of the Administrator itself was a huge mistake, and began to repeatedly try to erase it. Specifically, he jumped from the top of the tower three times, plunged his knife into his heart twice, and incinerated himself twice with divine magic. If he could turn his destiny to zero through such an act, even the High Priest would not be able to avoid the destruction of his soul. ”

Hearing the tragic lines spoken by the lovely girl, Lin Yiyan was speechless. However, Cardinal didn't even raise an eyebrow, and continued in a calm tone.

"The last time was really a shame. Casting it on himself with the most powerful divine spell of all spells, the thunderbolt that fell from the sky had reduced the Administrator's massive destiny to the last drop, but at this time, the main program once again regained control of the body. In this way, no matter what kind of injuries were inflicted before, they are no longer fatal. As long as you use the full recovery technique, everything is back to square one. What's worse is that the Administrator perceives the old body, that is, the sub-program as a potential consciousness, as a real threat. Noticed that the old body can only have an ethical conflict with her Fluct Light...... Or when she was mentally shaken, she controlled the body, and used completely unexpected means to seal the old body. ”

"Completely unexpected......?"

"Hmm. Originally, in the ten years between his birth and his choice as the witch of Stysia, the Administrator was just an ordinary human child. Seeing flowers makes you feel beautiful, and you feel happy when you hear songs, and these emotions are no different from ordinary people. The emotional functions that were well developed at that time, even after becoming the absolute ruler of the demigods and demigods, remained at the base of the soul. Therefore, she believes that the reason why she is slightly shaken when she encounters all kinds of emergencies is because of the existence of this part. After that, she used the administrator's commands to manipulate the Fluct Light directly in the Light-Cube to block the loop that controlled her feelings. ”