Sword Art Online - Volume 9 - Alicization Beginning

by Reki Kawahara

  “……That means, Kirito. You… perhaps even now…… are still inside the STL… that machine? The «Recollections» of Asuna and me you injected into it.”

  As to avoid the sudden shivering, before Kazuto could reply, Shino grinned as she spoke. Naturally, “But that’s ridiculous anyway,” she laughed it off as she thought so, but her companion frowned as he fixed his gaze on her.

  “Wai……S-Stop it. I’m the real one.”

  As she hurriedly waved her hands, Kazuto remained in doubt as he spoke,

  “If you’re the real Sinon…… then you must remember what you promised me yesterday.”

  “P-Promised?”

  “To thank me for calling me out today, you will treat me as many of the most expensive dessert here, the «Dicey Cheesecake» as I want.”

  “E……Ehh!? I never promised such a thing! Ah, b-but I’m not an imposter, I’m the real one, right, Asuna?”

  Looking beside her, Asuna who tightly grasped her hands whispered,

  “Sinonon…… did you already forget? You promised to treat me to an all I can eat «Berry & Cherry Tart»……”

  “Ehhhh!?”

  Am I actually in the virtual world and operating this memory from there……? As she thought this, both Kazuto’s and Asuna’s cheeks trembled, and soon after that they let out slight laughter. At that point, she finally realized that her plan to tease Kazuto had backfired.

  “N……Now you’ve done it, Asuna! Next time, in ALO, prepare to eat a hundred homing arrows!”

  “Ahaha, sorry sorry, forgive me Sinonon!”

  Asuna smiled as she tightly embraced Shino. While feeling the stiffness in her chest melted away by Asuna’s action, innocent and overflowing with friendship, she turned her pouting face away. But her mouth immediately opened and let out a laugher alongside the other two.

  As if to follow through the eased up atmosphere, Kazuto said in a slow tone,

  “Be it the Fluctlight or the Mnemonic Visual, just hearing the term alone would make you feel that it’s questionable technology…… But, the virtual world created by STL is in fact, far better than the one from AmuSphere which we are familiar with. Ultimately, it might be what we call a «Real Dream»……”

  “D-Dream……?”

  Shino blinked after hearing those surprising words, the Spriggan swordsman, who had an aura that caused the people surrounding him to become drowsy in ALO, nodded with a serious face.

  “Yes. Creating the world by gathering the objects maintained in the memories together, that action…… isn’t it almost like how dreams work? Actually, the brain waves of a human Diving in STL is fairly close to the pattern which occurs during sleep.”

  “Then, it means you’re doing the part-time job within the dream? Earning just by sleeping through the period of three days?”

  “T-That’s what I told you in the beginning, didn’t I? Sleeping throughout, without eating nor drinking. But of course, I got nutrition and water through an intravenous drip.”

  Now that he mentioned it, he really did say that right after he came into the shop. But I certainly didn’t expect him to actually work by watching a long dream while lying on a gel bed. As Shino glanced upward, she muttered along with a sigh,

  “Three days of continuous dreaming, huh…… If I could dream that long, there are many things I could do. Like not waking up just before eating a cake.”

  “That’s too bad, as you won’t remember what you ate during the dream anyway. Well, talking about having an all-you-can-eat cake every day……”

  After talking jokingly until this point, Kazuto cut off his words in the middle. The small eyebrows Shino saw under his slightly long forelock frowned.

  “……What’s the matter, Kirito-kun?”

  He didn’t immediately answer Asuna’s question, while his hand made a motion as if it was putting something into his mouth.

  “…………Cake…… no, not it…… It’s harder…… salty…… but, delicious, what is……”

  “Y-You remembered? Is it something you ate in the virtual world?”

  “…………Nope, I can’t remember. But I have a hunch that it didn’t taste like anything in reality…………”

  Kazuto continued frowning for several seconds longer, before finally giving up as he let out a sigh. Shino, who was silent up until this point, asked a question as she was no longer able to hold in her mind,

  “Hey Kirito, is something like that possible? To eat something in STL which doesn’t exist in reality? As the virtual world created by STL is a collection of parts based on memories of a Diver, then isn’t it natural that the person can’t see what he has never seen, and can’t eat what he has never eaten?”

  “Ah…… that’s true. It’s just as Sinonon said…… In that case, the virtual world from STL should have a very limited degree of freedom, shouldn’t it? It can’t create a world which is completely different from reality, like Aincrad or Alfheim.”

  Kazuto nodded slowly at what Asuna pointed out, before smiling as if to shake off his earlier irritation.

  “You two are pretty sharp, that is a good point. When I heard about the Mnemonic Visual, at first I didn’t realize that limitation. I’ll remember to ask the staff at RATH before going into the next long Diving experiment, but as it involves the core of STL technology, I don’t think they will agree to answer…… But, there is one thing…… in the explanation about the virtual world which comprises of memories, the staff never mentioned that those memories are from the Diver.”

  “Eh….. then how did they……”

  As Shino couldn’t grasp the meaning right away, Asuna, who was next to her, inhaled slightly.

  “Could it be…… other people’s memories? No…… could it possibly be that the memories did not belong to anyone but were created from zero……?”

  Upon hearing the words which were almost like a whisper, Shino finally realized it.

  What if the sight memory information…… the Mnemonic Visual of humans have a common structure? And the analysis of that structure is already complete……? It could be possible in theory to create a real «Dream» which is full of things one has never seen, food one has never tasted, scenes one has never imagined.

  Then, the words which supported her thoughts coincidentally spilled out of Kazuto’s mouth,

  “……I had been doing this part-time job with RATH for two months now…… During the first test Dive, there was no memory restriction yet, so I still remember the VR world back then. One of them was just a wide room with plenty of cats, which probably numbered in the hundreds.”

  “……Plenty……”

  Shino’s mouth slacked as she imagined the cat heaven, before quickly brushing it off. As he looked straight ahead, Kazuto said with an expression as if he was searching his memories.

  “……What I could recall about that room, was that it was full of breeds of cats I didn’t know. And it wasn’t just that…… there were some which grew wings and were flying, some which curled itself up and bounced around. Something like that can’t possibly be from my memories.”

  “……And at the same time, it can’t be from another person’s memories either, right? Since a cat with wings doesn’t exist in reality anyway.”

  Was what Asuna said, before she continued,

  “Those flying cats which the staff there made Kirito-kun see…… must be something the STL system created from zero, right?”

  “The latter part is great. If that’s possible, then it’s not just an individual object, but it could be possible to ultimately create an entire world.”

  Kazuto’s words made all three remain silent for a short moment.

  Producing a virtual world without human involvement——

  This idea caused Shino chest to throb. As Shino recalled that she had recently become increasingly uncomfortable with the «Egocentric designed» VRMMO worlds such as GGO and ALO.

  The existing VR game worlds were completely assembled by the designers of the
companies developing those games. Even though the buildings or trees or rivers existed in a nonchalant manner, they were actually objects placed on the terrain based on someone’s preference.

  During game play, whenever she thought about this, something always rose within Shino’s chest. After all, she too, was merely an existence running around the developer’s palm, the so-called God, and this thought remained in her mind whether she liked it or not.

  As Shino didn’t originally start playing Gun Gale Online for fun, now that she had overcome the curse from her past, she started to think about the meaning of her experience within virtual space in reality. She didn’t seem to sympathize with someone from her squadron who carried a model gun in real life while wearing a cloth decorated with matching insignia. She believed that the fortitude and self control attached to the in-game Sinon would slowly strengthen Asada Shino in the real world as well, but at the same time, she wondered if it was worth continuing spending that amount of time and money on Diving into the virtual world.

  Shino thought that there must be a reason that her intensely shy self had met and became good friends with Asuna for several months now. This girl, who always gave off a gentle smile, must surely have had the same self values as Shino. Playing VRMMO games not to escape, but to obtain the experience and bonds from the virtual world to nourish her reality’s self, Asuna was surely that kind of person. Of course, that also applied to Kazuto.

  Because of that, Shino didn’t want to think that the VR world was just a fake, that everything inside was just imaginary. She didn’t want to think about the fact that the VR world couldn’t exist without the developer.

  Last month, on the night she had spent over at Asuna’s house, in the room after the lights had been turned off, she had expressed the weakness she had hid. Then, Asuna who was lying on the bed beside her thought for a moment, before speaking,

  [Sinonon, isn’t that the same as the real world? Even now, the surroundings granted to us, be it houses, or towns, till the status of being a student in society, everything is someone’s design, isn’t it……? Perhaps, being strong, is about advancing along this, don’t you think?]

  After taking a brief pause, Asuna continued with a laughing voice,

  [But, I just want to see it once, a VR world which isn’t designed by anyone. Perhaps if that became reality, it may be, in a sense, the «Real World», even realer than this real world……]

  “Real… World……”

  As Shino unconsciously murmured, Asuna, who was apparently thinking the same thing, nodded at the opposite side of the table.

  “Kirito-kun…… then, that means…… by using STL, the reality which is subjectively realer than our real world could be created? A different world without a designer’s involvement?”

  “Hmmm……”

  Kazuto thought slightly, before slowly shaking his head.

  “No…… in the current situation, it’s still difficult. The forests or grass on the natural terrain could be left to the system to generate, but I think building a large-scale town while maintaining its integrity without a designer is still impossible. About the other possibility…… such as preparing a few hundred test players and letting them build a town from zero in the wilderness field state, or in the other words, building a civilization, for that, I think it could be possible in the world without a god-like creator……”

  “Uwa, that would be a very time consuming strategy―”

  “The completion of the map would take several months, I think.”

  Asuna and Shino laughed at Kazuto’s joke at the same time. However, the owner of the speech remained pondering with his brow wrinkled, and before long, he started speaking in a monologue manner,

  “So it’s a simulation of building a civilization, huh. No…… it can be said it’s necessary. If the STL’s FLA function is used and allowing them to develop…… is there any restriction placed on the memories inside……?”

  “STL’s FL…… what is that?”

  Shino frowned at the succession of abbreviations, as Kazuto lifted his face and blinked.

  “Ah…… it’s Soul Translator’s second magic. Just now, I talked about the dream-like virtual world created by STL, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Have you ever had an incredibly long dream, and felt very tired when you woke up? A bad dream in particular……”

  “Ah―, yes I have.”

  Shino nodded while frowning.

  “Running away from something, and along the way I think ‘This must be a dream’ yet I am unable to wake up. When thinking that I have finally woken up after being chased for so long, it turns out that that was a dream too.”

  “How much time do you think you spend in those dreams?”

  “Eh―? Two…… or perhaps three hours.”

  “Well, when monitoring the brain waves during the dream, which a person feels was very long, the actual time between seeing the dream and opening the eyes is only a few minutes.”

  Kazuto, who cut off his words at that point, suddenly stretched his hands to cover both the mobile terminals lying on the table. He then cast his mischievous gaze toward Shino.

  “We started talking about STL around half past four, right? Sinon, what time do you think it is right now?”

  “Hmm……”

  Caught by surprise, Shino hesitated to answer. The sky past the summer solstice was still bright, so she couldn’t tell the time by the light shining through the window. She was forced to rely on guessing an answer,

  “……Around four fifty……?

  Kazuto then uncovered the terminals, before directing the screen at Shino. As she peered at the screen, several digital figures indicated that it was already long past five.

  “Whoa, I didn’t notice we had spent this much time talking.”

  “The sense of time is subjective matter. It’s not just during a dream but also in the real world. When in an emergency, adrenaline that rushes out makes time feel slower, on the other hand, the time passes faster when we are absorbed in a relaxing talk. RATH has been researching about how this happens in the human’s consciousness…… or Fluctlight, and had came up with a rough theory. Apparently, flowing at the core of the consciousness is the pulse that acts as a «Thought clock control signal». But it seems they are still unable to understand where it comes from.”

  “Clock……?”

  “It’s what you hear often when talking about computer’s something-gigahertz.”

  “The number of calculations it can do in one second, right?”

  Asuna said as she nodded, Kazuto then knocked the table surface with his right hand’s finger, making a ton ton sound.

  “That is also the max number they put in the catalogue, it actually isn’t constant. It usually operates slowly in order to generate less heat, then when a heavy workload is requested——”

  Ton ton ton, as he sped up the rhythm.

  “As the operation clock is increased, so does the calculation speed. It is the same as the quantum computer in the form of Fluctlight. Placed in an emergency state, having to deal with large amounts of data, the thought clock would be accelerated to cope with it. Sinon surely has experienced it too, when concentrating during an intense battle, you felt like you could see the bullets, right?”

  “Ah―, well…yeah, when I am in a very good condition. But there is no way I could imitate your «Predicting the bullet’s trajectory then avoiding it»”

  Shino said as she pouted, Kazuto gave a bitter smile before shaking his head.

  “That’s also impossible for me now. I need to retrain before the next BoB…… Anyway, that thought clock affects our sense of time. When the clock is accelerated, a human would feel that the flow of time is slower. The moments during sleep would be an obvious example of it. In order to deal with the large amount of memory data, the Fluctlight is sped up, and as a result, we see a dream which feels several hours long within several minutes.”

  “Hmmmm……”

&nbs
p; Shino folded her arms as she groaned. Her brain, or rather her mind, was a light based computer, something like that was beyond the common sense, an act of «Thinking» could increase or decrease its speed, even it was said so, she couldn’t feel like it could possibly be done. However, Kazuto grinned as he continued,

  “——In this case. If we could do a work or homework in our dream, don’t you think it’d be great? Even it is just a several minutes in the real world, but it would be several hours in the dream.”

  “S-Something like that is absurd.”

  “Yes, I think so―, I haven’t seen such a convenient dream before.”

  Even though Shino and Asuna both objected at the same time, but the smile remained on Kazuto’s face as he continued explaining,

  “The real dream is inconsistent, that is the by-product of the memory processing operation. The dream which is created by STL is much clearer…… I mean, the VR world resembles the dream in that logic. In that world, the thought clock in the consciousness is interfered and accelerated. At the same time, the standard time inside the virtual world is also accelerated in sync. As a result, the Dive time that a user feels in the virtual world is several times over the actual time in reality. That is the STL’s greatest killer feature, the «Fluctlight Acceleration», abbreviated as FLA.”

  “……This is already……”

  I don’t think we’re talking about reality anymore, as Shino let out a little sigh. It was already far from a «Slightly different» AmuSphere.

  Social life had been completely changed with just the implementation of the FullDive technology. Shino heard that the reduced cost version was used in normal companies and it had become common to go into the virtual world for a conference or presentation, there were the broadcasting of real 3D drama and movies every day, where audiences could enter into the scene from any angle they like, and a traveling software that reproduced a high altitude view was very popular among the elderly, it was as Kazuto said earlier, an era that even military training was done in the virtual world.

  With the increasing number of people who didn’t want to leave their houses, came the arrival of the «Strolling group» boom, which was walking aimlessly around town in the virtual world, the release of the «Virtual strolling software», which catered that particular group had gained a big popularity, it was the phenomenon which had its priorities backwards. And it was only recently that the major hamburger shop and the beef bowl chain started to open their virtual branches.