Asuna.
You took your time, Kirito-kun.
You...
What if I were to catch a cold?
S-Sugou?
That was a nasty thing you did to me, Kirito-kun.
I can still feel the pain.
Sugou, you're finished.
Turn yourself in and be prosecuted.
I'm finished? How?
Plenty of companies out there want me.
Yes, once I complete my research, I'll really become king.
The god of this world.
You...
But before all of that, I’m going to kill you, Kirito-kun.
Hey, get up.
Get up, you!
To think a miserable brat like you could get in my way!
You'll pay for that with your life, of course.
You absolutely must die!
Huh?
My right eye isn't working very well.
I guess that's why I missed.
You miserable brat...
You...
You don't even have any real power!
Sugou.
You're no different.
Die, you little brat!
Some weapon you've got.
It's light and has no reach.
But I can still kill you with it!
Come on, she's waiting!
Asuna.
Kirito-kun.
Yeah.
I...
I just finished my very last battle.
It's over.
I'm sorry.
I still can't hear very well.
But I know what you're saying.
It's over, right?
Finally... Finally I got to meet you.
Hello.
I'm Yuuki Asuna.
I'm back, Kirito-kun.
I'm Kirigaya Kazuto.
Welcome back, Asuna.
The World Seed
May 16th, 2025 Friday
And so, this syntax can be—
You can change the syntax in the following way.
That's all for today.
I'll be mailing you homework files 25 and 26 later.
Make sure you upload your work by next week.
Sorry to keep you waiting, Asuna.
I’m exhausted.
And starving.
You sound like an old man, Kirito-kun.
I feel like I've aged five years in the past month.
Also...
It’s Kazuto, not Kirito.
It's rude to use our character names in real life.
Oh, right! Whoops!
But what about me?
Everyone will know who I am!
You're the one who used your real name for your character.
Well, everyone attending this school is a victim of the SAO incident.
They all seem to know who I am too.
Asuna.
How are you feeling?
You're still in physical therapy, right?
Yeah, I'm finally able to walk around without crutches.
But I'm not supposed to run yet.
I see.
By the way, Kirito-kun...
You know that people can totally see us from the cafeteria, right?
Seriously.
No lunch for being so careless!
Wait, please!
Tada!
By the way, is your father doing okay?
Yeah, though he was pretty depressed for a while.
He stepped down as CEO and is now semi-retired,
so he probably doesn't know what to do with himself.
He'll feel a lot better once he finds himself a hobby.
I see.
On that snowy evening, Sugou was arrested in the hospital parking lot.
After he was detained, Sugou denied any wrongdoing and tried to pin everything on Kayaba Akihiko.
However, once a subordinate of his was brought in as a material witness, he confessed to everything.
Fortunately, the 300 players who remained comatose had no memories of being experimented on.
As none of them developed any neurological issues, they will likely be reintegrated into society.
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
However, this latest scandal dealt a fatal blow to the VRMMO genre of games.
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Another Terrifying VRMMO Crime
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
Monstrous Human Experimentation
Fatal Problem with the Game System!? Following SAO, Another Atrocious Incident Occurs in ALO!
In the end, RCT Progress was dissolved.
RCT, the parent company, also incurred a lot of damages.
A Letter of Apology Regarding the ALO Incident
Of course, ALO was forced to shut down.
A Letter of Apology Regarding the ALO Incident
Nobody expects the other five or six VRMMOs developed to survive much longer either.
A Letter of Apology Regarding the ALO Incident
Say, what happened to the commander?
Kayaba...
He's dead.
He committed suicide, apparently.
Suicide?
It seems Kayaba performed a high-output brain scan on himself the moment SAO was destroyed.
Does that mean he copied his consciousness onto the internet?
Apparently the success rate is less than one in a thousand.
But I'm certain that I spoke with Kayaba's consciousness back then.
What's this?
Something that can give rise to whole new worlds.
It's called "The Seed."
You'll know what it is once it starts budding.
Then you can decide what you'll do with it.
You can even delete it and forget about it.
But if you still feel anything other than hatred for that world...
Kirito-kun.
Earth to Kirito-kun!
It's about today's offline meeting.
Sorry, I spaced out there.
Geez.
Either here or in a virtual world, you're always way too relaxed when you're tired.
Geez, Liz—
I mean, Rika-san!
Stop making so much noise when you're drinking.
But look at them!
Kirito is cuddling up so close to her!
This sort of behavior at school is unacceptable...
You really should stop spying on people.
If I had known this would happen, I would never have agreed to that one-month ceasefire.
You're the one who came up with it!
You said to give them just one month to be all lovey-dovey.
You should've known better, seriously!
Are you going to the offline meeting today?
Of course!
Hey.
Have you ever met Agil, Sugu?
Yeah, I went hunting with him online twice.
He's a really big guy!
Just so you know, he's that big in real life too.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Reserved for Today!
Huh? We aren't even late.
The protagonist is always supposed to appear last.
We gave you guys a later meeting time.
Now come in!
W-Wait!
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for him!
Ready, go!
Kirito! Congratulations on clearing SAO!
Here.
Cheers!
Barkeep, a bourbon on the rocks.
Huh, oolong tea?
Agil, give me the real thing.
Are you sure, Klein?
Don't you need to go back to work?
Can't work overtime without a little booze.
More importantly...
It's been a while.
Thinker-san!
I heard you registered your marriage with Yulier-san.
I know it's late, but congratulations.
It's still taking everything I've got to get used to the real world, though.
I'm finally back on track at work.
Seriously man, congrats!
Oh yeah, I've been following the new MMO Today.
How embarrassing.
There isn't much content yet.
Besides, with the current MMO environment, walkthrough data and news are getting less and less useful.
It's like the chaos surrounding the birth of a new universe.
Agil, how's the seed been?
It's amazing.
There are about 50 mirror servers,
100,000 downloads,
and about 300 big servers actually running it.
After I rescued Asuna, I took the World Seed Kayaba had entrusted me with to Agil and asked him to analyze it.
We found out that the World Seed, or "The Seed,"
was a program package capable of running the Full Dive VRMMO environment Kayaba had developed.
Basically, if you own a server with enough bandwidth and download a copy of The Seed,
you can create your own virtual world on the internet.
I asked Agil to upload The Seed to servers all over the world so that anybody can use it.
Thanks to that, the dying VRMMO genre was resurrected.
Alfheim Online had all its data transferred to a new company, which is now running it.
But Alfheim wasn't the only new world that was born.
Hundreds of administrators, ranging from smaller companies to individuals, began running their own virtual game servers.
Each became compatible with one another.
Now, a character created in one virtual game can be ported into any of the other worlds.
Hey, no change in plans for the after party, right?
Yeah, it's still at eleven tonight.
We're meeting up in Yggdrasil City.
Alfheim • Cait Sith Territory Skies Above the Capital City of Freelia
Maximum Altitude
I was worried about how high up you were going to go.
It's almost time, so I came to get you.
I see. Thanks.
So Onii—Kirito-kun.
ALO is being run by a new company, and you can use your SAO avatar now.
Why aren't you using your old avatar like the others?
That Kirito has already finished his role.
I see.
So that means I'm the first one to meet Kirito-kun the Spriggan and take him to Yggdrasil.
Kirito-kun, let's dance!
It's an advanced technique that was recently developed.
You slowly move horizontally while hovering.
Yes, very good!
Leafa?
I'll be going home now.
Huh? Why?
Because...
You're all too far away.
I could never go that far.
Sugu...
That's not true.
You can go anywhere if you want to!
Here it comes.
Is there something wrong with the moon?
No way...
No way, is that...
Yes.
That's Aincrad, the floating castle.
But why?
Why is it here?
We're gonna end this the proper way.
This time, we're going to clear all 100 floors and conquer that castle.
Leafa.
I've reset my status attributes, so I'm pretty weak now.
You'll help me, won't you?
Yeah, I will.
I'll go anywhere with you.
Hey, what's the hold up, Kirito?
You'll be left behind!
See you there!
Come on!
Hurry!
Let's go, Kirito-kun, Leafa-chan.
Come on, Papa! Hurry!
All right, let's go!