NFBE Chapter 300: Love
Chapter 300: Love
Chapter 300: Love
Inside Asagiri’s eye icon APP, another special notification appeared.
[You have completed a special quest. Rewards have been distributed to your inventory.]
Asagiri directly took out a brown paper bag from his inventory. Without even looking at it, he tossed it to Kayaba Akihiko, who was sitting nearby.
Kayaba caught the paper bag and glanced down.
A white label was attached to the surface.
[Brain-Machine Interface "NERvGear" Related Theoretical Data]
He raised his head and looked at Asagiri. After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke.
"You’re just handing this over to me directly? Aren’t you afraid I’ll go back on my word after completing the research and refuse to cooperate with you?"
"How could that be?"
Asagiri smiled and waved his hand, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"If you were willing to cooperate with those boring people, you wouldn’t have started researching this project in the first place. Things like money and status are meaningless to you. What you pursue should be research projects that can truly change the world. Cooperating with us, and only with us, will allow you to realize your ideals. It’s that simple."
Hearing Asagiri’s words, a complicated look appeared in Kayaba Akihiko’s eyes.
He gazed at Asagiri’s unmasked face for a long while.
Then, for the first time since they had met, a genuine smile appeared on that face which had shown almost no emotional fluctuation until now.
"You are a very interesting person. What you are doing is also very interesting. So, just as we agreed, allow me to help you bring meaningful change to this world."
Asagiri had already expected Kayaba Akihiko to answer like this.
After developing the brain-machine interface NERvGear, the man would trap tens of thousands of Players in the death game SAO, ultimately leading to the deaths of thousands. After the game was fully cleared, he would even subject himself to a high-efficiency scan that burned out his brain, leaving only his digitized Persona to continue existing.
He was an unfathomable man.
But as a transmigrator, Asagiri knew what Kayaba Akihiko had always been pursuing.
A world that completely surpassed the various frameworks of reality.
A world unimaginable to ordinary people, yet unmistakably real.
And this "game" currently unfolding, wasn’t it exactly like what Kayaba Akihiko had envisioned?
No, it was more than similar.
It surpassed the "reality" in Kayaba Akihiko’s mind.
After all, SAO Players were still ordinary people after returning to reality, but game Players possessed extraordinary powers that ordinary people could never hope to obtain, whether inside Dungeons or in the real world.
"Then I’ll be going. I still have things to deal with. Oh, right, before I leave..."
Asagiri stood up and crushed a phantom tarot card that drifted down from the air.
"Persona, Mita."
Kind Mita instantly appeared.
Seeing Asagiri summon a Persona, Kayaba Akihiko did not show any particular reaction. He already knew the other party was a Player with extraordinary powers.
But shock appeared on Ashikaga Miwa’s face.
She looked to the side, where Human Asura was still standing silently. After confirming it several times, she finally looked at Asagiri and murmured,
"You... How did you..."
"Oh, I got stronger."
Asagiri explained casually.
"I can now summon two Personas at the same time. Once I become more proficient later, the number of Personas I can summon simultaneously should also increase. That’s basically it."
"That’s basically it?"
Ashikaga Miwa was completely dumbfounded.
It could work like that?
He did not need to clear Dungeons to obtain system rewards. Simply experiencing battle could cause Asagiri’s exclusive talent to undergo such a significant improvement?
Could it be...
Persona was actually a power that originally belonged to him?
"Anyway, let her read that experimental data too."
Asagiri pointed at Kind Mita.
Seeing her expression, which tried to appear calm even though her slightly downturned lips betrayed her dissatisfaction, he added with a smile,
"After you finish reading, I’ll take you out for cake tonight."
Kind Mita’s lips instantly curved upward, but she still put on a mature and rational facade.
"Alright then."
...
A little later, at Yuuki Asuna’s home in Tokyo’s Ginza commercial district.
"Mr. Yuuki, Mrs. Yuuki."
Yuuki Shozo and Yuuki Kyoko, who had been waiting on the sofa, quickly stood up when they heard the door open.
Seeing Yuuki Asuna and Asagiri enter together, anxiety appeared on Yuuki Kyoko’s face, and she immediately asked with concern,
"I heard there was an accident at the train station, and Tokyo is currently holding an anti-terrorism drill. What happened? Mr. Kayaba Akihiko..."
Before Yuuki Kyoko could finish speaking, her gaze landed on the splint on Yuuki Asuna’s left arm and the gauze taped to her daughter’s neck.
She froze for a moment, then quickly rushed forward.
"Asuna, what happened to you? How did you get such serious injuries?"
Yuuki Asuna pursed her lips and forced out a comforting smile.
"It’s nothing, Mom. Just a fractured left arm and some minor cuts..."
"Nothing? Such serious injuries, and you call it nothing?"
Yuuki Kyoko was very emotional. Looking at her daughter’s injuries, her eyes filled with heartache.
Then she looked at Asagiri standing beside Asuna. Her tone softened slightly, but it was still very serious.
"Utsunomiya, what exactly happened? Why did Asuna get hurt so badly?"
Yuuki Asuna reached out and tugged at Asagiri’s sleeve. A cautious, slightly timid expression appeared on her beautiful face.
"Asagiri..."
Asagiri did not answer Yuuki Kyoko’s question directly. Instead, he turned to look at Yuuki Asuna and spoke in a rare gentle tone.
"The choice is in your hands. It’s time to make a decision."
Hearing Asagiri’s words, Yuuki Asuna took a deep breath.
After calming herself, determination appeared in her eyes.
She nodded at Asagiri, took his hand, then looked at Yuuki Kyoko in front of her and slowly said,
"Actually, I..."
"You... You’re actually pregnant!?"
What Yuuki Asuna never expected was that before she could finish speaking, Yuuki Kyoko had already assumed her guess was correct just from looking at her expression. She frowned slightly and let out a heavy sigh.
"You... I know you’re young, and getting carried away in the heat of the moment is unavoidable, but... but why didn’t you take precautions..."
Seeing that her mother had completely misunderstood, Yuuki Asuna’s pretty face flushed bright red, and she interrupted shyly,
"Mom, what are you thinking!? I’m not pregnant. What I wanted to say is that Asagiri and I are both Players!"
"Oh, Player..."
After hearing that Yuuki Asuna was not pregnant, Yuuki Kyoko first breathed a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted. Then confusion appeared on her face.
"Huh? Player? What kind of Player? From a video game?"
Yuuki Asuna glanced at her father sitting on the sofa and found that Yuuki Shozo looked just as confused as Yuuki Kyoko. Clearly, neither of them had heard anything related to the game or Players.
"It’s like this..."
Since she had already made her decision, Yuuki Asuna no longer hesitated.
After sitting down on the sofa, she told her parents everything about the game’s beginning and how she had become a Player, from start to finish.
During the process, she was very nervous.
But every time she felt the warmth from Asagiri’s palm and turned to see his eyes, firm courage welled up in her heart again.
After listening, Yuuki Shozo and Yuuki Kyoko exchanged glances.
The middle-aged couple looked somewhat stunned, only half convinced by their daughter’s words.
"Asuna, you..."
Before her mother could voice her doubts, a rapier appeared in Yuuki Asuna’s right hand.
Immediately afterward, several flashes of cold light streaked past in an instant.
In less than a second, Yuuki Asuna raised her hand to tuck her flaxen hair behind her ear, pointed at the table, and said calmly,
"This."
Yuuki Kyoko and Yuuki Shozo looked in the direction she was pointing.
The apple that had been sitting perfectly intact on the table had now been sliced neatly into eight uniform pieces.
"This... How did you do that?"
"It’s simple. I made four strikes just now."
"Huh? In such a short time..."
Seeing Yuuki Kyoko and Yuuki Shozo’s dumbfounded expressions, Asagiri chuckled.
"So now you two can be certain, right? Asuna and I are Players with extraordinary powers."
After a silence that lasted more than ten seconds, Yuuki Kyoko looked at her daughter with a complicated expression in her eyes. She pursed her lips and said,
"Asuna, according to what you just said, this game carries the risk of death at any time... Is there a way to quit? Can you transfer your Player status to someone else?"
"There’s no such way. And besides..."
Resolute determination appeared in Yuuki Asuna’s bright eyes.
She gently placed her right hand on her mother’s hand, looked directly at her mother’s face, and spoke firmly, word by word.
"Even if there were a way, I wouldn’t give up my Player status. Doing that would just be burying my head in the sand and trying to avoid the truth. A person without power can’t protect anything. I want to use my power to personally protect my family and friends. Moreover..."
At this point, a blush appeared on Yuuki Asuna’s pretty face.
But in the end, she suppressed her shyness and spoke with courage.
"Asagiri needs me, and I want to stay by his side forever. No matter what we have to go through, no matter what dangers we have to face, I won’t be afraid anymore."
When Yuuki Asuna said this, Asagiri suddenly felt something deep in his heart being touched.
Immediately afterward, a rotating, ethereal tarot card slowly floated down and landed in his open palm.
"Tarot card, The Lovers. Upright."
.....
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