-"Hey, you. You're finally awake."-Seijirou greeted me from the door of my hospital room.
~"And you still are a nerd."~I looked at him, a little exasperated.
-"And who's talking? The guy who just played for a few months straight."
~"True. How's everything going?"
-"Since about an hour ago, players started to wake up. This alarmed everyone, so the country stepped in and ordered interviews of players as well as a broader inquisition into what happened in the game."-He corrected the glasses on his face to look more serious.
~"What about the perpetrators?"
-"The court cases are still ongoing, but most likely, nothing will come of them. After all, Kayaba's 'suicide' was confirmed by the media and the country."
~"Good job."~I nodded.
-"Yes, I indeed worked hard for you. Not only did you take the copy of the game that would be mine, but you also made me work so much overtime. You better make sure I'm well paid for all of that."
Looking at him acting all pitiful, I almost saw a certain pink fox snickering in the background.
~"It's not like you would have played the full version. After the beta test, you delivered the game to me, allowing our project to move forward. Though I will definitely reward you for your work."
-"Fine by me. How long will you need to return to form?"
~"A month of rehabilitation should be enough."~I couldn't understand how a serious government employee could change his face every other two sentences, but thinking that Elysia was a Queen suddenly made some sense.
-"I'll arrange for that."
~"Make some noise about red players and try to use some of what happened inside to bring media onto our side."
-"You truly plan to push for rights of virtual life?"
~"Yes. Use Sofia as an example of a sentient and feeling AI. With little exaggeration, we can make her into an AI hero who saved so many people with us."
-"Why did you decide to push this issue?"-Seijirou couldn't understand why I would do something so strange for a person who would be the first to profit from the growth of AI.
~"Well..."~I smiled slightly.~"To shake the established order."
During my month-long rehabilitation, the world was taken by the storm brought by the end of SAO. First, the treatment of players united even opposing political groups, allowing everyone to return to life without much of a loss. However, as the information about what took place inside the game started to spread, it caused outrage on two different fronts.
On the one hand, the actions of red players pushed people to demand justice for those killed, and on the other, many criticized the tyranny of top players, especially me. Unsurprisingly, very few players were outspoken on either side. They mostly wanted to leave that chapter behind, but they even supported me when some politicians wanted to get involved.
Because of such exposure, all members of Flame Chasers became celebrities. This, as always, was a two-edged sword. While for me, Eden, and Vill-V, popularity brought advantages, for Mito, whose true name, Tozawa Misumi, was revealed to the public at some point, it caused trouble from both strangers and family. Especially when the gossip of my non-monogamous relationships with them came to light.
If it wasn't for Misumi being over sixteen years old, thus being able to marry, and her stating that she would choose me over her family, her parents would never allow her to contact us again, though they started to support the movement to change the minimum women's marriage age to eighteen.
Sadly, Asuna's side was more problematic. She was part of a hundred or so players who were not woken up, but that was taken care of thanks to Fuxi's and Nuwa's uncovering of Sugou Nobuyuki's and RECT Inc.'s illegal actions, forcing them to release the remaining players. This, unfortunately, brought Asuna's father's downfall, but as she was also a victim, proving that her father was unaware of those activities, he was only forced to retire while retaining the pensions and other privileges he had.
Because of this, we received SAO's code and a newly released game called ALO. Using our name as Flame Chasers, we started working on changing the public opinion of FullDive gaming. For obvious reasons, few people trusted this technology, even after safety upgrades, but for our plan, we needed people to get involved with such technology on a much deeper level.
Similarly to our strategy for the previous Mortal World, we prepared a calamity that would be later resolved by Hold to get people's hearts and faith. But this time, the tribulation will come in the form of technological singularity and the looming war between living and artificial. To achieve this, we worked hard to control both technological research and media, along with founding research facilities in many countries.
As of now, Japan, the USA, Russia, Germany, Australia, and China are all heavily investing in robotics and AI. Using ideas and scientific works that we brought from Hold and disseminated, they were able to improve said technology by what they would need twenty years, if not more, previously.
Especially promising was the Omnica Corporation, which was founded in the USA, but while their capitalistic approach might guarantee fast growth, in the future, they most likely will have trouble sustaining profits. But that matter needs many years to germinate into what we need it to be, so for now, we focused on other matters.
After finishing our rehabilitations, we resumed our posts in Rath, returning to work on Project Alicization. With Sofia as a 'living' example of what we wish to achieve, we were able to quickly achieve a breakthrough, forming a solid link between an 'ego' born as AI and growing in the Underworld and Hold's Origin Cubes that couldn't successfully awaken and turn into Wisdom Cubes.
This made us split Project Alicization into two parts. The Underworld Project, which continued in the previous spirit, was trying to create sentient but purely technological AI, and the Azure Project, which was based on the Origin Cubes, was aiming to create operators for Hold's still-forming navy.
But overall, the progress was slow, even with simulations being accelerated hundreds of times. As we could do nothing much aside from waiting now, we turned to our other assignments, mine being expanding our influence. With my newly acquired reputation as a springboard, I formed an organization focused on the safety of virtual reality and AI, and thanks to my political connections, I was able to bring in almost all big corporations involved in those fields.
With this influence, I lobbied for the formation of a new UN Main Body, the Artificial Reality and Intelligence Council, of which I quickly became the chairman. Cooperating with other parties involved in ARaI, I led the creation of laws and regulations that effectively made affiliated corporations leave the influence of their countries of origin, gaining a level of autonomy comparable to an independent country, thus gaining an economic and influence base for my future endeavors.
At the same time, Eden and Elysia achieved heights of popularity all around the world. From most isolated communities to the biggest cities, their fans were everywhere. Mobius, Dr. Mei, Vill-V, and Su also didn't lie on their laurels and wrote many scientific papers that conquered their respective communities while accelerating technological progress even further.
Kevin, Kosma, and Kalpas were tasked with the safety of Rath, so few know of them, but Sakura and Fu Hua who often followed me on my many meetings and interviews, so their names were quite well known, especially on the pages of some gossip magazines that regularly mentioned our 'love affairs' in SaO and reality.
With everything happening, before I noticed it, a year had passed by, and the end of the school year arrived, so we decided to take a vacation and meet with Griseo, Misumi, and Asuna for the Flame Chasers reunion. At first, we decided to reserve a nice restaurant near the school so as not to cause a commotion, but the plans couldn't keep up with the times, and soon after arriving in the city, I found myself standing on the podium delivering an end-of-year speech for students in SAO Survivor School.
~"... And so, not to prolong your last day of school, may your future never be filled with blessings and happiness."~I finished my short speech and stepped down from the stage, accompanied by applause from the students.
-"Thanks for helping me out."-Seijirou, who was the one who put me into this situation, waved to me.
~"I'll be sure to mention this surprise at your performance meeting in the future."
-"Tsk... Don't be so stingy. You're the idol of those children."
~"Heh, to be honest, I believe that most, if not all of them, are already out of the darkness cast by SAO. It's the adults who need support to leave those bleak memories and move forward."
-"Let's not talk about that now, it's a waste to ruin such a happy occasion."
~"Sure. I'll be taking leave then."
-"Wait! What about that matter given to us by the Japanese government in exchange for support?"
~"You mean that killer?"
-"Yes."
~"Well... I read the plan you proposed, and it's most likely the best that we can do while not affecting others, though I'm not the greatest fan of using guns."
-"Hero of SAO playing in popular tournament, can you imagine better advertisement?"
~"And target."~I rolled my eyes at Seijirou's fake smile~"I agree to your proposal, but try to find me some more info on that GGO as I'm not keeping up with that game."
-"Yes, Sir! With this matter done, our proposal will definitely pass the voting next session."
~"If so, then our success will be an inevitability."~Muttering so under my breath, I joined the Flame Chasers waiting for me outside.
We moved to the previously reserved restaurant, and after the three school girls joined us, our celebration started.
-"Cheers!"
~"Cheers."~I clinked my glass with everyone and turned to Eden and Mobius to continue our conversation.~"So basically we've done all but a few minor objectives already?"
-"Inducing a technological revolution for us is a breeze. They are at least a hundred years before Hold when it comes to science, not to mention the mystical side that we have access to."-Mobius showed a disdainful smile while speaking about the current state of things.
-"The SAO allowed us to gain popularity few can match, opening doors that saved us years of development."-Eden spoke after taking a sip of her wine.
~"Then we only need to wait for some results from Rath, and we can return."
-"Hey! Don't talk about work!"-Elysia appeared next to us, showing an annoyed expression.
-"Sorry, Ellie."-Eden smiled apologetically at the Pink Fairy
-"Hmph."-Elysia puffed her cheeks, but then, as if remembering something, looked at me and grabbed my arm to drag me with her.-"Yue, come with me!"
~"What's the matter?"
-"We were talking about our home in ALO, but we can't agree on the place, so we wanted to hear your opinion."-Elysia dragged me to where Asuna, Griseo, Misumi, Sakura, and Vill-V were talking about ALO.
-"... I still think that the 8th floor is better. Now that we can fly, there is no need to worry about falling into water, and the scenery of the giant trees is far better than the great forest on the 3rd floor."-Misumi finished speaking before turning to me.-"Won't you agree, Yue?"
~"Hmm... If we are comparing those two floors, then yes, I prefer the 8th, though getting there will be the main issue."
-"We got there once, the second time will be even easier."-Sakura smiled as she also was in favour of the 8th floor.
-"Don't forget the prices on that floor were much higher than others, even on the 50th, one could find cheaper houses than on the 8th."-Vill-V reminded us.
-"Well... if we were to pick the 8th floor, then I think only the outpost on the highest tree next to the waterfall cliff overlooking the city will be a good size for us while having nice scenery."-Asuna spoke while trying to remember the layout of the floor.
~"That place that three guilds fought for?"
-"Yes."
~"It's indeed a good spot."
-"Then, is anyone opposed?"-Elysia clapped her hands.
We shook our heads, and so the decision was made.
-"Good! Then, when the update is out, we will rush to the 8th floor!"
-"There are still five hours left."
~"That's why we are celebrating now and not later. Let's eat and drink so that we can play with peace of mind after."
-"Exactly!"-Elysia raised her fist in agreement.
Leaving the girls to themselves, I stepped to the other corner where Su, Kosma, and Kalpas talked while looking at Kevin being ordered around by Mei with amused but exasperated expressions.
-"To think that Hero, that countless people idolize, would be kept like that."-Kalpas tried his best to keep a sneer from appearing behind his mask.-"Heh, being single is only true freedom."
~"Allow me to disagree."
-"With all due respect, I believe that both of you can be examples of how one should not act in relationships."-Su shook his head.-"Kevin can't stand up to Mei and is led by the nose, but you are no better in other aspects, Yue."
~"Is that so? Well, there might be some truth in that."~I shrugged my shoulders.~"But you three singles don't have much authority to speak about all that."
-"That's true."
-"Well, two of them."-Kosma broke his usual silence.
~"Oh? Is it finally official? Congratulations."~I raised my glass.
-"Thanks."
-"Heh, women will only slow down how fast I can strike."-Kalpas remained obstinate in his opinion.
-"Is that so?"-A pleasant voice sounded behind us.
Instantly, Kosma, Su, and I took a step away from Kalpas, whose expression froze.
-"Aponia..?"
-"'Please', tell me more."-The nun smiled, though her eyes remained unchanged as she stared at Kalpas.
Kaplas gritted his teeth, trying his best to resist the compulsion while looking at us impatently.
~"Ehem, Aponia, can you let him off the hook today?"~I implored for Kalpas, noticing his pleading gaze.
-"As you wish, Your Excellency."-Aponia instantly changed her bearing, showing piousness of a staunch believer as she looked at me.
~"..."~I turned my head, still being unaccustomed to the feeling of faith coming from some of my more fanatical believers.
With such banter happening all around, we continued our party until the time for the update came. As soon as the servers opened, we logged in and met with our other allies to start conquering Aincrad once again.