Entering Tenya and the others' sight was a mysterious white room, with a control platform placed in the middle.
"Yui, have you remembered?" Asuna watched her with a sad expression.
"Yes."
"Tenya-san, Asuna-san."
Yui's address changed here.
"In this world called Aincrad, it is dominated by a huge system."
"The system's name is Cardinal, an intelligent system designed not to require manual maintenance."
"It can adjust the balance of Aincrad based on the system's own judgment..."
"The AI of monsters and NPCs, the drop rate of items and equipment, and game currency."
"As well as the skills players' characters learn."
"Everything is operated by the program modules controlled by Cardinal."
"I am the AI of this system... Code name: Yui."
After listening to Yui's detailed explanation, although everyone had expected it, they still felt shocked and helpless.
"Yui..."
Asuna's heart ached, and the immense sadness made her unable to stand.
Tenya reached out and pulled her into his embrace, letting her cry on his chest.
"I was given an emotion imitation function."
"It's all fake, everything is..."
"Including this tear..."
Yui lowered her head and wept.
"Whether it's humans or AI, the emotions we experienced together are real."
Tenya wrapped the other party into his embrace with his other hand.
"Tenya-san..."
"Asuna-san..."
"I want to be with you forever!"
"Papa!"
"Mama!"
At this moment, Yui was like a child, leaning in her parents' embrace.
"Mhm. We will definitely be together forever." Asuna nodded confidently.
"Sorry, it's already too late..."
"The moment I entered this room, I would be subjected to system scrutiny."
They saw large patches of garbled code appear on Yui's body.
"How could this be..."
"Since that's the case, Yui, you shouldn't have entered the program's backend."
Besides being sad, Asuna also felt confused.
"Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of this world."
"That man possesses system-level, the highest administrative authority."
"If papa and mama want to defeat him, they must lift the players' restrictions."
This was the reason Yui rushed into the system's backend despite everything.
Just then, the white room instantly turned into a red room, emitting an alarm signal.
A red light barrier struck Yui's body, isolating her from external contact.
"Yui!"
Asuna subconsciously knocked on the red light barrier, and the result was a prompt [Indestructible].
"Goodbye, papa, mama..."
Yui's body gradually disintegrated and dissipated in the red light.
Bang!
Tenya grabbed the red light barrier with one hand, and the harder he pushed, the greater the force of the rebound.
"Damn it!"
"This is GM interference, we players can't resist."
Mito could only stand by anxiously.
From common sense, a GM is equivalent to a god in the game world, and players are mortals.
How can mortals resist gods?
Tenya, without saying a word, grabbed the red light barrier with his bare hands.
Warning!
Illegal touch!
Warning!
Illegal touch!
Warning!
Illegal touch!
Large red warning messages appeared in Tenya's field of vision.
Sizzle...
Red lightning appeared where his palm touched, constantly eroding Tenya's entire body.
Dense wounds suddenly burst open on Tenya's body.
HP - 5%
HP - 5%
HP - 5%
If it were an ordinary player, this amount of HP loss would have already reset to zero.
Only the tough-skinned Tenya could endure it a little longer.
"Hmph!"
"No matter which world, no one can restrain me."
A mysterious aura suddenly erupted from Tenya's body.
"This power..."
"Impossible?!"
"There's no such skill in the game, right?"
Asuna and the others watched, dumbfounded.
You can't possibly say that the other party's power comes from the real world, right?
Isn't that just pure nonsense?
However, it was precisely such nonsense that happened right before their eyes.
Conqueror's Haki.
A mysterious power from outside the game was forcefully breaking through the game.
Bang!
Accompanied by a crisp explosion sound, the red light barrier was forcefully crushed by Tenya.
Tenya immediately reassembled the dissipating particles, finally forming an ornament that only resembled a teardrop.
"What is this?"
Asuna widened her eyes. She could feel that a trace of Yui's aura seemed to be hidden within this bead.
"Before Yui's administrator authority completely became invalid, I extracted Yui's program from the main body and materialized it."
"This is Yui's heart..."
Tenya handed Yui's heart to Asuna.
"Asuna, keep it safe on you."
"After the game is cleared, you can download Yui's consciousness to a local computer." Tenya explained patiently.
"In that case, I still have a chance to see Yui again."
Asuna's eyes lit up instantly, full of beautiful hopes for the future.
...
During the time Tenya and his group were absent from the front lines, news of clearing the twenty-third and twenty-fourth floors came one after another.
The Knights of the Blood led by Kirito became the MVP of the clearers, enjoying immense glory for a time.
In contrast, Tenya killed Kuradeel and several members of the army, becoming a complete red-named player.
The Knights of the Blood, in the name of maintaining "fairness and justice", issued a bounty warrant, calling on other players to hunt down Tenya.
The masses who didn't know the truth mostly sided with the Knights of the Blood while the few who knew the truth chose to remain silent.
After all, they were not related to Tenya, and there was no reason for them to meddle and offend the colossal Knights of the Blood.
Everything outside had nothing to do with Tenya.
Every day, he would just lie around at home, and if bored, he would go for a walk by the lake and fish.
Mito went out alone to grind monsters because she lacked a key material for crafting equipment.
It just so happened that Silica also needed to find materials to evolve Pina, so she also went out with Mito.
In the large house, only Tenya and Asuna were currently left.