Journey to Planar World

(Should I use I Am Atomic to overwhelm Kayaba’s Auto Recovery and deplete his HP bar?) Charlie pondered silently.

It was a high-risk plan, and he wasn’t reckless enough to resort to violence to solve the problem.

(No, I Am Atomic requires about five seconds to activate. In that time, Kayaba could manipulate Asuna and Kirito’s Nerve Gears. Then, this Quest would be considered a failure, even if the Abyssal Devourer is already dead.) His mind raced, weighing every scenario.

(Ultimately, the Abyssal Devourer’s goal is the death of this Planar World’s Children of Fate. If Asuna and Kirito die before their time, the world will collapse.)

The destructive power of I Am Atomic was staggering, capable of defeating Heathcliff in a single strike, but such a technique required preparation time. Charlie feared Kayaba would exploit that window to drag others down with him, especially the two Children of Fate.

Don’t try to understand the reasoning of a madman. Ordinary logic and common sense are useless against them.

Clearly, Kayaba fell into the category of a madman.

What sane person would trap ten thousand players in a virtual game where death was real?

Wouldn’t it be better to sit back and enjoy the profits from the world’s first revolutionary VRMMO? Yet, Kayaba chose this path of madness.

After much deliberation, Charlie opted for compromise.

”Fine, I agree to your proposal.”

The sword in his hand vanished like mist, and his expression was one of extreme reluctance, as if swallowing a bitter pill.

”A wise decision. As agreed, I’ll force Asuna to log out of SAO. I hope you keep your word, invader. If you go back on it and attack me, Kirito will die.”

Heathcliff only promised to free Asuna, not Kirito.

He didn’t know the cause and effect of why these two individuals were protected by two extraordinary entities and targeted for assassination by a mysterious woman. But he knew their lives were crucial to these invaders. Thus, Heathcliff was confident that, while Charlie cared more about Asuna than Kirito, he wouldn’t let Kirito die either.

In this context, he used Kirito as a hostage in case Charlie was the type to break promises.

”Whatever, I don’t care. I’m not the kind of guy who stabs people in the back.” Charlie said, shrugging as if indifferent to Kirito’s fate.

”By the way, how do I know you’ve logged Asuna out? If I go to town to check on her and she’s still there, wouldn’t that give you a chance to escape? I’m not an idiot.”

”You don’t need to worry about that, invader. See for yourself with your own eyes.”

Addressing Charlie’s doubts, Heathcliff offered no further explanation. Calmly, he opened his GM account menu, his fingers moving swiftly across the transparent interface. He began working.

*SHUA!*

Suddenly, a transparent holographic screen appeared in front of Charlie, showing a familiar scene: Asuna waiting in an inn in town. She looked restless, occasionally glancing at the door.

*BUZZ!*

The next moment, Asuna’s body began to glow with the bright shimmer characteristic of logging out, then vanished completely from view.

The holographic screen disappeared as well.

”Asuna has successfully logged out safely. She’s probably waking up in a hospital right now. The deal is fulfilled. May I leave now?”

On the surface, Heathcliff appeared calm, but inwardly, he was anxious, fearing Charlie might suddenly attack. He knew the potential power of this invader.

”Go. Letting a villain walk away in front of me is the biggest concession I’ve ever made.” Charlie said coldly, his gaze still sharp, restraining his burning desire to eradicate the evil before him.

”Goodbye. I hope we never meet again.”

With that, Heathcliff teleported away using a Teleport Crystal, an item that should only be available starting from Floor 25 of Aincrad.

*SHUA!*

Heathcliff’s figure vanished in a flash of light, leaving Charlie alone.

*WHOOSH!*

Without wasting time, Charlie shot into the sky, flying toward the town at supersonic speed.

◆━⊰✧⊱━◆

Back at the inn where Asuna was last seen, Charlie confirmed she was indeed gone.

The room was empty, silent, bearing only traces of her presence.

”So she’s really gone, huh…”

Sitting on the still-neat bed, Charlie let out a long sigh.

”Asuna must be upset that we parted without a proper goodbye, right?”

He imagined Asuna’s reaction in the real world now—perhaps confused, maybe even a little angry for being left so abruptly.

”Wait a second…!”

A sudden thought jolted him, making him stand.

”I remember in the original story, not all SAO players successfully logged out after Heathcliff’s defeat by Kirito. Including Asuna, a total of 300 players were trapped in Alfheim Online (ALO) by Nobuyuki Sugou and used as subjects in his mind-control experiments.”

”Sugou prevented these players from exiting SAO after the game ended and redirected them to ALO for his research.”

Using his access to SAO’s servers, Sugou blocked 300 players from logging out and instead transferred their consciousness to ALO’s servers. His goal was to develop technology to control people’s emotions and manipulate their minds, and he saw the trapped SAO players as perfect test subjects.

”If I’m not mistaken, Sugou specifically targeted Asuna, holding her in ALO and attempting to force her to marry him.”

A deep frown creased Charlie’s brow.

”Because of the interference from the Savior and the Abyssal Devourer, SAO’s storyline is a mess! Asuna and Kirito never had the intense interactions, let alone the romantic relationship, as in the original story. If Asuna is indeed trapped in ALO, Kirito has no emotional motivation to endure the pain and overcome obstacles to save a girl he barely knows.”

Kirito lacked the same emotional drive to rescue Asuna.

However, Charlie found a flaw in his own concerns.

”Maybe I’m overthinking? After all, it hasn’t even been half a year since SAO launched. There’s no way ALO has already been developed, right?”

He hoped his anxiety was based on a scenario that hadn’t yet occurred.

Charlie didn’t know much about game development, but he knew it wasn’t a short process.

Developing a game, especially a complex one like a VRMMO, was a time-, resource-, and labor-intensive process.

For a VRMMO as intricate as SAO, development time could vary greatly but typically took at least 2-3 years, often stretching to 5 years or more for large, ambitious projects. This didn’t even include the time for researching and developing the hardware, like the Nerve Gear itself.

Of course, Charlie realized there were factors that could accelerate ALO’s development.

Given that much of ALO’s core programming and data was likely adapted from SAO, and the AmuSphere was a safe FullDive device developed from the Nerve Gear’s blueprint, it wasn’t surprising that ALO’s development could be shorter than SAO’s, which started from scratch.

Many foundational elements were already in place.

However, even with those factors, developing ALO to full operational status in less than half a year—the time since SAO’s launch—still seemed unrealistic.

ALO wasn’t just a simple game; it was a complex VRMMO with a vast world, magic systems, flight mechanics, and the capacity for thousands of potential players.

This calmed Charlie somewhat, but the unease lingered.