i became a shadow

Chapter 58 Return to Reality
When the field of vision in front of Duo recovered again, what caught his eyes was no longer the bright red walls and ground of the Ruby Palace, but a vast sky instead...

"here is?"

Duo frowned, looked around, and saw that there was an endless sky all around, and pieces of white clouds drifted past every corner, filling the space very vividly, and he was floating Once there, it feels like stepping on flat ground, without any sense of weightlessness...

Not far away, there is a huge floating steel city that is slowly collapsing.

That is Aincrad who has trapped the players for two years!

"By the way... the game is over..."

After he defeated Heathcliff, the whole world began to turn into a white light, and he also lost consciousness at that time.

Standing in the sky like this, watching Aincrad who has lived for two years fall apart, Duo couldn't tell what he was feeling right now.

two years...

It turns out that I have spent so long in this world?
The sharp-eyed Duo even saw clearly that the forest villa on the 22nd floor of Aincrad, which carried countless sweet memories of himself, Asuna, and Yui, fell down with the collapsed city of steel. In the endless void.

"How about Duo-kun, isn't it beautiful to overlook Aincrad from here?"

Turning around slowly, behind him, a shrewd man in a white coat was looking down from a distance, that face he had never seen before, but he couldn't stop himself from being familiar with him.

Or Heathcliff, or Akihiko Kayaba!
"Wouldn't it be nice to ruin it like this?"

Sighing lightly, Duo's eyes contained various complex emotions.

When Kayaba Akihiko heard this, his eyes trembled for a moment, but he soon calmed down again, and said expressionlessly.

"Ah, my goal has been achieved, let it take away my thoughts and bury it under this sky forever..."

At this moment, Kayaba Akihiko's expression became a little blurred, as if he had lost his mind, he said something, and continued to speak.

"Duo-jun, do you know? I have had a dream since a long time ago."

"Dream of such a world, a perfect world."

"When I learned about the development of the full-dive environment system—no, it should be said that it started earlier, I lived to create that city, a world that surpassed all the frameworks and laws of the real world. Then I lived at the last moment. , I saw something that can surpass the laws of the world I created..."

"To this day, I still believe that somewhere, there really is a Sky Fortress...!"

Kayaba Akihiko closed his eyes, and the white coat on his body fluttered under the high-altitude wind. When he opened his eyes the next second, an extremely complicated emotion was revealed from inside.

"Finally, I want to ask, what do you really think about it?"

Kayaba Akihiko stared straight at Duo's cheek and said.

"It doesn't matter what you think, the most important thing is that I am having fun!"

Kayaba Akihiko's complexion changed, and the eyes that had been watching Duo also quietly changed, becoming brighter and with a little relief.

"That's good... that's good, and finally congratulations to you, Duo-jun, for clearing the game... Maybe we will meet again next time."

"By the way, this is for you..."

The light spot floated down from the mid-air, shattered like a drop of water hitting a stone, and then, a small water-blue crystal bead slowly fell, lying in the palm of Duo.

Kayaba Akihiko murmured to himself, after saying this, his body turned into pieces and completely disappeared in front of Duo.

……

"Congratulations to the host, you have completed the system task, have you received the reward?"

Listening to the long-lost system prompt, Duo showed a happy smile in a deserted corner.

"receive!"

"Begin to condense the body for the host..."

The emotionless system sound echoed in his ears, and Duo's entire body was instantly enveloped by a black light. He closed his eyes tightly, but his consciousness was very clear.

"System, check character attributes..."

As soon as the words fell to the ground, an interface version exuding a bright halo appeared in Duo's mind.

Character attributes

Name: Duo (title already worn)
Sex: Male

Strength: 95 (+5)
Speed: 105 (+5)

Spirit: 120
(The limit for normal people is 20)

Title: [Junior Assassin] (This title can provide the wearer with 5 free attributes of speed and strength, and increase the ability of hiding and bursting by 5%.)
Ability: Toughness LV.1 (Immunity to 5% pain and touch, and 15% chance to trigger healing ability, each healing restores 1% of physical strength.)
After seeing this data, Duo nodded in satisfaction. It seems that his two years of hard work have not been in vain.

Then his gaze continued to look down, until he stopped at the last hidden mission.

"The system extracts Yui's data from my NERvGear's main body storage and saves it in the system space."

"It has been saved... Congratulations to the host, complete the hidden task, do you want to hide the reward?"

The sound of the system made Duo, who had been extremely tense, instantly relax.

It seems that my guess is right, Yui, don't worry, Dad will definitely find a way to let you live freely in the real world.

"receive!"

As soon as his consciousness moved, the cold sound of the system circled around Duo's ears again.

"Congratulations to the host, you have obtained a random character summoning volume, which has been automatically saved in the system space..."

"79%... 94%... 100%, the body has been condensed successfully, all tasks have been completed, and there are still three days before forcibly leaving this world..."

After finishing speaking, the system's voice gradually became weaker, until finally it was completely inaudible, and Duo, who had closed his eyes tightly, opened them suddenly.

The original pitch-black system space has long been replaced by steel forests.

Gently raising his white arm, Duo smiled magnificently with his red agate-like eyes.

Turning his head, looking at the glass window outside the clothing store, a very familiar figure came into view.

It was a puppet that seemed to be sculpted only by the Creator. He had long black hair flowing down to his waist, and his delicate and lovely appearance revealed a maturity that did not match his own.

And the skin like suet jade exudes a unique charm under the sunlight, and those blood-red rose eyes seem to glow with mist.

"Sure enough, it looks like this..."

Duo shook his head, anyway, after two years, he had already gotten used to it, maybe he didn't get used to it in a different way.

"However, the top priority is that I still have something to do. Nobuyuki Sugo should be called by this name..."

(End of this chapter)