All the sounds in the bar vanished in an instant.
Everyone looked toward Agil, the owner of the bar.
Under the gazes of everyone present, Agil coughed once.
"Everyone knows that after the SAO and ALO incidents, full-dive technology sparked widespread debate in society. Many people considered it an extremely dangerous technology that could no longer be trusted, causing many VRMMOs to announce their shutdowns. The Virtual World thus vanished from our lives."
Agil's words made everyone present wipe the smiles from their faces and fall silent.
Naoha lowered her head as well, looking somewhat dejected.
But Agil did not stop explaining.
"Developing a system program capable of controlling the input and output of the five senses, allowing people to freely soar through the Virtual World, was an extraordinarily difficult task. Before this, every game operating around the world had been created using the 'Cardinal' system developed by Akihiko Kayaba at 'ARGUS,' and using that system required paying extremely high licensing fees."
"And after 'ARGUS' went bankrupt, the program rights were transferred to 'RECT.' But now, with 'RECT' dissolved and the public highly critical of VR games, many companies are no longer willing to operate in the VR industry. Full-dive games have consequently begun to fall into decline."
At this point, Agil changed the direction of the conversation.
"However, this situation has recently begun to change."
As he spoke, Agil questioned everyone.
"Has anyone here heard of the 'Seed of the World'?"
Agil's question caused quite a few people present to exchange glances.
One person quickly raised his hand.
That person was none other than Kirito.
"I think I've seen something about it online."
As a true internet addict, Kirito spoke with great seriousness.
"Apparently, it's a software package released by the government for operating an immersive VR environment through