"Mom..."
Seeing that Kyoko had finally spoken, Asuna almost reflexively prepared to say something.
But Kyoko merely furrowed her brows and looked at Asuna.
"I wasn't asking you. Interrupting at a time like this isn't polite, Asuna."
Kyoko's tone was quite severe.
"...!"
Asuna was rendered speechless.
There was nothing she could do about it. Asuna had indeed overreacted.
However, her attitude also showed just how wary Asuna was of her mother, and how afraid she was that Kyoko might actually hurt Luo Zhen.
Luo Zhen merely patted Asuna's palm and spoke in an even tone.
"At present, that program is indeed in my possession."
There was no need to hide it.
Perhaps to ordinary people, this was a secret, but to large corporations and families, it was another matter entirely.
After all, although Luo Zhen had let the government release and manage his program on his behalf, it was still registered under his name. If anyone wanted to purchase the rights to download the program and pay the licensing fees and game revenue shares, they would naturally learn Luo Zhen's name when signing the contract.
Thus, within society, Luo Zhen's existence was not actually a secret. Many people knew about him, though they remained half-convinced.
Who could blame them? Luo Zhen was so young that he hardly looked like the sort of genius capable of developing such a program.
Moreover, the program's system was clearly extremely similar to SAO's, which only further proved that it did not belong to Luo Zhen.
However, Luo Zhen had openly said that he had obtained it from someone else and was merely shamelessly making money from it. This led people to associate him with Akihiko Kayaba, and they immediately understood that it was probably a parting gift from Akihiko Kayaba to this opponent