When everyone looked, the gray logout option had somehow returned to its normal, usable color. No one could believe it.
With trembling hands, they tapped it, and a prompt box appeared before them: Exit the game? YES or NO.
Seeing this, everyone was too excited to speak. "It... it really works! We can actually log out! We can leave this place and return to the real world! It's real..."
"Yeah, it's all real. We really cleared the game. We don't have to keep fighting here anymore. We can go back to the real world."
"Finally... finally, we can go home..."
"I can go see my family again."
"Boohoo..." Many people could not stop themselves from crying. Being unable to leave this game had become a knot in everyone's heart. Especially after seeing player after player die in the game, many had wondered whether they would be next.
They might have seemed safe and sound here, but in the real world, they were lying in hospital beds, surviving on IV drips. Even then, they only had a few years left to live. Quite a few players had died because of this, so one could imagine the pressure weighing on them.
After crying their hearts out and venting their emotions, they said goodbye to their friends in the game and exchanged real-life addresses and contact information. They had lived and died together, endured hardships together. Friendships forged in life-and-death struggles were the most precious, and it was difficult to find friends like that in the real world.
After leaving their contact information, everyone eagerly pressed confirm and logged out. Blue lights flashed one after another, and the players vanished from the game.
At that moment, the players in the seventy-fourth-floor labyrinth's BOSS hall were doing the same thing. The instant Akihiko Kayaba