After the lights in the management area came back on, gravity was the first thing to be restored.
The suspended debris all fell, and the broken windows were covered by a new white interface. They no longer bore Cardinal's original markings, and a single red icon representing the highest administrative authority was displayed in the lower right corner.
Someone has taken over this place.
Lin Yuan ignored the windows and put Yui on the ground first.
Her body had fully recovered. Lin Yuan touched her wrist and could still feel the simulated body temperature and pulse. However, the console could no longer display the management information for MHCP001, as if the connection between her and the original program had been completely severed.
"Can you still hear that voice?" Lin Yuan asked.
Yui closed her eyes, and after a moment shook her head.
"I can't hear anything. Mental monitoring, management privileges, and system commands have all disappeared." She opened her eyes and gripped Lin Yuan's hand tightly. "But I still remember my brother."
"That's enough."
Kirito and Asuna approached the console. The player menu had been restored, and the transfer crystal had reappeared as a usable item, indicating that Aincrad had not stopped with the Cardinal's crash.
Lin Yuan, however, could sense the difference.
The past world was like a hard wall without edges, its magic suppressed within his body. The sword strike had left a scar on that wall. The crack had closed, but he could still vaguely sense the direction in which it had once existed.
Lin Yuan attempted to mobilize the Space God-Slaying Magic Power.
There were no black lines, nor any spatial rifts.
There's only one chance to recover, and the feeling left behind by that chance.
The console suddenly emitted a beep.
All the white windows closed simultaneously, leaving only a borderless black screen in the center. A processed male voice came from it.
"Your confirmation method was more cautious than I expected."
Lin Yuan looked up. " Kayaba Akihiko?"
Kirito and Asuna simultaneously gripped their weapons.
The black screen showed no figures, and the voices neither confirmed nor denied anything. Yet, apart from the creator of this world, no one could immediately take over the entire system with supreme privileges after Cardinal was destroyed.
"You compromised Aincrad's autonomous management core," Kayaba said. "If manual takeover had been delayed by just 4.7 seconds, the safety zone detection on some floors would have failed."
So you want to hold someone accountable?
"No. This is just the first time I've obtained sufficiently complete observations."
Several records were displayed on the screen.
The first-level boss suffered unassigned physical damage; the second-level boss died, but no killer was found; the last part of the Gleam Eyes's health bar was cleared by a blank source; now, even the core structure of Cardinal has been severed by the same unnumbered object.
Lin Yuan's name does not appear in any records.
"You knew from the beginning that I wasn't a player," Lin Yuan said.
"I can only confirm that you are not among the ten thousand logins," Kayaba replied. "Your body is not entirely composed of character data. The system can interact with you, but it cannot read your consciousness, attributes, or external connections."
"Can you see me out?"
"Cannot."
The answer was given without pause.
When a regular player enters SAO, NerveGear establishes a connection between reality and the game. The logout process simply involves sending consciousness back to the corresponding body along that connection.
Lin Yuan was not connected.
He did not log in from the real world, nor was he registered at any server portal. Even if Kayaba were to log him out now, the system would not be able to find an address that could Take Over him.
"A person without a login address," Kayaba said. "That's the definition I can give you for now."
Yui gripped Lin Yuan's hand tightly.
Lin Yuan was not disappointed by this answer. At least Kayaba confirmed one thing: the normal clearance procedure could not send him home. Continuing to wait for the automatic logout on the hundredth floor was not a reliable method to begin with.
"I must have left traces when I entered this place."
The black screen remained silent for several seconds.
"There was indeed an inexplicable boundary disturbance. It appeared around the start of the game, lasted for less than a second, and then never reappeared."
"Location?"
"The original record has been categorized as an environmental error by Cardinal. After you disrupted the management core, that record reappeared."
Kayaba did not immediately provide the coordinates.
I'll check if it's related to you.
What are the conditions?
"This is not a deal." Kayaba's voice showed a subtle change for the first time. "I also want to know how someone who doesn't belong to this world entered my castle and how he broke its rules with his sword."
The screen began to turn off.
Lin Yuan spoke at the last moment, "Where 'Yui?"
"She no longer belongs to Cardinal. As long as the independent data containing her still exists, I will not delete her."
The black screen disappeared completely.
The gates to the management area reopened, and the white passageway outside returned to its normal maze structure. Yulier, supporting Thinker, waited in the distance, unaware that the entire Aincrad had ceased operation for just a few minutes.
Lin Yuan led Yui out of the management area.
He still couldn't use True Magic, nor could he find the way home.
But somewhere in this world, there is indeed a boundary that was once opened.