Recaps

Lin Yuan joined the Moonlit Black Cats while continuing to fight and train outside the system, then helped Kirito through a series of dangerous encounters and replaced his broken sword. He left the story after defeating The Gleam Eyes with Nameless and naming his new technique Mountain Severance.

• Lin Yuan joined the Moonlit Black Cats after helping Kirito save them from a trap, and he later stood with Kirito against the Divine Dragon Alliance while Kirito claimed the resurrection crystal.
• Lin Yuan and Kirito helped Silica recover Pina, then Lin Yuan trained across the upper floors and became known to some players as the Nameless Swordsman.
• Lin Yuan came upon Kirito and Asuna confronting Laughing Coffin, then visited the Moonlit Black Cats before Kirito took him to Lisbeth to replace his damaged sword.
• Lin Yuan, Kirito, and Lisbeth found a Crystallite Ingot in a white dragon’s nest, and Lisbeth forged Kirito Dark Repulser and made Lin Yuan a reinforced sword he named Nameless.
• Lin Yuan trained with Kirito in the labyrinth and later arrived during the fight against The Gleam Eyes, pulling Kirito out of the boss’s killing blow.
• Lin Yuan studied The Gleam Eyes’ attacks, broke its greatblade with Nameless, and struck its exposed core to defeat the boss.
• The system distributed the boss’s experience and drops but could not assign the last-attack bonus to Lin Yuan, who told Kirito his strike could be used once before Nameless recovered and named it Mountain Severance.

Lin Yuan saved Yui from deletion and fought alongside the clearing party to reach Aincrad's final floor, where Kayaba Akihiko revealed himself as the last opponent. After defeating Kayaba and freeing the players, Lin Yuan left Yui in sealed storage and followed the traces of his arrival out of the collapsing castle.

• Lin Yuan found Yui near Kirito and Asuna's cabin and helped her recover memories that led the group beneath the Black Iron Palace.
• Lin Yuan rescued Thinker and defeated Fatal Scythe before destroying Cardinal to stop it from deleting Yui.
• Kayaba Akihiko told Lin Yuan that he had no real-world logout address, and Lin Yuan brought Yui to live with the Moonlit Black Cats.
• Lin Yuan helped defeat the Skeleton Hunter on the seventy-fifth floor, where fourteen raiders died, then continued the ascent with Kirito and the clearing party.
• Lin Yuan developed new sword techniques during the remaining floor battles and used All Things Return to One against the Final Guardian before the raid party defeated it.
• Kayaba Akihiko revealed himself as Heathcliff and immobilized the players, and Lin Yuan chose to face him in the final duel.
• Lin Yuan made the distance between Nameless and Kayaba Akihiko vanish with Mountain Severance, inflicting a spatial wound that defeated Kayaba and cleared Sword Art Online.
• Lin Yuan promised to return for Yui after she entered sealed storage, then followed a white trail to the earliest anomaly coordinates as the Ruby Palace shattered.

Lin Yuan returned from Aincrad to Fairy Tail, reunited with his friends, and began building a life in Magnolia while taking jobs with Mira and Mystogan. After winning a duel against Mira, he teamed up with her to prepare a paper-wing performance for Fantasia.

• Lin Yuan crossed into the Fairy Tail world through the closing rift, reunited with Mira, and returned to the Guild, where he told Makarov about Aincrad and challenged Natsu to a duel.
• Lin Yuan defeated Natsu and Erza in friendly fights, then told the Guild that Yui remained dormant in Aincrad and resolved to find a way back to her.
• Mira and Lin Yuan investigated missing caravans in Echo Canyon, freed the captives, and destroyed the Crystal Mother that had trapped them.
• Lin Yuan saved money through jobs, cleared an abandoned mine, and bought and repaired a house in Magnolia with Mira's help.
• Makarov paired Lin Yuan with Mystogan to restart Luowei Town's flood-control array, and Lin Yuan powered all six subarrays at once.
• Lin Yuan and Mira completed the Lyle Vineyard harvest together, then agreed to a rematch based on their old S-Class bet.
• Lin Yuan defeated Mira in their duel, but said he would decide later what wish to ask of her.
• Makarov assigned Lin Yuan and Mira to the sixth Fantasia float, and they developed a performance using spatial openings and airflow to keep hundreds of paper wings aloft.