Job secured-now I'm a villain too!

Wang Shui was very surprised by Kayaba's candor, but on second thought, he was only a middle schooler whose life was in the man's hands, so there was nothing surprising about it.

"This is the world you created. Don't tell me you've lost control of it? Just destroy those so-called seeds of industry and delete every NPC who develops those ideas."

Akihiko Kayaba merely shook his head at Wang Shui's suggestion.

"It's too late. The laws of physics have been fully fleshed out, and the NPCs' intelligence has entered a stage of autonomous growth. They'll keep thinking, questioning, and exploring this world, rapidly filling in the gaps in their technology. The most viable solution at present is... to shut down the servers, format all NPC data, then rewrite [Autonomous Intelligence]."

"Since you haven't done that, it means the command to burn out their brains is stored in the NerveGear. If the servers go down for a while, every player will be killed."

Even though Akihiko Kayaba had abducted over two hundred thousand players, his goal wasn't to kill them so cheaply.

"You're very clever." Praise was rare from this physics genius.

"It's not hard to imagine. It's easy for you to hide on your own in the real world, but servers handling the computations for a virtual world this huge would have a size and power consumption you couldn't casually conceal. To stop the outside world from shutting them down, you must have announced long ago that stopping the servers would kill all the hostages. I assume you're not renting public servers?"

Kayaba nodded.

"The servers are in Tokyo, with ample backup power to withstand a month-long outage. There are also multiple standby servers, but the hot-swapping window that keeps players safe isn't long enough to rebuild the game."

No wonder he came out as soon as I called. He's been feeling troubled.

"Actually, a world like this isn't bad either. Being able to watch a world evolve-or rather, the moment this world started running, my dream was already fulfilled."

Despite saying it wasn't bad, the dejected man radiated loneliness.

Wang Shui didn't pay much attention to Kayaba's state. He was more worried about something else-if an industrial revolution happened, could he still get The World Seed? Or rather, the original plot... ah, there was no need to think about that. The plot was definitely shot.

After pondering for a long time, Wang Shui chose his words carefully.

"I imagine you've been thinking of plenty of ways to salvage things lately. I don't really understand the AI issue, but I feel that from a game perspective, it might not be beyond saving."

"Let's hear it."

"It's just a rough idea. The game's damage calculations aren't simply a matter of a weapon hitting something and dealing damage. Damage values are checked against resistances invisible to players, based on damage types like piercing, slashing, and blunt damage."

"I was wondering if firearms, and the explosives very likely to appear after industrialization, could have separate resistances assigned to their damage. Then you could give monsters default resistances to reduce those weapons' effectiveness."

Kayaba looked thoughtful. "Go on."

"I think this sudden turn of events has thrown you off. For an experienced game developer, restricting newly added weapons shouldn't be difficult. Is killing power the only thing firearms bring? No. They undermine the logic of individual progression. High-level Sword Skills will absolutely deal more damage than ordinary firearms, but firearms have a range advantage. As the attacking side, players could simply develop technology to become stronger, then advance at low risk. But that doesn't seem to be what you want to see. After all, this is a world of swords."

Kayaba nodded, and Wang Shui continued.

"Actually, this only just occurred to me. Your attitude of accepting the world's changes is wrong. This world is facing a major crisis. Haven't you noticed?"

"You can speak plainly. I'm listening."

"The changes industry brings to the world order are even more dangerous. Once the industrial age begins, firearms will be a minor issue. Have you considered how an explosion in productivity would affect the social structure? Have you considered aircraft? Have you considered that NPCs might arm themselves,

"defeat monsters and players, and fly out of your floating castle? This world is bound to descend into chaos. Of these mostly young players, how many could prove useful in the tide of industrialization? The game world will ultimately become a mill of social evolution, grinding both the players and the old order to dust." "So, have you considered first finding a way to release the hostages and get the players out? You wouldn't want to squander over two hundred thousand lives so cheaply either, would you?"

Wang Shui's words plunged Akihiko Kayaba deep into thought, while Wang Shui worked hard to create the sense that they were on the same side-he wanted to get his hands on The World Seed directly!

"I... can't."

"Why? You're the creator of this world!"

Kayaba turned away, gazed at the incomplete starry sky, and explained quietly.

"I'm very confident in my abilities, but I'm not a machine completely devoid of feelings. Before the game officially began, I worried that if I suddenly went soft one day and released all the players, it would insult the dead, myself, and the players working hard to clear the game. This game, including FullDive technology, would become a joke that reduced my ideals to nothing."

"So, after I developed [Autonomous Intelligence] by chance, I permanently locked away some crucial permissions. Now, the only way to leave this world is to defeat the boss on the hundredth floor."

Wang Shui's heart jolted, and he hurriedly asked:

"What if you died?"

"That wouldn't matter, of course. This world can already keep maintaining itself indefinitely without me."

So the plot had changed long ago. Even if Kirito killed Akihiko Kayaba, the players wouldn't be released early.

"Failure is normal on the path of scientific research. I thought I'd long since grown used to it, but without my dream to sustain me, faced with a problem this big, I've actually lost the courage to think and change things."

Even Kayaba's self-mockery was flat, as though he were judging a stranger.

"If you still cherish your dream, cherish your child, I think things can still turn around." Wang Shui's expression grew serious.

"Sitting back and watching the world become more chaotic is definitely wrong. So we need to take the initiative and correct industry's development. We need to flesh out this world's industrial system before the system does! We need to define hyperson-no, we need to define firearms ahead of time!"

As Wang Shui spoke, he replaced "you" with "we."

"The way I see it, we first need to update the item records. Add firearms to the weapon category as standard items, and put explosives under consumables, making it easier to limit their power. If we let the system assign firearms power based on their physical properties, given all those practically magical supermaterials you designed, the power of guns and artillery will be unimaginable."

"Then there's balancing the numbers. Update every monster's attributes to include ballistic resistance and explosion resistance. Not just monsters, either-items and materials need them too, especially metals. Give them negative resistance! Without materials that can withstand high chamber pressures, improving firearms will be difficult. Weapons like heavy firepower and artillery will be hard to develop without suitable metals. Then there's limiting explosive yield. That's a problem..."

"But technology is even more important. We can't let NPCs think up whatever they like technologically. We need to put industrial technology into their history ahead of time and guide them into the industrial age through archaeology. Of course, aviation technology needs to be locked away. No... we can't make it that abrupt. With a physics engine, they're bound to have those ideas and desires. Just like explosives-people will always seek bigger explosions..."

Wang Shui sank into thought, while Akihiko Kayaba beside him seemed to be calculating something.

"Oh-right! We can control the NPCs' thinking. Shackles on their minds are the most important thing! We can't let them think freely anymore... We can add philosophical texts to the archaeological records, along with... fabricated historical facts! Tell them that endlessly exploring science and pursuing greater firepower will destroy civilization!"

"No, that's not enough. We need religious elements too! Yes, yes, explosions are unclean, destructive, the root of chaos! Add some content about classical rule as well, teaching the NPCs' current rulers to seal advanced technology away and minimize exchanges with the populace. Yes, yes."

Wang Shui was still talking to himself, and Kayaba listened very closely.

"As for the populace, a policy of keeping them ignorant? Undermining education? No, education itself is a gap waiting to be filled. We need to add those settings before [Autonomous Intelligence] does, make NPCs value literature and contemplation, value enjoyment, and suppress things like mathematics. Oh, we also need to suppress capital accumulation. Without major capital investment and high profits, technology can only be a toy. Hmm, keeping the masses ignorant through entertainment isn't bad either, but with productivity this low, what cheap entertainment is there? Sword-fighting tournaments? Or we could go all the way in one step and introduce some environmentalism, animal rights, LGB... uh, those seem a little too extreme."

As Wang Shui's thoughts wandered further and further afield, cold sweat inexplicably poured down Akihiko Kayaba's back. The middle-aged man felt there was really no need to go that far...

"All right, all right, stop. That's enough. This is enough. Your ideas seem useful, but I need to see... how much time this would take."

Although Kayaba said it seemed feasible, neither man's expression relaxed. Kayaba even stopped keeping things from Wang Shui and directly brought up a huge collection of windows, sorting and tallying various data files.

"How many people do you have?" Wang Shui asked in a low voice. Looking at the enormous volume of game files, he felt as if he were back in his corporate-slave days. Ah, stop thinking about it. My lower back and shoulders are already starting to hurt.

"...Just me. Following your proposal, using the simplest approach to first add parameters to important items, add new item data, and link the new skill algorithms to [Autonomous Intelligence], it would take approximately three hundred to three hundred and fifty working days. And those... things you mentioned, I'd need to consult professionals to ensure they work. But in my current situation..."

"Hmm-I think I get it."

As Wang Shui spoke, he moved closer to the many windows floating in midair, his brows drawn together and his mind racing.

"This, and here too-are these index files for the item records? Are these two windows indexes for Sword Skills content? These file types should be configuration files. Huh, is this an engine file? Does this sao filename extension mean it's engine source code? What language did you develop it in?"

For the first time, Kayaba looked surprised at Wang Shui's questions.

"You know software development?!"

"Please, who could understand this file structure of yours? Isn't it all written in English? It doesn't look like a mainstream game engine. Makes sense, though. A traditional engine definitely couldn't handle a FullDive virtual world like this. Back to my question: did you build the engine framework yourself? And what about the programming language?"

"I developed that myself too."

"Who did you copy?"

"Uh, the logic processing is similar to C++, but the underlying libraries are new. I left room for a modular tool library modeled on Python, but I designed the intelligence and physics algorithms myself, along with the subsequent engine architecture."

"Are there dedicated development tools? Oh, right, your language doesn't have loads of abstract descriptions and symbols you invented, does it?"

"Of course not. The original development team was very large, so the in-house language was made as close to common languages as possible. There are development tools too."

Another brief silence fell between them. As though he had made up his mind, Wang Shui said:

"Mr. Kayaba, I'd like to apply for a job at your company. At the very least, you can leave the thought-control side to me. I do know a little about that."

Wang Shui's job application eased the serious atmosphere, and Kayaba laughed too. Like an interviewer, he asked, "What about programming?"

"I'm terrible. There's absolutely no way I can help with algorithms you came up with yourself, but I can manage adding, deleting, modifying, and querying game data, or adding items, as long as your API documentation is detailed enough and easy to search."

"All right, one last question. Why help me?" Kayaba asked very seriously.

Wang Shui tapped his head.

"To save my own life. If this world falls into chaos, clearing it will no longer be a matter of working hard. You can't stop this world, and you can't spare the lives of two hundred thousand players. But my situation is different."

Kayaba caught on quickly too. "Your protective device?"

Wang Shui snapped his fingers. "Yes. As long as you disable the jumper and update my control system back to its previous version, my life will be safe. Most likely safe, anyway. Then you can also store this world's source code in my NerveGear-it has storage built in. That way, even if you kick the bucket, boss, your child will live on."

Kayaba fell silent. His own death wouldn't surprise him. After all, he had abducted over two hundred thousand people and already killed nearly ten thousand. This was a massacre that would rank even in Africa.

Wang Shui's suggestion tempted Kayaba, and he really did need the young man's help now.

"You've convinced me. Welcome to my studio."

The middle-aged man extended his right hand to Wang Shui, but after shaking it, Wang Shui wasn't particularly happy-at least, his expression didn't show it. To demonstrate his attitude toward the work, Wang Shui volunteered:

"We probably don't have much time. I suggest starting with a small update. First, we list out the tech tree for industrial development and get descriptive material into NPC hands, making them take archaeology seriously. Then come philosophical texts for thought control, along with religious restrictions. The same goes for quests guiding players-we need to get them involved in the industrial world. I think firearms could be incorporated into Sword Skills."

Something like a high-speed revolver quick draw, for example.

Kayaba nodded. "I'll give you a document covering this world's original setting and its recent changes. First, I'll organize the programming changes and additions needed, sorting them by difficulty into project plans, patch specifications, interface and class structure standards, proxy files, pseudocode, API documentation, and so on. There are quite a few existing files you can read directly. As for the item records, the structure is very simple, but the contents..."

"Give me external network access, and administrator privileges too. Information on firearms, explosives, and industry, along with reference literature on philosophy, psychology, and sociology, can all be found online. I have experience with that."

"All right. No time to waste. I'll give you the permissions, internal development materials, and development tools first. Take a look and see whether you understand them."

Kayaba acted quickly. Wang Shui's control panel immediately gained a great deal of content, including administrator interfaces far beyond anything cheats could offer.

Beside it was the character information from the game Wang Shui had played for around a month. It looked shabby and ridiculous. His previous efforts seemed like nothing but a bubble... though that wasn't quite right. If he hadn't stirred up trouble, he wouldn't have drawn Kayaba over, and this successful job application would never have happened.

Everything was linked. Not a single bit of fate was superfluous.