The air rippled like the surface of water, and a curtain of light ten meters across appeared.
Calling it a curtain of light was not quite accurate. It did not shine with white radiance. It looked more like a faintly glowing veil of water.
The next second, a figure stepped out from within that watery screen.
Her short silver hair gleamed brilliantly beneath the sunlight. Her full, curving figure was wrapped in a black, high-slit dress. Beneath the hem, her rounded legs were covered in black stockings and long black leather boots.
Following right behind her was a slightly slender blonde woman with twin tails, dressed in the same standard-issue skirt uniform.
The two gave off completely opposite impressions. The silver-haired girl seemed like the quiet, emotionless type—silent, reserved, and inwardly focused.
The blonde behind her, meanwhile, felt energetic, bright, and extremely outgoing.
"So this is another parallel world? Is it Earth too?"
The blonde girl looked around curiously, like a country girl who had just stepped into a bustling metropolis for the first time.
"6O, don't let your guard down."
"I know. 2B, you don't have to be so stiff all the time. Commander, you agree, right?"
6O winked playfully at the commander in front of her.
"2B is right."
"Commander, you're biased."
"You're right."
Kain admitted his bias outright, making the two blonde girls puff out their cheeks in displeasure.
The reason he had invited the two of them over was, naturally, to further extract and understand the technology of this world.
One of them was mainly here as a guard—not to guard him, but to have the combat-type 2B protect 6O.
6O's responsibility was infiltration and hacking.
Normally, that kind of work was something S-type androids were better at, but as an Operator, 6O's ability in that area was second only to theirs. More importantly, she had already been upgraded. In a sense, she could now be considered an S-type YoRHa android herself.
At the moment, the group was on the second-floor rooftop.
As for the dimensional gate they had opened, there was no need to worry about anyone coming up and touching it. No one could touch it, and no one could see it.
...
This was a high-end medical institution run by a private company, so the comfort of its hospital rooms far surpassed that of a public hospital.
Asuna was no longer lying completely flat. After the bed had been adjusted, she was half sitting, half reclining, as though leaning against a soft sofa.
Right now, she was wondering how she should explain a person her mother would almost certainly dislike.
Suddenly, a call came from the hospital front desk. The receptionist had only just finished speaking when, before her mother could respond—
"Mom, it's Mr. Kain. Please let him come up. He saved all the trapped players."
Asuna spoke first, forcing her mother to swallow whatever she had originally been about to say.
After giving her daughter a deep look, her mother finally responded to the front desk and allowed the visitor to come up.
"Is there anything else you need to tell me?"
Yuuki Kyouko stared at her daughter with an interrogating gaze. As her mother, she could tell that Asuna's level of "concern" for this person was rather delicate.
In addition, her daughter seemed very worried that this person would clash with her. But was Asuna worried about her? Not about him?
"Mr. Kain is… he's very powerful. I hope you won't make things difficult for him, Mom."
"Very powerful?"
Seeing her mother's reaction, Yuuki Asuna immediately realized that what her mother understood by "powerful" was not the same as what she meant.
What should she do?
"Put it this way. If Mr. Kain wanted to, he could destroy any country in the world within a day."
If he ignored all consequences, he could probably destroy this entire world within a day.
But after saying it, Asuna felt a little helpless. No matter how she looked at it, that was not something anyone would believe.
Still, for the moment, she had no idea what else she could say to make her mother understand that Mr. Kain was someone who had to be treated with extreme caution.
"Asuna, are you joking?"
"I'm not joking."
"Destroy any country within a day? You mean destroy and collapse that country's network?"
That was what Yuuki Kyouko thought of.
The virtual prison that had trapped her daughter had now released nearly seven thousand players, apparently because someone had invaded it.
So the "destruction" her daughter mentioned should have referred to that.
However, before Asuna even opened her mouth, Kyouko could tell from her daughter's eyes that she had guessed wrong.
What her daughter meant seemed to be military force.
"He can destroy networks too, but what I mean is force. He can wipe out a country's military power within a day."
"Any country?"
"Yes."
"In other words, if he wanted to, he could destroy the whole world?"
"Yes."
Her daughter nodded with complete seriousness, and Yuuki Kyouko rubbed her temples.
It was too exaggerated. But she understood her daughter very well. Asuna was not the kind of person who would casually make claims with no basis.
If this was true, then that person was indeed extraordinary. He was also dangerous to an extreme degree—someone a family like theirs could not afford to provoke.
Then why had someone like that specifically sought out her daughter?
"Mom, you don't have to worry. Mr. Kain isn't a bad person. He won't hurt me."
"I hope so."
Yuuki Kyouko gave a slightly bitter smile.
She could believe that Asuna was telling the truth about his power to destroy a country. But when it came to judging people, Kyouko did not think her daughter's assessment was necessarily reliable.
After all, Asuna was only sixteen. She had not yet stepped into society. How could she truly know how treacherous people could be?
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Kyouko's expression stiffened slightly.
It looked like he had arrived.
The next second, the door opened. Her daughter had pressed a switch on the hospital bed.
As the door opened, one man and two women stepped into the room.
The man in front looked about the same age as Asuna's older brother, but Yuuki Kyouko faintly sensed an indescribable pressure from him.
Of the two women following behind him, the silver-haired one wore a black blindfold. The way she walked and stood gave off the impression of a soldier.
The other seemed to have a very lively personality. She was playing with an unfamiliar electronic device in her hand, something that looked like a miniature handheld computer.
"Um… welcome, Mr. Kain."
Her daughter's reaction made Kyouko's heart sink slightly.
That faintly bashful look, that embarrassed manner, that restless awkwardness—it was an extremely bad sign.
"Hello. I'm Asuna's mother, Yuuki Kyouko."
No matter how powerful the other party was, she was Asuna's mother here. She had to protect her daughter in that capacity.
She could not be intimidated. Her attitude could not show any weakness, though she did not need to act forceful either.
She simply had to treat him with normal social etiquette.
"Kain. Your daughter's online friend from a parallel world."
His answer caught Yuuki Kyouko completely off guard.
An online friend?
Wait—
"A parallel world?"
Kyouko said in astonishment. That was even more absurd than what her daughter had told her.
But if that was the truth, then her daughter's claim that he could destroy this world was not strange at all.
Asuna's reaction showed she had not expected him to reveal it so directly either. She looked startled.
But Asuna did not refute him or question it.
So it was true?
"Commander, I've finished investigating the human male named Sugou Nobuyuki."
The blonde girl suddenly spoke, and the name Sugou Nobuyuki made Yuuki Kyouko's pupils shrink.
Because he was Asuna's fiancé.
"Project his information for Mrs. Yuuki Kyouko."
"Understood."
The palm-sized device projected a large number of virtual windows, leaving Kyouko stunned.
For a moment, she had the illusion that the world she was in was a virtual one. All around her, windows and holographic projections that should only exist in a virtual world had appeared.
In reality, it should not have been possible to do something like this.
After the initial shock, she quickly regained herself and looked at the displayed files.
The more she read, the uglier her expression became.
This was not merely a bad man. This was a depraved monster.
"Commander, the target happens to be on his way here. Should we eliminate this scum? I recommend immediate execution by plasma cannon."
As the girl said those innocent-sounding words, she also projected an image that made Yuuki Kyouko's face go pale.
One virtual window showed a car driving toward the hospital. The driver was clearly Sugou Nobuyuki.
The other window was far more terrifying.
Above the hospital hovered some kind of aircraft.
Part of its optical camouflage had now been disengaged, revealing a futuristic cannon barrel thicker than a person's body—and it was already gathering light.
At that moment, Yuuki Kyouko truly believed the other party possessed the power to destroy this world.
She also believed he came from a parallel world.
She did not suspect that the image might be fake, because through the glass window, she could see light gathering in a patch of empty air not far away, where there had been nothing before.
Her daughter had truly made an extraordinary "online friend."
(End of Chapter)
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