Why did they have to choose her daughter? Why did Asuna have to become Eve?
There were countless women in this world. Why had they singled out Asuna?
"You sought out Asuna because you want her to serve as Eve?"
Yuuki Kyouko struggled to keep her voice under control. Fear colored her words, but so did anger.
"Why does it have to be Asuna?"
"Because she's one of the only women genetically compatible with the Commander."
Asuna's cheeks flushed slightly when she heard that. Her lips parted, but after a moment, she decided not to say anything.
The story 6O was fabricating was meant to explain why they had come to this world.
"Please don't worry. We have no intention of taking her away by force. Besides, our world might still carry traces of the plague. Everything would be entirely voluntary. And Miss Asuna isn't the only candidate we've selected to become Eve."
6O continued weaving her story.
She glanced at Asuna and noticed the girl's embarrassment.
The Commander's charm really was incredible.
"She isn't the only one?" Kyouko asked incredulously.
"That's right. There are candidates in other parallel worlds as well."
"Then what did Asuna mean when she said the artificial intelligence Alice wasn't supposed to be born until 2026? She was talking about future events, wasn't she?"
That was what Kyouko had originally wanted to know.
"Well, while observing other parallel worlds, we can sometimes glimpse information from a world's future. If the Commander hadn't intervened in your world, Sword Art Online wouldn't have been cleared until the end of 2024. Even then, Miss Asuna wouldn't have escaped."
6O paused, making Kyouko's heart tighten.
Her daughter might be safe now, but that didn't mean she couldn't encounter some other disaster in the future.
"Her consciousness would have been transferred into another virtual world called ALfheim Online, where she would have been held prisoner. Can you guess who would have imprisoned her, Mrs. Yuuki?"
Kyouko fell silent.
It wasn't because she needed time to think. She had already guessed the answer.
The information they had uncovered on Sugou Nobuyuki included an inhumane plan to conduct experiments on players' brains through virtual worlds.
He had even intended to use the trapped SAO players as test subjects.
The identity of the person 6O was referring to was obvious.
"Sugou Nobuyuki."
"Exactly. Asuna would eventually have been rescued, but after several more incidents, she would have become involved in the Alicization Project in 2026. As for why that project appears to have begun ahead of schedule…"
6O considered her words.
"It might genuinely have something to do with us. You see, nearly every parallel world we've observed is heading toward a possible extinction-level crisis for humanity."
Kyouko's face stiffened.
Did that mean humanity could go extinct in her world as well?
"Our world suffered the worst fate. Our creators were effectively wiped out. In the first world we observed, a biological plague erupted ten years ago, in the year 2020. It transformed infected humans into creatures called Gastrea. Humanity lost the war, more than ninety percent of the population died, and the survivors are still struggling desperately to endure."
As 6O spoke, she displayed footage of that world.
Humans infected with the Gastrea Virus suddenly mutated into monsters bearing the traits of insects and other animals. The sight made Kyouko's skin crawl.
"In the second world we observed, a bioweapon outbreak began a little over a month ago. The infected became zombies. Your world has zombie movies, doesn't it? It was that kind of disaster. In just over a month, a human population of six billion was reduced to fewer than one billion."
More color drained from Kyouko's face as 6O brought up another series of images.
They showed humans mutating into the creatures known as zombies, followed by horrifying scenes of zombie hordes.
They were packed together as far as the eye could see, surging forward like a tidal wave.
"The third world wasn't devastated by a virus, but by an invasion of extraterrestrial life-forms. The invasion began during the 1960s and was followed by more than thirty years of continuous warfare. That world's human population has also fallen below one billion."
New footage appeared, showing grotesque monsters slaughtering humans.
Kyouko felt as though she was going to vomit.
Those creatures looked as though their very forms had been designed out of malice toward humanity. Their appearance alone triggered an instinctive sense of revulsion.
Her gaze shifted toward Asuna.
Judging by her daughter's reaction, Asuna had already known about these worlds. She had clearly seen this footage before as well.
"I won't go into the remaining worlds," 6O said. "Their crises haven't fully erupted yet, but their situations aren't looking particularly good either."
As she spoke, 6O found herself seriously considering a troubling possibility.
Did every parallel world inevitably face some kind of apocalyptic crisis?
As for where she had obtained all this information, A2 had given it to her. By now, 6O had also learned A2's secret.
Her story about the Commander being Adam and Yuuki Asuna becoming Eve wasn't something she had invented entirely at random.
The other female members of the Hyperdimensional Channel were all potential Eve candidates.
Come to think of it, A2 was also a member of the Channel.
Did that mean A2 could potentially have children with the Commander?
If A2 eventually became capable of doing so, then theoretically, 6O and the others could as well.
It wasn't possible at the moment. Although their bodies were capable of intimacy, they did not possess the biological functions necessary to nurture and give birth to human life.
But as long as their technology continued to advance and androids evolved further, they would surely become capable of it one day.
"What about our world?" Kyouko asked hoarsely.
Logically, she should have doubted the truth of 6O's claims. Yet there was no reason for these people to invent such an elaborate lie. Deceiving her about something like this would accomplish nothing.
That left only one conclusion.
Everything 6O had shown her was real.
Asuna had also grown tense in her hospital bed.
Most members of the Hyperdimensional Channel lived in worlds facing dangerous crises. It was entirely possible that her world harbored a similar threat.
"So far, we haven't discovered any external threat capable of driving humanity in your world to extinction," 6O replied. "If such a threat does exist, however, it may come from artificial intelligence."
She adopted a genuinely serious expression.
"I explored your world's networks and found the situation deeply troubling. AI development here is reckless and fragmented. In our world, androids were created through the unified efforts of humanity for one purpose—to care for and protect humans.
"Your world is different. Countless artificial intelligence projects are being developed for all kinds of purposes. Most concerning of all, many are intended for military applications. They're being designed specifically to kill other humans."
This time, 6O wasn't joking.
An AI crisis might genuinely occur in this world.
Artificial intelligence could rebel against humanity and ultimately drive the human race to extinction.
"Earlier, you said the Alicization Project beginning ahead of schedule might have something to do with you," Kyouko said. "What did you mean?"
"We can't be certain yet. We'll need to investigate further."
6O hadn't simply made that possibility up. Their involvement truly could have caused it.
She remembered A2 mentioning that the Hyperdimensional Channel possessed a dial capable of accelerating time.
If it could move time forward, perhaps it could eventually be reversed as well.
It was possible that something would happen in the future that caused their technology to be transmitted into this world's past, resulting in the Alicization Project beginning ahead of schedule.
6O had arrived at that theory because, while attempting to infiltrate the Alicization Project's Underworld, she had encountered a defensive system that felt strangely familiar.
Of course, that introduced a paradox.
If their technology had been sent into the past, then the Asuna of the present should already know about it.
Unless, at some point in the future, the Commander gained the ability to cross between worlds without being invited by Asuna—and could even travel into the past.
Alternatively, he might have used some other method to transmit information into the history of Asuna's world.
"An artificial intelligence crisis…" Asuna murmured from her hospital bed.
She had previously discussed the development of AI in her world with Kain. He had proposed the same theory: if her world possessed an extinction-level threat, it would most likely be a crisis caused by artificial intelligence.
That crisis would probably originate in the Underworld created by the Alicization Project.
There were two possible outcomes.
In the first, the artificial intelligences living within Underworld would successfully break through the system's restrictions, invade the networks of the real world, and trigger a global catastrophe.
The second possibility was far more extreme.
Underworld might continue developing until it somehow shattered the boundary separating the virtual world from reality.
Its inhabitants could physically manifest in the real world.
It would be like characters from an anime suddenly stepping out of the screen and appearing in reality.
(End of Chapter)
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