"Wait, sugar is very important for thinking. I only have one left on me. If I give it to you, it'll affect my ability to think."
"Stop it already! A girl stripping a boy's clothes still counts as harassment... Fine, I get it! I'll go home right now, get some money, and buy you a game console!"
Since Child Emperor had never considered the possibility of losing in the first place, naturally he did not have any game console to hand over.
That was why Yimi, with her keen sense of smell, was yanking hard on his backpack, trying to steal every lollipop he had hidden on him.
"Small fry."
"Shut up! You've got cat ears, but you attack with psychokinesis? That's way too cheap. And that infuriating way you talk... Don't tell me you're actually..."
Repeatedly humiliated by a girl despite being a child prodigy, Child Emperor's eyebrows twitched as he gradually guessed something.
They were out on the street right now. By tomorrow, Child Emperor getting bullied by a girl would probably make the news. If someone he knew saw it too...
"Ah, Kitty-san... no, maybe I shouldn't call you that? Kitty-chan?"
Someone he knew had appeared!
Except the greeting was not for him.
"King?" Yimi let go of Child Emperor and looked at the man in a casual hoodie and baseball cap.
Child Emperor hurried away from her and stood beside the man who inspired the greatest sense of security. "King-san, you know her?"
So she really was Little Tatsumaki's daughter, right? If the mother was that strong, it only made sense for the daughter to be strong too. Thinking about it that way instantly made him feel much better.
"What are you two doing?" King looked at the pair in exasperation, both absurdly powerful yet squabbling like little children.
"He owes me a game console. He won't give it to me." Yimi pointed accusingly at Child Emperor.
"Didn't I say I'd go home, get the money, and buy one for you?"
This was awful. In King's eyes, Child Emperor's image had surely become that of some troublesome little kid.
King looked at Yimi. "Didn't I give you a game console yesterday?"
Yimi guiltily poked her fingers together and spoke very quietly. "I lost it."
"Is that so? You shouldn't leave something you like lying around. Wait here a moment." King turned and walked into the electronics store beside them.
He bought another handheld console, came back out, and placed it in Yimi's hands.
S-Class heroes naturally earned fairly high salaries. King already felt somewhat guilty about holding an S-Class position without doing anything, so contributing a little money to keep this Dragon-level little girl from causing trouble probably counted as contributing to society.
Yimi raised both hands, then lowered them again without taking it. "My spending money, isn't enough to pay for it."
"It's fine. I actually have another console like this. If you don't take it, it'll just sit there neglected and lose its reason to exist. If you feel bad about accepting it, come play games with me more often. I happen to be short a gaming partner anyway."
"Mm." Yimi accepted it.
Child Emperor gave the man a long, deep look.
King-san obviously did not look like someone who played games. Was this what adult maturity was like?
"Then, this is for you to play with." Yimi handed King the AmuSphere, the gaming device Asuna's mother had given her in the previous world.
Once she returned to that world, Yimi could always take another gift to Asuna's mother and trade for another one.
"What's this?" King accepted it and tried to study it.
"Seems like, a game console too. You wear it on your head."
"On your head?"
Curiosity made King temporarily ignore the fact that they were still on the street. He tried putting it on, and because the power switch was extremely obvious, he soon managed to activate it.
His entire consciousness and all his senses were fully immersed at once, taking him straight to a character-creation screen. He could randomize his character's appearance, but even after finishing, the option to enter the game remained grayed out.
He looked down and tested his senses. Realizing what kind of game this was, King hurriedly logged out and took the device off.
"King-san, how was it?" Child Emperor had also developed intense curiosity toward the device.
He often played games with friends from the "Cram School," the organization for child prodigies that he himself had founded and led.
King shook his head. "My entire consciousness and all my senses went inside, but maybe there's no network connection, so I couldn't log in. I'm probably not very good at this kind of thing. If I could use a controller, I'd probably do a little better."
He had blurted out what he really thought without realizing it! Hopefully Child Emperor would not pay attention to the fact that he was a gaming nerd.
Naturally, Child Emperor did not notice. "A complete full-dive? King-san, could you let me study this game console? Please!"
"I could..." But King really wanted to try playing it first too.
Yimi did not bother listening to the rest of their conversation. Without saying goodbye, she left again.
It was not because she wanted to find somewhere to play games. Instead, after King logged in, she had sensed something strange happen to her Noble Phantasm, almost like it was receiving a connection request.
Puzzled, Yimi waved toward the sky and invoked her Noble Phantasm. "Aincrad."
* * *
Back in the Hero Association headquarters lounge, King put on the device and tried entering the game again.
For some reason, he discovered that the Enter Game option was lit up now, even though he had not yet tried to find any network settings.
He created a character, casually picked a generic face, and entered the game's starting town.
The first impression was genuinely astonishing. It felt as if he had truly crossed into another world in a different identity and body. So technology like this really existed?
Aside from the full-dive aspect, it looked like an ordinary RPG. The NPCs were pretty stiff too.
His stats and level in the menu were blank. Was that because development was incomplete? Somehow, it felt like there had to be some kind of scheme behind all this.
King drew the beginner's shortsword and swung it twice. The game itself really was impressive, but without a controller he just could not manage it. He probably could not play this kind of game well.
He opened the menu and unexpectedly found an option for an assist joystick.
King froze, then summoned it.
SAO did not have such a function, but whenever Yimi used the AmuSphere, she had only logged into ALO. ALO included an assist-control option to help beginners quickly get used to the game, although it only applied to flight controls.
Somehow, that feature had inexplicably carried over into a game where it did not belong.
But SAO had no flight system. After Yimi turned Aincrad into a Noble Phantasm, other functions had manifested instead, such as button-assisted movement for using Sword Skills.
"Rumble—"
The violent shaking made King lose his balance, and even the sensation of falling felt terrifyingly real.
Items on a merchant's counter tumbled down too. King reflexively caught one in his hand. It was a rectangular crystal.
The next second, he received a notification informing him that theft had turned him into an orange player and guards would soon arrive to expel him.
"?"
King looked down at the object in his hand. It was called a Teleport Crystal, and apparently it could teleport him somewhere.
He selected Use.
His entire body suddenly vanished from the otherworldly scene and appeared in a modern alley that looked just like reality.
King used the assist control to feel out moves against empty air. Whenever he used the sword, the assist joystick in his right hand automatically merged with the hilt.
Maybe because the game was unfinished, some skills that should have required proficiency actually unlocked very quickly for him. The fun of inputting moves with his own hands was something a screen-based game could never reproduce.
Garou stood in front of him, speechless. "..."
Never in his life had Garou been provoked like this. A completely generic-looking nobody stood there with a sword, slashing again and again at the empty air right in front of him.
Garou's face twisted into an angry smile as he took a stance. "Great. You really want to kiss my fist that badly?"
King finally noticed him. "A thug-type mob?"
"..."
At those words, something seemed to snap inside Garou. He stopped wasting time and threw a punch.
Because it was full-dive, King failed to react and took the hit cleanly. In his eyes, his HP bar instantly dropped by a huge chunk.
Why was some random thug this strong? He must have accidentally teleported into a high-level map.
But Garou could not see his HP bar.
This guy had taken a straight punch without defending or blocking at all, yet he was completely unhurt, as though nothing had happened?!
Under Garou's shocked gaze, King reset his stance and used the Sword Skills he had learned less than five seconds ago to unleash a flawless combo.
"What is this guy?" Garou barely managed to block and dodge his Sword Skills, yet his skin still ended up covered in cuts.
But it was far too rigid. After completing part of a sequence, King would suddenly chain into a move with an enormous opening. What kind of martial arts looked like a master's technique while being mixed with mistakes only a complete weakling would make?
There. That opening. Got you!
Garou seized the chance and struck toward King's face, only for King to dash straight forward, slipping past the blow while leaving a slash across Garou's chest.
"Guh!"
King had gotten somewhat familiar with the moves now. He did not know many, but he knew enough.
Garou covered the shallow sword wound on his chest and turned to look at King solemnly.
He did not fully understand what was going on, but this man was worth using—Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist!
Taking a true martial-arts stance, Garou rushed in again with a completely different aura. His opponent was certainly strong, but judging from that earlier exchange, once Garou started using martial arts, he should easily...
He was not gaining the advantage?
Garou watched each movement of King's sword in shock and confusion.
His Sword Skills were faster, and the transitions were smoother too. Why?
Hands and blade flashed constantly through the air. Garou had expected to crush his opponent, yet instead he felt as though he was being countered. Worse, the other man was getting faster and stronger, almost like someone who had gone far too long without fighting and was finally getting the hang of it.
To Garou's horror, the rate at which his opponent improved was actually even faster than his own. After that first punch, Garou never managed to touch the man again!
King's real body could not support excessively exaggerated movements, but as an all-around top-tier gamer, his reaction speed was anything but ordinary.
When blocking had been reduced to simple button presses and finger movements, predicting and parrying attacks did not seem particularly difficult either.
He treated it like an entirely new fighting game, constantly observing his opponent's moves and thinking through how to counter them in the next second.
It was a very creative game and quite satisfying to play, but since moves could be executed by pressing buttons, it only gave him a little more immersion than an ordinary game.
"It's over."
King forced Garou back and pointed the tip of his sword at Garou's throat, signaling that the fight was over.
He did not deliver a killing blow. After all, even though he knew this was only a game, it looked far too much like reality. For a timid yet kind person like King, killing someone was not something he could do lightly.
This game was pretty difficult. A random thug-type enemy was already this strong. Once he logged out, he should check whether there was an official forum and, if so, leave some feedback.
King put away his nearly broken sword and selected Log Out.
He had come to City A for a reason, after all. The Hero Association had said something about an important meeting and summoned the S-Class heroes.
"What the hell?" Garou clutched his wound, not even bothering to think about how the other man had vanished.
Was this world really that dangerous? Some generic-faced nobody he had never once seen on the hero roster could just appear out of nowhere and beat him?
If the first two times were just bad luck and he had happened to run into hidden masters, then what was this supposed to be?
* * *
Time rewound to the moment when King had just been about to log into the game.
Ten thousand meters above the ground, a spaceship nearly the size of a small city recklessly entered Earth's airspace.
"Boros-sama, this is Earth. It doesn't look like there's any... Wait, what's that thing ahead?!"
Rumble—
They slammed into a floating castle even larger than their ship. More importantly, the castle had suddenly appeared out of thin air specifically to block their path.
Was Earth really this dangerous?