November 7th 2024

Although it took 3 days as opposed to 2, the pair has finally reached the moment they've been looking forward to all this time. School was over for today, they had no extra classes as punishment for skipping before. It was time to drive a nail into Kayaba Akihiko's child. It was time to take the perma death penalty out of Sword Art Online.

"One year and one month. A bitch of a journey...", Misaki talked to himself while Saruhiko was typing in the respawn function. "This better fucking work."

"Relax. For safe measure, I took the respawn function directly out of Alfheim, which is also running on the Cardinal System. This should prevent any lines of code I input to clash with Akihiko's."

"I know! I know. I'm just-"

"Cautious. I get it. My hands are shaking as well."

For the past 3 days, to avoid detection from a human admin, possibly Akihiko, any modifications of the game through Yui have been on minor scales, such as item descriptions, attributes or spawn rates on lower levels. This was about to be the first grand display of GM privilege on Saruhiko's part.

They 2 had no idea what the players were doing at the moment. At best, they could see a more significant number of them were of floor 75, possibly the boss room. But Saruhiko had yet to test if there was any way for them to communicate with in-game players and that would come only after preventing further deaths from occurring.

"This is it. Here goes nothing."

With the press of the Enter key, the lines of code were added and impeded into the Cardinal System of Sword Art Online. Seconds, turned minutes, passed after in total silence, as the young boys were crossing their fingers for the engine to not reject this function or pull up an Error window.

Thankfully, that didn't happen. Not now. Not after 5 or even 10 minutes of waiting. But there was one more question...

"Did...Did it work?", the blond voice his animosities.

"Well...It wasn't rejected or overwritten. That's for certain. As for respawning-WHAT!?"

A notification popped up. But this wasn't an error by any means. This was something else. Something initiated by or through the system...

"What did you do?!", the blond was in a panic, that's to be expected after all. But his partner had his eyes glued to another part of the screen.

"Oi, take a look at this."

Moving out of the way to make room for Misaki, his eyes ventured onto the bottom of the screen where the console would display countless usernames of the remaining 6000 surviving players. But that wasn't the most important part of it. Next to each username were displayed the same pair of words: Logged out.

This marks the second time Misaki's legs went numb, this time having a chair to fall onto, mouth agape.

"But...how!? We didn't go into how to log them ou- Wait! Did they clear the game?"

"No. There was no players above the 75th floor of Aincrad. There's no way that happened. At least, not under normal circumstances. Something happened inside the game that prompted this."

"A system alert. That can only be triggered by someone with Admin privileges and AIs designated to oversee the game, right?"

The raven nodded to confirm his friend's words, and would have probably rejoiced if it wasn't for the next warning that popped up: Deletion of files initiated

"OI!", it was Saruhiko's turn to lash out, as the logs and data of the game servers were too important to just throw down the drain. "Not again!", his hands moved as quickly as they did 3 days ago, except this time he had to save the entire files, not just and AI.

"Put it on the SSD. It should have enough memory to save all the logs and data on it.", Misaki advised, picturing the 100 Terrabytes of storage being filled up almost to the brim.

Said and done. Not long before, most of the data was redirected towards the external hard drive, overwriting the game files previously stored on it, such as ALO. But those can be recovered at any time they wish to. This was more important.

"What are you looking at? The players have been logged out. Go to the hospital!", Kayaba snapped his friend of the daze he was in, prompting him to dash out the door without a second thought. In just a minute, he was already gunning on the streets for the hospital his sister was taken care of at.

With the players seemingly saved and the data secured, Saruhiko sunk into his chair for a much needed comfort. They missed the one year mark by a month, but that's an acceptable margin of error considering the scope of this operation and the fact that it was only 2 people working on it. Alas, the operation has ended successfully.

A nap would have been the next logical step was it not for his phone ringing, being sought out by a number he hasn't seen in ages. He picked up the smartphone and brought it to his ear and with a sigh, responded.

"You have some nerve to call me like this...Akihiko?"

"...You're not happy to hear my voice I take it, little brother."

"Don't screw around with me, damn it! Do you have ANY idea what went down for mom and dad the past 2 years?"

"...I can imagine."

"Please do! What the hell were you thinking!?"

"That would require too much time to explain the things I wanted to create, Saruhiko."

"Oh, I've studied what you wanted to create. From SAO to the Cardinal System to whatever the hell a Fluctlight is! I'll manage just fine!"

There was a brief pause after Saruhiko's last line. You'd almost catch Akihiko's sharp breath if you listened really closely.

"So it was indeed you, huh? Color me impressed. I was sure you'd burn those notes as soon as the news about me spread."

"I wanted to, I can assure you. But I was fortunate enough to meet someone stupid enough to try and hack your game. So here we are."

"The notes alone wouldn't be enough to guarantee success, you know?"

"I've spent months reading through them, both of us. Not to mention the amount of time dedicated to just reading through the game files. All so I could destroy this project of yours!"

"And you did it, but you don't sound too happy."

"Happy?! You think I like having to hear about this game trap every time my family name is said? At least tell me why you did it? What fucking point were you trying to prove?!"

After another pause, the older brother finally conceded and answered truthfully.

"I wanted the virtual world to be real in itself...but that would be impossible with a game where you can always leave when problems arrive, a game you only use to escape real life problems and vice versa."

"And that translates to keeping 10 thousand people prisoners in a virtual world?"

"Prisoners or not, some have lived actual lives withing the game. With families and-"

"And 4 thousand others met their end. Is that suppose to be anything OTHER than serial murder or at least premeditated? Are you out of your mind?"

"...Perhaps I seem that way to you and the rest... But I have no intention to apologize for that."

"...I'd call you a son of a bitch, but that'd imply it was mom's fault in some way."

"Mom and Dad... I suppose I should apologize for that in some way. Here."

In that instance, the PC received a file transfer notice, a single file document with a username and a password. What for? A whole lot of possibilities for the future.

"You and I need to have a discussion about what an apology is supposed to be, Akihiko."

"I am afraid we won't get that opportunity anytime soon. If anything, I am glad to know someone managed to understand the concepts I came up with."

"How far into the future did you see yourself get away with SAO, huh?! Reading souls and whatnot."

"...Saruhiko...If you managed to wrap your head around those concepts, then I can leave the rest of my projects in your care, am I right? I know you won't turn them into death traps."

"Oi! We're not done-"

"Goodbye, Saruhiko. Sorry for the inconvenience of being my little brother...and thanks for taking the time to study my dreams."

The call was ended on Akihiko's behalf, with any attempt at calling again being returned with Number out of Service. If it wasn't for the boy taking good care for his belongings, the phone would have flew across the room by now. The only thing on constant repeat in his head were the last words his brother left for him, his apology and gratitude.

...

"That's not what this was about, you moron..."

The Sword Art Online fiasco was ended, but it only made the taste in Saruhiko's mind that much bitter. A conclusion, but a hollow one on his part. The only saving grace would have been Misaki's happy face upon seeing his sister open her eyes again.

But cruel things always follow suit after sweet moments. Instead of a happy face, the only thing received in return was a text from his friend, a grim reminder.

Our job isn't over...

To be continued...