Artoria wants to read people's hearts

why?

The answer is of course because...  

"Because I'm not an AI, Asuna, don't listen to that bastard's nonsense." Artoria squinted her eyes, her smile was a little bright and cheerful, "I'm not a player, nor a character in the game. NPC, I'm just a dead person, a visitor from another world who descended into this world due to some miracle."

"You also saw that beam of light..." She was a little out of breath when she said this, and then continued after a slight pause for a few seconds, "I used power that shouldn't be used in this world, so Now the backlash is on me, maybe in a few minutes..."

When she said the word "just", she stopped suddenly, and suddenly felt something was wrong in her heart.

Wait a minute, when I talked to Asuna just now, several minutes have passed since the beginning.

Although the body still hurts, but......

She raised her hands in doubt, looked at it with confusion in her eyes, and found strangely that there was no sign of disappearing on her body at all.

It shouldn't be, things shouldn't be like this.

Although it is indeed a good thing if you can really not disappear, but......

What is the specific reason for this?

Is it because of the contract?Did you keep your own existence because of the contract?

"........."

After being silent for a while, Arturia's pupils shrank suddenly, and then she turned her head to look at the crowd in disbelief.

Asuna standing in front of her could clearly see the blonde girl's actions. She was still in a sad mood, but compared to these, the girl was more concerned about Artoria's current situation at the moment.

So, the flaxen-haired girl slightly wiped the wet corners of her eyes with her fingertips, and asked with a choked voice.

"Pan...Dragon, what's the matter...?"

She raised her head, her light golden pupils were moist, her hands were resting weakly on both sides of her waist, her little nose was still twitching, and her cheeks were also bulging, she looked like a cute animal. Little frog.

Artoria's eyes touched the girl's appearance, and the originally dignified expression softened a little.

But even so, her face is still not good-looking.

"...Not quite right, Asuna."

She frowned and looked around, her expression full of indescribable seriousness.

"I obviously killed Kayaba Akihiko, but why... this game is still running."

Yep, that's the inconsistency of this thing.

Logically speaking, since Kayaba Akihiko, the core of the body position maintenance system, is dead, then this game should be completely over.

but.......

Looking at the bewildered expressions of everyone in the strategy group, she looked up at the green circle above people's heads, which represented life's blood gauge, and her expression was very ugly.

Depression adds to anxiety, and confusion adds to incomprehension.

She turned her head to look at the girl beside her, and the emotion in her heart seemed to grow out of nowhere, and the tree shadows on the far wall were so sleepy that they couldn't move at all.

"Pendragon, what the hell is..."

With a slightly dazed expression and thoughts that she couldn't even express, Asuna murmured, "Impossible. Could it be that Akihiko Kayaba is not dead?"

Artoria shook her head slowly and expressed her different thoughts on the hypothesis put forward by the girl.

"No, I should have hit him." She endured the burning sensation in her body that seemed to be gushing out of magma, and tried hard to think about the situation, "From my experience, he would definitely not be able to dodge that blow. "

After so many years on the battlefield, if she doesn't even know if her attack is working or not, then she might as well go home and grow sweet potatoes as soon as possible.

But since it has already hit the opponent, why is there such a situation again.

The whole process of the battle with Kayaba Akihiko was recalled in his mind, and the final picture was frozen in the last sentence he said before he died, —— [Accept my gift, I will give you this world . ]

Gift?world? ?

Could it be that.........? !

Arturia's face changed suddenly, and she didn't care that the huge movement would aggravate her injury, so she quickly raised her hand and slid down, summoning her own system panel.

After seeing clearly the text on the system panel, her body suddenly stopped, and she froze on the spot.

"What happened to Pendragon? Why did you suddenly freeze?" Kirito and Klein walked over together. With just one glance, the black-haired boy saw that Artoria's current situation seemed a little strange.

However, regarding his inquiry, Asuna just shook her head heavily, expressing that she didn't know exactly what the situation was at the moment.

Seeing that they couldn't get an answer no matter what they thought, the three of them involuntarily looked at each other, and then looked at Arturia together, hoping that the blonde girl could answer their doubts.

"........."

After a moment of silence, Artoria finally retracted her system panel, and then took a deep breath.

Turning her head around, she gave a wry smile.

"Everyone, I'm sorry to tell you that I have some bad news here."

"What news?" Asuna stepped forward anxiously, then reached out and grabbed the other party's sleeve.

She was very scared, very afraid that the other party would say suddenly, "I'm sorry, I'm leaving now", and then disappeared from her life without a trace.

Of course Artoria knew what she was afraid of, but...

Sighing helplessly, she raised her hand to caress the back of the girl's trembling hand as she was pulling her sleeve, and then patted it comfortingly.

What she was going to say next was not about leaving, but another matter.

Arturia looked at the three of them with bright eyes, and spoke the desperate truth with a solemn expression.

"This game is still running at the moment, and I have confirmed this matter."

"how come?!"

Kirito opened his eyes wide in astonishment, the smile on his face suddenly froze, his mouth opened slightly, and his whole body was frozen there like a piece of wood.

"Could it be that Akihiko Kayaba is not dead?!" Klein couldn't believe his ears, he hurriedly asked, but he heard such an answer from the blond girl.

"No, Kayaba Akihiko, the mastermind behind the game, is dead. Regarding this, I can assure you."

Hearing this sentence, Klein twitched the corners of his mouth and asked with a broken expression, "Then why is the game still running?!"

"It's very simple——" the girl trembled between her fingers, her eyelashes were covered with cold light, and the opening and closing of her eyes were as fragile as a cicada's wings, "—that's because the black hand behind the current operation of the game is me."

Chapter 41 Her and Their Choices ([-] in [-])

"It's simple—"

The girl trembled between her fingers, her eyelashes were covered with cold light, and her eyes were as fragile as a cicada's wings between opening and closing, "——that's because the black hand behind the current operation of the game is me."

"!!!"

Hearing what the girl said, the first reaction of the three of them was that they couldn't believe their ears.

When they came back to their senses after this, the huge sense of absurdity made them feel that the whole world was quiet for a moment.

After a long time, Kirito finally opened his mouth tremblingly, and asked with a face full of disbelief, "Pendragon, what are you... talking about?"

"Yeah, what time is it, you still have the mood to joke around." Asuna answered the conversation from the side, with a faint smile on her bloodless face, and she tried to express her dissatisfaction. "Pendragon, can't you say that nonsense?"

She would never believe that she was talking about the mastermind behind the scenes.

In the past six months of getting along, she has seen everything the other party does. If this death game is like a silent abyss, then Pendragon is the sunlight piercing the darkness, reflecting The spring flowers that are always red and in full bloom at the bottom of the abyss.

In any case, in this game world, she can distrust anyone, but only Pendragon.

Because that is her hero, her light.

It was also because of this that Asuna opened her eyes wide at this moment, staring at the other party stubbornly, trying to let Pendragon know her mistake, that is to let her know that this is not a good time to joke around.

However.........

"I'm not joking." The blond king replied, "You should have clearly heard what Kayaba Akihiko said at the end."

"It is said to be a 'gift', but it is actually a big trouble." She sighed deeply, with a helpless expression on her face, "As the core of maintaining this game, Kayaba Akihiko handed over the authority of the administrator before dying Gave it to me."

"This also means..." She paused here, her cheeks were slightly tilted, and she looked a little hazy in the light and shadow, and her originally clear voice now also carried a little heavy Hoarsely, "... If I don't die, then this game will never end."

As soon as the voice of these words fell, it seemed that the wet clouds at the foot of the mountain were gradually rising, separating the intermittent clear pan in the courtyard, and then suddenly there was a sudden rainstorm, which broke the beautiful spring flowers in the courtyard, and then submerged them again. A whole spring.

Like a thunderbolt, Asuna's complexion turned gray in an instant.

"How could it be... like this?" She muttered to herself, only feeling that her body was nailed in place, and the ground under her feet was about to split and she would fall into a bottomless abyss.

After a moment of silence, suddenly, Asuna seemed to think of something, her whole body seemed to be awakened from a dream, and her light golden eyes seemed to be at a loss as if she had just returned from a distant place.

"By the way—" she raised her head abruptly, with a glint of hope shining in her eyes, "Since you have administrator privileges now, can you make changes, such as calling out the logout button, and so on? If so, we can log out of the game and keep the game "SAO" running."

If so, as long as the operation of "SAO" can be maintained, does it mean that Pendragon does not need to disappear?

For the girl's words, Artoria was momentarily speechless.

Modifying the system...... Calling out the logout button, this kind of thing is not something that a computer idiot like her can handle.

What's more, she replaced the identity of the boss by someone who shouldn't exist, and got a weird system panel. This kind of thing is already a huge bug, and Kayaba Akihiko did it in a hurry. The transfer, these many uneasy factors are imposed on one body, at this moment, Arturia's system has long been messed up and cannot be seen.

She was silent, and Asuna understood Artoria's hidden meaning in an instant with her silent appearance.

"No...can you?" The flaxen-haired girl opened her mouth, like a leaking ball, half of her spirit seemed to be sucked out.

"Sorry, I can't do this kind of thing."

She shook her head, apologetic in her eyes.

So in an instant, Asuna coaxed in her ears, as if she had been pricked by a sharp needle, and her whole body was a little numb.

"I... have taught myself some things about computers." The black-haired boy said hastily, "Maybe I can help to see if the system can be modified."

The boy's words immediately attracted the attention of the three people including Artoria. Asuna was the first to agree to Kirito's suggestion like the last straw.

"Pendragon, just let him see."

She said, but there was a little pleading in her tone, "Maybe he can really modify the system."

This is indeed a way, but......

Thinking of the messy codes on her own system panel, Artoria finally couldn't bear to disappoint Asuna, so she nodded and agreed to the suggestion.

"Kirito, then come and take a look."

As she spoke, she slid her right hand and summoned the system panel again, showing the mess to the other party.

"........."

He looked at it for a long time with a sullen face, and after a long silence, the straight shoulders of the black-haired boy slumped.

"...Sorry, I have no way to modify these parameters." He took a step back, gritted his molars, and said in annoyed and unwilling tone, "They are all mixed together, codes like this, to be honest , Arturia is still able to maintain her own existence, which is already a very remarkable thing."

Things that were supposed to dissipate were inexplicably stabilized.

Kirito didn't dare to move them, and he couldn't move them, because once he started to modify them, the balance would be disrupted, and Arturia's entire existence would disappear completely.

Such a thing, such an absurd thing......

He couldn't help clenching his fists hanging by his waist, his expression was extremely sad.

Looking at his face and listening to his words, Asuna and Klein didn't understand anything.

Yes, everything is clear now.

The girl's life is linked to everyone at this moment, everything is as Artoria said just now, if she does not die, then this game will continue to run.

"...How did things turn out like this?"

The figure of the flaxen girl trembled slightly, with slender and delicate eyebrows, and big and moist eyes looking at her, those eyes were painful, sad, sad, and desperate, looking at those eyes, Arturia I can't find the right words to describe it anymore.

After a long time, Asuna lowered her eyes, and two lines of tears flowed down silently.

"!!!"

Arturia is the one who hates girls crying the most, especially because of herself that caused Asuna to be so sad.

She was in a hurry for a moment, and in her green eyes, Venus exploded like sparks.

"Asuna, don't cry, okay?"

Her voice was extraordinarily gentle at this time, enduring the pain and forcibly raising her hand, gently wiping away the teardrops on the girl's cheek with her fingertips.

But regarding this move, Asuna just stared at the girl in front of her, choked up and unable to say a word.

Seeing the girl so sad, Artoria also felt a little uncomfortable, but in the end she could only sigh helplessly.