Lillian stood up and looked around. The room was small—barely over ten square meters—and completely empty. Cobwebs clung to the walls, and moss had grown due to dampness. Just moments ago, he had been lying directly on the floor.
"I probably haven't fully left the Sword Art Online world yet."
He crouched down and touched the spot where he had been lying. A chill spread through his palm.
"There's no warmth at all… That means I wasn't lying here the whole time. Was I only transferred here once the game ended?"
He didn't fully understand his current situation, so he decided not to overthink it. He walked to the only door, grabbed the handle, and tried to open it—it was locked.
He stepped back and kicked it hard.
Bang!
The lock snapped, hanging loosely.
Outside the door, the left side led to a narrow corridor lined with similar iron doors—likely a basement. To the right was a staircase going up. He followed it upward into a small lobby.
There were two elevators in the lobby, with several people waiting. When they heard the noise and turned to look at him, their expressions were strange—and tinged with disgust.
It wasn't surprising.
Lillian looked downright miserable. His armor was long gone, leaving only a black long-sleeved shirt and pants—the basic in-game outfit. Having lain on the filthy basement floor for who knew how long, his clothes were stained white and black in patches, making him look utterly disheveled.
Ignoring them, he pushed open the glass doors and stepped outside. As soon as he left, the people waiting for the elevator immediately began whispering.
"What's with that guy…"
"Yeah, going out dressed like that."
"Is he even a resident of this building? I've never seen him."
"Probably an otaku. How lame."
"Seriously."
Lillian heard every word but didn't bother responding. However, he did gain one important piece of information: these people were definitely Japanese.
Which meant—
He was now in the real world of Sword Art Online.
He casually found a clothing store and bought a shirt to change into. As he was leaving, he noticed the television inside the shop broadcasting a news report.
"According to reports, players trapped in SAO have begun waking up one after another. Although the cause remains unknown, hospitals accommodating these players have fully launched recovery programs and hired large numbers of psychologists to provide mental counseling…"
"Sir? Sir?"
The voice by his ear pulled Lillian's gaze away from the television screen. He looked at the female clerk standing in front of him.
"Sorry," he said.
"Oh—no, no," the clerk quickly replied, visibly relieved. "You were just watching the news very seriously."
Then she smiled. "Still… it's such a relief. Those children have finally been saved."
"..."
"That Akihiko Kayaba really was the worst kind of monster!" the clerk said indignantly. "It's a shame the police still haven't caught him yet. So many children were hurt… He'd better not think he can escape the judgment of the law."
"Yeah," Lillian replied quietly.
"And the company that developed that evil game—ARGUS—paid the price too. That sky-high compensation bankrupt them long ago. I suppose that counts as karma."
Lillian nodded and said nothing more, turning to leave the shop.
After changing into clean clothes, he no longer drew stares from passersby. Standing on the street and watching the bustling crowd, he felt an odd sense of familiarity—like being back in his hometown on Earth.
Although this world possessed advanced technology like full-dive immersion, everyday civilian technology wasn't particularly ahead of Earth's. The difference wasn't that large.
Lillian closed his eyes, memories surfacing one after another.
He had memorized Argo's, Terusuke's, Kirito's, and Asuna's emails and home addresses. If he wanted to contact them, he could do so at any time… but what would be the point now?
He was in a state where he could leave this world at any unknown moment. Before that happened, there were things he absolutely had to take care of.
---
ARGUS Corporation — Branch Office
When Lillian arrived, he noticed that the large sign at the entrance no longer read "ARGUS," but had been replaced with "RECT."
He remembered that ARGUS hadn't gone bankrupt only after the game ended. In fact, shortly after deaths began occurring following SAO's launch, the company had already collapsed and dissolved.
The one that took over ARGUS was RECT Corporation—a comprehensive electronics and mechanical manufacturing company. Its president was none other than Asuna's father, Shouzou Yuuki, Asuna's real name being Yuuki Asuna.
"Asuna" was her real name—just rendered differently through romanization to distinguish between her in-game and real-world identities.
As for her father, Shouzou, he was a man with sharp business instincts. When no one else dared touch the ARGUS disaster, he saw the immense commercial value hidden within the technology. He acquired the entire company at a low price, then later used that same technology to develop ALO, reaping enormous profits.
Lillian wasn't interested in any of that.
He was here for one reason only.
The address Kayaba had given him pointed to this very building—more specifically, to an office inside it. Within that office was a hidden compartment containing the physical storage unit and backup copy of The Seed.
Now that the company belonged to RECT, Lillian had no way of knowing whether the item had already been discovered during reorganization. But if it truly was hidden in a concealed compartment, then there was still a chance it remained untouched inside the laboratory.
He glanced at the guards stationed at the front entrance.
Entering through the main door was impossible—he had no legitimate credentials. Looking up at the sky, he saw that dusk was already approaching.
After a moment of thought, he decided to wait until nightfall and infiltrate the building then.
Having made up his mind, he went to a large supermarket and bought a compact flashlight.
While lining up at the register, he noticed a young man ahead of him, happily carrying a large box. Lillian glanced at the label—it read "Home Entertainment Projector." Probably something for motion-based gaming.
To Lillian, it felt unnecessary. With full-dive technology already in existence, motion-control games were practically obsolete.
The horrifying incident orchestrated by Kayaba had certainly made people wary of full-dive technology—but humans were forgetful.
After some time passed and public attention faded, new products would still sell extremely well. Players knew how fun it was—better than any other form of entertainment. And precisely because the SAO incident had occurred, people would trust that governments would now strictly regulate the technology to prevent anything similar from happening again.
It was much like the "toxic milk powder" scandal that had once erupted in Lillian's world.
At the time, it was a shocking, nationwide disaster. Domestic milk powder sales plummeted initially—but soon rebounded significantly. People reasoned that after such an incident, government oversight would surely be stricter, so newer products must be safe.
And to be fair, that assumption wasn't entirely wrong. After that scandal, regulation truly did become extremely strict.
But the logic itself was flawed.
A tragedy leading to progress did not mean the tragedy was justified.
Just like how a certain South Korean film, Silenced, led to stricter laws protecting minors and people with disabilities. The law was good—but that didn't mean the real-life crimes that inspired it were acceptable.
So even if Kayaba's actions ultimately accelerated societal and technological progress, what he did was still wrong.
As the clerk had said—"the most despicable." That was, in fact, how the majority of society viewed him.
After checking out, Lillian left the supermarket and spent a few hours in a 24-hour café. Around ten o'clock at night, he finally stood up and returned to the company building.
The guard booth was still lit, but the building itself was completely dark. Even in a country famous for overtime work, this late meant most employees had already gone home.
Lillian circled to the side of the building. Without even taking a running start, he lightly leapt and cleared the two-meter-high wall with ease. Using the cover of night, he slipped inside the premises and took the stairwell up to the eighteenth floor.
According to Kayaba's information, the office he needed was the innermost room on that floor.
However, the moment he rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, he noticed something unexpected—
A faint sliver of light was leaking out from beneath the door of that very office.
Someone was already inside.