Thump… thump…
"Hey, be quieter!"
"What are you scared of? There's no way the sound reaches the guard booth."
"But seriously… did the boss really get this right? Is the thing actually here?"
"Who knows—ah! There it is!"
One of them let out an excited shout. Reaching into a hollowed section behind a loose wall tile, he pulled out a silver, palm-sized box.
"This is what the boss wanted, right?"
Creak—
The door suddenly swung open.
The people inside hadn't even finished celebrating when they instantly tensed up, staring warily toward the entrance.
"Who's there?!"
"I should be asking you that," Lillian said calmly as he walked into the room.
He looked at the four or five men dressed in black suits, each wearing a head-mounted mini flashlight.
"You know this is illegal trespassing, right?" he added inwardly, …though I guess I'm not much better.
Seeing that the intruder was just a teenage boy of seventeen or eighteen, the men visibly relaxed.
One of them laughed and walked toward Lillian, reaching out to grab his arm.
"You work here? Then you'll just have to stay put for a while."
His hand stopped midway.
Lillian had already seized the man's cheek. With a casual flick of his wrist, he sent the man flying.
Bang!
The body crashed hard into an office desk.
"Tsk…" Lillian rubbed his fingers with visible disgust.
"Oily skin—wash your face more often."
"Bastard!"
The others snapped out of it and simultaneously drew pistols from their waists, aiming them straight at Lillian. Their coordination was impressive.
"Get on the ground! Now! Or we shoot!"
"..."
Gun ownership was illegal in this country—or at least, it should have been. But then again, people who came here to steal something like this were hardly petty thieves.
Lillian's gaze shifted to the silver box in the hands of the man at the back.
That was his objective.
"Hey! Did you hear what we—"
Before the threat could be finished, the men realized that Lillian had vanished.
He disappeared from where he stood—completely without warning.
Before they could react, searing pain exploded throughout their bodies. One by one, they collapsed to the floor with heavy thuds.
The silver box was already in Lillian's hand.
To be safe, he opened it. Inside were two objects resembling USB drives—the original Seed data and its backup, exactly as Kayaba had described.
He closed the box and slipped it into his pocket.
Then he crouched down, casually picked up a pistol from the floor, grabbed one of the men by the collar, and hauled him upright. Pressing the gun barrel firmly against the man's forehead, he asked coldly:
"Who do you work for?"
"I—I…"
"Three. Two."
"Don't! Don't shoot! It's the boss! We all—"
"Name?"
"S-Sugu… Executive Suguo…"
"Suguo? Suguo Nobuyuki?" Lillian watched the man nod and immediately understood.
This Suguo Nobuyuki was the major antagonist of the ALO arc in the original storyline. Lillian didn't know much about him—he had found that part of the plot unbearably dull and hadn't bothered to watch it carefully. Still, he knew one thing clearly: that man coveted Asuna. More precisely, he coveted the entire RECT Company.
Given that, it was perfectly normal for him to send people to steal a collection of game development software. What impressed Lillian was the fact that Suguo even knew this place existed. Most likely, it was because he and Kayaba had been classmates during their student days, so he had some understanding of Kayaba's habits and methods.
Now that everything was clear, there was nothing more to ask. Lillian casually tossed the man aside, took out a phone, and dialed the police. After emptying the wallets of the few intruders, he turned and left.
There was no need to worry about them escaping. Lillian had absolute confidence in the damage he had inflicted—at the very least, they wouldn't be able to move for several hours.
---
He returned to the still-open café, found a seat in a quiet corner, placed the silver box on the table, and opened it. He carefully took out the object inside.
"Kayaba said he would transfer the server into this," Lillian murmured. "Which means that once all the players leave, and that world loses its large-scale server support, everything will freeze. In that frozen world, the only ones who can still act would probably be Yui, Kizmel, and Kayaba himself."
His hand tightened slightly around the object. Just thinking about it was enough to understand how unbearable that loneliness must be.
If that world continued to operate… no, it would still be the same. What meaning was there in interacting only with NPCs?
Sightseeing, perhaps? SAO did have many beautiful landscapes—but even the most beautiful scenery would grow dull after seeing it for too long.
"So… what should I do?" Lillian stared at the port on the object in his hand. It looked like an ordinary interface—if he wanted, he could connect it to a computer at any time.
To be honest, he truly felt tempted to do so. But since he had already made a promise to Kayaba, he wouldn't break it so easily.
Was there a way to do this without connecting to the network—something convenient, something that could…
As he was thinking, he suddenly noticed someone walking into the café. The man's face seemed familiar—wasn't he the one who had bought a home projector at the supermarket earlier…?
"Wait—projector."
Lillian froze slightly and looked down at the object in his hand.
"If this were connected to a projector… no, that probably wouldn't support conversion. But why limit it to a projector? As long as it's an audiovisual device that supports this interface… If it's artificial intelligence, maybe it could generate an image? And then… could communication be possible?"
His heartbeat began to race. If this really worked…
He shot to his feet and left the café without hesitation. He found a 24-hour store and bought a small tablet that supported the necessary port. Outside the shop, he sat nervously on a roadside bench, powered on the tablet, and inserted The Seed into its interface.
A soft ding sounded, and a message popped up:
[The device was unable to recognize this hardware.]
"…So it doesn't work after all."
Lillian's face was filled with barely concealed disappointment.
"I really was being unrealistic… something like this…"
[Bzzzt… crackle…]
Suddenly, the image on the tablet screen twisted violently. Lillian's eye twitched—his first thought was that the tablet had been broken. But in the next instant, he stared in shock.
The image on the screen seemed to turn into a sheet of "paper," and that paper was being torn open from the center.
"What's going on?!"
Lillian jumped to his feet. As the screen crackled and distorted, it suddenly split apart completely. Several figures abruptly leapt out, appearing before him in flat, 2D form.
The moment he saw them, Lillian felt his heart clench violently.
"Yui! Kizmel! And Kayaba!"
That's right—the three 2D figures on the screen were exactly those three. Confusion was written across their faces. They seemed unable to see Lillian, looking around in bewilderment. Only Kayaba frowned, calmly thinking through the situation.
"Hey! Hey!"
Lillian called out to them.
They seemed to hear him and opened their mouths to speak, but although Lillian could see their lips moving, no sound came through.
At that moment, Kayaba appeared to do something. Then he spoke, and his voice suddenly emerged from the tablet's speakers.
"Lillian, is that you? I adjusted my output signal so the sound could pass through this… device. Is this a tablet computer?"
"It's me! Yes, it's a tablet," Lillian replied. Then he realized that Kayaba couldn't see him either. After a brief pause, he instinctively turned on the tablet's front-facing camera.
In the next second, it was as if the three of them had suddenly gained sight—their gazes snapped straight toward Lillian.
"Lillian!!"
Yui and Kizmel were visibly excited when they saw his face. Kayaba, on the other hand, spoke thoughtfully:
"I see. You connected The Seed to a tablet… By changing our signal output method, we artificial intelligences can communicate with you this way."
"That's right. I was just trying it out—I didn't expect it to actually work."
As Lillian spoke, he felt the gloom in his heart completely disperse.
"A tablet… computer? What's that?"
Yui and Kizmel didn't understand what Lillian and Kayaba were talking about. Through the camera, however, they could see not only Lillian, but also the street behind him—streetlights, buildings, the real world itself.
"Lillian… is this the world you live in?" Kizmel asked.
Lillian nodded heavily. "Yes. This is the real world."
As he spoke, he turned the tablet slightly so the front camera could capture more of the surroundings.
"Well? Don't you think it's less beautiful than SAO? Honestly, reality…"
"No."
Kizmel shook her head and smiled. "I think it's very beautiful. Very real."
"Tch, Kizmel-nee is lying," Yui said with a grin. "You just think any world where Lillian-nii is is beautiful, right? Right?"
"I never said that," Kizmel replied, reaching out and grabbing the little girl. "That's what you think, Yui."
"Ahh! I'm sorry, Kizmel-nee! Don't pinch me—waaah…"
Watching the scene on the screen, Lillian couldn't help but laugh.
It felt like watching a 2D animation—but no animated work could ever match this level of fluidity.
At that moment, Kayaba, who had been deep in thought, suddenly spoke again.
"Lillian, you remember our agreement, don't you? This tablet… it won't connect to the network, will it?"
"...Don't worry. It won't," Lillian replied. "I'll honor our agreement—"
Before he could finish, the tablet screen suddenly went black.
"What?!"
Startled, Lillian looked closer and noticed the battery indicator in the top-right corner.
It had shut down automatically—out of power.
"It had 40% battery when I turned it on… was it fake charge?"
Annoyed and anxious, Lillian hurried to look for a place to recharge. After taking just two steps, he suddenly realized something.
"If I bring this to another world… and that world doesn't have electricity…"
He froze for a few seconds, then blurted out:
"A portable solar charger!"
His eyes lit up. That's right—as long as he brought one of those, any world with sunlight would be fine. After all, it wasn't powering some massive machine—just a small tablet. Solar energy would be more than enough.