Having traversed countless realms, can you possibly be as clever as me?

This also made his BOSS battle design extremely boring and tedious. Although it is a virtual reality game, it is no different from pressing the keyboard to release skills.

So, to cover up his poor design skills, this scoundrel started modifying each boss, adding special phases that allowed him to control the player, using unequal and coercive methods to highlight his so-called 'realism'.

This scoundrel probably realized that his design was purely designed to prevent players from completing the game, so he simply took matters into his own hands and created the only Holy Sword skill set in the game, making his stats far superior to those of other players.

What do you mean by a normal tank dying after taking two punches, but you single-handedly withstood ten minutes of damage output from the boss after it went berserk?

Whether it's his shield thrust or Kirito's dual-wielding style, it's all proof that this guy completely disregards game balance for his own enjoyment.

Of course, there are also the floor bosses that drop only once and all the other hidden skills, which are essentially the same as those god-tier online game novels where you unlock hidden classes and then annihilate 10,000 ordinary players and 5,000 paying players.

"After all that complaining, all I want to say is that I'm extremely disappointed with the game you made."

Tsugumi straddled the chair, propping her head up with one hand on the backrest, and laughed as she looked at Kayaba Akihiko, who was panting heavily in front of her.

"Weren't you supposed to be a world-renowned game designer? Is this the answer you've given us?"

Having finally recovered from his dementia, Kayaba Akihiko didn't answer. Instead, after looking at Tsugumi for a moment, he spoke in a voice that conveyed an emotion he couldn't quite articulate.

"What... exactly are you?"

He is a man who can see through almost everything.

The word "genius" is the most fitting to describe him.

Kayaba Akihiko's past and present fit the profile of anyone who was exceptionally talented from a young age and received attention and admiration from those around them. As he grew up, he single-handedly broke through the brain-computer interface technology that no one else in the world had ever cracked, developing the NERvGear full-dive technology.

His future should have been filled with fame and fortune, making him a great scientist who would be remembered in history, and then pushing the limits of science and technology.

But how can you call him a genius-type character in Japanese animation? Such characters are always full of psychological problems that ordinary people find incomprehensible.

He is, according to him, a person who is kidnapped by 'dreams'.

He didn't know from what age he had been haunted by the fantasy of Aincrad, the floating castle. This fantasy would keep appearing in his dreams no matter how much time had passed, like a curse, becoming more and more real and enormous.

Torn by this entanglement, he gradually yearned to create and enter the floating castle he had built. Perhaps it was this very curse that ultimately drove him to create NERvGear and The Seed.

The former is a product of virtual reality technology, while the latter is something he created that he called the 'seed of the world'.

In essence, it's just an enlarged version of RPG Maker, a free software package that adapts to NERvGear and creates corresponding game worlds.

But it is the only virtual reality game creation software in the world. Before the technical black box of NERvGear he created was cracked, only The Seed's code could create virtual reality games that could be freely interacted with.

After completing these two things, Kayaba Akihiko created the world he envisioned and then decided to kidnap 10,000 players to enter it and act out the drama of his dreams.

A fantasy of swords and blades, a performance that belongs only to oneself.

To outsiders, this seemed utterly incomprehensible, but for Kayaba Akihiko, it was something he had to do.

"Are you suspecting that a special god like me 'cursed' you, causing you to create all of this?" Tsugumi looked at Kayaba Akihiko with a playful expression.

"So, what exactly are you?" Kayaba Akihiko temporarily set aside his hatred for the other party who had destroyed his dreams, and asked stubbornly, even with immense anticipation.

He couldn't understand the person in front of him, what exactly was this boss of VOX Technology? His thirst for knowledge desperately craved an answer!

So Tsurugi showed him what he really looked like.

Having transmigrated, my only purpose is to kill, kill, kill! : 31. My Cyber ​​Hell

A television-like head appeared in front of Kayaba Akihiko.

The dazzling electric currents and the flashing code—even though this was a virtual world that could be changed infinitely, Kayaba Akihiko believed that what he was seeing was definitely not fake!

"Ha, hahahaha, hahahahahahaha!"

Upon seeing the demon's appearance, Kayaba Akihiko remained silent for a few seconds, then exhaled and burst into laughter, relieved.

"So it turns out what I had wasn't just a dream after all?!"

He was very happy because a large part of the reason he caused all of this was that he truly believed that a floating castle called Aincrad really existed in some world!

It was precisely because of this incomprehensible, madman-like fantasy and obsession that he did such a devilish thing!

His reason told him it was just his fantasy, but his emotions only deepened the curse. But now, he has successfully proven that he was not just imagining things.

He saw something surreal; he saw a demon!

If that's the case... then I'm not dreaming!

If demons exist, then there must be an Aincrad!

I'm not dreaming, everything I did was right!

"Hahahaha, if we were in another world, you would definitely become a demon like me!!!"

Tsugumi laughed wildly as she patted Kayaba Akihiko on the back.

What he committed was the most standard and unforgivable sin of debauchery!

To achieve his dream, he didn't hesitate to trample on the lives of thousands. And after seeing a demon that should have only existed in his imagination, he naturally forgave himself, and even his last bit of guilt vanished.

Such a soul is born to belong in hell!

"But I have to tell you, that's just your dream! It's nothing more than your irrational, self-torturing dream, a product of your paranoia!"

Tsugumi chose to cruelly shatter his dream.

Although Tsugumi was also quite curious whether this was some hidden element within the world's setting, unfortunately, he had already checked Kayaba Akihiko's work.

From his body left outside to his digital personality that he had uploaded to the internet, unfortunately, there are no fantastical elements involved.

That was just a dream, a dream that a paranoid man had been reinforcing and deepening since childhood, gradually building up his worldview until he finally fooled himself into believing it existed.

This might be a special kind of mental illness, or it might really be some kind of strange phenomenon, but in any case, Tsurugi doesn't care.

He only cared about what Kayaba Akihiko's actions could bring him.

Kayaba Akihiko didn't refute anything or show any weakness. Even if the devil told him it was his imagination, Kayaba Akihiko wouldn't believe it.

A person who is so obsessed that even the devil praises him will certainly not be broken by trivial 'truth'.

He simply gazed calmly at Tsurugi and said softly.

"So, Mr. Devil, what exactly do you want?"

He was captured by the demon before him after undergoing a highly efficient brain scan, attempting to digitize his memories and personality and preserve them on the internet.

Kayaba Akihiko knew that he had committed such a heinous crime that there was no possibility of him being forgiven. Perhaps because of his talent and value, his most likely fate would be to be captured and secretly placed under house arrest somewhere. But Kayaba Akihiko did not want to choose either outcome.

After realizing his obsessive dream, Kayaba Akihiko decided to just end it all.

He himself did not know whether the high-frequency scanning was successful or not, because it was a technology that was impossible to obtain results through human experiments. He was the first user of this rudimentary technology.

But in terms of the outcome...

He did succeed.

His soul-like brainwaves remained in cyberspace after his death, allowing him to survive as a cyber ghost.

If nothing unexpected had happened, Kayaba Akihiko might have become the world's first electronic soul, but unfortunately he encountered Tsugumi.

The power of the media demon is a natural enemy to these electronic life forms; as long as they exist within the framework of the internet, his power can easily control them.

Even without Tsugumi, the AI ​​he created was more than capable of handling Kayaba Akihiko.

The technological development of this world is so distorted. After the emergence of virtual reality technology, it even created AI life, which can download data from the game to a quantum computing circuit called "Yao Guang" using black technology to construct such heaven-defying things as artificial souls!

Later on, because Kirito open-sourced The Seed, this world was transformed into a digital world just like his mother's in a few years!

Honestly, if you change your worldview, these technologies belong to the realm of mechanical ascension or the fundamental nature of life that is simply inaccessible.

But they actually created this thing. With the same technological means as Kayaba Akihiko, they created such incredible technology. No wonder Sword Art Online later adopted the science fiction world of Accel World.

Then--

Their AI technology was still outmatched by VOX's weak AI computing power.

The strange thing is that the electronic souls created by Kayaba Akihiko and his team are theoretically AIs, but they completely lack the computing power of AIs. Alice Zuberg, who later arrived in reality, behaved no differently from an ordinary human, completely lacking the computing power that a strong artificial intelligence should have.

It's less like AI and more like a 'machine soul'.

This can only be described as a limitation of the era in which the works were created... But in any case, Kayaba Akihiko was arrested on the spot by Tsugumi, who had been lying in wait for him.

Kayaba Akihiko never imagined that he would one day actually encounter the demon of his imagination.

But his fate... he felt it probably wouldn't be too good.

"You are a rare soul... a pure and obsessive sin."

Tsugumi walked around behind Kayaba Akihiko, placed her hands on his shoulders, and whispered:

"But unfortunately, there is nothing in this world that can judge the sins of mankind. The souls of the dead are only bound in the mortal world and wait to dissipate. Only a very few will disappear. I cannot find heaven and hell. In fact, in most parts of the world, there is no such thing as heaven and hell."

“This won’t do, this is not good. I am a bad thing, but I have always believed that there should be a place in the world where good is rewarded and evil is punished.”

“If they don’t have one, then I will. If there is nothing to judge the sins of others, then let me be that judge!”

"Trial, conviction, execution! It's all mine!"

Yes, what he was after was Kayaba Akihiko's virtual reality technology. He and the games he created were a pile of garbage, but they were perfect as prisons and cells.

The sensory systems of the Aincrad inhabitants are incomplete, simply because Kayaba Akihiko hasn't fully opened them. But the fact that they experience hunger proves that all forms of torture and punishment are effective!

With his World Seed, how could Tsugumi not create a living cyber hell or heaven out of thin air, so that the prisoners within could experience pain and torment, rewards and pleasure?

As he said, he desperately wanted a world where evil was punished, and if not, he would create one himself. For him, tormenting souls was a natural duty bestowed upon him by God, and a crucial means of gaining power and authority.

Instead of waiting for people to die and then screening their souls to see if they are kind, it would be better to put them in a virtual world, read their memories, and then torture them on the spot!

The kind ones are thrown back or placed in a virtual paradise to enjoy themselves, while the wicked ones are severely tortured!

"You are more arrogant than I am," Kayaba Akihiko said softly, his eyes lowered.

“But you are the sinner, and I am the devil. You are the prisoner in the jail, and I am the prison guard and the executioner.” Tsugumi stretched out her hand towards Kayaba Akihiko, tilting her head as she spoke.

"You have two choices now. First, I'll put you in prison to serve your sentence. I can torture you until your soul completely dissipates, considering the crimes of ten thousand people! After all, my torture techniques aren't quite there yet."

"My second option is to give you a chance to redeem yourself: become my warden. Help me guard these sinners, and, among them, some whom I have marked, to subject them to appropriate torture—"

“Although you are a madman, your moral values ​​are close to those of a normal person. I am about to leave this world for a while, so I hope to entrust all of this to someone I can trust.”

Kayaba Akihiko stared at his hand for a long time, then slowly raised it and grasped it.

Contract... is established!

From then on, Kayaba Akihiko logged into Aincrad, but this time, he would be a player, with the identity of the 'Warden'.