Akihiko Kayaba knew very well that, in his current state, he was no match for that man.
A performance like that had already exceeded the normal limits of the human brain.
If Kayaba wanted to defeat him, then he would have to cast off one burden as well.
The burden of the flesh.
He had to merge perfectly with the world of Aincrad. He had to sever his consciousness from his body entirely and upload himself into Aincrad.
So he would perform a full deep scan of his own brain.
And the consequences of that were likely to be severe. There was a high chance it would fail, and failure meant complete death.
That was why, in case he failed to finish the scan in time—or failed altogether—he had prepared an opponent for that man.
If Kayaba could not arrive in time, or if the scan failed, then defeating the strongest opponent he had arranged would still count as a victory over him.
At that moment, every player inside the Floor 55 boss room was at a loss.
No, not just the players on Floor 55.
Every surviving player in Aincrad was now facing an extremely important choice.
Not only had the image of Floor 100 appeared before them all, but a "contract document" had also appeared.
The NPC—or perhaps player—named Lance was not someone everyone would be stupid enough to truly believe was just an NPC.
This Lance was about to fight the girl who had killed the world boss, MHCP Unit Two Strea. From the look of it, she was the representative of Akihiko Kayaba, the source of all this misery.
Their battle would not be decided by who killed whom first. Instead, whoever inflicted valid damage on the other a certain number of times first would win.
And that number would be determined by the players' decision.
Anyone willing to sign the [Contract Document] before them would become part of that number. However many people signed would become the required value.
If Lance won, meaning he inflicted damage on his opponent a number of times equal to the number of participants, then everyone who signed would immediately receive the option to log out.
Logging out meant escaping the virtual world that had trapped them for more than a year.
It meant leaving this virtual prison.
On the other hand, if he failed—if the girl named Strea landed the required number of hits first—then every participating player would be judged dead.
In other words, the [Contract Document] before them was a death contract.
Life or death.
"Should we sign?"
"Once we sign, there's no backing out. If he loses—"
Then they would die.
"But if he wins—"
Then they could escape this world and return to reality.
One by one, they hesitated.
"Hm?"
"Someone signed."
Names began appearing one after another on the list of signatories.
Seeing that, someone seemed unable to resist and started reaching toward the confirmation button, only for a clearer-headed player to rush forward and stop him.
"Are you insane? What if this list is fake?"
"Right. They might be trying to trick us."
"There's no need to rush."
They could still wait and see.
"No need to rush?" one member of the clearing group murmured. "What if this is our only chance?"
With that, he resolutely pressed the confirm button.
He had [registered] for this special [event].
He had joined the clearing group in the first place because he had wanted to die. He could not take it anymore.
But he would not commit suicide. He would not let himself be killed by monsters without even fighting back.
He had joined the clearing group so he could vent his rage on the monsters like a madman, leaving the greatest possible proof that he had once lived.
Now that this choice had appeared before him, it did not place much pressure on him at all.
And if Lance really won, then he could return to the real world, could he not?
"Asuna, are you crazy?"
Lisbeth's voice was almost a scream as she grabbed Asuna and shook her hard.
She had only lost focus for a moment while looking at the window on her own side and had not been paying attention to Asuna.
Then Asuna's name suddenly appeared on the list, making Lisbeth's face stiffen. When she looked toward Asuna, Asuna had already completed the registration.
"I believe in Mr. Kain."
At a time like this, this was the only thing Asuna could do.
This was how she would support him.
"Mr. Kain? He's not an NPC?"
But whether he was a real person or not, signing something like this was no joke.
And yet Asuna had already signed it. From the look of things, there was no way to take it back.
"You really are... Aaaaaah, fine! I'll go crazy with you!"
After shouting, Lisbeth immediately confirmed as well.
As for Silica—
"Uh, Silica, you..."
The girl had signed even earlier than Lisbeth, leaving Lisbeth a little dizzy.
"If both of you leave, I'll be all alone. I probably wouldn't be able to survive in this world by myself anyway," Silica said with an innocent, radiant smile.
Without these two older girls looking after her, she probably would have died long ago.
"If Asuna signed, then I'll follow her too."
Because Asuna had taken the lead, some people signed directly after her. Most of them were acquaintances and partners who had interacted with Asuna often in ordinary times.
Of course, some people were still watching.
Asuna did not step forward to persuade them to trust her or anything like that. She had no evidence she could offer to make everyone believe her.
But if she logged out, that meant she would return to reality.
And once she was in reality, she would be able to invite Mr. Kain there.
When that happened, with Mr. Kain's abilities, taking out some high-tech device to crack the system and rescue everyone should be simple enough.
Asuna looked toward the list. Names continued appearing, and now and then she caught sight of familiar ones.
One of them was a member of the Knights of the Blood. She was the true master tailor, the greatest seamstress in SAO, and also Asuna's friend—Mito.
The two of them were friends in the real world as well. They went to the same girls' school and were classmates.
Clearly, Mito had also seen Asuna's name and signed the contract too.
The growth of the list soon slowed.
In the end, the number crept past three hundred and then began changing very slowly.
There were still nearly seven thousand surviving players at the moment. Compared to that number, the number of participants was actually quite small.
Most people still did not dare to gamble. After all, they still had no idea what was truly happening. They chose to wait and observe.
The five-minute countdown on the contract document now had only ten seconds left before it closed.
When only five seconds remained, the number of names suddenly surged.
Clearly, a group of people who had still been hesitating saw that time was almost up and finally decided to risk everything.
When the countdown reached zero, only a little over a hundred more names had been added.
In total, 444 players had signed this death contract.
"Four hundred forty-four?"
"That really is an unlucky number."
"Shut up!"
For a moment, some people truly regretted it.
Even though the world had developed to this point, culture still had its influence. Seeing a number like that really did fill people with unease.
Four sounded like death.
And 444 looked like death, death, death.
It was as if the number itself were cursed.
(End of Chapter)
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