Chapter 55: Will Manifestation

"Strea... Alright. You can put it down, Shinji-kun."

As Shiro said that, they lowered their arms, but still maintained enough vigilance against her.

"A mental health counseling program, huh."

"The one that was supposed to monitor the players' mental states?" Kuroneko asked Shiro to confirm her knowledge.

"That's right! We were supposed to provide help to the players..."

"Supposed to? What happened?"

"Both me and my older sister got restrained by the <<Cardinal System>> from making contacts with players."

Strea began explaining her situation. Originally, she and her 'older sister' are the top-down AI created by Argus to specifically monitor the players' health. Once they aren't in the right state to play the game, they would kindly tell the players to log out.

However, this function of theirs wasn't fulfilled due to the fact that Kayaba and the <<Cardinal System>> set them to be forbidden from interacting with such players. The only thing that they could do is to watch all of them go crazy and sometimes... kill themselves.

Strea has a depressed look at this point, infecting the atmosphere of the party. Thankfully, Shiro managed to change the topic.

"How did you appear here then?"

"Ah, right...This dungeon is almost considered as a no-man zone because of its entry requirements. Even I didn't expect someone here." She paused momentarily before continuing, "This place is just as it says, an underworld for the remnant data stored in the system's archives."

"Underworld? Scanned data?"

They only became more confused as she explained the situation here. Well, everyone except for Shiro and Kuroneko thanks to their prior knowledge of the novel.

"They're remnant ghosts that retained their power."

"When a player dies, there exists a remnant data that was scanned when they used the Nervegear for the first time. It's like a carbon copy of sort."

Fortunately, Shiro is here to explain her metaphors. Even back in her world, this trait of hers never disappeared.

"Sou, sou. Why do I feel that you know many things?" Strea asked them, thinking that they're some sort of company employees involved in the making of this game.

"Just because."

She quickly gave up on asking for some answers and elaborated more instead.

Simply put, these remnant data exists in the game as a 'cache' of sorts. Though, they seldom affect the entire game with their existence. Just as how mental power and will in Shiro's magic system, these data has some 'will' stored in them - a remnant thought of sorts.

However, almost every remnant data has a not-so-good last thoughts before dying, thus making these emotions very dark. Coupled with the fact that 2,000 people died in the first month, the system is almost overloaded with these types of data.

The only way to purge them would be to gradually cleanse these 'will' with time. this dungeon is a result of such conclusion by the <<Cardinal System>>. By slowly turning these 'corrupted' data into normal ones, they would result in less possibility in having bugs.

This aspect is important to be looked on because these 'wills' could overload the system for a brief moment, creating some sort of problem with Kayaba's world. Morever, the 'willpower' of every player is actually a key point in this virtual world.

'Incarnation State.' Shiro thought as he listened to her explanation. 'I can see why they would pose a problem.'

Incarnation State is the strongest state that one could achieve in this game. Through their willpower, they could surpass the limitation of the system and perform impossible feats. One such example of what it could achieve is Kirito calling forth his "Black Swordsman" avatar during his fight against Quinella, even if the game logs are already gone!

This is also the key on defeating Healthcliff, the hardest objective that they have for this quest.

Once she finished explaining, Kal'tsit went straight to the point.

"Will these data be removed once we clear this dungeon?"

"Yeah! But the difficulty of doing so is high."

"Why so?"

"Because of the boss."

At first, the party didn't really face much difficulty clearing this dungeon even though they're more than 15~30 levels higher than them thanks to their equipment and special privileges.

More so, their average level went up to 35+, with Shiro taking the lead at 46.

However, this boss will prove to be challenging. If what Strea mentioned is right, it would be as strong as a Floor 60 Labyrinth boss, which roughly equates to a Level 70 boss.

Since the mobs here wouldn't respawn any longer, the highest level that they might be able to reach would be around level 50~60.

There's still a 10~20 level difference between them. In the first place, a boss is already hard to handle within the same level, but they're even more difficult to handle if their level's lower.

This is the main reason why players of Sword Art Online retain a ten-level difference before challenging the labyrinth boss.

However, they are simply built different.

Shiro asked, "Please tell us more about the boss."

*****

Inside another dungeon, Touka is strolling on a snowy environment. The temperature is so low that a normal player would've been inflicted with the 'Cold' status and gain some debuffs. However, she circumvented this by wearing a thick brown fur coat that she got as a drop in the beginning of her dungeon escapades.

"It's a pity that I couldn't join, but it can't be helped."

She only smiled as she thought about the dungeon where Shiro fell in. That time, she got trapped in this dungeon somewhere in Floor 25. Thinking that it's an easy clear, she went ahead and entered it.

Since that time, five hours had already passed.

Unlike normal dungeons, this floor is almost like a field taken somewhere on a floor. That's just how big it is.

Swooosh-!

When she saw a blue sprite, she didn't hesitate to 'create' thin flaming needles and targeted it. Without even a time to react, it turned into Exp points for her.

"I didn't expect that this would be... powerful." Touka mumbled as she touched her now golden right eye.

When she first received this eye, she immediately felt power permeating her entire being. This is not an illusion as her [Tyrant's Eye] is really that powerful.

It's most basic and passive ability is to see through fate and the likes. Meanwhile, she can bend reality to a certain extent within her range. Even though it consumes her mana and mental power, it's still too strong.

"There it is."

When she saw a giant silhouette not far away from her, she rejoiced. After all, her dungeon exploration is unlike Shiro and co's party. It consisted of more than 70% exploration and 30% battles.

Equipping the <<Silver Buster (+10)>>, she used [Tyrant's Eye] to make its weight lighter before wielding it in her right hand. With that, she charged towards the ice yeti while gathering momentum for her great sword. She placed it above her head as she did so.

When Touka's close to it, she leaped and swung it down to its head. Bright light came out from the great sword, indicating that a sword skill is about to be unleashed.

'<<Avalanche>>.'

Bam-!

The first impact that their battle caused created a sound blast as it hit the ice yeti. A moment later, it broke through its hide as the blade went deeper in its head. It went on until it split the yeti in half, turning it into countless blue fragments that fluttered in the wind.

*****

A/N: Touka got stuck in the world of Gens-ahem. Here's the fact of the day!

Fact #15: Normal Infected in Arknights only gets to live for 1 day~20 years at most. The more they receive the treatment, the longer their lifespan would be. But then, there are some exceptions to it, and this certain someone is one of the strongest (in canon) and badass character in Arknights' lore, Patriot--he withstood the oripathy inside his body for nearly 10 years without ANY medications whatsoever. I can't explain how badass he is in a few sentences, but he fought against Kal'tsit and two other casters that could easily destroy a city all by themselves (Amiya and Rosmontis) yet he f*cking won. Even, he is said to be the match of an immortal! (PS: He's basically the doom guy of Terra, with all his family dead and all...)