Chapter 92: Altered Fate

Stretching his body full of newfound power, Shiro then prepared to leave. Last night, he obtained dozens of abilities, ranging from SSR to SR. As for the Rare, he planned to store it for now.

There's also the items, but he left it to his [Dimensional Storage].

"It's time to visit her before going back..."

After 30 minutes, he's done taking a bath and other sorts of preparation.

Click-!

Buzz-!

Wearing a set of clothing from the Random Spins, [CCG Uniform (SR)] and his [Special Sunglasses (SR)], he left the hotel room.

*****

Sitting under the shade of a tree, Yuuki Konno has a smile on her face as she thought of the places that she visited today.

"That's how a sea looks like..!"

Ever since she was confined to a sterile room due to HIV-AIDS, she couldn't visit the outside world. She could only blame the blood infusion that happened years ago.

Her family got into an accident at that time, and they're experiencing severe blood loss. That's when the misfortune happened - someone happened to donate blood containing HIV-AIDS, thus her entire family got infected in the end.

Just last year, her parents died due to it.

While the fear of her and her sister's death started to appear, she decided to enjoy what's left in her time by visiting various places in <<Serene Garden>>, a VRMMO game exclusive to those whom are hospitalized.

Combat is not present there, albeit what it presented are the breathtaking views, either based on the real world or completely fantasy-like.

Thanks to it, both of them managed to have fun during their limited days left.

Wooosh-!

The wind rustled, which made her notice of a man present not far from her. The ends of his white trench coat fluttered as he walked towards this tree.

His round sunglasses might come off as out-of-place, but it wouldn't stand off much considering his appearance.

What made her notice him is his appearance. It is completely unlike any other that she'd seen. Even the most handsome actors pales in comparison to him.

It's as if he is made with perfection in mind.

"Phew... Even the heat here is realistic..." The man muttered under his breath before greeting her.

"Hello there, jou-chan."

"Hi, mister." She replied.

The man seemingly thought of something before looking at her. Unlike her pale skin in real life, a healthy glow emanated from it, making her no different than normal teenagers.

"You're also confined for a long time?"

"That's right..."

"Oh, you're just like me. I'm a SAO player."

Hearing this, Yuuki got interested.

"I saw the news from yesterday. Apparently, the game was already cleared!" She said while being curious about the life of a SAO player.

She then asked, "Mister, can you tell me... how did you live inside the game?"

"I can." He paused for a while as he placed his back on the tree before continuing, "Do you want to hear the bright one or the dark one?"

"...Both."

The man was quite surprised by her choice. After all, why would a 13-year old girl prefer to hear the cold facts instead of a fantasy-like story?

"Honestly, I would've told you an embellished story about us defeating a tyrant in a desperate battle, but I guess I don't need to." The man laughed lightly as he spoke.

Shiro began narrating what he saw inside the game. How those psychopaths ganged up on solo players and stole their stuff, while some parts of it are the boss fights in the labyrinth.

Due to his max-level charm and good storytelling, Yuuki could clearly feel the atmosphere inside those stories. There, she felt the evil side of the world as well as the desperation that each players possesses; as if they're ready to die every boss battle.

Though, he also told some stories of his quest escapades. While the others are Elimination-type and Errand-type quests, there's also treasure hunting on it.

One time, he encountered the 30th Floor Boss during a Search-type quest, which ended up with Shiro solo-ing it after some difficulty. Though, he told this story from an outsider's perspective.

"That's amazing..! Do you personally know that person?" She asked.

"Mn, I do." Shiro only replied with a smile.

"Those stories... they're exciting. I wonder if I can experience those myself one last time..."

Hearing this, Shiro could only recall the certain arc in Sword Art Online, Mother's Rosario. It was during that time did Yuuki decided to play ALO with her friends from <<Serene Garden>>. She ended up having the potential to be the strongest player as a result.

Even Kirito admitted that she'll receive <<Dual Blades>> instead of him if she's present there. It could only mean that her natural reaction speed is higher than Kirito.

However, what made Shiro interested in this girl is her optimism. In the novel, she's depicted to be unafraid of death, only doing her best to enjoy life to its fullest.

In the end, she did die with a smile on her face.

Suddenly, he asked, "What would you do if you're cured of your disease?"

"Let's see... I would like to go visit a Natsumatsuri."

(A/N: Natsumatsuri is the Summer Festivals in Japan. Y'know, the one with the fireworks and yukata.)

"I see. You must've seen it in anime, no?"

Yuuki replied, "Haha, that's right! It's the arc when they either confess or get interrupted by something."

This conversation of theirs lasted for another twenty minutes when Shiro bid his farewell.

"Looks like it's time to leave. Farewell, jou-chan."

"Bye bye, Shiro!"

The next moment, an invisible aurora curtain appeared in front of him. Once he stepped in, he suddenly found himself back on secluded place in the streets.

"This is surely convenient." He murmured as he asked, "Cardinal, the cameras over there are frozen, right?"

"That's for sure."

Shiro then looked at the hospital in the distance as if he can see through it.

"Thanks. For my last part..."

Shiro opened another aurora curtain leading to a certain place. Once he entered, he now found himself on a sterilized white room. In it is Yuuki Konno's true body. There's a huge machine in which she slept.

It is the Medicuboid, a VRMMO device specially used for medical purposes.

Her skin is pale while she's also thinner than her virtual counterpart.

"I really have to thank Terra."

Shiro took out a green vial with an injection with it. This medicine, [HIV-AIDS Cure (UC)], is something that he got from the shop.

It originated in Terra; thanks to their advanced technology, they developed all kinds of cure there, ranging from cancer to HIV-AIDS. This is the result of them focusing too much on the medical field in hopes of finding a cure for oripathy.

Simply put, these are the side rewards.

With his Surgeon Mastery, he immediately found the veins on her right hand before he injected it. Looking at her once more, he could see that her vitals on the screen is still normal, but there's a huge change inside her.

The disease that plagued her immune system is gone.

"Alright, the next step."

Shiro calculated a runic circle in his mind. Thanks to the huge boost in his Wisdom stat that he received from [Six Eyes], he managed to do it near-instant. Unlike his previous casting speed that was half of a second, there's a huge gap between them.

Green light started forming in his fingertip before passing it on her unconscious body. Since it would create more suspicions, he made it so that it would only gradually affect her body.

"Self defense abilities for the last part..."

With a thought, he took out [Boxing Mastery (UC)], something that he got from his crazy draws. He tapped the crystal on her head, passing on the memories of it to her. After that, it simply crumbled into thin white particles.

After passing a set of meditation technique and runic spells, Shiro also cured her sister before he left.

Just as he was about to press [Return], he murmured, "How would she bear the weight of her altered fate? This is bound to be interesting..."

After a flash of white light, everything returned to how it was before. Only, there's another set of challenges that Yuuki would face after she wakes up...

*****

A/N: Here marks the end of SAO Arc! To be honest, I actually faced some dilemma while writing it, especially the part where I seemingly over-extended the Anomalous Dungeon part. This happened since all I planned are the end points - the planned developments before each arc ends. Though, this turned out to be fun nonetheless. Aside from those, I am thinking about opening a p*tr**n. The reason why I thought so is because of my habit to save up advanced chapters for the days when I couldn't write. But, I've already saved up more than 10 chapters by now, so I think I might really open one (I really love writing this fic lol). As for the things that you could expect from me if I do so, there's only three:

1. Daily updates

2. Each chapters being between 1.1k~1.3k words each. If there's a Side Story or an Omake, it might reach 2k+ words.

3. A well-thought ending even if it might feel rushed. Though, I'll try my best to reach my main goal, which is the quarter/half of Akikan's Chat Group fic the very least (500 chaps~1k chaps).

Well, that's it, here's the fact of the day~!

Fact #48: Arknights can be very dark sometimes. One such example is the Child of Ursus event. In a nutshell, a terrorist organization took over a city, which included schools. These students are trapped inside one while their connection from the outside is cut-off, but they have their food supplies that can last them for months... until they do not. During a fight on the allocation, someone stupidly placed a f*cking candle right beside the said supplies, so everything became ashes in a matter of minutes. Now, guess what did this certain group of operators eat? What do you think is viable as food in this scenario..?

If you guessed "the students themselves", then you're damn right! A group of high school students, eating the corpses of their fellow students just to live... is not a pleasant thought. Heck, there's even a quote whereas it mentions how they can chop through the bones with 4 hits...