"Oh, is that person Alice?"
"No, that person is Sasha."
When I shouted and waved, Sasha ran towards us with a "Ah!"
\"Kirito-san, and everyone!\"
\"What's wrong, Miss Sasha?\"
"At that time, I remembered what happened last time." After fighting with Heathcliff, when I came to the church, Sasha came out and asked Alice if she was there.
At that time, it was said that Alice had been absent from the church for about three days in search of S-class ingredients. Not long after that time, Alice came back, but could this pattern, the same thing happen again?
\"Is it possible that Miss Sasha and Miss Alice are gone again?\"
Sasha nodded dejectedly.
"Yes, Teacher Alice planned to let the children here enjoy cooking and practice cooking today. She said she wanted to find ingredients, so she left the church again. It has been two days and he hasn't come back yet."
\"So you're looking for S-class raw materials again?\"
\"Maybe the children's cooking skills are not that high, so I think it is a bit wasteful to use such rare ingredients, but Teacher Alice didn't listen and went directly to the wild. Also, it is out of reach and cannot be traced."
I wonder if Alice, who is the leader of kindergarten teachers and a reliable teacher for children, should leave the church so empty. It's like giving up your job. Perhaps thinking so, Asuna showed a troubled expression.
“I understand you want your kids to eat well, but there’s no need to go that far.”
Sinon was Alice's exclusive patient. She crossed her arms with a confused expression on her face.
\"Teacher Alice is a very free person, so it is not surprising that she makes some unusual moves.
"Indeed, Alice's recent behavior is a bit strange." In order to find S-class ingredients, I left the church for three days, which annoyed Sasha and others. Today, I repeated the same thing.
"I agree kids are cute, but why is she so picky about them?"
"By the way, Mr. Sasha. What do you want the children to do?"
"Ah. The beef stroganoff that is familiar from manga and anime."
Suddenly we heard a sound behind us and we turned our heads in surprise. It was a reddish-brown man with long, shiny black hair reaching his waist, wearing a red headband, a white coat that resembled a white coat, and a sword-like sword slung around his waist. He was a woman. Use your eyes.
"Yes, that's the Alice we're looking for."
\"Alice-san!\"
"Mr. Alice!"
Alice smiled softly and raised her hand. It is an expression of intention and means hello.
"Looks like I've embarrassed you again, I'm sorry."
Sasha walked in front of Alice.
"Teacher Alice, where have you been? The children are also worried."
"No, no, it's the same as last time. I wanted to use good ingredients, so I looked around for ingredients. Two days have passed. But Sasha, if it goes as planned, I can practice cooking." Tonight. "
"Okay, I can do that, but"
"Then there's no problem.
Alice looked at Filia with a puzzled look.
"This is my first time with you. I am Alice. I am the owner of this church."
Filia was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head slightly.
"Oh, I'm Philia, I'm a treasure hunter, a treasure hunter."
"Hoo ho, treasure hunter, treasure hunter, just like the protagonist in an adventure movie, please take care of me."
"I turned around to face Klein." It was also the first time for Klein to see Alice. He should introduce himself, but Klein still had his mouth half open and looked at Alice stiffly.
"Hey Klein, say hello to me too. What's wrong? Are you lagging behind?"
Then, Klein suddenly appeared in front of Alice and lowered his head.
"Oh, I'm Klein, I work as a company employee, and my hobbies are crazy."
When Klein was about to talk about his hobbies,
"No!"
"Ahhhhhh!!"
Suddenly, Alice drew her sword and performed the stabbing technique. After receiving a full body blow from Alice, Klein's body was easily blown backwards, rolled onto the stone carpet in front of the church, and stopped.
At this time, I heard a ringing-like sound coming from Alice's pocket, possibly because it was caught by the intrusion alarm device Alice had set.
\"Mr. Alice!?\"
Sinon's panicked voice surprised Alice.
"Well, they look like former army thugs, but they don't look like that."
Alice retracted her sword and looked at Klein.
\"Um, Klein-kun. As I said just now, I am Alice.\"
Klein lay on his stomach and raised his hands feebly.
"Yo, please take care of me"
"Alice gave us her face back."
"Well, as I told you, I went out into the wild for a while, and upon seeing me, I defeated that monster that said 'AIEEE!! Oh my Buddha Iris-----!!' "As far as I know, what are you here for?
It was natural that this man talked a lot to monsters, so I didn’t pay much attention to him. Probably for humor.
\"Ah, yes. I want to meet someone, Alice-san.\"
When I said that, Strea called out next to me.
"Is this person Alice?"
\"That's right. This person is Miss Alice. Her name is——\"
Before I could say this, Alice opened her mouth.
"Strea"
Almost simultaneously we turned to Alice. His face showed the same expression of utter surprise as when he had discovered Jupiter.
"Straley, that's not it!"
"Isn't this Straya?"
We were surprised when Alice called out Strea's name. This is the first time Alice and Strea meet, and they are not supposed to know each other's name or existence. However, Alice reacts as if she has known Strea from the beginning.
\"Teacher Alice, do you know Miss Straya?\"
After hearing Asuna's words, Alice nodded.
"Oh, yes. I can't say it too loudly, but I definitely know this guy. Straya, no doubt about it."
Strea tilted her head when her name was called, even though she hadn't spoken it yet.
"Have I introduced myself to you? Have you?"
"This is"
Alice looked even more surprised when she heard Strea's words. Sure enough, Alice seemed to know Straya. Since Alice knows Strea, maybe Strea is
"Where did you find Strea? Or rather, where did you meet?"
"Hey, this is the city on the 48th floor. That's where I met Straya."
\"I see, it turns out you were wandering in the fields\"
Alice turned to face Sasha, who still had her head tilted.
"I'm sorry, Sasha, I'll leave the supervision of the children's cooking training to you.
\"It doesn't matter, but Teacher Alice is a doctor.\"
"Yes.
"I understand. If that's the case, then leave it to me."
Alice manipulated the window and made gestures similar to those used when sending items. Immediately afterwards, the item reached Sasha's hands, and Sasha operated the window to display it. He probably gave the materials he obtained to Sasha.
"I have kept you waiting. Let's go into the church. I will decorate a room there. Please wait a moment."
After we nodded, Alice rushed into the church, woke up Klein who was lying on the stone road, and then walked in. I followed them and found Alice surrounded by many children, and walked into the corridor where the room where I slept was located. Following him, he walked forward and arrived at the door of Alice's room. Alice was standing in front of the door.
When I heard the story, I told Strea to "check on Strea in the director's office." The naive Strea was looking forward to something interesting, so he went to find Alice and entered the director's office. Then Alice said: "Wait in the room you often use. Please stay with us." So, we went to the room we usually use. room and decided to wait for the two of them there for a while.
Probably because we use the sofa a lot, Asuna shouted to me while I was sitting on the sofa in the well-maintained room.
\"Hey, Kirito-kun. I've never seen Alice-sensei's reaction before.\"
I looked up at Asuna's face, as well as Yui and Shino sitting next to me. The expressions on the three faces are almost the same. Maybe, the same look would appear on my face.
Alice's reaction at that time was very similar to Yui's reaction when she and Jupiter were together. The reason at that time was that Yui and Jupiter were super-high-performance AIs created by Alice, that is, children. When Alice sees Strea, she reacts the same way she did when the two of them were alone.
\"Ah. Alice-san knows Straya. What I can think of from here is\"
Immediately afterwards, both Filia and Klein showed confused expressions.
\"Hey, Kirito. How did Alice-sensei know about Miss Straya? Who is Alice-sensei?\"
"that's right.
I didn't tell these two people the true identities of Yui and Jupiter and who Alice was. Like us at first, she might be confused, but as long as she's involved with Alice, I have to tell her about it.
"You may not believe it, but Mr. Alice does."
I told Philia and Klein everything I learned from Asuna, Alice, Yui, and Jupiter. At the end of the story, Filia and Klein's expressions did not change at all, their eyes widened.
\"Well, that is to say, Yui and Jupiter are ultra-high-performance AIs created to heal us players. The designer is Alice-sensei.\"
"Teacher Alice is one of the Argus staff who made this game?? so what do you mean?"
"Sure enough, he has an incredible face." Well, indeed, Yui and Jupiter are able to act towards players without any humility, so it's hard to believe that they are AI, and it's hard to believe that former Argus staff members are trapped in this world. This must be true.
\"But it's all true. Miss Alice knew about Yui and Jupiter from the beginning. She had the same reaction when she saw Strea.\"
\"Lefa looked surprised.\"
"In other words, Mr. Strea may also be"
"Oh. Maybe-"
"If not, yes."
We were startled at the same time and turned towards the door of the room. Alice was also there, and she was supposed to examine Strea. The expression on his face was rather grim.
\"Yes, Teacher Alice.\"
Alice opened her mouth as if responding to Sinon's call.
\"I wonder if you are destined to be involved in this kind of thing easily.\"
"After all, Strea is"
Alice walked through the standing crowd, sat down next to me, and sighed softly. Asuna shouted to Alice, who seemed to have just accomplished something big.
\"Teacher Alice, where is Mr. Straya?\"
"Strea complained of drowsiness during the examination and fell asleep on my bed."
I took a deep breath and said to Alice.
\"Miss Alice, what is Straya's true identity?\"
Alice glanced at me sideways, then looked around at everyone and said.
"[mhcp Prototype 02], codenamed [Strare]. It is the second machine of the mental health counseling program I created... Martell, Jupiter, and Yui's sister."
"Although I think so too, I'm still surprised inside." Alice's reaction was because she met mhcp Straya.
"my little sister"
Seeing the surprised Yui, Alice chuckled.
"She's the older sister than you, which is a bit strange."
Shino put her hand on Yui's shoulder and asked Alice.
"Strea is mhcp... Yui and Jupiter, why mhcp and mhhp mdouble.
Alice held her head.
"Yes, they were originally supposed to be sealed under the Cardinal System, but they came to this world normally. The answer may be simple."
You looked worried.
"The base system is down?"
"It makes sense to think this way. However, the balance of the game does not seem to be affected, so it seems that the part that manages the game itself is not paralyzed, but it is very likely that there is a problem with the monitoring part." Paralysis. This may be the reason why Strea can come out. "
Alice looked up.
"Moreover, she seems to be a player recognized by this world. She probably hadn't logged in when the game was launched, so she used a redundant avatar to materialize into this world. Let's go."
"That kind of thing. So, what about Strea's function as an mhcp? She doesn't seem to remember anything."
After hearing my words, Alice nodded.
"Yeah, like Yui and Jupiter, she lost most of her functions and suffered from amnesia. And, maybe because she uses player data, she thinks she is the same player as everyone else. In fact, she The window is the same as the others." Player's, I can't find the word "mhcp_002". "
Leafa frowned.
"Didn't you tell Strea about this?"
"Originally, she was injured by some kind of burden and came into this world with amnesia. If you told me, it would definitely cause more serious harm.
Yui made a sad face. He must have imagined the moment when his sister was injured.
"No no no..."
"So don't tell her about mhcp, even if it's wrong. Until she wants her memory."
"So how can we restore her memory and character?"
Alice seemed to react to my words and looked at me.
“One of Yui’s ways to restore Straya to normal is to enter the cardinal system like Yui did and restore her language and memory.
But that was to get the Cardinal system to acknowledge the existence of Strea, who was never supposed to be there. No matter how paralyzed the cardinal system is, Strea will not be ignored. In fact, Cardinal is a system group with a solid foundation that can create Jupiter and Martell. "
"In other words, you can't recover your memory like Jupiter?"
Alice nodded helplessly at Asuna's words.
“If you access the Cardinal system, it will be fixed.
Alice turned to Yui.
“However, although Yui was hurt when we first met, didn’t she return to normal before she knew it?
"Yes. At that time, I used the data recovered by the base system to restore it to its current state. At that time, I was discovered by the base monitoring agency and was about to be deleted."
Shino said to Yui.
Just when Yui was about to be erased, Lilan suddenly pierced Yui and scratched her body.
"Finally, I said it."
\"Yui was transferred to my local memory. Thanks to it, I was able to escape the radix system.\"
"What? Is there such a thing?"
Klein raised his eyebrows, crossed his arms and said:
"Uh, uh, what the hell is going on?"
Shino turned to everyone who looked confused.
“That is to say, after Yui helped Lilan Asuna arrive, what awaited us was a sight that left us not knowing what to do except being surprised.
Waiting for us are Jupiter and Yuki. However, Jupiter gets a taste of its dinner right in front of us. They prey on non-food items known as "wild bosses" and taste them.
We can't help but be stunned as we watch the innocent, child-like Jupiter, Asuna's son greedily prey on the realm boss.
Plus, we were amazed that Jupiter was eating calmly even though he was being watched.
"Jupiter what are you doing?"
When his mother Asuna shouted in surprise, her son slowly turned around.
A part of the domain boss's body was held in Asuna's mouth, stained with red light, and I swallowed it.
Then she exclaimed as if nothing had happened.
"What's wrong, Mom?"
"We are even more surprised." Jupiter had always been slurred and could not speak well, but now Jupiter spoke very fluently.
Just like when Yui entered the cardinal system and regained her language skills.
"Jupiter, you, your words"
When Jupiter stood up and approached Asuna, the field boss's miserable corpse finally turned into a light blue figure. With a sound similar to an explosion, it immediately turned into polygonal fragments and disappeared. Then, Jupiter came to Asuna and lowered his head slightly.
"Sorry, Mom, I'm a little hungry, so I'll eat first."
"Are you hungry? Just because you're hungry you want a monster?"
Speaking of preying on monsters, so does Lilan, but Lilan doesn't feed on monsters, just bites them into pieces and causes a lot of damage.
However, Jupiter apparently preyed on monsters and turned them into sustenance. And, I don’t know if it’s because of this, but I can speak fluently. ——It seems to have evolved.
"Jupiter, what's wrong with you? Why are you doing this? And, how did you become so fluent?"
Jupiter turned to face me as I cried out in embarrassment.
"I didn't know what it was and that monster looked delicious so I ate it. Somehow my body felt better."
"W-what happened?"
Suddenly, I turned my attention to Alice, the developer of Jupiter. A stern expression appeared on Alice's face.
\"Isn't it self-evolution, is it absorption evolution!?\"
\"Alice-san, what's wrong?\"
Alice answered my words while still staring at Jupiter.
"Yupibo has evolved. In order to repair himself, Yupibo defeated a wild boss equipped with a relatively advanced AI, preyed on that AI, absorbed it, and fused it with his own. As a result, Yupibo's processing power After improving, it became what it is now.”
According to Alice, both Jupiter and Martell have the ability to evolve themselves. Even if they are damaged, they can eventually return to their original state by erasing their memories.
Now, if Alice is right, then Jupiter has evolved. However, Alice never seemed to think that she would evolve by eating the AI of other monsters.
"Are you saying Jupiter preys on other AIs?"
"Ah. And if my hypothesis is correct, the current wild boss will not appear again. Until the game is cleared."
Level bosses never respawn once defeated, but wild bosses will reappear after a while, so you can fight them multiple times.
I couldn't help but be surprised that something so common in Aincrad was being denied.
"What do you mean? Even if you defeat the wild boss once, it will appear again."
Alice's face turned gloomy.
"Under normal circumstances, yes. But now that Yupibo has evolved, it means that he has absorbed the AI installed on the field boss. Yupibo has absorbed the AI that controls the field boss on the 48th floor. Even if it is a wild boss, it will not lose its AI. pop up again"
Our eyes all turned to Alice and then to Jupiter. Jupiter ate the level 48 wild boss AI, absorbed it, increased his processing power, and attempted to return to his original form. And wild bosses eaten by AI will never respawn.
I immediately understood the meaning of this sentence and felt a chill on my back.
"No way, Jupiter really killed the domain boss, the domain boss on the 48th floor!?"
"It turns out that Jupiter was originally just a life form born in this world, but due to the accumulation of mistakes, he unknowingly learned to eat other AIs and life forms."
We humans, or rather the creatures born on earth, are constantly stealing the lives of others and eating their flesh to survive.
I thought this had nothing to do with Jupiter and others. They were creatures on earth and were born on computers, but Alice's words and Jupiter's actions completely negated this.
"But the Cardinal system wouldn't allow such a thing, would it?"
In response to Shino's question, Alice lowered her head.
"I told you, the cardinal system is paralyzed. Normally, Ubibo's actions should be canceled by the cardinal, but if not, it means that the cardinal cannot function normally. This is a big change, even if Things we as developers, Argus, could never have imagined could happen in this world."
"never!"
Alice approaches Asuna and Jupiter.
Jupiter used to hide behind Asuna when he saw Alice, but now he stared at Alice as if nothing had happened. Through growth and evolution, Alice's fears seemed to disappear.
\"Asuna, you heard me.\"
Asuna nodded slowly.
"Jupiter eats other AIs, kills them and evolves. Is this what you call the ability to evolve itself?"
"No, it's not like that. But because of the accumulation of some factors, Upibo mutated into something like that. Now that your son has grown up, how happy are you?"
Asuna looked a little sad and gently stroked Jupiter's head. Even though he grew up and spoke well, and even after adopting other AIs, he still seemed to be Asuna's child, and Jupiter gladly accepted Asuna's hand.
"I'm sorry I should be happy that Jupiter is healed, but I'm not happy at all."
"Me too. Yubibo is becoming a different being than when I created him. Even I don't know what happened or what will happen from now on. But I have accepted it now. It seems he is A very smart AI, so he won’t eat other AIs for a while.”
"real"
"Yes, but if you are not good at it, this kid's appetite may be endless. If this kid eats another AI, it will have a certain impact on the entire game and all players. I have to teach you, you know .”
Asuna nodded.
"Yes. But I don't know if I can do it well."
"This child is almost indistinguishable from children in the real world, and you may interfere with other NPCs.
This wild boss is on the 48th floor. It is a boss that players no longer pay attention to, so it is a little better, but if you eat important NPCs, you will not meet the conditions, or you will not be able to complete the task, which will become impossible. When something like this happens, it's easy to imagine the magnitude of the loss.
Asuna looked at Jupiter in disbelief, then put her hand on Jupiter's shoulder.
"Jupiter, why did you do that? Can you tell me again?"
"I was hungry. Then I saw something that looked delicious, so I ate it."
"Even though that's a place I'm not supposed to leave?"
"...because"
Asuna's face looked a little solemn. His face was that of a parent scolding a child.
"This is a very dangerous place. And what Jupiter eats is very dangerous."
"Dead, huh?"
It seems that Jupiter does not know the concept of death. Well, no one taught me that I have the same processing power as a little kid, and I guess it’s because I haven’t seen the moment when artificial intelligence actually dies until now.
However, Jupiter seems to have a rather peculiar way of falling apart, such that although he understands dietary etiquette, he has no concept of death.
"Because of what you ate, the jungle boss died just now. If you do something like this again, you may die next time. You can't stay together, not even eat together, you will be trapped in a world Inside." It was pitch dark and you couldn't understand anything. Is this good for you, Jupiter? "
Jupiter lowered his head slightly and remained silent, seeming to be thinking about something, but soon a look of fear appeared on his face. But surprisingly, he didn't cry.
"No, no. I don't like this, Mom."
"That's right, Mom definitely doesn't want Jupiter to die, and everyone thinks so. So, no matter how hungry you are, you can't eat anything around you, and you can't eat monsters. That's it, if you eat it, you 'I'm going to die one day. Please, don't do this anymore. Just eat the food cooked by my mother. Don't let my mother and everyone worry anymore, okay?"
Jupiter nodded.
"I understand, I won't eat anything other than what mom makes, and I won't come out again."
"Can you promise me?"
"promise"
Asuna smiled and gently hugged Jupiter's body.
"Good boy, Jupiter. I'm sorry you starved."
Jupiter didn't say anything, just buried his face in Asuna's chest and wrapped his arms around her back. Her appearance is identical to that of a child spoiled by her mother, while Asuna is no different from a mother who loves her child.
Maybe when I love Yui, she is more like a mother than Shino, and I feel like I am no match for her.
\"Miss Asuna, you are definitely Jupiter-kun's mother.\"
Shino nodded after listening to Leafa's words.
\"Asuna, you may be more of a mother than me.\"
"As Yui's father, I have lost confidence."
\"Hearing what Shino and I said, Klein smiled bitterly.\"
