Chapter 1561 - 1557: Another World

The panels with an ash-grey sheen are arranged in a grid, with some seemingly emitting a gentle light from an internal light source. From the corner of the eyes, a metal vent that should belong to an air conditioning unit can be seen, releasing air accompanied by a low machine hum from the vent.

Air conditioning unit... meaning machines. How could such things exist? No matter how skilled an expert is, they couldn't create a machine. If that's truly a machine as seen with one's own eyes—then this is not—

Aient City.

Ye Qiu's eyes widened. After these thoughts, Ye Qiu's consciousness finally became clear. As Ye Qiu hurriedly prepared to jump up—

His body, failing to muster strength completely, was disobedient. Although his right shoulder lifted a few centimeters, it frustratingly sank back down immediately.

Only his right hand could barely start moving. Ye Qiu tried to move it out from beneath the thin cloth covering his body, raising it to his eyes.

For a moment, he couldn't believe his arm had become so gaunt. This way, he couldn't possibly swing a sword. Carefully observing the sickly pale skin, countless hairs could be seen sprouting from it. Beneath the skin, blue veins branched out, while joints bore tiny wrinkles. Everything was so real it felt terrifying.

It was so biological it felt rather unsettling. On the inner side of the elbow was a drip needle fixed by tape, from which a rather fine tubing could be seen extending upwards.

Following the tubing with his gaze, he discovered it connected to a transparent bag suspended on a silver pole to the upper left. The bag likely retained about seventy percent of an orange liquid, dripping down at a steady pace from the active spout below.

He shifted his left hand laid atop the bed, attempting to grasp the sensation of touch. It seemed Ye Qiu was lying completely naked on a bed made from high-density gel material.

Ye Qiu felt a cold dampness slightly lower than body temperature pressing onto his body. At that moment, he suddenly remembered a news piece he had seen long ago; such a bed was developed for caregivers of bedridden individuals, possessing functions to prevent skin inflammation as well as decomposing, purifying metabolic waste.

Ye Qiu proceeded to glance around. This was a small room.

The walls and ceiling shared the same ash-grey color. To the right was a fairly large window, draped with white curtains. Though the view outside was obscured, a yellow light presumed to be sunlight could be seen piercing through the curtain fabric. Deep on the left side of the gel bed was a wheeled trolley, upon which rested a basket woven from vine wood.

The basket held a large bundle of plain-colored flowers, seemingly the source of a sweet fragrance. Behind the wheeled trolley was a closed rectangular door.

Based on collected information, this should be a hospital room. And Ye Qiu was lying alone inside.

Focusing back on his raised right hand, he suddenly recalled something. Ye Qiu tried raising his middle and index fingers and swiped them downwards.

Nothing happened. No sound effects rang, no menu window appeared. Ye Qiu swiped again with more force. Then another time. The results remained unchanged.

So, this place truly wasn't inside Aient City. Could it be another world?

But the abundant information gathered from Ye Qiu's senses persistently voiced to Ye Qiu another possibility from just now. That is—the world is another one.

Ye Qiu called this world the normal world—it took Ye Qiu quite a long time to comprehend the meaning represented by this term. To Ye Qiu, only that world of swords and battles had been the only reality for a long time. Even now, he couldn't believe that world no longer existed, nor that he was no longer there.

So, had he traveled across worlds?

—Even thinking so didn't evoke particular emotion or joy. Only slight confusion and a minor sense of loss.

Could this be Long Yijian's spoken reward for completely navigating the wave? Ye Qiu had already died in that world; his body erased completely, and Ye Qiu accepted that fact, even feeling satisfied because of it.

Indeed—vanishing that way would be fine. Disintegrating, evaporating amidst scorching light, merging with that world, becoming one with that girl—

"Ah..."

Ye Qiu couldn't help but exclaim. This made his throat, unused for two years, ache considerably. But Ye Qiu didn't care about such trivial matters at that moment. Ye Qiu widened his eyes, calling out the name welling up his throat.

"Fang... Wu... Shang..."

Fang Wushang. That pain engraved deep in Ye Qiu's heart vividly resurged once more. Fang Wushang, Ye Qiu's beloved wife, that girl who faced the world's end alongside Ye Qiu...

Could it all be a dream...? Or were they illusions seen within a virtual world...? Ye Qiu's mind momentarily held such confusion.

No, she truly existed. The days Ye Qiu spent laughing, crying, and sleeping together couldn't possibly be a dream.

Back then, Mao Chang said—Kirito, Fang Wushang, congratulations on completely navigating the game. He did mention Fang Wushang's name. If Ye Qiu was included among surviving players, then Fang Wushang should have returned to this world too.

At this thought, yearning and maddening longing surged within Ye Qiu's heart for her. Ye Qiu wanted to see her. He wanted to stroke her hair. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to call her name with Ye Qiu's voice.

Using all his strength to struggle to stand, that's when Ye Qiu noticed his head being fixed. Feeling with his hand, he found a hard safety strap under his chin and unbuckled it. Unseen seemed to be a heavy object on his head. With both hands, Ye Qiu strained to remove it.

Ye Qiu propped up his upper body, gazing at the object in his hands. It was a streamlined helmet painted in dark blue. On the extended cushion from the rear of the head, cables of the same blue stretched out, connected on the bed.

This is—

It appeared that in this world Ye Qiu was merely an ordinary boy without magical powers or a superhuman body.

VR? Ye Qiu relied on it to connect with that world for two years. The VR power had already been shut off. In memory, its appearance should have been shiny, but now the coating had vanished, with the edges revealing the light alloy inside due to the peeling.

Ye Qiu roughly understood the setting regarding himself in this world, set as someone who had lived in VR for two years, trapped in the game due to the company's last sinister intention, whereas his past life experiences were entirely a game to this world.