When Asuna received Akimi’s message, she was standing still, feeling anxious—because she realized that no matter which direction she walked, she always ended up back at the place where she had left the torch.
The only difference this time was that when she returned to the torch for the fourth time, it had vanished because its durability had been depleted.
Although Akimi’s message was extremely brief—just “I’m fine, how about you?”—it reassured Asuna quite a bit.
Having confirmed that there was no immediate danger around her, Asuna simply sat down on the ground and started replying to Akimi:
“I’m fine here too, but there are no hints, and I don’t see anything related to the challenge. The area is like when we encountered the Shadow Demon—you can only walk in circles. And it’s so dark, I can’t see anything, it’s scary.”
Asuna sent the message while pouting, showing a very troubled expression, and added a “???” emoji at the end.
Seeing the small emoji at the end of Asuna’s message, Akimi couldn’t help but smile a little.
However, he quickly regained his seriousness and briefly explained the situation on his side.
Looking at the monsters still roaring around him, Akimi frowned.
There were just over four minutes left until the challenge ended, and it seemed Asuna had no clue what to do—most likely, they wouldn’t be able to finish today.
Meanwhile, after understanding the situation, Asuna felt even more anxious but had no choice, so she sent a message: “Ah—sorry, I really can’t find any useful clues…”
“Don’t worry, these little monsters are basically no threat in the short term,” Akimi replied, sensing Asuna’s anxiety.
At the same time, he vented his frustration by swinging the Nichirin Blade fiercely at a nearby stone golem.
By coincidence, the blade struck the stone golem right on its neck.
After a slightly muffled cracking sound, an irregular “stone” fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and then vanished in a flash of light.
But it was that rolling motion that made Akimi think of something—could it be that Asuna wasn’t actually trapped in a “haunted wall” scenario, but was instead on a large omnidirectional treadmill?
This led him to another possibility: Asuna might now be playing a non-stealth VR game while being inside a fully stealth-oriented VR setup.
And he—the one on his side—could be the character that Asuna needs to “control.”
Since Asuna hadn’t received any challenge requirements, that could mean that his own challenge requirements are essentially her challenge requirements—just because he couldn’t truly defeat the monsters doesn’t mean Asuna couldn’t.
Akimi’s speculation wasn’t purely imaginative, either—there had been cases in the past where omnidirectional treadmills were used for playing older VR games… though the “player” wasn’t a human, but a trained lab mouse.
And in fact, it had worked—the omnidirectional treadmill adapted well to VR and could simulate movement that was almost like real life.
However, this method also had a drawback: since the movement module was linked to the treadmill, any physical hiccup with the treadmill would create obstacles for the VR-controlled character’s movement.
But if Akimi’s guess was correct, even that single drawback would be solved—because in the virtual world, as long as the program functioned correctly, no external factor could interfere with its operation.
If his speculation was right, and he really was the character being “controlled” by Asuna, then what they now had to do would be extremely demanding—
Asuna would need to operate in a situation with no line of sight while performing attacks in perfect sync with Akimi, controlling the monsters’ health and eliminating them simultaneously.
Achieving this would be nearly impossible.
First, both would need the same weapon—after all, you couldn’t expect a one-handed sword and a two-handed sword to have identical attack patterns.
Second, their attack powers couldn’t differ too much; too large a gap would make it impossible to kill the monsters at the same time.
Finally, the two challengers would need an extraordinarily high level of coordination.
To be honest, for this part, Akimi himself didn’t dare to imagine it—but now he couldn’t think of any other possibility.
After sharing his thoughts with Asuna, she was equally incredulous, but after a brief silence, she sent a message: “Then let’s try it. I believe we can do it.”
Faced with Asuna’s trust, Akimi replied with a smile: “Alright.”
…
Although both of them wielded one-handed swords, the system sword techniques for a straight sword and a rapier still had many differences, so Akimi chose a simpler approach.
They decided to use the ten forms of the Water Breathing techniques together, sequentially from the first form to the tenth, repeating in a continuous cycle.
After coordinating, the two, in separate spaces, simultaneously raised their Nichirin Blades and softly recited:
“Water Breathing, First Form…”
“Water Surface Slash!”
As the words fell, the two blades created rippling waves as they slashed forward.
Then, turning their sword tips, they lightly leaped while executing the next technique.
“Water Breathing, Second Form…”
“Water Wheel!”
A deep blue stream spun upward, completing a full rotation in the air, forming two water-wheel-like circles, splitting the armored dwarf in front of Akimi in two.
“Water Breathing, Third Form…”
“Flowing Dance!”
Without any pause, the two executed the next technique, their movements like flowing water, leaving streaks of damage on the monsters ahead.
…
“Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!”
When the final Water Breathing form appeared, the swirling water transformed into a dragon shape, shattering two monsters at once.
Akimi and Asuna suddenly felt an indescribable sensation—as if the other’s presence was inside themselves, every movement perfectly in sync… in a serious, almost uncanny way.
And as Akimi had suspected, the monsters that had been defeated did not respawn.
Looking at the few monsters remaining, Akimi instinctively said, “Let’s finish them in one go, Asuna.”
But when he heard Asuna’s spirited “Okay!”, he froze for a moment.
Scanning around and confirming she really wasn’t nearby, the two of them exclaimed:
“Huh?!” ×2
“As-As-Asuna, can you hear me?!”
“I-I-I don’t even know what’s happening—”
After a brief silence, Akimi sighed and said: “Let’s not worry about that for now. Let’s finish off the remaining monsters first.”
“Okay!”
………
With the “in-team voice chat” in place, the following battle naturally became much easier, and in just half a minute, they had defeated all the remaining monsters.
When the last medium-sized stone golem fell, a congratulatory message, similar to what appears after clearing a floor boss, appeared before both Akimi and Asuna.
The stone platforms that had separated them now reappeared before them.
As they were lifted back up, they noticed that the Dwarf Palace had vanished like a mirage, leaving only a solitary hill standing in its place.
Everything felt like a dream, imagined in the mind, and only the sudden appearance of the reward notification confirmed it was real.
The reward consisted of two gems, one black and one white, but neither was a solid color.
The black one resembled a few drops of ink in a cup of water, while the white one looked like heavily diluted milk.
Although the colors differed, both shared the same name: “At the Beginning of the World”, and their details page contained a lengthy background story:
*”Legend has it that these gems lie deep at the roots of the two sacred trees that protect the continent of Yunieal. The soil and life of Yunieal were born from them.
During times of turmoil on the continent, the dwarves of the underground kingdom of Yaurunida stole them from the treasure vaults of the Dark Elves and Forest Elves and hid them deep within the Dwarf Kingdom Palace.
Their power is said to be sufficient to create or destroy a world, but it has long since faded with the collapse of Yunieal and the passage of time.
What remains of their power might yet shine one final time when activated by someone who shares the same ‘will.’”*
— The end of the Chapter–
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