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Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) Chapter 21 Awakening (Continued) 7 July 2026 / Eighth Day1 of the Eleventh Month of the Human Empire Calendar, 380 6 “Only… YOU…! Never… forgive…” Crack!! A second sword pierced straight through Klein’s body with a dull sound. Tears, never running dry all this time, flowed uncontrollably from Asuna’s eyes. Even while pinned heavily to the ground, Klein clawed at the earth with his right hand as the inciter in the black poncho — PoH, the former leader of the murder guild «Laughing Coffin», viewed him from above with a look of deep disgust. “Ahh, I can’t watch this anymore. Nobodies like you should just get out of the way like the nobodies you are. This is what happens when you butt in and play the hero.” PoH shook his head while spreading his arms, and then, in a language Asuna couldn’t understand, indicated something to the crimson knight players standing behind Klein. One of them nodded and raised another sword. Just as the third gleaming blade was about to blast away what had to be the last of Klein’s HP— “Hajimaaaaaaaaaa!!2” 1 Kawahara made a typo and wrote “Seventh Day” instead. It has been corrected here. 2 Korean, “Stop”. 12 Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) One of the crimson knights exploded from the rear of the human wall and with a scream that sounded Korean, used his own sword to block the blade about to fall upon Klein. *** —You’ve gotta be kidding me… How does it hurt this much? Jo Wol-saeng/Moonphase remained prone on the ground, enduring the pain on his back where the man in the black poncho had slashed him. The AmuSphere he was using should only be able to generate a very weak sensation of pain. As a matter of fact, even if his avatar’s head were crushed in the jaws of a colossal dragon in the game he played so much, «Silla Online», he would only feel a jolt akin to numbness. And yet, Wol-saeng was experiencing an excruciating agony as if he had been scalded with a torch. No, if he were injured the same way in the real world, he wouldn’t be feeling just this. That man in the black poncho had swung his fiendish, thickset Chinese cleaver-like weapon so fast that not even Wol-saeng, who thought himself a veteran player, had time to react. He would probably die instantly if he were attacked like that in the real world, and if not, he would experience pain so intense that it would be difficult to remain conscious. That was why this pain could only be a virtual sensation. But despite his awareness of this, an unbearable sensation was still unbearable. Wol-saeng almost wanted to abandon the scene before him and log out of the game as fast as he could. But even as he curled up pitifully atop the black dirt, he kept enduring the pain, because he could not accept the situation playing out right before his eyes no matter what. 13 Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) Japanese hackers have «attacked» the closed beta testing server of a new VRMMORPG jointly developed by American, Chinese, and Korean volunteers, and are killing the developers in the game world. We hope that everyone can fight to stop the barbarity of these Japanese. This social media appeal was what the Korean players, Wol-saeng included, and the Chinese players were responding to before diving into this VRMMO. They then bore witness to a group of Japanese players annihilating another group of players, supposedly Americans. But — did that scene really fit the explanation by whomever had sent out the appeal? As Wol-saeng saw it, it seemed instead that the Japanese were the more desperate ones, while the Americans looked more like they were playing a game. This impression had not changed, not even when the tide of battle had been turned by the «rescue» from tens of thousands of Korean and Chinese players, and even now, with most of the Japanese incapacitated. Even with their equipment shattered and their HP bordering on running out, they were putting their lives on the line to… Yes, they were trying to protect something, not destroy it. Before Wol-saeng was slashed by that man in the black poncho, a female player from the group of Japanese had made a plea in native Korean that went like this: —You’ve all been lied to. This server belongs to a Japanese company, we’re not hackers, we’re the rightful users. You were all tricked by false information into coming here to interrupt its development. Something about the voice and expression of that female player calling herself Siune had greatly moved Wol-saeng. 14 Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) So he had endured hell and high water to get close to her in that free-for-all, to ask her “Do you have a way to prove what you are saying?”, and just as Siune’s partner was about to respond in Japanese, Wol-saeng was attacked by a slash from the man in the black poncho and was unable to get back up. The developments that followed went blindingly quickly and were completely one-sided. The Japanese players were crushed by the crimson legion. A large portion of them lost all of their HP and were forcibly ejected from the game while the surviving half, numbering less than 200, were stripped of their weapons and rounded up in one place. At that point Wol-saeng thought that the man in the black poncho, appearing again at the very front lines, was going to declare their victory, but instead he did something odd. A single player wearing black clothes, sitting in a wheelchair and hugging two swords in his lap, was removed from a group of what appeared to be Japanese reinforcement players, and then the man in the black poncho began accosting him nonstop in Japanese. This is getting weirder and weirder, thought Wol-saeng. What on earth was a wheelchair doing in a virtual world — a VRMMO? In the game he played frequently, «Silla Online», if one’s feet were injured or suffered otherwise abnormal status effects, free movement on foot would be restricted. But you would be able to fully recover with the use of magic, medicine, or simply waiting until time was up. If your ability to walk was so impeded that you needed a wheelchair to get around, then at that point it couldn’t just be an in-game punishment. What was more, that young man in black seemed to have some sort of impediment to his consciousness; he did not react to anything the man in the black poncho said, and even when the man shook him he offered no resistance. 15 Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) One might think that if he wasn’t an NPC, then he was probably an empty character uninhabited by an online player. Finally, as though he could not bear it anymore, the man in the black poncho delivered a merciless kick at the wheelchair’s silver wheel and knocked it over. In a flash, Wol-saeng forgot the pain on his back and held his breath. The Koreans around him let out noises of confusion, unable to grasp the situation. At last, the young man sprawled on the ground displayed a reaction of his own accord: he reached his left arm towards the white blade out of the two swords he had been hugging so preciously until a moment ago. When Wol-saeng saw this he finally realized that there was nothing past the boy’s right shoulder. But his hand was still unable to touch the sword, because the man in the black poncho had picked it up first, and was holding it somewhat high out of reach as if he were taunting a child. The young man scrambled on the ground, desperately reaching for the sword, trying to get it back. The man in the black poncho seized the boy’s left arm and violently yanked him to his feet. Loud words came from his mouth while his right palm struck the boy’s cheek twice, three times. All of a sudden, a new scream shattered the scene. One of the captured Japanese players, wearing samurai-styled armor and a bandanna on his head, tried to grab the man in the black poncho. But in the next instant a Korean player’s sword thundered from behind and buried itself deeply into the samurai’s body. Clearly enduring agony much greater than Wol-saeng’s, he attempted to keep advancing forward but then a second sword stopped him. The man in the black poncho sneered at the male samurai pinned to the ground. Then he delivered an order in Korean to the crimson knights. “He’s a nuisance. Kill him.” 16 Sword Art Online Volume 18 – Alicization Lasting Chapter 21 - Awakening (Continued) One of the crimson knights nodded and raised a third sword. He just could not silently watch this happen anymore. He had not seen proof of what Siune claimed, but at the very least he despised the black poncho man’s act of kicking over the wheelchair. On the other hand the samurai’s desperate act gave Wol-saeng a strong impression that he was trying to protect his comrade.

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