Chapter 044: Punishment

Compared to the World Gate, the World Ring had many advantages, such as being easy to carry, allowing the channel to be opened or closed at any time. Moreover, opening or closing was very fast; basically, with a single thought, one could open or close it at will, which was quite convenient.

But this did not mean the World Gate was outdated and needed to be eliminated. In fact, the World Ring and the World Gate each had their own advantages. Once the World Gate was opened, it could connect two worlds, and as long as it was not closed, the two worlds would not be severed.

However, the channel opened by the World Ring consumed the magic power inside the ring. Once the magic power was exhausted, the channel would close. This duration was about twelve hours.

From this perspective, the World Ring was far inferior to the World Gate.

Even so, the appearance of the World Ring still delighted Wang Bo.

Because the World Ring could work in the virtual world, which alone was something the World Gate could not match.

After Wang Bo explained the function of the World Ring to Asuna, he personally put it on Asuna's hand.

"Are you ready, Asuna?"

Hearing Wang Bo's question, Asuna nodded seriously.

"Good." Wang Bo smiled with satisfaction, patted Asuna's hair, took her hand, and said, "Don't keep us waiting too long."

With that, without waiting for Asuna to nod, he sent her back to her original world.

Yui looked worriedly at the place where Asuna had disappeared and asked anxiously, "Is it really okay?"

Wang Bo knew what she was worried about, but he had confidence in Lady Gremory. "Don't worry, there's no problem at all. Just be patient and wait a while."

Yui nodded.

Dr. Stone remained silent, but his eyes held an unshakable worry.

However, it turned out that this worry was nothing but unnecessary trouble.

A few minutes later, a light suddenly unfolded before Wang Bo and his group, forming a circular arch. Asuna stood on the other side of the circular arch, looking excitedly at Wang Bo and the others.

Seeing this, Yui and Dr. Stone couldn't help but smile. They strode through the arch and hugged Asuna in celebration.

Wang Bo walked through the arch and found himself in a forest. Looking around, he could see a clear sky and lush trees. He asked, "This is Aincrad, right?"

Asuna nodded. "Yes, this is the twenty-second floor of Aincrad."

"The twenty-second floor?" Wang Bo remembered this floor. In the story, Asuna and her boyfriend Kirito seemed to have a house on this floor, and they also met their daughter... Yui!

This floor had very few monsters and was a rare floor suitable for leisure.

Anora also came over. "This is indeed a very nice virtual world, but I feel that I have lost my power, my omnipotent power."

In the Oasis, he was like a creator god.

But in this world, he was an outsider, completely unable to change a single blade of grass or tree.

"I can't be of much help anymore," he said.

Wang Bo had anticipated this. "Don't worry, I have a way. Friday."

A small Transformer climbed onto Wang Bo's shoulder. "Master."

"It's up to you, Friday."

"Don't worry, master."

Friday nodded and vanished, actually going to seize control of this world.

Undoubtedly, the control of this world was in the hands of Kayaba Akihiko, but who was Friday? He was a Transformer, far superior to humans in data manipulation.

The result of technological crushing meant that Kayaba Akihiko simply couldn't protect his control over this world. In just five minutes, control of this world changed hands.

"Master, I'm done."

"Good." Wang Bo smiled with satisfaction. "Connect me to all players."

Without a word, Friday opened the world channel. "Master, you can speak now."

Wang Bo snapped his fingers and cleared his throat. "Testing, testing, can you hear me? All players of Aincrad."

In an instant, his voice, through Friday, reached everyone's ears.

At the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood Oath, the guild leader, Heathcliff, who was handling official business, raised his head in shock.

"Although it's a bit unexpected, I can tell you that you are liberated. Not long ago, I hacked into this world and gained control of Aincrad. Now, pull up your menu, and you will see the logout option."

"Press this option, and you can successfully log out of this world."

"Although this world has left you with shadows, I hope you can live on strongly. After all, life is like this—there will always be all kinds of unexpected events."

"Be strong, everyone."

"As for Kayaba Akihiko, the chief culprit who harmed you, don't worry—we've already locked onto his location. His fate will definitely bring you great satisfaction."

"I'll extract his soul and roast it over the flames of hell for a hundred years. Rest assured, this will be an exceptionally cruel punishment."

"Well, no more nonsense. Farewell, everyone. Off you go!"

As soon as Wang Bo finished speaking, Friday began to act, kicking all the players who had not yet logged out out of this world. One by one, the players turned into piles of data and vanished completely.

The entire Aincrad was instantly cleared. Apart from Asuna, the only one left was Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath—who could also be called Kayaba Akihiko.

Wang Bo led the group to the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood Oath and met the mastermind behind the scenes.

Seeing a group of unfamiliar people appear before him, Kayaba Akihiko was not panicked but rather quite puzzled. "Are you the ones who have taken control of this Aincrad? How exactly did you manage to do this?"

He had created and developed the entire game and possessed the highest authority. But he could not understand why he, with the highest authority, had had it taken away from him.

What kind of person could possibly achieve this?

"I don't want to answer you, but I can tell you that I meant what I said just now. From now on, your soul will be roasted over the flames of hell for a hundred years. I hope you can endure it, Kayaba Akihiko."

Kayaba Akihiko looked at Wang Bo and his group with confusion, almost wanting to laugh. He had never expected that the people who had taken control of his game and stolen his highest authority would be a bunch of chuunibyou.

Wasn't this too ridiculous?

Could this be the world's punishment for him?

"If you can do it, go ahead and do it quickly." Kayaba Akihiko said indifferently. Ever since his highest authority had been taken away, he had lost all his dreams.

He simply did not care about Wang Bo's threat.