Chapter 24: A blunder

September 10, 2023. 22nd Floor, Lake on the Outskirts of Coral.

Time flew by, but Heathcliff's soul was stubborn as usual, refusing to answer his questions, and it would take more time to turn him into a puppet.

As their guild master Heathcliff was missing, KoB members went around the floors of Aincrad and searched for him, but he was never found. Thus, the guild slowly collapsed until Godfree, one of the guild's team leaders, took the helm as a substitute guild master.

Kotton was the only dimensional player left in the SAO world.

Rolando has already finished his task by killing the divine dragon's alliance guild master, making him feel he missed out on a great chance to finish him.

Kotton was planning on making Heathcliff a puppet. Then via the game master's privileges, turn him invisible, like when he was stalking him, get close to Rolando and steal his soul.

Why does he need to be invisible and not just meet Rolando again?

Their partnership was long over, and Rolando was not dumb. If he called him on purpose, it was apparent something was up.

They were not friends, so why would Kotton call him?

It was already good that the last time he did it on impulse, Rolando humored him and met him. Rolando might already expect Kotton to be emotional from what they did and simply want to see his expression.

As for Andrew and Sarah?

Kirito told him that while raiding a floor boss, Andrew and Sarah made a mistake and died.

Kirito, Agil, and Asuna got depressed and took different paths to cope.

Kirito started his excessive grinding, blaming himself for not being able to save them.

Agil raised the price of his goods, making players protest against capitalism.

Asuna took a break from the front lines and rested inside the guild base. As she and Sarah were the only girls in the guild, they became best friends making it harder for her.

Kotton was sure both were not dead and only returned to Gaia. While he was killing red-dimensional players before, some escaped by submitting their main quests. It only takes a single thought to do so.

As a good protagonist, Kotton did not waste his chance to comfort the sad Asuna.

Since their "date" in chapter nine, Kotton and Asuna became close. Constantly talking to each other daily and going out occasionally. They even use the call function and talk about random stuff to pass the time when grinding.

Sarah's death became the main breakthrough that made Asuna fall for him, as they confirmed their relationship and are now married.

Yui, who was always with Kotton, was happy that she now had an Onee-chan, but she was also sad that her Onee-chan didn't know of her yet as she was still inside the dimension.

Kotton, who knew everything happening inside the dimension, saw Yui and said.

"Don't worry, Yui, everything will be over soon." (Kotton)

"I'm ok, Onii-chan." (Yui)

"Yui, when a person says they are ok, I know it means they are not.

Just believe in me, ok? I won't say much, but I can tell you that I will bring you out of SAO. We will go to the real world and continue our adventures." (Kotton)

Yui made a cheerful smile and was touched and thought Onii-chan was the best.

While Yui was skeptical about leaving SAO as she was an AI and thought it was unscientific, she believed in him, so she playfully said.

"But I am an AI, though? Maybe I am really ok, hehe." (Yui)

"You little girl. Who taught you to be naughty?" (Kotton)

"Hehehe, I saw you are teasing Onee-chan every time. I just learned from a master, haha." (Yui)

Kotton face palmed and forgot about something important.

Yui could watch him as long as she wanted if he did not turn off the monitors. He thought about what he and Asuna do at night and was shocked as his eyes opened wide.

"Yui..." (Kotton)

Yui blushed and suddenly understood what her Onii-chan was thinking panicked and said.

"Yui is tired, Onii-chan. As a good girl, Yui takes afternoon naps and sleeps early at night. Goodnight, Onii-chan." (Yui)

Yui pretended to be sleeping as she closed her eyes while lying on the massage chair. Her face was bright red as she thought she had messed up.

Kotton sighed and continued fishing. He ignored Yui as the situation was pretty awkward.

"What a blunder. How did I forget about Yui?" (Kotton)

It might be because Yui was with him all the time that made him unconsciously ignore her presence, as the two of them being together was already a given.

Today he was on a break as grinding nonstop was not healthy. Taking a break to release stress was the best way to ensure he was always in top shape.

While holding the fishing rod and staring at the water, Kotton thought about convincing Asuna to come with him.

Unlike before, when their relationship was still ambiguous, they were now married, albeit just being on the game. Kotton wanted to bring her with him.

Kotton was sure he could bring Yui and another person out.

While he was unsure if the souls inside the dimension could be brought to Gaia to ensure success, he planned to mix Yui's soul into himself and simply separate her after arriving on Gaia.

His thought process was like this. If he mixed his and Yui's souls, wouldn't that count as one person? That should be the case. Then he needed to protect Yui's consciousness so they could separate again later.

He was confident about this because after countless soul mixing and separating practices that he did to the souls he had, the success rate was already high.

Nine out of ten souls would be combined and separated without problems unless his luck was so bad that the one outcome of failing happened to him and Yui. Then he could only look for a way to fix them both.