matter of minutes crouched clutching their heads, waved their arms about, grasped each other or started to swear loudly. In the midst of all this noise, strangely my mind became cool again. This, is reality. What Kayaba Akihiko had declared was all true. If this was the case, this was all to be expected. It'd be strange not to. This genius was one side of Kayaba that made him alluringly attractive. Now I can't return to reality for a while—perhaps a few months or maybe more than that. During this time, I can't see my mother or sister, nor talk to them. It was possible that I would never get the chance. If I died here— I died in reality. The Nerve Gear, that was once a game machine, is a lock to this prison and a tool of death that will fry my brain. I breathed slowly in, then out, and opened my mouth. "Cline, come over here for a sec." I grabbed the warrior's arm, who seemed to be much older than me in real life, and made my way through the raving crowd. We made it out of it quite quickly, maybe because we were near the edge. We entered one of the many streets that led out of the plaza in a radial pattern and I jumped into the shadow behind an unmoving carriage. "...Cline," I called his name again.