บท 401: -396- [ Yui ]
"Wha... what...?"
Upon hearing Rozen's words, Asuna also felt an uncomfortable chill.
Not a player, not an NPC, not even a monster, but some unknown existence?
"How... how could something like that possibly exist?"
Asuna followed her inner unease and quickly voiced her objections.
"This might just be a bug in the game, don't scare yourself unnecessarily," she protested.
Upon hearing this, Rozen continued to gaze at the sleeping girl on the bed in silence, only exhaling after a moment.
"You're right; let's not scare ourselves. Maybe it's just a glitch," he said, his expression suddenly lightening.
This caused Asuna to shift from fear to annoyance.
"You must be doing this on purpose," she pouted.
In truth, Asuna, despite her bravery in combat, had one fear she couldn't overcome: ghosts.
She was particularly afraid of ghosts, just like most girls would be. This fear even led her to avoid participating in clearing Floors 65 and 66 of Aincrad, which were known for their terrifying nature. Asuna only returned to the front lines on Floor 67, making her absence during those two floors her little-known dark secret.
By the way, in order to evade the invitations from guild members, Asuna, back then, sought Rozen's help and hid herself. So Rozen was one of the few people in this world who knew about Asuna's dark history, and naturally, he couldn't resist teasing and playing around with her after learning about it.
Now, Asuna believed Rozen was intentionally being mysterious to scare her. Rozen could only innocently respond, "I really didn't have that intention."
It really was a half-hearted response that left one wondering if it was genuine or not.
Asuna looked at Rozen skeptically, but all she got in return was Rozen's usual laid-back expression.
Well, she couldn't really figure this guy out anyway. From the moment they met, he had been leading her by the nose, causing her to lose her sense of independence and willpower.
However, perhaps it was precisely because of this that she found herself so emotionally attached to him.
If not for that, she wouldn't be feeling this way about him—
"What are you thinking?" Rozen's voice interrupted Asuna's daydreaming, and she saw the puzzled expression on his face.
Realizing that Rozen had caught her deep in thought, Asuna's cheeks turned red again.
"N-Nothing!"
Asuna snapped in embarrassment, then turned her head away, not wanting to look at Rozen anymore.
Rozen naturally found her behavior baffling.
This woman had been acting strangely all day. What was going on with her?
Could it be that time of the month for women?
Rozen couldn't help but think maliciously.
"Gu!"
"Gu!"
Only at this moment did Saichou and Hanachou make sounds, as if reminding the two not to forget something important, their voices filled with reproach.
Rozen and Asuna finally remembered that it wasn't the time for such thoughts and refocused their attention on the sleeping girl.
"Anyway, since this child is neither an NPC nor a monster, she must be a player," Asuna summarized but wondered, "But why would such a young child appear on the 22nd floor?"
"Who knows?" Rozen shrugged, appearing somewhat helpless. "More than this, I'm concerned about why she fainted in the first place."
Hearing Rozen's words, Asuna also became concerned about this issue. In this world, players wouldn't faint due to physical issues; it only happened when something was wrong mentally.
For instance, exhaustion from prolonged wakefulness, extreme stress from combat, or suffering a severe mental shock would lead to unconsciousness.
Since the girl appeared in the forest and collapsed without apparent cause, it was unlikely to be extreme stress. It might be due to a long period without sleep or some kind of mental trauma. If it was the latter, what cruel experiences could have led her to this state?
Thinking about this, Asuna couldn't help but feel sympathy. "She's such a young child…"
Asuna spoke softly and reached out her hand to gently brush the girl's bangs away from her forehead.
"Mmm..."
Rozen watched this scene and then sat down beside the girl's bed, gently raising her right hand.
"What are you doing?" Asuna asked in surprise.
Rozen didn't hesitate to reply. "I'm going to check her main menu to see if we can find any useful information."
With that said, Rozen didn't wait for Asuna's reaction. He operated the girl's right hand, making her perform the motion that players used to open their main menus, even though she was unconscious.
This was the standard action to bring up the main menu. Even if someone was in a comatose state, as long as another person held their hand and performed this action, the main menu could be accessed.
In the past, there had been incidents where criminal players took advantage of others being asleep or defenseless, operated their right hand, opened their main menu, and stole all their items and equipment by converting them into items. Some had even issued duel invitations by operating the other person's hand to confirm, then killed them.
Rozen was now using this method to access the girl's main menu.
"Wait...!" Asuna exclaimed in panic.
Due to the reasons mentioned, this was an absolute taboo. It was something one couldn't even do by accident, and peeking at someone else's main menu information was considered a despicable act. Asuna instinctively wanted to stop him.
Unfortunately, even if Asuna tried to stop him, Rozen couldn't do it.
The reason was simple: when the girl's right hand swiped down, the main menu that should have appeared simply didn't.
Seeing this, Rozen furrowed his brow, while Asuna breathed a sigh of relief.
Just as Asuna was preparing to reprimand him, Rozen suddenly raised the girl's left hand and swiped down.
"Ding..."
With a bell-like sound effect, this time the girl's main menu was brought up very smoothly.
But what they saw left Rozen extremely shocked.
"This is...?" Rozen couldn't hide his astonishment.
Even Asuna, who had inadvertently glimpsed the girl's main menu, was dumbfounded.
A player's main menu was usually divided into three areas.
At the top, there was the name displayed in English, along with the long hp, exp, and level indicators.
On the lower right side were equipment avatars, while the left side contained a list of command buttons, from which one could choose options like Friends List, Inventory, Skills, and more. Although the visual style and design of these options could be customized, the basic configuration remained the same and couldn't be altered.
However, what appeared before Rozen and Asuna was a main menu without any indication of hp, exp, or level. While there were equipment avatars, the number of command buttons was much fewer than usual, with only "Items" and "Settings" as options.
At the very top of the main menu was a name:
"Yui-MHCP001."
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