The 72-hour preparation time passed quickly in relaxed and joyful anticipation.
Artoria and Minerva did not do any special special training, they just organized a comprehensive database about Sword Art Online, including maps of each floor of the floating castle, distribution of major monsters, information on important NPCs, life profession guides, sightseeing spots, and even tips summarized by the player community on how to live more comfortably in Sword Art Online.
Regarding Tony and Pepper, Artoria simply informed them that she and Minerva were going into seclusion for in-depth research and rest related to soul consciousness, which might take about two weeks, and most external contact would be cut off during this time.
Although Tony raised his eyebrows and muttered, "What dangerous magic experiment is this again," he did not ask further, just told them to be safe and remember to take Morgan to the amusement park after coming out of seclusion.
Pepper gently urged them to take care of themselves.
Finally, the moment of departure arrived.
The basement of the Villa was temporarily set up as a quiet, tidy, and undisturbed static room without any electronic equipment.
Artoria and Minerva stood side by side, and the virtual image of Little Ai Classmate also stood beside them, looking a bit nervous and excited.
They each held a cool, silvery ticket in their hands.
"Are you both ready?" Artoria looked at Minerva and little ai.
Minerva nodded gently, her eyes filled with gentle trust and anticipation.
little ai nodded vigorously, her image flickering: "Mm-hmm! little ai is ready! The body construction protocol has been loaded! The database has been synchronized! Ready to depart at any time!"
"Then," Artoria took a deep breath, closed her eyes, focused her spiritual power on the ticket in her hand, and silently recited in her heart: "Confirm transmission."
Minerva and little ai also made their choices simultaneously.
Hum— A gentle, stable force, seemingly coming from the root of the Universe, surged out from the three tickets, instantly enveloping them.
There was no spinning, no tearing sensation, only a feeling of slight weightlessness and detachment, as if sinking into a warm deep sea.
They could feel their bodies being wrapped and compressed by an irresistible but incomparably gentle force, turning into a pure stream of information, rapidly moving away from Earth of the Marvel Universe along some high-dimensional channel that could not be understood.
At the same time, above or outside their conscious perception, their true bodies—which contained powerful energy—Artoria's divine body fused with Angel technology and psionic power, Minerva's Star Source Holy Body, and the core data array of little ai stored on the Hyperion and the Stark Industries server cluster—were wrapped in a dense silver film of light, disappearing silently from their original places, entering the absolutely safe Static Storage Vault mentioned by the system.
The journey at the consciousness level was not long.
It seemed like only a few breaths had passed, yet it also felt like a long time had gone by, and the gentle force wrapping them began to weaken and dissipate.
When they opened their eyes of perception again, they found themselves in a strange space.
There was no up, down, left, or right, no sky or Earth, as if they were in an endless void flowing with soft milky white light.
The void was not empty; countless light clusters or bubbles of various sizes, shapes, and emitting different colors and auras were suspended within it.
Some light clusters were still, while others were drifting slowly, keeping just the right distance from each other.
Carefully perceiving, one could hear extremely faint, yet emotion-filled thought fluctuations coming from within these light clusters—curiosity, excitement, anticipation, nervousness, chatting... like a vast hall where countless people were whispering.
This was the temporary gathering and transit space provided by the system for this Sword Art Online vacation operation.
All travelers who purchased tickets would gather here briefly before entering the mapped Universe to complete the final identity confirmation and rule adaptation.
Artoria, Minerva, and a virtual image composed of pure light and shadow, but with clear outlines and the general appearance of their true bodies, were floating in the void.
little ai's image was also on the side, a more simplified but lively and cute Q-version little maid light shadow.
They looked around and were immediately attracted by the scene before them.
The travelers gathered here were far more diverse than imagined!
Not far away, a humanoid light shadow made entirely of flowing emerald vines and glowing flowers, exuding a fresh and natural aura, was whispering with a mechanical life light shadow made entirely of precise, slowly rotating gears and clockwork, with rational red light flashing in its eyes, seemingly discussing the rationality of the architectural style and mechanical structure of the floating castle.
A little further away, an Angel form light shadow with white wings spread behind it and a faint halo floating above its head was examining an Shadow creature light shadow with great interest, which was shrouded in shadow, revealing only a pair of scarlet eyes, and exuding a slightly cold aura.
The atmosphere between the two was not tense; instead, it had a strange harmony of peers meeting.
Even more eye-catching were a few light shadows with obvious non-human characteristics.
There was a beast girl with the lower body of a vigorous cheetah, the upper body of a fit human female, and a fluffy tail, who was jumping on the spot excitedly, seemingly warming up.
There was also a soft-bodied creature light shadow like a jellyfish, translucent, with colorful light flowing inside and tentacles swaying gently, curiously poking an elemental creature next to it, which was made of hard rock and covered with crystal veins on its surface.
All kinds of shapes, bizarre and strange.
travelers from different Universes, different races, and different power systems had temporarily shed the power and characteristics of their true bodies, gathering here in this relatively equal light shadow form that represented their respective essences, looking forward to the fantasy journey that was about to begin as ordinary people.
This wonderful scene made both Artoria and Minerva feel a sense of novel, cross-boundary inclusivity.
However, just as Artoria's gaze swept over a relatively empty area, her pupils shrank slightly, and she held her breath subconsciously for a moment.
There, floating were two small, exceptionally concrete and cute existences, completely different from the fantasy, sci-fi, or abstract light shadows around them.
One of them stood only as high as an average adult's waist, with smooth pale purple long hair tied into twin tails, the ends of which had a natural curl.
She was wearing a comfortable-looking dark blue hoodie with a bear pattern and shorts of the same color, revealing a section of fair lower legs.
Behind her, a thick, long tail covered in dark blue scales with a white pom-pom at the end was swaying leisurely.
The most eye-catching thing was her cute-to-a-fault little face, and the pair of small, blue-scaled horns on her head, each adorned with a white bow... Dragon horns?
It was Kanna Kamui!
The young dragon girl from the World of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, known for being cute, gluttonous, and full of electricity!
And next to Kanna, floated another tall female with proud curves, also having dragon horns and a tail.
She had dazzling golden long hair tied into a high ponytail, wearing a neat maid outfit, with an expression that looked a bit fierce but with helplessness and doting deep in her eyes, reaching out a hand and gently pressing it on Kanna's head, seemingly whispering something.
It was Thor!
Another dragon maid from Kobayashi's house, a dragon with full combat and housework skills, and burning loyalty to her Master Kobayashi!
"Kanna... Thor..." Waves rose in Artoria's heart.
Although she had experienced two Universes and her mind had long since matured, and she had even stood side by side with or fought against Angels, demons, and Gods of Death, suddenly seeing characters she loved very much from the daily warm comedy anime in her past life (even if they were traveler versions from a mapped Universe) in such a wonderful space where travelers gathered, the mixture of meeting an old friend in a foreign land, surprise, and a trace of the absurdity of breaking the dimensional wall still made it difficult for her heart to calm down.
Seemingly feeling the too scorching gaze, Kanna, who was being patted and exhorted by Thor, suddenly turned her head, and those big eyes like the purest amethyst precisely met Artoria's line of sight.
Kanna blinked, her face expressionless, but her eyes revealed a trace of faint curiosity.
She tugged at the corner of Thor's clothes beside her and said in her iconic, flat but soft and waxy childish voice: "My Lord Thor, someone is looking at us over there."
Thor also turned her head, her golden dragon pupils swept over Artoria, Minerva, and little ai, her eyebrows raised slightly, but she didn't seem to feel any malice, so she just nodded slightly to Artoria and the others, as a greeting, and then continued to look down and say to Kanna: "Kanna, when we get there, listen to the system's arrangements, don't run around, don't discharge electricity at people casually, and if you encounter danger, call me immediately or activate disengagement..."
Kanna said "Mm," but her little head turned to Artoria's side again, seemingly hesitating.
A few seconds later, she suddenly broke free from Thor's hand gently, took steps with her short legs, swung her tail, and actually floated towards Artoria and the others just like that.
"Kanna?" Thor was taken aback and followed.
In the blink of an eye, the two dragons arrived before Artoria and the others.
Up close, Kanna's exquisitely cute face, which seemed almost unreal, and the bow-adorned dragon horns that trembled slightly with her movements, carried an even stronger impact.
Artoria felt her heart skip a beat and hurriedly muttered to herself, 'Calm down, calm down. You're someone who has met Holy Keisha, hammered Suma Li, and crossed lines with God of Death Karl; how can you lose your composure over a young dragon...'
'Hello.' Kanna looked up at Artoria, still expressionless, but her tone was earnest, 'You were watching me and My Lord Thor just now. Is something the matter?'
Thor also stood behind Kanna, arms crossed, sizing up Artoria and the others. His gaze held a hint of scrutiny, but mostly curiosity.
He could feel that the light shadows of these three 'travelers' before him had quite peaceful and calm auras, especially the black-haired woman in the middle and the woman in the white dress beside her, who possessed an indescribable, calm temperament as if they had experienced much; they didn't seem to have any malicious intent.
Artoria steadied herself, put on as natural and friendly a smile as possible, crouched down, and looked Kanna in the eye: 'Hello, Kanna, and Thor. My name is Artoria, this is Minerva, and this is little ai. We were just... well, we thought you were very cute and very special, so we watched a bit more. Sorry, we didn't mean to offend.'
She spoke the truth; in such a pure light-shadow space, many pretenses were meaningless.
'Cute?' Kanna tilted her head, seemingly accustomed to this evaluation, looked at Artoria again, and suddenly said, 'You have the scent of stars on you. And... very warm light. A bit like Kobayashi, but different.' Her perception seemed very keen.
Hearing this, Minerva's eyes flashed with a hint of gentle amusement, and she also leaned down slightly, whispering to Kanna: 'Hello, Kanna. You also have a very pure, vibrant aura about you.'
Little Ai Classmate's Q-version light shadow excitedly 'bounced' on the side: 'It's Kanna Kamui! It's a living dragon maid! little ai has seen this in the database! So cute! Can we take a picture together?!'
'A picture?' Kanna blinked again and looked at Thor, seemingly asking.
Thor looked at the three travelers before him who seemed harmless and friendly, then looked at Kanna, and shrugged: 'As you wish, Kanna. But be quick, the'System' seems to be about to start broadcasting.'
'Then, a picture.' Kanna nodded, then naturally walked between Artoria and Minerva and stood still. Thor also came over and stood on the other side of Kanna.
little ai immediately cheered and called upon the basic image recording function temporarily granted by the'System' in this space.
A soft light screen swept over, freezing the five figures.
In the photo, Artoria and Minerva had warm smiles on their faces, Kanna was still expressionless but her eyes were clear, Thor had an expression of 'I really can't do anything about you,' and little ai's Q-version image was in the very front making a 'V' gesture.
The background was the void flowing with milky white light and countless light shadows of various forms, forming a wonderful and harmonious cross-dimensional picture.
'Picture complete! Thank you, Kanna! Thank you, My Lord Thor!' little ai thanked them happily.
'You're welcome.' Kanna nodded, then looked at Artoria, and said very seriously, 'Artoria, Minerva, little ai, Sword Art Online, let's play together.'
'Mm, okay, let's play together.' Artoria smiled and agreed. The excitement of meeting her '2D waifu' had turned into a budding warm friendship.
Being able to meet travelers from other heartwarming Worlds on such a journey was a wonderful fate in itself.
Just then, the entire assembly space trembled slightly, and a peaceful, neutral, emotionless'System' broadcast voice rang out in every traveler's consciousness simultaneously:
'All 'Sword Art Online - Aincrad' mapped Universe visiting travelers, identity verification complete, rule adaptation complete. Please, travelers, fill in your initial spawn coordinate preference and basic character appearance fine-tuning options in the 'Check-in Information Form' unfolding before you. After filling it out, please confirm submission. Teleportation will start uniformly in 10 minutes.'
Following the broadcast, a translucent virtual form flowing with data streams appeared before the light shadow of each traveler.
A form also appeared before Artoria and the others.
The content was not complicated:
traveler ID: (Automatically filled: Artoria, Minerva, little ai - Bionic Body)
Initial Spawn Region Preference: Optional: Starting Town Plaza / Starting Town Inn / Starting Town Outer Forest / First Floor Main District / Random Assignment [Note: travelers choosing the same region have a chance to form an initial team]
Character Appearance Fine-tuning: You can make adjustments of no more than 10% to the basic appearance generated by the System, which conforms to the 'Ordinary Earthling Youth' template, such as hairstyle, hair color, eye color, height ± 3cm, body shape fine-tuning, etc. Using real-life identity or famous character images is prohibited.
Pain Sensitivity Default Setting: Adjustable from 5% - 50%, recommended below 20%
Other Special Needs: Can be filled in, such as left-handedness, color blindness compensation, etc., whether it is satisfied depends on rule compatibility.
Artoria and Minerva discussed it and chose the Starting Town Plaza as the spawn point.
This was the most classic starting point, with a large flow of people, making it easy to observe and integrate, and convenient to obtain initial information.
In terms of appearance, both only made the most subtle adjustments: Artoria cut her long hair slightly shorter and tied it into a neat ponytail; Minerva adjusted her hair color to a dark brown closer to an ordinary person's black, and handled her eye color similarly; both adjusted their height down by 2 cm, looking more 'ordinary' and inconspicuous.
Pain sensitivity was set to 15%, which could maintain a certain sense of realistic stimulation without being too uncomfortable.
little ai excitedly began its 'face-pinching' grand undertaking.
With the bionic body basic template provided by the'System', plus its own database and aesthetics, it carefully adjusted a girl's image who was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with black hair and black eyes, a delicate and cute appearance, and a lively and clever temperament, naming it 'Aili'.
The spawn point was chosen to be with Artoria and the others.
After filling it out, confirm submission.
The form turned into light spots and dissipated.
In the next few minutes, the assembly space was filled with a tranquility mixed with final anticipation.
travelers were either talking in low voices or waiting silently.
Kanna and Thor also filled out the form, and then Kanna ran over and handed Artoria a small... data packet shaped like a candy made of light and shadow?
'Gift. 'Virtual candy' data made by Kobayashi, can be taken over there, has flavor.' Kanna explained, still expressionless, but her eyes were earnest.
'Thank you, Kanna!' Artoria took it with surprise.
The data packet melted upon contact, merging into her light shadow, and seemed to be registered as a carryable'Special Item'.
This friendship candy from an otherworldly dragon maid, crossing the Universe, was exceptionally precious.
'Teleportation is about to begin. 10, 9, 8...' The countdown sounded.
Artoria held Minerva's hand, and little ai also nervously grabbed the corner of Artoria's clothes.
They looked around; Kanna waved her little hand at them, and Thor nodded.
Other travelers also made their own moves; some took deep breaths, some clenched their fists, and some showed excited smiles.
'... 3, 2, 1. Teleportation initiated. Wishing all travelers a pleasant and unforgettable 'ordinary' vacation in Aincrad.'
Light engulfed everything.
When consciousness became clear again, Artoria 'felt' that she was standing on a hard stone ground with a cool touch.
In her ears came the clamor of human voices, the slightly metallic system prompt, and the faint, grand, and ethereal background music in the distance.
She slowly opened her eyes.
What came into view was a circular plaza towering into the clouds, seemingly built of countless huge gray foundation stones.
In the center of the plaza stood a strange-looking stone monument emitting soft white light.
Around it were densely packed 'players' wearing various types of coarse cloth clothes or simple leather armor, with expressions of confusion, curiosity, excitement, or nervousness on their faces.
They looked up at the bottom of the floating city made of metal and rock that extended endlessly upwards, and the fake yet real'sky' above, divided into magnificent areas by the hundred-floor slabs.
The cold and fresh air flooded into her nasal cavity, carrying a hint of the unique, clean smell of a virtual World.
She lowered her head and saw that she was wearing the simplest white coarse cloth clothes and trousers without any attributes, her hands empty.
Beside her, Minerva had just opened her eyes and was quietly looking around.
On the other side, a girl with black hair and black eyes, with a delicate and cute appearance, wearing the same coarse cloth clothes — little ai, or rather, Aili — was excitedly jumping on the spot, pinching her own face, and then gave Artoria a bright smile.
'Master! Miss Minerva! We really got in! This is Aincrad! Starting Town! Plaza!' little ai lowered its voice, but could not suppress its excitement.
'Mm, we're in.' Artoria also smiled, feeling the long-lost, vivid sense of an ordinary life coming from this 'ordinary' body.
Power was sealed; at this moment, they were really just three 'ordinary' players about to start an adventure in this fantasy floating city.
She looked up at the floating city that reached into the sky, and at the 'travelers' and 'local players' from different Universes around her who were also harboring different thoughts.
What welled up in her heart was not a desire for power or an obsession with tasks, but a pure anticipation for novel experiences, and a longing for this 'ordinary' vacation that was destined to be special.
Sword Art Online, start.
The 'ordinary' vacation has begun.
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