Chapter 152: Identity Discovered

When Lingyun returned to the garden, Luo Yexi and the others were already waiting for him.

"Everyone is here, then, let us begin our first and also final collective clearing meeting!" Lingyun said with a smile, while finding a place to sit down in the hall.

There were nine people in the hall now including Lingyun; besides Lingyun's group of six, Asuna, Kirito, and Suguha were all here. Although the number of people was small, no one dared to underestimate the people here. After all, the combined strength of these nine people surpassed the existence of the Clearers; even Suguha, who had the weakest strength, was significantly stronger than the current Heathcliff!

Just as Lingyun was about to say something, Kirito suddenly spoke up: "Wait, Lingyun, I have something to say!"

"Hm, Kirito, what is it?" Lingyun asked with some confusion.

"I'm saying Lingyun, you all, you shouldn't be people from this world, right!" Kirito narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lingyun, and after a long while, she suddenly said this.

"Not people from this world? Kirito, what do you mean by that?" Asuna's tone was filled with astonishment.

"Kirito, when did you discover it?" Lingyun did not refute, but asked with a smile instead.

"Master, you all, are you really not from this world?" Hearing Lingyun's reply, Suguha asked Busujima Saeko beside her in surprise.

"No denial, which means what Kirito said is the truth!" Asuna's gaze toward Lingyun held a trace of complexity, and even Yuuki, who was on the side, had a look of disbelief in her eyes.

"Can you tell me when you discovered it?" Lingyun asked with some curiosity.

"When? Probably after you brought Yui back from the Starting Town!" Kirito said. "That night, I asked Asuna about what happened to you at the Starting Town. After hearing about your Limit Break, I always felt it was very strange, because I had never heard of any player possessing such a powerful and strange Limit Break. It wasn't until later, when I used my own Limit Break and saw Asuna's Limit Break, that this thought formed in my mind."

"You saw your and my Limit Break? Could it be that there is something wrong with our Limit Break?" Asuna asked with some curiosity.

"Of course there is. Haven't you noticed? Other people's Limit Breaks all improve a portion of their own attributes while strengthening a certain aspect, but our Limit Breaks completely exceed the game's restrictions and can accomplish some unbelievable things. Isn't this point obvious enough? I once asked my teacher, and she told me a very important piece of information: that she does not come from this world, but is an outsider! Under these circumstances, I began to think: could Lingyun and the rest of you, who can do the same things as my master, also be the same kind of outsiders? Looking at it today, it is indeed the case!"

"But sister, does the friendship between us and Master and the others have anything to do with them not being from this world?" Suguha asked.

"Of course not!" Kirito laughed.

"Oh, that's good then!" Suguha let out a soft breath.

"However, there is still one very important matter now. Lingyun, are you all going to leave this world after defeating the final BOSS of this world?" Kirito stared closely at Lingyun and asked. "My previous master said that she descended into this world because of the power of the Underworld King of the End in this world. Are you all the same?"

"As for that, we did indeed come to this world because of the Underworld King of the End of this world, and after eliminating it, we will have to leave this world. After all, we are not people who belong here, and there is more than one world facing the threat of the power of the Underworld King of the End!" Looking at Kirito's intense gaze, Lingyun bit the bullet and told the truth.

A trace of disappointment flashed in Kirito's eyes: "Can't you all stay?"

"This..." Lingyun shook his head, "I'm afraid not!"

"Then, what about Yui?" Asuna asked.

"When I leave, I will take Yui with me. After all, she calls me 'Papa' now, I can't just abandon her!" Lingyun said.

"You can take Yui away from this world?" Kirito asked. "Then can we?"

"You could, but this method is not suitable for you!" Lingyun said. "After all, you still have your lives in the real world and cannot just leave this world! Leaving this world means you have to leave your parents and relatives to go to an unfamiliar world. Can you accept that?"

Hearing Lingyun mention this situation, Kirito and the others were also in a difficult position, as everything Lingyun said was the truth. Leaving one's own world is not something a person can accept easily!

"Then what about Ye Xi and Saeko and the others?" Asuna said, feeling somewhat unconvinced.

"I am an orphan raised by Master, with no other attachments, so of course I can follow by Master's side! As for Saeko and Alice, they come from an apocalyptic world where they no longer have any relatives. As for Lingqi, Master found her in our world; she was severely injured at the time and had also lost her memories, so my master kept her by her side!" Luo Yexi explained from the side.

Listening to Luo Yexi's explanation, Kirito sighed slightly; it seemed they were all able to stay by Lingyun's side!

"Then what about Yuuki?" Kirito suddenly asked.

"Yuuki? Doesn't she still have relatives in this world? I don't intend to take her away!" Lingyun said.

"Master!" Yuuki looked at Lingyun pitifully.

Looking at Yuuki's gaze, Lingyun felt a massive headache: "Forget it, let's talk about this in a while. After all, the most important thing for us right now is still dealing with the final Underworld King of the End!"

Hearing Lingyun say this, Kirito and the others looked at each other and nodded. After all, this was no small matter; they needed a certain amount of time to make a decision, and the most important thing right now was to finish off the final BOSS of this world.

"Regarding the Underworld King of the End, Kirito and Asuna, you should both have a certain understanding of it by now!" Lingyun said.

"We do indeed understand quite a bit about that! But what does this have to do with you being in such a rush to clear this world?" Kirito asked with some confusion. "Ever since defeating the 75th-floor BOSS, I've noticed you have sped up quite a bit in clearing the BOSSes."

"If we don't speed up our pace, your world will be in big trouble!" Lingyun said with some helplessness.

"Our world is in big trouble?" Kirito suddenly realized that this matter did not seem as simple as she had thought.

"That's right, you should know that this game world became a real world from the very beginning, right!" Lingyun said.

"Although I didn't quite believe it at first, more and more information has forced me to believe it!" Kirito nodded slightly.

Lingyun pointed his hand into the Void, and two Light Balls, one large and one small, appeared out of thin air in front of him: "These two Light Balls, the large one represents your real world, and this small one represents the SAO world. Originally, SAO was just a virtual world composed of data, but due to the influence of some external factors, this world became a Semi-plane attached to the Main World. However, this Semi-plane is now being influenced by an external force and is constantly moving toward the Main World. If these two worlds collide, even though this Semi-plane is much smaller than the Main World, it can still cause huge damage to the Main World, or even lead to the destruction of the Main World. And once this collision occurs, the first to bear the brunt will be Earth!"

"The external force you mentioned is the Underworld King of the End, right!" Asuna asked.

"That's right. Originally, this force was sealed, but it was not willing to be destroyed, so it accelerated the collision of the two worlds. If it succeeds, it can draw enough power from the destruction of the worlds to recover a portion of its own strength. By then, with our strength, we don't know if we can survive the collision of the worlds, let alone eliminate it!" The two Light Balls in Lingyun's hands simulated the appearance of the world collision.

"How much time do we have left?" A trace of firm light flashed in Kirito's eyes. Although according to Lingyun, she bore the heavy responsibility of saving this world, she did not look panicked at all.

"As expected of the protagonist of this world!" Lingyun sighed inwardly.

"At most one week. We have at most one week; after one week, the collision of the worlds will begin!"