Chapter 2117 - 2115: Seven Seas

Although there were many things he wanted to say, this was clearly not the time for conversation. At this moment, Seven Seas was already covered in wounds, and more importantly, that previous attack had pierced through her body, which caused her considerable damage. However, this was nothing to Fang Zheng. He placed Seven Seas on the ground, then opened his personal terminal and applied Medical Gel to her. Following this, Fang Zheng quickly summoned Holy Light and healed the injuries on Seven Seas’ body in the blink of an eye.

"What... is going on?"

Kirigiri Kyoko, standing beside, frowned and looked at the scene with confusion.

"Do you know each other?"

"You could say we’re old friends."

Looking at the pale-faced Seven Seas, Fang Zheng frowned and sighed.

To be honest, this all goes back to that Death Game in SAO.

At that time, in the Death Game, Fang Zheng formed a guild to clear the hundred floors. Among them were seven elite players known as the "BIG SEVEN," including Fang Zheng, Restia, Ester, Yuki, Asuna, Seven Seas, and Black Cat.

Seven Seas was one of the powerful players who joined the Raid Group in the second batch, but she was not in charge of attack. Instead, like Aoba, she was responsible for protection at the back. One could even say that Seven Seas and Aoba were the Sea-stabilizing Needles of the Dark Moon Sword. The players of the Dark Moon Sword’s Raid Group owed their lives to them many times.

Several times, if it weren’t for the proper protection by Seven Seas and Aoba, the Dark Moon Sword would have suffered casualties.

But after that, something rather Supernatural happened.

When everyone escaped the Death Game, Fang Zheng did not find any data on Seven Seas.

There was no information at all.

Initially, Fang Zheng thought he might have overlooked something, but he used his privileges to examine all player data in SAO and could not find an ID for "Seven Seas." Moreover, even after asking Yui to investigate, there were no leads. Fang Zheng also specifically checked the registry records of the Dark Moon Sword’s guild members, only to find a blank data field instead of Seven Seas.

To be honest, by this point, things started to feel a bit Supernatural.

What made it even more unimaginable for Fang Zheng was that he even used Ratziel to investigate Seven Seas, but Ratziel did not respond at all, turning it into an unsolved mystery.

As a result, Seven Seas became the only guild member who did not attend the victory party. In fact, Aoba and others who were close to Seven Seas had once asked Fang Zheng why she didn’t come to the party. Fang Zheng could only brush it off by saying that Seven Seas had something to do overseas and wouldn’t be back for a while...

At first, even when Fang Zheng saw Seven Seas in front of him, he wasn’t sure it was her. But when Seven Seas saw Fang Zheng and immediately called out, "Guild Leader," Fang Zheng confirmed that this Seven Seas was indeed the one who joined his guild in the game. Now, only those who escaped the Death Game with him would call him "Guild Leader."

"... It really is... the Guild Leader."

Looking at Fang Zheng in front of her, Seven Seas smiled.

"Am I dreaming?"

"Of course, you’re not dreaming, Seven Seas."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng reached out and gently patted Seven Seas on the head. Hearing Fang Zheng’s reply, Seven Seas gave a relieved smile.

"It’s not a dream; how wonderful... I’ve always looked forward to this day... I want to meet everyone... Aoba... Black Cat... and..."

"Don’t worry, it won’t be long. Anyway, you should rest for now."

"Hmm..."

Although Fang Zheng had healed the physical injuries on Seven Seas, she had lost too much blood and endured for so long. The moment she saw familiar and reassuring faces, her tense Spirit immediately relaxed. So Seven Seas obediently nodded, closed her eyes, and drifted into sleep.

"Alright, let’s leave here first."

Fang Zheng picked up Seven Seas and said to Kirigiri Kyoko, and although Kirigiri Kyoko was very curious about what had just happened, she chose not to say anything, nodding and silently following Fang Zheng away.

By the way, before leaving, everyone went to the room marked "GOAL" and found that there was nothing inside, completely sealed—Hmm, it was obviously another trick by Enoshima Junko.

Afterwards, Fang Zheng and Kirigiri returned to the school with Seven Seas. When the others heard the news from Kirigiri, they were surprised and curious about who the girl brought back was. But even Kirigiri couldn’t explain the situation clearly, and Fang Zheng mentioned that Seven Seas needed rest, so it wasn’t urgent to ask about it. Hence, everyone suppressed their curiosity and dispersed.

After Seven Seas woke up again, Fang Zheng learned about the events from her.

Seven Seas’ full name was "Nanami Chiaki," and she was the "Ultimate Gamer." In fact, for Seven Seas, that Death Game was merely a dream—Fang Zheng wasn’t particularly surprised by this, as dreams themselves are ambiguous concepts, capable of easily crossing time and space. Two years for Fang Zheng and others felt like a single, particularly vivid night’s dream for Nanami Chiaki.

However...

"Judging by your expression, it seems you don’t just think it was a dream?"

"Hmm..."

Hearing Fang Zheng’s question, Seven Seas nodded, then reached out and took a card from her bosom.

"I also thought it was just a dream, but later, on the day I entered the Academy of Hope Peak, I found this in my backpack..."

"..."

In Seven Seas’ hand was a card that looked like a Magic Card, depicting a scene with Fang Zheng surrounded by Eiriri, Black Cat, and Sora, among other girls. At the bottom of the card was a line of information.

[Fang Zheng: King of the Harem]

[Rarity: Legendary]

[Combat Information: When this card enters the field, it permanently transfers one designated female card from the opponent’s side to ours]

[Line: The only things not to be missed are games and beautiful girls, the name King Shurou is well-deserved (PS: A man falling in love with his sister is a beautiful and natural thing)]

"........."

Upon seeing this card, Fang Zheng’s expression suddenly froze.

He just remembered, isn’t this the Multiverse Card that automatically appeared when he was promoted to God of Games!

What the hell! This thing even made it here!?

Now Fang Zheng finally understood why he would resonate with Seven Seas. Seven Seas is an "Ultimate" gamer, and his Divine Position includes the divine position of gaming. Besides, Seven Seas possesses this card—from a certain perspective, Seven Seas can be considered a candidate divine envoy chosen by him as the God of Games.

And because of this, Fang Zheng was able to transcend the limitations of time and break the timeline to rescue Seven Seas when they resonated.

However, this card......

"Seven Seas, this card......"

As he spoke, Fang Zheng reached out to take the card to destroy the evidence, but unexpectedly, Seven Seas seemed to sense his intention. She hurriedly retracted the card, holding it tightly in her hand, puffing her cheeks like a little squirrel about to have its food snatched, glaring at Fang Zheng in dissatisfaction.

"Mine."

"No, but......"

"Mine."

"......... Fine, yours then."

Although Fang Zheng could directly pause time and take the card, after thinking it over for a long time, he decided to give up. After all, it’s just a card, and it’s been in Seven Seas’ hands for so long that it’s a bit late for him to destroy the evidence now......

After this, Fang Zheng cooked a delicious meal for Seven Seas, finally bringing Seven Seas back to life. At this moment, others also came to the infirmary to visit Seven Seas and learned everything from her.

After all, Nanami Chiaki was a 77th batch student of Hope’s Peak Academy, and presently, Makoto Naegi and the others were from the 78th batch, which means Seven Seas is their senior and knows more things than Makoto Naegi and others who have lost their memories. Therefore, Nanami Chiaki also recounted everything that happened before to Makoto Naegi and others.

And everything has to start from the preparatory department.

Before the 77th batch, Hope’s Peak Academy was just like what others heard – a school that nurtures top "Ultimate" talents. But starting from the 77th batch, the school established a "preparatory department," admitting ordinary people without "Ultimate" talents.

Of course, this preparatory department was basically for those who could afford it (with a few exceptions), so most students believed this preparatory department was just a way for Hope’s Peak Academy to make money. And because of this, the preparatory department and the regular "Ultimate" course members never got along well, often clashing with each other.

After the 78th batch of freshmen enrolled, things became even more uncontrollable.

The reason was the appearance of Enoshima Junko.

She used her power as the "Ultimate Despair" to instigate the preparatory department, single-handedly creating "the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history," and disclosed the truth of this event to everyone – the preparatory department was established by Hope’s Peak Academy to raise funds for a certain human experiment, not only that, the experimental subjects were also students from the preparatory department.

And the ones sacrificed were also students from the preparatory department.

Upon learning this, the students of the preparatory department finally erupted completely, surrounded Hope’s Peak Academy, and started demonstrations, engaging in fierce confrontations with the school.

As for the situation of the 78th batch, Seven Seas was not very clear. At that time, 77th-batch students were also encountering their own troubles. Initially, Seven Seas’ classmate, Tsumiki, went missing. While searching for the missing Tsumiki, Seven Seas and others inadvertently encountered Enoshima Junko. Just as Enoshima Junko was about to make a move on Seven Seas, their teacher arrived and saved Seven Seas, whereafter Seven Seas returned to the class to seek help from her classmates, hoping to rescue the teacher.

But what Seven Seas didn’t expect was that some of her classmates had already been brainwashed by despair and became the subordinates of Enoshima Junko. In the end, Seven Seas had no choice but to be forced into Enoshima Junko’s death game.

And when she was about to be killed by Enoshima Junko, Fang Zheng stepped in, rescued her, and brought her here.

After listening to Seven Seas’ story, everyone was dumbfounded. They never expected such secrets were hidden inside Hope’s Peak Academy.

But the most important thing is......

"What exactly is that so-called human experiment?"

"It’s very simple."

Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.

"Hope’s Peak Academy wanted to artificially create complete hope, simply put, a god embodying all the ’Ultimate’ talents. Well, actually congratulations to them, they successfully created a person like Kamukura Izuru. But unfortunately, he was wooed by Enoshima Junko and became one of their most deadly enemies."

At this point, Fang Zheng let out a cold laugh.

"Of course, at its core Hope’s Peak Academy itself also has problems, using two thousand students as guinea pigs, deceiving them of their money, giving them false hope, and also treating those students terribly...If it were me, even without Enoshima Junko’s instigations, I’d want to burn this damn school down."

"W-well..."

At this moment, Makoto Naegi suddenly spoke, looking at Nanami Chiaki, nervously asking.

"I want to ask, that person called Blade Wraith... What exactly did they do?"

"I’m not sure either, but she is Enoshima Junko’s right-hand person. I think... whatever Enoshima Junko did, she would be involved somehow..."

"How could it be..."

Hearing this, Makoto Naegi’s face suddenly turned deathly pale, while Fang Zheng silently stared at Makoto Naegi, saying nothing.

Alright, Makoto Naegi, what will you choose next?