Chapter 150: Stuff It In—Stuff It All In

The people Takumi brought back began to get busy.

As for the MOTH members, Takumi didn't give them any particular instructions. After asking Prometheus to help them get housing sorted, he just left them alone.

Whatever they wanted to do from then on didn't really matter.

Quite a few of them even said they wanted to become teachers.

If they were serious, Takumi would gladly welcome that.

In fact, it would be even better that way.

What Takumi lacked most right now were teachers.

And these people had solid combat experience. They were all battle-hardened members.

Having them serve as instructors would be ideal.

Everything started running smoothly.

The next day, Takumi woke up feeling refreshed.

After breakfast, he went straight to the lab to find Kayaba Akihiko.

Since being brought back, Kayaba had been immersed in learning about this world.

You can't do research until you're familiar with the basics, after all.

That's why Kayaba was still in study mode.

When he saw Takumi arrive, Kayaba's eyes lit up.

"You're finally going to build Aincrad?"

If Takumi came to him, it had to be about that.

"Exactly!" "That's what I'm here for."

Takumi then laid out his plan in detail.

The focus was on the magical beast systems. With his divine artifacts, he could create everything he needed.

Kayaba couldn't help but chime in:

"Could we design it so skills and magic are learned through dropped items?"

"That would feel much more immersive."

"Dropped gear, skill books—we could implement all of that."

Once he got started, Kayaba just kept going.

Takumi thought for a moment, then nodded.

"That can be done." "Magic and the like—I can implement that." "As for gear, just throw in a bunch and let players get them from boss fights."

That was simple.

Skills, magic—those were easy for Takumi.

"If that's possible, that's amazing." "It adds so much gameplay variety."

"No problems on the monster side."

"For NPCs, we can just use robots to manage things."

Hearing Takumi agree, Kayaba got even more hyped.

He started spilling out all his ideas nonstop.

Takumi quietly took note of everything.

He began constructing the systems in his mind.

What tech was needed, what components—he laid it all out.

As for design data, Takumi already had it in his head.

Aincrad was already perfectly mapped.

All that was left was to build the actual game systems.

Monster system, weapon systems, and more.

"Alright, I've got the rough outline." "I'll go get things started."

After wrapping up the discussion, Takumi vanished from sight and got to work.

Kayaba watched him disappear, heart racing with excitement.

His dream was about to become real.

...

Takumi flew to an altitude of 10,000 meters.

Then he began his work.

He first constructed a large structural frame.

Anti-gravity devices and other components followed.

Soon, a floating city over a hundred kilometers in radius appeared in the sky.

Takumi used the designs in his mind to continually refine the floating island.

He started loading in all the necessary elements.

One hundred floors in total.

Each one was crafted according to the game's layout.

Takumi even expanded the internal space.

He wanted it to feel like an entire world.

Just a hundred kilometers of surface area wasn't enough.

But with spatial manipulation powers, Takumi could easily remodel the interior.

Expanding the inner world wasn't even that troublesome.

Once the layout was done, Takumi entered the structure.

He began constructing the internal systems with his own powers.

The exterior was built, but the internal mechanics weren't ready yet.

Whether it was the monster generation systems or weapon systems, Takumi had to develop them from scratch.

Same for the skill books and other features.

But Takumi already had the concepts worked out.

It wasn't hard to implement.

In just one day, Takumi completed the entirety of Aincrad.

Once finished, he lowered it slightly.

The moment Aincrad took form, people below had already noticed.

As the massive floating castle descended slowly, it became even clearer.

Countless people stared, jaws dropping.

Kayaba was watching from the ground.

"Aincrad!!" "It's identical!!"

Kayaba was beyond thrilled.

This was the world of his dreams.

It was perfect.

"Excuse me, how can I apply to go up there?"

Snapping back to reality, Kayaba asked the AI nearby.

At this point, all AI systems had been replaced with Prometheus.

Though most answers were handled by a template AI module of Prometheus.

"No application notices have been received. Please wait patiently."

Prometheus replied with a blank expression.

Kayaba felt a tinge of disappointment.

"Please notify me once it's open!"

He didn't press the issue.

Since Takumi hadn't announced it yet, there had to be a reason.

It was just completed, after all.

You can't expect immediate access.

The sight of the floating castle excited everyone below.

People couldn't stop talking about it.

What was this place for?

Why did Takumi create it?

Questions filled the internet.

Just like Kayaba, many people began asking Prometheus whether the floating castle was open to the public.

Even the real Prometheus had to reach out to Takumi.

Thanks to their direct link, she could contact him anytime.

Inside Aincrad, Takumi paused when he received her message.

"Everyone's this curious about it, huh?" "Alright, give me a few more days." "Once I've finished everything inside."

Right now, Takumi was inserting a core into Aincrad.

It was designed to suppress power levels.

Training needed to start from zero.

Ever heard of Authority Limiters?

Takumi used a pseudo-core modeled on a Constraint Authority as a level-cap and limiter for training purposes.