[Comprehensive] Light and Shadow

SwordArtOnlineAugust 2024, 8

In the early morning, clear and warm sunlight streamed in from the window, casting light paths on the floor, and the boy in a black casual shirt lying on the floor was also shrouded in light golden light.

The boy squinted his eyes somewhat uncomfortably, then twisted his body, squinted slightly when his hands reached the hard floor, sat up somewhat blankly, then frowned and looked down at the floor in a daze.

Why am I sleeping on the floor?

For the first time ever, Kirito slept on the floor.The reason, probably because I accidentally rolled out of bed at night?

Kirito turned his head to look at the bed suspiciously, only to find that there was a lump on the bed.Kirito's pupils tightened suddenly, and he immediately jumped up from the ground, and took a few steps back vigilantly, and the sleepiness left before was instantly eliminated.

Looking from a distance, the pure white quilt on the bed was spread extremely flat, and a person was lying on his back and sleeping soundly. The sleeping posture was very upright with only one face exposed outside the quilt, and he could clearly see the boy's side face.

It's him?

Kirito looked at the side face of the purple-haired boy in surprise, his fingers trembled slightly, and then he walked towards the bed step by step.

The boy slept peacefully, different from his cold and empty expression every time we met.When he was sleeping, he felt calm and gentle. The hood of his outer robe was pressed under his body, and his purple hair was completely exposed, falling messily on the pure white pillow.Although the boy still wore the mask on his face, it was like Kirito saw the boy for the first time.

With a slightly pale face and light purple hair brushing his forehead, the morning light coated the boy's face with a faint brilliance. For the first time, this virtual NPC boy didn't seem so untouchable.

But, was he the one who ran into my room by himself last night?

Kirito felt a little strange. Looking at the way the quilt on the NPC boy was flattened, it felt like someone put the boy on the bed and carefully covered the boy with the quilt.

Of course, the premise of the above sentence is that before putting the boy on the bed, the person must first throw himself off the bed and onto the floor, and he did it without anyone noticing. Kirito didn't feel any abnormality throughout the night. This is the most unbelievable thing for Kirito.

The only person who can do this is probably...

The eyelashes of the boy lying on the bed moved slightly, and then the boy slowly narrowed his eyes. When the pair of purple pupils opened, they were a little blurred, as if they merged the sunlight into one piece.The young man didn't move at all, he just lay on the bed, blinking his eyes slowly, his beautiful purple eyes sparkled under the light, but there was still no wave.

He just stared up blankly, as if the program was slowly starting to work a little bit when it was started.It wasn't until the boy seemed to have finally reacted that he turned his head stiffly, still looking at Kirito with that indifferent and empty expression.

Kirito was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say.

Even so, Kirito vaguely noticed that the purple-haired boy frowned slightly the moment he saw him.Probably, this boy doesn't know why he woke up in my room.

"When I woke up, you were already sleeping here." Kirito pointed to the bed and looked at the boy and said.

The boy waited for a long time before finally nodding his head, as if trying to understand this sentence.Then the boy looked away from Kirito's body, and the boy stretched out his right hand from under the quilt, and slowly spread the five fingers of the hand wearing a black fingerless glove, a light golden light burst out from the palm of his hand, a light golden The graphic array appeared.

"Wait a minute!" Kirito unconsciously reached out and grabbed the boy's right wrist. The boy's arm trembled, and the light in the palm of his hand gradually faded, but even so, the boy still didn't turn his head to look at Kirito.

"Well, since you can come out, do you want to go out and have a look?" Kirito doesn't know why, when he sees a boy, he always makes a crazy move.Just like just now, when he saw the boy's movements, he realized that the boy was going back to the TROHS mysterious store, but he held him back regardless.

Even if it is an NPC, Kirito can't treat the boy in front of him like data.No one can just pretend to ignore a person who is silent but still gives him tenderness.

Even if it's the data setting, Kirito doesn't want to watch the boy bury himself in an opaque world, stick to his lonely position like that, and survive in the confined space day after day.

Regardless of the reason for appearing in the player's world this time, Kirito didn't want to let the boy do nothing and return to that isolated crack, at least he had to take a look at the outside world.

Even if it's virtual, as long as it's beautiful to witness with your own eyes, then it's fine.

The young man slowly turned his head and looked at Kirito. Kirito was also used to waiting for the boy's response. There was a little expectation in his dark gray eyes, but it took a long time until Kirito felt that the boy would not nod. At that moment, the boy finally nodded slightly.

Tongren's eyes were a little more colorful, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.The purple-haired boy lowered his head slightly, and then slowly crawled out of the bed. His body trembled a little when his feet stood on the ground, but he finally stood firm.

"Let me take you to the mountain in front of the mirror." Kirito changed his casual shirt into his usual combat attire, then suddenly thought of something, and looked at the boy apologetically, "Well, I am the flower in front of the mirror." Haven't got it yet."

The purple-haired boy covered his head with the hat of the large robe, and a shadow was cast on his face. He couldn't see the boy's expression clearly, but he could see that the boy shook his head.

Don't go to the mountain in front of the mirror?

Now Kirito is a little strange again.

"Then go behind the mirror?" Kirito asked subconsciously, but when he asked, he found something wrong.If you don't go to the mountain in front of the mirror, then the boy who is exactly the same as the mountain behind the mirror won't go either.

Though thinking like this, the young man who seemed to be completely covered by the wide black robe nodded.

Kirito twitched the corner of his mouth, but he felt a little helpless.Sure enough, the NPC's mind cannot be guessed.

Even going to the mountain behind the mirror will take time, especially when Kirito brings a young man who moves very slowly in unison.Even so, Kirito didn't say anything, just slowed down and walked beside the boy as usual.

Kirito, who doesn't usually like to communicate with people, can only talk more when he meets the NPC boy who can't speak.Even Kirito would feel a little awkward if the two of them walked without communicating.

Kirito walked like this, introducing the city to the young man, and talking about things that he would encounter on weekdays.But the young man just stared in front of him without saying a word, wondering if he really heard Kirito's words.

When we got to the mountain behind the mirror, I don't know why the time has dragged until it was close to dusk.Kirito walked on the stepped hill, and stretched out his hand to the slow-moving boy on the next step. The boy slowly stretched out his hand, and Kirito pulled the boy up.

"I'll carry you on my back." Looking at the boy who climbed here from the foot of the mountain with difficulty step by step, Kirito never thought that an NPC would climb so much slower than the player, even the lowest level person would climb faster than the person in front of him. Quick boy.

Thinking of this, Kirito squatted down, turned his head to look at the young man, but there was no intention of soliciting in his words, instead he just waited for the young man to climb onto his back.

The young man's purple eyes trembled slightly, and his hands trembled slightly as he clenched his fists under the wide robe.In the end, the boy lowered his head slightly, the shadow of the broken hair on his forehead seemed to completely cover the boy's expression.

In the end, the young man's hands were slowly released, and the last two hands put on Kirito's shoulders, and gently wrapped around Kirito's neck.Kirito stood up, carried the boy on his back, and then walked quickly to the top of the mountain behind the mirror.

When Kirito quickly jumped up a step, Kirito felt that he should have carried the boy on his back earlier.

"Kitaya Kazuto..."

At that moment, I suddenly heard a very faint voice, which was so clear and shallow that it melted into the rustling wind. Such a fleeting faint sound seemed like an illusion, but Kirito still seemed to hear someone He was calling his own name, and it was his real name in real life.

Kirito stopped suddenly, his eyes widened in surprise, and he felt the boy wrap his arms around his neck, leaning on his shoulder, and Kirito tentatively asked the boy, "Did you call me just now?" ?”

I didn't hear the boy's response, but I could only hear the snow drifting, the wind blowing, and the blue water gushing out from the depths and then pouring down from the snow-white hills along the edge.Even so, it still felt too quiet.

Everything was like an auditory hallucination at that moment just now.

Although Kirito was suspicious, he didn't force the boy to answer him, and continued to carry the boy to the top of the snow mountain.Because the [-]th floor has been opened, there are quite a lot of people on the snow mountain. After all, such a beautiful scenery will have the idea of ​​witnessing it with your own eyes, but the premise is to have the ability to deal with monsters on the snow mountain.

monster?

Only then did Kirito remember that he didn't meet a single monster all the way up with the boy.

This is obviously a practice area.Or, because he is carrying an NPC on his back, he won't kill his own kind?

This kind of cheating seems to be too obvious. When Kirito passed by a player who was fighting with a group of snow beasts so closely with the boy on his back, the group of snow beasts didn't care about Kirito at all. The eyes of the people staring at Kirito in disbelief have already begun to release murderous aura.

For the first time, Kirito felt how convenient it is to have cheats in this world, but in a sense, he was able to carry the owner of the mysterious TROHS store to the mountain behind the mirror, which was enough to shock everyone. people.

Kirito looked at the blood volume of the snow beast group, and then at that person's blood volume.

Still enough, then I'll go first.

When he reached the top of the mountain, Kirito's footsteps paused slightly.He saw a small area on the top of the mountain that was not covered by snow, just like the small area that was full of snow-white flowers in front of the mirror that he saw yesterday on the mountain behind the mirror.

It's just that here, there are no flowers in that area, but a piece of withered yellow grass. The decayed and decadent atmosphere seems a bit out of place in this snow-white world.

Probably someone went to the mountain in front of the mirror again and wanted to pick flowers but didn't expect the flowers to wither. Even the flowers on the mountain behind the mirror disappeared in a mirror image.Kirito frowned, if this was the case, the task he accepted at the beginning would not be able to be completed.

Kirito looked away, he remembered that he wanted to take the boy out to see the beautiful scenery of the mirror city, if it is meaningless to patronize the withered flowers and plants.

"It's here." Kirito squatted down, the boy slowly let go of his hands, and his legs trembled as he stepped on the snow.

"It's just right to watch the sunset." The timing seems to be a coincidence, Kirito watched the red sun sinking in the distance, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

The bright red sunset and the colorful clouds all over the sky are full of moving red, which is gorgeous and warm.The sun's light is gradually changing a little bit, and the beautiful color seems to smudge the whole snow mountain.The originally snow-white descending hills in a cascading shape shone with graceful colors from different heights, dark red, crimson, peach red, and the last end was also dyed with a light golden glow.

At that moment, the blue water in the pool seemed to start to evaporate, and the bright crystals floated from the pool into the air like crystals.Natural ponds, large and small, seem to be favored by meteors, but they guard the eternal life of meteors. So many ponds seem to carry a brand-new and beautiful sunny sky.

When the wind blows and the snowflakes dance again, they sweep the little crystals and float towards the setting sun in the distance.

At that moment, the dots of glimmering light merged into a band of light, and Kirito seemed to see the Milky Way, which was once facing each other from afar, appearing in front of him, bright and moving, when he stretched out his hand, the silver light circled his arm and revealed silk A trace of coolness passed by.

The crystal clear that drifts to the skyline with the wind, transmits wonderful colors under the setting sun, shining with thousands of waves of light, just like the miracle of the light and shadow in the world.

How can we see such a beautiful miracle if we stay alone in that little dark crevice all the time?

But when Kirito looked at the people around him, he found that the purple-haired boy was just looking at him lightly, neither sad nor happy. The purple eyes seemed to be shone with light, but they seemed to be shrouded in a deeper darkness.

The young man just looked at it like that, quietly looking into the distance, and saw the future that Kirito could not see from afar.Even standing by his side, the young man seemed to be shrouded in loneliness and coldness all over his body, he was as out of place as a small piece of weeds in the snow.

"You, don't you like it?" Kirito asked hesitantly.

The boy didn't speak, but turned his head slowly, then raised his hand unexpectedly, and slowly pulled down the dark gray mask under Kirito's surprised eyes, finally revealing his face,

Even after taking off the mask, the young man's face is still expressionless, the purple broken hair is fluttering in the wind, the delicate facial features on the pale face look too stiff and indifferent at the moment, and the light in his eyes is so faint Staring at Kirito, the corners of his mouth stiffened and slowly raised as if for the first time.

The boy's lips moved slightly, although it was extremely weak, Kirito still heard——

"Thank you."

Kirito stared at the boy with wide eyes, then opened his mouth but did not speak.

He didn't want to know why the boy knew Tong Gu Kazuto's real name; he didn't want to know what the identity of the boy was; he didn't want to know why the boy was able to speak but never spoke...

He just wanted to know why he had to thank himself.

Since I am thankful, why do I have to laugh so sadly, as if I am about to cry...