Breathing Techniques in SAO

Tomioka Akimi looked coldly at the silent Nezha.

"This isn't something you can just brush off with a simple apology and expect forgiveness."

Hearing his words, Nezha trembled, his head dropping even lower as if wanting to crawl into a hole.

In a hoarse voice, Nezha said,

"I know… I also want to return the swords I scammed from everyone… but I can't… because, because most of them have already… been exchanged for Col."

He seemed to summon all his strength to shout this out.

Then, weakened, he staggered.

He looked up at Akimi and the other two with a bitter smile and said in a faint voice, "So, this is the only thing… I can do…"

After saying that, the hammer in his hand slowly slipped down, and suddenly, he turned and ran.

But he didn't get far, because Asuna, with her extremely high agility, soon overtook him and blocked his way.

Then Akimi and Kirito slowly walked over.

Akimi said, "What's the matter? Going to seek death? That won't solve anything — it's just a coward's way of running away."

Trapped between the two of them, Nezha gave up resisting.

His whole body was filled with gloom, guilt, and despair.

He seemed like a walking corpse, speaking in a hollow voice, "I… I decided from the very beginning, if my scam was discovered… I would immediately atone with my death."

"Anyway… a useless person like me is bound to die! Whether it's by suicide or killed by monsters, there's no difference — it's just a matter of time!"

"No! That's not how it is!"

Asuna suddenly became emotional. "That kind of thinking… is wrong."

Nezha looked at her blankly.

Asuna calmed herself and said, "I had those thoughts before too, and even now I still have some lingering doubts."

She quietly glanced at Akimi, then said, "But I won't seek death, nor do I want to lose my life just to clear the game. Because… because now I have a goal, and I don't want to die before I achieve it."

"Hmm… Asuna, is your goal to finish an entire trembling cream strawberry cake that's a full 8,140 cubic centimeters in volume?"

Akimi, not noticing Asuna's glance, joked.

"No, it's not that," Asuna said helplessly, then looked back at Nezha.

"You can find your own goal too. No, you already have a goal, don't you? Otherwise, you could have just stayed in the starting town."

Nezha sighed and lowered his head again.

"A goal? I used to have one…"

He seemed to be talking to himself as he said, "But it disappeared a long time ago… before I even came into this world, on the very day I bought the NERvGear."

"During the very first connection test, I… was judged to be FNC."

FNC — which stands for "Non firming," meaning not suitable for full dive.

The full dive equipment, which communicates directly with the brain via electromagnetic waves, is originally a precision device that needs to be fine-tuned according to each user.

However, since tens of thousands of units of NERvGear were sold, it was impossible to perform one-on-one adjustments.

Therefore, it came equipped with an automatic adjustment function, where after a long initial connection test and calibration during the first use, it could then be used directly afterward.

There are a very small number of people who, during testing, are judged as "not suitable for full dive," usually because one of their five senses cannot function fully while diving.

However, the problem is not too severe.

Of course, there are also individuals who are "completely unsuitable for diving."

Since Nezha was already inside SAO, it meant his condition hadn't worsened to that extreme level.

But in a way, it was also a kind of misfortune — if he were "completely unsuitable for diving," he wouldn't have been trapped in this death game.

After packing up, the three of them, along with Nezha, went to an empty room — there were many such empty rooms in the town, lacking any system-protected doors or windows, and no locks.

"My other senses are normal, but my vision has problems," Nezha said as he reached out his hand toward the teacup on the table where Asuna had placed hers.

His hand didn't immediately grasp the teacup because his reach was slightly off.

He carefully groped around for a while, and only after five or six seconds did he manage to grab the cup.

"Although it's not that I can't see at all, my sense of depth and distance is very poor — in other words, I can't tell what kind of object is approaching or how far away it is."

This problem might be solvable in other MMOs — because most other games have lock-on skills or auto-tracking magic.

But in SAO, this problem is fatal.

In SAO, there are only sword skills, no magic, and not even archery skills, plus none of the sword techniques have lock-on capabilities.

To defeat monsters skillfully with sword techniques, you need to judge the distance yourself and strike accurately.

But for Nezha, whether it's judging distance or precise attacks, it's very difficult.

Nezha gently placed the teacup back on the table and gave a powerless smile.

"I even find it difficult to hit a stationary weapon on the anvil with my short hammer…"

"But you guys are really impressive, figuring out the weapon swap trick so quickly. And it was a few days ago, when you recalled that beautiful sword from a distance, right?"

"Yeah, back then it was just a suspicion, but the real confirmation came yesterday. As for the clue—it was because of your name, Nezai… no, I should say—'Nezha.'"

"!"

Nezha widened his eyes and stared at Akimi, suddenly stood up, then immediately sat back down, a bit embarrassed, saying:

"Uh… I didn't expect you guys to find out about something like this…"

"Haha… to be precise, it was discovered by an information broker. But your companions also call you 'Nezai,' which means they don't know the origin of the name Nezha, right?"

"Yes. Just call me Nezha; that's what I originally wanted others to call me."

"By the way, is there something wrong with the name Nezha?"

Akimi shook his head and smiled, saying, "There's nothing wrong with the name Nezha, but the identity behind that name is problematic."

"Because… Nezha is a warrior with great strength, and you, who took Nezha as your name, probably wanted to become a warrior at first, but for some reason, you had to become a blacksmith."

"So, as a blacksmith, you most likely tried to improve your combat skills, and after eliminating the possible skills, the only MOD left was 'Quick Switch.'"

"I see…" Nezha's eyelids drooped as he slowly said, "'Legendary Hero' was originally a team from another game, which was released on NERvGear three months before the SAO open beta."

"It was a simple game on a map with only one path, where players competed by killing a large number of monsters using swords or axes to score points… but for me, it was still a bit difficult."

"Because of me dragging the team down, our scores and rankings were always low. I didn't even know Orlando and the others in real life, so I probably should have left and given up on the game, but…"

He clenched his fists and trembled as he said, "No one said they wanted to kick me out of the team, so I stubbornly stayed. Later, everyone decided to play SAO, and I really wanted to experience this world's first VRMM game. But being judged as FNC, I didn't have the courage to play alone."

"So… someone like me who can only rely on others thought that by joining Orlando's team in SAO, even if I couldn't fight well, I should be able to gradually get stronger…"

Akimi and the others naturally understood Nezha's feelings — after all, just seeing the SAO promotional video would make anyone want to check out this world.

"In the previous game, I also used the name of a well-known hero. The reason I changed it to Nezai, a name not very famous in Japan, was probably to tell Orlando, 'Look! I'm not even a hero by name, so just treat me as your subordinate and please don't abandon me.'"

"When they asked me where the name came from, I just said it was from my real name. Of course, that was a lie. When everyone called me 'Nezai,' I would think to myself: My name is also a hero! Useless, right?"

"After SAO became a death game, wouldn't things change? Becoming a blacksmith, you could still help your teammates. So why did it turn into a scam? Whose idea was it? Yours? Orlando's?" Asuna pressed straight to the heart of the matter.

Nezha suddenly fell silent after hearing this, and after a long pause said, "It wasn't me, nor Orlando, not even any of us…"

"Eh?!"

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