Chapter 171: The Consciousness Projection Device
Nymph stood there in a daze, taking a moment to process everything.
"Bad habits I picked up in Synapse…"
She didn't speak. Instead, she silently pushed her computation power to maximum, analyzing the Dimensional Tome's contract along with the small amount of information it had transmitted to her.
An invisible field of data spread out instantly, linking through Franklin's smartphone into Blue Star's network.
At the same time, she infiltrated and connected through Momo's and Nana's devices into a portion of the Deviluke local network. None of this drew anyone's attention.
Only Franklin, as Nymph's master, saw black text float past his vision and was stunned.
[Successfully infiltrated Deviluke mainship Ziying Yue. Would you like to register it as a basic personal vehicle?]
Seeing Nymph running at full computational capacity, the words on Franklin's tongue were swallowed again. After a long while—
The light in Nymph's eyes gradually faded, and her rainbow-hued wings turned transparent again.
This time she no longer resisted. Even her expression toward Nana softened.
"Princess Nana, I was rude just now. I'm truly sorry. If not for your request, I wouldn't have had this chance—meeting my current master… I'm really grateful that you helped free me from Synapse's restraints."
Nymph's sincere apology was ignored by Nana. More than anything Franklin had said, what Nana and Momo cared about most was how Nymph knew all of this.
Seeing the curiosity in their eyes, Nymph didn't explain. She simply turned toward Franklin.
"Master, do you need me to undo Ikaros's memory seal now?"
Franklin exhaled lightly and led everyone to the backyard.
"Let's do it here. Ikaros, Nymph will help you recover your memories in a moment. I hope you can stay calm and not get too emotional."
Ikaros still had that blank expression, but she nodded earnestly.
"Yes, master."
At Franklin's signal, Nana and Momo hid behind him for safety. Nymph stepped in front of Ikaros.
Placing her palm on Ikaros's forehead—having already infiltrated her memories once—Nymph directly released Ikaros's sealed memories.
In an instant, a violent shockwave burst outward. Centered on Ikaros, waves of force rippled through the backyard. Nymph was sent flying.
Quick to react, Franklin caught Nymph mid-air and set her down gently.
Ikaros's eyes were now bright red, data streams flashing across them. Her soft pink hair floated upward, and her wings fully spread, shimmering with unfamiliar light.
"Thought-restriction protocols fully lifted. Variable-wing protection program disengaging… 80%… 90%…
Self-repair system activated. Function-protection program disengaging… 80%… 90%… self-repair complete."
A glowing halo appeared above Ikaros's head, a crushing aura descending like a weight. The entire house trembled.
Lala, sleeping deeply, had no idea what was happening. Bulma, whose consciousness wasn't even in her body, was equally unaware.
The only fully awake person—Mikan—was completely bewildered. She rushed out of her room, and just as she was about to go upstairs to ask what was happening, she saw the devastated backyard through the living room's glass doors.
"Ikaros? That's Ikaros, right? Um… and who are those people over there?"
Asking herself, Mikan slowly approached the backyard.
"Ikaros, calm down."
Franklin's voice reached her ears, and Ikaros snapped back to clarity. Her immense aura receded, and her battle-ready red eyes returned to green.
"Sorry, master. I remembered some unpleasant things."
Franklin's eyes lit up instantly.
"Not bad, you can explain yourself now. At least it doesn't feel like talking to a robot anymore."
"Let's go back. Everyone's resting. It wouldn't be good to disturb the neighbors. We'll talk in the other dimension."
But when he glanced toward the living room, everyone saw Mikan standing there with her eyes wide, utterly shocked.
"Big bro, come here."
Seeing her wave urgently, Franklin turned to the girls beside him.
"You all go up first. Nymph, Astraea, think about how you want to introduce yourselves. Mikan will probably join us later, so it's important you all get familiar with each other."
"Yes, master."
Watching the three artificial angels follow Nana and Momo upstairs, Franklin scratched his head, troubled.
"I used to think this house was pretty big… but now it's honestly way too small."
Mikan completely forgot about her confession for tonight; her mind was packed full of questions.
"Big bro, I know Ikaros. Are the other two also artificial angels?
They weren't here during dinner, and in less than ten minutes suddenly two more show up—what in the world happened?"
Seeing her curious expression, Franklin thought for a moment, then gave up on explaining in detail.
"It's too complicated to explain. Anyway, it wasn't my idea. Nana asked me to summon them.
I was only planning to summon one, but something went wrong. I summoned the wrong one the first time. The second time I got the one Nana actually wanted."
"That's… a very concise explanation."
Mikan was speechless, but she didn't press further. She grabbed Franklin's arm and pulled him upstairs.
Entering the other-dimension space, they found Ikaros as silent as ever. Astraea, for some unknown reason, was lying face-down on the ground, not moving at all.
Meanwhile, Nana, Momo, and Nymph were sitting around the strange machine that connected to the Sword Art Online world, chatting.
"Franklin, perfect timing. Nymph just tested it—she can upload an artificial angel's consciousness into the game.
Should we send Ikaros into the game next? Nymph has already prepared her character profile. All that's left is your approval."
"So Astraea was your test subject?"
"You don't have to worry about that, Franklin. We needed a pioneer for the experiment. And Astraea agreed."
Seeing Nana and Momo sneaking glances at their chests, Franklin was speechless. Glancing at the collapsed Astraea, he didn't bother asking further.
"Setting that aside—Nymph, can you use this machine as an access point to infiltrate Sword Art Online?"
Franklin expected a confident nod, but instead Nymph looked troubled, surprising him.
"Master, you don't understand this machine. It's only a consciousness projection device.
Hijacking some permissions during the admin handover was already its limit. The admin has now been replaced by an in-game AI.
Unless I locate a connection point, there's no way to cross worlds and interfere with the reality of another world."