[Gearhead]

Originally Posted by Aphrah

No, no, I'm not talking about the 10 seconds thing.. I was talking about this part: "clear conditions included 'fixing everyone's health at maximum'." When was this mentioned? Or was it a condition of the duel?

It's mentioned in Warmth of Heart, in the last lines of the chapter.

Spoiler for to cut down on size:

[We will now be announcing an urgent notice to all of the players.]

It was completely different from the voice of the Game Master, Kayaba Akihiko, from two years ago, being an artificial synthetic voice with the sounds of electronic noise mixed in. It was obviously an announcement made through the game system, but with barely any presence of the management in SAO, this was the first time I had heard of an announcement done via these means. I strained my ears to listen while holding my breath.

[The game will now be entering forced administration mode. All monsters and item spawns will be suspended. All NPCs will be dismissed. The hit points of all players will be fixed to their maximum amount.]

RE: 'Why Asuna'

I honestly feel like Kirito would not have gone in if it weren't for Asuna. 300 people? He felt weak and hollow. Debilitated. Certainly, Asuna being trapped didn't help there. But it was realizing Asuna was TRAPPED, that it wasn't just 'They didn't log off for some reason...' It made it personal. It made him ANGRY again. He needed that anger.

Yes, it was cheap heat, but it was heat less cheap than a lot of cheap heat that gets taken as high art.