kscans

Chapter 157 - Virtual Brain

Sora isn't bound by the virtual world—the face of the one who said so was filled with a calmness that seemed to express her certainty.

Looking at her expression, there was no doubt that this was Ui-san's conclusion, not a joke or anything of the sort... and facing her, the two of us couldn't stop tilting our heads.

She occasionally shows her 'Sword Saint' side, but it's not like her sensibilities are wildly out of sync. She clearly understood our confusion and opened her mouth to explain.

"This world seems free, but in reality, there are many restrictions. This is separate from the limits imposed by stat values."

Well, of course—even if it's a mass of incomprehensible super-technology, Arcadia is a game created by people. It's not like you can do anything and everything you can think of without any restrictions...

"Haru-kun."

"Ah, yes."

I replied reflexively to being suddenly called upon.

"Haru-kun—if you had a hundred arms, could you move all of them at the same time?"

"............Huh?"

I was hit with a question that only brought more confusion, and for a moment, I was at a loss for a reply.

What about arms...? Even if you ask me that, all I can say is "I don't know"...

"Ah... well, if it's just moving them, I guess I could?"

If I were asked to write with all of them at once, it would be impossible, but if they were all properly connected as arms—thinking that, I answered, and it seemed to be the answer she was looking for.

The one who had asked the strange question nodded. "I think so too."

"And yet, in the virtual world, that is not possible."

But then she followed up with a denial.

"Among the many restrictions in this world, there is something called the 'Parallel Limit.' To put it simply, this determines how many actions a player can take at the same time... This includes not only physical movements, but also things like thought control."

—Ah, I see. I finally get it.

"And, there are individual differences in the upper limit of this 'Parallel Limit'—the talent of Sora-chan that I mentioned earlier is about this."

"...I see. So in other words, Sora's upper limit for simultaneous actions is exceptionally high."

Sora's uniqueness, demonstrated by her control of a thousand blades in a non-metaphorical sense, was now clearly brought to light.

I know she's not actually controlling all one thousand magic swords, but even so, the number of magic swords she's directly controlling at the same time is more than a dozen.

"What was it called... the unique technology of Arcadia—the Outer Brain, was it?"

"The Outer Brain, yes."

Ui-san nodded at Sora's affirmative follow-up.

...And so, when a new term that one wouldn't normally be familiar with comes up, naturally—

"Um... Haru, what's an Outer Brain?"

"The Outer Brain—an external thought-assistance computer that's generated and connected via an instance when Arcadia starts up... right?"

I cut her off and said so, and Sora stared at me, dumbfounded—hey, you know? I've been studying a little bit too...!!

"It realizes smoother thought processes with less time lag than in the real world, and it's for reducing the load from things like the 1.5x time flow and thought acceleration skills... it gets, like, sandwiched in, right? Between your own brain and the virtual world."

"...That's correct. Um, I think there are other things you should be studying, so why are you so knowledgeable about this one specific thing...?"

Well, you see... I thought understanding the system side of things was important, and when I was glancing through it, a term that tickled my manly heart caught my interest...

Sora looked at me with an indescribable expression, and I, having gone from proud to embarrassed, averted my gaze. Ui-san, who had been peacefully observing us while sipping her tea, let out a smile and put down her teacup. "Let's get back to the topic."

"About that Outer Brain, individual differences refer to one's aptitude for this function... something like compatibility. To put it another way, you could call it the difference in the 'width of the road' connecting our brains to the Outer Brain."

"The width of the road... you mean, the wider and thicker that road is, the looser the Parallel Limit becomes?"

The wider the road, the more circuits you can use to send commands to your avatar at the same time... something like that.

"Exactly. Even with individual differences, normally... for example, if you focus on simple actions like me, such as 'swinging a sword,' no matter how complex the movements associated with it are, you would almost certainly never run into this limit—but."

She paused and turned her gaze to the person next to me.

"Sora-chan's... magic swords, was it? That is clearly not something that fits within the normal range, is it?"

"That is..."

"Well, yeah, obviously."

I can multitask a fair bit myself, but as I thought during the battle, that's impossible for me.

Even if I were to use the [Cradle of Sword-Craft], the most I could probably handle would be a few magic swords in addition to my own combat maneuvers.

"That's why I thought so. Sora-chan's aptitude for the Outer Brain—and by extension, her aptitude for this virtual world—is far higher than yours or mine, Haru-kun."

"An aptitude... for this world..."

And so, while Ui-san was delivering her conclusion—for some reason, I glanced at Sora, who had repeated her words in a slightly stiff voice.

The girl was wearing a troubled smile, as if she didn't know how to react to the continuous praise, with her eyebrows lowered.

"...?"

It should have been a smile...

"I know one other player who, like you, has an exceptionally high aptitude for the Outer Brain... I believe 'she' was first called this—the Favored Child of the Virtual World."

Even after receiving praise from the person she admired, the likes of which one would not normally hear.

For some reason, the expression on the girl's face, which did not look happy at all—

"............A Favored Child, you say."

—I couldn't help but be bothered by it.