Zongman, Rebirth of the Heaven-Defying Kirito

The moment Xiaoxing finished speaking, a ripple suddenly appeared in the surrounding air, and countless black energy particles gathered out of thin air.

Immediately afterwards, a faint black figure appeared on her body.

The figure was about 170 centimeters tall, almost the same height as Kirito. Its slender profile was covered by heavy black armor, and even its limbs were transformed into sharp blades.

It hovered behind Xiaoxing like a weapon from another world, exuding a cold and dangerous aura.

Asuna instinctively covered her mouth, her eyes filled with shock, while Kirito's eyes widened in bewilderment.

But this shocking scene lasted only a second.

The black phantom image seemed to be forcibly dispersed by some force, dissipating into the air, leaving only Xiaoxing standing in place.

But Kirito soon discovered that things were not so simple.

Xiao Xing, who was originally less than ten years old and only about 130 centimeters tall, has now grown noticeably taller.

Standing there, she looked to be at a middle school level, and her black dress just covered her knees.

It was as if the power of that phantom had incidentally altered her physical form.

"Kirito, what happened just now... did you see it?" Asuna asked as if she had seen a ghost.

Kirito nodded solemnly, looking at Sachi with a serious expression: "Yes, I can see it clearly."

The two were filled with doubt, but had no time to think about it.

Because Xiaoxing had already gripped the longsword in her hand and was rushing towards the monster at an extremely fast speed.

Natural Wasp Sting clearly sensed the change in Xiaoxing's aura, raising its tail and swooping down towards Xiaoxing like an arrow, attempting to strike first.

Just as the two were about to collide, Xiaoxing's footwork suddenly changed, and her body slid to the side like a light butterfly, precisely avoiding the attack of the spikes.

Kirito recognized it; it was the footwork he had taught the other person yesterday. Using it now, it was impossible to tell that the other person was a novice who had only recently learned it.

Equally astonishing is Xiaoxing's reflexes!

Kirito was amazed; he saw it all clearly.

With both sides approaching at extremely high speed, they instantly judged the monster's attack trajectory and then completed the dodge maneuver.

This reaction speed would place him among the most advanced players, even in SAO.

But it's not over.

While dodging, Xiaoxing's longsword was already thrust out, the movement swift and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

With a "thud," the sword blade pierced precisely through the monster's abdomen.

However, Xiaoxing did not stop attacking. Instead, as if inheriting Kirito's fierce fighting style, she twisted her wrist and pulled the longsword out of the monster's abdomen, and then swung the sword horizontally.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!" Three sharp slashes fell in succession.

As the final slash landed, the monster's body crashed heavily to the ground, its health bar cleared, and it vanished into the air as green data fragments.

The battle ended in a complete victory for Xiaoxing.

Kirito and Asuna, who were watching the battle, just stood there dumbfounded, their eyes filled with disbelief.

Kirito even smiled bitterly to himself, "I was all ready to rush in and provide support at any moment, and you're telling me you have a 'cheat'?"

It's outrageous!

Asuna's mind went blank; what had just happened was beyond her comprehension.

She was particularly puzzled by the black armored phantom that appeared and then disappeared.

Just as the two were in a state of confusion, Yui suddenly spoke up: "We just detected a large number of external programs interfering. Most of these programs are incompatible with the SAO system, and only some data remains, but they have not had much impact on the overall operation of SAO."

Kirito and Asuna both turned to look at Yui.

Blue program code flashed in her pupils, indicating that the system analysis function had been automatically activated after the anomaly was detected.

Hearing Yui's words, Kirito roughly got the gist of it.

I see... It's probably because SAO and Brain Burst's programs are not fully compatible, which is why the scene I just saw, where a virtual entity descends but then disappears midway, occurred.

However, judging from the battle just now, even though the virtual entity did not fully descend, Xiaoxing still inherited some of its ability values, which is why she has such a great improvement in speed, reaction and strength.

When the other party shouted "Brust Link", Kirito already had a guess about Sachi's identity.

With the appearance of the imaginary entity just now, Kirito is now completely certain of Sachi's identity.

Black and long straight.

That's right, it's Kiriko-san, it's her!

Yes, they are exactly the same.

Pshaw! It should be 'Kuroyukihime'!

Kuroyukihime, the female protagonist of Accel World, can increase her thinking speed by a thousand times by activating a game program called 'Brain Burst' and control virtual entities to fight.

The phantom that just appeared was probably her own battle simulation, 'Black Lotus'.

Does this sound familiar?

Log in to the game, control your character...isn't that similar to SAO?

Asuna, however, was unaware of the current situation; she was more concerned about Sachi's safety.

She quickly ran to Xiaoxing's side, grabbed her arm and examined her closely, sometimes lifting her sleeve to look at her forearm, sometimes lifting her skirt to look at her thigh.

While checking on her, he anxiously asked, "Xiaoxing, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Xiaoxing felt the warmth of Asuna's palm and felt a surge of warmth in her heart. She gently shook her head and said, "Mother, I'm fine."

Asuna checked repeatedly and found no wounds on Sachi before she breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that you're alright. I was really scared just now."

What she was referring to was the situation when the imaginary entity appeared; she was afraid that something might happen to Xiaoxing.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Asuna looked at Sachi in front of her, but something still felt off.

She frowned and circled around Xiaoxing: "Xiaoxing... has something changed about you? You seem different from before."

"Really?" Xiaoxing looked down at her body. "I don't feel anything different."

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, then suddenly Asuna realized, "Ah! It's your height, Sachi!"

Xiaoxing paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked at Asuna beside her.

My perspective does seem to have risen considerably.

Asuna immediately stepped forward and stood side by side with Sachi.

Sachi's head was just above Asuna's forehead.

You should know that just now, Xiaoxing was not even up to Asuna's chest!

"Ah..." The two of them were stunned at the same time.

Kirito, watching from the side, sighed helplessly and rubbed his forehead: "Shouldn't we have noticed this a long time ago?"

One was so focused on fighting that he didn't notice the changes in his own body; the other was so concerned about whether he was injured that he ignored the obvious height difference between his opponent and himself.

It's no wonder they're mother and daughter... even their 'natural' features are so similar.