[The tweet tags the Twitter accounts of the Argus Corporation, the English and Japanese-language accounts of the prime minister's office, and NHK News.]
[An image is embedded in the tweet. It is a screenshot of a communique. It reads:]
For immediate release:
From the desk of Kayaba Akihiko
My name is Kayaba Akihiko, manager of the 3rd Development Branch of Argus Corporation, inventor of the NerveGear headset, and creator of the newly released Sword Art Online.
By now, you have heard reports of NerveGear users playing this new game dying when people removed the headsets from their heads. They suffer from a severe microwave pulse that damages their head and destroys all brain function, effectively killing them.
I would admit full responsibility for all these deaths.
However, that is an understatement.
In fact, these deaths are completely intentional.
This is all part of my vision: to give life to a world of my imagining. One where anything can happen. That, unfortunately, has to include death. For life is meaningless without death.
Sword Art Online is that world. The NerveGear is the means to that end.
All ten thousand copies have been sold out. These ten thousand who own each copy are the maximum number of players currently present in Aincrad. These people are the settlers of this new world of mine. They are an essential component of this world, and hence they cannot be removed.
To that end, any attempts by authorities to extricate them will be met with players' deaths in the real world. It is an insurance policy, of course, but it is also a lesson that one must let things be in their natural state. I have willed this for my world as God has willed it for yours.
Ultimately, I seek nothing but wonder. Wonder at the awesome beauty of God's creation. And now I hold it as well.
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Kayaba Akihiko
Tuesday, November 6, 2022
Tweet, November 6, 2022, 5:03 PM