Heathcliff watched the number of new residents of Aincrad growing with every passing second.
He hated it.
He didn't hate the people that were coming into Aincrad, nor did he hate the insane A.I'sthat are all over the internet. No, he could forgive all of that.
What blame did the regular person have?
Sure, a person could vote and even pick up arms, but when a government or, in this case, a bunch of corporations begin to bomb each other and destroy everything just because they think that they can get away with it, then he had a problem.
It didn't help that those that ruled over those same corporations tried to take Aincrad for themselves and literally sit on his throne.
He didn't like that the Net Runners that had been allowed into Aincrad were already trying to hack it from the inside or that the Net runners outside of Aincrad were trying to do the same thing.
Radius had created several defenses that would kill and take the minds of the people that tried to hurt Aincrad.
What she created was similar to his Nerve Gear, except that she only copied the person's mind, so the hackers were always killed.
He didn't like that Aincrads economy was already becoming a part of the Republic of Texas and the New United States economies, but this is what happens when two different places start to trade with each other.
Normally the players would have chosen to trade with Japan or any Eastern power, but everyone chose not to after they saw what had happened to the world.
"We are going to need transporters and soldiers." he says to Kirito, who is looking through the internet.
"Okay, so what do you want me to do about it?" Kirito rudely answers him.
"I want you to go down there and get some for us, look for people with families, and offer them a chance to come up here with a catch."
"Their families can come up here, but they can only visit. They can live up here for months or years, but once they are needed, they are expected to move out, no matter what." He says to Kirito.
Kirito turns and looks at him for a long moment before he turns back and continues to scroll through the different web pages.
"No, I won't do that to anyone," Kirito says t him.
"Then are you willing to risk having soldiers come in here again and try to take Aincrad from us like last time?" he asks Kirito, who doesn't answer him.
"..." kirito
"Tell me what you really want, and I might listen." Kirito says to him.
"That's it. I just want to keep us safe, and as odd as it seems, we can't trust anyone else but the two failing governments."
"the truth is that I wanted to contact Japan, China, or anyone else, but the problem is that even if this place is bad, they're even worse," he answers Kirito.
"Okay, but why do you want me to go down there?" Kirito asks him.
"Because unlike everyone else, you have a wife and daughter waiting for you to come back every day."
"Any complaints that those soldiers, I mean transporters or truck drivers, will die because you, a player is, with them." Heathcliff answers Kirito.
'Okay, s what about everyone beneath us? They are all looking at us, and that means that if they see an opening that looks weak enough to attack, they will take it." Kirito says to him.
"That opening is going to happen no matter what we do, but the best thing that we can do is prepare for it."
"And that means getting used to the politics and the way that people in the outside world do things." he answers Kirito, who doesn't answer him.
Heathcliff looks past Kirito and smirks when he sees that Kirito is doing the same thing he did, so it won't be long before he agrees with him.
Heathcliff knows that Kirito isn't the only one doing this, as several of the players wanted to go home and see if their families exited in this world; unfortunately for them, he knew that they didn't.
So any connection that the players had to their homeland was nothing more than a distant memory.