After Kirito is attacked by Johnny Black, an old player of SAO, he is rushed to the hospital. He falls into a coma due to his injuries, and then mysteriously disappears from the hospital. Asuna tries to find his location with help from her daughter Yui and Koujiro Rinko (the deceased Kayaba Akihiko's lover).
They discover that he is currently in the custody of Kikuoka Seijirou and Takeru Higa, who is currently experimenting with Soul Translator, the fourth generation FullDive technology.

Meanwhile, Kirito and Eugeo journey south to the town of Zakkaria in order to find the location of the abducted Alice.