Akihiko Kayaba
Creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, who turned his game into a death trap.
Akihiko Kayaba is the designer of the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online and of the NerveGear helmet used to play it. On 6 November 2022 he trapped the 10,000 players who logged in, telling them they could leave only by clearing all 100 floors of Aincrad.
Lore & Background
He warned that dying in the game, or having the NerveGear removed from outside, would kill the player for real. Kayaba stayed inside the game under the name Heathcliff, leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, until Kirito exposed him and beat him in a duel that ended the game. He also wrote the Cardinal system under SAO, which was later copied for ALfheim Online and spread as the World Seed.
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Elsewhere in Sword Art Online
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