Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-31155663-20170228142325/@comment-33196827-20180211111144

Unfortunately, he is “dead” in real life. Back in SAO, when the game was cleared he executed a super high-powered scan of his brain to transfer his consciousness into the virtual world permanently. There was a huge chance of fail, but it seems to have worked out considering he still appears in Fairy Dance, and Ordinal Scale.