Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-30150700-20161005162327/@comment-27384850-20161008020804

DrAnomaly555 wrote: the brain-frying is in the core program of the NerveGear and thus would not be affected by anything in game. This is actually incorrect, as evidenced by Fairy Dance. Kirito played ALO originally with his NerveGear, he only switched over to the AmuSphere after Asuna had been rescued. If the brain frying were a core function of the NerveGear, Kirito would not have survived his death when he first attempted to beat the Grand Quest. It was a capability of the NerveGear that was triggered by the SAO game, one of the mechanisms of the game was to force the NerveGear to emit a signal powerful enough to kill the player. As such, it's perfectly logical that Kayaba shut off the mechanism prior to his duel with Kirito.