Nasuverse FSN + SAO

[zerohour]

@richardsphere:

-I Used projection as an example because it's his most well known/signature skill. Disrupting a construct seems like the sort of thing that would be managable, especially since anyone attempting to do it would have unlimited access to protections they could make themselves.

BUT, to prove that there are ways around it other than antimagic, I give you:

Magnets.

Pretty much every sword is made of metal, which means that it's possible to magnetize it, making it impossible to use without spending lots of mana and effort for a reduced effectiveness. His enemies bring ceraminc weapons to the fight, and they've negated or reduced his ability to hurt them.

"But zero, Shirou would just trace their weapons!"

Then why not put in a security feature? Anyone who doesn't have [Specific Element] is attacked by the defenses. Shirou doesn't have the same elements that they do, he's vulnerable to the trap.

Hell, they don't even need to engage in a straight up fight with him. Just use the [Sixth Ranger Hotline] or brainwash a friend of his to call him to a certain place that happens to be loaded up with every possible death trap they could devise.

Even if they're too scared to even think about attacking him in any way, they can still get around him. Have someone tail him, and only act when Shirou isn't around, or is busy with another mission.

Nasuverse runs on BS HAX, LOL NO U. Saying that LK could never be a threat to Shirou is like saying Shirou could never beat Gilgamesh. Gil was far and away the superior combatant, but Shirou beat him because he had the right techniques to counter his strengths, and take advantage of his vulnerabilities.

I'm not saying it would be easy. Shirou is well beyond the average person's ability to handle in a direct conflict, but that just means they should come at it from a different angle. If you want, I can come up with at least a half dozen options to negate Shiro's advantages over his opponents. Of course, if you want me to do that, you'll need to give me a comprehensive list of Shirou's abilities, plus all of his plans to counter any counters players use against him.


-Shirou isn't making an effort to hide his abilities like a typical magus. If someone asks about his skills, he'll tell them, and give tips on how they can use it for their own magic. Rumors about his skills get around in the game, especially when he uses them to wipe the floor with bosses. He's not keeping them secret, so his enemies can get some idea of what he's capable of doing.


-All the players have access to system assist, so Shirou is on the same level as them in that regard. I'll assume that you're talking about his actual ability at hand to hand. He has a significant advantage over them, but there re always ways around it. It's Nasuverse. Off the top of my head, dropping a cage on top of him and trapping him inside wold keep him from closing in and let you attack him at your leisure.


-Avalon is not even in the equation. First off, this is following the FATE storyline, so he gave it back to Saber. Second, healing his physical body does NOTHING for his avatar. The same goes for the other Noble Phantasms you mentioned. Shirou can't import them. He can mimic the skill, which is how he can duplicate Assassin's technique, but he can't Excaliblast people or reverse cauality for a 100% hit rate.


Stop being such a fanboy. Shirou is awesome, but he's not invincible. No one is. He's basically superman right now, but eventually someone's going to discover Kryptonite.

 

[Leidolf]

Umm.. can't they just use Alteration to change the blades to a non-magnetic metal? Kirito made his a conductor of Prana much easier against the sandworm, so it wouldn't be that far of a stretch.

 

[shioran toushin]

actually Magnets (as in a material or a 'normal' object that produces a magnetic field) would not be that useful, someone or a specialized MC using Magnetism, Attraction, Repulsion or Displacement on the other hand would.

Ceramics... let's see, Shirou has a lot of Weapons and those are made from a good variety of mats IR thanks to his own experiences, EMIYA's tips and of course seeing Gilgamesh's GoB even if he saw it for a short while and enver fully opened, plus his thing is not 'Metal Swords' but just 'Swords' which weirldly enough get's interpreted into being capable of creating and reproducing (not to mention store the blueprint at a glance) most CQC and some Mid-range Armaments including defensive ones like Armor, so he could at the least still trace Torashinai which is a wooden sword...
or just use alteration on whatever he is using and change it's material or attribute to 'not-conductive/magnetic/ferromagnetic', just like he altered a sword into something that looked like Caliburn/Monohasashizaho for self-hypnosis purpose.
then again Magnetism is not just Ferromagnetism, right?

and 'boobytraping' their weapons would be a 'maybe' good idea, because it would either prevent Shirou from attempting to trace them, do actually nothing (because somefucking how Shiro can use traced Armaments just like the ir owner/wielders could) or give him a new trick (tracing the weapon above the 'victim' and watch the trap spring or just use it as a projectile and see what happens).

to trully nullify the HAXpotential of Emiya Shirou and the Sixth Ranger you would need to set up an Anti-Magic Field, because then he would be unable to use his magic that includes Reinforcement, Tracing, Psychogenesis, etc. which allows him to not only copy&Use most weapons but to create a feaking Danmaku with them.

take it from the Sixth Ranger and you would get a freakishly strong Player that doesn't only know how to fight without the system assist bu gets crits from it and while it's damage was rather poor at the beginning new patches should make it... less ingnorable because of the added 'realism'.

a Hard Fight surely, but not a crubstomping one, especially if you bought friends with you, making it even easier if the 'anti-magic thingy' is specially tailored so Shiro is the only one prevented from using his magic.
another one would be Sound, Vibration, Aerokinesis (just suck up the oxygen and he's dead, just like most things in Earth) or concussion.

in the end as long as you can round up the correct combination of 'powers' and 'situations' anything is killable with any grades of difficulty, from the Gruelling "there were no survivors on either side" to the we/i killed him so easily because X (X being the advantageous situation).
heck Shirou is not even a 'good player' and he still has trouble being a TEAM Player.


plus i can see Kayaba prodding LK to find ways to beat SHirou just because it gives them someone to focus the advancement of their skills.

 

[Death2110]

Eventually with enough bodies, Shirou would be killed, because he's not capable of casting magic forever and eventually will reach beyond himself and run out of health if he does not retreat or cannot retreat.

His opponents will almost certainly break and run before they can do that in most situations however, at this point it's common knowledge that the Sixth Ranger is a stupidly powerful single combatant and that the game is no longer balancing for his abilities.

While Shirou can use magic in the game, he's not capable of a number of his more ridiculous exploits to the same degree. He can telekinetically throw swords, and can imitate the skills of Heroes who told reality to go fuck itself. The latter comes not from mage-craft, but from the fact he's insane enough to warp reality.

Let's assume you can turn off 'magic' in a set area. (Including internal processes such as reinforcement of your own body.)

Now you're left with someone who's still capable of complete bullshit in close combat, and who can pick apart your men at range. And now you need to either throw enough ranged attacks at him to kill him, or close into sword-range and hope he doesn't pick you apart fast enough that his health lasts longer than your men.

Because at this point Shirou can still imitate the skills of Heroes he's physically capable of performing, and that includes the sort of bullshit Fake Assassin can pull.

The question isn't "Can we kill the Sixth Ranger?" it's "Do we have enough bodies to kill the Sixth Ranger?" followed closely by "And how do we deal with what happens afterwards?" culminating in "OhShitThat'sTheWhiteWitch!"

 

[shioran toushin]

Nope, the imitation of other personalities and their skills comes from an alternate use of his magecraft, so nope, that is fanboyism.
And without "magic" what range does he have? Because without it he is limited to what he can actually carry in inventory.
The point zero and i want to make is that Shiro is not some invincible bullshit character. He is just a bullshit one.

 

[orumon]

Nope, the imitation of other personalities and their skills comes from an alternate use of his magecraft, so nope, that is fanboyism.
And without "magic" what range does he have? Because without it he is limited to what he can actually carry in inventory.
The point zero and i want to make is that Shiro is not some invincible bullshit character. He is just a bullshit one.

To put a downer on the anti magic option, all special abilities derive from prana to a degree, in other words, without magic, most beings (including servants) are only capable of normal feats anyway. If it reaches that stage, then whoever it is has not only defeated a mortal hero, they've overcome the primary advantages the creatures of Gaia possess. There would be nothing left in the world that could defeat them. The only beings who would be able to overcome this would be TYPES.

Your suggested course is bad storytelling precisely because of this. There is no blanket anti-magic short of breaking the supreme reality marble of the world, hell, there is no blanket dispel magic (Gae Daerg needs to physically interact with a spell, as does Rule Breaker). There are only precise counters to specific types of phenomena (or simply overwhelming any phenomenon with prana overload).

You could stop Shirou's projection by preventing his reality marble interacting with the material world (boundary field effects), but stopping his reinforcement is only possible if you already have a medium within his body that directly connected your magecraft to his inner world. If this were the case, why not use poison and simply kill him that way, much quicker and safer than a complicated plan involving magecraft.

 

[Jess]

Traps, poisons, explosives, sniping, a flower pot from higher enough above, house fires, cave in, "car accidents"... There are many ways to kill people, most does not involve any fights or magecrafts.

 

[TSB]

Kind of reminds me of A Knight's Tale. "How would you beat him?" "With a stick. While he slept."

Regardless, I can see a scenario where LK sets up some form of trap based on sealing off magecraft, thinking they'll be able to eliminate him via numbers, only for him to decimate them as he's just a better fighter.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

Kind of reminds me of A Knight's Tale. "How would you beat him?" "With a stick. While he slept."

Regardless, I can see a scenario where LK sets up some form of trap based on sealing off magecraft, thinking they'll be able to eliminate him via numbers, only for him to decimate them as he's just a better fighter.

The only way I could see Anti-magic working through normal Magecraft is by someone building something like a Warlock Wheel. It wouldn't be perfect, I'd assume at best it'd make external casting really inefficient by having the device constantly siphoning mana and possibly causing some sort of increased drain on spells making them more costly. Not a flat out "No Magic" zone.

 

[richardsphere]

Ok, im sorry if it seemed like i was "just being a fanboy" and "exagerating shirous abilities". i was merely attempting to correct what apeared to be a serious underestimation.


now to do my best to play devil's advocate here andargue in shirou's favor:

to those claiming he cant bring NP's into SAO you are right, the Lion Dojo makes it clear. but he can create mystic codes mimicing their effects, remember the sword he made for ilya;s student (cant remember the guys name, to lazy to look it up). so the claim of him being able to create a [Fake Rulebreaker] is pretty likely. and due to the versatility of such an object is stands to reason he would have made one in advance. i wasnt refering to the ACTUAL rulebreaker. i wasnt refering to [actual rulebreaker] i MEANT [so close to rulebreaker as to make no functional difference]

Also: Magnetism would indeed be a problem, one shirou is probably aware of, and of which he is aware of at least a few workarounds, Example: Cannonically Gae Bolge was made from the BONES of a seamonster, meaning shirou is WELL AWARE that he can create weapons out of non-ferro-magnetic materia. the idea that this [Blacksmith Shirou] hasnt prepared a couple of enchanted bamboo spears, Clay, Ceramics, Bone, Ice, Rock (like Berserker's Axeblade). weapons as a countermeasure for this inevitable exploit seems idiotic.

remember please that fate shirou is insane, not stupid. there is a subtle but significant difference there: a stupid person would get stuck on the forefront of a war in his position and not expect such opponents. an insane one would expect the opponents and come up with some crazily unexpected preperation.


but yes i acknowledge shirou isnt invincible, should an opponent for example find a way to replicate the [achngabla] runes altered to make sure that both parties have to fight unarmed then i can see shirou either losing or depending on the situation going for a strategic retreat. im just attempting to clarify that for the [kirito influenced] version of shirou shown here the proposed half measures wouldnt be sufficient.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

but yes i acknowledge shirou isnt invincible, should an opponent for example find a way to replicate the [achngabla] runes altered to make sure that both parties have to fight unarmed then i can see shirou either losing or depending on the situation going for a strategic retreat. im just attempting to clarify that for the [kirito influenced] version of shirou shown here the proposed half measures wouldnt be sufficient.

Actually didn't the Shirou in this game go through the Unarmed Skill questline like Kirito? So he'd actually have an advantage even then.

But generally the argment from before was just constantly escalating for what they can do to hinder shirou so that he looses. It's like arguing you can kill a Servant by using Weaken magic, stealing their NPs, poisoning their food, etc when a flaw is pointed out at each step of the plan for the assassination. Not taking into account how this would be accomplished or even if it is possible.

 

[linkhyrule5]

Kind of reminds me of A Knight's Tale. "How would you beat him?" "With a stick. While he slept."

Regardless, I can see a scenario where LK sets up some form of trap based on sealing off magecraft, thinking they'll be able to eliminate him via numbers, only for him to decimate them as he's just a better fighter.

The only way I could see Anti-magic working through normal Magecraft is by someone building something like a Warlock Wheel. It wouldn't be perfect, I'd assume at best it'd make external casting really inefficient by having the device constantly siphoning mana and possibly causing some sort of increased drain on spells making them more costly. Not a flat out "No Magic" zone.

I mean, we saw that already. The antlion thing did something like that. Satsuki's Depletion Garden is a much higher level version of the same principle.

Thing is, a person's internal world is very, very hard to actually breach. I personally don't think it's that hard to read, relatively speaking, but that close to your soul it's very hard to try and impose your own rules on it. Gaia can't do it to a human, and it's a fucking planet. Even just draining od is hard - you need a contract, and at that point you can do almost anything else too.

Shirou's broken because almost all of his effects happen in that internal world, and it's only "bringing them out" that costs prana. (Maybe. Maybe not even that.) Similarly, blocking Reinforcement is just about not doable.

You can block off mana usage, meaning high-end spells will be out of the picture, but a magus will still have their internal odic stores.

 

[Tyrantviewer]

Now that I think about it, how much has shirou messed around with the bounded field update?- I presume he picked up a few basics to help with his workshop (unless i am misremmbering and illya did the parts that need it like his alchemy room) but in the various fics I have read were he investigates his reality marble one of the steps was studying bounded fields.

Does that make sense, and would it be helpful in this fic- I mean the core of the study of bounded fields are defining an area with effects on it as opposed to outside- that is conceptually effecting areas- the idea of them being forcefeilds and defences come from the use of them as definging inside and outside or similiar and connecting them to other magecraft.

So with Bounded fields being more to define fixed areas of effect for magecraft (the warming effect on the igloo on the ice floor, defensive effects etc) It makes sense that studying the concepts involved could help with reality marbles- which other than fully manifesting them- are useful in what can be transfered between them and conventional reality.

Shirou uses UBW as a store of information he can use with more conventional magecraft, that is tracing is an upgrade to projection but his "database" is how he gets the info to make it useful. The vampire chaos (I can never spell his first name) uses tricks on where his marble manifests to treat his body as the boundary or rather he is his marble for all intents and purposes. Could studying bounded fields help shirou manifest his powers better? that is could he pull off tracing or better that way?

Maybe he could make a field that makes the area in it "closer" to UBW in his workshop so he can better tap into it's information or maybe make it possible to project a noble phantasm at some point? (even if he couldn't pull it off I could see cardinal using data from any attempts to make it easier for it to parse his projections in the future)

But would shirou ever look into it- his focus is on smithing now would it occur to him to look into this field of study?- I could see him go either way, jsut using the basics as needed for his crafting or teaching argo- or finding something that inspires him and creating something interesting.

That could be a cool chapter, or part of one rather, Like when kirito joined argo and shiro in experimenting for a bit- shirou is pushed by someone to study a use of bounded fields he noticed and he comes up with something interesting (swords taht act as tools for setting up a field that he could shoot to act as support in battle, something that aids him in crafting, maybe something someone could set up to help with the magics for his swords that he can't do on his own (like kirito did some of the spells for the black cat's swords) or maybe something to do with his reality marble, which could be a lead into introducing them to the public at large (maybe a NPC talks about them and argo brings it up to shirou and he has an idea while explaining things to her))

Anyone else remember interesting uses of bounded fields in Nasuverse, All the ones I can think off are never elaborated on or are niche use due to the specific abilities of their creator (Ayara's mobile feild for example, and his apartment complex which was just him being really skilled than his origin there) now that I am thinking about it it really is an overlooked support skill for magecraft due to how broad the potential uses are.

 

[FelfrostTiger32]

@richardsphere and the anti-magic discussion, how about throwable Rulebreakers. Shirou can already turn a sword into an arrow so creating a [Fake Rulebreaker] and adjusting it into an arrow should be easy. Kirito or another would definitely be interested in it. Shirou happily teaches them, it spreads and is added to diff. objects and there we go.

How do you quote? TT-TT

 

[Jess]

How do you quote? TT-TT

Click the 'reply' button or type [(delete this)quote]whatever you want to quote[(delete this)/quote]

 

[FelfrostTiger32]

How do you quote? TT-TT

Click the 'reply' button or type [(delete this)quote]whatever you want to quote[(delete this)/quote]

Thank you!

 

[richardsphere]

@richardsphere and the anti-magic discussion, how about throwable Rulebreakers. Shirou can already turn a sword into an arrow so creating a [Fake Rulebreaker] and adjusting it into an arrow should be easy. Kirito or another would definitely be interested in it. Shirou happily teaches them, it spreads and is added to diff. objects and there we go.

How do you quote? TT-TT

you are talking about the suggestion of "Mystic code imitating rulebreaker" rather then "Fake Noble Phantasm" im assuming, (lion dojo makes the former impossible)

that does seem like something shirou could do, though i dont know the exact nature of the mystery, its described as reversing the magecraft until a state before it was made though so it SOUNDS like a time based mystic code reversing the spells time until before it existed,
(think that one family guy episode in which they reversed time and stewie realised he was about to be un-born)

i think its to advanced for Kirito to replicate though, i mean assuming the description of Rule Breakers innate mystery to mean what i think it means shirou could replicate it, but getting kirito to replicate it might be a bit to much, i dont think the [current kirito] can really bend his mind around what amounts to temperal reversal magic at this stage,

maybe if shirou created one FOR kirito, but even then how would he make it sufficiently kirito compatible? Maybe create a [RB-Code] and make it from kirito-compatible materials, (like how he makes the Fake Tyrfing from weapons the person had built up a relation with). but then kirito would have to give up one of his swords for a single arrow/throwing dagger,

Idea: near perfect rulebreaker replica, using human bone in the hilt, wielder donates the bones (in this case kirito) allowing shirou to make it guaranteed compatible by making it from compatible materials?


long story short: The Rule Breaker mystery is VERRY advanced, and without an [information library] like UBW you couldn't learn it in a feasable time, but there are ways for shirou to mass produce functional tools, it would just be an issue of making them [player compatible] and i presume [bone handles] could solve that issue. they would still need to be custom ordered but at least players could obtain High-End Anti-magecraft.

 

[spilll]

Wait if Shirou could create rule breaker or something near it couldn't he just destroy the magecraft binding the players to the server and get everyone out of there.

 

[Leidolf]

Rule Breaker isn't something a mortal can create. And even if he could, it's not a magical contract binding everyone there.

 

[spilll]

Rule Breaker being to much for modern mages is a fair point but Kayaba is using contract magecraft he learned from Zouken isn't he, he said so in 'The Deal'.

 

[TSB]

Yes, but anything Shirou creates inside the game is just a simulation. It would have as much of an effect on the magecraft binding the Players as Kirito's sword would have on an actual human - that being none since they're just coding.

Ilya, Shirou, and Grimlock have the ability to free themselves from the contract - brute force, Rule Breaker, whatever-Grimlock-does - but they need access to their circuits to do so. But the contract isolates them from their circuits. It's a Catch 22 to ensure any magi Kayaba swept up in his plan couldn't break out and bring the Association and Church down on his head.

 

[waffliesinyoface]

Rule Breaker being to much for modern mages is a fair point but Kayaba is using contract magecraft he learned from Zouken isn't he, he said so in 'The Deal'.

Are you forgetting that Caster used Rule Breaker explicitly to go "fuck that shit" in the war with her command seals? Those are pretty much the strongest things Zouken made, and she could just shut 'em right down.
Rulebreaker is OP like that.

 

[Master of Squirrel-Fu]

Rule Breaker being to much for modern mages is a fair point but Kayaba is using contract magecraft he learned from Zouken isn't he, he said so in 'The Deal'.

Are you forgetting that Caster used Rule Breaker explicitly to go "fuck that shit" in the war with her command seals? Those are pretty much the strongest things Zouken made, and she could just shut 'em right down.
Rulebreaker is OP like that.

It isn't called the Ultimate Anti-Magic Noble Phantasm for nothing.

 

[Tyrantviewer]

ON RULEBREAKER

1st since it is the ultimate anti-magecraft noble phantasm that inplies not only that there are others but that it might be the most difficult to reproduce or immitate

2nd It's time reversal component and general nature means that it is best used for breaking long term effects, so if shirou wasn't planning on immediately starting to free people (in which case he would have to prove magic is real to them and would have no way to cover things up unless he jsut freed himself and went after them in the real world (in which case he would jsut be asking for being mistakend as a seriel killer or something on top of all the logistical issues)) He would be better served imitating a lesser effect like Gae Durg's contact nullification which would be more useful in combat

ON NERVEGEAR CONTRACT? MAGIC CODE? HOWEVER KAYABA DID IT?

1st Kayaba said he used what he learned of command seals to bind the players magically so rulebreaker could probably break it accept...

2nd Nothing said that Nervegear wasn't working technology, in which case using rulebreaker would just leave you stuck in the game but now unable to use magic (though potentially able to be released savellyy if kayaba made the kill switch magic but not the brain interface)

3rd unlike anything else we see rulebreaker counter the nervegear is an object, Rulebreaker can end continuous effects and contracts but it shows no sign of destroying mystic codes whose effects it breaks, it is entirely possible that the nervegear would immediately reapply any effect that rule breaker broke as soon as it was no longer stabbing someone.

4th the exact nature of the simulation could simply prevent anything created inside of if from effecting the outside like that, or at least (related to the above) prevent them from being logged out long enough for it to correct any problem there since everthing in the simulation is governed by cardinal.

ON ANTI MAGIC

1st calling Rulebreaker the ultimate anti magecraft NP not only implies there are other anti-magecraft NPs but that anti-magecraft effects in general are possible if not neccesarily easy or practical, after all the only cannon examples we have are NPs or Reality marbles which are both things that break conventional magecraft rules anyway.

2nd base on the known examples (rulebreaker, gae durg, depletion garden, Ayra's bounded fields... I think) we can extrapolate possible avenues of countering magecraft, first breaking contracts/established effects, while rulebreaker makes this look easy considering magi conflicts aren't instantly won by the one that uses a magical defense first there are ways of doing this with out OP NPs, the magus slayer could get through bounded fields and such to get to his targets for example, Second nullifying effects directly, probably the hardest for normal magic users to do on the scale of original example but actually possibly the most practical option, that is instantly countering everything with a dispel magic effect is unlikely but effects that could disrupt or hinder spells could be entirely possible after all once again magi duels aren't won by whoever shoots first, so some methods of countering might exist, even if they are limited to specific methods agains specific methods (pulling the thread for the enemy's specific magecraft that is), Thirdly effects that target the supply of mana or od to prevent mysteries from being cast in the first place, also practical to a point as the antlion showed but not perfect, maybe a more refined effect that drained the ambient mana and then channeled it into a mystic code or spell would work, letting the one with the code or using the spell have mana but limiting others who came into the area of effect (scarily practical for Laughing coffin who could prep ahead of time for ambushes with such effect), Finally general countering prep work, Arya's fields hindered most attempts at targeting him or messing with his work, short of things like the mystic eyes of death perception that trump them conceptually, while noone in game could match arya's work the general principle of established effects countering other magecraft is sound, bounded fields designed to counter certain effects or produce effects hard to counter themselves seem practical (such as a field that hinders fires froms starting (via fire or water magecraft?) could hinder asuna's attacks for example either jsut weakening them or forcing her to focus on different elements if the effect is strong enough) this seem like the most potentially common and doable form of anti- magecraft

3rd While there is no ABSOLUTE anti magecraft solution the above point should illustrate that there a number of possiblities for various levels of countering it, Personally I think most effects, and certainly most developed by the players in the game would at best be like the anti magic field in Nanoha- that is potentially countering or nullifiying magic but capable of being over come by sufficient power.

4th my personal ideas for the better means of going about this would be either some ether based interference effect, e.i. attacking the energy making up a magic effect directly and thus has a chance of failing or being countered like every other effect, or some magecraft style specific counter like a curse or bounded feild effect, which themselves would have their own workarounds

Finally let me just say I look forward to how daniel might address this in the story and to start of another discussion, is it canon or fanon that Archer got access to waver's memories of the 4th war and thus the phantasms in it? and more generally anyone have any ideas for interesting noble phantasms shirou might be inspired by for his crafting? For me the first one that comes to mind for me right now is the hammer from the japanese fairy tale of the inch boy, and its effects vary from size changing to wish granting so it's effects might be not usefull or would be too costly, Second what about the monkey king's staff, even if it was impractical for archer to use it (so heavy only monkey king could weild it regardless of size) shirou couuld use it a the basis of a size changing weapon which would be cool.

 

[linkhyrule5]

Yes, but anything Shirou creates inside the game is just a simulation. It would have as much of an effect on the magecraft binding the Players as Kirito's sword would have on an actual human - that being none since they're just coding.

Ilya, Shirou, and Grimlock have the ability to free themselves from the contract - brute force, Rule Breaker, whatever-Grimlock-does - but they need access to their circuits to do so. But the contract isolates them from their circuits. It's a Catch 22 to ensure any magi Kayaba swept up in his plan couldn't break out and bring the Association and Church down on his head.

Nnnot quite.

Remember, the power of a Noble Phantasm doesn't actually come from its construction or the logical consequences of its activation - that would, at best, make it a powerful Mystic Code, but would not allow the heights of sheer bullshit we have seen. The power of a Noble Phantasm comes from its legend - and that legend is replicated and attached to whatever is the end result within a single rank of perfection.

As such, the fact that Rule Breaker is here a simulation, a bunch of bits on a computer system, is ultimately irrelevant - the full legend of Medea, the Betrayer, Witch-Princess of Colchis, has been imposed on those bits to force it to become something more. Indeed, it's not wrong to think that Tracing is itself the imposition of that legend and that image onto the world, forcing the world to adapt around it and produce a copy of Rule Breaker to maintain its own internal consistency. It's for this reason that Noble Phantasms work normally within the Moon Cell of Fate/Extra, even when used against the Moon Cell itself - and why a "mere simulation" of Arcueid can nevertheless break free of the Moon and return to Earth at will.

Even before we go that deep into the Nasuverse weeds, though, remember that a core theme of SAO that what makes a world "real" is the people and experiences within it, not whether or not it's made of atoms or bytes. That theme - that "shared experience" of 10,000 people, of Aincrad as "An Incarnated Radius", a true world - itself holds much greater weight within the conceptual framework of Nasuverse magecraft than any "falsehood" due to its simulation. People have elsewhere noted that by the end of F/RO, Kayaba might well be a short step away from achieving the Second, by dint of creating and administrating - Operating - his own artificial Parallel World, for this reason.