Title: Caged Souls
Chapter Title: And It All Comes Crashing Down
Genre: General, Romance, Humor, Action, Adventure
Rating: K
General Summary: I was one of the few lucky 1000 beta-testers for Sword Art Online. I was also one of the people who ordered the game once it was out. To be back was exhilarating; to escape from the real world but we, the 10,000 people, were trapped and the only way to beat the game was to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor. Kag's POV
Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or Inuyasha. All characters belong to their creative owners.
Author's Note: I was re-watching SAO and I thought… why not? So ta-da! Also, I don't know if I should have the pairings to be Kag/Kirito or not. Vote? Also I'm trying out this first person POV.
I was one of the few lucky 1,000 beta-testers for the one month period from August to September 2022. During that period, Sword Art Online was lauded as an incredible experience and it received extremely positive reviews despite the actual difficulty of the game, even if the highest floor myself and a few other Beta Testers reached was only the eighth.
After the CBT, Closed Beta Tested, ended, we were given the opportunity to pre-order the game.
I was also one of the 10,000 people who brought it within seconds from online, which I got as an early birthday gift since oni-chan forgot to take me to the *Ocean Dome due to his job, but anyways I'm rambling.
Sword Art Online officially started server service on one in the afternoon of November 6, 2022. We CBT had the option of creating a new character or using the ones we used for testing, I obviously chose my CBT character.
It was exhilarating to be back again. The artificial fresh air, wind, and nature music was a change from the horns, pollution, and wind filled with cigarettes or car smoke.
And then it happened.
I was out in the fields, taking a break from relearning the skills, while watching a tall figure dressed in dark clothes helping another player in red how to attack.
When all of the sudden, I was forced teleported to the starting city, Town of Beginnings, where Kayaba gave us a gift to reveal our true features and to also reveal that the lack of a log out function, which we players had realized, was a 'feature' of his new game and that forced removal of the Nerve Gear head piece from the other side would fry our brains. He continued explaining that the only way to escape or to go back to the other side was to clear the game; that is, to successfully defeat all 100 levels of Aincrad, the first Realized World, and defeat the final boss.
When he disappeared, I quickly realized that the fields would be over crowded with players soon and quickly mapped out the route I would have to take to go to the next town with the safest path. I turned only to see the familiar dark-clothed player grab the red-head and run off. He, too, must have realized that the fields would be overflowing.
So on November 6, 2022, at five-thirty pm our lives changed.