Bullets.
Lots of shrapnel bounced off of random objects.
A grenade was thrown.
One more goes down.
More bullets were fired.
The idea of holding one of the simplest but crucial chokepoints depended on their ammunition and numbers against the few that stood against them. Unluckily for them, their weapons stopped shooting, indicating that they had to reload their automatic weaponry.
A tube-like grenade was thrown from around the corner, bouncing off a wall before flashing upon contact of the floor. The remaining opponents that were left to oppose this chokepoint, which only totaled five, came out and ran towards them.
It may seem suicidal to an outsider, but the people who constantly played this game knew that they had a window of approximately ten seconds before the flash effect wore down.
Equipped with a mixture of P90 submachine guns and Maverick M4A1 Carbine assault rifles, the Counter-Terrorists engaged their Terrorist foes with great vengeance and fury.
The P90s, being not as accurate as their assault rifle comrades, tended to spray before hitting their targets; experienced players can spray their P90s at nothing but their intended targets and getting headshots with them.
One retaliation shot was fired from an AWP sniper rifle ended the life of a Counter-Terrorist.
The Counter-Terrorists prioritized the sniper, taking him down with little effort. Taking the advantage of the sniper's 'aggro' on him, the other Terrorists finished reloading their AK-47 assault rifles and attempted to take out the remaining four Counter-Terrorists. They only ended up wounding them.
Meanwhile, the Terrorists' primary plan to take and rush the Counter-Terrorists at the Garage to flank the office side has failed. Numerous bodies littered the Garage's stairs, most of the casualties accounted for were Terrorists. There were even some Terrorist corpses that did not even reach Garage, having been picked off at the earliest phases of the round. Guess no one threw a smoke grenade down Main Hall to negate the Counter-Terrorists' snipers that camped at Long Snipe.
A display popped up, detailing each players' usernames, kills, scores, which team they were on, if they were in a clan and finally, latency; the very top showed that the map was cs_office followed by which server hosted it. The fact that there was not a little display box that announced which team won the round meant that the 'battle' on this particular map had ended, in a Counter-Terrorists' victory no less.
Before the loading screen had appeared, which will cause the server to launch the next map 'in the queue', I decided to exit the server and finally, the game itself.
Having to attend school the following day, I bid my friends farewell before logging off of Steam and turning off my desktop for the night.
I always enjoyed playing the cs_office map whenever we play Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) to the point of favoring it the most. Sadly, this often puts me at odds with my cousin who plays it with me in our little Steam friends group almost every night.
Despite the often delayed or nonresponse hit registry, the numerous losses and victories, the sequel being already available and 'repetitiveness' of the multiplayer game, we still enjoy CS:S to this day. We do play other games that are not only first person shooters (FPS). This tends to be either role-playing games (RPG) or real-time strategy (RTS) focused games, whichever usually floats our boat.
Some of us favored other genre specific games such as sports, but despite our differences and usual inability to decide upon which game to play together for the night, we somehow get by.
Finishing my business in the bathroom, I hop onto my bed for the night, wondering about what tomorrow may hold.
School was over and it was finally the weekend.
I got out much earlier than any of the grade schoolers. Feeling pleased that today is a good day, I immediately head towards the nearby train station. I could hardly wait to play Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) tonight, mostly due to finally completing that dammed heist.
As I approached the train station, needing to wait a short while for the walk indicator to flash, I was suddenly pushed forward. I heard a truck horn and fell into darkness. Perhaps it was because of not paying attention to anything but the pedestrian signal, but I highly doubted that. I am pretty sure that someone intentionally pushed me for some reason.
I was not popular but no one bore me any ill will. Sure, I made a few friends from the different classes I attended this semester, but it still did not explain the sudden action at the intersection.
Whatever the reason, I am now trapped where whatever this was.
After possibly being hit by a truck, I thought I would go to some sort of afterlife. Seeing that I am here said otherwise. I did not believe that there was a 'heaven' or a 'hell' so this black void might be the result?
I then theorized that I was still alive so I might be in a hospital. If that were to be so, I might even be in a coma then.
"Hello? Anyone here?"
I knew it was stupid and pointless to ask, but it does not hurt to try. No one replied back and I continued to 'see' nothing.
'Days' turned into 'weeks' and 'weeks' turned into 'months'.
I was very bored here. Thinking about the possibilities as to why I was pushed did not help alleviate it at all.
A very soft "Link Start" was suddenly spoken.
That somewhat convinced me that there was someone here. I thought I was imagining it, maybe even going mad for the tiniest bit of human interaction. I could not 'see' anything in this darkness after all.
Suddenly, a bright white light shined in the distance, rapidly increasing in size. I took this moment to examine myself and noticed that I was missing a leg. My clothes were in tatters. My hands were utterly broken and the rest of my body was laden with cuts and bruises. Through it all, I did not scream in agony nor had I had any reason to do so; I did not feel any pain.
The light overtook me and it had engulfed me. I could see no more.
For some inexplicable reason, I felt my eye lids open. Was I out of my coma? For how long was I asleep for?
My eyes took its sweet time to resister that I was awake. Before long, I knew that I was far from being in a hospital room. There was not a white ceiling that greeted me once I woke up after all.
Just where was I?
A large quantity of different buildings, people, sounds and colors greeted me. The air gently enveloped me as if I was a newborn child, coming out of my mother's womb.
Resisting the urge to having my body lock up and going back to my 'comatose' state, due to the place trying to overload my five senses, I looked around the place much more closely and thought it was strange now I had a chance to think about it.
There were no skyscrapers, just small two-story buildings made out of simple brick and the floor was made up of tiles. It was as if society regressed back to the 14th century, effectively replacing the steel, concrete, asphalt and modern brick that made up today's buildings, roads and sidewalks.
The 'locals' seemed to wear small brown Kevlar armor on top of their regular long sleeved t-shirts of differing colors. Long pants, leather shoes and short swords complemented the look. I looked down to see what I had on. To my surprise, I was wearing the same wardrobe as those people.
I was either in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) or really was trapped in the 14th century somehow.
Wanting to know how my face looked, I went about the place trying to borrow a mirror or finding a pond of some sorts.
My body shook and I covered my ears with my hands.
I stared at my reflection long and hard. I do not know what to think anymore. Looking back at me was Kirito's Closed Beta avatar. Then, it immediately clicked. I was in Sword Art Online (SAO)….
I looked at the upper left corner of my field of vision, wondering if my visual interface had Kirito's username on it. It did. The exact 'Kirito – 250/250 – Lvl: 1' was clearly written….
I do not belong here. Not at all. Not in the slightest bit….
The last things I recalled was getting out of school, getting pushed I think, staring at an indefinite blackness and finally, waking up here of all things.
No matter how much I wanted to will my current situation away, I could not. I fell down onto my knees and aggressively shook my head in extreme disbelief.
A random person came towards me and greeted me with a simple "Yo".
I looked towards the direction of the person who broke me out of my misery. Said person looked familiar, as if he was part of the 'main' cast in SAO.
"Hey, are you alright man?"
No, I am not 'alright' is what I wanted to say but….
….Instead, I feigned ignorance, smiling at him and replied that I was, going so far to stating that I could not believe I was here and glad that I was born in this century for this particular moment.
He would not believe me if I told him, or anybody else really, the real reason why I was 'in sorrow'. They might as well think I lost a few brain cells or some unbelievable shit. I might as well keep this to myself….
He laughed at how 'passionate' I was. He later admitted that he thought the same.
"How's Sword Art Online so far?"
Remembering about the NerveGear, I described to him that it was as if I was living here all my life; that this visual reality made it indistinguishable from real life.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. It was definitely worth standing in line for 3 hours. I was pretty awe shocked myself. The name's Klein. What's yours?"
Uh ah….
"Kirito" I quickly spurted out. I hope to whatever higher being there was that there would be no repercussions.
I stared back at the person, finally noticing that this current Klein had his typical red hair, but looked like a really hipped out Jesus. Then again, this was before that mirror event that changes everyone's in game avatar to match their real life appearances.
"So uh" He started. "Do you know how this game works? It's my first time playing a VRMMORPG."
I did not. In fact, NerveGears do not even exist back from where I come from. The closest and best thing we had was the Oculus Rift headset and the last thing I heard of it was that the consumer version would not be shipped until towards the end of March 2016.
I had never tried or touched the pervious Oculus Rifts either. In my defense, I never had a reason to touch one to begin with. None of my friends had one nor were we truly interested in it. The concept behind the Oculus Rift was magnificent, but we simply were not willing to shell out money for something that was 'incomplete' at the time. We all learned our lesson from backing games that came to be abandoned by the developers down the line….
"No, sorry. I'm new to this as well" I replied while scratching the back of my head.
"Oh, you too huh? Well, I'll look around for a person to teach us then!"
And thus, just as sudden as he appeared, he disappeared from my view just to do that. I stood in place, watching his back until I no longer saw his back.
I went to a nearby vacant bench and looked towards the sky. If events here stayed true to its manga and anime origins, then in a few hours, Kayaba Akihiko should appear and announce the lack of a log out option and that they needed to clear the game if they wanted to leave. Anyone that died in SAO would in turn, be dead in real life due to the NerveGear….
But does that apply to me? I do not know if the truck killed me or if I was simply in a coma, imagining all of this.
Ah, fuck it.
I decided to 'play along', figuring if I died then the body will die. I do not want to be blamed for Kirito's death if I can help it especially since this was not my body. Besides, sitting around and waiting for salvation was not my cup of tea.
Knowing what will happen if it does stay true to its timeline, I got up and basically went around the Starting City, looking for all the quest givers available and accepting their quests. I do not exactly know how the main cast in the SAO anime/manga did their grinding but I prefer to just grab all the quests before spending x amount of hours out of the town.
Especially since I had no idea what the Starting City gave as quest rewards. Probably just cor, this game's gold currency, and some beginner item such as health potions. If certain quests can be done repeatedly, I will not hesitate to abandon them after doing them just once. You try and learn from experience after all. One time in Aion, I spent much of my time on one quest before realizing that it could be done repeatedly. It granted me a consist amount of gold and experience, but it was a waste of time and it did not enable my character to move 'forward'. There are some quests that were worth doing repeatedly for but those usually involve the quest reward giving a material item that cannot be crafted or looted from. It is beneficial for players who primary life skills since they enjoy crafting objects that need said quest reward item such as weapons, armor and gourmet dishes.
Without much incident, I collected all of the quests from the numerous non-player characters (NPCs) stationed in the Starting City. I then head out towards the surrounding area. I raised my right arm and swiped at the air, enabling the menu to pop up. The first quest had me killing ten Dire Wolf.
Fun, oh fun.
If I recalled correctly, Klein would be training in the West Field with the real Kirito instructing him on how to enable his Sword Skills on Frenzy Boar. I highly doubt Klein would be there seeing as I am Kirito now….Speaking of Klein, I wondered where he was now.
Out of curiosity or a sheer sense of stupidity, I decided to check the West Field before I started grinding.
What. The. Bloody. Fuck.
I stared in disbelief. There they were. Klein was on the ground after being hit by the Frenzy Boar with Kirito standing nearby lecturing him. Not only that, but Kirito was using his Closed Beta avatar as well. This must be some cruel dream. If Kirito was right over there, who the fuck was I then? A replicate? A fake? An imposter?
In that very brief moment, I blamed Kayaba Akihiko for everything that has happened to me. Me being hit by a truck, being denied my friends, being trapped in this visual reality and sharing the same skin as that man….All of it….I will have my retribution. But for now, I will need to wait until the perfect moment for me to act is upon me….
So for now, I will squash down these thoughts and calmly learn the basics of this so-called game. Learn and eventually plan to escape this game and this universe….No use moping around any longer.
"I told you. What's important is your initial motion input. If you do the motion input right, and activate a sword skill, the system will ensure that the technique connects."
Thank whatever higher being existed that they did not notice me hiding behind this tree. I knew I already broke the anime/manga sequence by being here and interacting with Klein, but if I limit the damage, it should still take two years for all of us to escape this hell. Unless of course, I provide a helping hand in aggressively speeding them up and completing the game much faster then expected.
Kirito threw a pebble at the Frenzy Boar, causing its 'aggro' unto him. Klein looked like he was deep in thought but anyone who read or saw SAO knew that he was thinking about motion input.
"How should I put it? Add a slight pause and when you feel the skill begin to activate, let it explode."
That was quite different from all the other MMORPGs that my friends and I have played in the past. Sure, they were mostly mouse point and clicks, and some had you interacting with your keyboard keys, this game to me was like as if Vindictus, Guild Wars 2 and a FPS had a child.
Vindictus was a fast paced MMORPG while Guild Wars 2 was primarily a skill based one. What I mean by Guild Wars 2 being skilled based was that rather than just watch animation play out, you can potentially move, dodge and take out opponents that are much higher then you in level. This is coupled by the fact that each single weapon has their own skills; a sword equipped as a main hand weapon will have different set of skills compared to an axe equipped as the main hand. If you dual wield, each pair would not be the same skill set; an axe paired with a sword would not have the same skill set as a mace paired with a sword.
The FPS part involved being 'in the face' of your character. What I mean by this was that conventional MMORPGs usually had players play with their point of view of their characters top down or behind their characters' backs. SAO was obviously the exception, for now. Conventional FPS games usually had players play as if they were the said characters that they chose or customized, taking on their identities while playing in that universe.
Then again, SAO was a VRMMORPG, the first of its kind in this particular universe. Makes me wonder how they developed the NerveGear though….
Kirito kicked the Frenzy Boar towards Klein's direction. Klein proceeded to use his Sword Skill on it, destroying it when its hit points dropped down to zero.
So that was the basics eh? There are an unlimited number of skills, but there is no magic. It will be a nice change of pace seeing as this was my first time playing an RPG without magic. How did they manage area of effect (AoE) skills was beyond me. Perhaps, in order to take out a much superior mob party, they just 'danced' around their opponents?
I lifted my short sword out of its sheath and tested its weight. It was pretty light, as I anticipated it was. It is a beginning weapon after all.
Sneaking away, I traveled to the Northwest Field and started my own grind, being careful to not let my hit points fall below the green portion of the bar. There is no cause for hesitation anymore. I found my first Dire Wolf victim for the day and charged at it.
The sun was starting to set and somehow, I finished all of the quests that I took from the Starting City. I did not hand the quests to their respectable quest givers yet, knowing that I would be teleported soon.
Any moment now.
As if on cue, a bell rung and a blue light engulfed me. When I opened my eyes once more, I was back in the Starting City, with a crowd of other players that were either worried or confused.
Oh, shit.
I teleported where Klein and the real Kirito were.
"Wha-Wha?! Why's there 2 of you Kirito?!"
Said boy was looking at me in disbelief.
Uh…."I created an identical character by luck?" I said while scratching my head.
However, before Kirito even attempted to open his mouth to speak, the sky was soon covered with red panels that read 'System Announcement' and 'Warning' on them. A giant faceless robed avatar came out of one of the 'System Announcement' panels was soon hovering over us, getting us to pay attention to it.
"Attention, players. Welcome to my world…."
Fuck you too Kayaba Akihiko.
"….My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat….This is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online…."
Yeah, killing people via the NerveGear when their hit points hits zero in the game is totally a feature….Right….
"….You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life."
So what if a blackout were to occur? How about lag or even if the server craps on itself? What then? We can still die just because of the other possibilities that you have not accounted for Kayaba Akihiko….
Though, if World War Three were to happen and countries start to nuke each other into oblivion, then I guess you have my thanks, but until that day comes, I will forever hate you.
"Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."
Many people around me were in disbelief, outright rejecting the death toll Kayaba Akihiko had stated, until he pulled out numerous news articles and videos in medium sized panels that floated around him.
"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal. I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game."
More like 'hope that you would not relax enough to let your guard down Mr. Kayaba.' I will do more then just clear your shitty game. I will become triumphant at this game so I hope to whatever god you pray to that you will not deal underestimate me.
"But I want you to remember this clearly. There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game. If yor HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost. And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. To complete the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game…."
Thankfully, the game ends on Floor 75. But I wonder….Since I know Kayaba's avatar is Heathcliff later down the line, should I even attempt at confronting him way before Kirito notices it?
"….Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves."
At that, I swiped the air, pulling up my menu and retrieving the mirror from my item storage. If I shared Kirito's Closed Beta avatar, would I look like his in real life self as well?
A blue light engulfing me interrupted my thoughts.
When the light died down, I knew everyone here would take on their real life look. Looking at my mirror to see if I had changed into Kirito's real life look was a mistake.
Eh?
Long black hair and grey violent eyes stared back at me. Looking back at me was not a male, but a female?! It oddly looked very similar to the look Kirito had when he went into Gun Gale Online (GGO)….This day could not get any much worse than it already has….Fucking Kayaba Akihiko….
"You're Kirito?" "You're Klein?"
I looked towards the two in some amusement. Klein was still wearing his noticeable red and pale yellow bandana while Kirito, looking much younger than he was earlier, still had his blue shirt on. It did not take rocket science to know that the two were the same, despite some minor changes….
"Then, who's that?"
They slowly turned to look at me. I had hoped that they had forgotten me at some point, but it obviously shows that they did not. Upon seeing me however, I think Klein entered his 'awkward' mode….
"N-Nice t-to meet you! I-I'm Klein, 24, single, looking for a girlfriend…."
I was amazed at how blunt and 'confident' he was.
Oh. He is looking at my chest. I instinctively kicked him in the family jewels.
"My eyes are up here!" I shouted at him. Both males looked away and tried to look as innocent as they could….
I do not know what bothered me most….The high pitched voice I now have or how well I was taking this….Well, whatever I suppose. Just hope the chick that I am currently possessing do not mind too much.
"So, who are you?" I turned to look at Kirito and once he knew that he held my attention, he continued on. "I mean, you looked like me before and I think Klein mistaken you for me as well."
"Yeah! Kirito here thought I was crazy when I said that I met him before at the fountain."
I looked at the upper left corner of my field of vision, wondering if my visual interface was updated. It did. 'Kiriko – 750/750 – Lvl: 3'.
Uh…. "I'm Kiriko" I mentally shot myself in the face, not knowing what I had gotten myself into. "And the reason why I had the same avatar was as I explained before, simply luck…."
They seemed to have believed it when they returned the greeting in kind and introduced themselves. Then, they returned to looking surprised and pointed at each other again.
"How…." They both wondered.
"The scan…." Both males immediately looked at me for the explanation. "The NerveGear covers your entire head with a high density signaling device so it can see what your face looks like. Added to the fact that when we had to calibrate our NerveGears, we needed it to touch our bodies…."
"O-oh right" Both males agreed with my explanation.
"But why?" I looked at Klein. "Why do all this?"
"I'm sure…." Kirito pointed at Kayaba Akihiko. "….He'll tell us."
As if on cue, the robed avatar began to speak again. "Right now, you're probably wondering, 'why'. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do all this?"
To be a prick I bet. Or like Vault-Tec, 'study' human emotions in a controlled experiment. We will never know though; at the very end he did not even know the answer himself. What kind of villain was that?
"My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason: To create this world and intervene in it. And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. Good luck, players."
The avatar fell apart in a smoky haze and the sky returned to its sunset phrase. Well, I guess I will quietly slip away before chaos ensures. I bid both Klein and Kirito farewell, explaining that I had several quests to turn in. Their shocked faces was all I received.
Eh. Oh well. They will snap out of it sooner or later. I looked back and saw Kirito drag Klein away. There we go.
Handing in all my quests was a pain, wishing SAO had that Guild Wars 2 mechanic. Two beeps and then two notifications broke me out of my spur of the moment. It was Kirito's and Klein's friend invites. I guess the only reason they friended me was to keep a 'close' eye on me. Or in Klein's case, out of desperation for female contact?….Who knows….
All I knew was that it felt wrong being a woman and I needed to clear the game as soon as possible before I grew too accustomed to this life. I did not want a chick raging over how I lived within her body while in SAO after all….
And thus started Sword Art Online, the VRMMORPG that would normally end in two years….