Hi there! I'm making a Sword Art Online fanfic...it's like the series but with some changes. Oh, and Asuna's the beta tester instead of Kirito.
Chapter 1: It's A Trap!
"Hello, my name is Asuna. If you're one of 10,000 unfortunate people (like myself), you are trapped inside of a video game with no way out. Every day, you run the risk of dying, unless of course you just sit and relax in town. That's what a lot of people do. Try to make the best of their horrible situation. Of course, there's no glory in that, but considering the horrors the climbers face, I don't really blame them. It's been six months since that horrible incident, and I'm still trapped inside a video game." narrated Asuna.
"Asuna, who are you talking to?" asked Kirito.
"I'm narrating to the audience. We're on a fanfic website. " answered the teenage girl.
"Fanfic website? I thought this was an anime!" exclaimed the teenage boy.
"It is, the author is just writing a fanfic about it." answered the rich girl.
"Oh..." acknowledged Kirito.
"Anyways, I think I'll start talking about the first day I played the game. Or rather, before that. I was one of the beta testers for this game. And yes, I hadn't played video games before then. It was an interesting experience. When people were talking about NerveGears, they said that they could use it to create a virtual reality. As for their creator, they were built by Kayaba Akihiko. As of the time of this writing, I curse his name with all my heart. But at the time Sword Art Online was in its beta stages, he was extremely popular. Nobody else had managed to build something like this. I bet Nintendo and Sega would be jealous." said Asuna.
"One of these beta keys was sent to my brother...but since I had never played a video game before, he decided to give it to me. I'm so glad that he's my brother. Of course, he's probably mourning what happened to me as of today, though of course at the time of this writing I'm still alive. I'm trying to keep it that way...unfortunately, the higher you go up Alfheim, the more deadly the monsters become. And unfortunately, the same thing happens to the player killers. And yes, there are player killers in this game, even though killing a player is killing them in real life. Perhaps some people are simply twisted like that. Or maybe the game is driving them insane. I know I'm starting to question how sane I am nowadays myself." continued the girl.
"I will reluctantly admit that I enjoyed playing the beta stage of the game, though I will also admit that, for some strange reason, the monsters in the game were rather sadistic. I've lost count on how many times I played the beta. Fortunately, the monsters are much easier to deal with nowadays, though even so you have to be careful not to be killed. At least there are crystals for that. I wonder if they were designed by Kayaba Akihiko himself...or someone else." remarked Asuna.
"Anyways, I think I'll start talking about the day I got trapped in the video game...Sword Art Online."
Six months ago...
Asuna was feeling rather ecstatic. She enjoyed the beta stage of Alfheim Online so much. Now today the beta would be over and she would be able to play the game for real.
If she had known that the game was actually a death trap, she wouldn't have been nearly as excited. In fact, she probably would have run away screaming in terror.
If only she had known then. But as it was, she had no idea what was coming and was looking forward to having a NerveGear.
At that very moment, the mailman showed up at her doorstep.
"Woohoo!" exclaimed Asuna.
As soon as the package was brought in, Asuna happily opened it.
Sure enough, there was a NerveGear inside it.
Curious, she noticed that there was a label on it.
"Totally Not Dangerous At All. Feel Free To Put It On Your Head. Really, I insist." read the label.
"Huh. I wonder why the author would put that on all the Nerve Gears. The beta NerveGear didn't have that label. Oh well." said Asuna as she put on the NerveGear.
Immediately, she was sucked inside the video game. If only she knew then that she would never able to return. Why couldn't she be clairvoyant?
Fortunately, she happened to have her old character from the beta. Thank goodness for that, eh?
Of course, she hadn't made it that far in the old game, on account of the difficulty. Still, she was impressed with herself, especially considering that she hadn't played a video game before.
And to make things better, there were now more classes to choose for. Before you were restricted to melee, but now you could be an archer or a spellcaster. It was a pretty sweet deal.
She had managed to make friends during the beta stage...perhaps they were playing the finished game now as well.
Her thoughts were confirmed. There was one nearby. It was her friend Lisbeth.
"Hey, Lisbeth!" exclaimed Asuna.
"Hi, Asuna." answered Lisbeth.
"Aren't you glad we get to play the game for real instead of simply the beta?" inquired the swords lady.
"Yeah...on the other hand, we did get to play the game before anyone else." answered the blacksmith.
Immediately, they noticed some wild boars.
Quickly, they charged towards the duo.
Fortunately, it appeared that they were slower than they were in the beta, so they didn't have to worry as much.
Asuna slashed through the boar and it burst into shards. She then collected the boar meat.
"I think I'll sell these to a shop somewhere." said Asuna. There would likely be shops set up by both NPCs AND the players.
"Good, because I think I'll set up a shop myself." nodded Lisbeth.
"What shop will that be?" asked the rich girl. There were many shops in Aincrad.
"Probably a blacksmith shop. I still happen to have a lot of blacksmith experience." said the metalworker. Of course, she probably wouldn't be a blacksmith in real life...but at least she could have fun doing so in the game.
Immediately, Lisbeth pulled out the menu so she could log out.
"See you." said the girl.
"This game is so awesome. I would hate to ever leave." remarked Asuna.
How Asuna wished that she hadn't said that...six months later.
"Well, you might not be leaving any time soon...I can't find the log out button!" exclaimed Lisbeth.
"The log out button?" questioned Asuna.
Curiously, the log out button seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. How would they log out now? She sure hoped that this was only temporary. Her parents would want her to stop playing the game by dinner time. And how she loved roast turkey.
This was unfortunate. Her parents would likely be worried about her.
Looking around, she noticed that other players were asking the same question.
It then dawned on them what was going on.
"We're trapped!" screamed Lisbeth.
"Who could have done this to us?" asked Asuna.
They were about to find out.
At that very moment, she was transported to some sort of arena along with everyone else that was playing the game.
"It looks like everyone's here..." noted Asuna.
As perplexing as the inability to log out was, this was even more mysterious.
Was this the work of one of the admins? To her knowledge, there were only three of them, including the author, Kayaba Akihiko himself.
At that very moment, a giant cloaked figure appeared. Apparently, this was him.
"Greetings. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Since there are 10,000 people playing the game, I decided to explain the rules to you. Well, not quite that high of a number. A few people have already perished...and it's all because of their friends and family. What a waste." noted Kayaba.
"What?!" exclaimed Asuna. People that played the game were dying? This game was starting to sound unsafe.
"You're probably wondering why you can't log out, and the beta testers are wondering why there's no longer a respawn point. Rest assured that this isn't a bug, but a feature." answered the creator of Sword Art Online.
This frightened Asuna along with everyone else in the arena. It looked like they were all trapped in Sword Art Online whether they liked it or not.
However, what the author had to say to them next was even worse.
"From now on, there is no respawning. If you die in Sword Art Online, you die in real life. Your heart will stop as soon as your avatar bursts into shards." explained the author.
This caused many of the people in the audience to scream.
"I don't like this game anymore!" screamed a player amongst the audience.
"You're probably thinking "Why can't I just remove the helmet?" The answer is you can't. If you do, you'll receive a fatal electric shock." answered the creator of this deadly world.
Once again, the audience screamed. It was quickly becoming apparent to them that they should have never put on those helmets in the first place.
Then again, who would have thought that they would be so deadly?
"Fortunately, I'm a reasonable kind of man, so I'm going to cut you a deal. If you by any chance reach the final floor (in other words, the 100th) of Aincrad and defeat the final boss, you'll be allowed to leave the game and go home." said the author.
"No kidding?" asked another member of the audience.
Asuna sighed in relief. Perhaps she wasn't quite as trapped as she thought. Even so, she got the feeling that it would take a very long time before anyone to reach the 100th floor in the first place. She knew that none of the beta testers ever made it that far, including herself. A few of them had made it to the 50th floor, but that was about it.
There was also most likely going to be a lot of bloodshed...unless of course, she decided to simply relax and stay in town and not actually play the game. She would have to rely on others to clear the game so that they could all go home, obviously, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about her NerveGear stopping her pulse if she died.
Still, even if she was in danger of dying in the real world, she did have a craving for adventure. Perhaps that had stuck with her from when she was a beta tester for the game.
It seemed like the best way to die was to do what she loved. Besides, the Grim Reaper wasn't a bad guy...at least once you got to know him.
She decided that she would try climbing Aincrad and see how far she could make it. People would consider her to be a hero if she chose to help them escape the game. Maybe if she was lucky she could find an exploit that would let them all log out, though she would have to use it before any of the admins took notice.
However, it then occurred to her that there were 9999 other players playing the game, minus the players whose friends and family had gotten the bright idea of simply removing the NerveGear. Why couldn't things be that simple?
Maybe she could make some friends. Sure, some of them would probably be horribly killed, but at least she would be able to make friends. Since she was rich, people seemed to think that she was above them. Just because she was rich doesn't mean that she treated everyone who wasn't as wealthy as her like dirt. Besides, being rich was all good, her fiancé was a total creep. Why did her father choose him again?
She decided to visit the local tavern. That seemed like a good place to get a party...though she didn't exactly feel like throwing a party right now.
Immediately, she opened the door and went to look inside.
I hope you're enjoying this alternative fanfic. There are going to be some changes since there are some things in the anime that I would like to change. Don't give me wrong. I don't necessarily think that Sword Art Online is a bad anime, I just think it could be better in some places. Besides, I like being creative.
You've probably noticed that I've made some changes already. Instead of simply being one admin (who of course is the author) there is three. You're going to hear more about them later. I figured it would be more realistic if there was more than one administrator, even in a game like this.
Also, Asuna is the beta tester instead of Kirito. I figured that would be interesting. I was thinking about writing a fanfic like this for a while though I wasn't quite sure what to make it about. I settled on this.
Let me know if you have any suggestions. Peace!