Cardinal
Chapter 1:The End and Beginning
It was the last day of the beta and thus a sad day for the many people who were currently logged into the server. This was especially true for Kirito whom, even as the servers were preparing to be shut down, was still grinding his way through the tenth floor. It would not be an exaggeration to say that during the past two months Sword Art Online had completely enveloped his life. The first thing he did upon waking up was log in, skipping breakfast to play as much as possible before the day began. While he was at school he would daydream about how to grind the most efficiently and what skills he would get next for his build. Once home he would immediately dive back in, only stopping for dinner and a quick shower before returning to the world that had practically replaced his own. A glance at his time played showed that he had already surpassed over 500 hours on the game in a relatively short amount of time.
And now the world that he had so thoroughly devoted himself too for the past two months was coming to an end. He had known it was coming and prepared himself accordingly, but still the thought of having to wait for the official release of the game was like a knot in his stomach. Once today ended it would be back to his daily boring routine, knowing he would no longer having SAO waiting for him at home in the coming days was enough to sink him into a mild depression. He had little interest in the real world for the most part preferring to sequester himself away from the rest of the world in the online one. School was simply a mandatory part of life that he never truly engaged himself with, friends were something few and far between for him, and even home for him had started to become draining after learning he had been adopted two years ago.
Truly the only place he had felt comfortable these days, alive even, was the virtual world. In here he was someone people could admire and respect, having drawn plenty of attention through the beta as one of the top players in the game. He had worked hard for that title and it was one of the few accomplishments he had that made him actually feel proud of himself. That confidence still failed to quite serve him in the social aspects of the game however as he'd ended up dedicating himself to being a solo player. He had tried in the beginning to party up a few times, but it had almost always failed to last more than a day for one reason or another he could never quite pin down.
His ruminating was interrupted as the last arachnid in the area was felled by his blade, the large spider dropping it's loot into his inventory which he quickly sorted looking for the last drop needed to complete his current quest. It had been one that had spanned most of the tenth floor dragging him from one dimly lit cavern to the next in search of all manner of ingredients. This spider's venom sac was the last ingredient he needed in order to complete the portion that was necessary to heal the quest giver's daughter whom was afflicted with some sort of rare ailment that could be contracted on the current floor.
Preparing to make his way back, he took a teleport crystal out of his bag. Normally this would be a seen as a waste of a precious rare resource but due to the nature of the beta a wipe was imminent, rendering the saving of such items useless. Reciting the activation phrase for the crystal his screen distorted as its effects kicking in, teleporting him to the main gate on the floor.
The world slowly faded back in after the warp, revealing the lantern lit town in all of it's splendor before him. It's mellow lighting along with the somber colors and soft jazz BGM creating a very relaxed atmosphere in the town at contrast with the dark tunnels it inhabited. He had taken a bit of liking to this floor after it had been opened, the architecture out of all the floors, while a bit dated, was the closest to what he was use to giving the whole floor a familiar feeling to him which the previous ones lacked.
He walked through the town drinking in the ambiance on his way to turn in the quest ingredients. The gentle breeze that flowed through the caverns slightly rustling his hair, while also bringing the scents of various foods present in the stalls around him. Various NPCs called out to him, offering goods and services that were standard fair for an MMO town. They weren't the only ones he heard however as the town was alive in a different sort as well.
Even in it's final day the tenth floor town was quite lively with players meandering about, some simply saying goodbyes to the friends that they had made with promises to meet back up on game launch, some taking in the sights one more time before the end of the night, and a very small portion of players like himself still continued to try and finish all they could before the beta was officially over. He continued walking through the town, the crowd slowly thinning until he was the only one left as he approached a small shack on the outskirts of the large village which housed his destination.
Entering the small enclosure he was faced with a sight that had become familiar to him since he started his quest. An old man sat at the edge of a comfy looking bed tending to a girl that looked perhaps a bit younger than himself. Her curly blonde locks lay matted against her pillow from sweat, her skin held a sickly translucent shade of white that only further reinforced her condition. She had been unconscious since he had started the quest, the strange illness that only seemed to worsen for her as he completed each part of the quest. He wasn't sure if the whole thing was timed or it was just for dramatic effect but thankfully it seemed like that wouldn't bean issue.
The quest had been simple to start off with, he'd stumbled upon the small shack in his initial exploration of the floor almost by accident while being chased by a rare mob. After he had ran inside for the safety he met the the old man who'd warned him about the dangers of said mob as well as explaining that is was preventing him from acquiring one of the components of medicine for his daughter.
After a lengthy stealth mission he managed to get the required item, only to met by yet another request. And so it began, each time after he had found an ingredient he was told that there was yet another part to the quest. Most people had given up the quest as it was incredibly time consuming to reach each new area for the quest items, especially with how little time they had left by reaching the current floor. There was also no confirmation that the reward was even worth it, which only further served to push away most gamers. His completionist nature as well as his desire to see what loot could be earned had driven him to try and complete the quest before the beta ended. Even then it had been a close thing as with only at most an hour left, he had acquired the final drop that it required.
"Ah you're finally here young man," the old man looked up with a sullen smile, his land never leaving his daughter's side "Did you bring the last ingredient I need?"
A pop up appeared on his screen which he used to drag over the spider sac before clicking the hand over prompt in his vision.
"Thank you, please watch over my daughter as I prepare the potion." The man opened a door which Kirito knew from prior experience contained a room with a large variety of alchemical tools.
Figuring he may as well take a seat in case it was actually required for the quest he maintained a silent vigil over the unconscious girl. As he waited a high pitched ding went off followed up by a flashing message icon on the top left of his screen. Pulling up the mail in question confirmed it's sender to be one of the only friends he felt he had genuinely made both in and out of game, though he would never tell her that in fear of the teasing he would undoubtedly receive for saying something so embarrassing.
Argo was funny like that, she could be all business one second. Doing her best to fleece you for as much money as she could. The next you'd be thoroughly teased about anything and everything she could get her hands on and boy that was a lot. Argo or "The Rat" as she had been nicknamed was the number one information broker in all of Aincrad, being able to deliver up any information anyone sought out as long as the price was right. She once had the gall to try and sell him her three sizes, the memory still causing him to blush even after he had developed somewhat of a resistance to her constant teasing. Though if he were to be honest that was probably why they had managed to become such great friends, she was always in control of their conversations, preventing him from having to awkwardly fumble for topics of conversation.
Shaking his head of the errant thoughts threatening to endlessly assault him, he scanned through the contents of the message.
'Hey Kii-bou you manage to finish that quest yet? If'n so I don't suppose you'd be willin' to tell little ol' me all about it would you ~.^. I'll be hangin' around the normal spot till the end of the servers, if you don't stop by … well I can't be held responsible for whatever info gets out about you ... Nyahaha! See you soon 3.'
Truly she was incorrigible, this wasn't the first time she had threatened to blackmail him into something and probably wouldn't be the last. Despite that however the things she usually asked him to do or find were generally pretty interesting, that and he did already promise to hand over the quest completion info once he was finished.
"Alright it's finished," Came the hollar of the old man before bursting through the door rushing to her side by Kirito. "Alright boy let's hope this works."
Kirito back stepped out of the way while the man gently lifted the girl's head, tilting the bottle into her mouth as the liquid from potion slowly drained until empty. The effect was almost instantaneous, the color of her pallid skin regained a healthy rosy shine. Her breaths started to deepen significantly, signaled by the more obvious rise and fall of her chest. Lastly her eyes slowly came open blinking the accumulated sleep out before they turned to regard her father, her sleepy expression quickly shifted through several emotions ending in tears.
"I'm so sorry," she cried, shakily lifting herself up into her father's arms. "I know I shouldn't have gone out that far to collect the things you needed but I thought you would be proud of me."
"It's okay Milty, shh ... you're fine now," he whispered gently cradling the young girl in his arms, brushing his hand through her hair gently in a calming motion.
Kirito stood awkwardly as he watched the two NPCs, not quite sure what to do in the face of the emotional family moment. Truly the quest designs in SAO were truly outstanding in the level of detail they put into them. In the end he decided that he would try and expedite things a bit if for no other reason then to escape the awkwardness of this quest's finale.
"So umm, about the reward." Kirito called out to the old man.
"Oh, sorry lad, of course of course." He untangled himself from his daughter with a hearty laugh. He walked over to where kirito stood, holding his hand out in the standard stock animation for handing over quest rewards.
A small window appeared in the middle of his screen with only a single word written upon it.
'Null'
Well if that wasn't just great, it looks the quest hadn't even been finished in it's implementation. His shoulders sagged as he swiped the window away. Feeling let down by the anti-climatic finale for his time in the beta he started to make his way out the door only to become rooted to the spot he had been standing in.
A slight turn of his head revealed the girl had latched onto his back dragging him into a hug that firmly pushed her chest into his back. He blushed immensely as he tried to extract himself from the hug only for her to embrace him all the tighter. What was with this girl's strength, wasn't she just barely recovering from being ill. The fact he couldn't move was ridiculous and must have been some sort of cruel joke by the developers for sure.
"Thank you for saving me." The girl still clinging to him said softly. He sighed patting her arms with his hand, giving up on his attempted escape.
"It's no big deal, really," he mumbled, turning to face away from her again as his blush increased slightly, this time in from his own embarrassment.
She relinquished him from the hug and ran around to his front, looking him in the face before bowing deeply too him. "My name is Cassandre Milty, I promise I won't forget what you've done for me Kirito."
The words cut rather deeply as they dredged up thoughts of having to resume his normal life after the beta ended.
He barely contained the sigh that threatened to escape his lips, Instead he slipped into the confident persona of the character he was trying to play. Looking her directly in the yes he tried to make his voice as smooth as possible. "I won't either Milty, I promise."
She smiled and waved to him as he departed from the shack, he continued glancing over his shoulder until the shack door shut behind him hiding her from view.
Now if only he could interact like that with real people.
"Ah There you, I was wondering how long you'd keep little ol' moi waiting." Shouted Argo, waving her hand energetically as he approached. Her golden brown hair peeking out underneath the hood that covered most of her person, swaying slightly with generated wind that flowed on the outskirts of the town. Her trademark whiskers contorting funnily, pushed up by the wide smile wore on her face. She was seated at one of the little cafes that made their home on the tenth floor. It was rather out of the way which made it a prime spot to talk, as it was less likely for anyone else to be around to listen in.
"I didn't mean too." He said sheepishly erring on the side of caution and apologizing. It was hard for him to tell sometimes whether she was teasing him or legitimately upset. Though maybe that had less to due with her and said more about him.
"It's fine, it's fine," she waved him off before her dazzling smile was replaced by her trademark 'business' face. "So did you complete the quest? Come on tell big sister Argo about it why don'tch ya."
He sighed wishing that he had at least tried getting some Col for the information he was giving her before having promised to help her uncover the secrets of the quest a few days ago. In his defense he had held out a whole minute before crumbling to her insistence and threats of possible retaliation. He went on to explain to her the various locations the quest took him too as well as the drops required, the monster and levels, and their weaknesses. She wrote everything he spoke in rapt attention until he had almost finished.
"And then when I finally completed the quest the reward was just a box with the word 'null' in it so I'm afraid that we're gonna have to come back around and do it all over again when the game starts if we wanna see what the reward is." He finished explaining the quest, carefully leaving out the mention of How Milty had hugged him afterwards. It was way too embarrassing a moment, and would invite merciless teasing from Argo were she to find out.
"Hmm," Argo tapped her chin as she seemed to mull over the information he had just given in her head before turning a few pages in her book, leafing through it's content. "That's pretty strange stuff Kii-Bou. The normal message that appears is when a quest reward hasn't been implemented is 'Item Missing'. This seems more likely to be something along the lines of an item that exists but maybe isn't compatible with game yet? Do me a favor and check your inventory for anything that seems out of place."
He nodded and flicked his hand across the air pulling up his menu. Scrolling through all the stuff he had acquired since the beta took a fair amount of time but he eventually came across something he was sure he had not previously been in possession of. An empty slot filled the space between two items, however on further inquiry he was able to press it bringing up the items details which rather confusingly only held it's acquisition date. His gamer instinct was tingling but other than that he was completely lost as to what to make of it.
"You're right it's definitely here but what difference does that make?" he questioned feeling rather defeated by the mystery.
"Trueee," Argo drawled out before shrugging. "Honestly I'd be lovin' to take a further look but alas with beta ending we don't have any more time. If I had to make a guess I think it has something to do with the Cardinal System."
"That hyper intelligent AI that supposed to monitor gameplay and players, I'd heard it can do some pretty incredible stuff but what does that have to with this?" he asked.
"So here's what I'm thinking, what if the Cardinal System created this quest and the reward it paired with it for some reason isn't compatible with the game's code. That would create a situation possibly like the one you seem to have found yourself in," Argo deducted, tapping her finger thoughtfully against her chin. "Though really it could be anything, just a theory."
Kirito considered the implications of Argo's theory and found himself considerably impressed by both her and the Cardinal System. If Cardinal really was capable of creating quests and generating items that not even the developers considered that was pretty incredible. Honestly it only made him even more excited to what the future of the game held with Cardinal at the helm.
THE GAME SERVERS WILL BE CLOSING IN FIVE MINUTES.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING THE SWORD ART ONLINE BETA.
WE HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL ON THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH.
Fireworks went off on the roof of the caverns lighting up the whole town with their luminescent light. The fading embers falling slowly around them before shattering into pieces when they made contact with anything around them. The whole sight was rather breathtaking and he cheered the development team on in his heart for the last event of the beta.
"Pretty amazing dontcha' think." spoke Argo softly looking up as the fireworks continued to go off above them.
"Yeah." What else could he say, it was the truth they really were pretty amazing.
"More importantly than that Kirito," Argo seemed to hesitate before taking out a piece of paper and began writing on it before passing it over to him.
He stared at her in confusion as he took the proffered piece of paper, only to see a bunch of number written down. He looked back up about to question her as to what they meant only for her to continue.
"I know how much you'll miss me once the beta is over so here's my number, It'll make it easier to coordinate a get together for the official launch."
He nodded, made sense.
"Also if you feel too lonely with out moi' around to keep you company I guess you can shoot me a text sometime if'n it a make you feel better Nyahahaha." Argo laughed out as Kirito could only blush helplessly at the merciless ribbing that hit a bit too close to home. Though he wasn't sure if Argo was aware that what she said was probably the truth.
THE GAME SERVERS WILL BE CLOSING IN ONE MINUTE.
"Well I guess that's it Kii-Bou, I'll see you around. Gotta get ready for the day after all." Argo threw out before her avatar burst into a shower of polygons in the log-out animation.
Which left him sitting here all alone as the final seconds of the beta ticked down. He did his best to intently memorize all the numbers on the sheet of paper as it would not be possible to bring it up after the game closed.
GOODBYE.
He could have sworn he heard a voice in his head as the farewell fanfare ended and his world went dark.
His Nerve Gear rolled to the side coming to stop on the edge of his bed after being gently tossed by the boy. Dazed Kazuto could only stare up at the ceiling in quiet solitude. The beta had ended and it was time to get back to his normal life he supposed. He gave a deep sigh before moving to his desk to deal with the one good thing that happened to him today.
Making his way to his desk he grabbed his phone which was resting on top of it. Navigating the foreign menus he added the number Argo gave him into his phone and hesitated on what to do next. She had said to text her if he was feeling lonely but the beta had just ended, it would be rather embarrassing to text her immediately after. He could pretend it was just to make sure he had gotten the number right but even that excuse felt hollow as he couldn't help but giving another deep sigh.
With the immediate concern out of his way he headed downstairs towards his kitchen to grab some breakfast, only to be met with his sister(cousin) whom was also leaving her room.
"Uhh, hey onii-chan." Suguha spoke her voice small and hesitant.
"H-Hey…" Kirito spoke awkwardly moving his gaze towards the floor finding himself unable to look her in the face.
He barely heard a small mumble escape her before she spoke again this time with a bit more conviction. "I'm heading out for practice I'll see you later okay."
"Y-Yeah, sure." He stumbled over his words still not looking up as he watched her feet disappear from view.
With yet another sigh so early in the morning he went through his daily routine of getting ready for school. The sheer monotony of the tasks burdened him even greater than normal knowing their would be no retreat and that he would have to endure it for awhile.
A quick bite of breakfast and it was off to school, the walk there being marked with the gentle hum of wind and the indistinct chatter of others similarly making their way to whatever destination awaited them.
The day itself, once he arrived at his classroom, seemed to drag along. Seconds slowly bled into minutes as he listened to his teacher drone on about the current formula they were going over. It wouldn't have even been so bad if the formula was one he hadn't already understood but with no need to actually be attentive on the lesson the time seemed only to pass by even more painfully slow. The only that brought him solace, or possibly anxiousness depending on how he thought about it, was the phone number currently sitting in his phone. The indecision agonized him as the minutes ticked by before the bell for lunch finally provided him a brief respite from the both monotony and his troubles.
However lunch itself was still a mostly boring affair. It wasn't that he didn't have anyone to sit with for lunch but he couldn't exactly call those people friends either. He was quite aware that he mostly a hanger on of the group, neither contributing anything meaningful, or doing anything to draw any ire from the group. Honestly it was almost more lonely to eat in the group than it was to just be by himself sometimes.
With these thoughts in mind he grabbed his lunch and headed for the school roof, knowing where the janitorial staff kept a spare hidden close by when he had accidentally stumbled upon it in his previous year.
Opening the door to the roof he leaned against the wall and released what felt like his millionth sigh of the day.
He took his lunch out and nibbled on the sandwich within while staring at the screen of his phone, still internally debating the pros and cons of texting his online friend.
Honestly it shouldn't even be a difficult decision to make after she had basically told him to do it. Even still there was a small nagging voice in his head that told him he would just end up being a bother to her which held him back.
Sighing for the umpteenth time he folded the phone back into his pocket and continued absently biting into his lunch as he stared into the empty sky. He pondered what he would do to fill the void in his time that had been left in the wake of SAO's downtime before official release.
The options left him depressed as he realized just how much time he had poured into the game. It seemed almost impossible to fill in the gaps of his schedule which only served to sink his mood down even more.
Finishing off the last of his lunch he began his way back down to the classroom, passing through the halls filled with lively atmosphere of the students enjoying their youth.
And so the day crept slowly onward for Kirito, until finally the bell tolled granting him release from the school but not from his troubles.
Collapsing on his bed once finally home was a relief as the softness cradled him providing a temporary break from what ailed him. His thoughts slowly drained from his head until he was completely empty, floating above it all as he freed himself from his earthly tether.
Only to be brought crashing down as he turned his head coming face to face with his phone screen which must have conveniently slipped from his pocket when he collapsed on his bed.
Working up all his courage he sent a single text that would greatly alter his future unbeknownst to himself.
It all started with one simple sentence.
"Hey Argo it's me, Kirito."
And that's a wrap on the first chapter for this. Let me know what you think.
