Bound by Steel - Prologue
Snowfall blanketed the dark streets of Myujen and the ginormous fir tree towering at the center of the market filled plaza. The place was packed tail to tail with other animals of varying species and builds attempting to purchase gifts for the coming holiday, the commotion was nearly deafening to the fox who was merely a simple observer standing on the sidelines—which wasn't at all some over exaggeration of the truth, and absolutely didn't make him roll his eyes.
That aside, he felt that the plaza and its energy felt almost exactly like a mall he used to visit a couple years back, back when he was still in Japan. Back when he wasn't trapped like some wild animal….
A shiver ran down the fox's spine, causing his light steel colored armor to clatter in his ears. The thought never sat well with him.
He had only heard the stories over the internet of the incident back in the United States of Mammalia involving predator mammals turning into what the news outlets called 'savage.' When the story began spreading seven years ago, it brought many countries to panic. It didn't take much time after the news broke to figure out was the cause really was: a side effect from a highly concentrated form of Midnicampum Holicithias. Countermeasures were quickly put into place worldwide in light of this.
He couldn't help but wonder why someone would attempt something so dastardly. Putting other mammals in danger like that sheep did, it didn't sit well with him. How could anyone do such a thing? Eventually, the question slipped into the far reaches of his mind, unanswered. 'The past was in the past,' his mother always said.
The thought of time stuck with him as he stared aimlessly at the flakes of snow still falling from the sky. Today's date was December 19th, 2023. If he wanted to be more exact, it was nearly eight o'clock at night.
How quickly had a whole year passed them all by? It seemed like only yesterday that he booted up his game for the first time like any of the other ten thousand players who purchased the game as he did. They were ready to be the first of their generation to dive into the newest pinnacle of what video gaming had to offer—virtual reality.
With help from some of the greatest minds of their time, one mammal decided to push the current technology to its limit. His name was Kayaba Akihiko. Quantum physicist, designer, and creator of the first fully immersive virtual world. Gone were the days of blindly stumbling around a room with a screen inches from your muzzle. Today, the technology of the future had arrived and took the world by storm. Using microwaves to send information directly to the brain, one could actually visit these worlds and experience them first hand. The concept was revolutionary. The execution was out of this world. And the results proved it.
So it didn't surprise anyone that this technology would be utilized to create the first Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or VRMMORPG for short. It would be produced by an up and coming game company named Argus with Kayaba leading the charge as a development director after being a manager of the third development branch of the company for a few years. On August 31st, 2022, the closed beta test concluded. On October 31st, the game began selling in stores all across Japan and eventually sold out the first wave. And finally, on November 6th, the servers officially opened to the public.
This game was called Sword Art Online.
When it was first announced at a gaming expo a year prior, everyone was talking about it. It seemed like virtual reality was really starting to take off. The consumers were going crazy. With each and every press conference, interview, and news article regarding the subject, gamers simply had to get their paws on a copy.
"But we had no idea what was in store," the fox spoke to no one in particular.
He was one of the lucky ten thousand who was caught up in the hype of 'the next generation of gaming.' He and a couple of friends decided to skip their university classes—while still receiving lectures and homework from another one of their friends—to camp out at their local video game retailer and pick up SAO and it's subsequent headset, the NerveGear, before they sold out of the first wave.
A week later, at exactly one o'clock in the afternoon, he and his friends logged into the game and took their first step onto the floating egg-shaped castle the game resided in: Aincrad. This massive structure is said to be at least ten kilometers in diameter at its base and stacked upward one hundred floors. Sitting atop this massive structure was the one-hundredth floor, the final level of the game, the Ruby Palace. That was what everyone on the frontline was trying to fight towards.
Because who else was going to do it? The mammals cowering in fear in the Town of Beginnings? Being on the front line meant that you were the best of the best and were willing to put your life on the line to fight for the freedom of the mammals trapped in this game, this hell.
For the players who had logged into the game when it opened its doors, they found that something very crucial was missing from their menu screens: the logout button. Normally with major bugs, the gamemasters running the game would force all players who were currently logged in and manually log them out so they could find and fix the problem. For the players, a launch of a big MMO such as SAO, seeing a bug on the day of launch was to be expected. No one thought nothing of it.
How naive they all were.
Five hours later, all players logged into the game were teleported to the central plaza in the Town of Beginnings, the starting point for all new players. Seconds after, the sky had turned red with WARNING signs and the creator of the game—his world as he put it—had made a bloody entrance. But, his flare wasn't the point of his opening ceremony, or the tutorial as other mammals would call it, including Kayaba. This meeting was the true beginning of this game.
As Kayaba put it himself: " From this point onward, you will be unable to freely log out of the game until the summit of this castle is conquered. Furthermore, the NerveGear cannot be removed or shut down via external means. If forceful means of exit are attempted the high-powered microwaves emitted by the NerveGear will scramble your brain and shut down your vital processes….
"To be more specific, the brain-frying sequence will commence upon any of the following circumstances: ten minutes of no external power; two hours of network disconnection; removal, dismantling, or destruction of the NerveGear….
"However, proceed with caution...when your hit points dwindle to zero, your avatar will be permanently deleted... and the NerveGear will destroy your brain. "
To solidify his point, the 'creator' make it clear to specify that two-hundred thirteen players had already met their untimely demise because of family members attempting to remove the device, and only fueled the fear and paranoia that the lot of them were trying to mask behind their in-game avatars, until that very element was stripped away from them as well. The moment the sky had returned to normal, and the players were left to their own devices, the game had truly begun.
Kayaba Akihiko had successfully created the perfect cage. They were trapped in a virtual world with little to no chance of escape. This game was no longer a game. This was real.
From that moment on that reality became the iron-clad truth of this world. Some took the news in stride, being some of the first to venture outside of the Town of Beginnings in light of this new revelation and reaping the rewards, while others grew fearful and stayed behind within the comfort of the town's Safe Zone where they would remain there and come to terms with their situation. However, there were some who couldn't handle it. They broke.
Subsequently, the endless sky below the castle served as the final resting place for many during that time, and within the first month, a total of two thousand mammals had died. And at that point, the players had not even reached the second floor. Hope seemed lost too many, and most of the players who decided to fight through had ventured back to the Town of Beginnings. It wasn't until December 3rd that a party of forty-four players—including a certain beater who had fought alongside them—that they were finally able to make it to the next floor of the game. The news brought many holding up in the towns around the floor back out into the wilderness, ready to fight once again.
"We had hope," the fox spoke again.
With this newfound hope, they fought through. Fought through the pain, through the misery, and the fear. In turn, the front lines broke through the final boss of the third floor, then the fourth, the fifth, and soon they became the fighting force for the eight thousand still alive. A year later, they broke through to the forty-ninth floor of the castle. Now everyone could revel in the spoils of their handiwork. Although, the tod wasn't sure how long this would last.
Rumor had it that the players on the frontlines were getting closer to the boss of the floor, which meant that they would be halfway clear. At the pace they were going, it would be another year until they were finally free from this floating prison.
What would the world be like when we get out, the tod wondered, the thought bringing a smile to his muzzle. How different would things be?
Then came another bright thought. Crimson flushed onto his face.
Will I be able to find her—
Before he could finish the thought a purple message icon popped up in front of him, floating just below eye level. He tapped onto the hexagonal interface and brought up the incoming message so he could see who it was that decided to spark some conversation. Then again, he already had a good idea of who it was in the first place.
Finished with his guessing, he read the message.
Hey Idu,
Guardian, Serif, and I just finished up with our leveling. We're heading back to town now. Hope to see you there!
-Kara
A slow exhale left the fox's muzzle as his gaze looked upward towards the sky—or rather the ceiling of the floor above. He continued to watch the graceful look of the artificial snowfall and how each flake seemed to melt on his armor and fur. To think after being in the same group for so long he would get used to messages from his guildmates, his partners. For the most part, he was, or at least that's what he thought anyway.
Kara… Kara was a different story entirely. He didn't have the same control as he did around the others. Was it because she was a vixen? Perhaps. There weren't many female players in the game to begin with, so it wasn't a farfetched idea. It couldn't be because he was a nerd, they were all nerds playing a role-playing video game, of course, that wouldn't be the case. Saving him could also be a reason, though if he could be more specific, the first time. Not the billion other times she's had to save his skin.
A sly grin grew on his muzzle. No. He knew exactly why he couldn't figure it out. Even if the game couldn't fully replicate animal instincts to the letter, he now knew exactly what he was feeling after a long year of fighting alongside her.
Not appreciation. Not admiration. Love. It had always been love. Yes, it was cheezy. It was cliche. But, it was the truth.
How did I manage to get so lucky as to find her, the thought echoed softly in his head, recalling all of the good times that they shared together. That is until he recalled what circumstances gained him this luck in the first place. At this point, would it be right to call it luck?
The smile ran away from his face as fast as it had appeared. That's right, he frowned at the memory, that was when she saved my life…
That was the day it all started...