"You ready?", I asked my brother over lunch.
"Of course, are you? I'm going to start grinding as soon as we get into the game, you've got to get enough xp before anyone else gets to the good monsters.", Mark lectured me. I groaned in response, he was always going on about grinding and getting xp.
"Well, I plan to have a look around the marketplace, see how much money I need to afford better gear so I can start grinding and have an advantage.", I smirked at Mark, he always thought he was a much better video game player than I was. I was looking forward to the latest competition in the newest game, we had bought, it was called Sword Art Online. It a virtual reality MMORPG. It looked awesome and only 10,000 copies were produced to begin with. I had to beg my parents for weeks to buy a second set of Nerve Gear for me to use for the game. Mark had been a beta tester, so I had an in for the game. They relented, and now we were psyched to play the game. We had decided, however, to stay away from each other in order to not fight in game.
Once we had finished eating, we made to go to our rooms, when I yelled after Mark, "Hey, just to clarify, you're going in under the name Sinzea, right?"
He nodded and then responded, "Right, and you're going in under the name Dakari, right?", I nodded then turned into my room. I booted up the Nervegear, and made sure the game was in properly in place. Then I laid down in my bed, and stared up through the visor of the Nervegear.
"Link Start.", I spoke to my gear and immediately the screen went white as the link began to form, a series of circles appeared and as each stated OK, the language input appeared. I selected English and then the login screen appeared. I entered my username and password, then the game began. I appeared in a room and the menu asked me for my avatar name and I input Dakari. Then I went through the character creation process, eventually ending up with a tall and willowy, blue-haired female. I never played as boys, as I am a girl. Then, I was teleported into the game with starter armor and a curved blade. I began to wander the market, and observe all the shops that were open and keeping a mental file of all the armor that would improve my stats enough to help me beat floor 1. As I walked, I remembered that Matt should've logged in by now, and I opened the menu and sent him a friend request. I also took the liberty of observing how much money I had, (only 500 cor) and equipped my curved sword, which had appeared on a scabbard on my hip.
I stepped over into an alleyway, so I could examine the skill sets more closely. It appeared that I only had 2 slots available for use at the moment, so I equipped the weapons skill One-handed curved blade ,and the other skill I equipped was Acrobatics. It was best to work on getting those skills up high, so I would have it when I needed it as a higher level player. Especially considering I was not the best fighter. I looked at the time, and, as it was around 4:00, I figured I had time to go grind outside the Town of Beginnings. I set out for the borders of town, and upon seeing a squealing boar, I unsheathed my curved sword. Mark had explained to me exactly how the game worked and what the various skills were. I let out a breath, and as the boar charged, I spun out of the way, then flipped my blade so that instead of holding in a traditional manner it was held in the same manner that I would hold a dagger or knife. Then I let the skill charge for a moment and dashed forward, slicing the blade along the ribs of the boar, killing it and gaining some xp. I viewed my stats with a grim face, that was only enough xp to get me one-sixteenth of the way to level two.
I sighed and continued prowling the area, looking for some more beasts to kill. I wanted to be at least level two before I had to log off. I caught sight of two guys practicing sword skills, one with a curved sword and pink hair, the other looked experienced, he had black hair and his sword was sheathed. I waved at them, and the pinkette returned it most enthusiastically, while the black-headed one merely gave a small wave. I returned to hunting after that, working on killing some more, at that point I was halfway to level 2.
I rolled my shoulders back, and checked the time, and my eyes widened. It was 5:22! I had promised I'd be off by 5:30, good thing that I had checked the time. I swiped open the menu and looked for the logout button, but there was none. I frowned, and shut the menu, then opened it once again. Still nothing. I decided to see if those two guys were still there, and maybe if they were, they could help me out. I turned back and saw the guys standing there talking with one another.
"Excuse me!", I called out, gathering the guys attention, "Could I ask you guys a question?" I approached the guys, coming closer and watched the pink haired boy turn bright red. I frowned at him and turned to the black haired boy, who seemed completely at ease. "Hi, My name is Dakari, I was wondering if you two gentlemen would happen to be having an issue with the logout feature too."
The dark haired boy frowned, "What do you mean trouble with the logout button?", the pink-haired boy was also frowning.
"It's not appearing on my menu, look.", I swiped and pulled up the menu, and showed that there was no logout option.
"Well, that's not right. Let me have a look, especially considering I have a pizza being delivered in a few minutes.", the pinkette's brow furrowed as he pulled up his menu and I was a little unnerved to see that there was no logout button on his either.
"Aw man, I've got a pizza coming at 5:30, I can't miss that! Must be a bug or something...", the pinkette complained.
"Must be. Hope it gets fixed soon.", I added silently, my mom's going to be pissed. "Anyway, I never asked, what are you guys's names?"
"I'm Kirito.", The black haired boy stated.
"Klein.", The pinkette said with a smile. Then his eyes widened in shock as we all began to glow with blue light. Suddenly, we all appeared in the main square of the Town of Beginnings. I looked around, and saw that a huge amount of players were being transported into the square. I caught Klein's eye from across the square, he shot me an uneasy smile. Then I saw Kirito, he looked uneasy. I was beginning to panic at this point. What was going on? I had to find Mark. I made my way over to Kirito and Klein, best to stick with people I knew, if only just.
That's when the sky turned a dark red and began to be covered in tiles that stated, Warning, system announcement. I gasped as a red, blood-like liquid started to drip from the sky and came together, melding into a body that wore a red cloak, and kept it's face covered. "What the hell is that thing?!", Klein muttered as it formed.
The thing that was most likely the game master began to speak, which led to a sense of horror in all of us. The thing was the creator of the game, and when he introduced himself, Kirito gasped and looked shocked. Akihiko Kayaba told us that the logout buttons were missing on purpose.
"He's kidding, right?", Klein said with uncertainty. Kayaba continued, as we watched in mute horror, telling us that no one could shut down the game, or remove the Nervegear from us, unless they wanted to fry our brains. I whirled around as I saw some people attempt to leave and were stopped.
"Are you guys listening to this crap, he's gotta be nuts, right?", Klein glanced over at Kirito who was staring hard at Kayaba.
"He's just crazy, right? I mean, we aren't really trapped in the game, right?", I whimpered, then covered my mouth. I was starting to panic for real.
"He's not. The transmitter signals in the Nervegear work just like microwaves. If someone disabled the safety, it could fry your brain.", Kirito spoke clinically but that did nothing to alleviate my panic.
"Couldn't someone cut the power or?", Klein tried again, trying to find a way out of this, but Kirito shot him down again.
"The Nervegear's got an internal battery."
"This is crazy. Totally crazy!" Klein yelled. I felt bile rise up in my throat, as Kayaba stated some people had already tried to remove the gear, and were dead because of it, and how it was now all over the news. That was 213 people dead, and this guy just said it with a straight face. He was psychopath, he was delusional! Then he continued on, saying that if you died in the game, you died in the real world. This wasn't a game anymore.
"It's a bad dream, this is all just a bad dream, right?!", I looked at Klein and Kirito beseechingly, but neither agreed with my statement. The only way to escape, Kayaba said, was to have a player beat the 100th floor boss.
"That's impossible!", I cried out.
"Even the beta testers never made it that high!", Klein yelled out. Mark had only made it to level 4, above average, but still nigh impossible to get to. Mark, I had to find him. I had returned my focus to Kayaba, when he said that he had placed a present in everyone's storage. I opened mine, as did Klein and Kirito. I pulled out the item, it was a hand mirror. I was startled and confused. A mirror?
"Klein!", Kirito called out as he lit up with a blue glow. I barely had time to be frightened at what was going on before I lit up too. It wasn't painful, just strange, and scary.
When the light faded, I turned and saw strange people around me, "Kirito, Dakari, you guys okay?", I heard Klein's voice, but it came out of a strange looking guy.
"Who are you two?", I whimpered as I backed up a step.
"I'm me, who're you?", the guy with Klein's voice said. I looked in the mirror and gasped. It was me, but from the real world, with my green eyes, blonde hair pulled back from my face and now only 5'7, instead of the 6'1 I had made my avatar.
"Wait, you're Kirito, and you're Klein?", I asked pointing at the black haired boy and reddish brown haired boy in turn. We all stared each other in shock. That must mean that everyone looked like themselves.
"How?", Klein spluttered.
"The scan. Inside of each Nervegear is a high density scanner rig. It can see what our faces look like. But how does it know our heights and body types?", Kirito mused.
"When you first put the nerve gear on, it had you do this calibration thing. It asked you to your body all over, remember?", Klein added onto Kirito's explanation.
"What's the point though? Why would anyone do this to us?", Klein scratched his forehead.
"I think he's about to tell us.", Kirito said as he pointed at Kayaba, who began to explain. He said that he only wanted to have complete control over a world. Kirito clenched his fists together as Kayaba wished us luck, then disappeared.
A few moments after he disappeared, the crowd remained quiet, stunned by what had been told to us. As the barrier raised, only Kirito took notice, and he grabbed Klein and I's arms, and started to drag us out of the square.
"Come on, hurry you two!", he yelled, as we were forced to follow him until we were a little bit away from the square.
"Okay, listen you two, I'm heading out right now for the next town. I want you guys to come. If what he said is true, and I think it is, the only way we're going to survive in here is to make ourselves as strong as possible. In an MMORPG, the money you can earn, the xp, once the game starts up, there's only so much of that stuff to go around. Look, the fields around the town of beginnings are going to be hunted clean soon. If we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting cash and points. Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid, even if I'm level one, I can get their easy.", Kirito explained.
"Thanks, but you know those friends of mine I was telling you about Kirito, we stood in line for a whole night to buy this, and they're back at the square, and I can't just leave them.", Klein shook his head.
"Dakari, are you coming?", Kirito turned to me and I shook my head.
"My little brother's in this game, he was a beta, he can help me make it through, he did make it to level 4 after all. I can't leave him, he's family.", I felt awful for refusing Kirito's offer, from what I had observed it was a good one, but couldn't abandon Mark.
"Sorry, can't ask a guy I've just met to risk his life for a bunch of strangers, can I? So don't worry about me, or her for that matter. Get your ass to the next village. I'll be fine, last game I played I ran a guild, so I'll be more than prepared. And I'll look out for her and her beta tester brother, too.", Klein grinned and forked a thumb at me. I looked at him with surprise then smiled.
"I'll join his guild, my brother and I both will, and we'll be fine. Get to the next village and get strong, I look forward to seeing you again someday!", I grinned at Kirito.
"Okay, if that's what you want, I'll get going. But if either of you are ever in a jam message me."
"Sure", Klein agreed with a smile.
"I'll be seeing you Klein, Dakari, take care. Both of you.", Kirito turned and began to walk away.
"Kirito, hey, Kirito… You look better like this, way cooler than your avatar. Same goes for you blondie." Klein grinned at Kirito and then at me.
"I think that scruffy face fits you ten times better too. And Dakari? You look better as a blonde.", Kirito smiled then took off down the alleyway. Klein and I ran back out into the plaza.
"Were you serious, about letting my brother and I join your guild once you form it?", I asked as we ran back to the plaza.
"Well yeah! You seem smart and if your brother is a beta, that could be helpful. Not to mention, we're friends now aren't we? I couldn't leave a friend, or a friend's brother behind.", Klein grinned at me and I grinned back.
As we approached the plaza, it was evident a majority of people were still there protesting. "Meet back here, you get your friends and I will get my brother, meet at the base of that pillar.", I said, pointing at a column to the right of the entrance.
"Got it!", Klein yelled as he charged into the crowd. I prefered to use my acrobatics skill, might as well level it if I could, since it looked like I would be here for a while. I began running and then leapt up on top of a stand and began to look for Mark, or Sinzea. I flicked open my menu and opened the tracker. It looked like he was close just around some columns about a quarter way around the plaza. I jumped off the stand and began to make my way towards him.
"Sinzea! SINZEA!", I hollered, looking around frantically for him. Where could he be?
"DAKARI!", I heard a yell over the din of the plaza and turned towards the voice. I saw him shoving through some guys and I ran towards him.
"I'm so glad you're okay! We have a lot to discuss but for now follow me, I met a guy named Klein, he's going to form a guild and he said that we could join. Now come on!", I began to tug Sinzea through the crowd and eventually we broke out close to where Klein and I had separated. Klein and his friends were waiting for us at the pillar I had said to and I waved.
"Klein!", I hollered. He turned and waved back. As Sinzea and I approached, he and his friends moved forward to introduce themselves.
"This must be your brother. I'm Klein. These are my friends, Dale and Dynamm. What's your name?", he offered my brother his hand and Sinzea took it hesitantly.
"I'm Sinzea, Dakari is my older sister.", Sinzea was guarded and I sighed.
"Well, do you guys want to head out, we need to if we're going to make sure we get some good xp."
"Hold on a second. Dakari, can I talk to you for a minute?", Sinzea's tone was controlled and we walked a little ways away from Klein and his friends.
"Dakari, you barely know the guy. Let's head off just the two of us. It will be easier to make money that way, and I was a beta so I know where the good quests are. Not to mention, you shouldn't be so trusting.", SInzea scowled at me and I sighed. He had a point.
"Fine but when he can form a guild, we will go back and join his guild. He's nice enough. But you do have a point.", I walked back over to Klein and gave him a small smile.
"Sinzea wants us to go our own way. So, no hard feelings if we split off?"
"No problem, I get it.", Klein smiled.
"Well, regardless, can I friend you? And message me if you ever need our help." I smiled at Klein, who grinned.
"Yeah, here.", Klein opened his menu and extended a friend request to me, which I accepted.
"We'll be back, if you ever get a guild running, you can count us in as members.", I smiled at Klein, who laughed.
"I'll be saving a spot for you two. Stay safe.", he held his hand out for a fist bump, and I responded in kind before returning to Sinzea.
"Let's get going. There are no quests here so we need to make it to the next village as quick as possible.", he was somber and I nodded.
"Let's go.", I agreed and we set out of the Town of Beginnings.