Author's Note

ATTENTION! MY PROFILE HAS BEEN UPDATED! For those of you who didn't know, I update my profile a little less frequently than once a week with status updates for most of my ongoing stories. I just updated it today (3/29/15, and the last was 3/19/15), and it has some stuff I think you might want to see. You have to scroll a bit to get to the meat of the update, so keep that in mind.

Well anyway, wow, this thing has been collecting dust. I finished this around two months back, but never published it. Its quality was fine for what I was capable of back then, but I remember running out of inspiration towards the end and having to force my way through the last couple of paragraphs.

I'm still trying to remember the majority of my plans for this one, but they're not coming so easily. Here's what I remember that doesn't go into Spoilerville beyond what you should know before deciding to read this.

Kirito does not exist in this story. The main character is Konno Yuuki, though her background has been significantly changed.

As with literally every story I write on this account, this is yuri, le girl on girl, femslash, whatever it floats your boat to call it. The main pairing is Yuuki/Asuna, for those of you who didn't catch on from the pairing tags.

Sword Art Online traps one-hundred thousand players as opposed to the original ten-thousand. Due to this, I have changed the size of Aincrad, SAO's stage, to accommodate. This was mostly just an excuse to add characters that didn't make it into the original, to be honest.

I think that about covers it for now. If you think this is a drop in quality from my recent works, then you're right, since all I've done to change it since I originally finished it in very early February is make a few grammar edits and flow improvements. Still, I hope you enjoy!

Sword Art Alternate: Design Flaws

Prologue: Social Life Level – 0

What would you call the situation where you start going to a new school and embarrass yourself on your first day, and then everything – and I mean everything – goes downhill from there, leaving you with zero friends and an utterly miserable middle school third year life?

Well, if you play too many video games like me, then you would probably accept the answer I came up with: Social Life Level – Reset.

Well, I suppose that's not entirely right. I mean, if your level was reset, you would still start out at level one, right? Well, I'm probably more of a level zero. Huh, I guess that answer above wouldn't be entirely correct after all, but it's close enough.

But I'm straying from the point. The only friends I have are back in my hometown, and I can only keep in touch with them through video chat and email. Everyone at school either ignores me or outwardly shows contempt. Why, you ask?

You'll see soon enough.

"Well, that's not so bad," a voice observed through the speakers of my computer.

In response, I began unzipping the backpack I had shown him, the exterior of which was covered in crude drawings depicting things I'd rather not repeat. When I showed him the interior, which held absolutely nothing, he merely shrugged from his end of the chat.

"What's wrong with the inside?" another voice asked, this one belonging to a female who took up another part of the video chat screen.

I took a slow, deep inhale. Then, all at once, I released it in a rather ill-tempered shout. "There were textbooks in here!"

"So where are they now?" a third voice, that of another female, asked me from another chat window.

My response was a bit more snappy than I would've liked. "Dunno. Probably a kilometer or so down the river where my classmates threw them."

"Ouch!" a fourth and final voice, belonging to a rather laid-back male, winced over the last chat window. Wait, can voices wince? Maybe that wasn't the right word, but the owner of the voice was wincing, so whatever.

"Yeah. Ouch."

All was silent for a few moments before the first one, a twenty-something-year-old redheaded man with a smile that lost its perk at my last comment, spoke up. "So, why'd you call all of us at once, Yuuki?"

"Yes, it's pretty odd of you to be the one to make the calls in general," the bespectacled brunette in the top-right chat window always found a way to get some kind of jab in, and today was no exception.

"Oh, nothing much," I tried to sound casual for as long as possible, but it was getting increasingly hard to contain my bubbling excitement. "But before that, I'm gonna send over the scans of my drawn-out pages for our next doujin."

"You mean you finished them all already?" the midnight-haired girl in the bottom-left chat window on my screen couldn't have been more shocked at this statement of mine. "But you usually take a whole week to pull that off!"

I gave a victory pose from across the room, tossing my ruined backpack aside to prove my point. "That's the power of extreme motivation for you!"

Glasses girl chose this moment to get another comment in. "And why might Konno Yuuki, the queen of lazy artists, have had so much inspiration as to get a week's worth of pages done less than three days after we sent her the details needed?"

I feigned hurt feelings to get a rise out of my friends. "Hey, lazy artists have feelings, too!"

"So you admit it."

As usual, my emotional appeal had no effect on my bespectacled friend back home. However, she wasn't the intended target.

"Come on, Shino! That was mean!" my midnight-haired goddess defended my honor, eliciting a playful smile from me.

"Come on, yourself, Sachiko! She's just playing us like always!" for once, glasses girl, a.k.a. Asada Shino, gave out a flustered reaction, though it saddened me that I couldn't pull it off without outside assistance.

"Thank you, my goddess Sachi!" if I was going to play them, I might as well milk it for all it was worth. "You have defended my honor once again! Truly, you are a goddess of mercy!"

"Settle down, girls," the boy in the bottom-right chat window admonished all three of us in a dead-serious, yet frustratingly casual tone that only he could pull off. "I, for one, am curious about—"

"Stay out of this, Connor!" Shino was getting pissed. At this point, even I didn't want to worsen her mood even a little more. And I'm the most mischievous one in our little group of misfit artists and writers.

Thus began a little debate between a miffed Sachiko and an uncharacteristically flustered Shino about the supposed limits to how nice one should be. I was caught between wanting to stop them, and just wanting to watch the fireworks fly and eventually end in the exceedingly rare occurrence of glasses girl's defeat.

Unfortunately, the guilty pleasure of watching a disconcerted Shino was denied by Connor, whose tolerance of their raised voices had finally run out.

"Both of you, be quiet!" he hissed, causing them both to shut up instantaneously. Despite the fact that he was probably the weakest among us on a physical level, he was also the smartest, to a disturbing extent, should you be on his bad side. And trust me, no one wants to be on his bad side.

"As I was saying before you all got into your little cat fight," he jabbed at them both without a shred of patience or mercy in his tone or words. Taking a deep breath and pinching his nose where his glasses would normally rest, he continued in a much more calm and level tone. "I, for one, am interested in learning of what got Yuuki so motivated, and also why she initiated this call with all of us at once."

Speaking up for the first time in several minutes, the redhead in top-left finally got a word or two in. "Yeah, I've been wondering about that, too. It must be pretty important."

He didn't say it directly, but I could tell that Ryo had already figured out that my motivator and reason for the group call were one and the same. What surprised me more was that Connor wasn't the one who figured it out first.

Well, he probably did, but didn't say anything in order to seem a bit closer to the average intellectual level for his age.

"Well, I suppose we should hear her out." Shino wasn't doing a very good job of faking disinterest. "I mean, this is the first time we've all talked at once like this in a while. It's kind of like a reunion."

"Aww, so you do care about us, Shinocchi!" I put as much emphasis on her hated nickname as I could.

Though she's probably most excited about seeing Sachiko again, I thought while poorly concealing a smirk.

"If we were all together IRL, this would be the point where I try to pull your ear off," she replied coldly, and I could almost see a comedic anime vein popping out on her forehead.

Thus came my response in turn: "And this would be the point where I take your glasses."

Finally, I got a slight reaction out of the typically-stoic girl, although it was really just a mild glare. I still felt a certain sense of accomplishment from it, as crazy and potentially suicidal as it sounds.

"Simmer down, you two," came Connor's slightly irked scolding. "Now then, would you care to explain yourself, Yuuki?"

"Oh, right!" I shouted, running over to my mahogany computer desk and pulling out drawer after drawer in my search for a very important item. How could I lose it when I just got it yesterday?! I mentally chastised myself before I finally found it in the bottom drawer.

I grabbed it, but didn't show it to the webcam just yet. After all, I needed the proper dramatic buildup before going in for the kill.

"So, the reason I called you all here today," I began, anticipation building in my voice even though I was the one giving the presentation. "As well as the reason I finished all the pages in a day and a half, and also the reason why I'll be incommunicado for a few months…"

"Get on with it! The suspense is killing me!" Typical Ryo; I feel bad for him and his trademark over-excitability sometimes.

"Is this!"

Without any further speech, I shoved a plastic box towards the webcam, just close enough for them to get a view of the full cover.

"No… no way…" Ryo just couldn't comprehend it. Everyone else's eyes had widened considerably, save for Connor's, and I could tell I had some explaining to do.

"I applied for a spot a few weeks back, and I just got this in the mail two days ago, which confirmed that I did it!" I shouted, ecstatic beyond belief.

"I scored a slot in the beta tests for Sword Art Online!"

"Signing off! Later, guys!"

With that, I ended the group call, disconnecting everyone at once. I got out of my computer chair, sitting down on the floor to put everything I extracted from my desk drawers back.

I barely finished repacking one of them by the time my computer informed me of an incoming video call. Without bothering to look over at the screen to check who it was, I continued to clean while I gave my computer a voice command.

"Accept call."

When I heard the sound that signified the connection, I immediately started talking. "I'm cleaning my room right now, but what's up?"

"You? Cleaning?" a distinctly amused male voice teased. "I never thought I'd see the day."

"Shut up, Connor," I retorted, not bothering to come up with anything witty. If I tried, he would only outwit me thoroughly and scold me for my 'lame attempt' at sounding like a smartass.

"Oh, but it looks like you missed a spot," he continued, unaffected by my signal of annoyance.

"I said shut up," I replied in earnest, with considerably increased irritation.

"Correction: you missed a lot of spots."

"Apparently, you don't know what 'shut up' means," I replied, voice laced with snark. "But for your information, I'm not done. That's why I said I'm cleaning."

"I know," he replied with noticeable disinterest. "I was just a bit miffed that you didn't at least look up at the screen to greet me."

Something about the way he said that made me feel like my life was in danger if I didn't at least look at the screen for a second. Thus, I got back into my computer chair, though not without a bad attitude.

"All right!" I nearly shouted in mock exasperation, turning to face the screen. "I'm looking, I'm loo…king…"

The look on Connor's face was all too smug as he saw the most mischievous member of our group — yours truly — rendered completely speechless for once. What he held in his right hand, putting it right by his head as he leaned towards his webcam…

Was the box of a beta copy for Sword Art Online.

It took a full fifteen seconds for me to recover enough to speak, though it was little more than incoherent babbling. "W-wha-wha-wha-what?!"

"You were silent for fifteen seconds," he calmly assessed, the smirk never leaving his face. "That's a new record."

I felt a vein showing on my forehead, but it was quite fortunately hidden from Connor's view by my silver, hime-cut bangs. He would undoubtedly make fun of me for getting ruffled by that comment.

"Laugh it up," I chose my words carefully, knowing that his bad side was equivalent to Hell itself. "You're so mature."

The mature comment got him to stop in his tracks, no doubt about it. He always wanted to feel as mature as he possibly could, and appear that way to others, so my comment really hit him where the sun doesn't shine.

He cleared his throat, returning to his serious self. "So, when the test period starts tomorrow, let's meet up right away."

I thought about telling him no way, that he was no fun, but then I began to realize the potential benefits of having a genius on my team.

With him, I'll be able to figure out more stuff about the game at a faster rate. And since I'm a quick learner and good at kendo, we'll be the best players in no time!

"All right, but you'd best be prepared to deal with me for two straight months!" I gave him my answer with a thumbs-up and a cheeky grin.

"I think I'll manage," Connor affirmed, giving me his own thumb-up. But, of course, he couldn't help but get a jab at my personality in. "But only just barely."

Author's Note

Abrupt ending? Maybe. Do I care? Not really.

By the way, for those of you who inevitably didn't understand, both Sachiko and Connor are canon characters, with real names I made up because they were never revealed. Sachiko is obviously Sachi, and Connor is Coper from the story "The First Day", featured in Sword Art Online Material Edition 8. Oh, and Ryoutarou, or Ryo, is Klein, but I figured that one was more widely-known.

All right, I guess that, other than the obligatory review request (there, now that's taken care of. I won't say it again), that's all I've got to say. Next chapter will probably take place in the middle of the beta, since this story's pace is slower at the beginning.

All right, I guess I'll let you go for now. See ya!