OKAY SO I WATCHED SAO SWORD ART ONLINE AND WANTED TO WRITE IT WITH THE CHARACTERS OF MGLN . SO SORRY IF ANYONE THINKS I SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT BUT I DO NOT OWN SAO OR MGLN.
AGAIN I DO NOT OWN MGLN OR SAO…
Chapter 1
A grey sword cut my shoulder.
The thin line at the top left corner of my field of vision reduced slightly. At the same time a cold hand passed over my heart.
The blue line—called the "HP bar"—is a visual rendering of my life force. There was still a little over 80 percent left. No, this phrase isn't appropriate enough. Right now, I was about 20 percent closer to death.
I dashed backwards before the enemy's sword even began its attacking motion.
"Haaa…"
I forced a huge breath to steady myself. The «body» in this world didn't need oxygen; but the body on the other side, or rather the body lying down in the real world, would be breathing heavily. My limp hands would be soaked with sweat, and my heartbeat would be off the charts.
Of course.
Even if everything that I see right now is nothing more than a rendering of a 3D virtual reality, and the bar being reduced was nothing more than a bunch of numbers that showed my hit points, the fact that I was fighting for my life didn't change.
When you think about it like that, this fight is extremely unfair. That's because the «enemy» in front of me — a humanoid with dully shining arms covered in dark green scales along with a lizard's head and tail—was not a human, nor was it really alive. It was a digital lump that the system would replace however many times it was killed.
—No.
The AI that moved the lizardman was studying my movements and enhancing its ability to respond to them with every second that passed. However, the moment that this unit was destroyed, the data was reset and it did not pass on to the unit that would be regenerated in this area.
So in a sense, this lizardman was also alive — A single being unique to this world.
"…right?"
There was no way that it would have understood the word that I had muttered to myself, but the lizardman — a level 82 monster called «Lizardman Lord» — hissed and smiled, showing the sharp fangs that sprung from its long jaw.
It's reality. Everything in this world is real. There's no virtual reality or any fakes of any kind.
I shifted the one-handed longsword in my right hand parallel to the middle of my body and watched the enemy.
The lizardman moved the buckler in his left hand forward and pulled the scimitar to his right back.
A chill breeze blew into the shadowed dungeon and the flame on the torch shook. The wet floor softly reflected the flickering torch-light.
"Kraaah!"
With a tremendous scream, the lizardman leapt. The scimitar drew a sharp arc as it flew towards me. A blinding orange light lit its trajectory; a high-class one-hit sword skill of the curved sword «Fell Crescent». It was a formidable charge-type sword skill that covered a distance of 4 meters in 0.4 seconds.
But, I was already expecting the attack.
I had slowly increased the distance in order to induce the AI to create this situation. I closed in on the lizardman, my mind registering the burning smell that the scimitar left behind as it sliced through the air centimeters in front of my nose.
"…ha!"
With a short shout, I swung the sword horizontally. The sword, now covered with a sky-blue light effect, cut through the thinly protected stomach and bright red light was scattered instead of blood. There was a low scream.
However, my sword didn't stop. The system assisted me through the programmed movements and chained the next slash with a speed that would have normally been impossible.
This is the most important element in battles in this world: «Sword Skill».
The sword sped off right from left and cut into the lizardman's chest. In this state, I spun my body in a full circle and the third strike stuck the enemy more deeply than before.
"Raarrgh!"
As soon as the lizardman recovered from the brief stun-state, after failing to hit with a big skill, it screamed with rage or perhaps fear, and raised its scimitar high up into the air.
But my chain had not ended. The sword that had been swinging right suddenly sprang, as if forced by a spring, left and up and hit its heart—a critical point.
The sky-blue rhombus drawn by my four consecutive hits flashed then scattered — A horizontal consecutive 4 hit skill, «Horizontal Square».
The clear light shone strongly in the dungeon and then faded. At the same time, the HP bar above the Lizardman's head disappeared without even a single dot left.
The huge body fell, leaving a long trail, then suddenly stopped awkwardly—
With a sound similar to breaking glass, it broke down into infinite polygons and disappeared.
This is the «Death» of this world. It is instantaneous and short, a perfect destruction, not leaving even a single trace.
I glanced at the virtual experience points and drop items I received that appeared in purple font in the center of my vision and swung my sword right and left before sheathing it in the scabbard on my back. I walked backward a few steps and slid slowly down with my back against the dungeon wall.
I spat out the breath I was holding and closed my eyes. My temple started throbbing, perhaps from the fatigue from the long fight. I shook my head a couple of times to get rid of the pain and opened my eyes.
The shining clock at the bottom right of my field of vision showed that it was already past 3PM. I should get out of the labyrinth or I won't make it to the city before dark.
"…should I get started?"
There was nobody here to listen, but I just said that and slowly got up.
I was done with making progress for the day. I somehow escaped the hand of death again today. But after a brief rest, tomorrow will come with more battles. When fighting battles without a 100% chance of victory, however many safety nets you prepare, there's going to be a day when you fall out of lady luck's favor.
The problem is if this game will be «cleared» or not, before I draw the ace of spades.
If you value your life above all else, staying in a village and waiting for somebody else to clear the game is the wisest route to take. But I go to the front lines every day solo. Am I just simply an addict of VRMMO who keeps increasing her stats through countless battles, or—
Am I an idiot who insolently believes that she can win the freedom of everyone in this world with her sword?
As I started walking towards the labyrinth entrance with a slight smile of self-scorn, I thought back to that day.
Two years ago.
The moment that everything ended, and began.
"Ahh… ha… uwahh!"
The sword, swinging to these strange shouts, swished around cutting nothing but air.
Right afterwards, the blue boar, which moved surprisingly quick considering its bulk, charged fiercely at its assailant. I burst into laughter after watching her fly through the air after getting hit by the boar's flat nose and roll on the hill.
"Hahaha…not like that. The first movement is important, Hayate."
"Argh…that bastard."
The complaining assailant, a party member called Hayate, got up and glanced at me while answering plaintively.
"But Fate, even if you say that… I can't do anything about the fact that it's moving."
I met this person, who had brown held up by a bandana and simple leather armor worn over her thin body, a few hours ago. If she had revealed her real name, it would have been hard to omit the honorifics, but her name Cline and mine Fate were both names we had made up for our characters. Putting "-san" or "-chan" at the end of them would sound comical more than anything.
The legs of the person in question started shaking.
Seems like she's a little dizzy.
I picked up a pebble from the undergrowth at my feet and raised it above my shoulder. As soon as the system detected the first motion of a sword skill, the pebble started giving off a slight yellow light.
After that, my left hand almost moved by itself and the pebble went flying, drawing a straight line of light and hitting the boar between its eyebrows. Ggiik! The boar squealed in fury and turned towards me.
"Of course they move. They're not training dummies. But if you start the right motion, the system will put your sword skill into motion and hit the target for you."
"Motion…motion…"
While muttering this like some spell, Hayate raised the cutlass that she had in her right hand.
Although the blue boar, officially named «Frenzy Boar» was a level one monster, Hayate had had almost half of her HP reduced while getting hit by counterattacks due to her wild swings. Well, even if she died she'd just respawn at the «Starting City» near here, but coming all the way out to this hunting ground again was somewhat annoying.
It seemed like there was one move left before the fight reached its conclusion.
I cocked my head as I blocked the boar's charge with the sword in my right hand.
"Hmm, how should I explain… It's not like one, two, three then strike, but more like gathering a bit of energy and then. as soon as you feel the skill start, it goes BAM and you feel it hit the monster…"
"Bam, eh?"
Hayate's beautiful face grimaced itself into an unsightly image as she leveled her sword with the middle of her body.
Breathe in, and out; after taking a deep breath, she lowered her pose and raised her sword as if she was going to shoulder it. This time, the system sensed the pose correctly and the arcing sword slowly started shining orange.
"Ha!"
With her low yell, she jumped off the ground with a movement that was completely different to the ones before. Swish-! With this crisp sound, the sword drew its cloud white trajectory through the air. The «Reaver», a basic skill of the one handed curved sword, struck the boar right in its neck as it was about to charge and got rid of the rest of its HP, which, like Hayate's, was about half full.
Guekk— it screamed a pitiful cry and its large body shattered like glass and purple numbers appeared, showing how much virtual experience points I gained.
"Yeeeeaaaahhh!"
Hayate took an overstated pose of victory with a huge smile on her face and raised her left hand. I high-fived her and smiled again.
"Congrats on your first victory…but that boar — it's about as hard as slimes from other games."
"Eh, really? I thought it was some sort of semi-boss or something!"
"No chance of that."
My smile became a little forced as I sheathed my sword on my back.
Even though I was teasing her, I understood what she was feeling right now. Since I had two more months of experience than her, it was only now that she could feel the exhilarating feeling of destroying her enemy by her own hand.
Hayte started to use the same sword skill over and over again yelling as she did so, perhaps as a way of practicing. I left her alone and looked around.
The endlessly stretching plains gave off a beautiful red as the sun had started setting. Way up north, there was the silhouette of a forest, a sparkling lake down south, and I could just about make out the walls that surrounded the city to the east. To the west, there was a limitless sky going on forever with bunches of golden clouds drifting by.
We were at the plains that stretched to the west of the «Starting City», which was situated at the north end of the first floor of the colossal floating castle—«Mid chlida». There should be numerous players fighting monsters around here; but because of the enormous size, none of them were visible.
Seeming finally satisfied, Hayate sheathed her sword and walked over while observing the area as well.
"But really…however many times I look around like this, I still can't believe that this is «inside the game»."
"Well even if you say 'inside' it's not like our souls were sucked in or anything. Our brain's just seeing and listening instead of our eyes and ears…with the signals that the «Nerve Gear» is sending."
I said while shrugging. Hayate pouted her lips like a kid.
"You might be used to it now, but for me it's the first time doing a «FullDive»! Isn't it awesome? Really…it's a relief that I was born in this era!"
"You're exaggerating."
But as I laughed, I totally agreed with her.
«Nerve Gear».
That's the name of the hardware that moved this VRMMORPG—«Sword Art Online».
The basic structure of this machine is totally different from the older ones.
Unlike the old-style man-machine interface hardware like "flat screen monitors" or "controllers that you used with your hands," Nerve Gear only had a single interface, a streamlined interface that covered the whole of your head and face.
Inside, there were numerous signal components, and by using the numerous electronic signals these sent, the gear accessed the user's brain itself. The user didn't use their eyes or ears to see and listen, but took in the signals that were sent directly to their brain. In addition, the machine could access not only sight and sound, but also touch, taste, and smell as well—that is to say, all five senses.
After slipping the Nerve Gear on and locking the strap on your chin in place and saying the initiation command «Link Start», all noise fades away and you're swathed in darkness. As soon as you pass the rainbow colored circle in the middle, you're in another world made entirely out of data.
So,
Half a year ago, this machine, which started selling in May, 2022, successfully created a «Virtual Reality». The electronics company which created the Nerve Gear called the actual act of linking to the virtual reality—
«FullDive».
It was a total seclusion from reality, fitting of the word "full."
The reason for this is that the Nerve Gear not only sent fake signals to the five senses—but also blocked and rerouted the orders that the brain sent to the body.
This can be called the most basic requirement for moving freely in a virtual reality. If the body received the brain's signals when the user was in FullDive, the moment the user decided they wanted to «run» their actual body would run into a wall.
Because the Nerve Gear could reroute the commands the brain sent through the spinal cord, Hayate and I could both move our avatars around freely and swing our swords around.
We've completely leapt into the game.
The effect of this experience captivated me and many gamers such as myself to the point where we were sure that we could never go back to the old touch-pens or motion sensors.
Hayate was staring at the wind passing through the plains and the castle walls off in the distance with actual tears in her eyes.
"So SAO is the first game for the Nerve Gear that you've played?" I asked.
Hayate, looking like a calmly beautiful and dashing warrior from the Sengoku period, turned her head my way and nodded.
"Yeah."
If she put a serious expression on her face, she had an impressive bearing about her worthy of an actor from a historical play. Of course, this was different from her actual body in the real world. It was an avatar made out of nothing from adjusting a bunch of options.
Of course, I looked like some ridiculously handsome protagonist from some fantasy animation as well.
Hayate continued in her low vigorous voice, which, of course, was different from her real voice as well.
"Well, to be exact, I sorta bought the hardware in a rush after I managed to get my hands on SAO. There was only ten thousand in the first batch. So I suppose I was really lucky. …well, if I think about it you were ten times luckier when you got picked for beta testing. They only picked a thousand!"
"An, yeah, I suppose."
Hayate kept staring at me. I unconsciously scratched my head.
I remembered the excitement and enthusiasm that «Sword Art Online» created when it was announced through the media like it was yesterday.
Nerve Gear had realized the future setting for gaming with FullDive. However, due to the innovation of the actual machine, only unremarkable titles came forth for the all-important software. They were all puzzles, education related or environmental type games, calling forth discontent from game addicts such as myself.
Nerve Gear can truthfully render a virtual reality.
But you could only walk 100 meters before you hit a wall in that world; it was really a huge letdown. That hardcore gamers such as myself, who had been deeply absorbed with the experience of being within the game, had started waiting for a certain game genre was almost unavoidable.
We had started waiting for a network response game—a sort that let millions of players log in and raise, fight with and live as a character of their own, that is to say—a MMORPG.
When the anticipation and craving reached its limit, the first VRMMORPG was announced just in time, «Sword Art Online». The stage for the game is a floating castle consisting of 100 floors.
The players lived in a world with forests and lakes, relying on only their sword and drive to discover the route to the upper floors and defeat countless monsters and make their way endlessly to the top.
«Magic» which was considered to be an indispensable part of fantasy MMORPGs had been boldly cut out and an almost endless number of skills called «Sword Skills» were made. It was part of a plan to let players actually feel the experience of fighting with their own bodies through FullDive as much as possible.
Skills were varied including productive skills such as smithery, leather working and sewing, and everyday skills such as fishing, cooking and playing music, allowing the player to not only adventure the huge game but also actually «live» in it. If they so wanted, and if their skill levels were high enough, they could buy a house and live as shepherds.
As the information steadily kept being revealed, the gamers' enthusiasm only got higher.
The beta test only recruited a thousand testers; it's said that one hundred thousand people, the number of half the Nerve Gear sold at that time, volunteered to be a tester. Luck was the only reason that I got through the narrow gap and was picked. Also, beta testers received the additional benefit of being given the priority when the game officially came out.
The two months of beta testing was like a dream. At school, I thought endlessly of my skill set, equipment and items, and ran all the way to my house as soon as school ended and dived till dawn. The beta test ended in the blink of an eye, and on the day my character was reset, I felt a sense of loss as if half of my actual self had been cut away.
And now—November 6, 2022, Sunday.
«Sword Art Online» after all the preparations had been finished and at 1PM officially started its server service.
Of course, I had been waiting for 30 minutes and then logged on without even a second delay, but when I checked the state of the server over ninety-five hundred people had already logged on. It seemed as if all of the people who had been lucky enough to get their hands on the game had felt the same as I did. All the online shopping sites announced that the game was sold out seconds after it had gone on sale and the offline sales, which had started yesterday, had created lines of people who had queued up for four days, creating enough of a racket to go on the news. That meant that all the people who had been able to buy a copy of the game were almost all serious game addicts.
The actions of Hayate showed this clearly as well.
After I had logged onto SAO, I started running through the nostalgic stone paved roads of the «Starting City» to go to the weapons shop. Realizing that I was a beta tester after seeing me start and dashing without any hesitation, Hayate ran over.
"Hey, teach me a few things!" she'd begged.
I wondered how she could be so shameless and demanding to a person she hadn't met before. Being so lost for words that it was almost amazement.
"Ah, er, then…why don't we go to the weapon shop?" I answered like some NPC; we then ended up making a party, and I began teaching her some basics of fighting—and that's how we ended up in this current situation.
To tell the truth, I didn't get along with people in real life or in games, perhaps even less so than in real life. During beta testing, I came to know a couple of people, but I didn't get close enough to anyone to actually call them a friend.
But Hayate had a side to her that grows on you, and I didn't find this uncomfortable either. Thinking that I might be able to get along with her, I opened my mouth.
"So…what do you want to do? Do you want to keep hunting till you get used to it?"
"Sure! …is what I want to say, but…"
Hayate's delicate eyes looked at the bottom right of her vision. She must have been checking the time.
"…well, I should log off and eat. I ordered some pizza for 5:30."
"Pretty thorough."
I said at a loss for words, Hayate spread her chest.
"Of course!" she said proudly. "I promised to meet some friends at the «Starting City» in a bit. I could introduce you to some of them and you could register them as friends. That way you would always send messages. How about it?"
"Errr… Hmmm…," I mumbled subconsciously.
I got along with Hayate pretty well, but there was no guarantee that it'd be the same for her friends. I felt like that there would be a higher chance of not getting along with them and as a result, fall out with Hayate as well.
"Should I…?"
Seemingly understanding the reason for my not-so-confident answer, Hayate shook her head.
"Ah, I don't mean to force you. There'll be a chance to introduce them sometime anyway."
"…yeah. Sorry, and thanks."
As soon as I thanked her, Hayate shook her head vigorously.
"Hey, hey! I should be the one thanking you. I received a lot of help from you. I'll pay you back sometime soon. Mentally."
Hayate smiled and took another look at the clock.
"…well, I'll log off for a bit. Thanks a lot, Fate. Be seeing ya."
With that,s he put her hand forward. At that moment, I thought this person would have been a great leader in «another game» and shook her hand.
"Yeah, see you around."
We let go of each other's hand.
That was the point where Aincrad, or Sword Art Online, stopped being just some fun game for me.
Cline stepped back a bit and put her right index finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. This was the action that was done to call the «main menu window». Straight afterwards, there was a ringing sound and a shining purple rectangle appeared.
I moved a bit and sat on a rock and opened my menu too. I started to move my fingers to organize the items that I'd gotten after fighting with the boar.
Then.
"Eh?" Hayate said in a strange tone.
"What's this? …there's no log out button."
At that, I stopped moving my fingers and raised my head.
"No button…? No way, look a bit closer."
I said a bit confused. The swordswoman opened her eyes wide beneath the bandana and pushed her head closer to the menu. The rectangle, which was longer sideways than high, had a bunch of buttons on the left and a silhouette showing what equipment you had on on the right. At the bottom of the menu, there was a «LOG OUT» button that allowed you to escape from this world.
As I was turning my head to the item list that listed the items that I had gained over hours of fighting, Cline started speaking in an unusually high voice.
"It's really not there. You take a look Fate."
"I told you that there's no way that it's not there…" I muttered with a sigh as I clicked on the button on the top left to go back to the menu screen.
The inventory window on the right closed and it went back to the main screen. At the left of the silhouette, which still had quite a lot of empty spaces, there was a long row of buttons.
I moved my hand down in a movement that had almost become a habit and—
My body froze.
It wasn't here.
As Hayate had said, the button that had been there during the beta test—no, even right after I'd logged on—had disappeared.
I stared at the empty space for a couple of seconds, then looked through the menu, making sure that it hadn't just changed its position. Hayate looked up with "Right?" written on her face.
"…not there, right?"
"Yeah, it's not there."
I nodded, although it felt slightly annoying to agree so easily. Hayate smiled and started rubbing her thin chin.
"Well, it's the first day so these sort of bugs could occur. Around about now, the GMs should be crying by now from the amount of messages flooding in," Hayate said calmly.
"Is it alright for you to stand around like that? You said that you ordered some pizza, didn't you?" I asked teasingly.
"Ah, that's right!"
I smiled as I watched her jump around, her eyes wide.
I threw away a couple of items I didn't need from the inventory, which had turned red due to having too many items inside, and then walked over to Hayate.
"Argh! My anchovy pizza and ginger ale-!"
"Why don't you call a GM? They might cut you off from their side."
"I tried, but there's no response. It's already 5:25! Hey, Fate! Isn't there some other way to log out?" After listening to what Hayate said while waving both of her arms—
My face became rigid. I felt a groundless fear send a chill down my back.
"Let's see…to log out…" I said while thinking.
To get out of this virtual reality and back to my room, I have to open the main menu, press the log out button and press yes on the window that popped up on the right. It was pretty simple. But—at the same time, apart from the procedure above I wasn't aware of any other way of logging off.
I looked up at Hayte's face, which was situated quite a bit higher than my own, and shook my head.
"No…there's none. If you want to log out yourself you have to use the menu, apart from that, there's no other way."
"That's impossible…there's got to be something!"
Hayate suddenly starting shouting as if she was denying my statement.
"Return! Log out! Escape!"
But of course, nothing happened. There were no voice commands on SAO of that description.
After shouting this and that and even jumping, I spoke to Hayate.
"Hayate, it's useless. Even the manual doesn't have anything on emergency access terminations."
"But…this is just stupid! Even if it's a bug, I can't even go back to my room and my body when I want to!" Hayate shouted with a bewildered expression on her face.
I totally agreed with her.
This was impossible. It was complete nonsense. But it was indisputably the truth.
"Hey…what is this? It's really just weird. Right now, we can't get out of this game!"
Hayate gave out a desperate laugh then quickly started talking again.
"Wait, we can just turn the power off. Or just pull the «Gear» off."
As I watched Hayate move her hands, as if she was trying to take off some invisible hat, I felt the anxiety returning.
"That's impossible, both of them. Right now, we can't move our bodies…our real bodies. The «Nerve Gear» receives all the signals that our brain is sending here…" I tapped the back of my head. "… and reroutes them to move our avatars here."
Hayate slowly closed her mouth and put her hands down.
We both stood speechless for a while, each lost in thought.
To attain the FullDive state, the Nerve Gear blocks the signals that our brain sends down our spines and changes them so that we can control our avatars in this world. So however wildly we swing our arm about here, the arm of my real body, which was lying on my bed right now, wouldn't move an inch, ensuring that I wouldn't hit my head against the corner of my table or anything.
But because of this function, we can't cancel the FullDive of our own free will right now.
"…so unless the bug is fixed or somebody in the real world takes the Gear off, we have to wait it out?" Hayate mumbled, still a little dazed.
I silently signaled my agreement.
"But I live by myself. You?"
I hesitated slightly but told him the truth.
"…I live with my mom and my older sister, a family of three. I think that I'll be forced out of Dive if I don't come down for dinner…"
"What? H-How old is your sister?"
Hayate suddenly looked at me, her eyes sparkling. I pushed her head away.
"You're pretty calm right now, aren't you? She's part of the sports club and hates games, so she's got nothing in common with people like us…but more than that," I spread my right arm in an attempt to change the subject. "Don't you think it's weird?"
"Well sure. Since it's a bug."
"No, I mean it's not just a bug, it's an «impossible to log out» bug, it's a big enough problem to bother the operation of the game itself. Like your pizza in the real world is getting colder every second, it's an actual economical loss, isn't it?"
"…a cold pizza…it's as meaningless as hard natto!"
I ignored these meaningless comments and kept talking.
"If it's like this, the operators should put the server down and log everyone out whatever the case. But…it's already been 15 minutes since we've noticed this, but there hasn't even been a system message, let alone putting the server down; it's just too weird."
"Hmm, now that I think of it, you're right."
Now Hayate started rubbing her chin with a serious expression on her face. In the area beneath the bandana, which covered a little bit of her sharp nose, intelligence sparkled in her eyes.
I started listening to Hayate, feeling a little strange about talking with someone whom I'd never meet if I erased my account.
"…the company which created SAO, «Argas», is a company that's famous for being considerate about its users, isn't it? That's why everyone was fighting to get their hands on a copy even though it's the first online game. It's sorta meaningless if they screw up like this on their first day."
"I agree, and SAO is the first VRMMORPG. If something goes wrong now they might put down regulations for the genre itself."
Hayate and I looked at each other's virtual faces and sighed.
Aincrad's seasons were based on reality, so it was early fall here as well.
I looked up, sucking in the virtual air, taking a deep, cold breath.
100 meters away, I could just about see the light purple bottom of the 2nd floor. As I followed the uneven surface, I saw the huge tower—the «labyrinth» that was the path to the upper floor—and saw that it was connected to the outer entrance.
It was just past 5:30 and the small strip of sky that could be seen was red with the light of the sunset. Despite the situation I was in, seeing the endless plains painted gold with the light of the evening sun, I found myself speechless in front of the beauty of this virtual world.
Right after that.
The world changed forever.
Ding, ding, a chiming noise like a bell, or perhaps a warning bell, sounded loudly, making Hayate and me jump in surprise.
"Ah..."
"What's this!?"
We shouted at the same time and stared at each other, both of our eyes wide.
Both Hayate and I were immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in my vision blurred steadily.
I've experienced this a few times during beta testing. It was a «Teleport» initiated by an item. I didn't have the prerequisite item nor did I shout the proper command. Did the operators initiate a forced teleport? If so, why didn't they even inform us?
As my thoughts raced, the light around me pulsed stronger and darkness overtook me.
As the blue light faded, my surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the plains lit with the sunset anymore.
A large road paved with stone. Medieval streets surrounded by street-lamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.
This was the starting point, the central plaza of the «Starting City».
I looked at Hayate who had her mouth wide open next to me. Then at the bustling layers of people that surrounded the two of us.
Looking at the bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colors, they were no doubt other players like me. There were about a few thousand—ten thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.
For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without a word.
Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.
"What's happening?"
"Can we log out now?"
"Can't they take care of it quickly?"
Comments like these could be heard from time to time.
As the players started to get more annoyed, shouts like "Is this a joke?" and "Get the hell out here, GMs!" could be heard.
Then suddenly.
Somebody raised his voice above all these comments and shouted.
"Ah...look above!"
Hayate and I almost automatically turned our eyes upward and looked. There, a strange sight greeted us.
The bottom surface of the second floor, one hundred meters up in the air, was checkered in red.
When I looked closely, I could make out that they were made up of two phrases crisscrossing each other. The word that was written in red was [Warning] and the other [System Announcement].
I was surprised for a moment but then thought Oh, the operator's going to begin informing us now and loosened my shoulders a little bit. The chatter died down in the plaza and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.
However, what happened next wasn't what I had expected.
From the middle of the pattern, a liquid similar to blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscid it was; but it didn't fall down; instead, it started morphing into another shape.
What appeared was a twenty meter tall man with a hooded robe draped around him.
No, that wasn't exactly right. From where we were looking, we could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe; all we could see inside the rim were shadows.
I've seen the actual robe before. It was the clothes that the Agas employees who had been working as GMs during the beta test had always worn. But then the male GMs had had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. They might have used the robe due to lack of time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space beneath the hood gave me an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.
The countless players around me must have felt the same.
"Is that a GM?"
"Why doesn't it have a face?"
Numerous whispers like these could be heard.
Then the right hand of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.
A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, wasn't connected to any sort of body.
Then the left arm slowly lifted upwards, too. Then with its two empty gloves spread out in front of ten thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth—no, it felt like it did. Then a low and calm voice of a male resonated from high up in the air.
'Players, I welcome you all to my world.'
I couldn't understand it right away.
«My world»? If that red robe was a GM, it certainly had godlike powers in this world, enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?
Hayate and I looked at each other dumbfounded. The anonymous red robe lowered its two arms and continued talking.
'My name is Jail Scaglatteia. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.'
"What...!?"
My avatar became rigid with shock, and its throat, and perhaps my neck back in the real world as well, stopped working for a second.
Jail—Scaglatteia!
I knew that name. There was no way I didn't.
This person, who was both a game designer and a genius in the field of quantum physics, was the one responsible for raising Agas, which even a few years ago was just one of many small companies, into one of the leading companies in the field.
He was also the development director of SAO and, at the same time, the designer of the Nerve Gear.
As a hardcore gamer, I respected Jail deeply. I bought all the mags that featured him and had read his few interviews until I almost knew them all by heart. I could almost see him in the white overalls he always wore by just hearing his voice.
But he had always stood behind the scenes, refusing to be exposed to the media; he had never even been a GM—so why was he doing something like this?
I forced my mind to start moving again in order to make sense of the situation. But the words that came out of the empty hood almost seemed to mock my efforts to understand.
'I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.'
"Part of...the system?"
Hayate muttered; her voice breaking up. The announcement continued in its low voice as if to cover the sound.
'Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.'
This castle? I couldn't understand this phrase at first. There's no castle in the «Starting City».
Then the next thing that Jail said blew my confusion away.
'...also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted...'
A moment of silence.
The silence of ten thousand people was overwhelming. The next words came slowly.
'The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.'
Hayate and I stared at each other for seconds in shock.
It was as if my mind was refusing to believe what had just been said. But Jail's short statement pierced through my body with a ferocity that was both hard and dense.
Destroy our brains.
In other words, kill us.
Any user that turned the Nerve Gear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what jail had just stated.
People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like me, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.
Hayate raised her right hand slowly and tried to grasp the headgear that would be situated there in the real world. As she did this, she let out a dry laugh and started talking.
"Haha...what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear... It's just a game. Destroy our brain... How is he going to do that? Right Fate?"
Her voice broke at the last shout. Hayate stared at me hard, but I couldn't nod in agreement.
The infinite signal sensors in the Nerve Gear's helmet emitted small electronic pulses to send virtual signals to the brain.
They might call this the newest ultra technology, but the basic theory was the same as a certain household appliance that's been used for over 40 years in Japan—the microwave.
If there was sufficient output, it was possible that the Nerve Gear would vibrate the water particles in our brains and fry it with the heat from the friction. But...
"...theoretically it's possible, but...he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit that sort of a strong pulse. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability...inside..."
Hayate already guessed the reason why I had stopped talking.
"There...is one," she said, her words almost a scream with a hollow expression on her face. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But...that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?"
Jail started explaining, as if he had heard what Hayate had shouted.
'To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gear. The result—'
The metallic voice took a short breath here.
'—regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world forever.'
A long, thin scream was heard. But most of the players couldn't believe it, or refused to believe what they had been told and just stood there slack-jawed, or with a wry smile on their faces.
My head tried to reject what Jail had just said. But my body betrayed it and my knees started shaking violently.
I stumbled back a few paces on my weak knees and managed to keep myself from falling. Hayate fell on her backside; her expression lifeless.
213 players have already.
This phrase replayed over and over again in my head.
If what Jail said was true-over 200 people have already died up to now?
Among them, there would have been beta testers such as me. I might have even known some of their character names and avatars. These people had had their brains burnt and...died; is this what Jail was saying?
"...don't believe it... I don't believe it."
Hayate, who was still sitting on the floor, started talking in a strained voice.
"He's just trying to scare us. How would he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out. We don't have time to play along to your sick opening ceremony. Yeah...this is all just an event. An opening show, right?"
Inside my head, I was screaming the same thing.
But as if to dismiss our hopes, Jail's business like voice restarted its explanation.
'Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies that you have left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and internet media are all repeatedly reporting this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax...and concentrate on beating the game.'
"What...?"
Then, at last my mouth started shouting violently.
"What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!?"
I kept shouting, glaring at the red robe that had seeped out of the surface of the upper floor.
"This isn't a game anymore!"
Then Jail Scaglatteia started announcing silently with his monotonous voice.
'But I ask of you all to understand that «Sword Art Online» is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality...from now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment that your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever, and at the same time—'
I could guess what he was going to say all too clearly.
'Your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear.'
Suddenly, an urge to laugh out loud bubbled up from the bottom of my stomach. I drove it down.
A long horizontal line was shining at the top left corner of my vision. As I focused on it, the numbers 342/342 overlaid it.
Hit points. My life-force.
The moment it reaches zero, I will die—the electromagnetic waves will fry my brain, killing me instantaneously. This is what Jail had said.
This is without a doubt a game, a game with your life at stake. In other words, a death game.
I must have died at least 100 times during the two months of beta testing. I had respawned with a slightly embarrassed smile on my face in the palace at the north of the main plaza, the «Black Iron Palace», and ran off into the hunting grounds again.
That was what an RPG was, a sort of game where you keep dying and learning and leveling up. But now you can't? Once you die, you'll lose your life? And in addition—you can't even stop playing?
"...no freaking way," I muttered softly.
Who in their right mind would go out onto the field with those conditions? Of course everyone would just stay inside the city where it was safe.
Then as if reading my, and maybe all the other players', mind, the next message was given.
'Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word.'
Ten thousand players stood in silence.
It was then that I realized what Jail had meant when he had said «get to the top of this castle».
This castle—meant the huge monstrosity that had imprisoned all of the players on the first floor with ninety nine more floors stacked on top of the others, towering into the sky while floating in it. He was talking about Mid childa itself.
"Clear...all 100 floors!?" Hayate suddenly shouted. She got up quickly and raised a fist up to the sky.
"And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"
This was true. During the two months of beta testing, the one thousand players that had taken part had only managed to get to the sixth floor. Even if ten thousand people had dived right now, how long would it take to get through all 100 floors?
Most players who had been forced here would have been asking this answer-less question.
The strained silence eventually gave way to low murmuring. But there was no sign of fear or despair.
Most people here would still be confused about whether this was a «real danger» or a «seriously warped opening event». Everything Jail had said was so horrifying that it felt unreal.
I craned my head back to look at the empty robe and tried to force my mind to accept this situation.
I can no longer log out, ever. I can't go back to my room, my life. The only way that I would get them back was when somebody defeated the boss on the highest floor of this floating castle. If my HP reached zero even once during that time—I would die. I would die a real death and I would be gone forever.
But.
However much I tried to accept these as facts, it was impossible. Just five or six hours ago, I had eaten the dinner that my mom had made, shared a short conversation with my sister, then walked up the floors of my house.
Now I can't go back to all that? And this is now the real reality?
Then, the red robe that had always been one step ahead of us swept its right glove and started speaking with a voice void of all emotion.
'Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this.'
As soon as I heard this, I pressed my finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells.
I pressed the item button on the menu that had just appeared and the item was there, at the top of my belongings list.
The name of the item—«hand mirror»
Why did he give us this? Even as I wondered, I tapped on the name and pressed the "make into object" button. Immediately afterward, there was a twinkling sound effect and a small rectangular mirror appeared.
I grabbed it hesitantly but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that I had gone through a lot of trouble to make.
I cocked my head and looked at Hayate. The samurai was also looking at the mirror in her hand with a blank expression on her face.
—Then.
Suddenly Hayate and the avatars around us were engulfed in white light. As soon as I took this in, I was surrounded too and all I could see was white.
Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been...
No.
The face in front of me wasn't the one I'd gotten used to.
The armor made of metal plates sewn together, the bandana, and the brown hair were all the same. But the face had changed into another shape altogether. Her long, sharp eyes had become round and shone brighter. Her delicate and hooked nose had become sharper , and her lips were more pursed,thin and more beautiful. If the avatar had been a young and carefree samurai, this one was a beautiful cosplay warrior or maybe an actress in samurai movie.
I forgot about the situation for a moment and muttered.
"Who...are you?"
The same words came out of the mouth of the girl in front of me.
"Hey...who're you?"
Then I was gripped by a sudden foreboding and realized what Jail's present, the «hand mirror», meant.
I raised the mirror in a rush, and the face stared back at me.
Blond long hair tied in a single low ponytail, two round eyes of burgundy color, and a delicate face that made people look at me lovingly.
The calm face of a warrior that «Fate» had had even a few seconds ago was no longer there. The face that was in the mirror—
Was my actual face that I had tried so hard to escape from.
"Ah...it's me..."
Hayate, who had been also staring at her mirror, fell backwards. We both looked at each other and shouted at the same time.
"You're Hayate!?" "You're Fate!?"