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A huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky.
That was all this world was.
It took a vagarious group of craftsmen one month to survey the place; the diameter of the base floor was about 10 kilometers — large enough to fit the entirety of Setagaya-ku within. Above, there were 100 floors stacking straight upwards; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.
Inside, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests and plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways existed in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed; so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone made a breakthrough and arrived at a city of the upper floor, the «Teleport Gates» there and of every cities in the lower floors would be connected making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.
With these conditions, the huge castle had been steadily conquered for two years. The current front line is the 74th floor.
The name of the castle was «Aincrad», a world of battles with swords that continued floating and had engulfed approximately six thousand people. Otherwise known as...
«Sword Art Online»
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Sometime in November, 2024
Timestamp: 15:00 (3:00 PM)
SAO Service Date: 711
A silver blade flashed through the air, cutting into my enemy's side.
The thin line above his head dropped significantly. Simultaneously, a shadow of fear crossed his face, and I pressed my lips together into a thin line.
The red line – dubbed the "HP bar" – was a measurement of a person's life force. Over 90 percent was gone, colored a dark gray. No, that wasn't right. More like, now, only 10 percent of his HP separated him from his inevitable death.
He stumbled back, losing his balance and crying out in mock pain. He looked at me, clutching at his side. "Please, don't do this!"
"Hmm…" I responded, flicking my blade as if to remove blood from it.
I took a short, deep breath. The body I used in this world had no need to breathe oxygen, but the body in the real world, the one on the other side, would definitely be breathing heavily. My hands would be shaking and sweaty, my heartbeat likely accelerated to dangerous levels.
Of course.
Though everything I saw before me was simply a rendered 3D virtual reality, and the red bar above my enemy – along with the blue one in the top corner of my vision – was nothing more than a mass volume of 1's and 0's representing hit points, the fact that this fight would end with one of us dead did not change.
I found this quite fair, as I thought about it. The enemy before me – a young man wearing a hybrid of leather and metal armor and holding a long spear – was another human being just like me, and he had been given the same amount of time as I had to grow in skill and strength. If he had wisely focused on advancing himself in this world instead of merely acting as if this were some game to be played, than he might have provided a challenge for me, proving who would be deserving to be called a survivor of this death game.
Sadly, this was not meant to be the case. He had not dedicated himself to such survival, and as a result I had landed dozens of strikes on him, and he had yet to land a direct blow on me. Minor cuts and scratches, yes, but nothing serious. I was, in the sense of survival skill and drive, far superior to him.
"Where's you're fighting spirit?" I asked, slowly walking towards my quarry, dragging my sword along the stone path. "This is to make you stronger: conquer this challenge, or fall prey to it."
I doubt he paid attention to my words, however. He was busy shakily holding his glorified pole in front of him, hoping to use it to block my next attack; delay his ultimate demise momentarily. If he hoped to respawn after his defeat he was sorely mistaken. This would prove to be his end, one from which he would never return.
It's reality. Everything in this world is real. There's no virtual reality or fakes of any kind.
I lifted my sword and placed it next to my left hip, holding it as if I were drawing it from a sheath. My left hand gently moved along the flat of the silver metal, feeling its cold surface against my skin.
The young poleman widened his legs and brought the pointed end of his weapon towards himself while extending the other end away. For a second, the wind quieted and the sound of humming energy filled the air.
"Aaaargh!" With a shout the man slashed from right to left, the higher hand releasing the weapon to allow it to extend far beyond the normal reach, its trajectory lit with a light-blue light. This was the powerful one-hit sword skill for the polearm Reaching Arc. It was a powerful swipe that covered a 3 meter radius in the shape of a forward half-circle in just under .3 seconds.
Yet, I had expected such a bold move from my cornered prey.
I jumped in the air, remembering a technique from when I used to high-jump to bring my legs at the same level as my head. The rod passed nearly a few centimeters beneath me. I could see the horror on his face as he saw what must have seemed to be an expert dodge.
It was nothing more than simply reading and reacting to my opponent.
I landed on my feet and drew myself to my full height nearly a meter from him. Our eyes locked for a moment before a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips.
"It's showtime."
My own blade began to glow a deep blue. As if it had a mind of its own, it immediately began a diagonal arc from its initial point in an upward-right direction without any input from me. The sword easily cut through my enemies defenses, scattering a bright red light instead of blood. I heard the man's choke as his eyes widened in surprise at his wound.
This is the most important element in battles in this world: Sword Skills.
The blade continued its path through his body, finally exiting his shoulder and flashing through the air, leaving a blue trail in the air. The arc flashed quickly before scattering – The basic one-hit skill, Slant.
The glow from the swing slowly faded away. At the same time, the last portion of the man's HP bar dropped from view, leaving without a single trace. His body seemed frozen in his standing state, his arm limply hanging onto his polearm, his face twisted into a painful expression.
Suddenly, he dropped his weapon and fell forwards, almost crashing onto the grassy ground before some unseen force stopped gravity's effect on him. With the sound of breaking glass, he shattered into a plethora of glowing polygons and disappeared.
This is the Death of this world. Instantaneous and short, a complete annihilation, leaving absolutely no trace behind.
I barely even registered the experience points and items I'd won being displayed in purple font in the center of my vision. I turned to the dissipating crystals of light and spat at them. "Weak."
With a short flair, I sheathed my blade in the scabbard at my hip. I stumbled back a step before falling onto my knees.
I shakily sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. My head throbbed, my chest tightened, my arms and legs shook. Most likely at the prospect that I just killed a man in cold blood. I shook my head a few times and opened my eyes.
The digital clock in the bottom right of my vision told me it was some time past 3PM. I need get out of the field soon if I want to make it home by nightfall.
"Maybe I should just stay here…" I thought aloud. Nobody was around to listen, however. The only one who would have been had just been permanently deleted by the system. I slowly stood up, stumbling but catching myself before I fell over.
I was done fighting for today. I had delivered another into the hand of death today, a prospect I didn't want to linger on. After a fitful night's sleep, tomorrow would come, and bring with it many similar battles. When fighting battles against both monsters and humans, you never had a 100% chance of survival, no matter how many safety nets you put up. Someday, you would fall out of lady luck's favor.
The question was whether I'd be able to keep drawing a good hand in this game with Death.
If you valued your life above all else, staying in a town and waiting for somebody to clear the game is the wisest route to take. But I didn't want to live the life of a coward who did such. It was why I came out into the fields every day alone, slowly making my way towards the front lines. It was why I was entirely willing to murder other players I came across in a contest to prove who was stronger.
It was why I was fine with the fact that, under my long-sleeved coat, there was an open black coffin with a smiling face on the front and a skeletal arm peeking out.
As I began to walk towards the edge of the field with a somber expression on my face, I began to think back to that day, two years ago.
The moment that my world ended, and a murderer's began.
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AN Time!
So just a heads up, these first three chapters are not necessarily accurate representations of the "Hero" you will read about for most of the story. These are more like points on a line: enough so that you can start to see where a trend is heading. Current "Hero" is harsh and cruel, though its a mantle he's not entirely comfortable in. Following to chapters will be, like in the LN, showing a younger "Hero" who acts more happy, with muted aspects that will develop into the person he is later. Pay attention!
RETROACTIVE EDIT:
For those who thought I was dead... Surprise! The afterlife has wifi! I don't plan AT ALL to update regularly, but I've decided that I need to get back into the writing habit I had with my Lucifer: Rising series (aka wrote-a-chapter-a-day), and More Than A Game made the roster for it. So chapters will begin to appear again, hopefully soon.