Kazuto Kirigaya leaped from his chair the instant he heard the doorbell ring. "Coming!" He raced over and flung the door open. Waiting for him was his beloved girlfriend, Asuna Yuuki, and his friends Rika "Lisbeth" Shinozaki, Shino "Sinon" Asada, and Ryoutarou "Klein" Tsuboi. Come in everyone! Help yourselves to the refreshments on the table!"
"Forget the refreshments!" Ryou exclaimed, slamming a fist into another hand. "I'm not going to let Andrew get ahead of me!"
"He'll still be ahead of you even if you get a head-start," Asuna chuckled.
Kazuto shrugged and scratched his head nervously in agreement.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Klein protested, as Asuna and Lisbeth burst into laughter. "Kazuto, defend me!"
Kazuto just looked away abashedly, while Sinon looked on with tired eyes.
"What I said about Ryou applies to you too, Lis!' Asuna changed the direction of her barbs.
"Why- you- !" Lisbeth's face reddened as she turned to glare at Asuna and she made throttling motions with her hands. "That's it- I'm calling off the truce!"
"Hey, looks like everyone's here!" The front door had opened once again to reveal Kazuto's cousin- and cousin- Suguha Kirigaya, which broke the confrontation.
"The… other rival's here…" Asuna muttered under her breath.
"Did- you say something?" Suguha looked confused.
"N-nothing," Asuna stammered, recovering quickly.
"Oh, then- so everyone's here" Suguha continued awkwardly, but Kazuto ran forward to her. "Sis, you're finally here! How was kendo practice?"
"It was okay, but I'm looking forward to playing the new game," She looked away, slightly blushing.
"Not you too-" Lisbeth looked flushed. "I already have Asuna to deal with-!"
"What… the hell are you talking about…?" Ryou asked in bewilderment.
"Just- just ignore them," Kazuto handwaved hastily. "Why don't we start the game already?"
"Good idea!" Asuna concurred eagerly. "Let's go upstairs, everyone!"
Everyone filed up the stairway to Kazuto's room and put on their AmuSphere headgear. A stream of lights shimmered around Kazuto as he activated the device. "Welcome to Global Conflict: 1985. Your device seems to already have an account attached, would you like to use that?"
"Yes," Kazuto said and it took him to character selection.
"You already have character available, would you like to use that?"
Kazuto had already messed around with the game beforehand, but he wasn't happy with how it'd turned out, so he replied, "No."
The game then took him to character creation. "In Global Conflict: 1985, there are five factions you may choose from. Please browse through their descriptions and choose the one you prefer. This choice cannot be reversed for this character, so choose wisely."
Kazuto remembered that since the six players logged in as a team, their voice feeds could be linked together. He commed his fellow players. "I've done a little playing around with the game beforehand, so I can give you all a little rundown of the different factions' strengths and weaknesses if you like."
"I'd be happy if you would be so kind!" Lisbeth giggled.
"Me too!" Asuna piped up, a little too aggressively.
"The first faction is the Mecuse Hegemony, also called the Mecusites. The Mecusites are a belligerent, warlike faction, so their equipment and starting skills are generally oriented toward offense and stealth, and have poor defense. The same goes for Mecusite NPCs. This faction is very open to, and even encourages inter-faction PvP or NPC killing. There is a major benefit that Mecusites have bases in all cities where faction members can convert experience points into new skills and buy faction-specific equipment from the system. In addition, Mecusites can also utilize bases from two other factions, the GLF and WDA, which I'll introduce later. Oh, and NPCs from those factions also won't show hostility to Mecusite players unless attacked first. The Resistance Organization is the Mecusites' sworn enemy ingame, so killing Resistance players and NPCs gives an experience bonus.
The Resistance Organization is a more stealth and offense-oriented faction, and their defense equipment and startup skills are poorer. Inter-faction PvP and NPC killing is discouraged and penalized. Like the Mecusites, the Resistance has bases in every city, where faction skills and equipment can be obtained, but cannot utilize other factions' bases. Unfortunately, they will be attacked by NPCs from all four other factions. The Mecuse Hegemony is the Resistance's sworn enemy, so killing Mecusite players and NPCs is rewarded.
The Neutralist Armed Forces are a more-balanced faction, with decent offense, defense, and stealth. Inter-faction killing is penalized. The Neutralists also have bases in all cities, but cannot use other faction bases. Neutralists will be attacked by NPCs from all other factions. All four other factions are considered mortal enemies by the Neutralists, so all player kills and all faction NPC kills will be rewarded, as opposed to non-faction NPCs.
The Global Liberation Front or GLF is strong in stealth and defense, but poor at offense. Inter-faction killing is neither encouraged nor penalized. Only WDA or Neutralist NPCs will attack on sight. The major downside is that the GLF only has bases in about half of cities, but is able to use Mecusite and Resistance bases. The GLF's sworn enemy is the WDA, so WDA kills are rewarded.
The World Defense Army or WDA is strong at offense and defense, poor at stealth. Inter-faction fighting is neither encouraged nor penalized. Only GLF or Neutralist NPCs will attack on sight. The WDA only has bases in about half of cities, but can use Mecusite and Resistance bases. The WDA's sworn enemy is the GLF, so GLF kills are rewarded."
"I think I'll go with Resistance," Asuna smirked. "It sounds like more of a challenge."
"Me too," Kirito agreed quickly, though mostly so he could be the same faction as Asuna. "I was Mecusite in my first playthrough, but it's a bit overkill."
"I'll go with Resistance too," Sinon stated matter-of-factly, drawing a short hiss from Asuna that she ignored.
"I already have my own character," Lisbeth said, a little sheepishly. "I already gave this game a little test run before coming here. I'm a Mecusite."
"WHAT?!" Kirito exclaimed. "You're the one who wanted me to explain the factions."
"I just wanted to hear you talk about it~," Lisbeth giggled mischievously.
"Why you- !" Asuna muttered angrily. "You have some nerve…!"
"Ahem! Anyway!" Klein cut in abruptly and intentionally. "I'm going to choose WDA, guys!"
"Neutralists sound cool," Leafa piped up. "I'll choose them."
After everyone picked out the characters, and finished their customizations, new text and images appeared around them, detailing information about gameplay.
Kirito highlighted some important points for the others. "There are also two different types of NPCs- faction NPCs and location NPCs. Faction NPCs are spawned from faction bases, and can be found in cities, near their faction's base. Location NPCs, also know as non-faction NPCs, are similar to city guards, and are found around city landmarks. In cities with only GLF bases, they will be hostile to WDA players, and the opposite is true in cities with only WDA bases. If a city has both GLF and WDA bases- neutral cities- location NPCs will not attack either GLF or WDA players. Location NPCs will always be hostile to Resistance players. Open areas outside of cities are free of NPCs and generally for PvP combat. PvP is not allowed in cities- so-called "safe zones"- except in duels."
Once everyone had finished examining the game mechanics, Kirito said, "Next we should choose our starting city. Does Tokyo sound okay?"
"Will it affect any of us?"
"Well, we don't have any GLF members, so it shouldn't matter if we pick Tokyo. They'll be a base for each of our factions in Tokyo."
"Well, let's go then!"
The bright sunshine and cityscape of 1980s Tokyo flooded Kirito's senses, and he found himself standing together with his five friends. Next to them, NPCs and the occasional player strolled by.
Kirito, Asuna, and Sinon all wore light armor emblazoned with the swooping Black Eagle of the Resistance and toted a Dragon-85 assault rifle, the standard Resistance rifle, which was a greatly-improved version of the Chinese Type 81 assault rifle and a member of the Kalashnikov family. They were also equipped with a Mini-Uzi machine pistol, an attachable GP-25 grenade launcher, a combat knife, four M67 fragmentation grenades, a light energy shield, and a hi-tech camouflage shield.
Lisbeth wore the symbol of two crossed swords often used to represent the Mecuse Hegemony on her armor and wielded a Griffin-55 assault rifle, the standard assault rifle of the Mecusites, and a distant evolution of the German StG 44. They were also equipped with a MP5K machine pistol, a M203 grenade launcher, a combat knife, four Star-5 grenades (a modified form of RGD-5 grenade), a light energy shield, and a hi-tech camouflage shield.
Leafa's medium armor had the blue null symbol of the Neutralist Armed Forces and she wielded an M16 assault rifle, a Beretta 93R machine pistol, a combat knife, two M67 fragmentation grenades, a medium shield generator, and a hi-tech camouflage shield.
Lastly, Klein had a the symbol of a flaming torch on his heavy armor to represent the WDA, a M16 assault rifle, a Mini-Uzi machine pistol, a combat knife, four M67 grenades, and a heavy shield generator.
"Whoa, looks like we're in the Ginza District of Chuo," Klein examined the map. "Hmmm, looks like there's a WDA base nearby, in Minato? And whoa, Chiyoda is chock-full of landmarks that spawn Location NPCs!"
"Wait, let's form a Guild first!" Asuna smiled wickedly.
"OK, but what shall we call ourselves?" Sinon asked.
"Team Kirito!"
"What?!" Klein protested. "Why not Team Klein?"
"Kirito was the Black Swordsman in SAO," Asuna said, typing into her controls. "He killed Heathcliffe, he saved us all!"
"Um, I wasn't part of that," Sinon piped up. "And neither was Leafa. Still, I have no objections. He's done a lot for all of us, and he saved my life during GGO."
"Fine," Klein conceded. "Team Kirito it is."
"I never agreed to this- " Kirito began, but Asuna just grabbed his hand and forced him to press the "Yes" button.
"There, you are Commander of Team Kirito and I am the Deputy Commander!"
"OK, what now?" Lisbeth asked. "Shall we test out our combat mechanics?"
"In that case…" Kirito pulled up his map. "Let's go to Meguro- there's a strong Neutralist presence there. Neutralist NPCs are quite hostile, so they'll attack all of us except Leafa on sight. It'll be a good test of everyone's gameplay!"