Sword Art Online: Hollow Effigy Vol 1

by Nahnashi

Several years after the infamous "SAO Incident" a copycat killer, aiming to "finish what Kayaba started," resurrects the death game in the form of "Sword Art: Legacy." Among the victims is fifteen-year-old Nanashi who, until now, has avoided VR games altogether. Having no prior experience with virtual reality, can he overcome his fear in order to survive?

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I always felt right at home in this particular game store. Sure, it made a point of stocking the latest and greatest in gaming technology, as well as titles from the most relevant publishers by today's standards—they wouldn't be able to stay in business otherwise. But the thing that made this store so special wasn't the modern gaming consoles or cutting-edge, triple-A games they sold. This store had a special stash, a secret treasure trove for people like me. In the way back of the shop there was a bin full of games. Old games. Some so old that there weren't any newer consoles with the backwards compatibility necessary to play them. You had to have the original consoles that the games were made for, and I had most of them. My goal was to collect them all. To that end, I always came here right after school when I'd managed to save up a bit of money and spent it on a classic game or, if I had enough, an ancient gaming console. Today, though, that wasn't the case.

"Well, look who it is!" a store clerk said as he approached me. "It's been a while. Good to see you again!"

"Likewise." I bowed courteously.

"Here for another retro game or console? I've already got a few recommendations set aside."

"Not this time, actually…"

"Oh? In that case, what can I help you with?"

I hesitated for a moment. I almost didn't want to say it. It wasn't too late to change my mind and buy something old—something that I knew was safe. After all, with the amount of money I'd saved up, I could probably buy two consoles. I knew exactly which games I wanted, too. I'd get the one where a giant gorilla threw barrels at you from the top of a construction site as well as the first installment of a series that had you playing as a kid in a green shirt and pointed hat who's destined to save the kingdom.

"Well…today I was hoping to buy a FullDive console."

"…Really?"

I didn't blame him for being surprised. After all, I'd always been pretty vocal about my refusal to play VR games, and I'd been coming here for at least a couple of years now. This particular person had been working here all that time, so he knew better than most how I felt about virtual reality.

"Well," the clerk said. "Did you already have a console in mind?"

"No—I figured I'd leave that up to you."

"In that case, it's going to depend on what sort of game you want to play."

"I was thinking something in the fantasy genre."

"Yeah, that sounds about right for you. I guess Gun Gale Online is out, then. That game's a bit dated, anyway. The devs don't keep on top of adding new content like ALO does."

"ALO?"

"ALfheim Online. You get to play as one of nine fairy races and fly around worlds inspired by Norse mythology."

"I'm not too sure about being a fairy, but flying sounds pretty cool…"

Whenever it was done correctly, flying always made for an addicting game mechanic. I could only think of a handful of games that actually nailed flight mechanics, but in a FullDive VR experience, even the most lazily-developed flight system was probably mind-blowing.

"It's a good title with a solid playerbase," the store clerk said. "But it's also a little old. If you're looking to get into a VRMMO, you actually chose a pretty good time."

"Why's that?"

"You mean you haven't heard? I thought even you would know about that." The clerk pointed at a TV monitor hanging from the ceiling. At that moment, a promotional video was playing for the latest title in the VRMMORPG genre.

My heartbeat quickened and I felt a cold sweat forming on my back. "Are you serious!? That's the last game I'd ever want to play!"

Even though the NerveGear, the world's first FullDive console, already had a few basic games when it released, the concept of FullDiving into a virtual world didn't gain any real popularity until the announcement of the very first VRMMORPG: Sword Art Online. Just thinking about that title sent a shiver down my spine. At the time, all I wanted was my very own NerveGear so that I could dive into the world of SAO, too. But I was only ten back then—three years too young to use a NerveGear. The rig had a safety feature that automatically prevented anyone under the age of thirteen from using it. The disappointment I felt that day couldn't be compared to anything else, but it didn't last long. Just a few hours after the servers went live, hype and excitement turned to shock and despair. Akihiko Kayaba, the genius behind the NerveGear and Sword Art Online, had disabled the option that allowed players to log out of the game. Worse, whenever someone tried to pull the NerveGear off of someone's head to forcefully log them out, the rig discharged a high-powered microwave pulse that fried the user's brain, killing them instantly. Kayaba informed the media that the captive players would not be released until they cleared the game by beating the final boss on the one hundredth floor of Aincrad—the floating castle that served as the main setting for SAO. In the outside world, no one could do anything to save them. Two years passed before the captive players were finally able to log out, and by that point the "death game" had already claimed almost four thousand lives.

As the victims of what came to be known as the "SAO Incident" were rushed to hospitals across Japan, I felt relieved. That was the first time I'd ever been grateful to be young. After the news reported what had happened, it would be about a year before I touched another video game—regular ones, even. The kind that you played with a controller. I was afraid I might get zapped into the game world, just like what happened in that old American film where the owner of an arcade gets transported inside one of his machines. When I finally started gaming again, I made a point of only playing old stuff. Games that had already been around for years—decades, even—without hurting anyone.

I couldn't imagine the thought process that would lead someone to think it was a good idea to make a sequel to Sword Art Online. Nonetheless, the promotional video for Sword Art: Legacy played on the monitor as boldly and carefree as it would for any new title.

"Are you still afraid of something like that happening?" The store clerk crossed his arms and shook his head. "That was, like, what…six, seven years ago?"

"Five," I corrected him. I imagined the incident was still quite fresh in the minds of its survivors.

"Exactly! Practically forever ago, y'know?"

"You call five years 'forever'?"

"Well, in the gaming industry it might as well be. Look, man. The SAO Incident is over, and nothing like it has happened since. Well…there was that one thing that happened in GGO, but it turned out to be a hoax."

"Even so…" I furrowed my brow. "Why make a sequel to that game of all things? Am I really the only one who finds it suspicious?"

"You might be. This is actually the third game in the Sword Art franchise, not the second."

"Wait—it is?"

"Yep. Just a couple years back they released a prequel called 'Sword Art: Origin.'"

"As if anyone was curious about the origins of that game…"

"You'd be surprised. It sold pretty well. And nothing happened."

"…Nothing?"

"Nothing at all."

"Hrmm…"

I crossed my arms and creased my brow. For the most part, I still didn't want to get involved with VR games at all. But at the same time…no true gamer could resist the unparalleled immersion of FullDive forever. For that reason, and because I wanted to be rid of this fear, I had come here to buy my first VR console and game. If I avoided Sword Art: Legacy just because it was related to that game, then I couldn't really say that I wasn't afraid.

"Alright," I said. "I'll get that one."

"I knew you would. It's practically destiny, you see."

"Destiny…?"

"Exactly. Because we've only got one copy left! I guess you're pretty lucky, huh?"

"It sold out that quickly!? Didn't it just come out today?"

"Yep. Like I said, Origin sold really well. It's only natural that people want Legacy, too."

"I guess that makes sense… So all I have to do now is decide on a VR rig."

"Actually, no." The clerk shook his head. "Since you want Legacy, that makes your choice of console pretty easy, because it only works with one."

"Oh?"

"Yep—with most VR games you could get by with just an AmuSphere, but, after Origin, the Sword Art franchise was picked up by a new developer, and they made the game require their VR console. Apparently, Sword Art: Legacy is 'revolutionary' and all that, and requires the most cutting-edge technology."

"Ooh," I mused, raising my eyebrows. "That sounds promising. However…" I felt a disturbance in my wallet. "How much does this 'cutting-edge' VR console cost?"

The clerk inhaled, hissing through his teeth. "The ExcelRig is gonna set you back this much…" He held up a box containing the ExcelRig and pointed at the price tag.

"Youch…" There were an awful lot of digits next to that Yen symbol. Big ones, too. "I'm not gonna have anything left, but…what the heck. If it's as good as it's supposed to be, it should keep me busy for a while. Right?"

"Right! Come on over to the register and I'll get you set up with the game."

I flinched with each chirp of the register as the cost of the new game, as well as the state-of-the-art ExcelRig, blinked onto the screen in front of me. I hesitated for a moment as I handed the bills over to the sales clerk, but once the console and game were in my hands, I couldn't help but feel excited.

I clutched the ExcelRig box in my arms as though cradling a child the whole train ride, watching the other passengers closely. Of course, the businessman, the couple at the far end of the car, and the mother and her small child didn't pay me any mind. But this thing was expensive, and I'd be damned if I was going to let someone take it from me.

When I got off at my stop, I ran all the way back to my house. I probably looked pretty stupid, but I didn't care. I flung the front door open, kicked my shoes off, and hopped up the stairs two steps at a time. Once I was in my room, I wasted no time getting the box open and plugging the ExcelRig into my PC. Apparently, it needed some sort of software update, so I started reading the instructions while that went through download and installation. The manual told me to sit or lay down in a comfortable position, place the rig on my my head, and issue the startup command, so as soon as the software update was finished installing I did just that.

"Link start!" I shouted, and the ExcelRig hummed and whirred to life. The startup sequence was actually pretty scary. There was a white flash, followed by streams of colored light racing toward me, accompanied by a loud, high-pitched noise. Then I was presented with a menu screen. Normally, in non-VR titles, the main menu was just a static image on your monitor. It might feature a painting of a landscape and have a title theme playing, and there would be a stack of options in the center of the screen. In VR, though, I was there. I stood at the center of a dark, gloomy field. A breeze rolled over the grass like a wave, and it sent a chill through my body as it passed. I heard a soft, ominous melody playing from somewhere—it seemed to be coming from every direction. An options menu hovered in front of me underneath the game's title: "Sword Art: Legacy."

My heartbeat quickened, as did my breathing, and my hands started to shake—but I wasn't scared. Not at all. I was excited. More so than I thought I would be. I had heard that FullDive games were amazing, but to be blown away like this by a simple title screen…

I took a deep breath and reached out to touch the menu option reading "create character." Then, I was transported to an area where I looked across an empty space at the game's default avatar. I messed with the options for about forty minutes—I was the type who took forever on character creation—and made an avatar that looked like the hero of a western-style fantasy anime, with heroic blonde hair and blue eyes. When I was done, I entered a name and pressed "finalize."

There was another flash of light and the game's opening cutscene began. At this point I began to regret all the years I had been denying myself the experience of VR games. This cutscene wasn't like those of other games during which you leaned back in your chair and enjoyed the show. I stood again in the same gray-skied field from the title screen and a cold breeze howled quietly as it crept toward me over the grass. I heard an old man's voice start to narrate, probably offering some background on the game's setting and plot, but I was far too captivated by the sights, the sounds, the smells, the sensations, as I was whisked around the game world, hovering above massive forests, marshes, plains, and mountains. When the surreal, high-speed tour had ended, I was thousands of feet in the air above what looked like a huge mountain that had its top two thirds chopped off and its base hollowed out. The BGM intensified considerably before ending with a loud bang on a drum as the words "Sword Art: Legacy" slowly materialized before me. Then, everything faded to black.

When I opened my eyes again I was standing at the center of a massive campsite with hundreds of tents, ranging in size from small to huge filling the clearing. A wooden castle stood above the tents. It was huge—big enough to be seen from anywhere within the campsite, or even from a few kilometers away. There were players wandering from tent to tent and talking with the NPCs, probably buying items or looking for quests. I looked around the campsite, a bit overwhelmed, not sure where to start. I began to wander through the streets of the massive camp, and as I did I realized that many of the large tents, some of them the size of buildings, were actually hastily crafted wooden structures that had been covered with massive sheets of canvas rather than being finished outright with walls.

As I wandered aimlessly I felt a tap on the back of my shoulder. "A little lost, eh, newbie?"

"Huh?" I turned around and wound up being poked in the cheek by the finger that had tapped my shoulder. But my annoyance at the childish trick turned to awe as I stared up into the face of a tall avatar with porcelain skin and long locks of silky, black hair, which flowed from the hood of her cloak and over her shoulders, with eyes to match. She was quite beautiful. I figured the avatar must've taken well over an hour—maybe two—to craft. Though the three whiskers painted on each cheek didn't really suit her elegant face and frame.

"W-well…yeah, I guess I'm a bit lost," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"I can fix that. Name's Nezumi. Good to meetcha."

"Likewise," I said, bowing.

"No need to be so formal, kiddo. It's a game, y'know?"

"Guess you're right," I said, laughing awkwardly and rubbing the back of my head again.

"So what's yer name, anyway?" Nezumi asked.

I had only noticed just then that looking at Nezumi prompted the system to display a green cursor and HP bar, but no name. I had thought she was just going through the standard real-world greeting for the sake of formality, but, evidently, she couldn't actually see my name like players could in most standard MMOs.

"It's…Nanashi."

"Nya-ha!" she chortled. "Couldn't be bothered ta come up with a name, so ya put down 'no-name,' eh?"

"Y…yeah. I thought I could play for a while to get the hang of things, then make a new character later once I'd come up with a name."

She laughed and made a mocking gesture of pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. "Yeah, I guess that strategy isn't all that out o' the ordinary. Anyway, enough about that. Ya wanna know what ta do first, right?"

"Y-yeah, I guess that would help…" I could tell by the sly look in the tall girl's eyes and the smirk on her lips that something was up. She wanted something in return for the help or she was about to pull some kind of prank. Either way this wasn't going to be a favor, so I kept my guard up. "Why bother helping me, though?" I asked. "Don't you have your own business to attend to?"

"Smart boy," she said, winking slyly. "But ya see, kiddo, this is my business. It's called building a clientele."

"Clientele…?"

"That's right. See, I give ya a bit of info on the house and, in exchange, you come to me any time ya wanna know about the quests with the highest EXP yields, best mob spawnin' sites, or where ta get the best weapons, which, naturally, I'll charge ya for. It's an investment. Ya dig?"

"I see… If you say so."
"I say so. Now what say ya follow me an' I show ya how ta get started around here, eh?"

"Alright. Lead the way."

I fell in behind the tall avatar and followed, my head on a swivel as I looked around the campsite. "This here camp is called Tent City. Y'know, because it's a campsite full of tents but big like a city."

"Wow," I groaned. "That must've taken the devs forever to come up with."

"Often times the easiest solution is the best one. Why bother comin' up with a complicated name if a simple one that's easy ta say will do the trick? Anyway, far as I can tell, even as we clear new areas, players'll be comin' back ta Tent City regularly for story updates 'n' gear maintenance. I'm not expectin' ta see a whole lotta other towns as we progress through the game."

"Yeah, in that opening cinematic it didn't look like there were a ton of areas where you'd expect to see civilization."

"Bingo."

We stopped in front of a wooden bulletin board at the center of town that stood nearly five times as tall as my avatar. "This is the Noticeboard," Nezumi said, resting her hands on her hips. "Ya come here ta pick up quests. Mostly just repeatable radiant ones, though. We'll get ta story-related quests a bit later."

"Jeez, it's massive… How am I supposed to see the quests at the top?"

"Ha!" the high-pitched, feminine but nasally voice cackled. "It's a game, kiddo. Try ta keep that much in mind." With that said, Nezumi reached toward the Noticeboard and tapped the empty space just in front of it. A small white rectangle appeared before her and she began tapping the boxes within the window, which blinked orange on contact, to navigate through its contents. "Just do what I did and you can see all the quests offered on the Noticeboard by category. Handy, right?"

I did as she said and reached out, tapping the empty air and calling up the Noticeboard's quest interface. I flipped through the categories and scrolled through the quests, most of which were flagged as unavailable because I hadn't met the level requirement or progressed far enough in the game.

"I guess that makes more sense than having to examine each flyer individually… I forgot this was a game, for a second. It's so realistic…"

"Nyahah, first time playin' in FullDive, eh, kiddo?"

"Y-yeah… I guess it's pretty obvious, huh?"

"Yep. Word to the wise, kiddo. I'd at least try ta hide it a little better. Experienced players'll smell the noob on ya and try ta take advantage of it."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll try to keep it under wraps."

"And I'll tell ya what—I won't even charge ya for that tip!"

"Ah…thanks…"

After that, Nezumi took me on a tour around the outpost, showing me the spots where I could buy and repair gear, restock on supplies like potions and antidotes, and where to find NPCs who offered personal quests that couldn't be found on the Noticeboard. These quests didn't yield as much Col—the ingame currency—or EXP, but they had a tendency to offer special rewards like weapons or armor with extra effects.

"And this," she said, stopping before the huge wooden castle on the northernmost edge of the outpost, "is Fort Reclamation."

"Reclamation?"

"Yep. As far as what that's supposed ta mean…" It seemed as though she'd read the question on my mind. "No one seems ta know just yet. I guess we'll find out later in the story. But I can give ya a little background, at least."

"Are you gonna charge me?"

"Nah, the info's useless. Flavor text, y'know? Not worth chargin' for."

"Alright, let's hear it."

"The story NPCs'll tell ya that they're explorers. They've come here to what's called 'the Hollow'—that's the worldspace—to map it 'n' analyze the magical anomaly that caused it ta have such diverse terrain. Y'know, 'for science' 'n' stuff. However, word is that some folk have overheard NPCs say they're lookin' for somethin'."

"What could that be?"

She shrugged and offered a careless smirk. "Who knows?"

"Well…" I replied, scratching my cheek and staring up at the castle to avoid making eye contact. "You were right. That information was useless."

. . .

After registering each other as friends, Nezumi the Info Broker—as she referred to herself—and I said our goodbyes and I made my way back toward the center of Tent City. I found the Noticeboard and started browsing the quests that were available to me, which wasn't a lot because my level was still at one. Most of the quests called for the player to slay a number of Dire Wolves, Frenzy Boars, or both, so it seemed safe to say that the early area didn't consist of a great deal more than that. Boars and wolves were easy enough to deal with in typical MMOs, but the quests called for a lot of them. The easiest quest on the Noticeboard required the player to kill fifty Frenzy Boars, which would take a single player at my level forever to complete. I guessed that these quests were designed to encourage players to group up and form parties. My problem, though, was that I hadn't bought Sword Art: Legacy with any friends of mine and I was pretty awkward when it came to striking up conversations in the real world—and the graphics here in Legacy were plenty realistic enough to trigger than anxiety.

I looked around the plaza at the center of town to see groups of players chatting with each other. No one seemed to notice me standing alone at the center of the crowd. In a standard MMO I could type up a message and have it display above my avatar's head in a permanent thought bubble—something like "looking for party" —and within no time someone would approach me and send a party invitation. I didn't think Legacy had a feature like that, and I figured shouting "looking for party!" over and over again in the center of town would make me look like a jackass, so that was out.

Without any other viable strategies, I picked up a few quests from the Noticeboard and headed through the main gate and into the field just outside town. The quests I'd accepted all listed "kill Frenzy Boars" as their requirements. I wouldn't get any of them done quickly, but at least I'd be making progress with more than one quest at a time.

I looked around the field and spotted a single Frenzy Boar separate from the rest of the mobs. None of the countless parties in the field had their eyes on it, so I bounded toward it and drew my sword from the scabbard on my back. The boar noticed me as it heard the hiss of my blade leaving its scabbard. I stopped in my tracks and held my breath, waiting to see what would happen. Without hesitating, the boar pawed the ground with its hoof a few times and began to charge in my direction. I stood calmly, firmly, ready to meet my foe with the confidence of a true swordsman.

"Crap!" I panicked. The boar seemed so life-like… Despite this being a game—despite my knowing that this was a game—the impossibly-realistic boar triggered my fight-or-flight response and, for a moment, it felt just like I imagined it would to have a wild animal bearing down on me in the real world. I dove to my right, flopping on my belly as the beast trampled past me. I was still lying prone on the ground by the time the boar finished its charge and turned around, and when it saw me and snorted I could have sworn it was taunting me.

"Eheheh…" I laughed nervously, watching the Frenzy Boar consider another charge as if it were playing with its food. I thought about trying to stand, but worried that might provoke another attack. So I lay there on my back, propped up on my elbows, allowing myself to be amused by what I was sure would become the epic tale of my first death in Sword Art: Legacy.

"Hah!" I heard a kiai and saw a flash of blue light, then the Frenzy Boar stood stock-still for a moment and glowed bright white before bursting into countless polygonal shards which twirled gracefully in the air before disappearing. When the boar's shape had dispersed there was a female avatar with waves of crimson red hair and blazing eyes of the same shade standing in its place. She sheathed her sword in the scabbard on her left hip and offered her hand. "Are you OK?" she asked. Her voice was firm, but also smooth as silk and had a pleasant ring to it.

"Y…yeah, thanks for the save." I took the female avatar's hand and she pulled me to a standing position with relative ease.

"It was nothing," she said, tilting her head and smiling. "I hope I'm not being too forward, but you seem to be new to FullDive games. Am I correct in assuming so?"

Dammit. "Ahahah…yeah. Is it really that obvious?"

"I—I didn't mean anything by it!" Her avatar blushed and she waved her hands frantically in front of her. "Ugh, this is coming out all wrong… Let's start again. I'm Mathilde." Mathilde smiled again and bowed.

"Nice to meet you…Ma-chi-ru…da…?"

She giggled. "I know the pronunciation is kind of difficult, but I thought the name suited the fantasy setting quite well. Try again—'Mathilde.'"

"Matiruda…"

"That's better. You'll get the hang of it with practice, I'm sure."

"R…right…"

"And what's your name, if I may ask?"

At that moment I saw two players walking toward us. One held a spear with a simple stone tip and the other carried a large, wooden tower shield and wore a mace on his right hip. Before I could answer Mathilde's question, the tank-looking player with the shield called out to us. "Hey, Mathilde!" He waved emphatically as he shouted.

"Hey, Ashrith!" Mathilde waved back and waited for the two players to reach us.

"How's the newbie?" the spear wielder asked. "Hope he didn't cry too much." The spear wielder snickered, but there was a sort of playfulness to his tone. Mathilde didn't seem to pick up on it, though.

"Be nice, Goku. After all, you ran away from your first fight, didn't you?"

"Y-you didn't have to go and tell him that!"

Ashrith, the tank with the huge shield and equally huge avatar, laughed heartily. "What's wrong, Goku? Don't want to look bad in front of your junior?"

"Hrmph…" The one they called "Goku" crossed his arms and leaned lazily on his spear.

"Goku…?" I looked at the spear wielder and raised an eyebrow.

"Yup, Songoku. Goku for short. Wanted to be a staff user or as close to that as I could get, so I called myself 'Songoku' in honor of the legendary character from 'Journey to the West.'"

"Hmmm…" I stared hard at Songoku. Something about his care-free attitude and spiky black hair made me think he wasn't telling the full truth about the origin of his name.

"Wh…what?" Goku looked back at me nervously.

"So you're named after that character, right?" I smirked.

"Huh? What do you mean? I told you who I named myself after."

"I heard you, but you can't fool me. I know the truth."

"I…I don't know what you're talking about…!" Songoku looked at me pleadingly as Mathilde and Ashrith just stared at us with blank expressions. Of course they wouldn't know any other Son Goku than Sun Wukong from the famous novel "Journey to the West." After all, who would remember the protagonist's name from an anime that first aired almost fifty years ago? I would, that's who.

"Son Goku is a well-known character from a very famous Chinese novel," Goku continued, rambling now. "Any cultured person knows that! Which is what I am! A very cultured person. As if I could be referring to any other Son Goku…"

"You're right," I said. I reached forward to slap him on the shoulder. "I'm just pullin' your leg." From one otaku to another I decided to let him off the hook. But I shot him a glance that said I'd be keeping this little fact in the back of my mind for later.

Songoku swallowed hard, then sighed and the tension left his avatar's shoulders. Then Ashrith stepped in. "In any case, I'm Ashrith. You've already met Songoku and Mathilde. So what's your name, newbie?"

"…Nanashi."

"Ha!" Goku blurted out and pointed at me. "You had the nerve to rag on me for my name? You don't even have one!"

"I couldn't think of a name and didn't want to spend too much time on it because I was excited to play! I figured I could get the hang of the game, then go back and make another character later with a better name."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Mathilde interjected before Goku could say something else. "It's not all that uncommon to put down a name quickly, then go back later and put more thought into what you'd like to be called."

"That's right. Put 'er there, Nanashi!" Ashrith boomed, extending his hand in a traditional western greeting. I reached out for it and he grasped my hand tightly and shook firmly three times. "Nice to meetcha."

"Likewise."

"Nanashi?" Mathilde stepped forward, smiling. "Would you like to join our party? We could show you a thing or two about combat, if you're interested."

"I can handle tank duty on my own." Ashrith thumped his chest. "But with Goku in the back providing support that leaves Mathilde on her up out front. We could use another attacker. Fight with us for a while and we'll be even for the tips. So, what do you say?"

I thought back to Nezumi's warning about how other players might try to exploit my inexperience, but these guys didn't seem bad. So I decided to go for it. I wasn't getting anywhere on my own, anyway. "Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks for having me."

Mathilde swiped her hand downward in midair and I saw her poke at options in her menu. After a few seconds, a window appeared before me with a message reading "Mathilde invited you to the party. Accept?" and two buttons—a red one on the left with a white "X" and a blue one with a white "O" on the right. I tapped the blue button and the window disappeared. At the same time, three more HP bars appeared beneath mine. The first was Mathilde's with a small, golden crown icon. I took that to mean she was the party leader. Beneath hers was Songoku's, followed by Ashrith's.

"Alright! Let's get started!" Ashrith roared as he stomped off toward another Frenzy Boar while pumping his fist in the air. Goku followed him, howling and waving his spear around above his head.

"Come on!" Mathilde smiled at me over her shoulder as she hurried to catch up to the others, then looked ahead and quickened her pace.

"You got it!" I jogged behind her and we stopped short a few meters away from the boar Ashrith had targeted.

"OK, Nanashi," Mathilde said in a serious tone. "Ashrith will get its attention. Once he does, we'll hit it from both sides with Sword Skills…" As she spoke, Ashrith thumped his mace against his shield. Then the head of his mace glowed an orangish-yellow and he leaped forward, slamming it into the boar's skull. "Now!" Mathilde darted forward and rushed to the other side of the boar.

"Wait—! Sword…Skill…?" I hurried into place and drew my sword from my scabbard, holding it by my side perpendicular to the ground like a baseball bat. On the other side of the boar Mathilde held her sword by her left side parallel to the ground with the tip pointing behind her and the blade began to glow blue. She leaped to her right, leading with her left foot, and her sword carved a brilliant blue arc in the air as it passed through the boar, leaving behind a gash which sent red particles flying. I assumed the particles were meant to represent blood. Mathilde's attack took nearly half the Frenzy Boar's HP and left it stunned.

"Nanashi, now!"

"R…right!" With both hands I lifted my sword above my head and grunted as I swung it down on the boar. I had hoped it would do something like Mathilde's had, but the blade didn't glow at all. I felt a bit of resistance as my weapon hit the boar's flank and tore through its virtual flesh. I wanted to take a moment to marvel at the realism, but figured this was probably not a good time for that. Once my sword finished its journey downward I turned the blade over and swung upwards. The tip grazed the boar's belly and cut deeper as it travelled back up its flank. As I finished the second cut I overextended myself and lost my balance, tripping over my own foot. On my brief journey back to the ground I was beginning to grow accustomed to existing on, I looked over my shoulder at the boar's HP bar.

"!?"

I had barely scratched it. My two attacks had done just enough so that its HP bar was at less than fifty percent and had turned yellow now, but that was about all I had accomplished. "Why…?" I wailed as I hit the ground. Why had Mathilde's single attack done so much more than my two? Was the difference in our levels that great?

"I got it," said Goku from behind Ashrith. Ashrith stepped aside and the tip of Songoku's spear glowed brightly, the same way Mathilde's sword had, and he jabbed the boar twice—swiftly, but with great force. The Frenzy Boar's aggro shifted to him, but before it could close in on Goku, Ashrith stepped back into place and held the boar back with his shield. The exchange had given Mathilde enough time to recover and she hit the monster again in the same way as before. Its HP bar shrank and disappeared, then the boar burst into polygonal shards.

"Oooh." I clapped from my sitting position in the dirt, applauding their teamwork and precision.

"Nanashi," Mathilde looked down at me with her hands on her hips. "You don't know how to use Sword Skills, do you?"

"What are Sword Skills?"

She smiled as she sighed and shook her head. "Stand up. Open your menu."

I got to my feet and swiped my hand downward to call up my menu.

"The second item on the list is 'Skills.' Press it."

I did as she said and a skill tree like you'd find in most RPGs appeared. Most of the boxes were grayed out and had "?" icons, but there were two skills unlocked by default under every weapon category.

"If you click on a skill it'll give you a brief description of its effects and how to use it," Mathilde said. "Try it."

"Alright…" I tapped one of the icons and the skill's information replaced the skill tree in my window. The skill was called "Slant" and consisted of a single movement. "So this is a Sword Skill…"

"Ready to give it a try?" asked Mathilde.

"Yeah, let's do it."

"That's the spirit!" Ashrith boomed. "Sit tight, I'll pull another boar." Ashrith trotted off toward the center of the field and got just close enough to aggro a Frenzy Boar without the rest of them noticing him. Once he had its attention he jogged back toward us and spun on his heel, facing the boar with his shield at the ready. The boar slammed its tusks into Ashrith's shield and he pushed back, knocking the boar off balance. "Let 'im have it!"

Mathilde's sword glowed, and she slashed the boar's flank just as she'd done before. "Your turn, Nanashi."

"Right!" The skill info page had said to hold my blade low by my left side, so I did just that. It took less than a second for the system to recognize the Sword Skill's pre-motion, and my blade took on a blue glow with a whirring sound effect.

"That's it, Nanashi!" Mathilde cheered. "Now drive it home!"

As soon as I started to move, the system took over and my body acted on its own. I kicked off the ground with my right foot, leaping quickly to the right, and my sword traveled diagonally upward, carving into the boar's flank, as well as the remainder of its HP, and the mob burst and disappeared. When the Sword Skill had ended I landed lightly on the balls of my feet and was stuck in place for a good two and a half seconds. "Whoa…"

"Nicely done." Mathilde patted my shoulder. "Now that you can use Sword Skills, the real farming can begin!"

Mathilde, Songoku, Ashrith and I spent the next two hours farming Frenzy Boars in the field outside Tent City. Once we had gotten the hang of it, we were able to kill the boars in just two attacks—a Horizontal from Mathilde and a Slant from me. Goku only had to step in every now and then when we came across a boar with slightly higher parameters than the rest that didn't go down after the first two hits, though he still gained just as much EXP as the rest of us for being a member of our party. Apparently, the stats for mobs of the same type can fluctuate a little, and that's why some Frenzy Boars were defeated with two Sword Skills while others weren't. In all the time we'd spent farming mobs, my proficiency in the One-handed sword skill category had only gone up by about forty levels out of one thousand and my player level had gone from one to three.

"Jeez…" I said, looking at my status screen. "The leveling in this game is pretty slow. Low-level mobs or not, two hours of farming would have brought me to at least level ten in most standard MMOs.

"Yeah, VRMMOs are hardcore like that," said Goku. "Players will dedicate more of their time to a VRMMO for the immersion alone, so developers have no problem cranking up the time investments necessary to clear the games. They know the players aren't going anywhere."

"Makes sense," I said. "It's pretty addicting."

"Well," Mathilde sighed lightly. "I think I've done enough for now. I'm going to log off and take a break, have something to eat, and all that." She waved her hand in the air and opened her menu. "See you guys later."

We all waved, but after a few moments of poking around in her menu Mathilde was still standing in front of us. "Huh…that's strange…" she said. "The logout button is all grayed out."

"…What…?" I felt a chill go down my spine and my heart began to race, and a part of me was once again impressed by Legacy's realism and the ExcelRig's ability to reproduce such sensations. "Is it like that for everyone?" I opened my menu and scrolled down to the logout button. Sure enough, it was grayed out and pushing it had no effect.

"Yeah, mine's not working, either," said Goku.

"Same here," said Ashrith.

A sense of dread flooded my body, but I took deep breaths and tried to calm myself. Something like that wasn't possible. There were all sorts of rules and regulations in place on FullDive consoles. They couldn't cause their users harm…

"Oh well," Mathilde chimed. "Guess I'll just play a little longer while they sort this out. Hey, you guys remember that huge boar we saw a while back on the far north side of the field?"

Ashrith, Goku and I nodded.

"Why don't we go see about taking it down? At this rate we've all got a handle on combat. If we work together we can beat it easily. What do you say?"

"Hell yeah!" Ashrith pounded his chest and raised his shield high in the air, already heading north. "Let's take it down!"

"I hope it drops something good," said Goku, falling in behind Ashrith.

Mathilde turned to me. "You coming, Nanashi?"

"W…well…"

"Hm? What is it?"

"Aren't you worried…? You know, about not being able to log out? Doesn't this sort of remind you of…"

"Oh, you mean that game, right? Don't sweat it, it's nothing to worry about. Probably just a bug, and if it gets bad enough the devs will log everyone out manually."

"Yeah… I guess you're right."

"Come with us. It'll take your mind off it until we can log out again."

"Sure, I'm right behind you."

Mathilde and I ran to catch up with Ashrith and Goku, and the four of us walked in silence for about half an hour until we reached the far north end of the field where a giant red boar with a black mohawk stood waiting for anyone dumb enough to challenge it. When I focused my gaze on the boar, the system showed its HP bar—or, rather, its two HP bars—and a nametag which read "NM: The Careless Tusk."

Mathilde signaled for us to stop about ten meters away from the Careless Tusk. "OK, what's our plan of attack?"

"I'll take it head on," Ashrith started, "because that's my duty as our tank. Once I've got its attention, you and Nanashi head to either of its flanks, same as before. Then Goku will circle around behind it and play the role of an attacker as well."

"Alright, I like it," said Mathilde. "If its aggro shifts to any of us, make sure to hit it with a Sword Skill, Ashrith. But otherwise stay on the defensive."

"Roger that. Just leave it to me!" Ashrith pounded his chest again, causing a metallic clank as his gauntlet hit his chest plate. We all held our breath for a moment, looking over to see if the Careless Tusk had noticed us. We sighed in relief as the thing continued to pace idly in its spot.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Mathilde's expression turned serious as she looked at the three of us. We all nodded. "Good." She drew her sword and pointed it at the Careless Tusk. "Let's do this!"

"Raaaaagh!" Ashrith roared as he sprinted toward the Careless Tusk at full speed. Mathilde, Goku and I followed about a meter behind him to make sure that he was the first to gain its aggro. Once it was clear the monster had targeted Ashrith, the three of us split off, surrounding it.

As soon as we were in position, Mathilde and I attacked the boar simultaneously, she with Horizontal and I with Slant. Less than a second after our skill animations had finished, Goku hit the creature's rear end with a two-part Sword Skill of his own. The Careless Tusk roared furiously and began turning to its left, either to target me or turn around completely and attack Goku, but just as it began to turn, Ashrith rested his mace on his left shoulder and, as soon as it began to glow, swung twice, each blow hitting the Careless Tusk's right shoulder with a satisfying thud. The Careless Tusk roared again and shifted its attention back to Ashrith, rearing up on its hind legs and slamming its tusks into Ashrith's shield. The impact caused Ashrith to slide backward, but he kept his footing.

"Rrgh," Ashrith grunted as he held the creature back. In the top left corner of my vision I saw the green of Ashrith's HP bar shrink considerably.

"You OK!?" I called out to him.

"Yeah, don't sweat it! This is nothing!"

"Stay focused!" Mathilde called, snapping our attention back to the battle. The Careless Tusk used a two-part skill, slamming its tusks into Ashrith's shield twice, the second hit breaking Ashrith's guard and leaving him vulnerable. "Hit it now!" Mathilde called to Goku and I. We activated our Sword Skills as quickly as we could and our attacks stunned it long enough for Ashrith to regain his stance.

"Thanks for that!" he called.

By this point Ashrith's HP was already in the yellow. "Maybe we should fall back," I suggested. "I'm not sure our tank can take much more of this."

"No way!" cried Ashrith. "I'll be right as rain after I down a few pots. Plus, even if I die, it's just a game so we've got no excuse not to give it our all!" Ashrith popped the cork off a green HP potion with his teeth, spat it out, and started to chug while the Careless Tusk was between actions. His logic was sound, but my mind wandered to our grayed out logout buttons and I felt that same chill again. But the Careless Tusk reared up on its hind legs, snapping me out of my contemplation.

"It looks like an AoE attack!" Mathilde warned as she lowered her stance. "Brace yourselves!" The Careless Tusk slammed its hooves into the ground, the force creating a shockwave that sent Goku, Mathilde and I flying, leaving Ashrith the only one still standing. I tried to stand up, but it was no use.

"I'm stuck…my body won't move!"

"It's a stun effect." Mathilde said. Just then I noticed three little stars beside my HP bar—the universal sign for a stun effect in RPGs. "Try to stay calm, it'll wear off in a few seconds."

"Right, but…" I looked to Ashrith who struggled to keep the monster's attention on him, his HP dropping by the second.

"Don't worry, I've got you guys covered," he growled as he slid back further and further across the grass.

"Sit tight, Ashrith! We're coming!" Goku shouted. "You rock, dude!"

As soon as the stun effect wore off the three of us bolted to our feet and back into position around the Careless Tusk, hitting it with Sword Skills all at once. The fight went on like this for about twenty minutes before the first of the Careless Tusk's two HP bars was nearly drained. The four of us cheered after another successful team attack brought its HP to its second bar, which turned yellow as it marked the halfway point.

"Yeah!" Ashrith roared. "Home stretch!"

"If we keep at it like this, we'll be done in no time!" Goku hooted from behind the monster.

But the Careless Tusk cut our celebration short.

It roared louder than ever before, causing the ground to tremble and the air to vibrate. It's eyes glowed red.

"Ashrith! Watch out!" But Mathilde's warning came too late. The Careless Tusk stood up on its hind legs once again and slammed back down on the ground, then began to charge. Ashrith tried to hold his ground, keeping his shield in front of him. The soles of his boots screeched as the Careless Tusk pushed him several meters back. At the end of its charge the Careless Tusk tossed its head back, breaking Ashrith's guard and knocking him to the ground.

"Ah—hngh!" Ashrith called out in shock when he was sent airborne and uttered a choked grunt when he hit the ground with a thud.

"Ashrith!" Mathilde pulled her sword back parallel to the ground and held it until the blade began to glow, then, faster than I could blink, her body zipped forward, closing the distance between her and the Careless Tusk and leaving behind a faint trail of blue light. The tip of her blade pierced the Careless Tusk's haunch, but, even if she had generated enough hate to shift the monster's aggro to her, its attack animation hadn't finished yet.

The Careless Tusk reared up again and slammed its front hooves into Ashrith's armored chest. There was a metallic crunching sound as the attack pierced Ashrith's chest plate and the steadfast tank screamed. I couldn't tell if it was from shock, pain, or both. His cry was cut off as the green of his HP bar shrank, turning yellow and then red before disappearing entirely, and his avatar glowed brightly for a brief moment before shattering into a thousand pieces. In the top left corner of my vision, Ashrith's HP bar turned black and displayed the word "DEAD."

"D…dammit…!" Mathilde choked. Even though we all knew it was a game, the image was undeniably shocking. Mathilde's shoulders fell and she stood frozen in place.

"It's alright," called Goku, running toward the Careless Tusk. "We'll see Ashrith back in town. For now, let's avenge him!"

"R-right!" Mathilde's voice trembled a bit, but she shook her head and her steely, commanding tone was back. "Come on, Nanashi! Let's kill this thing!"

"I'm right behind you!" I hurried over to join them.

"Goku, fall back! Standby for support and draw aggro if needed."

"Roger!" Songoku hopped backward, standing at the ready with his spear.

"Nanashi, we'll take turns using Sword Skills. Make sure to dodge when it attacks. You can't afford to get hit, even if you're blocking."

"R…right…!" Admittedly, a part of me wanted to cut my losses and run. What was the point? How were we supposed to beat this thing without a tank?

The Careless Tusk pawed the ground, kicking back dirt as it eyed Mathilde malevolently with its glowing red eyes. The girl stood strong and waited patiently for the beast to attack. It swung twice with its tusks and she sidestepped each swipe carefully. Then she slung her blade over her right shoulder and swung diagonally downward. The cut left a vicious red arc in the air, and the Careless Tusk screeched and reeled back, stunned.

"Now, Nanashi!" I was already moving before Mathilde called the order, lowering my blade and cutting upward to the right with Slant.

The Careless Tusk shook off the stun effect and stood tall on its hind legs. Mathilde and I recognized this action and hopped back about two meters, just barely escaping the AoE attack's range. As soon as the animation ended, Mathilde closed the distance with the same charging Sword Skill she'd used earlier, leaving a blue trail of light in her wake.

With Mathilde stuck in her post-skill animation and me still moving back to the battle, Goku stepped in and hit the boar's haunch with a two-part Sword Skill, drawing its attention away from Mathilde.

As the Careless Tusk spun on its axis to face Goku, I used Slant and hit it square in the snout. Then, before it could attack me, Mathilde hit it again with Horizontal.

The Careless Tusk roared loud again, shaking the earth. I recognized this as the start of a skill—the same skill that had killed Ashrith just moments ago. The monster was glaring at Mathilde again with its vicious red eyes.

"Mathilde, get out of the way! It's gonna charge!" But Mathilde ignored my warning. Instead of moving, she stood there, slinging her blade over her right shoulder again and it took on a red glow—the pre-motion for the same diagonal Sword Skill she'd used just a moment ago. As soon as the Careless Tusk began to charge, Mathilde unleashed her Sword Skill. However, instead of standing still and cutting downward like before, Mathilde leaped high into the air. She somersaulted forward in midair and, as she did so, cleaved a red gash across the Careless Tusk's spine before landing softly on her feet while the boar charged uselessly away from her.

I couldn't help but stand there, my mouth agape, staring at her in awe. She was incredible. She knew just what skills to use and when to use them, kept a cool head, and she was a natural leader to boot. Then there was Songoku and Ashrith, both respectable players in their own right, with Ashrith's indomitable fighting spirit and Goku never missing a beat in picking up everyone's slack. And here I was, a newbie who only knew how to use a single Sword Skill. For a moment I wondered whether or not I was just holding them back.

As the Careless Tusk turned around to face us, Mathilde spoke. "It's HP is in the red, now. Let's finish it off. I'll go first, then Nanashi, then you, Goku. Get ready."
"You got it." Goku answered without hesitation, but I wasn't as confident.

"Don't worry," Mathilde assured me, as if my concerns were written on my face. "You can do it."

The Careless Tusk began another charging attack. It was different from the one it had just used. It didn't roar, and its eyes didn't glow. This was likely a more simple charging attack that its AI instructed it to use when its target was a certain distance away from it. Mathilde stepped to her left and used her charging Sword Skill, flying straight past the Careless Tusk and grazing its flank as she did. "Your turn, Nanashi!" she called back to me.

I waited for the monster to reach me, holding my breath and praying that my timing wouldn't be off. As soon as it was close enough, I hit the creature's tusk with Slant, taking out a small chunk of its HP and knocking it off balance, cancelling its skill as well as my own. Once I could move again, I dropped to the ground on one knee, hoping Goku would pick up on the signal. He figured it out and wasted no time, using a Sword Skill to swing his spear in two graceful arcs over my head, hitting the Careless Tusk from behind me.

The huge red boar squealed one last time as its HP hit zero and its model glowed white before bursting unceremoniously into polygonal shards.

"Woo-hoo!" Goku hooted and jumped into the air while Mathilde calmly and coolly returned her sword to its scabbard at her hip. I sighed in relief and found myself feeling exhausted all of a sudden.

"Good job, guys. Let's head back to town and find Ashrith." Mathilde started for the south end of the field.

"Yeah, I'm beat after all that," Goku said as he caught up to her.

"Wait a sec…"

"Hm?" They both turned to face me.

"Look here…" I pointed to where the HP bars for the party were displayed in my field of vision. Their eyes shifted upward and to their left as they examined it as well. Ashrith's name was still listed with the others in the party, but instead of an HP bar there was a grayed out icon reading "disconnected."

"Huh," Mathilde mused. "He must have found a way to log out while we were busy fighting."

"Yeah…I guess so…" I muttered. But something didn't feel right. I opened my menu and scrolled down to the logout button, but it was still grayed out. Then I looked at the clock in the upper right corner of my vision which read "18:58."

"Look at that," said Goku, pointing to the spot where his clock would be. "It's already seven o'clock and they still haven't fixed this logout bug yet."

"Yeah… It's definitely strange." Mathilde furrowed her brow.

The chill from before returned again, spreading throughout my body and I found it hard to breathe, like I'd just been running for a long time. "What do we do now?" I asked. "Should we try to contact the GMs?"

"No use. That setting is grayed out, too." Goku drove the butt of his spear into the ground and leaned on the shaft.

"Let's do as we'd planned and head back to Tent City," Mathilde suggested. "Maybe there will be some sort of update on the situation there. Let's hurry."

"Yeah, that's a good—" a loud sound effect cut me off as all three of our avatars began to glow. The world around me was washed out with white, and when the glow died down I was back in Tent City, which was lit brightly by lanterns hung from posts on every structure and lining the pathways. I looked around me at a sea of confused players, searching for Mathilde and Goku. Everywhere I turned there were players wandering about, looking for their comrades, while others were still appearing in the camp. "Mathilde! Goku!?" I called out. But they were nowhere in sight.

"What's going on?" I heard a player ask their friend. "Think this has something to do with the logout button?"

"Yeah, probably. At least, it had better be about that. Talk about annoying!"

After about ten minutes the teleportation effect stopped playing, suggesting that every player who was currently logged in to Sword Art: Legacy had been successfully relocated to Tent City. A few players had gotten bored while waiting and tried to leave the camp, but they'd been met with barriers preventing their exit. We were all stuck here until the end of this "event" or whatever it was.

"Is something gonna happen…?" I wondered aloud. Even though it seemed every player had been moved, another ten minutes had gone by without anything happening. The players were getting anxious, and it seemed like if this went on any longer people might start to panic. I might start to panic. As I looked around at the frightened mob of players I felt an overwhelming sense of dread. I was sure someone was watching us…

"Greetings, players!" A loud, booming voice echoed throughout the encampment and shocked me out of my thoughts. The players' heads swiveled all around, looking for the source of the voice, but it seemed to come from every direction. "Welcome," the voice continued, "to Sword Art: Legacy. I want to thank you all for embarking on this grand journey with me.

"I am Daisuke Hirata, creator of Sword Art: Legacy as well as the ExcelRig. I want to tell you all a bit about Sword Art: Legacy and how it came to be. It started with a dream, you see. A dream to make the world a better place. Our world is filled to the brim with people who work hard, every day, to give back to society… But, unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone…" The malice was palpable in the disembodied voice. "There are those who would rather spend their lives indulging in their hobbies, doing nothing but consuming the work of others. My idol in the field of science once created a world whose fate he controlled in an effort to teach this particular group of people a lesson. He hoped that those who bore witness to his work would see the dangers of giving in to the sin of sloth. My idol gave his life to teach that lesson… Even so, that particular group of people continues to be a plague on society. Thus, it is my dream to continue that man's work and rid this world of those who refuse to serve a purpose. In other words, Sword Art: Legacy is a tribute to the genius of…"

Hirata paused as if to torment us as we all waited, holding our breath. My hands began to tremble and my breath caught in my throat as I prayed he wouldn't say the name that was racing through my mind.

"Akihiko Kayaba."

A few sharp gasps pierced the silence as the name reverberated throughout the encampment. "No…no way…" I choked.

"On that note," Hirata continued after another torturous pause. "By now you've all doubtless realized that the logout button in your menu has no function. This is not a bug, but a feature of my design. It has been this way since you first logged in. Additionally, it is not possible for someone to log you out manually from the real world. Should someone disconnect your ExcelRig from its power source for longer than ten seconds, or so much as attempt to remove the rig from your head, it will immediately transmit a signal called the 'Killcode' directly to your brain.

"The Killcode is a program containing an overabundance of sensory data that will overload your brain. The data consists mostly of pain simulation, similar to what you experience when you take damage in-game, though on a much greater scale, and is more than enough to cause circulatory shock and, inevitably, death."

"He's lying," I said aloud with a hiss, mostly to myself. But a number of frightened faces turned to me, so I continued. "There are strict safety regulations enforced on all FullDive consoles. It's been that way since the SAO Incident. There's no way the ExcelRig would have been released to the public if it had the capability to transmit that much sensory data all at once. What's more, FullDive consoles aren't allowed to have internal batteries, so once the power is cut there's no way it could administer a signal like that." Having reasoned through it all verbally I felt more confident in what I'd said. The shaking in my hands had stopped and I clenched my fists triumphantly.

Daisuke Hirata continued as though he had heard me. "Some of you may have reasoned that what I've said is impossible based on the regulations imposed on FullDive consoles for the safety of their users. Let me assure you, everything I've said is true.

"When the ExcelRig underwent the safety evaluations that all FullDive consoles are subject to, it would have appeared no different in functionality than any other machine of its kind, with its more 'special' features carefully hidden. It was the mandatory software update you were all prompted to download before being granted access to Sword Art: Legacy that contained the Killcode and disabled the logout feature. Additionally, this software update allowed the ExcelRig to draw more power from its energy source than is necessary for normal operations. It is able to store just enough power to administer the Killcode should its power cable be disconnected."

"Hey…" A player standing behind me pulled on my shoulder to make me face him. "He's crazy, right? You can discredit that crap, too, right?" His grip was tight and his eyes pleaded me to reassure him.

"I…I don't know…"

The truth was that he wasn't crazy. A software update containing this "Killcode" thing was easy enough to distribute. All Hirata had to account for, then, was the fact that he couldn't equip the ExcelRig with an internal battery. He didn't need one, though. The ExcelRig didn't fry the user's brain with microwave pulses like the NerveGear had five years ago. Something like the Killcode would only need a second to reach the brain. It wasn't impossible for the rig to draw more power than it needed for normal operation—in fact, most gaming consoles already did that. I remembered being amused on more than a few occasions by the block on my game consoles' power cords continuing to glow for a while after they had been unplugged from the wall. When I was younger, I was sure it was magic.

"This is bullshit!" someone blurted. "Let us out of here already!"

"There is only one way to escape from Sword Art: Legacy," Hirata said. "You must clear the game. However…it is important to note that there is no longer any way for a slain player to respawn. If your HP drops to zero your avatar will be deleted from the system. At that time, your ExcelRig will transmit the Killcode to your brain, ending your life." There was something unsettling about Hirata's tone as he spoke the last three words of that sentence. He almost sounded smug, boasting that our lives were in danger.

Then, something dawned on me.

"Oh my god…"

It felt as though my blood had frozen solid and someone had punched me in the gut. I couldn't breathe as I stood there, stock-still, and the image of Ashrith screaming in pain as his avatar shattered played back in my head. When I looked in the corner of my vision at the HP bars underneath mine, Ashrith's, which had read "disconnected" before, was gone. If what Hirata said was true, and all of these features had been activate since before the game went live, then Ashrith was…

"Th-this isn't real…" I stammered. "This can't be real. Please tell me this is just a bad dream, or a joke, or something!" I doubled over and held my head in my hands, and my eyes bulged. I started to hyperventilate. This just couldn't be happening. Nothing like this had happened in the five years I'd avoided VR games, so why? Why now? Why me?

"This is no ruse," Hirata said, again seemingly hearing our doubt. "As a result of attempted manual logout, one thousand two hundred nineteen of the ten thousand players that were allowed onto the server have been terminated. One thousand nine hundred seventy eight players have perished at the hands of monsters." I let out a choked sob as Hirata bragged of the deaths in the category under which Ashrith fell. "And six hundred twenty four players have died as a result of PvP. Though you may find all of this hard to believe, you will have your proof as time passes and you find yourselves still trapped within this world.

"And that concludes the opening ceremony of Sword Art: Legacy. Farewell, players, and good luck. Oh—and one last thing. I had nearly forgotten."

As Daisuke Hirata's voice echoed and faded away, every avatar throughout Tent City began to glow, filling the entire encampment with a blinding white light. When the glow faded, I looked around me to see that the cast of brightly-colored fantasy characters that once made up the playerbase had been replaced with ordinary people, mostly Japanese in origin. Looking at my reflection in the water of a nearby fountain, I realized that my painstakingly-crafted hero avatar, with his blonde hair and courageous smile, had been replaced by the long mess of brown hair, dark blue, almond-shaped eyes, and utterly average frame that made up my appearance in the real world. I wondered why Hirata would bother with replacing our in-game avatars with our real bodies. What was the point?

The barrier trapping the players within Tent City disappeared, but no one moved. Everyone stood still as the gravity of our situation slowly sank in until, finally, someone screamed, triggering pandemonium as players shrieked and called out the names of loved ones, begging for the nightmare to end. But as an hour of chaos passed, then two, then three, no one came to save us.

. . .