Two words changed my life. Two words that lead to the best, worst, and craziest two years that I could ever experience.
When my brother and I first heard about the Nerve Gear. We instantly wrote it off as another VR platform that was gonna be way too expensive and out of our price range. But come to find out it was so much more. The Nerve Gear was a full Dive System that basically beamed you into the world of the game. And was aimed to have a much lower price range to allow for as many people to play as possible. So we shelled and bought the headsets. All the while longing to play the Nerve Gears first full dive VRMMO.
Sword art Online was originally slated for launch exclusively in Japan. But when my brother and I were playing a different game, we were approached by two random people. They asked if we wanted to play Sword Art Online, or more commonly known as SAO. Both of us wrote them off as con artists trying to get some money. But, a game admin himself confirmed that they were legit workers that were scouting for hearty players to participate in the US to test the international servers before SAO launched around the world.
So we agreed and outside of the game we were able to video chat with the man that was heading the whole project, Akihiko Kayaba. Thanks to advances in technology we were able to talk without needing to have a translator. He said he had picked us as well as 100 others in the US to participate.
He said that we showed the most dedication and the best attitude that he had ever seen. We didn't really understand what he was talking about but we didn't really care. He was giving us a chance to play SAO, we weren't about to say no. Especially since they were able to implement the translate feature into VR.
So we prepared ourselves for the best gaming experience we could imagine.
1
My brother and I were sitting in the living room of our apartment, listening to a live stream of the launch of SAO. People swarmed the store to attempt to be one of the 10,000 people to score a hard copy of the game. We watched as people ran out and screamed in excitement, others taking group pictures with their games held up. It was as if you could feel their energy through the screen.
It was pumping me up and I could tell it was pumping my brother up too. He was rocking back in his chair while tapping on his desk. I was sitting on one of two couches we were gonna use to lay down in while we were in the game, watching the TV that sat on his desk.
"Man look at them run, would be awesome to be there." He snarks.
"You're telling me, I've never seen a mob quite like that," I replied.
"For sure", he knelt down next me and grabbed my shoulders and asked forcefully but playfully "So is everything ready? Huh? Huh? Is it?"
"It's been ready and running for a half a week now, but you know me, getting this put all together and not running into a single problem has me paranoid," I replied. "It would suck to have them crash while in there. Who knows what that could do."
"SSSSHHHH! don't go jinxing it you fool!" He said. We have always had some rotten luck, we never expect everything to go off without a hitch. So to have the Nerve Gear arrive on time and work properly is quite the shock.
Then our phones go off simultaneously to tell us to get ready. We both set our alarms to go off 3 minutes before SAO goes live.
"Yes... YES!" I hear my brother shout from the kitchen. I must have been focused on testing everything because I didn't even notice him walk into the kitchen. I clicked the icon that starts up SAO on his screen, then walked over and did the same for mine. The Nerve Gears both beep and the indicator lights turned on.
"Jesus it's about damn time, I don't know how long I could stand waiting around," I said in a simulated exhausted voice. "Alright, the headsets are warmed up. Everything looks good." It's still bugging me that nothing has messed up yet.
"I can tell when you think something is off. Whats up?" My brother who had returned from the kitchen asked.
"Nothing really, Just my mind racing is all," I replied. "Ok man lay down. It's time to get ready. We decided on the names we were gonna use in-game right?"
"I'm still torn. Choosing a name is so hard, always has been." He said, sitting on the couch
"I agree, good thing we got past games for that. I think you know what I am using. It's the same name I always use" I said.
"Oh, I know, Mr. Original. Flastor, right?" He said, smiling at me.
"Damn straight, I like it. And for you, why don't you just use your warlocks name?"
"You mean Maj? Majiku..." He thought for a minute, then smiled. "You know what, that sounds good. Majiku it is!" He shouts excitedly.
"Good deal, so as soon as we get in we friend each other so we can find each other. Then we immediately go hunting and grab all the quests we can. I want to be ahead of all the potential assholes out there," I explain.
"Agreed, use our same strategy for other sure we stay close, but also make sure we move as quickly as possible. Now come on, lay your ass down and let's go!" He flopped down onto the couch and put the Nerve Gear on his head. "Oh, here we go, Link Start!" All at once I see his body go limp and I know he's in.
"Alright, I guess it's my turn," I said to myself. I checked my phone and see that a friend of mine said he was on the way. So I ran down to leave the door to the complex open. I ran back up the stairs skipping two at a time. I sent him a message that said to keep an eye on the live stream that Kayaba was doing, to explain how SAO was played and also expresses the safety concerns about people playing using the Nervegear. I laid down on the couch opposite my brother and said the same words he did.
"Link Start!"
I felt a rush as my mind left my body and entered the virtual world. Before I knew it I was in a white room with an interface in front of me. The menu read "Character Customization". I didn't really get into detail on the customization. I got to the point of naming my character and typed "Flastor". A female voice echoed through the room.
"You are now going to be entered into the world of SAO known as Aincrad. Play hard and enjoy the game"
Suddenly my vision went dark, and stayed that way for a minute, even though it felt like ten. Then there was a flash of light and I was standing in the center of a town, surrounded by other people. I could hear the same "This is badass" comments every couple of seconds. I had to agree, this was amazing. It felt exactly like my body, I could smell different smells, and feel wind just like I was in the real world.
No wonder the manual said to only play for an hour or so until you were able to discern the real and virtual worlds. I start walking around looking for my brother, though it's pointless looking because I have no idea what he was going to look like. Then, a message popped up saying "New Friend Request from MAJIKU"
"Good man, he didn't change on me last minute" I clicked the yellow accept button, and immediately a person, that was about 5 feet from, flashed and his cursor above his head went from green to blue. "That must be him" I ran up behind him and jumped on his back. "Surprise bro!"
"Jesus Christ, Hi!" He said as he wiggled me off. "So what do you make of this man? We are in a virtual world. It feels so real it's ridiculous."
"I know right? It's crazy, but we are here. So let's get to work. As much as I really want to explore this town, we need to try to get a head-start on progressing."
"I hear ya, we will come back after we advance to about level 5 or so and explore." We are always on the same page it's freaky sometimes.
"I was literally thinking the same thing. Let's get going!" We both start sprinting towards the gate in the distance. Not knowing that in the real world, things had taken a massive turn for the worst.
2
We finally got our excitement under control and started strategizing. Throughout the week we poured over the SAO manual reading about the different styles of combat and how to effectively fight while in Aincrad. We practiced in the field right outside of town as to not aggro any monsters. We swung our swords and tested how different sword skills worked.
The game provided one of each weapon type available in the game for 20 minutes before you picked which one you wanted to pursue.
"So, Flastor, What are you thinking? I am probably going to go Two-Handed Sword. Try to pack as much punch in a single blow as I can."
"Well, Majiku, I was thinking more One-Handed sword, I've always liked to strike as fast as possible. Plus with actually fighting using my real body it would feel really cool to actually pull some of these moves off on the skills list." We emphasize our in-game names just cause we can't help it.
"Same with my reasoning on the Two-Handed. I'm watching little clips of what these skills look like if done properly and it's just great, I'm also thinking I'm gonna roll as a tank since there aren't any healing specs. It would probably be wise if one of us was a tank to make sure we stay alive."
We continue to strategize and make sure we have everything down to a science.
"Yo Maj, let's duel."
"Oh ho.. Am I in the presence of a badass? More like a wannabe badass." he replied.
"Bite me, I was mainly thinking we could get a sense of fighting here before we go into the field. It would be awkward to die from a freakin' pig. I'd never get over it" We both laughed and decided to duel. But instead of going all out we just spared. ade sure to not actually hit each other. After we determined that we were ready I surrendered the duel.
"Alright, I think we are ready, bro. Let's go kick ass!" I said.
We both left for our first quest, which was to kill 10 of the boars that roam around the area known as the Town of Beginnings.
"Alright here would be a good time to split up, make sure to stay within twenty meters from each other so we can get to each other if we have to. Keep an eye on each other's HP" Majiku said. I nodded in agreement.
"Let's go kill some boars then!"
About two hours had passed and we didn't even realize it. We went from killing boars, to running errands for a merchant in town (which allowed us to explore while running around). To killing some high level.. plant... things... Well, they were called Neptunes. That proved slightly difficult especially since it was the first time where we had to engage an enemy one at a time because they had so much health. So we began a practice that we read in the manual called "Switching". Where a tank, in our case Majiku, would stand front and draw aggro until he had a skill that could stun ready. Then he uses said skill to stun while I, the damage dealer, take his place and wail on it until it's dead.
We decided to have Majiku attack first and make sure he has full aggro while I position behind and prepare to strike the weak point of behind the head. After the monsters health dropped 15% he would unleash his most powerful sword skill which was an upward strike called "Slash", that knocks an enemy off balance, or Staggers, and I would jump from behind and strike the weak point with a skill of my own called "Vertical", which had the same concept as "Slash" except faster and doesn't have the Stagger debuff. After I struck I would flip to the front and take Majs' place and continue to attack until he was healed.
It was pretty crude and we could tell it wasn't quite efficient but it was working so we made do. We repeated that 5 times, and it took about 30 minutes or so.
We finally found a safe place to sit down and take in what was around us. Islands that were being held up by skinny metal spires. Mountains in the distance. And a looming white tower on the horizon.
"Jesus, who knew a plant would be such a pain to take down," Maj said, laying back on the hill we were on.
"Boy I tell ya, At least it's not a stupid tiny dog that basically instant kills you," I shot back. I was referring to a different game where, in the main city, there was a tiny dog that was neutral so you could attack it if you wanted. But the dog always had a million more HP than you and basically killed you as soon as it caught up to you.
Maj picked up my reference instantly.
"Dude not even a full raid could beat that monstrosity," We both laughed. I looked up to check the clock. 12 AM. I was shocked that it was so late. I could see this being a problem in the future.
"Crap man, it's going on 12. And Austin (the friend who was coming to the apartment) has been sitting there basically since we started diving," I said, laughing at Austins annoyed face that I know he is making.
"Oh snap, there's that and I'm sure we are both hungry too, we just can't tell in this world unless our stomachs start to grumble," Maj said back to me. Almost on cue, a low rumble came from both of our stomachs. We exchange looks and laughed again. "Well that settles it, we made good progress today, for being day one level 6 isn't bad."
"I agree, especially since I know we aren't being as efficient as we could be," I said.
"Well, it doesn't help that it's just the two of us. When did you say your friends were gonna dive in?" Maj asked as he looked to the horizon.
"Think they said next Friday when they all get paid. It's cool we were able to talk Kyaba into giving us two more copies for them."
"For sure, once they get in we could roll as two tanks and two DPS. that way we can split for those kill quests.
"Sounds like a plan to me. For now, we can only get better so we can know what to tell them when they get here."
Just then the sky went from a light blue to a blueish red tone, signaling that the sun was going down. I was the first to say what we were thinking
"Well, as much as I would love to stay we should probably bail. I'm sensing our usual 'one more quest' attitude coming on,"
"Dang man get outta my head would ya? I was literally just thinking that!"
"It's almost like we are related or something" I retort to him. "I wonder if this has a rested Buff that comes with sleeping at an inn?"
"...You know I'm not sure... How did we not look into this?" Maj stood up and offered me a hand.
"I guess I just didn't think about it. We can probably just log here and be ok." I said as I got to my feet. I took one last look around and thought to myself, 'No worries I'll be back soon'. " Well, time to log," I said as I wave my right hand to open the menu. I look over and Maj has already done the same. Only the look on his face was, disturbing, to say the least. "Hey man, what's up?"
He looked at me with a puzzled look. "Um... Can't you tell? It's not there." He said, worried.
"What's not there?"
"The freaking Logout button is greyed out," I looked over to my menu and navigated to where the Logout button should have been. Sure enough, my own button was also greyed out.
"Um, ok... I'll say it. What the hell?" I said.
I looked up at Maj. When I meet his gaze he was fixated on something that's above my head. I instantly assume there's a monster behind me and draw my sword as I spin and jump to his side. What met my eyes was not another horrible plant monster, but an open plane. I glance at Maj and see his gaze is upward, so I follow it and what I saw was a blinking red hexagon in the sky that read "System Announcement". "Well good I bet it's just a glitch and they are working on it". Right as I said that my body began to be enveloped in a light.
"And what the hell is this now?" I said, trying to step away from it.
"Hell if I know. But it's happening to me too," Maj replied. Once the light fully enveloped me It felt like my body lifted slightly. Then lowered slowly to the ground until the light faded and my eyesight adjusted. What was around me was not an open field. But the center of the Town of Beginnings, where we started 2 hours ago.
"So that's what teleportation feels like. Weird" I said to try to break the tension that I knew was growing in Maj
"Yea weird. Hey, that message is still up there," He says looking up. Before I looked up I noticed that the plaza was filled with players. It looked like every player online was teleported. "What the heck is going on?"
"Well hopefully this 'announcement' will shed some light on the subject" As if the message heard me it went from a single hexagon in the sky to the entire sky (Which is actually the ceiling to the next floor of Aincrad) filled with the red hexagon, filling the air with a reddish glow.
From the sky oozed a red liquid that looked disturbingly like blood. It slowly formed into a large hooded figure with no face. After it fully formed it slowly raised its arms and spoke in a deep voice.
"Hello everyone. I welcome you, to my world".
Just those words were enough to give me chills. The way he said 'my world', I just knew we were in some deep trouble. The hooded figure continued to speak.
"My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment I am in control". My mind instantly went to this is a really flashy opening ceremony. At least that's what I was hoping. Kayabas arms lowered as he did the command to call up the menu. "I am sure by now you have noticed an item missing from your menu. The 'Logout' button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect." Kayaba continued emotionlessly. "I repeat, this is not a defect, this is how Sword Art Online was designed to be." My mind went blank. "One thing to note, in the event your HP hits zero, your avatar will be deleted from this world. And the Nervegear Will simultaneously destroy your brain."
That sentence hit me like a shockwave, my knees began to tremble.
"It is also impossible to leave the game if the NerveGear is removed from your head, it will also set off the signal to destroy your brain," Kayaba continued,"I have made broadcasted this worldwide. Despite my warnings, the family and friends of other players have attempted to remove their NerveGears. As a result, there are now 200 fewer players than when the game began. This has been covered by major news outlets, so the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you comfort as you progress."
"Oh yea, so comforting that I have a brain zapper strapped to my head, thanks, buddy," I thought to myself. I kept wishing that he would stop his speech short and shout "Gotcha didn't I?" Majiku must have been reading my face because he spoke up.
"You know he's serious right? We tried to joke around with him when we talked and he never so much as cracked a smile." He was right, which made this whole thing that much worse.
"The only way to get out of this word is by clearing all 100 floors of Aincrad, and clearing the game." Kayaba seemed to be wrapping up his death sentence. "Last but not least, I've placed an item in everyone's storage. Please, have a look."
I did as he said and produced a mirror that wasn't there before. When I held it up to my face, I was enveloped in a white light. When it died, and I looked back into the mirror, I saw me. Not my game avatar. But my real face. I looked at Majiku and he was the same way. Scruffy beard and messy curly hair and everything. I could not comprehend why a game developer that literally revolutionized the gaming World would do this.
As if on cue, Kayaba spoke again. "You are all probably wondering, 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nervegear, do this?'" His voice remained void of emotion. As if what he was doing was perfectly acceptable. "Ultimately My goal was a simple one. To control a word of my design." Right then I knew what he was doing. My body became red hot with rage.
"Kayaba, how dare you." I heard Maj mumble next to me. I looked over and | could tell he was ready to burst.
"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best." The massive figure slowly dissolved into nothing and the sky went back to the pink glow of sunset. For 20 solid seconds, there was dead silence. Then the entire plaza erupted in shouts, screams, and sobs.
3
Panic, disbelief, despair, determination. Those were my exact emotions in that order.
"What if Austin tries to get us out?" Unlikely. I guessed that if he was paying attention to the safety live-stream Kayaba had mentioned then that was where he revealed this whole ordeal.
"This can't really be happening... Can it?" Of course, it is. Like Maj said, Kayaba has basically no sense of humor. This is real.
"Are you kidding me? Beat an MMO? That's hilarious, MMOs can't be beaten, that's the point. They are supposed to last forever." I suppose this was just me thinking low. On the flip side to Kayaba not having a sense of humor, he's also not sadistic... OK, not sadistic enough to trap people forever.
"So, Kayaba, you want us to play through your world. Fine, It had better look good pal or the punch you're gonna get from me is gonna turn into a kick in the balls."
All these thoughts went off like rapid fire in my head. Once I regained focus on the world around me I started to take in everything. To my left, I saw a glimpse of a kid in a blue shirt hauling another older looking dude with a red bandanna out of the town center. Then it hit me, we had to move. Now.
Apparently, Maj had the same thought because he was already looking for the fastest way out of the town square. There was mass panic everywhere, but soon we were able to dodge through the waving arms and the occasional punch that was being thrown by people arguing. After we got out we made a dead sprint out of town. While we ran Maj spoke up.
"So you're thinking what I'm thinking right?"
"'If I ever see Kayaba again I'm planting my boot as far up his ass as it will go' that about cover it?" I replied.
"That too, but I was thinking about now, we gotta start grinding like crazy to get stronger, the best way to do it is stay ahead of that mob back there." He jabbed a thumb behind him towards the gate of the Town of Beginnings.
"Ok, so we need quests that drop gear. Good gear." I had to strain my terrible memory for anything we could use. Then it hit me like a freight train. "We have to set up in the next town". Maj looked at me like I had blown a fuse.
"Where's this coming from?" He asked, his face was full of worry and I couldn't blame him, early-game in anything is dangerous. Anything can kill you with one wrong move.
"I remember reading up on quests we would need to do. Me in particular for this one-handed sword called the Annel Blade. It will last me to at least the 4th or 5th floor until I will need a new one. If I remember right there may either a Two-Handed Sword as a reward or at the shops there."
"Well look at you -game-guide." Majs' tone seemed to be lightening. It probably helped that we were talking about a game. This was pretty much home court advantage for us.
"Well one of us needed to be prepared, I'm just glad I decided to read up before we came. Otherwise, we would probably be back in the town panicking with the rest." I said back. It was true, the only thing I was going on was the little information that was made public buy some of the beta testers in Japan. But that information could easily be wrong in the current state of the game. "So, not that I'm picking favorites, but me first".
"Woah now, why you?" Just then we heard a shimmering sound like digital leaves being rustled. It was the sound of a monster spawning nearby. I focused my attention forward and a wolf shimmered into existence. Without thinking I drew my blade and dashed. I held my sword up to my head with the blade parallel to my face. Then I started to feel the blade wanting to tug forward, and I let it. I let all my anger and aggression out on the wolf. In one strike it was gone.
I did all that without stopping my sprint so we kept running down the road.
"My question stands, why you?"
"Because, I'm awesome," I said with as much sarcasm as I could. "Because, dumb dumb, I know where the quest is. I don't know where the Two-Handed Sword is" I replied. "When we get there I will go accept the quest, while you head to the stores to look for it. It will have a fancy name to it. If it's not there then we will have to hunt for the quest after we are done with mine. It'll be the fastest way to stay ahead." He pondered this for a minute. While he did another monster appeared in front of us. It was a boar.
Before I could draw my sword Majiku stepped in front of me and slashed the boar in half.
"Alright then, you seem to have a plan worked out. Let's get moving."
4
We arrived in the next town to see it completely deserted besides the NPCs walking around. The town was almost dead silent with the exception of the sound of a hammer hitting metal coming from the blacksmith. We had to be one of the first players here if not the first ones.
"Ok, I'll go accept the quest, you go check out the shops, stock up on healing potions while you're there too," I explained. "Meet back here in like, 10 minutes?"
"Okie Dokie" Majiku replied. We fist pumped and parted ways. I ran towards the house that I was told sat at the western edge of town. I rounded around a building and saw the house in question. It looked like a house and store in one. It had a large window on the front with smoke rising from the chimney. I walked up to the door and out of habit knocked.
"Um... Hello? Is anyone here?" I opened the door and poked my head through. inside was a storefront lined with shelves. Each shelf had something different. Potions, food, armor. I stepped in and closed the door behind me.
As soon as it clicked shut behind me a woman appeared from the back room. Her face looked flustered and exhausted, for a moment I thought she was a player. Then I noticed that she was wearing a long dress and had a yellow cursor above her head, indicating that she was an NPC. Also floating above her head was a yellow ! which meant I was in the right place.
I approached her and asked,
"Excuse me, ma'am, is there anywhere I can take you?" No response... Ok, not the right line. "Is there anything you need?" The ! above her head turned into a ?. Sweet, said the magic words...
"Oh please traveler, my daughter needs medicine urgently, but I lack the ingredients to make it! Would you be so kind as to obtain them for me?" She explained. "I would be happy to reward you with a sword that has been passed down in my family". And like that the quest window opened and read 'retrieve 5 Neptune Seeds and return them to the shopkeeper.' I turned toward the woman.
"I would be happy to ma'am. I'll get those seeds in no time at all!" I turned on my heel and ran out the door.
I got back into the square with almost no time to spare. I saw Majiku, who had driven a new, massive sword into the ground and was leaning on it with his arms crossed, waiting under a tree. I ran up and inspected his new blade.
"Jesus that thing is huge! So it was at one of the shops?" I asked.
"Not quite, it was a reward for a quest the blacksmith gave. But it was super simple, beat the snot out of some iron ores while he rested." He replied. "Pretty easy for such an awesome sword. I guess our luck runs out here, eh?"
"You're sadly not wrong." We had both calmed down after the whole 'You are stuck here' fiasco. "Good news is we already know where to go. Bad news, it's a looting quest".
"Sweet Jesus, No!" Majiku threw his arms up in exasperation. "Looting quests suck! We have horrible luck with drop rates."
"I know this. There's more."
"There's always more."
"Remember the giant plant things? The Neptunes?"
"...Are you kidding me?" He asked, hoping I was.
"Nope, even better we will have to go deeper into the forest to find the ones we need. Which means if we hit one of the ones with the bulbs on the head instead of the flowers, and they scream, we will be screwed," I wrapped up the heartwarming description with a pat on his back. "Let's go kick some plant ass".
"This is gonna be my whole night, isn't it?" He leaned up from his sword and placed it on his back. This time, no running. We walked out of town and headed back southwest towards the forest where we found the most Neptunes before. On the way, we discussed how we would handle this. Since we couldn't attack everything we saw we couldn't split up. We also came to the conclusion that we should stay close to each other in case a monster got a lucky hit.
So we decided to use the same strategy of Majiku attacking first but instead of me circling behind I would stay right behind him, ready to vault over him to deliver the killing blow. We practiced this a few times before venturing into the woods and discovered that If I were to plant a foot on his shoulder before he finished his Slash, I could use his momentum from the skill to launch myself forward to get more out of my skill. The way it worked is you can either let the system move your body for you. Or you can use your own strength to make the skill go faster or do more damage, if not both at the same time.
After we finalized a strategy and split the potions that Majiku picked up we dived into the forest. The sun had already set when we found the first Neptune. Luck for us it was the one with the flower on it, which dropped the seeds we needed. We killed it without much trouble. It turns out that these ones are a lot faster than the ones we fought closer to the town. We were able to repeat the process of switching and killing enough times to get the 5 seeds we needed.
"That wasn't as bad as it could be. And only one close call with that bulb," I said.
"Close as in if I hadn't grabbed your leg and pulled you back we would be dead?" Majiku sarcastically asked. "We got all the seeds right? Let's get out of here before we get surrounded. I've got a bad-" Majiku was cut off by an inhuman scream that echoed from somewhere close.
Someone else was in the forest, and they hit one of the Neptune's with the bulbs on its head. "Well... That sucks," Maj cursed.
I sheathed my sword and started pushing him. He was still trying to figure out where the sound came from.
"Run... NOW!" We started to dash out of the woods as fast as we could. We got close to the edge when two Neptunes cut us off. About a million curses ran through my head that would have made a sailor faint, but all I could manage was "Crap".
There was no way we could each solo one of these things yet. They were each level 15 monsters, and we both sat at 9. We were at least 6 levels below what we would need to take them on.
"We gotta get around them somehow, we can't fight them like this".
"My turn for crazy ideas," Majiku said. He drew his blade and spun on one foot. He drove his sword right into a tree and knocked it down. I watched as the tree squashed the two plants like bugs.
"That... That works" I said stunned. We both bolted out of the woods as fast as we could.
We managed to get back to the village without running into any monsters. Which was surprising. We got to the center of town when Majiku turned to me.
"I'm gonna go rent us some rooms at the inn. I'm completely exhausted."
"Sounds good, I'll go turn this in and meet you there. Good moves out there bro." I turned to walk towards the store where the woman was waiting. While I walked my mind started to think of everything. How long would it take? It hasn't even been a day and it already feels like a century. What were my parents doing?
"Oh god... My parents" I said aloud before I could stop it. They had to have been absolutely crazy by now. They already had so much on their plate with my little sister being sick. And I told them I couldn't make it see her because Majiku and I got SAO. They were weirdly ok with it since they knew that we were lucky just to be here. This might drive them insane. I had to stop to regain myself.
I had to keep my emotions in check our I wouldn't be able to survive here. It's all a mental game, and I needed to keep my mind on the goal. I righted myself and walked the rest of the way in a daze. When I got to the store it was past 4 AM. I opened the door and saw the shopkeeper was still in the same spot with the ? over her head.
"I was able to gather the seeds ma'am, here you go," I presented the pouch to her and she took them while bowing.
"Bless you, brave traveler. With this, my daughter will have a clean bill of health," she said. Were those tears in her eyes?
"It was nothing ma'am, glad I could help" The woman presented a sword that was bluish in color with silver lining the blade.
"Accept this sword, may it protect you in your many battles to come".
"I will gladly accept this ma'am thank you" The ? over her head disappeared and a window opened in front of me displaying the EXP, Col (currency), and the Annel Blade that I earned. The woman turned off and walked into the back room.
I was turning to walk out when something told me to go check on them. I nudged myself in and saw a little girl, maybe 7 or 8, lying in a bed with a washcloth on her forehead. The woman, who was sat next to her, looked up at me and smiled. She motioned to the little girl.
"Look there honey, that's the brave man that brought you the medicine," The words barely registered in my head. I locked eyes with the little girl and froze. She reminded me of my youngest sister. Her eyes were sleepy, but still bright with life.
"Thank you, brother!" The young girl said, smiling a big smile. Ouch... That stung. A single tear streamed down my face. The girl frowned. "What's wrong?" For an NPC, this kid felt real.
I smiled, wiping the tear away.
"It's nothing kiddo. Just tired is all," I said like I was actually reassuring her. She smiled and patted the bed next to her.
"Can you stay?" OK... That did it. My sister would ask that if I was only stopping at my parent's house for something. I nodded sat on the ground next to the bed. Without knowing it... I fell asleep to the little girl humming a tune.
5
I woke up still laying at the edge of the shopkeeper's bed. About 5 different beeps were going off, each one was a message.
"Christ, I'm up..." I said without remembering where I was or what had happened. I got up and took in my surroundings, then it hit me. "Oh... Crap... CRAP!" I swiped my hand down to pull up my messages, all 5 were from Majiku.
"You lost?"
"Where did you go?"
"Are you leveling without me?"
"Seriously bro WTF?"
"She had better be hot..." I sent a quick message back to him answering all 5.
"I'm fine, no I didn't go leveling I just sat down and nodded off, and... What?" I sent it and walked out of the store. It was morning the next day. My clock read 9 AM. I jogged back to the inn, when I walked through the door there was a flash of red and I had to bend like the matrix to dodge it.
"What the hell man?" I turned to see who had tried to deck me. When I locked eyes with him I immediately felt sorry. It was Maj, standing next to the door wearing a new red long-coat that came down to his ankles.
"That! Is for scaring the unholy hell out of me you son of a-"
"Alright, alright I'm sorry." I said to him before he could finish his sentence. "I sat down for a sec and nodded off, my bad". I lied, there was no way that I was gonna tell him I had cried just because of thinking of my sister.
"Uh-huh, yeah, sure, when I meet her she had better be hot, and she better have a sister. " He said smiling like an idiot.
"Yea, OK come back to earth... I mean Aincrad. We got work to do" We sat down at a table and ordered drinks while we discussed our plans for the day. We had both concluded that before the boss fight for this floor we needed to be at least level 20.
So we set out with that goal in mind. Quests day in and day out until we had to take a break or we would have passed out. We were hoping that since this was a virtual world that we could just go without having to stop, but we found out quick that we could still get mentally tired. Which was as bad if not worse than being physically tired.
We started hearing stories and reading articles from the player ran newspapers that had started that players were passing out in the middle of fights, and had to be dragged away by their party members. So we decided to fight until we started to feel tired, then head back to town, but fight on the way back. Once the town we were in started to have a few more people in it we moved on. On the way, I picked up a coat that was almost Identical to Majikus. Only mine was a navy blue color.
"Ha! We match now, soon we will be known as the Brothers Crimson" Maj joked as we were walking out of the store where I got it.
"Why Crimson you self-centered jerkwad? Why not, the Blue Brothers?" I asked.
"Cause I hate Blues music and so do you," he replied.
"I have no argument to come back to that. Either way, I will still not be called 'Crimson' as I am wearing blue."
"Details man, it would strike fear into the hearts of our enemies," He said sarcastically. It was funny because neither of us looked very scary or intimidating. He was taller than I was, but had a scruffy beard and a goofy smile that was always on his face in some way. As for me, I'm on the bigger side with puffy, rosy cheeks. The only thing that could be considered intimidating for either of us is that our eyes are so dark that they could be mistaken as black.
"Oh yea, we will be feared by all of the nothing. Come on Red Riding Hood. We have EXP to get." I started pushing him out of the town while he was still babbling something about being a 'dynamic duo'.
I won't lie, based on the reports that I've gotten from Argo, an info broker, we were still in the top running in terms of levels and progress on the floor. There were only 2 people ahead of us. Sooner or later people would seek us out for tips or wanting to duel us to see if we were all that. We really wanted to avoid that kind of stuff so we made sure to stay at least a town ahead of the front lines.
6
A month had passed. We were one of the first ones into the labyrinth to explore for the boss room. But even with us plowing through everything the dungeon could throw at us, declining all drops so we had more room in our inventory for potions so we could stay there longer, and camping out for a week, we still couldn't find the boss room. After about the 50th dead end we got to Majiku punched the wall so hard I thought the ceiling was gonna collapse.
"I... Hate... DUNGEONS!" Majiku proclaimed. His yell echoed down the rocky walls.
"Yea, no kidding, this is starting to get old." I shared in his annoyance. If every floor was gonna take this long to search for the boss, then we were gonna be here for a really long time. "The front has been here, what, about a week and a half?"
"Yes." He replied with an annoyed tone, "And we have been here longer, almost 3 weeks man! As soon as we hit 20 we made our way here. I'm level 24 and your, what, 25?"
"Turned 25 yesterday," I replied. The way we had our style going is that I ended up with slightly more EXP at the end of our fights because I normally ended up with the last attack. "Still though, it feels like we have been through every inch of dungeon here. It would be kinda hard to miss doors to the boss room."
"No kidding, this is driving me, bonkers man!" I couldn't blame him. In every game, we played there was one thing we both hated, giant dungeons. No way to get through them quick and the monsters were almost twice as strong as the ones in the field.
Just then a message popped up in front of me, it was from my info broker, Argo. It read
"Hey there, Flastii, rumor has it that they are gonna have a meeting' to discuss what we are gonna do with this boss. It starts at 3 PM today. Since I know you and Maj are in the dungeon you better get a move on. Your pal, Argo."
"Man, you can almost hear her laid-back tone in her message," I said.
"What are you mumbling about you?" Majiku turned and saw that I had my window open. "What's up? Is it Argo?"
"Yea, she said that they are gonna have a meeting at 3 to talk about the boss. Not sure what they are gonna talk about since we still don't know where it's at"
"Got that right, plus I don't want to talk to people."
"Right? We are gonna need to get one of those wide-brimmed hats to hide our faces. Or, you know, not wear blazing red" I said, looking at his coat.
"But I look styling in this coat man!"
"Yea, OK, walking away now, it's 2:30 so we gotta get moving." I turned and started running back the way we came. The heavy footsteps behind me meant Majiku was hot on my trail. After about 15 minutes we emerged from the dungeon. The white stone floor turned to grass and the fresh air hit me like a wave of awesome.
After we got out we sprinted full speed back to town. We had gotten to the meeting just in time to hear the second part of the speaker's introduction as being a knight, followed by everyone ripping him for calling himself a knight. Since there was no actual class system in the game he was basically just talking out of his butt. He calmed the crowd down and continued as we were getting set in the back row. The speaker, who was named Diavel, continued.
"OK, so today, our party found the boss room" Everyone in the crowd stopped murmuring and got deadly serious. "Right, so we have two things to take care of. First, we need to defeat the boss for this floor and continue to the next."
"No shit, Sherlock," Majiku muttered under his breath. I elbowed him to shut him up.
"Second, we need to get the word back the people in the Town of Beginnings, that it is possible to beat this game." A few people in the crowd nodded in agreement. "In order to beat the boss, we are gonna need a raid, as many people as we can get. Everyone here who wants to participate needs to split up into groups of 6." Me and Majiku both tensed up.
"Well crap... This sucks." I said. Instantly the groups formed, it looked like everyone here were already friends.
"Well looks like we won't be the only duo out there." Majiku pointed across the Colosseum to a guy in a blue shirt and a silver breastplate. Sitting next to him... Well, I could only guess it was a girl. They had a slender figure but it was covered in a red cloak with a hood. "I like her style."
"Is it because of the red cloak or because it's a girl?"
"Yes." He smiled from ear to ear. I smacked him in the back of the head.
"Pay attention man." I looked down and Diavel was raising his hands to get everyone's attention
"OK, it looks like everyone is divided up. Now then-"
"HOLD ON A SECOND!" I nearly jumped which I'm glad I didn't. The voice came from right behind me.
Before I could turn around a shadow passed over me as a dude with orange spiky hair flew over my head and landed in the center of the theater. "My name's Kibau, got that?" He said. I could tell this guy wanted trouble. "Before we keep going I want to get something off my chest. We all know about the 200 people that have died so far?" He ranted. "Well, some of you need to apologize to for them right now!"
Yup, trouble. I looked at Majiku and he had the same feeling that we should bail. We decided to stay cause we both wanted to be in the raid. Before Kibau could continue
Diavel spoke up. "Kibau, I think I know who you are talking about, you mean the beta testers and MMO veterans right?"
"You're damn right that's who I mean!" Kibau shouted. "Ever since this game started they ran off and snagged all the good hunting spots and quests out there. They ditched all of us, beginners. They were the only ones getting stronger here"
Freaking wuss. Need mommy to hold your hand? Figure it out man, it isn't that hard.
"We should make them apologize, and give up their money, and their loot. There's no point in trusting them if they can't trust us!" He was half right, half wrong, fully annoying.
Why make the ones that you claim are the strongest here give up their gear before a boss fight. Moron. He did have a point of the vets and testers bailing, though I still didn't care much. If you want to fight, figure it out. I could tell the crowd was just as torn. Maybe because I was sure there was some here, now. Just then in the front row, a deep voice spoke up.
"Can I say something?"
I saw a really tall guy with dark skin stand up and walk towards Kibau. Kibau started to say something but stopped when he saw that the guy was about twice his size. "The name's Agil. Kibau, right? I want to make sure I understand something. You want to blame the testers and vets for not helping, and have them give up the earnings that they worked for. That about cover it?"
"Yea, so what?" Kibau said nervously. Agil dug something out of his back pocket.
"The item store is still handing these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one right?" He said holding the book in front of him.
Kibau looked annoyed. "Yea, and?"
"You know who put this together? The ex-testers and vets." I knew the book well. Majiku and I even wrote some of it with info on questing in parties of two. Kibau got wide-eyed since he knew he messed up. Agil turned and faced the audience. "Listen up! Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, a lot of people still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers. I came here to learn from their mistakes. I came here to beat the boss."
Silence. So I broke it by clapping. Not because he was right and pretty well spoken. It was for the face that Kibau had of sheer defeat. No free Col for you pal. Kibau turned and walked to the nearest seat and sat down, Agil followed and sat next to him. I'm not sure if it was just coincidence, or if it was to keep him quiet. Diavel took center stage again.
"Now that that's out of the way, can we get going with the briefing?" Diavel pulled out his own copy of the guidebook. "For info on the boss, it's all in here, the latest issue of the guidebook." Crap, I have reading to do later. "The boss's name is 'Illfang the Kobold Lord' and he is surrounded by his minions the 'Ruined Kobold Sentinels'. He is armed with an Axe and a buckler. When his last health bar goes red we switches to a curved weapon called a Talwar." He closed his guide and patted his book. "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be split equally, the party that beats the boss, gets the XP, and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it!" Seems fair to me. I looked at Maj and he was nodding his head in agreement. "Right, we meet here at 10 AM. Meeting adjured people!"
7
We made sure to actually sleep for this, something we haven't done in awhile. We would normally only sleep for about an hour. We set our alarms for 9 AM so we could go out and stock up on potions and reinforce our gear. We found this player ran blacksmith in the square. Running it was a girl with short brown hair, she was surrounded by what seemed like her friends. We walked up and asked what she was able to do? She looked up proudly and said.
"Well, since its early, not much. I can add some temporary buffs to your swords if you want?" I looked at Maj and he nodded.
"Sounds good! What are your rates?" He asked.
"Well since my level is still new I'm only charging about 150 col. Just in case it fails," I extended my hand.
"Sounds like a deal to me miss..?" She shook my hand then my brothers.
"Lizbeth. You can call me Liz." She said and smiled a big smile. We must have been the only ones that gave her some business besides her friends. Majiku handed his massive sword to her, I did the same with mine as well as a pouch of col and Liz went to work. We made some small talk with her friends while we waited, we asked if they were participating in the raid?
"Nah, we are only about level 14 each, that boss would squash us like a bug."
"Fair enough" Majuku replied.
After about 5 minutes Liz turned from her anvil that was set up.
"All done! Each has a temporary buff of sharpness. It'll run out as soon as you return to a town." She presented our swords to us. I couldn't describe it. There was a certain gleam to my sword that I had never seen any blacksmith give my sword, Majiku's was the same way. I decided to ignore it.
"Thanks a lot, Liz! Keep up the good work!" She clicked her heels together and saluted us.
"You got it! Good luck in the raid!" We turned and made our way to the edge of town to wait for the raiding party to assemble.
We hiked towards the labyrinth, the dude with the blue shirt was trailing behind us with the girl in the red cloak. I overheard their conversation without trying to eavesdrop and I was losing faith in our backup companions. He had to explain the concept of switching and being in a party. It got me thinking about how we were gonna handle the Sentinels that we were charged to keep occupied.
"Will you still be up to go forward with these guys? They are gonna be fast. Would you rather me take point?" I asked Maj.
"Are you calling me slow punk?" He put me in a headlock and lightly slapped my face.
"I'll show those Sentinels who's boss, don't you worry. Just be ready to smack them good. I have a feeling we will need to deal with them fast to keep up."
"You're Not wrong there. Maybe we should change it up a bit? After we switch the one that switches in can play as the tank while the other heals quick if needed."
"That's actually a good call little bro, sounds like we got a game plan! Go Red Riders!" He pumped his fist like he was blowing the whistle on a train.
"We gotta talk about this name business later friend. We should see if the other two behind us want to coordinate, we are all on backup after all."
"You mean the 'reject squad'? I'll show them to put me on backup." While he was mostly kidding, he and I were both annoyed that we didn't get to help fight the actual boss. But whatever, XP is still XP and Col is still Col, no matter where it comes from. The only thing that neither of us will get is the Last Attack bonus. "I got distracted, yea if you wanna fall back there and strategize I'll keep the others from shooting any more funny looks."
We both looked forward and noticed the group in front of us was, in fact, giving us a look like they were thinking 'Man they are lucky we let the small fries be cannon fodder for the front lines'. What they didn't know is that at least two of the 'small fries' that were on backup could probably mop the floor with any of them.
I couldn't speak for the two behind us but the guy seemed knowledgeable so that was a good sign. Majiku faced forward and glared at them completely straight-faced. If he had done that in the real world it wouldn't have meant much, But he did have a sword that was about as long as he was strapped to his back and the black eyes of a demon when he got angry, so they turned back around and walked a little faster.
"Well, good to know we are outcasts," I said.
"I rather like it that anyway. People annoy me." Majiku replied.
I fell back to walk side by side with the guy and girl. He immediately went on guard, his face was half anger half anguish. Like I was about to spill a secret of his and he would gladly cut me down if I did. The girl's hand went straight for the silver rapier that hung at her waist.
"Easy guys, I'm not here to patronize or anything. If you haven't noticed we have been getting the same looks too." I extended my hand to the guy. "My name is Flastor, they guy in the red death staring the jerks is my brother Majiku." He hesitated but finally let his guard down and shook my hand.
"I'm Kirito, nice to meet you." I extended my hand to the girl but she didn't take it, nor introduce herself.
"OK. well, we got assigned backup as well. So I came back to ask how you wanted to play this?" I asked.
He clearly looked troubled. He must be about as antisocial as I am. Even this much conversation made me uncomfortable. But it was to stay alive so I sucked it up. "I'm not asking to join our party or anything. I was mainly thinking for each of us to flank the boss, Just so we aren't falling over each other or messing up our combos." He contemplated this for a minute he responded.
"Yea sounds good. We will yell your way if we need something."
"Same with us, good hunting." I held up my fist and surprisingly he obliged, even the girl gave me a fist bump. Though she still wouldn't meet my eyes. I didn't get a good look because the hood covered a lot of her face. But I got a glimpse, and I saw a really pretty face and... Chestnut hair? It was hard to say but I didn't stare, cause that would be weird.
I picked up my pace to catch back up with Majiku.
"The game plan is this, we each take a side, they will go left, we will go right. If either of us needs anything we just need to yell," I said.
"Straightforward. I like it, we should buy them drinks after." He said.
"Doubt that would go over well. The dude, Kirito, seems really reserved, and the girl wouldn't even introduce herself or shake my hand, I barely got a fist bump out of her."
"Ouch, no drinks then."
"I mean we could ask, but I'm pretty sure his answer will be 'no thanks', and hers would either be nothing or 'piss off'."
We made small talk the rest of the way. Trying to keep the pre-battle jitters away. This boss will be no joke. The potential for loss of life is huge. I didn't even notice that we had gotten to the entrance of the dungeon. Up at the front of the group the party that had the map data to the boss room took the lead. We made our way through the dungeon with no trouble at all... Which is always a lovely sign.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Majiku asked.
"Shut up," I said.
"I know you are."
"Yes, I am. Shut your hole," We were both thinking the exact same thing. The last time things went this well, was before we got stuck here. Finally, we reached the entrance to the boss chamber. We had missed a really narrow walkway that had stairs going up it. Diavel walked up to the doors, turned to face the raid, and drove his sword into the ground.
"Alright everyone, I only have one thing to say, let's win this thing!" Somebody give this man the greatest motivational speech award. I glanced back and Kirito and the girl had drawn their swords, ready to dash to the left. He nodded at me and I nodded back. I turned to Maj.
"You ready?"
"Born ready, Let's kick this boss right on its ass." I should have sent him up to pump them up.
That was better than 'Let's win!' but maybe slightly inappropriate. The doors of the boss room opened and the room light up. I could hear the Kobold Lord roar and slam into the center of the room. Diavel raised his sword and shouted.
"Commence attack!"
A battle cry went out and the party flooded in. We waited for the group to clear the doors and me and Maj ran to the right side of the room, while Kirito and the girl ran left. The battle to clear the first floor had begun.
8
The battle raged for a solid 20 minutes. Surprisingly there had been no casualties at all. I was impressed with Diavels leadership, he had perfect timing to the bosses attacks. Like he could see them coming. I suspected that he was a former beta tester, but even if he was I didn't care. Really the only thing the testers had that Majiku and myself didn't have is knowledge of this game itself, and it could have easily have changed since the beta. I was able to catch a glimpse of Kirito and the girl and they were doing well. The girl had blinding speed. I could never actually see her attack. As for ourselves, we had offed five of the Sentinels and were still on a roll.
"Hey, this is actually kinda fun," Majiku spoke as I spun over him. I used the momentum of my spin to add to my new skill Horizontal Arc. Basically a slant, but going horizontal. With that, it was plenty to take down the Sentinels and move on.
"Well we are in a game, it had better be fun," I said as we moved on to the sixth.
Just then Illfang roared. We looked over and his last health bar had dipped into the red. Time for the switch. Only the plan for everyone to rush it had apparently changed. Diavel stepped forward and yelled something. I was too far away to hear him, but it looked like he was challenging the boss by himself. "You idiot! Don't go in by yourself!" I yelled as loud as I could. He didn't hear me but Kirito did. He looked over just as Illfang was drawing his... Odachi? Oh, crap.. Different sword means the beta is wrong. Kirito must have caught on to cause he made a B line to Diavel.
"Wait! It's no good! GET OUT OF THERE!" He yelled.
I turned to Maj and he nodded, his expression clear. Go. I dashed as fast as I could. By the time I was about halfway through the room (Which was maybe a second or so) the boss lunged. Only his patterns were completely random, I couldn't even follow them. Then he bounced off of a pillar and went straight for Diavel. Before he could raise his sword to defend the boss got him right across the chest.
"Damn, NO!" I accelerated as fast as I could and slid under the boss to place myself in front of him. I deflected his second blow while Kirito tended to Diavel. Everyone was too stunned to move so I snapped them out of it. "Tanks, aggro, get them away from Diavel!" I yelled.
Someone picked up because they started bashing their shields to get the attention of the boss. Illfang growled and jumped away. By the time I turned to look at Diavel he was already disappearing. When I got to him I caught his final words.
"For everyone here."
He shattered, gone.
Rage filled my body. I turned and Majiku was running towards me. The Sentinels must have stopped spawning because the girl was running this way too. Before either of them got to us I dashed to the boss and yelled,
"I'm gonna cut you into little pieces you overgrown wolf!" Majiku had to grab me and pull me back.
"Easy man, I wanna kill him too but we can't just rush in. Look where that got Diavel." Kirito turned to us.
"No offense to you guys, but it would be better if we took the boss since we are faster. Just stay close and watch our backs." He dashed off with the girl hot on his heels. I didn't argue. We definitely were wired for hitting hard, not fast. Still, I was pissed. We followed behind and stopped just out of range of the bosses attacks. We watched as Kirito deflected his sword up with perfect form, while the girl jumped in. I saw one of the eyes of the boss flash. Apparently so did Kirito because he shouted.
"Look out, Asuna!"
She got the hint and ducked at the last second. She was fine but her cloak had disintegrated, revealing a beautiful face with long chestnut hair braided into the center. She raised her rapier and lunged at the boss full force. She hit it so hard the boss stumbled back.
Sadly, It didn't take him long to regain his balance. He lunged at Asuna. Kirito moved fast, putting himself and his blade between Asuna. But he was a fraction of a second to slow and some of the bosses sword caught Kirito and sent him flying into Asuna, and in turn, her flying. Kirito was lying on his back while Asuna leaned over him. I was sure the hit wouldn't kill him. But it probably didn't feel good either. Maj and I raced to their aid. The boss had closed the distance and I was worried that we wouldn't make it in time. Just as the boss swung his sword, there was a flash of yellow over Asuna. It intercepting the bosses blade and hit it away. It was Agil. Wielding an Axe as long as he was. A shout came from behind him and his group advanced on the boss.
"We can hold this bastard off until your Health's back up." He said turning to Kirito. He nodded.
Then Agil turned to us, we nodded to him too, and raced to the boss to hold him off if not beat him. We skirmished with the boss for about a minute when one of Agils group mis-stepped and lost his balance. I was about to rush to him, But Kirito and Asuna dashed past me. Kirito jumped in and swiped The bosses sword away. Then Asuna jumped in with rapid-fire attacks.
Damn, she's good.
The final hit came from a devastating slash from Kirito, who bellowed in anger as he basically cut the boss in half vertically. The Boss stumbled then froze. He began to shine. Then he shattered.
The entire room was silent. Then it was broken by screams of victory. Majiku drove his sword into the ground and leaned on it.
"Damn, that guy was tough." He said, clearly exhausted.
"Yeah" was all I could manage. I felt like hell. Tired, angry, sad. Why would Diavel just run in? Then it hit me. He was reading the attacks so well. Like he had seen them before. He was so confident in what the boss was gonna do that he had a sword skill ready before the boss had fully switched weapons. He was a former beta tester. If that was the case then he was gunning for the Last attack. I drove my fist into the wall next to me. "You stupid, reckless, idiot," I said under my breath. Then a shout came from the center of the room.
"STOP CHEERING!"
It was Kibau. Sitting, in tears. "Why did you do it huh? Why did you let Diavel die?" He directed his question to Kirito, who was kneeling where the boss was. He looked like someone had just slapped him.
"Let him die?" He must have been wiped too because that's all that came out.
"You heard me!" Kibau yelled. "You knew what the bosses attacks were gonna be, didn't you? You could have warned him!" I was so stunned I couldn't process a thought. Of course, he didn't know beforehand. And if Kibau was listening Kirito and myself told Diavel to get out. But he didn't. Another player chimed in.
"I know how he knew, he used to be a beta tester!" The random guy explained.
"Think about it! He knew the bosses attacks! He knew, but he kept it from us!" You dolt! Anyone with a gaming brain should be able to see the difference. I was about to shout "Shut your damn mouth" when Kirito started chuckling, then it turned into all-out laughter.
"So you guys think I used to be a beta tester?" He stood, his eyes took a sinister shadow to them, but I could tell he was freaking out. "It's not right to put me in the same class as those NOOBs," He said with a condescending tone. What are you doing man? You're gonna make them-. I instantly understood his motive.
Kibau spoke up. "Wha-What did you say?"
"You heard me! Most of the testers in SAO were new. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up." Kirito explained, walking to the center of the room. "But me. I'm nothing like those guys man. I made it to floors higher than any of the testers. I knew about the boss because I fought more monsters on higher floors with way more sword skills." He lowered his gaze and smirked. "I know a bunch of other things too. More than anyone. More than any info broker."
Thoughts were racing through my head. You made your point man shut up. Kibau looked up from the ground and looked eyes with Kritio. Bitterness and anger swelled.
"If that's true then you're worse than a tester. You're a goddamned cheater, that's what you are!" Others chimed in with Kibaus remarks.
"He's a beta tester and a cheater! He's a Beater!" One yelled. This made Kirito perk up. He found his opening.
"A Beater, yea that's good. OK, you can call me a Beater. Just make sure you don't class me with those testers anymore." He opened his inventory and equipped a studded blue trench coat that flowed to a rest around his ankles. He shot another proud smile to Kibau and walked away. I wanted to run after him, but that would kill the effect he was going for. Suddenly the girl, Asuna, ran up to meet him before he got all the way up the stairs. They were out of earshot so I couldn't make out all of their conversation.
"How did you know my name?:" I heard her say.
"But, you're a solo player" Was another thing I caught from her. With that, he turned away and walked out of the room towards the staircase to the next floor. Leaving Asuna, and everyone else behind.
End Part One.
