Video game AUs seem pretty popular right now, ehehe. This is a bit of a fusion fic that will borrow a lot of elements and inspiration from the .Hack series, G.U. in particular since I'm the most familiar with its material. Please note this is more of a pilot test than anything. If people like it, then I'll continue and we can see Kuroko and Kagami meet next chapter and finally get some context. TuT
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Event Horizon
Prologue
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The boss at the bottom of the dungeon was a large mass of scaly tentacles and dripping teeth, breath visible as a pluming red miasma that seeped across the floor and gathered around the feet of the players standing before it. Its writhing form, reaching all the way to the ceiling of the enclosed stone room, waited patiently for a challenge.
"Do we have a plan for this thing?" a nervous voice whispered over the group chat, the smiling icon of the fidgety blonde-haired girl stationed at the front of the party flashing for a moment out of everyone's peripheral vision. Despite the battle in this dungeon not being triggered by audio cues like in more difficult quests, the sheer size of the creature instilled the somewhat newer players with fear and awe.
The leader of the party stepped forward, a tall, muscularly-built man hefting a broadsword over his shoulder. "Nah. We haven't had one the entire time we've been in this shithole. What makes this any different?"
"O-oh. Haha…," the blonde trailed off. Her fidgeting increased to an anxious swaying, dual blades dangling at her sides in tight fists.
The leader clapped her shoulder, stilling her movements as he smirked down. "Don't worry. Charge in and set up your usual chains. We'll be right behind you. Kuroko will heal you up no problem once he's done buffing, yeah?"
"Yes," Kuroko said, inclining his head slightly at the order. The blonde jumped, not expecting the resident healer to appear right beside her. He hadn't spoken much at all throughout the evening, and would almost have been a non-entity on the group call had his icon not appeared every now and then if he took a particularly large breath into his mic after a close battle. He sidled away from the pair, positioning himself in the back behind their tank player, a woman decked out in heavily-gilded armor. She was meant to protect him while he began the usual series of buffs on the players, raising their defense, attack, and criticals before launching into an alternating series of quick healing spells and light attack spells.
Kuroko let his eyes flick over everyone's status screens quickly, noting the full bars and pre-battle buffs for speed already in place. Their seven man team had worked tirelessly for the last five hours to explore a lengthy dungeon nestled in a seaside cavern under the foam-riddled cliffs edging a minor town. He'd only worked with the leader, a player with a few months of experience in the game, named Valient Knite, a few times before. He was charismatic as far as leadership was concerned, managing to corral the two newer players in the party deftly. Their low levels and inexperience were a hindrance but Kuroko could admire their determination to see the dungeon through to the end, despite having to be revived multiple times throughout the crawl. If he wasn't mistaken, he was sure Valient Knite would send them invites to his budding new guild once they had finished.
"Let's go!"
The shout was more of a battle cry, signaling the blonde girl, a quick rogue, to launch at the boss. Her sudden proximity activated the boss fight, causing the menacing creature to spring to life in an instant, sweeping the floor with a tentacle that knocked her and a charging Valient Knite to the floor immediately. The players behind them ignored their downed teammates, rushing the tentacle creature with gusto, the pings and clangs of virtual swords on flesh echoing in the vast cavern.
Kuroko huddled off to the side, casting buff spells as quickly as he could. The tank standing in front of him huffed impatiently, watching as another tentacle swept out and knocked the remaining players to the ground. A second tentacle slammed onto the floor, its shockwave knocking down Valient Knite and the rogue who had just succeeded in standing again.
"Shit," the armored woman hissed, readying her battle axe. "Jump over them!"
Kuroko activated another buff, adding increased attack to the players' now improved defense, eyeing the monster warily. It was acting oddly, he noted, attacking the players viciously. He'd fought it before but had never seen the AI of a level twenty boss so efficiently assault an attacking party. It would usually sweep the players and then attack a singular fighter, not the entire group, and not with the shockwave attack it usually reserved for when its health dropped below fifty percent.
"It's strange," he said aloud, voice almost swallowed up by the panicked voices of the other call participants. Valient Knite was shouting orders, though his comrades could hardly follow the commands before another tentacle assaulted them. "These aren't the usual patterns for this enemy. It should only be going for one person right now. After three attacks it'll use its red mist to inflict status ailments, then repeat the sweep attack."
"Well it doesn't seem like it has a pattern. Hurry up and start healing, you're taking too long," the tank woman scoffed before charging in, jumping a lashing limb and slamming her hammer down against the creature's scaly hide. Kuroko shook his head at the reckless charge. The woman's username was something unpronounceable, and as an unpleasant talker overall, he hadn't bothered to dub her as anything more than 'tank' in his own mind.
Bereft of a shield, he switched to a light group healing spell that activated instantly at the cost of a large chunk of MP. He eyed his MP bar disdainfully. Attacks seemed to be taking more magic than usual, meaning the boss had some sort of innate skill that caused them to increase their power usage. It was not something a boss of this level should know, he thought.
"Thanks, Kuroko!" Valient Knite called, picking himself up and finally getting a successful power charge in on the gigantic boss, the crimson glow of a sword skill bathing the room in red. The blonde rogue rose from the floor, looking worse for wear. Her health had been depleted by a good three quarters and her avatar slumped slightly, panting in time with the player's own anxious breathing.
Kuroko cast another healing spell, removing the downed status of a whip-user at the same time. With the last of his MP he placed a constant healing spell that would hopefully last long enough for him to replenish some MP, though most of his magic potion stock had been consumed in the battles before this boss.
As he hot-keyed the use of a basic magic potion a giant tentacle swept at him, knocking his character from its place against the wall and causing it to skitter across the floor like a ragdoll. Disoriented as the screen spun, he tried to move his head. It was oddly difficult to lift it from the floor. He could hear Valient Knite cursing and another voice groan; the corner of his vision caught the greyed-out body of the whip-user laying quietly, a bloody splatter surrounding him.
He attempted to move his avatar again, only to find that the annoying downed status was still in place, keeping him immobile and unable to fling a revival scroll at the lifeless body. A scream tore over the group call, emanating from the tank woman.
In front of Kuroko a scaled tentacle smashed the heavy-armor against the floor, ripping another scream free from her lips. Her avatar writhed in the appendage's strong grip, seeming to reach out to his own downed character before being lifted from the floor and slammed down again.
"What's going on?" he could hear Valient Knite mutter. "This isn't right. This isn't…"
Kuroko watched the downed status on his screen carefully, waiting for the moment it lifted so he could dash to safety and cast a mass heal spell to salvage their remaining fighters. This plan was immediately crushed as his vision swerved and flashed red around the edges. His avatar was lifted from the floor with a sudden yank, a tentacle from the boss wrapping vice-like around his waist. "I've been caught," he spoke quietly into his mic.
As he was raised higher up, he spotted tank woman struggling in the grip of the tentacle. Her scream was deafening as she was plummeted head-first into the ground again, a crunch and splatter of red signifying her death. His ears rung at the piercing cry, though afterward the woman didn't make another sound. Kuroko watched the fighting down below as he dangled helplessly. The boss didn't seem inclined to give him the same treatment as tank woman, but he wasn't sure how long this borrowed safety would last.
Looking at his menu and seeing his spells active despite being hung in the air, he cast his strongest healing spell, perking up the four remaining avatars below as they desperately dodged the boss' attacks. The boss seemed to have stopped its shockwave assault and had taken to just lashing out at the players as they tried to attack. It was oddly…complacent. At least compared to earlier.
"Isn't it going too slowly now?" he asked, receiving several vague grunts and 'this is slow?!' from the other newbie in the group, a tottering lance-user that often mixed up his skills.
"Kuroko's right," Valient Knite said. Kuroko could spot his figure dashing away from a tentacle swipe and charging in again with another sword skill. "It might be readying something."
"What's that?!" the blonde rogue cried, avatar stopping to point at a slit that appeared in the center of the mass of tentacle. The avatar was immediately slammed into a wall for her distraction, though after the strike all the other tentacles retreated back to coil at the base of the boss, leaving the fighters on the floor to retreat and gather together to desperately apply healing items. Kuroko was still left to hang, though he was lowered to be level with the slit as it gradually split apart, revealing a large golden eye.
He sucked in a breath at the sight, unable to tear his gaze away as the eye stared at him—through him—glassy and huge, a fierce, melting ocean. It made his skin crawl, breath hitching in his throat involuntarily as a scream nestling against his teeth readied to be released.
It was a primal terror, something that welled within him like an unstoppable wave. He could distantly hear his comrades shouting in alarm at the sight.
The eye blinked, looked down at the party members on the ground, and as if just remembering that they were there, crinkled the scaly skin around itself, as though amused. In the same instant the golden iris glowed harshly and shot a beam that bore down on the player avatars in a wrathful wave, washing them in radiant white. Even as the light blinded him, Kuroko could see the forms of his teammates slowly blacken, digital skin peeling away and whittling down to bone before dispersing into ash.
The call line was startlingly silent as it occurred. Kuroko at least expected to hear Valient Knite's usual cursing, but instead only heard dead air, as though the players themselves had disappeared into the light.
Left alone, Kuroko could only stare numbly at the spot where his leader had once stood before settling his still red-tinged gaze at the eye. It gazed back at him, pupil dilating and constricting in turns. It brought his avatar closer, and from Kuroko's first person view he could make out the detailed gradations in the large eye, from sunny yellow to burnt sienna.
Kuroko held his breath, waiting for the iris to glow again. He could feel the sweat on his palms, making the controller slippery as he gripped it between shaky fingers. This was not a normal boss at the end of a slightly-longer-than-normal dungeon. This didn't seem like a boss at all.
As if sensing his thoughts, the eye crinkled again, almost folding back into a dark slit. In one swift motion the entire mass of tentacles lifted up, thrusting back to reveal a gaping hole for a maw edged in razor teeth. The red miasma emanated from the center.
The not-boss tossed Kuroko in the air and swallowed him whole.
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The group call remained unnervingly quiet, each character icon replaced with that same haunting golden eye, staring at him. The call cycled through the icons one by one until his appeared, unmarred. The blank gaze of his avatar felt almost like an accusation, accosting him with its blue eyes and neutral frown.
A screen popped up, cheerily announcing, "You have died! Would you like to revive in the nearest town?"
In the darkness of the Game Over screen, Kuroko Tetsuya, veteran gamer of Zero Event, one of the world's largest and most popular MMOs, wondered why it was he even bothered playing anymore.
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Dems the rocks, Kuroko. And lol, you know you're not good with names when your preferred one is taken, so you just misspell Valiant Knight to try and look cool.
As someone who has loved the .Hack series for a very long time, I've always toyed with the idea of making a fanfic around the concept of a video that sends you into a coma, though I haven't had the courage because I'm not incredibly familiar with current MMOs. But I'll try my best to research and not sound like such a dumb shit, if you guys would like for another chapter! (Also no, I haven't watched Sword Art Online, though I've been told it works along the premise of the player dying in real life. Otherwise, I don't know jack about the series, sorry!)
Kuroko as a healer?: Will be explained next chapter, but I can see it, lol. In this chapter, I wanted to show that he's still very new with being a sideline healer, and his skill tree isn't very developed at all. But he didn't start out as a healer and is inexperienced with the role. But still, tank woman is super rude.
How is this game being played?: Much like .Hack and other shows with the same video game premise, they're using a sort of headset that covers the eyes and uses virtual reality to project the game. The controller is more necessary for beginner characters that don't have a good grasp of their skill tree yet, but players who have mastered their skill tree and know the names and effects of skills can more easily play without the controller, using thought and voice command to flow seamlessly through battle.
So there it is. I hope you guys liked it. Please tell me if you're interested in me continuing to write this. I haven't written much fanfiction in years so my style is a bit rusty, but hopefully not so bad for this setting. Pairings aren't set in stone, though I heavily lean towards KagaKuro since they're my babes.