KNIGHTS IN THE NIGHTMARE
Chapter One
Welcome To My World, Players
[Digital Reality]
Of stone and metal the ancient labyrinth castle floated in the endless sky.
A world unto itself.
Composed of 100 strata, this place had yet to discovered, yet to be explored, yet to conquered; only a single stairway between each stratum connected the other, and each stairway was guarded by a horde of vicious monsters.
Adventurers from far and wide have come to traverse this massive castle, Aincrad, and solve its mysteries to earn fame, glory, and riches.
That is the setting for this VRMMORPG... Sword Art Online.
[...]
First Stratum. November 2022.
A blue pillar of light appeared in the central plaza of the Starting City as the avatar of the newly-arrived player slowly took form. The player's virtual appearance was that of a tall man with a rugged look that could only be described as shady or cutthroat. He was equipped with the standard gear, which consisted of cotton clothes with a light leather vest for protection and an extremely basic Two-Handed Sword - a Longsword - for his chosen weapon.
The man smirked, the last time he had logged into Sword Art Online - or SAO, as it was abbreviated - was during the beta launch when only a lucky 1000 players were able to test out the game.
The game was certainly impressive back then but it was now far more impressive than before; there were only subtle differences but the changes included things such as the virtual senses being more fine-tuned, the visuals tweaked and enhanced, and the general atmosphere was even grander due to having almost ten times more players logged in for the official first-day release compared to the small number during beta testing.
A world of swords and monsters that a person could experience in life-like depth, it was like a dream come true, and he had missed it dearly when the beta had finished.
But now he was finally back in this digital fantasy.
Well, time was ticking, and he had a couple of hours to play before he needed to log-off and eat dinner. 'Let's see if they changed any of the weapons from beta,' the man thought as he raced off to check the weapon shops.
"H-Hey, you, wait up!" a voiced suddenly cried out.
The man turned around and saw another person trailing right behind him.
The other player had medium-length purplish-red hair with a red bandanna that had two slanted golden stripes, the player looked like he had designed his avatar appearance based on modern anime or manga characters from Sengoku-esque works and was only equipped with the starter gear and a One-Handed Curved Sword - a Cutlass, in his case. He clapped his hands together and pleaded loudly, "Excuse me but can you teach me how to play?"
"Huh? Why are you asking me for?" The shady-looking player's voice was rather deep and intimidating.
The samurai-like player gingerly rubbed the back of his neck, "Ah, well, I saw you running like you knew where you going, so I thought you were someone who had played the beta."
"...Well, you guessed right," he gruffly replied, "I did play the beta."
Now that the other player got a good look at the beta-tester, he did see that the guy was very scary looking, but the fact that the person was even taking the time to talk with him meant that the beta-tester couldn't be as bad as he looked. "So, um, hey, can you give me a few pointers about the game?"
The man closed his eyes and thought for a few seconds; again his reply was rather gruff, "Sure, but first we check out the weapon shops," and began walking.
"Thanks, man!" the purplishe-red haired player grinned, "Oh, the name is Klein by the way."
"Kirito," the shady player replied back.
[...]
The two players quickly formed a party.
They viewed the stocks of the NPC-run shops but found nothing of value and so packed up mostly on potions. Afterward they explored a bit - with plenty of explanations for Klein - before heading out into the large fields that were just some distance away from the Starting City.
Roaming the grasslands in plentiful amounts were the basic level one monster, a large blue boar named Frenzy Boar, scattered about. And further about near the edges of the vast forests, the other level one monster, Horned Caterpillar, could be found.
"We'll train on these," Kirito stated simply with a hand motioning to the blue boars.
"W-Woah! Damn it! Those things are huge and look really dangerous!" Klein trembled lightly with a foot stepping back.
"Relax, they're a passive mob, they won't attack unless you attack first," Kirito pointed a finger, "See that red cursor just right above it?"
"Y-Yeah, I do," the samurai relaxed a little with the knowledge that the surrounding boars weren't going to suddenly charge at him.
"The red color identifies it as a monster and there's three states to it. The regular arrow means a passive mob, if it's bouncing then it means an aggressive mob, and if the shape has changed into a sword then it means the monster has been provoked into combat. It'll also change color relative to your level: dark red for unbeatable, magenta for overly powerful, pink for weak, and of course red for average."
Kirito paused with a hum, "Oh, and another thing, depending on whether it's day or night, or even the weather, a passive monster might become aggressive or an aggressive monster might become passive," he shrugged, "Amongst other things," he added as an afterthought.
"Right, gotcha," nodded Klein.
Kirito continued with his explanation, "For players we'll be identified with a green cursor and for NPCs it's yellow. On the other hand, if a player has committed any crimes, such as PKing outside of a duel, then their cursor will turn orange and they won't be able to enter any towns for awhile, but get a big enough infraction then the color becomes permanent. Got all that?"
"Yeah, got it, thanks abunch, Kirito."
The gruff-looking player snorted with a devious grin, "Don't thank me yet, Klein. The fun part has yet to start," and his words caused the other player to shiver.
[...]
"UWAH! Help me!" Klein shouted at the top of lungs and his pathetic swordplay merely cut air. His target, a Frenzy Boar, fiercely charge at him and its powerful headbutt - actually, it had hit him with its nose - sent the new player flying into the sky and then rolling on the grassy plains.
Kirito held back a laughter, which was incredibly creepy to look at if any bystanders were around to see him, "Come on, you can do better than that."
"Argh," Klein slowly picked himself up, "That bastar- WOAH!" and then rolled out of the way from the boar's next charge. As the boar skid on the grass, the samurai quickly got back up and ran away to his party member, "Seriously, help me out here!"
Kirito snorted and then stepped forward, "Step back," he told to Klein who listened quite well to his order.
The Frenzy Boar continued it's charge at Klein and completely ignored Kirito who was standing in its path. The beta-player held his sword at an angle and it glowed a blue color, when the boar rushed close enough, his sword slashed out in the blink of an eye at the monster's neck and instantly killed it.
As the Frenzy Boar shattered into particles of light, Kirito accepted his reward without looking and turned around to face Klein, "I know they look dangerous but that's the whole point of playing a realistic fantasy RPG."
"Jeez, it's hard to fight with them moving so much, ya know?" the purplish-red haired man mildly complained.
Kirito scoffed, "Of course they'll move, they're not training dummies. Though I guess I understand the pressure since you're experiencing this in person as opposed to just staring at them from a screen. Well, you'll just have to get used to it because that's how fights are here in SAO."
"Any tips?"
"Keep practicing."
Klein moaned as his furiously scratched the top of his head, "Argh, man, this is going to take forever! You're so lucky to have gotten in the beta, Kirito!"
The rough player smirked, "Whatever you say, Klein. Now, let's teach you some Sword Skills."
"Oh! I've been waiting for this, man!"
"You saw what I did earlier?" Klein nodded his head, "That's Slant, a rather simple Sword Skill," Kirito made a posture and his sword began to glow purple this time, "Hold your body like this."
The samurai copied the motions, "L-Like this?"
"Yeah, like that. If you perform the correct motions then the system will do the rest of the work for you. So, do you feel a sort of tug?"
"Um, something like that. More like a bam kind of feeling."
"Alright, then let loose."
Immediately Klein's curved sword glowed an orange color and he released a battle cry as the Sword Skill lashed out, "WOAH! Hell yeah! I did it!" He pumped his fist in the air.
Kirito folded his arm, "Not bad. Then here's a secret that most players don't know, Klein," at the word secret the samurai paid close attention, "Most Sword Skills don't actually need you to perform the whole body stance, only the motion of the arm counts for activating it," Klein opened his mouth but Kirito placed out a hand, "The other thing is intent."
"I-Intent? What do you mean by that?"
Kirito raised his arm for another Slant. Five seconds passed and then he swung down with an ordinary attack.
"Uh, Kirito, something the matter? Your Sword Skill didn't activate."
"Because I had no intention to use it. It's how the game tells whether you just want to do a slanted cut or use Slant. Just imagine it as a button on a keyboard or a controller to activate the skill."
"Oh, I get it!" Klein tapped his fist on his palm, "I appreciate the help, man. You've taught me a lot. Thanks."
Kirito grinned wickedly, "Like I said, don't thank me yet, Klein. Now, let's see if you can use a Sword Skill against a monster."
"Urgh, man, your avatar is really scary, Kirito!"
The gruff-looking player merely grinned even wider.
[...]
"You're almost there, Klein. One more Sword Skill should finish it off." Said player's HP bar was somewhat less than three-fourth of his maximum and the monster had only around one-fourth of its HP left.
"Easy for you to say!" Klein shouted as he avoided another simple charge from a Frenzy Boar.
"Relax already, it's only a level one monster."
"You serious?! I thought this thing was some kind of mid-boss!"
Kirito sighed, "It'd take about six good charges for a Frenzy Boar to kill you, and that's only if they can hit you cleanly. Meanwhile, with a one-handed curved sword, you should be beating it with two to three Sword Skills. So just relax, dodge the next attack, and then prepare yourself to activate one. You'll do fine, Klein."
"R-Right, gotcha!"
Klein cleanly avoided another straight charge by the Frenzy Boar. He took in a deep breath and steadied his breathing. He lowered his stance and raised his sword as though he was going to shoulder it and the weapon glowed orange. The Frenzy Boar snorted wildly and intiated another charge at him.
"HA!" The system directed Klein's body and he leapt off the ground toward the monster, the glowing power of his blade almost seemed like fire as it slashed down and cleaved the Frenzy Boar in two and the digital beast squealed in pain before exploding into particles of light. "AW YEAH!" Klein jumped into the air, "That felt awesome!" He made an exaggerated victory pose like those heroes from kid shows.
"Congrats on your first victory, Klein," Kirito lighly applauded, "Just a tip, it's easier, safer, and less scary, to activate a Sword Skill when a Frenzy Boar is skidding to stop its own charge; that's their blind-spot."
Klein laughed, "Kirito, seriously, thank you! It would probably have taken me hours to get this down on my own!"
The man shrugged, "Good thing you're a quick learner, Klein, otherwise it would have been a pain to wait for you to ressurect at the Starting City."
"Ugh, man, yeah, that doesn't sound fun at all," the samurai's voice trailed off as he inspected the scenery.
The grassy plains were vast and the setting sun painted the world in a reddish hue. To the north he spied a forest, to the east he could barely make out the giant walls of the Starting City, to the south there was a sparkling lake, and to his west was more plains resting under a endless sky with golden-colored clouds.
There were probably hundreds of players out hunting Frenzy Boars but due to the sheer size of the plains they were not visible to either Kirito or Klein.
Klein sheathed his blade and walked over to Kirito, "No matter how many times I look around... I really can't believe that all of this is just inside of a game," he spoke in awe at the beautifully crafted world and Kirito simply nodded back.
The two players silently stood around and let the peaceful atmosphere sink in. Eventually Klein was the first to speak as he stretched his body and checked his game menu, "Well, I think it's about time I logged off, Kirito. I ordered some pizza and it's going to arrive at 5:30."
Has it already been that long?' Kirito mused as he checked the time. He had spent almost three hours teaching Klein the basic things about SAO; from shopping, to buildings, to features, to stats, to quests, and finally to training on SAO's unique style of play. It was now almost time for him to return to the reality and eat dinner with his family. He snorted, "Maybe I'll see you around then, Klein."
The other player chuckled, "Yeah, catch ya later, Kirito! But again: thanks a lot, man. You taught me a bunch," and gave a thumbs up, "I'll definitely pay you back one day."
Kirito smirked, "I'll hold you to that."
Klein shivered in response, "Seriously. Your avatar is scary."
The gruff player turned around and walked away while he lazily waved a hand, "Yeah, yeah. It was nice hanging out with you too." He was going to spend another half-hour to grind on some Frenzy Boars before logging out.
But Kirito didn't get far before Klein's panicked voice reached his ears.
"Eh? H-Hey, what's going on? Where's the log-out button?!"
Kirito immediately checked his own menu and then clicked his tongue, "Damn, there's really no button. What a perfect time for a glitch." He turned around and walked back to Klein.
The samurai shouted at the approaching party member, "Kirito, the log-out button is gone!"
"I know," the beta-tester replied back in a low voice.
Klein furiously scratched his head and wailed, "Oh man, my pizza is going to get cold! I might have to pay extra for making them wait! They might even leave before I even get to log-out! My anchovy pizza and ginger ale!"
Kirito merely sighed at his partner's antic before sitting down on a nearby rock. He wasn't in the mood to hunt anymore and went about organizing the drops in his inventory. Kirito had acquired them from the many Frenzy Boars that he had slain when Klein was taking his sweet time to defeat his own first and second boars. "Why don't you send a message to a GM?" He suggested in mildly annoyed tone.
"They're probably drowning in bug reports already. By the time they get to me an hour will have passed by!" Klein panicked some more when he rechecked the time, "Argh! It's already 5:25! Hey, Kirito! Isn't there some other way to log out?!"
"You must really want that pizza," Kirito commented flatly, "Sorry, apart from the menu, I can't think of any other way to log out."
"Damn it!" Klein shouted, "Return! Log out! Escape! Link off!" He tried various other voice commands to no effect. Of course that was because SAO did not have voices command as part of its system. "I know that there always going to be bugs with an MMORPG on the first day... but not being able to log off when I want to is freaking stupid!" He snapped his fingers, "Wait, I got it! We can just turn off the power or take off the Nerve Gear!"
Kirito sighed wearily and placed a palm over his face as he watched Klein try to take off a helmet that wasn't there. "Do you know anything about how the Nerve Gear works, Klein?"
Klein stopped, "Um, sorta."
The gruff player dismissed his menu and stood up, "Right now we can't move our real bodies, that's because the Nerve Gear is intercepting our brain signals," he tapped his head, "and rerouting them to our avatars here in SAO. Otherwise, our real body would also be moving in the real world, and that would be incredibly dangerous while trying to play an action-heavy game like this. So it's impossible for anybody inside the game to forcibly turn off the power or remove their Nerve Gear."
Klein opened his mouth only to weakly close it and his arms hanged numbly to his sides.
The two players stood silent, deep in their own thoughts.
Kirito reviewed his own words. They couldn't log out on their own and were effectively powerless and trapped in the game until the problem was fixed. The lack of an alternative method to logging-out made Kirito, for some reason that he couldn't figure out, very uneasy and tense.
"So, unless this bug gets fixed or someone removes our Nerve Gear for us... we're stuck and all we can do is wait it out?" Klein mumbled in a daze.
"That about sums it up," Kirito answered.
"...I live by myself..." Klein said dejectedly, "You?"
"I live with my mother and my younger sister. They'll come and get me if I don't come down for dinner soon."
"You still live with your mom?" Klein stated in shocked.
"You want me to beat you dead, Klein?" the gruff player replied flatly, "This is just my in-game avatar."
"O-Oh, right," the samurai wryly chuckled as he realized that Kirito was probably younger than his choice of character. Next, another thought struck him, "Hey, wait, you have a sister? How old is she?!" he asked with sparkling eyes.
"Cheered up so soon?" Kirito said as he shoved Klein for standing a tad too close for comfort. "My sister doesn't like video games, so I'm afraid you're out of luck, Klein."
Klein laughed, "Sorry, man. Got a little excited there."
"You sure did..." Kirito placed a hand to his chin. He had a theory forming in his head and he didn't really want to say it aloud, but he also wanted a second opinion, "Hey, Klein, don't think this is strange?"
"Huh, what is?"
"The log-out bug," he stated, "It's a serious problem to the game's operation. For example, every second now your pizza is getting colder, that's like an economical loss of your money and time. The same is happening here. The longer it takes for us to log out then the larger our, and by extension Argus', economical loss is."
Klein gaped, "A cold pizza... that's as meaningless as hard natto!" he shouted with his hands gripped tightly on Kirito's shoulder.
The shady-looking player swatted the samurai's hands away, "Pay attention, Klein," he said in a low growl, "As I was saying, since it's like that, then the operators should have taken down the servers and logged everybody off."
"Right," Klein nodded.
"But it's been ten minutes since we've noticed this and there hasn't even been a system message yet, let alone the shut down of the servers. Don't you think that's strange, Klein?"
"Hm, yeah. Now that I think about it, it is really strange," Klein hummed as he rubbed his chin with serious contemplation. "Argus is really famous for being super considerate to it's user, right? Besides being a virtual reality, that's why everybody really wanted to be the first to have copies of SAO, even though it's just a game, it's because players liked the fact that the developers would seriously listen to our feedback. So it's sorta weird that they screwed up like this on their first day," he nodded sagely.
Kirito blinked. He certainly didn't expect all of that out of Klein. "Uh, yeah, right. I agree. Likewise, SAO is the very first VRMMORPG ever, so if a problem occurs here then it might create regulations for future games within the market."
The two players looked at each other for a moment and then sighed in unison.
"Ah, this is pretty bad," Klein uttered as he rubbed his forehead, "Could this get any worst?"
[...]
Despite being in the same party Kirito and Klein spent their idle time seperately hunting down Frenzy Boars while chatting about the game mechanics of SAO.
One thing in particularly that stuck out about Sword Art Online was that were multiple ways to attack a monster. Using the Frenzy Boar as an example, Kirito demonstrated that striking the joints induced greater flinches and slowed down the movement of the beast - even if only slightly - and certain areas, like the eyes or a certain area behind the head near the neck, were almost always guaranteed a critical hit. Likewise, there were some places that simply weren't as effective to target, such as the tail or the tusks.
Using this knowledge to their advantage, Kirito was close to becoming Level 2, meanwhile Klein's EXP bar was only one-fifth filled since he was still trying to get a feel for the game's rather realistic style of combat.
But, despite their short time together, the two of them had already added the other onto their Friend's List.
"How long has it been," Klein huffed.
"Thirteen minutes," Kirito answered.
"WHAT?! Feels like it's been hour already, man!"
Ding~Ding~Ding~ The sudden sound of a bell chiming several times startled the two players.
"What the heck is this?!" Klein shouted with wide eyes as he and his partner were engulfed in a blue pillar of light at the same time.
Kirito was not as tense since he knew three reasons for the light: One, a player was logging in. Two, the player logging off. Or three, the player was teleporting. It was clearly not the first, but it was unfortunately not the second either as his conscience was not feeling the tugging fadeness that was associated with logging out.
That left the third scenario which greatly unnerved Kirito. He had experienced it a few times before during beta but there was always an alert beforehand by the GMs; this time, nothing, he was being forcibly teleported without a warning.
The blue light pulsed even stronger than before and then suddenly gave way to momentary darkness before returning briefly and finally faded away as well. Kirito and Klein found themselves standing on a large road paved with stone, a medieval-styled street surrounded by street lamps.
They were at the central plaza of the Starting City.
Klein opened his mouth to speak but then simply gaped as he realized that they were not alone. All around him was a vivid crowd of other players and the size was incredibly large, as though all ten-thousand players who had bought the game and logged in was gathered right here, right now, in this circular area.
It was a quiet for a few moments as everybody began to realize what had happened to them and where they ended up teleporting to, but soon the chattering began.
"What's going on?" "Is this a joke?!" "Can we log out now?" "Ugh, can't they work any faster?" "Hey, get over here, GMs!"
Suddenly someone loudly raised their voice and pointed to the sky. "Look up!" and the other players turned their heads upward and faced the sky.
The underlying bottom, the cieling of the 1st Stratum which was the underside of the 2nd Stratum, was checkered with an eerie red that was also spreading.
Kirito focused his eyes and could see that it was entirely composed of the words 'Warning' and 'System Announcement' within an elongated hexagon shape. He nudged his partner, "Hey, can you read that?"
The samurai quirked a brow before narrowing his eyes at the blood-colored sky, "Yeah, sure can. Guess the Admins or whatever are finally gonna tell us what's going on."
Kirito solemnly nodded. "It would be great if that was the case," he muttered under his breath.
The chattered slowly died down but an ominous feeling gnawed at the players as the sky became darker and the world was washed over in the bloody color.
Then something dripped.
A liquid oozed out from the crevices of the hexagons and fell towards the player but not a single drop had touched them. The thick substance coalesced in the space in between the ground and the sky and soon a twenty-foot robed phantom appeared floating far above the players. It was red, as muddled as the blood-like liquid that formed it, and the hems of the robes were embroidered with an ominous green.
A heavy feeling descended upon the players as they gazed into the shadowy but empty robes.
"I-Is that a GM?" "Why doesn't it have a face?" "How creepy..."
For a moment the phantom did not move but then, slowly, its disembodied white gloves lifted up and spread apart.
"Players, I welcome you to Sword Art Online." It had a deep and calm male voice. "My name is Kayaba Akihiko and I am the only person in control of this world."
Kirito's throated hitched. He knew that name and he recognized that voice. He had read many magazine articles and video interviews about that man.
Kayaba Akihiko was a game designer and genius in the field of quantum physics, the man who raised Argus from a small-time company into one of the leading coporations of its field, the creator of the Nerve Gear which allowed FullDive into virtual reality environments, and also the development director of Sword Art Online.
'What the hell is going on here...' Kirito's thoughts churned.
"By now, a majority of you players must have noticed the fact that the log-out button has disappeared main menu... That is not a bug; it is all part of Sword Art Online's unique feature."
The players began to mutter as the words sink in.
"Not... a bug?" "Part of the system...?" "...Unique feature?"
The phantom slowly pointed upwards, "Until you reach the top of Aincrad, you cannot log off out of your own free will," and then its hand went down. "Additionally," a foreboding sense of dread dug deep into the core of the confused players, "The disruption, tampering, or dismantling of the Nerve Gear is strictly forbidden." Silence reigned over them as they held their breath. "Hence, if any of these are attempted, the signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, thereby destroying your brain."
The players began talking to themselves. Muttering and mumbling in greater fear and confusion.
Klein started to fiddle with his hands and remove the Nerve Gear that was not there. He laughed dryly, "Haha... What's that guy saying? Has he gone nuts? I mean, he's not making any sense! The Nerve Gear... SAO... it's just a game...! Destroy our brain... h-how he's going to do that?! Right, Kirito? Right?" his voice was breaking and he stared desperately hard at the beta tester.
Kirito frowned as he answered his party member, "It's very possible... But if you unplug the Nerve Gear then it won't have the energy to emit a pulse strong enough to fry the brain. Unless..." he frozed.
"W-What? What is it?!"
"...Thirty percent of the Nerve Gear's weight... is from its internal back-up battery," Kirito practically spat out the information he recalled from the Nerve Gear instruction manual.
Klein's mouth formed several shapes before his voice came back, "T-T-That's totally crazy! So we d-die if the power disconnects? What if there's a power-outage or something?!"
As if to explain, the phantom avatar spoke.
"To elaborate... disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock or destroy the Nerve Gear, will start the brain destruction sequence. These conditions have already been made known to the government and the public through the mass media in the outside world.
On that note... there have already been several cases where the relatives or friends of players have ignored these warnings and tried to forcibly remove the Nerve Gear..." Kayaba Akihiko seemed to have paused for a breath and so too did the players, "Thus the result is that 213 players have, regretfully, already expired from both SAO and the real world, forever."
Terrified screams pierced the air. However, a majority of the players were still too greatly in shock and disbelief to show any outward reactions for that dreadful statement.
Kirito's mind pounded his head, '213 players have died. 213 people, like me, have died. 213 lives have already ended and died.'
Klein's body collapsed to the ground on all fours, "...don't believe it... I don't believe it...!" He shouted in a strained voice, "He's just trying to scare us! How would he do such a thing? Stop joking around and let us out already! We don't have the time to play along with your sick opening ceremony! Yeah... that's right, this is all just an event, some fucked up tutorial!"
The robe figure continued speaking as though it was business as usual for it.
"Players, there will be no need to worry about your real bodies. As of this moment, all forms of mass media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear removed or otherwise has disappeared. I have provided you all two hours to temporarily disconnect from the system, in that time-frame all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutions and be well cared for. So you may relax now... and concentrate solely on beating this game, this world, Aincrad."
Kayaba Akihiko paused and then spoke again with a quieter voice than before.
"I ask of you all to understand that Sword Art Online is no longer merely a game for you. From now on, this world is your second reality. Thus, all forms of revivals in SAO have been removed. The moment your HP reaches 0, you will be terminated and your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear."
Kirito gazed at the upper-left corner of his view. His username sat besides the full green bar that now represented his life. He bit his lips. A normal MMORPG had the player dying dozens of times to learn the ropes, he himself had played without restraint and died hundreds of times during beta to experience all that SAO had to offer... and now a single death meant the absolute end.
"I repeat: for those who wish to return to the other world, you must climb to the One-Hundredth Stratum and defeat the final boss. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of this world. That is your only exit."
Klein raised his head, "Clear all one-hundred strata?!" He quickly got up and raised a fist, "How the fuck do you want us to do that?! I heard even the beta players only got as far as the Sixth Stratum!"
Kirito clenched his hands. Klein was right, during the three month beta period, the 1000 players were only able to reach the 6th Stratum before the beta ended. How long would it take 10,000 grief and fear strickens players to go all the way to the top?
'It's impossible,' his thoughts told him but he squashed it away. Even if the players wanted to escape, the possibility of dying would keep them rooted to the Starting City.
And yet, it was also the possibility of escape that would drive others on, giving them hope to set foot outside of the city and advance against all odds and peril.
Kirito steeled his mind and resolve, he knew it would be a long time before the 100th Stratum would ever be reached, but he was willing to fight through it all. 'Mom... Suguha... Wait for me.'
The robed phantom waved a hand over the crowd. "Players, within your inventory is a special item; a gift from me."
Hesitatingly the players checked their inventory. At the top of the list was an item that was not there before: Hand Mirror. They materialized the gift and stared blankly at the rectangular item.
Then, regardless of whether they held a Hand Mirror or not, every single player was engulfed in a blinding white light. Several seconds later the phenomenon ended and the players looked around. Something had changed.
They looked again at the Hand Mirror and saw their own reflection.
"What the heck?!" "T-This is really my face!" "W-Who are you?!"
The vibrant looks, the attractive faces and bodys that took meticulous hours of making, everything about their fantasy appearance from before was gone. Now only their true faces were staring back at them.
Klein's once youthful but lean samurai-looking avatar had changed into a more average bandit-like appearance. His long purplish-red hair was now red and spiked up while his chin sported a slight beard. "K-Kirito, is... is that you?" Even his voice had changed.
Kirito's avatar was no longer the intimidating shady-looking character. His height had shrunk - no longer taller than Klein but not much shorter than him either - the once punk-styled hairstyle was replaced with a neck-length raven-black hair, and the overall appearance was quite delicate and feminine.
"W-Woah, you... you look like a girl! A-A complete opposite of your scary avatar!" Klein uttered in surprise.
Kirto frowned and spoke in a rather bell-like voice, "Klein... I am a girl," she said.
"H-Huh?"
"I normally choose a male avatar in MMOs because I think the guys look cooler," she simply stated. 'I don't like the amount of skin female characters show off,' she didn't voice.
"H-Huh?!" Klein stuttered even more strongly than before and his face turned feverishly red.
Kirito ignored him in favor for examining her virtual body. "How...?" she mumbled. How was it possible that this avatar was exactly the same as her real body? She dug deep into her memories, shifting through every experience she had with the Nerve Gear until she found what she was looking for, "It was during the calibration..." she muttered.
During the extensive set-up, after the installation of Sword Art Online, the Nerve Gear had saved how much a person had to move their hands to reach their body in order to accurately reproduce the sense of kinetic inside the game. Thus, in a way, it knew exactly what kind of physical shape a player's body was like.
"Players, as I have said... This is now your reality," Kayaba Akihiko paused, "You all must be wondering why I am doing this..." and, as though those previous monotonous words were but a lie, his voice was subtly filled with the barest of emotions, "But there is no longer a reason nor a purpose. And that is because, to create and watch this world, this situation itself was my sole purpose and reason in doing so."
It was always said that there was a fine line between genius and insanity, and Kirito wondered if or when Kayaba Akihiko had long crossed that line.
"And now... everything has been realized. With this I have finished the official tutorial of Sword Art Online. Good luck, players."
Slowly the phantom collasped into itself and vanished, the sky returned to normal, and all that was left were the remaining ten thousands players standing around in a daze amongst the soft orchestra hum of the BGM.
Within moments the players exploded with rage, fear, confusion, denial; a swirling mess of emotions.
"The hell is this?!" "Let me out of here! Let me out!" "I-I can't be trapped here! It's not possible!" "I want to go home! Please, let me go home!"
Kirito scrunched her face, she didn't want to stay here any longer in this negative cespool, complaining wouldn't get them anywhere. She walked over to Klein and quickly but strongly grabbed his arm, "Let's go," she said, though her voice was drowned out in the surrounding commotion, and then dragged her lethargic partner through one of the exits of the central plaza.
When they were a bit further from the crowd, Kirito stopped pulling, she turned around and spoke, "Klein," she addressed him but he still retained a rather blank face, "I'm going to leave the Starting City and head on to the next village, come with me."
Kirito was normally a solo player but things were different now, SAO was no longer a game, if a player's HP reached zero then they would die. She knew very much that Klein was still a newbie - a fragile beginner - and the chances of him dying on his own was tremendously high. She didn't want that. She liked Klein, he was a energetic fool but a good guy nonetheless and he was also the first person she had met in this world and was someone she could also easily get along with too.
She wanted the two of them to survive.
"We need to get stronger," Kirito stated, "MMORPGs are all about battling for resources between players. That means getting the most money and experience... and the other players who realize this will soon be out hunting all the monsters around the Starting City. It'll take forever for the monsters to respawn, so heading to another village is the best choice. I know the fastest, and safest, way there, so it won't be a problem for both of us even if we're only level one."
The older player reacted slowly to her words.
"I've... I've got friends who waited in line with me to buy SAO... They're most likely logged in and still standing around in the plaza right now. I-I can't leave them behind, Kirito..."
Kirito shook her head. Even though his eye was begging her, there was simply no way she could safely travel with more than three players - and that was including herself. A group like that would not only bog them down but their safety would also be the leader's responsibility. That is to say, they would be her responsibility. "I'm sorry," she simply said to him.
Klein smiled, "No... No, it's alright. I can't keep relying on ya forever, Kirito..." He weakly scratched his cheeks, "You know, I used to be a guild-master in another game I used to play, so it'll be fine, I'll just make do with all the stuff you've taught me so far. So don't worry about us and just head on to that village, Kirito."
She did not like this.
Kirito knew there was no real reason why she had to be the first out of the Starting City, to be the very first to start hunting for money and equipment, as she could simply wait for the monsters to respawn and take her time. There was simply no reason why she should do something so risky as fighting alone when she could just help Klein and his friends...
But the feeling of powerlessness aggravatingly gnawed at her and she wanted to get rid of it. The only way to do so was to level-up until she was strong enough to personally feel safe.
'How selfish,' her thoughts scolded her, which made her internally cringe.
Kirito turned around, brought up her main menu, and dismissed her party with the samurai. "This is where we part ways then." But she simply could not abandon Klein; to fight alone in this world without someone to talk to you or to help you, was that not terrifying? "...Seven, no, five days... if you're still at the Starting City in five days, then we'll definitely meet again, Klein."
Get strong as fast possible, even if it was only false courage gained by numbers for her virtual body, and then return to help Klein and his friends. This was the soundest plan she could think of.
She started to walk away.
"Kirito!" Klein called out. She stopped and looked at him, waiting for him to speak. "You're really cute! Even though you're scary, you're just my type, ya know?" He looked like he was going to cry.
Kirito puffed out a breath and then smiled, "You're pretty cool looking yourself, Klein," she waved, "See you soon," and quickly ran off.
The raven-haired girl departed from the Starting City soon after. The girl did not chance looking back and seeing what - and who - she was leaving behind.
'Stay alive, Klein...'
Author Notes
I really should stop typing out stories on a whim... That is to say, I have no idea where I'm going with this.
Anyways, I am definitely going to tweak some SAO mechanics here and there. For example, according to the SAO Wikia, a player needs to practice with One-Handed Sword before the options of Two-Handed Sword or Rapier appears. In this story, those are standard Weapon Skills you can start with.
On an unrelated note, I'm of the honest opinion that the 1000 beta players could have gone way further than the 6th Floor. It's just that they were busy thoroughly exploring each floor before even attempting to move on.
Also, I'm taking some cues from Etrain Odyssey for terminology, such as 'Stratum/Strata' instead of 'Floor.' And the title of this story is definitely borrowed from the DS/PSP game 'Knights In The Nightmare.'