The air was cold, almost cold enough to see one's breathing in the air.

And sure enough, there were a lot of air coming out of the mouths of a group of four people, all breathing heavily, exhausted from the nightmarish event they all just went through.

"Bloody hell...just...bloody hell..." A brown-curly haired boy groaned, his back rested on the wall. Sitting beside him is a trembling body of a young girl with black hair, whose head is buried between her knees. The only whimpering voice coming out from her is the heartbreaking sound of crying.

"This is not happening. This is not happening to us."

Another boy who's standing across them both spoke with half-pained, half-furious voice. His eyes, which normally stayed almost shut making it appears like he never open them, now stared wide at the person standing at the center of all of them: A black-haired boy in a black longcoat.

Of all four, this boy appeared to be the most exhausted. His right hand gripped on a black sword tight, but there was no strength to keep it up, so he planted it on the ground to support him. He was breathing heavily, one might be mistaken that he had an asthma attack.

Despite this, he managed to let out one furious comment directed to his three companions.

"All of this wouldn't happen if that idiot didn't rush in and open that damn box!"

And so, Kirito sank to the ground as all strength left him. He looked at the floating bar on the top-left side of his vision. It was almost empty, with only a little green tile left in it.

He has the right to be furious. After all, in all accounts, this was his first near-death experience.

He never loses his cool like this before, not even when he realized that he got stuck in this deathtrap disguised as a virtual reality online 'video game' created by a mad programmer with a god complex, not even when he witnessed what happened to the 'game over' players firsthand.

But this...this was a whole other thing.

"You bastard...Don't you dare insult my friend!"

Tetsuo, the boy who was staring at Kirito earlier, shouted at him.

"I should've realize it before. You're that Beater everyone's talking about! There's no way any player could finish off hordes of monsters like that by themselves!"

The curly-haired boy, Sasamaru, stared at Kirito in shock, but said nothing, while the young girl finally lifted her face up, her eyes looking straight at the boy in the black longcoat.

"Ki...Kirito-kun?"

Tetsuo clenched his fists, his teeth gritted. He felt betrayed. The player in front of him who he once called friend is in fact the selfish Beater everyone's talking about. Even Ducker's death didn't hurt him so much as knowing that he and his friends were lied to by this backstabbing bastard.

"Why the hell did you lie to us!? You're a Beater! You know everything about this damn game, and yet you let all of this happened to us! Ducker died because of you!"

Kirito's face lowered. He knew Tetsuo was right that he lied to them in order to join their guild. He wasn't even sure what motivated him to do that in the first place. Maybe it was because of that strange aura that this guild have? Or because he couldn't help feeling pitiful when he rescued them from a monster ambush the first time they met. He could tell from back then that they wouldn't stood a chance if he let them get by on their own.

Especially that girl...Sachi...The poor girl got scared at the mere presence of any life-threatening situation.

But still, this doesn't excuse the poor insight this guild have that let them all into this situation, and resulted in the loss of one member, the person who triggered the trap himself.

"That's not my fault! That idiot jumped right at the treasure box before I had a chance to warn you guys! Seriously!? An empty room with a lone box in the middle? Even a first grader could tell it was a trap!" Kirito shouted back. It wasn't his fault that Ducker died! He already tried to warn him that it could be a trap, but Ducker ignored him and went straight to open that goddamn box anyway. The results that followed was predictably horrible for him.

"SHUT UP!" Tetsuo finally snapped. He rushed at Kirito and slammed his right fist at his face, but Kirito didn't do anything to defend himself. He was just too exhausted to do anything. It's not like Tetsuo's fists could do any damage to him. After all, he was way out of his league.

"Oi, Tetsuo! Calm down! Stop fighting!" Sasamaru cried out panicky, but he couldn't stop his furious friend from attacking Kirito.

"Don't stop me, Sasamaru! This guy's a cheater! He's just trying to use us as his stepping stones! He let Ducker died! He deserved this!"

With each sentence, more fists were send straight into Kirito's face, now visibly red from the pain from fist contacts. Eventually, he ran out of strength and fell to the ground.

"Damn it...Damn you...You have no right to be here with us..."

Kirito stared pitifully at Tetsuo, then looking at Sasamaru and Sachi, both are still too speechless to say - or do - anything.

How did it all end up like this? Just as when he thought he finally found a place where he belong.

"If it has to be this way..." Kirito emotionlessly spoke, before swiping his hand to bring up a menu.

"...Wha...what are you doing, Kirito-kun?" Sachi finally managed to say something, after seeing Kirito looking sadly at the guild menu.

"I'm quitting, Sachi."

And with that, both Sachi and Sasamaru dropped their jaws in shock. Tetsuo simply mumbled "Good riddance." before closing his eyes again.

"B-but, no! Don't do this, Kirito-kun!" Sachi pleaded, but Kirito has already made his decision.

"Tetsuo's right. I have no right to be with you guys, Sachi. I should've stayed solo...it's..."

It's better this way. He finished the sentence in his mind.

Kirito gave one last look at Sachi as the confirmation box appeared.

Are you sure you want to quit the guild?

Yes/No

He hesitated for a moment, before pressing his finger firmly on the 'yes' button.

"...No..."

Sachi could only mumble out one word, her eyes full of despair, before sinking to the ground again.

Kirito couldn't dare to look her in the eyes again. How could he done this to her? He already promised to protect her, that he wouldn't let her die. Heck, he already did! She's the only reason Kirito unleashed his full fury as an elite player to clear the trap room and bringing them out alive. He won't let anything happen to her on his watch.

But now, seeing that it only served to make everything worse, he started having second thoughts about this whole thing.

Did he join the guild because he wanted to try a change of pace from being a solo player, or just because he wanted to protect her?

In the end, he's a solo player, and a Beater to begin with. There's no place in any guild for him.

"Tell Keita that I'm sorry for what happened, and...please...keep yourself safe, Sachi. Goodbye."

Kirito opened his item menu, and dropped three teleportation crystals on the floor, then turned back, and start walking into the dark corridor in front of him.

"No...Kirito, please. Please come back!" Sachi cried out, but Kirito has already disappeared into the darkness.

A/N: So, I decided to rewrite my Sword Art Online: Alternate Story fic into this, because I felt the old version has too much flaws in it, but I don't want to go back and fix them one by one, so I wrote them all over again. Also, I decided to change the POV into third person, because I find it easier to describe the story that way. The old story will not be discontinued, but as I mentioned over there, the duration between each chapter's release will be longer, but don't worry, this one will catch up with it eventually. :)