Sword Art Online: Abyssal Shard
Prologue
I narrowed my eyes as I focused on the screen in front of me. I nodded at the title of an article: 'Sword Art Online Release TODAY!'
Whoever made this was a genius, a man goes with the name Kayaba Akihiko, I believe. I've seen a picture of this guy before, every picture of his he was wearing a lab coat, with a poker face. But never less he was still handsome for someone in his age.
Leaning back on the chair and stretched from my stiff position, satisfied hearing bones cracking and popping back into the right space. I let out a tired yet relaxing sigh.
I spun my chair and stared at the digital clock on the wall, 12:55. I smiled. I've always wanted to fight someone in PvP, and Sword Art Online was lucky enough to be my first and actually be a VR, and I was lucky enough to be one of the 10,000 to be able to buy the game. Night and night I lay on the bed, thinking how to encounter certain opponent in certain situation. I grinned widely as the clock hit another minute.
Fighting with tactics just feels so good. I've played plenty games before Sword Art Online, all were in the computer, guns, robot fighting, capture the flag, blah blah blah, and it all depends on how you act when you face enemies.
Sure you can just solo the guys like a boss if you are good enough, but no matter how strong you are, you can't just go all out on twenty players in one go. That's when strategy comes in handy, you can just place a bomb under their feet, making a distraction to gather people in the spot, then bang, nothing more than piece of gores.
I'm smart, not like I am a arrogant asshole, but I really am. No kid. The prizes I won were too much I need to throw some into the trash, but no big deal.
"Shit." I muttered when the clock hit another minute. I switched off the button after turning the browsers. I kneeled down to bring up a large box still unopened, I tore off the tightly wrapped plastic and opened the box. A NerveGear remained untouched lies inside.
I carefully took out the helm and studied it like a diamond. I walked over the bed and placed the device on it, I opened the drawer and took out a few copies of Sword Art Online. I sighed when I looked at its cover. I spend an entire day in the line just to purchase this game. My mother didn't even complain when I told her I was playing a VR, she just told me to keep up the grades at school and everything she won't care a damn. Loving mother, huh?
I opened the lid and carefully took out the disc, studying if there were unfortunate scratches nicked, and placed it into the slot in NerverGear. I panicked when the game disc didn't enter the device, I tried a few times, then turned the disc over to give another try, and it went in as if nothing happened. I sighed in relief.
I took the cable and plug it in the plugin, connecting the power supply as well as the internet. I personally asked dad to upgrade the internet just because I don't want any lag to stop me from enjoying the game.
I smiled as I finished the preparation. Everything was going on smoothly. I looked back at the clock on the wall: 12:59, just in time.
I sat on my bed and put on my NerveGear, the metal was cold and sent shivers down my spine, it was tight enough to attach firmly around my head, but lose enough to feel comfortable.
Lying slowly on the bed, I blinked twice before I relax and closed my eyes, the clock within my sight slowly count down.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
"Link Start!" I uttered the magic words that would brought me to the wonderful land known as Sword Art Online
Streaks of colors appeared in the darkness, I felt myself pulled from my body and accelerated, the system automatically checked my senses. Then came to a sudden stop before a keyboard.
"Please insert you character name"
I was slightly startled by the voice, it wasn't robotic, but it was smooth, yet at the same time without any trance of emotions.
"Please insert your character name" the system repeated again.
I looked at the transparent keyboard with my mind in elsewhere. Name was quite important in the name. It gives people your first impression, if you make a stupid name, for an example, Soul Reaper, and people will just pick a fight with you and beat you to a pulp.
For an instant multiple names flashed through my mind, I searched for the right name for me, not too common but suit me. Then I know the name. "Rayden."
I don't really have any idea I came up with that name, but somehow it sounded right and something just told me behind my head to use the name.
"R." tap, "a." tap, "y" tap, "d." tap, "e." tap, "n." tap.
I pressed confirm after I finished entering the letters.
"Character name chosen, Rayden." My eyes narrowed and my eyebrow twitched. The system pronounced my name as 'R-ie-den', I expected it to pronounced as 'R-a-den'. But system is always a system. I shrugged.
"Please select your gender."
I immediately pressed Male. Some people prefer to have their character as an opposite gender, curious how to feel as a male or female. My back felt cold from the imagination.
Then I came to avatar customization screen, it started bold with simple cloths. I remained my hair color as blonde but change the hair style a bit, making it longer and smoother till it covered my left eyes. It doesn't really do anything, but it looks cooler. I increase the height of my avatar a few more inches, not to high like a freak, but just slightly taller than average. I've known that height is actually pretty important during fights, taller means longer arms and legs, longer arms equals to longer reach, longer reach means easier to hit players, easier to hit players mean easier to win. Look, common sense. My iris color remained the same, dark purple, not a common color for Japanese people, but it makes me stood out and unique looking. I turned the avatar around and spin it to look at in different angle, making small changes until it reached my expectations. I pressed the Okay button.
"Avatar customization, confirm. Please select your starter kit." Then the avatar I made disappeared and boxes appeared. I read through the columns carefully.
There were Heavy based, probably equipped with two-handed swords or war hammer with heavy armor.
There were also Mid-weight based, with one handed swords and shields, together with decent armor.
The last caught my attention. Light based the most suitable style and most potential style for me. Included daggers or rapiers, maybe light swords or short swords as well. The lack of armor was nothing really to concern about, with training and high level, the agility and reflex were more than enough to dodge slow strikes from the mobs or opponent. It also allows me to strike people in the weak spot with dead accuracy.
I pressed the box firmly.
"Light based kit, confirm." For a moment I thought I pressed the wrong selection in mistake. Particle of light surrounded my body, slowly dissolving me to polygons.
"Welcome to Sword Art Online, Rayden."
As the flash of light died down, I opened my eyes. I found myself standing in a clearing with beautiful white marbles planted in floors. Flashes of light keeps appearing, revealing more and more players who joined game. I looked down, I was wearing ankle height boots and cotton white t-shirt, on top was a small and simple piece of plain armor. It was so light that it felt like it was never there.
I reached for my back, where my sword would be in place, sure enough, my fingertips touched a handle.
This was just far too realistic. I pinched my face for confirmation. There was no pain but the touch, which was normal, since it was illegal to allow pain in VR, with swords and axes in your body probably wasn't to most comforting sensation you would feel.
I was unable to keep a grin from appearing from my face, this was real, I'm actually in a game, a frickin game.
My happiness was cut short when more and more people started to appear, cheering when they finally arrived Sword Art Online.
I hate noisy and lousy people, no matter how I tried, they always managed to bother the crap out of me.
Unable to survive the onslaught of the over-whelming voices and screams, I started into one direction.
Since I never full dived before, I was a total newbie in the system and fighting. Sure I had spent most of my time in front of the computer surfing in the internet hoping to find some information about the game, but since the game hadn't boot just yet, there weren't much information expect the company and the designer of the game.
That caused me to think, I was quite sure that there were, 1000, person if I remember correctly, those lucky bastards were able to get the Beta version of the game to try out, the test was available for a month or two. That also means that that they had a two month head start and know how the system works.
I wandered without a thought and bump into a person.
"Opps," I looked down at a hooded figure at the height below my chin, "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching."
The person looked up, and I caught a clear view of the person. A female, and I gulped mentally, I was never good with handling people, I don't really have friends, much less than know how to deal with a girl.
"Nah, it's me who needed to apologize," she had light blonde hair, rather short for girls, and weirdly three whiskers like marks on both cheeks, like a rat.
"Are you new to VR?" she asked with a annoying high-pitched voice, as if she was picking a fight.
"Mm? Oh, yeah," I said with my mind in somewhere else.
Wait, what on earth?!
"Wait, how do you even know that." I eyed the short girl. This never turned out to be good.
"That's no big surprise, come on, I met people like you before, they were also clueless and wandering around like you just did." She shrugged.
I raised an eyebrow, "are you a stalker?"
She looked at me blankly for a moment, before bursting out in laughter.
I waited for her to calm down as she was holding her side.
"Stalking? How did that even come to your mind?" I sighed in relieve.
"Of course I am, that what information broker do." My eyes snap open and my lips parted. i admitted it, i was impressed with her straightforward attitude. I overcame my shock and smile a bit.
"Do you have shame? stalking a beginner? Are you the type to pick on weaklings?" I asked, "just to tell you, I am not as weak as I seems."
"i doubted it." she said without batting a eyelash, "stalking was quite my hobby, but no, you are just a starter so I won't even bother to scam you just for a couple thousand cols."
Cols are the unit for money and coins in this game. Since I just entered the game, like, five minutes ago, so the amount I currently had probably wouldn't even cause a thing.
"Okay, I get your point," than I asked her accusingly, "then why are you after me, I know I am rather attractive, but if that what you want I would need to decline your offer." She blushed, and then she coughed to hide her embarrassment.
"that was a good try, but that won't work on me," she grinned, "I always pity guys like you, not knowing what to do in the game and walking around like idiots," my smile on wavered, "and so I am going to give you a little hand."
"Aren't you a information broker? I don't have the money for that." I questioned.
She waved her hands dismissively, "of course not, I will tell you this for free since you are a beginner." My ears perked up at this, "go south, and when you come across a path, follow it up the hill, then you will see two player fighting mobs on the field, go to them and tell the kid with black hair that 'the rat' told you to come here, then he would know and tell you how the game runs."
I carefully memorized her words in my mind and muttered the paths for confirmation, after I was sure I had all of them in mind I turned to the waiting player and said sincerely, "thanks, I can't ask for your return." I bowed.
She sighed under her hood, "ohh, cut the crap, this is just a one-time pass for you, but the next time it will definitely cost you. Take care, maybe we will meet again in the future." She turned to leave the crowd street.
I called at her small back, "hey!" she turned, "I don't think caught your name."
"Argo!" she said, "name's Argo." And she continued and disappeared in the crowd of players and NPCs.
I smiled at her kindness and turned to leave as well.
I followed her directions and find myself on the path she told.
That was when I heard yelling, and heavy thuds. Judging from the sound I was able to know this was the place I was looking for. I rushed towards the source and stared from a distance.
Two figures were standing on a grass field, they were both too far for me to see their faces clearly, but I was able to identify both were males. One of them had black hair, wearing leather armor on top of his blue shirt. Another one was with red hair, having a headscarf.
I walked towards them, watching as a boar like mob smashing his head hard on the dude's groins, in winced as I heard his screams of pain. I kicked peddle, making enough sound just for the two of them to notice my presence. As if a cue, both of them turned to my direction. And I got a better view of both of the players I was searching for.
One of the dude got raven black hair, the one Argo told me to find. His hair was long enough for it to fall and cover his left eye. I got to admit, he avatar was rather handsomely created. He was about the same height as I was, if not a couple inches shorter than me.
The red dude had long hair for a boy, but short hair for a girl. His body was built like me and the dude in black. Both were studying me, as if I was a about to eat them alive.
The dude in red pointed his curve sword at me, "Are you a PKer? If that is the case I will ha—" The poor guy never got to finish his sentence. The boar he was fighting a moment ago charged and crashed at his side.
I could not help but let out a chuckle at the scene. "Poor guy." I turned and looked at the boy in black, who was giving me a wary look.
"Hi…" I thought for a second, "'the rat' told me to be here, she said you will teach me basic things I need to know about this game." I finished feeling a bit bothered.
The boy turned and cursed, muttering something under his breath.
He sighed and said, "very well, since I was teaching him," he pointed at the other guy, who was still getting his kicked by the mob, "he asked the same thing, so I guess it won't hurt helping another." He smiled a tired one, "as people say: the more, the merrier."
I was able to study others based on their actions. Seeing him stuttering when he was talking to me, I could see he was a gamer in real life, one that had lack of communication in the real world. But despite of that, he's willing to help two strangers without something in return. I guessed he was a pretty nice guy. He was probably somehow like me.
"Thanks, I will be in your care, then." I nodded in respect. The guy smiled.
"My name is Rayden, nice to meet you." I held out my hand.
He stared at my hand for a moment before taking it, locking it in a handshake, "mine is Kirito, and he is Klein." He pointed at the guy in red. I glanced at Klein, and noticed his health bar dangerously low in yellow.
I pointed at him, "You better help him before he got killed." Kirito looked at the boar and sighed. He rested his sword on his shoulder, at first nothing happened, then the blade got enveloped in a orange glow. My eyes widened in amusement.
Kirito lunged in inhuman speed, as he was about reach-length, his sword came down in a blur. i could even hear the whistling sound of the air cleaved through from where I am standing. Leaving a clean slash on the boar mob, it combusted into thousands of shards of blue polygons. I whistled. badass.
Kirito stood and swung his sword left and right, a move that flicks blood of the blade. He sheathed his sword and offered Klein a hand, who accepted and stood up with difficulty.
"man, that was hard as hell." Klein said, scratching his head.
I looked at Kirito, "looking Klein fight that thing was enough to know, how you do that thingy? The swing that killed the boar?"
Klein looked at me, "wait, you know me? Do I know you?" I smiled.
"Name's Rayden, nice to meet you." I offered him a handshake.
"Oh! Nice to meet you too." He grabbed my hand and shook. My smile frozen, a little bit too much for my opinion.
Kirito spoke up, "if you two are done, I suggest we get started."
We nodded.
"before that, may I have a look on your sword? Rayden. So I can know you style in fighting."
"sure, please." I took my sword out of my sheath, and offered the handle to Kirito. He took it and weighted it on his hand.
"Yhis is light, fast, but it won't deliver huge damage." He muttered as he turned the blade around to look at the hilt.
I said, "Yeah, that is what I aimed for, striking weak spots and take advantage of their weakness. Sending the opponent damages with numbers of strike. That is how I wanted to fight."
Kirito out a figure on his cheek as Klein exclaimed, "Wow, dude, you really thought this through."
Kirito said, "That is good, but you need dead accuracy and a brain to fight the battle." I smirked.
"Believe me, this is what I am best at." I took the sword back from Kirito.
He stretched and said, "so we shall start now. I will teach you guys attacks, Sword Skills."
Klein asked, "you mean the glow thingy in your sword when you killed the pig." I nodded in agreement.
"Yep, Sword Skills is basically how you fight battles in Sword Art Online." He unsheathed his sword from his back, "an attack that had combos, and gradually stronger the more strikes it had in one skill."
He raised his sword upon his head, instead of orange, it glowed purple this time.
With a silent battle cry, Kirito swung his sword. The next second the skill ended, leaving a faint trance of shimmer in the air, drawing a V.
Klein's jaws dropped while I grinned widely at the technique I soon to learn.
"that," Kirito began, "is a two hit combo sword skill, Vertical Arc, one handed sword skill."
He pointed at Klein's sword, "you will needed to learn another skill, since your is a curve sword. Rayden can copy mine since he too is a one handed sword user."
Klein moaned, "ehhhhh…"
Kirito turned to me, "so what do you want to know other than sword skill."
I grinned, "nah, that pretty much it."
I've looked through articles in the internet, about beating the one hundred floor to clear the game, how the trading and cash works, how the mobs spawn, what happens when we die, how to work on the menu and potions and stuff. I had heard of sword skills in the internet, but it was harder to understand how it works without personally experience it myself.
Kirito smiled, "cool," he put his index and middle finger together in his right hand and pulled them down, a menu appeared in the thin air. "it's still early, you guys want to do some more hunting?"
"Hell yeah!" "sure."
After spending hours of hunting and grinding, the sky of Anicrad was orange by the time we were exhausted. We sat on a hill, overlooking the beautiful view of the far-too-realistic world of Sword Art Online.
"Man, I had a blast..."Klein muttered loud enough for us to hear it, "whoever made this is definitely a genius."
I nodded, "it's hard to think that this is a game, this is just too real." I lay on the grass, "I'm glad I was born in this generation."
Kirito said while still looking at the setting sun, "is this the first time you both full-dived?"
I closed my eyes and said, "yeah, I just happened to buy NerveGear just to play Sword Art Online."
"Yep, same for me too. I spend the whole night outside just to buy the game, the last copy was sell just a few in the line behind me, I was lucky." He turned to look at Kirito, "but you are ten times luckier, you got to be in the Beta test."
I snapped my head to the swordsman, "Wait a sec, you are in the Beta?"
"yeah, I though you know about that already."
"no, you didn't even bother to tell me, you lucky bastard." I scowled as he just smirked. "you never asked."
We three had grown close to each other during the three hours, and I had to say, those to have become one of my friends. They didn't act like I was a Mr. Perfect; someone they could not approach. They treated me as if I was the same as them, not like a super genius with an IQ higher than Albert Einstein.
"One more thing," I asked, "How high up did you get before the Beta ended?"
Kirito narrowed his eyes at the distance, "we got to the eighth floor in two months." Then he lips curved upwards, "but this time with so this much people, we can cut the time in half."
"You sure is confident, you are really into this game, huh."
Kirito took out his sword and looked at the blade, his expression was somewhat...dreamy?
"Sometimes I feel much more alive in this world than the real world. You don't need to be bounded to limitations, what matters here is a blade." He stared at the sword for a moment before sheathing it.
Gamers got caught up with mental stress and avoided communication with the society, some of them who were worst even refuse to talk to their own family. But i doubted Kirito was the later one.
"Now that resting is over, you guys want to go hunt some more?" he asked us.
"I can't," I waved my hand, "I need to log out for now, I have some business to do in the real world."
Klein sighed, "me too. A pizza is on its way to my home for 5:30."
"Then you better get going, it's already 5:20."
Klein shot up, "Crap! I gotta go, now." He opened his menu, "but before that…"
A window popped up my screen.
Klein wants to invite you as his friend, do you accept?
I raised an eyebrow at the grinning dude, I looked back at the window and pressed accept. I looked at Kirito and saw him doing the same.
"Yosh, this settles it!" Klein said loudly.
Then a idea popped out my mind. I shrugged, why not.
I opened my menu, select social and then select friends. Then the option appeared friend invitation. I pressed it and typed in the search column, K-i-r-i-t-o. Only a player appeared. I guess Kirito was not a name everyone uses.
I selected it and pressed sent invitation. Later another window appeared saying that the invitation was sent.
I looked over to Kirito and saw him looking back at me. I smiled at him, and he returned with a grin. He pressed on the window.
Once again a third window appeared: Kirito had accepted you as his friend. A smile appeared once again.
"Eh? There is no logout button…"
We turned to Klein, who was scratching his head in confused.
"Look carefully, it should be in the lowest option-" Kirito froze.
"Look, i told you. It's not there..." Klein seemed proud that he finally got Kirito speechless.
Out of curiosity I closed the previous two windows and scrolled down to the lowest option. My fingertips froze at where the logout button was. The option was still there, but the column was empty.
"What the hell…"
Even Kirito seemed bothered as well, "probably because this is the first day of the launch, there might be some bug." It was like he was convincing himself rather than us.
"Is there some other way we can log out?" Klein wailed, "Return! Log Out! Escape!" he did some weird posture. Awkward silence greeted him.
"umm, you might want to know the time." I told Klein. He looked at the main menu and cried, "NO! MY PIZZA AND GINGER ALE!" he fell to his kneels.
"Aw! Can't I just remove my NerveGear from my head?" he raised his hands on his head, trying to grab air.
Kirito shook his head, "no, all the signals the brain gives out will be blocked and sent to the avatar, we cannot move our bodies when we are still wearing the NerveGear."
"crap." I cursed. Mom will scold the hell out of me when I was late for class.
"Are you serious?" Klein murmured.
"We cannot log out until someone pulls NerveGear from our heads. Until then, we are stuck."
"Oh shit, I live alone in the apartment," he turned to ask me, "how 'bout you? Ryden."
"I got my parents, but they come back at eight. How about you? Kirito."
"I have a mother and a younger sister, they'll come back soon-" Klein ran up to Kirito and took his collar, "You have a younger sister? How old is she? Is she avilab-" I laughed when Kirito kneed Klein in the crotch, hard.
"Dude, how old are you? I don't know you are into little girls, Klein." I wiped tears from my eyes as Klein whimpered in imagined pain.
"But this is strange," Kirito said ignoring us, "unable to logout in a virtual world is a fatal mistake for a VR, it is just impossible to remain unnoticeable."
True, Argus should never allow this to happen in the first day of official service, if they did, they should fix the bug in a blink of an eye.
"Did you contact the Game Master?" I asked Kirito.
He nodded, "I did, but he is not answering."
"I am just so confused now!" Klein grabbed his hair and pulled.
Suddenly, a bell rang.
"What?"
It rang, twice, thrice. We were still frozen, I sucked in a breath. I caught Kirito trembling in the corner of my eye. Then a glow swallowed my body. No, not only mine, Klein and Kirito were also in the same situation as I am right now.
"What is happening?!"
Before someone could answer that question, we disappear in a flash of white.
The glow died and I opened my eyes, what greeted me was no expected. Instead of the dusk of Anicrad, I see people, many, too much, so much that it was unreal.i scowled unconsciously.
"Why are we here?" I turned to see Kirito and Klein, I sighed in relieve to see them. Just to clarify, I am not in this whole bromance thing, when something was happening that you had no idea of, that you should be the same as me. I hate not knowing things, I always in the top of the year, knowing everything that nobody knows, even that implies for teachers. Something that was out of your knowledge was frightening.
"Someone forced a teleport." Kirito murmured. The bell was still ringing as more and more people continued flashing in.
I tiptoed to take a better view of the place. It was like an arena in Rome, then I noticed the floor, which was made of snow white marble. In an instant I noticed this was the spawning area where everyone appeared when they logged in the first time.
Someone shouted, "Up there!" we looked up and saw a red hexagon in the sky. I narrowed my eyes to get a better view, a simple word, WARNING.
I hoped this teleportation and warning thing was to tell us the bug and tell us not to worry, but somehow I knew things would not go as I hoped.
The red hexagon spread, one to two, two to four, four to eight, etc etc. soon the whole sky was covered with a red barrier.
"What the hell?" I muttered under my breath, knowing something was off. My instincts yelled at me, telling me that this was going to be something unpleasant.
That was when red blood like liquid leaked through the crack, more and more followed, gathering in a single spot. Than the disgusting ball of liquid started to shape, extending, widening, creating. Soon there stood a figure the size of a Titan, it was hooded with a red robe, hovering above the players as if about to crush them under its feet. Players started to shift uncomfortably. But instead, I deep voice rang out from his expressionless face.
"Attention, players." A deep voice said, it was deep and smoothing, but somehow I couldn't relax, instead I got wary towards the unknown figure, "Welcome to my world."
I raised my eyebrows. He said 'my world', so I guess this was the Game Master, or Kayaba Akihiko more accurately. The way he said my world probably had another hidden meaning within it.
"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, I am currently the one and only person who can control this world." One and only?
People started to murmur about the name, everyone in this game probably know this man as he was the one who made this game, also the first VRMMORPG with NerveGear.
"I am sure you have all already that the logout button in the main menu had been removed." Kayaba continued as he opened his menu, I sighed as I knew my guess was right, "However, this is by no means a mistake." My thoughts froze dead in track, unable to process what he just declared.
"I repeat, this is not a mistake, but a true feature of Sword Art Online."
"Feature?" Klein asked the question for me.
The genius continued, "You are all unable to log out of SAO, and no one in the real world can remove or interrupt its operation. Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."
Murmuring spread through the crowds once again. I shivered.
"What's he saying?"
"I'm sure it's an act to get us excited."
"Come on, enough already."
Klein asked, "What is he blabbering about? He's out of his mind." He turned to Kirito, "Right?"
I shook my head and answered Klein, "no, I read through the articles about NerveGear. The signals emitted by it acts like a microwaves. No , it is the same way as microwaves."
Kirito carried on, "If the safety was off, frying a brain won't be impossible."
"Then if we cut of the power supply-"
"Nope, that won't work too, since NerveGear got an internal battery." I stated.
"This is absurd, why would this happen?!" Klein complained.
"Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As a proof, 213 players have both retired from this world and the real one."
"213? That many?" I questioned aloud. Shit, my ignorant parents might had their anger getting the best out of them and pulled NerveGear out from my head.
"Unbelievable, I can't believe this!" Klein yelled, shaking his head widely.
"As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide." Windows appeared and surrounded him, news, articles, browsers of the deaths and livestreaming.I sighed. Hopefully my parents would reconsider before ending my life.
"Thus, it should be safe to say that the danger of removal attempts has become minimal. I hope you will all be at ease and focus on completing the game. But I'll like you all to keep this in mind. From this moment onwards, all methods of revival in the game will no longer be function." Kayaba reminded, "If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and if that happens." He paused before delivering the shocking news,I got an assumption and hoped it was wrong, "The NerveGear will destroy the brain." my luck hit the bottom.
This time there were no shouting or whispering, but replaced with silence. All the players were too shock to react, and I was no better.
I gripped my head. This couldn't be happening, no, no, this was wrong. I was near insanity when Kayaba continued his speech.
"There is only one way to for your freedom: complete this game." No way, all the floors, the Betas only were able to hit the eighth floor only. By the time we really meet the goal, how many of us will be left?
"You are all in the first floor, the lowest point in Anicrad. If you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the floor boss, you may continue up to the next one." A blueprint of the floating castle appeared. "Assuming you managed to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, the game will be considered cleared."
"100 floors? Is that even possible?" Klein said as Kirito remained motionless, unable to speak a word.
"Last but not least, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages. Take a look."
Curiosity kills a cat, but I could not help but to click on the storages, and a single item appeared. "Mirror?" I select the item and it materialized out of the thin air, I caught it and looked at reflection of my avatar. Long blonde hair, purple eyes, handsome, but nothing happened.
"WA!" Klein cried out.
I turned to look at him, but in his place was only a flash of blueish white light, same as teleportation, but not quite the same since Klein didn't get sent away.
I heard a scream and turned to Kirito. He, too, got enveloped in light.
"What is hap-" I was cut short when I was blinded as well.
A moment later I opened my eyes, looking around suspiciously for another surprise attack.
"Eh?! Who are you?"
"That's what I'm about to say."
I turned and saw a guy with black hair and a guy in red.
"Kirito? Klein?" I asked both of them.
"Who are you? Wait, are you…Rayden?" Kirito said.
I nodded grimly as I studied him. Unlike his avatar, he was shorter and had shorter hair. His face had slight changes, almost making him look like…. a girl.
I would be laughing if I wasn't in this current situation.
He looked cute…. Umm, shit, did I really have that crossing my mind? gross.
Klein hadn't change much himself, his body didn't change that much, so was his face. But his hair was shorter and his headband was pushing his hair up.
Klein checked himself out in the mirror, "but why do we look like our realselves?"
Realization drawn towards me, "The NeveGear…"
Kirito nodded, "The NerveGear covers your entire head with a high density transmitter, so it can calculate what your face looks like."
"And before we entered the game, we were told to touch our bodies, maybe that scans our body, that might be the reason why we look and shaped like how we are in the real world." I guessed
"That's the closest assumption…" Kirito agreed.
Klein yelled, "why will he do this, for what?!"
I pointed at Kayaba, "I'm pretty sure he will tell us."
"Right now, you're probably all thinking, 'why? Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do such a thing?'. I have already achieved my goal. I've created the world of Sword Art Online solely just for my personal entertainment."
My eyes flared with anger, why would this man do such a thing just for enjoyment?
"And now, the preparations are complete," his robe shimmered, "this concludes the tutorial for the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you best of luck."
The giant wavered, his form flickered and the robe melted back to red liquid. Then slowly, defying the laws of gravity, it floated upwards as if weightless and seeped through cracks of the red barrier, and finally disappeared from sighted. About the same time, the barrier of hexagon faded away, leaving nothing but pure tension in the air.
I was unable to move a finger, my lips trembling and unable to take further action. Even though I was smart, but I never said I was good at dealing to life and death situation. No shit, but this was something out of everybody's league to deal with. I was still awestruck when someone tucked my armor.
"Rayden, Klein, come with me a moment." Kirito said seriously, "This is real."
I shook my head and slapped my face hard. Even though I could not feel any pain, I still feel the stun from the slap. As prove my cheek was tinkling a bit. I felt stupid for feeling powerless just now, even if I was, I hate doing something that shows weakness and fear.
However Klein looked like wetting his pants. I growled in frustration and grabbed his shoulder. I roared into his face, "Pull yourself together! Klein!" his eyes shifted from the place where Kayaba was to me, "you heard what he said up there, this is no longer a game, this is life or death. There isn't time to hesitate." I told him while shaking him out of shock. I turned pulled Klein with me and followed Kirito. He lay low and went through crowds with letting people noticing him, which was easy since they are still processing what the monster told them.
Just as we entered a dark valley beside the spawning area, ear-piercing screams of terror and anger were heard. They were so pained that I flinched. I almost wanted to stop and go hid in a corner, crying and praying this was all a nightmare, hoping everything would be fine when I woke up. Playing with my dog, chatting with my parents, go to school, like things I do every day. But I knew this was all just excuses to escape my fears, an act that insulted my own existence.
I forced my legs to move and took a uncertain step forward, I doubted I could walk long before breaking down.
But that wasn't necessary. Kirito stopped and turned toward us. Klein had recovered to able to know the situation.
"Look, if what he said is right, then we will need to survive to get back to the real world." He flicked his hand and the menu appeared, "we are in the Starting City. Resources in this floor is limited, Col and EXPs. And soon players will go around and grind for levels. So we will need to move to another town as soon as possible, faster than anyone, finish quests and receive rare items. The sooner, the better."
I nodded, this sounded like a plan, a plan that I would gladly take part of. There was no place for sympathy or pity. It's either us or them. I'm sure people would choose to abandon their friends just to survive. That was one of fatal flaw all humans have.
"I want the two of you to come with me." Kirito stated calmly.
I knew this was coming. Kirito was a Beta tester, one of every ten players that actually know what they are doing. Besides, I did not really have a reason not to go with Kirito, I never got any friends other than Kirito and Klein, Argo didn't really counts since she was a information broker. But there were no reason that bounds me here. But with Kirito I would have a higher choice to live.
I walked beside Kirito and gave him a smile of appreciation, who smiled in return.
But Klein was another case.
"um… look guys,… I had stayed in the line with my friends for the whole night to get this game. Some of them are still in the spawning area…. And you know I cannot leave them alone…"
My heart throbbed with pain. We all know that the resources could not be enough to divide to a small group of number. So what Klein's hinting was leaving him with his friends while Kirito and I level up and collect loot.
Kirito sighed heavily, probably guilty to leave Klein behind, "I see. Then we will be going."
"Send us messages if you are in trouble, and we will be more than happy to help." I added, hoping to lift up the tension.
Klein smiled, "thanks, guys. I'll see you guys around." He waved.
Kirito turned to leave while I follow in suit. This was too much stress for one day.
"Hey! Kirito! Rayden!" we turned.
Klein in the alleyway grinned, "Kirito , you have a nice face, just my type." He teased playfully. He then looked at me, "Rayden, I'm sorry to tell ya that you are too cute to be my type, fon't get sad. but definitely a gorgeous face."
I sweatdropped, but I managed to return the words, "You are not bad yourself, maybe one day a dude might ask you out." He laughed nervously, "I'm sorry I'm not gay."
Waving a final goodbye, we turned to leave for real this time.
Halfway out, I turned to look back. Klein was long gone, leaving no sign behind.
My face twisted with guilt. The first friend I made gone in just one day, one single freakin' day.
We got out of the Starting City wordlessly, none of us bothered to say a word.
The field outside was empty. Nobody had gone out before us yet, still caught up with the chaos. A advantage for us. Hopefully Klein would get his friends into a party and start organizing.
Out of a sudden, Kirito roared, a one full of fury and sadness, but determination at the same time. He dashed forward on the path, I followed.
This was no longer a game. There was no happiness and excitement, just desperation and fear. A death game. One that means death if you perish in the game.
Kayaba Akihiko told us that to escape this world of death. We were to clear all 100 floors. It was too difficult, next to impossible. Something we all knew when he told us. He wanted us to cower, watching us fighting to death just for fun.
But that I won't satisfy him, I would never bow down to him. I will escape this hell of a world. I will survive.
I glanced at the path, a wolf had spawned right in front of us, blocking our way. It's red eyes glared at us. It ran towards us and lunged.
Kirito screamed to meet the wolf, parrying its claws with his unsheathed sword. I drew mine as I dashed forwards, activating a sword skill and the blade buried deep into its chest. It froze as if lagged as it exploded into data.
I glared at the sun and screamed.
Currently stuck into a death game by its inventor, Kayaba Akihiko, and was told to clear the game for survival. I am now called Rayden, and I am going to be the one to save everyone from this hell pit.
So this is a story I just wrote. I am going to pair Rayden up with Asuna, cause she is my baby girl. Please give me some feedback, so I can improve my writing. Also I can't promise I can update frequently, but I will try my best. See ya.
