I
A (New) New Beginning
The clicks and clacks of untrimmed fingernails on hard plastic keys were all but drowned out by the white noise of heavy rainfall. In that particular home, on a day with weather such as then, the windows would usually be bright with a mellow but artificial light.
In the only dim room in the house, darkly circled eyes scanned the same few websites over and over, skimming descriptions and technical specifications. Periodically, these eyes would glance to a corner of the monitor set just a few inches from the teenager's face, double and triple checking the time.
Kazuto Kirigaya restlessly tapped an agitated rhythm on his table, with the hand that wasn't on his mouse. The website he consistently returned to was flamboyant and almost garish. In the center, large stylized text read: Sword Art: Online! It was known widely as the first video game that wasn't, but at the same time was, a video game. A whole new world, as Argus had marketed it.
Another click, and Kazuto was met with a semi-familiar face. Akihiko Kayaba smiled and held the NerveGear in his hands, in a picture taken just days prior. Kazuto glanced at the same gunmetal-coloured helmet, along with all of its neatly tied cables resting on his bed. Every second, it grew closer—the moment he'd be able to escape his reality, and enter another.
Shino Asada wasn't a particularly lucky person. This random, but undoubtedly warranted thought crossed her mind as she stared at herself in the mirror. The rough lines on her cheek where creases on her pillow had left marks agreed; she'd stayed up fantastically late due to a mix of nervousness and excitement, only to have fallen asleep in an uncomfortable position early in the morning.
She cupped her hands under the small stream of cold water flowing from the faucet. Hoping to clear some of the drowsiness from her mind, she splashed her face to find out that the water was, in fact, a lot colder than she had realized. Opening her eyes wide with a small shriek, Shino quickly dried herself with a facecloth and shuffled out of the washroom, flopping onto a plush sofa in her two-room apartment.
She had been one of the many who hadn't been part of the beta, but had pre-ordered SAO. She'd waited close to a month to finally be able to play it. True to her unlucky nature, she'd planned to unbox and prepare everything on the morning of release, but that plan had been decidedly ruined.
Sighing, she pulled herself from her slumped position on the sofa to walk to the nearest counter, where she'd haphazardly left an X-ACTO knife a few days beforehand. She had about half an hour; the servers went live at 1:00 PM, and there were no doubt plenty of teenagers and adults alike anxious to log in to the virtual world. Stripping tape from the box, Shino glanced outside her window. She'd still been able to see the stars just before she'd fallen asleep, yet now she could only see the never-ending grey of rainclouds.
Her fingers on autopilot, Shino had managed to undo all the twist ties and insert the correct cables into the correct ports. Standing back from the desk she'd moved to, she surveyed the mess of wires connected to one single machine. It was almost a little scary, considering the amount of sheer technology she'd be wearing.
Taking a deep breath, Shino logged into her computer, and double-clicked the lone icon she'd left on her desktop. Then, laying down in a comfortable position on her bed, she gripped the clumsy device with both hands. Trying her best to gracefully push the helmet on without catching her ears, she winced as a seam in the plastic caught and pulled out a strand of hair.
Manually moving the neck brace into place, Shino let out a shaky breath. She hadn't realized it, but her heart beat so fast she swore it was rattling her ribcage. As her eyes wandered around the visor, she noticed the time, backup battery level and a few other indicators in the corner. 12:59. One minute; it was now or never.
Remembering what the instructions she'd skimmed through had read, she managed a weak, "Link, start."
A faint hum began to emit from inside the NerveGear, and her mind began to reel. A feeling similar to fainting came over her, and her vision darkened until she was practically swimming in black spots. Her pulse quickened.
'Is this what's supposed to happen?' She wondered, resolving to pull the helmet off, only to find that she could no longer move her limbs. Suddenly, what seemed like a blinding white light expanded from the center of the sea of black dots to fill her vision. Then, a flood of coloured beams rushed towards her—she felt as if she were accelerating straight ahead. If her arms hadn't been paralyzed at her sides, she would've raised them in an attempt to protect herself. A few more animations appeared to inform her that all of her senses were working correctly.
Finally, after a body-calibration process, she arrived at the dark calm of SAO's character creation screen. Mellow ambient music played in the background, while a decently realistic version of her body stood mostly naked, staring back at her. It took tilting her head twice for Shino to realize that she was looking at a reflection of herself. Two things occurred to her. One—this was an extremely well-done character creation menu. Two—she really wanted blue eyes. Oh, and blue hair.
Kazuto—or, Kirito, as he was now known as, had never taken much pleasure in just standing outside in the sunlight. Except, that was in the real world. Ironically, he relished in the feeling of the virtual sun warming him to his core and the light breeze, preventing his skin from becoming too hot. The ambient temperature had been adjusted ever-so-slightly from the beta, where it'd been a tad too warm for his tastes. Now, it was just right.
Kirito smiled—that just meant he'd be more readily able to kick ass.
The starting clothing, from what Kirito could tell, only felt scratchier and more uncomfortable. The shirt was a sort of navy blue v-neck with long sleeves, in a medieval style. The pants couldn't be called much more than trousers in a canvas-like colour. The rough leather boots had thin soles that pretty much allowed him to feel most of the bumps in the road.
His spirits high regardless, Kirito confidently marched out of the starting plaza, where hundreds, maybe even thousands of new players stared at their hands or legs in awe. He ignored the shops with NPC merchants calling out to advertise their wares; the starting sword was more than enough to last him until he received the [Anneal Blade] from a quest.
A lock of hair fell into his eyes, prompting him to attempt to blow it to the side with a well-placed breath. He'd almost forgotten how long the hair of his avatar was; he'd quickly realized it was a hassle to have long hair in the beta, yet he'd been in such a rush to play the game that he hadn't changed it.
As soon as he'd strode out of the Town of Beginning's invisible border, he reached an arm behind him and drew his sword. It was something of a simple European arming sword—a double-edged blade with a no-frills guard and a simple grip wrapped in dark leather. It'd been a decent period of time since he'd last held that particular blade; it was the instrument of destruction with which he'd wreaked… well, a whole lot of nothing. As soon as he'd finished the beta's combat tutorial, he'd acquired a new sword that dealt almost double the damage of his first. In a way, this would be a new experience for him, something he was eager to try.
Sword Art Online's combat system was mostly based on a series of [Sword Skills], which practically moved the player's body for them. Blocking, parrying and basic attacks/combos could be done by oneself. However, they usually lacked damage and finesse. Compounding the issue, most system sword skills were actually faster than a human could actually move. Kirito assumed, however, that once a player levelled up enough to max out their Agility skill, they might be able to execute similarly fast combos. These [Sword Skills] were also double-edged swords in the way that if a player missed or was parried, they would suffer a small penalty. This penalty came in the form of a small window of time in which that player was frozen in place, vulnerable to any sort of attack.
Kirito had always admired the style of one-handed swordsmen and had thus become one himself. In addition to being one of, if not the most versatile style of swordsmanship, it also ended up being the cheapest. After all, his gear was simple to upgrade, as well as the fact that he just had less of it.
The rolling fields outside the town's gates were just as full of [Frenzy Boars] as they had been in the beta. As much as he loved playing the game, the next few hours would best be described as "farming." He wouldn't have to execute any sword skill more complicated than a simple [Slant], and the rewards would be small.
Kirito didn't really have any issues with being a farmer.
The first [Horizontal] came easy as always. A simple activation pose, and the sword seemed to rip away from his body at incredible speed in a wide arc in front of him. His sword cleaved clean through a boar in mid-jump, scattering small polygonal crystals through the air. Dismissing the small rewards window that popped up in front of him, Kirito became aware of a distinctly male voice, screaming for mercy in the distance.
Kirito had long since gotten over the frustration of not being able to see the usernames of other players. In fact, he almost no longer felt awkward just yelling at people with whatever pronoun, noun or adjective best suited their appearance.
In this case, that just so happened to be— "Hey man, what the hell are you screaming for?"
The redhead could do nothing but keep yelling incoherent phrases and curses at the pig that had knocked him down. A simple long knife lay in the grass about a meter away.
Not even bothering to activate a sword skill, Kirito sliced the mob in two.
It took a moment for the grounded player to realize that the boar was no longer slobbering all over his face, and he quickly stood up to pat the dust off of himself. "Thanks, pal! I thought I was a goner!"
Kirito rolled his eyes. "These are the weakest enemies in the game, yeah?"
"Are you serious?" The other player's eyes widened, as if he genuinely believed— "I thought these were like, mid-level field bosses or something… I guess that explains why there're so many of them running around, huh?" After a brief silence, he held out his hand. "Name's Klein. Nice to meet you."
Not used to the social contact, Kirito awkwardly grasped Klein's hand and shook. He noticed that Klein's fiery red hair was a deal longer than his own. Maybe he should give the other player the benefit of doubt and blame his lack of skill on his obviously distracting hair?
"I'm really a huge noob, and you look like you know what you're doing. Think ya could help a brother out?"
—Or not.
Seconds blurred into minutes, which in turn bled into hours as Kirito showed Klein the basics of SAO's combat, as well as a few tricks he'd learned from the beta. In fact, it took one of them glancing at their exceptionally long shadows to realize that the sun had almost completely set behind the islands floating in the distance.
Falling into a cross-legged position on the grass, Klein swiped his menu open to check the time. 6:53.
"Hey Kirito, thanks a ton for everything you showed me today!" Klein stretched his arms behind his head, flexing virtual muscles.
Kirito planted a hand on his hip, staring at a waterfall on one of the distant floating islands as the water fell into abyss.
"No problem," he said. Gesturing around them, he continued, "This world really is amazing."
"I hear you." Klein replied. "I didn't think I'd ever be able to do anything like this in my lifetime. And yet here I am, huh?"
"Back during the beta, I sometimes felt more alive in here than I ever did in the real life. Weird, huh?"
Klein chuckled. "A teen like you? I guess I can see something like that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Demanded Kirito, frowning.
Klein's chuckle became a full-blown laugh. "Nothing, man. Nothing at all. Anyway, I've got a pizza coming in about five minutes. Thanks again!"
Ignoring Klein's last comment, Kirito was the one to hold out his hand this time. "It was a pleasure."
After a firm shake, Klein turned and swiped his fingers down to bring out the menu.
Upon Kirito hearing several clicks and swipes, indicating that Klein was lost. In the menu. "Need any help?" Kirito intoned, a hint of mockery in his voice.
"Uh, yeah, actually… Isn't there supposed to be a log-out button right… Here?"
Kirito looked over Klein's shoulder to see Klein pointing at an empty box on the menu. His heart dropped into his stomach—there was supposed to be a log-out button in that spot.
Supressing the nervous energy in his stomach, he spoke in a shaky voice, "I'm sure it's just a bug. The GMs will probably fix it in the next half an hour or something."
Klein opened his mouth—presumably to complain about his pizza. However, he was interrupted as his avatar erupted in the blue fire of teleportation. The next thing Kirito knew; he'd also been teleported—to the central plaza in the Town of Beginnings.
One red hexagonal tile appeared in the sky. Then another, and another, until the dreamy blue had been overlaid completely by translucent red. From between these tiles, a dark-red liquid seeped forth, and Kirito had to hold back the urge to gag when he realized it must've been blood.
The blood slowly congealed into a large hooded robe several times larger than the plaza itself, hanging in the sky. An ominous indigo mist flowed from the hood, implying a sort of evil presence.
"Welcome, players!" A deep, booming voice exclaimed, while the robed figure spread its gloved hands, "I am Akihiko Kayaba, creator of this world."
Gasps echoed through the silence. THE Akihiko Kayaba?
"By now, you all must have noticed that something is missing from your menus. This is not a defect of the game. In fact, this is a feature of the game."
Once again, the otherwise silent plaza broke out in various inhumane noises and growls. Some players whispered angrily to each other. Kirito, on the other hand, remained silent. He couldn't comprehend what he'd just been told.
'Feature? What the fuck does that mean?' Was the only thought he could make out, feeling as if the world was spinning.
"You cannot log out by yourselves, and no one on the outside can remove or shut down the NerveGear. Should this be attempted, the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave that will destroy your brain and end your life."
Yells and screams of WHAT?! Echoed through the crowd, with equally as many people staying silent, desperate to believe that this was all a joke.
"He's gotta be joking, right Kirito?" Klein looked to him hopefully.
Kirito almost regretted reading all of those technical specs. "It's true that the NerveGear works by emitting microwaves… With the safety off, it definitely could fry a brain."
"No way…" Was Klein's dumbfounded reaction. "But couldn't we just cut the power?"
"No, the NerveGear's got an internal battery."
"But, this is crazy! Won't someo-"
Klein was cut off by the game's creator. "Several players' friends and families have ignored this warning. As a result, these players are no longer alive. In this world, as well as the real world."
"I don't believe this. I refuse!" Klein shook his head, glaring at the seemingly empty robe.
"I hope you can relax and try to clear the game. However, I want you all to remember. There is no longer any way to revive anyone in the game."
Kirito's head swam with anger. 'What does he mean?'
"If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be lost forever. Simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."
His, and ten thousand other pairs of eyes widened. Kirito imagined all the times he'd let a simple frenzy boar get the better of him. Every single one of those times… He'd be dead for real!
"There is only one means of escape: To complete the game. You are currently on Aincrad's first floor. Defeat the floor boss, and you may advance to the next level. Do this for all 100 floors, and you will have cleared the game."
More outraged cries erupted from the crowd.
"Clear the game? That's impossible!"
"The beta testers never made it anywhere that high!"
Akihiko Kayaba raised his hand for silence. "Finally, I've added an item to all of your personal storages as a gift. Please see for yourself. Good luck, players."
And with that, the hood, the robe and the gloves melted back into a deep blood-red. Liquid defied gravity and receded into the sky, and like that, Akihiko Kayaba was gone.
A/N: Le sigh, looks like I'm back at it again. This is, well, chapter 1 unedited other than by just me. (Because I'm not sure my old editor is still alive.) Everything I've ever done has led up to this- not really. Anyway, I had a few plans for this rewrite, but then I thought: Why spoil all the fun? It'll still be Sinoto of course, but just more of, well, everything else. I still don't have very much time to write, so don't expect updates to come quickly, heh. Not much more to say, I guess. How does it compare to the original?
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed!
Until next time,
-TheSilentSwordsman
