"Gun Gale... Online?"
The word felt foreign in his tongue, and his dejected stare eyed the rather elaborate colorful poster shown on his lit-up computer screen window. Even from the official poster, he could deduce that the game was already screaming high-octane shooting action, probably with lots of advanced movement system and even more explosion thrown into the mix. A group of five individuals wearing futuristic-ish apparels, brandishing their respective weapons; some seemed to be fairly identical to real modern world firearms, while others looked like their designs were pulled out of a Children's drawing book. Said group was jumping out of an explosion with valiant, courageous looks on their faces. All-and-all, it was a very typical Western action movie imagery.
"Looks pretty retarded, if you ask me," With a sigh, he closed the game's official website and brought back the live, voice-chat that was minimized for the last couple of minutes.
From the other end of a channel, an elongated questioning, feminine noise was made. It sounded like the person behind the voice was rather surprised at his reaction. "Whoa, okay. I didn't expect that reaction," Her voice was both deadpanned and exasperated.
"I... don't know, I'm just not really feeling it," The boy rubbed his temple and his eyebrows rose as he spoke again. "I've seen the gameplay streams a few times, but the game itself isn't really all that appealing to me."
"It's the best-selling shooter currently on the Full-Dive VR Market, though," The girl's reply came fast. "Come on, why won't you try it? The PVE is just as good as other MMOs!"
The boy involuntarily frowned. "It's probably the best-selling shooter on the FDVR because it's the ONLY shooter on the platform," He replied, voice sounding a bit amused at her answer as he ran a hand through his hair. "And it's supposed to be shooter, not an MMO. Blending those two together just really, really don't sit right with me. It looks like it's basically Alfheim but with guns. I mean... A PVE-shooter, really? Everyone knows that PVP is where the real meat is at, none of that grindy-stuff in sight. Come on, Akane, you know me. I'm not into those... Virtual Reality crap, I'm more of a home-console guy."
The girl, identified as Akane was silent for a couple of seconds. "But I thought you like shooters, though. I've played it and the game's as immersive as other console shooters, if not more! Being VR is one thing, but I'm sure you'll get over it after you've experienced the first few hours of the game first hand. The game also has a pretty solid PVP game modes too, it's basically an oversized, respawnable Battle-Royale kinda-thing, you get it? Besides, your PC is pretty beefed up right? And I think you mentioned it before, that your family has recently bought an AmuSphere, so why not try to relax for bit, enjoy life and try something new for once, eh?"
"Overglorified, more like..." He muttered just barely above his breath as a response. keeping it audible for his online conversational partner to hear. "Look, I kinda get what you're trying to say but this is... it's just not my cup of tea. And that AmuSphere, haven't I mentioned it's for my mom's epilepsy rehab? Dad's gonna kill me if I just use it without their permission."
"Ugh, that's troublesome..." Akane groaned. "Don't you have any spare time where you could borrow it for a few hours?"
"Hey, I haven't said that I'll be playing the game. Hell, we don't even have any FDVR games installed in our home."
"Just humor me, for Christ's sake."
It was his time to groan. "...Probably in the weekend, starting from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. My parents have to go to Fukuoka to have my mom have some more direct treatment. Why'd you ask?"
A light snicker was heard from the other end of the line. "Oh, you'll see soon enough."
And sure enough, true to her words, the boy could hear some knocks on their front door, and after some muffled conversations, his name was called down by his mother, currently situated downstairs. After excusing himself from the chat, he made his way down to the living room, and was quickly handed over a rectangular-shaped package. Curious, and now getting more and more suspicious of the package inside it, and considering Akane's rather ambiguous wording earlier, he excused himself back upstairs to open the package in private. Closing the bedroom door behind him and turning on the lights to brighten up his dark room, and with a swift motion to the nearby scissors and cutting it open, his mouth was left slightly agape, and his eyebrows twitched from the contents inside the packaging.
Quickly sitting down and grabbing his earphones, he breathed a loud, wary sigh.
"Happy birthday, Mister Console Peasant," Even just through her voice, he could tell that the girl was smiling, no. Smirking, more like. "Like what you see?"
"Let me make this clear," He spoke very slowly, a tone of caution evident in his speech. "You didn't just buy me Gun Gale Online, and shipped it here, to Saga... in Kyushu, all the way from Tokyo... right?"
The girl let out a mock gasp at his question. "Oh no, nooo, I wouldn't dream of it," Akane's voice was dripping of sarcasm for some reason. "Can you imagine how expensive it'd be to ship, even if it's just a game from Tokyo? No. I just contacted a nearby game store near your house through an online shopping app and have it delivered to your house. Come on, the year is 2025, start living in the present, will you? Oh, and the game's second-hand, by the way."
A palm moved over to smack over his face, and a muffled, disgruntled noise escaped through his lips, even as skeptical as he was, he knew that it was too good to be true for the girl to just buy him a game out of the blue like that. The girl was already strange enough that she was into games in the first place. And it's not just any genre like the more casual puzzle games one could find for free in their smartphone's application marketplace, but downright hardcore shooters. The fact that she's interested shooters was already shocking enough for him, but for her to basically love the genre to death, to the point she memorized basically almost every single shooter games released this decade, is on a whole new level of surprise.
"You're really that desperate for me to play this damn game, huh?"
"Hey, tomorrow's Saturday anyway," She answered dismissively, as if shrugging. "Would it really hurt you to play it? It's not like everyday we get to see an American FDVR getting so much attention here in Japan."
"Well there's always the offhand chance I might actually get hurt, or maybe even literally killed..." He murmured, implying back to the Sword Art Online that'd happened about two years ago, where the original creator of the Full-Dive system and its catalyst, the NerveGear as well as the main developer of the game that killed well over four thousand gamers, both young and old, during the span of the game's life cycle, by frying their brains using the hardware he created himself if they die in the game.
"The AmuSphere isn't like that, though. That's purely because of the hardware. I'm pretty sure that if SAO launched today with the AmuSpehere technology, we won't be seeing the Death Game that was," Akane replied, her voice sounding pensive for once. "If I recall correctly there's already even a literal copy of SAO, just... without the frying brains stuff. Sword Art: Origins, I think is the name."
A pair of eyebrows rose again. "One hell of a way to trigger peoples' PTSD..." He mused.
"Yeah. I heard the game isn't doing well, anyway," Akane said to his spoken thoughts. "But that's beside the point! Thing is, the game's safe now, okay? So, won't you play with me? Come onnn, I'll personally teach you the basics of the game. Just for old time's sake... I mean, we can finally get together again, even if it's just through VR..." She trailed off at the end, voice going smaller and genuinely hesitant to continue almost like a thought was plaguing her mind.
The boy kept his silence, and he broke his eye contact from the computer screen and back to the boxed game on his hand. Her voice carried the truth, though. It has been years since he last saw his childhood friend. Practically stayed and played together, almost as if the both of them are glued to each other since birth, thanks to the close relations between their respective parents. But due to the issues that rose within Akane's family, despite not being a major one, she had to move to Tokyo by the third grade of Elementary, and things've been going like that since then. The only thing that connected them together was the occasional live voice calls they usually have during spare times. That, or the more convenient instant-messaging chats.
Feeling that his silence seemed too prolonged, he thought that he should give her his answer. "...Well, I can't really say no after all that hassle you went through..." His throat finally produced a mock, tired-defeated voice. "I'll see if I can't borrow my mom's AmuSphere for tomorrow."
"Really? You actually mean it?" She quickly asked back, sounding a tad bit too excited. "I mean... uh, then you can install the game right now and let the updates download 'till morning. I'll be online at about ten A.M., how's that sound?"
The boy rolled his eyes. "No promises. But sure, if I can hook it up, I think I can make it in ten."
"Nice!" Akane cheered, her loud voice blared through the boy's earphones, making him flinch by a bit. "I'll be waiting! If you've managed to get on first, just send me a message or an invite to an avatar ID named Kureha. That's me, and I'll be sure to respond in about five-to-ten minutes."
"Sure, sure," The boy nodded a few times, despite knowing that Akane couldn't really see his reaction through a voice call. "...Well, it's already late. So I'll... see you tomorrow, I guess?"
"Sure," She repeated his response. "Remember, I'll be waiting for you, alright?"
"Yeah..." He trailed off, his lips slowing turning up to form a tiny smile, ever so slightly. Her excitement seemed to be contagious to him. "And Akane?"
She made a curious tone.
"Thanks for the gift, I guess..." He scratched the back of his neck. "Somehow you're the only person who remembered my birthday," His voice was quiet, but sincere. "I mean, yeah. It was a pretty crappy gift, but it's the thought that counts."
Akane then made a dissatisfied noise and blew more air through her nose. "Sh-shut up!" She stammered lightly. "Your birthday was literally on the wall of your old social media page anyway, and I stumbled across it a few days back. Friends gotta always remember friends, right?"
"...Right," With that answer, he settled that he was satisfied with her response with another one of his small smiles. "I'll be... looking forward to meet you, then... Kureha."
Fatal Bullet
An Alternate Novelization
Author's Notes:
As the summary suggests, this is my own take on the Fatal Bullet story. Now, I've played the game, and while not far into the story yet, despite the more deeper focus into the story, I can still very much see the SAO vibes it gave me. To be honest, I don't like the SAO franchise THAT much. I think the Aincrad arc was okay, but everything else afterwards just stopped me from watching it further. Despite that, seeing how the new Fatal Bullet game tried to focus more on the original story characters, and the fact that I'm told this game is basically an anime version of Destiny-slash-The Division, I was pretty hyped. Sadly I was a tad bit disappointed at how dependent it is to Kirito and the original gang. It's almost as if the developers isn't willing to let the new characters shine with this new game, despite them being actually pretty interesting had the game shifted its focus more on just the new cast. But sadly this wasn't the case.
And even then, the gameplay itself is pretty meh. Painfully so, even. It's leaps and bounds better than the older SAO games, but in my own opinion, Fatal Bullet isn't that anime love child of Destiny and The Division. But that's as far as I rant. Wouldn't want to spoil you guys the story if you haven't played it yet, or are still interested in the plot to know what's going on. But back to the point, this is supposed to be Fatal Bullet but with some differences here and there. The major one being I won't be inserting any of the original SAO cast into this story, at least, the novel/anime cast. I might just still incline to insert a few of the new original game-universe characters (Philia, Strea and etc) in the future though, but this isn't final yet, since the story will focus more on your player character and the new original in-game cast. Just an added note, I'll be naming a few characters that was only known by their avatar's name in the game. I'm not planning to give the player character a name though. At least, a real world name.
The story will also be more 'gamer-centric' too, so expect a lot of game-talks and what not, for we're supposed to be seeing this story from the perspective of two gamer friends anyway (which is also sadly isn't explored further in the game's story).
Well that's it for the info I guess. This is the first time I'm back to writing fiction in years now, so, sorry if you didn't enjoy what I created, or if I did some mistakes that lead you to conclude that my writing won't do the game's story any justice.
Traesto.