Between Realms
Chapter One
The huge grin of Tachibana Haruka's face signifies a disaster was about to start. Once she has her mind set on something, there was no way to convince her out of it. "Look here, Hin!" she said as she shoved a pamphlet to her friend's face. "This is our new entertainment!"
"Sword Art Online?" Hin questioned with a confused look on her face. She sighed and rubbed her temple as she pleaded, "Are we jumping to another game again? Can we just please play normally this time? I'm so tired of hearing a bunch of adults scream like salty retarded five year olds when they get wrecked."
Haruka giggled and then clicked her tongue repeatedly while waving her index finger, the grin on her face still intact. "No, no, no. No can do there, buddy. This is the bomb ass game everyone's been waiting for. With only 10,000 copies and a thousand beta testers, this game is gonna be a challenge. Just imagine all of the try hards and nerds out there who will grind like hell in this baby!" She enthusiastically exclaimed while clasping both of her hands together in joy.
"Limited amount of copies, huh? Assuming that all of the beta testers will come back to play the official release and the other people who will fight for the remaining copies are competent, then this will actually be a very strong and competitive community," Hin spoke her thoughts as she placed her chin on the palm of her hands while comfortably sitting on her chair. She looked over to the window next to her as she stared off the horizon from beyond the glass and muttered, "That's actually interesting."
"Right?!" Haruka said out loud as she slammed both of her hands on Hin's desk. "I got the two of us the package deal since your cheap ass won't buy shit."
Hin sighed as she shrugged her shoulders. "I can't help being tight pocketed you know. I've got to save up money for university. I'm not rich like you, Haruka."
"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, the almighty Haruka has already provided you with the means to continue being the greatest ass kicker, next to me of course—online. The Nerve Gear and the game itself is probably delivered to your home right now," Haruka said with a huge smile on her face. "The server is going to be up tomorrow! So you better be up early."
Hin looked at her friend with a conflicted face. "No matter how long we've known each other, I still can't understand how you can just spend a huge amount of money without battling an eye. Spending an extra 50,000 yen (about 600 CAD) for video games just makes me feel weak and nauseous. But nevertheless… thanks," she said with a smile.
"Aw, you're so cute!" Haruka gave Hin a bear hug.
A vein popped on Hin's forehead as she didn't like getting touchy. But she remained still for a few seconds as a form of saying thank you to Haruka for providing the gear. Hin then shove her away. "Okay, that's enough," she said while sighing. "Anyway, shouldn't you be studying for your make up tests instead of playing games? You don't want to bomb those like last time."
The bell rang signaling the end of classes. Haruka immediately shouted, "AHH! Sorry Haruka, I couldn't hear what you just said. Time to go, see you tomorrow!" She quickly took a 180 turn and dashed to her desk to get her things. Afterwards, she ran out of the room—never looking back.
Hin sighed with her eyebrows furrowed. "I swear, that girl needs to sort out her priorities," she thought to herself. Then she was suddenly reminded of something while talking about the subject. "Priorities, huh?" Hin muttered as she continued to stare at the horizon.
"We're already hitting a financial decline! I told you to sort out all of the unnecessary things and talk to our lawyer about the pending lawsuits to get us out of this mess. You and your womanizing ways led a snake into our company. Now look! That bitch released all of the key information of our products including the ones we haven't released yet. They're going to use our technology, make money off of it and fucking sue us for the copyright of our own damn tech. All because of you being completely incapable of fucking keeping your goddamn dick in your goddamn pants," Tachibana Suiko exclaimed angrily.
Her husband shrugged his shoulder and replied, "Calm down. We can just always marry Haruko off to that guy's son. Then our companies can merge and we can secure everything again." He calmly laid back on his chair and acted as if there was nothing to worry about. Tachibana Keisuke grabbed a glass on the table and poured wine on it. He drank the contents and said, "Everything will be fine."
"I am not going to let you use our daughter to cover up for your mistakes!" She said, completely disagreeing from his ridiculous thoughts.
Keisuke sighed and explained his thoughts to his wife. "You don't understand. This is a win-win situation for everyone. Haruka's not good with anything. She's failing at school, she doesn't show any interest in our business or in anything productive. All she does is play those stupid video games that will get her nowhere in life. If she marries Hattori's son, she'll have a nice and easy prosperous life. Our company's going to be saved from bankruptcy. They would gain access to our tech which is a very favorable prospect for them." He paused to look at the expression of his wife who was fuming in anger. Even though she disagrees with him, he could tell that she sees the point he was trying to make.
She debated with herself in her mind first. Was this really for the betterment of everyone? Suiko knew that her daughter would not want this but, if it's for the best then why not. "Fine. I'll talk to the Hattori's about this. But does not mean you've gotten away with your screw ups!"
Meanwhile outside of the room where Haruka's parents were arguing, Haruka was there; listening to the conversation, frustrated and mad at her parents. She gritted her teeth while clenching her fists. "Fucking money again," she said while slamming her fist into a wall.
"Hin, I'm going out now," Hin's cousin, Furiin Ayase, said as she put on her shoes.
Hin looked at her cousin, confused as to why she was going out during the night. Usually, Ayase was out during the day and in during the night. "Did they switch you to do night shift today?" she asked out of curiosity as she leaned over to a wall.
"No, I'm doing double shift today. Having incompetent members requires me to work more and asks me to be flexible with my hours. I've got two trainees coming in fresh out of university, basically no work experience on handling with the real deal—all just case studies. Was assigned to babysit them while working on a case," she sighed. "I'll be home by tomorrow evening if I'm lucky, so you cook your own food and make sure to leave some for me. It better be damn good."
Hin nodded while staring at her cousin. Ayase grew confused and asked, "Why are you staring at me with that weird face?"
"It kind of crossed my mind… you going on a date with some guy," she shrugged.
Ayase laughed. "You're an idiot. But that's good that you're thinking about that kind of stuff. I thought all you think about is playing video games and studying," she told Hin while getting up and walking towards the door. "If I have time, I would. But I don't. Although, I think it's better if you do it instead. Live a little bit and get out of your room. Who knows, you might catch a cute guy with a + 10 long sword—if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, I don't think I want to get near any cute guys with that kind of… asset at the moment. I heard being pierced by it hurts. My nether regions aren't prepared for that kind of adversary yet."
"Don't worry, it's only for the first time. Then it gradually gets better. If you want, I'll get Officer Katsuragi to get you out of your zone and unleash your inner most desires. He has those assets covered. It's bigger than the tower of babel. Trust me, I checked," her cousin winked at her while smiling.
Hin cringed and spat, "You're fucking disgusting."
"Ha! Made you swear," Ayase stuck her tongue out and opened the door.
"Be gone sleaze ball," Hin said as she shove her cousin out of the house and immediately slammed the door. She sighed at the playfulness of her cousin. Hin rubbed the back of her head and thought about what Ayase just said.
"Live a little bit, huh?" Hin muttered to herself. She knew she was a burden to her 24 year old cousin, that's why she wanted to study hard in order to lessen than burden when after she graduates and find a good job. She didn't like talking to other people face to face because she was socially awkward that's why she preferred to be more active on the virtual realm. But having to break from the norm was actually a not so bad idea.
"Maybe I'll take up on that offer about Officer Katsuragi…"
The moment the server went online, Haruka immediately logged in the game. She had always been like this whenever a new MMO opens up its first official server. Blood rushed through her veins as adrenaline kept her pumping in excitement for the adventure that awaits. Sword Art Online was just like any other MMO, but the difference was the full-dive system. The incorporation of being able to actually live in your avatar's shoes in a game is every gamer's fantasy.
Character creation took a while since she was kind of picky in avatar customization. But nevertheless, the result ended up looking like she was kind of a walking sex goddess—a female fatale. Haruka's avatar had a long jet black hair, a pair of onyx eyes, and pale ivory skin. The body proportions were a slight exaggeration of what she had in real life. She always thought you can never get wrong with having a big bust size, small waist, and wide hips with a firm big butt. Haruka had a thing for making her characters have the same proportions as Betty Boop or Jessica Rabbit.
After that long process of sorting out the cosmetics, she had to figure out what weapon to use. According to the forums and interviews with the developers of the game, there was no such thing as a class in Sword Art Online. The player is free to choose any weapons he or she wants and is allowed to switch weapons whenever desired. Not many people appreciated this feature but Haruka believed that it makes the fighting and players more diverse.
But if she had to choose, she would most definitely go for a dagger. With her main purpose being one of the ultimate PKers in the game, an agile and stealthy weapon would go well with her. She might switch out to a short sword later but for now, the little blade would do well.
With the long and tedious process out of the way, Haruka immediately joined the rest of the online players in the world of Aincrad. She spawned in front a town encircled by tall and thick walls. The transition from reality to the actual game world was kind of weird at first as she was still getting used to whole full-dive aspect.
She summoned her menu by dragging down her index finger in the air and quickly adjusted the settings. "Turn off motion blur and we're done," Haruka muttered to herself as she switched it from on to off. She didn't want to puke with the motion blur messing with her eyes. Immediately after, she received a friend request. A smile rose from her lips as she knew who it was.
"AllSkillSenpai has sent you a friend request. Would you like to accept? [Y/N]" the UI message box said.
Haruka laughed at the name that Hin chose. "Will you ever come out of that ridiculous in game name?" She said while accepting the friend request.
"Like yours isn't ridiculous as well. YourWaifuX69, like really? At least take out the numbers, it really makes me cringe," a male voice from behind Haruka said while walking up to her.
She quickly took a turn and saw a good looking blond male with blue eyes. The man was slightly taller than her as he walked closer. Haruka sighed as she immediately figured out who this person was. "Hin, there aren't any classes nor is anything gender locked. Why would you make a male character? Are you a lesbian?" she asked, quite perplexed why people like her switch genders in games.
"No. It's just tradition. I've been playing male characters ever since we met, remember?" Hin said while crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows. Truth be told, she was just using male avatars because she wanted to avoid attention from the male community. Playing as a girl in the game attracts thirsty people who creeps her out.
Haruka shrugged, "Whatever. It just feels weird and creepy because even your voice sounds like a dude."
Hin shrugged at her comment as sighed, "Anyway, we should get going. I waited for you for an hour. You took forever to make a character just to make her look like a porn star."
With that, both of them passed through the town and quickly went for the meadows at the other side to grind for experience points. Haruka attracted a lot of people as she walked by while Hin blended in with the crowd as her avatar didn't stand out too much.
Killing the low level monsters was no fun—rather, it was a tedious process of leveling up. But at the same time, it let Haruka and Hin become more familiar with the combat system and become more comfortable with moving. "Man, doing this without having to train daily is just so fulfilling. I feel bad ass," Haruka said as she retracted her dagger back while jumping backwards after stabbing a boar.
Hin, on the other hand, planted her feet on the ground as she prepared to draw the sword out of its sheath. The boar that she was facing against had dabbed its foot on the ground, preparing to her and ram her with its tusks. She calmly waited for the right moment while having a solid form of a stride. The moment the boar ran to her, she immediately unsheathed her blade in a swift motion; slicing the boar in half—dealing a one shot to it. After the fast paced attack, she immediately sheathed her sword back to its scabbard and relaxed her body.
"Sweet. Iaido, was it?" Haruka said as she whistled. "So the combat system is capable of such things. Which means that people who have studied any form of martial arts or has a talent with combat will excel in this game. Good to know."
Hin massaged her shoulders a bit as a habit and spoke, "If you pay close attention, it takes a couple of seconds for our attacks to be registered as a form of combat. Which means I have to be slower than normal. Otherwise, the system won't recognize that I'm acting outside of the norm."
Haruka sheathed her dagger and then crossed her arms. "I wonder if the detection time will be faster once we level up," she said out of curiosity.
"Who knows," Hin said as she looked up at the virtual sky. "But nevertheless, this is actually fun," she said while smiling. "It actually feels like everything is real."
Haruka looked up as well. Seeing the blue sky as white clouds passes by slowly as it blocked the light from the sun made her think, "I wish this was actually real."
"Well, this is as real as it can get."
A noisy group of players averted their attention from the topic. That was when Haruka got an idea as a huge smirk rose from her face. The moment that smirk appeared, Hin understood that their journey as PKers have started. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Haruka asked Hin as she stared at the group of players who seemingly just started playing the game and was out of town to grind for experience points.
Hin sighed as she scratched the back of her head. "If this wasn't a game, this would be murder right here. You being the master mind and me being your accomplice," she said, quite uncomfortable about the thought of killing players on a full-dive system.
"Come on! Don't pussy out on me now. It's just a game," Haruka said as she laughed at Hin and her morals. "Besides, I'm getting that adrenaline rush. The thrill of PKing is making me pumped."
"Thankfully it's actually safe to kill players in this game since the pain sensors don't exist and they would just eventually respawn anyway. Bless the Public Safety Bureau," Hin said as she sighed and finally gave in to her friend's blood lust.
Haruka immediately ran towards the group, not waiting for Hin. She turned her head slightly as she exclaimed in glee, "Come on! I'll show you something real good."
Hin ran after her as she tightly held her sword to the side. At this point in time, she was still battling with her inner thoughts about the whole PK thing. It was okay to do it back when everything else was 2D or 3D, but this time? She wasn't sure. "Ayase, don't arrest me," Hin muttered to herself.
Like a group of vulnerable sheep, the newly spawn players who set out together to hunt down monsters outside of town had no idea what was coming. Haruka lurked around them from the shadows, observing and planning of every possible move that they might pull. They were three players in total. Two were at front taking hits from the boar while the other one was observing and was seemingly talking to them about something. All of them had swords, it was a bit of a stretch more than her reach.
She was just a couple of levels a head of them. While they're probably level 1, she was around level 3. The gap wasn't too far so the damage she might do wouldn't be much since they all have the same equipment. But when taking about the damage she might take, it would be quite lethal if they knew what they were doing combat wise.
"They don't seem to understand the combat system yet," Haruka muttered to herself as she laid her head low. She wasn't sure about the other guy who wasn't in combat. To go or not, was the question. She felt this sensation of fear and danger while also being excited about trying out PKing. Of course it wasn't fun to do PK in early levels, but she was around the same level as them so it didn't really matter.
"Fuck it," she said as she came out of the bush where she hid and dash right to them. She quickly went for the two who were currently in a middle of a fight. Haruka knew that they probably have less HP since they took a couple of damage from the boar they were facing earlier. She unsheathed her dagger and performed a back stab to one of them.
He quickly popped and shattered into pieces like glass, ending his first spawn life. "What the fuck?!" the other guy in combat exclaimed, surprised at what just happened to his friend. "Shit, move away!" the one observing them from behind shouted in panic as he prepared to defend.
Haruka jumped away from them as well. A preemptive strike was easy to land since her opponents were off-guard. But this time, it was different. They knew about her and her intentions now. They wouldn't be going down without a fight. She took up a defensive stance by hovering her dagger near her chest while her other arm instinctively defended her gut. Slowly walking in circles around them, she waited for an opening.
"You're PKing this early? Get a fucking life," one of them said. The other one seem to be level headed and discussed a plan, "Dai, remember what I told you about switching? I need you to work around me. It's two versus one. We can wreck this bitch." Dai, the former who spoke, nodded in agreement as he unsheathed his sword from its scabbard and prepared for an attack.
"What is this? A beta tester?" Haruka said with a smirk, trying to mask her fear.
The latter speaker ignored her and quickly shouted, "Now!" He quickly and swiftly closed the gap between him and her by just taking a leap from where he stood. Haruka couldn't react in time so she braced herself for the upcoming attack that was about to land. As soon as the man was within her range, he quickly swung his sword—the attack connected to her arms and the damage took half of her health.
Before Haruka could strike him back, he quickly retracted himself out of her range and jumped away. Dai soon followed up his friend's attack, sealing away any form of counterattack or movement from her. He took a leap as well, copying what he had seen his friend do. Dai swung his sword at Haruka but was soon deflected when an unforeseen accomplice of his friend's attacker joined in the fight.
By the nick of time, Hin was able to get within range to deflect the attack by swinging the blunt side of her blade against his. She quickly shielded Haruka as soon as she arrived and sheathed her sword to perform an Iai strike to counter any attack that was about to come.
"Watch out!" the man shouted caution to his friend. He spat out, "Fall back, we can't deal with two of these fuckers." Dai immediately followed his friend's call and ran away with him to the nearest entrance to town. "We'll remember this," he stated as he took a quick glance at Hin and Haruka's in game names.
Hin and Haruka allowed them to escape because they were too preoccupied with their thoughts. Haruka was still in shock how she was overpowered immediately by the two men. She knew that going in this game would be a lot different since the players would probably know what they were doing but what happened just now was quite surprising. The combat made her feel tense and her body didn't seem to respond properly after that little fight. It was probably because it was realistic, it didn't feel like a game. The sense of danger was undeniable—it was scary.
Hin, on the other hand, was thinking about how their lack of knowledge heavily puts them on a disadvantage against beta testers. Even with her having experience with sword combat in real life, the tactics used in the game seemed to be quite crucial rather than solely relying to sword skills. She knew they had a long way to go before actually becoming comfortable fighting against players.
"W-well…" Haruka stuttered, trying to pull herself back to reality. "I guess it was an ambitious start!" she forced a laugh to get rid of the awkward and dreadful feeling of defeat. "Gung-ho-ing doesn't seem to be a good idea in this game," she said as she rubbed the back side of her neck.
Hin sighed as she relaxed her body. She turned around to look at Hin who seemed to have a scattered brain at the moment. "For once, I think you're right," she said while focusing her gaze at Haruka's avatar. She saw the Sims-looking cursor above her head was orange, when it was previously green. Hin raised an eyebrow and gave Haruka a confused look. "You got one?"
"Yeah. Popped him quickly with one blow," Haruka said with a smug face.
Hin laughed at her friend. "Right. You caught him off-guard. Don't act all smug just because of a lucky shot," she said while crossing her arms. "You would've been dead if I didn't come to save you."
"They all would've been dead if you actually came in to help me," Haruka corrected her as she clicked the tip of her tongue. "That would've been a good way to start off our career as PKers. But no, you had to sit back there and wait till I get fucked in the ass."
Hin shrugged and said, "It's your own fault for going in by yourself. Besides, you were confident that you'd get all of them by yourself. I just wanted to see if you actually can." She put a finger on her lip as she thought, "And I actually got a good idea of how the PVP and PKing actually works. It's quite interesting really."
Haruka sighed at her friend who was so into the theory and mechanics of the game's combat system. "An A-class nerd right down to the core," she said. "Anyways, I'm hungry. I think it's about time we actually eat since both of us skipped breakfast."
"I already ate so I'm going to play more," Hin said to her friend. "Go, I'll wait for you to log out."
Haruka nodded as she hovered her index finger in front of her and dragged it downwards, summoning the menu. But much to her surprise, the log out button was missing. "Hin, total noob question. But where is the log out button?"
Hin sighed at her friend's incompetence and summoned her menu. She clicked on the category where the button should be but it was missing. There was an empty box where the log out button should be. "What the hell? Is this some kind of joke?" she exclaimed, quite confused about the missing button.
Suddenly, both of them were enveloped by light.
As the light vanished and allowed them to see once more. Haruka and Hin grew even more confused as they were forcefully transported back inside the town with everyone else that seemed to be logged in. All players were perplexed and vexed about the situation. "What's happening? Is this some kind of event?" were most of the questions by the players.
"I like this GM, not even 3 hours into the game and he's trolling us already," Haruka giggled as she walked up next to a wall and decided to lean her back against it while waiting for what seemed to be an announcement of something waiting to happen.
Hin went over to where Haruka was and sat next to her as she looked around, observing the reactions of the players around them. "You might be laughing now. But once this gets out, it's going to be a big issue to the Public Safety Bureau. They can sue the company or file a case for keeping us here without consent. Can be labelled as attempted kidnapping or violation of public safety rights, I don't know."
"You're sounding a lot more like your cousin the more you talk about this stuff," Haruka said with a grin on her face. "Is this future Officer Hin talking?" she cooed.
Before Hin could retort back, the sky suddenly turned red as it was covered my red message boxes stating warning. Red goop seemed to seep out of the edges of the boxes and formed an entity that was bigger than the whole town itself. A red hooded figure with no face hovered over the players while emitting the sense of dread for the players to feel.
"Well, that's one way to make an entrance. Flashy and disturbing at the same time," Haruka commented, amused about the situation. Hin, on the other hand, was silent and waited for the announcement to happen.
The floating red figure in the sky spoke, "Attention players. Welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko." Everyone who was around grew quiet as they were in the presence of the one who made the game. This whole announcement was immediately taken by the community as some sort of welcoming by the creator himself. Everyone appreciated what he did for the gaming community, and as a sign of respect, everyone stayed quiet and listened.
"As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world," he said. Haruka rolled her eyes at this statement and muttered, "No shit." Kayaba Akihiko continued, "I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online."
"What kind of bull crap is this?" Hin spat out and laughed. Haruka laughed and said, "Isn't this a spicy surprise? So what now, do we like live in this thing now? This is some seriously late April Fools joke that he was holding on for too long."
"You cannot log out of SAO yourselves and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the Nerve Gear. Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life," the game master spoke, deadpanned about what he said.
This made everyone quite uncomfortable as if this were a joke, it was quite a distasteful one. "Is he serious?" Hin stopped laughing and actually took whatever he said into mind. Haruka, however, still thought that this was some kind of sick twisted joke that the game master was playing. "Well, I guess you're stuck as a man from now on Hin. This is why I told you to make a female character instead. Now you have a pair of balls and a dong hanging down below your waist."
Hin looked at Haruka with a serious face. "Shut up. This isn't funny you know," she said, worried that this was actually real. "What if this is actually a thing and this guy is crazy?" Hin whispered to her.
Haruka whispered back, "Then this would be some awesome shit here. We're stuck here just like in that game called hack or something. It's every gamers' dream. This is awesome!"
Hin looked at her friend with disbelief as she wasn't taking any of this seriously. "You're a fucking idiot," she said to her while rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
Screens started to appear with videos playing on it. It seems to be some form of news reports as it showed headlines, people being interviewed and showed bodies of deceased people being taken out from different houses. "Unfortunately, several players' friends and families have ignored this warning and have attempted to remove the Nerve Gear. As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting this, including the deaths. Thus you can assume the danger of the Nerve gear being removed is now minimal," he said as he put emphasis on how this was going to be a dangerous game.
"Oh my god, is that your cousin right there?" Haruka said, quite surprised how this seemed to be getting realer by the minute. The video showed Ayase being interviewed by the news caster—she had a serious expression on her face. "Shit, I think this is actually real."
Hin clenched her fists and bit the lower part of her lip. "We are so screwed."
"I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game. But I want you to remember this clearly: there is no longer a method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be lost forever. And simultaneously, the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain." This was like a bomb that was dropped to the player base and made everyone panic, especially Haruka.
"W-wait, does it mean that he just disabled the revival aspect now? Or earlier?" She stuttered, worried about the guy she killed earlier in the beginning. "Hin?! Oh my god, please tell me he disabled it just now!" Haruka exclaimed in panic, hyperventilating on the fact that she might have actually killed someone.
"I-I don't know!" Hin replied, unsure how to feel about the predicament her friend was in.
Haruka looked at her friend desperately as she immediately crouched down and grabbed Hin by the shoulders. She shook her in panic and exclaimed, "Please tell me I didn't do anything wrong! I'm not a murderer! I didn't know he would actually fucking die!"
Hin instinctively slapped her which made Haruka stop. What stopped her wasn't actually the slap but the absence of pain that she felt from the physical contact. She cried and hugged her friend out of fear and guilty. "I didn't know!" she shouted.
The scene that they caused made some players to turn around and overhear their conversation. They immediately caught on the fact that someone died which made them stare at Haruka and Hin. "Someone… d-died already?" was the shocked response.
Hin knew that it was bad especially that the cursor above Haruka's head was still orange. They were going to attract even more attention after the announcement was done. So they had to act quickly. "Haruka, get up," Hin whispered to her. Haruka didn't budge and continued to cry. Hin shoved her away and stood up from where she sat.
Haruka looked at her, confused about everything. "Hin, what should we do?"
"There is only one means of escape. To complete the game," Kayaba Akihiko stated.
"Get up… we need to get out of here," Hin said to her while pulling her up from the ground. She didn't wait for Haruka to say something. They had to go fast before the announcement ends because after that, they would begin to ask questions and eventually talk about PKers. It was dangerous for them. She dragged Haruka away from town and never looked back.
But along the way to exit the area, Hin had made an eye contact with someone whom they just met. Someone whom they actually had cross swords with. It was the person whose friend died by Haruka's hands. As Hin and Haruka passed by them, he and his friend gave them a deadly glare that haunted both of them for the rest of their lives.
Author's thoughts
First of all, congratulations on actually finishing on reading the chapter-or just skimming over the whole thing actually. Almost 6k words put into this and even then, it still felt incomplete for me. I haven't wrote anything in a while so this story is a first in forever. Food for your thoughts: for those that didn't know, Iaido is a kind of japanese martial art that emphasizes on being aware and capable of quickly drawing the sword and responding to a sudden attack. Anyway, off to the discussion about my thoughts when making this.
I would like to address the fact that this story will have a lot of cussing written on it. This is how gamers are. We are not saints, we are actually evil. We kill whatever it is without question and move on. We cuss whenever we feel like it. I've been playing games my whole life and honestly, we are salty as all hell and we are the primary teachers of swearing for the younger consumers of the industry. Especially those gamers who play competitive games! :D
When I watch these kinds of shows, I always ask myself. Where's the BMing? Where are the death threats? Where are the trolls? No bots that spams in chat every second and sells in game currency for real money? Where are the Role Players? Where are the KSers? What is this life?! Ha, but that's just me.
What do you think about this story? Please write your comments below, may it be a flaming hot review from hell or naw, I'll read it. I appreciate the support! Till the next update... maybe.