Why?
Why Me? Why did this godforsaken death game cast the worst fate on me?
No. It wasn't Sword Art Online that did this. It wasn't Akihiko Kayaba either.
It was players. People. PKers. Player Killers. Laughing Coffin.
These thoughts ran through my head as I watched the last hooded figure explode into polygons.
Keita, Tetsuo, Ducker, Sasamaru...Sachi
All the members of the Moonlit Black Cats, were dead.
It was just a month ago, five months into the game. I'd been playing solo the entire time, but then I met the Moonlit Black Cats. They were a small guild, just starting out pretty much, but they'd been friends in the real world and were close. Like family.
And Me, stupid Me, wanted to be apart of something like that. After five months of loneliness and almost constant grinding, I wanted a break. I wanted friends. Something I didn't even have in the real world.
I'd saved them all from some Mobs and they'd asked me to join them. They'd had big hopes of becoming a strong guild and thought that I could help them do it. But there was a huge level gap between us, about 23 levels higher than their leader to be exact. Players of higher levels didn't usually interact with lower levels, especially not the front liners. But I said yes to them and before I knew it, I had a little guild icon above my HP bar.
But I also lied to them. I'd told them I was a level that was twenty levels below mine. I didn't want them to kick me out.
We'd done well, I'd showed them the ropes that only the experienced players knew about so far and quickly, they all began to rise in levels. We took more quests and handled those easily, they didn't know that I'd already done all these quests. I secretly guided them on the safest paths.
We nearly had a run in with a trapped room, one we couldn't use crystals to teleport out of. But somehow we managed to survive it all in one piece. We all got so much closer after that.
Then we took a job. From real people this time. A group of players were offering col to have a guild party guide them through a dungeon and help them get a rare item.
It was a trap. How the hell didn't I see it? I had never even done this quest, I should have known it was fake.
I'd feared this day would come. Murder Guilds had formed.
It was inevitable, with PKing being allowed in the game. But why the hell hadn't we all taken more precautions against it?
The players we had been guiding had led us into a trap. The first murder guild, Laughing Coffin, was waiting for us at the end. Ten Players, all with orange cursors. They were all at least five levels higher than my guild mates, but that was still ten levels below me.
I'm one of the strongest players in the game. I'm not sure who is the strongest though. This early in the game and level gaps were still forming.
But despite how strong I am, I still failed. Despite re-equipping my strongest sword, I still failed. Despite killing the ten Laughing Coffin members, and the three green cursored bait players that led us here, I STILL FAILED!
I fought five of these bastards at once, trying to give my Guildmates time to escape. It didn't work. I saw the five of them cut down in front of me and explode into polygons.
And after that… I don't really know how I did but I killed the thirteen players by myself.
I looked up above my head. My cursor had turned orange. The sign that the player was a criminal player. It was because I killed the green players that led us here. They hadn't yet attacked me, I attacked them. And I killed them. That means this orange cursor was permanent.
A dry laugh escaped my throat. Why did it matter that my cursor was orange when the friends I'd made had just died seconds ago.
I wiped at the tears that clouded my vision. I don't even know when I started crying. I don't know how long I've been standing in this damn cavern either.
I looked down at the sword that was clenched in my hand. My whole arm was shaking I gripped it so hard. This wasn't over. I knew that there were more members in Laughing Coffin. When I first asked Argo about them, she told me they numbered at least twenty five.
I was angry. I was furious. My friends deserved retribution, deserved justice. And I needed revenge.
I knew what I had to do now.
Walking out of the cavern, I flicked my sword to the side before sheathing it on my back.
I'm going to find Laughing Coffin.
And kill them.
Like always, the information I'd gotten from Argo was spot on.
She didn't ask why I had here meet me out in the middle of a forest, she figured out the answer for herself when she saw my cursor color. Orange players weren't allowed into the cities and towns by the NPC Guards.
When I asked for the information I'd come for, she didn't even charge me. She gave it freely, something she never did. Maybe she felt sorry for me, Argo knew a lot of things she probably shouldn't and maybe she somehow heard what happened to the Moonlit Black Cats two days ago. Maybe she was scared of me and my new curso color. Who knew really what Argo was ever really thinking though.
Laughing Coffin was based on the seventeenth floor, about halfway between the City of Beginnings and the front lines who recently cleared the twenty eighth floor.
A haunted forest takes up the majority of the floor, filled with skeletons, zombies, and ghouls. But they didn't bother me in the slightest. I never even broke stride when they attacked me. One slash from my sword was more than enough to put them all down.
"Go north on floor seventeen and look for a grove with a bunch of fallen over trees." That's what Argo had told me. Didn't take me long to find it.
When they first saw me, they thought a new orange cursored recruit had sought out their guild willingly and wanted to join.
I proved that theory wrong as soon as the first one walked up to me. I cut off his head before he had time to speak.
The rest of it, again I don't remember much, just that it was a bloodbath. I don't know how many I killed, I didn't stop to count how many of them there were when I first walked into their camp. I just attacked.
I killed them all until I finally got to who must have been their leader. Argo said his name was PoH. He had a scar running down the side of his face and like the rest of his godforsaken guild, he wore a cloak. But what was really different about him was the red cursor above his head.
That's not right. Only monsters had red cursors.
Ignoring this fact, I fought him. I made sure he never touched me with his blade, Laughing Coffin was well known for their Paralysis Poison. He was the best dagger wielder I'd ever faced, but he too fell to my sword.
It was quiet in the middle of that clearing. The campfire that they'd sat around only minutes before was still roaring, meat on sticks were still sticking out of the ground cooking in the heat of the flame.
Suddenly, a message appeared in front of me.
WARNING! You are currently the player in Sword Art Online with the most amount of Player Kills. Due to this fact, you have been given a red cursor to mark you as such. You will no longer be allowed in towns and may no longer use teleport crystals or teleport gates. The only way for you to get to the next floor is for you to travel through the boss dungeon and go up the stairs found after beating a boss. If you have already beaten a the boss of that floor however, you need not face it again.
I read the message three times before I dismissed it.
No more crystals. No more towns. No more teleport gates.
The game just got seriously harder for me. I'd have to go through every boss dungeon in the game and beat every boss if I wanted to move around this world. So far I'd been apart of every boss raid except for floor 24 and the recently beaten 28th floor. Did this mean… I'd have to solo a boss? No one wants to face a boss, especially after they'd already beaten it. Which meant in order to go beyond floor 28, I'd have to face the bosses on floor 24 and 28 and I'd have to do it alone. That was suicide.
Might as well kill myself now.
A dry laugh slipped out of my mouth again as that thought ran through my head. It wasn't like it mattered anymore. My friends just died. I had no one in this world and now, no one would ever want to be around me. The only people I had on my friends list now are Klein, Agil, and Argo. And they were really only contacts, not truly friends. Everyone I have cared about in this game was dead.
I felt empty. Despite having taken vengeance for my murdered friends, there was just nothing left for me. My knees went weak and I fell to the ground. What can I do now? What was the point of going on? Especially now since the game just became near impossible for me.
Suddenly, a message appeared on my window. A gift box from… Sachi.
Images flew through my head, a petite girl with shoulder-length black hair. Shy and innocent, but also incredibly kind. She was my closest friend so far in SAO. She was the reason I was invited to join the Black Cats. They wanted me to teach her how to wield a sword well and we'd bonded a bit over it. And now she's dead. How could she have sent me a gift box when she's gone?
I recently clicked on the message and a recorder cube appeared above my hand. These were used to record messages and leave them for friends. I had no Idea that they could be set for dates even after a player had died.
Hesitantly, I clicked the play button, causing it to light up and begin the message. It was a voice I'd never thought I'd hear again.
Merry Christmas, Kirito.
By the time you hear this, I'll probably be dead.
How can I explain this, let's see...
To tell you the truth, I never really wanted to leave the Town of Beginnings.
And I knew if I fought with an attitude like that, I would end up dying someday.
But that's not anyone's fault. That's something I have to deal with.
Kirito, ever since that night you found me, you kept telling me I wasn't going to die, no matter what.
But what if I got killed anyway? I knew that if I died, you'll blame yourself.
That's why I decided to record this for you.
By the way, I know how powerful you really are. Sorry.
I sort of peeked when you weren't looking.
I wondered why you weren't telling the truth about what level player you really were.
I wondered why you decided to fight with us. I never figured it out though.
You know what? When I found out how strong you were, I don't know, it made me so happy.
I so relieved.
So even if I die, promise me you'll go on living, okay, Kirito?
Stay alive, so you can see the end of this world, and find out why it was created. Find out why a weakling like me ended up here. Find out the reason you and I met. Please.
That's what I wish.
Looks like I still have time, so...
Seeing how it's Christmas and everything, I'll sing you a song.
And then she sweet sound of Sachi's voice began to hum the tune of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I was crying so hard by this point that I nearly missed her goodbye message.
Anyway, Kirito. I'm so glad that I met you, and that I could be with you... even for a little while.
Thank you. Goodbye.
The recorder cube slowly lost it's light and fell to the floor of the cavern, bursting into polygons when it did.
So this. This is what you want from me? Sachi? You want me to live? To beat this death game? To find the end? Even after you and the others were dead?
I clenched my fists so hard, that they were probably clenched in real life too.
...Fine.
I'll beat this game. I'll do whatever it takes!
I grabbed my sword and thrust it into the ground, using it to leverage myself up, clenching my teeth in fury as I did.
I flicked my sword to either side before sheathing it on my back.
I walked out of the clearing, no longer feeling that emptiness that I felt only moments before. I felt like I was on fire.
This rage, this would be my purpose. This would be my fuel to keep going. To clear this game.
And God help whoever stands in my way.