Sword Art Overline
Chapter 1: Birth of a (digital) God
He really did not know what to do… he decided that for his birthday he would ask his parents for a Nervegear.
He knew his family was not in a good financial position, but he hoped that with all the good grades he had, they would make an effort for it.
He did not ask for anything last Xmas for exactly this reason.
He was pleasantly surprised when on his birthday he received a Nervegear, it was wrapped on a brown paper but he did not care, he thanked both his parents for the gift.
He went into his room and plugged everything in, it was Friday so he had all weekend to enjoy this new game.
Sword Art Online, a VRMMORPG, first of its kind too, it offered full sensorial experience.
He then went to the options menu and calibrated his system.
After he calibrated it he went to the bathroom and had a snack, he wouldn't be able to move in the real world while inside the game.
"Link start"
He went into the game and created his character… he smirked.
While he was not a Beta tester he was able be to move around just as well if not better than them for a single reason.
He had an ability on the real world that translated over… or rather this world made his abilities bloom.
Technokinesis, the ability to interact and control technology with his mind.
In his case he could even see and interact with code and script, now that he was essentially inside a video game, his abilities gave him a bigger edge than the beta testers, in here he could control his body even better than in the real world.
Still, his abilities had never been properly trained, he would hack an ATM machine and pick up a couple thousand Yens and leave it on his father's desk and keep a few bills for himself, but he had little to no knowledge of scripting.
While he could 'see' the code for everything he just was not able to interact with it, yet… if he did he was sure he could cause an instability to the system.
He decided to seek people who knew more about coding and scripting, in a game like this there are sure to be a fair few.
As he walked into town he saw many players walk about and greet each other, some moved jerkily and awkwardly and some a bit more natural, and a few walked as normal.
Their code was uniform, just a few things different such as hair style and eye color and the like… Oh and skin color. Other than that their codes where the same.
He decided to turn off that ability, it gave him a bit if a headache.
He bumped into a character on the street.
"Oh… sorry" he apologized.
"My bad I did not see where I was going" the other player said.
This player had dark blue hair, a blue shirt and brown boots and a brown starter armor.
The way he moved… he had to be in beta.
"Hey… the way you move… you must be a beta player right?" another asked.
It was an older man with a dark magenta hair and a stubble… he reminded me a bit of that movie pirate of the Caribbean motif going on.
"Sorry to bother you but could you perhaps help me out? I am still unsure about the controls" he pleaded.
He accepted and took them to the field outside the town.
"Gah!" Klein shouted as a pig hit him and threw him back a couple of feet.
"Man talk about sad" the player said.
"Well tell me how to do it" the magenta haired player said.
The player grabbed a pebble and then attacked the pig.
The pig agro was now on him.
"Okay this is how you do to use your sword skills… first get into a stance, the system assist will help you with it, then wait for the skill to charge and then we you feel the 'coil' set…" he said as his sword glowed red.
Slash
He dashed forth and sliced the pig.
"and you let go… is super easy" he said.
"Oh… thanks… let me try" he said as he tried and managed to pull 3 of them in a row.
"That's great… you teach better than those tutorial NPCs" he said. "By the way… my name is Klein" he introduced himself.
"Mine is Kirito" the other said.
"I am Ainz" the other said.
Ainz turned his ability on and stared at Kirito… he had some extra data code that a only a few so far had… so he was a beta indeed.
"Well I got to go… I ordered a pizza so it should be arriving right about. ..now" he said.
He then scrolled on his menu and had a puzzled face.
"Hey… total noob question, where is the exit menu?" he asked.
"It's right… Here?" Kirito said, finding nothing.
"Oh thanks player's guide" Klein said sarcastically.
"No… it's here it's just… disabled?" Ainz said.
"Okay, so I will just pull the Nervegear off like...so" he said as his avatar tried to pull an imaginary headgear.
"it doesn't work that way. Your body's bioelectrical signals are all routed to the Nervegear so you can't move in real life" Kirito said "Don't you remember the videos of the alpha testers?" he then sighed "So many lawsuits"
Ainz was feeling nervous, this was not an error at least that is what a gut feeling told him.
"Well how am I supposed to exit then? Is not like I can Alt F4 this shit" Klein said.
"We should PM the GM… they should solve this easily" Kirito said "Maybe is a bug"
It was when the bells rang.
A second later they were all transported back to the Town of Beginnings.
"what's going on?"
"Maybe a launch day event?"
The new trio got teleported next to each other and begun to observe.
The area had been closed off, no one could leave the defined area.
Ainz turned his ability on and began looking around… there was a lot of data packages incoming.
It was then when the sky tore open and a blood-like substance begun to ooze out.
Panels marking Danger appeared as a humanoid figure emerged.
"Players of SAO… my name is Kayaba Akihiko, creator of Sword Art Online, many of you have found your log off button non operational… I would like to assure you that that is not an error nor a bug but a feature of this game" the entity called Kayaba said.
It was a mass of data and it was heavily encrypted… if Ainz knew more about hacking and the tools needed he could probably do something, but because of his lack of knowledge in that area he could only analyze the data on this entity.
There was something… off about it, but passed it off as being part of an administrator avatar.
"You are all trapped in my world, You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the "NerveGear" from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."
"You mean you essentially want us to finish an MMO?" a player asked incredulously.
"Indeed"
"FUCK YOU!" The player said.
"it seems there is some resistance… not appreciating the hostility either" Kayaba said.
"when was the last time you heard of someone beating Everquest" the player said.
"When was the last time you heard of anyone PLAYING Everquest?" Kayaba countered.
"That's fair" the player replied.
"Hey… is what this guy saying true?" Klein asked worried to Kirito.
"He's not. The transmitter's signals in the headgear work just like microwaves.
If the safety's disabled, it could fry your brain." Kirito said.
Ainz was worried, would his parents do this? Take the Nervegear off? He could theoretically disable such a thing, but because it could go off and was a delicate thing he was hesitant to do anything.
"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least. As a result, the game now has two hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." Kayaba said.
Ainz curled his hands into a fist.
This man thought himself a freaking god.
Kayaba then made a lot of screens appear. "As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following:
There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game.
If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever.
And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.
There is only one way for a player to escape now - you must clear the game.
Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad.
If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor.
Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game." he said grandiosely.
All the players were scared and freaking out, trying to negate this reality.
It was impossible, many players agreed, even beta players never made it that far… and with no resurrection at all?
"Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look." Kayaba said.
Every player open their inventory and a small mirror dropped into their hands.
The mirror then glowed.
Ainz noticed that the data of the characters around had been rewritten.
"Klein?!" A boy that was Kirito said.
"Kirito?" Klein said "You look so young"
"and you look less hairy… ballz" Ainz said.
They noticed Ainz next to them, his body had shrug noticeable, he was a preteen 10… maybe 12 years old, he was rather small looking just a bit on the androgenous side.
He was sporting a shock of ashen white hair and molten gold eyes.
Kirito looked like a boyish version of his avatar, as for Klein.
"You kinda look like a thug man" Ainz said with a smirk.
"Hey… respect your elders" Klein said.
"Sorry… ojii-san" Ainz said with a smirk.
"I walked into that one" he muttered.
"But, how?" Klein asked wanting to know how their avatars had changed to look into their real life appearances.
"If it was with that… yeah… that would make sense" Ainz said.
"Oh? You figured it out already?" Kirito said.
"yeah, when calibrating the gear it made you pat yourself and do a lot of movements, that way your perspective would adjust in game but it also picked up other things due to how strong it is, I am surprised it even got my hair and eye color too" Ainz said.
Ainz suspected that the power could be turned even higher to get a more thorough reading but that would come with consequences.
A brain is a delicate thing, while it could function like a super computer it is still organic and thus more susceptible to outside factors and a lower endurance than that of an actual machine.
There is just so much data that could be theoretically extracted via this way. Exceeding the limit would put a person in risk.
Every player was shocked to see their avatar change and to be honest Ainz had to stifle his laughter when he saw a LOT of female players turn into guys who were now in drag.
"Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design." he said.
Kirito growled "Kayaba"
Ainz knew something tough, Kayaba could not be the god of this place.
"no… I will usurp that place and free the players. With my ability I can see areas not accessible to normal players and also would be able to manipulate the data. Although my skills are lacking, I need to find someone who can teach me more about programing, coding and hacking" Ainz thought.
He was able to interrupt motions of minor monsters, as their data was not complex and could manipulate it as he managed to make a boar stumble on his charge and took the opportunity to finish it off.
Best thing would be to level up, but how to effectively level up?
People would be swarming areas with monsters to grind and mobs spawned at a designated rate, in other words players would kill more monsters than their ability to respawn, leaving many other players unable to grind.
"Wait, this game was basically a revised version of the beta… if my knowledge about games is correct, many games would have a 'Secret room' to test features, patches and the like. Should I look for archaic codes in the data stream or maybe fool the system that governs the game to flag the location for me? No… that would be risky, the system might delete it and that would be a waste. The goal is to go up, so that means he doesn't want us to go down, going by that logic that's where I will start looking, however that would seem suspicious, I also would need to help on clearing floors" Ainz thought as he devised a plan of action.
"As you can see, I have achieved my goal.
This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online.
Players, I wish you the best of luck." he said as his body dissolved and turned into smoke.
Everyone was freaking out… some of them were just having a mental breakdown.
This was reality now.
"You two… we need to move now" Kirito said as he urged both to move.
They went to the exit of the town.
"Okay, listen. I'm heading out right now for the next village. I want you two to come." Kirito said.
"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" Ainz said.
"Yes. If what he said is true, and I think it is, the only way we're gonna survive in here is by making ourselves as strong as possible. In an MMORPG, the money you can earn... the EXP, once the game starts up, there's only so much of that stuff to go around. Look, the fields around the Town of Beginnings are gonna be hunted clean soon. If we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting cash and points. Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid. Even if I'm level one, I can get there easy." Kirito said.
Ainz decided to go with him. it would be beneficial to power up while looking for clues of that secret room if one existed, plus he was a former beta player and coukd teach him about places that others might not know and quests for good loot.
"Thanks, but... you know those friends of mine I was telling you about? we stood in line for a whole night to buy this, and
They're back at the Plaza somewhere and I can't leave 'em." Klein said.
"Monkeys and typewriters" Ainz said.
Klein glared at him but sighed.
It was then when Kirito and Ainz would party up and set forth to the next town.
This was the start of their new life in SAO.
Chapter end