A/N – This is an Author insertion story following me and my brother. Part one will be in first person and part two will be in 3rd person. This is AU with time period, suggesting the technology came out this year. There are other AU liberties(most are on purpose) and I have a pretty good twist planned concerning a certain character who wasn't in the first story arc.
Disclaimer – I don't own any rights to SOA.
PART ONE: THE BIRTH OF MARK
Chapter 1 – The Highest Highs
I'm 21 and I'm getting back into MMOs. It's winter holidays and I have one more semester before I graduate. Then I move back into my parent's house because I have no idea what I'm going to do with my degree. Perfect time to escape into an MMO, right?
Okay not really, but this is no ordinary MMO. It's Sword Art Online, the first complete virtual reality experience to exist! Forget the MMO I'll be glad to just run around in a virtual world with a virtual body. It was a complete shock to the world that this technology was invented to be used for video games and I should count myself lucky to be one of the first to experience it.
Actually it wasn't entirely my good fortune that gave me this opportunity. The credit must go to my younger brother, Kayden. He's 15, a freshman in high school, and almost every second of his free time is spent behind a computer screen, or at least that's what I've observed during the little time I am able to visit my family during breaks in the school year. And somehow being hunched over in his chair all day he still managed to grow like a foot since I saw him in the summer. Now he is six feet tall. I'm only 6'2"!
But I digress. When I first came home on December the 9th, I learned that Kayden had just won the opportunity to purchase two copies of SOA in an online sweepstakes. This was extremely lucky since the creator of the game, and the virtual reality tech, only allowed 2000 copies out of the total 10,000 to be sold in America (1000 to beta testers, 4000 to Japan, 1000 to China, and 2000 to Europe). When I went to congratulate him however, he seemed very upset. Apparently my mom was putting her foot down and not allowing him to play because he wouldn't be supervised by an adult. When I went to question her about this she seemed pretty indignant and started spouting off a bunch of rhetoric she heard on the news and radio that demonized the game. She even had a magazine article cut out with the good parts highlighted to prove her point.
The main issue seemed to be that no one could see inside the game unless they were logged in. It was fear of the unknown. Fear of foreign technologies that could be harming our youths. It made sense when I thought about it, but from what I've heard about what this technology can do, I would say it is worth the risk.
I explained this to my mom and reasoned with her. If there is one thing I know about my mom, it's that she is easily persuaded when she becomes outnumbered. She was also very curious about this technology, I mean who wouldn't be, but knew she wouldn't have the time or temperament to keep up with Kayden if she tried to play. Therefore she basically threw out an ultimatum. Kayden would only be able to play if I or my older brother could supervise, and she could regulate how long we played at a time.
My older brother is 24, and he recently got a new job as a fancy engineer. He is making excellent money, but also having to work quite a bit. Kayden knew he would only get to play when we had free time, so he quickly offered the second copy to me. He was still bummed that he wouldn't be able to play with one of his best friends that he usually plays computer games with, but much more excited that I was able to convince mom to let him play at all.
So now its December the 18th, a week til Christmas, and I'm staring down at my little brother in his bed adorned with his freshly assembled nerve gear.
"Its like he's sleeping." I mused to my mother who was watching closely.
"Hmm" she sighed. "I hope this means he will be getting more sleep now. You can't imagine how many times I've caught him up late at night on his computer…"
"See, you're already seeing the positives of this gaming experience." I said with a smile as I walked to my own room down the hall.
"You just make sure you're done by six o'clock." She called out from hall, using that rising pitch voice that makes me feel like I've already done something wrong.
"If we aren't I'm sure you'll take the helmets off yourself." I called back, then rolled my eyes saying "or get dad to turn off the power to the house."
I heard her chuckling as she descended the stairs remembering a time we wouldn't go to sleep and my dad just walked out to the breaker box and shut down the house for the night. You don't really have any choice but sleep after that. (Unless your DS is fully charged, heheh.)
It was 3:15 and I was shaking with anticipation. In the week since I came home, I had received a crash course on how this game is played by Kayden, who had been researching and practicing for about a month, even before he knew he had won the game. He showed me what motions I would have to make in order to activate some basic sword skills and explained how leveling up will work along with many other tid bits of info. I'm no noob to MMO's, so I understood pretty much all of what he was saying, but a lot of his constant jabbering was sporadic and hurried, so I couldn't commit all of it to memory. I didn't mind much though because I figured we would have plenty of time to talk in-game, and there I would be able to learn through experience.
The time for thinking was over. It was now time to surrender my conscious to the internet and see what wonders it could offer.
I put on the helmet and it hummed to life. A script on the visor read "PLEASE TOUCH AROUND THE AREAS INDICATED ON THE BODY MAP". I patted different areas of myself until the grey body outline in the middle of my visor had completely lit up to gold. Not wanting to waste any time, I laid down on my bed and said, "Link start!" and immediately I was in a large white room with blue square windows that prompted me through to character selection. I named my character Mark, just because I thought it was a strong name and made my avatar look similar to how I look in real life. I gave him brown hair and blue eyes, picked a larger frame with broad shoulders and made him 6'2" tall. That's just how I like to play games the first time through, true to myself.
When I was done with that a small window popped in front of me with three little words in all caps. "ARE YOU READY?" it read.
"Hell yes" I thought, and clicked the yes button.
The screen faded and I slowly began to feel a falling sensation as the white room faded to nothingness. It remained black for a time until suddenly my feet hit something hard and my knees buckled. Then a blinding white light shone all around forcing me to shut my eyes.
I waited for a few seconds and began to feel a peculiar wind whip through my hair accompanied by the sporadic chirping of birds. I tentatively opened my eyes and gasped as I observed my surroundings.
I was in a courtyard garden of finely trimmed grass and stone pathways. The flowers that intertwined along the path had a pleasant aroma, and the cobblestone wall along the edge was high and laced with ivy. I backed up slowly in wonder and awe at the clarity of my sensory perceptions. They were the same if not more focused than anything I had experienced in real life! I almost fell as I stumbled across a tree root, but found rebalancing myself to be much easier than normal and quickly turned around to see a large tree in the exact center of the garden. I reached out my hand to touch its rough bark, and words faded into my vision, floating by the tree.
"THE LOGGING TREE" it read. I chuckled slightly at the pun as I gazed upward into its branches. Through the dark green leaves I saw a ceiling made of white stone, at least 50 stories above me and quickly jumped out from underneath the limbs to get a better look. There were wisps of cloud scattered in the air and all of the space around the massive roof was a clear sky blue.
I smiled broadly and looked at my hands which were not my own. It was an extremely detailed dreamland in which I was free to move and explore to my heart's desire. I laughed and began to run and jump around the garden giddily. It was pure bliss. I jumped higher and ran faster without getting tired or running out of breath.
"Wow…" I breathed out finally as I stopped beneath a stone archway that lead down into the large street of a gigantic city.
"Pretty crazy right?" came a voice from above. I looked up and saw a young man sitting on the archway with his feet dangling off the edge. I was surprised because he hadn't been there just a second before. He jumped down yelling "AYAAA!" and did a summersault before popping up in front of me. My eyes widened as I saw his blue eyes and dark blond short hair. There was a name above his head in green that read "Owen", and I smiled. So he used his middle name.
"Hey, Kayden." I said with a grin.
He smiled and replied. "How'd you know it was me?"
"You didn't think I would forget your middle name did you?" I chuckled. "Also I know how much you like to make Zelda references. But how come I didn't see you before?" I pondered.
He smiled slyly and extended out his hand to pop open a blue screen in front of him. "I was using stealth. It's a hiding skill." He made a few clicks and then beckoned me to look. "See?" He gestured to a grey bar amongst blue bars in a scrolling window. It read "STEALTH" and had a timer next to it that read "184" which was ticking down slowly.
"So that's the cool-down timer…but how long does the skill last?" I asked.
"Just 60 seconds, and combat negates it, but I'm sure it will come in handy in some way." He answered. "You would have seen me if you had used a detection skill." He rolled his eyes and fixed me with a condescending look. "But I'm sure you haven't even looked at the skills menu."
"I haven't even opened the menu." I replied defensively. "There are too many other things to look at." I swept my arm around gesturing to the garden and the sky.
"But don't you want a weapon?" he asked as he suddenly grasped a handle at his waist and pulled out a short sword pointed at me. The blade made a metallic ring and I nodded to him while opening my menu excitedly.
I clicked on the skills tab and saw a shining window that told me I had two points to spend in skill categories. The options were: SWORDS(1H), SWORDS(2H), LANCES(1H), AXES(1H), AXES(2H), MACES(1H), MACES(2H), DAGGERS, SHIELDS, DETECTION, and HIDING. I froze, not wanting to mess up my character, but I figured that I knew the most about how one-handed swords worked from Kayden's rl tutorial so I selected SWORDS(1H). Immediately, script popped in the bottom left hand corner of my vision saying "YOU RECEIVED A SWORDS(1H) PACKAGE!" I decided to allocate my second skill when I knew more about gameplay and toggled over to the equipment screen. There was a picture of me in the left part of the screen that showed my grey tunic, brown pants, and worn shoes, and an option scroll on the right. I clicked the weapon scroll and equipped the short sword and sheath that now appeared there.
A sword appeared at my waist and I quickly drew it to cross blades with Kayden, meta Owen. "You learn quick." He remarked. "You can't imagine how many times in the last ten minutes I've been asked how to work the menu."
"It's not that hard to figure out, honestly" I said rolling my eyes. "It could have been much more complicated."
"Wait til you see the stats menu…" he paled slightly. "That thing is endless."
"That will have to wait until later…" I trailed off with a sly smile. "Now we fight!" I swung at him without warning and he parried instinctively. We play-fighted for a few minutes enjoying ourselves thoroughly as we swung our blades with reckless abandon. Whenever Owen hit me I was knocked back slightly, but I didn't take any damage, nor did I feel any pain. I simply felt a slight discomfort where I was struck and the force of what had hit me reverberated through my body.
Owen was constantly getting the better of me in this fight. He was moving so fast it seemed unfair. When he knocked me down for the third time I called, "How come I can't even touch you? I call hacks!"
Owen just laughed and offered his hand to help me up. "You would know if you had bothered to open your stats menu. You start with 5 points to put into the main ones…"
"Of course…" I chided myself for being hasty and popped the menu open again this time hitting stats. The top of the page read: MAIN STATS: STRENGTH(0), AGILITY(0), VITALITY(0). Below this there was what seemed to be an endless list of random non-combat skills like cooking, smithing, and potion-making.
"I put three in strength and two in agility." Owen said indicating said slots. "Vitality is good, but I'm going for DPS."
That explains why he beat the crap out of me at least. I ran my finger over each of the stats to see what they affected.
STRENGTH: DETERMINES ATTACK DAMAGE AND MAKES YOU STRONGER IN AND OUT OF COMBAT.
AGILITY: DETERMINES LENGTH OF COOLDOWNS AND MAKES YOU FASTER IN AND OUT OF COMBAT.
VITALITY: DETERMINES AMOUNT OF HEALTH AND MAKES YOU MORE RESILIANT IN AND OUT OF COMBAT.
I was about to copy Owen's stats so we could have a fair fight but he stopped me.
"Wait, Mark." He said using my meta name. "Our team fights would be a lot better if you made a tankier character to start out. You also don't know the game as well and will probably need the extra health." He finished with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes then frowned. He did have a point. Dying would suck from this point of view and I was bound to die much more than Owen did. I thought about it for a second, then put three points to vitality and one point for the other two, not wanting any of them to be zero.
"Okay, I'm all set." I said sheathing my sword. "How about those other stats? How do those level?"
"By practicing them. Most of them are succeed/fail based. But you still get a portion of experience when you fail." He explained while exiting the garden. "There are also quests that give you a chunk of experience just for completing them."
"Cool." I answered following him down the path toward the mass of buildings. I glanced at the clock. "We still have two hours before we have to log out, what you wanna do?"
He stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. "Level of course! I hope we can play this game while we sleep at night. Everyone will get ahead of us if we can't." He scowled.
"Mom's going to stick pretty hard to that schedule." I said. I remained quiet for a time as we walked into the busy streets of the city. I began to see more players and NPC's wandering the streets or selling weapons, trinkets, and food. "Why don't you go on ahead?" I suggested. "We only get two more hours in this place and I'd rather not spend them getting beating to death by monsters."
I chuckled but Owen looked at me a little crestfallen. "But we'll go faster as a team." He said. "All you have to do is block."
"I am not a meat shield." I said narrowing my eyes. "Besides you should get a head start not having to walk me through combat and parties, etc." We came outside a wooden inn I was dying to see inside of and Owen let out a sigh. He popped open the menu and clicked around a little bit until a window popped up in front of me. ACCEPT FRIEND REQUEST: OWEN? I clicked yes and it said FRIEND ADDED.
"Now we can find each other on the world map. Even if you don't have the map data you will still see a dot that will indicate my location." Owen tutored. "It is possible to toggle this function off if you don't want to be found by friends."
"Hmm…" I clicked around on my menu a bit to open the friends menu and saw Owen's name. "Okay how about we meet back here fifteen til six?" I saw the option to PM and added. "I'll send you a message when it's time to meet.
"Fine, I'm going to the fields." He said quickly before darting off down the road. "Later!" He called back. I watched him go and wondered if Mom would be upset to let him go off on his own. He did know more about this game than me… But Mom couldn't see what we were doing in here so I figured we were safe. Besides, I was too enthralled with the life-like qualities of the world to think too much about real-life. I would try to explore the town today and see what I could learn.
I turned and entered the large inn and found myself in a cozy room with long tables in the center and a fire roaring in the corner. There was a massive Christmas tree by the bar in the back, and the bartender was interacting with a customer. I approached the player and saw his name was Lee.
Lee finished with the bartender and turned seeing me then suddenly said "Hey wanna be friends?" He went through the clicks on his menu at lightning speed and then the screen popped in front of me.
"Uhhhh…" I replied awkwardly. I didn't really feel comfortable friending just anybody who asked.
"I think you need more friends to start the quest the bartender gives here." He said indicating the NPC. "You can delete me after I get it." He said nonchalantly. I thought about it for a second then hit the yes button. Perhaps I would try this quest.
"Thanks man." He said and turned to a table with players that were talking excitedly about Aincrad. I talked with the bartender and one of his scripts was "Maybe if more people trusted you I would ask you to help me with something..." That was vague, but probably a good indicator I would get more information if I had a certain amount of friends.
I spent the next five minutes annoying people until I had five friends and hurried back to the bartender. This time the script said "You seem like a trustworthy fellow. Would you mind delivering a letter to my friend in East Starting City? She owns a potion shop next to the graveyard." I responded yes and received an envelope titled: HORACE'S LETTER.
I exited the inn and opened my map from my menu. I was next to the Logging Tree which was south of the city center. I would need to travel northeast until I saw a graveyard… I ran quickly in that direction taking in the sights and just enjoying the feeling. I could get used to this.