[Mass effect intro]

The history of Humanity is one filled with pain, we were hunter and gatherers, barely above any animal. With time we learned and we grew, fought wars and created wonders, with those wonders came great bloodshed, ancient empires grew and crumbled away.

Great nations rose and fell, it wasn't until world war three that we learned to get along despite any illusion of abundance, we could no longer afford to act as we did before, there were so few of us left.

The first colonies we in our moon, next was space itself, then Mars the red world who many before us dreamed of visiting and exploring. It was there that the secret to Mass controls technology was discovered, it wouldn't be until years later that the public would know, that it had been discovered inside an ancient alien structure.

The technology discovered by those first explorers brought forth the ability to build greater ships that could hold thousands, rather than three or five people and their equipment, long gone were the days of bulky slow spaceships, now smooth behemoths drifted in space, going from planet to planet, slowing us to finally expand our reach.

In time we learned how to terraform our worlds and undo the damage done to our cradle world of Earth, with accelerate light travel, we were able to reach distant worlds, but getting there took months and sometimes years.

So great ships made for generations were built from our best technology, filled with all of the information Humanity had and sent of with their crew of colonist. Many ships would be lost forever, few found themselves at the worlds of their destination, others to this day still drift.

The discovery of an ancient alien device shaped like a tuning fork allowed for true faster than light travel, however, it was limited to the locations where another tuning fork device was located, so our many colonies were still lost to us.

With the discovery of the alien device, the many nations on each world gathered together and created a defense fleet that would be tasked to protect each world, with time each world either had their own fleets or highly equipped soldiers to defend it and it alone.

Finally, it was time to begin to colonize the worlds the alien device had led us to, with time those colonize grew and flourished, trade between worlds helped created amazing empires.

Yet everything changed the day another ancient alien device was found, at first our explores went hoping for new worlds and a greater future. That would never happen, instead, they found themselves meeting a race of four-eyed orange skinned slavers.

Soon we were under invasion, we tried to defend ourselves, but with every passing battle our defenses were weekend and soon one by one the colonies went dark, until finally, our cradle star system started getting invaded.

Now the only areas the aliens haven't touched are those colonies that were sent off long ago far away from the alien devices.

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[ Aincrad ]

... It started five years ago.

Five years ago two competing companies released an advanced version of virtual reality, now people could enter a game feel the air, speak to each other and move inside the game, however, things like smell, the feelings of pain and more were far from ever being able to be experienced.

This was done by the headsets used to separate the player's minds from their bodies.

Unfortunately, both companies used a neural network that was only approved by the governments of the world because of its supposed safety.

Unfortunately, the nightmare began when the networked was named by a madman and the our nightmare began.

Sword Art Online, a game based around medical fantasies and Gungale Online, a game based on advanced futuristic combat, somehow became merged and for five years we fought on in a desperate attempt to pass the mad mans death game.

Finish the game and you get to go free he said.

So we fought on and learned to mix the skills of the games, soon knights could be seen with advanced energy shields, smiths now forged tank armors and animals like horses soon became a better option to some vehicles.

Soon multiple groups were created, those that never tried to pass the game, they simply didn't have the will or were too young.

Those that gave up and started new lives and those that fought on, until finally, we reached the one-hundredth floor, the final floor of the game and we were met with an unholy mixture of flesh and machine.

At the end of it all, when the final boss fell we had lost nearly everyone with only a handful of people left.

In a bright flash of light, we all thought our nightmare was over... We were wrong.

()())()()()()

As I gasped for air and whipped the blood from my mouth and nose I could feel the grass underneath me, my only thought at the moment was that either we had been lied to or something had gone terribly wrong.

Automatically my help screen came to life [Minimal damage sustained final boss battle compile, congratulations] was the only thing it showed.

Slowly my thoughts started getting clear and the confusion born from a mixture of pain and shock, slowly vanish leaving we with the realization that I could taste the blood in my mouth, the fact that even my eyes hurt because of all of the light around me didn't even seem to cross my mind.

"Kirito you okay man?" Said a man right beside me.

As I turned at the short spiky red-headed man all I could do was let out a faint smile. "Yeah" was the only thing I could say.

[Alert due to the completion of all stages, all players held in standby will now be released. All players that have been killed will now return to life...processing, all stages past all players will now have their respawning re-enabled.]

[Error...error...error...]

[Unknown variables have been encountered...Accessing GunGale Online information... Processing. Enabling kinetic-light-energy- void shields (enabling atmosphere shielding, this will provide a livable atmosphere for the inhabitants of Aincrad]

I ignored the notification the A.I sent to my help screen, in reality, I couldn't care at the moment my body demanded my attention, for the first time in years every part of my body screamed in pain.

By no means was it a blinding pain but with every a temp of movement, I made each part of my body sent a shock of pain surging thru.

I could feel my bones- muscles and even skin move, like if they were realizing themselves to better fit me. All of a sudden a shock of pain surged thru my head to the point where even the light around me burned my eyes.

I could hear my friend cry out in pain until a ringing sound was the only thing I could hear.

[Activating railguns- activating laser defenses- arming missile defenses- grappling chain support activating...processing activating waste removal systems- water purification- climate control- air filtration system activated.]

All of a sudden the pain was gone and I immediately realized that for some reason my body felt somehow more solid.

"Kirito, I have to go check on my team." Klein said to me as he held his stomach in pain, he didn't even wait for my answer, the man just rose to his feet and walked away.

Slowly I rose to my feet and realized that my body felt heavy, both the weight of my armor combined with my bodies own.

"Kirito" I heard a soft voice behind me and as I turned to look who it was, I found myself looking at my wife's worried expression. Yet as I was about to say something my help screen popped out again this time however it showed the image, no it was the video of an asteroid belt.

Slowly the image of several planets and in the center the star that kept everything warm, but littering the empty space was the wreckage of several spaceships and satellites and space stations.

[Deploying drones.] The help screen announced before several small objects were shown flying off into the distance. Soon the words salvageable or to damage began to appear, then the images of the planets started coming thru.

Only one planet had things like office buildings, shopping malls and houses, however, there were no people anywhere and the extremely few animals found, were so rare that Kirito beloved that unless there were more hiding somewhere the species would all be extinct in a few years.

[Information gathering...] Immediately after those words were shown, things like cartoons, weather reports and simple things people used for entertainment started coming thru, however, they all quickly changed to images and recordings of something that looked somehow like a giant ship or a submarine at least until the words Fiftyfith Colony ship were shown.

"It was one of humanities colonies," Asuna said after the video was shown, her expression, however, was one filled with worry. "Kirito, what could have happened to all of those people?" She said as we both watched the wreckage that was marked as salvageable being dragged back into what looked like an entrance to Aincrad itself.

"I don't know, but if it wants trouble. It's going to find itself facing a small army of battle-hardened veterans." I answered her while trying to give her some form of comfort.

As we both looked at each other, we began to move almost automatically and soon we were both embracing each other in a right hug, before our lips met.

From what little I was able to gather, either Aincrad had somehow become real or we were still inside the game and it had become much more realistic. Add to that the flying castle that had been our prison had become some sort of giant spaceship and apparently either space pirates exist or there are some killer aliens out there.

But right now none of that matters, for us the death game is over and even if we are still inside the machine, right now the only thing I can and will do is take my wife home and rest, it was one hell of a war against the final boss after all.

(Character change Klein )

I left Kirito behind, knowing that guy he would soon have his wife around or he would be able to stand up back on his own ground. It was messed up to leave the guy alone at the moment, but my guild needed its leader at the moment and if that alert from earlier was real then things will be getting a lot more interesting soon.

As I arrived at the nearest town, I started hearing the sounds of infants crying and soon the smell of animal feces hit me and as I walked I noticed people were shining away, like if they were fearful to make a wrong move around me.

A man begging at the side of the street made me pause for a moment, he was nearly completely skin and bones, plus the only thing he wore was some sort of cloth to cover his privates. Normally I would have ignored this, None playable Characters usually don't really care, but for some reason, this just seemed too real.

I stopped in front of the man and took off my cape and handed it to the man and told him to cover himself. The man hesitated about nonetheless stretched his hand and took the cape, before I left I handed him several gold coins.

Things looked more realistic now and the realization that I was still inside the game began to hit me, but even as I started to cry, I realized I was crying. The game could copy a lot a person could do in real life but basic body functions like crying and going to the bathroom weren't easily copied.

Slowly I realized that either the game was heavenly updated or this had all somehow become real and the problem with that is that, I don't know which one of the two is more frightening.