Art Of War

by Mobius Command

We all know how Kirito's foray into SAO went, how 10,000 players became trapped for two years. Now, what would have happened if the beta had been extended to other countries? What if Kiribaya had taken the complaints of beta testers into consideration and made changes to the game? Welcome, to the Art Of War. Eventual XOver. Kirito/OCcentric Kirito/Harem, OC/Harem

11:50

When the time came for the release of the most anticipated MMO of the century, players from all walks of life waited eagerly for noon JST, Japan Standard Time. Gamers from all over the world had been drooling for the chance to be one of the first to experience the FullDive technology that had enthralled ten thousand beta testers, from countries ranging from Japan, to the United States and Germany.

Including the beta players', a total of one million copies of the game would be released. One million players would log into the virtual fantasy world for the first time in a month, ever since the beta servers were taken offline to incorporate the ideas pitched by the betas. Ranging from the first floor acting as a mandatory tutorial for all players, a suggested boss respawn every week or so to give more players opportunities at rare boss-only drops, to a class system to allow players to specialize roles for fighting, dungeon-crawling, or even farming if they so wished, no suggestion was scoffed at or dismissed immediately by the creator and main designer, Kayaba Akihiko.

That attracted applicants from all genres. Puzzlers, Online Trading Card games, shooters, all wanted a chance at influencing what could very well be the most important development in gaming since (Pong, Halo, etc ). The final result of the experiment that had been called Sword Art Online was now known as Art Of War, called because all forms of combat and warfare had been added to the former blade-based SAO, starting with magic, now possible for players to use through reading an incantation or reciting from memory.

11:55

One Kirigaya Kazuto shut off his computer monitor. Since he planned on staying in Aincrad (the first world for Art Of War) after the servers reopen, there would be no point in keeping his PC on. Besides, he could always return to browser-based games if (and that was a big if) he ever tired of beating noobs and long-timers alike. But with all the new features added, he doubted he would ever get bored of playing the game he had spent weeks trawling for glitches and fine-tuning fighting forms in.

11:58

Kazuto put his NerveGear on. Quickly running through one last sensor test to ensure his in-game movements would mimic his actual body's, he almost missed Suguha's shouted farewell of "Onii-chan! I'm off to practice!" He shouted back, "Yeah, see you later!" as he heard the rapid, heavy thuds of his sister's running shoes, fading fast into the distance.

If he were honest with himself, Kazuto would say he felt bad for not including her in this fantastic journey. However, he knew some people had more important things to do in the real world; Sugu's kendo practice was a perfect example of this. She worked so hard, even becoming the finishing as a quarter-finalist in the national kendo tournament, all so her brother could slack off and spend his life playing games. Oh, he got decent grades in school, but things like math or literature were never interesting to him. His fascination lay with the digital world and the many communities that had sprung up around video games. While he was never so addicted as to be called a NEET, his obsession with them had distanced Kazuto from his (adopted) family, most of all Suguha. As soon as he got back, he decided, he would introduce Sugu to this wonderful universe, to the games that had made his life worth living.

What he couldn't have known was that his sister, cousin in actuality, had sneaked off one day and paid a person for their NerveGear and copy of AOW 3 times what the equipment had cost, nor that she had rushed to practice so that she could spend time with him in the game. Innocuous questioning had snared her the username he planned to use in the game, and so she resolved to return from kendo as soon as possible, hoping to close the gap between her and her beloved onii-chan. She was so determined to make their family whole once more, to have her brother show her affection again such that even if she had known about the sinister truth of AOW, she most likely would still have leapt feet first into the death game...

11:59

One minute remained until the global servers were brought back to full capacity. One minute until he was back where he belonged. One minute, only sixty seconds until he could finally live again. Kirito shifted, nervous, restless movements

12:00

Finally. It was time. He closed his eyes and took in one final, conscious breath. As he thought of the dreamlike world he would be reentering, for better or worse, Kazuto let all go of all of his worries. The literature test he would have on Monday. The low funds in his bank account. His estranged family, and how he wished things would go back to normal with them. Sugu.

Kazuto smiled at the thought of his cousin. "I can't wait to take her there..." he said to himself. Exhaling deeply, he commanded his NerveGear, "Link START!"

Flashes of color greeted him, rapid communication clearances turning up clear.. floating in a white void, he mentally selected Language- Japanese and entered his account info, his password. Kazuto chose to continue with his beta character and was greeted by the words Welcome to the Art of War official release! Prepare yourself for an experience unlike anything you've ever seen before! But first, please distribute 10 stat points into the following categories and a class...

A short while later

Badump

So far, everything was normal. Kazuto nodded and shook his head, rolling and squinting his eyes to test his peripheral vision. He felt a gentle breeze brush past, rustling his blue-tinged hair

Badump

He looked down at his hands. They were slightly bigger than in real life. Glancing out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his username, HP bar, and two smaller greyed-out bars below it. He clenched his fists and smirked. No longer was he a mediocre student with no future ahead of him. He was Kirito, feared swordsman and the player that had progressed the farthest into the floating castle during the beta tests. Look out Aincrad, here I come!

Kirito ran off, dashing through the Town of Beginnings, accustomed to running with his lankier build. Turning into a side alley, he heard a player call out "Hey! You there! Wait up!" Stopping and turning around, he saw a man slightly taller than he was, hair long in seperated into two sidebangs with a red bandana tied around his forehead. Kirito cocked his head and pointed to himself, "Me?"

Panting, the guy said "Yeah, you *huff* move *huff* really smoothly. *huff* Were you in the beta test?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"I'm a complete noob, you see. Mind helping me through the beginning levels?"

"Ah, I don't know..."

The man clasped his hands together in an exaggerated prayer, "Please, bro! I'm begging you!"

Opening one eye and grinning, the guy jabbed his thumb towards his face. "My name's Klein. Nice to meet you!"

Mind made up, he returned Klein's grin with a half-smile of his own. "I'm Kirito. So, Klein, what do you need my help with? I assume it's to do with fighting."

Klein beamed. "Well, I guess some EXP to get me to level 2 might help!"

Kirito frowned. "Wait, you're not level 5? Didn't you complete the tutorial?"

"Ahahaha...about that...you see, I really wanted to meet my friends from the real world...so we all skipped the tutorial." Klein said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

Kirito shook his head. "No, the rewards from the mock-Quest aren't that substantial. But it does give you practice using Sword Skills or magic. For now, let's go to the Boar Fields, they should be right up your alley."

Some time later...

"Gah!" Klein gasped in pain, collapsing from a Boar's tackle, its tusk digging into his crotch. He groaned and rolled around on the ground as Kirito finished off the creature with an Slant, splitting its head in two and briefly revealing the brains and gore of killing a actual boar. The stuff splattered on the grass before turning a digital neon blue, shattering into small triangles that disappeared shortly.

"Honestly, you're too melodramatic, Klein." Kirito sighed. "Being hit doesn't hurt at all, remember?"

"Yeah? How about you take one of these attacks, then?" the redhead retorted, wincing as he got up. "Better yet, why don't I hit you in your smug, Beta-testing face? Give you a little taste of this nonexistent pain, eh?"

"I'd rather not take the damage," Kirito replied, weaving in and out of another boar's lance-type Charge attacks before dispatching it as well with an upward Vertical.

"Come on, I bet you're just chicken aren't you?"

"Really?" the Beta-tester groused. "Fine, you can punch me but only in the stomach, alright? I don't want to wait forever to regenerate the missing health."

Kirito turned to face Klein and spread his arms wide. "Okay, hit me."

Klein slammed a fist into his palm, drew it back, and punched Kirito as hard as he could.

"Hn..!" Moving with the momentum from the blow, Kirito fell onto his back and struggled to draw breath as he tried to recover from the hit. The sensation of air rushing from his lungs wasn't new to him; no, what was strange was the ache he felt where Klein had hit him.

"Shit, man. Are you okay?" the self-proclaimed samurai rushed over to peer down at Kirito.

"Okay," he gasped. "That wasn't in the beta. What the hell?"

"I told you," Klein said, frowning. "Getting hit means actual pain. I get how the game is supposed to be ultra realistic and all, but couldn't they make it so that things hurt less?"

"They...did, still do" Kirito managed to say in between breaths. " There's a sliding scale of the percentage you the impact of pain to hurt, from zero percent all they way to a hundred. It should be right...here?"

In the Options tab, the Pain Control settings were grayed out. So were turning sensibility, the button for player name changing, and for activating new player popups. In fact, volume and object rendering distance were the only two things NOT unselectable.

"What does that mean?" Klein asked.

"I guess...there's nothing we can do about it, at least for now." Kirito said thoughtfully. He crossed his legs and brought his hands up into a thinking pose "...Alright." He concluded, standing and stretching his arms. "I'm going to logout now, I have to go greet my sister from kendo and-"

"You have a sister?!" Klein exclaimed suddenly, grabbing onto Kirito's shoulders. "How old is she? What's she like?"

Kirito made an unintelligible noise as he backtracked, Klein still hanging on with a desperate, maniacal look on his face. "She's fifteen..! D-doesn't really like games..! Would want nothing to do with people like us..!" Giving up on shaking loose, Kirito prayed for Klein's forgiveness briefly and kicked him in the place where the sun don't shine.

"!.." Klein let out a squeal that grew in pitch as he let go of Kirito, opting instead to curl up into a ball and clutching at his family jewels. "Damn it bro, why you gotta be like that?!" He whimpered in a falsetto voice.

"Yeah, what'd your friend do to deserve being hit there of all places?" asked an amused female voice from behind him.

"He was asking about my sister. My younger sister, if I may add, and was acting kinda creepy about it, too."

"Mou, I didn't know you cared about me that much, onii-chan."

"Of course I care about you, it's just that-wait." Kirito turned around to see who had spoken. He came face to face with a smirking girl clasping her hands behind her back, blond hair done up in a pigtail and pointed elven ears designating her as a Slyph, one of the races for character available customization.

"?!"

As he stood there, mouth wide open in shock, the Sylph brought one hand up to muffle the giggles that inadvertently spilled out when Kirito spluttered, "Wha...why...how? Sugu, what are you doing here?!"

"I thought I'd surprise you, so I bought a copy of the game you were so obsessed over." Sugu said mirthfully. "You really should clear your browser history every once in a while, onii-chan." She mock-scolded, pretending to be angry at him, "Who knows what nasty things on the scary internet could scar a pure, innocent maiden like me?" The Sylph pretended to swoon, closing her eyes and resting the back of one hand on her forehead.

"Agh...so, you're Kirito's sister? Nice...to meet you..." Klein tried to stretch his hand out for the newcomer to shake but cringed and went back to covering his balls. "Aaaah...even though I didn't get kicked there, this really, really hurts. I hope nothing broke in the real world, I need it so I can-"

"SO, Leafa," Kirito emphasized his sister's avatar name while shooting the still-recovering Klein a dirty look, which was ignored in favor of nursing a life-or-death injury. "Is there anything I could help you with? Since you're also a level one player, I assume you jumped in without going through the tutorial?"

Sugu nodded and said "Hai. I know nothing will happen to me since onii-chan is here. Just teach me the basics, and I can figure out learn the rest on my own. Let's see...how about how to activate a Sword Skill, for starters?"

Kirito nodded. "Alright, watch my movements carefully."

Kirito uninventoried his Beginner's Shortsword and brought it up to his head, holding it pointed away from his body horizontally as the sharp edge began to glow bright red, the color spreading to engulf the entirety of the blade while giving off the telltale hum of a Sword Skill being activated, growing louder as he held the pose.

"Think about the Skill you want to use," He said. "Next, concentrate on what you want to target with the Skill." Kirito stared intensely at a Boar that had spawned a few feet away from them, wandering nonchalantly. "When it feels like something's going to burst out from your body just let go!"

His body relaxing, it moved on it's own to decapitate the Boar with a Vertical , head and blood flying into the air before landing on the grass and breaking into polygons. Turning back to see Sugu processing the information and a Klein who had recovered from his (justified) cheap shot, Kirito smiled, earlier animosity forgotten. "That's the basics of the game so far, no one has access to magic until level 10 and we don't have to worry about firearms for a looong time."

He then frowned, remembering a tidbit from earlier. "And it's Kirito while we're around other players, Sugu. I don't want to risk you being kidnapped by some unscrupulous player in order to force something from me. Sounds stupid, I know, but I had that happen to a friend of mine back in the beta test. Luckily, Spartan overpowered the guy that had a knife to his throat, but still. It's dangerous to let people in MMOs to know you have relationships with other players, even if it's just as party members."

"Speaking of which, why don't we grind until you hit level 5, then go fight a boss or something? Shouldn't be too hard once you get the hang of juggling your Skills' cooldown and activating them in quick succession. Here, I'll add you two to my party, now."

The invitation alerts popped up in Klein and Leafa's notice lists, which they promptly accepted. Two new status bars flashed into view below his own, leaving 7 spaces for others to join.

*Two dungeons, countless mobs and a miniboss later*

"So, Kirito," Sugu said casually as she landed from making a killing blow on Deathbringer Zaza, the Mercenary mob falling with a thud and disappearing to the familiar sight of bluish shards. "How exactly do we leave the game? It's getting late, time for dinner soon."

Kirito closed his rewards popup window and checked his inventory for the Anneal Blade the boss had used. Sure enough, the Uncommon drop was right where he expected it to be. He closed the tab and asked, "Wait, shouldn't you know how to do that? It's in the- oh right, we've been over this" Kirito said. Leafa laughed sheepishly in reply.

"Okay, you open the menu by slashing your hand down, held horizontally, fingers together. That brings up the game interface. From there, the logout button is the last in the options submenu. Now let's hurry up and go eat then come back to playing, yeah?"

However, Klein's nervous voice dampened the happy mood. "Uh, Kirito? There's just one problem with your plan...the button's not available. Greyed out, see?"

Kirito opened his own menu and was greeted with the sight of a lifeless, bland icon. With a bit of trepidation he tried pressing it, only for nothing to happen. A feeling of dread began to well up inside him, amplified when runic circles appeared with a hum around him, Sugu and Klein. Sugu shouted, "Onii-chan!" and vanished, Klein following a few seconds later. Knowing what was going to happen, Kirito readied himself moments before he too disappeared.