Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, Naruto and Ragnarok Online. I only borrowed the concept and characters from Sword Art Online, the characters from Naruto and the world of Ragnarok Online.

This chapter is a little short. Hope you all don't mind.


CHAPTER 2

"Boy, am I glad this is happening in a VR environment. With these many people gathering here, if this is the real world, I did be sweating like crazy" Naruto said while looking around the Central Square seeing the crowd gathered at the location where the opening event will start soon. It has been about 3 minutes when they are forced teleport to the Central Square. Every player that is logged on at the moment is in the square.

Kirito silently agree with Naruto while appreciating the beauty of the city square. The Prontera City Central Square is the center of the Prontera City. From the Central Square, there are four roads which lead straight to the city gates; namely the North Gate, the South Gate, the East Gate and the West Gate. At the center of the square is a beautiful fountain where a statue crafted in knight-like armor riding a horse gallantly raising his sword in a position not unlike a commander yelling CHARGE before rushing into the battle as usually seen in the movies. Underneath the statue is the pool of water with streams of water flows into the fountain pool. The building surrounding the square gives off a Victorion-age feel. Even the lamppost gives off the same Victorian feel. The city square is indeed very spacious. It is big enough to fit 6 soccer fields in a 3x2 arrangement.

Everyone there is waiting there with excitement not knowing what kind of opening event it is going to be. Some are discussing what is going to happen in the event, some are sharing their opinion on the VR environment of Midgard. Naruto and Kirito are standing near the edge of the square leaning on to a lamppost. The reason they stay far away from the center is because the center of the square is the most crowded and Kirito doesn't like to be packed like a sardine in a middle of a crowd.

The crowd suddenly fell in silent when they heard a bell chimes from the nearby Prontera Church signaling the time is 6pm. "Ding" "Ding" "Ding" "Ding" "Ding". Immediately after the sixth ring of the bell, directly above the central square the cloud seems to take the shape of a cloaked figure starts to form. Before long, a giant with a hooded robe appear before the crowd. Not knowing what is going on, the crowd cheers loudly thinking this is the start of the opening event.

Naruto too was every bit as excited as the crowd cheering and shouting about. "Oh man, did you see that Kirito? That's like totally awesome" said Naruto clapping along with the crowd.

Kirito too was impressed with the opening show. In his opinion, the Game Master of the game must be a sucker for extravagant performance. Pulling off a giant red robe in the middle of a city will definitely be memorable. It is even harder to forget when the looking into the hood of the robe, there is no face. In fact, the hood seems to be empty as one could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe; all we could see inside the rim were shadows. The figure also wears a pair of white gloves, the kind of gloves magician usually wears.

When the giant hooded figure is fully formed, the crowd starts to slowly grow silent as all the players gathered wanted to hear what the figure has to say. With the ominous crimson red colour of the giant robe standing taller than the other buildings and the twilight sky as the background, both Kirito and Naruto starts to feel a little anxious with the development.

The figure then slowly extends its arm and in a deep voice says "Welcome to the world of Midgard. My name is Kayaba Akihiko and as for now, all of you are in my world". The crowd cheers wildly from that statement while Kirito and Naruto narrowed their eyes to see what will be happening next. Both of them felt something is out of place with the statement and as a Kendo practitioner they have learnt to trust their instinct.

The hooded figure then lowered its arm while the crowd start to quiet down again. "As some of you have noticed, the logout button is not available". Hearing that, both Naruto and Kirito gave an alarmed looked to each other before quickly opening their menu. To their surprise, the logout button is indeed missing. The hooded figure continued "This is not a bug but a special feature unique only to Ragnarok VR Online. Until the game is cleared, none of you will be able to logout".

The whole crowd is now silent. Stunned by what they heard. Then somewhere is the crowd someone yelled "Come on man. Stop joking around. I had a date at 8 later. I need to logout by then dude". Another set of voice is heard saying "Yeah man. I have ordered some pizza. They say they will be arriving around 6.15".

More players start to voice their displeasure until the figure starts to speak again; "To clear this game, you must explore this world of Midgard. Clues are scattered across this world for you to find a hidden dungeon. The dungeon is only accessible when all the clues are gathered and Midgard is fully explored. As you have all known, your map will show nothing in an unexplored field of dungeon. By exploring the fields and dungeon, your map will automatically be filled. You can sell the data of your map at the Kafra Corp where the data will be shared with all the players. The clues for the hidden dungeon are item called Historical Artifact. These items can be obtained in a variety of manner. They can come in quest, they can be boss drops. These items can be sold to Kafra Corp as well and the information from these items will be updated to the library. The Kafra Corp will keep track of the progress of the completion of both tasks".

Naruto clenches his fist and growled. Then with a worried look he looked at Kirito. "This can't be happening right? This is kidnapping right? Yeah our body is still in our bed but… but… Argh…" said Naruto, bringing his palm to his temple in an act of confusion. He continued "Eh? Well, if I am not down for dinner by 8pm my mum will definitely yank the Nerve Gear off my head. So I should be able to…"

Before Naruto can continue further, the hooded figure drops a statement that would change how they will view their new world. "If you die in this game, you die in the real world as well. The Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain when your HP reaches zero. Any attempt to dismantle the Nerve Gear from the outside world will also have the same result. This warning has been made known to the government and the public through mass media. However, some stubborn relatives did not heed the warning and unfortunately 13 players had loss their life due to the Nerve Gear being forcefully removed".

"… FUCK MY LIFE" continued Naruto.

Kirito although didn't say anything, deep down he is feeling scared. Scratch that. He is scared shitless at the moment. A game where one will really die when the HP bar reaches zero. This scared the hell out of him. He can still remember the time when both he and Naruto are in the beta for this game. Both of them had died countless time during the beta phase. Kirito's leg is trembling and stumble back a few paces before Naruto caught him before falling flat on the floor. Kirito slowly turned his head only to see Naruto's pale face.

Everyone in the Central Square is deathly silent. The fact that there is already casualty so early after the launch of the game shook every player's core. Some younger players starts crying and some players just plopped to the ground, their feet unable to support them, fear taking over their being.

The figure then continued this speech. "There is no need to worry about your relatives dismantling your Nerve Gear. The death of your fellow players is widely publicized in the outside world right now. They will not do anything rash if they are concerned with your well being. In a moment, all your bodies in the real world will be transported to ARGUS Dive Facility. This is a new medical facility that can house 12000 patients. This facility is built with its own electrical source and you will be taken care of with the most advance medical technology. There is also a server at the facility to ensure you will have a lag-free experience playing the game. All of your medical cost will be paid by ARGUS Corporation. So you can relax and concentrate on beating the game."

Almost immediately, the crowd goes into frenzy as people starts shouting. Phrase like "Bullshit… This can't happen.", "Fuck you. Get me outta here.", "You fucking believe we are in the mood to play?" and a lot of creative and colourful swear words can be heard. Sounds of people crying and kids sobbing and saying they wanted to go home.

Both Kirito and Naruto are too stunned to do anything about it. They just looked up in the red hooded figure and think what they can do to get out of this predicament. Before they can further wonder what the people outside will do to help them, what the government will do to help them, the red hooded drop another news that is going to shatter all their hope for external help. "Please do not be so surprised with this turn of event. I'm sure you all remember before the log in window, there is another window that list all the terms and condition for all of you to read. All of you here have agreed to the terms and condition or else you won't be able to proceed to log in window. It is clearly stated in the terms and condition agreement that this will happen. If there is anyone to blame, it is your fault for not reading the terms and condition carefully. The government and your relatives can't take any legal action against us as there is a binding legal document that you all have agreed to".

Everyone paled at this piece of information. They all realize that every one of them got stuck in this shit because they are not bothered to read the terms and conditions. It was their fault that they are in their current predicament; being stuck in a death game.

"To help you in defining this is your new reality; I have a gift for all of you. In your inventory, you will notice there is an item that wasn't there before you are all teleported here. Please confirm this" said the red hooded figure with a voice that is void of all emotion.

Both Kirito and Naruto check their inventory by using their 2 fingers to do a swiping motion to bring out their menu. Navigating through their items, they found the said item. The item is named Mirror of Truth. Materializing the item, a small rectangle mirror appeared. A few seconds later, the mirror glowed blue and they too start to glow brightly. After a few seconds of confusion, Kirito looked at Naruto to see if he is all right. What he saw give him a little surprise. In front of him is not the white haired avatar Naruto used but the exact replica to Namikaze Naruto, his blonde best friend. The same could be said to Naruto when he looked at Kirito. The avatar standing at the spot where Kirito was standing turned into the familiar form of Kirigaya Kazuto. Both of them were stunned for a while until the Mirror of Truth in their hand shattered and break into pieces of polygons before disappearing.

"And with this I have finished the opening ceremony of the game Ragnarok VR Online. Players, I wish you good luck" with that the red hooded figure starts to disintegrate into millions pieces of polygon not unlike with the mirror just now.

The crowd in the central square was silent for a moment before all hell breaks loose. Some starts to shout. Some are in denial.

Kirito suddenly pull Naruto into an alley near them. In a low tone, Kirito whispered to Naruto "So, Naruto, what will you do?"

Startled with the question and the serious look on his face, Naruto ask "What do you mean what I will do?"

Kirito answered "Look, now that this has happened, it is important for us to get as strong as fast as possible. The resource in a MMORPG is finite. For example, there will not be enough room in this city to fit all of the players here at the moment. If my prediction is right, the beta testers will take the best farming spot around the city."

Naruto looked at Kirito and said "Erm… I'll follow what you have in mind. I have none at the moment. Knowing you, you probably had some good plan already".

"Well, I have planned to go to The Barn. Before that we will sell all the loots we have and buy some decent weapons. Then we head straight to The Barn to complete one of the quests there. By completing the quest, they will allow us to rent their empty rooms. We will make The Barn as our base for the next few days as The Barn is quite near to the Thugs spawn area. So, rather than going from the city to the farming spot, staying at The Barn will save a lot of time. Besides, the room in The Barn is much more comfortable than the ones the Inn have in the city. There shouldn't be many players that is going to venture so far out from the city when it is almost night time since the game time is synchronized with Japan's time. The agro mobs are more aggressive in the night so, even the beta testers won't want to try their luck since the game now is a death game. With the both of us, I think it shouldn't be too much of a problem getting to The Barn and completing the quest before 9pm" said Kirito laying out his plan and his reasoning.

"Yea... That's an awesome plan man. I dunno what I'm gonna do without you bro. I've got no problem at all" said Naruto agreeing with Kirito's plan. "Then, let's go to the NPC that sells weapons and armor in the city" said Naruto walking towards their next destination with Kirito.

After they had sold their loots and bought their equipment, the duo walked out of the south gate and head towards their next destination: The Barn. On their way to The Barn, Naruto notice the time is already 8pm and said "I can't believe I'm saying this but I kinda wished that I'm at your house dojo training with Hiruzen jiji"

Kirito walking beside him can only reply with a sigh "You are not the only one, bro. You are not the only one".


A/N: I use this chapter to explain how outside help won't be reaching them and the families can't do anything to force the company to shut the server down. The method I used might seems ludicrous (I don't know. I didn't study law) however I need the company to stay in business. They have a role to play. Also in this chapter is explained the method to beat the game. Since this is no longer Aincrad, I had to think a few different clearing method. The one I'm using requires a collective effort rather than putting everything on the one person's shoulder.

Till the next update, Zephryc.