A/N: I missed a lot didn't I?
Especially updating chapters T^T. Truth is, after I upload this one I'm probably going to go back on hiatus again. I'm so sorry. I know I keep saying this, but I am... I'M SO SORRY OMG :(
Okay, well, I'm updating this story because I feel like it. Lmao
Enjoy~
December 2, 2022
2,000 players have died ever since the launch of Sword Art Online.
Nobody had passed floor one, yet. They didn't even know where the boss room was, for starters either.
But even still many have died. And others started to lose hope and give up on the game itself, staying in the Town of Beginnings instead of fighting their way through the floors.
Akari sighed and rubbed her temples. There was a meeting today that was supposed to go ahead and go fight the floor boss. She was in an expectantly sour mood because she was impatient at the fact that the room hasn't been found yet.
"What's the sour attitude?" Lance asked, frowning.
Lance was another player Akari had met at the start of the game. He was nice enough to teach her a Sword Skill to practice killing boars.
"Everything," Akari said. "I need to know where the boss room is."
Lance blinked and shrugged.
Akari's eyes narrowed. "Obviously they should have noticed the amount of deaths by now."
Lance laughed. "Come on, Akari. Cheer up. We'll find a way out of this soon."
Akari nodded, but slowly. She thought maybe another method was preferable, but for now, this was probably the only way they could get past.
They sat four or five stairs from someone who was in a hooded cloak. They were alone at the time, but Akari was a bit suspicious of them.
Then someone tapped Akari's shoulder. She turned around to see Kirito, who was grinning down at her. Startled, she scooted more towards Lance to let him sit next to them too.
"Hi Kirito," Akari said, greeting him.
"Hi Akari, Lance," Kirito said with a small smile as he sat next to Akari. "You guys are participating in this event too?"
"Yep." Lance grinned. His green eyes twinkled with excitement. "I'd like to see what the boss is capable of. Going solo?"
"I've been looking for the boss room all over the place, actually." Kirito replied, a bit of frustration in his tone. "I don't understand..."
"Maybe they've moved the location?" Lance suggested, but Kirito shook his head, lost in thought.
Akari stayed silent, watching the two boys talk with each other about what abilities the boss might have, etc.
She was more focused on the hooded figure who didn't seem to be moving at all. Curious, Akari continued on studying her until a loud voice distracted her. Her eyes averted to the bottom of the dome where a player with blue hair and blue eyes was standing.
Diabel, was it? He said he had information on the floor boss. The reason why Akari and Lance were even there in the first place was to defeat the floor boss and move to floor two.
Then he started talking. "Okay guys. Now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!" He said with a smile on his face despite the serious situation. "I want to thank everyone for coming. My name is Diabel, and my 'job' here in this game is a knight."
Snickers and laughter broke out through the crowd who was gathered there, and even Akari managed a small smile at this joke.
"There's no job system in this game," someone called from the crowd.
"Is this meeting a joke too?" One player laughed.
"Guy seems pretty friendly, huh?" Lance smiled.
"Okay now hush up! Do you guys want to hear this or what?" Diabel said with a smile. But then his grin faded into a serious expression. "My party found the boss room on the top of the tower today." He then said, his eyes narrowed.
Gasps shot out through the crowd, and Akari's eyes widened with curiosity. They actually found it! She could tell that Kirito and Lance were also shocked by these news.
"The first thing that we have to do would be to defeat the boss and move to floor two!" Diabel said, a glint in his eyes as he spoke those words. "We need to tell the people waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game!"
Cheers broke out and people started clapping at this. Akari was relieved that people would finally work together for once.
A seed of doubt erupted in her mind. What if the mission failed and everyone died? She shook her head and grit her teeth, telling her head to shut up.
"All right. First, lets divide into parties of six!" Diabel instructed. Pretty soon people had stood up and started walking to their friends, excitedly chatting about the boss room. Akari glanced up at the two boys seated next to her, and all of them smiled. They would be a group for this operation. Then Kirito blinked and ran up to the hooded figure and sat next to them.
Lance looked back, confused, as Kirito beckoned them to come as well.
Then Lance and Akari exchanged expressions as they walked up to join the two of them who were apparently chatting with each other.
"—got left out too huh?" Kirito was saying as Lance and Akari approached them and took their places next to him.
"Nope. Everyone seems to already be friends with each other." They replied. Akari realized that she then was a woman talking, according to her voice.
An awkward silence fell.
"Do you go as solo?" Lance then asked, one of his eyebrows raised. "Diabel himself said that no ordinary party would be able to defeat the boss."
"It would only be for this fight too," Kirito added, hope in his voice.
She said nothing, but Akari saw her nod a little. Looking relieved, Kirito sent an invite for her to join their party, and she had accepted.
Akari glanced at her party's health bars and the most bottom one read 'Asuna.' Akari said nothing. That must've been her name. Asuna, huh?
"Okay! Have you all formed your parties? Good. Then—" Diabel started, but then was cut off.
"Just a second!" A player yelled. When Akari turned around to see where the voice was coming from, there was a player with orange hair and a defiant look on his face. Then he jumped down from the top of the stairs and landed next to Diabel, who looked a bit startled that he was interrupted.
"I'm Kibaou." The man said, pointing a thumb at himself, his eyes dangerously narrowed. "I wanna say somethin' before we take on the boss! Some people here need to apologize to those people who died so far!"
He was referring to the beta-testers, Akari realized. She glanced at both Lance and Kirito who were tensed up. She looked away and stared at Kibaou who seemed defiant about this.
Diabel seemed to realize this too. "Kibaou-san, are you talking about the beta-testers?"
Kibaou scoffed. "Of course! On the day this damn game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners and disappeared. They took everything—the good hunting spots and the easy quests for themselves—in order to get stronger. Then they ignored the rest of us!"
"I'm completely positive that someone was in the beta! Right now they should get on their knees and apologize. They should give up all the money and items they hoarded! Otherwise we can't trust them, and they shouldn't trust us." Kibaou continued angrily.
Akari clenched her fists. Even if she wasn't a beta tester, her friends were. She was ready to defend them in any specific way.
Kirito was trembling. He looked like he was about to cry, looking down at the floor. There was a shadow covering Lance's gaze, but Akari was sure that he was frustrated at this.
Akari stood up, but Lance grabbed her wrist. She looked back, shocked, as Lance mouthed the words "Don't do it."
They stayed like that for a moment, and then she sat back down, staring at her hands.
Then somebody raised their hand. "May I speak?" They asked, and came up to face Kibaou. The height difference was startling. The man was basically intimidating Kibaou because of his size. Kibaou gulped and backed away a little.
"My name is Agil." The dark-skinned man said. "And, Kibaou-san, if I have this right, you said that the beta-testers didn't take care of them, many beginners died. They should take responsibility of this act, apologize, and provide compensation."
Kibaou hesitated for a bit before saying. "Y-Yes..."
Then Agil took a book out of his pocket and showed it to him. The title read 'Guide Book.' Akari remembered it was provided for free at the item store. She had gotten one herself and was reading stuff on that.
"You got this book, didn't you?" Agil said simply. "It was free at the item store."
Akari nodded slowly, Lance agreeing. Kirito, however, was still shaken from Kibaou's speech. Asuna had no expression on her face and stayed motionless.
Kibaou nodded. "Sure I did." But after he finished his sentence, he blurted out, "Why?"
"The information there were given by the beta-testers." Agil said. Then he said, "Everyone had equal access to this information. Even still, players died. The topic here should be what we could learn from their deaths, and finding clues that will help us defeat the boss."
Kibaou humphed and sat down back on the stairs, his arms crossed. Agil took his place next to him. Kirito looked quite relieved now that Agil had won this argument. He sighed and continued listening, while Lance's eyes had a glint in them, probably determination.
Akari sighed and felt the tension release from her as well.
Diabel then cleared his throat.
"All right then. The latest edition from the guide book was just released, and it contained information on the floor boss." Diabel resumed.
Then he opened the book and read from it. "It says that the boss' name is Illfang the Kolbold Lord. He is also guarded by assistants known as the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He is also armed with an axe and a buckler, and has four health bars. When the last one enters the red, he switches to a curved like sword called a Talwar, and his attack pattern changes."
"Whoa." Lance said, his eyes wide. "That seems like a lot for a first floor boss."
"That concludes the briefing," Diabel then said, raising his voice. "Items will automatically distributed. EXP goes to the party that defeats the monster. Whoever gets an item keeps it. Any objections?"
Nobody spoke. They all agreed to Diabel's instructions.
"Okay!" Diabel then said. "We leave tomorrow at 10:00 A.M! See you all there." And with that, chatter started to raise as people started to talk to one another about the boss.
Asuna left, leaving the three of them alone without a word.
"Why doesn't she take off her hood?" Akari wondered aloud. Both Lance and Kirito shrugged in confusion.
"Maybe she's ashamed that there's not many girls participating in this?" Lance suggested, earning a punch in the stomach from Akari.
Lance coughed. "Ow! What was that for?"
"I'm a girl you know!" Akari yelled as he punched her as well, resulting in a fight.
"Guys, guys." Kirito then said, holding his hands out. He was smiling. "You can fight each other later, not now, okay?"
Lance and Akari sighed and crossed their arms, both humphing. Then Akari started to laugh, and Lance started laughing too.
"You guys are so cheerful and we're stuck in a death game." Kirito said, his eyes wide. "How does that work?"
"We're special children," Lance grinned as Akari lightly punched his shoulder.
Kirito managed a smile.
Later that day, the three of them decided to shopping for a bit to get the items they needed. After that they decided to stay at an inn till the following day. The three of them checked in and got their room for the night.
Lance had immediately sat down on the nearest chair and was browsing through the main menu. Akari saw that he was still hoping for the log out button to appear, but she knew that it wouldn't.
Kirito was reading the guide book. He seemed unsatisfied about something, though Akari didn't know what it was about.
Maybe staying in an inn with two boys seemed odd to her, but she didn't mind. She kinda knew them anyway from the start of the game which was about a month. She sighed.
They had each bought three warp crystals, and healing items and stored it in their inventory, just in case anything bad happened, which usually did. But Akari was confident that they would defeat the boss.
They would make it to floor two. Everyone would get a chance to. But that voice inside her head, it kept telling her negative impacts. That someone might die. Then they would die in the real world too.
She hoped for the best. She knew everyone would.
But still, she couldn't help but cry at the thought of someone dying. She missed her family so much. Her mom, dad, and sister. She cried silently. Then she heard someone sit next to her and she wiped her tears immediately.
It turned out to be Kirito who had sat down beside her. When she looked up at him, there was worry clear in his eyes. Did he see her crying? When she glanced over to Lance, he was asleep on the chair, chest rising and falling slowly.
Akari hated that she was emotional. She cried easily. She knew that she wasn't able to control her emotions.
"Are you okay?" Kirito asked her. "I... I saw you crying." She nodded slightly.
"Just... Wondering about the real world..." Akari muttered. "... And hoping that somebody won't die tomorrow." Kirito seemed to understand. They both sat there silently and Akari glanced back at him.
"Do you have family back home?" Akari asked, curious. Kirito nodded, but hesitantly.
"A sister. Her name is Suguha." Kirito said. But then he paused. "Well... She's not exactly my sister. She's my cousin. I found out a few months ago." Akari nodded. Then silence fell between them again.
Then Kirito spoke. "Do you like Lance?"
Akari's eyes widened. "W-What? Why? No. No I don't." She said all this quickly and she knew she was blushing. She fanned the air with embarrasment as Kirito smiled a bit.
"By the way, you don't seem in character when you said that..." She muttered quietly.
"I know, but I can just tell. It'd be between us. You can trust me."
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."
Kirito sighed. "Love is complicated." Akari stared at him and shrugged.
"Anyway, you should sleep," Akari said.
Kirito managed a smile. "Well goodnight then Akari." He hopped off the bed and sat on a chair, the opposite that Lance was on. The inn had two chairs and one bed. Apparently the boys wanted her to at least sleep comfortably.
Akari sighed as she pulled the covers and thought about the next day. Illfang the Kolbold Lord... She thought as she closed her eyes.
It would be the real deal tomorrow. And she would be ready.
A/N: The end.
Just kidding. Lol. Anyway I'm done! Next chapter would be the Kolbold Lord. Is that a giant pig or something? I'm confused. Hhhh school tomorrow. I have a test too help
I'm so sorry about my line of absence. Happy very very late Valentine's Day! I spent it alone T^T aaugh /forever alone
I hope you enjoyed ily all okay 3
~Choco :D
