An unknown fluctuation in the virtualization to the virtual world of Lyoko has instead sent the warrior: Ulrich Stern to the virtual reality world of Aincrad in the game: Sword Art Online. Will he survive, or will he fall prey to the monsters?
Rated Fiction T
Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Thanks go to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Code Lyoko series and related works.
Things start out rather usual in the world of Code Lyoko. The sentient program: X.A.N.A has hatched another plan to try to defeat the 'Lyoko Warriors,' which is made up of 3 young teenagers called Odd Della Robbia, Yumi Ishiyama, and Ulrich Stern. The group leader: Jeremie Belpois is sending the group to the virtual world known simply as Lyoko to escort an AI program called Aelita to one of Lyoko's 'towers' which will enable her to stop Xana's current plan. Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich head to the factory where the virtual world's server exists, and begin the procedure to enter the virtual world: Lyoko.
Jeremie sets himself up at the computer while Ulrich and the others enter the scanners to enter the virtual world. Once they enter the scanners and face the way they entered, the doors close and the start-up begins.
"Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Ulrich" Jeremy says over an unseen speaker.
An effect similar to scanning an object from top to bottom and repeating is done inside the scanners to initiate the scanning. "Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Yumi. Transfer—" Jeremie coughs a few times for continuing, as a result of just recovering from a small cold. "Ulrich. Virtualization!"
The procedure is finished at this point and they enter the world of Lyoko.
Odd and Yumi arrive in Lyoko about three feet above the ground in an area known simply as the Mountain Region. Ten seconds pass while Lyoko almost instantaneously assembles their avatar body pixel by pixel, and when that's done, they touch down on the ground and look around the environments, trying to find Aelita.
Odd, whose appearance is essentially a large purple cat notices that Ulrich isn't around.
"Hey Jeremie, where's Ulrich? He isn't here" Odd says in a semi-worried tone, since they don't have their front-line fighter, leaving two ranged fighters on their own.
Yumi, whose appearance is similar to that of a geisha, notices this as well.
"That's bizarre...let me have a look" Jeremie says while trying to figure out what happened to Ulrich. "While I try to find out what happened, go find Aelita, she's twenty-five yards to your west. Hurry, XANA's monsters are in pursuit of her!"
"Got it Jeremie, let's hurry, Odd," Yumi says in a worried tone.
"Understood, we can't have her dying on us now" Odd says with a laugh.
Yumi and Odd rush to go find Aelita and protect her from XANA's monsters.
Aincrad Standard Time: [13:00] January 15th 2023
Location: [Floor 24 – Forest of Doubt]
This forest has not been explored by any players and rumor has it that this forest is the only way to reach the floor's dungeon, so a scouting team will be assembled in two days to thoroughly explore the forest to reach the end. The Forest itself makes those within doubt their very existence and doubt that they are on the right path, which will make it difficult to navigate.
Meanwhile, Ulrich wakes up in the Forest of Doubt, as it is dubbed by the local players and NPCs, and finds himself a little disoriented from the scan.
"Ugh...what happened?" Ulrich looks around and notices he's in a forest, and that Odd and Yumi are nowhere nearby.
"Where am I? And where's Odd and Yumi?" Ulrich says in shock.
Ulrich takes his time in thoroughly inspecting his surroundings. He walks towards a tree and finds that it's real unlike the computer generated forest in Lyoko.
"Am I somehow back on Earth? Odd! Yumi! Where are you?!" Ulrich says, losing his wits a little bit. You'd be scared too, in a world you have no inkling about. He then calms himself down and tries contacting Jeremie.
"Jeremie, where am I? And where are the others?" However, Ulrich is unable to get a reply from Jeremie and can only hear the sounds of the forest.
"Wonderful..." Ulrich begins, a little worriedly. "I guess I'm on my own... I should try finding some sort of civilization, I need information." Ulrich walks around and finds a lake after about a half hour of aimless wandering, which tempts him to take a small drink, since he hasn't had drank any water in hours.
"I hope I have a canteen or something on me, I need some water" Ulrich says quietly.
He approaches the lake and when he sees his reflection, he finds that it is his real life appearance and not his Lyoko avatar. This shocking discovery surprises Ulrich and he falls back slightly.
"This clearly is not Lyoko, because this is my real life body" Ulrich says, hardly able to believe what's happening.
"Correct, this is the world of Aincrad" A female voice says, surprising Ulrich. He turns around and finds a little girl.
"Were you the one who was talking to me?" Ulrich asks this little girl.
"Yes, I am MHCP001, a mental health counseling AI. Cardinal has noticed you entering Aincrad through unorthodox methods, and I was sent to determine if you are a danger to this world's inhabitants." The girl says calmly, which is quite surprising.
"Okay, um, MHCP..." He shakes his head. "Look, no offense, but is there a better name I can use? That name is challenging to say in conversation" Ulrich says trying to figure out what's happening.
"My code name is Yui, will that suffice?" The girl: Yui asks, trying to make him at least a little comfortable.
"Yeah, that'll work, I guess." He scratches the back of his head nervously. "Anyway, you said this world's name is Aincrad? How did I get here?" Ulrich asks, finally calming down somewhat.
"I do not know how you entered Sword Art Online, and neither does Cardinal. I was sent to determine if you were a threat to the game, and upon investigation, I do not find you as such, even though you did not enter this world through a NerveGear simulation." Yui says, blinking up at him curiously.
The unusual terms that Yui mentions: Sword Art Online, Cardinal, and NerveGear are confusing Ulrich even more.
"So... I'm in a world called... "Sword Art Online?" Or is it Aincrad?" Ulrich says, rather freaked out, like the forest's name, he is doubting what he is hearing extensively.
"You are in a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or VRMMORPG for short." Yui explains. "The game is called Sword Art Online, and this game's world is called Aincrad. Although, this might be a virtual reality in terms of environment, the rules are very life-like, if you die here in Aincrad, you will die in reality. The HP you currently have is in the upper left of your field of vision." Yui says the words slowly, since she is thinking Ulrich is not the most intelligent soul in the game.
Ulrich takes a look and sees that his HP is at a base of 250.
"I see... and, according to this, I only have 250 HP?" Ulrich asks.
"Yes, you have that much HP because you have not set your stats yet. I can offer a suggestion if you wish, considering your build." Yui says in a compassionate tone, surprising for an Artificial Intelligence program, well from Ulrich's point of view.
"I'd appreciate it. I'll need all the help I can get if I want to survive in this world." Ulrich sighs, frowning at the forest around them.
"Very well, let me teach you one of the most essential things in this world. Follow my movements exactly." Yui says, with Ulrich simply nodding in response. "Raise your right hand and do a downward swipe and you can access your 'system menu' by doing so."
Ulrich does as requested and opens what appears to be a list. He opens the 'inventory' tab and finds that he has only a katana, and around 50,000 of something called Col.
"I only have a single katana and something called Col, are all the players in this game supposed to have this little?" Ulrich says, frowning, as he was beginning to become a little frustrated. He has no clue what was going on or why he was here. He shakes his head and looks over at Yui, who is frowning as well. Best that he just go with the flow for now.
"Bizarre, let me examine your character data" Yui says and examines Ulrich's character data thoroughly.
"The equipment you originally held heavily conflicted with Cardinal's programs, so they had to be removed; Allow me to grant you duplicates."
Yui creates a chest that spawns in front of the pair and Yui motions Ulrich to open it. When he opens the chest, he finds armor suitable for his inspiration of Samurai and various other things. Ulrich reopens his inventory and equips the new equipment, looking more like his Lyoko form.
Yui took about twenty minutes or so to explain many of the delicate parts of the game's features and systems to Ulrich after he finishes equipping his items.
"Now you need to set your stats, your build seems to heavily favor balance. Allow me to suggest this," Yui says, then pulls up a list that says 'Strength: 19, Constitution: 18, Dexterity: 18, Intelligence: 18, Charisma: 18, Willpower: 18, Perception: 18.
"I'll go with this list, though I'm going to exchange the extra point in Strength with Constitution." Ulrich says. Yui blinks, then smiles helpfully.
"As you wish. Now, set your stats in your character window. They will change eventually, since Cardinal will be setting your level to 30, and you will have access to 8 skill slots, though you will only be able to choose 4 skills; your abilities from wherever you came from crossed over and have been approved," Yui says.
"So my Super-Sprint, Triplicate, Triangulate, and Katana were approved? Cool." Ulrich says with a small smile, since he is very good with these abilities.
"Now that I've helped you acclimate to SAO, I must depart, as I am forbidden contact with players." Yui says with a slight sadness in her tone, then her character vanishes.
"Goodbye...Yui" Ulrich frowns. He feels a little sorry for her, which surprises him, because of his bad memory with AIs. He looks back down at his menu and goes over his list of skills.
Super-sprint – 500/1000
Triangulate – 500/1000
Triplicate – 350/1000
Katana – 800/1000
Extended Weight Limit – 250/1000
Night Vision – 500/1000
Tracking – 600/1000
Battle Healing – 400/1000
After Ulrich closes his menu, he hears a twig snap a little to his left. His ears twitch at the sound, and he turns around and quickly draws his katana to see a monster with long tusks that come from it's mouth charging at him with blood lust. He glares at it and takes a battle stance.
"I will not let this game beat me, I will return to Jeremie and my friends. I will survive this Aincrad and beat this game!"
Ulrich then lets out a battle cry and charges at the monster known as [Savage Forest Boar].
Author Notes:
The new skills that Ulrich has: Triangulate, Triplicate, and Super-sprint work in these ways.
Triangulate allows Ulrich to move very quickly to form a triangle shape around an enemy, it hides him behind 3 clones which allow Ulrich to attack with the element of surprise.
Triplicate allow Ulrich to create 2 clones of himself to assist him in battle, but doing so leaves him with only a 1/3 of his max HP.
Super-Sprint is essentially a rename of the sprint skill, but there's no cooldown and allows him to sprint much faster, though it is possible for him to become exhausted much easier.
Also, this is my very first story that I'm submitting to this story so don't expect absolute perfection from me.