Author's Note: It occurred to me when I was doing the prologue that I was combining the new and the old in this story. For one thing I was doing a crossover between an old anime classic like the original Yu-Gi-Oh! with a much newer anime like Sword Art Online. But I was also converting an old tabletop RPG like the Monster World game from Yu-Gi-Oh! into an advanced online game. That was one of the hardest parts of working on this story. So in this first chapter I've tried to explain how the game works a bit, and I hope I did an okay job.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Sword Art Online.
Chapter 1: Game Start!
The year was 2022, and the game company of Industrial Illusions had developed the next generation of gaming, a type of game known as a Virtual Reality Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or VRMMORPG. The game was played using a special kind of helmet known as a NerveGear that allowed players to enter a completely virtual world that felt almost entirely like the real thing. On the Sunday of November sixth, the very first game in this new genre, Monster World Online, was released in Japan. At least ten thousand copies of the game had already sold, and long lines to get the game had formed at game shops almost everywhere only days before the official release. It seemed clear that the game was already going to be a hit.
It was 1:00 PM as a fourteen-year-old young man named Kazuto Kirigaya prepared to enter the game himself. After his preparations were complete, he placed the NerveGear helmet on his head and got onto his bed in his room. With a single command, the world around him vanished and he felt himself flying through a stream of color. And only an instant later he was standing in the middle of the game's Starting City in the form of his in-game avatar, Kirito. The city itself was like a city from the middle ages, and was already filled with new players.
As Kirito made his way through the crowd of players, he saw a man with long red hair and a bit of beard on his chin running towards him. He had on a red and yellow headband with a long-sleeved greyish-white shirt, long brown pants, and brown leather chest armor.
"Hey!" the man called as he went up to Kirito. "You're one of the beta testers for this game, right? I figured that out because you seem to know your way around this place. Mind showing me the ropes?"
"Sure." Kirito replied. "There's a field nearby we can use."
On the way to said field, Kirito learned that the other player called himself Klein. Soon after their arrival, they were attacked by one of the game's low-level monsters. It was a simple wild boar. Klein attacked the beast by wildly swinging his sword, but his attacks seemed to do no damage. The boar on the other hand was doing quite well. It tackled Klein to the ground and caused the visual representation of his HP gauge to drop slightly.
"You're doing it wrong." Kirito told him. "You have to move the right way in order to activate the sword skill."
Klein imitated the pose Kirito made and held his sword up horizontally. The blade began to glow with a red light, and Klein charged at the boar just as it made another run at him. With a single slash, the creature was cut in half and shattered apart into polygons made of blue light.
"Awesome!" Klein enthusiastically declared. "And you know, it didn't hurt when that pig thing hit me. I mean it didn't feel right, but it wasn't like I was actually hurt."
"It wouldn't be that great a game if you felt actual pain when getting hit." Kirito pointed out.
"Good point." Klein replied. "You know, it's a little hard to believe that this game is based on one of those ancient tabletop RPGs."
"They really changed a lot for the VRMMO." Kirito informed him. "For one thing, all the player characters are human. In the old tabletop version of Monster World, you could play as creatures like elves or fairies."
"I read in an article about this game that they changed the whole player class system too." Klein recalled.
"Yeah, they really gave that part an overhaul." Kirito agreed. "In this version, players have three main classes to choose from, the Warrior Class, the Spellcaster Class, and the Artisan Class. Each class has subclasses. For example a couple of the Warrior subclasses are swordsmen and archers, while a couple of the Spellcaster subclasses are wizards and necromancers. The Artisan subclasses are made up of blacksmiths, jewelry makers, even tailors."
"Oh, so this game's not all about fighting stuff." Klein observed.
"Nah, there's a little something for everyone in this game." Kirito confirmed. "But what subclass a player chooses ultimately depends on what skills he or she develops, like the weapons the player trains with. Basically you get to develop your character from the ground up."
"That is pretty cool." Klein admitted. "So is there anything else they changed about this game from the old tabletop version?"
"Only that the company put in a bunch of creatures from that one collectable card game they came out with awhile back, Duel Monsters." Kirito answered.
"Oh man, I tried playing that game once." Klein revealed. "I totally sucked at it. So, care to show me a little more of this place?"
"Sure." Kirito agreed.
The afternoon continued on as Kirito showed his new friend around. By the time the sun had begun to set, the two of them had made it to the top of a hill overlooking a vast valley below.
Klein noticed his stomach beginning to growl. "Man, I guess it's been awhile since I had something to eat."
"Eating something in here will satisfy your hunger virtually, but it's not the same as eating actual food." Kirito informed him.
"Yeah, it's probably about time that I logged out anyway." Klein decided. "I ordered a pizza earlier. It should be at my place any minute now."
"I guess I'll see you around then." Kirito replied.
"Yep. Thanks for showing me around." Klein told him. "See ya later, Kirito."
With that, Klein waved his hand and caused his holographic menu screen to appear. But as he scrolled down to the bottom, a look of distress appeared on his face.
"Hey! What gives?" Klein explained. "I don't see any logout option on my menu!"
"What?" Kirito responded.
"Hey, are you able to log out?" Klein asked.
Kirito checked his own menu screen. Just like Klein's, the logout option was absent. A feeling of anxiety rose from the pit of his stomach.
"Looks like it's the same with me too." Kirito admitted.
"Oh man, this is bad!" a panicked Klein declared.
"Don't panic! Maybe we can get in touch with a game master and ask to get unplugged from the game." Kirito suggested.
"I'm trying, but I can't seem to get in touch with anyone." Klein informed him. "I know! Maybe if I can get the helmet off."
Klein began making the motions of a person trying to take off a helmet, but it wasn't working. He began to jump, hoping that it would somehow help. But all he ended up doing was falling on his butt.
"That won't work." Kirito told him. "The NerveGear intercepts the signals from your brain. Trying to take it off in here won't do any good."
"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" Klein asked.
"All we can do is wait until one of the GMs notices the glitch and does something about it." Kirito answered.
Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of chiming bells. Soon after both Kirito and Klein were teleported away in flashes of blue light and materialized back in the Starting City. They were not alone though. It seemed that every other player in the game had been teleported there as well. Hovering in the sky above were several holographic screens. All of them read that a special announcement was about to be made. Suddenly appearing above was a massive hooded figure clad in red robes. His face was impossible to make out.
"My name is Akihiko Kayaba." The hooded figure announced with an echoing voice. "I welcome you to my world. By now, many of you have noticed something missing from the main menu, the logout option. This is not a glitch, but one of the features of this game. As of now, you are all trapped."
"Is he serious?" Klein asked.
"There is no use trying to escape." Kayaba continued. "Forcibly removing the Nervegear helmet will destroy the player's brain. The helmets also have their own internal power source, so cutting the power is also not an option."
"Is… is that really possible?" Klein asked Kirito.
"Well, the NerveGear's transmitter pretty much acts like a microwave. So yeah, it's possible." Kirito confirmed.
"I have already informed the outside world of what I've done." Kayaba continued. "But some have ignored my warning. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players have now lost their lives."
The holographic screens in the air changed to show news broadcasts of what the media was now dubbing the MWO incident. One of the broadcasts even listed the names of the players that had already died.
"Now that the world has been made fully aware of the deaths, there is little chance that anyone else will try to remove the helmets. I am also allowing the outside world a two-hour period for players to be relocated to hospitals." Kayaba informed them. "I have also removed the revival system from this game. Therefore, when a player dies in the game, their avatar will be forever lost. Not only that, the NerveGear will destroy that player's brain. There is one way out of this game. Defeat the Floor Boss of each dungeon and you will advance to the next level. When the final boss is defeated on the one-hundredth floor is defeated, the game will be cleared."
"So… we have to clear the entire game in order to get out?" Klein realized.
"Even I've never made it through all one hundred levels of this game." Kirito admitted.
"And now, if you will all look at your item menus, you'll see that I have left a gift in everyone's inventory." Kayaba told them.
Kirito and all the other players looked at their item inventories and noticed a single new item, a mirror. As soon as Kirito look at himself in this mirror, the image of the blue-haired young man that was his avatar changed into the fourteen year old black-haired young man that was his actual appearance. He had even changed to his actual height. Though he still had on his avatar's outfit of a blue and white long-sleeved shirt with brown leather chest armor and long dark pants. Kitito was not the only player to make this transformation. Every other player in the game took on his or her actual form as well. Many female players became male and a few of the male players became female, much to their shame and embarrassment.
"Is that you Kirito?" a familiar voice asked.
Kirito looked to his right and saw a young man who had somewhat wild reddish-brown hair and the beginnings of a beard on his chin. From his outfit, Kirito recognized who the young man was.
"Klein?" a surprised Kirito responded.
"Yeah." The young man confirmed. "How the heck is this even possible?"
"Well the NerveGear does a scan of the person who puts it on." Kirito answered. "But I don't know how it could've gotten our height."
"Hey, remember when you put the thing on it asked you to calibrate it by touching your body?" Klein recalled. "I think that's how."
"By now I'm sure many of you are wondering why I, Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of Monster World Online and the NerveGear, do all of this?" Kayaba continued. "The answer is simple. I wanted to create a world that I could control. That is why I created Monster World Online. This concludes this tutorial."
With that, the hooded figure of Kayaba and his holographic screens vanished. There was silence for a moment, but soon mass panic erupted in the Starting City. Kirito and Klein quickly ducked into a nearby alley as things started to go out of control.
"Oh man, this is nuts!" Klein declared. "What the hell are we supposed to do?"
"There's only one thing we can do. Clear the game." Kirito told him. "We don't have a lot of resources where we are now. Our best bet is to get to the next village as soon as possible."
"I can't go with you, Kirito." Klein told him. "I've got friends in this game from the real world. I have to help them."
Kirito didn't like the idea of bringing more than one player with him. As it was, he knew he could protect at least one person. But protecting a group was more than he could manage at the moment. It would be his fault if Klein or any of his friends died.
"Hey Kirito? You go on ahead on your own." Klein told him. "Don't worry about me. I'll teach my friends everything you taught me, and we'll make our own way through this game."
"You sure?" Kirito asked.
"I'll be just fine." Klein instead. "Just do me a favor and don't die on me, okay?"
"Okay. But you better not die on me either." Kirito told him before running further into the alley.
"Hey Kirito!" Klein called, causing him to stop. "I gotta say, that girly face of yours is a better fit on you than that old avatar you had. If you were a girl, I wouldn't mind asking you out."
"Yeah? Well I think that scruffy mug of yours suits you a lot better than that other face you had." Kirito told him. "See ya around."
With that, Kirito continued out of the alley. It wasn't long before he was out of the city. As he ran down the dirt path, images of his younger sister flashed through his mind.
'If I die in this game… I die in real life!' Kirito mentally realized.
Suddenly a wolf with silver fur and yellow eyes materialized on the path and began to run towards him. Kirito recognized the creature as a Silver Fang, a fairly low-level monster. With a few tears in his eyes, Kirito unsheathed his sword. The blade began to glow as he changed at the creature.
'I'll definitely… survive this world!' Kirito declared as he sliced the wolf in half.
In another alley in Starting City, another group of players was trying to figure out what to do. There were four of them, three young men and a young woman. The first and shortest of the three was a young man who called himself Yugi, who had odd black and red star-shaped hair and blonde locks that hung down around his face, and hanging from his neck was a gold pendant in the shape of an inverted pyramid with a strange eye-like symbol on the front. The second player, who called himself Joey in the game, had long blonde hair and was clad in a grey long-sleeved shirt with brown leather chest armor and long black pants. The third player of the group was a young man who called himself Honda in the game and had oddly-shaped brown hair and an iron-grey pistol hanging from his belt. And the final player was a young woman who called herself Anzu, who had short brown hair and was clad in blue robes and a blue conical hat.
"Crap!" Joey cursed as his fist against the wall of the building, causing an Immortal Object icon to appear. "How the hell do we keep getting into these messes?"
"I'd like to know where Bakura ran off to." Honda pointed out. "He shows us how to play this game, then he tells us he forgot something and leaves."
"There's something else that's bothering me a little too guys." Yugi interjected as he took hold of his pendant. "How is it that my Millennium Puzzle has shown up in this game?"
Suddenly Anzu fell to her knees as tears began to stream down her face. "This… this is too much! I wanna go home!"
"Don't worry, Anzu. We'll figure something out." Honda assured her. "Just try and keep it together, okay?"
Honda's words seemed of little comfort to Anzu. Suddenly Yugi's Millennium Puzzle began to rotate on its chain and he became bathed in a golden light. The light faded and Yugi had grown a little taller and the features of his face had changed.
"Don't cry, Anzu." Yugi spoke in a deeper voice than before as he put his hand on her shoulder.
"Yugi." Anzu responded as she looked up at him.
"I don't know what Akihiko Kayaba is up to, but he won't get away with it!" Yugi declared. "No matter how difficult this game is if we work together we will win!"
Kayaba watched from the other side of a mirror hanging in what looked like a castle throne room with red walls. Sitting on the golden throne was Bakura. He was clad in a long red coat with silver chest armor, a black shirt, long blue pants, and black boots. His Millennium Ring was hanging from his neck. Before the white-haired young man were several holographic screens that showed different areas of the first floor of the game.
While Kayaba wasn't sure just who or what Bakura was, the only thing he was certain of was that he wasn't a normal human being. The fact that he was a disembodied soul trapped in a virtual game seemed to prove that fact. But whatever sort of being Bakura was, Kayaba could tell that he was evil. Bakura was laughing at the chaos the tutorial announcement had caused. Kayaba had anticipated that the true nature of his game would cause panic at first, but for him it was not a laughing matter.
Bakura stopped laughing and looked over at Kayaba's mirror. "It was so nice of you to create that little tutorial program of yours. It makes things so much easier for me."
"So I'm to be the scapegoat for whatever it is you're trying to do." Kayaba observed.
"Now, now. You are the one who came up with this little scheme." Bakura reminded him. "I'm merely giving you the credit you deserve. Besides, it's better for me if Yugi and his friends think that you're the mastermind behind this."
"All this for one young man?" Kayaba asked. "You do realize that while this may be a game, there are actual lives involved."
"You mortals mean nothing to me." Bakura told him. "The other players in this game are merely potential pawns for me to use to achieve my ultimate goal."
"And what happens if you achieve this goal of yours?" Kayaba asked.
"All that matters is beating Yugi and winning this game." Bakura answered. "What happens to all the other players doesn't matter to me a bit."
Author's Note: A few of these chapters will be following some of the episodes of the SAO anime. Though there will be a few changes here and there. Also, Yugi and his friends will be playing a fairly small roll in these first few chapters. As for the creatures from the Duel Monsters card game appearing in this story, some of them will be taking the place of some of the floor bosses from SAO. And there will be at least two creatures that'll be showing up to help the heroes.
Please review and let me know what you think.