Chapter 2 - Game Over Means The End

It looked as if everyone in the game was teleported here in the plaza. I could hear the murmurs of confusion throughout the players for most of them had a bit of panic in their voice. They don't have a Logout button either by the sound of it. The sound of a bell toll goes throughout the plaza. Faderz looks over at me.
"What the hell is going on man?!"

"The hell would I know?! I was a beta tester not a developer!" I grit my teeth n try to keep myself together. This is wrong, something's up and I got a bad feeling about it. A dome of red polygons form a dome each reading either "Warning" or "System Announcement". Soon after a blood red liquid begins to pour from the top forming a hooded figure in a red and yellow cloak. Sparks takes a step back.

"What in the royal fuck is that?!" I look up at it wide eyed and slightly terrified.

"I think we're 'bout to find out."

It puts its arms up extending them in our direction. "Attention players, I welcome you... to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba and as of this moment I am in control of this world."

Spark looked over me, "Is this guy for real Pyro?! Is that for real Kayaba?!"

"I dunno, I've never seen him in avatar, just in the game manual."

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menus, the Logout button." He swipes his hand down opening his own menu going to the settings showing there's no Logout button. I don't like where this is going. "Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

Faderz raises an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

"Something about this doesn't seem right," Spark puts his hands on his hips and looks down slightly. Spark's right... this is going somewhere I don't like. Gives me a really bad feeling.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO... and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life." Just then everyone started to panic out of disbelief.

"Cloud, I thought you said it's completely harmless and completely safe to use?! What the hell man?!" Spark turns to me frantically and wide eyed. Faderz stands in between us resting his arms on both of our shoulders.

"Hey, don't listen to this guy, there's no way that's a thing, it would be considered murder and it wouldn't have been able to even be launched. But even then go arguments sake, as long as they don't take off the NerveGear we can't die... right?"

"He's not bullshitting, the transmitter's signal in the NerveGear work just like a microwave and if you take off the protective thing it uses to keep them under control, they could get strong enough to fry your brain." The hell is Kayaba getting to about this. Spark looks at me again.

"Can't they just unplug it from the jack?"

"That won't work either 'cause the headgear as an internal battery that lasts... quite a while." Faderz takes his arms off us.

"Well what the hell then?! This is fucking nuts!"

Kayaba continues, "Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear. An unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 LESS players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." 213?! I can't believe this is happening! What is he trying to accomplish?! A bunch of screens doming around behind him for all of us players to see appear each with a news channel on. "As you can see, international media outlets have around the clock coverage of everything... including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game, if your HP drops to 0, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain." Just then I got wide eyed and took a step back. This can't be real, why in the bloody hell would he pull this?! What's he want from this?!

"Guys, he's not bullshitting, there's no way he's not! We're completely fucked!" Spark and Faderz turns around and looks at me.

Faderz throws his arms to the side, "Well what the hell are we supposed to do then?!"

Sparks turn to him, "There's only one thing we CAN do... we have to beat the game."

Kayaba goes on, "There's only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game." He goes through his menus and pulls up a map of all of Aincrad. "Right now, you're gathered on Floor 1, lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on Floor 100, you will clear the game."

Faderz looks down wide eyed in disbelief, "We can't clear all 100. Not even the beta testers got that high! Not even close!"

Spark turns to me, "What Floor did you get up to again?"

"Floor 12"

Spark looks down, "Yep, we're fucked."

Kayaba puts his arm down and continues, "Last but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player, please have a look." We all open our menus and sure enough there was an item. I raise an eyebrow with confusion.

"A mirror?" I tap on it and a small hand mirror falls into my hand and a blue aura goes around every player as if we were being teleported an when it stopped our looks all changed as we all look at each other. It took me a while before it clicked in my head, it changed our avatars to what we look like in the real world. Spark and Faderz looks at each other and start yelling back and forth but I couldn't make it out till they look at me with confusion.

"...How?" Faderz asks almost speechless.

I put my hand to my chin deep in thought, "My guess... the calibrations we had to do when you first got it, when it told you to touch certain parts of your body a certain way, that's my logical answer."

Spark nods, "Makes sense."

Kayaba starts up again, "Right now you're probably wondering why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." He slowly began to glitch out of the graphics and red polygon dome dissipates. There was a long silence between everyone. He isn't joking, it's not a game... it's real. Akihiko Kayaba made the NerveGear and designed SAO. The man is a genius by definition and I've kept up with his studies as much as I could to entirely understand how he is trying to design and program both SAO and NerveGear. There's no way he'd bullshit about this especially in such fine detail. As much as I don't want to accept it, if I die in the game, I'll die in real life. I CAN'T let that happen. If it's the last thing I'll do, I'll break us all of this death trap. The silence breaks with a girl screams and everyone then loses their shit panicking, screaming, crying, and yelling random nonsense with disbelief. No wonder the beta was so hard. That way Kayaba knew it wouldn't be easily beaten.

I clench my fists and grit my teeth turning to the guys, "Guys, gather up as many players as you can! We need to break for the first town as soon as we can, monster start to spawn more rapid and stronger at night so we need to go! Gather up players and meet me at the market down the road!" They both nod and go in different directions and spread the word. I turn and sprint down the road pulling up my map and tracing a line of the paths based off memory. I bolt back to the marketplace and Faderz and Spark brought at least a good 20 players. I nod at them.

"Alright, you heard Kayaba. The only way we can get out of here is if we clear this god forsaken game. It's gonna be one hell of a ride but we all need to work together! We're gonna head to the first town and kill monsters as they spawn... or grinding as I like to put it. The way it works is anything you receive after battles you get to keep. If it's something you can't use it's your choice what to do with it, it still belongs to you technically. Whether you sell it or give it to another player is on you. Any questions?" One of them raised there hand and I point to them, "Go ahead."

A small girl walks up to the front, "What's your best recommendation for weapon choice?" That was unexpected. I scratch the back of my head and sigh.

"When it comes to weapons in SAO, each type has different pros and cons. Rapiers are average damage with easy maneuvering for quick attacks where as a battle axe requires a specific STR level and his very powerful yet can slow you down. Daggers are mostly used for hit and run attacks and long swords, and one handed swords are all around weapons so in the end the weapon choice is all on your battle style." Best I could put it. She smiles and steps back as I wait a few seconds before nodding again.

"Alright let's get this done! Everyone on me!" I unsheathe my sword and start to dash forward into the fields where many different monsters are spawned. Warthogs, huge flying bug like creatures, slimes, and skeletons. Activating one of my sword skills, my sword begins to glow a light blue before lunging forward stabbing the warthog and I pull my sword through its head ripping it out and the creature shatters into shards. As a group we started wiping out the fields at fairly decent rate. It's best if the whole game play and fight together but I highly doubt that will happen. I look around as I watch our group work together to fight off all the monsters. I hop in one of the fights that the 2 were struggling, pushing the monster back.

"Focus the power in your blade all into one point and when you feel your skill charge up," I put my blade on my shoulder and bend my knees staring at the monster as my sword glows red. "That's when you strike." I swing my sword in front of me showing off my basic sword skill. A simple slash. I smile and look over at her. "Now you try." She nods and grips her sword holding it out in front of her as a push the monster back leaving it wide open. Her sword glows red as the skill chargers. I nod at her again. "Yep, there you go. You feel the power of the skill flowing through your body?"

"Yeah, it's a really strong feeling. Like as if I'm the strongest thing alive."

"Good that means you've activated it. Now attack on my mark." I wail the monster with the butt of my sword as it cries out at me as it takes a swing at me. I block it attack with my sword and spin around kicking it in the head. "NOW!" She dashes forward and takes a big slash to its head slicing it in two slowly before shattering into shards, dissipating. Her face brightens up and jumps up in excitement as a victory pop up menu appears revealing her spoils from the battle. I pat her shoulder and give her a smile.

"You did good kid, not so bad for a newbie." She gives me a gentle smile and nods happily as her friends run up to her hugging her and congratulating her. I let out a small chuckle before heading out further into the field heading more and more closer to the town. I had everyone following now that the fields were wiped clean of monsters. From there on out it was paths free from monsters so we could sort out items, divide them up or just simple conversation. It's also easy on my part so I don't have to worry about losing anyone in the process. I kept following my trail I made earlier and so far it's been right the further we head the more I remember my surroundings from the beta. It's like that moment when you go back to your hometown for the first time in 10 years. It wasn't before long we walked into town through the town gates and they all cheered me on for whatever reason. I turn around and give everyone a gentle smile.

"You all did excellent out there! For new players, I'm impressed. So tonight, dinners on me!" I put my fist up and crack a grin just as everyone cheers and goes nuts having me chuckle a little. "Alright, let's head to the tavern then. They got pretty good food honestly." I let out a laugh before opening the door to the tavern and we all seat ourselves. Me being with my buddies. Tonight's gonna be a good one.