More than 2,000 have been killed since the game launched one month ago. The first floor had yet to be cleared, so until then everyone was stuck in that one place unsure of what to do. They did what they could to occupy their time with the exception of a group of people. Higuchi was among these people who had met up in what looked like a small stadium and were watching the blue haired person attentively standing in the center. Higuchi had discovered a long time ago that following a beta tester to the boss would be pointless as they didn't even know where it was. Higuchi took temporary residence in the town Tolbana, the second largest town on the first floor aside from the Town of Beginnings. What was being held in the arena was a meeting organized by a man named Diabel.
"Okay people! Now that everyone's here, let's get started!" Diabel said getting everyone's attention. The people sitting in the arena had been conversing amongst themselves about what they were doing there. All of them had received a promising message from Diabel. "I want to start this meeting off by thanking you all for coming today and introducing myself. I am Diabel and in this game I am a knight." Everyone laughed at the self-proclaimed knight. There were no classes in this game. Ordinarily you could even choose your race in MMOs but in SAO you couldn't even do that. You were human and so was everyone else. Higuchi thought to himself, 'Everyone here is virtually a knight, what makes you so special?' Diabel struck Higuchi as someone that wanted to be seen as special and was trying too hard to do so.
"Do you want to hear this or not? Listen, our party found the boss' lair at the top of the tower today. First we need to defeat the boss to make it to floor two, then we have to tell everyone still in the Town of Beginnings that this game can be beaten. It is our duty as the most capable players to prove this! Do you agree or not?" Everyone in the game cheered loudly, so loud that Higuchi unconsciously put his finger in his left ear in an attempt to block out the sound without it being too obvious. This was quite a speech Diabel had to offer and it encouraged people to believe that they could win. He was charismatic, Higuchi gave him that but beyond that Higuchi just wanted to get this over with. He wanted to move on to the next floor as soon as possible and if anyone were to offer him any kind of information on the subject he would take it. "Okay, now let's figure out how we're going to defeat the boss. First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance so we need multiple parties."
Higuchi looked around to see everyone had already joined up and there were no available groups as the maximum was six. Higuchi looked left and right to see if there was anyone available. He saw a group of five conversing and planning. He walked toward them unsure of what to say. "Hey guys. I couldn't help but notice you've only got five members. I can be the sixth if you want." The one closest to him sneered, "Piss off, loser." He attempted reasoning that they needed six people per party and they had only five so he would help fulfill the criteria. All they did was laugh and tell him to "get his weak ass out of here." He wasn't weak, he was about as good as everyone else who started but they just said, "Not our problem."
Higuchi didn't press the issue much further except to imagine the various ways he could lash out and hurt this person. He imagined slamming the heel of his boot into his temple or breaking his nose on his knee. He wouldn't actually do this but he wanted to hurt this person as his anger was only to the point of images of causing pain and suffering. Then he thought, maybe it would be best to go at this alone. He then noticed two people talking amongst themselves and saw them join as a party. Higuchi couldn't help but feel a small bit of jealousy as to how these people could so easily become friends and he couldn't. The people talking were a boy his age and a hooded girl. The girl barely even said anything. She didn't have to do anything and she was invited to join a party while Higuchi just got insulted upon offering his services.
"Hey, you got left out too, huh?" Someone said interrupting his train of thought. He looked up to see someone his age but his hair and eyes were black. This boy had a rather feminine face with no masculine traits whatsoever. At least not from strictly eyeballing him. Next to him was the hooded girl who, unsurprisingly, said nothing. These were the two people Higuchi couldn't help but observe and couldn't stop himself from staring at. They must have noticed him sitting by himself with a look of despair on his face. "Umm… Yeah." Higuchi said looking down at his boots embarrassedly. He was embarrassed that he got caught and now he had to talk to people that would probably tell him to mind his own business or even ask him why someone like him was even at this meeting. None of these things happened though. Instead, he received an invite to join their party. He looked at the boy and girl standing in front of him but the party invite floated back into his line of sight. The boy looked as surprised as him, so it became obvious that he hadn't sent it.
"You might as well join us," the hooded girl said in a nonchalant manner. "We need all the help we can get with just us two." Higuchi looked at the invite which said, "Would you like to join this party?" In the section of names it said Kirito and Asuna. Higuchi remembered the name Kirito from somewhere but he just couldn't put his finger on it. He decided this thought was pointless and after a small amount of hesitation, selected 'yes' on the notice. It's the best course of action, he decided. He had learned during the beta test that he couldn't take on the boss alone.
"Hold up a sec!" Someone yelled out from the top of the stairs. The man who called the attention to himself and leaped down to the floor and commenced his speech. "My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss, I want to get something off my chest! We all know about the two thousand people who died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to them right now!" Kibaou was a short yet burly man with spikey, cactus style brown hair. He had a goatee that was the same color as his hair. He had scale mail armor with a large one handed sword on his back.
"The day this stupid ass game started, the beta guys just got up and vanished, right? They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too! They were the only ones getting stronger in here." Kibaou ranted while pointing his finger at the people sitting in their individual seats. "This whole time, they've ignored us like we were nothing. Hell, I bet there are some of them here! Come on out, beta testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them all give up their money and the items they got! They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us! Why should we?!" Kibaou was calling out the beta testers but Higuchi couldn't help but feel irritated at the cactus head's little speech. He didn't dare say anything though, if he did the light would shine on him as a beta tester. This was the last thing he needed right now. Higuchi had all sorts of unpleasant thoughts running through his head as Kibaou continued calling out the beta testers, including all the ways he would like to hurt him.
Suddenly a muscular African-American man made his way towards Kibaou. He was much taller than Kibaou so he seemed to lose his nerve to an extent. The man had two silver rings in his left ear, a brown goatee and brown eyes. His bald head towered over Kibaou, who backed away from him after he made his way over to him.
"My name is Agil," he said, "I just want to make sure we're on the same page here. You're saying it's the beta testers' fault that we can't find the boss right?" While he said this he pulled out a small brown book. "Well, what if I told you this… the item store hands these guidebooks out. You got one right?" Kibaou nodded at him, confirming he also got a guidebook. "You know who handed these out? The ex-beta testers. Everyone had equal access to this information but 2,000 players still died. I didn't come to point fingers. I came to learn from previous mistakes. I'm here to figure out how to beat the boss."
Higuchi felt a small amount of admiration for this man who could do what he didn't. He had remembered when he had distributed that book a few months ago, when he had pieced together the levels he had been in. The guidebook itself was just a recollection of the bosses and how to beat them but it would be useful nonetheless. As Diavel went on to discussing the first boss all Higuchi could think of was the many ways he could have humiliated Kibaou when he delivered his rant. He thought of shoving the guidebook in his face and saying, "Here's how to beat the bosses and you didn't even look for it. I even gave it out for free. I wasted all that time I could have been hunting and getting stronger with by helping cowards like you who don't even want to put in the effort of looking for hunting spots." That would have been followed by Kibaou's humiliation along with a half- assed apology.
This hadn't happened though, and all Higuchi could do was watch as after the speech ended Kibaou gave Diavel an apology, which was accepted without hesitation. At least he got to see that. Asuna and Kirito noticed Higuchi's distraction and his glare towards Kibaou. "Hey, you okay?" Kirito said and Higuchi looked up at him. "You've been staring into space the whole time."
"Yeah, I'm fine." Higuchi said. It was all he could say at this time.
At night Higuchi was wandering through the town as everyone else was socializing and talking about how there was finally hope for them. He looked up from the bread he had obtained and noticed the hooded girl walking away by herself. 'What was her name again?' he thought and then finally remembered. "Asuna." He approached her slowly, unsure of how she would react. He imagined she would be irritated by his presence, but surprisingly she wasn't.
"Hey, hold on!" Higuchi called out to get her attention. She turned towards him as the white haired assassin ran up to her. She didn't recognize him at first but eventually she did. After he caught his breath he finally said, "I'm sorry to bother you, I just wanted to ask you something."
"You're not bothering me. What is it?" Asuna said.
"Why did you invite me into your party? You didn't need to even think about it, so why would you want to work with some like… me?" Higuchi asked.
"I heard you get told off by those guys at the meeting and I saw your reaction. I hate it when someone does something like that." Asuna said. Higuchi felt humbled in her presence. He didn't do anything, but she was nice enough to give him a chance to work with her. In his head, she was the only genuinely good person he had ever met. "Thank you," was all he could think and so that was all he could say. She accepted his thanks and they both went their separate ways.
The group made their way over to the boss dungeon and Higuchi watched from afar as Kirito and Asuna talked amongst themselves. Asuna was still shrouded in her hooded cloak and it had occurred to Higuchi he had never seen her without it in the few days he'd known her. Both she and Kirito were the same as they had always been, many steps ahead of him. So close but so far.
Diavel suddenly stopped at the boss dungeon gate and everybody else stopped as well. "Listen up, everyone. I have nothing else to say except, let's win!" His "speech", if you could call it that, wasn't exactly inspirational but Higuchi didn't complain. After all, what could he possibly say?
Diavel led the group past the doorway into the dungeon where the boss sat waiting for them. The name "Illfang the Kobold Lord" was shining above his head along with four bright green health bars. Illfang stood at approximately two meters tall and was covered in a dark red shade of fur. He looked almost like a giant red kangaroo holding a bone axe and leather shield. He wore an ill-fitting helmet on his head which left his bright red eyes exposed. Surrounding the monster where three red demi-human creatures called Ruin Kobold sentinels. They wore body armor protecting their entire bodies except for their throats. The monsters in front of the gamers drew their weapons and attacked.
When the battle started, Diavel began barking orders and everyone acted them out. Higuchi stood with squads E and F. Their orders were to keep the sentinels away from the players attacking Illfang. Higuchi watched from afar until one of them called for the switch. He saw Asuna fight off the sentinel and the white haired assassin was in awe. He was prepared to defend her, but then thought she might not need protection.
Asuna called for a switch and Higuchi rushed forward. He drew his katana and slashed away at the sentinel. He wasn't strong but he was fast. Faster than everyone in squads E and F thought possible of him. In their eyes he was a shy loner who would just sit back and watch, but they were surprised to see he had skills. The sentinel thrust its sword forward multiple times only for Higuchi to dodge and use his katana to strike the open areas that would bring its health down.
When the throat was open Higuchi took the opportunity to ram his blade through it. The digital blood spilled out onto Higuchi's gloved hand and it twitched as its life bar depleted. The sentinel's body shattered into many colorful pieces when Higuchi gruesomely ripped the blade from its neck. He turned to the others in squads E and F and said "switch" just loudly enough for everyone to hear him but nobody did anything. The first thing Higuchi noticed everyone was staring in awe with their mouths agape. Everyone else had the exact same reaction, including Asuna. Higuchi couldn't see her eyes because of the hooded cloak but he imagined they were wide with shock like the others in their squad.
Illfang's health bars decreased to the fourth and final bar, which changed color from green to red. The monster tossed the bone axe and shield aside in a powerful motion and switched weapons to a nodachi. It didn't take long before Illfang hacked and slashed at the many people running to take it down. Leading them was Diavel. Higuchi let the people trying to play hero get killed off and ducked down to avoid getting hit by an incoming body that was sent soaring through the air. Every person who was affected had their health bars depleted to red and it was slowly decreasing at an almost painful rate.
Higuchi felt the bottom of his trench coat get pulled down as someone behind him tried to get his attention from the floor. He saw someone who looked familiar begging for his help. He then remembered him from the briefing Diavel gave. Higuchi had offered to join his group and he had rudely told him off. "What are you waiting for? I'm dying! Help me!" He yelled out. Higuchi waited for a second before yanking the edge of his coat away from the dying player. "Piss off, loser."
His eyes widened as Higuchi walked away to join the others in the fight against the boss. "What are you doing?! You can't do this! I'm dying!" Higuchi turned and said, "Not my problem." Higuchi felt somewhat better as he heard his body disintegrate into multiple colorful shards. He only regretted not watching him die. He would worry about that later, though. Right now there was a monster he had to slay and slay it he would.