Author's note:

Finally, after one month, chapter two is finally out. To tell the truth, I was actually surprised that I was able to finish it in one month, with all the studying that I have to do. But I enjoyed writing it, nevertheless. :D

So without further ado, let's get straight to the story. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own SAO.

Chapter 2: Overture for a dream (Part 2)

He had made a promise…

A promise to himself…

Up until that moment, one month being trapped inside the death game, he couldn't help but wonder.

Why did he decide to open the parcel which was sent from the person whom he hated the most? Why did he not just leave the thing alone and finished his load of homework instead? Why did he allow himself to lie down on the bed, put the helmet-like gear on and said «Link Start»? Why was he even here at the first place? So many unanswered questions constantly ran through his mind.

On November 6th, 2022, Sword Art Online launched the Official Server Service. As one of the 1000 participant in the Beta Test conducted over the summer vacation, he received the additional benefits of being able to pre-order the game before the initial release.

When he first signed up to be one of the beta testers for Sword Art Online, he honestly never had thought that he would be chosen. To tell the truth, his signing up served no purpose but for fun. If he somehow got accepted, he would have something to do over one month of summer vacation. If not, it wouldn't be a big deal or a bother to his life, either.

Of all 100.000 volunteers, only 1000 were lucky enough to be recruited. The odd was 1 out of 100. Not even in his wildest dream, a normal 15 years old secondary-school student would be pick over 100 other people to take part in testing the first VRMMORPG (short for Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayers Online Role Playing) ever made.

However, in that same dream, he would never have imagined, himself, along with ten of thousands of people would be trapped in a Virtual Reality where your life was measured by a health bar. Once your hp reached zero, unlike other MMO, you would never be re-spawned at the nearest town. Instead, your avatar would vanish, bringing your life along with it.

In short. If you die in the game, you'll die for real.

On the day it all begins, after Kayaba's announcement of the Death Game, the first thing that he did was checking the «Chamber of Resurrection», where the player used to re-spawn after dying during the Beta. But the room was no where to be found. Instead, in the middle of the chamber was a large stone tablet, listed the names of all the 10,000 players of SAO. The names of the 218 dead players had been automatically crossed out, with the cause, time, day, and month of death written beside it.

By then, it was certain that there wouldn't be any re-spawning by all means. HP reached zero equal permanent death.

He was collected enough to realize the seriousness of the situation. Rather than sitting in a corner and cried over self pity, he accepted the fact that Sword Art Online was no longer a game. But a Reality. While everybody was still at the state of shock and panic, he quietly moved from stores to stores, stacking up on his gears before heading out to the next town. Disappearing into the horizon.

He was walking along side the player whom he had known since the first day of the game as they made their way to through the streets. People had disappeared into bars and restaurants, so the path that they took was oddly quiet. Even though he could find a restaurant on the side of the street every now and then, but his companions seems to ignore the obvious and lead him deeper into an alley.

The swordsman sighed lightly out of annoyance. If he had known it would take this much effort just for a meal, he would had declined the offer at the first place. He was planning to have a small bread before going for a late grind or maybe mapping the dungeon out as much as he could. On the other hand, he didn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, so turning down the offer was something that he wouldn't dare taking. For now, the best course of action would probably keep his mouth shut and follow his companion.

After venturing deep into the alley, they stopped before a ran-down restaurant. No… 'restaurant' wasn't an appropriate phrase to describe the place. It looked no different than the shabby food stall that you can find just about anywhere on the back streets of Japan, if not worse. The swordsman glanced at his friend with confusion in his eyes. Of all the places they could pick, why here? Like stated above, they had passed by no less than three better looking restaurant before ending up here. Even though at such an early state of the game, the quality of the food was so bland that it was beyond comprehension. No matter how beautiful the restaurant may look, the tastes of the food weren't significantly different from other places. Honestly, the food made him want to throw up sometimes.

Somehow, he had the feeling that this place offered something worse than that…

Just as he was about to turn around and run for his life, a hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist, pulling him into the 'restaurant of doom'. This is it… This is the moment… after one month… this is how it ends.

Leaving his life at the mercy of his companion, the hand pulling him suddenly stopped dead in its track. As he was wondering what was going on, the hand which wasn't occupied with the task of keeping him from fleeing waved to a certain someone, who was sitting at the very back corner of the food shop.

"Yo… Fancy seeing you here…"

No matter how hard he look, at that point, he couldn't see any other customers aside from him, his friend and the one who was sitting at the corner – who was no stranger to both him and his friend, and probably to the SAO players as a whole.

"How are you doing, Shiro-nee, Hana-chan?"

A nimble-looking player equipped with full-body cloth and leather armor. Beneath her hooded cloak, he could clearly make out curly auburn hair, along with a pair of brown eyes. Patterns of three whiskers were distinctly painted onto each of the cheeks of this female player who waved her hand nimbly with a delicate expression on. No other than the famous «Information Dealer», «Argo the Rat». Who showed up at the meeting earlier that day and disappeared the minute the whole conversation about «Beta Testers» was brought up.

"I told you… not to call me that…"

The swordsman rubbed his head out irritation. A red color started to spread it way across his face as he soon overwhelmed by embarrassment. Typical Argo enjoyed giving nicknames to people. Something people always enjoy doing in everyday life, as in 'real' everyday life, not a virtual one because it was highly unlikely that anyone would use their real name as an in game name. So basically, every single SAO players were living by their nicknames. But the girl in front of them was able to find the joy of distributing nicknames throughout the floating castle, which means she were giving people's "nicknames" nicknames.

In real life, there's no doubt nicknames pay an important role in developing relationship between people. They can sounds really cool or cute while perfectly portrayed the owners' characteristic and straits. But… sometimes… they can be really really humiliating.

Take him for examples. His in game name was Hanairo, which could be use for both genders, though still sounds a little bit feminized. But just removing the 'iro' would turn it into a name exclusively for female. Being referred by a girl's name was embarrassing enough… the «Rat» even put a 'chan' as an honorifics behind it, which only made matter worse. He had told her many times not to address him that, especially in front of people. In that case, there were only his friend, but still he could still sense a high level of embarrassment.

His girlish appearance and fragile-looking body was misleading enough, being called 'Hana-chan' would only made people further confused himself with a «Female Player». But seriously though, his small physical build was seemingly shorter than many boys his age. He wasn't sure if he had some kind of development delay or not, but at the age of 15, his voice still hadn't changed a bit – even though it supposed to break 1 or 2 years before.

The person whom Argo referred to as 'Shiro-nee' giggled lightly before removing the hood (Only then did he recognize that all three of them were wearing hood at that moment). Her long hair, being released from it confinement, flows all the way down till her back. And much like Argo and Hanairo, she only equipped with leather armor under a black jacket, along with tight-fitting trouser and knee-high boots. On her waist, a curved blade was strapped neatly to her belt. Of course, he couldn't forget the hooded cloak that she had been wearing throughout the meeting.

Hanairo didn't need to ask to know exactly the reason behind the hood. Much like him, who didn't want to his face to be memorized when he reveal himself to help with the raid (which never happened). 'Shiro-nee' – whose in-game name was actually Shiro. Didn't want herself to be recognize her well being as an extremely rare kind in the floating castle, a «Female Player». That hair of her proved to be a major obstruction.

He understood that having other people noticed you being 'different' only posed unwanted problems in the future. So Hanairo wouldn't be surprised if his friend going everywhere with a suspicious cloak. Especially with that hair. Hanairo didn't know if the system allowed the player to change their hair style (not color), at this early state of the game. But if Shiro were gonna hide her «Female Player» identity, she better do something about it. Or else, her hair gonna be a big problem.

The girl possess a bewitching beauty, with long, white hair which usually be put back in a long ponytail and pearly black colored eyes. She was short,skinny, with a pale-skinned complexion. Which gave her a perfect doll-like appearance, giving an impression of a fragile and weak girl. But, in contrary to her appearance, Shiro was a strong-willed young woman. During combat, unlike Hanairo expectation toward a «Female Player», she showed incredible courage and determination. Her fierceness when fighting a mob for the first time while still be able to keep herself from taking damage even surprised Hanairo, who was a Beta Tester. Despite her cute looks, the girl was still pretty damn tough, even more so than the vast majority of «Male Player», or so it seems

"We are still doing fine."

Shiro flashed the informant a grin before sitting down on the other end of the table where the «Rat» was sitting. Being the only one left standing, literary, Hanairo couldn't come up with any action besides sitting down with the two girls.

"I saw you at the meeting earlier today." Shiro said with her chin resting on her hand.

"Hee…Hee… You noticed?"

Argo replied with a wide grin spread across her face. To be honest Hanairo couldn't see a reason for Argo to show up at the meeting, knowing that the «Rat» had no intention in joining the raid. She had already done her job with that Strategy Guide book, in his opinion.

"Seriously, though. You should be more careful Argo-san. Having people learns about your identity as one of those guys could be very dangerous. Not to mention the fact that you are one of the most well-known players in Aincrad."

Shiro's warning for Argo followed by a deep sighed from the former. Hanairo didn't know whether 'one of those guys' worked as some kind of sensors, but he was sure Shiro didn't have any hard feelings toward it. He himself avoided talking about Beta Testers as much as he could. Simply because he didn't want people to think about him everytime the words «Beta Testers» came up. And soon enough, the cover that he had tried to build up from the very first day would collapse.

"Nihihi. Worry not Shiro-nee. Everyone think that I'm «An informant who simply bought information from original beta testers no one knew». So I could secretly contribute to the clearing of the game without having to put my name into a dangerous position."

Argo laughed, giving Shiro an thumb up to assure that there nothing to worry about. Which was not possible to believe, taking the «Rat» current situation into account.

"Nonetheless, just be careful. The tension is very high at the moment."

The girl with that overly long hair folded her arms before looking around the small restaurant, as if she was looking for something that supposed to be there.

"By the way… Where's Saori-san?"

"Oh… She'll be back in a minute. Her food stock had just run out. And you know… you cannot cook without any food, right?

"Ehh? Did you just say 'food stock run out'?!"

Hanairo managed to keep his voice down, having almost shouted out of surprise.

In NPC restaurant, which you could find just about everywhere, there was no such thing as stock. The food just magically appeared out of the kitchen to keep the business going on. Seriously, the only thing that an NPC shop was missing was the quality of the food. He didn't really mind about the lack of diversity in the actual menu, since he had never been one of those picky eaters anyway.

But on the official website of SAO, prior to the game release, it had been written that, "unlike NPC's shop, where supplies are unlimited, player's shop, however, will eventually run out of stock if the owner do not purchase additional supplies.". So there was no way that this super ran down restaurant could be the worst NPC's restaurant like he though it was, but rather, the only Player's restaurant that he ever came across.

"Why do you seem so surprise? Or are you trying to say that I couldn't get any customer out of this place, huh, little one?"

A voice from the door which Hanairo had been dragged through earlier snapped him from his thought. The only three players inside the restaurant, excluding the newcomer, all turned their attention toward the sounds of the voice.

Standing at the door with folded arms was a young woman with light brown hair which was tied into pigtails, along with a white clip on the left side of her face, clipping up a small part of her bangs. Her dark brown eyes glared deeply into his eyes, though there weren't any murderous intent to be sense, still managed to send chill down Hanairo's spine.

"…That's not… excuse me… I didn't mean…"

The boy couldn't find anything to say. He was virtually speechless just by being starred down by the woman, who seemed to be the owner of that ran-down restaurant. Judging by the stern look on her face, Hanairo thought he probably had accidentally offended the Player in front of him. Which would not end well for him, it seems. His gaze wandered from its original spot, cause if he kept his eyes locks with the young woman any longer, the fear of being 'eaten alive' would take the last remaining of his sanity away. Hanairo would make a dashed toward the door, across the street, lock himself inside his room and hide in a corner for the next three days.

"Oh stop it Saori-san. You are scarring the little kid."

The informant didn't failed in making his life harder, Hanairo would ran out of the restaurant all the way back to the corner of his room for real, if not for what happened just a moment later. Something that completely caught him off guard.

The stern expression that were presenting all over the owner's face had been completely replaced by a grin, which she quickly covered it up with her hand. Small giggled could be heard from the other side of the room as it escalated into laughter.

"Hahahaha… Oh man, the look on his face… Hahahaha…"

Hanairo didn't understand what was happening, not by the slightest. He turned around to look at his friends, but instead of finding any mean of explanation, the swordsman found both Argo and Shiro were joining the laughter as well. Which only left him as clueless as ever on whatever the hell was happening. Why did the owner's reaction suddenly took a 180 degree turn? What was so funny that everybody was laughing none stop? Questions just keep swimming around inside of his mind that they started hurting his head.

The laughter only stopped after around 1 or 2 minutes. And yet, that amount of time wasn't enough for Hanairo to realize what had happened that make the three «Female Players» so amused.

"…Etou… Shiro-san… Argo…"

"Sorry, sorry… I was just messing around with ya…"

The supposedly owner of the restaurant wiped a single droplet of tear from her eye before extending her hand toward Hanairo.

"I'm Saori. And as you can see, I'm the owner of this little restaurant. Yoroshiku ne.[1]"

The red haired player's glance stopped at the female's face before moving to her hand then back to her face once again. Reluctantly, he took Saori's hand in his own as they share an intimate handshake with each other.

When his hand made contact with her, something unexpected happened. Hanairo could feel a rush of electricity from his joint ran all the way to his spinal cords. Nerve impulses are transferred to areas of high sensory on your hand, defining shape.. ah yes, the shape of the hand. These impulses come from your brain. They tell you whether the person has disgusting scaly, sweaty, dishpan hands-or soft, gentle, coated-with-lotion hands. These nerves can also transfer output allowing you to squeeze the hand of holding harder, scratch their palm with your finger, or perhaps even let go.

Hanairo couldn't move as if he had been petrified by some kind of dark magic, which was a concept that did not in this death game at the first place.

For the first time in one month, he felt alive…

As their palms were connected to each other, though slightly, Hanairo could definitely feel it. The warmth emitted from Saori's soft hand, holding his gently, like the speed of cherry blossom falling through the air. The virtue sensation that the system managed to recreate was no where near the term of perfection, but that was all needed to deeply moved Hanairo. As he could actually feel the existent of another human being, not just an avatar created by lines of meaningless codes. And for just a few moment, he feel as if he was back in the real world, living the life of a normal school boy, not the life of an anonymous swordsman.

Even after letting go, he could still feel Saori's hand there, like they have been connected through the act of shaking hands.

"…Etou… Are you alright there?"

Saori's voice snapped Hanairo from his thoughts. He looked up to see her looking at him with concerning eyes. Which was a complete contrary to that scary look she gave him earlier. A slight blush spread across his face as he quickly broke eye contact with the restaurant's owner. Slightly scratching his head, the swordsman didn't forget to introduce himself.

"…Etou… My name is Hanairo… Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.[2]"

Saori giggled lightly, bringing Hanairo back to the 'what so funny?' question that he had been trying to figured out through out this entire encounter. Though this time around, he could merely guess that it because of his sheepish reaction in front of a girl that Saori found amusing. Just maybe…

"Oh… So you are Hanairo… Shiro had told me a lot about you."

A smile presented itself on the owner's face, her smile as gentle as the palm of her hand. Her youthful visage gave off an impression of a high school girl. And yet, looking deep into her eyes, he could find a more mature and thoughtful side of the young woman in front of him. Giving him a clue that she might be one of those strong heroine who lived independently without having to rely on anybody but herself.

To tell the truth, Hanairo had always shown his respect toward people who live without any help from other people, especially female who may live independently on their own. Looking at Saori, he could find a confident self motivated woman who takes responsibility for her actions and never blame the rest of the world for her mistakes or her downfalls. A woman who pays her own bills, buys her own things, and doesn't feel she needs a man's approval.

"Oi… You two are getting too intimate too quickly..."

The voice from behind his back finally brought him back to the run down restaurant in the alleys of Tolbana. Only then did he remember something, something really important that he had forgotten. After being carried away for too long on the roller coaster of emotions, his minds were too distracted by other things that he forgot the actual reason why he and Shiro came here at the first place, to fill their empty stomachs, which were growling uncontrollably out of hunger.

In this death game, the sensations of hunger and satiety worked by a simple mechanism. Your stomach will empty three times a day at meal times every day. Even though that was just the fake feelings regenerated by the system and your real body weren't actually hungry. The needs for something to fill your stomach with would hinder any action that you attempting to take.

Whenever your real body feels hungry, as your body reserves nutrient will make it up for the missing energy, the hunger would soon disappear after a few hours. But… unlike the real world. In Aincrad, when your stomach was empty three times a day at mealtimes, the hunger would not dissipate until you had eaten some virtual food.

Before Hanairo could say anything, Saori flipped him around and push him down on a chair, leaving him no time to react whatsoever. He turned his head around while still remaining in a sitting position to meet a Saori who was smiling brightly with a knife in her hand. The image reminded him of those Yan-dere characters which usually could be found in most Anime out there. Behind that cheerful smile, was a dark, sinister, psychopathic, murderous intent that only represented itself through the existent of a knife. Hanairo quickly shook that weird thought away. He had been thinking way too much lately… Which is understandable, given that he were trapped inside a virtue world resembled an MMORPG.

"You guys must be hungry… Food will be out in a minute so be patient, okay."

The owner turned her back and head toward the kitchen, not forgetting to threw back a wink at them before disappearing behind the counter. Well, mostly… because they could still see her upper body since the counter wasn't that tall to begin with.

So they were met with a familiar image which was something very near and dear to their hearts. The sight of a chef preparing food for customers from behind the counter, that can be seen in just about every small restaurant throughout Japan. Just looking at the woman behind the counter brought back many nostalgic memory of his once peaceful, serene life of a middle highschooler before SAO. Do the same thing everyday, never try to stand out, never fall for anyone. Nothing will ever happen to him. He prayed that his lives would always be simple that way, never have to worry about anything.

But, on that faithful day, November 6th, 2022. His simple and quiet life that he always loved was flipped completely up side down, never to be the same again.

After being trapped inside the world of Sword Art Online, there was only one goal that he wishes to complete. To clear this god forsaken game, getting everyone out of this virtual world, even if it means sacrificing his own life. To Hanairo, the old peaceful life he one has had come to an end ever since the announcement of the death game at the square that day. So instead of caring for his own survival, he would fight for the sake of the other 10000 living souls, or die trying. So when he looked back, Hanairo could smile happily and be proud of his decision to act instead of crying over self pity, regardless of how dark the outcome might be for him.

Run. Keep running. Even when you are tired, never stop charging forward. Shine brightly then disappeared into the night sky like fireworks at the end of summer.

"Enjoy your meal. I'll better be going now. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Especially you, Hana-chan. It's hard working, being an informant, ya know."

Argo, who had been oddly quiet for the last couple of minutes stood up from her seat and squeeze her way out to the door through the lines of table. Reminding Hanairo of how small of a place this restaurant is, at least compare to other NPC's ones. He was about to ask why wouldn't she be having meal with them, but decided against it after noticing a plate on the table the informant was sitting on earlier.

"…Good grief. You shouldn't push yourself too hard, Argo-san. Try taking some rest."

Saori said to Argo with a stern yet caring voice. On which Hanairo couldn't agree more. It's only one month into the game but he had already seen loads and loads of work over the informant's shoulders. And let's not forget, there were still one hundred floors ahead of them… Just imagine the amount of work made Hanairo shiver.

"Hehehe… Always care about other people. You have a kind heart, Shiro-nee. Jaa… Mata ne."

The «Rat» laughed shamelessly, waving at us for the last time of the day before disappearing behind the sliding door.

That reduced the number of player inside the restaurant at that moment back to number 3. Included two «Female Players» and one «Male Player». Only then did he realize the fact that just a few moments ago, he was sitting with three other «Female Players». As you may have known, «Female Players» was one of the rarest species to be found in this world. Even after a month, he thought almost all of them still stayed in the «Starting City». The chance of meeting up with one is slim enough, but having THREE around you at the same place, at the same time would be an event that only happened once in a life time. Well, for now at least. There was no guarantee that there wouldn't be a couple of female individuals to step up and show the world that they, too, could fight. To give an example, just look at Shiro. So who knows? Maybe there would be a rise in number of «Female Players» at the front line in the near future.

"So tell me. What would you do if I didn't ask you to have dinner together?"

Facing Shiro's sudden question, Hanairo found himself having problems coming up with an answer that was suitable in this situation. He couldn't just straight up telling her that he was planning for an all night grind in the dungeon. He assumed that telling her the truth would just gonna make her worry. And that exactly what he tried to avoid. Making others worry about him.

"Etou… I was planning to have some bread for tonight."

"And after that?"

The female player rested her chin on her elbow, slightly raising her eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"That… Maybe go back to my room to get some sleep."

"Really? Don't you think that it would be a little bit early for that after having only a piece of bread? Are you sure you are not planning on spending the night inside the dungeon like you always do? Hana-chan?"

What is she? Some kind of psychic?

The on going barrages of questions along with Shiro's stern look started to make him hard to breath. The largest quantity of uneasiness was delivered. The swordsman was forced to break eye contact with the female player. Even though he didn't want to, since that just gonna evoke more suspicion out of Shiro.

"D-Don't be silly… I'm not planning to do anything like that. Beside… Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day, so I gotta get some decent rest."

Though he could feel that she hadn't been convinced, the blond hair player turned her gaze away from him toward Saori, who was carrying two plates with both of her hands getting out from behind the counter.

"Well… If that's the case."

Hanairo sighed in relief. If not for Saori perfect timing, wouldn't be able to enjoy his dinner in peace. Even though it seemed that something still bothering Shiro, she had let this one go, at the very least. The restaurant's owner gave both of them a graceful smile before started laying the table with napkins, spoons and forks. Two deep plates were placed before us. Inside was some kind of thick liquid with deep white-ish color. Though hardly visible, there white steam emitting from the surface of the surface of the dish, as if inviting the person sitting before it to have a taste.

"Enjoy your meal."

A huge grin appeared on Saori's face as she pulled a chair over to sit down next to Hanairo.

"Try it and tell me what you think."

The dish itself was much more appealing than he expected. Although it was nowhere near the actual stuff from the real world, still, this was far better than the thing they had at NPCs' restaurants, appearance wise. The only thing that was left for him to find out was if the soup (he thinks) tasted any better than what NPC had to offer.

Saori didn't leave her gaze off of him, as if expecting some kind of reaction from him. To tell the truth he wasn't expecting much out of this thing, regardless of how good it looked. Considering the early state of the game, he doubt that anyone would be foolish enough to concentrate on leveling up her «Cooking Skills» to a level that actually allow her to make food that taste good. Even if you are a chef of a well-known restaurant in the real world, in SAO, no matter how skill of a cook you are, if «Cooking Skills» doesn't met the standard, your food would be just as bland as something made by an eight years old.

Honestly, if Hanairo just straight up tell her the truth, Saori would definitely be disappointed, and she'd end up doubting her own cooking skill. It is obvious to him that cooking is Saori's passion, because why would she even spent so much money to buy a building for her restaurant at such an early state of the game, regardless of how ran down it look. If you were to have any doubt on your own passion, that would changed your view on life for the worse, and your life would be hanged on a thread that was about to snap at any moment.

To put it simply, Hanairo wouldn't want to be too truthful to the owner. Even if the soup tasted like ice cream with fish, he would still try to force them down into his stomach and tell her that it's good. But what if it DID taste good, who knows? Why would Shiro dragged him all the way here if the food wasn't good. Suddenly, his expectation was raised dramatically.

Hanairo took a spoonful of soup, raising it to the level of his mouth. Slightly gulping before taking a deep breath, Here goes nothing, The swordsman squeezed his eyes shut, taking the entire thing into his mouth.

For a second, his mind went completely blank…

After getting back to his senses, Hanairo was greeted with the feel of sweetness that had completely enveloped his mouth. The feeling that he had not been able to experience over the past one month. For the first time since the beginning of the game, a felt completed. As the sensation of fulfillment started spreading from his mouth through out his body, assaulting his every senses. Subconsciously, his hand automatically scoop down another spoonful and take it inside of his mouth, again, again, and again. Before he even know it, the disk of soup was already half empty.

Upon taking back control over his body, the only action that he could come up with besides stuffing the remaining soup down his stomach was glancing over at the cook, who was having a very satisfying grin on her face.

"How did you?... This taste like…"

"It's good, isn't it? Since the system does limit the quality of the food you make base on the level of your «Cooking Skill», so you usually couldn't make anything decent this early into the game."

Saori giggled before continuing.

"That's why I had to add some twists to it."

"Twists…?"

Hanairo raised his left eyebrow in a questioning manner. He couldn't find anyway to get around the system and make food tasted better, no matter how many times you 'twist' it. But, truth to be told, he never actually paid any attention to the food system inside this game, so it was still too early to confirm that the level of «Cooking Skill» decide the quality of the food. There could be others elements involve in this matter such as the the stats of the food you use.

"Yep… She added the cream she received as a reward from the quest «Cows of the Counterattack». I have one of those, too. Though, not many people do it, since it takes some time to clear."

Shiro cleared things out a bit for Hanairo before taking a spoon of soup into her mouth.

"That's right. And this is just one of my secret ingredients. There's still some more tricks up my sleeve that I won't review to you just yet."

Saori posed a cool gesture, swiping the tip of her nose with her thumb before the wide grin appeared on her face once again.

It's no surprise that something like this could slip past him unnoticed. Because, like said above, he never really cared about the food in Sword Art Online at the first place. Now, he regrets that he didn't.

"I can help you do it later if you want."

"…Eh?"

"The quest. I could help you do the quest later if you want to."

Shiro took another spoonful of soup into her mouth, her disk had already half empty as well. Only when sitting like this did he had the chance to actually take a good look at the Female player. Her appearance was no different than a native Japanese, but the color of her hair is what really made her stands out in a crowd. (Another reason for the hood). Since hair dyeing items were extremely hard to come by at this state of the game, and knowing that she would never waste her time and Col on something that was baffling and unnecessary like a dyeing item. There could be only one possibility that it was her actual hair color in the real world.

Biologically, Japanese people could not naturally developed any hair color that is different than black. So her hair color could be from the result of dyeing, which was unlikely, consider how much money it costs to dye someone's hair to such a bright color. Hanairo had known the girl well enough to be perfectly aware of her dislike toward wastefulness.

All in all, there was only one possibility that is her natural hair color. A person with a Japanese facial appearance who possesses white-ish blond hair, there were no doubt that Shiro was a half breed.

In SAO, the chance of coming across a «Female Player» is slim, chance to meet a Foreigner is even slimmer. A half-breed, even lower than that of a Foreigner. But a «Female Player» who is a half-breed, Hanairo was virtually sitting next to the absolute rarest kind to be found in this Giant Floating castle.

So right then, both Shiro and Hanairo were facing the same problem, involving around their hair colors. The dying items won't become common after a few more floors. By then, you would see lots and lots of people with a large variety of hair color. Bur for now, Hanairo and Shiro gonna just have to bear with it.

"Well, sure. But…"

For the last two weeks, his selection for food consist of the cheapest food item in the game, black bread. Back in the real world, he had always fond of bread. Hanairo remembered staying up late in the night to finish the last of his homework while munching on a piece of bread that he bought from a bakery just around the corner earlier that day. In the kitchen of his small apartment house, you can always find a large number of bread. The breads not only served as a snack but also his improvise meal whenever he didn't have the time to cook properly.

Breads are cheap, convenient and the taste is just delicious. Well, in the real world at least. Even inside of SAO, his fondness toward breads had never change. The bread inside adopted every features that he loves, being cheap and very easy to carry around when you spends an entire day grinding inside a dungeon. It would have been the perfect food for anyone if not for the fact that the taste was… disappointing. If he had one of those cream items, the taste of those dry and coarse black breads that can be bought from an NPC baker with the price of 1 Col would be enhanced dramatically.

But at the same time, he wouldn't want to be a bother to Shiro. So instead, maybe he would just ask her the place where he could take the quest and complete it on his own.

Letting out a deep sigh, Hanairo picked up the spoon and started finishing the last of his soup.

"Thank you. Please come again. And don't forget to tell your friend about this place."

Saori waved goodbye to them, standing at the other side of the open door to Shiro and Hanairo with a bright smile on her face.

"We will. And again, thanks for the meal. Keep up the good work Saori-san"

"Hee Hee. You got it Shiro. And oh, Hana-chan,eat a lot of food if you wanna grow up quickly, you hear? Come by the restaurant sometimes, okay? I'll be waiting."

"…Ha…Ha… Sure…"

"Jaa. Mata ne.[3]"

Saori flashed toward them a grin before closing the door, disappearing from their sight of vision.

"Have a great evening?"

"Yeah. The food is way better than I expected."

Hanairo smiled as they made their way out of the alley. Truth to be told, he didn't even remember the way out, since Shiro dragged him all the way here all too quickly. Sure enough, your avatar will automatically memorize a location when you set foot onto it, and present it all on a mini-map which can be pulled up from the Main Menu, but he was too lazy for that. So instead, he might just wanna hang onto the girl for a while longer, because it seems like she knew this place like the back of the hand. And it was not like he was in some kind of a hurry, either.

"Honestly, I feel pity for her."

Hanairo let out a small sigh before fixing his gaze onto the night sky. The black world covering in darkness and despair filled with tiny diamond shaped sparkling lights of hope and love... Somehow feel identical to their (as well as another 10000 souls) situation at that moment.

"Why is that?"

"Well… I feel like she is sacrificing too much. Leveling up her «Cooking skill» to satisfy other people's needs, instead of combat skill, and we are only on the first floor. I think she deserved way more than what she is having right now."

"Well, you shouldn't be worry about that. Her restaurant actually has a lot of customers every day, despite its ran down look."

Shiro's reply actually surprised Hanairo. From what he saw, there were absolutely no one enter the restaurant when they were having their meal. And from that, along with the structure of the building, he could guess that despite her talent, Saori didn't attract many customers to her restaurant. But Shiro said otherwise.

"Eh? Really?"

"Yeah, really? There are actually a lot more people during day time. When night falls, people usually avoid walking into dark alley so you shouldn't be surprise to see no one at her place during this time of the day."

So that's how it is.

If she didn't make a lot of money out of selling food, she couldn't have been able to afford a building which was her restaurant at the first place. It's only one month into the game, so to own a small building, even if it's deep inside the alley, would cost a fortune. This alone enough to emphasize how much devotion and loved Saori had sent into her job as a «Cook». Probably the first ever «Player Cook» in the history of Aincrad. Who doesn't put her life on line to fight monster but stays at the back, nourished the hungry players after a full day of grinding and clearing dungeon with the delicious food that she put all her heart and emotions into making. And to make others feel 'Alive', to make them feel like they were having a meal with their friends in a restaurant on the street of Japan, not inside a death game where they would die when their health bars completely depleted...

Both of them remain silent for the rest of the way. Upon returning to the main street of «Tolbana», they shared a few lines of farewell before parting away. Hanairo rubbed his head lightly and started making his way back to his room, it's been one hell of a long day and he really could use some rest. But after a few step, Shiro's voice stopped him on his track.

"Promise me you won't sneak out into the dungeon at night."

"…"

Promise huh? He had made a promise to himself not too long before SAO started. To completely cut off his relationship to that person, the one who sent him a copy of SAO. And well, as you could see. He broke it by opening that parcel containing the game.

"I promise."

Hanairo flashed a smile toward Shiro. The white hair girl smiled back at him before waving him goodbye for the last time of the day.

"Good. Now go get some rest. I'll see you around."

The «Female Player» turned her back and walked away. Her figure slowly faded into to the night before finally disappeared completely from his sight of vision.

Okay… He'll do what she said. A promise is a promise. Even though he had broken the promise he made to himself one month ago, he would try his best not to break the only thing that was keeping him from giving up on his own life, the promises he made to Shiro.

References

[1][2]: these two sentences are actually quite hard to translate into English precisely. It's basically what people say when they first meet each other (in which it could means [let's get along]) or when they ask other people to guide or take good care of them.

[3]: Then, later.

So? What do you guys think? Are there any mistakes that I need to correct? Do I need to pick up the pace? Let me know in the review section below. It helps me out a lot to know what you guys are thinking, and know that there are people out there, supporting to keep me going.

Just a heads up, I'm facing a major exam at the moment, so I won't be able to release chapter 3 anytime soon. But trust me, I'm going to try my best to finish it as fast as I could, maybe 2 month or so… I don't know.

Again. Thank you for stopping by. Looking forward to seeing you in the next chapter.

Arigatou Gozaimashita. Jaa ne!

(PS: Drop a review if you thought the main protagonist and narrator in the first chapter was a male player. JK, that's up to you=)))

REVIEWS REPLYING SECTION:

tripplehalo : glad you like it. I don't want to spoil anything but the story gonna be much darker and more interesting later on, so hope you will stick with me until then. (^o^)

ShinBP : [pm-ed]