Chapter 1

? – POV

It will happen soon the start of a major chain of event that will eventually cause a catastrophe I must not fail. Thoughts along these line where running through my head as I walked through the base after meeting up with Kayaba Akihiko.

"Time to get moving"

A voice snaps me out of my thoughts as we arrive at my destination. I rummage around in my pocket before taking out a black cube; it was small enough to fit in my hand so it was fairly easy to carry around. The voice came from the speaker system built into the cube it was designed for communicating with the mission operator for this mission unfortunately he can't come in person and he never will. There is are a lot of circumstances regarding the operator which I shouldn't pry into for example he will never speaks unless he has to and so far he has never told anyone his real name we all call him MARK-01 or mark for short because it's the name of the cube, which he apparently invented. But either way he doesn't mind the name and has started using it as his call sign so I am sure he likes it.

"I know I am at the labs now"

"Good all data is ready and your avatars are set up the server we are using is connected to the SAO server via a data stream similar to the neural link and a Hadrian's wall and archer module is set up as cyber defence against hackers so we won't have to worry about getting traced"

"Looks like you have outdone yourself mark if you were here I would give you a kiss"

His voice loses all form of cheerfulness for a second but then it swiftly returns

"Ha flattery won't work on me and besides you know I can't come over to that side I would break before I get there also the day my favourite agent gives me a kiss is when I'm the last guy on earth"

"You got that right I would never fall for you….. Probably"

"Ah teenagers these days so insecure and indecisive"

"Shut up it was a slip of the tongue"

"Now now if you carry on like that I will be stolen by kuroyukihime or worse shiro"

I stop in my tracks clearly shocked at the voice on the other end of the cube. My brain tried to process the data but couldn't.

"Mark since when did you target little kids"

"You mean to say you haven't notices"

"Noticed what?"

"I think she likes me you do know she helped me do the modifications to Strea's algorithms"

"if you lay a hand on Shiro her brother and kuoryukihime will kill you in the most excruciatingly painful way"

"I know but that just makes thing more exciting don't you think. Ah just the thought of touching the forbidden fruit is enough to turn me on"

"you are a creep"

"I DON'T WANT TO HERE THAT FROM A CLOSET PERVERT LIKE YOU"

"….."

I was speechless the crap that comes out of this man's mouth is the reason everyone avoids him. Among the other operatives a popular rumour is that mark went insane after his last girlfriend dumped him. I never believe in rumours but this one is starting to look more plausible. The only person I know who talk to him of their own free would will is kuroyukihime but then again she is also a special case.

"anyway back to what we were originally talking about shiro helped me modify Strea so that she is invisible to the SAO server she will be able to help you in terms of recon and analysis she has a body but she cannot freely alter sword art online so just think of here as another player rather than an AI"

"Whenever you talk like this I can never understand you"

"of course you can't understand me no one can, not even me but to put in to understandable stupid peoples language Strea will act as your partner along with Dargene and Finem

"I see"

"is that all if so that's great now go and greet your new team members and don't forget to get along now. If you screw up well you're screwed later on so have a nice day and don't forget you cant communicate with me once the death game starts but I can talk to you"

With that last message the cube went silent. Many seconds pass before I regain my composure. Wow just talking to that man exhausts me far more than any number of mobs or bosses I have had to fight in the simulator. His personality is similar to a mad scientist but I suppose all geniuses are like that well at least the ones I have met.

"That man is a walking mystery that's impossible to comprehend"

Well no wonder he is my operator from what I have heard the rest of the team are complete oddballs. This mission is important but we are all novices with the exception of mark. Well speaking about teams I might as well go introduce myself before we calibrate the nerve gears.