Author's Notes: I started writing the author's notes without thinking about what I am actually going to write again
I guess I should take this moment to explain a few things about the story and where it is going to go.
The original concept of the whole story, before I gave it a reboot, was to be a complete recreation of the whole world and each of the floors. I had put a lot of work into MY version of AIncrad, which included tons of files about the different floors and what kind of quests would be available, bosses, items, etc. Along for the ride was the character, Arashi, who was pretty much just an angsty teen.
But since those files are now completely gone, I'm going off of memory of what I had before and am creating things as I go now. THIS world of Aincrad is going to be different in most if not all aspects of the original work, but I am going to be doing my best to make the world feel just as alive and intriguing.
Even now as I am writing all of this a bunch of my previous thoughts and ideas come back to my head, which makes me stop writing for minutes at a time to write down what I remembered so I have it saved for later.
The story is going to have a slow start, but I am hoping that is going to change by the end of this chapter so the real story can begin.
For those of you that are enjoying what I have put out so far, I'm happy to have made something enjoyable. For those that don't end up liking this story, I'd like to at least know why and how I can improve! (Be gentle 3 )
Until then, here is the third chapter!
P.S: GIVE ME MOTIVATION TO WRITE MORE WITH REVIEWS AND FAVORITES AND STUFF
"T-toshiro..?" Arashi stuttered out, seeing someone who was definitely not the Toshiro he knew.
The player before him was, first off, female.
The starting equipment was the same as the male equivalent, with a few additional options being given depending on style choices. This player wore a long-sleeve baggy cyan shirt that would have done exceptionally well to hide any female curves she had if it had not been for the female variant of the leather chestpiece, which hugged tightly to the small curvature of (had he guessed) B-cup breasts.
Her white skirt, which only came down to her lower thigh, waved lightly in the soft breeze as Arashi openly stared at the girl.
She blinked, reaching up a hand to part her curled blonde hair, a look of confusion on her face.
She looked like a much younger version of Toshiro's mother.
And above her head was the name "Shiro"
"Toshiro?," She questioned, tilting her head a little bit. "No I haven't seen him, but I'm glad that I finally found you Arashi-kun! I thought you had fallen asleep after I left to assure my mother not to worry."
"I thought you left me all alone, you idiot..."She crossed her arms over her breasts and looked way with a small blush, pouting.
WhattheHell?
Arashi's eyes were wide as he stared down the girl in front of him, coming to the realization that this really was Toshiro. Or, at least, Toshiro's new character. Toshiro was always effeminate and often got confused for being a girl in the real world. But now...this was 100% unmistakable. Arashi had no idea what to think and continued to stare, slack-jawed.
Shiro fidgeted a little nervously under his gaze, knowing that he was staring at her so intensely.
"I-it's still me, Arashi-kun..." She placed herself on the bench as far away from him as she could, looking away. "I made a female character this time, t-though you probably came to that conclusion already..." She seemed incredibly nervous now, and it confused the redhead.
"Well...yeah, I kinda figured that out..." He wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Is it a problem...?" Her voice got much softer, almost unhearable.
Arashi quickly shook his head. "No no! Not at all, it just really caught me off guard...I guess?"
"It's not weird or anything?" She looked towards him now, smiling a little bit. She was beautiful.
'Oh this is more than weird.' Arashi kept the thought to himself, shaking his head again for no. This was definitely going to take a lot of getting used to, he thought.
"Well...good!" She smiled happily. Shiro reached out and grabbed his hand, getting up and pulling him along with her. "Now come on, we gotta go head to the shops and gear up with our starting gold, as well as sell out beginning gear. After that, on to grinding!" She cheered, dragging Arashi along with her.
Arashi sighed, currently looking around the weapons shop as he had been for the last 10 minutes. After Shiro, whom he was getting used to calling disturbingly quickly, had dragged him to the shop they both browsed around to sell and buy equipment. This was one of the starting tips that some of the beta players told them about, and how the starting equipment could be sold while at its highest durability to have just enough for a low-tier armor and a new starting weapon.
Arashi found a new steel chestplate, roughly the size of the leather one that he got rid of, that offered much better protection while still classifying as lighter armor. It was still quite a long ways off from being anything good but offered better stats and durability to help him live longer.
Now strapped on back was a steel shortsword, which held the same stats as the starter sword but had more than triple the durability of the previous weapon. Another decent start. The less time that a player had to spend maintaining their armors and gear, the more time that they could spend grinding and therefore get better gear faster.
Arashi chuckled. He's played way too many games.
"Alright! I think I'm ready!" Arashi turned around to face Shiro, then smiled. She had done mostly the same as he did, going for the steel chestplate, which now looked more like a reverse mold for her breasts. That was still taking some getting used to. Her sword, which he quickly realized to be the same starting sword she had before, hung on her back. He was about to question her about why it took her so long, but then a small menu popped up on his screen.
You have received a gift of x5 "Vials of Healing" from "Shiro!"
Potions? A quick glance back at his funds almost made him facepalm. Spending his starting character gold on both a better armor piece and a better weapon left him without enough money or even a single potion.
"Thanks Tosh-...Thanks Shiro, I completely forgot. But did that really have to take you 10 minutes?" He tapped his foot, appreciative and thankful for his friend's thoughtfulness.
"No, not really. I was just looking over the items lists and planning ahead for future purchases. That way when we go out to grind, we know when we'll have enough to upgrade to better things so we could be more efficient." She stated matter-of-factly, smiling contently with her plan.
"Sounds good I guess. Are we gonna head out to grind now, level up a few times before we pass out? Not that I have any plans tomorrow, but I'm still pretty tired." Arashi yawned a little.
"Couldn't we just sleep in the game...? It's not like that would be any different than in real life." Shiro suggested, walking with Arashi out of the store and into the streets.
Most of the city was still infested with people, making it hard for the two of them to comfortably walk along the main roads together. Players of all body types, genders and ages walked around talking, basking in amazement of the virtual world all around them. More than a few times he watched as overly-forward male players hit on the female ones, some a little more forward than others, which only earned the npc guards' attention.
Both watched as one of the male characters was dragged away, yelling obscenities, a rather content woman crossing her arms as she thanked a guard.
This may be a video game, but it was definitely not a game where you could get away with everything.
"Some of those guys are complete creeps..." Shiro mumbled, shying away from any hungry looks that occasionally landed on her from any passing male.
"None of them will get the chance to do anything to you," Arashi said, grabbing a hold of her hand and leading her down one of the many alleyways that cut towards the main exit of the city. Shiro was blushing brightly, staring at the hand that led her away from her worries.
Arashi stared ahead, continuing to walk quickly through the crowds of people. The road that lead to the outside of the city seemed a lot less populated, with many of the players branching out to explore the city rather than to leave it to grind.
He finally let out a sigh of relief once they were outside the walls of the city, releasing his hold on Shiro and directing his attention instead to the world around them. He started to laugh a little bit, which earned a really confused look from his new female companion.
"Look at all this! We're actually here, isn't it amazing? We're back! Look at this grass, it's real I tell you!" He reached down and pulled a handful of grass up from the land and did a slow turn, grinning widely towards Shiro as he let the blades of grass float away on the wind.
His smile seemed infectious, and she soon found herself giggling along with him in happiness. "You're so weird, you know that? You get over excited over the littlest things, I swear." She rolled her eyes and covered her mouth as she laughed softly.
"I'm in the greatest gaming phenomenon of the century with my best friend, all of this makes for the most amazing day ever. How can I NOT be excited?" He pulled out his sword and gave a few practice slashes in the air with it.
Shiro's smile got much brighter, blushing once again from her friend. "You're crazy, Arashi-kun. Are we going to spend the whole time cutting the air and picking up grass, or are you going to go kill some monsters?"
Arashi rested the flat side of his sword on the metal that folded over his shoulder, looking off in the distance. He didn't see any signs of players out in the fields, or any mobs that they could fight. That was strange, since this was the place that they were told about to farm up at lower lev-
He stopped, staring in the same area again. The large grassy fields that spanned out for miles all around them was completely bare, which didn't seem right. He scanned the area again, squinting his eyes a little as he tried to spot anything moving.
Perception increased to level 2!
The words spawned into existence in the bottom right of his vision, accompanied by a small chime that range in his ears. It surprised him just enough to issue a curious glance from Shiro.
"Apparently I leveled up Perception," Arashi said.
Shiro raised a brow, "Well...what did you perceive? I don't see anything around here to really...spot?" She turned her head a little.
Arashi shrugged, looking back in the same spot. Something happened to his vision then, the distance seemed to be a little clearer. And suddenly, he could spot grey blurrs up ahead moving around slowly.
"What are those...?" He pointed, trying to focus on whatever it was he was seeing.
Shiro looked confused and walked a little ahead of him. "I don't see anything over there Arashi-kun..." She turned to him with a slight look of concern. "Are you sure you shouldn't log out and sleep...if you're so tired that you are seeing things..."
Arashi shook his head a few times. "That can't be it, look right over there! Right where I'm pointing!" He went up to her and put his cheek against her head and directed her to look where he was.
Suppressing another blush, she squinted and tried to see what he could. A brief look of surprise came over her face, and she smiled and nodded. "Oh I see them now! There must be a certain range for spotting things in the system, hence the perception skill."
"That might be it, I don't remember having to level that up when we went looking for things though. I wonder what that skill is going to be like when it's completely maxed..." That was something pretty amazing in itself, the way that skills are apparently infinite in number and as long as you put the effort into it, could improve at anything. At least,that's what was speculated.
Shiro nudged his shoulder a little bit, gaining his attention. "Wanna go kill some of those blurs and get a good look at what they are, inside and out?" She giggled, despite how dark that sounded.
"That was really dark...and really cute at the same time. You're messing up my head here, Toshiro- er...Shiro..." He shook his head a little as she giggled at his reaction, before setting off towards the blurs sword-drawn.
The next 4 hours went by quickly.
The blurs that they had rushed towards had turned out to be small Wild Boars which ranged in level from 1 to 5, and seemed passive until you attacked first. The both of them took slashes and swings at the animals, their cuts digging into the beasts and revealing "bleeding pixels" that looked like blood-red hexagons, signified damage. The beasts attacked the same way, charging forward to slash at their opponent with their tusks. Arashi rolled and dodged out of the way of most attacks, learning that really being tossed back by a charging boar was not something that he wanted to get used to.
With each pig slain, a small menu popped up and rewarded them with 24 Xp and 30 Cor, the currency that the game used.
They continued to battle and kill the boars, soon finding that they could be killed quickly if stabbed or damaged in certain parts of their body. Positional damage was confirmed.
Occasionally they had to stop when their equiptment was getting close to breaking, heading back to town momentarily to pay a small repair fee as well as a few more potions. Some other players started to join them out at the field, casually attacking and killing the low-levelled beasts. By the time that the duo had felt they killed enough, it was already becoming crowded with other players.
They each leveled up three times by then, making them level 4 now.
Presently, the sun was starting to set. It seemed that the server launching started the day-night cycle a little off, but the sunlight did help to keep Arashi awake. Both he and Shiro were yawning as they made their way back to the town for the last time.
"This was fantastic Arashi-kun, more than worth the lack of sleep." Shiro stretched her back out as she yawned, they were almost back inside of the city.
"Yeah it was, but I'm about ready to pass out from exhaustion. Actually swinging around a sword for the last few hours was great and all, but I think I'm gonna take the day tomorrow to sleep and maybe explore around a little." Arashi yawned as well, half-slumped over as he tiredly waved towards the guards that stood outside the walls.
"The wilderness is dangerous when night comes, it's best to stay inside the walls when darkness falls. Monsters become much more aggressive and powerful." The guard spoke.
"We're not going out anymore tonight, I think me and her are going to be heading to sleep soon enough." Arashi spoke for them, momentarily forgetting that he just spoke to some computer program.
The guard nodded. "Very well, Arashi. I wish you and Shiro a good night. The Guardsmen shall protect the city walls with our lives in the meantime" It felt odd to have his name be said like that, this place really was too lifelike at times.
Shiro yawned again, earning a light glare from the redhead. "Yeah I'm tired too. Let's go sell off all these items and logout, we have more than enough for some much better gear."
The blacksmith's shop was not that large of a place. The home itself was located along the market district of the city, set off in its own corner. It was only one story high and constantly seemed to give off a black smoke from the outside forge, which constantly glowed a hot orange from the burning coals. Anvils, tanning racks and grinding stones were available to those that wanted to train in any crafting skill, which some of the players seemed to be interested in.
The blacksmith himself was named Gil, and was a large heavily tanned man that constantly smelled of charcoal. He held a very thick scottish accent, or whatever the equivalent of that was in Aincrad. He wore a simple white apron, long stained black from his time working the forge, and a protective metal mask that he kept clipped to his belt for when he worked the forge for the players or to create new wares.
He greeted them with a large smile. "Ah! Arashi and Shiro, welcome back to the shop! Got some more hides to sell to me?"
Arashi simply nodded, opening up his inventory and depositing everything except for his clothing into the Sell portion of the menu, then accepted. He was then rewarded with a good amount of cor and grinned when he realized that he was able to purchase anything that was sold in his shop now. That was going to be fun later.
"H-hey...Arashi-kun? I can't open up my menu to go into my inventory..." Arashi turned to Shiro, who seemed to be a little embarrassed. She made the hand motion in the air, reaching out and quickly flicking her hand downward. This normally would open up the menu to allow whatever was needed. He watched a few times as she struggled to make...nothing happen.
The blacksmith shook his head. "Looks like you have a bit of a bug, give it a little bit and it should fix itself. You can come back to me then to sell your things, alright?" He offered up a smile, which was half-returned by Shiro. Not being able to log out when she wanted was something that made her really nervous.
Arashi grew a little curious. "...Are all Npc's aware that this is a game? Because talking about bugs and whatnot really is a little offsetting..." Having an Npc bring up that the coding of the game would get fixed as time went on seemed a little advanced even for this game.
Arashi double checked to make sure that he could open the menu. He let out a small sigh as he saw the familiar white and orange popup come into existence.
"It's working fine for me, let's just do as Gil says and head for an Inn or something. I'm not going to log out until I know that you can as well." Arashi smiled a little, one that was immediately reflected by the female version of his friend.
"Well ain't that the cutest thing I've seen all day. You both are such a nice couple, aren't cha?" Gil laughed, watching as both the teens went bright red. Arashi immediately retorted with a glare, while Shiro hid her face in her hands. They both left the shop to the sound of continued amused laughter.
Arashi paid the innkeeper a small amount of cor, just enough to be welcome for the next 12 hours, as well as to provide a "well-rested" login bonus for when they decided to hop back on the servers.
Their room was small, but furnished with just enough to be comfortable for the night. The room only had A large double-bed to sleep in, since paying for a double-room costed almost twice as much cor, but Arashi decided that a single bed being shared would be fine for the time being. They didn't actually have to sleep together to get the bonus, just lay on the bed and then log out.
Arashi was the only disappointed one that that news.
"Is your menu still acting up?" Arashi practically fell onto the bed, his armor and weapons disappearing as it auto-equipped to normal clothing for sleep.
"Yeah...it is. I've been trying to open it since the shops, still nothing..." Shiro sighed and sat on the bed, facing opposite to Arashi.
"Damn. Well I'm not going anywhere, just like I said I would." He spoke through a yawn, crossing his legs over the other as he placed his hands behind his head.
"Thank you...Arashi-kun..." Shiro smiled a little , getting comfortable on her opposite end of the bed, occasionally looking over towards Arashi to see if he fell asleep.
Arashi caught one of her glances and smiled. "You're a cute girl, Toshiro." He yawned. "That's probably the stupidest thing for me to say, but you're beautiful as all hell." He sleepily chuckled, his legs falling off of one another as he slumped. Shiro turned more red than ever, not that he saw.
Before Shiro could say anything in response, Arashi's menu popped up.
"Hmm..?" Arashi mumbled, opening his eyes a little bit as he glanced at the open menu. With his sleep-deprived vision, he could barely make out anything other than something server-wide.
As he read the message, his menu disappeared from view again. In seconds, a large blue colum of pixels began to engulf the both of them. Before any form of reaction could be made, both their bodies disappeared in a flash of blue light.
The room lay empty.
"Oof!" Arashi let out an audible groan as he landed on to his back, before letting out another gasp of pain as the form of Shiro landed on his as well.
The both of them got up slowly and looked around, taking in their familiar surroundings.
They were at the starting fountain, the same one that they originally spawned from when they first entered the game. It seemed that they were not the only ones that were forced out of whatever they were doing, as more and more people began to appear in the same fashion that they had. People looked around in confusion, some in frustration, to try and find a reason that they were moved. The entire server seemed to have been collected into one large area.
But for what?
They didn't have to wait very long for a response.
The sky above, which used to be black and lit only by the moon high above, suddenly turned into a vibrant shade of red. Large portions of the sky turned into pixelated hexagons, growing and spreading across the sky. In a grotesque fashion, what seemed to be blood began to pour out of these pixelated areas, flowing downward and then converging, massing together into a large...something in the sky.
The red ooze seemed to solidify into a large read cloak, and a massive hooded figure now loomed above them all.
The figure's arms outstretched wide, and then he spoke.
"Hello all of you. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Welcome, all of you, to my world." He began. The voice was loud and confident, yet seemed grim and foreboding. Something was very wrong about this.
"As some of you may have noticed, the logout button has been removed from the menu. I would like you all to know that this was not unintentional. As of right now, each and every one of you are now trapped in Sword Art Online."
Arashi heard Shiro gasp, and hardened his eyes on the figure above. How in the hell could something like that be true? Terror gripped at him again as he thought back to his mother, still asleep in their home. It couldn't be true.
"For those of you that think this is just a joke, that there is no way that someone would actually do this. I'd like you to know that several public investigations and reports are already reaching national notice." Around the large figure of Kayaba, screens began to come into existence. They rotated around him, showing panicked headlines and newsfeeds. Arashi's eyes widened greatly when he saw his own town's hospital escorting people his age into the hospital attached to large power supplies that fed into the Nerve Gear.
"As you can see, this is all very, very real. And for those that beleive that help is on the way soon, know that any attempt to remove the Nerve Gear system, or a disconnection from the game itself will result in a meltdown of the Nerve Gear's transmitter, effectively leaving the wearer as nothing more than a vegetable on a hospital bed." He chuckled darkly, holding up a specific newscast of one such incident where that warning was not heeded. An older man was surrounded by crying family members as the doctors were no longer able to find any form of brain activity. Beside him was a now useless Nerve Gear, the back panel only slightly open.
"Those that have not heeded this warning have killed their own friends and family, totaling to 213 deaths since the discovery. I can assure you that number will not stay the same. Because in addition to the removal of the logout button, the revival system has now also been disabled. Meaning if you die here in Aincrad, then the transmitter meltdowns and you die in real life. Not even your character avatar will remain."
It was at this point that people began to panic, screaming and swearing towards the hooded Kayaba. Shiro was shaking heavily next to Arashi, fighting back tears as the realization of this all being true hit home.
When the volume of the protests became almost painful, the large hand of Kayaba struck forward, and with it every player was suddenly muted. More people screamed, their faces struck with terror as they made not a single sound.
"That is not to say that you are without hope. There is still the possibility of freedom. Aincrad is a world of 100 floors, each with their own bosses and challenges. Should every boss in the game be defeated, and the castle at the top be claimed by the players, then the game is complete. But more importantly, if all of Aincrad has been completed, then you all shall earn your freedom."
That was impossible. That was actually impossible! Arashi looked around, and could practically see the sheer terror in the beta tester's eyes. They knew how long it took to get to the 10th floor alone, and that was with constant deaths and respawns. 6 months of effort between the 1000 players only got them that far. And now that death was permanent, that meant that it was going to take even longer.
"If you want your freedom, then complete the game. Become strong fighters in the world of Aincrad." The large form of the haunting figure began to rise up, starting to dissolve into millions of red pixels.
"And lastly, a gift. To help show you how real the world it, it's only fair that you be just as real as it is." He laughed, as nearly 10,000 players suddenly held a small glass mirror.
Light erupted from everyone, the collective light flooding and blinding the eyes of every everything died down, the sky was normal, and voices were heard for the first time since Kayaba had silenced them all.
Collective gasps rang out from the thousands of people, the mirrors making the players become reflections of their real selves. Arashi looked around quickly as people looked at themselves and began to panic, some players now dressed in the opposite clothing that their gender was normally associated with. A very notable amount of the female players that Arashi had seen were now...males. That was probably the largest and most notable change.
Arashi was suddenly made aware of someone gripping his shirt, and quickly looked down in concern.
"Toshiro! Are-" He stopped immediately, seeing that Toshiro was crying wordlessly. Her eyes were closed tightly as tears streamed down her cheeks. She clung so tightly to his shirt that he was surprised it didn't tear away from him. She was biting her lip to keep herself from crying out, completely oblivious to the world that was around them.
And still very much a female avatar.
Arashi disregarded that for now, reaching down to pick the crying girl up into his arms as he began to run out from the starting fountain before everyone began to dissolve into a panic.
He turned corner after corner after entering the main city, turning his head to wipe any tears onto his sleeve. He carried the sobbing Toshiro to the same Inn that they had rented before, and quickly made his way up the small set of stairs and opened their room.
The place was exactly the same as it was before. But now the silence was deafening.
Arashi placed his friend's body down onto the bed, but found himself unable to let go. A quick glance made him realize that she still had a death grip on his body, but seemed to have completely exhausted herself with crying to the point of falling asleep.
Seeing no other option, Arashi quickly moved until they were both in the bed together.
Only now did Arashi let himself cry, knowing that the dream come true that Aincrad was has turned into the worst living nightmare that they could ever have. Thoughts of missing school, his mother...thoughts of Toshiro and how terrified his parents must be...
"I'll get us out, okay?" He whispered through his own sobs, knowing his words fell on deaf ears.
"I'll kill every boss on my own if I have to, I swear. We're gonna get out. We're gonna get out..." He repeated this over and over again, holding the form of the sleeping girl a little tighter before being consumed by his own exhaustion.
Aincrad awaits.
And that's the third chapter. Things finally took a turn for the worst.
Review and stuff if you enjoyed. And favorite, maybe?
I'm still tired. GIVE ME MOTIVATION TO WRITE MORE.