Chapter 3: The Beta-Testers Begin

AN: I do not own Sword Art Online in any way, shape, or form, at most I own the plot and OCs.

Hikari stayed up all night waiting until 11:40 PM to enter her brother's work room. She had been simultaneously been playing two different video games, watching an AMV, and reading. She was absolutely amazing at time-sharing/switching. She could switch her focus so quickly it allowed her do multiple things at once. The moment the clock hit 11:40 PM Hikari dragged all of her electronics into her brother's work room and saved her two games. Right before the clock hit 12:00 AM Hikari put her NerveGear on and sang the words, "Link Start!" She landed with ease and quickly tapped out her username and password. She was launched into where she had saved previously, but she quickly moved over to the first floor. She found a tree to hide in and quickly climbed it. Her stats had been reset but she still had her items. She would wait to level. She watched the Welcoming Gate patiently, sitting there for several minutes before three people materialized. One was a tall, dark-blue haired male who looked slightly overconfident. He had a sword strapped onto his back and was wearing the basic clothing, but even though he was to an extent plain, he was more interesting than the teal-haired guy who was rather pale. Next to the dark-blue haired male was a smaller girl-like figure. She had short brown hair and eyes and also looked interesting. As they walked around Hikari, or Ai-Chan now, followed them silently. She gazed at them for a long time, observing them as they killed Frenzy Boars. She felt that they were strong, but she desired to test their strength for herself.

A ten yards before they approached the dungeon she quickly walked up behind them and spoke quietly but menacingly, "Get out of my way or I'll kill you." Immediately the dark blue-haired boy moved sideways and promptly stared at her. The teal-haired guy did very much the same, but the cloaked person remained still. She responded quietly but harshly,

"And why should I get out of your way?" Ai-Chan responded by kicking the cloaked person into the ground, pointing her sword at her still hidden face replying with a hard tone,

"This is why. I am not someone to be trifled with." Then Ai-Chan kicked the figure again before striding off. The dark blue-haired male quickly caught up to her and introduced himself,

"Hi, I'm Kirito. Do you mind if I join you?" Ai-Chan thought this over before sounding out his name,

"Kirito-kun huh? Ki-ri-to. Kiiiiirito-kuuuuuuun. I like it. My name is Ai-Chan. And yes the honorific is actually part of my name." While she was talking she looked at Kirito. Kirito chuckled,

"It's nice to meet you too, Ai-Chan." Ai-Chan giggled as the blue-haired male followed Kirito's example, leaving the cloaked figure behind. He rushed out,

"My name is Diabel and I'm following Kirito for now. He seems to know quite a bit about this game." Once again Ai-Chan sounded out this newcomer's name,

"Diaaaaaaaabel. Diabel. Diabel-kun. Okay then. Call me Ai-Chan." All the while Ai-Chan never looked at Diabel, instead walking powerfully towards the dungeon. Once they stood at the entrance the three of them unsheathed their weapons which had been resting on their backs. Ai-Chan's was a one-handed long sword that was a flat red. Kirito's sword was the Beginner Sword, as was Diabel's. Neither of the two males paid any attention to the difference in weapon. Instantly some small Kobolds attacked them. Kirito activated his upward slash before moving to a strong Horizontal. Diabel on the other hand was using the two-handed beginner sword and he also used a power Horizontal. Ai-Chan was swinging her sword like insanity, going horizontal left, uppercut, spin in her hands, stab down, spin around with a horizontal right before swinging it up and around into a horizontal left. Ai-Chan was defeating the monsters in two to three strikes while Kirito was taking roughly four to five and Diabel eight. Soon enough all the monsters were cleared.

Behind them the cloaked person followed them almost undetected. However Ai-Chan spun around as soon as the mob was defeated and pointed her sword at the cloaked figure, "You're the one I threatened earlier, so why are you following us?" The cloaked figure spoke quietly,

"I am going to be an information broker so I need to collect all the data on the monsters on the first floor. In order to do that I must observe their tactics and other players fighting them." Ai-Chan demanded,

"Name?"

"Argo. Yours?" Ai-Chan thought it over,

"Aaargo. Argo. Argo-chan. Argo-kun. Argo-kuuuuuuuuun." She then looked at Argo in the eye, "Ai-Chan." Argo had frowned upon hearing Ai-Chan decide on calling her Argo-kun. She made it sound as if Argo was a little kid. A gaki. She didn't appreciate it, but she could hardly stop her. Ai-Chan had already proved herself to be strong. The four of them began constantly mapping out the first floor dungeon and after roughly three hours Kirito, Diabel, and Argo decided to call it quits. Ai-Chan simply decided to follow their lead for the moment even if she wasn't tired at all.

In the town of beginnings a blue light appeared as a tall guy, with dark blue slicked back hair, silver eyes, and he was wearing the standard clothing. He blinked once before heading to the field of Frenzy Boars. He unsheathed the standard katana and began killing them quickly. He continued attacking them for roughly four hours and by that time the player was level 2 after 'leveling' for four hours against low level monsters. He began to head towards the dungeon hoping to go against some stronger opponents. That was where he ran into the four who had been mapping the dungeon. He slowed down when he saw the four figures. He was rather surprised as he thought he was the only one logged on. As they approached each other with roughly a yard of space between them the dark-blue haired man spoke, "I thought I was the only one logged on. Who are you?" Kirito replied first,

"Name's Kirito. I just met them a couple of hours ago." At this Diabel rolled his eyes,

"Kirito, you've known us for seven hours now. We logged in at one in the morning." Diabel turned to the dark-blue haired man, "My name is Diabel." Ai-Chan spoke up coldly,

"You asked us for our names but you haven't give yours. What is it?" The dark-blue haired man chuckled rubbing his neck sheepishly,

"You have a point lady." Looking up he continued, "Name's Tenshi Enzero. I personally use a Katana, but I need to update it direly." Ai-Chan responded more nicely,

"Nice to meet you Tenshi-kun. I am sure we will work great together in the official version. Call me Ai-Chan." Tenshi merely nodded as he waited for Argo to introduce herself. She stuck out her hand,

"Call me Argo. Information Broker." Tenshi nodded at that before inquiring,

"Did you come from the dungeon?" Ai-Chan was about to respond when she noticed two other players behind Tenshi. She drew her single-handed flat red sword and pointed it at them, her voice hard,

"Who are you and why were you trailing Tenshi-kun?" The one with dark red hair spoke up first,

"Sorry. We just wanted to find the dungeon and this guy," she flicked her thumb at Tenshi, "seemed to know his way around." Her yellow cat eyes blinked before she smirked, "Name's Misaki. Yours?" Ai-Chan didn't respond, instead focusing on the girl with loose curly waist length hair. She spoke quietly,

"Chiki Kamu." Ai-Chan looked them over carefully taking in Misaki's lithe form, speed-based, rapier, and waist length crimson hair. She wore the standard gear, but Ai-Chan got the feeling the girl would end up rather strong. The other girl was also sort of short, just a little taller than Ai-Chan, but she had green eyes going with her dark caramel colored hair. Well it was actually more of a light brown, but not that boring brown. Suddenly Misaki waved her hand in front of Ai-Chan's face,

"Hello? Are you going to introduce yourself?" Ai-Chan blinked before narrowing her eyes,

"Don't backtalk me Misaki-chan. It won't end well for you." She turned to Chiki, "Nice to meet you Kamu-chan. Call me Ai-Chan. And yes, the honorifics part of my name. Don't call me Ai." Misaki raised her right eyebrow,

"Interesting choice of name Ai-Chan." Ai-Chan turned her attention to the 'ginger' and spoke darkly,

"You can call me Ai-Chan-sama." Misaki grinned, her yellow eyes bright,

"Anything you say Ai-Chan-sama! You're so cool." Ai-Chan nodded,

"That's more like it." Finally Argo spoke,

"So Misaki and Chiki know the dark-blue haired guy who is Tenshi Enzero. The normal teal blue haired guy is Diabel and the other dark blue-headed guy is Kirito. I'm Argo, information broker." Ai-Chan offered,

"If you'd like I can accompany you to and through the dungeon. Kirito, Diabel, Argo, and I already mapped out portions of it." The three easily agreed to the idea while Kirito stalled,

"Are you sure you want to continue grinding after three hours of it already?" Even Tenshi paused at this statement while Misaki stared at Ai-Chan in awe almost screaming,

"That's amazing!" Ai-Chan shot an annoyed look at Kirito,

"I'll be fine Kirito-kun. I'm hurt that you'd even be worried about me." Kirito merely smiled at her,

"Then I guess I'll join you." Diabel blinked then double checked,

"You sure Kirito?" Kirito nodded but Argo waved it off,

"I'm sure the man will be fine Diabel. We have nothing to worry about. Besides, he has Ai-Chan watching over him." Kirito blushed but Ai-Chan picked up a small stone and chucked it at Argo's head without using the system assist. Argo scowled at her,

"Hey, I was complimenting you!" Ai-Chan simply turned her back to Argo and began walking back towards the dungeon. Tenshi, Kamu, Misaki, and Kirito followed Ai-Chan as she headed back to the dungeon. As Argo and Diabel headed back to the town, they found several new players wandering around the town. Argo blinked before realizing the rest of the beta testers must have logged on. She went up to them and inquired their player names and their weapon preferences. None of them seemed bothered by her questions and answered them with no caution whatsoever. Argo mentally noted who everyone she spoke to, storing their information in her head to write down later. She walked off and no one noticed her disappearance. She noted that several of them appeared to be suspicious, particularly Sutoraiki, Tekunoaifu, Shizukana, and Taiyo. Something about them set them apart from the other Beta-Testers. Of course it could simply be their weapons of choice, Sutoraiki's being a poisonous dagger, Tekunoaifu's paralyzing throwing knives, Shizukana's kusarigama, and Taiyo's scythe. Almost everyone else had chosen a two handed-sword, one handed sword and katana as their weapons.

She also learned that no one could create a guild in the Beta Test, which she also found strange. She had to do some digging, so she set out to create a manual for Ken Surasshu, the hottest and only VRMMORPG. She was certain more were being made, but first she had to secure her position as top information broker in this game.

In the meanwhile, Ai-Chan was leading the four into the dungeon. She explained to them how to use the System Assist. Tenshi-kun was glad that such a beautiful girl was helping him and Misaki was jealous of how much attention Ai-Chan was giving to Tenshi. Of course Ai-Chan was addressing only the three of them. Kirito walked next to her and he seemed to be attempting to hold her hand, but she wouldn't let him. The dark-blue haired man was clearly getting impatient with Ai-Chan's attitude as he burst out during her explanation, "Will you just let me hold your hand?!" Ai-Chan paused during her explanation before replying cheerfully,

"Nope!" Before she continued explaining the mechanics of the game. Misaki grinned, so Ai-Chan wasn't particularly interested in the boy. Misaki would admit that the boy was good-looking, handsome even, but Ai-Chan was breath-taking. Kirito had nothing on the girl. Soon the four of them had made it to the entrance of the dungeon. A title appeared: Cavern of the Kobolds. Ai-Chan informed them, "Most dungeons have their own unique name, but not all of them. Some foreshadow what the boss will be like. This one will obviously be a Kobold. Of course there are other dungeons, this is just the main one." With that the five entered the dungeon where they were immediately assaulted with Goblin Soldiers and Kobold Knights. The Goblins were rather ugly with axes that were easily avoided. They were also slow and clumsy making them easy to kill. The Knights were faster, but their weapons, swords, weren't particularly strong. They like the Goblins were easy to defeat. The five quickly defeated the horde before Ai-Chan ushered them onwards, further into the corridor. There they met many of the same monsters and the further they went in the stronger they got. Tenshi was huffing and puffing by the time they hit a dead end. Everyone else was fine and not the least bit tired. Kirito chuckled at Tenshi,

"Wow, you're a lightweight." Tenshi huffed,

"Well not all of us having been playing since one in the morning!" Ai-Chan interrupted the two males,

"You've leveled up quite a bit you know. Instead of level one, you are now at level four, Tenshi-kun, Kamu-chan, and Misaki-chan. That's quite an improvement." Misaki cheered,

"Yay! Ai-Chan-sama praised us!" Kamu-san spoke in a low, logical tone,

"She is the one who guided us to our levels. We did nothing special." Misaki pouted,

"You're so logical and boring Kamu-chan!" Kamu merely shrugged at Misaki's remark. Ai-Chan pulled up her map of the dungeon,

"We've gotten pretty far, but it looks like we'll have to double back." She looked in front of them at the wall, "This is clearly a dead-end." Ai-Chan turned around and started heading back. Tenshi asked,

"Ai-Chan, will the monsters be getting weaker since we are heading the opposite direction?" Ai-Chan replied,

"I'm afraid not Tenshi-kun. We aren't that lucky. The monsters will increase in difficulty for us as we are rather high in level compared to others." That caused Kirito to question,

"I'm level seven, and you said these guys are level four. You were here before us, so what level are you?" Ai-Chan hesitated for a moment before answering,

"Twelve." Kirito almost stopped in his tracks but Ai-Chan called out to him, "Don't fall behind just because you're in shock. Unless of course you want to die and have your stats go and reset themselves." At those words Kirito quickly caught up to Ai-Chan and returned to walking by her side, while the other three trailed behind them. Ai-Chan offhandedly commented, "You're pretty good with that one-handed sword of your Kirito-kun. I look forward to when you get a higher caliber sword. Tenshi-kun isn't half bad with his katana either. And I really must commend Kamu-chan for handling that dagger of hers so splendidly… Misaki-chan is talented with her speed-type one handed sword. I wonder if a rapier would suit her better." Misaki grinned,

"Yes! After waiting so long, Ai-Chan-sama praised me!" Then she scowled, "But I'm not switching weapons. I like my sword." Ai-Chan shrugged as she continued striding through the dungeon. Kirito frowned,

"I wonder why no monsters have attacked us yet." As if attracted to his words swarms of Goblin Soldiers and Kobold Knights swarmed them. "Forget I said anything." Ai-Chan drew her sword before executing a strong Circle Slash destroying every monster surrounding her. Afterwards she used Infiniti and cleared the rest of the monsters swarming them. The four with her jaws dropped. Kirito was the first one to recover, "Where did you learn those skills?!"

Misaki nodded her head quickly, "Yeah, that was so cool!" Tenshi was shocked,

"I've never seen someone use two such powerful moves back to back. What about the cool down time?" Ai-Chan couldn't tell them that the cool down time was disabled for her. She hadn't liked it, so as a Game Admin she removed it from her Avatar. So she shrugged, not bothering to answer the boy. She could feel the two boys' eyes drilling into her back, but really, she wasn't required to answer their question. As the five headed back towards town, Ai-Chan literally ran into a white-haired guy wearing a white button up shirt, black dress pants, and black tennis shoes. His hair was ridiculously spiky and messy, but Ai-Chan thought it looked good on the boy. They both stood up, dusting the dirt off their clothes. Ai-Chan studied the boy again, he was also wearing a black hoodie, which she found interesting. It all rather fit him well. Then her thoughts got cut off by Kirito stepping up and pointing his Beginner's Sword at the white-haired guy demanding,

"Who are you?" The guy unsheathed a gleaming scythe and spun it in his hands a few times before pointing it at Kirito,

"What's it to you? Aren't we all friendly and beginners here?" Kirito's eyes narrowed as he then powered up a System Assist launching himself forward towards him. Ai-Chan in the meantime turned on her Admin View. It allowed her to see the names and levels of players around her. She quickly took note that the guy's name was... Taiyo Shinigami. She found it an odd name, then she blinked at his level. He was level ten. He must have been leveling for a long time. The guy chuckled, "So, you want to fight." He then got serious, his eyes narrowing as well, "Then let's go." He spun the scythe a couple more times as Kirito charged, and he easily parried Kirito's Horizontal without using System Assist. Ai-Chan watched as the two attacked and came to a stalemate each and every time, despite Kirito's level disadvantage of three. She supposed that Kirito had more literal experience from fighting the various monsters in the dungeon they had been leveling in, but... She then backtracked, the scythe was a difficult weapon to wield, so she supposed this guy was impressive enough. However, after watching them fight for about twenty minutes Ai-Chan decided it was time to intervene. She activated her Dead Kusarigama and swung it at the boys' weapons before tangling the scythe and sword together. They both were forced to stop, unless they wanted to revert to close combat, and looked at where their weapons had gotten pulled. They stared at Ai-Chan who had grabbed their weapons, but before either of them could get a word out Ai-Chan was speaking,

"Name. Now. Kirito, sit down." The white-haired guy immediately obeyed,

"Taiyo." Kirito reluctantly sat down. Ai-Chan nodded and then proceeded to untangle the two weapons. She then threw them to their respective owners,

"I don't want to see that happen again. Understood?" Both boys nodded and then Ai-Chan announced, "I'm going back to The Town of Beginnings. You can come with me if you please, but do not consider it necessary." Ai-Chan continued to The Town of Beginnings and Kirito and Taiyo quickly followed her. Kamu, Misaki, and Tenshi merely stared after them, half wondering what had just happened. Misaki asked in a whisper,

"Did Kirito just get in a fight for Ai-Chan-sama?" Kamu blinked,

"It appears so Misaki-chan. That was rather strange though." Tenshi frowned,

"That guy was skilled with that scythe of his, but aren't those supposed to be unwieldy and difficult to handle?" Kamu shrugged,

"They are probably about as difficult to handle as any other weapon." Misaki noted,

"Most players chose one or two handed swords or katanas. Not many chose the more complicated weapons such as the scythe, kusarigama, daggers, throwing knives, or bows. There were a couple other weapon options, but they didn't turn out to be particularly popular." Kamu commented quietly,

"You certainly know quite a bit about this game already." Misaki shrugged,

"It's all public information." Tenshi cut in before the girls continued,

"Don't you think we should get moving? Ai-Chan, Kirito, and Taiyo are pretty far ahead of us." Misaki suddenly started running towards the three figures,

"I won't get left behind by Ai-Chan-sama!" The two looked in surprise as Misaki left them in a cloud of dust. Kamu and Tenshi looked at each other before taking off as well.