My mouth went dry. The always present button at the bottom of the menu that allowed a player to safely log out of Sword Art Online, was nothing but a greyed out square. I pressed my finger against the button repeatedly, the button responding each time with a brief change of colour to a darker grey. This couldn't be right. The developers couldn't be this careless.
"Bugs like this on the first day are unavoidable. The GM's must be getting swamped by messages." Klein rubbed his roughly stubbled chin.
"Is it really alright though? Didn't you say you ordered pizza for 5:30?" Argo's coy smile stretched across her face as she teased the poor bandit.
Klein's face contorted into panic as he realised he wouldn't be able to open the door for the pizza guy. "Oh no! My anchovy pizza and ginger ale!" He held his face in his hands in exaggerated despair. "It's already 5:30! Argo, Kirito, isn't there another way to log out?!"
I thought for a moment. "Maybe call a GM, they might be able to cut you off from their end."
Klein shook his head slowly. "I've tried that, none of the GM's are picking up." Klein was now waving both his arms around, yelling out voice commands which weren't working while Argo tried her hardest to calm the confused bandit. My blood seemed to freeze as I realised what was happening. I felt a chill run down my spine. We can't log out.
«Argus», the developers of Sword Art Online, were always known to be extremely considerate of their player-base, the fact that it had been nearly fifteen minutes since the discovery of this game breaking bug and there hadn't even been a system announcement.
I looked up at the sky, or rather; a ceiling. The sky of the 1st floor of Castle Aincrad was actually the foundation for the 2nd floor with a tall spire like structure connecting them; the «Labyrinth». The pathway to the 2nd floor.
I took a long, deep breath in of cold air, letting my eyes wander over the rolling plains and distant forests on the area around the Starting City. Despite the situation I was in, I found profound beauty in these things under the glow of the sunset.
But that peace was quickly interrupted by a loud ringing noise that seemed to come from all directions at once. It seemed to be chiming something, perhaps a warning bell. But before I could come up with a theory, Klein, Argo and I were engulfed by a bright blue light and my vision of the golden plains blurred. This was a common occurrence in the beta, a «Teleport». But I had yet to buy or find a «Teleport Crystal» and I didn't shout a Teleport command in the right zone, so it had to be a forced teleport by a GM, but why didn't they announce it?
Before I could ponder on this any longer, the blue light faded to reveal familiar cobblestone roads lined with lamp posts and «NPC» traders selling their wares. This was the starting point; «Central Plaza». The dark castle loomed above with a kind of menacing presence, emanating a kind of dark light. The reason for this was simple; it was SAO's prison.
Pillars of blue light began to burst from the ground all over the plaza one after another. Players emerging from them dazed and confused. I looked at Argo who had now wrapped both her arms around one of my own. I could tell she was looking for some kind of comfort in the chaos that was unfolding. People huddled together all over the plaza just quietly mumbling in confusing and looking around for some kind of answer.
"This is a weird way of announcing a bug!"
"Can we log out now?!"
"This is bull! I was only logging in for a minute!"
After a while a beeping could be heard from up above the «Black Iron Palace».
"Look up there!" A voice could be heard over the crowd. Stretching across the bottom of the 2nd floor, a pattern could be seen of hexagonal panels flashing red with the phrase [Warning: System Announcement]. I could feel the crowd momentarily relax as the developers had finally realised there had been a bug but that feeling was quickly extinguished.
"What the hell?"
From the center of the flashing panels a viscous blood-like liquid began to ooze down slowly, but instead of pooling in the center of the city and drowning us all, it began to congeal into the shape of a human wearing a dark red, hooded robe. This figure was easily 30 foot tall but it wasn't quite human. It had no face, just a dark shadow that poured from under the hood like black smoke, and it's hands seemed to be disembodied, just barely attached to the body by the same thick smoke coming from under its hood.
I could feel Argo's fingers lace with mine, the look on her face contorting into panic. I could feel panic of my own rise up in my throat, my stomach was churning at this figure. It didn't seem right. The robes were definitely the same robes that GM's wore in the beta, but GM's had faces. This thing in front of us just filled me with fear.
[Attention!]
A low, calm voice echoed around the plaza, seemingly coming from every direction.
[My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment, I am the only one who controls this world.]
My avatar stiffened in shock, a lump forming in my throat as I repeated his words in my head over and over.
There was no way anyone could mistake that name. Kayaba Akihiko was the lead director for Sword Art Online and the designer of its dedicated hardware, the «Nerve Gear».
[Most of you have noticed that the Log Out feature is not available. This is not a bug, this is how Sword Art Online was designed.]
"How...it was...designed?" I heard Klein mutter to himself.
[Until you reach the top of this Castle and defeat the Boss, you will remain here, unable to log out of your own free will.]
There was no castle in the «Town of Beginnings» apart from the prison and that was only 10 floors inside a safe zone. But before I could ponder any longer, Kayaba pulled me once again from my thoughts.
[In addition... any attempts to remove or dismantle the «Nerve Gear» device are forbidden. If this is attempted by anyone on the outside...]
He stopped. The crowd was silent. The silence of ten thousand people deafening in ways vastly different from conventional noise.
[...the signal sensors inside the device will emit an electro-magnetic pulse that will simultaneously destroy your brain and end your life.]
Klein and I stared at each other in shock for what seemed like minutes. My brain just stopped working as if it shut down to avoid accepting what had just been said. But his calm words jolted through me like a power surge.
[Sword Art Online is no longer just a game. Think of it as a second reality. All forms of revival have been removed, if your Health Points drop to zero, the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain.]
The plaza stood completely still for a moment. Ten thousand people frozen in shock, their stares of disbelief plastered onto their features. I looked up at my health bar, seeing the thin green line stretch across the top of my view. 500/500 HP, five-hundred hit-points...my life force. Once that number hits zero, I will die. I felt the sudden urge to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it, I bite my tongue and clench my fists, wishing the feeling away. During the beta i had died hundreds of times, respawning at the «Black Iron Palace» with an embarrassed smirk before running back off into the hunting grounds to grind further. That was what an RPG was. You played until you reach a point where the game becomes to hard and you level up, dying and learning in the process, but now, in a game where dying means you lose your life? This really is a Death Game.
"No way..." I muttered in a low voice.
Who would ever go into the field in these conditions? It was safer to stay in the Starting City where you couldn't be harmed by anything. But as if he was reading my mind, Kayaba spoke again in his cold voice.
[As of this moment, the only way to free yourselves and escape this world; is to climb all 100 floors of «Aincrad» and defeat the final boss on the 100th floor. Only then will you be safely logged out.]
Murmurs began to echo about the plaza quietly before a loud voice from my left broke the silence.
"Clear all 100 floors?! What the hell dude. The beta-testers didn't even get that high in two months!" Klein screamed up at the figure, his hands balled into fists with a look of seething rage plastered on his features.
It was true, in the two months that I was a part of the Sword Art Online beta test, the top clearing party had only made it up to the 6th floor. Even then, the party wiped plenty of times on each boss.
I craned my head back, looking up at the figure with a scrutinizing look. It was hard to accept, this whole Death Game thing, but there was something about Kayaba that shook me to my core. The fact that I'm having trouble doubting his words, convincing myself that this is just some twisted opening ceremony and that any moment he is going to laugh and log everyone out. But the figure flicked his hand downwards in a familiar motion to open the menu.
[Allow me to show you evidence that this world is now your reality for as long as it takes for you to clear this game. In your inventories, I have placed an item. Please confirm this.]
As soon as the words left his mouth, I pressed my finger against the inventory icon in my menu which opened my items storage. An unfamiliar item name stood out from the rest.
«Hand Mirror»
What was this? Why would he give us all this? I pressed the «Make into Item» option on the screen and the object materialized in my hands. It did nothing but reflect the image of my avatar I'd spent so many hours creating. With a raised eyebrow, my eyes met Klein's and then moved to Argo's hesitant ones.
Suddenly, Klein, Argo and all the others in the plaza were engulfed by white pillars of light. As I took this in, I could only see white myself. When the light finally dissipated, they were standing there just as they were before but...no...I was greeted with an unfamiliar face. The same rugged features, same red hair and bandana, but his face was completely different. His eyes were more sunken and had a twinkle to them, his delicate nose was replaced by a large hooked nose and his stubble appeared more ragged and uneven.
"Who are you?" I pointed a finger at the strange man who resembled my new friend.
"Wait, who are you?" He replied. My face twisted in confusion, I looked down at the hand mirror still in my glove-clad grip. The face that greeted me however, was not the handsome hero I was expecting, but it was the effeminate, youthful features of my real face.
"Ki-bou?" My eyes darted to the unfamiliar voice at my right side, her hands wrapped around my arm tightly. What greeted me was the face of a young girl around my age, mid length curly blonde hair framed her delicate features impressively. She was quite a good looking girl. But who was she? Wait. Argo was at my right.
"Argo?"
