American Player

Chapter 4

Dani's Journey II

August 26, 2023

Floor 25

I could not help, but stare at him in shock. Renji Shinomoto. He looked a little bit older than the last time I saw him on webcam, butt he still had the same slightly slanted dark brown eyes and black hair with brown mixed in, being an inch or two taller than me.

His eyes were wide with shock as he looked at me. It was almost a year and we're been in this game for a good 9 months. Renji shook hsi head. "Dani? You're really here."

I nodded. "Yeah, looks like you are too."

He inclined his head toward an empty wooden bench with a smal back attached to the seat by thin steel metal. I nodded back and followed him. We sat down and I asked. "So, what's been going on?"

He sighed, looking troubled before explaining what happened since November 8, 2022. "Well, I tried looking for you in the beginning, but Akihiko Kayaba's annoucement left everyone scattered. I forgot, sorry, but I met up with other friends I knew and we made a guild together, Wolf's Den. They're all fine by the way, except for Mitchel, something happened 6 months ago, some trap that came out of nowhere."

He was quiet for a moment and his voice was laced with grief. I bowed my head in respect, I knew how it felt to loose a teammate. It was a pain that didn't go away, no matter how long went by.

Another moment later, he started speaking again. "Well, we've been joining parties since the beginning. Better chance at beating the bosses and all that. There is eight of us now. Well, that's it. You have a guild?"

I processed all that he said and shook my head. "I've been going solo since the second month of the game, joining parties at boss rooms and big quests. I met up with a guy named Kirito and helped me out for a month."

"The Beater?"

I frowned at him. "Yeah, my friend."

I stressed the friend part, showing I wouldn't want people insulting my friends, even if it was another one of my friends. He raised his hands with a grin, chuckling. "Sorry, forgot how protective you are of you friends. Go on."

"We went to beat the first boss and did, with the regreable loss of our leader. I split ways with Kirito, going on my own. I later on joined others for a while and broke off when we were done. Then I ended up all the way here, to Floor 25."

I didn't want to tell him about Akio, something in me wanting to keep that between me and our party. I knew it had to do with guilt, but also not wanting my friend to know about my failure. He frowned. "So...you've been all alone, then."

I sighed to myself and then nodded. "Yeah, I am."

I already had this conversation with Klein and others that wanted me to join them. Because of what happened to Akio, I couldn't see myself joining another group of people for good.

Renji's frown deepened and asked. "How about you join Wolf's Den? Me and you are friends and the others won't mind. How 'bout it?"

I shook my head before he finished. "I'm fine with a couple of floors, but in the end I'm a solo player."

He opened his mouth, a crease appearing between his eyebrows before he closed his mouth and just nodded. I felt horrible about worrying people I cared about, people I looked at as friends. But I did what I had to do. "If that's what you want."

"Thanks."

We got up and walked in the meeting room.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

At about Floor 33, on October 23rd, 2023, I seperated from Renji and his friends from the Wolf's Den. Renji tried to convince me to come with them, but because of the large number of people he had in his guild and my want to stay solo, I left.

It was amazing that I was at Floor 33 already and it been a couple of weeks before a whole year goes by in this game. It made me very homesick. I missed my mom, who worked hard to watch after me and my little brother. My little brother, who I was close to and worried about what he was doing now and my Dad too, wondering how he was taking everything.

I tried not to think much about them or my friends because in the end I was here and they were there. I didn't want to think about the 67 other Floors to finish and that was even if I didn't get killed. It was pretty depressing once I thought about it.

But pre-SAO, I was actually a optimistic person.

Things just changed now. I decided I would hang around Floor 33 before I moved on. I needed some type of rest before I teamed up with others to clear the boss. I'll admit it got lonely after a while, but one gets used to it.

I got myself an Inn and layed back. I thought about Christmas only being a couple of months away. The second Christmas here. I ran a hand over my face with a sigh, decided to just go ahead and seeing who was going to be fighting the boss. I passed a stand of some kind with food. It was a boxed thing called a bento, an NPC was selling it. I opened it and ate as I walked.

I didn't know how to use chopsticks, so I mostly ate with my hands, whiping my hands on napkins from the stand. I saw people walking in a wooden building. It looked like it was just slapped together. The roof was slanted at the right, though the door was straight. With a sigh, I tossed the garbage in a can close by. I walked in the door.

/ / / / / / /

Made parties and defeated bosses. That is what I did non-stop. When I wasn't doing that, I was training to gain better skills and XP. I didn't really stop to think and I think that was what I was really trying to do.

By December 22, 2024, I was on Floor 40. Only had 60 more to go, we'll if I could live through them. I shook my head at the dark thoughts that went through my mind. I walked toward the plain building fully made out of wood, painted a full on bright blue with a green door and a brass colored doorknob. I cringed in front of the door. What the hell? Maybe I gotten misinformation from the Square. I frowned and gave a sharp knock to the bright colored door. I back up quickly as the door opened aruptly. "Hello there?"

I blinked at the boy with light blond, almost white hair and crystal blue eyes. A green t-shirt and grey jeans. He was smiling, a warm look in his blue eyes. It was strange to see someone look that happy. These days it was hard to find someone that happy go lucky.

I asked with a frown. "Am I in the right place?"

He tilted his head slightly. "Where do you want to be, then?"

"Floor 40 Boss room fight?"

He grinned at me and opened his mouth to say something, but a loud rough/brash voice that was also male yelled out from behind. "Oi! Shawn, who's there?"

The boy who was in front of me turned his head back into the colorful house and said. "Hey! Robby, they're a girl here."

I shifted unfortable, he didn't answer my question. A guy showed up with red hair and green eyes. A scowl was pulling at his lips and his eyes were narrowed into a glare. "What do you want?"

I repeated my question, deciding to ignore the guy's attitude. "Is this the boss meeting place."

He narrowed his eyes even more, looking me up and down. I straightened, giving him a look of my own. Even though I didn't want to fight with others, I wasn't about to let anyone underestimate me. I could tell he saw that too. He then nodded. "Yeah, it is. C'mon, Shawn, you idiot, move."

Seeing Shawn not react to the insult made me frown myself a bit, but shook it off. They looked like they knew each other for a while. I walked in, seeing about 15 other people talking and standing in different groups. Shawn and Robby walked over to another guy with light brown hair and light brown eyes, wearing a blue hoodie and blue jeans.

I shoved my hands in my pockets, wondering who'd I would party with. This was the worst part, finding someone to party with for the time being. Until Shawn waved at me with a smile. "Hey, come over...uh?"

I walked over, smiling slightly. This guy made me smile, I don't think anyone wouldn't. The other one waved. "Hey, I'm Dave."

Shawn asked me. "Why don't you join our party?"

Robby snapped, turning away. "I can think of many reasons."

I raised an eyebrow. Dave smiled. "I don't care, if she wants."

Shawn threw an arm across Robby shoulders. "C'mon, it'll be fine."

Robby softened, scoffing. "Ah, whatever. Do what you want."

So after accepting their party requests (which by now I was experly good at), we were a party. We were waiting for someone to start the meeting. What I didn't understand was Robby, he acted rough around the edges, but later on he showed his softer spots, mostly around Shawn and Dave. It was like he wanted his outer layer to be tougher than what he was feeling.

I then decided I would just leave it alone, being in this game for over a year and seeing a various coping methods people did in all the parties I joined, I tented to let it go. After all, I had coping methods of my own to keep myself sane. Espically after all the shatter like glass sounds that brought people to their deaths.

Then a women came up. She looked around to be in her 30's. She had long black hair, some armor and wide brown eyes, with a short metal looking skirt. She called herself YukiPlayer458. She talked of her plan defeating the boss. All of us played attention to her.

She gave us all positions to what we were going to do, just like Floor 8. Our party and another party had the job of front lines. If I wasn't as skilled as I was, I would be worried.

Later on, we got ready to go to the boss room, which Yuki and others from her guild were said to find it. As we waited at the front doors, we were about to go in. As we gotten further in the game, the speeches became less. It was easier as the speeches were most likely the same. As we rushed in, me, Dave, Robby and Shawn went toward the front.

There were 20 humanoid creatures that looked the same with blue skin and bare chests. They surrounded what looked like a 8 foot tall giant with a pot belly and pants, his skin was tinted green. My sword was in my right hand and I helped lead the attack, slashing to the right, attacking a creature without looking.

I could see the boss's health bar going down. My eyes widened when i saw him open his mouth, almost like he was getting ready for something. I saw something red and shouted. "Get down! Get down now!" I grabbed Shawn by the shoulders and pulled us away and down on our stomachs as heat and flames overhead. We were not told of that. I let go of the tight grip I had the shoulders of his shirt. I looked around and saw with a grimace a couple of people shatter.

Shawn was in a bit of shock, holding tightly to his mace. I saw with relief Dave and Robby were a few feet in front of us. We saw the boss's mouth close and I scrambled to my feet. Shawn was next to me. "Hey, thanks."

I didn't look at him. "No problem." The good thing about the fire was that it killed half of the creatures. The boss was at about half percent in HP. We went to Dave and Robby. Robby snapped. "Are you both alright?"

I blinked, a bit surprised that the question was at me, but pushed it away. "Yeah, we both are fine."

We ran back and attacked the creatures. With the fire attack, the leader's plan sort of went out the window. Though people seemed to organize themselves in their own way. As we cut throught the creatures, we then attacked the boss.

In the end, we defeated him together, the person who hit him last getting the most points. After that, we all seperated and I was about to walk off.

"Oi, Dani? What're you doing?" I grimaced at Robby's rough voice.

Shawn cheerfully asked me. "You coming with us or what?"

I frowned and shrugged it off. One or two more floors wouldn't be so bad. "Sure, what're you waiting for?"

Both of them nodded, but Dave gave me a look that showed he knew what I was doing. I shot him a look, following the other two toward the next level.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

For the next 10 Floors I stayed with them. I was feeling more antsy. I was getting closer with them by the time I was at Floor 44. I ignored it. the day I decided to leave was when we just finished Floor 54th. It was a fight considering I've been with them for about 15 floors. At Floor 54, the date was Feburary 24, 2024. It was crazy that almost two years are here, only about 9 months. I've never even been out of state for longer than two weeks. The Christmases past and another birthday was coming up.

During the times with the other three, I stared using a hammer, months ago. So I kepy a normal looking hammer with a heavier head on the left side of my belt while my sword stayed across my back. It was the thing I thought was missing awhile ago when I had my sword.

Just my luck though, when I got to the Floor 56 meeting room. I saw two people I haven't seen in over a year.

Kirito and Asuna.

Just kill me now.

Well, that's it. A little shorter than usual. I'll admit, writing these, are really hard. Making different adventures and everything. Yeah, I know Dani is being annoying with the solo stuff. But it's the way she wants to do things. Things will go canon for a little bit. So that was her jounrey though SAO for the year and a half we didn't see much of in the anime.

Plus, these extra adventures I insinuate, I'm going to make a One-shot story for them.