Chapter 4
Dec 11th 2024 1545
Kobold Mines
Before the Snagfangs Lair
Eugene brought his sword down and cleaved a goblin in half. As the loot window opened and he accepted the money and the two pieces of gear, a Ragou Rabbit appeared and a quest window appeared.
"Huh?" He noticed that there was no ignore, cancel, or dismiss button, just an accept.
[Kill one Rabbit.]
"I don't see why not." He made like he was golfing and swung his blade.
When he struck the rabbit, there was no screech of pain and no red marks appeared, but now there were two Ragou Rabbit's.
"What the…" He kicked and sliced at the rabbits, but more kept appearing with every hit.
Then when they hit the walls more appeared. With the entranceway to the boss room full of rabbits he did the racial spell of all salamanders.
Flames erupted and a few of the rabbits turned to pixels.
[Loot: S-Class rabbit meat]
[(O) Accept]
There was no cancel, ignore, or dismiss button.
He hit the accept button and it went into his inventory. Then he watched as his inventory filled with nothing but the meat and he was slowing down to a crawl. He then started to pixelate as he then thought one word.
'Virus.'
He exploded into shards as he was forcibly logged out.
In the real world he picked up his phone and called the tech support line.
"Yes sir, how can I help you?"
"I want to report a virus. It seemed like an easy quest, but if you hit the rabbits, all that happens is they multiply. There was no way to get out of the quest, and when I did manage to kill a few, the loot multiplied in my inventory till it forced me to log off."
"Thank you sir, we will get right on this. Here is your ticket number. HT0592136871. If you experience something like this again, please call again. The servers will be shutting down shortly."
As he hung up he looked at his Amusphere. "Now what am I going to do?"
xXx
Dec 11th 2024 1550
Server Yggdrasil
Control room
Oberon(Sugo) looked angry. He then turned on the safeguards, but the virus had penetrated too far into the system. He then turned on his own antivirus, but they were just making things worse. The valkyries flew in and he watched as more bunnies just appeared. He hated to do this.
"I have no choice, I have to shut down ALO. We'll have to manually clean out the servers." He looked to the Alf's.
"Man…"
"I know…"
He then hit the buttons and that's when the players still on, though few in number, were logged off and the world went dark.
xXx
Dec 11th 2024 1610
Server Niflheim
Asuna's area.
She was in her cage, and now she wasn't. She wasn't falling, but it's as if it was a blank slate. She started running to a spec of light. She then was able to look in her inventory and she found a set of basic equipment. She then equipped it and looked at her skills. She noticed she had all of her old skills and money.
"All that bastard did was clear out my inventory...but with a system reset, it would reset any player's inventory that's still playing. Or at least I think." She ran as fast as she could to the light.
When she got there she heard very familiar voices.
"This is still a real time hack."
"Where is it coming from?" Sugo's voice sounded angry.
"It says from the center of the Congo." Oranges voice sounded confused.
"That can't be right."
"The hacker is playing with us." Green sounded annoyed.
"Then find them! What am I paying you for?" Sugo vented.
She drew her sword and snuck into the room, her prowl skill was high thanks to a certain rogue.
She readied her blade and went for the kill. She burst from her hiding space and pixelated green, her second hit struck Sugo, sending him flying into a consol. The third strike landed on Orange and he turned to pixels as well. When she was going to strike Sugo again he typed in something and an invisible wall stopped her blade, an inch from his throat.
"I forgot...the server reset resets everything." His health was filling up from the red. She glared at him from her invisible prison. "I don't have time to play with you, I need to take care of this."
He just sat and started typing as Orange and Green logged back in.
"Dude! What the hell!"
"Well she earned the name 'The Flash' for a reason."
"Get back to work."
"Can we get snacks?"
Sugo gave Orange a dour look.
xXx
Dec 11th 2024 1615
Lotus Hospital
Asuna's Room
Kenta laughed as Yui sent a message received. It went perfectly. He was going to let them do the hard work in getting rid of his virus. He squeezed Asuna's hand.
"I gave them hell for you." He then turned on the tv to the BBC.
"They'll have what I've done on the noon segment. So it will a little bit of time. America will be up in arms over this."
The door opened and her father walked in looking worried.
"Don't worry, she's still here."
"What...did you do?"
"Well...I need you to watch something."
He turned the channel to where his laptop screen was showing and he pulled up his media player and hit play.
"-ome on Titania-"
"Don't call me that Sugo." The hate in her voice was thick.
"I was hoping that you would come around but...if you won't be submissive...I can always change that…" The man dressed in green robes got closer to her.
"What you're doing is sick! Messing with people's minds isn't what this was meant for and you know it."
"My Titania…" He caught her fist. "Please be more lady like."
She seen something light up and then he looked away. "Alas I must depart, some one seeded a brain with something they shouldn't have. I'll be back later on." When his hand went over the keypad, it looked like it got censored.
"Sugo isn't as trustworthy as you thought. He's holding her prisoner."
The older man just sat down.
"H-How..?"
"She's my guildie, and she ain't out yet. The rest are trying to get to her inside ALO."
"He...he was never like this."
"Just shows you how much you really know about the prick." Kenta hit a button and a nurse came in. "Here's her dad. You two hash out what needs to be done. I'll be taking a bio break." Kenta got up and left the room.
xXx
Dec 12th 2024 1335
Server Niflheim
Control Room
Sugo looked to green and orange and relaxed.
"It's been a long time since I've pulled an all nighter…" green looked to orange.
"Thankfully we won't have to go through all the players that weren't logged on."
"That's true...that would take weeks."
"Lets restart the servers." Sugo pulled their attention.
"We'll have to give subjects 145-178 a rest period. Those were the ones we put through the pain program."
"Then we'll put subjects 78-130 on the pain program."
"As for the girl?"
"She's back in her cage." Sugo smiled.
"But she hits like a Mack truck."
As they restarted the servers everything came back on. Orange pulled up a new screen and he went white.
"Uhh...Sugo?!"
"What?"
"Look."
"This is amazing, finally some news on the SAO survivors. Three hundred didn't wake up and we're wondering why that is." The British newscaster looked to the other.
"We asked the Japanese government about this, their response was that they are investigating the issue. What are they investigating? Couldn't they just take the bloody helmets off?"
"That's a bad idea, remember what happened when that was tried? And with the creator of the game dead, we just can't take that chance."
"With the headgear frying the brain? Of course we would be hesitant in taking them off, I'm just glad all of the UK players are out."
"The Americans weren't as lucky."
"True, they have five patients that still hasn't come out of that nightmare."
"They'll end up owing a lot in the way of their healthcare."
"At least some of the families can afford it."
"We'll I for one agree on one thing. RECT should open their doors to the authorities. That would solve a lot of the issues surrounding them."
"But they are still using their lawyers to skirt that."
"Time is coming when they'll have to."
Sugo's eyes went to small slivers.
"Uh...we just received an email...from Agent Lynch." Orange looked to Sugo.
"It's about a meeting?"
"Yes."
Green closed the news channel. Sugo rubbed his eyes.
"Tell him I'll meet him tomorrow."
"Ok."
Sugo just knew he was going to have a bad day tomorrow.
xXx
Dec 12th 2024 1400
Lotus Hospital
Asuna's Room
Ducker emptied the rest of Sugo's accounts, leaving a .01 yen in them. And then he looked to Mr. Yuuki.
"Sir, all this money came from an unknown source."
"I-I don't understand…"
"He's doing forbidden research. Through ALO."
"What kind?"
"You heard her. Mind control."
"I'll pull his-"
"Don't do anything stupid."
"I could have him arrested-"
"And he still has your daughter and two hundred and ninety nine others held hostage." That stopped Mr. Yuuki.
"So what do we do?"
"You do nothing. Let us work." Kenta smiled to the older man.
"I've been shamed."
"You didn't know. So don't worry and watch how we break him."
The older man saw a gleam in the youth's eyes. He didn't want to be Sugo.
"But your children-"
"Playing a death game forces you to grow up." The serious tone made the elder pay attention. "We have to break his control both in the real world and the virtual. If he still has one of those, those people will never wake up. If they do wake up, we have no idea how many disorders they'll have."
The elder hung his head. "I feel so useless…"
"Hold a press conference after this is over." The young man looked to the elder.
"What would I say?"
"The truth."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, we still have to log her out."
"Anything you need, let me know."
"For starters, tea and nachos. Then I'll need advice for a business."
He noted the elders confused look.
"A-Alright…"
"I'll show you what I can do if you stick around." Kenta smiled as the elder got up and went to the phone. "Besides, didn't you say anything?"
"I did…" Mr. Yuuki looked down embarrassed as he sat back down.
xXx
Dec 12th 2024 1530
Alne, Southern Post
Yggdrasil
Kirito and crew logged in to find everything where it should be. As he checked his mail he noticed one that everyone had. It was an apology letter with two hundred free yul.
"Of course this is about a day's worth of yul if you were doing quests." Liz laughed.
"We're going to check out the raid room. If Sakuya contact us, tell her to meet up at Oberon's Square." Kirito looked to all of them.
"Should I send Asuna a message?" Tana looked to Sinon.
"No, Yui. So she can begin her hack of the door." Sinon smiled.
"So as we're hitting the boss room she'll make it possible to enter the Alf City?" Sachi looked to her leader.
"That's the plan." Agil nodded.
"Will I get to use Nipper?" Silica looked to her Onii-sama.
"Yes. But as a last resort." Kirito looked to her as she smiled.
"Yay!"
"Ok...I'm still lost on the whole 'Nipper' thing." Leafa looked to them.
"At least she still has her stable." Sinon looked through her inventory.
Leafa just shook her head and looked towards the center of the city. As They left the inn they saw a bunch of other faeries of all different types just standing around, some drinking with one another, others having friendly competitions.
"Ya know...this is how it should be." Kirito smiled.
"This time around we can't call in Legion." Sinon took his hand.
"I know…"
"...Whats Legion?" Leafa looked to them.
"Our old allies." Agil looked to her.
"Our overzealous allies." Tana sounded bitter.
At Leafa's confused look Sachi looked to her. "Think hunters hunted."
That's when her comment about a real PK made sense.
"Well, we're here." Liz saw the guardians of the door.
Sakuya and Alicia walked up as well.
"Were you able to make the plans?" Kirito looked to the Fae Leaders.
"Yes." Alicia pointed her thumb over her shoulder.
"We might not need nipper after all…" Sinon smiled at the sight of the small army behind them.
"The best mercs money can buy!" Alicia made the 'victory' sign.
"Some are here based on...favors owed." Sakuya hid her smile with a fan.
Eugene walked up and surprised them all. "I like how you fought. I want that duel after we're done here."
"You got it." Kirito fist bumped him.
"Group up and convert to raid!" Sinon shouted.
When the Fae Leaders grouped up with their factions and mercs, then converted to a raid did Kirito walk to the guardians.
"Do ye think you are worthy to enter?" The guardians crossed their spears over the door.
Kirito nodded to Silica who sent a message to Yui.
"Yes."
"Then enter and prove ye worth." The Guardians moved their spears away from the door and it opened.
The raid entered the doors and when the last member was through the doors closed.
xXx
A/n: Was I evil with the cliffhanger? I'm trying that again and see if I get better. I have taken your advice and tried to improve later chapters, I like keeping my mistakes up so I can remember them -_^; please read and review, your comments are most helpful. Ja ne. ^_^