~The Official Launch~

After Friday morning provided a comfortable and warm morning where Ana and Ryra simply shared in each others presence, they prepared for the implant. Ana was secured to the bed so that in case her body decided to react violently to the pain of implanting Ryra's contribution to their children, they would both be safe from her uncanny strength which came about in strange situations.

Ana was a bundle of love and calm while the surgery happened, observing with her emotions overflowing to Ryra, in effort to try and understand just how Ryra felt about the surgery. Ryra was nervous and extremely careful. To the point that Ana was nervous. After the quick moment which the surgery took place during, the binds were undone, and they cuddled on their bed until their stomachs protested ignoring lunch. Friday passed by without much more. They cuddled, they whispered to each other carefully and softly about the future after nine months. They discussed names for their babies, and it nearly flowed into the next day, but they were both exhausted from the stress that the surgery would have been a failure because of some form of accident.

Everything was going perfectly...except the thoughts in Ana's mind. She wanted more than anything to keep her mind focused on the importance and immensity of their children coming into their lives after nine months, but the weight of the dangers of Sword Art Online hurt her. There was a large enough chance in her thought process that the person leading the project, Kayaba Akihiko, would end up just releasing the game, and participate as a rare visitor to welcome everyone. She didn't really know him. He was an unknown element, no matter the amount she had learned about his personality before the point the weekend had come.

Friday came to an end, and when Ana and Ryra went to bed, Ana waited until Ryra was asleep. She climbed out of the bed carefully so that Ryra wouldn't be awakened, and she observed the energy of those two NerveGear in the box. They were dangerous, she reminded herself. Perhaps not dangerous enough that a slight movement on the head while on a person would cause the person's death, but certainly dangerous to remove while the device was turned on. It was dangerous in that so long as the user didn't get sleep within the virtual environment, they would be in danger of over exhausting themselves. After all, the actions of the person were still the same. If they were to have a normal day within the virtual environment, sleep regularly, then they were getting enough rest. However, eating in the virtual environment would definitely not sustain the needs of the body. She knew all of this. She had spent plenty of time studying and understanding the limits of virtual technology since before she entered high school. It had been over ten years she invested into the dream which was inspired by old anime and other science fiction stories when she was younger.

Before the surgery which put her life together, she even thought it would have been nice to like in those stories, get trapped inside of a virtual environment. That thought was now a nightmare. It was a horror that would separate her from Ryra, and put their parenthood at risk.

She couldn't do anything with the NerveGear at the current point, because the beta was over already. There were other small puzzle games and very underwhelming uses programmed into the NerveGear, but putting herself at even the slightest risk now that she had life growing inside of her, was making sure that she couldn't take the risk.

She sighed and returned to her side of the bed, climbing in carefully so she wouldn't wake Ryra. The night passed with her eventually falling asleep, a nightmare occurring that Ryra would do what she had thought of, and go into the game on launch, and warn everyone to not risk their lives. That they should log out of the game. That even if her or Ryra would do that, it wouldn't make a difference, because the log out option would be taken away on official launch. That no matter how much they warned and tried to stop people from being reckless, there would be too many reckless gamers among the crowd who would disbelievingly go out and get their avatar killed, which was likely to cause a problem with the NerveGear as well.

Ana woke up as if she hadn't slept at all, exhausted and Ryra ending up making their breakfast, delivering it to bed.

"I'm surprised, you know. You rarely get sick. Plus, it's only been a day for the development toward our parenthood, so you're not sick from that. Why not tell me why you're so sick and exhausted? Did you get out of bed and stay on the computer most of the night?"

Ana fidgeted and sighed.

"I...had a nightmare. That one of us would end up going into the launch of Sword Art Online, to warn and try to save people...it just kept on getting worse, and..."

Ryra sighed and moved the breakfast tray with a very simple rolled omelet dish and a small bowl of rice porridge with blueberries. Ryra had learned a little bit for cooking from Ana after all. The food placed on a nightstand beside their bed, Ryra pecked a kiss to Ana's forehead, and pat her head.

"You're definitely the concerned mother type, already. You're so protective of all those strangers. You know that there were a thousand beta testers. You know that the official launch is going to reach ten thousand people, and it's most likely going to be full on the first day. Any number of nightmares can spawn from the kind of literature history we have. You alone have told me about at least three dozen VR game stories, and more than a dozen of those trap the protagonist or all of the players inside of the game. Nothing can come from worrying alone though. We'll just hand over the NerveGear we have today to the police, and let the police do their job inside of the game, trying to protect those people from being a stupid side character in one of those old stories who ends up dying."

Ana's chest tightened. In the end, she hadn't been entirely convinced the night before, before going to sleep, so she put one of the helmets under the bed, in her travel bag. She was afraid of herself more than she was afraid of her nightmares and fears. She was afraid that her instincts and nature would push her to going into the game. Every sign pointed toward her very likely journey into such a dangerous situation. She kept trying to remind herself, that she had to stop herself from going into the game, because taking care of their babies was more important.

"Well, you'd better eat up. Would you like me to feed you? Or should I feed you anyway?"

Ryra laughed softly while she said it. She had expressed on occasion before, the idea that she wanted to be the mother sometimes as well. To take care of Ana in normal familial ways. To nurture her instead of it turning into the usual attempt at trying to bring back her vision from some method or another.

Saturday went by slowly, with Ryra taking care of Ana. Ana had developed a fever from her anxiety running rampant from her mind continuing to create possible situations that might happen the next day. Ana wasn't that incredibly sick really. It was that she was having an anxiety attack. Her mind was prone to being overcome by anxieties. She had to stay calm and in control over herself as often as possible. For the first time, she was involved in something that might mean a lot of lives. She had no idea just how the situation would unfold, but as her anxiety started calming down toward the night time, she had the idea in her that whatever would happen, that Kayaba Akihiko couldn't really be that crazy to be a villain from one of those old stories. She could just log in to Sword Art Online on release day, and log out. As long as the log out option was there, there was nothing to worry about. Her nightmares and anxiety were just a product of her overthinking.

She fell asleep early, but woke up early as well. When the early morning mail was delivered, she got out of bed and grabbed it. Of course among the early morning was two copies of the game intended for them as beta testers. They now only had one NerveGear in the house, the one Ana had hidden, and she was about to hide one of the game discs. She put the disc for Sword Art Online into her computer, and it loaded up the downloading and installing sequence, telling her that it would be ready for her to log in at one in the afternoon.

With a sigh, she climbed back into the bed. She of course had hidden everything on her computer and turned the monitor off in case it would give away what was happening to Ryra. She rested, feigning full sleep most of the morning on Sunday. She missed breakfast with her heavy feigned sleep. Ryra had expressed a little worry, but she just kept to treat Ana for her fever. At noon, Ryra decided she would go out and grab something a little more interesting for lunch and some medicine. It was during the time Ryra was out of the house, that Ana put on her NerveGear and waited in the lobby of its basic virtual environment for the launch of Sword Art Online.

The wait wasn't long. It was boring, but when the icon showed up that the game was available for online connection, she selected it and dove in. She was put into the character creator, and didn't bother to change anything yet again.

Ana was near instant welcomed by an anxiety attack. Hundreds, no, thousands of people crowded the familiar fountain plaza that she had spawned into during the beta. There was a thunder of voices filling the area around her, and she even heard some of those voices directed at her. She scrambled around, trying to find her way out of the crowd, putting her hands over her ears. Unfortunately, the effect was about equal to real life, only slightly dulling her hearing of the thunder of voices.

It was disorienting. She just wanted to log right out, but her mind couldn't put that thought together. There continued to be people who would reach out and ask her to party up with them. Some would continue after her a little as she would retreat further away from the centre of the plaza. Her anxiety was at an all time high, and even when she finally reached an alley way out of the plaza, she only crouched and entered the foetal position, gripping herself into a ball. It took her five minutes to finally pull her mind together. When she was together enough, she moved her hands about, getting the menu open. At the bottom of the main menu where there should have been a log out option, the option was greyed out. She tried touching it numerous times. There was no override function for her to force her log out. There was nothing. She remembered her words to Ryra before, that there should have been more methods for logging out. That there should be emergency log outs, or there should be a safety for the device to be removed.

The nightmare became real, was all she could think as she closed the menu, realizing the horror that Kayaba Akihiko had really trapped thousands of people inside his stupid selfish ambition. She wanted to cry, but even the feel of the tears she cried in the virtual environment were hollow. She cried incessantly. While she cried, it seemed a few people had heard her. Some of those people stared at her for a moment, then dismissed her as creepy before walking away. Two people together who seemed to have themselves together were hurried toward the alley, but they had a pursuer from the crowd. The three people passed over and by her, and the pursuer caught up to the other two.

Ana could tell that much by immersing her into her hearing. A flash in her vision even when she had her eyes closed, told her that her hearing had levelled up inside the game. She wanted to exclaim some kind of sarcasm toward it, but the sound of the conversation that drowned out the thundering crowd out in the plaza caught her attention.

"Hey, you two know this game right? You're beta testers? Could you teach me?"

Ana continued to listen. The two who were being pursued were beta testers? Well, she had thought of it for a fraction of a moment, but it was so obvious it wasn't worth mentioning. It was obvious they knew the layout of the place at least enough to know where to head, so the only people who would have that kind of knowledge would be beta testers. The other person was likely a new player, since he was asking for advice. One of the two beta testers was quiet, while the other invited with a "why not" before leading the way. Those three left the alley, and the sound of the thundering conversations of the plaza hit her again.

She put her hands over her ears again, and after a minute of stifling her hearing that little bit, another notification came that her hearing had leveled up. It was...annoying, honestly. Eventually, the thunder of conversations from the plaza died down plenty as people made their way out of the plaza and to the fields to try out fighting.

She had a vague idea of how fighting would be inside of a virtual environment. The assumption would be that for a game, there would be some kind of guiding system for skill use, but decently skilled fighters from outside would be able to fight without activating the skills, using their instincts from their combat training. There would mostly be obsessed gamers though, playing the game. They would be risky and fight beyond their skill level, not paying mind the risk of dying within the game. After all, to them it was just another game, on a new and more exciting platform than ever before.

That kind of mindset was terrifying.

Yet again, her hearing leveled up. Hours passed, a virtual display in her vision only available in the virtual environment telling her what time it was. The time was approaching five thirty in the evening. The sun was setting, but she hadn't moved from the foetal position the entire time, so she hadn't looked to see what the sunset looked like inside of the game. It had been twenty years since she had seen a sunset, but that wasn't important. By now, she would definitely have been rushed to the hospital by Ryra. Ryra would be panicking and she would be upset. Ana knew she deserved to have her action criticized, but it didn't make it feel any better, when suddenly, mass teleportation sounds could be heard. She only knew what the sound was when she ventured a glance to the plaza. So many people returned. The return of thundering conversation occurred, and she assumed it must be time now for that man to make his announcement to those unknowing of the situation. Nobody could log out, and there were likely, unfortunately a lot of people lost.

Ana had felt a short period of time while waiting during those few hours, that she wouldn't have been able to move her body even if she wanted to. She assumed that time, was used to get her to the hospital. So that Ryra could put her on a feeding machine. Ryra probably already knew that Ana was stuck in the game.

Ana became more frustrated. Her frustration was challenged by a sudden change of mood in the plaza, as the thundering of conversation died completely, and she chanced a look out, her eyes being greeted by a giant mass of what either looked like wet paint or blood dripping down from some kind of error code in the virtual sky. Her stomach churned in response to the sight. She closed her eyes, and turned her focus onto listening again. As soon as she focused her hearing again, she received another notification that her hearing had leveled up. She had managed to reach a level with her hearing, that she had also unlocked something called advanced perception. A quick thought to that, gave her the idea that it might work like her ability to sense the energy of other people in real life. It was very unlikely to work the same, but it might make it easier to continue blind within the game.

The thundering familiar voice of Kayaba Akihiko fell over the plaza, and easily reached her ears. He was greeting them politely, and welcoming to the game. She wanted to protest him with every fibre of her being, but she continued to wait.

He explained the reason for bringing everyone to the plaza, and that they wouldn't be able to leave the plaza until he was finished explaining. At least he was making it easy for everyone to know his rules or conditions, she thought. She sighed and shook her head, burying her face back between her knees.

She heard the figure next, for the number of people who had already died, to either the tragic mistake of having their NerveGear removed, or letting their avatar die. He confirmed then, that he truly had been despicable. He made it impossible to leave the game without clearing a condition. No way to log out. No way to emergency pull them out of the game. If the device ran out of battery, it would melt the brain. If the device were removed. If the avatar would die. If the player didn't satisfy their natural needs within the game. All were methods of dying both in the game and in real life. Not all of them had occurred to those who had already lost their lives to his twisted ambition. There were a lot of murmurs in the crowd, as people were in disbelief, and saying it didn't make sense, and people weren't able to log back in because of a death penalty not letting them log back into the game. Apparently doubt was erased when he provided proof through new reports he displayed through the internet connection.

This continued until he finally arrived at his explanation for how they could get out of the game. There was no easy way out. The goal, for everyone to get out, was to clear the game. Defeat all one hundred floors of Aincrad. As far as Ana was concerned, it wasn't impossible, but it was messed up. Kayaba Akihiko spiced up what he said, by ending off his explanation with welcoming everyone again, to "his world". She realized then, that what his goal from the beginning, was to play God. To have a world of his making become real, with real consequences that people would be forced to live in. Maybe it wasn't that completely intended, and he was just delusional or blinded in his own way from his perspective.

People were in an outrage, the thunder of conversations had returned. Apparently some point along the way, there was some item distributed to everyone, but it hadn't been distributed. Her eyes had been closed, but when he was vanishing, Ana's curiosity got to her, and she looked out, only to see that the people in the plaza within her vision were a lot more within realistic measure instead of all being protagonists or impressive heroes. There were thin beansprouts, there were overweight unhealthy people. There were men and boys in female starting gear. There were girls in male starting gear, and she realized, the reason she didn't get the item they had, was because she hadn't customized her appearance.

With a sigh of defeat, she put her head between her knees again, but she was immediately interrupted in her frustration by the sound of approaching footsteps. She could easily just assume the footsteps belonged to the same beta testers from before, maybe the same pursuer from before...but then there was another set of footsteps. The footsteps were lighter though, even though they were heavy with the weight of the situation they had been dumped into. Were those male avatars played by female players?

Her question was answered slightly in that a male voice belonging to a very confused new player called out to the two people in the lead. His voice was drowned out by a different, young female voice calling out toward the leaders. Ana could hear just where the sound was aimed, which was possibly something from the unlocked advanced perception.

"Onii-chan! Shino-chan! Thank goodness you're alright... I...I already saw someone die earlier just before the announcement... This is terrible... How is Mom handling this...? And Dad...?"

Ana's curiosity kept her eyes open and observing the situation. The short mismatched blond hair on a very...robust young figure was aiming those words at a very long haired, very feminine figure. That person was a boy? Did the item work on that person? There was oversized male gear on the figure. The even more oversized male gear on the short light blue haired girl beside him was even more disorienting. Was one of those two really male? Those words were aimed mostly at the black haired adorable one, so was that person really male? Ana's advanced perception activated and examined the properties of that person. The game recognized both of the teenagers as female. Maybe it was just a mistake?

The one who was obviously male, a beansprout of a guy who somewhat fit the red leather gear on him with facial scruff and red hair, spoke up after the girl with the mismatched blond hair.

"Onii-chan? So one of you really is a boy? Short with super long black hair? No way... You're totally my type! And cute...why aren't you a girl...?"

Ana felt a hit to herself with that statement. She knew her past was long behind her, but she felt some kind of connection with that black haired teenager. Maybe the situation wasn't the same. Their interaction continued on. The blond haired girl continued forward and stomped at the feet of the scruffy guy. He definitely felt closer to Ana's age than their young teen age. It was honestly very disturbing to her that he was even trying. She knew that kind of person was around, but to flirt like that inside of a game? Well, it might be that he was just that stupid or because it were inside a game...

"Who is this pervert, onii-chan?"

Ana noticed some kind of pondering as to why the blond girl was even in the game from the black haired person, and it was followed up by something other than the ponder before leading into it.

"Sugu...first thing, is that we shouldn't be referring to real names here. Second, why are you in the game in the first place? I thought that at least you would be more into kendo than giving gaming a thought...but... haaah... Sugu, this is Klein. Sinon and I were helping him out until just before the forced teleport. He's a bit eccentric, but he's an interesting and kind of fun guy. Give him at least a bit of chance."

Ana could sense some kind of emotion in the situation. It was almost like she was getting her ability from outside a little. The blond girl who was apparently named Sugu, was in shock. Ana didn't know what for, but a wager of guess was that it might be a similarity that Ana and the black haired person had in common.

It sounded like the scruffy guy was going to persist with flirting with the black haired person, to which Ana was annoyed. The guy really needed to take a hint that he was intruding on a very emotional moment for the other three people. The black haired one seemed to have decided on something and began to explain.

"Klein...sorry. For me and Sinon, this was a way to get away from something difficult in our past. It's that way for a lot of people, right? Not just something to do for fun. Now that lives are on the line, and we're the only ones with experience clearing floors, we might need to lead the charge in order for as many people still here to get out. I already mentioned the difficulty scaling before, but if you weren't well armoured, you would have died out in the beginner fields. Before the full launch today, you didn't have to worry about being armoured. Sinon and I were the floor clearers from the beta test, so were able to go to the field without worries. Now...you should find your guild and make sure they receive that help from us to you. You should help them. Sinon and I aren't really experienced in teaching, and we have to concentrate on building ourselves first. Plus we have..."

The blond girl was glaring at the black haired one she had been calling onii-chan before. It became a very heated drama flick in a couple of seconds with the blond trying to fit in with the situation more. Apparently she had a light history with online gaming.

"Since we're using avatar names, we should get everyone's out and all add each other to our friend's list. We'll also be able to tell if we're all safe. Onii-chan, you accept mine first."

She started frantically sending friend requests to the people around her, and Ana was caught off guard when one of the requests had popped up in her view. Ana looked at her with a questioning feeling about her, but she sighed and pressed the accept button anyway. There was a surprised sound as the notification popped for the blond avatar named Leafa that Ana had accepted her friend request.

"Who's this Ana? I don't remember sending one to..."

She looked around again, and noticed the blind eyes staring back at her with a questioning gaze. Her confusion was interrupted by a surprised sound from the black haired one which also somehow showed up on Ana's friend list. All of them had. The speaker icon showed beside the name Kirito as they talked.

"Level five already?! I can understand if you were grinding non stop since the second the game launched, but you really became this much of a gamer?!"

Leafa's attention was pulled from Ana's blind eyes back to Kirito, and she had her own complaint.

"And you and Sinon were the famous floor clearers? Onii-chan!"

The conversation had steered away from Ana it seemed, as Leafa and the others seemed to not notice Ana. Leafa was admittedly cute. If her hair was a little longer or it was black like Kirito's hair, then there would be no mismatching awkward feeling to her appearance, but Ana was finding it strange that was her focus of Leafa. She was cute, which apparently led to the next comment from the scruffy Klein.

"Kirito...you're really a guy, so you understand right? Leafa is ridiculously cute! Totally my type too."

Ana could feel that Kirito became frustrated with him right away. Apparently, Kirito had some more similarity to Ana, being upset easily by perverts like Klein was. He bounced from one to the other of the three very feminine figures standing in front of him. It was like he was all hormones, with no way to let them out.

Ana sighed and closed her eyes. She'd had enough of the drama. Kirito started pulling Leafa and Sinon away into the alley, and noticed Ana for the first time. Ana had put her head between her knees again. Apparently Kirito was a very curious type, stopping to check if Ana was okay.

"Are...are you okay? Have you been here this whole time...? Ah, sorry you had to hear all that-"

Ana shook her head without raising her head.

"Kirito, that girl has blind eyes. Was that a setting in the character customization? I saw it before when I got confused seeing her name come up in the friend requests I sent out..."

Leafa brought up the topic from before. She hadn't forgotten, which Ana had honestly hoped for in the back of her mind. Kirito answered, apparently having looked through a great deal of the character customization to answer with confidence.

"There were some options which were close to blind...but how blind did you see her eyes. Um...Ana...san...? Can I see your eyes?"

Ana sighed and raised her head, opening her eyes looking straight forward. She wished she hadn't entertained her eyes so much in the virtual environment. She needed to stay used to using her ears, or she would be hopeless outside of the game when she would eventually get out...she...needed to help clear the game with everyone. To get out, hear Ryra's voice again and to bring her baby or babies into the world.

"You're...really blind in real life, aren't you? That's definitely not a setting from the customization. Are you okay, Ana-san? Are you able to see?"

Kirito sounded truly concerned for her, but she was nervous of using her voice. Any more of herself that she changed from real life, would make it all the more difficult to keep her mind stable. She nodded her head to answer Kirito, and sighed.

"So you can see...but are you really blind outside of the game?"

Another nod. She just wanted these drama seekers to leave her alone.

Kirito was really curious, and with Ana brought to attention, Klein had focused in on the other woman who had been there the whole time.

"Whoa! She's a beauty! Probably closer to my age too!"

Ana glared at him the instant he started talking about her.

"I'm engaged and pregnant. Go throw your prepubescent hormones at someone else your age."

Hearing her frustrated and...admittedly amazing response to Klein, everyone's attention was on her. Ana pushed herself to her feet. She couldn't just wait for them to leave if she wanted to be free of their drama. She started to walk away.

"Hey, Ana-san! Let us help you!"

Those words were from Leafa. Sinon seemed the whole time, to be silent and afraid of the circumstances, being trapped inside of the game. She was a bundle of nerves. Perhaps it was a similar feeling between Sinon and Ana toward the game in some sense. Ana was tempted to accept the offer of going with them, but she shook her head and continued away. First thing, she wanted to get a piece of gear that would hide her a little.

She ventured into the market street, and found a vendor where another girl about the age of those other teenagers was navigating her menu, and a cloak appeared over her, covering her head with a hood. Ana went right up to the vendor she had been walking away from, and she noticed that in the available inventory, there was a beginner's mantle, according to the naming sense of regular purchasable gear. She bought it, and put it on. Another girl, one with cat ears on her head was also heading to the vendor. She quickly bought the same cloak and put it on, hiding the cat ears completely. Ana could only guess at why the cat ears were there. One assumption, was that the NerveGear had picked them up when she had put them on. It was cute on her, but it was also admittedly something she would rather not be seen with in a game with thousands of people.

"What are you hiding?"

That question from the cat eared girl came with a curious and very...telling kind of voice. She was likely an information dealing type of gamer. Ana would rather not let her know that it was her blind eyes she was hiding, but she had moved in front of her before Ana could avoid showing her. The very feline features with the light brown hair and light brown eyes looked at her as if she had found a prize.

"A blind player! You're not really blind in here though if you're hiding your blind eyes. I heard from a beta player that eye hiding visors were really cool from one of the later floors. Just a free tip for you if you want to try it out. The visor doesn't block your vision, so you can go ahead and see anyway, unless...you don't want to see? Apparently that's an option with those too."

A friend request popped up in front of Ana, and the name of the person with cat ears named Argo became yet another sudden addition to her friends list in Sword Art Online. Ana felt horrible, like she was doing something wrong by going along with everything. What was worse, was going along with the pace of all the people who seemed around ten years younger than her aside the perverted Klein.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Ana-san. I'd be happy if you keep in contact and let me know any valuable information. May our friendship be mutually beneficial."

Argo had a definite experience playing an information dealer in games. She wore the persona like a custom tailored glove.

Ana realized. It seemed that aside Sinon, everyone else that she had met was adapting right into the game and they weren't brooding over being trapped. They were doing something to ensure they didn't feel trapped.

She would do the same, she thought. She would earnestly do her best to help get out of the game with everyone, and after waving a farewell to Argo, she walked along the market street to the exit gates she had stopped at with Ryra before, during the beta. The other girl who had purchased a cloak was standing there, staring out at a group of three, Kirito Leafa and Sinon were running along the main road out of the city together, and the other girl stared out at them.

"Why...?"

The young, perplexed voice of the girl beside Ana barely breathed out the word.

They stood beside each other for a moment, and eventually the girl looked at her. When the straight, long light brown haired girl noticed the blind eyes which weren't very well hidden by the cloak, she let out a gasp. She held back her curiosity though. She turned her face back toward the main road, looking on at the brave three who charged forward.

"Why? Do you know why we're all stuck in here?"

Ana knew she was being asked the question. She didn't want to answer, and her answer might not even be right. It was an assumption based off of the bit she had learned about him. When the words tumbled out of her mouth, she felt even more depressed. Her body in the virtual environment was just going along with her mess of emotions.

"He did it to feel like a God. Put us in as he called it, his world, where every move, every action, every choice matters, and where every mistake can lead to something out of our control, like making this our new real life. It's...terrible."

The girl turned to face Ana again, and she had many changes of her expression as she thought about the answer she received. She didn't know how to respond to the words she heard. Eventually, her voice came out, and she asked something else.

"Then do we just go along with it? Do we play this game like he wants? Do we waste our lives away in here? What about our lives outside?"

Ana was reminded again of her circumstances outside. She closed her eyes, and tears streamed down. The words wouldn't come out, that she was ready to tell the girl beside her about her situation outside of the game, but for once the game didn't push her to say the words, so she kept them to herself.

"Let's...try and get out. Together."

Yet another friend request popped up in front of Ana's vision. From a girl whose name was Asuna. Ana led the way out of the main gate, and Asuna stuck beside her. Along the road, they would meet monsters, but between experience the both of them had outside of the game with combat, Ana's intuition helped her strike down enemies, while Asuna wielded her short sword improperly, like a rapier. Their inexperience in wielding their weapons, eventually became a little comfortable by the time they reached a small town along the road.