"Good morning" Viper muttered, even though no one was around to hear it. Her brother was in a different house, still fast asleep. No one was sharing the guest room with her thankfully. There were chores to be done, but Marge wouldn't let her get breakfast or make it. Bringing out her inventory, she noticed something strange. There was a message from her friend list. Opening the friend list, she scrolled to where she found the name, and there was something amazing. Kirito's name wasn't greyed out anymore! "It is a good morning" she said quietly, smiling. Opining it up, there was a message.
"Hey, are you alive?" it asked.
"Yeah, I'm alive. It doesn't feel it though." Viper said, smiling as she looked at it. How long had she craved some confirmation that those people weren't dead? "Thanks for getting help about that glitch." She said, hoping that she could hear more of his answer.
"I wouldn't have thought about doing anything else." He responded. "Do you think that you could meet up with me at the life monument?" he asked.
Viper looked at the clock. She had a few chores to do, but otherwise she would be fine. Did she take the plunge and go back in the game? Well, she already knew that he was there in the game and there weren't any chores or such to be done. Taking Luna out of her inventory, Viper used her 'Disguise' skill and made the girl look like her.
"Luna, are you up to taking care of something for me?" Viper asked, looking at the girl carefully.
"What is it, Alpha?" Luna asked, ready to do something.
"I need the floors swept and any blood cleaned out of the basement. Are you willing?" Viper asked.
"Yes, Alpha." Luna said, getting to the work immediately.
"Good." Ivy said, looking back at her inventory. "PM me when you're done cleaning the house. I don't want you to get into trouble, and the dogs are kind of vicious." She instructed.
"Of course." Luna said, not even breaking stride from her cleaning.
"Perfect." Viper said, and she turned back to the menu. Laying back down on the bed in a position that wouldn't be too uncomfortable, she went to 'options' and selected 'game'. Picking SAO, as opposed to a few other servers that were online, Viper joined the game and raced over the monument. She met Kirito there in only a few seconds.
"You're supposed to reply when you get an appointment" another PM said.
"I'm here now, and it was a last-minute decision." Viper said, just speaking. "Is there a glitch with the voice…" she started, but she trailed off seeing his menu spawn without any physical command. "Kirito?" she asked, backing up.
"There's nothing wrong with me." He eventually sent; Viper looked back up at him.
"But then what's wrong with the audio feed?" Viper asked, worried.
"This just PC mod" Kirito tried.
"That's horrible grammar." Viper said, and then it hit her. "PC? You're Playing this from a computer?" she asked, shocked.
"Yeah" Kirito responded back. He presumably kept typing, as soon "190 vision field multi-media avatar version. I keep my Fulldive avatar, but no one can trap me in the game anymore." He said, smiling a fake cartoon smile that lasted exactly one second. The fakeness of it struck a terrible reality in Viper.
"You're not trapped anymore. You're stuck on the other end of the screen." Viper said, frowning as she sunk to the ground. An automated hug protocol enveloped her, and Viper couldn't really find it in herself to be mad it wasn't real.
"You want to know a secret?" Viper asked. The avatar nodded, and Viper smiled. "I'm not trapped in the game either. If you're not trapped here and I'm not trapped and no one else is trapped, then Skull's the only person who's stuck here." She said, looking down. "That's not really fair for him, though." She said.
"How were you keeping our hours?" Kirito asked, and Viper responded audibly.
"My guardians were easy to intimidate." Viper said. "It's a work in progress." She added.
Another simulated hug was her response.
"Say, do you know what happened? Why's Skull still trapped in here when everyone isn't?" She asked.
Kirito was still for a while, but he did have an answer. A message with a link was sent to her, and Viper picked up on the implication immediately.
"How about we do something fun before I face the grim truth of reality." Viper asked, frowning. "Well, me and my brother were able to get you a sword!" She said, exited. "Isn't that great?" She asked. "I've got to get used to not hearing an immediate response. Tell you what, I'll ask him to give that sword to me and then you'll be armed again!" she suggested, exited.
"My family doesn't understand why I want to keep this game" Kirito said. He had been typing the whole time. "I had unfinished business here with you."
"If this is about the crude joking, then I forgive you. We were in a tough situation, and… Well, I'm still hoping that everyone would be ok and things would all just move forward. That isn't really the truth, though, is it?" She asked.
"Everyone promised to join and go after the Frost Dragon together if I could find you." Kirito said, still typing. "Now, we can have a last get-together before we move on."
"Move on?" Viper asked, backing up. "But this is the best that I've had. Sure, it wasn't exactly nice how it started, but isn't everyone who was friends here still a friend?" She asked, confused. "I mean, it might be weird, but I've really enjoyed having you guys all around. There would be some goal, but there would also be hugs and apartments and all of those sorts of things." She said, starting to cry. Kirito's avatar couldn't. Not even Skull's avatar knew how to cry. Viper was the one who… no, someone else had to consider this important as she did.
"They don't see it that way." Kirito messaged.
"Oh, I guess not. I would love it if we could still do the Frost Dragon though. Mabey Lisabeth could make something more permanent with the metal, if we find it. You know, I really wasn't expecting what the frost dragon would turn out to be, but I'm really exited none the less. Not only am I going to get what I need to start making my own creatures, but I'm also going to get a chance to see you with your new sword and watch Lisabeth really take off with her blacksmithing… she is going to use what she gets, right?" Viper asked, feeling her breaths start to shorten.
"I'm not sure." Kirito said, but he was starting to feel awkward. He really didn't know either of the twins that well, yet… "Did you want to do something now that I'm here?" He asked.
"Do I?" Viper asked herself, rocking back and forth. "I'm going to have Skull hand over the swords we got for you. Do you think that you could show me how to use my blade skill?" She asked.
"What's the blade skill?" Kirito said, his mouth opening instead of forming the words.
"So there actually is a voice option for your version?" Viper asked.
"It's not very good." He said, and Viper could tell what he met.
"I can tell, but I guess that it works. Well, I've gotten a skill labeled blade skill. Now, it's stored right with all of my other skills." Viper said, angling so that he could see her menu. "Can you see it?" She asked.
"Close enough. Why are some of them outlined in red?" he asked, or that's what it sounded like.
"Different classes have different skills available. The ones outlined in red are active skills. They actually do something. The sprint skill, right there, will actually let me go farther than possible in the real world. The 'Alpha' skill, however, just tracks how good I am at the mental discipline hunting involves." She said.
"So the purchase negotiation actually can effect people?" Kirito asked. "It wasn't active for Agil"
"Well, that varies from class to class. If actual salesmen could force you to buy stuff, it would be a bit awful, right?" She asked.
"True." Kirito said, and a young girl's voice was heard over it. "Excuse me." He said, and the player just stood still.
"Hm, it looks like he has a family with him." Viper said, smiling. "Well, what do I want to do with him?" She asked herself, using the break it provided. "I know that it's great to have one of the game friends with us, but what is it that I want?" she asked. After just thinking about it a few seconds, she laughed. "I know what I want just as well as he does. I want to keep interaction with people from when the whole game was trapped and I want to get over what happened. I'm just not sure what getting over the game crash means."
"What happened to crash the game?" Kirito asked, sitting down beside her.
"Well, I'm not sure. First, Skull got captured by the monster, and then… I'd rather not say." Viper said.
"That's not really fair." Kirito pointed out. "I'm telling you what I know on my side of the game and yet- "
"I'm sorry!" Viper said, bursting into tears again. "Nothing really makes sense and I never seem to give back, but I want to! I don't want to just be a… Well, I… Do you think that you could teach me how to use my blade skill?" She asked, trying to go back to level ground.
"Did you just have an error?" Kirito asked.
"Do you think that you could teach me how to use my blade skill?" Viper asked, ignoring his question. She didn't want to remember the bad thing that happened, she just wanted to know how to not mess up the server while using her knife, and "Will you please teach me the correct way to use a knife or sword?" She asked, smiling.
"Not until you tell me whether you still have an error or a glitch." Kirito said.
Viper sighed. She could admit the truth, that she didn't know but wanted to keep being friends and playing the game like their life, but instead… She remembered a lot of hacks. Changing her character status to NPC, she said, in the most sarcastic voice that she could "Oh look, you've found me out." Switching it back to a character, she looked right up at him and tried again. "Will you please teach me how to use a knife properly so that I don't crash anymore servers?" She asked.
"Well, ok." He agreed, not quite picking up on her intent. "So, the blade skill on the helmet version didn't really exist. It still doesn't exist for the adventurer class. However, there are both sword and knife skills. The sword ones are augmented for me, but the knife ones aren't. Do you want me to just show you how to do stances with the knife?" Kirito asked.
"Yeah." Viper said, building up the strength to smile again.
"Ok. I'll need something to attack for showing you the skill, however." He said, and the voice garbled again. "Sorry" he typed, a message appearing. "The recorder really doesn't work."
"That's ok." Viper said, smiling. "Now, the first stance?" She asked.
"Now, hold it out and extend the point down." Kirito said.
"Is this right?" Viper asked, holding it as still as she could. Still, it wouldn't stop shaking.
"No. How about you just practice making yourself hold it steady before actually trying to do anything with it." he said, giving advise that would unknowingly spare them a lot of glitches.
"You know what, starting small doesn't sound like a bad idea. I have do go soon to take care of my chores." She said.
"I'll leave you to it. Will you be on the same time tomorrow? I'll have everyone ready for the big Frost Dragon Fight." He promised.
"I'll let Skull know to stock up on his traps and such then. I'm looking forward to it." Viper said, logging off with a new hope.
