The Centipede

Chapter 1: The New Reality

November 6th, 2022, 16:30

The flying side-kick. An airborne variation of the normal side-kick where the user takes off the non-kicking leg while chambering the attacking leg, and shoots it out in midair. With good flexibility and leg strength, the technique is easy enough to do but takes time to master, and even more difficult to make it look good.

And this very technique is currently flying towards him.

Itsuka Kyouhei, a teenage boy who would be fifteen in less than two weeks. He had short, disheveled jet-black hair and piercing red eyes. His complexion, although not completely milky, was slightly paler than most of his race, it wasn't noticeable from a distance but the small difference could be seen up close and if he was standing side by side with someone else. It wasn't because he spent nearly every hour of the day indoors, or because he was sick. The reasoning behind the lighter skin tone was due to genetics, apparently from his mother's side.

Currently, he was barefoot and wearing a white t-shirt that was soaked with sweat, and red track-pants. A red sparring helmet was equipped on his head and a lightweight, black foam chest plate was strapped around his front torso.

The one performing the flying-side kick wore a near-identical set of gear, except his helmet was blue.

Kyouhei took a small step back while leaning in the same direction to dodge the kick. As his opponent landed, the red-eyed teen immediately stepped forward and brought his knee up to his chest in a feint front kick. The opponent fell for the feint and flinched as he mistakenly lifted a foot off the ground to step back. In that instance, Kyouhei dropped to the ground and spun sharply in a clockwise direction, kicking his leg out at the three o'clock mark. His reverse sweep kick successfully landed and his off-balance opponent hit the ground. Following the circular momentum, Kyouhei followed the spin of his leg and used the power generated to spring himself back up into a basic fighting stance. One fist next to his chin and the other out at around chest level with the arm in a right angle bend.

"Point! Red!" A man, also wearing a white shirt and in his thirties declared with a hand raised towards Kyouhei. He had a short beard, along with a shaved head, and a noticeably muscular body.

"Red; 15 Points. Blue; 13 Points," He announced, "Red Victory!"

"Yes!" Kyouhei cheered as he clenched his fists excitedly and pumped one into the air.

"Uggghh," his opponent groaned before flipping up off the ground.

"Salute each other!" the older male ordered and the two students complied by facing each other, then placing a fist into an open palm, before releasing the salute.

"That was close," Kyouhei grinned as he took of the red helmet, "Let's fight again sometime,"

"When we do, you're losing," his opponent smirked as he walked off while also taking off his helmet.

"I look forward to it," the red-eyed boy mirrored his opponent's facial expression.

As he watched his opponent walk off towards the change rooms, he didn't notice the muscular man approaching him from behind until the man placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't go too wild on sparring this month," he told him heartily, "We wouldn't want you to spend your birthday or Christmas with a broken arm, or a twisted ankle,"

Kyouhei sheepishly scratched his temple as he looked back at the man, "Instructor Hung, do you always have to bring that up, it was one time,"

"And your Aunt nearly killed me for it," The instructor shivered as he recalled the day a lady in her forties raided his martial arts studio demanding answers and a fine, "Speaking of which you should probably start heading back now before she starts hunting me down again,"

Kyouhei nodded, "Right,"

With the helmet being held under his armpit, the black-haired teen paced towards the changing rooms, when his instructor called out to him again.

"Hey, Kyouhei!"

The boy turned around, "Yes instructor?"

"Remember to start training with the rope dart, you'll be performing it at the next New Year's Performance!"

"Got it!" Kyouhei replied while shooting him a thumbs-up.

Half an hour passed, and Kyouhei, who was now wearing a zipped-up, red and white-striped tracksuit over his t-shirt, was standing inside a somewhat crowded train. Around him, there were many people dressed in suits and other kinds of smart clothing. High school students were also loosely spread around the cart. Nearly everyone on the subway was gazing down at their phones, and Kyouhei wasn't an exception.

As he scrolled through his phone, he saw that many, if not all of the media outlets were talking about the same thing.

[ Sword Art Online ]

A revolutionary game, a VRMMO, the first of its kind, and what many hoped to be the new generation of gaming that would last for more than a century.

And today was the game's launch day.

The excitement had flooded the entire world, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration if someone said that it was the only piece of news being broadcasted internationally at the moment.

The only downside was that there were only 10,000 copies in existence and were almost instantly sold out the moment it was released. Gamers all over the world hoped that more copies would be available within the next few months and translated to their respective languages.

However, Kyouhei never needed to worry about standing in lines for days on end to get the game. He already had it. Three and a half months ago in August, he was one of the 1,000 Beta-Testers, and as a result, was given the chance to pre-order the game. But unlike many of his fellow testers, who had spent hours upon hours in-game each day for the entire testing month, the boy only managed to play around nine hours. This was because of the compact schedule he was put under by his Uncle, it included, schooling, homework, further studies, and training. All of this combined left a small amount of game time, and the boy was only able to log on for a single hour during the last nine days of the Beta-Test.

But it was enough time for him to create an avatar and to familiarize himself with most of the mechanics, mainly the combat.

Flicking his eyes towards the top left corner of his phone, Kyouhei checked the time.

'17:00… That means the opening ceremony is in exactly one hour," he then looked up and out the windows with the tall buildings outside passing by in a flash, 'Dang, I wish this thing can go a bit faster, at this rate I'll be home after the ceremony starts.'

Finally, after another half-hour, the train arrived at the black-haired teen's desired stop.

He burst out the doors, weaving through the rather slow-moving crowd, and sprinted out the station towards his house. In his vision, street lamps flew by as he dashed down the streets and narrow walkways. Soon, he spotted the slanted roof of the building where he resided and tensed the muscles in his legs as he sped up.

Kyouhei would've run past his house if he hadn't reached out and grabbed onto the edge of the stone fence around the building. After digging through his backpack for the keys, he fumbled with the fence gate's lock before ripping it open and loudly closing it behind him. Erupting through the front door, and kicking off his shoes, at the same time he noticed that the rest of his family were still out at the moment as none of their shoes were present by the doorway.

"Yes, no distractions until dinner," The red-eyed boy smiled and he zipped up the timber stairs.

After practically kicking open the door to his room, Kyouhei threw his backpack to the nearest corner as he rushed towards his PC and immediately jabbed an index finger on the power button.

Once he heard the whirring of the fan and a buffering circle on his screen, Kyouhei turned to the other side of his computer desk and picked up the gray device that resembled a round and slightly bumpy, motorbike helmet. Then he swiftly plugged the Nervegear into the PC.

Kyouhei opened a drawer from his desk and pulled out the case containing his copy of Sword Art Online. Without wasting any more time he loaded it into his computer and immediately began the installation.

His scarlet eyes flickered towards the time at the bottom right corner of the screen. After seeing that he had twenty more minutes until the game's official opening ceremony, the boy rushed to his closet, pulling out an orange t-shirt and gray shorts before speeding off to take a brisk shower.

Five minutes later, he appeared back in his room, and luckily for him, the game had finished installing. Excitedly, Kyouhei ripped off the plug and pounced onto his bed with the Nervegear clutched tightly to his chest. He slightly bounced when he hit the soft surface but paid it no mind as he had more important things to care about. With one hand, Kyouhei ruffled his own dark hair and after deducing that it was dry enough, the boy placed the Nervegear on his head and laid down.

Once comfortable, he said two words that unbeknownst to him at the time, would change him forever.

"...Link...Start,"

First, it was an endless white void that filled his vision. Then cylindrical poles of varying thickness and in each color known to man flashed by. Not even a second afterward, five blue circles popped up.

[ Touch - OK ]

[ Sight - OK ]

[ Hearing - OK ]

[ Taste - OK ]

[ Smell - OK ]

Once the system confirmed that everything was running smoothly, the circles turned green and dematerialized. After a quick login, Kyouhei had expected to be transported to the [ Avatar Creation ] segment but instead, another window appeared.

[ Beta Test Data Still Available ]

[ Hei ] (M)

[ Would you like to use it? ]

Without hesitation, Kyouhei selected [ Yes ]. There was no way he was going to sculpt another perfect being of an avatar a second time, the creation alone took nearly an hour the first time he did it.

Then there it was, in black text on a gray background, the words he had been hyped up to see for more than a month, appeared before him once more.

[ Welcome to Sword Art Online ]

A flash of bright light took over his sight, sending him back into the void of white again.

When the light dispersed, Kyouhei...no, Hei saw the pale, stone blocks of a medieval building in front of him. Looking around he spotted numerous NPC stalls selling weapons, armor, items, and the like. Behind him was the towering obelisk that was the very center of the entire First Floor, and just underneath it was a large gray slab of fine, smooth stone that Hei recognized as the [ Teleportation Gate ].

Strolling over to the closest shop, Hei peered into the window and his reflection peered back. He now stood at exactly 6ft with an athletic body shape. His crimson hair spiked out wildly to the front and his eyes were the same shade of red as his hair. Underneath the simply designed leather armor set of all beginners was a long-sleeved orange shirt. Black trousers were equipped on his legs and tucked into his leather boots. The [ Starter Sword ] was also strapped to his waist.

Hei started to grin as he gazed back at his reflection, every detail he had added to this new body was kept the exact same.

"Hahaha~ I look like a Super Saiyan God," he laughed.

Content with the amount of time he spent ogling at himself, Hei decided to head to the fields and level up before logging off for the day.

While heading down one of the numerous alleys that lead to the gate out of the safe zone, something bizarre happened. Hei smacked into something...hard. The red-eyed player stumbled back and rubbed his forehead before looking up to see what he had just run into. To his surprise it was nothing. The alleyway was wide enough to zigzag through and he had been fast-walking straight the entire time. Curious, Hei reached out slowly and his expression turned into one of shock when a large red hexagon shimmered into existence as his hand neared.

"What the-?" the teen cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes in confusion, "Is this way restricted or something? Has it loaded in yet?... Oh, crap am I lagging?!"

His thoughts were broken when he heard the bewildered cries of many players, along with the warping sound of teleportation, coming from behind him. Deciding to leave the strange barrier for now Hei headed back to the Central Plaza to see what was going on. His walk broke into a sprint when he heard a notable increase in the sound of people spawning in along with their confused voices.

As his legs slowly came to a stop, Hei looked around at the strange scene playing out around him. Players were being transported into the Plaza every second, and none of them had expected it, evident from the static poses they were in when they arrived, that showed that they were in the middle of doing something when the forced teleportation happened.

"What's going on?" a player asked.

"Is this a glitch?" someone else suggested.

"Maybe it's the Opening Ceremony," another proposed,

Glancing at the clock in his HUD, it read 18:00.

'It's six and the articles said that SAO's Opening Ceremony starts at this time so I guess this is it,' Hei thought as he slowly stepped closer to the center, where the majority of the crowd stood.

"Hey! What's that!?" someone in the crowd suddenly yelled out.

The words caused a ripple of commotion and soon enough, everyone in the Plaza turned their heads up at the sky. It looked to be the same red hexagon that Hei had ran into only second before. The only difference was that there were two interchanging words blinking inside that read.

[ WARNING ] and [ System Announcement ]

A second later, copies of the hexagon started to appear all over the sky above them and quickly formed into a giant dome. Encasing the entirety of the Central Plaza and trapping all them inside.

A thick, crimson liquid with an uncanny resemblance to blood started to seep out of the lines between the six-sided shapes. But instead of falling to the ground as giant blood droplets, the liquid started to seemingly reach out to each other and above the giant obelisk, they began to merge. As the blood started to stretch out and take shape, it started emitting dark purple smoke and sparked thin bolts of electricity.

When the last bits of the mysterious red liquid leaked through, a giant, faceless, crimson hooded figure floated above the thousands of players. The murmurs of perplexity and gasps of astonishment spread rapidly through the Plaza until the unknown enigma silenced them by spreading its arms.

"Attention Players! Welcome to my world, my name is Kayaba Akihiko, I am currently the one and only person who can control this world."

Hei silently gulped, an uncomfortably slow shiver crept down his spine. Something was off about this Opening Ceremony...very off.

"I'm sure that all of you have noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed," Kayaba confirmed his statement by opening his own menu and showing everyone in the Plaza that the extremely important button was indeed gone, replaced by a blank white rectangle.

"However, this is by no means a mistake, I repeat, it is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online. You are all unable to log out of SAO, and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt its operation. Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."

A near-unanimous gasp of pure utter shock echoed through the Plaza.

"Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear, as proof of this, 213 players now cease to exist, in this world and the real one,"

Hundreds of windows started to appear in the sky and circled around the cloaked Kayaba. Each window contained a live news broadcast from what looked to be every country. United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Russia, and many, many more. A barrage of different languages and accents soared around the red dome. Different languages but all talking about the same topic. The trapped players of Sword Art Online and the game's first unwilling victims.

The broadcasts came to a stop and dispersed when Kayaba dismissed them to continue his announcement.

"As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide. Thus, it should be safe to say that the danger of removal attempts has become minimal, I hope you will all relax and focus on completing the game. But I'd like you all to keep this in mind, from this point on, all methods of revival in the game will no longer function. If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

As terrified silence fell upon the crowd of thousands of trapped individuals, Kayaba continued.

"There is only one condition you must meet to be free…You must clear this game! You are all currently on the First Floor, the lowest point in Aincrad, if you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may continue up to the next one. Assuming you manage to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, the game will be cleared, and all of you will be free."

"Lastly, I have prepared a small present for all of you in your item storages. Take a look,"

Some players were hesitant, while others did it immediately. Hei glanced at the ones around him and saw that they were all opening their storages. With no other choice, the red-eyed teen opened his storage and materialized the 'present' the Game Creator was talking about. It surprised everyone's expectations as it was nothing but a small rectangular mirror.

"A mirror?" Hei murmured as he looked down at his reflection.

A feminine yell of surprise reached his ears, and in his peripheral vision, he saw a player closeby being engulfed by a blinding light. Hei turned his head to see what was happening but never had the chance, as the same bright light illuminated his vision and cloaked his body. For a few seconds, the Central Plaza became the brightest place in the entire First Floor.

When the light finally simmered down, Hei blinked a few times before noticing that something was different about the female player he had turned towards. The biggest difference was that she became a he, and he looked very realistic.

"Alright that was weird," Hei whispered to himself as he shifted his eyes back towards the piece of reflective glass in his hand.

Hei nearly dropped the mirror when he instantly recognized who was looking back at him. He held the mirror out in front of him and started to pat his own messy jet-black hair. Then as he brought the mirror in closer, he stretched open both eyelids one at a time and confirmed that they were the fiery-scarlet pupils his real self had. Even his complexion and youthful face were the same along with his height, which was nearly a whole head shorter than his redheaded avatar.

"...I-It's...It's me?... How in the world?" he said in a hush tone while pinching his cheek.

"Right now, you're probably all wondering why? Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear do such a thing? I have already achieved my goal. I created Sword Art Online solely for my personal entertainment. And now the preparations are complete. This concludes the Tutorial and Opening Ceremony for the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck!"

With that, Kayaba melted into streams of crimson smoke and was soon absorbed into the blood-red dome. Once he was gone, the dome shattered, not leaving a single, visual trace of him ever being there. But his words had already scarred the players, and as the sun began to set, the sky became no less red than before.

For a while, nobody moved, and an eerie silence swept over the population. Each and every one of them, too shocked and still struggling to accept the announcement that just happened.

An ear-piercing scream then shattered the fragile silence, seconds later, it was followed by another, and another, and then another. Players started to break down by the dozens, crying, yelling, and even on the ground curled up in a ball. Pure chaos broke out and people were running around in despair by the masses.

However, Hei was strangely calm about this, and it was mainly because he was still struggling to break through the stage of acceptance. Not even ten minutes ago, he had logged in to the game, and now he had found out that if he was killed in the game, he would be dead in the real world. And now he, along with nine thousand others, are trapped inside this world. This heavy flood of information, it was too much to take in.

Not wanting to be around the Plaza any longer and in need of some space, Hei began to sprint towards the Gate, out of the [ Town of Beginnings ], and into the fields.

It was just as he remembered it. Soft green grassy hills stretched to the horizon that was now dyed a dusty yellow from the setting sun. Patches of woodland here and there that were currently turning darker, and a couple of long, crystalline rivers that cut through the natural biome, with the water glowing orange due to the sunset. Herds of Frenzy Boars grazed through the grasslands as Dire Wolves made their way out of the shadows of the woodlands to hunt.

In the distance, Hei spotted a small village of mud-brick houses, that lay in between the Starting City and the next town [ Tolbana ]. With the next destination in mind, the red-eyed teen dashed along a dirt path towards it.

"HEY!... HEY!"

As he was running down the path, he heard someone calling out to someone. He looked over in curiosity and saw that they were in fact calling out to him while jogging toward him.

As the player neared, Hei took note of his appearance. Brown hair, and much like the rest of nine thousand players, he was equipped with beginner gear with a randomized yellow-brown colored shirt beneath his armor. A [ Starter Axe ] was strapped on his back and there was a store-bought, brown bandanna tied around his neck like a cowboy.

The black-haired teen slowed down and came to a stop in the middle of the path, allowing the other player to catch up.

"Hey," the newcomer greeted while huffing.

"Hi," Hei greeted back.

"The name's Ortz," the bandanna player introduced himself as he stretched out his hand for a handshake.

"Oh, I'm H-," just as the red-eyed teen was about to accept the gesture, he took notice of the cursor above the player and went silent.

It was orange.

He didn't notice it before as the cursor had blended in rather well with the warm shades that washed over the grassy hills due to the setting sun.

The player called Ortz saw the look in his eyes and followed his line of sight, then he grinned while pointing towards it.

"Ah! This thing? It's nothing I was just PvPing some people before that crazy announcement," he explained while nonchalantly waving his hand.

Hei narrowed his eyes. One of the ways to turn the cursor orange, was to attack another player outside a safe zone. He knew because, during his nine hours in the Beta, he had gone out of his way to kill other players wandering in the wilderness. It was fun to play as the bad guy every now and then, and it definitely taught him the basics of fighting in Aincrad very quickly. But if what the red, spectral form of Kayaba said was true, then now, any attempt at ambushing unsuspecting players, would be equivalent of attempted murder.

'Does this guy think I'm a newbie?' he wondered, 'It might be better that way in this situation...I don't know if he's lying about when he went orange, but I can't take any chances. If I can keep him talking I might be able to find an opening to escape to that village. Instructor Hung and Uncle always say that given the chance, it's better to run instead of fight,'

"By the way, do you even believe the shit he was spouting? Clearing the game is the only way out, dying here means dying out there. What utter nonsense!" Ortz snorted, "This is just a game, none of this is real,"

Deciding to go along with his statement in order to buy time, Hei nodded, "Yeah, I mean where's the evidence?"

"Exactly, those screens that he bought up that were playing the news, they could've just been CGI. It's 2022 already, it isn't difficult to throw together some clips with edited audio and videos!" the bandanna player exclaimed.

"Right, and the screens were so high up too, I'm sure most people didn't even get a good look,"

"Finally someone who understands!" Ortz laughed and threw his arms into the air, "I think Kayaba is just messing with us, you know what I really think? I think death is the only release, a way to be free from this world,"

"Y-Yeah, I guess it could be," Hei shifted his back foot in order to take off sprinting if the need called for it. There was something in Ortz's voice when he said the word 'death' that didn't feel right to him. The tone was strangling gleeful, and for a split second it even sounded...psychotic.

…

…

…

A brief moment of silence passed between them.

"Hey kid, can you tell me where the next town is located? I wanna get there by tomorrow morning," Ortz asked.

Hei nodded and opened up the [ Map ] from his menu.

"Let's see, the map says that the next town is called [ Tolbana ], and in between it and the Starting City, there are a couple of small villages where you can rest up," Hei informed him while looking at the map.

Truthfully he already knew all of this. In every area, the First Floor was the easiest floor in Aincrad, and that included navigation. Hei had already memorized the first five floors during the beta month. Apparently, the high-level testers made it to Floor Nine or so, but the teen never had a chance to explore those areas as the Beta ended shortly after.

"I don't really know where that is," said Ortz as he looked at the opened map, "I've never been adept at reading maps and that sort of thing. Do you mind pointing it out for me?"

"Huh? Sure, it's over there, in that direction," Hei agreed to his request.

He turned around, and pointed at a thicket on a hill in the distance.

"You see those bunch of trees over there? Once you get through that, it'll take around three hours to walk there, but there's a bunch of [ Little Nepents ] and [ Dire Wolves ] that patrol that area so it might not be ideal for anyone under [ Level 3 ]. There's another way that's a bit safer, which is to follow this dirt path until you reach it, but that'll take another two hours,"

"Really? Then I must thank you," behind him, a crazed, toothy grin stretched on Ortz's face as he drew his axe.

"Oh, it's not a proble-,"

"By releasing you!"

Hei's red eyes widened, and his ears picked up the familiar, charging sound effect of a [ Sword Skill ]. The teen looked back just in time to see the bandanna player's glowing green battle-ax, being swung straight towards his skull.

Instantly, Hei ducked out of the way and taking advantage of the skill's [ Post Motion Delay ], leaped back to gain a good amount of distance.

"What are you doing!?" he yelled with shock.

'Did he really just try to kill me?!'

"Hih...hihihihihihi~" the player started to giggle and snort like a madman. His back was hunched over as he held onto his heavy weapon tightly, "Don't you see? I'm releasing you~ from this game!"

Ortz once again launched himself at Hei, he brought his axe high above his head as a new skill started glowing to life, and then he swung down.

Unsheathing his own weapon to defend himself, Hei quickly parried the axe off course as he jumped back.

"Hold on we can talk about this," he said as he landed.

"Hehehe~ You want to talk? With your sword out like that?" Ortz giggled while pulling the blade of his axe from the ground.

"If what Kayaba said is true then you just attempted to kill me," said Hei as he continued to try to negotiate his way out of the conflict, "When we get out, that could potentially lead you to a prison sentence, you don't want that do you?"

"Get out? GET OUT!? WE ARE NEVER GETTING OUT!" Ortz screamed as his eyes bulged and veins popped out of his skin. Hei slightly flinched from the sudden outburst.

"You can't clear an MMO! These types of games are built to last until people get bored with them and throw them away in the trash! There's no such thing to a proper end! We'll be here until our real bodies rot and decay!"

"That doesn't mean we can't try!"

"Ohh~ But I don't want to," Ortz admitted as his wicked smile stretched up even further, "In this world, I'm stronger than I was in real life. I never want to leave, I have power here! NO ONE WILL CALL ME WEAK ANYMORE!"

"That doesn't mean you should go around trying to kill people who do want to leave," Hei yelled back.

"Oh ho ho~ ? But who's going to stop me?" The bandanna player cackled.

"...What?"

"I'll kill as many as I want! We're all dead sooner or later anyways! What's wrong with starting a little early!?" Ortz exclaimed and brought his axe up so the long handle rested upon his shoulder.

"And I don't give a shit about being arrested, once I feel like I've killed enough," he brought his hand up to the side of his head, and pointed a finger gun to his temple, "...I'll do myself,"

"Have you gone mad!? Did Kayaba's announcement shatter your brain or is your Nervegear heating up way too much?" Hei asked in a shout of disbelief and gripped his sword tightly.

"Hihihi~ hehehe~," Ortz giggled and slid his axe from his shoulder to the dirt beneath, "Y'know you remind me of those others. Cuz you have your sword out ready to defend yourself, and if you can defend yourself...it'll be much more fun,"

"...You're crazy," Hei muttered and readied himself by sliding into a stance with bent knees and sword out in front of him with the other hand close to his chin, defending his face.

From his childhood, during the first days of his martial arts journey until now, he was repeatedly told that in a "Real-life situation," running away was always the best and go-to option. Engaging in combat to defend yourself should always be used when there is no other choice.

And now, it seemed that he had no other choice.

"That's what they said as well," Ortz cackled then let out a battle cry, charging at full speed towards Hei.

The black-haired teen dodged under the swinging heavy blade, and slashed Ortz's legs, aiming to amputate him before retreating.

Ortz attempted another horizontal cleave, but Hei had the faster weapon, and was able to deliver a long cut across the orange player's chest before needing to avoid the incoming attack.

Taking advantage of the slowness of the heavy axe, Hei rushed forward and pierced his sword into Ortz's abdomen.

"Grah!" the orange-player cried out in annoyance and pain.

Hei took a side-step forward and placed a palm on Ortz's back. He pushed as he circled around to the bandanna player's back, and as he did, dragged the handle of his sword with him. Effectively slicing open half of the man's torso before pulling his weapon out.

Enraged, but still with a psychotic grin on his face, Ortz activated another sword skill and swung around and down in a powerful diagonal slice.

Once again, Hei managed to get another hit in before dodging, and once again it was targeted at the legs.

He jumped back to inspect the damage he had caused to the orange player. There was a large red line running across his leather breastplate, two slashes, one horizontal, one slightly slanted up, and a midsection that was close to being sliced in half.

Hei hoped that he had done enough damage to Ortz to convince him to stop this mindless assault. But unfortunately he was wrong, and instead, his attacks seemed to fuel the orange player's desire to kill even more.

Ortz, like a rampaging bull seeing red, charged with his axe dangling by his side. After taking three more steps, he activated a skill and leaped high into the air with the axe winding up behind him.

"BE RELEASED!" he screamed with madness.

Hei grit his teeth and dashed forward while activating his own skill [ Slant ], a One-Handed Sword Skill that allowed the user to perform a powerful diagonal slash.

As Ortz began his and his weapon's descent, Hei kicked off the ground and into the air. As he predicted, his faster weapon allowed him to claim the first strike.

The blade of his sword ripped through Ortz's already injured torso, and kept traveling up until it tore out from under the armpit. Ortz had split in two and as the two pieces of his body fell to the ground, the red-eyed teen landed on the other side.

"Did that make you see some sense now!?" Hei yelled out as he whipped around and sheathed his sword.

"Oh, I see more than that," Ortz cackled, "I see...my freedom,"

Hei glared at him not knowing what would be the best path to take in this situation. On one hand, the guy was crazy to the point of no return and would be better off dead. It would certainly be safer for the others trapped in Aincrad.

But on the other, Hei couldn't just let him die. The black-haired teen was raised by his uncle, whose occupation was an officer of the Interpol. His police uncle always believed in second chances, and had spread that philosophy down to Hei ever since he was in kindergarten.

"Dammit," Hei hissed. Opening his menu, the teen summoned a small vial containing bright red liquid, it was a [ Small Health Potion ], the weakest health potion in the game, but a health potion nonetheless.

Hei then threw the vial towards the downed orange-player, the vial landed next to his hand, "Drink it, then go back to the [ Town of Beginnings ] and just think about what happened today. You might want to stay but nine thousand other people don't,"

Ortz snatched up the health potion and tossed the vial away. The potion shattered when it hit the ground in front of the red-eyed player.

"What are y-?" Hei looked at Ortz in pure surprise, "Don't you want to li-?"

"DO NOT GET IN THE WAY OF MY FREEDOM BOY!" Ortz roared as he glared at Hei with bulging eyes.

As the black-haired teen was about to retort, he heard the distinct howl of wolves closeby. Hei looked around and saw that a pack of ten [ Dire Wolves ] were approaching the two players, snarling with saliva dripping from their jaws. The fur on their gray backs bristled as they barked commands to each other.

Hei immediately reached up to pull out his weapon but then noticed a bizarre behaviour in the NPC animals.

None of them were heading towards him, all ten of them were interested in the bisected body of Ortz. Hei quickly realized that they were programmed to behave exactly like wolves in the real world, they were going after the weak and injured prey, instead of wasting time and energy to take down the healthy one. The black-haired teen relaxed slightly and as the wolves strode forward, he stepped back.

"YES! RELEASE ME! GRANT ME...MY FREEDOM!" Ortz screeched.

In an instant, the wolves were upon him. Latching onto his body, shaking their heads violently and tearing off his virtual flesh. A chorus of snarls, growls, and howls filled the area around them as the wolves feasted on Ortz.

Not wanting the large canines to turn on him after their vicious attack, Hei spun around and ran off, down the path, towards the village he spotted earlier.

As he ran, he could still hear the mixture of snarling and Ortz's crazed laughter until it was silenced by the shattering sound of death.

Moments later the teen came to a skidding stop as he entered the safe zone. Surrounding him were several, simple mud and wood houses. The largest was an inn, and the smaller blacksmith and merchant buildings stood on each side. A couple of other NPC houses were dotted around, some of them providing quests.

But none of that mattered to Hei right now.

The boy swiftly took cover behind the walls of a nearby house. He leaned against the brick and stared up at the darkening sky as his back slid down the rough surface. He was breathing heavily as sweat rolled down his temples and neck.

Once he calmed down by a small margin, from behind the wall, Hei took a peek out toward the area he just came from. The dire wolves had already dispersed, and there was no sign of the orange-player. That area was calm, as if nothing ever happened there, and no one would ever know. A small band of players were even trotting down the dirt path, completely oblivious to the deathmatch that had occurred on the very strip of land beneath their feet only moments ago.

Due to his fight to the death, an epiphany hit Hei directly in the face. The emotions he felt while in that fight...were undeniably real. The fear of possible death, the astonishment, and anger from the madman's reasonings for killing, the slight helplessness when he watched the large pack of wolves devour that madman, and the guilt from knowing that he could have prevented another person's death, instead of running away, even if he felt like that the crazed player deserved it.

It was in the shadows behind that mud house, where the flood of information from Kayaba's announcement, mixed with those emotions, finally fully broke through the dam barricading them from Hei's mind.

An hour passed, and Hei had remained sitting still in the dark. When at last, he slowly stood up and walked out from the shadows.

Others, the more courageous of players, had started to come into the village. Some of them headed for the inn, while some went to the blacksmith and merchants. As the village slowly became lively, Hei looked up at the rising moon.

While sitting in the shadows, he had come to terms with it.

That until the day they cleared all one hundred floors and released from Aincrad.

This world...is his new reality.

The Centipede - The New Reality

A/N: Thank you to all current and future readers for checking this out. I know good OC stories are difficult to write but I'm up for the challenge, and I hope that I can create something unique. Once again, Thank You For Reading!