Hi, everyone, not sure how this fic reception, but I had this idea for a very long time and I mean years, so only now I have decided to actually to sit down and write this down when I need time to just settle down. More at the end of the chapter but without further ado.
Chapter 1: The Beginning?
Kayaba Akihiko wasn't a normal person, far from it. He was always considered to be that weird kid in class, due to him keeping to himself. He preferred it that way, but because of that, he became a target for certain people. He didn't care about that since the majority of the people from his class weren't worth the trouble.
Moreover, he preferred to spend his time reading and working on a little project, he had in mind. However, as time pass that project turned into something more. It took years of his blood sweat and tears, with the help of a…close friend that he had met in college. The two of them and a small team had managed to succeed in produce the technology that would bring his project and dream a reality.
That team would later grow to something bigger and eventually, a large game publisher would help fund his team's project. From there, his team had begun development, plus a dozen others at the time, on what would soon be called Sword art online. It has been a little over 4 years since then, the game has been making steady progress, and soon his dream would come true. But…
"Sir…You can't be serious?" Kayaba asked the head of Argus the company that he had worked to develop his dream project. A few moments ago, a phone call from his superior had him come meet the man in his office's. Thinking nothing of it since his boss normally would just ask how the progress on the game was but when he went to answer his heart sank what he had just heard.
"Oh, I'm quite serious; Akihiko-san, I and the other investor are tired of wait for this thing you're working on to the finish. While we believe in this project but we can't anymore justify the cost that we are putting into this any longer. So we will push the game release date by a full year just in time for the holidays" the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar, lighting it up before continuing. "The marketing team has already come up with a strategy for the game. Around the beginning of November, we will have the exclusive physical edition of Sword art online, Limited to 10k units. The ones how purchase this version will have a full month before the official release date. We will have the first batch shipped out on the street the first week of November. Of course, we are expecting to make a mint on this-"
His boss continued to speak as Kayaba clenched his hands in a silent rage. A year…that was not near enough time to develop not even half of what he wanted to put in, not even taking account of what was still needed. The game had a lot of work that needed to be done, they needed at least another 2-3 year for it to be fully completed, not to mention balancing the enemies, item and weapons. "Sir, please reconsider my team and I need more time to work on the game." Kayaba tried to reason with his boss.
"I don't care, SAO with be released by fall 2022, we already have our marketing team make a nice little 20-second teaser and the responses online has been extremely positive. Heck, at this rate we might not need to add microtransactions. Try to implement them anyway, so that we can get 'more bang for our buck,' like the American's say."
"…I understand." was all Kayaba could say, his voice was even but he was furious. He bowed and exited his superior's office, taking a deep breath and exhaling as he kept a calm front. Kayaba began making his way through the large building back to his teams work area. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he didn't know why he was this pissed. For years, the game industry has always been doing stuff like this, releasing games before they were ready or sometimes even playable. Adding or forcing useless features that were not needed, just to milk money from gamers.
So why was he surprised when they did the same thing to his game? Maybe, because it was his game, it was his creation, the thing he been working on for the last 9 years. Only to have the company shove it out ahead of schedule, just in time for the holiday season and for what? To inflate their own already hefty wallets. He was disgusted and he only has himself to blame for it.
"Hey, Nii-san!" Kayaba stopped in place as he sighed and shook his head, lightly as a small smile appeared on his face. Turning his head around to see running down the hall towards him was a 16-year-old teen male. He was about 5'8' with long blond spiky hair and blue eyes and a large grin on his face. He had a large black and yellow jacket with an orange shirt underneath with a green crystal necklace around his neck. He also was wearing a pair of blue jeans and black running shoes.
"Naruto…what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school?" the boy known now as Naruto chuckled while he scratched his cheek nervously. Ah, he already knew the reason. "You're skipping class, again? Sensei will not be happy if she found out that you left school early. Isn't this "
Naruto Uzumaki was someone Kayaba had known for many years, mostly due to his connection to the boy's mother. Kushina Uzumaki was his high-school teacher math teacher and was the one who had convinced him to pursue game development, as a career. He had met the younger blond when his teacher had begged him to babysit the boy so that she and her husband can go on a date that night. He didn't know why but he reluctantly agreed, which turned out for the best.
After that, he ended up becoming the designated baby sitter for the blond, which ended up making the young teen see him as an older brother figure. Which he enjoyed, Kayaba ended up showing and teaching Naruto varies things, from video games, computer, and programming. Kayaba was proud to say the blond was his unofficial apprentice, and it wasn't hard convincing the higher-ups to have him work for him as an unpaid intern. Free labor for a surefire moneymaker, sure, why not they gave him another one.
"Aww, come on, Nii-san. Kaa-san doesn't need to know, besides, I know you need help with the combat programming so I came by to help before I have to go to that interview later on today." Naruto explained as Kayaba sighed again.
"The fact you convinced me to allow you to help still amazes me," Kayaba mentioned scratching his neck, the teen was he looked at the jacket before rolling his eyes.
"I thought Sensei told you not wear that when you are in the building. You already draw too much attention; I rather not deal with the publicity about you being involved with Argus… Who knows what kind of rumors will come of this…" Kayaba muttered as he began walking away with Naruto in toll.
"Too late for that… besides Tou-san has everyone on the team wear it when they are out in public. Also, Kaa-san wants you to come and eat dinner with us tonight but I told her that you might be busy." Naruto cheekily laughed causing Kayaba grunted in response. Well, he wasn't wrong.
"I can use a break but with the news, I heard I don't think I can either way." The older man answered honestly as Naruto looked at him with curiosity. How was he going to explain this to his team? The fact they will have to be forced into doing a massive amount of overtime just to get this game into working order will be a big hassle.
"Did something happen?" The blond wondered with a serious tone that matched his expression. Looking around the hall, Kayaba hummed lightly before his eyes stopped and stared out the window at something random. He then looked over to the blond before opening his mouth to speak.
"I want to wait until our other intern gets out of class before saying anything. I rather not say something important where about anyone can overhear it." Kayaba stated, Naruto groaned but nodded his head, "Good, now let's go, I want you to finish working on programming the last of the sword's skills. Then we can make sure they are properly balanced. After all, we have a lot to do today."
"WHAT! Nii-san! That is way too much for me to do before I have to leave!" Naruto complained as his older brother figure walked off ahead of him ignoring his.
"Well, it's a good thing that you skipped class today, now you will have plenty of time to finish. I'm sure Kuramoto-san will be very impressed with you." Kayaba said with a teasing tone, as Naruto yelled indignantly as he tried to ignore the fact that his brother was talking about his fellow intern, not so secret crush on him.
"Oh, come on! At least let her help me!"
"Nope!"
(A few hours later)
"I'm sorry I'm late Akihiko-sensei. I had to close the school library today," A female voice yelled out as she entered the room that housed the team that was working on Sword art online. The girl was the other intern that the team's boss had assigned to them, she was the same age as Naruto but a few months younger than him. She had fair skin and was a rather short girl, being 5'1' and had light brown hair that reaching below chin level, covering her neck, with matching eyes. The girl was attractive for her age but was a bit of literarily nerd, on the inside.
Normally, Kayaba wouldn't refuse the help but the girl had limited skill in programming, as well as coding and mostly just helped out in small tasks, like making tea, running things to the level and tested how the game played. She was a glorified errand boy or girl, in this case. Despite that, the other workers didn't mind her, since she was able to do things for them when they didn't have time too. It also helps that she was a rather nice girl. Naruto even took it upon himself to teach her some basic programming to allow her to help even more.
Why, was a high school girl working for a game company as an intern with a lack of skill? It was simple; her uncle was their boss. The girl is staying with him since he lives close to the high school she attends. Which so happens to be the same school that Naruto goes too. Moreover, it was a great way to keep her out of trouble by having her work at his place of employment.
"Naruto-senpai? You're here already?" Chika asked with a confused look on her face when she saw her upperclassmen already at his desk, hard at work. Well..working wasn't the right word but was trying to bury his head into the keyboard.
"Oh, Chika-chan, you're here, did class already end?" Naruto asked sleepily rubbing his eyes, lifting his head off his keyboard and began to stretch his arms and back out.
"What are you talking about-" Chika stopped and faced palmed when she recognized what was being implied. "Don't tell me you skipped class again, senpai… You know you're going to get in trouble if you keep doing this." Naruto opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Kayaba who had walked out of his office.
"It's nice to see you arrive safely, Kuramoto-san. Now that you're here, I have an announcement to make so…let's get it over with." Kayaba raised his voice slightly as everyone in the room looked over to the project head, who mentally prepared himself for the bomb he was about to drop. "I was just this morning that Sword art online will be pushed ahead of schedule for a…fall 2022 release window."
"WHAT!" The response was unanimous as almost every yelled out in frustration at the news, which he completely agreed. However, there was nothing he can do about it, he allowed his workers to vent glancing around the room as they did. He caught the eye of person he had known the longest on his team, Rinko Koujiro, who had a small frown on her face. Her eye's then meet him as he gave her a small nod before looking back at the room.
"I know the news is…surprising but the higher-ups had already made the decision. There nothing we can do…" Kayaba sighed as the room fell quiet, Naruto clenched his hands into a fist as saw the dejected look on his older brother's face. "As of right now the content that will cut is undecided, so we will be having an internal meeting to figure out what will be kept and cut. Until then, all I ask is that you finish what you're working on then you can leave for the day if you want." The SAO head bowed his head, before retreating into his office space the employees began talking amongst themselves about what they just heard. Rinko then took the time to sneak into Kayaba's office, when nobody was looking.
"Naruto-senpai…what do you think is going on?" Chika asked as Naruto groaned loudly running his hands through his hair.
"I have no idea, Chika-chan…but it looks like our workload just got a whole lot heavier… I just hope we can get everything ready by next year." Naruto said turning to look at her before giving her a small smile to reassure her, but he did glance over at Kayaba office with concern. He had a slight frown on his face before he shook it off.
"Senpai, why do you have that jacket on your chair?" Chika asked eyeing the jacket hanging on naruto's chair before naruto's eyes widen in fright, looking at the time on his cell phone to see 15 missed calls and over 30 unread texts.
"Oh, ShIt! I'm late, Sorry,,.but I have to go Chika-san, I'll try to pop back in after I'm done." Naruto yelled as he grabbed his jacket and ran out the room. The brown-haired girl watched his retreating form leaving in a hurry and stared at him in confusion.
"what was he late for?"
(10:34 that night)
The office was empty almost everyone had left for the day except for the project head, who was silently typing away in his office, working on the code for his game. Akihiko sighed as he ran his hands over his face before leaning back in his chair. He decided to take a break and turn on the TV that he had in his office and began flipping through the channel before stopping when he saw that a rerun interview of the winners of a national Overwatch tournament that happened the other day, was about to start.
"I forgot that the networks started airing these on tv last year…It's strange to see how far E-sports has gone.." Kayaba spoke his mind, laying back in his chair and decided to watch the interview, personally speaking, he did not care for E-sports in general and only watched to get his mind off work.
"I keep forgetting how to dominate that group has been since they popped up," Kayaba muttered when he heard a knock on his door, who could it be it was past 10:30. Most of the members of his team have already left hours ago before they began crunch time. Turning off the TV and yelled, "Come in." The door opened a bit and saw tuff of blond hair peeking through. "What are you doing here Naruto? Shouldn't you be home, it's a school night after all."
"I know but…I just couldn't…" Naruto began before he scratched his neck nervously, the older man sighed as he had an idea what the boy was here about.
"Sit down." He ordered, making the blond close the door behind him and sat down in front of his desk, "Look Naruto… I know what you're going to say but there is nothing we can do."
"But still, Nii-san this is wrong! How can they force you to push your game out when we are barely even got the combat system working. There still a lot of areas we need to fix before it's ready. Now, we have to remove stuff just to make the deadline is ridiculous" Naruto wanted to say more but saw the stern look on his older brother face made him keep quiet.
"Look…I know you're not happy, but there is nothing I can do to stop this." Kayaba tried to reason, with the blond who wasn't willing to back down. Damn his stubbornness, he was just like his mother.
"This isn't fair, how can they expect you and everyone work making a half-baked product," Naruto whined as he could not fathom why the company would do something like this, don't they know if this flop VRMMORPG will crash and burn before it even takes off. It would end the NerveGear before it can get a proper footing in the ground.
"Don't you think I know that…but the people upstairs don't care, at the end of the day all they care about is lining their pockets up as quick as possible. Guys like me are just a means to an end for them…." Kayaba admitted as Naruto's eyes stared at his feet with a downcast expression on his face. "Naruto…go home, we can talk more about this tomorrow"
"But what about your game…" Naruto asked with a worried look in his eye, the man gave the blond a sad smile that wasn't even noticeable. But the situation didn't make him happy.
"I'll figure out something out…you mother will get mad if you stay any out any longer on a school night." Naruto groaned but complied; he stood up before walking towards the door and began walking out before stopping.
"Hey, Nii-san, if you need any help, you know I got your back…if you do." With that, he left the room, leaving the man alone with his thoughts. Reaching his controller, he turned the TV on again and saw the interview rerun has already started.
"Why I'm I not surprised…" Kayaba muttered as he saw a group of 5 people with a familiar black and yellow jacket being worn by the winners of the tournament before they made a hand gesture in the shape of a U and E.
"The era of the undisputed continues huh…" Before he muted the TV and went back to work, the channel showing the event then had an announcement on the bottom of the screen that read 'Breaking E-Sport news, Undisputed team member, Naruto Uzumaki announces surprise year-long hiatus from E-sport.' Just then the very same blond, walked into the interview with an apologetic expression as he bowed to the interviewer and his teammates, who had begun to smack Naruto for being late.
(One year later; In Naruto's bedroom)
It has been over a year since that day and it's been…a rather rough year all around for the blond. After finding out what happened to the game, Naruto had asked his parent if he could take some time away from his job to help Akihiko as much as possible? He was glad that his parent completely understood and that they were more than willing to let him help after finding out the reason why. His mother was concerned as well but asked him to not to overdo it or get in her Kayaba's way. The year was then spent working with his older brother and his team to rush the game out, on weekends it wasn't common that he would spend the night at the studio and helping out with the crunch. Even Chika was there help out in any way she can.
They managed to get the game to a working state, just before they launched the beta test, which consisted of over 1,000 beta testers. The test ran for over a month in august before ending in September, the beta testers weren't able to make much progress but the test was successful and overall positive. Except for when upper management interfered asking to change, drop rate making certain items harder to drop and farm, an effort to put some form of microtransactions into the game.
Kayaba didn't say much after that and the atmosphere changed in the studio. He no longer talked with anyone and just stayed in his office in the majority of the time. The moral was took a hit in the office; added to the pressure in delivering a quality game to both the company and the gamers who were hyping the game up. Overall, it was a rough month.
The rest of the days were spent finalizing and polishing what they had, with the plan to patch everything they can when the game launched. It wasn't the best plan but it was all they had. In the end, the game was a former shell of what it was supposed to be.
The developer had to make changes, they had to remove some of the weapons, for example, removing the archery weapons in the game but leaving the code in the game. So they can sell that as an expansion or DLC. Many of the skills in the game could not be added in on time, making healing and tanking more difficult. Overall, Sword Art Online was a mediocre MMORPG that might not even last the first year if they didn't add address the issues. That not even adding the potential Bugs and Glitches that are present in the game, which was overlooked or not found by the testers. But the team were optimistic about it and were willing to fix the game to be the best it should be.
Naruto then sighed as he laid on his bed, lounging in his room until the opening of the Sao servers. His parents were currently out working and he decided to skip school…again, to play SAO on opening day. Out of the all, the people working on the game, he and Chika were the only one willing to play the game. The company even gave them exclusive personal copies of the game, which included special feature not included with the base game. It felt like another slap to the face by the company, it took everything for the blond to not beat the smug manger's face. However, Chika wouldn't appreciate that given the fact that the guy was her uncle.
Naruto then felt his phone vibrate as he saw a message from his brother figure, raising an eyebrow, which was weird since Kayaba didn't like texting, he stood up from the bed to read it better.
"Don't log in to the game…' The message read making the blond stare at the text, baffled that his brother would ask him not to play the very game he created.
'Nii-san, why are you asking me not to log in?'
'Don't worry about it, just don't."
'Right, like that would work! Spill, it or I'll just log in to the game anyways.'
'…you really won't listen to my request?'
'Nope! ~ '
'Fine…here, if you're going to be this stubborn about this. Then at least this will be of help.' Naruto then heard an email notification appear on his phone, reading it and saw a company email with SAO account information.
'What is this?' he asked in confusion about what he is looking at and why he was getting it.
'What does it look like? It's an SAO GM account, it was supposed to be Rinko's but…it might be best if you have instead. I modified something's about it for your use. I copied your alpha account avatar details, so you don't waste any time making a new character.' Akihiko texted before Naruto could do anything another message appeared. 'Once more thing…I'm sorry.'
"Okay, that kind of spooky…" Naruto muttered as he texted him again only to get no replay back before he tried to call his phone. Only to get an automatic message saying the phone number is not a working number. "What the fuck is going on, Nii-san?"
Ring, Ring
Turning his head to see his alarm clock going off, He smiled as he had it set to notify him just before the game server opened. Unfortunately, he had no time to worry about the ominous message his brother had given him. He sent a message to Chika saying that he will meet her inside the game, putting on his NerveGear, got everything ready, before lying comfortably laying on his bed, and waited for the clock to hit 1:00.
"LINK START" Naruto stated, his vision blurred as beams of colors clouded his view, he got to the account login screen and put in the info that he received from his brother, once he got a pop-up screen that said, "Would you like to load alpha character data?", Hitting yes on to confirm.
When that was done, he saw another pop-up message appear that said, "Your special edition items shall be stored in your storage." With that, the screen turned grey as the words.
"Welcome to Sword Art Online!"
(Town of Beginning, First Floor)
Aincrad was a floating castle in the sky, conical in shape with a hundred floors and was also the setting for SAO. With over a hundred floors, no two floors were the same, each one was different and unique from the next. On the first floor was over 6 miles long across with over 30 square miles in between. At the southern tip was one of the largest settlement of the game.
The town of Beginning, the scale of the town was based on holding the size of Tokyo district inside its wall. Over half a mile across surround by a large semi-circular wall In the center of this town was the Black Iron palace, which is the biggest structure of the town. In front of that was the central plaza. This also is the starting area of the game, where Naruto had spawned in.
Soon blue pixel as the blond spiky-haired avatar formed, wearing a simple white tunic with an orange vest, with blue pants and black boots. The character was based on his real-life self if it was aged by a few years, not very imaginative but heck sue him.
"Holy crap…" Naruto muttered as he opens his eyes as he could not help but marvel at what his brother (with the help of his team and two teens) have created. He stared and clenched his hands for a moment, no matter how many times he played this game it still was surreal. Looking around, he noticed that he was the first person in…no wait there was another one other person. A tall male with black hair with a blue shirt underneath the beginning copper chest armor that was given to every new player when they start.
Before Naruto can do anything the fountain area was filled up in with a blue pixel light as hundreds, if not thousands of players began logging in. Soon the once barren town had sprung to life as a bunch of avatars filled the area and marveled at the sight before them. Making him feel a sense of pride since he did help make this possible but was happier for the fact that his brother had finally made his dreams come true and had created something amazing.
He opened his menu and scanned his friend list to see that only one person was logged, who happened to be Chika or her in-game name, Alkaid. Sending her a message that said, "Meet me at the large fountain on the other side of town." Naruto grinned as he saw several people take in the sight, his eyes darted towards a small number of player quickly taking off to the exit. Looks like the beta players couldn't wait any longer to play.
Shrugging his shoulder and then decided to follow suit, not wanting to get stuck by the future sea of people block the exit. He hummed lightly as he began passing a couple of NPC manned stores, he stopped at a random weapon store. Not going to lie was amazed how his brother was able to make the NPC act like somewhat normal people, it must have been to the A.I. he and the other's developed for the game. Buying some basic equipment and potions, etc. And went on his way, there was no rush, in his mind anyway. As he walked through the town he didn't take notice of two girls rushing towards him.
"Sorry." A random girl with pale blue hair muttered as she bumped into him when she wasn't paying attention; he waved it off when he heard a feminine voice calling out to him.
"Umm, excuse me? Wait!" Naruto paused in his step and turned to see a girl…or gurls? Running towards him before stopping a few feet from him. To be fair, he wasn't sure, since this is an RPG, where anyone can pretend to be anyone they wanted, it would be hard to tell if it was a man on the other side of the NerveGear. Deciding to at least, be polite, he gave the two girls a small smile. "You two need something?"
"I'm sorry…but me and my friend couldn't help but notice that you seemed to know what you were doing…" a girl with freckles said, as Naruto stared at her taking in her appearance. She had brown hair with a white clip in it and a red top with bare shoulders with a white skirt and brown boots. The freckled girl was then interrupted when the other girl spoke up.
"Do you mind teaching us the basic?" The girl in the red tunic and wearing white leather pants…he should convince his brother to give a raise to whoever was the man who put those pants in the game. The girl had long brown hair reaching her passed her butt. The blond let out a small hum, well, it would matter if he was a couple of minutes late, so he decided to help the girls.
"I guess I have some time…Sure, what are your names?" Naruto asked, putting his hands into his pants pocket before the freckled girls spoke up with a smile.
"My name is Lisbeth, and this is Asuna." Lisbeth answer then gestured to the long-haired girl, who he now knew as Asuna, who then gave the boy a small smile before bowing. Naruto gave a grin in return, it was strange to see someone being polite in an online game, given peoples tendency to be an asshole or just straight up trolling. And he can't lie, he would also do the occasional trolling, when he was bored of course.
"Name's NU…but you can call me Naruto." The girls looked confused by his introduction this made his unease. "Did either of you play an RPG before?"
"A what?" the two chimed together as they both stared at him with a confused stare, as Naruto concluded that this would take a while.
'I hope Chika-chan would understand.' Naruto thought with a sigh, she was a reasonable person after all.
(One hour later)
"WHERE WERE YOU!" Chika yelled at Naruto the moment he entered her field of vision, having arrived at the fountain area an hour later then he had originally planned, but he had to teach the girls how to open the game menu and how to navigate it. That alone took more than 15 minutes, then having to go over basic gaming terms and then getting into a thing like what health points mean and then a thing like strength, dexterity, etc. Eventually, he managed to give the two girls a pretty good rundown on the things that they needed in a way that they could understand. Honestly, he was taken back by the girls' lack of common game knowledge.
"I'm sorry…Alkaid, but I got caught up." Pausing, as he looked over Chika's in-game character, which was completely different than how she looked in real life. The avatar had red hair, with two hair strands standing upward on top of her head with a single strain going over her face. She had a dark orange top that showed off her massive chest and black leather pants…and of course, a pair of black boots.
"You could have at least send a message!" yelled Alkaid, who was now grabbing Naruto by his shirt and pulling him down to eye level, well…one thing that hasn't changed that much from her real-life self was her lack of height. Still, it was surprising to see her act this way when outside of the game she is a completely different person.
"Sorry but…I had my hands filled…" Naruto stopped as he looked behind him at the two girls who were watching the scene; Asuna looked concerned while Liz, on the other hand, had an amused grin on her face. The redhead sighed before she gave Naruto a stare.
"Noobs?" Alkaid asked as the blond nodded.
"Noobs." She sighed again before letting go of the blond's top, walking over to the two girls and stuck out her hand.
"Sorry for what you saw but you know how guys are." Alkaid stated with a large grin, "Names Alkaid and you already meet my idiot."
"Oi!"Naruto shouted at her remark, Liz grin grow wider as she grabbed Alkaid's outstretched hand and shook it.
"It's no problem! He was rather helpful and besides...it was kind of our fault that he was this late. The name's a Lisbeth." The freckled girl introduced herself before the redhead shook Asuna hand.
"And I'm Asuna, it's nice to meet, ya. I'm sorry for all the trouble we caused." The brown-haired girl apologizes but Alkaid waved her hand in front of her face.
"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I don't mind much, we girl have to stick together in these kinds of situations. I'm sure Naruto and I can teach you everything you need to know about this game." Alkaid said making Asuna confused at what she heard.
"But isn't the first day?" Asuna asked with her head tilted which made Liz nod her head in agreement. Alkaid busted out laughing for a minute, she puffed up her chest in pride and open her mouth to speak.
"We are one of the beta tester's for this game, so we would know a lot more than the other players," Naruto interjected causing the redhead to deflate and pout slightly. Staring at her senpai with a hurt look on her face, having her moment ruined. The girls looked confused. "Beta…testers?"
"Wow, you girls are noobs.." Alkaid muttered surprised, she blinked her eyes a bit before coughing into her hand and regained her composure. "How do I put this…the two of us had early access to this game before the majority of the public, so we know a lot more things that few others would have. Get it?" The two girls nodded their heads slowly, "Good! Naruto, did you tell them about sword skills and how the combat system works?" The blond shook his head no.
"I did mention it but I figure it would be better for them to see it first-hand then trying to explain." Alkaid hummed and nodded her head in agreement. As Asuna and Lisbeth looked at each other and couldn't help but wonder if this was a good idea, after all.
"I don't feel comfortable with this…" Asuna muttered as her friend nodded in agreement, after the meeting, the two beta player had decided to take them on a little field trip to the west field just outside of the starting town. The vast open fields were filled with life from the small woodland critters that roam in from the nearby forest or the rather large wild boar that was currently minding its own business eating the virtual grass.
"Naruto…are you sure we have to-" Lisbeth tried to ask, before Alkaid held her hand up, stopping the girl from speaking.
"Don't finish and yes you do. Look I get it you don't want to harm an animal, but that pig right over there isn't even real it's a bunch of 1's and 0's." Alkaid explained with a flat stare as the girls looked over at the blue boar as it went on eating just waiting to be killed. Asuna bit her lip, as she did not know what to do, even if she knew if it was fake, it looked too real for her taste.
"Still, it feels wrong…" Asuna muttered as the corners of Alkaid lip turned upward as a wicked thought went through her mind.
"Well, if you don't like this then we can always head north and fight the large bug monsters." The moment they heard bug, the two stiffen up as a horrified look appeared on their face. "Or we can head east and see what we can find in the swamp area?"
"ARRRGGGHHH" the two screamed as they charged the boar with the simple bronze swords they started with, the Boar now was targeting them and began attacking them in turn. Alkaid chuckled lightly, proud at the results.
"Looks like they are getting into it," Naruto muttered, the redhead turned her head to stare at the blond, who was laying on the grassy ground with his eyes closed. The girl let out a small growl before she kicked him in the side, Naruto grunted in false pain before standing up and glared at her. "OW! What was that for!"
"Stop being lazy, and help me teach them!" The male sighed before kip up to his feet, surprising the girl, he was still slouching but watched the girls fighting the boar. Well, the sword fighting was a bit kind. Asuna flailed the sword as she had with no idea what she was doing. While Lisbeth was using it. more like of a beat stick, instead of slashing weapon. Moreover, as one of the people to have helped develop the combat system, Naruto felt disgusted in the actions.
"Damn it…do they not know how a sword works?" he muttered before facing Alkaid who shrugged her shoulder.
"Hey don't look at me, that was the weapon they choose to start with." She stated before focusing back on the two, she scrunched up her face, "Besides this game was designed for people who can't use weapons, unlike the what 1% of people who know how to use one, not even counting the other people who think they know how to use one."
"What is hard to understand about swish swish stab? It's a sword, not a fighter jet." Naruto muttered to himself, as Alkaid hit him upside the head as Naruto felt a breeze hit him. "I wonder how much money Nii-san had to spend making this game?" Naruto wondered, before flinching, annoyed that Liz seemed to think the best course of action to kill a simple boar, was to try slamming her sword down on its head but kept missing, "At this rate, she will destroy her swords durability before she even has enough to buy a new bronze sword."
"Do you think we should tell them about sword skills? Or should we wait until later?" Alkaid stated trying to keep the laughter from escaping her belly, the sight of the two noobs trying to kill the weakest enemy in the game with great difficulty was a sight to see. Wait, a second, The girl's head turned towards Naruto who began staring off to the side. "You bastard! You did the same thing to me!"
"…I have no idea what you're talking about." He stated with a sly grin, Alkaid fritted her teeth, which then turn to a sweet smile.
"Really? Then I don't think you will have a problem with teaching them how to use sword skills…after all you were one of the creators." The redhead paused, staring at the two girls who finally landed a solid hit on the boar, "And you should probably have them switch their swords for something else."
"You got to-! Great…I guess we can start with changing their weapons to match there fighting style or at the very least Liz." Naruto lifted his hand, opened his menu, and began navigating the options and hitting the inventory button as a large screen appeared in front of him. Alkaid wanted to peer over his shoulder to see what he had but the way the game was designed, it prevented anyone from looking into anyone's inventory.
As Naruto navigated his inventory, he saw some of the weapons he had bought earlier and his weapon, an iron dagger. He looked up as he noticed the shattered glass animation, having finally killed the boar and two pop up menu appeared in front of them. They each looked at in confusion before Naruto call out to them. "Hey, Asuna! Liz come back for a moment!"
The two jogged towards them as Naruto waited for them to stop, "Not going to lie, that was…okay for a first-timer." A little white lie never hurt, "Still, you manage to kill that boar which say something."
"Not going to lie that was a lot harder than I thought. The damn thing would hold still." Liz whined as she crossed her arms across her chest. Making Asuna nod in agreement before chiming in with her thoughts. "Yeah, I thought that pig would have been simple to deal with but it did manage to hit me before I killed it."
The blond eyes dart towards the upper left corner of his eye to see his party member health bar, indeed Asuna had about a 1/3 of her health with Liz having half of her health left. Taking two portions out from his inventory and handed it to the girls. Looking at the blue substance, seeing this Naruto decided to explain a bit, "This is one the most basic items in any video game and the most useful one until later in the game. This is a health potion, while not as good as later in the game, but this will be a lifesaver. It will heal about 100 hit point per bottle." He quickly traded 5 basic health potions to each of the girls "There are a bunch of different types of potions, that do different types of things but they will take time to take effect so be sure to keep that in mind."
"Anyways, just drink the potion up and recover your health but that should be enough for the moment. For now, I think I should tell you something important and that is sword skills. It's better if I so you first just so you have an idea of what I'm talking about." Naruto then began looking around to see another boar had spawned nearby. He motions the girls to relax a bit before he walks towards the boar.
"Is he going to be okay?" Asuna wondered, making the redhead laugh, Alkaid wiped the tear from her before calming down enough to address the girl.
"Nah, he'll be fine. He is probably the best person to explain SAO just shy of the actual game creator." Alkaid said when she saw her senpai pick something up off the ground, from where she was standing it she saw it was a simple rock. He tossed it in the air before he went through the throwing motion when his rock began to glow.
"Why is his hand glowing?" Liz called out before Naruto throws the rock and a small streak of light flow across the field and hit the boar, it squealed in pain as the cursor above its head turned red showing that it was agro'd. The boar turned it's body to face Naruto who gave the boar a cheeky smile and waved his hand at it. It squealed, the pig-like enemy kick it's hoof against the ground and charged towards him.
"The glowing is him using a skill, while not a sword skill really but it's useful, we will talk more about skills in general later." The redhead stated before the other's can ask her about it, which was perfect since Naruto had moved his hand towards his waist as he pulled out a small iron dagger and waited. Things felt tense for Asuna and Lisbeth when the beast was about 5 feet away, the blond let out a small smirk and pulled his hand back as it glowed red, he waited for half a second as the sword skill activated.
[Armor Pierce] Naruto muttered as he clenched his simple dagger, which began to glow red and his arm shot forward as the dagger buried itself into the animals head. The boar then exploded into blue pixels as a white window popped up in front of naruto's showing the exp and Cor, the in-game currency, he had gained from that kill. He quickly hit the confirmation button on the menu and noticed he got prime boar meat, rare item drop. Which is a great find, early game like this, it's a rare drop that when cooked properly heal 500 Hp per second for 10 minutes which would increase depending on the cooking skill level.
"So, as you can see that glow is Naruto activating a sword skill. The sword skill is the main thing that players use to deal the most damage but they have a cooldown period after each use and it also wears down a weapon's durability so you will have to be careful not to overuse it." Alkaid explained to the girls who watched Naruto effortlessly killed the same monster and did it in less time and a single attack. "The Sword Skills are all based on the system to assist with a motion-based command prompt. Which all you have to do is hold the weapon, take a stance. It kind of like a…tensing your body and releasing it at the right moment, the system then automatically does the rest."
"I have a question?" Lisbeth raised her hand like she at school, the red-headed girl looked at her, motioning her to go on. "I have no idea what you just said…so, what your saying is if hold the sword a certain way It will do a special attack, right."
"Basically, but not every gesture does a Sword Skill. Since we are still pretty early in the game every player would only have one Sword skill until your proficiency reaches a certain level." Alkaid placed her hands behind her head, unknowingly showed off her large breast with a cheerful grin. Lisbeth hummed in thought before Asuna took over with a question of her own.
"So when will we get another sword skill?" Asuna then looked over her one-handed sword and tried to do her motion to activate a sword skill, which failed, making Alkaid watch with amusement.
"If I remember correctly you should get the next sword skill when you hit level 50 in One-Handed Sword, after that you will get another one when you hit level 100, the cap for every skill in the game is 1000." Asuna and Lisbeth stumbled before turning to Alkaid with their eyes widen.
"1000!"
"Yep! Not the best system for getting Sword Skills in my opinion but it does reward a player for sticking with a single weapon." The two looked at their weapons with a slight frown, noticing this Alkaid and called it out. "Is something wrong?"
"Well…if I'm being honest, I don't think a sword is the right weapon for me…" Lisbeth spoke frowning at her weapon as Asuna agreed, this restored some of the red head's faith, at least they know their faults.
"At least the two of you noticed that those weapons aren't really for you ahead of time and not trying to force something that you don't enjoy using," Naruto spoke up having overheard their conversation, as he got closer. "Sorry, but I noticed that you guys were having trouble using the swords you had earlier, if you want, I have a couple of spares weapons that you can try out."
"Are you sure, Naruto. I mean me and Liz are grateful but…I wouldn't feel right abusing your kindness…the two of you have helped us a lot." Asuna sounded conflicted about the amount of help the two strangers had to offer them despite being new to games in general. She knew for a fact Liz didn't play games at all, the only experience Liz has was a simple crane game. Moreover, she was no better, with the only games she played were the free games she got preinstalled on her cell phone. Heck, the only reason that she got to play this game was that her older brother, who had bought the game, was unable to play it, due to having to travel oversea on a business trip for her father company. Asuna did wonder how Liz was able to get a copy of the sold-out game, she will have to ask her about that later.
"Nah, it's fine it's best to find what you guys are best suited for," Naruto stated when Alkaid took over the discussion.
"And it also a plus for us too. The four of us can form a party." The redhead stated, with a large smile. "Which would allow users to go into the higher-level areas to farm and grind without worry…only when you get the basics down, of course."
"You two would still want to play with us…?" Liz stated with a shocked expression that was matched by her friend. Not that I'm not grateful, but we aren't that good at the game."
"So? No person is ever good at anything first try, besides this type of thing takes time and practice before you get any good at them. Every player at some point were once noobs." Naruto stated, as he opens his menu and sent the two a friend request. Alkaid soon did the same, which the other two girls quickly accepted. Naruto glanced at his hub and saw that it was still rather early in the day, he could spare some more time before logging out. "Okay, now that settled let's see what weapons are best for the two of you." The blond spoke as he began scrolling his inventory.
"ARGGGGGG" Liz yelled as she slammed her new iron mace on the ground killing two boars, she coughed a bit from the pixelated dust clouding her vision, before the white result screen popped up as the word leveled up appeared over it. The freckled girl let out a loud yahoo! As she jumped up and down in happiness at her new achievement.
"Liz that was amazing!" Asuna exclaimed as she jogged up to the bouncing girl who then tackling her to the ground in her excitement. "I didn't think you would be able to use mace so well already."
"I know! This feels a lot more natural to use than a sword for some reason. What about you? How do you like that toothpick of yours?" Liz teased as Asuna gave her a half-hearted glare, While Liz choice a mace, Asuna, on the other hand, decided to try a weapon called a rapier. It was completely different than the sword she had before, which was a spear even though she did like the feel of it; she wasn't happy with how slow she was with it. Therefore, she ended up trying out the rapier instead which was built more for speed.
"Looks like you two are enjoying yourselves, to think that not even half an hour ago, you two couldn't even kill a simple pig," Alkaid said, walking up to the two girls, with Naruto behind her, the redhead then pretend to sniff and wipe away a pretend tear for her eye. "They grow up so fast senpai…"
"I know…soon they be grown up enough to go into dungeons by themselves, killing mini-bosses and going on raids," Naruto stated as he stuck his hand out to help Asuna up, who gratefully took it making Liz pout before Naruto helped her up as well. "Well, things have gone smoothly. We got you two to level 3 which is enough for the forest area up north, if we can get to level 5 then we can try the min dungeon at the south. It's the best place to farm some specific items to increase our weapons stats."
"Weapons stats?" Liz asked, making the blond sigh at another thing they will have to teach them.
"Don't worry about it, Alkaid how are you doing on potions?" Naruto asked as Alkaid check her inventory, scanning its contents.
"I still have 3 more but I think we should stop by the shop to stock up. I think I have enough to get a new weapon and armor." The redhead spoke, making Naruto nod his head. With the amount of Cor he had, he should have enough to do the same, but he will have to make a quick stop at the storage since he didn't have enough time to see what items he got from Kayaba. He wondered how many staff members were online, throughout the day, he checks his old friends' list that had a staff member that worked on the game but they show to be offline. Maybe they were sick of seeing the game that they worked on for the past few years. "So…"
Naruto was knocked from his thoughts as he heard Lisbeth saying something off to his side, he turns to look at her and saw her holding her chin with a sly grin. "I have to ask Naruto…what is going on between you and Alkaid?" Taking a deep breath, why shouldn't he be surprised by this development?
"I'm her senpai for starters, and we work together for over a year," Naruto answered seriously but Liz decided to press on, ignoring the look coming from Asuna.
"Oh? Cause that is not what I'm noticing?" Lisbeth started playfully, wiggling her eyebrow at him, Naruto looked at her. A part of him knew she didn't mean it but…he was curious.
"Okay, fine, I'll bite…what did you notice." Naruto asked as the grin on the freckled girls face grow larger.
"Eh, nothing much...really, but I did notice when you weren't looking, she would always stare at you're as-"
"Don't you dare!" Alkaid yelled out as she tackled and straddled then forcing her hand over Lizbeth mouth who began struggling against the girl's strength. Asuna sighed aloud, leaving Naruto shaking his head with a smile on his face.
"Nii-san you made a great game," Naruto muttered, unknown to him Asuna looked at him with confusion.
(A few hours later, back in Town)
After arriving in town to restock one of the girls had asked about what else is there to do besides killing boars or random mobs. This allowed them to show them the main purpose for MMO's in general, Quest. The first quest they had found was simple fetch quests bring a single potion to the other side of town, find a simple flower in town or playing tag with some NPC kids for some Cor and exp.
Simple to the point, nothing worth writing about but from there the more experience players showed them the best beginner quest for the best Cor and exp which was a simple kill quest at the time, kill five beetles. This allowed for Asuna and Lisbeth to fight a different enemy and allowing both Naruto and Alkaid a laugh seeing them react to the giant bug in the forest area nearby. To be fair to both them, even they reacted the same way when they first witnessed giant bugs.
After killing some bugs, the gang had managed to make it to level 5, before they took a break in town, where they found themselves now. "Whoa, I never knew these games can be so time-consuming," Lisbeth said as the four-member group had decided to rest a nearby restaurant. "I can see why people lose track of time playing this."
"And we still haven't scratched the surface." Alkaid spoke up casual sipping her virtual water, "We only touched upon the combat there still passive skills and active combat skills that we need to go over. Not to mention the other noncombat skills that you can use, like cooking, fishing, jewelry crafting, blacksmithing, not mention playing instruments as well." Making the two girls stare at them in surprise at the number of things that they could do that didn't involve fighting.
"I…never imagine how big this game is, it's kinda amazing when you think about it," Lisbeth mumbled, her eyes glancing around the area, at the bunch of people around the commercial area. She couldn't tell if they were actual humans on the other side of the game console or just a random computer. It was somewhat surreal, in her opinion, from the light breeze, the smell of the cooked bread from the bakery nearby. Just how far technology came to allow her to sense things just like she normally did in real life. "The fact we are actually inside a video game is hard to believe, to be honest."
"To bad this is your first gaming experience because everything else won't compare to this." Naruto commented as he propped his head up with his hand, "Seeing as this the only game of its kind, nothing will be close to this kind of experience for some time. Add in the fact that you are one of the few people to have lived the dream of almost every single gamer and otaku in the world. Congratulation's you have just earned the ire and hate of all of nerd and geek kind. "
"Which means it's all downhill from here, you two," Alkaid stated with a shit-eating grin, causing the others to laugh. Asuna looked up at the setting sun, with a sad smile; this was a rather nice escape from the stress of her daily life. She was glad that she decided to play.
"I wonder what time it is?" Liz muttered looking up at the sun as well, making Naruto open his menu to see at the bottom of the menu where the time showed it was 5:29. He then told the girls the time causing them to be disappointed.
"I guess it time we stop for the day, huh…"Asuna muttered. "It's about time for dinner and I don't think my parent would like the fact I missed a meal."
"Same…So I guess that it huh?" Lizbeth muttered as she began moving her fingers across the table in a random pattern.
"What's with the long faces? It's not like it's the end of the world or anything. So you have to leave early. You two can always just log back in later or the next day." Alkaid said, making the blond nod his head, leaning forward give the girls a lazy smile.
"Yeah, we still have you guys on our friend's list so we can just send each other a message if you ever want to meet up and play together." Naruto then stood up and stretched his arms out, "But I think it's time for me to leave too."
"What! I thought you would want to keep playing toget…." Alkaid then stopped mid-sentence as a loud ringing of a bell echoed throughout the town.
DING, DING
The loud dinging was enough for everyone to stop what they were doing as they looked around confused about what was going on. The redhead looked at her senpai in confusion as well, Naruto shrugged his shoulder but before he could reply, a blue light soon blinded his vision. Soon as it appeared it disappear just as quickly as the group found themselves in the central plaza of the black iron palace.
"WHAT WAS THAT!" Lizbeth exclaimed loudly as she looked towards the more experienced players in her group. Eventually, it was Naruto, who replied to her, "It was a force teleport…"
"What does that mean?" Asuna asked him, but before he can answer her, the sky turned checkered red, as a pattern of words appeared in the sky, Warning, system announcement, written in red letters. The two newcomers didn't know what was happening, as Alkaid looked at the blond, hoping that he had some answer about what was going on. Soon a strange liquid began to sipping in through the floor and began oozing down slowly, but instead of falling on the ground, it began coming together and forming a shape.
After a couple of moments, the shape soon became a large faceless man with a red hooded robe that was given to the GM's accounts that monitored the game. However, this one was different as Naruto immediately knew who this GM account belonged to.
"Players, I welcome you to my world." The voice that came from the figure, caused Alkaid to stare at Naruto, who had to keep his gaze upward.
'Nii-san…'
"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world." The figure paused as the mention of his name seemed to cause a small commotion below him, he waited for a bit before continuing. "I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu."
"Wait, what?" Alkaid whispered out as her eyes widen at the implication of what was said, this was news to a good portion of the audience, who didn't even know what was happening, but game creator kept talking. Naruto…felt numb as he listened to the person he considered a brother talk. That no one was allowed to leave the game until they cleared all 100 floors of Aincrad, but the fact that over 200 people have died already. His eye's flickered to the people around him the panic in their voice and on their face was…too much to explain. Glancing over to Asuna and Lisbeth who seemed to have grasped the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in, not even a five minutes ago, the four of them were laughing and having a fun time. But now…
It was a rather strained silent eventually turned into a small murmur but the blond was unable to think clearly at the moment. His mind was clouded as he tried to grasp what Kayaba was trying to accomplish...it made no sense for him to even do it. Why? Why would he do something like this?
"Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this." Naruto barely was able to hear this, but he quickly opened his inventory and saw something that wasn't there before. Pressing the item button and pulled it out of his inventory, it was a small hand mirror. Examining it as the whole plaza was filled with white light. When it died down, the blond began to look around when he noticed Alkaid…did not look like her avatar anymore.
"What happened…Senpai?" Alkaid…No, Chika, asked as her eyes shot wide open as she saw his normal real-life appearance instead.
"Chika-chan?" His eyes gave her a once over and saw, it was indeed how she looked real life…was she always this busty?
"STOP STARING!" Chika yelled, covering her chest, her pervious outfit had shown a bit more skin then she would like now. Naruto, then looking around to find his other friends, when he felt someone touch his shoulder.
"N-Naruto?' He turned his head to see a 15-year-old girl with orange hair and brown eyes, looking at him with uncertainty. Another girl was standing next to her, about the same age with brown hair and freckles on her face.
"Asuna? Liz?" The blond asked, the two sighed in relief. The two stepped closer, looking around with anxious expression. He knew what they wanted to ask, however, before they can say anything, Kayaba began talking.
"You will all most probably be wondering, 'Why.' Why am I—the creator of the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko—doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?" It was then that Kayaba's voice, which had been emotionless up to now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. As if he was trying to empathizing with the trapped players. "None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only is that, but now for me, they're no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is that... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.' Then after a short break, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, spoke. "... Now I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players—I wish you luck."
The hooded figure then began disappearing into the sky like how it appeared, melted away, robes and all, soon the sky returned to its orange glow of the setting sun. It was an eerie silence in the central plaza as the trapped gamers began voicing their comments loudly; with different emotions, they lashed it. Yelling, begging, weeping, cursing.
From the corner of his right eye, he saw Liz had collapsed on the ground as a small tear fell from her cheek; Asuna had a calm face, her eye staring up at the sky where his brother was floating a moment ago. Alka-No, Chika, had eyes focused on her feet, trying to process what just happened. Naruto on the other hand…clenched his hand, his teeth biting into his lower lip as angry flowed into his mind. "Chika…keep an eye on Asuna and Liz…I'll be right back…"
The brown-haired girl didn't have time to stop him, as Naruto ran out the central plaza as he noticed two other did the same. Nevertheless, his reasons were different from theirs. His brother had given him something this morning and he was planning to make use of it. On the first floor just on the other side of the town was a special area, only GM's can access. He was shift on his feet as he ran past every NPC and focused on his task. He didn't know how long he been running for but he was glad there wasn't a stamina system in the game, so he was able to run full speed.
Eventually, Naruto made it to the northern wall and near where he was standing was a simple well, crouching down as his hand traced a symbol carved into the stone, in the shape of castle Aincrad symbol. The carving reacted to his touch glowing for a moment before the wall nearby pixilated, and a door formed on top of it. He stood up, walked up and opening the door, inside was a void. The room was a plain white with streaks of data appearing briefly, nothing was in the room except for a large black cube in the center. Naruto going inside as the door disappeared behind him as he walked up to it, reaching out to touch it, the second his fingers touched the surface it reacted. Soon the cube began to glow with a yellow light emanating from the object; soon the light began forming a keyboard as the holographic screen appeared above it.
"I expected you to come here faster." A voice echoed throughout the void, making Naruto jump as he knew the voice immediately.
"Nii-san…" Naruto whispered as he glared at the screen to show Kayaba on the other side.
"Naruto…" The older man muttered, the blond clenched his hand as his eyes narrowed into a glare. "I told you…not to play the game." The teen opens his mouth to respond, "This message is pre-recorded so please don't interrupt me."
"I-"
"By this time you would have started talking, ignoring what I just said before…but like I said before and listen." Kayaba took a deep breath as he took a moment to think about what to say next. "You probably have a lot of questions for me and that completely fair, given what I had just done. There a lot of things I want to say about but…I feel this isn't the time for it…" He paused once more before continuing. "The only thing I can say is…I'm sorry that you got caught up in this situation. Sensei is going to kill me…"
"Yeah, no shit…" Naruto stated sarcastically even if his brother couldn't hear him, it felt good to say.
"Despite you stubbornly ignored my advice…you still entered the game. So as a favor to you and sensei, I decided to give you a gift of sorts." A gift? But there wasn't anything in his inventory when he started, "However, this gift won't appear until you reach a certain in-game achievement, I won't say much more than that. But considering how much you know about this game, it wouldn't be difficult to figure out."
Kayaba eye glanced to the side before sighing. "Looks like my time is up, so I will have to end this message soon, so I will say something real quick. You won't be able to enable the log off button from this console or any others that are in the game. I will see you when the time is right…"The messaged soon end, leaving Naruto alone as his mind was once again in a frenzy, gritting his teeth before slamming his hand down on the console. He was livid.
"WHY! WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO-!" Naruto screamed out slamming his hand once again, panting as he tried to catch his breath. Just then, he got a message notification from Alkaid.
"Naruto, I managed to get Liz and Asuna away from the plaza, meet back up ASAP. What is going…Anyways?" He stared at the message, before typing up one in return telling her to meet him at a near church by; after all, they had a lot to talk about…
(Floor 100)
Meanwhile, from the very top of Ancriad in the only building on that floor, The Ruby Palace. The Palace, just like its namesake was pure red and was the shape of a spiral. Inside the palace was a giant throne room, This room was just like the outside ruby red, with gold accents on the wall, pillars, and floor. The creator of Sao was currently sitting in this throne room with a grim expression on his face.
Kayaba sighed, running his hand through his hair as he watched the live video from the room naruto was in. He bit the inside of his cheek, scratched at the uneasy feeling in his chest as he felt uncomfortable watching his little brother figure reaction. It was probably have been best to tell him face to face but Kyaba wouldn't know how the blond would react to talking to him. The older man wasn't happy, why would he be. Could he have done better to stop naruto? Oh, yeah quite easily, there was a lot of ways he could have done it. But that would not have stopped Naruto, he was too stubborn and too much of a wild card. A part of him wanted to tell him about his plan, however...would Naruto has helped him? Or would he try to stop him? Kayaba wouldn't know now, but there was one thing he knew, and that was Naruto would have gone into the game just to help the other player that would have gotten stuck.
"the least I can do is give him a good chance to survive, however with the cardinal system there isn't much I can do..." Kayaba muttered as he fiddled with the Master control before he opened a special program that house his secret weapon so to speak. When he first thought about this plan, he had created several unique skills to help certain players to clear the game. These players that were given these skill, were meant to be the heroes of Aincred that saved the trapped players from the evil game master. There were 10 Skils he had created in total and no player was allowed to have 2 unique skills, and they will only be unlocked by completing and meeting certain requirements. He had already given himself the skill Holy blade, a skill that granted him the ability to freely switch between offense and defense.
So that left 9 other skills that are still unclaimed, but as much as he wanted to give Naruto the ability, he couldn't, his little brother would have to earn. Was it cruel, perhaps but he had faith in the blonds skill. And while he won't give him the skill outright, that doesn't mean he can't help lead him to the requirements. And given naruto's playstyle, he already has an idea about what skill that is. "Let's see how you handle this situation, Naruto."
A lot longer then I thought this would actually be, I mean sincerely, cause, to be honest, I have rather limited knowledge of the world of SAO and I had to do a bit of research while doing this but i do plan on putting things from the games in this fic. SO...I know people will ask this but... I have no idea about pairings I have only one that is kinda locked in and that person is in the chapter and made a cameo but that might change depending on how I feel. Some other people that have talked to for this fic had requested a girl that I will seriously consider. But for the most part, it is open.
And I also know, people would ask about Kirito, and he is still in the story and the same thing with naruto, a lot of things about his paring is up in the air. When I first watched the anime, I have always felt that...something was missing and it kinda dawned on me. What was missing was a rival, someone to be a kinda foil and equal to Kirito. So be warned that Naruto and Kirito...won't have a positive relationship, at least at first.
And Chika AKA Alkaid, is not and I repeat not an OC, she is from another show or rather a game, that is similar to SAO that I love and I know for a fact that I can't ever do a story about. Alkaid is from Dot Hack G.U. a great game, highly recommend if you like RPGs. She is going to be a major player in this story but depending on some factors...she might not and will leave it at that. I will also say this I have included one more thing from Dot Hack but it will be a secret.
There is something I have to say, this story...a lot of it is up in the air...i might keep this in just Aincrad. Or might go into the other series. Or this might not even take off if it isn't doing well.
Anyways I hoped you guys enjoyed this Fic, even if you didn't then...well takes for check this out and sorry you didn't like it. But anyway if you have anything you want to say and or ask don't hesitate to say it.
So until we meet again, farewell