Author's Note: Hello everyone! Here's another chapter of Hakuno's SAO story as a Game Master! We also get our first instance of Kirito, though don't expect him to take the limelight in this story.

Darthwolf: Yeah, let's stick with the cute AI, rather than sheer terror.

WindbornesWord: I write when I can, but IRL takes time.

Celian Cogitore: I'm sure that Yui can help our Inheritor of the Moon through some problems! She is a Mental Health Counseling Program!

One Happy Birb: Child Hakuno? That would be adorable.

A Sleeping Moon: It would be funny, but this is an Extraverse story, not a FGO one. So I tend to only include Extraverse Servants.

DavianThule19: Her EX Ranked Head Tilt can do many things, who says it didn't actually make BB go crazy in the first place?! It's OP!

Princess Asuna: It is unlikely, still possible, but Hakuno tends to shift canon events greatly the longer she is around. Given the fact that Yui is no longer alone for another two years, the girl may not seek out Kirito… Though Asuna might still fit the bill.

RainEStar3: Yeah, did it for convenience sake. Creative liberties, am I right?

Collinlam606: Don't know, maybe her Reality Marble is just one giant head tilt? xD

Redbull98: Thanks! Gameverse characters are planned to at least make a appearance, Strea has been mentioned.

Many wishes flow through the deep ocean, filled with despair or hope, none should have been answered so intensely. However, a different ocean of a different time sends into a world of swords a single soul forged through the flames of war. Now, what will the Digital Human do to save thousands?


Digital/Progressive

Chapter 6: By Design

It was happening again, the memory that remained with her since the start. A centerpiece that formed the individual known as Hakuno Kishinami. What remained of her original counterpart, the last event that began this one.

A scorching city, lit aflame by the cruelty of man.

A fire blazed with intense heat.

A cry for help that remained unanswered.

No matter what occurred, this hellish landscape shall continue to both haunt and remind.

Where paved roads turned to charred earth and steel melted into misshapen buildings.

Flesh made black, voices rendered quiet, souls departed before their time.

It was an event that nothing could compare to, in which an entire city, not a neighborhood, not a block, but the entirety and all its populace were reduced to soot, ash, and ruin.

The remaining truth to never forget.

She was born through perdition.

Even as the flame died down.

Even as it was smothered by rain.

A question unanswered, 'Why?'.

An eerie silence remained for the only survivor.


Hakuno Kishinami's eyes opened to the familiar textureless mesh that made the ceiling, her mind filled with the recent memory that shook her core. But it was an old sensation, a repeated event that would continue to plague her dreams in the future, but even so, the emotions filled in it continue to keep it unsettling for her. The brown-haired girl took a deep breath, a periodic moment to reorganize her thoughts and push away the dream from the forefront of her mind.

She sat upright and glanced over her surroundings, spotting the figure of the only other current resident, Yui, watching various screens with unflinching zeal.

The magus brought her legs to the bedside where her shoes remained on the floor. After briefly slipping them on, Hakuno spoke up towards the Mental Health Counseling Program.

"You don't sleep?" She asked curiously, it was a topic that Hakuno never questioned back in the Moon Cell but did have speculations when the NPCs were always in the same location, but given SERAPH's perfectionism, they could also replicate livelihoods.

Yui's attention focused on Hakuno immediately, the variety of camera windows closed and vanished. "Good morning, Hakuno!" She said cheerfully. "I don't require sleep, I am an Artificial Intelligence," Yui answered straightforwardly.

"Oh, well morning still," Hakuno replied to the greeting. "You always observe players?"

"It is my designated task and purpose," Yui spoke factly.

She decided to not continue the topic of Yui's self-awareness, for now, Yui was still nearly completely interconnected with her core functions and system identity. It wouldn't be so simple to have a normal relationship with such a NPC outlook. It almost felt like talking to Taiga, almost.

"No luck?" Hakuno inquired about Yui's earlier attempt to escape Cardinal's lock against interacting with players.

Yui shook her head, raising her hand and a screen opening in response, not requiring the Menu interface like Hakuno or the trapped players, the system responded to Yui easily like a direct prompt.

"Despite leaving the confinement of MHCP001 Room, I am still restricted from helping the players and their mental states. I don't know if the same rules apply to all the MHCP Rooms or if its specific to Strea and I," Yui explained.

In essence, Yui was in the same position as before, just able to move around a bit more in their isolated area.

As for the yet explored direction, Hakuno had held off on entering what Yui had said concerning the other MHCP, Strea. That should not prevent Strea from visiting by her own decision, but for some unknown reason the other AI never showed up.

"I'm checking with some players on their progress," The magus said.

Hakuno Kishinami opened the player menu, taking immediate note of the new message notification. She didn't know what the time was, it was becoming harder to identify, and it seems that she may have slept in a bit much this morning.

It was from Asuna.

The quest concerning the wasps had been completed with no issues, automatically giving both Asuna and Maple their Cor reward. The two female players had also found the next town, which provided them with a few more quests.

Intrigued, the Digital Human opened her friends' list and activated the observational camera on Asuna. Which revealed a screen near the girl's viewpoint, showing the pleasant environment and fantasy town of Aincrad's First Floor. It appeared that Asuna and her newfound party member had yet to leave the piece of civilization, checking with every NPC.

Of course, they were not alone.

A few other players were also around, identifiable from the NPCs by the markers above their head indicating their status as player characters.

Hakuno glanced at Yui, the player presence reminded the magus of a certain question, "How do players learn?"

Yui answered, her voice indicating deeper design knowledge than the average player, "Sword Art Online takes a hands-off approach to player learning. Players are expected to immerse themselves into the mechanics and learn through action and the provided in-game hints. The only exception to this is the Player Menu, where a help menu is available to learn its functions."

Hakuno was intimately familiar with this learning style, she was forced to learn and adapt on the fly to survive the Moon Holy Grail War. But unlike her, the other Masters had been prepared for the consequences and willingly entered the conflict expecting a fight… Well, there were a select few unaware of the tournament's true nature, or willfully ignorant.

In contrast, the players of Sword Art Online were majorly similar to Hakuno's circumstance, if Asuna and Maple's words were to be accurate, and given that none of them expected to be prisoners in a death game, such an approach likely led to unnecessary deaths.

The Digital Human thought about that particular issue.

When the 1st Floor is cleared, and that's truly when it will encourage a new wave of players isolated in the Town of Beginnings to take up arms. In which a majority will again have to rely on the player-made guidebook that lacked direct instructions beyond a textbook format. Which while helped immensely, won't stop the sudden surge of deaths because of that newfound determination.

So the solution?

Create a series of quests that serve as a tutorial, which would help keep deaths to a minimum.

But that would go against the initial game design that Yui explained, which meant the Cardinal System might attempt to alter the direct context into a more subtle one.

Another issue is that Hakuno lacked the mechanical knowledge used for the game of Sword Art Online. Not to mention the previous issue concerning the right NPC for the task and obtaining the players' attention. She could not simply type in an increasing number for each ID, SAO decided to hard code user ID to the character name.

A list of names that Hakuno didn't have access to.

"Yui," Hakuno called again, the young girl appearing AI directed her attention to the Digital Human.

"Yes, Hakuno?" Yui replied, eager to help.

"There's no standard tutorial?" Hakuno wanted to confirm again.

"No," Yui answered straightforwardly.

"What if I created one?" She questioned.

"You have the permission rights to create quests," Yui began, her tone of voice sounded almost like a teacher rather than her age's look. "Theoretically you are able to create a quest chain that can serve as a tutorial."

"I don't have a quest giver," Hakuno spoke about the firstmost problem, nevermind the fact that she still hadn't experimented with multi-part quests let alone 'quest chains' as Yui put it.

"You can assign it to a pre-existing NPC," Yui said. "The Cardinal System will likely change the NPCs priority in response."

Hakuno tilted her head, "Priority?" She questioned with a confused expression.

In a strange change in character, Yui's mouth dropped as her eyes stared, cheeks flushing a slight pink hue.

"...Yui?" Hakuno shifted a bit.

"Cute…" The AI responded, before blinking and quickly turning around. "What was that? Did I just call her cute? That's what cuteness is?"

"Um…?" Hakuno wondered if perhaps Rin and Rani were onto something about her 'dangerous expression'.

Yui turned back around, coughing purposely into her closed fist, "Ahem… Priority… Non-player-characters are separated into different priorities which determine their complexity and dedicated system resources. A shopkeeper on the 1st Floor without any other purpose besides that will have the one of the lowest priority, only able to respond with a few basic pre-selected sentences."

"I understand," She replied.

It was something that Hakuno Kishinami wasn't used to, but given that Sword Art Online wasn't some extraterrestrial supercomputer the size of a moon, system resource priority would be necessary to scale.

But if that's the case… How was it managing to 'contain' the digital entity known as Hakuno Kishinami?

A topic for later thought…

"Don't worry about it too much, the Cardinal System is supposed to create quests for players in the future, so it has a solid system for handling NPC priority," Yui explained.

"Can you explain how to create quest chains?" Hakuno asked.

Yui shook her head, looking apologetic, "Sorry, the ingrained knowledge does not include many of the Game Master functionalities beyond a basic few commands. I know what each rank of Game Master is capable of, but not how to do their authorities."

So, Hakuno would still have to experiment with that.

Alright then… As she did that…

"Explain the combat mechanics to me," Hakuno asked.

Yui eagerly nodded, "I will limit it to what's currently necessary for the First Floor."

"Thanks," Hakuno smiled, with the information that Yui provided, cross-referenced with what Asuna replied with about Argo's Guidebook, would allow her to at least create the first few quests of a tutorial.

Would the Cardinal System allow her to simply send a quest to 'All' players instead of individually, was it possible? It was worth an experiment.

A ping echoed, looks like Asuna sent her another message, she quickly glanced over it while Yui was explaining Player Menu functionality.

Oh, that might work.


If Asuna hadn't caught the attention of other male players before, she'd certainly had now with the additional presence of Maple. Logically, Asuna knew that with the slated male-to-female demographic, a female player would be an uncommon sight, much less a female-only party, made only rarer considering many still stayed isolated in the Town of Beginnings.

Now, outside that starting location, Asuna was an eye-catching sight.

Which made her desire a hood to hide behind.

Maple, on the other hand, acted carefree in spite of the glances and stared.

"We should do the herb collecting and forest wolf kill quests together, they're in the same location," Maple said, a purple menu in front of the girl indicated her player menu, its contents hidden from Asuna's vision.

"That sounds good," Asuna replied in a lowered tone, feeling anxious from the surrounding players in the town.

"Good, we also need to set better roles, I want to gain more points for my Shield Skill," Maple said. "You picked Light Metal Equipment as your second Skill, right?"

"Yes, I wanted some protection," Asuna replied, absently tapping her fingers on a bronze chestpiece that had replaced her previously beginner garment. It would help reduce the damage that monsters dealt, that much Asuna understood about armor.

Why Asuna required a Skill to wear metal equipment, she didn't know. There were many Skills that were required to perform actions that otherwise would be learnable without such a restraint in the real world.

"Then we should try to find quests that give equipment you can wear with that," Maple closed her Player Menu. "Nothing else here though, I think we cleared it out."

"We can't just buy better equipment from the shops?" Asuna asked.

"Nope, the better stuff is either quest reward or mob drops," She answered.

"Mob…?" Asuna questioned the term.

"Hostile NPCs, or monsters, it's just a shorter term for it." Maple explained straightforwardly.

Asuna nodded, filing away the term into her memory, the terminology used by other players would be useful in the future. She swiped with her hand, two fingers outstretched, and the familiar bell of her Player Menu opening responded.

No response from Hakuno yet, or any additional quests provided by the female hacker.

Strange that Asuna already felt uncomfortable without the metaphysical presence that Hakuno provided, the hacker had served to provide goals and now none were given.

She did not include the in-game quests as part of that, they lacked purpose besides their value of rewards. The created quests that Hakuno gave provided accomplishment against the system that Kayaba trapped them in.

Just follow Maple for now, the younger girl was more knowledgeable about these types of games.

Asuna took out a simple bread from the Inventory, the Menu closing as it materialized in her hand. She took a bite, ignoring the bland taste, favoring to just saite the false sense of hunger as quickly as possible.

"That looks so satisfying," Maple commented.

"It's just food," She replied.

"That's not food! Come on, Asuna, we're going to the tavern to get something to actually eat!" Maple pointed at said building, her arm waving a bit up and down in an exaggerated motion.

"Not necessary, let's go quest," Eating anything else would be a needless luxury.

"Nope!" Maple didn't hear any excuses and dragged Asuna by the hand.

The beautiful girl only sighed and went with her regardless, her eyes examining the town and eyed a particular building that she also recalled was within the Town of Beginnings. An idea struck her, understanding that such buildings would be commonplace in this medieval fantasy setting, it would be an optimal place for their hacker companion's future quests.

As they entered the tavern, Asuna began typing a quick message to Hakuno from her Menu.


The glow and sound of a whistling blade slashed across the body of an Outland Kobold, the Sword Skill finishing with diminishing light. Its user, a boy clothed in blue with a white leather chestpiece, swiftly turned and brought the weapon to finish his opponent with a standard swing, a cut of red appeared across the monster's body which burst spontaneously into polygonal shards.

A victory screen appeared to indicate and show his rewards for the battle.

He released a sigh of relief and sheathed his blade.

In the little more than two weeks since Sword Art Online's official launch, the player named Kirito had used his knowledge as a former beta tester to his advantage. By quickly snatching up efficient quests and mob grinding locations before the mass of other players, he quickly managed to increase his avatar's power to a comfortable position for the 1st Floor of Aincrad.

In all honesty, he had believed they would have at least cleared the 3rd Floor by this point, but it was crystal clear that such an expectation was based on outdated beta test knowledge, where character resurrection after death was normal.

Not to mention, there had already been a few instances where beta knowledge did not correlate with the retail release.

Kirito took a quick glance of his surroundings, double-checking for any other instance of hostile mobs. After a bit, he relaxed and opened his Player Menu, its default purple screen greeting him with a chime noise. He quickly took notice that his Maps/Quest icon was flashing a golden color.

This had never happened to him on the 1st Floor while in the beta test.

It was an indication of a new quest given system-wide, which only occurred once before in the beta during a holiday. Back then, they had already reached the 6th Floor. Kirito had an accurate calculation of the day in the year, there should be no holiday events occurring. Still, if it was an event similar to it, it might be worth pursuing for a unique item or equipment.

He opened the submenu and accessed his Quest Log.

Quest: The Guidance

Summary: "Heed thy words, heroes from another world, trapped in this one by the great Separation. I am the Goddess Hakuno. Approach the priest of the nearest church dedicated to my mercy, there it will guide and teach you about this world."

The Goddess Hakuno has heard the plea of your troubles and seeks to help newly arrived heroes such as yourself in learning how to survive and grow within Aincrad.

Goal: Locate a priest in a Church of Hakuno.

Reward: Cor

Kirito blinked and reread what he just saw, before coming to the conclusion of what the quest meant.

Did Akihiko Kayaba just insert a tutorial into Sword Art Online?

That didn't seem like something he would do, in fact, it contrasted Kayaba's behavior and spoken tabloids about Sword Art Online's design and gameplay philosophy. Also, the reward was very generic, only an unspecified amount of Cor, typically there is another reward outside of currency in a quest, especially if it was a quest chain hinted at it like this.

Of course, quest chains also tended to hide additional rewards.

Still, nothing in the beta test had lore about a Goddess called Hakuno.

This bothered him too much.

He'll check in with a priest in the nearest town when returning to turn in some quests. After all, many MMORPGs tend to hide some useful items in their tutorial quests, mostly unattainable consumables.

And perhaps message Argo, the information broker might know something.