It was an instant like any other, but in that instant, everything changed.
Sword art online and was the first-ever full dive videogame, people wanted to call it virtual reality but this, this was different, for the first time, people could enter the videogame but unlive virtual reality, people could feel, taste and smell everything.
The game was supposed to be a medieval fantasy with some magic in it, it was a world where magic was dying so the only people that could use magic were those that had magic crystals or those that worked some kind of job that allowed them to use a limited kind of magic.
Because it was a multiplayer game and because there were a lot of unknowns the only class available at the moment was that of a knight, still, people were more than happy to play.
Being the first of its kind the system was expensive, so the only ones that had bought the system, were adults and teenagers that had saved up their money to be able to live out their fantasies.
Thirty thousand beta testers, both in America and in Japan alongside nearly a hundred thousand people that had just started playing, that was the number of people that were locked inside the game.
It had been rumored that the game developers were about to update the game and with the update, several different classes would be added to it, the classes were nothing special, just the usual.
Thieves- archer-healers the usual things one would expect to find in a medieval game.
Regardless people played the game because it was mostly adults and teenagers, the entire game had developed its own culture or its own various cultures.
Some used it to meet up with old friends and simply pass the time killing monsters or just catching up, others were in it for the adventure and the excitement and there were even rummers that some people used the game to make secret deals with real money.
Then in an instant, the world went dark.
The only thing he could feel was pain his entire body felt strange it was like needles had suddenly been forced into ever part of his body in such a way that his mind couldn't register them anymore, in fact, everything felt that way including his eyes and brain.
For a brief moment, he thought to himself how strange his brain hurt...what could have gone wrong? he wondered.
As he gasped for air he turned to look around himself and he noticed that for whatever reason every other player had been gathered together, on the first floor, both the players from Japan and those from America.
This was rare and only happened on special occasions, like when a special event had been done perfectly and the developers wanted to make the players feel special, but there were no administrators and everyone else was on the ground trying to keep themselves from vomiting, just like him.
For a brief moment, he wondered if he should call somebody but when he opened his help screen he found it cluttered with messages, guild leaders calling their members back just in case this was some sort of event.
Players that wanted to complain about what had happened to someone that was in charge and people that were telling everyone that they were going to leave until whatever glitch had happened was fixed.
He was a solo player, admittedly he was a loner both in the real world and in the game world, but in all honesty, he didn't care anymore, he was one of the thirty thousand beta testers and so he knew certain tricks about the game that most players wouldn't know until much later.
Still, having everything suddenly go dark and briefly experience how it feels to be blind wasn't pleasant so he chose to leave the game.
Like usual he called to his help screen and it popped out like always and like usual, he moved his hand and was about to press exit...whait this wasn't right, had the glitch changed the place the exit button was.
He looked through the help screens options but try as he might, he couldn't find the exit button.
He tried to contact one of the administrators, but no one answered, slowly the entire message board was filled with worried people wondering what was going on.
Luckily everyone was on the first floor and nearly everyone here was an adult, there was the occasional kid that used their brothers or parents game when their parents or siblings allowed them to use their game from time to time, but they were rare, so no one was truly panicking.
"Everyone shut up!' were the words sent through the messageboard.
"Listen, the guild leaders have sent out scouts to see if a new area has been opened or if they can find anything if this is some sort of event and they have found more than one portal."
"So anyone that wants to scream and worry about what went wrong stay here, everyone else create a party and explore the new area"
He didn't know who the announcer was, his name was displayed over his recording, but in all honesty, he could care less, who knew how long it would take to fix this glitch and that meant that for the moment being he was trapped inside the game.
Already pictures were being sent by the guilds that chose to explore the other side, they had found four portals and apparently, all four portals lead to a place that was pitch black with no light.
A beeping sound made him know that someone was sending in a live video and when he clicked on the blinking light on his help screen he noticed one of the teams was exciting some sort of cave and as luck would have it they found themselves met with an endless dessert.
"This doesn't feel right" someone said as the video showed the player kneeling and piling up a handful of dirt.
"The sand here it looks like rust and it stinks like blood" he sais as he let the sand or was it dirt fall from his hand.
The video continued to play as the players began to walk into the desert and already things were going from bad to worse, it didn't take long for the exploration team to find people, unfortunately, what they found weren't exactly healthy people.
One by one more videos began to be sent in by the other players accompanying the one who was sending the video, all of the windows showed people hiding behind rocks lie animals.
The player placed an apple on the sand and a man that looked like if he would die at any moment ran up to it and broke his teeth as he began to eat it.
He continued to eat the apple even while he bled from his mouth.
The windows showed that after this the people hiding began to come out, all of them looked like skin and bones, but the looks in their sunken eyes.
Those weren't the looks of Humans, no they were the looks hungry animals gave to their prey when they were about to eat it.
Slowly the group of madmen and women surrounded the players and suddenly they all began to cower before running back to hide behind the rocks.
The rest of the guild had arrived to help their scouts, it seems that whatever is on the other side will now have to deal with the Knights of the Blood Oath.
He closed the windows and noticed that someone had been transmitting more videos, he could use the live feed, but chose to go back and see everything from the beginning in case he might miss something important.
This time it looked like if the entire guild had been sending in their videos, they had arrived at a forest only that everything looked wrong.
The ground was wet and, the trees and plants around them seemed to withering and it didn't take a genius to know that whatever fruits were on them were indeed rotten.
There were animals here and there but they all looked sick.
There was nothing important to see in this one so he chose to look to see what the other teams had found, and he was in luck another team was transmitting a live video.
There were corpses everywhere some were dead-dead, while others were dead bodies that were still moving.
"Zombies," someone said as one by one the video showed the players take out a teleportation crystal and held it tight with their left hand, while they held on their swords with their right, the scot team was ready to either fight for their lives or teleport away to safety.
The team finally stopped moving when they reached the edge of what looked like a rather large cliff, what they found made him pale.
For mile upon mile, the only light was that of the full moon and whatever light the fires burning gave off.
Billions of undead moved about, but they were unchained, no the ones that were in chains were those that were still alive, but that was the thing, none of the undead, seemed to be able to think, no, they were just moving around, meaning that something even worse was giving the orders.
"We are going to need an entire strike team for this" someone said before the video cut itself off and the inside of Aincrad replaced the image of the place filled with zombies.
Finally, he returned to the first team and he noticed that they had begun to burn whatever they could find and it seemed like if this team had arrived in some sort of tunnel but there was nothing there just avast emptiness that seemed to burn itself in a person and yet it felt as if someone or something was looking at you.
If it was that bad for him, he hated to be the exploration team.
Finally, the team reached the end of the tunnel and he felt eyes widen, men-women and children were all gathered together, but that wasn't what caught his attention, no, it was the fact that they were all elves, humans, and dwarfs.
They were all frightened and there wasn't a single one of them that didn't have a weapon.
The team was careful not to catch the people's attention, before turning back to get reinforcements.