FOREWORD

IMPORTANT: I apologise if some people, somehow, some way... managed to get a hint at this story being uploaded but mysteriously vanished... for some stupid reason it kept highlighting the Foreword as "Chapter 1". By adding this in before the Prologue if should work, but also Chapter 01 doesn't show. Maybe if I wait a while it will, here's hoping...

Simple author notes aren't enough to properly explain the nature of this project. The name of this project is obviously Sword Art Online: Fear Reloaded. This story was inspired by the 2018 video game named Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.

The idea behind this game was fairly unique. You create your own character that dives into Gun Gale Online for the first time, and you also find an AI companion you can customise too that assists you in combat. Along with a cast of new and mostly uninteresting characters, it also had the original cast of the franchise amongst some of the other characters exclusive to the gameverse.

I wanted to do that game justice because while it is the easiest game of the SAO gameverse to get into, it also perhaps the worst, maybe second-worst story in the series – which is funny because I consider it to be about the 3rd possibly 2nd best overall game out of about 6 or 7. The story had much potential, so here's some pointers if you are unfamiliar with the game (though I will try to do my best to give you the details throughout the story as well as inserting some of my own information to flesh them out where the game did not):

Firstly: the protagonist. The protagonist is unnamed, but I will still run with the nickname from the game, with a slight twist by calling him the "Lucky Newbie". Also, yeah, canonically in the advertisements and posters for DLC, the protagonist is always shown to be male, so the protagonist of this story will be male. On top of that, the protagonist will have a lot more personality and you will actually see them physically speak (there's a lot I could bitch about with the game, always happy to discuss, but otherwise it's one of those mute situations where every other character somehow understands you). I will also give them an actual name as well as some deeper history: their name will be Kunai Muuno (yes, Kunai is a real name for a Japanese male but it is very rare and kinda goofy, but I've taken a liking to it), and they will have a mother and a father that will have some presence and impact upon our MC's story. His father, Fumihiro, will be from a military background and so Kunai will have some knowledge of firearms so it will be easier for him to adjust to diving into GGO for the first time. There is a little more to his history, but for the sake of the story, I will not reveal anything about Kunai's proper origins but they will be hinted at frequently.

Secondly, there will be action but not as much as you might be expecting. This is a story that has a purpose beyond being about a group of teenagers running through a hailstorm of bullets to beat GGO's latest expansion. The action presented will be for two reasons: to display a show of teamwork and growth against Kunai's adversaries for payoff later on to hit spots of character development, and also to tell a story usually to do with Kunai's past as well as his allies' story.

Thirdly, and quickly, the original cast of the SAO franchise will not the impact that they did in the game. I always believed the focus on them helping you and telling you constantly how amazing you were, took away from the new characters and what they could have contributed. Before I mentioned that the new characters were uninteresting, but that's a little disingenuous, as most of them are interesting but all of them could be adequate additions to a very memorable cast.

Anyways, I would recommend buying Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet to give it a go, because it is actually a good game but don't expect an amazing story. This project is the result of spending the last four years being angry at how hyped I was to shape the outcome of the story like we were promised – but instead all that happened was I made one choice at the end of the game, and it was so poorly established as a choice, not to mention there's a secret true ending to the game and it's legitimately worse story-wise than either of the two "bad" endings.

Anyways, I hope to pump a chapter out every 2 weeks, maybe 1 week. There'll be some notes before and after, and once the arcs for the coming chapters finish – I'll see if I can put out a small afterword for each arc as you could probably tell… this means a lot to me to finally start it. With 8 arcs planned, and about 45 chapters, you now have an idea how long this story will carry on for.

Enjoy.

PROLOGUE

"INVITATION"

Crying. The grey skies wept overhead and the rain pelted the ground, breaking into mud. Through the storm, a boy was running across the torn floor of the forest. He wondered if she was safe. But what was sliding down his face? Raindrops? Tears? Blood?

Everything was in a haze. Yet the boy knew his destination off of mere instinct. His clothes were discoloured and torn to shreds, barely clinging to his body. But before he could arrive… everything went black.

Kunai Muuno awakened from his nightmare. If anyone were looking down on him in his bed drenched in sweat, they could be fooled for thinking his expression was one of surprise. This was not the first of his rude awakenings.

Kunai ran his bony fingers through his messy black hair and rubbed his bloodshot blue eyes. He pulled back the covers on his bed, then inched back towards his bed rest and leaned begrudgingly against it. A small groan escaped his mouth and then silence followed for a minute or so.

At last, he stood up from his bed and changed out of his night wear into his casual clothes: shirt, jeans and socks. About as casual as you could get. Not that he had anywhere to go.

With a yawn, Kunai hopped on to the computer sitting idly by and began searching through the internet.

To think this would be on my mind after everything… But it'll help, I think. This is good for me.

Kunai browsed through a series of different universities and tertiary studies locations. After assembling his choices in several individual tabs, he started to sort through them one-by-one.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Kunai was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. Without bothering to check the contact, he whipped it up to his ear and answered. "Hello?"

"K-kunai? Is this you?" questioned the caller.

Kunai hesitated to answer but gave in eventually with honesty. "Yes. Who's this?"

"Takamine Momiji," the caller replied in a nervous tone. "Do you r-remember me?"

His eyes widened to the name reveal. "Momiji? Is that really you?"

Suddenly the caller, named Momiji Takamine, sounded a little more enthusiastic than before… "Yes! It's really me. Been a long time, huh? How have you been?"

This time Kunai was flustered. "Of course, yes! Damn, it's been about… eight years?"

"Nine, actually. But that's close enough. Uh… do you… have some time to talk?"

Kunai cleared his throat. "Yeah, absolutely. What do you need?"

"I don't really need anything from you, but… it's something of an invitation."

Kunai snickered. "I uh… I don't really understand what you're inviting me to, Momiji. Just spit it out already. It's me. You don't need to be nervous."

Momiji giggled, somehow sounding adorable when muffled through the phone. "Drumroll, please. I would like you to play Gun Gale Online with me!"

Kunai's face dropped. And the only thought running through his mind in that instant was… Hell no!

IT BEGINS…

CHAPTER 01 – "GUN GALE ONLINE"