so...
...is this my cue to say hello?
guess the summary piqued your interest, didn't it?
well... as you might already know, which i think you DO, i would've skipped this whole narration…
…but that just wouldn't now, would it?
yeah, you're the type of person who won't EVER be satisfied. you'll keep reading fanfictions over and over, until... well. you write one; become a PART of one.
…or until you simply don't read anymore.
so you want to know how i became what i am now, don'cha? heh, go figure.
welp, don't expect too much from me, cuz' you probably know this already, but i'll say it again...
i'm not a hero; nor will i ever be.
after all, that's all sans' supposed to be: an ever-smiling bag o' hollow bones and fleshless holes; never a hero nor a villain.
…i'm not judging though. i'd never exist without folks like you reading this story.
nah, just kidding.
anyway, enough of this boring intro, let's just get to the point.
6th of November, 2022
It was the day it all began; the day the SAO server was officially online for the lucky 10,000 players who managed to get their hands on the NerveGear technology.
The NerveGear was one of the most incredible and revolutionary fruit of the human intellect. An invention that allowed one to transmit their consciousness to a much greater system via manipulating the brain's electronic impulses for various purposes; in this case, entertainment; game.
However, no one could have foreseen what would happen on this very day. No one was prepared for the horrifying truth about what everybody thought was supposed to be a wonderful invention. No one was ready for this kind of game.
heh, then again, no one ever prepared anyone for anything.
"I'm home!" Spoke a boy named Akiyoshi Mizuki as he closed the door of his house.
"I'm home, mom! Look! I got perfect—"
He entered the living room and froze when he saw his mother, who was sitting on the sofa, holding a bottle of alcohol with a tired and lifeless look clearly etched on her face.
His mother glared at him in silence, but then looked away in disgust as she took another drink from the bottle, muttering something that was barely audible, yet loud enough for him to hear.
"Just go die."
The boy flinched and stayed silent then he smiled as if nothing happened and proceeded to go upstairs toward his room without another word, holding a few sheets of paper in his hand.
He entered his room and read the papers that he was holding. They were his school's test sheets with big, red, 'A'-s written on each and every single one of them.
However, instead of feeling proud or happy like most students would, he crumpled those papers and threw it away into his trash can with an empty look. He sat on the edge of his bed staring at the trash can emotionlessly for a few minutes until he saw something at the edge of his vision. It was a small copy of a one particular game that he had been waiting for since he pre-ordered it; Sword Art Online.
He reached for the box and stared at the title then looked up toward the clock which read ten o'clock in the morning.
Why was he home so early from school? The NerveGear technology was the first functional invention that allowed one to connect one's consciousness into a digital world. In fact so revolutionary and popular was the technology that the school decided to finish early to commemorate the device's official launch in the name of virtual reality education.
Most would question why the school would do such thing as finishing early for the sake of what was nothing more than a game, but hey, no one was complaining. Besides it was understandable since this one game took place in a, technically, different universe; everybody would be curious. In fact not only schools, but most workplaces also decided to take the day off for similar reasons.
Anyway, he sighed, seeing that there wasn't any point in thinking about what happened so he decided to let it slide. He was used to it.
He turned on his computer and thought about what to do for the next three hours until the SAO Server is online. He looked over the icons on his desktop and stopped when he saw an icon that brought him a feeling of nostalgia. It was an icon of a pixelated red heart with the name, "Undertale". He smiled and clicked on it.
How long has it been since he last played Undertale? He couldn't remember. In fact he couldn't remember playing any games until this very day after all the shits he went through.
He shook his head and decided not to think about it as he focused on the game when the protagonist who was called Frisk met a living skeleton called Sans.
A feeling of excitement made him forget every negative thought he just had recently.
After all, Sans had always been an inspiration for him. The perfect personification of someone that knew well how much of a burden, unforgiving and cruel life could be, yet, despite knowing all of those cold truth of reality, could still put a smile on his face and convince others that life was something to be glad about; something to cherish.
Whenever he was sad, whenever he felt that he was hurting deep inside and think that he just wanted to end all of his pain at that very moment, he'd think about Sans and all the sufferings that he went through then realize that his suffering paled in comparison to what he suffered; he realized that somewhere out there someone else was suffering through the same shit that he went through, if not worse. Sure, Sans was nothing more than an imaginary character, but even up to this very day he still wondered how Sans managed to stay sane for so long; unless you count the fact that he was created that way by the creator of the game.
Heck, he didn't even know if Sans was sane.
Two and a half hours flew by and he had beaten the game with a True Pacifist End. He stretched his body and felt the need to go the bathroom so he went downstairs to do his business.
Before going back upstairs, he decided to check on his mother and found her sleeping on the sofa; drunk. He smiled and covered her in a blanket before going back upstairs.
He closed the door to his room and looked at the clock which read 12:49 PM.
"Well, then… better get ready."
He pulled out a box out of his closet and on it was a name of what was inside, "NerveGear". He was lucky enough to get his hand on it when he became a beta tester for the game, but he stopped playing midway when… let's just say that something shitty happened to his family.
He shook his head. He didn't need to remember it; didn't want to remember it.
He changed. He had become one of the best students in his school to make his mother proud. He didn't care about the fact that his mother ignored and treated him badly like she did. All he did care about was that he tried everything that he could to make his mother happy and wouldn't stop until he could actually make his mother smile again. No matter how much she hated him, he would always love her.
But still… that didn't mean that he was fine.
He plugged in the NerveGear to his computer and the internet port and got ready to dive into the game; the clock on his visor read 12:58 PM.
He began to countdown and as the time reached one o'clock, he spoke.
"Link Start."
Then everything around him turned white as flurry of colors began to fly all around him.
[Sight: OK]
[Touch: OK]
[Hearing: OK]
[Taste: OK]
[Smell: OK]
[Login or Register account?]
He thought about it for a while, but then chose to register a new account; it wasn't as if his old account had anything in it since he stopped right after he only played for a day or two.
His world then became dark as a bubble chat floated right in front of him.
[Registering new account.]
[Please enter new username: …]
Scanning his brain for an idea, he tried to come up with a new username that he'd like to use. He couldn't come up with anything original so then he began to recount the last things he did today to help him in coming up with an idea for a new username… but unfortunately, nothing came to mind so he gave up trying to—
Then he got it.
[Username: sans_the_skeleton]
[Password: ********]
[Will this be your new account?]
[Y/N]
He snickered when he thought about how funny it would be if the game would actually say, "nope," like it did in Undertale. He took a deep breath and pushed the yes button then waited for the game to register his new account.
However…
"Why is this taking so long? It wasn't this long when I first made my acc—"
Before he could finish his sentence the world around him flickered uncontrollably as discolored pixels were popping out of nowhere and disappearing from every direction.
He had a look of shock and confusion when this happened, but then the world returned to what it was before.
"W-What the hell? A glitch?"
Then a chat bubble appeared in front of him and on it was an ominous message.
[y'sure, kid? cuz' y'll be burdened with a great responsibility. well… it's not like you can turn back now anyway so i'll leave ya with a lil' warning:
Don't die.
if you do? well…
…you're gonna have a bad time.]
"W-wha—?"
Before he could finish again, the space around him turned to white followed by the same flurry of colors that he saw when he started his link. Then a single sentence floated in front of him.
[WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE!]
The bright flurry of colors came rushing at him again and he was forced to close his eyes as the brightness blinded him.
When the lights were gone, he slowly opened his eyes and was met with the view a clear blue sky. He blinked a couple of times and began inspecting his body and what he noticed was that it felt… real; too real.
He looked around him and saw players logging into the Beginner Town and he noticed another thing: he could see, hear, and feel too clearly.
Despite his relatively short experience as a beta tester for the game, he could still remember how real his in-game body then compared to his real body, but this time, it was different. His body felt too real even when he compared it to his real body.
One other thing that he noticed was that he could see numbers on top of peoples head. Most of those he saw was the number 1.
Confusion was etched on his face as he was trying to make sense of the world around him, but before he could even come up with an explanation, he noticed something on his HUD that shocked him to the core.
"My HP is… 1?"
"Finally... I'm back to this world!" Muttered a boy excitedly as he smiled.
He had an avatar of a tall and charming boy with a neck-long jet-black hair and a bang that covered one side of his face.
"Well then… time to get to work."
With that, he began to run through the town seeking a particular NPC for quests that would earn him quite a lot of EXP and Col, which was the in-game currency of SAO.
Being a beta tester had its perks.
As he thought about his strategies to level up and get a lot of essential items and equipments as soon as possible, he began to lose focus to where he was going thus causing him to accidentally bump into a boy that was standing in the middle of his way.
With a thud, they both fell and landed on the ground painfully.
The boy groaned, "Ugh… S-Sorry about that I—"
"OW!" The boy he crashed into yelled with a pained look.
"O-Oi, calm down! You can't feel pain in this world!"
"Can't… feel… pain? T-Then why did I feel it?" He asked with a look of shock and confusion.
"Huh? What are you—?"
"H-Hoi! You there, please just. Stop. Running!" A red haired man ran towards us and panted heavily when he reached them, "Huff… puff… Man, I wondered if you were ever gonna stop…"
"Uh, me?"
"Yeah, you! I saw you running around a few moments ago like you already know this area so I followed you. Say, you're a beta tester, aren't you?"
"W-well, yeah."
"Seems like I was right! You see, today's my first day ever in SAO, so I was wondering if you could teach me the basics!"
"U-Uh… I don't know—"
"Please, man, I'm begging you! I'm Klein and nice to meet you!" He extended a hand.
The boy sighed and smiled as he shook Klein's hand. "I'm Kirito."
Klein then looked over toward the boy that Kirito crashed into.
"Aaand what's your name? You're Kirito's friend, right?"
The boy still had a look of confusion and shock, so Kirito decided to clear up the misunderstanding.
"No, I accidentally bumped into him just now. Say, are you okay?"
"H-huh? Well… yeah, I guess."
"So are you a newbie too?" Klein asked excitedly.
"Technically… yes."
"Technically?" Kirito asked with a puzzled look.
"…F-Forget it." The boy shook his head and took a deep breath, looking calmer than he was. "Sorry, I was just… confused about a few things. Anyway! The name's Sans. Sans the Skeleton."
"…Really? You don't look like a skeleton." Kirito deadpanned.
"It's from an old game… never mind. So, Kiri…Kirito… was it? Anyway, are you going to show Klein the basics of SAO?"
"Yes, I am, why?"
"Oh, well, obviously, I was hoping that I could join you both, but if you don't want me to, that's fine too. After all, being in a party meant that you gotta split the exp and col gained to each members of the party, so I understand if you refuse."
Kirito flinched when the boy called Sans seemed to just read his mind. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as a feeling of guilt washed over him, "When you put it like that…"
"Hahaha! C'mon, you're not an asshole that's gonna ignore a noob in need now, are you?"
Kirito froze then looked serious, "…Who knows?"
"Wait… seriously?" Klein stopped laughing.
Kirito chuckled, "I'm joking." He turned toward the boy called Sans and said, "Yeah, you can join us. 'The more, the merrier,' as the saying goes."
"Really? Thank you so much!"
"It's nothing, don't worry about it."
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Please teach us, Kirito-sensei!" Klein spoke enthusiastically.
'Sans' was confused. These strange things that had been occurring since he made his new account had worried him to the core.
He began to think about the possibility of his NerveGear to malfunction which then begs the question, was his consciousness going to be alright?
For God's sake! Even the glitch skipped the part where he was supposed to be making his new avatar so he didn't even know what he looked like! How was he supposed to calm down?!
[M-Maybe it's just a server glitch? A bug? Y-Yeah! The Game Master would probably know what to do! I-I just gotta have to contact him later if the bug isn't fixed soon!] he thought optimistically.
"—OI, SANS!" Kirito shouted right to his ears.
"Ouch! Oh, god, WHY, Kirito? Why?!" He massaged his ears in pain as they rung so painfully as if a flashbang exploded right in front of his ears.
"Geez, what's wrong with you? I told you, we can't feel pain in this world."
"I'm not lying to you, Kirito! I really do feel it!"
"Feel what?"
"The pain!" He told him seriously.
"Huh? No way. That's impossible—"
But before Kirito could dismiss Sans' claim, Klein screamed loudly as he was running towards the two of them with multiple wild boars chasing after him.
"HELP MEEEE!"
Kirito sighed as he readied his sword. He held a stance for a few seconds and at that same time, his sword began to glow.
After the boars were close enough, Kirito unleashed his skill and cut them all down in one slash.
"W-whoa, that was close. I owe you one, bro."
"It's fine. Just be careful next time."
"I will, I will, but more importantly, what was that? Your sword glowed then suddenly the boars are dead."
"That is how you use sword skills in this world."
"Oh, I see! Wait… how, exactly?"
"Wait… you've been running around fighting these wild boars without even knowing how to use a sword skill?"
"Yes?"
Kirito suppressed the urge to facepalm and settled with a long sigh. "Okay… listen. First, you simply ready you sword, then after holding a stance, any stance, for a few second or so, you strike your enemy."
"Uh, I don't get it."
"Think of it as if you are firing a laser beam. First you ready the laser then after a few second of charging it up, you unleash it in one go."
"Hmm… okay, I think I got it."
Klein got up and readied his sword at a boar then after charging up an attack, he killed it in one strike.
Kirito smiled and congratulated him as he began to bounce in joy.
"Congratulation, but why are you so happy? Did you know that the wild boars here are an equivalent of blue slimes from most RPGs?"
"E-Eeeh, are kidding me? These things are the weakest monster in the game? I thought they were mini-bosses or something!"
Kirito and Sans sweat dropped.
"Right… So, Sans, as I was saying, are you going to just stand here or what?"
"Uh, Kirito, haven't you noticed something... weird about my HP bar?"
"HP bar? What are you talking about, it's still full—"
He widened his eyes when he realized something.
"Your HP is…1?"
"Huh, what's up?" Klein asked.
"Ah, no, it's just… wait, why is Sans' HP is only 1?"
"What are you—wait… huh? That's weird. I'm level 1 too, but my HP is 500."
"What is this, Sans?"
"That's what I want to know! It was like that since the first time I logged in!" He retorted in exasperation.
"…Maybe it's a bug?" Klein suggested.
"Hmm… I have an idea. Maybe it's just a level 1 bug?"
"Level 1 bug?" Both newbies questioned in unison.
"Well, I'm not sure either, but let's try to get Sans to level 2 first and see what happens when his stats increases."
"I'm game, but why don't he just try to die and respawn?" Klein asked.
"Well, that might work too. What do you think?"
Sans was about to agree to what Klein suggested, but then remember the ominous warning he got when he made this new account.
[Don't die. if you do? well…
…you're gonna have a bad time.]
"Sans? You there man? Ooooi, Sans!" Klein waved his hand in front of his face.
"U-Uh, I'd prefer not to die, if possible." He forced a smile.
"Well… even if it's a game, I guess it is kind of wrong to tell you to go and try to die." Klein understood.
"Okay, then we'll try my idea first then." Kirito deduced then turned toward Klein, "Let's start grinding!"
"Alright! I'm fired up!"
Sans was both angry and afraid. He was angry that he became a burden for his two new friends and afraid of what was happening. Since the very start he felt that something was wrong and he had a bad feeling about this game.
He had forgotten how to check his menu to see the details so he constantly checked on his level via his HP bar (There's a small Lv. 1 on top of his HP bar). So far, it hadn't changed one bit.
On the other hand, Kirito and Klein were now laying down on the grass as the virtual sun was setting over the horizon.
Above their heads, Sans could see that the number on their heads had turned to five. He figured out that the numbers he saw on top of peoples head were supposed to be the levels of players. He didn't want to ruin the moment with another question of this weird bug, so he stayed silent.
Klein then asked, "You know, whoever made this game is a genius. Just look at how real everything is."
"Yeah, it is."
"It probably obvious but I'm really excited about everything ever since I logged in. I mean, this is my first Full VR game, why wouldn't I be excited, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"You know, the day they released the official date for the NerveGear, I rushed to the closest game store and waited for days to get my hands on the hardware and the game. I was really happy to be able to buy one considering the fact that there were only ten thousand copies on sale." He chuckled and continued, "But I guess you're ten times luckier since you're a beta tester. After all there are only one thousand beta testers!"
"I guess so."
"Hey, Kirito, how far did you go when you were still a beta tester?"
"Hmm, how far, huh? I've only ever gotten to the 8th Floor and even that took months." Kirito then lifted his sword and smiled with a determined look, "But now? I'm going to get there in one month."
"Ahahaha, you're really into it, aren't you?" Klein commented then he remembered that Sans was still there.
"Well… how do I put this… Whenever I wield my sword in this world, I just can't help but feel like it was natural. Like I was meant for this world. Even when I compared my life here to the real one, I feel more alive here than in the real world."
"I see…" Klein then turned toward Sans, "Yo, Sans, you okay? You're being so quiet."
Kirito then stood up after he regained his breath and asked, "So, any changes yet, Sans?"
"I don't know why, but I'm still level 1."
"What? It still didn't work?" Klein asked in disbelief.
"We're both level 5 now and you're still stuck as a level 1 even though we're in the same party? How is that possible?" Kirito frowned.
"I don't know, but—"
"Ah! That's right, I gotta go! I ordered a pizza at 5:30 and it's already 5 o'clock. Sorry guys, but I'm logging out first."
"Oh really? Okay then. Don't worry about me, I'm fine." Sans reassured him.
"Well then… how do I log out, Kirito-sensei?"
"What the—How could you not know about something so important?!"
"Actually… I don't know how to do it, too."
"Really, Sans?" Kirito had a look of disbelief, but then shook his head and told them how to do it.
"You simply swipe your hand downward and your menu will show up."
"Like this… Oh, I see! Okay, then! Guess, I'll see you later. Bye, Kirito! Bye, Sans!"
The two nodded and expected the red haired man to disappear.
…But he never did.
"What's wrong, Klein?" Sans asked.
"Huh? No, it's just… It's not there."
"What's not there?" Kirito asked again.
"The log out button, it's not there."
Sans opened his menu and froze.
"That's not possible, there's no way that—" Kirito checked his menu. "What the hell?"
"Maybe it's like Sans' problem, a bug."
"Now that I think of it that could be it. Despite being beta tested, bugs and errors are bound to occur every time new games are launched."
"I tried calling the GM, but there's no response…"
"Ah, it's already 5:25"
"…M-MY TERIYAKI MAYO PIZZA AND GINGER ALE!"
Sans was still silent.
"I-Is there another way to log out?"
"No, there isn't. The log out button is the only way for the player to log-out."
"N-No way! There must be another way! Return! Escape!" Klein tried different poses as he shouted those last three words, hoping that he'd log out. He even tried moving his hands to mimic the movement of removing the NerveGear from his head.
"I told you, there's no way to log out. Our mind and bodies are separated through the NerveGear so there is no way for us to move our real bodies in anyway."
"F-For real? Then… does that mean we have to wait until the bug is fixed? Or until somebody in the real world log us out?"
"I'm not sure about that last part, but I think so."
"More importantly, why are you so calm San—uh, Sans? Are you okay?"
"What is this…?"
"Sans what's wrong?" Kirito asked in concern.
"What… is this?"
"Sans, calm down, what's wrong?"
"… Just… Just look at my menu."
The two swordsman looked over toward his menu and what they found was—
"W-What the hell?" Klein muttered.
His menu was full of gibberish of symbols and unknown characters. They could still read most of them normally like, Inventory, Stats, and etc but what confused them even more was when they saw his Stats menu.
[COL: 4590]
[̜Ě͊ͧͮͨX̵̤̲̯͉̭̣̜͑̆̎̾̽ͯ͒P̖͐̍̄͟:͕̮͖̃̂̈ͥ̀ ̹̜̖̏͐͆ͮ̚?̵̣̬̱̯͔̔̂̽̃?̡̖͔̜̭̭̲̖͊̂ͫͪ?̫̙͔͈͍̏́̈́ͦ͗̌]
̧̳̪̘̬͔̑̿̌̈́̎̈́̆[̟̟̝̮͍̣͕ͣ͘H̭̗̪̤̺̙͜E̷̞̦͈ͦ́ͧA͍̠̲̯̖̥͖ͯ̄͒L̗̅͂̒̽ͤ̃Ť̷̪̜̃͊͆̄̎H̵̬̬͇̮̬̜͛̑̈͐ͭ ͥͦ̓̋͏̤͕P̵̮̭̳̬̭͙͉ͥ͒̀ͭO̹̜̭̝̻ͦ̂ͣ͑̎́ͅI͎̟̭̠̞̼̱͑ͮ̇͟N̡̰̬̾̈ͅT͇̝̜̰̒ͥͮ̎S͎̤̟̞̿̐ͤ͌ͯ̽ͯͅ:̬̭ͯ͋̽̎́̚ ̠͉̺̣̹͒͐͘ͅ1̨̲͓̤͍̬̓ͣ]̶̘̬̦̯̒
̺̱̘ͭ̌[̞͖ͥ̒̅̊ͬͣͫD̳̼̗̻̖͇ͪ̒̄ͣͧ̇̕Ē̡̟̮̞F̫͎͇͈̒̋ͯ̂͌ͧͣͅͅE̗̠̰̜ͫͥ̏́N̪̝̙̥̮͋̀̀̊̒ͤSͬ͏̫Ȩ̟̤͙̼̬̲̫̈́̃̽:̺̺͎̩̘̿̕ ̯̣̞̪̺̅ͤ1̖̏ͭ̂̕]ͮ̉̋̑͢ ̗͉̲̰̀ͨ̿͒ͅ
̝̤͉́[̩̹͎̓͊ͬ̿̾̚̕Ā̤̩̗́ͅG͓̗̙̻̯̭͒͑̎͂̒̈Ĭ̢͚͓̅ͫ͆͑ͩL͙̩̝̬̓̒͋̅ͫͦĮ͈̝͔̞ͦ̀̆̀T͚̯̔ͭͭ͘Y̵̘͈̌̓͊̏̃:̯͂̈̽ ̫̩̊̌?̩͚?̭͖̗̝͓̌̅̿͊͊́̓͞?̽̎̈́ͩ̃̓͆҉]̼̻̻̯͈ͭ
̖̥̖̘͂͛[͍̜̣͔̺̥̞̕S̤͈̻͕͎͈̱̈͐ͨ̂ͮT̡̳̫͎̪̩̝͗͗͆́̚R͓̂͢ͅE̝̖̤̹̝̗̍̉̌̂ͬ̐ͅN͒͘G̞̼̫̩ͦ̒T̥̟̙͕ͅḨ͈͕̹̳̱̺͍̽͊:̼̗̻̗̭̰̂ͬ̋ͧ̋͂̾ͅ ͦͮ́ͫ̔͐1͓͔̝̔̂̀̾͝]ͣ̍ͧ̈́́͐ͤ́
̨̰̬̝̈́[̥̪̱̲̓̅S̫͂ͩͤ̿̚͘T̹̰̫͍̆A͓̫̩̚M̶̘̯̖̫̓͑̓̎I̮͈̩̾ͤͪͣ͟N̪̳̜͈̺̘̑͌A̪̤̹͖͙ͣͧ̉̍͑̚:͙̜̫̳ͪͩ͊͊̐ ͜?͈͑͛͜?̴̱̝̮͌ͮͪ͒?̸͈̻̥̤̺̓͒ͅ]̲̙͉̳̟̞͈
̹̥͈͓
"HP, DEF, STR… Why is your health point, defense, and strength point is only one?" Kirito wondered out loud.
"Maybe it's a bug too?"
"It… could be."
"Either it's a glitch or a bug, one thing for sure is that if they don't fix it soon, this might cause SAO's reputation to drop badly."
"Yeah, that makes sense. They'd have to shut down the server to force-log-out everyone to fix it, but there hasn't been any info—"
Then a loud chiming of a bell was heard.
Before the three players could even register what was happening, the three of them disappeared in a burst of light.
By the time the three players had reappeared, they were shocked to see that they had returned to the town square of the Beginner Town. They looked around and saw that the town square was packed with lots of other players, if not all of them.
"W-What the fuck?" Sans spoke out loud.
"The hell happened?" Klein reacted in an equally shocked manner.
"A force… teleportation?" Kirito questioned.
"O-Oi, look up there."
A small, red, warning sign was flickering at the center of the town square's sky then suddenly the warning sign multiplied dangerously quick as it trapped the whole town square in a dome in matter of seconds.
Every players eyes were fixed on the sky as they noticed that blood-like substance began to ooze from the warning sign, forming into a shape of a floating gigantic man who was cloaked in a red robe.
"I-Is that the Game Master?"
"Where the heck is his face?"
"What? Is this some kind of event?"
Players began too murmur questions about what was happening, but then the man spoke. "Attention, players. Today, I welcome you to my world."
"To... my world?" Sans whispered quizzically.
"My name is Akihiko Kayaba and as of now, I am the only one who can control this world."
Sans frowned; he really had a bad feeling about this.
"You all have probably noticed that the log-out option is missing from your menu. I am here to inform you that this is not a bug. I repeat, this is not a bug; this is a feature of Sword Art Online.
"You cannot log-out by yourself within the game nor could anyone else in the real world log you out by shutting down or taking off your NerveGear.
"If those who are in the real world chose not to abide, a transmitter within your NerveGear would active a strong microwave that would fry your brains, destroying it, thus ending your life."
Sans widened his eyes in realization as he remembered something that he read in the magazine when Kayaba Akihiko was interviewed about the development of Sword Art Online.
[It is a game that is, at the same time, not a game.]
A sense of dread began to grow at the bottom of his stomach.
The other players including Sans' new friends had a look of shock and disbelief, some even demanded the floating giant known as Kayaba Akihiko to stop this nonsensical joke.
"However…" He continued, "Some of our fellow player's families had choose to ignore this warning and as a result approximately two hundred and thirteen had disappeared forever, both from Aincrad and the real world."
"No… No… I can't believe this…I can't—" Klein shook his head
"This is not a lie. As you can see—" He summoned multiple windows with news playing on it, "News had spread around the globe of this 'incident', thus those who are responsible had given an order for people not to tamper with the NerveGear in anyway, resulting in the possibility of having the NerveGear removed from your head to decrease dramatically. I hope you enjoy the time you have in clearing the game.
"Another important thing that I have to remind you all is that there is no way to revive or resurrect a deceased player within the game. Should your HP drop to 0, your avatar would be lost forever and at the same time… The NerveGear will destroy your brain."
Sans couldn't believe it. No, he didn't want to believe it, but why… why couldn't he bring himself to refuse in believing every single word that the giant floating man said?
"…However, there is one way to escape: Clear the Game. Right now, you are at the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. As you work together in clearing up the floors, you would eventually have to go the dungeon for a boss fight in order to advance towards the last floor in order to beat the game, the 100th Floor."
"D-Don't fuck with me! Even the beta testers have never gotten that far in the beta test!" Klein shouted in shock.
"Lastly, if you check your inventory now, you'll see that I have given a gift for each and every one of you. Please, look at yourselves."
Every players checked their inventory and found an peculiar item that everyone was sure that they didn't have before; a mirror.
"A-Aaah!" Klein shouted in panic as a burst of white flame engulfed his face.
Kirito and Sans fared no better.
"Kirito! Sans! Are you okay?"
"K-Klein? What… happened." But when Kirito opened his eyes, he was met with an unfamiliar face of a bearded man.
"W-Who are you?"
"E-Eh? Who are you?"
"As you can see, The Mirror reflects your actual self in real life so it would remind you that this world is real."
As soon as Sans could see again, he inspected how he looked in the mirror and saw his face. He was shorter than his previous avatar, as well as a tad bit shorter than Kirito and had a brown messy hair. He had a slightly overweight body build, but not fat enough to be called fat; more like chubby. Also, for some odd reason, he was wearing an extremely familiar unzipped blue hoodie, a white t-shirt/sweater, black shorts with white stripes, and a pair of sneakers.
"S-So that means…? You're Kirito/Klein/Sans?" The three of them spoke in unison.
"W-Wait, but, how?"
"I-I think that I have an idea, Klein. Our head is covered by the NerveGear that has an ultra-strong sensors and signals so reflecting our actual face is certainly possible… but for it to reflect our height and body…?"
"Didn't we have to recalibrate our body first before we login? We had to touch every part of our bodies before we start to play, right?"
"That… actually makes perfect sense."
"Yeah, but… why? Why is all this is happening?! And why are you so calm, San—?"
Before he could even finish, as if reading his mind, Kayaba Akihiko began to spoke again.
"You must be wondering… why? Why would the genius, Kayaba Akihiko, do all of this? I'm here to tell you why.
"I have reached my purpose. I created this world solely for one purpose: To create this world and intervene in it. Now, my purpose is complete, therefore, this ends our Official Tutorial of the Sword Art Online.
"I wish you all the best of luck."
As soon as he said that, the giant floating man began to dissolve into gas and retracted back into the warning signs in the form of the same blood-like substance like how he appeared.
Then the dome made out of warning signs disappeared in a blink of an eye, leaving the players staring up at the clear sky in silence. Soon the silence was broken as a player screamed. A chain of events caused every other player to shout in fits of rage, demanding Kayaba Akihiko to log them all out immediately.
However, unlike the others, Kirito kept himself calm and pulled Klein and Sans with him toward an alleyway.
"O-Oi, Kirito, what's wrong with y—?"
"Listen to me, Klein, and you too, Sans. This game has just turned into a death game. Don't you get it? If you die here, you die in the real world too."
"Y-Yeah, but—"
"Look, the only way for us to survive is to get to the next town as soon as possible and level up as quickly as possible while taking quests that would benefit us before the other players began to do the same.
"I was one of the top players in the beta test so I know a lot of safe paths that we could use to get to the next town and—"
However, Sans suddenly laughed.
"W-Why are you laughing, Sans? This is serious!"
"Kirito… You're really a nice person, aren't you?" he smiled sadly.
"W-What are you…?"
"I got to agree with Sans here. I mean, the reason I play SAO was to play together with my real life friends. I'm pretty sure they're here somewhere so I gotta look for them."
"B-But—!"
Klein cut him off before he could continue to argue, "Don't worry about us! I have a lot of experience as a guild leader, so you can rest assured that we'll be just fine!
"…Besides, you've already taught and do so much for us. We can't possibly ask more from you."
"Guys…"
Sans put a hand on his shoulder and smiled, "Just go, Kirito. I'm rooting for you."
"If that's what you guys want… then I guess, it was nice to meet you both."
Sans nodded as a reply and Kirito began to reluctantly retreat deeper into the alleyway, but then before he was out of sight, Klein called out his name.
"Kirito!"
"Y-yeah?"
"Umm… how should I put this… It's just that, you know, now that I think about it, you look pretty cute. So get rid of that sadness in your face! Your happy face suits you better!"
Both Kirito and Sans were silent, but then laughed really hard.
"D-Dude, I didn't know you swing that way, hahaha!"
"W-What—?!"
"Hahaha! Well your face suits you ten times better than mine does!"
"Oh, c'mon, really?"
Kirito stopped laughing and smiled as he waved a goodbye, "If this is goodbye… then see you later, Klein! Sans!"
"See ya, bro! Thanks for everything!"
"See you soon."
As soon as Kirito disappeared, the two remaining player were left in silence as the world behind them turned to chaos.
Klein was the first to break the silence.
"You can cry now, Sans... I noticed that you were holding it back too."
"Heh, heh, heh… heh… I-I thought I hid it so well…" Sans chuckled in sadness as did everything he could muster just to force himself not to cry.
His voice was shaky when he spoke and his foot collapsed, causing him to sit down in this cold and dark alleyway.
"Sans—"
"Don't you have to find your friends soon?"
For a moment Klein didn't say anything then he sighed and turned around as he let out his own tears.
"I-I understand… I'm sorry to leave you alone like this, Sans. Goodbye."
Klein walked out of the alleyway and disappeared amongst the panicking players in the town square, leaving Sans sitting alone in the alleyway.
"Stuck in a death game with 1 Health Point, 1 Defense Point, and 1 Attack Point…" he began to chuckle then he began to laugh. His laugh got louder and louder, but before he realized it, he was already screaming and crying in pure despair.
"What kind of a sick joke is this…?! Just WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask for any of this!"
He gripped his face in sheer hopelessness so hard and so painful that it might as well bleed if he was in the real world.
As tears were overflowing from the corner of his eyes, he cried alone in the dark and cold alleyway as he yelled out,
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Author's Note:
Hey! So, uh, I know that this counts as a crossover but I have no intention in adding in any other characters or storyline from Undertale to the SAO Universe.
All my OC is in this story is that he is a player that gained the power of Sans the Skeleton from Undertale, however there will be a few changes to the game mechanics to explain/suit how Sans' power work in SAO.
This is a prologue, but I'm not sure really; might be nothing more but a simple one-shot. I don't wanna make promises that I'll update regularly, IF I decide to continue, but if someone could motivate me then I'd continue the story. So yeah, your review is essential to me.
After all, who wants to write something that no one would read? I certainly don't wanna waste time doing that…
Well, what do you think? Should I change the tag of this story as a crossover, or should I just continue the way it is for now?
Any thoughts on the chapter? Well, send it as a PM or Review to let me know!
Well then, without further ado,
See ya next chapt, Capt!
:v /