Kirito let out a breath, his entire body hurt, and as he fell onto the ground exhausted he couldn't help but let a sad smile form.
It was over, the death game, Sword Art Online was over, but there was no one left.
He was the only one that managed to beat the game and it was out of pure luck, had Klein not pushed he would have been the one that was killed.
Kirito heard his help screen beep and as it opened on its own he couldn't help but start crying, in the end, everyone had fought to see that one word again.
It was simple, he couldn't help but laugh while at the same time breaking down crying.
The Exit option was back on his help screen, Kirito weakly lifted his hand and pressed it, but then everything went wrong.
The world around him began to glitch and error messages began to pop one after another until everything went dark and letters written in white text began to appear in front of him.
"To the players of the game, you don't need to know who I am for that information is meaningless to you"
"What would you even do with that information?"
"I want to congratulate all of you, on your performance and as such I will give all of you a second chance at life"
'Unfortunately, many of you have died and will have to learn to live with those memories, but as a way of helping you I prevented your deaths at the very last second"
"To put it simply, all of you were in a coma"
"In your world, you died and your loved ones mourned you, that is the reason why I can't return you to your world, and the reason why I have chosen to send you to a new world for you to start over"
"I will make new bodies for you because I can't just send you to the new world with your old ones"
"You will be allowed to keep everything from your time in the game, such as your help screens- crystals- weapons- armor, and so on"
"However, even I have to follow certain rules, so other people from other worlds will be joining you, but they won't be near you"
"The world you are going to wake up in is at war, between androids that Humanity has created and alien robots"
"Good luck"
Kirito began to feel his body beginning to burn, it wasn't burning because it was hot, but it felt as if his entire body was tearing itself apart, and only now was his mind registering the pain, he was about to scream when he sat up and opened his eyes.
All of the pain that he had been feeling a second ago was gone and the only things he could feel were the clothes he was wearing.
Kirito began to look around and he found that everyone was either gasping for air, looking at their hands, or staring blankly into the distance.
Kirito could feel his lungs burn as he breathed in the cool air, it felt as if he had never used his lungs before, and as he struggled to stand up he found that his legs couldn't hold his weight up.
He had to try over and over again before he was able to stand, then he was forced to try to walk and that was another problem.
He tried to talk but his through felt, it wasn't dry but the feeling of making sounds felt, it wasn't wrong, it just felt strange, it was almost as if he had never spoken before.
"Ki...ki" Kirito tried to say his name over and over again until he was finally able to say it, he could hear everyone else either trying to walk or trying to talk again.
Finally, after what felt like forever he was able to say his name, and the rest of the words followed, he began to look at his surroundings and he found that he was surrounded by ruins.
The place he had woken up in was a city once, but all that was left of it was a bunch of broken buildings- machines and overgrown plants.
Kirito felt himself becoming more and more confused, he had won the game meaning that he should have woken up back home or in a hospital, but instead, he was here surrounded by the people he had seen die.
He tried to remember the message that appeared before he had woken up her, but his mind wasn't working right, he knew that the memories were there but he just couldn't remember them.
Kirito felt like he needed to sit down so he could try and understand the situation he was in, and so he began to look around for a good spot, he soon found one.
Yet as he walked to it, he began to hear the other players either screaming or crying as the realization of their situation set in.
Kirito began to remember the words that had appeared in front of him and he too began to realize what those that were crying out in despair had realized either on their own or because they too had remembered the words that had shown themselves to him.
They were either still trapped inside some computer or this was another world and they had been given a second chance at life, either way, neither option was a good one.
"This is Heathcliff, we need to find shelter and figure out what we're going to do" Kirito heard Heathcliff's voice as it came out of his help screen.
His voice was soon joined by the voices of the rest of the Guild leaders and so slowly everyone that could move began to carry those that couldn't move yet to one of the buildings.
No one knew what they were going to do only that they didn't want to be here.
