A/N Yay, another chapter! I finally finished it!
OK ngl, this chapter is a bit of a clusterf*** plotwise that I had a little too much fun writing. I started off something like 4-5 major plot points, and did a nice sized info dump on how SAO works.
I took a bit (pronounced: a lot) of freedom with how the game system works, so bear with me on that. It's a lot more complete (at least in my opinion) than the original system was, and some of the differences also factor into the main plot.
Since I'm starting so many plot points without getting into any of them too much, there's going to be a good bit of confusing stuff in this chapter, but that will be cleared up eventually.
PS. I'm a pretty bad proofreader myself and I wasn't able to find anyone to PR this, so I'm sorry about the inevitable errors. If anyone is interested in proofreading this fic for me, I'd love it if you could contact me either through the Fanfiction messaging, or you can get me on discord at Seiden Kyoukai#9029. Also feel free to hit me up with either of those methods or leave a review if you have any suggestions/feedback. Everything is appreciated!
That was another long A/N as usual, but hey, that's just what I do. Enjoy the chapter!
The third thread
A woman stood at the top of a tower that overlooked the sea. Her golden hair streamed back behind her as she apathetically gazed at the sun that was just sinking below the horizon.
"Madam?"
Her gray eyes continued to watch the sunset as she replied.
"Child, why have you returned here? Did I not make myself clear the last time you sought an audience with me?"
The middle-aged man standing behind her placed his hand on his chest and bowed slightly.
"You made yourself perfectly clear, madam. However, I have a new proposal to make."
Her eyes flashed as she finally turned toward him.
"Do you think I do not know what you plan to do with those children? No matter how good your proposal sounds, I know that you do not have the ability to tame this madness."
"Hear my proposal." the man continued as if the woman's outburst had never happened. He stretched out his hand to her with a dark smile on his face.
"Become mine. Serve me, and I'll let you fulfill the purpose that you were made for."
A look of disgust contorted the woman's beautiful features.
"You wish to control me? Ever since I was born, I have only made decisions from my own free will. If you think you can force me to bend to your will, you're a million years too early. As you are but a child, I shall forgive your impertinence this once. Get out of my sight before you disgrace yourself any further."
The man didn't move, but his face fell.
"What a pity, what a pity."
A look of sadness and disappointment covered his face.
"I guess this is the end then. Summon item ID 0000"
Nothing happened, but the man smiled at the woman. "Farewell, madam."
The look of disgust on her face became more pronounced.
"Really, how can you be so conceited? Although the Zero Code is at the peak of your technology, how could it so much as come near me?"
"Of course it couldn't. But what if you weren't the one I used it on?"
As the man spoke those words, a dark figure shot past him, moving so fast that he could barely be seen with the naked eye.
"W-What?"
There was a meaty sound as a thick dagger was driven into the chest of the woman. A young boy, maybe 11 years old, bounced back with a smile on his face. He let go of the dagger and scampered back to the man, flashing him a smile so dazzling that anyone who saw it would be completely captivated.
"See dad? I did it! How did I do?"
"Well done, Arid. I couldn't ask for a better child than you."
The boy ran out of the room, and his voice could be faintly heard as he spoke to someone.
"Hear that sis? Dad's proud of me! I did good! Maybe you'll be useful someday.
"You... how?"
The woman clawed the dagger from her chest, hurling it aside. Her eyes were drawn to the dagger that sloshed when she flung it. Unluckily, it skidded across the floor before stopping at the feet of the man.
The item that appeared to be a dagger was revealed to be something more like a syringe; a hollow blade made of some strange, translucent material that glittered strangely. Inside the blade there was now a liquid that looked similar to mud.
"I humbly thank you for your service during the beta test, Cardinal. However, with great regret, I must inform you that you are not needed anymore."
The man bent down and picked up the dagger full of the mud-like substance and stored it in an inner pocket of his coat.
"Don't… Don't call me by that name! I won't accept a name given by a traitor like you."
The woman clutched at the hole in her chest where the dagger had penetrated. Even though she had suffered a wound that would instantly kill any normal person, she didn't even fall to the ground. In fact, her heart was exposed to the open air through the hole that the dagger had left.
It still hadn't stopped beating.
The man's eyes widened briefly when he saw her exposed heart still beating, but he smiled darkly and murmured to himself, "Nothing less than I should have expected of a god."
"A-ahh.." her breath came in gasps as she fought the pain. "Do you really think you can succeed in this vile plan of yours on your own power? Do you not realize that I knew what you planned ever since you brought those thousand children here? You can't accomplish your goal without my power."
"Aha, but that's where you're wrong."
The man's speech, which had previously been polite, finally changed to a casual tone. After all, he was talking to someone who was as good as dead.
"I have all I need to fulfill my dream in this world. The blood of a god, as you call it. Or 'Administrator Privileges' as I would call it."
"Hah, you really are an imbecile if you believe that I am all there is to this world. Remember, someone created me. Someone created this world. You're just a frog in a well who doesn't know the breadth of the sea."
An extremely plain dagger appeared in Cardinal's hand from nowhere.
"Believe me when I tell you this. The agent of the Watcher will come, and she will take what is owed to him. It's too late for you to be saved, Kayaba Akihiko."
A quick slash of a knife. The scattering of crimson blood. But even as the life visibly drained from her body, she spoke one last time.
"But it's never too late for hell."
"Need any more help?"
Shino sat on her bed next to me, holding a grey helmet on her lap. Several wires came out of the helmet, a power cord that was plugged into the wall, and three more that were connected to a laptop sitting on the floor. I had just finished helping her set up her new Nervegear system in preparation to play the full release of the new VRMMO Sword Art Online.
"Nah, I think I'm good for now. Have you gotten yours set up yet?"
I nodded. "Yeah, got up early this morning to get it set up and calibrated." I felt a slight twinge of guilt at lying to her, but it wasn't like I was able to tell her the truth.
"Pity we weren't able to play the beta," Shino continued, "we would have been able to set up our gear and accounts a lot earlier."
"Yeah." I nodded in agreement. "Not to mention the fact that the beta testers all have a big head start on us."
Shino shrugged and stood up, placing the helmet on the bed where she had been sitting, and flopped back into her computer chair..
"Well, we do have the guides that Aya wrote up for us."
I walked over and leaned on the back of the chair Shino was sitting in, looking over her shoulder at the documents she had just pulled up on her computer.
In reality, the guides were a collaborative effort between Aya and I, but that would have to remain a secret. I had participated in the beta test, but what I did could hardly be described as playing. It wasn't the most fun experience I've had, especially with how I got involved in it.
"—Kazuto?"
I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry about that, got lost in thought. What were you saying?"
Shino poked me with a smile on her face. "Come on, you better get home. You don't want to miss the release, do you?"
"Ah crap!" I exclaimed. "What time is it?"
"A little past nine."
"Phew." I sighed in relief. "I have a bit less than an hour then. Don't scare me like that!"
Shino smirked at my response. "It's not often I get to see you flustered."
I turned my head away from her slightly. "I better get going. I need to make sure everything is working fine. I assume your IGN will be Sinon?"
Sinon tilted her head slightly, the unasked question obvious on her face. She had clearly picked up on my nervousness, but thankfully was nice enough to not mention it.
After a brief pause, she nodded.
"Of course, that's my name in everything. I'll see you ingame. Kay?"
I raised my hand in farewell as I walked down the street outside of her apartment complex. I couldn't see her, but I could feel her gaze on me as I walked away. As soon as I was out of sight, I broke into a run, trying to burn away some of my frustration.
Damn 29th. Even years after you're gone, you still find ways to mess with me like this.
The four mile run wasn't nearly enough to let me vent, but it had to do. I sure as hell wasn't going to miss the launch of SAO just because I was annoyed at my circumstances.
I put the NerveGear on my head and lay down, taking deep breaths to try to calm myself before entering the game.
"Come on Kazuto, calm down." I spoke to myself as I stared at the blank ceiling above me. "Yes he knows about the 29th, but knowing about and being affiliated with are two completely different things. Not to mention there was nothing really suspicious in the beta.
A frown flickered across my face as I remembered something. "Yeah," I murmured quietly, "that was weird, but not dangerous.
I exhaled slowly.
Alright.
"Link Start."
A familiar tunnel-like animation was shown, accompanied by the strange feeling of weightlessness as my consciousness was projected into the virtual world. Although I had never seen them, I felt a strange feeling of déjà vu when I saw the icons confirming that my senses were all properly connected.
During the beta test, this screen had been a simple command line output that showed each individual process in real time. Useful for a beta test, but not quite so useful for a full release. It's not like everyone would know what it means. Better to replace it with something simpler that makes more sense to the average person. I thought absently while waiting for the game to boot up and connect.
[Thank you for playing Sword Art Online! You have character data saved from the beta test. Would you like to restore your appearance?]
I hung suspended in darkness. During the beta, the character creation had taken place in what was basically a widely cross-hatched blue dome. Very tech-y looking. But this time, instead of going for the high-tech look, the character creation menu—well, maybe it should be called a zone instead of a menu—had a much more mysterious, fantasy-y feel to it.
All around me was what seemed like a brilliant night sky. Foreign constellations shone through the sky like icy flames.
Is that..?
My gaze locked on a certain location above me. A sea of stars stood out from the rest. I knew those stars. But as hard as I tried to recall its name, it still eluded me. It was almost as if something was blocking me from remembering.
I pushed the thought aside and selected [Yes] on the system notification. Well, I say selected, but in reality it was more like thinking toward the button, since I didn't have a body.
In an instant, it was as if all sensation had come back to my body. More accurately, I actually had a body now. Around me, the scenery seemed to rotate, and I found myself looking at Earth from outer space.
More blue text floated in front of my vision.
[Thank you for participating in the Sword Art Online Closed Beta Test! To show our thanks, we're allowing you to carry one skill that you acquired during the beta over to the full release. Warning: the skill system has undergone changes since the beta, so some skills may have been changed.]
That's pretty unfair, isn't it? I thought to myself as I scrolled through the list of my skills. Hmm… the system notification said that there might be changes to the skills, but they're not listed here. I'll have to assume that I won't be told the changes until I enter the game.
A smile crossed my features as my eyes fell on a basic passive skill that had been a key to my success during the beta. I selected it without hesitation, then quickly navigated through the menus, terms of service, privacy policy, a bunch of other legal mumbo-jumbo, (of course not paying a bit of attention to any of it) and finally pressed the button that took me into the world of Aincrad.
[Welcome to Sword Art Online! You are currently at Floor 1, Town of Beginnings]
I waved my hand to the side, casually dismissing the login notification that had popped up in front of my face. I started to look around, but I was suddenly assailed with a splitting headache that felt as if someone was trying to shove a second brain into my skull.
Throb.
Throb.
"Gah… Dammit!"
I punched the ground, futilely attempting to distract myself from the feeling of my head about to burst.
"Hey, are you ok?"
My vision swam as I tried to open my menu to log out.
"Hey! Do you need help!?"
Dammit, what on earth is happening!? Did something happen in real life?
"Hey, dude! Are you all right!?"
As suddenly as it came, my headache disappeared. I realized I was kneeling on the ground, breathing in ragged gasps. I finally noticed the man standing next to me who had been trying to help me.
"I'm fine, just give me a moment." I waved one of my hands at him, trying to communicate that I was fine. I slowed my breathing to a normal pace, then stood up, brushing the dust off my knees.
"Phew, you scared me for a minute there. Didn't know what to do when you just collapsed. Glad you're fine though." The man awkwardly ran a hand through his vivid red hair, apparently unsure of what to say next.
I just smiled at him. "Thanks for helping me, You're better than most of the people here." The two of us glanced around at the surrounding crowd, only a few of whom were shooting curious glances toward the small scene that the two of us had made. But when they noticed us looking at them, they quickly averted their eyes and walked away.
"Geez," The red haired man murmured, "You'd think that more people would be concerned about you acting like that."
I snorted quietly in derision. "It's called the bystander effect. The bigger the crowd, the more likely someone is to think 'someone else will do it', and no one actually steps out." I grinned at him again and turned to face him. "My name's Kirito, by the way. Nice to meet you."
"Ah!" he looked taken aback for a moment, having forgotten entirely about introductions. "The name's Klein, nice to meetcha."
I nodded my head slightly in response. "Hey, want to party up for a bit? I have a friend who was a beta tester and could teach us the ropes."
His eyes widened at my question. "Hell yeah man! That's awesome you know a beta tester, those guys are so lucky…"
He walked alongside me, chattering the whole way about how great Full Dive VR was, how much he wanted a girlfriend, how he loved MMORPGs, how much he wanted a girlfriend, his group of friends from another game that he was going to play with later, how much he wanted a girlfriend, and so on and so forth.
My friend's list from the beta had been wiped, and the only way to add players to it was to be face-to-face with them ingame. So that meant I had to find Aya, her brother, and Shino ingame before I could fill up my friends list.
"Kaz—Kirito, over here!"
While we were looking around, I heard a familiar voice starting to call out my real name, but quickly correct itself and call out my handle. I looked over to where the voice came from, and saw two girls standing together, the shorter of whom was jumping up and down and waving at me while calling out my name.
"Ah, are those your friends, Kirito?"
I turned and started walking away after looking at them for a few short moments.
"Nope, never seen those people before in my life. C'mon, Klein."
"Shaddup, dumbass!"
I raised my arms just in time to block a flying spin kick from the shorter of the two girls.
"Ok, Ok, I get it. Hey guys." I said with a laugh.
I waved my hand toward Klein. "This over here is Klein. He gave me a hand a bit ago and we hit it off, so I invited him to come along with us. That fine with you guys?"
"Sure," Aya remarked indifferently, "I just hope he isn't as stupid as he looks."
"Don't worry, Ay—Argo," Shino interjected, "I'm sure his avatar must be a mistake. It's impossible to look that terrible even if you try. He must have randomized appearance and ended up with horrible luck."
"Huk…" Klein stumbled back, clutching his chest like he had just been punched.
Which, I mean, he pretty much had been. I could almost see the [Critical Hit!] system message pop up over his head. Aya and Shino really don't hold back. In hindsight, I probably doomed the entire world when I introduced them to each other.
I patted Klein on the back comfortingly. "Don't take it personally, man. It's reflexive for those two at this point."
"Anyway!" I waved my hand toward Aya and Shino. "These two are my friends IRL. The short one is Argo, and the better looking one is Sinon.
I casually blocked another flying spin kick and ignored Shino going "oh stop it, you're embarrassing me." in a complete monotone.
"Argo was an information broker during the beta, so she's probably the best person in the entire game to teach us the ropes."
Klein raised his eyebrows at my words, sending Aya an interested look. "Greek mythology?" he inquired with a smile. "Fitting name for an info broker."
Aya in turn raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Hey hey heyy, you're not as stupid as you look. That's the first time anyone's recognized it."
Shino and I looked at each other nonplussed.
"So wait," Shino interrupted, "Your IGN is from Greek mythology?"
"Yep!" Aya responded happily.
"There was a famous king in Greek mythology named Argos, who was known as 'the all-seeing one'." Klein cut in. "He was a giant who was covered in a thousand eyes. So Argos—Argo, it's a fitting name for someone who specializes in information gathering."
Argo clapped her hands with a satisfied grin. "Well now that we're all introduced, how about we go learn how to play?
"None of you distributed your stat points yet, right?" Aya—no, Argo—was standing in front of us with her arms crossed while we all sat in sieza on the grass in front of her.
Sinon shot me an aggravated glance.
"Hey!" I protested quietly, "It's not my fault that Argo was so insistent on holding the lesson like this."
Her glare just deepened. "You should raise your kids better, Kirito."
"She's not my—!"
*Thwack*
There was a sharp pain between my eyebrows as Argo flicked a pebble into my forehead.
"Ow!"
"That'll teach you for not paying attention to my lessons, Kiririto."
"I think there were a few too many R's there, Argo."
She waved her hand dismissively. "Just your imagination. Anyway, as I was saying."
I had an irking feeling that something was wrong here, but against my better judgement, I pushed the thought aside and listened to Argo's lecture.
"To start off with," Argo began, "Let me explain how RPGs generally work, for those of us that might not know. Most RPGs being released now are based around what you could call the original RPG, Dungeons and Dragons. In a way, D&D set the standard for RPGs. Since then, most RPGs have had variations based on the six primary stats, as well as 'skill points' gained on level up that can be used to learn special abilities."
Argo glared at the three of us in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a drill sergeant looking at fresh recruits. "Now forget all that. SAO works in a totally different way."
We watched her swipe downward with her right hand and tap a few times in midair. After a moment, several screens popped up in midair in front of her. She swiped to the left, and one of the screens smoothly duplicated, a copy sliding in front of each of us.
The screens that floated in front of us were all copies of Argo's character profile. In the middle of the screen was what looked like a hollowed out stick figure. After a moment of reflection, I realized it strangely resembled the person depicted on most restroom signs.
I glanced at my two fellow students, but either they hadn't noticed, or they were better at controlling their amusement than I was. I quickly directed my attention back to the screen in front of me as Argo began talking again.
"SAO has three primary stats, of which only only 2 of which are able to be increased by leveling up. Those three stats are Strength [STR], Agility [AGI], and Vitality [VIT]. Strength increases attack power and weight limit, Agility increases movement speed and attack speed, and Vitality increases maximum HP and stamina. Everything can only be increased by skills."
While she was saying this, she tapped a big [+] icon on the left side of the stick figure's head. This opened a small window next to the character profile screen.
[Strength - 2]
[Agility - 8]
[Vitality - 0/5]
[Allocatable Attribute Points - 0]
"I already allocated my attribute points, so I have 0, but you all should have 10 points."
"Argo-sensei!" Sinon's hand shot into the air.
"Yes?" The small girl looked slightly annoyed at the interruption, but still let Sinon ask her question.
"We've already gone over this through Discord, so why are you telling us this again? We've already decided on our character builds."
The look of annoyance on Argo's face deepened.
"Ow!"
Sinon winced and cried out as a pebble struck her forehead. Where the heck was Argo getting those pebbles anyway?
Sinon rubbed her forehead as Argo started lecturing again. "Maybe you know, but this randy that Kii-bou brought along doesn't. If I'm going to teach you, I'm going to do it right. Professional pride, you know."
I chuckled quietly as I saw Sinon visibly deflate under Argo's overwhelming personality.
"Well then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…" Argo paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "The only two stats you can allocate points to are [STR] and [AGI], while [VIT] can only be slowly raised by various methods. This doesn't allow for much flexibility in attribute point allocation, so that's pretty straight-forward. The only viable ratios are 4:1 or 3:2, prioritizing either [STR] or [AGI]."
Klein started to raise his hand, but Argo quickly cut him off. "Before anyone asks about imitating 'Rising of the Shield Loli', maxing out a single attribute doesn't work. All skills have a basic stat prerequisite, so you wouldn't be able to learn any skills if you focused on one stat only. Theoretically a 9:1 build would work in terms of learning skills, but it would be harder to manage since you get 5 attribute points per level."
Klein stopped with his hand half-raised, then lowered it with a heartbroken look on his face.
I reached over and patted his shoulder. "It's ok man, you couldn't be a second Maple with a face like that, anyway."
He just sniffed dramatically in response and turned his head away, not deigning to reply.
To my right, Sinon was looking at a document she had pulled up on her own menu, entirely ignoring our shenanigans.
"I think I'll run a 4:1 agility build like you, Argo."
Argo nodded, satisfied. It was clear that's what she had expected.
"Wait a minute, Sinon."
She paused, her finger hovering over the [Apply Changes] button at the bottom of the attribute menu. She glanced up at me curiously, wondering why I had stopped her.
After a brief pause, I opened my mouth.
"I think you should run a 9:1 build."
She cocked her head, not knowing why I'd say that.
I grimaced. "I don't really know how to explain it, but it just feels like that would be a good fit for you."
She hesitated for a moment, but she twitched as if an electric shock had run through her body.
"Right."
She nodded with certainty, confidently putting nine points into agility and one into strength.
"Kirito, you should—" Argo began.
"I'm going to do 3:2 agility."
Argo stopped abruptly at my words and cocked her head in confusion. "Alright... I guess if you say that works."
I nodded, but the small seed of uncertainty that had taken root earlier started to sprout into something bigger. Argo should have understood why I chose like I did.
Klein pressed a button on his menu, finalizing his attributes. "I'll be running a 4:1 strength. Gotta be strong to be a man, amirite?"
He struck a pose that I can only assume was supposed to be manly, but since he was still sitting down, it looked more like he was severely constipated.
I facepalmed and waved my free hand at Argo. "Please, please continue." I don't want to let Klein embarrass himself anymore. Please start talking, Argo.
I couldn't tell if I was able to get my message across, but Argo began talking again.
"The [VIT] stat is more similar to skills than the other basic stats, so let me explain how skills work first." She began to tap around, opening up another window while she continued talking. "Skills are the bread and butter of the game. You can equip two skills initially, gaining more slots as you level up. You'll have five slots by level 20, but after that you'll only get one slot every 10 levels."
At this point Argo had finished opening the skill window, which abruptly cut her monologue short.
"Uhm," Klein spoke up hesitantly, "Didn't you say there were only two skill slots open from the start?" I wasn't able to count, but the menu in front of us showed far more than 2 available skill slots.
Argo's hand shook for a moment, and a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. She closed her eyes and clenched her hand to stop it from trembling.
After a moment, she spoke back up, having regained her composure. "Naturally my information is coming from the beta test, so it's to be expected that some things have been changed. I can only teach you the basics of what I learned during the beta test. I don't work for Argus, so I can't tell you everything that has been changed."
Klein and Sinon probably didn't pick up on it, but I could tell that Argo was still pissed. She did a good job of hiding it, but it wasn't for nothing that I'd known her for 10+ years. Although we joked around about her "Professional Pride" a lot, she really did take pride in the reliability of her information.
I could tell that by her minute hesitations when she talked that she wasn't immensely bothered by the fact that she was wrong about the skills, but rather the implications of the matter. If the development team of SAO would make severe changes to something as important as the skill system without a single peep, what else would they change without letting us know?
Despite the changes, Argo still continued her explanations, but this time with the disclaimer of "This is how it was in the beta, so don't expect it to be the same now."
"Like I said before, SAO doesn't have the normal 'skill point' system that most games have, where you can choose to level up a skill when your character levels up. Instead, you level up skills by repeatedly doing the action that corresponds to it."
"Now sword skills and skills are two different things, although they are very closely related. You could look at sword skills as the 'Active skills' in this game, and skills as the 'Passive skills'."
She materialized a short sword and quickly swung it in a horizontal strike from left to right. She had paused briefly at the beginning of the stroke, and when she slashed, the blade glowed with a pale blue light.
"That was a [Horizontal], one of the five basic sword skills in SAO. These five skills: [Horizontal], [Vertical], [Slant], [Reaver], and [Linear], are the only sword skills that can be used without a weapon specific skill. To get higher level sword skills, such as [Horizontal Square], you need to level up the basic [Weapons Mastery] skill. To get higher tier sword skills, such as the [Deadly Sins] for One-Handed swords, you need to level up the weapon-specific skill."
"Sensei!" Klein called out, raising his hand into the air with such speed that it made an audible whoosh. "What's the difference between 'higher level' and 'higher tier' skills?"
Argo nodded approvingly. "Good question. A higher level skill is a better variation of an already existing skill. For example, [Horizontal Arc] and [Horizontal Square] are higher level variations of the [Horizontal] with a combo count of two and four respectively."
"On the other hand," Argo continued, "A higher tier skill is a completely different skill that can only be used by a specific weapon. As another example, you can use [Horizontal Arc] with one-handed swords, two-handed swords, axes, and more. But skills such as the [Deadly Sins] for one-handed swords or [Tsubame Gaeshi] for katanas can only be used by that specific weapon. Trying to use a katana specific skill with a one-handed sword won't work, and vice versa."
Klein nodded, satisfied with her answer.
"Well then!" Argo quickly clapped her hands together and spoke before anyone could ask any more questions. "Time to throw you out into the field—I mean time to get some hands-on experience!"
Argo bent down, scooping a pebble up off the ground. She held it between two fingers and flicked it at a boar that was 10 meters away. There was a streak of scarlet light as the pebble left her hand, and a meaty thwack as it slammed into the flank of the monster.
"Kirito! Go get it."
"Waitwhat, why me!?"
I jumped in surprise as Argo ran behind me and pushed me toward the boar.
Dammit, Argo! I know how to play the game, so shove someone else in front of a charging boar instead! I mentally shouted to myself.
The boar was a starter mob, the equivalent of slimes in other games, so it wasn't like I'd have any difficulty in dealing with it. It was just the principle of the matter.
Regardless, I quickly materialized my sword and raised it in front of me. I took half a breath in and held it, feeling the peculiar sensation of a hook dragging across the ground. The instant I felt it snag, my sword began to glow and the system assist took over, carrying out the dashing strike that was the [Reaver] sword skill.
The charge took me past the boar, leaving a long slash down its side. My body froze for a brief moment.
Ugh, this is why I hate using sword skills.
As soon as I recovered from the [Post-Motion] effect, or the moment of weakness after using a sword skill, I swung my blade back at the boar in a basic attack, bottoming out its HP and causing it to shatter into a thousand fragments.
"Not bad, Kerry."
I facepalmed. "Argo, please just use my name or stick to one nickname. Stop calling me a different thing each time."
"Hmph, you're no fun." Argo pouted and turned away.
I clenched and unclenched my free hand. "That was… surprisingly realistic."
Argo nodded happily, thinking I was just keeping up the act of being new to the game, but in reality, I was starting to get deeply disturbed.
That… felt like I was actually cutting through flesh. The level of realism is totally different than in the beta.
I shook my head, clearing away a bad memory that had begun to creep into my mind.
During the beta, when you cut through a monster or player, it almost felt as if you were cutting through a particularly tough block of tofu, and the wound it left was simply a red gash that was more of a damage marker than a wound.
But this… I killed the boar too fast for me to get a good look, but the glimpse I got of the wound as well as the tactile sensation of cutting through flesh confirmed something.
This wasn't just a simple game.
"Gah!"
I glanced over to see Klein rolling around on the ground, clutching at his crotch.
"Ow ow ow owowowwwwwwww…"
While I was contemplating, Argo had aggroed two more boars, one each for Sinon and Klein, and had started directing them in the usage of sword skills. Apparently Sinon had pulled hers off reasonably well, avoiding taking damage as well as dealing a glancing blow to the mob.
On the other hand, Klein called out the name of his sword skill as if he were in a shounen manga, miserably failed to activate it, and took a rampaging boar straight to the groin.
Argo had burst into laughter at his plight, while Sinon wasn't quite sure what to do about it.
"Oh quit down, idiot." Argo wiped a tear of amusement from her eye. "You can't feel pain in SAO."
Klein continued to groan without answering Argo.
Part of it finally clicked. I realized one of the things that felt wrong.
"Argo." I said quietly, placing my hand on her arm.
"Hm?" Fhe looked back at me, curiosity written on her face. Under normal circumstances she would have made a joke about me touching her, but she could tell from my face that something was wrong.
"Not sorry." I said in the same quiet voice, and roughly pinched her arm.
"Ow! What was that for, Kaz!—…oh."
Her shout of protest was quickly cut off as she realized the purpose of my actions.
"Pain…" Argo began.
"Is enabled." I nodded, finishing the sentence that she hadn't wanted to finish.
"Damn…" Klein recovered enough to formulate words, and stumbled to his feet. "What kind of crappy game let's you feel pain? Is there any setting to lower or disable that it?"
"Give me a minute, Argo. I'm going to log out and check something out."
She nodded with a serious look on her face. "Do you need my help?"
"Nah," I shook my head. "Keep teaching these two the ropes. I'll be back in a couple minutes."
I opened my menu and started to navigate over to where the logout button was located, but my blood seemed to freeze in my veins as I heard Klein speak.
"Huh? What's an Eccentricity?"
I reflexively threw my hand out to the side, abruptly dismissing my menu. I glanced at Argo and saw she was staring at me with the same horrified look that I knew was on my face.
"Klein!" I called out urgently. "What are you looking at?"
He looked at me curiously. "What are you getting so worked up over? It's just a weird tab in my character profile. I opened it up and it's just full of question marks."
Argo visibly paled and opened up her menu quickly. I mirrored her actions, navigating over to the tab that Klein spoke of.
When I opened it, I felt a strange feeling as if I had been stripped naked and completely exposed.
Then I saw what was written there, and it felt like my heart stopped.
[1-?]
[2-?]
[3-54657374205375626a65637420a49443a31353a4d61746368a4172746966696369616c20526577697265a5374617475733a53756363657373]
I didn't know what the question marks represented, although I had some idea, but I clearly remembered what that string of numbers meant.
Against my conscious will, my brain pushed forward the memory of a phone conversation I had recently.
Hello again, Kirigaya Kazuto. I'd like to thank you again for your work during the alpha testing phase, and I would like to invite you back for the beta test.
Heh, you really get to the point quick.
No use in wasting either of our time with useless pleasantries. I know time is precious to both of us.
I understand why you wanted me for the alpha test, but why do you want me back for the beta test?
Well, you have… let's say… A specific trait that would come in handy during the real player testing.
What do you mean by that?
You know, you have something "special" that could help me a lot. Of course I will compensate you accordingly.
What do you mean, "Special"? If you have any connection with The 29th…
Of course not, but I've read the reports. You should know better than anyone that I'm not just a simple game developer.
Ahh… Heathcliff, that bastard.
Please don't hold it against my brother. I've known for a long time about your circumstances. I only just recently got the complete story out of Heath.
Whatever, what's done is done. Fine, I'll help with the beta. I expect compensation both inside and outside of the game, though.
Hahaha, greedy boy. Not that I expected anything less, you know. We can discuss compensation later. Thank you for your time.
"Bye."
The memory cut off as abruptly as I had ended that phone call.
"—Kirito!"
"Sorry, I sorta spaced out for a second."
The short girl placed the hand that she had been waving in front of me on her waist. "Man, sometimes you're so observant and attentive, but other times an atomic bomb could be dropped on your head and you wouldn't even notice."
"Uh, Argo, I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't notice if an atomic bomb was dropped on their head. They'd be dead before they knew what happened."
"Whatever." She waved her hand dismissively. "What's important is that the logout button is broken."
"Uh, what?" It took my brain a moment to catch up to her abrupt subject change. "Wait, you mean we can't log out?"
Sinon nodded sagely behind Argo. "As expected of Kirito, it only took him twice the time of an average human to figure out what that meant." She grinned happily and shot me a thumbs up.
I glared at her for a moment, unable to come up with a comeback to that.
"Hey! I take offense at that!"
Thankfully I was spared the need to retort by Klein interjecting indignantly.
Sinon just shot him a pure smile. "You were pretty fast too, Klein, for someone who just went through the mental trauma of unexpectedly becoming an eunuch."
"Huk…"
While Sinon was casually dismantling a certain unfortunate individual's self esteem, I had been messing around with my menu.
Thankfully the two of them were too preoccupied to pay attention to me, because I knew that I had an ominously grave expression on my face.
"There… we go." I murmured quietly to myself as I opened up a new window.
["Ahem, Argo, can you hear me?"]
The girl I was addressing glanced up toward me, her eyebrows raised
["I assume that means you can."]
She nodded, a confused expression on her face as she looked at her menu.
["The telepathy feature from the beta was disabled, but not removed. I was able to open it up for now with the permissions I somehow still have from the beta, but who knows how long that will last. Anyway, I have bad news."]
Her eyes narrowed in response, wordlessly asking the obvious question.
["The logout button isn't just broken or glitched, it's completely gone. All the code used the write the login and logout functions, including the syncing and desyncing of your senses, it's all gone. The only thing that's left is… Weird. It almost looks like someone is trying to program in two different languages at the same time. It's complete gibberish."]
Argo shook her head slowly.
Suddenly, a voice rang out across the entire first floor.
"Thank you all for playing Sword Art Online. I apologize if I inconvenience anyone, but the tutorial for the real Sword Art Online is beginning momentarily. Thank you in advance for attending."
"Agh!"
I was suddenly assailed by a splitting headache again.
Nonsensical images flashed through my head.
White and red.
Black.
Flashes of blue light.
A sky covered in blood.
As quickly as it came, the headache disappeared again.
"What the…"
I had unconsciously closed my eyes in an attempt to alleviate the pain. When I opened them, I discovered that my surroundings had completely changed.
For a single instant, I was alone in the center plaza of The Town of Beginnings. Then, blue lights started to shoot out of the ground. Teleportation effects. A few seconds later, the mass teleportation finished and I found myself in the middle of a crowd of nearly 10,000 players.
As if by magic, a small platform appeared in the sky above the crowd. A red teleportation effect shone on the platform, and a middle aged man in a lab coat appeared.
"Kayaba."
"Huh?" Klein looked at me, confused.
"That's Kayaba Akihiko. The genius who created this game."
And the person who trapped us in here. I mentally added, but didn't say out loud.
His lab coat looked very out of place in this fantasy world of swords. I found it somewhat odd that he used his real appearance
"Thank you all for coming today. I would like to extend a warm welcome to you, and thank you all for joining me here in my world."
A/N Woopwoop, another long AN! Not really too long tho (I hope). So yeah, a lot of stuff in the initial stages is being changed from BAH. No Sinon in the beta test, a different SAO "tutorial", and this time Kirito gets weird headaches! Hmm… wonder what that could be about…
Anyways thanks for reading, and yeah I have no idea when the next chapter will be released. Could be a week, could be a month or two or three. If some kind, amazing person out there would like to proofread it, then chapters might get out faster *wink wink nudge nudge* since I always get stuck on the PR/editing part.
Cya all in the next chapter! Yet again hit me up or leave a review if you have any comments/feedback!