Sorry for making you wait and for not finishing the countdown in the previous chapter.
Hope you enjoy reading and have a good day!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SWORD ART ONLINE.
CHAPTER 2
STIPULATIONS
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[WELCOME TO THE BATTLE OF GUILDS TOURNAMENT]
[YOUR OBJECTIVE IS SIMPLE]
[KILL THE FINAL BOSS]
[IF YOUR GUILD IS READY, THEN ENTER THE TOURNAMENT]
[ON ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE, YOUR GUILD WOULD BE TELEPORTED TO A RANDOM SPOT INSIDE THE DUNGEON]
[PRESS Y/N]
The dialog box opened up in front of Asuna. She looked at her guild members. They all nodded in agreement. Asuna took a deep breath and pressed Y.
But nothing happened. They were not teleported anywhere. No one was. Everyone was still there.
Bug? Asuna's doubt was answered by a system message in the New Aincrad Sky. Asuna's heart almost stopped on reading the message. Time seemed to slow down and old memories came rushing into her mind. Asuna swallowed hard and read it.
[THIS IS NOT A BUG]
[ONLY 64 GUILDS ARE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE TOURNAMENT]
[THE FIRST 64 TO ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE WILL NOW PROCEED TO ENTER THE TOURNAMENT]
[ADDED STIPULATION: IF YOU FAIL TO WIN THE TOURNAMENT, OR BACK OUT NOW, ALL YOUR USER DATA WILL BE DELETED PERMANENTLY]
The Town of Beginnings suddenly fell silent. Everyone looked startled. Even though user data deletion wasn't as bad as a death game like SAO, still, many people had worked for years to get to what they were now. At least in this world. Inside ALO. All their hard work would be deleted in the blink of an eye.
Asuna kept staring at the message with a gaping mouth. Her legs felt numb and it was as if her world was crashing in front of her own eyes. Home. My home. That was her only concern. To her it was one of the most important things in her life, even if it was inside a VRMMORPG. She could hardly breathe and she looked around. Everyone around her seemed shocked.
But to her the stipulation was an added burden. Kirito was already missing. The last thing she would want was losing her home in Aincrad. She had become attached to it and didn't ever want to let go of it. It had so many memories attached.
Liz walked to Asuna and placed her hand over Asuna's shoulder. In a resounding voice she said, "Don't worry. We are not going to lose anything. We survived SAO. How tough can some stupid tournament be?"
"The party is on me then. I'll buy the drinks once we get back after winning" Klein smiled and put his hand out in front. All of them placed their palms one over the other. Asuna was the last member of the guild to place her arm.
"Let's do this."Asuna said it so confidently that everyone else on the guild felt that they could make it.
And before they could say anything more, each one of them was engulfed in a blue light as the teleportation began. Asuna was still wondering about the final message she had seen in the sky.
[ALL THE BEST. ENLIGHTENMENT AWAITS YOU. MAKE USE OF IT]
A/N : Okay, I know it's stupid to write a chapter on a single stipulation. But I had to. I wanted to highlight how important winning this tournament was. I didn't want to start a death game again, hence the stipulation. Do you agree?
The real fight starts in the next chapter and like I said before, OLD ENEMIES resurface. Oops, spoiler alert.
Thanks for reading.
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