Chapter two
First I see a white screen, the normal system checks shortly follow, once everything checks out, I'm then greeted with a gray screen followed by black bold letters, taking up the majority of the middle screen.
"Welcome to Sword Art Online"
Then the screen fades into black, and I feel a calm wind blowing against me, and the sensation of the sun's rays reflecting onto my skin. Wait. I can feel this?! Then sound suddenly appeared from nowhere. The once silent place bursting with different voices, by the sound of it, it sounded like there were many people here. Finally the blackness began to disappear, and I stared at the ground beneath me. I looked at the small, fractured scratches and edges on the, otherwise, perfect stone flooring. Continuing my gaze, I noticed a green bar that didn't belong. As soon as I saw it, a realization rushed through me.
I'm in the game.
Looking back at the ground, I could now see how it's so perfect it looks fake, yet I'm still breathtaken by the detail of it. Even my computer, which is running top-of-the-line specs, would crash trying to pull off such rendering. How powerful is this server, to be able to have such detail loaded everywhere?! I finally look up and see the huge, fantasy style, buildings and many players chatting with each other. Though the ground looked so detailed, I noticed that everything else, including the ground, still looked amazing and vibrant, but didn't look, nearly, as detailed as before. I looked back at the ground, the detail like everything else. I decide to take a closer look, and focused on nothing but the ground. That's when it happened. The ground looked very detailed much more.
Of course! If the amount of pixels was THIS high all the time, it would cause server lag, or even crashes. That's why it only intensifies the amount of pixels, only with close observation. Much like the real world.
Spending so much time being amazed by the detail I finally notice that I'm smelling something. This really is amazing. It feels so real! I raise my hand over my head, surprised to actually feel the muscles at work and my hand being raised, I swipe down holding my thumb and index together, and with a small chime the menu appears in front of me. Though the manual explained where everything was, I still practiced navigating through the menu.
Seeing my equipment, I noticed that I had plenty of starting Col (the currency) with no equipment, so I looked around to find an armor and weapons shop. I was in luck, roughly 20 meters away. So I raised my foot and took my first step. To my surprise, it was much easier and natural than I had thought, and I quickly make it to the shop.
"Greetings! Welcome to my shop! Would you like a look at my wares?" He started to list his most popular items and prices.
"Yeah. I'd like to see what you have." I was confused. I doubt that talking to him would be the way to go, considering that it would be a lot of coding for the developers to do. However I didn't see any notifications or options so it was the only thing I could think of.
"Please exam the item you wish to purchase." It was after he said this, that I noticed armor and weapons on display. I went to touch a shield and a small box appears showing the shield's name, which was "iron kiteshield", its durability, and stat increases. Finally I noticed the price and a small box with the blue circle (accept) and the red X (decline). I pressed the circle, and the shield appeared in my inventory, as well as the amount of Col depleted from the difference of the price for the shield.
Such a simple transaction, yet I felt a wave of pleasure, like I truly went to a store and purchased the item. I quickly scan the store and found some light armor. Realizing that daggers would easily beat heavy armor, I decide to go for leather armor to have full mobility. Finally I put my gaze on a longsword that, along with some food, takes up the rest of my starting money. I open up my inventory and equip my newly obtained items.
Being fully equipped I walked back to the center of the town, where the only landmark was a great fountain.
"Hey!" I was given a sharp smack on the back. "You seem to know what you're doing! Show me the ropes?"
"I don't really know much about-" I turned around to see a cute girl looking at me, pleading for my assistance. These people make me sick, pretends to be a lost girl so that they can milk everything they can. From a closer perspective, I can see she has some good quality equipment on her. "I think you've already received the help you need." I respond coldly.
"Wh-WHAAT?! What do you mean?" Already she broke the act... pitiful.
"Yep. I've seen through your act. Tell you what. If you beat me in a duel, I won't spread the word that you're a fraud."
She crosses her arms in defeat. "Fine!" She says annoyingly. "And if I win, you're buying me some gear!" I looked at my remaining Col, I didn't have enough to purchase anything, so I just nodded. "Good!" She navigates her menu with ease and challenges me to a duel.
I clicked the accept button and a 60 second timer appeared. People must have noticed because within that minute, we were surrounded by people, waiting to see our duel.
I readied my weapon. This would be my first combat here. Better a duel with nothing to lose, than some monster. 3...2...1... She charged with lightning speed, her dagger raised to her chest, and... glowing? I'm caught off guard only for a split second, before I'm able to predict where her dagger will go, arround the torso for a quick kill, and raise my shield to block. She quickly fills the gap between us and thrusts her dagger towards my shield with inhuman speed. The inpact of the dagger against my shield caused myself to stagger back. She took the opportunity, and tried to stab me again, this time I knocked her dagger the other way using my sword. Once more she readied her dagger and thrusts it towards me in blinding speed, the dagger becoming a small blur in her hand, she had a smile of victory on her face.
As the dagger shot it's way towards me, my body reacted before I even knew it. With my shield ready in my left hand, I stepped back with my left foot, putting the shield in position at the same time. Then when her dagger struck my shield I shifted my weight to my right side, stepping forward with my right, and swinging hard striking her shoulder.
Her eyes bulged in horror. She had been hit, but she wasn't done. She went to stab me again, but I had done the same thing. Step back, block, step forward, swing. Eventually her health reached the yellow and the duel was over.
"Looks like I won." I sheathed my sword. After some cheering the crowd of players all left, and was just me and this girl.
"Listen... I'll do ANYTHING if you don't tell people of my act!" She looks at me with desperate eyes. I look away, the more I look at her, the more angry I get.
After a long breath I finally say. "Give me your equipment. They look much better than mine." My voice calm and quiet.
"My equipment?! Do you know how hard-"
"YOU CONNED PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR STARTING MONEY SO THAT YOU CAN HAVE BETTER EQUIPMENT! FOR WHAT?! CHEATING PEOPLE OUT OF MONEY IS NOT HOW YOU PLAY A GAME! PEOPLE LIKE YOU MAKE ME SICK!" I take another deep breath, the sudden silence made me realize that I was shouting and everyone found out. She must have come to this realization as well, she had sunk to her knees and tears were building in her eyes. Everyone now knew she was a fraud.
"D-do I still have to give my equipment to you?" Tears were trailing down her cheeks, her bangs were covering her eyes.
I felt a pain in my heart as a saw her like this. She broke down in the middle of this grand city, inside a videogame. Here, a human being was truly sad about this whole thing. I wasn't staring at an avatar whom we could only communicate via typing or emotes, I was staring at a shaking body, at tears trickling to the ground. Any other game, I would never have hesitated, but today... it was different.
"What," My voice was weak. I cleared my throat before continuing. "What do you need that equipment for?"
"My friend said that I needed to get the best equipment I could... He said that if I didn't, I'd have a very hard time playing this game. Then when he told me about the starting amount of Col, I did the math, and found that if I had conned this many people then I'd be able to get the best equipment in the shops." She started to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"Wait... Was your friend a beta tester?!" This is much different than I had thought. Though she's still conning people, she isn't feeling bad about the con, but more of, she's feeling bad about not being able to catch up with her friend...
"Yeah. He was. He said that I should get the best equipment as soon as possible so that I could start harvesting some of the rare drops around the starting area." She had calmed down now.
"So what were you planning to do about the people that gave you their starting Col? You know that they can't go out without any equipment. They have no way of gaining money." My voice started raising in anger once more. Why was I so passionate about making sure people had their starting Col? Because those could be potential fighters that could give me a good challenge someday, that I will never be able to fight against.
"I... Hadn't thought of that..." She looks back down, covering her eyes again.
"You know what you should do, right?" She shook her head, and I let out a sigh. "You should sell that equipment, then go out and fight the monsters outside, sell the venders trash, and then give that money back to the people you stole it from."
"But that would take forever! My friend would already be way ahead of me by then!"
"Then tell him the situation, and explain that it'll be awhile before you can join him-"
"-I already know of the situation, and I don't like it at all!" I turn towards the low growl, and see a player with his sword raised at me. His armor was much different from mine, which only makes me cringe. He's no different. He did the exact same thing!
"So you're the person who taught her to use such tactics?!" My hand was shaking in rage.
"I only allowed her to use her assets to the fullest! No man can resist the lost eyes of a young, pretty, female player who has lost her way! I wanted to help her!"
"HELP HER?! Teaching her to con is NOT helping her!" I unsheathed my weapon in my anger. "If you really wanted to help her, you should have told her of a good place to grind for money, for XP, or for drops, not to con. Once everyone realizes she's a fraud, she will lose her only means of income!"
"That's why I was going to show her the places, AFTER she had obtained her equipment, which from the looks of her, it looks like she's ready!"
"No, I won't allow you to do this!"
"What can you do?! You're just a noob player, you can't possibly have a full grasp on the situation, on just how hard this game truly is!"
"We'll see about that!" I quickly opened my menu, and challenged this player to a duel.
He smirks. "Very well. But we fight with my rules!" He clicks the decisive duel. A duel to the death. Whoever loses this duel, will have XP loss. I put my sword at the ready, and the timer appears over our heads once more. He draws a long two handed sword, and we wait, once the timer finishes counting down, he charges at me with blinding speed, his sword at the ready, and a crowd surrounds me once more.