An update.

After having my laptop stolen, and getting past the poisonous aura due to negativity of a sick father at home. I am inspired to write.

Thanks to naruto Genkyouien. Dear lord… that's a masterpiece.

Anyway.

Here.

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Chapter 3: The Misty Forest

Keima Katsuragi has been playing this game for a month. He was not the only one, with over nine thousand people sharing the same fate with him. They have been here for the entire time, spending twenty four hours, seven days a week in this game. Memories of the old world came unbidden in his mind, recalling the few times when mist would envelop the outside of his town. He liked those days, when he would stay at home as always, but would not be told off by his mother. The days where he sat in his office chair, and play on his PlayPorta. Holding that giant disk shaped console was initially odd at first, but it wasn't long before the stories of the games on it melted his heart.

Ah… the mist… He missed those days, so he found it very ironic that he was here, wondering in this forest where the fog was thick, and the map in his User Interface foggy.

This game was a shitty game, he concluded to himself. From the second floor, to the second floor's field boss to the second floor's boss to the fact that no one except for him figured out that they could equip two swords, this entire game felt like a mess.

With a hundred levels to go, what sort of game did Kayaba wish to make? Two months for 2 floors, fifty months for 100 floors is 4 years. He knew himself that his case is unique, but what about the other players? Could the real world sustain their bodies and mind for four years?

Well normally, he wouldn't be concerned about things like this, but that annoying woman, she kept in constant contact with him, and he had learned that while technology was advanced in her real world, it wasn't advanced enough to provide proper medical care for comatose people.

In a way, she was a heroine, wasn't she? Through the past month, she was like Elsie, like his mother, a connection, a reminder that he was human. A daily communication that breaks the monotony of daily killing monster, accept quest, complete quest.

He could see the ending. They would grow closer the nearer they got to the 100th floor, and there, he would give her a kiss, either when she was dying, or when they are parting. Hopefully, the latter. A part of him was horrified to think of a game route that takes to his estimation, 4 years to complete. The other part though, recognized that time allows a character to be fully developed, for players to fully understand them, and causes a complete and fulfilling emotion when the route is complete. A 4 year route… what kind of feelings would he feel at the end? That… he was not sure.

But, back to the present, this floor was filled with forests. While the first floor had no theme, and the second floor had huge grasslands with no mountain in sight, the third floor was filled with trees. These trees on the floor weren't small either, with the shortest thirty meters tall, and the thinnest having a diameter of one meter. They were clustered together, everything was, and it was a huge pain for him to move around. Not only that, the forest that he was in had caused his UI map to be covered by misty ash. Even if he squinted, he could not see where the nearest town was, and would only be able to see the constant blue arrow, representing his player.

He guessed that if need be, he could contact Tsukihime12, and used her character arrow on his UI map to get him away from this damn forest…. But there was no need for that just yet. He still had a supply full of potions, and the monsters here were easily dealth with.

He sighed to himself as a tree in front of him suddenly grew a face and stood up. A red icon grew in front of him, displaying the monster's name «Treant Sapling». He drew his swords, leaning his body forward and dashed quickly towards the creature as his blades took on an ethereal blue glow. Ending his dash in a jump, his body spun a full rotation, with both of his swords in contact with the tree. A shriek of pain escaped from the monster as it disappeared in a shatter of glass shards that soon vanished.

«Double circular». Keima sighed to himself as he landed. It was a handy skill, but he disliked the small vertigo that came with it. Sword skills sure were useful, allowing him to do these things without knowing how to do the manual movements. Still, he questioned to himself, what was he still doing in the forest? He wasn't sure himself, but he knew. He knew that something was waiting for him. And without hesitation, his footsteps once again carried him forward and deep into the Misty forest.

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Now, before we move on, let me, the author, tell you something about us humans. In this world, there exist people with a superb physic sense. A sushi chef from an old shop in Ginza once said "When walking in a fish market, the feet will naturally move towards the best fish of the day." Likewise, a famous producer whom had raised many outstanding singers spoke "A real person will definitely look dazzling." To him, this wasn't a hyperbole, but he genuinely saw those singers were lighted by light, from an unseen light source. Likewise, when asked on how to turn the wheel down Akina, a tofu shop driver would say that 'It's nothing special, you just turn it in a ninety degrees angle', but should someone try that advice, he would surely crash.

In short, this is "The art of Recognition." A sixth sense that was obtained from talent, hard work, or just innate experience. This ability is no different from superpowers to an ordinary person, these people easily perform feats that an ordinary person would describe as extraordinary.

Keima Katsuragi was one such person.

The region that he was in, Misty forest had only one path, and should any adventurers travel beyond this path, they would undeniably get lost and would soon be dead due to the countless monsters that would spawn.

There was no reason for him to leave his path, yet, he seemed to have run into an invisible wall, coming to a fullstop right in the middle for no reason. His feet moved to the right, and with a look of puzzled confusion on his face, he trampled on the virtual grass and headed towards the center of the forest. He was not sure why he was doing this… but even so, he felt that he must.

His feet stepped forward, and even as Sapplings were spawned, he ignored them as he circled around them, or straffed through them. He was not running, but even so, his feet looked possessed, stepping forward in such a rapid pace that the creatures couldn't even get a swing at him, no matter how close he was to them. He looked like he was pulled by an invisible and powerful force, and his speed even caused his uppper body to tilt backwards, weighted as his top was by his swords. As his upper body couldn't keep up while his feet were continuing to move forward, it looked really mysterious.

Right, left, Straight, diagonal left. His feet led him through the forest, and then, suddenly, he leaped. Both of his swords glowed blue, leaving blue streaks in the sky as he activated a sword skill, not knowing what his target was, but knowing that he must.

His body flew past a few trees, and would enter a slightly larger clearing, with two humanoids engaging each other in a fierce battle. One was a tall male, with shining gold and green armor. In his right hand, he held a long sword while his left held a round shield. At a single glance, you could tell that they were high grade goods, perhaps equipment a few levels above what Keima could currently wear at his level. The hair on his head was a beautiful platinum and his external apperance made one think of a handsome actor from Hollywood.

The other person can be said to be the yang to the yin. It was a female whom dressed in purple and black. She weilded a slightly curved saber and a kite shield, both sporting a gloomy dark color, but her equipment was just as good as the man's own. With short dark purple hair, her dark skinned face appeared to possess a high level of good looks, and she had a curvacious figure to match.

His sharp eyes focused on the two figures and instantly noted that both of them were elves, with sharp ears. The display in his UI showed them both having a «!» sign on their heads. Showing that both of them were quest givers. Both of them were engaged in battle, and surprise was shown on their faces as Keima flew forward… to land both of his swords solidly on the shield of the man. «Sonic Leap»

"Hmmm... Good block." He commented, his arms pushing himself back, landing and he managed to back peddle before the elf could get a slash in.

The handsome face grew fierce as he slowly stepped back, ensuring that he could see both the dark elf and Keima in his view. "How dare you… How dare you! Human! Do you seek to become rust on my blade?!"

"Regardless of who it is. I, the God of conquest would not allow anyone to harm a heroine."

The light elf NPC's curser changed, turning from yellow to bright red in Keima's eyes. Like he guessed, these NPC were five or more levels above him. This would be a hard fight. A beautiful and ruthless smile emerged on his face as he replied. "All right, then, I shall destroy you, human, along with that disgusting tainted creature that is her."

Keima was standing, and he tapped his middle finger on his left hand on the Dark elf, revealing her name Kizmer and the option to add her to the party. He did so, but got a message back that his invitation was rejected.

"I don't need your help, Human!" Kizmer responded, as she dashed forward, striking the light elf whom defended with his sheild. "Just don't get in my way!"

Keima ignored her, quickly circling the light elf, and rushed in. He placed both of his swords at his waist, and focused his weight. With that, it activated the sword skill «Vertical» , causing his sword on his left to glow, and he dealt a slash to the light elf's armor. His eyes scanned the NPC's hp, and he was dismayed to find that it only lowered by a slight margin. This would not just be a hard fight… it would be a long one.

"Ugh!" Holding the dark elf away with his shield, he turned around to attack Keima, his red sword smashing into the hastily held up swords that Keima placed to defend. He was flung back a few meters, and ended up in a roll. Jumping back to his feet, Keima regarded the light elf in a new light. He has to be wary of that.

And so the battle went on, the two NPC and the player dueled, purple and red lights flowing as they clashed against each other, with streaks of blue appearing and disappearing in that midst. Solid blows were dealt to all parties, but Keima had an advantage, that he could hang back to drink a few potions, healing up before engaging in the fight again.

Skills were thrown like water, and he identified that the light elf preferred to use skills like Horizontal Square and Vertical Square, while the dark elf preferred agility skills. Sonic leap, Rage spike and Vertical Arc. The light elf was an immovable rock, with the dark elf darting in and out to chip at that rock.

It would be ten minutes before the defining moment of the battle would happen. Striking out, the dark elf's weapon would break, shattering into glass shards before her startled eyes. The light elf, upon seeing this would smirk happily to himself, and in a glow of light, a swing, tracing out a square hit the light elf whom failed to defend, causing her hp to fall directly into the red.

"This ends here!" He shouted, rushing towards Kizmer with the obvious intent to end her life.

Panic gripped Keima's heart. Would he allow her to die? No! He would not! He was the protagonist! He was the god of conquest! All those hours he played on Princess Rance, TimeShooter, DancingQueen, let his speed not fail him now! The light elf's HP bar was in the orange and by his estimation, it would take twenty minutes for him alone to take him down. He can do it!

"I won't let you!" He shouted. It was too risky to use Sword skills. The light elf was not distracted, and he knew that those skills could easily be countered and should that happen, his own hp would fall into the red. His strikes met the light elf, whom didn't even bother to block the attacks, as the damage done was small due to the high armor rating that he wore.

The NPC was ignoring him! In half a second, Keima recognized this, and he surmised that this was a scripted event. He could see it, this was a Death flag! The light elf would kill the dark elf, and then he would run away! Was this the story that Kayaba had planned? Would he allow this evil, to have the death of the first heroine on his hand?

No. His body and his heart united, his eyes closed, as his body chilled by itself. His arms were free and though he could normally feel the weight on the swords on his arms, he trained his mind to not register that weight. His arms are feathers, in front of him, there were 16 game controllers.

"a. a. a. a. A. A. A. A! A! A! A! AAAAAAAAA!"

A miracle happened. Before Kizmer's eyes, recorded forever in SAO logs, the witness the birth of the human whom called himself God. His arms moved so swiftly, they left afterimages, the air in front of the man were filled with arms. Two? Four? Six? No. the images were uncountable, numbering close to a hundred.

Unprepared, the light elf turned around too late. His body was wrecked with black lines indicating damage done due to normal swings. While black damage were normally low, such was the speed and the number of swings that Keima did, that every blow struck dealt a significant amount of damage. Though it was a NPC, it still flinched backwards, unable to even move under the torrent of blows that Keima did.

The light elf's Hp bar dropped to red and soon it reached critical, but when the man had 1 pixel of hp left, the damage numbers changed. With every strike that Keima did, the words [Immortal Object] appeared instead.

Keima registered this, and absurd rage was in his eyes. So even in the end, the system is designed to force the heroine death! No! He has to break the system! He has to break it! His arms were tired, he could feel his strength fading, but he has to break it. Focusing all his strikes, he gave a small distance, and struck his swords at a precise location on the elf's body. He aimed for the wrist, hacking it apart with many desperate slashes.

And then, to his success, the elf's was dismembered, with a cry of shock from the elf. Keima threw his swords forward, not caring if they landed on the elf as he dropped down, picking the elf's own hand and sword, and placed all his weight into a lunge. With a great shout, the sword struggled for a moment against the elf's armor, before it easily slid in, like sliding a knife into butter.

Time seemed to stop, shock written on his face, with grim determination on Keima's. The last pixel of hp on the NPC vanished.

"H… How is this possible….." The man breathed his last whisper, his body turning into light, and vanishing as he evaporated into the air.

"Nothing is impossible, when there's a heroine, and when there's the God of conquest." Keima responded.

Keima regained his breath, but was soon surprised to discover that he didn't have to. Though, his mind felt strained, and he felt as if he had stayed awake for a week. Still, it wasn't safe for him to sleep just yet. There were things to do.

Walking up to the dark elf, the sun shined down on him as he offered his hand to her. "You are my first heroine and I know that have no story. But, do not despair. I shall show you the path that you couldn't dream before, the path of defying fate. The path where you will grow, to become more then you currently are."

The dark elf's agate eyes looked up at him, filled with surprise and doubt, but her hand took his own, nonetheless.

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2926 words... F it! I shall write an omake and make it 3K words!

Omake: The bug demon.

His eye twitched furiously. He refused to believe it. A sight so horrible, so terrible, but yet so appropriate. Not for the first time, he cursed Kayaba for having such a sick mind.

In front of him was a monster. A humanoid female, with dark hair tied into a ponytail, with ladybug wings on her back. Two antennas grew from the top of her head. It was obviously a Ladybug

He wasn't usually affected by monsters, but this sight in front of him disturbed him greatly. For one, it looked exactly like Elsie, if she was smaller, with rounder cartoon like eyes. The second, it was holding out a lunch box at him.

Yes. A lunch box.

Unprompted, the lunch box opened by itself, revealing a multi tentacled ball, which proceeded to climb out of box with it's tentacles, and stood at twice his height.

He looked up, and the UI gave to him his name : Boss monster Box Tentacruel

Still, he watched amused as the monster picked up the Ladybug and proceeded to throw her high into the air, and out of sight.

"Kamiii-Samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

He heard something strange in the wind.

Drawing his duel swords, Keima rushed away from the boss monster, leaving to fight for another day.