Ch. 2

The Town of Beginnings

The first thing Luna experienced was the sensation that glowing, multicolored pixels were flying past her at blindingly supersonic speeds. Trapped in a vortex of spiraling colors, Luna stumbled backwards, overwhelmed by the velocity and intensity of the pixels streaming past her.

Suddenly, tiny multicolored pixels began to materialize before Luna's eyes, coming together to form shapes. The shapes were soon identifiable as letters, and in moments the words 'Welcome to Sword Art Online!' floated in front of her eyes in bright neon script.

The bright neon colors momentarily blinded Luna, who shook her head and blinked rapidly to regain her sight. "Ugh," Luna muttered to herself, "why did it have to be neon..."

Another set of words appeared in front of her, reading 'Choose Your Gender.' Luna clicked the letter F, which signified that she was female. The words dematerialized into a cascade of pixels, leaving her blinking again in astonishment.

A box materialized, along with the words 'Type Your Avatar's Name.' Though Lucy had already created her avatar's appearance, she had allowed Luna to pick a name, on the grounds that she was terrible at coming up with names herself. Which was true, Luna reflected, remembering with a snort the last time her friend had attempted to invent a name.

Luna hesitated for a few seconds, before typing in the name 'Selki'. Selki was a name Luna had come up with for a character in a story she'd written in English class, and afterwards she'd found she'd rather liked the name. Luna pressed her finger to the 'Enter' button, feeling a strange tingly sensation on her hand as the words dissolved into a shower of pixels.

One more set of words appeared, in shiny black lettering. 'Choose a language.' Luna tapped the word 'English' with her index finger, and was enveloped in a whirlwind of pixels as the words dematerialized and the pixels racing past her enveloped her in an overwhelming spiral of light.

Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, Luna felt her feet touch the ground. Tentatively allowing her eyes to open a crack, Luna breathed in, laughing slightly as her nose was filled with the aroma of baking bread. She was in the middle of a town plaza, she realized, examining her surroundings curiously. All around her, people chatted amicably, laughing and marveling at the wonders of virtual reality.

The first thing she did was dash over to a shop window to examine her appearance. Hot pink hair cascaded down her pale shoulders, while vivid green eyes blinked back at her. Her outfit consisted of a ridiculously frilly light pink camisole that stopped a few inches below her pants, revealing way too much skin for Luna's liking. Her pants were a dark purple shade, and flared out a few inches above her silver high heels. Luna groaned. She should have known Lucy would do something like this.

Wobbling unsteadily in her high heels, Luna stumbled into a clothing store. Luckily for her, the store sold some decent clothes that would cover her well enough. After grabbing a shirt, leggings, and a pair of combat boots, Luna hobbled over to the check-out desk, where an NPC sat, smiling cheerfully. "Hello," the NPC greeted her in an awfully fake cheery voice. "Welcome to the Town of Beginnings. How can I help you?"

Luna thrust the clothes onto the counter. "I'd like to buy these, please."

The NPC frowned in an artificially condescending way. "I'm sorry. You do not have enough money to purchase those. Thank you for coming to our store!"

"What?!" Luna opened her game menu, and sure enough, her game menu displayed a whopping amount of exactly 0 cor. Cor, Luna recalled, was the currency used in Sword Art Online. Groaning in frustration, Luna pounded a fist on the counter and exited the shop, fuming.

To earn money, she'd have to go defeat monsters and bosses. Which meant she had to go hunt in the fields for monsters. Great.

Luna groaned.

Luna tromped out of the town plaza and into the grass, scowling as the thin blades prickled her ankles. She unsheathed the sword from its sheath on her belt, giving it a few practice swings. It was surprisingly heavy, she realized. Luna swung it downwards, and gave an involuntary yelp of surprise as the momentum sent her tumbling into the grass. Groaning loudly, Luna picked herself up, dusting chunks of soil and grass blades off her clothes.

A few meters away, another player stalked one of the docile beasts grazing in the field. Luna watched curiously as he suddenly dashed forwards, swinging his blade in a downwards arc. The blade left a trail of silvery light in its wake as the tip of his sword cut deep into the beast's hide. Luna winced as the beast emitted an agonizing howl before dematerializing into a shower of blue pixels.

As she watched, the player's menu appeared, showing that he'd earned both cor and experience points. The player grinned victoriously before strolling off to hunt more beasts. Luna, after a split second's decision, hurried after him.

"Um, hey! Hey, excuse me!" Luna yelled, running as fast as she could in her uncomfortable high heels. "Can you show me how to do that?"

The player turned around to face her, eyes widening in bewilderment as he took in her ridiculous outfit. "What?"

"I said," Luna panted slightly from her short run, "Can you show me how to hunt those monsters?"

"Huh? Oh, um, sure, I guess," The player stammered, looking slightly surprised. He turned around, walking off in the direction of the nearest monster. Luna hurried after him.

Luna eyed the player curiously. He looked about her age, maybe a bit older, with dark blue hair and cerulean eyes. His hair color was pretty unusual, she noted, but then again, this was virtual reality. You could make your avatar have any hair color you wanted.

Not that she was one to talk. Her avatar's hair was freaking pink.

"Okay," the player said, turning back around to face her. "So first, you have to have a certain motion input. That activates a sword skill."

"Uh-huh," replied Luna, inwardly thinking 'speak English!'.

"To activate the motion input, you have to hold your weapon up, pause to activate the sword skill, and then let it explode."

Luna squinted in bewilderment. "Let what explode?"

"The sword skill." The player unsheathed his sword. "Like this."

Luna, who wondered perplexedly how a skill could explode, watched him curiously. The player held his sword up, allowing it to glow silver with power, before lunging towards the nearest beast. The sword cut a thin line through the beast's hide, causing it to emit an anguished roar before exploding into a shower of blue pixels.

"Here," the player said, gesturing towards another beast a few meters away from the last. "You try."

Luna strode towards the beast, hesitantly raising her sword. To her disappointment and chagrin, the sword emitted no light whatsoever. "Um, what-"

"You have to hold it like you're about to strike." The player widened his stance and held his sword upright as if he was about to lunge at the beast. "Like this."

Luna mimicked his stance, raising her sword. The blade glowed with a warm, amber light. "I did it!"

The corner of the other player's mouth twitched slightly, and he discreetly raised a hand to hide a smirk. "Now you have to actually hunt the monster."

He was mocking her; Luna just knew it. She glared at him before lunging towards the beast. Her high heel, however, got caught in the tangled blades of grass, and she fell to the ground with an ungraceful thump.

Luna felt the other player eyeing her outfit critically. "You might not want to wear high heels."

Luna huffed. "I know that." She clambered unsteadily to her feet, untangling her high heel and brushing dirt off her clothes. "I'm borrowing my friend's account, and her avatar's design is ridiculous. I'm trying to earn some cor so I can buy some decent clothes."

The other player looked momentarily surprised. Wait... had he really assumed she'd chosen to wear that atrocious thing?

Noting his hurriedly disguised incredulity, Luna internally rolled her eyes. Of course he had.

"Take your shoes off. There's a function in the menu that allows you to do it." The player opened up his menu, clicking the 'Items' button to show her.

Luna opened up her menu, tapping the 'Items' button and double clicking on the item 'Silver High Heels'. The uncomfortably high heels dematerialized into a shower of blue pixels. Luna gave an involuntary sigh of relief, bending down to massage her feet.

The other player, quickly realizing she wasn't going to get up anytime soon, cleared his throat loudly. Luna's eyes flickered upwards, flashing with annoyance. "What?"

The other player tossed his head, flipping his bangs out of his eyes. "Are you going to attack the monster anytime soon, or can I go?"

Here she was, struggling with shoe troubles, and he had the nerve to flip his hair? Luna shot him a dirty look, before straightening up and smoothing a crease out of her ridiculously frilly top.

...well, maybe she was being a bit unfair. After all, he had at least attempted to help her, anyway.

"Meh," Luna muttered in response to her contradictory conscience. "He barely helped me. That doesn't count."

"Huh?" The other player glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. "Were you talking to me?"

Cocky jerk. Luna gave a slight roll of her eyes before readying her fighting stance and locking eyes with a grazing beast about a hundred meters away. "Nope."

"Then who were you talking to?" The other player inquired, sheathing his sword and studying her with a slight glimmer of interest in his vivid cerulean eyes.

"No one." The beast, apparently provoked by their intense stare down, roared at Luna before tossing its furry head and beginning to charge her. Luna narrowed her eyes, focusing on the beast and holding her sword at the ready. "Why do you care?"

The other player shrugged dispassionately. "I don't."

The beast was getting closer by the second; thirty meters, fifteen meters, ten-

Letting out a fierce battle cry, Luna charged forwards to intercept it, sliding underneath its belly as it took a running leap towards her. Her sword cut clean through its stomach, causing the beast to go limp before dematerializing into a shower of pixels.

Luna stood, a triumphant smile on her face as her menu appeared, showing that she'd earned both col and experience points. The other player surveyed her expressionlessly, the slightest trace of approval visible on his face.

"Well," Luna remarked, "that was fun. Let's do it again!"

After defeating at least a quarter of the beasts on the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings, Luna finally decided to take a break from fighting. The other player, whose name was Blue, had taken her to a nice spot on a grassy hill where they could view the virtual sunset.

"Whoa," Luna muttered, gazing into the sky. "It's so... vivid! I mean..."

"Yeah," Blue said. "This is probably the best place on Level One of Aincrad to watch the sunset."

The virtual world of Sword Art Online, known as Aincrad, was divided into one hundred levels. In order to proceed to the next level, you had to defeat the Floor Boss for the level you were on. The players had yet to defeat the Level One floor boss and proceed to Level Two, but that was expected. After all, it was only the first day.

"Hey," Luna said suddenly, swiveling around to face Blue. "You seem to know this game pretty well. Were you a beta tester?"

There was a momentary gleam of surprise in Blue's eyes, but it was instantly vanquished and replaced with his usual impassive visage. "No."

Luna, who had always excelled at detecting lies, resolved to press the issue further. "Really? Then how do you know so much about SAO?"

Blue shrugged indifferently. "I read the manual."

"You-what?" Luna gawked at him, incredulous. "There's a manual?"

Blue shrugged again, the corners of his lips twitching slightly as he fought to hide a smirk. "Yeah."

Under normal circumstances, Luna would happily have bitten back with another scathing remark, but all the beast-killing they'd done earlier had tired her out. Yawning, she stretched her arms and lay back on the soft grass, gazing at the sky.

Blue plopped down next to Luna, peering down at her. "What's your name? I already told you mine."

Wait; had she actually neglected to tell him her name? Luna had simply assumed Blue was just choosing not to address her by name, but apparently not. "O-oh, um, sorry." Luna smiled, albeit slightly guiltily.

"So?" Blue prodded.

"My name's L-" Suddenly, it occurred to Luna that she was in a VRMMORPG, and that in this world, she was Selki, not Luna Raval. "I'm Selki."

Blue lay down next to her, propping his head up on his elbows as he lazily traced the outlines of the clouds with his fingers. "Cool."

Stifling another yawn, Luna-no, Selki- sat up, opening her player menu. She gave a start as she read the real-world time at the top left corner of her menu, which read 6:21 AM. It was that late already? It felt like she'd logged in just a few minutes ago. "Hey," Selki said, swiveling to face Blue. "I should probably go back now. It was nice meeting you."

Blue nodded in acknowledgement. "Same."

Selki scrolled through the menu, searching for the Log Out button. She finally found it, and pressed her index finger to the holographic screen.

Nothing happened.

Scowling, Selki pressed the button again and again, groaning in frustration at the futility of her efforts. "Why isn't this stupid thing working?!"

Blue's eyes flickered upwards, analyzing the screen. "What's wrong?"

"It's not letting me log out." Selki glared at the holographic screen, clearly frustrated.

Blue pulled up his menu, scrolling through until he found the Log Out button. He pressed it, scowling slightly when his efforts proved futile. Without a word, Blue opened up his messaging tab, rapidly typing out a message before clicking the 'Send' button and flopping back onto the grass.

Selki looked at Blue inquisitively. "What'd you do?"

"I messaged the GM," Blue explained. "Hopefully, they'll see it and fix the glitch soon."

"GM..." Selki 's eyes widened. "Isn't that Akihiko Kayaba?"

"Yeah." Blue said indifferently, as if messaging the Akihiko Kayaba was no big deal at all.

Selki stared at him for a moment more before remembering it was impossible to reason with Blue, and dejectedly rested her head on the soft grass covering the sunlit hillside. A cloud drifted across the sky, stained orange by the brilliant sunset.

Suddenly, a red light enveloped Selki's feet, spreading until her entire body was covered. Whirling around to face Blue, whom the red light had also encased, she tried to shout a warning, but her panicked cry was drowned out as her world faded to darkness.