Chapter Three
Error: Beta Outdated
I woke up to find a pair of arms around my waist, and a head buried in my shoulder from behind.
Kamiko…? Oh, right, this isn't the beta, I thought sadly, remembering my predicament.
It's been one month since the beginning of SAO, and so far, two thousand have died. I've been helping the player beside me level up for the last week, so I've not had time to look for the boss room up in the [[Kobold Labyrinth]].
This player, who still hasn't disclosed her name yet, has leveled up to nineteen with relative ease because of her incredible speed. I, on the other hand, have been fighting nothing but field and quest bosses during my spare time, slowly pushing up to level twenty two.
I figured out that the [[Alpha Dire Wolf]], while being the hardest field boss to defeat on the first floor, always dropped a special weapon matching the blade- or other weapon- type that defeated it. Because of this, I made my cloaked friend fight it to get the best rapier drop for the whole floor; the [[Alpha Rapier]]. Though it did sometimes drop second bonuses, like with the claws I gave to Kamiko.
I refuse to comment on any extra drops we may or may not have sold to other players.
Today was different than any other day though; the players were finally having a meeting on how to defeat the first floor boss.
I planned, prior to this gathering to get the both of us to upgrade our equipment to the fullest level at Lizbeth's blacksmith stand.
Liz possessed the highest upgrade success rate of any player blacksmith or even NPC blacksmith I knew. Currently, her ninety seven percent success rate made her a sought-after player for upgrades, regardless of her higher prices. While there, I would get both my [[Anneal Blade]] and my [[Wolf King Einshander]] upgraded to +8.
I had to get up, so I turned around in bed and nudged my companion softly with my pinky finger, saying, "It's great that you've opened up to me enough to put your arms around me, but we need to get up. It's already seven, and we've got a full day ahead of us."
"Nnn, wha…?" she started sleepily.
Wow, she must still be really tired from us staying up late last night to get her new rapier.
"Owa! I—I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was doing! I didn't mean to—"
I found myself smiling.
"Relax, I don't mind that sort of thing. Actually, you've been doing that all week, I just never said anything when I got up before you to make our breakfast," I said kindly and truthfully. Both Sugu (before my revelation) and Kamiko did that sort of thing when they couldn't sleep, so I was used to it.
"A-all week? I-I'm so sorry, Kirito-kun! I didn't—" She stuttered out, face flaming.
"Don't worry, it's fine. Like I said, I don't mind. Actually, I'm used to it. Whenever my sister had nightmares, she would always come to my room to find comfort. Whoops, I broke the unspoken rule, huh. Sorry about that." I said ruefully. The unspoken rule is that you should never talk about your life outside of SAO.
"No, it's nice to know you trust me enough to tell me that. You sound like a very nice person," she said brightly.
"Well, now that's settled, why don't we head out to the shopping district of [[Zweistadt]]?"
The giant shopping district in the second village, spanning at least half of the entire town, looked intimidating, to say the least. Hundreds of people hurrying about, going on with their business. From memory, I found my way to the third smith shop on the left entering the district from the east, the direction my house is in.
"Welcome to Lizbeth's blacksmith shop, how can I help you?" The perpetually cheerful Liz greeted, "Oh, Kirito, how's it going? Who's your new guy friend?"
"Actually, I'm a girl. And I'm certainly not his guy or girlfriend," She said haughtily.
"Remember, I'm the one who's paying for all of your equipment upgrades, so be nicer than that," I said matter-of-factly, causing her to lower her head.
"Come on, your posture is cuter when you're upbeat, so cheer up 'kay?" I said gently. I could sense her blushing through her cloak. I turned to Lizbeth and said, "Now, Liz, I want you to do a full upgrade on all of our equipment, including her weapon. Don't worry about the money, I've definitely got enough."
An hour later, we were walking towards where the boss meeting would be taking place. All of our equipment, including her new rapier, had been fully upgraded without a hitch, and I still had a bunch of money left over from all of the quests I had completed.
The streets befitted the town's design, being made of white bricks that interlocked in a way that pleased the eye. The buildings were made of the same kind of brick but were in various other colors, some being tan, red, etc. Some were even a strange black color, looking strangely ominous and out of place in a town like that.
"Well, this seems to be it," I said nervously, looking at all of the players already there, even though we were all thirty minutes early. "I had no idea that this many players had the will to risk their lives to fight the first boss. Well, I guess that's just the potential willpower of the human spirit."
"Or the potential naïveté," My hooded friend said cynically, "They have no idea what they're getting into."
"Hey, what'd I tell you about that negativity? They've probably been training just as hard as we are, just on a lot lower-level mobs. What do you think you were like when I found you?" I said harshly, immediately regretting it after I saw her trembling. She seemed to be so fragile when I got angry at her like that.
"Don't worry, I won't abandon you. I'll be there to comfort you when you're hurt, whether you like it or not, 'cause you're my friend," I said, pulling the fragile girl into a warm embrace. At first, she stiffened, but then she gradually relaxed into the hug.
"My, my, what do we have here? I sure hope that it's a girl under that cloak!" Argo said teasingly.
Of all the people to see this, it just had to be that annoying girl.
Sensing that my friend still needed comfort, I kept her in the embrace. "Yeah, she's a girl, but you shouldn't joke like that, Argo. It's not funny, at least not to me," I said firmly but quietly.
The girl sniffed lightly, "I'm okay now. You can let me go so she'll stop teasing you."
"Are you sure?" I asked uncertainly, pulling her hood up slightly, not enough to see anything but her cheeks and mouth, and wiped some stray tears away that had remained on her face. The girl nodded, signaling that she would be fine on her own.
Mind if I ask what kind of situation I just walked in on? I'd love to hear about this," teased Argo. I definitely couldn't tell her, or she would spread the news, and people would make fun of the girl next to me for being fragile. Argo was an information broker, after all.
"I've got a pair of [[Wolf King's Claws (Legendary)]] with your name on it if you don't tell anyone that this happened," I said, trying to defend my cloaked friend's dignity. As I said this, I materialized and waved around the second drop I got the last time I faced off against the alpha dire wolf.
"Do I at least get an explanation from my darling Ki-Bou?" When Argo said the word 'darling,' I felt my other friend tense up, her shoulder still touching mine. Is she still upset, or could it be her perception of my relationship with Argo making her think I would leave her?
"No, Argo. And I'm not your darling. People will get the wrong impressions about us if you talk like that. Now, do you accept my bargain?" I said, putting my arm around the girl to my right to quell her uneasiness.
"Sure, but can I at least get your levels?" Argo begrudgingly accepted my proposal.
"Okay… twenty one for me, and seventeen for her, though in skill, we're almost even." I said matter-of-factly, "And those claws are fully upgraded, so you owe me the levels of you and Kamiko."
Argo sighed, "Fine. I'm level twenty, and Kamiko is level twenty one, just like you. And by the way, when you said you two were even, you didn't take your secret into account, did you? Trust me, girly, this man is on a whole other level," Argo giggled giddily at the end. It's a pity that she's so cute, 'cause if she didn't tease me so much, I could get into her.
"Thanks, Argo. By any chance, would you two be joining us in the boss fight? You'd be valuable assets to our raid group," I inquired hopefully.
"Nope, Kamiko and I are having a girls' night out to talk about boys" she said teasingly.
"AACHOO! Hey, what the heck's so funny?" I asked angrily when I saw Argo burst out laughing.
"Hehe, it's nothing. Well I'll be seeing ya, it looks like the meeting's about to start. Ja ne!"
The meeting area, composed of a group of large stairs set up in a semicircle surrounding a platform at the bottom, made a decent place for a boss strategy session. There were an immense amount of people at the front of the stairs, but very few in the back, so we took a seat in the back left.
Suddenly, a man with long, curly blue hair approached the platform from behind, starting to speak when he got to the center, saying, "Hello, thank you for showing up today. My name is Diabel. I'd like to consider my job in this game as a knight," He said loudly, putting a fist to his chest.
Wait...
Where have I heard this before?
At this a lot of people laughed.
"There's no job system in this game."
"That's a good joke."
"Is this meeting a joke too?"
I've heard all of this before!
"Come on, you should take this seriously," Diabel began speaking with a low, serious voice, "Today, our party found the boss's lair at the top of the dungeon tower, known as the [[Kobold Labyrinth]]."
Gasps and several exclamations of "Really?" came from the sitting players.
"We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the [[Town of Beginnings]] that it is possible to beat this death game!" Diabel continued, "Each of you here bears this duty! What do you say?"
At first, the only responses were nervous noises, but then more and more nods filled the arena-like stairs. Then, someone started clapping, and then another, and another until a whistle could be heard coming from one of the players. I just sat there, next to my cloaked friend, smiling.
"All right, then let's get started and come up with a plan. First, we'll divide into parties of six," Diabel said, making me silently gasp in horror. "An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss, so we'll need to form a raid group, made up of multiple parties."
I looked on nervously as all the people around me started to form parties with their friends.
I swallowed my anxiety and told my cloak-veiled friend, "You should party up with another group, so you'll be safer. I'll be fine, don't worry about me."
"No, I want to party with you, b-because… b-because…" Unable to finish for some reason, she just seemed to shut off.
I tried to gently get the information out of her.
"Because…?"
"Because you're my treasured friend" she uttered meekly.
"There now, was that so hard? I care a lot about you, too. If I didn't, would I have taken you in?" I gently said, putting my arm around her while opening up my window and inviting her to party with me, which she immediately accepted.
When her HP bar appeared under my own in the top left corner of my vision, I immediately looked at her name, which I had been curious about all week. Asuna…? I've heard that somewhere before! It seemed like a very important name back then, what are the odds she'd be here now?
"Okay, have you all formed your parties?" Diabel inquired. Once everyone seemed set, he continued. "Well then—"
"Wait up a sec!" A voice called from the top of the stairs. Everyone's eyes turned towards the speaker.
His orange hair resembled a cactus, and a sneer adorned his lips. He jumped down the stairs a few steps at a time until he reached the stage-like platform, turned around on his heels and called out, "My name's Kibaou. I just wanna say somethin' before we take this thing on. Some of you need to apologize to the thousands who've died so far!"
Various voices laced with suspicion started to mumble to their party members, unsure of what this cactus-headed man meant.
"Kibaou-san, are you referring to the beta-testers?" Diabel inquired calmly.
"Of course I am! The day this stupid death game started, the testers ditched all the newbies, leaving us all to die! They took all the good grinding spots and easy quests for themselves so only they could get stronger, and then they just ignored the rest of us!" Kibaou said angrily, just itching to continue his rant.
"I have no doubt that someone here was in the beta! They should get down on their knees and apologize, and give up all of the money and items they've saved up," He said, making me start to sweat. "If they don't, we can't trust them to protect us as party members, and they can't trust us either!"
My eyes narrowed, and I started to sweat even more as an internal war went on in my head, tow halves debating on whether I should comply. Normally, I wouldn't even consider it, but the past week's ordeals had made me start to question that.
What would happen if Asuna found out I'm a beta-tester? How would she react? Would she still consider me a friend?
"May I speak?" an absurdly tall and muscular dark skinned man asked politely.
His deep voice sounds somewhat intimidating. I absentmindedly thought as I watched him walk down from the seventh stair, down to the platform where the rude cactus-haired man stood haughtily. And there's no way he's even remotely Japanese.
"My name is Agil. I want to make sure I understood you correctly. Are you saying, Kibaou-san, that all of the players' deaths so far were because the beta-testers didn't babysit them? And that they should take responsibility, apologize, and provide compensation? Am I correct?" Agil inquired, outwardly calm…but I could somehow sense his irritation just below the surface.
"Y-yeah." Kibaou replied nervously. I felt a sneer of my own forming.
Hah! Even an annoying tough-guy-wannabe idiot like this cactus-head is scared of him!
"You have this Guide Book, don't you? It was provided for free at any item store," Agil said, displaying the nondescript book for everyone to see.
"Of course I did… Who cares?" Kibaou replied haughtily.
That was when the penny dropped. I realized Agil's point a moment before he said it out loud.
"This guide was compiled from information given by the beta testers."
Gasps went up through the meeting area, with a few "Wait, really?" tossed around.
Kibaou grunted in annoyance, before Agil turned around to face the crowd.
"Listen. Everyone had equal access to this information, and yet still thousands died. I thought the topic of discussion here was about what we learned from their deaths, and how that knowledge could help us defeat the boss."
I silently sighed in relief, saved by the dark-skinned giant known as Agil.
Agil turned back once more to face Kibaou, who merely responded with a *Hmph*, going back to sit down in the front row with an angry look on his face. Once Agil followed suit, Diabel, who had chosen not to enter the opinion-slaughtering conversation, decided to continue. "All right. Let's continue then, shall we?"
"The latest edition of the Guide Book is out, and it contains information on the first floor boss," Diabel stated.
Again, gasps could be heard throughout the arena.
"According to the book, the boss's name is [[Illfang the Kobold Lord]]. He is guarded by assistants known as [[Ruin Kobold Sentinels]]. He wields an axe and wears a buckler. He has four HP bars, and when the last one goes into the red, he sheds his equipment and switches to a curved-sword type weapon called a [[Tulwar]]. His attack pattern changes as well."
Various "Wow!" s and "Amazing!"s could be heard.
"All right. This concludes the briefing. Lastly, items will be distributed to the player who earned them. The EXP goes to the party with the killing blow. Any objections?"
Silence.
"All right, we'll all meet here today at 13:00 (1:00). See you here!" Diabel said charismatically.
Protected from the sun by trees in full bloom, forty-four sets of feet traveled down the grassy path towards the [[Kobold Labyrinth]], which marked the end of Floor one. No sounds escaped the group, everyone focused on the task ahead.
Well…except for my own party.
"All right, one last time. We are to target the boss's lackeys, the [[Ruin Kobold Sentinels]]." I said, going over our information.
"I know."
"Good. Now, I'll start it by using a sword skill to knock their pole axes up, and then you switch in and deliver an attack." I said.
"Switch?"
Oh, right. She was probably doing nothing but crying at the inn and fighting suicidally until I took her in.
"Okay, since I'm guessing you've never been in a party before, I'll explain. When I yell 'switch', you jump in and take my place. With your strength, you should be able to one-hit kill any of the sentinels, just don't try to take on the boss on your own."
"Okay."
Cold and dark, the room seemed to be the ideal place for the perfect storm. I just know that something will go wrong. Someone's gonna die.
As Asuna and I walked closer to the door to the boss room, Diabel's grinning face came into view.
"All right, everyone. I have but one thing to say: let's win! Here we go!" he shouted, pushing the door open for everyone to run through. And we did.
In the zone, I simply watched as the charismatic hero-like Diabel led the battle with amazing skill. I kept watching on until I heard him give our party orders.
"D, E, F groups! Keep the sentinels off of us!" the blue-haired battle strategist shouted.
"Roger!" I shouted out in response to his command, unlike the other players who just silently followed orders like mutes.
I used a sword skill to knock one of the sentinel's weapons up, just like we planned, shouted "Switch!" and watched in awe as the blindingly fast Asuna launched a sword skill of her own.
Shouting, "Number three!" she struck the target in the weak spot I accidentally told her about three days ago, one-hit killing it. Luckily for me, she didn't question where I got the information, and even asked if there were any more of them for her to exploit.
We continued destroying the sentinel mobs in a similar fashion. Once I switched out with Asuna, I decided to look over at the boss out of curiosity, just to see how much further we were from (or how close we were to) defeating the first floor boss, the first step to clearing this wretched death game. To my surprise, I found that it had just recently gone into the red.
And then everything went to hell.
Suddenly, Diabel shouted, "I'll go!" and recklessly charged at the large boss on his own, stopping to prepare the best sword skill for his build. But I knew better.
Even if that particular skill landed a critical hit on one of the boss's weak points, it wouldn't be enough to kill it.
We were supposed to surround it with the entire group!
"Looks like the guide was right." I heard Kibaou say confidently in the back of my thoughts. He seemed to be sure of Diabel's victory.
What a fool.
Illfang threw its axe and buckler aside and pulled out its second weapon.
A weapon that was most certainly not a [[Tulwar]]! My blood turned to ice.
It's a [[Nodachi]]! It's different from the beta! If it has that sword, then that means that its skills—
"Diabel, jump back as fast as you can! NOW!" I screamed in the vain hope that he would listen.
He didn't.
Then, as I expected, the boss jumped up onto one of the pillars in the room, ricocheted to another, and another, then kicked off to land, badly hurting Diabel with a sword skill in the process. Then, as it got u,p it simultaneously slashed Diabel upwards and into the air.
When he hit the ground, I ran over to him, calling his name and loudly shouting, "What were you THINKING!?"
I quickly got out a potion and started to hand it to him, but he pushed it away. I gasped, wondering why he would do that, and desperately wanting to keep one more life from vanishing.
"You were… a beta-tester, weren't you? You know exactly what I was doing," he croaked, his voice fading.
"You wanted the [[Last Attack Bonus]] rare item. You were a beta-tester too?" I asked, knowing that these were probably going to be his last words.
His responded with merely a smile, as if he knew I would do it, and spoke his last words, "Please… defeat… defeat the boss… for everyone." And smiling to the end, his body finally dispersed into countless polygons—no, fragments of his soul, and blew away in the wind.
When this death game started, the only thing I thought about was surviving.
"Okay… goodbye Klein."
Even after I took Asuna in, I only really thought about strengthening myself. Surviving to protect her was just a tiny addition, so in essence, it's the same thing.
However, Diabel, you were a beta tester, you never abandoned the other players. You led everyone, and you fought brilliantly! You tried to do what I couldn't. I'm sure the other players will never forget you. I'm sorry… and goodbye.
I turned around to find the boss roaring vehemently at the other players. I started to raise my sword, my [[Anneal Blade]]. Then, someone appeared beside me in a flash, saying, "I'll go too." Asuna.
"Thanks." And then we ran towards the boss, going as fast as we could. "We'll do it just like the sentinels!" I ordered.
"Got it!" She responded.
Illfang noticed us running, stopped its relentless attacks, and charged up a sword skill meant for us. I charged up my own sword skill, and released it just in time to deflect the boss's skill up into the air, a safe enough distance away so that Asuna could use a sword skill. Or so I thought.
The hideously obese boss was faster than it appeared, and started slashing back down quicker than I calculated.
"ASUNA!" I shouted, knowing that she would understand perfectly well. My eyes picked up a momentary shift in her shoulders, a gasp of surprise.
She did what I hoped she would do, and jumped off of the side of the giant [[Nodachi]], but not before getting her cloak ripped to shreds. Then I saw something truly astounding. Even after what happened, she still executed a critical hit on the monster's weak point.
That aside, her beauty was awe-inducing. Long chestnut hair cascaded down to her hips as she landed on the ground, facing the boss with determination in her matching chestnut-colored eyes.
"He's coming back!" I exclaimed, running up to and in front of her to block its oncoming attack. And another attack, blocked. And another, and another, each time, giving room for Asuna to strike it.
I blocked again, but this time the boss had learned from its mistakes and came full circle with a spinning attack that knocked me back into Asuna. My sword skidded across the floor.
Down to just above the halfway mark, I knew that if it used a Sword Skill, I would die. Unfortunately for me, Illfang's actions mirrored my fears.
At the last second, a powerful Axe Skill blocked Illfang's attack, and I found Agil standing between me and the boss, both still recovering from their cooldown times. Agil's wore off first though, and he said, "We'll hold him off until you recover!"
Agil led the charge, and all of the players ran at it, swords blazing with skills of all colors. While they chipped away at its HP, I got up and grabbed my sword, ready to fight again. The boss unleashed a slash so powerful that it knocked all the players back with just the sheer force of the wind, and then jumped into the air, ready to strike down multiple players at once.
"I'LL GET YOU FIIIRST!" I screamed, jumping into the air and performing a exceptionally high [[Sonic Leap]], slashing and pushing the boss mob into the ground a few meters away from where the players were laying, saving them from being crushed.
When I landed, I rolled on the ground towards the boss, shouting, "Asuna! One last hit! We'll do it together!"
"Roger!" Asuna said, following into a run beside me. We followed the same pattern while the boss was still trying to get up, and then, it happened.
I put everything I had into that last skill, even a great portion of my own HP.
[[Crimson Momentum]]. It's a six-hit combo, and deals 125% the normal damage rate, and has no cool down, but it halves my current HP, so it's a very risky gamble, making it useless in a duel. I can add another three strikes in exchange for another 33% of my current HP after the first HP doc, and so on. I can have infinite strikes, and I'll never die unless I'm struck, but for each add-on any healing used on me is cut down by 33% repeatedly. Unless I have a level gap of ten or higher than the boss or player, it's a death wish. Plus, my physical exhaustion from lack of HP at the end is uncannily like a long cool down time anyway.
I only needed the initial six hits to finish it off, but of course due to using my trump card normal skill, and already having half of my HP gone beforehand, I wound up dangerously close to the red, my breathing ragged.
A message window appeared before me, saying that I got the [[Last Attack Bonus]], and it then clicked. I had shown my best card early on. The upside, however, being that only Asuna could see my HP bar. I was confident that she wouldn't tell anyone. Luckily, I had been correct.
Agil and Asuna walked up to me with smiles on their faces, and the former said, "That was splendid swordsmanship. Congratulations, the battle is yours."
"No—"
Clapping could be heard surging throughout the entire boss room, until the angry cactus-headed player known as Kibaou spoke up, saying something that inwardly horrified me.
"WHY?!... Why… did you let Diabel die?"
"Let him die…?" I asked, feigning innocence. I didn't want to think about that, because I still felt like it was my fault for not being there to take the hit. I probably would've survived, and at the time, I only wanted to survive myself, not truly wanting to put someone's life before my own.
"DON'T SCREW AROUND! You knew about the boss's skills beforehand!" Kibaou exclaimed angrily. "If you would have told us upfront, he would've lived," He muttered sadly, sniffing slightly.
"He… he must be a beta-tester! I'm sure there are more here! Come out!" a random player I didn't know said angrily, forgetting the most important thing: even the beta-testers are trapped in this death game.
"And what of Diabel? He obviously knew about the LA bonus, and he didn't tell you about it. He even refused the potion I gave him. He probably refused it because he knew I would point out what he did, something only a beta-tester would know to do," Even though my words held some truth, I knew that Diabel wasn't meaning to cheat the players. I didn't want to slander his name.
"What?" the cactus headed fool finally started to catch on. Various noises of uncertainty were heard from the players throughout the boss room.
"Look, I'll be honest with you. I'm a beta-tester. But did any of you see when I saved Agil and the others from the boss, meeting it head-on in the air? Did you notice how I defended this girl, and many others here from a multitude of attacks from that wretched beast? I was able to defend her because I knew about the katana skills from the monsters on the floors high above us. Do you want to know what my reasons for defending them were? I care. I care about each and every one of the eight thousand players trapped in this game. We beta testers are not as selfish as you make us out to be. You've all forgotten something that's very important. The beta-testers are trapped in this game too! Do you really think that just because we train harder than you're willing to, we're immortal? I say all this, and yet I know that it'll have little to no effect on most of you here, even though I just explained it clear as day! So you know what? I'm done. You can try to clear the floors on your own! Assuming I don't clear them first, of course."
I ignored the shocked faces of the players probably soon to be contorted into anger and hate, as I strode back to where I defeated the boss and accepted the LA bonus.
"Beta-tester… Cheater… He's a beater…" I heard a player say under his breath while I walked through the crowd.
"I heard that. You called me a beater. But you know what I think about it? I like it! That's right, I'm the [[Black Beater]]. Remember it, because I will be the one to beat this game!" I exclaimed lividly.
I equipped my bonus item, the [[Cloak of Midnight]], and began the walk to the stairs that would lead me one step closer to getting out of this virtual hell.
Once I got halfway up the stairs, I heard a voice call my name. "Kirito-kun!"
Asuna, my treasured second friend I made in the new SAO. I had to break our bond, keeping her best interests at heart. It was for the best.
"What do you want?" I inquired coldly, putting up a façade.
"I-I want to c-continue partying with you! Just because they don't like you doesn't mean that I don't!" Asuna pleaded frantically, hoping that I'd change my mind.
"That's exactly why. It's not fair to you to get hated just because you're with me." I continued walking up the stairs, my heart clenching tighter with each step I took.
"Then, promise me that we'll meet again," She said, her voice shaking.
"All right, I promise. Goodbye," I said while disbanding the party.
"Arigatou, sayonara." I flinched, those last few words reminded me of a painful memory of someone.
I pushed open the door, opening up a whole other world within the floating castle, [[Aincrad]]. A whole world that I could revisit, remembering the happy times. But before that, I had to get something out of my system.
As soon as the door disappeared behind me, I said, "I'll save you this time, I swear. Neither you, nor anyone I meet, will ever be subjected to death again."
I gathered up all the pain and rage from the fight into her name, and roared it to the heavens.
"SAAACCHIIIII!"
A/N:
Yeah, I know, I pretty much reiterated the entirety of episode two, just replacing the regular 'beater' part with an explanation of the lengths he went to help the regular players. I had to do that, for the plot bunnies' sake. They're starving, remember? They only eat reviews. Please donate a review to save a plot bunny near you!
Sooo, Kirito remembers Sachi now, huh? To be clear, he only remembers her name, face, and that he 'let her die'. Don't worry, the main ship is still the S.S. Kirisuna!
As always, leave a review if you want to share your opinion with me, and PM me if you see any plot holes that need fixing.
Constructive criticism is allowed, but flamers beware that I have to value your opinion for the insults to hurt.
For the non-flamers out there, I need ideas for floors three and four, I need about one male and one female beta-tester OC, and so if you can help with that, I'd be grateful. Also, if you want to, you can make them have gunblades (I know that's a little too mainstream, but it's just an idea-starter) or something similar, since there are some serious system anomalies.
I completely forgot to do this in the past two chapters. Don't kill me, Aniplex. I do not own the anime, light novels, manga, characters, or half the dialogue I used from episode two.
Ps: I stayed up all night writing this, so be gentle.
May Happiness Be With You,
OMG
Edit: I received a review saying I overpowered Kirito with that new skill. Well, think about this: if he spams the skill too much, then he'd have so little HP that one hit from a level one mob would be fatal. Plus, the exhaustion from the loss of HP serves as its own cool down time, and a really long one at that.
Edit#2:
I tried to explain the limitations of the skill in the description paragraph, instead of just talking about it at the end.
Rewrite edit:
Yeah, I know that I seriously changed the plot there, but sometimes that's what rewrites are for, right? The biggest plot change that happened so far was actually just that Kirito won't be hated as much. Cactus head (Kibaou) is still around though, so there will be some Kiri-haters out there. Kibaou just likes to mess things up that way.
I also weakened Kirito's trump-card to make it less god-like. Unfortunately, dual blades doesn't count, because he has neither mastered it, nor does he have the desire for the publicity it brings.
Lastly, I tried to fix some passive writing. There might be more grammar mistakes than before, but that's only 'cause my beta won't be accessible for a while. (Outdated, my beta just got back.)