Chapter 2
Welcome to THE WORLD
-:-
"….. this is bad isn't it…" Faux said calmly
"…. Yeah…. In more ways than one" Gawain replies
The trio is currently sitting in the fields where they hunted Blue Boars earlier, 10 minutes after discovering the game breaking bug. Faux and Gawain has been throwing theories after theories about the subject matter, while Czarina stands as a look out against the boars.
Faux can tell, despite Czarina's calm behavior, she is as nervous as they are. She has been unconsciously squeezing the grip of her sword to relieve tension.
For now, they have organized what little information they have.
First, the logout button is missing from the menu and no emergency logout mechanisms are available. With the Nerve Gear intercepting the signals of the brain and sending it to their avatar, their real body is in a comatose state. They couldn't remove the Nerve Gear from their head manually no matter how hard they tried. The hope of manually removing the Nerve Gear lies on the people on the other side. Unfortunately, there is no way for the people outside to know about their current situation, thus they cant expect to get any outside support for now.
Second, no matter how much they try to contact the GM's, no response was heard. Maybe they were in a state of panic, and decided not to take any calls until the bug is fixed? Whatever the reason is, it's not making the players feel any better.
Third and probably the most disturbing fact is the lack of any actions from the GMs and outside staff. If they wanted to log everyone out, all they need to do is to cut the power to the servers. Something really bad must have happened if they couldn't even do that.
"Hey Gawain, did the menu layout change during the beta test?" Faux asks Gawain
"Unfortunately no. Aside from the logout button, everything is right where it should be."
"Tch… damn. One theory down the drain"
"Well, look at the bright side" Gawain said with enthusiasm that he clearly does not have
"What bright side?"
"A few years back, both of us wished that the real world was like in the games right?"
"Oh…. OH! We did wish for that didn't we?"
"Hell yeah! We might be starting our very own adventure to kill the demon king on the top floor!"
"This could be the adventure of a life time all geeks have been waiting for!"
"Hell yeah!"
Anxiety builds up as each passing second goes by. The two tries to make light of the situation with half assed theories and lame jokes, but deep inside, they were scared as hell. Faux suddenly feels a weight on her back, she takes a look behind her to see Czarina hugging her from behind. She also notices that Czarina is shaking uncontrollably
"…. Ani-sama…. I'm scared" Czarina says in a small voice
Faux holds her hand and says
"… Your not the only one sis"
With that said, their fear is now out in the open. Any jokes wouldn't make a dent on the heavy atmosphere.
*Ding**Ding*
The soft yet disturbingly dreadful sound of bells ring across the land, surprising the trio in the process. The afternoon sun does well in setting the mood for doom and gloom. If someone was watching a movie, the scene right now is perfect for something horrible to happen.
Without warning, the three is bathed in blue light.
"Holy Sh-" Is the only words Faux was able to squeeze out, as she disappears into the blue.
The next thing she saw was a familiar circle plaza that she visited earlier. It is the spawning point at the middle of the STARTING CITY. She looks around and sees thousands of players, 10 thousand to be exact, with the same confused look as her. To her right, Czarina suddenly grabs her hand, out of fear of being separated again. On her left, Gawain looks around while trying to understand the situation.
"Oi, what just happened? How did we get here?" Faux asks Gawain
"That visual effect… It was TELEPORT that normally uses a crystal as a catalyst. But those things are expensive as hell, and they don't appear until we move a few floors up."
"So how did we get here?"
"My guess is that it was a forced summon….. but the only one who has the authority to do a mass summon is-"
"A GM" Faux finishes the sentence. "But without any prior notice?"
"Hmm…. A surprise event maybe?" Gawain said, his voice lacking the confidence in his own words
"Ah…. Look up!" Said a loud voice which takes everyones attention.
The trio looks up to see a red flashing button 100 meters above them. Faux can make out the WARNING and SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT on the button.
"Finally, some answers" Gawain said in relief
Faux, on the other hand, didn't share his sentiments.
"I have a bad feeling about this" She thought to herself. "Never the less, I need answers and I need it now"
The plaza becomes quiet as every player waited for the system announcement.
The next event was not exactly what a system announcement that Faux had in mind.
Large amounts of thick red liquid that looked like blood oozed from the button. Instead of hitting the floor, it started congealing into a shape about a few meters above the crowd. The liquid twisted and turned until it took a shape of a 20 meter tall man covered in red hooded robe. The black space where the face is supposed to be further cements the bad feeling Faux has been experiencing.
"That's an avatar that the GM's used during the beta test" Said Gawain. "But back then, the face is normally of an old man with a long beard"
Murmurs spread as many players seemed to have came to the same conclusion
The GM's right hand moves as if to silence the players. It then raises both arms as if welcoming someone, then a low calm male voice said….
"Players, I welcome you all to my world"
The bad feeling that Faux has been experiencing just got worse after hearing those words.
"I welcome you to MY world?" Faux thought " Based on what Gawain said, this guy is a GM. Sure enough, GMs have enough authority to play god in this world. But to claim this world as his own?"
As if to dispel her confusion, the hooded figure lower his hands and said
"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world."
With the punch line delivered, the audience's jaws hit the floor.
The name that nearly every gamer exalts. The game designer and a genius in the quantum physics field that took the unknown company named Argus and placed it on the map. The man who designed the Nerve Gear and helped gamers realize their dreams of personally going on an adventure of a life time. The man who created SWORD ART ONLINE, the venue where gamers go on their adventures. Who wouldn't know that name?
But Faux and all of the players soon finds out, Akihiko Kayaba is a man with a very cruel sense of humor. His next punch lines are killers… literally.
"I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of SWORD ART ONLINE's system."
"Part of... the system?" Said a long red haired man somewhere in front of Faux
The hooded figure continues his outrageous announcement, ignoring any responses
"Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will."
First punch line and he has the audience by the nose.
"... also, the disruption or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted..."
A moment of tense silence. If someone drops a pin during this time frame, it would have sounded like a bomb
"The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions."
The second and probably most agonizing punch line surprises the crowd. The words themselves sounded like a joke.
Destroying your brain? Stopping all of your basic functions?
Its as if Akihiko Kayaba is telling the players that removing the Nerve Gear will lead to their death. Maybe its because, like Faux, not being able to completely comprehend what Kayaba said, or maybe simply refusing to understand it, there was no panic amongst the players.
"Oi…. This is a bad joke right Faux? Frying our brains with the Nerve Gear? That's crazy talk" Gawain said in disbelief
Unfortunately, Faux couldn't agree with him. He read somewhere once that any electrical device produces radiation. It goes without saying that the Nerve Gear uses radio waves and electrical pulses to function as it should. If the wavelength of the radio waves were pushed higher than the safety limits, then the Nerve Gear would cause DIELECTRIC HEATING.
DIELECTRIC HEATING is the process in which a high-frequency alternating electric field, or radio wave or microwave electromagnetic radiation heats a dielectric material. At high frequencies, it is possible to turn the Nerve Gear into a Microwave Oven.
Faux told Gawain this, and he was not happy about it
"Considering the fact that 30% of the Nerve Gears weight comprises of the battery, a 1 time EMP is possible" Faux explains
"….. How do you know this stuff?" Gawain asks
"It's all in the manual." She replies
As if to clarify their fatal situation, the robed figure continues to speak
"To be a little more specific, disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to: unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the Nerve Gear. The result..."
Kayaba takes a small breath then continues
"... regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever."
As if the second punch line wasn't enough. The third punch line hurts similarly to rubbing salt on an open wound.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Gawain laughed dryly. "I see! This is some sick opening ceremony! If your scaring us, good job man! You got us good!"
Faux would be very happy if that were the case. Unfortunately, her instincts tell her that Akihiko Kayaba is dead serious about this.
As if to confirm her fears, Kayaba's resumed his explanation.
"Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game."
"What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!? THIS ISNT A GAME ANYMORE!" roars a black haired player who stands beside the red head that spoke out earlier.
"Damn Straight!" Faux roars in agreement
To their words, the hooded figure simply answered in an emotionless tone
"But I ask of you all to understand that «Sword Art Online» is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality... From now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time..."
Taking the current trend into consideration, his next line is so easy to predict
"... your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear."
Faux turns her attention to the thin green bar on top of her vision.
HP: 330/330
"This bar and numbers represents my life? If it reaches 0, I'll die?" Faux thought in denial "Oi oi… I know I once wished that the real world would be more like the ones in the games, but this is ridiculous!"
SWORD ART ONLINE is now a game where all the players are gambling with their lives. It is now a death game
"Ha ha ha…. Shit just got real" Faux thought in dismay
"Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word."
And so, the great comedian name Akihiko Kayaba delivers the final punch line. The audience cant help but stare at the hooded figure in disbelief. They now understand what he meant by CASTLE earlier.
It meant the monstrous structure that they are currently within, with 99 more floors stacked on top of them. It meant that in order to escape, they have to go through Aincard itself
"Clear... all 100 floors!?" The red head player roars with his fist up in the sky. "And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"
Based on Gawain's stories, during the 6 month beta test, they only made it up to the 8th floor. Even if the players were multiplied by ten, it would still take a considerable amount time to clear 100 floors. Faux could also tell that a lot of players around her were thinking about the same thing.
Despite all the heavy hitting punch lines, panic still has not started. Most of the audience still has not realized how dangerous their situation is. Most of them probably still believed that it was some sick joke by the Argus employees.
As usual, the robed man cant help but destroy what little hope they have left
"Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this."
Just like everyone else in the plaza, Faux waves her hand to access the inventory menu. Within it was a single item called HAND MIRROR. In confusion, she takes out the object from her inventory. Just as the name implies, it was a simple rectangular hand mirror.
"Is this suppose to do something?" Faux thought
"AH!" said a voice on her right.
Faux checks on Czarina as she was engulfed by a pillar of blue light. Before she could even rush to help her sister, Faux was engulfed as well.
2 to 3 seconds later, the light dies down and everything returns to where they were
…. No… that's not it….
In front of Faux was the snow white angel that he has gotten used to. Faux quickly turns to check on Gawain, but once again, the sight that meets him was a black haired incredibly handsome protagonist that he knows so well. Gawain stares back at Faux and says
"Raph?"
"Eh? Gino?" Faux said. He instantly realizes the change of tone in his voice. He uses the hand mirror and is surprised of what he saw.
"Its…. Me?" Faux asks himself.
The sharp looking, skiny, short haired girl was nowhere to be seen. In her place was a teenager with light brown hair, slightly tanned skin and a slightly muscular build.
"A-ani-sama? W-why am I here?" Ange-… Czarina says with a voice full of anxiety
"Calm down Ange-… I mean Czarina, calm down" Faux said, though he isn't exactly following his own advice
He looks around and saw that the male to female ratio drastically changed. No longer was the plaza filled with handsome and beautiful protagonists from some anime, but a bunch of normal and extremely confused young people.
"Gino-… I mean Gawain, how did my real face end up here?" Faux asks Gawain
"There are high density signal sensors in the Nerve Gear covering our whole head. So it can tell not only how our brains look, but our faces as well" Gawain said. "And remember what you guys did after school yesterday?"
"You mean that thing where we touched our body in a few places? That Calibration thing?"
Gawain explains that Calibration was where the Nerve Gear measured how much you had to move your hand to reach your body. This was done to reproduce the sense of kinetic accurately within the game. Based on what Faux has seen in Aincard, creating a perfect polygon replica of their real bodies is easily possible.
"So much effort… the perfect physical replication, the realistic world and even the technology to imprison ten thousand players… who knows how many months it took just to make all of these to work… but for what? What's the point of it all?" Gawain angrily asks Faux
"Patience. He is gonna tell us in a bit" Faux said as he points to the hooded man.
"You will all most probably be wondering, "Why." Why am I—the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko—doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?"
Though Faux isn't sure, but he can spot a hint of emotion in Kayaba's monotonous voice. PITY? No… he doubts it. If Kayaba truly pities them, he wouldn't have locked them in Aincard.
"None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only that, but now for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized."
Kayaba takes a breath then returns to his emotionless voice.
"... now I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players—I wish you luck."
And with that, the hooded man disintegrates in smoke and static. The world around them returns to what it should be.
After a bit of silence, the audience finally gives a proper reaction to Kayaba's tutorial
"It's a joke right...? The hell is this? It's a joke right!?"
"Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!"
"No! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!"
"I don't like this! I'm gonna go home! I want to go home!"
Panic spreads like wild fire as screams of despair fills the air. The fact has finally sinks in, they are no longer players of a game, but prisoners in a world that truly wants to kill them.
In the midst of it all, Faux is surprisingly calm. Maybe the sight of thousands of panic players made him lose any desire to panic himself.
To his right was his sister Czarina, crying while hugging herself. She repeats "This cant be true" again and again like a mantra.
To his left, Gawain is cursing at the nonexistent figure in the sky.
Thanks to his abnormal cool, Faux realizes one thing. The Death Game called SWORD ART ONLINE has started, and there is no time to waste.
In front of him, he spots the black haired player pulling a thuggish looking red head player away from the crowd.
"Looks like I'm not the only who managed to keep cool" Faux then begins to move.
He grabs the still-cursing Gawain, forces up the sobbing Czarina and drags both of them out of the plaza. A few seconds of forcing their way through the crowd, they enter a quiet alley.
Faux faces his comrades.
Czarina sat on the floor, hugging her legs like a scared child. Tears silently rolls down her eyes
"Fuck this shit!" Gawain slams his fist on a nearby wall.
Faux takes a deep breath then begins to talk
"Gawain, we're heading to the next town. Where is it?"
Gawain silently stares questioningly at Faux for a few seconds, then quickly understands what he was getting at. He calms down and begins to talk
"We need to go through the northwest gate. After that we have a bit of ground to cover. Between us and our target location, there are a couple of big fields and a forest."
"Hmm… that does sound like a bit of distance… How about the monsters between point A and B?" Faux replies
"We can muscle our way through, but it's better to avoid them completely and just get-"
"WHY ARE YOU SO CALM?!" Czarina suddenly screams, surprising the two into silence. She rushes to Faux violently grabs his arm. "DON'T YOU GET IT?! THIS ISNT A GAME WHERE YOU CAN JUST WALTZ AROUND LIKE A BUNCH OF WONDERLUST RETARDS! WE WILL DIE IF WE GET KILLED! WE-… ah" She suddenly realize that the hand she grabbed was shaking.
"Tch… the cats out of the bag." Faux cant help but feel disappointed. He is proud of his acting skills.
"Ani-sama….. your scared?" Czarina asks
"*sigh* I wanted to be the calm and cool leader type for a bit… way to ruin my fun sis" Faux said jokingly
In his mind, Faux is as calm as he could possibly be. On the other hand, his body was showing the fear that his mind didn't have. He isn't Chuck Norris, he cant roundhouse kick everything that moves with no fear. He is just as scared as everyone else.
Faux affectionately pats Czarina on the head, which causes her to relax
"Sis... do you know what bravery is?"
"…. The ability to face adversities without fear" Czarina answers
"That's what you call someone who is being suicidal. There is no such person who has no fear" Faux replies. " Bravery can only be displayed when you are scared shitless, yet continues on. Right now, your brother is trying his best to be brave. I gotta look cool once in awhile." Faux smiles with all the confidence he could muster
"… you are cool Ani-sama…"Czarina said in a small voice
After a few seconds, she calms down. She then asks Gawain
"Why do we have to go to the other town? Are the monsters outside not enough?"
"Back in the first day of AESIR ONLINE, all of the starting cities were flooded with players. It goes without saying, the easy monsters outside those cities were stripped clean and any respawned monsters were killed immidietly, making it insanely hard to gain exp" Gawain explained. "What we did was to find a place away from the starting cities where the mob was barely beatable. Thanks to that, we didn't have to worry about anyone stealing our prey and we leveled up faster than others"
"Seeing how there is only one starting city in SAO, the players will start hunting the monster outside the city. Atleast when they calm down" Faux adds. "Right now, we have someone with months of experience on our side, we might as well put him into good use"
"I see… Once again, I hate to admit it, but I will be in your care…." Czarina tells Gawain
"Ha ha ha! If your sassiness is back, then you must be alright!" Gawain replies
"Well then…. Lets do this!" Faux said
"YEAH!" the two replied.
With Gawain in the lead, the trio dashed out of the city towards their first destination.
"Thank god, these two are easy to manipulate" Faux thought.
He made sure that their topic stayed away from the fate of the OTHER PLAYERS. If he didn't, Gawain would most probably want to help in any way that he can.
Unfortunately, this is not the time for compassion.
In all MMORPGs, the ones with the greatest experience and the best equipment will always come out on top. If Gawain shared his knowledge, who knows how long before they could level up.
Right now, Faux cares very little to the fate of the other players.
"Right now, these two are all that matters" He thought to himself while fighting off the guilt of abandoning the rest.