Chapter 2

The moments that followed the announcement was total chaos, for people immediately began crowding in the former SAO players creating a stampede that could have proved to be lethal. It took Kirito a good hour to get out of the crowds. Kirito tried searching for the sight of either Suguha or any of his friends, but he didn't find any of them. He knew they were here; it's just that the crowd was so large he could not pick them out. Or probably they had already somehow had left the immediate area. Both that and the possibility that he just couldn't see them were possible. However Kirito didn't want to stay in the crowd for too long.

Kirito had traveled up the path a little ways. Once he found a quiet spot he decided to take a further look into the situation. When he went into the item menu he noticed he still had Yui's Heart with him, which that was a relief. However he wasn't going to activate it right now, because mobs could be nearby and without admin powers Yui would be defenseless. He wanted to activate her when he arrives at a motel or something, somewhere safe. That way he wouldn't risk losing her.

Kirito now checked his friend list, which was empty. Apparently Hysteria didn't want friends to gang up right away, or maybe he had some other reason. Kirito would have to re friend them once he meets up with them. Apparently it just appears that everything went to blank slate. Even the coat he wore had no special effects and it was level one. Apparently it was specifically designed to identify him as Kirito from SAO.

Kirito also looked at a newer section of the menu called "skills map" which seemed that depending on how much you upgrade a certain stat you can gain new skills depending on what you chose. There were various skills in which stood out to Kirito as he looked through the list. Dual wielding of course interested him, but he also notice the skills Aura Blast, Blade Blitz, Torch Light, Meltdown, and others which looked powerful and also needed high stat levels in order to unlock.

After about an hour of checking out the menu Kirito stood and continued on the trail. Soon he had reached a small village town in which there was an Inn. Kirito used a small amount of the money that he started with to pay for a room. Once in the room he went through his inventory and found Yui's heart. He activated it and shortly the program that had the young girl appearance appear.

"Hello daddy! It's good to see you again!" Yui said giving him a big hug.

"Hey Yui, it's good to see you too, but there's a situation right now," Kirito replied.

The small black haired grey eyed girl looked up with puzzled eyes. She seemed to be curious about what Kirito was talking about.

"What is it?" she asked.

Kirito explained everything that has happened thus far, while she listened Yui took in and filed the data into her memory banks.

"Yui could you see what this system is and if there's anything you can do?" Kirito asked.

Yui gave a nod and then used her imbedded programming to identify the server's parameters, scoping out to see its basic properties and how the system operated. Yui recorded the data as she scanned, for it would prove to be useful to keep this kind of memory on hand.

"It seems to have been taken from the cardinal system base that was used in SAO; however it has been altered significantly, to the point where it actually seems more advanced than the original cardinal system. It not only adapts and grows, but it seems to also learn. For instance if you keep using the same pattern of attack on enemies they will quickly learn how to defend against that strategy," Yui explained.

"So it forces you to keep changing your strategy. SAO did something similar, but at least if you had complex attack patterns they wouldn't be able to follow along," Kirito figured.

"Also I seemed to notice that the system recognizes me as a foreign object, yet it chooses to ignore me," Yui informed, "it's probably because I can't access any administrator privileges in here, so I wouldn't really give an advantage to you."

"Okay, is there any way you can find out where the others are?" Kirito asked.

"No, but I do have access to the player list, and their current status. All our friends and mommy are online in this game. All are also in good condition," Yui announced as she mentally read it off.

Kirito was relieved to hear that, at least everybody was okay. As long as they were alright Kirito was at least a little comforted. So all he had to do was find them, once he did they could work together to beat the game. But right now they needed to figure out what to do. Probably he should take it safe, level up until he was more than strong enough to go to the next level of enemies. That sounded like a good idea. Probably, he should start doing that now.

"Yui, I'm going out to try to level up, don't open the door to somebody we don't know," Kirito said as he walked to the door.

"Don't worry I won't," Yui reassured.

A few hours later, Kirito was out in a nearby field where monsters seemed to spawn commonly. These monster were called Auger Cats, which were panther size cats with a bone like growth on their tails which would act like a drill when they strike. These were a little bit more powerful then Kirito, so he had to pay more care to not being hit than landing strikes on the creature. Of course it took longer, but the rewards would be great for defeating higher level enemies at such low levels. However Kirito took care not to go to extreme in his choice of enemy. He only fought the monster if they were two levels above him or lower. Thus he would get more experience and level up sooner, once he had leveled up enough he could probably take on the next enemy which he saw was the Lurker.

The Auger Cat shot its tail toward Kirito in which he side stepped to avoid. As he fought the mob, memories of SAO went through his head. They were both good and bad memories, some he cherished and some he wanted to forget and never have again. How did he happen to get stuck in this situation all over again. Kirito knew that it wasn't his fault, or maybe there was a specific reason this happened. However, it didn't matter. Kirito was determined to keep fighting, he was determined to survive. He was determined to get everybody out.

Kirito landed a hit on the Auger Cat which drained the rest of its health a little too quickly. Kirito was puzzled at first, until he saw that he had landed a critical hit on it. This was a new feature; SAO didn't have critical hits that came about. Of course this might seem like a good thing at first, but no doubt Hysteria also designed that monsters could land critical hits on you, or even other players can also. What could be used as a tool would also prove to be lethal, thus Kirito would have to be more careful.

For now if one of these mobs landed a critical on him it would be instantly fatal. Now Kirito was thinking that fighting these things wasn't so good for an idea. It's a shame though, but at least he's already ahead of the others by a small amount.

Kirito sheathed his blade and ran off so as to not accidently come into combat with a high level mob. But as Kirito headed for the Drifters which were now at his same level, his memories of SAO continued to soar through his mind. They occupied his world, and made up his life by now. Most of all he just wanted to be with Asuna again. Right now no matter what he told himself, even if he didn't know it that was what he truly wanted.