Chapter Summary: With everyone being forced back to the Town of Beginning, the players now learn the truth about Sword Art Online - that to escape it, they need to clear it or die trying.
Chapter Four…
Welcome to the Death Game!
As Kirito's thoughts raced, the surrounding light pulsed stronger and darkness overtook him.
As the blue light faded, Kirito's surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the sunset-lit plain anymore.
A large road paved with stone. Mediaeval streets surrounded by street-lamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.
This was the starting point, the central plaza of the Town of Beginning.
Kirito looked at Klein, who had his mouth wide open next to me. Then at the bustling crowd of people that surrounded the two of them.
Looking at the bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colours, there was no doubt about other players like Kirito. There were so many people here. If Kirito had to guess, there could be close to eighty thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.
For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without speaking.
Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.
"What's happening?"
"Can we log out now?"
"Can't they take care of it quickly?"
Comments like these could be heard from time to time.
As the players started to get more annoyed, shouts like "Is this a joke?" and "Get the hell out here, GMs!" could be heard.
Then suddenly…
Somebody raised his voice above all these comments and shouted. "Ah… look up!"
Klein and Kirito almost automatically turned their eyes upward. There, a strange sight greeted us.
The bottom of the second floor, one hundred metres above us, was chequered in red.
When Kirito looked closely, he could see that the pattern was made up of two phrases criss-crossing each other: the words [Warning] and [System Announcement] written in red.
It surprised Kirito for a moment but then thought to himself, 'Oh, the operator is going to begin informing us now.' Thinking like that, the tension in his shoulders eased a bit.
The chatter died down in the plaza, and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.
However, what happened next wasn't what Kirito had expected.
From the middle of the pattern, a liquid that looked like blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasised how viscous it was, but it didn't fall all the way down; instead, it started congealing into a shape.
What appeared was a twenty-metre tall figure with a hooded blood red robe, with gold trimmings, draped around it.
No, that wasn't exactly right. From where they were looking, they could easily see into the hood-there was no face. It was absolutely empty. They could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe. All they could see inside the edges were shadows.
Kirito had seen that robe before. It was the same clothing that the Argus employees who worked as GMs during the beta test had always worn.
But back then, the male GMs had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. Kirito thought that they might have used the robe because they lacked time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space inside the hood gave him an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.
The countless players around Kirito must have felt the same. "Is that a GM?"
"Why does it have no face?"
There were a lot of whispers like these.
"Hey, Kirito, do you think this is some sort of opening ceremony?" asked Klein.
"I honestly don't know." admitted Kirito. He wasn't sure if it was or not, but if it was, it would be one interesting opening ceremony. All they could do was wait and see what happens next.
Then the right sleeve of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.
A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, didn't cover any sort of body. The left sleeve slowly lifted upwards, too. Then, with its two empty gloves spread out in front of the eighty or so thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth-no, it felt like it did. A low, calm, male voice resonated from high in the air.
"Attention Players, I welcome you all to my world."
Kirito couldn't understand it right away. What did this person mean by, my world? If that red robe was a GM, it certainly had godlike powers in this world, enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?
"What is he talking about?" Kirito asked in confusion as he and Klein looked at each other, dumbfounded. The anonymous red robe lowered its arms and continued talking, "My name is Akihiko Kayaba. As of this moment, I'm in control of this world."
There was a lot of confusion about this. Many of them believed that this was part of the game. Kirito's avatar had become rigid with shock, and a lump formed in its throat (and perhaps my throat back in the real world as well) for a second. He had a real bad feeling that there was more to these words.
The Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of SAO and the NerveGear, be it as an avatar, was here, saying that he was in control of the game. But why? Why was he here now?
He had always stayed behind the scenes, other than one interview years ago, refusing media exposure. He had never even been a GM, so why was he doing something like this?
Kirito forced his mind to start moving again, trying to make sense of the situation. But the words that came out of the empty hood almost seemed to mock his efforts to understand.
"In the last hour, I think that most of you have discovered that there's something missing from your main menus. The Log Out button." Kayaba told them all, "Let me assure you all, this is no defect or bug. I respect this is not a defect or bug. This was how Sword Art Online was designed to be."
"Part of… the system?" Klein muttered brokenly, "He got to be kidding, right?"
The announcement continued in its low voice as if to cover the sound.
"You can't log out of SAO anymore. And no one from the outside world can shut down, nor can they remove the NerveGear from your head." Kayaba told everyone, shocking them, "Anyone that attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."
This shocked everybody there. No one could believe this, not even Kirito. Some were calling this bullshit, some were saying that they were going to sue Kayaba. But as Kirito thought about it, although he wanted to refuse to believe what he had just heard.
But Kayaba's short statement pierced through Kirito's body with a ferocity that was both hard and dense.
Destroy their brains.
In other words, kill them .
Any user that turned the NerveGear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what Kayaba had just stated.
People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like Kirito, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.
Klein raised his right hand slowly and tried to grasp the headgear that would be situated there in the real world. As he did, he let out a dry laugh and started talking.
"Haha… what's he saying?" Klein asked with worry and concern, "That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The NerveGear… It's just a game. Destroy our brain… How is he going to do that? Right, Kirito?"
Klein's voice broke at the last shout. Klein stared at Kirito hard, but he couldn't nod in agreement.
The countless signal transceivers in the NerveGear's helmet emitted small electromagnetic pulses to send virtual signals to the brain.
They might call this the newest ultra-technology, but the basic theory was the same as a certain household appliance that's been used for over forty years in Japan-the microwave.
If there was sufficient output, it was possible that the NerveGear would vibrate the water particles in our brains and cook it with the heat from the friction. But…
"Mentally, I would say yes, he has gone nuts, there is no other reason for him to do this other than being mentally ill." admitted Kirito, "But the idea of destroying our minds… theoretically it's possible, but… he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the NerveGear, there's no way it can emit a strong pulse of that type. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability… inside…."
Klein already guessed the reason why Kirito had stopped talking all of a sudden.
"There… is," said Kirito, his words almost a scream with a hollow expression on his face. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But… that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?"
Kayaba started explaining, as if he had heard what Klein had shouted.
"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 NerveGear." explained the madman, "If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to your governments and the public through mass media in the outside world."
There were many whispers at this. Hoping that their governments would be able to help them and that they wouldn't be in here too long. As they didn't like the idea of being here forever.
"On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the NerveGear. The result…" Kayaba informed them as his metallic voice took a short breath here. "… regretfully this means that five hundred and fifty-four players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever."
A long, thin scream was heard. As window screens begun to open up, showing the news reports, backing up what Kayaba told them. But most of the players couldn't or refused to believe what they had been told or seeing, they just stood there slack-jawed or with a wry smile on their faces.
Kirito's head tried to reject what Kayaba had just told them and that he was seeing. But his body betrayed it and his knees started shaking violently.
Kirito stumbled back a few paces on his weak knees and managed to keep himself from falling. Klein fell on his backside, his expression lifeless.
Five hundred and fifty-four players have already…
That phrase repeated over and over again in Kirito's head. If what Kayaba said was true, then over five hundred people have already died?
Among them, there might have been beta testers like Kirito. He might have even known some of their character names and avatars. These people had their brains burnt and… died. Is that what Kayaba was saying?
"… don't believe it…. I don't believe it," Klein, still sitting on the ground, started saying in a strained voice. "He's just trying to scare us. How would he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out. We don't have time to play along with your sick opening ceremony. Yeah… this is all just an event. An opening show, right?"
Inside Kirito's head, he too was screaming the same thing.
But as if to dispel their hopes, Kayaba's business-like voice resumed its explanation.
"Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As you can see, at this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths." Kayaba informed them, "The danger of having your NerveGear 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…?"
Then, at last, violent shouts left his mouth. "What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!?"
Kirito kept shouting, glaring at the red robe that had oozed out of the bottom of the upper floor.
"This isn't a game anymore!"
Then Akihiko Kayaba started announcing quietly in his monotonous voice.
"I ask all of you to understand that Sword Art Online is no longer a simple game that you play. That this is a second reality… from now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time…"
Kirito could guess what he was going to say all too clearly. "… the NerveGear will destroy your brain."
Suddenly, an urge to laugh out loud bubbled up from the pit of Kirito's stomach. He forced it down.
A long, horizontal line shone at the top-left corner of his vision. As Kirito focused on it, the numbers 325/325 overlaid it. Hit points. His life-force.
The moment it reaches zero, he will die-the electromagnetic waves will fry his brain, killing him instantaneously. This is what Kayaba had said.
This is without a doubt a game, a game with your life at stake. In other words, a death game.
As Kirito thought about it, he must have died at least a hundred times during the months of beta testing. He had re-spawned with a slightly embarrassed smile on his face in the palace north of the main plaza, the Black Iron Palace, and ran off into the hunting grounds again.
That was what an RPG was: a sort of game where you keep dying and learning and levelling up. But now you can't? Once you die, you'll lose your life? And in addition… you can't even stop playing?
"… no freaking way," Kirito muttered softly.
Who in their right mind would go out onto the field with those conditions? Of course, everyone would just stay inside the city, where it was safe.
Then, as if reading Kirito's (and maybe every other player's) mind, came the next message.
"Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game." Kayaba told them, "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 on this."
The eighty or so thousands of players stood in silence.
It was then that Kirito realized what Kayaba meant when he said, get to the top of this castle.
This castle meant the huge monstrosity that imprisoned all of the players on the first floor, with ninety-nine more floors stacked on top of it, towering into the sky in which it floated. He was talking about Aincrad itself.
"Clear… all hundred floors!?" Klein suddenly shouted. He got up quickly and raised a fist up to the sky.
"And how do you want us to do that?" one of the players said, "I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"
This was true. During the months of beta testing, the one thousand players that had taken part and only a handful of people managed to get to the tenth floor. Even if ten thousand people had dived right now, how long would it take to get through all hundred floors?
Most players who had been forced here would be asking themselves this rhetorical question.
The strained silence eventually gave way to low murmuring. But there was no sign of fear or despair.
Most people here would still be confused about whether this was a real danger or a seriously warped opening event. Everything Kayaba had said was so horrifying that it felt unreal.
Kirito craned his head back to look at the empty robe and tried to force his mind to accept this situation.
He was no longer able to log out, ever. He can't go back to his room, his life. The only way that he would get them back was when somebody defeated the boss on the highest floor of this floating castle. That if his HP ever reached zero, even once, during that time - he would die. He would die a real death and he would be gone forever.
But…
However much Kirito tried to accept these as facts, it was impossible. Just five or six hours ago, he had eaten a meal that his mom made, shared a short conversation with his sister, then walked up the stairs of his house.
Now I can't go back to all that? And now, this was meant to be his new reality?
Then, the red robe that had always been one step ahead of them swept its right glove and started speaking with a voice void of all emotion.
"Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality that you should be concerned about." Kayaba told them, "In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this "
As soon as Kirito heard this, he pressed his finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells.
Kirito pressed the Item button on the menu that appeared and the item was there, at the top of his belongings list. The name of the item - Hand Mirror.
'Why did he give this to us?' Kirito wondered, as he tapped on the name and pressed the 'Make Into Object' button. Immediately, there was a tinkling sound effect, and a small, rectangular mirror appeared.
Kirito grabbed it hesitantly, but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that he had gone through a lot of trouble to create.
Kirito cocked his head and looked at Klein. The samurai was also looking at the mirror in his hand with a blank expression.
… Then.
Suddenly, Klein and the surrounding avatars were engulfed in white light. As soon as Kirito took this in, he too was surrounded too and all he could see was white.
Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been…
No.
The face in front of Kirito wasn't the one he had gotten used to.
The armour made of metal plates laced together, the bandana, and the spiky red hair were all the same. But the face had changed into another shape altogether, softer. His long, sharp eyes had become sunken and shone brighter. His delicate and high nose had become hooked. Not only that, but he had breasts, big ones at that. Not only that, whilst her avatar had been a young and carefree samurai, this one was a fallen warrior-or maybe a bandit.
Kirito forgot about the situation for a moment and muttered. "Who… are you?"
The same words came out of the mouth of the woman in front of me. "Hey… who're you?"
Then Kirito was gripped by a sudden foreboding and realized what Kayaba's present, the Hand Mirror, meant. If Klein was standing in front of him just a few seconds ago, and now this lady was there, that could only mean one thing.
Kirito raised the mirror in a rush, and the face stared back at him .
Black hair lay neatly over the head, two weak-looking eyes could be seen beneath the slightly long hair, and a delicate face that made people mistake him for a girl even now when he goes out in casual clothes with his sister.
The calm face of a warrior that Kirito had even a few seconds ago was no longer there. The face that was in the mirror…
Was his actual face that he had tried so hard to escape from? "Ah… it's me…"
Klein, who had been also staring at his/her mirror, fell backwards. They both looked at each other and shouted at the same time.
"You're Klein!?"
"You're Kirito!?"
Their voices had changed too, Klein's the most seeing how he now sounded more soft and feminine. Perhaps the voice modulators had stopped working. But they didn't have time to spare on things like that.
The mirrors fell from their hands and hit the ground. Then they were destroyed with a soft, smashing sound.
When Kirito looked around again, the crowd was no longer filled with people who looked like characters from a fantasy game. A bunch of normal looking young people had now taken their place. It was like something you'd see if you gathered a bunch of people in real life at a game show venue and dressed them up in armour. Distressingly, even the sex ratio had changed greatly.
How on earth was this possible? Klein and Kirito, and most probably all the surrounding players, had changed from the avatars that they had created from nothing to their real selves. Of course, the texture itself still seemed like a polygon model and it still felt slightly strange, but it was almost frighteningly accurate. It was as if the gear had a full body scanner on it.
-Scan.
"… Ah, right!" Kirito said as he looked at Klein and forced the words out. "There are high-density signal sensors in the NerveGear covering our whole head. So it can tell not only how our brains look, but our faces too…"
"B-But, how can it know what our bodies look like… our, hmm, sex? And how tall we are?" Klein said more silently, and a bit embarrassed that her sex was showing, glancing from side to side at their surroundings. Kirito didn't really care that Klein was, in fact, a female. He too sometimes played as a female in games. And he knew some females played as a male, so he didn't see why Klein would be embarrassed by this.
The average height of the players, who were now looking at their own and others' faces with various expressions on their faces, had been noticeably reduced after the «change».
Kirito, and most probably Klein too, had set their height to equal that of his height in the real world to prevent his extra height from hindering his movements. But most players seemed to have made themselves taller by about ten to twenty centimetres.
That wasn't all. The actual build and the girth of the players had become larger too. There was no way that the NerveGear would have been able to know all this.
Klein was the one who answered this question. "Ah… wait. I bought the NerveGear just yesterday, so I remember. There was a part of the set-up… what was it called calibration? Well anyway, during that bit you touched your body here and there, maybe it was that…?" here Klein had become a bit red at this part, talking to a male about touching herself.
"Ah, right… that's what it was…" said Kirito, as sexual thoughts of Klein touching herself came to mind too.
Calibration was where the NerveGear measured how much you had to move your hand to reach your body. This was done to reproduce the sense of movement accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the NerveGear had data about their exact body shapes saved inside itself.
It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was also almost too clear now.
"… Reality," Kirito muttered. "He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar… and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this, he's produced a perfect copy of us…."
"But… but y'know Kirito."
Klein scratched her head roughly and the eyes beneath his bandana shone as he shouted. "Why? Why the hell is he doing something like this…?"
Kirito didn't answer that and pointed upwards past our heads. "Wait, a moment. Most likely, he'll answer that in a bit, anyway."
Kayaba didn't let Kirito down. A few seconds later, a voice, sounding almost solemn, sounded from the blood red sky.
"You will all most probably be wondering, 'Why?' Why am I - the creator of both the NerveGear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko- doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?"
It was then that Kayaba's voice, which had been emotionless up to now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. Suddenly the word empathy passed through Kirito's mind, even though there was no way that would be true.
"These are not the reasons why I am doing this. Not only that, but for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this." Kayaba told them, "The reason I did all this, to create a world of my own design. Was to fulfil a dream that I had, to observe how people would react in a world of sword arts and monsters. This is the only reason I have created the NerveGear and SAO. And now, with my dream coming to fruition, I leave you all to enjoy this new world and I hope that you can one day clear this world."
But Kirito had a feeling that there was more to it other than creating this world and watch people live in it. Kirito didn't know why, but he felt as if there was more of it.
After a short pause, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, spoke.
"… Now, I have finished the official tutorial for Sword Art Online. I have some final words I would like to say before I go." Kayaba told them, "As I told you, this is your new reality, and as such, you should act like it if you want to survive. When not fighting monsters and clearing floors, treat this life as you would in the other world. Next, the NPCs, the Tians, they aren't your normal NPCs. Treat them as you would treat a normal person. If you don't, well, just say you might just regret it."
Upon hearing this, many people wondered what Kayaba meant by this. Apart from a handful, a lot didn't see the point of it. NPCs were only there to give them quests and act like traders. They weren't real and so they didn't see the point of treating them like a normal person, no matter how they might act.
Kirito was different, though. He had already seen them acting like a normal person, like Harold, the carpenter who makes the Alchemy Chests for the players. During the beta testing, he didn't have a name nor act like a normal person would and cancelled a quest because someone else has done it. No, these NPCs, no, these Tians, were acting unlike anything he had seen before.
What if you upset a Tian so much that they don't give you a quest? What if one of them dies and does not respawn like normal NPCs, you could be cut out from a quest that could be useful to you? There were so many questions coming from the statement that you might regret not treating the Tians as you would a normal person.
Before Kirito could think more about this, Kayaba went on to say, "Finally, whilst there'll be updates every now and then to this game from the outside world to make sure things go well for all of you, there's one important update that is coming that ALL of you should know about. At the stroke of midnight of the New Year's Eve, there'll be an update where time here will slow down. Meaning, whilst a year passes in the real world, here in SOA, it would be four years."
Upon hearing this, people didn't know what to think about this. There was too much information to handle as it was. But this was too much to think about right now. To think they would be living years longer than their friends and family, it was something they couldn't get their head around just yet.
"Either way, I wish you all luck, players. And remember, this is no longer a game that you play as you would normally." This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.
The huge robe rose soundlessly and started sinking, hood first, into the system message that covered the sky, as if melting.
Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and legs merged into the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterward, the system message that had covered the sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.
The sound of the wind blowing above the plaza and the BGM that a Tian orchestra was playing came softly to our ears. The game had returned to its normal state, apart from the fact that a couple of rules had been changed.
Then - at last.
The crowd of nearly eighty thousand players gave a proper reaction.
In other words, countless voices started resounding loudly through the plaza.
"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!"
"It's not possible! They can't make us live four years here, whilst only a year pass in the real world!"
Yells. Clamours. Shouts. Curses. Begging. Screaming.
The people that had changed from game players to prisoners in a matter of minutes crouched, clutching their heads, waving their arms about, grasping each other or started to swear loudly.
In the midst of all this noise, Kirito's mind became strangely cool again.
This… this was his new reality.
What Kayaba Akihiko had declared was all true. If that was the case, this was all to be expected. It'd be strange not to expect it. This genius was one side of Kayaba that made him alluringly attractive.
Now that Kirito can't return to reality for a while - perhaps a few months or maybe more than that, years. During this time, He can't see his mother or sister nor talk to them. It was possible that he would never get the chance. If he died here, he would die in reality.
The NerveGear, once a game machine, is a lock to this prison and a tool of death that will fry his brain.
As this thought went through Kirito's mind, it was like a swatch in his mind. With the way he had been treating his sister because he found out that she wasn't his sister was stupid. No matter what, they grew up as brother and sister, and that shouldn't change because he learned that she wasn't. He shouldn't have treated his mom and sister like he had. He realized that he had to get back, to apologise to his family for the way he had been treating them. If that means that he had to fight through these floors to do so, so be it. Even if it took years to do so, he didn't care. All he wanted was to get back and would do whatever it took to do so.
Kirito began to breathe slowly in, then out, and opened his mouth, before saying to Klein, "Klein, come over here for a sec."
Kirito grabbed the female warrior's arm, who seemed to be much older than him in real life, and made his way through the raving crowd.
o0OoO0o
Kirito and Klein made it out of the crowd quite quickly, maybe because they were near the edge. They entered one of the many streets that led out of the plaza in a radial pattern and Kirito jumped into the shadow behind an unmoving carriage.
"… Klein," Kirito called her name again.
She still had a somewhat blank expression on her face. Kirito continued talking, trying his best to sound serious.
"Listen to me. I'm going to get out of this city and head over to the next village. Come with me." Kirito told her, knowing that if wanted to survive, he needed to leave the area where monsters would be easier to find and hunt. He needed to rise a few levels tonight. Not only that, but he needed to get a new sword. A sword that he could only get from a quest and one of the best swords that you can get from the next few floors.
Klein opened her eyes wide under the bandana. Kirito kept talking in a low voice, forcing the words out.
"Listen Klein, if what he said was true, in order to survive in this world, we have to strengthen ourselves." explained Kirito, "You know that MMORPGs are a battle for resources between the players. Only the people who can acquire the most money and experience can get stronger. The people who've realized this are going to hunt all the monsters around the Town of Beginning soon enough. Whilst some of the respawn time might seem to take forever, that's not the problem we have. It'll be the players waiting for them to respawn. As the monsters around the town are easy to defeat. With so many people wanting to level up, it'll be a nightmare around here. So, it's for the best for us to leave this town and head to the next village right now. I know the way and all the dangerous spots, so I can get there, even if I'm only level one."
Considering that it was Kirito, that was quite a long speech for him. But despite that, Klein stayed silent.
Then, a few seconds later, her face scrunched up.
"But… But y'know. I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game." Klein reminded her new friend, "They would have logged in and most likely they'd be in the plaza even now. I can't… go without them."
Kirito let out a sigh and bit his lip.
He could understand all too well what Klein was trying to tell him through his nervous gaze.
She… was bright and was easy to get along with, and she most probably took care of other people pretty well. She was most definitely hoping that he would take all of her friends with her
.
But Kirito just couldn't nod.
If it was just Klein, Kirito knew he could get to the next village while protecting both of them from aggressive monsters. But if there were even two more - no, even one more person coming along - it would be dangerous. He couldn't keep an eye on them and the monsters too, as some do surprise attacks and ambush players too, whilst the players are fighting other monsters.
If somebody died along the way, they'd die, as Kayaba had announced.
The responsibility would undoubtedly fall onto Kirito, who suggested setting out from the safe Town of Beginning and failing to protect his comrade.
To bear such a heavy burden, Kirito knew he could never do that. It was just simply impossible.
Klein seemed to read all these worries that flashed through Kirito's mind. A smile appeared on her slightly bearded cheek and she shook her head and said, "No… I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. And… there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village."
"…" Kirito felt like shit, knowing that he was going to leave her and her friends behind, as he looked out for himself. But if he wanted to survive and return home, he had to do this. So with a deep sigh, he said, "Well, let's part here. If anything comes up, send me a message. Well, see you later, Klein."
With that, Kirito began to walk away, not wanting to look back.
Klein called out to Kirito, as the young boy turned his eyes downwards and turned to leave.
"Kirito!"
"…" Kirito sent her a questioning glance, but she didn't say anything; her cheek only trembled a little.
Kirito waved once and turned northwest, in the direction of the village that he had used as his next base.
When Kirito had taken about five steps, a voice called out from behind him again.
"Hey, Kirito! You look pretty good in real life! You're quite my type!"
Kirito smiled bitterly and shouted over his shoulder. "Your look suits you ten times better too! You look hot!"
That's then he remembered a few things from beta testing that could help Klein and her friends. So, turning to look at her, Klein said to Klein. "Listen, Klein, whilst I can't stay to help you level up, I can give you some tips that can help you."
"Really? What tips?" asked Klein with interest.
"The first tip is personally for you," Kirito told his new friend, "unless you want to keep the male name, you can go to the hall and look for a Town Scribe. They'll be able to change your name for you. As many players might want to change their name for whatever reason, and so Argus added this feature to let the players have the ability to do so."
"Thank you." Klein thanked Kirito for this information,she was grateful. As now that she was stuck in her real body, she didn't want to be called by her male character name all the time. Being able to change it was ideal for her.
"My next tip is to get everyone in your group an Alchemy Chest." Kirito informed her. Whilst you're limited in what you can do unless you're an Alchemist, being able to make potions when you're not near a town, settlement or village is useful, especially when you are alone. The next tip connects to the last tip. Have at least one person in your group as an alchemist. As they are able to use the Alchemy Chest better than the rest of you, they are able to create things that a blacksmith or apothecarist are unable to do. So whilst they aren't as strong as a warrior, they make up for it in being able to make things that should be able to keep you all alive in this game."
This was what he was planning to do. Sure, he would be weaker at the start of it once he does the Class Quest to become an Alchemist, but the next few tips will help them out. To make them stronger.
"Now, whilst these last few tips can be used for all of you, these are more useful for the Alchemist Class of your group." explained Kirito, "the next tip is to learn as many skills as possible. I just don't mean skills like swords, axes or spears, no, I mean skills like cooking, blacksmith and apothecarist. Non-fighting skills. Whilst fighting skills will be useful to them, for an alchemist, the skills where he can learn to make something will be more important to learn. With you mastering them, the more you master them, the more you can do later on. But you should be warned, once you become an alchemist, you'll get fewer stats and attributes as you level your skills up."
"What do you mean?" asked Klein.
"Until you get the Class Quest to become either a Warrior or Alchemist, at level ten, you can get a stat or an attribute point every time you level up your skills to level twenty-five." explained Kirito, "So when you level up to level twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five and so on, you get a point of some sort. But as an Alchemist, that changes to every fifty levels instead of every twenty-five levels."
"So, would it best to level these skills as much as possible before doing the Class Quest?" asked Klein.
"Unfortunately, no," Kirito told her, "once you get to level hundred, you're unable to gain any more experience for that skill, until you become a Warrior or an Alchemist. Same with once you get to level ten, until you pick a class, you won't be able to gain more experience. I think they did this so that alchemist can't use tricks like mastering out all the skills and so overpowering Warriors. But that's from my time as a Beta Tester. It could have been changed in the main game."
Thinking about it, Klein could understand this. She remembered the interview that Kayaba did a few years ago, where he said he wanted Sword Art Online to be mainly about swords. That if people wanted to become an Alchemist, they would have to work for it. So was one way in doing so.
"So, in becoming a Warrior or an Alchemist, do you get any skills when you become either of them?" asked Klein.
Kirito sighed at this. All he wanted to do was to give a few tips on the game to Klein and leave to do his thing. But he knew that this was a question that was important to ask. So he said, "The Warrior Class, you get one skill when you get it. It's called The Warrior Spirit. As you level it up and master it, you get more Soul Points so you can use your skills more and get extra stats and attributes. As for the Alchemist Class, you get two skills, Mana and Enchantment. Enchantment is the skill that allows you to make better things in the future once your other skills are high enough. As for Mana, it gives you Mana Points (MP,) which allows you to use Enchantment. With Alchemist being a magical type, you would need mana to do certain things, and Enchantment is one such thing."
"Seeing how there is mana in the game, are there any magical sword attacks?" asked Klein.
"There's a few, but it costs a lot of mana to use. So, unless you have a high amount of MP, it's best to only use them when you really have to." explained Kirito, then quickly, so as not to have to answer another question, he said, "My next tip is to do the sword training. There's a training area in town where you can hit dummies to get you used to using a sword. If you keep at it for a few hours, you can get one extra STR point. You can only do this once a day for ten days, but it's safe and you can get fifty attack points without having to fight monsters and levelling up."
Klein was glad to hear this. She and her friends could do this with ease. They could use this before going out and fight monsters, this along with them doing quests, so that they were strong enough when the time comes.
As she was thinking this, Kirito told her his last tip to her, "This final tip I have is something that you would be doing anyway, but for an alchemist, it is more important, and that's to do as many quests as they can. I say this as there are a few quests that give you stats and attributes as rewards. So, it's important to do quests in the hopes of getting these rewards. Now, if you don't mind, I have to leave before it gets too late. If you need to talk or need help, message me."
Realizing that Kirito wanted to leave so that he could level up and do whatever he wanted before finding a place to sleep, Klein said, "Thanks for the help Kirito, stay safe out there. Don't want to hear that you died doing something foolish."
"I have no plans of dying." Kirito said simply as he turned his back on the first friend that he had made in this world and relentlessly ran forward.
After Kirito had run through the winding alleyways for a few minutes, he looked back again. Of course, there was nobody there.
He ignored the odd feeling of his chest being constricted and ran.
Kirito ran desperately to the northwest gate of the Town of Beginning and then past the large plains and the deep forest, then a small village located past all this-then past that to an endless, lonely game of survival.
To Be Continued!
Author's Note - PLEASE READ: Here ends another chapter of Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition. I hope that if you enjoyed this chapter and you have a few moments to spare, could you please leave some feedback and let me know what you think of this story. As what you say does help me with this story, be it ideas or just comments about what you think of this story.
Now, I was able to post this story much faster than normal, as I said in the last chapter, I used parts of the last chapter and parts from the light novel. All I did was to alter parts of it to fit wha- t I wanted to happen in this chapter. Not much other than the end and making Klein female. As there wasn't anything I needed to change just yet. For what I have planned for the story, the light novel has already written it. All I have to do is change things from first person PoV and add detail, either to fit what I want to happen or because of the new PoV.
Now if you're an anime fan of Sword Art Online, the next few chapters are side-stories from the light novel. Something I would have liked to see in the anime, but that didn't for whatever reason. But I'll be putting it into this story and adding my twist to it where I can.
I would like to ask, what do you think of the skills that the Warriors and Alchemists get when they become that class? Warriors - The Warrior Spirit. Alchemists - Mana and Enchantment. Do you think Enchantment is the right skill for the Alchemist to get? I feel as if it is right, but there's a part of me that's unsure and believes there should be another skill in its place. I would like your thoughts on this please.
This'll be the last update before Christmas, so this time for the last time, Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas.