5 days, it took me that much time to create the first floor of Aincrad, to be completely honest it could have been finished earlier if I wasn't being an idiot.
If I only bought that memory-recalling skill from the [ Shop ] I wouldn't have bothered racking my brain on what to do with the map, honestly it's the hardest to make.
The mobs and the NPCs weren't that hard, after all creating the game has more to do with visualization rather than anything else.
Anyway, there's also a bit of a problem with the NPC's, while they have no problem doing basic conversation with a player, however their intelligence is on the lower-side, as they can't really answer questions that weren't already recorded.
Granted that I'm using a low-cost artificial intelligence, but can you really blame me when I lack funds the most?
Most of the starter points I have were used for buying a server and the only thing I could afford is the first floor which is as big as a small island.
I couldn't make another floor, but that's alright it's not like anyone could clear it for at least a month, unlike the NPC'S the mobs are actually difficult to kill if you don't have any combat experience, unlike the original SAO this one doesn't really the threat of death so I made the enemy mobs more complex and difficult to kill.
Besides considering having a bit of combat experience in this world is normal, naturally I made it harder.
Not to mention the boss of the first floor, I made it so difficult to the point that it's only possible for it to be defeated by a squad of professional huntsmen or several dozens of level 10-15 players.
—
After hours of checking the game, looking for mistakes and misplaced buildings, bugs are literally impossible to find here as this game is more like a separate dimension or another world entirely.
It's that realistic, this is literally a sci-fi level of technology, it's bullshit.
Either way, everything is perfect and now it's time for me to upload this to a popular gaming site.
"Well then, it's time to start the cultural invasion." I smiled as I uploaded it on a popular gaming site called DustGaming.
Now it's time for me to wait for the first fish to bite.
—
Somewhere in Remnant, in a small town named Ansel, there's a two story house and inside of that house is a blonde teen who anxiously sends a fake transcript via email into the official beacon site.
"And sent! I hope this works or else the money I've spent paying a forger to create a fake transcript would be wasted!" This particular teen is called Jaune.
A faker who wanted to try and apply to a huntsmen school with no prior combat experience and a complete newbie to everything regarding combat.
What he's doing is a complete utter foolishness to the highest degree and a colorful way to commit suicide.
But he doesn't know that because he's an idiot, either way it would take a few business days for him to get a response from Beacon Academy.
"I wish it would be acceptable or else…" He looked at the things he prepared when he got accepted.
"Anyway, I shouldn't worry needlessly for now. I have to calm myself down, anxiously waiting for a reply that won't come any sooner is foolish. Maybe I should play some game to pass time." To which he did as he opened another tab in his PC and searched DustGaming(.)com.
A popular gaming site for teenagers like him, normally he would have picked the most popular game on the list, however right now he wasn't in the mood to play them, after all he felt like they're getting a bit repetitive and boring.
While they're enjoyable and all, it's nothing new. In short he's getting sick of fighting the same enemies in every fighting game he plays, the Grimm.
While he understands that they're a very real threat, would it hurt them to make something you know, creative?
Either way, he would find a game that doesn't involve a game for today, as he wanted to try something new.
Jaune picked the category 'new addition' to check if there's something good here or at least decent enough to get him hooked.
Then suddenly he saw someone new, he noticed that it had just been uploaded about 30 minutes ago and it's literally brand new.
"Sword Art Online…?" Interestingly, the title itself wasn't exactly anything unique but the fact that it didn't start or end with the word Grimm, is something to look forward to.
Out of curiosity, he checked the game and read the description, it was rather a direct and blunt summary.
It's basically like this, it's a game about sword and fantasy, where you beat up some enemies to level up. A typical fantasy RPG, however the difference is that he has to ascend floor to floor by beating a boss and each floor is a different map altogether.
That's new, he never saw or played a game similar to this, there's also the fact that he needs to have a VR headset to connect into the game.
With made him because more interested of this game, thankfully he had a VR headset but he rarely use it, after all this product was a massive flop due to a terrible reviews about how bad the games that was supported by it.
The hype immediately disappeared once the VR games proved to be a disappointment.
It was later forgotten, but right now there's actually someone who risked making a VR game knowing that it would most likely fail?
This kind of reminds him of himself, he's literally risking whether his fake transcript would be accepted or not.
He knew deep down that there's a high chance of it being rejected, in a way this game reminded him of that.
And at that moment he decided to play the game, the price to play it isn't exactly cheap or expensive 9.99 L.
But since he already decided to try it, he bought it and downloaded the content, though he was a bit surprised at how low the bytes needed to download it.
He figured that this game would have bad graphics and oh he couldn't be more wrong with that.
( Please connect the VR headset to play. )
Jaune did as instructed and wore the VR headset.
The game screen greeted him.
( Welcome to SAO! Please enter your name. )
Despite not really seeing the keyboard, he already memorized the keys in his mind and wrote the username that he always uses in games.
( RustedArc )
And as soon as he did, what came after blew his mind.
"What the-?!" The next second he arrived at a place that he had no idea where.
Hurriedly he tried to check if he was dreaming or something, but when pinch his cheeks it felt painful.
Meaning that this is no game, but reality. He was gaping like an idiot, but before he could have a panic attack suddenly a menu appeared.
( Would you like to have a tutorial Y/N? )
Seeing this interference made him realize that he's inside a game, quickly he went to find the menu and when he found it, he immediately exited the game.
After he did, it's like he was transported back to his room, quickly took off the VR headset and started looking around in shock.
"What the heck was that..?!"
He couldn't comprehend what just happened, then he stared at the game on his PC and at the VR headset in his hands.
While he may be slow at times, it doesn't mean he's completely foolish, he understood what happened, however it was also unbelievable.
"Was that the game…? It feels so real! It's like I've been transported to another world!" As his disbelief disappeared, anticipation came after, he could hardly contain the ever growing excitement that he was feeling.
After that clarifying moment that what he experienced was indeed the game, he felt like he stumbled upon the greatest treasure of this era, he just knew that if what he experienced was truly the content of the game then there's no doubt that this single piece of game would be revolutionary.
Once again he wore the VR headset and entered the game but unlike the first time he was paying more attention to his surroundings.
Every single detail was so realistic to the point that he thought of it as another reality, he could even feel the wind blowing from his skin even though he's inside his room!
After his earlier fascination, next comes excitement, once the tutorial screen appears once more. This time Jaune immediately pressed Y and then it guided him to what he should know about the game.
—
While I was eating lunch, suddenly a notification appeared in my system and I took a look at it and realized that someone was playing my game.
"Wait, already?!" While I was expecting someone to play the game sooner or later, I didn't expect for a player to join this fast!
However, despite my earlier surprise I immediately started to plan on how to use this to my benefit, but before that I have to see who is the first person to ever play Sword Art Online.
As I monitored the game using my administrator access. I immediately saw who the first player in my game was.
"Jaune Arc?! He's the first player?!" I was completely caught off guard by this, to think the first player of my game is one of the main supporting cast of this world!
Is this some sort of fate? Honestly it could have been an unknown extra of this world but to think the first player is the Rusted Knight himself.
Either way, I'm not invested on how he would fare against the weakest mob of the game, the [ Frenzy Boar ].
—
Author Notes: Well, it's a start. I'm quite excited to write the next chapter as I have plenty of ideas on what to put next, but this is all for now.
Feel free to donate if you ever feel generous, every bit of donations help.
There's going to be an advanced chapter here.
ko-fi(.)com(slash)emiyanii