Chapter 3: How Twisted Reality Truly Is

It's been 6 months since the two were trapped in SAO and during that time they were farming for XP and levels as Izuku wrote his guidebook. They came back every 3 days to the town of beginnings to deliver the latest chapter of the guidebook that izuku made and to gather some players so they could help them Farm. But when they heard that Izuku was a beta player or discovered his quirkless status they immediately declined the offer to work with them. Hell some of them even tried stabbing them in the back on more than one occasion. It's got to the point where they stopped trying to take people out to farm. They now only go back to the town of beginnings to deliver the latest chapter of the guidebook and to Gather supplies for their next trip out.

They were able to get some equipment as well which included gauntlets and battle boots for Rumi that she could use her sword skills with. Since she already had an established fighting style and she was no good with a blade. He did not want his first and only friend in this virtual world to die because of her lack of skill with a blade. So Izuku made sure their first purchase was the gauntlets and battle boots for Rumi. He was glad He did, since there was now a meeting of the top players to discuss the floor boss. If they were going to fight a boss she needed to be at her best.

Although no one knew where the floor boss was not even Izuku who was a beta tester. It was obvious that Akihiko Kayaba changed the previous location before the game launched. So hopefully they were able to find it soon and who knows maybe this meeting was being held because they did find it. As everybody sat down for the meeting a blue-haired man took Center Stage and started to speak.

"All right let's get this meeting started. First, I would like to thank everybody for coming, and my name is Diabel. Now, I know many of you may be discouraged by the fact that 2000 people have died so far. And I know even MORE of you are a little down because we even haven't cleared the 1st Floor yet." Diabel said which caused Disheartened groans and comments to fill the air at his words, but Diabel continued nonetheless.

"But do not worry because today a scouting party, found the Boss Room!" Diabel said which caused everybody to gasp in shock.

" Now, we've formulated a few strategies with some help from the Heroes and the beta testers-." Diabel said before being cut off by an unknown voice.

"HEROES, BETA TESTERS?! How can you trust those assholes?" The new arrival said, The new arrival was a boy who was around 16 of age with orange spiky hair. He was wearing Scale mail and had a two-handed broadsword strapped to his back.

"Kibaou, I understand what you're talking about but we do not have time to point Fingers." Diabel Said trying to stop the argument before it could start.

"What are you talking about this is the perfect time to do it. Especially toward the beta testers. They've been going around and stealing all the good farming spots and quests Before any of us could get to them. It's their fault that 2,000 people are dead. They should apologize to us by giving all of us their Loot and money. After all, how can we trust them otherwise?" Kibaou Said with a sneer causing the crowd to murmur.

" If we might interject." A tall African American said as he stood up with a green-haired woman with a bandana.

"And who the Fuck are you?!" Kibaou said as he was now visibly pissed off.

"I am known by many names, Mountain Slayer, Thunder Lion, and The Chocolate Axe. But you? You may call me... Tiffany." Tiffany Said, as the woman behind him Attempted to hold back a laugh. After all, she did not want to ruin the possible punchline of this mad Genius of jokes.

"T-Tiffany, huh? That's a... pretty masculine name." Kibaou said quite nervously to the intimidating presence that the man had.

"Shouldn't be, It's a woman's name." Tiffany Said.

"Kay, I don't know how to talk to you." Kibaou said absolutely dumbfounded at the situation. Tiffany and the green-haired woman started laughing at his obvious state of confusion but quickly got a hold of themselves. This caused Kibaou to get angry again due to the obvious attempt to mock him. But Tiffany simply put his hand in his face stopping him from asking any questions.

"Just shut up right now and listen. Tell me do you know what this is." Tiffany Said as He pulled out a small book with a leather cover saying Sword Art Online for Dummies.

it was the same book that Izuku wrote with all the tips and tricks that he could remember. Although he wanted to call it the SAO player's guide, but roomy insisted on the current name and he could not muster the heart to say no.

"Yeah I know about it, What does it matter?" Kibaou said as his scowl deepened. Ignoring his scowl Tiffany turned around to address the crowd.

"This book is full of tips and strategies on how to survive this game. It was put together by a beta tester. It is free in every store in the town of beginnings, Everybody had access to it, yet some people still died. The beta testers did everything they could." Tiffany Said Which caused Izuku's heart to swell up in gratitude. But unfortunately, this feeling did not last long.

"Yeah, but the person who wrote that is quirkless. Anything those... things, write is just as worthless as they are." Kibaou said With a disgusted sneer on his face.

It was obvious to Izuku that a lot of the other people shared the same sentiment. But what was even more obvious was that Rumi was practically 10 seconds away from jumping the man and beating him half to death. But she was beaten to it by the green-haired woman Who grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him up.

"Now you listen here you Quirkist brat. I'm tired of hearing you shit-talk people, especially the quirkless. After all, we are all quirkless here." The green haired woman said.

"Who the fuck are you, And why do you care." Kibaou Said as he broke free of her hold.

"Why do I care, it's because I'm the hero Miss Joke and it's my job to care." The now identified Miss Joke said.

"*scoff,* You are a hero, don't make me laugh. We all know all the heroes are bunkering down in the town of beginnings and doing nothing but being a waste of space." Kibaou Said Dismissing her outright.

Izuku knew that he was unfortunately right, a lot of the heroes are just sitting around doing nothing. Because they don't have their quirk in SAO they believe that attempting to do anything would be too risky for their own health. But what they didn't know was Pretty much all the underground Heroes and a couple of daylight Heroes that were stuck in the game were on the front lines doing what they could to help clear the game. And Miss Joke being obviously an underground hero was understandably quite pissed off about his statement. If it wasn't for Tiffany pushing her away Izuku was pretty sure that they would come to blows.

"We do not need this right now, and you stop talking about things you don't understand. Especially since you're obviously ignoring the fact that the whole underground hero community that is stuck in SAO is all on the front lines including Miss Joke here. In fact, it was her team that found the boss and two Heroes died getting that information for us. So why don't you sit down and shut up and let's start talking about how we're going to defeat this boss?" Tiffany said causing Kibaou to scowl at him before walking off and sitting down. Diabel gave them an apologetic look which the two just Shrugged off before sitting down.

After everybody settled down they went over the strategy they would use. Izuku fought this boss twice during the beta and both times it used a fire quirk. He was only able to ever use it once and only during the time when he was swapping out his weapons for his Talwar. It's fire quirk was a breath weapon that only reached about 20 Meters and only lasted for 3 seconds, it was Just long enough for it to swap its weapon. Izuku made sure to talk to some other Beta testers before writing this Pacific section of the book so to make it as accurate as possible. So why was he feeling a sense of dread looming over him? Did he miss something? No, this was just his nerves acting up, And everything should go to plan as long as everybody sticks to it.

Plus he has bigger problems at the moment like the fact that nobody would join his party due to his quirkless status. Apparently, Akihiko Kayaba made it possible for people to see the biography of somebody before they joined your party and somehow every quirkless person in this game Had their quirk status placed in there.

So after the fourth one walked away to join another person's party after seeing that he was quirkless Izuku looked around to see if he could find anyone who wanted to join. He already had Rumi but they were going up against a boss and having only two people on their team was just being Reckless. Noticing that a blonde hair girl around Izuku's age was having a similar problem he and Rumi walked over to her.

"Hey, I see that you're having the same problem as us. Let me guess your quirkless." Rumi said as she munched on a carrot.

"So what if I am, are you going to mock me too." The blonde hair girl says annoyed.

"Nah, I don't care about that type of Shit. Plus, my pal Dekiru here is also quirkless." Rumi said as she finished munching on the carrot.

"Hi I'm Dekiru and this is Miruko. I apologize for her brash nature, But I promise you she means well." Izuku said before being forced to dodge a friendly punch from Miruko. This caused the blonde-haired girl to laugh at their antics.

"I'm Shield, it is a pleasure to meet you both." shield said with a smile. But hearing her username made izuku eyes go wide in shock.

"Wait are you Melissa Shield, I knew I recognized you. I read your paper on Quirk Tech integration." Izuku said, which caused Melissa to blush, and unknowingly making Miruko a bit jealous.

"I did not know anyone Really cared Enough to read that, Especially when it's 3 years old." Melissa said still blushing. Izuku was going to continue the conversation But was stopped by the voice of Miss Joke.

"Yo, kids, I saw you three having trouble forming a team, after me and my friend here heard what those assholes Were saying about you. We decided to see if you guys wouldn't mind having us." Miss Joke says as she approaches with Tiffany.

"Why would you want to join us?" Rumi asked suspiciously. Over the 6 months in SAO, she found herself being more protective of the green bean sitting next to her. Especially after the multiple Backstabbing attempts when they were trying to help players out. The last thing she needed was somebody Backstabbing them in the middle of fighting a boss. Seeing Rumi's suspicion made Joke's eyes soften.

"Look, kids, I know that you two are responsible for creating the guidebooks. And I also know about the Ludacris amount of backstabbing attempts that you guys had to deal with. I'm pretty sure you guys figured out already that I'm an Underground hero. But what you guys do not know is that the guidebook that you wrote saved my friends and fellow Underground hero's lives on a daily. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it this far without it. I know if any of these bastards join you, they'll most likely just backstab you, and I can't allow that to happen especially when we need that brain of yours for future floors. But if you must, think of this as me paying you back for the information." Joke said with a smile.

"And what about you, what is your reasoning." Rumi asked Tiffany Just as suspicious as she was with Joke.

"You don't have to worry about me kid, my reasoning is the same as my sister." Tiffany said grinning.

"Sister? ahh, I, mean, sorry I did not mean to be rude Mr. Tiffany." Izuku said stuttering a bit.

"Nah, kid, it's all right. And please call me Andrew. The only reason I used Tiffany As my username, was because I was planning on making a joke character. Anyway yeah jokes my sister, but not by blood. You see we grew up in the orphanage together so we are practically brother and sister." Andrew said with a smile.

"If you do not mind me asking what kind of joke character were you Planning on making?" Melissa asked curiously. This only caused Joke to laugh lively before explaining

"I was planning on making my character the classic mother character and he was going to make a small little girl. Since this game does not have voice filters we thought it would be pretty hilarious for a little girl to have mister deep voiceover here speaking for her." Joke said before the group burst out into laughter. They continued their various light-hearted conversations into the late night, as none of them knew how dark tomorrow would be.

The Next Day

It was a long track to the boss room but it was practically smooth sailing thanks to the underground Heroes paving the way. It was obvious to izuku that the underground Heroes were probably here for days just clearing it out so the raiding party could make it to the boss room without any trouble.

A lot of them wanted to join the rating party but Joke wouldn't allow it due to them being pretty much exhausted at this point. Eventually, thanks to their stubbornness joke allowed them to guard the gate to the boss room. That way they could help if they need to make a speedy retreat.

As the rating party entered the boss room the first thing Izuku noticed was how dark it was. He knew once somebody stepped inside the room, it would light up and the battle would begin. Looking at his team he saw that everybody was ready. So giving a nod to Diabel that his team was ready and after getting similar nods from other team leads. The raiding party stepped into the boss room.

The room lit up with every surface area That Emitted its own source of light. If this wouldn't be a life or death situation Izuku would have liked just to sit in here for a while admiring the site. But as it was, It was simply just pointless to think of such luxuries at the moment. So he focused his mind on the battle that was now unfolding in front of him. His team was tasked with dealing with the rear guard and handling any of the mobs that got past them. A lot of the teams thought they could not do much since they had two quirkless members with them. But despite that Diabel seem to actually rely on them heavily. It was a good thing too since his team were tearing through the mobs pretty quickly.

The mobs seeing this adapted and decided to split up and attempt to do a flanking maneuver. This shocked izuku since the level of AI that he encountered during the beta wouldn't allow for them to adapt to such a scenario. Quickly shaking away his shock he told his group to split up so they Could cover each flank. Joke and Andrew took the left flank as Izuku, Melissa, and Rumi took the right flank. Splitting up allowed them to prevent the raid group from being flanked but now it was twice as difficult to deal with the mobs. But all he needed to do was hold out and keep those mobs from flanking. Looking over at the boss health pool he was deeply relieved to see his health pool go down to the point where he was about to swap weapons. Seeing this the raid party stepped back 40 ft In preparation of the flame breath but it didn't come. But the boss did throw away his primary Weapons and started pulling out his secondary

Seeing the potential chance Diabel charged at the Beast while it was still changing its weapon. But izuku could see what he could not and that was that this boss was somehow different then the one in the beta. And it was not just his Quirk but his secondary Weapon too. Instead of the short curved blade of a Talwar, there was the longer blade of a Nodachi Which had a longer reach. Seeing the danger Izuku attempted to run out and grab him but one of the Cobalt mobs blocked his path. Dodging a swipe from it Izuku decided to yell out instead.

"Diabel fall back, the boss is different than the one in the beta!" Izuku yelled out in desperation. But Diabel did not stop, but he did look back at him. But only so he could give him a confident smirk.

Then izuku realized he was rushing out to get the last hit bonus. But that only meant that he was a beta tester too. And like many beta testers who have died in SAO, he fell into the same trap that many did, And that was that they forgot they could die. During the beta, People were quite Reckless when fighting bosses Since when you die you could respawn. So a lot of the beta testers got into the habit of being quite Reckless when fighting bosses. So when the boss dashed forward at high speeds Diabel could not react in time. The boss was able to get a pretty devastating hit in and Before Diabel could move away from the boss again. The boss used its powerful legs to jump off one of the pillars, springboarding at Diabel again. Which resulted in him getting a devastating hit from the boss.

Izuku rushed over to the prone form of Diabel after dispatching the mob he was dealing with. Rumi attempted to stop him but other mobs blocked her path. Sliding onto his knees Izuku swiftly pulled out a potion and attempted to give it to Diabel. But Diabel stopped him from doing so.

"Stop kid, my health is too far in the red so there's no point wasting your potion." Diabel Said causing Izuku's eyes to widen.

Diabel was right his health was so far in the negatives that he would need more than one potion to save him and each player only had one due to how rare they were on the first floor. He knew that Diabel already used it on one of his team members already. So the single potion that izuku had would not be enough. As the reality hit him like a truck tears started welling up in his eyes. But before izuku could be swallowed by his anguished Diabel spoke up.

"Look kid it's my fault for being reckless not yours. Right now you need to focus, Because right now they need you. I saw your skills in the field multiple times and I have read your guidebook. So I know for a fact that if anyone can beat this game it's you. It may be a lot that I am asking of you but the people stuck in here need you. So show this world what a quirkless person can do." Diabel said before his body shattered into a thousand particles of light.

Gripping his sword as well as the last words of Diabel Izuku stood up. Wiping away his tears, Izuku Pushed back his anguish, sorrow, and his fears as far back into his mind as possible Before facing the boss. Rumi who just finished the last of the mobs that she was previously dealing with, landed right next to izuku.

"What's the plan Dekiru?" Rumi asked with a feral grin. Thinking quickly izuku came up with a plan.

"Will use tactic 5, we'll need to keep the pressure on him as much as possible to prevent him from using his quirk." Izuku said after a moment of thought which only caused Rumi to Grin wider and Izuku could not help but match hers.

Then the two started Charging forward at the boss. Both of them danced around each other so flawlessly as they took turns deflecting and Dealing damage. If Izuku was fighting with anyone else, He knew that the strategy would be too dangerous to use. If Any one of them was out of sync with one another for even a second the boss would have time to counter and deal a devastating hit to one of them. But since Rumi and Izuku were fighting together since they were stuck in this game. The two were so well in sync that they were practically dancing around the boss's attacks. The boss had practically no chance to put up a proper fight against the two Players endless assaults on him and with the last final blow from Izuku, the boss exploded into a thousand shards of light. As the two panted from exhaustion Joke and Andrew rushed over to them.

"That was awesome you two! You did a really great job taking out that boss!" Joke said as she patted Izuku on the back As the rest of the crowd cheered. But before Izuku could respond to her the voice of Kibaou cut through the cheers of the crowd.

"Stop cheering for that bastard! If it wasn't for him Diabel Wouldn't be dead!" Kibaou said causing everybody to look at Izuku.

"Look here you little-" Joke said before being cut off by Kibaou.

"Shut up, he knew what the boss was going to do. But he didn't tell us and now he's dead." Kibaou said angrily, Rumi was about to interject and speak up. But unfortunately, somebody beat her to it.

"I knew I recognized you, you're the guy who's writing the guidebooks. This whole boss battle was a setup wasn't it, so you can get the final hit in. It was all so you could get that rare loot and XP Wasn't it.

"That, wasn't, I mean, I-" Izuku attempted to say before being cut off by Kibaou.

"Don't make excuses you quirkless freak. Diabel's blood is on your hands, after all, it was your strategies we used, your tactics, and your information. This is all your fault and I'm going to take pleasure in killing you." Kibaou said as he drew his blade along with three others. But Izuku did not notice, in fact, the world stopped registering for him after what Kibaou said.

'He was right this is all my fault, if I knew, I should have checked, oh God, oh God oh God,' Izuku thought to himself As the room slowly got darker for him, then it became harder for him to breathe. Izuku did not know how long he was stuck in his despair. But the next thing he knew he was waking up in a bed in one of the taverns in the town of beginnings and Rumi was passed out in the chair beside him.

Looking up at the ceiling Izuku tried to remember what happened, when he does his breathing got heavier as darkness threatened to consume him again. But he heard a familiar voice calling out to him telling him to breathe. Doing as she asked Izuku matched her breathing and attempted to slow his heartbeat. As his vision cleared as well as his mind, The figure of Miss Joke Appeared in front of him. She was crouched by his bedside And with a panicking Rumi right behind her.

"You okay kid?" Joke asked with a firm but soft tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I am sorry that you had to help me Deal with it. It usually doesn't happen twice in a row." Izuku says embarrassed. Which causes Joke's eyes to widen.

"Kid how many times has that happened to you within a week." Joke asked concern.

"Ahh, three maybe four times. But it has not happened to me since I got stuck in SAO." Izuku said confused. Wasn't like it was a big deal, after all at this point it was the norm for him.

"Okay before you got stuck in SAO, were you safe at home?" Joke asked more concern now more than ever.

"Of course, I was safe at home. Why are you asking that?" Izuku asked, At this point, he was confused about the line of questioning.

"Because kid no one has panic attacks that frequently, especially if the one you just had was that severe. Which, I can tell by How nonchalant you are acting, that wasn't the worst you had by far. Now tell me did you have anyone living at home with you who helped you with your panic attacks before." Joke asks firmly, But it only confuses Izuku even further.

"There's no one living at home with me, my mom died 2 years ago and my father left me when we found out I was quirkless. My aunt does come by every day to check up on me, And she helps me get through them when it happens." Izuku says with a shrug. Joke Sighed in annoyance as well as in relief. But before Joke could ask another question Izuku Spoke up.

"Anyway, Joke what happened while I was out of it?" Izuku Asked as he attempted to change the conversation. Seeing the obvious attempt to change the topic Joke decided to drop it for now. But they were definitely going to revisit this topic when he was more ready.

"First kid, you can call me Emi, especially since we're going to be a team From now on." Emi said with a Cheshire Grin. She too changed the topic, She did not want him to know that practically half the raid party tried attacking them. If it wasn't for the heroes outside helping them Escape they would probably would have been dead.

"Wait, team? Why do you want to join my team, especially after what happened." Izuku said shocked

"*Sigh,* Look kid what happened to Diabel wasn't your fault. Me and three other heroes who were part of the strategy meeting Warned him that the boss could have been changed, Especially since the boss's room location was. But Diabel was so certain that the information he had was correct. I expected it because he was a beta tester. So it's not your fault in the slightest, Diabel died due to his arrogance and not because of your information which was pretty spot on all the way to the end. By the way, do you have the next guidebook for Floor 2 a lot of the underground Heroes want to get a leg up." Emi said with a soft smile.

"Wait you still want me to Write my books? But my information on the boss was wrong, who knows what else Kayaba has changed?" Izuku said shocked

"Look Kid, 99% of that book was correct, do you honestly believe that Kayaba had enough time to change every detail and quest before the official launch?" Emi said as she quirks an eyebrow

Thinking over it Izuku quickly realized she was right. So far only the boss had been changed everything else on floor one was the same. He had the first 2 chapters done for the second floor already. But he was still hesitant to start handing them out again, perhaps he can put a disclaimer in the front saying that there's a possibility that this information may prove inaccurate. 'Yeah, that can work.' So after Izuku gave Emi a thankful smile he pulled out his notebook which had the first two chapters for floor two already written down And he started to get to work. A couple of minutes in, the door to their room opened and Andrew stepped in.

"Yo Andrew, where is Melissa." Emi asked curiously

"Ahh, She joined another team that was heading to floor 2. I also packed up my shop and got ready to head there as well. Also, Some of the underground Heroes asked if the kid had any information they could get before they headed there as well." Andrew said to his surrogate sister before looking at Izuku questioningly.

"I have the first two chapters done but make sure they do not rely on it too heavily and check for updates when I release a new chapter." Izuku said as he handed a copy of his first two chapters to Andrew.

After saying his quick goodbyes to the party of three he went to deliver the information to the other underground Heroes. After that, the party headed out as well and made their way to floor 2.

Notes:

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I hope you like the story, leave a review if you have any suggestions or ideas. This is cross-posted on Archive of our own.