User:Ashlade/Fanfic

Introduction «Sword Art Online», or abbreviated to SAO was a Light Novel (LN) written by Reki Kawahara which was published in 2009. He already made this story since 2002 in his Web Novel with different penname, “Kunori Fumio”.

The story was very interesting and it turned into an anime in Summer 2012 or 10 years ago. From my perspective, I would say the anime was good, but not as good as I expected. I did not mean that there were flaws or something. But if I had to say, the only flaws were the story was too short and the graphic was not as good as I thought it would be. However, it was practically impossible to make an anime with all the story in the LN and it WAS impossible to make it with the graphic of what I expected. The graphic was not bad, honestly, it was good, really really good. So what was the problem with the graphic? Because I read the LN and what I visualise was scenery with 2022’s technology could made, not with the 2012’s technology. Or maybe, it was because I still a naïve 8 years old at that time.

Putting that aside, today is 6th November 2022. The same day as the day where SAO is released base on the LN. Not only it is the same day, it also shows the same day of the first release of Nerve Gear. Those Nerve Gear that is used to play SAO.

It is said that this project become successful because two geniuses people that are very enthusiasm with this project help to finish it. It appears that both of them are SAO maniac. But thanks to that, me, an ordinary person that love SAO can try this game on person. Despite the very same method of selling only 10,000 units for the first wave, I can luckily get this game because my friend is also a maniac of SAO and I ask him to purchase it for me too. He was kind enough to wait three days before the sale started and bought 2 units, one for himself and one for me.

Standing in front of me is the Nerve Gear. The machine in which I think is impossible to be used to play a VRMMORPG when it was first published. Just like what Reki Kawahara said in his LN, Nerve Gear first games were a bunch of unexcited game where you can only play puzzles, or education games, or other boring stuff for game addicted. Despite its ability to render visual reality directly, developer was not good enough to produce games that can maximize this ability by making Action RPG games or even MMORPG. Thanks to the two geniuses SAO fanatic, VRMMORPG become reality and the game and the Nerve Gear are now sitting in front of me. I cannot wait longer to play the game which my friend already used his precious 3 days to buy. I directly put the round grey helm on my head and started the configuration. The usage is more or less the same as how it is in the LN, maybe because the developers are SAO fanatic, they try to make it as similar as in the novel. I wonder if it is exactly like I think or it is just a coincidence.

Just like that, I proceed to do «Full Dive» into the second world, «Aincrad». This world consists only sky and a flying caste. This so called «Aincrad» is the name of the flying castle where it has 100 floors stacked on top of each other with a castle on the top. The base floor is 10 km wide in diameter. Each floor will be connected with a stairway which shaped like pillar. In this place, the dungeons needed to be cleared in order to proceed into the next floor are located. Exactly like the LN, when the stairway to the next floor is finished, the teleportation device, «Teleport Gates», will help people from any floors to go into that floor. However, if the stairway has not finished yet, people cannot proceed into the next floor. The hardest part of each stairway will be the boss waiting on the last place of the stairway, really suited the idea of a RPG.



In this place, the second death game starts…

 Chapter 1 After I arrive in «Aincrad», I start in the «Starting City», the largest town in the Aincrad. I quickly run into the field for the beginner. In the gate to the field, a man is already waiting for me. He is the one that help me get this game. We promise to meet at that place to start playing together.

“Took you quite long before reaching here, eh?” he said while still leaning to the wall with arms folded.

“Sorry, it took me quite a long time before I finished customizing the character,” I replied while rising my right hand to greet him.

“Well, you seem to take a lot of effort making that character. It appears to be similar with a hero in nowadays game. Tall, handsome and look strong, haha, totally an ikemen type, exact opposite of you.”

“At least I still do some work to be strong in real world,” I reply his bad input.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Well, that is true that you still do some sports, I think I need to drop the ‘strong’ one before saying exact opposite.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Well, but you will be better in this game then me.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">We laugh together while heading to the vast green plains. Some number of blue boars can be spotted over there. Despite appearing to be a medium size monster, this so called «Frenzy Boar» is the same as slime in other MMORPG games, or the weakest monster can be found.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Let see who can kill the most of them and level up first,” he challenges me.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“It will probably be you, but I will not hold back as this game feels like moving our body in the real world. When it comes to this, I will not lose from you,” I answer by accepting his challenge.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">We quickly dash to different sides and start to attack the boar one after another. Just like moving our real world, this game is surprisingly easy to be played. Despite I like playing games, I never be good in any of them.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘In this game, maybe I can beat him’. While thinking like that, I keep on attacking the blue boar that is trying to charge to me. When it starts to take making a sign of charging into me, I start the motion of one of skill available, «Slant». The sword I am holding is surrounded by orange light, showing that I am doing the right pre-motion before activating the skill. Before the boar reaches me, I swing the sword and it hits the boar, leaving a strange scar on its head. Just like that, it starts to be covered with blue light before shattered into thousands of polygons.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Fuuh, «Sword Skill»’s speed really is on another level compare to normal swing,” I mutter as I wipe my head although there is not any single sweat.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">In Aincrad, there is not any magic, unlike in normal RPG games. The magic in this world is replaced with «Sword Skill». This skill is the only action attack where it deals a large damage to enemy as long as you already have the skill and do the correct motion to trigger the skill. Just like any other thing in the RPG, this strong attack comes with negative effect. Although it gives a large damage and have a considerably high speed because the movement is helped by the system, after you finish the skill, there will be a slight delay before you can move your body again. This delay leave you wide open for enemies to attack. The stronger the attack, the longer the delay. And if you fail to activate the skill, that means that you are either try to do movement that prevent the system to do the skill or you are hit by the enemy, you will be froze. Thus, this Sword Skill is a double-edge weapon in Aincrad, you will either claim victory, or be defeated.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">After the boar gone, there is a window showing that I just get a level up. I start to take the skill slot to open a look at the skill slot. I am planning to stick on one-handed sword, so I take the one-handed sword skill for my first skill slot. The second skill slot available can be either left like that for the moment before getting the desirable skill or fill it with «Searching» or «Hiding». I think for a moment before pressing the «Searching» skill button. I think this will help me in the future against any enemies and traps in the later game. Although I think like this, the knowledge of this world I have is limited to the information on the actual novel written by Reki Kawahara. What changes will be there in the later level depend on those two geniuses that design this game.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">After this, I quickly open my friend list to look for my friend. I am excited to find out whether I level up first or he just ahead of me again in this game. However, when I look at the friend list, it is empty. The name of my friend that should be there is not there anymore.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Is he accidentally pressed delete on his friend list? No… It should not be possible as there should be a warning before deleting someone from the contact.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">I quickly activate my «Searching» skill to look for him in the plains full of grass and plants which are bathed in the orange light of the sunset. I try to look at him because I am pretty sure he is around.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Just when I think he just log out or my brain play some trick showing memory that we already exchange contact to each other in which the reality is the other way around, I find some items dropped nearby.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">I hurry into that place and find the starting weapon, «Small Sword» and some items which are the drop item from «Frenzy Boar», but there are some which come from higher enemy drop. I picked them up thinking that I am lucky to find this, but I start to have a bad felling.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘These whole items seem to be dropped from all of the inventory and equipment of a player, or do I just thinking too much?’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Just like that, a chiming noise of a bell can be heard and my body is surrounded by clear blue light pillar, but this blue light is different from the light when enemies are dead. This is the one that usually explained in the LN when people warp from one place to another.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Teleportation Crystal? But, this is only first floor, and the teleportation crystal that can teleport other people should be found in even later. So this is the admin doing?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">When I am still in confusion, my vision starts to get blurry. When my vision is back, what is in front of me is not a vast plain anymore, but a plaza with medieval design with stone pavement. It is the «Starting City».

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Other people also start to arrive there one by one, and the confusion starts to get even weirder with people fussing about unable to log out. I feel a chill in my spine as I check the status window in a hurry to confirm. And I am unable to find any button that has word log out or any word related to it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify"><“Hey hey, is not this the same as in the novel?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Is this going to be the same death game as in the anime?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“What is this? I cannot log out?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Why am I teleported here?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Wha… What happen here?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">A lot of noise can be heard. Those people are afraid if this game that they are playing becomes the same death game as the game in the work of Reki Kawahara. And it is indeed… A truth.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">A person wrap around the mantle appear in air. He wears a hood, so it is hard to look at the face. Even if I try to focus on it, what I see is either darkness or a void, like there is nothing inside that hood.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Without any delay, people started to scream in terror. The person standing in the air seems to be smiling despite I cannot see the face. And with that, he explains how death in this game is the same as death in real world, just like how the story of Sword Art Online is.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">I know quickly without any more delay, that my friend is also died. The items I found are indeed, coming from a player that died. And that person might be my friend.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">In state of shock, our faces are swapped with our real face, everyone become panic even more. The ikemen face of mine is swapped into an average looking person with long hair. Other people face are changed one by one, destroying their hard work to modify their character faces.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">“Now everyone, please enjoy trying to finish all floors, just enjoy it like how you play games normally.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">In a state of panic, I walk away from the main plaza and go straight into a room. I put my hand into my face and tried to convince myself that it was all a lie.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘It’s a lie.’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘It’s a lie.’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘It’s a lie.’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Thinking of that, my fear grows even more. I grab the battle system in this game and I’m sure if I played it with my battle knowledge, I should be all right while trying to go over level. Trying to go for higher level than the surrounding area is the safest bet. Not only I can try to accumulate experience bit by bit, I can also stay safe if the whole dead game is true.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Trying to calm myself, I also start to wonder if you are dead in this game, is it possible that they are only forced log out?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘No, if they work out this far, the possibility of it trying to maintain what the game just like in the Light Novel is higher than they try to prank.’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">''‘Or is it a bad prank? So they will provide log out button after a few minutes or hour?’''

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Think of that, I shift my hand a bit and start to see where I am. It is in a training room. I stand up and look at any training menu on it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘If I cannot log out, than what I need to do is finishing the game…’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">‘If I need to finish this game, it means I need to become stronger…’

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Just like that, I tried to remember exactly how my only «Sword Skill» works. Precisely at how many seconds do I need to take a stance, to when I deal the blow. I try if there is any possibility to alter the movement while doing so.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align: justify">Just like that, all players’ biggest terrors come true. The Death Game which is a fantasy, is now become a reality. And I just have to try to persuade myself to accept it. I might be the hero in this game… Or not.