All living beings, from their first dawn in their new world to the very end of their breathes, walk on a life path. And as the mortals begin their journey on these paths, there is always a desire or anticipation of the roads ahead of them. The degree of desires can vary. The reality-experienced will see those path less rosy-colored than the ignorance. The ambitious will visualize a certain destination, while those who does not think much of their future will not. But what all beings cannot see or anticipate is the unexpected turning of one’s life path.
A turn in life path can depend on several factors. Sometimes the turns are of one’s own volition, as one’s thoughts and wishes change overtime. But more often, the change are mandated by outside forces, and are not foreseeable.
It was so with me. The memory was vivid:
Link start…
Two words, and a few clicks of buttons. On the surface that I especially designed for myself, and the others.
That was all it took to bend my path away from its original destination. Where it will lead I cannot say…
The day was like any other, glimmered with sunlight and happiness, bearing the expectation of a new and exciting adventure. And to Alexander, it was exactly that day for him. Today, the long-awaited revolutionary virtual reality game Sword Art Online has finally come online after many days of waiting. And yet only ten thousands among millions who were lucky enough to get a copy of the game. Alexander was even luckier, being prized with a brand new copy of NerveGear and the game by a developer of the game’s mechanic engineer. And today, he would set aside all schedules of his life, all of his code lines, his colons, semi colons, his zeroes and ones for the purpose of testing this game, the popular game that he proudly had the chance to take part in its development.
As soon as he woke up, had breakfast and cleaned his room, he immediately took out the NerveGear, along with the game’s disk, set it up next to his bed before lying comfortably onto it, placed the helmet on his head, covering his hair and face. After a double check on the equipment, he was finally ready: to dive into the world that he had sometimes imagined when he was a child. A world as a result of human’s imagination, desires and ambitions. And to see it for himself, within the eye of a mortal like him, was a great honor for someone who had taken his part in making it a reality.
Finally, when everything was set, he uttered the protocols to start the dive technology. It turned out to be the words that turned everything, his life path, his world upside-down.
The entry was painless, the process was smooth, the connection was ok. Everything was perfect.
And came the designs of the characters, the hair, the costume, the starting weapon. The people around him knew exactly what to do.
After a while trying to cook up a character, he decided to go with standard dark armor, shoulder-lengthed silver hair, with standard sword and shield, with a certain set of skills. The name for him was simply ‘Alexander’, as he wasn’t much of a gamer himself to set a good in-game name. And then he was thrown straight into the world that the world had been longing to see.
Before his eyes, feasted a magnificent scenic. A scene only thought to exist in our imagination, yet appeared in front of his very eyes. The floating islands, the abnormal looking monsters. Beautiful…especially when how the players around him interact with the entire game through his personally designed interface. The buttons, the functions and designs, they were working exactly as he expected…or so…
It was his product, so Alexander could easily figure out what was missing: The log out button. It was supposed to be at the very end of the setting button. But it wasn’t there. Alexander definitely knew that before the game’s final release, it was not modified or altered without his consent. He was also there when the game was sealed for release as well. But for the moment, it was probably a bug, and he was sure that after a while, either the players would complain, and the GM would thaw them out, or the problem would resolve itself, as usual. Alexander hoped it was the latter, or else it would not be a nice experience.
He still had a lot of times, so he spent the entirety of it to get used to the game’s mechanic, the sword and shield skills, how to activate it, the motion input of the skills he had. It was not difficult to get around, since it was just like real life, only with slight differences. And the most important thing, it was actually fun. Really really fun. The experience quickly dissolved the stress and pain he got from the working world around him, to the point that he would consider having a session of SAO into his tightly planned schedule for stress relief. It may actually be a good thing, who knows.
Alexander spent the whole day there, and the amazing thing was that the game’s sceneries change accordingly to the time in reality. Honestly, after logging out of the game that night, he would give the development team a genuine praise. They really deserved it. In fact, he was getting tired, so he would probably do it right away…or not. The log out button was still missing…
”Come on…” He closed and reopened the main menu screen again and again, and yet it was still missing. This might be a serious bug. If the players were unable to get out of the game…
Just as the thought ran through his mind, Alexander was suddenly teleported back to the Town of Beginning, for no particular reasons. And apparently, he wasn’t the only one. The remaining ten thousand players were also there. And then there was the hooded figure, soaring in height, its face unknown to Alexander or the players.
His speech sent the English noble in complete shock…
’How is this even possible?’There was no way to get out…
But to beat the game.
And if he dies…
The only way to beat the game was to climb to the highest level of the game, which was level 100. But to reach that level, it would take months, years, or even decades to finish it. Not to mention he could die at any possible moments. A slip of a foot and he would get mauled down by monsters, and die.
Would he even make it?
The Englishman chuckled, beset by the ironies of his unexpected turning of fate.
As the hooded figure spoke, thousands of players around him started wailing, broken by the terrible sudden twist of destiny. As the sudden shock passed by, Alexander gathered himself, and looked around. To witness that he was still in better shape than most people here. For everyone, it was definitely a twist nobody was hoping for, but how would crying or breaking down help. The game was already set. And there was only one path to freedom. The reality was as clear as days. And this would be a goal he would have to succeed, or die trying.
As the game master disappeared, Alexander didn’t haste out of the city like most people does. His attention was instead focused on a certain man. He wasn’t equipped with any weapons or so, only with gloves and cloths armor. And he was inviting everyone to duel him, to enhance everybody’s fighting skills. It was a good thing actually. While quests and leveling up should be a priority over simply dueling, there were one thing that Alexander consider extremely valuable when faced with a difficult situation like this: Alliance.
Alliance were built on mutual gain, on a goal that everyone could benefit from. And the goal here was to beat the game. And as long as the ally kept their heads clear of the goal ahead of them, and that Alexander could keep other medium needs in check, the alliance would remain fairly strong, and he would gain a good deal of strength to beat the game, or to even protect himself from bad players. And that value for him was totally better than a level up, a new blazing blade or an expensive armor.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single steps. And from here, Alexander would search for valuable allies alike.
”Greetings, I figure that I would gain great benefits from this experience. I will take you on for a match.” He approached the man, politely, but with a confident countenance.
