@Little_NinjaThe sun set slowly in the horizon, the clouds turning dark in the orange sky. In less than half an hour, it was going to get dark...yet the girl paid no attention to it. The game felt far too real, the conditions of the game far too real. It angered her even more.
Masae let out a small sniffle and wiped her eyes, before seeing a message pop up right in front of her:
Lao'Jax wants you to become his friend.
O X
"For all those who wish to leave the first floor, meet us at the edge of the Grasslands near the gates of the Starting City, accept this to get our location."
She stopped for a moment and just stared at the message.
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Masae shuffled on her seat excitedly, holding her Nerve Gear with her finished rice bowl next to her. She had waken up especially early today to finish her school homework and get ready for the SAO launch. Many gamers had lined up on the streets of Tokyo for this game, but she was lucky(?) enough to acquire one out of ten thousand of them by conveniently lining up in one of the shorter lines someplace else. Still, it took her half a day of waiting...but it was worth it in the end.
And now here she was, prepared to try one of the most recent innovations in the world of video games. And with the minute hand ticking towards end of the twelfth hour, she was ready.
Tick...tick...tick... She leaned readily, sitting on her reclining chair.
"Link Start!"
Almost suddenly she was thrown into an entirely white world, while brightly read: "Welcome to Sword Art Online!" Shortly afterward, a screen appeared in front of her, asking of some simple statements: "Do you agreed to the Terms of Use? What language would you like to use? What is your username?" She merely skimmed through most of them, choosing the name "Aero"...which sounded cool but a bit generic at the same time. It didn't matter. At least she wasn't calling herself Doom-Bunny or anything. Masae remembered how her mom tried to help her make her username when she was younger.
And surprisingly, the name wasn't taken. It was also convenient that she didn't need to set up a password or some kind of security question. She had heard that the NerveGear identified the user's facial features upon its first use and no one else can access the NerveGear without the initial user's authorization or after a reset. The wonders of technology...
Then she went on to create her character, which initially looked like herself. Masae was never one to doubt her own looks; she thought she already looked good, and didn't change her appearance much, save for adding a ponytail and shortening her height by a few centimeters. She then assigned her skills, which only took a few minutes - Masae didn't like over-thinking decisions and wasting time, and soon enough, the screen was replace by a bustling city square...the Town of Beginnings.
She couldn't help but comment. "W-wow. This is SAO? Everything seems so...real," Masae dashed around the massive town, staring at the shops that lined the road. "It...it feels bigger than Nashiwa..."
A flashing notification popped out right in front of her, and she pressed it, which revealed her inventory. It included the starting armor she was currently wearing, a regular dagger, thirty standard throwing picks, a guidebook, and 1000 Col. They didn't look like much, but she did need to start somewhere. The guidebook was also flashing, and she read it for the sake of learning the controls.
The guidebook was concise, showing what hand motions to do to open up the menu , as well as setting up certain stances and gestures to hot-keyed items. Masae tried that as well, setting up the "Open Equipment" action to a three-fingered vertical swipe.
After all those small issues were dealt with, Masae decided to fight a few of the wolves to the plains in the northwest. She expected some of the mobs to be easy enough for players to at least defeat, and she excitedly dashed out of town to try to fight them.
Masae was quickly shown that her assumption was wrong; while the wolves had the same level as her, they were dealing good damage. She soon found her health in the yellow after a serious knockback, and there she knew she needed to act quick.
Wait...aren't there special attacks that weapons can do based on your skills?She tested that theory out, inhaling and going into one of the stances available for her as shown from the guidebook, bending her front left foot and holding her dagger back. Almost automatically, her body thrusted forward with the dagger and did a quick, regular Slant attack; unlike the One-Handed Sword Slant, however, the dagger attack was much faster and took less time to charge, but the attack wasn't hard hitting enough to bring it down in one hit, and instead went down to a red health bar. The wolf tried to run off this time, but Masae spared the mob no mercy and took out her throwing pick, flinging it at the wolf and finishing it off.
"Yes!" she exclaimed with a sense of achievement. The wolves were quick and dealt some good hits, but they couldn't take one themselves. She decided to get more used to her dagger skills, and grind at the same time.
It took her some hours, but she finally leveled up afterward; leveling seemed to take a very long time in here. This game was going to be hard as they said it was...Masae decided to call it a day for now and log off. It was nearing dinner anyway. Swiping open the menu button with two fingers, she moved down before pausing.
Wait...where's the log out button?She was then promptly teleported back to the spawn, standing inside a crowd of confused players. A system announcement notification then appeared in the sky, and a massive figure that was suggested to be Kayaba revealed to them the most shocking of news. They were all trapped in this game until they can beat the 100th floor, and if they died in this game, they would die in real life. He also mentioned they had a "gift", and indeed, she received another flashing notification, reluctantly tapping on it and revealing a mirror...and a look into it changed her body back to her regular self.
But that was the least of her matters. She realized how impossible it would be for them to finish all 100 floors...and began to miss her old life before.
Damn it...why did I put that on!? Why, damn it!? she shouted internally to herself, feeling her legs turn weak as the commotion went around her; Masae was hit and pushed against many times...but she didn't care. She couldn't get hurt in a town, anyway.
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Masae slowly raised her finger on the friend screen, reading the message over and over again; the sky was already dark now, but the moon let out a good amount of light during the night.
It was then that she decided to press the accept button and sigh. The immediate attack on the first floor was rather ambitious, not when there was very much the possibility of death. Even the beta testers didn't go far with the time they had. But...they needed to start somewhere. Anywhere. As long as it was one step closer to bringing them back home.
Masae stood up and drew her knife, looking up at the dark sky. If she was going to get out of here...she was going to train herself.
But...wait. If dying was going to be a very likely possibility, then it was best if she partied with some of the members here to increase her chances of survival. Plus, she could rally up a group to the grasslands.
Maybe there is still some people back at the square.With that in mind, Masae ran back toward the square, looking at the time. She was only an hour in, and the lessening of commotion meant that the crowd from before had mostly went off, save for some people who were yelling for some of their friends and family...but mostly, her focus was placed on a crying little girl.
Masae bit her lip again. She didn't know exactly why, but she had a soft spot for children. And now that they were trapped in death game, Masae needed to help them. "Oji-san! Oji-san!" the girl yelled, and Masae went to coax her. "Hey, hey, calm down there. What's going on?" Masae asked.
Mangrale