Sword Art Online: Forgotten Edition

Fragment 4 - The Beginning

"Haru?" Said a black-haired boy a couple inches taller than me, wearing the same dark-blue armor that Kirito wore. I looked to his side to see another unfamiliar face but the man wore the same red bandana and armor as Klein, then I put the pieces together.

"Kirito?" I pointed at the younger looking male, "Klein?" I said looking at him with a questionable look.

"Oh man it really is you. You're a lot shorter than your avatar so it was hard to identify you at all," Klein pointed out.

"He's right. You look a lot younger too, I know you said you were twelve, but I kind of expected you...Never mind," Kirito was on to something but I guess he just kept it to himself. The difference between my avatar and my real body was a big leap I have to admit.

"I wonder how this works. It's so cool how they managed to replicate our entire body," I couldn't help be impressed by this system then surprisingly Klein took the floor with his knowledge.

"Remember when you first got the NerveGear you had to calibrate the settings by touching your body all over like this?" He began to pat his arms and legs to help give a better understanding which helped a lot.

"Right, the NerveGear has a high-density signal device inside the NerveGear allowing the system to see what our face looks like. That explains how our face was perfectly replicated," more knowledge out of Kirito's mouth.

"I guess I get it, but why would anyone want to do this? It seems a little too far," I knew that there had to be some reason that this was all happening, but there was no answer yet.

Looking back at Akihiko Kayaba we await an answer.

"Why am I doing this you might be asking? I have always wanted to control a world of my design, hence the creation of Sword Art Online. Now, I have achieved that goal. This marks the end of SAO's tutorial launch. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

The specter began to melt as well as flicker before it completely disappeared. Once it was gone the sky returned to its normal clear blue domain like it was never tainted red.

It was silent. Everyone stood in shock, their mouths open but not a word was said. Terror shook us all and slowly it hit me.

Everything he said...was the truth...So that means if I die in the game...I die in real life.

I had no idea what it would be like to die but I didn't want to find out either. An instantaneous realization to survive was my only option. A sudden scream to my left sparked the anarchy that was once silent. The players began running out of the plaza, but where to?

"Let me out!"

"I don't want to die!"

The cries and screams echoed in my head leaving my mind blank. I had no idea what to do.

"You two come with me," I was dragged along with Klein to an alleyway where Kirito told us what to do. "Listen we don't have much time. If we kill all of the monsters along the way to the next village, we could rack up our experience points, items, and other stuff. Don't worry about being level one right now, I know all the routes we should avoid in order to make it to the next safe point, so if—"

"Sorry, Kirito. There are some guys I know that I bought the game with and they're back at the plaza somewhere. I don't wanna leave them behind...Don't worry about me, maybe you and Haru could form a party without me and head on to the next village. Last time I played a game, I was runnin' a guild," for the first time Klein said something pretty memorable and heroic which stuck with me.

"Hm...Well, Haru? You up for it?" The offer was on the table.

But what could a twelve-year-old kid like me do? I'd probably just be loose baggage and I didn't want to be that guy. I declined Kirito's offer and after that, he just took off without saying anything else. Klein left too, leaving me behind. So it was just me.

This game was like any other one. Levels and high numbers were the keys. Stats and having the best weapon were also factors. It didn't make sense to me why the creator would do something like this, so that question stayed in my mind. Controlling his own world meant watching over it right? So did that mean he wasn't going to play at all? I found it kind of sad, not being able to play your own game because you wanted to rule over it. It didn't sound fun at all. Though, I'm sure SAO was still made with the idea that it would be fun for the players. In the end, I ignored what Akihiko Kayaba said and played the game how it was made to be, for fun. But, later on, I would face the cruel realities of this virtual world and sought a different perspective.