The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

PK Pandemonia Arc: Chapter 62 - Katalysis

18 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

The entrance behind us closed shut, as the sliding rock walls on either side made grinding noises against the ground, each pushed by an orange player standing by them.

I had thought that the entrance, which was only just a large gap through a foreboding canyon wall, couldn't be closed. The rock walls gave me quite a surprise as we walked through the gap.

However, they weren't big enough of a surprise than these--I'd call them hologram tablets--that I was holding right now. No one with a normal perception would call them 'sheets of paper', but according to Jacelyn of the Gazette Guild, they were called that in Aincrad.

To clarify, each of them was as thin as a sheet of paper, but was emitting out a faint light, somewhat of a luminescent feel. That's probably the kind of light that holograms from sci-fi movies emit, which was what I was reminded of when I first had a look at them. Unlike paper in the real world, they couldn't be bent in any way, like iron sheets.

This wasn't paper in a sense, but should much rather be described as 'material that can be written on clearly', much like the user interface of the messaging feature of a player's system menu. That being said, its purpose was simple: to record anything that's written on it.

I handed all of the hologram tablets except for one to Rakuno and the others. "Everyone get one and keep it for now. We'll discuss this when we have the chance."

Taking a last glance at my hologram tablet before putting it in my inventory, my eyes caught the title, clearly written on the top and in a bigger font than the text below. It was even underlined with a single black line that matched the length of the phrase:

"Class Types of Katralis"

Katralis? Surely it meant Katalysis, didn't it? It was yet another question that I needed answers for, but one that needed to be archived without any clues linking it, for now.

The city was.....bustling, its liveliness rivaling the 50th Floor's city of Algade, the busiest city of Aincrad. The obvious difference was the orange cursors floating around, though the players under them weren't really looking as if they wanted to pick a fight with each other, which could have been the assumption that Meghan might have as she, as with the others, stared at the sight with considerable disbelief.

What I myself didn't expect about the city at first impression was the fact that it seemed as organized as a safe zone would. Rows of buildings were lined up the same way as in a safe zone, except that they were built on canyon ground. The canyon walls in the backdrop surrounded the city's entirety as well.

Compared to the guards at the entrance, the atmosphere here seemed more tame than either of us would ever imagine.

"It's.....big." Alexis turned to look above at the buildings, her breath barely held as she took in a mouthful.

"Indeed," I turned to the party. "Exploring's gonna be tough."

"Even if we split up?" Rakuno asked.

"It's never a good idea to do that, especially in here." Meghan crossed her arms.

"We'll split in groups, one of 2 and one of 3," I decided. "For now, what we need is to cover as much ground as possible."

Negotiating the split didn't take long. Tekion and I were naturally the pair, while Rakuno, Meghan and Alexis were the girl trio.

After all, Tekion would see me as a more reliable companion than the others, since I was his trusted customer in his smithy. Rakuno seemed to be more comfortable with the SoH members, given that she had worked with them as a Drifter before, apparently.