Chapter 1
November 6th, 2022
"Ok, I'm heading out now!" He yelled from the other side of my bedroom door. "Remember, only play for a few hours. I'm trying it out as soon as I get home!"
"Ok!" I replied, not listening to what my brother was saying.
I rushed around my room, hooking everything up. I plugged the grey game dock, LAN cable and power cable into the shiny, navy coloured helmet. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest from excitement. The day I'd waited four years to come had finally arrived. Today was the day that gaming would change as we knew it, all thanks to one man. The genius by the name of Akihiko Kayaba and his company, ARGUS. With his intelligence and expertise in all matters electronic, he had created the pinnacle immersion for gamers. A new console, designed with one soul purpose. To not only immerse players in a virtual world, but to absorb them into it. The NerveGear. The worlds first VR (Virtual Reality) interface that could receive and transfer signals into the human brain using neurological sensors in the headset, blocking all real-world motor functions and transferring them into the game using a new function created by Kayaba known as FullDive technology. What all of that meant, I had no clue, but that was what my brother said, and it sounded really fancy. Of course he'd know all about it though. He was on the team that helped develop the thing, which is why I was lucky enough to be one of the 10,000 people who got a headset.
I excitedly opened the case of the launch title and took out the cartridge. The presentation of the game was rather underwhelming considering the magnitude of this technology. A simple, grey box designed like one of those old Nintendo cartridges with the words Sword Art Online plastered across it in a fancy blue font. The lacklustre display didn't deter me at all and I plug the game into the dock and laid down on my bed for the experience of a lifetime. I lifted the heavy headset and placed it on my head with care, though I was fairly certain that I could dropkick it and the only thing that would break would be my foot. With the heavy helmet atop my head, I laid motionless, taking several deep breaths as I looked at the clock on the plastic visor. 12:59. I waited anxiously, trying my best not to fidget. I had no idea a mere thirty seconds could feel like thirty minutes. Finally, after what felt like forever, the clocked ticked over. 13:00. As of this very second, Sword Art Online was now live. That's when it all hit me. The excitement. My whole body started to tingle as I realized that this was real. Ever since I started gaming, I'd dreamed of this. A way to not just play a game, but live in it, and now, I was only seconds away from achieving that dream. This wasn't just a dream anymore. This was reality.
"Ok," I paused. "3, 2, 1. Link, start!"
I yelled the initiation phrase and my body was overwhelmed by the feelings of both everything and nothing all at once. My grip of reality quickly slipped from me and it felt as if I'd just been put to sleep. My entire body was paralysed as I was thrust through a spiralling vortex of rainbow colours and shapes. At the end, a grey keyboard appeared before me with a prompt to enter my username, but I couldn't move, nor see my body. Actually, I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel...anything. As I moved my eyes across the keyboard, a grey circle appeared over the keyboard in the position of where my eyes were. I'd never been very creative when it came to usernames, so I usually just used my real name. 'Osaka' was typically a family name anyway, so it didn't really matter. After typing it, I hovered over the confirm button and suddenly everything went dark and I regained feeling of my body. I realized by the sensation that my eyes had been closed, so with a deep breath I opened my eyes and let out a gasp.
"I... Mein güte," I uttered, unable to find the words to express my current feelings in my first language, resorting to my second.
I found myself standing in a street of cobblestone, surrounded by the sound of chattering from every direction. People spawned in beside me by the second, appearing in a blue light. Within just a few seconds, there were already close to three hundred people just in the starting area, and the game had only been live for about a minute and a half. From as little as half a metre away, the people looked real, but any closer than that and you see the millions, if not billions of pixels that made up a persons avatar that had an uncanny resemblance to a human, but how people looked was the last thing I was thinking about. The feel was where my mind was at. As I took a few steps, I started to fully appreciate one of the many reasons the NerveGear was so expensive. I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. I didn't even feel like I was in a game. It didn't even look like it. I could feel the ground beneath my feet. Fill my lungs in the air surrounding me. Feel the heat of the sun and the cold of the wind brushing against my skin. Smell the scents of the city and hear all of its sounds, and none of it felt that different from the real world. Words couldn't describe just how surreal it was to feel like I was actually in an entirely different world. While still too overwhelmed to completely comprehend everything, I did as the manual said, extending my index and middle fingers on my right hand in front of me and swiping downwards. As I did, a white menu appeared, floating in front of me with a list of icons. There was one for a friends list, inventory, duel menu, other settings and plenty more. Like I always do when I start a new game, I opened my stats menu to view my disappointingly low numbers. It always made me feel happy to see just how low they were at the start. There were the basic stats, like strength, agility and dexterity, which according to the manual, you could spec points into whenever you levelled up, but then there was a skills menu. As I opened that, my jaw dropped. There were so many. Tracking, blacksmithing, leatherworking, cooking, music, dagger, mace, sword, bow, light armour, heavy armour, fishing, sewing and hundreds more – each with their own skill tree. One of Sword Art Online's many selling points. SAO wasn't just designed as a game. Life was possible here. I closed the menu, finally starting to grasp the significance of it all. I immediately began to giggle from pure excitement and outstretched my arms like an aeroplane and began running through town.
"Weeeeeeeeee!"
While running, I looked around at all the players. They were all significantly older than, ranging in ages from late teens to middle aged men. I could only see about two or three other female players, which wasn't uncommon when it came to gaming, but it would have been nice to find another girl close to my age here. Not stopping to stew on the issue, I ran to the nearest weapons stall. On the table was an assortment of weapons of all kinds. Daggers, katanas, long swords, great swords, maces, bows, axes, hammers and spears. They were all basic, made of nothing but iron and wood, and all with the same price tag. 100 cor. Opening my inventory, at the top left of the menu, I saw that I indeed had 100 cor, and that was all. I ran my hand along a sword, thinking about how it'd be cool to swing it around, but a large hand tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and looked up at the man towering over me. He was a well-built older man with neat black hair. I could tell by the green crystal shaped cursor above his head that he was a play.
He smiled, and with a friendly voice said "Can I give you some advice, little lady? Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't exactly have the body to swing a sword. Sure, in any other video game you could equip it and go on your way, but this isn't any other video game, is it? In real life, a one handed weapon shouldn't be any larger than two fifths of your body size. Go ahead. Pick it up."
Accepting his challenge, I reached down and grabbed the handle of one of the swords. I looked back at him with a smile and proceeded to try and lift the weapon, but I couldn't get it off the table. Not looking back at the sword and trying my best to salvage the situation and not look like a compete fool, I tried again. Still, no hope. I looked back at the weapon and grabbed it with two hands, just barely lifting it, but immediately dropping it back on the table. The man chuckled to himself as I looked down at the ground, trying to hide my red cheeks.
"So um…what do you recommend I get?" I asked.
"Well, for someone as small as you, I'd say you'd probably be best with a dagger, or possibly a bow."
While I contemplated, the man purchased a katana for himself. I ultimately made my decision rath quickly and made the swiping motion over the dagger and clicked the purchase button. A pop-up appeared at the top left of my vision, just below my HP bar as if it were on my screen. The small pop-up displayed the number 100, then decreased to zero as I spent my money. I opened my inventory and looked at the equipment section. It had an outline of a person, as well as a wheel of circles around it. Most of them were empty, only displaying an outline of what could go there, like helmets and other accessories, but a few were filled, showing the default armour and boots. I clicked the empty box indicating my right hand and selected the dagger. As I did, a leather sheath materialised against my hip with the weapon in it. I excitedly drew my blade and held it up in the air, showing the player my accomplishment with a smile. Once again, he chuckled, this time clapping at the accomplishment of my menial task.
"Now look at that! Your first weapon! You're on the road to becoming a legendary adventurer already. Now that you've got it, you should probably go test it out. Why don't you come with me? We'll go look for somewhere to hunt some basic enemies. I heard some players talking about there being some boars near a cliff."
"A-Are you sure? I wouldn't want to be a hassle. I-I probably shouldn't. I like to play games, but I'm not very good at them. I'd probably just get in the way."
"Nonsense. It'd be no trouble. I need to test my weapon as well, so you might as well tag along. We'll figure it out together. What do you say?"
"I'd like that. Thank you." I sheathed my weapon. "Oh, I'm Osaka by the way."
"Well that's a pretty name. I'm Raigen. Well, Osaka. What do you saw we blow this popsicle stand? I'll race you."
"Ok! On three. Ready? One-"
"THREE!" He yelled, starting his sprint.
"HEY! NO FAIR! THAT'S CHEATING!"
###
(A few minutes later)
Very quickly, I discovered that the yellow bar beneath my HP bar was stamina. I could run for a few minutes, but I'd eventually run out of energy and could barely walk. It'd slowly regenerate as I walked, but it was rather tedious needing to slow down so much. It didn't take long for us to reach the edge of the cliff.
"HAHAHAAAA! I win! This old man still has some steam in him!"
"You had to cheat to beat a little girl. Aren't you meant to be a role model?"
"Actually, that's something I was going to ask. Just how old are you exactly, little lady? Feel free not to answer. I know talking about real life is pretty taboo in games. I'm just worried that there won't be anyone close to your age here."
"It's ok. I'm used to being the youngest in games. I'm eleven," I said proudly.
"Isn't this game, and the NerveGear itself for that matter rated for people fifteen and up?"
"What the GM (Game Master) doesn't know can't hurt him," I smiled.
"Jeez. Did you steal your dads credit card to by the headset? Haha."
"N-No. My brother got it for me. He works at ARGUS. My father is…"
There it was. That awkward silence that always followed the answer as to where my father was.
"Ah, crap. I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"N-No," I interrupted. "It's fine. It was a few years ago, so I can talk about it without getting too upset. I was pretty young when it happened anyway, so I barely remember him. What about you? How old are you?"
The best thing to do in that situation was to change the subject. Both of us were clearly uncomfortable.
"Me? I'm 41. I ain't no spring chicken. Anyway, enough chit chat. Lets try out our weapons, shall we? There's a boar there. See it?"
Up ahead was a large pig with a rather cartoonishly curvy body. Its dark blue skin glistened as the sunlight beamed off of it. The light red cursor above its head indicated that it was an enemy.
"Do you want to go first, or should I?"
I drew my dagger, not even verbally acknowledging him. I began running at the boar, yelling as I moved. I heard Raigen shout something, but I wasn't listening. I prepared to swing my dagger at the creature, but it rammed me, sending me flying backwards, right next to Raigen again.
"Ooowwwwwwyyyyyyyy!"
The pain shot through my rear and travelled through my entire body. The pain was strange. This wasn't just an ordinary video game, that much was obvious. Sure, the pain was definitely dulled down a bit, but it still hurt a lot. I couldn't just rely on my HP being my only indicator of how long I could keep fighting. I had to think about how much my body could handle as well.
"Well," he awkwardly smiled, trying hard not to laugh. "That could have gone better. Why didn't you use a sword skill?"
"Sword…skill?" I asked, perplexed.
"It was in the manual. You did read the manual, right?"
"I mean…I skimmed through it. There were just too many big words, and I got bored." I groaned.
"Alright," he sighed. "Let's go over it. When it's your turn, do as I do. So first, you need to get into position and take a deep breath, and they you'll feel it activate.
He did as he explained and suddenly, the blade of his katana began glowing white. The boar noticed him, charging towards with the animalistic instinct to attack, but Raigen was faster. With insane speed, he slices through the oncoming boar in a heartbeat. The entity freezes in place for about a second before glowing a bright blue colour and exploding into a million tiny crystals that float into the sky with a loud sound, like the noise of breaking glass. It wasn't long before the creature had completely disappeared. Raigen looked back at me with a huge smile across his face, bearing his pearly white teeth.
"Ok. That, was AWESOME! You have to try this!"
I stood back up and drew my weapon. I positioned my legs about shoulder width apart and watched as another boar started charging my direction. My body began to shake as it got closer, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, calming myself down. I opened my eyes as I felt a surge of energy wash through my body and my dagger began to glow. Quickly, I drove my dagger forward with a yell. Straight through the boar – my body moving as if it were on autopilot. After the sword skill had finished, I lost my balance a little, nearly falling off the cliff. I frantically waved my arms in a helicopter motion to regain my balance, by I kept leaning forward. The ground slipped out from under me and I began to fall, but Raigen grabbed my shirt at the last second and pulled me back.
"Easy there. A fall from that height would have killed you. Then I'd have to go all the way back to the respawn altar in the palace."
My body was stiff and my breathing was rapid. I could barely stand upon my wobbling legs. Though it was only a game, the fear of dying was all the more real in VR. With this level of immersion, I felt as if I actually were about to fall off a cliff. Then another thought went through my head. What would that feel like? To die in this world? What signal would the headset have sent to my brain if I had fallen? Would it have even been able to simulate that level of fear accurately enough to feel real?
"Anyway, congratulations. You killed a boar."
"I did, but…" I paused. I feel bad. He looked so real? What- Oh no! What if he had a family?! I'm sorry, mister boar!"
Once again, the technology was showing that this level of realism was both a blessing and a curse. On a computer, I could click a button and destroy the few pixels on the screen that represented a boar and move on like nothing, but this was different. I was actually here, staring into its eyes as I killed it.
"You just need to remember that it's only a program. You'll get used to it in time. We should probably keep going to get that out of your system. The last thing you want to do is stop mid battle while fighting a giant dragon to think about its family."
My attitude completely shifted and I stared up at him in awe with his last sentence.
"There are DRAGONS in this game?! Do you think I'll get to ride one?!"
###
(A few hours later)
"HYAY!" I yelled, landing another successful strike on yet another boar.
"Would you look at that. It's already sunset."
My eyes moved towards the sky. It was, for lack of a better world, beautiful. A golden glow washed over the cliff and valley below. Fireflies and butterflies flew around the forest to the left and the sun reflected off of the water in the valley below. Even after being here for hours, I still struggled to believe that this was a game. I can't even begin to imagine how much data was just in my view right now.
"This place is…amazing, isn't it?" I paused once more, admiring the view. "Well, I'd love to play longer, but I promised my big brother that I'd only play for a few hours, and I've already played longer than I should have."
"Alright, I understand. I guess I'll catch you another day, little lady? If you ever want to go adventuring, let me know."
"It was great meeting you, Raigen. Let me send you a friend request real quick, so I can find you again when I log back in."
I navigated the menu and opened the friend list and sent him a request. As soon as he accepted it, I scrolled to the log out button, but there was a problem.
"Um…Raigen? Can you look at something for me?"
"Sure, I- Huh? That's weird. Why is your log out button greyed out? Try reopening the window."
I did as he said and he opened his, but still, nothing.
"Oh well. It's the first day of the game's release. Obviously there will be some bugs, right? I'm sure it'll be fine. Right?" I chuckled.
"I don't know." Raigen's temperament had shifted to something far more serious. It was almost frightening. No longer a sunny disposition. "Think about it. The game has been online for almost five hours now. If it were just a bug, somebody would have contacted the GM by now. There's no way this would fly under his radar. Something is wrong."
"So we have to wait for someone to take the NerveGear off our heads? I don't think my mum will touch it, but my brother should be back soon, so he'll probably rip it right off me. He was looking forward to this game just as much as me. What about you?"
"I live alone."
Just as he finished his sentence, I could hear large church bells ringing in the background. A white light surrounded both Raigen and me, but before I could say anything, my entire vision went white and I felt as if I'd been moved.