Chapter 2
November 6th, 2022
When the light finally subsided and I could see again, I found myself surrounded by people on all sides. I couldn't see them all from my level, but it sounded like their was easily over a thousand people here. I tried jumping to see over the top of them to see where we were, but it was no use. There was no way I could jump that high. Raigen, who was teleported right beside me saw my struggling and picked me up, placing me on his shoulders. I looked around from my new vantage point and gathered that we were in the town square. There were people as far as the eye could see, making it obvious that all 10,000 players were here.
"What's going on? A forced teleport?" He asked.
"Look! In the sky!" A voice cried out.
Everyone, including myself diverted our attention upwards. A few people screamed in fear, but I tensed up, unable to move as it descended from the heavens. A giant figure, measuring about thirty metres tall lowered itself to our level, floating above us like a god. Though it wore a red robe with an open hood, the beings face was absent and all that sat inside the hood was a dark void. Its voice boomed throughout the entire town, causing me to tighten my grip around Raigen's head.
"Greetings, player, and welcome to Sword Art Online." it spoke in a voice lacking emotion. "I am the creator of the NerveGear and SAO itself, Akihiko Kayaba."
Suddenly, a small portion of my fear was replaced by excitement. Akihiko Kayaba?! Here?! With us?! I didn't even care if this was just a recorded message. We were hearing from the father of VR himself! I was still quite terrified of the giant god-like entity floating above us, but I'd be lying if I said that I hyped to be hearing from my hero.
"I'm sure you'd like an orientation. The world of Sword Art Online takes place inside of the giant floating castle in the sky known as Aincrad. Aincrad has one hundred floors. You are all currently on the first floor. The goal of SAO is a simple one. Reach the top of Aincrad. As of right now, all 10,000 players who owned a NerveGear have logged into this world, however, the number of players left has dropped from that total. I'm sure a few of you have noticed that there is an item missing from your menus. The logout button. Please note that this is intentional, and not an oversight. I repeat – This is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed."
At first, players began mumbling, but their mumbled quickly got louder until they were shouting their question.
"R-Raigen, what's he talking about?" I stammered.
"I… I don't know. It's got to be some kind of joke."
"The only way to leave this world is to beat the game," Kayaba continued. "If you can located and defeat the boss on this floor, you will be able to advance to the next floor. Only by repeating this process on every floor and defeating the boss on floor 100 will you be able to escape Aincrad. As mentioned earlier, the total number of players in this world has decreased from 10,000. This is due to two reasons. The first being that their NerveGear was removed while in use. Any attempts to remove or tamper with the NerveGear will trigger a failsafe in the headset, amplifying the output of the microwave receivers to five times their usual output, causing immediate destruction of the brain and leading to death. So far, there have been 127 cases of people reportedly either trying to remove or tamper with the headset, which has lead to the demise of all the unfortunate players on the other end. The media has round-the-clock coverage of the incidents, so the chances of your headset being removed or tampered with are slim. The second cause of the decrease in population is the result of poor decision making. When a players HP hits zero, your avatar will be deleted, and much like with tampering or removal of the headset, your brain will be fried, killing you in the process."
A few people began to panic, but most were to stunned to say anything.
"WHAT THE FUCK, KAYABA?!" a woman yelled. "We didn't sign up for this!"
"Oh god!" Another cried. "I don't want to die!"
"What the hell?! This can't be right!" shouted Raigen.
"Some of you may be wondering why. Why did I, Akihiko Kayaba create Sword Art Online in this way? My goal was a simple one. To have an entire world of at my control, and I have achieved this goal. Thank you for listening to the orientation, and enjoy the game."
With his last statement, the figure fades away, vanishing into nothingness. Everybody was frozen stiff, completely overwhelmed by the sudden shift. The entirety of Aincrad was dead silent.
This had to be a joke. It didn't feel real. There was no way this was real. I quickly opened the menu out of fear and bashed the logout out button repeatedly with my shaking fingers, but no matter how hard or fast I pressed it, I was denied with every attempt. I felt the hairs on my neck stand up and my stomach began to churn. With a loud, ear piercing scream, I fidgeted so much that I fell off of Raigen's shoulders and landed on my rear, but he was so stunned that he didn't even react. That's when the chaos broke out. People began screaming and running like madmen – punching, kicking, pushing, shoving and even biting those who stood in their way. People shoved me, pushing me further from Raigen. The second my protector was out of sight, I began to freak out, sprinting in the opposite direction from the city square.
"I want my mother! I want my brother!" I cried.
I charged through the crowd, but continued to get shoved and pushed aside as other panicked. I gasped for air as somebody pushed me into a wall, knocking the oxygen out of me. As my head hit the brick, my vision blurred and my hearing became distorted. People ran across me, crushing my body beneath their feet. Despite the pain, my HP didn't decrease past what it was before I teleported here. When the crowed thinned, I dragged myself out of the running zone and against the wall, trying to regain my bearings. It was a mess. The city had become a war zone.
"Why?" I questioned. "Why me? Why us?"
Everything about this game had changed. No, this wasn't again anymore. Games were meant to be played, and we weren't playing. This was our new reality. Like it or not.