Sword Art Online

Chapter 3

*Ding, ding*... A chiming noise like a bell —or perhaps a warning chime— sounded loudly, making Klein and me jump in surprise.

“Ah...”

“What's this!?”

We shouted at the same time and stared at each other, our eyes wide.

Both Klein and I were immersed in a clear blue pillar of light. Past the blue veil, the plains in my vision blurred steadily.

I'd experienced this a few times during beta testing. It was a «Teleport» initiated by an item. I didn't have the prerequisite item nor did I shout the proper command. Did the operators initiate a forced teleport? If so, why didn't they even inform us?

As my thoughts raced, the light around me pulsed stronger and darkness overtook me.

As the blue light faded, my surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the sunset-lit plain anymore.

A large road paved with stone. Medieval streets surrounded by street-lamps and the huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead.

This was the starting point, the central plaza of the «Starting City».

I looked at Klein who had his mouth wide open next to me. Then at the bustling crowd of people that surrounded the two of us.

Looking at the bunch of stunningly beautiful people with a variety of equipment and different hair colors, they were no doubt other players like me. There were about a few thousand—ten thousand people here. It was likely that everyone who was logged on right now had been forcefully transported to the central plaza.

For a few seconds, everyone just looked around without speaking.

Then a few mumbles and mutters could be heard here and there; it started to get louder.

“What's happening?”

“Can we log out now?”

“Can't they take care of it quickly?”

Comments like these could be heard from time to time.

As the players started to get more annoyed, shouts like “Is this a joke?” and “Get the hell out here, GMs!” could be heard.

Then suddenly...

Somebody raised his voice above all these comments and shouted.

“Ah... look up!”

Klein and I almost automatically turned our eyes upward. There, a strange sight greeted us.

The bottom of the second floor, one hundred meters above us, was checkered in red.

When I looked closely, I could see that the pattern was made up of two phrases crisscrossing each other: the words [ Warning ] and [ System Announcement ] written in red.

I was surprised for a moment but then thought, “Oh, the operator is going to begin informing us now,” and the tension in my shoulders eased a bit.

The chatter died down in the plaza and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.

However, what happened next wasn't what I had expected.

From the middle of the pattern, a liquid that looked like blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscous it was, but it didn't fall all the way down; instead, it started congealing into a shape.

What appeared was a twenty-meter tall figure with a hooded robe draped around it.

No, that wasn't exactly right. From where we were looking, we could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe, all we could see inside the edges were shadows.

I'd seen that robe before. It was the same clothing that the Argus employees who worked as GMs during the beta test had always worn. But back then, the male GMs had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. They might have used the robe because they lacked time to prepare a proper avatar, but the empty space inside the hood gave me an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.

The countless players around me must have felt the same.

“Is that a GM?”

“Why does it have no face?”

There were a lot of whispers like these.

Then the right sleeve of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.

A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, didn't cover any sort of body.

The left sleeve slowly lifted upwards, too. Then, with its two empty gloves spread out in front of ten thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth—no, it felt like it did. A low, calm, male voice resonated from high in the air.

『Players, I welcome you all to my world.』

I couldn't understand it right away.

«My world»? If that red robe was a GM, it certainly had godlike powers in this world enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?

Klein and I looked at each other, dumbfounded. The anonymous red robe lowered its arms and continued talking.

『My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.』

“What...!?”

My avatar became rigid with shock, and a lump formed in its throat (and perhaps my throat back in the real world as well) for a second.

Kayaba — Akihiko!!

I knew that name. There was no way I didn't.

This person, both a game designer and genius in the field of quantum physics, was the one responsible for raising Argus (which was just one of many small companies a few years ago) into one of the leading companies in its field.

He was also the development director of SAO and, at the same time, the designer of the NerveGear.

As a hard core gamer, I respected Kayaba deeply. I bought all the mags that featured him and read his few interviews until I almost knew them all by heart. I could almost see him in the white overalls he always wore by just hearing his voice.

But he had always stayed behind the scenes, refusing media exposure. He had never even been a GM, so why was he doing something like this?

I forced my mind to start moving again, trying to make sense of the situation. But the words that came out of the empty hood almost seemed to mock my efforts to understand.

『I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.』

“Part of... the system?” Klein muttered brokenly.

The announcement continued in its low voice as if to cover the sound.

『Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.』

This castle? I couldn't understand this phrase at first. There's no castle in the «Starting City».

Then the next thing that Kayaba said blew my confusion away.

『...also, the disruption or dismantling of the NerveGear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted...』

A moment of silence.

The silence of ten thousand people was overwhelming. The next words came slowly.

『the signal sensors in your NerveGear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.』

Klein and I stared at each other for seconds in shock.

It was as if my mind refused to believe what I had just heard. But Kayaba's short statement pierced through my body with a ferocity that was both hard and dense.

Destroy our brains.

In other words, kill us.

Any user that turned the NerveGear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what Kayaba had just stated.

People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like me, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.

Klein raised his right hand slowly and tried to grasp the headgear that would be situated there in the real world. As he did, he let out a dry laugh and started talking.

“Haha... what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The NerveGear... It's just a game. Destroy our brain... How is he going to do that? Right, Kirito?”

His voice broke at the last shout. Klein stared at me hard, but I couldn't nod in agreement.

The countless signal transceivers in the NerveGear's helmet emitted small electromagnetic pulses to send virtual signals to the brain.

They might call this the newest ultra-technology, but the basic theory was the same as a certain household appliance that's been used for over 40 years in Japan—the microwave.

If there was sufficient output, it was possible that the NerveGear would vibrate the water particles in our brains and cook it with the heat from the friction. But...

“...theoretically it's possible, but... he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the NerveGear, there's no way it can emit a strong pulse of that type. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability... inside....”

Klein already guessed the reason why I had stopped talking.

“There... is,” he said, his words almost a scream with a hollow expression on his face. “Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But... that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!?”

Kayaba started explaining, as if he had heard what Klein had shouted.

『To be a little more specific, disconnection from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to: unlock, dismantle, or destroy the NerveGear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world.

On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully remove the NerveGear. The result...』

The metallic voice took a short breath here.

『...regretfully 213 players have already exited this game, and the real world, forever.』

A long, thin scream was heard. But most of the players couldn't or refused to believe what they had been told, and just stood there slack-jawed or with a wry smile on their faces.

My head tried to reject what Kayaba had just said. But my body betrayed it and my knees started shaking violently.

I stumbled back a few paces on my weak knees and managed to keep myself from falling. Klein fell on his backside, his expression lifeless.

213 players have already...

That phrase repeated over and over again in my head.

If what Kayaba said was true, over 200 people have already died?

Among them, there would have been beta testers like me. I might have even known some of their character names and avatars. These people had their brains burnt and... died, is that what Kayaba was saying?

“...don't believe it.... I don't believe it,” Klein, still sitting on the ground, started saying in a strained voice. “He's just trying to scare us. How would he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out. We don't have time to play along to your sick opening ceremony. Yeah... this is all just an event. An opening show, right?”

Inside my head, I was screaming the same thing.

But as if to dispel our hopes, Kayaba's business-like voice resumed its explanation.

『Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies you left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and Internet media are repeatedly reporting this situation; including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your NerveGear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have provided, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game.』

“What...?”

Then, at last, violent shouts left my mouth.

“What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!?”

I kept shouting, glaring at the red robe that had oozed out of the bottom of the upper floor.

“This isn't a game anymore!!”

Then Kayaba Akihiko started announcing quietly with his monotonous voice.

『But I ask all of you to understand that «Sword Art Online» is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality.... From now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever. And at the same time...』

I could guess what he was going to say all too clearly.

『...your brain will be destroyed by the NerveGear.』

Suddenly, an urge to laugh out loud bubbled up from the pit of my stomach. I forced it down.

A long, horizontal line shone at the top-left corner of my vision. As I focused on it, the numbers 342/342 overlaid it.

Hit points. My life-force.

The moment it reaches zero, I will die—the electromagnetic waves will fry my brain, killing me instantaneously. This is what Kayaba had said.

This is without a doubt a game, a game with your life at stake. In other words, a death game.

I must have died at least 100 times during the two months of beta testing. I had re-spawned with a slightly embarrassed smile on my face in the palace north of the main plaza, the «Black Iron Palace», and ran off into the hunting grounds again.

That was what an RPG was: a sort of game where you keep dying and learning and leveling up. But now you can't? Once you die, you'll lose your life? And in addition... you can't even stop playing?

“... no freaking way,” I muttered softly.

Who in their right mind would go out onto the field with those conditions? Of course everyone would just stay inside the city where it was safe.

Then, as if reading my (and maybe every other player's) mind, came the next message.

『Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word.』

Ten thousand players stood in silence.

It was then that I realized what Kayaba meant when he said, «get to the top of this castle».

“This castle” meant the huge monstrosity that imprisoned all of the players on the first floor, with ninety-nine more floors stacked on top of it, towering into the sky in which it floated. He was talking about Aincrad itself.

“Clear... all 100 floors!?” Klein suddenly shouted. He got up quickly and raised a fist up to the sky.

“And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!”

This was true. During the two months of beta testing, the one thousand players that had taken part only managed to get to the sixth floor. Even if ten thousand people had dived right now, how long would it take to get through all 100 floors?

Most players who had been forced here would be asking themselves this rhetorical question.

The strained silence eventually gave way to low murmuring. But there was no sign of fear or despair.

Most people here would still be confused about whether this was a «real danger» or a «seriously warped opening event». Everything Kayaba had said was so horrifying that it felt unreal.

I craned my head back to look at the empty robe and tried to force my mind to accept this situation.

I can no longer log out, ever. I can't go back to my room, my life. The only way that I would get them back was when somebody defeated the boss on the highest floor of this floating castle. If my HP reached zero even once during that time—I would die. I would die a real death and I would be gone forever.

But...

However much I tried to accept these as facts, it was impossible. Just five or six hours ago, I had eaten the meal that my mom made, shared a short conversation with my sister, then walked up the stairs of my house.

Now I can't go back to all that? And this is now the real reality?

Then, the red robe that had always been one step ahead of us swept its right glove and started speaking with a voice void of all emotion.

『Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this』

As soon as I heard this, I pressed my finger and thumb together and pulled downwards. All the players did likewise and the plaza was filled with the ringing sound of bells.

I pressed the Item button on the menu that appeared and the item was there, at the top of my belongings list.

The name of the item — «Hand Mirror»

Why did he give this to us? Even as I wondered, I tapped on the name and pressed the “Make Into Object” button. Immediately, there was a tinkling sound effect and a small, rectangular mirror appeared.

I grabbed it hesitantly but nothing happened. All that it showed was the face of the avatar that I had gone through a lot of trouble to create.

I cocked my head and looked at Klein. The samurai was also looking at the mirror in his hand with a blank expression.

...Then.

Suddenly Klein and the avatars around us were engulfed in white light. As soon as I took this in, I was surrounded too and all I could see was white.

Almost 2, 3 seconds later, the surroundings reappeared just as they had been...

No.

The face in front of me wasn't the one I'd gotten used to.

The armor made of metal plates laced together, the bandana, and the spiky red hair were all the same. But the face had changed into another shape altogether. His long, sharp eyes had become sunken and shone brighter. His delicate and high nose had become hooked, and a slight beard now appeared on his cheeks and chin. If the avatar had been a young and carefree samurai, this one was a fallen warrior—or maybe a bandit.

I forgot about the situation for a moment and muttered.

“Who... are you?”

The same words came out of the mouth of the man in front of me.

“Hey... who're you?”

Then I was gripped by a sudden foreboding and realized what Kayaba's present, the «Hand Mirror», meant.

I raised the mirror in a rush, and the face stared back at me.

Black hair lay neatly over the head, two weak-looking eyes could be seen beneath the slightly long hair, and a delicate face that made people mistake me for a girl even now when I go out in casual clothes with my sister.

The calm face of a warrior that «Kirito» had even a few seconds ago was no longer there. The face that was in the mirror...

Was my actual face that I had tried so hard to escape from.

“Ah... it's me...”

Klein, who had been also staring at his mirror, fell backwards. We both looked at each other and shouted at the same time.

“You're Klein!?”“You're Kirito!?”

Our voices had changed too. Perhaps the voice modulators had stopped working. But we didn't have time to spare on things like that.

The mirrors fell from our hands and hit the ground. Then were destroyed with a soft, smashing sound.

When I looked around again, the crowd was no longer filled with people who looked like characters from a fantasy game. A bunch of normal looking young people had now taken their place. It was like something you'd see if you gathered a bunch of people in real life at a game show venue and dressed them up in armor. Distressingly, even the sex ratio had changed greatly.

How on earth was this possible? Klein and I, and most probably all the players around us, had changed from the avatars that we'd created from nothing to our real selves. Of course, the texture itself still seemed like a polygon model and it still felt slightly strange, but it was almost frighteningly accurate. It was as if the gear had a full body scanner on it.

—Scan.

“...Ah, right!”

I looked at Klein and forced the words out.

“There are high density signal sensors in the NerveGear covering our whole head. So it can tell not only how our brains look, but our faces too...”

“B-But, how can it know what our bodies look like.... Like how tall we are?”

Klein said more silently glancing from side to side at our surroundings.

The average height of the players, who were now looking at their own and others' faces with various expressions on their faces, had been noticeably reduced after the «change».

I, and most probably Klein too, had set the height to equal that of my height in the real world to prevent my extra height from hindering my movements. But most players seemed to have made themselves taller by about ten to twenty centimeters.

That wasn't all. The actual build and the girth of the players had become larger too. There was no way that the NerveGear would have been able to know all this.

Klein was the one who answered this question.

“Ah... wait. I bought the NerveGear just yesterday so I remember. There was a part of the set-up... what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit you touched your body here and there, maybe it was that...?”

“Ah, right... that's what it was...”

Calibration was where the NerveGear measured «how much you had to move your hand to reach your body». This was done to reproduce the sense of movement accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the NerveGear had data about our exact body shapes saved inside itself.

It was possible, making all the avatars of the players an almost perfect polygon replica of themselves. The purpose of this was also almost too clear now.

“...Reality,” I muttered. “He said that this was reality. That this polygon avatar... and our HP was our real body and our real life. In order to make us believe this, he's produced a perfect copy of us....”

“But...But y'know Kirito.”

Klein scratched his head roughly and the eyes beneath his bandana shone as he shouted.

“Why? Why the hell's he doing something like this...?”

I didn't answer that and pointed upwards past our heads.

“Wait a moment. Most likely, he'll answer that in a bit anyway.”

Kayaba didn't let me down. A few seconds later a voice, sounding almost solemn, sounded from the blood red sky.

『You will all most probably be wondering, “Why.” Why am I —the creator of both the NerveGear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko— doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?』

It was then that Kayaba's voice, which had been emotionless up to now, seemed to show some signs of emotion. Suddenly the word «empathy» passed through my mind, even though there was no way that would be true.

『These are not the reasons why I am doing this. Not only that, but for me, there is no longer a reason or a purpose in doing this. The reason is because... this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the NerveGear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.』

Then after a short pause, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, spoke.

『...Now, I have finished the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players—I wish you luck.』

This last sentence trailed off with a faint echo.

The huge robe rose soundlessly and started sinking, hood first, into the system message that covered the sky, as if melting.

Its shoulders, then its chest, then its two arms and legs merged into the red surface, and then a final red stain spread briefly. Right afterward, the system message that had covered the sky disappeared as suddenly as it appeared.

The sound of the wind blowing above the plaza and the BGM that the NPC orchestra was playing came softly to our ears.

The game had returned to its normal state, apart from the fact that a couple of rules had been changed.

Then— at last.

The crowd of ten thousand players gave a proper reaction.

In other words, countless voices started resounding loudly through the plaza.

“It's a joke right...? The hell is this? It's a joke right!?”

“Stop kidding around! Let me out! Let me out of here!”

“No! You can't! I've got to meet someone soon!”

“I don't like this! I'm gonna go home! I want to go home!!!!!!”

Yells. Clamors. Shouts. Curses. Begging. Screaming.

The people that had changed from game players to prisoners in a matter of minutes crouched clutching their heads, waved their arms about, grasped each other or started to swear loudly.

In the midst of all this noise, my mind became strangely cool again.

This... is reality.

What Kayaba Akihiko had declared was all true. If that was the case, this was all to be expected. It'd be strange not to expect it. This genius was one side of Kayaba that made him alluringly attractive.

Now I can't return to reality for a while—perhaps a few months or maybe more than that. During this time, I can't see my mother or sister nor talk to them. It was possible that I would never get the chance. If I died here—

I died in reality.

The NerveGear, once a game machine, is a lock to this prison and a tool of death that will fry my brain.

I breathed slowly in, then out, and opened my mouth.

“Klein, come over here for a sec.”

I grabbed the warrior's arm, who seemed to be much older than me in real life, and made my way through the raving crowd.

We made it out of the crowd quite quickly, maybe because we were near the edge. We entered one of the many streets that led out of the plaza in a radial pattern and I jumped into the shadow behind an unmoving carriage.

“...Klein,” I called his name again.

He still had a somewhat blank expression on his face. I continued talking, trying my best to sound serious.

“Listen to me. I'm going to get out of this city and head over to the next village. Come with me.”

Klein opened his eyes wide under the bandana. I kept talking in a low voice, forcing the words out.

“If what he said was true, in order to survive in this world we have to strengthen ourselves. You know that MMORPGs are a battle for resources between the players. Only the people who can acquire the most money and experience can get stronger.... The people who've realized this are going to hunt all the monsters around the «Starting City». You'll have to wait forever for the monsters to respawn. Going to the next village right now would be better. I know the way and all the dangerous spots, so I can get there, even if I'm only level one.”

Considering that it was me, that was quite a long speech. But despite that, he stayed silent.

Then a few seconds later, his face scrunched up.

“But...But y'know. I said before that I stood in line for ages with my friends to buy this game. They would have logged in and most likely they'd be in the plaza even now. I can't... go without them.

“...”

I let out a sigh and bit my lip.

I could understand all too well what Klein was trying to tell me through his nervous gaze.

He... was bright and was easy to get along with, and he most probably took care of other people pretty well. He was most definitely hoping that I'd take all his friends with him.

But I just couldn't nod.

If it was just Klein, I could get to the next village while protecting us from aggressive monsters. But if there was even two more —no, even one more person coming along— it would be dangerous.

If somebody died along the way, they'd die as Kayaba had announced.

The responsibility would undoubtedly fall on me, who suggested setting out from the safe «Starting City» and failed to protect my comrade.

To bear such a heavy burden, I could never do that. It was just simply impossible.

Klein seemed to read all these worries that flashed through my mind. A smile appeared on his slightly bearded cheek and he shook his head.

“No... I can't keep relying on you. I was a guild master in the game I used to play. It'll be fine. I'll just make do with the techniques that you've taught me till now. And... there's still a chance that this was just a bad joke and that we'll all be logged off. So don't worry about us and go to the village.”

“...”

With my mouth closed, I was wracked by an indecision that I'd never felt before in my life.

Then I spoke the words that would gnaw at me for two years.

“...OK,” I nodded, stepped back, and said with my dry throat.

“Well, let's part here. If anything comes up, send me a message.... Well, see you later, Klein.”

Klein called me as I turned my eyes downwards and turned to leave.

“Kirito!”

“...”

I sent him a questioning glance, but he didn't say anything; his cheek only trembled a little.

I waved once and turned northwest, the direction of the village that I'd use as my next base.

When I had taken about five steps, a voice called out from behind me again.

“Hey, Kirito! You look pretty good in real life! You're quite my type!”

I smiled bitterly and shouted over my shoulder.

“Your look suits you ten times better too!”

Then I turned my back on the first friend that I had made in this world and relentlessly ran forward.

After I had run through the winding alleyways for a few minutes, I looked back again. Of course, there was nobody there.

I ignored the odd feeling of my chest being constricted and ran.

I ran desperately to the northwest gate of the Starting City and then past the large plains and the deep forest, then a small village located past all this—then past that to an endless, lonely game of survival.