⌜Chapter 4⌟

My information about them came from the anime, not the novel, Sword Art Online anime is known to be missing a lot of details, A LOT, there are no quests that have been introduced nor the hunting spots that Kirito went to.

To level up faster than the others, and I can't rely on beta testers too, they are cunning guys, I don't want to follow Kirito either, guess I have to do this on my own, if things don't go well, I could always hide on the first floor and find a job like blacksmithing.

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.

Then, the red robe that had always been one step ahead, 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.'

"So it has come huh?"

I murmured, I could also finally see my appearance in this world.

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

And then the user interface appeared.

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

The name of the item—«hand mirror»

I immediately grabbed it and looked at the mirror, what I saw was a man wearing a mask, a black mask, I confusedly looked at it and tried to touch my face, how come I did not feel myself wearing a mask? NERvGear replicates the 5 senses so it was impossible for me not to feel it.

I removed the mask and saw the face behind it, a face that I do not recognize, I have bright blue eyes, and long hair lashes, my hair color is brown, and I look very handsome, if not for the color of my hair I would have thought that I was Gojo Satoru from Jujutsu Kaisen.

I waited for a while to see if my appearance will change but it did not, I wore the mask again, I felt good that I look handsome but it was too handsome and it will catch the attention of everyone, I'm not an attention seeker, if possible I want to have a low profile and show it when it's necessary.

I looked around me and saw everyone's faces started glowing and when it disappeared, their appearance had changed, I found traps in the vicinity, there are also some girls pretending to be guys.

There are 10,000 people in this place and I did not see any of the characters I know, I sighed and walked towards the edge of the barrier that was covering the whole plaza leaving Kirito and Cline who was still engulfed by the light anyway, once the barrier was gone, I will immediately leave and hunt for a monster.

I may not know how to fight properly but I have tried imitating martial arts that I watched in the past life, now back to the present, it looked like I underestimated the mirror as it did not only change their faces but their bodies too.

"Ah…wait. I bought the NERvGear just yesterday so I remember, but there was a part of the set-up… what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it touched your body here and there, maybe it was that…?"

"Ah, right...that's what it was…"

Calibration was where the NERvGear measured «how much you had to move your hand to reach your body». This was done to reproduce the sense of feel accurately within the game. So to say, it was almost as if the NERvGear had data about our exact figures 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, how do I know these kinds of minute detail things? even from this distance, I could hear Kirito muttering things, I guess he is pretty informative.

"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."

Cline scratched his head roughly and the eyes beneath his bandanna shone as he shouted.

"Why? Why the hell's he doing something like this…?"

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

"Wait a moment. Most probably he'll answer that in a bit anyway."

I was also curious as I forgot about it.

Kayaba didn't let us 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 NERvGear 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.

'None of these is the reason I am doing this. Not only that, but now 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 NERvGear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized.'

Then after a short break, Kayaba's voice, now emotionless again, sounded.

'…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.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Sorry for the wait, I stacked up some chapters while I was gone for the past few days, anyway, my schedule is put on the synopsis, you can see it there.

Quotes:

I don't chase after anyone, if you wanna walk out of my life, then I'll hold the f*cking door open for you.