Chapter 1: The Beginning in A New World [Part 1]
[Third Person Pov]
[November 6, 2016, 7.51]
It's been more than five months now when Sakura was expelled. He accepted Horikita's decision but couldn't completely fathom it. But it didn't matter.
He wanted Horikita to make that decision, not him. She chose that Kushida could be trusted enough for the classes benefits.
However, if only one person here in the class were to tell Kushida's true personality, it'd definitely not go well for them.
The same could be told with Ryūen. If he felt the need, Ryūen could do it. He wouldn't stop Ryūen. It was Horikita's decision, so she should take responsibility for it right away.
His problems were with the second White Room student. But he knew how to deal with them.
As of now, he won't do anything since it's Friday, the end of the weekend, the 6th November.
But next Tuesday is different. At that time, he'll start. Not now, or any time less.
Ichika was useless when the identity of the second White Roomer mattered. She was a neutral side that wanted the two of us to get along with.
Ayanokoji was not fundamentally against that idea. But the decision was already made.
The second White Roomer already made their moves, and so does he. He won't hold back, no matter what.
If he wouldn't do anything, the other White Room student would continue to attack him over and over again, bothering his simple desire of a normal, peaceful life.
Deeply frowning, he made his way to his classroom, more than thirty-nine minutes to soon there.
Ayanokoji wouldn't normally be that soon, but since several weeks ago, he heard Ike constantly talking about this "NerveGear" that is supposed to be released today and rather felt like going sooner, before Ike thinks of talking with him about this topic again, since he constantly meets him on his way on the classroom.
It was a new gaming console that was supposed to be published today, alongside the "Sword Art Online Game," from the one and only Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the game, alongside the NerveGear.
It was quite an interesting premise, but it was what it remained, a virtual reality and nothing more. He could, however, imagine that it'd be worthwhile to play, but either way, it'd not be offered here, as there are only fifty thousand examples released and the school wouldn't buy them.
One did he know that this would happen, under instruction of the school board, to teach their students the fundamental difference between virtual reality and the real reality, as well as the future applications of the NerveGear, that could result in Japan gaining a huge economic growth.
Since they are educating the future leaders in the countries, they also need to have a vast knowledge regarding virtual reality, which will be Japan-wide and worldwide drastically soon increase in a phenomenal speed.
That was one of the reasons they pre-ordered this game, called "Sword Art Online," which was only playable with the "NerveGear" device.
Thus, these two were ordered for all students, alongside their homeroom teacher's.
But in a few hours, this would be the school boards' most fatal decision occured in the school history that would heavily pay its price.
In Class B's classroom, this sudden message would now be delivered by their homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira.
The door opened, showing Chabashira walking to the class podium.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, deep in thought, wondered the rather unusual expression on his Sensei's face.
She wasn't happy that she, alongside the other teachers, were forced to try this "NerveGear" with their students out, to guide them.
It was a stupid decision, but that is what the school board decided. So she followed along in a deep sigh.
'What a waste of time,' thought Chabashira-sensei, who didn't like the introduction of the game, that would distract some, or even many students.
But even she knew that it wasn't a fatal mistake, as the gaming world rises steadily and with this new invention, it'd rise even further.
There was no point in denying it. But she still didn't like it.
Nonetheless, she did her obligatory task and announced the school boards decision. "Dear students, I've come here to share an important announcement from the school board," Chabashira-sensei began, her voice serious. "Today, we received a shipment of the 'NerveGear' gaming console and the 'Sword Art Online Game' for each of you, as instructed by the school board. This decision aims to familiarize you with virtual reality technology and its potential applications."
Ike, the moment he heard the announcement shout out loudly, "For real Sensei? Goddamn, I love this school! I'm so glad I applied here."
"Ahem," coughed Chabashira, who wasn't particularly in favor that one of her students seemed to be completely obsessed with this game.
Nonetheless, she felt the need to reply, did so, however, in a very satirical tone. "I'm glad that you seem to like this game, Ike. Just be sure that your grades stay the way they are."
Ike hearing these words didn't at first understand Chabashira-sensei's satire, so he replied, very relaxed. "Sure, sure, Sensei!"
Chabashira just sighing, continued with her prepared speech that each homeroom teacher in the school currently does.
"Each student will participate today in this game, as instructed by the school board. These "NerveGears" are laying right in front of your respective rooms, so be sure to unpack them and log in at 1 p.m. And before any of you think not to appear, you'll get a punishment of 20 class points per person if you don't appear. I hope to see everyone punctual. We'll meet up at the spawn location at 1:15 p.m. That'll be all."
Chabashira, who seemed to leave the classroom, was now confronted by Hirata. "Sensei, does that mean we have free time now?"
She, in return, replied. "Yes, but don't think that'll happen often. This is simply an exception."
As she left, many students celebrated because there wouldn't be any lessons for today.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wasn't, however, like that. He simply gazed in front of his surroundings and didn't feel any ounce of excitement nourishing through him.
Instead, he wondered whether this game would really be good or not. He wasn't really someone who played many games, but he had knowledge of a few.
The Persona 4 and 5 Game, a few Tekken Games, and the Yakuza game series. Whenever he was at Ike's or Yamauchi's room, they would play games like this.
He didn't really care, but now he did slightly care because the school board thought that it was of great importance to introduce them to a virtual reality-based game.
Perhaps this was set to show an example, in which citizens in Japan and the rest of the world are currently interested.
Either way, it didn't matter to him. He would do his obligatory task and partake in the game just like he was asked, too.
"Ayanokoji-kun, what do you think?" Horikita asked.
"Nothing, really. I just feel happy to be blessed that we don't have any lessons for today," he replied.
Horikita looked at Ayanokoji with a stern expression. "For someone who is supposedly happy, your face is quite apathetic."
"My face is always like that, Horikita."
Horikita, who still didn't look convinced, spoke further. "Are you sure? I never saw you smiling before. Even at the situation with Hōsen-kun, you still had the same expression. No matter what I try to think of, I just can't figure you out. You are a mystery to me, Ayanokoji-kun."
"I'm just a high school student, Horikita. There's nothing more than that you need to be in charge of knowledge for."
With that said, he left the classroom and decided to buy him an ice cream.
"Hey you Monster," someone from the sidelines shouted, in a rather empty space, where no student aside from Ayanokoji was walking past by.
"Ryūen," Ayanokoji simply replied.
"Hey Monster, am I disturbing you currently at eating your precious ice cream?" he asked.
"Yes, you do, so mind walking away?" responded Ayanokoji.
"No," said Ryūen, following Ayanokoji step by step.
'Hah, what did I do to deserve this? I simply wanted to eat my ice cream in peace.' Ayanokoji frowned inside his mind, knowing that Ryūen won't back down to annoy him.
"Hah, I never was a gamer, but who knew that the school would buy us these expensive NerveGears. How bothersome."
"That's my line," Ayanokoji said.
"Not anymore," responded Ryūen.
"How childish," replied Ayanokoji.
"You were thinking of saying 'how bothersome', right, you Monster?"
Ayanokoji simply looked at Ryūen, with a blunt expression. "Who knows?"
"What did I even expect. But then again, I might think this game could somewhat become amusing. After all, seeing the loli's first real steps might be something worthwhile," said Ryūen.
'Now that he mentions it, Sakayanagi should be able to walk properly without the cane, even if that's just a simple game, and isn't coexisting with reality. I wonder, what will her reaction be like?' Ayanokoji pondered in thought, while Ryūen has gotten infuriated that Ayanokoji didn't reply.
No matter how much he tried to annoy Ayanokoji and get his attention, the person simply walked further with that plain expression of his, that nobody could ever disfigure.
If he couldn't do it, nobody else could. He didn't think that Ayanokoji would show through his supposed relationship with "Karuizawa" any expressions, aside from his average daily face.
Once again, he got annoyed by Ayanokoji and simply decided to leave him alone.
Ayanokoji simply walked further until he reached his room. At the moment of his arrival, Ayanokoji saw a package in front of his and almost everybody else's room.
Those who did not have any packages in front of their rooms seemed to already have arrived much sooner than him.
In any case, he simply decided to stare at this package for a while until he decided to open it.
"A virtual reality-based game, huh? In the white room, I would have never gotten this treatment. Humanity has surely achieved much that something like this already exists in 2016. I wonder what future inventions humanity still can achieve," Ayanokoji said, deeply looking at the NerveGear.
Ayanokoji quickly took the manual from the box, reading thoroughly everything that was depicted there.
'I see, so that how this thing work, huh? Once I'm turning this on, I'll be immediately redirected to the login plug, where I can decide on factors such as appearance and my user nickname. After this is done, I'll be directed to the world of Aincrad, the world of swords.
'It seems interesting. Perhaps I'll be playing it more often than I initially thought.' Ayanokoji thought.
Ayanokoji, for the rest of the time, did several multiple things for the rest of the time.
He spent time with Ichinose, he cooked, he ate, he went shopping, he read books, he met the Student Council President, and after doing all that, the time has finally come.
It was 12:57 p.m., three minutes away until you could log in to your NerveGear to play Sword Art Online.
Ayanokoji waited patiently for the rest of the three minutes and finally decided to put the NerveGear on his head.
"LinkStart," he said, the moment the clock hit 1 p.m.
Immediately, he saw in front of his eyes several notifications appearing.
[Touch: OK]
[Sight: OK]
[Hearing: OK]
[Taste: OK]
[Smell: OK]
[Language: Japanese]
[Log in:]
[Account: **********]
[Password: *******]
[Sex: Male]
After choosing his sex, he was now confronted with the menu about his avatars appearance. He was contemplating whether to change something or not, but in the end, he simply took his real-life appearance without any change whatsoever.
It didn't really matter to him that much, so he just did it.
Now that this was already decided, he just needed his username for the game. While it didn't seem like it, he was spending a bit of time choosing his username. Should he simply use his real name or something like a nickname.
He didn't precisely care that much, so he gave a quick go and wrote his username.
[Username: Ayanokoji]
[Do you want to confirm your settings?]
[Yes] [No]
'Yes,' Ayanokoji thought.
Immediately, these settings were confirmed, and he could see a blank screen for a small moment appearing.
[Welcome to Sword Art Online!]
After a few seconds, he could now suddenly see himself appearing in the spawn location. It was bizarre.
He never saw something like this. This truly did exceed every imagination he had from this game. The in cobblestone covered city, in a medieval designed style, the obelisk right in front of his eyes, the whole NPC's or however they were called all around this area, and this surreal feeling as if he was truly living in this world.
While everything was unfamiliar to him, he wanted to see what this world had to offer.
He waited and saw that it was only two minutes past 1 p.m., so he slightly went to the market and walked past by several people, who were just as fascinated as him.
While walking, he could see someone running past by him, as if that person knew this world beforehand.
That must be one of these so-called "BetaTesters" that were able to play this game for two straight months, last year.
Although he had received some, no, many informations from Ike about this game, he still hadn't too much of an idea of this game.
So he trailed that person without them recognizing. He leaned against a wall until a red-haired guy decided to confront that black haired person.
He overheard their conversation and as to where they would be going to farm. Not only did he get that much, but also the information about several other farming spots, where a ton of Frenzy Boars would appear, unlike that what was marked on the Map.
It was a nice little piece of information, as Ayanokoji doesn't have too much knowledge about this game and would need to adapt to it first.
But first, he thought about logging out since he suddenly had the urge to eat a snack, so he decided to log out and log in ten minutes later, for the meeting with his class.
However, to his surprise, there wasn't any log out button at all. After checking it two times, he finally arrived at a conclusion.
You couldn't log out. In short, you'd be imprisoned in this game as long as the servers aren't shutting down or another condition is met, as to end this game and let the player log out.
Simultaneously, he doubted that the inventor didn't take any precautions when someone tried to take the "NerveGear" forcefully off.
There wasn't much he checked out in the manual, but he remembered that there wasn't an instruction where you could forcefully take it off or turn the NerveGear off.
This was the very first mistake he did. He didn't check the manual nor the NerveGear too much out and treated it like a normal game.
But even if he had realized it before he logged in, it didn't precisely matter that much because everyone aside from him would have ultimately logged in.
If that happened, the attention from the media would be enormous. He wouldn't be able to continue attending this school and would be back in the White Room again, with some medial appearances, if that man didn't want any of them too suspicious.
In that regard, this was certainly the better option.
Besides, in this game, he'll be able to watch more than several thousand people growing, challenging themselves to their limits, and climbing to the tiniest bit of hope.
It'd definitely satisfy his curiosity more than enough, how humans act when they are put under the situation of death.
Are they able to achieve their goal, or will they ultimately fail?
That was a question he was asking himself.
But for now, that didn't matter at all.
His priority is to level up as much as this floor has to offer.
He'd need to use this current advantage as much as possible. After all, resources according to this "BetaTester" are limited.
It was a good decision to spy on this "BetaTester," even if those weren't exactly because of the reasons for survival, but rather out of curiosity, why that person ran that long.
Without further ado, he equipped the sword.
Although he saw that you could also use alongside the sword a shield, it'd definitely decrease his versatility for something like Frenzy Boars.
At floors higher than this, he might decide on buying a shield, but for now, he is satisfied with the stater weapon he chose, the sword.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka moved from the main street away in order to prevent the second White Roomer from detecting him and headed out to the farming locations that black haired guy talked about.
He suddenly had the small regret that he made it far too obvious to identify him. But there was nothing he could do about it now.
For now, he'll level up as high as he can on this floor.
[Ten minutes later]
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka arrived at the farming spot. It was quite beautiful. Everything felt truly real.
As someone who never really went outside and was able to see the beauty of nature, this was a rather new experience for Ayanokoji.
He never imagined that he would be enjoying this, even if this environment was completely virtual reality-based.
It surprised him. But even so, he couldn't distract himself and focused on the initial objective of why he went to the farming spot.
He was sure that Ichika and the other White Roomer should also realize it soon, so leveling up is right of utter importance.
He was confident before that no matter what happened, he'd always be able to defeat any White Roomers.
But now the situation was different. This game was handicapping him. The danger that the second White Roomer opposed has significantly increased.
If levels are all that matters in this world, then he will definitely become an individual that no one could ever think of touching.
Ayanokoji, before proceeding the battle, looked at his level.
[Level 1: 0/1000]
He wondered how often he would need to kill these Frenzy Boars to level up. It'd definitely shouldn't be that easy.
Ayanokoji walked to the Frenzy Boar, waiting until they would charge at him. The moment the Frenzy Boar charged at him, he dodged and prepared his attack.
But then he noticed something unusual. His sword was charging up. He didn't know what that was, but he guessed it was a feature of this game that Ike hadn't told him.
With one attack, he was able to kill the Frenzy Boar.
[You earned 24 EXP]
[You earned 30 Cor]
Only then, Ayanokoji realized that he would need to kill 41 other Frenzy Boars until he reached Level 2.
[13:16]
Ayanokoji next tried to take a few other single Frenzy Boars to study their attack pattern in order to take Frenzy Boars in a group of three to five on himself.
He noticed after constantly dodging that there wasn't any difficulty for him and had memorized in these two minutes of dodging all attack patterns that the Frenzy Boar made.
Instantly, with one single charged clean strike, Ayanokoji killed the Frenzy Boar.
[You earned 24 EXP]
[You earned 30 Cor]
[You earned 1 Frenzy Boar Meat]
'Interesting, so the Frenzy Boar also drops food, huh? Does that mean that there are limited drop rates of dropping food? Hmm, well, it doesn't matter that much, either way.'
Now that he knew the attack pattern, killing them all together was an easy task. In an instant, he took the group of five on his own and killed them within the timespan of three minutes.
[You gained 120 EXP]
[You gained 150 Cor]
[You gained 2 Frenzy Boars Meat]
Just when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wanted to move further and subjugate more Frenzy Boars, he had gotten a sudden friend request.
[Horikita has sent you a friend request]
[Do you want to accept the friend request]
[Yes] [No]
"Yes," Ayanokoji spoke loudly, even though it wasn't necessarily. It was still pretty hard to believe that only his thought process was enough, but it wouldn't take much time until he fully would adapt to this game.
[Horikita: Where are you?]
[Ayanokoji: Somewhere. I don't know, actually. I just wanted to sightsee the city, but it seems like I'm now lost in this city]
[Horikita: Ayanokoji, you know what happens when you don't come punctual, right?]
[Ayanokoji: I think you are mistaken, Horikita. What you are referring to is the punishment of not logging into this game. That punishment doesn't apply to our class since I have logged myself in. In short, there'll be no deduction of our class points, but probably a punishment for me in sort of something.]
[Horikita: I see, I'll tell Sensei your user name so that she can confirm that it's you. I doubt that she would believe me without sufficient evidence.]
[Ayanokoji: Fine by me. Before that, can you tell me whether or not some of the first year students are missing?]
[Horikita: From what I've seen, nobody is missing. But they are not here anymore. They seem to have a different meeting time than us.]
[Ayanokoji: I see.]
'I guess figuring out the second White Roomers identity isn't as easy as I thought. How troublesome...'
Ayanokoji thought, as he wasn't precisely sure whether Yagami was the White Roomer or not. He also hadn't the chance to set his plan into motion, which is again bothersome, as he at least would have a confirmation that he isn't the White Roomer, if nothing happened.
Within a minute, Chabashira-sensei contacted Ayanokoji.
[Chabashira: Ayanokoji, once we return to school, you'll receive an adequate punishment for not appearing at the spawn location. Don't worry, it won't be anything harsh. As a reminder, officially, you are allowed to log out at during 4:30 p.m. The school made great efforts to get these NerveGears for our students. You are naturally allowed to stay longer than this. I'll share our locations when we move. There isn't any obligation to come, but if you do come, there might be no punishment, or it will mild the punishment you are set to receive.]
[Ayanokoji: Thanks for informing me, Sensei.]
Ayanokoji sighed slightly and went to kill Frenzy Boars again.
[Level 1: 168/1000]
During the forty minutes he farmed, he killed a total of 92 Frenzy Boars.
[Time: 14:04]
He was just one Frenzy Boar away until he reached the kill count of 100.
[Level 2: 2376/3000]
Once he had leveled up, he was given three Stats Points. He didn't know if you could get more Stats Points with each level up, but for now, he distributed these 3 Stat Points at Agility, Vitality, and Strenght. They should be, for now, evenly distributed.
He also thought that if he were to level up, his Experience Points would be Zero again, but it didn't seem like that was the case.
If he had simply a bit more idea about games in general, he wouldn't be asking this question.
It was his own fault not to play games more frequently.
But who could have guessed a situation like this to occur?
He also frowned what to do with these Cor's that he has.
[Cor: 2970]
Was that much? He didn't know, but living comfortably was also one of his priorities. An apartment or a house, at the very least. He saw several inns on his way to the West Field, but they weren't really appealing.
Another question is, what will happen with his relationship with Kei?
Currently, they aren't on the best terms, and it goes as far that Kei refers to him now as "Ayanokoji," instead of his first name.
There was another unusual question he asked himself.
If he were to have sex, would it truly feel like when you do it in normal reality?
A question he couldn't answer since he was a virgin himself.
Ignoring his sudden curiosity about the life aspect of the game, he focused himself yet again on killing the Frenzy Boars.
In front of him was right one, so he began charging up his sword and killed the Frenzy Boar, making it his hundredth kill.
[You gained 24 EXP]
[You gained 30 Cor]
[Cor: 3000]
[You gained two Achievement]
[First Player to Kill 100 Monsters]
[First Player to Kill 100 Frenzy Boars]
[You gained a Title]
[Frenzy Boar Slayer]
[Description: 10% more damage will be dealt when fighting Boars.]
What he didn't know was that for the two achievements, he would be gifted EXP.
[2000 EXP gained]
[600 EXP gained]
'So achievements give also EXP. Well, that's something I didn't know. But it seems quite useful, if I'm being honest. However, I doubt that everyone gets them. In my case, I only got them because I killed as the first one 100 Monsters, the hundred of them being Frenzy Boars. But does that also mean I would get achievements when I kill 100 additional Frenzy Boars. Well, as of now, I'm not sure. When I killed them before, I hadn't gotten anything.'
Ayanokoji was deep in thought. He never heard Ike talking about achievements at all. Perhaps he didn't know this, and that was a new feature given to the game.
Well, thinking about this was useless, so he stopped questioning things he wasn't in charge of knowledge off.
[Level 3: 5000/6000]
Until Ayanokoji felt confident about going into the forest, he continued to kill Frenzy Boars.
Ayanokoji continued until he killed 400 Frenzy Boars in order to check whether he would get an achievement or not.
He took larger groups and was able to defeat them without charging his sword at all.
However, only when he had gotten no achievements at all, he changed his approach and challenged other Monster's.
But during this annihilation, he rapidly increased his level, and it was only 3 and a half p.m. right now.
[Level 5: 14.600/15.000]
Soon, he was past level 6, but the difficulty would only increase further.
Killing those monsters wasn't as easy as he thought, however.
Only when his level increased was Ayanokoji able to kill the Frenzy Boar with one single hit without charging.
At level one, two, and three, that wasn't possible. Only the charged attacks were able to do that, but they would take around ten seconds until it was usable again.
He had also gathered quite the amount of Cor for a new player, he guessed.
[Cor: 12.000]
It should be enough currently, wasn't it? No, nothing was ever enough.
He needed to have a far higher level in order to survive in this world.
He realized that he should fight another Monster, the Dire Wolf, so he went nearby in the direction of the Tolbana Town to farm there.
He didn't want others to see him, so he went in a location where no player was present and fought them Monster after Monster, until he reached the count of 100, where he would once again get an achievement.
[First Player to Kill 100 Dire Wolf's]
[500 EXP gained]
[You gained a Title]
[Dire Wolf Slayer]
[Description: 10% more damage will be dealt when fighting Dire Wolf's.]
Not only that, the Dire Wolf gave you slightly a bit more EXP and Cor's.
Per Dire Wolf, it was 30 EXP and 35 Cor's, but there was therefore another attack pattern, which increased the difficulty slightly.
In comparison to the Frenzy Boar, the Dire Wolf had rather fast attacks, which were able to give you quite the amount of damage.
At level 1, you have 250 HP, and these attacks reduce 50 HP.
The Boar only reduces 40 HP per attack, and the attacks are slower than that of the Dire Wolf.
In short, a fight with a Dire Wolf was in Ayanokoji's eyes not recommended unless you had experience with the attack patterns or were at least level two.
Ayanokoji looked once again slightly at his level again.
[Level 6: 17.900/21.000]
He once again began to distribute his attributes.
[Strenght: (1)] -> [Strenght: 7]
[Agility: (1)] -> [Agility: 8]
[Vitality: (1)] -> [Vitality: 3]
Through the five levels he went up, he distributed his Stat Points like that.
He wasn't really worried about his Vitality, especially when it's already at 1.000 HP currently.
[Time: 16:31]
Ayanokoji looked at the time, wondering whether the administrator really would be announcing them that they were trapped or not.
He didn't know, but he doubted that he wouldn't. An explanation would be the very least that they could do, considering that they would be trapped here for who knows how long?
He didn't doubt that this wouldn't happen. Nobody would create such a game and then suddenly leave their players unexplained about the whole situation they are in.
For him right now, only his survival mattered. That was all that mattered. Whether it was in the white room or here, it is the same principle.
The principle of winning, no matter with how many difficulties you are confronted with...
****
Chapter End:
A/N: So this is my second cote fic. I wasn't precisely sure if I would be writing this or not, but in the end, I decided to give it a try.
The timeline here in cote is at the beginning of Y2V7, on the 6th of November.
For those who have read the volume but aren't precisely sure with the timeline, the important thing in Y2V7 happens on the 13th of November, so nothing happened yet with Kiyo's schemes.
I'm explicitly not mentioning it, as it is spoilers, and I hate to spoil people the fun, who might not have read Y2V7.
Also, I made Kiyo a bit clueless, I know, but he isn't precisely experienced in games and all that, and he will take time to adapt to it.
I'm not sure why I added achievements here, but I suppose it's to close the gap between Kirito and Ayanokoji with that.
Currently, I'm not sure if it'll be a single lover interest or more since I'm generally not in favor of harem, but perhaps I might make it. I'm not sure, though.
As of now, I'm not sure if I'll be continuing this. I just wanted to write a chapter and see how I did it.
Before I forget this, I'm using this formula as to how the level is calculated.
Level*(Level-1)*500
Perhaps I might increase it since leveling up with this formula might be a bit too easy or not challenging at all.
At level 10-15, I think I might make the latter part of the formula with 700 or 800 to make leveling up more difficult.
Well, that'll be all.
Comments would be appreciated. Let me know your opinion since I'm definitely not sure how to design this fic at all.