SAO 1

[AN: Any mistakes I make in faithfully recreating the circumstances of any of these jumps can be taken as evidence that Carl isn't in the Canon timeline, that he's AU. It may or may not be changes I make deliberately or by accident. Either way, I hope it to be a fun read for people, as I am enjoying writing it.]

XX

Carl Smith was super stoked. His grandfather was too busy with his business partners the past few days to notice that Carl had been ditching college classes to hang out in front of the electronics store where people were camping out to buy their own copy of Sword Art Online. It felt like a holiday party, the atmosphere of excitement.

Unlike his new friends here in Japan, he no longer had parents to keep track of his daily activities, and his Grandpa was working hard with his counterparts in Japan to land a contract for his company to more widely distribute SAO to North America. So he had the freedom to do as he wanted.

His parents had died when he was 5, so he didn't have a lot of memories of them. Ever since they died in a car crash, it had only been him and his grandpa. And sometimes his grandpa was just too busy with the company that he built to notice some of Carl's extracurricular activities.

After the revolutionary Nerve Gear had been released in the market back in May, Grandpa Max had seen how revolutionary it was, and how it would change so many markets. He also spent hours rhapsodizing about what it could do for training people who had dangerous jobs without risking their lives for the training.

"Just think of how much more trained the doctors and nurses can be with this gear!" He had went on an almost angry rant one night. "If this had only been available years ago, those hack doctors wouldn't have caused the death of your parents!" He had almost growled, before coming to his senses and realizing what he'd said. Looking embarrassed at losing control, he'd locked himself in his room for the rest of the night, and never visited the topic again.

But Carl could tell he was still just as passionate about the subject. So, in order to try to get in on the action before it became too established, they had moved to Japan back at the end of May. Carl started up classes in College in Japan, and made a couple of friends who were also gamers, while his grandpa, bless his heart, was working to make contacts and contracts to be in on the development and distribution rights of SAO and the Nerve Gear.

Because of the family situation of his friends, and how they couldn't get away from college for three days to camp outside the store, Carl was the only one who managed to get a copy of the newly released game, thanks to having luckily scored a Beta testing slot. He would totally have bought his three new buddies their own copy, to be paid back later, but the stores would only sell one copy per customer, and he didn't want to have to pick only one out of the three to give it to.

Plus, he was only hanging around to enjoy the atmosphere. Getting away with actually camping out for three whole days was something even his grandfather would notice and get after him for.

He had watched it be a real fight for the campers to get their own copy. By 2022 practically everyone played at least mobile games, even if they didn't go for the more hardcore computer or console games. And SAO only 10,000 copies being sold opening day. So those campers had to be on guard that they didn't get shoved out of line or moved back so far that they couldn't get a copy.

Carl thought it was an odd marketing strategy to drive up everyone's desperation to buy the game. Nothing got people fired up and willing to throw money at something like the label "Exclusive" or "VIP". Everyone wanted to be special, and if it only took a fistful of dollars and some wait time, well, many were willing to pay the price.

Because of his grandpa's connections, Carl had been lucky enough to score a Beta copy of the game, and he had played all summer. Which is why Carl had been so excited about the official release. During that month long Beta test, Carl had seen how important grinding levels was for a player to get strong and stay on top. He was hoping to make some friends that he could adventure with, maybe form a guild.

Once a player fell behind the front runners, they would never catch up. And Carl was determined to stay on top. Unlike some other games, in SAO professional gamers couldn't have some intern switch out with them to grind their levels for them while they worked on other skills. The nerve gear only allowed one person to log onto one character. It resulted in a straight 1:1 ratio of individual work to reward.

Carl had worked hard to learn as much as he could during the beta testing, and like his grandpa was fond of saying, "Hard work always gets results".

It was November 6th, and today SAO was finally about to start, in just 10 minutes. Carl put his phone on the charger, smirking. He had just texted his three new friends "Hay, 15 minutes until start of the most epic game ever. I'll let you losers know how much fun it is!"

Carl just laughed as he watched the return texts filled with jealousy and hate pouring in. They were some decent guys, and seemed like fun friends, even though they had only known each other for a few months.

Carl switched out his regular clothes for sweats. If he was going to be playing the game the rest of the day and most of the night, he was going to be ready and in his sleeping clothes. One of the amazing things the nerve gear did was allow the user to play a game all night, and log off in the morning, as refreshed as if they had slept all night. It was like a substitute for R.E.M. sleep, so the user didn't go crazy from lack of sleep.

Carl put on his Nerve Gear. He'd gotten his sweet Special Edition helmet from Grandpa's contacts, back when the Nerve Gear first came out on the market. To date, he hadn't seen anyone posting pics online of gear similar to his, so Carl was pretty happy that he had a seemingly one of a kind.

Now that Carl thought about it, maybe part of the reason for the limited release of the game was to make sure the servers didn't crash on opening day. That would be a huge black eye for the game, if it was unplayable on the first day.

Carl saw that the time his 1:00 pm. He hit the button to log onto SAO, and suddenly he was standing in a town square in the game.

Carl looked down at his body. He had always been really fit, fast and strong, so he had made his game avatar the same body shape and everything as he was in real life. He only changed the facial features a bit so he wouldn't be recognized in real life if he managed to piss someone off in the game.

There were always people who were dicks about things like killing monsters they thought they owned, or getting to a treasure chest first when they saw it at the same time. Some people just lost their rationality and forgot about the game so they could harass whoever pissed them off. Similar to cases of road rage, they would just fixate on their target and forget everything else.

'Well, no use piddling around here in town.' Carl thought as he saw more and more people arriving. He quickly checked his inventory and saw that he had the basic starter armor and sword and a few coppers.

Carl knew the devs had tried giving the currency a new name, "Cor" or "Col" or something to be unique, but come on. They are in a fantasy setting of swords and knights. The lowest currency is obviously copper.

Carl started jogging in the direction of the nearest field for monsters, ignoring all the players that were logging in for the first time. He could tell who the newbies were because they were spending a lot of time rubbernecking like tourists.

Carl soon made his way to the west fields, where the monsters available were mainly neutral mobs like boar, deer, and cows and such.

Unsheathing his sword with a flourish, Carl began attacking the poor xp on hoofs. After his first slash, Carl was shocked at the bloody splash from his cut that landed on him, but didn't stop attacking despite his shock. Another two slashes and the cow was dead.

Carl stared in shock at the bloody scene in front of him. "Did they slip me an adult version of the game?" He wondered aloud. "Sweet!" A huge smile rose on his face, before he pressed on the cow's carcass to initiate looting.

After he looted a couple raw steaks and the horns from the cow, its body and the bloody splashes disappeared, leaving him spotless once more. "This game gets better and better. So realistic!" Carl crowed in joy, before he continued hunting.

Carl was just finishing his 13th murder of the poor xp animals, when he came across two more players near him. Looking closer, Carl saw it looked like one was tutoring the other in combat, SAO style.

"Idiots and noobs." Carl muttered as he moved away to find more free range xp. "If the one is a beta tester, he's an idiot wasting his advantage by helping the noobs instead of grinding. And if the other is a noob, he's being a lame moocher by not figuring it out himself. The only thing he could do that is worse than that is to sit in the town square begging for gold. Better stay away from them, I might catch their idiocy."

When he saw the noob on the ground from getting crotch rocketed by the boar, Carl was positive he wanted nothing to do with them.

A few hours later, Carl was in the midst of killing his 135th mob, when he was engulfed in a flash of light. He heard a faint, yet annoying voice whisper "Link, start" before he was assaulted by a flood of memories rushing into his mind.

Carl suddenly remembered his other life, as a Jump Chain jumper. The past memories of his original world as well as the four previous jumps rushed into his mind. Or rather, they were unveiled from where they had been locked away while he lived a normal life until this moment.

Carl still hadn't figured out if he really just arrived in the world at this moment, or if he was de-aged to a baby, had his memories locked, lived a normal life, and then had his memories unsealed just a moment ago.

But based on his experience in the Pokemon world and the existence of the parents he remembered growing up with in that world, Carl leaned towards the idea that he was de-aged and grew up in the world. The other option was to assume he was some kind of cuckoo bird, planted on the people at the moment he arrived in world.

Even if he was some kind of cuckoo planted at the moment of birth, he still had all the memories of growing up with them. Which made them family. Sometimes family was more than just blood, it was about shared memories, and the decision to be a family.

Once Carl finally got some perspective on his newly unsealed memories, he started looking around. He had been teleported to the town's main square, along with every other player in SAO. The enormous square was packed.

People were freaking out, trying to figure out what was happening. Some people were talking about how they tried to log off earlier, but the option to log off was gone.

Before anyone could get too freaked out, up in the sky a blood red hexagon "WARNING" notification button started blinking, attracting everyone's notice. Woops, they were getting more freaked out at the eeriness of the scene. Now that Carl had his memories back, he knew from the Jump document that this was the moment when the asshole Kayaba would reveal his death game to the players.

So Carl resigned himself to waiting through the dramatics and histrionics of the gamers. Looking at the exits to the town square, where some players were pressing against an invisible force field, let Carl know he couldn't make his escape from this scene anyway.

The blood red hexagon started multiplying across the sky, making a dome over the town square. The "WARNING" notification in the red hexagon was alternated with "System Announcement".

Once the sky was covered, actual blood started leaking from in between the hexagons. Carl heard more than a few people scream in fear at the sight. It was definitely creepy.

The blood never reached the ground. Instead it flowed together and shaped itself into a giant 70 foot tall human figure in a blood red cloak. Carl couldn't make out a face, just darkness beneath the hood, but he knew it was Kayaba. Kayaba spread out his arms dramatically in greeting.

"Attention players. I welcome you, to my world." The cloaked giant intoned in a voice that spread to all 10,000 players. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba. And as of this moment, I am the only person in control of this world."

Carl noticed the dramatic pause that let the people around him make some comments.

"Nice entrance."

"Is that really Kayaba?"

"I'm sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from the main menus. The logout button." Kayaba continued. "Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

Carl snorted in faint contempt when he noticed the faint, barely noticed, background mood music playing when Kayaba was talking. Talk about dramatics.

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO." The reverb enhanced voice of Kayaba stated. "And no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nerve Gear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

"What are you talking about?" One girl cried out in fear.

"Come on, that's such BS!" A dude in the crowd disdained.

After letting the crowd freak out for a bit, Kayaba continued. "Despite my warnings, the family and friends of some of the players have attempted to remove the Nerve Gear. An unfortunate situation, to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world."

"As you can see, international media have round the clock coverage of everything, including their deaths." Kayaba had several web pages appear floating around him so the group could see the reality of the situation he engineered.

"At this point, it's safe to say the likelihood of a removal of the Nerve Gear is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you clear the game."

"It's important you remember the following. There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system. Forever. And the Nerve Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Looking around, Carl saw that everyone was in deep shock and fear. The realization that they were in a death game was only beginning to dawn on them.

"There is only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game." Kayaba brought up a holographic representative map of Aincrad. "Right now you are gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you can advance to the next floor."

The multilevel map had 100 floors, with a cylinder shaped shaft representing the dungeon being the way to the next floor above it. The dungeons appeared to be randomly located on each floor.

"Defeat the boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game." Kayaba gave the victory conditions. "Last but not least. I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

Carl went ahead and pulled out the item, which was a mirror. "What's the mirror for?" Carl wondered, just before it shone in bright light, engulfing him in the light.

He didn't feel anything change on him, but when he looked around, all the players around him had changed their appearance. Apparently they all reverted back to their actual appearance.

One pair of players near Carl, that previously looked like a ridiculously good looking male and female couple had a little spat.

"Wait a minute! You're a guy!" The young and short roundy accused.

"Hey, you're not 17!" The skinny guy that had been masquerading as a girl counter charged.

Carl couldn't help but snicker at their situation. "A little bit of role playing never hurt, right gentlemen?" He couldn't help but joke at their expense.

Carl could afford to laugh, he was still himself. A 6 foot tall, slim muscled 20 year old. He hadn't been hiding behind a fake skin, so he wasn't disoriented by suddenly having his mask stripped away.

"Right now, you're probably wondering 'why?' Why would Akihibo Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nerve Gear do this?" The giant figure looming over the players casually stated. "Ultimately, my goal was a simple one. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official start of Sword Art Online. Players. I wish you the best of luck."

And with that, the giant figure once more turned into blood and oozed up in between the cracks of the blood red dome. The dome abruptly disappeared, bringing the view of the cloud filled sky and the sun back.

Seeing the barrier disappear from around the town square, Carl casually walked out of the town square just as many of the players got over their paralysis and began screaming, pleading for Kayaba to let them go, and just generally losing their heads.

"Like Agent K said. A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals. Better to avoid that stampede." Carl muttered to himself as he began jogging away, once he was out of sight of the newly formed mob.

Sure, the town will keep actual violence and damage from being done by or to the players while they are in a neutral area, but Carl still didn't want to deal with the drama. The only way to get out of this virtual world before ten years was up was to defeat the boss on the 100th floor.

Carl finally made his way back out to the West Field, where he had been grinding before, when the sun was setting.

"Okay, first things first." Carl muttered. "How much is this astral projection helping me."

Carl then began a series of calisthenics so he could see how well his Master Martial Artist body translated to the game. After a few minutes of running through his moves and running and jumping around, Carl determined that he could move as fast as he could when he was outside the virtual world, when he was training in the HSDK world, with has Master Class Martial Arts body.

"Okay, so I can move just as fast, I'm just as strong, and can attack just as fast. Now how much damage can I do?" Carl focused on a wandering cow. Pulling his sword, he moved like lighting, appearing next to the cow and slashing it once. Blood spilled, and the cow aggroed from the strike, but didn't die. Carl easily avoided the cow's counterattack, and slashed the cow twice more in an instant before the cow died.

"Damn. It looks like, while I have all the physical abilities of a master martial artist, the game AI determines damage based on my character's stats." Carl opened up the menu to his stats. "5 strength and 5 agility. And I've only filled up about 13% of the XP bar. So I probably have to kill about 1000 of these boars and cows to get to level 1 and get more stats to do more damage."

"And while I could probably go start killing off the dungeon bosses by myself, that would bring me to the Cardinal's attention as a serious outlier. Which would bring me to Kayaba's attention as an anomaly in his perfect world. One that he'll probably try to kill. Not to mention, that I only get that World Seed if Kayaba dies while happy with his story."

Carl paused in thought for a while, considering his plan of attack. "The problem with trying to make sure Kayaba dies happy is that I have no idea what might set the crazy bastard off. And there are so many players that it's not like everything is up to me to make him satisfied. For all I know, all the more adventurous players could get themselves killed and everyone just turtles up in a city and never tries to beat the bosses, which would piss off Kayaba."

"So, I have to fix it into my head now not to worry too much about Kayaba and what some player who might piss in his sandbox might do. If the worst happens, and I don't get a World Seed to grow my own dream world, oh well. Easy come, easy go. I've already benefited hugely from the perks I've already gotten in this world."

Carl opened up his menu, and went to the options. "Now that I think about it, I don't like the freaking Skills Assist." Carl muttered as he turned off the Skills Assist. "It felt like it was trying to jerk my body into a weird attack direction."

"I've got a virtual world to practice my blade skills on all kinds of monsters. Shigure Sensei would be disappointed with me if I didn't practice and polish my abilities for these 10 years with fantasy monsters. And without the Skills Assist to ruin my practice, I can actually make use of this time to improve while going wild." Carl grinned.

"So, the plan is to grind my level up, explore the world of Aincrad while practicing my blade skills on 'real, live monsters', and join the raids when they attack the bosses. Become a badass in the game by getting lots of lootz, completing lots of quests, and just have fun. I can do that."

Carl saw there was an auto loot option that wasn't toggled on before. Flipping it on, he grinned maniacally as he saw the cow disappear. "That will save a lot of time." With his tier 4 senses, Carl could easily see in the dark. He had the stamina of a Master, and he was too fast to be hit by the mobs around him. He saw no reason to stop grinding.

Targeting the next XP mob, he rushed forward and slashed it to death before it could do anything. Seeing a popup box in front of his face, Carl frowned. He opened up the options menu once more and disabled the pop up box. If he wanted to know the information, he could look in his combat log. Now, with nothing to distract him, Carl began his first night of grinding.

XX

The next morning as the sun was coming up, Carl walked out of the forest he was decimating over night. There had been dog size spiders, bats, owls, and even the odd goblin or two. He had looted a few coppers, a crappy knife, and a pair of better boots off the goblins. The animals didn't have copper, unfortunately, but he did get various animal parts.

He had already leveled up to level 1. Carl doubted there was anyone else around that had his abilities, so he was sure he would always be ahead of the curve.

Looking around once he exited the forest, he saw a little town called Odwin. Carl entered the walled town by the front gates. He saw the towns people were already up and about. According to his memories of the Beta testing, the NPCs followed a human schedule, so they closed down their shops and slept at night.

Carl made his way to the market, where he started selling off many of the various animal parts he'd looted. After he gathered his small stake of coppers and silvers, Carl made his way to the trade skills trainers.

There were a variety of job skills in SAO that a player could pick up. Cooking, alchemy, gathering herbs, mining, skinning, leatherworking, fishing, and many others. Similar to real life, a player wasn't restricted in what skills they could pick up, but they needed to put in a decent amount of time if they wanted to get good at any skill.

Carl was just happy that Kayaba didn't try to make bags and inventory space more realistic. Everyone had an infinite inventory, and weight didn't matter.

Carl found the Cooking trainer and quickly learned the skill, including some of the basic recipes. He then bought some spices and began cooking the beef and pork that he'd looted off all the cows and pigs he'd killed.

Even though it was a game, the players still had to eat to replenish their stamina. Hunger was programmed in to let them know when they had to fill their bellies. Carl wasn't sure how him being in the game astrally would affect him, but he had been feeling hunger, so learning the skills to assuage that hunger seemed like a decent idea.

Once he'd cooked all his food, he chowed down on one of the steaks, relieving his hunger.

Carl then left the cooking trainer, looking for the various trainers to teach him how to gather resources. Mining, herb gathering, woodcutting, fishing, and skinning were more than enough for him to spend some time on each to gather more in game resources. After buying the necessary tools for each profession, Carl moved on.

Carl then began talking to all the NPCs in the town. He soon found that they were at least semi-decent VIs. If Carl talked too much, or seemed to be pestering them, they soon decided to ignore him for a while. He found three quests to clear out some mobs around the town to make it safer for them. Carl accepted, and soon left to hunt down the mobs.

He spent all day hunting, not needing a rest just yet. By 4pm Carl had long since fulfilled the quests, and moved back to the town of Odwin to sell the junk he'd looted and turn in the quests.

Carl had gotten a pair of gloves that increased his defense from the first quest. A dagger that improved the quality of leather skinned for the second. And for the third, he received a hat that increased his agility.

Carl wasn't terribly impressed by the quest rewards, but they were on the first floor near the starter town. So it wasn't like he could expect anything epic yet. Carl went through the town one more time, speaking to each of the NPCs he found. Carl found three more quests on his second sweep through.

After getting the three quests, Carl left the town behind, and searched for the mobs he was tasked to kill. By midnight he had finished the three quests he'd picked up.

Carl then moved to the forest outside of the small town, and after double checking that there was no one around, he opened up a portal to his Warehouse on one of the trees big enough for him to slip through, before shrinking it down small enough that nothing could get through.

"Ahh, what a busy day." Carl stretched to relax his muscles from the long grind. He took a shower, fixed some dinner, and then crashed in his bed, sleeping for a solid 5 hours. He could have kept going longer without stopping, or just meditated in place of sleep, but taking some downtime for sleep was a comfort because of how familiar and comfortable it was.

Even though Carl mostly thought of the whole experience as an adventure, there was no getting around the fact that he too was a prisoner in the game with everyone else. That plus the sudden awakening in the town square had stressed him a bit, and taking the time to relax for a bit would help him recenter himself.

The next morning when the sun had just risen, Carl was already up, eaten, and entering the gates of Odwin to turn in his quests. This time he got a pair of leather pants that increased his strength by a couple points, a necklace that increased luck, and a shirt that had no purpose other than looks.

Shrugging at the rewards, Carl continued seeking out quests and hunting monsters for the next couple of days until he couldn't find any more quests in the town. Each evening after turning in the quests, he would spend some time with his crafting professions that he picked up to make use of the crafting materials he'd picked up.

He had picked up a number of very useful skills from his 10 years of interacting with the masters of Ryozanpaku. Blacksmithing from Shigure Sensei, mixing medicines and tinctures from Akisame Sensei, woodworking from Apachai Sensei, leatherworking from Sakaki Sensei, among others.

So since Carl had an idea of what the actual skills were like, when he used the methods he had learned previously, like crafting a dagger, the AIs noticed his already present skills and started awarding him plenty of crafting levels to start matching his crafting levels with his actual skill.

Since Carl had been using his own skills and techniques for fighting instead of using the ones supplied by the AIs, he hadn't been leveling up combat skills. But he had noticed after the second day that his critical hits were increasing. Apparently the AI finally noticed how good his martial arts were and adjusted his critical hits to match his actual skills. Which was nice, because the mobs were dying faster now that every hit was a critical hit.

Now that Carl was finished up with the quests in the town, and he saw players starting to show up in the area, Carl moved on from Odwin and hunted his way cross country until he came to the next town, where he repeated his questing and hunting habits, while leveling up his skills.

Every few days Carl would move to a new area, as he continued hunting and training. He would occasionally meet a group of players as they moved around, and talk with them about the news around the area.

There weren't any forums available from inside the game, so no one knew what the news from outside was. Carl on the other hand had access to the world's internet through his Warehouse. He very briefly considered putting out some pamphlet or newsletter to keep people aware of what was going on outside the game, but swiftly rejected the idea.

It was hard enough on people to focus on their survival and living the game without becoming obsessed with the news. And, more importantly, it would alert Kayaba to the fact that someone was able to go around his blockade of information. Carl just didn't feel like dealing with that headache, so he left well enough alone.

Carl did find out who was the person who was publishing guides to killing mobs and grinding levels though. He contacted the individual and offered to send her information that she could include in her newsletters to help people survive.

There wasn't any real way to judge just how many people had died in the game so far, aside from if Kayaba released the information. Everyone was whispering that more than a thousand people had already died within two weeks.

Carl was skeptical about that number, and felt it was an exaggeration, but he couldn't verify it, and it seemed to be believed by everyone. There was just this aura of palpable fear that lingered over every player Carl met. He could tell that most of them didn't believe they would live to make it out.

A big reason for that was that in the beta tests, there had been many articles and videos online of people telling about their experiences. They had talked about how hard the game was, and how many times they had to respawn before they could beat some enemy or boss.

After a month, with everyone in the beta test working hard and with many deaths, they had managed to clear 8 floors. But in this game, no one was willing to risk their lives to advance so recklessly, so their pace was slowed to a crawl. And after nearly 1 month, they hadn't even gotten to the boss room, let alone cleared it.

So many people didn't think they would be getting out of the game. They thought they would be stuck in the game for life, or probably die as they tried to get stronger. That attitude of defeat and despair without even trying was palpable whenever Carl returned to the starter town.

Lots of the players were only doing the bare minimum to keep themselves fed, they were too afraid to really level up. Many other players satisfied themselves with the crafting professions, because that would be much safer.

Some of the more business minded tried to set up businesses that dealt in buying and selling equipment for players. It was slow going, because the only way to get the in game currency was through quests or grinding, and so the businesses had to employ players to grind to provide items to sell.

The unfortunate results were that once the employees started gaining levels from their grinding, they started wondering why they were just hired hands that got a pittance of the profit when they were doing all the dangerous work. So they would break off from the groups and go their own way, leaving the attempts at forming businesses to founder.

And then there were the kids that were aged 8-12. They really shouldn't have been able to get into the game, but they managed to sneak it past their parents. They were the worst off, once the mirror reverted them to their original appearance. They were smaller, and not able to move as fast or dodge as easily as the adults.

Carl couldn't really judge yet whether the game would make the players faster and stronger as they leveled up, because adding a few strength or agility to him was like adding one more piece of hay to a stack. Hard to judge the results.

But if the game did add strength and speed to a player character as they leveled up and gained stats, then the kids could end up being just as tough as the adults, if not even better. Because they would make smaller targets for the mobs to hit while doing just as much damage.

But for the time being there was a group of adults that was making sure the kids didn't go out into the wilds and risk their lives. Carl thought it was some kind of nonsense. There wasn't really much keeping the kids there except their habitual obedience to adults.

Carl thought it was nonsense that the adults were trying to "keep the children safe". Helping the kids to grind and level up would keep them a lot safer than sticking them in an orphanage in town and relying on the charity of others to keep them fed.

Carl would probably stick his nose into the situation if it didn't get better in a month or two. Relying on the kindness and charity of people who felt like they were trapped was a difficult prospect at best. It would be better if the kids learned to rely on themselves.

But currently, Carl was headed to a meeting that some group of adventurers had called. They claimed they had found the boss room, and wanted to organize a group to kill the boss and clear the level.

Carl arrived at the meeting spot, and saw that a few people were trickling in. The meeting was being held at what looked like a stage for putting on plays. The stage had a half circle of stone audience seating. There was a few free standing pillars at the top of the seating. Standing on the stage, waiting for people to arrive, was a 20 something man with long blue hair.

'So, he dyed his hair in real life?' Carl laughed. 'Looks like he might be stuck with that look for 10 years!'

Eventually, people stopped trickling in. Counting the numbers, Carl was surprised there were only 33 people present. He would have thought beating the boss would be a bigger deal for people. Maybe the guy in charge didn't have the best network?

The blue haired guy with a sword on his hip and a shield on his back standing on stage clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, people. Now that everyone is here, let's get this meeting started. I first want to thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diabel. And in this game," Diabel pounded his fist on his chest armor. "The job I rolled is knight!"

"Dude, there's no job system in the game!" One audience member yelled out while several others laughed at Diabel's role playing.

"So, is this meeting a joke too?" Some other dude asked.

Carl could tell that Diabel was a little frustrated. "You guys want to hear this or not?" He demanded. The audience finally quieted down. "Right, then. Here's the deal. Today, my party found the boss room at the top of the tower." Diabel paused for dramatic effect. "So, what we need to do is defeat the boss and make it to level 2. Then, we tell everyone in the starter town that it is possible to beat this game!" Diabel dramatically stated. "The fact is, this is our duty as the most capable players here to give them hope! Don't you agree?"

Carl looked around at the group of players, using his probing eye. He couldn't get a read on everyone as they reacted to his statement before adjusting their attitude, and each person Carl read had a different reason for wanting to take down the boss. Diabel seemed to really be into the knight persona that he was building for himself, and he really felt it was his responsibility to lead the way.

One person in the audience starting the slow clap, and the rest joined in to show their support for the idea they would fight the boss as a group.

Diabel seemed happy he was successful so far. "Right. Now we need to figure out how we're going to beat the boss. First off, let's split into teams of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties."

Carl just sat back watching. He was going to be his own party.

Once everyone made their teams, Diabel started again. "Alright, looks like everyone is teamed up. Next-"

"Hold on a sec!" Yelled a voice from near where Carl was standing at the pillars at the back. Carl looked over and saw some red haired dude with spiky hair and a soul patch under his lower lip standing there looking all angry. The red haired dude started jumping down the audience seating in a way he thought was dramatic, but just looked silly to Carl.

"My name's Kibaou, got that?" He aggressively introduced himself while glaring at the audience. "Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest. We all know about the 2,000 people who have died so far? Well some of you need to apologize to them right now!" Kibaou yelled while angrily pointing at the audience.

Carl sighed. What was this idiot on about?

Diabel interrupted. "Kibaou, I think I know who you're talking about. You're referring to the ex-beta testers, right?"

"Of course I'm talking about them! The day this game started, the beta testers vanished. They ran off leaving all the rest of us high and dry. They grabbed all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests for themselves. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we were nothing. Hell, I bet there's some of them here. Come on out, beta-testers!" Kibaou growled. "We should make them kneel down and apologize to us. And we should make them give out the items and money they got." Kibaou folded his arms self-righteously and declared "They can't exactly expect us to trust them when they don't trust us."

Right when Carl was about to talk, he heard a chocolate smooth voice call out from the front rows. "Can I say something?" A large, bald, black man with a double headed axe on his back strolled up to the stage. Looming a head taller than Kibaou, he looked him over.

"Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies deaths because they didn't help them. And they should apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't." The angry blaming voice Kibaou used made Carl want to smack him around.

Agil pulled a small book out of his inventory and showed it to everyone. "The item store hands this item out for free. You got one too, didn't you?"

"Sure I got one. So what about it?"

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers." Carl chuckled at the critical hit Agil got on Kibaou's argument. Agil turned to the audience. "Everyone had equal access to the information here, and yet many players still died. Now I'm not here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to figure out how we're going to beat the boss."

Agil then calmly looked at Kibaou, to see if he had any more to say. Kibaou didn't, so he just sat down and pouted. Agil calmly took his seat too.

Diabel then went on to introduce the 1st floor boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, and his minions the Ruin Kobold Sentinels, and the strategy they would employ. "As for the distribution of loot. Money will be distributed equally. The XP will go to the party who defeats the boss. And whoever rolls an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?"

Carl stood up and walked to the front of the audience. Everyone was staring at him, wondering what he was going to say. "I don't have an objection, so much as on observation. I was one of those beta testers. I noticed-"

"I knew some of you jerks were in the audience!" Kibaou roared out while jumping to his feet and getting in Carl's face. "It's because of people like you that Jo- I mean the newbies died! You need to kneel and apologize to them, right now!"

Carl flicked Kibaou's hand that was pointing in his face away. "First off, no. I'm not going to go apologize for something that wasn't my doing to assuage your anger. If you want someone to give penance, go find Kayaba. He's the bastard that trapped us in here." Carl calmly stated. From Kibaou's slip of the tongue, he could guess that someone close to him had died. But that didn't mean Carl was going to put up with him spilling his grief everywhere.

"Secondly, I provided a lot of the information that comes with that guide as I acted as a pathfinder for the rest of you, so you knew what to expect when going hunting."

Carl sarcastically smiled at Kibaou. "And thirdly, I distinctly remember the mobs of people who formed immediately after the tutorial ended who wanted to hang the beta testers, under the assumption that they were accomplices of Kayaba. Can you really blame them for disappearing on you, when people like you were stirring up a lynch mob? Idiot."

Kibaou's flush of shame was amusing to Carl. He turned back to the audience. "No, it's no surprise most beta-testers wouldn't admit it, after the rampage the mobs went on. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't quite a few beta-testers who are among the 2,000 dead because they mentioned to someone that they were beta-testers. 'Oops, accidents happen.'" Carl darkly proclaimed.

"So, yeah, like you said, trust goes two ways. And people who like to stir up mobs have already proven they aren't trustworthy. No matter how 'righteous' they like to pretend their anger is." Carl pointedly said.

Seeing that his words, and more importantly the looming glare from Agil kept Kibaou's mouth shut, Carl continued.

"Now, despite the danger I put myself in by declaring I was a beta tester, I didn't do it to get attention. I did it to point out a fundamental flaw in your plan, and a possible amendment. You see, from my time beta testing the game, and being stuck in it now, I've noticed many changes in mob behavior and attack patterns. The information in the guide is only accurate from what people remember of the boss in beta. So I wanted to point out that the information may not be 100% accurate."

Carl noticed many of the people had uneasy looks on their faces at his pointing out this information.

"Now, one of the things I've done in my time here is experiment with ways to make group fights safer. Or at least give us more tactics to use." Carl pulled a bow and arrow that he'd crafted out of his inventory. "There is no strict job classes here, which also means we don't necessarily have to stick to only swords." Carl notched the arrow, and let it fly, hitting the pillar in the back. "If we spend a week or so training up a cadre of archers, we would have more people that can launch attacks from a distance, cut down the mobs, and give us a better chance of victory."

"Hmm, an interesting idea. But I don't think it's workable." Diabel interrupted. "First off, no one is trained in archery. It would take too long to get them good enough that they would be sure to hit the boss and not us. Second, the people really need a victory now, not later. Third, we can at least try fighting the boss now. I think we've got what it takes to take him down, with everyone's help."

Carl was a little shocked that Diabel shut down his proposal so readily. He used his observation skills to read Diabel's intentions, and found that he wanted to be the one to kill the boss. As far as Carl could tell, it was a mix of him wanted the fame from killing the first boss, wanting the special item off of landing the killing blow on the boss, and a genuine desire to give hope to the people stuck in the game.

Carl also saw that there was still too much general dislike for beta testers, so the raid wasn't going to side with him over Diabel after he revealed his hated beta tester background. Even though Carl read that Diabel was secretly a beta tester too, which is why he knew about the last hit benefit that would get the recipient a nice unique item from the boss.

"Well, judging by everyone's reaction, they aren't willing to wait another week and try my idea. Let's do it your way, then." Carl shrugged as he graciously withdrew his proposal.

"Then we'll leave for the boss at 10:00 tomorrow morning." Diabel announced. "Get some good rest so you can be 100% for the fight tomorrow, when we bring hope back to the people!"

Carl laughed and cheered along with the rest of the group. No matter if Diabel has some other, selfish, motives, he also strongly believes killing the boss can help everyone gain a ray of hope. Carl couldn't help but get behind the sentiment, because he too had seen the despair most people were operating under.

After giving a friendly wave to Agil, Carl took off to avoid being tailed by anyone with a grudge against beta testers. If it came down to it, and someone tried to kill him away from the safe zones of the town, Carl wouldn't hesitate to knock them flat. Depending on the person, he might only disable them. But if they were murderous thugs, he might just end their game right there.

It was an attitude that was different from the Life Giving Fist philosophy of his last world, but more in line with how he had been before that world, and more in line with his usual modus operandi. To end threats to himself and the people he cared about.

After giving everyone the slip, Carl used his parkour moves to arrive on top of some tall buildings, where he opened a portal into his Warehouse out of reach from the players. After entering, he shrunk the portal and relaxed for the rest of the evening, crafting items while having music or movies playing in the background.