Chapter 3 - Trapped Souls

Drifter whistled as he walked down the streets of the Town of Beginnings. He had already repaired his equipment, as well as sold most of the useless drops, keeping only those which could be used as enhancement or crafting materials. He earned a fair bit of cor from that. Of course, he also kept the << Anneal Blade >> stashed away for Meowlen.

Speaking of which, it was strange that she hadn't logged back in yet. It had been almost half an hour, which should be more than enough time for her to solve whatever problems she had on her end. At the very least, she could pop back in to warn him she wouldn't play anymore today, so he knew whether he should wait or log out too. At the very least, she could send him a message.

'Huh. Weird. I could have sworn we added each other as friends.'

Opening his menu, he found out that his friends tab was empty, which was definitely strange. He was certain he had accepted the friend request Meowlen had sent him. Maybe it was a bug? It was still a beta version of SAO, after all.

While he was pondering, he heard a bell ringing, and his vision suddenly went white, not unlike when he first logged into the game. Next thing Drifter realized, he was back at the plaza in the center of the Town of Beginnings. Hundreds, no, thousands of players appeared around him. He wouldn't be surprised if all 10.000 of them were here.

"What the hell?"

"What is happening?"

"Was that a teleport?"

Drifter wasn't the only one confused. The entire plaza was alight with discussions. Things were messy. It appeared that, like Drifter, they had all been teleported without warning. Some players even seemed to have been whisked away in the middle of a fight, and ended up hitting those around them. Luckily cities were a safe area, otherwise it would have evolved into a massive brawl.

Still, something was strange. Drifter shivered, his instincts screaming that something was very wrong. He noticed a few people trying to leave the plaza, only to be stopped by a barrier. His focus wasn't on that, however. Instead, his gaze was fixated on the blood-red hexagon that had appeared in the sky, which the word [ WARNING ] written on it in bold letters. And he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Up there!"

As people raised their heads to look, more hexagons appeared, covering the sky with [ WARNING ] and [ SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT ] messages. It was very menacing, and something about it activated Drifter's fight-or-flee reaction. And he was leaning towards the latter.

Suddenly, the system messages started twitching, as if they were glitching. From the space in between them something which looked suspiciously like blood started to drip, causing many players to scream and curse. Then, amidst arcs of lightning, the substance formed a hooded figure which anyone who played an RPG before would recognize. A game master.

"Attention, players. Welcome to my world."

The game master spread his arms wide, as if receiving all of them. But Drifter couldn't think of it as anything other than creepy when he saw that underneath the hood there was nothing. The game master didn't have a face, just a cloud of billowing smoke. And the way he said 'my world'...

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba."

Drifters pupils contracted. That was why the voice sounded so familiar. So, maybe this was just part of the opening ceremony? If it was, it was going to scare more players away than it would bring in.

"As of this moment, I am the only person able to control this world."

Now that sounded ominous. Unconsciously, Drifter started looking for some way to leave, but the barrier was still there stopping them.

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu."

There were gasps of surprise as the hubbub that had paused when Kayaba appeared restarted. Drifter couldn't care less. He swiped his fingers down and navigated his menu, only to find out that the game master was speaking the truth. There, where the logout button should have been, was an empty slot. No matter how many times he clicked it, nothing happened. The giant game master in the sky himself demonstrated that.

"But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat... This is not a defect in the game, but a key feature of Sword Art Online."

"A k-key feature?!"

Drifter wasn't sure who said that, but the trepidation in their voice echoed perfectly with how he was feeling. His mind was racing to possibilities, and none of them were good.

"You cannot log out of SAO on your own will. And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear."

And there it was, the worst possible outcome he could have imagined. Something in his gut had been telling him that would be the case. They were trapped inside the game, at least until the internal battery of the headgear ended. And Kayaba wasn't finished yet, Drifter could feel it.

"Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit powerful microwaves, destroying your brain, and thus ending your life."

While the crowd erupted in outrage at the ridiculous threat, Drifter collapsed. They couldn't log out. If someone tried to take off the NerveGear, the player would die. Whether this was true or not - and it was very likely to be - then it explained why she disappeared from his friends list.

"Meowlen..."

The cheerful girl who had scared him the first time they met, the friendly beta-tester who was willing to give him a weapon that suited him better, and to teach him the mechanics of the game, who was so happy to get a new sword... She was dead.

She was dead because someone, probably a family member, had innocently decided to take off her NerveGear. Oh gods, he couldn't even imagine how much guilt they would feel when they realized they had killed their own family.

No, not them. The one who murdered Meowlen wasn't her family. It was the bastard towering above him right now, as if he wore some kind of god. Akihiko Kayaba.

Drifter's head snapped back to the monster passing as a human being above the plaza. With pure anger as fuel, he forced himself to stand up. Kayaba wasn't finished just yet.

"Unfortunately, there have been several instances where players' friends and families have ignored this warning, and attempted to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have exited permanently, from both Aincrad and the real world."

"W-What?!"

"This isn't funny, man!"

"Waah!"

Even before Kayaba finished speaking, several hundred voices were already confronting - and cursing - him. Drifter was not one of them. As much as he hated it, he believed what the developer was saying. And that was before he showed several news feeds reporting the fatalities.

"As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting on this situation, including the multiple deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed has been reduced."

Drifter scanned the screens floating in the sky with watery eyes. One of them was Meowlen. Even if he hadn't known her very well - or at all - he still felt pain. He might not have known it at the time, but the moment she was reduced to polygons, she had died. He watched her die in front of his very eyes. He felt sick.

"So, I would like you all to focus on clearing the game."

'Clearing... The game?'

"But be sure to keep this in mind. There is no longer any function to revive someone within the game. The instant your HP drops to zero, your avatars will vanish forever. And simultaneously,..."

There was a dramatic pause after that, during which Drifter could only think that this was much, much worse than the worst-case scenario he had imagined.

"... your brains will be destroyed by the NerveGear."

Instantly, Drifter's mind was filled with images of the time he almost died today, when fighting the << Large Nepents >>. So, he had actually come this close to dying in real life.

"The one condition for your escape is to complete this game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor one. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level. Defeat the final boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game."

Kayaba summoned a hologram of Aincrad to illustrate his words, but Drifter wasn't paying attention to it. Even he knew that clearing all one hundred floors of Aincrad was impossible. No, maybe it could be done, but how long would it take? Would they have to spend years trapped inside Sword Art Online? What about their lives, their families outside? And how many people would perish before they could complete their goal? If they could clear it at all, that is.

"Now then, finally, I've provided you all with a present in your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

Drifter didn't want to. Everything Kayaba told them to do, he wished to do the exact opposite. But he knew that throwing a tantrum would change nothing at this point, so he opened his inventory with a sigh.

Sitting there was a << Hand Mirror >>. As soon as he held it in his hands, the mirror started glowing, and surrounded Drifter with a pillar of light. The same was happening to everyone else, even those who hadn't taken out the item.

When the bright light faded away, Drifter didn't feel any different, until he glanced at the mirror. Reflected on it was his face. Not his in-game face, but how he looked like in real life.

Just as shocked as everyone else, Drifter couldn't help but wonder: how and why? Somewhere behind him, he heard someone talking about calibration and whatnot. Which brought Drifter to his second question. And he was sure Kayaba would answer that, like the megalomaniac he was proving to be.

"Right now, you all must be wondering, why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do such a thing?"

Though the tone of voice didn't change, Drifter could almost hear the bastard chuckling.

"My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason. To create this world and meddle in it."

"Kayaba..."

"And now, all is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. I wish you luck, players."

From the corner of his vision, Drifter could see the gigantic game master disappearing, but he wasn't paying attention. He pushed his way through the dumbstruck crowd, and managed to get out of the plaza, now unobstructed by the barrier, just as the first despair-filled scream rang.

He started running without aim, until the claustrophobic feeling was gone. Inside the plaza, he felt trapped in all senses of the word.

When he came to his senses, Drifter realized he had ended up on the southern edge of the Town of Beginnings, where Aincrad met the nothingness below. It was a breathtaking view, the clouds dyed red and orange by the sunset. On any other occasion, he would have been stunned into silence by the beauty of it. Now, he could only think that the sunset looked like blood.

"Hey! Shishio! Don't do that!"

As more players appeared, presumably after having tried to escape the plaza like him, Drifter saw one man walking towards the edge of the floating castle determinedly. Behind him was another player, who seemed to be trying to stop the one called Shishio. When the player put his hands over the railing, Drifter realized what was going to happen a second before everybody else, and sprinted toward the duo.

"Fuck off! I don't believe what that madman said! We will die in real life if we die in-game? Bullshit!"

He was too late. Shishio slapped away his friend's hands before climbing the railing. He hesitated for half a second before taking a determined step forward, and falling. Drifter reached the edge just in time to see Shishio's body dissipating in polygons after hitting the invisible barrier a few hundred meters below Aincrad.

"Shishio!"

Stumbling back, Drifter crouched, and held his head in his hands. Another one. That was another person who died right before his eyes. He got up with a start, turned, and ran. Away from the sunset, away from other people.

That edge was starting to turn very appealing.