[IC] SAO - How will you survive? - Anniversary

[Undying Curiosity]

Alex watched Faeron flip through her menu rather quickly, there was a brief wait between her clicking the party invitation button and the popup window. the window appeared in front of him, "Do you wish to join a party with Faeron?" The message's text read. He clicked on the little blue button indicating that he accepted. The window closed and only seconds after did Faeron's health bar popped up under Alex's. "Well, now that we're a party, I guess We should start grinding huh?" Alex looked around at the many people that dotted the field, all killing boars. "I guess I'll start killing over there where there isn't much people..." Alex said as he pointed his thumb behind him without looking. He gave Faeron a very playful yet nonchalant salute as he took a few steps back. He turned on his heel and started walking over to the boars, gripping his dagger in his right hand a little tighter.

The boar he was about to kill was looking at him, and since there wasn't anything to hide behind he couldn't break the line of sight, making his hiding skill useless for the time being. I guess I'll have to face it head on...might as well find a third skill in which an assassin can fight with. It has to be something that can also be useful later on... Alex thought as he ever so slowly stepped towards the boar. He sstopped in his tracks and opened his menu, flipping through two other Sub-menus he got to the "Skills" menu which held the answer he was looking for. The sprint skill. "It doubles as a boost and a dodge. dodging would most definitely come in handy if I ever alert the monsters, 'cause I doubt an assassin would have the necessary equipment to block and absorb the damage..." Alex mumbled to himself as he clicked the Sprint skill. He assumed the stance which he had taken upon himself to use earlier, and dashed at the boar. The boar dashed as well. Alex didn't think he could take the damage from the boar and attack at the same time, so he utilized his Sprint skill. Just like he'd imagined. Quickly side-stepping the boars head butt, and digging his dagger into the side of the boar, gashing it open and almost killing it. He waited patiently for the boar to strike again, which it did, so he could preform the exact same manoeuvre. Success.

"Awesome!" He said as he rose from his assassination stance. He glanced over at Faeron, though, It was a little more than a glance, he watched her for a little bit before continuing to fight the re-spawning boars. sort of amazing how easily someone can adapt to this kind of environment, Alex watched the other players and saw a couple of them get knocked back from the boars head-but. I stand corrected.He continued to watch other players in between his boar killing. One of the players died from the boars attack. Alex laughed at the poor kid. How can you die from such a low level monster? "You need to be a special type of noob to be killed by the first monster you encounter." Alex mumbled,"That kids going to be the laughing stock of his friend when he re-spawns". Alex added while he continued to chuckle.

[YipeeXD]

Karen (Yuki), had now mastered walking on her own two feet. This is amazing, she wished she could stay here forever. It was perfect. She had already decided what type of character she would raise. Agile, fast, and evasive. In fights she would be quick and repetitive, not strong and powerful. She equipped the weapon of her choice, a basic rapier, swinging it a few times. The weight was perfect for her strength. The town of beginnings had several areas, the market, which she had no use for until she had some col. The main square, which was pretty boring, and the field area where low level creatures spawned. She would start there.

A short walk later and she was there. Players had already thought of her idea and were slaughtering the boars as she spawned. She sighed, deflated at her unoriginal idea. Nevertheless she re-equipped her rapier and drew it. She had actually bothered to read the game manual, so she knew a few things about combat. Luckily, a boar spawned in her quadrant of the field. She gasped. "Here I go!" She remarked. Charging her rapier as it glowed blue, she leaped forward past the boar slicing as she went. The boar dematerialized before her eyes. She landed her leap on one foot. Landed was the wrong word. She toppled, completely forgetting that she hadn't jumped since the age of 10. She wasnt used to using her legs and she fell. She fell flat on her face.

Outside the game she would leave her face in the floor and cry, calling for her mother to get her wheelchair. But no, she was in the game now, and she could do things for herself. She focus and pushed herself up onto her legs. She wobbled a little before gaining her balance. She beamed and pumped her fist. A few hours of this and she'd be back to normal. She felt.... normal. She saw the notification for her kill pop up and distribute her exp and col. She smiled. "Alright!" She shouted that a little too loudly. People would probably think of her as weird not knowing her situation out of the game. But she didnt care. She was happy and independent.

[CoyoteKisses]

Soon enough, Cash's health bar popped below hers, signalling that they were in a party. She nodded, agreeing to his suggestion. She looked around, spotting another player entering the field, using a rapier. Faeron glanced back at Cash, seeing him do a playful salute. She grinned, watching him turn back as he prepared to fight again. After a few moments, she targeted another boar. Unlike before, she wasn't all too surprised at her sprint skill. Honestly, it just gave her a lot more momentum to deal out a strike, not to mention it made her look a tad bit cooler. This time, she had her hands positioned near to the handle. With a swipe, the blade gorged through the boar's sides at a rather good distance.

Now that she was thinking about skills, didn't she have acrobatics as one? She supposed that was the skill that allowed to her to make freakish maneuvers. Later, she would try to do flips mid-air. Without wasting another moment, she targeted another boar and left it to turn into a flurry of data. The rewards menu popped up once again, and she dismissed it, going for the third one. By now, she was totally absorbed in this whole new combat system, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of... well, fighting.

However, she saw someone out of the corner of her eye that made her stop in her killing spree. Faeron heard a rather loud 'Alright!' from the girl, whose face was glowing with excitement. Without much thought, Faeron just went up to the girl and greeted her. It didn't hurt to try and make some more friends.

"Heya," she said with a grin on her face. "Pretty cool here, right?"

[YipeeXD]

A shock flew down Karen's spine. A voice had been directed at her. She turned her head blushing. "Sorry, I didnt mean to be so loud, I can keep it down if you'd like." She raised a hand feebly. She nodded. "Uh, it's beautiful." She remarked. She sheathed her rapier and walked over to the girl. She wobbled a little but made it alright. "Sorry." She blushed again. "I cant walk very well yet. Im... in a wheelchair outside Aincrad. I'm still getting used to my legs." She smiled. "It is amazing though isnt it!" She beamed with delight before extending a hand. "Karen. Its nice to meet you!" Karen was really starting to come out of her shell in this reality.

[rusty4297]

Ryan didn't have enough col yet to buy anything good while he had been in the market, so all he got was a potion, and now that he was done here, and had gotten a little more used to the game world, it was time to charge back out there, kill as many boars as possible, and become near impossible to kill! He had his entire plan circling inside his head as much as he could get it to. He smirked before sprinting back out to the fields. As he ran, he unsheathed his axe, preparing to do as much damage as possible. As he began to see the field spread out before him, he noticed a girl jump at a boar, kill it, then fall on her face. He frowned, thinking how embarrassed she must be. He was about to pretend he didn't see so she might not feel as bad, but then she simply stood up and got her rewards. He stopped, a confused look on his face. That's... odd... Wait, isn't she the one who was having troubles walking when I first logged in?

Ryan changed his course, heading in that girl's general direction. He was going to ask about the walking thing, even if it was rude. He was too curious to just let it go... But he also couldn't let himself come out here and not kill a single boar, so before he talked to her, he charged at a boar, letting a battlecry out as he readied his axe. He watched as the boar began to charge at him in return, and then began preparing his attack. If I want to avoid damage on something this weak, I either have to dodge... and in heavy armor that's not happening... Or I have to swing before it reaches me... He waited until the boar was only a little out of his swing arc, or what he thought he swing arc was, and then swung, the skill ensuring that he hit, even if it meant that he was pulled forward a little bit just to hit. He watched its health drop to nothing and disappear once again. "All right... Now on to other business..." He rushed over towards Karen, sheathing his axe and slowing down as he reached her. "Hey, my name's Ryan, I saw you kill that boar a second ago." He held his hand out, trying to give as a friendly smile he could muster. Maybe she actually was embarrassed but didn't want to reveal it... This should get me an answer for that, at least.

[Zarkun]

Raven was just finishing up his third transaction, purchasing a slightly stronger sword than the one he had now, when he decided to go back out to the field to do more leveling. As he sets out, he stops and instead decides to wander around town a bit. "Can't hurt to familiarize myself with it anyways, right?" He mutters, heading back down the road of the merchant stalls. He listened to the other players, all of them bubbling with excitement and joy at the new game. He just chuckled, taking in how hard the road felt beneath his feet, almost like he was walking on the sidewalk back in the real world.

Man, they spent a long time just working on the realism aspect of this game. Combat is smooth and amazing, so that isn't an issue either. Raven couldn't help but wonder if they had covered everything. The way the game played and ran spoke of a deep dedication to it. Of course, it was those that gave that deep dedication to their games that produced the best ones, and Sword Art Online was definitely in his top five picks.

His wanderings brought him back to the fields in the end and he watched the girl with the spear and her dagger wielding friend for a couple moments, noting that she'd just approached another girl with a spear, with a boy wielding an ax soon approaching them while they conversed. "Well," Raven murmers, "not gonna make friends like this." Setting a brisk pace, he approaches the trio.

[CoyoteKisses]

"Oh," Faeron said, a smile on her face. She had met her fair share of physically disabled people. "Nah, you can be as loud as you want, I mean, I was just screaming a few minutes ago," she said, chuckling. "It's nice to meet you Karen, the name's Faeron. And yeah, the creators did a really good job," she said, grabbing the offered hand, shaking it viciously. "I hope we can be friends -" Faeron cut off, seeing another person come up to the pair. She nodded, acknowledging his presence as she let go of Karen's hand.

The next thing she knew, another person had started approaching the group. "Oh man oh man, is this going to be a start of a really cool group?!" she muttered under her breath.

[YipeeXD]

Karen had already made up her mind about Faeron, she was nice, and pretty. "Yes, I hope we can be friends too!" She remarked. This was great. She was meeting new people. Was this who she was without her chair? Was she this confident? She was cut off also by a boy. Her new found confidence completely shattered into a million pieces. "Oh... uhm..." She blushed and stuttered, She got a little frustrated. "Outside the game, I can't walk. I get around in a wheelchair." She stood with her hands linked together in front of her looking downwards. She looked up a little teary. "But thats ok." A droplet rolled down her face. "I can walk her!" She grinned, with a stream of fluid running from one eye. "Nice to meet you, Karen." She took his hand. There was no need to worry about her problems outside the game. This was SAO, where anything can happen. Where dreams come true.

[rusty4297]

Ryan hadn't realized before, but now noticed that he was interrupting others that had come to talk to her as well. Then she said she couldn't walk, even before he asked... He instantly felt bad for coming over just to ask about it considering the answer, and the first thing he thought he'd do was trying to make her feel better. "Really? You can't walk? I couldn't tell, considering how easily you destroyed that boar." He smirked, trying to make it seem like this was his intention from the start, "I actually wanted to team up and kill some boar for a little bit considering how well you handled that one."

Ryan then looked over to Faeron, offering his hand to her now as well. "The offer is to both of you, by the way. Games like this are always better with some friends!" He smiled, using his other hand to grab hold of his axe as a way of emphasizing its existence. "If you two are up for making a group, I'm... Basically DPS slash tank, in case either of you have played other MMOs before." He glanced to Karen, "based on your equipment, you look like you want speed and damage..." and then glanced to Faeron "and seems the same for you, so that means I'd be the one taking the damage from the enemy, but we'd all be able to do some great damage."

[Undying Curiosity]

Cash had just closed yet another one of the reward windows, the accomplished feeling was slowly starting to fade, and these boxes just started becoming a nuisance. It's not like Cash hated getting rewards, but after 5 or so boars, the rewards windows don't even seem to matter any more. Cash stretched his back ,with little to no satisfaction, as he felt a small tug of exhaustion pulling him to the ground. He looked back at Faeron who moved from where she was fighting, he looked both ways across the field before laying eyes on her and two other people. It looked like the man standing there was a Tank type class, judging from the massive axe that rested on his back. The other person looked pretty young, sort of frail looking as well. Her low level armour covered her skin, but you could still see how skinny her limbs were. Just past the three people talking, came another man, Cash wasn't to sure about him, He saw his white hair and sword, but he couldn't tell if he was an offensive or defensive type player...It was a mystery. at the rate this is going, we'll have a full blown guild before our first quest, He thought to himself while smirking, this was followed by a chuckle. think I'll wait a few minutes before heading over there myself, just to see what happens. I wonder if this is a pvp zone. Are they gunna fight? Hmph, I can't really tell

Cash sheathed his dagger into the sheath that rested on the back of his hip. He crossed his arms and looked at the group, trying to decipher what they were saying by reading their lips. Cash's eyes squinted, and his head turned. Something 'bout a watermelon....Fighting the colour purple....how to bury dirty socks? Cash's mind was scrambling to put together all the stuff he though he read from the lips of the three. "Must be something intense..."Cash whispered to himself with assurance. Cash looked around and up at the sky, The sun had moved positions! Not many games have real time day and nigh rotations, so this was kind of a big deal to Cash, Seems like the flow of time in this game must be the same as the outside world. "I wonder if Faeron's trying to make friends so we can all play together. Maybe she just a little to nice too people. Maybe I'm too mean to people." Cash spoke his mind as every thought jumped into his head. If anybody had been paying attention to him, surely they would think he's insane. "Yeah, It is a good time to look through my abilities. Maybe I'll find more skills that fit the assassin gameplay I'm going for." Alex said to himself.with slight excitment.

[CoyoteKisses]

Faeron smiled, looking at the other girl with fondness. She seemed cute and nice. It just made Faeron want to hug her. After all, living in a household filled with weird brothers was pretty stressful. She wondered if she could perhaps have a strong relationship with Karen. The other guy, Ryan had proposed that they all group together because of the high damage they could all put out. Faeron shrugged, whatever her class was, it was fun waving her spear around. She grabbed Ryan's hand, shaking it before dropping it. "Actually, I'm already in a party with another person and he's right over there," she said, glancing back to see the assassin looking up at the sky. She chuckled to herself, what was his thinking about now? Whatever it was, his mouth was moving, but Faeron couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Heyy Cash?" she called out. "Come on over here." Faeron grinned, turning back to the pair as she opened up her menu, quickly clicking the two's color cursor to add them to the party. "Oh, man. Just you wait, in a few days I think we'll all be ready to go and finish off that first boss," she said as excitement bubbled within her.

[Zarkun]

Raven came into ear shot just in time to hear Faeron mention being ready for the first boss and he chuckles loud enough to be heard. "So does that mean you're turning down my invitation?" He was resting one hand on the hilt of his sword, clearly prepared for the chance that one of the boars would decide to attack uninvited, but his other rested on his hip, a more relaxed stance about him. "I'm the guy who messaged you earlier, Raven. Faeron, right?"

[Undying Curiosity]

Cash acknowledged Faeron and proceeded to head over with a slight jog. He slowed down a little bit and walked the last few steps. Smiles were on all their faces so it would appear that there wasn't any tension between them. Cash waved his hand in a friendly gesture before introducing himself, "Hey, I'm Cashmaker2324. But like everyone els I met here, which includes ...Faeron, you can just cut it short to Cash." He Looked at the Axe-wielder, the girl with the Rapier, and the man with his hand on his hilt. He smiled at the three with genuine pleasure of meeting them. Strong bonds are usually made through experiences, so if all goes well these three might join a party with Cash and Faeron.

"So, were you guys just talking about purple melon monsters who hide there socks 4 feet below the ground?" Cash said with slight boastful tone,"Yeah, I was reading your lips when I was over there, so I'm pretty much caught up with this conversation." Cash added, just to make sure they didn't think he was psychic or anything.

[YipeeXD]

This was all a bit much for Karen. She spoke with a bit of a squeak. "Its nice to meet you all!" She nodded her head. Meeting new people meant a lot to her, as she couldnt exactly make many friends rolling round. She smiled. "It's so realistic isnt it?" She breathed in deeply. The smell of fresh grass filled her nose. The breeze caressed her cheeks, comforting her. She scrolled down her menu. "Would you all like to party up?..." She covered her mouth. "Im sorry, that was a little fast... I mean, I dont want to play this game by myself. that's no fun." She coward a little, her offer still open. She smiled as the other girl invited her to a party. She beamed and accepted. "This is going to be so fun!"

[rusty4297]

Ryan nodded to the others joining into the conversation, "I'm Ryan." He saw the invite appear and accepted before hearing someone talking about socks and monsters. Where the heck did he get all that from? He laughed somewhat as he looked to Cash. "Wow, I'm surprised you could tell we were talking about that, it's not something most people would talk about, so you would think that a lip-reading bystander would have thought us saying something else." He glanced to Faeron, smirking. "Right, we'll definitely have no issues with the first boss." He then turned his eyes to Karen, who seemed to have not realized they were invited to a group already before saying something. She seemed to figure it out though, and accept. "Heh, well we don't want to play on our own either, that's what the party's for." Based on the look of the Cash guy... He's the rogue or assassin... And this Raven person... Another speed-based damage...

[CoyoteKisses]

Faeron turned round, hearing someone behind her. He introduced himself as Raven, the person who had sent a private message before. "Yeah," she confirmed, a smile one her face. "And no, I guess I just brought a whole party for you?" she said, chuckling. She also swiped down for her menu button, adding Raven to the party. "Join in, it'll be loads more fun with other people," she said. Then, Cash joined in, talking about purple melon monsters and socks. Faeron laughed, glancing at Ryan and then back to Cash.

"Well, we were actually talking about the first boss," she said. "Right now we've got...five, including me and if Raven joins?" she asked, peering at the white-haired guy.

[Undying Curiosity]

Cash Watched as three more names popped up under Faeron's. They all seemed to be full health, and roughly all the same level. "I'm starting to feel tired so, I'm going into the town to find some food or a potion, or whatever gives you energy in this game...Anybody wanna tag along? I'm sure someone needs something from the town." Cash said as he held both his hands out, suggesting that it's a lasting offer. He looked at the time in his menu, dusk was approaching rather slowly but it was getting there.

Before he was about to walk off To the town of beginnings, he looked at the group with a semi-serious look. "Oh, By the way. I just recently added the Medicine mixing skill to my array, so if any of you find plants or ingredients that can't be cooked, please, send them my way. I'll gladly take them off your hands, If it's as easy as it sounds, then I'll have potions and poisons for you guys to as at your leisure in no time." Cash started to walk off to the Town of beginnings. Both hands were locked together at the knuckles as they rested on top of his head.

[YipeeXD]

A man sat on the brick wall opposite the group watching. He witnessed them party up, before grinning. “Yes.” He dashed forward to them cutting them off completely. “I don’t know what you are all so happy about. Either you’re foolish or have no sense of time.” He opened his menu and scrolled down. “Look. There is no log out icon.” He frowned. “I knew there would be bugs... but come on!” He laughed, almost evilly, but in a dark humorous way. “I can’t believe this. We’re stuck here... At least until the admins help us out. Although I doubt they’ve noticed... this is deliberate... i’m telling you.” He sighed, before cracking his knuckles. If you had just met him, Bachus would look and sound insane. “The name’s Bachus.” He frowned again. Bachus was a towering man piled with muscle and a booming voice. He was frightening and intimidating.

Karen jumped in fright as Bachus jumped in from nowhere. As he spoke, she panicked and opened her menu. There was no log out button. But he was right, it was probably a bug and the admins were working on it.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the ground, and every player in the game was hit in the stomach by an invisible force. Also, they all would start to glow a bright blue colour, before being teleported to a dark building. Whilst players discussed what had just happened, whether it was an ‘event’ or not, a bright red light flash rapidly above them. A resonating laugh echoed around the room, everyone was blinded with a bright light. When they could see again, they would see a shady cloud, it was black. When it spoke, it brightened and dimmed with each word. “Welcome, to SAO. I would like to say how thrilled I am to see your characters.” It paused. “Pain... threshold... level 0...” a loud beep sounded, and an automated voice confirmed the change. “Many of you will have noticed by now that the log out button is missing from your menu, this is no error. There never was one and this is a deliberate intended feature of the game.” It paused again to see the look on players’ faces. Once again, an invisible force punched every player, but this time in the chest. “That is the pain you shall experience in this ‘very real’ game. Therefore, if you die... it shall be... excruciating.” It laughed satanically. “Oh, and I forgot to say, the nerve gear on your head right now is designed to pulse a very powerful microwave through your brain, should you die here. I think this should be a great way to test your abilities.” It smirked. “There are two ways to log out. Method 1, beat the 100 floors and castle. Method 2, play my game. ‘what is that you ask?’ I’ll tell you. 1 player out of all of you, has the game shut down code installed in their copy of the game hardware. Figure out who this player is and kill them. The remaining survivors will then be able to log out. Players... good luck... and welcome to MY WORLD!” The cloud disappeared and then reappeared. “By the way, I left you all a gift in your inventory. I think it would be unfair to try and win a game without any knowledge, wouldn’t you agree?” It laughed and vanished, before the lights brightened again. They were in the town square. If a player checked their inventory, they would see an item titled, ‘book of truth’. The description said, ‘a guidebook for everything important needed to learn the basics for SAO.
Chaos let loose.

Karen held her chest in agony at the punches. They hurt just like in real life. Attacks weren’t supposed to hurt in SAO. This... this was real... she... she could die... no... it couldn’t be...

Bachus towered behind her. “I told you so.” He boomed. “Do you know how to play game like this?” She shook her head. He frowned a little and felt bad for her. “Alright.” His voice grumbled. “Come with me.” He crouched down to her level. “I wont let you die.” The truth was, Bachus needed someone to be with too if he were to survive the initial outburst. He helped her up, and they stood by the wall, just watching everyone panic and flee.

[Zarkun]

The invite pops up in front of Raven to join the party and he accepts, the four names all popping up under my own with health bars as well. They all seemed to be in good health. "Can't say I'll become a member of a guild, but I don't mind making friends." Opening his own menu, Raven swipe s through to a sub-menu and sends all of them friend requests, closing the sub-menu once he was all done. Looking around, he noticed that the number of players that had logged in had already increased. "Wow, pe-" Suddenly I could feel the wind knocked out of me and I grunt in pain, unexpected pain that shouldn't have been happening.

The voice boomed out, laughing and taunting us as it spoke. At the mention of a lack of log out button, I panic slightly and open my own menu, scrolling through to the options menu, I open the log out option and find that it's no lie. "What the hell?!" I had my mom to get back to and I'd promised my little sister I'd play chutes and ladders with her when I got off the game tonight.

This can't be happening, this can't be happening... I grunt again when the second punch impacts my chest and I growl ever so slightly in anger. This wasn't right. Why would they do this to a bunch of innocent people who only bought their game to enjoy it? When I finally recover enough to look up, I was in the Town of Beginnings in the main square.

I look to the others with a grimace on my face. "That...that didn't just happen, right?"

[CoyoteKisses]

"What?!" Faeron said, opening her menu to see that what the man had said was correct. There was no log-out option. She swallowed, her eyes downcast. It was all just a glitch. It would be fixed soon, definitely... would it? Then, there was a flash of lightning and Faeron felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She cringed, placing a hand over the point of impact as she frantically glanced at everyone. They were all glowing.. blue? The next thing she knew, Faeron was listening to some crazy-ass guy speak. Another invisible punch was dealt to the chest and she flinched again, spitting out a curse.

After the voice stopped talking, all hell broke loose. All the players ran about and she eventually soon lost track of the friends she had made just a few minutes ago. She turned round and was almost knocked over by some huge guy. She just yelled the only name she could remember at that moment. "Cash?"