[IC] Sword Art Online: Aftermath[DEAD]

[link23454]

Pururut

She couldn't wrap her head around the situation. Two boys who she had messed with just showed up, freaked out after seeing her, and then completely forgot she was there the moment the guy they called Keisuke walked out of the store. Not only that, but it seemed as though the newbie kid inside the store saw a hooded figure looking at all of them, as he rushed out the store, passing Pururut, and pushing this 'Keisuke' to the ground, preventing a dagger from striking him. The newbie then proceeded to yell at the hooded figure, but that person ran away before the newbie could get his footing to catch up to him. Instead, the newbie stopped in front of the boys on the ground and confronted them, revealing why they were truly there.

Pururut felt ignored. She's used to being ignored, but this new feeling just didn't feel right. However, due to her last plee inside the store to the newbie and Keisuke, she didn't know what to say to anyone, so she kept quite and watched as the events unfolded.

[Robo27]

Once the newbie had gotten off of Kei he immediately got up and off the floor, he knew that just now he was saved from a very bad predicament, considering that the throwing dagger that was used at him did have a paralysis poison attached to it. He sighed to himself with a bit of an angry tone and looked down at the two that were being chewed out by the newbie. They then proceeded to explain the situation seeing as they were now in backed into a corner. Kei sighed one more time before he got the two low-levels up off the floor with a helping hand.「Get up and now get away from my sight I really do not want to see you two, I am showing mercy because I could always just cut you two down but I am not that type of player or person. So while I am in a good mood move on and never appear before me again. Also a tip never get involved with a LC member there really is only one fate once you do, death.」

[link23454]

The boys didn't seem to mind Keisuke's threat, but decided to get up and leave anyways. As they disappeared around the corner of a building, the atmosphere became much lighter, and the smell of bloodlust disapated.

For the time the players stood there, staring at each other. In the mean time, other parties around the area wintessed everything happen with their own eyes. As they looked some of them cheered out, "WAY TO GO, NEWBIE!!" and, "GREAT SAVE!!", as well as, "LOOK AT THE GIRL GO." They started cheering and whistling.

They were all a little confused about the witnesses reactions, especially Karen, since she knew she was the only girl there. "See what I mentioned in the store?" Link spoke up, grabbing Keisuke's and Karen's attention, with a look of disdain. He appeared to dislike the "praise" he was getting as the other players cheered for a girl.

Meanwhile, in other places, the two boys arrived at their meeting place with their cloaked buddy. "If that little bitch wasn't there, I wouldn't have freaked out."
"Dude, that's a lame excuse. I wanted to kill her too, but did you see me lose my shit?"
"Hey now boooys. Don't be hard on yourselves so much. Things happen that we can't control. It's all apart of life." The cloaked man sounded pretty sarcastic until his next sentence, "However, you did run away without completing the job, and therefor I require some form of compensation. I don't know what do you boys think, huh?" The boys looked at each other in fear of what was about to happen.

They sat there, waiting for the inevitable to happen, as the cloaked man continued to threaten them. "LET ME KILL THEM ALL!!" Anger Boy shouted out in fear, expecting to be hit from blurting out as he closed his eyes.

A few seconds passed, and he opened his eyes slowly to find the man smiling at him. "That's the proper response. Honestly," the man goes on as he materializes his dagger, "I figured you two to be spineless weaklings, but..." The man made a short pause before sinking his dagger into Level-Head Boy's skull, "... I guess I should have seen the talent you could offer to the guild, boy." Anger boy watched as his buddy was killed by this man. Before he died, he blurted out, "Why? Jeffry..." before dying on the spot, breaking up into data particles. Anger Boy, or Jeffry, seemed not to care as his buddy died before his very eyes, and the cloaked man took notice of this, "See, that's the talent we want, Jain! That's the compassion we, Laughing Coffin, have for the people of the world! Now come! There's much work to be done, Jain."

Elsewhere in the world, the game continued about its usual routine. Every once in a while, newbies would spawn in, players went about their own business, and so on. World Leaders were announcing bigger and better ways to find LC. Life seemed to go on as if LC never existed, almost as if life had returned to normal.

Soon, however, the first floor would change for the better.

[link23454]

It's been three days since the players met each other. They've been going about their usual business, whatever they would be doing after their situation.

As far as the real world goes, news reports say that a group of people who might belong to LC have been found in Germany, holding hundreds of players hostage. Their demands are for more bandwidth for their website and for their game, as well as letting them escape without being caught or killed, or else they will kill all of the players simultaniously. World Officals are gathering to determine the best course of action for handling this situation.

In game, the first floor has a new story going around about the female newbie who took on LC and survived. They keep going on about how "she" pushed The Monster Fang to the ground in order to prevent a dagger from striking him, as well as how "she" handled "her"self.

As for Jeffry, his life is becoming.... a little more.... interesting, so to speak. Soon, the players will know what he's been up to. It won't be hard to see.

By the way, speaking of the website, the following numbers can be seen on the main, and only, page.

Playing: 17,278,751
Active: 15,658,200
Dead: 1,620,551

As for the list of names at the bottom of the page, only one name stands out to Pururut.

SaMoa

link23454

Link hasn't signed in for a few days, mainly because he was afraid of the people around the first floor telling stories about him. He's seen similar situations like it where someone was a hero, and then they were never left alone until they gave up on the game all-together. The feeling of giving up on a game made Link sick, and his gamer spirit wouldn't allow him to give up, even if the other players became annoying.

Either way, before getting set up in his room, Link decided to bring out a second computer. He was going to try something this time around, hopefully shedding some light on the coding of this game. Being a computer programmer, this was a challenge he set for himself, mainly so that players would have a fair assumption of how to actually play this game. Once finishing his set up, he fired up the game and logged in.

[Robo27]

Kei didn't really change his routine he did what he needed and then would come onto the game to do his usual routine online, which was to go around and kill mobs for short bursts and then explore areas, he continually did this for the past three days.

「Things sure have calmed down since that whole issue from three days ago...」」Kei was now on his way back from the fields, into the nearest town to sell off random stuff he gained from the monsters he had just mopped up. Just like the past three days.

[Gin]

Mikael had taken the event from a couple of days ago rather easily despite feeling rather disturbed by it. But there was no rest in what to do, trying to report the event to the police was pointless as they refered to the interpol operation which was doing their best to try and help out the web crisis on the SAO case. Their europeen joint operations had problems with maintaining their forces and cooperation with countries such as the US, Germany, France, Finland and several other countries in and outside of the EU.
While progress was being made the amount of data to analyze for them added a load of work which heavily delayed the plans for counter measures. Mikael had spent more time catching up on the situation as a whole for europe than he had been able to act in-game, even going to the extent of skipping a few classes.
However it had been worth his time to catch up on the bigger picture of things.
Mikael's own intended actions was set for him, being brave to a fault it was time to weave a trap to lure more of the LC out into play. What to do though? the way things were going outside SAO were anarchistic movements appearing all around, both small and major ones, but their goal had to be greater than such...
What could they gain from the chaos? A smokescreen for said theorized goal?

However what disturbed Mikael the most were how smooth and steadily the LC was advancing.

Draging his fingers through his hair Mikael checked the equipment and stretched his arms before diving in with his NerveGear.

Spawning in town once more for the third time since the event (never venturing to try and advance his character during those times but rather trying to collect information from other players though without any success. All he heard was that some so called random girl had APPEARENTLY, though false, BEATEN an potential LC suspect to a bloody pulp a couple of days ago or so).
Lets see if if I can nail a message to that beginner from a couple of days ago. That smart kid... What was his name again?

Frustration grew at Mikael quickly as he just couldn't remember the name...
"Aaaah, got freaking damn it... *Vad i helvete heter han nu igen?!" Mikael yelled throwing out his Swedish into the open town square as if someone would hear his prayers...

Swedish translation

Hope this was an okey thing to do?
If so you won't see this much either way, just on rare events of frustrations involving Mikael and will always come with an translation.

*1 "What the hell was his name again!?"

[link23454]

link23454

---

After logging in, Link begins looking through his inventory, checking his stats, etc. He routinely does this every time he spawns into a game. Taking these few seconds to check his things left plenty of time for a few other players to notice him. As they approached Link, he began to get an uneasy feeling, not so much as threatening, but more like an unwelcome guest in your home kind of feeling. Then, one of the players began to speak, "Hey, aren't you that girl who took on that LC player a few days back? Everyone on the first floor is talking about you."

Before opening his mouth, Link paused for a second, and slammed his hand against his forehead. Rubbing down his face, he began, "Okay. Let me clear this up first. I'm NOT a girl." The two players became surprised, looked at each other, then back at Link as he continued, "Next, I didn't take on LC. The bastard ran away before anyone had a chance to catch him. The one's I confronted that day, I don't even think they were a part of LC. So...."

The other player interrupted Link, "Look. First, let me apologize for assuming you were a girl. Even though you kind of look like one, your voice is a dead give-away. Second, we were watching in the crowd that day, and we saw you push The Monster Fang to the ground in order to save him, so that in itself deserves recognition, especially from a newbie." The players agreed with each other as Link continued to listen, reluctantly.

They both went on and on about how cool he was saving 'The Monster Fang', then out of the blue, another player screamed, "Aaaah, got freaking damn it... *Vad i helvete heter han nu igen?!" The two players became startled, and lost their train of though. However, Link used it as an excuse to get away from the boys, saying that he had to go and get some things. Link also recognized the voice, and he wanted to be sure he wasn't hallucinating.

[Robo27]

It was quiet funny, ever since the incident from a few days ago Kei suddenly started to notice when people would give him a quick peak before turning away, some instances groups of people would give him a quick look before turning to whisper to each other as if Kei was someone that was hard to approach when in reality he was a easy to approach guy.「Honestly how did I not catch onto my own fame...?」He questioned this not because he wanted to gloat about it, rather he just really wanted to know how he managed to gain such a reputation for just being one of the front line players that really had nothing going for him other than being able to do ridiculous hours of solo grinding. he scratched his head in frustration before letting out a small sigh of annoyance.「Whatever...if I get the chance I will ask around, until then I will just do what I usually always do, and that's be like any other player.」

Ever since he logged in, he had decided on leveling up his dual sword skill if possible, as such he was casually making his way down a few levels so as to ensure the most efficiency with the weapons he had.

[Gin]

Getting calmer Mikael pulled himself together and passed his both his hands through that hair of his.
I guess trying to gain my first couple of levels today would not be too much of a shame.
Such Mikael, visibly known as Eld started moving towards the town gate, trying to pump himself as a matter of preperations for his training.
The other guy from before constantly on his mind, still trying to remember the name of him... Awkwardly slow, that is how slow it felt.

:::24 hours ago:::

"Mikaeeeel, why don't you stay with us for the evening... You are always off to your own."
Mikael sighed, "Ugh, sorry Sofia I got more work to do, living life is not for free after all." Mikael gave a smile to the woman handing him his pizza.
"It can't be helped now can it? Well you know where to find me would you change your mind."
She smiled hesitantly, passively as if disappointed by the outcome, "Mh, later then... Ciaaaaao."

[Rogue Colm]

Cecelia headed back to town after training herself in her style of fighting. It was a little hard on her stamina at first, but she wanted to make it as unique as possible. Chipping away at an enemy's health while moving around quickly was difficult, especially since the mobs here didn't really attack back. Or pay any attention to her for that matter. Plus, she didn't really have a hard-hitting finisher yet, so that also puts a damper on the style. Almost at town, she can see some girl walking away form two confused-looking boys. Wait, isn't that the girl from that report about stopping some supposed LC members? Huh, maybe.
She notes that there's also a sword 'n' shield wielding guy heading out of town as she's entering. She wanted to ask him if he could confirm/deny whether the girl is the one from the report, but that would involve talking to someone, and Cecelia doesn't really like talking to people she doesn't know. Well, I am just starting out, and I'll need some help at some point... Nah, not right now. I need to focus on getting my own style down before I get help from someone or help someone out.
Remembering her lack of finisher and how incomplete it made her style, her head hung a little lower. Shaking it off, she sped up to the town gate in hopes of figuring out about healing items. Hey, that's what I can do. Ask about that and lead into the question about that girl. Is she heading to the town gate, too? Deciding that was the best idea, she waved down the defensive swordsman.
"Sir? Excuse me. I just started a while ago, and I was wondering if you knew where I'd find some healing stuff. The way I fight doesn't really allow for me to take many hits, so something to keep my health up would be awesome."

[link23454]

link23454

As Link turned the corner to see who was yelling, he turned too quickly and ran right into the source of it, falling back and hitting the ground. If this were really anime, he would look like the stereotypical 'high school girl with toast in her mouth,' minus the toast of course. Quickly regaining his senses, he quickly responded, "Crap! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to...... Oh! It was you after all. Hey, Eld: wait! No I'm still sorry I ran into you like that! I was in a hurry to......." Link dramatically paused and looked back at the two guys, who were giving him a funny look, almost as if to laugh at him. "Either way," Link began, turning back to Mikael, "I never took the time to give you my player address. Why don't we go ahead and do that now?" Link asked as he pulled up his player menu.

A short flash back to the previous situation, the following took place after Anger Boy and Level-Head Boy walked away and out of site.

After regaining his senses, Keisuke shook his head with confusion. He hadn't realized he gained fame for his grinding, nor could he understand how everyone kept it 'hush-hush.' Karen had taken too much in from situation and couldn't take anymore, so she immediately logged out. As for Link and Mikael they took this time to gather themselves as well. A few moments passed, and Link came up to Keisuke. "Well, looks like you've got a name for yourself, 'Monster Fang'."
Keisuke replied, "Yeah, it would seem so. And I didn't even notice either." Keisuke didn't seem too happy about his situation. "Anyways, I'm going to head out. You two going to be okay by yourselves?"
With a smirk, Link responded, "You might want to worry about yourself. After all, they were after you." As Link pointed this out, Keisuke nodded, waved, and then left. Link turned back to find Mikael..... logging out. 'Crap, he should have waited and exchanged player ID's with me. Dammit!' Link thought to himself. 'Oh well. Guess I should go test out the combat system at least.' Link began heading to the town gate, and he began hearing murmurs from people passing by, "Hey, did you hear? Some girl took on an LC member and survived. It happened right outside....", "Did you hear about that girl? Taking on LC and living to tell about it must have been......." Rumors kept coming up left and right as Link approached the gate. Finally, standing in front of the gate one player came up and snapped a picture with a capture cube. "Hey there miss! We hear you're the one that took on LC and survived! Can you tell us what it was like? Were you frightened? What did the guys look like? How....." The guy went on and on about the LC and 'her' surviving. It finally pushed Link to his limit. Without hesitation, he pulled up his player menu, scrolled all the way to the bottom, and then logged out. "Miss wai......." the guy attempting to say something was cut off as Link reappeared in his own room.

From Mikael's view, he could tell Link was trying like hell to get away from the two boys staring at him.

---

A defensive sword man, about to head out of the first floor town, gets stopped by a beautiful girl. "Sir? Excuse me. I just started a while ago, and I was wondering if you knew where I'd find some healing stuff. The way I fight doesn't really allow for me to take many hits, so something to keep my health up would be awesome," she asked him.
With a short look of confusion, the swordsman replies, "Um, yeah. You might want to look or a new class set if you're taking too many hits. There's no more natural regen. After the announcement from the LC guild, it seems to be turned off. And healing item; well if you ever find one, you better damn well keep it safe. They're almost non-existent. I've never even seen anyone with such items, so you're at a loss there, as the shops don't sell them either." Really quick, gesturing across the square, "Why don't you ask that girl? She's the one who was said to take on an LC member and survive it. She might have some sort of secret or something."

[Gin]

While strolling towards the town gate someone suddenly bumbed into him, the guy, Link. Quick as it happened Link was fast up on to his feet talking nervously about things before by merely looking towards the guys he ran away from explained to Mikael what was going on adding an firey looking towards them, enough so that if they had half a brain they should stop their harrasments. Nodding in a reply to that Link also asked him to befriend him through SAO.
"Hey, absolutely..." Mikael accepted the trade of personal info and continued, "Link, that's it, Link is your name." Mikael slapped his own forehead, "Finally I can let that mystery rest." he claimed with a smile.
"So what do you want to do? Get into combat? I would personal love to climb the ladder some and start hunting some you know what out of their stupid hideout and get the owning going." Mikael starting waving his fists around in a controlled manner... Maybe even realizing how stupid he was looking at the moment, even further rude to assume that their friendship was up at the level of talking in such a manner.

[Robo27]

Once Kei was down to a floor that he knew he would have no problem grinding with his dual swords he immediately opened up his player equipment and tapped around until he got into his weapon section. He scrolled past the various weapons he kept until he found the dual swords he wanted to use, right away he tapped on the item and a little window popped up in front of him asking if he was sure he wanted to equip this weapon. Obviously he tapped ok. His previous katana dematerialized into small blue polygons, going back into his inventory. Then came out the dual swords, both swords crossing on his back.「Alright time to level up this skill.」He reached behind his back and took a hold of the two hilts of the swords and drew them, bringing them in front of him. Right away he engaged the monsters before him, using his usual method of fighting with dual swords with these said mobs. Whenever he would finish off a sword skill, killing off the monster he was engaged with he would give a few seconds to catch his breath while also waiting for the cooldown on his skills to pass. Once his skills were all refreshed he went in and took on the next mob.

[Rogue Colm]

After thanking the guy mentioning the girl to take on an LC member, Cecelia remembers some of the bulletins she'd read about the incident. She doubted all of them were extremely accurate, but figured that the other girl would have at least stood up to the guy. She interrupts the conversation between the girl and a guy, who matches some descriptions the bulletins describe as being involved in the LC incident, with her own desire to take down horrible people. And it'd feel like a real, true adventure. Much better than her real life.

Pointing at the previously mentioned girl, Cecelia starts in on their conversation. "Hunting bad dudes? Those guys, like the ones that tried to kill someone but got taken on by you? If so, I'd like to help. I'm kinda new, and am trying to dual-knives for super fast attacks. All I got so far for skills is one set of attack speed boosts. Lasts about fifteen seconds, but is worth it." Stopping from her flustered thoughts of why they'd really care for her playstyle, Cecelia continues back on her original point. "Anywho, if you guys need a party member, maybe a scout, I could do. Also, is there really, like, no healing at all...?" Running out of thought train, Cecelia's sentence dropped there, leaving a phantom question mark on her statement. Feeling embarrassed, she chuckled nervously and shifted her weight around as she looked from one player to the other.

[link23454]

link23454, Eld, and Cecelia

Link, raising his hand to open his player menu to log out, forces himself to stop. Instead, he brushes the side of his face with his hand and lets out a very obviously irritated sigh. Then, he begins, "Eld, you might want to cover your ears for a sec. Now," Eld heading Link's warning, Link continues, "First off: I AM NOT A FUCKING GIRL!!! Second," Link continues as though he hadn't just yelled at the top of his lungs, "the guy ran away. No one fought anyone, so I didn't do what everyone says I did, besides save a life. Third, as for hunting 'bad dudes,' we're both still level one, so there's not going to be much of that. Fourth, and this time I'm actually happy, thanks for sharing the info about your stat stuff. Fifth, by the looks of it, there's only one skill that can increase a natural regen for you. However, it's only one every ten seconds and apparently has some sort af requirement before you can access it. Finally, I personlly don't care, but I'll leave the party up to Eld. Hey, you cool with that?" Link says, while grabbing Eld's attention.

Eld smiled, "I, umh, sure the party, we will need to recruit balloons, beer and people. Farming music will add a flavor to us and bam, we are wrapped up to go." he laughed briefly, but changed his expression from light hearted to serious stone.
"Bad guys indeed, if you wanna help please do, but you are responsible for your own safety... Anyway the name is Eld, nice to meet you."
Eld kept his expression while letting the more gentle tone of his voice speak for his genuine intention.

Turning his eyes onto Link, "You know, now that you said it, you do look a bit female-ish." Eld broke out a wide smile.

Link broke out in a girlish voice, face turning red, "Oh, that's not funny, Eld! Not funny!" Embarrased, Link gave a glare to Eld, basically asking his to take back what he just said. "Hmph," Link continued, still embarrased. "Well, you heard him, girly. Here's the party invite." Link scrolled open his character menu, pressed a few options, and a screen popped up in front of Cecelia, asking if she would join or not.

After having not said anyhing due to being frightened by Link's yelling, Cecelia immedieately went to trying not to laugh out loud at Eld's comment about the stuff we needed "for a party". Seeing the invite, Cecelia touches the accept button, thanking the two for letting her help out. "And, uh, ser. I've only read reports and bulletins. I couldn't have known you were male. I knew they were a bit dodgy, but not that they'd confuse you for a girl. Though I do agree that you do have a bit of an effeminate charm." Unable to control it anymore, Cecelia broke out into a fit of giggles. Remembering that she hadn't even told them her name or anything, she calmed her giggling to fix that. "By the way, I'm Silver_Shadow114. In-game I go by either word: Silver or Shadow or whatever you'd care to call me. 'slong as it's not mean."

Link glares at Cecelia breifly before turning toward the gate, "Well, let's get going. I want to collect as much data as I can before I have to log out." From his facial expressions, he made it blatantly obvious he was trying to forget the things Cecelia and Eld said about him looking like a girl.
Cecelia follows after, still trying to keep from occasionally giggling. "Cool. What data do ya need?"
"Anything." As Link began explaining, he physically seemed to completely forget his aggrivation about being called a girl, "Literally anything will do. My goal is to get a full guide done on this game. So any information on stats, attack patterns, and the likes will do."
Interested by his quest for knowledge, Cecelia looked back into her stats. "Awesome. I like optimizing stats no matter what game I'm in, so I know anyone else who does would like a guide for stats-to-class optimization. I would gladly help with that" Smiling just at the thought of finding out how to optimize everything for each weapon class, Cecelia's mind starts swirling with ideas.
"Well then," Link began by pointing at Eld, "I already know he's using a sword and shield. What about you?"
"Dual knives. I have maxed out speed and dodging, so I plan to use consecutive hits to maximize damage output rather than heavy hits." Looking for a sign of a weapon, Cecelia asks "what about you?"
Link looks confused by the question, "What do you mean? My weapons are right here," He says, holding up his hands.
Speechless for a moment, Cecelia finally manages "Unarmed...?"
"Yeah," Link continues. "I need to know if the system has implimented unhanded combat so that others don't make the mistake if it doesn't. Can't be making mistakes when your life is on the line, you know?" Links face turns bright for a second, then back to serious, "Alright, let's do this!"
After a moment of confusion by Link's fluster, Cecelia smiles. "Sweet! Time to... er... level up?"
"Right. Now about your weapons..." Link began to ask as all three walked through the gates and out into the first floor field.

The first floor field; a vibrant color display of reds, blues, greens, and yellows, all as far as the eye can see. Grassy field strewn with apple trees stretch across the landscape. Some players could be seen outside the city gates, just going about their own business. Some mosters, mostly bees and wolves, could be seen roaming the fields as well.
As the three continued, Link kept asking question after question about Cecelia's experience with the game thus far, and she kept answering every single one without hesitation. Eventually, Link sighs, "Well, I don't think I'll be able to really understand anything else until we start fighting. What say you two?"
"It's the only way we're going to get anywhere close to those bastards. Let's do it," Eld exclaims.
The grin Cecelia had sustained while talking about stats and the technical side of battle widened when Link mentioned going out and fighting. "Now we're talkin. Time to put these ol' kitchen knives to use."
"That's right. You don't have the basic daggers. I wanted to ask; where did you get those if you're just starting? I thought you could only get the basic stuff in town." The way Link sounded made sure Eld could hear the suspense in his voice.
"Well, quickness helps with aspects outside of battle, too." Flipping and twirling the knives in her hands, Cecelia's mouth tilts up a little more, and gets a glimmer in her eyes.

[Robo27]

Kei's mob grind ended just the way he expected with a decent amount of character experience gain as well as a decent amount to weapon level experience gain. It was just as he had expected seeing as these monsters were a good few levels below the usual. He also didn't gain any items that were any worth to him, rather everything was to under-leveled for him to use. Once he made his way into a small town on the floor he was on he immediately opened up his menu and went through the various equips he looted from his hunt. He sold off anything that was a Miscellaneous item, keeping the rest. Usually he would have sold them off regardless of their rarity but this time he had a reason to keep them and it was because he felt he needed to repay the guy that had saved him from becoming a LC victim the other day. Obviously Kei did not know the players' name, rather he was having a hard time remembering as he didn't get a good look at the players face. His only saving grace was coincidentally bumping into him somewhere on the first or lower floors.

He sighed to himself as he motioned his hand up to the upper corner of the inventory window, closing it out. Once he was all set he made sure his health was in a safe spot and made his way back down to the first floor as he always did after a grind.

It was a quick expedition back down to the first floor, Kei had no problems taking out enemies as he descended the floors, obviously since they got weaker and weaker as he got closer to the first floor. It was not long before he was on the first floor's main field. He released the tension in his hands that held his dual swords and slowly strolled along the field taking out any mobs with a single slash of his sword. As he continued to make his way across the field he looked up to see a party of three. They looked familiar but at first glance Kei was not able to realize that two out of the three of them he had met before. He shrugged off the sight of the three and went back to casually making his way back to the town.

[link23454]

link23454

Link, still unable to shake the feeling he got from Cecelia and her weapons, all of a sudden got a different, familiar feeling. He looked around for a second, and what do you know, The Monster Fang was walking towards the town gate. Shrugging off the current situation, Link turns and flags down Keisuke, "HEY, MONSTER FANG! OVER HERE!" Remembering his own irritation over his own "fame," Link suddenly turns back a little with a face of guilt, as though he did something wrong. Slowly, he turns back, "SORRY! IT'S KEISUKE, RIGHT!?"

Even though he felt a little guilty calling Keisuke by his 'fame name,' Link couldn't help but wonder what would have really happened that day if he hadn't interfered. Not to mention, he also couldn't understand something. The other girl player there that day hadn't been talked about in town, nor was she seen either at the store they visited or sitting in the spawn area tree she was hiding in. Out of gamer habit, Link asks, "HEY, IS THAT ONE GIRL WITH YOU TODAY?!"

[Gin]

Eld had followed along mostly remaining quite for a while now, scouting for potential targets in the field to go up against.
Suddenly spotting a few wolves roaming about he was just about to give the call when he heard Link calling upon that stronger guy from a few days ago.
While a little annoyed Eld felt some of his weighty thoughts sliding off his self inflicted burden, Atleast I know that he is alright now, less of a concern for me. and he was truly reliefed to see him well, yet it also raised a flag, Mikael was going to have to work harder in order to gain in on Keisuke a frontliner of this SAO VRMMORPG, even if Keisuke had been targeted by LC meaning he was an attractive target for them, it would have to take more skill and levels in order to lure more of the LC out... Tsk...
"Ey, Link..." Eld had a concerned face upon himself, it was probably going to lead to a question but at that moment Eld couldn't muster his own suspicions.
No matter how he twisted and turned the possabilities behind Keisuke, it was hard to eliminate him from suspicion, atleast according to Eld's mind.
But in cases like this Mikael rarely hesitated, so why did he do so now... Why? The question could be mauled over and over, why?
Well, in all honesty, if Mikael was completely honest with himself, Keisuke is way stronger than Eld by alot too, Eld didn't like being in the frontlines by mind and by mind only.
Thus, the likely hood of his own jellousy clouding his rational judgement was way off the charts. It sucked to be weak, he had been or rather felt weak most of the times growing up. Complexed by weakness yet good and modest, now adays being a top student and popular to a fair degree Mikael finds it hard to acknowledge that he himself is not the strongest among all, that his own ordeal was not unique or a singular road for a chosen hero. Friends, intelligence and strenght was not enough, especially here in the world of VR. So much more mattered, more entusiasm, dedication and personal will. Rocking top tier was more than armor and levels, but it is the start of it all...
Biting it together, forcing his concerns and questionable suspicions away from his head he broke into a smile. "You see Silver, that guy is the dude that Link saved from the LC in all those rumors you have heard about." Eld said and turned towards Silver with a grin, forced but some what believable.

[Robo27]

As Kei inched closer and closer towards the first floor town gates, he heard a voice not too far away.The voice was familiar and what the voice called out was all to familiar as well. From the male's mouth came the famed name 'Monster Fang' Kei stopped dead in his tracks before he shot around towards the direction of said voice. Halfway through his turn the same voice called out again but this time there was a small correction, instead of addressing Kei by 'Monster Fang' he used 'Keisuke.' Once Kei's full attention was on the source of the voice he immediately recognized two out of the three of them. It was the two males players he met not too long ago. It was an easy recognize since he had a basic idea of what their avatars had looked like that day.「Hey just who I was looking for!」He didn't mind the fact he was called 'Monster Fang' he brushed it off and immediately walked towards the group. Once he was within a few meters of the group of players he noticed the unfamiliar face of the group.「First it was that one blue haired girl, and now now a blonde one? Did you guys do something to anger her too?」Obviously he was kidding as he let out a light laugh before being hit with a question. It was about the blue haired one from the other day. Upon hearing the question Kei immediately shook his responding with a no and then followed up with another response.「The last time I saw her was the last time you two saw her as well.」He shrugged before turning his head slightly to the other male that went by Eld. He looked as if he was deep in thought especially as he stared Kei down, at first Kei felt a bit awkward but immediately brushed it off as he did not want to cause an ordeal over something that was probably very insignificant. it was not long before Eld turned his attention away from Kei and to the girl he called Silver. He then opened his mouth and had said something about Kei's fame and how it had caused him to be targeted by a LC member. Kei immediately jumped up and said something.「Hey now let's not scare her into thinking being anywhere near me means being targeted.」

[Rogue Colm]

Cecelia looks at the arriving player, who looks far too overlevelled for this area. Hearing Eld mention that Link saved the guy, she mused aloud "He doesn't look like he'd need saving by anyone, especially here. But, I guess it's horses for courses." Cringing at Link's volume, Cecelia nudges him and chuckles a bit. "Maybe a little louder, I don't think Her Majesty could heard you, mate. Geez." Moving her attention to the arriving, overlevelled player, Cecelia smirks. "A bit of fun comes from having targeted company, that. I don't care really, but it's well good to have company that isn't fulla' twits." Her smile-ish smirk faltering, Cecelia thinks to her life outside SAO. Just working to make rent. This game being her only escape. It's always the saddest aspect of her life. Shaking herself mentally, she introduces herself. "Well, I'm Cecelia, SilverShadow. Pleasure. We're off to level ourselves up a bit, and I assume my playstyle is gonna get dissected as well. And what other girl?"