Sword Art Fanfiction Online

“It's getting kinda bad out there, Asuna,” Klein reported with a grimace. “It's not like what happened in [SAO]. Most people are just sort of sitting around, but there are plenty who seem to be picking fights. We saw [Royal Guard] show up a couple of times. Some people got killed.”

Asuna winced. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss when a mecha beats a guy so hard his whole [HP Bar] goes down in two hits,” Klein said. “And they turned to sparkles. No one turns to sparkles unless it's [game over].”

Asuna frowned, one hand going down to her new rapier for reassurance. As [Equipment] went, it was actually a fairly high-level one for her level range, since more powerful weapons had level restrictions she didn't meet yet, but it was a rapier and one fit smoothly in her hand. Klein had given it to her, saying it was a drop he'd picked up before [SAO] that he'd never gotten around to getting rid off. She was fairly certain he'd picked it up for her recently. He was really sweet. Not her type, but sweet, especially when he wasn't trying so hard to impress. “Why though? I mean, why turn on each other so soon? We're all in this together?”

“Maybe they don't see it like that,” Issin, who had accompanied Klein on their scouting run, said. “We shouldn't assume things will turn out the same way it did in [SAO]. For one thing, all the starting conditions are different.”

“What do you mean?” Asuna said. She'd found it was good to say things like that instead of just nodding.

“Well, in [SAO] everyone started from the same place, on the same level,” Issin said. “Never mind the bullshit about [beta testers] having an edge. Plus we had a goal: get to the 100th floor and beat the boss to get out. Here, we've got people from all levels, all with different gear, different amounts of starting cash, different everything. We've got pre-established guilds, multiple starting points, and no goal. We have absolutely no clue how to get out. At least Kayaba told us straight out how to get out and he always played straight with us. Mostly. We something doesn't change, we're going to dissolve into anarchy.”

Asuna and Klein winced as Issin mentioned the elephant in the MMORPG. So far, no one had taken credit. Unlike last time, there was no giant hooded figure floating beneath a sky that bled digital blood, no convenient villainous exposition. Hell, unlike with Sugou at the upper floors of [Aincrad], there wasn't even a ridiculously overpowered new person they could definitely point and say, 'That guy is suspiciously overpowered! He must be a GM account!'. With many people at [level 90], that was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and they didn't have the option to use magnets.

“Damn Kayaba,” Klein said, sounding strangely wistful. “Items for sale are starting to disappear to. Either their owners are pulling them out from the resale [NP Cs] or everyone is buying everything they can get their hands on. Maybe both. Though there's still plenty of food available.”

“That is not food,” Asuna said, in the tone of a one who had maxed out the cooking skill and had managed to make soy sauce from scratch.

Klein and Issin took a wary step back. “The [NP Cs] don't seem to be running out of fruits, so we should be fine there, too,” Issin said. “A bunch of guilds were recruiting. We got a lot of dirty looks in some places. I think they were afraid we'd scoop up their recruits.”

“Guild rivalry,” Asuna groaned, rubbing her forehead. “Fantastic.”

“Actually, they're more like gangs,” Klein said. “Shiguya doesn't have a [Guild Hall], and everyone's too afraid to try and use the [Fairy Rings] to get to Akiba, so they're pretty much grouping together as color gangs. If we had spray paint, we'd already have gang graffiti marking turf.”

“We know there's been fighting for who gets to use which field zones,” Issin added. “Which makes sense, I guess. People are hogging the best places to level up. ”

Asuna became very conscious of the fact she was still [level 1]. All she had was one basic [Skill] that she didn't even really need. What good was getting a greater defensive bonus for using a shield when she never used the damned things?

It did not take long to re-accustom themselves to fighting. They just found a field no one was using and went nuts. There were several false starts, since someone would stumble in the middle of an attack, their rhythm thrown as the [System Assist] that had used to take over in [SAO] didn't. Fortunately, between Leefa and Yui they had more than enough healing capability to survive it. Kirito, of course, being the combat focused loner that he was, was the first to get over the instinct to rely on [System Assist], simply continuing the movements as he remembered them, in a strange form of muscle memory.

“Is it still muscle memory when no actual muscles were involved at any point?” Lisbeth later asked while they took a brief break.

“I have no idea,” Sinon said. “I'm a sniper, not whatever doctorate degree you need to answer that question.”

“I thought you were a [Bard]?” Leafa said.

“I'm mostly taking the archery-boosting skills,” Sinon said.

“Yeah, well, watch out,” Lisbeth said. “This isn't [SAO] anymore. You're not the only one in the game who can use a bow!”

"Yes,[Assassins] like Kirito can as well," Sinon said. "Unlike [Kannagi] and [Guardians]. It'll be something we'll share, just the two of us…"

Blonde and pink eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Onii-chan's not the bow type," Leafa said, somewhat weakly.

During this they ascertained that one of the changes their still-unknown evil death game mastermind had made was removing the [pain absorption], meaning everything hurt a lot more than they were used to. [SAO] had some pain, but it was never anything worse than the equivalent of a light slap or pressing down hard on your skin with a finger nail and scratching. Kirito, who had once had his hand cut off, said that losing sensation in his hand afterwards had been worse. Here, the pain was all pretty intense, but had a strange logic to it. The pain seemed to correlate with what percentage of their [HP] had just been lost. Losing one [HP] was barely an itch. Losing, say, 10 percent felt like a serious blow. Losing more…

Kirito had done that strong, silent, broody action-hero thing he did that was simultaneously annoying as hell and a real turn-on as Yui healed him.

Healing felt strange, but pleasantly so. It was like going into a just-right air conditioned room on a hot summer day, and the coolness washed into your hot muscles, sinking in and leaving them refreshed. It was like being dirty and taking a bath, all the ick just washing away. It was like a good defragmenting and memory cleaning, all the useless temp files getting deleted and their slots ready to be reassigned.

"Yeah… we'll take your word for it, Yui-chan," Lisbeth said.

After having Klein and Issin get the word out to prepare for an attack, Asuna had gone over their inventory with one of the former middle-floor farming players, Drizzt2154, a currently [Level 63 Elf Druid] with a magic bag. Though theoretically available to anyone of high enough level who took the quest to gather the materials, they only had five in the group right then, one of which belonged to a little kid who had the look of a completist. All their purchased foodstuffs were currently in the other four bags, and every so often one of the kids– child or adult– would try to talk their keepers to give them just one apple, just to hold them off until lunch, please. Fortunately, the players were made of stern stuff backed by high-level equipment.

During their discussion Drizzt2154-san had assured her that they had enough for a few more meals, but had been quietly disapproving that they had needed to actually buy their food from [NP Cs]. Not only was it limiting, since they had to pay with [yoru], without any income it was also going to be bad for morale. Besides, as a farmer, it was always better to cut out the middle man and get your drops yourself. She had been about to organize a small farming party to, at the very least, get more money for them, and perhaps see what drops were decently edible, while at the same time maybe finally get a little [EXP] under her belt, when one of the lookouts they'd posted had come running, yelling about how they 'had incoming'.

Asuna made a mental note to take what pseudo-military jargon everyone thought they knew and at least make a standardized list of meanings for her budding guild-esque group. She was 44% sure that wasn't how you used that phrase.

For a moment, her left hand gripped the rapier sheathed at her waist. While it was relatively strong equipment, it was made for players between levels 1 to 10, and thus kinda pathetic when viewed by anyone at twice that. Given how quickly Yui and Kirito had been racking up levels as she'd watched, she'd identified Elder Tale was relatively forgiving when it came to leveling up… but that wasn't much consolation given she hadn't had a chance to do so yet.

So, a fight at first level. Good sword, but start gear everywhere else. Few skills, only one of which was offensive in nature, though the stat boost from [Fencer Style] worked very well with her equipment.

She tried to confidently tell herself this would merely make the fight an even one, but that was no help. Sportsmen might make a big deal of 'fair' fights being just and good, but gamers, and especially [Clearers], knew that the more things were tipped in your favor, the better. Everyone else was going to cheat, after all. The damned computer certainly would be.

Were these events occurring in, say, a history where [Sword Art Online] hadn't bugged and required them to reach the 100th floor to leave, but instead in one where, say, Asuna had been trapped by an unscrupulous pervert (yes, there are as things as scrupulous perverts) to be his digital sex slave, among other people, and she had found herself unknowingly going on a quest with her unknowing brother, while they unwittingly violated the bounds of blood in every inn between them and their destination, Leafa would have had flashbacks at Kirito's very Asuna-obsessed turn of mood.

“Kirito, Asuna's a big girl. She can take care of herself,” Lisbeth said, going for the not-unreasonable-considering-the-person-involved feminine empowering argument. Sisters before misters in all things not involving honorably fighting over the same guy, after all.

“She was just going to make her account that day,” Kirito said. “We were going to meet up to power-level with Klein's friends, remember?”

Sinon blinked. “Klein has friends? I thought Kirito was his only friend?”

“Actually, for a long time it was more like Klein was papa's only friend,” Yui said helpfully. “Klein even invited papa to join his guild.”

“Klein has a guild?”

“You should hang out with him more, get to know him better,” Leafa said. “Klein is actually a deep and interesting person.”

“Stop trying to hook me up because you feel threatened by me,” Sinon said flatly.