Riiing—
Click!
"Ugh..."
Morning. Kazuma smacked the blaring alarm clock, then sat up and rubbed his sleepy eyes.
"Gah... is this the start of another fulfilling day...?"
After a quick stretch, he got out of bed and opened the living room door. His eyes took in the view of a home just over twenty pyeong in size—surprisingly spacious for a place occupied by exactly one person.
The apartment looked, in generous terms, neat. In less generous terms, barren.
He opened the fridge, threw together breakfast with the few side dishes he had, washed up, changed into his school uniform, and headed out the door.
On the way to school, Kazuma looked at the same scenery he always saw, the same familiar faces, the traffic lights changing on schedule, the students he always passed at the same time—and once again hoped for an uneventful day.
"Yawn... today's Thursday, right? So I just have to survive one more day...?"
Letting out a long yawn, he slowly made his way toward the school building now coming into view.
Every day was pretty much the same, but today felt a little special. The biggest reason was obvious: tomorrow, that "special game" would finally begin.
"All right then~ For the sake of tomorrow's fun, guess I'll start another perfectly ordinary day at school..."
Muttering to himself, he reached his classroom, opened the back door, and naturally headed for his seat in the farthest corner of the last row before setting down his bag.
As if to prove he had once again timed his arrival perfectly, the bell rang the moment he sat down.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Lunch break, after classes. Kazuma bought a pork cutlet sandwich from the school store and returned to his seat. Just as he was about to tear open the wrapper and fill his empty stomach, a voice came from beside him.
"Hi, Kazuma. Eating alone again today?"
"Hey, Kazuha... though saying 'again today' like that hurts in a pretty understated way."
Kazuma gave a bitter smile and turned toward the girl greeting him in that bright voice.
She had modest black hair falling to her waist, a figure that was full where it should be and slim where it should be, and sparkling eyes that looked at Kazuma with open innocence.
Her name was Kudo Kazuha. Fourteen years old, student council president, pretty, smart, and talented—in the real world, she was the kind of person you could honestly call "perfect."
They had started crossing paths around the middle of their first year of middle school, and for some reason she kept showing up around him. Stranger still, she was unusually kind to him.
Since Kazuma was the type who never really bothered to socialize first, he always felt a little detached even in his own class. The sad result was that he had basically no friends. So Kazuha, who came over to greet him almost every day, was someone he was genuinely grateful for.
Sometimes, when she talked to him, the jealous stares from the boys who admired her felt sharp enough to physically hurt... but that wasn't really her fault, so he let it go.
"Well, of course~ It's not like you talk much, Kazuma. More importantly, you never leave anyone a chance to talk to you. Even today, you showed up exactly when class started!"
She folded her arms and puffed out her cheeks, expressing a full-body "Seriously!"
As if each little motion reflected her mood, the braid hanging from one side of her hair bounced with her movements.
"I can't really argue with that... I'm just not great in the mornings, so I always wake up at the last second..."
"Honestly... that's not good, you know? Though I guess this is our usual conversation..."
"Haha, true enough."
As he casually started opening the wrapper, Kazuha still didn't leave. Instead, she kept glancing at him. Did she still need something?
On top of that, for some reason, the girls scattered around the classroom were also sneaking looks in their direction. The boys, meanwhile, were staring at him with those usual piercing glares.
What exactly was going on here?
"...Kazuha? Did you need something else?"
"Ah, ah?! Um, well, that is..."
She fidgeted and looked at him like she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
Meanwhile, the girls were whispering among themselves and practically stomping their feet in impatience.
His first thought was that this felt like some kind of hidden camera prank, but there was no reason for anyone to suddenly do that today, so it probably wasn't.
It wasn't something he cared enough about to press, so he decided it was better not to think too hard about it and looked back at Kazuha.
Come to think of it, she was holding a lunchbox. Hadn't she eaten yet?
Ah... I see. So that was it after all. And here I was, thinking I wasn't the oblivious type. That was my mistake. In situations like this, you're supposed to act casual and ask naturally.
"Ah... if you haven't eaten lunch yet, want to eat together? I haven't started either."
"Re... really? Is that okay?"
"Yeah, I don't mind. As long as you're okay with it too."
"Yeah, I'm okay with it!"
Her face brightened at once, and Kazuha hurried over with a chair before sitting beside his desk.
At that, the girls in the classroom let out muffled squeals, while the boys clicked their tongues and started eating their own lunches. What was this chaotic situation where approval and disapproval somehow coexisted in the same space?
As the two of them quietly ate, Kazuha suddenly spoke up as if something had just occurred to her.
"Hey, Kazuma. Are you free this afternoon, by any chance?"
"Huh...? That's kind of sudden. Why?"
Thrown off by her asking about his plans for the afternoon—something she hadn't done before—Kazuma asked for the reason. Also, girls over there, could you please stop reacting so much? It's seriously distracting...
"Well, I heard you're really good with computers, Kazuma. The main computer in the computer lab has some kind of error, so I was wondering if maybe you could fix it..."
"Not really good, just a little... though where did you hear that? It's not like I go around telling people."
"Ah, well, um... some friends happened to see you using computers, so I knew!"
It sounded like a hasty excuse, but he didn't care enough to dwell on it. If it was a software issue, he could probably finish in about an hour.
"Really? All right. If it's something I can fix, I'll take care of it."
"Really? Thank you, Kazuma!"
Kazuha beamed at him in gratitude, and he waved it off like it was nothing.
"No, it's not something to thank me that much for..."
"Even so, hearing you say that makes me feel reassured."
"...Uh, yeah."
He flinched for a second. She had probably said it unconsciously, but from the listener's point of view, it was the kind of thing that could be taken the wrong way. More importantly, girls, could you stop squealing already?! You're making this way more awkward!
"All right, all right. Let's just eat. We don't have much time left."
"Okay!"
Kazuha ate with a bright smile the whole time, and Kazuma quietly thought she seemed more energetic than usual.
**
That afternoon, after classes ended, Kazuma followed Kazuha to the computer lab as planned.
Dozens of computers were lined up in neat rows. He sat down at the teacher's main computer and turned it on, but...
"Hmm... I think this thing's infected with a virus."
"Could you fix it by installing antivirus software?"
"Hard to say... judging by the condition, it's already progressed pretty far, so that probably won't be enough... Still, I'll give it a shot."
He quickly opened a command window and started typing. Fortunately, if he moved fast enough, it looked fixable.
Tap tap tap tap tap...
"..."
Focused enough to forget Kazuha was even standing right beside him, Kazuma plunged into a world of letters and numbers.
The target to eliminate was the virus. Infection progress: 60%. Estimated time remaining: about ten minutes.
"..."
Compile normal. No debug errors. Estimated time remaining: five minutes—no, correction, eight... Strange.
This pattern was different from any virus he had encountered before. Anomalous factors detected. The estimated time kept increasing.
His eyes raced across the screen, parsing everything at high speed. His fingers flew over the keyboard, relying on pure tactile memory as they drew out knowledge engraved into muscle memory.
"...Tch. This isn't just a simple virus."
He muttered the complaint under his breath and sped up even more. Progress: 90%. Estimated time remaining... two minutes.
...tap.
After two minutes that felt more like twenty, he finally closed the command window and leaned back in his chair, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Whew... what was that? I've never even heard of a virus like this... No, this isn't even a virus in the first place."
"Ama... amazing. You're really amazing, Kazuma!"
Hearing that burst of admiration in the middle of what had become an almost habitual stream of muttering, he finally remembered Kazuha was there and hurriedly turned his head.
Oh no. I got too focused and let myself slip.
"Ah... no, it's nothing. I'm just a fast typist, and it wasn't actually that hard. Haha..."
He reflexively tried to brush it off, but Kazuha's shining eyes didn't dim in the slightest.
"No, it was incredible. How do I put it? You felt different from your usual self, Kazuma. You looked really serious."
"That's just a habit... I just go expressionless."
With a bitter smile, he denied it, then shut down the computer and slung his bag over his shoulder to change the mood.
"All right, if we turn it back on now..."
When he powered it on again, the computer booted up normally. Satisfied, he smiled faintly and shut it down once more.
"There. It should be fine now."
"Yeah! Thank you for today, Kazuma. You were really amazing."
"I told you, it wasn't like that... but whatever. It was good practice for me too, so it's fine."
Faced with Kazuha's sparkling-eyed admiration, all Kazuma could do was give another awkward smile.
**
On the way home from school.
By the time the repair had taken over ten minutes, everyone except the students involved in club activities had already gone home, so the road outside the school gate was quiet.
"...This feels a little different. Walking home like this..."
"Really? This happens to me a lot, actually. Teachers ask me for favors, or I end up helping out with things."
"That sounds rough... Are you student council president because you have some kind of goal, Kazuha?"
"Uh... well, that's a bit personal, haha..."
"Hmm...? I see."
The sound of silent footsteps. They were walking side by side, but the space between them still felt awkward.
Technically, once Kazuma had fixed the computer, there was no reason for the two of them to stay together. They could have split up and gone their separate ways right away. But that strange atmosphere from lunchtime kept him from simply turning away.
That said, he didn't have either the reason or the nerve to start a conversation himself, so he just kept walking and looking ahead.
But apparently, that was only his own assumption.
"H-hey, Kazuma!"
"Hm? What is it, Kazuha?"
"Um, well... do you play games a lot, by any chance?"
"Uh... that's kind of a sudden question."
"Haha... you don't really seem like the type to talk about that kind of thing with the other boys, so I just got curious."
"I'm not really sure how that leads to curiosity, but... I guess I play about as much as anyone else. Sometimes a game I know comes out, so I check it out now and then."
"In that case... are you going to play [Sword Art Online], the one that's coming out this time?"
"...You surprised me a little. Do you keep up with that kind of information too, Kazuha?"
"N-no, it's not that. I just happened to get a NerveGear too. My father works in that field."
"Huh... I see. So are you thinking about playing it too, then?"
"I don't know if I'll really get into it, but... the technology itself is amazing, isn't it? Creating a virtual space and being able to move around freely inside it."
"I see... You're kind of surprising too, Kazuha. I figured most girls wouldn't really be into this kind of game."
"I-is that... weird?"
"No? Not weird at all. I'm planning to play it for a similar reason myself."
"A similar reason?"
"Yeah. I'm thinking of going into programming, and the person who made that game is the top expert in the field I want to enter."
"Wow~ So if you're playing the game, it's not really for fun—it's for studying?"
"Not studying exactly... more like, I want to know what kind of world it is."
"What kind of... world?"
"Yeah. What kind of thoughts he had when he made that world, what kind of thoughts went into making this game. Stuff like that."
"Really...? Why do you want to know that?"
"I'm still just a student. There's no way someone like me could personally meet a person in that position. So the only thing I can do is try to understand his intentions through a game like this."
"Huh... Kazuma, you really are amazing. But can you really learn something like that through a game?"
"Doesn't it depend on the person? Some people want to have fun. Some want to know the developer. Others might want to understand the world itself."
"I see... You really are amazing in a lot of ways, Kazuma."
"I'm not that amazing. I'm just putting effort into what I want to pursue."
"That's exactly what makes you amazing."
As she said that and smiled at him, Kazuha's cheeks seemed faintly flushed in the red glow of the setting sun.
**
Click.
Late afternoon. In the room, now dark with the sun fully set, the sound of the light turning on rang out softly but clearly.
"...I'm home."
As he passed by, he quietly spoke to the man and woman in the photograph. Then, following the same routine as always, he made himself a simple dinner from the ingredients in the fridge.
He had his own circumstances, unlike most people, so he had no choice but to learn how to cook decently well.
Well, that didn't really matter right now.
"...Elia, how was your day?"
[Welcome back, Kazuma. I hope you had another peaceful day at school. You returned 19 minutes and 52 seconds later than usual.]
"Yeah. The student council president had a favor to ask, so I helped her out a little."
A woman's voice echoed calmly through the living room. It belonged to the AI he had named Elia.
Calling it an AI sounded grand, but in truth, it only possessed the most basic functions. In the first place, it was something he had barely managed to create two years ago.
With the money and technical ability a middle schooler could scrape together, this was the limit. Still, one fortunate thing was that he had built it so it could be expanded at any time.
For now, he had only installed the functions necessary for a "certain situation," but since he intended to devote himself to AI and programming in the first place, naturally he had left room to improve it for the future.
[Understood. As of today, I have acquired approximately thirteen pieces of information related to the game SAO through searches and lifted security restrictions. I used the hacking tool [Beatrice], which you installed for me.]
"Good work. That should be enough to handle ordinary online search portals now. Run calculations on whether there are any improvements to make in that direction."
[Beginning calculations. Estimated processing time: approximately ten minutes.]
A mechanical operating sound came from inside the house—more precisely, from his room. After confirming it, Kazuma picked up the newspaper lying on the small one-person table.
There was a photograph of Akihiko Kayaba sitting with his legs crossed, along with an interview about the upcoming SAO release.
Just one more day now. Interesting that it had come out in the form of a game.
So then... what kind of world will you show me?
**
At that same time, in the school computer lab.
The teacher in charge, having finished preparing to go home, said goodbye to the other teachers and was checking the doors and computer power with the security guard.
"All the student computers are turned off. The back door is fine too."
"Yes, and over here the power is off too... hm? That's strange, the main computer is still on."
"What? It should have been off... Ah! Right. I asked Kazuha to take care of it today because the computer seemed to have an error, and I guess she managed to find a student who could fix it. But maybe they forgot to turn it off before leaving. Is something wrong? You don't look so good."
"It's not exactly that... I'm not sure whether that student was playing a prank or just failed to fix it. Would you take a look?"
At the guard's uneasy expression, the teacher looked at the main computer's screen. A command window was open, and one sentence was written there in English.
"Hello, Mr. mikajeuki."
**
The next morning. On Saturday, the start of the weekend, Kazuma got up as usual and prepared to welcome the game that would begin soon. Since it started at one in the afternoon, there was no need to rush.
Still, it was always better to have at least some information beforehand, so he was using Elia—whose information-gathering ability far surpassed that of any ordinary high-performance computer—to dig up every useful detail she could find.
"Hmm... even the highest anyone got didn't make it past the tenth floor. Well, I guess that makes sense. Back then, it was just for information gathering, and it was everyone's first time, so they had to adapt too."
[Affirmative. Even taking that into account, however, the existence of records reaching the sixth floor suggests there were individuals with remarkable concentration.]
"Yeah. Getting that high means they adapted to the movement and started understanding the system faster than everyone else."
Nodding along with Elia's opinion, he kept typing at the keyboard. What he was working on now was an upgraded version of Elia.
He didn't think there was much that needed improvement even now... but what he was making at the moment was less an upgrade in "performance" and more an upgrade in "function."
"Ugh... I finished the 'part-time job' a few days ago, but I really should've wrapped this up earlier than that..."
[I can state with certainty that this is not your fault, Kazuma. In the first place, it would normally be impossible for a single person to complete a program of that scale within that amount of time.]
"I appreciate you saying that, but... if I'd just been a little more diligent, I wouldn't be feeling like a writer being chased by a deadline right now..."
[I believe that is contradictory. If you had worked faster back then, you would merely have felt the same way at that time instead, so I conclude it would have made little difference.]
"Is that... so?! Whatever. Twenty minutes left, and I barely made it in time. Whew..."
[Good work, Kazuma. With this, I now have the honor of accompanying you even inside the 'game.']
"Well, we won't know for sure until we actually try it... Still, only twenty minutes left now. I guess I'll wash up and wait."
[Then I will enter the [Fragment] for now.]
With those words, the computer shut down. After confirming it, Kazuma removed the chip plugged into the computer and inserted it into the slot installed in the NerveGear.
After quickly washing up and finishing his preparations with a cup of coffee, he put on the NerveGear and relaxed his body.
"Okay, just ten seconds now... five, four, three, two, one."
"Link, start!"
**
He felt the sensation of opening his eyes again. The first thing he saw was the [Town of Beginnings], the place where every player arrived when starting the game.
Apparently there were plenty of people like him everywhere, because pillars of light marking new logins were appearing all over the place at an explosive rate.
"All right then... first, I should find somewhere without people around..."
After taking one look around, he quickly moved off, heading deeper and deeper into the back streets. For a while yet, people would probably stay where they were, too busy enjoying the various sensations and experiences to move much.
That meant he could use that time to secure a useful window for confirming whether the "prep work" he had done just in case had succeeded.
He wound his way through maze-like alleys until he reached a corner where little light entered and not even NPCs were in sight.
"All right... can you hear me? Elia?"
In a situation where no one was around, if someone had seen him, it would have looked like a lunatic talking to an invisible person—ridiculous, or maybe creepy, depending on how you saw it.
Then the voice answered.
"...Signal sensitivity normal. Communication stable. No abnormalities, Kazuma."
"Whoa... it actually worked. I thought it wouldn't, but it really worked."
Even he had to admit it was absurd.
The core program that formed the backbone of SAO, [Cardinal], was also an AI—but unlike the AI he had made while still an amateur, this one was the real thing, created by researchers in the field and Akihiko Kayaba himself.
It was the dream system of all developers: the core of the VR games that appeared in [Sword Art Online], capable of creating quests and balancing itself.
That was why he had naturally expected any outside interference to cause errors or simply fail to connect. He hadn't even had a five percent expectation that it would succeed this cleanly.
"Fortunately, it seems your hypothesis was correct, Kazuma. Unfortunately, direct manipulation of information does not appear possible. However, collection alone seems feasible."
"No, that alone is more than enough. Considering it's an AI made up of a multi-processor supercomputer cluster, just being able to gather information is already a huge advantage. Honestly, if it had allowed more than that, I'd have been disappointed in the system instead."
At least the voice was coming through, so that was all right. In the first place, the AI he had made, Elia, wasn't some absurd over-technology capable of directly interfering with a game like something out of a manga.
He had built her with a focus on only three core functions: a basic ego pattern, information gathering, and self-learning ability.
Well, if that self-learning ability continued to develop, Elia might someday be able to interfere with the game directly—but [Cardinal] was simply too advanced. Without authority, he would have to be satisfied with this.
"Okay, I guess that means the prep work is complete. In that case, it's about time I started seriously enjoying the game myself, right?"
"I recommend hunting at a location some distance from town. The hunting grounds nearby will likely be crowded with users."
"Yeah, that's probably best. Still, good thing I seem to have adapted to the movement without any problems. I was moving unconsciously, but still."
Agreeing with Elia's advice, he spent the next several hours doing nothing but hunting.
As expected, SAO used Sword Skills that corresponded to motions as close as possible to real human movement, simulating the basic structure of the human body.
Of course, that was only once you leveled up enough to use those skills.
Looking around, there still hardly seemed to be anyone nearby. The in-game time was probably set to match reality, so even after several hours, most people were probably still awkward with movement.
At the moment, he could see one black-haired guy teaching a red-haired guy something. Probably a beta tester. Understanding the system and explaining it clearly wasn't something just anyone could do.
"Come to think of it, didn't Kazuha say she was logging in today too? Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go say hi once."
"Current search results for player nicknames show one match. It appears location tracking cannot be executed."
"Really? Hmm... well, her nickname might be different anyway. I'll just ask for her exact character name tomorrow when I get back to the real world."
There was always the possibility of someone else having the same name, so he dropped the idea as quickly as it had come to him. More than that, today he wanted to enjoy this world alone. After all, as far as games went, this was really his first time.
Because of his unusual circumstances, he hadn't had much interaction with boys his own age, and even games or other media he could share with them had been limited. That was why every second of this situation felt new to him.
The pleasant pounding in his chest, the excitement and satisfaction that made him feel like any other kid his age—it all felt deeply gratifying. And as a first step, he had already gained enough technique to hunt boars without trouble.
Even in SAO, they couldn't make things too difficult from the very start, so he was grateful the monsters had simple patterns. If he kept improving like this one step at a time, then on the higher floors, enemies would probably develop patterns and algorithms almost indistinguishable from real people.
"Seriously... it feels like the wall just moved one step farther away..."
"...There is no need to be discouraged, Kazuma."
"I'm not discouraged. If the wall feels farther away, that just proves how incredible that man I see as my rival really is."
"In that case, I am relieved. As expected, you are someone worthy of respect, Kazuma, especially in the way you always strive to improve."
"Cut it out with the embarrassing stuff. Anyway, it's probably about dinner time soon. I should stop here for today. Since tomorrow's a holiday too, I can log in again..."
Feeling more satisfied than he had imagined, Kazuma was about to log out when he abruptly stopped speaking. He couldn't understand what had just happened in front of him, and the next words never came.
"...Elia. The [Log Out] button in front of me is grayed out. Is this some kind of error?"
"...Checking... This is an unknown phenomenon. No, it lies beyond my range of analysis."
"You mean it's on a level you can't interfere with? Or is it just a simple bug?"
He kept trying to infer the situation while repeatedly pressing the [Log Out] button, but it didn't budge.
Even as a joke, this was bad enough to count as malicious. He frowned slightly.
Looking over at those two guys from before, the red-haired one was shouting about something too. Something about his pizza getting cold.
But the black-haired one looked genuinely serious, as if he were thinking hard.
Apparently, he had noticed something strange about the situation too.
Even someone like Kazuma, who had barely played games before, knew that the most basic nature of a game came down to two points: logging in and logging out.
That was one of the most important elements in any game or program, something you absolutely could not afford to mess up. If that part was broken, then regardless of the game's quality, it was more than enough reason for criticism.
"But the fact that there hasn't been any GM call or announcement about this means... this is definitely strange—"
"...!!!! Kazuma, watch out—!!!"
Before Elia could even finish shouting over him, Kazuma was swallowed by a pillar of light.
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