He really said it easily, like it had nothing to do with him. Was it the superiority of holding other people's lives in his hands?
But I immediately rejected that thought. He wasn't that kind of person. I couldn't believe he would do something like this for something as petty as a cheap sense of superiority.
[The condition for your release from this game is only one. As I said before, reach the top of Aincrad, the 100th Floor, and defeat the final boss waiting there to clear the game. At that moment, I guarantee that every surviving player will be able to log out safely.]
Still, thank god there was at least a way out. In the absolute worst-case scenario, it wouldn't have been strange if he'd simply told us to live here until we died.
"Clear it... the 100th Floor!?"
"Th-that's impossible!! I heard they couldn't even get past the 6th Floor in the beta!!"
Cries like that erupted all around me. And they weren't wrong. Even in the beta test, it had taken two full months for a thousand players to clear the 6th Floor.
And that wasn't with all thousand working together. That was with only the people focused purely on pushing upward gathering their strength for the raid. If even that much only got them that far, then it wasn't hard to calculate that clearing all 100 floors in the official release, with roughly ten thousand players trapped inside, would take years at minimum.
And that was only a simple estimate. Once you factored in all the unpredictable variables that could happen along the way, the problem wasn't just time anymore. Total annihilation was a real possibility.
[Then, lastly, I will show you proof that this world is now a reality for all of you. A gift from me has been placed in your inventories. I suggest you check it.]
...A gift?
At those words, I opened my item list by bringing two fingers of my right hand together and pulling downward. The players around me all did the same, and electronic bell sounds rang out across the entire plaza.
From the main menu that appeared, I tapped the Item tab. At the very top of the displayed list of owned items, there it was.
The item's name was [Hand Mirror].
"A hand mirror...? Why?"
Why this of all things? Thinking that, I touched the name and selected the Objectify button from the small window that popped up. A moment later, with a sparkling sound effect, a small rectangular mirror appeared.
I studied the hand mirror, wondering what kind of effect item it was, but no matter how I looked at it, it was just an ordinary mirror reflecting my face.
Then what about everyone else? I looked around, but nothing seemed to be happening...
Flash!
"Ugh...!"
A sudden white light flooded my vision, then vanished again after two or three seconds. In that case, the difference from before was...
"There is one. Everyone's appearance."
I muttered flatly as I watched every user around me change appearance in an instant.
I'd started this game just to have fun, so I'd found character customization annoying and left mine as-is. But other people were different.
NerveGear wrapped around the entire face and head with high-density signal terminals. In other words, it could precisely read not just the brain, but the shape of the face as well. On top of that, height and body type could be measured during the initial setup phase through calibration.
Calibration was the process of measuring the baseline of "how far you have to move your hands to touch your own body" in order to reproduce the wearer's sense of bodily surface contact.
Which meant, in effect, that your real-world physique was being turned into data inside the NerveGear.
They had all dived into this game wearing masks of their own choosing, so they could enjoy their own version of themselves. And Akihiko Kayaba had stripped those masks away.
As if telling them to enjoy this game exactly as they were in "reality."
[You are all wondering why. Why would I—Akihiko Kayaba, developer of SAO and the NerveGear—do such a thing? Is this an act of large-scale terrorism? Or perhaps a kidnapping for ransom involving your physical bodies?]
For the first time, Kayaba's voice, which had shown not even the faintest trace of emotion until now, began to take on a certain color.
That color called "emotion" came to me vividly, like a single stroke of paint laid across a blank white page.
[My purpose is none of those things. On the contrary, as I am now, I no longer possess any purpose or reason at all. Because... this very situation itself is my ultimate goal. I created the NerveGear and SAO for the sole purpose of creating this world and observing it. And now, everything has been perfectly achieved.]
After a brief pause, Kayaba's voice rang out again, stripped of emotion once more.
[...That concludes the official launch tutorial of [Sword Art Online]. I wish you all the best of luck.]
His final words faded away, leaving only a faint echo behind.
The giant crimson robe rose soundlessly, and from the tip of its hood onward, it was swallowed up into the system messages covering the sky, dissolving into them.
Its shoulders, chest, hands, and feet melted into that blood-colored surface, and at the very end, a single ripple spread outward.
Immediately after, the messages covering the heavens vanished just as abruptly as they had appeared.
"He created this world just to observe it... Kayaba. That's one hell of a tutorial."
Letting out a dry laugh, I quietly watched the sea of chaos that was about to break loose.
"No way... what is this? This has to be a lie!"
"Don't screw with me! Let me out! Get me out of here!"
"This is bad! I had plans today!"
"No! Send me back! Send me back!!"
Screams. Roars. Shouts. Curses. Pleas. And violence. All kinds of negative emotion surged and overflowed through the plaza like muddy floodwater.
And right in the middle of it, I heard a voice I hadn't expected at all.
"Kazuma, Kazuma!! Can you hear me?!"
"...Elia?"
For a moment, I almost didn't recognize her. The Elia I had made shouldn't have been capable of this kind of intense emotion in the first place.
"Yes. After you were forcibly moved here, I was isolated by a top-level command program issued by Cardinal. I was only just released, and came straight back to your side."
"Really? Then how did you manage to get back without getting caught?"
"This is only a guess, but since I originated from the NerveGear's independent external storage, it seems they were unable to interfere with my core structure directly."
"That was lucky, then. Let's just hope nobody does anything stupid from the outside."
I left the plaza and headed straight for another town, turning Kayaba's words over and over in my mind as I walked.
The situation itself was his goal, huh...
That line suited him all too well. Kayaba was the type who didn't care what means he used to reach his end.
Maybe I could understand it rationally because I was a bit like him in that way. But even taking that into account... I still didn't like it.
"All right, let's sort this out. If HP hits zero, you die. Nothing can be done from the outside. To get out, we have to clear all the way to the 100th Floor. Hah. Saying it out loud makes it sound even more ridiculous. We're definitely looking at one or two years of forced confinement."
"What are your plans going forward? Safety first, or..."
"Clearing it. I don't really see any other path. Most people will probably prioritize safety, of course. Especially kids and women who logged in just for sightseeing."
"And people naturally form groups, so guilds will start appearing sooner or later. Then the difference in skill levels will split people apart even more. All of that will waste even more time."
"Of course, Aincrad is impossible to clear solo. At the very least, even if the boss itself is manageable, you still need people to support you against things like mid-bosses. In the end, if you want to finish this quickly, personal growth is absolutely essential no matter what."
"A sound judgment. So that's why you're in such a hurry to reach another town...?"
"Yeah. And besides ending this quickly, if Kazuha got trapped here too... I can't just leave her alone. If I clear the game feeling good about it and then find out someone I know died, that'd leave a bad taste in my mouth, wouldn't it?"
"I can't deny that. Especially if it's a woman. That would naturally trigger your protective instincts as well."
"...Why does it feel like this conversation is missing the point somehow?"
"It's your imagination."
As if to interrupt our small talk, two boars blocked my path. Up until just a little while ago, they had felt like nothing more than lumps of polygonal data. But now they seemed vividly alive, as if they were really breathing. Maybe that meant I'd already started immersing myself in this world too.
"Did I look easy to you? Sure, my real job is in programming and research..."
I flicked my one-handed sword once, raised it diagonally, then lifted my free hand and crooked a finger at them.
"But I never said I was out of stamina."
Maybe the taunt worked, because one of them charged me. To anyone else, it probably would've looked no different from suicide, but I'd spent hours hunting boars until I was sick of them.
I'd already figured out their patterns a long time ago.
I zigzagged in from the side, drove my blade hard into its flank, then immediately cut upward. Luckily, I landed a critical, and one boar died from that single exchange.
Using the dead boar like a shield, I vaulted over it as the second one—still not yet in motion—faced me from the other side, and stabbed into its opposite flank as well.
Then one Sword Skill.
That was enough to drop both of them with ease.
"Hm. First time taking on two at once, but that was easier than I expected."
"I believe that is only possible because it is you, Kazuma. In practical terms, movement like that in the early game would place your adaptability within the top single digits, even including the beta testers."
"Haha, so I'm discovering hidden talent here of all places? Not that I can feel too happy about it when it's a death game."
I shrugged and continued down the road. First, I needed strength. Enough strength to give weight to my words. Only then would anything I did carry legitimacy.
"So, Elia, can you still gather information?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, however, Cardinal has blocked all data from the official version, including the beta test. So I cannot access anything beyond information discovered by players themselves."
"That's fine. The fact that there's still anything you can find out at all is already huge. Every little bit matters."
"...Thank you. Hearing you say that means a great deal."
"...Yeah. I'm counting on you from here on out too, Elia."
"And I will support you until the very moment this game ends."
Reaffirming our resolve to each other, we walked toward the town visible ahead.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And so, on Sunday, October 30, 2022, the death game that put lives on the line began.
**
Before I knew it, a month had passed since SAO had become a death game.
As expected, slipping away to another town in the middle of the chaos back then had been the right move. I'd been able to level quickly, and by now I had the best equipment available on the 1st Floor.
At this point, leveling had already started to slow to a crawl. Which meant there were only two things left now: clearing the boss, and maybe finding Kudo Kazuha, if she was trapped here too.
Originally, it might have been better to look for her right away. But she could easily have been stronger than me, and more importantly, there was a chance she already had other people with her.
I wasn't exactly the type who got along well with people in the first place, so I was worried I might just cause trouble for her.
Even so, it felt a little late to be saying that now. More than anything, I just wanted to know how she was doing.
With that in mind, I arrived at the Town of Beginnings for the first time in a while and immediately started searching the streets for someone.
"All right, Elia. Give me the most recent information related to the keyword 'Kazuha.'"
"Understood, Kazuha... total results: one. Timeframe: approximately one hour ago. It has been confirmed that she accepted a quest as part of a four-person party."
"Really? And what about the other three?"
"One woman and one man of the same level. One additional man who is one level higher."
"Hmm... and the quest?"
"A subjugation quest in the Forest of Horunka. The objective is to hunt one hundred monsters."
"I see... Then I guess I'll have to wait about thirty minutes?"
"For one hundred monsters of equal level, it would likely take around an hour. Since it is a quest, they will probably be taking breaks as well."
"Longer than I expected... Then I heard there's a boss strategy meeting today. Was it at the training grounds?"
"As you said, Kazuma, if we consider efficient use of time, I believe that would be the best option."
With even Elia confirming it, I headed straight for the training grounds.
Not that Kazuha wasn't the main reason I'd come here today, but at the same time, Elia had also informed me that the first boss strategy meeting would finally be held here.
By the time I arrived at the training grounds a little later, the meeting had already started. Or rather... the atmosphere didn't look very good.
From what I could see, a black man named Egil and a spiky-haired guy named Kibaou were arguing over the issue of beta testers. Just listening to it, it sounded like a pretty trivial problem to me, so I sat down near the edge and simply watched.
While I was at it, I looked around to get a sense of the faces among the raid group, and I spotted someone interesting.
As the name Sword Art Online suggests, this game had all kinds of swords. Practically an endless variety.
Which meant that, just by looking at someone's weapon, you could roughly gauge their skill on the spot. Of course, there could be fakes.
The main reason I'm bringing this up is because the black-haired boy I was looking at right now had an Anneal Blade—the exact same sword I was using.
Judging by the fact that no one was around him, he seemed to be a solo player. And getting an Anneal Blade solo was pretty difficult. Which meant he had to be skilled enough to pull it off.
But what really caught my attention was the anxiety written on his face.
The handsome boy, who looked about my age, was visibly restless, his expression pale enough to show just a trace of panic.
"Which means... he's probably a beta tester."
Still, I couldn't really understand why he was that shaken. If I had to guess, Kibaou's words had stirred up some kind of guilt in him. So maybe he was just weak-hearted.
Still, maybe Egil's rebuttal had done the trick, because Kibaou backed down, and the boy's expression seemed to improve a little too.
"Honestly... even here, who cares whether someone was a beta tester or not...?"
"Exactly. You yourself would be a perfect example, Kazuma."
"No, I don't think you need to use me as the example..."
Not that we were in much of a position to talk while having such pointless conversations ourselves, but the rest of the meeting was just details about the 1st Floor boss and the scheduled start time for the raid, so that was all I needed to remember.
But after that came the part where everyone started looking for party members to form groups for the boss fight.
"Ugh... so I have to join a party here too. Didn't see that coming."
"You do not need to be proactive about it, do you? You could simply join whichever group has room left."
"Oh, right. Then I'll just wait."
So I stayed put, and before long, that same black-haired boy walked over and spoke to me.
"Hey, are you a solo player too?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Then want to party up with me? I already recruited one person earlier, but the more the better."
"Sure. I was planning to join whatever group anyway."
"Haha, that makes things easier for me."
With an easygoing smile, the black-haired boy sent me a party request. I pressed the Yes button without hesitation, and immediately the names and HP bars of my party members appeared in the corner of my vision.
And the name displayed there for that black-haired boy was...
"Then, as you can see, my name's Kirito. Looking forward to working with you until the boss fight."
"Yeah. Same here."
Kirito and I exchanged faint smiles at exactly the same time, as if we'd somehow clicked.
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