Unlimited Anime Works

Chapter 103: Aincrad

Ding

You’re about to enter Sword Art Online, please choose a faction from the two choices below.

Blue Players (Justice Faction): Blue Players are expected to kill monsters and clear floors in order to proceed through the game. Obtain 1 point from killing monsters, 100 points for killing bosses, 1000 points for clearing a floor. Players who fail to obtain 100 points within the first month will be automatically executed, players who fail to obtain 1000 points in a year will be automatically ejected from life.

Red Players (Killer faction): Red Players are expected to kill other players. Gain 10 points per native (native to the world of SAO) player, get 1000 points by killing another Infinite Player. Red players cannot accumulate points through killing monsters or through clearing floors. Players who fail to gather 100 points in one month will be automatically killed. Players who fail to gather 1000 points in a year will be automatically killed. Red players killed by Blue players will have their points automatically given to blue players.

Note 1: Blue players only have 1 extra life, red players have 3 extra lives.

Note 2: Sure-kill Technique: Every player can spend 100,000 points to execute the Sure-kill Technique, this skill ignores SAO restriction. Even a god can be killed with this move, as long as you have the points.

Note 3: Techniques forged through training and experience can be integrated into in-game skills through the help of the Infinite System. The System overrides the in-built system in SAO in this order Infinite System > SAO System

Note 4: Pain sensitivity is set at 100% due to reality immersion instead of virtual body immersion.

Choose your path…

What a devilish system…

Feng Yu Chen thought the minute after he heard the System’s notification. The layout made it look like the System has a positive bias towards making Infinite players kill each other. Killing a player is definitely more efficient than killing monsters. The rewards are structured in a way to incentivize player-killing.

Worse yet, blue players only have one life while PKers have 3. Things can get very volatile in SAO, having more than one life is better than just having one.

It seems like the System has an ax to grind with the system in SAO. It appears to be asserting its dominance over SAO System. The Sure-kill technique is hinted to be able to kill the god in SAO, Kayaba Akihiko. Gather enough points and anybody in the game is fair game. Gathering 100,000 points is going to be a major pain in the rump. Mustering up this amount in early-game would be impossible. It’s probably a feature that will only come into play in the later stages of the game.

A feature exclusive to Infinite Players was also introduced, the ability to create your own skills. These skills can by-pass the sword motions needed to activate skills. With freedom and agility, Infinite Players can one-up native SAO players.

The System probably introduced the 100% pain sensitivity to make things more interesting. SAO players feel little to no pain if they are struck by monsters, numbness and the feeling of being punched would be the worst kind of punishment a monster in SAO can deal against native SAO players.

Fuck the System.

Feng Yu Chen frowned when making his choice. He wanted to go with the path of the Red Player but not being able to get points from monsters and monsters is going to be a major buzzkill. Moreover, as a blue player, he can kill red players and take all their points, that’s nice too.

Hence…

Player 007 chose the Blue Player faction…

Initiating transfer, setting up age profile and dropdown location, target set: SAO, Aincrad, Town of Beginnings. Character generated, language inculcated, beginning the transfer…”

His vision went dark as a dizzying sensation struck him like a heavy hammer. Soon, the nauseating feeling went away and he could hear the ecstatic gossips of players around him as a medieval-era township appeared all around him.

The year 2022 is the year humanity came up with NerveGear, allowing humans to dive fully into the realm of virtual reality, SAO was a child born of NerveGear, a world-shaking full-dive VRMMORPG.

The summary of SAO coincided with the materials he read in the real-world. Ditching the mouse, keyboard, joysticks, and controllers, this world was generated by putting on NerveGear and diving into the virtual realm.

Feng Yu Chen didn’t feel like a stranger in his body. The big boss, System said the players were physically transported into this virtual realm. Unlike the virtual bodies controlled by the bio-electric impulses of the other native players, they can feel 100% of the pain of a similar attack in the real-world.

In a flash of white lightning, Inori and Saeko got transported into this world as they appeared at Feng Yu Chen’s sides. Haruna and Zi Yue Ling must have been randomly transported elsewhere. Inori and Saeko are intricately tied to Feng Yu Chen as a result of being in a contract with Feng Yu Chen.

“Is… is this SAO? I have seen this before…”

Saeko gasped.

Inori nodded. She can confirm because she watched this anime with Saeko and the others when they were chilling out and eating snacks together.

“Let’s add each other as friends and then set up our party…”

Feng Yu Chen materialized the user interface by tapping the air in front of him. He found the party and friend list so he sent out invites to Saeko and Inori.

The two girls clicked accept and they instantly formed a party of three members.

“Let’s go grind and get ready. That asshat, Kayaba Akihiko is probably going to make an announcement soon. We should utilize what little time we have to progress beyond the other players. Our Mission begins after the game officially starts. I predict most of the players will stay in town for a short while before venturing out to grind up their levels. We can take advantage of this delay by hogging and making full use of the good leveling places.”

Feng Yu Chen said.

“Nn…”

Inori nodded with an expressionless look. Inori is more talkative during games, a characteristic Feng Yu Chen found surprising. She has the soul of a gamer, Haruna probably led her down this path since the two are close in age and they are both super-moe. In fact, he’s even more convinced that Haruna influenced Inori now that he thought about it…

“Other players probably think the same way we do, we should be careful since there are red players running around…”

Saeko said with a cautious tone.

“Yeah, I think they are smart enough to come prepared with strategies. I expect those players who are not familiar with the game to act prudently during the early-game.  I acknowledge the risk inherent during this stage but we don’t need to be overly-cautious. Alright, I propose we name our guild the Wings of Freedom.”

Feng Yu Chen nodded. It’s time they venture out into this virtual realm filled with monsters that want to sink their teeth into their body. There are also other malicious factors waiting for them.

They traveled west towards the western outskirts. There are boar-like monsters here. This is an open filed common in SAO, this is also the same place where Kirito taught Klein the basics of this game.

Oink oink oink

Three boars charged at Feng Yu Chen & co the moment they approached the monsters.

“Take one monster down each… We don’t need to do skill-connect but we should get used to faking the motions to look like we are obeying SAO’s inbuilt restrictions…”