Aincrad 1 Read online

  After several minutes of silent contentment, Asuna began to speak, a mug of tea cupped in her hands.

  “It’s so strange…It feels like I was born here. Like I’ve always lived in this world.”

  “There are days that I don’t even remember about my life over there. And I’m not the only one. You don’t see as many players desperate to beat the game and escape these days.”

  “The rate of our conquest is slowing down. There aren’t even five hundred players fighting at the front line at this point. It’s not just the danger…we’re all getting used to this life…”

  I gazed at her beautiful, pensive face, lit by the warm orange light of the lamp. It wasn’t the face of a living, breathing human being. The skin was too smooth, the hair too lustrous to be real. But it didn’t even look like a polygonal model to me at this point. It was easy to accept her as a living being inhabiting this space. In fact, if I went back to the real world now, I would probably find true reality off-putting.

  Do I even really want to go back?

  I was startled by the thought. Were all the early mornings, dungeon adventures, mapping expeditions, and level-ups really for the purpose of escaping the game? It must have been that way once. The game was deadly, and I wanted out. But now that I’d gotten used to life within SAO…

  “I still want to go back,” Asuna said clearly, as though to drown out my indecision. I raised my head with a start. She flashed me a rare grin and continued. “There are so many things left to do back there.”

  I had to nod in agreement.

  “Good point. And it’s not fair to the crafters working for our benefit if we don’t give it our best…”

  I tilted my cup and took a deep swig, trying to swallow my hesitation. The top floor was a long ways off. I could think about this when the time came.

  Feeling bold, I gazed at Asuna as I tried to formulate the right words to properly thank her. Instead, she grimaced and started waving a hand in front of her face.

  “Wh-whoa…stop.”

  “Huh? What?”

  “I’ve gotten too many marriage proposals from players giving me that look.”

  “Wha…”

  Despite my mastery of battle skills, I had far less experience when it came to delicate matters like this. My mouth opened and closed repeatedly with no sound. I must have looked like an idiot. Asuna smiled.

  “Let me guess—you’re not that close to anyone else, either.”

  “Well, sorry for being a solo player.”

  “You’re in an MMORPG—making friends is the point.”

  Her smile disappeared, and she asked me a question in the tone of an older sister or teacher. “Have you ever thought about joining a guild?”

  “Huh…?”

  “I know you beta testers don’t like to work in groups.” Her expression grew even more serious. “But it feels like the monster activity patterns have been increasingly irregular since we hit the seventieth floor.”

  I’d noticed that, too. It wasn’t clear if the drop in CPU predictability was planned from the start or the result of the system itself learning. If it was the latter, we’d have our work cut out for us.

  “And playing solo leaves you much less capable of handling unexpected situations. You can’t always make an emergency escape. You’re much, much safer forming a party.”

  “I’m always cautious enough to leave myself a safety margin. Thanks for the warning…but guilds just aren’t my thing. Besides…”

  My mind screamed at me to stop, but my mouth barreled onward.

  “Party members usually end up being more of a hindrance than a help for me.”

  “Oh?”

  A silver flash of light passed before my eyes.

  It was Asuna’s knife, held motionless at the end of my nose.

  This was a basic rapier skill called Linear. Basic, but scaled in effectiveness based on one’s agility stat. She’d moved so fast, I hadn’t even seen the skill’s telltale movement trail. With a grin frozen on my face, I assumed the hands-up position of surrender.

  “Fine, fine…you’re an exception.”

  “Good.”

  She pulled back the knife, unamused. As she twirled the blade around her fingers, her next words were completely unexpected.

  “In that case, I want you to partner up with me. Being in charge of arranging boss raid parties, I’ve always wanted to see if you’re as good as they say. Plus, I want to show you just how tough I really am. And lastly, black is my lucky color this week.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?!” Shocked by the absurdity of her demand, I weakly grasped for some kind of counterargument. “B-besides, what about your guild?”

  “We don’t have a leveling quota to meet.”

  “Y-your personal guards, then?”

  “I’ll leave them behind.”

  I raised the teacup to my lips in a bid to buy time, then realized that it was empty. Gloating, Asuna snatched it from my hands and served more of the steaming liquid.

  To be honest, the invitation was tempting. Who wouldn’t want to team up with the most beautiful woman in Aincrad? But the more enticing the offer, the more my hesitation and suspicion grew. Why would she want to be with me?

  Perhaps she felt pity for a gloomy, introverted solo player. Stuck in a negative thought process, I uttered the words that sealed my fate.

  “The frontier’s dangerous, you know.”

  The knife in her hand rose again, and when I saw an even stronger glow envelop the blade, I hurriedly nodded. Even among the “clearers,” as those who fought on the front line to advance the game’s progress were known, I was hardly notable. Hesitantly, I pushed on.

  “F-fine, fine…I’ll see you at the seventy-fourth-floor gate tomorrow at nine o’clock.”

  Asuna lowered her hand and chuckled confidently.

  I wasn’t sure how long etiquette dictated it was acceptable to stay in a single woman’s apartment, so I hastily pardoned myself once we finished eating. Asuna escorted me down the stairs of the building and inclined her head slightly.

  “Anyway…I should thank you for the food.”

  “Me, too. We should do this again sometime…though I doubt I’ll ever get that particular ingredient again.”

  “Oh, even normal ingredients will work. You just need the skill to do it.”

  She turned her head to look upward. The sky was dark with night, but there were no stars to be seen. The only object overhead was the giant gloomy lid of rock and metal, several hundred feet above.

  “I wonder if what we’re in right now really is the world Kayaba wanted to create,” I muttered, looking up as well.

  There was no answer to this query, of course.

  Kayaba must be taking refuge somewhere, observing his creation. What was he feeling now? We had passed through the initial period of blood and chaos, reaching the current stasis of relative peace and order. Did this satisfy or disappoint Kayaba? I had no idea.

  Asuna silently took a step closer. I felt a faint glow of warmth on my arm. Was that an illusion or a subtle temperature simulation?

  The game of death began on November 6, 2022. It was now late October 2024. Almost two years later, there was still no sign of rescue, no messages from outside. All we could do was survive day by day, getting closer to the top, one step at a time.

  It was the end of another day in Aincrad. Where we were going and what waited for us at the end of the game were still a mystery. The road ahead was long and arduous, and the light at the end was faint. But even then, it wasn’t worth giving up.

  I stared up at the metal lid, letting my mind wander through the unknown worlds left to conquer.

  7

  9:00 AM

  The weather was set to “lightly cloudy.” The morning fog enshrouding the city still hung thick, refracting the sunlight from the aperture into fine particles and dyeing the sights in lemon yellow.

  According to Aincrad’s calendar, this was the Month of the Ash Tree, deeper into
autumn. The air was cool on the skin, the most refreshing of all the seasons, but my mood was downcast.

  I stood in the teleport gate square on the seventy-fourth floor, waiting for Asuna. For once, I’d struggled to sleep, tossing and turning in my bed back in Algade. I don’t think I finally passed out until after three in the morning. SAO has a number of useful features to assist players, but a button that would instantly put you to sleep was sadly not one of them.

  But for some reason, it can do the opposite. The main menu has a “forced alarm” option that will automatically wake you up to the music of your choice, though it can’t prevent you from falling back asleep. I’d set my alarm to 8:50 and successfully managed to roll out of bed.

  It was gospel to the great unwashed hordes of SAO that there was no need to bathe or change clothes—you could take a bath if you wanted, but the liquid simulation was rather taxing on the NerveGear, and it just wasn’t quite up to the standards of a real bath. So a mere twenty seconds after waking up, I was in my armor, shuffling off to Algade’s teleport gate and struggling with my lack of sleep, because I was supposed to be meeting Asuna. And yet…

  “She’s not coming…”

  It was already ten past the hour. Diligent clearers were popping out of the gate one after the other and heading off to the labyrinth. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I opened my menu to pore over the already memorized labyrinth map and check on my skill progress. I was briefly disgusted when I caught myself hoping for a handheld game console of some kind to kill time.

  Itching to play a video game inside a video game? It was enough to make me want to crawl back into bed…when the blue light of the teleport gate flashed again. I automatically flicked my eyes over, not expecting much, when—

  “Aaaah! L-look out!”

  “Whaaa?!”

  Normally, you pop out of a teleport gate with your boots firmly on the ground, but for some reason, this person materialized several feet in the air—and flying directly at me.

  “Wh…what the…?”

  There was no time to duck or brace myself for the impact. We collided at full force and sprawled onto the paving stones, the back of my head smacking hard. If we weren’t in the safety of town, I’d have easily lost a few ticks off my HP bar.

  I was piecing it all together in my head. Whoever this idiot was had probably jumped directly into the teleport gate, emerging on the other side with the same balance and momentum as before. Grappling with wooziness, I lifted my right hand up to shove the moron off me and squeezed.

  “…?”

  The sensation on my hand was not at all unpleasant. Trying to identify the soft but resilient material, I squeezed a few more times.

  “Aaaah!!”

  A piercing scream erupted directly in my ear, and the back of my head was slammed into the pavement again. The weight finally lifted off. Back to my senses from this new impact, I bolted upright.

  Before me was a female player, sitting on the ground. She wore a knight’s uniform with red stitching on a white background, a miniskirt, a silver rapier hung in a scabbard, and for some reason, a vicious glare of pure murder. The emotion simulator plastered her face red from ear to ear, and her arms were crossed tightly over her…chest…?

  Suddenly I realized what I’d been squeezing. And with that came the belated recognition of my present danger. All of my finely honed escape instincts forgotten, I sat frozen with my mouth an open circle, my hand helplessly closing and opening.

  “H-hey…morning, Asuna.”

  It seemed as though the malice in her eyes grew hotter. They were the eyes of someone debating whether or not to draw her weapon.

  Just as I began to seriously consider the option of dropping everything and fleeing for my life, the teleport gate flashed again. Asuna spun around with a start, hastily getting to her feet and circling around behind me.

  “Wha…?”

  I stood there, confused. The gate grew brighter and brighter until a new figure emerged. This one had the good sense to be standing upright.

  When the light faded, a familiar face came into view. Another ostentatious white cape with red insignia—it was the Knights of the Blood uniform. He was clad in loud plate armor, just a bit too ornamental for its own good, and a large double-handed sword. It was the long-haired guard who’d attended to Asuna yesterday. Kuradeel, if I recalled his name correctly.

  As Kuradeel walked out of the gate and spotted us standing together, the furrows between his eyebrows grew deeper. He couldn’t have been that old, probably in his early twenties, but the wrinkles made him look much older. He clenched his teeth so hard it was practically audible and spoke with barely suppressed rage.

  “L…Lady Asuna, this willful behavior will not do!”

  The hysterical tone to his high-pitched voice told me this was nothing but trouble. Kuradeel continued, his beady eyes flashing white.

  “Come, Lady Asuna, let us return to the guild.”

  “No way, I’m not on guild duty today! Besides, why were you camping out in front of my house this morning?” She sounded plenty angry herself, behind my back.

  “Hah! I had a premonition this might happen. As a matter of fact, I’ve been performing early-morning guard duties here in Selmburg for the past month.”

  It was hard not to be taken aback by Kuradeel’s arrogant response. Asuna was equally frozen with shock. She spoke after a long pause, her voice hard.

  “That…wasn’t on the commander’s orders, was it…?”

  “My orders are to guard you, end of story! Naturally, that includes home observation…”

  “N-no, it doesn’t, you idiot!”

  Kuradeel’s expression instantly flashed with greater irritation. He stormed over, muscled me out of the way, and grabbed Asuna’s arm.

  “Please, my lady, see reason. Come back to headquarters.”

  Asuna momentarily shrank back at the barely controlled force in his voice. She cast a pleading glance in my direction.

  Until that moment, I’d been grappling with my typical instinct to flee and avoid trouble. But the look in her eyes caused my hand to move of its own accord. It closed around the wrist of Kuradeel’s offending hand, just soft enough not to set off the anti-criminal code within the safe limits of town.

  “Sorry, pal. I’m renting out your vice commander for the day.” It was a groaner of a line, but there was no turning back now. Forced to acknowledge my existence at last, Kuradeel swung his arm away, his face a mask of rage.

  “Insolent brat!” he gnashed. Even accounting for SAO’s tendency to exaggerate facial expressions, something in his face seemed to have gone off the rails.

  “I’ll take responsibility for Asuna’s safety. We’re not running off to fight a boss today. You can go back to your HQ.”

  “N-nonsense! I would never leave Lady Asuna in the hands of a no-name like you! I am a full member of the Knights of the Blood—”

  “I’ll do a much better job of it than you.”

  Honestly, I shouldn’t have said that one.

  “Why, you snotty little…If you’re going to talk the talk, then let’s see you walk the walk.”

  His face pale, Kuradeel pulled open his window with a trembling hand. A translucent system message appeared before me, but I didn’t need to read it to know what it was.

  Kuradeel has challenged you to a one-on-one duel. Do you accept?

  Beside the clinical words were buttons for YES and NO and a few options. I glanced at Asuna next to me. She couldn’t see the prompt, but she seemed to understand what was happening. I assumed that she’d tell us to knock it off, but to my surprise, she gave a curt nod, her face hard.

  “Are you sure? Is this going to cause trouble within the guild?” I muttered. She responded in the same low tone.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll report to the commander.”

  I nodded and pressed the YES button, selecting FIRST STRIKE out of the list of victory conditions. This meant that whoever inflicted a heavy blow first or
got his opponent down to 50 percent HP would win the duel. The message changed to read, You have agreed to a one-on-one duel with Kuradeel, accompanied by a minute-long countdown. When that clock reached zero, the HP protections afforded us by the town would disappear, and we’d battle until a winner emerged.

  Kuradeel seemed to have found his own unique interpretation of Asuna’s consent.

  “Watch closely, Lady Asuna! You’ll see that no one else is fit to stand guard for you!” he cried in a tone that suggested madness, noisily unsheathing his massive sword in a theatrical display.

  Once I’d seen Asuna take several steps back to give us room, I pulled out my own weapon. True to his status as a member of an elite guild, his blade was certainly more impressive than mine. Not only was his two-handed sword much larger than my weapon, it was also augmented with some of the finest decorative craftwork you could see in the game. In comparison, my sword was simple, unadorned, and of average size.

  We took positions about five yards apart. The countdown hadn’t finished, but an audience was already forming. This wasn’t a surprise—we were right next to the teleport gate in the middle of town, and both of us were reasonably well-known players.

  “Look, Kirito the solo and someone from the KoB are starting a duel!” someone cried out, and the crowd raised a cheer. Duels were normally between friends testing their skills, so the gallery roared, hooting and whistling, unaware of the ugly dispute that had led to this moment.

  As the count dwindled, the din of the crowd faded. Much like when I faced a monster, I could feel frozen cords of pure concentration piercing my body. My entire focus was trained on Kuradeel, who was clearly annoyed by the onlookers. I watched the way he held his sword, the opening of his stance.

  The tricks and tells of what skill you were about to use were much more important when fighting another human being than when fighting the AI-controlled monsters of SAO. Giving away too much information—whether your next move was to charge or defend, going high or ducking low—could be the difference between victory and defeat in a duel against another player.

  Kuradeel held his sword at mid-level, balancing the weight of the blade, his waist slightly crouched forward—clear signs of an upper-thrust attack. This could have been a feint, of course. I myself was loosely holding my sword downward, giving off the appearance that I’d strike low and fast to begin. Only instinct and experience could help you win a game of bluffs.