Unital Ring: The Mysterious New World

Intrusion and Reunion

"Kirito!"

Kirito quickly removes himself from the dagger, draws his stone knife, and checks his HP. Despite his lack of armor, he only lost half of his HP - which was full beforehand - thanks to his increased level. The enemy, however, did not expect Kirito to survive the strike. "No way. I got a clean hit in on you, but it only went down half? Did you power-level or something?"

"What was that for?"

"You cheap coward!"

The dagger user is unaffected by the rage of the girls. Kirito remains silent as he examines the cursor above the man, showing a rotating ring-shaped HP bar and his name below it: Mocri. It's not a name he recognizes, but given how he knew Kirito immediately, there are only a few instances in which someone would want to kill him maliciously. Most of those cases surround a certain group from SAO. "Are you with Laughing Coffin?"

Mocri blinks in surprise. "N-no, no, I'm no historical bigshot like that. I'm just a gamer, man."

"You didn't hesitate an instant when you stabbed me."

"No, no, no, I totally did. My heart was beating out of my chest." Kirito cannot tell if Mocri is putting on an act or is a true PKer like those of the aforementioned guild. Kirito himself isn't extremely adverse to PKing like Alice or the opposing "shoot first, ask later" extreme like Jaymes. He will not hesitate to strike another player down when it proves necessary, especially in a situation like this.

Mocri's seven companions, now with red hostile cursors over their heads, finally notice what's happened and run from the cabin towards him. They all seem shocked by the situation, especially the man in the leather armor, which makes it seem that Mocri's actions were his alone. "What the hell did you do, Mocri?"

"Bolan, that's Kirito the spriggan! Second place from the tournament. And he's already crafting iron! Once he starts making swords and armor, we're in trouble, even with our numbers! We gotta kill him while he's still naked!" His friends start to murmur in response. Kirito knew he was renowned in SAO, for certain reasons, but in ALO, he had no idea of that. Sure, he's known to a few popular players among the nine races of Alfheim, but he didn't think he had such renown after coming in second in February's tournament. He's sure that's equivalent to coming in second in GGO's Battle of Bullets, where "Kiriko" hasn't appeared since last December.

The man in leather armor, Bolan, looks at Kirito, then at Mocri, then sighs. "Well... I guess that settles that."

"Whaaat?" Leafa shouts. She points a finger at Bolan's face and says, "No, it doesn't! Why is that a convincing argument? We have no intention of fighting with you at all! He's the one who started attacking us!"

"...You still don't get it?"

"Don't get what?"

"This isn't just a simple survival game or some PK-friendly battle royale. We're being put to a race. What did the announcement say? 'To the first...all shall be given.'"

"And you know what all is in this case?"

"No, I don't...but you can tell this is just as crazy as that SAO Incident, right? ALl the VRMMOs with decent name recognition - not just ALO, but Asuka Empire and LunaSca and ApoDe and GGO and SA:O - and thousands upon thousands of players got converted into this place. And if you end up in first, you get something. Don't you want to know what that is?"