LINKED | Brothers Online Series | BK #1

Chapter 6: Vines

December 23, 2022 Floor 3 – The Forest

Thomas Min':

Sword Art Online. It was supposed to be the greatest game of all time, the game of games, the ultimate virtual experience. Ten thousand players, ten thousand hopefuls, one game. That was the premise. Heh, of course it didn't end that way. Things are never that easy. So what happens? The game creator goes and traps us, forcing everyone to survive in a foreign world filled with all sorts of monsters and deadly creatures. Worse yet, death in this game spells death in real life. Once your HP reaches zero, that's it. Game over. End of the line.

Yeah, I know. How kind of him.

It's been a little over a month since our entrapment and already over two thousand people have died. Three hundred of them were beta testers. Fortunately for us, we've managed to clear floor one and about two weeks later, floor two was cleared. Karim and I were one of those people that fought the first two bosses. Let me tell you something about that. For one thing, no one had any idea what to expect. Sure, we had data from the beta testers, and we had gathered up a sizable raid group, but seriously. We had no idea. We're lucky enough to have only lost a total of five people. Things could have been a lot worse.

This then leads me to the next problem: the discrimination against beta testers. I was at that first boss meeting. It wasn't good.

Some guy by the name of Ronald Tegwa had up and accused the beta testers of letting the two thousand to die. Hell, he even demanded that they give back their equipment and any gear they'd acquired.

How wrong was that? I'm not a beta tester, but I knew that wasn't right. There was no way a person like my brother had allowed others to die on purpose.

Sure, the beta testers had an advantage over others. Sure, they were more experienced than the average player, but so what? That didn't make them immortal. That doesn't make them more powerful. Hell, just look at the stats.

Three hundred.

That's a three and two zeros.

Three hundred.

I dare you to tell me that the beta testers were better than others. If they were, there would be fewer deaths. Besides, those guys didn't just leave others to their own devices.

They had created a guide book sharing any and all knowledge that they had. I bet some even died to get that info.

Then, of course, there just had to be that one guy, that one guy who goes up and lays all the blame on himself. Kirito, the beater, the guy who beat the first boss along with that girl, Asuna. Man, those two were good.

We covered them and they just went and owned that boss. Well done I say. Well done. But guess what? Ronald once again goes and screws things up. The truth comes out and what do you know, Kirito's a beta tester.

Instead of denying it, the dude goes and agrees. Better yet, he goes and says that he was the beta tester, the one to reach the highest floor. He called himself a beater, a combination of a beta tester and a cheater.

That was a mistake.

He was now a target, the enemy. Nobody likes beta testers. Everybody hates beaters. That was the rule. Heh, what a bunch of baloney.

There was only one good thing that came out of the fight. We had cleared the first floor. Other than that, the situation was still terrible.

That leads us to the present.