The Crimson Hunter. SAO X Reader. [DRAFT].

●Chapter 4: Living in a Virtual World.

11 January, 2023.
Floor 16, Erinaca.

You felt a heat form itself over your face, you slowly began to open your eyes, your vision was slightly blurry since just woke up but you could make out a few things. Like the curtains slightly parted allowing the sun to hit your face, and the small bedside table with a cube-like lamp on top. With a groggy motion you swiped your arm down opening your menu, you swerved your eyes to see where the clock was, you more or less found it and barely managed to read the time: 07:00AM.

.....................Oh no...........Akira!

You realized the grave mistake you made as you broke Rule 3 of Akira: Wake up before 6AM. Just as you were about to get up you felt a tug on your right leg, and the next thing you knew you were pulled out of your bed and you landed with a thud face first onto the floor. You groaned rubbing your head in pain.

Over the last couple weeks since leaving Floor 1 Akira had developed a rather odd list of rules, there were only 3 in total and they were pretty basic, but if you slipped up with one you would pay the price, just like how you did right now:

Rule 1:
Never Leave the party while outside the safe zones, unless with a partner.
Rule 2:
Only buy the essentials.
Rule 3:
Wake up no later than 6AM.

There were good reasons as to why these rules were made, simply to keep your party on their feet and make sure you were on constant alert for anything, but at this point it's starting to become a nightmare since Akira showed no mercy, especially towards you and Kore, considering you two were by far the most lazy in your party of 5.

"Wake up sleepy head, or your gonna miss breakfast!" The brunette said with a smirk as she left his room. You got up still feeling the remaining  sting on your face when contacting the wooden floor of the inn you were staying at. You groaned In pain as you got up,'She really isn't one for subtlety is she?' You thought in annoyance. You re-opened your menu and changed into your normal attire: A(F/C) jacket with a white armor chestplate, a pair of black long pants and combat boots, and finally a (F/C) neck warmer scarf that you can pull up to cover your mouth, each armor piece you wore was practically leather with small sections of iron plating. The colour scheme was mainly black, aside from the jacket and scarf and had slight hints of sky blue and red.

When you made your way to the eating area of the inn you were greeted with the usual sight of every morning. Akira,Kore,Shoji and Asuna were all sitting around a table, having a small breakfast and chatting about what they should do for the remainder of the day, Shoji saw you and presented his trademark smile.

"Hey bro! You sleep well?" He asked. "Oh more or less good, until someone woke me up." You replied. Akira just gave a shrug and chuckle. You sat down and grabbed a plate of the bacon and eggs presented to you. "Well, it doesn't really matter now, so I guess we should plan on what to do today right?" Kore asked, and Akira nodded in reply. You knew that Akira already had the entire day planned, like she did every other day, if you didn't know any better you'd think she was a little OCD, and it did help non the less considering you were all already at level 33, the only complaints sent around was the punishments when you broke one of the rules.

"First thing we should do is to head over to Floor 24 and bring up our level, then the next step would be to try and upgrade our gear." Said Akira. Everyone nodded in agreement, so they all finished their breakfast and walked out the inn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Floor 24.
Western RiverSwamp.

You ran up full speed at the hobgoblin, and lowered yourself to slide across the wet grass narrowly avoiding it's scimitar, you spin yourself around facing it's backside, you pull back your spear,targeting it's angles, and you strike bringing it down to its knees. "Switch!" You yelled, Asuna ran towards you and thrust her rapier about 7 times across it's body, killing it.