Wings of Aincrad ~ SnK/SAO AU [Ereri/Riren]

Chapter One •Death Game•

[Levi's POV]

"It's time for this week's MMO Stream. We began with a promotional video. Was this the day of last week's launch? What were all these people waiting in line for? Sword Art Online." I sat in front of my computer reading a manual on the nervegear. Listening to the news.

"The one at the front of the line waited for three days prior to the launch. Amazing! Or is this just what any real gamer would do? On today's MMO Stream, we'll be covering the internationally famous Sword Art Online, AKA SAO! To be honest, none of the Nervegear software released so far has really taken advantage of the hardware." I turned the page and lifted my thumb only to see a paper cut. "Tch." Damn paper cut. I turned my head as my sister, Petra, said she was off to practice. 'She does know I don't give a shit right?'

"Yeah, it's all sucked. But SAO was made by the Nervegear inventor, Kayaba Akihiko, and it's a long waited for VR MMORPG. I can't wait! The beta testers all said it was incredible. I wanted a copy... Only ten thousand copies were sold in its first printing. It sold out online in seconds. And as you saw, hardcore fans bought all the store copies."

Annoyed at how boring the news was, I looked at the time, it read 12:55:58 November 8th, 2022 on a Sunday. I shut off the the computer and removed my headphones. I had finished the manual and decided to put on the Nervegear. I plugged it in, inserted the game, and put on the helmet. It covered almost my whole head. The time now read 13:00:00.

"Link start!"

A flash of bright colors came rushing forward. I entered my account and then the game. I looked down at my hands as I entered the game.

Yes, this was the game with the floating castle, Aincrad, named Sword Art Online. The game that everyone wanted their hands on. The most popular game right now. Little did we know, it would soon become a horror show.

*•*•*

I was running through the Town of Beginnings market when someone called me. I turned around to see a guy with light red hair and a red and yellow scarf wrapped around his head.

"You move like you been here before, you were in the beta test right?"

"Yeah."

"Show me the basics! Please I'm begging you." He wouldn't stop begging until I finally said something. But it wasn't a yes.

"Fucking brat, if I don't even know your name, how am I supposed to help you?" I knew I could find his name easily without his help, but I decided to make him tell me.

"Ouch, anyway, my name's Marco, but my friends call me Freckled Jesus."

"Alright, I'll teach you the basics, as long as you leave me alone afterwards."

"Um, can I get your name?"

"Levi. That's my name and I won't say it twice."

*•*•*

"Alright, ya see that big ass hog? You can either be the dumbass who just throws a pebble at it like this," I demonstrated by throwing a pebble as hard as I could at the hog, in turn making in come charging at me. "Or you can actually go up and fight it with a fucking sword like you're supposed to." I ran at the hog and with a single swipe, killed the damn pest.

"Now you try."

"Umm...okay." He ran at another hog head on, trying to swipe it with his sword. He missed the first time. And the second time. And the third time. But he finally got it by the fourth try. 'Damn he's slow.'

"That was so hard, I thought it was like a mid-level boss or something."

"Well it wasn't. That's about the weakest thing in this entire game."

"Huh?! Well, thanks for training me, Levi, but I have to go. I have pizza coming soon. Can we train again tomorrow?" I hesitated a moment before answering.

"Tch, fine, if you want. Meet me at the Town of Beginnings at 5 PM. Don't be late. I'll stay here a while and train some more. See you tomorrow." I saw him swipe his right arm, and I assumed he was going for the log out button, but he stopped.

"Hey um, Levi?"

"Yes?"

"Where's the log out button?"

"It should be right the-" I stopped when I didn't see it. "Maybe it's just yours, let me check mine.."

I swiped my right hand and saw that mine too was missing. "What the hell? It's gone? Someone better explain this shit right now or-" I was interrupted when we were teleported to the Town of Beginnings. I saw many people panicking all around me.

Then I noticed the sky was bleeding.

A giant, hooded figure came out of the blood and greeted us. "Players, welcome to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko." I zoned out until he said something that caught my attention. "You may have noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat. This is not a defect in the game. It is a feature of Sword Art Online." This left even me shocked. He then stated that if anyone in the real world were to pull off the helmets or shut down the Nervegear, people's brains would be fried.

"..As a result two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world."

"..There is only one means of escape, to complete the game." He finished his speech with one final thing. "Finally, I've added a present from me to your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

I swiped my right hand and opened up my item storage. There was one item labeled 'mirror' and I clicked on it. A mirror dropped into my hands. Before I knew what was happening, everyone started glowing blue. I looked up and saw.. Marco? He looked completely different with red hair, freckles, and I don't even know what else. He just didn't look the same.

"Marco..?"

I looked back down at the mirror only to see that I myself had my real traits, not some fake avatar. I had my black undercut hair, my pale skin, my stone cold eyes, and the facial expression that seemed to always be the same.

That's when I realized that the Nervegear covers your whole face, so it knows what we look like. And before that, we had to calibrate it by patting all over our bodies. Which is how they got the damn height so perfect.

'Damn, why couldn't it have messed up and just made me average height?'

Right before Kayaba disappeared, he wished us Good luck along with all this other stuff I didn't exactly listen to. 'Damn you Kayaba! You go and trap us in a death game and the only thing you do is give us this stupid speech?!'

While everyone was panicking, I grabbed Marco's arm and pulled him away. I told him that if we went to the next town right then, we could get EXP easier, seeing that soon, all the towns would be scavenged through in a matter of days.

"So, you should come with me and we can get there safely and get leveled up quickly together."

"I'm sorry but my friends are in the plaza somewhere and I just can't leave them. But don't worry about me, go on to the next town. I used to run a guild in another game, so I'll be fine."

"I guess this is where we split ways then." I turned and waved as I left him there. As I turned the corner, I broke into a run. I ran as fast as I could to the next town.

'I need to survive!'