Sword Art Online: Forgotten Edition

Fragment 30 - Fear

Floor 46 — Safe Area

Breathing heavily as if they had just run away from a strong boss, the trio teleported back to town to gather their thoughts...but most importantly to register what they had just seen.

They entered an alley way away from the public and had their backs against the wall, clutching their chests.

"R-Red..." Haru looked terrified, there was nearly no light in his eyes as he curled up and put his head into his arms.

"They killed them...there's no doubt..." Hero clenched his hands into fists.

Murdered...even though this isn't my first time seeing it, I still feel sick to my stomach. Musashi deeply inhaled then exhaled sharply.

"We should...keep this a secret for now..." she brings up.

"A secret? Musashi, two people were killed, there's a murderer in this death game— there might be more than one! How can we keep something like this a secret?!" The blonde boy raised his voice, disagreeing with his party mate.

"It's because two people were killed that we have to keep this a secret from the public! Imagine— if we were to leak information about a murderer or a few in the game and the fact that players can kill each other, all hell's going to break loose! No one's going to want to play anymore!" She yelled back.

"Shouldn't we at least make them aware of the situation? People are going to be killed out there with no clue of what's out to get them! Why—"

"We don't know how big their numbers are...if anything the number of people we saw back there could've been half of what they have. If we interfere now they might stir up more trouble than just killing those two. And we wouldn't want that," Her mind was set and there was no changing it," there's only been rumors of orange cursors...red is...going to shake people up."

"....Tch..." Hero clicked his tongue.

With this in mind, the trio kept the red cursors and the group of orange players a secret for now, however, there was no telling how long  before rumors would spread about the existence of a group of player killers (PKers).

Overtime, the traumatizing event became something of the past. The successful clearance of five floors put them at the half way mark of the game. Which took about another 2 months.

Taking no time to settle in, the Knights of the Blood Oath made the 55th floor their home base. Thanks to their leader's guidance, Kirito, the guild grew exponentially and became one of the most prominent and influential guilds in the game.

2 Months Later, February 2024
Floor 55 — Granzam, Labyrinth (Deep)

I told myself I would come back to where Musashi and Hero are before I got lost but...I got lost before I knew it. The young player scratched his head as he tried to remember where he came from.

"Haaaaah...so much for trying to go ahead and pave a path. I should probably just message them before they start to get worried. Then he began to sniff the air.

"Oh! The smell of cinnamon! It's faint but....*sniff* I can try to follow it." Motivated, the player began to walk around following the scent of his party mate and ended up not sending a message.

Meanwhile...

"That STUPID KID!" Musashi yelled.

"Ahh, the wonders of youth! I bet he couldn't leave the trail of adventure to be unattended! Heh!" Hero sounded like a proud, irresponsible older brother.

"...You're a lost cause. C'mon, we gotta find him before he gets roped into something like always. Ark! Can you help us find him?" Musashi's black winged friend nodded its head and chirped.

Haru's Location

".... The smell..is gone...I think I—" Just before he turned a corner, he heard voices and decided to peer over the edge.

A group of four. One burley man, a skinny twig, a guy with a normal build, and one lone female who looked a little older than Haru.

"Alright! Drop all the shit you got this time!" Said the burley man to the girl with dead eyes.

"..." the girl didn't respond but she listened to him.

"Tch! Damn brat!" The skinny man kicked her in the stomach.

"What happened to the good ol' days when you'd scream, huh? Or did you happen to run out of steam after all this time? Hahaha!" The man with a normal build laughed.

Haru stared intently but he couldn't do a thing. His legs began to quiver. Orange...cursors...but that girl has a green one so that means she—.

"HEY! This isn't all the shit you got from that horde is it?! Don't go playing games, bitch! Remember who saved you that day! You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me!" The man grabbed her dark purple hair then looked her dead in the eye then dropped her on the ground. "Hurry the fuck up before we leave you behind!"

She sat on the floor then equipping a dagger type weapon. "I'm tired..." she murmured.

Too fast for his eye to keep up, Haru saw the skinny man get knocked to the floor then stabbed relentlessly in the body.

Screaming for help, the other two tried to pull the girl off him but she was too fast. By the time they knew it, she was behind them then slashed their throats causing bleed damage.

"YOU PIECE OF—" the normal sized man threw his axe but it missed her by a hair. She threw her dagger at his head with incredible aim, and like that he disappeared.

The girl dressed in a blood dark red skirt and ebony top wore no expression on her face. "I'm bored. You guys always do the same thing. It's about time that I mix things up a bit, don't you think?" She told the man who cowered in her presence. Their roles were totally flipped.

The skinny and burley man only whimpered and begged for their lives. "Heh, that's a nice reaction. But...nothing you do will ever compare to what I suffered in the real world..." The girl whispered then ended their virtual lives in an instant.

"After all that toying around, they weren't much of a fight. As I thought, dropping most of my points into AGI is a real benefit to—" her ears moved to the sound of something dropping to the floor.

Creeping around the corner, she stood over a young boy around the age of 14, his hands to the floor and his face stunned as he looked up at her.

A-Again...I have to...run...before I'm...next...Haru's legs couldn't pick himself up. R-red...he began to have flashbacks to nearly 2 months ago. His breathing became heavy, in a matter of seconds he realized this feeling that would continuously resurface, over and over again.

He looked at the purple haired girl who stared down at him with her amber eyes that seemed to see through him.

This is...fear.