The Untold Truth: SAO Fatal Bullet Prequel

Welcome Back With A Few Rules

June 4th

It was the first day on the job. I knew I wouldn't be able to escape the grasp of Aincrad. Here I was back in the saddle again.

 "I never thought I would be back here but here I am," I thought.

Spinning the kunai dagger on my hand while staring out into the vast fields near the town of beginnings. I've managed to level myself up to be on par with some floor clearers. My job was explained to me on May 10th.

May 10th

"You're kidding me?" I exclaimed.

"It's a part of the deal," the sub-leader stated.

"But you want me to go back after I reclaimed my freedom?!"

"No no no...We managed to find out a way."

He handed me a copy of Sword Art Online.

"So what about it?" I asked, "It's just the game cartridge."

"Because most of the people logged onto Sword Art Online, an unused copy of the game is hard to come by," he explained, "But, there's something unique about this particular copy."

I flipped the case over and saw it was a closed-beta copy.

"So what about the closed beta?" I asked,"This shouldn't even work."

"We managed to read the cartridges and saw that Logout buttons are actually in the game but disabled," he explained.

"Then why not do that to all of the victims?"

"Because the major thing is that the copy needs to be unused and even if that wasn't a requirement, no one can be using the cartridge while we're modifying it."

"So we have to disconnect them from the game."

"And end their life. That's why we haven't implied it as our use of saving everyone."

"So what about this one copy?"

"That's where you come into play."

"Me?"

He handed me a second piece of hardware.

He explained, "This is an Amusphere. If you die in the game, you won't die in real life."

"How can I guarantee that?" I asked.

"We wouldn't be giving you this job in the first place."

I grabbed the Amusphere from his hands.

He continued, "It plugs into the wall and doesn't have an internal battery. It uses a low frequency transmitter and it constantly watches your vitals."

"Then what if my vitals are abnormal?" I asked.

"You'll be logged out out of safety for your life."

"And how do I even know that this game is going to work on this?"

"Because we already tested it," someone intervened.

I turned around and saw Kikuoka standing behind me. He seemed to be more lively and carefree than some of the other members in the taskforce.

"How though?" I asked, "Why test it knowing that it could be the end of your life?"

"Because this could help us uncover what is happening behind closed doors," he said, "You're going to be our eyes and ears for us."

June 4th

Coming back here did come with a set of rules however. The major one is to log out where my body is safe and no one can know. The game uses soulless logouts. Also doing it in front of people might cause fear that watching someone log out can cause chaos within the world. The second one is to not make any friends and to remain individual. This rule practically plays into the first one. The third and final rule is to fight only as a last resort. I'm supposed to be a ghost and unknown to the world of Aincrad.

As for the supposed floor clearing group, they were supposedly on the 30th floor by now. The newspaper industry, Aincrad Times, is a booming business at this point. They cover anything major happening in the game. The life in Aincrad seemed to be no different than real life, albeit the lack of modern equipment.

My daily routine usually involves a visit to the Monument of Life in the Town of Beginnings to log the amount of deaths happening in the game. That would be followed by some leveling up before retiring into a hotel room for the night.

It's something I won't get used to. Not being able to talk with anyone in a VRMMO basically defeats the purpose of being in one. It's just one of the few rules I have to follow.