Part 5 (2/2)
The short line was crossed mercilessly over the boy's name two minutes later. The cause of death was ”Falling in midair”. I didn't even want to imagine what he went through during those two minutes. There was no way of knowing if he had returned to the real world or, as Kayaba had said, he had his brain fried. But most people believed that if there was such a simple way of escaping the game, the people outside would have already pulled the plugs and saved us.
But there were still some who gave in to this easy way of dealing with things. Most people, including me, found it hard to take the ”Death” in SAO as reality.
That had still not changed. The phenomenon of the HP bar reaching zero and the polygons that made up our bodies being destroyed was too much like the ”Game Over” that we were all too familiar with. It was probable that the only way to understand the real meaning of death in SAO would be to experience it yourself. This shaky truth would have been the reason that the decrease in players slowed.
On the other hand, a lot of the players who were part of ”The Army”, especially the ones who had first belonged to the first group, started losing their lives while trying to clear the game and fighting monsters.
Fights in SAO needed a bit of getting used to. It was less like trying to force yourself to move but ”entrusting” your movements to the system.
For example, even for a simple uppercut with a oneahanded sword, if the player learned the ”Oneahanded Sword Skill” and then equipped ”Uppercut” from the list, they would only need to a.s.sume the starting motion; then the system would almost automatically move their body for them. But if someone without the skill tried to copy the movements, it would be too slow and weak to use in actual combat. It was like inputting commands in a fighting game.
The people who didn't adjust to this just swung their swords around and even lost to boars and wolves they would have been able to beat if they used the single strike skills they had by default. Even then, if they just gave up and ran away after losing some of their HP, they wouldn't have died but...
Unlike the attacks of 2D monsters that we see through a monitor screen, the battles in SAO were so real that you'd feel afraid. It was as if a real monster was baring its teeth at you and giving chase with the intention of killing you.
Even during the beta testing there were some people who panicked in the middle of a fight, but now death awaited you if you lost. The panicastricken players forgot about using their skills and even running away, their HP disappeared and they were expelled from this world forever.
Suicide, losing to monsters. The number of crossedaout names multiplied at a terrifying pace.
When these reached two thousand, one month into the game, a cloud of despair hung over the surviving players. If the number of deaths kept increasing at this pace, all ten thousand would be dead in less than half a year. Clearing the hundredth floor seemed like a mere dream.
But... humans adapt.
A little over a month later, the first labyrinth was cleared and the number of deaths started to slow quickly. People started spreading information in order to survive and most people started to perceive that monsters weren't all that scary if you gained enough experience points and leveled up properly.
It might be possible to clear the game and return to the real world. The number of players that started thinking like that increased slowly but steadily.
The top floor was still far away, but the players started moving with this vague hope... and the world started turning again.
Now, two years later and with twenty six floors left, the number of survivors is around six thousand.
This is the current situation in Aincrad.
Chapter 5.
After ending my fight with a formidable enemy that prowled the ”Labyrinth Area” of floor seventy-four, I recounted my way back, as well as the past, and let out a sigh of relief as I saw the light of the entrance.
I emptied my head, walked quickly out of the pa.s.sageway, and took a deep breath of the fresh, clean air.
In front of me, a narrow lane went into the thick, overgrown forest. Behind me, the labyrinth area I had just come out of soared high into the sky-until the bottom of the next floor to be more precise.
Because the game was based on getting to the top of the castle, the dungeons in this world weren't underground labyrinths but existed as towers. However, the basic setting hadn't changed: monsters stronger than the ones you met out on the fields roamed within, while the boss monster waited for you in its deepest reaches.
Right now, eighty percent of the seventy-fourth floor labyrinth area had been explored, or in other words, had been ”mapped”. In a couple of days, the boss room would most probably be discovered, and a large-scale team would be made. Then, even I, a solo player, would take part.
I smiled at myself for feeling both expectant and frustrated at the same time and started walking down the lane.
For the moment, my hometown is the biggest city in Aincrad, ”Algade”, which was located on the fiftieth floor. Well, in mere size, the Starting City was larger, but that place had now totally become ”The Army”'s base of operations, so it was a little uncomfortable to walk around in.
As soon as I made it out of the now darkening plains, a forest full of old trees stretched out before me. If I walked for thirty minutes through there, I would arrive at the ”Housing Area” of the seventy-fourth floor and just use the ”Teleport Gate” there to warp myself over to Algade.
I could always use one of the instant teleportation items in my inventory to return to Algade at any time. But since it was a little expensive, I was reluctant to use it unless I was in a dangerous situation. There was still some time before the sun disappeared completely, so I resisted the temptation of returning to my house as fast as I could and entered the forest.
As a rule, the edges of each floor in Aincrad were usually open to the sky, apart from the support pillars. The trees burned red from the light that entered through that gap. The mist that flowed in between the rays of light shone brilliantly as it reflected the light of the sunset. The cries of the birds, which were common during the day, were hard to hear now, while the sound of branches swaying in the wind seemed magnified.
I knew quite well that I could fight the monsters that appeared in this area even while half-asleep, but the fear that comes with the dark was hard to suppress. A feeling, similar to the one I had as a kid when I was trying to get back home after losing my way, filled me.
But I didn't dislike this feeling. I had forgotten about this primitive fear sometime when I was living back on the other side. The feeling of loneliness that you get when you're traveling the wilderness with n.o.body in sight however much you look-you could call this the essence of an RPG.
While I was absorbed in these nostalgic memories, a cry that I'd never heard before suddenly entered my ears.
It sounded only for a moment, high and clear like a reed pipe. I stopped my feet and carefully searched for the direction the sound came from. If you heard or saw something that you'd never experienced before in this world, it meant that you were either very lucky or the opposite.
As a solo player, I'd trained my ”Scan for Enemy” skill. This skill prevented ambushes and when you became more proficient at it, it gave the player the additional ability of being able to detect monsters that were in ”hiding.” Through it, I could see a monster hiding between the branches ten meters away.
It wasn't very big. It had green fur to camouflage itself in the leaves and had ears longer than its body. As I concentrated on it, it automatically became my target and a yellow cursor appeared along with its name.
I held my breath as soon as I read the name: ”Ragout Rabbit”. It was rare enough to earn the adjective ”super.”
It was the first time I'd actually seen the real thing. The plump rabbit that lived in the branches wasn't all that strong, nor did it give you that many experience points, but- I silently drew a thin throwing pick from my belt. My ”Knife Throwing Skill” wasn't all that high. I had simply chosen it as a branch on my skill tree at some point. But I'd heard that the Ragout Rabbit was the fastest monster among the ones that were currently known, so I didn't really have much confidence in catching it with my sword.
I had one chance to attack before the opponent noticed me. I raised my pick, praying mentally, and a.s.sumed the ”Single Shot” position.
Well, however low my skill was, my hand was backed up by my high dexterity and threw the pick in a blur of motion. The pick glinted once and then was sucked into the trees. As soon as I attacked, the cursor, which showed the direction the Ragout Rabbit was in, turned red and the HP bar appeared beneath it.
A high pitched scream sounded from the direction which I'd thrown my pick. The HP bar faltered a little and then went down to 0. The familiar sound of polygons shattering resounded.
I made a fist with my left hand. I raised my right hand and opened the main menu. I opened the inventory quickly, with even my hand movements seeming too slow to me, and it was there at the very top of the newly acquired item list: ”Ragout Rabbit's meat”. It was a rare item that could be sold to other players at a minimum price of one hundred thousand Col. That amount of money was enough to tailor a full set of the best armor and still have change leftover.
The reason that this was so expensive was pretty simple, as it was set as the most delicious food ingredient among the numerous ingredients available in the game.
Eating was just about the only pleasure in SAO, but the only thing you could eat usually was the soup and bread that tasted as if they were from the European countryside-well not that I knew; but the fact was that it was plain. A few players who had trained their cooking skill had established this after a lot of thought in order to let the other players eat a wider range of foods. But even this wasn't that easy to get across, so as a rule the players were all deprived of taste.
Of course, my current situation wasn't much different, and I didn't dislike the soup and full wheat bread the NPC restaurant that I frequented sold. But from time to time the need to eat at least a mouthful of juicy meat overtook me.
For a while I stared at the name of the item and kept wondering what to do. The chances of me getting this sort of ingredient again were very low. To be honest, I really wanted to eat it. But the higher the ingredients' rank, the more skill was needed to actually cook it. So I had to find a master level cook to cook this for me.
But I didn't know any. Well, I did know a few, but hunting them down for something like this was annoying. Even more than that, it was about time I got a new set of equipment. Consequently, I decided to sell it.
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