Forget It, Let's Buy Some Microtransactions First!

Once, the land was kept in balance by the protection of the two black-and-white Sacred Great Trees.

The Dark Elf Race that worshipped the Black Sacred Great Tree established the Riusla Kingdom, while the Forest Elves that worshipped the White Sacred Great Tree established the Kareso Kingdom.

With the Sacred Great Trees' protection and powerful magic, the kingdoms prospered. Besides these two nations, there was also the Nine United Kingdoms, established by the Human Race.

But one day, the elves desired bodies that could not be injured, so they planned to cut open the Sacred Trees and obtain their sap.

War broke out as a result. Just as the mages of the two kingdoms were about to unleash the largest-scale attack magic, an anomaly occurred.

A ring of light ten kilometers in diameter encircled the plains that had become a battlefield, severing them from the earth and suspending them in the air.

The kingdoms' capitals and major cities were all cut away from the land by the ring of light. Countless elves, humans, and dwarves were lifted into the sky, after which the discs stacked vertically.

Thereafter, people called this event Earth Severance, and Aincrad was born.

This was the game's background for Sword Art Online. After entering the game, Seiya, dressed in a set of burlap clothing, appeared in the Town of Beginnings on Aincrad's First Floor.

As waves of blue light flickered around their bodies, figures dressed in the same beginner outfits as him continuously appeared nearby.

This game had a character customization feature and even allowed players to choose their gender.

As a result, quite a few people spent a considerable amount of time creating their characters.

Seiya, on the other hand, had known that his true appearance would be revealed soon enough, so he did not waste any time. He had even used his real name as his in-game name, making him one of the first few people to enter the game.

The Town of Beginnings on Aincrad's First Floor was huge, but with ten thousand people packed together, finding someone was not easy.

In the friend search window, Seiya directly entered the name "Kirito." The moment he found the other person, he immediately sent a friend request.

Not long afterward, Seiya received a notification that his friend request had been accepted, along with a message from Kirito.

"Seiya, why did you enter the game using your real name?"

Kazuto Kirigaya had told Seiya long ago that his game character was named Kirito.

The name "Kirito" had always been his game ID, and it had remained unchanged for many years.

"Because I thought coming up with a fake name would be troublesome. Is using my real name not allowed?"

Seeing Seiya's reply, Kirito wore a speechless expression before typing another message. "It's not that it isn't allowed, but... wait, you got into the game so quickly. Don't tell me you didn't even customize your character's face?"

"Customize my face? What does that mean?"

"It means changing your facial model, like making yourself more handsome or something..."

"There did seem to be a step like that earlier, but I think my face is already handsome enough.

So, being quite satisfied with it, I skipped all those steps."

Seeing the message pop up in the chat window, Kirito was speechless once again.

He had originally wanted to tease Seiya for being a complete gaming noob, but for some reason, he suddenly felt stabbed in the heart.

He had just realized that the face he had carefully spent so much time customizing was not even as handsome as Seiya's original face!

Even after resorting to technological trickery, he had still been silently mocked in reverse by the other guy.

"You really are a gaming beginner. When playing a full-dive game like this, making slight changes to your name and appearance is practically common sense, right?

Not only did you use your real name, you did not alter your appearance at all. What if you offend someone in the game, or want to act tough online?

You'll get doxxed in no time!"

Facing the newbie Seiya, Kirito patiently explained some basic gaming knowledge like a seasoned veteran.

Yet while explaining, Kirito could not help secretly feeling pleased with himself.

Judging from Seiya's actions, his buddy was undoubtedly a genuine newbie, not some level-sixty veteran disguised as one.

Earlier, Kirito had been worried whether he could use his swordsmanship to crush Seiya in a full-dive game like this.

But now, he was no longer worried at all. Seiya did not even possess the most basic gaming knowledge.

He was obviously a total newbie. If he could not beat Seiya at this level, what right did he, Kirito, have to call himself a hardcore veteran player? He might as well get cremated on the spot.

Moreover, while helping Seiya learn some basic gaming knowledge, Kirito was inwardly delighted.

The feeling of a veteran guiding a newbie—only those who had done it would understand.

In the Real World, Seiya was unquestionably the big shot, but in this game world, Lord Kirito was the true big shot.

Because the plaza of the Town of Beginnings was too large and more players were continuously entering the game, Kirito, out of consideration for a newbie player like Seiya, told him to stay where he was and not run around. He would use the party's player-search function to find Seiya.

Seeing Kirito take this so seriously, Seiya silently closed the map spread out before him and decided to act like a pure newbie while waiting for the veteran to find him.

Waiting was undoubtedly dull and boring. Since many players suffering from naming difficulties, along with those obsessed with creating breathtakingly beautiful faces, had not officially entered the game yet, the big boss Akihiko Kayaba had not appeared either.

While waiting for Kirito, the bored Seiya opened the various game interfaces and began studying the game in detail.

Sword Art Online was a role-playing adventure game centered around swords and blades. It contained all kinds of skills, but sword skills alone accounted for nearly half of them all.

What made this game even more impressive was that players could create unique skills through their own actions.

As long as a move received the system's recognition, it could become a self-created skill, and the player would have the right to name it.

"Could this be... the microtransaction screen?"

While exploring Sword Art Online, besides the skill system, sub-class system, and other interfaces, Seiya soon discovered the game's top-up screen!

Yes, Sword Art Online also had a top-up screen. After all, no game developer made games without wanting to earn money.

No matter how much a game claimed to be free-to-play, it could not escape the "it smells so good" law in the end. Without income, how could they create happiness, and how could they maintain the game environment?

Since Akihiko Kayaba had not appeared yet, the program and coding had not been altered. Sword Art Online was still just an ordinary game and retained its microtransaction function.

Looking at the microtransaction screen before him, Seiya hesitated for less than half a minute before quickly entering his account and password into the information field.