The First Fear

Wang Yang hadn't meant to appear right beneath Arthurslin's skirt, especially since she was wearing safety shorts. Still, he couldn't help sneaking a few glances. It was only human nature.

Those few glances were what alerted Arthurslin that something was off. She looked down and caught Wang Yang's lecherous gaze.

"..."

Her mouth twitched. Arthurslin clenched her fist and, as Wang Yang watched in terror, raised her foot high with a stony expression before bringing it down hard.

Smack!

She put all her strength into stomping on Wang Yang's face.

"Ah!" Wang Yang's vision went black, and a sharp, burning pain shot through his nose. He let out a thoroughly undignified shriek.

Thousands of players had just been teleported in, and the noisy crowd drowned him out. Otherwise, Wang Yang would have become the center of attention. Most people didn't notice him, but the players nearby shot him looks of contempt.

They had obviously jumped to their own conclusions about what had happened, figuring Wang Yang had taken advantage of the girl and gotten stomped for it. What they found most contemptible was that he'd been stomped and still screamed so loudly.

If Wang Yang had known what they were thinking, he would have been hopping mad, cursing them for talking big when they weren't the ones on the ground.

But it was only a minor incident. The players who had been teleported over grew louder and louder, and their shouts included curses like, "GM, get out here!"

These were the first players to discover that they couldn't log out. They'd had things to do in the real world, and being unable to log out had left them stewing in negativity. The moment they were transported to the plaza, all those feelings erupted.

They thought the GM had gathered them to explain the situation and fix the log-out option. They had no idea that, in just a few minutes, they'd be met not only with disappointment, but despair!

Since they were inside the safe zone, Arthurslin's kick hadn't hurt Wang Yang. Otherwise, he might have tragically become the game's first casualty since its official launch.

That was right: Wang Yang was the only player who knew that the game had officially begun the moment everyone was transported to the plaza. From that point on, when your HP hit zero, you really died!

HP regenerated quickly in the safe zone, so Wang Yang's was back to full in no time, and his paralysis wore off. As soon as he could move again, he stood up and looked sheepishly at the scowling Arthurslin. He explained in distress, "The teleportation was completely random, and I was paralyzed. I couldn't move at all."

But Arthurslin turned her head and ignored him. Wang Yang touched his nose, getting no sympathy from her, and thought that he'd just cemented his reputation as a pervert. After his habitual sigh, he finally took in his surroundings. Just like in the anime he'd watched, this was a plaza large enough to hold ten thousand people. A spire stood in the middle, with a palace directly in front of it.

That was the Black Iron Palace, originally a resurrection point. Now, perhaps a metal monument had been set up there, with his in-game name taking up a tiny space on it. Maybe one day, two cruel lines would be carved through his name.

"So this really is Sword Art Online. Should I be excited or scared?" Wang Yang smiled bitterly and shook his head. Even now, he could still feel his heart racing with fear.

Just as Kayaba Akihiko had said, this wasn't merely a game. This place had become a real world!

Then Wang Yang heard the players cursing around the plaza. He pursed his lips and thought, You're cursing up a storm now. Just wait—you'll be crying even harder in a bit.

He already knew what was going to happen next and had prepared himself mentally. But he hadn't forgotten how terrified he'd been when he first realized this was Sword Art Online. Now he even had the nerve to make sarcastic remarks about the others.

After a while, Arthurslin had calmed down. She glanced around at the increasingly deafening noise and muttered with a frown, "This never happened during the Beta Test. What on earth is going on?"

Wang Yang had sharp ears and caught her muttering amid the din. His eyes lit up at once.

A Beta Tester! He hadn't expected Arthurslin to be one. It was a stroke of luck.

Wang Yang had been fretting over how little he knew about the game. He hadn't expected Arthurslin to be a Beta Tester. Now he could get all sorts of useful information from her.

Things like the starting quests and the monsters' abilities.

There was no resurrection option now, so he couldn't afford to treat monsters casually. One careless mistake could mean death. At the thought, he quietly edged closer to Arthurslin and asked, "Arthurslin, did you take part in the Beta Test?"

Arthurslin was lost in thought and nodded unconsciously. Fortunately, she'd already calmed down and didn't mind Wang Yang's little maneuver. What mattered more to her was when she'd be able to log out.

"Hey, look up there!"

Suddenly, a voice rose above all the others. The noisy plaza gradually fell silent as everyone looked up.

A hundred meters overhead was the underside of the second floor. It had been stained a vivid red, and light filtered through the red patterns, bathing everything around them in crimson.

As everyone watched, the pattern spread across the underside of the second floor, covering it in the blink of an eye like a honeycomb.

Only then did the players in the plaza make out the huge characters on the pattern: ANNOUNCEMENT. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, it's an announcement!"

"I'm sick of waiting! Let me log out already!"

"I've got dinner plans!"

Voices rose and fell all around them. But the thousand Beta Testers alone knew what was really going on, and what they saw filled them with a growing sense of foreboding.

Suddenly, a thick, enormous drop of blood fell from the middle of the red pattern covering the entire ceiling. But it stopped in midair instead of continuing downward, shifting and changing until it became a twenty-meter-tall giant in a cloak.

Calling it a person wasn't quite right. From below, there was nothing beneath its red hood—not a single human feature—and the inside of its enormous cloak was just as dark.

Seeing the GM appear in that form deepened the Beta Testers' unease.

"Here it comes." Wang Yang gazed up at Kayaba Akihiko's avatar, his expression darkening. His heart was beating faster than ever.

"What's coming?" Arthurslin asked, puzzled, as she glanced at him.

Wang Yang only shook his head and said solemnly, "Just watch."

"What a strange guy," Arthurslin muttered, turning her eyes back to the red giant.

The red giant suddenly moved. Its sleeves slowly rose and spread apart, revealing a pair of pristine white gloves. The gloves were clearly separate from the sleeves, and there was nothing inside them.

Against the blood-red world, the increasingly bizarre sight began to frighten some of the players for the first time.

Until then, everyone had thought this was only a game. They'd viewed everything happening before them in that light, so they hadn't taken anything too seriously.

But a few timid players were beginning to feel afraid. They were the first small group to break down.

"Players, welcome to my world!" A deep, resonant voice rang out from beneath the hood.

The players in the plaza fell silent. The whole place was utterly still. The cloaked giant lowered its arms and continued, "I am Kayaba Akihiko, the only person who can control this world right now. I believe you've all noticed that the log-out option has disappeared from the menu. This is not a game malfunction. I'll say it again: this is not a game malfunction. This is how Sword Art Online was originally designed! In addition, logging out by external means is also impossible!"

"From now on, none of you will be able to log out until you reach the top of the castle."

The players below were stunned. Words like "What kind of joke is this?" were stuck in their throats.

After a brief silence, the crowd erupted!

"You've got to be kidding! What do you mean, we can't log out? It's just a game!"

"Let us log out! I have an emergency in the real world!"

Angry shouts rang out, surging through the plaza like a rushing river.

But Kayaba Akihiko above them acted as if he hadn't heard. He continued his announcement: "If anyone tries to remove the NerveGear from outside, its internal components will emit microwaves that destroy your brain activity and stop your vital signs. Unfortunately, many people have ignored the warning and forcibly removed their NerveGear. A total of 213 players have died just moments ago."

As if to make his words more convincing, the giant reached out with his right hand and swept it through the air. Images resembling news reports appeared one after another in midair, like needles stabbing deep into the eyes and hearts of the players in the plaza.

The entire plaza fell into deathly silence as fear began to take root.

"But please rest assured: while these incidents have been occurring, your safety has also been ensured."

Words that should have been good news sounded like a clown's mockery. Wang Yang's eyes held a faint trace of fear as he smiled bitterly. Still, for him, it really was good news.

Compared with the game, the real world frightened him more. To him, it was a completely unfamiliar place.