Come With Me

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The vast plaza was packed with tens of thousands of players, yet not a single person spoke. Everyone held their breath, struggling to process the news. Unease, fear, and disbelief tangled together, leaving most of them completely blank.

"I don't want this!" A shrill, tearful scream rang out suddenly. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, it sent ripples through the crowd, sweeping over every player in an instant.

Panic was a negative emotion that could spread, but since the players were struggling to accept what was happening, it spread relatively slowly. That scream, however, had finally set their fear ablaze.

The crowd surged. More than half the players cursed or shouted as they rushed toward the edge of the plaza. It was pointless, since even if they escaped the plaza, they would still be trapped in the world of Sword Art Online. Besides, the plaza was temporarily sealed off, blocked on all sides by an invisible barrier.

Only when the timid players reached the edge did they realize they couldn't get out. They could only pound helplessly on the invisible barrier, despair written plainly across their faces.

Only about three-tenths of the players remained calm. They didn't react as violently as the others, standing still as they waited for Kayaba Akihiko to speak again—or for this to end, the game to officially begin, and the plaza's barrier to come down.

Wang Yang was among them, of course. He glanced over the three thousand or so players and thought that they would form the main group tackling the game. The criminals among them were part of that group, too.

No matter how hysterical the players below became, Kayaba Akihiko remained high above them. A voice rang out from beneath the red brim of his hat, loud and clear, though tinged with a slight electronic distortion.

"Before the game officially begins, you'll find a small gift from me in your inventory."

Wang Yang knew the gift was a mirror that would show their real-life appearance. After hesitating, he opened his inventory along with everyone else.

The players in the plaza assumed it was a beginner's gift, so they opened it without a second thought. Wang Yang, however, knew it wasn't a gift pack but a key connecting them to the real world. This key would open a door between virtual reality and the real world, revealing every player's true appearance.

He stared quietly at the little mirror in his inventory for a moment, then closed the menu. The item window floating before him disappeared. He had woken up inside the game, but in the real world, a body that wasn't his own was still lying there, with a face that wasn't his own. That was why he didn't dare take out the mirror.

At the same moment he closed his inventory, ten thousand beams of white light suddenly rose from the plaza. A flash of white appeared before his eyes as well, turning everything in front of him blindingly bright.

Wang Yang sighed helplessly. Even if he didn't take out the mirror, Kayaba Akihiko would still force everyone's real-world bodies and faces to reappear. Suddenly, he thought he understood why Kayaba Akihiko had gone to such lengths. Only by revealing their real-life appearances could everyone's truest selves be shown.

Even though Wang Yang was afraid the face in the mirror would be someone he barely recognized, he still had to look. He would be living with that face for who knew how long.

After about three seconds, the white light faded. The handsome men and beautiful women who had filled the plaza now looked completely different.

Wang Yang opened the menu and tapped his inventory. A rectangular window appeared before him, with a lone item in the top corner.

The item was called Handheld Mirror.

He tapped the item's name and selected "Materialize" in the window that appeared. With a flash of light, a small square mirror appeared in his hand.

Holding the mirror, Wang Yang clenched his jaw and slowly raised it before his face. Even at the last moment, he desperately hoped he would see his original face, but he was destined to be disappointed.

The reflection showed a handsome face: straight, striking eyebrows, bright eyes, a high nose, and thin lips. Every feature was flawless. It was the kind of face that made people think, He's so handsome! the moment they saw it. If there was any flaw, it was his complexion—an unhealthy pallor.

Wang Yang stared blankly at the face in the mirror, a face that wasn't his. His mouth hung slightly open, but he felt no joy.

No matter how handsome the face was, it wasn't his!

He sighed out of habit and put the mirror away, resigned. Now that everyone in the plaza had revealed their real-life appearances, many of the people who had been grinding together that afternoon were arguing.

The benefits of showing everyone's real-life appearance became clear then. At the very least, it put an end to people pretending to be the opposite sex, and it rendered the game's only disguise useless. Building trust in the future would be much easier.

"Ah." A soft gasp came from beside Wang Yang while he was feeling rather dejected. He followed the sound and saw a girl about 1.6 meters tall, with fair skin and delicate features.

The girl covered her mouth, staring at him with a strange look.

"What's with that look?" Wang Yang glanced at her clothes and recognized her as Arthurslin. She must have recognized him too, but the strange, disbelieving look in her eyes made him feel as if needles were pricking his back.

"You're so good-looking. How can you be such a pervert?" Arthurslin sounded unable to hide her surprise.

Wang Yang's face went dark. After another habitual sigh, he looked up at the red giant in the sky. Now that the mirrors had been distributed, Kayaba Akihiko was sure to reveal the only way to log out.

Sure enough, Kayaba Akihiko continued, "This is the only proof you have that the real world exists. From now on, you'll tackle this game with your real-life appearances. Only when you reach the room on the hundredth floor and defeat the final boss will all players be able to log out of the game. Rest assured, this is no joke!"

"The hundredth floor!"

As soon as Kayaba Akihiko finished speaking, someone cried out in alarm. The player had clearly taken part in the Beta Test and knew what an almost impossible task this would be, especially since the game no longer allowed players to revive indefinitely.

Kirito was among the players in a corner of the crowd. Just like him, every player who had participated in the Beta Test felt a heavy weight in their chest, so heavy they could hardly breathe.

Even with the ability to revive, they had only reached the eighth floor after two months. Now that there was no revival, was it really possible to clear all one hundred floors?

Wang Yang even saw the delicate, lovely Arthurslin shiver, but what surprised him was that he saw not the slightest trace of fear on her pretty face.

Why wasn't this girl afraid? Wang Yang wondered.

At first, Wang Yang had been terrified. But once he remembered that Kirito would beat the game in two years, the soul-deep fear gradually faded with time. Now he was calmer than anyone else there, and yet this girl, who looked so pitiful, wasn't afraid at all.

"You must all be wondering why. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, the developer of SAO and the NerveGear, do this? Was it a large-scale terrorist attack? A kidnapping for money? Neither. The reason is that my ultimate goal was to create a world, then watch it. And now, I've achieved my goal."

The plaza was frighteningly quiet. After a pause, Kayaba Akihiko's emotionless voice rang out again. "That concludes my explanation of SAO's official launch. Good luck, players."

While an echo still lingered, the vivid red cloak began to rise silently. The hat disappeared first, merging with the rows of red text that read "Announcement." Then the shoulders, chest, and limbs slowly melted away above, as if they were merging with the system.

When the red giant had completely merged into the underside of the second floor, the red messages that had covered the sky vanished without a trace. In less than a second, the world returned to its original shape—but it had lost its original color.

Kayaba Akihiko ended his announcement and left without hesitation, leaving behind a crowd of players beginning to fall apart.

After the red world disappeared, Wang Yang felt the wind brush his face and even heard the voices of NPCs in the distance. The invisible barrier around the plaza vanished at the same time. Now, the players who had been silent for so long were like compressed springs released all at once, rebounding with tremendous force.

A tremendous rumbling suddenly erupted across the plaza, caused by countless voices blending together.

"I don't want this! Let me out of here!"

"This has to be a lie! Yes, it has to be!"

"Damn it, let me out of here!"

In just a short while, players who had gone from enjoying a game to being prisoners began to act hysterically in every way imaginable, wailing, roaring, screaming, and shouting. The timid players at the edge of the plaza were the first to realize the invisible barrier blocking them had vanished. They ran in terror toward a nearby street, as if doing so could help them escape this terrifying world.

There was no denying that, in that moment, they truly hoped it was all just a dream.

It wasn't only the timid players. Even those with a fair amount of courage could only leave the plaza as quickly as possible. As long as they stayed there, the events that had just unfolded would keep replaying in their minds, and their fear would naturally linger.

The first thing the Beta Test players did, without exception, was head for the next Grinding Spot. They couldn't stay in the areas around Starting Town, which had already been farmed repeatedly by tens of thousands of players. There were still materials to collect, but the drop rates had become very low.

Monsters in SAO weren't like those in other RPGs, where item drop rates never fluctuated. In SAO, the drop rates of monsters in an area gradually decreased as they were hunted, though this only happened after a huge number of them had been killed.

In other words, every monster zone yielded the best rewards during its First Clear. So the Beta Test players promptly abandoned the areas around Starting Town, which had already been farmed many times, and headed for a new Untouched Monster Zone.

Most of these players had already accepted their situation. With their Beta Test experience, they had a head start over everyone else. And so they could maximize their own gains, most chose not to share their information. That was exactly why ordinary players later came to resent and envy them, giving them the sarcastic title Cheaters.

The plaza, once packed with people, had emptied in less than ten minutes, leaving fewer than a dozen behind.

Arthurslin glanced at the darkening sky, then at Wang Yang, who was still lost in thought. A trace of hesitation crossed her delicate face. During the Beta Test, she had made several friends and formed a regular party. They were a well-known group, the first to clear the fifth-floor boss and have their names recorded on the Swordsman Monument. She was hesitating over whether to bring Wang Yang along.

It was true that she had known Wang Yang for barely half an hour, but given what had happened to SAO, her kind heart couldn't bear to abandon him when he was clearly a beginner.

"Ding." A pleasant chime rang out, signaling that a message had arrived.

Arthurslin knew it was from one of her teammates. With the game's sudden upheaval, they would naturally need to meet earlier. Without checking the message, she seemed to make up her mind and walked over to Wang Yang, who was still lost in thought. In a tone that left no room for argument, she said, "Come with me."

It was the most moving thing Wang Yang had heard from Arthurslin since they had met. Later, those words would stay with him for a long time.

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