CyberSword

Welcome to Cyber Sword.

This is a fan made alternative to sword art online as a sheer entertainment and practice exorcize. Please note, alot of changes are here, as I just want to take the premise and give you all my own way of presenting the same concept.

Please note, nothing will correspond with Reki Kawahara or any of A1 productions directly and is only used as inspiration for the general idea. This is to be considered a different rendition of the same idea. Thank you for understanding.

I hope you all enjoy.

Chapter One:

Gaming, the one thing in this world that I personally find freeing. Forget the troubles of life, or even make a ton of money in games. I have been a gamer for over a decade. As the games changed, so have I, the newest change being Full Dive Virtual Reality, or FDVR for short. No one in my real life knows my gamer tag. Also referred to as a username. I am known online as 'The Red Wanderer' as I tend to play mostly solo. My real name is Adam Moore and I am an American living in Michigan. I am one of many avid lovers of games. Today I get my brand new FDVR system from Kala Tech, the leader of gamer technologies.

They usually pump out triple A titles without a hitch, being once every two months they have a new game. The one I get with my FDVR system is called Stillness. The game itself seems to be a mix between a Scifi and medieval theme. The idea is to use melee weapons only, though there are some rumors of ranged weapons, like bows or guns, but that is rumored to be the most rare boss drop in the entire game, entailing over one hundred levels. The skills system is dynamic, or so they claim, so if you fiddle with one or two weapon styles, it can unlock what is referred to as a conditional skill, which they state are infinite based on the players in game choices. I can't wait.

I live alone in my bachelor apartment, all of my furniture can be put into the wall or pulled out. It is perfect for my old VR set, which I found to be too hard to work with freely because of all the wiring. The new FDVR system I am getting, stops your brains signals from emitting through your body and sends it as an in game command. The owner of Kala Tech is Samuel Johnson, someone who had helped develop a similar system in Japan, although, we don't get the news for Japan here, so it's hard to say how well it took off.

While I'm sitting here all excited, I can hear my buzzer ring off. I get off my couch and fold it into the wall, thanks to micro houses and collapsible furniture. I find my way to my apartment door and swing the door open. A man in blue uniform with a clipboard and a package stands there with him offering me the clipboard.

"Package, addressed for Adam Moore, please sign." He says flatly.

I take the clipboard and slip the pen out from the clasp, then proceed to sign for it "Thanks." I say happily as we exchange the package and clipboard.

"Have a nice day sir." He says as he jaunts on down the hall. I guess he was just busy. I close the apartment door and put my foot on a button on the floor.

The coffee table then starts assembling from four small holes in the floor. I place the box on the table and go to a set of five switches on my wall. I hit the middle one up, making a counter space come up from the floor. I grab a paring knife from the block and make my way back to the table. I kneel down and cut the box open shakily with excitement. I have been waiting for months now for the release date. They didn't mess around with that same-day of arrival shipment.

I pull out the helmet in the encased block of styrofoam. I then look and find the connecting cable and plug it into my helmet. I grab the cylinder base and it's foam case. I remove the helmet from the Styrofoam and the base cylinder. This is where you slide in the game chips. There are only two plug-ins for this setup, the helmet, the connector cord, the base and finally the power supply. I reach into the box and feel the cord. A sly grin reaches my face as I pull the cord into view. My heart sinks.

The wrong plug in type for my apartment. Of course. They designed them in Europe and I didn't even think of getting an adapter! I get to my feet and go for the door, slide my finger on a pad and get into the streets.

The cold crisp air hits my face. I feel my face start to tingle within my cheeks. It must be at least negative fifteen Celsius out here. I trudge along the walkway and into a small gaming shop.

"hello there! Welcome. Must be really wanting something to be out in the cold like this." The male looking clerk says to me.

"thanks and actually yeah, I need an adapter plug, for European plugs to ours. I got the wrong version of my console." I laugh lightly.

"Let me guess, CyberSword?" they laugh. " I'm gonna go on a limb and guess the Kala Gear didn't come with typical American and Canadian style plugs huh?" they say as they gesture me to follow them.

"Yeah, cybersword, I hear somehow it's supposed to feel like a fantasy game, but also have a cyberpunk element to it. I'm not sure." I admit rubbing my neck as we head down the aisle.

"Shit. Isn't that game supposed to be deemed impossible to beat?" they look at me surprised when they hand me an adapter and I stop. "I apologize for the language." They add.

Chapter Two

"Yeah. I'm hoping to be the one to do it though, one day." I laugh. They look at me skeptically.

"Well let's go ring this in." they say as we start walking back to the stores counter.

I start to shake with excitement as I see the counter. I sprint for it and slap the adapter onto the counter. I know this game is going to be amazing. It's going to change my life.

"Ten flat." They say as they get behind the counter and hit three spots on the counter. The screen isn't shown to me, it only is visible to those on the employee list. The fascinating advances in tech we have now.

I rub my wrist over a section of the counter, it beeps and grab the adapter. Now I'm on my way. The payment system is so easy. Everything is tracked by my wrist implant. Not everyone uses them, but I feel a lot more secure with it. It holds my ID, my money, my driving record, anything I want. Hell I could pull a hunters card if I had one. My memberships are all in that thing too.

I go back to my apartment building and up to my place. I swipe beside the door with my finger and voila! The door opens and I walk in, the door closing momentarily afterward. I do my little happy dance and then get serious. I tear open the adapters package and get it into my wall, plugging in my cylinder. Kala gear, here I come. I slip the helmet on and step on the button for my table to hide and wave to the pillar and my bed plops from the wall. I get into it and a blanket plops out and over me.

"Alright. To start this thing..." I think for a moment. "Kala Gear, On." I say. The glass piece in front of my eyes doesn't surprise me at all. It's giving me instructions.

Step one, pat body. I pat my entire body down. Step two, facial scan. I hear a weird hum as it repeats the text saying it's scanning. It feels like forever, meanwhile it's just three minutes. Step three, select gender. Male. Okay.

"Calibration complete." A masculine voice says from my headset. "to play, insert your disc and command the start. Thank you." I then hear the machine stop and shut down. I forgot to put the game in.

I go and grab the game shaking my head that I am such an idiot. I then open its case and slip it into the cylinder. I lay back into my bed. This is it. I sigh deeply. Let's go!

"KALA GEAR, START!" I shout without meaning to due to my excitement.

A flash of greens and yellows flood my eyes. I open them with blurriness filling my vision. I can hear a weird whirring that raises and lowers its pitch. I sit up. I am in a weird wooden room. Odd, I thought cyberpunk elements meant it would show more cyberpunk era. I think to myself. I getup off of the bed and look about, a normal bed with a grey blanket, a dresser and a note. Perhaps this is the tutorial letter. I pick up the note and check it. Yep tutorial letter.. let's see... movement.. Swords and melee weapons... skills... why is there so much on one letter? Slimes? Really cliché design for level one guys. Let's look more... wait.. there are... two hundred bosses in this game? That just means it will take me longer to beat. I scan the remainder of the letter. 'write your username here:' is found at the bottom. I place my hand on the handle to open the drawer to the dresser and surely find myself some charcoal. Definitely feels more medieval than anything. I write 'The Red Wanderer' and it accepts it. Go with the old faithful name. I laugh a bit.

I place my hand on the doorknob and it opens. I guess they simplified some stuff. I just have to touch something to open it. I walk through to see I'm in a tavern and inn combination. I head down the stairs into the massive room below, beer and people fill the air with odor and speech. I can't tell if these are just npcs or players yet. I look at the letter in my hand again and try to find how to open my game menu. Even my inventory. Oh, duh. I swipe my hand right to left to pull out my menu. Let's see. Five hundred silver. Twenty copper. I guess those are my currencies. I think. Let's take a look at my inventory. When I pull up the inventory my letter gets absorbed into the menu. I guess that's how I add items to my inventory. I think. Now.. I have.. a split blade and a rusted dagger? Weirdly obvious difference. Why would they do that? I wonder.

I keep scrolling through to find my skill tree. It shows my base stats. I guess it only has a little to do with my real fitness. My agility is at level three and my intelligence is at level four, my strength, 3, charisma.. 1. That hurts. My stomach twists a bit. I nod and get to adding my sword to my equipment page. It warps out of my menu and onto my waist.

"That's cool!" I say aloud. I wonder if every noob starts here. I think. I hear digging go off.

I swipe over to the little purple dot, I think it's supposed to be a notification. Oh? A message? I think as I see the dot on the messages tab. Who would already know I'm on here? I wonder. My defense is up. No handbook is out yet on this game. The tutorial letter was rather vague too.

'Wanderer, I knew it was a matter of time before you signed into cybersword. Welcome.

Sil.'

Sil? I think. I have no idea who uses a tag like sil. A fan? I wonder. I look around the room then notice something about the people, so I close My menu, swiping again right to left. This is amazing. I think. The players are identified by small floating purple dots. The npcs have no marks around them so far. Maybe a shop would, if I can find the barkeep. I start making my way about the busy tavern. Many players sit here chattering about loudly. Some spurts of loud laughter hit the air. I can smell sweat coming from the back corner. The immersion of Full Dive... it's amazing. I think as I take in how lifelike this is. I look at my hands and grin. It seems simple, so let's start to learn.

I pop onto a table and stand so I can see all the icons. I do see a pint icon and that is where I go towards. Ugh, being short kinda sucks sometimes. I sigh as I struggle through the vast sea of rather tall purchased avatar customizations. Some resemble elves and others dwarves, though this game has no actual magic system. A player can't use magic. Though items can have magical effects. Well, it can appear magical. The effects really are just the elves work, as their intelligence helped them develop items with elemental effects and such. As I continue through the crowd, I find the barkeep. I begin to attempt talking to them but I can't hear them trying to shout to me. It's far too crowded in here.

I make my way towards the nearest door, hoping it's the exit. There are just too many people in here. I open the door and find myself popping out of the overcrowded tavern. I fall onto the ground, feeling small tingles in comparison of what I should feel. My health when I look at the top left of my view I can see i took no damage. When I look up I see someone standing before me. Their black boots are the first thing that make contact with my sight.

"Yeah, the tavern is the busy start point here. First time diving huh?" I hear a males voice say.

"Yeah. Of course, I know the programmers and testers were the only ones to test out the game." I reply as I get up from the floor to glance over the person before me.

"Well, I'm a beta tester myself, Trillock is my tag." He replies with a happy ring. His hair is held back from his face with a bandana, hiding all of his hair color from my view. His golden brown eyes are strong and look as though he's Frightened. I wonder why he's freaked out? I think.

"The red Wanderer. Ima go hit up some XP before the day is out." I say with a wave. This MMO is insane. So many people online. This has to be the biggest vr based online multi-player game. I think to myself.

I wander down the cobbled paths. Lights float in the sky below the stars to light the way as it gets darker into the evening. I get to the town entrance with a hand on my swords hilt. Let's test the mechanics! I think to myself excitedly as I burst out into a open field filled with dandelions and slimes all scattered about, along with giant hornets. Seems like the first area is going to be a breeze! I think to myself.

I run through the field until I get close to a slime. My sword unsheathes with the pull of my hand. This is it. I think to myself as I angle my blade with my hand diagonally. The blade starts to glow bright red. Huh? What's this? I wonder as I let out a speedy slice before I can think about it. I hear a weird digital shattering sound as I turn around to only see flying purple particles. A notification pops up infront of me, awarding me ten experience and an apple. Apples? Probably a trade item or healing item.. I drift into the thought when I feel a sudden slam on my back.

A figure in a grey and black hood darts out and slices behind me, another digital shattering to be heard. I look to the figure and they simply run off. Typical experience grinder of a player. I think nothing more of it. I look to the skies and can see the game has 3 moons for the world and 2 suns. Cybersword thought of everything. I think. I sigh briefly. This was a good day, maybe I should log out, it should be dinner anytime. I think to myself as I swipe my menu open. I look through the menu and see the time. 6:37 PM. I try to find a logout option and I start to feel panic set in. No logout? Where is the logout button??? I wonder as I frantically swipe through all of my menus. Maybe it's in my tutorial letter. I think.

I go through a series or presses and swipes as I get to my letter and read it again briefly. No emergency logout. No speak of logout options being missing. Somethings wrong... I think to myself. I pull up the GMS account and message them saying I can't log out. Within a minute I get a message back saying a server announcement will happen at 7 PM. We'll I guess I have to wait. I think. I already have spent six consecutive hours in game. The tavern being packed took forever to work my way through.

I return to slicing up the slimes in the game. I find myself level up twice in the timeline before a loud church sounding bell goes off. Then a flash of light blue brings me to the town center of level ones first area. I look around to see many confused players. Dark misty purple clouds fill the air. A purple hooded figure descends from the misty clouds. They ring a bell that they pull out from their right sleeve and they let it clang loudly for a few moments.

"Hello and Welcome to CyberSword. Before we start the festivities of the first ever day of cybersword, I have a few rules and guidelines I would like to mention." A voice peers from the dark hood.

"What's he going on about?" I hear someone say.

"This wasn't in the launch script.." I hear a female crying a bit.

"Why can't we log out!" a woman shouts. Finally a voice I recognize.

"there is the first real question." the figure chuckles. "I am the owner of Kala Tech, Samuel Johnson." The crowd starts to ²loudly clammer. "all of you here are in my world now, the log out option, is no longer there. I have a game I want you to play with me. Beat all two hundred levels of this game and you can return to your daily lives. However, if someone tries to unplug you, you'll die. If your hit points hit zero, you will die." He says.

"He has to be lying!" A young teen male voice calls out.

"When cybersword launched today, 500,000 copies were sold, four hundred thousand of those players are day one log ins. No one else will be able to log in now." He says. "already three hundred players have died, before even reaching the second town." He adds. "So, without further a due, I will now start the rest of cybersword here and now! Good luck everyone. May our levels, be beaten with haste." He swipes as media windows surround him. Each one is a news channel covering the cybersword incident. "just to show you all this is, very real. There is no way to revive a player." He finishes as his media windows close, the hood and clouds spin up and spread out across the sky.

"He's kidding.." I hear a kid hysterically laughing.

If this game has two hundred levels, that means we need to work on getting strong and fast. We gotta beat this game. Only option. I think as everyone freaks out. I should head for the second area as soon as possible. I think to myself as I turn and sprint for the northern gateway. While the turmoil hits me, tears spread down my face. My running through the crowd leaving nothing but the crisp air and chattering.

"Wait... isn't this game supposed to be unbeatable?" I hear a female voice call out.

"then we're all gonna die!" A man screams out hysterically. The moment is sheer turmoil.

I gotta get out of here now. I think as a dinging rings from my notifications. The sound repeats one hundred times. It has to be a server wide message. I ignore it and continue to sprint for the exit. I trip over a dislodged stone of the road system. The first thing I see is someone in head to toe black. Their eyes the only visible thing. Yellow, like the sun. They offer me a hand.

I grab a hold of the hand, they help me to my feet. Why are you helping me? Why aren't you as freaked out as the rest of us? I wonder.

"There Wanderer, you can keep going now. I'd hurry before everyone thinks like you." She says flatly.

"Yeah. Alright. What about you though? Why don't you.." I pause while I glance over their gamer tag. "Miguel?" I finish.

" I will in a bit. Maybe I'll catch you out there. I wanna have some help." She says.

I give a simple nod and proceed to the northern gate with haste. One hand on the hilt of my blade as I come out of the gate. Day one of the deadliest challenge I've faced. This should be interesting. No game has beat me yet! I think. As I run along the pathway to the next area, I find this actually a really time consuming task. The sun has gone down and the moons are out. So far all of what I've fought were slimes.

I hear a sudden rustle in some leaves to my left, but nothing to be seen. This game is tedious. When do I fight something new? I should almost be to the second town by now. I think. I am only comparing by the average distances between towns in games. This one though, who knows how far apart they are. I hear a howl in the distance. When I look to my far right I see some woods. Maybe the spawning of the monster depends on the climate or area you are in entirely. Oh crap, or maybe it's based on the day and night cycles! My brain begins to race as I gingerly make my way back. Careful and quiet. I don't want to attract unnecessary attention. This is a game after all and players right now are more experience value than the monster's.

I look up when I start to notice a color shade change. A new area. Here we go. Took longer than I thought. I say when I look up to the sky to see the moon low, the second day just peering over my mind. I feel tired, though I have to keep going. I hear some grunting that sounds familiar. When I approach closer it is but a boar. Really? This is the next step up? I think.

I pull my blade out and get into my stance to activate my base skill. Before I can fully get ready the monster aggros. If you haven't played games before, that means the monster gets more aggressive and changes its behavior as well. The ground infront of it, in a straight line to me, appears a glowing red mist. This has to be an A.O.E. attack. I think. The monster sprints to me and goes to slam it's tusks into me while I prepare for the jumping dodge. As I flip over the boar I see my sword change color. This must be a new attack! I think. My muscles react before another thought.

I spin and throw myself directly behind the board when I activate the skill and I strike with three strikes, I return to my original spot and turn around to face the boar again. It roars and a circle appears like the line had before. Another A.O.E. got it. I think as I jump back from the range of its attack. As I fly back, I see the ground quake in the circle, some heavy damage shows in the earth beneath its feet. This guys harder, that's for sure. I grin as I swipe my hand for the base skill. I swipe into the boar, this time it shatters into the purple particles that make up its death. A little trumpet goes off with a notification. I reached level 3. Took over 24 hours.

It starts to dawn on me. Just how hard the game is meant to be. If this is the step above slimes... then what's the next jump when I'm done here, what awaits me? I think. Maybe I should go back to town and resupply. I have made a fair bit of gold by now I think. I glance through my menu. Opening this thing became second nature already. I finally realize I haven't opened the server message. That, and there is another one. I look over my inventory first, checking my money. I have over 2,000 gold and 1200 copper now. I also have been getting slime drops, so I wonder what they will do when I get back to a town. I think.

Before long, a few hours pass in the starting point, Sylva, and the surrounding fields where I farm. When I next check my inventory, a fattened mass of ores lay in my inventory. Copper and tin ores, which would be made into Bronze with an excellent potential. The iron has a half and half success rate. The idea being that as the ore rarity get higher, so would the difficulty of using them. It must be Luna Kala, Ceo of Kala Tech, who decided to make it a learning curve.