URBUS, THE MAIN CITY OF THE SECOND FLOOR OF Aincrad, was carved directly into the flat top of a three-hundred-yard wide mountain, with only the outer perimeter left standing.
Once I was through the southern gate, a notification reading SAFE HAVEN appeared, and the sound of a slow-paced town BGM hit my ears. Unlike the strings-heavy music from the first-floor towns, this was played by a wistful oboe. The style of clothes worn by the NPCs milling about was subtly different, reinforcing that sense of having come to a new floor.
About ten yards past the gate, I took a look around me and didn’t find a single green player cursor—as it should be. I’d just defeated Illfang the Kobold Lord, boss of the first floor, barely forty minutes before. All the other raid party members who had taken part in the fight had turned back to the first floor rather than follow the spiral staircase up to the second.
Which meant that there was only one solitary player on this entire, vast floor: Kirito, former beta tester, beater.
It was a luxurious feeling, but it would not last for long. Two hours after the death of the floor boss, the teleport gate in the center of the floor’s main town (Urbus, in this case) would automatically activate, linking up with the gate of the floor below. As soon as that happened, an entire flood of excited players would burst through the portal.
On the flip side, that meant that if I felt like it, I could monopolize this floor for another hour and twenty minutes.
With that much time, I could complete two or three “slaughter” quests to kill a certain number of monsters without having to jostle with other players. It was a tempting idea for a truly self-interested solo adventurer, but I didn’t have the guts to hold out on the hundreds, if not thousands of players below who were waiting for the gate with bated breath.
I trotted through the main street of Urbus directly north, climbing a wide staircase to the open town center, which featured a large gate in the middle. It was not really a gate so much as a standing stone arch with no door or fence connected to it. Only by standing close to the structure was it possible to see that the space beneath the arch was gently rippling somehow. It was like a very thin, vertical film of water suspended in the air.
Only after scanning the perimeter for a convenient escape route did I reach out to the shifting, transparent veil. My fingertip, covered by black leather, brushed the water surface.
In the next instant, my vision burned a brilliant blue.
The light pulsed outward in concentric circles until it filled the fifteen-foot arch. Once the entire space was full, the teleport was complete, and the town had been “opened.” The exact same phenomenon was happening at the same time down on the first floor. The players below would be preparing to dash through the finished portal, now that they realized they wouldn’t need to wait the full two hours.
But I didn’t wait to witness the entire show. I turned and sped toward a church-like building on the east end of the square, bursting through the door and scrambling up the stairs inside. Eventually I made my way into a small room on the third floor and set my back against the wall next to a window so I could see down into the clearing.
At that precise moment, the interior of the gate flashed, and the NPC musicians set up in the corner of the square began to play the bright and cheery “Opening Fanfare.” A second later, countless players spilled out through the blue light in a jumble of colors.
Some stopped in the middle of the clearing and looked around. Some held parchment maps bought from information dealers and took off running. Some jammed fists into the air and shouted, “We made it to the second floor!”
A similar town opening had occurred nine times in the SAO beta test, and in each case, the raid members who had dispatched the previous floor’s boss lined up facing the new teleport gate, soaking in the applause and congratulations of those who traveled upward to see the new environment. But in this case, I was the only person who had stuck around to open the town, and I’d taken off running. There would be no grand celebratory event. Perhaps those looking curiously around the square were searching for me, but I could not step forward to name myself.
Just minutes earlier, after we defeated the boss, I made a proclamation to the forty-some raid members that I, Kirito, was not just some beta tester, but a “beater” who had ascended further than any of the thousand other testers, accumulating more information about the game than anyone else.
It wasn’t out of a desire to play the villain. I did it to avoid having the wrath of the new retail players focused on the former testers, but the end result was that, soon, every high-level player in the game would know of my infamy. Appearing in public would not provoke cheers but ugly booing. I didn’t have the willpower to withstand that kind of open hostility.
So I decided to hide out in the third floor of this chapel until the excitement in the town square subsided. However …
“… Huh?”
I noticed something odd down in the square. One female player who traveled through the gate ran pell-mell straight to the west end of the square. She might have been rushing to find a weapon shop or quest-giving NPC, but the real issue were the two men who showed up after her. They stopped briefly and looked around for the retreating player, then raced after her. They were clearly chasing the woman.
The safe haven of town was under the anti-crime code, so normally I’d pay no attention to something like that, but it was different when the person being chased was someone I knew. Those brown curls and the plain leather armor belonged to none other than Argo the Rat.
Plenty of people hated her and her motto of “selling any information with a price,” but something was wrong if they were hurtling around at that speed. I pondered the situation for a moment, then put a foot on the windowsill and leapt down to the short roof below.
I dashed across the tiles and leapt onto the next roof over, making good use of my high agility stat before anyone could spot me, and continued along the rooftops in the direction of the chase. This feat was only possible thanks to the uniform height of the buildings in Urbus.
I waved my hand to call up my menu as I ran after them, clicking the Search button in my skills tab. When a sub-menu followed, I selected “Pursuit,” then entered the name “Argo” into the field. A set of green footsteps suddenly glowed on the path below me.
Pursuit was a modifier effect on the Search skill once its proficiency level was high enough. It was designed to increase the efficiency of monster hunting, but it could also be used to track a player on your friends list. My level was still fairly low, so I could only see footsteps up to a minute old. I raced alongside the trail, trying to keep up before they vanished.
If Argo, with her incredible agility, couldn’t shake the two men, they were bad news. I didn’t recognize them from the boss raid, but they had to be among the top players by level. Moreover, the chase was proceeding straight down the westward route and through the town gate carved into the outer perimeter of the flat-top mountain in which Urbus was nestled.
The plains to the west of town were a dangerous zone populated with large cattle monsters. The situation was looking downright grim now. I bit my lip and raced out into the virtual savanna.
The wasteland beyond the plains was deadly enough that even at my level it was too risky to go in there alone. Fortunately, the footsteps in the grass were growing brighter, meaning that Argo’s pace was slowing and I was getting closer. Eventually I reached a small canyon between two rocky hills and heard a familiar voice.
“… told you a hundred times! I wouldn’t sell that info, no matter the price!”
The nasal inflection was undoubtedly Argo’s, but it was fiercer and angrier than I’d ever heard her before. Next was a similarly furious man’s voice.
“You do not intend to monopolize the information, but neither will you reveal it. One can only assume that you seek to inflate the value of it in order to sell!”
His way of speaking was oddly archaic. I slowed down and began to climb the rock face at the side of the canyon. Even the most forbidding terrain in SAO could be climbed with enough persistence and cleverness. It was a secret ambition of mine to one day attempt to scale the enormous pillars that separated the floors of Aincrad in the hopes of bypassing the labyrinths altogether. But my clandestine climb in this case was not done for want of a good challenge, but to guarantee my own safety.
After about fifteen feet, I reached a narrow flat space that overlooked the canyon. I crawled forward on hands and knees. The shouting voices were almost directly below me.
“It’s not a matter of price! I’m saying that I don’t want to sell something if all it gets me is hatred in return!”
The second man responded, “What quarrel would we have with you? As we said, we will pay the asking price and be grateful for your service! Just sell us the information on this floor’s special quest that grants the Extra Skill!”
…What?
Now I held my breath entirely. Extra Skills were hidden abilities that could not be chosen without meeting special conditions. Only one had been discovered in the beta: the Meditation skill, in which assuming a pose of concentration increased the HP recovery rate and decreased the infliction time of negative status effects. Because of its tricky usage and very uncool look, few bothered to earn it. I had my suspicions that the katana skill used by the kobold lord and the samurai monsters on the tenth floor might be an Extra Skill as well, but the means to unlock it were still a mystery.
At any rate, Argo and the two wannabe actors were clearly not talking about Meditation. The NPC that taught that skill was up on the sixth floor. No, this was about some hidden quest on the second floor that even I didn’t know about (and neither did almost any of the former testers) that unlocked an Extra Skill, and the two strange men were pressing Argo for that information.
The men’s voices grew louder.
“We are not backing down—not today, you see!”
“That Extra Skill is necessary for us to complete our characters, you see!”
“You just don’t get it! I’m not going to sell it to anyone, you see—I mean, I’m not going to sell it, period!”
The tension in the air turned electric, crackling tangibly. I leapt to my feet on the rocky ledge and jumped down the fifteen feet to the ground below, landing perfectly between Argo and the men. I didn’t have quite enough agility points to jump that distance without damage, so I had to tense my knees to cushion the shock.
“Who goes there?!”
“An interloper from an enemy province?!”
A single glance at their outfits sent a powerful shock through my memory. They wore full-body cloth armor in dark gray, with light chainmail on top. I noticed small scimitars draped over their backs, and dark gray bandanna caps and pirate masks to match the armor.
Taken as a whole, these outfits could be interpreted as a creative attempt to re-create a classic “ninja” costume. I couldn’t help but feel as though I’d seen people dressed in this style during the beta as well.
“Oh! You’re, um, you’re… let’s see, the F, Fu… Food? No, Fugue—no, not that either…”
“It is Fuma!”
“We are Kotaro and Isuke of the Fuma Ninja Force!!”
“Right! That was it!”
I snapped my fingers, satisfied that my memory had been corrected. These two were members of a ninja guild feared for their incredible speed during the beta test. As to why they would be “feared”—like Argo, they raised their agility as high as possible, forming a wall of eye-popping speed on the front line, then running off when the battle grew too dangerous. When the monsters followed in pursuit, they usually wound up targeting a different party when the ninjas escaped, which earned them a very bad reputation indeed.
I didn’t realize that they’d continued their adherence to the way of the shinobi even after SAO had become a game of death, but I didn’t have any issue with their choice—for now. But chasing down a female player, ganging up on her, and demanding her trade secrets was crossing a line.
I reached back to make sure Argo was safely behind me and ran a finger along the hilt of my Anneal Blade +6.
“As a spy for the shogun, I cannot overlook the wicked deeds of the Fuma.”
Instantly, Kotaro and Isuke’s eyes flashed beneath their knockoff ninja hoods.
“You Iga dog!!”
“Huh?!”
It seemed my half-assed joke had struck a nerve, and they’d confused me for a member of a rival school. In perfect rhythm, they reached over their shoulders to remove the scimitars that passed for ninja blades.
They weren’t going to draw on me, were they? Then again, we were out in the open, where the anti-crime code had no effect. If a player attacked another player, damage would be done. At the same time, the aggressor’s cursor would turn orange, signifying them as a criminal and keeping them from entering town. Even ninjas could not fool the god that presided over this game.
I briefly considered resolving the argument with the preposterous claim that I wasn’t an Iga ninja but a Koga ninja like them, when the situation was resolved in a most unexpected way.
When I snuck into the canyon, I scaled the walls in order to eavesdrop on their conversation rather than standing around near the entrance. I did this because we were out in the wilderness, not in town, and standing around in place long enough always led to one thing happening.
I took a careful step backward and murmured, “Behind you.”
“We will not fall for your trickery!”
“It’s not trickery. Look behind you.”
Something in my voice convinced the skeptical ninjas. Kotaro and Isuke turned their heads and abruptly leapt backward. Right before their eyes, someone had joined the group. No, something.
It was a Trembling Ox, a giant cattle monster unique to the second floor, standing over eight feet at the shoulder. Its attack power and toughness were obvious at a glance, but what made them so dangerous was their extremely long targeting range, both in time and distance. I’d climbed the inaccessible boulders specifically to avoid drawing the notice of these fearsome beasts.
“Brooooh!!” the ox roared.
“G-gaaah!!” the ninjas screamed in unison. With stunning speed, two gray-clad blurs shot back toward town away from the canyon, but the ox showed surprising agility for its size. In no more than five seconds, the rumbling footsteps and screams disappeared over the horizon. Kotaro and Isuke would likely be in a footrace all the way back to Urbus.
The great ninja war averted for now, I sighed in relief and looked down at my body. Until an hour ago, I’d been wearing a boring outfit of black leather pants, cotton shirt and a dark gray leather coat. However, with the unique Coat of Midnight I’d looted from Illfang the Kobold Lord, I was dressed in full black to match my hair and eyes. It seemed like a good way to reinforce the dirty beater persona I’d developed, but I had to admit it also made me look a bit like a ninja. I started to wonder if I should put on a different color undershirt just to avoid any rumors about “Kirito the Iga Ninja” from now on.
Once again, I was broken out of my thoughts by a very unexpected event.
Two small arms reached out and squeezed around my midsection from behind. I felt a soft warmth on my back, and heard a faint whisper.
“That was a little too much showing off, Kii-boy.”
I’d meant it to be a lighthearted joke to ease the gravity of the situation, but that only made Argo press her face harder into my back.
“… Okay, I’ll tell you. Just wait so I can get the paint off…”
Huh?
The paint … meaning her whiskers? So she was going to show me her plain face, something she’d never shown anyone in-game? Was this meant to be a symbolic act with a deeper meaning?
My social anxiety rose to a dangerous peak. Before she could let go, I shouted out, “N-never mind, I’ve got a better idea! How about you tell me the details of that hidden skill those guys were going on about?!”
When Argo let go and came around to my front, she fortunately still had the three big whiskers on either cheek. I could have sworn that just before she let go, she’d muttered a faint “coward.” Or was that my imagination?
Back to her usual impertinent glare, the Rat crossed her arms and grunted, “Well, I said I’d tell you any one thing, and a deal’s a deal. But you need to promise me something as well, Kii-boy. You can’t blame me for what happens, no matter what!”
“You said the same thing to those ninjas earlier. What do you mean by that? Why would someone bear a grudge against you for selling information on an Extra Skill that everyone wants?”
Argo answered my question with her familiar wry grin. “That one’ll cost ya, Kii-boy.”
I stifled a sigh. “All right, I promise. Swear to God—I mean, swear to the system, no matter what happens, I won’t hold it against you.”
Even if this quest for an Extra Skill was potentially deadly, I could determine that on my own. Argo nodded and beckoned me to follow.
The route we traveled from there would never have occurred to me without a map item, or infinite curiosity and persistence.
She took me up the side of one of the many flat-topped mountains that dotted the second floor—which was the same size as the first—then into a small cave and down an underground river like a water slide. We ran into three battles along the way, but with my careful leveling in preparation for the first-floor boss, they were no big deal. The trip took about thirty minutes, all told.
Based on our map location, it seemed we had nearly scaled the rocky mountain that loomed over the eastern edge of the second floor. We were in a small clearing surrounded by sheer rock walls all around, with nothing else but a spring of water, a single tree—and a tiny shed.
“… Is this it?”
Argo nodded. I strode up to the building. It seemed there was no danger, at least so far. Suddenly, the door before me flew open.
Inside there were a few pieces of furniture and one NPC. It was a large, elderly man, all muscle and bone, bald as a cue ball, with a magnificent beard. There was a golden exclamation mark above his head, the sign of a quest.
I looked back at Argo and she nodded.
“That’s the NPC who gives you the Extra Skill, Martial Arts. This is all I can tell you. It’s up to you whether to accept the quest or not.”
“M…Martial Arts?”
I’d never heard that term in the beta. Argo offered a few extra tidbits, claiming they were on the house.
“Martial Arts is the catch-all term for attacks using just the hands, no weapons, I expect. It’ll be useful when you drop your weapon or it runs out of durability and breaks.”
“Whoa … Yeah, that actually seems useful, unlike Meditation. In that case … I guess I can see why those ninjas were so set on getting it for themselves.”
Argo looked quizzical, so I shot back an explanation of my own, “on the house.”
“People think ninjas use a ninja blade and shurikens, but it’s a bit different in the gaming world. One good wrist chop at the neck, and the head flies off. For whatever reason, that’s been the pinnacle of any video game ninja’s style. So Kotaro and Isuke wanted the Martial Arts skill to round out their perfect image of a ninja. But in that case … if they didn’t know where to find this place, how did they know it involved the skill, and that you knew about it, too?”
“…This one’s double on the house. At the very end of the beta, an NPC on the seventh floor revealed some info about the ‘Martial Arts master down on the second floor.’ I’d found him long before that, of course, but I’m guessing the ninjas heard it from this fellow on the seventh floor. So once I started getting into the strategy guide business here, they came to me for details on the Extra Skill.”
“Then … why didn’t you just say you didn’t know? Then they wouldn’t be harassing you so much …”
She grimaced at my straightforward question.
“I think my pride as an information merchant prevented me from simply saying ‘I don’t know.’ ”
“… So you said you did, but that you wouldn’t sell it. Well … I guess I can see why you’d make that statement …”
I stifled a sigh and looked back to the NPC, who had assumed a Zen position on a little tatami-like mat in the center of the shack.
“And you didn’t sell it because you were afraid your buyer would blame you for it. Well, if you ask me, it seems like you’ve made more than a few enemies already …”
“Any grudge over information sold or bought only lasts three days! But this one’s different! It could last a lifetime …”
Argo’s petite body shivered. I pondered for several seconds, then came to a conclusion.
“So I guess I just have to find out what happens after this point for myself. All right, you’ve got a deal: Whatever happens, I won’t hold it against you.”
I stepped into the shack and stood in front of the meditating man. He was wearing a tattered outfit that looked like a robe.
“You want to follow my school?”
“…That’s right.”
“The road of training is long and fraught with peril.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
The exclamation mark over his head turned into a question mark, and the quest acceptance log scrolled before my eyes.
My new master escorted me out of the shack to a massive boulder at the edge of his stone-lined garden. He walked over and patted the stone, a good six feet tall and five across, then rubbed his whiskers with the other hand.
“Your training is simple: Split this stone with your two fists. If you succeed, I will teach you all of my secrets.”
“… … Um … timeout.”
Startled by this unexpected challenge, I gave the large rock a light tap. Once you got used to the game, you could tell the durability of a target based on the physical sensation. What I felt was an ultra-hard surface just one notch below an “immortal object.”
Yep. Can’t do this.
I turned back to the teacher, ready to cancel the quest. But before I could speak—
“You are not permitted to descend this mountain until you break the stone. I will put the sign upon you now,” the teacher said, pulling out two objects from his robe pockets. In his left hand was a small jar. In the right, a thick and magnificent paintbrush.
Suddenly I had such a bad feeling about this that the words “a bad feeling” practically popped into existence over my head. Before I could announce that I was quitting the school of martial arts, the master’s hand shot out with terrific speed. He plunged the tip of the brush into the pot and whipped it across my face.
It was at that precise moment that I understood where Argo’s whiskers came from.
She had found this old man on her own during the beta, and accepted his quest. Who wouldn’t? He ordered her to break the stone and drew on her face—three thick whiskers on either cheek.
“Wh-whaaa?!” I shrieked pitifully and fell back. My glance met Argo’s. Her ratty face was full of deep sadness, empathy—and the tension of one holding back the biggest gut laugh she’d ever had.
Freed from the brush attack, I tried to rub my face with my hands. But the ink was ultra quick-drying, and none of it came off on my fingers. The master nodded in satisfaction at his work, then delivered a shocking but sadly predictable proclamation.
“That sign will not vanish until you break this rock and complete your training. I have faith in your potential, my apprentice.”
And he plodded back to his shed and through the door.
After a good ten seconds of standing in place, I looked at Argo, whose face was still a subtle mixture of emotions.
“I see … So you took on this quest during the beta … and had to give up. You played to the very end of the beta with those whiskers still drawn on your face. Ultimately, that helped you develop the persona of ‘The Rat,’ so you kept up the tradition of the paint when the retail game shipped … It all makes sense.”
“Brilliant deduction!” she applauded. “Aren’t you lucky, Kii-boy? You got both the reason for my whiskers and the details of the Extra Skill, packaged into one! In fact, I’ll even let you in on one more nugget. That rock … is hard as hell!”
“… Figures.”
I resisted the urge to fall to the ground and asked Argo one last question, my final hope.
“Hey … did he paint whiskers on my face just like yours?”
“Hmm, they’re not the same.”
“Oh …? Wh-what are they like?”
If they weren’t too obvious, or even looked kind of cool, I’d have the option of going back to my regular life with a slightly different look. I didn’t have the guts to go look at my reflection in the pond, so I let Argo stare for another three seconds.
“If I had to describe you in one word, it would be … Kiriemon.”
That was the last straw for her. She fell to the ground, flailing her feet back and forth and screeching with laughter. Over and over and over.
After three solid days on the mountain and countless painful attempts, I broke that rock. I’m just glad I didn’t have to hate Argo for the rest of my life.
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