Prologue

"Target is 500 meters away from your position. Looks like there's a swarm of «Creepers» at the front of the gate, nothing you can't handle. I'll cover your back when you go in."

Asada Shino, known as Sinon in this world, peered through the scope of her trusted partner, a Hecate II sniper rifle, and relayed what she saw to her companion on the ground through her earpiece. She was currently hiding on the balcony of a nearby building. Their enemy responded primarily to sound, which was why she had already planned four different escape routes for when she pulled the trigger. Against these foes, preparedness was the same thing as staying alive.

"Acknowledged. Thank you, Sinon," a boy's voice called into her ear.

Sinon felt her face flush a little. She was used to being ostracized for being a loner in this game. Rarely, if ever, did people ever show their appreciation for her. Although the term wasn't actually true in her case, she had been labeled a «Beater» ever since she had acquired her rifle, a stroke of luck and misfortune that had befallen her before the end of the first week within this death game. Those who didn't shun her and give her a wide berth usually tried to use her for their own ends or as a means to boost their reputations. Some had even tried to kill her for her weapon. Due to such occurrences, Sinon had forced herself to become cold and uncaring, concerned only with her own survival. In short, she had become that which she had been accused of being.

"You should thank those guys who agreed to secure a perimeter for you," Sinon replied. "How did you find so many people willing to handle it? I can't believe that samurai wannabe agreed to this so easily."

As she spoke, she turned her gun to the side so that she could see one of the members of the guild «Fuurinkazan» through the scope. As with all members of the group, he wore red samurai armor and was equipped as a «Striker», a melee damage dealer. Sinon thought they were an odd bunch; clearly anyone who could remain as cheerful as them a year and a half into the game had to be insane to some degree.

"Klein's a good guy," the boy replied, "Are they done with their preparations yet?"

"Looks like they're good on their end," Sinon answered, pointing her weapon back towards the house they were trying to reach.

It was a large red and white three-story residence. Once, it might have been the home of an affluent noble or politician, but it was now in a state of severe disrepair. A third of the shingles were missing off the red roof and all the windows on the lower floor had been shattered. Vines grew from the ground up to the top floor. The lawn, which was expansive, was now overrun by weeds, wildflowers, and thorny shrubs. The black-iron gate, once a proud barrier separating that house from the rest of the world, hung askew, connected to the outer wall only by a single hinge. As the wind blew, the gate creaked loudly which explained why so many «Creepers» had gathered nearby.

"One last thing," Sinon said.

"Yeah?"

"Say hello to the princess for me, will you?"

There was no answer from the other end. Instead, a black streak flew from the base of the building Sinon was occupying towards the besieged house. The figure casually reached over his shoulders with both hands and drew his weapons; a pair of swords, one pitch black, the other silver as the moon. As he fell in amongst the enemies at the gate, Sinon couldn't help but admire his technique, moving from one to the next in quick succession while dispatching each foe with almost no wasted movements. The boy didn't once slow down in his charge for the front door.

Total elapsed time from the start of his dash to when he reached the front door: 1 minute 3 seconds. A trail of sparkles, the «Death Effects » of his enemies, marked out the path he had taken. Even though «Creepers» were considered one of the weakest forms of the undead, slow and driven solely by instinct, it was an impressive feat. Through her scope, Sinon watched as the boy turned and gave her an insolent, lopsided grin and a thumbs-up before entering the building.

If the members of «Fuurinkazan» were "odd," then that boy, Kirito, was the undisputed crown emperor of "strangeness." A little over a year ago, he had managed to break through the wall she had built up around herself before she even realized it. In just a few weeks time, she found herself laughing amongst his friends and opening up. In just a few weeks time, she found herself enjoying the game for the first time. This game, turned into a death spectacle by its creator, Kayaba Akihiko. «Swords of the Living Dead»

-20 months earlier-

"Are there any other challengers!?"

An arrogant voice called out in the marketplace. Kirigaya Kazuto, who went by the amalgamation "Kirito" in the game, walked over to the rear of the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle.

"What's going on?" he asked the nearest person.

The cloaked figure turned around and faced him. Immediately, Kirito wished he had picked someone else to ask. Mainly because he recognized the face under that hood. Argo «the Rat» was one of the best information dealers around but in his opinion, her personality could use a little work. The whisker markings on her face stretched slightly as she broke into a grin.

"Ki-bou!" she exclaimed. "I haven't seen or heard from you in a few days. If you weren't such a gaming addict, I would have guessed you gave up on the game or something. What's with that face? I won't charge you anything for this information since you can find out just by asking anyone else here."

Kirito's face relaxed. Let down your guard when questioning Argo and you'd find yourself paying for information you didn't even realize you had asked for until it was too late. He'd heard a few horror stories about people who had to leave their pants with her as collateral when it came time to pay up. Argo insisted that those were exaggerations, slander from those jealous of her information gathering skills. Kirito would have been much more likely to believe her if she hadn't charged him 500 «Col» for the answer when he had asked.

"I had stuff to take care of in real life," he explained. "That's why I haven't been on the past two days."

"Well, welcome back to «SLD» then. To answer your question, Ki-bou," she explained. "That guy has been challenging people to duels since this morning. He's really good too, 35 wins 0 losses. I'm starting to think the latest patch completely unbalanced the game."

The patch she was referring to was Patch 1.03, the third one released during the current Beta testing phase. Initially, the setting of «Swords of the Living Dead» had been that of a fantasy world overrun by the undead. There had been no firearms of any sort in the game. Ranged weaponry had consisted only of bows and arbalests, balanced out in that there were no special combo skills for them like there were for melee weapons. But due to popular outcry, the developers had added guns to the game. These were restricted to wheel-lock pistols and flintlock muskets to fit in better with the setting, but rumor had it that more "modern" weapons existed, relics from an age long past according to the lore of this world.

Kirito had browsed through the patch notes when he entered today. From what he could recall, guns nearly guaranteed a kill on non-player humanoid enemies if they struck the head. A hit to the torso did a considerable amount of damage as well, taking out unarmored enemies in one or two hits. To balance them out, they had a substantial reload time and generated a lot of noise; something which attracted the undead. But in a duel situation where you could reload between rounds, it was almost the same as cheating unless both players used guns.

"35 and 0? How'd he manage that?" Kirito asked."I thought shields were supposed to be able to block projectiles."

"They're going by first-strike rules," Argo explained. "That player has been aiming for the legs and the arms. Smaller and faster moving targets, which was why I said he was really good."

"Are there no more willing challengers?" the arrogant blue-haired man called out once more, waving his pistol in the air.

Kirito felt a rush of adrenaline coursing through his body. He wanted to see the new weapons in action, to test his own considerable skill in PvP against the undefeated player before him. He hadn't felt this alive since he had first created his character in SLD and fought his first enemy in the field.

"I challenge you," he called out.

Heads turned in his direction as the crowd opened a path for him to the center of the marketplace. Kirito strolled through to face his foe. The man gazed contemptuously at the weapon at Kirito's side, a single long sword, before looking at Kirito.

"First-strike rules," he declared.

Kirito replied, "Fine by me."

The two duelists faced off. Kirito drew his weapon, the «Anneal Blade» he had earned on a quest about three weeks ago, and entered a relaxed stance. His opponent eased into a shooting stance, pointing his weapon at Kirito's head. The timer to start the duel counted down.

«3…2…1…Duel Start!»

Kirito rushed forwards, keeping his eyes trained on the weapon in his opponent's hand. Like all other known firearms in the game, it was a single shot weapon. If he could avoid the first attack, victory would be his. There had been 15 meters between the two of them at the start of the match. The distance was now less than 10.

The blue-haired man grinned as he aimed the gun down at Kirito's feet before revealing his feint and firing at his left shoulder. But Kirito was ready for such a trick. By keeping his focus on the weapon, he sidestepped away from the thin line in the air that marked the projectile's path, the «Projectile Path Prediction Line» used to balance out the use of ranged weaponry against melee opponents, just as the man pulled the trigger, effectively dodging the shot. An audible gasp rose up from the crowd just as the blue-haired man realized he had missed. He took a step backwards as Kirito neared him.

With just five meters left, Kirito drew his weapon back to attack. That was when he noticed the man putting his right hand behind his back. Based on the patch notes, it was possible to switch from a ranged weapon to a melee weapon with only a slight delay. No doubt the man was trying to do so after his initial attack had failed. But Kirito wouldn't give him the chance to complete that action.

He dug his feet into the cobblestone street beneath him and accelerated forwards. The pace that Kirito had been running at earlier wasn't his top speed in the game as dictated by his «Agility» stat; one of the little tricks that he had learned to use to his advantage back when he had practiced kendo alongside his little sister in real life translated into the game world. By the time the blue-haired man managed to draw his short sword out of the sheath strapped to the back of his belt, the «Duel Winner Message» was already playing.

«Winner: Kirito»

"Good duel," Kirito said, sheathing his weapon.

The man shot him a bitter look before muttering, "Good duel."

He stalked off through the crowd, clearly upset that he had lost. Kirito, on the other hand, was swamped by a mass of people congratulating him on his win. To him, it seemed like all 1,000 of the players who had been granted early access in the Beta were there. In the end, he managed to get free and escape using the «Hiding» and «Sneaking» skills.

-o-

"Nihihi, did you have fun back there?" Argo asked the boy sitting next to her on the park bench.

Kirito raised an eyebrow and answered, "The duel was great. The aftermath—not so much."

Although he had managed to get away from the majority of the players in the marketplace with copious use of the «Sneaking» skill, he couldn't escape from Argo. Her «Searching» skill was simply too high for him to avoid detection.

"I didn't expect you to actually dodge the bullet. Been watching too many American action movies lately?" she teased.

Kirito ignored that last bit and replied, "Well, you did say he shoots at the arms and legs. I figured that if I kept my eye on where he was looking and his finger, I'd be able to know when he'd shoot and where he was aiming. Thanks for telling me that Argo."

Argo suddenly looked pensive, hunching over slightly so that Kirito couldn't see her face.

"Something the matter?"

"No," she replied, laughing. "Just regretting not charging you for that information since it helped you win."

Typical Argo.

"Kind of hard to believe there's only 2 days left in the beta," he noted, mainly to fill the void in the conversation.

"It's only going to be a month or so before the launch," Argo replied. "Speaking of which, add me to your contact list. I hear you can carry over personal information from the beta to the launch."

"More free information? You're rather generous today Argo," Kirito joked.

She gave him an annoyed look, "Just shut up and do it. I don't want to have to build my network again from scratch and you're one of my regulars."

Kirito chuckled as he sent the friend request to the girl sitting next to him. A confirmation message appeared and her name appeared on his list of friends. Argo's smile twisted almost mockingly when she looked over at his menu.

"What's this, Ki-bou? I'm the only person on your friends list? I don't know whether to be touched or concerned."

"What? Like yours is any better?" Kirito shot back, feeling the need to defend himself.

Argo grinned and showed him her friends list. It was long enough to require a scroll bar.

"Take away the contacts for your work," Kirito added. "How many are left?"

"Um, three? Give or take," Argo answered sheepishly. She had never been particularly good about making friends. In fact, one of the reasons she had started opening up to others was due to Kirito's influence. Not that she would tell him that.

"Anyways Ki-bou, I'm going to log off and take a shower. Feel free to let your imagination run wild, young man," she said with a wink.

"W-what?" Kirito sputtered, but she was already gone. His face was, no doubt, beet red right now.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Argo seemed to know exactly what to say in order to fluster him. After a few moments, he finally managed to clear her face, complete with that teasing, upturned corner of her mouth, from his mind.

"Alright, time to get some hunting done," Kirito said to himself.

Most players in the beta test phase went out in parties in order to hunt. Kirito was one of the few exceptions, a solo player. Initially, he had gone out with groups as well but soon became frustrated with the lack of teamwork most beta testers showed. Few players were even remotely close to his level in skill and as such, Kirito felt that grouping up actually slowed his progress. He had switched to a solo playstyle after the first week of the beta.

It had been tough at first. He had to get used to a completely different atmosphere. In a party, if you encountered a group of the undead, your group would generally watch out and make sure your entire party wasn't flanked. This wasn't possible as a solo player. He had died twice before learning how to deal with the lack of extra sets of watchful eyes.

Kirito had also learned not to set the computer generated scents to their lowest settings early on. Most players couldn't stand the smell of decay that heralded the approach of the weakest of the undead; the majority of players kept their scent settings at the minimum allowable levels when out in the field. They were called «Creepers» by players and loosely corresponded to "zombie." They were also one of the only two classes of undead that swarmed, the other being skeletal units. Those were nicknamed «Clackers» for the unique sound they made. By relying on senses other than sight, Kirito was able to avoid getting into fights with more than one or two enemies at a time.

Kirito walked out to the teleportation stone in the middle of the district center and declared, "8th Ward."

The game took place in a massive city, «Aincrad», which was divided into a hundred different districts. The districts were arranged in a spiral, with the first and largest district at the very outer edge. The starting town was a base camp, resembling a town, outside of the city proper. Each district was completely infested with the undead until the boss of that district was killed. When that happened, the entire zone would be cleared of any remaining enemies and become a safe-zone for players. In order to allow players to level their skills and gather resources without being at the latest available district, there was an expansive sewer area under each district which continued to house mobs even after the district above had been cleared. Sewers in general held monsters of the same level and type as the district they were a part of although Kirito had heard rumors of hidden areas that housed monsters from more advanced zones. Some even said that there were special bosses in the sewers but none had been found thus far.

The 8th ward was the last safety zone that had been opened thus far in the beta testing period. It was unlikely that the players would be able to clear the 9th district before the end of the testing, but Kirito wanted to spend more time learning the battle patterns of the enemies there.

The 9th district, like the areas before it before the 8th district had been reclaimed by players, was made up of ramshackle buildings and streets that looked as if they hadn't been maintained in a century or more. Leaf-less trees and brambles lined the roads and the sky was darkened overhead; it wouldn't clear up until the district was freed. The bread and butter of any horror genre game was the ambience. In that respect, Kirito admitted that Kayaba Akihiko had created just the right mix in this VRMMO. The feeling Kirito got when walking down these streets was that he was starring in a horror movie; whether he was playing the part of the hero or the victim was up to him.

The clanking of chains told the boy that an enemy was near. Starting on this floor, there were enemies called «Flesh Horrors». Stitched together from multiple corpses, they were a terrifying foe that swung around rusted blades attached to chains. Because the attack pattern of this weapon type was something completely new, it had taken Kirito several long hours before he had gotten used to fighting this monster.

He grinned to himself now. Because once he had gotten used to fighting against «Flesh Horrors», Kirito had found them to be an excellent source of experience and item drops. He was a far cry from the same player that had frozen up when encountering his first «Creeper» horde.

Asada Shino sighed and looked at the bottom corner of her computer screen. The time read 11:50 of November 6, 2022. Only ten more minutes until the game's launch. Her p.c. was streaming a newscast, the sound turned down nearly all the way so that she could just barely make out the words coming from the speakers.

"And there you have it," the sharply dressed reporter finished as a small crowd of people behind her pushed and shoved to get into view of the camera. "In just a few moments, the first Virtual Reality MMO, «Swords of the Living Dead» or SLD for short, will be opening its server for the first time since the beta test. As you may know, 1000 randomly selected «Nerve Gear» owners were invited to the beta and the positive feedback from the players was part of what made this launch so spectacularly successful. 24,000 copies of the game, the initial launch number, were sold out or reserved within the first two days of the launch date's announcement."

Shino tuned out the rest of the report. It was just some unimportant announcement about an exclusive interview with Kayaba Akihiko, the game's creator and the designer of the «Nerve Gear» system, that was available on their website.

She wasn't planning on playing the game as an MMO enthusiast anyways. Her reason for playing was because she had heard that the full-dive experience almost perfectly mimicked reality. She wanted to exist in that world where the dead walked because of one reason alone. To find a way to change from the "weak" Asada Shino into someone else.

Several years ago, she had been at the scene of a bank robbery. Her mother was there alongside her, whispering that everything would be alright as Shino huddled in fear. She had almost believed her. But then the robber had pointed a gun at them. Out of all the people in the bank, he had chosen to target them. Everything else was a blur. When Shino finally regained her senses, she found herself standing over the man's body, his gun somehow in her hand and the barrel smoking. She could remember everything that happened afterwards, the police questioning, the looks of horror, fear, and grudging admiration on the faces of the other spectators. But pulling the trigger was a blur. The one incident that had shaped her life most. The event that had caused her to become shunned at school and whispered about on the streets to such a degree that she had transferred multiple times and she could barely recall it due to trauma.

Shino shook her head. She wouldn't think on that right now. Not when her goal was to become strong enough to leave that past behind. For that purpose, she would enter this other world. A world where the dead walked and weapons were commonplace. She would steel herself and become someone else. Anyone else. And if she became stronger in reality as a result, so much the better.

It was now 12:05. No doubt many people had already logged on. Berating herself for forgetting the time, Shino placed her «Nerve Gear» atop her head and laid down on her bed. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. She felt her heartbeat slow.

"Link Start!"

She was taken to the log-in menu where she entered a pseudonym for herself. "Sinon." Close enough to her real name that she was comfortable with it but also different enough that she could picture herself as someone else. Because she had not taken part in the beta phase, the game skipped over the option to let her import data and sent her to the character creation area, a circular white room with what appeared to be a floating mannequin at the center.

Here she chose the parts that would become her avatar, her in-game character. She immediately made her character look as imposing as possible; a female commando. Tussled blue hair and a strong jaw. Eyes that said "don't even think about it" and a body build that was lithe and muscular. Her character's height was roughly a foot taller than hers in real life. Turning the generated character around and admiring her handiwork, Shino confirmed that this was the character she wanted to be known as.

With a stomach wrenching sensation, Asada Shino was no more. In her place, standing in the center of the square at the starting town, Sinon came into being. Her first thought was to check the time: 12:45. It had taken her over half an hour to generate her ideal character.

She walked over to a park bench and sat down. Waving her hand in the air in front of her brought up a menu. Browsing through the different options, she selected the skills list. It was a good thing she had thought to read up on the basic in-game functions before logging in. Even if there was a help feature within the game itself, it wouldn't do for "Sinon" to appear as anything less than a competent and confident player.

She already knew what skill she wanted. Her first skill slot was immediately filled with «Basic Firearms». She would leave the second skill slot beginners were granted unfilled for now.

This early on, there were no player-run stalls where people could buy and sell goods open yet so Sinon entered an NPC shop instead. Beginners started with only 1000 «Col» with which to purchase their starting equipment. Armor accounted for half of that sum already, so Sinon was left with barely enough to buy a pistol and some ammunition. She exited the store wearing a set of light armor, a pistol hanging by her side, and a paltry 50 «Col» remaining in her funds.

As she approached the entrance to the 1st ward, the first area where it was possible to encounter enemies, a voice called out from behind her.

"You there, you're not thinking about going inside just armed with that are you?"

The speaker was wearing a brown cloak with the hood up that covered the top half of her face. It also made it impossible to tell her gender just by looking, but the voice was unmistakably female. The figure's overall appearance could best be described as "shady."

"I am, is there a problem?" Sinon answered. Even to her own ears, her voice sounded cold.

The figure hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Nope, have fun."

Was it just her imagination or was the cloaked person grinning mischievously? Sinon decided to ignore her for now and head on out.

-o-

"Damn that girl," Sinon muttered to herself as she ran, her boots echoing loudly, "she knew this was going to happen."

Sinon had found a spot that wasn't occupied by any players a short while ago. She could have just joined one of the many parties that were forming but decided that it'd be best to practice on her own first. She wanted to develop a reputation for being strong and partying as a new player broadcasted your shortcomings more effectively than anything else. Once she was more comfortable with her own abilities, then she would join a party.

Unfortunately, she learned the hard way why the girl back in the plaza had seemed so amused. The enemies in this zone were attracted to noise; the more you made, the faster they came and in larger numbers. And nothing generated more noise than a gun. Coming in at a close second was running at full speed. But Sinon didn't care, she had to get away.

While the enemy was slow, there were a lot of them. Worst of all, it seemed the first shot she had fired in surprise when she turned a corner and bumped into a zombie had drawn in more from every corner of the surrounding region. Sinon was now running around trying to find a clear escape route or a spot with few enough foes that she could break through. So far, she had no luck at all. Behind her, an ever growing crowd of monsters was giving chase. Perhaps if she got far enough away they would give up and return to their aimless wandering.

"Gah!" she screamed as she turned another bend and almost ran over another monster.

These «Lesser Zombies», a «Creeper»-type monster, were starting to get to her. Their putrid scent was overwhelming and Sinon really did not like the way how flesh, skin, and bone seemed to meld together on the parts of their bodies that weren't covered in tattered clothing. But what really scared her most was how her mind seemed to merge the face of the man she had shot in the bank with those of the monsters.

She pointed her wheel-lock pistol at its head and pulled the trigger. A dark hole appeared in the monster's forehead and moments later, the «Lesser Zombie» exploded into prismatic particles, signaling that it had been defeated. Sinon ignored the experience and item drop menu that had appeared in favor of running even faster. No doubt more enemies were now zeroing in on her location after that last shot.

Sinon dodged under the arms of another monster and ducked into an alleyway, reloading as she ran. This type of action would have been impossible for her to do in real life, but the «System Assist» helped her to load a shot into the gun while moving. She dashed down the dark alley, her boots splashing water as she stepped in a puddle. Then she skidded to a halt. The way was blocked off by a wall that was too high to scale. Frantically looking around, Sinon could not see any other way out other than the direction from which she had come. Unfortunately, that egress was now blocked off. The horde of undead had finally caught up to her. Their groans as they shuffled nearer filled the girl with a sense of dread. As they closed in, the alleyway seemed to darken even further.

*Bang*

She killed one zombie and began to reload.

*Bang*

A second one went down with a groan, bursting into brilliant shards of light.

*Thud*

Sinon's back collided with the wall. Her feet shuffled backwards but she was no longer able to back up. She felt a scream rising from the back of her throat as the first of the monsters reached her and grabbed her by the arm. She pulled the trigger, but nothing happened as she hadn't reloaded yet. She tried hitting her enemy with the butt of the pistol, but aside from doing minimal damage to its health bar, nothing happened. Try as she might, she couldn't break free from that grip. She closed her eyes and turned her head, trying hard not to think of what was happening. That was impossible to do as she could hear the sounds of biting and feel pressure and tugs as her avatar was attacked by a merciless foe; thankfully there was no sensation of pain. After a few moments, Sinon chanced a look.

There beneath her, her avatar's body lay in a crumpled heap, her features now barely recognizable. Moments later, Sinon's vision began to darken as the system taunted her with the message «You Are Dead». Worst of all, as the respawn timer neared zero, Sinon's "corpse" began to twitch. With one second to go, it stumbled to its feet, joining the horde of «Lesser Zombies» that had hunted her down. Her vision faded to white.

-o-

The first thing she did when she respawned in the central square of the starting town was to check whether her head was still attached to her body. The experience at the end had been too realistic for her taste even though there wasn't any pain involved. It didn't seem like she had lost much from the death penalty; overall, her experience had gone up on that last trip and she had gained a skill level in «Basic Firearms». In addition, she had gotten a few item drops which she sold to an NPC vendor.

"I see you're back," the cloaked figure commented as Sinon once again headed for the entrance to the first zone, "I didn't see you returning by the gate so I assume you respawned?"

"You could have warned me that would happen," Sinon replied bitterly.

"Nihihi, it's better to experience what carelessness will get you firsthand."

Sinon glared at the cloaked girl and shot back, "And I suppose you're the master of carefulness. After all, you haven't taken a single step into a zone with hostile monsters yet, have you?"

To her surprise, the girl doubled over laughing.

"Oh, I like you," she said as soon as she caught her breath, "But to answer your question, you'd be correct. I've been here selling information to my clients since the server opened."

"Selling information?"

Sinon was so perplexed by the notion that she forgot about being annoyed. She could understand buying item drops and player-crafted gear, but why would anyone pay for access to information that should be readily available?

"Data such as drop-rates and farming spots," came the reply, "would you be interested?"

Sinon thought about it for a moment before declining.

"I'll find my own way around," she declared before opening the gate to the next zone. Behind her, she could hear the other girl's strange sounding laughter.

-o-

"I see you're back yet again," the cloaked figure greeted her for the third time today.

This time, Sinon thought she might have been able to sneak by and save herself a little embarrassment since the other girl was in conversation with two male players. Unfortunately, it almost seemed as if the self-proclaimed information dealer was on the lookout for her.

"I don't want to hear it," Sinon replied dryly.

She had been doing better on her second foray into the first district. By staying further away when shooting and remaining aware of her surroundings, she had managed to avoid being entrapped like she had before for the first half an hour. But then she had encountered something unexpected. The reanimated corpse of her own character. As if the game were mocking her previous weakness, it had a unique name atop its head: «Lesser Zombie: Sinon ». Her mind had frozen for a precious few seconds. Had the monster been a normal enemy, she would have recovered in time to avoid being killed.

Unfortunately, reanimated player avatars in «SLD» are equipped with whatever the player that was killed was wearing at the time of death. Before Sinon could fully process what was going on, her decayed counterpart had put a bullet through her head, prompting another «You Are Dead» message to play.

"Oh, don't give me that look," the other girl laughed, "Ki-bou, why don't you teach her some of the basics? You were going to help this other newbie out anyways, right?"

One of the male players the girl had been talking to turned around and regarded Sinon. He had a plain face, slightly unkempt black hair, was around the same height as Sinon, and wore only a breastplate for protective gear. All things considered, a very forgettable looking person.

"I guess I could, if she wants to," he replied, "it won't be that much different from just helping Klein. But she's a gun user, right? I'm not too familiar with that weapon-type."

Sinon tried to decline his offer, but between the teasing from the hooded girl, "Ki-bou's" insistence that it really wouldn't be much trouble, and her own desire to avoid getting killed again and allowing the system to mock her weakness once more, she found herself following him into the first zone.

Sinon noted the names that had appeared in the corner of her field of view. Her party members' health bars coupled with their names. So, she thought to herself, the black haired one was Kirito and the redhead who was trying hard to look and act like someone out of a samurai flick was Klein.

"So Sinon, you don't have any melee weapons at all?" Kirito asked as he looked over her character.

"Is that a problem?" Sinon replied a little harshly. She immediately regretted doing so. After all, he was just trying to help.

"Actually, it is," the young man replied bluntly, "reloading in this game, as I'm sure you've noticed, takes a while. I hear some of the high-rarity guns have faster reload speeds but no matter what happens, you should always have another way to fight your way to a clear area."

"High-rarity guns?"

Sinon turned her head, interested in the direction this conversation was going.

"In the beta, there were rumors going around that the developers added more modern weapons to the game," Kirito explained. "Semi-automatics and bolt action rifles. There's ammo for those weapons in the npc stores but no one has managed to find anything that uses that ammunition type. Then there's the story that was going around about 'cursed' weaponry."

Klein suddenly chimed in, "I heard about that. Things like the «Masamune» blade, right?"

Kirito nodded and replied, "That's the only confirmed cursed weapon but I'm certain there must be more. From what I understand, those weapons grow with the user so you don't have to worry about updating your gear when you level up, but that convenience comes at a cost. First, you can't reinforce the weapon to make it stronger and more importantly, you can never switch that weapon out for something more suitable for the situation you're in. It fills an equipment slot permanently. But enough about that, I'm supposed to be teaching you two combat strategies right now."

He hesitated for a moment before opening a trade window with Sinon.

"It's not much, but here's a combat knife that I found on a monster a little while ago," he said. "Better than nothing and even if you don't have the appropriate «Skill», you can equip it and use the most basic «Sword Skills» with it."

"«Sword Skills»?"

Sinon and Klein asked the same question at the same time.

Kirito scratched his head. "I guess I should start from the beginning," he said. "«Sword Skills» are system assisted attacks you can use with melee weapons. They are quicker and stronger than a normal attack that goes through an identical motion. It's hard to explain, but you need to charge the attack and envision how it's going to strike before releasing it. Like this…"

Kirito drew his sword, held it behind himself, and concentrated for a split second. A glowing red light enveloped his blade and he slashed forwards, drawing an arc of crimson light parallel to the ground. A sharp "keen" sound rang through the air.

"That was the «Horizontal» skill," he explained. "«Sword Skills» let you kill enemies a lot easier but there are downsides as well. First, if you're not used to using them, they can take a toll on your ability to focus. They're rather mentally taxing if you use them repeatedly. Also, they create more noise than normal attacks would. That in turn attracts many types of undead. Speaking of which, here comes one now."

Klein immediately rushed forwards shouting, "I've got this!"

Sinon wanted to scream at him, "You idiot, don't make that much noise! You'll bring more here!"

But of course she didn't because that would have drawn more enemies towards them like moths to a flame. Instead, she watched as Klein mimicked Kirito's movements from before but completely failed to initiate a «Sword Skill» due to his haste and exaggerated motions.

Kirito shook his head and called after him, "Lower your stance. Calm down. And feel the energy building before you try to release it."

He turned to Sinon, "Why don't you give it a shot as well? You should be able to use any of the basic skills with that dagger I gave you, but as a piercing type weapon, «Linear» is the best way to go."

Kirito demonstrated the movement for the attack and his blade stabbed forwards, again releasing a sound effect. Another zombie shuffled into view, attracted by the noise.

"Alright, you go ahead and take this one," he said, "I'll check on Klein and make sure he stays alive."

It took Sinon a few attempts, but on her fourth try, she managed to strike out with «Linear». A giddy feeling rose up in her stomach.

"I did it!" she exclaimed before reminding herself that she was destroying the "tough" image she was trying to cultivate.

"Great," came the reply, "now go kill the enemy with it."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Klein cheering and jumping in the air. He had finally managed to dispatch his foe with a well-placed «Horizontal». Sinon turned to face the zombie that was now limping over in her direction.

Try as she might, Sinon couldn't get used to how short the range on her weapon was. It was ridiculous, being able to strike only inches further than arm's reach. But after a few attempts where she overestimated her reach, she managed to connect with «Linear», causing her enemy's health bar to drop down into the red zone. A follow-up swipe from the knife ended the fight. She shuddered at the grotesque expression the zombie took on as it exploded in a shower of pixels. That was something she didn't have to pay attention to when the enemy was further away.

"I think I prefer the gun after all," she declared.

Kirito looked at her, appraising her for a moment before nodding.

"Fair enough," he said, "if you're in a party, I guess the drawbacks of a long reload time become meaningless. Why don't we three hunt for a bit and practice? If you have time, I mean."

With Kirito and Klein as her shields, Sinon found hunting monsters had become infinitely easier. She didn't have to watch her flank as her companions covered her blind spots. Kirito's expertise, Klein's unmatched enthusiasm, and Sinon's accuracy made short work of any undead that crossed their path. The two males gave her impressed looks when she placed a particularly difficult shot; getting a head-shot on a target 100 meters away and half concealed by a low wall. Sinon felt that she might have been able to do better if the gun in her hands had better sights and some way to stabilize its movement; she regretted not purchasing a musket even if it required staying still in order to reload.

Before she knew it, three hours had passed. Klein made a comment about how he had to log off in order to eat the pizza he had ordered. Kirito smiled knowingly and suggested that they break up the party for now before mentioning the possibility of continuing later. Sinon felt a little melancholic when the names of her party members disappeared from the corner of her field of view.

"Hey! Why don't we add each other to our friends list?" Klein suggested. "It'll make meeting up a lot easier."

Sinon thought about it for a moment. It would be easier to party up if that were the case and the three of them had made a good team. But the more she mulled over it, the less certain she was that she wanted to do so. She had joined this game in order to become stronger as an individual; did she really want to start relying on others? After all, there was no telling what might happen if they found out about her past.

Looking over at her other companion, it seemed like Kirito was hesitating as well. But Klein was so enthusiastic about the whole thing that the two of them eventually relented and accepted. Moments later, Sinon's friends list had two names on it; the first friends she had made in the game. Despite her earlier misgivings, she felt strangely happy when looking at those two names.

"Alright then!" Klein exclaimed cheerfully, apparently without caring in the least that his voice would attract even more «Lesser Zombies», "I'll be back after eating. If you're still on, let's meet up again!"

He opened his menu and flipped through the options.

"Eh? There's no log out button," he said.

"That can't be right," Kirito replied, looking over his shoulder, "it should be right there under—"

Sinon felt a spike of panic and checked her own player console. Klein was right; the option to log out was missing. Fortunately, Kirito kept a level head which helped Sinon calm down almost immediately.

"Well, it's the first day of the launch, so I guess there're bound to be one or two bugs that didn't get fixed," he said. "Strange that this happened though, since it wasn't an issue in the beta test."

"Ah man," Klein groaned as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair. "I don't really want to trouble the admins since I'm sure they've gotten a lot of reports about this by now, but I really want to eat that pizza…"

"Just send it in," Kirito replied. "A game master should be able to log you out from within the game but they won't know to do so unless you ask."

Sinon was just about to send her own ticket to the GM complete with her scathing opinion as to what she thought about their competence level when her avatar began to glow.

"What's going on?" she asked as her body suddenly experienced freefall.

"A forced player teleportation?" Kirito mused, his own body lighting up like a Christmas tree. "My guess is that the administrators are going to explain what's going on."

Moments later, Sinon found herself in the town center. All around her, glowing lights signaled the arrival of other players. She looked around for her companions but Kirito and Klein were nowhere to be seen. It seemed that the teleportation destinations were chosen at random. Within a minute, the entire plaza was packed with players. Sinon recalled that 24,000 copies of the game had sold out. Including the beta testers, that meant that there were 25,000 copies of SLD in circulation. Looking around her, it was very likely that every single person who had obtained a copy was now in the town square. A few people started talking with their neighbors in hushed tones, no doubt discussing the strange event that had just occurred.

The sky above darkened dramatically. It wasn't cloud cover or the sun setting. Those would have been "normal." Instead, what appeared to be barely translucent dark blue hexagons, each with a red border and a bright red warning reading «System Message» covered the heavens. More than a few people started screaming when what appeared to be blood started dripping down from the dome that those panels created above their heads. Sinon wasn't one of them, she was too terrified to use her voice.

The dripping liquid coalesced into the form of a robed man just before it reached the rooftops. His face was completely obscured and the tattered robes billowing about him made him seem more like a grim reaper than a game master.

"Players, welcome to my world. I am Kayaba Akihiko," he declared as he pointed a gloved hand at the people gathered in the town center.

Thus started the speech that would change the fates of everyone who was currently logged into the game. Despite how confused she was, Sinon now knew three things from what her brain managed to process.

First, they were all trapped with no hope of outside intervention until the final district was freed from the grasp of the undead.

Second, there was no longer a slap-on-the-wrist penalty for dying. If you died, you died in real life as well.

And finally, the game…was no longer just a game.

At first, the people around her treated the whole announcement as a joke. Of course they would. What else could such conditions imposed upon 25,000 people be considered? To them, it was a prank or a way to make the launch of the game more memorable. A faked inability to log out and a terrifying message to celebrate the grand opening of the world's first VRMMO; a game that fell squarely in the horror genre.

Then came the anger. When they realized that they really weren't able to log out and when the reaper above their heads showed them newscasts from the outside world to convince the players that he was not joking, the players began to jeer and make demands. It soon became clear that their demands to be released fell on deaf ears.

Finally came the denial. Some started crying. Others began to panic, spreading pandemonium to those nearby. Many others desperately pressed at their player menus, hoping to find some secret way to log out. Everything they thought they knew had just suddenly fallen apart. Sinon just stood there, continuing to look at Kayaba Akihiko as he finished what he had to say.

"Lastly, I have granted you all a gift. Please check your inventories for it now."

With more than just a little apprehension, Sinon tapped through her inventory and found a new item that she had never seen before.

"«Looking Glass»?" she mumbled, looking over the item.

A small hand mirror appeared in front of her. Instinctively, she picked it up and peered into it. There, reflected in the oval panel of glass was her face.

Not the tough, battle-scarred face she had carefully crafted in the game's character creation menu. Her face. Asada Shino's fragile visage peered back at Sinon through the looking glass. Delicate features, like those of a porcelain doll. Weak. The opposite of what she wanted to be.

With a start, Sinon realized that her perspective had changed. She felt shorter and glancing at her surroundings confirmed her fears. As she touched her face with her free hand, the image in the mirror copied her motion. Sinon was Asada Shino. Asada Shino was Sinon. The two had become one and the same.

Her illusion of strength was gone. And with despair gnawing at her insides, Sinon realized that the only way to ever leave this nightmare was to play along with Kayaba's rules.

*notes- This story started as a random desire to write Sinon's character in a SAO fic and as a way to pass the time when I couldn't think of what to write for my crossover. It has since become the longest single chapter I have ever written. Sinon actually happens to be my favorite heroine from the novels. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it's because she is one of the few people who can counter-troll Kirito. Maybe it has to do with her obsession with overcoming her weakness and the trials she faced in the novels as a result. Or maybe it's something simpler; the visual dichotomy of a small girl with a big effing gun.

But in order for her character to work, ranged weapons are a must. The trouble was balancing those out when compared to melee. That's where the game world comes in. Ranged weapons are separated into two classes, firearms and bows/arbalests. All bows and arbalests deal pierce damage which is fine against lightly armored, fleshy targets but less effective on some enemy types. They also deal less damage per hit than swords would. Guns deal comparable or greater damage than most melee weapons, barring 2-handers. Their weaknesses are the noise level they generate (for PvE) and their long reload time (for group PvP.) Kirito has exploited the last in his duel but whether he'll develop the crazy reflexes required to cut a bullet in half like he did in GGO…well, that remains to be seen.

Few final notes, Sinon isn't dead despite dying twice because she did so before Kayaba's announcement. In order to be fair (and keeping in line with my interpretation of his words in the light novel) resurrection only became impossible after his speech. The next chapter will more than likely correspond to the "Aria" story of the light novels and thus, introduce us to this world's version of Asuna. She probably won't be much different than her light novel incarnation (or else rabid fans will likely try to tear me apart) but expect some changes due to the different setting.