Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online.

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3:12 p.m., October 10, 2024, Floor 74

The girl opened her eyes slowly.

Light. An alien sensation, stabbing into her eyes like hot daggers.

Shutting her lids reflexively, she drew in a breath and exhaled, listening intently to the sound. The brush of air across her lips, stirring in the space above her face like a hidden current soon lost to the ether.

As the moments passed, the girl began to catalogue the sensory input around her.

Sound: leaves rustling, the chirping of small birds overheard.

Touch: soft grass, bending beneath her flat palms, and warm earth beneath.

Smell: a rich autumn breeze, carrying the scent of sweet fruits and a crisp chill.

Taste: thick saliva and salt, with a hint of copper.

Sight: try again.

Opening her eyelids a little at a time, the girl found the light more tolerable. Slowly, she came to identify a dappled canopy of tree boughs some fifteen above, waving lazily in soft zephyrs.

Time passed. One minute. Two. Five.

At last, the girl turned her attention inward. Flexed and tensed. Sat upright.

The world…was a marvel.

She looked about silently, drinking in the small grove. Peered at the foliage, tasted the air, hearkened to the birdsong.

A rumbling in her stomach broke the spell. The girl blinked, thought. Slowly standing, she considered her next actions.

"Hrrrr…"

Another, new sound: guttural and growling, coming from the bushes across the small clearing. She turned and tilted her head.

From the greenery emerged an upright lizard-man, armed with a buckler and curved sword—

[«Deep Forest Lizalfo»]

—eying her with a beady gaze, red irises contracted to predatory slits.

A feeling sparked somewhere. Down the spine? In the stomach?

Fear…? And something else. Anticipation?

Her mind began to race, processing these sensationsinstinctsthoughts at a greater pace. What action to take—

[Menu.]

—a jolt of intuition, source unknown, but enough to raise her hand and swipe downward in a precise manner. Before her eyes, an interface appeared, showing inventory, equipment slots, status windows—

The Lizalfo approached, snarling, gaining speed as it loped across the grass.

[Equip. Evade. Attack.]

The girl felt the new weight of a simple sword and shield, took a second to adjust, then darted to the side as the mob's blade slashed through the air where she had been. Adrenalin pumping, blood pounding in her ears, the girl felt her lips pull up without knowing why—

[Thrill.]

—thrust, slash, parry. Withdraw. Glancing to the corner, processing the sight—

[HP. Status bar.]

[…name?]

—she engaged again. Her unadorned blade sang through the air, like a piercing counterpoint to the birds overheard. Rising like a gust of wind, her spirit (was that the word?) leapt, and a sudden joy of being bubbled up into an irrepressible laugh.

Such wonder the world held, such experience—

...what came before?

—she stumbled, blinked.

...what am I?

Consciousness surged, receded like a tide. Roared up again and stunned with its vitality, its immediate certainty in the answer.

"…I see."

She spoke aloud, throat vibrating, tongue and lips moving as they shaped the words instinctively.

"I am…me."

The girl tilted her head and let the tip of her blade drop, lost in the splendor of abrupt understanding.

"I am myself."

The Lizalfo showed no regard for this epiphany.

With a hissing cry, it leapt forward again, sword raised high to deal a killing blow to its unguarded target—

"Hyaaaah!"

A crimson flash of light bisected its scaly torso. More light followed as it disintegrated into space.

The girl blinked, coming back to awareness.

"You alright, miss?" came a voice from behind the small cloud of floating particles. As they dissipated into specks of gentle radiance, the form of a man became visible.

Loose armor. A thin, curving blade held in a relaxed grip. Reddish-brown hair. Brown eyes, brow contracted slightly in concern but rising with appreciation as the moments passed. Behind him, other figures dressed in similar outfits quickly approached, expressions curious.

She reflected briefly, processing the situation. Then giggled.

"Yes. I am…just fine. Thank you," she replied, smiling. It felt right.

The man flushed, and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Oh, good. Um…glad we got here in time!" he declared, words gaining speed as they tumbled out. "It's funny, I mean, ah…when I first saw your cursor across the way, I figured you were a quest NPC, because I thought I saw an «NPC» tag, but I guess I was seeing things because you're definitely a person, and I'm totally messing up this introduction!" The man hastily sheathed his katana and bowed at the waist. "Hi, my name's Klein, I'm single and 24, and this is my guild, «Fuurinkazan»! I'm very pleased to meet you!"

Behind him, the other men alternatively waved or covered their faces and shook their heads in exasperation.

The girl laughed again, delighting in the sensation. "Yes, I am pleased to meet you as well." She pondered this for a moment as Klein straightened with an endearingly smitten expression.

At last, she grinned widely.

"My name…is Eve."

xxxxx

Cardinal took an entire 0.79 seconds to analyze this latest anomaly. Following its processing cycle, the system registered the newly generated entity in the most logical manner it could, given its current criteria.

Buried deep in Aincrad's digital ocean of logs and reports, the player count increased by one for the first time in nearly two years.

Immediately following this action, the Non-Player Character algorithms spawned an entire host of cascading error messages before Cardinal's monitoring protocols crashed irretrievably. One report remained:

«Unknown processes cannot be reconciled. Please adjust parameter definitions.»

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A/N: "O brave new world, / That has such people in 't!"