⌜Chapter 2⌟

I didn't know what was happening so I decided to ask the person beside me.

"Hey what is happening?"

The man looked at me and answered.

"Oh, the operator's going to begin informing us now"

I didn't know what he meant but I loosened my shoulders a little bit seeing the guy relax a little bit. The chatter died down in the plaza and you could feel everyone waiting to hear what was going to be said.

But the entrance of the said operator was very

From the middle of the pattern, a liquid similar to blood started oozing down slowly. It came down at a rate that almost emphasized how viscid it was; but it didn't fall down, instead, it started morphing into another shape.

What appeared was a twenty-meter tall man with a hooded robe draped around him.

No, that wasn't exactly right.

From where we were looking, we could easily see into the hood—there was no face. It was absolutely empty. We could clearly see the inner cloth and the green embroidery inside of the hood. It was the same inside the robe, all we could see inside the rim were shadows.

"I've seen the actual robe before. It was the clothes that the Agas employees who had been working as GMs during the beta test had always worn. But then the male GMs had had a face like an old sorcerer with a long beard and the females had had an avatar of a bespectacled girl. They might have used the robe due to lack of time to prepare a proper avatar"

The guy beside me said but the empty space beneath the hood gave me an unexplainable feeling of anxiety.

The countless people around me must have felt the same.

Is that a GM?"

"Why doesn't it have a face?"

Numerous whispers like these could be heard.

Then the right hand of the huge robe moved as if to silence them.A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But this sleeve, like the rest of the robe, wasn't connected to any sort of body.

Then the left arm slowly lifted upwards, too. Then with its two empty gloves spread out in front of ten thousand players, the faceless person opened his mouth—no, it felt like it did. Then a low and calm voice of a male resonated from high up in the air.

'Players, I welcome you all to my world.'

I couldn't understand it as usual.

«My world»?

If that red robe was a GM according to the players around me, it certainly had godlike powers in this world, enabling him to change the world at will, but why was he pointing that out now?

Every player around me looked very dumbfounded.

The anonymous red robe lowered its two arms and continued talking.

'My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world.'

"What…!?"

Everyone around me exclaimed while I seemed to remember this name, Sword Art Online, an anime about players being trapped in the virtual world and their mission is to climb and clear it to leave the world.

and Kayaba Akihiko is the creator of this game, as a reincarnated person of course I know about SAO since it was one of the most popular novels in my past life though, I didn't really read it, and only watched the anime.

The anime was very unsatisfying because it has too many missing pieces according to the fans and I also felt that it was missing, but anyway, Kayaba Akihiko can be said to be the main antagonist and a supporting character.

I have watched SAO a few times but I am not confident to say that I have memorized everything about it.

'I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug, it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.'

"Part of…the system?"

Someone muttered, his voice breaking up. The announcement continued in its low voice as if to cover the sound.

'Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.'

" This castle? There's no castle in the «Starting City»."

The guy beside me muttered, but his question was answered in Kayaba's next words.

'…also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the NERvGear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted…'

A moment of silence.

The silence of ten thousand people was overwhelming. The next words came slowly.

'The signal sensors in your NERvGear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.'

Everyone's faces were filled with shock and fear, of course, they would, this is the first VRMMORPG squid game in this world except he there is no prize but your freedom, the nerve gear they were using will kill them when they die in this game or someone took it off the person who was playing.

Any user that turned the NERvGear off or unlocked the clasp and took it off would be killed. That is what Kayaba had just stated.

People in the crowd started muttering, but there was no one shouting or panicking. It was either that everyone, like the guys beside, couldn't understand it yet, or refused to.

Then it dawned to me too, I am also in the same boat as them, if I die, I will really die, I'm not even sure how did I get here, I felt like I was forced to be here, but as a reincarnated person, I am very excited, who isn't if they are in my position?

"Haha…what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The NERvGear… It's just a game. Destroy our brain… How is he going to do that? Right, Kirito?"

I heard the red hair guy beside me speak, Kirito? I seem to find that name familiar but I can't seem to recall it as if there was a veil blocking my memories preventing me from recalling it.

"Ah yes! I finally remembered!"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Quotes:

You cannot see your reflection in boiling water. Similarly, you cannot see the truth in a state of anger.

When the water calms, clarity comes...