November 2024

Alfheim Online, despite its rocky start and similarities with SAO, has quickly risen to be one of the most popular games of the Japanese public, providing a much safer option for anyone looking to go into VR. That's the public knowledge of the game. The other side of the coin is that it serves as a perfect test subject for the hacking operation started a year ago. Considering it's only the second of its kind, it woudn't be far fetched to assume both ALO and SAO work on the same engine. As it so happens, the 2 men team was currently diving inside ALO for a much needed break from their usual work.

Close to the entrance of a dungeon stood a white haired male avatar, with it's heir tied back, a sword in its hand and a shield on its back. He was part of one of the 9 races of Alfheim, one of the more underrated choices, the Pooka, with a special attribute of music magic, higher level players even managing to store sounds inside bottles, as if they were potions, each with various effect. Why is it an odd choice? Well, most players don't really opt for support oriented classes. But our blond sure loves a challenge. With the shield in use, who doesn't like a tank that can heal itself? Is it too broken? Well, many things in this game lacks balancing, and one more thing...

"5 Months into this game and they STILL don't have instancing implemented. What are the developers thinking?", the white haired boy was casually stabbing the ground below him as he was waiting for the dungeon to reset. Without any form of instancing any dungeon or boss is a world boss, so waiting in front to prevent the rest of the server from stealing was to be expected.

His partner was currently missing, away on a peculiar mission to assure the success of this dungeon crawling session, but that also meant anyone wandering about with a big party would just shrug the boy and his 'I was first' comments. Oh, did I perhaps jinx it?

Soon the airspace nearby was filled with the sight of countless green fairies preparing to land, Sylphs, another one of the 9 races. Compared to out lone wolf, they had him beat in numbers, counting 10 or so among themselves. The first to land in front of our guy was a girl and boy pair.

"A Pooka? This close to our territory?!", the smaller one, the boy, let out in surprise, preapring to draw the short sword sheathed at the back on his lower back.

"Close. Not close. This is still neutral territory, my guy.", the Pooka was quick to point out, already having furrowed eyebrows at the numbers of Sylphs that came to the dungeon. "And I should also mention that I call dibs on this one.", he pointed towards the cave entrance, as this was an underground dungeon.

"You plan on doing it alone?", the blonde girl questioned. She could understand how annoying waiting for a reset is, but at the same time going inside alone would just be a waste of resources on his part and of time on their part. "Is your party late or-"

"There is no party. I am the only one out here."

"... maybe we can reach an understanding the-"

"Leafa!", a deeper, more manlier voice called out from behind them, with an irritated tone. "What are you waiting for?"

By the looks of it, this man was the leader of the party, having quite the presence among his party, though you shouldn't take that as a good sign. After getting an explanation from the girl, the leader didn't seem to pay it much mind.

"That's not our concern. Proceed with the dungeon, we'll wait inside for the reset."

"What was that!?", the sword of the Pooka clashes against the shield now occupying his left hand. "Don't you people understand what a line is?"

"We're not going to waste time giving you a run just so you can die due to underestimating the mobs. To begin with, we've decided to come here yesterday already. So tough luck.", the man brushed the boy aside. "Of course, unless you want to settle this in a different manner."

The rest of his party, minus the first pair to land, drew their weapons at the Pooka, whose eyebrow was visibly twitching at this point. But alas, the strength of numbers is an advantage hard to deny in an MMO...most of the time.

"Sigh...get on with it. I can't be arsed to deal with you right now."

The leader's face showed a satisfied smile, eyes filled with a holier than thou light, but we'll see who has the last laugh. As soon as the last Sylph entered the cave, the Pooka send a message to his partner.

'10 Sylphs. Tallest one is the leader. His head comes off first.'

After a minute or 2, he too ventured into the Dungeon, making his presence unknown to the group in front. It was time for the true show to start.

The entrance to the main hub of the dungeon was a long cave-like hallway, with a very tall ceiling, as if you were descending into the middle of the earth itself. The party of Sylphs was relatively quiet while marching in, minus small comments from the shortest of the group, pestering the blond girl with questions here and there. But if there was something of certitude, it was that no one bothered to look back. Inside caves, perhaps the worst opponent you could come across is a fellow fairy, an Imp.

A shadowy figure was hanging upside down from the ceiling, using his wings to keep himself in place. Normally, fairies can't fly without the light of the sun or moon, but Imps were an exception with their bat-like wings.

As soon as the target was in range, the aforementioned wings disappeared and the avatar of the assailant took a straight dive towards the leader of the group, as silent as a cat ready to pounce on its pray. The greenish spear that he held onto stabbed right through the center of the leader's head, killing both him and one of the light sources of the group. Unlike Sylphs, Imps possessed night vision, much like the Spriggans.

"Enemy attack!", one of the party members shouted at the sight of one of them dead, but before the group could ready their weapons, a small bottle was shattered among them, a sound akin to rubbing nails on a chalkboard. Indeed, one of many ways to utilize the Pooka's sound magic. This time around, it was a debuff, a stun effect, and while not long, it was enough for both the Pooka and the Imp to slaughter the party, till only 2 of them remained.

"We surrender!", the meekest member of the group bowed deeply, in an attempt to save any items he could, as it took him a while to get his equipment, even if it wasn't that exceptional.

"What? Recon!", the girl tugged at her friend's collar. "Have some pride for once!"

"I am not good at combat like you, Leafa!", the boy wailed, lowering his head even more, leaving the Imp wide eyed and somewhat disappointed in his partner.

"Really? I said I wanted to hunt players, not bully people!", the spear wielder lashed out.

"Do you think I run background checks on people in this game or something?", the Pooka responded with the same amount of aggravation.

"You did one on me before!"

"That was different and you know it!"

It was the Sylphs's turn to be confused, watching their assailants bicker back and forth regarding the outcome of their endeavor. Sure, they were successful in destroying their party, but it seems that wasn't enough for them.

"AH! Forget it! I can't go on with this when this guy is begging. The mood is ruined.", the Imp put his spear away, running his fingers through his hair in annoyance.

The Pooka put his weapons away as well, before turning to the guy known as Recon by now.

"Don't worry. We won't take your stuff. It's not worth it to sell it to begin with. Here, take the other guys' stuff as well.", a trade offer opened up in front of the Sylph, who was watching it dumbfounded.

"Wait. So you did this just to kill us?", the girl, Leafa chipped in.

"Umm, yes? PvP is part of an MMO right? Besides, duels are too flashy. I prefer ambushes.", the Imp fulfilled her curiosity. "Ah! And feel free to continue the dungeon just the 2 of you if you want. We're the ones who cleared it before this to begin with."

"So you just laid a trap for us?"

"Well, not you specifically, blondie. For anyone that would pass through here today."

Leaving the nick name aside, the 2 Sylphs were still not fully onboard with the explanations. And part of that is due to the political relationships between Pookas and Imps at the moment.

"Aren't your 2 races in a conflict right now?", Recon was the first to ask. "How come you're teaming up?"

"...because it would be stupid to just party with your own race all the time.", the tank of the duo continued. "And I don't mean that as an offence to you guys or anything, but put yourself in my shoes. What am I supposed to do with a party full of, essentially, support players?"

"You don't play like a support though."

"That's cause I am special, shortie.", he patted the boy's head. "As long as races in this game behave like classes, there's no reason to avoid joining players from other races. Get it?"

"One more thing to the list of WTH is with this game, am I right?"

"Don't remind me, monkey!"

"Monkey?", both Sylphs furrowed their brows.

"Ah. That's cause my username is Saru, therefore Monkey. Here.", the Imp opened up his character sheet to show his new aquintances.

"And I am Hana."

"You're called Flower?", Recon seemed slightly amused.

"...If I hear someone call my name girly again, I swear to god!", the Pooka threatened, leaving the conversation with a small pause before his partner whispered to the other 2.

"...his real name is girly too..."

"THAT'S IT!", Hana drew his sword once more, in an attempt to duel his friend. "You and me, monkey. Right now!"

"Pass! I don't want to embarrass you in front of other people. That's for my own enjoyment."

And the bickering started once more. At this point, anyone could figure out this was a daily thing for the team. At the very least, they're not as obsessed with killing other players as the Sylphs would have initially thought.

"It's a good thing you took out Sigurd first, or things wouldn't have been as peaceful as now."

"That was the name of your leader? Good riddance if you ask me.", the Pooka shrugged at the blonde, uncaring for whatever the dead player would say upon getting his gear back. "In any case, it's been fun...for us. See you later. Or maybe kill you later. You never know!", Hana waved at the pair before turning back towards the exit.

"You're leaving just like that ? The dungeon is about to reset!"

"You can take care of it for us, Leafa. Call your pals and tell them you managed to kill both of us for all we care. We had our fun.", Saru also saluted the Sylphs and followed his partner suit

Indeed. They had their fun while waiting for the program running in the real world to finish up loading. After all, today is the day they would see whether their infiltration mission has payed off or not. It was time to see what the servers of SAO were hiding from the public eye.

"...do you think it worked?", Hana, or rather Misaki spoke worried and somewhat impacient.

"Relax.", Saruhiko tapped his shoulder. "It may not work first try, but we can always try again.

"...the sooner the better though..."

Back in the real world...