Dicey Cafe

Agil or Andrew is cleaning a glass inside the bar as he hears the door open to see Kazuto and Y/n closes the door behind him.

Andrew: Yo. You two are early.

Y/n: Nice place you got here.

Kazuto: What'd you do, scare all your customers away?

Kazuto and Y/n went to there seats at the bar.

Andrew: Very funny. Man, at night, it's off the hook in here.

Kazuto: Well, we're here. What's the deal with that picture you sent?

Andrew: Yeah, that's gonna take a little explaining. But first, check this out.

Andrew gets out two game cases to pass them to Y/n and Kazuto for each of them to catch it.

Kazuto: A game?

Y/n: I wasn't expecting this.

Andrew: It's an MMO for the AmuSphere. It's what replaced NerveGear on the market.

Kazuto: Huh. So, it's a VRMMO... Just like Sword Art. ALfhaim Online?

Andrew: Uh, actually, it's pronounced "Alf-heim." Yeah. It means, Land of the Fairies".

Kazuto: Faires, huh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrYlF6hQFUI

Y/n: Alright, so why did you give me two copies of these?

Andrew: Because I'm thinking that your girl would like this.

Y/n: Shino? Why are you bringing her into this?

Andrew: Hey, it's up to her if she wants to get back to the virtual world. I figured you try to get her to like it.

Y/n: *sighs* Merde (Crap).

Andrew hands out a glass of coffee for Kazuto for him to give Y/n orange soda.

Kazuto: Land of the Fairies? Sounds like a cute game.

Andrew: Yeah, that's not what I hear, brother. For one, PKing's allowed, and it's got this hard-core skill system.

Kazuto: What do you mean "hard-core"?

Andrew: I mean the game's not level-based. It's skill-based. You got to you use your skills over and over to improve them, and combat depends on your real-life physical abilities.

Kazuto: That is hard-core.

Andrew: There's no sword skills. Other than that, it's like SAO with magic. What I hear, people are going nuts for it, 'cause in the game, you feel like you're flying.

Y/n: Flying?

Kazuto: Say what?

Andrew: You two know how fairies have wings? Well, the game's got this flight-engine, and once you figure it out, you can fly.

Kazuto: Whoa. How's the player control it?

Andrew: No idea, man. I do hear it's a pain to get used to, though.

Kazuto: *excited * Yeah I bet. How are you supposed to control something you don't have? Maybe you have to use the muscles on your back.

Y/n: Kazuto, you're going off track.

Kazuto: *gasps* Right. Okay, getting back to Asuna. What does she have to do with this game?

Andrew pulls out two photos from his pocket to put them on the counter for Kazuto and Y/n to see.

Andrew: Look familiar?

Y/n: Yeah.

Kazuto: It looks like... Asuna.

Andrew: I kinda figured you'd say that.

Kazuto: Would you cut the crap? Where the hell is this?

Andrew: Alfheim Online. That was taken in the game.

Kazuto: *gasps*

Y/n: No way...

Andrew: Right in the middle, you got the world tree. *points to the world tree* At the top of that, there's this legendary castle. Players are divided into nine races. Each one of those races is trying to be the first to get to the castle.

Kazuto: Why don't they just fly up to it?

Y/n: Yeah, the tree can't be that big.

Andrew: It's already been tried. But the game's got a limit to how long you can stay airborne.

Y/n: Ugh. I hate those types of games that only let you explore almost half of the game map.

Andrew: Check it out. These five players stacked up bigger players on the bottom. They tried launching themselves like a rocket.

Kazuto: *gasps* Good idea. It's insane, but kind of clever.

Andrew: Yeah, well, those cats didn't even make it past the lowest branch. They did manage to snap a couple of shots, though, and when they checked out the pics, they saw something weird.

Kazuto: A birdcage?

Andrew: You could call it that. And after zooming in on it as far as they could, they saw her.

Kazuto: Okay. *picks up the game case* But if it's really Asuna, what's she doing there?

Kazuto gasps quietly as he sees the back of it to see the company name.

Kazuto: "RCT PROGRESS"?

Y/n: *sees what Kazuto's seeing* No way...

Sugou: Without getting into specifics, you could say that I'm the one keeping Asuna alive.

Kazuto shivers as Y/n clenched his fist as he starts getting angry.

Y/n: *whisper* That son of a bitch. I'm gonna make him pay.

Kazuto: Agil, can we borrow these for a couple of days?

Andrew: Sure. It's cool. You thinking about going?

Kazuto: *puts game in bag* Yeah, I gotta check this out.

Y/n: *puts two copies in own bag* I hope it's not the same thing as the other one.

Kazuto: A game where it's okay to die shouldn't be that big a deal.

Y/n: *grabs glass of soda* I'll drink to that.

Y/n raises his glass and so did Kazuto for the two boys to cling their glass as they drank from their cups and put them down.

Kazuto: Crap. We still gotta to buy the hardware for it.

Andrew: It's compatible with what you two got. The AmuSphere is just a NerveGear rig, but with better security.

Kazuto: That's a relief.

Y/n: Good.

Andrew: The battle's not over till it's over. *holds out fist for a fist bump* You both feel me? Get her out and come back safe.

Kazuto: Sure. And when we do, let's all meet up here.

Y/n: Ya damn right, brother.

Andrew: *chuckles*

The two boys fist bump Andrew and leave the cafe.

---------------------

Y/n is in his car driving Kazuto back to his house to drop him off. Kazuto gets out of the car and speaks to Y/n.

Kazuto: Hey. I wanted to say thanks, for helping me out on this.

Y/n: No problem, pal. I'll always help you out, even in a situation like this, getting Asuna out of that game will be able to make you see her again.

Kazuto: I appreciate it. You thinking about going into Alfheim Online?

Y/n: I'll have to talk to Shino about it. If she can help out too.

Kazuto: Oh, right. Not to mention what almost happened to her... Sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up.

Y/n: No worries. I'll try to talk to her about it, see if she's interested or not. You'll see me in a different game name.

Kazuto: Got it. See you around, Arno.

Y/n: *chuckles* Same to you, Kirito.

The two boys fist bumped Kazuto closes the car door for him to walk to his house for Y/n to drive away to go meet up with Shino.

-------------------------

Y/n arrived at Shino's apartment, since she gave him her address and where she lived after the hospital. Y/n parks his car and gets out to walk up the stairs to see Shino's apartment number and rings the doorbell. He waited for a few seconds for the door to open to reveal Shino.

Shino: Oh, Y/n, hi.

Y/n: Hey, Shino.

She gives Y/n a hug for him to hug her back. They let go for Shino to let Y/n in to see her apartment. It's a bit small for her, but this is the only place that she lives, and it didn't bother Y/n. He then stops walking at Shino's bedroom as Shino closes the door and locks it.

Shino: You came here to visit me, I'm glad. Is something wrong?

Y/n turns around to face Shino to speak to her.

Y/n: So, about that picture that you and me saw this morning, that looked like Asuna?

Shino: Yeah, what about it?

Y/n: Turns out, it is her.

Shino: *gasps* It is? How did you know?

Y/n: Me and Kazuto visited a friend of ours from SAO, Agil or Andrew. He showed us a few pictures of Asuna. The players managed to get some pictures in a game, Alfheim Online. That's where she is.

Shino: Alfheim Online? What is that?

Y/n: It's the land of the Fairies. Andrew gave me and Kazuto the information. Asuna is in Alfheim Online locked in a birdcage. Why? Because I think Sugou is keeping her there, doing whatever God knows what to her.

Shino: Are you sure it's Asuna in that game?

Y/n: I'm positive, Shino. I'm very positive.

Shino: So, you came here to tell me Asuna is in Alfheim Online, okay. What else do you have to say?

Y/n hesitates to answer Shino's question, but he answered.

Y/n: I made a promise to Kazuto to help him get Asuna back, and I made that promise. I'm gonna go into Alfheim Online to help him and get Asuna back. And the reason why I came here is to tell you if you are willing to help me as well.

Shino stayed silent and held her arm nervously, thinking about whether to help or not help Y/n get Asuna back for Kazuto's sake.

Y/n: I understand that you don't want to help. I couldn't stop thinking about... About how you almost died. I rather not drag you back into this...

Shino: Is it another death game?

Y/n looks at Shino to his surprise that she might be willing to help.

Y/n: What Kazuto said that it shouldn't be a death game. You can respawn when you get defeated, that sounds like the right word to say.

Shino: Okay. I'll help you.

Y/n: Shino, are you sure?

Shino: I'm sure. I want to help Kirito or Kazuto to get Asuna back from Alfheim. If you're going, then I'm going as well. I don't care if I have to relive that moment in SAO. Getting Asuna back is our top priority, nothing else.

Y/n smiles at Shino for her bravery, for going to help.

Y/n: Okay, then let's get this setup.

Y/n takes out to game copies of Alfheim Online for Shino to get her NerveGear and so did Y/n. They inserted the game into their NerveGear and plugged in their cables to the wall and they put on the NerveGear to lay down on Shino's bed. They held hands and gave each other one last look before going into the game and smiled at each other to nod their heads. Y/n and Shino looked up at the ceiling to close their eyes and say the words to the NerveGear.

Y/n&Shino: Link, start!

Y/n is in a dark room for words to appear.

Welcome to Alfheim Online!

Voice: Welcome to Alfheim Online.

The place lights up for Y/n to see a keypad.

Voice: Enter your gender and the name you wish to be identified as.

Y/n types in his gender to be a male person to be identified. He was going to type in his SAO name Arno for him to remember that Sugou will be able to recognize him. His hand shake for a bit and stops for Y/n type on the pad to put in a new name: Legolas.

Y/n accepted the name and sees nine different races he can choose to be.

Voice: There are nine races of fairies to choose from. Please select which race you wish to play as.

Y/n: Hmmm.

Y/n scrolls through the races he wants to pick to suit his style. He then sees an avatar with long blonde hair with braids and with a green appearance and selects it.

Y/n: That should be enough.

Voice: You have selected Pooka. Your character's appearance will be decided at random. Do you wish to continue?

Y/n presses the selection circle.

Voice: You will now be teleported to your hometown in Pooka territory. Good luck, player.

Y/n is now transported to the new world for him to change into his new avatar. He is in the sky, falling to his hometown to see Pooka territory. Before he was about to land, he was stopped by a glitch as the sound of lightning was heard.

Legolas: What? What's happening?

Legolas looks around to see a black rift as he then falls into it.

Legolas: This is not good!

---------------------------

Alfheim, Neutral Territory, Ancient Forest

January 20, 2025

Legolas then falls on the ground, face first as his body falls on the grass as well.

Kirito: You too, huh?

Legolas recovers from the pain and gets up to see Kazuto's avatar and his name tag.

Legolas: You went with the same name?

Kirito: Yeah, I did. You chose a different name. Legolas... That's a weird name.

Legolas: It's supposed to represent the character from a movie that I watched back then.

Kirito: *shrugs* By the way, you look kinda cool in that avatar. You have a bow and a quiver.

Legolas looks at his clothing to see what Kirito said.

Legolas: Yeah, you're right. I do look cool.

Kirito: So... Where's Sinon?

Legolas: Oh, right. She should be--

As Legolas was about to finish his sentence, Sinon landed on top of Legolas on impact to be knocked down on the ground again for Kirito squeezes from the pain the boy probably felt.

Legolas: Ow...!

Sinon gets up and sees where she landed. She gets up and sees Legolas on the ground as he groaned in pain.

Sinon: Oh, God, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?

Legolas gets up and relieves the pain as he smiles at Sinon.

Legolas: Yeah, I'm okay. That was a rough landing.

Sinon: You don't say.

Legolas looks at Sinon and Kirito's appearance to see how cool they are.

Legolas: You guys look great. Especially you, Sinon. Your hair color looks different and so are your eyes.

Sinon: They are?

Legolas: Not to mention you have cat ears and a tail.

Sinon inspects her tail and she puts her hands on her head to feel her ears that are like cats.

Sinon: I do.

Legolas: You look cute in that avatar. Great choice.

Sinon blushes and smiles at Legolas.

Sinon: Uh, thanks.

Kirito tried to open up the menu with his right hand, but it didn't open. He then tries his left hand to open the menu.

Legolas: They changed the menu open option on the left hand now? Weird.

Kirito: I know.

Kirito checks the status window to see that everything in SAO is still there with him.

Kirito: Uh... Guys, check your skill set.

Legolas and Sinon open up their menus to see that they have all of their skills from SAO, including Sinon's archery skills and others and for Legolas when he was Arno in SAO still has his skills.

Legolas: Our skills are still here.

Sinon: Why though? I thought SAO was taken down.

Legolas: Same.

Kirito: Are we back inside SAO?

Legolas: It doesn't look like it.

The two check their equipment menus to see that they have their weapons. Sinon has her bow and arrow and quivers and Legolas has his two hidden blade gauntlets from SAO.

Legolas: Yes! I still have my hidden blades! *realizes* Oh, but I have to keep that in storage for now. Sugou will definitely notice something.

Sinon: Agreed.

Kirito checks the items menu to gasp as he remembers something.

Kirito: Oh, crap. *scrolls through the menu* Come on. Please be here.

Kirito then sees an item MHCP001. Legolas and Sinon go to Kirito to see the item.

Legolas: What is that?

Kirito: It's Yui...

Legolas and Sinon gasp in shock.

Legolas: That's Yui?

Sinon: That tear crystal. That was the one Asuna was wearing.

Kirito pressed on the item for the tear crystal to appear out of the item. The crystal flew in the air and for Kirito to catch it. He presses on the crystal for a bright blue light to shine as the trio cover their eyes from the light. The bright light went away to reveal Yui, in the same clothing as SAO. Yui opens her eyes as she sees the trio for Kirito to speak to her.

Kirito: Hey, Yui. It's me. You remember?

Yui gasps quietly as she starts having tears in her eyes and smiles.

Yui: I do. I remember you, daddy.

Kirito: Yui...

Yui floats down and lands in Kirito's arms to hug him and so does Kirito.

Yui: Daddy.

Kirito: You're back. It's a miracle.

Legolas: Hey, what about us?

Yui and Kirito look at Legolas and Sinon. Yui smiled and ran towards the two couples and jumped on them to hug Yui.

Yui: Uncle! Auntie!

Legolas: Yui! It's so good to see you again!

Sinon: We missed you so much!

Yui: I missed you both too!

The two couples and Yui stayed in the hug for a short while, having a wonderful reunion after so long.

-----------------------

The trios sit on a log near the lake as Yui is sitting on Kirito's lap.

Kirito: So, do you know where you are or what's going on?

Yui: Mnh-mnh.

Kirito: Oh. Well, we're not in SAO anymore. We're in a totally different game now. It's called Alfheim Online.

Yui: I need a few seconds to assess it.

Yui closed her eyes to scan the game.

Yui: From what I can tell, this world has been copied from the Sword Art Online servers. *opens eyes*

Kirito: Really?

Yui: Yes. The engine, programming and graphics format are exactly the same. The Cardinal System needs updating, but that's the only thing that sticks out to me.

Kirito: Oh. That makes sense, 'cause Argus was the company running SAO. They folded, and RCT took over. Yeah. And if RCT has already got all of Argus' technology, it figures they'd port it over...

Legolas: That explains a lot.

Kirito: Although, when we checked, we still had our old skills and stats.

Yui: Strange. I'll take a look at yours and Uncle and Auntie's data and see what I find. *closes eyes again* Very interesting. You're right, these are the same characters data you three used when you were in SAO. The formatting for saved data is almost identical. Whatever skills you three had that were similar in both games were ported over and merged.

Kirito: Oh. That's why my dual wielding skill is gone.

Yui: Not just that. All your items seem to be lost, too. You might want to delete them before the error-detection program finds out about it.

Kirito: Yeah, I better.

Legolas: We should do the same, too.

Legolas and Sinon open their menus to delete all of their missing items in time. Kirito hesitates before pressing the delete button on his menu to delete all of the missing items.

Kirito: Okay, what am I gonna do about my skill level?

Yui: No one else can see them. Well, no one except the game master, and as long as he doesn't, you all should be okay.

Kirito: Oh. Awesome.

Legolas: Terrific.

Kirito: Hmm. I guess we're not beaters anymore. Just plain old cheaters now. How are you being identified by the system?

Yui: *closes eyes* Let's see. It's classifying me as a player-support program. In the world of the game, I'm a navigation pixie.

Yui's body glowed blue for the trios to cover their eyes again.

Legolas: What the heck?

Kirito: Hey!

Sinon: What's going on?

The bright light disappears for Yui to change into a pixie.

Yui: This is what I look like as a pixie.

Kirito: Whoa.

Legolas: Okay, that is cool.

Kirito started to poke Yui's cheek when she is a small pixie.

Yui: No, daddy, that's annoying!

Kirito: You had admin privileges in SAO. Do you still have them?

Yui: No. The system will only allow me to access the wide-area maps and the reference l database.

Kirito: Oh. Listen, Yui... I think your mommy might be stuck here somewhere.

Yui: Mommy? Really?! What do you mean, she's stuck? *goes on Kirito's shoulder*

Kirito: After SAO was cleared, Asuna never woke up in the real world. We found out she was seen in Alfheim. There's a picture, but it's too blurry to tell.

Yui: What are we going to do?

Kirito: Well, we got a pretty good idea where she might be. It's something called The World Tree. I think it's over there. *points to the tree in the distance*

Yui: Mommy's there? Really?

Legolas: We're positive that she's there.

Kirito: Uh, hang on a second. I was supposed to start the game in a town in Spriggan territory.

Legolas: Same with me. I was supposed to start in Pooka territory.

Sinon: Same here. I was trying to go to Cait Sith territory.

Kirito: Exactly. So, how come we ended up here, in this forest, instead?

Yui: I don't know. Your locations data may be corrupted. Or perhaps there was some interference?

Kirito: Either way, it would've been nice if the game dropped us a little closer to The World Tree. Well, let's go.

The trio stand up from the log for their wings to appear on their backs.

Kirito: Wow. These are my wings, huh? How do I fly with them?

Legolas: Yeah, we need some practice with these.

Yui: You have to access your controller first. Raise your left hand. Then, position your fingers like you're grabbing something.

The trio does what Yui said as they saw a controller appear in their left hands to grab it.

Yui: Pull it toward yourselves to elevate. Push it away to descend, and move it left or right to turn.

Kirito: Okay...

Kirito started flying first, then Legolas and Sinon did the same.

Yui: Hold down the button to accelerate. To decelerate, just ease up on it a little. As long as your wings are shining, you can stay airborne. But you all can't fly forever. After a while, you'll need to rest your wings.

Sinon: I can see why this is so complicated.

Sinon was trying to balance herself as she was flying to fly into Legolas as he was trying to fly as well to catch her. Sinon blushes as she is in his arms as she smiles. Kirito on the other hand, was getting the hang of it.

Kirito: *laughing* This is great! I think we've got it down.

Legolas: Same here, but I think Sinon needs a bit more time to adjust.

Sinon tries to fly again as she gets her balance again. Sinon managed to get the hang of it as she is having fun flying now.

Sinon: This is amazing!

She flies back next to Legolas for Kirito to speak to Yui.

Kirito: Do me a favor. Scan the map and see where the nearest town is.

Yui: There is one in Sylph territory, West of here. It's a town called Sylvain. It's the closest one.

Yui gasps as she looks to her left.

Kirito: Something wrong?

Yui: There are other players near here.

Kirito: Oh.

Legolas: Maybe they can help us reach the town. Let's go!

--------------------

As three Salamanders surrounded a Sylph, Kirito and Legolas fly down and landed on their faces as Sinon descends and lands on her feet.

Sinon: You guys still need to work on your landing.

Kirito: Damn...

Legolas: Yeah... Thanks for the advice, Sinon... *turns around and gets up* Huh?

The trio sees three guys gaining up on a blonde girl, with her sword drawn.

Girl: What are you three doing?! Go! Get outta here!

Kirito: Would someone tell me why three big guys are fighting one single girl? That's pretty uncool, if you ask me.

Player 2: What did you say?!

Player 3: Better get your asses outta here, newbs, fast!

They decided to focus on Legolas, Kirito and Sinon. The two boys looked at each other with a confident smile as they both nodded.

Player 2: You asked for it. Get ready to die!

The first Salamander charges at Kirito with his weapon for Kirito to easily grab it as the Salamander was in shock as well as the blonde girl.

Kirito: See ya.

Kirito throws the Salamander player back as they hit the second player and hit the ground. Legolas high fives Kirito for him to do the same to switch in as Legolas walks in and stops in front of the girl behind him.

Legolas: Mind if I take care of this?

Girl: Uh, I guess, if you really want to. It's not like they were gonna let you walk out of here alive anyway.

Legolas: *smirks* Well, sit back and enjoy the show.

Legolas equips his bow and gets an arrow on the string to get ready to fight. One of the Salamanders charges at Legolas to release his arrow to hit them on the chest of their armor and quickly draws another arrow and fires at the first Salamander to finish them off in a blink of an eye for them to disappear into flames.

Legolas: Armor piercing, nice.

The other Salamander and the girl in green were shocked at Legolas' shots, clearly he didn't miss once. Legolas draws another arrow on his bow with a smirk on his face.

Legolas: So, who wants to go next?

TO BE CONTINUED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DcR_BgyQ7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfMQZuS3y2g