Within a month of the game's release, 2 thousand of the original 10 thousand players were dead. The outside world never managed to solve our situation. I didn't stick around that day, but from what I hear, the panic in the square was fighting to behold. The day after the game started, a giant metallic obelisk. Carved on the surface was the names of every player alive, the players who died the day of, were already crossed out with time of dead and cause of death next to it.
It was only 4 hours after the obelisk went up, that the first name got crossed off. I wasn't there, but from what I hear a guy thought it was a lie and would wake up if he died. He stood on the ledge, even with please from the crowd to stop.
"No one is actually going to die, I'll show you... See you guys on the other side!" he waved as he fell backward off the edge. Within minutes his name was crossed out. Since that moment, there hasn't been a day where no one was crossed off, day after day, more and more names get crossed off.
I return every now and then to the obelisk, to find Grover's name and mine. It keeps saying that I'm still alive every time I see it, but it doesn't feel that way...
A meeting got announced to try to find the first dungeon, I was one of the Beta testers for SAO and reached floor 25 by myself before the beta servers got shut off... but the dungeons were way different from then, I couldn't find the first at all. I sat in a Greek style theater, a lone guy on stage. A few people scatter in and onto the stands. I sat near the top by myself.
"Ok... looks like that's everyone interested... thank you for coming my name is Jason." the guy on stage says. "Listen up! We are here to take the first boss down!" he says.
"Yeah that sounds great and all... but no one can find it." A guy says from the lower stands.
"Not anymore... the first dungeon has been found." The guy says, and the crowd erupts with collective gaps. "My party found the boss room at the top of the tower today. First we need to defeat the boss, and Second we nee to tell the other's that it is possible to beat the game. Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here, don't you agree or not?" the crowd murmurs in agreement. "Ok, I'm glad to hear your all with me on this... now lets figure out how to beat the boss. First off we'll team up into parties of six."
The crowd instantly build the parties before I can try to join one. I look around to no one sitting by me, except for a solo robed person a few rows away from me. I scoot over to them.
"You got left out to huh?" I ask.
"Not even... I wasn't left out, it just seems everyone is already friends." The hidden voice sounds higher pitched, more like a girl's voice.
"So, you're a solo too... do you wanna form a party with me?" I ask, she looks at me but all I can see is her chin. "You heard what the guy said, we cant beat the boss on our own... and it would only be for this fight." I say, she just nods.
I swipe down to pull up the menu, and click party-form party-nearby. An invite pops up in front of her and she reaches up and clicks on accept. Instantly, another hp bar add under mine, her name reads... Annabeth, 100% health.
"Alright... looks like everyone is teamed up, now then-"
"HOLD UP A SEC!" a random interruption. He quickly hops down the seats and onto the stage. "My name's Luke, Got that!" he points to himself. A tall blonde-haired guy, pretty lean and muscular. "Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest. We all know about the 2 thousands people who died so far. Well, some of you need to apologize to them right now!" he points to the crowd.
"Luke, your talking about the Ex-Beta testers right?" Jason says.
"Of course, I mean them!" he snaps. "The day this stupid ass game came out the beta guys just up and ditched all the beginners. The snagged all the good hunting spots, and grabbed all the easy quest too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here, this whole time they ignored us like were nothing. Hell, I bet some of them are in this crowd. Come on out beta testers! We should make them apologize to us, and make them give up all the items and money they have!" Luke yells.
I feel a bead of sweat run down my cheek.
"Can I say something?" a voice in the crowd asks. A taller and heavier man, muscle bigger than Luke's head and he walks to the stage and right up to Luke. "Hey, my name's Frank, your Luke right? I wanna make sure we're on the same page, you say we should blame the ex-beta testers for the rookies death's because they didn't help them, and make them apologize and give up their stuff... I leave anything our?" Frank says.
"No, you didn't." Luke says backing away slightly.
"They item store hands these out for free." Frank holds a small brown leather book in his hand. "It's a guide book, you got one didn't you?"
"Sure, I got one, so what about it?" Luke says.
"You know who was handing them out... the ex-beta testers." Frank says and the crowd murmurs loudly. "Listen up, everyone had equal access to this information, even so lots of players still died. I'm here cause I wanna learn from those players deaths, not point fingers at anyone. I'm here cause I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the boss." Frank says to the crowd, and Luke grunts and sits back down in the stands pouting.
After that, we settled on a plan to attack tomorrow. I found Annabeth sitting alone on a bench looking at a fountain eating a free bread roll.
"Those are pretty good aren't they?" I say walking up to her, her hood still up and the dark from the night makes it harder to catch a glimpse. "Mind if I sit down?" I ask, she looks over and doesn't say anything, taking another bite of bread.
"You really think these taste good?" she says.
I pull a jar out of my inventory and set it between us. "Put some of this on it." I say. She does and hesitantly takes a bite, she chews it slowly. Then devours the bread roll quickly.
