The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

PK Pandemonia Arc: Chapter 52 - Drifter's Interview

"You asking about the Drifting fees...?" I asked again, trying to guess her reason for approaching me like this.

The girl's hand kept running all over her system window for a while, until it suddenly halted at the center. The window finally disappeared, her hands gesturing as if she was holding something thin.

A rectangular object materialized, falling right into her hands to be held. At first glance, it looked something like a tablet, but my mind soon came up with the idea of holograms, as the object was bluish and transparent, like those seen in sci-fi movies.

"Might as well ask you that..." The girl flipped the object around. "I seem to have forgotten it."

"You guys discussed the final price with me at the foot of the Ant Hill." My eyes was focused on the flat object. "20000 col, for me to bring you guys up to the summit's field boss."

"Guess I wasn't paying attention..." The girl looked up at me with a sheepish grin.

Looking over at the 5 other players in my party, who were still sitting leisurely, I turned back to the flat object that the girl was holding.

"By the way, is that...?" I pointed at it.

"What about it?" The girl asked.

"I've never seen it before. Quite strange. Is it a tablet of some kind?"

She simply smiled, holding the flat thing a bit higher, this time with only a couple of fingers clamped at the edge. Shaking it back and forth, the 'tablet' swayed, making slight bending movements with every swing.

A little breeze rushed through between us, into the object, which fluttered.

"I always forget that no other player would never know that such items can be crafted..." The girl shook her head a little, her smile retained.

"This is what you would call.....'paper' in this world."

I eyed the flat hologram for a while, slightly curious about it. "Paper.....huh....."

"It's something a fighter like you would never imagine exists here in this world." She continued. "You guys are all about your swords and stuff, and going after those monsters every time you see them."

I chuckled at her subtle rant. While most of the player population fought in SAO as if it really was a game, there were others who either never did see it as a game, or thought that they could never fight as well as their party members did.

In the current frontline of the 55th Floor, the player population had pretty much separated itself into some kind of occupation classes, even though SAO never ever had that kind of concept in its systems.

The simplest classification of players would be those who were combat-oriented and those who were not. Of course, they were complications in each of those categories, but in this world, it was either you fight, or you stay in the side-lines, supporting those who fought.

"You're Jacelyn of the Gazette guild, right?" I pointed out. "You went after those ants, you know."

"T-that's because I had to, as well as everyone else in the Gazette guild!" Jacelyn turned away from me slightly. " We're all under-levelled, and we have no choice but to get more EXP this way!"

"Which is why you guys came to me, a Drifter." I said matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I'd like to know more about the 'paper' you have there."

"Well...the Gazette guild was formed with the purpose to broadcast all kinds of information to all the players." Jacelyn explained. "In order to do that, we needed something that we can record information on, and this item is the solution."