After about an hour or so of grinding for Col with Ikiru, we've both finally got quite a lot of Col. This should be enough to last us for at least a few floors.
"Hey, Iku! Ready to go back to the blacksmith?"
I sheathed my sword and walked towards her.
"Dont call me that....well I suppose it can't be helped... Let's go!"
We both teleported back to town and went into the shopping district. We walked to the blacksmith and looked around for some weapons. It looks like that weapon I saw before isn't here anymore....I sighed....I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked over to see Ikiru holding a big Axe.
"Woah! Be careful not to drop that on your foot."
I giggled a little but it seems like she's serious....
"You're not actually gonna use THAT are you? It's at least two times as tall as you!"
"Of course I'm gonna buy it! Trust me, I've been an expert Axe/Mace user in other games. Plus this Axe is named Ikiru! Like me!"
She laughed and I smiled. I suppose she'll be okay then. Now....I'm not really seeing anything that peeks my interest.....ah! The blacksmith just walked in!
"Hey! Uh, sir I'm looking for something strong, heavy and durable. Like a two-handed sword. Got anything like that?"
He looked a little nervous...
"I-im sorry sir...we don't have anything like that in stock at the moment....if you have the right materials I could definitely forge you one just like what you described and better!"
I sighed but agreed to help and he wrote down a list of the materials needed and gave it to me. Ikiru bought her axe, and sold her old weapon and we walked out.
"So there was absolutely NOTHING there that spoke to you?! Nothing at all? Surely there was something!"
She said.
"Well, yeah everything looked pretty cool and all...but nothing really fit what I'm looking for exactly....oh well. I'll just get these materials and he'll forge me something...if it isn't good I guess I'll just give it to a beginning player or something...."
"Hmmmm.....okay..well, I'm getting a little hungry....I haven't eaten since before school...so I'm gonna log out and go eat..thanks Hiku! I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Definitely! See you then!"
We high-fived each other and she turned around to log out and I looked around at the buildings and such.
"I suppose I'm getting kinda hungry too....I suppose I'll log off to--"
I was cut off by the sound of Ikiru sounding confused. I turned around and she was still looking in the menu.
"What is it, iku?"
She sounded a little nervous...
"Uhm...I don't see the log out button..."
"What? Look closer."
"I did! It isn't there!"
I sighed a bit and opened up my menu.
"Button of the menu right under the......"
My words trailed off as I saw there was no log out button...
"What? Maybe it's just a minor bug...looks like we'll have to wait for them to fix it...they should know about already and should be working on it...."
She looked a little worried.
"W-well surely there's some kind of emergency log out! Log out! Return! Go back!"
She tried jumping around and trying to manually log out but nothing's working...
"W-what?! What's happening?!"
We started being force teleported......we spawned in back at the town of beginnings in front of the teleport gate...all the players in the game were here too....
On the virtual screens at the sky, there was a system announcement that drew everyone's attention. Suddenly, a giant, robed, faceless figure appeared, identifying himself as Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of the game and the only person with control over this game...talking about the logout option, he announced to us players that he had purposely removed it from the game as another one of its features and trapping us in this game.....
"W-what...? S-surely this is some kind of joke..."
All of us players were in so much shock...I turned to Ikiru who seemed frightened but wanted to listen to everything else he was saying...
he continued on to point out that trying to forcibly escape by removing the NerveGear would result in the player's death by having the player's brain fried by the NerveGear's transmitter. He then announced that family's of some players have already attempted this...and the player had died....he announced that there had been 213 deaths caused by this.....I couldn't believe what he was saying....213 people...? This can't be real....
He then continued to state that the only way to escape this world is to defeat every boss and complete all 100 floors.....
"W-what?! That's impossible! Even the beta testers never got that far!"
He then announced that he had put a special gift in all of the player's personal storage...I went into my inventory and saw a mirror....something told me not to equip it.....so I completely disregarded it and looked over at Ikiru, who had already equipped it....she started to glow, as well as all the other players around us.....suddenly the glow went away....and I saw a girl standing there instead of Ikiru......she was a little taller, with long, Pink hair, bright blue eyes. She looked confused and looked over at me.
"Hiku! W-what happened?!"
I'm a little confused...
"U-um...where's Iku...?"
"what? Hikaru! it's me!"
She looked into the mirror she equipped and noticed that she looked like her real life self.
"W-what?! What happened?!"
Akihiko spoke again.
"The mirror you all have equipped have shown your true selves. Instead of your avatars. Good luck to all with completing the game. Good bye."
He then vanished and I looked back at Iku.
"B-but how is that possible?"
She looked a little confused.
"How do you still look the same?"
I then realized that I never equipped the mirror....
"I-i never looked into the mirror....sh-should I...?"
"Well seeing as though it didn't manually do it to you when you didn't look into the mirror, it's probably expected of you to do it right away....I guess it would be nice to see what you really look like Hiku...."
I decided to just do it and equipped it. I look at my avatar...goodbye the look I've always wanted......I then felt like I didn't exist for a moment as my avatar started to glow.....I then spawned back in and looked into the mirror.....it's me....but...how..?
"H-hiku...are your eyes really full-on white like that?! That's so cool!"
"Huh? No my eyes aren't white!"
I looked into the mirror again and saw that my eyes turned white for some reason instead of my normal color.....
"M-maybe it's because you didn't look into the mirror right away? Either way it looks cool! You're a lot taller than you were before...."
I began to blush a little bit but then I started to think about things....
"Wait, how is this possible? The Nervegear is supposed to scan your face but our perfect height and weight?"
"Well didn't it make you touch your body all over like this before diving in the very first time?"
She then lightly tapped her arm twice.
"That's right...."
Everyone started leaving the town in shock desperately trying to find a way out of this world.....Iku then lightly punched my arm. I could tell she was a little scared but she still has her spirits up....
"Don't worry, Hiku! If that guy is telling the truth, then you and me are gonna beat this world! And we're gonna show him!"
I can't help but smile. She's right. We can do this. All of us!
"You're right, let's win!"
We both used the teleport gate and went out to grind for EXP and to try and get some rare items.
This will be tough....and we might lose things...people along the way....but we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it back and we'll continue our lives like this never happened.....this world is no match for us!