What followed —
Could only be described as her worst nightmare.
A new silhouette materialized beside the man in the black poncho. Then another, and another.
Atop the roof of the immense palace ruins connecting to the back of the statue, a crimson legion silently appeared. To the left of the palace roof, tens of silhouettes floated into being.
— Stop. Just stop.
Asuna prayed desperately. She feared that she could not withstand greater despair than this.
And yet.
The new crimson legion continued to appear without ceasing, as though it were literally endless. One thousand, five thousand, ten thousand.
By the time their number broke thirty thousand, Asuna gave up on an estimate.
Impossible.
More than fifty thousand Americans had just been painfully ejected. It was impossible that so many troops could be located in such a short time, and they could not be Japanese. If a fabricated announcement had been disseminated within Japan, Klein and the others would have been the first to know.
These were phantoms. They were all incorporeal shadows created with Arts.
At some point, the Japanese players, who were about to completely demolish the American players on the front line, had stopped fighting and turned to look towards them. The spacious battlefield was filled with an eerie silence.
Garble, garble.
The chatter coming from the red army that had filled the palace rooftop to maximum occupancy was blown into Asuna’s ears like a sinister wind.
Asuna was momentarily unable to decipher exactly what language the mixed, intertwined chattering noise was in. She desperately focused her hearing, and finally managed to detect some words that were uttered more loudly than others.
— Bigeobhan ilbon-in.19
— Uli nalaleul jikyeola.20
— Ganchuu renmen.21
Not English. Not Japanese either.
At that moment, Klein let out a completely unrecognizable moan.
“Ah… This is bad… This is really bad… That huge army isn’t from Japan or America…”
Asuna felt cold sweat run down her back as she listened to his next words:
“……… It’s from China and Korea.”
3
Probably due to a nearby university just beginning summer break, a VR bar in Cheongjin-dong, Jongno District in Seoul was somewhat crowded.
Jo Wol-saeng finished the entrance procedures, then picked up a paper cup and filled it with soda at the drinks bar. He entered a single room, leaned back into a reclining seat, and heaved a long sigh.
He felt like he’d been sighing like that more and more recently. He knew the reason for it, too. He was already 20 this year, a sophomore in university, and next year he’d have to take a leave of absence for two years’ military service.
He had until his 30th birthday to enlist, so he could push it back a few years if he wanted to, but students who didn’t complete their service before graduation would be at a heavy disadvantage when searching for a job. Nearly all of his fellow classmates would be taking leaves of absence for military service after their sophomore year, and since his parents were urging him to do so as well, he really had nowhere to run.
Wol-saeng took a sip of his flat soda, and sighed again.
Everything unsettled him, from whether he, who was out of shape, could withstand the harsh training to whether he would be bullied amongst the troops. But what depressed him more was the fact that his current life would be stolen away for two whole years. But he wasn’t thinking of his life in the real world; rather, the virtual world, which his friend had invited him to experience when he had first started university, and where he had been engrossed ever since — two whole years of being unable to enter that world was, to him, more distressing than any sort of training.
“…… If only I could have this in the army…”
He muttered as he picked up the FullDive interface hanging from a stand on the table — the «AmuSphere». Belonging to a popular VR bar, the device was tattered inside and out, but to Wol-saeng, this machine shined brighter than an angel’s halo.
Three years ago — in 2023, this device was released in Japan; beginning to stock shelves all around the world the next year, it triggered a huge boom in South Korea, where the online game industry was already flourishing. Once named «PC Bars», Internet cafes began renaming themselves into «VR Bars», fully equipped with AmuSpheres. Young people all became absorbed by VRMMORPGs, developed in either Japan or the US.
«Silla Empire», which Wol-saeng had been playing for a year and a half, was a Korean localization of the Japanese-developed «Asuka Empire». It wasn’t merely translated; even the towns, the avatars, and the content of the quests were all modified to resemble Korea’s ancient Silla dynasty. It has had the highest popularity in Korea since beginning service.
On the other hand, players had been furiously clamoring for a purely Korean-made work, so numerous companies began developing all-new VRMMOs using the completely cost-free software package «The Seed». However, the package itself was still Japanese-made, so without connecting to the Japan-based «The Seed Nexus», one couldn’t fully utilize its features. But Japan’s VRMMOs fundamentally obfuscated connections from Korea and China, which resulted in an inability to produce new games with quality comparable to that of «Silla Empire», causing Korean players to feel increasingly dissatisfied.
— I really want to play an all-Korean game before I leave for the army, but it looks like that ship has sailed…
Wol-saeng sighed yet again, casting the thought away from his mind. He lay heavily back onto the reclining chair and donned the AmuSphere.
“… Link Start!”
He recited the sole universally-recognized voice command and closed his eyes.
Passing through rays of variegated light, he input the VR bar’s User ID and password, and arrived in a simplistic launching area. Then, he prepared to press the icon for «Silla Empire».
But just then, he noticed that a social networking app window, floating on the right side of the dark space, was currently scrolling at an insane speed. It looked as though the several hundred users he followed were all reposting a single piece of news at once.
“……… What’s going on?”
Puzzled, Wol-saeng pushed the launching program to the left, pulling the social networking app window towards him. Then, he tapped onto the news, magnified it, and read the words aloud.
“Hmm… ‘Korean, American, and Chinese volunteers have jointly developed an all-new VRMMO, and its test server… has been invaded by Japanese players, who are attacking the test players’?! What the hell?!”
To be honest, Wol-saeng found something like this hard to believe. But attached at the very end of the news was a link that resembled that of a video; he clicked it somewhat dubiously.
A player window opened, and then —
“Vanguard, attack!!”
A bold, ferocious roar played at deafening volume. Wol-saeng, who had watched quite a few Japanese anime, instantaneously recognized the pronunciation as Japanese.
The video displayed Japanese-looking players dressed in silver equipment launching an attack against players dressed in red equipment, killing them one by one. A great volume of blood would splash out every time that glistening sword swung, while curses in English and screaming echoed all around.
Judging by the utterly lawless cruelty taking place, this was indeed happening inside a test server. Just like the news had said, Japanese players were one-sidedly attacking American players.
When the 30-second video had finished, Wol-saeng felt somewhat absentminded.
A «server attack» typically referred to the act of increasing its workload in order to shut it down, or the act of vandalizing a website, but diving into a VR world and attacking test players… this was his first time hearing about such a thing. If the video’s content were to be trusted, then that meant something like that was curren
tly taking place, but something felt off to him.
Yes… in the video, the Japanese players, who seemed to possess equipment far exceeding that of the American players in terms of properties and abilities, were one-sidedly exterminating them. However, he felt that the desperate side wasn’t the Americans, the ones being attacked, but the Japanese, the ones attacking them. Attacking a server almost always ended up being somewhat of a practical joke, but… these people seemed to be waging a life-and-death war…
Suddenly, a shrill ding-dong chime sounded, causing Wol-saeng flick his head up.
It was his fellow guild member from «Silla», who had seen that he was online and had sent him a voice-chat request. He pressed the “Accept” button, a new window opened up, and an urgent voice called Wol-saeng’s character name.
“Hey, Moonphase, did you see those tweets?!”
“Uh… yeah, I just did…”
“Then what’re you waiting for? Start downloading the client!”
“C… Client?”
He hurriedly looked back at the social networking app window and glanced at the next tweet.
Written there — In order to save the test players from the Japanese’s despicable attack, we are recruiting volunteers from the entire Korean VRMMO player base. If you wish to help us out, please download this client software and install it onto your AmuSpheres.
“…This?… Hwan-ung, you think this is real?”
“Of course I do, didn’t you see the video?! As we speak our comrades are getting killed!!”
“I did see it… But, that video…”
Wol-saeng was about to convey his feeling of unease, but was immediately interrupted.
“Anyway, just hurry up and install it! Myung-hoon and Helix already dived, so we’ll be waiting for you over there!”
The voice-chat ended, and silence was restored to the launching room.
Although Wol-saeng still had many doubts, nearly all of his fellow guild members were participating, and he didn’t want to know how they would chastise him if he ignored them. He’d probably find more clues inside — besides, come to think of it, a disturbance like this could very well be a guerilla event for a new game. If he didn’t participate, he wouldn’t be able to reap the benefits.
Making his decision, Wol-saeng pressed the “Download” button and installed the client onto the AmuSphere, causing a new icon to appear among the launch programs. After pressing the crimson icon, onto which the words “HELP US” were inscribed in black, Wol-saeng felt his consciousness being sucked into a different world.
***
Even after transferring a large number of connections from China and Korea into Underworld, Critter remained somewhat dubious.
Although he had followed Vassago Casals’ instructions, to disseminate an Underworld connection client within the two countries that neighbored Japan, he remained very suspicious throughout the process.
— ‘Cause aren’t the Japanese and Koreans pretty much the same?
There were a great number of Americans who didn’t know that Japan and Korea weren’t connected by land, and there were even those who thought that the two countries were both part of China. Although Critter wasn’t quite so ignorant, he was also under the impression that the three nations were completely friendly to each other. As for their relations, weren’t they a quarrelsome but loving bunch, just like the EU?
That was why Critter was completely unable to fathom Vassago’s instructions.
Since he hadn’t had the time to create a new, fake site, he had used social networking sites to spread the news. His first tweet had been: “The Japanese are attacking a server for a VRMMO jointly developed by American, Chinese, and Korean volunteers!”
The second tweet was an explanation of the first: “The Japanese players want to hog The Seed Nexus so bad that they hacked the server, and started creating powerful characters as they please. They are attacking the American, Chinese, and Korean test players. Since this server has not been equipped with pain absorption nor an ethics code, our comrades are being massacred while experiencing intense pain.” Then he attached a video he had captured of a battle in Underworld.
The video itself was actually footage of Human Empire knights and soldiers beating back American players, but the Underworld residents spoke Japanese anyway. It seemed that the video had made a gigantic impact; the number of retweets was exponentially increasing, and the number of downloads had far, far exceeded that of the US.
Taken aback, Critter thought:
— Why do I feel that the Japanese online gamers don’t really get along well with Chinese or Korean players?
***
— Oh, it’s far worse. They simply detest each other.
Vassago Casals, who had returned to Underworld with his «Laughing Coffin» character, «PoH», began to grin under his black hood.
He raised his right hand high, and shouted loudly in Korean to the red players behind him.
“— Go teach those invaders a lesson!! Slash and stab and kill, make it as painful as you can so that they won’t even think of harming our comrades again!!”
As soon as the great army of no less than 50,000 heard these two sentences, it let loose a ferocious bellow. To them, the American “testers” being killed by the Japanese players had already become their fellow countrymen.
Trying his best not to laugh, Vassago swung his right hand down.
With a thunderous rumbling like an avalanche, the crimson legion threw itself towards the Japanese below them.
— Come on, kill each other. Dance that ugly, miserable, comical dance.
***
“… He’s here.”
Sinon murmured to herself.
She was looking at a jet-black dotted line falling from the crimson sky, like a thread of silk.
Right now, she wanted very much to charge «Annihilate Ray» to its maximum and blow the enemy away as soon as he materialized. That way he would be unable to defend or evade.
But right now she needed to buy time. If the enemy were capable of producing unlimited high-level accounts, then instantly destroying him would be pointless.
First, she needed to drag the enemy into a war of attrition, then observe his reaction. If her opponent showed signs of wanting to protect his own life, she could deduce that he was using a valuable account that could only be used once. Then, she would attack at full force, rendering him unable to login with the same account again.
But, in the event that the account could be mass-produced, she couldn’t kill him. She had to try her best to drag out the battle and buy enough time for Alice to head towards the «World End Altar».
So Sinon did not pull back her bowstring, and instead merely remained hovering in the air, waiting for the enemy to materialize.
The place where the black code landed was where, minutes ago, Knight Commander Bercouli’s body had lay.
The Knight Commander’s body had been placed onto the other dragon’s saddle by Integrity Knight Alice; she seemed to want to deliver him to a female Integrity Knight waiting in the Human Empire.
Shino had asked: “Your rival in love?” Alice had smiled slightly and replied: “You are my rival in love.”
— Good grief.
At this, Sinon could no longer log out easily. She had to stay in this world, at least until the moment when Kirito awoke.
Sinon steeled her determination once again, and stared towards the mountain of rock.
The black line touched the middle of the level summit and transformed into a pile of viscous fluid.
Its color was as dark as a bottomless pit leading straight to hell.
When the final line was absorbed into the puddle as well —
Bloop.
A tiny ripple poked out of the surface. Then a right hand extended outwards silently. As she watched the sight of those five long, thin fingers waving in the air, Sinon could not help but feel a cold shudder running down her back.
She did her best to resist the urge to immediat
ely burn them to ash, waiting for the enemy to materialize.
Following the right hand, a left hand also appeared and seized the edge of the puddle.
Then a man’s head appeared as well, with the slippery, moist sound of liquid.
— What slightly surprised Sinon was the fact that this character didn’t possess any distinguishing facial features; at least, he wasn’t handsome by any means. His short golden hair clung tightly to his head, his nose and lips were thin, and he looked somewhat Caucasian, but distinctly unremarkable.
Was this really the all-new body of the man who had controlled the Dark God Vector Super Account?… Sinon pondered, moderately surprised.
The man raised his upper body out of the puddle, swiveling his blue, marble-like eyeballs, finally sighting Sinon in the sky above him.
For an instant, Sinon felt strange.
She felt as though she had seen those eyes somewhere. They were a pair of eyes that seemed to reflect everything, yet seemed to consume everything at the same time; a pair of eyes without any emotion whatsoever.
Those eyes that sighted Sinon widened slightly. Then, a sliver of a contorted smile was visible on his lips.
Yes. I’ve seen them. I’ve seen those eyes… and that face. And it wasn’t too long ago, somewhere —
As Sinon was staring blankly at him, splat, with a drawn-out, viscous splashing noise, the man leapt out of the puddle all at once.
His getup was a little peculiar as well. He seemed to have automatically converted his equipment over; he was not dressed in ornate metallic armor. His deep-gray uniform’s top and bottom complemented each other and were secured with a belt, while his feet were wrapped in bound long boots, almost exactly like a combat uniform worn by soldiers in the real world. His weapons were a longsword at his left waist, and a crossbow at his right.
When the man had completely exited it, the black puddle did not disappear. Shockingly, it separated from the ground, wriggling like an animal. No, it was an animal. The part where it peeled off extended outwards, transforming into a set of long, thin wings that beat steadily.
Its bizarre appearance was not that of a bird, nor was it of a dragon. At the front of its flat, basin-like body were four beady eyes. To its left and right were bat-like wings, and trailing behind it was a long, serpent-like tail.
Sword Art Online Volume 17 - Alicization Awakening Page 16