"Let's eat well today, Amen." Calmly giving thanks for the food, I throw myself onto the grass to enjoy the view, savoring my first hunt of the day in the world of SAO.
As the breeze blew over my body and my hair moved in the valley wind, my eyes suddenly noticed two players approaching the area... and the distance between us made it difficult for me to tell who they were.
So I got up a little and crawled toward where those two were going, and with a clearer view, I realized that it was Kirito himself and that clumsy weirdo was right behind him... apparently training with Kirito, perhaps?
The two exchanged blows in front of a group of wild boars, and I could tell right away that Kirito was the mentor there. He wasn't trying very hard, just defending himself, which made it obvious that the student was Klein, who in turn was sweating and fighting with everything he had... but he couldn't defeat either of them, he couldn't even draw a drop of blood.
Funny, in this game we can't bleed... everything is virtual and pixelated, which is a shame because I always wanted to say the line from the mad titan who was incredulous at the whole battle.
"A drop of blood? Just one?" I whispered, remembering that spectacular scene as I watched that clumsy guy fail miserably against the boars.
"How exhausting, I can't kill any boars, the blade won't go in!" complained Klein, completely frustrated and physically exhausted. "What can I do, Kirito?"
That's when Kirito had an idea. He picked up a small stone from the ground, and suddenly the stone began to emit a strong blue glow. He threw the stone at the nearest boar—hitting it right in the rear. This caused it to run straight towards Kirito, who only defended himself with a quick movement of his sword.
"Now you do it!" he said, giving the boar a light kick as it came straight toward Klein.
I thought that approach was pretty genius. When I find new information in the game, I always carry a notepad with me and write down what I understand at that moment, because I can use that same approach to teach other players in the future.
I remember in detail that it took me a while to understand and learn how these activations work. I died many times to a two-meter carnivorous plant because I didn't know how to wield the glow on my sword. So Kirito's approach is a gold coin so that no one ever has to go through what I went through.
"I had restarted Nevergear so many times thinking it was defective... I had just been doing it wrong!" I muttered under my breath, vaguely remembering what the blacksmith had told me about activating the glow on the sword... it took hours to complete the mission to destroy that huge plant.
A while later, Klein finally defeated the boar successfully. He celebrated as if he had beaten a dungeon boss, but Kirito quickly brought him back to reality.
"That's not even a dungeon boss, it's just a low-level creature that hangs around there," he said with a smirk.
"Are you kidding me? I felt like the king of the game just now!" Klein grumbled, visibly frustrated.
"Hahaha, this can't be... I have to hold myself back from laughing out loud, damn it." Crouching down on the grass so as not to be discovered, I put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing too loudly.
Kirito just laughed softly and put his sword away, pointing forward. Suddenly, more boars began to appear in the middle of the lawn, and he sat down on the grass, already relaxing.
"Are you tired already? I expected more from you," he teased as he lay down to feel the light breeze of the plain.
Klein, exhausted from the beginner's training, just collapsed beside him.
I stayed there, hidden behind a rock, watching everything. I already had enough material. I closed my notebook, whose cover was made of leather and bore the symbol of two crossed swords, and stored it in my inventory.
| Opening the menu |
= Player menu (Inventory session) =
-> Inventory I (24 Slots)
Inventory II (28 Slots)
Inventory III (30 Slots)
——————————————————————————
= Inventory I =
[Delete] - (Select Item)
[Edit Document] - (Select Item)
-> [Save] - Bapson's notebook (Obtained at: Utility Fair)
——————————————————————————
| End of menu |
A few hours passed. I dozed off for a while next to that mountain of leaves, smelling the faint scent of grass and feeling the gentle warmth of the sunset. The view of the open fields of SAO at that time was simply incredible.
A few meters away, Kirito and Klein were still chatting casually.
"What are you going to do after this, Kirito?" I heard Klein ask, with that silly little smile on his face as he sat on the grass.
Kirito stared at the horizon for a moment, standing with a distant and indifferent expression.
"I have things to do later. I can't stay here too long," he replied coldly, as he began to open his menu.
"Ah, no problem. I need to leave too... my beloved pizza should be arriving at my house any minute now, riding on the back of a speeding motorcycle, with a good chance of arriving cold, right?
Haha," Klein joked, as he also accessed the player menu to exit the game.
That's when everything started to seem... strange. Everything around us was very quiet, even though we were far from the crowd. The feeling of seeing Aincrad from afar, like a floating castle with little movement, gave me a chill in my stomach.
I also opened my menu out of reflex. I wanted to back up my notebook in case I ended up losing the item in the middle of the journey, so I could write it down in real life... But when I looked for the logout button, it wasn't there to be executed.
"What the hell is this?" I said aloud, squinting my right eye as I stared at the menu in front of my eyes.
And from the look Kirito and Klein exchanged... they also noticed the same mistake I had made, implying that no one could get out of the game.