44: Producing a Diva and copying Aizen in a Death Game! By: NickTheHun(SAO x The Gamer)

Fic type: oc/crossover

A good sao fic where the mc doesn't hog all the glory from kirito but also doesn't sit back and whine.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Producing a Diva and copying Aizen in a Death Game!

By: NickTheHun

Judging by the world I'm in, it's better not to be a Hero or my first female friend will die horribly. That said, having the powers of [The Gamer] would be helpful if it wasn't so damn useless within SAO. Still, at least I get lucky drops! Wait, women count? Well, when in doubt, just be Aizen Sosuke! Keikaku Time! The Gamer/SAO/Bleach/ Persona 5 (Future Arc) Self-Insert/Yuuna/Harem

Rated: Fiction M - English - Humor/Adventure - Gamer/더 게이머, Rain, Yuuki/Yuuki K., Lux/Hiyori K. - Chapters: 46 - Words: 155,533 - Reviews: 684 - Favs: 1,617 - Follows: 1,732 - Updated: Oct 1, 2017 - Published: Mar 12, 2017 - id: 12401893

Link:https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12401893/1/Producing-a-Diva-and-copying-Aizen-in-a-Death-Game

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

AN: Just read through the Ordinal Scale translations for the mini-novel and watched the movie. I loved it, I may as well make a little story. It will be awhile until I get the motivation to update my other stories and I do have work and other works to update so this is another one of my side projects that I will continue for now. Still, [The Gamer] is pretty useless in a world where only your mind can exist in. Ordinal Scale spoilers, and yes, this actually takes place in the world where the Abyss exists. You can guess what's the next arc by now.

Kinda Lucky Gamer?

There were a few of things I expected to wake up to after a well-deserved 5-6 hours of sleep.

The one that tops the list is the sound of my air conditional leaking water onto my floor in a '*Drip Drip*' sound effect, pretty much wakes me up as well as an alarm clock would.

That was pretty much an indication that it's been about 8 hours since I turned it on… and the fact I should really get it fixed by now.

The second one would be the 'official' wakeup call from my digital alarm clock.

Followed by the third thing I would expect, my several back-up alarms set in my phone.

None of those involved BGM music that included ominous, *cough*, I mean, 'happy' latin chanting with a rustic fantasy tune to it.

It's as if I was in a theatre with a surround sound system playing this song… except I wasn't in a theatre, I certainly wasn't in my bed, nor was I in the clothes I was sleeping in and I certainly do not remember having a FUCKING REAL SWORD in my hand.

And first of all, why the fuck am I in an open plains with lots of nice green grass and some random wild boar in the distance?

… This is either a dream or an Isekai adventure with typical fantasy RPG elements or 'I'm stuck in some random self-insert adventure'…

I wonder why am I not panicking?

Then again, I wasn't the overly emotional sort. If I had to give myself a level in empathy I would rank mine at around 11/100.

Sure my parents, friends and peers would classify me as the 'nice' guy, kinder and politer than most people… but most of it was borne out of partial laziness and indifference.

Well, I tend to be more lax around my family but even in the strangest and dangerous situations I ended up in on those rare occasions I still never really shouted in frustration as far as I can remember.

So… I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that I am not 'panicking' like a 'normal' person.

Wait a second, what the hell am I doing being introspective again?

I thought I got over that after my stint in nihilism.

"Guess not… ah well, whatever."

I said to myself, ah, I always did point out the fact that my mother talks to herself when my father and I can't be bothered to listen but I did share that habit with her.

Heh, and everyone says I'm my father's son… please, I have my mother's dark brown hair and… uh, nothing else I guess.

I look down at my new clothes and begin to wonder why it looks so fucking familiar, and so typical like low-level gear from those MMORPG's.

"Come to think of it, what do they call this type of armour again? Wish I had an Equipment screen now."

A light-blue semi-transparent window appeared in front of me, showing a shadow version of my body and some designations for what I was wearing.

…I know where this is going.

I had written one or two Gamer fanfics before and was a huge fan of the Manhwa until the MC just got retarded at some point.

Not to mention I read like… tons of Gamer fanfictions and quests before.

"Skills."

Skills list

[Gamer's Mind] – Passive –

Description: Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through in most circumstances. Allows a peaceful state of mind .Immunity to psychological and mental status effects.

[Gamer's Body] (Default) – Passive – (PARTIAL FUNCTIONALITY)

Description: Grant's a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Pain from damage does not last after a few seconds. Sleeping restores HP, MP and heals all temporary statues effects. The above effects are locked and replaced with [Gamer's Body] (SAO) until you free from the virtual world. [Gamer's Body] (SAO) grants ?, Imports SAO stats when released from the limits of the game.

Welp, that worked out and isn't this a carbon copy of what I've written at some poi-

Wait, what? SAO?

…well shit, I immediately regretted not following the Progressive novels now, along with all the video game stories… at least I saw the movie trailers and a bit of spoilers for Ordinal Scale, right?

Nah, I'm so fucked.

"Status"

Please don't insult me status screen-chan!

Name: NickLZH Age: 22

LVL: 1 EXP: 0/15

Title: Seeker of Purpose Affiliation: THE FAMILY

Race: Human/Spirit

HP: 100/100 Regen: 1 per hour

MP: 50/50 Regen: 1 per minute

STR: 4

END: 5

AGI: 4

INT: 18

WIS: 25

LUK: 30

Points: 0

Col: 0

Cash: None, deal with it

Okay, I know I'm a fucking 'privileged' ordinary citizen but I think it's overstating my LUK by a lot.

Let's see… elaboration?

LVL: Level, a basic measure of experience and an estimate of strength. When you get enough EXP you will level up and gain some status points.

HP: A representation of your life force and health. When your HP reaches zero you die. This is separate from your SAO HP Pool.

MP: A representation of your magic energy. Used to perform Magic. Only Mind related spells can affect your SAP avatar in a limited fashion.

STR: Governs brute force. The higher your strength the higher your physical output will be, be it in attacks, movement or defence. Upgrades do not carry over to the virtual world.

END: Governs physical endurance. The greater your endurance the greater your stamina and defence will be. Increases HP capacity. Upgrades do not carry over to the virtual world.

AGI: Governs reflexes, agility, coordination, speed and accuracy. The higher it is, the higher your speed, critical rate, dodge rate and accuracy will be. Upgrades to perception and co-ordination will be applied to the virtual world.

INT: Governs the ability to process and store information, increases your mana pool, control and efficiency. Increases magic damage, magic not usuable

WIS: Governs sensibility, perceptiveness, willpower and the ability to make information useful. Increases mana regen. Also increases dodge, critical rates and accuracy by a bit. Higher Wisdom allows the creation of greater spells.

LUK: Luck controls how much events will be in your favour, and governs the quality and frequency of favourable opportunities. Increases drop rates, chance for critical hits and favourability of events. Overrides any LUK stat in other worlds? Somehow...

All right, an altered version of what I written once in my life and-

… Well shit, over half of these stats are useless and-

Did I just get the most redundant and useless would-be overpowered ability?

After looking around carefully I can finally see the SAO HUD, opening it, I can see my stats in STR, AGI, and VIT listed out. All of them have a '5' beside them.

Damn, this is going to get complicated with two separate menu's.

"Hmm? This reminds me of Fate/Extra and… oh shieettt…"

I said 'Oh shit' in the same way I remembered the Ghost House video series voice actor does it.

"What if I am a virtual ghost? Does that make this whole trek up Aincrad pointless then? It's pretty fucking obvious I'm in SAO and… no, don't do this to yourself Nick, you know that angst never gets anywhere."

Huh, perhaps this is one of the infamous benefits of [Gamer's Mind]!

Yeah, fuck angst.

I was pretty sure that my lack of empathy and calm disposition in most of my life played a good part in giving a false impression of being 'above' certain degrees of angst… although it was definitely mostly due to the fact I didn't form that many close relationships outside a small group of friends and family.

"Ok… now, where am I in the SAO timeline?... Date? Time?" I asked, prompting an electronic display from a menu to pop up.

Novermer 6th 2022, the first day of SAO.

Okay, okay, I still have a few hours before the eventual announcement so I may as well use this time to git gud.

I went to taunt that Wild Boar to come to me.

"Hey, Mr. Boar! Get over here so that I can marinate your skin, turn your flesh into minced meat and flatten it to make my Chinese meat snacks! I will take your marinated skin and roast it slowly over a fire, your body will be fucking skewered through a large pole and I will feast on your corpse like a proper Asian by sucking everything until only your bones are left behind. You know what I will fucking do with your bones? I will feed it to my fluffy Mini-Schnauzer."

You have created two skills through a special action!

[Villain Threat] skill has been created!

[Taunt] skill has been created!

Okay, that was the crappiest nonsense I had ever said but what works, works I guess.

The boar charged at me, and surprisingly, I wasn't an entire scrub like Lvl 1 Klein.

I sidestepped and made a horizontal slash across it's running torso.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to activate any Sword Skills so that was pretty damn sad.

The AI was stupid and repeated the action twice.

It was dead when I simply finished the same action three times.

Victory!

10 EXP gained! 15 Col Gained!

1 X Wild Boar Meat gained!

Funnily enough, the EXP gauges were different for both character status menus but the things I gained were in an absolute value.

This was good in getting my first level up for my [The Gamer] powers but will probably stall my EXP curve in the long run as it probably followed the old Maplestory EXP curve judging by the 15 EXP needed to level up in the first level… I still needed to kill 9 more Wild Boars to level up my SAO avatar at this rate.

1 hour later…

[1-Handed Sword Mastery] – Passive – Lvl.1/100 EXP: 73%

Description: A skill that allows the user to freely wield one-handed swords. 1-Handed Sword Mastery is obtained through continuous usage of swords.

Increase in damage when using swords by 10%, locked due to SAO avatar, progression imitates SAO system

Let's see… I put a point into Agility for my SAO avatar bring it to STR:5, AGI:6, and VIT: 5.

Also, I placed 10 points into LUK from my two level-up's for my [The Gamer] stats.

Hey, I did get quite a lot of critical hits and starting level Loot from the Wild Boars thanks to my LUK stat!

I may as well go full lucky bastard, am I right?

Abuse the RNG! ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH!

In any event, I got a slightly better beginner Iron Sword with a 'Rare' rarity with a hairy hilt, [Wild Boar's Bane], a sword that deals extra damage to [Boar] monsters.

I also got this Ukulele for some reason.

Man, if my drop rates are this good then I have nothing to complain about.

I look around to see if anyone's looking at me… nope, I am pretty far out of town after all.

"Inventory"

I tried putting my virtual beginner's blade into [The Gamer]'s inventory and it fucking worked!

Hey, this might not be so bad after all!

But I sure hope that the Cardinal system doesn't find out about this exploit…

No Yui! Don't delete me!

I began heading back to town, planning to kill some monsters and-

Oh look! Another player!

Hmmm, "Observe"

Fortunately, the skill did work.

Unfortunately, it didn't show anything more than the SAO avatar's status and name.

Sigh, ah well…

I walk up to the player and notice that it was a female avatar with long white hair, with a braid at the side. She had red eyes and was wearing a light blue beginner's armour ensemble.

Psh! Yeah right, I bet 'she' is actually a 'guy'.

The female population is like, what, 15-20% in SAO or something?

Anyways, doesn't hurt to me polite and say 'hello'!

… Wait a second, do I even know Japanese?

"Good afternoon? You look a bit lost, need any help?" I offer as I walked up to the 'female' player.

I see her name, and note that it looked like the Japanese word for 'song' using my limited knowledge of Japanese… what? I watched enough anime to know that 'Uta' means 'song'.

Must be a music fan!

I wonder if 'she' plays the piano like I do?

"Oh! Nice to meet you! And eh? I guess I'm a little bit lost. I accidentally turned off the map and I don't know how to turn it back on, teehee!"

She scratched the back of her head before making the typical 'teehee' pose.

I am torn between wanting to see his face when I spread the knowledge of a guy doing such pose … and of the very fact some 'guy' is legitimately doing something like this.

"Well, here's how you turn it back on-"

As per usual, it doesn't hurt to help a stranger.

At least, not until the PK guilds and scams start picking up… more than likely, it's 'nice guys' that end up getting shanked by bitches like Rosalia.

If anything, I did confirm that she was speaking Japanese and I was somehow automatically speaking it despite my English proficiency still intact.

Glad to know [The Gamer] did not delete my language skills.

"Thank you so much! I ended up walking out of town, chased by three wild boars and ended up lost. Ah, I'm no good at video games. This is actually my first game you know! My daddy got me the NervGear since he helped Kayaka Akihiko work on it. He's a professor at Totou Technology university and-"

Uhh, too much information.

After she finished giving more explanations I smiled and chuckled a bit.

'She' looked rather embarrassed; he's probably just one of those socially awkward guys that picked up a video game for the first time.

"Uuoh, sorry for talking so much. I just felt like telling someone and well… hehe!"

My mental image of a guy going 'hehe' is poisoning my brain.

Still, I kept the false 'interested' look on my face that I learnt through surviving university with and said it was no trouble at all.

"It's fine. I actually talk too much myself. But, a piece of advice. In games like these you shouldn't be giving out your real-life information like that. Not all people are trustworthy and friendly. A drastic change of circumstances can lead to people doing extreme things so you should be careful with that kind of info… people could hurt you with it." It was honestly some earnest advice since I'm not the most careful person with information myself.

"O-oh! Thank you for your concern. Guess I really shouldn't be talking about my father and where he works."

Especially if he knows Kayaba Akihiko, literally everyone will pester her and… considering there was rape in the original web novels of Alicization I don't really want to think of what could happen to 'her', whether he's a guy or girl.

"No biggie. Hey, want to party up?" I offer, may as well keep someone that is slightly 'plot relevant' considering such a connection exists between 'her' and Kayaba indirectly.

"Really? You want to party up with me?!" 'She' looked at me with gratefulness… shit, I sure hope he's not a 'trap' or I'll be sexually confused for life.

"Why not? I'm just glad I could help out."

Yeah, sometimes it makes me feel as if I made an impact in the world.

Quest Alert! (Optional)

Title: Get Uta-chan to Level 2!

Objectives: Exactly what the title says! Time limit: 3 hours

Completion reward: 100 EXP, Friend request guaranteed accept! Increased ? gauge with Uta/?

Failure penalty : None

Challenge accepted!

I invited her to the party and instructed her on how to use the basic Sword Skill, [Horizontal].

After that, my Luck had somehow had us find a bunch of Wild Boars and catch them off guard one-by-one.

I finished the quest 2 hours later.

Level 5! (for THE GAMER)

Put everything in LUK and…

Name: NickLZH Age: 22

LVL: 5 EXP: 30/135

Title: Seeker of Purpose Affiliation: THE FAMILY

Race: Human/Spirit

HP: 200/200 Regen: 1 per hour

MP: 100/100 Regen: 1 per minute

STR: 4

END: 5

AGI: 4

INT: 18

WIS: 25

LUK: 50

Points: 0

Col: 225

[A Gamer's Needs] – Passive – Lvl. Max

Description: High Increase in Item Drops, Finding Random Nice Stuff, and scoring LUK increases. (50 Base LUK bonus)

Whoo! LUK Bonus perk Getto!

"Yahoo! Uta-chan has levelled up!" Uta jumped up in the girliest way possible, kind of what I would expect of an "It's the Sea!" moment for an upcoming beach episode.

Now I'm just praying she's not actually a guy or I will have to bleach my brain.

Bleach it hard… just like Kubo did to his manga.

She began humming a melodic theme in happiness.

"You really good at humming, aren't you? Do you like to sing?"

"Yep! I love to sing! I've been singing since kindergarten and my dream is to sing in front of a stadium wide audience!"

"Really? You must be great at it then! I can't sing for shit. Tone deaf, only went to Karaoke twice."

"I'm alright, I think…. Although, I can teach you how to 'sing' if you want!"

"I'm cool for now. Speaking of music, I do play the piano."

"Really? I play the guitar and the Ukelele! I know! We can start like, SAO's first band!"

"Haha, maybe." I said, genuinely excited due to her enthusiasm.

Actually, that would be kind of fun.

"Hey, close your eyes for 5 seconds. No peeking. I got a present for you."

"Okayyyy…" She dragged out melodiously.

I quickly took out the Ukelele I found and held it in front of her.

"*Gasp* No way!"

"Yes way. Found it on my 4th boar, lucky eh?"

I opened a trade request to transfer the instrument to her.

She immediately began playing it with tremendous skill… o-oh? Is she replicating the BGM of the First Town?

"Wow… as expected of someone naming her character 'Song' (Uta)."

"Ehehe! I wouldn't name my character anything else… but, just asking, what does NickLZH stand for?"

"Oh… those are my initials for my name. Nick is my Nickname. I know it sounds like 'meat' as in 'Niku' in Japanese so please try not to butcher it too much." I explained.

"Niiku, Nikkk…eh, Niiccc, Nick?"

"You got it!"

"Ah, but if I add the –kun prefix then it still becomes Nick-kun, Niku."

"Gah!"

She giggled before accepting my request to just call me Nick, as I was used to.

She also accepted my friend request easily enough, and we both walked back to town together.

I didn't manage to catch sight of Klein and Kirito… or any other 'main characters' so I guess I'm not that lucky.

Well, the whole teleportation and Kayaba speech happened.

I was 'fortunate' to be right next to Uta, who was shocked and terrified at the announcement… she despondently activated the item to change her appearance back to her original one and-

-She was actually a girl.

She was about 5 feet 5 inches tall, had shoulder length brown hair and a single braid at the side. Her eyes matched her hair and she was only slightly shorter than her avatar. Other than that, she was really cute.

Oh thank you Lord, no brain bleach needed!

I also activated the item, resulting in literally no change from my 5 feet 11 inches, dark brown hair and light complexion that I had before.

Well, my features were slightly plainer, thankfully not anymore Asian because my eyes were pretty moderately sized to my liking and-

-Eh, I just noticed that I hadn't had my glasses the entire time.

Shit, what am I doing spacing out while everyone is panicking as if they aren't Kirito… oh wait…

I better take care of Uta.

Making a wise decision has increased your Wisdom by 1!

Fuck you game!

"Uta-chan? Are you… no, let's go somewhere else." She followed me as I dragged her to a blacksmith's shop, and allowed her to cry and scream in an alleyway nearby.

"No…nono, this can't be happening. Papa! Papa will save me. He will, he helped made the NervGear he… Papa will definitely…"

Ooh shiieettt… how do I help a crying girl again?

I wished this shitty game had a Charisma stat!

Then again I really should had added wisdom instead of Luck.

Solomon did ask for wisdom instead of wealth, after all.

Learning about the true value of Wisdom has increased your Wisdom by 1!

… Yeah, rub it in.

I ended up sitting next to her, covering her with a random coat I found from a Wild Boar, I merely rambled off some comforting words my mother would say to my sister (edited) whenever she would cry.

As much as I wanted to go full Kirito and get that Anneal Blade, I actually had no idea where it was as I barely read the progressive novels and I can't fucking remember the first few chapters of volume 1.

Well, I could always fix up my weapons and armour later… right now, I brought her to an inn and booked a room for the both of us. Something tells me that leaving her alone would be the last thing I should do.

Name: NickLZH Age: 22

LVL: 5 EXP: 30/135

Title: Seeker of Purpose Affiliation: THE FAMILY

Race: Human/Spirit

HP: 200/200 Regen: 2 per hour

MP: 100/100 Regen: 2 per minute

STR: 4

END: 5

AGI: 4

INT: 18

WIS: 27

LUK: 50

Points: 0

Col: 225

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

AN: Argh, was just on a roll so here I am staying up late in my timezone. Do give me feedback on how fast or slow you want the 'plot' to progress as I will be thinking about moving along the 'producer' aspect soon. Needless to say, this is less action and more, LOL LUCK FTW!

LUCK FTW!

You have rested on a virtual bed!

HP and MP restored! Fatigue reset!

You have gained the Well-Rested Perk! +10% EXP for two hours!

… Oh, right. That is actually a thing.

I, The Gamer, am 'trapped' in Sword Art Online.

Just because…

Well, I'm in a different world and if I somehow get out of here in one piece I should be able to abuse my powers to make lots of money.

After that, I can live off the interest while living in a modern home, married with three well-educated children.

Yeah, let's go with that.

Quest Alert! (Compulsory)

Title: Survive SAO!

Objectives: Survive until you are logged out of the game safely! Time limit: None

Completion reward: New body in SAO universe with all your stats! SAO abilities added to game avatar! 10,000,000 EXP! Gain title [SAO Survivor]!

Failure penalty : Death

Challenge accepted motherfucker!

I didn't need to press my finger on the screen as it was a compulsory quest.

That said, I couldn't exactly move my finger up to the screen with Uta holding onto my arm.

What were we doing in the same bed again?

Oh right, I allowed her to cry herself to sleep.

Well, it's better to be inconvenience slightly compared with putting my foot in my mouth by saying something insensitive.

Hmm, what can I do while waiting for her to wake up?

Ehh… maybe I can select my second skill slot for my SAO avatar, I mean, One-Handed Sword was pretty much automatically there but there were a few options for a Level 2 (SAO).

Namely, Leather Armor, Parry, Sprint, Tools Appraisal, Picking and Hiding.

Uhhh… I'm pretty sure the [Sneak] skill can be made normally, I would rather have a partial effect through [The Gamer] and simply spend my skill slot on something else.

Parry is both more 'skill-based' and a system-assisted skill so I'm not sure on whether I should take it or not because it sounds pretty damn useful.

Tool Appraisal, can be replaced with [Observe]. Picking? That might be useful considering my high LUK. But I don't think the blacksmithing stuff really comes up until later so I may as well save the slot and respec it later.

I think I'll take Sprint as my own running abilities through [The Gamer] probably won't be able to affect my Virtual Avatar.

Skills: One-Handed Sword, Sprint

Yup, looks good.

Uta stirred and grumbled, yawned and opened up her eyes, rubbing them like the kawaii anime girl she was.

Her shoulder lengths brown hair was tangled up with her loosen braid as she slept without undoing her hair.

"Uta-chan? Are you feeling alright?"

"Nick? O-oh, I… this is actually happening isn't it? W-we're still stuck here."

She simply looked resigned, did she believe so much in her father that not being 'saved' in just a few hours believe there was nothing that could be done?

Who knows?

"It seems like it. I'm going to go down for breakfast, would you like to join me? I won't pressure you or anything."

"I… I would like that."

In the end, we did not like the food.

Mostly because it was fucking bland bread…

"I heard something about a cooking skill… how the hell do I unlock it? I don't want to be eating tasteless white filth like this for the rest of my in-game life!" I grumbled, my rambling seems to have amused Uta slightly, her lips turning upward at my description of the bread we ate.

"Mmm, would you still get the skill if it involved eating lots of bread?" She asked.

I paled, she laughed.

"Hahar… anyways, I'll pay for a few nights in the inn, you can stay here and I'll go get some money." I say, making Uta tense up.

"No! Don't go! You'll die I mean, you'll die for real if you get killed! It's too dangerous!" She gripped my arm tightly, not letting go.

"Hey, listen Uta, listen… I'll stay safe, all right? I mean, we need a place to stay and everything needs money, well… Col. I don't want to put you in danger so I'll be the one going out. I'll stay safe, I'll be right outside the town, all right?"

"Nonono! I won't let you!"

"Look, Uta. I need to do this. How else am I supposed to protect you?"

"Protect… me?"

"Well, yeah. You're my friend, aren't you? SAO has a PK function, as in Player Kill, it's only a matter of time before someone snaps and starts killing other players. I mean, I saw some guys running to throw themselves off Aincrad, essentially committing suicide. I don't want any of us to get to the point where we think throwing ourselves off is the best option and the best way is to be secure as much as possible."

"… You really think that? I mean, we're all in the same situation. People killing each other is… they wouldn't…"

"Every society has people desperate enough to go that far. And besides, I'm sure there's already a few nutjobs around that wanted to play the game for the thrill of killing other players anyways."

I think my words scared her too much.

"How… how are you so calm?"

It's because I have an ability that keeps me calm.

"I don't know. I'm scared, believe me I am terrified of dying. But… I don't want you to feel the same fear and if I can take steps to make things feel less hopeless for you, then I will. So please, let go Uta-chan."

Well yeah, I sure wouldn't like to die but… if I keep pumping stuff into LUK then perhaps the setting would throw me a few Deus Ex Machina's?

I mean, come on, Kirito had Kayaba helping him against Sugou! WTF!

"Why? Why are you doing this for me?"

Actually… why am I doing this for her? Hmm, I don't cry often, especially not when watching anime or movies but…

I did cry watching Shelter and Logan… so, I think fatherly love or the loss of family is my soft spot.

Family.

Will I even get to see my own family again?

No, if [The Gamer] is as OP as I had written it in the past then perhaps, one day, definitely… I will see them again.

Multiversal timetravel is now on my to-do list buy for now?

"It's because unlike me, you have a family to go back to." I held her hand as I told her the reason I came up with.

She looked stunned at my words.

"You love your father, and he loves you. That, if anything, is something you can always believe in. I don't have anyone anymore so at the very least, I can help you so that neither you nor your father needs to face such a loss."

Eh, is my voice becoming a little too hoarse? Crap, the roof must be leaking because my eyes are getting wet.

"Nick… you shouldn't have to…you don't need to…"

I had the feeling she wanted to say that I didn't need to do it for her after I 'suffered so much' but quite frankly, perhaps I triggered her selfishness at the last second, making her want to rely on me.

Honestly, in a game like SAO I want someone I can rely on and considering our good first impression I'm… surprisingly invested in her.

"I'll be back." I said in a tone, mimicking Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator voice.

I see Uta was about to follow me but stopped right at the Inn's door, too frightened to go out.

I hope she doesn't hate herself for it.

Fear, after all, is natural in all living beings.

Oh, I better stop using my Lord Sosuke Aizen's quotes all the time.

That would veer into villain territory and make Kirito kick my ass.

Quest Alert! (Optional)

Title: Finish 3 Quests from NPC's today!

Objectives: Go go go! Get a quest! Time limit: 24 hours

Completion reward: 500 EXP, Blacksmithing for Reals!, 500 Col,

Failure penalty: Depression

Challenge fucking accepted motherfucking Aincrad!

The first NPC I went to was a butcher/hunter NPC, he would pay me to deliver 5 Wild Boar Meat's to him, and pay me more for extra.

I turned that quest in immediately, levelling up to 3 by completing the quest.

STR: 5, AGI: 7, VIT: 5.

Fuck VIT, Speed blitz FTW!

I gave the man an extra 15 Wild Boar Meat's, gaining 100 Col each.

1000 Col from the initial reward plus 1500 = 2500 Col

YEAHHHH!

Kaching!

I also got a [Wild Boar Hat], which I put on along with my [Wild Boar] coat, tunic, pants, boots, gloves and already equipped blade.

Thanks to my immense luck, I had all those items and had completed the Wild Boar set.

Now, I can probably instant kill Wild Boars… yay! Also, I seem to have a [Pig's Bane] buff, where I deal 50% more damage to anything with a snout.

LOL!

I repaired my sword for around 25 Col as the durability damage wasn't very high.

The Blacksmith also gave me a quest to deliver a weapon to someone across town.

I happily skipped past the depressed and despairing players to my destination before completing the quest for EXP.

He had another quest that involved me going out to pick up some stones for him to turn into Whetting Stones, stones that are used to polish and sharpen blades.

That reminds me of Monster Hunter.

I walked out of town into crowded outskirts of the First Town.

What was its name again? Oh right. The Town of Beginnings.

Aka, the town of 'smart' people that know their place as background characters only meant to make Kirito look better and cooler.

There were some wolf mobs but they stand no chance against the Almighty Pig Slayer!

Feel the wrath of my Roasted Pork Blade!

"FOR PORK!"

*Slash*

Get rekted Wolf Mob Numero Uno!

After killing a few wolves easily thanks to [Gamer's Mind] keeping me calm and my INT boosting my thinking time, I continued with my quest to pick up stones.

Hmm, I'm hitting my weight limit.

I should make it a habit of storing things I don't want to be stolen into my Gamer Inventory instead of my SAO inventory.

… Is that a fucking rabbit?

I threw one of the stones at it.

OHKO!

Rabbit Meat and Rabbit Pelt was added to my inventory!

And 1 measly EXP.

Oi! That was a fucking perfect throw, why do I get only one EXP motherfucking ahhhhh!

Well, I got the [Throwing] skill so I suppose I can live without getting that skill for my next skill slot.

After completing the quest, I completed a fourth quest, bringing my SAO Avatar to Level 4, unlocking my third skill slot. Point to Agility.

The 500 EXP I got from completing the quest from The Gamer helped pushed me to Level 8.

15 Points to spend… eh, let's save it until I can put it all in Wisdom, just in case I need the extra luck.

Making a wise decision has increased your Wisdom by 1!

Don't tell me what's right or wrong!

Actually, please do… I will take whatever I can get.

Making a wise decision has increased your Wisdom by 1!

Ok, this is fucking excessive.

I can't be that unwise.

I opened my Gamer's Inventory, finding the Blacksmith for Real's book.

Oooh, A skill book.

Consume, Om nom nom…

[Actual Blacksmithing] – Passive/Active – Lvl.1/100 EXP: 0%

Description: A skill that allows the user to make weapons, armour and work the forge. Knowledge scales with levels. Level can be synced with SAO system.

I picked Blacksmithing as my third skill option immediately, who knows? Maybe I can upgrade my own weapons while relying on my luck for max successes or even get lucky and make a legendary weapon?

There's still plenty of sunlight so… It's time to grind MOAR! After selling my 'junk' loot to the NPC's… I can't be bothered with selling them to any players now.

I asked where the closest town was… "Tolbana" was about 30 minutes away.

Yeah, let's go full Kirito!

They see me running-

Wolves came to attack me.

They hate it!

Stab, Critical Hit! Slash! Critical Hit!

WTF LUK OP!

Funnily enough I ran into Kirito who was just about leaving.

"Woah! Awesome sword man! Where did you get it? I'll give you this wolf coat for the info!" I say, taking out my wolf coat that I didn't bother wearing because I look weird enough for people to avoid considering how hairy my Boar Set was.

"It's black by the way." I gave my winning speech.

"Go that way to reach Horunka Village and do exactly as I say." I had Kirito hooked immediately.

I got the instructions and decided to ask a bit about Blacksmithing as well. He said the basic equipment can be bought for 5000 Col at this village, Tolbana.

I immediately bought it and some basic Iron ores from the NPC's.

I whacked my sword a few times and upgraded it five times.

"What the actual fuck! How did you luck out so much?" Kirito actually looked flabbergasted.

"Eh, just lucky."

"I'll tell you about the [Cow's Counter attack] repeatable quest if you upgrade my Anneal Blade for me. It's first two levels can be upgraded with Iron Ore, the rest of it I'll have to farm the materials myself."

"Deal. But you have to add me to your friends list."

"…Fine."

I upgraded his Anneal Blade, adding a +2, to it.

"Right, see ya… Niku?"

"It's Nick but… I get that a lot. Don't worry about it Kirito-san."

I ran to Horunka, talked to the relevant NPC's and finished the quest without triggering the 'trap' of Little Nepents with Fruits luring it's kind to me.

I levelled up again, putting 1 point into STR.

After that, I whacked my Anneal Blade twice before, sold some of my shit and ran back to the Town of Beginnings.

I reached there just as nightfall came about.

I opened the door to the Inn and checked my friends list, confirming that Uta was in our room I walked in and-

-My waist was being hugged tightly.

"You're back! You're back I was so scared you were gone forever please don't leave me! Why were gone for so long!"

I told her about the events of the day and she gave me an angry look for it.

"Okay, maybe I should have sent a message through the friends list."

"Yes, you should have! Wait, we can do that?"

In towns I guess.

"I found out how to get milk! No longer shall we suffer from tasteless white filth!"

The dirty part of my mind wondered what two year's worth of… you know, would taste like to a woman in this world but I probably won't get such a chance.

"… Will it be dangerous?" She asked softly.

"Nah. It's close by and I can just run across the field safely enough."

"I can…we can do without milk for a day. I… can you stay with me tomorrow?" Uta asked of me, giving me those anime puppy dog eyes.

But… but mah grinding!

Oh… wait… grinding is for Kirito. Whoops! I got too ahead of myself.

"Yeah, I think I'm a bit tired as well. How are you coping?"

"Better. Now that you're here, safe and sound… I feel better."

Whew!

"Will you… can you listen to my song? I… I got the [Music] skill and I need an audience to practice it with."

"… I would like that very much." I opened my menu and turned off the BGM.

Her voice was nice to listen to, the song itself was soothing in a solemn way… I get the feeling she just made the tune up some time ago.

Was she practicing the entire day?

I would ask but she's probably angry at me.

"Is it good?" She asked.

"Yes. Yes it is… I like how it starts off sad before ending on a hopeful note. Sorry, I don't have much constructive criticism since I kind of suck at hearing and improvisation."

"That's alright. I'm just glad you liked it."

"I bet a lot of people will like it as well. It's very… hopeful, at the end. It reminds me that hope is indeed a powerful force." I placed a hand to my chin, close my eyes and nod as if I was a philosopher.

"Yeah… hope. But if people keep hoping then people will keep trying and- people will die in this world if they try. It'll be better if everyone was scared like me… we'll be safe." She said, gripping her Ukelele tightly.

"And what of those that have courage to face death head on? Are they stupid? What of me?" I questioned her gently, in a slightly rhetorical manner.

"They- You, it's not the same! You're being stupid by going out on your own! We should be relying on the people outside… my papa will definitely get us out. He's one of Kayaba's mentors so he definitely will…" She began shouting, almost crying.

"I see. Well, I guess I am reckless but I'd like to think of it as smart recklessness." Well, I believe in my LUK that believes in me!

Making a wise decision has increased your Wisdom by 1!

Stop giving me your propaganda!

"You're actually insufferable when you're trying to be smart." Ooh, getting snappy aren't we?

"So I'm not smart? Not one bit smart?" I ask.

"You… urgh, actually fine. Nick is slightly smart."

"Then you're very slightly smart, right Uta-chan?"

"…" She threw the Ukelele at me.

I defended myself with a pillow, she took a pillow on her own and attempted to beat me down in the Safe Zone.

I explained what an 'Immortal Object' was as she futilely attempted to damage me.

She was a lot calmer the next day and… at least you managed to get her out of the Inn.

I had to sell some of my loot as I was putting on a lot of weight.

"Oh, Uta-chan. I found this and I think it'll look nice on you."

"What is it?"

"A Nepent Fruit Ribbon, it's mainly cosmetic and gives slight poison resistance. I think it'll look nice on you."

"Nick… you don't have to give me everything you have."

"I don't have to. But I do want to give you nice things."

Yes, after all, I have to keep my first friend closer because First Girls have less chances of stabbing me in the back.

After all, I remember that moving someone's fingers to initiate a duel to the death while they are sleeping is a way to kill people in the safe zone.

And that usually is an opportunity reserved for friends sharing a room or couples, and I would rather be on her good side.

Perhaps a part of my reasoning is that I'm also seeing how well we work together.

My father and grandfather had a ten-year age gap between their spouses so for all I know I'm fated to marry someone much younger than me.

After spamming 'Observe' I levelled it up to two, letting me see that Yuna was 16 right now… so she'll be legal when Kirito saves the day.

May as well keep my options open.

"…Thank you. It really is pretty." She put on the accessory immediately, along with some of my nicer wolf set gear.

Now she's fluffy! But sadly, touching her fluffy clothes would make me a pervert so I guess I will have to settle with my own fluffy wolf equipment

As for the rest of the day? Well, I still have to find a way to spend this 8th of November…

SAO Avatar

Level 5

STR: 6, AGI:9, VIT 5

Name: NickLZH Age: 22

LVL: 9 EXP: 468/1242

Title: Seeker of Purpose Affiliation: THE FAMILY

Race: Human/Spirit

HP: 280/280 Regen: 2.8 per hour

MP: 140/140 Regen: 2.8 per minute

STR: 4

END: 5

AGI: 4

INT: 18

WIS: 30

LUK: 50

Points: 20

Col: 18200