Chapter 2: Trapped

When they arrrived at the opening ceremony, some of the players looked extremely terrified as they all looked up at the huge screen in front of them. Aki couldn't see very well, for she was lacking in height and was at the back of the crowd of thousands of players. She could hear sounds of reporters but couldn't see what's playing on the screen.Aki looked up at her friend.

"Ryuu, what's-"

But Ryuu's face went pale. Aki got worried and tried to find something to stand on. She stepped on the sword's handle on Izayoi's back and saw a series of reports from all over the globe.

"Fantasy OG traps 10 thousand players in the game!"

"10 thousand unconscious FOG players all sent to the hospital"

"Fantasy OG: the next Sword Art Online?"

The reports and headlines just kept coming, others with different language. Aki's face went from '-') to '∇') and later on cheered happily at the back of the crowd. Some players looked at her noisily cheering at the back.

"Don't get too excited now. What if they say we'll die in real life if we die in the game?" Izayoi said to Aki.

"That'll be great then!" Aki's smile then turned to a frown. "But... my pupper..." she added as a tear fell from her eye.

Just then, someone lightly tapped on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a boy smiling at her.

"Uhh... Hello..." the boy said and nervously waved at her.

Akira didn't know who it was but when she looked above his head, she saw the name "Zora" and immediately knew who it was.

"Hello, Shirou..." she said with a crooked smile. It was one of their friends, Shirou!

"... Why are you crying?" Zora couldn't help but ask.

Aki's eyes welled up with tears that soon rolled on her cheeks but still trying her best to crack a smile.

"A-kun!!!" she said crying and hugged Ryuu.

Zora got even more confused.

"WHAT-

"Shh... There, there... Don't mind Shirou-nii-chab. He's such a bully." Ryuu said and comforted Aki.

Zora started to worry. "WHAT DID I EVEN DO?!!"

"Did you happen to know Cass' IGN, Shirou?" Izayoi asked.

"No clue. Though, I met someone named Akiyama but it wasn't Cass." Zora replied.

Aki and Zora then invited both Ryuu and Izayoi to their party and as soon as they finished accepting the PT requests, a female voice came shouting, "Hello, FOG players!"

The voice echoed through the whole city and out came a female hologram on the stage.

"Welcome to Fantasy OG! I am Alice Kazehaya, the developer of FOG- the real-life Sword Art Online-"

"NO KIDDING!" Izayoi shouted as loud as he can behind the huge crowd of 10 thousand people.

"BE QUIET, PLAYER!" Alice replied.

"Wow, their megaphones are actually pretty good." Izayoi said, holding the megaphone he just used from his inventory. It then slowly disappeared from his hand.

"So blah, blah, blah, all of you are trapped; if you die in the game, you die in real life; you can only survive in real life if you defeat the boss on the 100th floor of the Eris Tower and only one guild at a time can enter the tower. If you have questions, you can ask for help in the menu. Good luck. Dang random player shouting all of a sudden..." she murmured and soon disappeared.

"Well, shit." Zora said.

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