Chapter Text
01 - Rin
Steady electronic pulsing breaks the silence of the night. The eyes barely pry themselves open to view the disturbance. The body refuses to move for a few moments longer - as if the spite would halt the day from moving forward. After that brief moment of rebellion, a hand comes down on the device, stopping its demands for wakefulness.
Rin sits up from her bed and gives their best attempt at stretching out the overnight stiffness from her muscles, wincing slightly at the cold that has crept into the room overnight, the warmth of the covers quickly overrun. Rin rises from her bed and walks over to the only window in the apartment. Pulling the curtains back, she slides the glass open to allow what little crisp morning air into the room that allows itself in. If the sun had been up, it would have poured on as a tiny sliver onto the faux wood flooring. On mornings where she could, that sliver would be savored as she lay on the floor and took in as much as she could. The view out the window, a not-dissimilar brick-faced apartment building, stands oppressively beside Rin's, stealing the sunshine that may have otherwise made its way through.
The shoulder season into Summer approaches, and its arrival will most certainly starve out the cold from the room, unfortunately, replaced by dreadful heat and humidity. Not any better, she thinks to herself, and as such, Rin looks forward to savoring the intermediary period where temperatures stay consistently comfortable. If only the government would mandate mandatory air conditioning and heating, she thinks to herself. Not that I'd be able to afford to run it anyway.
The clock by the pillow reads 4:47 a.m. The time is a reminder of the commute ahead, necessary to make it into the office for the 7:00 a.m. chimes. Shortly after graduating high school, Rin fell into a not-so-spectacular blue-collar office job for an electronics manufacturer. A paper-pushing job is typical for the demographic, especially those without a college degree. Also standard for the demographic - being overworked and underpaid. The pleasure of reading a clock with a time this early on is but a symptom of the system that exploits Rin & her colleagues.
They'd say we would appreciate any extra time you can give us. There was always some shareholder meeting on the horizon. Consistently, some new margins, some unknown reason for crunch. Of course, Rin watched the news & read the headlines - everyone did—record profits for essentially the entire sector for the past three or so years. Yet the exploitation remains.
With morning preparations complete, Rin begins her journey into the still dew-covered morning. The cold air entering her apartment after the open door barely changes much temperature, as it's essentially the same. Heating systems have yet to be a necessity for Rin as of late. Sweaters & blankets have been the heating method of choice for the last year and a half. Rin has kept herself incredibly stringent on spending & worked extremely hard to cut costs as much as possible. At midnight tonight, the most significant release in the history of the entire technology industry was about to be made available to the public. Sword Art Online.
For much of her teenage and adult life, Games have been a respite for Rin; having grown up without much to her or her family's name, she was not able to rejoice in the escape. However, with the advances of widespread, cheap, high-speed internet, large amounts of data storage becoming standard on most devices, and the efforts of online archival teams - an entire history of games & media was available for the taking if you knew where to look.
By today's standards, computers and tech are fast enough, even by the bottom-of-the-barrel standards, to run most games & entertainment, especially from the past. Starting with older systems such as the Original and Super Famicom systems, Rin has buried herself in games to escape reality's difficulties. Providing for oneself in the modern world is a challenging task, filled with roadblocks and bureaucracy; pulling herself out of a poverty-stricken life has been an incredibly arduous task - and as such, farming simulators, crafting/gathering games, and open-world role-playing games have helped filled this void tremendously for Rin.
There has always been beauty in going out for oneself, finding materials, and making creations - your own outputs. The necessity for money has often made this an unachievable dream in the real world. Creation, in general, is something that demands a healthy amount of fiscal investment.
Sword Art Online's impending release has proven to be a significant expense for Rin. The Nervegear system is quite a pricey endeavor. The lack of heat in Rin's apartment is one such telling factor. However, they've resorted to making other sacrifices, having taken on another job on weekends at a Diner's Kitchen and stopping internet and phone payments in favor of visiting an internet cafe on the weekends to download new files and check messages. They then bring these newly downloaded files home on their long-since-aging laptop to continue playing games or reading ebooks.
However, no matter how much of a struggle saving up the finances has been for Rin - she is confident it will all be worth it in the end. The idea of spending time in a world where you can be whatever you want, fully-dived into another world where you can ignore the issues of the natural world and live an authentic life as you see fit—a world where equal opportunity is given to all, regardless of history or financial upbringing.
Rin arrives at their train station - taking the flights down the metro lines and making it to her initial platform with a couple of minutes to spare—the first of three. For five years now, Rin has taken the same commute. The muscle memory built up until they were sure they could take the lines into the office without being lucid. The wind picks up from the tunnel, the breeze & the rumbling signaling the arrival of the first train. At this time in the morning, the station is still quite empty, though those who have never traveled at this time in the morning would be pretty shocked at the number of souls who are forced to be present.
The second and third trains are a time crunch, and on this particular morning, the final connection train was delayed by several minutes. The train arrives, doors opening to reveal people packed into the car like sardines. As the door closes behind her, Rin jams herself along with the rest. At least I'm one of the first out. Unfortunately, it also seems like I'm getting a jog this morning, Rin thinks, eyeing the clocks above the doors. Nearly 8 minutes late. That's unusual, she thinks to herself.
The weather forecast is something most of us would only pay a little mind to in the modern day due to the level of connection we experience in our daily lives. It's something that just is. Your devices always feed the hourly estimates to you in some fashion, such as on your home screen or desktop toolbar. A luxury that, sometimes, Rin wished had been plastered just about everywhere: while they check the upcoming forecast every night before bed, sometimes nature takes its fate into its own hands. Today was one of those days.
The city she departed from had clear skies. Rin assumed that it would have been a Sunny morning if the sun had risen by the time she had to leave, but upon boarding the final train, she started to notice the signs. Umbrellas, still damp. Wet footprints, raincoats, and that signature smell you get on a rainy morning. Damn. That's what I get for not bringing an umbrella daily.
The flights leading back into the surface greet her with the damp, cool downdrafts from the doors to the outside, as many open the doors and pour through both directions - allowing the smell of rain off the tarmac to hit her, as it also begins to bring the dread. She stares down at her laptop bag and raises it above her head - she begins hyping herself up for the jog. She opens the door and begins her run.
They say that if you run in the rain, you'll get wetter than if you walked; Rin wasn't sure that was the case. She had many opportunities to try out the theory during her many years of commuting. She had determined that, without a doubt, you get to work wet regardless of how you made it there. So she ran.
Before long, she arrived at the door to the office. The building is shared with many other offices, so she must first make the uncomfortable journey through the vestibule, the lobby, the communal waiting area for the elevators, the elevator ride, and then the short hallway down to her company's offices. All while dodging the eyes and the body language saying Didn't this poor girl check the weather? God, I hope she doesn't get anything on me wet.
The receptionist's first comment is, "Forget to recheck the weather?" The receptionist threw the comment at Rin with devilish intent; she could feel the vile expression through her tone alone before Rin even locked eyes.
Lowering her gaze with a sigh, Rin responds with defeat, "I didn't, actually, but it seems that Mother Nature had her own plans for me today."
The digital clock above the receptionist taunts Rin as she fumbles her key fob onto the login pad at 7:13. Shit, that train really was late. She briefly stares into the facial scanner, and the computer responds with an upbeat jingle. The doors into the office space click open. Rin pushes the door open, the pressure difference manifesting a slight breeze onto her as she moves through. Rin began bracing herself for the next round of launched comments.
Not even five steps through the door, and the artillery begins. As if scolding a school child, the floor manager drags out her name, "Rin, you're late."
"Indeed, apologies. There was a train delay, and my last one had too many people on it; they wasted time pushing everyone in, and I-"
"Whatever," rudely cutting her off, "fortunately for you, we're too busy today for me to both hear the excuses and reprimand them. Takaya has to leave early today - I need you to cover their workload once yours is finished."
Rin's heart skips out of anxiety, shit, I can't let that happen. She thinks.
"Yes sir, I'll do my best - but the work will have to be made up for on a day other than today." fortunately, she was well prepared for this moment.
"What was that?"
"That's right. If you recall, I have the evening booked off on my calendar;- if you want, I can forward you the time off request that you approved for me three months ago. Got some very important appointments to go to tonight that I simply cannot miss." the MOST important, she thinks.
If looks could kill, the manager's glare in retaliation to the comment would have had Rin eviscerated.
"Fine, I'll get someone else on what needs to be pushed out today, but you're covering for that overload on Sunday." - Damn, I was hoping to get that entire day for SAO. I guess that's out the window.
After the altercation, Rin heads over to her cubicle, hangs up her rain-soaked jacket, and sits down, ready to begin the day.
At the office, Rin typically kept to herself, but so did everyone else for the most part. It wasn't due to insufficient blood between colleagues; it was due to the simple fact that no one had time to mingle. The workloads were extremely high, and the employees' cubicles didn't make for a good, "next-door-neighbor small talk" environment. Of course, Rin knew her cubicle neighbors, but apart from knowing their names and that they performed equally meaningless, never-ending workloads such as she did - she didn't know them well.
The day passes, lunchtime arrives & water is had as the meal. Rin's stomach protests for food as the working day draws near, but the growl only reminds them of the excitement waiting for her overnight. Eagerly, Rin answers the last few emails from her inbox and heads out of the office.
The commute home for them is equally packed for the first two legs, the only lodging she could find and afford sufficiently outside of what most would be comfortable traveling, but they arrive home without much issue. As Rin's vision allows her to see up from above the final steps of the flight of stairs up to their apartment level, she spots out front of the door into her apartment - a discreet, large box sitting in front of her door. Rin's heart rate breaks into a gallop - The Nervegear sitting in its package, waiting to be experienced.
Rin rushes the package inside, her vision tunneling, their heart rate signaling she is well into a multi-mile marathon. Rin tears through the tape on the outer box and pulls out the interior contents. The Nervegear helmet and hardware. All ready to bring her into the next world. The new frontier. Still quite a few hours until launch, she notes. Thank god, that means I still have.
She dashes out her front and races down the steps to the street level - careful to hold onto the railings so as not to slip due to the leftover moisture from today's rain. She makes her way to the nearest payphone, feeding the device its coin fee and dialing the number for the internet company that services her building. She had called to cancel it many, many months ago - and at that time, they had informed her that if ever she wanted to resume the connection, she would simply have to call, and they could start the relationship again within 2 hours from their end, no need for a tech to visit. SAO launches in 4, with plenty of time to spare. She thinks.
With the company assuring her that everything is in line, she hurries back into her room and locks the door behind her. She leans her weight against the back of her door, taking deep breaths - trying to get her peripheral vision back and her heart rate to come down—once again, her stomach protests - its pleas for food having yet gone unanswered. Shoes off, she opens her fridge, searching for something to try and quiet the growls.
There is not much in there- a couple of eggs, a pitcher of tap water - and a small jar of chili oil given to her by a co-worker whose family makes for the restaurant they run. There is not much of either left, - but Rin has been saving the remainder of the oil for a special occasion. Tonight is the night, she determines. Rin pulls out the eggs and opens the cupboard to find a couple of packs of dry, instant ramen noodles. Opening the package and putting the dry noodles into a small pot, she brings just enough water to cover them to a boil and throws in the seasonings - letting them become soft and fragrant. The smell quickly filled her entire apartment and smelled good enough to have been a feast on its own; unfortunately, that only made the stomach protest louder. Then, after a couple of minutes on the boil, Rin gently cracked one of the two remaining eggs on top of the noodles and covered it with a lid. After letting the eggs steam, she pours the pot contents out into a bowl, topping it with a healthy amount of the remaining chili oil.
Cooking was one of the coping mechanisms Rin liked to participate in when she could. Unfortunately, when attempting to keep money as tight as they did, you don't have many options for exploring your palettes. Fortunately, Rin thought, Sword Art Online was about to change that.
During the many months leading up to the release, Rin took it upon herself to read as much information about the game as possible. It had your typical MMO elements, such as questing, hunting monsters, looting, raid bosses, NPC stores, and multiple skill trees - the things that most have come to expect from the genre. What shocked Rin the most is that while most people talked about the typical, arguably more exciting game-play aspects, not nearly as much time or thought was given to some of the other outlying crafting and gathering elements.
Only a few beta testers had even gotten around to it - but it seemed that the crafting in the game was incredibly realistic. Players wrote about being able to create sculptures, create weapons in their image, and forge armor with intricate patterns and colors of their choosing. She wondered if she would even be able to cook dishes from the world world, bake cakes, and decorate them. That was something she was hoping to read about in great detail before playing, but players seemed to either not care, or it was simply overshadowed by the more awe-inspiring experiences in that game. If that were the case, it comes as no shock since Sword Art Online is constantly dazzling players with fights, monsters, and landscapes - all seeming as real as if you were standing right there in front of it.
Rin had thought that, perhaps, some of the systems were so true-to-life that they looped right back around into being disinteresting. Everybody already has to cook in their real lives - so of course, the game that feels just like real life has cooking. Why wouldn't it? Of course, most players will spend their time going out into the wilderness, hunting monsters and grinding their way forward into fighting the raid bosses. These are the sorts of power fantasies that a full-dive MMO would let you live out, and of course, that's what the general population was interested in.
That being said, Rin did consider herself a part of the general population, and as such, those aspects of the game weren't at all what Rin was interested in—foraging for her cooking materials, creating her meals without limits, gathering materials, crafting her gear, and creating works of art. These are things that a fresh, fair, and even start, gifted to her by SAO, would give her access to. There were even some accounts that eating in the game was incredibly realistic and would even quench hunger on the emotional levels - of course, it wouldn't satisfy your need in real life; you'd still have to come out of the full dive to eat, and perform other bodily-maintenance tasks for staying alive. I wonder if they have alarms for that stuff in the game. Strangely, Rin could not recall any accounts from reading about the game.
Like a child waiting for Christmas day to arrive - time slowed down to an unimaginably slow pace for Rin as she waited for the clock to strike midnight for the opening of Sword Art Online. Her Saturday was open, a rare occurrence; the internet was ready to go - and she was well-fed for the time being. She tried to play some games she had recently started but couldn't hold much concentration, with the same result for attempting to read. Eventually, she resorted to putting on a re-run of a TV show she watched as a child on her laptop while she lay in bed, reveling in the anticipation, waiting for the moment to arrive.
With every minute that drew nearer, her heart rate increased exponentially. Getting up from her bed, she began to pace, anxiety symptoms coming in fully fledged - Do I need to use the washroom again? Will the game know when I need to go to let me leave? Did I eat enough? I'm sweating too much - I need another glass of water! GAH, no, don't do that! You'll have to come out of the dive to use the washroom more often! And so the spiral continued.
At fifteen minutes to the hour, Rin stared nervously at the Nervegear. She had it removed from its box, plugged into the Ethernet connection, and ran through the manual and initial hardware setup process again - ensuring it was ready to go. Thankfully, the unit took care of the processing power on its end, so Rin didn't have to try and purchase a high-end computer to try and connect to the game. That would have seriously made this experience unattainable for her. She lay on the bed and placed the helmet on her head; it's cool, comfortable foam padding on the inside, cushioning, and molding to her head as she got into position. The visor in front of her eyes displays only a countdown and an internet connection status, appearing to be a sort of hologram display as if it were floating in free space 20 centimeters or so in front of her face.
"Time until Server Online: 00:00:14"
After the slowest 14 seconds of her life, it was finally time to experience her new beginning.
She could barely get the words out due to the excitement and anxiety, the phrase she had dreamed of saying for far longer than she was willing to admit.
"Link Start." after muttering it as no more than a whisper, everything went white.