Chapter 1: Reunion in GGO

For the first time in a while, my alarm clock had not awoken me on a weekday. With a groggy yawn, I pushed myself out of bed. With nothing to do, I turned on my computer instinctively before going to glance out my window. I could feel the heat of outside slip past the glass, and brightness was near blinding since my eyes hadn't fully adjusted from the darkness of sleep.

"I should be more excited, huh?" I said to myself. After all, it was the first day of summer. "But, my only problem is, what am I going to do?" I continued to glance out my window as my eyes became adjusted to the light. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and I had become warm from standing in the light for so long.

I looked away from the window as I sighed, and headed outside of my room. From brushing my teeth to eating breakfast, I took care of all of the mundane things that could be done in the morning.

My mother greeted me in the kitchen, "Morning, Alexan," she smiled softly at me. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did." I rolled my shoulders, before heading back to my room.

"Oh! Can you go out later and pick up some stuff for me at the store?" She called out to me.

"Yeah, of course," After all, I don't think I was going to have much else better to do any time soon, considering I didn't really have anyone to do anything with. I had moved to Tokorozawa from basically the opposite side of the country, and I had failed to really make any acquaintances, much less friends.

I went into my room and took a seat in my chair. With a flick of my mouse, the dual monitors came on. I ended up sitting there for a while, completely unsure what to do. I ended up wasting most of my time just watching videos and the like, though, it didn't take long until I had run out of things I would want to bother watching.

I sighed, looking through the internet, until I found an article on Alfheim Online. I had tried playing the game before, in an attempt to build a new circle for myself, even if it was just an online circle, though, I didn't run into much luck. Or rather, I guess I couldn't bring myself to put myself out there, even in the virtual world.

I groaned as I spun in my chair until my gaze fell upon my Amusphere. I hadn't really been able to use the thing, unlike my NerveGear- to an extent. I thought back to when I participated in SAO's closed Beta.

I picked up my Amusphere, "Who knows how different things would have been if I got home five minutes earlier that day?" I muttered to myself. Honestly, it was a thought that had come to me recently lately. Ever since I had moved here, I couldn't help but wonder if dealing with this new life would've been easier if I had logged into Sword Art Online that day.

I sighed. Part of me knew, that frankly, I just wasn't looking at that situation seriously enough. But, the other part of me, honestly didn't care. Because if I had gone in there, and actually made it out as a survivor. Well, I surely that means I would've found at least a few people that I could've called friend, that I would probably still be with me now.

"But, it's been a year since the SAO incident, so, what's the point in thinking about it now?" I was talking to my Amusphere, I guess…

I shook my head and placed it down on my dresser, where I had found it, "I guess I'll go pick up that stuff for Mom," I left my room yet again, and soon after I left the house after confirming all the things that she wanted me to get.

The walk there wasn't anything special, nor was getting the groceries. Pork, soy sauce, among other things before I headed to the checkout. It was very straightforward and plain, much like most of my time spent here.

I left the store with everything in hand. Looking towards the sky, I could see that the sun was going to set soon. The day was almost over, and I couldn't help but wonder, was every day of summer going to be like this?

I turned my attention back to the path in front of me, where I saw a group of guys. They walked closely to one another and spoke loudly. I couldn't quite make out what any of them were saying, though, they seemed to be having a good time, being rough with each other.

I couldn't help but keep glancing at them the entire time that they were walking, until they eventually passed me, "Yeah, if only." I muttered to myself.

I left the bag in the Kitchen once I returned home, and headed straight back up to my room. The natural light had dimmed a bit, and rather than turning on the light, I simply just flicked my mouse again, allowing my monitors to brighten the room up a little bit. I took a seat, looking back towards my Amusphere.

"And to think I used to solo games without any issue…" I trailed off, getting lost in thought until I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

I took out my phone, and was immediately confused. The number I saw, I didn't recognize, but area code indicated it wasn't too far away from me. Somewhere in Tokyo, if I was right. Looking closer, it was a text.

Alexan? It's Kureha, do you remember me?

I raised my eyebrows. I hadn't heard from her in years. We knew each other back when we were younger. But, she moved away from me about six or seven years ago. We managed to talk for some time after that, but, eventually we stopped talking almost completely.

Long time, no see… Or text I guess? Lol. Anyways, what's up?

Haha, yeah, sorry about that. But, I was wondering, would you mind playing a game with me? A VRMMO, actually.

A game?

Thinking back on it, even though Kureha never really did that kind of stuff, but, she was definitely the type to immerse herself into another place. I guess it was only a matter of time until she picked up a game.

Gun Gale Online. I started playing not all that long ago, and for some reason you just came to mind. So would you consider it?

At that moment, it hit me, this was exactly what I've been waiting for. All of my friends from back home didn't really keep up with me, which went to show that there wasn't much keeping us together in the first place. But, now I had a shot at actually getting what I wanted.

Yeah, actually. I'd be more happy to play a game with you. (＾▽＾)

Really?! O(≧∇≦)O Can we start tomorrow? Maybe at around 1pm?

Sounds good to me, I should have the game downloaded tonight. Is it free?

It is… Though, there's a subscription fee after the first month… But, you can pay it with ingame currency, so it should be fine!

Is that so? Then you better be ready play a whole lot with me to help with that.

Don't you worry! So, I'll be waiting for you!

I'll be there.

It took me the longest while to realize that I had the biggest, dumb grin on my face. Even after all this time, Kureha could a a smile on my face.

"Gun Gale Online, huh?" I placed my phone down beside my Amusphere and turned towards my computer. I went to download this game my childhood friend recommend to me. "Big surprise." I muttered to myself. "It has guns in it."

Honestly, shooters weren't exactly my cup of tea, but beggars can't be choosers. Though, despite that, I ended up researching the gameplay from top to bottom all night, until I eventually went to bed. I ended up falling asleep much easier than I thought I would've. Probably because I burnt myself out with all of my "research".

So, surely enough, the next day came, and that's when all of my excitement kicked in. I thought about just hopping in early, just to see the game, but I wanted meet Kureha the moment I went in. So, I stayed patient all throughout the morning, until it was finally time.

At around 12:40 I got a text from Kureha.

I'm logging on now, I'll see you in a bit?

I'll be right behind you.

Again, I had a stupid grin on my face as I went to grab my Amusphere and put it on. I flopped into my bed as I closed my eyes.

"Link. Start." And just like that, I was pulled from the real world into the virtual one. My consciousness was brought into a void of soft blue light, and then, an avatar appeared in front of me. It seemed that this was a character creation screen, which was surprisingly new for VRMMOs outside of SAO. I remember when I had tried Alfheim, I didn't have any choice in what I looked like aside from my race.

While I was there, SAO came to mind naturally. Apparently everyone trapped in the game had looked exactly like they did in real life, because of NerveGear being able to see essentially your entire head.

Welcome, Alexan!

So, for some reason, I decided to say "Why not?" and make my character's face look exactly like my own, along with including my caramel skin tone. About 170cm tall. White hair would've given good contrast and made me look cool, and making it spikey would fit the game's aesthetic. I decided to make the eyes my favorite color: green. And just like that, I had what was literally just a fantasized version of myself.

After a quick confirmation message, I loaded into the world that was known as Gun Gale Online. I looked down at my hands and balled them up. I embraced the feeling that came with being inside VR.

I took a deep breath and looked around, I had spawned in a gritty, futuristic city. The color pallet consisted of metal and rock. I could see countless people, walking about and conversing.

"So, this is SBC Glocken, huh?" I rolled my shoulders as I took my first steps.

"That's right," A girl in a pink battle coat approached. "Eh, what's this?" She got closer, really close. So close that if I didn't already figure out who it was, that I would've been beyond uncomfortable.

"K-Kureha?" I stepped back just a bit. Her face was directly in front of mine. My eyes couldn't escape her, whether they landed on her bright blue eyes, her fiery pink hair, or her pale skin.

And then I started blushing.

At that moment, she pulled away from me, "Right!" She smiled at me, "Although, I haven't seen in you such a long time, your avatar reminds me so much of you. Did you really?…"

"Well, how about you?" I looked up and down at her, "Your character reminds me of you too."

Kureha began to pout, "Well, I'd been thinking about inviting you to play for a while. So when the character customization update came out, I thought that this would be most convenient." She twirled her hair around her finger.

I smiled at her, "Alright, alright. I guess it doesn't really matter either way." A pop-up appeared at my side, asking me if I wanted to do the tutorial. "Oh, I should probably…" I reached out to hit yes, but Kureha immediately grabbed my hand. I looked at her, puzzled.

"Oh, ah, you don't wanna take the tutorial…" She laughed nervously.

"Eh, is it that bad? Is there a bug with it or something?" I blinked at her.

She glanced off to the side, "Oh, it's bad alright… I still get dreams about that woman…"

"Dreams? Woman? …Kureha?"

She looked back to me with a big smile on her face, "Don't worry, don't worry. I'll be the best tutorial you've ever seen!"

For some reason, that just made me believe I was about to receive the worst tutorial in my life.

"Eh?" Kureha frowned. "Why are you making that face?

"Don't worry, Sensei," I waved her off. "So, where does my tutorial start?"

"It starts at the store! After all, you can't shoot anything without a gun, now can you?" She grabbed my hand. She had made an obvious yet, solid point. "And you can try guns in NPC shops for free, so you don't have to worry about getting anything you don't like!" She looked back at me as she began pulling me forward. "And hopefully we'll be able to do something about those clothes too!"

"Eh? You're not planning on dressing me up or something, are you?"

"Maybe, maybe! But don't worry, not until you're geared up."

Well, that sure didn't make me feel better. What were the chances she was gonna dig into her own pocket to put something weird on me? They weren't high, right?

Regardless, we ended up at the gun store and there were so many options that it blew my mind. I could tell the difference between a submachine gun and a pistol, or a assault rifle and a sniper rifle, but just the sheer amount of numbers was a bit much to deal with.

"I… have absolutely no idea where to start." I told her, looking through the menus of guns.

"Well, it's not as bad as it seems, a newbie can only use so many of guns there," She told me. "So, that narrows down your choices for now."

Now that I looked, I noticed the further I went down the menu, the more choices that were grayed out. Weapons had stat restrictions.

Then it hit me, every VRMMO came from the Seed, meaning all of the stats I had in Alfheim would carry over here.

"Hold on a second," I closed out the store menu and opened up my character status menu. I had dozens of points at my disposal, though, it seemed upgrading a single skill cost ten per point. "So, if I were gunman in real life…"

"Wait, you're not level one?" Kureha looked at me surprised. "Well, I guess that helps, in the long run. Though, now, you have a lot more options than I thought you would."

"Yeah," I told her. "I actually played ALO for a little bit, but… Well, I didn't have anyone else to play with."

"ALO, huh?" Kureha paused for a moment. "Those kinds of games always seemed to be your thing, though, funnily enough if it weren't for you, I might've decided to do the same with this game." She put her hands behind her head, looking up a bit.

"You don't have anyone else in this game?" I looked directly towards her. Kureha was the kind of person that after some time, could get people to gravitate towards her.

"I've been in a lot of Squadrons- Guilds. But, I just couldn't stick in any of them. So, you came to mind, and I thought, 'why not give it a shot?'" She looked towards me.

I finished allocating my stats, then Kureha got closer. She looked at the numbers curiously.

"...Is something wrong?" I asked her. Were my stats that bad?

"An AGI build huh? I took you more for the glass cannon type." She told me. "But, no, as long as you can work with your stats, I don't think really think any set up is particularly bad."

"I guess you could say I'm working for more of a 'duelist' build." I told her.

She smiled at me, "Well, 'Duelist-kun', lets work on finding you that weapon, yeah?"

So then, we ended up at the shooting range for the store. First up? Sniper Rifles. The idea of a gun generally being able to take it's target out in one shot definitely sounded good on paper.

I aimed down the scope, and held my breath. I waited inbetween my heartbeats, and I took my shot. Though, I didn't see a bullet hole appear anywhere on the target. Regardless, I shook my head, took a deep breath, and tried again. The gun fired, but again, the bullet was nowhere to be seen.

I fired again. Then again. Until finally Kureha said, "DEX is your second highest stat… yet, you're awful with Snipers."

I groaned.

"Well, that's fine!" She told me, "You can't really use all that AGI lugging around that heavy thing anyways!" She pointed to a gun under the submachine gun class. "Here, this is pretty similar to the gun I use."

I materialized that gun next and aimed at the target. At first, my shots were landing on the target, but only at first. The imbalance of the gun made my aim go all over the place, I think I ended up just plain shooting the ceiling at one point.

Kureha simply put a hand on my shoulder, "Well, that's fine. Both of us using similar weapons could be advantageous sometimes! Let's try assault rifles next!"

The assault rifle, honestly wasn't a much different story from the submachine gun. Granted this time, I managed not to shoot the ceiling.

"Well… There's pistols." Kureha said sheepishly.

"And so many of them," Even with my relatively low stats, there were so many I could use. "Glock, Glock, oh look, another Glock."

"Ah, yeah, that's pretty much the newbie brand for pistols," She told me. "Try a .45, since it seems you won't be using any traditional primaries anytime soon…"

".45… So, let's try…" I decided to pick the G41. I aimed down the sights, and fired. Probably averaging about two shots until I emptied the clip. Every shot had not only landed on the target, but weren't very far off from the center of chest, which was where I was aiming.

"You have hope! Honestly, I was pretty worried for a second," Kureha let out a sigh of relief.

"It definitely works, but let's try something that might be just a tad less unweildy." I went back into the menu and grabbed a G34.

"Unwieldy… I guess you could say that. Smaller calliber bullets also provide more penetrative power. But, you do lose out on upfront damage."

I aimed down the sights, and this time, easily getting in 3 shots a second, my accuracy rivaled my results with the G41.

"A knack for pistols, huh? But, you could probably make that work with your build…"

"The light weight of the pistols let me abuse my AGI, and my DEX makes up for the accuracy and damage deficit that pistols usually have." I reloaded the gun before pulling out another one from the menu, holding one in either hand.

I sent out a barrage of bullets on the target. While my overall accuracy did suffer, against any real enemy, my DPS easily would've still almost doubled.

"Your game knowledge… is a whole lot better than I expected." Kureha looked at me in awe.

I reloaded both pistols before realizing what she had said, "Well," I laughed a bit, "I did do a lot of research last night. I was actually pretty excited to come on." I rubbed the back of my head. "I can get pretty out of hand when it comes stuff like this."

"Mmm… Well, it let's me know you really want to be here!" She told me, "Because honestly, I'd feel pretty bad if I were actually bothering you."

I looked back to her, showing her my dumb looking grin for the first time, "I think I found my guns for now." I went to stand directly in front of her, "Let's get started, yeah?"

She looked at me. I could tell something came to her mind, but, I wasn't sure what. But, she smiled at me with content, "Yeah, let's go."