Beep-!
Beep-!
Beep-!
The sound of an alarm kept ringing in Shiro's ears, causing his mind to be fully awake in an instant. Opening his eyes, he saw the dim white ceiling and its luxurious design. His sight wandered around the hotel room, but he could not find Cardinal.
'Wait.'
He remembered that one of the alarms sounded more distinct than the rest. Shiro opened the chat group panel, only to see a notification in his [Private] tab.
[Private] Cardinal: "I'll be dealing with the talks today. You look so peaceful while sleeping so I did not wake you up."
Seeing this, he mumbled, "Looks like all the planning caught up on me."
Sleep is no longer necessary now that his level of existence, his life level, is high enough to ignore the basic necessities of a mortal. This is why he could continuously make meticulous preparations for the upcoming attack today.
It has been two days since the agreement of Nexus and Babel was made. Many preparations had been done by him and Cardinal in response to the foreigners that will come today. That's right, he chose to tell everything to Cardinal.
With his finance, she successfully made more [Two-way Foils] with varying qualities. There are also many god-slaying technology inside her [Dimensional Storage].
"That woman."
Shiro thought of the stunning appearance of the foreigner. While she is indeed beautiful, he knew that everything is just the surface. Such foreigners are rejected by the world. Only he, Cardinal, and Strea are the exception.
He can perfectly blend in Terra as it had "accepted" him in the first place. Meanwhile, Cardinal and Strea are affected by his Ancient-level power back in Madoka's world, which ended up having the same effect as what he have.
'...'
Inadvertently, he recalled his dark history.
"[Grand Blazer]!"
"[All Blade Divider]!"
"[Final Blazer]!"
"Twintail, on!"
Pak-!
Shiro slapped both sides of his face so as to forget about it. Truly, he wouldn't have used it if not for the underlying circumstances at that time. Though, he still got lucky as he reached his goal by using it.
"Right. How is that girl doing?"
His mind dove within the [Tail Gear] in his right arm. There, Shiro found himself in a void. It is different from the void in reality as the space here doesn't contain anything—it is nothing but pure emptiness.
"Huh."
He saw a silhouette floating in a fixed position. The figure, a girl, is sleeping peacefully like a cat. Strangely, her appearance is almost identical as Shiro's. It's what would Shiro look like if he's a girl.
Seeing this, he quietly left.
"There's no reason to involve her... for now."
As of the moment, Shiro is confident with his current strength. Not only is his base stats more than 240 million (due to the buffs), he's also a god with different authorities. It is different from that time when he challenged Walpurgis and Kyuubey as a Demigod.
There's also [Augmentation] and his treasury to support him.
"Today is gonna be a long day."
Wearing a white tracksuit over his t-shirt, Shiro headed out of his room.
*****
"""WHOAH!!!"""
The deafening cheers of the crowd responded to the victory of Black Knight, a Leithanien Knight. She defeated one of the finals prospect in this year's Majors, which earned the admiration of many.
After all, she came from Leithania, a country known for their arts casters. Most of the population in that place are casters, thus the Black Knight, someone who uses her pure physical capabilities, distinguished herself from the rest.
That, and she's a beautiful and valiant woman.
The Kazimierz Major having more than 70% male watchers isn't just for show. More than half of them will turn into what Earthlings call as "simps" the moment they see a beautiful female knight with great strength.
"And the Black Knight finishes off her opponent with a powerful blow! As expected of a pure physical knight!" The commentator shouted, adding more fuel to the audiences' excitement. "Up next is the fight between her and the Left-Handed Knight, so don't miss it out!"
"'"OHHHHH!!!"""
Meanwhile, the Black Knight, Degenbrecher, felt nothing as she watch the excited audience. In the first place, she had joined here purely for employment and a good fight. As far as the latter goes, it went unsatisfied.
Just as she was about to head into the waiting room, she found a Kuranta guard strolling in the hallway.
Flicker-!
"Mn." In an instant, she turned vigilant, with her hand holding the sword sheathed in her waist. "This feeling."
Clang-!
Sparks flew as her sword and the Kuranta's blade collided. Due to this, she met the latter's eyes for a second. For some reasons, it is completely silver—it reminded her of the moonlight's reflection in a pond.
Clang-!
Clang-!
Clang-!
Every hit, she was being pushed back bit by bit. Still, she remained calm as she waited for the opportunity to appear.
'Now.'
Degenbrecher narrowly avoided the thrust in her head. Before the guard could even reach, her dark blade slid through his.
Psshk-!
A hole was pierced through the guard's throat. It seemed unexpected even for him as his eyes widened upon seeing this. It stands to reason that he would not be able to react due to the pain. However...
Swooosh-!
The blade that she narrowly avoided sliced down at her arm. Fortunately, Degenbrecher's intuition told her to let go of her sword. The only downside is her only weapon being stuck in her enemy.
Like a zombie, he swiftly closed the distance between them.
Sou-!
Sou-!
Sou-!
Degenbrecher could dodge his thrusts due to her experiences. Still, she is bound to lose if this continues.
'I need to get it back.' She thought.
Sou-!
She ducked and avoided his strike once more. Then, she swept her leg on his, throwing him off balance. The moment he is about to slip, she dexterously grabbed the black sword in his neck and twisted it.
Splat-!
With her great strength, she was able to separate his head from his body. She swung her blade in the floor, cleansing it off the flesh and blood stuck in it.
"More of them?"
Not far away, she saw several more guards with silver irises. She was about to ready her stance when she sensed 'something' flashing through them.
'A point.'
Usually, a sword produces a line, making it easier to deflect. Meanwhile, a spear produces a dot as their attacks are mostly thrusts. Two completely different concepts, yet Degebrecher saw an unforgettable contradiction at this moment.
A black sword just like hers quickly flashed through the necks of the guards. Then, a thin blood line appeared in it before their heads slid off their bodies.
"A sword... that moves like a spear?"
"Oh? So this young miss understands it."
Looking at that person, she found out that he is a Sankta. Though, what was more important is his stunning appearance. Beauty... handsome... all of these descriptions popped inside her head.
*****
Fact #90: Did you know that Sword Art Online wasn't successful on its first release? Reki made it for a writing competition back in 2001 (Dengeki Game Novel Prize), in which he even exceeded the required word count... by 120 pages! It is basically half of the entire Aincrad arc! Though, it resulted in him not passing it in the contest and write SAO (basically the entirety of Aincrad arc) in a webnovel format instead. With less than 150 readers, he kept on doing so until his work, Accel World, won the Grand Prize in another competition held by Dengeki Bunko. When his other work, Accel World, was about to be published as a light novel, his editor told him that they can try publishing SAO too, so they did. Soon, SAO grew famous that it got an anime adaptation. As for the rest, it is history...
PS: SAO is the first of its kind to popularize the VRMMO genre in the anime industry. You can see some other inspirations from it such as Log Horizon and any other isekai series that you can name of (they're mostly the same anyways).
Beep-!
Beep-!
Beep-!
The sound of an alarm kept ringing in Shiro's ears, causing his mind to be fully awake in an instant. Opening his eyes, he saw the dim white ceiling and its luxurious design. His sight wandered around the hotel room, but he could not find Cardinal.
'Wait.'
He remembered that one of the alarms sounded more distinct than the rest. Shiro opened the chat group panel, only to see a notification in his [Private] tab.
[Private] Cardinal: "I'll be dealing with the talks today. You look so peaceful while sleeping so I did not wake you up."
Seeing this, he mumbled, "Looks like all the planning caught up on me."
Sleep is no longer necessary now that his level of existence, his life level, is high enough to ignore the basic necessities of a mortal. This is why he could continuously make meticulous preparations for the upcoming attack today.
It has been two days since the agreement of Nexus and Babel was made. Many preparations had been done by him and Cardinal in response to the foreigners that will come today. That's right, he chose to tell everything to Cardinal.
With his finance, she successfully made more [Two-way Foils] with varying qualities. There are also many god-slaying technology inside her [Dimensional Storage].
"That woman."
Shiro thought of the stunning appearance of the foreigner. While she is indeed beautiful, he knew that everything is just the surface. Such foreigners are rejected by the world. Only he, Cardinal, and Strea are the exception.
He can perfectly blend in Terra as it had "accepted" him in the first place. Meanwhile, Cardinal and Strea are affected by his Ancient-level power back in Madoka's world, which ended up having the same effect as what he have.
'...'
Inadvertently, he recalled his dark history.
"[Grand Blazer]!"
"[All Blade Divider]!"
"[Final Blazer]!"
"Twintail, on!"
Pak-!
Shiro slapped both sides of his face so as to forget about it. Truly, he wouldn't have used it if not for the underlying circumstances at that time. Though, he still got lucky as he reached his goal by using it.
"Right. How is that girl doing?"
His mind dove within the [Tail Gear] in his right arm. There, Shiro found himself in a void. It is different from the void in reality as the space here doesn't contain anything—it is nothing but pure emptiness.
"Huh."
He saw a silhouette floating in a fixed position. The figure, a girl, is sleeping peacefully like a cat. Strangely, her appearance is almost identical as Shiro's. It's what would Shiro look like if he's a girl.
Seeing this, he quietly left.
"There's no reason to involve her... for now."
As of the moment, Shiro is confident with his current strength. Not only is his base stats more than 240 million (due to the buffs), he's also a god with different authorities. It is different from that time when he challenged Walpurgis and Kyuubey as a Demigod.
There's also [Augmentation] and his treasury to support him.
"Today is gonna be a long day."
Wearing a white tracksuit over his t-shirt, Shiro headed out of his room.
*****
"""WHOAH!!!"""
The deafening cheers of the crowd responded to the victory of Black Knight, a Leithanien Knight. She defeated one of the finals prospect in this year's Majors, which earned the admiration of many.
After all, she came from Leithania, a country known for their arts casters. Most of the population in that place are casters, thus the Black Knight, someone who uses her pure physical capabilities, distinguished herself from the rest.
That, and she's a beautiful and valiant woman.
The Kazimierz Major having more than 70% male watchers isn't just for show. More than half of them will turn into what Earthlings call as "simps" the moment they see a beautiful female knight with great strength.
"And the Black Knight finishes off her opponent with a powerful blow! As expected of a pure physical knight!" The commentator shouted, adding more fuel to the audiences' excitement. "Up next is the fight between her and the Left-Handed Knight, so don't miss it out!"
"'"OHHHHH!!!"""
Meanwhile, the Black Knight, Degenbrecher, felt nothing as she watch the excited audience. In the first place, she had joined here purely for employment and a good fight. As far as the latter goes, it went unsatisfied.
Just as she was about to head into the waiting room, she found a Kuranta guard strolling in the hallway.
Flicker-!
"Mn." In an instant, she turned vigilant, with her hand holding the sword sheathed in her waist. "This feeling."
Clang-!
Sparks flew as her sword and the Kuranta's blade collided. Due to this, she met the latter's eyes for a second. For some reasons, it is completely silver—it reminded her of the moonlight's reflection in a pond.
Clang-!
Clang-!
Clang-!
Every hit, she was being pushed back bit by bit. Still, she remained calm as she waited for the opportunity to appear.
'Now.'
Degenbrecher narrowly avoided the thrust in her head. Before the guard could even reach, her dark blade slid through his.
Psshk-!
A hole was pierced through the guard's throat. It seemed unexpected even for him as his eyes widened upon seeing this. It stands to reason that he would not be able to react due to the pain. However...
Swooosh-!
The blade that she narrowly avoided sliced down at her arm. Fortunately, Degenbrecher's intuition told her to let go of her sword. The only downside is her only weapon being stuck in her enemy.
Like a zombie, he swiftly closed the distance between them.
Sou-!
Sou-!
Sou-!
Degenbrecher could dodge his thrusts due to her experiences. Still, she is bound to lose if this continues.
'I need to get it back.' She thought.
Sou-!
She ducked and avoided his strike once more. Then, she swept her leg on his, throwing him off balance. The moment he is about to slip, she dexterously grabbed the black sword in his neck and twisted it.
Splat-!
With her great strength, she was able to separate his head from his body. She swung her blade in the floor, cleansing it off the flesh and blood stuck in it.
"More of them?"
Not far away, she saw several more guards with silver irises. She was about to ready her stance when she sensed 'something' flashing through them.
'A point.'
Usually, a sword produces a line, making it easier to deflect. Meanwhile, a spear produces a dot as their attacks are mostly thrusts. Two completely different concepts, yet Degebrecher saw an unforgettable contradiction at this moment.
A black sword just like hers quickly flashed through the necks of the guards. Then, a thin blood line appeared in it before their heads slid off their bodies.
"A sword... that moves like a spear?"
"Oh? So this young miss understands it."
Looking at that person, she found out that he is a Sankta. Though, what was more important is his stunning appearance. Beauty... handsome... all of these descriptions popped inside her head.
*****
Fact #90: Did you know that Sword Art Online wasn't successful on its first release? Reki made it for a writing competition back in 2001 (Dengeki Game Novel Prize), in which he even exceeded the required word count... by 120 pages! It is basically half of the entire Aincrad arc! Though, it resulted in him not passing it in the contest and write SAO (basically the entirety of Aincrad arc) in a webnovel format instead. With less than 150 readers, he kept on doing so until his work, Accel World, won the Grand Prize in another competition held by Dengeki Bunko. When his other work, Accel World, was about to be published as a light novel, his editor told him that they can try publishing SAO too, so they did. Soon, SAO grew famous that it got an anime adaptation. As for the rest, it is history...
PS: SAO is the first of its kind to popularize the VRMMO genre in the anime industry. You can see some other inspirations from it such as Log Horizon and any other isekai series that you can name of (they're mostly the same anyways).
