I choose the castle

[blueayes]

"Good morning Night City!"

"I could bother you about the current news around the world but let's be honest, none of you care about that, so I'll get straight to the point."

"The leaders of the flying island on top of us, or should I say Paradice, otherwise known as Aincrad, have said no to any corporation entering it, but they will be allowing both the New United States and the Republic of Texas to trade with them."

'Now I know what you are all saying, that they can't possibly defend themselves from the Corpos. Well, I have news for all of you!"

"We all have seen the lush forest, the abundant wildlife, and everything that's needed for us to live as kings."

"But that place is full of dangerous creatures."

'What did you say? You don't believe me? Well, let me tell you!"

"They have giant bears, the kind that only Highly augmented people can have a chance of fighting if they are lucky."

"There are bugs in there so dangerous that most militaries can't even scratch, and those are just the ones that the Players say are in the Middle."

"There are stronger things in there, and yes, they are that dangerous."

"Now for some good news, if you want to eat fresh fruits, vegetables, even realm meat, the players are allowing people from the lower levels into the island."

"But hold on before you think about trying to get in; if or when you are discovered to be someone from a corporation, they will consider it a declaration of war."

"So don't get caught!"

Gloria turned off the radio as she drove to her son's school; she couldn't help but worry about what mess he had gotten himself in, but she couldn't stop herself from smiling.

Inside the passenger seat was a pair of tickets; she had signed both herself and David for permission to enter Aincrad. She didn't expect that the Players would let them in, as everything good in this world was only for those that had money.

Her day started completely normal, that is, if she ignored the fact that someone was knocking at her door.

It wasn't that she didn't have guests before, but no one showed up so early if they weren't hiding from someone or crazy.

So anyone can imagine her shock when she saw someone dressed as a knight standing outside.

"Gloria Martinez?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Congratulations, we have accepted you and your son." the knight said to her as he handed her the tickets.

"The moment that the two of you step into Aincrad, you will be considered citizens of the Castle and will be given all rights as such and will be expected to follow our laws." he said to her before he lifted his hand.

Gloria didn't know what to say; she honestly believed that none of this was real and that she was still asleep, so even as she shook the man's hand, she dint know how to act.

The man said his goodbyes and walked towards the exit of the building.

She was brought out of her memories as she arrived at David's school, and even before she entered the main building, both the teachers and the students looked at her with disgust.

She ignored them.

It wasn't that their glares didn't hurt in the past they did, but not anymore. After today, she would go back home and take David to the Castle, and they would start over.

She opened the door to the principal's office and walked in; she listened to the list of rules and things that were destroyed by the defective program that David used when he tried to bypass the school's security so that he could study with everyone else.

She felt her heart sink when she heard how much she would have to pay.

'There are two options open for David."

"You can pay for the repairs, or you can transfer to another school; I suggest the latter." the principal says to her.

Gloria was about t say that she would pay, but the image of the knight standing at her door forced her to keep her mouth closed. She remembered that they would be in Aincrad tomorrow, so the chances that David would return to this school were slim.

Gloria closed her eyes and hoped that she was making the right decision.

"David won't be coming back." she said to the principal, who looked at her with relief in his eyes.

"David, Miss Martinez, take it from a fellow rat of the city."

"You made the right decision; there are things that happen to those that shine brighter than the children of those that rule over us." the principal said to them as they walked out of his office.

The two of them walked without saying a word. Gloria bit her lip as the feelings of rage and pain filled her; she had just ruined David's future for something that neither of them knew much about.

"Mom."David said to her as she started the car.

'Look under the seat." she says to him as her voice carries her anger.

"Mom?" David repeated.

'Look under the seat David!" she raised her voice as she drove away from the school, and David did as she told him; he soon found the tickets and looked at her with wide eyes after he read what was written on them.

Gloria can see the wide smile David has as she enters the freeway, she turns and grins at him, and so she fails to see that the car next to hers has a man carrying a bazooka.

The man fires, and the car in front of them explodes; Gloria tries to avoid crashing into it, but the woman driving the car next to hers is panicking, and she slams her car into the woman's, but she can't avoid the burning car and so she crashes into it.

"Mom! Mom!' Gloria thinks that she can hear David calling to her, but she isn't sure; everything is so heavy and dark; she never sees the armored boots land next to her and David.

 

[blueayes]

The first thing she noticed was the smell of the air or the lack of smell; as Gloria opened her eyes, she found herself in a room that had light coming into it through the windows.

"Grate your awake." a woman says to her.

'Where am I?" Gloria asks her.

"You are on the first floor of Aincrad in the Town of Beginnings, and I'm your nurse."

"You were caught up in an attack, and you crashed into another car."

" Your tickets sent out an emergency call, and the Players answered the call for help because they believed some people would target the ones that they gave tickets to."

'David!" Gloria says loudly as she suddenly remembers that David was with her when she crashed.

"He is at your house, probably unpacking your things, he didn't want to leave your side, but it takes longer to heal a person's brain than to heal a person's body." the nurse explains to her.

Gloria looks out the window and sees the green grass that is just out of reach, she can see the nurse smiling as the woman takes a deep breath.

"Hard to believe that we made it up here, isn't it." the nurse says to her before smirking when Gloria turns to look at her.

"I'm from Night City like you; we're getting a lot of people like you." Gloria looks at the nurse, who is smiling at her but then realizes that Gloria doesn't understand what she means.

"What I mean is people that were attacked."

"The corporations and gangs began to target everyone that was given a ticket when word about the players allowing people into the castle spread." The nurse points to herself before she continues to talk.

"You can imagine that they began to let people in before that. I was one of them."

"I guess they expected things to go bad, but all things considered, they aren't that bad, so if you think that you can walk, go outside, and come back when you're ready." the nurse says to her before she walks out of the room.

Gloria can only lay on the bed and begins to cry, she cries for a long time, or maybe she didn't cry for long, she just knew that she needed to call David.
[][][
Elsewhere

Maine looked at Lucy for a long moment, then he lifted the bottle in his hand and took the longest drink of his life before bringing the bottle onto the table so hard that it made a loud bang sound when it hit the table.

"Say it again, but In kind of stupid, so say it slowly and explain it to me." he says to Lucy, who looks at him with the same wide eyes that she had when the cosplayer handed her the hand full of tickets.

"That guy that just left." Lucy says to him.

"Yeah, the guy wearing the armor." Main immediately answers her.

"Just said that we were approved to Aincrad, the Island in the sky, and these are our tickets in." Lucy says to him, and everyone stares at the tickets that she is holding in her hands before they all grab one and begin to celebrate.

'Okay, so how do we do that? How do we get up there?" Maine asks her.

"It says here that all that we have to do is press the button, and we will be teleported on board, and if we want, the Players will help us pack our things." Kiwi says to him s she reads the words on the ticket.

All over the Republic of Texas and the New United States, people were receiving tickets that said that they were accepted into the castle.

Some didn't waste any time and told whoever visited them that there was no reason for them to wait and immediately left.

Others ran home to get their families before they left.

Some were forced to fight their way out of allies, streets, their own homes, or wherever they worked when word about them being chosen reached the ears of someone that wanted their place.

Amongst these groups of people were retired men and women that didn't have a place n the world after the last corporate war, and so they were now living on the streets amongst others who were abandoned by the world.

Outside of Night City, entire towns and a few traveling Nomads cheered and fired their weapons into the air when they received the news.

Men, women, and children eagerly began to pack whatever valuables they had before they pressed the button on the tickets and teleported into Aincrad.

As this was going on, both the President of the New United States and the President of the Republic of Texas talked about what they were going to do to make sure that the resources of Aincrad didn't leave their areas of control.

It didn't help that the island was currently above Night City, a place that has so many foreigners living in it, but considering that the city had its independence, the castle wasn't trading with them at the moment.

So it was up to them to make sure that the day that the castle began to trade with the city didn't come soon.

In Night City, the leaders of the various corporations that rule over the city looked at Aincrad with hunger.

They wanted everything in the castle\ island as far as they were concerned; it was their right to own everything on it.

Yet the players selfishly denied it to them and went as far as to tell them that it was the corporation's actions that led to the current state of the world.

For now, it didn't matter, but in time they would have their revenge, and the castle will either fall or be under their control.
][][

Gloria can only take a deep breath as she looks at the world around her; everything looks so new, so clean, like the areas where everyone that has money lives.

She notices a bright flash, and she suddenly sees a group of people where a moment ago, there wasn't anyone there.

"Welcome this way, please." she hears one of the knights say to the group before he leads them to a nearby building.

As Gloria goes back to looking at the world around her, she begins to worry, she was so excited about being accepted into the island that she didn't think about what she would do when she was up here, and now that she is here, she can't help but worry.

"Miss Martinez." Asuna says to Gloria.

Gloria turns and finds herself looking at a Japanese girl with light brown hair whose wearing white armor.

'I'm Asuna, Second in command of the Knights of the Blood Oath; I'm glad that my men could get to you on time." Asuna says to her.

Gloria can't help but swallow nervously. She had seen this girl in the news when the corporations tried to force their way into the city and when both the Republic of Texas and the New United States sent their armies.

She knows what the knights are capable of, and she is completely aware that the woman in front of her can kill her with her pink finger.

"Thank you for saving me." Gloria says to Asuna as she bows her head to the knight.

"Please don't do that, you are one of us now, so you don't have to be overly formal or respectful to any of us."

"I just came to check on the new arrivals and saw that you were awake, so I thought I would welcome you properly." Asuna says to her with a friendly voice that nearly makes Gloria forget that the woman in front of her is a monster in the form of a small teenage girl.

"I need to find work." Gloria says to Asuna as bluntly as she can, not because she doesn't know how to ask, but because she knows that if she needs something, it's better to ask for it now that she has just started to live here.

"Okay, you can go back to doing what you did before you came here."

"We have a lot of farms that you can live in. We have transportation going in and out if you are interested, and you can help hunt monsters or work in the mines if you want."

"We have tons of work here, so if you don't like one job, you can leave it and move on to the next." Asuna says to her as she lists the various things that Gloria can do.

Asuna lets out a breath while at the same time, she lets out a small chuckle.

"We do things differently up here. You will find that Aincrad is bigger inside than what people outside see, so don't be afraid to let your hair down and relax," Asuna says to her.

A flash of light catches their attention as a group of heavily armed men arrives. The men immediately throw the weapons that aren't part of their bodies onto the ground as a group of knights walks up to them.

"Things are changing for all of us, so we need to adapt, or else the world around us will break us under its boots." Asuna says to her as the knights order the men to pick up their weapons and follow them to one of the large buildings.

As Asuna leaves, Gloria can only take a deep breath before she turns and walks back to her room.

She begins to look for a new school that David can attend; to her surprise, there are several on the island, and all of them offer on-the-job training.

 

[Otritzi]

I can't wait for Kirito to step up and deal with a group of attackers. Just him zipping past a group of heavy borgs literally disarming them will be a sight to 'see'.

 

[blueayes]

Heathcliff watched the number of new residents of Aincrad growing with every passing second.

He hated it.

He didn't hate the people that were coming into Aincrad, nor did he hate the insane A.I'sthat are all over the internet. No, he could forgive all of that.

What blame did the regular person have?

Sure, a person could vote and even pick up arms, but when a government or, in this case, a bunch of corporations begin to bomb each other and destroy everything just because they think that they can get away with it, then he had a problem.

It didn't help that those that ruled over those same corporations tried to take Aincrad for themselves and literally sit on his throne.

He didn't like that the Net Runners that had been allowed into Aincrad were already trying to hack it from the inside or that the Net runners outside of Aincrad were trying to do the same thing.

Radius had created several defenses that would kill and take the minds of the people that tried to hurt Aincrad.

What she created was similar to his Nerve Gear, except that she only copied the person's mind, so the hackers were always killed.

He didn't like that Aincrads economy was already becoming a part of the Republic of Texas and the New United States economies, but this is what happens when two different places start to trade with each other.

Normally the players would have chosen to trade with Japan or any Eastern power, but everyone chose not to after they saw what had happened to the world.

"We are going to need transporters and soldiers." he says to Kirito, who is looking through the internet.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do about it?" Kirito rudely answers him.

"I want you to go down there and get some for us, look for people with families, and offer them a chance to come up here with a catch."

"Their families can come up here, but they can only visit. They can live up here for months or years, but once they are needed, they are expected to move out, no matter what." He says to Kirito.

Kirito turns and looks at him for a long moment before he turns back and continues to scroll through the different web pages.

"No, I won't do that to anyone," Kirito says t him.

"Then are you willing to risk having soldiers come in here again and try to take Aincrad from us like last time?" he asks Kirito, who doesn't answer him.

"...." kirito

"Tell me what you really want, and I might listen." Kirito says to him.

"That's it. I just want to keep us safe, and as odd as it seems, we can't trust anyone else but the two failing governments."

"the truth is that I wanted to contact Japan, China, or anyone else, but the problem is that even if this place is bad, they're even worse," he answers Kirito.

"Okay, but why do you want me to go down there?" Kirito asks him.

"Because unlike everyone else, you have a wife and daughter waiting for you to come back every day."

"Any complaints that those soldiers, I mean transporters or truck drivers, will die because you, a player is, with them." Heathcliff answers Kirito.

'Okay, s what about everyone beneath us? They are all looking at us, and that means that if they see an opening that looks weak enough to attack, they will take it." Kirito says to him.

"That opening is going to happen no matter what we do, but the best thing that we can do is prepare for it."

"And that means getting used to the politics and the way that people in the outside world do things." he answers Kirito, who doesn't answer him.

Heathcliff looks past Kirito and smirks when he sees that Kirito is doing the same thing he did, so it won't be long before he agrees with him.

Heathcliff knows that Kirito isn't the only one doing this, as several of the players wanted to go home and see if their families exited in this world; unfortunately for them, he knew that they didn't.

So any connection that the players had to their homeland was nothing more than a distant memory.

 

[blueayes]

David was busy putting away his family's things but he couldn't help but worry about his mom, he had seen when the knights landed before he passed.

When he woke up again he demanded that they let him see her.

He can still remember how the bruises and cuts that she had were closing and healing themselves until they were gone.

We gave her some healing potions, to make sure that her body is okay, but her brain is a little bit more complicated." the nurse said to him.

David was about to shake the woman out of desperation but a man wearing heavy black armor stopped him before he could do anything.

"Relax, I said it was more complicated, I never said that it was impossible." the nurse said to him before a holographic screen appeared in front of him.

"David didn't understand what was being shown to him only that he was looking at a brain.

"Your mom's brain is swelling, meaning that it hasn't stopped, The potions are doing their job and reversing it but we need to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't lose her memory." the nurse said to him before she gave him a thumbs up.

"So go home, the house that you were assigned to is on your help screen."

"And before you ask no you can't stay, I shouldn't have let you come in, because this place has to stay clean, but she is your mom so I made an exception."

Everything seemed like a blur after that, he just followed the arrow that appeared on his holo screen, and walked inside.

He didn't care that people were bringing his family's things inside he just sat down in a corner and closed his eyes.

The sound of someone knocking caught his attention and David walked to the door, Then his heart stopped, his mom was standing.

He didn't say anything he just hugged her.

David wanted to believe that this was a dream but when his mom hugged him back he knew that it was real.

"Cough" Sorry to interrupt but Miss Martinez your condition is stable for now, so you should avoid stress for the next six days."

"Until then your expenses will be dealt with by the council as for your son's school and job, he can start whenever you are capable of taking care of yourself." the same man that was wearing the black heavy armor said to his mom before he walked away.

"Who was that guy?" David ass his mom.

"He is one of the guards for the hospital."

"My nurse said that since the castle started letting people in, a lot of people have arrived injured so knights are stationed in the hospital just in case someone goes crazy." his mom answers him.

"You're here right this isn't a dream?" David asks Gloria who nods and silently cries before kissing him on the forehead.

[Night City."
"Good morning Night City!"

"I'm sure that everyone has heard about the latest news and if you haven't well where the hell have you been?!"

"I'm just kidding or am I?"

"But seriously speaking as of yesterday, the Players have been letting people enter the castle and get this."

"The people that they let in have been from all over the place."

"Now this is the part that should interest you if you want to catch a glimpse of what's in there."

"A trade agreement has been set between the two powers and the castle and guess who wasn't included in the deal."

"Unfortunately because Night City is considered its own thing we don't get to see any part of that sweet sweet deal."

"According to the players they didn't have to tell us anything but would still tell us why."

"According to them if they did add our city to the deal, the corporations would either use the opportunity to try and steal or sabotage the castle."

"And anything that they sent out of the castle the corporations would either claim that they created, or would copy it and demand that the castle either pay for using it or demand that they stop using it."

"Well, they're not wrong!"

"This has been your castle watch, until layer." Lucy turned off the radio she had been busy packing everything she had in her apartment, her ticket was safely in her pocket.

She had made sure that she had kept it with her, just in case she needed to escape.

This was a dream it just had to be a dream, Maybe it was a joke and she had fallen right into it.

She looks around one last time and decides to leave everything else behind, She should tell the landlord that she is leaving but that woman is a pain in the as, so she decides not to.

It was time, everyone else had already left some said that they didn't have anything worth keeping, while others like her just had a few things that mattered to them so they went home to pack their things.

Lucy looks at her apartment one last time takes a deep breath, reaches into her pocket, and presses the button.

 

[blueayes]

The first thing that Lucy thought when she opened her eyes was that her systems didn't detect anything, there hadn't been any glitches with the implants or prosthetics.

It was as if the teleportation that had brought her into the castle was instantaneous.

The next thing that she noticed was how mismatched everyone was, There were people from all over the place, some were so chromed up that they barely had anything about them that was Human anymore.

Others either had an arm, a leg, their eyes, or some part of their bodies that had been replaced by cybernetic and there were a few that didn't have any.

Then there were the knights who all wore armor, these people were keeping an eye on everyone else.

She couldn't help but feel tens the world around her felt like a dream, a place where she could relax, if only for a little bit.

"Miss please come this way." a knight wearing pink armor says to her.

She does as the man says and follows him to a nearby building that has a line in front of it.

Normally she would have had to wait for hours because of how long the line was, but to her surprise, the line was moving fast and she only had a minute.

"Single or married?" the woman sitting at the desk in front of her asks.

"Single." she answers the woman.

"Did you have to kill people before and do your skills require you to have to kill people?" the woman asks her.

"Yes to both questions." she answers the woman.

"Last question, do you plan or believe that you will want a family in the future?' the woman asks her.

Lucy couldn't help but be taken aback by the woman's question so she decided to ask one of her own.

"Why does that matter?"

'We need to know where to put you, Children need other children to play and interact with and there is always a chance that a young woman such as yourself could get pregnant." the woman answers her.

Lucy thought about what the woman had just said to her so she decided to answer honestly.

"No."

"You hesitated so there is a chance that you might have children, this card has your house number and the floor that it is on.
We have already scanned your information and if you need any help just ask one of the knights to help you, because that's why they are here." the woman says to her before telling the next person to walk up to her.

As she looks at the card in her hand, she sees how it begins to glow before a holographic screen appears in front of her.

The screen shows that her new home is on the second floor and is number thirty-four, she has some coal, the currency of the castle which looks as if it's backed up by gold.

The information after that is just the normal stuff that anyone can get from her, her weight, age, height, and everything else that a doctor would need to help her in an emergency.

Considering that she doesn't know how to get to the second floor she decides to ask one of the guards who guides her to a large crystal, the man tells her to put her card on the crystal.

Then the man tells her to think of the floor and place that she wants to go to and that the crystal will do the rest.

Lucy can't help but think that the man's explanation is way too simplistic and sounds more like something from a fantasy game, but she does what he says.

She can't help but blink, There is a brick house in front of her with a wooden door, and as she looks around she notices that she isn't the only one, looking at her surroundings.

Kids are telling their parents to look at how big their backyards are, while some of the men and women are walking around.

As she opens the door and begins to explore the house she finds that it already comes with furniture and a fully stocked kitchen.

As she looks around she finds a note from the players. It says that this is their way of saying welcome and that it's up to her to keep the house in good condition, as it now belongs to her.

Lucy can't help but walk out into the backyards and smile, while she can see her neighbors and they can see her, she has to admit that she likes seeing something from how Earth used to be before it was ruined.

She reaches into her coat pocket and takes out her pack of cigarettes before putting one in her mouth and lighting it.

She stands there just enjoying the silence, for a long moment she does nothing, and then that moment is ruined as a call comes in.

 

[blueayes]

Tick tock, tick tock.

The sound of the clock moving told everyone that class would soon start and while everyone in the room was new no one expected to be using something as outdated as pen and paper.

"Okay is everyone here?" a woman with long red hair says to herself as she walks in, she ignores all of the catcalls and whistles that the students make when they see her looking through the list of names of the people who should be in her class.

"I see, Kirito isn't here, but he's working right now." she says to herself before tuning off her help screen and looking at everyone.

"Hello everyone I'm your teacher, my name is on your screens and this is Human Resources." she says to everyone.

'Hey teacher, it's not that I'm not grateful for being here but I'm too old for school." Maine says to the teacher who smirks at him.

"This class is to stop everyone from saying that they didn't know the rules. You know how there are idiots that say no one told me about that, even when they have a manual in their heads?" she asks Maine who nods at her.

'That's why this class exists." she says to him, before turning her attention back to everyone else.

"There are three simple rules between Aincrad and the rest of the world."

"Let me make this clear, you can hate each other, kill each other, and hurt each other here." she takes a deep breath before starting to talk again

"But the moment someone out there hurts someone from in here, even if they are your worst enemies, they pay for it. You got that?" she says to everyone in the room.

David couldn't help but blink, the woman's words had gone from carefree to intense with just a few words.

He could see that her words caught everyone's attention as even the people who were standing near or leaning on the wall walked to their desks and sat down.

"Rule number two, a job is a job, and it's not over until you are back home"

"When all of you I don't care who it is, but when you are out there you are representing the castle."

"No one out there knows how we do things in here, how anything that we have here looks, or how we pass the time. The only thing's that they will know about us, will be what they see when they look at you."

"So try to be on your best behavior." she stops and looks at everyone before picking up a gun, placing it on the desk in front of her, and then lifting a sword.

'If you can and if you can't, have fun getting out of there." she smirks before placing the sword on the desk.

"Finally, if you get someone pregnant, or if someone hacks your brain and wants to use that to get in here, it causes a lot of problems so keep it in your pants and don't get caught." she says to everyone before asking if anyone has any questions.

The bell rings and everyone starts to leave the room, david doesn't say anything this wasn't how he expected his first day of school to go.

He was going to go straight to his next class, but he stopped walking when he noticed that the hallway was filled with people who were looking at the stock market or searching for work.

'What's going on?" he says to himself.

"Oh, they're looking at the available jobs. Aincra may have a lot of work but it's not one size fits all you know." Kirito answers him.

"I thought that." David stops talking when he realizes that he didn't know what he was expecting.

"That everyone would have a place to fit in?"

"Hate to say it to you man but life doesn't work that way, you have to find your place." Kirito stops talking and puts an arm around David's shoulder.

"Right now everything is changing, companies are being started by those that thought that they would never be able to afford to do it."

"Some will fail, and others won't, hell some people just want to kill things because that's what they are good at. While others are just happy being able to work." Kirito says to David before letting go of him and walking into the classroom.

"Mr. Kirito you're late, honestly for a Player to be late during an important time like this." David heard his teacher say to the guy who had talked to him a moment ago.

"Sorry, there were some troublemakers that needed to know that they weren't the top dogs anymore." Kirito answers the teacher who nods.

'So what's with the gun and sword, you were never the fighting type." Kirito says to the teacher who nods and puts the magazine into the gun.

"I'll have you know that I am one hell of a good shot," she says proudly to him.

'And you're also one of the best swordsmen that we have, but neither of those things do you any good if you freeze when you see blood." Kirtio says to the teacher who grows at him.

"Moving on." she says to Kirito before a screen pops between them.

"I have good and bad news, unfortunately, they are the same thing. Ever since Coal entered the world's economy it's been gaining strength and doesn't seem to be slowing down."

"That didn't take long." Kirito says to himself causing the teacher to frown at him.

"Okay I'm talking to an idiot, so let me dumb things down."

'People go to places where they see that things are good, everyone knows that we have good stuff in here, but we don't let people in."

"Our money is going outside and it's worth a lot more out there than it's worth in here, but it can't go anywhere else besides the places that we agreed to trade with meaning?' she waves her hands in front of Kirtio.

'Damm." Kirito says to himself as he realizes what the teacher is trying to say to him.

"So how long do we have before people start filling up the place?" he asks her.

"Truth be told we have no idea, until now immigration wasn't a problem for everyone out there but that's going to change soon." she answers him.

"So what does this have to do with me?" he asks the teacher who taps on the help screen.

The screen changes and now shows a group of men and women filling up crates with fruits and vegetables along with different kinds of meat.

"Texas and The New United States will be sending several trucks to pick up the crates. They are our first exports and it's your job to make sure that they are loaded and can make it past the border." she says to Kirito who nods.

"Which border?" Kirito asks the teacher.

David can't help but blink when he sees the teacher throw the gun at Kirito who catches it and checks how much ammunition the gun has.

A loud beeping forces him back to reality and when he turns to look at his help screen he sees that he is about to be late for the first real class that he is supposed to go to.

Homeroom wasn't something that was meant to take all day, it was just the class that told everyone how things were done, every other class was a real class that was supposed to teach him how to do things.

"Sorry I'm late." he says between gasps.

"No, you are on time now both of you take your seats." David turns around and finds that there is no one there, but when he looks down he finds a pale girl wearing an oversized jacket staring at him.

"As for everyone else this is a dragon today I will teach you how to kill it, gut it, and identify what parts are worth more." the man said to everyone before a video of a giant lizard appeared behind him.

 

[blueayes]

"Hey." "Hey." Kirito says to Gloria as they both greet each other neither of them says anything nor tries to make small talk.

They just stared at the city below and silently smiled at the endless sea of lights and advertisements that made them think that the city was alive in its own way.

A strong gust of wind made Gloria grab onto the edge of the castle and forced her to look beyond the city and into the darkness of South California.

"Careful you aren't augmented so a fall from here will kill you!" Kirito shouted to Gloria who just glared at him because she already knew that.

"I'll go down and make sure that the area is safe and you wait here for the carrier!" he says to her before jumping off the castle and into the city below.

Gloria can't help but stare, she can't even see Kirito anymore, the same lights that made her gasp just seconds ago now hide her partner from her.

She turns her attention to the line of trucks that are entering the border of the city, her eyes slowly widen as the entrance to the city starts to fill with both trucks that are meant for transporting food, and military vehicles.

"I can see your pulse from here, I know that there's a lot of them but this was what the Guild Leaders and the governments agreed on." she hears Kirito say to her through the help screen.

"Kirito can you see if anyone is spying on us?" she asks him, but the truth is she is afraid of hearing the answer.

"There's a bunch of them, I had to avoid being shot by six different snipers, not to mention the drones that are flying around and everyone who is hiding in an alley, a building or just looking up at us from their houses."

Gloria couldn't help but frown, while she was grateful about what Kirito had told her, she didn't like how casually he said all of that. Her help screen changed and it now showed her the locations of everyone and everything that he marked on his way down.

Her help screen changed again and it showed her what looked like a black car driving up to Kirito and a woman who was wearing an expensive suit stepped out.

"I take it that you are the guard, tell your superiors that under the treaty that they agreed to, neither you nor your allies can operate any large vehicles within the city limits." the woman says to Kirtio before she hands him an orange envelope.

Gloria can only watch as Kirito tears the envelope open and starts to read through it.

"Wrong it says here and here, that we can't operate heavy machinery in the city, and as long as the people from the outside don't stay in the city for more than a day they can come and go as they please." Kirito says to the woman who raises an eyebrow at him.

"I fail to see how you can fill those trucks with everything before the day is over."

The woman takes a breath and uses her implants to send Kirito a copy of the amount of money that the city is losing because of the trucks that are waiting just outside of the city.

"A fine will be sent to you after we figure out how much this little stunt has cost the city, and believe me you will have to pay." she says to Kirito before calling someone and telling them to let the trucks enter the city.

From where she is standing Gloria can see the long line of eighteen-wheelers heading towards her, but they aren't alone there is something else with them something big.

It isn't long before the trucks arrive and Kirito welcomes them, but it's the final truck that makes Gloria lose her breath.

The truck was carrying a massive carrier that unfolded itself before several trucks drove onto its wings.

The carrier just flew up and waited for everyone in Aincrad to fill the trucks before flying back down and waiting for the trucks to drive off, before repeating the process when another group of trucks had driven onto it.

Gloria could only stare as she watched something that should have taken hours take a few minutes.

Everything seemed to be going okay as no one had attacked the trucks and Night City was as quiet as it could be.

Little did she know that the reason that the New United States and Texas had sent so many tucks to Aincrad was to test how many resources the castle had.

Still, she watched the trucks fly up to her, be loaded, and fly back down, she made sure that no one left the trucks and tried to enter the castle.

Unbeknownst to her as the light of day filled the sky and the first of the trucks reached their destinations the world began to change, the people from all over the New United States shared on the state net how fresh their vegetables were.

The amount of fresh meat and affordable over-the-counter medicine that suddenly filled the shelves of every convenience soon filled every news channel.

Some reporters commented on how this was just the first of the fruits of what was to come as the alliance between the Union the rogue state of Texas and Aincrad would only grow stronger as time passed.

The trucks carried the needed supplies to every corner of the Union as they drove past abandoned towns that were either filled with mutated creatures or were simply empty.

The truck drivers made sure to not slow down even if a police officer told them to, they knew how valuable the merchandise that they were carrying was and how it would draw unwanted attention.

In Aincrad Gloria carefully opened the door to her house and slowly walked up to the couch before she used it as a bed, just like how she had done so many times before.

"Mom." she hears David say to her.

'I found a job, it in delivery nothing big and I'll be at the bottom but they said that if I work hard then I have a chance to move up if I don't drop out of school."

Gloria can't help but smile before she waves at her son to come closer and give him a tight hug, things were looking up for them and hopefully, they would just keep getting better.

 

[blueayes]

The sounds of gunfire could be heard throughout the street, it had started raining again.

The people in the city did not know if what was falling on them was rain or the filth that fell from the castle.

The sounds of the trucks that never stopped coming into the city were something that everyone had been forced to accept, it wasn't hard for anyone to know why.

All that anyone had to do was look at a truck and they would see the drivers paying a guard every time that they entered and left the city.

Both children and adults looked past the giant towers and oppressive buildings and followed the lights of the advertisements that flew into the sky before reaching the edge of the castle.

People still claimed that the corporations and the people who were in charge of them were at the top, but everyone knew the truth.

There was a place just out of reach where the corporations couldn't reach, a place where everything was clean and trash didn't fill every alley.

There was no such thing as homelessness there and unlike the city that they called home, there was work for everyone.

The people in Night City stared at the sky and wondered how they could go up there, the videos of everyone who had won a ticket were still flooding the net.

Yet the people in the city weren't the only ones who looked at Aincrad with envious eyes, Nomads were people who drove from one location to another and didn't have any identification that the government demanded stared at the castle.

They had seen several of their members teleport away after they received the tickets, and they were angry, not at the Players and not even the ones who left them to live in the castle.

No, what they were angry at, was how hard it was to reach this spot, it was from here that they could see the route that the trucks took to come and go from the city.

It would be a while but they would eventually figure out where the trucks were the most vulnerable and then they would take everything that they needed.

][][]
David walked down the hallway it was just another boring, that was something that his new school always failed to be.

the school or better said all of the schools in Aincrad were divided into three groups, the new students, this group was nothing but kids, who didn't know how to do much of anything.

The next group was the ones that already had jobs and skills that they were trying to use in the castle and the last group was made up of people that were old and didn't have any useful skills.

He stops walking and looks at the blue sky, it's hard to believe that he is at the bottom and there are ninety-nine floors left to climb.

Everyone knows that the rulers of Aincrad or the Guild Leaders as they call themselves all live up there and people are already wondering what it's going to take to reach that point and join them.

He isn't one of them, truth be told he doesn't know what to think anymore, it's not that he is grateful for being here, but Aincrad is just so different from Night City that, he starts walking again.

The towering buildings that made him feel small are long gone and in their place is an endless sky, he can hear the sounds of gunfire in the distance, but he ignores it.

The hunters always had work and they were good at what they did. He had to admit that he was shocked when they showed everyone what they were fighting and why they were always looking for new members.

He had grown used to seeing gore, but there was something different about seeing a unicorn use its horn to stab a person through the heart while shrugging off normal bullets and only stopping moving when someone saw armor-piercing bullets.

This was the thing about Aincrad everyone had a place where they could belong, even if they didn't fit in any of the towns a person could just walk into the woods and live there alone.

"What am I doing here?" he asks himself as he reaches his next class.

"Mr. Martinez you're late please take your seat." the teacher says to him.

"Welcome to shipping, this class will be separated into two separate groups, one that deals with transportation and maintenance of whatever you are transporting inside the castle."

"The other deals with the same thing, but what you are expected to do when you are outside of the castle."

David ignores the teacher's words as he walks up to an empty seat and sits down.

"Now this is a standard Roket Lancher, it's useful for medium-level threats and average armored vehicles."

David blinked and blinked again, he looked around and thankfully he wasn't the only one doing this.

"Teacher I thought that this was shipping?" he says to the teacher.

'It is, but we aren't going to send you out there without combat training." the teacher answers him.

"What?" he says and can't help but shrink into his seat when the teacher raises an eyebrow at him.

"Transportation Mr. Martinez is just taking food, or materials from one place to another."

"The truck that you were put in charge of could have an important person in it, you may not have been told about them being in there, but you were trusted with the safety of whatever is inside your truck."

"Meaning that you are expected to make sure that your delivery reaches its destination no matter what." she says to him and David can't help but nod at the woman.

"Calm down there's no reason to talk like that, look you're scaring them." Asuna says as she walks into the room.

David couldn't help but sit up straight, he knew who the woman was, hell everyone knew who she was, even if they didn't know her name.

"Hello everyone, I'm Asuna." she says to everyone in the room.

"I need everyone that knows how to use a gun or a sword to stand over here." she says to everyone while pointing in front of her.

David doesn't move but he sees that more than half of the class walks up to Asuna.

"Everyone that knows how to hack into computers or people please stand on the other side of the room and everyone else please remain seated." she says to everyone.

David can't help but put an arm on his head when he notices that there are only a few people left and he's one of them.

"Everyone that's sitting down come with me, everyone else please follow your teacher to combat class." Asuna says to everyone before walking out of the class.

David turns to look at everyone who is still sitting down, they wordlessly agree to follow Asuna.

they soon find her standing in front of an antic helicopter.

"Get in," she orders them.

"Ms. where are we going?" David asks Asuna who smirks at him.

"Down, this is your training." she says to them before the pilot hands everyone a sword and a gun that has an automatic aim.

"Then shouldn't you use someone with experience?" the girl next to him asks Asuna.

"On-the-job training, means on-the-job training," Asuna answers the girl.

 

[blueayes]

The ride down was completely uneventful and David would have called it boring if it hadn't been for the blue wall that surrounded Aincrad.

Blue Wall was Aincrads defense system, it was part of something that he couldn't understand because it was just what the name said it was a giant wall that separated the castle from the rest of the world.

If only t had stopped there, he decided to zoom in, he didn't know why he had done it maybe it was because he was bored or maybe it was out of curiosity, but he could swear that he had seen millions of people standing just beyond the wall watching everything that was going on outside of the castle.

He closed his eyes and looked at the world around him with his Human eyes, they weren't halfway down and he could already feel himself becoming small, the familiar feeling of knowing that he was nothing in a place ruled by those who were everything was oddly comforting.

The feeling of the helicopter hitting something and the fact that it hadn't exploded told him that they had landed.

He was about to step out of the helicopter when he noticed two different kinds of trucks being lifted into Aincrad, but unlike the ones leaving after they were filled with whatever they were taking, these came back empty.

"What is that?" he asks himself.

"Delivery, we need technology and machines, while everyone else needs resources from us." Asuna answers him before she hops off the helicopter and waits for everyone to join her.

"Before we do anything else" Asuna stops talking but David can still hear her speaking through his help screen.

"I have a job for all of you, I imagine that all of you have taken some time to explore the first floor and some of the other floors?" she asks.

Asuna smiles when she hears everyone say yes to her.

"Good, I want you to keep that information a secret, that's what you are carrying." David can see the teasing smirk that forms on Asuna's face before she winks at everyone.

"It's no mystery that the people here want to know what inside Aincrad looks like and if the stories that they heard are true. I'll allow you to give them a taste of it."

"That's right kids your first job is to fail, I want you to keep the secret until you choose to let it go." she says to them before she turns and starts walking towards a car that's heading to where they are standing.

'Miss Asuna, why are we doing this?" I mean if the information doesn't have any value." David asks Asuna who stops walking and turns to look at him.

'To you it's worthless, to them it has value. I'm teaching you a lesson, or should I say three lessons."

"Nuber one When your superiors tell you something you do it even if you don't like it."

"Number two, the idea that you have something worth taking is enough for other people to target you. And number three, well that for you to figure out."

The sound of the car's engine stopping catches Davids's attention, he looks past Asuna and finds himself looking at several cars that are parked next to one another.

"Azuna Kirigaya." A woman says before she even steps out of the car.

David can't help but widen his eyes when he sees her step out and walk up to Asuna, he feels his heart stop and his breath stops in his chest because of how good both women look.

While Asuna isn't as developed as the blond in front of her and her clothes cover everything, she always moves with grace and makes the people around her turn, because of who she is.

The other woman isn't afraid to show what she has, and while she isn't exposing any of the important parts, she isn't afraid to show everything else.

"I wish we could meet in better conditions.' the woman says to Asuna, who just smiles at her.

"Sorry if I sound rude but I, no we were under the impression that the trade agreement between Aincrad and the government included entering and leaving the city." Asuna says to the woman who for some reason straightens her posture and now towers over Asuna.

"We did, but there were certain issues that we didn't expect." the woman says to Asuna before she turns and looks at David and the rest of the students.

"I must say that your company doesn't look very skilled," she says before she walks up to David and leans in front of him.

David can smell the honey, flowers, and cigars that the woman's body carries, he can't help but stare at the woman's open blouse that just shows the edges of her breasts and he's tempted to try and get a better look.

A loud cough from Azuma breaks him free from the trance that he is in, and David begins to hear the beeping sound of an alarm that sounds as if it had been running nonstop.

He turns and sees that his help screen is filled with warning signs, that tell him that he is being poisoned by some sort of drug.

"See not very skilled." she says to Asuna who looks into David's eyes and shakes her head with disappointment.

"Shall we start our meeting." the woman says to Asuna who again doesn't say anything.

"We will pay for the trucks entering and leaving the city, but we will need you to do something for us and how should I say this."

"To put it bluntly, the city wants you to either do something for it, or they will stop the castle from exporting anything else." the woman says to Auna who lowers her eyes for a moment.

David can see that Asuna isn't smiling anymore, but her eyes are glowing and while there isn't any way for him to be sure, David would swear that she is talking to someone.

"How about a school, or should I say several schools, from kindergarten to college."

"We pay for them, we fill them with our teachers along with your teachers, the city gets something and everyone benefits from it." Asuna answers the woman who can only blink.

It was clear to David and everyone else that she didn't expect Asuna to offer a chain of schools, to keep the rulers of Night City from bothering Aincrad.
][][
Within the flying castle Kirito glared at Heathcliff, he ignored the various swords and guns pointed at him, few of them could hurt him and even few were fast enough to touch him.

"How could you send her down there? You said that if I helped you!" he yelled at Heathcliff who never stopped smiling at him.

"I didn't send Asuna your wife down, I sent my second in command down."

Kiritos help screen popped up and the images of the wetlands that were once the United States and the rest of the world appeared.

Those images weren't alone, the poverty and the hopelessness of the people both living in Nightcity and the world around it were on his help screen and refused to go away no matter how much Kirito ordered his help screen to remove them.

"We are at the beginning of all of this." Heathcliff stops talking as if expecting Kirito to understand something that should be obvious to everyone.

"Kirito, it's no surprise that we are the new toy in the house. Everyone is looking at us and everyone wants a piece of us."

"When they attacked us, we showed that we can defend ourselves if we have to."

"And now we are showing that we can sustain ourselves without anyone's help if we have to."

"Get to the point!" Kirito yells at Heathcliff.

"That is my point!"

"The governments and corporations of this world nearly destroyed it, so we can't expect them not to attack us! but we can spread our influence and make them fear the people around them."

"Like it or not but we are already in a game that we can't afford to lose and Asuna knows it just as well as I and the other Guild Leaders know."

 

[blueayes]

"Kirito you know what's out there, you have seen the videos that the people of this world show on the internet."

"There's nothing outside of the city's expert one wasteland after another, and the people that turned the world into that hell are all looking at us. You tell me what to do if you don't agree with me."

Kirtito slowly lets go of Heathcliff, turns to look at the small army that surrounds him, and vanishes past all of them. He didn't hurt a single person, he just stood at the entrance of the Blood Oaths Guild house.

"Lower your weapons, he's ready,"Heathcliff says to his men, he ignores the confused look that they all give him.

Kirito walked towards the transport crystal it was the same crystal that had allowed the Players to deliver the tickets and it had been responsible for bringing the people from the outside into Aincrad.

He didn't want to risk leaving Yui alone, especially if something went wrong, but if Asuna was down there without any reinforcements then he would have to gown there.

He began to look through the crystal's information, even if Asuna and her group hadn't teleported out of the castle the crystal had still logged their exit of it.

As Kirito read the information in front of him, he couldn't help but smile.

Several members of the Army Guild had teleported into Night City and were using stealth crystals to keep their presence in the city hidden from everyone who lived in it.

"Kirito." he heard someone say his name and when he turned around he found that it was Gloria who stood behind him.

"Hey what are you doing here?" he asks her.

"I had a doctor's appointment, they said that I'm fully healed." she answers him.

Kirito closed his eyes and turned off his help screen, it was obvious why she had told him that she was healthy, there was already a growing divide between the people.

It wasn't something that the Playersno the Guilds encouraged but it was something that happened naturally when people have something that separates them from those around them.

The newcomers now identified themselves by the guilds that had taken them in, it wasn't something big, but it would soon become a problem for everyone if it wanst stopped.

"Good to hear." he says to her before he notices her worried expression.

"Kirito are you a beater?" Gloria asks him and Kirito can't help but laugh, even now despite being in a new world, that title still follows him.

"Yeah.' he answers Gloria who steps back cautiously.

"come on tell me what you heard." he says to her, as he places a hand on her shoulder and feels her try to pull away from him.

"That you did terrible things that got a lot of people killed." she answered him.

"Gloria, I'm married to Asuna, it couldn't have been that bad, but a title is still a title," he answers her before letting go of her.

"Come on I'll buy you lunch and you can show me or teach me things that a subordinate shows her guild master." he says to Gloria before leading her to a nearby cafe.

Behind him Gloria grabbed the edge of her pants and tightened her grip, she knew that running away wasn't an option, and she was completely aware that Kirito was both feared and respected by the guild masters because of what he did.

She accepted that she didn't have a choice and that he could do with her what he wanted when he wanted to., it was a reality that set in when the Black Sword Guild emblem appeared on her help screen.
][][

The drive down Arroyo's streets was somehow comforting, maybe it was seeing all of the papers that littered the streets or the cracks that covered everything.

Hell, it was probably the sight of people using adult toys to please themselves in public or the piles of trash that were just hidden from view, but for whatever reason David felt like he could relax here.

"So where are we going?" Asuna asked the woman who was reading something that was inside a black folder.

"We are heading to Arasaka University, your arrival was unexpected" The woman answered Asuna before her body language completely changed.

David had never seen someone look elegant just by sitting, and somehow the woman in front of him had managed to do just that, but it was when she relaxed her posture and lowered her shoulders that he saw how the woman acted, when no one was looking.

"Okay let's be honest here, they're trying to insult us while saying that they did their best on short notice." the woman answers Asuna who lets out a mall chuckle.

"Okay but why a school?" Asuna asks the woman.

"They control it, so expect the place to be full of bugs." the woman answers her before she turns to look at David who couldn't help but shrink under the woman's gaze.

"It seems like your employee has a large debt one that the school is expecting him to pay." the woman says to Asuna before handing her the folder that she was reading moments earlier.

"They're going to use something as small as this to cause problems for us." David hears Asuna say to herself before several folders are handed to her.

An alert on his help screen tells him that Asuna wants to show him something, he orders his help screen to open and he can't help but look in horror at the amount that he owes.

David knew that the amount that he owed the school was nowhere near that high, but the amount in front of him meant that he would be in debt for the rest of his life.

"So how are we going to do this, do I pay you now and exchange Coal for Dollars?, or should I use gold and exchange it for dollars?" he hears Asuna ask the woman.

It wasn't that she said that she would pay him and the others accompanying him and her had, that made him stare at Asuna, it was how casually she said it.

"I'm surprised that you are willing to pay all of it, would you like me to write a payment plan?" the woman asks Asuna who just shakes her head and says that she will pay everything and deal with the problem now.

David couldn't help but stare as Asuna reached into her pocket to take out a handful of gold coins before handing them to the woman, who used some kind of machine that was in her hand to check the purity of the gold.

"The money will be waiting for us at the school, and there will be some extra just in case they try adding some extra charges." the woman says to Asuna.